Party Time!

Yesterday was Joshua's birthday party at our house, and to say he was excited was the understatement of the year.  Joshua has developed an intense love of football- akin to his love of the Presidents without a doubt.  I know it's a dream come true for Jason to have a son who loves to watch football with him and wants to know all about the game.  So it seemed a no brainer to have a football themed party for our little sports enthusiast this year.

Unfortunately, Aunt Libby, Uncle Zig and the girls were home bound for this party because Brooke was sick sick sick.  Joshua was sad to miss them and we hope they're all feeling much better soon.  But Nana and Pap, Grandma and Grandpa and the Mowry's were all on hand to help celebrate Joshua's special day.  His actual birthday is Friday, so expect me to be a puddle of mush at the thought of my baby turning 7.  But for now, consider yourself lucky!

 

Everyone dressed in their favorite football team's attire.  (So basically this turned into a PSU party, but who's complaining about THAT!)  There were some very cool presents which Joshua was very thankful for.  My proudest moment came last night after all of the mess was cleaned up and Joshua was sitting in the living room playing a football video game with Daddy.  I mentioned that I would put his thank you cards in my purse and we could work on them tomorrow after school.  At which point, Joshua stopped what he was doing and came out to the kitchen to start them right then.  He said saying thank you was more important than playing football.  I was so proud of him.

 

Here's a view of the cake I baked for Joshua.  I have to say, the more cakes I do for the kids, the more I like doing them.  I'm certainly no professional, but it's been fun to learn how to do the cakes.  You wouldn't have wanted to see the mess in the kitchen when I was working on the cake on Saturday, but Joshua's smile was well worth it.  I curse his peanut allergy most of the time, but I am thankful that we have found little blessings in it like this.

All of the kids gobbled up their cake.  And then I started feeding the leftovers to our neighbors.  Because that cake was GOOD, and my diet can't stand it being in the same house with me. 

There was lots of outside play time for the boys especially as they played football in the back yard.  Lauren participated for a while until she took a turn into the bad attitude department and decided to come inside.  And then she got a little silly on the deck.  OK....maybe a lot silly.  I adore that girl.

I told Emily earlier today that I keep looking at this picture of the little girls together and I just want to freeze them like they are right now.  So adorable.  They actually played relatively nicely together yesterday, despite the fact that Mara told me she had no intention of sharing any of her toys with Kinley.  Of course, she didn't say that, but the way she emphatically said "NO!" about a hundred times when I asked her to please share her toys told the whole story.  But they did great.

Cooper and Josh were like two peas in a pod in their PSU jerseys and playing football.  Cooper could probably teach Josh a thing or two after playing flag football this season, but I think they both had fun.

Our deck project is just about complete.  I'll post some pictures of it tomorrow unless the kids give me more exciting material tonight!

Progress Report

I believe we can officially say I have a streak running here.  Look how many blog posts in a row there have been this week. 

There wasn't much of tremendous excitement to report yesterday, unless of course you count the fact that I got absolutely drenched while also running like a fool through the parking lot to my car yesterday morning on the way to get Lauren picked up at school.  The poor girl has been literally begging me for weeks to PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE have me pick her up at school and bring her back to the office with me.  And so yesterday, since my schedule here at the office allowed for a "visitor", we did it.  So you can imagine my delight when the flood of rain started falling at the exact moment that I needed to leave to pick up my darling daughter at school.  And the best part....my umbrella was sitting happily on the front seat of the van.  I did what anyone in my situation would have done.  I grabbed a garbage bag from the office, threw it over my head, and screamed like a little girl as I ran through the heaviest rain I have seen in quite some time. 

The good news is that Lauren and I had a delightful time at the office for the remainder of the day.  She gave me her opinion on every single thing I tried to do, helped me put stamps on envelopes, shredded a few things, and then we had Subway.  She also had a chocolate milkshake from McDonalds to go with her sandwich, but I did not indulge in that department because of the 94 Weight Watchers points that would have cost me.  And since I saw the scale move in the right direction for the first time in a loooooong time last Friday morning, I am trying to keep up with the motivation and hope for another good weigh in on Friday morning.  Just before I completely ruin it at PSU Homecoming on Saturday.  But I have to draw the line somewhere.

 

 

The project with the deck continues to move along.  It's been kind of funny seeing no deck when we look out our kitchen window.  Last week, the concrete was poured for the pad that the hot tub sits on, and then on Friday, the hot tub was delivered and plopped onto its new home.  The only frustrating part was that it was full, hot and ready to be awesome on Friday evening, but there was no deck around it to make it usable.  So we just had to stare at it longingly from the kitchen window.  But I will say, it's going to be fantastic.

 

Yesterday, all of the actual decking materials were dropped into our back yard, and the guys worked feverishly to accomplish the littlest bit of something before the skies opened up.  They managed to frame a small bit of the new part of the deck before the rain drops chased them away.

 





These pictures are acting awfully strange, but the top picture is the actual view out of our kitchen window this morning before I left for the office.  The one below that is the view from the street right now- with the new part of the deck starting to take shape.  I hear that they are making good progress today, but I guess we'll have to wait to see what that means when I get home after work today.  I'm hoping it's the visible kind of progress.  Or something that is going to get me closer and closer to that lounge seat in the hot tub with all of the jets that I saw this weekend!

All else is well at the time of this report.  Well, sort of.  The second round of back to school crud has officially hit the children and Jason.  And every once in a while I get a twinge of a feeling that I might soon be hit too.  When that feeling strikes, I pop a Vitamin C (or 3) and hope for the best.  I've resigned myself to the fact that even with all the hand washing and vitamins and fruit and veggie eating in the world, this is pretty much going to be the hamster wheel we are on from now until spring, so we're just gritting our teeth and digging in, providing some extra snuggles and understanding when the kids are feeling less than chipper.  Poor things.

I wonder what I can come up with tomorrow for a post.  Have to keep the streak alive!

Another weekend....gone already!

I think Joshua hit the nail on the head this morning when he asked me why Mondays always come so quickly after Fridays.  Amen to that, my friend.

 

But here we are...at Monday again. 

 

This was one of a very few weekend this fall that we didn't have anything scheduled.  On Saturday morning, I took the kids to the park to feed the ducks and use up some bread that was in the bread box that really had gone past its prime.  The ducks didn't seem to mind.  I am pleased to report that, on this trip, I managed to keep Joshua out of the water.  I counted it a victory. 



 

The kids greatly enjoyed some time on the playground as well.  I believe Mara has officially reached the age where she is a real hazard at the park--- absolutely no regard or appreciation for things that could hurt her, mixed with a sense of wonder and curiosity that could easily get her killed.  Luckily for me, the bigger two are pretty self sufficient.  And the park crowd on this particular Saturday morning was surprisingly light considering the fact that it was absolutely beautiful for a Saturday in October.  But hey-- we'll take it.  This left me with mostly all of my attention to focus on keeping Mara in one piece.

Sunday morning after a slow start (aka. we skipped Sunday School because I couldn't get out of bed) we got ready and headed to church.  I quite enjoyed giggling with the kids while we took a picture of all four of us.  You can thank me now for not showing you the 12 other attempts we made that all showed Mara picking her nose...her latest fascination.  You're welcome.

We were all interested in a steak for supper on Sunday, and so we invited Grandma and Grandpa down for supper to celebrate Grandma's birthday a bit early this week.  The kids loved getting to see them both, and we all enjoyed the delicious steak.  I'll tell you-- Jason makes the most amazing steak I have EVER tasted on his Traeger grill.  Unreal.

The kids requested Oreo dessert for supper, which was a huge hit as always.  I think Mara got into it the most, though.  See Exhibit 1 below.

And, just like that, it's Monday.  It really does go too quickly from Friday to Monday!  I guess we'll start looking forward to Friday again!!

In which I laughed like crazy, and cried.

It has been a bit of an emotional roller coaster here this morning.

Before I left the house, I had made breakfast for the girls.  We were all sitting at the island talking and eating our scrambled eggs (theirs plain with just a splash of vanilla, just like Grandma Mary used ot make them for me, and mine egg beaters with a spoonfull of salsa mixed in...my newest breakfast obsession).  Before I left, I peeked at a few blogs I enjoy from time to time and found myself quite amused with a post I read about eggs.  Maybe it is my own grocery shopping neuroses that made this funny for me, but if you're like me maybe you actually have wondered about why some eggs are "special" or the "best" or somehow "healthier" than their other egg friends on the shelf.  And if you are a neurotic grocery shopper like I am, then maybe we should have a chat with our neatly organized grocery shopping bags to discuss it.  The web address is boomama.net and just look for the post about the eggs.  I can't link to it here for some reason.

And so, that was the laughs.

So then I get in the van to head for the office, and turn on CNN for the ride.  Say what you will about me listening to CNN, but it is sometimes the only opportunity I have to learn about what is going on in the world.  These days everything has been about the government shut down, and the Affordable Care Act, both of which impact my business to a degree.  But all I do when I listen to information about either of those issues is get angry about the fact that our elected officials are misbehaving worse than children at recess.  And I think that THEY....first....should be the ones whose pay is suspended while they decide how we can all play nicely together.  But I suppose the three or thirty million dollars that they already have sitting in the bank would limit the effectiveness of that kind of decision.  But still.

So, I was all prepared for my blood pressure to rise this morning.  And instead, as I got onto Route 80, I heard a story about a little girl who is 10 years old and her father who is in the final stages of his life.  Knowing that he would likely not live to walk his little girl down the aisle at her wedding, he held a special ceremony for her at his hospital bedside, complete with a pastor.  He gave his daughter a special ring that she is to wear on her ring finger until the day she gets married.  Her promise to her Dad was that she would find a good man to marry.  And he promised that he would give his blessing as long as she did that, no matter where he was at the time.  And right there...my eye makeup was toast for the day.  I normally have that problem with country music making me cry-- ask Jason about our attendance at the Darius Rucker/Lady A concert a year or so ago when I was a sobbing mess during the song about "It Won't Be Like This For Long" when Mara was just a little baby, or the Martina McBride concert we attended where I used my scarf to wipe tears during "In My Daughter's Eyes".  But I wasn't expecting that out of CNN.

The whole point of this for me was that I hope today I can just take each moment I am in and count it a blessing.  Even the hard stuff.  Even the stuff that nearly brings me to my knees.  Even when I screw up or have a heavy burden to carry.  I hope that perspective helps you too.  And if not, that at least the eggs make you smile.

It's happening!

I tend to be a worrier.  It's in my DNA.  No, really.  It is.  In fact, the whole Richard family held special classes when we were kids to turn us into the best worriers we could be.  And, I excelled.

Mara's speech development has been one of those things that has stressed me out since she was about a year old.  I will say that my memory isn't what it used to be.  And somewhere between baby #1 and baby #3 there is a whole lot of fuzziness in my brain.  But I feel sure that Joshua and Lauren were talking up a storm by the time they turned 18 months old.  Up until a very few short weeks ago, Mara's vocabulary has been extremely limited.  And by limited I mean virtually nonexistent.  I have stressed and worried and prayed about it, hoping that I could be granted the patience not to worry so much, and just to let her develop and find her words in her own time.  And you know that lesson about not ever praying for patience, because then God will have to give you situations that require it?  Well, that's exactly what happened.  Nothing.  We have been hearing mama and dada and a whole lot of "Nana!" and "Pap-Pap".  But everything else was communicated with gestures or, more likely, temper tantrums.  Our poor girl has been so frustrated, and it has led to more all-out fits than I can even recall.  We read like crazy.  We encourage her to try to say words and praise even the slightest attempt.  And we wait.

In the past few weeks, we have started to hear some little phrases that are starting to provide a bit of encouragement to this anxious Mama heart.  The day that I first heard Mara say, "Love you", I think I broke down in tears.  She is also starting to say "Thank You" (manners are important!).  She loves to watch Dora and can repeat things that Dora asks her to say-- like "map" and "backpack".  She's talking in Russian which I distinctly recall with the other kids too, just much earlier.  She seems to be finding her voice, and likely won't ever stop using it once she does.

Please remind me of the joy I have in updating this progress when I long for the quieter days in the years to come.

So, maybe her doctors are right and she will be right on track by the time she has her 2nd birthday.  Perhaps there is something to that whole medical school thing after all.  Huh.

*****
I am absolutely in love with the picture at the top because it is, without a doubt, 100% Mara right now.  I couldn't have captured her any better.  And let me say that I consider it a huge feat to have captured ANY picture of her without her ridiculous (albeit cute) cheese face that she always makes that renders her more like a pirate than a sweet little girl.  But I'll cherish that one forever!

 And I'll share this one just because it's rare for me to make the blog.  And I love the fact that I remember the fact that we were sitting on the laundry room floor cleaning up a mess that Mara had made when she grabbed the camera, plopped on my lap, gave the camera to me and said, "eeeeeeeese!"

This seems an odd picture to share here, but I wanted to capture a picture of the back of our house last evening because today begins our deck project at the house that will take place over the next few weeks.  We're so excited to be adding some more deck space, as well as adding a hot tub.  Jason and I can't wait to be able to spend some time out there together after the kids go to bed at night time.  That is, assuming I can stay awake.  Which may prove challenging.  In any case, the house won't look like this for much longer.

How about this.....two blog posts in as many days.  Can you believe it?

Happy 4th Birthday, Lauren!

We have officially entered "birthday season".  After celebrating Brooke's 5th birthday on September 10th and Nana's birthday last weekend with a trip to Lewistown for each of them, it was time to move the party to Turbotville this past weekend.

 

And so, I think I owe my sweet girl a little birthday letter.  I am hoping that this might also take the heat off of me for having a 20 day time span since my last blog post.  At least that's what I'm hoping.

 

 

 

Dear Lauren,

 

I believe I have started every single one of your birthday letters with something along the lines of "I can't believe you're really ____ today."  So I'm not going to do that.  But for the record, I really can't believe you're 4.

 

Four years have passed since the day that I learned what it was like to have a daughter.  To marvel at you and how you continue to grow and change every single day.  It's been four years since I started to appreciate how pretty little girls look in pink, and to learn how to purchase hair accessories and handle your beautiful head of curls.  (Your older brother gave me practice with none of those things!)  It's been four years since I got the opportunity to start dreaming about what it's going to be like to take you shopping with me, or to start thinking about helping you pick out a beautiful prom dress...or a wedding dress, or a coming home outfit for your child's big debut in the world.  Four years of dreaming about growing a relationship with a daughter.  Although I certainly had some practice with your brother, who beat you to this Earth by three years, but every day as your mother has taught me just how different it is to mother a daughter than a son.  Both are wonderful.  Both are special.  But they're different.  And I am so thankful for the opportunity to experience them both.

 

Lauren, you are a true gift from God.  When you were kicking my ribs on the inside, already making your presence so real and so known to me, I clung to the verse about "Every good and perfect gift is from above."  And you most certainly are.  You have changed me with your very being.  You and your brother and sister have made me long to be a better person, to never let you down or disappoint you, even though I know I already have so many times.  And I will many times again.  But the beauty of loving you, all three of you, is that I always want to do better.  And I hope and pray that it is that longing, and God's help, that will make me always do my very best for you.

 

In your four years, you have shown such an enthusiasm for life that I so admire.  You are such a neat combination of things-- just enough spunk to strengthen your sweet personality, just enough leadership to make sure you don't get left behind, just enough stubbornness to make sure you always accomplish what you set out to do.  You are an amazing, compassionate little girl, a fantastic sister, and a great friend.  You are learning and changing so much from one day to the next.  I find myself in constant wonder of the way you are conquering the world.  And I can't even begin to tell you how proud I am that I get to be your Mommy.

 

I might have never guessed how much of a girly girl you would be from your toddler days when you were displaying your most intense personality.  But you love princesses (especially Ariel), being pretty (in fact, I caught you praying the other night, thanking God for making you a little girl because you love being pretty so very much) and anything purple.  Your giggle warms my heart, and your smile lifts my soul.  You are such a special blessing.

 

Happy 4th Birthday, sweet girl.  Mommy loves you more than you'll ever know...

 

 

And after all that sap, here are a few birthday party pictures...



 

 Cousins sharing a giggle filled moment.  One of many!

 

 This was the best picture I could get of the chaos that was gift opening.  It was a mess!  But Lauren was so happy.  There was MUCH princess attire and jewelry.  And she loves every bit of it!

 

 

She loved her cake.  Joshua's peanut allergy means that all of our kids' cakes have to be baked by yours truly.  I don't know why, but I seem to feel the need to make them a "real" looking birthday cake, and then stress for weeks about how I'm going to manage it with my extremely limited skills.  This cake wasn't perfect by any means (especially the whole front side that drooped after I sat it under the counter lights in our kitchen....slick move, right?) but she was so happy that it looked "just like a perfect Ariel cake" (in her words).  So that made me a happy Mama.

Modeling her prized Ariel dress.  Thank you Mowry's!!

Since Lauren's party was on Saturday, but her official birthday was yesterday, we saved her presents from us to open yesterday.  Yes, she was wearing the same birthday shirt she had worn on Saturday.  And honestly, if I could get that thing clean fast enough, I'm pretty sure she'd wear it daily.  But she felt very strongly about wearing it to school yesterday when she took her (very purple) cupcakes to school to share with her friends.  Who could say no to that.

I think this picture is my absolute favorite of all of our birthday pictures.  I hope I can always pull this particular one out and remember just how amazing of a little girl Lauren is. 

 

The next birthday party will be in less than a month, and I'm already exhausted.  But our soon to be 7 year old isn't going to let me slack on a single detail. 

 

Thanks for checking in!