Merry Christmas 2010

Merry Christmas to all our family & friends. The wonderful day is now coming to a close. I'm exhausted & we even slept in until 9:30 am. We love it now that the kids sleep in too. So this first picture is for Ma Key & Poppa. Here is your gift. I'll ship it as soon as I know when you're headed home. Our framed family photo & a few crocheted wash cloths. Just a little something. Thank you for the gifts too! We're hoping you're having a great time with the Gillett family. We miss you & wish you a very Merry Christmas. As you can see our family is changing so much. The kids are getting so BIG. If anyone else wants some wash cloths just let me know. I've been going to town. Haven't done it for awhile since this month has been so busy.

These next pictures are as crazy as our family is. Austin thought it would be fun to attempt a few "Minute to Win It" games. We all had to go to the bathroom first to make sure that when we were laughing hysterically which we were that there weren't any accidents. These first two of me I put in the wrong order. The challenge was to start with the cookie on your forehead & through a little shimmy shake & twitches move the cookie to your mouth. I was laughing so hard I was shedding massive tears. But as you can see most of us eventually did it.

This next one doesn't show the tears but you can see I was laughing really hard. Of course the on lookers were laughing hard too which made it worse :)

Preston made each of these games look so easy. Then it was your turn & it wasn't easy, that's for sure. Have you all seen this show on tv? It's one of our favorites. The games are great family fun. If you haven't tried this at home maybe give it a whirl for New Years Eve. I think we're doing it again then with some friends. We'll try different games. Just look them up on the MTWI website.

Austin had the whole face movin & twitchin the whole time. Pretty fun I must say. The kiddos will remember this Christmas Eve for a long time.

Here's Whitney in the starting position. She twitched so much that the cookie kept falling off her face.

The next game we played was to stack three golf balls like a snowman. I didn't think there was any possible way to do this. Here's how it went for 3 of us. Give it a try. It's pretty cool. Be patient & don't let your hands shake (Poppa).

I know it doesn't look real but they really are stacked on top of each other. The pics look fake, huh?

Poor Whitney. No make up. She's been sick with the flu for the last 3 days. We quarantined her until Christmas Eve in her room. She got it from the two darling babies she had been babysitting earlier in the week. Feeling good on Christmas Eve though thank goodness. The first meal she'd had in 3 days. We ate Turkey Sandwiches with cranberry sauce & Havarti cheese. Yummy. Delicious. One of our favorites in the Herrick house.

Preston of course was the first one to accomplish the "mission" & the quickest of course. It took me like 10 minutes. I think he was under 2. Precision work of course!

Next game: No hands, using a straw (not a swirly one but it's all we had) inhale & attach a M&M to the straw & transfer it to another location. We were spitting, snorting & laughing amongst other noises. Austin was really good at this one.

The last game was to blow Christmas cards across a table & make the one side fall off so that it was hanging off the table. If you blew it all the way off you failed the mission. Mine kept collapsing before they even got to the end of the table. Really fun stuff! You all need to try these or many others that you would find incredible fun & entertaining. We love you all! Hope you all had a great Christmas day. We hope Santa made it to each of your homes as he did to ours. I'll share more photos tomorrow of the big day. I can't wait to share what I got. Santa was incredibly generous & insightful. Until then have a good night sleep. Happy Birthday tomorrow to JoLee. Wishing we could be there for your baptism. We still remember the night we were at your house & your Mom went to the hospital. We anxiously awaited the phone call to hear the good news! Happy 8th bday. We are so excited for you! Turning 8 & being baptized is a very memorable day for everyone. Enjoy! Merry Christmas from the Herrick household to yours!

Halloween 2010

I know this is an old picture but it's still my favorite Halloween pic of the two kiddos. I think Whitney was Dorothy for like 3 yrs or more. Austin's costume of Batman came from a friend. He was so serious in this picture. He looked so cool.

This is my other favorite picture of Austin. Austin the Magician. Wasn't sure if I had shared this pic before. Found it in the wrong "album" so thought I'd share my findings. Isn't he little & oh so cute.

So here's how he dressed up last night for the trunk n treat. An injured student. He has a pencil sticking out of his eye. You'll only understand the sign if you have to deal with the "Make Your Day" program in school. It's supposed to be funny. I was proud of Austin for thinking of the idea on his own. Then he made the patch, got out the glue gun, painted the patch, attached the string. You know they are grown up when they can do it on their own from start to finish. We got a laugh out of it & hope you do too. He's just like his dad when it comes to Halloween.

Whitney was a kitten again & Mom a "rapper". At least that's what I tried to be. Whitney turned me into more of a gangster. Sorry no pictures. If we weren't always running late. well....we got in the car & left the camera on the table at home. As soon as it was over so were the costumes. We had a great time at the trunk n treat. Wonderful costumes. Lots of laughs & candy too.

So here is how we celebrated Halloween tonight. MaKey & Poppa bought us eyeball ice cubes. We put them in our sprite drinks. Once the ice melted the antics began. Whitney & I couldn't eat them but the boys did. Austin said they were "chewy". Gross!!!!!!!!!!!! Hope you find this segment funny. Our dinner table was filled with laughter & lots of "oohhh gross". Here you'll see what I mean.

Which one is funnier? They both are.

Here is Whitney the beautiful Cyclops (sp?). This took a lot of tries as the eye was very cold & would slide down her forehead. Still funny though.

I should have used "distilled water" so it would have been clear. Didn't have any. Oh well.

The rest of our simple Halloween dinner consisted of mummies & our favorite Apple Snicker salad made with snickers from our goodie bags & Granny Smiths off of Poppa's tree here at the ranch. Simple, fun & like I said lots of laughs. Oh the mummy below has only one eye too because the mustard bottle opening was too large & Mom's a dork. Oh well it added to the laughter. You can see the eyeballs in the sprite but when frozen they floated upside down. what's with that?

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE. We have sure enjoyed the pictures we've seen so far from the other cousins. They are so cute!!! Makes me wish (for just five seconds) that my kids were little again. Thank goodness for digital pictures.

YW Camp Ensign Ranch June 21-25th

Can't find the most impressive pic of all for Whit & Girls Camp. That would be her & 21 other YW stuffed inside a biffy. Gross! All us adult leaders knew what they were doing. We sat
around the fire trying to ignore them as if we acknowledged their activity they would
have gotten in trouble. ha ha. They thought it was cool especially when they broke the record.
Too bad they didn't do it on the first day when the biffy was the cleanest. Our camp is so fun. I told the Stake I would go because it was Whit's last year. So glad I went. Had a blast. Whit thinks I'm crazy & hopefully not too embarrassing. Mom's do that you know esp at girls camp.
Our camp is one of the best because of all the great theme songs they create. Then these
terrific YCL's come up with actions for it. The theme this year: Follow the yellow brick road.
Of course at the end of our yellow brick road is the temple. Here they are singing the
song & this is their action for the temple. Whit is on the back row right in the center. This group of girls the YCL (youth camp leaders) were the best. So fun. Such great
leaders to the younger girls. I was over the First Year Certification. I've forgotten how
little they are at 12 yrs old. So innocent. So nervous. So cute. Was I really 12 too once upon
a time? And it seems not that long ago.

The YCL's performing their skit. Whit is in the green tutu. The fairy of YW value knowledge.
Great skit. They love to act & perform on stage. Our stage was very different this year. We had the tee pee's to sleep in. This camp was set back in the woods. Very different than the long houses we've used almost every year except for the one year in A frames.

Then it was time for the Stake leader's skit. We tried to rap our message. I'm on the far left in

the red sweatshirt. Whit was laughing so hard at us crazy leaders rapping that she had a hard

time taking a pic. This was actually a little embarrasing but we got our message across &

had fun making fun of ourselves.

On our last evening together the YCL's did a wonderful job with their program. They dressed

up to look like the girlfriends of the Stripling Warriors. They presented a beautiful message & sang beautiful songs from the 2010 theme "Strong & Courageous". These YW shared personal experiences of how they stand strong amidst the temptations at school & around friends. A few were asked to share their testimonies.

Whitney was asked to share hers & all I can say is that she definitely has one. You had to be there. I was so proud of her! She is such a wonderful example to the other YW. The other YW just love her friendly, outgoing, fun loving personality. She has really learned a lot from Seminary & as she reads the scriptures (which she's faithful about every single day) & prays her testimony continues to grow. So proud of you, Whitney! You are a very strong & courageous Young Woman.