Jaynie's first day of school

Jaynie started first grade this year. She has Mrs. Shore, who I think will be great. Jaynie really seems to like her. I can't believe summer is over already. It seems like we never had a break. Jaynie has jumped back into school with both feet. She comes home ready to do her homework and is very excited to tell me about her day. She is very tired when she gets home though. It is a long day for a 6 year old, but I am sure once we get used to the new school schedule she won't be as tired any more. Here are some pictures of her first day.

It has been raining all week. Thank goodness for umbrellas.

Jaynie in her classroom. Mrs. Shore has an awesome classroom. Two walls are covered in books.

After school Kim and I took the girls to get ice cream at a new 50's diner that just opened up down the street from the school.

As a side note Jaynie's skirt was my second attempt at sewing. I think it turned out pretty cute and her hair came from a new blog I discovered called She Does Hair (see side blog for link). We have been trying new hairstyles this week and I am having so much fun. I think Jaynie kind of likes it too. I figure it takes a little extra time, but we are trying to use that time for her to read a book or practice her high frequency words.

Addie at 10 Months

This is what Adeline is up to at 10 months. She is climbing on everything she can. What a little stinker. Her favorite place to climb is into the open dishwasher. I don't have a picture of that because I never let her stay there long enough to get one. She also loves the toilet and has been caught playing in pee water. UGH!! At 10 months Addie weighed in at 20.2 pounds. None of her sisters reached the 20 pound mark until right at one year. She will let go of things and stand alone for several seconds, but hasn't taken any steps yet. I am sure it won't be long. She is growing up too fast, but she just gets cuter by the minute.

I got hit by a car!!!

I know everyone is assuming that this would be a post by Whitney, but no this is Stacie. Yesterday Jaynie and Lillie were riding their bikes to the pool and I was running with the other two in the stroller beside them. On our way home the girls were having a hard time up a big hill so they were walking their bikes. Jaynie was in front of me and Lillie was behind me and I saw a car pulling out of a driveway across the street so I told the girls to stop and wait for the car to pull out. We were standing there waiting and as I'm watching I suddenly had the realization that the driver must not see Jaynie and that the car was going to back into her. I then let go of the stroller (on a hill) and ran up to Jaynie and kind of pushed her out of the way and pounded on the car and yelled stop. She slammed on her brakes which knocked me into Jaynie's bike and I kind of stumbled backwards over the bike. Then I realize that I had let go of the stroller on a hill and I hear Eliza screaming so I run back to the stroller which has gone down the hill over the side and tipped over backwards. Addie was strapped in Eliza was not so she was stuck in the shade part of the stroller flailing her arms scared to death. As I am helping Eliza the car is pulling away and I am furiously screaming at them and waving my arms until they stopped. A lady in the back seat gets out of the car and asks me if we are o.k. and I said I guess so and she says well the driver can't get out of the car and I said well maybe she shouldn't be driving then. The lady then says I know, sorry and gets back in her car. I was in shock. I really think they had no idea what just happened. It was so crazy. The car didn't move forever so we finally went up and around and as we were going around the driver rolled down her window and asked if we were o.k. When I saw her I felt bad. She was just this tiny little old lady with her tiny little old husband in the passenger seat. I think maybe it is time for that little old lady to turn in her drivers licence.

We were all fine I was just shaking for the rest of the way home and my heart still pounds out of my chest when I think about how it could have turned out, but we are o.k. Luckily Jaynie was fine and not scared to get back on her bike and now it's not just Whitney with a cool story to tell. Not even he can say he got hit by a car:)

Happy Birthday Lillie

August 8th was Lillie's 5th Birthday. Wow 5 years old. I really didn't know that time could go by so fast. Lillie is such a wonderful little girl. I am so grateful that she is a part of our family. She truly fascinates me every day. She is so happy when she plays and she has such a creative mind. I don't know how someone so little can come up with such big ideas, but she manages just fine. I love you Lillie and I hope you enjoy being 5!!!

Lillie's birthday was on Friday and we celebrated by going to the pool as a family. Lillie was so funny because about a week ago she suddenly became a little fish. It was like over night she discovered how to swim so we have been trying to get her to go off the diving board since then, but she kept saying when I am five I will go off the diving board and we thought it was maybe an excuse because she was scared, but no that was not it at all. She just wanted to be five. As soon as we got to the pool the night of her birthday Lillie said I am five now so I am going to go off the diving board and off she went. By the end of the night she was jumping off backwards and doing cannonballs. What a brave little girl.


Saturday we had a party with Lillie's friends at the pool. It turned out really great. Having it at the pool was really easy and the lifeguards and staff were so helpful it was really wonderful. I think Lillie had a fun time. She got to see some of her preschool friends again and I know she enjoyed that. I made the cutest cake for her that I found on familyfun.com. It was a snorkeler face. I was pretty excited with how cute it turned out. I made fish cupcakes to put around it so it looked like the face was swimming through fish. Of course it was supposed to be Lillie with blond hair (hershey hugs) and all.

A New Hobby

I have wanted a new sewing machine for a really long time, but this year I was determined that I had to have one. My sister-in-law Brooke inspired me with all her cute sewing. While in Idaho she showed me how to make skirts and that was it-I knew I had to have one. When I got back I kept putting it off because I didn't know where to go or what to buy or how much was too much to spend, but of course I kept complaining to Whit that I didn't have one so one night Whit came home from work with a sewing machine!! I was so excited. It is just what I wanted and it is so fun to sew with a machine that works so great. The next day I dragged Whit and the girls to the fabric store where I picked up some essentials and I made my first skirt. I figured I could make Jaynie a few skirts for school this year and call her school shopping good. We don't really need to school shop until October anyway because she will just keep wearing her summer stuff until then. So here is a picture of my first skirt. I think it turned out pretty cute. I hope to get a lot more creative, like Brooke, as I progress in my skill level, but I didn't think this one was too bad for my first try. To check out Brook's cute stuff you can go to her Etsy shop Claireese Boutique.

Pioneer Day

Our Primary had a really fun Pioneer Day Activity in celebration of the 24th of July. My friend Cortney put the whole thing together and it was fantastic. We split the children up into families and they went to different stations. Station One: Pioneer Life, Station Two: Pioneer Games, Station three: Pioneer Music, Station Four: Butter Making. I was in charge of Pioneer Life where the kids were able to wash clothes by hand, shuck corn, and pull a handcart. I think the butter making was a huge hit. Cortney used baby food jars so that it didn't take very long and each child got to take home their own little butter jar. It was so cute. Then for dessert we had peach cobbler cooked in dutch ovens and ice cream. Yummy!! The girls loved it and were very excited to be able to wear their pioneer outfits from Martins Cove. Thanks Cortney for all your hard work. It was an awesome activity.

Funiganns

I was lucky enough to have my youngest sister Kylie fly back to North Carolina with me when we left Idaho. Four kids is a little bit of a challenge on the plane as you can probably guess, but Kylie made it a lot easier. I felt bad though because we didn't get to do a lot of the fun stuff that I wanted to do while she was here for the week. We were so exhausted from the trip that we really just laid around and were lazy. Finally, the day before she left we had enough energy to actually go out and do something so we went to a fun new place in town called Funiganns and boy was it fun:). The girls loved it-and I hope Kylie did too. They have mini bowling, a rock climbing wall and a fun soft play area, as well as arcade games. Thanks for the great visit Ky. I wish it could have been longer. Here are a few pictures of the day. Kylie took a lot more-so Kylie send them to me and I will put them on here.

New Baby Sophie

My brother Ryan and his wife Starla had their second baby on Sunday, August 3rd. Her name is Sophie Anne Erickson and she weighed 5lbs 12 oz. Congratulations guys!! I just wish I were there to hold her. Give her a big kiss for her Aunt Stacie! Here is a picture of Sophie with her proud big sister and aunt Kylie. Emma is going to be a great big sister-I can already tell.

Adeline Crawling

Adeline learned to crawl and pull her self up to things while we were in Idaho. She actually crawled for the first time on July 11th, my birthday, so that was fun. Now she is all over the place. I think she will walk pretty soon. She is walking all over the furniture. I was able to catch her crawling on video at my mom's house. Isn't she cute!!

Sister's Retreat

While I was in Idaho Kim wasn't able to come up for very long so I decided we should have a Sister's retreat in Boise so we could spend more time together. So after Whit left for the airport on Sunday Mom, Kylie, Addie and I jumped in the car and drove to Boise to stay for a few nights. I had never left the girls before for longer than a day so I was pretty excited to get away. Lee and Carolyn were nice enough to take Jaynie, Lillie and Eliza for me and I know I should have been nervous and anxious about leaving, but I really wasn't. I knew they were in good hands and that they would barely know I was gone.

We had such a fun trip. We spent our first day shopping and that was so fun. It felt like the good old days school shopping with my mom and sisters. We just needed the Mendenhall girls and Grandma Cheney with us. I was able to actually spend time trying things on-something I just don't do with four kids. Our second day we crafted-something else I don't do much of with four kids. My sisters really helped bring out my creative juices. I was quite proud of myself. We came home Wednesday morning and left Kim to work a few more days before her and Sean came up for my birthday. It was great to spend quality time with Kim. I really miss living close to her. I think Sister's retreat is going to have to become an annual tradition.

Water Skiing

Before Whit left Idaho we managed to take a couple of hours and go water skiing. We wished we could have had more time, but it was just so busy. The time we did get was so fun though. I forget how much I miss it. I was excited to go this year because I have been working out and thought I would be strong enough to get up on one easily, but that was not the case. It took about five tries, but I did get up on one ski. Unfortunately I was so exhausted from trying for so long that I couldn't ski very long. Water skiing definitely uses muscles that I haven't been working because I was very sore the next day. I guess I am getting older too so maybe that has something to do with it:) We took Adeline and she was pretty happy on the boat. She fell asleep in my arms and stayed that way most of the time.

4th of July

The fourth was great. I always love being in Rexburg for the 4th. The parade is always so fun-parades in North Carolina would be miserable with the heat. This year after our 5k run we went to the parade and had great seats int he shade thanks to Grandpa Cheney who was there at 6:30 am.m to save seats. Jaynie and Lillie had a great time with my cousin Brooke's kids. It was fun to see them be instant friends. Aunt Brooke made the girls the cutest skirts for the occasion. She even made one for Emma-so all the girls matched. It was pretty cute. You will notice in the pictures that Emma has a sling on her arm-yes she broke her collar bone while she was riding "the mule" an ATV/car/truck thing at my in-laws. I felt so bad, but she and Starla handled it great.

After the parade we had a fish fry at my parents house. My Dad and Ryan went to Alaska fishing the week before and brought home tons of halibut-my dad caught a 206 pound halibut and a 100 pound one and Ryan caught an 80 pounder so needless to say they brought home a lot of fish and boy was it good. We ended the day with a trip to Menan to see their firework display. Which to my surprise was actually pretty good.

Rexburg Liberty 5K Fun Run

At Christmas Whit and I challenged my family to all prepare to do the 4th of July Fun Run that Rexburg does every year. They all agreed to do it, but I am not sure they thought I would really make them do it. So around June I started asking about their training schedule and guess what they actually did it. My entire family did it with the exception of Kim and Sean, because they weren't there and Starla, because she was 8 months pregnant. It was a lot of fun and I was so proud of my family for doing it. I know it was hard for my mom, but she did it with a better time than I thought she would. Way to go mom!! My goal was to run it 30 minutes, but I didn't quite make it. I finished in 31 minutes, so I got close and was able to shave about 5-6 minutes off my average times so I thought that was pretty good. Whit did awesome. He kept saying that he hoped to be able to do it 26 minutes (which I thought would be a really great time), but no he decided to finish in 22:34. That man never ceases to amaze me :) I hope to make this an Erickson Family tradition and Giffords watch out I am going to be putting on the pressure pretty heavy for anyone who happens to be in town over the 4th. Mitch, Annie, Brooke I am talking to you. Here are some pictures of the event and yes Whit made the local paper. Isn't he a handsome devil.