Springtime for Richards

Since I've gotten really big on scrapbooking I'm amazed at how much I've been able to depend on my blog to let me know about little details that I forgot. If it wasn't for keeping this blog I wouldn't have remembered all these dates to do this page.

Then today one of my friends on facebook was talking about her sick daughter and it was sounding an awful lot like when Asher had to go to the hospital. I was able to go back to the blog and give her some little details that have helped her a little bit. Maybe I should just keep a journal but right now I'm thinking my blog is pretty awesome. Good news is you'll probably start hearing from me more often cause this is killing two birds with one stone; updating family on our Colorado happenings and working as a journal.

Onto my regular scheduled posting.

{FYI blogger just changed their editor again so it allows video uploads but the picture uploads is CR-A-ZY awesome!}

On Sunday my sister-in-law posted pictures of her spring in Virginia and I wanted to show off a little bit myself of what things are looking like here in Colorado. Tulips and dandelions are popping up everywhere, the trees are covered with white, pink and red blossoms and it's heavenly. I always hated spring in Arizona because it meant summer was fast approaching but here I can sit with the door open and watch the kids chase the wild rabbits and roll around in our beautiful green grass.

Saturday was a Relief Society Humanitarian aid day and I was talking with another lady from Arizona and she was saying how she misses her family all the time but she could never move back because it's just too beautiful here. I told her how a sister-in-law was rubbing in the awesome AZ weather in January or February to me and this lady said to me "we always get the last laugh." Ha! So we'll see if I can convince some summer visitors to join us here in our drama-free state of Colorado, or at least Fort Collins.


On Friday was Jocelyn's school carnival and we had a blast. It was a sock hop so Jocelyn wanted to dress in a poodle skirt. I did my best. We got our faces painted, candy, strawberry floats, and played games.

This week I am focusing on finishing up my last class, Financial Business. I'm taking a 59 day break from school to have this baby and I'm so excited! I've been buying all the little things that need to be purchased for a brand new baby; socks, little blankets, diapers, hairbows... it's been fun. I'm also working on a small business idea. I'll announce it soon when I have it all ready to go. I'm really hoping I found my niche.

Coming soon... Asher's haircut.

Lime Ricki

Alright, I don't really like crowding my blog with advertisements but I REALLY want to win this and if I blog it it counts as two entries. I HATE looking for swimsuits but I found a company that I love and are my go to people for swimsuits. Since I know I'm not going to be able to fit in my swimsuit after the baby comes I know I need one that will. The great thing about their tops is they are long and modest so you don't feel like you are flashing everybody.

OUR FAMILY TREAT is giving away a swimsuit from Lime Ricki. So go to their site and comment and let them know which swimsuit you would want and hopefully you win! No worries if you don't enter the contest cause I really want to win. ;)

Here's me in my last swimsuit, this time I'm going to get boy shorts.

36 Weeks

Well, here I am. I'm almost at 36 weeks. But since I'm planning on, and visualizing myself going into labor on May 21 (instead of my due date the 23), I'm 36 weeks today! I've gone into labor with all my babies on a Friday and I'm sticking with tradition.

At my week 34 check up my doc said "ok, we're going to start seeing you every week now." I thought it was weird but I said ok, it's not usually till 36 they see you everyweek. So when I went in at week 35 the other doc I saw said "I don't know why he wants to see you every week now." Great. This is what's lame about OB's here in Colorado. I have to rotate among all 4 docs in the practice and I don't know who's going to deliver me. It makes it really hard because I loved my doc in Mesa so much and trusted him and with this office I barely know them.

So she's super active which is great! And everything's looking healthy pregnancy wise. My iron is even up now cause I started taking an iron pill (which has also helped the whole "chewing on a rubberband" issue and just in case you think this is completely wacko just google it). On the otherhand I'm freakin' uncomfortable! Look how far I am sticking out and I still have 4 more weeks. My restless leg has calmed down a bit cause Chris rubs my leg every night and it really helps. I also rub lavender oil everywhere and that seems to calm it down too. Last night Chris told me I'm a grandma cause I moan with every move I make. It takes all my strength to roll over and when my hip is out, like it was last night, every move is painful.

The kids are loving thinking of names for the baby and we add them to the list to be nice. Cecily and Jocelyn are rooting for Scarlett, Chris is rooting for Fiona, and I have no idea. Hopefully it will hit me when she's born and I'll know who she is. But don't be surprised if it takes us a day to narrow it down.

Easter plus 2 weeks

Easter was a beautiful weekend up here. Chris and I decided to go super low-key and so we hit up the dollar store to stock the kids baskets. (I bought the girls baskets from Target when each turned 2 and I'm so happy that they have survived. Asher's works twice a year for Halloween and Easter). Then we had an egg hunt and it was just quiet and fun. I love the insanity of a cousin hunt but to have one with just our mini-fam was delightful.

Since Easter fell on General Conference weekend I went to target the following week and bought the kids their easter clothes. Saves you about $15 - $20 bucks doing it this way cause everything is on clearance so I started a new tradition. We're going to get better pictures but these will have to do for now (Jocelyn was a super helper this past Sunday so she didn't make it into the photo).

Ok, seriously isn't Asher looking awesome with his longer hair?! It only looks this good after bath and product. Then when he rolls around it gets all weird but at least I got these pics of him before church. And of course he looks studly in his jacket and tie.

Cecily hates this dress cause it itches her. She was so loud about it during primary I just sent her home with Chris. But I love her dress.

The night we bought these clothes was a default date. Chris took me to a nice dinner and then to a surprise activity. Roller Derby!!! Except it was on Saturday not Friday. It seems like everytime we get a babysiter our date falls apart. We still had fun shopping but how awesome would it have been to go to a real roller derby?!

This past weekend we spent cleaning the carpet. Once carpet was cleaned Chris suggested rearranging the family room. We're digging the new arrangement. We put part of the sectional up in our room and left the larger part downstairs with the recliner. We also moved my computer desk, it's still in the same spot just a different angle and it works so well. Plus it's awesome to have a couch up in our room. We were so exhausted by the end of the day we didn't finish putting away a lot of little things and left the house pretty messy when we went to bed. Jocelyn woke up early the next morning (Sunday) and cleaned everything up on her own while Chris and I slept in. It looked so nice and I was so happy and made a big deal about it so she would do it again someday.

I think that's basically it. Here are some random pictures of Asher. He's a pretty entertaining little boy. We're having a lot of fun with him around.

Wearing sister's dress up shoes and dancing.

He only wears this hat backwards. I was trying to take a picture of him watching Ponyo (which he LOVES!) but he kept following me and sticking out his tongue. This is the only way I can get dinner prepared. Putting Ash in his highchair and turning on a movie. Otherwise he's all over the counter and will open the oven, turn on the stove or mess with the knives. He's pretty scary.

Random post

I thought I would be better at blogging but for some reason I can't find any motivation in anything I do anymore. (I blame it on statistics and surprisingly not playing the pregnancy card). We're getting really excited for baby "peaches" to come. It's so fun having a baby with older kids. Tomorrow I will post about our Easter and a baby update.

The names are still the same. The only complaint I have right now is that I checked when Shrek 4 comes out and it's the 21st of May. The day I am planning on having the baby. So I'm having some reservations about naming her Fiona because I know everyone will ask me if it's because of Shrek. Anyway, debate that. Let me know if I'm being silly even worrying about it. Chris doesn't care about the movie cause he likes it for it's irishness.

Gone with the Wind

I know I told you my casting for Little Women would be coming soon but to be honest with you I couldn't think of a Jo or a Marme that I liked. As much as I don't like Wynona Ryder I think she did a good job as Jo. The girl that keeps coming to my mind is Alex from Wizards of Waverly Place. I think she could pull it off but she's not white, and this is an early american family during the Civil War so race plays a part. And she has to age from 15 to early 30 by the end of the book. The only parts I for sure knew I wanted was Romola Garai from PBS's Emma to play Beth. And Elle Fanning to play young Amy. So that's all I got.

Alright, onto Gone with the Wind. I can't even tell you how much I loved this book. I think every author should write their books to be over 1000 pages because it gave the characters such depth and I loved hearing the history and the background story on how the Civil War was in the south. It's an interesting perspective. I knew right away who I wanted to play who, it just came to me. The more I think about it the more I think GWTW should be remade. Watching the movie this weekend it was so mello-dramatic acting and music and the stage... I think it would be amazing what could be done with it today.

Katie Scarlett O'Hara - Emily Blunt (Devil Wears Prada, The Young Victoria)

Rhett Butler - Jon Hamm (Mad Men)

Ashley Wilkes - Ryan Gosling (The Notebook)

Melanie Hamilton - Christina Ricci (Penelope)

Frank Kennedy (2nd husband) - John C. Reilly (Step Brothers, Chicago)

I decided I'm not going to cast every part anymore, just the parts that come to my head when I'm reading or discussing. I think Emily Blunt could pull anything off. I'm sure she could do a southern accent and pull the stuck up "Scarlett" attitude off perfectly. Jon Hamm has such a rugged charm, as long as he can pull off the southern attitude I think he would make the perfect Rhett. And Look at them, they would make a beautiful couple! I don't like the Ashley from the movie, he's too old. He's only 23 when the war starts so I went with Ryan. The ladies like him and he can act. The only character I think I may have to defend her is CHristina Ricci as Melanie Hamilton. I mostly cast her for looks. Melanie and small, and sickly looking with a widow's peak. Christina could easily pull off this look. Plus she's a good actress (in my opinion) and could play a super goodly part. There are so many other characters in this story but these 4 are the main parts. I thought of John C Reilly because I think Frank Kennedy is similar to the part he played in Chicago.

So what did you think? Any thoughts on parts for Little Women? Did I get it right with GWTW?

Last Saturday

I'm behind in blogging and I have no real reason to be. Last Saturday, as in the 3rd, Chris and I bought ourselves some toys and it just so happened to benefit the entire family. Chris magically made the money to buy his IPAD that I like to call "toy" or "paddy". The kids LOVE it! And I'm pretty taken with it myself. The funny thing is that Cecily calls it "the big ipod". How observant she is! It's been fun. Since my trip to AZ and sitting in my in-laws recliner I decided I HAD to have one. I found a sweet one on craigslist for the amazing price of $75 bucks, it's basically brand new. When we went to pick it up it was at some elderly couples townhouse and they seriously had 5- 7 other recliners! Between Cec, Ash, and Chris I never get to sit in it during the day. But it's really helped with my restless leg issue and back. 6 more weeks!!! I can't believe it.

{Photo: A little out of focus but Chris used my camera and tried to take it quick before the kids saw him and ruined the picturesque moment.}

100th Post?!

This is my 100th post! Not that I have anything grand to say as my 100th post but just take a moment and think about us Richards' crazies and the 100 posts we've made since ditching our other blog and joining blogspot.

What I wanted to tell you about was the fun snowstorm we got two weeks ago. We got home Monday night/Tuesday early morning at 3am from the airport after having a day of 85 degrees in sunny AZ. Tuesday was a kinda cloudy, lazy day and by 2:30pm it was snowing crazy fast. We had planned to do Asher's birthday party this night and go to chick-fil-a to play but it took us at least 30 minutes to go 4 miles that's how thick and fast the snow was coming down. Chris wasn't sure if a snowday was going to be called so he got ready to start shoveling the driveway at 10:30pm.

It was so thick and heavy it took awhile to shovel the whole drive. Here you can see how much snow it was compared to Chris's shoe.

It stopped snowing sometime during the night but a snowday was called on the school district and Chris's work. It was supposed to snow all day Wednesday too but the sun came out late morning and the snow was already melting away. It was gone by Sunday.

The weather has been really nice here since. We had a crazy hail storm last week and it rained all last night but during the day it's bright and sunny and perfect weather. We do get the strongest wind I've ever experienced but it's fun! I love looking out my window and seeing everything turn green without having to water it every night.

Does anyone else who lives in Arizona stay up worrying about the yard dying? 

(Well, I did all the time when we lived in Mesa).

Happy Birthday Ashman!

March 14, 2008

March 14, 2010 (actually the 26th)

Since we were in Mesa when Asher's birthday came I thought it would be best if we waited till we were home to have a little party for him and give him presents. That's why this picture was actually taken over 10 days later. It's ok, he won't remember and he had a freakin' blast! We went to chuckee-cheese and ate the world's nastiest pizza and played some fun games. I'm never going there on a Friday evening again, there were so many kids running around and that just makes me anxious. Chris was feeling dirty too so as soon as we used all our tokens and exchanged tickets we were outta there!

I made chocolate cupcakes and we sang happy birthday and opened presents. Traditional and perfect. Chris bought a little flip hand video camera earlier and we're able to document our lives a little better than with my little video option on my camera.

For a recap on his first year of life check out his video HERE. I wish I had the ability to make a video for every year of my kiddos lives.

OH! PS! Come over to my scrapbooking blog and help me pick which layouts to submit so I can guarantee a creative team job.