Ernstrom Family Chatter — More Fun Than You Can Handle!

It’s been awhile

August 15th, 2021 · Uncategorized

This is Bridget! I didn’t even know we had a blog!! I decided to start it back up but I figured y’all would need a summary of everything that has happened.

2013: Bridget starts a jewelry business. We adopt a dog!

2014: Tina finds out she’s pregnant. The baby is allergic to dairy. It’s a boy. They named him Charles. After he’s born, Tina rejoices because she can finally eat pizza again. The Ernstroms decide to eat pizza every day for an entire week. By the end, we’re all burned out and don’t touch pizza for about a month afterwards.

2015: The Ernstroms visit Disneyland. The kids discover a love for fishing. Dave takes them quite often. Grandma Felix turns 100. Grandma Gibson passes away.

2016: Bridget breaks her hand playing Red Rover. Ouch. It was literally the smallest boy in her grade. She has not gotten past that fact. Dave meets Brandon Kennington of the Flexline business. Tina starts renting a building in Richmond as a photo studio. The other half of the building is a salon. Proof that dreams really do come true.

2017: Spencer gets baptized. Dupont changes to De La Rue. We finish the basement. Spencer and Bridget move down there. Our neighborhood floods. The Ernstroms visit Tina’s cousin in Idaho to view the eclipse. Grandma Felix passes away.

2018: Bridget gets chickens and a fancy new chicken coop. Abby gets baptized. We start a new tradition called International Sundays. The idea is that we’ll cook food from a different country for one Sunday each month. We finish our deck. Tina and Dave sell the purple Honda. Tina’s college car. We visit Mt. Rushmore. Grandma Harmer passes away.

2019: Tina’s gall bladder spontaneously dies. Abigail starts having mysterious stomach pains and ends up getting an MRI. After much confusion, we discover that there was something wrong with our water. The gall bladder gets removed and we buy water filters. As soon as we get filters, all of our stomach problems go away. Tina starts Tahitian dancing. Dave goes to the UK on a work trip. We start watching Lost with our new friends, the Dowdings. Dave and Bridget go on a cruise with Dave’s parents. Dave and Tina go to Hawaii.

2020: The Ernstrom family visits Disneyland. Tina hurts her leg in a skiing accident, tears ACL, MCL, and Meniscus. Coronavirus. Enough said. The Ernstrom family hosts regular home church. Bridget joins the marching band. We adopt a cat!

2021: Tina has her fourth knee surgery. We finally finish watching Lost with the Dowdings. Dave buys a tractor. Tina stops renting The Studio as a result of complications with the owner. Our neighbors help us pave the dirt road. Spencer and Abigail both break their arms.

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Got Milk?

April 12th, 2012 · a day in the life, food, spencer

Hello internet world!

This is Spencer. He loves milk. He drinks LOTS of milk.
And he is trying to win a year worth of free milk from our local grocery store!!!

Wanna help him out?? Then vote for his Stellar milk-mustache!
Visit his picture here (on FACEBOOK), “Like” it and then “SHARE” it.

Thanks!!

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Spencer School – Patterns

February 4th, 2012 · a day in the life, spencer

Spencer desperately wants to be in school.

He sees his sister leave everyday regularly asks when he gets to go.
We’ve visited her classroom a few times and he BEGS to stay.

To soften things a little we’ve started holding “Spencer School.” It usually only lasts 15-20 min. and only covers one topic at a time. But its enough. And its official enough to satisfy the little guy at least somewhat.

Last week one day we talked about patterns. And we played with beads!
“Patterns” was a word he didn’t really understand… until I explained that the beads had to take turns. Then he got it!

Here are a few pictures of our activity that day.

I started by just letting him string the beads, then we talked about what a pattern is and he did another.
I gave him pipe cleaners instead of string so it would be a little easier – those beads are small. The one on his neck is a pipe cleaner too, it barely fit, but he insisted on wearing it!

What do you do to entertain your preschool-aged children at home?

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Abby’s got skillz!

January 20th, 2012 · Abby

Abby is getting big. She is no longer a little baby anymore.
Its sad and adorable at the same time.

And she has a new skill.

Look.

Yep. Its true.

While the days of the sippy are not yet behind us, we are getting closer.
(I’m not brave enough to give her anything in a cup except water – and then only a little)

Can you believe it?!

Anyway. We sure love this BIG-little girl. She is a super helper too! She loves to help me unload the dishwasher, carry empty milk jugs to the garage, help mom cook, feed the dog, etc….

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Conversations with a toddler, VIII

January 11th, 2012 · a day in the life, dave, spencer

Its been more than 2 years since my last “Conversations with a Toddler” post. Once upon a time they were a pretty popular read, and I still LOVE going back and looking at all the silly things that Bridget used to say.

Well, now Spencer is staying all kinds of funny stuff… and I simply must record some of it!!

For those interested, here is a link where you can find past “Conversations with a Toddler” posts:
https://blog.ernstrom.net/?s=conversations

Now… Spencer’s debut!

Dad is my Boy
T: I love you! Thanks for being my boy!
S: Sorry mom. Dad is my boy.
T: But YOU can be my boy, right?
S: No. DAD is my boy
T: Right. Dad is your boy, and you are my boy!
S: No mom. Sorry mom.
T: Well, can I at least be your girl?
S: No. Girls can’t be boys.
T: Oh, So I can just be your mom then?
S: Yea. That’s it. You are my mom.
T: Thanks. I love you! Sleep good.
S: Am love you too!

The drain in my mouth
S: Mom! My cough drop is gone.
T: Uh-oh. Did you lose it? Swallow it? Where did it go?
S: It go-ed down the drain in my mouth.
T: Ah. So you swallowed it?
S: Yea. Am swallowed it, down, down in the drain in my mouth.

The rock in my nose
T: Spencer, you need to get a tissue. You have a big ‘ol snot bug.
S: No mom. Him lives there!
T: Who lives there? In your nose?
S: That snot bug. Him lives on the rock in my nose.

Boys Pee outside
S: Me and Dad are boys. Means we can pee outside.
T: Yep. That’s true.
S: You are a girl. You can’t pee outside.
T: Aww! Really? (acting terribly disappointed)
S: Really mom, only boys can.
T: What if I am camping then can I pee outside?
S: No. Can’t.
T: Well, what if I’m camping and I need to go potty?
S: You not a boy mom!
Dave whispering “Tell her she can squat by a tree. That’s different than peeing outside.”
S: You can squat by tree mom. That different. Its different.
T: Oh. I see. Are you sure I can’t pee outside?
S: Yea. …long pause… Sorry Mom. Sorry.

What means words?
T: Man, you sure are getting big. Who said you could get bigger?
S: Dad did.
T: Dad said you could get bigger? I’m gonna have to have some words with him.
S: What means words?
T: It means I need to talk to him about letting you get bigger, because I think you should stay little.
S: Am 3. On my next birthday am will be 4, and am will go to school like Bridget.
T: You are just going to keep growing aren’t you?
S: Yep. Am are.

Other/Misc…

Dave teaches the 11-year old scouts at Church so when you ask Spencer what he wants to be when he grows up he responds as follows:
D: Spencer, what do you want to be when you grow up?
S: A Scout!

He tends to say “am” when referring to himself. Some examples of things he says:
S: “Am done did it”
S: “Am are big”
S: “Am just… ”

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Its a Brand New Year…

January 3rd, 2012 · a day in the life, Abby, bridget, dave, family, spencer

Well, its officially 2012! Crazy.
Last Year, I posted to my blog 6 times. SIX. That’s it. Just 6. That’s like once every other month. I know, I should be punished or something.

That being said…
Among my goals for this year, I am committing to blogging weekly! Yes, you heard me! I can’t promise they will be lengthly or terribly full of pictures, but I will strive to post at least once a week. That’s 52 posts in 2012! That’s more than 8 times the number of posts from last year. I can do it!!! 🙂

To get things started I figured I’d share a little peek at some pictures from our Holiday.
We had a great Christmas, and really enjoyed having everyone home. It was a little weird sending Bridget off to school and Dave off to work again today… I guess I have been a little spoiled having them home so much lately.

Meeting Santa….

Spencer’s birthday…

Portraits of the kids for our Christmas Cards… (the cards we never actually sent out… sigh!)

And the little one in all her cuteness on Christmas morning!!
Seriously, it doesn’t get much cuter than this!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

Until next week….

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A sale at the Shoe Carnival

August 27th, 2011 · bridget

Evidentially, Bridget figured out how to switch her CD player to “radio”…

She came in while I was changing Abby and the following conversation ensued.

B: “Um. I was listening to the radio and they were saying all this stuff about school supplies.. and there is a sale at the shoe carnival!”
Me: “Well, Your teacher says that the only thing you need to bring to school is a backpack. And you already have shoes.”
B: “Yea. Okay. Right.” (exit)

A few minutes later, she’s back.
B: “Mom they were saying something about a race… and the winner gets to go to South America or something.”
Me: “Wow. I doubt its a kids race though.”
B: “I’ve never been to South America. Have I?”
Me: “No you haven’t”
B: “Bye, I gotta go listen again” (exit)

From the other room…
B: “MOM, You’ve got to listen to this!”

Ha.ha. Oh dear. My child is getting big. I’m glad that the radio can be so fascinating to her.

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It has been TOO long…

August 23rd, 2011 · a day in the life, Abby, bridget, family, random, spencer

I keep thinking… I need to get back to blogging. And then I keep putting it off. And putting it off. I’m sure it doesn’t help that I starting writing down a list of things I want to/need to/haven’t yet blog[ged] about. The task of “catching up” so to speak is daunting. Besides, I have facebook now… which means I can upload half a dozen pictures, write 2 sentences and I’m done. Lazy? Yes, I probably am.

At any rate. Here I am. For now at least.

I updated the header image. See ^^ …the picture now includes the whole family. It had forever been just Dave, Bridget and Me. Alas. Step One. Check. Done. I can end now right? Call it a day? 🙂

So this post. I thought about calling it “10,00 words” or “Ketchup” as I’ve done in the past when I got behind – but I didn’t want to tie myself down to any particular length or format. Instead, I’m going to start going through my folders of images and posting random pictures and making somewhat random comments about them. You may not see the best image from a certain event or time period. And it probably won’t be fancy or edited. But it will be something. And for now, that’ll do.

Here we go…

Up until now, I think I’ve just posted in progress pictures of the house, but we actually moved in this past October. This is what it looked like then. Its changed a bit since…

This is what Abby looked like in January.

Also in January…

On Valentines Day, I attempted to take a couple of quick portraits of the kids before church (since I already had the backdrop hung). Some participated more than others.

In March I took the kids to USU to watch a Helicopter drop 20,000 bouncy balls. It was a physics related experiment.. the kids still talk about it.

Lucy’s birthday was in March. I made a doggie meat and veggies cake with cheese icing – and she shared it with her friends. It was the most hoopla she’s ever had for a birthday.

Easter

Movie Night in May…

Our neighbors horse (stud) is a bit of an escape artist. Sometimes we get a “show” when he tries to get past the fence to the mares.

Pool fun in June…

Fun with Sparklers in July…

And that’s where we’ll stop for now, since its almost 11:00 and I need to go to bed. I missed ALOT. I know I did. Abby had a birthday, we got our family pictures taken, my sister got married, another sister left on her mission, we’ve got camping and hiking, participated in a road show, etc… Hopefully that means that there are more posts to come. 🙂

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Seeing in 3D

February 3rd, 2011 · bridget, dave, family, random, spencer, tina

These turned up in a box while unpacking one day…

I’m not sure how it happened, but we all ended up taking turns putting them on.
[It was completely amazing… once we put them on, it was like we could see in 3D. It was like everything around us was right there within our reach. Amazing, right?!]

There is a good chance it was her idea that we all wear them…

Or maybe it was his idea…

At any rate, I thought that the resulting pictures were pretty funny.
Especially this face…

I’m guessing Abby was sleeping when we took all of these pictures, otherwise I’m sure someone would have insisted that she try them on too! Its a shame that she missed out on the fun.

On a side note… I’m decently certain that the theater issued 3D glasses found their way to the kids stash of dress up stuff.

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He’s 2. She’s 5.

January 30th, 2011 · bridget, spencer

My kids are getting BIG! (sniff. sniff).

Bridget and Spencer had birthday’s recently and I failed to post anything about either of them. So, I play catch up…

Bridget turned 5 in November.
She is big stuff. Loves spelling, reading, and pretending. She likes to cook, and do various types of art projects. She helps with chores and takes pride in the fact that she can help Spencer get or do various things and can be trusted to “babysit” Abby for a few minutes here or there when Dave or I leave the room. Her favorites lately are Tinker Bell, puzzles, dress-up, barbies, and playing on the computer/iPod. She loves to help me cook or do ‘projects,’ though she doesn’t much care for hanging up her laundry or helping with dishes (go figure). She can write her own name, and all of out names as well… she’s gotten pretty good at forming her letters and writing fairly legibly, she still needs help spelling words often, but is getting better at sounding things out. She can count past 100.

Bridget is also very dramatic and emotional (still). She can flip out over the silliest things, and acts as though the world is coming to an end if things don’t go her way. If a toy gets taken away, you can bet that it was “her most favorite thing ever.” Haha. We are working on helping her to not act as the parent to her brother and sister, and on telling the whole truth vs. the version that she perceives will get her in the least amount of trouble!

Bridget is beyond excited to start kindergarten!

She currently weighs 45 lbs, and measures 43.5 inches tall.

Can you believe that this little girl is 5 years old? I can’t… wow!

At 6 months…

One year…

2 years…

3 years…
(From her 3rd birthday: https://blog.ernstrom.net/?p=302)

4 years…

Nearly 5…

On her 5th birthday…

.
Spencer turned 2 in December.

He is starting to really LOVE movies. Cars and Toy Story are his longtime favorites, but he’ll happily sit down and watch most any movie (Anything Pixar is fair game, and Bridget even introduced him to Monster House lately – he loved it). Don’t get me wrong the boy has his moments, but generally he is a very loving and grateful little guy. He loves to hug and cuddle and expresses concern for the emotional well-being of others. He says “Thank You” a lot… which is awesome. He still has an pretty firm attachment to his blanket, but we’ve recently done away with the sippy cup. He’s getting pretty good at stringing several words together at a time and can generally get his point across pretty well. He loves to play with Bridget and insists that he do (or try to do) everything she does. He also likes to play “marco polo” around the house – which is pretty hilarious.

Spencer can be difficult at meal time. He usually likes everything we try to feed him, but sometimes getting him to take the first bite is painful – and often requires applause from the rest of us. His favorite food is probably pancakes… he’d eat them every morning (and for lunch and dinner) if I’d make them that often.

Lately Spencer has resorted to hitting when he wants something that someone else has. At first we would just tell him that he shouldn’t hit and make him apologize, now that he’s getting a little bigger he gets sent to timeout (where a “why are you in time out ” type dialog takes place)… poor little guy finds himself in timeout an average of twice a day. He thinks he can hug his way out of punishment as well… which is cute and sometimes funny (but we have to try not to give in to that), it is obvious that he doesn’t like it when people are upset with him and he tries to make it better with a hug!

Several months ago he chewed a hole in his pacifier and spent a couple days missing his beloved comfort item. This month we stopped letting him have a sippy cup. He’s big stuff now and sits at the table to drink. Hopefully soon he’ll be ready for the wonderful world of potty training.

He currently weighs in at 30 lbs., and measures 35 and 1/4″

One day old…