sneak peeks

sneak peeks from ellie's 5 day old photo session. i am hoping i get to see the rest of them soon!!

Libby Bikes

We bought Abby a used bike for her 3^rd birthday. She rode it all of one time and, because the training wheels weren't adjusted correctly and the bike was wobbly, she never rode it again. Fast forward to a couple of months ago when she and Libby were trying out the bike and tricycle. I realized that the bike was now too small for Abby but fit Libby perfectly. Libby loves to ride the princess bike! Her favorite part is ringing the bell. Here are some picts from yesterday with Lib and Chris. Now we know what Santa can get Abby – an 18 inch bike (chris had her fitted at the bike store). And once again, Libby is left with the hand me downs. I guess I can't feel too bad since I bought the bike used and then Abby never really used it. Too bad I didn't save it for her birthday!?! (i've been playing with photshop if you can't tell)

Eleanor Lynn Ricker

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Eliie Lynn was born on friday, september 24th at 1:30 (with no epidural thank you very much). She weighed 8.9 lbs and is 22 inches long and was born on her Gammy's birthday and with her middle name.

The reason I didn't have an epi was that the hospital was slammed and by the time I asked for the epi, the anesthesiologis was in a twin c section. Half and hour later the nurse dragged another anesthesiologist in, but by the time he got started it was too late. He tried to get the epi in about 3 times and i finally managed to beg them to quit. Then we had to wait for the Dr who was a couple of blocks away @ the office. He came about 15 minutes after they called him, but it was truly the longest 15 minutes of my life. Dr Thorne ran in the room, told me i could push and out came the head, out came the shoulders, then i looked at my toes and realized i could move them. I hadn't been told that i didn't get the epi and was very surprised that i had done it all myself...and managed to keep most of my makeup on!

We fell instantly in love with our little girl, and her big sisters are so happy and excited to have their baby sister at home. Things are going really well with our new little family and we are so blessed to have Ellie safe and healthy here with us. We are getting professional picts done in the morning, but here are some from the hospital.

firsts

doing drills and one on ones

chris played with the girls after practice

today was abby's first day of soccer practice. when we went to pick out her equipment on saturday, she seemed really excited about playing. when chris practiced with her on sunday, she quit after 15 minutes because she got too hot. so we had no idea what would happen today. she actually did really well, especially during the one on one with the other girl on the team. abby is the tallest kid on the team (shocking) and there are 2 little boys who are awesome. i call them little beckham (the coach's kid) and little pele (this hispanic kid who i am pretty sure has been playing since he could walk). it looks like it's going to be a great year. the first game is sept 11th and they have 2 practices a week till then. here's hoping it's going to get cooler soon!!
also, yesterday was abby's first day of pre-k and libby's first day in the one year old class (they are both at Pierce Chapel). Abby *loves* school and both days after school has gotten in the car so excited. i am excited for the great things pre-k holds, for her amazing teacher and for how much she is enjoying it. i questioned not putting her in to public pre-k, but i really think this was the right thing for abby. libby was a little apprehensive getting out of the car and she cried when the teacher got her out and carried her in (they do car line at PC) but the director said she stopped crying after 2 minutes. also, libby is potty training! she's doing so great and it would be amazing if she'd be out of diapers in time for baby #3 (no we don't have a name, yes we do hope to have one before she's born, no it won't help to give us any ideas).

i had a first today - a non stress test. it was awesome! i got to lay in this recliner in a cold room for almost an hour! i listened to my ipod and read my book for book club "same kind of different as me". my ob saw the book and had read it, then he asked me if i had read some other books - he must be in a book club too, cause he didn't hit me with anything hard and obscure like chris reads:)

chris' first - ummm....he;s supposed to go to kansas. he's supposed to be there right now but isn't. if he ever gets in touch with his contact person it would be the first time he's been to kansas. but that's all i can think of. OH - we went to this new yogurt shop in town - Chill. it was very cool, very expensive, and sure to be a favorite of the girls. we hope gammy and papa will take them next time!!

in relief society sunday we had a lesson on Christ (forgive me for not knowing the title of the lesson, i didn't have my book with me and came in a little late - but that's the gist of what we were talking about). the teacher (Karen Walker) was telling us about this thing they did in YW called the 14 day walk with Christ and she handed out an abbreviated 7 day version but said we could look up the whole thing if we were interested. I don't normally post these sorts of things on my blog and this seems a lot more like a personal progress assignment, but i thought it sounded like a good idea and wanted to post it out there for anyone (LDS or not) who might be interested. Sorry for all the Mormon lingo btw:)

14 day walk with Christ version for Relief Society

other than that, trying to stay cool and no we still don't have a name for this baby. i want Emerson (Lynn) but it is being vetoed by chris. after all the problems i've had this pregnancy, i think my vote should count twice.

denial...it ain't just a river in egypt!

well...we are going to have a baby - did you hear? now that said baby is moving and kicking more, it's getting harder to ignore the fact that another human is coming to live here and we've got to ger ready. it is at times very exciting at the thought of a sweet baby, at (many) times scary to think - HEY - WE'LL BE OUTNUMBERED!! and just all the things that go with getting ready for her. one big thing in getting ready is getting abby and libby into a room together. well...after much searching, we found a bed!! it's perfectly princess and has a trundle for cousins and friend and baby sister sleepovers!! (this picture is w/out trundle, so it'll look a little different)

it's just weird 'cause it still feels like libby is a baby and now we are pushing her on to big girl things. things never seem to go like you plan, right:) and it could always be worse - i am (for some reason) watching vh1's baby daddy boot camp...very maury pauvich!! it explains a lot about kids in the school systems:)

on to other news. i broke my wrist. to say the least, it hurts really, *really* bad. but am finally able to use my fingers a bit. i was asked for a picture.....and here it is! it's a temp cast because of the swelling, so i think they are putting a perm on next week @ my dr appt. back to my best laid plans for swimming @ the pool:(

buy 2 and get 1 free

after libby was born, i really wanted to have another baby. chris wasn't so sure and said "well, if it happens it happens". after struggling with infertility for 7 years, i knew it wasn't going to "just happen" and we even spent our fertility treatment money on a down payment on a minivan (to fit the 3 kids we didn't have)....and then wham - in feb we found out we were pregnant. what a shock! i mean, you could have told me i won a million dollars and i would have believed you more than this....but after 4 months of nausea and vomiting, i am starting to believe it's a little more real. Anyway, we went to Baby Waves today to find out the gender....and it's a girl!! i am really excited at the thought of 3 sisters, and chris is now looking in to guns and boy dogs. the girls are excited about a little sister and we are excited for the continued pink in our house!

Jennifer and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Weekend

I am going to take a moment to whine, so stop reading if you don't want to hear it would rather me just tell you in person. It started yesterday morning when Abby and I came into the kitchen as Chris was gathering his things to leave. Major work crisis -"1 to 2 hours to fix". Four hours later, called Chris who said the problem was "bigger than expected and the fix wasn't co-operating". Whatever. At this point it was noonish, so I started trying to make the kids lunch and I had the fridge opened because I was trying to counteract the heating system by cooling with the fridge figure out what to fix. As I turned around, I saw libby coming at me with a glass BBQ sauce bottle and as I start to tell her to give it to me and reach towards her to get it, she drops it, glass shatters everywhere and Lib is in the middle of a BBQ glass shattered mess. She starts screaming and I grab her and take her over to the sink to see how badly she's cut. Luckily I had just done the dishes so I had room to lay her mostly in the sink with just her chest on the counter. Even though she was screaming bloody murder, I could only find one smallish cut and one that was pretty bad. I was looking for glass in her foot, but luckily there was none. I grabbed a kitchen towel and tried to stop the bleeding while running around looking for bandages. Unfortunately, all our gauze and major wound care has been used for playing doctor by abby and chris, but fortunately we happened to have huge band aids in the cabinet. I was freaked out because I was by myself and running around holding libby while trying to stop the bleeding. But I handled it and was proud of myself! I got her in her high chair, gave her motrin and held a Capri sun to her foot to help the pain (it was cold?!). Anyway, Chris had to work all night last night and today and my mom hurt her knee really bad yesterday so when I brought the girls out to see her, abby was acting really crazy because she was worried about my mom and manifesting it in the way of a 3 yr old. We came home @ 5:30, got to spend 1 hr of quality family time together, put the kids to bed and now I am in the office with chris, FREEZING TO DEATH! I don't know why I am so cold – maybe it's because I set the thermostat on 66?? We'll, if you'd seen the power bill this month, you'd be freezing too!

 

Ok, for the non bad part, I just wanted to say how much I love Chris and how proud I am of him. It is definitely a team effort for our little family, and sometimes I don't know who has the harder job – him or meJ

ah ba

we went to callaway today to give the girls a chance to enjoy the outdoors, and i just wanted to post this (sorry i didn't edit to the end, but premeir elements is giving me a hard time!) - libby said abby's name for the first time today! abby loves it and she loves being a big sister - most of the time. they play really well together - most of the time. Being an only child, i love to watch their relationship grow and chris and i hope it will strengthen over the years. we love you libby (abby calls her libby lou lou) and abby (now known in our house as AH-BAH or AB!)

praying for peace

My Parenting in Cols Playgroup has a message board, and someone posted an asinine question on the board that their more asinine minister posed to his congregation regarding God hating the people of Hati, I am sure stemming from a comment that a somewhat prominent (?) evangelical (?) person made recently. Don't want to give him the spotlight to remain relevant an more than the media has done already, but in the mb there was a link to this article discussing the fallout from PR's statement. I really loved this part and in talking to my friend Kristen, this was how I was explaining to her I felt. On the MB i wrote that the God I believe in and who created all the people of the world, loves us all. Even if they don't know or love Him. (Just like global warming - it believes in you even if you don't believe in it:)


http://donmilleris.com/

I’ve also found that the more I trust in Christ’s redemption to be sufficient, the less overtly religious I am.
And, quite honestly, the more suspect overtly religious people become to me. When I’m with somebody who talks zealously about faith, about Jesus, about the Bible, after a while, I find myself wondering whether or not their faith is strong at all. For instance, if I were with somebody who kept talking about how much they loved their wife, going on loudly and profusely, intuitively I would wonder whether or not they were struggling in their marriage. I would wonder whether they were trying to convince me they loved their wife, or if they were trying to convince themselves. (Now that I think of it, though, some of my favorite people talk about how much they love their wives, but these are less public proclamations and more sighs of appreciation.) Faith in Christ, for me, is similar. It’s intimate. I’m more comfortable giving quiet prayers, intimate prayers. Often alone, in fact. I speak of faith the way I speak of personal matters. Of course there is a time for proclamations, but that’s the key, isn’t it? There’s a time. Anyway, I love that the New Testament is mostly intimate letters written to small groups of people who met in homes. I like the quiet authenticity of our faith. Robertson’s loudness and shock-jock verbiage seems strange and oddly uncompassionate. It felt like he was trying to tell us how tough he was, not how compassionate God is.

no shoes, no bra, no underwear, no problem!

thank goodness the cold weather has caused me to have to wear a heavy coat when taking abby to preschool!

just sayin'.

tomorrow is the day

the best 4 generation pict we could come up with from christmas. will post more christmas picts soon!

abby and ccas the hat says: "santa's little helper"

tomorrow is finally the day that abby's getting tubes in and adenoids out. Since Chris got me a super speedy new laptop for christmas, I have been working on putting all of our home movies on DVD - it is a time consuming process to say the least. Technology is so amazing to go from watching the 8mm b&w home movies of my mom growing up, to no movies of me growing up (sad i know!) to having access to edit countless hours of video clips in to an actual movie. you can lay music on top, add in still photos...it's pretty cool. needless to say, because abby was the first born we have wayyy too much video of her and wayyy not enough of libby. I started w/abby for some reason and i've made (still doing the finishing touches) a 2 1/2 hour movie - OF THE FIRST SIX MONTHS! are you kidding me?! i hope we stopped taping so much after this point, cause man - that's a lot of editing! anyway, I am sure everyone wants to see - right?! maybe i'll post it on YouTube later:)

anyway, I can't believe that little baby is so grown. Age 3 is so wonderful for her. I was telling my cousin Kimberly and Kristi @ abby's b-day - it's not that i think she's the most amazing kid, but she is the most amazing of herself..she's really growing and becoming so wonderful. I didn't think we would make it through the 2s, and now she just shocks me every day with things that she says and does. it's like i can see a glimpse in to the person she'll become. And she is still loving ballet - her recital is May 18th (right Kimberly?). Feel free to come out and watch her class doing "animal crackers". I am sure it will be interesting to say the least. I can even tell in ballet how she is maturing. She is so helpful with Libby and is a great big sister and a great friend. She is loving school and has 2 best friends - Ben who is in her class at school, and Owen who we met @ a PICP event. Ben and Owen have older sisters that Abby has become fast friends with. We also have a neighbor, Taia that Abby loves to spend time with. We love our Abby and hope that this procedure tomorrow will help her hearing, and keep her from being in so much pain with her ears and throat. she is a trooper.