December Letter

Dear Family & Friends,

Merry Christmas! Did you have a wonderful December? I had lots of fun this month.

We got lots of snow to play in!

And I got to play with my brother a lot since he is out of school for winter break. I do have to admit that one of my favorite pasttimes is pestering Brandon so I will have to work on stopping that in the new year.

We did all the usual fun Christmas activities like building a gingerbread house and going to Gardner Village to see the elves.


I also got to pay a visit to a nearby hospital to get surgery. I had to have my adnoids removed (they say they were huge) and tubes put in my ears so I won't get so many ear infections. But it wasn't too bad and my recovery was quick and easy.

And of course ... Santa came to my house!! Yeah! He brought me exactly what I asked for ... a skateboard!!

He also brought our family a Wii gaming system which we love to play on. I especially love to play the bowling game and am really good at it.

I love getting toys for Christmas. And I love my new toys. I like playing games on the Wii. And I like playing it so much. Thank you to everyone for giving me presents. Christmas is really about Jesus' birth. Jesus is nice to me and I love Him.

Hope you are all doing well and looking forward to a new year. I get to start Kindergarten in the fall so that is what I am looking forward to most next year.

Love Eric James Barnhisel

November Letter

Dear Family & Friends,

Hello everyone! How was your Thanksgiving? Mine was very tasty!!! We had a great time at Grandma's house.

After Thanksgiving we set up all the Christmas decorations. Brandon & I got to decorate the kids tree and we even have decorations in our own rooms!

Yes I did get my hair cut. Not a buzz but I do have much shorter hair now and I look pretty awesome! Mommy had to get used to it but she says that it is growing on her. I like my new haircut.

I have been having a great time in school this month. I love going to school and I love doing my homework. Mommy has been doing reading lessons with me too and I am quite an amazing reader. I get to check out my own easy reader books from the library and I read them to mom and dad. Before you know it, I will be reading Harry Potter novels with Brando!

I am a very neat and tidy boy. I am very careful to always keep my room clean. Mom says that is how she was when she was a kid. She used to put tape lines on the floor to seperate her clean side from Aunt Kathleen's messy side. I am just glad that I don't have to share a room with Brandon. He is the messy, genius type. :)

I loved to go to grandma's house for Thanksgiving. I like our family picture. I was a hungry boy at the feast. I ate rolls, carrots, broccoli and tomatos. Grandpa taked me to the park. I climbed on a mountain, a real mountain! And I played on the swingset. And on the playground I told Tyler he had to pay to get on the slides. I am thankful for all my cousins and my friends. I liked to put up the Christmas tree. Two trees! I am thankful for my mom and dad and my brothers. I am thankful for my room, and my sheets, and all my blankets and my heater. And that's all I want to do on that one.

Love Eric James Barnhisel

October Letter

Dear Family & Friends,

How are you doing? I am doing great! I definitely keep my mom busy. Mom says that I have relapsed into the terrible two tantrums. I spend a lot of time in time out. But I am cute and sweet a lot of the time so that makes up for the rest.

I started Preschool this month! It is so awesome! I love school. And I love to come home and do homework just like Brandon does. I am a Jr. Jaguar.

October is such a fun month. We did so many fun things this month.

We went to a carnival where I discovered a hidden talent that I have. I am an expert at bobbing for apples. I get it right away everytime!

We had a family Halloween party at our house this year. We got to decorate cookies, played lots of fun games and had so much fun with my cousins!

And of course we went Trick-or-Treating! I am a super fast runner!

I love Halloween. I got lots of treats! And I got a lot of candy. I like it! I run really fast. And I run for recess at my school. I love school. It's so cool. I play with lots of toys. I learn about lots of things. I make lots of pictures. And I like them, they are so cool and awesome. At home I like to read books and I like to play in my room. I do really good coloring. I love coloring, it's so fun!

I hope that you are all well and happy. I love you!

Love Eric James Barnhisel

September Letter

Dear Family & Friends,

Hello everyone! How are you? I am doing well. I have got to do lots of fun things this month. We went up to the cabin two times. One time we got to go to the Mountain Man Rendevous in Fort Bridger which was totally cool! The next time we got to help dad build a bridge to get from our cabin to Grandma & Grandpa's cabin. We were big helpers.

I have been having reading lessons with mom every day and I am really good at it. I will be reading up a storm like Brando in no time. I love to do reading lessons. I always ask for them and sometimes I get the book out and practise my sounds and words on my own.

I spend a lot of time playing with friends now, especially since Brandon is gone to school all day. I play with friends at the gym every morning. Plus mom set up playdates for me two days a week. I have a playdate with my friend Nathan on Monday afternoons and with my #2 girlfriend (mom is #1) Karley on Wednesday's. I always make sure that my room is perfectly clean on the days that Karley is coming over. I love her.

I am writing my letter to you. And I love you because you are sweet and happy and good. I love that guy that painted me because he painted me good. I looked like a cool and scary Indian. I love Karley! I like playdates with Karley.

Love Eric James Barnhisel

August Letter

Dear Family & Friends,

Hello everyone! How are you! I am great! I was a little sick yesterday but I am feeling better now.

Now that Brandon has started school I am the man of the house while he's at school and Dad is at work. Mom says that means I can't scream and cry. I guess I haven't quite picked up on that yet.

I go to the gym in the mornings with mom and I love it. I even have a girlfriend there named Karley. She is mommy's friends daughter and she is my age. She even invited me to her birthday party. I have friends at the gym named Jackson & Noah. I was calling Noah, Darren for a long time but I finally found out his real name.

I love to go to Sunbeams and I especially love to sing songs. I sing anything, primary songs, commercials, radio songs ... whatever. I like to sing. Brandon doesn't.

I love to play ToonTown with Brandon. I am getting pretty good at it. Mommy says she needs to take it off the computer because we are so obsessed but she doesn't let us play it for very long so so far she hasn't taken it away. We will see!

I hope that you are happy and healthy!

Love Eric James Barnhisel

July Letter

Dear Family & Friends,

Hello there! Hope you had a great July! I did. We celebrated two holidays this month. The 4th of July and Pioneer Day. On the 4th of July weekend we got to go to a carnival in the park which was so super fun. I loved it ... especially the bumper cars!!

And of course I loved all the treats and food at our backyard BBQ. Yum!

To celebrate Pioneer day we got to have our neighborhood bike parade. We got to decorate our bikes and ride around with our friends. It was Great!

We also did a lot of hiking this month and had a fun trip up to the cabin.

I turned four last month but I insist that I am 4 and a half. I am getting better about cooperating and so mom says there is hope for me to make it to age 5. :) I love to go to the gym everyday and get to play with my friends. I am starting to learn to make my own friends and not just follow along after Brandon and his friends which is good since Brandon starts 1st grade next month and will be gone all day.

I like to play in my room and have fun. I play the computer everyday. I play with my toys. I love my mom. I love us. That's all my letter.

Love Eric James Barnhisel

June Letter

Dear Family & Friends,

Hooray for June!!! Happy Birthday to Me! I am 4 now ... that means that I can no longer act like a 3 year old (or so mommy tells me). I now have to act like a 4 year old and 4 year olds don't scream or argue or fight (or so mommy tells me).

I had a great birthday party in the mountains. Dad was able to reserve the Stairs Plant up Big Cottonwood Canyon which is owned by the power company and it was a great place for a party! I had a great time.

We also did some swimming on my birthday! I got lots of great presents for my birthday (thanks to everyone). I especially loved having my own money. Uncle Ryan & Aunt Alisa gave me $4 because I am four. When they gave them to me I said "I love Money! I'm RICH!!" I walked around for three days carrying those 4 crisp (well they started out crisp) dollars everywhere I went, begging to go to the store to spend them. Up to this point I have always been happy collecting pennies but now ... now I truly am a rich man (yes I do call myself a man) with my own dollars.

I also got a game from mommy & daddy for my birthday called "Sing Your Heart Out!" It is the best game and I want to play it all day. You get to sing (or in my case YELL) the songs as loud as you can and save Christmas from the Grinch who is trying to steal all the presents. It's my new favorite game!

Mommy has decided that she wants me to just stay 4 forever. She loves my smile. I have learned that my smile can really keep me out of trouble ... people just can't resist it! :)

I told you last month that I have learned how to ride my bike without training wheels. I have to say ... I am pretty awesome at it. I know that I am so good on my bike that I think that I can ride anywhere I want now and mommy has a hard time helping me understand my boundaries. She keeps threatening to take away my bike but I just say "I'm sorry mom, I won't do it again", give her one of my super sincere faces, then flash her one of my award winning smiles and off I go again. :) I know mom ... "What are you going to do with me?"

I love my birthday. It's because it's cool! I love it because I got birthday presents. I love to swim a lot. I like me. I love you, because you are sweet. I like to play in my room and I love to play putt-putt. I love me because I am sweet. And I love my hat. I love to do messy stuff. I love to ride my bike because it's cool. I am done with my letter.

Love Eric James Barnhisel

May Letter

Dear Family & Friends.

How are you? I am doing great! May has been a fun month but I have to admit that I am VERY excited that we are getting to June because I know that June is my birthday month and I can't wait until my birthday!

We have been playing outside a lot this month. It's so much fun!

I even learned how to ride my bike WITHOUT training wheels! I am so good at it that I spend so much time outside now riding my bike around the neighborhood! I LOVE IT!

We've been up to the cabin a couple time this month! YEAH! I love the cabin. I love to play outside, have adventures, get muddy ... all those boy things!

We even went up to Ogden to the super cool dinosaur park up there. It was AWESOME! We had so much fun up there. We love dinosaurs!

I hope that you all have a super fun summer! I am sure looking forward to this next month!

Love Eric James Barnhisel

April Letter

Dear Family & Friends,

I hope that you had a great April. I sure did! Lots of fun things happened this month.

Dad got a jeep which he said he got for us kids, aren't we lucky! :)

I started playing soccer which looks better in the pictures then it does in real life. In real life I just sit on the sideline by my mom and cry that I don't want to play soccer, that I just want to go home and to please not make me go out on the field anymore. Good thing mom and dad bought me the shin guards and cleats that I just had to have to match Brando!

We got to celebrate Easter twice. First we had an Easter lunch and Easter egg hunt at Uncle Randy & Aunt Melissa's house on Saturday. That was super fun. We got to find so many eggs which meant that we got LOTS OF CANDY. Of course once I found the candy there was no stopping me. When mommy told me I had eaten enough I just went into some dark corner thinking no one knew what I was up to and continued to eat.

Then we got to go down to Grandma Norberg's house on Easter Sunday for an Easter dinner. That was really fun. My cousins and I always have a great time with Crazy Uncle Ryan. He is a good sport to put up with all us kids torturing him mercilessly.

We finally got some real spring like weather this month and got to spend some time outside. It has been so much fun to go outside and jump on the tramp and play play play! Hopefully we are done with the snow for good this spring!

I am the king of movie quotes. I love to quote from Madagascar 2 and my new favorite "Bedtime Stories". My favorite lines from that movies are "Are those eyeballs or bowling balls", "Those eyes would look big on a cow" and "One angry dwark kicked him". That last one seems to be a problem one because I like to act that one out. I walk up to mommy, kick her in the leg and then quote the line. I like to pretend I am the angry dwarf.

I hope that you all have a wonderful spring and that you are happy and healthy.

Love Eric James Barnhisel

March Letter

Dear Family & Friends,

How are you? Are you having a good start to spring? I really want spring to come and for the snow to stop coming. Mommy is sick of the snow and so am I!

The biggest news we have this month is that we finished our basement. We have our very own playroom now. What do you think? I love it. I love to play trains in it and make lots of messes and the coolest part is that mommy doesn't even care if it's messy! Yeah! I have really gotten back into trains these days so it's been fun for me to get them back out and to have lots of space to play them.

We also have a study in our basement where we spend lots of time playing on the computer. I love to play Thomas the Tank Engine, Dora and CandyLand games on the computer.

We haven't taken too many pictures this month. We will get better as spring really comes and we can get outside and do more things outside.

I love to be a super hero. I run around acting like I am on a mission to get all the bad guys and I am very fierce! I am all boy, very 3 year old! I try to tell mom that I am really 4 and she tells me that if that is the case, I can't act like a 3 year old anymore.

I go to the store with mom a lot. She is really big into saving money and using coupons and stuff. I am learning a lot from it all too. Now when I ask mommy for something I always add "If it's on sale and you have a coupon?" to my request. I am a very frugal boy.

I love you and I hope you are doing well.

Love Eric James Barnhisel

February Letter

Dear Family & Friends,

Hope you had a great February. I sure did! This month we celebrated Valentines Day (I love chocolate) and mom's 33rd birthday!


This month for my letter I thought I'd give you a list of words that describe me. Here goes!

I am a DANCER: I love to dance. My favorite time to dance is at the end of a movie (in our theatre) when the credits are rolling and so are the tunes!

I am all BOY: I love anything boy! Dad sold his motorcycle this month and I cried. Luckily for me, my dad is all boy too and it didn't take long before he came home with a new toy!


I am a BOWLER: I love to bowl. We went bowling as a family this month, the first time for me and I LOVED it! Everytime we drive past the bowling alley I ask to go again.

I am a DINOSAUR LOVER: Brandon may be the smartest kid on the planet when it comes to dinosaurs but I am not far behind him. Brandon teaches me tons about dinosaurs, of course he does, it's all he talks about.

I am a READER: My reading lessons are coming along well. Mom and I have switched to using the white board and that is a little easier for me then having to sit still and follow along in the book. When I pay attention I do great, if only I could just concentrate, but I am just three so what do you expect?

I am HILARIOUS: I am such a funny kid, I always have my parents laughing! I love to quote movies. My favorite right now is Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. I am a huge Moto Moto fan and go around quoting him ALL DAY LONG! It's totally hilarious!

I am LAZY: Or at least that is what I am told. Mom says I am a free loader. I can often be heard telling mom that I can't do the (super simple) thing that she asked me to do because "It's a hard job". Mom and Aunt Cindy have decided it's a second boy thing. Mom doesn't let me get away with it too much but I voice my displeasure at being asked to help out.

I am a VEGE LOVER: How many three year olds do you know who get super excited about carrots and salad? I do! I always say "I'm in heaven!" when I am eating salad. I could live on fruits and veges (with a little chocolate thrown in). What a good eater I am!

Well that is a little about me. Hope you are doing well.

Love Eric James Barnhisel

January Letter

Dear Family & Friends,

Hello there! How is your 2009 starting out? Mine has been great. Brandon has been "off the track" for most of the month and that has been super fun for me. Of course it drives Brandon crazy everytime I say that he is "off-the-track" instead of "off track". That is what I do best, pester my brother!

Mommy said that this month she doesn't have a whole lot of pictures for our letters. I guess with October - December being such busy, exciting months, January always seems a little uneventful. We did get our pictures taken this month though.

I will give you one guess as to which picture best portrays life at our house! :)

I seem to think that my birthday is coming up very soon and every day I talk about what kind of party I want to have and who I am going to invite. Mom tells me that we will talk about it in June. Isn't that soon? I try to negotiate with mom to get my birthday to happen sooner. I also talk about what I am going to be for Halloween, what I want for my next Christmas and about how excited I am to start preschool (in October). I guess time is different for a 3 year old.

Mom has been a slacker on my reading lessons this month and so we need to get back on that. We still go to the gym every morning and I get to play with my friends there which is fun.

I am very unique in my eating habits for a three year old. I beg for carrots, celery and SALAD! I love salad. I beg for treats as well but only eat one or two bites of them and then I am done. If only everyone would eat like me. Brandon says that if I were a dinosaur I would be Struthiomimus which is the dinosaur that eats fruits and plants. He of course would be a carnivore like a T-Rex.

Today I got to go on a date with dad to Gardner Village. We fed the ducks and got a treat from the sweet shop. Then we got to go to McDonalds for dinner. I didn't get a toy there though because they were lame (one of my favorite words).

That is about all from me. Life is good. I keep my family on it's toes and you can be sure that I will throw multiple fits a day but come out of it without a care in the world eventually. We will see if mommy and daddy can survive me!

Love Eric James Barnhisel