I'm a vegitator. I vegitate

"I don't do chicken mom. I'm a vegitator. I vegitate, but I don't eat poisen ivy."
Teig age 3

"What is the tooth fairy?"

"What is the tooth fairy?" asked 3 yr old Teig.  "It's a witch to take your tooths away." replied Joren.

5 weeks into our new home

We bought a dresser with carved drawers and matching end tables. So pretty!
Paul was home all weekend and for the first time since we moved in we did not have company or have to go anywhere. Paul took a big interest in getting the house together. It is the first time he has had any chunk of time since we moved in to help. I have felt pretty alone in the whole thing and was starting to getting pretty frustrated, but I'm back to being a very very happy and lucky wife.  I just like to have my husband around now and then and he has been pretty busy. He gives so much at work that he comes home and just shuts down most days so I loved getting some real Paul for the weekend. We worked on the yard and brainstormed ideas for the garden. This weekend was the Old Time Fair for our little city of Willamette. We got up Saturday and walked literally one block and sat on the curb to watch our parade. Then we walked one block home, had breakfast and then walked down the hill to the fair. It was magical. This community is amazing. We got neighbors in a cute rental next door. Its a family from Florida and I met right after they arrived from a cross country drive from Florida with two babies. I made them dinner and took it right over. They could not have been more appreciative. I think we will be good friends. I also love the people across the street. She let me help her choose some paint colors for their remodel and they loved my choices.

I feel like I have been living for tomorrow since Paul and I got married, scrimping and saving and never buying anything while preparing for the future.  Now suddenly all our work is paying off and we are living for today!  It is suddenly the future and we are buying the things we always wanted to buy but haven't. Paul is getting a Harley this weekend. I bought my oil paints. Paul bought a guitar, we are buying gorgeous furniture. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world. My house is coming together so wonderfully.  I love it!

I got called to be singing time leader in primary. I love teaching senior primary. I had those kids having so much fun today. We had a blast. I'm not so great with the younger kids, but the big kids love me. :)

Teig has been tantrum king lately! Joren is getting weirder every day, and Eirik could not be more whiney, but on the other hand, Teig looked at me today and said, "Mom, when I grow up, will you marry me?" Joren asked me to build him a jungle in his room so I cut out felt leaves and tissue paper leaves and hot glued them to green twine and made him a wall of jungle. Eirik is so tender and earnest and right at the crossroads of making big life decisions about what he believes.  Every day I wonder if I am being patient enough and taking enough time with him, and everyday I know I have come up short. I helped him unpack his room today finally. He had no interest before and didn't miss anything that was still in boxes so we took a long time, and it was painfully tedious. It was all I could do not to do it for him, but I wanted him to learn to put things away. I wish I was a better, more patient person!  I love that kid so much and sometimes I can't see past my own nose to be empathetic to 8 yr old feelings. Why is it so hard for me to understand  that 4 pocketknives are not enough, or that my boys can't go to sleep until they tuck every stuffed animal in with tissue paper wad pillows and kisses before they can go to sleep? They are precious! The tantrums will pass, Joren will be weird, but he is authentic and brilliant. Eirik may need a lot of attention, but when he gains independence at something his level of capability is extremely high. What he does, he does very well. He is an incredible leader. I went to scout camp with him this week and he was always the one with the flag leading the group. He always knew were to go, where things were, always had a plan. He is capable, trustworthy and I would be happy to follow him when he grows into a man. I learn so much from him. Daily I have to check my pride and try to be worthy to be his mother. Sometimes I am appalled while reflecting on my behavior.  I pray they are all resilient because I catch myself rolling my eyes, acting put out by their requests, and throwing tantrums when they make messes. I ask myself when am I going to pull it together and cut out that crappy behavior.  I started a hot air balloon chart and it is working great. Their balloon rises as they make good choices and have a good attitude and it lowers as they fight or have tantrums. Teig will loose his star wars blanket if it gets to the bottom. Oh No...! Eirik is so worried he will really lose it that he goes to great lengths to try to help him get points up. So cute.
Juni is into everything! She did something to the computer that made a sweep of the whole hard drive and erased all the programs! luckily it did not erase any documents or photos! She loves to play in the sink. I think I change her clothes about 5 times a day. she has been the voice of one word for about a month, "shoe". She loves to bring people shoes, find her own shoes and throws a fit if she can't find her shoes or get them on. Well, a fit for her is like a 1 on a Teig tantrum scale. She's really a very easy baby! I've been putting her in high side pigtails that are slaying me with her cuteness! Ahh, SO CUTE!!!!
Joren and Teig got gymnastics camp for a week last week. They loved it. Teig is in soccer and swimming lessons this week.
I can't believe summer is almost over! NOOOO

Teig:

How old is mommy? 27
How old is daddy? 7

"I was wike dis. (scared face). I just shot a huge ice berg at them and and and and um um dis aliens name is just ice. I shot around de town and ven I I I jumped over it an an I shot an ice frew the bad guys heart. See this disk right here. It helps me turn back into a human."

Teigs cookie recipe

"First you put 2 bags of chocolate chips and ven some powdered sugar and stir them around and ven 4 rotten eggs and stir it around and ven add the magic infrequent, more cookie powder. Scratch claw loves these kinds of cookies. I give one to scratch claw and the rest to his teammates. He shares them. One time on Thursday he got sick 8 times by eating too many cookies. Like from the grass to the cloud of cookies. Then I buy him 6 million more medicine so he will not get sick and then he gave me back my money and I said, "what, scratch claw gave them all back and I still have money!"

Law Family Reunion May 2014

My Brother caught himself a beautiful bride.  We got to fly out to celebrate with him at their wedding. They had it at The Bungalo in Pleasant Grove. They had a very diverse and fun crowd. Tera chose a song by Motley Crew to walk in by.  She had all the kids run in first and they did lots of circles around all the congregation while the song played. Dave waited up front in his sunglasses being cool. The kids loved it and were sweaty and tuckered out for the vows which were short and sweet. They decided not to share the vows with the crowd, but to put them in a handmade wooden box that Dave built and seal it up for 50 years from now with a bottle of wine. 

The wedding was lots of fun and I am so happy for my brother that he has a wonderful wife. I think she's pretty amazing. 
Also, they were nice enough to stick around for a day to have one day of family reunion before they left for their honeymoon.  I thought that was pretty cool of them. My mom reserved a really cool day camp up diamond fork canyon where we could take the 4 wheelers and dirt bikes and have a fun day. The kids did water balloon baseball and we had hoola hoop contests and a great picnic. There were some amazing red rock cliffs to climb. That always makes me happy and the kids loved it too. Joren snuck through this crack in the mountain that was pretty impressive.  The kids got to try shooting Grandpas guns at targets. We got to swing in Aunt Katie and Uncle Danny's hammock and play sardines.  Davy brought his slack line to try too. That was a ton of fun.  Paul and I enjoyed going WAY back in the mountains and discovering some amazing places.

Hey, I’m Eirik Aanderud!

Today I just got home from Utah and we had a wedding/family reunion!

 It was REALLY fun! Some of the examples of the fun are… 1. WE climbed the red rocks![up to 1020 f.t.] 2. WE climbed mount TIMP [the hardest mountain to climb in Utah!] 3. WE shot….1. A revolver, 2. A 45 Cal, 3. A rugger 10 22, 4. A pump shot gun, and 5. A 357 Cal! I also got to ride a quad and a dirt bike! At my uncle Davy’s wedding we had to dance down the aisles with GIRLS!!! With my GIRL I just ran down the aisle shrieking as loud as I could! I finally sat down before they could call the cops!

1,2, 3 Magic... I love my kids!

I don't know exactly what it is, but this week I have been just completely overwhelmed by how much I love my kids. It's weird how much more I can love them today when I thought I loved them fully just yesterday, but I somehow love them more. I feel so completely devoted to them it almost hurts. I am watching my little Juni walk and climb and point and do so many things by herself and it's killing me that she is already 15 months old and she is my last baby. I want to snuggle her every minute, but she is busy being baby busy with so many awesome things. She is curious and easy going and indipendent and does not throw fits yet. She smiles all the time. She loves to clap for her brothers at their baseball games. She loves to laugh with them. She thinks Joren has the coolest stuff in his room and Joren is always trying to keep her out of his stuff. She loves to climb the stool in the bathroom and brush her teeth. She imitates all of us. She loves animals. She obeys well and doesn't do dangerous things. She loves to drink from a cup, although she's not great at it yet. She feeds herself. She does baby signs for more and drink and eat. She gives hugs and blows kisses and is all around the easiest baby and so much fun to be around!! Seriously, she is so stinking cute I can't get enough of her.

I want to make every little minute with Teig, the terrific count because too soon he will be off with someone else spending his days making them smile instead of me. Oh, he is sweet. He is smart and confident and strong. He never questions himself. He has a firm, steady grip on reality, but allows himself the extravagance of having an imaginary pet named Scratchclaw that is to blame when anything goes wrong and he is also super strength and any other number of miraculous things. If we need extra money, don't worry, Scratchclaw has some extra. If we need to move our house, don't worry, Scratchclaw is stronger than the whole world and can easily move our whole house. Also, he is gentle and can snuggle at night if you need a snuggle. Teig is also a great negotiator. He has figured out that he needs to fill up on healthy food before he can have treats so he keeps careful track of all the good food he eats and tallies it up to tell me so he can qualify for a cookie or something. His idea of what is healthy can also be pretty humorous. Teig also will negotiate by letting us know that he will stay with us for the rest of our lives if he can have a cookie, or he will let me snuggle with him or play with him if he can watch just one short show. He knows how to work me for sure. He's not one for dressing up or playing pretend much. He's very practical and determined. He loves play dough and lately we have been painting together every day.  He knows all his letters and is learning to sound out words. I think by the end of the summer he will read and ride a bike with no training wheels. He gets to go to Friendship Farm, one of the greatest places on earth. It's a green barn where kids his age meet for preschool. They are called farmers and every day they get a job to take care of one of the animals there.  They work in the garden and play in the yard. The teachers are awesome and the whole thing is just magical. I love that he gets to go there twice a week. He's only done it for 2 months and next week is his last day. He will start again in the fall.

Joren has continued his love of creating things out of paper. It is beyond hobby and borders obsession. His teachers had to ban him from making paper airplanes. He is so good at it that all the kids were always hiring him to make them airplanes and he was going through too much paper at school. In place of airplanes, he has started a collection of what he has named "Harsheburg" Aliens. He has invented worlds for all the different species of aliens and he has been bringing home a few new ones every day for weeks. They are pretty interesting and very creative. He gives some of them names. I started hanging them on his walls and they look impressive together. He's passionate about them. He asked me to make Harsheburg aliens with him one night. I took a toilet paper roll and some green painters tape and started making a creature. He started flipping out. He was so mad at me. He said, "How do you do that?" He did not want me to make something cooler than his aliens. His teacher has told me again recently that Joren does not work well in partnerships or groups. This is not news to me. He has never been good at letting me help him with ANYTHING. He is MR. independent and does not want guidance or help. It was kind of a big step for him to let me show him how I made my alien and then he made one exactly the same.  I have a feeling school is going to get more and more challenging for him. His is a creative soul trying to squeeze into a school that requires non-creative work.  I feel extremely grateful to be in the awesome school district that we are in because already the teachers have been good enough to recognize his gifts and given him time to develop them.  I know he will need to do some uncomfortable conforming to be successful and I am squirmish thinking of how that will be for him.  He is so unique and an absolute brilliant, determined, passionate, gem. I adore him.

Eirik is my heart. He is working so hard to be a man. He is so good. His heart is gold. He wants to serve, and please and love everyone. He loves people so unselfishly. If someone gets hurt he wants to give them his favorite possession to help them feel better. I told him of a former teacher that I feared was lonely and he went to his room and drew a treasure box and wrote on it, "we treasure you." and brought it to me to mail to him. He did not even know him, but did not want to see anyone in pain. He is truly gifted at working with younger kids. He is a true motivator. He understand people really well. He works hard, and sets a great example for his younger siblings. He had what they called, Kids town at school where they could create, sell and buy things. He chose to be a Doctor. He got little tupperware jars and put candy in them and made up fake names of drugs to sell to his kids to help them with their headaches and stuff. With the money he made at his profession, he bought art for me, a necklace for me and a box he made with mice he made inside it.. for me. Why did he spend all his money on his mother. He is so kind to me, it blows me away!

I do have to say that I have been reading 1,2,3 Magic. I love it. I have been using it for a few weeks and I think my relationship with my kids is improving because of the refinements in our interactions from this book. I really like it!

"When heavenly father creates all the babies in the town will he be tired?"
Teig

Fishing, Soccer and painting in the spring

 Joren has been begging me to take him fishing since he got this new tackle box from his dad.  He has it filled with all kinds of "fishing" things that he has gathered. He loves his new fishing vest and overalls. Eirik was just dying to practice using a hatchet and Teig liked feeding the ducks and fishing for worms. This awesome beach is right by our new house!

Teig started his first team sport last night! We have decided that as a family we all support each other and go to each others practices and games as often as possible. It made Teig feel so special to have his brothers there supporting him. He was adorable! It was sprinkling on us the whole time, but it did not spoil our fun. Yeah for Teig!

 

 First Soccer practice!

Last night was magical for me. The boys all got wooden birdhouses in their Easter baskets so we spent the evening painting birdhouses and reading this wonderful book of Dinosaur poems called Dinothesaurus. Juni wanted to paint too so I gave her a big paintbrush and a bunch of ketchup in her high chair. She loved it.

Did you know I can chew through bones. " Teig

Weekend in the Bend Sunshine

We spent from Friday to Tuesday in Bend. It was a beautiful sunny weekend.
Jeanette was so generous to let us stay with her. We had a ton of fun. Jeanette got to take care of some horses and cows for a friend who was out of town so on two different days we got to visit this gorgeous property and see the animals and jump on their trampoline.
We went to the High Desert Museum. It had an outdoor pioneer home and shop and mill. There were old fashioned kids games that we all had a ton of fun with. The kids got to try drilling with an old fashioned drill and got to dig with small shovels into little wheelbarrows. They could have stayed there all day. They had so much fun. I loved the gorgeous sunshine, the stick games, the people in costume and the wonderful animals and plants.

Jake says he loved going to the skate park, having fun with my cousins, going hiking, and watching TV.

Eirik: today we are coming back from Bend. We were there for spring break. While we were in Bend we did some really awesome things. 
1. We went to the skate park. Me and Jake and Joren had a lot of fun there.
2. We also played baseball. Aunt Jeanette, me, Jake, Joren and my mom played baseball at the same park where we skated.
3. We went to a gift shop at this awesome museum.
4. We saw a pioneer exhibit.

Teig at 3 1/2

Did you know that my heart gives me lots of kisses before bed. And I'll give you a million kisses before bed.
I will give you a giant pet squid but I will tell the squid not to spin its tentacles around because I love you. And I will make you a robostick. Did you know that my star wars blanket is powerful and can turn into a dragon? Also my pet crocodile can help you. He can speak English and play with me because he can clap and scratch me like Scratchclaw. It doesn't hurt me because I'm on Julie-X-C-Strong mode. Joren goes on strong mode which means he can break through our fists.
I love my skinny jeans and my Detroit Tigers clothes. They are a tank top and shorts.

(I (mom)peeled them off him after he wore them night and day for 5 days. I hid them on the washer. Within one hour he found them and put them back on.)
Since christmas Teig has been singing the tune of Jolly Old St Nicholas, without realizing it, with all made up words. Our favorite is when he sings "I don't know what I'm gonna say. I don't know what I'm gonna say. I don't know what I'm gonna say...." it's become a family song because he sings it so often.
Also I will tell you one more question. I will give you a pet whale. I also have a pet named Scratchclaw. He does bad fings like hides stuff and sneaks candy. At night he stays up and plays wif his toys. He petects me from all the scary monsters.
Mom, if Scratchclaw rips the sink in half, don't worry, I will tape it back together with the blue tape Joren gave me because he didn't want it anymore.
I wuv you mom. I only want the star wars blanket on me, but I owey wike the scratchy side on me. Also I rowwy, rowwy, rowwy rowwy, ROWWY, want to do it mysef!
I know, I know.. Goodnight sweet Teig. I love you too!

Eiriks baptism!

Today was Eiriks baptism!
It was an amazing experience. Our family and friends packed the primary room. There was standing room only.
I remember when Eirik was blessed at how overwhelmed I felt by the power of all the worthy priesthood holders surrounding Eirik for his blessing. It was the same today. The strength within that circle of men combined to bless and call down the power of God in behalf of our son was incredible. Paul gave Eirik a wonderful blessing. The spirit was present in abundance. I wish there was a better way I knew to describe how it feels to feel the Holy Ghost. I guess I'll just say that the room felt like it was glowing and swelling with energy and warmth. My parents and Patty and John all shared their testimonies in their talks. Patty shared that when she was 7 and she was in a big car accident she remembered being very hurt and going to the hospital and crying and crying until she could not cry anymore. Finally her father came into the room and gave her a priesthood blessing. She said she stopped crying and felt a great comfort. She said a spirit came over her and she could feel herself healing. She also bore witness that when she and John work in the temple the veil is very thin and they witness beautiful things.
My dad shared a story too. He said that Eirik was lucky to have parents who care so much about him. He said that without the Holy Ghost who knows what might have happened the day that I swallowed a penny as a baby and was not breathing. My dad did not know what to do but the spirit prompted him to lift me up by the feet and smack my back. When he did the penny came out. It was really cool to have the grandparents give joint talks because we got to hear all their testimonies. Eirik gave a great testimony too.
Men in the confirmation circle: Paul, Ben Aanderud, Grandpa Rallison, David Law, John Clifford, Dave Friedman, John Falk, Cory (Emily's husband,) Danny Falk, Steve Rallison. Bishop Chandler conducted and he was fantastic.

Roller coaster

Yesterday morning i thought I was pregnant and I thought we were buying a farmhouse on the river. By evening, I was not pregnant and we decided not to buy the house on the river. What a roller coaster day! What a stressful week!

Eiriks 8th birthday

For Eirik, his 8th birthday could not come fast enough. The waiting has been excruciating for him. His expectations have been high and especially this week he has been under a lot of pressure. Turning 8 brings a lot of firsts. We have been preparing for his baptism. We have been making his first science project. He has Tae quan do belt testing this week. We bought all his scout stuff to become a cub scout. He finally got his pocketknife he has dreamed of for years. He has also been getting a lot of homework and his reading challenge has been demanding. It's exciting to see him grow up and shoulder all of these new reaponsibilities with grace and eagerness. Tonight we threw him a friend party. It was a blast. He had 8 guests, Jeffrey, Ian, Ben, Nate, Evan, Mary and his brothers. When they got here we gave them nets to catch frogs in our pond. Then we made leather mystery braided bracelets and we gave them their goodie bags. We made a campfire on the back porch and roasted hot dogs and s'mores. Then we gave them glow sticks and took them on a night hike. It was a gorgeous warm night, the only night of the week without rain. We saw crocus blooming on our walk. We always call them Eiriks flower because I told them they were blooming in our yard for the first time the day I brought him home from the hospital. After the hike we sang to eirik and he blew out candles and we had bites of key lime pie bars and opened presents. Then they went tot the tent to watch a movie in the tent with sleeping bags. It was 10 pm when all the boys went home and I snuggled Eirik to sleep in the tent. He felt very brave sleeping out there by himself. He said it was a perfect birthday party. He is wonderful. I am so proud of my Eirik.