Happy Halloween!!

After getting off to a late start, the Hicks family finally made it Trick-or-Treating. We started out in Rockwood. We went to Jeremy's mom's and his aunt's house and then headed down to Kingston Ave. After all of this we headed back to Oakdale to my mom's house. Halloween ended at about 9:15 p.m. for the Hicks kids. They were very good the entire night. This was Rhylan's first year of actually doing the whole trick-or-treating thing. She loved it. She told everyone thank you and would even stand there after getting the first piece of candy waiting for the people to put more candy in her bucket. The kids all liked their costumes and there wasn't a lot of complaints besides the wigs falling off and Jackson's face paint started to itch by the end of the night. Colyer was a 70's basketball player, Jackson was the Joker, Delaney was Hannah Montana, Rhylan was Tinkerbell and Jeremy was Robby Ray (Hannah Montana's Dad). When Delaney first decided to be Hannah Montana she asked Jeremy if he would be Hannah Montana's Dad and of course Jeremy said yes. I think Jeremy enjoyed it as much as Delaney did. Peyton went with us trick-or-treating and she dressed up in a wolf costume that she had worn in her Halloween party. A big thank you to my mom for making Jackson and Delaney's costume. They looked much better than the ones at the store. Thanks to Jeremy's mom for the Joker's dynamite in his jacket. Hope everyone had a great Halloween.

Miss Independent fixing her shoe. She now thinks that she is able to do everything herself.

Hannah Montana with her admiring fan Tinkerbell.

Hannah Montana without her protective Daddy - Robby Ray

70's basketball player

Tinkerbell

"Give me some candy or I will blow you up"

Robby Ray and Hannah Montana

The big bad wolf stealing Tinkerbell.

The whole crew

All of the goblins in the car ready to get some candy.

Rhylan doesn't know what to think of the big bad wolf.

This is the way all of us felt after a long night of Trick-or-Treating.

Don't Ever Grow Up

Wednesday when I got home from school Rhylan was being really clingy but in a sweet and cute way. She was just wanting me to hold her and give her hugs. So we cuddled for a few minutes, she was telling me that she loved me and missed me which broke my heart. As I was holding her I said "Rhylan don't ever grow up" and she replied "O.K. Mommy". I thought it was just so sweet the way she said it. She was sincere in her answer. I am loving the age she is right now and I don't want her to grow up but I know she is and is doing it very fast. You just have to trust that you are raising your kids right and that when the time comes for them to make decisions that they will make the right ones. I just want to cry every time we accomplish another major childhood milestone because that just means she is not so little anymore.

Halloween Party

Saturday was Peyton's (Jeremy's little sister) annual Halloween party and Haunted Trail. This is the third year that Peyton has had a Halloween party. They play games and eat until it gets dark. Then the adults get in their costumes and get ready to scare the kids. Their is usually a zombie, gorilla, chainsaw man, dead woman and many other scary people hiding in this decorated trail. Kathy (Jeremy's Mom) usually starts about 2 weeks before getting this trail all set up and decorated. As usual it was hit with the middle schoolers. Rhylan and I stayed in the basement most of the night watching the UT/Bama game. Rhylan drug around Tommi the new kitten all night (poor cat). She woke up on Sunday morning talking about that kitty as she calls it. She wanted to go get that kitty and bring it home. Here are a few pictures from Saturday night.

Jackson and Tommi. Jackson has become quite the cat lover.

Rhylan and Tommi. Rhylan also loves kitty's. I don't think the feeling is mutual for the kitty. It ran from Rhylan every time she put it down. But she always managed to find it. Then she would carry it upside down or by its neck. That cat was glad to see Rhylan leave :)

Jess with Eddie and Lilly. Eddie and Lilly were wearing their Halloween decorations. Eddie was wearing bat wings and Lilly was wearing spider legs.

Rhylan attempting to ride the scooter before the party got started.

Fall Break

Fall Break flew by. We didn't go anywhere but still stayed busy. Here is a little run down of our week off from school.

• Monday - Everyone had well visits at the doctor and everyone also got their flu shots. We left the house at 8:30 and didn't get back until about 5:00. Whew!!! what a long day. We topped off the day by going to Stanley's corn field to get our cornstalks to finish our fall yard decoration.
• Tuesday - We did yard work at my mom's all day. Everyone was exhausted. Grandma fed us pizza and made some awesome sweet tea. The yard looks tons better. The big event for the day was Colyer stepping on a nail. Good thing he had just had his Tetanus shot on Monday at his well visit. It didn't go very far in either just a little bit of blood and NO ER!!
• Wednesday - Rhylan and I did some "spring" cleaning in the fall. We borrowed my mom's Rainbow vacuum cleaner which has got to be the best vacuum cleaner ever made. It is amazing to see how much dirt is in your house that you didn't even know was there. We also visited Taylor and Liam and Mamaw and Papaw Headrick.
• Thursday - Colyer, Rhylan and I made our weekly trip to the grocery store - how exciting. It wasn't too bad Colyer was able to help out with Rhylan who wants to open everything and sample it before we leave.
• Friday - I kept Taylor and Liam for a few hours for Will to go to a job interview. Good luck Will! Then the kids and I decorated our pumpkins. We didn't carve the pumpkins this year like we have done in previous years. Last year we tried something new - painting the pumpkins which would have been great had we not used washable paint - DUH!! The first time it rained all of the paint was on the deck. So this year we used markers and stickers. The kids loved and it wasn't so messy. Here are the pumpkin pictures.

The completed pumpkins.

Colyer and his mini face on his gigantic pumpkin.

Jackson and his cute pumpkin.

Delaney and her scary pumpkin.

Rhylan "writing her name" on her pumpkin. That is what she told me she was doing.

Mommy's Little Helper

Rhylan has become quite the little helper around the house. She will take clothes from the dryer to the living room to be folded. She will take anything you want to the trash can. She even gets out a new trash bag when she sees me taking out the trash. She puts her clothes in the dirty clothes basket when she takes her clothes off. This week everyday when we get home from school she has asked if we can do dishes. Wednesday she was almost in tears because we didn't have any dirty dishes because we had ate out for supper. When she sees that it is time to do the dishes she'll say "I want to get in ner' " meaning she wants to sit on the side of the sink with her feet in the sink while she rinses the dishes. It is so amazing how much they imitate you and want to be like you. Aren't they so PRECIOUS and SWEET!! Enjoy these cute pictures.

Rhylan rinsing the clean dishes. When she is finished rinsing them she puts them on the counter to dry.

Rhylan is just as excited as mommy is that the dishes are washed and put away.

Puppies, Puppies!!!!

Sunday afternoon we went to Jeremy's mom's (aka Kathy or Gannie) house to play with her puppies. She has four left out of nine. Jackson loves these puppies. He wants to bring "Liza Jane" home but we are afraid she will get run over with us being so close to the highway. So every chance we get we try to go to her house and let him play with them. Kathy also had supper fixed for us. Supper consisted of Pinto Beans, Greens, Cornbread and Meatloaf.. yum yum! If you will notice there are no pictures of Colyer with the puppies. He could care less about the animals. He is more interested in Fantasy Football right now :) what a typical male. Enjoy the pictures.

Jackson and "Liza Jane", this is his favorite puppy. Jackson loves these puppies he would go everyday and visit them if he could.

Delaney with one of the puppies. Delaney has come a long way in getting to where she will touch a dog or a cat. She used to scream and cry when they came near her.

Rhylan likes to get a toy and just run with it and then all of the puppies follow her wherever she goes. As you can see in the picture she still has the toy in her hand. The puppies decided to quit playing with her because she never gave them the toy. How funny!!

Pumpkin Patch

On Saturday, after all of the ballgames and packing up all of the unsold yard sale items, we headed to Crossville to the Autumn Acres Corn Maze and Pumpkin Patch. The kids loved it. We went the petting zoo and playground first. Then went on the tractor ride to get our pumpkins and then headed for the corn maze. We split up into boys and girls. The girls questions were about Hannah Montana and the boys questions were about The Suite Life of Zack and Cody. We beat the boys :) They used the excuse of someone switching the signs because they never made it past question #2. They kept going in circles so they decided just to give up and come back out the entrance. After the corn maze, we got our hot dogs and stuff for smores and cooked them on the camp fire. I highly recommend this corn maze it is very kid friendly and well priced. It is $8 to get in (2 and under free)and you can choose from the petting zoo, two playgrounds, a little kids four wheeler ride, the pumpkin patch, the corn maze and you can bring your own hot dogs and smores to cook at the fire pit.

Jackson's Pumpkin

Colyer's Pumpkin

Delaney's pumpkin

Rhylan and Daddy picking out the perfect pumpkin.

This had to be the fastest slide I have ever seen. It was a big black pipe with this thick, black, rubbery thing attached to the end. The kids just flew out of the tube. I was very scared when Rhylan went down but Jeremy said to let her do it, so we did and she absolutely loved it. Check out the next three pictures.

Rhylan sliding, the face says it all.

Jackson going head first (what a rule breaker).

Delaney sliding by the rules: feet first.

Delaney didn't really like feeding the goats.

She didn't want them to touch her with their tongues.

Yum! Yum! Rhylan didn't care if the goats licked her.

Peyton and Rhylan feeding the goats.