Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all of our friends and family! I can't believe that it is already here and pretty much over. Here are a few highlights from our day.

The kids playing the DS. They have shared so well.

Jett sporting Halle's shirt from Heath and Amy. He wanted to try it on to. He said it was so pretty. Halle calls it her Hannah Montana shirt so you know it was a hit.

Awaiting the descent to the basement to open presents.

Dad putting together Austin's Halo legos. It got the best of him and after a hour of cussing and frustration they still are not put together. We might need some help.

Jett sporting his Thomas underwear backwards while playing with his trains. He likes them to ride up. He has been so funny today- I could have a whole post on all the funny things he has said and done today. But the best is Merry Christmas Mom!

We are so blessed and want all of you to know how much we love and appreciate you in our lives.

Christmas Eve

The tradition continues of pajamas to open on Christmas eve (thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Cederholm). Here are the kids sporting their new pj's. I never thought that we would get Jett out of his train ones but Ironman scrubs did it. Austin was thrilled him and Dad got BYU ones. Now he has the right team he says.
We had a fabulous dinner of prime rib, potatoes, rolls, salad, veggies and ice cream cake roll. It was delicious. Great job Dad! The kids love getting that table all set with fancy dishes and candlelight, but the hit of all is the sparkling apple cider in wine glasses. It continues to remind me that it is the simple things that bring the greatest joy.
Then on to the notes and goodies for Santa (oh I almost forgot the carrots for the reindeer left outside), stories of Christ and his birth, and of course the book, "Twas the night before Christmas."

Potty Training

Jett has been potty training since Thursday of last week. He is doing awesome. It all started because he wanted to change his diaper every time he was peeing. So I got out his Thomas underwear and we put them on and off we went. He had a few accidents the first couple days, including a major #2 accident in the dressing room at the mall.(this was a blast - let me tell you to clean up in a public restroom) But since Sunday we have been accident free and have been waking up from naps with dry diapers. Yippee!
This has had its challenges too because Mister particular has to do everything himself and his way. There is no help that Mom can give to assist because "I do it!" I thought that buying some flushable wipes would help out with the #2 moments. Well it is so new and exciting that he will go to the bathroom just to use those wipes whether it is #1 and #2. Sorry for all the potty talk but this is my life and all we think about lately. I guess we really might be on our way to diaper free for a couple months before the baby comes.

Gingerbread Houses

The Richards annual tradition of decorating gingerbread houses. You notice I did not say making and decorating - we leave the making up to Costco and have fun decorating them. This year we invited our friends, the Mcminns, over to help. The boys decided that they wanted to decorate the houses boys vs. girls. Well you can imagine who won the competition. The GIRLS (or you can decide for yourself). We had tons of fun together decorating, enjoying company, eating candy (I think more made it in our bellies than actually on our houses) and caramel popcorn.

Clogging Performance

Halle had her first clogging performance today at the mall. She danced to the song from the old disney cartoon Stanley. She did awesome. She has loved clogging. It is neat to see her not be so nervous and shy to get up in front of people and perform.
You can visit my friends blog at www.mcminnbunch.blogspot.com to see the whole 30 second performance LIVE.
Way to go Halle!

Have you heard!

The secret is out. The Richards clan is adding one more addition to the mix. We will be having a new baby come June sometime. It seems that that is when we like to have them so why not do it one more time. We find out January 4th if it is a boy or girl so an update will follow. Now you know why my blogging has slowed down but I am feeling much better and will be better. Sorry for all the catch up events - I am trying to keep it so we can print a book of the years events.

Halloween 2009

Here are our little trick-or-treaters this year.

Austin as a punk rocker! You missed the black hair but by the third day he was sick of coloring it.

Halle as a cheerleader. She was very upset for awhile that this was a red and white costume and not blue and white for BYU. I think her Dad has been brain washing her.

And last but not least, here is our little engineer. He is so serious. He did find out that he liked Halloween and trick-or-treating for candy. He wanted to eat all that was in his bucket that night. Who says there should be a limit on what I can eat - I worked hard for this candy.

There goes the garden!

Welcome to winter! We are so lucky to live in a place that snows in September (NOT) and ruins the fruits of our labors in our garden. Anything that was still out there is now frozen or wilted by snow. Thank goodness I picked most of it before the storm. But really why does it have to freeze this early - the gettin' was just gettin' good.

The surprise!

I almost forgot the biggest event/surprise in September. Lowell surprised me for my birthday with a weekend away in Park City with no kids. (All arrangements made) I was so surprised and excited to know that we could be together doing whatever we wanted and also to enjoy a meal with no interruptions.
We were to go over Labor Day weekend but it seems that I was so excited I got myself sick. No really, I started throwing up Friday morning and didn't really feel better until Sunday night. We were both were bummed. It was terrible. Lowell called the hotel, babysitter (Aunt Cristie) to see if we could arrange it for the next weekend. It all worked out and we went then.
Thanks to all because it was a blast but especially to my wonderful husband!

I know it has been AWHILE!

It is amazing to me how helpless you can feel when your computer breaks down and is not available. I finally got it back and would like to catch everyone up on the events that have occurred this September.
For Austin, flag football has started and is in full swing. He practices or plays a game 4 nights a week. He has enjoyed it even though they have only won one game so far. This league is a whole new experience for these boys. He also keeps me running with scouts and piano lessons.
Halle has started clogging and truly loves it. She also is involved in soccer. She has made 3 or 4 goals a game.
Thank goodness that Jett is not involved in any activities because I feel like this month has come and gone with how busy we have been.
I was just called to be in the Young Women's as the Laurel advisor. It is so fun to be around these young girls and think back to my dating years (oh how I wouldn't go back) but also keeps me going 1-2 nights a week.
Lowell is busy with work with his boss leaving and all the budget cuts from the state. It sure makes life interesting but we are thankful that we have a job in this economy.
So there it is in a nutshell. Life on the fast track. Somedays I think I know this is only the beginning of feeling like the taxi driver but at the same time I love it!

Halle starts kindergarten

Do you think she is excited for kindergarten?!?!? Well she has been counting down the days for a week or so. We have picked out outfits over and over but she settled on the monkey shirt, monkey earrings, monkey clip, denim skirt and new flip-flops. She was adorable.
I was quickly informed that I should just leave her at the door and she would go in for herself. I think that made me sad more than anything. I immediately got butterflies and nervous for her because I wasn't there to help unload the backpack and help her along. Crazy mom, I know, admittance is the first step, right?!?! I know that this independence is a good thing and she informed me that she was glad I left her there. So after fighting my inner self I was glad that I did not go in. She loves her teacher and told me a list of details and things that she learned on the first day. All in all another great first day of school.

Start of School

Here is my little boy that is growing up too fast. Third grade started today and he had a hard time going to sleep and woke up early because he was so excited for school. I will take this excitement as long as I can because someday it will stop.

Austin's comment about the first day of third grade was , "It was WICKED AWESOME." To me that is a pretty good first day of school. He likes his teacher and loves that he has friends in his class.

I love you Austin and am so glad that you love to learn!

My Beautiful Girl

I remember when I was pregnant with Halle and her Dad wished for her to be a beautiful girl. Well I think that he got his wish. She is beautiful! Em wanted to do her hair all curly. It took her a little longer than she thought it would but look at how great she looks!

Visiting with Auntie Em and Carter

Auntie Em and Carter came to visit us this week for a last summer vacation before school life kicks in for all of us. We had a blast together. It was so good to get in a little sister one-on-one. We did a little of everything - shopping, boating, movies, playing and eating. I only really got pictures of the boating experiences but here are the highlights and funny things Carter said and did on the boat.

Carter decided he was the designated flagman! He did a fabulous job until the flag was used for his nap time shade. (see picture below) I think the boat completely did him in.

Here he is venturing out in the water with his Mom. He liked the whole boating thing a lot better when the motor was off.

Trains! Trains! and trains!

I never thought that I could raise two boys that liked trains so much. As a toddler Austin loved trains and now his little brother is fascinated with them as well. He loves to play with Thomas, watch trains go by on the tracks and watch Thomas DVD's (we all know how incredibly boring these are). Anyway, they both love it so we let them play and enjoy. Today, we went to a model railroad museum. It had a whole room full of trains, tracks and signals with grown up boys that loved to play with trains STILL. Jett loved it!

Watching the trains switch engines outside the museum building.

Austin still liking trains unless you asked him if he did.

Halle telling me that I need to get a picture of her too by the trains so here it is.

Jett knows what signals are and points them out as we pass them in town. He also lets me know that we are going over tracks and how many we just went over. I guess Pocatello is a great place to live with train lovers because it is an old train city.

Bubbles

Today I found Jett like this! He said, "Look mama Bubbles!" He was right there were bubbles and they were everywhere. He had so much fun playing in them I couldn't get mad I just had to pull out the camera and snap the shots.

Cascade Springs

A weekend with the McDougal's at their cabin in Midway.

The weather ended up being cool so there was no boating but we ventured out on a hike to Cascade Springs. It was pretty and the kids loved being silly together (see below picture). I mean look what I had to work with. The boys were cracking me up and the girls were as cute as ever.

They always amaze me how they pick up playing like they were together yesterday.

Look at those cute kids - I am a lucky mom!!

Potty Training

Am I really ready for this again?!?! Today after church Jett came out of my bathroom with his diaper off and telling me he was ready to go potty in the toilet. Where did that come from I thought but I was willing to go with it. It happened to be nap time so I made a deal that we would get out the underwear and little potty once he got up. Well first thing he reminded me so off to the garage we went in search of those things. He was excited. We put on the Thomas underwears (as he calls them) and were sitting on the potty. I was surprised because he went not just once but at least ten times that night. He knew what to do and was doing it so we'll see where it takes us! Wish me luck!

Summer Sports

This summer we were busy with t-ball for Halle and flag football for Austin. When soccer was over Halle asked me if I had signed her up for t-ball. Of course I had not so I looked around to see if she could still get in. Thank goodness I found the rec league and convinced Ellie (her bestest friend ever) to play with her. They both had a blast and loved playing. We were also impressed that they did pretty good and really enjoyed it.
Austin loved his flag football but that is a big surprise to us, NOT! and Jett of course was the best sport and cheerleader for both of them.

A boat owners worst nightmare

Well my fear of owning a boat is that one day we would get stranded out on the water. Who knew - it would come true in the first month of boat ownership. It was a beautiful day and we were enjoying the glass water when our boat started going putt-putt. It was like the engine was not getting gas so we called Jonathan to see what we could do to fix it but had no luck. Thank goodness for Barries and their great service that my nightmare wasn't as bad as I thought it could be. Jonathan was on the lake and able to pull us in right away.

Getting Towed

Courtney teaching us all how to do a 360 on the kneeboard. She was awesome. After about 5 attempts she got it and stayed up!

What would a vacation with my brother be without a little Cederholm hiney!

Wakeboarding 101

So the last day that Heath was here we ventured out to try out a wakeboard. The store let us demo one to see if we wanted to purchase one. They sure are smart because most times it is a no brainer that once tried people will purchase. We all tried and all got out of the water. The men did a good job but I did a number. I face planted it HARD! Best 101 lesson in when to drop the rope and let go! I do not think that I will ever do that again. Of course they did not get a picture of me up but it really did happen!

A weekend with Cristie and Heath

A weekend with Aunt Cristie and Uncle Heath out on the water. Cristie brought Heath up to visit and spend time with Padre. The perk for them was that their brother (Lowell) had bought a boat and so we went out to play. We spent Friday and Saturday on the lake playing in the water. Then Saturday we celebrated Cristie's birthday. The kids wanted to decorate the house and make sure she had presents to open. They decided we would decorate for a Luau and eat tuna steaks, grilled zuchini and pineapple. We also made homemade ice cream or should we say attempted to make it. I would call it whip cream rather than ice cream. At least we still had a birthday cake to eat.

Part of the Gang

Do you think that Padre is ready to get in the water?!?!?

Jett and his Cristie.

Yes, I actually get to drive the boat. (haha) Lowell turns over the right once in a while.

Austin out on the kneeboard. He loves it! In fact, sometimes we try to tip him so that we can get him off or else he would ride forever. If only I were that young again.

4th of July

Who would ever think that you would not be able to be outside for a BBQ on the fourth of July. Well with this rain and weather we have had this summer anything is possible. Thank goodness we were able to finish our dinner before the storm hit. We had hail, rain and more rain. The gutters and streets were overflowing with water. A friend has a weather center and send that in an hour storm we received two inches of water. I do not know if my flowers will recover from all the hail damage. Only time will tell. At least it stopped before the firework show. Happy 4th!

Round Two

We are off to the mall for round two of ear piercing for Halle. While boating Halle lost one of her new earrings out in the lake somewhere. I found the back in the boat and that is when I noticed it missing. We called Claires and they said to get an earring in it right away - well I tried but couldn't get it through the back of her ear. I couldn't believe that they would close up so fast but the lady said it could close in a half hour when they are that new. Halle took getting it pierced again because she would not hear of not having earrings now but the best is that they did it all for free again !!

A day on the water

I guess you can say that it is official. Daddy got his wish and has a BOAT! So we took it out on the water for the first time yesterday. We loved it. The kids loved playing in the water and being pulled on the tube. They learned a few new things like life jackets really do work and that you can pee in the water because there are no restrooms close by.


Daddy wake surfed again and loved every minute of it.


Jett took the co-captains chair and took a little snooze. Thank goodness for that so he could enjoy the rest of the day.


Who knew it could be so fun but we look forward to many new memories and fun times on the boat.

Riding a two-wheeler

Halle learned to ride a two-wheeler bike today with NO training wheels. Her friend Ellie taught her how to put her feet and pedals so she could start on her own so she practiced all morning and by night she was riding up and down the sidewalk. She has found a new love for the summer because now she can be part of the big kids and ride and race with them.

Ear piercing

Halle got her ears pierced in Arizona as her souvenior of the trip. That is all she wanted and so we asked Daddy if it was okay for her to get them done. He was sad because he thought a little bit of her innocence was lost. She was a trooper and did not cry. Surprise!!