I've got nothin' this week Feb 22 2009

Hey here is this weeks letter to my brother!

Dear Dallan
Once again it has come time for me to tell you something Hilarious that has happened to yours truly. I got to be honest I’ve … I’ve got nothing this week. I have spent as much time as I possibly could hiding in bed or huddled up next to the toilet. And magically even though I have spent long amounts of time with my toilet it still needs to be cleaned.
We added a new member to our family this week. No I am not having twins- at least I don’t think I am. My vacuum cleaners have died and have been hauled away. It had been almost a month since any halfhearted vacuuming or any other type of cleaning has occurred at my house. So After some research and a bit of shopping I brought home a dyson vacuum cleaner. It was not cheep but I managed to get it for a fairly good deal because Sears was having their Presidents day sale and Then I had a coupon for $25 bucks off. So the $400.00 price tag was drug down to $334.00 including tax. Yes I will take a bow for once again successfully spending Jon’s hard earned money! Now some people suffer something called buyers remorse. Not this lady! I do not feel one drop of guilt for any one of those red cents I spent. THAT VACUUM REALLY SUCKS! I am jazzed and my house has almost gotten clean. And then Hunter woke up! Well better luck next time.
Jon and I have the joined the ranks of COSTCO card holders. It seams crazy to give the store money just so you can shop in their store and spend more money. Jon ranted and raved about how stupid people really were and who would fall for such a gimmick. And when I really questioned him on it he said “The whole idea is genius, I wish I were that guy who thought of it.” So since then we have been shopping and buying in bulk. The sample tables are Jons favorite part and the kids stay in tow so as to get the next treat.
Jon has been industrious and built a desk for his office so that I might have the folding tables back. (I threaten him with going to the store and buying some new tables so I could have some) The desk has turned out beautiful and well over budget. Jon had no idea how expensive Formica is or that it only comes in certain sized sheets. We built the desk just half an inch too big for the smaller sheets. We had to buy a big sheet and jigsaw things around. All in all it was a good learning experience. Jon and I had a heck of a time picking out the Formica. We would get all settled on a color and then he would change his mind. He kept on calling me back asking me to pick out something different. OVER AND OVER AND OVER. I finally asked him what he was looking for he said “I’m not sure, just pick out something I will like.” So I did. And he hemmed and hawed about it and kept on asking for some thing different and I finally told him that I had picked it out and I would not look at any more color chips. If he hated it he could blame me all of our lives or. He could pick out something and then blame himself. He went with the color I choose and He is falling in love with it. Every time he comes out of his office he is smiling and says “Oh I like that desk.” “Oh that desk is growing on me.” See I am the master. Now if he will just back off and let me paint the Kitchen the way I want instead of insisting I listen to his opinion we might eventually get that project done.
So lets see we got a vacuum this week and Jon finished building his desk. Hunter made unbelievable messes. The Laundry is backed up and to the ceiling. Jon sold the horse we got for free for $150.00 to some guy in Burley. The school is still letting my boys attend. Jon stays busy with his calling. And I have my first Doctors appointment on Tuesday morning. The same time that Crystal has her appointment- go figure. Anyway William is crying so I had better go see what he needs.

We love you
Monica, Jon and KIDS to the 6th power

Valentine Letter to Dallan FEB 17 2009

Hey Dallan!!!! FEB 17 2009
I hope you had an excellent Valentines Day! I spent the middle part of the day at LeAnns Funeral and that was such a perfect funeral for that awesome lady. The horses bringing her body into the cemetery at the end was so perfect. Seeing her horse without anybody on it and all covered with flowers was a real tear jerker though. After the funeral I busted home and then Jon and I did our meetings in connection with our stake conference. They were good meetings and Jon got himself in trouble. In the priesthood session of the conference they were in classroom type settings and They were discussing Parables. And the one about the lost coin and how a woman had lost one of her 10 coins and then cleaned the house until she found it. And the question was asked how did the coin get lost. And Jon of course being the smart aleck he is said. “Well, you gave the coin to a Woman! That is your first mistake!” The entire class was of course doubled over in laughter and then President Southwick (who is a member of our ward) who we teaching the class said “Brother Woodin would you please stand” And Jon did so, and then Pres. Southwick said “ Brethren here before you is the loneliest Man in our Stake this Valentines Day.” Jon is very scared because The members of the stake presidency know Jon very well and love to rub shoulders with him. I don’t think they could call him to anything more pressing than elders Quorum president right now. And Our Bishop is doing a fine Job!
It snowed last night, well it is actually still snowing, Jon is out plowing the estate and I am not sure who is winning Jon or the snow storm. Our Boys were very excited to put on all their snow gear this morning as they headed off for school and were questioning weather or not I was sure if it was a snow day or not. I assured them that there was not enough wind for them to call school but if it got windy tonight they might not have school tomorrow, which is a possibility. They seemed hearted by that idea, as I kicked them out into the snowstorm to catch the bus.
William has begun assuming the position and is often up on all fours he has tried a few forward motion maneuvers but they keep on planting him on his nose. But he is determined to get more mobile than his current status. In the mean time his nose is a snot volcano. And it is hazardous to pick him up on the sure chance of being slimed.
Hunter turned 2 this week and has finally decided that his extreme stubborn attitude about not trying to talk in the least is being softened. He is finally playing the point to your body parts game and today even made “P” sounds when I was putting on and naming his pants. Halleluiah !!! Just last week He would only copy nonsense sounds and would not even try making sounds that were associated with words. He would stop playing the game if you said Kitty or Dog or jump or anything but if you said GRRR or lalalala or blah he was right there along with you. Silly boy! He continues to make major messes, just last night I stuck him in the tub and when I returned he was swimming with all of the Kleenex’s from the Kleenex box and the box itself. Such a naughty boy!
Erica asks me every day since Hunters birthday if today is her birthday. She is very concerned that we might miss it. I assure her that her birthday is not until it is so hot outside we don’t want to sleep with any blankets and the grass is all green and we have gone camping a few times. Still she is all the time telling me what she wants for her birthday. And has even put in orders for when she turns 6!
Last Monday for FHE we met up with some other friends and took the whole family roller skating. It was a good time for Stiles, he picked it up pretty quick, but it was a bit beyond Marcus. Well we were pushing Hunter and William in the strollers and I asked Marcus if he would like to ride in the stroller. He immediately declined and told me that the other kids would laugh at him! I pushed him into the stroller and pushed him around the rink and showed him that he was going much faster than all those other kids and they probably wish they could have a ride themselves. It was a good deal and he took several rides. Erica didn’t do too hot skating either but she was much more entertained while pretending to play the arcade games. Jon was acting like he was 12 and I had to keep on telling him to settle down or else they were going to throw him and the other Dads there with us out! They had a blest teasing the kids and just being kids themselves.
Well Dallan I am sure that there about a million other things I could tell you about but I can’t remember them right now. So I will just let you know that I am so proud of my little brother. You are such a great example to all my kids and to Jon and I. We pray for you always. Your work is so important so get out there and get back to it. I’ll go clean up the mess Hunter has made while I have been writing this… Do I smell smoke? -YEP it is the toaster- Little monster!!!!!!

Love you Much , Monica And the rest of the Woodin Nickels

Picture tag to the third

I loved the 4th picture in everyones 4 folder so I was wondering what was the 3rd picture in the 3rd folder. Here it is. This is Hunter in our front yard with 1 of about 4 snowmen that were made this october snow day. Note how green the grass is under the snow!

IF you have checked this post out consider yourself tagged to the third!

Happy 2nd Birthday Hunter!

Hunter is 2 years old today! He is hard at work making messes and refusing to talk. I thought I would post some pictures of him. Enjoy!


Don't know why This one came up twice. Maybe because he is 2

Our trip to Maui

Sorry no pictures yet this is the letter to my brother if you want to see a few pictures check out Scott and Raelyn's blog.
Dallan,
Well I thought it was just plain rude of Mom and Dad to entitle their last email Belinda houseboat. It got me all excited even though I know that there is no way in the entire world I will be able to go. It was just plain mean. anyway We are back from Paradise. So I thought I would tell you all a bit about it.
On Thursday we boarded a plane headed west and flew over the big blue wet thing. Then we descended on the island of Maui. IT was so awesome to get off of the plane, which was a very cold flight by the way, into warm humid air. Jon’s cousin Scott and his wife Raylyn went on this trip with us and we had an absolute ball with them. We rented a Jeep and found out very soon that it was a stupid idea because Two of us always had to climb into the back seat. And there is like zero cargo space. And you can’t really lock up a jeep. We kept on asking who’s stupid idea was it to get a jeep anyway. (we had originally reserved a 4 door sedan but the Jeeps in the rental parking lot looked like they could be so much fun with the top down we asked if we could “upgrade” for the same cost of the sedan. They let us and then laughed up their sleeved at our supposed “upgrade”
The next day we rented Harley’s you know the motorbikes. The guy was going out of business and had to turn everything back to the bank on Sunday. His employee who ran the store gave us an awesome price and was only doing cash deals. WE are pretty sure he was just pocketing the cash, but we didn’t care. Because we were on Bikes we were able to see parts of the island that other tourists are not allowed to see because you are not allowed to take your rental cars on those roads because they are way to narrow. If two cars came head to head one would have to back up for at least half a mile minimum to a very narrow turn out. On bikes it was no big deal. But it was a little nerve racking taking the turns on those cliffs. We hiked into a beautiful waterfall through some beautiful jungle and a bamboo forest. The trail was all marked up with no trespassing signs and the like but once we hiked in a little ways there was a welcoming bureau of land management sign stating this land was for the use of all. The no trespassing sign was to keep the tourists out and so that nobody can sue anybody. It was like that at every place we stopped. Anyway the water fall was a two tiered waterfall with pools at the bottom of each tier. We hiked up to the top pool through the waterfall- yes we got wet. And jumped even further into the water and took pictures but the water was pretty cold and it was a bit cloudy so no sun to warm us up. The climb down was a bit treacherous but nobody got hurt to bad. I fell down for no apparent reason, on flat ground! We also had our first whale sightings while stopping along our drive to view the view. I saw then first them Raylyn saw them also. It took quite a while for Jon and Scott to see them. Ray and I were sure the guys were blind, or maybe just teasing us that they couldn’t see them. But when they did see them they got all excited and jumped around like Ray and I were when they did finally spot them.
We road the bikes to a place called turtle cove. Well actually we found out later that Turtle cove was one beach down but we were already there and putting on our snorkel gear and headed out anyway. And we saw the biggest sea turtle ever! It was easily as big as Erica! And we followed him for a while and let me tell you what Disney got it so right in Finding Nemo. They are so laid back you could almost swear that turtle was saying “Dude! Mr. Turtle is my father!” I got caught on the reef right after we saw the turtle and tore my suit trying to get unstuck. Luckily it was just the skirt on my suit and I was prepared with a second suit for the rest of the trip.
We watched some surfers and did some shopping. But one of the coolest things we did was our whale watch! We got on a little rubber 15 passenger raft thing and headed out to see the whales. It was cool to see them so much closer than we could from the shore. But the best was our captain cut the motor and WE had two whales come over and check us out. The one came up for air right at the front of our boat and the other one went under the nose of our boat. It made you have a deep appreciation for how big they are when they are that close. And they are 3 times the size of your boat! Later in our whale watch I spotted some spinner dolphins and we chased them around a bit. They best was when all of the sudden the fish in the water started jumping out of the water trying to get away from the dolphins. We had one skipping along the top of the water right towards the nose of the boat so high and so fast we thought he might jump right into the boat but of course he didn’t but we all turned towards the back of the boat where the fish skipped out of the water again and then we saw the dolphin jump up and catch the fish mid air. IT was cool! WE did some more snorkeling while on our whale watch trip and saw lots more turtles. In fact our anchor line had a turtle pinned down. And the first mate on our boat had to jump in and untangle the turtle. It was an eventful trip.
We did the road to Hana one day and If you ever see a t-shirt with the words “I survived the road to Hana” you should ask them if they got sick and threw up. The road was dug out of the side of the mountain by slaves. It had over 600 turns 50+ one lane bridges. Is about 58 miles long and takes 3 hours to drive. The way is full of magnificent waterfalls and the day we drove it, it was raining cats and dogs. So the waterfalls were awesome! I was so car sick and morning sick that day. But it was awesome to see such a beautiful place. At the end of the road we hiked down to a red sand beach the view was amazing. There are two rows of rocks to break the waves, and the spray when the water hit’s the rocks is breathtaking. But the water right by the sand is really very calm because the rocks block most of the waves. The waves crashing in were pretty good sized because of the rain storm. We really enjoyed our time on this beach. It made the winding drive so worth it. The drive back was long and painful. But we survived the road to Hana.
The Resort we stayed at was very nice we didn’t spend much time there. We were too busy playing. But the last day we discovered the waterslide! Now you want to see a bunch of grown ups acting like they are 10 years old that was us. We even got the life guard to time how fast we were on our slides down the tube. Jon and I were the fastest sliders But Scott always had the biggest splash.
We did not want to get back on the plane and leave the warm weather for the single digits that were sure to meet us when we returned to SLC but all too soon we were on a plane and touching down in SLC. We are happy to be with our kids again and glad that they are safe and nobody who watched them hates us. I think Mom and Will had a bit of a run in but give the guy a break he cut a tooth!
Today we are celebrating Hunters 2nd birthday. He still won’t talk. And keeps looking at us funny when we tell him happy birthday! He kind of hangs his head like he might be in trouble. And He probably should be.
The Church is true. I am proud of you! Keep up the good work and we will see you in a year!

Love Monica, Jon, Stiles, Marcus, Erica, The birthday boy, William, and Mystery baby #6

a clean floor....

So after being gone for a week I got right back to work and mopped my 4 acre kitchen floor today. I even moved the table and chairs. Well as I was posting my last post about the picture tag. Hunter, dear old Hunter decided to empty out the flour bucket all over the kitchen as you can see. He managed to get quite a lot in the hall and on the floor in his bedroom. So I vacuumed that up and came to finnish my post to be informed that now Hunter has spilled Pop all over the floor in his bedroom. And sure enough he had. He was hiding in the closet when I found him. Poor guy two rounds of spankings in about 8 minutes worth of time. Now he is down for a nap! And yes those are real tears!

Picture tag

So the tag is you post your 4th picture in your 4th folder on your computer. And then tell something about the picture.





This is Hunter when he is about 7 months old. I decided to do a photo shoot with him so I dressed him up and threw a sheet up over the piano and snapped away. He is kinda cute isn't he?
I tag Camille, Crystal, Cody, and Heather.

Laura Noall Steel

My cousin Laura Past away Feb 1 2009 from compications associated with lupis. She was 30 years old and left behind a husband of 4.5 years and two little boys. Her Sister asked for some memories of Laura so they could be compiled. I hope no one minds me sharing my memories of my dear cousin.

My Memories of Laura Noall Steel
By, Monica Woodin (cousin)
(our mothers are sisters)

Laura was almost exactly one year older than me. My birthday is May 10th hers was the 12th. Her birthday is one of the few birthdays that I always remember every year when it comes around. Laura always impressed me with her unabated fears. She never seemed to be shy about anything. And she always seemed to try to please those around her. She loved whatever she was doing and talked so passionately about whatever it was she doing it made you want to get on board and do it too. I often felt jealous about all the adventures she seemed to be having.
I was so excited when she Married Collin, because he was a good Idaho boy from Gooding. And I knew they don’t make husbands better than that. In fact their wedding reception in Gooding is one of my most favorite memories of Laura. At that time my husband was being deployed to Iraq, and even though you would think we would rather be doing other things than spend the afternoon at a wedding reception it was one of my favorite days leading up to his departure. I was so happy for Laura.
Most of my memories involving Laura also involve Laura’s sisters Libbie, and Sarah, as well as our two cousins who are about the same age. Becca, and Amy. Because I grew up in Idaho and Laura lived in Utah It was only a few times a year we would get together and play. And Play we did. My favorite trips were the desert trip and how our parents must have hated us as we sang made up songs at the top of our lungs and ran unrulely through the parks. One of my best memories of those trips was when we were traveling to “the secret camping spot” and all of us girls were together in the back of a van. And we imagined up the craziest things, one of which we were all very sophisticated people having a tea party. Don’t know why but it has always stuck in my brain.
When Joanna, Laura’s baby sister, was born was when I saw Laura the most unnerved in my life. We were all a little freaked out about the whole situation. When Aunt Carols water broke while they were visiting us in Idaho and they asked us to go get Grandpa and Uncle Brooke, we ran barefoot across the lava rock and stickers and sagebrush to tell them they were needed at the house right then. My feet sure hurt later but I don’t think Laura winced even once.
Other fond memories involve hours in the pool being sun burnt to a crisp while our hair turned green. And then at night having our moms threaten us with our lives if we didn’t quite down and go to sleep. ( we broke a few light fixtures ) And when we got older the many games of Cosmic Encounter and Scotland Yard that would last for hours or sometimes minutes.
I loved watching the fireworks in SLC from grandma’s backyard on the 4th of July, and watching the parade just down the street. We almost always managed to pick a spot to sit and watch the parade that was infested with ants and then we were sorry for it later. We would ride the rides at the park and make ourselves sick and worn out. I think our mom’s loved that part.
There were many fun memories at Grandma’s house in Salt Lake. Hide and go seek. Climbing the walls-literally. And taking Zues, Aunt Debbie’s dog, for a walk around the block. Not to mention playing in Grandpa’s bus. (which of course we were not suppose to do.)
The times when we were in public places like the museum or the Zoo or even the airport and we would always find a way to make our parents wish they didn’t know us, everything from getting stuck in the elevator, to making general nuisances of ourselves on the moving walkways and escalators.
When ever these fun filled visits came to a close I was always so very sad to see my dear cousins go and our farewells, we would try to drag it out as long as we could. Laura’s visit here was far to short and I will miss her dearly. We had a fun filled visit with her and I can hardly wait to see her and Grandma again. Perhaps she will be singing some crazy song like we used to as we hiked through the Utah Desert. In any case I’m glad she was able to drag out her stay as long as she could.

Love you so much Laura!

Love the original Funky Dude. Monica.