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.