Hickman Family Blog

It's About Time!!!

2010-01-06T20:37:00.000-08:00

We're back. Kinda. It's been 14 months and I wanted to show you some of our photos. Here are a few - mostly from the first half of '09. Maybe we'll have some of the holiday pics up before next year!

Enjoy!

Faker.

Elizabeth calls her Grand Dad "Grandin."

The Sneaky Duo (including cousin Tessa Marie Douglas) loves playing piano.

Nursery toys!

Polygamist in training.

Diva. Like mother, like daughter.

We really went to Burger King to pick up collectable Star Trek glasses. The slide was a bonus.

Oquirrh (however you spell it) Mountain Temple open house. We were teaching her to pull out quarters from public fountains.

Wishing she was 16 already.

Thug life.

Pirate.

Hick. Man.

There Will Be Luke.
Photo courtesy of Mark Johnston.

First moviegoing experience. No, not Alvin. But The Princess And The Frog.

What's Halloween without zombies?

...and princesses?

...and more zombies?

Harry Potter International Trailer

2008-10-30T11:18:00.000-07:00

For Kristen:

Sorry you now have to wait until next summer to see this.

My 1st Birthday

2008-10-01T13:38:00.000-07:00

I turned one on September 25, 2008 and I must say it was very exciting. I woke up to choruses of “Happy Birthday” from Mom and Dad. Later Grandma Leanne came over with Aunt Kayla and gave me a few presents. I must say how surprised I was to find that at one year old I could have such “motherly” instincts. Later Dad came home and I was able to open more presents. I got so much awesome stuff that I soon became dizzy with glee. A few days later I had my birthday cake. As I stuffed glob after glob of cake into my mouth I began to wonder if I was shaking from excitement or a sugar rush. I may never know all I can hope for is that I’ll have a birthday next week too. Thank you to all of you who sent me something, called, thought of me or came to visit. It meant so much!
-Elizabeth Grace.

The Latest Adventures of Elizabeth Grace

2008-10-01T13:16:00.000-07:00

Elizabeth is a pretty busy and crazy girl. She is always on the go. She usually starts her day off with a bath.

After which she gets dressed and makes sure that she has all her accessories.

Often times she follows up with a facial, given by her cousin Tessa.

Then it’s usually out to the fields to do some hard work harvesting crops and washing clothes in the stream.

By then she’s usually pretty tired and just has to take a nap.

Then she’s up again to study. She loves the written word and can spend hours at a time scrutinizing dusty old tomes.

After that to unwind she’ll usually sit down with her dad for a little movie. The most recent film was Goonies and afterwards Luke dressed up as Mikey and she dressed up as Sloth.

At last she settles down for the night to build up the energy for another exciting day.

Sunday in the mountains

2008-10-01T10:10:00.001-07:00

After church on Sunday, we went up to Big Cottonwood Canyon to take some pictures and to see the colors changing. Here are some of these photos. I believe the area is called Brighton. It's right below the ski lifts.

I guess we arrived just after it stopped raining, so Elizabeth loved playing with the drops of water on the leaves. She ended up flinging it, getting water on both of us.

Check out the colors and the reflection on the still pond.

Here's Kristen with her parents Leanne and Todd.

Elizabeth spotted a crazy duck on the shore of the pond, so as we got a closer look, she got really excited watching him/her doing wacky duck stuff.

Just as we scrambled up to this spot (that kind of stuff is hard to do when you're handling a toddler), some young Nazi kid came jamming up the rocks, sliding recklessly all over the place. As we waited for him to get out of the frame, his lame dad came right up them with him. We had to wait for them to move their Eurotrash butts up the face of the rock so we could snap this shot.

She's hot!

Oh, so hot!

Father and daughter.

Elizabeth with her grandma.

This classy Hickman family photo is taken on a stump where Kristen's family (the Douglas') traditionally takes photos. This is a Hickman first.

On the bottom, you've got Leanne and Kristen's great aunt Rita. Above them is Todd. To the right of him are the Hickmans, and to the right of us is Todd's mom, June.

Then this moose came down the mountain, crossed the trail, and got a drink out of the pond. It didn't seem to mind people around it at all. Todd and I went back to see it and got these shots.

Here's Kayla, Kristen's sister, and her boyfriend John. They would've been in the other collective photos, but they ran off to make out in the forest.

Utah is a pretty beautiful place, especially when the colors change and especially when you grew up in a very brown desert.

The Update

2008-09-16T13:20:00.000-07:00

Hickman home has been quite busy lately. Here's what we've been up to:

Luke has been finishing up his final semester at UVU and will graduate in the fall with a BA in Theater with an emphasis on film. He also has been extremely sick with the early stages of pneumonia. As a result he is on four different prescriptions.

Kristen has been rehearsing for The Ark at the Grand Theater. She is playing the part of Martha in this 8 person musical. She is at rehearsal every night while Elizabeth and Luke sit home waiting for the moment she'll walk in the door.

Elizabeth is busy writing the intriguing thesis "Babies and Breastfeeding." And hopes to get it published in the medical journal for the American Baby Association for Infants and Toddlers. She is also learning to walk by herself and eat stage 3 baby food.

Our friend Christopher Clark on The Today Show

2008-09-09T11:10:00.000-07:00

Check out recent posts on his blog for info on his sister and some fund raising he did on his own by clicking here.

Jordan Comes Home!

2008-06-22T15:12:00.000-07:00

My Brother Jordan finished his mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Friday June 20th. He served in the Toronto, Canada mission and spoke Mandarin Chinese. It amazes me to think of all the things that have happened here at home while he's been away. And the most staggering thing of all is to realize that he doesn't know the two most important in my life.

LUKE And ELIZABETH

Goodbye Cast

2008-06-07T13:10:00.000-07:00

THE CAST COMES OFF!

Elizabeth's A Model - UPDATED LINK!!!

2008-05-09T18:13:00.000-07:00

Elizabeth's Aunt Kim has a business called TMarie Accessories. She asked Elizabeth to be a model. Check out her photos here or you should be able to link to it from the Douglas crew blog link here.

The Spica Cast

2008-04-29T16:08:00.000-07:00

We've just received the glorious news that Elizabeth's Spica Cast comes off on June 2nd! Her hips are healing beautifully. So for all of you who think, "Wow, time has just flown by. I can't believe it's coming off so soon." Let me fill you in on just how fun it is to deal with a baby in a Spica cast every day. Hopefully those who've just found out that they will have to deal with a Spica cast will find this information useful too.

The Necessary Tools

The Boppy
This is wonderful for diaper changes. It is a way to prop the baby up while keeping the diaper on a lower level so that way the contents doesn't leak up the back while changing.

Moleskin
This is what the hospital will put on the cast before you leave. They call it "Petaling". It is to prevent chaffing and they wrap it around all the edges of the cast. Moleskin is expensive. Try to buy it at a medical supply store. It will be more bang for your buck.

Duct & Waterproof Tape
The waterproof tape is not essential. In fact it makes it difficult for the moleskin to stay down. But feel free to try it. The Duct tape is essential. The moleskin will peel up and the glue gets all over. You will need Duct tape to tape down the edges of the moleskin on the outside of the cast. Luckily, now days they have colored duct tape at craft stores so your cast doesn't have to look so trashy.

Clothes A Few Sizes To Big
You'll need clothes that will fit over the cast. The good thing is when the cast comes off. They'll be able to wear it again!

A Sling
This is the only type of pack that will hold a Spica cast. It's hard on the back but one of the only ways to carry the baby around for long periods of time.

A FEW BITS OF ADVICE

Lower one side of the crib. That way when they the go to the bathroom in the night it will stay in the diaper, not go up her back.

The Hospital tells you to use newborn diapers on the inside of the spica cast so you can fit it up inside properly. We've found that using their age appropriate diaper is best. It prevents against leaks and will save money. Not changing diapers as often means less trips to the store for more.

THE CHANGING OF THE DIAPER!

Put the baby on the Boppy.

Lift up the skirt

Take off the pull up

Prep a new diaper by pulling off the tabs

Pull off the inner diaper and clean the bum and... such.

Tuck in the new diaper

Then flip her over and tuck in the back

Then put a new pull up on

Joseph Smith photo

2008-03-18T14:45:00.000-07:00

UPDATE!!! Information on this photo has been all over the news here, and they're saying this photo is the real deal - that the photo matches the death mask. Apparently, the remains of Joseph Smith were dug up and studied sometime in the middle of this century, and the photo has also been positively confirmed as a match to those records too. The LDS church has not made an official statement on it yet.

I don't know how real this is, but here is a photo that was just released from the RLDS church's vault of Joseph Smith. From what I understand, they're doing some scientific tests to match it with that of the death mask. A scholar has supposedly already done this and concluded it to be a perfect match.

Is that what you expected him to look like?

Surgery

2008-03-05T11:28:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, March 3, 2008 was a big day for us Hickmans. Elizabeth went in for her hip displaysia (however the heck you spell it) surgery at 2:00 PM.

When we found out about her needing a surgery in January, they told us that one of her hips was really bad, requiring a large incision on her inner thigh and the removal of debris (scraping) from the socket, and that the other would only require a small incision and the cutting of a tendon. Because of the bigger procedure, surgery would last two and half hours.

When we took her in yesterday, they told us they would be injecting some sort of dye into her hips, then look at them to see how bad they were. Then performing the surgery.

We had to dress her up into some cute little infant surgery clothes. She was still smiley and happy, not knowing what lied ahead of her. It's wasn't too bad until we had to hand her over.

Kristen, Mom and I decided to pass the long time in the cafeteria, where Kristen's buddy Stefanie met up with us.

After a little over an hour, we were shocked when they paged the parents of Elizabeth Hickman over the intercom. We ran back up to the waiting room and found out that she'd been out of surgery for a while. Everything went really well. Both hips only required the minor surgery, which is why it barely took any time at all. Doctor Holmes said that her hips popped into place a lot easier than she thought they would.

When we got to see her, she was still knocked out from the anesthesia. She would occasionally wake up in a groggy state, the lower half of her little body in a huge, fifteen-pound pink cast.

Because they only had to do the minor surgery of the two, they ended up sending us home at six o'clock last night with some baby liquid Lortab, which we keep locked up for two reasons: we don't want Elizabeth getting addicted to the Wacky Juice and we don't want her selling it to other baby addicts in the neighborhood.

It's a change of lifestyle and living for us. Thankfully, Mom's here for a week to give us a hand in this transitional period for us.

Elizabeth has good moments...

and bad ones...

but it seems like, before long, she'll be just fine.

Thanks for all the fasting and prayers. We don't think it's a coincidence that she ended up only having the lesser problems.

The Last Good Days

2008-03-05T10:53:00.000-08:00

Kristen and I decided to fill Elizabeth's last good days with as much fun as possible. I don't know if all of these things are legal or not, so be careful as to with whom you talk about the following content.

Hungry? Why wait? (She loves Snickers)

We played the Binky Game.

We played the Stupid Face Game. Here are two examples.

We taught her how to shoot people with her finger and say, "Ehhh!"

Then we played Where's Waldo? (When I play with her, I call it Where's Bald-o?)

We gave her lots of good baths.

And let her play with Nana until she eventually passed out.

A day in the life of Elizabeth

2008-02-12T21:30:00.000-08:00

Elizabeth can't stand to get up early (much like her mom), so she sleeps in just as long as she can.

Some people drink a hot cup of joe to start off each day, but not Elizabeth. There's nothing she likes more than a bottle of Mom's fresh boob milk and a good episode of The Price Is Right. (Even though Drew Carrey is no Bob Barker.)

Instead of going for a morning jog, Elizabeth likes to hang like a bat (with help from Mom) to do some military vertical crunches.

Next up on Elizabeth's daily schedule is some sun tanning. If she's gonna have to compete with Lohan's winter tan, she's gonna have to tough it out.

Oops!

What a hootch! Put some clothes on, Baby! Geez, I can't believe that girl. Naked already.

After all of that, the only thing Elizabeth has energy to do is hang out with her crazy parents.

Check back soon to hear all about our field trip. After hearing so much about him from Baby Einstein, Elizabeth wanted to meet Van Gogh, so we went back in time and he painted her this:

Funny little girl

2008-02-08T20:16:00.000-08:00

As you can tell here, we've had a lot of fun with the little one lately. She's been talking gibberish and singing baby tunes every spare moment when there's not a binky in her mouth. And we figure since we've gotten to enjoy her so much lately, maybe you all would like to too! Here's a picture and a video of the sweet little girl.

Poor sick little baby girl :(

2008-02-04T13:05:00.000-08:00

Elizabeth has been going through a lot of changes lately. February 1st was an eventful day. We went to the hospital and found out that Elizabeth is going to need two different types of surgeries next month because of her condition, hip dysplasia: one hip only needs to be set into the socket through pressure (but she'll still be put under for the pain), and the other is so bad that they'll have to cut her open and clean out the socket, then set it through pressure. She'll be in a cast for at least three months. The doctors say that about 80% of the time these procedures are successful, but it's not uncommon for them to slip out again, in which case they'll need to put her under and reset it through pressure.

The really bad, worrisome thing is that 10% of the time, no matter which procedure is done(surgical or not), the ball of the femur can lose blood flow and collapse. We asked what that would result in, but the doctor wouldn't tell us. She said, 'We'll talk then if we end up at that point.' We're in the process of looking up the answer to that question online, even though it's something we probably don't want to hear.

They told us she's not in pain at all and that nothing we have done or we do can cause her any pain. She's still a smiley little girl. And later in the day Elizabeth rolled over all by herself! She is now reaching and grabbing for things and making a wider range of gurgles and giggles. We are so proud of her!

Elizabeth's laugh!!!

2008-01-10T19:04:00.000-08:00