Getting back on the wagon

Sunday the kids sat in the living room for a couple of hours reading through old blog books and laughing at stories and pictures of themselves. They really seem to enjoy things about themselves. But I realized as I listened to Andi read to everyone that I have been slacking on the blog majorly. So here's to posting more often with more conversations and every day stories.
The last few weeks we have been able to see lot's of Thads extended family. Grandpa Richards has been in the hospital and rehab facility all month, and all his kids, and even some grandkids have been coming to see him. It's been nice to see everyone, but we wish it were under better circumstances. Grandpa is 98 and it seems the miles are starting to wear on him. This is from one of our visits with him. We just love these sweet people so much.

We were able to go on our ward family camping trip earlier this month.  I don't have any pictures of the kids running around camp, but that is because we hardly saw them the entire time. Andi was leading a pack of "wolves" around the kids were just running from the moment we got there till they crashed at night. They were even up a lot of the night, seriously the longest night of my life. At one point Thad, Andi, Peter and I were all on the same queen size air mattress. It was bad. But everyone was up with the sun and running around again. We lost Peter more times than I can count, but were lucky enough to find him each time. We did get these gems on the way up to camp. We stopped for ice cream in Kernville and we just kept staring at the kids as they got messier and messier and couldn't figure out how they made eating an ice cream cone into such an ordeal.

We are half way through the soccer season now and Andi's little team has really improved. They are fun to watch because it's like something clicked and they understand the game and positions and strategy and working together. Sammy's team is fun to watch too, but for other reasons. There was a lot of time spent on the ground last game, almost like they were all practicing stunt dives and rolls. But there are a few aggressive players on his team that know what they are doing, and Sammy is just happy to be out there and apart of it all. And he really enjoys post game ice cream.

Peter is fully in the throws or threenager-dom. He's so moody. One moment he is smiling and lovey, and the next he's screaming rolling around on the ground for no reason. I've started taking pictures of his tantrums and texting them to Thad during the day so he can enjoy the moodswings too.
This tantrum brought to you by the lack of a costco hot dog.

And this one was because we didn't let him run around the chapel during sacrament meeting.

Here, he is offended to the core that I made him get dressed for the day.

And this one, I believe, was because I didn't wait for him to walk down the stairs.

I never get pictures of the ones that happen in each and every store, but know that they happen, every time.

And then he flips the switch and is so sweet you just can't stay mad.

Oh, he is also very particular, verging on OCD about a lot of things. He kept dumping his ramen noodles on the table at lunch and I thought, maybe he was trying to cool it down faster. So I gave it to him on a plate with no liquid, and he still dumped it off on to the table. Apparently ramen must be eaten off the table. Also, his daily lunch smoothie can only be consumed while sitting out back on the bench swing. And I have to sit with him. He makes me tired.

We have jumped back into project mode with both feet this last week. Okay, I jumped and pushed Thad along with me. I painted Peters room finally, and trimmed/painted the gun cabinet in our room.

Then I ripped out all the baseboards and flooring in the downstairs bathroom so Thad could put in tile and board and batten. The tile is done now, and it's on to the walls. But that's on pause because we also decided to finally get an iron gate on the side of the house, and just have to finish putting in the wood. I really like it.