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.