Getting ready for Easter

The kids had a lot of fun doing their thing to get ready for Easter. They always have fun coloring eggs. They each had their own station, and went to town dipping egg after egg!

Ali also wanted to help with Easter dinner. So she helped Sue with the deviled eggs. She helped with the mixing, then filled the eggs.

We were informed by Grandma Norris that she needed a newer picture of the five of us. The one on her fridge is from over 2 years ago. So we got a quick one before she left on Easter.

Cake baking fun

I've been up to my elbows in cake and frosting since yesterday morning. Brooke asked me to make her cakes for her birthday. She decided she wants Hannah Montana. So she picked out a guitar shaped pan for me to do an electric guitar in purples. Then she wanted a small sheet cake with the Hannah Montana logo on it. Brooke was happy with them, so I am happy with how they turned out. And for those of you who are asking "Who in the world is Hannah Montana?", you obviously don't have a 8-13 year old girl at your house! She's very well known around here!

I also got to make my first effort at carrying on a tradition. My Grandma Tiny always made and decorated oodles of these little Easter egg cakes every Easter. There were always card tables, just covered with these little yummy cakes. Tammy gave me Grandma's egg pans that she used, so I decided to start carrying on Grandma's tradition. My first effort isn't anything fancy, but I'm happy with them anyway. These cakes always seemed so much bigger back when I was little, snitching them off of the table every chance I got!

Look what Santa brought us!

We had a fun surprise waiting outside the door that Santa left behind for us. We blame it on the fact that when the kids visited Santa, Ali said to bring "whatever!" Santa's response was, "Surprise you?" So after finally convincing Ali that wintertime is not a good time to get a puppy, Santa threw a loop in that plan. We all love her. On Christmas morning, Nika Noel was a little over 2 1/2 months old and 22 pounds. There weren't three bigger smiles than what we saw on our children that morning! Needless to say, Nika was immediately accepted into our family with lots of love and playtime!

Nika became quite fond of the couch right away

Three very happy children, and a happy puppy!

Tackling Daddy

The Crashing Quick Boys

Between birthday celebrations and holiday celebrations, the boys decided to test Mommy's panic-taming tactics. Mommy doesn't do all that well with blood - especially when it's coming from one of her babies! Cody walked into the kitchen crying, and said that he crashed into Dustin. Mommy saw the blood on his finger. So Mommy acted all brave, saying "It's alright, Cody, we'll get it cleaned right up, and it will be all better." So the two of us walked to the bathroom and started cleaning the blood off of that little finger. As Mommy looked up to check on her boy's panic mode, she saw the gash in his head, just oozing out blood! Okay, *starting to panic now!* Mommy tried to take a deep breath, grabbed a couple more washrags, and started to clean up Cody's head. Then from the other room, Dustin started crying. Delayed reaction, I guess. Ali tried to help him since Mommy was cleaning up blood, but Dustin wanted nothing to do with anybody but Mommy. He came into the bathroom where Mommy was helping with Cody's bloody mess. Mommy looked over at her little guy, and looked into the face of her baby, mouth also oozing out blood. We are now past *starting to panic!* Mommy couldn't fight the tears now. She made a quick phone call for some reinforcement against all the blood. Keep in mind, there were three other children here besides the boys. So Virginia (the reinforcements) stayed at the house with Ali and the other two kids, while Mommy took Cody and Dustin up to Janet, our nurse-practioner here in town. Janet checked them out, cleaned them up, and told us what to watch for, and how to take care of the injuries. She knows Mommy's feelings on blood. So she was so kind as to remind me that I have two little boys and a very active growing girl, and that as they get bigger, the blood gets bigger. OH JOY!! I'm sure looking forward to that! NOT!! So Cody had a very tender head for a week or two, and Dustin visited the dentist two days after the accident. They did x-rays, and checked his mouth good. The collision caused his front teeth to be shoved back up into his gums. They said they are considering it "dental trauma" and told me symptoms to watch for that would mean the nerve is dying. Thankfully, his permanent teeth were still far enough up in his mouth, that the impact did not cause any damage to them. However, he will most likely lose his two front teeth early, quite possibly even in the next year. Then, he will just wait for his permanent front teeth to come in. So he may be asking for his two front teeth for a few Christmases. At this point, Cody still hasn't lost his front teeth. These pictures were taken the day after the collision.





As of now, Cody's head is healed up, and Dustin's mouth appears to be perfectly normal. So it's now just a waiting game on those two front teeth.

Oh the joys of active little boys!

Keith's New Toy

When we bought the house, Keith also decided he needed a little tractor since we aren't at the farm anymore. New Year's Eve night was the first night he really got to play with the snowblower he got to put on it. So he was out playing in the dark with his new toy.

Playin' in the snow

We had a pretty typical winter here. Keith pulled the kids in their sled behind the four-wheeler for a fun time. They all really enjoyed themselves.

Let's catch up!

We want to try to keep all of our family and friends up to date in the happenings of the Quick family. So come visit when you get a chance and check up on the crazy day-to-day life of our little clan. Spring and summer stay pretty busy around here, so there should be some fun pictures coming up for you to enjoy. Cody is getting ready to start soccer for the spring. In a couple of months, Ali will be going strong with softball, and Cody will be full-force into t-ball (both of which are traveling teams this year.) Ali pretty much continues with her tumbling year-round with two breaks around the summer session. It won't be long before Dustin is right up there with the other two with his social calendar.