April 07 Movie

Our Crazy Week

Well we just had a crazy week! We had some friends from our ward in Wyview come up to Utah (from Arizona) and stay with us from Monday until Wednesday. It was so much fun to see them and hang out again! What made it crazy was that as soon as they left I had to wash all the linen and towels, re-make all the beds, and re-clean the house, because Samuel's family arrived that night! It's a good thing I thrive on stress! :)


The fabulous news is that SAMUEL GRADUATED!! BYU graduation was Thursday and Friday. Thursday was Commencement, and Vice President Dick Cheney came and gave a fantastic address. That was cool. Next week on the monthly movie I think I'll put some clips of him in. Friday was Convocation, where the students walk and actually get their diplomas. The neat part about that was that (since my dad is a VP at BYU), Sam's father-in-law and mission president actually got to present him with his diploma!


In the midst of all this stress, I decided enough was enough with Seara's mullet, and I cut her hair. Much to my dismay, I forgot to take a pre-haircut picture. But I'm trying to forget about that. Her new cut is cute, but much harder to style! Seara also got four new teeth this week, which means she was not a happy camper. Why is it that she only gets her teeth in sets of four?!

Elijah is almost ready to roll over from his back to his tummy. He just needs to learn to swing his top leg over for added weight. I tried to tell him that, but I get the feeling he didn't really understand! :) He has also learned how to take his pacifier out (but not put it back in) and how to chew on his thumb (but not suck it). All of this means that he has now acquired the ability to upset himself, and still needs me to calm him.

Last, but not least, Samuel tells me that he has finally decided what he wants to do for grad school, and that he is nearly 100% certain that this is what he wants. The only problem is, he won't tell me what it is. Gee, I just can't imagine why! ;)

Strange Parents

So the pictures of Samuel and I on this blog are usually boring, so today we decided to spice things up. Samuel hid in Seara's crib under her blankets and as she came in the room he started calling her name. It was so funny because Seara was looking under the crib, in the closet, out the door - she couldn't figure out where he was coming from! Once she found him she took advantage of the situation and got him to read her a book. So that explains that picture. The one of Lije and I is just being weird. He thought it was pretty funny! Then we have Sam making Elijah laugh, and Seara eating popcorn and laughing at me singing to her.

Well, we planted nine trees and three shrubs yesterday! I am so excited because our house is starting to look like it is lived in! Our backyard is still a lake, so we can't do sprinklers, topsoil, fence, or sod yet, but I'm crossing my fingers that our backyard will be leveled in the next few weeks. Soon enough we will have a beautiful yard! And when we do, I'm going to take a picture and put it on the blog next to a pic of the house before landscaping. I'm not doing any pics of the new trees because I want good shock factor with the comparison. Just you wait!

Our calling in the ward is as Spanish-speaking Ward Missionaries. About a year ago the stake president disintegrated the Spanish Branch and in the area where most of the Latinos live, he turned the ward into a bi-lingual ward. Well, since our area is new, as we grew the Latinos here went over to that ward rather than our ward. Now, however, there are about 20 active families in our neighborhood going to that ward, and the stake pres and bishop want us to make our ward bi-lingual as well. So, Samuel and I began a Spanish Gospel Doctrine class and we've been teaching that for a few months. Last week the Bishop called a teacher for our class, so now we'll teach Gospel Principles when we have investigators coming to the ward. The Bishop also called four translators who will be trained over the next couple weeks, and soon we'll have sacrament meeting translated into Spanish. We're also working with the couple who does the Sacrament Program to make it bi-lingual. Pretty exciting! Our only problem now is getting those families to come back to our ward - they now have callings and friends, so it makes it hard to leave. We have three that have transitioned over and are working on the rest. I'm excited to get all this in place, though, because once we have a solid base in the ward we'll be able to actually do missionary work and have somewhere secure to bring them!

Well, let's see ... Seara is getting to be a bit more of a tantrum-throwing toddler, but she still answers yes more often than no, so its not too bad yet. She likes to make deals and have you say "Okay?" so she can answer back, "Okay!" She also loves buttons, which she carefully annunciates as, "buh-Tons." Her greatest treasures are rocks. She gathers them whenever we go on walks, and when we get home she insists on keeping one and walking around the house with it. Yesterday our Home Teacher came to help plant the trees and brought his two year old daughter. I'm not sure how she did it, but Seara managed to get that poor little girl to stand there with her hand stretched out in a cup shape, while Seara filled her hands with rocks.

Elijah is rolling over quite a bit now. He only goes from stomach to back, but he's almost ready to go from his back to his stomach. He really likes to play with Seara, although I'm not sure why. Yesterday I was cleaning my bathroom and I had laid Lije on his tummy on the floor in my bedroom while I did the toilet. Well, when I came back Elijah had rolled onto his back, and Seara had stacked all the pillows from my bed on top and him and was trying to climb up on the pillows. Poor squished kid! And, when Elijah is in his swing, Seara always runs over to stop the swing. She'll stack up all these toys on the tray right in front of Lije, and then get upset when he touches them! Funny kids!

Trees & Talking

We had a pretty fun week. After all the easter candy Seara got from Easter - and that I ate - I felt motivated to start running! We got a super nice double bike trailer/jogging stroller and on Monday began our training for the 1/2 marathon we're running in August. Since I am starting from being completely sedentary, our training is really basic right now - we run three minutes, walk three minutes, and repeat that five times. Its not challenging at all for Samuel, so he gets the kids in the stroller. :) The first couple days I did great, but on Friday I felt like I was going to die (after running three minutes!) It wasn't until the end of the jog that I remembered that I had forgotten to use my inhaler before I left. That made me feel better. Its not that I'm terribly wimpy, I just have asthma! :)

On Saturday we had a busy day. We got this gigantic ingleman spruce tree from a friend for free because it was slightly damaged on one side (the back). The tree is about 10 feet tall and weighed almost a ton. Literally. So Samuel spent about five hours digging a 4 by 4 foot hole in our hard-as-rock clay soil. Then we had a few neighbors come over and help him get the tree in the hole and fill it in. That took another three hours (with help!) It was quite then intense project, but I sure am proud of my tree! Plus, we made a lot of new friends because of it - all during church the next day people kept coming up to us and commenting on the tree. Samuel is so embarrassed because he didn't realize he was on display! :) As Samuel was finishing up the hole, I ran to the store with Lije to get some fertilizer and mulch, and left Sease to play around the yard. Well, when I came back she was covered in mud from head to toe, it was so funny! Leave it to dad to be such an attentive babysitter!

Seara is talking up a storm. She is developmentally almost a year ahead in her speech. (Which makes me feel better since she didn't roll over until she was crawling!) I attribute it to one of two things: 1) she has a gigantic head (98th percentile since she was 4 months old) or else 2) her mom has been a chatterbox since, well, I learned to talk myself. When Lija wakes up from his nap she'll come up to me before I even hear him and tell me "baby lija crying". Periodically throughout the day she'll tell me "daddy at work", "hug Tanna", and "go outside". She'll tell me "go poop" when she needs to use the restroom, and that is followed by "it hurts", which means she needs a diaper change (the remnants of a terrible diaper rash). She says about 40-50 words now and in the last two weeks has started using plurals. She is still learning how to do plural correctly, though, because she now calls hair "hairs". It is very funny. Seara loves "songs" - her favorites are "beam" and "popcorn". She knows the songs pretty well, too. She'll start "beam" for me by singing "Jesus" and when I finish the first verse she start the second by singing "happy". With "popcorn" she'll fill in the end words (and a couple in the middle) -

I looked out the window and what did I ... 'see'
Popcorn popping on the apricot ... 'twee'
Spring had brought me such a nice ... 'su-prise'
Blossoms blooming right before my ... 'eyes'
I could take an arm full and make a ... 'tweat'
A popcorn ball that would smell so ... 'sweet'
'It wasn't weewy wo' but it seemed to ... 'be'
'Popcorn' popping on the apricot 'twee'

Oh, and today as I wrote this we opened up her cousin's blog and looked at their pictures. She saw one cousin and said "Tanna!" and I had to explain to her that that was not Tanna, that is Gabi. Well, Seara immediately started practicing saying "Ga-bi" and throughout the rest of the pictures would point Gabi out and tell me "Ga-bi". I was impressed that she could even tell her apart from her other cousins!

Elijah is learning how to intentionally grab at things. Samuel is so patient and will sit with Lije for 30 minutes at a time holding out things for Elijah to practice grabbing. He is ticklish now, which makes for endless fun for mom. It cracks me up! Oh, the funniest thing happened yesterday! Lije is the kind of baby that won't just fall asleep anywhere. When he is tired he will cry and cry until you bundle him up, give him his pacifier, and lay him in his bed. Well, nap time happens to be right when sacrament meeting starts, so I bundled him up and popped the pacifier in, but Lije just did not want to be held! It was too bright to be laid down on the bench, so I finally decided to lay out a blanket and put him with his head under the bench and his body sticking out where I could see him. (Luckily we sit on the left side and only one couple with no kids sits behind us.) Anyway, he laid there quietly, drifting in and out of sleep, for the entire meeting block! It was amazing!

Easter Weekend

We just had a really fun Easter weekend! On Saturday we had lunch with some friends who have a daughter Seara's age and are expecting a son next month. After lunch we all went to the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy. We saw some pretty cool fish, including Tiger Sharks, and even got to see a gigantic squid be fed. They fill a Mr. Potato Head with food, then give it to the squid, who proceeds to pull out all the arms, legs, etc. and finally open the back and suck the food out. They even had an aquatic petting zoo, where Seara got to touch a starfish, a sea cucumber, a sting ray, and a few other fishy things. It was really cool!

On Sunday we went to my parents house for Easter dinner. Seara squealed in delight when her cousins Savanna and Makenna walked in. She calls them both "Tanna" and talks about them almost every single day (she tells me "Tanna bye-bye" and "Tanna Pama gone" - Pama is her name for both my parents, and we usually see "Tanna" at their house). Anyway, at dinner Seara and Makenna were sitting at a little table eating together and it was so funny because Seara just sat there chatting incessantly at Makenna, who ignored her completely and crawled around the table, playing with their food. After dinner we had a little Easter Egg hunt. Seara refused to hold her basket, so I had to follow behind her with it. She really liked finding eggs and putting them in her basket, but when it came to the candy inside she wasn't too interested. She either opened the egg and dumped the contents out, or else she put the candy in her mouth, chewed it a bit, then spit it out. Needless to say, I took the eggs away really fast.

Elijah didn't really care about the aquarium, although he enjoyed the two hours he spent being held in the carrier. He also didn't care about the Easter Egg Hunt. He has, however, begun following a predictable schedule, which I am thrilled about! He rolled over for the first time on Friday, then he did it again today. I have yet to see him do it, I just put him on his stomach and go about my business, and when I look back at him he's on his back. He and Seara are becoming good friends, in fact right now he is laying on his back, and Seara is sitting next to him "reading" a book to him. Pretty cute!

Oh, the pics are some we got taken a month ago - Elijah is 3 mo., Seara 18. :)

March 07 Movie

A Pacifier Addiction

Well, Samuel finished his class! Hallelujah! That means that he really will walk in April and we'll be done! He is pleased as punch. Hopefully now he'll get to finish his children's book. His family visited for two days last week, which was fun. We saw the movie "Amazing Grace" (which is now on Sam's top three list of best all time movies) and the BYU adaption of "Hamlet". They did a great job, but they didn't manage to convert me to Shakespearian tragedies. I'm still not a huge fan!

Seara is getting to that stage where she likes to read books over and over. She has this one color book that has 8 words, and she has me read it to her again and again for hours. I think I am going crazy! The good news is that in order to keep my sanity, I have taught her how to say "please", so when we finish the book she says "again, please!" That makes it worth it!

Elijah has been eating every three hours round the clock for about ten days now - nights included. In fact, it got to the point that he was waking up about every hour for us to give him the pacifier. Samuel and I have been going insane, and after trying various methods we finally kicked him out of our closet (that has been his bedroom) and moved him to his own room (that is not in any way connected to ours). We quickly learned that for us to get any sleep we had to shut both his and our doors. I feel bad making him cry, but I can truthfully say that I don't know if he is because I can't hear him. No worries, though, the night before last he still fed three times, and last night he fed twice. He can't be suffering that much!

A Novel on Seara

On Monday morning, while I went shopping for Sam's birthday my mom babysat Sease & Lije. The next day I dropped by my dad's office and Seara saw a picture of my parents and squealed in delight, "Pama!" So now she's been calling my mom Pama and telling me about things they did. Like when Seara sees grass or a vacuum, she tells me, "Pama!"

On Monday night we had a combined birthday dinner for Sam, my sister-in-law Asialene (whose birthday is the same as Sam's), and a close friend of both mine & Asialene's. Asialene has two daughters, 3-year old Savanna and 1-year old Makenna. Needless to say, Seara was THRILLED to have friends and spent the rest of the week talking about "Tanna". (She says things like weafno Tanna sdfouihe soinree obidofgih".) I'm not sure which of the girls "Tanna" is, but I'm starting to think it is both of them, kind of a collective name.

Seara had a diaper rash last week and suddenly became very aware of when she goes potty. She learned to tell us "it hurts" when she needed a diaper change. Oddly, though, the phrase has lasted through the rash. Now she's all better, but still tells me "it hurts" when she wants me to change her diaper! I finally came up with a trick to keep the little banshee still when I change her diaper - I sing her songs. Her favorite is "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree" because she can do some of the actions (opening her fists like popcorn and shaking her finger to "it wasn't really so").

On Thursday Seara was going through my church bag and found the Gospel Principles book. She opened it to a picture of Jesus and got really excited, then she went around the house and found her Book of Mormon, Greg Olsen picture book, and any other book she knew of with pictures of Jesus. She lined em up on the couch and then showed me each picture of Jesus one by one. It was so precious!

Okay, one last funny things about Seara from me, then Sam has a story to tell. Sease has always loved closing her eyes (in past weeks I've told you about her eating with her eyes closed and walking around with her eyes closed). This week she discovered that she is invisible when her eyes are closed. She be standing right by my and suddenly she'll close her eyes and think I can't see her. I play along and pretend to look for her, "Where's Seara?", then she'll open her eyes and get all excited like I found her. It cracks me up. Especially when she does it while I change her diaper!

Okay, here's Sam:

Well, let me explain a little bit about what’s been going on in the life of Seara. She’s learning new words by the minute, and almost anything I tell her, she will repeat. She’s also learned to tear apart her board books, which has been a challenge--and a bit of a paradox, because she also really enjoys reading them. Anyway, we used to put books in Seara’s crib with her so that she could look at them while she wound/winded (whatever) down. Recently, however, given Seara’s newly acquired habit of ripping apart her books, she’s had to go to bed without them. Last night, when I put Seara in bed, she screamed so I thought it might be good to give Seara a book again to see what she would do now that she hadn’t had books for a while. I also thought she might chill out a little if she had a book to read. So, I grabbed the Book of Mormon picture book and put it in Seara’s crib. Seara stopped whining a little, and I closed the door to her room. Now, I was in the room right next door to Seara’s doing some work, so I could hear what was going on in her room. After a few minutes, I heard tearing noises, so I ran back into the room and took the book away from Seara, who had by then already ripped a few pages. I told her she couldn’t have the book if she ripped it, I put the book away, and Seara started crying again like a banshee. She finally ended up crying herself to sleep.

Well, tonight Seara told us she was tired, so we went through the normal bedtime routine, scriptures, prayer, song, etc. Only, this time, when I finished reading the Book of Mormon, Seara did not want to stop reading. We stopped reading anyway, and I put Seara in her crib. As I was leaving the room, Seara started pointing at the Book of Mormon and whimpering a little. I asked Seara if she wanted to read the Book of Mormon, and she nodded her head "yes". I told her, “Seara, I’ll only give you the Book of Mormon if you don’t rip it. You can’t rip the book. No ripping the book, Seara.” As I said this, she looked at me and said, “No. No. No”, trying to explain that she wouldn’t rip the book. I said, “Seara, you have to read the book, not rip it. You have to read it.” Seara looked at me and said, “OK.” At which point I gave Seara the book and walked out of the room. It was so cute to see Seara make a deal with me. She knew she shouldn’t rip the book and that the only way to get the book was to agree to the terms I had set. So, as of 10:00 pm there have been no more tearing sounds proceeding from Seara's room, and hopefully, when I get Seara out of bed in the morning, the Book of Mormon reader will not appear to have gone through the paper shredder. We'll see!

Current Fam Fads

Let's see. This last Tuesday was Samuel's birthday. The kids got him the movie "Cars", my parents & I joined together and got him an amazing set of super nice watercolors, and Sam used money from my Grandma to get a watercolor palette and paintbrush. Ever since then he has been ITCHING to do some painting, but he just hasn't found the time. He has one class left to complete graduation requirements and all the work for it has to be done and approved by March 30th, so he's been rushing to get that done. Once he's finished, I'll probably never see him again. He'll end up locked in his studio painting away!

My current interest is landscaping. Since we built a house, all we have is dirt, so we'll need to put in sprinklers, a fence, topsoil, sod, etc. Well, I had a guy from the local nursery come by and give me some ideas of where to put flowerbeds, trees, etc. and what kinds of things to plant where. He suggested I get "Garden Gate" magazine, so I went to the library and got every issue from 2005 to now. I also requested about 20 other gardening books that were checked out. I'm learning a ton about trees, plants, and flowers. Its really fun, although we'd need a good 20K to do what I want, and that's not going to happen. Oh well! It sure is fun to dream!

Elijah's neck is getting strong now. When I lay him on his tummy he can keep his head up and look around for a good 30 minutes. He recognizes me now, and when he's crying and I come to get him, he'll stop crying the minute he sees my face - before I even touch him. He still wakes up about twice a night, which is tough when you're used to Seara who slept 12 hour nights at 2 months! Oh well. At least he's healthy! We always had to struggle to keep the weight on Seara, and Lije has no problems with that! :)

Okay, I have a ton to write about Seara, so she'll get her own separate post!

The Strangest Thing

You will not believe the strangest thing that happened tonight!* We invited my little sister and her husband over for dinner. (I made pot roast and rolls - actually I bought the rolls - and it turned out fabulously!) After eating and chatting, Sam got up to go to a meeting, and went out to the car, only to find a huge surprise ... our cars were kissing!! Sam has been trying to set them up for while, and this time he did it! Actually, this is Sam's first successful hook up. He's a bit shell shocked, but I'm a veteran at car hookupage (my car as a teenager was quite the ladies' man!), so I was able to relate. :)


Unfortunately, the kids' tricks have not changed much this week. Seara has a diaper rash (she is prone to those) and learned how to say "hurts" when she needs a diaper change. Poor thing! If you laugh to Elijah he'll laugh back, you can go back and forth for quite a while (that is if you are a bored stay-at-home mom with nothing better to do). The kids are darling, I have so much fun with them! Anyway, thats our week! :)

* "My name is Samuel Ricks and I approve of this message."

Our House

Well, we haven't taken many pictures of us lately (mostly because we haven't done anything interesting), so today I went outside and snapped some pics of the house. The pictures include the front of our house, the back yard (lol - the ground froze before the leveled it, so now we have our own lake front property), and the back of the house. As as side note, we don't normally keep our garbage can in front of the garage. It just so happens that last week the garbage man came before 8:00 am and we didn't have the garbage out yet. Let's just say that 1+ week old diapers do not smell fabulous and the garbage can was kicked out of the garage. So when I uploaded those on to my computer, I found some other pictures to share (my dad and younger brothers when Ty went to the MTC two weeks ago, and Seara in her cousin Savanna's sunglasses). So this will be more pics, less words. Maybe. Unless I get carried away. I think I already have.

Elijah is getting to be fun. He grabs things a lot. He and Sam will laugh back and forth with each other - it cracks me up! According to Samuel, his favorite things are diaper changes, going outside, and milk.

Seara has suddenly started repeating everything we say - she learned about a thousand new words in the last couple days, for example: legs, sky, rock, poop, pants, arms, coat, etc. Oh! And we've finally gotten her to say "please"! Unfortunately, we are wimps to it. One morning, a couple days after her last throw up, Sam was giving her breakfast. He gave her applesauce and plain toast, just to keep things simple in case the bug wasn't gone yet. He then served himself Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Seara, being the observant and smart little girl that she is, notices what is going on, and looks up at Samuel with her big old eyes and says "please!" And dad, being the softie that he is, promptly gave her the cereal! :)

Well, after much research, Samuel and I have found that the #1 Children's Literature Master's program is at a place called Simmons College in Boston. The program isn't that long, and if you have intense semesters and go during the summer, you can actually get it done in a year. Our (current) hope is to start the program two years from now, so Sam will graduate with his MFA in April 2010. Then we go straight to his PhD that fall. We'll see. I may ruin everything by telling every one!

Samuel continues to be busy at work and keeps hoping for more time to work on his art. I continue to be busy with the kids and keep hoping for more time to do my genealogy. Such is life! Too much to do, too little time!

February 07 Movie

Flu Season Continues

The good news is - you won't believe it - Elijah is better! The bad news is, Seara had a terrible flu this last week. She was sick on Wednesday and Thursday, acted normal Friday and Saturday, but on Sunday morning as we were backing out of the driveway to go to church, she threw up all over herself! I stayed home with the kids while Sam went to church, and that ended up being a good thing because halfway through church I realized that I had the flu too! Honestly, my dislike of winter is turning into hate! Is there no end to this cold/flu season?!

Elijah is really great when he is well! I never knew that because he was always sick! He loves to talk, but he only does it when he sees a face. The minute you show up, though, he'll talk your ear off. He is still really smiley and giggly, and he just loves to grin at people. Thats a big improvement over Seara's giving crusties to strangers! If only I had him there to make up for her when she went through that stage!

Seara now answers two very important questions: What is your name? "Ara" & How old are you? "2". She takes after her mom! :) For those of you who don't know me super well, let me tell you that I have lied about my age since I was about 10. Well, not really LIED, more like I tell my age according to the fiscal calendar that the Social Security Administration uses - that is that once you pass your half-birthday, you round your age up. So, as of January 8th I am 25, and as of January 28th Seara is 2. (I didn't teach this to Seara, she just did it naturally! Although it may be because she can't say "one"!)

Well, I know my husband. I called this one. Last week (or maybe it was the week before) I wrote that he wanted to get an MBA. We've talked about it for a year now, and I figured it was solid enough to share, but didn't I mention that Samuel changes plans at a regular rate? Well, I think he was just waiting for me to put it in writing because now he's changed his mind. Samuel's passion, as you all know, is children's literature & illustration. So he's recently discovered that a handful of schools, including (I think) Oxford, have MA and MFA (Master's of Arts and Master's of Fine Arts) programs in Children's Lit. So as of this week that is his dream. I hope I didn't ruin it by writing it down! :)

As for me, you already know about the flu and the lying, so there is not much more to say. My hair is really long and I hate it with a passion, but I made a goal to grow it down to my elbows. I have six inches left. Which means at least another 12-18 months. Less if I get pregnant. lol. I cannot wait to get a boy cut!!

Our Freezing Home

Elijah was sick again this last week. This is a new cold. Will winter never end?!! Seara surprises us with the words she knows - the other day she looked out the window, pointed at our backyard neighbors and says "house". I didn't know she knew that! She also recognizes drawings - you have the simplest line drawing of a car, and she knows what it is. She still sings - made up words and all - but now she does it on demand. She has started going to nursery, too. We took her a couple times before she was old enough, just to get her used to the idea. (We'd stay there, but just in the background so she didn't get used to us there.) When she turned 18 months we just dropped her off and left, expecting to have a battle or at least to have her brought to us screaming. But, it never happened. Bizarre, huh?! What a cinch. Sorry to everyone who struggled to get their kids to go!


Samuel continues to exist. He says he has a good life but nothing has changed that dramatically. We are looking in to grad school programs - maybe an MBA? Right now we're just researching to see what would work with us and what we need to do to prepare for it. It will be interesting to see what happens. He newest found joy in life is that I now cuddle with him in bed. (I'm the more don't- touch- me- while- I'm- sleeping type.) Anyway, moving into a home of our own has opened our eyes to the cost of natural gas - and after a nearly $200 bill just to heat our house to 68*, I (Janae) have determined that the kids will dress like Eskimos and we'll turn the heat way down! Sam complained until he realized that I got cold at night and suddenly was interested in him. Now he's telling me he hopes we never make enough money to heat the house! :)

Missionary Movie

Tyler & the MTC

My little brother Tyler is going into the MTC this coming Wednesday, so today we had a special missionary FHE for him. Each RM in the family (that was there) shared a story about their mission, and then we watched this little video I made. I'm posting this mostly for my siblings who could not attend, but the rest of you can watch it if you want! Samuel had some fun experiences with Seara this week, so today he is writing the blog. Here you go!

Hi. So, this Saturday, Seara and I went on a walk to give Janae some time to get things done. It was a very interesting experience. There's a trail close to our house and a a river that runs along it, so I decided to take Seara in the stroller down to the trail. Once we got to the trail, I let Seara get out of the stroller to take a walk. I put her down, and she walked a few steps and stopped dead in her tracks. She immediately looked down and tried to look between her feet. Now, at first I thought she was examining the leaf that she had just passed--but no. Seara walked a few steps more, stopped again, then looked down between her feet. She looked up at me as if she was scared, and then she started whimpering and grabbed at my pant legs to have me pick her up. I picked her up and put her back in the stroller, we walked a few more feet, and then Seara wanted to get out again. So, I got Seara out, she looked around a little more, and then she decided to walk in the opposite direction we had come. And she didn't really want to go the way we were supposed to go. Finally, after a few more minutes, I understood what she was doing. The direction we had been going was west, and our backs had been facing the sun, which cast long shadows on our figures. Seara refused to walk west, instead preferring to turn and walk east. She was walking in the direction of the sun to avoid her shadow! She was scared of her shadow! It was hilarious to watch. (Parenthetically, Seara also ate dirt on our walk, but I'll save that for another posting.)

Later on in the day, I took Seara outside to walk around on the driveway, where she discovered her shadow again. This time, though, she wasn't scared of it. She turned, looked at her shadow, tried to grab it off the driveway, stood up, and slowly started waving her hands and watching what her shadow did. Having realized that her shadow was not, in fact,a thing to be feared, Seara proceeded to wildly wave her arms, jump up and down and shout like a mad woman all while looking at her shadow. Anyway, it was pretty hilarious. So, back to Janae.

Anyway, Elijah is good. He has a bit of colic, but we're okay. He did sleep twelve hours last night, so I love him. :) And life is good!

FussyPants/PatientOnes

I was thinking this week that most of you are more friends with Samuel & I than Seara & Elijah (do they even have friends at this age?), so this week I'm gonna give quick blurbs on us as well.

Elijah is still sick. Poor kid! It is funny how different he and Seara are. Elijah is so much more smiley - he grins all the time! He is also much more fussy. I think he's just more moody. Like his mom! Seara, on the other hand, doesn't have the highs and lows he does. She's just really patient and mellow. Like her dad. :) I wonder if that stuff is genetic ...

Well, Seara has suddenly become very motherly. She walks around with dolls and stuffed animals all day and "takes care of them". When I wrap Elijah up in a blanket, Seara wraps her doll. She'll get out a changing pad, powder, balmex, and a diaper and pretend to change the doll. She burps it and gives it a pacifier (which is really funny because neither she nor Elijah have ever used them!) This week I even caught her using the nasal aspirator to suck the doll's nose. (Obviously Elijah still has the cold!) That was pretty funny! Daddy takes her around the living room in baskets, bikes, etc., and now when he's gone at work she'll just sit in a basket and say "voom!" to herself. That's funny too. But not nearly as funny as her trying to feed herself with her eyes closed. She used to just do it when I fed her. Now she'll close her eyes and feel around her tray for her food and milk, then try to make them into her mouth. It is hilarious - especially when she misses. She is really cute about Elijah. His crying really worries her. Yesterday I was frying some stuff and Elijah started crying. I held him for a little while, but my stuff started to burn, so I set him down on the middle of the kitchen table and ran to save my food. Well, when I got back to Lije, he was still crying, but Seara had climbed onto the table and was kneeling next to him, holding his hand. It was so precious!

I (Janae) have forgone all personal interests and dedicated my time to feeding Elijah. Man that kid is a tank!! Hmmm ... what do I like to do? Well, I graduated from BYU in April 2005 in Marriage, Family, & Human Development with a focus on Marital Therapy. I applied to the masters program and was pre-accepted (I had a professor that was co-sponsoring my master's thesis), but then I got pregnant with Seara and, well, that plan got put on hold. Lately my passions include cooking (I especially love making bread and pies, my newest escapade has been egg rolls/wantons - I even made the wrapper!) and making movies. I am working on a massive project - documentaries on each set of grandparents (mine and Samuel's). Right now my focus is on getting the footage before it is too late. (I had done one of two interviews with my Grandpa Smith when he passed away suddenly from a stroke.) I have a good 30 hours of unedited footage, and another 80 or so hours to film. Basically, I may not get much editing done until my kids are a little bigger and a little less demanding! But I'm working on it. Slowly but surely. :)

Samuel is an artist at heart. It cracks me up because if my sisters and I had been given a list of the occupations our future husbands would have, but not told who would marry what job, I don't think we would have put me with the artist. (Cara's married to a dentist, Lissa to an accountant.) Funny how I can never dream of what is going to happen, but I sure love the adventure when it does happen! One of Samuel's life goals is to write and illustrate children's books. He's well on his way to that goal - he's written a book and made the book dummy (sketch illustrations), and was accepted by an editor with Viking. She's been over it once and now Samuel is working on the edits. He only wishes he had more time to work on it! The company Samuel works for right now makes architectural renderings. They actually did the paintings of the temples pre-construction. And some stuff for Sea World. And other interesting and/or famous places. They are doing a job in China right now. (If only that meant that Samuel would have to fly there and take me along!) If you want to see some of the stuff the company does, the website is: kinateder.com (they actually are making a new, better site that should be up in a week or so).

January 07 Movie

My Narcissist

As this last week went on I took notes about funny things Seara does. Hopefully I'm not too comprehensive or I might not have anything to say next week.

You know, when Seara was little, everything she did seemed exciting. Unfortunately, she's grown up and the things she does are even MORE exciting...and poor Elijah seems kinda boring. This week Elijah had the cold, so he coughed a lot. He also smiled and drooled. And ate and slept. And cried. Well, that's about it for him.

Seara is quite the energetic wiggle worm. I think it would be easier to dress a banshee than her. She also got her dads mega buff legs (Sam won the post-Priesthood session Smith buff leg contest every year until Severin came along. We Smiths have chicken legs!) Anyway, this causes me great distress because Seara's legs are stronger than my arms, and changing her diaper is almost impossible! She continues to sport her mullet. Samuel wants to cut it, but if I do she'll look like a boy and I won't be able to do pig tails. She is learning how to count (more like repeat the sounds of numbers in order). She never says one, but she does get two-three-four. Sam taught her to answer "because" when we ask her "why?" That is kinda funny, but also has dangerous potential! Some of her favorite pass-times include putting herself in timeout (I have no clue why - unfortunately, this ruins the "punishment" part of timeouts!) and sitting on Elijah (which usually results in a timeout). I don't really get it, but every time I put Lije on a blanket on the floor, Seara runs over as fast as she can to sit on him. Poor kid!

Samuel continues to work at the architectural rendering firm and teaching private art lessons on Saturday. I continue to clean the house, cook the food, and wash the clothes. That's about it for us!

Seara & Her Boots

January 19th
I am so in love with my kids!! They really, really crack me up! Today Seara found this little dish. She took a sheet of toilet paper and shredded it up in tiny peices, filled the dish, and went walking around with it oh-so carefully so that she wouldn't spill it. So funny! Later, while I was feeding her lunch, she decided to eat with her eyes closed. She'd sit there with her mouth shut, and when I'd put the spoon on her lips she'd open her mouth and take the bite, and then close her mouth again. All with her eyes closed. It was so funny! Elijah is getting more and more handsome each day. I am such a sucker to his good looks! I love being a mom!

January 23rd
Seara did pretend-play for the very first time today! I actually didn't see it, but Samuel told me (without realizing that it was a big deal) that she was using one of the stacking cups as a bowl, and a comb as a spoon, and she was stirring the comb in the bowl, then putting it up to her mouth, and repeating the process. So cute!! She is getting so big, so smart, so fast! Elijah is the smiliest baby. We spent the day in Sandy at my parents and he was giving big old grins to his grandparents and uncles. It was darling! I just love being a mom.

January 26th
Elijah lifted his eyebrows before a smile today, that was so darling. He crinkles his nose a lot when he smiles, too. Just like me. :o)

A Typical Saturday

Another journal entry - mostly put here because it is so typical of us!!

January 6th
Samuel and I made a plan last night: we'd wake up early, get ready, and then Samuel would go to his office and get to work on the papers he has to write to officially finish his last class at BYU. So, we woke up at 9 am, he helped take care of the kids, we went to the BYU Library for some books, then went to the Museum of Art and saw the exhibit on Jesus Christ, ran a couple errands, and came home. Then he read a bit while playing with the kids, we had a fancy dinner, watched a movie and made sugar cookies together. Ooops! But man it was fun to be able to just spend time together. It had been much too long since we actually enjoyed each other! :)

Better to try and fail, than never try at all!!

Sunday Clothes

Hello everyone! I am trying to catch up for the month of January, so I'm posting a couple blogs by pictures I've taken, and just using my journal from the days before the pictures as text. Here we go . . .

January 2nd
Seara is getting really smart now. She can say so many words - light, shoes, Jesus, mama, dada, Sam, sit down, get down, baby, Lija, nana (which actually means milk), okay, Cici, Seara, and, well, the list goes on. She is leaning how to repeat words and it can be so cute! We even got it on video. Now I need to teach her please and thank you. Elijah is getting so big. He is about 12 pounds now, nearly double his birth weight. He eats and eats and eats, and I keep wondering when I am going to have time to catch up! He has started staring at us and memorizing our faces. Every once in a while he even smiles, which melts my heart and makes all the hard times worth it.

January 5th
Having two kids is a lot harder than I thought it would be. Not that I am unhappy or frustrated, I love it, I just can't seem to figure out how to tend the both of them at the same time. It probably doesn't help that we've all been sick pretty much since Elijah was born. This morning when I went in to get Seara, she and her bed were covered in vomit. Elijah had an incredibly messy diaper, which I changed and must have forgotten to put in the garbage, because I threw Seara's stuff in the washer, only to come back and find a poopy diaper smeared all over the clean laundry, Seara's hands, and the new carpet! Ahhhh! Unfortunately, that is probably the highlight of my day! :o)

Pictures of the Kids

I keep getting calls and emails requesting pictures of the kids. So, here are a couple. The first is from Elijah's baby blessing, the second just this morning. Elijah is two months old now, Seara is 17 months. And they are a handful! :o)

Much to our surprise...

Well, we had an unexpected surprise this week . . . on Wednesday afternoon (November 15th) I went into labor and barely made it to the hospital in time to have the baby! I almost had a c-section because he tried to come out Superman style (with his right arm up over his head and coming out first), but the doctor managed to push the baby's hand out of the way and the delivery went perfectly. We named the baby Samuel Elijah Ricks (but we'll call him Elijah) and he was 6 lbs. 15 oz. and 20 inches long. He was also 15 days early - yikes! We didn't have anything prepared, so my mom was out buying us diapers, blankets, and clothes while I recovered at the hospital. Anyway, we're home now and doing very well. I'm attaching some pics - the first is just a few minutes after Elijah was born and the room must have been really dark because the pics not very clear. The second is when he is about 20 hours old. The last one is just this afternoon when Seara got to hold her baby brother for the very first time. She is really cute, she wants to hold him all the time and keeps saying "baby." I think I'm in for quite the adventure now!

Surprise

For those who don't know, Samuel and I are expecting baby #2! I am due November 30th, so I am almost 22 weeks along. I feel great, albeit a bit tired since Seara is still so young (she'll turn 1 year old this next week). The exciting news is that the new baby is a boy! We think we'll name him Elijah, but obviously we can't promise anything. I just thought it would be fun to send his first pictures. Bye!