Blog Overload! New baby!

What's new? One day I will be great at keeping a blog, that day just might not be for 10 more years. Here is what we have been up to in the past few months. Mostly pictures. Enjoy....

Here is our garden when it looked beautiful... before the birds ate our strawberries and the chipmunks decided to eat the rest. (cucumbers, squash, and tomatoes.) We even put a net up and they ate a hole in it. Plus, it has been really hot and the plants are not doing so well anymore. Maybe we will have better luck next year.

On May 13th, Donny and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary. We went to Medieval times dinner and tournament.

We were cheering for the red knight. We ate our food with our hands and everything. It was a lot of fun.

Of course, we had to bring Tyler home a crown.

One of my best friends, Holly, stopped at our house for the night on their way to Florida for the summer. He husband J'Dee got a summer internship in Clear water. It was fun to visit with her and see her cute dog Marley. She will be coming again in a few weeks. I can't wait. Except this time she will be the one that looks pregnant... not me. :)

My wonderful friends in Georgia through me a baby shower. It was great fun.

(Brenna and Amber)

(Dianne, Rebecca, and Amy)

(Lisa and Donna)

(me, Tyler, Laura, Carter, and Cheryl)

(Most of the ladies. The young women were there as well they hosted it for activity night.)

(Cute Amy!!)

Oh and we had a baby!!!!

Parker Matthew Hicken

7lbs 14oz

19 inches

Born May 25th, 2011

I love this face... He looks like my brother Matthew in it.

Proud big brother!

Ready to go home!

My boys!! I love them!

We had the boys exchange gifts. Parker gave Tyler some tools.

Tyler picked out this adorable Alligator for Parker. We named him Spinach!

Tyler's silly faces!

Tyler LOVES to look at himself and make faces. I often find him in the bathroom pulling faces at himself in the mirror. He recently found out that he can also do this in front of the camera. Here is what I am talking about:

Did I mention he thinks he is HILARIOUS?!!

Braves game!

Donny has been wanting to go see the Atlanta Braves play for a while now. We finally did it. We had a great time. We had cheap seats but they worked for us. And you can't go to a baseball game with out getting a hot dog for dinner right? SO we did that, too. Here are some pictures of our night out.

A great view of down town Atlanta!

Tyler complained that is was loud and he looked like this most of the game.

About the 6th inning we got a little restless and decided to walk around the stadium.

The big drum!

Our family on a giant coke bottle bench.

Tyler was a big fan of the Braves.

Donny and Tyler in front of the Giant coke bottle! (the cow in the back ground also does the tomahawk chop.)

After the game some random guy was mowing the lawn with a push mower. We thought this was so strange. Anyone know why he would be doing this?

We ended the night with a great firework show that they do at every Friday night game. Although the Braves lost we really didn't care it was a fun family activity. I think we might go again sometime.

Since the Braves are Indians they have a cheer that everyone does called the tomahawk chop. This was Tyler's most favorite part. Here is a video of him doing it.

Killer Tornadoes!!

All day yesterday and last night the South had some crazy storms. Over 100 tornadoes were reported and hundreds dead. We didn't know where the storms were headed so we stayed up most the night watching the news. Luckily, no tornadoes came near us. We had some wind and thunderstorms but this was the most of the damage below. This is out next door neighbor's tree. Just one branch fell over. Thankfully it didn't hit any cars either.

Watch this video of some of the coverage that was caught on tape. Pretty crazy huh? I'm very thankful that we were not in any harm. My prayers go out to those who have lost loved ones, and homes. I didn't realize the weather in the south got so wild.

Happy Easter!

We had a wonderful Easter this year. The Easter bunny comes to our house on Friday night, so we can celebrate all the Easter festivities on Saturday and be able to focus on the real meaning of Easter on Sunday. My family has always done this, so we decided to carry the tradition over to ours.

So, Saturday morning Tyler woke up and found his basket. For some reason I didn't get a picture with him and all his goods. Here are his 2 gifts the Easter Bunny brought him.

This one is a tee-ball bat, ball and stand.

and a crazy Mr. Potato Head! He came with multiple pieces, this is the first one Ty put together.

Then we colored some eggs!

He was very proud of them all.

I attempted making some "dinosaur eggs". I got the idea here. I think they turned out cute. Although, i left them out over night so we ended up just throwing them away.

Here is Tyler trying out his Tee-ball. He thinks it is pretty great.

Our neighbor, Joyce, invited us over for Easter dinner. She also set up an "egg hunt" for Tyler. There were no eggs, just toys, puzzle, sidewalk chalk etc. She hid them all around her yard and Tyler had a blast finding them. This is the only photo we got because our camera ran out of batteries.

Donny's work put on a little Easter party for the employees and their families. It was full of fun activities for the kids. Our little Tyler HATES large crowds so this is what we got. After coaxing him to get into the bounce house... he just sat at the edge. Poor guy is so shy.

He really wanted to meet the Easter Bunny but would not let go of Donny's hand for the life of him.

They had an Egg hunt but the parents were not allowed to help the kids. Tyler stayed at one little corner and luckily they had enough goodies that he was able to fill his basket pretty full. He was really excited. Probably not so much after I took away his candy because all it consisted of was bubble gum and fireballs. What 3 year old is gonna eat that?

Over-all we had a great weekend. We did focus on Christ on Sunday. Tyler is very concerned that people hurt Jesus and he died. We tried to focus on him being resurrected but he still can't understand why people would hurt him. "Jesus is nice, they shouldn't do that. Why did they put that poky crown on his head?" This is what he keeps asking us. It's hard to explain these things to a 3 year old. But I am glad that he love his savior. I also love my Savior Jesus Christ and was thankful to reflect on the atonement and resurrection this past weekend.

Atlanta Temple Open House!

The Atlanta LDS temple has been being remodeled for the past 2 years. They are finished now and the temple will be rededicated on May 1st. For the past 2 weeks they have been having an open house where the public can go and see the inside of the temple. We had a great opportunity to bring our next door neighbor, Joyce, to the temple with us. This was the first time she has seen the inside of an LDS temple and we were excited to share our testimonies with her. We love Joyce, we couldn't ask for a better neighbor. She has made us feel so welcome here in Georgia. She spoils Tyler rotten, she calls him her boyfriend.

They handed out cookies after we walked through the temple. Isn't he a cheeseball? He looked so handsome though.

I love that our family can be together forever.

After the temple, Joyce brought us out to eat at the Marietta Diner. Apparently it's a staple here in Marietta. It was even featured on the Food Network show Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. It was really delicious. As you can see, Tyler really enjoyed it!

Atlanta Auto Show

This was a while ago, but better late than never.

Donny has fond memories of going to the Auto show with his dad when he was young. Ever since we have known each other we have always gone to see it. In Utah the auto show is always in January. We were very sad to miss it this year. But luckily Atlanta had an auto show in March. We couldn't pass it up. This yearly tradition may stick.

It was such a happening event even Iron Man was there. Tyler has no idea who Iron man is but he was still excited to get his picture with him.

Tyler is fascinated with engines lately. When we were buying our van he has to look at each engine before we could drive it. We had a hard time pulling him away from this one. Maybe he will want to fix cars for a hobby like his Grandpa Hicken.

He almost looks old enough to drive.

Tyler also had a great time chasing around the car blimp. He kept saying "Look at the flying car, it looks like a balloon."

My sweet boy.

Taking his first driving lesson.

Cheese!

He's a pro.

Can't wait til next year!