Grandpa Erickson

We went to the airport today to spend a little time with my mom who had a layover on her way home to CA. She was up in Utah with everyone while my grandpa (her dad) passed away. He will be missed but I mostly worry about my grandma, who I had the privilage of growing up with because she lived close and worked at my dads shop. My kids were able to meet there grandma and grandpa great a couple summers ago and Grandpa gave them alot of fishing tips which helped my kids catch 8 fish when we went up to Idaho...Thanks Grandpa for giving them that memory We love ya!! My thoughts and prayers are with you Grandma Great.

Baseball begins

Zackery is a Cub (far left) Conner is a Rock hound

Saturday was opening day for baseball. It is going to be a fun season...

Twilight night

After a crazy busy week of late nights to finish stuff for baseball, constant emails, collecting baseball paperwork, practices, preparing for pack meeting and Nickolas root canal, Yes you read right. They had to knock her out today(Friday) to give her a baby root canal but she did awesome and impressed everyone at the office as usual. Anyway after all that I was ready for a relaxing night with friends. I had girls over to watch "Twilight." Every one was such a good sport about bringing their high school prom pictures and we shared stories, reminisced about high school (you had to be here to know what was talked about sorry) and took twilight quizzes. Oh to be 17 again!! I loved it and I hope everyone enjoyed themselves. L to R: Kristy, love her and her great attitude and fun stories, great help at preschool; Lacey: my own personal masage women, call her if you need one she is awesome, always has something nice to say; Brandi: keeps me scrapbook motivated, laid back and a great friend; Christiannie: my crazy brazilian who can always make me smile and enjoys life, Melody: my great neighbor who I depend on lots and is there for me, Kandy: an awesome lady who i work with for scouting and puts up with my fly by the seat of my pants attitude; Kim: love her; Cherise: passionate and always helpful to me. Its just fun to be yourself and have great women around you. I feel very blessed.

The newest Bear cub

After so much hard work, Zackery earned his BEAR Badge for Cub Scouts. We were so proud of him. He loves scouting and was willing to miss baseball practice just to go and get his badge (luckily practice was changed). I few months ago I found this really cute idea for a "bear cave" which the boys have to enter to get their badge. It is a tent with their dad waiting inside. The dad growls and throws clothes and everyone seems to enjoy it. I thought I would do something different this time until Zackery informed me that he and his friend Ryan have a plan about how they would enter the bear cave and suprise the bear. He was so excited so I continued the tradition. This time there were 3 boys so it was funny to have 3 grown men and 3 boys cram into a 4 man dome tent!! What memories!

Spring break part 2

Paityn and zack at the zoo, Nickola and Tragen

Darin flew home on Thurs. to get back to work and the kids and I drove to Albuquerque to our friends house. Their daughter was getting baptized. We met these guys when we lived in Alb. and have remained friends. We try and get together once a year. Zackery and Paityn are the same age, Conner and Sadie are the same age and Nickola is a year older then Tragen. We had a good time. Stacy and I got to visit and shop. Thanks Todd for babysitting!! The kids spent most of their time out on the trampoline. We also got to spend time with Stacys mom and Todds parents, doing what you ask...well we watched "Twilight" which came out on video that Sat. None of them had seen it. We had to come home Sunday and the kids were bummed but we had to get back to reality. We loved seeing everyone and hope to see everyone again soon.

Sadie and Conner

Spring Break?

The kids on the mechanical bull.

What a face, she really did love it

We did this maze that was used on the Amazing Race a few years ago. The kids enjoyed getting lost, Nickola and I recruited a guide (a sweet 12 yr old that had the maze memorized)

Aunt Kari and Uncle Shaun Grandma and Grandpa Bailey

Although it wasn't much of a break, we enjoyed traveling around for spring break. On Friday, we drove to Texas to visit with Darins parents. We were also able to be there for the blessing of our new niece, baby Olivia. The kids were way excited to go to the stockyards to ride the mechanical bull and shop for guns (pretends ones). That has become a tradition when ever we visit. We also played putt putt, went to the park, watch Race to witch mountian (very good movie) and just enjoyed a great visit with everyone. My kids especially liked the adventure they went on where they crawled through the water drain that ran under the road by grandma/pa Baileys house. I enjoyed watching them because even though it was apparantly dangerous (which Darin informed me off later that day) they were being so sweet to one another and helping each other get through it while singing an "adventure" song the whole time. Sometimes getting along moments trump dangerous moments! We had a great time!!!

That's what friends are for

I have lots of great friends but rarely do you find the couple where both husband and wife get along great with one another and we have found that in the Skabelunds. Our lives are so intertwined that Kim and I joke about getting Wife 1 and Wife 2 shirts when we go out. I can depend on her and can rant on the phone and she just laughs at me until I finish. At this point, it feels almost like family where no matter what you do, or if you drive each other crazy at times, or if you are in need of something even late at night they are always there. Kim and I like to tease Darin and Randy about there "Bromance." They talk and see each other more than Kim and I do and we are home all day. They enjoy their quad trips while Kim and I stay home with the kids and I believe they owe us quite a few girls nights out...but whos counting. Any way we love you guys and are grateful for ya.

The boy who cried wolf

My sweet Con, Lately we have been going through some interesting phase where there are a lot of fibs being told and Con pretty much has memorized the story of the Boy Who Cried Wolf. Here is the lastest "event." The day after getting a hair cut, I noticed this.....(see above). I asked "who cut your hair," "No one cut my hair," he said. We proceed to look in the mirror and take pictures to show him what I mean. "My hair is not cut," "I don't know what your talking about," was all he could say. It wasn't until the next day in the car after school that he says out of the blue, "I'm sorry mom for cutting my hair." What!!!? This boy loves to argue anything, even the facts. We just keep thinking that maybe he will make a great lawyer someday.

March Madness

No I do not mean sports I mean "What a busy month" I have some time and a head full of blogs so bear with me and dont read them all at once just in case it takes me 3 weeks to blog again!

Money talks!

After constant name calling of each other (ie freak, stupid, idiot etc...) I am done. We had a family home evening about fighting and made this deal. Each week the kids get $2.50 and for every time they call each other a name or are rude they get a point. At the end of the week, we settle up. They get paid and then they owe me $0.10 for each point. Last week went okay, they each owed about a dollar so this week the boys have written notes to remind themselves to be kind and so far they have done pretty good. Who says money can't buy happiness....because it can for moms!!

Little girls are big worries

Nickers hasn't felt good today so she has kinda been on my last nerve (hence the fact that she is in bed and it is only 6:15pm). So I finally found this picture and thought I better blog about her to remind me why we love her so. About a month ago at the pinewood derby, Nick asked her daddy who a certain boy was and Darin told her that was Dereck and she replied, "He is so Handsome" and proceeded to give him googlie eyes the rest off the time. She was so taken by him.....He is a twenty year old son of friends in our ward. During the award ceremony she came up to me and said "do you see that boy he is my friend and he is so handsome" Then a few weeks ago she was giving Daddy a kiss in the garage and afterward she said " No I have to do that again" and gave him another kiss. What he couldn't see is what you are seeing, that she had to lift her leg to do it right. Needless to say Darin is already worrying.

ode to the rats

The kids wanted a pet they could hold and love and I had rats growing up so I was all over that idea, Darin, however was not. Until he came home one day with the gun I told him not to buy, then we compromised and the kids got their rats. I love compromise. It works well for us. Anyway Conner had done really well at school and he was also star student so his teacher told him he could bring in the rats to share with the class so Nickola and I took them down last Friday. Nickola enjoyed carring them everywhere and showing everyone. Conner loved sharing them in class and everyone seemed to get a kick out of it. These two are my animal lovers, they love all kinds. Conner is holding Sally and Nickola is holding Ally. We will see how many animals they accumulate as the years go by.

How many boys can you fit in one house?

Okay, can you count them....that 16 kids in all. I have been promising the boys they could have a "party" with friends from school and we finally did it on Friday. Zackery brought 5 friends and Conner brought 3 and then 4 of Kim's boys came over so she could have a girl party for Kaela (she deserves so have some time w/o brothers bugging her). And since Nickola needed someone to play with we invited Daniel our neighbor to play. That makes 15 boys and 1 girl. They did great. They ate, had pillow fights, ball pit fights (imagine 100 balls and 15 boys they were everywhere), watched movies and played outside. They were all so good to clean up and they were very well behaved. Messes and chaos never seem to bother me and I really enjoy Messes and the interaction. I grew up with people constantly at our house so I owe this all to my mother. Hopefully my kids will learn to love this. When we started remodeling our house, we got away from having people over because of the mess and I am trying to get back in the habit. So hopefully this is the beginning of many adult and kid parties to come.