Check it out!

Hey guys, it's good to be back! I really liked the pictures, Jana, they were pretty cute-I'm excited that your daughter is growing teeth! Here's the deal, I wrote about Noah's birth and posted his pictures on our own blog so that my friends can see it too. Here is the link. Click on me! Let me know what you all think...I know you all will think he is ADORABLE!

Baby Poll

I went back and checked to see who won the baby poll, and it was Eric. Jana, don't forget to send him his stickers!

First teeth!

I thought I'd take this opportunity to show Addie's first teeth before Noah pictures show up and steals the spotlight! They came through about 2 weeks ago, but just recently have become large enough to get any good pictures. There are also some other cute pictures thrown in.

A good shot of her two teeth.

She loves being naked and loves baths. I thought this picture was priceless, if not slightly inappropriate! Tee hee hee...

Our favorite church dress. I found out after this picture was taken that she had pooped all over herself under the dress and I got it all over my hands and my shirt. Ick! But isn't this a cute dress?

This picture was taken for Mom. She made this onesie when I was a baby. I wore it when I was 3 months old (according to the pictures) and it is just now fitting Addie.

Yay for Noah!

I am so happy Noah is finally here. Can't wait to see those pics and to hear the whole delivery story. Great job, Kari and Eric!

Nothing yet

Sorry guys-espeically you, Heather, I'm sorry you've checked the blog a million times-but no baby yet. My body has been doing some crazy things the last few days so I feel like something is going to happen it just hasn't gotten around to it or something. But, do not fret-when something does happen, we'll make sure that the phone tree is activated and that everyone is informed. Just keep your fingers crossed that it will all be soon.

Jim Gets a Cell Phone

Jim completed all of the required merit badges today. Now he can get a cell phone! He's excited. He just has to get his eagle project done by his birthday. This will be good.

Hillary's new calling

I was asked today to be the primary chorister. I asked not to be released from cub scouts yet. I don't think it will be a problem for me to do both. So the first councelor (the one who extended the calling) from the bishopric said we'd play it by ear. My first Sunday leading will be the week after this coming Sunday, so the 10th, I think. I'm excited. I had fun the last time I did this and I think it will be fun this time too. Everything else is going hunky-dory here; just waiting to hear that Noah has been born.

New Dream Wall

Brother Maxfield (a man in our ward) came over yesterday and completed the mudding of the new wall he built for us in the entry way/living room (I screwed the sheet rock to the studs so he didn't do all the work -- just 99% of it). I thought you might like to get a glimpse of how good it looks. Hope you can get an idea of how nice it will be when it is finally complete (it may stay in this form for another couple of years, although Mom intends to give it a prime coat of paint so it may be white for a couple of years). Mom is very happy with it and we look forward to completing all our remodeling for the living room, which would include crown molding and hardwood floors, at some point in the future.

Harvey

Kurt and Heather were over a couple of weeks ago for the family dinner (don't be too jealous you out-of-staters) and I took a real cute picture of Harvey laughing at Kurt (unfortunately the red-eye reduction didn't work very well and my picture correction feature on my picture software didn't do much good either). At any rate, here is the picture such as it is.

Dad (using Mom's site)

Anxiously awaiting

I must have checked the blog 50 times today. I keep hoping to see a post saying that Kari has popped!

Some good news from the Hicks' side

Charlie's dad got a job today at the new Wal-mart they built in Fowlerville. (I know you're disappointed Mom) We are pretty excited for him. He'll be working the 2nd shift, from 2 - 11pm unloading the trucks. Not really what he's qualified for, but it's something. He plans on continuing his search for something better, but is satisfied with what he has for now.

Also, a friend of mine from the Flint ward is going to rent out Jocelyn's house for the next 6 months, at least. She has run into some pretty yucky situations in her life and is trying to put things back together. It was just nice that Jocelyn's house was still available for her to move into with her family. It helps her, and Charlie's parents, since they've been paying the bills for the house since Jocelyn moved out. It's been hard for them to pay for two houses worth of bills. I just pray that this works out well for both parties.

I guess if I were to start my happiness list today, these two things would be at the top. Next I'd have to be very happy that my family is healthy again. Man it took forever for us to ALL be through the sickies. I'm happy for my family, my husband and kids. They are great and treat me well. I'm so happy to be bestfriends with Charlie. I don't know where I'd be without him. He completes me. I'm happy that I can keep in contact with my family even though we live so far apart. I'm happy that my furnace keeps working and that my super old cars keeping running. I'm happy Charlie has a job he loves. I'm happy to keep losing weight, no matter how slowly it may be happening. I'm happy to be a member of the ward choir. We didn't have one in Flint, and I love singing with the Racine ward choir. Our choir director picks the best songs and really puts a lot of time into making thing work. Man, I could probably go on and on. I'm really happy about lots of things. Thanks for this opportunity to let me think about and vocalize some of them. You're right, Jana, it is nice to take time to think about this every once in a while.

Kari, you were such a cute baby!

I bet Dad took that picture. He's famous for taking sleeping people pictures.

Lexi's opportunity

Lexi was picked to be one of 6 students from her school to compete at a state-wide math competition for 5th graders. She will have to stay after school every Thursday, starting today, to practice and prepare for the competition. It is scheduled for March 11th. She's so excited.

I'm so cold lately. We've had some bitterly cold temperatures here and lots of snow. I feel like I'm cold all day until I get into bed at night. Then I actually warm up. It's not fun! The weather man reported lastnight that we've had 42.7 inches of snow already this winter. The average is 27.1 inches and last year they only had 19.7 inches total, the whole winter. I think it's bogus that we had to move here the winter they would get dumped on. We are supposed to have temps in the mid 40s on Monday with rainstorms, possibly thunderstorms. Just watch, we'll have another tornado!

happiness is...

Sometimes it's a good idea to write down a couple things you have to be HAPPY about!

1. I finally (yes, finally) set up an appointment with a surgeon for my gall bladder operation. It's on Monday, so I'll probably have a date set for the surgery after that. Hurray!

2. Our Utah friends, the Cupps, are naming their next little boy (due in 6 weeks) partly after Jason. She said they like the name Jason and they like Jason, and that's why Jason will be his name. We think that is so nice! Hurray!

3. To date, I weigh 20 pounds less than I did at Thanksgiving (but it isn't coming off in the right places, so I need to start exercising again). Hurray!

4. Jason found a good paying job at the school for the summer, and will be home by 3 p.m. every afternoon. Hurray!

5. I found out on Tuesday that I'm not over the Scouts afterall! Hurray!

6. I bought all of this on Saturday for just $2.39 with coupons! Hurray!

So, that's my list. Feel free to write your own lists of things to be happy about, it's quite therapeutic. And here is a recent picture of Addie. Isn't she the skinniest little thing?!

Day Care Disappointment

The yang to my good job news' ying is that I just called the day care provider I thought I had lined up and she doesn't have any openings left. I'm really disappointed because I really liked her and her staff, she's located in our sub and her rates were great. I don't know a ton of people in our immediate neighborhood so I don't have a lot of people to turn to for recommendations. I really don't want to put him in the bigger centers that are around here and I was really excited to have found an in-home day care that I liked so much. I called one other place that a friend of a friend recommended and she only has openings for a couple days a week. This has really thrown me for a loop. I can't wait until Kurt can stay home and we won't have to deal with this childcare headache.

A New Address and Some News

We have finally finished moving-YIPEE! We still have a lot to take out of boxes and move around, but basically everything is in place. So, now we are living in a new place and have a new address. Here it is:
9241 Falcon Park Circle
Sandy, UT 84093

Also, I went to the doctor today and have a little bit of news. I haven't dialated more and my doctor is not sure that I will go by myself. So, on Monday I have an appointment to do a non-stress test. This is where they test my fluid around the baby to make sure that it's okay and then they monitor the baby's heartbeat to make sure it's good and they also monitor me to see if I'm having contractions. Then on Tuesday I have an appointment with my doctor and she will check me again. I f she doesn't feel like anything is happening, then I will go to the hospital Wednesday night around 8 pm and they will induce me. I don't really know why it would have to be so late. Why can't I be induced in the middle of the day? Anyway, that's what the plan is right now. I could still go, this is all just in case. But she really doesn't think I will. So, we will have to see what happens in the next couple of days. We'll keep you posted. :)

One down...

I had my first job interview yesterday. It went really well and I was more impressed with the company and the position when I left than I was going into the interview. They are hiring a bunch of new recruits since a large portion of their staff is within 5-10 years of retiring. They seemed really interested in me and I have to say that I will think seriously about it if they offer me the position. I have another job interview on Friday and it sounds like at least one more scheduled for next week, if not two. I'll let you know as I find out anything else. We're really excited here.

So Kari, how's the first day of freedom going for you?

Primary 4 ever! (and ever, and ever, and ever, and ever...)

Haha. I got a new calling yesterday. I'm the first counselor in the Primary. We were sure it was Jason's turn to get a calling, since he doesn't have one yet, but nope--it was me. They did ask him about his time restraints, and said they'd put him on their "available for a calling" list, so it seems he's through flying under the radar.

I'm excited about it because I've seen a lot of things that can be improved, especially since our ward boundaries were just changed. It's been quite chaotic of late. I'll miss my little class, though, it was fun getting to know the kids on a more personal basis. Our president is really overwhelmed, so I'm glad I've had experience and will be able to help out quite a bit. Unfortunately I'm over the Scouts, which was my least favorite aspect before. Dang. I'll be looking to you, Hillary, for some helpful hints! I guess I'm supposed to be learning to love Scouts. Besides that, it should be fun!

Packers Loose!

Well the great run for the Packers is over. We'll probably have to hear about how sad everyone here in Wisconsin is for the next week or so. Then I'm sure the talk will become all about Brett Favre retiring; will he? won't he? Ooooo, we're all just waiting at the edge of our seats :).

How many of you watched the game and were cold just watching it? I know I sure was. I felt so bad for the teams when they had to go to overtime. How many of you wanted to put something over the Giants' coach's face? Man, he looked so cold!

Too bad the Giants won't beat the Patriots.

Baby Update

So I was waiting to put down what the doctor said about my progress until today. Today was the 2nd time I was checked and I was hoping for some big numbers like, 2 or 3. The first time I was checked I was dialated to 1/2 cm and effaced only 1/2 cm. So I thought if I waited the week, it would change-but no such luck. I am still only 1/2 cm dialated and 1/2 cm effaced and he is in - 2 position and my grand total of weight gained as of now is 50 lbs (ouch!). The insider information Eric said we had was that they predict that I will be a couple of days late. But I like the optimism that all of you have shown and I hope that it comes true. Either way, I will be giving birth in the next 2 weeks-because they will only let me go over a week. So, we'll just have to keep waiting.

We have not completely moved out of our apartment yet. Our last day in it is Sunday. Right now we don't have any furniture and tomorrow we are losing our bed and sleeping on an air mattress-good thing that it will only be for one night. And then we'll be at Eric's parent's house-pretty much free everything, could it be any better? Today was the last day of my job. YAHOO! I'm excited that I won't be working for a long while. It will be a nice break. We are still waiting on schools. Eric heard from the school in Missouri earlier this week and they just said that they were putting his application on hold and would review it at a later date. So, it's not a no or a yes. Hopefully the other schools will give us something more concrete than that-like, Please come to our school! That would be awesome!

We'll keep you guys updated. And just for fun, here is a picture we took tonight at the Utah Auto Show. I hope you all appreciate from the picture how humongous I am right now and you can really see the 50 lbs in my face, be nice. Also, are two pictures of the diaper cake that I won from Babies R Us. We entered a drawing and won! It came with about 50 newborn diapers, 2 recieving blankets (they were in the middle) and the giraffe on top. We were quite pleased.

Job Interviews

I've had two companies contact me to set up job interviews and some serious interest from a third company that I should hear back from on Monday. I'm super excited since I just started the job search a little over a week ago. I have my first interview on Tuesday and the second will be later next week. Harvey and I went up to South Lyon and Grandma pinned up my new dress pants and is going to hem them for me. Now I just need to find a good suit jacket.

Piano

Our ward is a little short on piano players, at least that's what they feel. So the relief society president has organized an enrichment activity that is piano lessons. They are open to the whole ward though. She and the ward choir director are going to be running the lessons. The choir director is a music teacher at one of the local elementary schools. She has 15 keyboards in her classroom and got permission from the principal to use her room for these church lessons. Because it's the school, she has to charge some kind of fee because she is technically "renting" the room for an after school activity. So the charge is $1 per person for the whole 1 1/2 hours she's there. I'm so thrilled. We haven't found a piano teacher for Alexis yet and she's been asking more about it recently. I've also wanted to get Merrit and Makayla started, especially since Merrit's teacher wrote a note on his report card that she felt he should start. This church class really worked out great for us. I just pick the kids up from school on Tuesdays and drop them off at the other school. I'm pretty excited about it and the kids are too. Merrit was hesitant at first, but he tried it at the first class and really liked it. He told me that day he wanted to keep going. I was happy he said that.

Doug Courreges

For those of you who don't know, Doug Courreges took his own life last Friday. We don't know any of the particulars except that he had been experiencing some depression lately. He leaves behind the six children he and Judy have and four others with his second wife. I thought you would like to know.

new video

I just put up a video of Addie doing her latest trick on our Hair blog. I would download it on to this one as well, if it didn't take about 20 minutes to upload. It's really annoying. So, check it out! (Mom, just keep pressing Play until it works.) Oh yeah, and her first two teeth have arrived!

Noah baby poll?

I think we should have a baby poll for Noah like we did for Harvey? (I want to be the winner again.) The day I'm picking is the 26th. I'll ask my kids again and see what they come up with.

Splish, Splash

We took Harvey out for his first swim this weekend. He had a great time and made a new friend, Emma. He was in the pool for about 45 minutes and happy the whole time. Harvey would have been happy splashing in the pool for hours but Kurt and I wussed out first. I am being very brave to post pictures of myself in a swimsuit so please only nice thoughts and comments.

I had to post this pic of Kurt because it is so priceless. That is what he gets for not posting his own pictures.

Who voted for Godzilla?

Charlie wanted to vote for Godzilla too, but because he never gets on the blog himself, I told him I wasn't going to vote for him.

a new high in family connectedness?

Well, it seems I somehow "caught" the stomach flu from you guys across the country! I came down with it Saturday night, was pretty bad Sunday, and now it's gone. Dad said on the phone last night (he called to offer his condolences when the Cowboys lost) that what I had sounded like what y'all had. Amazing, isn't it? I don't know anyone out here who had the stomach flu, so I must have contracted it via the blog! :)

On a side note, we're very happy the Packers won and that they're playing the Giants, who they've beat before. I'm really getting into the NFL, which surprises me and pleases Jason to no end. GO GREEN BAY! I bet it's fun to live in Wisconsin right now...

Kari, any news from the Eric school front?

Heather, how goes the job search?

News from the Hicks side

Just thought I'd pass along the news that Les and Kristi found out today that they are having a girl. They are pretty excited after three boys. She's due at the beginning of June, I think.

I'm so frustrated!

So I went to pick up the kids from school today. While I was waiting for them to come to the car, I watched Alexis walk down the side walk across the street from me. She's was going to the corner to cross to come to the car. As she walked, the girls who keep bullying her ran up behind her and one of them threw something at her. It hit Lexi's backpack and fell to the ground. As the girl went to pick it up, I got out of the car and crossed the street. She motioned to throw it again, as I heard the othe girl yell something like throw it this way or throw it again. I yelled out to stop her because I didn't know what they were throwing and I wanted them to stop. The girls looked at me and as I approached them I said that that was totally inappropriate and I took the girl who threw the object by the arm to take her with me to the principal. As I took her arm, I said let's go see the principal and motioned for the other girl to come too. She kept on walking and said she didn't do anything. I said yes you did, come on let's go and motioned again for her to come. Then she started to run away yelling you ain't gonna touch me, you ain't gonna touch me. Then the other girl ran too and I turned to go to the principal and behind me I heard the girls saying did she touch you? Did she touch you? We're going to tell? I went into the school and waited for the principal and told her what I had witnessed. She's already dealt with these girls many times before, and I could tell she was frustrated. I asked if there was any way I could talk to their parents. The principal said she couldn't give me their numbers, but she could call them and give them mine. So I went into the office with her and waited for her to call the mothers. The first one she got ahold of was on her way to work and said she'd call me tomorrow. She appologized to the principal and asked her to pass the message on to me. Then she called the other mother and the principal assured me that that mother would call too. The principal was very sorry and tried to console me, but I could tell she was at her wits end with these girls too. When I got to the car, Alexis told me that she heard one of the girls say that I hit her. This was the girl that ran away from me saying that I wasn't going to touch her. I don't know how I was suppose to have hit her if I didn't even touch her.

When I got home there was a call on the caller I.D. that said private name but there was no message on the machine. It may have been the one mother, but I don't know. If it was, I wonder if she'll try to call back. She didn't even appologize over the phone to the principal. I'm not even sure what I'll say to them if they call anyway. I just didn't know what else to do. I want the mothers to know how frustrated I am and how much this is effecting Alexis. I think I'm going to ask them if they have any idea why their girls have singled out Alexis. I really hope that I don't get accused of abuse. It will be my word against theirs because, although there were many people around, I'm sure I won't be able to find anyone in specific who was watching and could back up my story. I suppose this could get ugly. I shouldn't even have touched the one girl in the first place, but I didn't even think about it. It was just natural for me to take her arm to take her with me. I hope this doesn't turn out to be a lesson I learn the hard way. I'm so frustrated with this whole thing. Why can't Alexis just go to school and have a good time and experience? Why does there have to be kids there who pick on her? I mean yesterday someone hocked a loogie on her backpack. Of course she didn't see who it was because she had put the bag down to go play on the playground just before school got out, so we can't even get that person in trouble. But jeez, spitting on someone's stuffs, come on! AHHHHH!

Thanks for letting me vent.

quite embarrassing...

Roy Junior is already dead. I'm ashamed.

Job Search

I am officially on the job market as of tonight. I've sent my resumes to several different companies and am calling in the couple contacts that I have. Any prayers and positive thoughts you could send our way would be appreciated. We're really hoping that I'll land a great job and that Kurt can start staying home with Harvey in a year or two. Job hunting sucks and I'm already a nervous wreck.

Family Update

Sunday we went to Bountiful to attend Rick's son's blessing. So I thought I would update everyone with the news of our extended family. Rick named his son William Drew and he is the fattest baby we had ever seen. Seriously, he looks like the Michelin Man. He is only 2 months old and Grandma says that he has already tripled his birth weight. Grandma thinks that Elise must be feeding him pure cream.

Also at the baby blessing was Amy. I think all of you know by now that Amy is pregnant. She is having a little girl sometime in March-Grandma's not sure when, but she thinks it's at the end. I haven't seen Amy since I found out. But she's got a litle bit of a belly. She's having a girl and she's naming her Miley Nicole-I asked her if it was after Miley Cyrus and if she wanted her to be famous, but she told me it wasn't. I don't know the father's name but she just told me that he's around. I asked her if he was planning on being around after the baby's born and she said yes and that he's very excited. We'll see, I guess.

As to Paul, I asked Grandma about him being almost engaged and the first thing that Grandpa said was that they didn't like her-that's all he said about it. But Grandma said that this girl is someone that he's known since he lived in South Dakota and that she is 30. They don't like her because she is domineering. But that's all they said. So I don't know if they are really going to get married or not.

Trish was here for Christmas and it was good to see her. She is still teaching English to a room full of Spanish speaking boys. I didn't realize, though, that it was a classroom of boys with problems-at home, I mean. She loves her job. She did say that she would try and come out for Noah's baby blessing. She is doing well and she looks good-finally grew her hair out a little so that it hits her shoulders and got smaller glasses.

As for us, I am in my 37th week of pregnancy. I started having my doctor's appt. once a week last week and this week they will check me for the first time. I don't have gestational diabetes-I watched both the doctor and the nurse check my chart so that there wasn't any mix up like with Jana. I was also checked for vaginal strep and that came back negative. So things are looking well, so far. My last day at work is next Friday and I am super excited! Also next weekend we move out of our apartment and in with Eric's parents. It's been pretty crazy around here with packing and last night we showed our apartment to 6 people who seemed really interested. Hopefully one of them gets the apartment and then we don't have to pay to break the lease-that would be great! Eric loves his job and they love him. He has even got to participate in a few interveiws for potential orderlies-I thought that was a pretty big deal. No word yet on schools. We are just hoping that we will know soon so that just in case he doesn't get in, we can start formulating a plan B-it's hard to do that when you are unsure about plan A.

Well, that seems to be pretty much it. I'll be sure to keep everyone posted-exciting things should start happening here in the next couple of weeks. Soon there will be a new member of the family. HURRAY!!!! I can't wait to meet him and take lots of pictures. Oh, and could everyone just pray that he stays head down-he seems to like to flip around a lot and I'm nervous that eventually he'll get too big to flip back to head down and that I'll have to have a C-Section-not my idea of a good time. Thanks!

SCARY!

We had a bit of a scary evening lastnight. We were hit with a huge storm that produced at least one confirmed torado in Wisconsin. This tornado actually destroyed many homes. There has never been on record in Wisconsin a tornado that produced damage. It was pretty scary. We had to go in the basement twice. After the first one the news casters were saying they felt the worst was over, but some more cells fired up about an hour later and we had to go back into the basement. Charlie just happened to be on his way home when the second round of sirens went off. The second cells were closer to us than the first, but I don't think an actual tornado was produced that time.

So Charlie and I were wondering lastnight... they have this totally abnormal storm in the beginning of January that actually produced a tornado(s) and they've also had record breaking snow fall accumulations for the month of December here, at least 20 inches worth to our knowledge all since we moved here. Is this a sign or what?!?!?!? What a welcome!

Here are some pictures sent into a local news station from viewers and a map to show you where the touch down occured in comparison with us.

http://www.wisn.com/slideshow/14996809/detail.htmlindex.html?currentSlide=10&taf=mil

Driving Directions

Hair #4

Here are pictures of the newest member of our family, Roy Junior. We gave him a good 'ole Southern name.

Last snow storm

I finally have time to post the last pictures I took of our snow storm last week on New Years Day (most fell during the night). The one weather caster I heard said it was the fourth most accumulation in Michigan history -- we had between 12 and 15 inches on our driveway. I'm not sure if that record means for the whole winter season or for just January; at any rate, it was a lot of snow and Jim and I had a blast digging ourselves out. (I missed much of the Michigan football game as a result, however.)





Now our weather is heading into the 50's and could reach 60 degrees this week so all the snow will undoubtedly be gone within a few days. Easy come, easy go. I'm not sad to see it go, although is was really pretty, because I worry more now when Jim goes to Seminary each morning; a couple of unexpected accidents will do that to you. I know he is a safe driver (or seems to be) but weather and others take things out of our control.

Love to all!!

Happy Harvey-days

I realized I haven't posted any new Harvey pictures in awhile. Here are some for your viewing pleasures.

Here's Harvey in a lumberjack outfit.



He's smiling a lot more now but this is the only picture we have so far. I hate our camera, by the way.
Harvey fell asleep while I was brushing my teeth one morning so I couldn't resist the set up



This is one of the only outfits we have bought Harvey, unfortunately it didn't fit. It was super long in the legs and tight in the chest. He's still a cute little Rudolph.

Here we are on Christmas Eve at my grandma's house.


That's all, folks!

Sickees in Ypsi

Well, I got sick Thursday night with the stomach bug. I was up all night and as I finally got to sleep towards dawn, Kurt got sick. He waited until I got up, hoping that I would feel a lot better and could take care of Harvey. I was still pretty wiped though so we called up Grandma Hutchinson and she swooped in to the rescue and took Harvey out of our germ-house for the afternoon and evening so Kurt and I could recover. Harvey came home around 10 and slept fine through the night. After he ate this morning he threw up a couple of times so, since we are first time parents, we rushed him over to the doctor's office before they closed. The doctor said he thought Harvey was doing fine and that the vomiting might actually have been due to the fact that Harv was pretty constipated. A diluted prune juice bottle cleared up that problem. He hasn't puked at all the rest of the day and has been in pretty good spirits so we hope that he won't get it. Oh, the joys of flu season!

On our last round of the "sickees"

Jaxson got sick Thursday night. He didn't sleep well, but didn't throw up. He is actually still sick. He has been sick the longest of anyone. He had a horrible night lastnight. I actually had to go sleep in the boys' room on a cot next to Jaxson. He hasn't done much better today. I only hope that tonight isn't as bad as last night. Charlie was the last one to get sick. After Jaxson got sick Thursday night, Charlie said to me that he was thankful for his strong constitution and that he hadn't got sick. He spoke too soon though because he woke up Friday morning not feeling too well. He went to work but came home at about 1 pm and went to bed. He felt horrible. He woke up feeling much better today. Now we only hope that Jaxson will be well soon so we can all be over it, whatever it was.

We start meeting at 9 am tomorrow morning for church. I'm so excited. I really don't like meeting in the afternoon. Not much else is going on here. We have started to look at different houses, but not really enthusiastically. We just don't have the drive right now. It's kind of like we had the wind knocked out of us.

Hicks Christmas

I looked at that family picture, Jana, and I think that Mom and Dad are in the back on the right, in front of Wayne.

We are home now from our wonderful Christmas vacation. The drive there wasn't too bad. Chicago only took about 2 hours to go through. We didn't hit any bad weather. We stayed at Jocelyn's empty house for most of the time. It allowed us room and to be ourselves a little easier. We were also able to go through our storage unit and pull stuff out that we didn't want to move with us. We gave some away and left other stuff in Jocelyn's house to be sold with the house. I'm glad we got that finished. We spent the first weekend in Flint and hung out with friends. We went to Mom and Dad's on Christmas Eve and stayed there until Friday and then we went back to Jocelyn's house for the weekend. Charlie and I teased each other that most people have their vacation homes in nice, sunny places like the Bahamas, but our vacation home is in Flint, MI.

Christmas day was fun at Mom and Dad's with Kurt, Heather and Harvey. It was very relaxing. The day after Christmas wasn't so much fun. We were suppose to spend the day at Charlie's parents' house but the night before (Christmas night) Chelsea threw up and kept throwing up. I woke up that morning not feeling well, except it was coming out the other end for me. We tried to go as a family and got as far as Brighton before Chelsea threw up in the car, all over herself. So we turned around and went back to Mom and Dad's. I cleaned Chelsea up and stayed there with her while Charlie took the rest of the kids to his parents'. They had fun seeing their cousins. Makayla threw up once while they were there, but that was it, thank goodness. We were suppose to go spend the night with Kurt and Heather Thursday to Friday but decided not to since we had been sick.

Friday we went back up to Flint because one of Merrit's friends from church was getting baptised Saturday morning. I had a girls' night with my friends that night and it was great. My friend who was hostessing is a beauty school drop out so she has all the stuff for manicures and pedicures and facials. So we just hang out, eat great food and pamper ourselves.

For New Years Eve we went to a party at our friends' house from church. There were four families there with a combined total of 18 kids. We had a blast playing games and ringing in the new year together. After we watched to ball drop they kids went outside and ran around in the snow and built a snow caterpillar (the balls were too big for the kids to lift them on top of one another to build a snowman). I would have pictures but my camera was at home. My friend is suppose to email me some pictures and then I will post them. The next day we went to Charlie's parents' to pig out and watch football. The kids played outside most of the time in a giant snow pile that Charlie's dad plowed up for them using his tractor. I would post pictures of this too, except the adapter I have for my memory card broke so now I have to go buy a new one.

That night we went to Kurt and Heather's to spend time with them before we went home since we didn't get to go before. When we got there our kids were just fine. That night, thought, was a different story. Chelsea got up first with the runs and didn't make it to the toilet in time. So we cleaned her up, then Alexis was up throwing up. Then Chelsea again and then Alexis. They traded back and forth several times. We were going to hang out with Heather and Harvey until after lunch, but we decided we should probably go as soon as we could so hopefully Harvey wouldn't get sick. Jaxson had a really nasty diaper in the morning as well and I was so scared we were going to have the trip home from hell. But no one got sick and no one had to have an emergency bathroom stop, even Chicago wasn't that bad. It was a huge blessing. I just pray that Kurt, Heather and Harvey stay healthy. I felt so bad.

Now we are back to every day life. The kids went to school today. They didn't get as much snow here as they did in Michigan. Everyone seems to be healthy. I was going to keep the kids home today to let them recover longer, but everyone but Alexis complained that they wanted to go to school so I sent them. It has been nice to have some time to myself since I didn't get too much of that over the last two weeks. I'm playing catch-up on laundry and scout stuff. I also got some not so good news about the house we were trying to buy. Our realtor told me today that the sellers have decided to move back to Wisconsin so the house is off the market. How bizarre is that?!?!? It only figures! So we have to start all over. I have to admit I am getting a little discouraged with the whole house hunting thing.

Love you all!

A New Year

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! We hope that everyone had a great New Year celebration-we stayed home and celebrated together and worked just fine for us. It was fun because we actually celebrated the new year twice-once when the ball dropped live in New York and then again when Utah really went into the new year and they "replayed" the ball dropping. There were even some fireworks in down town Salt Lake that we went outside to watch for a minute. We also both got the day off today-so we spent the day watching football (GO MICHIGAN!), starting to pack our house, and being sick (we both have pretty awesome colds). It was good and now there are only 26 days until my due date (holy moly!), and we have to be out of our apartment in 2 1/2 weeks. It's crazy that it's January already. But we hope everyone is well and enjoyed the holidays. WE LOVE YOU AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Christmas Hair

I'll never get tired of making fun of my last name.

(Jason's brother, Aaron, bought her this Steeler's onesie. She's already a true football fan!)

Well, I did it! I was able to fly to Utah, drive to Idaho, and fly back to Tennessee all by myself with Addie. Throw in having the airline lose our carseat, a diaper rash, and sitting by unsavory characters, it was quite the adventure. All I have to say is that I am VERY GLAD I am not a single parent. It was quite exhausting.

We had a great Christmas, though. I enjoyed seeing Kari and Eric. Kari (I'm sure she'll agree) is ready to burst! Noah is going to be a large little'un, and I'm sure they can't wait until he's here. They showed me all his adorable clothes and their great finds at D.I.--they seem to be ready for his arrival, as long as they get moved out of their apartment in time. I'm glad Kari is willing to get an epidural, I just can't figure out why you wouldn't!

It was also fun spending time with Grandma and Grandpa. While they seem to be slowing down a bit more (Grandma IS 81, afterall), their sense of humors are still intact. Paul is nearly engaged, Gabrielle is SO MUCH OLDER, and Apples to Apples is still their favorite game.

Christmas in Idaho was also a lot of fun. Addie was held non-stop, which has made her a little more cranky since we've been back, and she learned to sit up! She's still a bit wobbly, but is getting there! Jason played football on Christmas Eve (thanks to the Turkey Bowl with Charlie and Hillary, he wants to play football all the time) and his mom made me customized low-fat dinners the entire time. I got away with eating (mostly) great food without any attacks! Yippee! Addie LOVED their birds and her favorite Christmas present was her dog spoon. I'm looking forward to next year when she'll understand what's going on. And think! It will be the first time that there will be cousins to play with!

Well, we're home safe and sound. Jason goes back to school on Monday, so we've just been enjoying hanging out together this week. We've played a lot of Monopoly and Rummy, and I've introduced him to the wonderful world of Drew Carey on The Price is Right (I LOVE IT!). It's been great to hear the updates!

Oh yeah, as a side note, I've lost over 10 pounds since Thanksgiving. There is something good to be said about gall stones afterall! I'm finally at my pre-pregnancy weight! Hurrah!