Merry Christmas Dallan

Dear Dallan DEC 20th 2009
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! So since I had your name this year for Christmas I figure that I couldn’t skip out on your weekly letter, even though I really did think about doing so. I sent your gift in the box that mom sent. Hope you like it. If you don’t, well that is too bad. This last week was spent doing many things to get ready for Christmas I put together a Cinderella Dress for Erica to play dress up in. In truth the dress ended up being Church worthy. So It might end up serving a dual purpose. That little project had me pretty stressed out. I didn’t want Erica to have a clue so I would work on it when she was at school or late at night when she was asleep. The result was my normal housework did not get done with it’s usual flair and consistency, and I was pretty tired and sleep deprived. I did manage to think I had all of my shopping done only to realize that I do not, so somewhere in this next week I need to head out to town in a panic shopping mode and rectify the situation. I am so excited for Christmas Morning. I will have to tell you in my next letter about the big surprise we have in store for our children. In the mean time we are looking forward to Christmas Parties this week, and some play time in the following week and I am already ready for School to start again!
In other new William is a bottomless pit. He is eating all of my other Children under the table. I can hardly put enough food in front of him. He has also figured out how to climb…I kind of forgot about this stage. He usually climbs up on to the table to see if there is something else to eat. But I have found him in the toilet. Apparently he decided to climb on up, and get in. And he thinks it is great fun to be naked. If I leave him in just a diaper for even a short amount of time he rips off the diaper and runs for it. He has also learned the art of giving a high five, and the “cool club” it brings you into. And he likes to clap. He definitely has a couple of words. Mom, and Dad, yep, those are the couple. He is learning grunts and gestures from Hunter and Mom seems to be responding positively.
Hunter is picking up a few new words. About 1 every 3 days now. I think His vocab might be up to around 20 words. Which is way better than it was two months ago. Hunter is also learning to dress himself. Shoes he is pretty good at, and if determined he manages to get the socks on too. I’ve seen him put on Pants, and He will have a fit if I try to do the zipper in his sleeper Pajamas. He is also figuring out how to get undressed. This may sound like a mess waiting to happen but I see it as a step toward potty training.
Erica is zooming along in School. She comes home singing all kids of songs and spouts information that I did not know that she had acquired. She is a social butterfly and likes to talk and giggle at school , and she seems to be very interested in all things social, her hair, her clothes, her shoes, her coat, ect, I hope I am not sending the snobby girl off to school every day.
Marcus had his 7th birthday on Monday. He got his first set of Legos (Which Stiles instantly dumped into His collection of Legos and claimed it was an “accident”) And a Soccer Ball which he has played with and loved all week. The Clothes he received have already made it though the wash and I think he thought that it was cool to have something new to wear. Jon took him DI shopping and he came home with an electronic Dart board. At night I would have to tell Jon that “NO Marcus can not play a game with you right now…He is doing his homework!” I think Jon is way more excited than Marcus but Marcus seems to really enjoy having the game set up in his room.
Stiles is so glad to be on Christmas break. He continues to try and control everything and his room could use some attention. But other than that, he is a big help around here when he wants to be. He is excited to be reading bigger chapter books and stays up late into the night to read them. I think that he would be less grumpy if he got more sleep but I am not going to tell him that he shouldn’t read. In the mean time he is reading books like it is going out of style, and when I ask them about them he always tells me the story so I know that he is retaining what he is reading, so that is good.
Wyatt continues to grow. He smiles at you now and can hold his head up, when he is sitting in your lap…not that I hold him much, the swing chair does most of the holding, and the bassinet, and the couch do their fair share as well. He is such a blessing to have. I can hardly believe how much he has grown in such a short amount of time. It is so wonderful to be a mommy to such a sweet kid.
Jon continues to stay busy with work. We have been truly blessed in these tough times. His calling keeps him busy as well, and I have seen Jon be an instrument in the hands of the Lord many times with the people in our ward. The Lord definitely knows his children and knows how to shape them into what He knows they can be. I am grateful for the knowledge of the gospel and the truth and light it gives to all of us. Work hard. There is only a little time left for you to do such an important work. Our Prayers are with you always. Love you Much. Merry Christmas. Love Monica and the Kiddos at the Woodin Nickel.

Answers to Mom's prayers

Dallan, Dec 13th 2009 Answers to Mom’s Prayers.
Tomorrow is Marcus’s birthday. He will be 7. I have been to the store and selected a few items that are suitable for a 7 year old. NO He will not open socks or underwear, however Christmas is very soon.
This weekend I ran out to the farm with a pile of fabric in tow and Mom’s quilting Machine in my sights. Since We had a new baby it is time to do the big bed swap. Wyatt will move from the bassinet and into the Crib, Will from the crib to the toddler bed and Hunter from the toddler bed to a twin size bed. As part of this ceremonial changing of the beds, I realized that all thought My three baby boys have many baby and crib size blankets between them, that a twin size blanket would be a needful thing for Hunter, and a slightly larger blanket for the toddler bed would be nice for William. So I whipped up some bedding with some of the free fabric that Camille acquired this summer, which she so unselfishly shares with me. Mom was very accommodating, and helped me in my projects, and even showed me some new quilting tricks. She is such a smart Cookie S-M-R-T! On hearing of my trek to the farm Camille threw her girly girls into her van and headed out as well. She brought a Christmas Project to work on, and we created away together and had much fun.
On Saturday we planned to stay till just after lunch, and then head home. It was snowing and we thought it best to drive in the middle of the day with some daylight. So we sat down to Lunch and mom Prayed that we would travel home safely, along with other wonderful things. SO we ate lunch then started throwing kids into our vans and dodging Seth’s snowballs. (he really was helping-I think) then as I was buckling the last kid into his car seat I had a sudden and strong urge and desire to go to the bathroom. Well naturally I ran back inside to the house to take care of business ( I am a girl after all) so that delayed us leaving by all of maybe 2 minutes.
We headed out and the roads were snowy but not slick and we were able to travel at a good speed. As we came up on the freeway overpass at Declo to get onto the freeway we saw two big sized trucks that had somehow kissed each other quite hard and were now into the guardrail. It was obvious that the wreak had just happened maybe one or two minutes prior. (the safety part of out trip part one) If I had not gone pee our timing would have put Camille in that wreck (since she was driving ahead of me) and the wreak was not caused by slick roads, because the road right there was clear. We think it was caused by inattentive driving.
So as we are heading down the freeway the road is basically clear, wet, but it was about 33 degrees outside so we are not too worried. And Camille is about a 4th of a mile ahead of me. And she goes around a semi truck- the ones they use to haul the sugar beets to the factory with a trailer-pup on the back- And I come up on the butt of this truck and for some reason ( the holy ghost) I feel like I need to back off of this truck. So I hesitated and took my cruise control off and fell back just a little way. Then I assessed that the road seemed fine, there was a skiff of snow, but it didn’t seem to be icy. So I decided that it would be okay to pass so I sped back up, and I am close enough, I decide to switch into the passing lane to go around and as I starting to move into the other lane, the trailer of that Semi started to fishtail all over the road. I was sure I was going to watch it dive right off of the road but the driver did get it back under control. If I had stayed constant with my cruise control I would have been on the side of that semi when it started to fishtail (safety part of the trip #2)
After I got my heart out of my throat I called Camille and told her she had better slow down! So she did and I did and then about the time we got to American Falls we saw another beet hauling semi truck all over in the ditch in a zigzag jack-knife pattern that I think had some of the trailer was very close to, if not on, the frontage road! (we are so glad we were not involved in that mess! and the crazy thing was the road was not really icy anywhere! ) SO When I arrived home SAFELY I called Mom and let her Know that her Prayer at Lunch had immediately been answered and I know that She is praying for you every chance she can get! So when you see blessing for your safety and success you can be sure that one more of Mom’s prayers are being answered because the Lord is listening to her.
The Church is true! Christ is our Savior he was born in Bethlehem and died for us on Calvary. Joseph Smith is a true Prophet of God. He Restored the Gospel to the earth. Because of him we can have all of the blessing that Our Savior and Heavenly Father have Promised us. The Book of Mormon is a true book. It has an amazing spirit and testimony of Christ. Families are Forever and Ever and I am grateful that you get to be part of my Family. I Love my Brothers and Sister and their Husbands and Wives and Children. It has been such a blessing to our Family to have such a great Mother and Father, who taught us the gospel and kicked us in the butt when we needed it. We will all miss you this Christmas and I am sure you miss us. But we will try to take of the missionaries serving here, and trust that some sweet Hermana and Hermano are taking care of you there.
Lots of Love and Faith and Prayer are sent your way every day. Love The Woodin Nickels.

sick and cold

Dallan, DEC 7th 2009
It is white and COLD outside. I have a cold and so do Wyatt and William. And to top it all off William, Marcus, and Hunter all threw up last night! - I have a bit of extra laundry to do now. Poor Marcus had it coming out both ends and left quite the mess in the bathroom. Other than sickness we had a full busy week. What we did, I can not fully remember, but I am sure I fixed a few meals and changed a large number of diapers.
On Saturday Evening Erica “ran into a wall and hit the mirror” and cut herself open just below her eyebrow. We were not sure if it needed stitches or not. It probably would not have hurt to put one stitch in her. As it was Saturday evening all of the doctor offices had just closed. So we called the hand surgeon in our ward. He was heading home from work and met us at his house. His wife is a nurse and together they decided that a stitch was not necessary and just glued and taped her back together. Her eye turned pretty purple on Sunday and swelled up a little bit, but in the end I think her appearance will not be altered very much at all by the incident.
I gave all of my family haircuts this weekend and Erica’s really bad haircut from Stiles a year and a half ago has now totally grown out. I cut Erica’s longest hair to the same length as her short hair and now she doesn’t have a mullet anymore. I am very happy that hair will grow back. I just wish that her hair grew as fast as Stiles hair. It would have all been back in half the time. Hunter by the way I think takes after you in that his hair is SOOOO thick. You can hardly see his scalp. Jon thought it was a good idea to start cutting his hair without my help. So a military haircut is what he ended up with.-The dingle berry had the shortest guard on and then took it to his head! - do you know how cold it was outside- -2 degrees. I was going to leave some hair on the poor guy but he is determined to freeze his head off. Got to love that guy.
We had a Relief Society Christmas dinner this week and as part of the fun our table was assigned to tell Christmas jokes. Well Jon definitely was the life of the party for that part of the party. The best part was that when Jon got up the take the microphone the Bishop quickly slipped up behind him and unplugged the mic! So everyone was rolling before Jon even got started. It was a fun night . We were suppose to bring a white elephant gift for a gift exchange and of course we forgot about it so we scrounged around in the car and found a bag of red vine licorice. It was mostly full. Jon had only had a few pieces out of the bag. So we found a bag and wrapped it up. There were some very funny things wrapped up. Someone wrapped up their old plumbing parts! The bishop and his wife ended up with one Reese’s peanut butter cup which their teenage daughter promptly ate. We had a great time.
Stiles is loving scouts and this week the pack went to old town to see the collection of toy train cars that is set up there this time of year. Stiles thought it was so awesome! I just wish we didn’t have to hunt for his scout uniform every week. It is never where it should be! Somehow Stiles is sure that I am at fault. I on the other hand believe it is the other way around. So we will probably hunt for it again this week.
Well I need to go and tend to the sick. I hope that you are well and that you are keeping yourself busy. The church is true. Jesus is our Savior and we have a prophet today. Now get back to work!
Love Monica and the Woodin nutcrackers.

Thnkasgiving keys

Dallan, Nov 30 2009
We survived Thanksgiving. No body threw up and everybody ate lots and lots. It was fun to be together at Mom’s house, she has really been working hard to get it looking beautiful for this weekend and she did succeed however we all drug our little kids around and the kids tore apart the house about as fast as a tornado could. We picked up legos all weekend long and the little girls dressed up and accessorized Barbie to their hearts content. Friday morning All the girls, except Sara and Mom packed up at a very early hour and diligently spent their husbands money as fast as they could. The shopping was great and some very good deals were available and I don’t think anybody got hurt. The boys enjoyed football for about every minute that it was on all weekend long. BYU beat Uof U and Boise won their game against Nevada. All the other games were watched and assessed and talked about but not of any real importance, but they were watched all the same. Jon and Jason and Uncle Gardell really put mom’s upgraded TV package to good use and were excited to be entertained in the basement for most of the weekend. The constant crying this weekend was as stated Constant. If it wasn’t one child it was another and the same goes for Poopy diapers. I think all of moms garbage cans were filled to the brim with the stuff. We were all excited to hear Martin and Sara’s good news and hope Sara get’s to feeling better soon. Sara and I win the not so smart blond award for the weekend. Somehow I picked up her coat and she picked up my coat and then Sara and Martin took it all the way to Utah before Sara realized the switch, My keys to the Van were in the pocket. The Only keys we have to our new van. Martin was very sweet and drove back to Snowville and met Jon so we could switch back the keys and the coats. It made for a fun memory and lots of laughs. Jon and I plan on making a copy of our van key and hiding it on the van sometime this week. This week is full of lots of other things that should get done and might get done and probably will be procrastinated as long as possible but I need to bet back to my procrastinating. I hope you had a great Thanksgiving and the rest of the holidays are as much fun for you as we are hoping they will be for us.
Love Monica and the Woodin Nickel Nutcrackers Heads

I am thankful

Dallan Nov 22, 2009
We are counting down to the end of the year. Erica has already begun asking when Valentines Day will be. Girls always love pink and presents. Anyway this week is much like other. My kids have made some amazing messes and yours truly spent much of her time cleaning up those messes and relocating items back to their original positions. William with his newfound mode of transportation , ie walking, is increasing and magnifying his calling to be a relocation engineer. He can move things further than before and much more quickly, not to mention his productivity is double with the use of both his hands while relocating. He has a great teacher in his brother Hunter.
This week I decided that I was in great need of some more sleep, and had crawled back into bed after sending the big kids off to school. When I awoke I found that the items which are kept in the fridge had been relocated all over the house. The pumpkin pie, of which I had made the day before from a pumpkin we grew in the garden, was now upside down, and a sad ruin on the floor in front of the fridge. IT took some time to relocate all items back into the fridge and clean the pie up off of the floor. But since I had a nap, I was a happy mommy and nobody got hurt. And since I was in a rather cheerful mood I decided to make 6 more pumpkin pies that day- I was planning on doing my Visiting teaching the next day and wanted to take some pie to my sisters. So after much work and rolling out of the dough I produced, with the help of my oven, 6 new lovely pumpkin pies. Well that night Jon was going out to do some visits in the ward, part of being the elder quorum president I guess, and He is always received better into the less actives homes when bringing food, so I told him he could have 2 of my pies. Well as he was going out the door with Mike Barlow he dropped one of my lovely new pies onto the driveway! So he STOLE another pie! The nerve! So long story short… not only do my children destroy my creations but my husband is in league with the little mess makers. At least the chickens enjoyed my pie! I had to make three more pies so I could have a slice…it is good pie!
We decided that on Saturday it would be a good plan to put up the Christmas stuff. Within 24 hours of putting up the tree my kids had removed virtually all of the ornaments, broken several of them, and had me in a fit of tears, rage, regret, and not niceness. I was ready to pack up all of Christmas this morning and tell my kids that Santa was in no way coming to our house! It is a good thing for my kids that I have Jon. When I took my complaint to him he looked up from the lesson he was studying to give today in Priesthood meeting and asked me if I knew what the lesson was. I of course had no clue. It was finding joy in adversity- loving our trials and tribulations-ect. So I relented and Christmas is staying up until after the holiday, and I hope to love my trials, hopefully they will not cause more tribulation over the tree. And Santa will find our house without too much more adversity. But it going to take a large bit of glue to fix the things they broke.
Jon took his first “big” buck whitetail deer this weekend. He is thrilled. The buck is really unique and Jon wants to put the poor dead animal on the wall. He is not a huge trophy, but he is not a small animal either. I told Jon that if Jon really wanted to get the deer mounted, I would have to send back his Christmas present, so that we could afford to pay the taxidermist. Jon was shocked that I already had a gift for him. He asked what it was, and how much I had spent. I refused to tell him what the gift was but let him in on the fact that it was free. So then he said “oh okay so it really doesn’t matter if I get him stuffed or not, I’ll still get my Christmas“. I told him no…if he stuffed that deer I would have to send his gift back. -lucky him I want the gift for myself so he will still get it on Christmas.
This week Marcus and I had a long conversation about the pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving. Apparently they teach that kind of thing at school. We talked about the Mayflower and Plymouth Rock and how the Indians helped the Pilgrims and the clothes that they wore. And Then I asked him if He knew why they left their homes in England and got on the Mayflower. He didn’t know so I told him about the religious oppression the pilgrims faced in England and how they wanted to Worship our Heavenly Father the way they thought was best, and to do that they had to leave everything behind in order to do that. And I guess for me it was an Ah-ha moment for me and my testimony of Heavenly Fathers divine plan for the restoration of the Church. We put a lot of stock in the saints who came across the plains, but I guess I hadn’t thought about those who came across on the Mayflower. I am sure the Holy Ghost was whispering to their Hearts that the best thing they could do was to “get on that Ship.” And I am thankful for their Courage and determination to find a place where they could worship the way their hearts told them was correct, and to make it known though their example to those that followed, and set up our government, and constitution that this country was a place of religious freedo. I am thankful that we still enjoy that freedom today because those Pilgrims had faith, courage and determination when they got on the Mayflower. I am Thankful. So as we Gather together this Thursday and count our many blessings, I hope that you remember that you are counted on many lists. The church is true and we love you and pray for you always.
Love,
Monica and the 6 people she is most thankful for. Jon, Stiles, Marcus, Erica, Hunter, William, and Wyatt.

the white stuff

Dallan, Nov 16 2009
the white stuff fell this weekend. The kids pulled out all of their snow gear and played outside until wet, cold, and soggy. Then they came in and demanded hot cocoa. I obliged. Let me see we did a crazy swap of vehicle and furniture this week in connection with Camille and mom. Millie and I feel like we spent most of the week driving all over eastern Idaho. The Kids were very ready to be out the car as well. We had a good time with mom and accomplished a few of the things we were hoping to. -we had a LONG list. We had fun. IT was a bummer when the day got over and I had to pack up my munchkins and head for home but I feel blessed that I can see my family in not too long of a drive.
Our Americana Chickens have started to lay their Eggs. They lay green eggs- hence DR Seuss book “green eggs and ham.” There really are green eggs! Who knew? Anyway Jon brought in the first egg and held it up to my kitchen wall- remember I painted my kitchen green. And guess what- they are the EXACT same color. So Then Jon made some snide remark about the next time I say “Lets just paint this room egg shell” He will have to say “no, he doesn’t want another green room!” CHEEKY!
Jon has been working hard and working lots-at hunting. He tells me he is not getting adequate time on the river up in his tree stand. I think he is just jealous that his brother Jason, who has never really bow hunted before shot a doe out of Jon’s tree stand the first time he ever sat in it, and took the doe at ten yards! JON left VERY early this morning to sit in a tree stand again. I hope he gets one soon so that he will quit hunting. I didn’t realize that hunting was in the bargain when I said yes to that man. But I am sure there are things about me that Jon is not sure he loves that were thrown into the bargain as well. Pres. Hinkley said something to the effect that Marriage is mutual toleration at best.
Well I know this is short but nothing blew up this week and if it did and I can’t remember I will plead that it happens so often now I just let them all fade into the background and try not to remember how awful it was because it might make me be angry or upset when I really can’t do anything about it except clean up the mess and move on.
We love you very much and we are excited to have Uncle Dallan on a mission. We pray for you always and encourage you to work hard. We will miss you for Christmas but we will have one heck of a groundhog day!
Love you so Much, Monica and the Woodin Nickel Knuckle Heads!

Astro

Well Dallan It is November the 9th 2009. And one more week has gotten away from me. Let me see if I can remember what happened- I took all three baby boys int o get their shots. That was not fun for anybody- but it is better than the alternative.
We added a new addition to the family. On Saturday I met a guy in Idaho Falls and bought his Astro Van for $2000.00. It is gold so now I match Mom, Millie, and Crystal (when she is in the truck). I was feeling like an odd duck in the green van that mom now loves because it doesn’t hurt her to get in and out of. Anyway Jon is not sure I got a good deal. I told him to stick it in his ear. We looked at a lot of different options and while it may not be the fanciest thing on 4 wheels it fills our needs for right now. I am reminded about “This is our hill, and these are our beans” SO I guess I have a “beaner” van.
Will loves to walk and is trying out the talking bit too. He has decided to have a bit of an attitude as well. Nothing aweful, he is just trying to see if he can push it and get away with it. HE loves apples and since he does not have the teeth to chew up an apple he just chews until he has made a good apple sauce and spits it back out. I am having a party cleaning it up off of the floor.
Hunter is trying to talk. He says the word blue. And I think he might know what it is. We looked at a book together the other day that has a little duck hidden on every page. He loved to find the duck. And he is quite good at it.
Erica continues to be SO BEAUTIFUL she changes clothes twice a day and is very opinionated on how I do her hair. She was very cute in the primary program yesterday and every one giggled when she was done with her part. Mostly because Erica was giggling so hard and had a huge perm-a-grin on. She did great.
Marcus did well for his part of the program as well. He had a rather long part. It was about service and how we serve in our families. His class told about different things their families had done to serve others, the children wrote their own parts. Mailai Barlow said “My mom’s friend was going to have a baby so we took their family our roast and we had hamburgers” Poor Mailai didn’t know why every one was giggling at her part. But she drug out the word hamburgers like they were the worst thing in the world to eat. I later told her Mom, Heather that I was so sorry they had Hamburgers the day that they brought us their Roast dinner. But Heather was Grateful that they were able to serve our family and it obviously made an impression on her daughter. The Church is wonderful.
Stiles part was about temples and family history and he did his part well. They all sang but Stiles has finally gotten old enough that he knows mosts of the words to all of the songs, where Erica just knows some of the words to some of the songs and Marcus is a bit shy about singing and doesn’t move his mouth very much when he is not sure of all of the words. IT was a great program about the forever Family and I was in tears a few times during the program. I wish we could have the children teach us more than once a year. It is always such a great meeting,
Jon has been busy, working lots and hunting a little bit. He spent Saturday hunting with his brother Jason, they didn’t get anything but I think they had fun. Jon is a bit Disappointed that the Yankees won the world series- AGAIN. But I am just glad it didn’t go all 7 games. Jon is not too bumbed out that baseball is over because Basket ball is just starting and Football is in full swing. His fantasy team is not doing so bad -or so good. I just feel bad that when the banks and insurance companies and auto industry all had a financial fall out that sports didn’t fall with them. It gets a little old. -in my opinion .
I’m hanging in there by my teeth. Sometimes I use my fingernails to help out a bit. But at the end of the day there is still 4 or 5 loads of laundry to do. A batch of dishes that need washed and 6 kids and 1 husband who all want my attention and the only one I want anything to do with is spelled B-E-D !
The church is true, We pray for you always. And what is this whole don’t Die thing anyway? Isn’t the celestial Kingdom the goal- You know you got to die before you can get there you know! But we will try not to it would just ruin our day.
Love Monica and the woodin Nickel crew!

getting trunky

Dallan, Nov 1 2009 I believe you are getting close to major countdown mode. Is not tomorrow your 20 month anniversary date? Now don’t get TRUNKY! Whatever that means. Let me see I am running out of weeks were I will have a very good excuse to entertain the masses. Or rather When Jon asks what I am doing on “HIS” computer I will not be able to say “Writing my dear missionary Brother a letter.--GO AWAY JON!” Currently when this conversation happiness he usually rolls his eyes and asks if he can jump on the computer just to check scores for a minute. I reply with some speech about how if I let him then HE would be hindering the work of the Lord by not allowing my to buoy up my little brother whilst he is doing his missionary service. Then He pleads again to see the scores and I move aside for a moment so he can check and I call him the agent of the devil or some other thing. He checks to see that sure enough -His team is still losing. When you come home I will not be able to continue to hog his computer on Sunday afternoons like I have been able to these past 2 years.
Okay on to news- On Thursday William decided that he had had enough of eating everyone’s dust and stood up and started walking. He does walk much like a drunken sailor though and I am often humming the tune in my head when I watch him he does revert back to crawling when he is in a hurry but his sea legs are getting used to walking with every step- now I just have to get him to wear shoes.
We have been with out properly working potties in our house for about a month courtesy of William and a bit of Hunter who always is willing to dive into a mess of fun if it involves making a mess. Well Jon wanted to go Hunting to Montana this week and I told him he was not allowed to go until my Potties were properly working and the leak under the sink was getting worse by the minute and I needed that fixed too. So he bought a potty snake at the local home depot and got the main potty regular again, previously it was backed up with a domino game piece that involved a total bowl removal and some toilet surgery to dislodge the stuck 5X5. He took apart my sink and while I installed a Garbage disposal ( yes this granddaughter of a plumber did it!) Jon tore the master potty off of the hole and did some work on that… And guess what we found blocking our path to smooth flushes. A TOY CAR! About the size of your hand. This particular car was a replica of the car from the PIXAR movie “CARS” We decided it was best to throw away DOC HUDSON the Hudson hornet, Marcus was pretty sad -it was HIS toy. The best part was that we had to get Stiles to help us dislodge the toy because Jon and I’s fingers were too big to fit in the hole and pull out the car But Stiles prevailed and now our plumbing problems are solved. However I still need to hook up the electrical to the Garbage disposal- we have to rip out the dishwasher to do that and that was too much for one night.
JON did get a doe while hunting in Montana- That is about all I know, He took it with his bow, and enjoyed his trip with his buddies.
For Halloween Erica was a butterfly fairy Princess. I think she announced to the world the she was “SO BEAUTIFUL” about 300 times last night. She is pretty miserable today. I think that she is allergic to the makeup I put on her and her eyes have been watering ALL DAY LONG! Oops. Stiles chose to be a werewolf and Marcus was Spiderman. Hunter was a COWBOY and William an pumpkin. Wyatt was a dinosaur and Jon went as a construction worker with 6 kids and a tired wife who was dressed as the maid.
I got our family pictures back this week from my photographer and she got a couple of good shots of our family- It is hard with 6 little kids- and Jon. So you can expect to see something cool about Christmas time. By the way I have you this year. WHAT DO YOU WANT? No matter I’ll give you what ever I WANT to give you. HA HA.
The Church is true. The Book of Mormon is true. Joseph Smith is a true prophet and restored the gospel. Pres Monson is our prophet today . And Christ is our Savior. We Love you - Work hard the field is White.
Love Monica and the messy kids at the Woodin Nickel.- oh and Jon too.

Cleaning Gets Old

This video inspired Heather and I in our ward talent show. Cleaning Gets Old

DOC!

We found "doc Hudson", the hudson hornet from the movie "Cars" inside the master bathroom toilet as well as one of my bangle braclets. That toy is as large as your hand. We fixed the leak under the kitchen sink and installed my garbage disposer, Mostly it is all plumbed but no power to it yet. (We have to rip out the dishwasher to do the electrical). Jon bought a toilet snake and we think that what ever was giving us woes in the main bathroom has finally "moved on"

big butt fairy

Some Humor
I have neglected to write anything that would have you LOLROTF (laughing out Loud, Rolling on the floor) In quite some time. In my defense I think I have a good excuse two of them actually and since it is breast Cancer awareness month I thought it would be totally inappropriate to share their sad story so I will have to share mine.
First off-comes the bra- no not really- but in a sense you have to do something to nurse your new baby, they have these cool little flaps on your bra to help you feed the suckers. And Suckers they are. Every time they decided it would be a good time to eat, you have to go through what should rightfully be described as having your two girls slammed in a door every 4 hours. Then when any one of your dear other children decided to whine-which is about every 5 minutes, your chest feels like it is being pumped full of lead from behind and then squeezed in a vice until it almost bursts and then sometimes it does and you have to go change your flappy bra, and your blouse, or else smell like sour milk the rest of the day. And just when you thought your end guns were going to be sucked right off you suddenly had an epiphany and lightning hits your brain and you remember the little tube of Lanolin that the hospital sent you home and the lady from la leche stern warning to use it, and use it often, or else your nursers would just fall off. As soon as you got home from the hospital though, your toddler found the tube and instantly began teething on it and now you have no idea where it might be. The up side to all of this is you get your whole house clean while looking for the microscopic tube of magic feel good lotion, and you find the remote so now your dear hubby doesn’t have to get up to change the station between the MLB playoffs and Sunday night Football, both the teams he wanted to win lost by the way and put him a very moody mood, and then he complains to you about YOUR hormones and you shoot him one of those looks. You are just so grateful that your night sweat days finally got the notice from corporate to cease and desist because it was getting really old having to change the sheets every day.
Then I have to talk about the visit to the doctor after I had the baby. He gave me some pills to help my milk supply because I am not making enough milk and guess what these nifty little pills do- They give you some AMAZING gas. Yes we are talking about FART TANK quality explosions. And lots of them. My kids have gotten a bad case of the giggles lately because they think it is a total Gas when ever mommy lets one or maybe half a dozen of them go. Then at the mean doctors office they make you get on a contraption they have the guts to call a scale, and then they have the nerve to move the sliders around, and the nurse has the gall to call out your weight while writing it down on your chart. Yes the big butt fairy has come around like clockwork this past nine months and the little butt genie is locked in some cave of wonders in the middle of the Sahara desert. Not to mentions every time somebody watches Peter Pan they all start clapping and yelling “I believe in Fairy’s!” keeping those big butt fairies healthy and strong then at Christmas we are all ringing bells and giving those fairies their wings so they can fly around and widen our wide loads. If those Babies wouldn’t laugh and have their laughs break into a thousand pieces and become fairies then we would never see our babies cute dimples and we would not continue to nurse the little suckers. Thank goodness I found the little bottle of Lanolin- it was in my diaper bag the whole time and Wyatt and I are doing MUCH better.
Love Monica
PS Sorry about making more Big Butt Fairies.

sock jars

Dallan, Oct 25, 2009
Well I taught the lesson in RS today and nobody threw any rotten Tomatoes my direction so hopefully I did an Okay job. The lesson was Elder Cooks talk on how our Heavenly Fathers plan is big enough for all of us. Most of the talk centers on different Stumbling blocks. It was hard to work together the two ideas. Elder Cook did it well. I am not sure I taught the lesson half so well. I guess that is why he is the Apostle and I am in the cub scouts.
Speaking of Cub scouts this week was pack night and the theme was Jungle safari. Part of the night was a skit in which the cub master and myself took the boys in a “jeep” on a safari and learned about different values. Stiles was able to help me make the “jeep” we used a box that Jon gets siding in and with some paint and scissors we made a fun prop for the skit. Stiles was able to pass off that part in his scouting book and I didn’t try to control him the whole time. (it was a camouflage jeep so letting him paint it wasn’t so bad)
Marcus spent most of the week sick. He came home from School on Monday and complained of a headache. Then he spiked a fever. I kept him home from school on Tuesday and Wednesday. Sent him to school on Thursday and Friday and the School sent him back home on Friday about noon. When I went to pick him up on Friday the secretary at the school said that half of the 4th grade was out sick and a lot of the rest of the school was out sick as well. The Swine flu has caught up to us in Idaho. I don’t think Marcus had it. He had no respiratory issues. But we are not holding our breath that we will get away with it. Or rather we are holding our breath trying not to get it.
Erica’s gouge above he eye is healing up quite nicely. She is really enjoying school and is beginning to pick up on the stuff she is being taught. Right now they are on the letter A and she is not quite sure why the small letter a in type looks nothing like what her teacher showed her they look like. It is no wonder that our kids have a heck of a time learning anything. Everything is backwards and upside down.
Hunter has managed to survive another week. No speech breakthroughs though. Although he did sit on the potty and grunt once or twice. I think the novelty of having his brothers and sister go off to school is beginning to lose its charm. Mostly because instead of sitting still and bumming around the house with mom and her fuzzy pink bathrobe, mom is in crisis cleaning mode and gives little attention to anything else. Now he is suppose to entertain himself and not mess anything up- a very hard combination for my Hunter.
William is taking more and more wobbly steps and thinks that pointing out noses’ is the funniest game in the entire world. He is a master cruiser at going down the stairs and Manages to follow Hunter right out the door. I have found him outside, more that once, with little more than a diaper, hanging out with the cat and the chickens. He is so happy to be able to move around the house and I have to keep abs on him because he can get lost pretty fast and plug yet another toilet. Yes we are back down to one toilet we thought we had three just yesterday but then William came along -AGAIN. “Honey better pick up a few more Wax rings at the home depot , William has been practicing his TP dispensing skills again.”
Wyatt and I are still going the rounds with nursing. He was suppose to see the DR this week but then Marcus was sick so we rescheduled. I am on some drugs to help my milk come in and it seems to help. He is pretty easy going and we are in a pretty good groove-maybe. Last night was a LONG night but that is part of the whole parenting GIG. All in all he seems to be putting on weight and that is a relief to me.
Jon is getting all geared up to start his deer hunt on the river. Yesterday we loaded up and drove to the Blackfoot area and scouted for Deer. I saw them first (Jon’s eyes are getting really bad) and we watched about 15 deer run across a field as the sun was setting. I thought the Sunset was much more cool to watch than the deer, but everybody else thought the deer were way cool.
I introduced my children to sock and shoe jars. Every week I add 25 cents to each child’s jar. Then if I have to pick up socks or shoes during the week I charge the owner 1 penny per sock and 2 pennies for each shoe. I charge double if I remind the child to pick up the shoes and / or socks and nothing is done about the footwear. Now shoes and socks do have away places in their bedrooms but I do not charge if the socks and shoes are in the owners bedroom. Most socks and shoes are just barely inside the door of the bedrooms but I have been told by my children that they are “safe” and I can not charge for them. This week I am going to start charging for coats and backpacks. Maybe eventually my kids will learn to pick up after them selves.
The church is true. I am very proud of you and your example to me and my children. It is So important for My son’s to see their Uncle serve a mission and have the opportunity to pray for you daily it is a blessing for my family that I am sure even I do not comprehend. Thank You Thank You!
Love Monica and the pokey little people at the Woodin Nickel

Family pictures

Dallan, October 18th 2009
Well Wyatt decided to wake up and eat this week. I have spent most of my time this week sitting in a chair trying to feed him. I am not complaining. Last Sunday I was really beginning to worry since he did not seem to be putting on weight. ( I am but he wasn’t). I thought that I was going to get away with not every doing the formula bottle this time with Wyatt but not so. I have had to give him several bottles a couple times a day to get him to the next feeding. But the results are that this week he is definitely a bigger baby than he was last week
William has finally learned and mastered a new trick. He ca go DOWN the stairs. He is loving his newfound mobility. He was teasing me on the stairs this morning acting making sure I watched him as he backed up over the edge and proceeded down to the basement. His walking is still not anywhere close to in the works yet but I did catch him standing up in the middle of the driveway. I think he himself was kind of shocked when he realized what he had done and then he carefully lowered himself back down to the pavement.
Erica managed to cut herself right above her eyebrow this morning. If it had been any bigger we probably would have decided she would need a stitch. But as it was, we just glued it back together with some over the counter liquid bandage stuff. I think it will heal up nicely. I am grateful that it happened after we finished with school pictures and our family pictures. I am a sucker for making sure my daughter looks her best at all times.
Marcus told Jon today that he wanted to play soccer. Jon was pretty shocked with this idea since he has said many times that he wants to play football and begs Jon to play catch with him with the football. So Jon starting questioning Marcus about his sudden change of desired sport and Marcus replied “ You can REALLY get hurt in football.” That son of mine is no dummy and has been paying close attention.
Stiles made me laugh really hard the other day. He had some funny teeth since Halloween is drawing close. The teeth were chocolate and were soon eaten but then he came in with silly chocolate eyeballs and placed them in front of his own eyes and smiled and I realized that his real teeth were more crazy that the silly chocolate teeth he had just finished eating. I couldn’t help thinking to myself. “My son has ‘bubba teeth!’” The orthodontist is going to have his work cut out for him when Stiles gets enough permanent teeth to start wearing braces.
We dug up the carrots and onions this week and cleaned out the garden of everything that could mess up the roto-tiller and we are ready to put it all to bed and let it snow. The Carrots with our Sunday dinner today were EXCELLENT!
I mentioned before that we had family pictures this week and Jon deserved a great big gold star on his forehead for being a good sport. We did the pictures here in our yard and our photographer just loved our property and begged me to let her bring her clients out for their photo shoots. She said that she is willing to pay me to use the yard. I just want her to do my future pictures for Free. We will have to see what kind of an arrangement can be made. Anyway so she will have my pictures back in about a week. I am very excited and I hope we got one good shot of the majority of us looking at the camera.
Well it is late and I have another full day tomorrow and probably a sleepless night tonight so I bet go get after it. We love you and pray for you always.
Love Monica and the posse at the Woodin Nickel

William is stuck on "Susan"

Willim climbed onto my Lazy Susan and could not figure out how to get out. The funniest part was when I found him Hunter had already found him and was spinning the Lazy Susan and giving Will a "ride."

Will just wanted off the merry-go-round!

Pictures of Wyatt's Blessing Day

These are a few of the pictures we took On Wyatt's blessing day. The Jon Woodin Family Aka Woodin Nickels

L-R Erica 5, William 1, Monica , Hunter 2,

Jonathan, Wyatt 6 wks, Stiles 8, Marcus 6.

Wyatt Logan Woodin


Monica and Wyatt

Jonathan and Wyatt

My Muses

aka My Mess Makers

There they are 6 kids in 8 years 3 months!

What were we thinking?

Messes!

William and Hunter have just unloaded my paper products cup

board. Anybody want to help pick up 1000 untinsils? and My carpet is still we from the toilet they overflowed yesterday!

Wyatts blessing

Dallan,
WE pulled off another baby blessing and nobody got hurt. We missed you and your ewok. But all in all everybody brought great food. We all ate too much. And I need to clean my house really bad now. (sounds a bit like a trip to powell).
In other news our last FHE got cut a bit short when Hunter burned his arm really bad on the hot cookie sheet. I tell you that boy is a walking hazard area. The cookies were good though and we did eat them all up for desert.
Will is shifting into real walking mode. He has decided that he can take some steps and is pretty successful with about 3-4 at a time. He won’t walk between Jon and I like most little kids but will walk in pursuit of a toy. When he does venture to take steps he usually starts giggling so hard I think that is the main reason why he falls down. I did catch him once this week stand up in the middle of a room without an help. I don’t think he realized that he did it. Will continues to check the potties to make sure there is water inside them and then proceeds to TP the bathrooms. He has almost figured out how to come down the stairs but someone has to line him up backwards and pull him down off of the top stair then he les gravity do the rest.
For Wyatt’s blessing I decided to crochet a blessing blanket for him instead of get him his own outfit. ( he can borrow one of his brothers right!?!) Do you know how many times I came back to my crochet project and found that William or Hunter or even Erica had decided to mess with it and pulled out all of the stitches I had done the last hour I had worked on it! It probably helped to make the blanket better than it would have been otherwise but I was frantically trying to finish the blankey on Saturday evening. But I got it done and I hope it will survive so that Wyatt will have it when he has a chance to bless his own babies.
Erica - cut her hair! School pictures are on Wednesday! I seem to see a repeating pattern in my life. She was trying to cut out the elastic hair tie that was in her hair and cut a little lock of hair out with the elastic. No body can see I readily unless they try to do her hair. I tell my kids almost daily- You can cut and glue and color all you want and whatever you want as long as you do it in the kitchen. I found the scissors and hair in Erica’s closet. Such is life.
Parent teacher conferences went well. The school is not treatening to kick my kids out and the teachers all said that my kids create no problems in the class room. On visiting Marcus’s class room I found out why his attentions have shifted away from Little Kenadi Austin to Danielle Ward, Another little girl in our ward who lives just down on the corner. Danielle and Marcus sit right next to each other in class. And I’m pretty sure Danielle has a bit of a crush. The other day she made her mom bring her over so she could give ‘something’ to Marcus. I don’t know what it was and neither did her mom. I don’t think Marcus will ever stay home from a girl ask guy dance in high school.
This week we had a talent show for our ward Party. They were not having much luck getting people to sign up for the show. So On a whim I signed up Myself and my friend Heather. We did a lipsync to the hilarious song “cleaning gets old” which Sara tipped us off to in an email about 6 weeks ago. We included our oldest children in the skit. Their job was to be themselves and make a mess of the stage. Our first run though was cut off very early when a huge Santa clause doll sailed over Heather and I’s heads and off the stage onto the floor of the gym. We then gave our children specific things they were to mess up and that throwing anything was just not allowed. We got quite a few giggles and we had a very fun time.
Trevors Wedding reception was this weekend and I took Wyatt and went. Jon stayed home with the rest of the kids. It was a very lovely reception and It was a delight to see and visit with cousins from both the Woodland and Wall side of the family.
Well I must go and clean some parts of my house even though ‘cleaning get’s old’ somebody has got to do it and it seems I am the only one who does.
The church is true. Families are central to the plan. I love my family and I am pleased that you get to be part of my family. sorry if you don’t feel the same way but you can’t pick your relatives, so the best you can do is just put up with us.
Love Monica and the rest of the little people at the Woodin Nickel.

conference and cold weather

Dallan, this week has flown by and I can not recall most of what I did or rather did not do. I did pick grapes and make grape juice. I did not stay on top of my laundry, and will have to pay the piper on that one tomorrow. The Kids did not have school on Thursday or Friday and drove me batty. I sent them to bed early. Hunter decided that it would be great fun to break a light fixture to pieces and that required me to bring out my handy shop vac to pick up all of the pieces of glass. I did manage to cut Stiles and Marcus’s hair but in doing so I plugged the drain with hair- the shop vac fixed that problem. The toilet in the main part of the house keeps on getting plugged- I think William deposited something into that toilet that is giving us woes. It has turned cold and rainy and even a bit snowy here in Pocatello. I had to harvest all of my tomatoes at once and then let mother nature kill the rest of my garden- I did not cry. I have 4 flats of tomatoes ripening in my kitchen and have plans to turn it into spaghetti sauce later this week. Wyatt is growing like a baby should and crying in the night like every baby does. The alarm clock seem to go off earlier and earlier every day especially now that the days are getting shorter and the sun rises later and later in the morning.
I really enjoyed Conference I was very impressed with Elder Hollands Testimony of the Book of Mormon. I don’t know how it could be put forth to the world any plainer of the truth of the book. His words were so powerful and to the point I hope that as his testimony is translated into all of the different languages the powerful message of his words does not get lost. His words make me want to spend all my time reading that wonderful book. I also enjoyed Elder Bednar’s talk about being consistent with our children. I think Jon and I really needed that reminder. I needed to know that FHE, scripture study and prayers in the home of one of the apostles was perhaps not all the time reverent and even chaotic at times. I know that it is usually not a spiritually uplifting experience for us, Jon and I are usually just grateful we got through it and nobody was hurt. So with a new determination to be Consistent in our FHE and Scripture study and prayers we will sally forth with “He’s touching me and breathing my air” and just keep at it if we can. President Monson’s words to serve were wonderful to hear and I hope that I can be a better servant to those around me. (I do feel like the slave most of the time, and my kids are sure I am the slave driver) My kids loved that President Monson has a huge jar full of warm fuzzies and wanted to know how they can get their own jar of warm fuzzies. Perhaps we will have to make it part of FHE tomorrow night.
Well I need to go. We love you and pray for “Uncle Dallan on his mission” always. We miss you and love you and look forward to Feburary when we can all play together again. There are quite a few people who would like to meet their awesome uncle Dal. I’ve got two of them and so does Crystal and MJ. Dan has snuck one in as well as Camille and Seth. So if I am counting correctly that is 9 new people. That is our whole family! Keep working hard! The church is true!
Love Monica, Jon, Stiles, Marcus, Erica, Hunter, William, &Wyatt.

SO TIRED!!!

Ahh isn't that precious!

William goes up stairs without any problems but has not figured out the going down bit. He will sit at the top of the stairs and rock back and forth and cry until someone helps him down. (he is very smart, he has only fallen down the stairs once and that was enough for him). Well the other day, at the top of the stairs, he rocked himself until he fell over and was sound asleep.

this Truck is Hunters toy box. He recently realized that he is now strong enough to dump out all of the toys and push the massive truck around the house. I caught him playing inside of the truck and though the moment was just too cute. (Yes he does have a few of those.) now remember that because the toy box is empty his bedroom is now a mess! Got to love that child when I can!

Hunter- Go clean your room!

Jon Hates IT!

Ah HA! You have opened this hoping for some new light and knowledge to spew for from my tapping fingers. You are hoping for a laugh, a giggle, a chuckle, and perhaps a story to share with your friends about Monica and her crazy family and the dumb things that happened to them this week.
First off. School is really working for Erica. She informed us that “Dot’s have a new name they are named ‘periods’. And the Dots in a Dot-to-Dot. Are really named periods.” She tells us that sometimes the teacher has to tell her to get to work and that she needs to be quite. Next week is parent teacher conferences. I am nervous to be told that Erica needs to tone it down a bit.
Wyatt and I are getting along better with the nursing thing. People ask me if he is a good baby and I of course respond that they can believe what ever they want to believe. If they want to believe that he sleeps all through the night and politely asks for some thing to eat, and only poops his pants at 10 and at 4 then they can go ahead and believe that. Those of us with less cordial babies will continue with our 3 am feeding and the 4 am diaper and the alarm clock then going off at 6 am to get the kids out the door to school! We are getting LOTS and LOTS of sleep.
William has forced me to learn to shut the door to my bathroom. He is a full fledged toilet paper prep engineer and I am often finding the roll all prepped (unrolled) and half of it sent to it’s watery grave. The ole’ plunger has been used to unstop William’s mess my bathroom on more than one occasion. In other news he has taken a few steps but not more than two at a time. He cannot be convinced into walking back and forth between two people. Most of his steps I am sure he does unintentionally and usually between two chairs or the like. He does think that climbing into the dishwasher is a fun past time. (I think he is looking for seconds) And watching him eat of late is quite humorous or really gross depending on your point of view. Since cutting his molars he is much more efficient at the chewing process and since that realization has been made Will literally STUFFS his mouth full of food. Then soggs it up, and often realizes that there is just to much in his mouth and begins spitting it back out. (yes that is the gross part). But when he is shoving it in you would swear that the kids hasn’t eaten in days. He is shoving it in so fast! That is the part that is funny!
Hunter-- HEE HEE! Yeah well Hunter made it though another week again didn’t he! A Kitten has adopted our family. All of the Kids are deeply enthralled. They have named the said Kitty “Georgia” they all play with and hold and pet the poor cat to pieces. Hunter is totally fine with being with this kitty when it is being totally controlled by someone. But one day while the kids where at School Hunter got out of the house without me knowing and was soon screaming bloody murder. When I realized that he was outside and that his cries were hysterical!!!(understatement) I was sure that something must be dreadfully wrong. SO I tore outside to find out what had happened and Hunter is running for the house as fast as he can and the cute little kitty is following him at a dainty trot. Apparently Hunter was sure the cat was going to get him. He has had many dreadful encounters with the cat and is electing to stay indoors when the kids are at school so as to not have another run in with the cat. (It must be noted that this kitten is the most docile feline in the world. She has not scratched, bit, or clawed, one of my kids despite their manhandling of the poor thing.)
Marcus was the special person at school this last week. Apparently that is a big deal. He brought home this huge poster where the teacher had written down a list of his favorite things and that kind of thing. And all of the kids in his class colored a picture for him that he got to bring home with him. They are very treasured pictures and we are suppose to love ALL of them. I hung the huge poster up and am waiting for the opportune moment to circular file the 25 drawing sent home with him.
Stiles is of course being the best boy in the world. He is happy to do his jobs every day. His bed is always made and his room is forever clean, his homework is always done perfectly. He never fights, teases or manipulates his siblings. He does everything I ask him to do the first time and I’ve got some ocean front property I’ll sell you for dirt cheep! No honestly He is a great son and I love him dearly. We do butt heads and one day I might grow up enough to get over that. I just hope it is long before he becomes the same headstrong teenager that I was. I am defiantly running out of time!
Jon went hunting with is buddies this last weekend. He was the caller and they tried really hard to get his friends an elk but I think Billy will leave the hunt empty handed this year. While he was gone I decided that I was out of time if I wanted to have my Kitchen painted before we had everyone over for Wyatt’s baby blessing. So upon surveying the work to be done I decided that I really just needed the paint. So After Jon left for the mountains I left for Home Depot and came hope with the supplies I needed. I spent one day masking the entire room and prepping every thing that could possibly be prepped and then that night I put the kids to bed and started to actually paint I finished painting at about 3:30 that morning and I love the results. I spent the next day putting everything back together and cleaning up. Then I took cute pictures and posted them on my blogg and waited for Jon to come home. He of course had no idea that I had under taken any such project and proclaimed that he “Hated it!” I told him that since he was not willing to do the work he could not complain about the work that was done. Some moral of the story about a little red hen comes to mind. Got to love that guy though he has not said anything except that he hated it and has since left the whole thing alone. I think it will grow on him and eventually he will like it or he might be willing to help me with the next project either way I win.
The Church is true. And Families can be together for ever. (as much as you think you might be better off if you weren’t stuck with us, it is for your own good!)
Love you
Monica, Jon , Stiles, Marcus, Erica, Hunter, William, & Wyatt Woodin

A MAKEOVER !

As my husband was away hunting the big mighty elk, I was more anxiously employed. My Kitchen has been in makeover stage for a year now. When we bought the house it was Wallpapered in some very early 90's Country blue and mauve hearts. Under that was some 70's avacado green and harvest gold baskets of food. And that Paper was stuck directly onto the sheet rock. So I stripped and then textured and then masked everything and finally last night I stayed up until 3:30 am and painted my heart out. Here are my results.

This is Jons elk

The door leading out to my garage

Coming down from Jon and I's bedroom

Now I need some new window treatments fo finish off the room


the view from the livingroom




Yes! I have completed this project- well almost I still need to do behind the fridge, maybe next year!

clear your calander, you have been invited...

hear ye hear ye!

We plan to bless Wyatt Logan Woodin on October 11th. Sacrament meeting is at 1:00. We plan to attend the whole block session and then have a potatoe bar potluck meal about 4:30ish. ( if you would prefer to only attend sacrament meeting our house will be open and you can skip out on the rest of the meetings)
This is the same weekend of Trevors Wedding, If anybody would like sleeping accomidations at my house holler first to get the good bed! (okay it is just an air mattress or a hide a bed, but your choice!)
Our building is located on Yellowstone about 5 1/2 miles north from the chubbuck freeway exit. The building is brown in color. You will pass a purple colored building and the Tyhee stake center before you get to our building which is on the reservation. If anybody needs directions to our house feel free to call!

Please let me know if you think you are coming so I can get enough potatoes in the oven! 237-1719 or just email me back.

M is for Mcdonalds

SO I am suppose to come up with an entertaining story or two to make you all smile and think your life is fairly easy and calm compared to the whirlwind catastrophes that happen just off of Tyhee road.
Well the first story is a big laugh at Jon and his good humor about losing his hair. OnMonday for FHE we all jumped into the Hot tub and with all of the talk of “who does Wyatt look like?” Marcus put his face right next to Jon and called for my attention and asked if he didn’t look just like his DAD. Well I responded with a noncommittal “You look like one of my Woodin Boys, and they all look like their Dad.” Then Marcus was quick to point out that even though they may look alike that Dad had a big M on his head where the hair was, or rather was not. We laughed and giggled and made a few jokes such as DADDY has a M on his head because it stands for Monica and he loves mommy very much, and No wait if he is upside down it is a W for Woodin. But the best was “Dad you should get a job at McDonalds, because you already have the M on your head so it would be easy for you to work there!” after that comment Jon turned the subject away from his receding hairline. But I have been laughing all week. I thought you should all get a laugh in at Jon’s expense and then laugh at you own hair while you are at it.
One of the other great stories of course involve Poo. And I am not talking about a cute cuddly bear in a red shirt that likes honey. I have two stories actually. The first one finds William front and center. One morning I just kept on getting a wiff. And I checked and changed his diaper a number of times that morning in anticipation of finding and getting rid of the offensive odor. And every time I changed that boy I found a wet but not dirty diaper. Now since I am an excellent mother and am always on top of EVERYTHING about noon I decided that it was about time to get Will out of his sleeper pajamas and into some other clothes for the day (party because he had played in the toilet and was very wet now) and as I was pulling he jammes off I again got a very strong wiff and a poo pebble rolled out of the sleeper foot of Williams Jammies and I now knew what I had been smelling all morning. Somehow the poo pebble made it’s way out of the poo catcher and down the leg of my little boy. Since Will doesn’t walk yet the pebble remained in a fairly round shape and was not squished into a toe jam type concoction, however if I thought Jon had smelly feet, Will’s foot did indeed stink!
My other Poo story is about Hunter. He pooped in the toilet this week and we all did a dance! However any further potty training exercises will be delayed until he can say a few more words, and less grunts. He was only successful because he had been stripped naked in anticipation of a tubby and then realized that he did not have a proper poo catcher in place he related to me in grunts and gestures his predicament which would truly be mine in a short while if I did not intervene. I did in fact intervene and like I said we all did a dance.
Erica was kept home from School last Monday because she was sick for the previous 3 days and I thought it best to be sure that she was not sick before I sent her off to infect other Kindergarteners. She was VERY Mad at me. However on Tuesday when I woke her up and instructed her to get ready for school she demanded that she was “TOO HOT” and could not go to school today. She of course was no longer running a fever and was perfectly fine and I kicked her out the door to school. The faking sick to get out of School has already begun!
Wyatt has finally begun to gain weight, At his two week appointment he was at 7.0lbs and his birth weight was 7.6lbs. So when he was three weeks old I took him back to the doctor to have him weighed again and he was weighing in at 7.8lbs I was very relieved. He has been a much harder baby to nurse than my other babies and I was just kind of an anxious mess that whole week. But in the mean time I think it was a good thing for me to stop and realize I couldn’t just feed him for ten minutes and call it good. That I needed to take a half hour to an hour to make sure He was getting enough to eat. This has been hard on my kids and husband that I just go to my room and shut the door and tell them to “figure it out! Mommy can’t help you right now!” Jon has been taking it extra hard!
Stiles has not done anything major to report on besides make me crazy. But he is always trowing numbers out into a conversation such as “well I haven’t eaten anything in like 15 hours, or I’m reading this book and it has like 950 pages, or it is father away than grandmas woodlands house, like 20 miles.” And I know that it is a part of figuring out math and numbers and time and distance and all of that stuff but he then usually turns to me and wants me to verify his statement and so often I will try to correct his number to a more accurate number and then the argument begins. He is sure that he is right and that I am wrong and wants me to get up and prove it, But I am usually Nursing, cooking, cleaning, or otherwise occupied and I just can’t right now. Some how I end up the bad guy and he is the one throwing around crazy numbers like 98% of the time! ( please see the joke in my throwing out random numbers so that this is the funny part of the story)

The church is true. We love you always

Love Monica, the big “M” (aka Jon) and our 6 kids

elk season

Dallan,

I do nor have great things about Powell to tell since I was at home missing out too! It is really mean of Mom and Camille to take off together and leave me without my daily dose of them both. Especially with ‘Skype’ I get all hooked up and then they take off! I di enjoy talking to MJ and Crystal this week but I really struggle without Camille and Mom so I played a bunch of Solitaire on the computer this week.
Jon went hunting this week. YES I let him go. Yes My baby is not even 2 weeks old. Yes I do deserve a place in heaven. But the best news is this. JON GOT HIS FIRST ELK! If you don’t count the one He and DAD spotlighted on the farm last year. He is excited, I am glad that it was hot enough this week he decided to haul the dead animal directly to the butcher so that the meat wouldn’t spoil in the heat, and now that he has filled his tag the pressure for him to run up to the mountains is off. He will still go to help out his buddies but he won’t try and go for an entire two weeks at a time. That makes me happy:}
William took his first steps this week. But is not interested in trying to hard to take many more. He is so content to just sit around and watch us all. But he loves to sit in my lap when I am talking to someone on Skype.
Erica and Jon were sick this weekend. Erica ran a fever for three days! Luckily the only time she decided to throw up she made it into the bathroom. I decided to keep her home from school today just to make sure she was over her illness. She was pretty mad at me all morning that I wouldn’t let her go to school.
I know this is not a long letter but Wyatt has started crying again and so I must go be a mommy.

We love you

Love Monica and the mess of folks at the Woodin Nickel

Labor Day

Dallan, Sept 7 2009 LABOR DAY

We should feel totally ripped off this week. Mom and Dad and a few of our siblings have departed south in an epic journey to reach red canyon walls and warm blue water. Yes they are hoping for smooth waters and no winds. It does give me the itch to waterski, or even strap on the wakeboard. A bit of short-ropin’ would be fun as well. But alas I am at home with nothing better to do than laundry, dishes, and diapers. Not that I’m complaining. I love being a mommy. But being at Powell would be major fun.
So last week you got a statistical report as far as your newest nephew. I though I might give you more of a status report this week as to how things are going. Wyatt was easily my easiest delivery and my recovery has been amazingly fast. I won’t bore you with the whole labor and delivery details but I was induced and from start to finish it was only 6 hours of doctor intervention to get Wyatt here. I did not get an epidural this time We only has time for a spinal block and that work beautifully. One of the side effects of that drug is when it starts to leave your system you itch all over. I seriously would have loved to have had a huge sheet of sandpaper to rub up against . And in case anybody was wondering YES I did get a dose of nubane. That was nice.
Adjusting to Wyatt at home has been pretty easy. Stiles is always trying to haul him off and Between him Marcus and Erica fighting over who gets to hold him next… Well I have had to intervene before the tug-a-war got out of hand. Hunter tries to pick up and move Wyatt as well and just today I left Wyatt on my bed and picked up a few clothes to turn around and find that Hunter had moved/dropped Wyatt off of the bed and Now Wyatt was on the floor. Don’t worry though, Hunter was tucking another blanket around his baby brother and was anxiously “taking care” of him.
Erica want’s to all the time be touching the baby especially when I am nursing Wyatt. This wouldn’t be To bad except she wants to touch him with her feet and her elbows and her hair and her nose and every part of her that is not her hands. (she is driving me a bit batty)
William is by far the cutest with Wyatt. When Wyatt is in his car seat, William will crawl over and put his head on Wyatt’s Chest and lay there and cuddle with him. Will wants to hold Wyatt and touch him and snuggle with him. It is almost like he his saying to Wyatt. “Man, I’ve missed you these last 14 months. It is about time you got here!” And Will decided that now he needs to grow up a bit and is testing out his sea legs a bit and trying to walk around a bit. He is beginning to cruise along the furniture and is always begging any adult to hold his hands and walk around with him. Grandma was stellar at walking around with him, she was willing to take little bitty baby steps to get where they were going.
Hunter has decided to take the getting booted out of the big baby seat with a flourish. He is making drastic improvements in his speech. And is excited to be the man of the house during the day. Hunter is as happy as a clam to kick Stiles, Marcus and Erica out the door in the morning to get on the bus. When they go out the door you can just see him grinning from ear to ear and then he looks at me like. “Good, now I have you all to myself mommy, So what are we going to do now?”
I am of course tired, and sleepy and a bit cranky by late afternoon. But my body is less round in the middle now and I am okay with that. I can not tell you how much weight I have lost in the past 11 days because quite frankly my scale broke about 5 months ago and I was okay with that. But I do know that I did not get heavier than Jon.
Jon is still unsure how many children he has, but he loves each of them so much. He is gearing up to go elk hunting sometime later this month/week/day. I don’t know but he is itching to go. I am terrified to have him go. I need him around to help me deal with all these little kids, but maybe, just maybe he will be able to bring something home this year.

We love you and pray for you always.

Monica and Jon, Stiles, Marcus, Erica, Hunter, William, and Wyatt.

Wyatt and William

we were getting ready to take Wyatt to his doctor's appointment so that Wyatt could be circumcised and I guess William was feeling his pain and wanted to let him know that it would be all right. So Will crawled over to Wyatt's car seat and laid his head down on Wyatt and just snuggled with him for about 4 or 5 minutes untill it was time to go.
I just think that these Picture are so Precious.

Wyatt Logan Woodin

SO here are some stats and a few pictures


Wyatt Logan Woodin was born on Thursday August 27th 2009 at 10:30 am. He weighed 7lbs 6oz (my biggest baby) and measures 20.5 in long. The delivery was smooth and my easiest delivery and we are both doing fine.

Thanks to all who have helped us get this little guy here!

Love Monica and Jon and our 6 kids!

a new due date!

after visiting with my doctor on monday and after 2 months of having contractions we have scheduled a time at the hospital to squeeze Woodin boy #5 out the door. We are suppose to arrive at the hospital on Thursday morning at a very early 4:00am. But we all know that the best laid plans of mice and men almost always get mangled. So we are looking forward to meeting our new guy on the 27th. So now you know Cody and can do what ever you want to try and beat me to the finish line. I don't care who wins as long as I get some nubane in the process!

Love Monica

JOB SECURITY

Dalley Walley Doodle all the Day! Aug 23 2009

Well this letter will be more than two lines. I have not managed to have my baby this week but I got a large amount of things done. I made my dear baby a baby quilt. And it is cute. We held birthday festivities for Erica and Jon. I cleaned a few thing to have all my work undone faster than a lightning strike. And I mowed one of the yards, and would have mowed more but the belt on the mower came off, and it hurts too much to get down that low to fix it. Stiles, Marcus and Hunter all got a buzz haircut, and Erica’s eyes were found again. I also canned cucumbers or pickled cucumbers if that is how you say the term the right way and we picked peaches and nectarines from the orchard and I made freezer jam from the nectarines. We have just been eating the peaches. The corn is ready and the zucchini is big enough to make boats out of and I have been giving both away as fast as I can find people with unlocked doors.
On Thursday the school had an open house type of activity where you take your kids and find their classrooms and drop off their school supplies and so forth. Well you can bet that it is a mad house and a zoo to boot. And I have got all 5 of my darling children with me and I am doing my best to not lose them but still managed to lose Hunter and Marcus in the craziness. Anyway at one point we were kind of off to the side of a quieter hallway and 3 of the ladies who are on the janitorial staff came by and the one pointed to Hunter and turned to the other two and said “Now see that ladies, that there is job security.” I wonder if she somehow could see straight into my house and see all of the things that Hunter has managed to mess up. But at any rate she definitely had a moment of insight into my dear little guy.
William got a hold of a tube of Crest Kids Sparkle toothpaste. You know the stuff that is kind of an electric blue color and taste like bubble gum. Well now I am not worried about him ingesting the stuff, he is too smart for that but the lid wasn’t on and he held it while crawling around the house. And every time he moved his hand forward with the tube of toothpaste he would then shift his weight onto that hand as he brought the rest of his body up to speed and in the process would squeeze out a pretty good smearing of the electric blue goo. Most of the mess ended up on the used to be a white/cream colored carpet in Erica and Hunters room but with all of the other things that have been added to the carpet such as ink, orange popsicle, soy sauce, Blood, chocolate, Strawberries, pizza, you name it is probably smeared into what is now a rainbow colored carpet. The blue toothpaste has just added to the theme and completed the look! Oh my muses! What would I do with out them.
School starts tomorrow. HOORAY! Stiles and Marcus will be boarding that dearly beloved Yellow school bus at 7:24 am and I am so excited to see them go! Erica will not go until Wednesday. She is bummed that she has to wait a few more days but She is not a morning person and I am sure that in about a month bouncing her out of bed is and getting her on the bus will be a challenge at best.
I will see my doctor on Monday and last time I saw him he said that if I didn’t have the baby by this Monday then we could schedule and induction. I am pretty sure that Jon and I are going to take him up on his offer and evict the current tenet of the baby house. So some time this week you will be made an Uncle again. I still hope Cody beats me but I’m not waiting around for her anymore. My next letter will more than likely give you a statistical report as to the name and numbers that are part of the Woodin Nickel household.
In the mean time Work hard. And know that we are praying for you always and that we are grateful to share you with the people in Mexico. We look forward to having you back and we wonder if your Ewok will have a Spanish accent, and I was wondering what language exactly will you be bearing your testimony in when you report on your mission in sacrament meeting? HA HA!

Love Monica her Parasite infested belly and the rest of the mess makers at the Woodin nickel. Yes Jon is one of those mess makers as well!

Happy Birthday Jon and ERICA!

Jon just loves the homesteader's life.


Jon with Hunter 2 summers ago


Erica 2nd Birthday and Jon's 29th birthday. Jon loved the pink cake!


Jon and Monica at Lake Powell 2 summers ago. I just love that guy!


Erica at Halloween this last year. She love to dress up!

Today marks Erica's 5th birthday and Jon has reached the ripe old age of 32 even though most days he acts a bit more like he is 12. I love that this decade Jon's age will add up to be Erica's age.