Let the Packing Begin!

We now have two weeks left until the big move and Clara and I have been loading boxes together. She has picked up on packing quickly as I keep finding random objects such as her hamper filled with toys, blankets and puzzles! I have been filling boxes with things that I don't need right now, like non-maternity clothing, and she has been filling them with treasures! She sits in the boxes, crawls through them like tunnels and fills them with her favorite toys.

Boxes are great!

Matt, Michael and Emily Hicks

Tomorrow my sister-in-law Emily gets here! We are excited to have her around. She will be moving with us to Oregon to start a new adventure of her own and to help us with the kiddos in the coming months.

We have a home!

We got the call yesterday that we have been approved for the home we applied to in Klamath Falls, OR. We are very excited. Our official move in date is December 10th which is only three short weeks away! I am thankful for all of this excitement in my last 10-12 weeks of pregnancy. Packing and moving will occupy me for the next few weeks, then I have unpacking and settling in, and THEN I can finally work on getting ready for baby boy to be here! Washing his teeny tiny new born clothes and putting them in his closet, setting up his bed, buying new born diapers and prepping for labor. Hopefully he will come just as soon as I have finished all of the above. As soon as we are settled into our new home I will be sure to put pictures up of our new place!

Our Visit to Oregon

Klamath Lake

We visited Klamath Falls, Oregon this weekend to find a new home, meet a midwife and tour the school. It was a quick but enjoyable weekend! We left Friday evening and arrived in Klamath by about 9am and spent all day Saturday discovering our soon to be city and searching for a home. It is a small town with a population of about 42,000. It is most definitely a place to be if you enjoy being outside as there isn't much for shopping or entertainment. We look forward to horseback riding, rafting, camping, canoeing, fishing, hiking and spending some time at Klamath Lake, which is the largest natural lake in Oregon. It really is beautiful there.
Sunday we met with my future midwife, Rochelle, in Ashland, Oregon. It was such a cute little town. It is about half the size of Klamath and three times as cute! But it is an hour and a half away so living there is out of the question for now. We also found a really great house we would love to rent. It is a three bedroom, three bathroom house with a very large basement, so we can have a lot of visitors stay with us of course!
Monday we took a tour of OIT's campus. It seems to be a really great school and Matt is excited to start taking classes in January.
Stay tuned for more details as we make our journey north in the next few weeks! And I promise to put pictures up once we are settled. 

Talk, Talk, Talk

Update

It has been a terribly long time since I have updated this blog. My apologies.

I am now 7 months pregnant and I cannot believe how quickly this pregnancy has gone or how much easier it has been. For those of you who don't know, we are having a boy and are extremely excited about it. I think it will be a blast to have two children, although I am not entirely sure I will be able to handle all of the cutness they will display. Clara keeps me smiling all day long. Like this:

Cheese!

Here is a baby bump pic. I have also slacked in this department. I think this is the only picture I have taken of myself besides the ones taken at Laura's wedding. 

7 months pregnant

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here is our sweet little man:

Baby Boy Hicks at 23 weeks

And in other news..... We will no longer be "The Hicks Family in California." We will be "The Hicks Family in Oregon!"

We will be moving to Klamath Falls, Oregon sometime within the next 4 weeks. Matt will be attending Oregon Institute of Technology pursuing a degree in Renewable Energy Engineering. We are excited to make the move. It is a great area five hours south of Portland, five hours north of San Francisco and just an hour away from Crater Lake. We are getting ready to take a trip up there to find a place to rent, meet a midwife to deliver our little boy at the end of January and to take a tour of the school. I will try to be better at keeping you all posted on our adventures as we get ready to make our big move.

Pictures!

Redwoods

Packing for the road trip!

Sacramento

Redding

Clara's first camping experience

Redwood National Park

The ocean

Driving through a Redwood

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The cute little B&B we stayed in on Highway One

Clara's sleeping bag

A waterfall we hiked up to

Hearst Castle

It's Been a While!

I haven't blogged for a while... Sorry about that. A lot has happened. We went on vacation along the coast of California all the way up to the Redwood National Park and back, we visited Kansas City, my baby girl turned one year old, and we found out we are pregnant!

Whew! That was the short version of the catch-up.

Our Vacation
As soon as Matt finished his first trimester in school we all needed a vacation, so we packed our bags and headed towards the Redwood National Park. Our first night we stayed in Sacramento, The City of Trees. We visited the capitol and spend time in the park there where there was every type of tree imaginable.
The next day we made it all the way up to the Redwood National Park. Breathtakingly beautiful. And then we started our journey back home down highway 101 and 1 along the scenic highways through beautiful forests and along the coast. We camped several nights either on the beach or in beautiful parks, the other nights we enjoyed hot showers and warm beds :) We hiked and visited some of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.

Kansas City
We have started a new adventure in our lives. Matt is taking a break from school to help build our income and take care of us for a while. We decided to drive to Kansas City and tell our family and friends about this exciting new time in our lives. It was a great trip and good to see everyone.

Clara
She turned one! I still can't believe it. I still don't believe that we are parents or that she has been with us for an entire year! Everyone told me that it would go by faster than I could imagine. I didn't believe them when I was exhausted from having a baby, and getting up every 2 hours to feed/change Clara, but now I believe you all! She is a blast. She is learning new things every day. She makes me smile all day long.

Baby #2
We are extremely excited to have a second child. What a joy it is to have children! We just don't know how we will handle all of the cuteness at once! I have been feeling pretty good this pregnancy, in comparison to my pregnancy with Clara. The morning sickness is not nearly as bad as with Clara and it lasted until about 14 weeks with her. I am about 11 weeks now and am starting to feel a little bit more energy and a lot less nauseousness. I am hoping this means it is a boy **fingers crossed**

I think that about sums it up! Pictures to follow.

Holiness v. Hardness Towards God

Holiness v. Hardness Towards God

"And He...wondered that there was no intercessor." Isaiah 59:16

The reason many of us leave off praying and become hard towards God is because we have only a sentimental interest in prayer. It sounds right to say that we pray; we read books on prayer which tell us that prayer is beneficial, that our minds are quieted and our souls uplifted when we pray; but Isaiah implies that God is amazed at such thoughts of prayer.

Worship and intercession must go together, the one is impossible without the other. Intercession means that we rouse ourselves up to get the mind of Christ, about the one for whom we pray. Too often instead of worshiping God, we construct statements as to how prayer works. Are we worshipping or are we in dispute with God -- "I don't see how You are going to do it." This is a sure sign that we are not worshiping. When we lose sight of God we become hard and dogmatic. We hurl our own petitions at God's throne and dictate to Him as to what we wish him to do. We do not worship God, nor do we seek to form the mind of Christ. If we are hard towards God, we will become hard towards other people.

Are we so worshiping God that we rouse ourselves up to lay hold on Him so that we may be brought into contact with His mind about the ones for whom we pray? Are we living in a holy relationship to God, or are we hard and dogmatic?

"But there is no one interceding properly" -- then be that one yourself, be the one who worships God and who lives in holy relationship to Him. Get into the real work of intercession, and remember it is a work, a work that taxes every power; but a work which has no snare. Preaching the gospel has a snare; intercessory prayer has none.

MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST -- OSWALD CHAMBERS

Fun with Clara

Clara & Apples

The work in progress. A very determined little girl.

"I did it. I ate the whole thing!"

And that is how a baby with 6 teeth devours an entire apple.

A New Opprotunity

I just joined a group called Women's Dream Team. I already purchase all natural products for our home like laundry detergent, soaps, toothpaste, shampooh, vitamins, granola bars, and whatever else I can find. Through this sight I can get it all a little cheaper. Here is some info if you are interested:

www.womensdreamteam.com/leannehicks
www.businessmomstoday.com

Two Things

One: It is beautiful here all of the time and I LOVE being outside in it every day.

Two: Speed limit signs on the highways are just for looks. If you are stuck in traffic the speed limit is 0 and if there is no traffic, you can drive as fast as you want. 80 is the average speed.

One Month

We have officially been here one month now. I have truly enjoyed teasing my family with our warm temperatures and sunshine, really just in hopes that they will break down and come to stay for a while! I think it is great that you can start working on your tan in January here. Every weekend Matt has dedicated Sundays to family time and giving his brain a break from all of that studying. We are excited to try something new every weekend or just visit the beach. Last weekend we went to the beach, this weekend we went to Carbon Canyon to go hiking (not a recommended hike) and next weekend we are going to go to the beach again. We look forward to finding nice hiking trails, visiting the orange county zoo, camping, and visit national parks.

Sweet Baby

We have been posting videos of this sweet baby on qik.com/matthewhicks12. The most recent videos are of her snorting. She keeps me smiling all day long!

A New Week

Today marks the first day of a new week for us. Today Matt starts school and I start really working on getting clients for my medical claims & billing business. Real life starts today.

I feel like we have settled in just fine and it is starting to feel like home. It is good to have all of the boxes unpacked and to have furniture again. My surroundings are starting to feel more familiar and I am really enjoying discovering my new city.

Although I miss my family and friends in Kansas City, I truly look forward to the beginning of a new life here.