Then and Now

A good reminder of how long we have lived in Boise is my friend's little boy's birthday. He turned 3 yesterday and we moved a few days before his arrival. Time flies.

Cris was going through pictures the other day and we realized how little our kids were when we came. Zach is now at the same stage Alex was when we moved (2nd grade) and Syd at the same stage Zach was (pre K preschool).  We just had parent teacher conferences with the boys teachers. We walked away proud parents for the hard work and character traits our boys are possess. Syd absolutely LOVES preschool and proudly sings a song naming the presidents of the United States.  She asks everyday if it is a school day.

So here's to another year of living, learning, growing, missing old friends and making memories with family and friends here in our perfect town of Meridian.

Happy Halloween

Thought Halloween deserved a post!  Especially with these cute Trick or Treaters.

We had an Elvis sighting in the Neighborhood.  He even sang "Heartbreak Hotel"

 Strawberry Shortcake and Friends

Syd announced earlier in the year she was going to be Strawberry Shortcake. Strawberry Shortcake was one of my childhood favorites and I was so happy with her costume choice. Syd's friends joined in and after some late nights of costume blog surfing and sewing Strawberry Shortcake, Apple Dumpling (Hannah), Blueberry Muffin (Anna), Raspberry Tart (Elizabeth) and Pupcake (Joseph) came to life.

 Strawberry Shortcake and her dog Pupcake

 Zach was of course a football player.  It suited him well as he finished his flag football season yesterday. He had a 65 yard touchdown run twisting and cutting his way through the opposing team making sure his flags stayed in place.

 Enjoying the neighbors fun decorations.

After a bag full of candy we headed home to watch the classic cartoon "The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown."

Dog days of Summer

Two of my favorite pictures of the summer. The quality is to be desired, but the image it is classic. Syd in a summer dress and Zach barefoot with his soccer ball.  The two of them together is priceless! We are in the midst of our last week of summer and it has been a great one.

Lesson #1. Just because there is a blank spot on the calendar, doesn't mean it has to be filled. June and July were CRAZY, busy, fun months and August was just right.

Summer Highlights:

Spending time with all of our wonderful family in California, Arizona, Grandma's house in Burley and Grandpa Don's in Indiana.

Cris and I enjoying four days in beautiful Chicago.

Cris enduring a graft on his ear to remove basal cells. Note to self: Don't forget to put sunscreen on your ears!

Boys competing in their first Triathlon in Emmett.

Cris competing in Spudman Triathlon and Emmett Triathlon.

Watching our garden grow. (Sadly my tomato plants were too heavy for their net. See above)
The beginning of football season. Zach is playing flag football and Alex is in 2nd year of tackle.

Camping in McCall. Nothing like camping with lots of GREAT families.

Learning to surf behind a ski boat. Who needs the ocean!

Buying school supplies for all three kids. Syd is in preschool three afternoons a week. What's a mom to do?

Looking Ahead:

Cooler temperatures. Today's high is 80 degrees!!!

Tuscany Triathlon

 (crossing my fingers it goes well. thankful to have a great friend to help carry out our kid's plans)

Getting back into routine.

Watching football (Zach, Alex, BYU, Notre Dame & BSU) every Saturday.

Finding my craft room once again.

Summer Roadtrip June 2010

3200 miles, 4 different hotels, visits with Grandpa’s, Grandma’s, aunts, uncles, cousins, good friends and Mickey and Mini, a trip to the beach, Padre’s Baseball game, and lots of time in the car. We had a fabulous time and thanks to friends and family who hosted us along the way. Special thanks to Alex, Zach and Syd who are great car travelers and can handle long days in the mini van.  (warning long and lots of pictures)

Highlights from Trip:
Playing catch on the golf course by Grandpa and Grandma Richardson’s.
Taking Syd to Disneyland for the first time.
Riding Roller coaster rides. Syd was just tall enough to ride some of the bigger ones. Forget the Teacups and Dumbo, her favorite rides are Thunder Mountain and Space Mountain
Syd enjoyed lunch with the princesses.
Zach loved the Tower of Terror and can quote it.
Alex conquered his fears and survived California Screamin two times
Cris and I survived dodging the stroller in and out of all the other thousands of people who think June is a great month to go to Disneyland. 
Spending time with the Richardson side of the family.
Walking around in our Richardson T-shirts in downtown San Diego and hearing comments of passerby.
Cheering the Padres on for an extra inning win.
Cousins dancing and cheering loud for the chance to be on the Padres jumbo screen. They made it twice.
Spending the day at beautiful Coronado Beach with family.
Spending time with friends from AZ at a beautiful Beach house in La Jolla.
Visit’s with our favorite neighbor Bob and good friends the Hale’s.
Hanging out with friends just like the good old days and swimming at the Winters.
Visiting with Grandma Terri, Frank and Andrew and hanging with the Richardsons.
Life is Good and now back to reality!

Grandpa John and Grandma Debbie

Happiest Place in the World - less the thousands of other people there and hot weather!

Lunch with the Princess - she finally smiled with Cinderella.

This picture is for you Grandpa Wood!

Take me out to the Ball Game!

Perfect day at Coronado Beach

We caaught up with the Liljenquists who were staying in LaJolla.  Zach and Ben were best buds when we lived in Phx. 
We also got to visit the Newport Beach Temple grounds. 

The downside of moving from AZ - leaving Cris' family.  Cris made a successful dive through the pink tube after his Scott showed him how it was done.  Ever the competitive brothers!

These boys picked up right where they left off - swimming at the Winters'
Chase, Christian, Hunter, Alex and Zach

The long drive home.  After a night in St. George, we made our annual stop at the cheese plant in Beaver.
 Best ice cream and fresh cheese.  Thanks Grandpa

Richardson Crew - less Grandma Debbie who was taking care of her Mom.  Missed you.

Post Edit - this blog post took FOREVER. Spent two hours using old blogger method only to accidentally delete it.  Sigh!  And that was after lots of time editing photos (thankfully on a long plane ride).  Then I got smart, Jake you will be proud, and upgraded my blog to post and move pictures in a much simpler fashion.  Although I still couldn't get the last picture in the sequential order.  Oh well.  Time to move onto another project.  Like download pics from Chicago and Indi and send to Gma Terri!

Double Digits

My baby turns 10 today. Doesn't seem like it was that long ago that he was a baby like the one he his holding.

Last night, we went to Red Robin for his birthday dinner and Cris and I each told him ten things we love about Alex. One of mine is how he is so sweet with older people and little children - especially this cute baby. He has always had a special place in his heart for his great grandparents and always took the time to talk with them and give plenty of hugs.

He is such a huge help to me - especially when Cris is out of town. He knows when I need him to step in and redirect Syd. He comes down every morning dressed for school and immediately starts his chores. Love that about him! He has really enjoyed the fourth grade (he has 11 days left) and is full of facts about Idaho from his Idaho History studies. He recently earned his Bear in Cub Scouts and is excited about Webelos. This week he has an orchestra concert and his first piano recital. I rarely have to remind him to practice piano and although he won't admit it, he enjoys it and is pretty good for having only played 4 months.

Alex and Zach have set a goal to compete in a kids triathlon in Emmett this summer. We are excited for summer to begin so we can practice our swimming, running and biking. Hopefully, it will warm up and stay warm really soon. We are so thankful for Alex's sense of humor (mini Cris) and the joy he brings to our family. Happy Birthday Alex!

Easter Eggstravaganza!

Tuscany Easter Egg Hunt - Winter Clothing required. Thankfully there was no SNOW!! The weatherman said it was a possibility, but then they have been wrong all week. Thanks Jen and Emily for a fun morning!

A little neighborhood vandalism. We egged our neighbors the other night and they returned the fun. I think we have established a new tradition.

Easter Morning: Easter baskets, searching for chocolate eggs, to die for semi homemade orange rolls, wonderful General Conference and delicious ham dinner with the Bennetts. I would call it a great day!

PB&J's just got better at the Richardson's

Last Spring Break I made a few batches of Strawberry Jam. I didn't make enough and lately the PB&J's just haven't been as good. Strawberries are finally on sale and oh soo good. Throw in free child labor and once again PB&J's are once again on the lunch menu. Thanks Alex for your "chef" skills.

I got a scolding tonight and it was no April Fools!

Cris talked to his mom tonight and then passed the phone to me and I was informed it has been way too long since there has been a post. I have to agree. It has been way too long. I have reclaimed my life now it is post Spelling Bee. Spelling Bee??? Yes, I took on the assignment of planning the Spelling Bee for the boys school. It pretty much consumed my life since January. I used to use the excuse that when I wanted to blog someone else was hogging the computer but now I have my own laptop so I have no excuses. I just need to put my pictures on the laptop so I can blog them too.

So since it is a new month and my "spare" time is not consumed with Spelling Bee stuff I vow to blog more regularly. There will be some serious catching up to do since this is the only journal/scrap booking happening at the Richardson home. Currently, we are enjoying Spring Break with late nights watching movies, play dates with friends and sleeping in. We just watched the Discovery Life series. The kids LOVE it and it is rather fascinating. And then Zach asked what sex is because the whales were a little frisky with each other and the narration mentioned s-e-x. Not ready to go there with Zach yet!

We did have some April fool's fun today tricking Zach by telling him he had dirt on his food. It was Alex's idea to put crushed Oreo on it. He fell for it hook line and sinker. Just as he did last year when we told him there were little rocks in his pancakes - really they were chocolate chips.
Tonight, we egged our neighbors. Not with real eggs, but rather plastic eggs filled with candy. The boys loved it. Unfortunately, Syd drifted off to sleep on the couch and missed the fun.

We have one more day of fun and a lovely General Conference/Easter weekend to look forward to. Then its back to our crazy but normal routine of school, scouts, piano lessons, soccer practice, flag football practice, Syd's playgroup and preschool, Cris traveling here there and everywhere, baby Teagan (mine and Syd's real life baby doll during the day), coupon shopping, tackling the projects in my craft room that have been piling up and embracing change (our ward split last Sunday). Oh and Zach asked if I would plan a Math Hornet. "You know, like the Spelling Bee but with math." Great idea and very creative. I will get someone on it. Just not me! Any takers??? Having said that, I like routine and I like my crazy life and I'm grateful to have a wonderful family and friends to share it with.

In the eye of the beholder...

My wish for owning a SLR camera was fulfilled early one morning after randomly watching QVC. I've never watched QVC in my life, but this one morning it was meant to be. At least that is what I told Cris.

There were 10 min. till the Today Show aired and this camera and its price caught my eye. It also helped that the salesman was very convincing and showed how easy it is to take lovely pictures. I have owned Sony cameras before and know a little about how they work and liked them -though I could never take spectacular pictures. After reading and learning more about it I had a QVC account and a camera was on its way.

Turns out a couple of friends recently ordered SLR cameras and thus our quest for how to use them began. For the past four Mondays we have been attending a class at the Community Center. Our teacher is ... not sure how to describe him... kind of nice, interesting, critical and not afraid to tell you your picture is GARBAGE. Each week we have had an assignment to take different types of pictures and then he chooses which one is the best. My first two pictures admittedly looked like GARBAGE. My PTA responsibilities have consumed my life during January and learning how to use my cool, new camera has been at the bottom of the to do list. But after three weeks of ISO, F stops/Aperture settings and shutter speeds I was ready to show I learned a little something. Our assignment this week was to shoot something red. I have lots of red things but he is hard to please and so my search began. I hadn't planned on procrastinating till the afternoon of the class, but once again I did. Syd's new favorite activity is to wear my shoes, pick a purse and fill it up with all kinds of treasures and parade around the house as though she is going around town. Monday, she came out with green shoes looking so cute. Ah ha. I have cute red shoes. The afternoon light was perfect and Syd was up for modeling and so our photo shoot began.

This one was deemed the winner of the night. He said it showed personality and tells a story. Believe me this girl does have personality. I was pleasantly surprised as the other photos shown were extremely creative and good. It was a good way to end what started out as crummy day. (My 400+ fliers for the Spelling Bee had a mistake in a web address. Sigh!)

I really liked this one. Such cute feet!

I am excited to learn more tricks to the trade, get/learn photoshop and am thankful to have great friends help teach me along the way.

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Happy Birthday Syd

Sydney turned four today and it is bittersweet. Some days she is 4 going on 13 (loves to get into my makeup) and other days she is still my baby with her tattered silk pink blankets in her mouth. She loves being a little mom to her babies and Mason when he comes to play. She is always in her dress up clothes and high heal shoes and lately has an obsession with lip stick. The other day she told Zach she had to drink out of a straw so she wouldn't wipe off her lipstick and she couldn't kiss him. She loves "the brothers" and often coaxes them to play house with her and in turn plays a mean game of basketball with them. Every moring she puckers up to kiss them off to school and then asks all day when the brothers are coming home.

We went skiing over the holidays and were rather nervous about sending her down the hill. She turned out to be the best skier out of the three and as soon as we were down the mountain she wanted to get back on the "swing" or chair lift as it is more commonly referred to. She made several runs with out a fall. She was one tired girl by the end of the day but had a huge grin on her face.

We celebrated her birthday with a Surprise Party during playgroup. After having been to a couple of surprise parties for friends, she wanted her own surprise. Dad helped pull it off and brought Strawberry Shortcake Balloons for the festivities. We had cousins over for dinner and cake and the highlight of the night was her new Strawberry Shortcake bike.

We love her so much and the joy she brings to our family. Happy Birthday Syd!