Nana and Grandpa come to visit...

Nana and Grandpa finally were able to make their way out to Houston to visit. Katy was so excited to have Nana and Grandpa "come on a plane" to stay at our house. Kaitlyn instantly bonded with Grandpa and would not let him out of her sight. Nana was easily Lexie's favorite and would fall asleep within seconds of Nana picking her up (why can't you be here at 2:00 a.m.)?  Some of the highlights of their stay included a visit from Santa Clause, trips to the park, family pictures, one of Judy's famous cakes, Lexie's baby blessing and a game of phase 10 - which I won =) !

Thanks for the visit; we miss you already!

Merry Christmas!

Since Alexis was only 4 weeks old we didn't want to travel for the holidays. I thought it would be kind of boring and lonely, but we had a great holiday spending time as a family. No traveling, no stress, no drama...just how I like it! On Christmas Eve we went to a fabulous holiday party at a friend's house and had a great time. It was fun being with friends, eating good food, and watching the children re-enact the Savior's birth. That night, after the party, we put the cookies out for Santa, put Katy to bed and then spent 3 hours putting together the gift from Santa (a new kitchen)! I love how we spend so much time and energy putting together the Santa gift and then we don't even get credit for it! Anyway, we had a great time as a family and this year was even more special as I held my little baby and pondered how Mary must have felt as she held her special little baby on this important day.

Christmas Cookies...

Here are some pictures of Katy and me making Christmas cookies. She helped with every step of the process including pouring, mixing, rolling out the dough and cutting out the cookies. At the end I let her lick a beater. I turned around for a second to put the cookies in the oven and I hear her say, "I want to dip it". I look over my shoulder and she had finished licking her beater and was trying to dip it in the bowl to get more dough to eat; just like her daddy! Don't worry, I made sure everything stayed sanitary!

Alexis Marie Hickman

Alexis is now two weeks old and I have yet to post any pictures! She arrived on November 24th at 12:27pm and weighed 7 pounds 2 ounces. They gave me the pitocin at 9:30, I felt my first contraction at 10:30 and she was born before 12:30. Everything went really well except for the fact that I had a resident administer my epidural. I felt like I was on an episode of ER and this was the first epidural the guy had ever given. By the time he came to my room it was 11:30 and I was having contractions right on top of each other. He kept poking me with the dang needle over and over again and probably put the epidural in at least 5 times! Finally he called the Attending in and he did it correctly in 2 minutes; however, by then I was fully dilated and ready to push! I was so mad, because there wasn't enough time for the medicine to start working and I was not ready for a natural birth! The good part is that it was really fast and it's a lot easier to push when you're bottom half isn't numb!

She's only 16 days old, but so far Alexis is such a sweet, good natured baby. When she was first born she looked exactly like Kaitlyn did, but with brown hair and brown eyes. Every day she looks a little different and gets a little bigger. Kaitlyn is such a great big sister and loves to hold Lexie and play with her. Anyway, we are so blessed to have this little angel as a part of our family. She has such a sweet spirit and we love her so much. Enjoy the pictures!

Who Knew?

Who Knew you could walk around being 4 centimeters dilated and 90% effaced and not be in labor yet? I sure didn't! I feel like she might just fall out if I walk around too much! I mean, most people already have an epidural by now. Monday can't come quick enough!

Katy's thoughts...

Kids say the funniest things sometimes and I always forget to share some of Katy's best moments. Yesterday, I was trying to wipe Katy's nose and she says "no, mamma. Those are my boogers!"


We were having our nightly story time and Katy was pointing out characters that looked like Daddy in her books (mostly any males with glasses). We start reading Chicken Little and Jared asks "Where's Daddy" (thinking she would point to chicken little since he's wearing glasses). Instead she points to the pig and says "there he is". Maybe you had to be there, but I was laughing so hard I almost went into labor. I had tears coming down my face and Katy was saying in her most sincere voice "it's okay mamma".

Trick or...barf?

Kaitlyn was so excited for Halloween this year. Jared and I got her primed for the occasion by taking her to the pumpkin patch, a Halloween event at the zoo and her daycare even had a big Halloween party as well. I dressed her up as little red riding hood and she looked so adorable. She even practiced saying "trick or treat" all week. We took her to the ward trunk or treat since it seemed a little safer than taking her door to door. Jared and I brought her around to several cars together and while she was holding hands with one of her friends I was turned around doing something else and I suddenly heard several people gasp. I turned around and saw that some kid had thrown up all over the ground in front of someone's trunk or treat set up. In my head I'm thinking "ew gross, someone's kid threw up" not realizing that "someone's kid" was my kid! To make a long story short we cleaned her up, got her in the car, started driving home and she threw up 3 more times in the car (thank goodness for leather interior)! She was sick for about 2 hours and completely fine the next day. Needless to say I went out and bought a new car seat as soon as possible. Moral of the story: never spend more than $10 on a Halloween costume and always attend school parties so you can monitor what your child eats. Happy Halloween!