Erickson Family Update 01-18-09

What a busy last month. We hope that you all had a very Merry Christmas and are enjoying your New Year so far. We had a wonderful Christmas and our year has been eventful already. Luke had been extremely busy with a very important inspection that has recently taken place in his office. He was gone before 7am and not home until after 10pm some days and also some weekends. Ofcourse on those days that Luke had to work such long hours, the kids and I came down with the flu. The inspection was finally over Monday morning. He then left Monday afternoon for a 10 day mission. My parents are coming for Brooke's birthday and party. They arrive on the 22nd, which is the same day that Luke is supposed to return. Brooke doesn't know that they are coming. I told her that we need to go to the airport to pick up a friend of ours. They will be there until the 29th. Luke than leaves on the 31st for another 10 day trip. I'm sure that the pace will stay up until about March or so since he will be leaving in May for training for two months. I know that he is looking forward to some time to work on his car since he hasn't been able to in a few weeks.

Brooke has been busy with school and playing with all of her toys. She loves to take the dog in her room and play with her Barbie's and her Hannah Montana guitar. She is a very good girl, but has made it clear that she doesn't like daddy being gone as much as he has been. I think the week that my parents are here will really help her since not only will she be getting attention from me, her dad will be home to give her attention and I know my parents will be more than willing to play with her too. I already feel sorry for Nana and how many hours she will probably be playing Barbie's with Brooke. Brooke is very excited for her birthday party. It is going to be next Saturday. Then on Tuesday the 27th she will turn 6 years old. It is hard to believe that so much time has passed since she was born. Now I have an idea of how my parents feel about me growing up.

Blake is four months old today already. He had his check up on Wednesday and was 15 pounds 6 ounces at that time. He is such a good and happy baby. Lately he has really been teething a lot though. I don't ever remember Brooke drooling this much. He has been laughing a lot more and has much better gripping skills now. It is really neat to see Blake grab something and talk to it or put it in his mouth. He has gotten a lot more verbal, which has been really fun. It is so fun seeing his personality starting to take shape.

I have been busy with the normal things such as keeping the house up, getting the remaining Christmas decorations put away (namely the Christmas village), and playing with the kids. I have been trying to prepare for many of my friends departures from this area. They are moving to new bases or their husbands are getting out of the military all together, but at least it will make my move away a lot easier since there will be fewer people to say goodbye to myself. I have some amazing news too. I received a phone call Thursday from The Ellen DeGeneres Show and they said that I won a TV!!!!! I couldn't believe it! I had not entered myself in a contest online in years but decided to do so since Ellen was giving the audience at home a chance to win one of the days of her 12 days of Christmas that she gave her studio audience. I won Day 9, which is a 26" Insignia Widescreen HDTV! Crazy!! I have never won anything like that before in my life. Luke called Friday night so I was able to finally tell him. It was torture waiting over a day to be able to tell him.

Our weather has been something out of a storybook the last month. First, at the end of the year we had so much snow that it made national news and allowed for us to have a White Christmas. Then, we had torential rains. If the rain its self wasn't bad enough, it caused all of the snow we had to melt very quickly. We then had flooding in the area that made national news as well. While we were affected by the snow, the flooding did not affect us except in the fact that Brooke had a late start because of localized flooding which meant she didn't have school because she is in half day Kindergarten.

Here are some links if you would like to see more pictures:
December 2008: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=47974&l=5caa9&id=641524478
Snow Storm - December 2008: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=47977&l=0cd38&id=641524478

Well we hope everyone is doing well and hope to hear from everyone too. Take Care!