The babies.

Now that Brody is two, I guess I have to change what I have coined Brody and Bronwyn for the past almost 9 months. Oh, these little ones are just so sweet together and I cannot get enough of them. Even at just a little over a year older than Bron, Brody is very nuturing and kind to her. He gives her a pacifier, brings her toys, and tries to feed her bottles. And she adores him. So much. Enjoy these glimpses of their special little relationship.

He's Two!!

Our sweet, youngest son is now two! Oh, Brody.

You are SO sweet, and happy, and easy-going, and loving, and active, and adventurous, and athletic, and goofy.

And...a picky eater, frequent pooper (sorry, tmi), and escape artist.


Poor guy was a little under the weather for his party...didn't make for great pictures :)




But the good so far outweighs the bad and we LOVE YOU so very much!!!

We love our Daddy!!

Here's a shout out to our great Daddy!




Yes, we are still alive and someone is having a birthday party tomorrow so there will be another update soon!

And, a few good ones!

Labor Day photo shoot.

So, we spur of the moment attempted to get some pictures of the kids this morning (and me in a few since that RARELY happens). The result was comical...as seen by some of the following "outtakes"!


Babies, look at the camera!


Brody, come back!


Some sort of crisis


Brody, come back!!


Why am I the ONLY one looking?!

Ugh.

Why did I even think that Zac and I would produce mellow, easy children? I wouldn't say that either of us is the most mellow, easy person ourselves...although I tend to be a bit more laid-back than Zac (in some respects :).

Anyhow, I'm feeling a bit down (and overwhelmed) as our youngest little dude was sort of "officially" found to have some pretty hefty sensory issues (vestibular undersensitivity and oral processing stuff--similar to some of Joel's) except that Brody has the gross motor skills to fulfill some of his sensory needs, whereas Joel didn't. This kid can climb!

Translated: I cannot leave the child alone for 1 second or something dangerous and/or messy occurs.

I know that a large part of it is just having a VERY busy and curious, one, almost two year old. However, the child CANNOT sit still to save his life. This includes reading time and speech therapy time, thus rendering those activities essentially pointless right now. But at least now I have a better picture of what I am and will be dealing with and will start to approach things a bit differently.

He had his little preschool orientation (Mom's day out, really) and let's just say circle time was NOT circle time. It was me chasing down Brody and hauling his crying self back to circle. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Ugh.

I think I need to grow eyes in the back of my head. Or take a Xanax. Or both.

This job of mine just never seems to get any easier :). But I love it. And I love these crazy kids of mine. And hopefully, someday they will harness all of this energy of their and become the President of the United States. Or the parent to 4 bundles of energy of their own. Or something like that :).

First day of school pictures.

Here are some official 1st day of kindergarten pictures!!

Ha! I caught him!

For some time now, I've had a "phantom" (i.e. no one will confess) drawer on the walls in my house. It's in pencil and usually not very noticeable. But, I caught this picture today and now I know who the culprit is! (if you can't read it, it says Jesse :)

Feeding time!

Bronwyn's first rice cereal (and solid feeding!) She really enjoyed it more than it looks...I took a quick break in feeding to grab the camera and that did not please her.




See look, now she's happy!




World's cutest "helper"!

A few more birthday pics.

Someone's turning 4!

We had a very special Toy Story birthday party for our favorite second son yesterday afternoon!! He has been so excited for the party and we have enjoyed his daily countdown. He truly seemed to appreciate everything and it was such a joy to be able to do this for him. Jesse has a sweet, quiet spirit that we want to make sure never gets lost in the shuffle of our crazy home and we pray that he felt very loved yesterday!!

Happy Birthday, dear Jesse!

Some info about our little guy, just for memory's sake.

He's 40 inches and 34 pounds (a slender fellow, I'm working on beefing him up a bit :)
He loves Legos and is very good at building things unassisted.
He reads at a second grade level...weird, because we never really taught him, but now he's teaching Joel (his older brother).
He loves to have his back rubbed.
When he's tired, he says he's cold. Even if he won't admit to being tired.
He doesn't like cereal (he cannot be my child).
He loves popcorn (also not a trait I share, but definitely like his daddy, here).
He is eternally forgiving.
He has a streak of fire, when necessary.

We love our little guy!

Sheesh.

I guess it's been awhile. It's funny how things like folding laundry, running errands, cleaning house, changing diapers (lots of diapers) can eat up a whole day! Needless to say, I haven't kept up on the blog very well. In fact, I have no idea how long my old template had even been erased, making the blog look like a construction site!

But, I'm back. For the moment anyway. Until something more pressing calls. Which is very likely.

I'm getting a rare moment of peace around here right now. Joel and Jesse are out on a birthday excursion with friends...Jesse turns 4 next week!!! And the babies are both sleeping. At the same time. I feel like that alone deserves a hallelujah!



Joel started kindergarten last week and is liking it! He doesn't like the "homework" he has to do each day though. He's been moved up to a 1st grade class for reading because he tested as exiting 1st grade level for reading skill, but they didn't want to move him up too far. He's still bored and says he doesn't like the 1st grade class, but I think it's just because he is probably quite convinced that he's missing out on something in the kindergarten room. You know, like as soon as he leaves the room, they have a cupcake party or something. That's my boy. Ever the social butterfly! Seriously, I had not a moment of sadness when he left for the first day. He is so ready to get out and conquer that playground!




As I said, Jesse is turning 4 soon! How did that happen? Even though he's my 2nd of four kids, I still feel like he's my "baby" because he was my baby the longest. The biggest gap I had between kids was 26 months after I had Jesse and before Brody was born. The other gaps were 20 and 15 months (Joel and Jesse, and Brody and Bronwyn) so he really was my baby the longest! He has been so fun to have here in the mornings without Joel. Man, I love those boys but they have been perfecting the art of antagonizing each other all summer. And I do mean ALL summer. Everybody is thriving with just a little time apart. :)



Brody is cutting his final teeth. Need I say more? That, coupled with some ear infections for he and Brownyn the past few weeks has been not fun. I actually only got 2 hours of sleep the night before last. You'd think I had a newborn or something??!! Anyhow, he's much happier now, but still in pain I think. He's been receiving speech therapy for a few months now and the words are starting to fly! He mostly mimics what we say but we are so pleased to here his little voice. He is Mr. Busy and if I take my eyes off of him for too long, I'm sure I'll find him scaling the side of the house. And he loves to take cereal boxes out of the pantry and carry them all over the house...on the go munching. I actually found a Frosted Mini Wheat in my bed yesterday. Ha! I love that little guy so much I could just kiss him to death!



And sweet baby girl. She's also been a bit "fussy" for the past few months. She was SUCH and easy newborn and little baby that I think I got spoiled. She even started sleeping through the night at 11 weeks!!! That is not a Hicks' trait by any means, but we'll take it! Unfortunately, she now has a pacifier addiction while sleeping and Mommy must feed that addiction throughout the night. I know, bad Mommy. I tried to break her of it last week and let's just say it did NOT go well. We'll try again in a month or so when I've recover. (See the part previously where I mentioned the ear infections and 2 hours of sleep). Playing dress-up with her is still one of the highlights of my day and I just went shopping for some fall clothes for her. I'm pretty sure I just stared at them for an hour after I got home. Oh how I've longed to see pinks and purples in my laundry room! I still sometimes cannot believe I have a daughter and I praise God for her EVERY day!!

Just for fun pics!

My posse.

Zac is working on this beautiful Saturday morning so we took some pictures to update the status of all my little people. Sort of like their own mini facebook entry :)

Joel and his plants. Oh my, he's becoming quite the horticulturist. Every day he checks on his grass and sunflowers and makes sure they are adequately watered. It's a big moment for him because apparently we are supposed to put the sunflower sprouts into a bigger pot so they can keep growing and blossom. He looked horrified when I told him I thought big sunflowers were a little scary. I guess I'll put my fears aside for his dreams. And, I must say that he took it very well when Brody yanked one of the sprouts out of the pot and left it for dead in a pile of soil on the kitchen floor. Oops, I guess 3 out of 4 ain't bad.

The other day he was singing Mary Had a Little Lamb. I was semi-listening but tuned in enough to hear him sing, "every where that Mary went the lamb was too short (sure) to go"! ha ha. Needless to say, he's been quite focused on growing bigger lately and so that was just what he heard when he listened to the song I guess.

He asked me what we were doing today and I told him he was going to a birthday party. He told me he didn't see it written down so we should write it down on the calculator. Um, calendar.




Dear Jesse. One minute sweet, the next very spicy. He's quite into the game Hi-Ho-Cheerio right now and I think we've logged about 40 playings in the last few days. He is camera shy (hence the hiding), but I did manage to get him to smile once--I bribed him. Good Mommy. He LOVES words and reading. Many times I find he and Joel on the couch with big, long books, teaching Joel how to read. "That word is actually, Joel." "No, that says through."

We were spelling words on the dining room table and he wanted to do words of things in our house. Like pot, bed, car, right? Nope, dump truck, mirror, and bedroom where his starting points. Bless his 3 year old savant-like little heart. He did ask for a little assistance spelling toilet.



Brody, the bruiser. He is ALL boy. Constantly into things and climbing on things. The other day I turned around and he was standing on the kitchen table. A few days before that I was sitting on the couch feeding Bronwyn and he just disappeared. I found him balancing on the windowsill behind the couch, in between the blinds and the window, staring out the window. Have NO idea how he got up there.

But, he is completely full of sweetness. Very few tantrums, lots of laughter and smiles for this recently turned 18 month old. If that kid was a piece of candy, I would just eat him up. I really have no words to describe his precious disposition and laid back attitude. What a special blessing he is right now!



And the princess. Probably my most smiley baby. She's already babbling and cooing up a storm...and growing like a weed. 12 weeks old yesterday! She needs to be in her crib if you want her to take a good nap--that may not bode well for her being the fourth child in a busy family, but we are trying our best :).

I still have moments every few days where it truly hits me that I have a girl! This is the baby girl I've dreamed of. She's here. Her name is Bronwyn. I'm living this! In a way, I feel a little disconnected (although you would never know it with all of the smiles and kisses that girl gets from me). It's just that it seems so surreal after 3 boys and really believing that I may never get a girl. I'm not just playing dress-up with a doll and every day I remind myself to soak this in.


I'm trying my best not to get too overwhelmed at home. These children are a blessing and if I can keep my mind on that instead of the mundane, yet pressing details of the day, then I am in the best place I can be. Savor these moments, because too soon, they will be gone!

Just because.

And what is the reason for all of these recent posts, you may ask?

Well, I may never post again. If these 4 kids don't do me in, then my new job might.

Yep, I did say my new job.

Because just in case things were crazy enough around here, I've decided to start working again.

Actually, my new job is a HUGE blessing to us--I get to do something I am really passionate about (a home therapist for children with autism), work very flexible and very minimal part-time hours, and get paid well to do it!

I started yesterday and, while it may take a little adjusting for our family, we are all very excited about it :).

One of my favorite things...

is to take all four kids to the doctor by myself. Uh, or not.

Actually, I would call our trip today very successful (if you don't count the hour I had to wait at the pharmacy) and it apparently was needed because Joel was right when he told me he had a "science infection" (sinus). Hehe.

Little daddy.

A couple of weeks ago during "rest" time (that is a very loose term around here these days :) I asked Joel and Jesse to be nice and quiet in their room because I was going to try and rest too. Joel asked why and i said it was because I was tired. "Why?", he asked again. "Well, because I have to get up with Bronwyn several times at night to feed her when she's crying. He looked shocked that all of this was going on in the household without his knowledge.

Since then, he asks me every morning how Bronwyn slept, how many times she cried, and if she had a good night. So cute.

Then last night when I went in to check on her around 9:30, I tripped over something on the floor. I turned on the light to see Jesse curled up on the floor next to Bronwyn's crib, and Joel all cozy in her rocking chair--both sound asleep. Joel woke up as I moved him to his bed and I asked what they were doing and he told me that they were going to sleep in her room so that they could take care of her overnight so that I wouldn't have to. So sweet. I almost cried.

Then I told him that he could just enjoy being her big brother and I would worry about taking care of her because I love taking care of my kids!

Easter!

I'm not sure why the boys were standing so far away from me in the pictures with just me and them...I tried to get them to come closer, but as you can tell by the "action shots" of Jesse and Brody during the actual Easter egg hunt, they were very serious about their hunting and couldn't pull away for just one second to take a picture. This was even after I assured them multiple times that ALL of the eggs had been found. :)

Easter was a really wonderful day! We had an amazing worship service at church and then over to some dear friends parent's house for lunch and it was so good! The bigger boys (we call them the "J's") played with two little girls there and were most content--I even heard Joel and Jesse say to the hostess, "This food sure is delicious" and "I really like this lunch!". And the little ones (we call them the "B's") both slept almost the entire time. We actually sat at the dining room table for 2+ hours and had real grown-up conversation without breaking up one fight or changing one diaper!