Trunk or Treat 2007

We had our Trunk or Treat on Saturday night this year. Sarah, Steven, and Rebecca had a lot of fun. Sarah had a great time with watching people putting things in her bucket! After we got home, she enjoyed playing with her candy, she even tried to eat it, wrappers and all! Steven was Abe Lincoln, Becca was a pirate, and Sarah was a bee. Sarah also was a cat, and Magenta from Blues Clues. (I have updated our blog with pictures of all of the kids and costumes.)

Nick in Argentina

Nick walks

Jess told me that I needed to put a video of nick walking on the blog, so here it is.

Laura and Nick take a trip

On Sunday, Laura and Nick will abandon me. They will be flying to Buenos Aires and should get to Tucuman by Tuesday. Laura is very excited and Nick is very cute! In December I will join them and then we'll come back in January.

Argentina

Hey, isn't Laura going to Argentina this month? When do you go? We hope you have fun seeing your family.

FREE FOOD

I know that Mandy's new baby is very important, but I found something very exciting.

Brace yourselves....

If you go to this website you can get two bags of gourmet popcorn for shipping and handling costs only. It will cost you $5.90 for two bags of popcorn. It may not be worth it to you, but it is worth looking at...check it out.

www.daleandthomaspopcorn.com

Congratulations!!!!!!!

Congratulations to the Pitcher family for their new addition. Let us know when you have a name picked out, and we'd love to see pictures soon.

Here in Bismarck...

So life goes on, even though we have moved. Things are different, of course. A normal day for us goes like this: We all get up and get ready for the day and are out of the house by 7:45 at the latest. We drive Mike up to work, which starts at 8am. Then we drive down to Mikayla's school, which starts at 8:35am. If we get there before 8:05 we sit in the car until that time. She can go wait in the gym but she doesn't like to. Kids can be on the playground at 8:05, so she waits until then. Then the boys and I drive home. We do whatever it is that we do all day. I'm still not sure what all that is. Then at 3pm the boys and I get back into the car and go to MIkayla's school, out at 3:05 and bring her home. At 4:50pm we get back in the car and go pick up Mike, off at 5 pm. We come home and have dinner and then look around and think about hanging pictures.
Apartment living has many negatives....
*We had to write a formal complaint against our neighbors for being up several nights out on their balcony being very loud and using foul language, until 5 am.
*Today we had a girl come tell that our kids had been running around being too loud last night at 10:30pm... well, my kids were in bed before CSI started, so that was a false accusation, which made me made.
*We live on the second floor, which means lots of trips up and down stares, carrying groceries, or children or both.
*We have to use a stupid key to get into the building, which means putting down whatever your arms are full of to open the door.
*The kids don't get outside as much as they used to. I try and get them to a park occasssionally, but it's not as easy as letting them go play in the yard or ride their bikes around the neighborhood.
*Since we have to buzz people up, there are no solicitors, this is a good thing.
On joining a new ward...
*We get there five minutes early each week and still have to sit in the overflow. I hate that. We are used to sitting in the front of the chapel. Apparently this ward is all about being early to church.
*The ward is large but the primary isn't. This means Mikayla is the only kid in her class, and Braden is the only boy in a class of three girls. They both used to have 12-14 kids in their classes.
*The nursery has about 12 kids, but the room is so tiny, they can't do much in there.
*The bishop asked us if Mike had any involvement in scouts.... do that do that in Canada? OH NO!!
*Since I am going to have a baby soon, I figure they wont give me calling immediatley.
*Since our in-laws are in the ward and told everyone we were coming, whenever we meet someone they say, "Oh, we heard about you..."

On the up side, we are all over the flu that seemed to hit each one of us this week. We have been looking for a second car, and hope to make a decision before the baby comes. Mikayla likes her school. Mike likes his job, but has some considerable stress right now over learning new stuff and keeping up to his deadlines, let alone waiting for a call that the baby is coming. Our apartment is really a nice place, but we hope to be in a home by spring/summer next year. It's fun to have family so close. Mom is coming on Thursday, so if we can make it that far, then I think I can survive another baby. If he comes early... well, I just don't know what we'll do. Who will do all that driving???

Does anyone want to try out Netflix for a month? I have an offer for one free month if someone wants it. Let me know or I will just delete it from my email.

Adrianne

First Haircut

Ryan got a hair trim. Come to my family blog.

Some pictures

The blog has been kind of quiet so I thought I'd post some pictures of when we went and fed the ducks.

We need to take better care of our important things...

Every one guess what Nick has in his hands in the pictures. I'll let you know if you're right after a few comments (I always feel better when my posts have more comments).

Laura and I were eating dinner tonight, and had let Nick down from his chair once he stopped eating. He wandered around the ground for a while and got into a few things and when I looked at him he had these in his hands and I needed to take pictures to show you all. I chased him around our diner table and into the kitchen but couldn't get the picture I wanted. Good luck.

We have an escape artist on our hands

This morning I got in the shower before Mike left. I made sure that Will was all set up on his starfall program so that he could practice his ABC's while I was in the shower. Isaac was watching him do it. I heard Mike close the door when he left. I always leave my bedroom door open and occassionally leave my bathroom door open too (Isaac likes to try and climb in the shower so I have been closing the door lately). Anyway, I got out of the shower and thought, "Hmm, it's quiet in here. The boys usually come to see where I am when I shower. What are they doing?" I hurried and got my garments on and then heard a knock on the door so I went down the hallway and the doors were open and the boys were both outside! I saw my neighbor Max on the doorstep so I ran back to the room, grabbed Mike's robe and then came to the door. Max was like, "I saw both boys outside and I didn't see you or Mike so I wondered if everything was ok." When I told Mike about it at church he said that he had closed both doors and locked one of them. That is so scary. We live on a busy neigborhood road not a busy town road if that makes sense. What are we going to do now that Will can get out of the house? How am I going to take a shower now? It reminds me of my brother David. He used to pull chairs over to the door and get it unlocked then leave somewhere. Once he crossed a busy street to go to the church where my brother was at YM's. Another time he tried to follow my parents when they left on a date and ended up on a busy overpass. We spent hours looking for him. My mom finally got a leash for him and put hospital braclets on his wrist incase someone found him when he ran away.

It's a Crazy Life...

Just wanted to update you all about our crazy life. Last week Mike was offered a job in Bismarck as the Assistant Attorney General. After a week, we decided that was the best option for our family at that time. On Monday, he accepted the postition, and Mikayla went to the first day of school, and Mandy started packing. Mike is still working 30 hours a week at his old job. Mandy has been packing from about 8am to 5pm with occassional breaks for visiting teaching, eating, changing diapers, doctors appointments, looking online for a new place to live, etc. Today, Thursday, we will go pick up Mike at work, at 5pm, and drive to Bismarck, 3 1/2 hours West of here. We have a few appointments to look at homes and duplexes to rent. We will come back on Saturday night, go to church on Sunday and hope to pack up the truck on Tuesday and drive out to Bismarck that day. On Saturday we have to be in Cardston, Alberta, Canada, a 12 hour drive from Bismarck, for Mike's youngest brothers' wedding. Mike will then start working on the following Wednesday, the 12.
In the meantime, we have to pack up the whole house, cancel all the utilities, take Mikayla out of school, clean and check out of our old place, etc. etc. etc....
Did I mention that I am 8 1/2 months pregnant???? Even writing it down is exhausting! Just wanted to share some of the craziness. We will let you know when we are settled and how it all went.

Here is another picture of Steven. The computer would not let me put more than one on at a time.

Steven Hits 2 Home Runs!!!

Steven finished his baseball season about 1 month ago. The tournament team that he was playing for did okay, but Steven had a very sucessful season. He hit two out of the field home runs, they were over 8 foot fences at a distance of 200 feet. Steven also plays catcher and did a great job, playing 20 out of 26 innings in one tournament.

birthday party-1

As promised, some pictures of Nick's party yesterday. To get an unbiased opinion you'll have to ask Richards in Seattle, but I think every one had a good time. After reading about Mandy's kids parties mine was pretty dull, but every one got some good burgers and good cake, thanks to Steven and Laura respectively.

Birthday party 2

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICHOLAS

One year ago today, I was called at 2 or so in the morning. Dad asked me "are you ready to be a father?" The answer to that question is still no, but I'm learning, and Nicholas has certainly taught me allot over the last year. Most reciently he's been teaching me how high I need to put things if I don't want him to bite, throw, or break them. I'm not sure exactly what we'll do tonight, but tomorrow, Nick will have a nice party in a park nearby. More pictures will follow.

FYI...

I think I have told some of you about this, but if not, listen up. You can sign up for a yahoo group called www.freecycle.org. On there you can offer up things you do not want, and also recieve things from others and also ask for things. It's all free. It's nice because when you clean out a room or closet and have a bag or box of stuff, you can go to your computer and offer the stuff up and someone will email you and say they want it. Then they come to your house and pick it up. You don't have to just throw it in the garage and hope you'll get to a thrift store soon. You can also choose to get emails of offers and get other peoples things. You can ask for things as well.
We have given up bags of clothes, toys, furniture that we did not need any more. I have been given a cake stand, toys, maternity clothes, baby clothes and craft items. I also put up a request for a bassinet and was given one within the same day! It's great!
I just thought some of you might be interested. For me, it's kind of entertainment to see if anything fun is going to be offerd in my inbox each day. Give it a try if it sounds interesting to you. Let me know if you get/give anything fun!

Breakfast

Yesterday morning I was asking the kids what they wanted for breakfast, "Layla, do you want biscuits, or squares with no holes?" It got me to thinking that we have funny names for our cereal. Our favorite cereal is Frosted Mini-wheats, or biscuits. They also like Cinnamon Toast Crunch, or squares with no holes (Chex is squares with holes). Cheerios is circles. Cocoa pops is cocoa puffs. Stars is any sort of star shaped cereal. What do you eat in the mornings?

47th CSH

This last week, Laura and I had an interesting experience with news and perspective. For the last month I'd been working in the hospital on base and had no contact with the people in my unit, the 47th csh. On my first day back to the 47th, I found out that we are scheduled to deploy in March, 2009. I was very happy. I called Laura and told her that I had great news. When she found out, she was very sad. For several months, I had been steeling myself to accept the fact that I'll probably serve a tour in Iraq, and I had expected to go as soon as March 2008 but no later than June '08. Laura, on the other hand, was still very hopefull that I wouldn't have to go at all. Of course, with the way everyone I hear talking around here knows what's what politicaly, we might not end up going at all, or we might just be able to turn around and come right back. If I get any more news I'll be sure to let you all know.

Happy Birthday Isaac!

Isaac is offially 1 years old as of an hour ago. I can't believe he is already 1.

Fun sunday 2

This morning we had a fun adventure trying to get to church. Laura changed her clothes about five times and Nicholas took all of the clothes out of his drawers before we left around 10:50. I set our scriptures on the top of the car to put Nick in his car seat, and then we where off. About half way to church, a lady stopped beside us at a traffic light honked her horn and signaled to roll down our window. She told us that there was "a bible" sitting on the top of the car. I turned right when the light turned green and stopped. Sure enough, there was Laura's quad, just where I had left it. My quad, on the other hand was no where to be seen, seeing as how I had left it on top of Laura's. We back tracked to our appartment searching for the fallen scriptures, but to no avail. Turning around in our parkinglot, we drove to church. Feeling pretty down about the lost scripture and for being late to sacrament meeting, we parked and got out of the car. Glancing at the car next to ours I noticed a green leather bound quad and I thought "that looks an awfull lot like my scriptures. Looking closer I saw the fadded golden letters "Andrew Steven Richards." Extatic that I some one had found my scriptures, I rummaged in my glove box for a pen and paper to leave a note under their windshield wiper. After completing the note and locking our doors we went happily toward the chapel... when I felt in my pockets and found that I didn't have my keys. Laura didn't have hers in her purse either. Now we had no way of getting into our car or our appartment. Walking into the chapel we felt pretty discouraged. They had just finished the sacrament and we were not sure what to do. I noticed that there where a few wire hangers on the coat rack and thought I might try my hand at lock picking. After about 10 minuts I came back into the church with my keys and a wire hanger beyond recovery. It turned out to be harder to unbend the hanger than to get the door unlocked. I hope every one else has had a good, and less eventfull sunday:)

Bar Exam?

How did the exam go, Pitcher family?

Oh no! Say it isn't so, Jason is turning the big 3-0!

Jason is turning 30 this year on August 12. We are having a big birthday party to celebrate on the 11th and you are all invited. I know that you won't be able to come, but we sure wish you could!

Happy Birthday Mike!

cute video

Isaac has been walking with help for awhile now but is too afraid to let go. He has been standing on his own when he doesn't notice he has let go of things. Anyway, he recently started to walk with this car and carts at the grocery store. He really likes it and laughs the whole time. It's very cute.

Family Fast

Hello Family!
I thought this might be an easy way to make sure all are reached. I am requesting that we have a family fast next Sunday, July 22nd. Mike will be taking the Bar on the 24 and 25, all day long both days. He has been studying very hard, and we really want him to pass. I know that if our family fasts together that it will help him. His family will also be fasting on this day. Thanks to all of you. We love you all.

Summer!

Today I went to the commissary. They had cherries for $1.99 per pound, so I bought some. They also had seedless watermelon for $3.46, so I bought one. They had delicious smelling, large cantaloupes for $1.99, so I bought one. They had big, red tomatoes perfect for salsa, so I bought some. I LOVE SUMMER!!! I love an abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables at good prices that taste delicious. The cherries are already gone, and the watermelon has been cut into, the salsa is made and "marinating" in the fridge.

Doctrine and Covenants
89: 11 Every herb in the season thereof, and every fruit in the season thereof; all these to be used with prudence and thanksgiving.

I finally went and got a haircut and thought I'd show it off. Here is a before and after. That is just after the stylist did it. Today it is not as cute, when I do it, but it's still a change and that is good.

4th of July

How was everyone's 4th of July? What all did you do? We posted pictures of ours on our blog or I'd explain what we did. But you can just go there. Did anyone have a BBQ or go see the fireworks? Is Dad in town? Did you have to spend the 4th on your own mom? I remember when Mike had gone to OTS and we had just gotten to Maryland (Will and I). That was a sad 4th of July for me.

How can they stand it?

Yesterday we went to McDonald's and got treats. The kids and I each got an ice cream cone (hello, they only have 150 cals), and Jason got a Big Mac and a McFlurry. So we were all sitting and eating them on the back porch and I look over and Layla's hand, face, and probably legs are covered in dripping ice cream. I had to get the camera.
As an adult, I would not be able to stand having ice cream drip down my arm!! Do they even notice?

Our fun sunday

This morning we had a fun adventure trying to get to church. Laura changed her clothes about five times and Nicholas took all of the clothes out of his drawers before we left around 10:50. I set our scriptures on the top of the car to put Nick in his car seat, and then we where off. About half way to church, a lady stopped beside us at a traffic light honked her horn and signaled to roll down our window. She told us that there was "a bible" sitting on the top of the car. I turned right when the light turned green and stopped. Sure enough, there was Laura's quad, just where I had left it. My quad, on the other hand was no where to be seen, seeing as how I had left it on top of Laura's. We back tracked to our appartment searching for the fallen scriptures, but to no avail. Turning around in our parkinglot, we drove to church. Feeling pretty down about the lost scripture and for being late to sacrament meeting, we parked and got out of the car. Glancing at the car next to ours I noticed a green leather bound quad and I thought "that looks an awfull lot like my scriptures. Looking closer I saw the fadded golden letters "Andrew Steven Richards." Extatic that I some one had found my scriptures, I rummaged in my glove box for a pen and paper to leave a note under their windshield wiper. After completing the note and locking our doors we went happily toward the chapel... when I felt in my pockets and found that I didn't have my keys. Laura didn't have hers in her purse either. Now we had no way of getting into our car or our appartment. Walking into the chapel we felt pretty discouraged. They had just finished the sacrament and we were not sure what to do. I noticed that there where a few wire hangers on the coat rack and thought I might try my hand at lock picking. After about 10 minuts I came back into the church with my keys and a wire hanger beyond recovery. It turned out to be harder to unbend the hanger than to get the door unlocked. I hope every one else has had a good, and less eventfull sunday:)

Teeth

Nicholas has more teeth. That's normal but he's getting the wrong two in. You can see for yourselves. I think that it means that Nick will be extraordinary.

The beef back rib bone that Nick is gnawing on was part of a fun dinner we had with Ralph, Laura, Rebbecca, Steven and Sarah (we all got whole ribs, not just the bone).

What's for Lunch???

I am just wondering what everyone has for lunch.... my kids, and I, are getting tired of pb & j sandwiches and hotdogs for lunches. I am not going to cook a meal for lunch, but I've got to feed them something. So what do the rest of you eat for lunch? Any good ideas?

Looking Back...

I just came upon this picture and thought to share it with everyone. This was a summer trip we took in August of 1998 (I think...). I came "home" for a little while from Utah, while Mike had gone to his family ball tournament. We went to New York and toured around the city. I don't remember a whole lot about it, but I am sure we had a good time. I would say we had fun based on the smiling faces. Anyway, it's just one of my favorite pictures.

Happy Birthday MOM!!!

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday dear mom, grandma, Carol
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!!!

We all love you and hope you
have a terrific day.

Happy Father's Day!

Hey Dad! Happy Father's Day. We Love you and hope you have an awesome day.

Our place.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=301198138734836729&pr=goog-sl

I've just tried a couple of ways of getting this video onto the blog with no success so I'just put the link to it above, which seems to work for me. I hope it gets you all to it as well. I also had some problems with words and such. I called a pepper plant a peppermint plant and over all it was fairly dry and borring. Sorry. In any case, enjoy.

Andy, Laura and Nick's appartment tour.

We just finished our tour but haven't figured out how to post it, so if any one tells me how, I'll show you around our new place. So far nick hasn't said any entire phrases and it's debatable if he says any whole words.

My favorite phrases

My two favorite phrases Will says recently are, "itchy bum" and "I poot." He actually says "I poot" when he toots. I think he thinks any movement down there is a poot.

Happy Birthday to Layla!

Yesterday was Layla's third birthday. We went to Chuck-e-cheeses for dinner and games. Layla and Austin both fell asleep on the way home and we didn't get to do cake and presents. I tried to wake her up, but to no avail!

Graduation

Mike graduated from the University of North Dakota Law School on May 12. (I'm a little slow in my blogging) It was a great weekend. We had Mom and Dad, Mike's mom, grandma, uncle, aunt, 2 brothers and a sister in law. The kids loved having so many people to play with. Tyson will still go outside and ring the door bell and when I ask who is there he will say "Gramma". Mike's hood was a lovely purple, pink and green. The kids kept asking him to put it on his head, as it was a hood. We wished you all could have been there as well. We were able to get in a school dinner, a tour of the Ralph(hockey arena), shopping, a bbq. swimming at the hotels, and lots of time together. We were all exhausted by the time everyone left, but it was sure great!

Happy Birthday Jess!!

This month is such a special one it's birthday time for you. We'd really like to celebrate this happy day with you! So, ...

I wish we could all be there and have a great party with you. I am so glad you didn't blog your own birthday! I think I can say for everyone that you are a fabulous sister, daughter, mother, wife and friend. We all love you so much and are so blessed, lucky and happy to have you in our family. Have a fantastic birthday! (Sorry, sadly, I only have two pictures of you and the other one is at the beach... oh, and I don't know how to get those other people out of your shot!)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!

New Address/phone number

Hi everyone. Laura and I are still waiting to get hooked up in our apartment so you'll have to wait a little bit before we post any pictures or virtual tours, but I wanted to let you all know what our new address and phone number are in case you want to send us chocolates or money. Or call us.
4979 55th Lane SE
P201
Lacey WA, 98503
(360)456-1763

Virutal Tour (per Jess's request)

I said some things wrong like: computer instead of guitar and cucumber instead of cantelope

Matching Furniture

These are pictures of our first pieces of matching furniture. Jessica gave us a table and benches but when we got them we refinished the table so now the table and benches don't match anymore. Mike helped our friend Dave move and rather than sell the furniture he gave them to us. We are very grateful for all the people that give us nice stuff. It isn't my favorite style and I would never choose glass with little boys (little hand prints all over!) but we are grateful to have them. We are also glad to have our first entertainment system that isn't a piece of painted wood!

Netflix

I got the free Netflix trial coupon in the mail and am tempted by it. Do any of you belong to Netflix? What plan do you have? What do you think about it?
We have been frequent patrons of Redbox (they are at McDonalds and you pay $1 per day per movie), but it is appealing to have the movies come right to you and there are no late fees...
I would love to have any opinions.

Makes me smile monday

My friend does a makes me smile monday post each Monday. Sometimes she picks a topic and sometimes just writes something that makes her happy. So, it's Sunday but I still want to know what makes you smile.

It makes me smile when Will says, "I yuv you."
It also makes me smile to feel healthy.

Those are just two things but what makes you smile?

No new posts

Well, our blog has been kind of slow lately, so I decided to post a conversation starter:

Name your favorite candy bar...and tell what you like about it


Jason's favorite candy bar is a Snickers (that may be because we just ate one). The reason that he knows it is his favorite is because when he is standing there in the checkout line, that is what he always picks. He likes Scor Bars, but they get stuck in his teeth and he hates to eat anything that makes him feel like it is rotting his teeth. He is the only person I know that actually flosses everyday, sometimes twice. He just said, "if I always had floss, I would get a Scor!" But if he could pick anything to eat at all, it would be dill chips. YES, he would choose pickles over chocolate. No wonder he is so thin.

My favorite (this is Jess) is...really anything that has chocolate. I love butterfingers, scor bars, whoppers, snickers. Reeces Peanut Butter cups always are delicious. Dove chocolate in my favorite kind...when I eat the little bite sized ones, I let one melt in my mouth and then chew one, then melt, then chew. You can see how this can be dangerous, because when do I stop eating them? I always have to have a tall cold glass of skim milk after I have eating any kind of chocolate!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all of the Mom's! I hope you all have a wonderful day!!!

And the winner is...

Well, looks like boys are in the lead, still. Baby Pitcher #4 is almost positive to be a boy, as the US doctor showed us repeatedly from several different angles. The baby was shy, with his hands up by his face. He has long legs, as compared to his other measurements. He also is measuring 6 days earlier than the expected date, which may mean he actually comes on time, unlike his brother and sister who were both late. We are happy and excited and now have to start thinking of boy names.

Uncombable Hair Syndrome

This is not a joke!!
Yesterday I took Ryan and Austin to the doctor. They did height and weight, they are both growing well. Then doctor checked Austin out, asked him all kinds of funny questions like "what do you do with shoes?" And Austin had funny responses like, "Put them in the hang." Which is what we call the white bench that we store shoes in...Anyway, when Austin was all checkout, the doctor started looking at Ryan. He asked me some questions then started listening to him and looking him over. It was a little odd because he kept asking me questions about Ryan's hair, "has anyone ever cut it? has it always been like this? does anyone else in the family have hair like this?" It was all a little weird. So then he left and said that nurse would be in to give the boys their shots.
A few minutes later he comes back in with our normal doctor and has her look at Ryan's hair and she asks me all kinds of questions.
It turns out that there are Vitamin Deficiencies that will show up in the way a child's hair looks and they want me to take him to a dermatologist!!!

Uncombable hair syndrome, also known as Pili trianguli et canaliculi and Spun glass hair is a rare structural anomaly of the hair with a variable degree of effect. It has been discovered in the 1970's^[1] It becomes apparent from as little as 3 months to up to 12 years. The hair is normal in quantity and is usually silvery-blond or straw-colored. It is disorderly, it stands out from the scalp, and cannot be combed flat.

Gasoline Prices are Driving Me Crazy!

I had to go and fill up Laura's car this evening and to my dismay the cheapest gas in town was $3.39/gallon. I spent $125 to fill up. I heard on the news that Seattle's prices are second only to LA. How much are you all paying for gasoline? I hope not near as much as me. I also heard that we can expect to see it over $4/gallon by the end of summer. I sure hope not!

Boy or Girl?!?!

What do you think? Now is the time for you to cast your vote. Will Baby Pitcher #4 be a boy or a girl?? The kids have been telling everyone it is a girl... Only the Ultra Sound will know (hopefully!). I have an appointment on Friday morning, so you have a few days to think about it. I have no thoughts or opinions now... so I don't have to vote! We'll let you know...

Isaac got hurt

Isaac fell off a dresser and broke his collar bone. It is very sad but he will be healded in about two weeks.