Baptism Day...

Wow- only 5 months since my last post on here!

I have been neglecting this blog and putting

most stuff on the other one.

This post seems appropriate for my first one back

on the good ol' Erickson Family Blog!

Oldest daughter's Baptism day!

Our little Princess H turned 8

and made the decision to be baptized.

We are so proud of her!

 She picked out the dress she wanted and looked beautiful.

Grandma and Grandpa Oregon came...

 (yes, they call them Grandma and Grandpa Oregon)

We so appreciated them making the long journey

to be with us on H-girl's very special day.

Lots of other family came

and we had a fun family gathering after the baptism.

 She received many nice gifts and it was 

a very fun, special day for everyone!

We are so proud of our girl and the little lady

that she is becoming- even if I am not ready for it :).

and a Happy New Year...

It's amazing how glamorous New Years

becomes after you have children ;).

I like it that way.

I am all for chilling at home with the fam.

We told our kids that they were welcome to stay up

until midnight on New Years Eve.

So excited, they were.

We played games, ate food and hung out...

 This is Button, button, who's got the button.

 Yes, we play super awesome games.

Then we made the mistake of watching a movie.

This was the result...

 She's going to love this picture when she's a teenager...

I tried to convince Mark to move the New Year

up an hour and do our celebrating at 11 o'clock.

I stuck it out, though.

I'm not great at staying up late.

We tried to rouse the sleepy kids so that they could 

see the ball drop at midnight and have a little

sparkling cider toast to the New Year with us.

Only 2 of them could be woken up enough to

function even a little bit- and I mean a little bit.

This girl was NOT one of those 2...

She stood up like this for 20 seconds

before going back down and out.

Check out this Zombie Boy...

 I don't know if he remembers any of this.

This girlie was a little more aware and did

a little Happy New Year dance with me.

No pictures of THAT, sadly.

Cheers to a Happy 2012!

It's Christmas...

We had our Christmas 2011!

I'm a little behind- but that's nothing new :).

It was a good Christmas, yes it was!

We started with the traditional Christmas Eve pajamas...

We then explained how Christmas morning would work.

All kids would be sleeping downstairs in the basement and were

NOT to come upstairs until Mom and Dad said it was TIME.

We were still up by 6:15.

One little boy man didn't follow instructions very well.

Here's the obligatory 'waiting on the stairs' shot:

Love me some cute little sleepy faced kids!

There were new bikes, scooters and such this year.

It was time.

It was a very merry day for all us Ericksons.

Everyone was happy...

 Even Mom and Dad...

Merry Christmas to all!

 Only a few weeks late ;).

Birthday Princess...

Baby girl's birthday is 4 days before Christmas.

Hopefully she doesn't resent us for that later in life ;).

5 years old!

She received the gift she wanted more than anything...

and her rainbow cake with pink frosting...

She had dance class and her dinner of choice- pizza, of course.

Then we decorated our Gingerbread House.

By 'we' I mean the kids...

I am a gingerbread house traditionalist-

but my kids are free-thinkers :).

I went with it.

Anyhow, I think she had a good birthday.

We sure love our little baby girl!

She's our little ray on sunshine.

The Cheese...

Once you start taking your kids to Chuck E. Cheese,

there's no going back.

They remember it and they want more.

Until they get a little older, I suppose.

So last week we did a double birthday party 

with Chuck E. and Grandma Judy.

Thanks to some awesome coupons, we had more 

tokens than we have ever had before.

Yet, they still somehow managed to go through

them in a record amount of time.

Oldest boy child was all over the place- I couldn't keep up.

There was pizza and stuff.

Birthday girls, cake, presents and dancing.

I found him...

He always shows up for pizza.

Fun times.

Happy birthday, Girly girls!