Cheese Crisps

Is it bad when your 3 year old knows how to make cheese crisps by himself?

Devin LOVES cheese crisps! After we had lunch and I just cleaned up everything, I came back into the kitchen and saw this...

I guess Devin was still hungry and decided to help himself. He could find the flour tortillas, so he just used corn tortillas instead. How resourceful! Funny boy! (The shirt he is wearing is one he "designed" himself with highlighters.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was wonderful! We did alot of visiting with family. The morning started off by the boys and Ben giving me a radio for the kitchen, which I am so excited about! I had one when we lived in Tucson and I loved it! I would borrow books on CD's from the library and would listen to books as I would clean. We then went to our church and then hurried over to listen to Judd (Ben's brother) speak in his ward since he just returned home from his mission. We went over to eat at the Richardsons and talk to Jordan (Ben's other brother on a mission). And then we went over to my paren'ts house to talk to John (my brother on a mission). It was a day full of fun! And I just wanted to tell both of our moms out there how much we love them and appreciate all that they do for us. We couldn't ask for better mothers.

Photography by Caleb

Little Lacey

Here are a few more pictures of our sweet, little Lacey. She looks so different every day!

Lacey Jane Richardson

Our precious, little girl is here! She is so beautiful and we love her so much.

Lacey Jane Richardson

born: April 8, 2009

weight: 6 pounds 15 ounces

length: 19 1/2 inches

time: 7:17 pm

Here is Caleb holding his only sister for the first time.

Look at all that hair! We're going to have to put a little ponytail in it! Cute! Cute!

Mommy and baby...

Ben is such a good dad! We still can't believe that after all these years, we finally have our girl!

Now the story...

I was scheduled to be induced on Wednesday, April 8 at 10:30am. They weren't sure if they would really induce me so they checked me and got the doctors go ahead. They started potocin at 12:00. Nothing was happening, so they doctor said the nurses could start me on some gel. Before they took me off the potocin, the nurse decided to check me and my water broke! Yea! That was at 6:00 pm. My water never breaks on it's own and once it is broken, I go really fast. At this time, I was about at 4 cm and then the contractions started fast and hard. They went from nothing to 2 minutes apart! I told Ben that this is going to be fast. So he called my mom and his sister, Heather, who is a doula. It's a good thing they came fast because she was born at 7:17pm. Only 1 1/2 hours of labor! What a blessing! She is so perfect and beautiful!

I've never been induced before and I was really nervous about it. People always say you can't do it naturally because the contractions are too strong. But I just felt like everything was going to be OK. (Even if I did cry on the way to the hospital. Poor Ben!) Ben's Spring Break was that week and we really wanted to have her during the break so he could be there and help out when I got home. Anyway, the labor and delivery was great! The nurses and doctors were great! Everybody was fantastic! I really believe that it was a blessing that I got induced when I did because the whole time I was pregnant, the head wouldn't drop and come to find out, the cord was wrapped around her neck and had to be cut immediately before she was born all the way! Everything has worked out perfectly! I feel so blessed and feel that Heavenly Father was really watching out for our little family!

Thanks to everyone who helped! We really appreciate it!

Doctor Carson

Every once in a while Carson will dress up really nice and walk around the house with his stethoscope (it's Ben's old one from years ago). He really wants to be a doctor when he grows up and I think that he'll make a mighty good one!

Cookies and Lots of Fun!

Here are just some random pictures...

Devin loves to climb the fences at my parent's house.

Calvin loves exploring and collecting things. This boy has a collection for just about everything!
Here are some of the cookies we made and took over to my parent's house. Devin loved to hold them and especially loved to sneak an M&M or two every once in a while.

The New and Improved Carseat

Here is my most recent project...

I made a new car seat cover for our little girl. And here is the finished result.

I took the old cover and cut the new material and sewed it together based on what the old one looked like. I did have to make some modifications because I wanted the canopy to be lined. That was a little more difficult. But after a lot of thinking and praying and visualizing, it all came together!

I think it's appropriate for a girl, don't you?

A Nightly Ritual

I love to read to the boys. We found such a great book! The boys are always asking me to read Fablehaven to them. This is what happened when I read one night. They kept asking and asking me to read another chapter...about an hour and a half later, this is what we ended up with. If anyone wants to read a great book, give this one a try. I'm really enjoying the "nightly reads" as well.

Happy Birthday Caleb and Carson!!!

Caleb and Carson just celebrated their 9th birthday on Friday!

We had a busy day full of lots of fun things!

Here are a few things about Caleb...

Loves music

Loves riding bikes

Great at making eggs

Can do a headstand like no one else

3rd Grader

Cub Scout

Wonderful big brother

Has good handwriting

Good piano player

Loves having family parties

Loves to play in the Creek

Keeps his room clean

Loves being a twin!

Here are a few things about Carson...

Great sandwich maker

Loves a good book

3rd Grader

Cub Scout

Super big brother

Has a good imagination

Wants to be a doctor

Good at drawing

Good piano player

Very sensitive and thoughtful

Very helpful

Loves to play Settlers of Catan and Pit

Keeps his room clean
Loves being a twin!

We put some trick candles on the pie. Every time the boys would blow them out, they would light back up again. Everyone was getting into it. It was really funny!

The boys wanted an apple pie instead of a cake, so here it is...

Here are a few of the presents that they opened that morning.

They loved their bag of treats. I think that the hot cheetos were a favorite!

Such excitement!

Happy Birthday Boys! We love you!

The boys

Here are a few of the individual pictures that Chea took of the boys.

Devin - age 3Carson - age 8

Caleb - age 8

Calvin - age 6

Ashton - age 5

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.

Devin's Headwound

Back in January, Devin's head made contact with some kind of toy. This was the end result. Ben went to work and glued him all back together. (Kind of nice to avoid a hospital visit.) He did a pretty good job too!

As you can see, the injury didn't affect Devin very much. Here he is being "tough and strong". It's a good thing that kids bounce back so quickly!