Erickson Family Update 3-15-09

Wow how time goes by. I try to send out an update about once a month, but about two months has gone by. My parents were here for Brooke's 6th Birthday in January. They were here for her birthday party just before that too. We had a great time and it was hard to see them go back to Wisconsin. At the end of January and in February we were busy saying goodbye to friends. One friend was joining her husband in Arkansas where he is at school and then they are moving to Germany. Another friend and their family moved to Japan. You gotta love the military. With so many people moving the last two years, I am not left with many friends here anymore. Another friend of mine will be leave towards the end of June too, but then hopefully it is our turn. It is hard to say goodbye to good friends so February was a tough month. If that wasn't enough, I got very sick while Luke was gone on a trip in February too. I had a temperature of 102 and couldn't take care of the kids. I was very lucky to have such a great friend to help me take care of them! It is so wonderful to know that you have friends that are there to help you when something like that happens. I don't know what I would have done otherwise. I think us being there for each other is what makes it even more difficult for us to part ways and start new journeys. At least there is email, Facebook, and Skype to keep us in touch with each other.

Luke has been very busy as always. Between getting the house ready, the cars done and going on missions, he is a very busy man. He has been good at making a point to spend time with me and the kids when he can. It is hard on him to be so busy too, but it needs to be done. He should be done with one of the cars that he is working on the 4th week of March. It would have been done earlier but some parts didn't arrive that he needed and he has a mission that he is on now. I know he is looking forward to getting back home and getting that done. At least the second car he has to finish doesn't have a lot to do on it to get it running. We have been trying to rearrange the house to make it more appealing to potential buyers since we are putting it on the market in mid-April. We can use all of the thoughts and prayers you have for us to sell our house.

Brooke seems to be enjoying school more. Her good friend just had her last day there on Friday though so time will tell how it will go for her. I really hope that it goes okay for her. I'm just ready to move to North Carolina so she can start new and hopefully get a good teacher. Brooke had off of school on March 6th so as a surprise we took her to the Great Wolf Lodge the night of the 5th. For those of you who do not know what that is, it is a hotel that has a waterpark and other things that make it very kid friendly. They even have a MagiQuest game there where you go around the hotel to complete different quests. We all had a great time! And it was some much needed family time.

Blake has been doing well too. Saturday was a tough day for him but I believe that was because of his teething. We are lucky that he is such a happy baby but it throws us for a loop when he is inconsolable. At least I did have a few times where he was happy and smiled, which made it a lot easier. It is surprising all of the milestones he is hitting now. He finally rolled over on Saturday, February 21st and Blake's 1st tooth cut through on March 12th. He also sat unassisted this Saturday, March 14th, for the 1st time without falling over. It is hard to believe that he is going to be six months old on the 18th!! He has his 6-month check up that day too so I can see how big he is getting.

Here are some pictures from the last two months. Blake's picture of his 1st tooth will be in the next update or you can go to my blog where the picture is posted. http://amandaercksn.blogspot.com It is right after the update I am emailing to you.

January 2009: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=56010&id=641524478&l=4a275f6560
February 2009: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=64520&id=641524478&l=4a9d942721
Great Wolf Lodge: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=64536&id=641524478&l=ce7d33cfd9

We hope you all are doing well. We hope to hear from you too. Take Care!

Luke, Amanda, Brooke and Blake