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!

Even the tooth fairy makes mistakes

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?

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!

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...

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...

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).