Random Things

1) I'm so impressed with myself - I haven't purchased or eaten ice cream in three weeks (that's a real accomplishment for me). I was having a real "treat" craving the other day, so I made whole wheat peanut butter fingers (YUM).

2) It seems like I feel more and more thankful for my Mom everyday. Currently it is in regard to laundry - to keep up on laundry for 9 people (WOW). There are 6 in my house, and I could spend an entire day each week getting it done.

3) I am amazed at how much Caelan (my 5 year old) LOVES sour cream. The other day she was eating it straight from the carton.

4) I'm still reveling in my victory over Sean in racquetball last week (the first time ever). After over a year I'm finally getting better.

5) Doesn't it stink when your little ones are sick? I hate when there is absolutely nothing you can do to make them feel better. Poor Mega has been laying around for two days now.

6) I've been trying new wheat bread recipes (I'm trying to take advantage of my wheat). The last batch was really pretty good - I will master this thing someday.

7) I'm getting a little itch to write - I'm not sure what, but something.

8) I'm pretty surprised at how much I enjoy playing Mario Kart with Sean and Caelan. I don't even mind just watching them play - it's fairly entertaining.

9) I sure hope there are good job prospects in CA. Sean and Ben are there right now checking things out. We've pretty much given up on finding anything good here in Kingman. Does this mean another move for us????? Oh Man!

10)I LOVE doing our taxes. I get excited about finding new ways to write off income, or make deductions (especially this year when we've have paid bunches of dollars in house interest), etc. It makes me giddy when I see the refund number rise. Love it!

Fun at Grandpa and Grandma's House

My kids LOVE to wrestle around with Sean (and anyone else who initiates such fun times). We were with Sean's parents this past weekend and they had quite the grand time wearing out their Grandpa.

The "Uppers" Together Again

I was able to get together with ALL of my college roommates this past weekend. It was a BLAST. We were known as the "Uppers" when we lived together (which stemmed from the name of our house - Connection Up). It was a very productive weekend: one got married (Melissa) and another one had a baby (London) on the same day. We were able to be there to support and gush over both events. I LOVE these girls. It was great fun to see them and spend time with them again.

Here is Red with my little Nathan boy

So I know I have neglected blogging for the past couple of weeks. I finally sat down and did some tonight, so there are several posts below. I'll get around to our New Year's posts when I get some pictures from my parents (we left our camera at home... Silly us).

Growing Little Man

I had Nathan weighed the other day and he is currently 17 lbs and 25.5 inches long. HOLY MOLY! They sure don't stay tiny for long. What a cutie he is! He is cooing so much these days, and he sleeps like a champion. He started sleeping 8 hours nights at two months old, and now at three months I can put him to bed at 8PM and he will sleep until 6 AM (get up to eat and then go back to sleep for another hour and half or two). Love it!


I'm not sure that it is possible to be loved more than Ben loves his baby brother.

Christmas Slide Show

Christmas at the Dicks

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. It was the first time in the 8 Christmases that we have been married that we have been at our very own home on Christmas morning. LOVED IT! Sean's family came to our house for the holiday. We had yummy ham and cheesy potatoes on Christmas Eve, along with a tasty trifle that I made. We read the Christmas story out of the bible (abbreviated version for all the little tots present) and then sent the kids to bed while the adults finished up all the necessary preparations for the next morning. The next morning Caelan ran into my room and said, "I peeked out in the front room and saw a horse that Santa brought that I wanted from the store." She was pretty excited. It's a tradition in the Dick home that the kids can't come out to see what Santa brought until Mom and Dad put on the "special music" in the morning. The kids were dancing all around - it was all they could do to stay back there. We finally turned on the tunes and out they came. It's a tradition from the Sorensen family to have balloons on the floor on Christmas morning, so not only was the room full of 15 peoples gifts and stockings but also a floor full of balloons. The kids loved it. We did all the gift giving and opening and then had our traditional breakfast casserole. We spent the rest of the day lounging around eating treats and spending time as a family. That night we had turkey and potatoes. I had made a pumpkin pie a couple days before, and as I was sitting on the couch on Christmas day thinking about eating my pie I suddenly thought, "did I put sugar in that pie?" I went out to have a little taste and realized that NO, I hadn't put any sugar in the pie. I checked the recipe I used (from a ward cook book) and felt a little relief in that sure enough the recipe did not even call for sugar. It didn't help the taste of the pie at all, but at least I wasn't a complete nut case. I was bummed (especially since I had cooked and blended our Halloween pumpkin just for the occasion). So, two days later I made another one (using another recipe, of course). It was delicious. I LOVE PUMPKIN PIE! All in all, the day was wonderful and we loved having Sean's family here to share it with us.
This season always makes me reflect on the blessings I have: family, a home, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and most especially the blessing of Jesus Christ himself, that He was willing to come to earth and face all the trials that he faced here and complete his mission (which included paying the price for our sins as well as giving up his life) for each of us. I love him and dedicate this next year to working a little harder at becoming more like He is.

Some People....

So today we ran to Walmart to pick up a few groceries. Megan is 2 years old...and very good at it. She has recently started throwing fits for no good reason at all, and she especially loves to do it when we are in stores or at church or in the car (where there is nothing in the world we can do). Lovely. Well today as we were checking out our food Megan started having a little fit in the cart. We tried to ask her what the problem was, but she just sat there and cried. Sean was holding Nathan, and I was getting everything rung up, and this older woman comes up in the line behind us. She started to ask Megan what was wrong, but Megan just cried. She asked again, and Sean said "she's just tired," to which the lady said, "we could hear her way back in the store." (First of all, she had only been crying for a minute or two by then and although she was vocal she wasn't screaming hysterically). This time I just calmly said, "I know, she's just getting tired." The lady looked at me and said, "well, maybe you could pick her up." The way she looked at me conveyed all her inside thoughts about what unfit parents we were to have a child crying in the grocery store. YIKES!! I don't usually get annoyed by people, but this lady just made me nuts. What kind of lesson would that teach my two year old...have a crying fit about nothing and then Mom will pick you up. Not to mention the fact that our hands were busy at the moment. I just wanted to say, "Lady, maybe you could back off. Do you think I love it that my child is having a fit in this store? No. That's why we are moving quickly to get out. Perhaps you have never had a toddler, and if you have then you have definitely forgotten what it is like." I didn't say any of things, we just finished up our stuff and left. But Man, she really got my blood going (and frankly that's hard to do).