Our Handful of Children

Hunter, William, and Wyatt

Saturday, August 29, 2009

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!





Tuesday, August 25, 2009

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

Sunday, August 23, 2009

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!

Thursday, August 20, 2009

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.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

3 down, 3 to go

Dallan,, and all you other peoples Aug 16th 2009

Today I am officially 3 weeks from my due date. So now I can have the baby any time with out any extra worries. (besides the one that it will come out a monkey). So I got up and got myself and the kids dressed and went to church. Everyone was so concerned that I was up and about and wasn’t I suppose to be in bed? I explained that for the last three weeks my goal was to keep the baby in and now my goal for the next three weeks would be to get the baby out! Many of my ward members acted like I should have one of the doctors in our ward following me about so as to able to catch the little guy. I think that as my luck runs we will now experience the longest 3 weeks of my life as we count down to labor day. Jon is still hoping for Thursday so as to have Two children born on his birthday. Since Kellen has got one on his birthday, Jon is hoping to up the stakes. Mom hopes to spend this week at home and would like me to wait until next week and not the week after because then she would be at Powell and no help to me. I am okay with any minute and if I have to wait for 3 more weeks I wouldn’t mind waiting 3 more days after that so that my baby’s birthday would be 09/09/09. I just hope that by the time this guy shows up Jon and I might be able to come up with a name.
This week has been quiet. Crystal had her little Mason on Kellens birthday and in so doing stole my maid. Jons Mom was available to help and she took the kids to her house for the day for Wed Thurs and Friday. The Bannock county fair was going on this week and so She hauled the kids up to the fair everyday and let the activities there burn up their energy. When I got them back home at night they were generally tired and ready to go to bed! So I spent most of my days with me feet up doing nothing ! Which was my assignment.
Many things in my garden are ready. Tomatoes are turning red and the Pumpkins are getting as big as your head. The Zucchini are out of control and it is time to lock your doors at church! The Corn will start being ready the end of the week and I need to pick the nectarines off of the trees tomorrow. Some of my peaches are ready too. We planted some giant sunflowers this year. Stiles’s plant is the first one to bloom and it is neat to see such a HUGE flower come from those small seeds. The other ones we planted are just starting to bloom. I have always wanted to grow giant sunflowers and I am sure to make it part of my garden every year. They are such a cool thing to grow.
On Friday night Jon on a whim decided to set up the tent and sleep outside in the yard with the kids. Jon’s Dad, Fred, came over and camped out with the kids, as well. Jon bellyached the next day about being stiff and sore and I told him it was his own fault for not even taking the time to blowup the air mattress. I’m sure that if he decided to sleep on the rocky sloped mountainside in pursuit of an elk, that he would not complain about aches and pains nearly so much. He is getting old his birthday is this week.
I am sorry that this letter is not very entertaining. Since my kids were not here to be my muse for most of the week I am kind of out of good writing material. Maybe next week I’ll have a good story. Or maybe I will be in bed with a new baby and too tired to write much more that two lines. You can hope for a good long story, I am hoping for the two line bit.

Love Monica and her “crazy monkeys” AHHHHHHHHH (how do you say that in Spanish?)

Friday, August 14, 2009

Up and at 'em

Today is the last day I will be "taking it easy" On Sunday I am offically 3 weeks from my due date and can have my dear baby boy any day from here on out and expect for his little body to be devloped enough that the use of an NICU unit would not be needed. I would just like to thank every one who has worked hard to help me stay pregnant the last 3 weeks and hope you will not be offended if my body decides to wait for labor day weekend after all to add this guy to the woodin ranks. Thank You again for all of the work, love, service and prayers in our behalf.

Monica and baby #6 ( we still can't decided on a name! )

Sunday, August 9, 2009

"an eviction notice can and will be given"

The tenants will soon be evicted . So yes Dallan, the rent is due on three different baby houses and the landlords are threatening their tenants with eviction. No word yet as to who will be moving first into a bigger housing situation but the cribs are in the ready and the clothes have been dug out from underneath the stairs. Crystal is hoping that the eviction notice on her property will be delivered today and then she won’t have to worry about getting Kellan a birthday present today. But she should be aware that Idaho Law states that you have to give a 3 day eviction notice, when connected to non payment of rent moneys. Same day Eviction Notices can only be given when the tenants break the Law or YOUR water breaks. I am not up to snuff on Florida rental agreements. But my contract lets my tenants pay way late in the month but are charged a LARGE fee, such as the one(s) I am expecting from the hospital, before an eviction notice can be given. So there you have had an update on the real estate ventures of your soon to been nephews and niece.

In other news William is adding a new skill to his resume it not only lists him as a relocation engineer but he is a toilet water sanitation evaluation manager, (AKA likes to play in the toilet) And he is honing his skills as to being a Hygienic Bathroom tissue preparer. (AKA likes to spin the TP on the roll until it has all unwound itself into a big pile on the floor.) this Skill is usually followed with the Bachelors degree in Hygienic Bathroom tissue measurements assistant. (AKA grab one end of the roll and start running through the house and see how far you can get before A) the paper breaks, B) the roll runs out, c) Mommy catches you) A parallel degree that he has considered and done some training is in Facial Tissue Accounting and Control. (AKA pull every Kleenex out of the freshly opened package to make sure there are indeed 250 tissues in a box.) There has been some extra curricular study in Crying for no apparent reason ( a political career that I am advising against.) and throwing things on the ground to see if somebody will pick them up. (a bit more scientific research type of job, usually used when they study rats and monkeys and sometimes a dog named Pavlov.) All in all we are proud of his accomplishment and are glad to add them to his resume. When he becomes a true Sanitation engineer, and can pee into the toilet and only hit the water, then we will hold a celebratory graduation party for the little guy. (We are still waiting to hold that party for my two oldest boys.)

Erica is counting down the days to her birthday party. She wants a pink cake. And informs me that her Dad wants a blue one because he is a boy. Her list of items she would like for the occasion is fairly endless and quite girly. Dress-ups, A Barbie, Doll clothes, and a Pony. When she told Jon that she wanted a Pony for her birthday I could see the wheels in his head spinning on how to acquire a birthday pony for his princess daughter, complete with a saddle and riding boots. When I pointed out that she was asking for a toy pony and not one she could actually ride around the Woodin nickel you could see his big ideas deflate out of his head and Erica giggled that of Course she just wanted a toy “Not a REAL pony that Poops!” Cleaning out the barn has given my children new vision.

Marcus’s nose has turned many colors and none of them have been too pretty. In the mean time his nose has been bumped a few times this week and caused a considerable amount of pain. Once Stiles and he were playing a game outside and Stiles threw a blanket over Marcus head so that he couldn’t see and then Marcus ran into a tree! (My children are BRILLIANT!) But Marcus has had other ailments this week. The same day he ran into a tree he was bit on the ear by a black and yellow flying insect (I’m guessing a wasp) I don’t know for sure who the attacker was, I did not see the attack. However I did not doubt that injustice had been done as I could see that his ear was very red and irritated. So as to not have a son with a swollen nose and cauliflower ear I administered some benadryll to prevent any swelling and then enjoyed that He slept the rest of the day and could not be in harms way again. Or come inside crying because he was hurt…again.

Hunter continues to try and control me. He refuses to let Mom change his diaper or help him get dressed. When she has tried it sounds as if they are in some sort of an epic fist fight what with howling and screaming and such, Hunter almost drowns out Moms cries. (HEE HEE). So since I am not suppose to lift anything it had become his responsibility to climb up on the changing table and lay down. When offending odors are permeating the air around him and I ask if he needs a diaper change and tell him to go get on the table he will tease and run away. Then Mom will ask if she can help change his diaper and he immediately comes and gets my hand and walks me to the table so as to have his mom pamper his butt. Grandmas can be scary I guess. And I don’t think Mom minds me changing the guy. After all she is doing everything else around the house for me.


Stiles is anxious for School to start and I can not wait for that yellow bus to come and get him. He is being a real sport letting grandma have his room and being asked to take on and accomplish more things than normal but he needs a bit more structure to his everyday than I can provide right now. There is much crying and gnashing of teeth. I think I am counting down the minutes to the first day of school while he is only counting down the hours.

Jon is such a sweetheart. He does not know weather he should be inside the house helping me, or outside the house doing all of the yard work I usually do, or just away from the house totally and working and doing his jobs. I can’t tell him what the best answer is so in the end by the end of the day he is pretty stressed out. I don’t know if this experience is opening his eyes to how much work I am doing around here. But he told me that I couldn’t die any time soon because there would be no way he could keep up, and no sane woman who would want to take on that much work! Then he looked at Mom and dubbed her insane for coming and helping us with all of the work.

It is difficult for me to be humble enough to just let those people around me serve me and my family. I think I am learning some valuable lessons and I am sure the Lord is blessing those people who selflessly serve us, with blessings that they need. Work hard and remember that the church is true. We love you and pray for you always

Love Monica and those insane members of the Woodin Nickel Ranch.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Marcus takes center stage

Marcus is to provide today’s entertainment!

In the goat pasture there exists a cute little pond. Which fills up with water when there is water in the ditch. It is surrounded by trees and the stumps of trees that have been cut down in years past. It is generally a peaceful place where the imagination can easily run wild. My children on a large number of occasions have been told that they are not to play IN the pond. Mostly because they tend to venture into the water while wearing their shoes. And we are a little bit frightened about Hunter going in and getting himself into trouble. Actually we are a LOT frightened by that possibility, but the pond is not deep. Our kids have of course been disobedient on a number of occasions and have lost privileges and been sent to bed early more than once for breaking this rule. ( I can not say that I blame them for playing in the pond- if I were a kid I know I would!) Anyway about 2 weeks ago my engineering children decided to build a bridge across the pond and since they are not well educated to proper building techniques we wound up will a big pile of boards and pieces of wood in a big pile in the middle of the pond. Jon and I both rolled our eyes when we saw what they had done, gave a few non-committal threats to our kids and proceeded to ignore the mess in the pond.
Yesterday morning Stiles, Marcus, and Hunter found themselves outside. Mom and I were fine with the fact that they were not inside. Boys need to go outside and play on a regular basis. Now of course the beautiful green grass and paved driveways could not hold their attention for very long and they found themselves playing in the pasture with the goats. And soon the lure of the shade from the trees and the undisturbed water was too much of a temptation for them. They removed their socks and shoes of course, They had learned their lessons about getting their shoes wet, and began to imagine and play in conjunction with the pond. I can only guess what the game really was. After piecing together their story this is what I think happened. Marcus was holding his stick horse-weather he was riding or leading the horse is not important. And decided to cross the poorly engineered bridge. Somewhere along the way he fell. Now because of the horse in his hands he did not put his hands out to catch himself and this is were the story starts to become more interesting. Marcus’s fall was stopped short when he hit he nose against a - tree stump! And then he says his head hit the ground. Apparently there was quite a lot of blood and anxious to not be in trouble for playing where they shouldn’t Stiles stepped into help. Apparently Stiles ran to the house and gathered up a large number of Kleenex and ran them out to his hurt brother. Stiles said that when he got back outside that “Oh man, there was a lot of blood all over Marcus!” Stiles proceeded to clean up his brother and get rid of the evidence, but Eventually Marcus decided that Stiles care was not cutting it and headed to the house. When Marcus opened the door I could tell from his cries that he was definitely in need of some help. As he made his way up the stairs to my bedroom and I saw my boy who’s hands were covered in blood- his face was for the most part cleaned off thanks to Stiles efforts but the rest of him was soaking wet and muddy. But the most apparently wrong thing was that his nose was already swelling and beginning to turn a black and blue shade. Upon first questions I was under the impression that he had fallen out of a tree and hit his face on a stump and then hit the water. It was not too far fetched of an idea, they are always climbing in those trees, and he was sobbing quite uncontrollably it was hard to get all of the words. I had him strip off his soaking wet clothes, because he was also shivering uncontrollably and I was nervous that he might go into shock for his injuries and I got him some dry clothes and tucked him into my bed with the heating pad under him, after we had washed off the majority of the rest of the blood. In those few minutes I could tell that his nose was causing quite a bit of pain and it was looking like the possibility of it being broken was pretty good. I had sent mom out to drag in my other boys and when she returned I asked her to look Marcus over and give me her opinion. She took one good long look at Marcus and agreed with me that it looked like Marcus nose was broken. But that the rest of him looked okay, but we should take him to a doctor and get him checked out. Well since I am suppose to be down in bed, things got a little complicated. Marcus became hysterical about seeing a doctor, he did not want to “get shot” ( I have a pretty hefty bruise on my arm where I was given shots of medicine to stop my labor and I think he was associating the two). So I called my neighbor and asked if she would come watch the kids while mom and I ran Marcus up to the Doctor. She was there about as fast as a woman can be and Mom, Marcus and I set off to get some medical expertise. After some x-rays the diagnoses was “unbroken” which was a big relief to me and to Marcus and now he simply has a nose swollen to twice it’s size and two partially black eyes.
The moral of the Story is that when Jon returned home from work, hours later, that afternoon he chided Mom and I for getting all panicked and running him to a doctor when “HE” could “CLEARLY” see that Marcus’s nose was not broken. “yeah right!”

Monday, August 3, 2009

I wanted an easy job

Dallan, and other family and a few friends. Aug 3 2009
I have been sending updates as to the current situation. Mom is now my live in maid and I sit in my bed all day long and eat bonbons trying to stay pregnant for at least one more week. I do not feel as if I need to go into any further details on the subject other than my body is sick and tired of being pregnant and keeps on trying to squeeze the little guy out the exit door.

In the mean time my neighbors have been beside themselves trying to figure out how to help me and keep on dropping off plates of yummy food. One neighbor even brought homemade ice cream and choke cherry syrup to go with it. Erica proclaimed that if you eat that choke cherry syrup then you would choke. She also says very long and detailed prayers and asked a special blessing on the “goats milk that it would taste like cows milk.”

Stiles and Marcus have been loaded down with extra chores to help Jon keep up the extra stuff that I can’t help him with. Nothing hard but if you ask them what their names are they will start whining and say “OH this jobs too hard, we wanted an easy job!” They are not very enthusiastic about the extra work.

Hunter doesn’t know weather having grandma here is good or not. First of all she makes him eat his food at meal time- that one has always been hard for him. But then she will hand out a cookie when you least expect it. Mom is having a hard time keeping up with that little guy of mine.

William is so excited that I just stay put on the couch or on my bed. He is tickled that I don’t get up and leave him after about 10 minutes. He has been my neglected child. And now he is getting a chance to have some quality time with his mom before he gets kicked one notch higher in the totem pole. I don’t try to neglect him but as the saying goes the wheel that squeaks loudest gets the grease. So I guess he doesn’t squeak too much but some how he usually ends up kinda greasy and needs a bath. Not sure how that saying works with this situation- Oh Well.

I’ve typed long enough and need to go lay down again. Love you tons Dallan, And yes all you other people as well. But I pray for Dallan! So the rest of you just get a general blessing every so often.

Love Monica and the Woodin Nickels and her contracting uterus parasite.

Saturday, August 1, 2009

labor and delivery

Pregnancy update

WE tried to have a baby in July so that mom would not have an additional august birthday to complain about but thank goodness for modern medicine we are still pregnant. I started having hard regular contractions about 2pm yesterday and I made Jon take me to the hospital when I timed them at 7 minutes apart. By the time we were all hooked up to monitors and the like my contractions were coming every 4 to 5 minutes and were fairly strong. I wasn’t dilating though so after the resident doctor tested my pee and stuff and talked to my regular doctor the orders were to try and stop my labor and keep me pregnant for a few more days. So they gave me a shot- can’t remember what it was called but they had to give me three doses to quite down my over anxious uterus. The medicine they gave me makes the heart rate go way high and makes you really shaky. They compare it to having an anxiety attack. When I got home Stiles was asking me why I was shaking so bad. I must have been shaking more than I thought. Anyway my Doctor upped my dose of the medicine I have been taking since last Saturday, and it seems to be keeping the contractions way down which is fine with me. My Mom is here helping me and my neighbors and the Relief Society are beside themselves trying to find things to do to help me, they are bringing me meals, taking my kids, cleaning the floors, and even pulling weeds in my garden. We feel truly blessed to have this opportunity to let others serve us. We are so grateful for the skilled doctor and nurses and their knowledge of medicines. In the mean time I have to have tease my Sister Crystal, who is due this next weekend with her baby, that the race is on. And I truly hope she wins!

Thank you for your love and concern and prayers.