Free Christmas Cards!!!

I heard through my cousin's wife about this deal that is currently going on with Shutterfly. Shutterfly is offering to give you 50 free Christmas cards just by blogging about how wonderful their products are. I, personally, have yet to use Shutterfly, but everything I've seen produced by them is absolutely amazing! My friend has used them for personal photo books and each book she has made through them have turned out fabulous. She's been so impressed with the quality she completes photo books each year for her 3 children. Every book is beautifully unique. She's shown me that Shutterfly offers so much variety. And she's actually told me that it makes scrapbooking enjoyable rather than tedious (which it sometimes is). Any size blog can participate in this offer. They offer you the best quality and there are multiple options to choose from. My friend told me that they get your products to you in a very timely manner as well. I look forward to using Shutterfly and hope if you haven't yet, you can too. If you don't want to miss out on this offer get your order in by Dec. 14th! The following are links to view some of their cards:

· Christmas photo cards http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards
· Holiday cards http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards
· Birth announcements http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/birth-announcements

If you're interested in this deal and getting 50 free cards let me know and I'll pass on this information to you. Also, if you'd like a Christmas card, send your address my way. Happy Holidays!

Happy Day of Birth and Thanks!

I have no idea where this last year has gone, but it has gone by in a hurry. Rebekah and Kaden turned 1 on Thanksgiving Day. It was a Happy BirthThanksgiving Day for us! They are both doing so well and have been pretty healthy babies so far. Both are close to walking. Kaden will take steps on his own and probably goes 3 or 4 steps before crashing down. Bekah is content to just stand in place or walk behind her walker. They are so much fun and we've been blessed so much! When Ben & I were first married we wondered if we'd ever even be able to have children and now looking at our beautiful family, it's completely overwhelming to me the amount of love I feel from my Heavenly Father. He has blessed us with four beautiful miracles! Thanksgiving day was indeed a day of thanks.

Bekah loved her little 'Lady'.
Kaden & Bekah love to play with my cell phone so we decided to get them their own. Kaden saying "hello" on his phone.

We celebrated Thanksgiving with The Ericksen side of the family. It was fabulous just being with family and eating waaaaaay past when your stomach's content. :) Thanks mom and dad for the wonderful food. It was all delish!

The day following Thanksgiving we had a little birthday celebration with the other two sides of the family. We had cake and ice cream and serenaded our little ones. There was a joint effort in making Bekah & Kaden's birthday cake. I woke up early Friday morning to hit some of the sales (my first time doing this), so Ben made the cake and when I got home I decorated it. It turned out really good and tasted great too! By the way, black Friday wasn't too bad. I had imagined it being really horrible, and I actually had an enjoyable time. Thanks to my sister-in-laws Kim and Tina.

The joint effort birthday cake. Our babes really love dogs so we decided to do a puppy cake.
Posing with the cake. If I look a little exhausted it's because I was! Definitely not used to waking up at 3:40 in the AM.

Ben & I with our adorable little one year olds! Happy Birthday Kaden & Rebekah!

All said, the Thanksgiving holiday was simply marvelous!

Halloween Festivities!

Hope you all had a wonderful Halloween. We sure did! Halloween season wouldn't be complete for our family if we didn't attend Grandma & Grandpa Ericksen's annual Halloween Party. Each year we have dinner, oodles of treats, & carve pumpkins. We were thinking that maybe this year Josh & Jake would be a little more help with carving pumpkins, but as you can see by the look on Jake's face they weren't too into it. Ben of course was threatening to wipe pumpkin guts on Jake if he wouldn't clean the seeds out! :)

Grandpa Jim helping Josh clean his pumpkin out. Josh wasn't quite sure what to do with his hands once they were covered in goop.
The Halloween gang. What a group!
The final result of everyone's pumpkin carving talent. Ben & I did the pumpkins on the front row furthest left (the scarecrow & monster). It was fun, but man it sure takes some time.
Fairview Elementary holds a parade every Halloween. The kiddos walk up and down main street collecting candy from the various businesses and people. Josh & Jake were able to be in the parade this year. Ben was able to come during his lunch break to watch the boys parade up main street too. We had the Star Wars theme going on this year for our family. Josh (darth vader), Jake (Storm trooper), Rebekah (Princess Leia), & Kaden (Luke Skywalker). Ben & I at the parade with Bek's & Kaden.
Darth Vader approaching.
And Storm trooper Jake.
The dark side.
The good side.
A fabulous Halloween!

Family Firsts

I'll be the first to admit that I am an extremely lame blogger. But, I felt I needed to post some of our families happenings over the last few months. Josh & Jake started Kindergarten the end of August. It's hard to believe that I already have children old enough to be going to school. Where did those years go?

Josh posing for the first day of school.
Jake smiling for the camera.
Their first bus ride home. I can't believe that they're big enough to be riding a bus. Our babies are growing up soooo fast too. In about a month they'll be celebrating their first birthday. CRAZY!!! Just thought I'd share some cute little candid pictures of the baby tweeners.

Our beautiful Bekah Lynn.
Rub a dub dub it's Kaden & Bekah in the tub!

And our adorable Kaden Roy.

Summertime Fun Continued...

I'm playing catch up, but I hope you enjoy the pictures anyway. I missed putting these pictures in when I was originally loading the photos, and darn it that you can't put them in the order after the fact. Anyhow, just keep reading to find out more. This first picture is of Amy with the babes at Steins. Aren't those babes adorable!

Me & Jess swimming.
We visited Ben in the hospital when we went to Steins. I wished he would have been able to come with us for he was missed! I was happy we were able to stop by and visit him for awhile. Honestly, those 2 weeks he is in the hospital are always the longest for me. It truly makes me appreciate him and all he does to help out when he's home.

Back to the 24th of July ... My husband's band 'Upside' performed at the local car show. They did great! From left to right Dax Higgins, Ben (my hubbie), Kenny Cox (in the very back with the drums), and Spencer Cox. It's so much fun to watch my husband doing something that he loves and something that he's so good at.

My husband wasn't the only one having fun at the car show, Josh & Jake kept themselves entertained with the rock wall. Josh working his way to the top!

Jake just getting started. I wish you could see a close up of his hat. The hat has these fire flames on it with a car (thanks to the car show giveaways). Jake was so excited to get a prize and wouldn't take the hat off for days.
Near the beginning of the month of August my cousin Trevor and his now wife, Amanda, were married in the Salt Lake Temple. Ben was in the hospital during this time so I recruited my trusty baby-sitter/friend, Amy, to help out. We headed up to Park City and stayed a few nights (thanks to Uncle Russ). I didn't get a lot of pictures because most often my hands were full with babies, but I did get Josh & Jake in the hot tub (which they considered to be their own personal pool).
Taking advantage of the last few weeks of summer we decided to pack up, head down to Manti, & go swimming.
Me with my boys, and my sister Alyson's kids. From left to right: Vance, Josh, Emily, Me, Jake, & Jared. Good times! My sister Jessica was there too, but she was the photographer.

Lamb Day!

This entry is officially late in coming, but better late then never huh?! Anyhow, Lamb Day is one of my favorite July holidays and well we wouldn't miss it for the world (just ask my husband). Me and my sisters at the Lamb Day parade (from left to right: Me, Alyson, Jessica, & Amanda). My sisters are all so cute and pregnant!

The men chilling before the parade. Brandon, Ben (holding Bekah), Coby, & Nate (with Emily) out front. They looked pumped for the upcoming activities.
Jake & Josh with their favorite baby-sitter ever... Amy Bangerter! Amy is an attendant to Miss Fairview and just adorable with our kids.
My sisters, Amanda & Jessica, talked me into playing Lamb Day volleyball. It really didn't take that much convincing because I love volleyball! Jessica couldn't play, but her husband Coby did, along with me, my sister Amanda, and her husband Brandon. Ben was signed up to play too, but ended up opting out because we had no one to watch the kiddos.

Amanda smacking the ball! I must say, I was impressed with the leverage she got being pregnant and all.
Getting ready to pass the ball, I think I even got that one up to the setter. :) It was so very HOT and bright the day we played it was almost unbearable.
We survived the heat, the sun, and our team "Bump Ewe" ended up winning the tournament! Our team (me, Amanda, Brandon, & Coby) with our prized possessions (gatorade). You gotta love Lamb Days!

Summertime Fun!

So I can't post everything that has happened this summer in one fell swoop, so I've decided to post a few things at a time. Rebekah smiling for the camera and enjoying her first parade on the 4th of July. Honestly, our little girl is pretty much always happy.

Kaden just chilling with Great Grandma Phyllis. Ready to catch some candy!
We had a swimming day at my sister Alyson's house. Jake & Josh had a blast. Jake was a little hesitant to go down the slide all by himself, but didn't have a problem shooting the water cannon's at his brother, cousins, & uncle who went down.
Josh going full steam ahead!
The swimming gang (from top to bottom): Vance, Emily, Jared, Uncle Brandon, Josh, & Jake. I think my brother-in-law had more fun on the slide then the kids did.

Summer Project

Just thought I'd share what my husband has been up to this Summer. Whoever says that teachers don't work during the summer obviously doesn't know my husband. Ben was determined to learn how to frame and sheetrock our basement and here are some of the pictures of our basement getting finished. Sorry, these pictures aren't in the order I intended, but you get the idea. Ben didn't do the finish work (mudding/taping & painting) but I'm proud to say that he did everything else to get it ready!

Painting stage (near completion)...

I love the blue wall.

Mudding a taping stage...

And sheet rocking. With the help of our family members we were able to get a lot knocked out in just a day. Ben (red shirt) getting things into place. Just a side note: No one (except Ben's dad) had ever sheet rocked previous to coming to our home. Ben learned the night before our big sheet rocking party how to do it and then showed everyone else the day of.
Ben & brother-in-law Casey with their skrew drivers (now that's a deadly force). Who knew I married such a handy man? Honestly, I'm so proud of my husband and his hard work getting this done.

Family Firsts

We've had a lot happen over the last month that I just wanted to share. WARNING: Lots of pictures are to follow!! We had a family reunion the end of May down in St. George with the Cox Family. It was a lot of fun! The following picture is of the whole Cox Family.

We haven't had a couple picture taken for awhile, so we decided to pose for the camera. I sure love this handsome hunk of a husband!

Joshua and Jacob are in their first year of tee-ball. They are having a great time and I must admit it is thoroughly entertaining to watch.

Jacob hitting off the tee. From the looks of this picture I think he actually connected with the ball.
Joshua working on his throwing technique during a game. Can't you just see him thinking point, step, throw? He actually looks like he could be on the Karate Kid or something!
Who needs a bumbo when you have laundry baskets? Kaden has the sweetest little smile.
First cereal feeding. Ok, so the first time wasn't so great. More food ended up on their faces and clothes then in their mouths, but they're slowly getting the hang of it.

Bekah has enough hair in the back to put it in a pony tail. I decided to try a curler too and well isn't she just adorable?! She is such a happy baby and just a delight to have in our house.

Joshua and Jacob graduated from pre-school in May. I can hardly believe that they'll be going to Kindergarten in the Fall. What some sharp looking little men we've been blessed with.

They both passed pre-school with flying colors! On the evaluation sheet their teacher filled out they both completed everything required for entry into Kindergarten with one small exception for Joshua ... skipping. The kid can't skip, but he sure can gallop. Hope you find the following clip as funny as I did!