Jon and Monica Woodin

Water on the Brain

2011-05-30T16:42:00.001-06:00

May 30 2011. Memorial Day.
“It’s Water on the Brain that leads a Man to Boating” Yes, Jon is suffering from Water on the Brain and in a wild turn of events we are now the owners of an 1987 19’ Bayliner inboard/outboard ski boat. We told Jon’s cousin we did not want to buy it twice before we gave in and said wait a minute we DO WANT to buy it we just need to figure out of we SHOULD. Stiles turns 10 next Sunday and will be of legal Spotting age…that was the clincher for the deal. The Kids had not a clue that a boat was even a possibility and I was not sure that Jon would go ahead and get it in the end after all but when He pulled into the drive with it behind the truck I am not sure his grin could get any bigger. Then Jon called all of the kids out to see it and Jon’s grin did get bigger. It was like Christmas morning times ten. Now we have a hung Jury. The Vote is now 50 50 between a Yellowstone trip and the Lake Powell trip. Two Months ago it was a unanimous Yellowstone trip. But after we heard some plans for a “slide” and a few other factors namely Jon would have his own boat the votes have done a wild swing and we are recalculating perhaps a “Day Trip” to Yellowstone instead and a bunch of fun at Powell seem like a better plan for me.
Well So far the weather for the weekend has been like the rest of the weather this past May. Cold, Windy, Rainy, and Cold. We really didn’t expect too much different. But We did manage to make Saturday quite memorable of course with our afore mentioned addition to the family. (THE BOAT SILLY no I am not expecting!!!!) We decided very last minute to haul the boat out to the American Falls reservoir and meet up With Jason and Nanette Who were doing the crazy camping thing out on the Aberdeen side of the lake. Now remember that with my 6 brothers there has been almost NO occasion for me to drive the boat and Jon has no idea about the whole process either. HE did Awesome by the way. But to make a few fun laughs at our expense and to not poke fingers at anybody but ourselves let me tell you a very funny story about our own stupidity.
Stiles want’s to kneeboard right off the bat. A friend of ours lent us a pile of wetsuits and a few toys for us to use our first time out and she Laughed as she drove away and called us crazy! So Stiles in his excitement has put on a wet suit. And it is I think a 2XL. In the mean time about every little kid has jumped into the boat except William Wyatt and the Twins. So Jon has got 8 little kids and His Mother wants to go and take pictures of Stiles taking a turn. Well I kept on thinking that Jason would get in the boat with Jon and all of that mess and so I decided that it would be better to stay on the shore and tag team with Nanette to keep our 4 little boys away from the water. Now keep in mind we are not at a nice dock or sandy beach, we are on rugged lava rock cliff like rocks. Well the next thing I know Jason has pushed Jon off and the only other adult in the boat is Grandma who hasn’t a clue in the world how to help Jon get Stiles out behind the boat. Now this is where the story gets pretty good. I realize that Stiles needs to change into a smaller wet suit and he insists he can not because He is not wearing anything underneath the current wetsuit. But his swim trunks were on board so Jon has to help him do a quick wardrobe change into Jons size XL, Still way too big, but by this time I am kind of done yelling out orders to Jon on the boat who is yelling back to me, asking me why in the world I was not in the boat helping him out, after all, of all adults present I am the most nautically experienced and that is not saying much. So now they get the rope and it is in a tangled mess and they are slowly drifting away. So Jon and Grandma start working on untangling this rope inside the boat with 8 wiggly little children. And Jon and his mother are not precisely yelling at each other but their voices and words were carried to the shore and they were very frustrated. So soon after they get the rope untangled they have dropped Stiles in the drink and He has a hold of the rope and Jon starts to head out and it doesn’t take too long to realize that the rope had not been properly secured up through and around the cleat, it had only been looped over and of course had come off and now Jon needed to circle the boat and go get Stiles again and fish the rope out of the water and hook it on again. I will not quote the words that came floating to shore at this time an even though they were appropriate for children’s ears I’m not sure we want to really remember the exact wording. So Eventually Stiles is able to give the “hit it” cue and they are off and the rope is about twice the length it should be. Of course I notice this but do not try to call out any words of wisdom from the shore lest my Husband should indeed lose his temper and colorful language should appear. Well they made it back and nobody got hurt but I did get in the boat and we had a few quick boating 101 lessons and threw Mckinley and Jason out in the water behind the boat. We would have got Tessa and Marcus out on a tube ride but the tube was missing the right plug and could not be used. In the end we ended up getting Jason’s anchor stuck, and getting rained on very hard while out on the water. Jon said he felt like his face got froze off trying to get us back to the camp. And we discovered that the boating thing is definitely Williams ‘Thing’. Getting the boat back on the Trailer was another great story but I won’t bore you with the details I just want all of my brothers to know That I hooked up the trailer all by myself and backed it down the ramp, all by myself, and it was lined up straight! Next time out should be better and we will get better with practice I am sure.
In other news Wyatt is teething! 2 year old molars should be outlawed, they hurt and my baby is miserable. Stiles got his Giant Pumpkin plants in the ground today. We are still patiently waiting on the rest of the greenhouse plants until there is more than 2 days of consecutive sunshine and no more overnight freeze warnings. I think On Wednesday we might get them out. WE have two more days of school left. Yes my kids have Tuesday and a half day on Wednesday. I am looking forward to having them here. I need some helpers. I have enrolled my three oldest in Piano lessons and they are making great progress. Even Jon is impressed with their new found skills they are learning. I love that my good friend Heather is their teacher. William is in the middle of potty training endeavors every day is a little bit better but I do not know nor do I want to know the when, how, why, or who, for the poop smeared all over the outside of the tub and on the floor in the bathroom. We are doing copious amounts of laundry around here to try and meet demands. And the Washing machine is throwing fits. I think it will have to be fired and replaced this week for failure to perform the work assigned to it. The transmission is dying or in fact at this time dead.
Well I think you have been brought up to date and there is little left to say except that if you can’t find us at home and we are not in the barn check to see if the boat is there or not. If it is we are somewhere around if it is gone so are we.

Love Monica and the ‘Get Wet Woody’ Woodin’s

Graduation and Annie

2011-05-23T09:06:00.001-06:00

May 23 2011
Okay. So I fell of the bandwagon for a few weeks again. I do feel that my time this Monday morning should be spent in some lofty laundry goals but we have been instructed to keep a journal and I am not sure that face book counts. Anyway. Jon took the 4 oldest boys on a father and sons campout on the 13/14 of this month and it was the nicest two days together in the whole month of May. They had a good time and booked it back early so Marcus could play in his soccer game on Saturday. I spent most of that Friday Cleaning out and packing the camper. I get a GOLD STAR for removing the packrat that was dead on my bed. The bedding was washed in “kill all germs” detergents and a lot of Lysol was sprayed around inside the camper. Currently the camper is sitting in my drive waiting for me to clean it out again after their overnighter.
In the midst of this month I turned 16 doubled this year and the Ward threw an awesome Birthday party for me at the local roller-skating rink. Actually they deemed it a ward party but who really wants to get too technical about that stuff. I got to see my Mom and Dad that day as they were in town for the morning packing up Dallan to move him home to the farm for the summer and they stopped by with Lunch and a hug. Jon surprised me with Jason and Camille’s gutter bill that is to be paid in Premier Design’s Jewelry directly to me. So I am waiting patiently for the new catalog to come out this summer.
We had to put down our little horse Rose last week. Today would have been her birthday. Somehow she got a puncture type injury and it messed up her insides so much that the Vet deemed it un-repairable and we decided to let her go. It makes us a little bit bummed around here. But before she left she managed to step on Jon’s foot and, I think, break his toe, as well as taking a huge hunk of skin off of the back of my hand when we were trying to give her a shot. We are both healing and would rather have our horse instead of these battle scars but sometimes you just have to take what you are given.
Pack night has come and gone again. The three Vera brothers that my boys have invited to join our pack were all awarded their Bobcat badge and at the meeting asked if they could go to church with us on Sunday. Later the 9am time and the 3 hour long church detoured them to their usual 1 pm 1 hour church. But they are coming over today after school to play. It is a neat thing to watch my young boys being little missionaries to their friends. It makes me want to try harder to increase my joy by bring just one back to the fold. The Vera boys will go to Colorado for the Summer to be with their Father who works in a mine. Stiles and Marcus are quite bummed with the idea that they will miss their friends for the whole summer. But they will be back when school starts in the fall.
Despite lots of clouds and rain and some wind the Garden is mostly planted it is only waiting for the plants form the greenhouse to be added to the area. The Peas and Carrots and onions are all poking up and the radishes sprung up overnight I think I saw one bean yesterday and I think I will try and plant corn tomorrow or maybe in the middle of the night so the chickens don’t go right behind me and have a treat. We have been fixing fences but there is still much work to be done, Stiles and Marcus are big helpers and Erica is feeling the effects of being a built in babysitter.
Just for MJ, the Lilacs bloomed yesterday and it is so fragrant. I think that Roses smell wonderful and I Love Daisy’s, but nothing smells better than Lilacs, they remind me of my 15th birthday and visiting with LeAnn and Adrianne out under the Lilacs. Makes me miss Momma LeAnn and wish that ‘A’ lived closer.
Erica graduated from Kindergarten on Thursday. It was a tough two year program but she came through with flying colors and was the top of her class. She kept her cool during the ceremony when the kid next to her lost it and tossed his cookies all over the three kids in front of him. Too bad I had turned off the camera it would have made an awesome U-TUBE video. After the affected children had been hurried off the stage the teacher turned around and said “WELCOME TO KINDERGARTEN”
The Next day Stiles showed his stuff at the 4th grade production of Annie Jr. He was narrator #1 and said all of his lines clear and loud. And knew all of the songs. His friend Macey Hugues was Annie and she did a fabulous job. We even took her some flowers and a candy bar to congratulate her. I taped the whole production and will spare any of you being forced to watch it. But if you want to I will share. He said that at the first showing of the play to the school the girl next to him lost her cookies but managed to direct them away from the rest of the kids on the stage.
We are trying not to force William to potty train but we are not going back to diapers with him. He can do it, the question only is: Will he? In the mean time there is EXTRA laundry around here, as if there wasn’t enough of it around here already. In the midst of the whole process Wyatt acts like he thinks it would be cool to not wear a diaper anymore either. I’m all about that idea but just kinda too busy to implement all that goes along with it . He mostly just likes to take off his diaper when ever he has done his business. No one ever told me that this part of raising kids whould be such a huge milestone and a hard one to really do not to mention I had to clean a bunch of poop out of underwear pants and shoes this last week.

Love you all.
Love Monica and the rest of the Woodin Nickel Knuckleheads!!!

girls trip and bedtime routines

2011-05-02T14:55:00.001-06:00

May 2nd 2011
Last Monday I was sick and I spent most of the day in bed. Jon was a sweetheart and didn’t say one word about my laying in bed all day…not even “how you feeling?” or “can I get you anything?” But the fact that he didn’t say “Just get up and you will feel better.” or “so are you going to milk the goats or not?” means that he recognized that I really was sick. The next two day’s I spent in a mad scramble trying to get my house in order for the upcoming weekend. The Easter weekend didn’t destroy my house but it did not leave it sparkling clean either. And I still was sick.
On Thursday Morning Nanette picked me up and I left for a girls trip with the Woodin girls. As I was leaving I told Jon. “Hunter’s bus comes in one hour…Don’t miss the bus!” he tells me he will not miss it and waves good-bye. An hour and a half later I got a call on my cell from Jon with the question “Where exactly IS Hunter’s school?” Yes they had missed the bus and Jon was driving him to school. I called later that day to make sure that Jon started watching for the bus so he could get Hunter off the bus. Jon told me to leave him alone and not call him because I was “roaming.”
We had a blast just being girls with No kids and no Husbands. We went to the Desert Star Theater and watched Sheer’luck Holms and laughed so hard I almost peed my pants. We also did some shopping and watched the movie at the Joseph Smith building about Joseph Smith, which I had never seen before and I cried a whole bunch in it. On Saturday we spent the day at Lagoon and enjoyed the snowstorm and the bits of sun we saw all day long. We all got feeling pretty sick pretty fast because there were no lines for any rides because well it was snowing. After a while the Bumper cars were the most appealing ride and we did that ride back to back to back a few times for the fun of it. And since it did not make any of us want to hurl our lunch up. Somebody thought it would be really fun to do rattle snake rapids on this trip. Yes we got very wet. And no I was not talked into doing the ride again. I took pictures instead. The hand dryers in the bathrooms became our friends in a hurry and we did our best to try and dry ourselves off under them. It was snowing on us off and on all day remember.
We had a fun in the hot tub and there are some very fun and embarrassing moments throughout the whole trip. We kept on getting locked out of our condo and had to have the maintaince guy come and help us every day.
Mean while Jon is at home with all of the six kids and me not there to help him. I know that he is very capable but I was worried. I called him on Saturday morning and he told me to just not worry about anything and that he had everything under control. Later Stiles called me and informed me of all that they were doing…so glad that kids knows that he should check in with me. Then Jon saw that he was on the phone and ordered Stiles to hang up because it was costing us roaming fees for Stiles to tell me what really was going on. When I got home I actually found that the house was still standing and kind of cleaned up. The dishwasher was running and some laundry had been washed and dried. And Jon listed off the honey do projects that he and kids managed to do. He even took all six kids to the store…Gold star there don’t you think. The only project he didn’t get around to was that a child had stuffed a hot dog down the drain in the bathroom sink and they had not got around to getting it out and so that sink is still currently off limits. Jon said that taking care of the kids for three days and not worrying about work was like a vacation. He really enjoyed spending time playing and working with his kids and also admitted to me that my job is full of a bunch of mundane tasks that really get old and boring in a short amount of time. Thanks honey!
Two weeks ago the relief society president in our ward asked me if I would sing a song in relief society on May 1st. Thinking that it would just be a little part of her lesson and that there would only be about 20 sisters in attendance I agreed. She then handed me music to a song I had NEVER heard before and then a few minutes later announced that on May 1st there would be a Visiting Teaching Conference during the Regular Meeting time and that the Priesthood would be taking over the primary and YW so that ALL of the sisters in the ward could be in attendance. I about puked…mostly because it was said that Bro. Woodin and the elders would be taking the primary…that is SCARY!!!! Then I realized that I had just 5 minutes prior agreed to sing a solo at this meeting. It took a lot of convincing of myself that I was up to the task. Even though I have sang in choirs and with small groups I have NEVER sung a solo for a large group or even a small group for that matter. My voice teacher had arranged for it but I always somehow managed to be sick that day or magically forget about it. My good friend Heather was awesome and worked out the accompaniment so that I could follow her on the Piano and helped me through the parts I was struggling with. When it came down to the moment, and all of the women in our ward were crammed in the relief society room with the bishop, the laurels, and member of the stake RS presidency, I managed to sing the song without hitting any wrong notes and nobody threw any rotten veggies at me. Still I will not be campaigning for the opportunity again.
A little story about my My William and My Waytt. Just to contrast the two and so you can see how silly and stubborn William is. I like little stuffed animals on my kids beds. A teddy bear is just a must for a child’s bed in my opinion. Well since I make the beds for theses two little bedlamites I usually place their two or three little stuffed and fluffed animals on their pillow for the day. At Christmas time Grandma Woodland gave a very cute gram cracker colored teddy bear to my Wyatt. We call him “Gram Cracker Bear” and Wyatt has always, ever since Christmas, loved to wrap his one arm around this bear as he is going to bed. I think it is precious. And as I put him to bed each night I love holding Gram Cracker Bear out to Wyatt and watch him reach up for the bear in earnest and then pull the bear close and cuddle up. Well after this touching scene ends I then turn around and have to chase William and convince him to change into his pajamas and then after 3rd and 4th drinks, and prayers, I will manage to get him to his bed side. As I am pulling the blankets up to his dear little chin he will reach up to the Lamb that he has had since his blessing day and grab the lamb from his pillow, and hold it out to me almost in distaste of the creature for me to take away it from him, and I am not allowed to place the lamb anywhere but on the floor, the foot of the bed is not OK. And then William will grab his blankets and pull them completely over his head so there is no chance for bedtime kisses or hugs. Such different kids.

Love Monica and the rest of the folks at the Woodin Nickel.

Cock roaches and Bob

2011-04-25T11:21:00.000-06:00

This last week was much like the last one. COLD Not much sunshine and Lots of wind. However I had a big handful of daffodils bloom and my daughter made sure that it was indeed a handful and went out and picked everyone of them on Friday and brought them to me. They are lovely on my table.
My Kid goats continue to grow and follow me around. They really are a lot cooler than a dog. They don’t bark. They call me “MAAA” and they eat all the weeds and grass. And they don’t make great big landmines like dogs do for you to step in and then track all over your house. Instead they are carefully spreading little fertilizer balls all around. Oh and you get milk from them. A Dog just barks and drools. Speaking of pets. We do have a Kitty cat. His name is BOB and he wears a pink collar with a bell. Bob is allowed indoors but also Loves to be outside. This story is not about BOB. What then? Well in the furnace room is Bob’s Kitty litter box and of course with my little boys Bob’s toilet looks like a fun sandbox to play in, complete with Lincoln logs. Just like the regular toilet looks like a little pool to play in. Well My little boys had made quite a mess in the furnace room “playing in the sand.” And one day this week I spent some time ( a lot of time actually) cleaning up that room and all of the mess that had been thrown into every nook and cranny of my furnace room. And I was feeling very much the Martyr on this day, My house was a disaster in every room and nobody seemed to be able to help me clean up. Well you can guess what happened about an hour later when I went back to my furnace room to retrieve my dust pan and broom, because I was now cleaning another room in my house, (Imagine that) and I found that the Kitty litter had been played in again and was thrown all over the room again. (I’m sure that Wyatt is my mess maker in this account). Well feeling very over whelmed and like nothing I ever did or do matters I kinda starting having a tantrum. Okay I admit I had a huge 2 year old screaming my head off crying and Kicking and throwing things around temper tantrum. I am sure that one or two or maybe even 10 profanities escaped my lips and I did manage to break my dust pan in the middle of my slamming things around. Well no one dared let me out of the time out I put myself in so as to re-clean up the room that I had previously cleaned. But when I finally did emerged seething and tearstained everyone else scattered like cock roaches when the lights are turned on, and they were busily pretending to clean up different areas of the house. I found out later that Jon caught Marcus outside of the furnace room listening in and laughing his head off. So for all of you Mom’s who have to put yourself in time out every once in a while…Just know that I put myself in time out three times that afternoon. I often think that Time out is not a punishment for little children it is an institution for Mommies so that little children will survive the wrath of their overworked never paid Moms. - Go ahead and laugh. Marcus needs someone to laugh with him.
This weekend we loaded up Stiles and Marcus and some of our siding and window displays and Headed out to the Portnuf Environment and Energy Fair. (we left the youngest 4 kids at home with my cousin Lisa) Yes it was an Earth day Tree hugger event. We don’t hug trees and our products are made from oil but we got in under the guise of Energy efficient Windows and Insulated Siding. (actually our favorite things to sell, they make us the most money) We turned one display into a fish pond for the little kids and Stiles and Marcus took turns sitting behind the little house and clipped prizes onto the fishing lines. They worked hard and were little troopers. We gave away a lot of business cards and talked to a lot of people about how to save on energy costs. Over all we had a lot of fun and I think we might try and do it again next year since there was no cost for us to be part of the free community fair and we are fooling the masses that we care.
After the Fair we went home and were soon joined by Jon’s family for an Easter Egg hunt and Hamburgers and hot dogs on the BBQ. It was much fun to watch the kids hunt for the Eggs Wyatt was even aware of the whole concept and picked up eggs and dropped them into his bucket. I got quite the work out running around trying to take pictures of each of my six kids as they were finding eggs. They are sure that this was the best Egg hunt ever and I’m and grateful that the weather was awesome and all of the kids energy was mostly spend OUTSIDE. It makes me appreciate how crazy my own parents and Aunts and Uncles must have felt when we would all descend on Grandma Woodlands house and the weather would be bad so the hunt would take place in the basement. And we used real eggs…… Yeah…sometimes we wouldn’t find all of the eggs.
This week Stiles was awarded his Bear Badge at pack night. It was a lot of fun and I am lucky to be called into the scouts and participate with all of the leaders and boys. I sometimes wonder if they will ever let me out of scouts. They say that as soon as you learn your calling they release you. So I am carefully trying to stay ignorant. But after almost 3 years now I’m beginning to get the hang of it.
I realized that I am looking my next birthday kind of square in the face. I’ve been 16 for quite a few years now and I realize that the math makes this birthday 16 doubled. So if I tell you that I am 16 years old you can just double that number and I will still be telling the truth.
There are many things to so I must finish this and let you be on about your day. Hopefully I will not need timeout today but the day is still young, and I have a killer cold.
Love , Monica and the rest of the cock roaches at the Woodin Nickel. Oh and BOB too.

Teeth, Eggs, Pie, and Demolition

2011-04-18T11:48:00.000-06:00

April 17th 2011 Well the greenhouse is keeping things from freezing at night. This year some of my neighbors have put some plants in there to get a jump start on their gardens and it has been fun to watch the Warrens magical plants just take off. My Stiles is a bit a jealous and usually checks out all of the plants everyday after school. I’ve been filling my mornings and evenings with my goats. “Milking a Yak ain’t exactly easy but once you pick the hairs out…” (Monsters Inc.) It takes about 30 minutes every morning and night. But my little KIDS sure do love me and follow me around where ever I go. With slightly warmer weather my children have let the kids out and played with them in the yard. It is precious to watch Wyatt share his bottle…not that he really had a choice after the Goats knocked him down and stole the bottle. The chicken business is full of Eggs. My boys are always eager to go sell eggs and collect the money… some days the gathering and cleaning and feeding is not top on their list, but they are stalwart little guys and work hard to take care of their feathered friends. Erica has lost two teeth within a week of each other. Currently she has gaps for 3 teeth. It is funny to watch her try to eat. It makes me more determined to take care of my teeth so that I will have them until the day I die. We spent most of the extra time.. not that we really have extra time but we made it priority to use some time to fix up our little guest house. Jon bought some new windows for the front room in the house and as part of their installation we decided that we needed to rip out the old sheetrock and put up a new wall. Stiles and Marcus eagerly strapped on their own little tool belts and the demolition was done in short order. Then the new wall went up and it has been taped mudded and textured…just waiting for paint. And of course we couldn’t stop there this morning Jon and I went over and ripped up the carpet in two different rooms…then we will paint then lay new carpet. Then it will be placed on the market for rent. So you can guess that the house work in my house is lagging behind. Marcus is involved in soccer this spring. He has begged for 2 years to do soccer and this year I relented and signed him up…He is really good. This week he played against a team that had his best friend, Adam, on the team. Adam is definitely the strongest player on the other team and I can see now that it was probably Adams influence at school recess that made Marcus so determined to play soccer. Jon and I have no idea how the game is played or the rules but we are watching and learning and I am enjoying being a soccer mom. Stiles has earned his Bear badge in the scouting program and will be awarded it this week at pack night. He and Marcus have invited some nonmember boys in our ward who they are friends with at school to join us in our scouting program. The boys have accepted and are totally enjoying the scouting program. Their older sister is even interested in doing achievement days after watching how much fun her brothers were having with us at scouts. Since then we had these boys over to our house to play and they seem to all be having a blast! Hunter was tested at his school for his speech again. His language is good but his use of sounds put him in the 3% . He is using the wrong sound in words even after being prompted by the teacher to use the correct sound. He uses “b” A LOT. So we have enrolled him, to continue at the Lincoln Early Learning Center again this next school year. William is two…need I say more. He has decided that he will not do ANYTHING that Mom suggest and will only obey Daddy. This makes things harder and easier for me. I’ve simply turned William over to Jon when ever Jon is in the house. Everything from getting dressed to a diaper change to sitting up to the table. He has also become really picky about his clothes. And He has decided that the color red is the only thing that will fly. I actually took him shopping and we bought a few more clothing items that were red in color so that I had a few more options while his two red favorite outfits were in the laundry. Jon can convince him to wear other colors. But he will ONLY wear his snow boots…even to church. But he can put those on himself so I don’t mind so much…I am okay with Children when they want to learn to dress themselves. Wyatt is the cutest little tease. I cut his hair and with those twinkle eyes he definitely falls under the category of “Little Woodin Boy” the messes are forthcoming and he has dabbled in some destruction. His favorite mess to make is to Break the eggs…on the Kitchen floor in several different places and paint with the yolks…right after I had mopped the floor. He is good at tipping over the garbage can and is often playing in the toilet. Yesterday he jumped in the tub with all of his clothes on and then proceeded to grab the toilet paper and put it into the water with him and Hunter and made a pulpy mess in my tub…no he was not very clean for church but then again Hunter didn’t get very clean either…we were running out of time. This last week I had my Kitchen drain clog up on me again. I realized it right away and the mess in my laundry room was not all that awful. I normally would have called on good old Brother Jin Sant over immediately to fix my mess but I had learned that His wife had had surgery and everything that could go wrong did and she was currently in ICU. So I neglected to say anything to anybody about it. I figured I could do dishes in the bathtub for a few days until Sister Sant was at least out of ICU. Some how Jim found out about my mess and insisted on coming over to clean it up. I let him. I know that Jim likes Pecan pie so I stopped at the store that day and bought him one. (I don’t make pecan pie because I don’t like it). I had Jon give the pie to Jim with a promise that I would bake him a homemade pie later. Jim told Jon that he had to quit working for Pies and that I needed to quit putting stuff down the drain… anyway the next morning I got up and baked him two beautiful pies. One was cherry made with the cherries form my cherry tree and the other one was apple. And of course before I knew it…My kids had decided to TASTE the pies. And there were little bite marks along the edge of the pies, and a big hunk out of the middle of the cherry pie. No, I did not hurt my children, but threats were given and time out administered. A New cherry pie was made and was heavily guarded for the 15 minutes it was out of the oven before I sent Jon over to the Sants with the pie. Later that night Jim called Jon. And told him that I could put whatever I wanted down the sink as long as I will make him “that” cherry pie. J Thanks Mom for teaching me how to make pie. Because if you don’t got pie you don’t got nothing’ J Love Monica and the Woodin Nickel Nuckelheads.

Halloween and Piles of Poop

2010-11-09T09:38:00.000-07:00

My computer had a hickup (*read crash and burn) that had me in tears for several days. We apparently downloaded a virus when we were watching conference. IT was NOT pretty and all of our business files were saved in the wrong format and we were unable to retrieve them. I have hated this dumb PC from the first day Jon brought it home but supposedly it was the best priced hunk of junk out there. I would have rather paid more and got a computer instead of the joke of a machine that now cumbers my office desk….BUY A MAC.
So with that in mind I will try to bring you all up to speed in 10,000 words or less. Jon has been hunting and has brought home an elk and 2 deer so far he has two more deer tags which he hope to fill. I hope he does it VERY soon.
William has pooped and peed in the potty. We all celebrated but are not pressing the issue. He is very quietly stubborn and we are willing to wait until we are sure we will win the battle sooner rather than later. His most endearing quality of late is he response of “No I not” which he gives in most circumstances. “Your silly-No I not” “Your funny- No I not” You made a mess- No I not” “you are soaking wet and have been playing in the toilet- no I not” “ your in trouble- No I not” J He also answers yes to the question “do you want a spanking?” This usually gets him out of one and the reverse psychology is working well on his parents. He is making terrific messes which give Stiles and Hunter a run for the title but has not yet out done them yet. However the other morning I found him downstairs laying in the middle of ALL of Stiles and Marcus Halloween candy. ( I told myself I would deal with that mess AFTER my shower) and then After my shower I found him in the middle of the Kitchen floor in a HUGE puddle of pancake syrup. Oh and someone had peed on the floor in the bathroom that morning too. I never did get to the candy mess. I was following Will around taking away markers and sharp object and any other destructive feet he was trying to accomplish. HE is TWO…sigh.
This Halloween we hosted a neighborhood Trunk or treat and Potluck dinner in the upper reaches of the Woodin Nickel Barn. It was well attended and we ran out of chairs and candy. My kids were dressed as the following. Stiles-Clown. Marcus- Knight. Erica- Fairy Princess. Hunter- Orange bad guy (I’m not sure either but he wore orange fairy wings as part of his costume) William- cowboy Wyatt- devil. Jon and I were Pirates and we all had fun. The barn is still decorated as I have not found time to take it down.
I did finally harvest the rest of the carrots and onions and I threw the Brussels sprouts to the goats. (they were VERY bitter) And then roto-tilled the whole thing under and as I was doing so I decided that the rest of the world gardens just so they can have a small taste of what it might be like to be a farmer. But without the risk or course. I think I have a good idea as to why Dad loves to plow. It is pretty fun to just roll everything over and under.
The Primary Program came and went and the Kids all did their parts beautifully Stiles told a story about how he followed the promptings of the holy ghost. Marcus talked about working with the animals and serving his family. And Erica yelled into the microphone her part “I felt good when I helped Stiles get out from under a chair.” Everyone giggled because of her confidence and her volume and Stiles was mortified because he thought everyone was laughing at him for getting stuck under the recliner. It was a great program.
Alright here is my funny scenario of the month. Yesterday we are preparing to go to Utah to witness Luke’s Baptism and enjoy some good company south of the Idaho border. Well we have given ourselves a 30 minutes cushion for our leave time just so we won’t be a crazy rush. Well it is about time to leave and I have left the task of bathing and Dressing my youngest three until the bitter end because lets face it they are boys and will become horribly messy in a very short amount of time. Well I got Wyatt dressed first and set him down thinking that his messes are usually minimal. I gather up William and strip him down and throw him in the tub only to discover that sometime in the last hour he has managed to step in a nice big pile of dog poop and it is all over his shoes and in a couple of places throughout my house. SO I throw Will in the tub then scrub down the shoes in the sink and place them under my blow dryer to hopefully have them dry in time. Then I helped Hunter get dressed and he looks good new Sunday clothes and the whole bit. So I send him off and he goes to get in the van because that is where the older kids are and they are all geeked up because I put the portable DVD player in the van so they are getting all ready to go. Then I head to the bathroom to fish William out of the tub. I had left him in until the end as a damage control measure. Well when I walked in I found him in a very very VERY poopy bathtub. No big deal right. Kids poop in the tub, not the first time not the last time. So I start hosing off my boy and the tub and everything else I can hit with the shower wand and William is screaming because he was not in the bargain for a shower he wanted a bath. Anyway I soap him up and rinse him off a declare him non toxic and pull him out of the tub. At this same moment my three oldest children come whooping and hollering and screaming bloody murder that Hunter has pooped and it is ALL OVER THE VAN. Sure enough he had a case of explosive diarrhea and it has landed in his shorts his new dress pants down his legs and in his sock and new shoes and there was a mice amount on the floor of the van. Jon was assigned to clean up the van and I got the boy since now I have to not only bathe but find a complete new set of clothes for the poor child including shoes. We set to work and finally end up smelling a lot better all round not quite roses but marigolds might be the right flower to compare too. Except for Wyatt came crawling into the bathroom right through the less than clean water puddles that have now made themselves known on my bathroom floor so he now needs a new pair of Sunday pants. So now we are ready right, new clean Sunday clothes all around I finally get William dressed. He has been streaking through the house for about 15 minutes now. And I decided his poopy dog shoes are not going to cut it so we hunt to find his boots and magically we find them BOTH. Whew poops all over, into the car right. we should have left 10 minutes ago. Well no I am informed that Wyatt needs yet a new pair of Sunday pants AGAIN since he crawled outside and right through the puddle of yucky poopy water that Jon had used to clean out the floor of the van. I’ve already exhausted all of my extra Sunday clothes and now I am down to a pair of Jogging pants. Hey they are black and they work. We throw in our potluck Salad and a few other changes of clothes (just in case, hey we are batting a thousand right now) and finally with our 30 minute cushion all the way gone we pull out of the drive only to realize that we do not have the address to the church house so we stop pull back in and find the email with the right info and we are finally off. 20 minutes later as we were getting close to leaving Pocatello behind us. We hear from the peanut galleries in the back seat “MOM? I have to go to the bathroom…” It turns out that EVERYONE needs to go. So we pull back off the freeway and into a gas station so that we can all get rid of the extra pressure and then we drive like bats out of china and make it to the baptism in the nick of time after one more pull off the freeway because Hunter has to pee and can not hold it any longer….that boy did have some definite pressure and distance. The ride home was much less entertaining.

Catch up!

2010-09-19T21:54:00.000-06:00

Okay, So I just got done reading my last letter. It was ahem…Written a few moons ago. So I will try to catch you all up and repent of my ways. My last letter was just prior to our trip to Lake Powell and so I will start with some highlights from that trip.
William and Wyatt stayed home, Katherine was a gem and watched them during the day, and Jon had them at night. We drove all through the wee hours of the morning and arrived at the lake before lunch time. My kids were super excited. We got all set up at camp and permission had been granted to all of the children that “YES! You can go get in the water and play” The next thing I know I watch Hunter as he is falling off the end of the slide into the water in a belly flip flop fashion. This is his first entry into the water. There was no one to catch him, or even take a picture. He said it was fun but refused to take another turn. He did laugh and giggle every time his Mom went off the slide however. I was sure that Stiles and Marcus would be little boat hogs. I was only half right. Stiles did try to ski and did Okay on the boom bar. But his love was a tube ride. And he wanted to go on a “big kid ride”, not a “little kid ride.” I admit I was having a hard time staying calm as I watched him out there with his big uncles getting thrown out of their tubes and eating white rocks. But Stiles was eating it up. I think he though the best was when Grandpa managed to unload all three of them at once. Marcus is not the same adrenaline junkie type. I beged and pleaded and finally bribed him with not one, but TWO dollars if he would go on a tube ride. He consented if I would go with him. He would not let the boat go any faster than barely trolling. He kept on signaling for grandpa to go slower. I think that for grandpa to go any slower he would have had to pull out the paddles. (which they did have to use THE paddle and waterski to get back one time) I thought that if I could get him to go just once that he would go again. But once was enough for him, and He made me pay up the $2.00 bribe. Erica was happy to play in the water with Elena and Becca ALL day. Erica and Elena jumped off the back of the houseboat countless times and played well together all week. We decided it would be fun to give the three little girls a tube ride. Elena and Becca were fine with the idea and I think they even had some fun But Erica threw a rip roaring tantrum the ENTIRE tube ride. IF we would have known how crazy her Tantrum would have been we would have recorded it and posted it on you tube. And that poor girl was so tired every night that she just couldn’t even see straight and bawled herself to sleep most nights. It made bedtime a bit memorable and we were all so grateful when she would finally fall asleep. Hunter was so excited to go to Powell. He had no idea what it all meant, he hasn’t been since he was an infant, but he knew it was going to be something way awesome. He played hard and paddled around in the water and took a tube ride and jumped off the back of the boat and generally was just having a ball. Well after a long drive home and as we turned onto Tyhee road and Hunter recognized where we were he asked “ Mom. HOME?” I said “Yes we are almost home Hunter.” Hunter said with anxiety and determination in his voice “NO! POWELL! NO! POWELL!” Like all the rest of us we would rather go to Powell than almost anywhere else, even home.
So after we got home we had a fun crazy week of things I can’t remember probably mostly un packing and trying to green up all of the 5 acres that Jon had let turn brown while I was gone. And we looked forward to the Bannock County Fair. Now this fair is quite small, and not attended by many. But we made it a family goal in January to make entries in the Bannock County fair. So much of this week was spent in the gathering and preparing and entering and showcasing as many things as we could in the fair. And it PAID OFF. My kids all won a “Best of Show” Erica won 2 and I even won one. There were lots of blue ribbons and 2nd and 3rd place ribbons as well. Stiles and Marcus Entered some Chickens and The judge was so nice and Gave them a blue ribbon for the rooster and a red for the hen. The judge said to Stiles while he was looking at the rooster. “Now this rooster truly is a blue ribbon rooster but I am going to give you the blue ribbon because you are holding that chicken that is almost as big as you are!” The whole week was very busy and very fun, AND my kids learned a lot about having to help mom out so we can all do something together as a family. The pay day checks at the end of the week had all of my kids grinning from ear to ear all the way to the bank. Hunter even took home a paycheck for turning in the tallest weed.
Then the next few weeks were full of getting ready to go back to school and celebrating 3 birthdays. Jon and Erica’s birthday bash was fun. We decided that it would be a good idea to give her something to teach her about responsibility. After all the boys have the chickens and all of that. So for Jon and Erica’s birthday Date they tracked down a new GIRL kitty. “so Erica could have a sister” The kitty immediately went into hiding and it took quite a bit of hunting for the little feline before we located her behind the dryer. Erica named her Lily. Which is a big change from her usual “beauty” but since she has named all of her stuffed animals and pet ladybugs “Beauty” she decided that Lily was the perfect name for a kitty. I didn’t try to talk her out of it. It has been fun to have a pet kitty. And Erica is a good little Mommy to her pet. So much so I fear that Lily will be quite spoiled. Wyatt also had his 1st birthday and it was low key and without too much fluff. I got him one of those leapfrog stuffed dogs named Scout that you can connect to your computer and program in your Childs name and songs and Favorite things. Well it has been a challenge to keep it out of Hunter and William’s hands and in Wyatt’s possession since both older brothers are sure that it is THE COOLEST toy. Hunter has already told me that for his birthday he wants an Orange dog, like Wyatt’s. We shall see. Wyatt is pretty content with the monster truck that came from the dollar store and likes to push it around.
School is off to a good start. Stiles is in 4th, Marcus in 2nd, and Erica is repeating Kindergarten. Hunter is also enrolled at the Early learning center for Speech therapy and goes two afternoons a week. I am almost able to accomplish something. But the homework load is really putting a huge demand on my evenings to get all three of them through the things they are suppose to do and Erica’s homework load won’t hit hard for about 3 more weeks.
For Labor Day weekend we packed up the camper and headed up to the mountains above Arco. Up in the Lemhi range. Jon did some hunting with his hunting buddies and the girls back in camp tried not to freeze to death. It wasn’t that cold and we were able to have a fire but it wasn’t that warm either. But the kids had fun and fished in the stream and rode their bikes and built a secret fort in the trees and we went on 4 wheeler rides and ate good and burned up marshmallows over the fire. So far Jon has not taken a shot at an elk yet. But has had some fun exciting hunts and helped others to get their tags filled. We are down to two weeks left in September and the pressure to get something is increasing so I doubt I will see much of Jon or any of his hunting gear over the next two weeks.
SO I think you are up to date on most of the general details of our lives. There is much more to tell like the 2nd flood I had in my basement this summer that left me washing dishes in my bathroom tub for two weeks, the dead mouse behind the fridge, and the coyote that my kids watched carry off one of our chickens that engaged Jon in a “morning hunt.” I’ve been canning Peaches and Pears and salsa. I love that I am blessed with so much and that I have wonderful children and an awesome hardworking husband. I hope to be a better writer and keep you filled in on the details. But if not I hope that I am not totally boring you.

Love Monica and the insanity that as always happening at the Woodin Nickel.

Excuses Excuses 2010

2010-07-18T17:34:00.000-06:00

Okay, okay, I have been a real slacker…or perhaps anything but. My last email correspondence sent out to all of you that might care was in fact almost 2 full moons ago. So let me tell you all of my excuses as to why you have not heard from me by way of the cyber highway.
I was feeling SICK for most of the Month of May and several different days in June. I am NOT suffering from Morning sickness despite the many similar symptoms. My doctor put me on a once a day anti-acid and I have been feeling much better. I do not think that I am truly all better but after 6 kids I sometimes think that my body was freaking out that it was not pregnant and just going through the motions of morning sickness because I doesn’t know how to not be pregnant after my previous baby reached 9 months oldJ
My next excuse for my lack of communication. “It is JON’S fault” a few days prior to A Woodin Family camping trip to McCall Idaho our one of our two full time employee’s fell deathly ill with internal bleeding and literally almost died. The same day our other employee informed us of his new job that he had just been offered and his intent to quit working for us immediately. Jon was up a creek going from a 3 man operation to Him and Ethan Hall, a young man from our ward. Since then Jon has been going a mile a minute and Ethan is getting way more hours than he was previously promised but he is saving for his mission so it is a blessing for him. But I have been getting more hours than I signed up for too. I’ve been promoted from Water Girl to Water Master and most things around here a pretty green. There are some less that lush areas but We are getting to them as we are able. The Garden by the green house looks pretty awesome but the one by the chicken coup is not looking so hot. I really am ready to roto till the whole thing under and act like it never even happened. The cherries got ripe and we saved a few handfuls from the birds.
I had decided that my baby Wyatt was now old enough to be moved out of Jon and I’s bedroom but in doing so I decided that I would also move Stiles and Marcus to a basement bedroom and put Hunter, William, and Wyatt all in one room and give Erica her own room so that she could have some privacy...she is a girl after all. In the whole of this transition I borrowed my Mom’s rug doctor so that I could clean carpets after moving large amounts of furniture and decided that the basement bedroom would be much more attractive and maybe my boys would keep it cleaner if they helped paint and decorate their new bedroom. Stiles and Marcus worked hard and we painted a room one day, moved their furniture in the next, and cleaned carpets in their old room, and then the next day after, moved all of the stuff and ripped out the carpet in the adjacent basement room that had flooded…yes my house was in shambles…and still is. Still not good enough excuses for you. Well then William was sitting up to the table on the bench and Hunter decided that he wanted to sit in that exact spot and pushed William…right into the counter. 5 stitches in the back of William’s head and then we load up our new baby filly and rush her into the Vet because she has a hernia, this was on the same day, then the day before William is suppose to get his stitches out Marcus and Stiles were having a tug or war fight on opposites sides of the door and I don’t know who won but the door was okay but Jon missed Sacrament meeting that day as He took Stiles to the Dentist so that Dr. Hugues could fix Stiles broken left front tooth. And literally 3 minutes prior to the broken tooth I asked my kids to stop fighting and please go brush their teeth. Speaking of front teeth Marcus just lost one of his baby teeth as I was writing this. which reminds me that Erica lost one as well and the tooth fairy was not very prompt in exchanging cash for rotten baby teeth.
We have had some fun in all of our woes. We did a weekend overnighter camping trip to McTucker Ponds we didn’t realize that it was free fishing days there while we were there but when we did we got in line to get our free hot dogs and put our names into the raffle drawing. Wyatt won a fishing pole which Jon picked out (ahem). We did the ward campout the following weekend at Indian Springs and the kids all had a ball. The next weekend was the Woodin Family camping trip. Jon was not able to attend the camping trip to McCall so I went by myself with 6 kids and the Camper in tow…the camper was much easier to tow by the way. The trip was way fun we even got lost going to Riggins and ended up in Council. (never trust a GPS) but we found a little fishing hole and the kids all got to catch a fish. There were great ghost stories complete with a ghost. And We had fun one day at a hot springs, and then another in the sand by the lake. We did a hike with all of the little kids and that was not as bad as it sounds. The Food was good and the company great. However the moments when I could not find William were a bit gut wrenching. He had found a campsite that was blowing bubbles and joined in on the fun. After we found him we took a piece of Duct tape and wrote “I belong in site # 67” and taped it onto all of the kids three and under. A lot of our fellow campers from neighboring camp sites were kind enough to haul our kids back to us. I guess they had heard the saying “Don’t take any Woodin Nickel’s” and they were following that sound advice.
I have to tell you about my cat. When we did our over nighter to McTucker Our cat, Georgia, (My kids named her) got locked in the house. Well there is not a kitty litter box in my house because Georgia is an out door kitty who occasionally gets to come in and take a nap on somebody’s bed. Well when we came home She bolted right out and then the smell of cat poop hit me like a wave. “OH GROSS” I thought and since we got back from camping quite late I transferred my sleeping kids to their beds before I went in search of the offending smell. Well I looked and looked and I just really couldn’t find nor did I WANT to find it. So I decided that I had better at least climb in my shower and get the camping stink off of me at least. And there in my shower was all of my Cats business. I was so happy with my cat all I did was turn on the water and washed it on down the drain. I loved that cat that night. She has been the best cat with my kids. Especially with Wyatt. Since Wyatt learned how to crawl, Oh yeah Wyatt can crawl now, ( he even crawled himself off of the stage at the church, WHAM) I have been worried what their interaction would be but I have watched him crawl over to my cat Georgia grab her by the fur and the tail. Pull her closer and then crawl on top of her then lay on her. And Georgia just sits there, she doesn’t scratch or try and bat him away, So you can understand how sad I felt when Jon told me he found her out on the road a lot less alive than the last time I saw her. He assured me that he took proper care of her and “kicked her off to the side of the road so that the kids won’t see her.” Got to love that man!
We were suppose to go camping this weekend but that got shelved early on in the week so I set up the tent in the yard and put a TV and DVD player out there and my kids spent several nights out in the tent. I guess it beats making their beds in the morning. WE also spent some time out at American falls Reservoir me and the kids of course with out Jon. We had lots of fun both times. Erica and I managed to sunburn our backs pretty bad the second time we went and Both of us have been a bit sore ever since. She has been a trooper and I have been a wanny.
So lets see. I painted a room, had my basement flood, ran my kids to the doctor more than once and my baby horse, watered and weeded the majority of a 5 acre property, oh and I cleaned the shop and the barn and bucked a ton of hay one day. Haircuts ( I have 6 boys) , My cat got run over. The ward is currently building the 24th of July parade float in my big shop and I hosted an impromptu BBQ as part of that this Saturday and I have Pack night campfire night here on Wednesday night as well. The parade float is awesome and I expect to have many people in and out all of this week finishing putting it together. And I am trying to get ready to go to Powell without Jon again next week. Now all of these things all spread out over two months is just classic everyday life here at the Woodin nickel but you throw in Jon’s EQP calling, doing visits with the Elders, and kids in diapers, and Chickens, and Skunks under the chicken coop, Chicken for dinner (didn‘t get there from the store). Three meals a day and TONS of laundry, not to mention dishes and floors, did I mention my basement flooded too. Well I have been a bit busy trying to hold everything together… there is a reason I am not milking goats this summer, can you tell what it is?…..I need to go Visiting Teaching…
Anyway I want you all to know that I love you all and think that you are all super wonderful. I look forward to Powell and will miss my family who won’t be there, but hey you were invited. And to MJ…You may think that you live in Paradise there in Florida but I promise you that next week when I am surrounded by nothing but warm water and red rock you know who will truly be in paradise…J And to Brian. I am really enjoying your blog. You make me laugh. Keep your posts coming.

Monica and the Woodin Nickel mess that is mine and I love.

Baby girls at the Woodin Nickel

2010-05-23T21:30:00.001-06:00

May 23 2010 Our new arrivals are PINK!
Lots of new Flowers!
Yesterday in the early morning hours Sugar finally had her foal. She is a beautiful buckskin filly with light colored eyes. We have named her Rose -n- Nickel and call her Rose or Rosy . We have had several visitors to see the new arrival and have loved showing her off. Rose is very calm and will come up to you for a little pet and a love. She loves to lick Stiles hands and makes her Momma a bit crazy, as all children do. She of course was born on the coldest day in all of the month of may and we spent quite a bit of time and effort to get her and her momma moved into the barn and out of the cold wind, rain and snow! Today it was a bit warmer and we let the two of them out on the football field for a chance to enjoy some sunshine and a bit of exercise and fresh grass. Rose immediately took off and ran the length of the football field and her mom was right there with her trying to keep her away from the rest of us.
Today While we were gone to church our White goat named Iris had 2 doe lings! We are so excited to have all these new little girls running around here. We named the baby goats. Jasmine and Daisy. William is thrilled with the baby goats and tries to pick them up like he does the cat. It is great fun just to watch William with the goats. It amazes me how fast those animals are up on their feet and running around. The first few hours on wobbly legs is so precious and fleeting. So now that you have been briefed on the Livestock report I’ll try to fill you in on the rest of things going on around here.
This is the last week of school. And we are all excited. I think that when I pull out my new summer chore list for my kids some of that excitement might die a little. In the mean time I am counting down the days when a 6 am alarm means I am getting up because I WANT to be up that early, not because I HAVE to be up that early. I am anxious for a less structured day and bedtime to be whenever I think it should be a good idea. Ask me again in 3 weeks and school in September will be looking REALLY NICE!
Stiles had a solo in the school music concert. He did very well. There were quite a few youth from our ward who had large parts and I really enjoyed listening to all of them. They all did really well. This week we also had our pack night. It was a talent show. Stiles showed off his plants and told about them. He even threw in some knock knock jokes and funny little puns. Afterwards many people asked if he could come over and plant their gardens for them. Stiles was pleased as could be with himself and his talent. It was fun to see all the other boys show their talents as well.
Marcus continues to amaze me with his new found ability to read and read well. He is reading everything he can get in front of his eyes and I am loving every minute of it.
Erica had kindergarten graduation this week. She received a certificate for completing 1 yr of Kindergarten.( apparently WE enrolled her in a two year program) But she sang the songs well and was So happy that her mom and Grandma were there to watch her. William however was NOT happy about being at the ceremony and was making life very miserable. In fact he has become such an independent little guy Jon and I are in agreement that we would rather take all 5 kids at once over William when it comes to having to try and sit still for longer than 10 minutes. Church is a trading game for us. William gets passed back and forth all through the meeting usually at about 10 minute intervals. Today Jon had him during the sacrament part of the meeting and Will managed to spill two cups of Water all over Jon before Jon was able to take the sacrament. It was NOT a very spiritual experience for Jon. Covered in Water and trying to Hold William while passing the tray to Marcus who is not paying attention at all. We will just say that William likes to go to nursery where He can run and play and be loud. We Love it too.
Wyatt has not made the transition from wiggly inch worm to crawling baby but I am sure that this report will change very soon. We are no Longer nursing and he has definitely plumped up a bit since he is getting more than enough to eat with the formula. Still no sign of sleeping through the night but we wouldn’t expect a restful night for the next decade of our lives anyway.
The snowstorm on Saturday made me very glad that I was feeling sick for most of May and that all of my plants were tucked away in the green house and that I was feeling to crappy to think that it would be a good idea to move them into the garden plot. However I did get the garden all lined out and fenced off so as to keep the chickens out of the Garden and hopefully the kids will not walk on the planting beds and the fence will keep them with in the confines of the garden for longer periods of time when it comes time to pull weeds. When it comes to feeling sick I am felling much better. It took a while though. I was wondering if maybe my gall bladder had died, or maybe I had juiardia, or perhaps an ulcer, I even took TWO Pregnancy tests!( (go ahead and Laugh but they were both negative) But in the end I think that my body has fought off whatever it was that was making me feel rather yucky and gross.
Jon has been up in the night every night for many weeks checking on the pregnant animals in the afore mentioned livestock report. He has been very tired and a bit bellyaching about how hard it is to get up a couple times in the night…….I gave him NO sympathy. NONE NADA ZIP! But you have never seen a more excited guy than Jon is about our new horse. HE is SOOOO tickled Pink! Sometimes I think he is more jazzed about the horse than he was about his own kids but I know that is not true. HE is such a good dad and I am lucky to have him. (whew now maybe I can be a bit off the hook when Fathers day comes around) Wait…I didn’t get anything extra special for Mothers day…I am totally off the hook! Just kidding.

Love Monica and the crazy Monkeys at the Woodin Nickel

the Hoover Dam!

2010-05-18T13:00:00.000-06:00

Dear MJ and the rest of my devoted readers (all two of you)!

The OX has finally been pulled out of the mire. The hole were the septic tank is housed is now all buried and the ground is being settled back into place. As I was about to sigh a HUGE sigh of relief I fell very sick and spent 8 days not far from my bathroom extremely grateful that it was now working properly and I could flush, shower and wash when ever fancy struck me. I spent much time in bed and Jon was very supportive and did not mumble about how the maid, cook and nanny had taken a leave of absence without proper notification. I was even sick in bed all day on my birthday. My children informed me on this day that they could not sort their laundry in the downstairs laundry room because there was a large and very dirty puddle in that room. And sure enough the kitchen “stuff” was not making it all the way out of the house by way of the plumbing system. Our Neighbor Jim Sant, came to the rescue…AGAIN. And got rid of the stinky offending water…AGAIN. I guess that was a very nice birthday present. So I THINK that our Mire is now mostly cleaned up and the OX is back in the Pasture…just waiting… to get back into the mire. My experience is that the Ox will get back into the mire just when it really isn’t convenient.
So I had a Birthday. I turned 16. And I laid in bed or was being very friendly with my commode, not to be confused with comrade. At dinner that day which Jon lovingly purchased from Papa Murphys and put in the Oven all by himself…I said “Now that I am 16 and I can date maybe Jon can take me on a few dates.” to which Jon instantly replied “You know the Prophet said that you should only go on group dates and wait until you are older for exclusive one on one dating. So I guess I can’t take you on a date unless it is a group date.” So I suppose that since we are always with a large group I am ALWAYS on a group date!
Wyatt is very close to being purposely mobile. He is up on all fours often and spins circles like a top. He usually is stuck in back-up mode but I can see that he is going to switch gears here soon before I am ready for it and THEN I an in TROUBLE!.
I took Stiles to the Dentist…$$$$$$$$. Yep there goes his mission fund! And the Dentist told me that if I didn’t have a piggy bank to pay the orthodontist I had better get one started. This is the 3rd Dentist to give me such distressing news. So I guess I will try to believe them.
Erica has a tooth that just keeps on hanging on. Jon tried to pull it out but the only results was a screaming daughter and some blood in her mouth. And since the tooth was not fully extracted the promise of ice cream was not brought to a reality. Erica is ready for school to be out. Mostly she is looking forward to the end of school parties. I am looking forward to not needing to do her hair for her every morning. Because of course I never get it how she wanted it done!
Hunter is trying really hard to talk. He is adding about a word a day. The words he is adding are not full of great diction, syntax, and diphthongs. But I have a better idea as to what Hunter is trying to tell me. I have a meeting with the school district at the beginning of next week to start the paperwork process of getting some intervening help. I got his testing scores back from his evaluation and he was in the 1% for every part of speech that you could be in. I just sat there thinking to myself “well I could have told the evaluators that! Then we didn’t have to waste a whole afternoon. If a Kid does not talk at all…doesn’t that mean that everyone else who does talk, talks better than him?” But as Hunter is trying to make Language work for him I am so grateful that it seems like words are beginning to make sense for him. Before it just seemed like he was not making that connection.
William is being much better about staying off of the road. Jon and I still watch him like a hawk though. Will is picking up a few works and is totally adorable when he says “UH-OH” He says this a lot. Like yesterday when I found that he had taken half a pitcher of RED Kool-aid into his bed room where there is White Carpet that I very Recently cleaned and then spilled every last drop of the Cherry flavored drink…Who even manufactures White carpet??? It should only be sold to the people who have been contracted to build temples. It should not be available to the common village idiot! Mom, How soon can I borrow your rug doctor again?
Marcus is shooting up like a weed. I can hardly believe how tall he has got since spring break. His reading skills are awesome too thanks to the teachers at Tyhee. Reading Scriptures with him is very enjoyable now and we can tell that his confidence is growing daily with his reading skills. He use to get so frustrated if he didn’t know a word that he didn’t even want to try. Now I am impressed with the words that are flowing out of his mouth.
The irrigation water is available for our use. We have MANY MANY MANY broken pipes. Something to do with having a Baby right before hunting season and then of course the afore mentioned season did not result in proper winterization of irrigation lines and the Cold Idaho Weather does VERY mean things to such systems. Not to mention the horses can do lots of damage to the lines as well, and I will not rule out my kids as a contributing factor to the amount of repair that needs to be done. One of the first areas of repair that HAD to be addressed was our Head gate. Last year Fort Hall Irrigation District changed the head gate above us and cause much and many issues with the water. Just when we thought we had figured out the precise amount of water we needed then things would get all flooded and wash out, or dry up and stop the pump. We decided that if our Head gate by our pump was in better condition that we would have less stress and mess. We had in place just a dirt dam with a little culvert built in. SO since Jon has a concrete mixer we decided to fix the gate in a very permanent fashion. It felt like we were trying to reconstruct the Hoover Dam! Jon and I worked Hard all day and into the night on Saturday to get it finished before the water came down the canal. Stiles was a great help and worked his little tail off. Then as we were about finished with pouring the cement the cement mixer lid flipped over on top of Stiles and I. I took most of the force on my back but it caught Stiles right across the top of the head. We were very blessed that he was not seriously injured. Jon had his back to us pouring the cement, from buckets that we had been filling, into the forms. The Motor to the mixer was running and it is QUITE LOUD. I had to scream for Jon to look and see the predicament we were in Stiles was laying on the ground holding his head and I was trying for all I was worth to push the cement mixer lid back up off of me. Since there was very little cement left in the mixer I was able to get the lid off of me and get the mixer back upright. Stiles was not bleeding which I am sure was a miracle and as we were checking him over he said “Can I be done now? I just want to go inside!” We told him that yes of course he could be done and yes he could go inside. WE finished our new cement Gate/dam and now just have to finish putting together the rest of the pipes at the pump that we took apart for our dam building project and then many pipes to be fixed are on the to do list.
The Garden has been roto tilled for the second time and We have started to build a fence around it to deter the Chickens from eating anything we decide to plant. I hope to get many seeds in the ground this week. We shall see what really gets accomplished at a later date.
We are still waiting for a baby horse Jon is getting tired of getting up and checking the barn every two hours in the night. I do not feel too much sympathy for him. It has been rare in the past 9 years that I had the privilege of sleeping all through the night. We are also expecting one of the goats to have her Kids anytime too. We think she might have as many as three Kids. The poor goats and The poor horse look so miserable. And with all of the laying Hens running around the yard it is a wonder that the whole place is not dripping with estrogen! Jon goes out to the barn and the Pasture and asks “HOW are all my girls doing?” He has over 60 of them! All different shapes too!
So how does a Duck drown? We found one of our ducks has drowned in the water trough…Now you may say that that sounds like a very dumb duck, but also in the trough was a great big Chicken that has drown also. Our theory is the duck was going for a paddle and the Chicken was stupid and thought perhaps she could do the same thing. Well chickens DO NOT have webbed feet and they do not float. We think that in self preservation that the Chicken tried to get on top of the duck to save itself and drown the duck then drown itself.
Just a few more serious thoughts. Since the Passing of Tyrell and Rose’s little boy, Levi, I think about how we are all tried and tested in so many different ways I reflected quite a bit about how when I have gone through my trials and have felt the strength of others through their prayers offered in my behalf it is truly a humbling experience. As I sat in the church at Levi’s funeral and saw much of the family assembled there and knew of the eternal bonds within our family and I thought about all of the rest of my family and Jon’s family who were not physically with me in that meeting and of their love and support of me and my family, and I was truly humbled again. Forever Families are real. They are so precious and I am so blessed to be part of such a loving family who has great faith and strength. And I want to thank all of you for your love and support of me and my family and for the prayers you have offered in my behalf. They have blessed my life and fortified my faith in such ways that you can never know and I can never express. I only hope that somehow, in some way I can return the favor. This church is true. It is through trials that we grow and find joy in this journey. I know that it is hard and that there are many things I do not understand, but I know that Jesus is my Savior and that President Monsen is His prophet. I know there is real power in prayer.

I love you all!
Love Monica and the rest of the Dam building Woodin nickel dwellers

getting the ox out of the mire

2010-05-02T21:18:00.001-06:00

Hello to all of my Family. May 2 2010
I am still band from using MY bathroom all though the two other potties and all other plumbing is not off limits. The Tank has been found and yes it was directly under a huge pine tree. The roots had destroyed the lid to the tank and a new lid still needs to be fashioned on the to do list for this week. The said tank in question had not been pumped in oh EVER. We even called some of the previous owners of the house and learned that they had no idea that there was a second tank underneath that beautiful tree. Hence a need to clean out the drain field pipes. President Loveland was very understanding and asked us not to destroy too much of his grain field. We were treading very lightly and managed to find that the job was not done “according to the law” the first time it was done…no surprises there, we are out in the county… SO we have just about cleared the drain field lines of yucky black stuff and we have big plans to put the drain field back to it’s original state with a bunch more gravel and big promises to pump the tank regularly so as not to have the sludge pile up. It took a bunch of crap for 30+ years… I think once we get it back together and throw the dirt back on it I might enjoy looking out the windows… The guy in our ward who pumped out tanks told us that when he went to dump the stuff at the plant that there were A LOT of toys and asked us if we wanted them back… We said NO THANKS and told him he could keep the toys as a tip…WILLIAM! I think this week we might actually get the ox OUT of the mire! But I am not going to hold my breath.
There is not much more to report on. The woes of our septic system has been heavy on our minds and I am not recalling much other interesting things to tell. However Erica has announced that she is “No longer a Kindergartener.” I confess I was concerned with her declaration seeing how we have decided that it is in her best interests to repeat Kindergarten next year. She then Proclaimed that she “Is a first grader in Training!” What ever makes your boat float kid. I’m happy to go along with it.
We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of a new foal. The Foal was due today and we have been checking the mare every few hours for the past three days. With all of Murphy’s luck that baby horse will want to come at 3 am on the coldest of all the nights we will have this spring… That is what our baby goats did last spring. Coldest night when all of the other nights around it were almost pleasant. But tomorrow is suppose to be a warmer day. Windy but not so rainy and cold.
The cold weather and lack of lots of sunshine has put the plants in my green house in a bit of a slow down mode. They have not grown like crazy this week. But like I said last week if anyone wants a few green plants to start their garden I could make you a sweet deal.
I love you all and miss you more.

Love Monica!

Proof of the mire... the OX was missing for the photo shoot

2010-04-27T14:50:00.002-06:00

So if you have been following my blog or a friend of mine on Facebook you have heard that things are a bit "messy" at our house. My sister wanted pictures and origanally I thought that I did not want to remember these wonderful moments but as I watch the mess get messier and messier I figure I needed to prove that "YES THIS IS AWFUL AND I CAN PROVE IT!" so here is a little glimps of a tiny bit of the mess at the Woodin Nickel...

the "HOLE" a tree was planted exactly on top of our septic tank... the roots literally just broke and tore up the LID to the tank. We have to make a new lid before we can continue with our project. The beautiful Yellow badger in the background made it possible to dig out the stump and the hole that you see here. We are so greatful to Rusty for letting us borrow it and to Mike for helping us run it!

this is the tree about and hour before it was brought all the way to the ground. We decided that we should cut off all of the limbs one by one so as not to have the tree fall and break our house or our fence. You can see Jon is strapped to the tree with his Hunting Tree Stand Harness. His Hunting Habit did pay off a little bit. Jon lopped of the top of the tree not too long after this picture and then Jim came over with his chain saw and and dropped the trunk of the tree for us without breaking anything else. Then we cut it up and hauled it to a big pile for a big bon fire to be held at a later date...

Get out of the mire!

2010-04-26T10:29:00.000-06:00

April 26 2010 If the blasted Ox would just get out of the mire we might be able to clean this mess up!!!!

Yes septic problems continue to rule the roost. While nothing has entered into the house again we have been searching for our septic tanks…note the plural form of the word tank. Jon spent much time digging and yelling for me to run around and flush everything so as to perhaps hear the elusive tank. We borrowed a little bobcat backhoe from our neighbor and finally found a pipe line. Jon and our neighbor Mike dug and dug and dug. Finally after much toil and questionable language emitting from the mouth of the EQP not to mention Rain, Jon found the tank. And in doing so Ripped a good size hole out of it…and broke the pipe to the drain field…oops. Guess where the elusive tank was buried….Right under a HUGE pine tree. What idiot planted a tree directly on top of the tank!?!?! The weight of the huge tree…any guesses as to why it was so huge and healthy?… Was crushing the tank. So now in order to fix.. Ahem… replace the smashed tank requires a chainsaw before the project can continue. I have been band from using my Bathroom and am now required to descend to the basement for all bathroom activities. (I refuse to use the bathroom on the main floor. While we are thankful for Hunter’s potty training success he is still a very poor aim) When the huge tree is cut down and removed we shall have a very big bonfire and you are all invited to bring your own hotdogs and roasting sticks…and a shovel. Then we will be able to finish digging out the crushed like a tin can tank… and then somehow we plan on dragging it out of the hole and putting a new tank in the said hole, next we will have to replace the drain field pipe which was ripped in half courtesy of Jon and then we will fill in the hole with some “roughed up dirt” It was earth day this last week I feel a need to plant a tree. I have a good idea where I will NOT plant one. However, some grass seed is now on my shopping list for this next week.
In other news Wyatt has sprouted two new teeth. Pictures on my blog show his smile with just the two opposite teeth. I called him my Hillbilly baby for two weeks but now his Tennessee Teeth are beginning to even out and he looks less and less like he in two tacos short of a combination plate. Wyatt is also a bit of a inch worm and is moving around the floor little bits at a time he is also developed a great love for tearing up paper and has got to a few books and magazines that now are a bit rumpled and chewed on. I do not have much longer before I am truly in trouble with the messes Wyatt will make.
Erica has NOT been doing well in school since Spring break. After three weeks of falling test scores her teacher called me in and we met with the principal and discussed her grades and behaviors. The end result is we are going to have her repeat Kindergarten this next school year. This will put her in the same class as Elena and Caleb, but Lyndsay, Wesley, Andrew and Mckay will be ahead of her. Which is fine. I think if I tried to push her forward into first grade I would be setting her up to fail.
This week we added 28 laying hens to our menagerie of pets at the Woodin Nickel. The birds were up in Howe Idaho and the boy who had them wanted to start some new chicks. His dad told him he had to sell some of his full grown birds to make room for the new chicks. He Sold us the birds for $2.50 a bird! There were many many people who wanted to buy the birds for that price but nobody wanted to drive clear out to Howe Idaho to get them. Kind of like no one wants to drive clear out to Kimama. But Jon woke the boys up early on Saturday and they Borrowed Fred’s truck with the camper shell and drove the two hours out there and picked up the birds and brought them home… Anybody want to buy some farm fresh eggs. I’ll make you a deal!
Speaking of deals If anyone wants a few Tomato, Pepper, or Cucumber plants from my green house Let me know and I’ll make you a deal on those as well. I might sell some flowers too but I am not sure how many of those I’m willing to let go. And Fred has got A LOT of Cabbage starts in the green house as well. If you talk to him I’m sure that he might let you get a few or half a dozen from him.
I have continued to Lose Marbles but I am getting better at keeping them in my marble jar and My children are getting a bit better at keep a hold of their Marbles as well. In the end if the Marble jars work I may not Lose my marbles.
Hunters speech evaluation was: HE qualifies for any and all Speech therapy. The question now is what program do we try to get him into. OF late though he is adding about a word a day and really trying to make the sounds. HE came running into the house the other day and very clearly said “Will on Road!” And sure enough William had escaped and was out on the road AGAIN!!! Just hanging out on the road AGAIN!!! That Boy of late will hang out by the door waiting for an opportunity to escape OUT to the great outdoors. He reminds me of how the Cat waits on the other side of the door waiting for a chance to come IN!
I don’t Know if I mentioned in Past letters that Stiles Achieved and was awarded he WOLF in the scouting program. HE was also awarded 3 arrow points. Most of which he earned courtesy of living here on the Woodin Nickel. This home has been such a blessing to us in so many ways. The biggest is that it is given us many opportunities to teach our children about hard work and responsibility. I hope Marcus can start “LEARNING” those lessons soon. HE likes to hide when it is time to work. Reminds me a bit of Crystal. Anyway… I think that for the most part you are up to date on the majority of the goings on of the Woodin Nickel. I am thankful for all that I have been blessed with even if it feels like the OX is ALWAYS in the Mire. One day all of my Little OX’s will grow up and move away and take their mire with them but then I have this funny feeling that they will bring their own little bits of mire back home with them. But I’ll just try to clean it up…like always…hey were is a washcloth and about a gallon of disinfectant?

Love Monica and the “HERD” Wallowing at the Woodin Nickel.

Hillbilly BABY

2010-04-19T15:52:00.006-06:00

Wyatt Loves to be in his Jump Up Johnny. WE caught him catching some ZZZ's.

the pine wood derby was a blast. Stiles Won in the wolf division for our pack. But I was too dumb to make sure that I had a camera. These pictures are at the District run off derby. He did not make it to the semifinals but gave the other cars in his heat a definite run for their spots.

My Hillbilly Baby Wyatt. The two opposite teeth came in first and now the other ones are pushing through. I thought I had better capture My Wyatt with his Hillbilly smile because in another month it will be gone.

I've Lost my marbles

2010-04-12T12:38:00.000-06:00

MJ and all you other beloved people. Jon and I have decided that our “NEW AWESOME” Computer is somehow crappy. Meaning it just doesn’t work right. We have called the store from which we parted with greenbacks for the said hunk of junk and they are willing to exchange computers with us. Something in the Way cool new processor is simply not processing the information well, fast, or in the right order. I am not happy with Intel right now and am writing this on my old laptop with the broken H and K key which means that I have to go back and carefully fix all of my Errors. But I do feel better that perhaps the reason I was HATING our New computer was not my fault. We shall see if we like the computer better after the exchange is made.
Wyatt is a wiggly worm and manages to move about slowly and with little efficiency. He has cut one bottom tooth and one top tooth and is working on the other top tooth. This has made nursing painful and NOT desirable. We are planning on being totally weaned by the end of May. So Jon and I introduced Marble Jars. In which each person in the family has a jar with a certain Amount of Marbles. Marbles are taken away when a person decideds to yell in anger, throw a tantrum or refuse to be obedient. Rewards are given for having a large remainder or marbles at the end of the week, a reduction in privileges is given for no longer having marbles. We started Saturday and will start over next Saturday. I have already lost Most of my Marbles. I am in trouble. If Mom or Dad lose all of their Marbles in a week the kids get extra marbles. I hope to not lose my marbles.
The green house is full of green plants. The Gardens have been roto-tilled and the Chickens and Ducks are growing like crazy. I see brown grass turning greener every day and the tulips and daffodils are coming up all over. I also am aware of the weeds trying to take over again this year. Maybe we will win that war this year…or maybe it will end up in a draw.
I spent most of the last two weeks cleaning my Carpets. They look SOOO Much better. I just wish I had a bunch of money to spend on Paint and the like so that the room scould all look super awesome. But do not be dismayed. William already spread into the white carpet Chocolate pudding the day after I relinquished the rug doctor into Camille’s hands. So do not feel bad if your carpets have a spot or two. My newly cleaned carpets now match yours once again.
Well I am sure that many other noteworthy things happened this week but Wyatt is crying and it is lunch time and I soon will be conducting a scout meeting here at my home. So I will end with a far off hug and kiss and hopefully new great news next week. Work Hard MJ. And Kudos to Cody. You go girl. Taking care of Babies is HARD WORK. Believe me I KNOW! And Good Luck SARA. Hope your last little bit being a “baby house” is as pleasant as being totally miserable can be.

Love Monica

the mire gets deeper

2010-04-05T20:20:00.001-06:00

Dear MJ. Last you heard there was an Ox in the Mire…or rather A LOT of mire in my basement shower. So the story just keeps getting better…they always do right. Jon gets a hold of Bro. Jim Sant from our ward and Jim comes over and after a series of rescue maneuvers manages to move on through what ever it was that was Stuck in the line. Great now I have a big job involving much disinfectant but as high fives were going all around for the cleared sewer line we noticed a pond developing in the side yard. We were pretty certain that our Water hydrant had rusted out and we needed to dig it up and replace it … This would mark the 3rd one that we have replaced since we moved in. Well in order to proceed the Water had to be shut off. So the cleaning of the poopy bathroom was shelved as Jon and I grabbed shovels and started digging a hole to China…a rocky hole to China. There is a lot of rock in the ground this close to the river bed and gravel pit…go figure. After much digging a many bad examples in language and with the help of some of the neighbors we finally won the battle late in the 11th hour, and were able to turn the water back on. We took much needed showers and proceeded to ignore the mire still in the basement then went to bed. We recognized instantly that our Water pressure (which we have always grumbled about the lack thereof) had not just doubled but perhaps tripled in strength. We were fearful in that first shower that we would be thrown through the shower wall, the impact tore off our skin and we were no longer standing in the rain trying to get wet.
The mire in the basement did eventually get cleaned up and much bleach and disinfectant was used and some towels were indeed ruined. But the bathroom is quit shiny and clean now and all of the spiders were obliged to move out. Because of the mire and its far reaching effects to the carpet in the basement I felt that it would be a very good idea to borrow Mom’s rug doctor and do a little extra heavy duty spring cleaning to my basement carpets. Mom let me cart her vacuum home after a brief trip to the farm during our kids spring break. I spent most of last week moving furniture and cleaning the carpets in my house while my big kids are at school, I am very pleased with the results and was feeling extra pleased with the appearance of my home. Then Easter came and went and after I scrubbed out numerous jelly beans, chocolate bunnies, and robin eggs, not to mention hard boiled egg, I am wishing I had waited one more week before I spent so much time cleaning my carpets. The dumb part is that the rooms that I have not yet cleaned were left unscathed and no candy was ground into the carpets in THOSE rooms. Oh well something about Murphy and his dumb law…
We had spring break and as part of that we Participated in the Spring Fair in the Holt Arena. We spent most of the first part of the week preparing to have our booth ready for the show and the end of the week standing in the Holt Arena trying to sell our wares to the passing homeowner. Camille was a sweet heart and helped take care of our kids. And Jon has been a busy man ever since trying to follow up and give bids trying to generate some jobs for us. So far the Spring Fair has been helpful in putting us in contact with people who want some work done.
Hunter is joining the ranks of the potty trained. This last week something finally clicked and I told him that if he did pee in the potty he could wear underwear and if he had an accident then I would have to put him back in a diaper. Well he really really wanted to wear underwear and we are on day 4 with no accidents and he is the informing us of his need to go. I am so happy and do a dance every time he comes back out of the bathroom. Hunter is pleased too and is always grinning from ear to ear. We are still diapering at night but I don’t think we will have to do that for too long. He hates for us to put the diaper on at bedtime.
We really loved conference and Easter was very pleasant. I came away from conference with a new found desire to be a better Mom and Daughter and Disciple of Christ. I hope to be a good example and tell the “Stories of Jesus” to my children so that they will Know those stories and not doubt. I was very pleased today to hear Stiles Quote the story about being a used up $20.00 bill and still worth $20.00. I really didn’t think that he was listening but apparently he was. My children never cease to amaze me!
Well many more things have happened but I am totally tuckered out and want to go to bed.
Love you all, Monica

Ox in the Mire

2010-03-14T21:13:00.000-06:00

Dear MJ and Family. I missed last week. I don’t know why. I guess that the lack of having a missionary Brother has reduced my insistence on hogging the computer for an hour or so to spew forth the embarrassing goings on of my family. The truth of it is that I am having a hard time finding things that are humorous to write to you about and provide cheep…no wait FREE entertainment for the rest of you. On second though it probably is cheep. Jon’s work has slugged down to nothing. Which means he is hanging around the house a lot. This could be good and bad, don’t worry I DO NOT forget to take my pill every night, Wyatt is a good reminder. Speaking of Wyatt, the little monster has sprouted a fang! Nice mommies say “O look Jr. cut his first tooth. Isn’t that precious.” This Nursing Mommy looked in his mouth one day to find the razor sharp projection and realized why she had been in extra pain of late. He is barely 6 months old! I think that a second weapon of mass destruction will emerge soon, and judging from the lack of sleep Jon and I are getting because of the emerging pearly white it had better show up soon because the rest of the family can not take to much more of grumpy Mommy and Daddy hanging out in the same house all day long before somebody has a SUPER NOVA moment and everything goes black! I admit I needed a time out today in a very bad way…sorry Kids.
Anyway Spring is in the air. We have started an array of plants in the green house and Jon has carted Home some 30 baby chickens with some 25+ and a few Ducks to arrive this week. Currently the market for a laying hen is between 10-15 $ a chicken and the hens are sold within 2 minutes of being listed online. So we are hoping that we can make a little extra cash for our boys to put in the bank towards their missions. Every time I look at all those little boys and think about when this letter will be addressed to them I cringe at the cost. But I know the blessing will far outweigh any dollars and cents.
William or as we affectionately call him “Willy Joe” has often heard his name called out in stern and firm tones. “WE do not eat out of the garbage…We do not drink out of the toilet…we do not put mommies toothbrush in the toilet…We do not throw entire rolls of TP in to the toilet… we do not play in the flour…We do not sit on Wyatt’s head… HOW did you get up there?…Get down from there…Don’t touch that…WE Never EVER EVER go out on the road and lay down and wait for Mom and Dad to find us!!!” William has been a bit of a handful lately…I think it might get worse.
Parent teacher conferences came and went. The cold hard truth was reveled to me and I knew it was coming. Stiles is competing with about 5 other boys in his class for the title of Class clown. Other wise his grades are good. Could be better if he would devote some more attention to his work rater than being silly. Marcus is doing well all around still a bit behind and slow when it comes to reading but definitely getting better with his reading skills. Erica has learned a TON. She is still below where she should be and gets distracted easily. The teacher can tell from her behavior that she is THE youngest kids in the class. If she doesn’t mature in leaps and bounds over the next 3 months it might be a very good idea to repeat kindergarten. (Jon is so not thrilled with that Idea) We will see how she does this spring.
Stiles- I mean WE but I should say Stiles built a pine wood derby car. The races were good and Stiles’ car was the fastest car in his den by a long shot so he will attend the district Pine Wood Derby in April. We had set him up to just be excited to run the races and not care about who won. He was a trooper and a good sport about beating the other boys in his den. He was kind of disappointed that he didn’t lose any races. But then was bummed out when We did the pack race and lost to the boy who won for the entire pack, on the first race so that he wasn’t able to race again. Marcus offered his condolences and told him that he was just supposed to have fun building the car. Marcus needless to say can hardly wait for the derby next year.
This morning I found the mess of messes in my downstairs shower. Apparently we have some sort of obstruction in our sewage line and all of the “Stuff is being back loaded up out of the shower drain and into the bottom of the shower. Now since this is a little used bathroom in our house the shower has been “collecting” the stuff for maybe a week now. I now know why my house was smelling “funny” I thought it was just because of the cloth diapers, but my suspicions are that William flushed “something” and now it is caught and only letting the liquids go past. And since it is Sunday we determined that YES it is MIRE but the Ox is not in it nor did the OX want to get into it to clean it up so we choose to ignore the mire until the Ox is good and ready to get into it. Wish us luck tomorrow. We hope we do not get stuck in the mire.
So I guess that brings you all up to speed on the doings of the Woodins out on the Woodin Nickel. Not much of most things but hopeful you enjoyed your free entertainment and perhaps there will be a good story to follow up to the ox and the mire story, but I really hope that it is NOT that good. Will might give me some good material if I can keep him off of the road. Anyway I Love you all.
Beware the IDES of MARCH! Monica and the messy Woodin Nickel Knuckleheads!

new computer

2010-03-03T08:51:00.001-07:00

Hey MJ. Okay Okay, So I didn’t get you a letter last week. But I was looking to come from behind for a more dramatic victory. The truth is we bought a new computer and even though it is supposedly user friendly and an excellent hunk of metal, plastic, screen, and circuits Jon and I are NOT computer Wizz’s in any way, shape or form. So I guess I’ll plead that I have just been intimidated by the new monstrosity in the office. The Kids are not so easily bullied. They have Already managed to mess up the computer in a way that I still am not sure what they did or how I undid it but it required several hours and a huge headache to fix. They are most jazzed that there are now TWO computers connected to the internet and are usually playing games on WEBKINZS most of their Waking Hours. Jon has been pulled into the fun and is often found playing a game “to help one of his kids out because they were going to lose unless he intervened” Yeah sure right Jon! My other big excuse come in the way of a mean little virus. I already let you in on the fact that Stiles had contracted Fifth’s Disease. Well last Monday Erica and Myself broke out in Rash. Erica’s was much worse than mine. Mine only lasted about 24 hours. But the Joint pain has been making me quite miserable. This weekend I kept looking at my knee sure that it was swollen to twice it’s normal size and black and blue like someone took a baseball bat to it. But alas it looked fine on the outside but it hurt like crazy and made me a VERY grouchy person. On Sunday night I decided that the regular ibuprofen were just not cutting it so I took a prescription one left over from when I had Wyatt. I was expecting a pain free night with perhaps a bit of sleep. Well apparently it was too much meds to my system because I was in a night sweat for most of the night. And I am sure it was the meds because right after I had Wyatt I had horrible night sweats until I quit taking the painkillers. I figured my night sweats were hormonal but like I said 800mg of Ibuprofen is TOO much for my system. Then to make things even more fun William and Marcus have broken out in rash as well. Only Hunter and Wyatt have not been affected …YET. Fifths disease is NOT FUN! We cleaned out the greenhouse a little while ago and are planning on doing some planting this week. There is a class being taught this Wednesday in the greenhouse for those members in our Ward and neighborhood. I am NOT the teacher. I hope to be a good student. Dad was a great teacher but I just am not sure how to grow food without a tractor and less that 100 acres so I am hoping that the wisdom of others will help me in this regard. We did alright last year but we also made a bunch of mistakes. Plus Wyatt trying to come early kind of messed up the harvest. But we are hopeful for this year. Parent Teacher Conferences are looming in my face again. I again am terrified to be told the cold hard truth. I already know the truth…I just don’t want to be told the truth. But Erica seems to be catching on and up to her classmates. Her teacher the other day told me that Erica has really begun to FIGURE IT OUT. And I can tell she has as well. Marcus is increasing his reading skills in leaps and bounds although they are smaller leaps and bounds than other children, he is figuring out some of the mysteries of reading the English language. Stiles still needs major improvement in his handwriting skills and a good push in Science. But he reads for enjoyment late into the night and then is grumpy the next day. Hunter is learning his ABC’s and mimics every letter but W and sometimes Q …who can blame the kid. He is trying to learn to say words but so far he still hasn’t figured out that if he would try to use words then we would know what he wants. He has a well Child check later this Month. We might see if a speech therapy class is something that could end his and our frustration. William is into EVERYTHING!!!!! I forgot what a child that age can do and undo in a short amount of time. Mostly he likes to sit ON Wyatt. Will is also growing like a weed. He sometimes will eat more at a meal that both of his two oldest brothers. Wyatt is a happy content Baby. He is now officially 6 months old and still has not rolled over…that I know of. Jon has gotten him giggling which is really funny. And he is good at blowing poop out of his diapers. Lately he has gotten into the bad habit of peeing AFTER I take his diaper off. And then I have to change his clothes as well. WE do A LOT of Laundry in this house. Or maybe we SHOULD do a lot more laundry in this house. I’m thinking that another washer and dryer set would not sit idle for very long at all in our house. It is the Laundry Folder who is always slacking and holding up progress. Anyway March is here. The Lamb and Lion thing. We are suppose to warm up to 40 degrees and then I am sure it will start snowing again. It usually does. The Mud is Just so much fun! We miss you, Keep working hard. Love Monica and the Woodin Nickel Knuckleheads

Erica fishing on the 4th of July

2010-02-18T11:52:00.002-07:00

I just love this shot of the back of my daughter holding her princess fishing pole.

Willy Joe and Wyatt Logan

2010-02-18T11:34:00.003-07:00

So I guess that Wyatt is a pretty comfy guy because William is always sitting on him in his swing chair. In the picture they are actually both asleep. Wyatt really doesn't seem to mind. Yes after I took the picture I did move Will to his bed. Wyatt was left there.

My Valentine

2010-02-14T15:25:00.001-07:00

MJ. FEB 14th 2010 Happy Valentines Day! We are home from church…sick!
The beginning of this week started with a round of potty training. I was feeling very determined. Hey I was washing Hunters cloth diapers out in the toilet what makes underwear different right? Well after 3 days of setting Hunter on the Toilet every 20 minutes only to have him pee all over 2 minutes after getting off of the toilet and having 0% success of ever making anything go into the toilet we threw up the white flag and said no more! (Jon wants me to try with William…yeh right!)
Hunter did turn the ripe old age of 3 this last week. We had cake and ice cream. When it came time for presents he opened a kid size snow shovel from Aunt Nanette. He giggled with glee then immediately took the shovel to the back door, opened the door, threw the shovel out into the snow, then slammed the door, and came back to his party. I was laughing so hard. He then proceeded to put everything else AWAY as he opened it up -socks, clothes, toys, they were all carefully put away before the next gift was opened. Apparently he had heard my threats to throw away toys that were not put away. And did not want that to happen to HIS new things. We told him that his shovel could be inside hanging up by his coat. He had much fun with the shovel on Saturday helping mom shovel the walk. And as soon as he came inside he hung up his shovel before he did anything else. I wish he would rub off on his siblings a bit more. Maybe because he has seen what treasures Mom throws out when the big kids are off to school…Who knows.
William has stepped up and is currently filling the shoes of his older brothers. If it can fit inside a toilet He is usually found throwing it in. Jon and I have spent much time this week dipping into the porcelain thrones around the house and fishing out what Will has thrown in. multiple times a day, even multiple times an hour! The worst thing I found this week was my table cloth! But it would take too much time to list all items. Will has also dumped out Jon’s file cabinet -while Jon was in the room- Whew I lucked out on that one. Pulled books off of the book shelf , no make that pulled ALL books off ALL book shelves. Done science experiments with gravity and threw everything he could get his hands on down each and every flight of stairs. And even launched himself out of his highchair and found that gravity does indeed work on little boys as well. Threw every DVD he could get his hands on into my shower. And Sits on top of Wyatt when ever he gets the chance. I think he is timing himself on how fast he can get Wyatt to cry loud enough to get mom’s attention. Wyatt is catching on quick. William is turning into quite the menace and Jon and I are just scratching our heads wondering how our perfect easy going baby turned into a Tasmanian devil over night! In the mean time we continue to gather great writing material.
Hunter is not be left out in the cold when it comes to a bit of a mess. In Erica’s room is a very large and deep closet. I keep my extra bedding in this closet. Sheets, pillows, blankets ect. Hunter has found that he can climb into the topmost shelf and then he becomes almost invisible, since I usually do not look for my children in my linen closet. It has become his favorite hideout this week. I have not been to concerned he really wasn’t messing things up and frankly I was too busy chasing after William’s messes. Well last night Hunter pulled out ALL of the items in that closet and then threw them onto the floor of the other closet in that room. Then to make matters worse. He got into the fish food and it was sprinkled all throughout. And then to top off his mess, HIS DIAPER LEAKED! That sometimes happens with cloth diapers. (it might have been Wills he was in on the mess at the end) So now all my nicely folded sheets and bedding are now unfolded and sprinkled with foul smelling fish food and urine! Needless to say my washer and dryer will get quite the workout this week catching up on all that bedding.
Stiles woke up this Friday morning and came into the kitchen and complained that he had red bumps all over his arms and legs. I took one look at him and could see that the bumps were all over his face as well. I thought for a moment that he must be having a severe allergic reaction. But then he said. “Mom some of the Kids at school have something called Fifths disease?, or something like that.” And as soon as he said that I knew that I was looking at a child with fifths disease as well. So he got out of school on Friday. He was most disappointed to miss his Valentines’ Party. But I went to the school and retrieved his Valentines and passed out his. Since then was have quarantined ourselves hoping not to spread it around. The hardest part is that you are contagious before you break out but you have no symptoms other than vague flu-like symptoms. And When you do break out well lets just say that Stiles is a good looking kids and he looks AWEFUL! He is being tough about not scratching but he looks pretty miserable.
So because We decided that we had better lay low for the next few days in case one of our other children was in the contagious stage of the disease, we skipped out on church and other activities that were planned for the Valentines Day weekend. One was a date that Jon had planned for us to celebrate the 11th anniversary of Jon and I deciding that we should get married. We were going to go to Idaho Falls and go to a movie and dinner at olive garden. I was so excited. And then well pretty bummed that life got in the way. Jon came through though and surprised me with a dozen red roses and some sparkling cider in tall glasses out in the hot tub. I guess dates at home can be fun too.
Normally we would have spent Saturday at the pool or theater or up at the riding arena with our kids. But since we were stuck at home we had to come up with a few things to entertain ourselves for the weekend. We decided that the Garage could really use a good cleaning out. Nothing too intense. But it has been accumulating items for quite some time. Well in the midst of cleaning it out Jon picked up the cooler that he had used last to go hunting. -HE had not cleaned it out even after I reminded (nagged) him about it for 2 months. The cooler needed an intense rescue effort. Jon just opened the top and said I’ll just leave it here to “air out” I told Him that wouldn’t work Seeing how he put it right in the way to the freezer and since the Cat would get into it. He still couldn’t see the problem. He was sure He couldn’t hose it out outside because, well it was outside and winter in Idaho. So I suggested he take it inside and clean it out in the tub. (not gently and loving like, more demanding and letting him know that I think he is an incompetent idiot) In the end I got all puffy and upset and drug the cooler inside myself and cleaned it out, muttering many choice words and letting Jon know that his lack of responsibility for the things we spend hard earned money was just not cool! HE is so sweet. Instead of pointing out all of the things I do to make him crazy and drive him up the wall he gives me a kiss and reminds me that he got me flowers and that he loves me. I still cleaned out the cooler without his help. But he did change 3 diapers this weekend. I must say that he is the perfect guy for me.
Until next week, Let me just say that I wouldn’t have it any other way. Well I guess I would like to be 20 pounds lighter but that is just vanity. And I’m okay with being VAIN.
Love you all tons. We hope that we can come to Dallan’s report next Sunday but we might still be in quarantine mode. If that is the truth, you can all laugh at me behind my back and I will never know.
Monica and the Woodin Nickel Knuckleheads.

fire and brimstone

2010-02-08T10:25:00.001-07:00

MJ, FEB 8 2010 For all of the men out there you are on a countdown to Valentines Day…DO NOT SCREW IT UP!
So Erica says to me. “Mom, I really do love my name Erica but I really would have liked it if my name was Princess!” She named her Doll she got at Christmas You guessed it “Cinderella Princess” She use to name all of her toys and dolls “Beauty” I tried to convince her that her name was beautiful and that Her middle name Esther was the name of a Queen. And that the meaning of Erica Esther is ‘ever powerful star” she was not convinced Princess was just more beautiful…and Dad calls her that.
Erica has finally decided that She Loves Dad and I the same. After almost an entire year of affirming to Jons Ego that she Loves him more that he is her Favorite, I sat her down after many vain attempts to buy her Love and told her that she didn’t have to love me More than Daddy but that she could love us the same and it would be okay. It wouldn’t mean that she loves Daddy any less. I figured my word were falling on deaf ears but apparently she thought about it and 2 days later of her own accord told Jon that she loved Mom just the same as Dad. But that SHE was still Jon’ favorite. It is nice to be removed from the chopped liver list to the I love you too list.
Marcus received a Soccer ball for his birthday. Apparently it has made him quite famous at school because after I requested that the ball not go to school one day I was met with all sorts of arguments about how the other Kids will be mad when they don’t have a soccer game at recess because the ball is not there. SO I continued to let the ball go to school. Well apparently it got kicked over the fence. And A teacher has to go get it out of the farmers field. So for the past few days Marcus has been without his ball. I was wondering about how the games were fairing with out the use of a ball Marcus told me “It is OKAY Jeffery brought his ball so we can still play” apparently the recess game is VERY important.
So I will have to dodge lightning and brimstone this week. At church it was of course fast and testimony meeting. I really wanted to hear my boy’s testimonies so I pulled out two brand new crisp dollar bills. And offered one to each of my boys if they would bear their testimonies. They willing marched up to the stand and gave very honest as a child can be testimonies and then came back to the bench and demanded their dollar. I did pay them. I thought it was worth a dollar a piece to hear their growing testimonies and build their confidence in sharing them. But Jon told me I should not do that again and that it was naughty. But I have seen him do the same thing to the boys for a piece of candy. SO perhaps both Jon and I should watch out for lighting bolts.
Even though the dumb groundhog saw his shadow I saw buds on my cherries tree this weekend and the warm weather on Sunday put a bit of a spring fever in my heart. I am getting anxious to mow grass and plant a garden. The pulling weeds I can do without.
The Super bowl was a bit of a letdown especially since I was cheering for the colts. Jon has Peyton Manning’s rookie card and it is signed. We were hoping for a win and then we were going to maybe try and sell it. But alas we will put it away and hope for the day when Payton wins a super bowl and then we can sell the card to the highest bidder.
William is deciding that anything you can do I can do better, I can do anything better than you! HE is right there side by side with Hunter doing all of the things I wish they would not. Stand on the table. Torment Wyatt, Dump out all of the toys. Help themselves to the fridge… When Wyatt gets mobile I am in trouble.
I went to Camille’s Jewelry Debut show and I am so excited for her show and for the excitement that was generated in her behalf. I am looking forward to Crystals show but I am not sure I will be able to attend in person. I’m just going to need a catalog and then I can shop over the weekend at mom’s for Dallan’s homecoming.
Well MJ there is lots of laundry and other messes to get to and even though I know that they will be there tomorrow I best go get on them today. Work HARD! You are not a farm boy for nothing! And even though you rode short bus I still have faith in you!
Love the Woodin Nickel Knuckleheads.

Expounding on Nicknames Woody's Sister

2010-02-04T15:18:00.000-07:00

Expounding on nicknames.
My family pointed out that I missed some nicknames that were quite common and used in abundance While teasing names from my childhood of Monica Wonica Poo were not readily mentioned the Nickname that was used to tease and torment me as a teenager was mentioned. I do not know if “Woody’s sister” is in fact a true nickname because I was called that by people who really did not now me well at all. And I feel like only those truly close to you can dub with you a new name that you will unconsciously answer to. As I attended High school it was on the heels of two of my three older brothers. With the last name of Woodland all of my older brothers were dubbed by their friends, their enemies, and the football coaches as “Woody.” I entered the Halls of Minico High School an eager sophomore hoping to have my own identity and felt it slip further and further away as I sat in each of my new classes and teacher after teacher, even the girls PE teacher, would pause after calling my name and almost incredulously ask “are you Woody’s sister?” and there it was, those who did not know me had an instant name for me purely by association. Most of them had no Idea who this “Woody” was. But the name itself lent its own impression and I was thus called all of my sophomore and Junior year. But there was a light at the end of the tunnel. I figured as I began my Senior year I might be able to emerge from this Woody’s Sister shadow and throw the nickname to the side of the road, I was ready to have my own identity. Alas. My younger Brother Seth entered the Halls of Minico High and was instantly the big man on campus being a sophomore, and allowed to play on the varsity football team. “Woody” was soon well known to the people and I was reduced again to being “Woody’s Sister.” Now do not get me wrong, being Woody’s sister was not all bad. But I was glad when I did graduated from High School and was looking towards Higher Education that finally the nickname would be gone. However, my two oldest brothers lived in the same apartment complex as I did at ISU and the name was applied again. You would think that I might eventually get away from this name but as I look at my Husbands Last name of Woodin and the 5 son’s I have, and I am sure that in time my nickname will morph in to “Woody’s Mom” and that my dear Daughter will be stuck with the nickname of “Woody’s Sister” whether she likes it or not. I do draw some consolation that most of my nieces might suffer right along with my daughter, and that most of my sister-in-laws will be “Woody’s Mom” right along with me.

Erica's smile

2010-01-31T18:06:00.000-07:00

MJ Jan 31 2010
So you are now the lucky winner. I figure that since today is Dallan’s last day of his mission that he is not going to be checking his email on Sunday at some dumb kiosk. So you get the prize this week of having my letter addressed to you.
It has snowed several times this week. Big puffy flakes at times and at others little tiny sparkles. Some of it came down Kind of sideways and some of it came down really sideways. But alas School was in session everyday and for that I was grateful.
We had a bummer of a Saturday morning. Our Mare (that is a female horse for those non equine people) (equine means horse for those even less) her name is Sis was bred last spring and we were expecting her to foal in about 6 weeks. We were counting down the weeks and throwing around names for the baby horse. And then for some unknown reason Sis had her baby premature sometime Friday night. When we found the poor thing it of course had already died. Jon was bummed all day and the rest of us were in poor spirits as well. Sis seems to be doing okay, and I think we will try to rebreed her in about 4 or 5 months. So on that happy note let me tell you about the other goings on around the woodin nickel.
William fell off of the dinning table yesterday and has quite the knot in the middle of his forehead. He looked a bit like a unicorn but the swelling and color has gone down.
Erica Lost her first Tooth at the blackfoot swimming pool this Saturday, The story is worth the telling. Erica was all dressed in her suit and lifejacket and waiting for me to change and get William ready. Well somehow she had knocked her loose tooth to the point that it was barley hanging on and I was pretty sure that I needed to finish the job before she jumped into the pool less she lose it in the water. Her tooth was bleeding and she was sure that the end of the world was near. So after checking with my sister-in laws if they had any teething pain orajel type stuff in their diaper bags (which none of them did) I decided it was time to take action. I got some TP and took Erica into a changing stall. Yelled to the other patrons in the dressing room that if they heard screams I was not beating my child, I was simply extracting a tooth. Then I took the TP and assured Erica I was going to use it to wipe up the blood in her mouth, I grabbed onto the loose tooth and gave it a yank. SCREAMING CHILD! But I had the rotted tooth in my hand and was celebrating and telling Erica that she was all grown up and had just lost her first tooth and now the tooth fairy could come and how exciting that is and on and on and on. Still Crying! She was not easy to convince. But we got some more TP and blotted up the rest of the blood and she sat with a big wad of toilet paper in her mouth and tears streaming from her eyes while I changed into my swimming suit. When I was ready and Erica had spit out the TP, Erica was anxious to gain an glimpse of her new toothless smile in the mirror. After she had inspected the new gapping hole in her head she was anxious as all get out to go out to the pool and show Daddy and Elena the loss of her baby tooth. The Tooth Fairy even made it on the first try! We didn’t even have to come up with some lame excuse like…“It was the weekend, so the Tooth Fairy was visiting the Easter bunny, and Santa Claus, so they could get together with some leprechauns and play Settlers of Catan all weekend.”
Anyway my children are eagerly awaiting our trip to the Twin Falls Airport and I feel a bit sad that you will not be able to join us Monday night. But since Mom and Dad and Dallan and Garrett are taking off next week to come to see you the blow is softened and the Jealous bone creeps up and I will be thinking of all of you sunning yourself in the nice Florida sun every time I put on the Hat coat gloves and scarf.
Here is a Happy Birthday Shout out to Sara and Laura on Tuesday. Have cake for me. What, are you two turning 16 this year or what?
Work hard and know that We love you and are cheering for you.
Love Monica at the Woodin Nickel full of Nuckleheads!

Nicknames

2010-01-27T11:51:00.003-07:00

I was just thinking about my name. It of course being Monica Gayle . As a child my mother, after having three boys, called me Monica Dolly so much I was quite convinced that Dolly was my middle name. I was fairly disapointed when my mother realized my confusion and told me the truth about my name. At the time I thought my name was a bit weird and spelled kind of funny. Later I realized that my name was a combination of both of my parents middle names. Gay, my mothers, and Del, my fathers. Few of my parents 9 children have boasting rights to being named after our parents. MJ and Camille have claims from Dads name but I am the only one who gets Moms. And so far this is true of all of the grandchildren. So there I am special. But I am not writing this becuase of Moms influence on my name. Rather the Influence DAD has had on my name. See when I was a small child Dad nicknamed me MUSH because I mushed his heart. It expanded to Mushcake which is currently a term of enderment from my brothers. As Well as the nickname CA which was bestowed upon me by my baby Brother because he was too lazy to call me or my sisters by our full names and nicknamed us ALL "CA". For some reason, "CA" stuck with me. Camille has moved on to Mille and Crystal will forever be Annie or Bacon Biscut (who knows why) Anyway back to the name Dad nicknamed me. I have not given the nickname much thought, it has been used only by my closest family members and as a joke when ever hot cereal was served, but that is a different story. Recently when I attened the funeral of my Paternal Grandmother I happened to sit down across the table from my Great Uncle Joe. And as I was explaining to Uncle Joe that I was Michaels oldest daughter Uncle Joe burst out "MUSHY!?!" I am sure I turned a few shades of red and laughed that my Uncle Joe, who has not seen me in probalby 2 decades, remembers me by the silly little nickname that my daddy gave me.
Thanks alot DAD.

gratitude and scrament trays

2010-01-24T18:57:00.001-07:00

Dear Dallan. Jan 24th 2010.
This marks the last letter I will write to you as a missionary so I better make it good. For all the rest of you I made a promise to MJ that if he got excellent grades at School I would continue my weekly musings in letters directed to his inbox. And if you haven’t heard the good news my bribe worked and apparently MJ can not possibly live without his weekly dose of Woodin Nickel hysteria, and MJ got EXCELLENT grades this semester. He deserves to be taken out for Ice cream and a root beer but since Florida charges way to much for their frozen dairy treats I will simply congratulate him via email, for the entire next semester…but I’m warning you bucko one not so EXCELLENT grade and I am withdrawing my hilarious support! Other people withdraw their financial support, but since I already spent that, I can only withdraw the stories that my children inspire!
Speaking of my children inspiring …something. Hunter was very inspirational for our humorous column today. In sacrament meeting today he was sitting on the bench or rather lounging around on the bench halfway between Jon and I. And when the bread was passed it was a bit of a fiasco to divert him from trying to grab two fistfuls of bread and devour them, but we succeeded…sort of…he only got ONE handful. We were not very smart when the water came by and Marcus passed it to Hunter and then Stiles tried desperately to take the tray from Hunter who had grabbed the handle with both hands in an iron clasping grip and was not about to let it go, and pass it to me. Jon had Wyatt in his arms and I had William in mine and between the two of us was quite a length of bench, not to mention a few children to get past. After much trying, pulling, yelling and the Help of Sister Terry, who was seated in the row behind us, we spilled half of the tray, before we were able to pry the handle out of Hunters hands, and pass the tray to me. I was able to partake of the sacrament and then pass the now mostly empty tray on to the Cooper family. It was indeed a not very spiritual portion of our sarament meeting for the Woodin family and I for one was very grateful when it was all over. Sister Terry laughed about the whole ordeal with me later.
I have discovered that I am raising very ungrateful children, or maybe they are just plain ole selfish. Maybe you can read this next story and help me decide. Stiles Desperatly needed a new pair of shoes. So on Tuesday I headed to the store in search of some new footwear for my oldest son. I was also on the lookout for some new shoes for William since I lost one of his tennis shoes and he has been wearing his sandals out in the snowy weather. Well I found some great tennis shoes for Stiles early on and some really cute cowboy type boots for William. Then I wandered around the shoe section for a few more minutes until I found some cowboy boots. They had some nice looking boots in Stiles size as well as Marcus’s so I threw the new footwear into the cart and then happened by some girly western boots and knew that Erica could not be left out and left the shoe section with 5 boxes of new shoes for my children. When I got home I knew that bribery is a great way to get my children to do what I want them to do but I prefer to call it “working towards a goal” so when my dear sweet childrens returned home from a “hard” day at school I gave them all a snack and informed them of my desire to give them a gift of some new cowboy boots when …they had finished their chores for the day. I excpected delight and glee as they looked upon what could be theirs with a little bit of work. Instead I heard. “OH Mom…I don’t want BROWN ones.” “Who gets the black ones.” “That’s not what I wanted!” “I want PINK ones…those ones are NOT pink!” “We ALWAYS have to do our jobs, and its too hard!” “I am NOT doing my jobs” . With this I realized that my Children needed a lesson in gratitude. So I swooped up the new shiny boots and told them that I was not going to give any such gift to children who didn’t appreciate that their Mom was trying to give them something nice and that their Father workes hard all day long to provide it for them. The least they could do was say thank you mom. And do their assigned jobs. So I informed them that none of them would recive the boots and that I would be happy to take the boots back to the store. Then my children started to really cry and beg for second chanced and opportunities to earn back the lost boots. Seeing my golden opportunity for a great “working towards a goal” moment I gave vague ideas about good behavior and clean rooms and the chance that if that happened I might not take the boots back to the store right away. In the end I had very cooperative children and cleaner than normal bedrooms (which still could be deemed a hazardous area) all week long. On Saturday I dangled my goal in front of my children and gave them a list of things to accomplish to finally achive the goal. After doing everything on the list with minimal grumbling and complaining and “MOM, so-and so’s not helping!” I told my children that they had earned the right to have a the boots I bought for them. But asked them if they thought it would be a good idea to show their Daddy how grateful they were for him providing the money for the boots by cleaning up his office. They were all in agreement that this was indeed a good plan and worked happily, and quickly and accomplished the job. So On Saturday when they were finally sporting their new footwear I think they might have a small understanding of what it is like to be grateful. But I am not going to hold my breath.
Hunter is trying to say his alphabet. Jon has been working with him. And Hunter often askes in all of his grunts if he can say the prayer. We are seeing some more pregrssion in his speech but it continues to be slow. William is a toal tease and we love him ever so much more for it. His two little dimples melts many hearts and he is trying out the just haw far can we push Moms buttons before she loses it all by himself. His latest trick involves emptying kitchen cuboards and carrying their contents all over the house. Some meals we have to go on a scavanger hunt to find the right pan I need to fix the next meal. But we all love the our Willy Joe. Wyatt has a dear little smile and is a very content baby. He does like to see what is going on and is enjoying the use of the Johhny jump-up that is hanging in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room. I rather like it too. But I have to tell the older siblings not to spin Wyatt around and around. Hunter only had to get stuck in it once to decide that it wasn’t that fun to be in and I have used it to trap William so that he couldn’t get in the way.
We will miss praying for Uncle Dallan on his mission. But we are looking forward to your return. And I just wanted to point out to you that you can say you served exactly 2 years to the day! Seth claims serving for 4 years, be we all know that he is kind of full of it. HEE HEE. Love you tons. Work hard your last week. Don’t be the elder that someother Elder gets to complain about having this really trunky elder as his companion. Keep working. The Church is true. President Monsen is our prophet. And you are the cutest little missionary brother I have.
Love Monica and the rest of the Woodin Nickel Kiddos-and Jon too!

cowboy up

2010-01-17T15:58:00.001-07:00

Dallan, Jan 17th 2010.
Major countdown mode. Just 16 days left. We are anxious for your arrival and my children have assured me that it will be Okay for them to miss school in your honor.
Marcus is currently sporting a black eye. I asked him what happened and his response was this “When I was playing soccer I got hit with a football in my eye.” I made him repeat his sentence twice and then asked how that was possible. Apparently the playground at school is the field for all sports no matter which one you choose to be playing you need to be aware of all games. Perhaps this is why so many men are able to follow so much sporting hype. They got their first taste when they were in elementary school and couldn’t get over the constant involvement in all sports.
Stiles is nursing a fat lip. He got that while taking a shower last night in my bathroom. Being short he did not have the proper reach to get the spray wand part of the shower head down and when he pulled on it to bring it down to him it came hastily and Kissed him right in the Kisser Quite hard. It cut him on his upper lip just below his nose. And then the force of the blow caused some abrasion damage on the inside of his mouth and his mouth was bleeding. This morning it was pretty swollen but by church his lip didn’t look so kissably juicy.
Yesterday we took the kids and the horses up to the indoor riding arena. Stiles got thrown off by Rebel pretty early on but did a cowboy up and was soon in the saddle again. Stiles rode and rode and got Rebel pretty tired and calmed down so the other kids could have a good ride. Jon’s sister, Julie, and her family came up and their boys took a turn, they seemed to really like it. We had quite a surprise with our kid horse “Oaky” that we bought last fall. She has been totally awesome in our yard with me and with the kids and Jon. But she was originally trained as a roping horse. So when we got into the arena she was ready to RUN! And run fast! And Hard! I lead her around the arena a few times with kids on her and then I decided to jump up on her and have a ride. Well she needed very little encouragement to TAKE OFF. And she did. I was saying not very good words to say in front of children and when I finally got her to slow down and almost stopped she spun real hard and I lost my balance and I could feel myself falling so I “stepped off” well the crappy thing is Now I Know that I have GOT TO get back on that Horse. I was shaking so bad!!! I had to have Jon lead me around the arena because I knew that if She took off on me again I would be in big trouble! All in all We had fun and Stiles has a nice owie on his side from being thrown off.
I have been trying to get this body back into a shape other than the one it is currently in. 3 babies in a row has not been nice to certain parts of me. Because of this new years goal I have had much soreness and stiffness in many parts of my body in the last week. The scale still gives me a number that makes me want to throw the scale out the window and then drive a semi truck over it a few times but we will continue to work towards a less flabby mommy shape.
Mom had me read a book called the Total Money Makeover, by Dave Ramsey. I am impressed with the “duh this just makes sense” formula that the author teaches. You really walk away from the book with a new insight to money in general. As part of that new insight to money I can see why Camille is starting her own business and Why Seth And Emily cut up their credit cards and why Emily is going back to school. So they might be able to see why in the crazy sam hill I switched my kids to cloth diapers. -then again maybe they won’t but we are getting a little further ahead one diaper change at a time and Jon has even managed to get stuck with a poopy one. And he changed it! I gave him a trophy. When you get home I am sure that Mom will try to get you to read this book. And if she doesn’t one of your other siblings probably will. Anyway I just finished reading the book yesterday and I am anxious for Jon to start and see what insights he has.
The Church is true. Christ lives. The time is short. Work hard.
We Love you , Monica and the Woodin Nickel Knuckle Heads!

grandma's funeral and something profound

2010-01-10T20:51:00.000-07:00

Dear Dallan, Jan 10th 2009
With only two more p-days for you before you come home I feel a great need to write something profound for you to read on one of your last preparation days before you come home and start de-weirding. Actually you are so weird that there is no way you could possibly de-weird. Maybe I should refer to your new venture in trying to speak English. And since you are now fluent in Spanish and Ewok, English shouldn’t be too much of a challenge. Anyway back to something profound. Well I’ll tell you what. I’ve got nothing. After two years of letter writing and letting you ,and the rest of our family laugh and laugh at the funny things in my life. IF you haven’t found anything profound in anything I have said let me just tell you how proud of you I am.
I am proud of you.
There something profound.
Actually I would like to let you know that you are a giant in my eyes. All of my brothers are. (My sisters are more like magical fairies) I am glad that you made the choice to serve a mission. I know it could not have been an easy thing to do. I am proud of you for working hard to learn Spanish. I’m sure that when you arrived in Mexico you had no idea what anybody was saying but now you will come home and not be able to order a whopper at burger king without messing up the sentence structure. (don’t worry if you are in burley they will know exactly what you mean. )
I know have I told you this before but I would just like to say again “thank you for your example” There is nothing better for my boys, and my daughter, than your example right now. I wish that every young child in the church had the example of an aunt, uncle, cousin, or grandparent out on a mission. I know that I remember the example of uncle Dean and Uncle Alan and aunt Debbie and when Grandma and Grandpa Wall served their missions it was a strength and a testimony to me of the truthfulness of the gospel in so many different ways. I pray that your example to my children will strengthen them, and plant in them a desire to serve our Father in Heaven when they are old enough to do so.
And I want to thank you for giving me a really good excuse to take an hour out of my week and record the doings of my family. The letters I have written you are the closest thing I am getting to Keeping a journal in this busy time of my life. It has been a true blessing for me and has developed my typing talent and my ability to story tell in a way that I did not know I could. It has helped me see the messes and the meltdowns and the moments that I just wanted to give in and cy as great stories for someone else to read and enjoy. I really hope that you have enjoyed my ramblings, I know that I have enjoyed rambling to you.
Now let me tell you a about a sweet moment at grandma’s funeral, one I don’t want to forget, For the funeral all of the men in the family right on down to Mason and Wyatt were given a red flower to wear on their shirt. And all of the grandsons were honorary pall bearers. Marcus felt the weight of the flower quite profoundly and messed with it for almost the entire duration of the funeral service. Then as we were getting out of the van at the cemetery for the graveside service Marcus began to panic because somehow his coat had unpinned the flower from his shirt and the flower was not where it should be. After a moment of searching the flower fell out of the bottom of his coat and we repined it to his shirt. At this point Marcus said “Mom, I want to give this Flower to grandma.” I told him that if he want to he would be able to. Thinking that when most of the people had left the grave side I would let him put it on grandma’s coffin. Well after the prayer they invited all of the pall bearers and honorary pall bearers to add their flowers to the bouquet on top of grandma’s coffin. Marcus was about the first person after our uncles to give grandma his flower. He was very glad that he could give great grandma a flower and when we got back to the van he offered me his condolences and said “Mom, I am very sorry that your grandma died.” He is a very sensitive kid and I am so glad Heavenly Father entrusted me with him. I just hope that Jon and I don’t screw him up to bad.
Grandma’s funeral was great. You were the only grandchild not in attendance. But there were a “bazillion” great grand children present and they kept a good steady hum going the whole time. I realized that Jon and I are the only ones who have 6 children. There are several with 5 but No one else is in the 6 club with Jon and I. Jason said that we had won “the rabbit award” for having the most kids. I argue that Tyrell and Rose should win the award with 5 kids in 4 years! The Woodland Family has followed the commandment to multiply and replenish the earth and Grandpa will get his wish of having posterity to number the sands of a small white sand beach on the leeward side of a tropical island in the pacific.
Work Hard. The time is very short. The homecoming party is being planned and since you are going to Florida over Valentines day I have yet to set you up on a date. But I am looking at some options for you. HEEHEE. Love Monica.

grandma

2010-01-08T14:46:00.001-07:00

Dear Dallan Jan 8th 2010 (Happy Birthday Crystal!)
Happy new Year! Oay Oay I am a bit late in my letter writing. And Yes My letter K is broken on my key board and so It only works some of the time. We shall see how important the letter K is to the English language. And don’t be surprised if the H stops showing up as well. It is official I have worn out the Key board on Jon’s laptop computer writing to my Missionary Brother. Well to bring you up to speed. Christmas came and went and we now have a new mouth to feed. A miniature Horse named Rebel. My children are ecstatic and Jon seems to be pretty tickled too. The kids have fallen off of their new friend a number of times but they are getting better and better at staying on. When ever the horse starts to run the kids get scared and ditch. It is kind of funny to watch. Hunter is the most fun to watch- total grins from ear to ear.
We had a big BRISCOE Christmas Party here at our place out in the Barn. It was attended by all who could possibly make it and Jon’s Mom and Uncle Nolan worked hard to set it up and take it down. The kids had a ball the adults loved the visiting and the food and the grandma’s and pa’s were usually stuck holding one of the many many many children who were running a muck back in forth in the upper reaches of the barn. We hope to hold it again. But maybe with a larger committee to help in the set up and take down so that it won’t be such a huge job.
We also attended a Christmas Party with Jon’s Siblings and their Children. It is affectionately called “the Piñata party”. Why Jon’s family break a Piñata at Christmas is still beyond me, but the tradition is strong and a total blast. In fact we broke our own piñata at our house with just our kids. Anyway as part of the Woodin party we ended up with a visit from SANTA. It was so cute. Hunter literally Jumped up in Santa’s lap with out hesitation when it was his turn and laughed a giggled the whole time. (a far cry different than all my other kids who thought I was torturing them to go see Santa) Santa even called up the adults and gave them a prize. Santa was so good he knew that I had been bad and grouchy and mean all year. And He told me I had better shape up if I wanted any presents. My kids where laughing so hard that Santa knew that their Mommy had been a grouch this year. In my defense it is all Wyatt’s fault.
I took just the kids and went to the farm for an over-nighter during the holiday break. I gave Mom and Dad “His and Her’s” drills for Christmas. And the best part was that they opened them apart from each other and Dad said something like “I really needed this, and now nobody will steal this” and so did Mom! I was laughing pretty hard. It was a fun trip and the Kids even threw them selves down the sledding hill a time or two.
For the new year we spent the night in Aberdeen with Jason and Nanette’s family. We celebrated the new year first at midnight then again with their Sisters Cindy and Becky who live in Washington and then again when the new year came in on the Island State of HAWAII! And then at 4:15 am we finally went to bed. Then it snowed and snowed and we got up and played in the snow and I made the cutest snow bunny. No not figuratively ..I did it literally. The project started out as a snow man and I morphed it into a bunny, Nanette even found a basket for my bunny to hold. It was fun and the kids thought it was awesome. And then we were having so much fun in the snow we decided to spend another night in Aberdeen so that Jon could go ice fishing with his brother and Father and brother in law. I think they had fun and they actually caught some fish.
Some crazy things we have done with the kids include moving Stiles out of the basement and back into the bedroom with Marcus. We also set up Hunter’s new twin size bed in this room and moved William in with Erica. Stiles and Marcus are usually in a power struggle over who is in charge of their room. It hasn’t come to blows yet but there is usually lots of crying , screaming and gnashing of teeth. Hunter is having a hard time going to bed. Before he snuck out of his bed and would crawl into one of his older brothers beds and sleep with them. Stiles and Marcus didn’t seem to mind. But now that they are all in the same room together the big boys don’t think that sharing their bed with Hunter is such a cool idea. Every night it is getting a bit better… usually Hunter comes into my room and falls asleep in my bed and then Jon and I move him to his bed . William has been taking the switch pretty hard. Not only did he switch rooms but went from the crib to the toddler bed. Let us just say that it is like a Chinese fire drill in Jon and I’s bed at night. Between Jon and Hunter and William and Wyatt, I end up sleeping with at least two Woodin boys every night. Sometimes all 4 of them. A few times all at once! The other night William did sleep in his own bed for the whole night. That was nice.
Erica received some dress up clothes for Christmas and changes into them almost as soon as she comes in the door from School. I think that they are a hit. She has always loved to dress up and usually goes though several outfit’s a day. Now they don’t just all fill up her laundry basket, after trying them on and then discarding them 10 minutes later for something “more” beautiful. She still is sure that I am chopped liver and that she loves her dad the best. “Dad is cool, Mom is just pretty” but I do have to say that since she Loves pretty things perhaps she does have a place in her heart for me.
William is learning how to drink out of a cup and entered the world of Nursery this week. I am so excited that the Lord said that Nursery should be a part of the gospel. Because if he hadn’t I don’t know that Jon and I would have continued to keep going to church when our children were between the ages of 16months to 3yrs old. Those little guys are big handfuls. All those who are nursery leaders earn big points toward eternal salvation in my book.
Speaking of my book. There is a class being offered through the relief Society Program in my ward about how to write and publish a book. I signed up to take the class. I am curious as to what I will learn from such a class. Now I just need a topic and some direction.. Everyone knows that my MUSES are constantly MESSING up the place, and giving me great material.
Jon has been working very hard. HE is trying to catch up from all the time off for the Holidays , cold weather and short days. We continue to have work and know that the Lord is blessing us in this. We are back up to having 3 guys working for us. Considerably less than the 10 we had 2 years ago! But we were down to just Jon and one other guy who Jon really couldn’t lay off because he lives in our other house. So things look a bit promising. We hope we will be able to continue to work on houses. Most of our work right now is on remodel stuff and it is cool to see the before and after pictures of the homes they have been working on.
I am still on a diet. The big butt fairy did not lay off this holiday season and many treats were indulged in. In truth I just wanted to get my kitchen cleaned up so I just kept on eating everything until I there was nothing left. It was not the best way to clean up my Kitchen but I do like the way the Kitchen looks when it is cleaned up. But my backside in a mirror is not looking so great.
I did get Christmas decorations down this week. It always makes me sad to take then down. But at the same time it is liberating to have it all down and out of the way. I still have a beautiful poinsettia plant that I have not yet managed to Kill and that is a nice reminder that it was just Christmas and that it was a beautiful Christmas season.
On Sunday when Dad called and told me that Grandma was not doing well I felt sad and was then immediately filled with Joy that Grandma would have the wish of her Heart be with Grandpa again. It is wonderful that we have the plan of Salvation because it really is the plan of happiness. That night when Camille and I went to the hospital to see Grandma for the last time there was so much love and Joy and happiness in that room. Seth described it as peaceful and that is the correct word. Even though we knew that grandma’s life was at an end There was so much peace in the knowledge of what was to come for her and her life. And right now she is probably eating buckets and buckets of white fluffy bread! I am so grateful that I got to be one of her grand daughters and feel of her love and concern for me. She was a great grandmother and I will dearly miss her phone calls and birthday cards.
We will miss you with us this Saturday as we attend the funeral but we will see you soon . Work hard, you have so little time left. I know that your efforts these last few days of your mission will bless many lives. You have been such a great example to me and my children and my husband I can not thank you enough for the influence you have had on my family by serving a mission. The blessing we have received have already been great and far reaching.
We Love you much and pray for you always and with all our faith.
Love the Woodin Nickels.

Merry Christmas Dallan

2009-12-20T21:20:00.001-07:00

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

2009-12-13T19:34:00.001-07:00

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

2009-12-07T10:00:00.000-07:00

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

2009-11-30T11:53:00.001-07:00

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

2009-11-22T21:47:00.001-07:00

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

2009-11-16T08:37:00.000-07:00

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

2009-11-09T12:06:00.000-07:00

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

2009-11-01T18:44:00.001-07:00

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

2009-10-28T15:10:00.002-06:00

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

DOC!

2009-10-28T07:59:00.001-06:00

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

2009-10-26T09:40:00.000-06:00

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

2009-10-25T19:38:00.000-06:00

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

2009-10-19T13:21:00.001-06:00

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"

2009-10-13T12:22:00.003-06:00

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

2009-10-13T12:11:00.002-06:00

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!

2009-10-13T09:57:00.001-06:00

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

2009-10-12T09:41:00.001-06:00

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

2009-10-04T19:57:00.000-06:00

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!!!

2009-10-01T13:43:00.003-06:00

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!

2009-09-28T15:52:00.000-06:00

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 !

2009-09-25T15:49:00.003-06:00

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...

2009-09-23T12:20:00.001-06:00

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

2009-09-20T20:33:00.001-06:00

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

2009-09-15T09:38:00.000-06:00

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

2009-09-07T12:32:00.000-06:00

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

2009-09-02T13:58:00.002-06:00

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

2009-08-29T08:24:00.004-06:00

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!

2009-08-25T08:08:00.000-06:00

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

2009-08-23T16:18:00.001-06:00

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!

2009-08-20T09:25:00.003-06:00

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.

3 down, 3 to go

2009-08-16T21:40:00.001-06:00

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?)

Up and at 'em

2009-08-14T12:17:00.002-06:00

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! )

"an eviction notice can and will be given"

2009-08-09T16:03:00.001-06:00

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.

Marcus takes center stage

2009-08-05T10:16:00.001-06:00

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!”

I wanted an easy job

2009-08-03T16:24:00.001-06:00

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.

labor and delivery

2009-08-01T11:08:00.001-06:00

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.

another chapter for my book

2009-07-30T11:40:00.000-06:00

Another chapter in my “book” that I need to write someday.

Since I am down on not total bed rest but with orders to what I need to do to keep my contractions to a maximum of 5 per hour that means sitting around and acting like I am sick and in pain and should not leave my bed for longer than 10-15 minutes at a time. I should not pickup my kids-yeah right William is only 12months old nor should I try to pick up the messes on the floor left by my 5 all under the age of 8 children. I truly am doing my best to restrict myself to only lifting William when diapers need to be changed, in and out of the tub, crib, and on and off the bed/couch. I am cautiously doing the laundry, doing dishes and only sweeping the floor when absolutely necessary which amounts to about 3 times a day. I’ve given up any dreams of running a vacuum cleaner or pushing around a mop. I do “flylady” my bed and make it in the morning so that when helpful people come to help me they can see me sitting on my made bed instead of a ruffled one. A sister in my ward called and chewed my out for milking the goats yesterday morning and insisted that if Jon wasn’t around to do the job that her teenage son was capable of doing the job. (Jon has since let his Dad in on the fact that I am trying to stay pregnant and asked for his help with the morning milking).
The first Day that my Mom is gone I of coursed milked the Goats. Stiles and Marcus did help. Then After breakfast and orders to my children to make their beds I decided that Erica, Hunter, and William could all really use a bath. After throwing them all through the tub and getting fresh diapers and clean clothes and the right hair pretty’s in the right way I turned myself over to the computer for some mind numbing or stimulating games of solitaire to keep me from trying to do more work. My kids disappeared out the door and I was okay with that- or so I thought. After about 20 minutes I hear Hunter screaming bloody murder and I went to see what was wrong. My kids have turned on the water and did what is the funniest thing to do with running water in an out door environment and made a nice mud puddle then proceeded to throw mud at each other until they were quite caked in mud. I knew I did not want the mud monsters tracking through my house in their present state so I got out the little pool and the hose and instructed them to get themselves cleaned up. It of course tuned into another game and since they were not wreaking the inside of my house I sat in a chair outside and let themselves hose each other off until I deemed it okay for them to drag their wet but not muddy selves inside to dryer clothes. Then they went out again in clean dry clothes and tried play in the water and mud again! They were immediately grounded from going out of the house. I was told that I was so mean and unfair. I was sitting there thinking I was an awesome Mom for not pulling out a switch and beating the mud off of their bodies, I let them run through the sprinklers to remedy their mess.

SO THEN! This morning rolled around…I am exhausted. My insomnia is worse than ever and the contractions wake me up all through the night. I am often throwing little tantrums at 3 am over the lack of sleep I am getting and wishing I could kick my sweet snoring Jon and somehow that would make me be able to sleep. Anyway so I can hear my kids up and running around. I roll over and try to get just a few more minutes of sleep because a tired mommy is a really mean Mommy. After about half an hour I decided that I really am not getting sleep anymore and should go get on with my day.
Well I knew that this type of activity would happen in my house- Hey I have three stairwells and 4 boys if I thought It wouldn’t happen I would be living in a fantasy world. My dear sweat adorable children had thrown every pillow, blanket, stuffed animal, and all of Marcus clothes, clean ones and dirty ones I might ad, into a big pile at the bottom of TWO DIFFERENT flights of stairs and then were sliding down the stairs on pieces of wood and crashing into the pile.
I did not yell, I did not spank, I did not even swear- well not too bad anyway. But in the end those kids picked up all of the mess and I sat in chair and ate all of the left over desert from last night in front of their faces while they were doing it, telling them it was just too bad for them that they made a big mess and now could not have another treat.

The joys of mother hood!

I really am okay, I just wish my kids would get the picture that I can’t clean up anything more that the dishes right now and could they just quit making other messes for the next 10 days! PLEASE!
They are going to play at a friends house this afternoon, so I can take a nap!
Monica

it is not labor day today

2009-07-28T09:53:00.000-06:00

I am okay,

A few of you know that On Saturday I was having major contractions and felt like I was starting to dilate. I have since been taking medication to stop my contractions and it seems to be doing it’s job. I can’t do all of the things a mommy of 5 kids should get to every day or else I start having contractions again. Mom has come to help me and get the house somewhat under control. I saw the doctor on Monday morning and he said my cervix was getting soft but I was only dilated to a 1. As long as I keep taking my medicine and keep my contractions to a maximum of 5 every hour we should be able to keep me pregnant for the next two weeks after that all bets are off and perhaps labor day will come early this year for me. So now you know.

Monica

LIVING RIGHT

2009-07-22T09:25:00.001-06:00

LIVING RIGHT

So I was Outside doing yard work, Actually I was trying to figure out the confounding water issues we have…but that in and of itself is a very different story. Anyway I was outside and I looked down and saw a very dirty and rusty looking key. I took two steps past it and then decided that even though It was on the ground and a pregnant woman bending over and picking anything off of the ground is not only really funny to watch but usually causes pain and discomfort to the pregnant woman. I decided that I had better pick up the key seeing how the entire everything we have has locks on it and the keys often are no where to be found when needed and who knows what this key may or may not go to. So after bending myself over and with a few grunts and huffs and puffs I retrieved the key from the ground and deposited it into my pocket. I went the rest of the day and didn’t give the key in my pocket a second thought.

At the end of the day I was very much in need of a shower- Big pregnant lady + hot day in the yard= smelly person. So I stripped myself down to my birthday suit and was heading into my bathroom when My dear sweet Husband opened the door to abandon the bathroom and the smell that was wafting with him was enough to make a skunk scurry away holding his breath. I quickly reached into the toxic Zone turned on the Fan and shut the door tight. I then declared despite my nakedness that I would wait 5 minutes to take a shower because I was fearful that if I stepped into my bathroom I might leave the bathroom smelling worse than when I went in. Jon just kind of giggled, and sang a little jingle about making a “poopy” and crawled into bed and started reading his book. (yes he can read, shocking but that is not the point of this story) So I waited around until I had decided that the fan had perhaps detoxified the bathroom and when to open the door.

IT WAS LOCKED!

JON LAUGHED!

I threw a bathrobe around my large pregnant smelly self and went to find the box that holds a collection of at least 5 dozen keys. When I returned to my bathroom door I proceeded to try every one of those keys and guess what. Not one key worked!

JON LAUGHED! AGAIN!

Now I know I could go and shower in a different bathroom in my house but With my increasing waistline I have also found that I need to get up in the middle of the night and be friendly with my toilet and increasing number of times in the middle of the night. And as Jon was sitting in our bed giggling to himself And I KNOW it was NOT about the book he was reading, I yelled some sort of guilt trip ridden words about how he can get up and help me figure out how to open the door.

Then I thought about the rusty dirty key that I had put in my pants pockets early that morning and decided that since I had tried every other key I could get my hands on I should at least give this one a try. So I dug it out of my pants and took it to the door and just as Jon was getting up to do “something” (don’t ask me what he was going to try- I don’t think anybody knows) I put the key in the hole and unlocked the door!

Jon was so relieved to go back to reading his book and when I told him that I picked up this rusty old key outside this morning, He said “ Well you must be living right!”

Weather I am living right or not I thought it was one heck of a story.

Monica

stuff to sell

2009-07-21T16:37:00.001-06:00

Dear Family,

In an effort to help My tenants be able to afford to move I have purchased from them basically all of their furniture. I really do not need most of the items I purchased from my tenants. But I bought the items with the idea that I could resale them on Craigslist or perhaps sale some items to family members. You do not need to feel like you need to purchase these items from me but I thought I would offer them to family first and sale them to you for what I paid for them. Here is the list

27” television -$50.00
Computer desk $100.00
Entertainment center $50.00
2 tall black bookcases $30.00
New Lawnmower $150.00
Electrical hedge trimmers $25.00
A Bunch of yarn in lots of different colors $ 25.00 I was thinking of Becky when I bought this item
13” inch television $20.00
Hide a bed couch $35.00
Swimming pool with ladder filter and chemicals (quick set by Intex) $100.00
2 Filing cabinets one is black ,one is wood finish $10.00 a piece
Iron/ ironing board set $10.00
Small bookshelf brown $10.00
Weedeater $15.00

Some of the items we might decided to keep like the TV’s but I will need to talk to Jon more in depth about what we will keep and sell.

Call me if you are interested I will be posting most of these items on Craigslist soon.

Love Monica

HOT HOT HOT

2009-07-19T19:08:00.000-06:00

Dallan July 19 2009 HOT HOT HOT!

Well this week started out like any other week. The first thing Stiles did on Monday morning was get in a fight with the recliner and the recliner hit back and broke one of his permanent teeth. The Dentist was kind enough to see me right away and filled in his tooth and demanded a wad of cash in return. And the week just got more and more fun.
We spent a good portion of the beginning of the week in preparation for the family camping trip. It is a good thing the camper was still basically packed from our 4th of july trip else I don’t think I would have survived the preparatory measures that need to be taken for such an outing. Just when food, Clothes, extra pillows for me, and the wading pool were all on board we were ready for the hottest camping trip of our lives. Massacre Rocks is probably a neat place to camp in June or September but in Mid July it should be listed as cruel and unusual punishment. The wading pool, and river did help to make little kids not so fussy and a trip over to Indian springs pool was awesome. The freezer in the camper stocked with otter pops helped to soothe. But nothing could make us want to soak up anymore rays than necessary. We were hiding under every bit of shade we could find and the air conditioned campers were frequented by most. Jon was reading a book and hardly left our climate controlled unit except to fish with Stiles in the early morning or in the later evening. My Kids did all deem the trip as “fun” and wanted to know when we could go camping again.
I racked my brains yesterday, and believe me there are not many brain cells to rack of late, as I was trying to mentally list a few humorous things to share with you. And I got to admit that for the most part I came up with nothing! Either things are not funny when the temperatures in Idaho turn this HOT. OR my pregnant self does not find things funny of late. Or more than likely I just can’t remember anything anymore.
Camille did write and sing a very funny song about our family and we got to hear it at the family campout. She had better send out the words to everybody. Believe me the verse about you had us all laughing and the one about me could not hardly be more true!

The Church is true and we pray for you always. The Kids are always asking when you will come home. They are sure you have been gone for long enough by now. We are just waiting until it is the coldest month in Idaho before we snatch you back from a nice warm climate so as to adequately shock your system back into the real world with the rest of us.

Love Monica, The baby making factory! And the rest of the WOODIN NICKELS

Cherry Pickin' Fools

2009-07-12T21:24:00.001-06:00

Dallan, July 12 2009 The heat has struck and My over sized body has complained bitterly. I got dehydrated this last weekend, and my body started having contraction and pains, “and trembling and flutterings all over. You don’t know how I suffer with my poor nerves and all“. Anyway the Doctor ordered some tests and the test came back that I was still in the clear to not try and deliver way ahead of schedule for which we are grateful. And I have been kicking my feet up much more often and having great big glasses of ice. My over active baby house has since calmed down and I am not able to stay down with my feet kicked up for very long. My family still thinks that 3 meals a day should magically happen. Nobody else thinks that it is their responsibility to change any sort of smelly diaper. And the laundry doesn’t do itself you know. Not to mention the need to milk goats and hoe the weeds in the gardens, mow the yards and get the water on the pastures.
So even though I am “taking it easy” I realized that on Wednesday night that the Cherries were on, and the immediate need to pick cherries was before me. The birds like to pick cherries and do not share well with their neighbors as Jon and I learned last year. So I woke up early on Thursday morning and With the help of my kids and a couple ladders we went to work. Jon’s Mom and Sister, Julie, came later in the day and picked a bunch, and my tenants, the Millers, picked for a while with us as well. I gave each of them an ice cream bucket full of cherries and then I headed in out of the heat and started the real work of canning them. Jon’s Mom found some Cherry pitters at a store and bought them and brought them over and we spent a long time cleaning the cherries, and pitting them, and then putting them in bottles and all that is associated with canning. I have 16 quart jars now filled with cherries. I made a pie with some of the cherries and Jon said “It was the best cherry pie he had ever had, even if it was full of pits.” (the kids had ‘helped’ pit those cherries and were not very thorough ) That says a lot coming from my husband who never likes pie and never compliments a pie. I made some juice with some of the cherries with my new juicer and decided that I would not try that again. The cherries are too sour to make into juice. IT takes A LOT of sugar to make it taste yummy.
I forgot to tell you a story about our last camping trip. Erica and Hunter and I were on a 4 wheeler ride and about halfway through the ride I told Erica to watch for deer and elk and other animals. Well a minute later she says “MOM! Look! A Horse!” I knew we were camping in an area where people bring their horses for a ride and I turned to look fully expecting to see a horse and instead it was a doe! Hunter was super excited and we chased after the doe for a while. So next time we go looking for wildlife I am going to tell my kids to look out for horses as well.
To the delight of my kids and my husband Today is and EGGcellent day. After months of taking care of chickens the chickens have laid 2 eggs today. The first eggs on our Woodin Nickel ranch. If I had any idea that finding eggs in the chicken coop would have brought such glee to my family I would have planted a bunch of Easter Eggs out there just for the kicks and giggles of it.
William has joined the ranks of “relocation engineer.” All of my kids are part of this society. And Will does not want to be left out. He is not as avid of a relocation engineer as my niece JET was but he is starting to move things around. He is also not shy about eating anything off of the Kitchen floor. I am going to great lengths to try to keep food up off of the floor but William and Hunter are both equally good at throwing most of their meal under the table so as to have access to it at a later time.
Erica continues to claim Jon as her Favorite Parent and Dubs him as “cool” and told her Grandma Woodin that She would be friends with her “ONLY on her Birthday” so as to obtain a gift from Grandma. That girl is definitely trying to work the system but hasn’t figured out ALL the angles yet.
Marcus is growing like a weed. If Stiles wasn’t as well I would almost swear that Marcus would pass him up any day. In the mean time Marcus is this tall skinny kid with no meat on him what so ever. And I can’t keep that boy inside for nothing. His skin is turning browner by the day and his hair continues to sun bleach. His eyes are still as big as ever but I think one day he might actually grow into them.
Hunter continues to look like a battle field. The mosquito bites are still all over despite dressing him in long-sleeved shirts and pants. At church today I was asked by at least 4 different people if he is getting over the chicken pox. I tell them they are just mosquito bites and they give me this look like “you bad mother, don’t you know how to protect your kid from that” and I tell them he gets outside when I don’t realize it and gets eaten. And most of the time he does get covered in DEET but it only takes about 10 minutes with out it and he is MR Acne face again. I do have to tell you about him falling asleep when we were camping though. I realized that I had not seen Hunter for about the last 10 minutes and so I started looking for him. I got up and walked around and checked all of the places he had been playing and was just not seeing him. About the moment I decided that I should perhaps enlist the help of the other campers in my search for Hunter one of the older kids who was walking through the meadow calls out. “HEY there is a kid asleep here, with his face in the mud!” I was so relieved and felt so blessed because the meadow is a pretty big area and the grass would average about knee high on an adult. We could have walked right by him looking for him a ton of times and never found him because the grass was so tall. And sure enough his face was down in the mud. So I scooped him up and took him back to the camper and tucked him in for a much needed NAP!
Stiles deserves a huge KUDOS for all the hard work he did this week to help me. HE picked and picked and picked Cherries and then he cleaned them and pitted them endlessly and even complained when I sent him out to help his grandpa milk the goats. Declaring that he got to pit Cherries when he came back in. I assured him that the job would be there waiting for him when he returned. He worked non-stop for two days helping me with the fruit. He is such a big help when he decides to be. When he thinks the job is dumb though… Well lets just say there is much crying and gnashing of teeth.

We love you and pray for you always. It is easy to become discouraged. That is what Satan wants. But there are so many things to be encouraged by, that is hard to stay discouraged for long. Look for those good things, they are there even if sometimes they are hard to see. I am still planning Hunter’s birthday party and a welcome home party for you in February. My Kids are determined to see you on the 10th.

Love Monica and The Cherry Pickin’ fools at the Woodin Nickel!

Erica said...

2009-07-09T15:58:00.002-06:00

While we were camping this last weekend Erica and I went for a little 4 wheeler ride with Hunter. (I was the driver, not Hunter, in case you are confused) As we were about halfway through our ride, I told Erica to watch for Deer and Elk and other animals. A minute later she said "Look Mom, A HORSE!" Knowing that people take their horses with them on camping trips, I looked, fully expecting to see a Horse. It was not a horse but a DOE! (you know a female deer, not a wad of cash, or something that you bake and it becomes bread) So we watched it for a while and Hunter was so Excited. So next time we go I am going to tell my kids to look for Horses as well.

camping in the rain

2009-07-07T12:18:00.000-06:00

Dallan July 7, 2009 It is Tuesdy. Again. And I am over due, again with my letter to my favorite brother who is on a mission. This last week was of course full of stuff I can not remember but I will fill you in a bit on our 4th of July camping experience. We packed up and left for the mountains north of Mackay ID on Thursday morning. We might not have done any type of camping trip but Jon’s Hunting buddies called him up and said “come up and crash our family reunion and we will do some scouting for elk“. Jon of course was eager to oblige and so off we went. We did the normal camping thing. Hunter fell in the creek and I barley caught him as he was falling into the fire, His hair and eyebrows and eyelashes all got quite singed! We took up the kids bikes and they rode and rode and rode. Our friends had their kid’s 4 wheelers and motorbikes and Stiles and Marcus were in heaven when they were granted a turn to ride the bikes around the track. One afternoon when most of the kids were not at camp I even let Stiles drive my big 4 wheeler around the track. He was doing great until he started watching Marcus who was stuck in the mud and then Stiles ran into two parked motorcycles, and knocked them over. It was a big lesson for him about always always always watch where you are going, Luckily no body was hurt and the bikes were fine. I took a birthday cake for William and it got eaten all up despite many other yummy treats floating around. And William is now officially 1 years old! We had plans to leave Camp on Saturday in the middle of the day so as to be home and celebrate the 4th of july in Pocatello but Mother nature decided to Veto our plans and sent hail, and rain ,and rain, and hail until the road was a very treacherous muddy mess. We took a look at it on the 4 wheelers and decided that the 4-wheel drive trucks could probably maneuver it okay but to try to haul our heavy 5th wheel trailer down the steep slicker than snot mountain road was probably not a smart move. So we decided to camp another day and wait for the road to dry out. Instead we packed up in the truck and drove down to Mackay for their firework show, and we did some fishing at the fishing pond below the fish hatchery in Mackay. Erica is quite the little fisher girl she casts her line better than Jon and has a ton of patience. The firework show in Mackay was awesome. They do it over the reservoir and the big tall mountains on either side of the valley echo the boom of the fireworks like three times. It was loud! And spectacular! The show would not have happened if our group had not come down to see it. A part of the show, (an electrical part I think) that makes the show run, had busted and they didn’t have the part they needed to fix it. But in one of the trucks we managed to have the needed part, and the show was only delayed by 15 minutes. So we went back to camp after the firework show, and slept in late. Since it was now Sunday we decided that to try to keep the day holy we didn’t allow the kids to ride their bikes or the motor bikes - they did not think that was cool. And we opted to stay one more night so that we would not be traveling on Sunday and came home Monday morning. -Hence I have neglected to write until Tuesday. So that was our week end in a nut shell
Now for something to make you laugh. Stiles had a lesson about always watching where you are going when driving something. Well Now you may laugh at me for needing the exact same lesson. In preparation to leave I needed to move my Van out of the way so that we could pack the trucks and the camper. And so I was backing my van out of the drive, and had not really thought it all the way through as to where I was going to park it so that it would be “Out of the way.” And I was watching Hunter, who was very distraught that I was in the Van apparently going somewhere and he was not in on the ride and was chasing me as I was backing up. And well long story short, I was not watching where I was going and Side swiped the post in the drive way by the flag pole. Yep took the resale value of our van from almost nothing to the negative values. The passenger door just does not look pretty anymore at all, but still functions fine. So when you are driving something, don’t watch other people and what they are doing, ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS watch where you are going.
Keep up the good work. We pray for you always and hope that you are well. You are lucky that you have a vague idea of when it will rain next on you. We just have no clue what the weather will do here. But like DAD said the crops are growing and we are eating big yummy sweet peas out of the garden and Erica and Hunter can get lost inside the corn patch now. So the Lord is blessing us even though the weather just seems like the craziest thing we have ever seen.

Love you tons, Hope you have a Happy birthday on Wednesday. We will eat something yummy and think about you.

Love Monica and the rest of the dripping wet camping hoodlums.

Marcus and the Tooth Fairy

2009-06-28T19:54:00.000-06:00

Dear Dallan, June 28th 2009

Well we have passed the summer solstice and the days are officially getting shorter. But it still is not dark until after 10:00. You may or may not have noticed the change in the length of the days as close as you are to the equator, but I’ll tell you what the birds singing good morning songs right outside my bedroom window at 5 minutes to 4:00am are a mean thing to do to a pregnant woman who has a hard time sleeping in the first place! I will be very grateful for the days when the sun don’t come up until eight!
Marcus has officially passed out of babyhood. Yes, I know he is six and a half , but this week he lost his first tooth. And then the next day lost another one. The tooth fairy of course botched up a visit the first night. And we had to think up a good story about how Marcus, who had slept on the couch, was not in HIS bed and so the Tooth fairy could not find him, and so would find him when he was asleep in the right bed. The Two dollars that appeared beneath Marcus pillow the second night was awesome in his opinion and he hoped that maybe the tooth fairy might have accidentally left his tooth and he could fool the said fairy into another visit. Always thinking it through those kids. Marcus was quite horrified when I told him about my first tooth losing experience and how my Dad had helped me get my first tooth out and Dad pulled out the wrong one! Jon managed to pull out the right ones on the right days and thus earned a gold star. But I think Marcus will steer clear of Grandpa helping him get any teeth out after I related my story. (Don’t worry Dad I don’t hold it against you, it just makes for a really great story. And the wrong tooth was lose anyway.)
The weather in true Idaho form changed just like that! We have had Sun all week. Although on Friday the south end of Pocatello got pounded with 2 inches of rain and hail. We just got some clouds over here in Chubbuck. I guess that is one of the reasons Pocatello is rated in the top 10 for the most extreme weather. The sun has done wonders for the gardens. My Tomatoes plants, remember I have like 30 of them, really jumped this week and the first rows of corn we planted are now taller than my knee. And the rows we planted later are all pushing up. We have watermelon plants coming up and the cucumbers that had to be replanted are making their appearances as well. We even have Zucchini! (lock your doors at church, It is zucchini season) We have been nibbling at the peas. Now those are yummy! The best is of course the radishes. On Saturday I decided that we would harvest all of the radishes and replant that bed in spices and herbs like dill and basil. So I had all of the kids go out with me and instructed them to start pulling up radishes, and Stiles pulled one up, that no joke, was as big as a softball! For a second I thought maybe we had planted a turnip! All of the other radishes were close in size to a quarter but this one was ginormous! If it was closer to the fair we would have entered it for the biggest radish. But instead we are planning to cut it up and put a little ranch salad dressing on it, and eating it!
Hunter is trying to kill himself I swear! First he knocked the dresser on himself which you heard about last week and then this week I had to do the Heimlich on him. Actually it was one of those, “I know that the Lord was looking out for my family moments” I needed to start dinner and usually that meant that I would have gone down stairs and stood in my pantry and stared at the shelves wondering what I should fix and then I probably would have changed the laundry and poked my head into Stiles room to check and make sure that indeed he did not put away his clean clothes again, but just dumped them in a pile behind the door. Well I just felt like I needed to NOT go downstairs, that I just needed to stay in the kitchen and continue to clean up. And I just stayed there, and stayed there, and stayed there, and the kitchen was getting quite clean. And then I heard Hunter gag and sputter. He was in the living room and had put two nuts, the kind that screw onto bolts, into his mouth. Well of course he was laying down on his back and the one got caught behind the other one and fell back into his throat. I ran over, he wasn’t blue or anything but I knew that he needed help immediately. And since I am a mom I picked him up and carried him over into my kitchen so that he would not throw up all over my carpet. Once I had him safely over the linoleum and I was sure that now a barfing mess would be not so bad, I proceeded to give his stomach a shove. I could hear the bolts dislodge, and then I hit him on the back to get them to rattle out of his mouth and onto the floor. He did not throw up, by the way, but I did have to wipe up a bunch of saliva off of my kitchen floor, and was glad that it was not a bunch of drool in my carpet. Later I realized my blessing in delaying making dinner. If I had gone downstairs, I would not have known that he was in trouble. Truly the Lord has a work for that little guy of mine to do.
William will turn the ripe old age of 1 on Friday. We are looking forward to cake and ice cream and perhaps a BBQ dinner followed by a whole day of festivities the following day. I think the city has even planned some fireworks for the occasion. I know they shot some off last year when he was born. I honestly don’t know how they got the celebration together so fast!
Jon has been busy breaking our horse Mac this week and Mac has put on a pretty good rodeo some days, but for the most part he is a pretty calm gentle horse and is learning very fast.
Stiles has been helping milk the goats with Jon in the morning and getting quite good at it. Jon is starting to take Marcus out as well so that he can learn, but so far Marcus hasn’t quite figured it out yet.
Erica has almost grown all of her hair back that Stiles cut off last summer. I don’t think anybody besides myself could tell that last year she was sporting a very ugly mullet. But it is a delight to have a daughter with hair again. Even if she has some very strong ideas of how her hair should be. Two weeks ago she refused to let me do her hair for church and did it all by herself. She attended church with a headband, 4 different barrettes and her hair in a clip pulled back into something that looked like a pony tail. I was in agony but I still sat by her, and she was as pleased as punch with her “beautiful” hairdo.
The church is true. President Monson is our prophet today. Prayer is a wonderful blessing from our father in heaven. Work hard, the field is growing white.

Lots of love. Monica and her pack of wild monkeys!

Pictures of my Frankenstien

2009-06-24T17:38:00.002-06:00

So I know I never post pictures but I love when other people do. Here are a few pictures of Hunter and his Stitches 3 days after the fact. He looks so much better than he did on Sunday!

Yes, I am stupid and don't know how to turn pictures the right way!

Here is one of William after he had managed to get his fingers in the butter. He got his fingers pretty deep into the butter.

Stiles Baptism pictures
Jon and Stiles look so nice! I just love my boys! Can you believe that my baby Stiles is a grown up 8-year old!?!

And I love this stairstep picture of my kids. and yes I am counting my belly as one of the steps!

Hope you enjoyed laughing at my Hunter! You got to read about it and now you have seen it!

10 years of Marriage!!!

2009-06-22T11:57:00.000-06:00

Dear Dallan, June 22 2009

So much has happened this week that I am not sure I will be able to do any of it justice. We will start with some of the main highlights and see where it take us.
First of all today is Jon and I’s 10 year Wedding anniversary. And wouldn’t you know it I woke up Puking this morning and Erica was sick all yesterday and last night. So our dinner and date plans have be cancelled to be rescheduled for a later date. Go figure! That is what life is like. But all in all I think that we just might be able to do the whole eternity thing especially if we can continue to look at the bigger picture. I honestly can’t believe that the Woodin’s have continued the put up with me this long, and it is a well known secret that my family gave Jon the 10 cows to take me off of their hands. (and then he gave me back for an 18 month stint, but that is beside the point). I am grateful that he continues to put up with me despite my ever increasing demands for things like a maid, a cook, a nanny, a butler, a gardener, a secretary, a chauffer and so forth. Of course he is sure that he is already paying for all of those things with every last penny he has ever made and the whole eternity thing. I am pretty sure that the maid, cook, and nanny that he keeps on telling me he has already hired are substandard and that she needs some real professional help! Jon keeps on telling me to give her some time and she will come around and get the jobs done right. He has so much faith in his household employees. I’ll tell you what if they worked for his siding business he would have told them to take a hike a long time ago! But honestly if 10 years ago someone would have told me about the 5 kids and the one on the way and the mortgage and the minivan and the deployment and the doctors bill I am not sure whether I would have turn around and run away, or put in a stupid grin and said “bring it on.” But now that I am in it and since the next ten years involves raising teenagers and drivers licenses and a billion pine wood derby cars, I think I will just put on a stupid grin and say “Bring it on.” After all what else can I do at this point!?!
Hunter decided that since it was Sunday and Fathers day to boot that he ought to do something extra exciting- you know just to stir things up a bit. So After breakfast Jon and I had crawled back Into bed to take a midmorning nap before church. Erica came into the room all upset and said something about Hunter getting dressed and I dismissed it and told he that he would be fine. Then she really bursts into tears and Said “No, Mom Hunter knocked the dresser down on top of himself again!” That got me bolt upright and I raced down to check oh him. And sure enough he had pulled the dresser down on top of himself, AGAIN! only this time the dresser had managed to hit him on the face and split him open across his nose right between his eyes. There was quite a bit of blood all over him. I called for Jon informing him that we were going to have to see a doctor and started digging Hunter out from under the dresser. Jon called our trusty bishop and we ran over to his house to have him take a look at it. Their daughter Mckenna, who is Marcus’ age, opened the door and just about fell over when she saw Hunter and the bloody mess that his face was. So then Bishop Thayne who has 6 daughters and no sons said to us, when he saw Hunter, “I’m telling you guys, GIRLS! You just don’t have this kind of problem with girls.” Then we went to his Doctors office and Hunter was a trooper and let our Bishop put 5 stitches across the bridge of his nose and close up his “third eye.” So you have to imagine my Hunter who looks like he has had the worse case of Chicken pox in history and has mosquito bites all over his face which he constantly digs at and make them into big bleeding sores and now he has Frankenstein stitches right between his eyes… Well I really do not want to take him out in public because I know that people are going to call child protection on me. When we got back home and were getting ready for Church it became apparent that Erica was running a fever and was sick so Jon doing the Fatherly thing on Fathers day “Volunteered” to stay home from church with Frankenstein and Erica and I even left William with him. So that is how fathers day went at our house, aside from the amazing rain storm that blew threw, knocked out the power, and shook the church house! It was all in all a pretty quite day at the Woodin Nickel.
So speaking of Sick, I am sick today, Erica was sick all yesterday and is still feverish today. William has been on and of with a light fever all week. Jon stayed in bed all day on Thursday, and I put myself to bed a few times on Friday with feverish symptoms. I stayed up with Hunter until 4:30 am one night this week. He was complaining about his ears. And I am convinced that he has wax blocking his ears. I was using some ear wax Softening drops in his ears and trying to remove the blockage myself, with the promise to myself that if I couldn’t get anything to come out that I would take him to the doctor the first of this week and have the doctor check it out. Well now that he looks like Frankenstein I might just wait until the stitches come out before hauling him in. but them again it might be better to get all of the torture to my son done in one fell swoop.
This week I heard through the grape vine that Libbie was praising my humorous writing ability and that Aunt Leslie made the Comment back that I didn’t have to look far for writing material, “after all I was raising Wolves!” I have been laughing ever since. I know that my kids have given me great material but I never considered them to be like wolves. I compared them to be something more like hyenas. On some days it was closer to monkeys. But I think Aunt Leslie is right, Raising my children is like raising a pack of Wolves!
Anyway It continued to Rain every single day this week. That is three weeks straight with rain every single day. And Seattle has gone for 28 consecutive days without measurable rainfall. Go figure. I guess we swapped locations for the month. Or maybe it is just one of those Signs of the times you hear about in Sunday school class. Mom and Dad Drove home from Florida across the heartland in the worst week of all time for Tornados. 77 were reported this last week and wouldn’t you know it Mom and Dad and Garrett missed every single one. I was going crazy following the weather on the internet and knowing that my parents were somewhere out in it. But the Lord was watching out for those old folks of ours and they made it back all in one piece.
Stiles picked and ate the first peas out of our garden I really wanted to demand tax from his pea pod but it was from a pea plant that he himself planted in the green house and then transplanted outside and put a trellis up by it, and watered, and took care of so I let him eat all 5 little peas. But it made me wish for a split second that Dad still grew peas and we could all go out and sit in the pea patch and eat ourselves sick. The pea pod fights were definitely the best. But I am afraid that you would be to young to remember when we use to do that. It makes me sad that you would have been to small to remember the fights and the awesomeness of the when the great big Pea viners would pull into the fields and, in what seemed like a miracle to a little child who struggled to open the pods one by one and eat the little guys, just ripped up all of the peas and opened up all those little pods and them dumped the peas into a great big truck. It always smelled gross though when they were all done. So maybe it is okay that you do not remember when Dad used to grow peas.
I am finally in a count down stage of my pregnancy. I have 11 weeks to my due date. Laura is considerably closer, and I am waiting for a call from Dan the Man any day. Crystal and Cody are in their count downs as well. And they all have much less to count down than I do. The hardest part is that when I weighed in at my last doctors appointment the darn liar of a scale showed that I am weighing as much as I did when I delivered Stiles and Marcus! NO wonder I feel like I am ready to be done already! So I asked my doctor what I could do to make the next 3 months go by really fast. He suggested that I stay busy. I laughed and said with 5 other kids at home, I was thinking more like checking into a spa! He said that I could do that if I really wanted to. Jon said it sounded like a great idea and that we could set one up here at the Woodin Nickel and other men could send their tried cranky pregnant wives to the ranch and we could charge a ton of money and feed them and let them lay around and whine. I said I am not taking care of a bunch a pregnant woman! He made some comment about how if other women were like me when they were pregnant he was sure it was a golden business opportunity and husband would pay top dollar to be rid of their cranky wives for the last bit of pregnancy. I think he is due for some TLC eventually for putting up with pregnant me for the better part of the last 10 years. But he should put up with cranky old me. It is HIS fault I am in this ever expanding body situation in the first place!
So I hope you have bee entertained at our expense once again The funniest thing Erica said this week was… I had asked her “what we girls were going to do with all of these boys?” and without missing a beat and with a twinkle in her eye and a sadistic sound to her voice said “Have them for Lunch!”
The church is true. Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God. He Saw The Father and the Son in the Sacred Grove and restored this church to the fullness of the Gospel. We Pray for you always.

Marcus wants you to know that of all of his Uncles he misses you the most.

Love Monica and her Pack of Wolves!

Erica said...

2009-06-19T21:50:00.001-06:00

I asked Erica "What are we girls going to do with all of these Boys!?!"

Erica said with a delighted smile an sparkle in her eyes "Have them for Lunch!"

RAIN, BARF, & GOATS

2009-06-16T00:44:00.001-06:00

Dallan JUNE 15 2009 11: 51pm

So pregnancy has me at the computer at midnight because my body is in a total warp zone and doesn’t know how to get out of it for at least 3 more months. No honestly I was sleeping until my pregnant body kicked me out of bed and then tried to throw up on itself. So now that I have had a midnight bowl of honey nut cheerios and I am still trying to get a very nasty taste out of my mouth I realize that it is almost Tuesday and I have neglected my brother and all of my other avid readers! So I will let you know about my week and you will sit and waste your time reading about it in hopes that there is something great to read about. There isn’t. But don’t let that stop you, come to think of it, It has never stopped you before.
We had a royal barfing party this week. Everybody was fighting for their turn with the toilet. I was even pushing people out of the way for my chance to pay homage to the indoor plumbing gods. Magically the amount of laundry was not staggering. Most midnight barfing episodes made it into the carefully placed bedside barf buckets and the unwanted dinner menu that did make it onto the sheets did not make it onto the floor as well. So need less to say we had a stomach bug go through here. And No I did not food poison anybody, at least not on purpose. Hunter, and Jon were sick a full 24 hours before the rest of us decided to join in their game. And no I don’t think we had the swine flu. My house may look like pigs live here but we don’t allow that kind of riffraff at our house.
We were so excited we had just about finished weaning the baby goat, “stew” off of his mother “Chocolate” and Chocolate was giving us about a gallon a day! “which is awesome for a goat, in case you did or did not care.” And then on Saturday Morning we found her in a big bloody mess out in the yard. Something, we think coyotes or more likely wild dogs, perhaps a big wooden badger, came out and got a hold of her and killed her. We were not happy about this set back in our self -reliance program. Our cheep milk just got very expensive, just when we figured in two months we would pay off our initial investment. So we did what any stupid self reliant person would have done and checked the internet and found a new milking goat, drove to the Preston area, forked over some more of the green stuff ( no I am not talking about hay or grass) and drug a new goat with her two KID goats to the Woodin Nickel. The momma has not been milked before and we did the mean thing and took away her KIDS immediately and started taking all of her milk for ourselves. We should right, I mean it is OUR grass and weeds that she is eating and turning into milk, we should get some of the spoils.
This week It has continued to rain, and rain A LOT! I even told Jon that I don’t remember moving to Seattle! We have enjoyed the blessing of not worrying about the water and the garden is growing great. I have moved every plant out of the green house this week with the exception of about 20 tomato plants. I keep looking for a good home for them but, Nobody seems to want them. I have already planted 30 plants of my own and do not need more to try to weed around or harvest. So now my flower barrels are full of flowering plants and my vegetable gardens are eagerly waiting for the law of the harvest to take place. My kids are thrilled that the radishes are ready to pick already, and have been crunching on them even though they make their little mouths “HOT”. There are pea pods on the vines that look like you could pick them by this weekend and enjoy a very yummy green treat. And Stiles picked a strawberry today and brought it in to me so I could watch him eat it before I had the chance to demand my tax on the product. But don’t be disillusioned by this report. There are thistle getting bigger and pokier with every rainfall. And I have seen some pretty good sized dandelion plants on the premises. I try to put down some weed killing chemicals but it keeps on raining and it is hard to time it right so that I can kill weeds at the same time the sun is shinning.
So my week has thus been summed up for you. Rain, barf, and a dead goat. Oh and Jon caught that gopher that alluded him for quite some time. Now that the clock has officially made it past the midnight hour I might add a quick Happy Birthday to MOM who turned 29 again this year. She will spend the day riding in a car back from Florida on her Birthday. I hope she has a good day! Oh and do you have any idea how hard this week was on me with Mom driving to Florida with MJ, AND Camille on a family Vacation for the week! I mean I have had nobody to talk to! FOR DAYS! I had to talk to Jon and my kids! At least Camille is home now and I can have my hour long conversation with her again.
We love you very much and are proud of you and your example to others.

Love from the Woodin Nickels!

Stiles Baptism

2009-06-08T15:57:00.000-06:00

Dear Dallan, and all you other people,
First I must tell MJ that the best laid plans of mice and men often fall flat on their face (or something like that) I hope the rest of your moving plan works out great and that it was great to have Seth for Stiles baptism- Thanks for arranging that before you left.
Last Week I wrote about William’s eating a rock. Well we watched and waited and waited and watched and never saw the golden nugget. On top of the rock Will cut two teeth this week and we had a flu rip through our house. (Stiles was the other Victim) Jon was victimized by holding the puking William and was covered in the puke. I was Victimized by being woken up (yes I was actually asleep for a few minutes) in the middle of the night and was told that Stiles “didn’t make it to the bathroom in time” and the carpet was in need of some attention. Anyway Back to William my happy little guy was very content to cry, fuss, fever and, just lay there, and look like death all week long. Thursday night I asked Jon and his Dad to give Will a blessing and they did and then Friday rolled around and in the middle of Stiles Birthday Party we realized that William was covered in a hive like rash! After a million 7-8 year olds were chased out of my house I proceeded to put William in a bath so as to maybe help with his rash and I noticed that his diaper had something in it that could have been blood. So about then I really wigged out a little bit. Jon calmed me down and suggested we wait until William’s next diaper which I agreed too. In the mean time it was Friday evening and of course all of the Doctor’s offices were “No longer seeing anyone today” So we decided that it didn’t matter if we waited longer or not. If we decided to take him in it would have to be to the Hospital and we would have to Pay for an ER visit. So about 7 that evening Jon’s Mother came to watch the kids and Jon and I took William to the ER. And They X-rayed him and took his blood and checked his Poop and Pee and then they said “HE is fine! Just something Viral, You can give him Tylenol, Motrin, and Benadryall if you feel like it.” So we know that there is no Rock blocking anything inside my little guy and then the next day like magic because he was told he wasn’t sick anymore William perked up started eating again and playing and generally being a happy and playful kid.
I have told my kids that they may have a “friends” birthday party when they are 8, 12, and 16. So since Friday was the magic day for Stiles, We passed out invitations to two handfuls of kids in our ward and neighborhood. We planned on a yard sprinkler game party. Well it decided to rain cats and dogs and the temperatures took a dive. I had many calls from all the mommies wondering if they should send their Kiddos in swimsuits or not. I assured them that the Hot tub was part of the plan and to send their sweet babies with suits and towels. So we threw somewhere around 16 kids into the hot tub and let them jump in and out. Nanette was kind enough to bring her HUGE slip-n-slide and the rain kept coming from the sky. The Kids jumped in and out of the tub a billion times and you had better believe they dumped out half of the water and added enough dirt, grass and leaves to start a small garden. But after an hour we routed them out and sent inside for presents and cake. As soon as the presents were opened the sun came out- of course and I handed everyone a popsicle and sent them out side to wait for their mommies. 15 minutes later the party was over and I made Stiles sit down and write thank you cards. - He did not think that part was very fun and wondered why the birthday boy would be subjected to such torture. But after sitting on him and threatening to take away every one of his very cool gifts he relented and wrote in very bad handwriting thank you cards to the kids who attended his party. I know I am teaching him some thing- Like sitting on someone will get you the results you asked for.
Stiles Baptism the next morning was lovely and I am thankful to all those who made the efforts to be there and support him on his special day. The grub everyone brought was yummy too. And we stuffed ourselves in anticipation of fasting the next day. I was so proud of Stiles on Sunday when he chose to try and fast. Even though he thought He might starve to death 10 minutes after he decided to try and fast he managed to wait until after church before eating. He did get a piece of gum during Sacrament meeting and I think that helped him out.
The Mosquitoes are still out in force but the rain has kept them from biting too much if you go outside in the down pour. We had rain all last week and are suppose to receive another week full of rain. Jon has been grumbling about it since He finally got the irrigation system running and now he has not been able to use it after he spent all that time and effort on it. I am celebrating that the answer to prayers for moisture are making crops all over the area grow like weeds and the weeds are growing too. But we know how to deal with those guys! Oh the downpour/hailstorm that Camille mentioned was not as spectacular when it hit us at the Woodin Nickel but If I didn’t know how cool it was in Blackfoot I would have to tell you that it was a very violent and ferocious rain, hail, windstorm! They even did the sever weather alerts on the TV and Radio and we were all suppose to watch for Tornado type motion in the clouds. Jon was out in it trying frantically to help our neighbors get some couches they had outside -to the dryer insides of their house. When he came back he looked like he had just gotten out of the shower with all of his clothes on!
Well I think I have filled you in on all of the dumb things that have been going on here and no nothing was truly great and funny and maybe nothing worth reporting except that Stiles got baptized and now he is accountable for himself. - I hope that Jon and I have taught him enough to get him to were he needs to go.
We love you and pray for you always. Today Erica prayed that “Uncle Dallan will travel home safely on Hunters Birthday.” (FEB 10) So we will be planning a homecoming/ birthday party for you and Hunter

Love The Woodin Nickel Bunch.

Will ate a rock!

2009-05-31T10:56:00.001-06:00

Dallan May 31 2009
My kids are out of school for the summer. Marcus has officially graduated from Kindergarten. He won an award for making the most progress in his class. Erica is eagerly anticipating her Birthday and fall when school starts and she gets to go to kindergarten. Stiles turns 8 this Friday and will be baptized on Saturday. We are planning a water birthday party on Friday for all those little kids who are his same age in our ward and neighborhood. It should be a total mess and that is the goal! Hunter looks like he was attacked by mosquitoes and the mosquitoes won! I am very tempted to stay home from church today with him because he looks almost like he has the chicken pox and might be contagious. (No neck tie for him, we wouldn’t want to spread anything) J I am pretty sure that William swallowed a rock when we were at the farm this weekend. One minute I could see that he had a rock in his mouth the next Erica said. “Mom, I think Will ate a rock.” and then for the next 10 minutes William fussed and wiggled and beat at his chest, until he produced a loud belch. We are watching to see that it makes it through his little body okay. It doesn’t help anything that he is cutting two teeth right now and has a very sore little nose. We don’t know if he is crying about his tummy, his teeth, or his nose, in any right he is not feeling so hot today.
Jon has made many repairs to our irrigation system and most of out property is getting a drink via sprinkler now. The pump still has an attitude and Jon and I walk around scratching or heads and trying to figure out what went wrong this time. The best was earlier this week when he finally got every sprinkler in the front yards going and going in the right directions after about 5 or 6 hours and was congratulating himself for being “THE MAN” and it all ran for about 4 minutes when the pump did a safety off. So Jon and I messed with it for the next 30 minutes until Jon said. “I quit” and we shut the head gates and went inside and went to bed. We have had better luck since.
Anyway I know this is short and not very entertaining but I think I got your letter last week off too late so there is a good chance you are getting a double dose from the Woodin clan. We love you and pray for you always.

One funny thing Stiles said. “Marcus, I am not getting married now, I’m going to wait until I am in High School. There are a lot more girls in High school than there is in 1st grade.”

Love Monica

MR. & MRS. MARCUS WOODIN!?!

2009-05-28T15:03:00.003-06:00

This last week Mindy, Kenadi's Mom, stopped me and told me the funniest story!

So Kenadi and Marcus have this two way crush going on and are always telling Mindy and Me that they are going to get married. Well this last week Mindy noticed that Kenadi had a ring on her finger and that it was really tight and turning her finger purple. So they did a bunch of stuff and finally got the ring off of Kenadi's Finger. Well since Mindy didn't recognize the ring she started asking Kenadi where she got it. and Kenadi told Mindy that Marcus brought it to school and gave it to her and that "they were Married!" Then Kenadi proceded to tell her mom that "Marcus only loves three girls. 'ME' 'ME' and 'ME'."
Mindy and I have been laughing up a storm every since. So today when I went to Marucs's Kindergarten Graduation Mindy made sure to take a picture of MR & MRS Marcus Woodin in thier little graduation caps. Those two are so silly!
I of course am too stupid to remember to take my camera anywhere!

My job description

2009-05-25T21:07:00.000-06:00

Dallan, May 25 2009 Memorial Day

So it is past bedtime and no doubt I have missed your chance at a P-Day visit to some money sucking email kiosk. So you will probably get to read this next week.
We are in full swing at the Woodin Nickel. The Water is on. And we realized that we made many mistakes last fall. Most of the pipe on our property is in dire need of repair. The chop shop might be the best bet just to put the poor pipes out of their misery. Jon and I have been using walkie-talkies to coordinate weather or not the pump is running, is their enough water in the ditch, “quick shut it all down !I blew out over here on line #4!” “What do you mean the dam broke!” “What? there is no pressure now? How can that be!” and other such sweet nothings have been yelled back and forth at each other through the wonder of Motorola. We are working out the kinks-we think. It is a good thing that on Sunday we had one heck of a rain storm that soaked everything up real good or we might really be in trouble.
Meanwhile back at the ranch I have taken on many different roles this week aside from being a baby house. They include but are not limited to; gardener, corn hoer, irrigation specialist, goat milker, milk pasteurizing technician, breakfast maker, cold lunch packer, BBQ queen bee, lawn mower operator, weed remover, nose wiper, butt changer, laundry specialist, bed maker, vacuum professional, broom pusher, mopping genius, child disciplinarian, hug giver, band-aid administrator, Mosquito bite rubber, tubby technician, hair stylist, mommy and farm wife. (I think I might have left a few things out-you know I didn’t want to sound like I was bragging) anyway while this list is not exhaustive I must say that I am. But I have reached the point in my pregnancy where I have insomnia. This means that even though I have gone to bed at a reasonable hour and my brain has turned itself off, my body remains awake. And I lay in bed for hours and hours and wish I could kick my dear sweet Jon because he is sleeping and I am NOT! Thank goodness for TYLENOL PM. It helps a lot.
William has decided that he likes to eat. He thinks he should be able to eat anything we are eating. And he does pretty well with his 4 little teeth. He will chomp down things like cheese but then he chokes on mashed potatoes! He has also decided that he can stand up and pulls himself to that position when ever he is afforded the opportunity. He has also decided that the bath is awesome and when ever I am filling up the tub for Hunter (and believe me he NEEDS a bath daily) William will crawl himself into the bathroom and pull himself up next to tub and giggle until I put him in. Since William has decided that he should eat big people food he usually needs a bath every day as well. It is fun to watch my two little boys splash around in the tub.
Stiles and Marcus are on their last week of school and I am surprised that I am ready for them to be home. I need their help, those boys are hard workers when they are pointed in the right direction. I am also ready to be able to go lax on the 8 o’clock bedtime. It is so hard on little kids to send them to bed at 8 when there is like 90 minutes of light left outside. And I am ready to turn my 6 am alarm clock OFF (remember the insomnia thing).
Hunter got bit by a mosquito this week right on the forehead above his eye. The bite was so swollen that Hunter resembled Quasimodo. Well then about the minute it started to go down Hunter tripped and fell on the asphalt right on his forehead and made the bad looking mosquito bite look like child abuse. ( at least that is what we are telling people happened)
Anyway this is long and since you probably won’t get it until next week anyway I had better end it.
The church is true and don’t take any WOODIN NICKELS!

Love the WOODIN NICKELS

everybody, doff your duds!

2009-05-16T21:44:00.000-06:00

Dallan May 16 2009

So another week at the Woodin Nickel Ranch is winding down. We did a lot this week. What we did I am not entirely sure but we still did stuff. This weekend we had our Ward campout. And since it was a combined Priesthood Commemorative and Ward Activity, the Elders Quorum was in Charge of Breakfast On Saturday Morning, so that means Jon was in charge. The Campout was at FMC park, just a few miles down the road from where we live so many members of our ward did the option to SLEEP-AT-HOME but a fair amount decided it would be okay to camp. We Chose to pack up the camper and drive it the 4 miles to the park and sleep at the park so as to set a good example, or just so we could say we used the camper once this year. Jon got up early and set to work getting breakfast on. I stayed in bed for a LONG time before I showed my happy face. I do have to say that it was a fun event and nobody acted like they were going to die after eating Jon’s cooking. I really admire Jon’s ability to get people to do things for him. He had so many guys helping him do all sorts of stuff. I guess it is because he never gives anybody the option of saying “ No” to him. (Maybe that is why I got stuck with him and I am pregnant with our 6th KID!) But really it is such a talent that he has, and I don’t think he even realizes he has it. He always just kind of looks at me when He tells our kids to do something once and they go and do it, and I have asked the kids 4 thousand different times to go do the exact same thing, and they just ignore me!
Hunter was sick this week. Well just on Thursday. He woke up crying, which is very unusual, and then he only wanted me to hold him and cuddle with him which I did do for about 15 minutes. He turned up his nose at breakfast, and then had fallen asleep on the floor by 8:00. So I put him in my bed and he did not move from my bed until about 7 that evening. And he only got out of bed then because I had suggested a bath and then when he didn’t want me to get him out of bed I left him in bed and went to take care of other things and then he thought about it and decided a tubby would be just the thing and came and got me and asked for the prescribed treatment. He fevered all day and into the night until about 1:00 in the morning and then his fever broke and he was fine the rest of the night and up and a ‘em on Friday. I spent a horrible night though because I was so worried about him I was up almost every hour to check on him. Being a mommy means an incredible lack of beauty sleep. We only get desperation sleep, which translated means that “Mommy has to have some sleep NOW or somebody is going to end up in an institution“, (I,e,) Jail, the nut house, the hospital, time out, something like that!
The plants in the green house keep growing, It is warming up outside, but I will not be fooled into planting any of my plants outside until it really is a true Idaho Summer. We do have a good stand of Peas and are starting to see some corn. The Carrots and Radishes are in the dirt and getting watered. The Goats keep on giving us milk and my kids are getting more and more used to the idea that it is Okay to drink. Marcus is still pretty sure that the milk will make him turn inside out, But Erica is being won over. Stiles loves to drink it, and Who knows what Hunter thinks, He still refuses to say any intelligible words to us.
I am of course way behind on my laundry and the house work is not as perfect as it should be but I have been busy smearing texture mud on the walls in my kitchen. I ran across the idea that you could apply texture with a sponge instead of with a big spray gun or roller and I thought I would try It and I have been impressed that I am not making a huge mess with getting extra mud all over my kitchen and the sponged look I am getting on the wall is pretty cool. I am only doing it in small sections though because it does make my arm pretty tired. Who knows when I will really get done and be ready to paint. I am nervous that by the time I get ready to paint that the color I have chosen will be outdated and no longer available!
I think it is funny that you are not allowed to wear your neck ties. And I find it even more funny that even when you were told to take them off you thought it was a joke and wore them for quite a bit longer. I mean if the Government decided that Panty hose was a spreading the swine flu and the sisters were told to take them off… Well… I’ll bet they were not told three times to “doff their duds!”
The church is true, Pres. Monson is our prophet, Christ is our Savior.
Love you, Monica and my mess.
Oh and Grandpa, I am excited that you have water, I am anxiously waiting for the day when I get water.

It's my birthday and I'll brag if I want to!

2009-05-10T11:12:00.001-06:00

Dallan, May 10th 2009

Hey Happy Mothers day! Today is my birthday and if anybody asks I’m 16 years old today so now I can finally date! I figured that Mom was 29 for a decade, Grandpa Wall still claims 17, I can be 16 until the day that I die!
Now for some real bragging. Last week was Fast and Testimony meeting. The month before Marcus realized a little girl named Kenadi,who has a major crush on Marcus, got up to bear her testimony. Marcus immediately asked if He could do that if Kenadi could do that. So all last month he tried to get the courage to bear his testimony, but wasn’t quite ready. So all month long Marcus and Stiles and Erica have been practicing their testimonies in FHE and on Sunday’s. So last week was the time to shine. Stiles got up right away and bore his testimony for the first time, I was quite excited to see him do such a great job and have such a great testimony especially since he will be baptized next month. Marcus had to build up his courage but he did get his nerve up and bore his testimony. He did a very good job as well. Erica really wanted to bear hers but was quite scared, she made it halfway up the isle 2 times only to turn around and come back because someone else was quicker. Stiles said he would go up with her and so together they made it up to the stand. Erica took my little seminary scriptures with her and opened them up on the podium and started thumbing through them. When she ripped out a page from my scriptures I figured I needed to intervene. So I hiked myself up to the stand about the Moment when Stiles had prompted her enough to start her testimony. She testified of Jesus and that she loves her family and is thankful for her Animals. At home she had been practicing to tell about all of the chickens and goats and their names and so forth. Stiles had told that it wasn’t something you said in your testimony and she shortened it for the actual telling. All in all I was very proud of my three oldest children and their testimonies of our Savior and their desire to share their testimonies.
Another thing to brag about is my son Stiles. I already bragged about him winning with his reflections project at the school and for the region and for receiving an award of Merit at the state level. This week we had an awards ceremony for our region and they awarded the awards. Stiles thought it was awesome to win a real trophy. And they gave him a disposable camera. He and Marcus are already working on next years project. At the ceremony the kids projects were on display and we were able to see what the other kids who won has turned in. There are some very talented kids in our region. The Lady from the state said that our region took home the second highest amount of winners just behind the Boise area, and they have about double the amount of students! One of the little girls who turned in a Dance project went all the way to Win the National award! It was good to have a evening to celebrate these talented kids.
This week I bought some strawberry plants to add the strawberry patch that is already established, but my kids kind of tore up with their desire to play in that exact area last fall. Well the small job became a big job since I decided to transplant the plants that were growing through the rock landscaping wall, and in order to do that I removed all of the rocks, dug up the plants moved the plants, cleared out the other weeds growing among the rocks and them put the rocks back. Now the rock curb looked awesome for that 10 feet and the reaming 40-50 feet looked like crap with all of its yellow dandelions sticking out from between the rocks. So I employed my kids to start pulling up the rocks which they did a good job of then we hoed out all of the offending weeds and put the rocks back. Viola the curb looks awesome and I have big plans with a good round up treatment on a monthly basis in that general area so as to not have this aching pain in my back again anytime soon. I also hope to have a strawberry pie, or at least a tart later this year.
William is quite the cruiser and can move from room to room with a fair amount of speed. He is not aggressive though and usually is content to be in a room where somebody else is. He did manage to fall down the stairs once this week, Erica hauled him back up the stairs and administered the TLC. I also caught him standing up in his crib this week. I keep telling him to quit it and get back down but he just flashes his dimples and giggles at me with his 4 little teeth and continues to learn and develop like he should despite his genetics.
Hunter continues to be a stubborn child- don’t know where that came from- This week I pulled out a package of fruit snacks and told him if he said “snack” or ‘please” he could have the fruit snacks. Well after 15-20 minutes of pleading with him to say something besides a point and a grunt, I was the bad parent and just gave him the snack. Not 30 minutes later he was mimicking me Saying “Mom” and “NO” and then I said “snack” and guess what he said ---”SNACK”!!! Little stubborn monster!
We have been playing Vet with one of our baby Goats who has Pneumonia. Erica has been quite the little nurse and has been taken very good care of him. She love to feed him his milk and Usually Erica and Hunter head out to the barn together and feed him his bottle. She drags that poor little goat around and loves him all day long. It is going to break her heart when we sell him.
Well anyway this letter is pretty boring and I doing have anymore great stories to tell you. Plus for some reason even though it is my birthday and Mothers day I still have to get everyone ready for Church and the meals on the table. ( Love you mom for doing that for years and still putting up with Dad) I guess I’ve learned that if you expect nothing you won’t be disappointed. I do have to admit that Jon is not in the dog house this year. He let me buy some “new to us” furniture for the basement. It is a big sectional couch that looks awesome and is very comfy. Jon has already dubbed the one chair his and yet it is supposedly mine. Maybe he will let me sit in it for a minute today. -Wait I don’t have time to sit down!
Love you all!

Monica and Woodin crew

Princess's and Cowboys

2009-05-06T09:02:00.002-06:00

At lunch yesterday Erica told me that she didn't like her food, but because Princess's eat their food, if they like it or not, she would be a princess, and eat it. Lunch by the way was peanut butter sandwiches, a dill pickle, and some Chips, all of which Erica likes to eat. Then Erica proceeds to tell me all about princess's and how they are beautiful, and do the right thing, and that she is a princess and then she said "But boys are NOT princess's!" I waited as she took a great big breath and told me that "Boys are cowboys. And they are handsome and cool!"
So to all you boys out there, you can not be princess's but you can be handsome, cool, cowboys!

dosn't make sense

2009-05-04T08:47:00.002-06:00

does a stay fresh zip-pack on a bag of crutons make any sense?

June is Busting out all over!!!

2009-05-03T10:14:00.000-06:00

Dallan, It is May! You are probably getting all geared up to celebrate cinco de Mayo. No wait I’ll bet you aren’t since the country isn’t allowed to congregate together because of the danger of spreading the swine flu. So I think we will have tacos and some chips and salsa and maybe even a breakfast burrito to celebrate for you!
This week is like most other ones. Full of a bunch of stuff that I can’t hardly remember. Our goat had her kids on Monday morning, unfortunately we missed the birth and the second baby goat died. The first one, a boy, is doing great and our goat, Chocolate, is being a great mother and making a bunch of milk. She makes about 2 times the amount of milk as the other goat does. I’ve been busy in the green house and planted a bunch of flowers so that all my barrels might have something to plant into them when it does finally get warmed up. The peas we planted two weeks ago started popping through on Friday afternoon. My kids were very jazzed. I bought them each there own hoe. And sent them to hacking at weeds around the edges of the garden. They are pretty efficient little workers. We will see how excited they are by the end of June. Speaking of June every spring when the flowers and blossoms start busting out all over I always sing in my head “June is busting out all over” And I’ll tell you what I have sung that song in my head and out loud so many times this week. There are beautiful daffodils in most parts of the yards and the tulips are starting to show their true colors. We had some great rain here on Saturday and in the middle of the week. It makes watering the garden a bit easier when you know everything is evenly watered. It had been fun turning on the rain in the green house. My kids all think it is the best thing! Imagine going into a 90 degree house and then someone turns on the sprinklers inside! It is like the fourth of July inside a house! I have had to chase Stiles out of the green house in the mornings and tell him to go get on the bus less I make him walk to school.
Jon has been busy working with MAC our 3 year old horse. Jon is working on breaking him. As part of the deal he needed to buy a horse trailer to move Mac to our friends house to use their round corral. He has been shopping for one for a long time and found one in Oakley. It was built about 1985 by the Minico Ag class. And it is a Solid trailer if some of the welds are not the most beautiful. It is a bit beat up but for being almost 25 years old it is in great shape. I think it is fun that I get to own a project done by Minico about the time I started school at Paul Elem. I wonder if anybody I know worked on this trailer? I am not sure who would have been in high school when I was 6. Anyway, cool huh.
My kids are kids. Playing in the dirt and picking dandelions to give to me. School is winding down and my boys are ready to be done for the year, but they tell me that they will miss their friends. Stiles is very disappointed that one of his best friends is moving this summer to Utah and he won’t see him again. I am sad too. I really liked the kid. He was Stiles friend in Kindergarten, and his grandparents were our over the fence neighbors when we lived in town. Stiles and he were very good friends. Or at lest he was friendly to Stiles.
I am trying to keep my house clean. But a large amount of dirt and horse poop is always getting tracked in. We keep cleaning it up though. It is not going to go away, and nobody else is volunteering to clean it up!
This Saturday was Savannahs Baptism. We tried really hard to make it work but we ended up not going. Jon’s cousin got married on Saturday as well and since they are in our ward and she married a kid, or I guess a young man from our ward, we felt very obligated to stay in Pocatello and celebrate with them. The sealing was very wonderful, as they always are. Their Sealer was our Stake president’s father and he knew most of the people in the sealing room. It was neat to hear the teachings of the temple in such a familiar atmosphere of friends and family. He told a story about how he was in a meeting with Elder Oaks and Elder Oaks opened up the meeting to questions and a brother in the back stood up and said. “I am a Seminary teacher and my students wanted me to ask you, if I got the chance , how did you get to where you are today?” Well Elder Oaks stepped back from the pulpit and told them that it was because of his Mother. He told them that when She felt like she needed something and she felt like she had done everything she could do she would go to the Lord in prayer and tell him that “He owed her one.” So then Elder Oaks gave a few Examples of him witnessing this of his Mother and then told them he Guessed his Mom had prayed him there. The point of the story was to teach us the promise the Lord gives us of if ye do what the Lord asks, HE is bound, but if ye do not ye have no promise. So Brother Loveland, The sealer, taught us that he has ever since tried to Bind the Lord but hasn’t had the guts to tell the Lord that “He owed him one.” Then he taught us that if we want all the blessings we are promised in the temple we can have them we just have to bind the Lord to them.
Anyway I want to let you know that I know the Church is true. That Christ is our Savior and President Monson is our prophet today to lead and guide this church. Work hard. We will too. Love the Woodins

We hare having.....

2009-04-29T13:41:00.002-06:00

So we will have one more mission, one more chance to wear out the already raggy blue clothes, and one less prom dress to worry about! We are excited to have another boy join our family. That makes 5 boys, for those who like to count, and Erica remains the princess. We kind of feel as if we have exausted our list of favorite boy names but nobody worry we will come up with one in time for "labor day." If anybody asks NO we are not sad or disapointed, on the other hand we are happy that everything in the ultrasound showed a very wiggly little kid with out any deformities and that he looked like a child and not a monkey or a turtle. Honestly, I had a pretty good idea this one was a boy, I would have been very surprised if it was a girl. So now you are informed and can laugh up your sleeve all you want at Jon and Monica and all their "Woodin Boys." (those of you who have cute daughters had just better watch out!)

A quick update

2009-04-26T11:31:00.000-06:00

So Dallan, April 26, 2009

I already sent you a letter in the middle of the week but thought that a quick update letter would feel kind of like a bonus since I skipped a few weeks ago. The weather is typical-unpredictable. The Weeds are out with a vegence. I continue to hack back at my over grown gardens and landscaping, we mowed the yard this week. I had some fun with some round up yesterday, I can see the effects already today. The Apricot trees are popping popcorn and we planted some corn last FHE. I figured out most of the gadgets and controls in the greenhouse and planted some plants that will hang out in that climate controlled environment for the next 4-6 weeks until spring really arrives here in Idaho. I have to tell you that green house is really rather cool, or warm. The previous owner invested quite a bit of money into that thing. The Irrigation system is of course sprung a few leaks but thankfully I am a granddaughter of a plumber and had to work on just enough mainline and yard sprinkler system as a kid, for those leaks not to scare me in the least.
My kids continue to be kids. William with he new crawling abilities follows us around and enjoys being where we are. He is very cautious though. Many times I have found him on the very top stair (the door was suppose to be shut of course and was not) and he is just sitting there wondering if who ever he followed to that spot would reappear. He is pulling himself up in his crib. And He has decided that everyone is hilarious for some reason and wrinkles up his nose and giggles and laughs at whoever looked at him last. He did manage to cut one of this top front teeth so now he is a 3 toothed monster and I bet by this time next week the other will have cut as well.
Hunter jumps out the door to the great wide open as often as possible and despite my best (or maybe worst) efforts to make him wear a hat and a bit of sunscreen his cheeks are quite red from sun burn. We have to watch him very close when Jon leaves or even if I leave because he wants to go with us so bad that he will follow us. I have had to pull him off of the road a couple different times this week. He loves to be with the baby goat and the chickens and pets them and picks them up and carries them around. And he almost always is wearing a pair of gloves. He got his own pair for Easter but if he can’t find them Mom or Dads or any combination he can come up with will do. This has made things a bit difficult to keep matches together. This week I gave him a buzz like hair cut. Not too close but close enough that the hair is not long enough to roll into curls. He looks like a bonafide boy now, and he is quite cute, but I miss those curls!
Erica is queen of the baby goats. This week the little girl goat, beauty, died and that has just left Jasper for Erica to lavish her love on. She is my first to volunteer to go feed him. She carries his around like he is some sort of a doll and, he loves her! And will follow her all over the yard. She is figuring out words all over the place and wrote MOM on my notebook the other day and I asked her what she wrote and she looked at me like “Well can’t YOU read?” And said “I wrote the word MOM” in a matter of fact tone. We had Elena and Becca here overnight this weekend to help Camille and Jason with their move and Erica was so Jazzed to Have Elena sleep in her trundle bed and to Have a Girl Party Sleepover! Those girls played and played ad wore themselves right out!
Marcus is trying so hard to defy the cold that is spring here in Idaho and is going off to school in shorts and t-shirts When everyone else is still wearing sweaters and coats. He is a hard worker, When Stiles is not around to boss him around, and loves to be outside. Most of the time he is in the goat pasture playing in his “tree house”
Stiles is ready for school to be out! He received his first “Blue Ticket” this week for talking and disrupting the class. He claims that he and the other boy were still doing their work the whole time! Full of excuses that boy. Stiles has been a big help in the gardens and a big pain too. I now know why Mom was not ever too Keen on doing the garden thing with all of us kids and then having us do the work the right way. I am just too much of a control freak I guess.
Jon is busy, work has been picking up a bit so now he doesn’t think he will have to lay off our employees and we are very grateful for that as are our employees. I am getting rounder in the middle and huffing and puffing around as I try to do things a pregnant woman shouldn’t be trying to do. But somebody has got to keep up with this mess and nobody else is volunteering .
So this quick up date has turned out quite lengthy and I need to finish getting my little flock ready for Church! We love you and We know that the church is true- if we didn’t why in the world would we drag 5 kids to church each and every week only to entertain the congregation with the Weekly Woodin Circus!
Christ is our Savior and Pres. Monson leads His Church today. Work hard.

Love Monica!

KIDS and Goats

2009-04-19T20:38:00.001-06:00

Dallan This week has been busy and full and I think I’ve been sleeping standing straight up this week. On Tuesday William decided the toy hippo that was across the room was way to cool to just stare at from afar and cruised on over to check it out. Hence my new need for a barrier across the stairs to prevent fallen baby syndrome. William is an efficient little crawler but generally is content to sit in one spot where he can see the action. When he decides it is much more fun to be the action of course there will be more things to report.
The weather this week was of course unpredictable yet totally predictable IDAHO weather. We had two really nice days then 3 days of cold snow and rain. And as Murphy’s Law goes the coldest snowiest night was the night that the first of our two new dairy goats decided it would be a good time to Kid. (that means have her babies for all you non goat lovers). Jon and I were there when she delivered her two kids. It was kinda cool in a “it was a very cold night sort of way” This particular goat is in truth Fred and Katherine’s Goat. So we called Fred at about 10:30 at night and told him what was going on. Fred came over and after a while of trying to dry up and warm up the Kids we decided that it was much to cold out side and the little girl was not doing so well so we took them into the house. At about 1:30 am I left Jon and Fred to Mothering and I went to bed. Those two guys were up until well after 4:00am trying to nurse those little goats. The little girl whom Erica helped name, Beauty, had a tough night and we were not sure she would make it. But now she up and moving around the barn. The little boy , Jasper, looks like he is a whole week older that Beauty and is fairly agile and moves around the stall in the barn quite well now. Now the kicker of this whole story was I have now milked a goat. How many of my siblings can say that! I am not sure I would have milked the nanna goat but she is a crappy mommy and won’t allow the kids to nurse so we are having to milk her and then bottle feed the kids. Let me tell you what I kinda thought I was done with 4 am feedings for a while! It is not that bad, just it is taking a lot of time. The Chickens are growing with a vengeance. It is crazy to think that just 5 weeks ago they were little tiny birds in a box in the garage and now they are these great big birds.
Anyway the Weather has warmed up for a spell and we have been hard at it in the yard. We have both of our garden plots roto-tilled and manured and for FHE we plan on planting. ( I want to plant some dollar bills and see if I can’t get a money tree to grow.) I have also been hacking back at the over growth and underbrush. I managed to kill and haul to the burn pile 3 trees that were not my favorites and were growing all funny next to the house anyway. And I took the hedge trimmer (a very cool tool) and gave the bushes by the house a much needed haircut. (think buzz) Jon asked if I was going to leave anything at all. It was a very big fire in the burn pit by the time I was done with that part of the yard. The tulips I planted in the fall are coming up and a few of the preexisting daffodils have shown their bright cheerful sunny faces. By next week I should have lots of blooms everywhere.
We are counting down to the end of school. Only 6 more weeks to go. And then we will all laugh as I go insane with all of my dear children around me all of the time. Hunter has figured out how to open the door to go out of the house. This has led to real problems. Remember the snow I mentioned earlier. Well Hunter opens the door and then he and Juliet head out the door. Usually without coats and barefoot. I have to keep locking the door to keep those two ‘in’.
Erica cracked up the primary today when she was asked what her mom does for her and then after some very pensive thought she said in an exasperated tone “My Mom, buys me nice things.” almost as if she was annoyed that he mom would spoil her. I guess I will just have to quit buying her NICE things.
Stiles and Marcus realized that the fallen branches of the weeping willow tree make EXCELLENT crafting material for bow and arrow’s. They spent most of the weekend shooting their arrows and testing new bow specimens. Erica even had a bow and quiver of arrows by the end of the weekend. The usual “no toys at the table” was replaced with “No weapons at the table”
I survived my last preschool group this week. It has been fun working with those kids but I am very glad I have no more turns to be the teacher. I am glad that next year Hunter will be too young to be included in any preschool group to be arranged this next fall. Erica has really learned quite a lot the last few months of preschool and knows most of her letters now. I think she will be enter Kindergarten this fall leaps and bounds ahead of her brothers but I think it is mostly because she is a girl.
Jon and I still like each other and that is a good thing. We have a testimony of our Savior and we try to do what is right. We are proud of you and pray for you always. Keep up the good work and we will keep up the crazy stories for your entertainment.
Monica and Jon and all those Woodin Nickel Kids.
P.S. “Didn’t anybody ever tell you not to take any woodin nickels!”