Moab, Baby!

Last weekend we went on a little trip to Moab with the Ericksens. It was really fun. I love it down there. The weather was beautiful and the scenery was beautiful. We went to Arches National Park, did a little swimming, four wheeling and shopping. I didn't take very many pictures, but I got some good ones!

So Freakin' Adorable.

So Freakin' Moody.  You'd think she was 16.  She actually did really well except for when she got too tired.  She wanted to go home and sleep in her own bed.  She thought the hotel room was the "cation" and said she didn't want to sleep in the cation.  She caught several lizards and she did NOT want to let them go.  One of them dropped it's tail and she said "I broke it!"  I was unfortunately not with her then, but they tell me it was cute.  She finally let them go and told them to go find their mommy and daddy lizard, and their grandma and grandpa lizard, and their aunt Lolo lizard, and their uncle Nate lizard...and everyone else lizard.  Even the Fidg and Wisp lizard.  I wish I had heard that!  I was feeding Rylee.  It's not very convienient to have a nursing baby on a trip, but she's worth it!

She wanted a taste of Moab.  She didn't really like it much.

I wanted a cute picture of all of us to go in an awsome frame I got.  Ha.  It's a toss up as to which of these two is the "best".  Tyson and Erin are two peas in a pod.  I can't get either of them to look at the camera.  At least Erin is only three.  Tyson says he hates posing.  I don't count looking at the camera as posing.  Oh well.  I guess I will never have that perfect Family Picture.

My adorable little Rylee did really well on the trip, except she didn't really like to be in the car as much as she was.  She loves people watching, and she got to do a lot of that.  We also gave her a cake icecream cone (empty) and you should have seen the look on her face.  Heaven.  She ate the whole thing. 

We had so much fun, I hope we can make it a yearly thing!  Thankyou Grandma and Grandpa Ericksen!

P.S.  I totally had to do some computer programming to get all the pictures the same size.  I don't know why but for some reason a few of them are posting HUMUNGOUS and I had to set them right in the computer code, people.  I am so glad I took that class. 

Tiny

Meet Tiny, a small amphibian, native to Utah.  Uncle Brandon decided to give Erin Tiny for her birthday.   Erin loved Tiny.  Erin wanted Tiny to take a bath with her.  Tiny is a member of a species known to carry salmonella.  Karlee freaked out and attacked with clorox bleach.  Tiny is no more..... - Tyson

Rylee is 7 Months Old!

I was not particularly on the ball last week. So this picture is actually 7 months and 2 days. What can ya do.

This is also her St. Patty's Day picture.  We did nothing for St. Patty's this year. 
Rylee is such a joy to be around for the most part.  She is starting to get opinionated, which makes it a little more difficult, but she's still a doll.  She has had several colds over the last couple months and I think she's still teething.  She has learned to roll over and can sit by herself pretty well unless the cat or something else knocks her over.  She LOVES that cat.  She gets all hyper whenever she sees him.  Cute.  She tries to talk and moves her mouth in the funniest way, she says "ya ya ya" and "ba ba ba" and sometimes "da da da".  So dang cute!  We've started feeding her some solid things like toast, and she loves it.  She loves cranberry sauce, though I'm not sure she's supposed to really eat that.  She is starting to try to crawl, and she scooted backwards the other day!  She's getting big too fast.

Erin is Three Years Old!

The last cute pictures of Erin that she was actually smiling and looking at the camera were when she turned one  here,  so I had to post a lot of these. She cooperated so well! I bribed her a lot; I told her she could have a toy if she smiled and looked at the camera. She did not want a toy, however, she wanted a bag of cheetos. Silly girl. Anyway, here is my 3 Year Old Girl!

Erin's favorite foods; Oreo Cookies, Cheetos, Fruit Loops, Toast (one with "sugar" one with jelly)

favorite animal; Every Single One

favorite movie; All of Them

favorite word; yeah or okay

She still loves to line things up and put them in and out of containers.  She is really starting to love purses and bags, and carries everything around in them.  She loves to feed the ducks and play at the park. 

I'm hoping that the Terrible Twos are starting to be over, she's getting much better at minding and she's being more and more fun to be around.  We Love You Er Bear!

Birthday Party #2

Unfortunately I have no pictures from Erin's second birthday "party".  I foolishly left the camera on all night before, and didn't realize til it was too late to charge.  Erin had fun anyway!  It was a busy day: first we had her three year pictures at 10, then we went to the zoo, then we had dinner and cake and presents at Grandma Ericksen's house.  She had a barely 40 minute nap on the way to the zoo, so she was pretty tired at bed time!  She got all kinds of fun garden and outside stuff from Grandma and Grandpa E, including a jungle gym thingy I think she will love, and a beach tote and matching towel that I love.  She also got the Smurf movie from Shylo and Annie, which I don't love, but she does, and a sticker book from Jessica, Nate and Ammon. She loves sticking stickers all over herself. Seen Here.  (Ha ha, that's my  first link in my blog, hopefully it works!  Good luck clicking.)  I didn't see who gave her the monkey stickers.  Thanks. 
Erin always has so much fun with her family.  I am grateful that she has so much family close to her, and sad that not everyone is so close.  Thankyou everyone for all the love! (and the presents, too)

Whoa!

For Erin's Birthday this year we decided to give her horseback riding "lessons".  There is a stable right by our house and every time we pass it we think it would really be fun to get Erin in on that.  So we did it.  You might say she is too young, but it was really good.  The instructor (whose name is Sage, by the way) said it's really just getting them used to being around horses and getting them familiar with what goes on.  She has had 2 and 3 year olds in lessons before.  Erin had a blast!  We got there early and she was watching other people ride and she kept trying to get in the arena and rider herself.  She was very good about waiting for her turn, though.  Every time a horse went by she'd say "I want that one"  It was really cute. 

Waiting for her turn.

This horse liked the smell of Tyson's hair.

Erin's horse was named Tee.  She got to brush him.

She "put the saddle on".

She led him out to the arena.

And she rode!  She learned to kick him and "kiss" him to make him go,

She learned to say "whoa" to make him stop.

She had so much fun!

Erin's Birthday(s)

We are going to have several days of fun for Erin's Birthday, here is Day One!
She wouldn't take a nap earlier in the day, so here she is conked out on the couch right before party time.  Sheesh.

She dove right in to opening presents, no need for food.

Here is our traditional roses for her birthday, one for each year.  This picture doesn't really do the color justice.

She got the concept of blowing out candles this year, but needed help actually doing it. 

She got all kinds of fun toys, she loves them all.  These lacing toys and cupcakes occupied her for a good hour this morning. 

She likes bouncing on her "Rody" and she and Rylee and I played with the dishes.  Rylee kept spilling her pretend drink and Erin kept refilling it from the pitcher.  Her favorite present though was the duplo Cinderella cart and horse.  I had to take it away from her in her bed before she would settle down to sleep.  She was even playing with it in the dark.  She can't quite get the hang of her jumping thingy Austin and Nicole gave her, but she's working on it!

Thanks Gma and Gpa and Uncle Austin for coming!

Tummy Time!

She actually was happy on her tummy for about 10 minutes! I couldn't post just one!

Disney On Ice

On Thursday we went to Disney On Ice! We had a lot of fun, and Erin and Rylee did a lot better than I thought they would, at least I know about the Erin part...Tyson had to take Rylee out in the hall for the second half cuz she was sooo tired and it was sooo loud inside. For some reason I thought she would be able to sleep through it. She couldn't. So he took her out where she had fun laughing at people and statues of people, then fell asleep 10 minutes before the show was over. Meanwhile Erin, Ammon, Jess, Annie, Shylo and I all watched the show. It was NOT cold in the arena. I had the girls all bundled up, but it was hot. We got there a little late, so we decided to get souvineers first, which was a great idea because there were no lines, and another reason that I'll get to later.

Here we are with all our stuff, ready to go to the show!

She's so cute!

Pictures are blurry cuz I didn't want the flash on and they were moving. It was amazing to see people in such strange costumes skate as well as they did. I don't know how the piggy bank did it. And the trolls were really weird looking cuz the person's head was at the top of their hair, and their stomachs were actually where the person's knees were. Strange.

Barbi was pretty much the star of the show, I think cuz her costume was the least challenging. She and Ken with his plastic hair did some cool ice dancing

You have saved our lives, we are eternally grateful!

So, a little while before the show ended Erin wanted to go and "talk to Buzz", it was really cute. Upon being told she couldn't, she still was really good, which I found amazing. But when it was over, she had a complete and utter meltdown. She threw herself down on the floor and refused to leave. Then Tyson had to haul her kicking and screaming out the door and down the steps to the street. Hopefully no one thought he was kidnapping her. I haven't got any calls from the police, yet. Another reason I was really glad we got souvineers first. We also got a really cute picture of Erin with a plastic Buzz and Woody. Thanks Steven and Cindy!