The kids and I decided to venture over to the temple site yesterday despite the frigid temps. Originally we were just going to drive by and see it since they were supposed to have put Moroni up on top of the spires on Wednesday. It ended up being too windy that day, so they did it yesterday morning and we got to see it. There were so many people there and the channel 9 news truck even drove by about 5 times. I’m not sure if they actually ever stopped, but I’m sure they were wondering what all the fuss was about. It was such a fun thing for the kids and I’m so glad we braved the cold to stay and watch.

 

I seriously thought I would be an old woman before we had a temple here and to be able to take a short drive and watch the progress and to tell my children how wonderful the temple is has truly been magical for me. I felt like my spirit was jumping for joy the entire time we were there yesterday. Like, “Look! Look! It will be so soon!” Going to the temple has been so hard to do regularly with our little ones and the distance. To have the Lord’s house so close to our own is a miracle for a young family like ours and we are so overjoyed! I’m so thankful for the blessings of the temple and for the opportunities I’ve had to teach my children about it in a way that is real to them. (Even if I did have to correct Ashelyn that it wasn’t Joseph Smith they were putting on the temple spire, haha!)

Gideon asked me if the temple would be here forever. It was really awesome to tell him yes!

Spring and summer are the best. If not for the glorious weather, then for the fact that I only have to cook about half as many meals now that Jake will be back manning the grill. Oh, I just love my hubby and his mad grillin’ skills! Check out this yumminess…

And just for good measure… pictures of my adorable kids!

I think I’ve finally come to realize that it’s okay that there are goldfish crackers crushed on my living room floor, piles of laundry waiting to be both washed AND folded, dishes to be done, and toilets to scrubbed as long as these little faces are smiling.

Because pretty soon they’ll be big and I’ll wish that I’d spent more time playing and less time worrying.

Gideon found a Star Wars kite while we were perusing the cheap-o toy aisle at Walmart. To top it off, it had Yoda on it. Clearly he thought he needed it immediately. (I’m not sure if he really knew what a kite was or if it was just the fact that he’s obsessed with Star Wars, but he definitely KNEW he wanted it.)

My thought progression went something like this:

“That thing is a piece of junk.”
”Is there even anything in the package?”
”It’s never going to fly.”:
“It’s only $1. Am I prepared to handle a meltdown over a dollar?”
”Nope.”

So, we got the kite.


Best dollar ever spent.

Hey there sweet baby boy,

Look at you getting so big! It seems like you want to be big so bad, but we went to the Dr. for your 8 week check up last week and you’re still so tiny!! 10 lbs. 1 oz. and 23 inches long! I just keep thinking that some babies are born that sized and you’re over two months old and still so sweet and little.

For how much you like to eat you’d think you’d be a chunky as Gideon was. Look at the difference between you and your brothers and sisters at your age!

You’re my little bean pole and I love it. You’re the best baby…. especially if you’re being held. Really though, that’s not your fault considering every time I lay you down you get attacked (with love….hugs and kisses.) by your brother and sister. You look at me with that little sad face like, “Can’t you get them to leave me alone?!” So most of the time I just snuggle you up to me. I tried to get you to sleep in your crib for the first time last night. That lasted all of 5 minutes. We’ll keep working on that.

Anyway, you really are such a good boy. I decided to try to get you to take a bottle for when we were traveling and you took to it like a champ, so you still have one every night before bed time. I think it might be part of the reason you’re such a good sleeper. You sleep pretty much through the night, from 10 to about 5:30 most nights. I can’t complain!

You’ve been smiling for about 2 weeks now, but of course you never will when the camera is out. That’s okay, I’ll catch it eventually! It’s the sweetest smile in the world! You just grin from ear to ear.

You’re such a joy. Love you baby E.

-Momma

Things you love  right now:

• Your binky
• BOOBIES
• Snuggling

Hey sweet girl,

As I watch you and Gideon play together I’m just blown away at how quickly time has gone. It truly seems just like yesterday that we moved into our house and hurried to get things set up because you were scheduled to arrive the very next day! Somehow, it’s been almost 3 years. Your birthday is only 3 months away!!!

You are sooo my daughter. You are all my good qualities and all my bad qualities rolled into one adorably rotten little princess! I guess I had it coming to me! Sometimes I just shake my head, recognize myself in you, and then feel bad for whatever I put my parents through as a toddler. Oh. My. Word!

You are too smart for me to handle sometimes. Nothing gets past you. The other day, you and Gideon were having a particularly bad argument because he had hit you with his “circus sword.” So, thinking I would solve things, I told Gideon he couldn’t hit,sat him in time out, took his sword and hid it in my room. You followed me and I thought nothing of it until we returned to the living room and you walked right over to where Gid was sitting in time out and told him. “Mommy, put your sword on her dresser, Giddy. Don’t worry buddy, don’t worry.” Haha! You are such a kook!

I guess the fact that you’re so much like me might have something to do with you being such a mother hen. You want to tell everyone what to do and take care of them and love on them. Most of the time you are so sweet, but boy are you feisty! You love playing with your dollies and love your new little brother.

I hope as you get older we’ll still be able to enjoy all the things we do now. I love doing your hair and painting your nails. I love that you are that perfect mix of girly and tough. (I like to think I’m the same.) I’m sure I’ll find the changing outfits 3 times a day annoying once you’re a teenager (I seem to remember getting yelled at for that….*ahem*), but I think it's pretty cute now. Just try not to take EVERYTHING out of your dresser next time, k?

Love you Ashelberry!

-Momma

Things you love right now:

• Singing!
• Picking out all your clothes.
• Anything pink, princess, or sparkly!
• Swings
• Coloring
• Dora
• Going to Nursery on Sunday!
• Taking pictures
• Dancing

Hey there Gid-Man,

Did you know I started blogging when you were born? Well, I did. I wanted to remember every little moment because I knew it would go by fast. (That’s what “they” tell you after all.) It’s gone by even faster than I could have imagined! I’m so thankful to have this to look back on, to see all the big moments that we’ve shared.

You are the funniest boy. It’s still weird to think of you as the BIG boy, but really, you are! You’re such a good helper and you love your sister and brother so much! You always want to give kisses and hugs and sometimes I forget that you’re just being sweet and get so frustrated when your big smooch wakes up Ezra. I need to do better about that.

You are so creative. You can turn anything into something new and take us all on a great adventure. Today, your golden golf club that Grampa Ron got you became a pirate’s sword and you and Ashelyn (her pink club in hand!) were on a hunt for treasure and fighting “bad guys". Although golf clubs wouldn’t have been my ideal choice for indoor adventures, I couldn’t resist the cuteness. Luckily, everything survived the pirate attack unscathed! When I tucked you in for nap time, you said, “Make sure my sword’s by my ladder Mom, I need it for if the bad guys come.” So there it sits, waiting for you to get up and march into the kitchen for lunch.

Love you so much my boy!

-Momma

Some of the things you love right now:

• Lego Star Wars on the PS3 (You play better than me! No joke.)
• Books/Stories
• Drawing People
• Playing outside
• Going to church
• Talking (Boy are you a talker!)
• Dancing
• Unloading the dishes
• Feeding & Playing with Thor
• Singing songs

Like I said, Jake stayed home with Gideon and Ashelyn while I was in San Antonio. The kids had so much to tell me about and had so much fun playing with Daddy and going to Aunt Sarah’s house. I imagine things were a little on the wild side.

Speaking of wild… check this girl out! Poor thing was sick the whole time I was gone, but that doesn’t really slow her down much.

Jay-Jay! Gid and Ashe love their cousins!

Gideon with Katie.

Jake and Ashelyn… on an adventure.

Can you tell she’s a Daddy’s girl?! Thanks again to Sarah for letting them play and helping keep my husband sane! (Even when it meant infecting your house with Ashelyn’s gross sickness! That’s love.)

My little brother Zachary graduated from Air Force basic training last weekend! I’m so thankful to my hubby for watching Gideon and Ashelyn for 5 days so that I could go! (And I’m REALLY thankful to his sister Sarah for letting him invade her house with my sick kiddos…. I’m sooo sorry!) I had such a great time in San Antonio. It’s a pretty cool little city and the weather was so much better than what was going on back home!

Mom and Me (and little teeny Ezra) waiting to spot Zach during the Airman’s Run (Thursday Feb 24).

All of us at the run. Zach’s girlfriend Jenni wasn’t able to make it until Saturday, so we brought the “Jenni on a Stick” from her Senior night basketball game. It did the trick, Zach totally spotted us! Not that the banner hurt in that department, ha. Zach said all the guys in his flight were giving him a hard time, “I saw your girlfriend Richardson… she was on a stick.” Good times! Also, Mom and I designed the sweet shirts we’re wearing and my sweet, wonderful, hubby printed them for us at the last minute! (P.S. Mom was about to wet her pants…BAHAHAHA!!! There wasn’t a bathroom close by.)

There’s a reason they call those things BCG’s! (Birth Control Goggles) I think that’s the last time he had to wear those ugly things! He says he’s mounting them into his BMX helmet so he doesn’t break anymore of his good pairs. We lucked out and were on the right side of the road so we got to see him. I wish I could explain how cool it sounds when there are 750 of them all running perfectly in step and singing (er… whatever it is) together. It’s awesome.

Up next was the Coin Ceremony.(Enter crappy cell phone pic) This is me and Ezra waiting for that to start. I discovered that the military does A LOT of hurry up and wait. Hurry up and get your seat at 8 am to wait  for the ceremony that starts at 10:30. Luckily little man is quite the trooper. Anyways, the Coin Ceremony is where all the trainees receive their Air Force Coin from their instructors and is when they officially go from trainee to airman. After the ceremony is over they all stand totally still at parade rest until the families are released and then you rush down and “tap” your airman. After that they are released to you for the rest of the day. Zach had two guys in his flight whose families weren’t able to be there until the next day, so we actually tapped them out as well and they spent the day with us. The amount of pizza consumed by these three was UNBELIEVABLE! No… really.
Airmen Smith, Lamosa, and Richardson…  (Parade rest)

And at ease :)
The next morning (Friday) was actually Graduation. It was definitely moving and honestly I found the order and discipline of the whole thing to be quite beautiful. They told a story of George Washington (I think) asking a Prussian general to come to America to teach his men to march and how the men immediately became more unified. Marching has been an integral part of every serviceman’s basic training from that time forward. Pretty awesome stuff. Gotta love that patriotic spirit!

My Grandpa bawled like a baby through the entire thing. I managed to keep my tears in check as long as I didn’t look at Grandpa! Grandpa’s aren’t supposed to cry you know.

Afterwards he got a town pass so we went and ate at the Riverwalk, went to the Alamo and to Ripley’s Believe It or Not.

Saturday was another town pass day so we all went to Sea World. That was really cool, but let’s just say I’m glad Dad was  able to get us free tickets! So expensive! I got this awesome picture of this giant walrus and a picture of me and Ezra with flamingos. I rock!Sunday we spent some more time on the base until I had to head to the airport. I had such a great time and I’m so glad I was able to be there for my brother. Now Zach’s off at Keesler AFB in Biloxi, MS (right on the ocean… so jealous!) to finish tech school until October.

‎"I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles." - Audrey Hepburn

Love her!