Really? Its been 22 days since my last post?

I guess 3 kids have made me a little busier than I had thought....who would have guessed? I do have LOTS to update you one though since the 3rd.

1. I quit nursing Russell last Monday because despite the Dr saying that he is perfectly healthy and to stick with it...a momma just knows ;) I took Russy-poo back to the Dr last Monday to be weighed again and he was still 6 lbs 8 oz. He didn't gain (or lose) a single ounce in a whole week. Our goal was to put on an ounce a day. So I said to heck with nursing, lets get this baby some formula! And I am PROUD to announce that when I took him to be weighed again on the 23rd (my birthday) he was a gigantic 7 lbs 3 oz!!!! We are finally heading in the right direction. If you recall, his birth weight was 6 lbs 15 oz.....and after 5 weeks he finally caught back up to that weight. He looks so much better...finally getting some meat on his scrawny little preemie bones :)

2. Poor, sweet, adorable little Wylee girl had to get a tooth pulled....on my birthday (so far that's 2 different Dr.'s offices on my birthday if you're counting). She's only 20 months old and her front left tooth is missing, and not because it hasn't come in yet :( Her and her big brother were "playing" on our bed in Paris and all the sudden I heard a "smack" and a bunch of crying. I turned around and Wylee's mouth was bleeding and Jared kept saying "I'm just really sorry". She somehow hit her mouth on the porta crib. Lovely. I finally got her mouth somewhat cleaned up (I couldn't get the bleeding to stop long enough to see what damage had actually been done) and I hoped and prayed that it was just a cut on her gums. Wrong. I called Jared and had him come home (he was coming home for lunch anyways) and the first thing he said was "Oh yeah, that tooth is gonna fall out". I was SO upset! Partly because my first thought was "Great, now shes gonna have all these baby teeth and one GIANT permanent tooth till shes like 7!" just picture that for a moment. Haha, ok. That's not how it works. Instead, that adult tooth will take even longer to come in so she will be toothless until shes about 8 or 9. Talk about one depressed momma over here!

3. I had my 6 weeks check up (after having Russell) on MY BIRTHDAY (that makes 3 now). Basically Dr. Nelson said "Do you even want to bother with birth control?" to which I replied, "Nope. Not really", to which he replied, "Great, see ya in January!" I can't tell you how great it is to have an OB that respects the fact that yes I have 3 kids and I want more. The OBGYN Place (the Dr office that I went to with Wylee) asked me at every SINGLE visit if I was going to tie my tubes. And every single time I said no, we want to have more kids. And they ALWAYS replied with, "Why, you have a boy and your about to have a girl?". So annoying, believe it or not our goal isn't to just have a boy and a girl, we want more kids to love and take care of no matter sex they are. So thank you Dr. Nelson! After allllllll the doctor visits were over we ran home and grabbed our stuff and our dogs and we headed back to Paris for a two week stretch. Jared made me a birthday cake and we went and got Taco Bell, took it to the park and had a picnic and played for a little while, then Jared took us for sno cones (my FAVORITE treat) and then back to the house for some birthday cake!!

I can't really think of any other updates for now...so how about some pictures to look at!!

This is Russell a few weeks ago, you can't tell how skinny he really was...

This is Russell on my birthday (the 23rd), hes the biggest that he has been so far and look how small he still is!

We love our Sonic drinks :)

I wish this had turned out better....but still cute!

I don't know why this picture is sideways...It won't rotate and that isn't how it looked when I uploaded it :)

3 of my 4 loves

Yep, that's a choke collar around his head.

Nap time is the best (for me) :)

Jared's forehead also wanted a taste of my birthday cake...

There it is....the toothless wonder.

She is still a cutie pie no matter how many teeth she's missing :)

Baby Feet

Little Russell is more like "tiny-premie Russell". I think he's lost about a pound since the hospital...a pound that he really couldn't afford to lose. BUT we'll see if we can't fix that. He would just rather be sleeping most of the time and isn't real interested in nursing, he'll do it but he'd rather eat from a bottle...it's easier for him, he doesn't have to do so much "work" I think lol. Lazy little baby. Other than that he's doing great! His nights and days are kind of mixed up I think, but we're sort of working on that too.

I attempted to take all 3 kids to Hobby Lobby by myself this morning...I may not be doing that again for a LONG time, at least not without the double stroller! LOL! That was a little bit much. Especially in Hobby Lobby, Jared and Wylee have NO business WALKING around in that store. Yikes. It had to happen sooner or later though, maybe I just should have waited for the later...oh well. I survived, and they did too.

This is a short one, all 3 kids are napping so this mama needs a nap too! Night night!

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.