Will's 7? Holy Cow!

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

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

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.