Happy Birthday Rylee

Kaelin was invited to her friend Rylee's 4th birthday party this past weekend. Rylee is one of Kaelin's new friends from her new school. The first day of her new class, Rylee and Kaelin just really became attached to each other. It helped that Rylee had a huge bow in her hair that day. Kaelin knows that big bows = good people. She is immediately drawn to little girls with big bows, I guess this is her immediate connection with them. I should probably feel bad about this, but I really don't. She is going to be the only girl graduating from college with a big color coordinating bow in her hair.

The birthday party was at Chuck E. Cheese. I think I have posted about Chuck E. Cheese before. I really despise this place. I end up spending lots of money for a 25 cent piece of junk. Several of the toys were broken others were so "germy" looking that I just "accidentally" told Kaelin they were broken too. The pizza is not that good and I am always scared to eat the salad bar because I have witnessed kids playing in the veggies, not sure where their hands were before they touched those veggies and I am sure I don't want to know.

Despite my dislike for Chuck E. Cheese, Kaelin loves it and had an awesome time. I just try to bribe her every time she mentions Chuck E. Cheese. I really would probably take her on a cruise rather than going back to Chuck E. Cheese.

Game Ball

Kaelin got the game ball at her tee-ball game the other day. She did a really good job. She actually ran to all 4 of the bases (in the right order), which is a major accomplishment for our team. She also hustled to get the ball (not sure what she would do with it once she had it, but she was determined to be the first one there).

Good Job Kaelin!!!!!

Dancing Queen

Besides being a rock star on the tee-ball field (or when Kaelin gets her way- a sideline cheerleader), Kaelin is in dance. She is in a class called creative dance. I think they call it that because at 3 years old it is VERY creative- to say the least. They have been feverishly working on their upcoming dance recital. Last weekend, we had to go up and take dance pictures. I took a few pictures of my own, since Kaelin is definitely not shy when it comes to posing for the camera.

Don't look at the ouchie on Kaelin's knee- she fell in the driveway the night before dance pictures. Why couldn't it be the night after dance pictures... Oh well her pictures always have lots of character.



Not a shy bone in her body.

Take me out to the ball game...

We are knee deep into tee-ball season. It seems like we spend more time at the ball park than away from it. We played fall tee-ball and it was very relaxed. In fact, I am not even sure if they had any rules. Spring tee-ball is a totally different ball game (no pun intended). Todd is the assistant coach again (and is enjoying it probably more than Kaelin). Example of one of the MANY rules... if a coach is on his cell phone on the field, he gets one warning for the entire season. Second time he is caught, he is ejected from the game, third time he gets ejected for the season. WOW...

Kaelin plays on the Aggies.

Kaelin plays short stop during the first inning and then rotates to the outfield during the second inning. Two innings is about all we can get in (attention span is gone from the kids and the adults nerves are completely shot- or at least mine are). As you can see, outfield just does not get enough action for Kaelin. She and her friend Cash end up playing, talking, and doing anything to keep away from playing tee-ball.

One time when Kaelin batted and someone came and tagged her out. We had to listen to her talk about that for a week. That was the first time she had gotten out and I am here to tell you that she DID NOT LIKE IT. Now, she runs like she is being chased.

As you can see in the background, these kids run to the ball (dog pile it) and then some of the better teams (not our team) even go tag the runner out.

Spring is finally here...

I walked outside the other morning and saw the prettiest site...

My azaleas were blooming, we had a beautiful flower on one of the hibiscus plants, and we had some new flowers planted in the flower beds. This was a true sign that the bitterly cold winter we had has finally left town for good. I am excited about that.

Todd has also turned a large portion of our backyard into a farmer's market (maybe to cut down on the mowing, but the garden is much more work). He has a ton of vegetables planted. I think he is worried that HEB and Kroger's might have a shortage. And if they do, we will be prepared to fully stock their shelves.

He is growing:
tomatoes (lots of them)
green beans
watermelon
squash
zucchini
several kinds of peppers
basil
onions
chives
rosemary
cucumber
patio tomatoes
planting okra later

Hicks Party of 3...

is about to become a party of 4.

So, if you are asking yourself... WHAT... WHEN...

Those are the exact questions I asked myself.

So, this is a run down...

The Big Sister is so ecstatic. Her only problem is "why is the baby not here yet" (wow, this is going to be a long summer if she is already asking this)

The baby is due at the end of October.

FAQ's:

1. Was this planned?
Yes, but not by Todd and I. God always has plans that trump what we had in mind. (plus I would have NEVER planned to be pregnant all through the summer)

2. What did Kaelin say?
She was so excited and then said "Mom, now we can get the double grocery cart at HEB" (seriously... I think she is more excited about the grocery cart than the baby)

3. Do we want a girl or boy?
We want a healthy baby (translation... please be a girl)

4. Am I sick?
Of work... Of putting on clothes that don't fit... Of needing a nap every five minutes, but other than that... no sickness

5. When did we find out?
About two weeks ago (for you mathematicians... I was 9 1/2 weeks pregnant when we found out)

6. What about running?
What about it???? I ran in a 1/2 marathon this weekend and have a 3.5 mile race in May. After that, I will probably slow it down a little bit. I would have slowed down pregnant or not due to the summer heat.

7. Cravings?
No, but I pretend I crave cookies and ice cream. It is just an excuse to eat them for breakfast.

8. How will you tolerate the summer heat?
I have no idea, but I am thinking ice cream and a swimming pool will be a good start.

A Hunting We Will Go...

The big day...

Kaelin was so excited about Easter this year. They had talked about it quite a bit at school and she had the hardest time waiting. We had to countdown nights. We had to sleep 3 different nights before the Easter bunny came to visit. Every morning, the first thing out of Kaelin's mouth was how many more nights we had to sleep.

The Easter bunny left Kaelin a ton of stuff. He must have gotten wind of what an awesome princess she is.

The Easter bunny hid about 100 eggs in the yard. Most were plastic eggs filled with hair clips, rubber bands, lip gloss, and a little bit of candy (for mom and dad). We only had 21 real eggs and 6 of those did not survive the hunt (the bunny dropped the carton). So then we were down to about 15 real eggs.

I got Kaelin the CUTEST Easter card ever. She loves those singing cards (which are so over priced) so I got her one that sang "This little light of mine". It was so cute (even the thousandth time we heard it).

The Easter bunny may have left about 50 eggs to many for Kaelin. She had to empty her basket 3 times and was getting bored from "picking up all those eggs". The bunny just figured if we had the eggs, you might as well hide all of them. What else do you do with plastic eggs? I mean, they have 364 days of doing nothing. It was their turn to shine... all 100 of them.

Dying Easter Eggs

Kaelin and I had a blast with the Easter egg dye this year. She really got the hang of it.

We had five different dyes. Of course, she totally understood what the pink dye was for, but did not really get why we needed those other four.

The Set Up (notice the missing eggs... three did not survive the boil)

After dying the Easter eggs, Kaelin put Hello Kitty and funny face stickers on them. This seemed easier than trying to do one of those kits, like the glitter or tie dyed eggs. Although those are super cute on the box, my experience has shown they are lots of work and never look like the picture.

(But... I must say... I am now not a fan of the sticker kits either) They give you flat stickers to put on curved eggs, so the stickers just get wrinkles in them and look junky. So, I don't know what is in store for next year. I am beginning to run out of options.

Easter Weekend

We spent Easter weekend in Corsicana. Kaelin was chomping at the bit to go play on the farm

Todd's brother and sister-in-law, Uncle Charley and Aunt Trish, were down from Alabama. We only get to see them about once a year, so this was an extra special trip to the farm. Although, I did not get any pictures of them. My camera only made it out a few times, I don't know what I was thinking.

Just waiting to ride the tractor...

Finally... my turn to drive.

All that farming makes for some funky toes, so we had to get pedicures.

Kaelin had an early easter surprise, she got 6 baby ducks.

She has played with those ducks for hours. Poor ducks, we are leaving on Sunday and you can go back to living a peaceful life.