Christmas Stuff

We had such a good Christmas season this year. As always it just flies by. We try and do something fun each night. One of the girls favorite things is turning on Christmas music and lighting candles and doing some dancing. We always have to have a Christmas treat every night too. And if we ever forgot the treat , Nellie made sure that we remembered. The girls love decorating the tree. I love having a real tree, but it is just too expensive, plus you can't beat having a prelit tree.

This is how Russell felt about decorating the tree.

Jane put all of her ornaments right along the bottom. Lizzy tried to boss her and make her put them somewhere else, but I told her to let Jane do it where she wanted.

the girls wanted to take our picture under the tree.

For a family night activity we made countdown chains, The girls each made one. I had to help Janie because she just couldn't get the linking thing. So I had her put the glue on then I put them together. It was funny because after each spot of glue she out on she would say, "fantastic!"

Nellie was at a play date and so Lizzy and Jane were my little cookie helpers. They had fun helping me cut them out and frost them.

Our Sweet Boy

Where does the time go? Russell is already over two months old! We sure have loved having him in our family. The girls absolutely adore him. They want to be holding him and kissing him and cuddling him all day long. He has been a so-so baby. Certainly not my worst but definitely not my best either. Right now he isn't napping very well, just cat naps throughout the day and when he is awake he cries if he isn't being held or doesn't get enough attention. This has just been for about the past week so I am keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn't stay this way. He definitely likes me a lot, but at this age that is typical, I do have the goods after all. He does sleep pretty good at night so that is good.
So far he seems the most like Lizzy to me in personality. He seems very social at this age just like she did. He loves to coo and talk a lot! it is so cute because if you talk to him and give him attention he just will coo and talk away. He likes to "talk" more than any of the other girls that I can remember.
So all this hope for a chubby baby is just not going to happen. I took him to his 2 month checkup and he had started to drop in the percentiles just like the girls did. I guess it just is not in our cards to have a big baby. Oh well, he is healthy and perfect. I couldn't love him any more than I already do. He is 10 lbs 13 oz. (30th) and 23 inches (50th)

Such a handsome little guy in his Tux that Kevy's grandma made. It was so special to have him blessed in it. A funny thing about the blessing: Kevin said that right after he started saying it, Russell had a major blowout in his pants that was loud and stinky and Kevin said it really threw him off in the prayer, although you would never know that, it was a beautiful blessing.

What a proud daddy Kevy is. Lets just hope that Russ is into sports.

It is still hard to believe that I have 4 kids!

These girls just love this boy to death. This is such a common sight that I just had to take a picture. They all just want to mother him and smother him. Lizzy was so funny because this morning I was in the other room and he started to cry so I went in there and Lizzy had taken off his diaper because she figured that he must need a diaper change since he was crying. Lets not forget that she has never changes a diaper and she didn't even have a clean one in the room with her. Too funny.

He is our little buddy in the evenings. He hangs out with us after the girls go to bed. But I am looking forward to the time when he starts to go to bed when the girls do and I can have my time with Kevy again. I miss it.

He is definitely a paci baby and I couldn't be happier about it. I love that I can give him something when he is fussy that will calm him down, who cares if I have to take it away when he is older, it is worth it.

I just love that little smile. He is so easy to get a smile out of I love it. Everyone tells me how much he looks like Kevy. I always wondered what a little Richey boy would look like. Now we know, just as dang cute as his sisters! (I am not biased)

I wanted a picture of Russ and me so I asked Nellie to take one. She was really cute but I think I will ask Kevy next time. I just love my little Russell Man! (or as Janie calls him Mr. Buddy)

Lizzy's Girlie Party

We weren't going to give Lizzy a party since her birthday fell too close to the time that I was going to be having Russell, but since I had him early I decided to do a party for Lizzy as long as it was an easy one and not too close to her birthday. She was so funny because I told her she could have 8 friends, and she made her list of eight friends over and over again, rewriting it and rewriting it. Then although we had made a date, she had already told her friends about it and i hadn't sent out the invites yet and she would tell me everyday, "my friends are wondering when the party is going to be." and I just said, tell them it hasn't changed and when it gets closer we will send out invitations. So silly.
I decided to do a nail and hair party since that was pretty easy and I didn't have to do much planning for it. My awesome friend Alisa came over and did the hair which was so cool because I can't do much and she can do so many things in it. And I made cupcakes because they were much easier than doing an elaborate cake. The problem was that I fed Russell right before the party thinking he would go down for a nap and sleep the whole time, and he didn't sleep at all. In fact he screamed pretty much the whole time and I couldn't hold him because I was doing nails and Alisa was doing hair so she couldn't hold him either. And Lizzy was too busy with friends to help me out. Then one of the little girls came up to Lizzy when she was right by me and told her how much his crying was bothering her ears and Lizzy said "I know!" I seriously wanted to beat them for saying that. I felt so frustrated because I couldn't hold him and Lizzy was kind of being a punk.
Then we ran out of time because the hair and nails took so long to do that we had to rush through the presents and cake because parents were already arriving. It was crazy and I am just glad it is over. I am glad I don't have to do another birthday party for a while because they are definitely NOT my thing.

Lizzy did have fun, and she did tell me thanks afterward without being prompted so that was good.

Thank goodness that I had Alisa there. She was such a lifesaver!

I still can't believe that my Lizzy is 7!

Grammie & Papi

Kevin's parents came out to visit us after Russell came. We were all so excited but especially the girls. We had SO much fun with them! It was way too short though. We had fun showing them around here, eating at some yummy places and helping them see that California isn't so bad. We took them to some of our favorite places like Apple Hill. They got to see the girls play soccer, and Grammie got to hold Russell a lot. He got way too spoiled while she was here and wasn't too happy after she left and realized that I wasn't going to hold him all the time. The thing that makes me mad though is that I didn't get a picture of them with Russell. :( I am so bad at taking pictures. I am lucky that I remembered to take any. We have a super nice library that the girls and I go to quite a bit so we took them there and to play at the really neat park they have there. The girls had fun playing with Papi. They just love when he teases them.

We went to Chick-Fil-A, the girls were thrilled because it is probably their favorite place to go eat.

We also took them up to Apple Hill. It was so cold, (of course we had really cold weather just while they were here) but it was worth going there to go to the fudge factory and get yummy apple donuts. We also took them to see the Salmon jumping. We had soo much fun with them and hope they come back again really soon.

Growing Up

My kids are getting so BIG! Lizzy just turned SEVEN! How is that possible? She really wanted an ipod for her birthday because she loves music and especially loves the popular music on the radio. She sings along to them and then when it is over she says "rewind it Mom!" I guess she thinks that it is like the TV. Kevy put a splitter in so that they all could listen. They thought the whole thing was pretty cool.

I love how Janie isn't wearing her pants.

We decided to get Janie a big girl bike because we don't have a double stroller and we don't have the money to get one, besides I don't know how much longer she would ride in a stroller anyway. So if we ever want to walk to get the girls at school Jane needed a way to get there and it is way too far for her to walk. We also were planning on getting her one for her second birthday back in January and never did, so we decided it was about time. She got a Dora helmet and it came with a bell, so she was just thrilled. We are just working on getting her to pedal for more than one time around. She is just too cute though!

Mr. Russ is just getting so big. He is already 6 weeks old and growing so fast. At four weeks he was already the size that the girls were at 2 months. (9lbs. 11 oz.) He is already filling out all of his 0-3 month clothes. So I guess there is hope for us to have a boy that is not little like the rest of us. We just adore him so much! I thought the girls would get over him and not be in his face all the time loving on him but that hasn't happened. It has been nice because none of them have really had any jealousy and I think partly that is because of him being a boy. It is different for them than if they had another sister to compete with I guess.

He is starting to smile a lot and he really loves me. He really does recognize when it is me and he is attached to me. Here is hoping that it stays that way. I could just eat him up he is so cute. We always get a lot of comments on his hair because he has quite a bit and it is light. And everyone loves how I spike it in the front. What can I say, I want him to be in style.

Janie really wanted some Dora nails and usually I don't cave but the girls were playing at a friends and Jane didn't get to go so when we were out I bought her some because she is always so good when I take her to the store without her sisters. With them is another story. They lasted all of 5 minutes before they fell off or got lost, but she loved them for that 5 min.

I seriously could just eat her up. She gets away with too much because she is cute. One day I got mad at her for getting her hands all over the TV and I told her daddy would come home and be mad. She just said "daddy will say 'Janie it's okay' " Little stinker, she is just too cute for her own good.

Happy Halloween!

We had a super great Halloween this year! It was really low key since I decided not to make the costumes and stress myself out. We did realize that we hadn't carved pumpkins and you can't have Halloween without carving pumpkins, so I ran to the store and grabbed some and we hurried and carved them before we went out trick-or-treating. It really was the very first year that the girls have actually gone trick-or-treating. We just have done trunk-or-treats in the past, and Lizzy was SO excited to do the actual thing. I was surprised Jane didn't mind getting the guts out. Usually my kids refuse to do it since it is so slimy.

Our cute pumpkin. Lizzy got this outfit when she was a baby and they all (except Jane) have worn it. Jane was too big by the time it was Halloween. He was such a darn cute pumpkin I would have to say.

I had suggested that Jane be a ladybug and she was all for it, then I remembered that we already had the outfit, I had bought it for her last year and she wouldn't wear it, so that worked out great.

Nellie changed her mind probably fifty times on what she wanted to be for Halloween so I suggested a butterfly since Lizzy and Jane were both insects and thankfully she went for it.

I still can't believe I have FOUR kids! It has been pretty smooth as long as we are healthy.

Our finished product. Kevy did the Dora one for Jane because he is much more meticulous and patient with pumpkin carving than I am.

Kevin Russell Richey

Our sweet baby Russell is here. We are so glad to have him in our family! The girls love him so much and so do Kevy and I. We are really excited to have a little boy in our home and see how that changes things. One thing for sure is that he will have plenty of mothering. Lizzy has already said that she is going to teach him to not pee on the seat and all over when he goes to the bathroom like all the yucky boys at school do.
He came earlier than expected and that is just fine with me. I was bigger this time around and I was really just so uncomfortable and really just ready to have him out! Although I said that and then when it did happen early I thought "but I didn't get everything done and ready. My house isn't clean enough!" I was scheduled to have a c-section on Friday the 21st. He was due on the 29th. On the 11th we were out driving and I noticed that it was a full moon and I said to Kevy "You know lots of women go into labor on a full moon." Knowing that would never happen to me.
Well I woke up that night around 2 and was having contractions every 3-5 minutes. But I didn't really think much of it because they weren't really too bad and that had happened before and then they would go away but I wasn't able to get much more sleep and they didn't go away. I got everyone ready for the day and I headed to the hospital to be monitored. About and hour later the nurse came in and said "you are having a baby in about an hour." I started freaking out a bit because I just needed Kevin there with me. Kevy arrived about a half hour later and then I felt ready for little Russell. He was born at 12:15 p.m. He weighed 7 lbs. 13 oz. and was 20 inches long. Good thing he did come 2 1/2 weeks early, How big would he have been if he had gone to term. I don't want to know. The c-section went pretty well, but Russell had a hard time breathing afterwards because he had fluid in his lungs so he had to go to the NICU. The one time that I actually could have the baby with me in recovery and he can't. I was pretty sad. I got to go see him after my recovery time was up but i couldn't hold him until they allowed me out of bed which was 12 hrs. after delivery. He was doing great by that point but they were worried there might have been an infection, so he was in the NICU for 48 hrs. Which was difficult, but after what I went through with Nellie, I was able to handle it better I think. At least with him I got to hold him and nurse him as often as I wanted.
We went home after 48 hrs. because they allowed him to and because I hate the hospital so bad that I go home as soon as they will possibly let me go. I just hate the constant scrutiny and the poking and prodding. I just always want to be in my own home in my bed.
It always amazes me that this perfect little person was just inside me. It is such a miracle!

After the first day I have felt pretty darn good. I think this time around has been the easiest recovery.

Most people so far have said they think he looks like Kevy. I am not very good at being able to tell but I think he does too.

Kevin's work sent us this cookie bouquet and this flower bouquet, it was so nice of them. The girls have especially enjoyed the cookies.

The girls were so very excited to see baby Russell. When they found out he was coming early they were thrilled. Nellie just kept hugging herself.

Jane is doing amazing. She had a hard time when I was in the hospital and seeing me there, but once we came home she has done so well. Very few fits, she is just so sweet. She will just go play by herself if I am busy feeding Russell.

Lizzy and Nellie love him so much. They are the best helpers too. If I need them to get me a diaper or something for him they start fighting about who's turn it is to do it. I know it won't always be that way, but it is nice right now.

Kevy is such a proud Daddy and so excited to be not quite so outnumbered anymore.

He is so handsome just like his dad.

We already love him so much and can't imagine our family without him!