Let's Pretend

Our Knight in Shining Armor

This is where I found him while I was vacuuming the other day. That's his "sword" in his hand, in case you didn't guess that one.

Farmer Erik!

He got water in the trough for his animals.

Then he tested out the water to be sure it was good enough for the animals.

Only the best for Erik's farm :)

and Chef

We made pear bunnies for a snack the other day.
The raisins make the nose and eyes look a little silly, but they tasted yummy :)

I love watching Erik while he's pretending. When we play with play dough he's really good at pretending to eat the pancakes he makes. Also at the park we use the bark as pretend food and he's good at keeping that out of his real mouth.

Funny recent sayings:

*This morning Erik asked for a show and I said ok, but after the one we were watching. So the one we were watching was almost over and Erik started to tell me he wanted a new show, but I was ignoring him because 1. I was talking to my mom on the phone and 2. I had already told him he could have it. Erik got fed up with me ignoring him and said,

"MOMMY, LOOK AT ME!" he even grabbed my chin. I thought it was so hilarious that I laughed out loud and apologized.

*At the store, store clerk asks, "how old are you?"

Erik says, "I'm 2." then turns around and says, "I'm 2 clothes!"

So glad he included them in the conversation :)

* "Hi daddy, how was work today?"

Erik Says...

* ...Thank you, you're welcome!

* Daddy says, "GO ERIK!" Erik says, "It's your birthday!" (gonna party like it's your birthday...)

* "Don't touch anything! (wisper)-We gotta find that lamp" -horray for Aladdin! He's officially a Nielsen now, we've instilled in him our love of Aladdin. :)

* "Look mommy, the plants are growing up!"

* "Let's pick Dandilions"

* " I want mother"

* "I'm a big boy, mommy you're a little girl"

* when I help Erik go potty I ask him if he wants to stand or sit. When I go he asks me, "M0mmy, you wanna stand and go potty?" No I'm not that talented.

* "I don't want green beans" as Erik shoves them into his mouth.

* " jus a lil bit" that means to keep his bedroom door open a little bit at bedtime

* "Mommy it's raining outside!!!" (said at 7am on a Sunday) -No Erik, those are the sprinklers

Are you laughing or at least smiling yet?

I am, just typing these. I love how this kid can make me laugh.

Speaking of the potty, here's Erik with a messy brownie face, on his little potty (which he doesn't really use much anymore)

I Love to See the Temple

We took a family trip to the temple last night to feel the spirit of the temple and have Erik touch the temple.

We tried to teach Erik how to say Moroni but it came out more like "nanoni, or mo-moni" so then I simplified it to, say angel. But when we left he said, "Bye mo-moni, see you later!"

He really liked touching the flowers. I'm glad the gardners weren't out to catch him.

He posed for this one. He said, "Mommy, take my picture with the flowers"
I love his eyes in this one, so cute!

Daddy and Erik touching the temple.

"Let's sit on the bench." said Erik

Do you like his foot ware? He picked it out all by himself. I humored him on the red socks since I figured his boots would hide them, guess not. I think Erik's favorite color is red because he always wants to wear red socks, dry his hands on the red towel, and be the red one when we play Cootie. I wonder where he gets that from? ;)

Erik loved looking into the windows of the waiting area.

To me it seemed like he was excited to see what was inside. So we talked about when he could go to the temple and what he could do there. It was a sweet moment.

I wanted a picture infront of the pretty flowers too :)

Hoppy Easter!

Hurray for dying eggs!

This is one my favorite things to do. Erik really enjoyed it too. Do you like his Kool Aid smile?

This finished products! We just dyed a dozen, it was perfect. We like to draw on the eggs with crayon first so they come out with a pattern on them. I just ate one today with Erik's scribbles on it, so cute.

Hurray for General Conference!

We decided to watch it in our (small) tent, like the people did when listening to King Benjamin of the Book of Mormon. Erik liked hanging out in the tent most before and after conference, not much during, but it was still fun and he was still really good.

Egg Hunt!

As you can see from his basket, Erik did MUCH better this year at finding eggs than last year. He was very motivated to find eggs this year, last year he needed more coaching.


The perfect Watermelon Egg!

We were so proud of how perfectly it turned out, we had to get a picture with the egg's creator :)


Easter morning Basket!

Erik loved the peeps and the jelly beans the best!

(Oh and G-ma JuLee, he really loves the basketball and sports eggs you got him too. Thanks)

He's reading!

Well at least looking at the pictures. He grabbed a stack of books and headed for the tent. I love how he crossed his legs. This kid always makes me laugh and smile.


Erik and Daddy testing out the sidewalk chalk.

*Best moment of the weekend!*

Erik PRAYED!!! ALL BY HIMSELF!

I felt like it was a miracle because for a month or better he's been so resistant to praying with the family and this weekend he did it all by himself! We were going to pray for lunch and he said, "No, Erik pray!" So we said ok and let him do his thing. He likes to be thankful, I don't think he asked for one blessing it was just, "thank you for the food, thank you for mommy and daddy, thank you for the couch..." and anything else he could see in the room. It was so sweet!