birthday week!

lucky was off tuesday (the 27th) and we just hung out together as a family for lillian’s birthday … we opened present first thing (where lillian got lots of disney princess items and dress up clothes) and ended with going to Cold Stone’s for birthday ice cream (they give you free ice cream on your birthday! and a good size too!). we can't believe she is 4 already!

for natalie's, on the 28th, she and the girls made cupcakes and we sat down as family for a wonderful homemade dinner and decorated our cupcakes together. it was simple, homey, but absolutely wonderful! :)

thursday was full too … emerson needed to get weighed since his weight was decreasing since we started having issues with nursing (aka: thrush), then the girls and i ate lunch with lucky at his office and his co-workers stopped by to say “hi” to the girls and see Emerson,

then i took the girls to a park for an hour or so … they loved it so much!

and friday we took the girls (and emerson … who slept through it all, but one picture!) to the zoo! and then we ate at crackel barrel on the way home. (zoo was suppose to happen on lillian’s birthday but it was too cold … so we changed it to friday which was the prettiest day this week!)

so this weekend should be pretty busy getting ready for lillian tea party/luncheon. we have lots of stuff to buy and food to make, but i am hoping she will have a wonderful party! i will try to have her post some pictures and her thoughts on her blog site soon. keep a look out. :)

Happy Halloween!

sorry for this being so late. we have all been adjusting to our new changes in life. i didn't have time to take pictures of actually "trick or treating" but here are two pictures of the kids (ELAG) in their costumes.

the theme this year was Charlotte's Web ... the girls were both Fern, the little girl in the book/movie who has a pig named "Wilber," so they both took their favorite pigs and their pails (to collect candy, of course) ... Emerson was the spider, Charlotte, who befriends Wilber and helps him not become Christmas dinner.

family time!

Lillian has been big on "family time" recently. often at bedtime, we have to talk about all the things we did that day as a family. so we try to make sure we have some extra special family time too ... like watching airplanes!

here we are watching the airplanes flying over Cracker Barrel by the outlet mall in Morrisville.

here is Emerson sleeping away in the warmth of the car

there one goes in the cold night air.

wait ... here one more comes! the last one before we go inside to eat yummy warm french toast!

an evening at our house ...

most of the time Emerson doesn't wake up until the girls go to bed. i know ... he sleeps a lot ... just ask the girls! here is pictures of when he was X days old.



here is Gracie who is fascinated with the pacifer and making Emerson take it. we have to keep an eye on her, but she is just trying to help. she LOVES to take care of any and all of his needs. :)

this little guy is so happy being loved by his big sisters!

Lillian loves that she can hold Emerson by herself. she is so proud of herself ... and he looks quite content too.

here are our three beautiful gifts from God, we are still waiting on that patience that we know He is sending! ;)

a trip to Gigi and Poppy's house

Gigi and Poppy are Natalie's paternal grandparents and she hasn't been able to get down to see them much during the pregnancy, so it was really nice to be able to have time to go and visit them as a family.

we are all squished into Lucky's maxium, and that puts Lillian up front - which she really enjoys ... for the most part, sometimes she wants Arwen Grace's seat because ...

... Gracie gets to sit next to Emerson and hold his hand (if Mommie allows it) and watch him the whole time! obvilously she really enjoys it!

here is Poppy holding Emerson. i believe this is one of his favorite things to do in the world. this is his 7th great grandchild, but 1st great grandson and he can't wait to teach him how to throw a ball! (Poppy use to play minor league baseball! ... that is why Emerson is dressed ready to play ball!)

here is Poppy with LAG (Lillian and Arwen Grace). they had forgotten just how much they like this special man!

this is our children with their wonderful great grandparents who they unfortunatly don't get to see enough. (and this one has Gigi in it - she is really hard to catch on camera, but we all love her and therefore will continue to try. :) )

we had a really fun day there. we even got to see Natalie's aunt and uncle and cousins. we don't get to see them very often either. we miss them all and were glad for the chance to visit and catch up. love you all! and here's too seeing you soon!

He's Here!!!

Emerson Chase Wick was born on Saturday, October 20th at 4:27pm. He was excaltly 8 lbs and 0 oz and was 21.5" long. Everyone is doing extremely well and are right now just learning how to adjust to being a family of 5. The parents are learning (and desperently praying for) patience and the girls are learning how to put their little brother first. The girls are both going to tell me what they want you to know about them and their little brother on their blogs. You should go check them out, as well as Emerson's blog. Their links are listed below:

Lillian's: http://lillianwick.blogspot.com

Arwen Grace's: http://arwengrace.blogspot.com

Emerson's: http://emersonchase.blogspot.com

and our family's online photo album is at: http://picasaweb.google.com/nataliewick

here is a picture of our little one at 32 weeks. while the technition was getting pictures of the feet, natalie noticed something and we found out that it was a boy!

as of tomorrow, we have 5 weeks to go until this little one joins our family on the outside. he has already been so much a part from the moment we told the girls. they are waiting for him and have calendars that they mark off the days until his "due date" ... though they are hoping he comes earlier!

as long as i get to the NC State Fair, i don't think that i care on way or another at this moment, but ask me again in a few minutes, hours, or on my many of sleepless nights and i just might have another answer for you! :)

Happy 34th Birthday Lucky!

It was a long day, but we had at great time together. Lucky and i started the night before watching a made for TV movie that we have been wanting to see for awhile, Earthsea. It was pretty good, though we had plenty of interruptions thanks to the many thunderstorms passing over our house.

We all slept in, which was really nice!!! and then we got up and played some had brunch and then took a nap. Nothing to out of the normal - except Daddy was home! Then we woke up and had snack and Daddy opened his presents! The girls were really excited about giving him a bad of gummy bears ... a 5 LB bad of gummy bears to be exact!!!


After that we got ready and went to the pool. (view the girl's blogs to read more about their time at the pool.) We had a really good there, just a few problems and some tiredness. We all left with smiles, but were all ready to go when it was time. We picked up chicken fingers from Zaxby's (my favorite place for this pregnancy ... or so lucky thinks! it is just SO good!) and came home for baths and cake. After which we played cards with the girls and sent them to bed.

Lucky enjoyed playing on the computer while i did his nightly duties of dishes. After we got ourselves cleaned up and the girls finally in bed ... we were able to relax and play our new favorite card game "Spite and Malice" on the computer. After that we hoped to retire early, but spent an hour or so trying to fix our 5 year anniversary present ... our iSoundSpa (a iPod docking station, an alarm clock that projects the time on your wall, and a sound machine with 6 different nature sounds ... Arwen Grace likes to fall asleep to the ocean one, so we will see how that goes tonight.)

so Lucky and i went to bed tired and late, but after a great day together as a family of 4. Only 3 more months before we're a family of 5!!! It is so hard to believe some days, even with the baby kicking me all day (and night) long! Look forward to seeing pictures of our house and of the baby when it comes! We will do our best to keep you up to date!

Off to dinner ... have a great night, y'all!

it's the start of something new ...

so, i have been trying to write a blog that will catch you up with life, but i just don't seem to have the time these days ... so i am going to just jump in with the here and now, and then fill you in with the past as i go.

so here is our family: Lucky, Natalie (with baby #3 on board ... due in October!), Lillian (3.5 years), and Arwen Grace (2 years). this picture was taken this past weekend outside the aquarium. we went to Atlantic Beach with Lucky's family and had a wonderful time. we started at Fort Macon (sorry, i don't have any pictures from there!) where we ate lunch, played in the water, and went on sea shell walks. the girls really enjoyed both the beach and their Grandma and Grandpa. Arwen Grace, who turned 2 in May, keeps asking me if we are going to the beach with Grandma and Grandpa this day. she is just cute like that.

so after the beach, we went to the NC Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores. the girls just loved it! here are pictures of the girls there:

here is Lillian ... while she tends to be more on the cautious side, she surprised me by sticking her head inside the mouth of this "stuffed" alligator. but that is her silly side, as you can see by her expression, and i believe it allows her to become braver with each new day or adventure. she working up to riding a pony at the fair. :)

and here is Arwen Grace in one of her more quiet moments (she doesn't have that many!). she was enjoying looking at the fish and they were enjoying looking at her! they just kept coming up to her and looked at her for 5-10 seconds and then swam off. it was kind of funny.