HALLOWEENIES

Since Halloween this year was the day before Whitney's wedding we spent the early part of the day prepping food for the reception the next day.

We took the kids (including Bonnie's kids and my dad's little kids) to the ward Trunk or Treat which was great since this year was amazingly warm for Halloween. It sprinkled a little but it was so nice. The kids had so much fun.

Cameron made his Halloween debut as Squirt, everyones favorite little turtle.

I think Braiden has pretty much been every super hero yet. This may be the second time for Batman- its all a blur.


My brother from another mother, Lee



Paige and Abby- Best of Friends and Worst of Enemies

Blast to the Past

October 25th Cameron and I took the longest plane ride of our lives to Seattle. It was probably the longest plane rise of 100 something other people's lives as well. I say that because Cameron screamed the entire way. An hour and half of the screaming and squirming that left me in a cold sweat. He was not a happy camper. That's OK I will never see those people again, right? I know that they hope not.

We went to visit my best friend of 15 or so years Tamara and her daughter Marissa. She and Cameron are 5 weeks apart so they share a special bond and Tamara and I are determined to play matchmaker for the two. We will be in-laws yet. Tamara and I are amazingly very good friends. We seem so different but we are so alike. We spent 4 days doing the things we enjoy most: we shopped, we ate, we watches hilarious movies, we gossiped, we laughed, we ate, we shopped, and the we ate some more.
We took the kids to the pumpkin patch and braved the mall a couple times with the both of them.



On that Monday we made the 4 hour trek to Portland were our college friend, Carrie, lives with her hubby and 3 kiddos. It was so good to see Carrie and have the 3 of us together again. Again we did the things we love: we shopped, we ate, we laughed, we cried, we gossiped. See I told you we had a great time. Thanks to Carries sweet hubby, Anthony, who totally watched 5 kids under the age of 5 so that we could go out for a girls dinner and chick flick. It was a total blast to the past and so worth the nightmarish plane ride.

In case you were wondering...the plane ride back was 100% better. I suppose it helps to give the kid a nap RIGHT before the trip. Note to self...baby Benedryl does not work.

Let's Back up a Little...

I know I promised Whitney's Wedding pics but in an effort to maintain synchronicity (is that a word?) I need to talk about her Bridal shower. We had this way back in October but I am lazy and easily distracted. There, I said it. So we had her shower in this great little store called "Bags that Fit" on Main St. in Lehi and it is ADORABLE! The closed the store down for us and Whitney basically made a wish list in the store so peeps could buy her what she wanted from there to spoil her rotten. Since she is 25 and practically and "Old Maid" she already had the home essentials that people usually would get a new bride so this seemed like a perfect alternative. Can I just say...JEALOUS!!! She made out like a stinking bandit and its not even her birthday. It turned out so great and I am pretty sure she loved it. How could she not?

Happy Fall and gorgeous Wedding Day!

It is a somewhat quiet Sunday morning so here I sit at my table with my laptop while Cameron plays on the floor beside me with a toy that needs new batteries and sounds really sick but it makes me laugh that he loves it so much. I currently have a post wedding hangover- no not that kind, but the kind where you feel like you were at Disneyland the day before... I have a huge headache, my legs are sore from running non-stop yesterday and wearing shoes that I should never have purchased because I will probably never wear them again now that I know how much they hurt. My car is full of wedding decorations, the wedding dress is hanging in my living room and there is a huge wedding cake in my fridge.

Yesterday was perfect here in Utah. Since my sister had decided to get married on November 1st we have all been planning for the worst weather possible. Guess what...it was gorgeous and a record-breaking warm yesterday. Everything went off without a hitch (oh, except a little issue with my temple recommend which almost prevented me from attending the ceremony but we got it worked out. Don't judge me. I make fun of people that don't check the expiration dates on their recommends before important events like sister's weddings but this one was an administrative error. No really, it was.) Whitney looked gorgeous, Ashton had a perma-grin, the kids were semi-well behaved and we all were soooooo happy that this would be the last wedding for my mom to plan and make food and cake for. YEAHHHH!! Not to mention we can stop hearing Whitney cry about being a 25 year-old OLD MAID. Ha! As I write they are off to their Honeymoon for a week of wedded bliss in Mexico.

I will post wedding pictures later when I have the strength to get up and go get my camera out of the car.

I am happy for you Whit and Ashton- there was most definitely a special spirit at your wedding yesterday and I am honored to have been able to share it with you. Take care of my baby sister, Ashton- or else! Love you guys!

Hi

This is a quick hello to anyone who might actually read this. I am in Washington right now visiting my BEST FRIEND since high school , Tamara . I was here about this time last year too but they have moved from Gig Harbor to Arlington since then so its a little different scenery. I love coming to visit Tamara because she and I are so different yet so alike and its amazing how well we get along.

She has a little girl, Marissa, that is 5 weeks older than Cameron so I brought him along for the ride and they have had a blast. We took them shopping and tortured them all day yesterday but today they got to go to the pumpkin patch which Cameron loved. Uncle Mike (Tamara's husband) also gave Cameron a tractor ride today.

Tomorrow we make the trek down to Portland to visit our other friend from college, Carrie. We will be there for 2 days and we have so much fun together. It will be interesting to see how things are now that we all have kids in tow. I love that I still have friends that I had in high school and college. Only true friendship stands the test of time and change. I will update with pics and other stuff when I get home. Whitney's wedding is on Saturday so things are going to get crazy for the next few days. I promise, I will blog again one day.

Awesome Giveaway!!!

Handbag Planet: Sounds like a planet I would love to live on. Go to the Handbag Planet Blog to enter this awesome giveway.

Round and Round we go...

Oh to be a baby with no worries and a cute little diaper bum...

Passionately Pink for the Cure

On October 22nd, 2008 employees of Healthcare Insight will be going Passionately Pink for the Cure® to raise funds for the fight against breast cancer.

It’s passionate, because the need to end breast cancer is so urgent. It’s pink, because that’s the color we’ll wear to accomplish our goal.

Participating is simple. Just wear anything pink on October 22nd and make a donation of $5 or more to Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the leader of the global breast cancer movement.

If you’d like to contribute online, please use this link . In return for your contribution, you’ll get a pink ribbon pin and the satisfaction of helping to move us closer to a world free of breast cancer.

Please contact me if you have any questions or would like to be involved in planning our event. Thanks in advance for your help and for showing your true colors by going Passionately Pink for the Cure on October 22nd.

Whitney's Bridals

These were done by Shelby Van Wagoner of Carv Photography, the same girl that did our family pics. Aren't they gorgeous? Whitney's dress looks perfect on her, as you can see. She is going to make a very gorgeous bride on November 1st.

Sleeping Dooty...

Erickson Family Photos, cont'd

Girl stuff, anyone?

I had to post the pictures of the big sale that I had here of all Paige's baby clothes. Our neighborhood was having a big multi-family yard sale so I decided to finally go through the mounds of girl clothes in my storage room, organize them by size and season and set them up in my front room to sell. For those or who might be wondering, yes, I want to have more kids and yes, I hope I have another girl but, seriously, you would not believe how many boxes of girl baby clothes I had in my basement. It was SICK! And let's be real people...if I have another girl, I will buy more baby clothes. I know myself too well.

So, anywho, the sale was a fair success. I had a group of early bird garage-salers who came and got alot of the best stuff first and then of course there were the ones who showed up and asked "where are the boy's clothes?" or "I'll give you $5 for all 10 dresses". There are always a select few who think they are at a flea market. Whatever people, this not Burger King...you can't have it your way. Haha.

So, all in all, I came out after 4 hours with about $300 bucks to show for the years 3 years of baby clothes I had collected. Believe it or not, I still have tons left. Mostly newborn stuff. I will probably list it as a lot on the classifieds or something. I can't bear to just hand that stuff all over to DI. See anything you want? Let me know, I will give it to you for FREE...maybe.

The Music of the Night

Seen it? Well if you have not, to that I say "What are you waiting for?" Get a babysitter and go see it! We went to Vegas last weekend for a little get-away (without kids, mind you) and saw the Phantom at the Venetian. Very cool! I saw this when I was about 13 in LA and this was 100 times better than I even remember it. I snuck this pic on the walk out of the theater just as one of the ushers practically grabbed my camera and said "you can't take pictures of that!" Yikes. Sorry. I am innocent, really!

Right before Phantom, we ate at the Cafe Lux in the Venetian. Yum but wow!!! Huge portion sizes. That monstrosity before me is a single dessert. Eric ate it all. I didn't take one bite. Ha. Ya, right.

And then of course below we have the obligatory self-taken picture that I have about 4 thousand of. Love it.

Thanks to all the contributors to our weekend escape. You know who you are!

Erickson Family September 2008

WE FINALLY GOT FAMILY PICS DONE!!! My friend at work is trying her hand in the photography industry and is doing really well! She did a great job if you ask me. These are just a handfull...more to come later...when I am NOT at work. Shhhh!

Party with a GIANT MOUSE!

We had Cameron's official 1st Birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. I really was not very excited about having it at my house so I we decided to go where there was pizza, games, a GIANT MOUSE and where they clean the mess up for you!

It was a hit! We had a great time. Cameron was little taken back by the big mouse. He was not sure what to think but after eating over half of that birthday cake and practically bathing in it, he wouldn't have cared if it was a T. Rex singing and dancing. Here's the play by play...

One year ago...

Since then..

Happy Birthday Cameron. The last year would not have been the same without you!!