Happy Birthday Ben!

In January, we celebrated Ben's birthday!  We actually celebrated it a day late because he worked some crazy hours on his real birthday and we never saw him that day.  Needless to say, we were excited for him to open his presents because I had a special surprise for him!

He was not expecting a box from Blair's.  It's a company online that has some of the hottest sauces in the world!  He had a bottle of Death Sauce before we moved, but it got thrown away during the move and he was so sad.  So I ordered him a sampler pack.  It has four different sauces and I heard they were pretty hot!  There is no way I am going to find out though!  In the box were also some really hot potato chips that Ben and the boys scarfed down!

Now for the surprise he didn't know was coming:  an iPad2!  You should have seen his face!  It was a great investment and he uses it all the time.  You know...all those high tech medical apps!  :)  I had to surprise him good because he bought me a really nice sewing machine last year...

Can you tell how excited Caleb was?  It was everything the boys could muster to not tell Ben the surprise because they all knew.

Congratulations Dr. Richardson!

Congratulations are in order for Dr. Ben Richardson!  After many long years, he graduated from Medical School on June 3, 2011.  He worked so hard!  Here are pictures of the festivities.  We had a graduation party for him that evening, but I forgot to take pictures.  We all had so much fun and want to thank everyone who participated and helped in this journey.

All the adults that attended the graduation: Grandma Stanford, Ben's parents, my parents, Lacey, and Grandma and Grandpa Bear.

Calvin, Devin, Ashton, Carson, Caleb. (I held Daisy)

Ben was a part of the first graduating class of ATSU: SOMA.

Ben had some wonderful mentors.

Our family

Grandma Stanford and Ben

Ben and his parents

Ben and Briana

Ben with Grandma and Grandpa Bear

Ben with my parents

The kids being so patient.

How many people graduate from medical school with 7 kids?

And they are good kids and very helpful!

Our family

Ben with Grandma and Grandpa Richardson. They weren't able to come, so we went to them!

We are so proud of all that Ben has accomplished and the wonderful example he has set.  Now on to new adventures in El Paso!

Long Days

Lacey and one of her many babies.

Haven't we all had one of those days.  The kind of day where you can't keep your eyes open one more second.   I'm sure that's how Ben feels everyday.  

Welcome to the life of OB/GYN Resident.  Poor guy works about 13 to 14 hours a day.  Although, he is so excited because he gets this weekend off. He hasn't had a day off for 2 weeks!  He doesn't even have time for a lunch break! 

Some people will ask me how I like being a single mom.  I don't feel like that in any way.  Ben and I are very much a team.  We always have been.  He is such a great father and husband and I feel very blessed!

White Coat

This white coat has gone through a whole lot.  Four years ago, Ben attending the first White Coat Ceremony of A.T. Still University - School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona (SOMA).  

And since then, he has worn this coat to many different offices, trying all sorts of specialties.  This coat has been washed, ironed, hemmed, lost buttons, restitched and still did it's job.  It has held important tools like stethoscopes, little books, badges, name tags, pens, electronic tools and possibly even food. It has been hauled to and fro, and dropped on the ground many times.  

It has been there through the questions and answers and tests.  It has been there to surgeries and routine visits.  And most importantly, it has been there as Ben figured out what specialty he wanted to go into: OB/GYN.

It's permanent residence was on a hanger in Ben's truck, always there when it was needed.  Now it hangs in the closet.  It's job is done and will soon be replaced with another.

Ben is officially done with all his rotations!  What a strange feeling to be done and to have accomplished so much: a lifelong goal.  It has been a long road, but now this one is coming to an end.  He's not completely done yet.  He still has a few odds and ends that he needs to finish up, but the white coat is being retired.  We are looking forward to Graduation Day - June 3, and then Ben will be officially Dr. Richardson!  

Just an average, typical day

Sometimes life seems to go by quickly and the typical daily activities just get passed by the wayside.  Days turn into weeks and then months and, well, you get the picture.  Since we are going to be moving next month, we have been reflecting on the past four years of living here and how much we have loved it!  

Just recently one of my aunts asked me what are some of my favorite memories of my childhood.  I immediately thought of the little things that my parents probably thought were insignificant, but they are the things that I treasure the most.  The first thing that comes to mind is one time when we dug up our garden and before we turned it into rows, Dad hid gummy worms under the big dirt clods.  I still remember him running into the house and telling us that he found something outside in the dirt.  We were all so excited and ran outside as fast as we could!  And we all thought we scored the biggest treasure in the world!  

Or when Dad put the sprinkler under one of the trees during a winter freeze and when we woke up that morning to a tree full of icicles!

Or camping for that one week up on the rim and immediately following it with the Ward campout.  Boy, were we dirty!  And I will have to say that us girls were pretty fast with that .22 single shot.  You brothers better watch out we were pretty competitive!   

So with that being said, Ben and I often talk about what our kids will remember from their childhood. Hopefully, they remember the good stuff.  :)  I decided to take a few pictures of our normal activities.

Our neighbors will probably be the first to tell you that we have a noisy house!  With a houseful of kids, that's probably a given.  But I am one of those "mean" moms that make their kids practice music.  Our piano is playing beautiful music all the time.  (Or maybe it's only beautiful in our minds.)    There is always someone practicing the piano, so that means that the other instruments have to practice in the other rooms.  Both Caleb and Carson are in the advanced orchestras at their schools.  Caleb plays violin and Carson plays cello.  Their dream is to have a Richardson quartet and play at weddings and other events.  They already have music picked out for my unmarried brothers weddings.

Caleb practicing his violin.

All of our boys faithfully do their homework.  There are those time that they slack off and want to play instead.  So I just tell them that they don't have to do it and for them to tell their teacher what their decision was.  Then they beg me let them do their homework early in the morning.  Funny kids.  But I will have to say that they take pride in their work.  When they have a project due, they want to do it good.  They even get out my stamp pads and paper and make it fancy!

Calvin doing homework.

Ashton doing his homework.

After school just wouldn't be fun without something to eat!  Don't you remember how hungry you were when you got home from school?  Well, as soon as the boys walk through the door, they tell me how hungry they are!  So even Little Lacey takes advantage of the good food!

Lacey eating her sandwich.

Not very often is Ben home in the afternoons, but he was this day!  And when he is home, he always feels the need to work on something, or fix something.  I personally think that he just wants to get his tools out.  :) 

Dad working hard.

And the boys follow right in his footsteps.  Ben should be proud!
The boys are always wanting Ben to make them something.  It's usually a wooden sword, or a guitar, or a rabbit cage.  The list goes on and on.

Caleb helping Devin sand down his sword.

Devin working on it himself.

You have to use tools to cut up junk to throw in the dumpster.
Isn't that what you do?

Manly tools = lots of sparks

There is always some kind of rough housing.  It's all meant to be fun and games...but there are those times when it gets a little too rough.  Well, to be honest, it usually always gets to rough and someone ends up getting hurt or crying.  Some phrases you will always hear me say are:

"Boys, it's getting too rough." or 

"Settle down boys!" or

"You know that every time you don't listen to me, someone always gets hurt!"

Carson and Caleb sword fighting.

Sometimes, a few of us take naps.  And it's usually not me.  :)  Although I can dream, right?  Ahh!  The silence! 

Sweet Daisy sleeping away.

And then we can't forget to eat some more!  Did I mention that we go through a lot of food?  Well, we do and I don't think it will slow down any time soon.  :)

Caleb eating some more.

Watch out El Paso!

The Richardson's are heading to El Paso in June!  Ben was accepted into the OB/GYN residency program in El Paso.  We are excited for our next adventure, but sad that we are leaving our friends and family in QC.  Ben received the email telling us where he matched on St. Patrick's Day (note the green outfits).  We were all excited!  He actually got his first choice!  We are so proud of Ben and all his hard work! 

Wrapped Around Her Finger

Need I say more...

Ben's B-day Pictures

I'm just a tad bit late on posting this...
These are just a few pictures of Ben opening his birthday presents.

Happy Birthday Ben!!!

I wanted to wish Ben a Happy Birthday! We are so glad that he is a part of our lives!

Here are a few of the things that I love about him...

He is always happy. People have asked me if he's like that at home and he is! What you see is what you get!

He's always optimistic, even when things may not be going "as planned". (Which they usually don't in our house.)

He is very helpful around the house.

I love how he makes breakfast in the morning.

And I especially love when he does the dishes!

He helps out by doing laundry and putting the boys to bed and cleaning the house and knowing when I need "a break".

He loves his tools and I think that he gets them out just to look at them every once in while since he has been back in school and doesn't use them as often.

I know that I take for granted how handy he is with everything from working on cars to working on A/C units to plumbing to framing to roofing to computers and even to gluing our kids back together. ;) He has done it all!

He is very creative when it comes to playing with the boys. He comes up with activities and games and makes up some pretty incredible stories.

He is a wonderful father! I love the example that he sets for all these boys that run around our house. :) It's amazing how much they look up to him! And really quite interesting to hear some of the conservations he has with the boys from science to math to biology and "doctor stuff" to fixing things to spiritual things to funny things.

I love how he makes goals for himself and he always accomplishes them!

He is very dedicated to the things that he sets his mind to.

He inspires me constantly and always makes me laugh!

There is never a dull moment in our house!

Thanks for all you do and I love you!

Our Family Camping Trip

We decided to go on a family camping trip in November. We had quite an interesting trip. Nothing went as planned, but we made the best of it and really enjoyed ourselves. We stopped by lots of different places that we used to just drive on by. It all started off on Friday night, we got a late start and went to the boys' favorite camping site at Pickett Post. Unfortunately, someone took our Plan A spot and our Plan B spot. It was already dark and everyone was starving so after driving and finding the next best thing, we stopped and made dinner. The bad part about it was that it was soooo windy there! We didn't even set up our tents, Ben took the back seat out of the Yukon XL and I made all the boys and myself a bed in the car. Ben set up a little tent and slept outside. I'm surprised that he didn't blow away! It was pretty bad. So the next morning we packed up and decided to go somewhere else. We drove and drove and couldn't find a place that we wouldn't blow away at. So we picked up breakfast at McDonald's, since our eggs all broke during the trip and stopped by a few places (you can look at all the pictures below). We eventually went back to our Plan A spot and no one was there. So we made lunch there and went on a little hike. It was so beautiful and we all enjoyed ourselves! As we were leaving, we noticed that we had a flat (or really low) tire. Luckily, we made it back into Superior and aired it up. What a trip! It is one that we will not forget!

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Here are some pictures of our stop in Superior...

The boys (and especially Ben) loved looking at all the mine equipment.

Devin and Carson...
The mine equipment is right off the highway. Here is Calvin showing off the sign.

At our Plan A campsite, the boys made these little bridges. They were really quite impressive. They broke sticks into the right sizes and would see if they would hold when the water would run underneath.

This is the place that the wagon wheels from many years ago made quite the impression as they traveled along the trail.

These are pictures from our little hike. The place is really beautiful. Ben and the boys would tell me about it all the time. I guess that I thought they were just exaggerating since it is still in the desert...only 45 minutes away!

Here is Devin showing me the path.

Now that's alot of boys!

Left to Right: Calvin, Devin, Caleb, Ashton, Carson

Carson

Ashton

Calvin

Caleb

Here are some pictures in Globe at a little park right off the highway. The playground equipment is so old! We have always wondered if anyone stops to play there. We were the only ones there!

Here's Ashton!

Carson

Here is Devin and Ashton playing on the "working equipment".

Caleb looking inside.

Devin