Christmas at our house

Well, we are finally unpacked from our move and our Christmas decor is up so it really feels like the Christmas season. Let me share a little of our Christmas season with you...

I made gingerbread with the boys, which they love to do and love to eat even more, we also made chex mix last night and ate it until we were sick, literally.

The boys decorated the tree unsupervised which means that all of the ornaments are on the middle of the tree in a group. All of the snowmen had to be on the same branch as well as the gingerbread men on their branch so they would not be lonely :) The OCD part of me looks at it and really wants to spread things out a bit, but every time I look at it it makes me really happy and brightens my day, so it stays.

Many of the beautiful wrapping jobs have already been destroyed as the presents are used as drums and stools, but hey, at least they are enjoying them.

Both of the boys have coughs and Rylan has a fever and Dallen was throwing up yesterday. Nothing to put you in the festive spirit like runny noses and nasty germs that you are trying to keep away from your month old baby!

And my personal favorite... I have a foam nativity that I put together with the boys last year. This is their favorite toy. Mary and Joseph love to dive off of the Christmas tree, Baby Jesus loves to ride the sheep or take a nap during which time Rylan is constantly telling me to "shh, Mom, Jesus is sleeping" (tell me why I have to be quiet for a foam figure but he can be as loud as he wants while Taylie is sleeping). And Mary (or a power ranger figure) loves to fly through the sky at mach speeds on her donkey.

And this morning Brycen hit Rylan in the face with a baseball bat --- not that this has anything to do with Christmas, just a sidenote.

All kidding aside I really love this time of year. I love the music (as Dallen will attest to , I listen to Christmas music from Halloween on, except this year because I thought my CD's were in storage but Dallen failed to tell me they were in the entertainment center, thanks Honey.) I love the snow (for awhile) I love the lights and the wonderful kindness and good deeds that are done so freely, I love the traditions and the excitement that surround the season. I am truly grateful for the real reason for the season, Jesus Christ and his life and teachings and atonement for all of us, I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas season and look for the blessings that have been given to you to share with others. Merry Christmas!!!

PS-The boys just added a giraffe and mini power ranger sword to the nativity:)

Hip Hip Hooray! Milwaukee here we come!!!

So to all of you that know about what Dallen's been trying to do with his life, after 3 application cycles, this year proved to be the one. On Dec 1st Dallen was accepted to Marquette School of Dentistry for the class of 2013 starting Aug 2009 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin!
This is such a blessing to our family and we know that the Lord had his hand in it and we are grateful for the mercy he has shown us. We are SO excited to move to Milwaukee and start on this new adventure in our life. Dallen's first day of class is Aug 28th 2009 and the program is 4 years long. We will probably be moving to Wisconsin around the beginning of Aug so we can have a week or two to settle in before the start of school! We thank all of you who have at one time said a pray for us, we know it has helped!

More Pictures of Taylie

More Pictures of Taylie

More Pictures of Taylie

Taylie Jane Ricks Pictures

Taylie was born at 6:02pm on Nov 14th 2008 (Grandpa Garvin's Birthday)
She weighed 7lbs 4oz
and was 19 1/2 inches long
She has light brown hair and already likes to eat a lot!

Induced!

Just a little info. I am being induced on Friday morning, YEAH. We will post some pictures as soon as we can. Pray for us please.

Suggestions?

So, I only have 2 1/2 weeks left, but for me this is always the longest because I have a lot of contractions which give me hope that I will go early but then with my boys I had to be induced. So if anyone has any suggestions of what I can do to help this baby get here, let me know!

The old yet good news

It just occurred to me that I never posted our news on our blog so there are many of you that may not know that we are expecting a little girl........in 6 weeks, I guess better late than never. I am due Nov. 16th, so not much time left to go and actually even though this has been a little bit harder of a pregnancy for me it really has gone by quickly. All of my boys are really excited about a girl joining our family and the boys love to talk to and hug my belly. They also love to shake it while telling "sister bug" to wake up. I will keep you posted on all of our baby news.

Corn anyone?

I love fall so much! I love the smells, I love the sounds, I love the colors. One thing that screams fall to me is harvest-time. Growing up it was potatoe and sugar beets, for my boys it was corn. A family in our ward grew a field of corn and let anyone go and pick what they wanted. We picked 124 ears of corn and then came home and froze it. It was so much fun to take the boys out and they LOVED it! They were little corn picking machines, they loved shucking it and they were always sneaking bites off of the cobs, Brycen said it was the "rule" that he take a bite out of all the ears he shucked. There really is something great about a family working together and it really feels good to have all of that corn in the freezer. We left with itchy arms and corn "hairs" all over us but we had a great time.

Rain, Rain

Last week we woke up to a rainy day and the boys could hardly wait to get on their gear and go out and play. They rode their bikes through the puddles and were splashing up a storm until they saw the camera, then it was all smiles and funny faces, what a couple of cheesballs. I wonder where they get that?

A long time commin'

After a summer of blogstipation, we are back in the game! Here are a few of my favorite pics of the last little bit.

This first pic is the way my house is running, either my boys are the best of friends, here they were watching TV and Brycen had his head on Rylan's lap while Rylan rubbed his head or like right now for instance they are yelling at each other and screaming something about legos. There seems to be no middle ground it is either love or hate. I sure hope this is normal.

We got a "frequent shopper" card somewhere and after popping out the cards we threw the rest in the garbage where Rylan my "treasure" finder retrieved it and wanted it made into some sweet fighting glasses. And aren't my boys adorable!

Ure Reunion 2008

Well another summer has come and we started off our jam packed summer months with the
Ure Reunion 2008 at the Boat Dock in Aberdeen, Idaho. Despite some of our
inital worries, it turned out to be a very impressive place to camp, kid friendly and
plenty of fun! Here are only a few of the pictures we took, but needless to say,
the boys all liked the water the best!

Brycen's Gymnastics Recital Video

This is Brycen's Gymnastics recital.
It takes about 6 minutes to watch but it is really good!

Becca's Jr. Miss

Here are some pictures from our trip down to see Becca compete in Jr. Miss
She did amazing and we all had a great time spending time as a family!

Grandma Goldie

The second trip- While I was in Aberdeen for Jr Miss I went to see my grandma. She was in an assisted living place because she had been sick and needed attention around the clock. Me and my two older sisters Angie and Bethanie went to dye her hair. She was so stinking funny. Even though she was in pain she was just like herself. We were trying so hard not to laugh at her when she thought she saw a ghost in the beauty parlor. We dyed her hair it's usual shade of reddish orange and did a pretty good job although it was a tad more blond than usual - just leave it to us to botch up her last hair job-. We got to visit with her for 3 hours. It was really great to see her so well. Two days later we decided to take our kids over to see her and she was horrible. She did not really know who we were and she did not want the company. We stayed for only 10 min. and then we left. Three days later she died. So I made it down to Aberdeen to help with anything that I could. Dad was the executor of her will and now is his busiest time and Mom had to do a lot of stuff to help also but she had just started her first online class and I knew she was feeling overwhelmed already, so I figured that anything I could do to help would be appreciated. The funeral went well and while I am very sad to have her gone I am really happy that she is free from pain and with Grandpa again.

So between those two trips our lives have been really exciting and busy but the boys would not complain they have been getting in a lot of cousin time. I will be getting some pics from the funeral from my brother and will post them as soon as I can.

We are alive!

I am sure that there are some of you who have checked our blog and thought that we must be dead because it has been so long since we have made any updates. Well, we are alive, but we have been really busy. Me and the boys were gone for about 2 1/2 weeks in April.

The first trip- My younger sister was in Jr. Miss on the 19th of April so I took the boys and headed down there a little early to help with the finishing touches- I could tell that mom was starting to stress about all of the little things that needed done and Rebecca was no help at all- so I put sequins on shoes and shirts and skirts, practiced interviewing and gave pep talks along with my two older sisters. We really did have a good time. The night of we left our kids at grandma's with Dallen's assistant manager Mindy ( who I am sure thought she was crazy for agreeing to watch all 9 kids) because we wanted to be able to watch the show without any potty breaks or crying about hunger. Rebecca did great as we knew she would and it was fun to watch the final sister do Jr. Miss although it was really nerve racking too. Becca won the scholastic award and the title of Aberdeen's Jr. Miss 2009! Our family loves Jr Miss and now we are planning our third state Jr Miss trip to Cour de Alene in Oct. It is a good thing for Jr Miss or we'd never go on a vacation as a family. Here are some pics from that night.........................That I cannot get onto my computer, so I will have to have Dallen help me with later.

Happy Mother's Day

Hope all you Mother's out there are having a great day! You are all outstanding!

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