Princess Penelope

My poor Penny has had a fever and runny nose for the last few days and conveniently she was scheduled for her 18 month well baby check up, so we were able to rule out ear infections and sore throat and such. Of course it's just a virus so we have to let it run it's course, but the doctor said we could still give her her shots since it wasn't a really high fever. I hesitated for a second but said okay. I mean who wants to come back to the doctor again just for shots and the doctor said she would be fine, so she got shots. Now I feel like the meanest mom in the world for making a baby that didn't feel well to begin with get shots. She really is quite pathetic. She won't walk and every time I pick her up she cries out in pain and points to her legs. So my guilt has me doting on her every need. She was sitting in the chair and kept reaching down saying book and I would get her a book until she eventually had all the books in the chair with her and then she wanted the toys so I finally gave up and put the entire basket on the chair with her. She was quite pleased with her situation.

Here are a few fun things about our 18 month old Penny. She weighs 22 pounds and is 2'8" tall. She says all kinds of words. Her favorites are shoe, mom, dad, up, outside, puppy, blankie, and uh-oh. Her favorite thing to do is play outside on the trampoline. She loves to jump anywhere and likes to run fast. She is also quite the little dancer. She dances like a sumo wrestler it's quite hilarious.

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a productive and fun weekend. We spent all day Saturday organizing our garages and I must saw they look pretty good right now. We'll see how long it lasts. I also finished up the garden. We have some plants that aren't doing so well so I tried to mix in some nutrients and hopefully I can save them. We ended the day with a couple of hours of pool time. Sunday night we put up the tent in the backyard and Whit built us a fire pit so we could roast marshmallows and have smores. It was a little warm for a fire, but it was nice. Then came time to sleep in the tent. Penny was a little too excited about the tent. She kept going to everyone's sleeping bags laying down on their pillow. It was pretty cute but not exactly conducive to sleeping so she ended up inside. I wish I had gone with her then. Unfortunately I waited until 4 in the morning to finally go in. I am not a very good camper. That is the last time I will ever sleep in a tent without an air mattress. Plus it's already too late to camp in North Carolina because of the heat. So I am the uncool mom who gave up and went inside to get a couple of hours of sleep. Monday was just another productive day. Whit got some projects finished and again we ended the day at the pool. Some ward friends invited us over for hotdogs and s'mores so the girls got a double dose of s'mores. I was a little teary eyed yesterday, thinking about all my family being together without us. It's always hard on me when they are all together, but I am so blessed to be surrounded by my own little family and all our surrogate family members here in NC.

I Have A Problem

I am addicted to cloth diapers. I know that makes me sound like a crazy woman but it's true. I came to this realization when my newly ordered diapers arrived in the mail and I immediately laid them out and took a picture. As if that wasn't bad enough I sent the picture to my sister and friends. Sad I know, but I just can't help myself, they are so cute. Seriously, check out these diapers. They are super cute all on their own, but then when I put them on my precious Penny, how could I not be obsessed?? By the way, Penny's skirt in the last picture is actually a wool diaper cover. I mean come on can you really blame me?

Preschool Beach Day

Preschool was at our house this week and we had a beach theme. You can't learn about the beach without a beach party. It was complete with sandcastle making, shell finding, beach balls, and of course playing in the water. The girls had a great time.

Kiddie Kicker's

Addie played soccer this year on a kiddie kickers team. They didn't have games, instead they just had practice every week where they really focused on teaching the kids soccer skills. This is such a great program. It really gets the kids excited about soccer without the stress of games. Addie loved it. Her coaches were so fun. For her soccer party they had a bouncy house and played bumper soccer. Which was genius for kids that age. The ball dates in the whole time. When she got her trophy her coach said, "Addie didn't say much but she sure showed she was listening by the way she played"

Eliza's Soccer Team 2012

Eliza had such a great time playing soccer this year. She was way more aggressive than we expected her to be. She was the best defender on the team and came really close to scoring some goals.

The Principle's Award

My sweet, shy Eliza really blossomed this year in her kindergarten class. She had such great teachers who really helped her grow. Today she was awarded the Principle's award at her class party. The Principles's award is given to the child in each class that showed all of the monthly values throughout the year and who worked really hard to do well in school. Eliza was pretty embarrassed but as her class all cheered for her, her nervous face turned to a great big smile. Eliza we are so proud of you!!

Lillie's Turns 8

Lillie had a great birthday this year. We were in Idaho again so she was able to spend her birthday with all of her cousins. Because we were having a big get together for her baptism we kept her birthday small.

Scritpures from Grandma and Grandpa Erickson

Bay Blades. The first real boyish toys my girls have been crazy about.

Lillie was so excited to turn 8. She was excited for her baptism, but she was also very excited to turn 8 so that she could get her ears peirced. On her birthday we went down to Idaho Falls and got her ears peirced. She was all smiles.




After doing a little shopping we headed to Olive Garden for a birthday dinner. A perfect day!







Kim will kill me for this picture, but it was her birthday as well so I had to post a picture of her with her birthday treat (a cup of whip cream covered in chocolate syrup with a candle sticking out of it).

To see Lillie's 7th Birthday post click here.

Idaho Trip 2011

Oh how I love Idaho. It is so nice to take a break from the North Carolina heat and enjoy some family time in Idaho. Like always we packed as much as we could in to our three week stay. I think everyone was very ready for us to go home this year. Usually we split our time between Whit's family and mine, but Grandma and Grandpa Gifford were on a mission at Heber Valley Girls Camp so we stayed at my mom's house the whole time. I think mom was pretty ready to get her house back. We are so grateful that everyone was willing to put life on hold for the three weeks. We really had an awesome time. Here are the highlights:

The Craze a new kid place in Rexburg. Great Grandma and Grandpa Erickson took some of the great grands here. They had so much fun.

Laser tag. Addie could barely hold up the gun.
Black light Miniature Golf

Playing at the park. Sam and Penny were fighting over a camera case. They kept taking it away from each other. Sam finally got smart and crawled away from Penny and she looked on longingly because she couldn't crawl over to him. Pretty cute.

This stage coach has been at this park since I was a little girl.

Crafting for Carter's bug birthday.

My favorite thing about the whole trip was Lewis and Clark Caverns, which weren't even discovered by Lewis and Clark. I hadn't been there since I was a kid. I remember that beaver slide being much bigger. It was really fun to take my kids through. Addie had a tough time at first. I really thought we were going to be stuck at the beaver slide, but I was able to convince her to keep going and she did great after that. All the girls thought it was pretty cool.

Notice my sweet front pack. We picked it up at a thrift shop in a small town in Montana on our way up to the caverns. I think it may have been meant for a doll, but it worked.

Addie sucks her fingers more when she is nervous.

I love this picture because it shows Lillie's amazement of the stalactites and stalagmites.

Notice Ryan has on my sweet new Ergo that I bought for the trip while I am wearing the doll carrier. You're welcome Ryan. I think it would have been a lot funnier to see Ryan carrying Brinley in the doll carrier.

Rigby Lake-Looks like Jaynie got caught!!

I love this picture!!

Tauphas Park Zoo

Feeding the ducks at the Nature Pond

There was so much more I just wasn't very good with the Camera this year. We went Huckleberry picking and to the new pool in Rexburg with water slides and a lazy river. We also were able to spend an evening up at Heber Valley with Elder and Sister Gifford. It was fun to see where they had been living all summer. What a beautiful place.

Since I am keeping up with the blog while catching up with the blog I am going to do a new post and an old post until I am caught up so if you are interested in our Idaho trip from 2010 you can find it here.

Jaynie and Lillie you are Triathletes

On July 16th 2011 Jaynie and Lillie participated in the Kids for Kids Triathelon here in Winston Salem. Jaynie has been asking to do a triathelon since she was 4 and she heard th Marsh boys talking about it at Thanksgiving dinner one year. I have always wanted to put them in one, but it just never worked out until now. This year the neighborhood that we swim at was hosting a triathelon so it was the perfect time for the girls to do it. We decided to do it about 2 weeks before the race so we didn't spend a lot of time "training" but the girls were able to do and they both did really well. The swim was 100 yards, followed by a 4 mile hilly bike ride, and finally a .6 mile run. Lillie actually took 5th in her age division and if we would have practiced our transition times she could have won the whole thing. Her first transition was a little slow, in fact it was the exact difference in time between her and the winner. She was neck and neck in every split with the girl who won. Quite impressive. Jaynie was just so excited to be there she could have cared less what her time was. She had a smile on her face through the whole thing. I was so proud of both of them.

Lillie is famous. She made the newspaper.

Lillie in the swim


First transition.


Taking off on the bike

Starting the run.

Finishing the run.

Jaynie Swiming. She actually shared a lane with her best friend Jane.

First transition. It was hard to be standing right there and not be able to help them. Jaynie did great with her transitions.

The bike ride was tough, but Jaynie had a smile on her face the whole time.

Jaynie taking off on her run.

Lillie, Jane and Jaynie you are triathletes.

Getting massages after the race. I think this was probably the girls favorite part.