Explorers

Hallie, Gracie and Clara were outside last night just after dark "exploring".  They said they were taking notes on what they saw and being "creative".  This is what they brought for me to read. Spelling and punctuation has been updated so you can actally read it.

Dear Hallie and Gracie,
It's too cold, I could die.
Your friend, Ladybug

Dear Hallie and Gracie,
We worked hard today.
Your friends, Ants.

Dear Hallie and Gracie,
I'm getting ready for bed.
Your friend, Beetle.

Dear Hallie and Gracie,
I climbed a lot before bed so our energy is gone.
Your friend, Cricket

Dear Hallie and Gracie,
My kids are in the eggs, but they're quiet for bed.
Your friend, Spider

Dear Hallie and Gracie,
I was asleep the whole day!
Your friend, Rock

Dear Hallie and Gracie,
I'm smashed so much.  Help!
Your friend, Pinecone

Dear Hallie and Gracie,
Almost all the stars are out.
Your Friend, Star

It's been a while...

So, a lot has happened since I last posted.  So to make things easier for me, I'll just list them and throw in a few pictures to go along. (These are not necessarily in chronological order).

• At the end of April we made a trip back down to Tallahassee so Tony could walk in his graduation!  He could have walked in December but we were a little busy having a baby that weekend. Tony's parents flew in to Tallahassee and celebrated with us.  Then they drove up to Athens to spend even more time with us.   We loved having them here and are so blessed to have such great support all around us!    

It was a long night for Elizabeth but doesn't Tony look handsome in his robes?!  We're so proud of him!

• School pictures--I thought they turned out so great!

Gracie--Kindergarten

Hallie--2nd grade

William--3rd grade

• William spent a week at cub scout day camp.  The theme was "Knights of the Round Table" and they did all kinds of fun knight stuff.  At the end they watch some guys dressed as knights sword fight then got knighted themselves!

Can you see Will in the middle?

• Swimming lessons
• A trip to the Lion's club fair in Athens.  
• Lot's of playing on our porch swing.

William, Hallie, Gracie, Clara, Elizabeth--we miss that swing!

• We moved in the middle of July to a bigger house more out in the country.  It has stairs, which was a priority for Gracie.  It also has a basement for storage with a storm shelter in it, which we actually had to use this weekend when the tornado siren went off.  Luckily, nothing happened, but it added a little excitement to our Sunday afternoon.

• We took a trip to Idaho and Utah!  We drove for 2 days to get to Logan Canyon where we camped with Tony's family for his family reunion.  Then drove to Newdale to spend a few more days with Tony's family.  We did so much fun stuff with them, like going to a Piano Guys concert!  Our whole family loves them, so it worked out so great that they were in Rexburg the week we were.  We bought their CD and listened to it tons on the drive home.  Whenever it comes on Clara yells, "piano guys, Mom!"

• After spending a few days with Tony's family we drove to UT to spend some time with my family.  My brother's kids were their the whole time so we got lots of cousin time!  

• While in UT, Hallie turned 8!  So she got baptized in UT so our family could come.  Beverly had this beautiful dress for Hallie due to a little mix up with my nieces dress, which worked out beautifully for us!   

We took a few pictures of Hallie wearing her baptism dress while holding her blessing dress to display at her baptism.  She looks so beautiful and we are so proud of her decision and the wonderful girl she is!

Right before the baptism.  I'm one lucky lady to have such a great family!

• We took 3 days to drive home so we could stop in Colorado Springs to see Tony's sister's family, then in Kansas to see our good friends.  Hopefully next time we'll be able to spend more than a few hours with each of them!

• A few weeks after getting home we settled into our new house and celebrated Clara's 3rd birthday.  We just had a few friends over to play and had cake and ice cream.

Everyone wanted to help.  And yes, we used Christmas wrapping paper..don't judge !)

• Now we've started at a new school.  So far things are going well and the kids are making friends.  Gracie is also playing soccer and William is playing football which means our nights are pretty full.  Gracie's first game is tonight and she cannot wait!

First day of school--William, Hallie and Gracie.  Clara was all ready  to go with her backpack too.  

• This weekend we took the kids to this little tiny splash park in Ardmore.  It only had 3 fountains shooting up, but the kids thought it was great.  Clara loved sitting on the fountains and Elizabeth loved trying to drink from them.  

•  A quick update on Elizabeth.  She's now 8 months old and crawling all over the place.  She can even go up the stairs but not down.  She can stand for a minute or two and even took a step the other day, but it's a little early to expect her to walk.  It won't be long though.  She got her first tooth this weekend with the second coming any day (I hope!).  She has the funnest personality.  She smiles all the time and loves to be where the action is.  She's incredibly determined (which will hopefully be a good thing when she's older) and extremely active.  We love her so much!

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

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!

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?

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...

...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

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...

...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!

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

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

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

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

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

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!