Russell Owen Ricker

Our sweet Russell Owen is here! I had a c-section early Friday morning and got to go home by Sunday afternoon!! They estimated Russell to actually have been about 36 weeks at birth, but his lungs were fine and other than having a bit of trouble nursing, he's doing great. I think he sleeps even more than a typical newborn, but its OK by me. The kids are adjusting so well to the baby. Jared is always wanting to hold him and count his fingers, and Wylee just LAUGHS her head off at him. I don't think she gets it yet, I think in her little mind he's just a baby doll that does a little more than the ones she usually plays with, not much more, because like I said, he sleeps ALL the time. They are so proud of their sweet little brother, its adorable. And we are happy to announce that my doctor gave us the thumbs up for just ONE MORE baby :) And that's it, BUT that's one more, and we couldn't be happier. Jared told all the nurses and doctors that we would see them again in about 18 months, lol. We'll see ;) Anyways, back to Russell! Here are his stats:

Born at 7:59 am Friday morning (July 16th, 2010)
6 pounds 15 ounces
18.5 inches long
36 cm head
33 cm chest
Dirty blond hair that's long in the back and short up top! But not like a mullet...

I see both Jared and Wylee in Russell. He's a wonderful mix of his big brother and big sister (and mommy and daddy too). We love him so much and we are SO relieved to have him here with us and out of my belly!! Now on to the good part...the PICTURES!! Enjoy :)

Sweet baby Russell <3

The proud big brother and big sister seeing their new baby for the first time :)

Okay, normally I would NOT put this picture up for some reason I went ahead and did it...yes I look swollen...yes at this time I do not care to hide it from the world :) so there!

Wylee had a pink dress on that said Big Sister Wylee, and Jared had a shirt on that said Big Brother Jared, it was so sweet! Thanks Christina and Leslie ;)

Getting ready to go HOME!

I just love this one, maybe because I'm hiding behind the baby thing.

There were VERY touchy touchy once Russell was reachable lol

All snuggled up and just moments away from a lovely car ride home...

where Jared insisted on holding Russell's hand the entire way home so that he could "keep him safe while he was in the car". Wylee let go not long after this, and then took her shoe off an popped Russell in the face with it and laughed. Russell didn't laugh. Neither did I.

The end. For now anyways :)

We're still alive....just uncomfortable

So here I am....37 weeks pregnant with sweet (hopefully) baby Russell. Why am I uncomfortable? Because I have been having contractions for the last 2.5 weeks. My dr says that if I hadn't have had the last 2 c-sections that I would probably have myself a little NICU baby. But my cervix won't open more than 1.5 cm so far. And that's being nice. Again, I'm 37 weeks but this morning at my appt. I was measuring 43 weeks. Monday at my appt. I was measuring 40 weeks. You do the math. I have been to the hospital about 5 times in the last 3 weeks to get the good stuff to help with the contractions and the pain and finally, FINALLY, my dr is putting me out of my misery and we are going in at 7:30 tomorrow morning for my c-section. THANK GOODNESS!!!! It's over! And so is this post :)

"A" is for my Apple Tree!

I have to start this post with some EXCITING news!! My apple tree has two tiny little apples growing on it! I had a Relief Society retreat this weekend and when I got home yesterday afternoon Jared said he had a surprise for me. So, he took me to the back yard and I saw these little beauties.....

I was SO excited about these apples, I thought it would be a few years before we ever saw any fruit...and it only took a year! It's a Gala Apple Tree by the way :)

Friday Jared had to go to Paris to meet some workers at the new job site that he'll be working on. Since that was going to take most of the day, the kids and I went along for the ride! It was slightly boring while he was working with the guys, but that only lasted about 2 hours, and it was worth getting to spend all that time with him. The kids did pretty well considering we were in the car from 9-almost 3 :) Thanks kids!

kay, now on to the reTREAT. And a treat it was! Our RS Presidency did such an amazing job this weekend. Truely amazing. We had wonderful speakers, a super fun craft, and GREAT food. Not to mention the bishopric served us dinner friday night, prepared by the AMAZING Bruce White. We did a service project for Stand Up for Kids, and had one of their volunteers speak to us and give us all the facts. Some of which (okay MOST of which) make you cringe and wish that there was more that you could do to help. It's so sad what these kids go through. It reminds me of how blessed I am, and how lucky we are to be able to raise our family in the Gospel. On Friday night it started at 6:30 and went till around 10 (12 if you wanted to stay and play games, but I was exhausted)...and then again on Saturday from 10-2. So Jared thought he would take the kids to Lake Lavon and have a little camping trip! All was going well until Wylee woke up at about 2:15 and was ready to play....and then Caine chased a skunk around that same time, and needless to say I got a phone call at 4ish asking me to come outside and help get the kids inside. :) It was a sweet idea either way, lol.

Doesn't that look YUMMY?!?!

Before this course, there was a lobster bisque that was brought out after the fresh fruit and salad....I fogot to take a picture of it, but it was so good! And I HATE seafood :)

This steak was amazing. I don't what kind of sauce he made for it but I've never had anything like it! And yes those are grilled peaches on top. Brother White SPOILED us!...and little red cup has homemade macaroni and cheese in it! YUM!

Don't even get me started on this dessert.....it was just as amazing as the rest of the meal. Homemade cheesecake :)

This is the craft that we did!! We made gratitude journals, and it was SO much fun! They started out plain black and we picked ou tthe paper we wanted to cover the front with and then added the little flowers and the centers and ribbon, etc. I LOVED IT!!! I can't wait to use mine...I have a lot to be grateful for :)

After I got home Saturday afternoon the kids, Jared, and I hung out in the backyard and Jared grilled us some chicken, potatoes from the farmer's market, and corn on the cob for dinner! It was SOOOO good!! I ate like a queen all weekend long :)

Yes, I know, she's choking him....she usually does, she dropped him shortly after this too.

She may end up being a little cheerleader if her daddy isn't careful!!!!! And check out the grillmaster at work!!!

Aspasians, puppies, and recovered pictures!!

It has been SO LONG since I updated!! I don't even remember what the last thing I posted was about. So I'll just guess that it was something to do with getting stuff ready for our booth at the Aspasians. And the Aspasians went GREAT!!!! Here's a couple shots of some of our booth...

There are a lot more, but they take so long to upload so I'll be putting more on the Laynie's Sewtique blog. ANYWAYS, that was on April 24th, so I have about a month's worth of updating. Baby Russell is killin me!! He's always under my ribs and squishing my lungs, I feel like I can't ever breathe...it's so worth it though, I know I know :) I had a sonogram on Monday because I was measuring big at my last appt. but we are back on track and he is 2 lbs 9 oz, and as of Wednesday this week I am at 29 weeks! Time is flying by and I have a ton of stuff to do before he gets here.  Wylee is FINALLY wanting to talk more. She tries to repeat a good number of words and it's so cute to hear her say "puppies". Other than talking more, that's about all there is to update on her. Jared hasn't really hit any major milestones lately but he's really starting to feel bad when he disobeys and he is starting to get his feelings hurt. THIS KILLS ME! Today he deleted ALL the pictures off of my camera. I haven't exactly been great at uploading these pics to the computer lately so I was so upset, to say the least. I thought I had about 300 pics that got lost until a friend sent me a link that she JUST used to recover her pictures from her camera....and I had 701 files that were deleted. 701!!! And when I realized what he had done he said "I'm so sorry mommy, I'm so sorry, I'll never do it ever ever again". It broke my heart. It was so hard to stay mad. LUCKILY I got all the pictures back that were lost (most of them were pictures of blankets that I had made, and then Mother's Day pictures too). Funny thing is out of 701, there were only 36 that I hadn't uploaded yet. So I've been doing better than I thought, lol. Anyways....on to the good part...PICTURES!!!!!!

Wylee on the day Candee had her puppies.

Daddy and his sweet little girl doing some yard work :)

Proud Uncle Jared....he LOVES those puppies!

Won't be long till baby Russell is in this picture too!

Jared picked this in the back yard and brought it to me while I was sewing...it was so sweet.

My Mother's Day tulips from Jared and my flower treliss (I don't know to spell that, sorry) that Jared and Big Jared built for me. I got to pick out a little flower to plant in it. It's still goin strong!

One of the MANY blankets I have been working on!

As soon as I have some more free time I will put EVERYTHING up on the Laynie's Sewtique blog that I have been working on lately.

Resurrection Rolls

Sweet Ashley Howry always has the greatest ideas!!!! She just put this fun recipe up on her blog for Easter! Easter has always been one of my favorite holidays. Not always for the right reasons....that's changed over the last couple of years though. I used to love it because the weather was usually so springy and nice, and who doesn't love a new Easter dress??!! Since being baptized and digging into my scripture study I appriciate it so much more. These Resurrection Rolls are going to be a GREAT tradition to start with my babies!! I love the idea!!

RESURRECTION ROLLS


• 1 package Crescent rolls

• melted butter

• large marshmallows

• cinnamon

• sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Give each child a triangle of crescent rolls.

The crescent roll represents the cloth that Jesus was wrapped in.

Give each child a marshmallow.

This represents Jesus and His purity.

Have child dip the marshmallow in melted butter.

This represents the oils of embalming.

Dip the buttered marshmallow in the cinnamon and sugar.

This represents the spices used to anoint the body of Jesus.

Wrap the coated marshmallow tightly in the crescent roll

(not like a typical crescent roll up, but bring the sides up and seal the marshmallow inside)

this represents the wrapping of Jesus' body after death.

Place in a 350 degree oven for 10 to 12 minutes.

The oven represents the tomb (pretend like it was 3 days and nights!)

When the rolls have cooled slightly, the children can open their rolls (cloths) and discover that Jesus is no longer there,

HE IS RISEN! The marshmallow melts and the crescent roll is puffed up,

but like the tomb - IT IS EMPTY!

Blankets and Updates

I haven't written in SOOO long. But I feel like there hasn't been a whole lot to write about. I have been SUPER busy making blankets and onesies, and since I have a booth with PLATINUM DESIGNS at the Aspasians this year I am about to be even busier making my goodies to sell up there! Just in case you don't know when it is, the date is April 24th! I'm realllly excited! Now for some updates:

                                    Jared at Chuck E. Cheese...he had SO much fun!!

                                         

        Jared and Wyatt at Chuck E. Cheese :) They were born the same day at almost              the same time!

Little Jared:

He is ALL over the place. And a mess. He  can be sooo sweet but then be soooooo rotten all of the sudden!! We are trying really hard to get him to stop taking everything out of Wylee's hands the second she picks them up. It's not working well. He is fully potty trained! I started working with him the last week of February. I took him to Hobby Lobby and let him pick out some scrapbook paper and stickers so we could hang a potty chart on the fridge and took him potty every 20 minutes. That was on a Wednesday (the 17th) afternoon. One week later we had him in underwear and he's been wearing only underwear since then!! To be official the underwear started on February 25th. And I am very proud to say that he has only had 2 accidents since then, and they have both been in the middle of the night. He says family prayer for us almost every night and he likes to be the one to bless dinner too. His Nursery teachers tell us that he is SO good during nursery and is a leader for sure. We kind of knew that one though ;)

Wylee @ Chuck E. Cheese :) She ate 2 slices of pizza and drank everyone's drinks.

After a long day at Build-A-Bear with Grammy, Nuncle Dallas, Jared and me. She was exhausted.

Wylee Ann:

She is as sweet as ever!! She still doesn't say much but she's starting to talk some! She calls Jared "Bubba" :) She is going through a bit of a shoe phase right now. It's really more of a problem than a phase, lol. Jared picked all the random shoes up in OUR bedroom on Sunday and 7 of them were Wylee's....only one matching pair out of all of them. She puts them on then takes them off then cries then puts them back on and takes them back off and cries some more. She loves wearing Jared's shoes too. It's hilarious. Of course he doesn't let her wear them for too long before he knocks her over and snatches them off of her feet. She is getting her molars in! At least on the top, she won't move her tongue so that I can see the bottom. Which I'm sure she's excited about because that girl LOVES TO EAT!! She will be eating a good 15 to 20 minutes after everyone else at the table has finished. And she LOVES her ketchup too! Such a cutie :)

Baby #3: (sorry there aren't pictures yet)

Baby #3 is a boy!! Most of you already know that though :) We finally picked out a name for him...Russell Owen Ricker. Owen was Jared's dad's name and we both just really liked the name Russell so there it is! I scheduled my c-section date for July 23rd at 7:30am. If he waits until then to join us, his birthday and Jared's 3rd birthday will be one week apart. So no matter what for at least a week I will have 3 kids ages 2 and under :) YIKES!

Big Jared:

Big Jared's job is taking him out of town for a few months. He will be moving for the rest of the pregnancy and possibly about a month after we have the baby. It's a really neat job though so we are excited for him! And he will be able to come home most weekends we think. SO! No big deal :)

Me:

Obviously I'm pretty pregnant now....22 weeks tomorrow. It has FLOWN by. We are all very excited about Russell joining us! Fear hasn't set in yet. It will as we settle in the hospital room and Jared goes to change into his scrubs for the big moment. That's when it set in with Wylee. Well not to mention we weren't expecting to have her that night, so that was a bit of a shock. But it will all be fine. Laynie's Sewtique is doing really well!! Last year around this time I was putting together a book of blankets to show at someone else's booth in the Aspasians...this year I'm getting ready to actually be AT the booth and sell stuff myself! SO MUCH FUN!!! I have tons of blanket orders right now. I got a phone call this morning to see if I was interested in sewing together some prototypes for a woman that is designing some little girl's dresses. And then sewing all the orders that she gets. I'm gonna give it a shot. She makes her own patterns, just doesn't sew. SOOO I said I would love to try it out and as long as it doesn't seem like too much on my plate (especially when Russell gets here) then I would be happy to do it! We'll see how that goes :) A little extra money would be nice around this time! Especially with a new baby.

AND that is about it! Candee is pregnant too and should be having her litter in a couple of weeks :) She looks about as big as I do...and about as lazy too.

Some blankies I've been working on ...