In Memory

I have to take a moment and mark the one year anniversary of the passing of a beloved father, grandfather, husband and friend. I would love to say that dealing with his absence has gotten easier with time, but as I get together with my family and we experience major milestones in our lives it only makes those times together bitter sweet. I long for my father to pick up the phone when I call. I long for my children to be able to remember the fun times they had with their papa and to know how much he loved them. I long for his quiet and powerful presence that made our family complete. I am so thankful for the knowledge I have of eternal families and the peace that comes with knowing that we can be together again. We love and miss you dearly papa.

E. Wayne Ricks

September 10, 1943~June 26, 2007

The Jeppson Family Reunion

Road Trip

After returning home from Utah we packed the car and started our two day road trip to Nauvoo, Illinios to be with Nate's family for a reunion. You gotta love a good road trip. The long hours in the car, the classic questions coming from the backseat of "is this Nauvoo??" and "are we there yet??" Passing the time by eating candy and snacks and then stopping at Wendy's and/or McDonalds (yes I will admit we do let our kids eat at McDonalds). Oh and I can't forget the "quality" hotels along the way. With all sarcasim aside I really did enjoy our road trip. The girls did so well in the car by watching movies and singing songs to keep entertained. We made it to Nauvoo and met up with the rest of the Jeppson gang. It was a lot of fun and with all the cousins to play with Taylor was in heaven. It was good to be with family and to experience the church history of that part of the country. We have had a good month filled with family and lots of fun but it is nice to slow down and be at home and relax for a little while.

Our visit to Utah!

We spent the first week in June in Utah with Grandma Ricks, Uncle Tim and his family, Aunt Christine, Aunt Becky and the rest of the Turk Family. We had so much fun and enjoyed the time we got to spend with counsins and family in general! We are glad we got to spend time with the Turscanski's before the big move to Italy. Thanks Grandma Ricks for letting us visit and letting us all stay at your house! We love you all and miss you already!

Quirky Colorado

This memorial day we spent our free time discovering Colorado's quirky side. On Saturday we went to a place called Tiny Town with Jami and Crew. It is a place up in the mountains filled with tiny houses and buildings with miniature displays inside the windows. There were even some tiny buildings that the kids could go inside and explore. One of the highlights of the day was the tiny steam engine train that we road around Tiny Town. Taylor and Crew loved the little houses and I must admit it was a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be. Then on Monday we headed south to Colorado Springs to a place called Santa's Workshop at the North Pole. This is an amusement park for young kids at the foot of Pikes Peak. The whole park has a Christmas theme from a spinning Christmas tree to a carousel filled with all of Santa's reindeer, and yes even Santa himself was there to take requests. There were lots of different rides to enjoy that were some kind of variation of spinning around in a circle. Nate and I took turns going on the rides so we both weren't completely motion sick at the end of the day. We all had a great time, even Kennedy who because of the laid back attitude of the park went on almost every ride!

Tiny Town

Santa's Workshop

Any day now!

I am so happy that Kennedy has started to take steps. For months she has been walking holding on to anything that will move and hold her weight. Now in the past week she has actually attempted to take steps...but only to her favorite people. I can't wait when she decides that she can do it on her own! No more brown knees!!

Sleepless Nights and Screaming Babies

This post is inspired by a fellow blogger (my cousin's wife) and her little boy who decided to stop sleeping through the night after months of sleeping 10 hours at a time. It must be going around because my sister recently called me in hopes for some words of inspiration on how to get her 8 month old baby to sleep through the night. Unfortunately I had none. I too am searching for that ah ha moment when I finally find the answer to a much stewed over equation. Kennedy promised to be an angel baby and began sleeping through the night at as early as 2 months. I hate to say that it didn't last for long and around 5 months old she began the whole process of waking up again. I thought for sure it was just a phase and I would soon know how it feels to be refreshed and ready to start a new day again. Well Kennedy is going on 13 months and Iam still waiting for this phase to pass. I must say that we still have it pretty easy and typically are only required to get up once during the night and sometimes it would be at a more reasonable 5 a.m. However, I hope I speak for most mothers when I say whether it be once a night or 5 times a night I don't think it makes a difference... it is extremely frustrating!! So what do you do when you come to the realization that enough is enough? I feel like I have tried everything with very minimal results. I almost shouted victory last week while Nate was away for a few days and I tried the 'cry it out' method again for who knows how many times in Kennedy's short life time. After one night of enduring almost two hours of heartbreaking screams I couldn't believe it when four days passed with out getting up at all. As I was gaining confidence in my tough love approach, the fifth day brought getting up multiple times at night with an almost inconsolable baby. I am always quick to suspect the obvious...(teething) and apply orajel. And if her crying continues I eventually add the appropriate dosage of children's Tylenol to the equation. Yet I have been suspecting teething for far too long with no new pearly whites as confirmation of my theory. We do know she does have teeth trying to work their way down as her gums are swollen and more recently have become more and more asymmetrical with what I refer to as teeth bumps. But honestly, how long can it take for teeth to break through?? So after an evening of going up and down the stairs trying to comfort a child who can't seem to stay asleep for longer than 1 hour at a time without waking up, I find myself anticipating another sleepless (and frustrating) night.