M is for Mcdonalds

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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!