Jackson turns 5!

Our New Year's boy turned 5 this year! He's been talking about his birthday party since summer :) He went from wanting a Transformers party to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I was pretty relieved when he changed his mind because I know a lot more about Ninja Turtles!

Because Ninja Turtles love pizza, we thought it fitting to have a pizza party!

After pizza, we headed down to the basement and played what we called the "punch game." Each boy punched through one of the holes in the box and claimed the prize inside-- a Ninja Turtle mask in one of the four colors.

After they each had a mask, it was time for the piñata. Jackson really didn't have many requests for his party, but having a piñata was one! He was SO excited and made me promise he would get to go first since he was the birthday boy. I guess the beauty of having an unfinished basement is it is great for stuff like this!

Grabbing the loot!

After the piñata it was on to presents.

Then cake!

Usually I make and decorate a cake for our boys for their birthdays. This year I decided I needed to simplify with all of the craziness of having a new baby, family in town, and holidays. Jackson was just as excited to pick out a cake from the store and I was spared the extra time and energy from making one! 

Finally, we turned on an episode of Ninja Turtles and let the boys hang out until their parents came to pick them up. 

Jackson told me he loved his party. I am happy he is happy (and truthfully, sort of relieved it is over). It was the last "big" thing I had to plan this the holiday season.

We finished his birthday with dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory with nana and papa, who were flying back to the east coast the next day. Both Jackson and Bode were pretty tired by that point, but the food and company were great and it was a good way to wrap up the day.

Happy birthday to you, Jackson! We love you!!!

Christmas 2013

A few days before Christmas we headed to temple square to check out the lights. We were lucky enough to have Sean's mom visiting with us. I love this picture of she and Jackson!

We took advantage of the snow storms and took the kids sledding with my brother, Todd, and his daughter Brinley one afternoon.

On Christmas Eve we carried my family's tradition of lighting luminaries to our new home. I think they looked so beautiful! It was so much fun being in our house this Christmas!

We also took a drive to look at Christmas lights and read the Christmas story from Luke 2. Finally, we read "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" and got the kids to bed. 

Jackson's ornament this year is a bell he picked out from a Christmas store we visited during our trip to the lake house in Washington this summer. He chose the bell because it looks like the one in "Polar Express," which is one of his favorite movies.

Bode's ornament is a Mickey Mouse Santa. We chose this one for him because he LOVES Mickey :)

Santa came!

Christmas morning

Showing off their awesome super hero capes their aunt Stacy made for them.

Jackson has been excited about these "Wild West Legos," as he has been calling them, for months. It was his one request for Santa, and Santa delivered! He was so excited and it was so fun watching how excited he and Bode were about their presents. Christmas really is so much fun with kids.

In the past we have usually been in Idaho Falls for Christmas dinner. We typically ate with my parents and my mom always makes prime rib. Since we were staying home this year, I decided to try making it myself for the first time.

I was so surprised how easy it was. And I don't mean to brag, but it was SO good. I am quite proud of myself!

We invited my parents to come eat dinner with us on Christmas, and to our surprise, they came! It was a lot of fun getting to spend the last half of Christmas with them. It really was an awesome day-- just the type of day you hope for.

A few days after Christmas, we headed to Idaho Falls for the weekend to attend our nephew's baptism. 

Cousins!

We're back home now, and all of the Christmas stuff is put away, but I'll always remember this Christmas with very fond memories. 

Merry Christmas 2013!

A very merry Christmas from our family to yours!

A few updates on our family from 2013:

-Added a new member to our family

-We moved!

Sean: moved into his first real office, tried wind surfing for the first time

Jenny: had a baby. Need I say more?

Jackson (4): preschool, tee ball, soccer, learning to read, playing with friends, helping mom

Bode (2): jumping/running/moving non-stop, trying to be just like his big brother, first broken bone (wrist), Lightning McQueen obsessed.

Davis (4 weeks): figuring out day/night, trying to survive, snuggling with mom and dad 

A new stocking

I knew the newest member of our family would need a stocking this Christmas, so I got to work one quiet afternoon when Sean and the boys were at Lagoon. 

I think it turned out really cute! 

We're excited to be able to hang our stockings from an actual mantel for the first time! 

Hard to believe there are five stockings to hang this year. I know I have mentioned this before, but for a long time there were only two, and we are so grateful our family has expanded so much since then.

When I first made stockings for Sean, Jackson, and I after Jackson was born, I patterned them after some I saw in a Crate & Barrel catalog. I have held on to that Christmas 2009 catalog ever since because there were so many cute things and ideas in it. One of the things I've always loved and had bookmarked is a felt tree skirt that matched our stockings. Crate & Barrel wanted $80 for it, but there was no way I was going to pay that much. I have always wanted to re-create it, but year after year I never got around to it. Now that we are in a bigger place and I had a space to work other than a tiny kitchen table, I decided this would be the year. I spent quite a bit of time working on it through November.

Here is the picture of the one in the Crate & Barrel catalog: 

And here is mine!

I'm not going to lie, it was a lot of work cutting out those little circles and embroidering stars, etc. on them (especially since I have zero experience with that sort of thing), but it was good for me to have a project to take my mind off of worrying about the end of my pregnancy with the whole cholestasis business. I'm loving how cheery it makes our tree!

Our first real Christmas tree

Sean and I have always had a fake, pre-lit Christmas tree. Ours is pretty small and has traveled with us since the first Christmas we've been married. We bought it as poor college students and it served us well throughout the years. 

In our new house we have vaulted ceilings in the family room where we wanted to put our tree. Our trusty fake one would have looked pretty small. We've always wanted to try cutting one down and decided this was as good a year as any to try it. 

Sean and our friend Darren woke up insanely early one morning in November and made the drive to Heber to get in line for a tree permit. The number of permits is limited and Sean estimated there were already around 700 people in front of them by the time they got there. Lucky for us, their drive and sacrifice of sleep was not in vain!

We decided to go cut our tree down the weekend before Thanksgiving since we weren't quite sure when Davis would be arriving. We drove up past Heber in what looked like a winter wonderland and searched a few spots before finding "the one".

Unfortunately, this is the only picture we got-- I should have taken one before we cut the tree down!

Here is our tree all decorated!

I love having a tall tree! This one is about 12 feet. It is sort of Charlie Brown in spots, but honestly, that is my favorite kind. I think we will continue the real-tree thing for awhile :)

I had some fun taking a few pictures of Davis in front of the tree the other night. Here are my favorite: 

It sounds corny, but these pictures give me a sense of peace and reverence. I just love the purity and innocence of babies. Love this little guy and loving this time of year!

Davis

Our newest addition has arrived! Davis Harrison Ricks was born one week ago today-- Wednesday, November 27 at 4:01 pm. He was 7 lbs. 14 oz. and 19.5" and exactly 38 weeks. We already love him like crazy.

Our plan of induction on December 4 changed after my last blood test showed my cholestasis had gotten quite a bit worse. Normal reference range for bile salts in a person's blood is 1-10 and mine jumped from an 11 to a 31. My doctor felt the risk of waiting to be induced was not worth it and Sean and I agreed.

I was admitted to the hospital around 10:30 am. My doctor showed up and broke my water around 1pm and Davis was born at 4:01pm. I went from a 5 to a 10 in less than 20 minutes and had the easiest delivery ever. 

Here are a few of my favorite pictures we took at the hospital:

Jackson was really excited to hold him...

But he got a bit overwhelmed and shy about it :)

My THREE boys!

We are so happy he is here safe and sound and it seems strange it has already been a week. We feel very fortunate to have three children and are grateful to have Davis in our family!