The EriKaren Family: 2009

Friday, December 4, 2009

Christmas Pictures!

We haven't posted pictures lately, but now we have new ones!

We took Christmas Pictures and they are ridiculously cute! But hey, consider who the pictures are of. Hehe. She's so pretty and very photogenic!

Enjoy and Merry Christmas all!

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Permanent! And a little bit of Erik History

Hey everyone!! It's Erik! Now I know what you're thinking "Erik??? Who the heck is Erik?? We want Karen and Londyn!!!". And I understand, but bare with me, I got some news and a little bit of a story that will help everyone who doesn't know me that well understand me a little bit more.

So, I've always wanted to be a provider. It's been something I've wanted since I was probably 8 or younger. I've always known that I want to be able to go put hard work in, and know that my family is at home safe, and have the things that they need. I've always wanted that my wife would be able to stay home with our children and enjoy them all day long, and not have to worry about the stresses of a job on top of being a mother and wife.

That is Erik Sanders in a nutshell, but, when I was in school as a teenager, that ideal did not show manifest one bit. I was lazy, I didn't care about school, and took it about as seriously as a pet dust ball. I goofed off, with the ideal of "If I scrape by, that's all that matters, at least I'm going somewhere". I was wrong as wrong could be. I was going absolutely nowhere; yes I graduated High School, but with barely any sort of credentials that a college would look for. Somehow, I was able to get into BYU-Idaho for 2 semesters, where I absolutely threw away any sort of potential I could have. I wasted time, money(sorry Mom and Dad, I really really am sorry), and my life. Upon coming home, I continued to work at LifeTime fitness, with promises to family that I would improve, do things and become something great. I stayed at LifeTime for 2 years, and went absolutely nowhere...

Until I met Karen Kiker. She was a new employee at the end of my time at LifeTime, and I thought she was incredibly beautiful, funny, and the way she would play with children, and how she loved them made me know that this woman would be an incredible mother someday. I'm not much of a flirter, so if you would ask Karen what she first thought of me, her response would be "A jerk!". I didn't know what to do with her, I couldn't talk around her, and I always said the wrong thing. Luckily I overcame that. While I was with her, I knew she loved me for who I was, but at the same time, I knew she wanted more. She wanted someone with drive, someone with motivation and who was going somewhere in life. So, for the first time in my life, I TRIED at life. I tried to become a tidier person(still working on that one), I pushed myself beyond what I thought I could do, I did all this because I loved(and still love) her so much that I knew it would be worth it. I guess it worked, because we are now married and have a beautiful baby girl.

I started working at Jimmy John's in early March(I think) after being unemployed for almost a year. I was barely making anything(7 an hour plus tips...some days) and we were very fortunate we did not have any big bills to nail us down. Karen was pregnant and working, working hard and doing more than her share. She was amazing her whole pregnancy, and I could not be more proud of her.

In May, out of the blue, I get a call from a staffing company that I had interviewed with about a year before for a job I didn't get. Hadn't heard from them since that day. They had a job offer, and I immediately signed up for an interview with HUB International for a Data Entry position. I interviewed well(I thought) and was confident that I would get the job. I didn't. My heart was broken, it was a good job, payed well enough for us to get on our feet sooner than we thought, and I was rejected. I had been rejected by a billion other jobs before this, but this one stung quite hard for some reason. I continued to work barely making anything, with Karen working more hours(not by my decision of course, I asked for more hours at work but didn't get em) than I was, and I wanted so bad to be out of a sandwich shop.

About a month later, at an OBGYN appointment for Karen, I get a call from while we were in the waiting room. It was the staffing company! My heart raced so fast, and I heard the words "Someone has dropped out and HUB wants to know if you can work for them". I talked for a while outside, getting the details ironed out, and went back inside to tell Karen. She was in her room already waiting for whatever to be done. Now anyone who knows me knows what happened next. I bawled. I bawled and bawled and bawled right there in the doctors office, and hugged Karen so tight.

Now, here is the thing that I thought would never happened. I worked HARD, I excelled, I did as best as I could so that they would make me permanent after three months. I got told I was doing great, that I was exceeding expectation, something I have probably been told at twice in my life(and probably about video games) that I was doing good at something.

So, here we are three months later and...they are making me permanent! They have been an amazing employer and I've been impressed with how they treat their employees. I'm very proud of the work I've done, and happy that I was able to do this. I also know it's because of my amazing wife and my rowdy daughter that I was able to achieve this. They have been my support and my joy through this, and a constant reminder of how blessed and loved I am. And thank you to all of you who have supported me and have wished me luck or anything of the sort.

SHINING THUMBS UP!!!

That is all,

Erik.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Londyn Is Rolling Over!

On Saturday, Londyn rolled over for the first time! Today, she kept up her practice and we finally caught it on camera! We were sooo excited!

And of course, some more pictures to share of our sweet girl.

Halloween Costume

Bath Time

"Daddy, wake up!"

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

She does it again....

We took a trip to the pumpkin patch today with our Sanders family, minus the parents, Peter, and Robyn's family (we missed y'all!). We got there late, but it ended up being fun anyway! We got some great pictures out of it (thanks to Joana).

I forgot my camera and realized it after we got through the worst part of the traffic on the way there. There was no turning back. Luckily, Joana saved the day and took, edited, and sent me these gorgeous pictures of our beautiful family!

Joana saves the day, once again!

Thanks Joana!

Enjoy!

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Londyn hates sleeping...

We tried to put her down for a nap and she didn't want to go down and made it very clear that this was unacceptable....but not by crying. She decided to just make squeaky protest noises. Haha. Thought we'd share.

She's also doing her best to start rolling over!

We got her a nice new Baby Einstein exercauser thing and we were so excited for her to wake up and play in it. It has a piano, mirrors, toys, lots of colors and things to mess with on it. It also has places to hang things so I put her carseat giraffe on it so she'd have something extra to look at. What's her favorite thing on there? Take a guess...That giraffe is her favorite thing ever. Haha. It figures. She doesn't even pay attention to the flashing piano when it goes off. She's only interested in the giraffe. Haha.

Here's one of her after her video smiling away. Such a sweet girl. We're so blessed to have such a happy baby!

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Room Redo, Bumbo, and Community Shoes!

My mom switched employers and along with the many great benefits she's receiving from this, the whole family got some too, especially Londyn and Erik.
The upstairs game room used to be half Londyn's area and half cubicle filled with a ton of paper and work supplies. With the job change, my mom got to get rid of all of this and re-do her office to make room for new supplies and with this came organization.
Londyn got a bigger room and Erik got office space to keep all the media out of our room.
Londyn's room...

Erik's new office...

Bumbo!
I've wanted to get Londyn a Bumbo like you wouldn't believe because she is getting stronger and nearing the sitting up stage everyday. So, we finally got one on Tuesday! I was so excited! She's getting used to it and I know she'll grow to love it. She's decided recently that laying down is lame. She needs to be sitting or standing up to see what's going on.
So I gave her, her creepy doll that she likes to chew on while she sat up in her Bumbo.

Community Shoes
My mom saved me a box of clothes from when I was a baby. I'd gone through them before and decided I didn't want anything in it for Londyn....until today.
I found the cutest shoes that were exactly her size right now and my friend, Megan and I slapped them on her with a matching outfit! We had to roll up her jeans because, although they are 3 month pants, she's way too long for them already. We have a tall girl who grows out of everything in length....never in width.
The shoes...

The whole coordinating outfit...

As for other news...Londyn had her 4 month check up this week (even though she's only 3 1/2 months old) and it went great...except that she got shots...I hate it.
She weighed in at 12lbs 8 oz.
She's 24 inches tall
She was in the 50th percentile for height, weight, and head circumfrence.
The doctor said he is very happy with her development and also loved all the drool she got all over him.
That's her new thing...drooling...constantly....on everything and everyone. She's cute!
Thought I'd post some recent pictures of her and us with her!
Drooling...

Her butt

Playing around with mom..

Mom, Dad, and Londyn

Londyn and mommy...

Londyn and Daddy's Daddy-Daughter Day Out..

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Londyn got her ears pierced!

Lots of Pictures for ya! She got her ears pierced the day before she turned 3 months old! She did so great and only cried for a few minutes (Erik cried more than she did). She looks pretty with her bling-bling.

Hehe. She loves standing up with our help. She looks so cute when she does it!

Already got Mommy's strong legs.

She also had fun playing with Daddy.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

And some more pictures....

The girl is crazy!

and then she passes out...

So, i take advantage of her slumber and hold her hand...hehe.

Saturday, September 5, 2009

A message from Londyn...

"WASSSSSSUP!?"

And some pictures...

Friday, September 4, 2009

A breath of fresh air...

Londyn's had a pretty nasty stomach virus this week that is still in progress. It's been kicking her butt...literally. She has to have the worst diaper rash I have ever seen. Of course, she's been her happy little self when we're not changing her diaper.

We gave her a bath this morning and she was so sweet and happy, I had to take a picture.

We're so lucky to have such a sweet baby that smiles even though she feels so yucky on the inside.

We love our little girl so much.