Merry Christmas Dallan

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

Answers to Mom's prayers

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

sick and cold

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

Thnkasgiving keys

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

I am thankful

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

the white stuff

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

Astro

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