Sisters

We would have loved to have a brother for Russ, but once Anne came there was no doubt that she belonged with us.  She just fit in our family.  The girls love her so much, especially Jane.  Jane gets sad sometimes because Nellie and Lizzy don't include her, and I just tell her "But you have Annie!" and all of a sudden she is all better. I love it!  I can't wait until Annie gets bigger and they can actually play together.  I have a feeling that Anne and Russ are going to be best buddies too.

I found these jammies at Carters and I just had to get them so that they could all match.  They were so excited when Annie was big enough to wear hers so that they all could be alike.

Sunny Days

We have been having a lot of really hot days lately.  What do you do when you have hot days? Eat popsicle and play in the water.  My kids love popsicles almost more than anything.  Nellie was asking me to buy some back in January.  So they are always excited when we start buying them.  We go through a ton of them during the summer.

I figured if I gave him one that matched his shirt then at least you wouldn't realize how messy he was.

One hot saturday we pulled out the slip-n-slide because the splash pad wasn't open yet.  The girls really love doing this.

Russ was hilarious!  I have never seen a kid love something so much I think.  He was doing this funny little deep chuckle he does when he really loves something.  He was doing it pretty much nonstop.  It was really fun to watch him.

The kids have already started to wear out their swimming suits and summer isn't even here yet.  I think we may have to buy some new ones later this summer.

Lizzy's Rain Forest Play

While I was in the hospital, :( the first grade had a cute little rain forest play.  It was hard to miss out on something like that because I had never missed something like that before.  But my parents and Kevin's parents were here to see it, so she had plenty of support.  She was a sloth and she enjoyed practicing her part for me over and over.  I really like how this school does a lot of performing things, especially for my Lizzy who loves to perform.  Kevin said she did her part really well and was one of the one kids who you could actually understand and hear clearly.  The cute thing is she taught her sisters the little songs and now they all sing them, even Janie, it's really cute.  

She really was the very cutest sloth ever, if I do say so myself!

Lizzy is so social and loves to be with her little frineds!

Our Little Anne

We welcomed our little Annie girl on April 10th.  It was so nice to make it to my scheduled day so that everything was taken care of.  We had to be into the hospital at 5:30 a.m. which wasn't that big of  a deal for me because I really had a hard time sleeping that night.  I was awake at 3:00 and I couldn't get back to sleep, so i got up and took a shower and then laid back down and was able to fall asleep for another hour.  IT is such a pain because they want you in the hospital 2 hours before your c-section, but then you just get there and sit.  It is so ridiculous   But this was most likely my last one, so i guess I don't need to worry about it. It was nice to know Kevin's mom was home with the kids so I didn't have to worry about them.  At 7:30 they walked me back to the operating room, where Kevin had to wait for me to be all ready before he could come in.  I was so grateful for his blessing he gave me the night before.  I feel so protected when he gives me blessings. Everything went really well, and there were no complications.  Anne arrived at 7:56 a.m. weighing 7 lbs. 7 oz. (Kevin's guess the night before was right on) and she was 18 inches long (but who knows how long she really was because at her 2 week she measured 21 3/4 inches long, I highly doubt she grew almost 4 inches in two weeks, but who really knows how accurate either measurement really is.)  The most amazing thing of all was that I got to hold her almost immediately.  I have never been able to hold my babies in recovery either because of hospital policy or they were in the NICU, so it was such a special experience for me to have my baby with me from the beginning.  Something I think many moms take for granted.

 I was measuring over three weeks smaller than I was supposed to, and they were a little worried.  My doctor thought I would just have a smaller baby, but I knew better, my babies are always a good size they just like to hide deep inside and give me the most awful reflux and heartburn.  Sure enough they were surprised when they pulled her out at her size.

 I am so glad she was healthy so she could be with us the whole time!  It was so awesome!!

 This picture reminds me of one we have of Jane.  I think she looks the lost like Jane so far.

 Here she was getting ready for her first bath

 All clean

 The kids were so excited to meet their baby sister and get to hold her.

 I was so afraid that Russ wouldn't like her, but that couldn't be further from the truth.  He loves her so much and just wants to hug her all the time.  It almost seems like he remembered her and was so excited that she made it to the family.  Like "Here you are, I've been waiting for you to come!"  It really is the sweetest thing ever.

 Jane was so excited to be the big sister.  It's like she didn't realize she already was to Russ, but sometimes she feels a little left out with the older two, so it is like she thinks Anne is her sister and only hers.  The other funny thing was every one of the kids has been born with Kevy's crazy long toes, and the girls actually don't really like them. They want toes like me.  Well Jane had convinced herself that Annie would have Mommy toes, when Jane got to the hospital and I told her that Annie had Daddy toes too, she was genuinely upset over it.  It was pretty funny.

 It was so nice to have Grammie here to take care of the crazy kids and to get to hold Annie too!

 I was really wanting to leave the hospital the next day, I really do not do well in there, but my doctor said I had to wait 48 hrs.  Argh!  I get some major anxiety in the hospital because I don't like them telling me what I should do, and not do.  All the nurses were getting on my case for giving Annie a paci and wanting to give her a little formula because she was acting so so hungry.  Because according to them you can't nurse successfully if you do either of those two things.  Well I am here to tell you that Annie is a great nurser even though I did those things.  I think I know what I am doing 5 kids later!

I let my doctor know that I would be going home early the next morning so he needed to come and discharge me early.  Thankfully he complied and I had a great nurse that helped me get out quickly and I was able to be home the next day at 9 a.m.  It was awesome and so nice to get home and back to my bed.  My tailbone was so dang sore from those awful beds!   The girls had picked out this cute outfit for Annie to wear home, but I couldn't find her socks so she was sockless.

 She wasn't too happy about her seat the first time we put her in it, but she does great in it now.

 It was fun to have Kevy's parents and Grandpa come visit.  This is a cute picture of 4 generations of Richey men.  I love it!

 The first time I sat on my bed and nursed Annie Russ thought he would come join me, and then he noticed her bed and thought this is the coolest little bed ever, and ever since, it is his favorite spot to go, much to my dismay.

 Annie is seriously the BEST baby ever.  She hardly ever cries and really only when she is hungry.  When she is awake she just hangs out and looks around.  She is SO sweet I can hardly stand it!  She has even started smiling for us.  She is such a sweetheart and we are so glad she is here and in our family!!

 I just had to throw this picture in because he really loves playing in boxes. He also loves this little baby doll to hug, its really cute.

 Daddy and his last baby girl.  I am so grateful my girls have such a good daddy that loves them.  A lot of dads aren't very good relating with their daughters, but not Kevy, he is such a good girl dad. I love that about him!

 I was a little worried that maybe I was pushing the envelope with another one, how could she be as cute as the others?  But she is!  She is our little dolly. We love her so much!

Folsom Lake

The last day of Spring Break my friend asked me if we wanted to go with them to Folsom Lake.  I thought it would be something fun to do that was out of the ordinary.  So we packed a lunch and headed out.  The kids loved it!  Unfortunately the water level is way down because we have had such a dry winter and spring and we had to walk really far to get to the water, which was fine for the trip down because Russ could see the water and was very happy to go on his own, but the trip back up to the car was a different story, I had to carry him and three bags of stuff and my 9 month contracting pregnant self back up and that was a challenge. When we got to the water I thought okay I will just sit here and enjoy watching the kids play.  Boy was I wrong.  I had to be standing up and keep my eyes like a hawk watching Russ because all he wanted to do was drink the nasty lake water.  The very first thing he did when I sat down was go and lay down in one of the nasty inlets and start lapping up the water. 

 I am typically not a mom that stresses about stuff, but I was super stressed.  All I could think was here I am a week from having a baby and he is going to end up sick in the hospital with some crazy disease he caught at the lake.  Luckily he never got sick, but it was quite nasty water he drank. 

 Here he was the first time I caught him.  It took me a second to realize what he was doing, so I ended up getting a picture of it

 Janie had fun just chilling on her own.  She isn't very adventurous like her sisters so she pretty much did her own thing.

 Lizzy was the ringleader and had everyone convinced there were sea urchins in the lake and that she caught them.  It was actually just some little prickly weeds, but they had fun.

 It was nice once Janie and Russell decided to get out of the water and just hang out so that I could finally relax a bit.  It was nice to go to the lake and have a fun day together before Anne got here.

Easter Festivities

We had another great Easter this year.  It was actually kind of weird to be home after being gone for it most years.  Our new ward wasn't having an egg hunt so we thought that we would go to the old ward and see some of our old friends.  It was fun.  

 Russ wasn't into the egg hunt, but Lizzy made sure she carried him around and got eggs so that he had some too.  She is such a good biggest sister.  She loves to make sure everything is taken care of.

Since it was Spring Break I had these grand ideas of making an Easter craft everyday with the girls.  But since we ended up going places most every day we only ended up making one.  The girls had a lot of fun making these little chicks. 

 Of course we had to dye eggs, but that is another thing that I seem to forget to do, so we did them Sunday morning before church.  Nellie had a huge fit because she wanted to do them the night before and she has to have what she wants when she wants it. But she ended up coming around.

 We even let Russ do a few (well I let him drop them in the cup)  He liked it though.

We asked the girls if they wanted an egg hunt of the Easter bunny to come and they said an egg hunt, so I stuffed some eggs and Kevin hid them really good for the girls.  They had a hard time finding some, but they enjoyed it.
This was the first year that I haven't made dresses for the girls, but money is too tight and I wasn't sure if I was going to have the energy with Anne being so close to coming, but my mom bought them some really cute Easter dresses this year but I completely forgot to take a picture of them in them before church because we are always in such a hurry to get to church early so we can get a soft seat.  And then after church Russ was sleeping and the girls didn't want to put their dresses back on.  So we didn't get a picture.  Maybe the next time they are all wearing their Easter clothes I will get one.