I am blessed. (not sarcasm)

     I've been really struggling for the past few weeks. We found out a few days before Christmas that I was expecting baby number four, and the following day I was hit by morning sickness. Hard. And I'm exhausted. And I'm taking care of three constantly moving living creatures. I know this was our choice to go through this again, but I was sort of hoping that being the fourth time around and all... it'd be a little easier. (Please... stifle your laughter)

    A lot of my prayers have been answered lately though. On a night I had no plans for dinner and was desperately trying to find the motivation to move off the couch and pour the kids a bowl of cereal, there was a knock at the door. A lady in my ward had just thought to bring over a hot meal, worried that I had already made dinner.

LIFE SAVER!!!!

  Two friends of mine have picked up my kids so I could have a break. In which I spent the entire time wallowing on the couch and napping.

LIFE SAVERS!!!!

   And then today... I was frantically and pitifully trying to get my house clean for a Young Women Presidency meeting. Elbow deep in dishes, I felt the stress tears coming, I was waaaay more behind than I thought I'd be. When I received a text.

   My friend, Melody, text me saying her husband was home to watch the kids, and she was coming over to clean my house.

LIFE SAVER!!!!! Together we got my house presentable for the meeting, and the cleanest it's been in weeks.

It felt so amazing to actually have a clean house today.

    And then my daughter dropped her sticky fruit cup on my freshly mopped floor. Spilled sticky lemonade on the table. Dumped out a bag of cool ranch nacho chips on my vacuumed carpet. Ran into the wall and cried forever. Pooped in the tub. And then peed on the carpet.

So thank you, Melody, for returning my sanity... right before I lost it again.

He can't handle the tooth

My son was casually eating an apple at the table when all of the sudden he started frantically saying, "My tooth! My tooth!" He ran over to me so I could examine the issue, and I could see his tooth had moved, significantly. Before I could explain this was normal (I was hoping this was normal), he wiggled his tooth with his tongue. And then exploded.

It scared him.

(Don't judge me for taking a picture in his moment of utter terror... but I had to send it to my husband who was missing the whole ordeal!)

After he calmed down a bit, I jumped online and read to him about loosing teeth, explaining that it was completely normal. After considering it for a while, he thought it was pretty cool that he was going to be like Ethan from primary. So it turned out to be fun. He kept wiggling his tooth all day, and when Doctor Dad came home, he popped it right out for him.

Grayson was so excited to call Mema and B-pa to tell them he "broke" his tooth. He was even more excited to be introduced to the Tooth Fairy. So naturally, my little artist had to draw her a picture.

He was so worried about whether to draw a boy or girl fairy, and what color the fairy is.

My little boy is getting not so little now.

Maybe that's why we're having another one. :)

Viva...

    Apparently, my three-year-old daughter is amazing. Or just really, really lucky. Just three posts ago, I described how Jaye won a Wii bowling tournament at the public library. Well the little rascal has struck again! I received a call from our local Maverick Gas Station saying that Jaye was the winner of their coloring contest and we needed to come pick up her prize.

     After I heard the news, I excitedly announced it to the family. Jaye was beaming. But tears started brimming in Grayson's eyes as he said, "that's not fair". He ran to his room so I went in to console him. I told him how both Daddy and I worked really hard to carve pumpkins for a local contest, but only Mommy won. And although Daddy was bummed, he was still happy for me.

    Grayson thought about it for a while and said, "but Jaye's picture was really silly. And mine was really... really awesome." I didn't know what else to say, so I just told him that we need to be happy for members of our family when they do good things, and then we let him sulk for a while.

    The next day we went and claimed Jaye's prize- a $5 gift card to Maverick. Along with the card, the gas station worker handed both kids a sheet for their new Christmas coloring contest. Great. More competition.  Grayson is determined to color the single most amazing snowman you have ever seen. And I wish him luck.

But really, if I gambled... I'd take Jaye to Vegas! She is a little lucky duck!

So on to Grayson's story. Jaye picked a Disney Princess book about their dresses from the library. (Such a shallow message for young girls, but that's a discussion for another day.) The book describes each princess deciding which dress to wear for her date with the prince, and the last page asks:

After Jaye gave her answer, I jokingly asked Grayson... "So, which dress is your favorite?"

He just looked at me with his eyebrows scrunched together and said, "None of them. They all look like they want to marry me."

    I laughed so hard.

Going for Gold

     I've been sick for a few days, and I think it is doing things to my brain. This morning I lost my phone and didn't know if Barry would be waiting for me when I dropped Grayson off for preschool. He usually is, but sometimes can't make it. When I arrived at school, I left my girls in the car with the car running while I ran Grayson into to the building. (Don't judge me, ALL the moms leave their kids in the car!) Walking back to the car, I didn't see my husband, so I got in and started to pull out of the space. But I thought, "what if he's running behind?" So I stop and wait a few minutes, just in case. While I'm waiting, I look down on the floor and see a random stack of water bottles. That was weird. Then I look back to check on the girls, and Jaye isn't in her carseat! And there's not even a seat where Laycee usually buckles!

     I was in the WRONG car!!!! About to drive away!!! There were a ton of people outside, I can't believe not a single one of them noticed the crazy woman getting out of a gold caravan laughing ridiculously, then get into my gold caravan and drive away.

    Words can't even describe how embarrassing that was! And I am sooooooo lucky that the driver of that other gold van didn't come out in those few minutes I was just hanging out in her vehicle. So yes, I am blaming my slip-up on being sick, because I would never do something like that on a normal day. (Insert sarcastic voice.)

   

HAPPY TURKEY DAY!!!

(Our awesome, expensive camera isn't working, so until it is fixed... in the distant future when we might be able to afford it, all pictures will be crummy quality cell phone pics. Boo.)

What a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving holiday we were able to have this year! It was sad not to see our families, but SOOOOO FUN to just be together in our own little family. So, some of the things that we did to get ready for the holidays. I got a few fun ideas out of a "Family Fun" book my mom sent me. I sent the kids outside with a grocery sack to fill with leaves and sticks. While they were out, I lightly wrote letters on colored paper, and then the kids used glue to stick all their collection over the letters. The final result:

      A cute banner my kids were soooooo proud of! And I accidentally deleted the other picture, but I was trying to teach my kids how to understand the holiday (in little kid standards). So instead of really focusing on the history, I just focused on what it means to be thankful. So we made these SUPER cute corn cob poppers out of toilet paper rolls and tissue paper. The kids filled the rolls full of goodies (candy, a little tube of bubbles, and a turkey coloring sheet they printed), the we wrapped them in green paper. (This idea was also out of Family Fun.) Both of my kids got to pick three friends they were thankful for, and then the day before Thanksgiving we walked and then drove (because it started pouring rain) the little treats around to their friends.

So, at our house... we have a tradition. Every Thanksgiving Eve, we leave out "Turkey Food"... also known as Candy Corn. We leave a small trail outside and a bowl of turkey food inside by the door. We keep trying to catch one of those special Thanksgiving Turkeys that only come out one night a year.

 This year, we were sooooo close to catching one! It came through the front door, ate all the candy corn, and left a trail of feathers all over the house! We all followed the feathers, and some how the turkey sneaked into Mommy and Daddy's room and climbed out the window! Grayson was soooo bummed, he's been talking about his soon-to-be pet turkey and all the eggs we were going to hatch, but they had fun picking up all the feathers. What a mess, that turkey was! My favorite part was Jaye. While we were looking for it, Jaye kept saying excitedly, "I hear the turkey! It's saying cockadoodle-doo!" 

     Grayson is so smart though. Later in the day, he ran around the apartment complex to our window and came back saying, "That's weird. There weren't any feathers outside of your window!" Try making an excuse for that one! This tradition might not last long with my super-sleuth. But I love how excited they get!

After collecting the feathers, we went on a "turkey hunt". I actually got this idea off of Pinterest, one of the RARE times I actually use what I wasted hours looking at. Anyway, the kids colored a few pictures of turkeys. I then taped them to folders, and worked it out so the turkey pictures stood straight up on the table. Our whole family took turns with some nerf guns shooting the targets. Grayson kept trying to try different skill shots, like laying on his back and trying to shoot! He is such a goof! I'm not sure if Jaye actually ever hit a turkey, but she had fun anyway!

Next was the scariest part of the whole holiday! Cooking this fifteen pound sucker! It was my first time to cook anything of this magnitude. In other words, I felt extremely intimidated! Prepping the bird the night before was horrific. Seriously, look at this picture. It almost looks like a headless humanoid! UGH... so creepy! and although I had been thawing it forever in the fridge, it was still slightly frozen on the inside so I had to literally claw the poor humanoid's innards from it's chest cavity- with my fingers. Like a horror movie!

 Then I must've gotten the time wrong, because after 3 and 3/4 hours of cooking, it still wasn't the right temperature and we had to put it back in the oven. So my BEAUTIFUL, GORGEOUS, FLAWLESS rolls sunk into pancakes, and we ended up jumping in the car to kill an extra hour while the turkey finished. My husband suggested the drive... I think my stress-crazy was starting to come out. But the drive was nice. The turkey turned out beautiful. My pancake rolls were still delicious, and everything was sooooo YUMMY!!!

Even with the three paper cuts I got from the tin foil- (who knew that could even happen!?)... I declare this first Ricks family Thanksgiving a SUCCESS! Woo!

Hidden talents! Who knew?!

    Unbeknownst to us, our Public Library was hosting a Wii Bowling Tournament this past weekend. Barry and I just wanted to go pick up a few new books, but our kids got excited when they heard shouting from the "Community Room". We told them they could go check it out while we were browsing, and when we went to find them, they were holding Wii Remotes and playing a round of Bowling. We let them finish their game and then had to rush off for other various appointments.  

But a few days later, after finishing up a story time, I went to check out new story time books and saw a poster hanging over the front desk saying that my THREE YEAR OLD had won FIRST place in the Youth Division of the tournament! You can't believe my surprise as I claimed her prize: a box of candy, a free book coupon at their little used book store, and a five dollar gift card to Walmart. (Jaye doesn't know about the gift card though... Santa needed a donation to his Christmas fund).

When I brought home her prize, Jaye lit up like Christmas! And she shared her candy with all of us- now that's a REAL winner! :)

Grayson was pretty bummed, but today after finishing another story time, I looked at the poster again and at my kids' places. Grayson had won 4th place, so I asked the librarian, "there didn't happen to be a prize for 4th place was there?" And sure enough, Grayson won a bag of M&Ms. So yay for happy kids and their mad Wii skills! :D



SCARY!

     Yesterday, my kids were quietly in my room for well over an hour. I was told not to come in because they were working on a surprise for me and Barry. (I was praying they weren't taking scissors to my bedspread!) Finally, they excitedly invited me to enter the "Scary Halloween Room".

      Here's my bedroom wall. (Ignore the lack of decor and style.) They worked forever to draw, cut, and tape "scary" pictures and objects (like the ax, haha! that is kind of creepy!)  to the wall.

                                                        
                                                         Here is Grayson's skeleton

                                                                             His Spider

 Now here is Jaye's contribution. She is strangely into drawing flags. (random, right?) But here is her Halloween flag, and apparently that is Grayson's face on her flag. There were a few flags taped around my room. Silly girl!

 This was the scariest part. Grayson said, "Moooommy, close your door!" And Oh, how I screamed. There was a big scary snake on the door!

This one's my favorite of the scary Halloween room. It's an "Apple Monster". (He's learning about apples at Pre-school, so I'm assuming that's where the connection came from.)

I am so grateful for my creative little kids, and I love my SCARY HALLOWEEN room!

And I am so grateful they used tape this time, instead of Elmer's glue...  like last time.