"Gorgus"

There is a new word in our house: "gorgus". It means "gorgeous", and it is used by both Jayden and Karah to describe themselves when they "dress up fancy". As you can see, Karah LOVES to be "gorgus". She and Jayden "clip-clopped" all throughout the house for at least an hour in my dress shoes. Karah loves my shoes, but hates them at the same time. She can usually make it at least 2 rounds before they slip off and she comes crying to me to put them back on. The princess tiara (one of what she considers her "pretties") must be worn if she sees it. The same with her other "pretties", the necklaces. I can see her being very girly, but tom-boyish, too with the way she handles herself with Jay. He grabbed one of her "pretties" and I was surprised at how fast she could move in my shoes to chase him down! This girl is most definitely a princess that can handle herself!

This one is a stinker...

Saturday night she was up at 10 pm, 12:30 am, 2 am, 3:45 am, and from 6:30 am on. We came home from church after Sacrament meeting because my back was killing me, and gave the kids some lunch. Karah got one good bite out of her chicken nuggets before she crashed. You can see that she's still holding on to them...

Family Fun!

I'm not sure where we got these, but Dan found a HUGE box of Popsicle sticks. He got them out and was "building stuff" with Jayden for the longest time! They "built" houses, trees, people, you name it. The following is my attempt replay one of their conversations.

Jayden: "Lets build a....TEEBEE!! (T.V.)"
Dan: "Okay, what shape is a T.V.?"
Jayden: "A square."
Dan: "Good job, now let's build our T.V. by making a square!" (they proceed to make a square, and then Jay starts putting things inside the "T.V.")
Dan: "Oh, Jay, what's that?" (pointing to the pile inside the T.V. and wondering if Jay is making a scene from a show or something.)
Jayden: "Sticks...."(with a look of unbelief on his face)

Jayden's tone when he said that totally came across as: "Uh, you're dumb"! I've never heard him use that tone, and I was just cracking up. Dan looked up at me and said, "I feel about an inch tall. I've been put down by a toddler." They continued to play together, and Jayden made sure Daddy know the difference between the sticks and reality..."This is a stick, Daddy (pointing to a stick) and that's Karah." (pointing to Karah) Again, the tone of voice Jay used with Dan for the REST OF THE NIGHT was hilarious!!

Oh, like Karah's "deer in the headlights" look?

...and yet again I make a fool of myself...

Saturday morning I fell down the stairs and felt something pop in my lower back. No problem! I was in a little bit of pain, but not tons. Sunday morning, I did something embarrassing that ended up in my landing HARD on my tailbone and shooting excruciating pain up my back. I now need help up and down the stairs, I can't pick up my kids, and cleaning is just out of the question (not that it wasn't already....). I'm hoping that this is just some pulled muscles and that I'll be fine in a few days. In the mean time, my kids are so excited that they can now out run me and stay JUST out of reach to taunt me. It is SO DARN FRUSTRATING!!! Of course, they think it is hilarious. UGH!! Sometimes I just need a NANNY!!

...I answered the questions truthfully, I promise...

I have no idea where they came up with this figure... I'm sure ALL of you disagree with that percentage!! (I know I do...I wouldn't call blogging my addiction!!)


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Snow Day!!!

We had so much fun in the snow this week! This was Karah's first time playing in the snow...she was too little last year! She did NOT want help walking in the snow (not from me, anyway). She would face plant and then scream "MAMA!!! I DOWN!!! I DOWN!!!" I would help her up, and then she would push me away, only to fall down again. She finally got the hang of it, though. Jay was so excited when he woke up to see snow. "AWESOME!!! ITS SNOWING!! LETS GO OUT NOW!!" He did such a good job helping me find the snow suits, boots, and hats. He helped me get Karah ready and was just dancing with excitement. When we finally made it outside, he was everywhere! He showed Karah how make snow angels and tried to have a snow fight. It was so fun to watch them being such good friends!




Karah's first face plant--Snow is COLD!!!


Jayden helping Karah find her "snow feet". Such cute siblings!!

Jayden eating snow.Karah trying to eat snow. She got ticked off after a few tries and threw a snow tantrum...


When Karah and Mommy were done playing in the snow, we had another tantrum from Jayden. Promises of hot chocolate did nothing to console him. It took him 10 minutes to even listen to me! Once he realized that Karah already had her luke-warm chocolate, he threw another tantrum that I didn't like him as much as Karah because she had her chocolate drink. DRAMA!! We drank our hot chocoloate, had lunch, then sat down to watch Mickey Mouse Club House. Both kids were out before Toodles was called...

Peanut Butter Painting

I was livid. These pictures were taken after I had cleaned off a Peanut Butter Baby (Karah) and half of the peanut butter off the floor. It went all the way down the stairs, it was on the walls, baby gates, the couches--I had gone into the office to send Dan a file and was gone about 10 minutes. The pantry has since been locked tight. The kids each got a rag and got to help me clean it all up. It amazes me how fast catastrophes can happen!!! (The ENTIRE jar was spread throughout our house!!)

More "Belle"

Princess tiaras are now a part of every day life in the Richardson house. Karah LOVES to dress up and be "pretty". The child does not, however, permit bows in her hair. Drives me nuts. She loves her Belle dress Grandma Kathi sent for Halloween, as you can probably guess.

More Halloween

Ok, I guess the pictures of the guys are on my camera, and the card reader is MIA. These are pics that my friend took at our ward party. The kids had a BLAST with Halloween in general! My friend and I helped eachother get ready for our ward party during the day. She did my hair, and I told Jayden that this was my "princess hair". He replied with "No, not princess hair. You're just a mom." Ouch. However, when we got home and I put my dress on, his face lit up and he exclaimed, "YOU CINERELLA!!!!!" I was not "Mommy" for the rest of the night. AWESOME! The party was difficult because Dan had to run the Priesthood booth, and I had tiny kids running away from me the whole night. Pretty much our whole neighborhood showed up, and the kids had plenty of places to hide from me! We were all pooped when we got home!

Trick or Treating was awesome! We went to Grandma and Grandpa Richardson's neighborhood...a guy in their ward works for Nestle, and he hands out BEAST bars :D. Poor Jay had a hard time in the beginning...he was so excited to get candy that his little legs couldn't keep up with how fast he wanted to go. The older kids were so good with Jayden. They slowed down and made sure that he didn't have to run to keep up with them. There was one point where we were near a large group of teenage boys dressed as pirates. They each had a musical instrument, and they would sing and play for the houses. I thought it was fun, but Jay was a little freaked out. He got close to me, grabbed my skirt, and said: "I hold your skirt so the pirates won't take me away, okay, Cinerella?" He did so well with the candy, too. Last year, he did not understand that he couldn't eat each piece as we walked to the next house. This year, he was excited about hoarding his candy to eat it later. I was afraid that we would have problems with Karah in that area, but she surprised me. (Like usual...) She would prance up to the house with her hand outstretched, inspect the candy, then put it in her bucket. She was the only girl in our group, and played that up big time. She would smile, twirl, and play every cute trick in the book to get that candy!! Oh, and she kept her tiara on for the entire time she Trick or Treated!! They were both very good with "thank yous" and Karah walked a lot of the time. After about an hour and a half, she was done. She just wanted to sit and watch a movie in Grandma's lap. Jay and Daddy went back out with the boys and almost doubled our loot. Karah was ready to go home, but Jay wanted to go Trick or Treating some more. That is where we had the meltdown...the kid would have stayed out until his feet fell off. Needless to say, both kids were asleep when their heads hit the pillow. We have had fun with our candy, as it is now a reward for good behavior!! :D Thank you, Grandma Kathi for making Karah's ADORABLE costume!! We got so many compliments on our "Royal Family"!

Halloween Freaks

The Ickies

I know I have my camera back, but the Richardsons have been fighting off the ickies since my last post. It started with Jayden throwing up and having a fever, then Karah and I both got upset tummies and fever for a few days. Karah has not been waking up happy since she's been sick and it lasts all freakin day. Hopefully since we all woke up fever-free this morning (5:00 am thanks to the little princess) we can get some happy attitudes in time for our ward party tonight and get some great pics!!

*Sigh*

Jayden has been potty trained for about 3 weeks now. The first week and a half, he woke up dry every morning. This last week and a half he has been wetting the bed. I had finally caught up with laundry, and now the only thing I can get done is his bedding. It takes all day to wash and dry his bedding. When Jayden wakes up after wetting the bed, he comes to our room and sometimes wets our bed. Fun fun!! Dan and I were hesitant to put him in a pull-up at night because we didn't want him to want to go back to diapers. We finally gave up and bought some, and some plastic sheets for both of our beds. We went to sleep happy and peaceful because we had thought of everything and I would finally be able to wash clothes!!! At 7:00 this morning, Jay walked into our room, screaming. He crawled onto our bed and threw up.

A Quiet Kid is a Mischievous Kid

Its my own fault for putting my makeup away while he was in the bathroom...he found my hiding place. Not too bad for a 2 year old boy...

Hiking

Jayden hiked (ran) the whole way up to the tree, hiked (ran) with Uncle Jordan up to a different vantage point, then had to be carried back down to the tree. Luckily Randy and Lecia had brought an extra kid backpack just in case. Jay was so excited to be "Daddy's Backpack".
I didn't realize how slippery little rocks could be, or how heavy my daughter had become until this hike. Dan was mainly holding my hand because we are madly in love, and partly holding my hand so I wouldn't fall backwards and squish his daughter when we came to a slippery spot.
This is Kelsi and Jordan. Jordan was on his mission when all of the excitement was going on, and it was a huge relief to him to come home and see that things were as well at home as he'd been told. He is single, ladies.
This picture was taken about 4 feet from the ground, don't worry, and Dan, Jordan, Randy, and Andrew were all very close by just in case. Kelsi has a picture similar to this from right before she fell, and she wanted to take another one to show that she is the same Kelsi today as she was before the fall.

Kelsi's Tree

This is THE tree. Kelsi fell about 20 feet from this tree, landed on her feet, and then pitched forward into a pile of rocks causing her to lose consciousness. So many miracles happened after she fell. That is the only way I can describe it. Heavenly Father definitely had His hand in this. It was an awesome experience to be there at the tree with the family and share the different experiences we had all had and learned from. Only those of us who knew her well before the accident can tell a difference, and it is getting harder every day.
The Life Flight Paramedics told Randy that the flat area just right of the tree was the only place they could have landed the helicopter for about 5 miles every direction. It was about 50 feet from where Kelsi fell.
Randy standing on the hill, remembering waving down the helicopter.
The Richardson Family (minus Lecia taking the picture, and Mike, Adrienne and Greg.)

Camping Trip

I (finally) have our camping pictures!! This trip was very, very special to our family. Jordan had just gotten home from his mission from Ireland, and the first thing he wanted to do was go see where Kelsi had her accident and pray as a family there. It was an awesome trip, but a little stressful thanks to the little sloppy joe smiley face up there. She screamed all night our first night. We were supposed to be up there 2 nights, but Dan and I left the second night instead of going through that again. Jayden and Benji played in the truck a lot, but got in trouble almost every time. We would lock the doors and roll up the windows, and next thing we knew they were back in there with the windows down! We realized that they would climb into the bed of the truck, and the back window doesn't lock properly. They would open that window and climb inside!! Little troublemakers!!!! We had sloppy joes one night for dinner. I think Karah likes them...that child ate 5 on her own!!!!! FIVE!!!! And she'd been eating good the whole trip, too. We had a blast!!

The Camera Has Been Found!!!

Please bear with the old pictures that I'm about to post...the camera has been missing since July!!!

Where the HECK do they come up with this stuff????

I had just hit "Publish Post" on the Care Bear/Necklace story when I looked up to see that Jayden had dug through the trash in the office and found an old tube of liquid foundation makeup. Not only did he find it, but he empied the WHOLE FREAKIN TUBE ON KARAH'S HEAD!!!!! My first reaction was pure horror because she's been going through a silly phase where she crawls with her head on the carpet, but then I just started laughing. Not a good thing when Jayden is STILL holding the tube of makeup. I had to wrestle that away from him while I had to keep Karah from getting Mary Kay's WATERPROOF foundation on the couch and carpet. 4 or 5 shampoos later, her hair still has a little tint of peach to it, but it was getting to difficult to hold with one hand and wash with the other since she was in a highly uncooperative mood. She's now been bathed 3 times today...once in the morning because it had been a few days, once in the afternoon because Jay decided to give her a thing of yogurt while I was in the bathroom and she fingerpainted her entire body with it, and now this...Motherhood is NEVER dull!!!

Drama Anyone?

There were two things that I HAD to get Karah for her birthday...necklaces and a Care Bear. Had I known the insanity that would follow, I might have scrapped both ideas. Care Bear (we call Karah Kare Bear) HAS to be within Karah's line of sight at all times. It goes everywhere with us. She is okay with certain people handling the bear...as long as she can see that it is being brought to her and not away. People not in our family are pretty much asking for their ear drums to rupture if they attempt to take the bear. I think it is funny, since it is a small "Share Bear", because she is not about to try sharing that thing. Last night when she wasn't paying attention (I think there was a diaper change going on...) Jayden decided that the bear was "too dirty" for Baby Karah, so he gave it a bath in the sink. It was getting a little dingy, but a full on dunking right before bedtime was not what I had in mind for cleaning it. Unfortunately, it is a glow in the dark bear and therefore we are not able to put it in the dryer. Oh, bedtime was a nightmare last night. She graced us for about an hour of "Mah Caaaa-Baaaaa!!!!" (My Care-Bear!!!) I felt so bad. This morning Care Bear was clean and dry, and she squealed with happiness for about 15 minutes after re-aquiring the thing. She has also been even more possesive of it, if that is possible...

Drama #2...the necklaces. Poor Mom got to hear the start of it on the phone yesterday. Karah got about 9 play necklaces for her birthday. Since then, the necklaces have been distributed all over the house and the cars. Karah had a red necklace and was playing with it...putting it around her neck, making bracelets out of it, and just swinging it around. After about 10 minutes, it looked like so much fun to Jayden. He decided that he NEEDED to play with it. The Battle of the Necklaces had begun. High pitched screams from Karah, and whinning cries from Jayden carried over the phone to Grandma. Jayden had taken the necklace and refused to give it back. So, I searched and found another necklace (the same necklace, only purple) and gave it to Karah. She was happy, he was not. He wanted the purple one and Karah would NOT trade. So, the Battle of the Necklaces turned into an all out War of the Purple Necklace. Jayden was crying on the floor, letting us know he did NOT want the red one, he wanted the PURPLE ONE, and Karah found this to be the perfect opportunity to get him back for all the times he'd pushed, tackled, hit, ground her head into the floor, slapped...you get the picture. She started WHIPPING him with the @#%!# necklace!! She was letting him have it in her language, too. I was across the room, so she got some good whacks in before I made it there, but she got a good, long time out for that one, along with both necklaces being taken away. I had no idea two pretty necklaces could be the cause of so much contention!!!

I am alive....

I know, I know, I've kind of dropped off the face of the earth there for a while. Not that it isn't out of character for me, but I've had a hard time blogging without pictures to back me up. This no camera thing is driving me crazy!! I'd finally learned how to upload the pictures and was getting into blogging when the camera went MIA during our camp out. Just my luck... Anyways, so much has happened since then!! I should have been posting everything regardless, but that is my bad and I'll try to remember everything. Jayden and Karah have grown so close since we put them in the same room. When Karah started teething a few weeks ago, she'd wake up and cry in the middle of the night. We'd rush in there and grab her before she'd wake up Jay, then we learned that it was pointless. 5 minutes after we brought Karah into our room, Jay would wake up, screaming: "Where's my sister??? I need my sister!!! KARAH????", and she would be fighting her way to him. So, we just let Jayden wake up and comfort her after that. 

Well, Karah has 5 teeth now, and we decided it was time to get her a toothbrush. Jayden decided he needed a new one too. Thanks to Grandma Kathi, Jayden is on a Wall-E kick, and Eva is his favorite character. He found a toothbrush with Eva on it and HAD to have it. When Karah saw the Eva toothbrush, she chucked the little baby toothbrush I'd given her and we proceeded to have WW3 over Jayden's toothbrush. Instinct kicked in, and I grabbed a Cinderella toothbrush that was similar to the Eva toothbrush, but it was pink and purple instead of black and yellow, and handed it to Karah. Peace was found until Jayden tried to LOOK at her toothbrush. Not take it, but LOOK at it. I'm sure that people in the Old Navy next to our Super Target heard the bloodcurdling screams that came from my little sweetheart. Jayden's face was priceless.  Unfortunately, Karah's scream only warded his curiosity for a little while, and I was soon sprinting to the check out line. The nice thing that came from this is that both kids love their toothbrushes, and brushing their teeth.

Jayden has taken to being a puppy. Most of the time this is okay with me, but he sometimes tries to use being a puppy to get out of things like going potty in the toilet, going to bed, and eating his food. Dan and I were going crazy one night trying to get him to listen to us, when finally Dan said, "Jayden, if you don't get in your bed and stay there, the Dogcatcher is going to come and get you!!" Those words were like magic. Jay let out a huge sob, and ran downstairs and jumped into his bed. That trick worked for about 2 weeks, but it has started to die down now. We now have to put him in our room for bedtime because Karah has decided that bedtime is for wussies and she cries for about an hour until she falls asleep. This was a problem for a few days until Grandma Kathi suggested we play some music in the hallway for them. I turned on the Scripture Scouts CDs that we have, and now that has to be played for naps and bedtime, but the main thing is that it works.

Karah has been talking up a storm. She has added "yucky", "milk", "drink", and "down", along with other gibber-jabber that Jayden and I can translate. She is running all over the place now, not walking, and WILL NOT keep a freaking hair bow in her hair!! It drives me nuts. She has to be doing what Jayden is doing almost at all times, and heaven forbid you treat her like a "baby". She is very into jewelry and has monopolized the toy stroller at play group. She almost gave herself an aneurysm yesterday when another little girl tried to take it. I have been trying to get her to share, but it is like trying to teach a fish how to speak English. I have to hold her in my lap when it is someone else's turn with the stroller, and she lets the whole world know that she is not happy with me. I think I know what she'll be getting from Santa this year...

Jayden went to Benji's birthday party last week, and he talks about it all the time. I made the dumb mistake of mentioning that Jayden will have a birthday in January. He wakes up every morning asking me if it is time for his birthday party. Everything we see or do has birthday party potential.  He wraps "presents" (toys in clothes), finds "birthday hats" (plastic bowls upside-down on his head), points out the party things every time we go to the store, and asks me if I'm going to bake his cake any time I go into the kitchen. I'm on day 12 of this...and I'm trying to figure out how to make this party (in January) live up to his expectations!!!

Well, there is a little peek at what has been going on for the last few weeks. I'm sorry I've been slacking!!