Thanks!

Great pictures everyone! Thanks for participating. I'm officially finished for the semester. I think I've pulled an A in all my classes. There is one I'm a little if-y on because I did pretty poorly on the final exam. But at the worst I should only get a B in that class because I did well the rest of the semester. Now I have 2 weeks of no school. I won't really call it a break, because it's not really going to be with all the other stuff I have going on, but at least I won't have school to worry about on top of that. Looking forward to seeing most of you in another week! Yeah!! I love the holidays surrounded by family!!

Here's mine. It's Shelbys Baptism. Man look at how the Grandchild have grown. Let me check out another folder.

Trying to lean how to quilt projects. Regular sewing is so much eaiser. I have been quiling for the last 4 hours, my shoulder feels it, but I enjoy the finish project. Take care need to get ready for the church Christmas dinner. My apple crisp is smelling so good. I could leave it home and eat it all by myself but that wouldn't happen around here. lol

4th Picture Game

Thought I would get in on the game, sounds like fun! I have many picture folders on my computer and because I find myself having time, I have chosen to pick the 4th picture from many of the folders.

This is from Christmas 2008 while decorating my Christmas tree with my wonderful roommates Jamie and Kristen.

This is me and my good friend Lexee while we were out on a double date.

At Jenni's wedding reception, almost 7 years ago, with some high school friends.

On vacation in Hawaii with roommates Kristen, Victoria, and Jamie. While out to lunch one day I made the comment that I wanted to go to Hawaii and the next thing I knew, we were making plans for the trip. Luckily all I had to pay for was my plane ticket and spending money.

I do believe this was my last zone conference on my mission. Here I am with one of my favorite companions, Corley Griffin (Newburn), and some of my favorite Elders (Grimmer and Potter).

On Our way back from the Manti Pagenant and I said that Ambrey wouldn't be able to fit her butt in between the roof and the head rest. She proved me wrong by putting her butt on my head.

Les and Audrey in the summer of 2008 during our family pictures.

During a ward trip to Temple Square to see the lights.

Well I hope that you have enjoyed the trip down my memory lane, and even if you haven't, I have

4th Picture

Since I have about 30 folders with pictures on my computer, I chose the fourth folder, fourth picture.  It was a from this summer when we were visiting Florida from Nevada and Beth brought Luke to be blessed.  Kira came as well and I sat all of the kids under my magnolia tree to take their picture.

4th Picture

LOL No lie this is the 4th picture I had saved on my computer.....hahahahaha!!!!!  This is a picture of Charlie and Hillary's family taken in 2008.

Picture tag game

I remembered the Hutchinson-side did this a couple years ago and I thought it was fun. I should be studying right now, but this is more fun. Go to your pictures you've got saved on your computer and pick the fourth picture you have there and tell us about it in another post. I've got folders of pictures so I'm going to pick the first picture of the fourth folder, the fourth picture of the fourth folder and the fourth single picture. This is a picture of us working on our pumpkins that we carved this year. This is us still working on pumpkins. Our family discovered over the summer that we enjoy frisbee golf. This is a picture of us after we finished a course by our house. Can't wait to see all of your photos. We should do this again only with later pictures (and I think I'll do it from my desktop too. I have way more pictures on there than the laptop).

Grandpa Update

Grandpa went to a rehab facility this evening down in Destin. The doctor wants him in there for 1 to 2 weeks. Grandpa needs to gain some strength and be able to do a few more things for himself. He will be doing some hard work there and getting strong and healthy. Right now, he is doing so much better, looking so much healthier and is in pretty good spirits. He was upset to not come directly home, but didn't really want to end back up in the hospital in a couple of days. (That is what happens a lot.) I will make sure he is definitely home by Christmas.

Looking pretty darn good!

 Showing the battle scar.

Grandpa UP and AROUND

Grandpa is doing great today! He is up and walking, eating regular food, sitting in a chair...you could say he's a whole new person!

His "heart" hug pillow.

He has all the people who visit or help him sign it.

Grandpa taking his lap!

A message for everyone.

Update

According to Joe, Grandpa is awake and in no pain. He was quite shocked at how late it was when he woke up. I was told by the doctor to go home and get some sleep...(what, I really look that bad?)  I spoke to his nurse, she said that they are waiting for the respiratory therapist to pull out his breathing tube later this evening. He is in good spirits, but tired.

Grandpa's Surgery

Grandpa's surgery went well.  It took 5 graphs, but all is good.

Here's What's Going On

Grandpa's surgery is scheduled for tomorrow morning bright and early. They postponed it because they thought he had pneumonia in his lung. They thought this because the x-ray they did for pre-op showed something on his lung, he had a low grade temp and his white blood count was up. So, rather than operate on an already sick man who was sicker, they opted to wait until they could clear the pneumonia. In the meantime, they did a CT scan to double check his lungs. All of this was done in Crestview Sunday evening, but was not sent down to Ft. Walton with him. So, they didn't know he already had the tests and did not have pneumonia. (Wasted tests and time, but better to be safe than sorry.) Well, anyway, the test showed that instead of pneumonia, it was some old scar tissue. Also, it showed some individual little nodules throughout the lung. They said that this could possible be some exposure to asbestos years ago, or TB exposure somewhere. They are not too concerned about them and will recheck them in 6 months. First and foremost, do the surgery to get Grandpa better. So, he will go into surgery at 6 am our time for a 4 - 6 hour surgery. That includes, putting him to sleep, intubating, cutting, sewing, recovery... By around lunch time he should be out. Maybe home by Friday, or Saturday depending on how fast he recovers.  They said he will feel sooooo much better when this is done, like a new man.

None of this better show up on Facebook. Grandpa, Chuck,  Joe and I want NONE of his information on there. We have been getting calls from cousins, aunts, uncles, all sorts of people who have found out due to Facebook. These are only need to know details...those who need to know, KNOW! If there is something anyone needs to know, we will call them or contact them ourselves.

So, I will let everyone know how things go tomorrow VIA the blog.

Pumpkin Carving

It's been a couple of years since we've managed to pull off pumpkin carving. Well, we did it tonight for family home evening. We had a good time and I think the kids did a great job. For the most part, they all carved their pictures by themselves. Jaxson, Merrit and Alexis got to carve pumpkins from our garden. We've never been able to grow them so big. We were pretty excited. We did have a fourth giant pumpkin but it grew into the goat pen and they ate it. They usually don't eat pumpkins, but they made an exception for our giant one. We were pretty disappointed.

Happy Birthday Daddio!

I hope your birthday is a special day. Too bad you couldn't be up here with Mom to celebrate though. Miss ya.

Happy Birthdays...

Just thought I'd wish a happy birthday to Mom, Logan and Hannah. I know I'm a little late for Mom and Logan, but close enough. Love you all and hope you had a specular birthday!

A Little Sad

Grandpa Hicks was here to visit this past weekend and it was nice to have him but he will no longer be staying with us during the summer months. I knew this was coming because he was not here much this summer. The stairs have become harder for him and I have stairs. Every time you want to get out of my house there are stairs. I would have more than willing to have him and Hannah change rooms (Grandpa slept downstairs and Hannah on the main floor) to have him stay. It really hit me when I was downstairs after he left that there was no clothes hanging in the closet and none of his personal items on top of the dressers. It made me sad and longing for him to come back and he had just left that morning. It's a bummer to have your parents getting older.

Anna thought it would be fun playing with her food. I sent Ed the pic, and the first question was is it poop? All I could do is laugh. At less she know how to make me smile.

Kids' Schedules

So for those of you who are in the area and would like to attend, here are the activities Lexi and Merrit have going on through the end of the year. I will try to post the elementary concerts as I get more info for them. Lexi's Choir Schedule Messiah Concert - Dec. 7 at Central Nazarene Church (I'll have to get the address later) at 7 p.m. Holiday Concert - Dec. 13 at the high school auditorium at 8 p.m. Holiday Collage Concert - Dec. 19 or 20 at the high school auditorium at 6 and 8 p.m. each night. You have to purchase tickets for these concerts so you need to let me know in advance if you would like to go and when so I can get the tickets for you. These concerts are really great. I would highly recommend going. Merrit's Cross Country Schedule 9/11 at Carmen-Ainsworth middle school at 4:15 pm 9/15 at Springfiled Oaks Golf Course (12450 Andersonville Rd. in Davisburg) at 8 am 9/18 at HOME at 4:15 pm 9/22 at Linden Community Schools Complex at 8:50 am 9/25 at Grand Blanc East middle school at 4:15 pm 9/28 at EA Cummings Center in Mt. Morris (where the county fair is held) at 4 pm 10/2 at Davison Regional Park at 4:15 pm 10/9 at HOME at 4:30 pm 10/13 at Huron Meadows Metropark (8765 Hammel Rd. in Brighton) at 11 am 10/16 at Silver Lake Park in Fenton at 4:15 pm The kids would love to see you come. Hope you can.

Large Animal Auction...

The kids sold their goats at the large animal auction for the first time today. They usually sell in the small animal auction and we've been trying to get them moved for the last couple years. This year the goat committee voted and put us in the large animal auction. We are so glad! Last year, the best price our goats got was $1.75 per pound. This year Lexi got $3.00 per pound, Merrit got $2.75 per pound and Makayla got $4.00 per pound. We are so happy!

Update

For anyone who hasn't heard yet, Charlie didn't get the job in Wisconsin. Oh well. Moving on...

Blahhh...

We've been getting ready for the Genesee County Fair all week (well really over the whole summer so we wouldn't have to cram at the last minute, but here we are still cramming). I think we are almost finished with our preparations. We are actually going to camp at the fair grounds this year (1st time) and that means that I have to get the camper ready and figure out a menu and food for the fair too (something I haven't had to do before). Plus, of course, our regular lives don't pause for us to be able to do everything we need to for fair either. It's been a "fun" week. Can't wait until it's over. We've had some fun weather the past two days too, to top it off. It's been rainy and in the 60s. Not what we've been used to this summer, but I'm not complaining. I actually like the rain and cooler weather. I also have an update, sort of, about Charlie's job search. He put in an application for an assistant principal job at the same school in Wisconsin that he taught at 4 years ago. He told me he did it only half thinking that they might call him back. Well they did call him back and he has an interview there on the 13th (of course it's the day our kids show their goats at the fair too). We've been doing a lot of praying and talking about our options in the future and here is kind of what we've been thinking... If Charlie is offered the job and we decide to accept it (we are pretty sure we will accept if it's offered, but not 100% yet), then he will move to Wisconsin and I will stay here with the kids for this school year. We don't think we could sell the house that quickly, and there are several things we need to finish in the house before we feel like it would sell well anyway. We think we could probably get those things finished within a year. Charlie would probably only be able to come home once a month so we'd be skyping a lot (which sucks!). We've thrown around the idea of buying him a small fixer-upper to live and work on and then sell at the end of the year. That way we could potentially have a little more money to put down on a new house and we would have a place to stay with him if we were able to go visit him. We think this might be cheaper than renting an apartment, but haven't really done any serious looking into it yet. We think he could also rent a room from a member of the church there. We still have several friends in that area from when we lived there before. In fact, Charlie is staying the night at the bishop's house the night before his interview. So that's another cheap option for his living accommodations. I only have 10 classes left before I finish my degree. We think it's the best thing for me to just get finished so I don't have to transfer anywhere if we have to move. So this fall I will be taking 5 classes a semester so I can finish and graduate in the spring. I'm a little freaked out since I've been only taking 2 classes at a time, but I think I can handle it. I just might not get the grades I like to get. I will be doing this even if Charlie is in Wisconsin or not, so it's going to be ten times harder without his help. If he doesn't get the job, he'll just remain teaching at Beecher (which he's really ready to be done with) and we will still fix up the house, just in case we need to move next year for an administration job. The kids are glad that we won't have to move quite yet, especially Alexis. They really want to stay in their schools. I don't blame them. I know it's hard to start over at a new school. I think they may not feel so happy to be staying once we've been away from Charlie for a long time (if that becomes the case). So here we are, living in limbo again. Waiting to see how things will play out. I kind of wish I had a better idea of what was going to happen. Oh well.

The faces of Wyatt

Caroline's first birthday

Caroline's first birthday cake

Father's Day pictures

Last month for Father's Day my sister gave me the idea to take pictures of the kids and give them to Les as his present.  This way he would have some updated pictures for his desk at work.  He had already told me he didn't want me to get him anything so, this would be a cute little surprise.  I got the kids dressed and we headed over to my parents house.  I didn't want Les to see what I was doing and this way my mom could help wrangle the kids a little bit.  With the summer we are having, it was of course a very sunny day and the kids kept complaining everytime the sun was in their eyes (like who complains about that..hahaha).  In the end, we were able to get a few very cute pictures.

 

I just love this one!!!  They all look great, but I particularly love Logan's happy face.

In case you can't tell, the kids feet says "We love Dad"

(I was totally bummed because I left that white baby wipe in view for the picture)

We say this shows Audrey's true colors :)  Trying to elbow her brother in the face!

And here is a super sweet one of my Five Beautiful Babies!!!!!

Chicago

The day after we got back from The Falls, we packed the car back up and headed to my sister Lisa's house for a few days.  She relocated from the DC area to the Chicago area last year and we hadn't been to see her yet.  A situation came up for us to go there and so we took advantage and went.  The kids were of course thrilled to be able to see their cousins and I was happy to see my sister.  When we arrived at her house she asked me if I was going to leave the kids with her the next day so that Les and I could go into the city.  I told her that I hadn't planned on it because I of course was not expecting her to watch my kids.  She practically insisted (haha) so we totally took her up on her offer.  As many know, we are experiencing some extreme heat over here so, we didn't stay very long.  It was just to hard to walk around with little Wyatt in tow because we didn't want him to get too overheated.  However, we were able to spend a couple of hours downtown and had a great time.

Les and Wyatt with some fabulous downtown behind them!

Wyatt and I on the Water Taxi

On the Metra heading back to Lisa's house.  (Lisa dropped us off at her local train station and we were able to take the train into the city and not have to worry about driving and parking.) 

Niagara Falls

Two weeks ago we took a little trip to Niagara Falls.  We left on a Saturday morning and meet up with my parents who were already there.  We only stayed 1 night, but it was perfect for us!

Audrey and Logan enjoying the beautiful view

Bradyn thought it was great

(We somehow did not get a picture of Parker looking at the Falls, but he too loved the view)

Family shot!

As many know, Niagara is a huge tourist trap.  There were a ton of places that you could really just spend a fortune on.  Unfortunately for my kids, we are a big family and so we could not afford to spend the amount of money it would take to enjoy these attractions.  However, there were some places that had things outside that you could take your picture by.  Sorry kids, that is all we could do for you :(  Maybe someday we will have the money to actually go inside some of these places.

Here is all the kids outside the Guinness Book of World Records Museum thing.  With a replica of the Tallest Man!

This is a replica of the Fattest Man.

It was a super quick trip, but still a great one where we were able to make some great memories.  What stinks is Les and I and the 4 oldest kids went on the Maid of the Mist with my dad, but we left all our phones (with camera) with my mom and Wyatt so, we didn't get a single picture :(

I would like everyone to meet Landon Charles Stevenson. We just found out today sorry the picture is not so good.

Caroline hates Hannah's glasses

Hannah was trying to read a book and all of a sudden Caroline started crying. We had no idea why at first and then we realized that she hates Hannah's reading glasses. We thought we should share it with the rest of the family so here is a video for you to check out.

Sewing Skills

So I have wanted to learn how to sew and finally had Mom show me how to. We went to Joann Fabric and picked out a skirt pattern. For the fabric I just chose some material that Mom already had. So...I sewed a skirt, with much help from Mom. If I had to do it again all by myself, I couldn't, but I know more now than I did when I started. Here is the finished product. I am pleased with how it turned out and already have fabric picked out for the next one (white with small black dots).

And a close up so you can really see the fabric.

Hicks' Family Reunion 2012

Join us for the Hicks’ family reunion 2012 Date: July 7th Time: 1 pm to ??? Place: Charlie’s house 6432 W. Coldwater Rd. Flushing, MI 48433 Fun stuff for everyone: • Soccer and other sports • Water games • Organized games for the kids • Lots of R & R Some money has been donated to cover food for those coming in out of state. Those in-state should bring: Meat for your family to BBQ A dish to share Something to sit on Everyone should bring: a towel and swim suit Help Spread the Word! We Hope To See You There!

Cute Kiddos!

On Friday Wyatt had a Dr. Appointment in Ann Arbor so, my mom watched Audrey and picked up the boys from school for us.  While they were out and about she bought the kids these adorable coordinating clothes.  They wore them to church today and don't they all look fantastic.  I love being a mom to all these kiddos!

I know it's about time but......

I know that it has taken me awhile (only 3 years) but I dislike painting very much. So here it is my first wall half done. It's a good thing that I only had to do three walls in the family room

The door is all taped off and ready to paint, I just haven't gotten around to it yet. Maybe tomorrow when I get home from work. I do like the way this picture turned out.

The room is finished and we do like the color. I wasn't to sure at first but Dad picked out the colors so I didn't say to much but after it dried it was much better. The door will be a darker blue.

How do you like that English D on the TV? Great Grandpa Hicks has been here this last week to spend time with us.We do not know if he will spend the whole summer with us or not. What we do know is that he need to be somewhere where he can be watched. We have seen things that concern us but Great Grandpa doesn't want to talk about it. Say prayers for Jean Ann that he will listen to her. It's hard seeing your folks get older and wanting to help them. It won't be long before Dad and I are the old generation.