Asher- 6 Years Old

August 2010- first day of first grade!
(Sorry it's blurry)

June 2010- 6th birthday

Mini golfing at Emerald Isle, NC


May 2010- Riding with NO training wheels!!
(first day of summer vacation!)

May 2010

Where has my little boy gone? It is truly hard to believe that my oldest is 6 years old and has started first grade! I mean this is real elementary school age now! Asher is growing older and more mature right before our eyes! He loves school and is such a smart little guy. His reading has taken off and I laugh now as all our conversations in the car usually have to do with him asking questions about something he read off some building, sign, or car! Usually questions that I can't answer because I don't know the answer!! Asher had a great summer full of lots of swimming (he taught himself how!), riding his bike without training wheels... he goes zipping around our cul-de-sac, and I'm sure he would tell you his highlight would be playing Super Mario Bros. on his Nintendo DS he got for his birthday!

Asher has always been very independent, but he also has a very sweet and lovable side. He loves to talk and enjoys being another "parent" to his brothers when we're not around, and sometimes when we are! Most of the time this is NOT a good thing! Gotta love those first borns! He is also still quite the perfectionist (I really don't know where he got THIS tendency from!!!) We are so thankful for our "happy" boy! (Asher's name means happy!)

Caleb- 4 1//2 Years

September 2010- Off to Pre-K

August 2010- Caleb and buddy, Daniel

July 2010- Ice cream at Busch Gardens

April 2010- granola bars on the Washington DC Metro

Our Bubbs is growing up so fast! And he is loving it! He is so proud whenever he gets to do something new that Asher has already done! And he takes everything SO seriously and is genuinely excited and thankful for all the new things that he does. Starting preschool has been so good for Caleb. He was MORE than ready to go. He is only going two days a week, where Asher went for three. He is also at a different preschool than Asher went to as well. I LOVE his school and his teachers have been wonderful so far. And the very best part is that it is literally 2 minutes from the house... maybe 4 if you count schleping Nate and Judah into the van and getting them buckled in! He has already been begging me to go to school "everyday"! He is such a different kid than Asher was. Caleb has an excitement for everything and is such a funny little thing in that he doesn't remember anything! Well not really anything, but if you ask him what he did, he forgot, if you ask him who he played with or who his friends are, he can't remember their names.... and so on! I always say he is my one that lives on Mars!

Caleb is into anything and everything Nintendo! He loves Super Mario, Luigi, and all of those things. He is also hillarious in that he has a special attachment (still!) to this little raccoon finger puppet that he has loved since he was around 1! He calls him "Coonie" and poor Coonie has been loved so well that all his fur has been loved right off! Blake likes to joke that Caleb likes all Woodland creatures as those little toy hamster, Zhu zhu pets are also some of Caleb's favorite things! C has a sweet and tender side with his little brothers that is quite different from Asher and loves to be my helper, which of course I love! He is still one that can go easily from one extreme to another in a matter of minutes, but is getting old enough to recognize his behavior quicker now. He also has a very vivid imagination. It's always an adventure with Bubbs!

Natey Nate- 3 Years

August 2010- My two thumb suckers

August 2010- Happy 3rd Birthday
June 2010- 2 1/2 years

June 2010- Sweet Boy

Our sweet little Natey Nate, Tator Tot, Tator Man, Tate... you name it he probably gets called it! He is definitely our middle child in every way! And with the arrival of Baby Cheesy, he will be right smack in the middle! Nate LIVES for the things that his older brothers like and do! I've always been sad about this, because he bypasses things that other boys his age love like balls, cars/ trucks, tools, etc. We have gone straight to Superheroes, Mario (Nintendo), Power Rangers, GI Joes, and whatever else is too OLD for him! He has become quite the pal and shadow of Caleb and the two are pretty inseperable and play GREAT together.... at least when Asher isn't around! Nate has been in mourning these last few weeks on the days that Caleb leaves him for preschool and all I here is "Mommy when I go to school..."! I am excited for Judah to really catch up with Nate and for the two of them to become pals. They are actually the closest in age of any of my boys, just 16 months apart! Hopefully moving them into the same room when we move will help with that! (More on that in a later post!) Nate has a very sweet, although stubborn at times, disposition. He will steal your heart in a second with his little looks and his belly laugh! He can be quite mischievious and is usually the last one to fall asleep in the boys' room at night after doing his best to cause some mischief! You usually cannot find him without his friend, Lamby... his little white (er dingy!) lamb thumby blanket! It is a hard couple of hours when Lamby has to get a bath :) Nate Nate continues to be Daddy's hope for an Alabama football player! Nate had some issues this summer with hives and was getting them on an every day to every other day basis. He is the first of any of the boys to go see an allergist and it was determined that he is not necessarily allergic to any one thing, it's not food allergies, but just something we may deal with on and off for a year or so. He got pretty good at taking his "hives medicine" these past couple of months! We love our Nate! What a special little blessing he is to us!

Judah Bug- 22 months

August 2010- goodbye summer, hello Alabama football
July 2010- One bite of DQ blizzard comin at cha!

June 2010- Pooltime in Savannah, GA

April 2010- 16 months

Our little Judah isn't so little anymore! To me he is still very much baby, but I'm sure that will change when his title of baby is replaced in the next few months! Judah is very easy going for the most part and is happiest when he is trailing after his brothers and is "allowed" by them to join in with whatever they are doing! (Something that doesn't happen too terribly often!) He does have a bit of a stubborn, fighter streak in him though and will stick up for himself against those big brothers of his even if it means using brute force! He is still a cuddler and LOVES books. He has been a bit slow to talk. He would much rather scream, screech, and grunt for things that he wants or needs. At his 18 month appointment our doctor asked if that was something that I was worried about, to which my answer was, "No, I think he could say words if he wanted, he just chooses not to!" The doctor agreed :) Either he has just been content to let everyone else talk for him or he can't get a word in around here! He has started to say more in the last couple months so that has been fun. He is always very busy and likes to be "doing" something. He is very afraid of animals, dogs in particular :( I took this for granted with the other three since we still had our sweet ole' puppy dog, Isaiah and they were all used to having a dog around. J will just scream whenever he is close to a dog whether or not the dog is paying attention to him or not. He's still a great sleeper and is very flexible when I usually have to go wake him up in the afternoons so we can pick up Asher up from school! We are so thankful for our "Bug" and can't believe he is almost TWO!

Our Fifth Wheel!

So I guess since I am about 8 weeks from having a baby, we should probably announce the big news on the blog! I have been wanting a blog makeover for a LONG time now, and decided that I was just going to wait to post again until I had changed up my blog! The only problem with that being I am in no way computer savy enough to figure out how to do all the things that I wanted to do. Enter my VERY creative and computer savy friend! Thanks A... what would I do without you?!
Okay back to the BABY! We found out last March that #5 was on the way and of course we were extremely surprised, overwhelmed, basically experiencing every emotion you can imagine from happiness to despairing. Without going into great detail on our blog, I'll just say that this will be the final little Hickman, for those of you wondering :) It took awhile for us to even be okay with talking about the baby to anyone, no big facebook announcement, etc.... we finally started telling a few close friends and family, but waited to tell the masses until we knew our baby's gender. YES, we did find out this time! I just didn't want to go through an entire pregnancy of hearing that this one would be a girl, etc.... So we were definitely not at all shocked to find out that little #5 would be another BOY to join this family of crazy brothers! The three weeks or so leading up to our big ultrasound were probably the hardest for me in terms of wondering boy or girl. But ever since we found out who this little one is, God has given me nothing but an excitement for another boy and an unexpected blessing! The boys have beeen calling the baby "Baby Cheesy" and that name has just kind of stuck! So we decided to keep the baby's name a secret until he gets here! Gotta have some sort of exciting news when you're having your fifth boy! Baby Cheesy's due date is November 18! Thanks friends for rejoicing with us!
I'm excited to be blogging again and hope that this will be the first of many new posts to follow!

A New Post????

I know, I know..... SHOCKING! I will blog again! I think I can, I think I can...... stay tuned for an exciting post! Lots of changes going on in these parts :)