A visit from Santa...

Santa came to the Erickson Casa a little early this year!!!

Jon lured me out to the driveway this morning and this is what I found...

My official Mom-moblie!!!!! (aka Ford Expedition)

Obviously, Caroline and I (and Luci, too!) are SUPER excited...I have come up with all kinds of errands I need to run, just so I have an excuse to drive it around today!:)

Thank you to my sweet, amazing, wonderful husband for such a BIG surprise!!!!!!

3 months old! (1 week late)

Sorry for the belated post, but things have been pretty busy around here! Caroline officially turned 3 months old the day after Thanksgiving. It's seriously unbelievable to me. She is getting so big and seems like a real "baby" now....not a newborn any more. She has really started to grow and change so quickly! I think she learns something new every day.

A few things about the littlest Erickson at 3 months...

• She can roll from her tummy to her back!
• She laughs (usually at her Daddy) and it's the sweetest sound I have ever heard
• She has progressed from cooing and gooing to screaming and squealing. It's LOUD and completely hilarious.
• She still loves to look at her hands and feet, and now she reaches for and grabs onto her feet.
• She was sleeping through the night (YEA!) but now she's not (BOO!). This has been a bit frustrating, but I know we'll get there again.
• She reaches for and grabs on to toys, and especially loves her play gym. She will just lay there and talk to the little animals. It's so cute!
• She has her first cold right now...yuck. Runny nose and a little cough...poor girl!!!
• She also has eczema and cradle cap...BAD! We just got a prescription cream from the dr, so hopefully it will start to improve soon!

A few recent pics...

Watching Daddy cook...(by the way, he was making some DELICIOUS lettuce wraps...I am so lucky to married to such a chef!)

Yes, she was watching Daddy cook, while sitting in the laundry basket...Daddy's idea of course, but she was defintiely loving it.

Enjoying her new found freedom while napping UN-swaddled. Since we hit a bit of a hiccup in our sleeping through the night, we started experimenting with swaddling vs. not swaddling...no official verdict yet, but she does seem to love sleeping with her hands like this.
Happy 3 months, Caroline! :)

Thanksgiving Fun!

This year we spent Thanksgiving at the lake house with the Erickson's. It was the first time all 4 grandkids were together, and Caroline LOVED meeting her Kansas City Cousins for the first time. We had lots of fun spending time with the kiddos, relaxing, and EATING!

We had a photogeapher com out to the house to take pics of the family. Here is one we snapped with our camera, obviously Caroline was not in the mood for a photo shoot :) Luckily she actually smiled in the ones the photographer took!

Thanksgiving day with Mommy


Jon had fun taking the 4-wheeler mudding. He was covered head to toe!

Gammy and Grandpa with all the grandkids in their Christmas gear (attempting to get a Christmas card pic)...Unfortunately, it was just about naptime, so it was a bit rough...Caroline (3 months), Whitney (just turned 2 in November), Emma (will be 2 in January), and Wyatt (3 months)

Cousin Wyatt is just 6 days older than Caroline!

It was a great week, and to top is off we went to Dallas for a couple of days to see my family. We are already counting down the days til Christmas, when we'll be in Dallas for 2 whole weeks!!!!

She met Mr. Right...

Mr. Right Foot that is...

But don't worry, Lefty's not out of the picture...

She has enough love in her heart for BOTH feet :)

(Don't you love our naked Christmas tree in the background? I'll post pictures when (if) I get it decorated ;))

Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'...

Well, not exactly...But Caroline did roll over completely unassisted for the first time yesterday. However, I am fairly certain it was a fluke as we have not had a repeat performance yet. And believe me I have been trying. We've probably had more tummy time in the past 2 days than ever before!!! I'll keep you posted. Hopefully she'll get herself rolling again soon :)

In other news...my dryer is Rollin', Rollin', Rollin' again. Ahhh yes, it cost us $75 for the guy to come and flip the breaker. That's right. Just a tripped breaker!! Why didn't I think to check that myself?!?!? Oh well. At least we are back on track and the laundry is done!

Waiting for the Maytag Repairman...Literally.

What do you do when your dryer stops drying and you have 2 loads of wet laundry? Well, my friends, let me show you...

Awesome. Yesterday was laundry day at the Erickson Abode, and I successfully completed 2 loads of laundry (Yea!) with no problems at all. Then, as I go to remove load #3 from the dryer, I notice it's still wet. Silly me, I must have forgotten to turn it on! So, I start it up again. I return later to discover it's STILL wet. Uh oh...maybe there are too many pairs of jeans in this load. So, I remove about half of the clothes and try again. When I return...you guessed it...still wet. Now I know the dryer is officially not working. Load #4 is already in the washer, so I have 2 BIG loads of wet laundry and no way to dry them. In order to avoid getting icky mildewy, moldy smelling clothes, Jon and I decided to lay them all out to air dry. Practically every square inch of the room is draped in wet clothes. My personal favorite are the t-shirts hanging on the shutters. I am sure the neighbors appreciate the style statement we are making there! Thankfully, the Maytag Repairman will be here tomorrow to rescue us from this laundry nightmare!!!!

We Love the Bears :)

We cruised up to Waco for the last Baylor home game on Saturday, and had the amazing opportunity to see the Bears WHOOP the Aggies 41-21. Awesome. We had a sweet set up for our tailgate this time, too. Complete with a TV, fajitas, and lots of friends. The only problem was the weather. It was a beautiful, sunny day, but it was windy. And I mean REALLY WINDY. Which made it feel cold. Believe me, chilly windy weather and a 2 1/2 month old baby just don't mix. So, Caroline and I spent the majority of the day sitting in the truck. Kind of a bummer, but we had lots of company! Most of the other girls at the tailgate with us preferred the warmth of the truck, too. At one point we had 5 adults, plus Caroline all squeezed in Jon's truck. The best part was that my sweet hubby delivered food and drinks to us...It was so nice! We did venture into the game, but it was just too cold, so Caroline and I hung out in the Letterwinner's Lounge and watched the game on TV. All in all it was a great day, but I didn't take one single picture. I can't believe it!!!! So I'll leave you with this...

Our little pumpkin all bundled up for a walk with Daddy this morning.

I love it!

Lovin' Lefty...

Caroline has found her feet...or should I say foot. Her left one to be exact. She is completely fascinated by it. She just stares at it and moves it around; it's hilarious. Her expression is one of complete confusion. I tell her it's her foot, and I explain what we use our feet for (walking, jumping, dancing, etc, etc), but she hasn't quite figured it all out yet. I have also tried introducing her to her right foot, but she is not the least bit interested. I guess she is a one foot kind of gal, and for now she only has eyes for "Lefty."

Here she is posing at Mimi's house last week. It was hard to get a good pic since she was obsessed with staring at "Lefty" :)

In other news, we recently busted out the Bumbo for the first time. She likes being able to sit up and look around, but she can only hold herself up for so long before she slumps over. We'll keep working on it :)

Quick Trip to Big D

While Jon headed up to South Dakota for a pheasant hutning trip with his dad and brothers, Caroline and I decided to hop in the car and head to Dallas to spend some quality time with the fam. It was a quick but fun-filled trip!!! We had lunch with my mom at work, and Caroline got to meet the lovely ladies on my mom's team. We visited my dad at his bank, and had lunch with he and Sherri. Grammy baby sat while I helped Aunt Elizabeth with her baby registry, then Minnie baby sat while my dad and I went car shopping, then Papa Al baby sat while Mimi and I went to Kohl's. We hung out with Aunt Brittany, cousin Emma, Grammy, and Mimi, had lots of quality time with GGma and GGpa! Oh yes, and we got to have a yummy sushi lunch with Uncle Paul!

Here are a few pics...

Helping Papa at the bank

Posing with the pumpkins on Mimi's porch

I thought this expression was hilarious... With my Mema and Papa (Caroline's GGma and GGpa)
With Uncle Paul

Happy Election Day!

We went to vote bright and early this morning! Caroline was dressed in red, white, and blue for the occasion and she got her very own "I Voted" sticker...She promptly spit up all over her blue shirt...I guess she prefers red ;)

Happy Voting!