The Ricks'

There's a reason I don't like them playing in the front yard

2012-01-29T20:10:00.003-05:00

My kids always want to play in the front yard. We have this awesome porch swing that I let them play on, but usually I tell them to stay out of the yard. On Friday they were waiting for a friend to come over so I let them wait out in the yard. A few minutes later Hallie came in and said, "Mom, don't be mad. Gracie is stuck in the ditch." I usually get nervous when she starts something with "don't get mad", but the ditch in the yard is not that big. How could she get stuck in it. I came out to see Gracie's head sticking out of the drainage pipe! She had gone in feet first, but on coming out had wedged her leg perpendicular to the pipe. Here's a picture of the pipe for reference.

As Hallie stood on the side crying I tried to figure out how to unwedge Gracie's leg. Gracie started to get worried when I couldn't get her out right away so she cried, "Pray, Mama! Pray!" At least now she was making good decisions! Every time I tried to move her leg she said it hurt so I started wondering if I would have to call the police. Luckily, after just a few failed attempts, Gracie was able to bend her leg underneath her, go all the way inside until she was under the grate, then she had room to straighten out her leg and slide back out--straight this time.

Tony pulled up from work just as Gracie was climbing out. He had brought brownies home (leftover from a luncheon) so the kids quickly forgot the ordeal and enjoyed their brownies. I kept asking Gracie why on earth she climbed in there. At first she said she slipped. When I didn't buy that she finally admitted she wanted to see if she could fit. Apparently she can, just not sideways.

On a different note, here's some pictures of Elizabeth. She had her one month check up on Wednesday and is now 11lbs. 2 oz. and 22 1/2" long. That's 2 pounds heavier and 1" longer than when she was born. She's already in size 2 diapers since she has chubby little thighs. I've never had a baby grow this fast. All my others were born average (or maybe a little more) then they grew incredibly slow. Like a full 2 months to get to 10 pounds slow. But not Elizabeth! And at the risk of jinxing myself, she slept 6 straight hours last night! None of my other kids did that this early either. Hopefully it wasn't a fluke.

Elizabeth does smile when you can get her to look at you, but it takes a lot more work than it did with Clara. I tried for quite a while to get a picture of her smiling, but this is as close as we got.

Clara loves Elizabeth and always know what she wants. "Baby wants a pacifier." "Baby wants some milk." "Baby wants a bath." "Baby wants a sippy cup." (As she tries to feed Elizabeth her sippy cup) When Clara wants to hold Elizabeth she says, "I wanna hold it." Which makes us think she sees Elizabeth as one of her dolls.

Here's a nice picture of Clara holding Elizabeth.

Here's what it usually looks like. (Don't worry, she's not actually choking!)

She finally arrived!

2011-12-19T14:10:00.005-05:00

She was 5 agonizing days late, but Elizabeth Mae Ricks has finally arrived! She was born December 16, 2011 at 2:45 am. She was 9 lbs 2 oz and 21" long. By far my biggest baby. I was afraid she'd be big since she was late, but it could have been worse!

Here's the quick story. I was expecting her to be born the weekend of December 11 (her due date), so when that weekend came and went I was getting pretty frustrated. The next Tuesday I was having contractions 2 separate times that were pretty regular, then they just stopped. So annoying! Thursday I had another appointment and was going to ask to be induced but since it's so close to Christmas I didn't think they'd be able to get me in until the next week. But to my surprise they said I could go into the hospital the next day (Friday, Dec. 16). Since I'm Group B positive they wanted me to go in that night to start the antibiotic, then they'd induce that morning and I'd probably have her by noon. Sounded great! We made arrangements for someone to watch the kids while Tony took me to the hospital, then he was going to come home, sleep with the kids, get them off to school the next day and get back to the hospital in time to start the induction.

So that's what we did. He took me to the hospital, got me all hooked up and went home to bed around 10:00. I tried to sleep but about 11:00 I was having contractions (on my own) but because of earlier in the week I tried to ignore them. This time, however, they were getting really painful and closer together. So around 1:00am I called Tony and told him I thought I was already in labor. He called our friend back and got back to the hospital by 1:30. The nurses checked me and I had gone from a 2 when I got there to a 6. So we called for an epidural. The guy took forever to get there, but once he did I felt so much better. Now that I wasn't in constant pain I actually started falling asleep when the doctor came in and said it was time to push. So I pushed twice through 1 contraction and Elizabeth was born at 2:45am! Tony and I slept for a few hours then Tony went home to get the kids ready for school. Then he came back to sleep with me and Elizabeth. My doctor's were great and let me come home Saturday afternoon instead of Sunday morning.

The funnest part of all this is Gracie's birthday is December 17. So now we have 2 birthdays 2 days in a row! Gracie had a great birthday visiting us in the hospital, getting "smoothies" with dad (they were really Icee's) and playing with friends all day. I think this works out better than having their birthdays on the same day. This way they each get their own special day!

Does this sound familiar to anyone else?

2011-11-13T20:57:00.003-05:00

Tonight, we put the kids in bed a little early--like 10 minutes, which is 1 hour in kid time. A few minutes later Gracie came in to say Hallie was laying in the middle of the bed (they share a queen bed). Tony went in to resolve the issue. Hallie sleeps at one end, Gracie at the other. As he left he had a little exchange with the girls. It's pretty typical--for us anyway.

Tony: Now don't get out of bed again or you lose your Wii time for tomorrow.

Gracie: What if we're bleeding or on fire?

Tony: Then just yell, "I'm bleeding!" or "I'm on fire!"

Hallie: Well, you'll have to hurry!

Tony: I will, but neither of those things are going to happen...just go to sleep!

This is almost a nightly occurance for us. Usually they're worried about more dramatic things, like earthquakes. Please tell me we're not the only ones!

P.S. Hallie has already gotten out of bed twice since I started writing this. If I were a good parent I'd tell her she's lost her Wii time, but tonight I'm too tired!

I know, I know...

2011-10-02T11:37:00.004-04:00

...it's been way too long since my last post. We made it here to Athens, AL in the beginning of August. My mom and brother, Todd, flew in to help us make the move and I am SO glad they did! We would not have been able to do it without them. We drove a U-haul from Tallahassee to Athens and what should have taken 7 hours took nearly 12 (it's a long story--maybe someday I'll go into it). Once we made it we got the kids registered for school. I found a doctor and made my first appointment for the week my mom was still here. I wasn't sure if they'd do an ultrasound at that first visit, but they did and you'll never guess. We're having a....nother girl! Yep, that makes 4 girls and 1 boy. They kids took it really well and now we are all excited for the new addition (who still won't be here for 10 more weeks).

Tony started his new job and is doing really well. Everyone he works with is really great and they all LOVE Clara. Every time I go to visit there are about 4-5 ladies all gathered around to watch Clara climb the giant staircase in the front of the library. In other big news, Tony finished up his dissertation last week. He defends next week and we could not be more excited. Ever since we got here he's been working 10 hour days, coming home for dinner then going back to work for another few hours after the kids go to bed. We haven't had much of a chance to explore the area, but now that he's done we have lots of plans! I'll let you know how the defense goes once he passes.

So here's a few pictures of things I should have shared a while ago.

Now that Tony isn't spending Saturdays working, he took the kids on a little hike yesterday before conference started. Here they are as wolves (I'm sure it was Will's idea).

I just love Hallie's poses!

Our new house has an awesome porch swing. Here's my mom with her grandkids. We're out there at least once a day.

While my mom and Todd were here we visited the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville.

Before we left Tallahassee, our awesome home teacher brought over some of his light saber collection so we could have a real light saber fight. Clara was a formidable opponent.

He even brought over a real Darth Vader mask. Combine it with the red light saber and you've got the real thing!

We also had a birthday party for Hallie before we left. It was a great way to see all our friends one last time.

We miss you all in Tallahassee! Everyone here has been great and we really like it, but it's just not the same. I guess it's just taking me longer to get used to this move than I thought, but looking at all these pictures makes me miss you all so much!

Clara's new look

2011-07-24T21:08:00.005-04:00

A few months ago Tony and I noticed Clara crossing her eyes...a lot. At first I thought maybe she was doing it on purpose, but she's a little young for that. Since it was Gracie's eye crossing that lead me to an eye doctor with her (at age 16 months) I decided to take Clara in. And sure enough, she has the same thing Gracie does. It's called accommodative esotropia--which means she's far-sighted and crosses her eyes to see clearly. Now she has glasses and won't need to cross her eyes to see. Luckily I kept the only pair of Gracie's glasses that survived toddlerhood, so I got Clara's prescription put in them. I also got another pair through insurance so now we have the luxury of 2 pairs--something I never had with Gracie. It's taken her a few weeks, but now she'll keep them on for long stretches of time. She looks adorable and when she looks at books she looks like a little baby genius.

I also gave her her first official hair cut. Now it sits right at her shoulders and slightly curls under all on it's own. Pair the hair cut with the glasses and I think she looks doubly adorable.

Another new thing for Clara is to climb up as high as she can. We have a "mountain" of boxes in the front room and anytime we leave the door open she climbs up the boxes as high as she can get. She also discovered how to climb to the top of the computer desk. We usually have some paper and a few Books of Mormon up there, so of course, she has to clear those off before she climbs up. She also can climb up William's toy shelves in his room. So far she's never fallen off, but there's a first for everything.

See, she looks like she can actually read that book!
One last new thing for Clara is her love for our front room closet. I keep most of our food storage in there. But since I've packed most of it up Tony thought it would be fun to stick Clara in there--he thought she might like it. He set her in there and closed the door. It was pitch black so you might have expected an immediate cry, but Tony opened it to find her playing with a box of noodles and saying "bye, see ya later" over and over again. So he got her a light and left her for a minute. Still, she was fine. After a while he forced her out and she threw a huge fit. The next day she wanted in again and when I wouldn't let her she threw another fit. It's really cute, I just don't have time to sit by the closet door waiting her to to want out.

More news...

2011-06-14T07:53:00.003-04:00

...are you ready for more! Most of you already know this, but I'm expecting baby #5! I'm due in the middle of December, right around Gracie's birthday. That puts me at 13 weeks now and feeling much better. We don't know what we're having yet and won't find out until we move in August. William wants me to have twin boys so then we'll have equal boys and girls. I'm not so sure about that idea. But I do at least want one boy!

Everyone here is super excited about the new baby--except maybe Clara. She doesn't realize what's coming, but I do know she doesn't like it when I pay attention to other babies. So it will be interesting. She'll be so happy, though, once he can walk and talk and she has someone to play with all day while the kids are at school.

Here's a cute picture just for fun!

Our favorite tree in Tallahassee...the big one at Lake Ella. William actually was having a good time, but I had just told him it was time to go home. It was so hot I was melting.

ASU here we come!

2011-06-12T21:06:00.003-04:00

No, not Arizona State (although that would be awesome!). Tony has accepted a position at Athens State University (and no, it's not in Georgia, it's in Alabama). He'll be directing the writing center there as well as implementing their quality enhancement plan to improve writing across the university. It's a really great job and the university seems like a perfect fit for him.

So, as of August we'll be Alabamans(?). Tony's going to finish up his dissertation in the next 6 weeks, then he'll come back to Tallahassee to defend in September and be set to graduate in December. While Tony is finishing his dissertation the kids and I will be packing, cleaning, and organizing. It's going to be a busy summer with lots of changes but we are all super excited. We will miss Tallahassee, though. I've never met people quite as awesome as the people here and I really don't know if anywhere can top this. But leave we must. I know this is where the Lord wants us to go. Everything has been working together so Tony could get this job at this time and it is the best place for our family to be. So look out Alabama...because once we get there, you'll never be the same!

Atlanta

2011-04-13T10:46:00.005-04:00

Last week Tony went to a conference in Atlanta. He left Wednesday night. About 2 hours before he left I found out the Atlanta Temple was having their open house starting that Saturday. Since Atlanta is only 5 hours from here and Tony already had a hotel room paid for, we decided that I'd drive up with the kids Friday night so we could tour the temple on Saturday. Then we'd drive home and be back Saturday night.

While I was driving up Friday afternoon Tony got a call from his best friend from high school that lives an hour outside of Atlanta. They invited us to stay Saturday night. Since we already had our Sunday clothes to go to the temple we decided to stay. So it turned out to be a crazy weekend but we had a lot of fun.

Saturday morning Tony went to his conference so I took the kids to the Atlanta Children's Museum. Then we met Tony at the temple. The tour lasted about an hour and was great! The kids loved how beautiful everything was. I showed the girls the brides room and explained how when they get married we could go in there and I would help them get ready. Gracie thought she was getting married right then. It took some time to explain that I meant when she was older! I also showed them the mirrors in the sealing room and how the reflection goes on forever just like our family. Hallie especially loved that!

After the temple we went to our friend's house. They were so nice to have us stay when they had just walked in the door from a vacation. We went to church with them the next day and left that afternoon after lunch. So although the trip was quick it was definitely worth it. I didn't get any pictures at the temple because there were so many people around and they kept us moving pretty much the whole time, but I did get lots at the museum. Here are a few...

The museum has this giant contraption that moves plastic balls all over the place. There are about 15 different places you can pull levers or turn cranks to make the balls go different places. Will spent most of his time here.

They had an African exhibit. Hallie must have been really tired after a long camel ride.

Clara took Gracie on a really long tractor ride.

They had 2 big tables with moon sand. Gracie spent most of here time here.

Clara watching herself in the mirror. I love that little hat!

There was a little play area for kids under 2. They had this little piano which Clara LOVED! She could fit right on the bench and play. When she plays our piano she always falls off.

Hallie and Gracie painted. You paint on the wall then when you're done they clean it off for other kids.

There's a big shipping truck with boxes and a conveyor belt. Will loaded up boxes and sent them down for someone else to unload. They also had a little grocery store with shopping carts and baskets. You can fill your cart up from the shelves and check out at a little register. So cute!

Hallie learns about Mexico

2011-04-13T10:19:00.003-04:00

Last week Hallie's class did a little play about Mexico (they've been studying Mexico for the last few weeks). It was pretty cute--mostly because it's fun to watch the little kids--and at the end Hallie was part of a group that did a Mexican Hat Dance. She's the girl in the front right wearing the white shirt and green skirt.

Camping

2011-03-31T13:46:00.006-04:00

Last week was spring break for the kids so we took them camping--but only for one night. I'm not much of a camper. It seems to be way to much work for only a little fun, but I will always be overruled in that area, so we took the kids to Torreya State Park. Since this was our first family camping trip I thought it would be best to keep it short.

The minute we arrived at our campsite the kids set out to explore and quickly found a swing made from a branch that hung in a "U" shape. It was the perfect way for the 3 older kids to entertain themselves while Tony and I set up. Clara, however, just wanted to wander. Especially over to the neighboring campsite--they had a trailer with about 3 steps up (she LOVES steps!). So every 30 seconds we had to pull her away from their trailer and get her busy doing something else. At least the people were really nice and said they didn't mind at all.

We hiked a small trail, which turned out to be just the right length. We played games and roasted marshmallows. But most of all we spent a lot of time together. So even though I forgot a few things and we didn't stay too long, I'd count this trip as a success. Maybe next time I'll be brave enough to stay for 2 nights!

Hiking to "weeping ridge". We saw a dead armadillo carcass on the way back that was not there when we hiked in. It kind of creeped us out.

Gracie and Hallie on the natural swing.

Roasting giant marshmallows. Those would have made really good smores. Oh well, maybe next time!

Best Jedi Master Racer

2011-03-30T21:03:00.007-04:00

For the past month or so William has been really into Star Wars. Really into Star Wars. He has watched all the movies (multiple times) and keeps getting Star Wars books from the library. So as his first pinewood derby approached Tony asked him what he wanted his car to be. The automatic answer...a light saber. So that's what they made (see picture below). That night he raced his heart out and came out with an honorable mention. But each car got an award and Will's was the "best jedi master racer". So even though he only won maybe 2 races he was ecstatic! They could not have given him a better award!

Does it look like he's been crying in this picture? That's because on the way home we tried playing the quiet game (it was way past bedtime). The loser would not get a treat the next day (deemed to be some root beer--awesome, right?). Well, Will lost. So he threw a fit about not getting any root beer. Then Hallie started crying because she felt sorry for Will for not getting any root beer (it turned out to be a really loud ride home instead). I'd like to say that I stuck to my guns and didn't give him any root beer, but for the sake of getting them to bed, I caved. Then I made him smile for the picture I told grandma I would take.

Behold, the mighty light saber!

Evidence

2011-03-06T19:25:00.005-05:00

Not that I'd ever really enter Tony in a "Father of the Year" contest (since I think that's kind of cheesy), but if I did here's the evidence I'd give.

After one day of working on the house Clara and I were exhausted. Even though we were both exhausted Tony spent the rest of the afternoon building a fort in the girls room while I rocked Clara. I know lots of dads will build forts with their kids but Tony does it because he wants to, not because he has to. Seriously, he thinks it's really, really fun!

Here's the fort. It took up the entire room.

I bought a new mirror for the bathroom. I asked him to put the cardboard it came in into the recycle bin. A few minutes later he came back the the bedroom with this creation:

He made this because he knew it would make the kids laugh. He will do literally anything to make them laugh. And he will never miss an opportunity--even if it's just drawing a face on a piece of cardboard.

Nearly every time the kids ask him to jump on the trampoline his answer is yes. My answer is nearly always the opposite.

Mostly he just loves playing with the kids. Sometimes I think he'd rather be outside playing with the kids than visiting with the grown-ups.

He really is an amazing dad. He is willing to do anything for his kids. He works hard for them all day long, then comes home and plays with them until bedtime (and even after bedtimes if I don't make him stop). The kids say all the time "dad is funny and mom is serious" (really, they do say that a lot!). But I wouldn't have it any other way!

2011-03-06T18:53:00.005-05:00

You know when you have so much to do that it completely overwhelms you so you don't even start? That's how I feel about this blog. So much has happened since my last post I don't even want to try to organize it. But I don't want to stay away forever, so here goes.

Soon after my last post (where I got our kitchen floor redone) we started adding a shower to our bathroom (it was only a 1/2 bath). So we closed off our tiny closet to make a shower and built ourselves a closet out of the girls room. Every step along the way I thought "I should take pictures of this" but it turned out to be way more stressful than I could handle. Honestly, I was lucky to keep my kids fed and clothed. Half of the reason it was so stressful was that we had to have it done before our family came out for Will's baptism. That gave us less than 3 weeks. It came down to the wire, but we got it done. Now we have 2 full bathrooms, a bigger closet in our room and new carpet in all the rooms--that's because I spilled paint in the one room we weren't going to re-carpet. I don't love the new carpet, but that's a different story.

So now on to Will's baptism. He turned 8 on February 8, 2011. He got a new bike on his birthday and new scriptures the next day (when grandma and grandpa brought them from Utah). He was baptized on Feb. 12. My parents came a few days before. We had tons of fun but the part the kids liked the best was teaching William and Hallie to ride bikes without training wheels. Now they spend all afternoon outside riding circles on our patio.

The day of his baptism Tony's parents came, along with is sister, Elly, and brother, Corey. They stayed a few days after the baptism. It was so great to have everyone here. It always goes by too fast! Unfortunately for me, I got sick the day before the baptism--it started a cold and ended almost 2 weeks later with a sinus infection. But it was great to my both my mom and mother-in-law to take care of things for me. They are the best!!

So here's a few pictures of my missionary man. He also got a new suit for his birthday and it makes him look so grown up!

Doesn't he look like a little missionary? It makes me want to cry:)

Will and Tony just before the baptism. We are so proud of him!

Now that he's 8 he starts cub scouts. It's only been a few weeks, but it been way more money and time than I bargained for!

2011 has begun!

2011-01-16T20:49:00.005-05:00

Well, we're only 2 weeks in to 2011 and boy have we been busy. New Year's Eve we played in the backyard and raked our leaves. Here's a cute video we took of the kids--notice Clara wandering around in the back. That's what she does in the backyard, it's really cute but kind of scary since you never know what you'll find back there.

We also had our kitchen floor redone. A few years ago I tore a long line starting at the kitchen door going all the way down the hall when I dragged (drug?) a dresser from the carport to the girls room. Well, now it's started to started to come apart in one place so we finally got it redone. It doesn't look a whole lot different (it's mostly just darker), but I really like it!

Before--you can see the start of the line at the bottom. Also, Gracie thought it was awesome that she could hide in the pantry. It was her "very own secret hide out."

After--it took me a few days but now I LOVE it!

Last night Tony and I went on a much needed date. We ate at one of Tony's favorite restaurant's Sonny's BBQ. Tony ordered the all you can eat ribs. He started off with 2 plates of the sweet and smoky, then decided to try the dry rub ribs. He didn't like them as much so while he ate another plate of the regular kind, I had fun the the left overs!

Christmas 2010

2011-01-09T20:32:00.005-05:00

This last Christmas was pretty great. We stayed home this year with just our little family. It was wonderful to not have the pressure of travelling. We picnic ed at a park Christmas Eve (gotta love Florida!), went carolling that night with some friends, and spent all Christmas day playing with toys and eating. Here's a few pictures:

Two of my four monkeys, Hallie and Gracie, at Tom Brown Park Christmas Eve.

Will spent the whole time at the park playing this game. You hit the circles when they light up. He played with a bunch of kids he had never met--boys versus girls (and the girls won every game). When I asked him about his new friends he realized he didn't even learn any of their names!

Clara loves a good slide!

Opening presents Christmas morning.

Putting together Will's new Lego car. Hallie was only allowed to watch.

Santa brought us Band Hero for the Wii. Clara played it by smashing her goldfish into the drum set.

Gracie turns 5

2011-01-06T13:53:00.003-05:00

Last year for Gracie's birthday we went to Disney World. A day or so later she started planning her next birthday. I just kept telling her it was a long ways away and we'd talk about it when it got closer. Then as each of the other kids had their birthdays she got more and more excited for hers.

So this year for the big "5" we let her chose 3 friends to take to the movies. So our family (minus Clara who was with some friends) plus 3 little girls journeyed to the movie theater to see Tangled. The movie was really cute and I think they all had fun, except Gracie. She wanted to leave after the first half and on the way home declared Tangled to be the longest movie in the whole wide world. Then after stuffing our faces with popcorn and soda we headed home (in pouring rain) to eat some real food before having cake and ice cream.

Her birthday was also the last day of school before the Christmas break, so her school class did all kinds of fun things, from a book exchange to crafts to a visit from a "fake" Santa (Gracie's word, not mine).

Earlier in the week we got a package from Grandma Ricks with our Christmas gifts and Gracie's birthday present. It nearly killed her to have to wait 5 days before opening her birthday present. She asked me every morning if she could just open it now. The week between her birthday and Christmas was not much better. So first thing the morning of December 17 (her birthday) she opened her presents. I didn't think she could make it until all her friends were there for her party. Here are some pictures:

Mom and Dad got Gracie a new bike for her birthday. Now she has one just like Will and Hallie. She also got a big, purple My Little Pony, a shrinkydink set and a puzzle.

Grandma Ricks got her this cute outfit! Here she is with all her presents. Grandma Robinson gave her a dry erase board to practice her letters (which she usually does every day on the way to school!)

Gracie blowing out the candles on her cupcakes. Next year she wants a cake and cupcakes. We'll see about that.

So even though it's almost a month late--I love you Gracie! You've brought so much joy and laughter to my life already. I can't wait to see what the future has in store for you.

Happy Birthday!

P.S. Stay tuned for a Christmas post in the next few days!

Santa baby...

2010-12-13T21:16:00.004-05:00

Tonight we visited Santa for family home evening. It was also pet night for visiting Santa, so there were all these cute dogs dressed in their Christmas best waiting to see Santa too.

Clara just stared at Santa--no fussing or squirming, just curiosity. After about 30 seconds she said something (you know how Clara talks) and then reached for me.

William was a little nervous and didn't want to actually sit on his lap. I'm so glad they all still believe. I don't know how I'm going to explain the last 7 years of deception.

While standing in line Hallie asked if that was the real Santa. I said (in a sort of vauge way) "yes." Then she said , "cross your heart?" What could I do? I crossed my heart and promised it was the real Santa.

I couldn't hear what Gracie asked for, but I'm pretty sure it had to do with purple unicorns.

2010-11-28T14:55:00.002-05:00

So this weekend turned out to be a lot less relaxing than I thought, but it was great though. Thanksgiving day I ran my first ever 5K. There was about 6000 people there! Luckily, a friend of mine ran with me (thanks Liz!) making it so much easier. Then while Tony played football I took the kids home to make our part of dinner.

We ate dinner at some friends house and had a great time! Then a couple friends and I left at 9:30 to be to Toys R Us by 10pm. There were probably 1500 people there, so needless to say, most everything we wanted was gone. While one friend waited in line, we went to Walmart and got some smoking deals there at midnight. Then we came home for a few hours sleep and headed out again at 8am for more shopping fun! Even though we were tired we all had a great time and I got most of my shopping done!

After shopping on Friday we put up our small Christmas trees (1 for each of the kids rooms and 1 in the living room). We got all our Christmas decorations up before going to another friends house for a Rock Band party.

Saturday we put up our Christmas lights and cleaned out the shed--and now it's Sunday. Whew!!! I really need a day of rest. Hopefully this explains why I didn't make my last Thanksgiving post on Thanksgiving day--I'll do it now (without Tony's help).

I cannot end my days of gratitude posts without expressing my gratitude for my Savior. He has given me everything in my life that matters and everything in my life that I need. He has given me my family--forever. I never have to give them up or worry about never seeing them again. He has given me peace through the atonement. He has given me His teachings and commandments which bring me freedom and joy. Because of His gospel I have met amazing people who inspire, lift, encourage and understand me.

I have everything I could ever need and all of that comes from my Savior, His atonement, and His gospel. My greatest desire is to live my life worthy to return to Him and to have His spirit with me until then. And as the saying goes, it's not always easy, but it is definitely worth it!

One more day...

2010-11-24T20:29:00.002-05:00

Tonight I'm grateful for a few small things...like the fact that I got my pies made today (not sure how they turned out--I didn't read the directions as closely as I should have, but I'm sure they'll still taste good!).

Also, tomorrow I get to run my first ever official 5K! I've been training for this since September following the couch to 5K program a friend of mine recommended (for more info click here). I finished the 9 week training a few weeks ago and ran a 5K on the treadmill, but never on the actual ground and never in a race. I'm not worried about finishing it or my time, I'm actually more worried about the crowds. Apparently only the first 5500 people will be timed electronically. So hopefully I don't get trampled!

I'm also grateful that I only have one more post to go. It's not that I'm not grateful for anything else it's just that writing is not my favorite thing (that's why Tony loves writing--so I don't have to!) and I'm getting a little run down. Hopefully tomorrow I can have Tony help me write something really eloquent and meaningful, something I definitely cannot do without him!

2010-11-24T08:37:00.002-05:00

For yesterday, I'm grateful for a clean house (even though I know it won't last beyond this morning). I spent all day yesterday cleaning my entire house. It was pretty bad, but now it looks pretty good. So naturally, after mutual last night, I collapsed.

Now after a semi-good night's rest I can enjoy my clean house and dirty it up baking pies! I'm going to try Emeril's chocolate cream pie--wish me luck!

Shopping

2010-11-22T20:24:00.003-05:00

Since my recent revelation that Christmas is getting ever closer, I've kicked it into gear and begun my Christmas shopping. I began at my favorite store of all time...Target. Shopping there is always so much better than Walmart. I adore their baby clothes, especially the clearance rack. Today they had a pretty good sale on some things the kids will love. I even had a coupon.

So for today's post I'm grateful for Target and sales--especially when the two are combined!

(It's been a while, but this picture reminds me of the Target near our house in Boise. It was less than 5 minutes away and I practically lived there!)

Breakfast

2010-11-21T15:37:00.005-05:00

This morning I decided that I'm extremely grateful for cereal. Without it I would not be able to get my family out the door on time for anything. Sometimes I feel a little guilty about feeding my family cereal for breakfast almost every single morning. When I do start feeling bad I tell my kids "Mom's going to make breakfast this morning, what do you want?" They all reply, "No, cereal!" (in a whiny voice I might add). Usually they just don't want to wait long enough for me to mix pancake batter--it's faster to just pore the cereal and milk.

These are some of our favorites (yum!!):

Christmastime already?!?

2010-11-20T21:52:00.002-05:00

Today we went to the Festival of Trees here in town. The kids went nuts looking at all the decorations, trying desperately not to touch them (since they were promised a fast trip to the car if they did), and dragging me from tree to tree to show me their favorite ornaments. I also went to a Relief Society craft day and got a wonderful idea for Christmas tree ornaments using kids alphabet blocks (maybe I'll post a picture when I actually make them). And tonight at our youth Hayride I was reminded that there are only 35 days until Christmas. WHAT?!?!?!

Christmas is my favorite time of year. It's almost here and before I know it, it will be January. I really need to slow things down so I can enjoy this next month (not sure how I'm gonna do it, but I'll work on it). Since this will be our last Christmas in Tallahassee I want to make it memorable. I want lots of family time, friend time, service time, and study/ponder time.

So today I'm grateful for Christmastime. It truly is the most wonderful time of the year. Not only do we get to celebrate the birth and life of our Savior, but we get to create so many memories with our families and friends--so many traditions. I love the extra emphasis on families and traditions that everyone feels this time of year. I love the increased attention to our Savior and His work. And I know that we should always be thinking of Him and His work, but it's especially wonderful at Christmastime.

P.S. It's been a very long day, so if this doesn't make any sense, I'll blame it on that!

Doctor's visit

2010-11-19T18:48:00.002-05:00

Today Clara got 3 shots. She took it pretty well at the time (minimal crying) but spent the rest of the day fussy. But even after that, I'm grateful she can get good medical care.

I actually dread going to the doctor. We always have to spend at least and hour waiting for just 10 minutes with the doctor. But really, I'll take that any day to having to watch my child suffer through an ear infection, or worse.

While the health care system in this country is not perfect (and likely to get worse) I am so grateful I don't have to watch my kids suffer. It would literally break my heart to see my child suffering and know there is absolutely nothing I could do to help. Even ibuprofen is a miracle! If some awful disease struck or an accident happened, I know we have access to the best medical care in the world. Compared to the other 6 billion people on the planet, we've got it pretty good.

Pictures

2010-11-18T18:53:00.004-05:00

Today I'm grateful for my kids (and camera's that capture them just the way they are now). I love them all the same and different at the same time. I love their personalities. I love being the one they come to when they are happy and sad. I love sharing in their joys as well as their sorrows.

But mostly I love that they are all mine--forever, because this life is just not long enough.

William Antony Ricks--age 7 (almost 8--aaahhh!)

Hallie Mae Ricks--age 6

Gracie Mae Ricks--age 4 (almost 5)

Clara Mae Ricks--age 15 months

2010-11-17T20:38:00.005-05:00

Today's gratitude post is for music. I love music. I'm so grateful that my loving Heavenly Father gave me something so beautiful, inspiring, and joyful. Music can always make me feel better, whether it's someone else playing or me.

When I was 8 years old I began to take piano lessons. We didn't have a piano at the time, but my mom did have a key to the church, so she would take my brothers and I down to the church almost every day so I could practice in the Primary room. I'm not sure how long that went on, but eventually we got a piano in our house.

For 5 years I HATED lessons. Because once we had the piano at home I hardly ever practiced. So lessons meant a 1/2 hour lecture on how I needed to practice more. Every week my mom would drive me to piano lessons and I would wish we could get in a car wreck on the way there so I wouldn't have to go (nothing major, just enough for us to have to cancel lessons for the week!) I begged and begged and begged to quit but my mom wouldn't let me. Twenty years later I'm eternally grateful she didn't.

Now I love to play the piano. I've leaned a little violin and organ since then too. I even teach my own kids piano lessons. We had a rocky start, but all of us have gotten the hang of it. Now with a few more students it's a great source of a little extra income. (Thanks, Mom!)

Music inspires me to be better. Music brings joy to my heart and to my home. Good music always makes me happy. And I think that's the point of everything beautiful in the world, to bring us joy and happiness--which is what music does for me.

2010-11-17T08:58:00.002-05:00

Last night I planned on posting after the kids went to bed, but then I started reading this book and forgot all about it. So for yesterday I am going to say I'm grateful for good books. I love reading and when I find a good book I just can't stop myself. My house goes to ruin and my kids end up eating spaghetti 3 nights in a row until I've finished.

Last night I was reading Same Kind of Different As Me by Ron Hall. I haven't finished yet, but after crying so much I had put it down and give my eyes a rest. It's a beautifully inspiring book that makes me want to be a better person. It's clean (hard to find these days) and very well written. Thanks, Jennifer, for recommending it!

Today I don't think I'll have any time to read, maybe tonight before I go to bed. But I know if I start I'll end up reading until 1:00 in the morning (which tends to make me cranky the next day). My poor family! The good news is that it should only take me one more night of reading to finish. Then my schedule can go back to normal--until I find another good read!

P.S. I'm always open to recommendations!

William, quit throwing things in the fire!

2010-11-15T20:03:00.004-05:00

Today I'm grateful for 2 things...campfires and Family Home Evening. I wanted to have a campfire for Family Home Evening tonight but it threatened to rain outside. So instead I made tin foil dinners and cooked them in the oven. Then we used some flameless candles (you know, the kind you can switch on and it flickers like a real flame) under some orange grocery bags. We threw on some real sticks for good measure and voila--instant indoor campfire. So we all sat on the floor around it and ate our tin foil dinners off styrofoam plates. William would put a bite of his food on his fork and hold it over the "fire" like he was roasting a hot dog. Then, of course, the girls had to join in. When they started roasting their corn I told them they'd end up with popcorn and that really got them going!

After dinner we had a lesson on how and why our bodies are a temple. We sat around the "campfire" talking and while the message was simple, the Spirit was still there. Then we played charades and had hot cocoa (mixed with french vanilla coffee creamer...yummy!)

These kind of Family Home Evenings are rare at our house. Usually its a scripture story and a snack. And while I know it's more about the consistency than the substance, this has reinforced to me how much better it can be if I put just a little more effort into it.

(Here we are around the campfire. We had almost all the lights off, you just can't tell in this picture. As you can see, the kids are each "roasting" something over the "fire". And, sorry it's a little blurry!)

And yes, I did have to tell William to quit throwing things in the fire while Tony was giving the lesson. It makes me glad it wasn't a real fire!

I'm going to bed

2010-11-14T20:47:00.002-05:00

Tonight I'm grateful that Young Women in Excellence is over.

P.S. It was wonderful! Thanks for asking!

Football

2010-11-13T13:21:00.004-05:00

I've never really been a huge sports fan. I enjoy going to games (any sport) and I enjoy playing too. But today I am grateful for football. Will has been playing flag football for the last 8 weeks. That's 2 practices a week and 1 game each Saturday. He has had a blast, but today he played his last 2 games. So now we're done! Next year he wants to play tackle (we'll see about that!).

At the same time Hallie was playing on a soccer team for the YMCA. That was also 2 practices a week and 1 game each Saturday. So needless to say our weekends have been busy. Her season ended 2 weeks ago, so now we are free! I really have loved going to their games and I've met some great people, but now I get my weekends back.

Tonight, if it works out, Tony and I are going to the FSU v. Clemson game. So even though it's never been my passion, tonight I'm going to do the Tomahawk Chop until my arm falls off!

You da bomb!

2010-11-12T16:02:00.005-05:00

They say good friends are hard to come by, but that doesn't seem to be the case for me. Everywhere I've lived I've met wonderful people that have made my life better. There's my good friends from high school, who came with me to college. My good friends in Newdale from when I was newly married and a brand new mother. I have some good friends in Boise, and some right here in Tallahassee. The people here are extraordinary. My friends always make me smile. They are great examples of living the gospel, making me want to be better by just being around them. They are great mothers and wives, and I'm definitely better for having known them.

So, instead of offending someone by leaving them off a list, I'll just tell you that if you are reading this and thinking, "is she talking about me?" then, yes...I am. You are amazing. Thanks for making my days easier and my life better. Thanks for making me laugh and for getting me out of the house when I need some girl time. Thanks for watching my kids and letting them trash your house--you never complain about that.

When I grow up I hope to be just like you.
Thank you!

Happy Veterans Day

2010-11-11T21:34:00.004-05:00

Today I'm grateful for all our veterans. I am so grateful there are men (and women) out there willing to risk their lives for me and my family. I honestly can't even imagine having to send my husband or son off to war. It's something I don' think I could ever do, and I hope I never have to. But I will be eternally grateful for those people who are so willing.

We live in the most amazing country on the planet and that is all due to our wonderful veterans who daily sacrifice so that we (and other people) can be free. So, thank you to all of you who have served and are currently serving. I hope you all know that we really do appreciate your sacrifice.

As a little side note, a few years ago I read the book Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell. I've never read any military books, but this book was amazing. You get a glimpse into what you have to do to become a Navy Seal, and what these men go through on the battle field (it's not too graphic, though). It was truly incredible. I highly recommend it!

Fall is finally here! (kind of)

2010-11-10T14:27:00.003-05:00

This last week has finally brought Fall to Florida. Well, as much as Fall comes to Florida. It's cold at night and warm during the day. But still, I get to wear a jacket when I take the kids to school in the morning. Which leads me to what I'm grateful for today...change. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father made a beautiful earth for us to enjoy. But I don't only love that it's beautiful, I love that it changes. Every season has something beautiful about it and something different to enjoy. But I love Fall most of all, because that means it's almost Christmas! And you know how the excitement of waiting for something to happen is almost better than it actually happening. That's how I feel about Fall.

But there is other change I'm grateful for, too. While I don't always want it to happen, I do love to see my kids growing and changing. I love that they are getting to the point where I can have a real conversation with them. And we can do different things together now that they are a little older. So while I loved having them as babies, it so wonderful to see them progressing.

I also love changing things up at home. I like having a routine, but it's fun to sometimes change it up a bit. I love rearranging or painting a room, it feels different and like you have a whole new room. I'm grateful we can change the way we look (for the better or worse) and the way we act (hopefully this is always for the better).

Life would be so boring if everything was always the same. And since Heavenly Father wants us to enjoy life and be happy, He gave us change!

Now that's the life

2010-11-09T10:41:00.003-05:00

Today I'm grateful for the things that make my life easier. Like my washer and dryer, my dishwasher, even my awesome steam mop. Can you imagine when it used to take days (yes, plural) to do laundry. It already takes me days to do laundry, but at least I'm not hunched over a wash bin with my hands soaking in water all day. And I lived the first 5 years of my marriage without a dishwasher. I lived through it, but now that I have one I don' t think I could ever go back!

We have so much awesome technology that wasn't around even 50 years ago. I know I take for granted all these great things that are supposed to give me more free time. And they do because since I don't have to spend all day washing dishes I can do more of the things that I actually enjoy.

(No, this isn't my actual washer and dryer, but it's pretty close.)

Gratitude

2010-11-08T09:39:00.004-05:00

So, I was reading my cousin-in-law's blog the other day and she is doing this really awesome thing. Everyday for the month of November she is writing about something she is grateful for. I love the idea of thinking of one thing everyday and focusing on that. So I thought I'd give it a try. I'm also going to ask my kids everyday. I even made up a little sheet were we can all write down one thing each day. There is even a place for Clara (I thought the kids would have fun thinking of something she could be grateful for!).

So everyday until Thanksgiving I (hopefully) will be sharing with you something I'm grateful for, and maybe even a few of my kids ideas.

Today I'm grateful that I can be a stay-at-home mom. Nothing brings me greater joy than always being here for my kids. I love being here when they get home from school. I love getting things done while they are at school and I love that I have nothing else that is "more important" to do. It wasn't' until I moved to Florida that I realized what a rare thing it is to not send your kids to daycare.

Of course, the reason I can be a stay-at-home mom is my wonderful husband. He works so hard for our family so that I can stay home. I'm grateful that he supports my desire to stay at home. I remember discussing this when we were dating--although it wasn't much of a discussion. I said I wanted to be able to stay home with the kids and he said, "me too." We spent the rest of the conversation talking about what he wanted to do for his career.

So that's it for today. Tonight for FHE we're going to start with the kids. Hopefully I can get more out of them than toys or the trampoline.

BOOOOO!!!

2010-10-31T20:07:00.004-04:00

(This was the whole family after a fun night of "trunk or treating," eating too much candy, and staying up past our bed time. It may look like Clara was the only one having a hard time, but Tony and I are pretty good at hiding it!)

Wow! It seems like we just had Halloween and I was dressing Clara up in a cute little ice cream cone. But although I can hardly believe it another year has gone by and all 4 kids are growing so fast I can hardly stand it.

This year with Halloween being on a Sunday, our ward did a Fall Festival Friday night. We had a chili/dessert cook off, games, and truck or treating. The kids all had a blast and even though they only went to a handful of "trunks" they got a ton of candy! The weather even cooperated and it wasn't a gazillion degrees out this year. It almost felt like fall!

The story of our costumes was, as always, an adventure. William wanted to be something spooky and decided on a vampire pretty quickly (no Twilight jokes!). Gracie said she wanted to be a mummy (although I'm still not sure she knows exactly what a mummy is). So I bought a white sheet. Before I ripped it into strips I asked her several times if she really wanted to be a mummy. After several yes replies I tore up the sheet and tried it on. She looked pretty good and was excited about getting her face painted white. Two days later she decided she would be an M&M. Here's a glimpse at my thought process at this point. "Really? An M&M? Fine, I could do that pretty easy. Man, I wish I hadn't already ruined that sheet, I can't even return it now. William, are you sure you don't want to be a mummy instead?" It was at this point that Hallie decided on a ballerina. I told her we'd get the ballerina clothes, I'd do her hair up in a bun, put real makeup on her and even put glitter in her hair. Well, that changed Gracie's mind immediately. I told her over and over that M&M's can have glitter in their hair too, but she wouldn't budge. So now I had to come up with 2 ballerina costumes. Luckily, I have some pretty great friends willing to lend me the leotards and tutu's. Still I lived in fear of Gracie changing her mind again (she'd really hard to reason with!), but fortunately she stuck with ballerina to the very end. And I must say they both turned out adorable!

Hallie the ballerina

Gracie the ballerina

William the vampire

Clara was a spider (although she was also called a cute little penguin and a bee). I bought Clara's costume used when Hallie was 1 year old. Don't you love getting your money's worth!

9 years ago...

2010-08-25T21:18:00.004-04:00

I'm not very good at writing (I'll leave that to my better half!) but since today is our 9 year anniversary I just wanted to say Happy Anniversary, honey!

I love the friend you are to me and the father you are to my children. I love that you are worthy to hold the priesthood and you so willingly use it to bless our family. I love that you try your best in everything you do. I love that you've worked so hard for your education and I love that you're almost done! I love knowing that someday it will be just you and me at home and I love looking forward to all the things we can do together.

Thanks for making me smile and laugh and for being willing to do nearly anything to make the kids laugh too.

I can't wait to see what the next 9 years brings us.

I'll love you forever.

Nicole

Vacation anyone?

2010-08-25T20:39:00.006-04:00

Last week we returned from a nearly 2 week vacation. Jealous? You should be because we left the sweltering heat of Florida (seriously, when we got back I thought we would literally melt) and spent 12 beautiful days in Salt Lake City. We spent 6 days with my family in Kaysville and 6 days with Tony's family in Newdale. We got to see everyone in our immediate families and then some.

So here's a little recap of our adventures. At Grandma Robinson's house we spent a lot of time outside. They have a beautiful shaded backyard with lots of grass and fruit trees. We had 2 BBQ's outside, one with Tony's aunt Paula and his brother Matt's family, and one with my Grandma and Grandpa Robinson who came all the way from Pima, Arizona a day early so they could see us. Clara had never experienced grass until now (since she's been old enough it's been too hot in Florida for me to go outside!) and it was so cute watching her figure out how to get up without putting her hands in the grass.

We also celebrated Hallie's birthday with my family at Boondocks. We bowled, we mini-golfed, we go-karted, and we laser tagged. Sadly, I thought I had forgotten my camera,only to find it in my purse when we got home. So since I have no pictures to prove it, I'll tell you that I won at all of them!

After 6 quick days with my family we drove up to Newdale, Idaho for a Ricks' family reunion. Tony's brother has a ginormous house out in the boonies of Newdale which he graciously let the whole family use for 3 days. The highlight of the reunion was the trip to Moody Meadows for a little huckleberry picking/picnic. After 3 days out in the boonies some of us left for home while the rest of us returned to Tony's parents house in Newdale (slight less out in the boonies). The next day we drove 2 1/2 hours to Pinedale, WY. They have a giant aquatics center with 2 pools, racquetball courts, and indoor track, basketball courts and a rock climbing wall (which Tony and Hallie both fell in love with). The drive made for a long day, but definitely worth it! We also celebrated Clara's first birthday with a BBQ in Grandma Ricks' backyard. One year! Can you believe it? I can't!

We miss being around our family and truly enjoyed the time we got to spend with everyone. Hopefully next summer we'll be moving a little closer and our visits won't be so far between.

Our family in Grandma Robinson's backyard.

My three brothers are three of the goofies guys you'll ever meet. Obviously, Will fits right in.

One day at Grandma's we visited Temple Square. Yes, there is a tractor right in front of the temple and no, I don't know why.

Picking huckleberries at Moody Meadows. William didn't even bring a can with him to hold his, he put them right into his mouth.

Everyone enjoyed a lovely picnic lunch after a long hour of picking huckleberries.

Then all the kids (Tony included) decided to slide down the side of the mountain. The very first kid to slide down biffed it bad. You can see her parents comforting her at the bottom. Did that stop anyone else? No way (although I wish it had).

Hallie climbed this wall about 4 times and made it to the top each time.

Beach day

2010-07-17T20:53:00.007-04:00

Alright, after all the fun we had with the toys (see previous post) we were inspired to take the kids to the beach this Saturday. There was a 50% chance of rain, but we weren't sure when we could do it again so we took our chances and won! It was a little windy and cloudy but the sun did come out and we all had a great time. Even Clara--who doesn't like the big bathtub or the swimming pool--loved the ocean. Just not at first. For the first hour she just wandered around in the sand. But after lunch she slowly ventured down to the water. By the end of the trip she was playing just as hard as the other kids. Here's some pics!

William hard at work building a sand castle.

Hallie and Gracie in the ocean. Hallie LOVES the ocean!

Clara wandering around the beach.

I wish we were awesome enough to have made this "pool", but we aren't. Someone else made it and then left, so we took it over and improved it! As you can see, Clara loves this kind of pool. At one point she was even laying down in it!

Here they are hard at work improving it. They built it up, added decorations, a.k.a. seaweed and sea shells, and Tony even added a mote that allowed more water to flow in when a big wave came up.

You know you have too many toys when...

2010-07-14T07:39:00.004-04:00

...you can literally bury your kids in them! Yesterday Gracie was looking for a certain toy and decided to organize her toys so she could find it. So we dumped all the girls toys in a big pile on the floor. I think it's been too long since we've been to the beach because Gracie decided instead of looking for her toy she would bury herself in them. Hallie thought that would be great fun too. I guess we better get to the beach (and get rid of some toys too)!

You may not be able to see her, but Gracie IS under all that junk (uh, I mean toys)!

See?!

Now Gracie is burying Hallie

Can you spot her?

Hallie's arm update

2010-07-07T19:12:00.005-04:00

Nearly 7 weeks ago I got the fateful phone call from the school. But today the cast is gone. I think I was more excited about getting it off than she was. Mostly I just wanted to wash her hand. When they put the splint on at urgent care and then the cast, they never washed her hand.

Hallie has been so great through all this. She really has not missed a beat. She never complained about having to eat with her left hand or write with her left hand. She still jumps off the furniture and runs all over the house.

She's such a good girl (except for the jumping off the furniture and running through the house) and I'm so grateful because I know she could have made this whole experience much worse.

So here's a few pictures of the big event today!

This is the guy that put the cast on her. When he did, he had to squeeze her wrist to make it tighter there and that made her cry. But I don't think she even recognized him today. First he used this circular saw type thing to cut through the hard part. Then scissors for the cottony layers.

Hallie holding her cast

William, Gracie (with Hallie's cast on) and Hallie--she still doesn't like to straighten her arm, but we're working on that.

Hooray! It's finally off! (Check out William in the back trying on Hallie's cast too.)

My how time flies

2010-07-05T21:25:00.009-04:00

Clara is now 10 1/2 months and believe it or not, she's walking! The kids think she still needs help walking and every time they try to help her they just knock her down. But she just gets right back up again.

Here's a little preview of all her cuteness, but really there is much, much more!

(p.s. I think we could count her first words as "uh-oh". She says it a lot lately, catch it at the end of the video)

Hallie's arm

2010-05-21T13:26:00.003-04:00

Well, it's finally happened. I've been waiting for the day the school called me to say one of my kids hurt themselves and I need to come get them right away. It's happened before, but just for a smashed finger or scraped knee. But this time was different.

I had taken cupcakes to Hallie's class for her teacher's birthday. I left about 2:00, came home and put Clara down for a nap when I got the call. So we loaded back up and went back to the school. Hallie was swinging on the monkey bars. She's really good and was even skipping bars when she lost her grip and fell, breaking the fall with her right arm.

So as soon as dad got home we headed to Urgent Care. They did an x-ray and I could see the break right away. The worst part of the whole experience was the shot. I had promised Hallie no shots because she's all up to date on her immunizations and I didn't think they'd give pain medicine in a shot. But they did. She kicked and screamed "you promised!" the whole time. They even had to bring in an extra nurse to hold down her legs while I held her upper body. It completely broke my heart. After all, I had promised her. But the medicine started working quickly and I was soon forgiven. The doctor put a temporary splint on and sent us home.

This morning I took her to an orthopedic doctor and they put on a real cast. She was so brave. They didn't need to set it, but they did make it tight on her wrist which was pretty painful. But now she's home resting. It should only get better from here!

It's so hard to say goodbye...

2010-05-09T20:52:00.007-04:00

2 weeks ago we made our last Disney World trip. Last May we went to Disney World with Tony's brother, Matt and his family. We bought seasons passes and only needed to go 1 more time to make it worth the money. But we didn't go just 1 more time. We went 6 more times. It was magical. There is no other word for Disney World. Everything about it is magical.

So the last time we went we made a goal--to come back in 10 years. Then Tony and I talked about how different it will be to be at Disney World with teenagers rather than small children. No strollers, no whining (at least not the crying kind) and no waiting for Tony to go on a ride with William and Hallie while I wait with Gracie and Clara--we can all go together. So even though it's still 9 years, 11 months and 2 weeks away, I can't wait!

So goodbye Disney World, we'll never forget you!

Here's a few highlights.

Something I will soon have a picture of is Will learning how to be a Jedi master. He wanted to fight Darth Vader, but was put in the group to fight Darth Maul. So opted to not fight at all, and after all his training!

Meeting the Princesses. The girls were in heaven.

Eating lunch with our brother-in-law's company at a restaurant in Africa we never would have been to otherwise. We'd never had African food before, but it was great! Thanks, Jeff and Rainbird!

Spending Gracie's 4th birthday at Disney World. She didn't get a party and at the time didn't mind. But ever since February she's been excited about her next birthday (in December) and has been planning her party.

Being at Disney World with our family (Matt and Susie, Becca and Jeff) and even friends (Jared and Angela Durtschi).

Staying up late to watch the light parade and fireworks. The kids barely stayed awake through it and it took us an hour to get from the park exit to our car afterwords. But we were there at Christmas time and the castle was literally dripping with lights. So worth it!

Favorite rides by person:

William

Expedition Everest, Kali River Rapids (Animal Kingdom)

Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain and Space Mountain (Magic Kingdom)Lights Motors Action, Toy Story Mania, Rockin' Roller Coaster (Hollywood Studios)

Spaceship Earth aka "The big golf ball" (Epcot)

Hallie

Kali River Rapids (Animal Kingdom)

Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain (Magic Kingdom)

Soarin', Test Track, Spaceship Earth (Epcot)

Toy Story Mania (Hollywood Studios)

Gracie

Boneyard aka "Dinosaur dig" (Animal Kingdom)

Cinderella's Carousel, Big Thunder Mountain, Tea Cups (Magic Kingdom)

Soarin', Spaceship Earth (Epcot)

Tony

Expedition Everest, Kali River Rapids (Animal Kingdom)

Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain (Magic Kingdom)

Test Track, Spaceship Earth, Soarin' (Epcot)

Toy Story Mania, Rockin' Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror, Lights Motors Action (Hollywood Studios)

Nicole

Dinosaur, Kali River Rapids, Lion King, Finding Nemo--The Musical (Animal Kingdom)

Mickey's Philharmagic Orchestra, Pirate of the Caribbean, Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor (Magic Kingdom)

Test Track, Mission: Space (Epcot)

Toy Story Mania, Star Tours (Hollywood Studios)

Dad, Hallie, William, Gracie right after seeing Finding Nemo--The Musical.

Mom and kids at Hollywood Studios, not San Fransisco.

Gracie, Snow White, Hallie. She was in character the whole time with the high voice and all.

William, Hallie, Gracie trying to become the next king. You can tell Will is serious about this.

Jackie, Cinderella, Hallie, Gracie. I love the girls hugging in this picture.

question

2010-04-12T13:25:00.001-04:00

Do you all see the little tool looking things in the corner of my header and by my sidebar? Sometimes I see them and sometimes I don't. If you do see them, can you tell me how to get rid of them?

Easter weekend

2010-04-12T13:09:00.005-04:00

Easter weekend was wonderful! We spent Saturday morning planting our garden. 3rd times a charm, right? Then we spent the rest of the day watching General Conference. Did anyone else notice several admonitions for mothers to do better in teaching their children the gospel in the home, or was it just me? It seemed like every other talk--literally--was about the importance of our own spiritual strength and the need for mothers to cultivate that in their children. "Okay," I thought, "no pressure there!" But after talking to Tony and making some new goals and plans I feel better. I know how important it is that my kids grow up gaining their testimony of the Savior and I know most of that lies with me. But along with the pressure I felt listening to talk after talk after talk, I felt peace. The Lord is with me. They are His children and He wants them back more than I do. So He won't leave me to do this alone.

Sunday morning we colored Easter eggs. I thought 10 eggs per kid would take us a while. But after Will did his first 5 eggs in 5 minutes I knew I was wrong. But that's okay. Tony and I then made the kids play in the front room while we hid the eggs in the backyard. We hid the real eggs along with the plastic ones the Easter bunny had stuffed with candy and some with coins. Then we released the children. We had to tell Will to slow down and let his sisters find some (he's such a good boy, he did slow down right away and then even helped his sisters). Clara loved being outside watching her siblings run around like crazy. Tony filmed it all. I followed them each around trying to get some pictures (I got some great pictures but I can only fit so much into one entry).

The best part was after the hunt was over. Gracie started opening her eggs and yelled "Mom! There's money in them!" Then Hallie whined "Mine has money in it. Where's all the candy?!" I loved it! It shows their personalities so well. Hallie is an absolute chocoholic. Gracie is much more practical. But they both make me smile.

I think the best part of the weekend was having everyone home all weekend with nothing important to go do. No one had to rush off to be anywhere or do anything. We were all just together.

Gracie, Hallie, William--get ready, get set...

Go!!

Mom and Clara

Clara loves playing anything that's for big kids.

Coloring eggs--I love how my Hallie poses!

Celebration!

2010-04-03T14:19:00.005-04:00

I can't even express how happy I am that this week is over. Not because it's been spring break for the kids (we've had a really good time this week!) but because Tony took his prelim test this week. This test is a major rite of passage for PhD students. Not until you take your preliminary exam can you begin working on your dissertation. Tony has been studying for this one test since Fall 2009. This test takes 3 days--4 hours per day--and is very intense. But as of 12:30 Friday afternoon, he is mostly done (he still has his oral defense on the 16th, but that's not nearly as intense).

So naturally we wanted to celebrate. The kids were all for going to Chuck E Cheese's and no matter how many times I said that's not really fun for Dad or Mom, they wouldn't budge. Until we mentioned bowling. So we loaded up and headed to the bowling alley. Here are a few pictures of our celebration!

Tony helping Gracie roll her ball down the lane. It usually took a while for the ball to reach the pins.

Hallie dancing after sending her ball down the lane.

William preparing to roll his ball.

After Tony and I took turns pushing her around, Clara finally fell asleep.

Our final scores. You can't tell from this, but Tony was one point ahead of me in the 9th frame. Then he got a strike and a spare so I thought all hope was lost. But miraculously I got 2 strikes in a row! I was able to beat him by 5 points. (Keep in mind that these are our scores with the bumpers!)

Misc.

2010-04-02T07:53:00.004-04:00

These are just a few of the cute pictures we've taken lately. I just had to share!

Gracie loves to make her little sister happy. And it's not hard to do. You literally just have to look at her and her face breaks out in the biggest smile you've ever seen. It truly makes life wonderful! Clara is 4 months here.

Clara joined in during scriptures one morning (still 4 months old). This is one of my favorite pictures of all time!

In March we were able to go to Disney World with Tony's sister, Becca, and her family. Hallie and her cousin Jackie are two peas in a pod. I love seeing them together! The wait was long (longer than we thought it would be) but the girls got to meet some princesses again. Here they are with Cinderella.

Will's 7? Holy Cow!

2010-04-02T07:31:00.006-04:00

That's right, Will is now 7 years old (plus 2 months, since I'm a bit late with this post:). That's one year away from baptism. Where did the last 7 years go? Every time I look at Clara I can see William when he was a baby. But I'm not sad. This time of my life is so great! I love the kids being in school and helping them with homework. I love having more real conversations with them. I love hearing them laugh at something that I think is funny too!

So just to make myself stay calm, I'll assume it only gets better from here. I'm not too worried about the next 7 years--it's the 5 or 6 after that that has me a bit worried;)

Here's a few pictures of Will's birthday party and all the changes that have been made over the last 7 years.

William on day one.

William at 18 months.

William at age 4. This is the first of many of his wild poses.

Christmas 2009

2010-01-13T22:41:00.004-05:00

This Christmas Tony's sister Becca and her family came to visit. It was so great to spend a week with them and for the kids to get to play with the cousins. We had a gingerbread house contest with the boys versus girls. We had a good time, even when the roof of the girls house caved in!

We had a lot of fun with the cousins here. We went to the beach and played in the sand, we went to Wakulla Springs and saw a few alligators, we visited a museum, and we even played soccer and freeze tag at a park.

On New Year's Eve we got a couple of babysitters so the adults could go out together. Since Tony and Jeff went to Brazil on their missions we went to a Brazillian steakhouse called Rodizio's. We had a wonderful time and the food was stupendous. We got home just before 9 and still had to have a New Year's Eve "party" with the kids. So we drank Sprite, ate M&M's and played 2 games of "Guess Who". Then we had a toast and sent the kids to bed. I think it lasted 15 mintues total.

William posing in his Superman cape on Christmas Day.

Hallie wearing her princess jewelry Christmas morning.

Gracie wearing the tutu from Grandma Ricks Christmas morning.

Gracie's 4th birthday

2010-01-13T22:23:00.003-05:00

In December Gracie turned 4. She had been asking me all year how old she is as if waiting for the day when I would say she was 4 instead of 3. Then when the day came it wasn't as big a deal as I thought it would be.

But on her birthday we went to Disney World. She had her choice of all 4 parks but she chose Magic Kingdom on her birthday were she bought a pirate sword, a bracelet, a necklace, and Mickey Mouse ears for her, William, and Hallie.

That night we got cupcakes and ice cream to eat in our hotel. We sang "Happy Birthday" and she blew out her candles. Now how many 4 year olds get to go to Disney World on their birthday?!

The next day we planned on going to Animal Kingdom but it was supposed to rain. If we didn't have Clara I wouldn't have cared, but since we didn't want Clara to get soaked, Tony took William and Hallie to Animal Kingdom in the morning while I stayed at the hotel with Gracie and Clara. We took a walk around the hotel and played by the pool. That afternoon I left Clara with Tony and took the other 3 to Animal Kingdom for a few hours. We had a blast!

Family Pictures

2009-12-06T22:28:00.005-05:00

In November we went to Sears (thank you coupons that come in the mail!) and had our family pictures taken. As always it was quite an adventure. I had planned on the girls just wearing the purple shirt and some jeans. Then 30 minutes before we were supposed to leave Hallie's shirt was wet. 15 minutes later it didn't look any drier so I asked her if that was really water on her shirt or did she get something else on. Then she says, "It's makeup. I thought it would make my shirt prettier." She had put lip gloss all over the front of her shirt so that she would look extra pretty. So then we had to have the talk about how you need to tell the truth the first time and also about how makeup only goes on your face.

Tony and tried frantically to wash it in the sink and dry it with my blow drier, but it would not come out. So at the last minute I decided they could just wear the dresses the shirts came with and you wouldn't even be able to see the lip gloss. As luck would have it Hallie's dress lasted just long enough for the pictures to be taken. Then one of the straps broke as we left the mall.

I think they turned out pretty well for all the trouble we went through. They show each of the kids personalities (even Clara's since she was dry until we got into the room to take the picture, then she spit up every 2 minutes--that's my baby).

Next time we won't get the kids dressed until we are ready to say cheese.

Trick-or-Treat

2009-11-01T18:39:00.005-05:00

We had a wonderful Halloween this year. We went trick-or-treating with some friends from Will's school and some friends from the ward, in a neighborhood famous for it's trick-or-treating.

Here is everyone minutes before going trick-or-treating. Since we weren't going in our neighborhood and I didn't want to take candy from others without giving any, we left a bowl on the doorstep with a little note. My writer/husband came up with a little poem. It read "Please take only one, thank you. We'd hate to hunt you down and spank you."

William was a scary pirate. He wanted Captain Jack Sparrow, but that specific costume can be kind of pricey. So we went with a generic pirate who happened to be named Captain Jack Sparrow.

Hallie was a mermaid. She started out wanting to be Ariel. But then some friends had a mermaid costume of Nori from Barbie Mermaidia. But then Hallie didn't want to wear the blue wig so we ended up as a plain ole mermaid.

Gracie was the most beautiful Snow White ever. All three kids are in this picture (which was taken by our friends whose house we parked at). William is coming up to get some candy and Hallie is running back to the car to get her and Gracie's candy bags.

For Clara's first Halloween we used the costume I bought 5 years ago for Hallie's first Halloween. She was an ice cream cone with cherry on top! We took her out of the costume to put her in her car seat to drive to the other neighborhood. Then she fell asleep and we never put it back on her, so she wore the costume for a total of 5 minutes. But they were the cutest 5 minutes in history!

Fall Fun

2009-11-01T15:15:00.003-05:00

It's a little late, but here are some pictures of our pumpkin carving experience 2 weeks ago.

First we went to a local church to pick our pumpkins. It was about to storm so we had to hurry!

Then we cleaned out and drew our design on each pumpkin. Will's was a lion.

Gracie chose a small pumpkin because "I'm small". She drew her inspiration from the "daddy jack-o-lantern" as seen below.

Hallie's was an original design, just like Hallie. Her's was the biggest pumpkin which gives a little hint into her personality.

We all had a great time. Unfortunately, southern living isn't designed for putting your pumpkins on the porch. After 1 week Hallie's pumpkin looked like Santa Claus because it was covered in fluffy, white mold. Next year we'll wait until just before Halloween.

Blessing Day

2009-09-07T20:49:00.003-04:00

Clara Mae Ricks was blessed on September 6, 2009. Tony's parents flew in from Idaho for the weekend to be with us. My parents weren't able to be there, but my mom did contribute by making Clara's beautiful blessing dress. Here are a few pictures.

The Story

2009-08-18T16:20:00.005-04:00

Now that I'm home from the hospital I thought I'd tell you the whole story of Clara Mae Ricks. As with most stories, the best part is at the end so I'll try to move this along.

Saturday morning I woke up and was having contractions, but I had been having contractions all week so this was nothing new. We decided to go walking all day and see if that would get something done since my due date had come and gone. So we took the kids to Florida History Museum downtown and to Sam's Club. We walked and walked and still I was having contractions but the only thing hurting was my legs. But by Saturday evening the contractions were somewhat closer together and a little painful. So we got the kids stuff ready, made plans for Sunday in case we were gone, and put the kids to bed. By 10:30 my contractions were still really irregular, but averaged about 4 minutes apart so we called Jen Vanderhoof. I told her I wasn't sure if they would let me stay, but I didn't want to wait too long, so she came over and slept with the kids while we were gone.

We got to the hospital about midnight and luckily they let me stay. By 1:30 we were in our room and by 3:00 I had my epidural. We were both exhausted (and the hardest part was still to come) so we tried to get some sleep. The midwife came and broke my water at 4:00 and soon after I started to feel the contractions again. At little after 5:00 the nurse checked me and said, "well, your gonna have a baby!" So she got the midwife and by 5:30 I was pushing.

Now, here's where our story takes an interesting turn. I'll let Tony tell this part!

Nicole is apparently getting better and better at these things, but I'm getting worse and worse. Right before the baby was actually born I passed out in a nearby chair. I woke up to the baby crying, with two nurses taking care of me, while the midwife and other nurses were taking care of Nicole and Clara. I had a cold wash cloth on my neck and forehead and they wouldn't let me get up. I could hear Clara, but couldn't see her. Finally after I had some food and drink in my system I could get up and see Clara. I may not have seen the birth, but I was right by Nicole's side the whole time. However if by some strange sequence of events they switched Clara at birth, I would never know.

Alright, Nicole's back. Wasn't that fun! Poor Tony had been up for 20 straight hours and had nothing to eat since for almost 12. If we hadn't been surrounded by nurses I probably would have been worried, but I had a lot of other things on my mind and knew he was taken care of.

So other than that, everything went wonderfully. She was actually born at 5:39am on August 16, 2009 and was 8 lbs. 12 oz. and 20 1/4 inches long. She was been a great baby so far. I just hope she keeps it up!

Clara Mae Ricks

2009-08-16T21:57:00.009-04:00

Clara Mae Ricks was born today at around 5:20 a.m. She has been quite calm and peaceful. She weighs 8 pounds, 12 ounces. I (Tony) brought Will, Hallie, and Gracie to the hospital in the morning and again in the evening to see and hold Clara. They all love their new baby sister. Hallie even drew a picture of her today while she stayed at the Vanderhoof's house. Here are some more pictures that we shot with our digital camera today. Unfortunately, we haven't got a picture of her with her eyes open yet, although she has had them open quite a bit. By the way, notice how Hallie carefully posed herself in the background of the picture with William, Nicole, and the baby! Totally Hallie!

Even the tooth fairy makes mistakes

2009-08-06T13:41:00.002-04:00

The tooth fairy did remembered to takes Will's note/tooth last night. But what she didn't remember was that there was a $5 bill inside the folded up $1 bill she left him. So imagine Will's surprise when he woke up in the morning and found she had left him $6! Now I have to explain that I don't think the tooth fairy meant to leave that much and he should not expect $6 each time he looses a tooth. Since he has 3 other loose teeth it shouldn't be too long before he learns that the tooth fairy usually only leaves $1.

Has anyone seen this tooth?

2009-08-05T11:10:00.003-04:00

Will has had 4 loose teeth for quite a while now. His top front teeth are just barely loose and the the bottom 2 teeth next to his middle teeth (does that make sense) have also been loose. He lost his bottom front teeth last summer and not much has happened since...until today! The tooth on the left has been getting more loose every day. This morning it was there at breakfast; then he went to wash his hands a few hours later and it noticed it was gone! We haven't been able to find it so he wrote a letter to the tooth fairy saying he lost a tooth and he drew a picture of it so the tooth fairy knows that he really did lose a tooth. Hopefully she remembers tonight to leave him a little present under his pillow. She had a hard time remembering last summer!

Anyway, I think he looks pretty cute with the missing tooth. But you can judge for yourself!

P.S. As a side note for those who are wondering--I have 9 days left to D-day. Other than feeling humongous and hot all the time, I feel fine. There's not really anything to report. But once there is, believe me, you'll know!

Happy Birthday, Hallie!

2009-08-02T18:36:00.004-04:00

Well, it's official. Hallie has been counting down to this for a few weeks now! And it has finally arrived. Yesterday was Hallie's 5th birthday. That morning she was sitting on the couch watching cartoons when she looked up and said, "I'm 5 now!"--like she had just realized it at that moment. Super cute!

We had a birthday party for her Saturday afternoon. She invited only girls because it was a princess party. We had Emma Thomas, Sarah Brock, Hannah and Laura Porter, Lana Smith, Jessica Gomillion, Catherine Tew, and Jessica Price (plus William, Hallie, and Gracie). Total that's 11 kids, which was a few more than I had planned on even though I was the one to hand out all the invitations. Can I use the excuse that I'm 2 weeks away from having a baby for my lack of proper planning?

The girls started out coloring princess pictures and putting glitter all over them. Then the girls all danced to princess music while Tony and I got pizza ready. After eating pizza the girls danced a little more while we cleaned up, then we opened presents. Hallie could not wait! She got a lot of fun princess stuff from all of her friends. After we opened presents we sang "Happy Birthday" and blew out the candles. As she blew out the candles, Hallie wished that she could have fun if she got a pony. I'm sure if she ever does get a pony it would be a ton of fun, but I told her not to count on ever actually getting one.

After the cake and ice cream (Kathy made her the cutest princess cake) the girls all played while they waited their turn for me to paint their fingernails. Once everyone's nails were either pink or red, it was time to go home. But somewhere in the middle of all that Hallie said, "This has been the best day ever!" That's all I wanted to hear!

After all the friends were gone we cleaned up and rested for a while before taking her to the mall so she could get some jewelry from Claire's. Of course, I had to let Gracie get something too so there wouldn't be constant fighting. This is one of the times I have had to realize that Hallie and I have very different taste. She didn't like anything I pointed to. It made me very afraid for the next 13 years. I hope I'm up for it! I also have to say sorry to my mom because I know she and I were the same way. I hope I didn't make your life too miserable, Mom!

Anyway, Happy Birthday, Hallie! I love you so much! I couldn't imagine my life without you!

Rain, rain go away...

2009-06-14T20:50:00.003-04:00

On Saturday we wanted to go swimming at the YMCA. So we all put our suits on, drove down to the Apalachee YMCA, got in, went potty, took off our flip flops, went to get in the pool and right as the kids put their feet in the lifeguard blows the whistle. He heard lightening from some clouds like 10 miles south of us, but because of it we all had to stay out of the pool for 1/2 hour. Bummer! The kids were so disappointed. I was too. It's been hot lately and the pool sounded so good.

So we took the kids home and set up the spinkler in the backyard. After a while it made a big mud puddle. Tony hooked the spinkler up in the tree and set a couple of slides under it to make a water slide. While Will and Hallie went down the slide Gracie played in the mud and got mud up to her elbows and almost to her knees, but she couldn't be happier. By the way, it did rain eventually, 3 hours later and only for 5 minutes.

(Here's a little glimpse into Will's personality. In the last picture it looks like Will was running away, but he wasn't. He posed like that.)

If only mini golfing was so easy...

2009-06-09T13:38:00.006-04:00

We were watching our family movies on Sunday and I fell in love with this one. My kids are so cute I can hardly stand it!

We recorded the kids mini golfing last March. Even though it was just 3 months ago I feel like they've all grown so much, especially Gracie. They just don't stay little for long (sniff, sniff).

Practice makes perfect

2009-06-07T21:36:00.003-04:00

We went back to Disney World this weekend (before the blackout dates started). But the day before we left, the kids were practicing waiting in line and going on rides. Here's a little clip!

Just Pictures

2009-05-17T20:51:00.004-04:00

I thought I'd add just some pictures for more Ricks' family fun!

This is Hallie and Will at Animal Kingdom outside the River Rapids ride. Obviously they didn't mind getting soaked.

Will loves dinosaurs, so naturally he loved the Dino town in Animal Kingdom. Here he is in front of a T-Rex, or as he would say, "the king of the dinosaurs."

Again at Animal Kingdom. They had a petting zoo which they all loved. But if you look behind Will, Hallie especially loves the goats. She even tried to kiss the goat, but I was able to stop her before too many germs were passed. Has anyone heard of "goat flu?" I hope not.

Gracie and Hallie in their sunglasses on the carousel in the Magic Kingdom. We bought all three kids a pair of sunglasses on Monday as a souvenir. Gracie lost hers on Wednesday while I was rushing to get to the Lion King show on time. The whole way there she was saying, "Mom....Mom!" I thought she wanted a drink or something so I told her to wait until we got there. Then as I got her out of the stroller she said,"Are we going back for my glasses now?" She had dropped them and I wouldn't listen to her to stop and pick them up. I was so mad at myself, but I learned my lesson. So I went to put her prescription glasses on and I couldn't find them either. My nephew had thrown them out of the stroller on our way to Lion King. So we lost both her glasses in 15 minutes. I was pretty bummed. But miraculously they both turned up at the lost and found the next morning! The prescription glasses had been stepped on but they were fixable. So at the end of the week we had all three pairs of sunglasses and 1 of 2 pairs of Gracie's glasses (we did lose the other pair in the house somewhere on Sunday morning right before we left, but it could have been worse).

It's all so magical...

2009-05-17T19:48:00.006-04:00

Well, it's been a week now since we've been back, but I have computer issues. But while my computer is acting semi-normal I better get this posted. We spent 8 days in Orlando starting May 2. Tony's brother, Matt, and his family flew out to Orlando and we all stayed in this great house for 8 days.

We checked in on Saturday afternoon and went swimming in our own private pool. Then Sunday we tried to go to church, but had some direction issues and never found the church. But it's the thought that counts, right? But then Monday we headed off to Disney World where we spent the next 6 days.

We started with the Magic Kingdom. I know it sounds corny, but it really is magic. I remember going to Disneyland with all my girlfriends as our senior trip in high school. We all walked into the gates and said, "This really is the happiest place on earth!" That's exactly how I felt 10 years later (wow, has it really been 10 years!). Everything about each Disney park is impressive and magical.

Anyway, we did all we could at the Magic Kingdom on Monday, then spent Tuesday in Epoct. We met Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald, and Goofy but our camera had run out of battery and we weren't able to get pictures. Wednesday we went to Animal Kindgom. Being 26 weeks pregnant I couldn't do 90% of the rides there, and Gracie was too small so I took her and my 2-year-old nephew to the Lion King show. It was amazing. We also saw "Finding Nemo: The Musical" which as equally impressive. Thursday we went to Hollywood Studios. That day was especially hot so we didn't end up staying for too long.

Friday was my nephew's birthday so he got to choose which park to go back to. With hardly any help from us he picked Magic Kingdom. So we went back and did all we weren't able to do the first day and a few of the things we wanted to do again. Hallie, Graice and their cousin Jaxine even got to meet Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty for those fathers who should know, but don't), Cinderella, and Belle. Will and Hallie both LOVED Splash Mountain. I didn't think my kids were quite old enough to like roller coasters, but I was dead wrong. Gracie, on the other hand, didn't really like the kiddie coaster she went on in Toon Town. At least one of my kids is like me.

Saturday we went back to Hollywood Studios since we didn't spend much time there on Thursday. Hollywood Studios has Will's favorite thing of all: Lights, Motors, Action. It's a stunt show with cars that chase each other, spin, and fly off jumps. There's also a big explosion at the end. Will said it was his favorite thing from the whole week. Hallie's was Splash Mountain. Tony's favorite was doing Splash Mountain with Will and Hallie, because of how much they enjoyed getting soaked. Gracie didn't really have a favorite, but her and I had a great time going on all the small rides together.

We planned on going to the temple one morning but found out it was closed after my brother and sister-in-law drove out there and couldn't get in. So now we have to go back to Orlando in June so I can go to the temple one more time before the baby's born. And while we're there we might as well go to Disney World again. We now have seasons passes, so we have a year to go back as much as we want.

5K

2009-04-05T07:51:00.004-04:00

On Saturday Tony ran the "Engineers without Borders 5K" with Jonathan and Mary Ann Carr. It started at 9:00 so Jonathan and Mary Ann brought me Riley and picked up Tony so they could go early. The kids and I got there about 9:10 so we missed the start, but we were there to cheer for them at the finish. After expecting them around 30 minutes, imagine my surprise to see Tony coming in to the finish with a time of 26:23 minutes. Mary Ann came in a few minutes later and Jonathan a few minutes after her. I planned to have all the kids waiting at the finish line but they were having a great time playing with a bunch of sticks that had fallen off some trees from the storm last week.

Everyone had a great time. Tony, Mary Ann, and Jonathan all did great and were feeling pretty good afterward. The free Krispy Kreme doughnuts and fruit made the race even better! All the running got Hallie in the mood to exercise which she was doing until we went home and even more later that night. Will and Hallie both want to race with daddy next time. So we did some practice races at the finish line once everyone had come in. Hallie knows what it takes to win.

A night out

2009-04-01T09:04:00.004-04:00

Since Tony had a school thing Monday night we decided to have family home evening on Tuesday. And since Movies 8 is 75 cents on Tuesdays we took the kids to the movies (which we never do). But first we went to Pizza Hut. They had some games at each table that we played while we waited. I decided we need to take a game with us every time we eat out. The kids actually stayed in their seats and we all had a good time. Then we headed off to see "Bolt." Will and Hallie were great during the whole thing. Gracie was a different story. At least she stayed in our row and we only had to take her potty twice. But I loved watching Will watch the movie. I love when he gets the jokes and laughs real loud. He and Hallie both really enjoyed the movie. It was almost 9:00 when we got home and pouring rain but since it's spring break we didn't mind going to bed late. But right as we pulled in the driveway Will asked if anyone picked up his Jacksonville Zoo hat from the movie theater. I forgot he even took it in, so Tony helped us all inside and went back to the theater to find it. He looked where we were sitting and it wasn't there. So he walked to the back of row and stood there for a minute before seeing that someone had picked it up and put it down on the first chair of the back row. Luckily he found it or Will would have driven me nuts until we went back to Jacksonville to get another one.

Zoo

2009-03-25T22:36:00.006-04:00

A few weeks ago we had to take Tony to Jacksonville (he was flying out to a conference in San Fransisco). So I decided to take the kids out of school so we could go to the Jacksonville Zoo while we were there. At first Will didn't want to miss school, even for the zoo. They were bringing Australian animals to his class and he didn't want to miss it. But once we found out he could do both he was all over it. So we left around 11:00, dropped Tony off around 2:00 and made it to the zoo by 2:30. The kids loved it. We saw zebras, lions, elephants, all kinds of snakes (yuck!) and a lot more. As a side note, this is not a real elephant. By about 4:30 we still had more to see but I was pushing all 3 kids in the stroller so we just left. We were on the way home by 5:30 and home by 8:00. Tony didn't get home until that Sunday. We wished he could be there will us. Hallie wanted me to call him and tell him he should come home because he was missing all the "funness."

We love Florida!

2008-08-27T20:40:00.002-04:00

Well, since everyone else we know has started a blog, we thought we should too. Most of you all know we moved to Tallahassee, Florida just over a year ago (acutally 1 year and 8 days ago). Tony has finished his first year of his PhD program and is starting his second, Will finished preschool and is now in kindergarten, Hallie started preschool and Gracie gets some alone time with momma in the mornings while Hallie and Will are at school. Both kids LOVE school. Tony really enjoys school too--good thing since that is all he does!

Everything here has been great. We experienced our first tropical storm last weekend and survived just fine. It's just annoying having to clean up all the branches and twigs that fell off the trees. Other than this storm, the weather has been great. Hot during the summer and not too cold in the winter. We've been to the beach several times; the kids love the beach! These pictures are of us at Destin with some friends (thanks Mary Ann!). Everyone in Tallahasse has been super wonderful to us and made us feel right at home.