Missionaries

Look at all this posting I've done lately! Don't get use to it! There's no way I'll be able to keep this up!

 

As you probably already know, Ty left on his mission about three weeks ago, and is doing well. You can keep up with him at:

 

www.eldertysonhaddon.blogspot.com

 

We're trying to post weekly when we get his letters and emails. So far he's had to adjust to a lot of things but he's getting the hang of it and enjoying it.

 

Tanner's sister, Kinzi got her call the same day Ty reported to the MTC, she is called to serve in the Ireland/Scottland English Speaking Mission and reports to the MTC on March 27th. She seems both excited and nervous which is to be expected.

 

I've been keeping busy with the kids and lately have been doing the advertisement for My Best Friend's Closet, a store owned by my Mom and Mother In Law's friend Jill in Tooele. It has been fun and keeps me busy. I do their facebook and email right now. (Like us on Facebook please!)

 

Other than that, everything is pretty much the same old thing. Kids are getting big and a lot of fun and we're looking forward to our first Christmas in this house and more importantly our first Christmas with baby Emerson!

 

 Emy at Halloween, just got this picture from my mom.

 Searched high and low for a coat to fit Emy and this is the best we did, still a little too big I'd say.

This was at the mall with our last family outing with Ty before he left. He's an awesome uncle!



Nothing New...

We don't have much going on here, but there's lots happening with our siblings...

Ty leaves 8 days from today (his 19th birthday!!) He's excited and nervous, and to be honest, so are we! But we all know he'll do great! You can assure yourself that he'll play hard and work about ten times harder. We are lucky to have him as a brother and uncle!

Tanner's sister Kinzi also turned in her mission papers today! She turns 19 in February and we're excited for her! We'll keep you posted when she gets her call!

While I'm doing a sibling shout out, I must mention Hunter! He's not leaving on a mission but he still deserves some recognition for being an awesome uncle and brother! He's a great helper and we love having him around!

Ok, here are the pics!

Tatem gets a little personal with the kisses but we're just glad he loves his baby!

Awww...except it's naught to have a phone out at church even if it's before the meeting starts!

oh yeah, I did finally get my diploma, this is the 5 second graduation ceremony/photo op! I graduated a week before Em was born, but just now got the paper!

Tate's two favorite things: Grandma and Grandpa's Tramp and Mater (who he stole from Grandma Ricks) Mater sleeps with him, eats with him, bathes with him...try putting mater through a sleeve, it's not for the faint of heart!

Tate loves to hold Emers, he doesn't even mind if she cries. He just pats her belly to try to calm her down!

Ok not the cutest picture but I'm not smart enough to figure out how to delete it! Sorry everyone! Look away!

Finally Fall!

It has been a long, busy summer and now it's finally fall! Fall's my favorite time of year because I think it's SO pretty, and after just having a baby, I'm looking forward to wearing bulky clothing to hide a little something something if you catch my drift!

Things are going well at the Ricks household, Emerson is almost two months old and she's super cute and super chubby! We love it! She's so much fun to dress up! Tatem loves his baby sister; he always wants to hold her and kiss her and as of yesterday, he's been consistantly calling her "GG" which I'm not sure what exactly that means, but it's pretty cute that he has something he calls his baby!

Tatem is still struggling with his speech so last week he had a development evaluation and was found on track in many areas but very behind in his communication so he'll be starting weekly speech therapy very soon. He is however getting better already so we're not too worried...yet. His favorite TV show is "Super Why" it's all about the alphabet and now he is obsessed with letters. Everywhere he sees a letter he gets super excited. He knows 11 letters names and loves to practice saying them. He might not know what a ball is but he knows "D dad!" and "G go!" So I guess that's something. We recorded a video of him saying his letters but upon review, I cannot post it because I look like I'm still expecting Emy. Bad angles, couldn't possibly be reality!

In other news, my little Bro Tyson just got his mission call last week to Sweden! He leaves November 14th and is so excited and probably nervous. We're so excited for him! He's going to do great! I'll try to post updates on how he's doing out there. So, before he leaves we wanted to go get some fun family pictures, these are literally the ONLY ones that turned out, thanks to my super photogenic children...maybe luck wasn't on our side because we took them inbetween conference sessions on Sunday! Ooops. But we did still watch conference in our defense!
(Sad no pictures of Tan's brother Dallin)

I hope you all are doing well!

Emerson Rae

Baby Emerson is finally here! There's nothing like pregnancy to make time go by super slowly, and super quickly all at the same time! It felt like she'd never be born, and now she's four days old and it seems like time flew by!

Emy was born on Thursday Aug. 16th (Tate was born Thurs. Sept. 16th two years ago!) She had been breech my entire pregnancy so we had a c-section scheduled for that morning at...6:30am meaning we had to arrive there at 5am and leave our house at 4am to be on time! Tooele needs a better hospital to save on drive time! When we arrived at the hospital, they began to prep me for the c-section and did one last check to see if she was still breech, and she had turned the night before! So I was induced and she was born at 6:46 pm instead of 6:30am! 7lbs 3 oz, 20 inches long. (Tate was 6 lbs 2oz, 20 inches) Emy was born quickly in less than 10 pushes, but after hemorrhaging much of my blood and having a very scary after birth experience, I feel so blessed to live in a time with modern medicine, have a fantastic doctor and hospital staff, and I know that Heavenly Father was mindful of me and baby Emy at that time and it was a great reminder of how blessed I am and how we do not go through hard things on our own.

Tatem was also breech my entire pregnancy and then turned the night before his scheduled c-section to be born naturally a week later (naturally plus drugs!) I guess all of this turning is pretty much unheard of so I feel pretty blessed that it has worked out so many times for me!

Through this experience, I have already learned so much and I'm sure I'll just keep learning...

1. I learned that our plans are different than what our Heavenly Father plans for us.

2. I have a lot of people who love me and my family, I'm SO blessed to have such an amazing family...they're the best!

3. My husband is AWESOME! He is a great dad, and a wonderful supporter to me. I got myself a winner!

4. Children are a blessing and gift from heaven. I couldn't ask for a better baby girl.

5. Tatem is a wonderful little boy and seeing him love and laugh at his little sister has been so much fun! He's handling things like a champ!

Overall, Emy and I are doing well and we couldn't ask for more!

Top 5

If there was an award for the world's worst blogger, I'd probably win it! Here's a quick update on our family...the top 5

1. Tanner was promoted to supervisor at work, he is one step away from being a site manager and hopes to become one some day in the future!

2. We bought our first home in Overlake, Utah in December. It's huge, (compared to what we're used to), beautiful and A LOT of work! We put our families to work throughout the entire holiday season to paint, redo the kitchen, install hardwood flooring throughout, install new baseboards and tile the bathrooms! We really owe it to them for all of their hardwork! Drop by sometime!

3. We found out in December that we are expecting our second baby! A little girl due this August, Emerson Rae, and we couldn't be more excited! I'm seeing hot pink big time!

4. I'm graduating from Utah State as a Family Life Educator August 10th and Emy is due the 22nd so our summer is busy!
5. Tatem is HUGE and SO much fun but he's reaching those terrible two stages! I'll put up with it though! He's so worth it!

Overall, we are very happy and healthy and feel very blessed to be where we are! I truely believe that having these precious babies is my calling and I'm so glad to have them. We are so lucky to have our families so close by to help us raise such awesome kidos! Life's hard, but I wouldn't change a thing!