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!

Beach Day

Okay, some of you haven't been to Maryland beach day before, so I just wanted to let you know how it goes.

8:00am meet at Jess and Jason's

10:30 Get set up at beach and play

5:00 Leave beach

5:30 Arrive at boardwalk

8:00 Leave boardwalk, drive home

10:30 get to Richard's house

There will be lots of fun and lots of eating that day. It takes about 2hours 15mins from my house to the beach. So it takes up the whole day!

Reunion time!

It's time to revisit our reunion plans. This was the previous plan, but as we are closer now,does anyone have other ideas, or changes that should be made?

Mon: Family picture at park in morning
Picnic at park
Unbirthday party and games

Tues: BeachBoardwalk

Wed: BBQ at noon at Crowls
Annoying games

Thurs: Zoo and picnic lunch
Option of attending temple visitor center (10 away from zoo)

Fri: As you can see Friday is blank.

There are additional options that have been mentioned:
Hershey Park
DutchWonderland
Chuck E. Cheese
Philidelphia
DC
New York

We also must have a planning session for future reunions.


Second, we need to talk about foods. Because there are many of us, planning ahead is a must if we don't want to run out of food, and we don't want to do that.
Are there any requests or anything, allergies or hatreds?

Memorial Day

Yesterday we had Andy, Laura, and Nick up for a BBQ. We had a great time eating, swinging, jumping on the trampoline, and throwing the baseball. It was great to have them over for the afternoon!

We bought our tickets!

We finally found a good deal on tickets and bought them. We will be flying in on Saturday the 5th and leaving Saturday the 12th.

We have flowers

Mike bought me containers for Mother's Day. I love them. I went and bought some flowers for them. It makes our front yard so much nicer. We also planted flowers from seed. They are doing very well but no flowers yet. I'm so impatient for them! I also got some beautiful Cali Lilies from Carol. I love them!

Here we come!!

Just letting you all know that we got our tickets today. We will definitely be at the reunion!!! Yeah!! The kids and I will be going in the end of June and Mike will join us on the 4th of July. We will all leave on the 12th. We are so excited!!

How are the rest of your plans going???

A Swap?

Hey, spring finally made it here! I had to find shorts for the kids and put the sweaters away. I just went through all the kids clothes, boxed up some for other kids later on, made a thrift store pile and then another pile of stuff I just can't get rid of. So, I had a thought. I would like to bring a few things and give them to you guys. If I can squeeze them into my luggage, that is. I wouldn't have stuff for everyone, probably just Layla, maybe Sarah, Eli, and maybe new baby when we find out what he/she is. If you are interested, let me know what sizes those kids are right now. I also might have a skirt or two or my own, although I am not "stylish" so no one might want it. Anything that no one wants we could just run over to a thrift shop near mom's house. If you don't want my stinkin' clothes, though, just say so and I wont bring them. We are always looking for pass along clothes, though, so I thought I'd share what I can. It's easier for me to give my favorite things to family than to just any one.

Food blog

I want to start a food blog. Do you want to join me? I would set one up and any time you find something you like, or try something new, you could post it on that blog. You could do drinks, sides, desserts, main course, etc. If you have a story behind the food you could post that too. I think it would be fun to include a picture of the food although, that wouldn't be necessary. It would be fun to post tips on the blog as well. If you have a great bbq tip or baking secret, or a question about how to do something, etc. You could post a favorite restraunt if you want...pretty much anything food. Anyone interested?

oh, I'm also asking my sisters (and brothers if they want to be included) to join the blog as well.

What will our Baby be?

Laura will have her diagnostic ultrasound on the 27th. What do you all think she'll have? While both Laura and I will be thrilled and happy with what ever the Lord sends us, we each have our beliefs as to what to expect. After every one has guessed, I'll put what we think, and then on the 27th, we'll tell you what the ultrasound tech thinks.

New post??

I was getting tired of seeing the same post everyday. Doesn't anyone have anything worth blogging about? How about some pictures or stories about the construction going on in some homes? Anything good going on the last weeks of school? I don't have much, myself.

We are looking for a home. A inexpensive home. A nice home. A home in a nice neighborhood. We are not finding that yet... bummer.

What are you doing??

Cinco de Mayo

Last night for Cinco de Mayo we went to out apartment community center for a "Taco Feed". We figured, Hey free meal, and we all like tacos. This is what they gave us: You could choose either Fritos or Doritos. They were lunch size chip bags. The ladies would crush up your bag of chips, cut open one side of it and then spoon in meat and cheese and lettuce. Then you could add your own sour cream, tomatoes, salsa, etc. They also had a crock pot of home made mac and cheese. For dessert there was a yummy white cake with a white frosting, caramel and strawberries.
Mike and I thought it was good, but the kids didn't get the idea of eating out of a bag. We dumped their's out onto a plate, and still they were not impressed. The mac and cheese was not bright orange like the fake stuff we eat, so they didn't want that either. I finally convinced them to eat it by offering them more cake if they ate their taco bag.
Anyway, it was just an interesting and easy way to make a taco salad. And it was good. Did anyone else have Mexican for the occassion??

Food Storage

I have been feeling for a while that we ought to do better with our food storage. I have changed my budget around to give us more money for the next few months to stock up on food storage. What kinds of stuff do you all have as your food storage? I assume I will eventually want to get the standards: beans, rice, wheat, other stuff we don't ever really eat..., but for now I'd like to find stuff that will last for a while, but that we will really rotate (Like peanut butter, spagetti noodles, toilet paper...). What do you all do?

Is the indicator light on??

I know babies don't come with an instruction manual. I have accepted that. I know we have to learn as we go and that it is good for us. However, I wish they had lights, like on car dashboards, that would indicate when they are sick, or tired, or hungry, so we could act accordingly.
Today Mikayla's teacher called and told me that Mikayla needed to talk to me. Her ear hurt, again. This was the second time this week that she had asked to go to the nurse/office because it hurt. She's had a cold with a cough for just over a week, has been complaining of a sore throat and her ear hurting. I decided I better get her into the doctor before we had to deal with an infection all weekend long. She has had lots of infections, both ears at a time and burst eardrums. So, I called and had to schedule an appointment with a different doctor since ours was booked. She complained most of the afternoon until the appointment.
I woke up Tyson from a nap, carried him and Jacob into the office. I paid the $20 to see the doctor. I held one happy wiggly baby and one whiney grumpy boy and waited to hear what was wrong with her, hoping that she had an infection to make it worth coming in to the office.
She has fluid in her ear, it should drain out soon. It's not infected, yet... Her throat is fine. Her tonsils are fine. Everything is fine! He gave me two prescriptions, one for drops to numb the pain and one for amoxicylin (however you spell that). I'm supposed to go to the pharmacist with all my kids right now to buy the drops. Then if she is still in pain in three days, I am supposed to go back to the pharmacist and get the medicine.
Yeah right. We have drops from last time that we will use, although the doctor says they are probably expired. She will probably be fine in the morning. I am out 20 bucks.
I know I sound like an uncaring mom, but all of this could have been avoided if she only had an indicating light that told me she just has a cold.

Happy Birthday Adrianne!

ADRIANNE!!
You say it's your birthday
It's my birthday too, yeah
They say it's your birthday
We're gonna have a good time
I'm glad it's your birthday
Happy birthday to you!!!

It's not really my birthday, too, but that is part of the song. Anyway we all hope you have great birthday. I hear you got some pretty great presents! Yeah! Enjoy your cake. We love you!

MUTE!!

Today as the kids were asking question after question and not listening to the answers, I started to think how nice it would be to have a mute button on every child. Then I though of how smart my family is. Surely one of you could come up with a mute button. I'm not talking about putting duct tape on their mouths, that would be cruel and they could still make noise. Anyway, if anyone figures this out, it would make you millions. In the mean time, I guess I'll just keep answering their questions.

We have the coolest neighbors--except of course when the Richey's were our neighbors...Anyway, this couple has two children, both married. They live across the street from us and have kind of adopted us. In the summer, they invited us to bring the boys over and swim in their pool. At Halloween, they made special cupcakes just for the boys and gave them candy for their bags. They live between two houses that are empty. There used to be widows that lived in the houses but they have either died or been placed in a nursing home. When they were still in their homes Max (our neighbor) would regularly mow his lawn and both of these widow's lawns. One of the widow's would call out his name at 2 am and he would go over to her house to see what she wanted. He came and set the mouse traps for us when Mike was in Guam and also jump-started our car when the battery was dead--and he got out of bed with the flu to do it for me because Mike was out of town! They are such great people. When Isaac was born, Sheree made a monogramed blanket for him with his name and birthday with the onces and pounds he was when he was born. Tonight they came over to our house and brought this diaper bag and two burp cloths that she made for us. They are awesome! I love them. We are just so grateful they live next to us. Mike invited them to come to church when we bless Eli and they said they'd come. Mike and I would love to do something for them in return but don't know what to do for them. They are in their late 40's, early 50's and their kids are our age. So what would be appropriate to do for them? Any ideas?

Becca is playing Varsity Softball!

Becca is playing Varsity softball as a freshman, she is the only freshman on the team. She usually plays in left field, and she has been the lead off batter (the first batter on the team). She loves playing for the school and has made some great friends. In the first picture she is bunting and the 2nd picture she is about to take off from second and run to third (she did eventually make it in to score).

Creams

Adrianne just sent me to grab the desitin. She is on the phone and changing a diaper. I hopped up and went to the bathroom. I pulled out the drawer where we keep the desitin and grabbed it...luckily. Right next to the desitin is a very similar looking tube of icy hot. Wouldn't that be a nasty surprise for a little baby bum. I suppose I ought to go move that...

On another subject, I would like to write a book about a world of shapeshifters. I decided to call them shimatims because writing shapeshifter gets old really fast. I haven't decided exactly what the story will be about, but as soon as the first book gets super popular, I will carry on the story, as well as telling the stories of the evolution of the shimatims from people-like creatures. I want the story to be as feasible as possible, so everything I think about these creatures, I try to come up with a fairly reasonable explaination. It's fun to do, and I wish I had lots of free time when I had nothing else I would rather work on...maybe someday.

Mike

Just for fun

Braden saw the camera out and wanted a picture taken. Here are the boys!

W-4

Does anyone have any advice about the number of allowances I should claim on my W-4? I have claimed 0 for the last eight years. I just looked at my last pay check and I get about 71% of what I earn. The rest goes to taxes, SS, and medicare. I would like to get more of that, but don't want to have to pay taxes at tax time ever again...Any thoughts?

Check out our blog.

You should all check out our blog.

Happy Birthday, Laura!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! We hope you have had a great day! What fun things did you do?

Too soon???

Do we think it's still too soon to talk family reunion again?

Too bad if you think that. I just want to voice my opinion that we have a Mexican food night, or two. I'm talking chile rellanos, chimichangas, guacamole, homemade salsa, sopapillas, etc. Then afterwards we can go for a 10 mile walk to try and burn it off. Any other food requests? Mom mentioned that she could make and freeze some things ahead of time.
I love to play games, so I am resubmitting a game night. We can pull up the proposed activity plans soon, too and refine, rediscuss them.
I just have fun talking about getting together! Have you got anything to say??

Time/Money Saver

As I was cleaning up after lunch a fabulous time saving idea came to me. Instead throwing out the food after I have prepared it and served it my family, who refuse to eat it frequently, I could just throw it out before I prepare it. For example instead of making a yummy chicken and sauce dish that you serve over pasta with a nice salad, I could just throw half of those ingredients away and not bother cooking it. I could dump half each cereal box and gallon of milk down the drain before I put it on the table. Think of the time cooking and cleaning that would be saved, but wait.
It then occurred to me that I could just go straight from the store to the dumpster and throw out half the bags of food that I buy. However that sounds rather ridiculous. Smarter would be to only buy the fruit snacks, cookies, candy and juice and forget the rest. If I gave only those foods to the kids, I wouldn't have to do dishes, you don't need plates for fruit snacks. Mike and I could order in or go out with all the money we saved. I would never have to do dishes again, although Mike does like his cereal in the morning, but still way less dishes!!
What a great way to save time and money, no more grocery shopping, no more dishes and no more cooking.
Somehow the kids would find a way to complain about even this, I am sure!!

AUSTIN!!!

Happy Birthday Austin!

We wish you a wonderful birthday full of fun and presents and cake!

This is the best picture I could get. I know you are way bigger than this now!!

The Guessing Game

The time is swiftly approaching for the next in a line of marvelous children to enter this world. Adrianne's due date is May 4th and I am guessing that she will deliver him April 24th. Any other guesses? The prise for winning is that you get to be the favorite Aunt, Uncle or Grandparent if you win. The prise of course is subject to new baby's approval!

Movies

Seen any good movies lately? We rarely see any movies, but the past two weeks, friends have loaned us their rentals. It's been nice to see a movie. I watched them alone after the kids were in bed and while Mike was at work, but it was still nice.

First I saw No Reservations. It was ok, but a little too slow for me.

Second I saw Dan In Real Life. I really liked this and would recommend it. Just a friendly little movie.

What have you been watching?

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!!
Got Eggs??

Good Friday...

So, I came to post a blog called Good Friday, based on my experience of the day. I got here and there was already a post called that. Lucky for me, my experience is nothing to do with the post from Jess, so I will post it anyway. Here I go:

This morning at breakfast we were talking about why there is no school and Mike has work off today. I told the kids it was Good Friday and they have to be good all day. Mikayla said, Nah uh!! I told her it was on the calendar and she better be good today.
Later we were in the car and she stayed in her place until I got the carseats unbuckled so she wouldn't be in my way. Every other day of her life I remind her to stay out of the way and wait, EVERY DAY! So, I thanked her for remembering to wait and what a good girl she was. She told me
"I remembered what day it was."
What??
"It's good Friday, Mom!"

Nice, I wonder when good Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday will come?? I hope I didn't blaphem anything.

Good Friday

I thought to put a post up about what exactly Good Friday is...I didn't really learn anything exciting. It is the day that Christ was Crucified. Many religions fast, take the day off work and have a celebration. But it was good for me to read about everything that led up to the Crucifixtion. There is nothing new, but just a reminder. I hope this isn't too heavy for the blog!

Jesus, having been arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane by the Temple Guards through the guidance of Judas Iscariot, is brought to the house of Annas, who is father-in-law of the current high priest, Caiaphas. There he is interrogated with little result, and sent bound to Caiaphas the high priest, where the Sanhedron had assembled (John 18:1-24).

Conflicting testimony against Jesus is brought forth by many witnesses, to which Jesus answers nothing. Finally the high priest adjures Jesus to respond under solemn oath, saying "I adjure you, by the Living God, to tell us, are you the Anointed One, the Son of God?" Jesus testifies in the affirmative, "You have said it, and in time you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Almighty, coming on the clouds of Heaven." The high priest condemns Jesus for blasphemy, and the Sanhedron concurs with a sentence of death (Matthew 26:57-66).

In the morning, the whole assembly brings Jesus to the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, under charges of subverting the nation, opposing taxes to Caesar, and making himself a king (Luke 23:1-2). Pilate authorizes the Jewish leaders to judge Jesus according to their own Law and execute sentencing, however the Jewish leaders reply that they are not allowed by the Romans to carry out a sentence of death (John 18:31).

Pilate questions Jesus, and tells the assembly that there is no basis for sentencing. Upon learning that Jesus is from Galilee, Pilate refers the case to the ruler of Galilee, King Herod, who was in Jerusalem for the Passover Feast. Herod questions Jesus but receives no answer; Herod sends Jesus back to Pilate. Pilate tells the assembly that neither he nor Herod have found guilt in Jesus; Pilate resolves to have Jesus whipped and released (Luke 23:3-16).

It was a custom during the feast of Passover for the Romans to release one prisoner as requested by the Jews. Pilate asks the crowd who they would like to be released. Under the guidance of the chief priests, the crowd asks for Barabbas, who had been imprisoned for committing murder during an insurrection. Pilate asks what they would have him do with Jesus, and they demand, "Crucify him" (Mark 15:6-14). Pilate's wife had seen Jesus in a dream earlier that day; she forewarns Pilate to "have nothing to do with this righteous man" (Matthew 27:19).

Pilate has Jesus flogged, then brings him out to the crowd to release him. The chief priests inform Pilate of a new charge, demanding Jesus be sentenced to death "because he claimed to be God's son." This possibility filled Pilate with fear, and he brought Jesus back inside the palace and demanded to know from where he came (John 19:1-9).

Coming before the crowd one last time, Pilate declares Jesus innocent, washing his own hands in water to show he has no part in this condemnation. Nevertheless, Pilate hands Jesus over to be crucified in order to forestall a riot (Matthew 27:24-26). The sentence written is "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews." Jesus carries his cross to the site of execution, called the place of the Skull, or "Golgotha" in Hebrew and "Calvary" in Latin. There he is crucified along with two criminals (John 19:17-22).

Jesus agonizes on the cross for three hours while the sun is darkened. With a loud cry, Jesus gives up his spirit. There is an earthquake, tombs break open, and the curtain in the Temple is torn from top to bottom. The centurion on guard at the site of crucifixion declares, "Truly this was God's Son!" (Matthew 27:45-54)

Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Sanhedrin and secret follower of Jesus, who had not consented to his condemnation, goes to Pilate to request the body of Jesus (Luke 23:50-52). Pilate asks confirmation from the centurion whether Jesus is dead (Mark 15:44). A soldier pierced the side of Jesus with a lance causing blood and water to flow out (John 19:34), and the centurian informs Pilate that Jesus is dead (Mark 15:45).

Joseph of Arimathea takes the body of Jesus, wraps it in a clean linen shroud, and places it in his own new tomb that had been carved in the rock (Matthew 27:59-60) in a garden near the site of crucifixion. Another secret follower of Jesus and member of the Sanhedrin named Nicodemus (John 3:1) also came bringing 75 pounds of myrrh and aloes, and places them in the linen with the body of Jesus, according to Jewish burial customs (John 19:39-40). They rolled a large rock over the entrance of the tomb (Matthew 27:60). Then they returned home and rested, because at sunset began the Sabbath (Luke 23:54-56).

Jake-O!

To quote Braden: Is he a cute baby or what?!?!

My peeps are gone!

I was going through our candy shelf in the kitchen a few weeks ago--we have a shelf in the kitchen where we put almost all of our candy (not the hundreds of candy bars that we keep above all the linens in the hallway) to discourage us from eating them all too much--and I found the peeps from last Easter that I had opened up and set in there to let them get stale. I was really excited when I found that they were super hard and totally brittle. I ate part of one, and put the rest back on the shelf. Today, I went to get them so I could take a picture of them and show you all my super stale peeps. I was excited because I know you all share in the same delight of stale peeps. Only, instead of my stale peeps, what did I find? New Easter candy...I was very disappointed. Adrianne said, "They were in there so long, I figured you weren't going to eat them, so I threw them away."!!! grrrr... Now I have to wait a whole 'nother year to have good peeps. Some people!

Happy birthday to my three year old!

Peanutbutter

So today something interesting happened... I was making peanutbutter and jelly sandwiches, that is not the interesting part, stay with me. I had to get a new jar out, as peanutbutter consumption is about a jar a week at our house. A friend had given me a jar of Skippy so I pulled that out and spread it on the bread. Well, I got a bit on my finger and had to lick it off. It was soooo good! I have always been a JIF fan, and so this got me curious. What kind of peanutbutter do you use/like the most? Please don't tell me you buy a generic brand. We buy lots of generic brand foods, but there are just somethings that require a certain brand, so what is yours??

By the way, my faith in JIF has been rocked, I just don't know what kind I will get next time I need more.

How ya'll doing?

This blog has been pretty quiet lately so I thought I'd just post and ask what everyone is doing.

Did everyone but us make it through stomach bugs? Anyone get the flu? How's your weather Mandy? If you read my family blog you know that my family is funny about the weather. We all want to know what everyone's weather is. My sister just got about 14 inches of snow in Ohio. Did the snow move on to Maryland?

What are all the little kids up to? Is Jacob trying to sit? I can't remember how early babies try to do that....How is Sarah? Is she doing anything new? Nick? What is he up to? I always interested in what he is up to because he is so close in age to Ikie.

Is Laura (Andy's Laura) feeling well or does she have morning sickness? Do we know how far along she is yet?

Mike has an exercise at work that he hates. He has to go to work at 11 tonight. He will get home at 7 AM and then for the next two days work 5 to 7. I've been praying for nice weather this week so I can take the boys outside and try and keep the house somewhat quiet so he can sleep. I think we are going to have weather 60, 68, and 70 degrees. Wonderful huh?!! Anyway, Mike really hates this exercise. He always comes home so wiped out and so sore from wearing all his chem junk. The boys and I snuck some tylenol in his lunch bag so he will take it and not have to be so achey. I'm pretty sure he will ignore that we put it in there though. I also hope he takes his little nose breathing strips because he has a hard time breathing and when he has to wear the gas mask it is worse!

Steven is a Teenager!

Steven turns 13 today! We will go out to celebrate tonight, we are going to a Japanese Restaurant for dinner. I thought that Chuck E. Cheese would be fun, but he did not agree.

A catchy new phrase...

Yesterday Mikayla brought a new phrase home to our family. She introduced it at dinner time. It's kind of catchy, I think you should share it with your whole families. She heard a second grade boy say it. Are you ready?

Talk to the booty, cuz the hand's off duty!

Now in our family, this must be followed by lots of laughter, because booty means bum, ha ha ha!! I hope you can incorporate this into your family dinner conversation, as we have.
Thanks so much second grade boy!!!

Happy Birthday Grandma Paulsen!!

Today is Grandma Paulsen's Birthday. I was thinking that mom might be able to show this to her, so she knows that we are all thinking of her!

Papa's Polar Patch

That is Tyson up on the slide, with Mikayla and Braden waiting their turns. Mike is ready to catch them.

This weekend we went to the pumpkin patch. It has been turned into a Polar Patch. It had sleigh rides, ice caves, ice skating, smore making and hay mazes and castles to climb and play on. It also offered old fashioned sled rides. This consisted of a car hood being pulled by a ATV through a field of snow. The kids loved it and Mike did, too. Jacob and I stayed behind to watch and take pictures. We pulled Jacob along with us in a sled. The weather was pretty warm, 42, so there was alot of melting going on, but it was still fun.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Good news!

Last week, Laura started to worry because she "thought" that she might be pregnant. When her time of the month came, her time of the month didn't come. Monday, we decided to take an over the counter test. After work, I bought the two pack of EPT because it was the cheapest per unit. These where the results.
Laura was worried that the first one was a false positive, so she did the other. Yesterday, we went to the Lab and had her blood drawn. They called Laura this morning to tell her the results. She called me and told me that she wasn't pregnant. Apparently she thought that it would be funny. It wasn't. She is. Pregnant. Her first appointment is going to be near the end of March, but we figure that she'll be due around October. Laura and I are very excited. Nick doesn't understand what's going on.

Valentine's Day

So, what is everyone doing for Valentine's day? I'm am looking for some fun ideas for my family. I may just go with a heart shaped pizza. The kids have been making cards for thier friends. Mikayla has a program at school on the 13th. I think I will also make candy trains and CHOO CHOO Choose them for my Valentines. Any other fun ideas?
I remember one year in high school, I must have been in 7th grade. Some group was selling carnations for Valentine's day. You could buy one and write a message and they would deliver it for you on Valentine's day. I was so surprised when I got one that day. I felt so special, as a goofy 13 year old to be getting a flower. Guess who gave it to me? Ralph! Wasn't that a nice brother?
One year Mom bought us all balloons and tied them to our chair. I also remember once coming to dinner and having some little gift on our plates.
I've tried to be fun and create on this loving day, but Mike hates Valentine's day, so I never expect anything.
Does anyone else have fun memories of Valentine's day?

Becca turns 15!!!!

Today Becca turned 15!!!! We went out to celebrate last night, because we have soccer practice and Young Womens tonight. It is hard to believe that we are a year from a driver license!

Ryan's 2nd Birthday!

Today is Ryan's second birthday. This morning when I went in and got him out of bed, I sang Happy Birthday to him. He said, "No, no birt-day." It was very cute.

To celebrate his birthday we get to go to the doctor's and get shots. Then tonight we will go the Chuck e Cheese's with Jason's family to celebrate. He got a new shirt to wear for the day.

What a blog should look like

I imagine most of us have seen this before. This is what a blog or a blogg is supposed to look like. I guess who ever started the ones on line didn't consult Dr. Seuss.

Austin's Game

Austin and Layla are sitting in the toy room. Austin says, "Pretend it is Grandma's birthday and every time she has a birthday she turns into something else."
He picks up a bumble bee toy and then throws in down and picks up a unicorn,"Hello kids, I'm grandma!"

Happy Birthday Mike!

Mandy had a great idea to post a younger picture for the birthdays. This was the best quality I could get.

Anyway, Happy Birthday Mikey!

Sad news

For those of you who haven't heard the news, President Hinckley died last night.

Here is the link to the church newsroom.

Cheese!!

Is this my color??

New Computer

Our computer is on it's last leg. We need to buy a new one. Any advice? Money is always an object and we are hoping to keep it under $1000.

Reunion, Again

Based on previous posts, this is a tentative schedule. Please comment if you have comments.
Mon: Family picture at park in morning
Picnic at park
Unbirthday party and games

Tues: Beach
Boardwalk

Wed: BBQ at noon at Crowls

Thurs: Zoo and picnic lunch
Option of attending temple visitor center (10 away from zoo)

Fri:


As you can see Friday is blank. There are additional options that have been mentioned:
Hershey Park
DutchWonderland
Chuck E. Cheese
Philidelphia
DC
New York

We also must have a planning session for future reunions.
Is there anything you would like to change, add or delete? Please let it be known!
As soon as this is set up we can start a blog about food!!

FYI

So today was Jacob's surgery.
I got up just before 5am and got ready. My in laws came over at 5:30am. Laura stayed with the older kids, she would use my van to take Mikayla to school and then take the boys to her house. Ryan drove Jacob and I to the hospital.
We checked in downstairs and then were sent up to the 6th floor. We were put in a little room with two nice rocker recliners, a baby scale and a fully loaded change table. Also a tv and dvd player. We were given little tiny pjs and slippers to put on the baby. They took his viatls and then the waiting started. At this time he had not eaten in 5 hours. So, he was doing surprisingly well. He didn't want to just sit and rock, though. We walked around in the halls and then when some other children came in, we went to the play room and watched them play.
About 7:30 we were taken to the 2nd floor to another waiting area. Around 8:10, I was gowned, bootied and hairnetted. I carried the hungry, tired little guy to the operating room. I got stay and hold his hand while they put a mask on him that put him to sleep. The hardest part was leaving after that.
In yet another waiting room, they called and let me know the surgeon was finally there and beginning the procedure. That was at 8:40am. At 9:10, I was let to another room to wait and talk to the surgeon. He came in 10 minutes later. All went well, he had removed a 1 inch section of skin from the navel, and found that it was not attached to anything vital, just extra. Jacob is fine.
I was pointed in the direction of the post op room. I went and found my little guy. He was still mostly out of it, but starting to wake up and getting angry. I was able to carry him up to the first room and feed him. They kept coming in to check his vitals and his diaper. I couldn't take him home until he had wet his diaper. He also had a little tiny IV, and a great big wrap on it to hold it in place.
We finally left the hospital at 12:15. He has a gauze animal shaped bandage on his little belly button. It is bloody and kind of gross, but covered in that plastic sticky tape. We will leave it on for 2 days and then underneath it are some white steri strips that we just leave on until they fall off on their own. They said he will either sleep mostly for the next 24 hours, or be irritable, it just depends on the kid.
I am glad it's over!! I am glad he is fine! I am glad my husband is coming home tonight!! I'm glad I'm done waiting in various waiting rooms.

Because we never responded

If I come with the boys (because I think Mike will come either way) I am sure they would love to go to the beach. They have never been to the ocean and they would be in heaven in a world of sand--and I won't even flash my brothers-in-law this time!

I do however, think we should narrow down the list of ideas since we only have five days. I guess we could do all those things but I would not be participating. I'm simple and would go crazy doing that many things!

A Miracle

Well, it's finally happened. We've posted on our own blog. Instead of putting all of the pictures we want you all to see on the family blog, we've decided to start using our own. I made a blog for nick's pictures about a year ago and never added to it. I've now put on a bunch of pictures of our trip to Argentina and changed the link on the left. I hope you all enjoy.
and this is a smiley beard.

Happy Birthday Mandy!

So, it's a good thing we're having a family reunion so we can all take new pictures of one another. This is one of only a couple pictures I have of Mandy.

Me and the boys

This is the broken belly button. It's not very clear, but the part in the lower half of the button is a seperate piece that is a bright pink and pokes out unattractively. They will fix that.
This is just my cute boy!


Today was an interesting day. We took Jacob to see a surgeon. He has decided to do surgery on his little baby belly button. There is something herniated in there. He will go and remove fix the problem next Thursday. Poor little baby. I am glad it doesn't bother him.

Tyson was matching letters on animals to letters in on train cars. He found T for Tyson and B for Braden. I gave him J for Jacob and M for Mikayla. Then he gave me the unicorn.
T: What's this?
M: That's U.
T: That's me??
M: No, that's a U.
T: Me??
M: No, letter U.
T: OH, letter U.
Then he took it back and said:
That's me!!

Braden today brought me a metal ball... the one he swallowed last Saturday night. It "reappeared" today. But don't tell anyone, it's a secret. I'll say it for all of us:
Um, EW! Gross!!

B-Day picture

Since none of you found a good picture to use for my birthday, I thought it would be a good time to show you my civilian facial hair.



































































This is the picture of when Laura and Nick came to surprise me at work today.

It's Andy's Special Day!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDY!!

You are the best Andy in our family!

We love you and hope you have a great day!

Let the Games Begin!!

It may be early for some of you, but I am just so excited and I like to look ahead and plan things, so:
What family activities do we want to do at our reunion?
Let's all make some suggestions and then we can narrow down if we need to. We can also start a food/meal blog when we are ready.
Ok, so maybe I just have too much time on my hands, or maybe I don't use my time wisely. Either way, I'm ready to start planning, so jump on board!!

Home Owners

Hey all you home owners, and future home owners(that would be me and mike and andy and laura!) I have a question for you all. As we begin to look at homes and think about what we want in our house, I am wondering:
What do you love about your house, couldn't do without it?
What do you wish you had in your house, but didn't think about it before you bought it?

Now, I know you might wish you had a room full of money, or a indoor pool, or a big screen tv, but anything serious that you would look for if you could do it again?

Coupons

I am interested in the Northwest Airlines coupons. Sometimes these are sent in the mail in coupons envelopes or other types of flyers. If you get one and are not planning to use it, I would like to see if it would help me out. I am not sure what the conditions are, but if it saved money in flying, that would be good. So, if you get one, can you read it and tell me what it says???
Thanks!
Mandy

New Link on the left

Please notice that I moved the calendar to the bottom of the screen. I put a link to it on the left at the top of the blog. You'll notice (when you click on the link) that the calendar is big enough to read what people put on it. I also wanted to point out how cool it is that I figured out how to make links like that--there's one under the calendar to take you back up to the top of the links.

Also, I'm attaching a picture I took of the stars this evening. I set the camera on one of the boys outside toys, opened the aperature as wide as I could and set the shutter for 60 seconds. I think it's an interesting picture. I'd like to get a tripod and take other pictures like it.

Mom and Dad weigh in on the Family Reunion

We are extremely excited that you all are planning a family reunion. Thanks Mike for taking the hint and instigating it. We will see if we can make it. . . . . . .hahaha. Of course we will be here to welcome you all with open arms. July works well for us.

We are going to try our hardest to get the basement done to provide additional sleeping spaces and an additional bathroom. Anyone who comes early might be enlisted to help with whatever remains to be done in the basement.

We are planning to provide all of the food, but don’t necessarily want to be the only planners, preparers or cleaner-uppers! We can have some fun tossing out menu suggestions, any preparations that can be done ahead Mom would be happy to do. This is something that we certainly don’t need to worry about yet.

If the expense of buying tickets is prohibitive let us know and we will see what we can do to help you. We would be sad to have anyone miss out due to lack of resources. The bank of Mom and Dad can be opened if there is a need.

We love you all,

Dad and Mom

Pitcher Family

Hey, I put new pictures of my beautiful children on my blog, in case you want to see them. Hint: Go look at my blog!!!

A Date

Is it too soon to pick a date, or would that make things easier for people?

Here is my thought...in July, after the 4th. That is still pretty broad, but narrows it down a little bit.

Family Reunion Part 2

Sorry, I got tired of commenting so many times. I think that we need to make a real decision and then move forward. Of course we all know that things can change, and also that Andy and Laura haven't seen any of this, they come home around the 10th.

And we have had no official comment from mom and dad...

To answer some of Mike's questions:
Yes, we really could house everyone. Not lavishly, but not uncomfortably. We each have two full bathrooms and both can have a third built in the basements by this summer. We have two fold out couches, plus will have a bedroom finished in the basement this week. We could easily come up with an empty bedroom upstairs as well, possibly two. Mom and Dad have at least one sofa bed, plus three empty bedrooms. The hardest thing will be deciding who has to stay at my house. I think that I will even want to stay at mom and dad's so I can be around all the action.

I am pretty sure that we could cover car seats as well. Between the ones that we have and ones that we can borrow from friends. I have an infant one and I don't use and a five-point harness. Mom has a booster and a five-point harness. And I have a lot of friends that I can ask.

Anyway, I say let's do it this summer. What say ye?

We are our parents

Does it ever just hit you out of nowhere that we are our parents!?! I mean, as we are talking and planning, I realize, WE ARE MOM AND DAD. We are Uncle Steven and Aunt Linda! We are Aunt Candace and Uncle Keith! Our children are us!

Anyway, sometimes that just hits me out of nowhere!

Family Reunion

Mom and Dad hinted--well, it was more of a suggestion than a hint--that it would be a good time in our family's life to establish some kind of family reunion schedule/plan. I think a discussion on the blog would be a good way to generate ideas and to gauge everyone's feeling on different ideas. I'd especially like to see what people want to have happen: frequency, locations, activities, responsibilities, or anything else.

I'll start the discussion by posting a comment with my thoughts on the subject.

Resolutions?

So, it's a new year, is anyone making resolutions this year? I am not sure when the last time I did that. I found, like most people, that I never kept them, so why bother making them. But what about you??

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful ushering out of 2007 and welcoming of 2008.

We went to an adult only party. It was lots of fun. There were 13 couples. Everyone brought an appetizer or a dessert. We played a gift exchange game, sang karaoke, played pool and fuseball. Okay, all I really did was eat, but other people did those things. It was just lots of fun. I missed the kids, but the party didn't start until 9pm anyway, so they would normally be in bed.

Anyway, what fun things did you all do?