Long time no read...

I feel so out of the loop. I get busy for a week, can't get onto the blog and miss tons of postings. Sorry about my absence. I've been busy planning for Makayla's baptism and birthday party. They both went very well. The party went better than I expected and a lot of it had to do with all the help I recieved from my loving parents and Kurt and Heather. Thanks, again, you guys, for all the help you gave us yesterday. Things went so much more smoothly because of you!

Now since I haven't been on the blog for a while I thought I'd post some pictures of some things that have been going on.

This is Lexi's science fair project. Her hypothesis was that the longer the barrel of a marshmallow gun, the farther the marshmallow would fly. She actually found that her second longest barrel, not her longest, shot the marshmallow farthest.

This is Merrit at Ecology camp trying to start a fire using flint stones and natural fiber. It took a long time, but, with persistance, he finally got it. He was so excited! He had such a great time at ecology camp. This is one aspect of the kids' school I will miss when they start going to Flushing schools. This camp is just awesome!

These are some of the kids at the annual school fundraiser their school does. This year they put on a school carnival. They had parents or other relatives sponsor different games or booths. One family brought in the horses from their family farm for the pony rides and one sponsored the moon walks (these were Jaxson's favorite). It turned out to be a really fun night and the school raised about $2500 profit. That was pretty good for them and next year they will have all the games made up so they will make even more money without that upfront expense. I'll miss this part of their school too.

We put in a garden this year (even though we don't actually have anything in it yet) and we had to cut out the sod in order to do it. We rented a sod cutter from Home Depot (our home away from home) and Charlie cut up the sod. Then he rolled it up into these rolls. I thought they looked like giant snow balls and so challenged the kids to make a "sod" man. They took me up on it and this is what he looked like. I hope you can see the details in his face. It was hard work to make him. Those rolls are soooo heavy!

This is Makayla just before she was baptized. She actually invited several kids from her class at school and four of them came, although only two made it to her actual baptism. She was so excited to share it with them though. She is such a sweet spirit and good example of a missionary for me.

Makayla is really into Pokemon right now (go figure) and so she wanted to have a Pokemon themed party. This was the first activity we did. All the kids made Pikachu hats to disguise themselves as Pokemon so they could go and find Pokemon (cards) that were scattered throughout the room to capture. They seemed to enjoy it.

And now I'll toot my own horn and show you the blanket I made for Makayla for her baptism. I made one for Lexi and partially made one for Merrit too. It's become kind of a tradition for us that I hope I can continue better from now on. I still have a couple more squares to iron on to Merrits and then tie it to the back and then bind it and Makayla's and I'll be caught up (probably just in time for Chelsea's).

Sorry for the length of this post but I'm glad that I'm pretty much caught up now.

Here she is!

I'm sorry for those of you who don't like her name, but here are pictures of our precious little Macie! (Yes, after much discussion, we changed the spelling to Macie because Macy just looked too short and dismal with the last name Hair...unfortunately.)

Anticipation

Jana called last night to say that her water broke and she was headed to the hospital. I'll let you know when I hear anything.

If Jana can brag, why can't I? I made this for my friend's baby who is now 6 weeks old. I should have held it up or something so you could see how really cool it is...oh well.

I am due on Sunday and it doesn't really feel possible.

GPS

We had been toying with the idea of getting a GPS for some time now, and after Kurt got one, we decided to go ahead and do it. It got here last Saturday, so we used Memorial Day afternoon to take a drive and see how it works. Since I grew up decorating graves on Memorial Day, we drove to the only cemetery in Michigan that I have relatives in in Dexter Township. We tried to do some geocaching along the way, but couldn't get the hang of it. We saw these cows as we were driving there. We'd never seen cows marked like this before and thought they looked like hogs. Anyway, Dad took a picture and we thought we'd share it with you. There is also a picture of the headstone of Aaron Truesdell. I'm doing some geneology along his line trying to find out if the 3 boys who are listed as living in his household in the 1850 census are his sons or nephews, or some other relation.

big girl and a proud mother

Look how BIG Addie looks. Once this little one gets here (in about a week and a half!) I'm sure Addie will seem HUGE.




And THIS, to my own astonishment, is a blanket I made all by myself! My friend Heather told me what to do and let me use her machine, but I did all the work. Are you impressed? I think it turned out really cute.

a shout-out to Christmas

I was thinking recently that we never decided what we're going to do for Christmas this year. I realize this may be a bit premature, but I'd rather we have the discussion and decide now. Mom suggested drawing an entire family out of a hat and then making something homemade for them. That way we can be creative, and most likely not spend as much money on something for each individual in our entire family. As our family is growing, and as a poor student wife, I particularly this idea.

If we do end up doing it this way, here are a few discussion items:

1. Should we make one thing for the entire family (i.e. one gift for all 7 Hicks) or one thing for EACH person in the family (seven gifts for seven Hicks)?

2. Is Jimmy his own entity, or does he get lumped together with Mom and Dad for now?

3. Because they will be homemade, I don't think a spending limit is necessary, do you?

4. If we want to buy gifts for others in the family outside of those in the drawing, I think that's fine, but nobody has to feel obligated. Again, what do you think?

I would be happy to set it up once these few points are decided--and if you guys like this idea at all. As a less-than-crafty gal, I thought it would be handy to know earlier rather than later if this is something we'd like to do. Thanks for your input!

More Utah Pictures

I finally got some time to post more of the pictures we took out in Utah to flickr. I uploaded about 60. Go check them out!

It's National

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30732617
This is an article msnbc wrote about the tornado yesterday...I can't believe it's national news. What a weird feeling.

We Have Survived!

5:30 pm: We just got home from the store and it was pouring outside-like it had been all day. I started making dinner because we were all pretty hungry. I was opening some windows for a breeze because the humidity was overwhelming. Eric and Noah were just hanging out.

5:45 pm: Our city sirens went off. Eric and I looked at each other in somewhat terror, this was new territory for both of us. We had never been through a tornado with Noah. Eric checked the radio and it said that there was a tornado warning in effect until 6:30 pm. There had been a sighting of a supercell 10 miles northwest of Kirksville and it was heading east at 30 mph.

5:50 pm: I start frantically cleaning out Noah's closet. Our basement was flooded and every room has windows. We have two closets, but Noah's seemed the safest.

5:55 pm: The three of us huddled into the smallish closet. Noah does pretty well. We only have flashlights going and Eric's computer is on keeping track of the storm. It was a little like being in a fort. Noah had a blast just hanging on the shelving he could barely reach while I was praying in my mind that we would all be safe.

6:20 pm: We finally emerged from our hiding spot because we could see sun coming in Noah's windows. Eric checks the weather one more time and the storm has moved past Kirksville-but it moved right onto some cities of people who live in our ward. We are praying they are alright.

5 minutes ago: I read this article on our newspaper's website...

It was a close one. The tornado touched down 10 minutes north of our house. Just outside of the most populated part of town. If it had moved 2 or 3 miles south, our house could have been in its path. We thank our Father in Heaven for sparing us and our friends, but are asking Him to look out for those not as fortunate.

Deena update

I called Grandma today as a post-Mother's Day call, I also had to ask her some questions about those tapes that I still haven't finished. Anyway, Deena is apparently doing ok. She is at Karen's house while Karen is working, but Grandma said Deena hasn't called once today needing help, so she must be feeling better.

Also, FYI, Mary broke her arm somehow. Grandma said all she wanted for Mother's Day was to be left alone (in true fashion), but between Deena's concussion and Mary's arm, it made for an interesting holiday. She WAS happy, however, that she didn't need to cook for everyone.

Beginning of New Wall Display

Mom attended a home party a month ago or so and bought some wall decals. She has now turned the wall coming out of the garage into a picture wall with the first picture the one of all the grandchildren you gave us for Christmas. The picture and accompanying words look great and Mom wanted me to post a picture of them. She said we will now add other pictures to the wall as occasion allows.



Mom also wanted me to tell you the latest about Deena (I just talked to Grandma for Mother's Day). It seems that Jeff has left town to visit Dartmouth University (presumably to investigate for potential graduate work) and Deena and Cooper came to Karen's house to stay the week. Before Jeff left, they went to Cherry Hill yesterday to have some fun and Deena was climbing the rock wall (or whatever the climbing wall is) and fell off and hit her head quite hard. She didn't think much about it although her head hurt and then it really started to hurt and she began to have blurry vision. They took her to the hospital and did a CAT scan and found she had a concussion. I'm not sure how they are treating her but Grandma said she now has a very high fever. Grandma and Grandpa will have to take care of her because Karen has to go to work next week. We need to remember her in our prayers.

Hope all you Mothers in the family had a very nice Mother's Day.

We love you all.

P.S. Thought some of you might enjoy seeing my new Michigan State National Champion T-Shirt. (I know they didn't actually win the championship but I got one of the T-shirts they made just in case they won. It may be a collector's item some day -- and then again, it may not be. It's a very nice looking shirt, I think; too bad they didn't win the championship.)

Trip to Points Westward

These are in backwards order because of Bloggers quirks but here's a quick run down of our trip.

Big family dinner. Angela's kids were there for the tail-end of dinner. It was great, sloppy joes and home made root beer.
Angela's kids (left to right Caitlyn, Dylan, Ashton, Cayden) with Harv

Trish and I hunting rocks on Antelope Island.
A wily bison. It's the family mascot, you know.
Harvey and I posing at a sign for Mathers Point at the Grand Canyon. My mom's side of the family are Mathers.
Grand Canyon!
Harvey's first fossil!
Native American Dancers!
This was the Eagles Crest at the sky walk. Kurt was pretty freaked out by being that close to the ledge but if Harv is going to grow up to be a geologist he has to learn sometime.
A new bridge they are building at the Hoover Dam. Potentially cooler than seeing the actual Hoover Dam.

Our vacation was really great and we all came back well rested and much renewed. Grandma and Grandpa are doing well. Trish seems to be settling into life with them. We had a great time hanging out with everyone and Harvey got a real kick out of Trish. We can't wait to go back though next time we'll probably bite off a little less and not add 20 hours of driving to a 5 day vacation.

trip to MO

Addie and I visited Kari over Jason's finals week and had a great time. Addie asked for Noah every day when she woke up, and still does! It was great to have the cousins play together. I wish we all lived closer so all our kids could get to know each other better. Here are few pictures-

Enjoying the wagon ride in Nauvoo, even though it was cold and wet

The King Kong of fingerpaints!

Very hungry and tired coming back from Nauvoo, we just had to laugh because at this point there is nothing you can do.

What a tasty meal at Pancake City!

So, I'm due in 5 weeks. Yeah, it's crazy. I can't beleive we'll have two kids. I'm not ready for sleepless nights all over again, but I am excited to meet this little one who has been making me uncomfortable for so long. This one has definitely been more active than Addie was, Jason thinks that means it's a boy. Was that your experience, Mom and Hillary? Anyhow...the countdown has begun.

Thoroughly Modern Millie

We have now completed our tour of high school musicals. We saw South Lyon East's production Friday night. It was good, as are all of the productions that Mrs. Kupper does. Unlike Little Shop of Horrors, I enjoyed the storyline very much. The kids did a great job even with all of the tap dancing that is in that show. Of course the set and costumes were great.
Kari got here just fine, and we're looking forward to a week with her and Noah. We have lots planned, so we shouldn't be bored. I got asked to play for a girl for the middle school solo and ensemble festival this coming Saturday, that means I'll have to practice with her a couple of times this week and Jim will have to take Kari to the airport on Saturday. It's an inconvenience that I would have preferred not to have this week while they are here, but we don't always get what we would prefer.

Little Shop of Horrors

On Friday night Bill, Dad and I went to South Lyon High School's production of Little Shop of Horrors. None of us knew the plot, but we went anyway. Except for the story line, we enjoyed it very much. The kids did a great job, the set was very good and even the plant was very good. There were little children in the audience, and I'm not so sure that was a good idea. The week before, we went to Novi's production of Beauty and the Beast. We are prejudiced of course, but we thought that Jim's was better. Next week we're going to South Lyon East's production of Thoroughly Modern Millie. I'm excited to see it. We saw it in Detroit a few years ago, and I liked it then. I'll let you know.
Jim has his finals this week. He's excited to be done with this semester. Dad is working hard on his homework, and is sad because the week that Kari will be here, he has a major project to do and won't be able to spend much time with her and Noah.
I think it will be best to do family dinner on Sunday. Both our stake and Hillary's stake has stake conference and we'll be done with church about noon. We can come here or go to Kurt's or Hillary's house. Since Kari will be here and she wants to see Hillary's house, maybe going there would be a good idea. What do you think, Hillary and Kurt?

The stove lives...

Charlie got the gas piped to the stove tonight! Hurray! The only problem is that he has to swap out the electic plug in order for the oven part to work now. So we can use the burners, but not the oven yet. It's a great step in the right direction now though, so I'm not going to complain too loudly. He was also able to fix the upstairs shower so we can use it now too. He hasn't finished the tiling yet, but we hung up plastic to cover the walls until that can be accomplished. Yet another step in the right direction. Our life has been little triumphs lately for which we have been ever so grateful for.

We've moved!

It's official, we've finally moved. I hope this will be our last move ever. I know it probably won't be, but I can be hopeful. I still have lots of unpacking and arranging to do. The house is such a disaster area. I hope by next week that most of our stuff will be unpacked and put away. There isn't much else going on in our lives right now. The move has kind of taken over. It'll be nice to have it finished.

da hairs

Small updates:

We didn't get up early and watch the sunrise on Easter. I wonder if that "tradition" died only two years after being formed. The sun rose much too early. We still had a big breakfast, and I found out I definitely CAN NOT make hashbrowns. I've tried several times and always end up throwing them away. We had a mini egg hunt in our apartment, Addie loved it, and Jason and I loved dying and coloring the eggs the night before. I included the picture of the yellow egg because, if you look closely, it is an eyeball. Yep, my husband rocks.

Jason turned 30 on Sunday. Yep, 30. I made him a delicious ice cream sandwich cake (from the Kraft magazines, of course!) and we had some friends over to eat it with. Now that he's 30 he claims his bones ache more. I included the picture with me on the side so you can all see how BIG I'm getting! I'm still attending Stroller Strides faithfully, even though it's getting pretty tough. Only 7 more weeks to go!

This last picture is just stinking cute. Addie and I are headed up to visit Kari in MO this Saturday, Jason's first day of exams. We'll stay until Wednesday or Thursday. I'm excited to see them and have Addie and Noah play together, but NOT excited about the 7 hour car ride. Fortunately for us, some friends have loaned us their personal DVD player, so it shouldn't be too bad.

Almost moving...

I just wanted to let you know that we are a go for moving this Friday. I'm almost finished cleaning the new house. It was so dirty and dusty from all the work we've been doing. We had the carpets professionally cleaned on Friday and they look so much better. They aren't perfect, but they will work for the time being. I've been working on the areas that needed to be mopped. I've finished all but a strip of tile that's in the living room. Then my next task is to clean the toilets and sinks and the bath tub in the master bath. When that is finished we should be ready to go. Charlie is finishing up putting the cabinets in the kitchen. All the ceiling cabinets and about half of the floor ones are in. He only had one more wall to attatch cabinets to. We're pretty excited to begin living there. I finished my business class lastnight. I'm so glad that's out of the way. Next week is that last week for my English class and then I'll be done for the summer. I'm looking forward to the break. I'll try to write some more soon. I've got to go finish cleaning now.

Jana's Favorite Joke

Jana's favorite joke is: What's bloody and has 2 legs? Half a cat!
I couldn't get that out of my head today as Eric set about pulling a dead cat from underneath our porch. It smelled horrible and it was starting to seep into the house, so I checked it out this morning and after Eric confirmed there was indeed something dead, he went to work to get it out. He tried to rake it out, but it was too far back and he couldn't fit in the small hole that it was coming in and out of.

So he kicked in the lattice and pulled it out and that made for easier access. As he inched closer to it, he kept saying, "Here kitty, kitty." Funny but gross at the same time.

Here's the cat. It's been living under our porch since the summer, but we aren't sure when it died. The old owners used to feed it, but we never did. I guess it was bound to die sometime...I just wish it hadn't been under our porch. Oh well. Poor kitty.
Eric was really proud of himself...and I am too. It was smelly and who knows what else could have been living under our porch. Just the joys of owning your own home.

Birthdays and Easter

We went out to dinner with Mom and Dad for on Thursday for our birthdays. We went to the Melting Pot in Novi. The food was excellent. The service was not. However, it was an enjoyable evening and it was nice to get out with adults for a dinner that did not involve a portable restaurant mat, hot dogs, or wiping someone down with wet naps at the end. We talked about our upcoming family trip to Utah this month and my trip to Ireland in August. I'll be traveling with my good friend Alison and it is certainly going to be the trip of a life time. I've always wanted to go and my grandma left us some money and we're never going to have less kids than this so it seems like the time to go.

Yesterday we had an Easter Egg hunt with Harvey, his friend, Simon, and the girls next door. Here are some of the highlights.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KURT!

Happy Birthday, big bro! I hope you get another bunny cake!

For Jason

I went to the eye doctor on Wednesday and my dry eye syndrome is improving, yea. I had also had problems for a couple of days before that with my left eye weeping. He told me that I had (I'm sure I won't spell this correctly), a clogged puncta. He explained it like this; there is a gland in your eye that opens and contracts to suck the excess tears out, and sometimes it gets like a charlie horse in it and contracts so it can't suck out the tears. This makes the tears build up and then when you bend over or sneeze they spill out (hence the weeping). He put some kind of instrument in it and stretched it out, gave me some eye drops to use a couple of times a day, and I haven't had trouble with it since. I thought Jason would be interested, I'm not sure anyone else will be.

We are still alive

I know I haven't been on the blog for a while. My life has been so busy. There are some days I don't even get on the computer at all. My semester is winding down though so I should have some more time here soon. We are also going to be moving in two weeks, so I should have more time after that as well. The next two weeks are going to be super busy. The house is coming along, but more slowly than we had hoped. We are focusing on the kitchen and getting it put back together right now so we can move in. We have agreed with the bank who owns the house we are in right now that we will be out by April 20th and that we will leave it broom swept clean. They are actually going to pay us to leave it clean too. We were pretty excited about that. Our new house only has to be liveable in order for us to move. With the kitchen finished, it will be liveable and so we will move in. There will be some more work to be finished, but nothing too great. All the work that we got the loan for has to be finished by August per terms of our contract to get the rehab loan money in the first place. That shouldn't be too hard to do, especially with Charlie off for the summer. There are several projects we want to do in addition to the jobs we have loan money for. Because we are doing most of the inside work ourselves, we've been able to stretch that loan money out to cover other jobs. It's been really nice to get more finished. I'll try to take some pictures tomorrow so you can see the progress.

It is spring break this week. Everyone needed it and we are glad to not have the requirement of school. Although we are working hard on the house, so it's not really a vacation, just a break from school. Charlie still hates his job but it doesn't look like there will be many prospects next year to change. Too many school districts are laying off right now to be able to hire new teachers in the fall. Although, Beecher is threatening to lay off their whole teaching staff too, so we'll see if Charlie even has a job there next year without quitting. The kids are still doing well in school. I think they are bored. They are looking forward to moving. Makayla is looking forward to her baptism. I can't believe it's almost here. It looks like she wants to do it on her birthday, which is a Sunday. I haven't set it in stone yet, but we will probably do it then. Our van is on its last leg and so we've been looking for a new one. It looks like we will be moving up to a full size van. The mini vans now-a-days just don't give us enough interior room. We are going to use our tax money, with a little of my student loan money, to get a descent van. I'd like one that's not 10 years old yet or older. My classes are going well. I can't wait to be done for the summer though. I'm planning on going full-time in the fall. So far I've only been going part-time, but with Jaxson in preschool, I should have enough time to go full-time.

That's about it, in a nutshell. I'll try to be better in the future about posting more and with pictures.

Weekfast

I know, I know. I haven't posted on here in an extremely long time. The prodigal son returneth I guess.

As many of you may or may not know, I've been going through some pressing challenges in my life. I've decided to try something that I've never tried before, but been thinking of for a year or two now. Starting tomorrow, I'm going to fast for a week. I have too many things bouncing around my mind to fast about, so I've decided just to fast for the comforter to help me. I would love to get family support on this. Obviously I'm not going to ask anyone to fast the entire week with me, but a day or even a few meals would mean a lot to me.

Thanks guys.

It's Easter time!

I have put some new fun pictures to the left, we need to get some new life into our blog! Where has everyone been? What has been happening in your lives?

Just so you don't forget what we look like, here are some beautiful pictures of us Hairs!

Jason is getting excited about turning in his requests for externships. He will be in the eye clinic starting this summer, and then next summer will be working at optometry offices as an extern. He's been reading up on all the best sites, and is getting really excited to learn new skills as a student doctor in the clinic. Mom and Dad, you get FREE EYE EXAMS when you come to visit! Wives and children, as well as mothers and fathers of students and their spouses, all get free eye exams! Just another perk of being here.

We have such adorable nostrils!

We bought a used car a few weeks ago, Goldie, and she's been running great. She's a Nissan Maxima. It's been wonderful to have two cars again, I don't feel so trapped. I've been faithfully going to Stroller Strides and can tell it's made such a difference in this pregnancy. Hopefully I'll be able to bounce back quickly this time, and run a half marathon in April 2010!

We're getting excited about this baby. It's only 10 weeks away! This baby wakes up faithfully every night at 9pm for its tossing and turning rituals, and then I wake up for my nightly tossing and turning at 3am. Not too fun. I still feel like I have so much to do to get ready, mostly a major spring cleaning of our apartment, but am finding it hard to find enough time in the day.

I can't believe it's already nearly Easter again. A few years ago Jason and I started the tradition of waking up early to watch the sunrise on Easter (see the symbolism, everyone?) and then coming home to a big, hearty breakfast. It's been fun to start a few of our own traditions over the years. I hope Addie doesn't mind waking up early next weekend!