Happy Birthday Sammy!

What a week! Really it's only been a week since I last posted but so much has been going on. I'll start with Sammy since today is his birthday. We had his check up today, but due to the fever he has had the last two days no shots. Lucky boy, except we do have to go back next week and get them. Don't worry the fever is just his next two bottom teeth trying to come in and making him miserable. Today he is 32.5 inches long (97th percentile) 26 lbs. 11 oz. (87th percentile) and his noggin is still huge (96th percentile). So basically he's a big boy. He also has his check up yesterday with the Ortho about his feet, and even though we have not made him wear those dumb shoes in several months his feet are perfect. Yay!
We had Sammy's birthday dinner Sunday with both sides of the family. I've never been one to think a 1 year old needs a big party. Just a nice family dinner with cake is just fine by me. The problem is even with just family we had 24 people besides our little family of 4 over for the dinner. Sammy had no idea what was going on, but he did enjoy the cake and though he didn't want anything to do with opening the presents he had fun with the toys when we handed them to him.

Sammy enjoying his baseball cake.

Playing with some of his presents.

I remember Andi's first birthday and thinking how big she was and how she wasn't a baby anymore. She just seemed like such a big girl at one. But with Sammy I just can't believe it's already been a year and he seems like such a baby to me still. Maybe it's because I have Andi to compare him to now and next to her he really is a baby, or maybe it's because the year has gone by so so quickly. Either way, he's growing up way too quickly. Thanks to everyone who came and celebrated with us!
Sunday was also Andi's first primary program. After a very LONG rehearsal Saturday I was a little nervous about the program, but as usual, come Sunday the kids pulled it off. Normally Andi out sings the rest of the primary in sheer volume, whether she knows the words or not, so I was a little nervous about her being in front of the whole congregation. She did really well though and didn't drown everyone out. She did get shy when it was time for her speaking part, which was very weird for her.
We carved pumpkins Tuesday evening and Andi was very squeemish about cleaning the pumpkins out. I did make her reach her hand in and touch the junk once and she freaked out, so I cleaned it and she told me what face she wanted. An Andi face. . . and Daddy needed to make a Sammy face pumpkin. So this is what we came up with. Don't worry she was totally impressed.
The one on the right is the Sammy pumpkin because it only has four front teeth like Sam. And the one on the left is the Andi pumpkin because it has lot's of teeth.

Andi posing with "her" pumpkin. Can't you see the resemblance?

Sammy has made new discoveries in the computer desk. Drawers have all kinds of fun things in them to be pulled out and thrown around. I snapped the first picture thinking to myself that we have a little trouble maker on our hands now. Then I pulled him into the other room and put the couple of things back in the drawer.

Later that same morning I found that he has discovered the file drawer. Even better.

He also has become very speedy at getting up the slide all by himself and seems to feel very proud of himself once he gets up there. this time he crawled up one handed because he won't let go of the stupid golf ball. He carry's that thing everywhere with him!


And this is Andi watching Annie. . . again. I think we watch it once a week. Is it weird for a 3 year old to be that in to musicals? last week she grabbed out High School Musical and wanted to watch it. I figured she'd get bored and walk away, but she loves the singing and dancing.

Aside from the kiddos I have put a big dent into the list of Christmas projects. We are now done with the gift for Thads family, and done with the gifts for the girls in my family. Now we just have the boys, and my little family to work on. Thad is going to be gone again next week so i'm sure I'll have more projects to talk about then.

For record keeping sake

I hate posting without pictures, but due to multiple camera traumas I have to do so. On the camera issue, the battery in mine has been dead, and it took me a while to find the charger. In the meantime I have been using Thads camera, which we don't have a cord for yet to connect it to the computer, so even though I do have some pictures of the latest happenings there is literally no way to get get them off the cameras. Lame. But don't worry, the new cord and charger will be here in the next few days.
In the meantime one huge thing to note for record keeping sake is that Sammy is so so so close to officially walking. If you stand him up and back away he will take four or five steps to you. Okay, so maybe it's more like falling and catching himself before he dives into your arms. But it's progress. More encouraging is that he will try to do the same thing when he sees something he wants. This usually does not end well as the toy cannot catch his fall. I am very excited about the prospect of him walking because he is so HEAVY and my back could use a break.
Andi has always been a very verbal child and listening to her talk is usually very entertaining. Especially when she tries to use big words like besgusting (disgusting) or bemeber (remember). She uses pretty much all words appropriately and that's half the funny. She loses me though when she starts telling me about her "new friends" which happen to be imaginary. They always live far away by the sun and have a little brother like her, and I can never pronounce their names. She doesn't give them normal names, it's just a jumble of sounds, like she thinks since she is making them up she should make up a completely original name for them too. The other thing she does is clarify for me that she is betending (pretending) things. If she asks for something and I say no, then she says she is pretending that she is doing it anyway. Or if I tell her it's not time to be a puppy it's time to be a girl and do what mommy says she gets exasperated. "mom, I'm just betending to be a puppy!" She's interesting.
Thad is on his first official business trip with the new job and it's going to take some getting used to. I think this time was especially hard because he was on a scout campout friday & saturday, home sunday, then gone at 5am monday morning and won't be back till the end of the week. He seems to be getting things accomplished which makes him happy, but he says he will be loading some video games on his laptop for the next trip.
Next post I promise will include pictures and not so much of my blah blah blah.

Ahhhhh . . . .

I have been back home for a week now and it has been the best week ever! Monday was really just the sweetest day. We went on a walk, went to target, played in the backyard, and made a real dinner, something I haven't done in months.
Andi also started dance this last week. Classes started a few weeks ago, but for obvious reasons we had to hold off on enrolling her. In fact the first thing she said when I told her Daddy got a new job was "I get to go to dance class now?!" So we did, and she was so excited she could hardly stand still long enough to listen to the teacher. Her favorite is tap because of the "noisy" shoes. Here she is on her first day of class.


Sammy's new favorite thing is the computer desk, mostly the printer actually. We have a nice little computer cabinet that shuts and covers everything, but he has figured out how to open the door. I found him here a few morning ago.

Sammy is getting closer to walking, with a little help from big sister. He holds on to the back of her old ride on toy while she rides and she drags him around the house.


Andi has taken quite an interest in our cameras lately. Well not lately, she's always liked to play with them, but Thad let her play with one all day and 400 pictures later she actually got a couple of cute shots of Sam. And of course several self portraits inspired by aunt kelsie.


And now it is time to get working on Christmas projects. I have everything decided on, it's just a matter of doing it. Less than 3 months to go, I really better get working ;)

Back in the Saddle

It has been an amazing week for our family. Thad was contacted last week by Rain for Rent here in Bakersfield and interviewed with several people. Last night we got the call offering him a job as their Director of Construction Management. Basically this amazing opportunity was dropped right in our laps. Rain for Rent till now has been a rental/fabrication company and would like to expand to a service company. The problem is that they have no Construction managers or project managers in any of their branches across the country. And since amazingly enough this national company was started right here in Bakersfield and still holds headquarters here, they wanted a Bakersfield guy to develop and run this new branch of their company. They were really impressed with Thad's knowledge and we realized again just how much the Lord has been guiding our little family. Had it not been for Thads experience in Fillmore, he would not have gotten this job. We hated him being in Fillmore at the time, but now have to be very grateful for the things he learned on that job and the people he made contacts with.
About a month ago I told Thad that we really needed to learn whatever it was the Lord wanted us to learn from him being unemployed quickly, so that he could get another job. And I think now, that Heavenly Father is still trying to beat the same old lesson in to my head. Patience, and faith that He really will take care of everything. That His plan will always be better than my plan, and that he is fully aware of each of our individual needs. Now, the fact that I realize this is what I'm supposed to be learning will probably not stop me from stressing and worrying the next time one of my plans for life has been derailed, but I promise to try to have more faith and trust so that we don't have to keep re-learning lessons.
So yay! Thad is gainfully employed!
To celebrate we drove up to Fresno today and took the kids to the Zoo up there. It's a very nice little zoo and the weather was perfect. We saw elephants, monkeys, zebras, tigers, bears, giraffs, seals, sting rays, and lot's of birds and reptiles.

Andi with some Lazy Kangaroos.


Sammy concentrating on the Zebras

Thad and the kids in "the Rainforest"


Going back to last week, Sammy has started doing the Mowgli crawl for some reason. It looks painful on the hips, but he's very fast with it, as you can tell from the blur of the picture.


He also got Roseola for a couple days. He was a little fussy but for the most part was a trooper. Here is a close up of the poor little guy.

Close up of his polka dot tummy.

Andi has made the leap from tricycle to big girl bike with training wheels. We have had two skinned knees so far, but we finally got a helmet and knee pads and hope that will lesson future injuries.
I can't express how grateful we are to all of our family and friends who kept us in their prayers these last 4 months, and especially for Renee who made sure, yet again, that I had a means of income. We feel very blessed and are excited for Thad to take on this new challenging position.

Another week goes by

Our latest "growing pain" with Andi is sharing her toys with Sammy. What's funny is that we have the biggest problem with her baby toys and things she hasn't played with in months and months. As soon as I pull it out of storage or the bottom of her closet for him she wants it and more importantly doesn't want him to have it. Like this bear chair for example. She hasn't used it in quite some time, but now she and Sammy have to sit on it together because she can't stand to have him on it all by himself.


She is very good about playing with him outside and is teaching him all kinds of fun/dangerous things. Like how to climb up the slide.

He did crawl all the way to the top, but I had to put the camera down at that point to make sure he didn't crawl off the edge of the play house.


And now we have some before and after of the bathroom. This is the original before, like before we moved in. Don't worry, the walls and cabinets were painted since the week we moved in, but the tile and new fixtures are what we have just finished working on.


And here is the after. Note the gross linoleum on the before, and the lovely tile in the after.


This is what is behind the cute curtain now. before it was one of those solid plastic things.


And here's a close up of the new floor. And Thad was right, it really did take no time at all. He had it all laid in one day, and after the 24 hour required wait time had it grouted the next.


And this is the new piece of wall decor in my bedroom, painted by my very talented friend Chelsie. I gave her a color scheme and she came up with this. I am actually going to be make a quilt and drapes with these colors and re-decorate our bedroom with this as the inspiration. When? I don't know. But it's on my list.

New Discoveries

If you hadn't noticed from the blog re-design I'm back. Not because anything fabulous happened and I'm back at home during the day, but because Thad was over the blogging fun and I kept having to pester him to update "our family journal." So I took it back.
Sammy has made all sorts of new discoveries lately. He likes to help me unload and reload the dishwasher.


He likes to splash in water, not matter where he finds it.


He likes to watch Baby Einstein videos, and will sit there zoning with a goofy little grin.


He likes to drink bathwater, but don't worry, he only likes it fresh from the faucet.

I saw him do that and of course had to grab the camera, and realized that this little guy knew what I was doing. He kept taking drinks over and over, but in between drinks he'd look at me sideways like this to make sure I as still watching and taking pictures.


And then when he was done he had to come get a close up shot.

He's such a happy fun little tank of a guy.
Andi has been doing some interesting things lately too. First, she likes to wear hats, and when we leaves the house she usually needs to have a hat, her sun glasses and her purse, meaning she looks something like this for her trip to the grocery store.

She has also decided that it is no longer fun to smile nicely for pictures and ends up doing something like this.In project news we put a new light fixture in the entryway. There has been this gross gold one, but it was one of those small projects that just kept getting pushed to the bottom of the list because it would take no time at all. This is the before.

And this is the after. Of course Thad couldn't just switch fixtures, he had to re-center and cut a new whole for a new box and new wiring, so it would be perfectly centered on the tile.


Today's project. Tiling the bathroom floor! Again, he says it will take no time at all, but I'll let you know how that goes.

blog slacking= long post/lot's of pictures

August has been a busy and eventful month. It started out with Bobby coming home from his mission to Argentina. The last two years have flown by so quickly I couldn't believe he was really already home. We've been able to see quite a bit of him in the last few weeks which is nice and Andi acted like he'd never been gone. The first day he was home, after 30 hours of traveling, she had him out on the trampoline with her.
We were able to spend a week at Shaver Lake with Thad's family. His parent's rented a nice cabin and borrowed some wave runners and it was a really fun week. We "drove boats" as Andi called it, built sand castles, had a rope swing, ate way too much, and laughed a lot.

Our Sunday Walk/Hike

The boys are severely outnumbered so they stick together

Yes, Thad really let Andi steer for a while.

Even Grandpa Richards(92 yrs old) took a ride

Sammy's baby corral

Grandpa and Andi both fell asleep during story time ;)

We came home Saturday in time to get cleaned up and take Family pictures with my family in our backyard, and spend the evening with them before Kelsie and Cameron had to get back home.



Sammy has decided that he is over baby mush food. He wants whatever we are eating and if he sees you walk in the room chewing he will crawl up to you and yell till he gets a bite of whatever it is. He's very pushy. He cruises along the furniture like crazy and has finally mastered the art of "getting down" without hurting himself. He loves to follow Andi around and investigate what she is playing with, which doesn't always go well. Andi is not as fond of Sammy's new found freedom of movement as he is.
Andi, besides making adjustments with Sammy, is NOISY! She is always telling us stories, or singing songs, and she loves to make Sammy laugh, but her methods usually require some squealing. She loves her primary class and singing time. I think once Thad gets a job we are going to start her in dance lessons to help her use up some of her crazy energy.
Now that it's written it doesn't sound like we've been that busy, but it has felt like a crazy month.