Kylie's Photo Shoot

One of our great friends Brittany Mudd is working on her portfolio and wanted to take some pics on our family. So here are some adorable pics of Kylie. (Our little 1 year old got her own photo shoot!)

If you are interested into talking to our friend to get your own photo shoot, then holla at me...

Getting into EVERYthing...

So Kylie Joy has a new favorite hobby--It's called getting into EVERYTHING. When we say everything, we mean everything! She literally gets into the cabinets, which is something that neither Isa or Carson never did--at least until now. They both try to follow her lead and get into the cabinets just like their little sister!!!

Here is our little princess raiding the pantry. As much of a mess as it is, I've got to mention that it is pretty cute--and sweet!!! Just look at the expression on her face--it's half sweet and half like I just got busted!!! Either way, its just another reason as to why we love this little girl!!!

All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth...

That pesky front tooth that would not let go, finally had to go. So, I'm at work and I receive a call from Heidi who seems frantic. When she calmed down, she told me the story of Isa's losing her front tooth. Who knew that the best way to pull a tooth that won't let go is to fix your kid a sandwich and let here sink her teeth into it. Heidi fixed Isa a sandwich for lunch and when Isa sank her teeth into it, her front tooth was pushed backwards and started gushing blood to which both of my ladies starting freaking out! Although Heidi said that she was nervous about pulling the tooth before this day, she had to 'man up' in this situation. And she pulled that bad boy out leaving our li'l girl with a pretty cool space between her grill. Now she looks like more like me than ever before. My teeth are so spread out that I tell people that I got my teeth at the Gap. So here's to you Isa--you're growing up Princess!!! We love you...

America's Past time

I got so excited a few months ago when Carson said that he wanted to play baseball! So I did what any dad would do, I signed him up. I also put on the registration form that I would help coach if they needed someone. You know what that means--I became the head coach!!! It's not that I didn't want to coach his team, I just didn't want to take the opportunity away from someone who knew what they were doing. But how hard can coaching 4 year old baseball really be??? It was easier and much more enjoyable than I thought. I have to admit, it was a real joy helping my li'l man and his team mates learn how to play the game that many of us love so much! I think Carson even loves it. Here he is after a game with the "Game Ball" (for being the MVP of the day) and his snack. To be honest, he (along with the rest of the team) was more concerned about the snack!!! He actually tried to give me the game ball back when I presented it to him after the game saying "I don't want the ball!!!"

Here is most of the incredible A's!!! I love these guys and consider it a pleasure to have coached them!

Kylie Joy turns 1!!!

One year ago (March 8th), our li'l Kylie JOY Hicks was introduced to the World. It's crazy how time flies!!! As true as it is that time flies, it is also true that "Children are a gift from the Lord."

Look how cute this little princess is...I think she knows that she's adorable, which isn't too big of a problem yet, but it could get out of hand later on down the road.

Kylie is unique in that she is the only one of our three kiddos who actually 'enjoyed' tearing into her own b-day cake on their first b-day. Isa and Carson didn't want any part of their first b-day cakes!

How cute is this li'l messy face???

Carson and Isa loved digging into, I mean helping Kylie unwrap her gifts--and the birthday girl enjoyed the help! She loves her older brother and sister and they love her!!!

Papa helped Kylie from hitting everyone with her wand!

Here are the cousins chilling together: Carson, Grant, Jackson and Isa. These guys play well together--so well that we wish we lived closer to each other.

Pops also has a March birthday so we celebrated his as well as Kylie's. You know what that means? TWO birthday CAKES!

Big brother Carson loving on his lil' sis on her bday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KYLIE JOY, you are a JOY to our lives!!!

Zoo Atlanta

The Hicks Family decided that if you are going to buy a yearly pass to Zoo Atlanta, then you better use it! So we did. We decided to go on a week day because last time we went, we did so on a weekend--along with everyone else in the whole wide world. Weekdays are the ways to go--we had the park to ourselves--Just us, some crazy animals (our kids) and the animals in the cages!!!

We think that Isa and Carson liked the carousel more than anything else at the Zoo!

In addition to loving the carousel, the train was a huge hit with the kids!!!

I would have thought that the kids favorite thing at the Zoo was the petting zoo, but both Isa and Carson didn't really seem to be too pumped about it, saying that the animals were "Too stinky!!!"

My favorite part of this zoo trip was the Pandas. Last time we were at the zoo, there were so many people that there was a huge line of people waiting to see the pandas that by the time you got to see them, people were pushing out the door. This time, we were the only ones in the panda viewing area and it was pretty sweet.

My favorite picture was the panda below who is kissing his reflection. Even Pandas need love!!!

How precious is the baby panda!!! We wanted to take him home with us but thought that it was not the wisest thing to do--also, I don't think it's legal!!!

Check out this good looking family!!! There are some Divas in this picture! I won't tell you which one are which, I'll just let you take a guess!!!

It's not every day that you get to see huge giraffe's chilling right in front of you!!! Great day with the fam and the zoo!!! Let's do it again soon--who wants to go with us??

A night out on the town with the Fam!!!

What do you do when you need a little break? You pull out your laptop, get on priceline.com and search for a hotel--and that is what the Hicks family did a few weeks ago. We found a pretty sweet deal in Midtown and headed out for some family time in the ATL. Here are Isa and Carsito kicking back and enjoying the night on the town!

After searching for a place to eat for a while, we found this pretty sweet pizza place (It was so sweet that I forgot the name of it). But it was awesome and it was a beautiful day so we sat outside. Here is my two oldest girls posing for a picture!

Isa and Carson shared their own table by the fountain, giving mommy and daddy some time to ourselves.

Even Li'l Kylie JOY loved the night out on the town!!!

After dinner we took the kids out for a li'l bowling action. We forgot socks so we had to stop at the local drug store and pay an outrageous amount for socks...When it comes to foot fungus from bowling shoes, I guess it's worth it to spend some dough for socks at a drug store!!!

Here is Kylie trying to tell Carson how it's done..

Here is Isa showing off with the rails. It's a shame that they don't let the big kids use the rails or the bumpers, because my score would be so much better than it usually is!

It's a miracle! 3 stikes in a row for DH equals one big fat TURKEY!!!

After bowling, the night got even better with a trip to Krispy Kreme for some amazing doughnuts!!! Here are the kids watching how these delicious bundles of joy are made.

And here is the fam stuffing our faces full of hot amazingness. God bless the "Hot Sign" at the doughnut shop!!!

The next morning we took the kiddos downtown to the Children's Discovery Museum. While it was pretty cool, it is not even in the same league as the Children's Discovery Museum in Chattanooga. So if you are in Chattanooga and have small kids, you owe it to your family to spend the day there. That place is amazing!!!

Here is our li'l Carsito doing a little fishing in one of the discovery sections. Even Kylie could get involved in this place--so it's good for the whole family!!!

The Kiddos love to paint, and oh how well they do it!!!

Here is the fam taking a little break before we head to and then back to reality in Newnan. You can't spend a day in the ATL without paying visit to IKEA. The kids love play land and I love that you can buy 8 hot dogs, 2 bags of chips, 2 drinks and 2 amazing cinnamon buns all for $8. That's why I love that place.

What a great two days with the family!!! It was much needed and we can't wait to do it again SOON!!!

Psalm 62

Take a moment to listen to Aaron Keyes as he worships God by singing His praises in a song called Psalm 62. One of my favorite lines from this song is "O praise Him, hallelujah, My Delight and my Reward..." What a declaration that God is our delight and our reward. In Genesis 15:1, God tells Abram that He is our shield and our very great reward! The more and more I find out about God, who He is, what He is like, what He is not like, I truly understand that knowing Him is truly a reward! That's why I believe that A.W. Tozer is right when he said that the most important thing about us is what we think about God. How we view God will determine if we spend the rest of our lives running from Him or to Him. I pray that you will take time to truly get to know Him so that you will see what a reward He is and in doing so, you will run hard to Him and not from Him!

Isa's Pre-K Graduation

This past week, Isa graduated from Pre-K and here is our tribute to our li'l princess. Watching her graduate creates so many emotions in us--It makes us want to spend every waking moment with her because we are realizing that they really do grow up fast--faster than we can imagine. In addition to wanting to spend every waking moment with her, Carson and Kylie Joy, we want to snuggle up close to them as they sleep, not wanting to miss a moment with these precious gifts of God. So before I get all emotional about how fast she is growing up, I'll just say that we are very proud of her--she really is a li'l princess that is very smart, inquisitive and funny. We love you Isa and you make us smile!!!

Isa's Gymnastics Recital

This past year Isa has been in Gymnastics and she absolutely loves it!!! And, as unbiased as I can be, she is really good at it. Anyways, last week she had the end of the year recital to show off what they have learned and although I wasn't able to make it (due to being at a conference in Chicago), I heard that it was really cool and at the end, Isa received her very first trophy! What a great accomplishment. We love you Isa and are very, very proud of you!!!

Laminin

Many of you have seen or at least heard Louie Giglio's talk on Laminin, but tonight I was rethinking about it and wanted to share it with you once again in hopes that you will be reminded of God's greatness and His love for us.

Colossians 1:16-17 "He is before all things and in HIM (Jesus Christ), all things hold together.

Kylie's Birth Announcement

Great minds think alike...

Last week we decided to go to Zoo Atlanta at the last minute, so we quickly packed lunches and jumped in the car. When we were backing out of the driveway, our friends, the Low family pulled up and asked us where we were off to. When we said that the we were heading to the Zoo, they responded that they were too and were stopping by to see if we wanted to go--"Great minds think alike!" So we all, and the rest of the world, enjoyed a day at the Zoo!