A humble artist

This is artwork of the lovely Lydia who came to visit.  We are so glad that she and her family could come.  I will add more photos soon.  We love you all!

UP dates.... No it isn't a new strategy for John to meet more girls

I signed almost everyone up for updates to receive emails about the posts and the comments on those posts. I think you may be able to set those settings yourselves in each individual post, but I have made it available in such a way that every post and every comment will send an email to each of the accounts listed on the blog as "author accounts".

You can let me know if that doesn't work for you. ;)

The Five Little Pigs - A new and improved version

The following story was written per request of my mother-in-law. It is a story of work and learning. Because it was written for another audience some of the details may be unnecessary.

When I was ten years old, my family moved from our home in Huson, Montana to live near my grandparents in Star Valley, Wyoming. This was an exciting but sad time in my life. While living in Montana, we loved visiting my grandparents on their dairy farm. We traveled the 14-hour round trip as often as we could to see my grandparents, milk their cows, feed the calves, and be in a beautiful place.  That is why the move to Star Valley was exciting. It was sad because I was leaving behind a home I had lived in for almost my whole life. I had good friends. I was doing well in school. Looking back I can say that even though this change was hard, it was a good change and blessed my life in many ways. One way was learning more about hard work.

Work has always been a consistent part of my life. Every day, every week, and every weekend I knew I would be working. Sometimes the jobs were small like cleaning my room, folding clothes, or scrubbing the toilet, but sometimes the jobs were big like mowing a 1.5 acre lawn or shoveling snow off the driveway. I grew accustomed to work. I learned to love it. When working with my siblings, we would make it fun. Thanks to work, I grew closer to my siblings, became stronger, learned skills, and accomplished much. In spite of all these benefits and the consistency of working often, I didn’t realize that my work ethic could be strengthened and stretched even more.

I remember the first day after we moved to Star Valley. There was a job to do and we were the ones to do it. The irrigation pipes needed to be moved from the edge of the field into the first watering position. The distance was about 40 feet, but the pipes were big and awkward. I could barely move them. It was hard work. I didn’t know if I was cut out for it. Thanks to the culture of work in my family and some older sisters/younger brother that I did not want showing me up, I didn’t give up. I persevered and realized I can do hard things. At least I thought I could until I met those five little pigs.

My family lived in a house surrounded by fields. There were a couple of sheds near the house which were full of hay, broken machines, firewood, old food storage and other odd gadgets and gizmos. When I first moved there I did not anticipate the many uses of sheds. The summer of my eleventh year, I learned a new use for a shed—a pig pen. As a family we bought five little pigs to raise and sell. I was appointed to be the pig whisperer, so I took it upon myself to give food and water to these five pigs every day. It was work. Sometimes it was pretty easy.  I just had to fill up a couple buckets of water at the spigot, carry them to the pen, open the pen without any of them escaping, and dump the buckets into the water trough without spilling too much of it. Then I just had to fill their food trough with some grain and old scraps without getting run over. Those were the easy feedings. Pigs like to eat, so they had to be fed and watered twice a day. There was no day of rest. Monday I fed them. Tuesday I fed them. Wednesday I fed them. Thursday, Friday, Saturday I fed them. Even Sunday I had to feed them. They were worse than the Very Hungry Caterpillar. This routine lasted a few months. In that time they ate a lot of food, they got a lot bigger, and I learned a lot. The day we loaded them into the trailer to take them to the butcher was bittersweet. My responsibilities to them were finished, yet I had those pigs to thank for some very valuable experiences.  I learned many things from those pigs but three stand out—responsibility, problem solving, and courage.

Responsibility is a tricky thing to learn. It can even be harder to teach. One evening after a fun-filled family event, we arrived home after dark. I had not fed the pigs yet. I started inside with the rest of the family when my dad reminded me about the pigs. I wanted to protest. I was tired. They would be fine till morning, right? My dad helped me understand that I agreed to the task. I was responsible for the pigs. These pigs depended on me for food and water. I needed to be there for them. Some may wonder whether giving an eleven-year-old boy five pigs to raise is a reasonable endeavor, but I can say that it will teach him the definition of responsibility much better than a dictionary.  

Pigs are interesting animals. They are smarter than people think. Unlike cows, pigs eat in one place, go to the bathroom in another place, and sleep in another place. Even though they are smart animals, they needed my help to solve some of their problems. They do not have sweat glands to help regulate their body temperature.  When it is hot outside they have to wallow in the mud to help lower their body temperature. Ideally the mud should be in the shade. I needed to give the pigs a place to wallow. One side of the pen was covered by the shed. That gave me the shade I needed. Luckily the floor of the shed was dirt so all I had to do was string a hose over from the spigot and create some mud. I could do that. Another problem that came up was where to get all the food for the pigs. Pigs eat a lot and although our family of twelve had some leftover scraps from preparing all our food, it was not enough to feed five pigs. Sometimes we could go up to the granary by the milk barn and roll some barley for the pigs, but we couldn’t do this all the time because it was far away and the barley was for the cows. Pigs will eat grass and weeds so sometimes we were able to extend their pen to include some fresh greens but that still was not going to be enough. We decided that we would feed the pigs some of the old food storage in the shed. It consisted of hard beans and grains. There were even some very old dried prunes. The food storage was just the ticket to satisfy the pigs hunger and round out their diet. I would sometimes sample the prunes for the pigs. I had to make sure it was alright for them, and besides, I needed energy too.

I might be 15 years old but I still look 11, right?

I developed a lot of courage feeding those pigs. At first when they were little, it wasn’t too bad to enter their pen. I was bigger than them and was able to survive carrying their food and water into them. As they grew, and they grew fast, it was much more difficult and scary to enter the pig pen. I learned to do hard things and overcame my fear of entering the pen. Sometimes when I fed the pigs it was already dark. This could be scary because I knew there were skunks out there. I could also hear the coyotes in the distance. Some nights that distance didn’t seem very far away. Through prayer and working up my courage, I would be able to feed the pigs. I knew I had to be brave, find a solution to the problem, and realize my responsibility. With these valuable principles in hand I knew I could overcome any challenge the pigs gave me.  

Winking 101 ;)

Well I thought I would tell a really funny date story. I have already told it to some of you but I wanted to tell it to the rest of you. So Mom has already heard it and i am not to sure what she thought of it but that is okay. Anyway, on Saturday I went on a date with this really cool girl. We had a group date with some of my roommates. We made fruit pizza. We made like a sugar cookie crust and some of us cut up fruit. We put mango, kiwi, strawberries, blackberries, and bananas on it. It was really yummy. So in all of this I was talking with this girl and she was asking me about my major. I haven't decided yet but I am kind of leaning towards biology or business.  Then after getting my major I am thinking of going to optometry school. She asked me what did optometry have to do with and I looked at her and she at me as I winked at her I said the eyes. She was like oh I can't wink. Then after the date we texted for a little bit and in one of her texts she sent me a winky face. I said look you can wink. She said you should go into optometry because I think you just fixed my eyes.

Anyway it was pretty funny. ;)

A Long One-- Written For Jared with all of you in mind

Disclaimer: Other parallels can be me drawn, This is based on personal experience of one soul---

At Lydia's school,  these eight habits, are taught and ingrained in all the curriculum. They come from a book called Eight Habits of Highly Effective People.by Stephen Covey.

It has been great to learn right along with on how to be a more effective person. 

Be proactive!-- Your in Charge! Act don't be acted upon Act  Heleman 14:30

I say this to myself..... a lot lately...I sometimes want to blame my circumstance or life. " Oh I didn't  get this done so its because Ben's always gone!Or its my houses fault that it doesn't stay clean. If only it was nicer. Or its because I moved...again."  While some of this is true I decided that I didn't want to become a victim of circumstance.

 Seeing it through the eyes of a child, Lydia, has helped me know that I can learn, grow, and become, no matter what.

Begin with the End in Mind- Keep an Eternal Perspective!

Oh! An eternal perspective.... Can't put it into words. I have learned that you can be happy no matter what and that an eternal perspective can add to that happiness.I thought of you that other day when I was studying the commandments in Preach My Gospel.  I was surprised that I had never really thought about scripture study and prayer as being a commandment. Through this outpouring of personal revelation I discovered a joy.  Keeping the Commandments =Happiness. I felt a great connection to my covenants and  I was happy, truly on a spiritual happiness high!! I felt so blessed even though Ben had been gone for twenty days straight.Such a blessing and tender mercy to know there is eternal happiness.

He has been working in Broadus Mt.He was was even working weekends and he couldn't come home.  He finally came home for about twenty four hours on day 22 (November 10th) and now he will be home on the 21st. After Thanksgiving he will be able to com home every night( sigh)On December 12th he retakes his failed portion on his lineman exam and then ..... That's as far as we know.

He also has been working in -20 to -30 below zero weather and he shot a a buck white tailed deer.

Seek first to understand then to be Seek to be understood!-- Find out what the Lord would have you do!! Be humble!  Listen to the spirit.

Kind of hashed this one already but I have been learning about how to find my voice! but also to listen better!! See habit Find your Voice.

Put first things first!-- Put the Lord first!

Work first then play--as they teach Lydia!  I know I was taught this one too - Thanks Mom and Dad"   I have been attempting to prioritize my day--

Think win, Win!- -This is described as a finding solutions that can help everyone feel happy and loved-   Gospel parallel-The gospel is the answer to a lot of problems but the love of the Lord comes first.  - "A person to be loved is more important than a problem to be solved."-  Thomas S Monson.

Synergize!- Work together to get results.-- Gospel connection-- Gather together visiting teaching/home aching Be There for others Serve

 I am proud of your service buddy!! Keep going!

Sharpen the Saw!- This is so include activities that provide a sense of physical, emotional/social and mental/intellectual renewal. -- Study scriptures, Pray-- Article of Faith 13

I have a goal to study Hebrew fifteen minutes a day! Would you check up on me and see how I am doing?

Find your Voice!!--Be true to your self! 

So  I have been reading this book called Daring Greatly by Brene Brown.

I am only eighty pages into and have already learned so much.  Its all about being vulnerable and  true o yourself and others especially those that you love.  When I think a self conscious thought.. like when I am worried about offending someone. I stop myself and think why worry I am showing them who I am! Especially when it is towards someone that I care about. I hope to become more confident and bold in sharing ... My testimony, my feelings.  My not worrying about myself I actually start thinking of others more.  I feel more connected in know what they need. Hence the reason why  I wrote so much in this email.  I have been quiet in sharing what is going on in my life.

Eli and I are doing home school preschool.  We are going to start studying animals around the world.  

Anna is such a character. She defiantly has a voice. She loves eating at the table with us.  She mimics us. She know please and more ins sign language.  When you say ready set go!  She will race you up the stairs.

Whew !  Well Love you bro!

Hurrah for Israel!

Linda Lee

1,2,3

Dating one, two, and  three.

Well it is November and things are cooling down in Rexburg. It has been a pretty good semester so far. I have gone a quite a few dates and I am about one step closer to understanding women. It seems that women are about as easy to understand as it is to see polar bears eating marshmallows in a snow storm. Don't worry I have had some good advice and sooner or later something will work out.

Going back a bit I really enjoyed the hunting trip. It was great fun with the family. I seemed to always lose out and I had to finish off all of the food. It was probably the fullest that I have been for a really long time. Anyway there was some really good cooking. We were also fortunate to see a moose. I think next year I will have to put in fora moose tag because they are so calm and don't spoke because they are the king of the forest. Now speaking about Joshua. He seems to not be getting his fair amount of beating on because when he was with Joseph and me he sure dished it out. He would even dish it out if I didn't eat like a piece of bread or drink some soda. Of course i dished it back out to him and he had to fight unfairly.

Well I will let you all know more later.
Love you

Champions, Heros, and Family - Part I

Champions, Heros, and Family. They are synonymous in my thesaurus. Everyone in the family is my hero. I look up to each member. I want to be just like them. We are all champions too. I was actually thinking that we could have "We are the Champions" as our theme song. We could each learn it on our respective musical instruments and then play it to kick off every reunion. :)

The first hero I would like to write about comes from the hunting trip that happened a little less than a month ago. Eliza, Hyrum, and I drove miles and miles and hours and hours and days and days to go spend some time with family and hopefully get some much needed meat in the process. Hyrum could be the designated hero for how well he did in the car, but this story is about another hero. We were all excited to be in the mountains together, but we were also very excited to perhaps get a deer. For some of us (John, James, and Cody), it was a first chance to shoot a deer. The excitement was high as we headed out the first morning. We walked up a mountain while it was still mostly dark. At the top we decided on what we thought was the best plan of action, and split up. After a couple hours we hadn't seen hair nor hide nor even feces of deer. The excitement began to fade and the two younger hunters who had never before shot a deer went to try their luck for rabbits using bows.

We decided to try a new location. It took a couple of stops and some serious map studying before we found something we liked. Papa Tillery had James, Cody, and Mckay in his truck. Luke and Papa Erickson were in the front of his truck with Joshua, John and me in the back. One of the curious things about all the stops, was what happened each time we got back in the truck. There seemed to be a ceremonial scuffling that took place before the back seat of Luke's truck was filled. I can't quite pinpoint the origin of the ceremony, but once inside the truck, I do know that the brother in the middle seemed to get roughed up by the other two sitting on either side. John seemed to spend a lot of time in the middle. I also spent my fair share, but Joshua, either by his knack for lollygagging or smarts, didn't ride in the middle, until finally John and I cornered him. This turned out to be a bad idea. It was like cornering a badger or getting between a mother moose and her calf or like trying to get a peaceful sleep with a toddler between you. Joshua was "rowdier than a bull in a china closet." John and I did all we could to restrain him, but I think we both knew that sitting in the middle was the better alternative. Before we even got to our destination, all three of us were worn out and we ended up playing bobblehead in the back. This is where you fall asleep and let the bouncing of the car determine where your head goes. This was fun. I think that I only hit the window with my head a few times. :)

We arrived at the next camping spot mostly unscathed and started to get excited for the evening hunt. Somehow we started talking about who would get the first shot if we saw something. Luke said that it should go to the person who had traveled the farthest. Although I appreciated the gesture, I said that those who hadn't shot a deer yet should get the first shot. Somewhat jokingly I said I would be happy to claim the first deer meat. The evening hunt came, we split up, heard gunshots, wondered who got the deer, and went back to camp. Come to find out, Cody made a great shot and downed a doe. The first thing he said to me was that I could have the meat as long as he could have the heart. Now that is a Hero. He generously gave Eliza and I his first deer. Not only that but his example of wanting to say a prayer of gratitude right after getting the deer made him a hero worth emulating.

Well lets just start with the last few weeks.

I went to a Homecoming dance. It was the semi-formal one, so we dressed up. I really enjoyed it. My roommate and I were going to get a group of people together to go, but we ended up just us two as the other people went out of town or withdrew support. That night I had a spanish test (I did well on it for those of you who weren't asking), so I got home a little later than planned. We had planned on making dinner and eating at 7 and then dancing at 8. Well I got home around 6:45 or 6:30 and my roommate John was still out shopping. He said that he was going to pick up his date at 7:30. So I told my date the same thing. John is a great guy... bless his heart (I heard you're supposed to say that before you say something remotely negative) Anyhow John decided to do his whole weekly shopping and he didn't get back to the apartment until 7:10 or so. So I laid down our options. John opted for making the food with the girls. We both went to pick up our respective dates at 7:30. The girl I took lives in the same building as we do, but on the other side close to the street. On the guys side is a parking lot, so I drove over to the other side, picked her up (taking care to open her door) and then I brought her back to our apartment. :)

We made coconut breaded chicken, a greek salad, green beans, and rice pilaf (from a box). I worked on the chicken. My date helped me with the chicken, and she worked with John's date on the salad. John worked his box magic.

"My date", "My girl", "My dance partner" - shall hereafter be referred to as Erika.
"John's date", "John's friend", "John's girl" - will be known by her name of Tatiana.
Tatiana is the one with blond hair... Oh wait! that can't be right... She is actually the one on the left... my left...haha.

Anyhow. we just talked and made dinner. I drizzled some honey on the chicken and we ate that. It was tastified! The salad was awesome too.

We left for the dance.

We danced at the shop at Riverwoods. It was good. They had some cool lighting and a cookie bar. They had a fondue fountain and dipping treats. They also had chocolate milk and regular milk. (byu creamery of course) So Erika and I, even being full from dinner, made sure to get a glass of milk. After they dance they handed out sparklers and lit them up as we went outside. :) that was fun too.



This last weekend I went to Vera Lyn's and Scott's house for a halloween shindig. Aaron and Angeana, Evan and Ann, Chris and Chrissy, Corey and Sydney, Kent and Denise and Braden, and Vera Lyn's neighbor family were all there. It was good. There was baked potato soup, and a seven layer dip and other good yummy things. Vera Lyn had some ginger, rice, and sweet potato and corn chips. They were spicy and they were faintly sweet, but they didn't have a stong ginger flavor. You couldn't even tell that it was ginger until you looked at the bag.

I played with the kids. It is fun to get to know the little astle girls as well as Aaron and Angeana's kids and of course Vera Lyn's and Scott's.
We had a contest of eating doughnuts off a string. I wasn't going to go in the second round of competition. I had planned to go in the third round, but there was an extra doughnut, so I got off to a late start. I was eating next to Aaron, so I would reach around him and poke him in the side. He is kind of ticklish, and he had a hard time laughing the doughnut into his stomach. I think that my braces have expanded my mouth because I was able to take huge chunks out of my doughnut. Braden was doing well, but Aaron kept elbowing him (I don't know if he thought Braden was tickling him or not). I was relatively untouched, and I zoomed to victory with my nitro braces!

Then other people did it too. It was funny to see Addy (Evan and Ann's girl) She just started going before everyone was ready because she just wanted to eat a doughnut!

Other people got some good sticky faces. Christopher was going at his doughnut daintily (he had eaten one small bite) and everyone else was close to finishing, so Vera Lyn pasted his doughnut on his face when he went to take a bite. haha!

PS I dressed up as a pirate...


And this week for halloween I also dressed up as a pirate.

I dressed up as Jimmer Fredette for one occasion earlier this week. My roommate Paul has a King's jersey that says Fredette on it.

My pirate yesterday and my pirate last week are definitely different, so I will try to get a picture of both of them.

:)



















And somewhere in there (Two weeks ago on sunday)
Sara Bingham and I went and visited Grandpa Stratford. We ate some raspberry cream cheese, byu creamery, ice cream with him. :) one thing I learned as I talked to Grandpa was that he really enjoys the stuffing in a Thanksgiving dinner. he also really enjoys the cranberries and the cranberry sauce I haven't really known what grandpa stratford enjoys about Thanksgiving dinner I think because we haven't had Thanksgiving dinner with him a lot and it was good to talk to him about some of his likes get to know him more

Updated my blog

And I did a lot of little posts so be sure to scroll down, maybe even to another page.
threekindsoftanners.blogspot.com

John's fun Coming Home weekend! Now in HD!!

Here is something I did with the Tillerys :) Hope you all like it.

You might just click on the YouTube button to see it in a bigger screen.

The Busy Life of Esther Erickson

Well, Hey y'all! Whats up ma homies?? haha just kidding ;) Well life is super busy! So instead of writing my normal novels.. today's post is gonna be mostly pics. Besides, a picture speaks a thousand words right?? That means with like 3 or 4 ive met my Junior research paper word count! Sounds easy ahaha.

This pic is Becca and I in one of our first meets! Shadle. And the wonder woman socks are awesome! Dang, that feels forever ago...

This one is the girls with our Missoula shirts on from the Missoula meet! We rock.

This is last nights Halloween dance! Myrisa (a girl from XC) and i dressed as 1980s ladies :)

This is how Myrisa looked. She looked great!

This ones kinda random, but it was the skirt Nicolina bought me! Thought id post a pic. THANK YOU NICOLINA!!

This is me and Myrisa before the dance.

Another one of us. She is also my "running buddy" in XC cuz we have about the same pace. Shes really good!

FHE flag football. Mom ripped my shorts... I still scored though!

Early morning seminary! This is pretty much how our group of friends are haha. It is me, America, Alexis Young, and America's younger sis Glory.

This was our group at the dance. By the way most of these pics are coming of instagram in case youre wondering about the borders and stuff. Im just keeping you updated ;)

This is when Megan and I unintentionally matched.  SO we took a pic.

This is one day of spirit week before homecoming. It was career day haaha. 

This is when i went to this girl's mutual for wheelchair bball! Her name is Kate and she's in Hayden stake.

Well thats about all the pics soo far i think... But if you wanna see some pics of me running from XC go to this website:

http://www.lennygemar.com/Sports/2014-Post-Falls-HS-Cross/i-XhPJ7c2

I was too lazy to go through and find mine for you haha...

Other things going on: We got selected for all northwest for troubs so thats exciting! Only like 4 schools get accepted. Basketball tryouts are coming up. The girls varstiy XC have a really good chance of going to state so i am pumped!! I really hope we get to go! Regionals are this Thursday. 

Anndd thats bout it! Mom will fill you in on everything else im sure  :)

Going, going, gone!

Kids are funny.  The understatement of the year.  But really.  I know they are just figuring out life, but they also keep life comical.  Glen is gone hunting.  Sienna asked if she could go.  Glen told her it would be a really long time.  "That ok," she said.  Then he told her it would be really cold.  "Then I'll bring a jacket," she said.  

 Sienna found this carrot in the garden.  She said she had to eat it all gone or it would run away.  "Come back here, I'll bite your legs off." And she did.

And the corn.  We will harvest tomorrow.  So come on over.  If we don't the raccoons will eat it all gone.  They have found it and are going crazy in there.  I guess the electric fence doesn't bother them...

Joshua is famous

So if you didn't know, Joshua is famous. He was on TV with all of the famous athletes. Well, maybe not the most famous athletes, but you do get to see a lot of him during the most recent BYU women's volleyball game. He was in the front row. You can watch the whole thing and see how well the #11 Cougars beat Portland, or you can just jump to 24:57 and see Joshua cheering. If you watch for 20-30 seconds you can see him receive a text message from me. Here is the link:  Celebrity

It's a bird, it's a plane...no, it really is!

We went to an air show on Saturday! It was really cool to see the planes do all sorts of tricks.  They would fly as high as they could in the sky until they would stall out, do loops, twists, and even fly upside down.  They had all sorts of planes and cars parked so you could look at those as well.  

 The kids catching some shade.

 Cute babe just hanging out.

 Some of the tricks the planes did.  Although the photos don't do them justice. 

 The boy with the blue balloon.

And the shark plane.  This was the coolest plane of all in Rhett's opinion.  

Beautiful weather and really warm for September.  A fun way to spend a Saturday morning.   The show was put on for free.  We donated to the cause because we hope they continue for years to come.