El Tigre

So, I got a phone call at about 1:30 in the morning a few weeks ago...Marcus was at work and rescued a kitty in the snow and wanted to bring him home...despite the fact that he's allergic and we aren't allowed to have kitties here...so now he lives outside. Our upstairs neighbors made him a little box with blankets, and we feed him and play with him, etc. A woman was supposed to come see him and take him home (I posted him on craigslist) but she stood me up the day she was supposed to come, so we decided to keep him...We were going to name him Cliff, but went with Tigre instead...


He's a little cross-eyed...






Don't worry Mom and Dad, we won't make y'all add him to your collection if we bring him to Texas ;)

Hot and Not-so-Hot Texas

On Monday the temp was 92F. That was a record high. The other was 91F in 1917. Wow! This morning it was 27F....so I worried that my hanging impatiens flowers would have frozen....we'd been so good at rescuing them when we expected a freeze. We forgot last night....but they look like they may be ok....sorta protected on the porch...we'll see. We have beautiful blue skies...it's so wonderful to go for walks/jobs in the neighbourhood :) No photos....that'd just be too much to expect (?)...

In case I don't get back to this blog soon (my visits to it seem to be fairly infrequent....need to fix that...)....anyway, I want to wish my favourite son a very happy 25th birthday on 9 March. HAPPY BIRTHDAY Gary!!!

More Baytown Pictures

So, I'm having some difficulty formatting the pictures and words on this post, apparently it requires a FULL college degree, not just an all but two classes one, to successfully post on our blog...anyway, I'm just going to put the pictures up and hopefully you can all figure them out without the words...

Baytown Reception

Since none of you wanted to go to the Baytown reception, I thought I would post some of the pictures from it...the photographer didn't have the best lighting, but some of them are cute...

Here's the food you missed...














And the dancing...








(I know you're all shocked that there is picture proof of Dad dancing not once, but TWICE at the reception)

Tara and Marcus: The Wedding...

Boy, we Boerne Rickers sure are spotty posters!! But, Mom has an excuse (kind of...) since having a broken wrist is not very conducive to typing. We all had so much fun at Tara and Marcus's wedding! I guess this post isn't really about the wedding itself...I really don't have very many pictures from that, but it was gorgeous and the happy couple looked great. We're excited to have Marcus in the family, he seems like a great guy, and will be a welcome addition to the BIL team...they need all the help they can get! (haha ;) It was wonderful to see everyone, we hafta start coordinating like this all the time, so everyone can be home at the same time. So, Dad, if you could start working on converting the garage to another couple of bedrooms...maybe throw a bathroom in there...

Here are a few of our pics from the visit (sorry I couldn't put up a picture of everyone, I still love all of you!):

Awww...baby Tooks...the one who brought us all together. This is after the wedding, before the reception. She wanted to dress comfortably, but was watching out for her hair and that gorgeous tiara!

The girls eating. What's new... and, just in case you missed it, Mom's cast on display.

Even with the cast, she could still snuggle tired babies.

Gary in his very cool hat. Nuala thinks he is quite handsome.

Cute "triplets" :) I tried to de-red-eye Nuala and Rowan, but in this picture they ended up looking really creepy...so red-eyes it is!

Here is a Brigit encounter, Before and After...

In Brigit's defense, she knew this was Bran's blanket and was trying to rescue it from Nuala!

And Mom and Dad, so cute and green...you'd almost think it was St. Patrick's Day!

Oh, we had such a wonderful time -- puke, diarrhea, and all! Yeah, we're a pretty awesome family... ;) Maybe some other wedding pictures can find their way onto the blog...? hint, hint...

Blessing Day!!!

Today Colin received his name and blessing at church. It was a wonderful blessing and he behaved sweetly the whole time. Wish we could say the same for Liam and Brigit! No, they did okay too. Grandma Spray made his hat and jacket and booties. Grandma Smith made the little afghan he is snuggled into. He's also wearing a cute little white one piece sweater underneath that Rob wore for his blessing. (Liam wore the jacket and hat and pants for his too.)

Here's a sibling shot. Brigit loves holding Colin. She's always asking to hold him. This has become her corner of the couch for holding "Baby Ca". Liam is a big helper. He brings us diapers, wipees, shoes, socks, boppies, anything - you name it!

In other exciting news, Colin got asked to play the part of Baby Jesus in the ward Nativity scene. He was an angel the whole time. He fell asleep shortly after I gave him to Mary (Mackenzie Waters). We received many compliments on his performance. I am currently acting as his agent. Rob is handling publicity and Liam has headed up the fan club with Brigit as his assistant. We have begun calling him Collywood.

On a more reverent note, it was really sweet to see a real baby in the scene. Brigit kept pulling on my arm to get me to go get him back. She and Liam took turns guarding him by the stage. I wish we had a shot of her with her little angel wings perched on the edge of the stage watching Colin. We got one of Liam taking his shift. Liam also sang in the primary choir. I heard his Hosanna all the way in the back!

Happy Anniversary!!!

We hope you have a wonderful 34th anniversary, Mom & Dad!

Alas, you are apart today, one can only imagine the longing you each feel for the other...but Tuesday's not that far off! We love you! You're the best parents we could've asked for! And you're as cute a couple now as you ever were...(I wanted to put up a "young" picture of y'all, but I don't seem to have one handy...)