MERRY CHRISTMAS 2010!

From the Hicks Family!

Getting So Big!

Family Pictures!

A friend of ours from high school is an amazing photographer and as soon as she found out I was pregnant she offered to take George's newborn pictures. I was floored by her offer since she really is amazing. We never did get the chance to do newborn pictures but I pushed my luck by asking if we could do some family pictures while we were in Utah for Thanksgiving and she said yes!! I was so excited! We intruded upon her family on the day after Thanksgiving and spent half an hour in her studio. She worked miracles! She and her husband co-run dc photobooth. You should definitely check them out! Their website is not up right now but you can see their family blog here. I won't be putting many pictures up here until our Christmas cards are out and have arrived. I don't want to ruin the surprise!I told you she is amazing!

Santa!!

This is a cellphone photo of a real photo so it's not great. George did awesome! He started to cry when I first left him with Santa but nothing a few silly faces couldn't fix.

8 months

(and two days)

Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving was great! We got up on Thursday morning at 3 am and drove to the airport. We landed around 8 am and went straight to the hotel. Luckily, they were really nice and let us check-in really early. They also invited us to the free breakfast which is served until 10. Since it was a Marriott, I of course helped myself to a waffle. Yum! Then we got to shower and get ready for the celebration. We headed up to Marcia's home and ate a lot of food. We also got to just sit and visit with everyone. It was really nice! George loves turkey and all the fixin's! I love spending time with Glen's family. I always feel important and loved!
The next day we had some family pictures taken so we can send a good picture with our Christmas cards this year. Then we all took a nice nap together. Then we headed to Salt Lake for lunch and shopping. Glen's sisters Marie and Marianne and his dad meet us at Temple Square soon after. It was great! And freezing! Then we went to dinner at Biaggi's. By that time it was pretty late so we headed back to the hotel afterwards.
Saturday we went to Salt Lake again and went to the organ recital at the Tabernacle and walked around temple square. Then we went to the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum. That is a fun place! George loved it! I can't wait until he is a little older and can really enjoy it.
We went to dinner and then headed back to the airport. The security checkpoints were really nothing. The airports were ghost towns and both flights were only about 2/3s full. George fell asleep during take off on both flights. On the way home, he fell sleep during take off and then slept until the next morning. It was great!

More George....

Cheese!

George has 6, going on 8, teeth!

George

26

Well, it happened. I turned 26. I'm closer to 30 than 20 now. I'm sure I'll get over it someday. Probably right before I turn 27... The festivities began on Sunday. Because Glen gets up earlier than I do during the week, he figured he would make me breakfast on Sunday even though my birthday wasn't until Tuesday. It was an awesome breakfast! French toast with homemade buttermilk syrup, hash browns, and maple sausage! Yum! Then my family came over Sunday night for a birthday dinner. Glen made one of my favorites: taco salad! My mom gave me a few presents: two aprons that she made me, a blender, mixing bowls, and a steamer. Yes, these were all requested. She usually just gives me cash or gift cards but this year I actually had things I wanted/needed.On Tuesday, my actual birthday, I received beautiful roses from my honey. Then he took me out to Cheesecake Factory. We took George with us because Glen felt he needed to participate in my birthday celebration. He slept through most of it then ate bread and cereal for the rest of the time.
When we got home, Glen let me open presents. He bought me hair clips, curlers, Beauty and the Beast, a hand mixer/blender thing and a blu-ray player. The strange things on that list were requested. The blu-ray player was wanted but not requested. I am so excited! And the festivities are not quite over. Tonight, Glen is sacrificing his precious, precious sleep to take me to the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1. We will get home sometime after 3 and he gets up at 5... Poor kid. At least it will be Friday and he can sleep in the next day. Thanks Glen for the best birthday to date!! (And for taking some of the sting away)

Home Improvements

We decided that we needed to quit trying to plan our home improvements and just start doing them. We finally bought some drapes for the downstairs sliding glass doors and the windows. Most of our heat was coming in there. Next summer should be a little more bearable. We also repainted and decorated the downstairs half-bath. It was a not-so-awesome blue color that greeted guests as they walked in the door (if the bathroom door was open). We still need to add a few more decorations and put in a new faucet but it still makes us happy to go in there and see a nice color and a few cute pictures. We are now starting on the upstairs guest bathroom. We are just painting it for now, since we are going to Utah for Thanksgiving and we need to save our pennies. But we plan to eventually redo the tile and put in a nice sink and faucet. Here is a before: And here is the after: (Keep in mind the after was taken with a cellphone. The color is actually a little darker than this. It is a sage-y green color.)We want to get a faucet that matches the frame of the mirror. They have exactly the one we want at Lowes. Now we just need to start saving. Anyway, it is nice to be able to do whatever we want to the house. Maybe in a few years housing prices will go up again and the things we do will actually be worth it as far as sale price goes.... Or maybe we will just enjoy living in a home we decorated.

Pecan Creek Boutique

Friends and family in Arizona, you are invited! On Saturday, November 20th from 8:00-1:00, Pecan Creek will be putting on a fabulous boutique! There will be jewelry, homemade holiday decorations, treats, quilts, hair accessories, etc. It is at:
39295 N Webb Cir
Queen Creek, AZ

It is a great place to get all of your holiday shopping done and support local vendors!
Visit the blog for more information: http://www.pecancreekboutique.blogspot.com/

7 Months

Here is an update on George:

• He is crawling like a pro, but not content. He wants to walk.
• He is pulling himself up on everything! He has even figured out how to leverage his weight to stand using a wall.
• He is climbing the stairs.
• He is able to stand for a little bit before falling.
• He walks while holding someone's hand.
  
• He has figured out how to sit back down after standing up (it's harder than you think!).
  
• He likes: sweet potatoes, green beans, butternut squash, acorn squash, carrots, pumpkin, grapes, pears and apples. He does not like bananas. (He also likes any cereal we give him.)
• He climbs on anything and everything. He often gets stuck under the chairs by suspending himself on the two bottom rungs.
  
• He makes a cute spider.
• He loves to play with Charlie.
• He is a great snuggler.
  
• He is cruising, albeit slowly, between the couches and the coffee table.
• He has four new teeth coming in. However, they are not coming in, in order. His right front tooth is coming in with the tooth to its right instead of the other front tooth. He is going to look awesome!
  

We love our booger! He is so funny and he is learning something new all the time. He is a fantastic eater and will eat almost anything we give him. He gets very upset every time the food is gone even though he eats plenty... Oh, and I gave him his own cupboard. It is the tupperware cupboard and he loves to get in there and throw everything out.

Halloween Party

On Monday night we had the Allen Family Halloween party at my parents' house. I was one of very few adults in costume but it was my only chance to dress up. I was a spider web and George was the spider. George's costume was pretty easy to make. If I had spent more time on it, it could have been awesome but he didn't care. It was good enough for him. There was good food, movies, music, pumpkin carving and professional pictures. I am excited to see the pictures my cousin got of our family. My mom took quite a few and they are just reminders for me as to why I am currently trying to lose weight...

Utah

We had a great time in Utah! Our only regret is that we didn't get to see everyone we wanted to. But we did get to spend a lot of time with family which was our main goal. We arrived in Cedar City on Saturday night and spent the night at our friend Jackie's house. She was very hospitable and even made us Sunday dinner! Anyway, we went to our old ward for church on Sunday and saw a lot of our friends. It was bittersweet, sitting there behind Widows' Row. It brought back feelings of belonging and love. It just made us want to move back to Cedar even more. I spent the last hour with the young women. It was way fun to be there again!

We got to Springville around 8:30 Sunday night and stopped over at my sister's house to say hello. We weren't there long since George goes to bed at that time. We were able to spend some time at my brother Dayton's house were we were fed and entertained. Their kids are so cute! And Gus, who is 3 weeks older than George, is getting so big!

We also spent some time at Glen's Dad's house. It was great to see his sisters who came down from Northern Utah to see us! Way northern. Like Logan, Clinton and Farmington. George had a blast with his cousins! And Aunt Miranda brought a bunch of toys and clothes her kids had grown out of. George is so lucky! (and so is his mom)

Aunt Marie

Aunt Marianne

Grandpa Hicks telling stories!

We went to Gardner Village with Caitie and Nate and had a great time!

George on a witch's cart

Trying on a witch's hat

Caitie and Nate at Archibald's

We had a wonderful time in Utah! The weather was amazing and we can't wait to go back for Thanksgiving!

Say What?!

Charlie says, "Happy Halloween!"

6 Months

So, I made a mistake on my percentiles for George's 4 month check up. The Dr.'s office didn't give me percentiles so I looked them up online and I guess the internet is not always right. Who knew? So, anyway, I guess two months ago George was in the 45th percentile for weight and 50-something for height. Now he is 49th for weight and 70-something for height. He weighs 17 lbs 6 oz and he is 27 inches. He's my growing boy!

The Happenings

Lately I have been trying some new recipes. We made Cafe Rio sweet pork a few weeks ago. It was really good but didn't taste like Cafe Rio. This I blame on the fact that we couldn't find the right enchilada sauce so it had a slightly different flavor. But, I still ate it every day for a week. I also made giant ginger cookies to make it feel more like fall in this 100 plus degree weather. This plan didn't work, but the cookies were delicious! I tried my hand at vegetable baby food. I didn't have a food processor or blender and it all worked out perfectly anyway. George loves sweet potatoes and butternut squash. One day of making baby food and I have a month's supply. I don't love the new diaper changes...

Yesterday we had breakfast for dinner at my mom's house. There were 13 of us and there was enough food for 26 of us and it was gone by the end of the chaos. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it...

Speaking of being hungry, I still have 40 lbs to lose to be where I was when I found out I was pregnant. Granted I had just lost 20 lbs due to a strict diet and exercise plan which I could not keep up once pregnant and I cannot resume since I am breastfeeding. I secretly want to dry up so I can really start running in the morning without worrying about leakage and so on. But I know even just one meal of breast milk a day is better than none so I continue. I can run later in the day but George is sleeping through the night again and he eats from one side when he wakes up around six and the other is still full until he is hungry again later in the morning. This does not a comfortable jog allow. And I start work at six so, that's a hindrance until the times change and I start at seven, but then Glen goes to work at six-thirty and I don't want to take George with me. And the Cafe Rio pork and the giant ginger cookies are not helping either. I want to look like I do in my Facebook profile picture please. For now I will have to stick with watching what I eat and going to Zumba twice a week with my mom.

I'm sure some of you are wondering about Charlie since he is never mentioned anymore. He's still here and we still love him but our attention has shifted to George. But George doesn't get to sleep in our bed and Charlie does so what does that say? We love him lots and he has free reign of the house anytime we leave which is new for him. He used to hang out in the bathroom. He recently got star treatment at PetSmart with a haircut and shampoo since I was feeling guilty. So, as far as dogs go, he's still pretty spoiled.

We are planning a trip to Utah next month to visit family and hang out since Glen has a week off. Then we will be heading back there for Thanksgiving but only for like two days. Glen works the Wednesday before Thanksgiving which means in order to get there before Thanksgiving is over, we have to fly and rent a car. Gross. In other news, a trip to Disneyworld is in the works for next March!

And here is a video of George because no post would be complete without one!

Solid Food

George is almost 6 months and he has been showing increased interest in what we are eating. I thought I would let him try a few things this week. I wanted to start with vegetables but we didn't have any on hand so we started with bananas a few days ago and today we tried some apples. So far I haven't had need to buy baby food in jars and I don't think I ever will. So, aside from milk/formula and rice cereal, this is all George has tried and he is not sure what to think about it. He likes the first few bites of banana but then he decides it's not his favorite.

Then the apples I think are a little sour but he eats a few bits before deciding he'd rather have a bottle.



By the way, thank you for all the comments. I honestly thought no one was reading anymore and now I feel silly for even saying anything.

Dead

My blog fan base that is. It makes it hard to want to spend the time to post something when it seems like no one but me is reading. But then I remember that this is for posterity and not for my own self-fulfillment.

I have a calling! I teach the 11 year-olds. Which means, since the year is over half-way gone, I have very few kids. In fact, I will only have one in about two weeks and he is not a regular. I also have a partner teacher so maybe we will just sit and chat when no kids show up. Last week I taught and there was just one girl. She turns 12 in a week and a half so this Sunday is her last time in Primary.

Glen has only been able to play in church once but he plays again this Sunday. This Saturday, the stake is having an open house at the new stake center. I will be playing a cello duet and Glen will do something on the organ or piano. There will be booths set up explaining each of the auxiliaries (is that the right word?). I will also be assisting in the RS room because they need help setting up a quilt on a frame and then they need someone to help tie the quilt with visitors to the open house. It's going to be a busy day but hopefully we can help people in the community understand more about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I have applied to BYU's general studies program. It is for people who went to BYU but left without a degree. I will be able to complete the rest of my degree online and get a bachelors degree. It will be nice to finally have a bachelors after eight years. But, I shouldn't speak too soon. The courses are expensive and if we are ever down on our luck, I will have to quit... again.
George is now kind of crawling. But mostly backwards. I was looking through his newborn pictures today. I can't wait for the next one. But I will.

Five months!

This is today. George had somewhat of an early mid-year crisis and did some crazy things with his hair. If you look closely, you can see his cute little teeth!

George without his ears. And who says he's only in the 30th or so percentile for weight? Look at those rolls!

Shopping at Wal-Mart with Grandma. Her behavior would cause you to have this look on your face as well.

I have a five-month old. Who knew? Well, he is as cute as ever and just as rotten! We love you George! You are the best baby we have ever had!

Updates

George is now rolling all over the place and he is sitting up by himself... and falling over occasionally. He is talking up a storm! His favorite word is "dada". And he likes to bite me. Mostly my face. This is not my favorite.
Glen is still a little stressed at work but he is getting into a groove... kinda. He still doesn't have computers in his computer class so coming up with things to talk about with his Jr. High kids is becoming quite a challenge.
I am still working just as hard as ever. Big changes are coming to the school where I work which will mean more busy work. It also means a lot of training. I wish I could actually go into the office for said training but listening over the phone will have to do.
We spoke in church on Sunday. My jokes ended with the congregation laughing, which, really, was my number one goal. I hope they also learned the importance of family prayer and yada, yada, yada. Glen spoke on music, of course. And he did wonderfully. Everyone sang the closing hymn so his talk was also a success.
I am coming to find that my love for George is growing as he does. However, I don't think this will last forever. I figure one day that love will plateau and then, as he beings to throw tantrums and the like, it will fluctuate one way or the other. But for now, it keeps growing. It's almost painful.
Charlie has become the official baby guarder. He goes to find the baby every morning when he hears him crying. He also lays on the floor the entire time I am feeding, reading, and singing to George when it's time for bed. And he likes to look over into the tub during bath time. And if George is crying very hard, Charlie will cry and howl with him. I'm sure they will be the best of friends someday! You know, as soon as George can pick him up by the ears and carry him around. Best of friends, I tell you!

Teeth?!

My so called "baby" is now cutting his first tooth. I am not emotionally ready for this. Nor am I physically ready, if you catch my drift. My smaller-than-average baby is growing up right before my eyes. Next thing you know he will want to try solids and then he will be asking to drive the car. I guess it's time to have another one. Yeah, right. Anyway, for your veiwing pleasure:

Back to School

Glen starts teaching on Monday. He is a little stressed out thinking he is not physically ready, as in, his classroom is not ready. Also, it seems he has an electric guitarist in his band class.... He's not quite sure what to do with that. He is amazing and will do an exceptional job even if he doesn't have all of the resources he thinks he needs.

We are still waiting for callings in our new ward. Another couple moved in the same week as us, if not later, and they already have callings. We do have a speaking assignment for the last week of August. I'm glad they gave us so much time to prepare but I fear I will most likely wait until the last minute anyway. I don't know why I think that, but I know myself pretty well.

This month is going to be very exciting! This Saturday, my nephew, Tayen, is getting baptized! Then the next day, my cousin is giving his homecoming talk. He is a stud and I can't wait to see him! He served in the same mission as Glen so they may have some families and areas in common that they will need to discuss. Then, of course, the next Sunday, we are speaking in church. Hopefully by then we will have callings.

8-yr old nephew Tayen.

My cousin, Chas, with his eldest brother, Justin, on his way home to Mesa, AZ!

In the meantime, we are reminded each Sunday of how awesome our ward in Cedar is. We miss it. We had friends and people who cared about us. Although, the bishop here did call Glen on his way to the church to see if he wanted to go practice the organ which was extremely thoughtful. We were touched. And we are often reminded of the beauty and weather of our beloved Cedar City. It's hot here. The end.

Four Month Stats!

George is slipping on the charts. He weighs 14 lbs 12 oz and is 25 inches. His head is 16.5 inches. So, he is 34th for weight, 38th for height and 29th for head circumference. We have a new doctor and he didn't really say anything about it. I would be fine with it if he wasn't 85th percentile at birth. But I know he is at least growing... I'm hoping for a spurt. He's dang cute though!
George is enjoying Arizona! He sweats a lot but he gets to go to the pool! We love our house. It's the perfect size for a growing family. Glen has been in training for the last two weeks. He will begin to get his classroom(s) ready next week and school starts on the 16th. He's not sure about the weather and the list of subjects he will be teaching continues to grow (band, orchestra, music appreciation, elementary computers, and art. He is also in charge of creating the yearbook). But he is forging onward, with a smile on his face.
The best news of all is that my company is allowing me to continue to work in Arizona! I had been scrambling looking for anything I could. I just wanted a part-time something to help pay the bills (especially since we got a $300 electric bill [luckily we found out we were charged twice what we should have been]). Now we will be able to save up for a rainy day and pay off our card which bought the appliances for our home. I love love love my job! I work with great people and my job description has changed every year which helps keep things interesting.
Anyway, we are VERY blessed to have jobs in this economy, and I get to stay home with my Porgie!

Four Months and Twenty-Five Years

Today is Glen's birthday!! He is the big 2-5. I can't narrow down the reasons I love him to 25 so I won't bother to list them here. Today we made him the breakfast of his choice, he opened a couple of presents and we went to church. Tonight I made him Brazilian food called feijoada, his choice. It was really good. And we had cake and ice cream. Spice cake with cream cheese frosting and sprinkled with heath crumbles. Also tasty. Tomorrow we are having a real party at Organ Stop Pizza which is a pizza place with a live organist. Perfect for our Glen.
I often brag about how wonderful Glen is and I feel like people will stop reading if I do it again so I will fore go it this time.My baby is 4 months old today. He is babbling, blowing bubbles and working on his consonants. He screams.... a lot. He is an all around happy baby and we love to have him around. He still hasn't figured out rolling over. He has rolled over in his crib and he almost rolls over from his back to his stomach. Speaking of his crib, Grandma bought us a monitor and George has been sleeping in his crib ever since. In his own room! Contrary to my earlier hopes and dreams, this does not mean he stays asleep longer. I don't know why I thought he would but I did. Since we moved, he wakes up around 2 or 4. Then again when Glen and I wake up at 6. Then he takes a two or three hour nap after that. I'm ready to give him away. Not really, but he has spoiled me. I was used to sleeping eight hours and now I get much less. And I work so I don't get many naps.

Anyway, I love my baby! I love Glen! Signing off.This was George's first experience with just hanging out outside. This was in Cedar City, of course, a couple of months ago.

A Day in the Life...

...of my boys!