Nikki Chikki: School's Out: Revenge of the Babies

SO! It's been awhile! School is pretty much officially over for me! I've finished all my assignments and everything, there's just one test that I'm taking that's unrelated to any of my courses that I need to pass if I want to go on to a Master's Degree. (I can retake it once a month if I need to but that'll get pretty pricey so I'd like to pass it my first try to keep options open) That's not until Thursday though, so I still have plenty of time to study for that. It's such a great feeling to be done with school this semester, it's felt like I've been dragging my feet through sand uphill. Yeah... It's been a rough semester filled with pretty much zero motivation for school but I think I scrapped through alright and look forward to the next semester and the opportunity to take some classes that I'm actually interested in again!

Brooks and I at Bear Lake

Speaking of next semester, I finally got my practicum placement! For those of you who do not know, a practicum is essentially a class I have to take that has an unpaid internship that I must participate in as well. I got my first choice as a medical social worker at McKay Dee Hospital in Ogden working in the Joint and Spine unit! That should be a great experience and I'm really looking forward to it. Plus: my mother works at McKay Dee so I'm looking forward to having lunch with her and hanging out with all the sick peoples! I'll be working there about 16 hours a week on Tuesday and Wednesday so for those of my friends still in Layton that means I'll be at my parent's house every Tuesday night so we should hang out for sure!

Something else that is new with my life is that everyone in my family is having babies this year!! Like literally every single one of my siblings are either expecting by the end of the year or have already delivered, it's the year for babies and I'm kind of left out... I'm thinking about making Brooks buy me a baby hedgehog so I'm not left out. He promised me once that if I caught a fish with my hands and he has yet to follow through... plus, just look at how CUTE!!!

I mean I need this right?!

But in all seriousness:

Trevor & Brynn gave birth to little baby Max Gotberg on February 10th. He has gotten so big and I got to see him today for his baby blessing, he's a cute little boy!

Jessica and Mike gave birth to BIG baby Parker Tiberius (Yes, really) Stagg

On the way to see baby Parker, Aunt Nikki's car broke down and would not go faster than 20mph on the freeway. It's officially dead and gone now which is a bummer for sure.... I guess that's just the price you have to pay for adorable nephews. Speaking of nephews, Parker's older brother Keagan is not very thrilled currently about the new addition.

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Keagan's not too sure about Parker yet

When asked if he wants to give Parker a kiss Keagan says NO! He's not a fan of having to share his mommy and daddy. My mother tried bribing Keagan with pop to get him to like Parker more. She gives him some pop and says "Parker told me that you could have pop, Keagan! Isn't that nice of Parker? Say thank you, Parker!" and Keagan says "Dank oou Pawkew."

Brook and Jake have announced that they are expecting a baby girl on July 24th! This baby gets blessed to have 2 of the most adorable older sisters!! Girl power! It'll be fun to have a new baby neice after 2 new nephews.

AND! Megan and Bryant recently announced that they are expecting! This is really great news as some of you may have known they have struggled with fertility issues which makes this baby an extra little miracle (to read more about Megan's super empowering story you should read her blog at http://bryantandmegan.blogspot.com/2014/04/two-very-different-announcements.html. They are due on October 25th and I get the privilege of getting to spoil this baby rotten because I will be seeing him at least once a week when he's born because Megan is coming back to the USA (YAY!) and living with my parents (DOUBLE YAY!) so when I'm home for my practicum dates I get to see Megan and new baby. I'm really looking forward to Megan being back in a very selfish way because I've missed her a lot since she left to the Caribbean last year so Bryant could go to medical school and I'm happy to have her so close again without the distractions of having a husband (no offense Bryant). She'll be coming back in the end of May. The only thing I'm not too excited about is to be standing next to her in all her tanned glory while I'm still ridiculously pale.

I mean look at that tan... no one can compete with that!!

Yay for babies!! Something else that is going on this summer is Brooks has auditioned for and made it in the Grassroots Shakespeare Company!! It's very exciting for him to get back into the acting saddle. Grassroots Shakespeare Company is really unique: they don't have a director, a costumer, or light designer. The actors themselves collaborate together to put the show together. This is the way that it was done back in Shakespeare's time. They have limited rehearsal time and then they will begin touring around Utah performing outside at parks and Renaissance festivals. All the shows are FREE but the suggest you donate $3 so it's really not that big of a monetary commitment if you'd like to go see him. He's the leading man in As You Like It he has the part of Orlando. He also has the parts of Westmoreland & Pistol in Henry V. I'd recommend seeing As You Like It if you have the choice. You can see the dates for upcoming performances here: http://www.grassrootsshakespeare.com/summer-tour.html to see if there's anything playing near you. They don't have all the performances up yet so keep checking back. Here's a sneak peek of what they're up to, I'll post more videos as time goes on!