Christmas Time

Our family celebrated Christmas two days this year. We went up to my parents house on Christmas Eve morning and opened presents. Followed by a Prime Rib dinner that night. The next day, Christmas, we got up opened presents at our house. Then we went over to Mick and Sheril's to open presents from them.

Let's just say we all got plenty and I am glad that we didn't buy our own children much because they were well taken care of by their grandparents, ESPECIALLY in the gift department.  Here are a few pictures from Christmas with our new camera that Sheril and Mick bought us. I definitely NEED to take some sort of class on how to operate it or at least properly:)

Our family of riders:) These are the bikes that my mom bought us. Mikey's has an attachment for Connor, and mine has a little seat for Lukey to sit in.

Connor loves his "bike rides." And asks to go on a ride daily.

Connor on his Tandem Bike (I think that's what it is called).

The play set that my parents bought the kids. They are in heaven!

Brothers

Best buddies

I love this picture of Teegs, he looks so innocent and happy.

Check out my sister Rachelle's blog to see new pictures of Bowdy

Cute New Do

I almost feel bad posting about this because I am sure Danielle wanted to. Oh well:) Well last week Carly got a hold of the scissors. Needless to say she took a huge chunk out of her hair. The next day Travis took her to the salon to get it cut and apparently it wasn't exactly what Danielle was thinking. So Danielle took her back and got her hair cut in a little A-line and it turned out sooo cute. Any of you that know Carly, know that she has quite the personality! And I think that short hair fits her little spunky attitude perfectly.

Bowdy Daniel Hicks

My sister Rachelle had this little guy last thursday Dec. 10th around 9:30am. He is doing great and hopefully will come home this weekend, so we can hold him and give him lots of kisses:))

Wannabes

Everytime Carly comes over she can be found in my closet trying to put on Mikey's riding gear. This time was no exception. I found all three of them dressed head to toe in all of his stuff. And then they had to put on the shoes that matched their gear too. Ohh the life of a kid, what it would be like...

Friend

Connor has a new friend "spidey." 

A couple of weekends ago my mom took Cole and him to Eureka. They we supposed to go see a Christmas Carol in 3D, but the line was too long and it was raining. So they made a trip to Target and ran a few errans. Connor came home with this guy, a Bakugon, and a display case for the bakugon to sit in on the wall in.  He was thrilled, he loves his alone time with his grandma. He gets whatever he wants and she is at his beck and call. What kid wouldn't love that?

Happy Halloween

As you can see Connor was superman and Luke was a monkey. I am not very good a planning for Halloween. Needless to say the boys got there costumes from their Grandmothers. I was thrilled. I usually wait till the day before and end up borrowing from someone:) Here are a few pictures of them on Halloween.

9 Months and a little suprise:)

Lucas is 9 months now and he is a very active little boy. He is crawling but he favorite mode of transportation is walking on anything he can get his hands on. He seems pretty stable for his age, and I have a feeling he will be walking in no time. I took him to the doctor last friday for his check up. He still is the 20 percentile for weight and the 40 percentile for height. I thought for sure since he has been on formula for a few months he would have packed on the pounds. But he hasn't. He is on the same growth curve as before. I guess I don't have to worry about him a big kid.

Last wednesday my mom called me and told me that she wanted to take my sisters, the kids, and I on a weekend trip. The only thing she told us was that we needed to bring warm clothes, a swim suit, and a front pack for Lucas. She held out the rest of the week and none of us had any idea of where she was going to take us:( Which I wasn't a fan of. I like really predictable things and I had a hard time with the unknown. Needless to say when she showed up in a 12 passenger van and honestly I was thinking "great we have to ride in this thing for an extended period of time?" But it was great. The kids sat in the very back row. Danielle and I were able to lay down in our own row, Rachelle and my mom sat in the front.  When got in the car and I was feeling very anxious. She finally gave in and told us that she rented a house on Shasta Lake. We were going to go the Shasta Caverns and then take the kids on a pumpkin train in Mt. Shasta. I instantly felt calm.

How weird am I?

We got to the house around 11 that night. The house was more like a lodge. The walls were covered with stuffed animals. There was enough beds for 12 people. Panoramic view of the lake. And a hot tub that overlooked the lake as well.


After arrived we watched the Proposal, which I love. Then went to bed. The next morning we got up and went to the caverns, they are beautiful and super interesting. With the caverns came A LOT of hiking. We were very unprepared and unable to bring strollers. I am very suprised that we made it. I say this because I have a child that hates to walk and I think we walked up and down at least 400 feet. We were exhausted.

From there we went back to the house and took naps. Later that night we drove up to Mt. Shasta and rode on the train and the kids got pumpkins. They love it and it was really cool to imagine what it was like to ride on a train back in the day.

It was a great trip and was very relaxing to have everything done for you and to not be responsible for making any plans or decisions. Next time someone tries to surprise me I will try to go with it and not get so worked up.

Muttin Bustin

This was Cole at the Orick Rodeo in July. Everytime I play this for Connor he gets so excited and can't get enough of it. I think he got third place and he was at least 3 years younger than the other two kids that beat him. This is right up his alley.

Too Early??

Monica

This one is for Monica. Sorry it has taken me so long to do an update. I know how much you like to see what everyone is doing. I actually haven't picked up my camera for at least 3-4 weeks. So this morning I was procrastinating leaving my house for a few minutes and I got a few pictures in, so that I wouldn't have to do a post with just writing:) As far as an update goes, there hasn't been much going on lately that is exciting enough to post about, besides that I am in my fourth week of school, it has been a really fun semester so far. I have at least 4 hours of Activity classes M-Th, Women's studies, Elementry P.E, and a Recreation class.I am doing a lot of teaching in my classes, and starting in two weeks I will be going to Arcata Elementry and teaching in a 1st grade P.E class for a couple of weeks. It has truley flown by and I am really enjoying it.



Lucas is 8 months. He has 7 teeth now and his prefered mode of transportation is scooting backwards with a roll in there every so often. His most favorite thing to do is to stand. He would stand all the time if he could balance better. He has recently started to stand up next to the couch and play with toys.



Connor is still enjoying his school. He is talking more and more which I think might be due to all of the interaction and the learning at school. It seems like everyday he will say things or talk about things that I haven't even mentioned before.

I am still feeling bad leaving him there though. Not becuase he doesn't like it or because they aren't great people. I just feel like he is a stranger to them. And I think "how can he have a close connection with anyone there? They barely know him. But I know that it's all in my head and I need to get over it.

Maybe In time....

Preschool

This week I started back to school in hopes to be able finish within the year, fingers crossed. I signed Connor up to go to the Children's Center two days a week. I was nervous about him being there alone and not knowing anyone or seeing any familiar faces. I thought he would have a hard time when I left, but he seemed to not even care. On the ride to school I told him that I was going to go to my class and he was going to go to his school. When I dropped him off I was going to sneak out the door so hopefully that he wouldn't notice, but the teacher said that it is actually better for the child if you tell them you are leaving and that you will be back to pick him up later. I was anticipating a meltdown. Needless to day I sucked it up and told him I would be back and surprisingly he said "Bye Mom" and gave me a kiss:( It was sort of sad. I was expecting him to want me to stay while pulling at my leg and crying, and frankly he didn't even cared that I was about to leave him with 15 complete strangers. All he could think about was the Jumpy House in the room next door. I know that it all worked out and I am glad that he enjoys going, but part of me wants him to want me to be around even if it isn't possible:)

Bittersweet Relief

7 months


I never understood when people said that they were sad when they were done nursing their children. But I now know the feeling. I only nursed Connor till he was three months old, and I loved the fact that I could have someone else feed him and he didn't NEED me to be there every moment.

Well with much perseverance I finally got Lucas to take a bottle. It definitely wasn't an easy task. I think I tried at least 5 different bottles, several types of formulas, and countless hours of shoving the bottle in his mouth while he was screaming. I was bound and determined to have him weaned before I returned to school. I am not quiet sure what we did different this time but last Wednesday morning he decided that he was going to give up the fight, and after that is has been pretty smooth sailing. He is now taking a pacifier which was also an issue:)

I know that this is minimal in the scheme of things but overall it was good for me to have to continue nursing and I think that since he didn't take a bottle I forced me to do it longer than I would have in the first place. I am now a lot more understanding a sympathetic for other mothers that go through the same or similar things:)

This is a picture of Connor when he was 5 months old, it isn't the best picture but he is wearing the same shirt as Lucas. Now I think that I know what Lucas is going to look like:)



Connor and Lucas having fun on the fourwheeler

2 Years Old

We just got back for the Auction with Mikey. I wanted to get Connor's pictures taken for a while now. So we went to Babies R Us in Union City. They have a Kiddie Kandids inside and they do a pretty good job. So here are a few of them.

San Diego 2009

First of all I want to start out by saying Thank you to my amazing mother who is the most generous, loving, caring, and helpful mothers that anyone could ever ask for. She took all of us on the wonderful trip, and she always makes sure that everything that we want and need is taken care of. So I want to tell you mom how grateful and thankful I am to have a mother like you:)

Back to the trip...

Thursday-We headed to the Airport in hopes to leave at 6:30 that evening. Well that didn't exactly happen due to our wonderful weather we have here. Needless to say after we waited there for a couple of hours they finally canceled the flight and re booked us for Friday afternoon.

Friday- We left at 2:00 pm and arrived in San Diego at 8:00pm. The plane ride was pretty uneventful due to the Ativan that I took right before take off:) I have really bad anxiety when it comes to planes and the meds were complete necessity, and they did the trick.



Saturday- In the morning we headed off to the Zoo. I was sort of disappointed. The disappointment wasn't due to the lack in animals, it was sort of boring looking at all of the animals just sitting in their cages. I am not an animal activist but I felt bad for all of them being out of their environments and being locked up. So after a few hours there my Mom, Rachelle, Myself, Connor, and Lucas headed back to the hotel to take naps. While Danielle, her kids, Vickie, and Heidi stayed at the Zoo. Later that evening we got on the trolley and headed over to the cheesecake factory for Dinner. YUM..





Sunday- We took the trolley and the bus over to Sea World in the morning. I was much happier with Sea World, it is much better for kids. There is so much to do and it is a lot more interactive than the Zoo. They have some really good shows. One of my favorites was a Circus performance that was done over the water. It was amazing what those people can do with their bodies and the show was very entertaining. After a long day in the sun and at the park we went back to our hotel where we ate dinner at a near by restaurant.



Monday- We went over to Mission Beach which is a popular area and is great for kids. It was really nice to be able to be at the beach and actually wear a swimming suit! The kids had a blast just digging in the sand and splashing in the water. I loved that there were so many places to eat and things to rent close by. I felt as though I was in Mexico, but with out all of the people trying to sell you things the entire time. After a four hours in the sun we went to the hotel to clean up and take some much needed naps. Later that evening we walked down the street to eat dinner at a little THAI restaurant. Then we headed across the street to the mall. Danielle and I went to see MY Sister's Keeper, while Rachelle and my Mom took the kids to see UP.









Tuesday- We woke up at 4:45 to head to the airport. After a few minor delays we made it home at 12:30. Only 2 hours later that planned. Not Too bad:)

6 months

Lucas was 6 months on the 12Th of this month. He definitely has his up and downs but for the most part he is very loving and one of the happiest babies. He lights up instantly at the sight of his older brother and pretty much anyone that catches his eye.



I took him in for his 6 month check up last week and I was surprised to find out that he has dropped down into the 11Th percentile for his weight. I felt bad and I thought that maybe it is due to something that I am doing. So I have increased the amount of solid food that he eats during the day, and he LOVES the food! He is such a little piggy:) He will eat one to two bowls of rice cereal or oatmeal mixed with fruit, twice to three times per day. Which to me seems like a lot, so hopefully that will help:) Well we will see.....