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!

ALMOST ONE!!

We went to the Ricks Family Reunion and went camping in East Canyon on the way home, Tate wouldn't learn how to walk soon enough so he spent more time than he would've liked in his pack-n-play...someday he'll realize it was for his own good!
We went to the Zoo with Cindy, Nellie, Brianne and all the crazy boys! So much fun!
Tatem and Spencer took turns "pole dancing" during lunch! What happens at the zoo stays at the zoo!

 Oh my goodness! Blogs are so hard for me to keep up with! Life just flies by when you're having fun.... quick update... Tanner is still with Directv and it's going great! He starts school in two weeks again, and me and Tate aren't looking forward to a Daddy pulled so many directions, but we feel so blessed to have him when he's home! I just finished a semester of school, three more to go, and it went well! I'm able to do the rest of my classes online so it doesn't impact Tatem at all, he doesn't even know I take classes because I do them while he's sleeping! (he LOVES to help type!)

Tatem is HUGE! My baby is a grown up baby now and I don't know what to do with myself! He doesn't need my help to eat, he likes to play by himself, and he is almost an expert walker! He loves to get up and walk, his main downfall is he tries to run and then he trips over his own feet! I'm trying to teach him to take one step at a time but he's just too crazy!

We are super happy here and things are going well! We can't believe we almost have a one year old (Sept. 16th!) before I know it, he's gunna be in college I think!!

8 Months Old!

Playing in the sink at Grandma and Grandpa Haddon's

Someone little got Legos for Easter and loves them! He can't wait to play with them everyday!



Oh ya, Legos are messy!

Tatem loves exploring in his walker. One morning he was playing and he had walked down the hall and got very quiet. So I figured something naughty was happening. When I went to find him, he had gone in my room, pulled a pillow off of our bed and cuddled up and went to sleep! So So cute!
This is a picture that we took on Grandpa & Grandma Allred's back porch. It's so cool to be able to see the temple out the back of their apartment!

My goodness time flies! I'm not what you could call a dedicated blogger I guess! Life has been so busy in the last couple months! Currently, I'm a returning student to Utah State University. I have it set up so that I can take all of my classes online and hope to be done with my Bachelor's Degree in Family Studies. Many people know that I've always wanted to be a teacher but once I started the coursework, I realized that I do love teaching and kids, but my passion is more in helping kids in their family settings. I hope to go on to teach parenting and marriage classes and firesides. Tanner is still working for DirecTV and is enjoying it and considering applying for a job opening with the Utah Highway Patrol at the end of the summer as it has been a goal of his for a long time. We'll see how everything goes. As of today, he is at Annual Training for the National Guard and we haven't talked in about a week with a week left to go. They're only in Dugway just outside of Tooele, but me and Tatem still miss him! He's a HUGE part of our family and we love him!

Ok, Ok, onto the reason why you're reading this blog! Tate!

He is just getting cuter and cuter by the moment.... well I think so. He's 8 months old, still no teeth but like we've said since 4 months old, it looks like he'll be getting some any day now... crawling is something he's SO close to, but still working on. He really wants to walk. He starts crawling, gets mad and tries to stand up to walk instead and of course falls. It gets ugly. He still loves to eat, but finally his growth charts are getting a little bit closer to to normal, still chubby but I wouldn't have it any other way. The past couple weeks he's started only waking up once a night! I haven't slept this well since before I was pregnant! He even goes down for naps and bedtime by himself! Heaven is smiling down on us!

I love being a mom and I can't get over how big my baby is already! I love being in the stage of growing my family and I'm so glad it's just beginning. I really couldn't feel any more blessed than I am now. I have a wonderful husband who sacrifices everyday for myself and our son, and couldn't love us more and I him. We have a happy healthy baby and family members all encirling us who we get to be with all of the time. I don't mean to brag, just want to say I feel so blessed and feel so thankful to be where I am at this time in my life.

5 Months Old

Shh don't tell dad, but I think someone is a Mamma's boy!

I tried to take him on a walk around the corner to the mailbox, he lost his mind! He better get over it because he came to a momma that loves going on walks...I've got baby weight to loose dang it!

Sitting at grandma and grandpa Ricks' house! Notice he has on streachy pants only!

Yum! Rice cereal...don't worry we got the wheat kind since the news says rice is no good now! But some how the rest of us aren't dead from eating rice cereal so it must not be too bad!

It the walker! Super cute! He just learned how to walk on the carpet too now which is kinda naughty!

awe! Cuddles with dad!

WOW! Time flies! I was going to get better at posting and now look! It's been a month and Tate will be five months old in two days! Crazy! Life is starting to get a little more manageable around here!

Tatem finally takes naps and I can usually plan around them pretty well! He also is a BIG eater! He only nurses a couple times a day and the rest of the time he's an expert in the high chair! He loves veggies, peaches and very very watered down apple juice...if he's being a "good" boy!

Tate's favorite things are snuggleing (I don't mind that one bit), Walking in his walker, jumping in his johnny jump, going on walks (if it's warm enough), reading fun books and he sits up on his own as long as is isn't wearing jeans! He's already got a knack for comfortable clothes! We're still working on rolling over, he just has a lot of chub to move and I'm not sure he's on the floor enough to really catch on. Mom's working on letting him play on the ground more often.

Tanner is still working, in the National Guard, teaching 11 year old scouts, church basketball and going to school. Life is busy but he always spends his extra time with Tatem and I and we love him for that. I'm planning on starting school again this summer, a new development in the passed couple weeks but I've really been feeling like its what I need to do for myself and my family...especially since I'm so close to being done. I'm earning a degree in Family Life Studies and plan to teach parenting classes and work to strengthen my family as well as others with the information I am taught.

We are very blessed to be happy and healthy! We love each other, our home and the many ways in which we are blessed.

Oh ya, if anyone is looking for a "deluxe" Audi A4 1999 send them my way, we have a hum dinger of a deal waiting for them... that's right, Stacey is for sale and she's a bargin (like you name the price and we'll accept it)! Time to get a bigger car to fit our baby in!