Halloween

Halloween was fun this year.  Fun but busy.  I am glad I didn't think about making costumes this year.  Too much work! The Saturday before our ward was having their trunk or treat.  We took the kids even though our old ward was having it the same night and it was tempting to go over there, but we know that we need to get to know the people in our new ward.  It was fine but still hard because we don't know too many people still.  

 This was really the only good picture of Russell in his costume that I got.  We borrowed a golfer costume from my brother, and he looked so dang cute in it.  He didn't want to keep the hat on though.  I need to get him used to wearing hats.

 Russy the golfer, Lizzy as Hermoine, per her new obsession,  Janie was Rapunzel per her obsession and Nellie was a cowgirl.

 The night of Halloween I realized that we hadn't carved pumpkins, again!  What is my deal? This is at least the second year in a row that I have done this.  So we went to the grocery store and picked a few up, but the carving tools were lost in the move and so we had to do it with knives, which I do not recommend.  It is so much harder!  Janie had fun getting the guts out and  drawing on the outside.  Then I carved it for her.

 Nellie did the same, although she did a little bit of the carving  and she drew the pattern on the outside for me to do.

Lizzy was awesome and carved the whole thing herself.  It was nice because carving four pumpkins, making dinner and getting everyone ready to trick or treat was a lot of work!  

I was pretty exhausted that night. Luckily Kevy decided to stay home and clean up the mess I left, (What a great guy! ) while I took the kids out. We went with Lizzy's little friend from school and her mom, but they invited other people too and Lizzy felt left out.  Not to mention they were running from house to house and Janie was having a hard time keeping up with the big girls.  Next time maybe we will go by ourselves.

 Janie's wig was a disaster by the end of the night, but she looked really cute in it.  I tired really hard to get Janie to be Little Bo Peep because I have the cutest costume I made that both the other girls wore, but it was not what she wanted.  And I ultimately decided to let her have what she wanted,  I didn't want to force anything on her.  She really loved being Rapunzel.

 Nellie looks like she is in pain here.  She isnt though, just doing her silly smile.

Lizzy kept changing poses as I would take the pictures  But I only posted this one.  We did her hair in a bunch of little braids the night before so it would be kookily like Hermoine's is, and it looked so cute for school, but by nighttime it just looked sad.  We had a fun Halloween and look forward to next year.  Maybe I can get Jane to wear the Little Bo Peep and Anne can be the little sheep.  That would be cute!

Two Birthday Cakes

With two October birthdays, October is a such a busy time, with Halloween thrown in there too, it just seems like everything is crazy.  Plus this year we left just a few days after Russ' birthday to go to Utah for Kevin's Grandmas funeral, and were gone for about 5 days.  Also this year Lizzy's baptism was just a few days after Halloween so I have been feeling really stressed.  I was also feeling really guilty because I hadn't made Russ' first birthday cake for him, and Lizzy's birthday had passed and she needed a cake too, and Halloween was a couple days away, so I needed to get two birthday cakes made. I decided to just make them both and they could celebrate together. 

 Russ has been so into cars lately and I found this pretty easy to make car cake.  It's not that pretty, but when he saw it he could tell it was a car and he got really excited, so that's all that matters.

 Luckily this year Lizzy wanted a grown up cake instead of a shaped cake.  She asked for this chocolate Mousse Cake and it was so yummy!

 One of my favorite things is watching a baby eat their first birthday cake. And Russ did not disappoint.  I have had ones that ate just a little, or Nellie really went to town but Russy's had to be the best.  I put the piece down on the tray and he picked up the entire thing and tried to stick it all in his mouth at once.  We all got a kick out of that one.

Lizzy was really excited about her birthday this year, obviously  because it is such a special one.  She was really happy with her cake. Holy Cow Lizzy is eight! Crazy!  I love my two October babies!!

Cousin Time!

It was a lot of fun for the kids to get to see their cousins while we were out in Utah for the funeral.  Especially because we may not be seeing them again for a really long time. The kids always have fun when they get together with them. 

Here are all of the Richey grand kids at the funeral.  Cute cute kids.

The next day we went with the Richey side and went to Hogle Zoo.  The kids had a lot of fun.

I don't think I have a picture with Russ for quite a while. So even though I really don't like this picture of me I wanted to make sure I have pictures with my kids. Besides you just want to look at the cute baby boy anyway.

Russ thinks he is such a big shot.  This boy is so much fun!!!

I love these people with me!  

A picture of the cute girlies!  I can't believe we are going to be adding another little girlie to the group.  What can I say.  We keep both sides stocked with granddaughters.

Lizzy the poser.  She saw the camera and had to give me her pose.

Nellie on her jaguar.  Big surprise.

I couldn't get one of Janie on the carousel but I got this cute one of her getting off.  I love that smile.

Friday night the girls were so excited to watch the last Harry Potter and had saved it so they could watch it with their cousins.So Chanelle and I decided to do a movie night and we gave them pretend money and they purchased their ticket and we made treats  and drinks for them to purchase too.  They of course thought it was the coolest thing.  I love that about kids, such simple pleasures.
The next day Kevin went golfing so we needed to find an activity to do with the kids so we took them to Kangaroo Zoo.  They were thrilled but I was not so thrilled about the price.  It was stinking expensive!  I don't know how a place in Utah can charge that kind of money.  Crazy!  They wanted me to pay $5 for Russell and the girls were $9 each!  I payed fort he girls but there was no way I was going to pay for Russell.  Maybe that was bad, but I figured they got almost 30 dollars from me, Russ could play too!

Russ thought it was the coolest thing ever!  He especially loved when I took him down the giant slide.  He would just squeal and laugh.

Janie giving me her little pose, she is taking after her big sis

Nellie doing her usual awkward smile.

I guess it ended up being sort of worth the money because the kids had so so much fun! They were running around like maniacs laughing and playing.  It really was fun.

Grandma Ro Ro

We got a call the day after Russell's birthday that Kevin's grandma Richey wasn't doing well and was probably going to pass away.  It was really sudden, she had always seemed like she was going to be one of his grandparents that would be around for a while.  She had gotten sick and was in the hospital and she passed away that night.  We were all so sad.  We loved Ro Ro so much!  She was so funny and always was joking around with everyone.  She loved all the little kids so much and always loved to hold the babies.  We are really going to miss her so much.  But we are glad to know that just like all of our other loved ones who have passed on, we will get to see her again.  We know that she is up there watching over us. 

We were so glad that Kevin's work allowed him to have three Bereavement days so that we could take off and go to Utah to make it for her funereal.  We were very grateful that we could be there for that, and Kevy gave the sweetest grave dedication.  We are so glad that we didn't miss it.

Here is a picture I found of Kevy's Grandma.  She is holding Nellie at her baby blessing.  What a sweet picture.

Going Private

So I have decided to make my blog private.  So few people seem to look anymore anyway so I figured I would rather not have it open for strangers to see if they are the only ones looking.  So if you are one of the few, let me know so I can add your name.

Fall! Fall! Fall!

I love fall!  I look forward to it every year.  It is by far my favorite season.  The only thing I don't like about the weather out here is that Fall comes later than everywhere else.  We get it more in the end of October and November, when everywhere else is starting to get winter cold.  One of my favorite things about fall is all the fun activities there are are to do.  I love going to the pumpkin patch and look forward to it.  There is a pumpkin patch close by that is the best one I have ever been to.  There is so much to do there.  My camera was almost dead so we didn't get to take very many pictures.

 It was Kevy's fist time here and the girls had fun showing him around.

 Notice that Nellie and I aren't on the train, Well we told the kids they had two choices for the things that cost money, they could either do the slides and that was all, or they could do the sunflower maze and the train.  Well Nellie just had to do the slides.  We spent a good ten minutes trying to talk her out of it because her sisters wouldn't be doing it with her and then when everyone went on the train she wouldn't be able to go. But of course there was no convincing Nellie and wouldn't you know that when it was time for everyone to ride the train she threw a fit.  I swear that girl never seems to learn from her choices

 Mr Smiley.  This kid is really always this happy.

 Nellie loved the petting zoo and being able to get in there with the little goats.  Lizzy did too but Janie was very nervous about it and wanted out almost immediately.

 There was a tramp covered in hay and I think it was probably the girls favorite thing to do.  I love the little pose Janie gave me.

  The next week we went up to Apple Hill, one of my all time favorite fall activities.  I love getting the apple donuts and cider and fudge and just enjoying the mountain atmosphere.   I love this cute little family of mine.  It still sometimes seems unreal that they all belong to me.

 Russy really enjoyed his fudge.  A LOT!

 My two cute men.

 We told the girls that they could do one paid activity and they all chose to ride the horses.  Here they are waiting patiently.  There was another family ht at walked right in front and got on and when I told them my girls had been waiting first they just ignored me. Gotta love people like that.

 Nellie is such an animal lover

 Janie looked so little and big all at once.  It was the first time she had ridden a horse and she wasn't even scared.

 Lizzy is an old pro at this.  She has gotten to ride the horses quite an few times in her life.

The girls had fun climbing in the pile of pumpkins. 

Russ is ONE!!!!

My baby boy is one!  That had to be that fastest year of my life!  I think as your kids get older the time just keeps going faster and faster!  We have LOVED having our little man in the family.  He has brought so much joy and happiness to us!  He is such a happy, happy guy.  We love it.  Everywhere we go people comment on his smile and ask us if he is always smiling, and he is!  The kid is always smiling and laughing and trying to get someones attention so they will look at him and he can smile for them.  He really is the little boy version of Lizzy.  He is the happiest, most social kid!  He is also SUPER busy just like Lizzy was.  He is always getting into something and climbing up on something.  We have to keep lots of doors shut and cupboards locked because he is always trying to get into things he shouldn't.  One of his favorite things is to climb up in the dishwasher and unload it when it is open.  I swear he somehow knows when I have it open and he will come from the other part of the house to get into it.  He loves cars and anything that has wheels on it that he can make go.  We got him a buch of cars and things for his birthday because that is all he wants to play with.   

He is of course very small just like the rest of my kids.  I was hoping he would weigh 20 lbs at a year but not even close.  18 lbs. 15 oz.  (3rd percentile) he was about 50th for his height though, so that's not too bad.  We love our little babies.  I think they are so cute.  And hey at least I don't have to worry about childhood obesity right?  The crazy thing is he is an amazing eater.  He eats everything and there isn't anything that he won't eat.  He is a bit of a social eater too.  If he has already eaten but we are eating he acts like he is starving to death.  He also has to have a lot of food on his plate at once or he starts grunting at me.  It really is quite silly.

Russell started walking a couple of weeks ago and he is now starting to favor it a lot more.  He still falls down a lot but he is doing good.  Russell is such a good baby besides the busy factor.  He sleeps great, through the night since he was about 5 months for a good 12 hrs.  I am lucky.  He loves his little blue fleece blanket and can't sleep without it.  It is funny because it is just a random blanket, but he really latched on to it. He sucks his thumb, which I at fist really tried to stop, but there was just no use.  And he only does it when he goes to bed with his blanket. So I think it is pretty adorable.  I just love this little guy so much and I can't believe that we finally got a little boy.  He really adds so much to our family and we can't imagine life without him!

Is he not the CUTEST little boy you ever saw?  Well I think so anyway.

Harry Potter

So the girls have found a new obsession lately,  Harry Potter.  We had found the first one on our tv to watch and it just escalated from there.  I think they watched it probably ten times over the course of a week, so for our family movie night we started renting them in order and watching them.  Lizzy has become a little obsessed. She likes to draw pictures of Harry Potter and she is even being Hermoine Granger for Halloween.  Jane has even gotten really into it too and is always telling her playgroup all about it, (they just look at her like she is crazy).  She even calls Hermoine, Ramoine. So I decided one of our Movie nights to go all out and we made Harry Potter food.  We made Butter Beer and Owl food and we even made wands. They girls and I dipped big pretzels in chocolate and rolled them in sprinkles.  They thought it was the coolest thing, and kept saying "this is the best day ever!  I love it when I can find something my kids think is awesome.

 We had a fun time dipping our wands and decorating them.  Janie of course had to eat hers too while she made it.

It looks like they are having a blast doesn't it, but really they LOVE those movies.