BABY LIAM!!

Baby Liam is finally here! His full name is William Bradley Smith Jr. but he will be called Liam. He weighed 7lbs 11oz and was 21 inches long. He was one week overdue so they induced on Tues. morning and he was here between 7:30 and 8:00 p.m. on Tues. night. He is so sweet and handsome. Congratulations Will & Kristy! Rhylan and I couldn't wait any longer to see him so we went to visit them when they got home on Wed. evening. Here are few pictures of Taylor and Rhylan with Liam.

The Beginning of Summer

Well it's finally here -SUMMER- Yeah!!! Memorial Day marks the unofficial start to summer but for the majority of TN teachers it is the beginning of summer break. Well our very nice calendar committee thought that it would be fun to go to school after Memorial Day - 3 1/2 days after to be exact. So come Friday at 11:00 a.m. my summer vacation will officially begin :)

I am going to sum up the last two days of our Memorial Day weekend quickly and without pictures (I remembered the camera but didn't even take it out of the van). On Sunday, we went to church. Rhylan is a little on the small side for her age and she is still in 18 months dresses but the dress I put on her Sunday for church was a 24 months. The dress has a hat and she has never liked wearing hats so to my surprise she kept putting the hat on. This hat did not quite fit her big head. I guess she has a bigger head than what a 24 month old kid should have. Well the hat looked kinda goofy but with a southern belle look. She looked like she should have been in Gone With the Wind (check out the picture below). After church we went to Rockwood to Jeremy's mom's for a cookout, swimming, volleyball, badminton, kickball, pizza and fireworks and all of that occurred in a nine hour span in that exact order. Whew! We were wore out. Rhylan did all of this without a nap. Needless to say she was quite hateful by about 9:30 or 10:00. On Monday, Jeremy mowed the yard while Rhylan and I went to the grocery store (what an eventful trip). After we ate lunch, we planted the flowers that took forever to pick out at Lowe's on Saturday. The flowers were part of my Mother's Day present. Jeremy put a lot of work into digging the holes for the flowers. The land that we live on is very rocky so it took quite a bit of muscle power to dig the holes. The flowers look great. You will just have to take my word b/c I forgot to take a picture. Well that sums up our great weekend. We look forward to many more cookouts, swim dates and fun games till August rolls around and the school bell rings for the fun to begin again.

My little Southern Belle.

Swimming in the Lake

Our Memorial Day weekend started on Saturday with some mowing and weed eating at my Mom's house. Afterwards we went to the park for a birthday party and ended up in the lake swimming. Don't let the kids smiling faces fool you it was a little cold. I only stuck my feet in, but everyone else jumped right in. When I got Rhylan out her lips were purple and her teeth were chattering. After the park we made a "quick" trip to Lowe's to buy some flowers. That turned into almost 2 hours but I think I finally got the right combination of flowers that I wanted.

All the Hicks kids! (Look at Rhylan's face)

Jackson and Rhylan swimming in the "clean" lake water.

Delaney and Rhylan smiling through their chattering teeth.
The water was a little cold on Saturday.


I hate swinging! Get me out and let me slide.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY COLYER!!

Today is Colyer's birthday also in addition to my dad's isn't that pretty neat. Colyer is 11 years old today. He is in the 4th grade at Ridgeview Elem. He isn't that crazy about the school work but loves the social part of school. Colyer loves any and every sport. He is playing at least one sport during every part of the year, with basketball being his favorite. During this baseball season he has started pitching and loves it. This experience has changed his whole liking of baseball. Jeremy and I have nicknamed Colyer "The Cat" b/c he is constantly laying on you or touching you in some way. He just can't sit beside you and watch T.V. he needs to be touching you somehow :) He is such a protective and caring older brother. Here a few pictures from the past couple of months. HAPPY BIRTHDAY COLYER, WE LOVE YOU!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!!

Today is my daddy's birthday. He is 58 years young. My dad lives in N.C. so I don't get to see him but just a handful of times a year. It is hard every time I go to visit to say goodbye b/c you just wish everyone could live close enough that when you wanted to visit them you could. But jobs and life changing events causes us not to be close to our loved ones sometimes. I don't have any pictures of us together saved on my computer so there aren't any pics to post. I love you daddy and Happy Birthday!

Mother's Day

On Mother's Day, Rhylan and I went to church and then over to my Mamaw's. Jeremy was at the baseball tournament with Jackson so he missed all of the good country cooking. All of the little ones played outside after eating. It is so much fun to go to Mamaw's and see everyone. The kids love to go and play games outside. There is usually a game of basketball or touch football going on. It is so much fun just to watch the big kids and the little kids play.

Mamaw, Grandma, Me (wow look at the frizzies, can you tell it was about to rain outside) and Rhylan

Rhylan thought that "baby" as Taylor calls her did not need to be in this

picture with them. Taylor always has a baby with her everywhere she

goes. Look at the look Taylor is giving. She isn't too happy about "baby"

not being in the picture.

Well I guess Taylor is o.k now. She got over it pretty fast.

Rhylan hanging out with Uncle Stanley, Dawson, Ava and Maverick.

Rhylan loves to go sing in the choir at church with Uncle Stanley.

Somehow Ava ended up with "baby" and she got to be in this picture.

I am pretty sure Taylor was pre-occupied and did not know that "baby" was missing.

Fountain City Baseball Tournament

On Friday night we played basketball at Central Middle School. This was the last basketball tournament for the "Playmakers". The Playmakers won a close game with Wartburg. On Saturday, Jackson played with the same Rockwood baseball team that he played with last week in a double elimination tournament in Fountain City. They played three games on Saturday winning 2 and losing 1. So this meant that we would play again on Sunday. They ended up losing on Sunday. If they would have won they would have played for the championship right after their first game. Here are a few pictures of Jackson in action and then the other kids having fun with sticks and rocks. They had to find something to entertain themselves :) After the last game we went to eat at Wasabi's for Mother's Day isn't Jeremy so sweet. He said he hadn't bought me a gift so he thought this would be even better. I have been wanting to go there for a while now so this was the perfect occasion to go. Rhylan loved trying to catch rice in her mouth it was so cute (sorry no pics).

EATING and POTTYING - What a combination

Rhylan has started this potty thing all on her own. She started telling me "Pee Pee Momma". So Jeremy thought we should go ahead a get her a potty and not really push it yet b/c at that time she was just 18 months old. When school gets out, I am going to buckle down on the potty training. So we bought her the potty and the big girl panties in the middle of February. When we are at home she potties in the potty but still wears a diaper when we so places. Yesterday while I was washing dishes I looked over and noticed she had took here cookie with her to the potty. It's kinda gross but cute at the same time :)

Taylor and Rhylan

On Monday and Tuesday evenings Rhylan's cousin Taylor came over and played outside. The girls had a blast playing outside and with each other. They are 4 months apart. I am so glad that Will, Kristy, Taylor and baby boy (2 more weeks till he gets here, don't know his name yet b/c they won't tell us) have moved back to TN. We have so much fun hanging out together. Here are a few pictures of the girls playing outside. Look how CUTE they are.

These were taken before "Tay" (as Rhylan calls her) got to the house.

I was trying to get a good shot of Rhylan's pigtails.

She never lets me leave her hair up. She always has it took down by the time we get out the door to go anywhere. She left these in all evening long. She didn't take them until bath time.

It's hard to fit two little bottoms in a Cozy Coupe.

CUTIES!

May I take your order?

Do you want fries with that?

Rocks are so fun to play with. Aren't they girls?

Another Basketball Weekend

This weekend was a pizza and sports filled weekend. On Friday both the boys had a basketball game at Wartburg. Jackson won and Colyer won, so afterwards we went to Partner's Pizza with the Tilley's to celebrate. On Saturday, both of the boys had 2 games a piece also at Wartburg. Jackson's team won both of theirs and Colyer's team lost both of theirs. After the ballgame, we grabbed some pizza again and headed to the drive-in to see Ironman. It was o.k. I am not really into those comic book superhero movies. On Sunday, Jackson was asked to play in a baseball tournament in Karns with a group of kids from Rockwood, so we packed the cooler and went. The results were not too good but the team received second place in the tournament. I bet you can't guess but we went to Gatti's for pizza with the Kindrick's after the game. Nothing like pizza three days in a row. The kids didn't mind but I was sick of it.

Jackson anticipating the pass and

thinking 2 points on the other end.

Jackson gets ready to get the rebound.

There's nothing like chili, chips and cheese at a basketball game.

Rhylan loving it and Delaney thinking my belly is getting so full.

We love it when there is a playground close to the gym we are playing at.

The girls love to play on the playground in between games and

even the basketball players.

Colyer gets ready to box out!

Bringing the ball down the floor kind of slowly.

This was during the last game so Colyer was getting a little tired.

Baseball, Baseball and More Baseball

Colyer is ready to tag the runner.

He is just waiting for the throw from the pitcher.

Colyer gets walked again. It has been quiet the joke with Colyer

that every time he bats he either gets hit by a pitch or walked.

Colyer steals second.

Girls can hit too :)

Delaney patiently waits for a ball to get hit to her.

Sometimes that is very rare in 5&6 year old baseball.

Delaney and Rhylan walking to the ball field.

How sweet is that!

Jeremy coaches first as Jackson rounds first and heads to second.

Jackson was moving so fast I just barely got the tip of his helmet in the

picture. Look closely between the first baseman and Jeremy :)

Jackson gets ready to hit.

He tries to hit it to the grass every time

and he's usually successful.

Jackson playing first base.