Growing Up

This Sunday we went for a drive to Warm River and Mesa Falls. The girls loved it! They loved feeding the fish and enjoyed and warm weather. Brinley thought the bread for the fish was a great treat. Between eating the little pieces that fell on the ground and the pieces of bread floating in the river I think she enjoyed her herself. I couldn't help but take tons of pictures of the girls. Emma and Sofie are so photogenic but Brinley can't hold still long enough so its hard to get a good shot of her. They are all getting so big!

Emma just turned 6 years old. I can't believe how big she is. She is so excited that she FINALLY has a loose tooth. We are so excited for her to start 1st grade this year. Emma is such a great helper. She is so good to her sisters. Brinley sure loves Emma and copies everything she does, it's pretty cute.

Sofie is almost 3 years old. She has finally overcome the terrible two's (I hope). Sofie loves to sing and her all-time favorite movie is Tangled. Although anything Mickey Mouse takes a close second. Sofie is so thoughful and loves to give hugs and kisses. She is so cute and getting so big.

Brinley is almost 18 months (nursery time!). She is so fun and full of energy. She keeps me on my toes all the time. Brinley just figured out how to swing her leg up high enough to climb up the kitchen chairs and onto the table. She thinks she is quite smart for figuring that one out. Brinley loves to scream, happy or sad. She has discovered that if she screams enough in Relief Society that I will take her out (not let her down which makes her mad). If I get anywhere near the door to go back in she will scream (nursery time?). We constantly call her a stinker :o) She has quite the attitude for 1 1/2 but she is so stinkin cute, we sure love her. She loves her sisters and follows them around everywhere. I always hear "Memma! Memma!" (Emma) She loves to copy Emma, but Sofie and her sure butt heads. They are all so much fun :o)

Our NEW Home

We have decided to build a home in Rigby and are super excited! We are hoping it is done mid-August and they are starting to dig this week. Yay! Here it is: (Click on picture to enlarge)



Upstairs

Daylight Basement

We are so lucky so be building this home. We found a great deal and are getting everything we wanted and more! It will sit on a 1.04 acre lot and will have granite countertops in the kitchen and all the bathrooms(awesome!). Plus the basement will be finished too :o) I am really excited about the mud room and the awesome laundry. Under the stairs in the basement we are putting in a little door and window in the closet so it will be a fun little play area for the kids. We will have so much room and are excited to have lots of visitors too :o) Any one want to come pick colors with me (I don't know where to start)?

Cakes

Emma's 5th Birthday Cake: Princess Tiana

Wedding Cake in August, it was one of the best ones I've done! I hand made all of the flowers (except the stephanoitis and rose petals at the bottom). It turned out beautiful!

When I Grow Up.....

Sofie loves her big sister. She wants to be just like her. After Emma left for school the other day Sofie put on her sweater and stood in front of the door and said, "Cheese!" She wanted me to take a picture of her like I did Emma. Funny girl! For the past week she has consistently come to me and told me she needs to go potty. She will take her diaper off (whether I tell her or not) and will sit on her little potty and pee. She is so proud of herself. I thought it was good practice but really didn't want to potty train her right now. Emma was horrible to potty train so I wanted to wait a while with Sofie. Well this morning she refused to put on a diaper and has gone potty in the toilet consistently. She has only had one accident so far and I have only had to remind her a few times to go potty. Wow. She is awesome and such a big girl. We had Pop Tarts with breakfast this morning so after everytime she went potty she would ask for a pop tart. Funny girl. We ran out of Pop Tarts so we have now moved on to Skittles. Emma cries each time Sofie gets a Skittle so maybe this will help Emma remember to go to the bathroom too!

2nd Day of Kindergarten

Emma loves Kindergarten! I asked her a few questions about school:
What's your favorite part about Kindergarten?
"That we draw."

Do you like riding the bus?
"Yes, I like riding the bus because it's really fun"

What is your teacher's name and what is your most favorite thing about her?
"Mrs. Vance. I like her because she's really nice and I like that she gives us stamps on our papers when we finish them."

What have you learned in Kindergarten?
"We learned about fish and the Pledge of Allegiance and we learned the "3 Little Fishy" song."

Crawling

Brinley has been crawling for a while now and she has a couple of favorite places.

#1 The magazine rack

#2 Under the table

" Look what I can do mom!"

"I think I'm stuck"

"Why are you still taking pictures of me? I can't get out!"

"You are so mean mom!"

Diaper Cream Anyone?

Brinley got into the diaper cream a few weeks ago and really enjoyed herself :o) "Somehow" the top of the diaper cream tub "just came off." I don't know who opened it for her, no one has fessed up yet. Oh the joys!

{Kindergarten}

Our little Emma is all grown up! Today was her first day of Kindergarten and she was sooo excited! She is in afternoon Kindergarten and her teacher is Mrs. Vance. She seems like a really great teacher so I was relieved :o) We are so blessed to have Emma as our daughter! She is such a wonderful daughter and sister. She is so smart and loves to read and write and color. Emma was so excited when we walked through the doors of the school today. She was holding my hand and then didn't want to anymore. It made me sad but she is so grown up and I hope we have prepared her enough for the crazy world out there. There are two Emma's in her class so she is now Emma E. and she thought that was pretty cool! I can't wait to pick her up and see how her very first day of Kindergarten went! We love you Emma!

Carter

We had Carter come stay at our house while his mom was on bed rest to keep little baby Sam from coming out too soon. Carter is such a sweet boy. He was so nice and I never had to discipline him, my children on the other hand.....horrible. I hope we didn't send Carter home with too many naughty habits :o) We loved having Carter come stay with us, and are so excited that little Sam arrived safe and sound today! Congrats Kim and Sean!

All Grown Up....

Can you believe Emma is 5 years old? She is so smart and so cute with her little sisters (when they don't take her toys away from her :o)



This is the classic Sofie face. She is so onery sometimes :o) If only she wasn't so stinkin cute.

Sweet baby Brinley



Our beautiful girls!

Brinley's blessing :o)

We are blessing Brinley Paige, Sunday, March 14th at 1:30pm in mom & dad Erickson's ward. There will be yummy food afterwards. :o) Please email me if you need directions: starlaerickson@gmail.com

PS: I got my stitches out last night. It is still pretty open so now I have steri- strips for another week. Every time I get out a "sharp" knife to use, Emma comments, "Be careful mom, dad will be so mad if you cut your hand again." :o)

50th Percentile

That's right folks, Brinley's weight is in the 50th percentile! She is our only child to EVER hit that magic 50. The other 2 have always been in the 25th or less (mostly less). (Sofie is at/below 10%, Emma at 15%) I've always wondered if my milk was the reason they were so little, but it's not, woohoo. Her stats:
Weight: 10 lbs 15 oz (53%)
Length: 22 inches (37%)
Head: 38cm (31%)

Brinley is so cute and is so good at smiling. I can't believe she is 2 months old!

Ouch

So just when I wasn't feeling like a crazy woman anymore, this happened. Saturday night our friends/neighbors invited us over to play games. I was hurrying to get dinner done (we were running late, as usual) and I was trying to remove the pit from an avocado and the knife slipped. I sliced my hand pretty good and it hurt so bad! I kind of panicked, luckily Ryan was there to wrap my hand and then he asked me if I could drive myself to the hospital! Funny guy, he didn't want to take all 3 kiddos to the hospital, so I suggested calling our friends, the Hamblin's, and they were so wonderful and came over to our house instead to watch the girls. We went to the ER in Brigham City and I had to get 5 stitches and a tetenus shot. For some reason the anesthesia didn't work on me so I never was numbed the whole way, the stitches weren't fun. Luckily I have some painkillers leftover from Brinley so they have helped. Needless to say it has been an interesting day! Hopefully it heals fast!

8 weeks old!

My sweet baby is 8 weeks old! I can't believe how fast time goes by. I am not going to lie, the last 8 weeks have been tough, really tough. At 2 1/2 weeks old Brinley started to cry and it seemed like she never stopped until a week ago. We think she had silent reflux so we were giving her Zantac which seemed to help a little. Finally last week she started spitting up and the crying stopped, woohoo! I had to let her scream for a day because she was used to being held ALL the time, but now she is awesome. Brinley is such a sweet baby and we really see her sweet little personality shining through. She is so happy and content, it is wonderful. I love her little smile, it melts my heart! Even though having three kids has been very challenging I love my girls. They are so fun. They are all growing up so fast and make us laugh, we love it! I think they are loving having mommy back :o) I don't feel like a crazy woman anymore :o)

Colic :o(

Does anyone have any ideas on how to cure or help with colic? Brinley has become colicky, it seems like she cries all day. She has her good moments, like while she is eating and for about 20 minutes after, but then it is non-stop crying periods until it is time to eat again. Mylicon seems to work every once in a while, and she gets so mad at her binky now. I miss her wide-eyed expressions and sweet little smiles!

Brinley Paige

She's here! Brinley Paige was born Monday, Dec 28th at 8:12pm. She was 6 lbs 10 oz and 17.5 inches long. She is so beautiful! Everything went really well and she is such a doll. We are currently working on sleeping at night (she thinks it is day time still). Emma and Sofie absolutely love her. Emma is especially obsessed with her, it is really cute :o) Sofie loves to hold her but she also likes to "pat" her...on the face. She isn't the most gentle child. We sure love our girls and are very grateful Brinley is here safe and sound!

First Snowfall (at the new house :o)

We had our first big snowfall a few days ago. Emma could not wait until she could go outside. Dad had to shovel 3 times that day (the joys of home ownership :o) and Emma wanted to "help." After shoveling they built a huge snowman. They had so much fun together. Dad even pulled her around the yard on the sled. What a good daddy!

Emma Dawn

Emma is so much fun! She has her ups and downs like any other 4 year old girl :o) but she is growing up so fast. She is very excited to start school next year, and is always working on her letters and reading. She gets so excited when she figures out a word. I can't believe how fast time goes by. I on the other hand am terrified for her to go to school. It scares me to death, but she is so excited already. Maybe I just need more time to get excited for her to go :o)
Emma is such a good helper and is so excited for her new sister. She is always touching my belly and saying the baby kicked her (maybe it's because her other sister kicks her all the time)at least now she thinks it is cute :o) She is so smart and loves her Sunbeam class, I can't believe she is almost in CTR 5. Again, she is growing up too fast, but we love it. She loves her daddy and is so excited when he gets home (again, maybe it's because there are 2 referees home to keep Sofie away from her) Emma and dad went outside to build a snowman the other day and she had so much fun. She loves having a "new" room with a "huge closet" and is so sweet. I love being her mom! (I love being Sofie's mom too :o)

Sofie Anne

Where do I begin with Sofie? She has turned into a little bully. Poor Emma gets smacked, bit, pinched, pulled to the floor by her hair, etc. by her little sister. I am not sure what to do with Sofie. She can be so sweet, and then without reason turn into a mean little thing. She is too smart for her own britches :o) I know a lot of it is her age and she is the younger sibling. Sofie is also a HUGE mommy's girl. She will climb over anything and anyone to get to me just so I will hold her. If I am not accessible she will scream (and I mean scream) until I hold her. (I am trying the, just let her scream b/c she needs to understand I can't hold her 24/7, especially when the baby comes, it's kinda working :o) She is in for a HUGE surprise when her new sister arrives, I can already hear the tantrum, awesome :o) Sofie is not a talker either. I have tried teaching her sign language for a while and she doesn't want anything to do with it. Screaming is her language :o)
Yesterday I went to check on the girls in the front room while I was cooking dinner. I walked in just as Sofie had gotten a hold of Emma's ear and her hair to yank her to the floor. Evidently Emma was "standing" in the wrong place. I quickly realeased her grip and set Sofie in "time out." Sofie screamed the entire time while I held Emma on the couch. I went back in to finish cooking and Emma followed me in and was sitting on the kitchen chair with her play broom. Sofie followed (calmed down from her earlier fit) and pulled Emma off the chair by her pants. Emma fell onto the broom and now has a pretty good sized bruise on the inside of her leg. I try telling Emma to stick up for herself, but I don't know what to say to her without telling her to fight back. I did watch Emma hit Sofie back the other day a couple of times. Sofie decided she didn't like that so she full on, both hands/arms swinging, attacked Emma. Sofie won again. Emma hasn't figured out that she is bigger than her sister. I guess I need to wait until she does, then maybe Sofie will leave her alone :o)

Countdown.... 12 days

The date is set for little girl #3! I am getting induced Decemeber 28th, woohoo! My doctor is leaving out of town the next day for a week, we live an hour away from the hospital, I am strep B postive again, and my mom was coming through town the 27th, so the 28th seemed perfect. Can I just say how much I LOVE being induced? I really do love it, it is so nice to have some sort of control and I am much less stressed about who will take the girls while we are at the hospital. Our hospital doesn't allow visitors under the age of 16 AND I only get 2 visitors the entire time I am there. I am way OK with that, peace and quiet :o) I am really hoping my labor goes as smoothly as Sofie's did, I actually enjoyed labor! I am sure there will be some sort of curveball, there always is :o) Sofie had the cord around her neck twice so with every contraction her heartrate would drop, scary but she was ok. It is so exciting, the end is near! This pregnancy has been very relaxed and easy, but I am still excited to be done :o) Yay for #3!!