Gracie's 4th birthday

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!