Family Camping...

Two weekends ago we went on our church's family camping trip. We went to the lake home of a family in our church and had such a great time! The weather was wonderful for this time of year - unseasonably cool in the upper 80's and lower 90's, the kids had a great time swimming, canoing, climbing rocks, fishing, hiking up to "the blue hole" swimming area, and so much more. We got to try out our new camping equipment, and are excited for the chance to use it a few more times before I'm too pregnant to enjoy it. Here are the pix I got, of course not nearly as many as I had hoped, but it will give you a glimpse into our trip.

Josh jumping (upper left)

Little Bear Grylls...

So Calvin has
been very in
to Man Vs. Wild
since we
discovered it
about a year ago.
Recently, Bear
was on some
sort of
adventure in the Black Hills
and used tree branches sort
of like ice picks to climb up
the sand hills. Upon first
glance, the top picture
looks like a pretty normal
shot of our living room.
But if you look closer, you will
see that Calvin not only enjoys
the show, but takes it pretty
seriously!

Ahh, two year olds

Just thought I'd share our experience with leaving a two year old to her own
devices when she's supposed to be napping. Looks comfy to me, especially those
tights without anything underneath! Atleast she finally went to sleep, right?

Yes that's right...

Yes that's right, I did just say little sister in the post below. We found out almost two weeks ago that number 4 is a girl! :) We are very excited and think this will be a very good thing for our family, especially Colette. We have a dvd of the ultra sound - it's cool to see her move around, open her mouth, and even yawn! We had hopes of posting it up here, but can't figure out how to get it in the right format. Hopefully we'll figure it out soon. Two boys and two girls...sounds great to us!

Colette's First Day...

Well, we were pretty quick to get report's up of the boys' first days of school, they both had pretty good ones. And then there's Colette. As evidenced by these pictures, she was very excited to go to school. That excitement soon faded when she realized I wasn't staying with her. Fast forward four weeks, and we have still had about the same number of rough days as good ones. She is slowly getting used to things at school, she has made a little friend who is also unsure of this whole be without Mommy thing. Apparently, according to the teachers and day school director, the two feed off of each other and are rather used to crying and commiserating together. However, last week was pretty good altogether, both Tuesday and Thursday Colette's little report sheet said she was in a "good" mood. Overall we're still feeing like this is a good place for her - especially when little sister comes :) .

First Days of School...

 

 

 

 

Today was Josh and Calvin's first day of school, Calvin's first day of school ever. So most of this post will be about Calvin. Sorry Josh, but you're an old pro by now. We were worried Calvin would be nervous, especially after his prayer at dinner last night, "We pray that I would not get picked on and that I would not be nervous." But he was up at the crack of dawn talking a mile a minute, never pausing to express any concern at all. He hid behind me when we got to the classroom, but was soon saying hi to a boy he'd met at the "Meet and Greet" last week. As I left his teacher handed me a little ziploc bag w/ this in it:

1 Cotton Ball
1 Tissue
1 Tea Bag

And the following note: "Dearest Kindergarten Parents, Here is a little "gift" for you as you leave your precious ones with me on the fist day of school. As you hold this cotton ball in your hand, the softness will help you to remember the gentle spirit of your child. After you've gone home and dried your tears, make yourself a hot cup of tea. Put up your feet and relax. Remember that together you and I will work for your child to be the best they can be. Thank you for entrusting your child to me for the coming school year. I will do my very best every day to be your child's guide in learning and exploring this bright, new world they've just stepped into."

How sweet is that! Needless to say I felt/feel pretty good about his teacher. And so does he. When I picked him up he was on and on about upper and lower case letters, his two new friends, and how pretty and dressed up his teacher was :). All in all it was a great day for Calvin and for Josh. Josh was, of course, very excited for everything they did. He says his class is great and the kids are all very nice. He gets to see his very good friend at recess and made another friend whom he calls DJ and DJ calls him Hip Hop. Have no idea how they came up with that one :).

Ok, here are the pix. Notice Colette, she is a bit confused as to why she's not going to school today. That's tomorrow for her!

Happy Father's Day!!!

To our dad's, Grandpa Bill and Grandpa Mel,

To start off, we asked the kids to draw pictures of each of you. Here's the results:

Grandpa Bill, by Josh

Grandpa Bill by Calvin

Grandpa Mel by Josh

Grandpa Mel by Calvin

When given the same assignment as the boys (to draw her Grandpops), Colette ran for the table and started right in on her drawing. Though her intentions were good, she was quickly distracted by how nicely marker colors on the table, and left before we could get much out of her. We did, however, manage to get this before she took off on another secret mission of utmost importance:



In Colette's world, we think circles are people since she usually will name them if you ask her who they are. So, either Colette thinks she has a bunch of Grandpops, or just a big family. :)

Next, we asked the kids some questions about their Grandpas. Here's what they said:
Q: How old are your Grandpas?
Grandpa Bill:
Josh: 48
Calvin: 48
Colette: 8
Grandpa Mel:
Josh: 45
Calvin: 45
Colette: 5

Q: How strong are your Grandpas (how much can they lift?)?
Grandpa Bill:
Josh: 15 lbs.
Calvin: 25 lbs.
Grandpa Mel:
Josh: 14 lbs
Calvin: 18 lbs.

Q: If your Grandpas were super heros, who would they be?
Grandpa Bill:
Josh: The incredible Hulk
Calvin: Indiana Jones
Colette: Barney
Grandpa Mel:
Josh: Superman
Calvin: Iron Man
Colette: Dora

Q: What is your favorite thing to do with your Grandpas?
Grandpa Bill:
Josh: Golfing
Calvin: Going to the lake two times
Colette: Watch Barney
Grandpa Mel:
Josh: Riding bikes
Calvin: When he pushes me on a swing
Colette: Eat

Q: How much do your Grandpas weigh?
Grandpa Bill:
Josh: 70 lbs.
Calvin: 100 lbs.
Grandpa Mel:
Josh: 57 lbs.
Calvin: 200 lbs.

Q: How do you know your Grandpas love you?
Grandpa Bill:
Josh: Because he takes me fishing and golfing.
Calvin: Because we love to play on the trampoline.
Grandpa Mel:
Josh: He likes to take me bike riding.
Calvin: We both like to catch butterflies.

To our Dad's - we love you and miss you - we can't wait to see you in just a couple weeks!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!

Can You Guess the Riddle?

What do we all have in common?

Brett Farve

James Madison

A Poker Hand

Dice

Clover

The Richards Kids

Colette was a good little monkey, and always very curious...

"Hi Colette! Oh my. OH MY. What have you done? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" These are roughly my words a couple mornings ago when Colette greeted me at the door. We have finally had our first experience with hair and scissors. Can't believe it took until the third kid for this to happen...yet when considering who our third kid is, there should be no surprise. So here are the much anticipated pix. They're not the day of the incident, those are frozen on my laptop, but they're a couple days after. Sorry they're a bit dark - look closely and you'll see :). Just the day before this fiasco I was walking Colette and Calvin over to church and thinking to myself how cute her hair was getting, I had the sides of her hair up in two little pony tails and left the rest long. I thought, "I can't wait for the family up north to see it!" Now I know this is may be silly of me to fuss so much over hair...I know...I guess I learned my lesson. So then we get to church and a lady from our congregation, whom we barely know but is very nice, had left a little package in the office for Colette with two packs of hair clips and ties in it! The day before she chops it. Of course. So once I had come to terms with the reality of her sheering, I took her to Cool Cuts for Kids. Surely I wasn't the first person to have this sort of emergency. Thankfully they're used to crazy moms like me. We waited 20 mins for her turn and I showed the hair dresser what she had done. I told her I wasn't ready to cut her long hair. She said, "Then we shouldn't". It was that simple. She also gently told me there really wasn't a lot she could do with it anyway - not with it being this short. :) She said we could come back once it has grown out a bit and maybe do a cute short style. So, she now has a sort of 80's spike/mullet thing going on, but at least we can still pull the one clump of bangs over w/ a barrette! :)

Enjoy!!

Happy Mothers Day

Hello Grammas. Here are some special "treats" for Mother's Day from the kiddos. First, a survey of the kid's thoughts about their Grammas:
1. What is your favorite activity with Grammie Sarah?
Josh- Bike riding.
Calvin - Same as Josh.
Colette- Mommy...yeah.
2. What is your favorite activity with Gramma Laura?
Josh and Calvin - Swim...and bouncing on the trampoline.
Colette - "Yeah".
3. What is one thing you miss about Grammie Sarah?
Josh- "That she is not always in TX and we're not always in MN, because then we would see her more."
Calvin- "The same as Josh."
Colette- Head dive off of couch.
4. What is one thing you miss about Gramma Laura?
Josh and Calvin- "That I can not always talk to her on the phone."
(We've lost Colette at this point, she's busy taking pictures of walls, couch cushions, and carpet.)
5. I love Grammie Sarah because...
Josh and Calvin- She is really nice.
6. I love Grammie Laura because...
Josh and Calvin - She's really nice.
7. Grammie Sarah is an awesome Grammie because...
Calvin - "She's really nice to us and she loves playing with us."
Josh - "She likes to take us bike riding."
8. Grammie Laura is an awesome Grammie because...
Josh - "She takes us swimming."
Calvin - "She really likes us and she spends time with us."

And now some "odes" to our Grammies...

Calvin's Poem to Grandma Sarah...
Grammie I love you
I know, I know.

What do you do to play with me,
When I see you and you see me?

Oh yes, oh yes
What do you do?
I just hope that you are you.

Oh Grandma, oh Grandma
When you look at the sky
How do I wonder
So great to me.

Calvin's Poem to Grammie Laura...
Grandma I see you too
I love you
and I see you.

When I dream about you,
I love you too.

You're like an angel
Flying in the sky
When I play with you
Time flies by.

Josh's Poem for both his Grammies...

"Flowers"

Flowers love the great treat.
Flowers are sweet.
Grammas make grandsons yummy treats.
Grammas are very sweet.

* * * * * *

So there you have it - we love you Grammie Sarah and Grammie Laura - Happy Mother's Day!

Once every two months...

That seems to be how often we post on here. To give you a small slice of our life lately, here is a conversation we had on our way out the door to go to coach pitch practice:
Josh: I can't believe I am seven.
Dad: I can't believe it either.
Josh: So much changes when you turn seven...
Dad: (Holding back laughter) Like what exactly?
Josh: You lose a lot of teeth.
This of course leads to a discussion about going to the dentist, and whether or not Josh needs braces. Which leads to the following dialogue:
Dad: You aren't getting braces, because you're only seven, and you don't have adult teeth yet.
Josh: How do you know that?
Dad: Because I am a Dad...
Calvin: and Dads know everything about everything.

Last story. On our way home from practice we drive on a fairly bumpy paved road. As we go over these bumps Josh makes this attempt at not being offensive:
Josh: Boy it sure is hard for a passenger to drink their Gatorade in the backseat when the person driving hits all of the bumps in the road...Don't you think Dad?

Colette's a big girl...

This weekend was one of those notches in the wood for Colette. Actually two notches. The first was more for Mommy than her - Saturday was the first time I braided her hair. Given my job as resident hair braider for all four years of volley ball in High School, I sometimes thought about what it would be like to braid my own girl's hair. So here it is, and she even sat still and let me do it! More fun.

Notch two is one of those somewhat monumental steps for those of us who gave in to the pacifier. Today, Sunday February 17th, Colette mailed her "suckies" to her little friend Anderson. We would have mailed them to either cousin Ellie or Halle, but she doesn't recognize either one by picture yet :(. So, since Anderson is her buddy, and she knows who he is from his Christmas picture, we thought he would be a good choice. Now, he is technically a "baby", which is what we were looking for in candidate, but he is the same height and almost ten pounds heavier than Colette! Even so, she actually seemed ok with it, and so I went along with her restrained enthusiasm. I got out the mailing envelope and explained what we were going to do (we have been talking about this and gradually weening her from them for a while), and she put the suckies in the envelope with little prompting! All the while, pointing at Anderson's picture. I quickly rounded up Josh and Calvin and we headed over to the post office. The stamp machine was not working, so we headed to the other post office near us. This too did not have a functional machine. Determined to mail these suckies off, I decided Colette didn't care if they didn't have a stamp on them, and I just wanted them out of the house, so we mailed them anyway, sans stamps. By the time they come back to us, she'll be long over them, right? We can only hope. We celebrated with some chocolate dipped cones from Mickey D's. Here's the pix:

We're so proud of you, Colette!
(Please pray for Mommy as we may have a LONG night ahead of us!)

**DISCLAIMER** Ok, so I (Abby) feel like I need to post a disclaimer in reference to the post below. Greg and I have agreed that we will never post a blog about the other person without their consent. In light of this, I want you to know that not only did Greg approve of the post, but he helped pick out the picture!

Calvin explains it all...

So this afternoon Calvin asked me (Abby) to help him with a project in the kitchen. I was sitting in the premier spot on our sectional, reading a magazine. This spot is on the end and is favored by most members of our family. This said, it's pretty tough to climb out of, so I asked Calvin to give me a hand. As he pulled on my arm, he shared this with me, "That's Daddy's spot. His bum is way stronger than yours and it squishes the couch down."

Hmmm, that takes me back...

A Couple of Colette

Ready for the day!!

Here's Colette showing her Puppy how to play with the magnets on the fridge.

Josh's First School Performance

Josh's school had an International Dinner last week, his class presented on Peru. Here they are dancing "La Bamba Anaconda"... they did so great!!!

Close-Ups

Josh lost his first tooth this past Friday, January 18th while he was at school. He said, "Do you notice anything different about me? I heard cracking and then I started to wiggle it, and then it came out!"
Colette brought the camera to Daddy - she wanted a close up !

Calvin's Baptism

Calvin was baptized on January 13th - the same Sunday we celebrate Jesus' baptism.