Willy Joe and Wyatt Logan

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!