Daisy May Richardson

Announcing the newest member of our family...

Daisy May Richardson

born: January 14, 2011

11:49pm

Weight:  7 lbs. 3 ounces

Length: 21 inches

She is beautiful and a wonderful baby.  All the kids just love her and are big helpers! 

Here are a few pictures...

Upgraded?

Out with the old, in with the new.  Now these aren't the best pictures, but they do the job.  Since we are expecting a new baby any day now, we had to upgrade are vehicle.  Our Yukon XL didn't have any more seats left for our new little baby, so we have looked for months at big vans.  It was just so much more practical and we felt that's what we needed to do.  (I never thought that at age 30 I would be driving one of these.)  The boys were all so excited and love it!  

We are now the proud owners of a 2008 Chevy Express.  It is a 1 ton, 15 passenger van.  Crazy!  But I'll tell you that this "Great White Shark" can get up and go!  It has way more power than our Yukon!  The boys even go and play in it after school.  They call it their fort.  :)  Caleb and Carson love to vacuum it and wash it.  They are really good at keeping it clean.  (They had lots of practice with the Yukon as well.)  So there you have it!

Goodbye Yukon Cornelius

Hello...we are still trying to come up with an appropriate name.

Merry Christmas!!

We had a wonderful Christmas this past year!  Every year the kids open one present on Christmas Eve.  They love wearing their new pajamas to bed.  On Christmas Eve's Eve we went to Grandma and Grandpa Richardson's and had our traditional Red Chili Burros that we all love so much.  Then on Christmas Eve, we went over to Grandma and Grandpa Reed's house and the boys loved listening to Grandpa's stories.  On Christmas Day we visited lots of family.  We stopped by Grandpa and Grandma Reed's, Great-Grandma and Grandpa Bear's, Grandma and Grandpa Richardson's and then visited Great-Grandma Stanford in the hospital.  We loved it, but we were definitely exhausted!

Run, Caleb, Run!

The Middle School took the best runners from every class and had a big race, called the Candy Cane Race.  Caleb was chosen to run against the 5th grade boys.  He did really good!  Carson and Caleb would go running around our neighborhood to train for it.  Carson never got a chance to qualify because he was sick that day.  But we all cheered hard as Caleb ran the last stretch to the finish line!  I can't remember how long the race was, I think it was a mile or so.

Kids and Santa

We went to the Extended Richardson Christmas Party.  They hold it every year and have a nice little Nativity Program, lots of singing, treats and then Santa comes.  We always have a lot of fun!  Here are a few pictures of the kids...they all loved it, except Lacey.  (She stills gets scared when we mention Santa's name. )

Ashton

Devin

Calvin

Caleb

Lacey

Carson

Gilbert Temple Groundbreaking

On November 13, we attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the Gilbert Arizona Temple.  It was such a neat moment to participate in.  We made sure to get there extra early to get a good seat.  I'll be honest with you, it wasn't easy with all 6 kids to get there an hour early without Ben, but I really felt like it would be worth it and something that they would always remember.  

After the meeting, they let everyone who wanted to use the golden shovels and dig part of the ground for the official ground breaking.  Each of the kids were able to dig for a little bit.  (It was hard to get any good pictures of the kids digging because there were so many people.)

Every so often we drive past the future site of the Temple just to see how they are progressing with the building.  The boys always get so excited to see how far they are coming, and I get a little excited as well.  :)

All Grown Up-19 months

Ashton's Birthday

We celebrated Ashton's 7th Birthday in November.  He was so excited!  He wanted some army guys like Devin got for his birthday.  So now we have lots of army guys floating around our house and car, they have even showed up at church in pockets!  

He wanted a cake that had a letter A.  It stands for Super A. (A super hero that he created himself.  He even has a cape that has an A on it as well.)  

Ashton is such a sweet boy and loves working with his Dad out in the garage (aka: the shop).  We are so glad that he is a part of our family.

All the kids watching the present opening.

Ashton is so excited to get the army guys!

The "A" cake.

Ashton blowing out the candles.

Halloween

We had a great time dressing up for Halloween!  Every year we go over to the Richardson's house and have dinner and the kids go to booths that each family is in charge of.  The next night we went to our Ward's Chili Festival for a Trunk or Treat.  We love going to parties! 

Ashton - The Rodeo Clown

Caleb - The Punk Rocker

Calvin - The Crazy Nerd

Devin - Mr. Incredible (with no shoes)

Carson - The Doctor

Lacey - The Little Ladybug

Wolves and Webelos

We had a lot of awards the last pack night!  Calvin received his Wolf award and had to be like a wolf and did through the "snow" (whipped cream) to find it.  Both Caleb and Carson received their Webelos Award.  They had to put "fangs" in their mouth and say "We'll Be Loyal Scouts" five times fast!  Everyone was laughing and having a good time.

Calvin digging in the snow.

He finally found his award.

Carson and Caleb getting ready for their challenge.

Caleb says it first.

Now it's Carson's turn.

1st Quarter Awards

The boys  all ended their 1st Quarter with a bang!  I had a very busy morning attending Awards Assemblies.  It wouldn't have been so bad if they were all at the same school, but that didn't happen.  And not only that, but they were at the same time at different schools!  

So I started with Ashton.  He didn't know it, but he received P.E. Student of the Quarter for the 1st Grade.  Every quarter, their Coach picks one boy and one girl from each grade and they become the P.E. Student of the Quarter.  He was so surprised!  He said that his legs were shaking so bad standing up there!  Now everyone of the boys have received that award and Coach even brought that up announcing it.

Ashton-P.E. Student of the Quarter for the 1st Grade

A very excited Ashton!

Right after Ashton received his award, I rushed off to Caleb and Carson's school.  Luckily, I made it just in time and their classes were next!  They started off with Student of the Month.  It was such a surprise to both Caleb and I when Mr. Trujillo announced that he was the Student of the Month for his class.  I was sitting way up in the stands, so the pictures didn't turn out so good.  Mr. Trujillo said the nicest things about Caleb. 

Mr. Trujillo's Student of the Month-Caleb

The reason I went to their school was because both Caleb and Carson were on the Principal's List.  That means that they both received a 4.0!  We were so proud of all their hard work!

Carson - a 4.0 student!

Caleb - a 4.0 student!

I after their awards, I rushed back to the elementary school hoping to make it in time for Calvin's award.  (I don't know how I could have planned it better, but I made it with a few minutes to spare!  I was really worried I would miss his.  Devin and Lacey were quite the troopers!  They did so good!) Calvin made the Principal's List as well.  Another 4.0 GPA!

Calvin - a 4.0 student!

As you can imagine, we are so proud of all our boys!  They worked so hard!  We celebrated by having Quiznos subs and some pizza and watching a movie!