What's in a name?

    Grayson has actively been trying to name our baby. It's hilarious. The name that he and Jaye originally picked for Baby 4 was "Gamey". "You know, like a game?" Luckily that name has been forgotten. We moved on to some real winners like Key, Co, Coda (named after his dead fish), etc.

    Lately, however, the names have gotten more and more... human. He told me in the car the other day that if it's a brother, we should name him Oscar, and if it's a sister we should name her Evie. Not too bad. And tonight, after reading a bedtime story, Grayson declared, "That's what we should name him! David. That's a good name!"

(PAUSE).

"Or we could call him, Snappy!"

Snappy Ricks. Has a good ring to it.


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Side story: Seriously. This is the THIRD time this month, as in the last FIFTEEN days, that Laycee has taken the plunge into our toilet. (Ha... Ahhh, pun-y.) She has almost downed two rolls of toilet paper into the bowl, which is no bueno for us poor college students. It's like our money is just being flushed down the toilet! (haha! Ahhh, pun-y again). It's not that she's just sticking paper in there, but then she likes to take the wads out and dump them on the floor to make room for more toilet paper. SO GROSS!!!

I don't know what's harder, training her to stop playing in the toilet, or training the rest of us to JUST CLOSE THE DOOR after business. Looks like all the Ricks fam needs some serious potty-training. (hahaha!)

Monkeying around

      Jaye's preschool does this thing where each child gets to take Curious George home with them overnight, and keep a journal of all the curious things that George does. The minute George "walked" into our house, both Jaye and Grayson have been obsessed with him! Grayson thought it would be cool for George to shoot toy guns (I don't think we'll put that in the notebook!), and we read books with George, played video games, watched movies, played catch, all with the silly little monkey. Jaye brought him to dinner and even slept with him. And here in this picture, Jaye and George are playing dress up.

                            It's going to be a sad day when he has to go back to school tommorow!

Another one!

He lost another tooth!

I keep asking him to say things with S's. Makes me laugh.

Valentine's Day

I saw this online and LOVE it!!! I made these for my beehives, so they'd realize it doesn't matter if a boy doesn't like them on Valentine's Day, because they are loved! So Cute! I wish I could take the credit for this idea :)

Buzzzzzz....

Last night was the Young Women annual New Beginnings. The theme was "Enjoy the Journey" and I had sooooo much fun coming up with a skit and cheer with my beehives. It was also fun to walk into to the program dressed like a bee. We got a lot of laughs! I love my calling and for the opportunity to be there with the youngest young women as they start their journey through their youth. What amazing girls I have!

We have four beehives, but two aren't pictured here. The girl next to me is another AWESOME leader.

And tonight we got to celebrate FOUR girls moving up! By the end of the year, we will have a big class. YAY!

One way to clean the floor...

Question: What happens when you give into your five year old who's begging to help vacuum?

The answer: Your rug melts.

What?! Grayson was using the hose to clean up little crumbs around the rug (taking his time and playing with the hose) and Barry asked him to turn it off because he smelled burning. But it wasn't the vacuum engine overheating... it was our living room rug, melting. 

Well, at least now the burnt rug matches our couch that's falling apart.  

How does that even happen?!?



Snow day

Barry had a rare few hours of free time, so we decided to make the most of it by playing out in the snow. They recently plowed our parking lot so we had a good 8 ft. tall sledding hill, right outside the building.

Grayson just loved sledding.

                                          Jaye just like ruling the top of the mountain.

                             Laycee was completely content to sit and eat her snowball.
                                                           ...The whole time.

I love this picture. The kids versus Daddy, snowball fight.

Grayson found a new spot he thought was perfect to have a snowball fight, and he kept begging everyone to come play with him. And naturally, his five seconds of patience ended and he started pouting because "no one wanted to play with him."  I told Barry Grayson would freak out if he ran over with a snowball in hand. So Barry ran over... and our son sure did freak out. Grayson moved just in time to get pelted in the face with the snow weapon, and cut his lip. Barry felt so bad.

Despite the bloody battle... it was nice to spend some time as a family.