HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICHOLAS

Today, Nick turns two years old! He's thrilled with the little soccer ball he got, and we had to hide it from him to get him out the door for Stake conference. Laura made the wonderful cake, and Nick got to talk to allot of his family in Argentina. He seems really happy.

He is on his knees

He's not ready to crawl but he is already getting himself on his knees and he is able to wiggle himself quite a ways from where we lay him down.

Gardens

In our yard we have a variety of gardens. There are flower gardens and bushes and plants and trees and herb gardens and what at one point was a vegetable garden and is now a weed garden. Some of it is pretty and some of it is ugly. We don't even know what most of it is and will probably pull alot of it out at some point. However, we have lots of different lilies and they are all beautiful!! Every day it seems there are new blossoms.

Open the flood gates

Well, once again we have tested and proven the tithing theory. Not intentionally, anyway here is our latest story.

Jason is going to school, as you all know. He will be taking 12 credits this semester. He is going to the local community college so it is not terribly expensive, but it does add up, especially when we are really tight to start with.

So back in May or June I went on line after a friend told me where to go and what to do and I filled out the FAFSA. It had to be turned in by July 1. A week or so later we got something in the mail from the school asking us to fill more stuff out and send in a copy of our most recent tax returns. We did all that. A few weeks later we got another thing saying that Jason did not sign his tax return and he needed to. So he went to the office got that all done and they submitted it.

We never heard anything back. I checked on line and it said that his expected cost of school was $12,000 (which includes books, housing, etc) and he had been awarded no financial aid. I wasn't that surprised, mostly just disappointed.

So, now we have to pay his tuition by the 31st of July so he doesn't lose his classes. I was getting more and more worried. We are going to have to put it on a credit card. So last Thursday I told him to go to the financial aid office and find out about student loans. When he got there they pulled up his record and found that it had never been submitted. I was SO angry!!! They told him that they would turn it in then.

Well, the next day I looked on line and found that he had been awarded enough money to cover his classes and his books for the entire year!! I was so happy. I called him in and made him look at it with me. Then we knelt down and thanked Heavenly Father for once again saving us with a HUGE blessing.

My brother Ammon is having two major surgeries. The first one will be on Monday and the second one won't be until Aug., although he will have to stay in the hospital the entire time. The surgeries are very difficult and we are all very nervous for him. After the surgeries he will have a long recovery and he will have to miss the first few months or more of school--he is very sad about that. We are all praying for him and I wondered if you would all do the same too. I think we could use all the prayers we can get. He started his own blog so we would all be updated on what is happening with his surgery and recovery. You can check out his blog here .

Thank you everyone!

I just wanted to write to everyone and say thank you for coming to our family reunion. It wasn't perfect, but it sure was nice to be together as a giant family.

We just got home from mom and dad's house. Mike and Adrianne & Andy and Laura are still there and I am glad that I will get to see them a couple more times at least, but I am still sad. I am sad to come home to an empty house. I am sad that I won't get to see many of you again for three years.

I had the best of both worlds. I was still in my house, with the comforts of home. I didn't have to pack anything or travel anywhere. But I still got to spend tons of time with my family. I know that for many of you, going home is a nice thing, kind of a relief. But for me it is just sad and lonely.

I love you all. Thank you again.


PS Jason and my kids think I am nuts sitting here crying in front of the computer.

PSS I don't think that it helps any that I have to go back to work tonight and I really don't want to. And that I have sharing time tomorrow. It was fun to pretend for a while that I had no responsibilities.

Sleeping

Hi. I am trying to figure out if I should get a bed/beds for our basement bedroom. We have a partially finished basement. It has a bedroom that has walls, but no paint or carpeting or anything. There is a family room area that is not finished either, but could be a separate sleeping area if wanted/needed. There is also a brand new full bathroom. I would be very happy to have someone stay at our house, but do understand that it would be a sacrifice to not be at mom and dad's. I would like to be staying there also but like having my own bathroom. (So we will have three full bathrooms in our house with five bodies in it if no one stays with us.)

I took pictures of the partially finished shower and the bedroom. It has our exercise equipment in it, but there is plenty of room for a bed and other stuffs. We do have a carpet that we can lay down on the floor.

We live about 25minutes from mom and dad's.


Mom and Dad have the following sleeping accommodation's available:


Room with Queen bed and crib
Green Room with double bed
New bedroom in basement with queen size bed
Kid room with four twin beds

Dad is willing to buy a double bed on bottom and a twin bed on top set to go into the kid room if one of the couples would like to sleep in there with all of the children.

Plus there will also be pack and plays available to set up where ever wanted.

So, let me know what you all are thinking....
Also mom and dad have a blow up mattress that can be put in the family room/living room at their house.

Mom and Dad hopefully will have three working full bathrooms to share with everyone.

Yanina

Pronounced Shah-NEE-Nah, Yanina is Laura's sister, my sister-in-law, and Nick's Aunt. Laura and I are doing all that we can so that Yanina can come visit us when Noah is born. On the 24th of June, she'll have an interview at the U.S. embassy to prove to them that she will not stay here as an illegal alien if they giver her a tourist visa. We are praying that everything goes well with her trip to the embassy and that she will be granted a visa. We wanted to ask you to add her to your prayers as well. Thank you very much.

Accomodations

Okay, these aren't necessarily "assignments" as much as mom and I are trying to figure everything out.

Jess asked me to post this, as she has been unable to sign into the blog recently.

In regards to the reunion:

Who needs a pack and play or crib of some kind for their baby?
Ralph- 1 Jess's crib or Michelle's pack and play
Mandy-1 Mom's pack and play
Mike- 1 Kim's pack and play
Andy-1 Mom's crib

What kinds of car seats will be needed?
Booster-
Ralph- 0
Mandy-2 backless boosters x2
Mike- 1 Layla's booster
Andy-0

5 Point Harness-
Ralph- 1- will bring own
Mandy-1 mom's new
Mike- 1 mom's yard sale
Andy-1 borrowed from Kim

Rear facing seat
Mandy-1 borrowed from Wendy Lee
Mike- 1 Jess's

What about strollers? Is anyone bringing theirs?
Ralph-
Mandy-bringing a single
Mike-
Andy-bringing a single

I put this in the comment as well. I have a single stoller, not a tiny one, a normal one. Mom has an umbrella stoller. I also have a double jogging stroller. And could borrow another one or two if needed.

As you can see, my family needs one of everything! Mom and Jess need to start collecting/borrowing these things for those of us that need them.
Thanks!

A request

Hey all, my brother and his family live in Iowa where all the flooding is going on. They are ok and haven't been evacuated yet but things are going to get worse. Could you please pray for them? You can read about their situation here

Family Home Evening

As we are all going to be in Maryland on Sunday, would we like to consider having a family home evening? Each family could take an assignment. Mom could have her apple pies for the treat. Are you interested?
We would need:
lesson
music
prayer
activity
scripture
That would give each family an assignment. If you want in, say so.

Becca is Driving!

Becca got her driver's permit about 9 days ago. She is having fun learning to drive. Ralph usually takes her out to drive at a nearby park or parking lot. (I do not have the patience, so both Becca and I agreed that I would not take her out driving.) She drove on the road last Thursday night, she was really nervous, but Ralph said that she did just fine. Becca will have her 3rd drivers ed class tonight. Here is Becca sitting in our new car that we got about 9 days ago also. She has only driven this once in a parking lot. She is also wearing her Letterman's Jacket that we got today. More pictures of that are on our blog.

Below

Some how I got a post underneath Layla's bday. Be sure to go read it and comment. Thanks!!

Layla's Birtday

Today was Layla's birthday (yesterday was my birthday, thanks alot to all you schmucks who forgot!!!). She had a princess/unicorn birthday party. We went on a treasure hunt to find the stolen treasure. It was a lot of fun.

Monday

Monday we are planning a picnic, with pictures to begin the day. That evening we will be having our unbirthday party. Let's talk specifics.

10am Pictures at park
Play at park
12pm Picnic at park

Go home, do whatever you want
Prepare for party, get food ready
Activities for kids, like make decorations, plans some games, etc.

6pm Food and party

How does that time frame sound? Would you rather start the pictures and picnic later? I know we are all coming from different time zones, so we need to take that into account. My family is early risers, but everyone else might not be. Share your thougths on this.

Food for Monday
~we talked about breakfast in an earlier post
~picnic -What do you want?
sandwiches, chips, cookies, veges, fruit?
or chicken, salads, eclairs?
~party appetizers
layer dip/chips
artichoke heart dip
spinach dip
mushrooms
vege pizza
What else?? What do your kids like? Fondue?

Ok, now everyone needs to weigh in on this day, both activities, timing and food.
Thanks!!

Shopping List for Mom

Okay maybe we need to do the food a little differently.

Breakfast: Cereal, Eggs, is that okay with everyone?

Unplanned lunches: Sandwiches, left overs

Snacks: Gold fish, gogurt, fruit, veggies and ranch, pretzels, string cheese, etc

Unplanned Desserts: Cookies, Ice cream, pop sickles

Does that satisfy everyone's needs.

Family Picture

So let's talk for just a minute about different colors for different families...

What color would each of you pick?

I would choose blue because we each already have blue shirts, and with our blue eyes we look pretty good in blue, and well, because I just like it! (We could do another color if someone else needed blue.)

M&D Richards:

R&L Richards: Dark Blue

Pitcher: Red

Crowl: Light Blue

M&A Richards: Green

A&L Richards: Yellow

Family Picture

What does everyone want to wear for the pictures? I think we agreed to go casual.
Some ideas that have been suggested:

~Each family has their own color, we each pick our own
~Red, white and blue
~Denims and white shirts
~I just saw some 4th of July t's at walmart for kids for just$2.50. If we are interested in all have the same shirts. They had red, white and blue ones. Not sure what was available for adults, didn't look that closely.
~Any other ideas people want to throw out there?

We should decide this soon in case people need to start searching drawers or bleaching out white t-shirts...

Menu

It's going to take alot of food and planning to feed all of us at Mom and Dad's house. So that Mom can start to plan and prepare for the invasion and so that I can feel planned, as I am an overplanner and love it, lets start talking food. I think we need to plan lunches and dinners and once they are planned we can make preparation and cleanup assignments. So here we go!!


Sunday (fast Sunday, but some of us will still need food)
~What time is church? Do we eat a big meal after, or a meal later at dinner time?
We will NEED dessert this night, too.

Monday
Picnic lunch: sub type sandwiches?
chips, fruit, cookies?

Party dinner: we had lots of different appetizers once for the party dinner, it was yummy!!
Bread bowl dip
veggie/fruit pizza
stuffed mushrooms
etc.

Tuesday
BBQ lunch at Crowls
Meat
salads

Dinner

Wednesday
Beach picnic fried chicken

Dinner Junk on boardwalk

Thursday
Picnic lunch

Dinner
BBQ?

Friday
Lunch

Dinner Mexican???

Saturday
Some of us will be leaving this day, but mom will probably still feed the rest of you, right?
Lunch

Dinner

We also should share what types of foods we need for snacks or if you have a favorite breakfast food you can't live without. What I put above are just suggestions, they can be easily changed. Please give any and all suggestions so we can help mom to get prepared!!

Diaper changing stations

We are planning to set up a couple of changing stations stocked with wipes and diapers. We need to know the size and brand preferences for diapers and pull-ups and wipes to if anyone needs a specific kind. Our hope is that this will make life a little simpler and therefore more FUN!