2 months

Lorilei is now 2 months old. She went in for her well check yesterday and she now weighs 11 lbs 11 oz and is 21.6 inches long. She is growing well and is doing well developmentally. She smiles a lot but I never want to leave her when she is to get the camera so I still don't have a picture of it. Some day.

Reagan had a well check yesterday as well and got her shots for kindergarten. It is crazy that she is going to kindergarten!! I always worried that she was behind developmentally but it turns out she is way ahead too. That made me relax a bit.

That is the update for now.

Family Pictures

There are A LOT of pictures and this is going to take a while. Sorry. I will also update more later.

Happenings

So the title makes it seem like we have had a lot of things going on but really these are just random pictures I have taken in the last few weeks.

Sleeping babies are always irresistible. (she is sick here so she is pale but still cute)

Babies is taking a bath..... also very cute. She LOVES the bath or shower. Right up until you lift her out of the water.

Reagan and Jocelyn are always trying to help. They are actually good at helping and have some great motherly instincts.

Not the most flattering but she is looking are Ryker. Makes it precious.

All of my kiddos. They are always gung-ho about taking pictures but they never sit still or smile together. Oh well. Still makes memories.

She is just pretty.

Classic picture. At least for my kids.

This one is a preview of my week. Everyone has been sick (note the runny nose). I have used 3 boxes of tissues in the past week or so. Lorilei got sick as well. It turns out it is RSV.......not fun. So we are watching her and hoping she continues to improve. Other than that things are going great around here. Just waiting for the warm weather and trying to take advatage of it when it comes. It better come quick because we are all going crazy stuck in the house all the time.

Oh yeah, I took Lorilei in for her 2 weeks appointment and she weighed 8 lbs 4 oz. A whole pound over her birth weight. When the Dr. asked if she was eating well I just laughed. Yeah I think she is doing good in that department. (and 21 inches long (2 up from birth) for those who care.

Sorry this isn't more interesting for you, but it's all I've got.

LORILEI EVELYN RICHARDS

Lorilei Evelyn was born on Februar 14th 2010 at 9:03 a.m. after being in labor for 1 hour. (yes folks that is right)She came fast and furious, there was no slowing her down. She weighed in at 7lbs 4 oz and was 19 inches long. She was for sure a girl cause she came out very pink. So far (in 31 hours) she has been great. She only cries when she is hungry or gets disturbed from a comfy spot. But when she wants to be heard she is heard! She has got some lungs!


The kids all absolutely love her. Jocelyn wants to be the only one that can hold her and she wants to hold her ALL the time. I can see that she is jealous too but hopefully once the newness of everything wears off she will get better with that. Everyone comes running when she cries and wants to make sure she is okay. But they are certainly cute!

We left the hospital today around 11 am. (I HATE the hospital and always get out as soon as I can) She is doing great and doesn't even need a follow up belli rubin. (?) All the kids came and picked us up and they were there normal cute but very curious selves. We left and loaded up a FULL car.

Of course the minute we got home everyone HAD to hold her. (more tears from Jocelyn) But like I said before, how can you resist when they are SO CUTE?!!!!!

Jocelyn turns 2

Jocelyn is now 2!!! I realized that this is the only time that I have had a 2 year old without another baby around. Anyway, we had a good time keeping it pretty low key. (too many pregnant people and other things going on) Jocelyn had fun and decided to open her presents when she was ready instead of waiting for me to tell her to. Fine by me. She does know that she is 2 and if you ask her she will tell you. I love this girl, she is always making me and all of us laugh. Her favorite is playing games with the big kids. She keeps up really well and enjoys doing what they do. She likes going to nursery now which is great. I love this girl.
I know the picture isn't of just Jocelyn but still....... Reagan was being sweet and cute. Can't pass that up.

Crazy Dress day

Ryker had "crazy dress day" at school. So this is the outfit we came up with. He was also wearing one snow boot and one tennis shoe. It was quite the look. I forgot that he was wearing this when I got him from the bus and when I saw him I just laughed. Snazzy!

silly girl

So the kids were watching cartoons and Jocelyn was with them. She usually stays with them til she gets tired and then finds me. I heard her start to come up the stairs and then she stopped, so I figured she was just sitting on the steps watching cartoons. Then I started to hear the "suck suck suck" sound of her thumb in her mouth. So I called her......nothing......so I looked down the stairs to find.....


Yep, she made it halfway up the stairs before going to sleep. Poor girl. It is amazing how quickly they can fall asleep sometimes. Running around and playing one minute and the next they are out. Needless to say, I moved her.
P.S. Uncle Peter dressed her today. I take no blame for the outfit.

4-wheeler sledding

My brother, Jon, was super nice and offered to take the my kids sledding the other day. We went up to Woodland Hills and he got his in-law's 4 wheelers and the sleds. The kids had a blast! At first only Ryker and Reagan really enjoyed it, but that was expected. Jaxon was gung ho about trying it and then got in the sled and just bumped around and got worried he was going to tip. Which was pretty much what happened so I guess he was scared with good reason. He just doesn't weight enough to hold down the sled alone. Jax and Jocelyn both enjoyed it as long as they were with Skyler. Then Jon TOTALLY made Ryker's day/life (it seems) and let him drive the 4-wheeler by himself. Jon was behind him for the most part but then Jon jumped off to save his dog (see picture below) and Ryker turned around and picked Jon up alone. (at least that is how I heard the story. I didn't exactly see this part) Jax had a turn "driving" with Jon too. They kept running into this snowman and Jax would say it was dead so they would get off and fix it then go around and do it again. Reagan just sat back and enjoyed the ride. She always looked like she was just relaxing at the spa or something. Goof ball. Jocelyn did great as long as Jon and Haylee didn't try to take her. (sorry guys) She usually likes everyone, but I think the combination of the new people in funny snow stuff and the big noisy machine we kept putting her next to were just too much. She ended up being done before everyone else so we got in the car and turned it on to get warm. Thanks Jon and Haylee for the fun day. It was great!

Christmas 2009

We started our Christmas festivities with a pretty mellow Christmas Eve. We went out to lunch to Olive Garden where the kids were really good which surprised me and Skyler. They were so good that a lady sitting next to us commented on them being well behaved and of course cute. She told Skyler he was blessed to have such a wonderful family. I tend to agree. After we went home and Sandy and Steve came over to give the kids their presents. Which of course always goes over well. Gifts are a hit. After they opened the gifts, I attempted to construct some "gingerbread" houses. I actually made them out of rice krispie treats. It would have worked great except I couldn't stir in anymore cereal so they ended up with too much marshmallow and didn't stand up like they were supposed too. Some how they stood up long enough to decorate and then the frosting glued them together enough to stay. Gotta love royal frosting. Steve and Sandy helped/supervised this for a little bit then left us to our own devices and clean up.

After the houses we made pizza for dinner. This is always a hit. We only ran into one problem.....I was 1 cup short on the flour. So Skyler had to run to the store to get some. The pizza was good and the kids love making their own. I have to breathe deep and let them do it but that is fine since they love it. After pizza we cleaned up the house. (Something we do every night before they are allowed to watch a movie and Christmas Eve is no different. Especially since there would be a mess in the morning. )
Something that we started this year is to have the kids draw names and get gifts for each other. Something that helped them think of someone else and what that person may want and not on what they want. I was happy to see them excited about it and excited to have the other person open their gift. They all picked out the gift for the other on their own except Jocelyn. But she did help wrap it still. They opened these gifts on Christmas Eve.

Here they are exchanging gifts with each other.

Ryker to Jocelyn

Reagan to Ryker

Jaxon to Reagan

Jocelyn to Jaxon

After the gift exchange We watched The Polar Express together and the kids had a camp out in the girls room.

Christmas morning the kids woke up at 8:00. It probably was Ryker who woke up then woke up everyone else, but it's Christmas and it is okay on that day. Jocelyn had no idea what was going on really and was still tired when we started shoving presents in her face. And she and Jaxon were sick and not in the best of moods anyway. But once things got going they were all excited and Jocelyn was the one that kept grabbing more presents. They got lots of fun stuff and enjoy their toys, but I think the most fun thing we got was Nerf guns. We got 4 new guns so that we can have family wars. Everyone has a great time with it. Mostly Ryker and Skyler, they get the big guns. The little kids like to help shoot and then Jocelyn loves running around collecting the bullets. It is fun. We need more ammo. After gifts we really just say around for a while and let the kids play. It is never fun trying to rip them away from their toys to go places but hey they shouldn't complain cause they get more gifts. We went to my mom's for lunch and had some good food. I love food. When we came back home I set to work cleaning and organizing the house. That's right. I cleaned out the toy room and threw away a bunch of stuff and organized everything and now........there is more room than there was before Christmas. AAAHHH... Felt so good to do that. Everything has a place and everything was in it's place. That is how I like it. Christmas night and all the new toys are put away.

We also got something AMAZING delivered the day after Christmas.........

A PIANO!!!!!!!!!

I was SO excited and am SO happy to have a piano! We found it about a month ago but decided to wait to after Christmas since we already had the tree up and it was in the spot where the piano is now. It worked out nice and everything fell into place so nicely it was amazing. I love Sykler for wanting me to have a piano and knowing that it was important to me. I love that we wanted it to be a surprise (wouldn't really work since I had to clean up the tree) I love that I didn't think it would happen but he DID surprise me that he was still trying to work it out. Thanks Skyler. It ended up being delivered the day after Christmas because the guy who was delivering it was leaving the next week. So Merry Christmas to me. It has been fun to play again. I am VERY rusty and in need of A LOT of practice, which I won't have a ton of time for (the kids think that if I play then they can too, at the same time.) but hey I will get there. And playing the piano de-stresses me. So this will be good. The kiddos like to play it too. Reagan pretty much will just go sit down at random times and start playing. I need to get her started on lessons. (maybe it will help her focus) Ryker hasn't been too interested in it but he had a lot of new toys that were more exciting. He needs to start lessons too.

So that was our Christmas in a nut shell. Hope you all had a great Christmas!

Jaxon's birthday

Jax turned 3 on the 19th!!! It was a fun and yet stress free day. My family came over and we had dinner. Then we went to the Festival of Lights. We have a new tradition now where we ride in the back of a truck while going through the lights. It is cold but they love it.

Jax is such a sweet kid. Don't get me wrong he has is moments of beign a stinker, but he is very mellow and quiet compared to the other kids. All day when we would mention his presents and ask if he was excited he would be like sure whatever. Then when I said he could open them he said "me?" I laughed, "yes you." Then he asked me "not Ryker?" Oh man, Ryker must have had a lot of attention the last littel while with schoo and soccer and friends and everything else. The poor kid just assumes we do everything for Ryker. But it was cute how surprised he was that everything was for him. After he would open one gift we would tell him to open another and he was really confused by it all. Not confused so much as surprised it was his day. The first birthday where he will remember and be excited next year. His face in the pictures say it all. I love it. My sweet, tender, almost always sick, little boy.