Green Beans and Trip Home

Ok, I'm terrible and took forever. I'm sorry. I know that there are a bunch here, but each one has a unique expression to it.

This one is when I got to pick my beautiful daughter up in Texas!

These next two are the kids feelings about the trip home.

Sorry, no pics, yet...

Okay.... Jayden, Karah, and I have been back in Utah for a week now. Jay is the only one enjoying the snow...(even Daddy is sick of it...) It will not stop snowing!!! Our front yard has over 2 feet of snow from the storms, and about 4 1/2 feet where we have shoveled our driveway. Jay's favorite thing to do is to run as fast as he can towards the pile and pull an "Uncle Matt". He then yells for one of us to rescue him, then does it again. I would also like to report that Jayden is the 28 lb wrestling champion of our play group. He is the youngest and the smallest, too, but that did not scare him a bit. Unfortunately, not all of his opponents were aware of what was going on... He misses Uncle Scott's wrestling tournaments so much!! I'll be changing Karah, and he'll run and tackle me, screaming: "Westle, Mommy, westle!!!" I couldn't be more proud. I would like to publicly thank Uncle Matt and Aunt Krissa for the boxes of Band-Aids. That kid loves them so much!! Any tiny scratch needs one. We are trying to be conservative of them, but its almost as if he's trying to make himself bleed sometimes just so he can wear a Cars band-aid. We've tried stickers, but they just aren't as cool. Any-who, just keeping y'all updated on the kids! Oh, btw, Granna, Jay says Karah now!! (Kare) Thought you might wanna know!!

Mural

This is the beginnings of Jayden's mural for his playroom. As you can see, I did a terrible job of masking the bottom half when I did that moonlight coming over the horizon, so that needs fixed.


K, that nasty line is gone now, unfortunately this is a terrible picture, I will take a better one later.
So, now we have a beginning on o'l buzzy boy. He is going to take a while.

"GOOOO DOTT!!"

I realized that I didn't explain the warrior costume in the last post. That costume was the same costume that Uncle Scotty used to wear when Matt and Jeff used to wrestle. He would wear that costume to every dual, and even do the "warrior dance" on the mats before the dual started. I found the costume before a tournament, and thought it would be neat if Jay dressed up for Scott's match. Jay played the part so well, and brought more team spirit from the crowds. The warrior mascot tradition lives on!!

Uncle Scott's Fan Club

Megan and Jayden are the cutest wrestling fans out there. Both little ones love cheering for "Bake/Blanket" (Blake) and Uncle "Cott-Cott/Dott" (Scott). Megan has a little cheerleader routine to go with her outfit, and Jayden yells up a storm. Karah liked to watch the wrestling, but if anyone starting coaching enthusiastically, she would lose it. All in all, the three kiddos did great, and Meg and Jay played and cheered so nicely.bScott teched his guy easily, and his team won the dual 47-27. Go Warriors!!!

First Bath Together

No, this is not Karah's first bath, but it is her first one with her brother. I will have to say, this is how bath time is going to be from now on.... She normally screams her head off during baths, and you can see that this was not the case. It was so precious to see them playing together so sweetly.

Life if Texas...

Well, these Utah babies have been having a BLAST in Texas! As you can see, Jay has already made himself at home, and Karah is smiling up a storm here! Aggie (the dog) has gotten pretty good at hiding, lately, because Jayden is no longer afraid of four-legged animals. (hence, the time-out picture) Karah is rolling around the room like crazy, and Grandma and Grandpa are loving it! Uncle Scott (Dot, to Jayden) is so sweet with these little people who have invaded the house!

Smiles

Karah is such a fun girl, now. She has gotten over her colic. She smiles at everything and everyone now. She laughed for the first time yesterday for Dan. I think a lot of this new happiness has come from the fact that Jayden has stopped torturing her so often. He thinks it is so fun to make her smile, so he does what he can, including dancing and singing for her. When they play with the Intellitainer, he explains things to her, and she gives him the most adoring look. I know she's still so little, but she looks up to her big brother, and he is starting to look out after her. It is so precious.

Santa

Jayden did not like Santa very much this year, but Karah loved him. These pictures aren't the greatest...Daddy will have to photo shop them to get the color right.

Intellitainer Fun

Can you believe how fast she is growing?? She LOVES the Intellitainer! She sits in the little seat, and Jayden stands next to her. He points out the different letters to her. They play so nicely together with this toy!!

Setting up the Christmas Tree

Snow Day!

Pu-kin Patch

Pu-kin= pumpkin. This is late, I know, I know, but this was a few days before Halloween. We went to the pumpkin patch for FHE with Scott, Mariah, Isaac, and Vanessa. It was a riot. The boys ran around claiming every pumpkin they could find. It was almost like an Easter Egg hunt to them. The ones they could lift ended up in the wheelbarrow (and then back on the ground when they weren't looking...we aren't made of money, ya know!!) and the ones they couldn't, they tried anyway, and then said, "Nooo...." with a pouty face. They also fought over the wheelbarrow, but as you can see, we came up with a compromise. Mariah and I came up with a fun game... We called it "Point and click". We couldn't see what we were taking pictures of, so we just pointed in the general direction and hoped they came out. Luckily, we have good aims!!

Where did he get this???

I have no clue what provoked this. We put him to bed one night, and we just had a feeling to check on him. Needless to say, we were cracking up. Scott, Mariah, Randy, and Melanie were all over, so we took a picture to keep show them so we wouldn't wake Jay up. The next day, I put him down for a nap, checked on him, and took the next picture. He did this for about a week, and then stopped. This kid is constantly doing hilarious stuff...

Guilty by insanity...

Mariah and I had the BRILLIANT idea about a month ago to get the boys together and bake and decorate sugar cookies. Two adults could have accomplished this in about two-three hours, but add two active toddlers and two 2 month old babies, and all heck broke loose. We had a great six hours...the boys were precious but active, and the girls were, well...babies. By the time Dan came home, Mariah and I were laughing so hard to prevent us from pulling our hair out.

Little Man

I took this picture from the top of a chair... A mouse ran out from underneath the fridge, and my natural instinct was to jump up and scream. Jayden ran in to see what was wrong with Mommy, saw the mouse, grabbed the broom, and well...you can see. He chased the mouse back under the fridge, and let it know what he was thinking in the process!! I was way embarrassed and way proud at the same time that my 20 month old son was willing to jump in and save his mommy from the big, bad mouse.

Billiruben Baby

Karah had a high billiruben count on Sunday, so it was under the lights for her. Luckily, things have changed since Jayden was born, and they delivered a billi-bed to the house. Poor baby had to be under the lights until Wednesday, but we are glad that we have the kind of technology to help with jaundice. Also, you'll notice that she's a little tanner than the rest of us!! ;)

Family of Four

We are now a family of four! Jayden just loves his new little sister. He loves to show us where her eyes, ears, nose, mouth, hands, and feet are. He loves to give her kisses...after she had her foot poked for her billiruben count, he would kiss her owies to make them feel better. He loves to hold her, and sing her songs when she is crying. There are times when Dan or Mom takes her into the other room and he comes to me and asks: "Where baby?" He has his moments of jealousy every once and a while, but for the most part, he just adores her. He will bring her the pacifier, help me change her diapers, and make sure her hairbow is on. Such a good big brother!!

Karah Joanne Richardson

Here she is!! Karah was born on August 22, 2007 in West Jordan, Ut. She was 6 lbs, 7 oz, and 18 in. long. She did not waste any time getting here. Dr. Oneida said that if she had not been posterior, Dan probably would have had to deliver her. She is such a little sweetheart. Her favorite things to do are eat, sleep, and poop. She has some hilarious facial expressions...especially when she thinks that her mommy is taking too long "cooking lunch". You can't really tell in this picture, but she does have quite a bit of dark hair in the back. She kind of has a "Grandpa Randy" hairdo going on here...lol. More pics to come.

Helping Daddy Change a Tire

On our way from visiting Kelsi one night, we heard a strange noise coming from the back of our car. Dan Pulled over, but in the dark, he didn't notice anything. So, on we went. The next morning, however, there was a bolt of some sort in the tire, and it was FLAT. Out came Dan and his little "helper". Notice his little sash? He was playing balloon swords with the older boys earlier, and they had given him a little costume that he sported for a few days... Anyways, Daddy would get the covers off, turn around to grab the tool he needed, and then turn around to find the covers magically back on!! This game went on for a little while, until Jayden realized that the tool was much more fun than sticking the covers on. What Daddy says would have taken him 15 minutes without "help" took him closer to an hour. But, we really know that Jay sped things up for him because Daddy didn't want to lose any bolts or tools. ;)

Status of Kelsi...

For those of you who are unaware, I'm not being my usual blog-neglectant self... Last Wednesday, Dan's little sister, Kelsi, fell 20 feet from a tree. She hit her head and has suffered bleeding and swelling in her brain. Miraculously, there were no broken bones. She has been unconscious since the accident, and has been kept in a medically induced coma since Thursday night. It was a rough weekend for her, but she is a strong girl. They are weaning her off of the sedation and are hoping that she might wake up within the next few days, but they've told us to expect it to take longer. The nurses and doctors have been totally amazing, and the outpouring of love and service from family and friends is unbelievable. It has been a true testimony builder, and has healed many relationships thought to be irreparable. Heavenly Father's hand has been there since before it happened to prepare the way for many kinds of healing. We have another blog set up with updates on Kelsi's status. The address is statusofkelsi.blogspot.com. Please remember her in your prayers. Thank you for your patience.

Workin on the house

Demolition of the house...

I realize that most of these pictures might have been seen before, but I'm going to put my explanation to it here... Yes, when we bought the house, we thought a little paint here, a little tile there, and some good elbow grease and cleaner would do the trick. We knew that there were things that were wants, and things that were needs. We'd made a list, budgeted things out, and then we got the keys to the house. That is when reality set in. Our first day, we discovered that the carpet was not salvageable. The previous owners had obviously invested in about 50 gallons of Febreeze when we came to look at the house. Also, after vacuuming the room for over an hour and emptying it 8 times, it became apparent that there was nothing we could do. Dan had to leave after 10 minutes because the pet hair was so thick in the carpet it was giving his allergies a hard time. So, we tore out the carpet and decided we could live with the counters the way they were for a while. That is, until we discovered that the leak under the sink had rotted out the bottoms of the cabinets. They had done a pretty good job covering that up. So, we tore out the cabinets. Scott Warner is in the kitchen remodeling business, so he came out and figured out what he could do for us. After tearing out the cabinets, we found that there was mold in the sheet rock...that went all the way down into the downstairs bathroom. So, bye-bye sheet rock in the kitchen and bathroom. See a pattern here? Long story short, we've replaced the windows, (thanks, G & G), we're re-carpeting the whole house, re-tiling the kitchen, bathrooms, and laundry rooms, putting sheet rock up in the kitchen and bathroom, filling holes throughout the whole house (Oh, yeah....pictures were hung up over holes in the walls...and they glued stuff to the walls that made holes when we tried to take them down), re-painting the whole house, and I'm not even going to go into the condition of the yard...(they stopped caring when they accepted our offer and used it as a dumpster). So, as you can see, our little project has become a HUGE deal, and we are so very grateful for those who have offered their help in getting this place livable again. We had several people show up to help us tear out the crap, and help us rebuild. So far, we've only had to hire out for one thing, and that is the carpet! We are so very blessed with the different resources of our family, and we want to thank everyone who has been a part in helping us get into our house. More pictures will come!!

Rylee's Birthday party