@ the Ricks Home

John and I are happy that soccer has come to an end! Jordan got a little trophy and medal that she is so excited about.

Gavin received a trophy, too. He was very proud that the coach said he was the most improved on the team. This was his first year playing and the coach noticed his efforts in learning how to play well.

Now that soccer is over, I am really looking forward to a Saturday with nothing to do. Not that we had those before soccer, but I can dream.

The kittens are settling into the family. The potty training is ongoing. We've had a few potty accidents. I hope they can continue to keep the accidents off the carpet. One time Boo pooped on Natalee's shoulder. She called to Aryn to help her out but Aryn was laughing so hard she could barely walk. Natalee was not amused!

Here I am blogging while Boo snuggles up and sleeps. I'm lookin' a little rough, but I wasn't planning on having my picture taken. :)

Here's a funny story! Natalee was laying on the couch holding Tigger and I wanted to sit down. I sang, "Natalee and Tigger sitting on the couch." Then Gavin finished the song by singing, "First comes love, then comes petting." He had no idea how funny that was! My sister Andrea and Aryn's friend, Julie, were over and we were all rolling on the floor laughing. Gavin was so confused. That just made us laugh even harder.

We celebrated John's 40th birthday! I wanted to do something big but got really sick. Made me sad. Maybe we will have a huge celebration for his 41st birthday!

I made a shirt for Amy for her birthday. She saw it on pinterest and wanted one, so I knew she would like it.

Here it is all wrapped up!

Here's a photo of the finished flooring. It is so nice and clean. I love it! 

Now we just need a nice rug. I found the rug I want on the tv set of "Good Luck, Charlie." Actually, I'd be happy with the entire house! I love the set design for that show! Anyway, it's the Key Turquoise Rug > link here. It's ONLY $5,000. Yeah, right. Would never spend that on a rug. Maybe I can find something similar at Target for way cheaper. 

Tayrn was able to go to the temple for the first time. What a special day! John and I ended up being the witness couple. She thought that was pretty cool seeing us up there. Taryn is amazing! It has been wonderful to watch her learn and grow in the gospel! Her story reminds me of the people in Mosiah who had such a change of heart they desired to do good continually. She is truly an inspiration! Love her!

During one of our couple prayers John talked about those for which we'd be doing sealing proxies the next day. It brought to my mind the people on the other side just as excited as we were years ago to be sealed as a family. I remember the extra verse I made up for the song "I Love To See The Temple." "I love to see the temple. I'm going there Friday, to be sealed to my family. What a glorious day!" What an honor to help other families enjoy that blessing by doing temple work! Sometimes I forget my temple attendance blesses others because of the wonderful blessing it is to me when I go.

When fall comes around I go crazy for pumpkin flavored everything! Earlier this month, I was really craving something pumpkin but the only thing in the pantry pumpkin flavored was pumpkin pudding mixes from last fall. I decided to add half the pudding mix to my pancake mix to see how it turned out. Yummy!! They were super moist. This week I did the same and added chocolate chips. Super yummy!

Now that Halloween is over, here's a picture of my wanna be mantel all decked out for Halloween.

I also put the witch I  made last year outside. I don't know why I never took a picture but here's one from last year. Here's the link on how I made her >click here.

Maybe I can get a picture of the Thanksgiving decor posted before Christmas.

Here's some quick photos of the kids after Trunk-r-Treat at church.

 If John has cash on him he tries to stop and give money to those sitting on the corner with a sign asking for help. The other day a man was standing in the middle of the road helping people cross the street to the church on the corner. So we slowed down and John did the southern-hospitality-wave as we passed. Jordan asked from the back seat, "Dad, why didn't you give him money?" Such a sweet girl! A reminder that she is always watching what we do and learning from our example. Glad we have some good things mixed in with all of our mistakes.

The other day at Wal-Mart the blood van was parked outside with one of those air dancing guys to get your attention. Jordan thought there must be something fun going on and asked if we could go over there. I told her that they take your blood inside the van. She cocked her head to the side and said, "Nu-uh." I explained that they really do take your blood to give to those who loose blood when they get hurt. John tried to explain it to her but she was not convinced. So we took her inside to talk to a nurse. Luckily, the nurse inside was really sweet and talked to Jordan. There was a man inside giving blood so she was able to see the bag filling with blood. She backed up a little at the sight of the blood. As we left and walked passed the dancing guy Jordan said, "I don't know why they have him out here." She knows now that what goes on in that van is not fun. A few days later she was scratched by the kitten. She told me, "Now I need blood from everyone because I lose blood every single time!"

Gavin turned 10! Double digits. More like two handfuls!

We celebrated at Chuck E. Cheese. He was able to bring his best friend and then have him stay the night with us. They had a blast together.
We gave him two movies. Green Lantern and Captain America. Two movies about heros fighting evil.
I love the Green Lantern oath! “In brightest day, in blackest night, No evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evil’s might, Beware my power… Green Lantern’s light!“
I read that the oath is something that each Green Lantern says to himself and is sort of a daily affirmation that lets him know that he is strong and courageous enough to go out and fight the good fight! The oath is the inner fire that brings forth the power to let justice prevail. What a great oath for our future priesthood holder and missionary!
Captain America is a wonderful movie. Teaching that it is the heart and what is on the inside that matters. The desire to do good, help, and serve others. Love it!


I cut Jordan's hair. She's been asking for a while and I figured I better do it before she does it herself. (She's cut her own hair 5 or 6 times, I think.) She was so excited for me to cut it and she looks really cute. (The little "bangs" she cut herself a while ago.)

We had our Young Women In Excellence. The YW chose a Wizard of Oz theme. We choose characters to match different values. It was fun! (Forgot my camera that night. Thankful for friends who always keep a camera in their purse!)
Aryn had knowledge and was the Scarecrow. She has taught herself to play the piano, and now she writes music. She played one of her songs and did a wonderful job.

Natalee had individual worth and was Dorothy. She did a wonderful job sharing what value experience she worked on. So proud of our daughters!

All the YW did a great job. Especially my little beehives who were so nervous!

I made signs for the food we brought and cupcake toppers.

Here's some photos of the decorations and how we decorated the room. I forgot my camera so I'm using photos taken by a friend. Thanks, Cyndi, for always having your camera!

Fast Sunday I was very teary eyed all day. The opening song was "I Believe In Christ" one of my very favorites and it always touches my heart. So that got me started, then with each testimony I would tear up more and more. I had thought of getting up many times. When Jordan asked if I was going to go bear my testimony I figured the spirit was tired of trying to push me up there and prompted Jordan to do it. Haha. I got up there and just bawled. Seriously. Bawled! I barely got out any words. Later during dinner I asked Aryn what she thought about my testimony. She raised one eyebrow and said, "You said atonement." Embarrassing. It reminded me of the time when I was in Young Women's. I stood to bare my testimony. Stood there and cried. So I said nothing and sat down.
When I curled up that evening to read in my scriptures I saw where I had written on the back of a book mark "their hearts were swollen with joy, unto the gushing out of many tears" 3 Nephi 4:33. Perfect scripture for the day. I had even gushed out many tears! Later in the week I realized it was an answer to something I had been praying about for a while which helps me feel a little less embarrassed and more thankful for the experience.

We had a wonderful time during ward temple night. We enjoyed dinner at Cracker Barrel on the way home with everyone from our ward that attended that session. Good food and fun conversations! Especially during the ride home with friends! I had not laughed that hard in a while.
One thing I love about going to the temple is the different inspirations I receive. Like when we've been trying to figure out how to raise a teenage daughter. Figuring out where the line is between good parenting and Satan's plan. (Because Satan's plan of no agency with a guarantee of returning to Heavenly Father can sound really good sometimes when it comes to letting your teenager make her own choices.) The answer was right there in the Endowment session. Then during the ride home, John and I were able to talk and continue to be inspired about what we needed to do and how we need to think and react as parents. The next evening we were able to share our experience with Aryn and had a wonderful discussion. She cried and hugged us, really hugged us, at the end.
Something that's been jumping out to me this month when I've visited the temple is the full measure of my creation. As I've been pondering this lately, I remembered something that Elder Ellis of the Seventy said while he spoke at our recent Stake Conference. He said Satan doesn't have to make us commit big sins to be happy. He's content just to distract us from reaching our full potential.

Speaking of our Stake Conference, our stake was split! We now have a Madison Stake and a Huntsville Stake. Lots of changes have been going on, but good changes, so it's exciting!

Our Relief Society meeting this month was about family traditions. I had a hard time thinking of any traditions  to share at first. Then I realized we have tons of traditions! Of course your typical holiday traditions, but Sunday traditions and bedtime traditions as well! I really liked the quote the sister teaching shared with us "Family traditions are like spiritual and emotional cement in the foundation of a happy home. They create fond memories, and these memories bond us together as nothing else can." So true. I shared a few Sunday traditions we have in our family. 
When my parents brought me home from the hospital it happened to be a Sunday. They wanted something easy to make so they had spaghetti for dinner. Then by accident they had spaghetti for dinner the next Sunday and decided they would keep that going. So all my life we've had spaghetti on Sunday. My mom tried having ham for Easter once and my little brother cried. Hahah. I think I am the only one that has carried on that tradition. We have spaghetti almost every Sunday. We do eat different foods on holidays, but when we do, at least one child complains they wanted noodles for dinner.
Something else we do on Sunday after church is read together as a family. My husband reads aloud to us from whatever book series we've chosen. We read the entire Spiderwick Chronicles series even before there was talk of a movie. When we found out about the movie we were all excited to go watch the movie together because that was "our" story we had read as a family.
A Christmas tradition we had when I was growing up came to mind later. Our Christmas stockings were like our mailboxes. From the time we decorated the day after Thanksgiving all the way to Christmas Eve we would write notes to each other and put them in the stockings to open on Christmas Day. I'm going to start that one up again in my family this year.

I was recently invited to be a part of two different paper craft design teams! It is such a compliment because they saw my work on my blog and asked me to join. I didn't have to try out or anything, they just liked my work that much! It's really helped me take some time to create things and use my supplies. I hate spending money on craft supplies then not using them. It makes me feel guilty, so this is the perfect push to use my stuff and enjoy the wonderful craft room my husband made me! My favorite project this month is the Matryoshka doll box and card I designed for an online class, Ustamp with Dawn and Friends. Isn't she adorable! Visit my craft blog if you'd like to see all the other cards and things I've been busy making > the little blue room.

One morning as I was making breakfast, Gavin and Jordan decided to set up a restaurant. Gavin was the waiter and Jordan was the chef.

Tigger wanted to check things out and make sure there was no real food to be eaten.

 The food must have been good because their customers look positively stuffed!! (I couldn't help myself! Hahaha)

If you read this entire thing, you really are my friend!! Thanks for taking the time to catch up with the Ricks family.