The Ricks Family: April 2017

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Easter 2017

I knew celebrating two birthdays and Easter in the same week this year was going to make things a bit crazy in our household, but somehow we fit everything in!

On Saturday, we started a very busy day with the Pleasant Grove Easter egg hunt. We go to this one every year, and we all love it. The kids all got lots of eggs, and even Molly joined in and had fun putting eggs in her basket.

After the egg hunt we had a baseball game and two soccer games, as well as a baby shower I happened to be throwing in the middle of all of that. We were pretty tired, but did manage to have fun dyeing eggs before heading to bed. We had Star Wars eggs and emoji eggs this year :)

The Easter bunny came and brought lots of candy and some small gifts (slip 'n slide, bubbles, Pokemon cards, kites). The kids loved their baskets and had fun searching for eggs hidden around the house. Davis proved to be quite the egg hunter and would run into the living room with his arms raised and screaming every time he found one!

We had a really amazing sacrament meeting at church. One of the best Easter Sundays at church I can remember. Really great talks, and the primary kids sang a beautiful song in sacrament meeting. It definitely was exactly what I was hoping for-- a spiritual experience where the focus was on the Savior and the whole reason why we were celebrating that day.

I made Molly's dress and matching bowties for all of the boys for church. It was fun having a girl this year!

Per tradition, we took some pictures of the kids all dressed up in their Easter best before heading to church. I thought they all looked so darling! I kept looking at the kids during sacrament meeting and feeling very overwhelmed with gratitude for my family. I am posting about a million of seemingly the same picture, but I like each one of these for different reasons!

After church, we had our friends, the Nielsons, over to eat Easter dinner with us. We are some of the few people here it seems who don't have a lot of family in Utah to spend holidays with! It was fun having company and it was nice not having so many leftovers. Overall, it was a really beautiful day!

Sunday, April 23, 2017

Bode turns SIX and his year in review

Our second birthday of the week was Bode turning six! It about killed him waiting for his birthday this year, and I think having to celebrate Molly's first was pretty torturous!

We had his birthday party at a place called Funtopia. It is a climbing place for kids, and it was so fun and so easy for me!

After the party we headed home and let him open his presents from us. We went to Tucanos for dinner (his choice) with John and Sylvia, who happened to be in town. I made Bode his favorite chocolate cake for dessert, but we were all so full, none of us ate much! We've slowly been whittling away at it over the last several days.

As far as an update, Bode has had a really great year. He's started kindergarten and is doing great at school. He's such a social kid and has made lots of new friends this year. He even asked for a girl's number and brought it home on a piece of paper one day! :) He loves playing with his friends and brothers and sister. He continues to have endless amounts of energy it seems, but he is a lot of fun. He also has the most tender heart and is continually doing things like picking flowers for me and drawing me little pictures with hearts and telling me he loves me. He's always looking out for others and has a special bond with his little sister.

Some of Bode's favorite things right now are soccer, Pokemon cards, riding bikes, and his new bow and arrow. He started playing baseball this year and is able to be on the same team as Jackson for just this year.

Bode's yearly questionnaire: