May I please have some more

Emily calls zuccini bread "mcqueeny bread".

Yum!

Is there anything better than freshly squeezed orange juice? I mean, really!

Whoa, Baby!

I'm fairly certain I strained (possibly tore) a ligament in my lower abdomen. Yesterday was a horrible day. Changing positions, eating and drinking (when I finally forced them down), nothing got rid of or even lessened the pain and nausea. I hurt, I felt horribly sick, every time anything brushed against my stomach pain radiated through the entire thing. Then, as the encompassing pain and nausea died down, it felt like they were merely layers pulled back to uncover the sharp ripping pain of my ligaments. Unfortunately, that is Will's favorite place to kick. Yowza! I was finally able to sleep by seriously loading up on Tylenol. Sorry for whining, but that was the worst 24 hours of any pregnancy I have ever had. Today isn't nearly as bad, but I have to be careful about how I move and what I lift. 7 1/2 weeks and counting!

Fortunately, I have a wonderful husband. He came home early to help out. And, he made our bed both yesterday and this morning. I know that isn't a big deal, and it's probably one of the smallest things he did to help me yesterday and today. But it meant a lot to me. It's something that I have to do every morning. It's this ridiculous compulsion that I have. I don't feel like the day is right until I have made the bed. Does it have to be done, probably not. But, Matt knows that it's important to me. So, yesterday, while I was hobbling around trying to do who knows what, and in between pleas for me to sit still, Matt made the bed - without being asked or me mentioning that I wanted to do it or anything. It was just a sweet act of service that he did quietly. I love him!

Guck, Guck, Goo

For Family Home Evening tonight, we went on a nature scavenger hunt at the park. The kids enjoyed it, but I think they enjoyed the playground afterwards the most. It was so pleasant to just enjoy Heavenly Father's creations with our wonderful children tonight without worrying about schedules or deadlines.

Mary is finally starting to express herself verbally. She's had a small repertoire of words, but would rarely use them to communicate - it was almost exclusively non verbal. It was fun tonight to "talk" with her. She was fascinated by all the animals that we saw at the park. She talked about the "gucks" non-stop from the time we heard the first quack until she went to bed. She even mentioned them in her mumbled prayers tonight (usually she lets me say it and then says "amen" but she wanted to talk about the ducks). She also liked the "gogs" and the "guckgoo's" (dogs and geese). She stopped to pet every dog we came across (whose owners were up for stopping at least). I can't believe how fearless she is around dogs - so not typical for our other kids!

Daddy's Little Girl

Our new favorite place

Fun, fun, fun

While we were playing at the lake, I was pushing the two older kids in the tire swing. 30+ lbs of tire and 70+ lbs of kid combined with the force of the swinging nailed me right in my abdomen. Well, after waiting for Matt to get there to help with the kids, feeding everyone dinner and sitting at the hospital for four hours worth of observation, I got home at midnight. Will was very consistent and looks great, and I only had one contratction while on the monitors, thank goodness. I'm feeling a little sore today, but what else is new for the eighth month of pregnancy.

Mullett-girl gets a haircut

Mary's hair needed help. I have been trying to incrementally grow out her bangs, and the result was a lovely mullett barely concealed in the various hairdos I tried. Combine that with the fact that Mary HATES getting her hair done and it was just sad. (Though I don't kno how I could ever discribe this angel face as "sad")

During After
Front view - fixed
Back view - fixed

Here's a freebie picture. This was the girls right after breakfast this morning, bed hair, cuteness and all.

Oh yeah! Now I Remember

"Oh yeah," I think as I beeline toward the entrance to the children's section of the library, my screaming twenty month old football style under one arm, a mountain of books wedged next to my ginormous belly under the other, while I try to call discreetly to the older two children who have apparently forgotten that they are not wild animals and are playing tag around one of the book trolleys. "This is why I don't take three to the library!" As I wait in line to check out, the three wild children run around the rotunda next to the desk. They are laughing and when they catch my eye they momentarily hold still, but they aren't killing each other or destroying anything, so I just try to use my mental powers to hurry along the line. The completely put together woman behind me asks "Are they yours?" I respond "Today?" She doesn't even react but continues to smile expectantly for my answer. "Yes," I say with a rueful smile, mentally noting that we forgot a book or two: "Miss Manners For Children" or even more fitting "How to Time a Trip to the Library More Effectively"

Fast forward. The kids can't even wait until we get home to start begging to read their selections. I need to make lunch, but ten minutes won't hurt. We all snuggle onto the couch and read one book for each child. As we discover the new wonders of these words and pictures, the children stare enthralled or laugh at a new joke. "Oh yeah," I think. "This is why I do that."

A Day at the Park

So I just caught this picture of Mary wrong. She was looking blissfully into the sky, completely content, and I caught it when she was just looking up. So, it looks like she's terrified. I thought it was funny.

Joe's trip to the moon

Rant Alert

So, today is the first day of spring break for Joe. A whole week with him all to myself, no plans, no worries about other people's rules. Oh, wait. No. Joe has FIFTEEN pages (front and back) of homework to be completed for grading by next Monday. Not only that, they gave the kids specific instructions about how to complete the packet (the order and etc). I told Joe that it was Spring Break and we were going to do homework spring break style - any way that he wanted and in any order!

Are they really trying to destroy love of learning in these children? I mean really! Joe is working hard and trying and doing everything that's asked of him and he is thriving. So why punish him! He managed to not forget everything over the Christmas holiday with no help from the homework nazis, so why now? He is preforming above grade level and I think it's completely unfair. Joe is such a great sport about it. He woke up this morning, asked for a glass of milk to go with breakfast and his homework packet before I even mentioned it. How good is this kid! So, I'm whining and complaining for him before I go and put on a positive face to not infect him with my bad attitude.

Joe's 3rd quarter awards assembly

Joe had his 3rd quarter awards assembly this morning (hence the title of this post). He was so cute. He kept turning around and smiling and waving at us - ah the sweet young years before they start pretending we don't exist! The batteries on our camera died after we got one horrible picture. I'm not sure this picture is even worth the time it took to upload. Oh well. On his way off the stage he did this dance/strut the whole way. He didn't look like he was trying to be cool, just like he had a song in his head and he was going with it. Joe is so fun.

Out of the mouth of babes (unfortunately sometimes!)

It's always odd to hear things that you say come out of your little child's mouth. We went to the park this morning (I know -we're nuts! It was 40 degrees and WINDY!). I put Mary in the swing, and Emily stood shivering next to me saying "It's so freaking cold!" We stayed for a total of maybe ten minutes. I took it as our time to go when Mary ran through a puddle, soaking her tights. If it was cold before, it was unacceptable in a little cotton jumper without tights.

Later at my doctor's appointment, I told Emily she could have some string cheese when we got back to the room. We waited in the waiting room for maybe ten minutes, then we had to do all the intake stuff. Then the nurse took us into her little cubicle to do blood pressure, etc before we went to the exam room. When Emily saw where we were going she said with complete exasperation "Mom, you're joking!"

Conference

I really enjoyed listening to General Conference this last weekend. I definitely was reminded of things that I should be working on, which is good! One thing that sturck me again was losing our life in service. A month or so ago I was talking on the phone with a good friend about being a mother. She had her fourth son last year and I asked how it was having four kids. She said that more than ever before she had completely lost herself to being a mother and that she had never enjoyed motherhood so much. It should be noted that she still develops her talents, attends a book club and does personal scripture study. I need to gain a better testimony of this principle of losing my life. I know it's true, but I haven't done enough to test the seed myself. I just cling to "my life" with such ferocity sometimes. But, would it be that bad to just let go sometimes? Anyway. Just my musings.

During the sessions, we had a list of words posted and whenever the kids heard one of the words, they got a piece of candy. The first session, they heard every word except "scriptures" within the first ten minutes. During the second talk, the speaker mentioned the words of Jesus and the words of God. Joe jumped up and said "I heard the last word! They said "the word of God" and that's the scriptures!" I couldn't believe he made that connection

In between sessions, we were watching home movies, and in one of them, Mary was carrying around her baby. As Mary watched the video, she started screaming "Mine! Mine!" and flipping out because that darn girl in the movie had her baby!

Annual Sports Extravaganza

In keeping with the tradition we started in October, we had a pre-conference extravaganza so that little Hickens aren't completely freaking out by the time conference starts at noon. In October we will have our second annual family Olympics, but yesterday we had our first annual sports extravaganza.

We started with bowling in the kitchen. We made pins out of blocks and used toy balls to knock them down. Emily won the bowling.

Next, we turned on some oldies and had a dance competition. I will spare you by not showing pictures of Matt and my contributions to the competition! Joe won the dance competition after a dance off between Joe and Emily.

The kids were a little cranky, but they enjoyed it in general. I think we started a little too early and it threw Emily off her routine of free play first thing in the morning. Oh well. I can't believe we'll have FOUR at our next one!

Dance Off

Here is the "Pose" segment of our dance competition

Emily and Joe tied in the dance competition, so here is there dance off. I don't think Emily was really into dancing yesterday(which is REALLY weird for her), so she wasn't showing off her typical dance moves, but they both had a lot of fun. Joe won the all around, Emily won the prize for the best twirls, and Mary got a prize for being the best spectator (she stayed up until 11 the night before so she was just a little cranky).

Bowling

Bowling was an evolutionary process. We started with little blue balls that were WAY too bouncy, then got a soccer ball that was slightly flat and wouldn't roll straight. Finally we got a mini basketball that worked much better. Emily had the best single bowl of the morning - not that that was difficult, most of us didn't get any. Mary was so funny. Our little OCD girl got so upset whenever anyone knocked down any of the pins. She yelled at both of her siblings for doing so and would run over and set them back up. She threw the ball when it was her turn, but usually faced in a different direction.

Where did you get that idea?

Mary put her baby in her shirt some time after dinner and kept it there until Matt took it out while she was brushing her teeth. She almost always has the babies with her, but this is the first time she's done this. Emily was pretending to be pregnant this afternoon, so that may be where she got the idea. Regardless, I thought it was so cute. She periodically bent down and kissed her baby's head as she was going about her activities.

Joe and Em wanted to get in on the camera action. Strike a pose!

A funny comment from Emily. I was fixing her hair yesterday and she had no patience for it. She kept trying to get me to let her down, but finally sat quietly for a few minutes. I thought she had given up the effort, but then she said "Mom, is it okay if I catch you later? I'm done."
It cracks me up when they pick up new phrases that I didn't even realize they had ever heard before.