I finally figured out how to change the address on my blog and hopefully now I'll be better at keeping up with it! This past weekend I took the girls down to Phoenix for NASCAR. Andee is a HUGE Jeff Gordon and Kasey Kahne fan and all she wanted for her birthday was to go to NASCAR. Since her birthday is at the end of the month, the Easter bunny brought the girls tickets to NASCAR. I have to say that I LOVE it myself, and I was worried about how the girls would act in the heat and with all the noise! They absolutely LOVED it! It made the whole trip worth it for me to see their faces and their reaction to everything going on! I'll post pictures later on when I figure out how to get the new camera working! Katie actually fell asleep during the Sprint Cup race on Saturday and Andee wouldn't take her radio off after the Nationwide race on Friday. She kept saying that she could still hear the drivers talking to their pits even though we were 10+ miles away from the track! Saturday morning we were able to stop and see Uncle Glen and Aunt Reva for a minute since we were so close! It was so good to stop and see them, we don't get to see them enough! Katie had never met either one of them, but you wouldn't know it! She ran right up to both of them with a big hug! I'm so glad that I have such a wonderful extended family and that they are there to support me and my girls in everything we do! Andee and Katie were able to help Uncle Glen pick grapefruit from his tree and it was so DELICIOUS! We HAD to eat some before we went to the race, the girls just couldn't wait!
I know that I have a lot more to catch up on, but that will have to wait for another time! I'll post pictures from the past few months soon!

It has been a long time since I updated my blog.....obviously! Just a few things have happened in our lives that have kept us on our toes! I will be changing the address of our blog as soon as I figure it out, so if you actually follow it, please let me know and I will let you know the new address....I will also be making it private!

The beginning of September Gabe abandoned me and the girls and moved to Alaska for some unknown reason! Since then we have been living with my parents in Wellington. We are in the process of getting our own place right now, but don't really know when that is going to happen! Don't get me wrong, I appreciate all that my parents and TJ have done for us, but we really just need our own space right now! I'm looking forward to the next chapter in our lives and can't wait for it to get started! Hopefully everything will go as planned and the divorce will be finalized in the next few weeks----we are extremely hopefully of that right now!

Other than that Katie started school at Head Start in Wellington and she LOVES it! Aunt Cordie is her teacher so she has someone she knows around all the time which is really good for her especially right now. Andee started Kindegarten at Sally Mauro and then only a few weeks later we ended up moving her to Wellington. She likes it, but she has had a few problems here and there! We are working on getting her to listen more and hoping that things will start to settle down in life so that we can all get back into the swing of things! I'm still working full-time at Badlands and absolutely LOVE my job! I couldn't ask for a better group of guys to work with or a better boss to work for! He has been so supportive and understanding through everything and that really means a lot to us!

Here is a picture of Andee and Katie on Andee's first day of Kindegarten.....as you can tell Katie wasn't too awful happy with her sister leaving her!

Josh came for a weekend visit in August and the girls were so excited to see him! Katie didn't want to leave so she wouldn't look at him or tell him Bye thinking that he would have to stay if she didn't!

Andee graduated from Head Start the end of May.....shortly after that she CUT HER OWN HAIR!! Not once either.......she had to do it twice!

Andee decided that she wanted to ride our motorcycle for a little while with Gabe so she stole my bandana and gave herself "Biker Girl Eyes" and rode from Cordie's house to my parents house----she loved it!

Here is a picture from the first time that Andee cut her hair----it was the day after the PROM and she wasn't too awful happy when we had to fix it!

Not much else to say, I just wanted to give anyone that follows our blog a quick update on what has been happening around here!

Katie's Birthday

Our little Katie turned three on the 17th! We can't believe how big she has gotten, seems like just yesterday we had her! She is so fun to have around, and such a good little helper! Here are a few pictures from her birthday party we had with Nana and Papa.
Andee kept blowing the candles out for her, she we had to keep relighting them--after about three tries I think she finally got them!

Our big Birthday girl!

She has had an obsession with Tinkerbell lately, so we found her a few Tinkerbell costumes that she absolutely loved! She kept trying to get everyone to fly her around, finally Nana gave in and for the past few days, all we have heard is that she wants to fly! Thanks Nana! LOL

2009

Kind of old picture, but I think it's cute! Emma left with Randi and Katie was NOT happy about it at all!

Andee after Emma and Randi left, she still says that she wants to go live in Indiana with them!

On our last walk up Spring Canyon before it snowed, Katie decided that she was going to be an airplane! She has such a funny personality!

We were really hoping that 2009 would get off to a GREAT start....boy were we wrong! After finally getting all the Christmas decorations down (they have yet to be put away) Gabe and I were looking forward to relaxing this past weekend---Andee stayed at my mom's all weekend and Katie spent the night with Gabe's parents. What we weren't expecting was for us to both get sick! I ended up dead on the couch all day Sunday with who knows what, while Gabe spent the better part of the day in the bathroom! At least the house got cleaned Saturday! LOL Katie has yet another ear infection, poor thing, I'm afraid she is going to have to get tubes put in her ears sooner or later! We need to get her hearing checked as well....might as well kill two birds with one stone I guess! Mom keeps telling me that Katie is deaf since she yells instead of talks---Gabe says that she just takes after me! :) Then today I think I have a piece of popcorn stuck between my teeth so I try dental floss to get it out----out comes half my tooth! Needless to say, this year has gotten off to a rocky start! On the brighter side of things, we are really hoping to buy our house in the next few months! We are so excited to have our first house, and we have been living in this house since October and just love it! After moving 11 times in 4 and a half years, I'm ready to settle down and not move for a LONG time (if ever)!

Enough of that......here's an update!

Katie will be 3 next month....man that makes us feel so old! I can't believe that she is growing up so fast! That means we have been back in Utah for 3 years! Where does the time go?! We are so ready to go back to Tennesee---just to visit! Amazing how much we really do miss it back there, but I know once we go there we will be ready to come back home!

Andee is in Pre-school with "Aunt" Cordie and she just loves it! She throws a fit if she can't go to school! Monday's she doesn't have school and she's mad all day long because she would so much rather be there than at Day Care!

My work just bought a new building! YAY!!! It's 10 times bigger than the one that we are now and best of all..... I get my own Office!!! I'm so excited to not have to smell the dust all the time, to not have to walk through the mess of the shop to get into my computer---just everything about it is so exciting! I'm really not looking forward to helping lay the tile and what not, but if it means I get my own space I'm definitely up for it! I absolutely love my job! I couldn't ask for a better boss, or a better work environment! When I left the Coal Mine, I missed being able to talk to all the workers and tease them--it's just my nature! But I have all that here, we all give each other a hard time, and it's just such a relaxed environment! We get what we need to get done, but we have fun doing it!

Gabe just got done taking down the Christmas decorations on Main Street, he was NOT to thrilled after just taking them all down at our house as well! He really enjoys working for the City, at least on most days! We are just thankful to have them pay 100% of our benefits even though the pay isn't the best, the benefits definitely make up for it!

That's our update for today....I really don't know how often I will remember to post on this thing....still trying to get the hang of all of it! Maybe one day it will look all cute and fancy like everyone elses, but for now, I'm still trying to figure it out! Love you guys!

Katie was riding Poppy like he was a horse at Grandma Erickson's and Chico kept trying to jump on! It was so cute!!

Andee decided that she wanted a piggyback ride to! She almost fell, but it was so funny to see them attacking Poppy! They wore him out pretty good!

Katie was even ready for a nap after opening all her presents so she sat in her new chair and got comfy! They were having such a blast!



Katie was too busy opening up everyone's things to show me what she was getting, but Andee was proud to display everything! She sure does love the camera!

Here they are playing in their new playhouse!

MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!! (Just a little late, but it's the thought that counts!) We hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday.....we sure did! Andee and Katie are still a little too young to get too excited about the whole Santa thing--thank goodness--but we were still work up at 7 in the morning to open presents! Katie actually started trying to unwrap ALL of them the night before, I think she was more excited for Andee's things that for her own! They have been wanting a playhouse for awhile, so Santa brought them a little Cottage thing that has a sink, changing table, baby bed, washer, stove, and chair--man did their eyes light up! It was so fun to see how excited they were over every little thing! They got a lot of clothes, which is a WONDERFUL thing since they are almost wearing the same size! Katie I think is going to be a bit bigger than little Andee! Christmas morning Gabe's parents came over for breakfast which was really nice, then we headed out to my mom and dad's for a little while. We got to talk to Emma, which the girls just love, we really wish that they were closer to us! Then we headed over to Grandma Erickson's for lunch. We are so blessed to have her in our lives! She is such a sweetheart and a joy! I really don't know what I would do without her! Christmas is a hard time for her cuz she misses Grandpa so much, but we are lucky that we have such a close knit family! Gabe still can't believe how close the Erickson's are! He has a hard time keeping up with all my "Aunts and Uncles" when half of them are really just cousins that I have ALWAYS called Aunt or Uncle!
Christmas went well---that is until 4:00 when Gabe got called out to go plow! We were supposed to have a nice prime rib dinner--obviously that didn't work out too well! He didn't get home until 3 in the morning! They then decided to try to call him to come out again at 5! I had already headed up to fill in at the Coal Mine so I wasn't home to hear the phone, and when I got to the Mine and called to tell him I made it, he wasn't hearing it himself! I think that I FINALLY got ahold of him around 10! The girls had slept in (thank goodness) since they had such a big day the day before, and he wasn't about to wake up! Poor guy, it seems like all he has been doing lately is plowing the roads in Helper!
We are so glad to have 2008 behind us! It was just one of those years! Hard to believe that it's come and gone already! We hope that everyone has a GREAT New Year!