Bug Graduates

It was a long 10 weeks for our family but Taylor finally graduated from Basic Training!

My parents along with Judd, Brigham and Taylor's fiance, Jenn, make the long drive to Oklahoma to attend the graduation.  They had a wonderful time spending time with him on Family Day and for the few hours they had with him after the actual graduation.  I wish our whole family could have made it but there was just no way.  We would have had quite the entourage.  

I've always been proud of my country but never full understood what it meant to be a person who protects our rights and freedoms.  When Taylor started Basic Training I dedicated myself to learning everything I could about what he was going through.  It was so different than I had ever imagined.  I am so proud of his accomplishment.

He is now in Texas at Fort Sam Houston where he will do his Medic traning.  Again, I have researched what his training will entail and know he is going to do great.

Reading Skills

Addie has a serious love for books.  She is one of the top readers in her class!  Right now she is into the Magic Tree House books and will always have a place in her heart for the Junie B. Jones series.

I love seeing her share her love of reading with her sisters.  She will read to anyone who will take a few minutes to listen.  I found her reading Kimber's favorite book to her the other day.  And thank goodness because I am so sick of it!  You saved me on this one, Addie!

Standout Memories

I have so many great memories from my childhood but there some that stand out more than others.  Like the time my mom kept me home from school to take me shopping for new shoes.  Or the times my Dad would take me to Golfland when our school had it reserved.  I went so many times I got earned a Golfland t-shirt!  I try to help my kids create those same memories but I probably won't know if I have succeeded until they are all grown. 

Bedtime for the girls around here is 8:00 but last night I threw our routine out the window and let the girls talk me into making chocolate chip cookies at 8:30.  That's so out of the norm for me but it was so fun.  Addie and Lucy showered while Kimber and I baked in the kitchen.  We were all laughing and having a great time.

It was 10:00 before Kimber finally crashed although Addie fell asleep around 9:30.  That's late for them but I wouldn't have traded it for the world.  We'll be back to normal tonight but I hope my kids look back and remember skipping bedtime to eat cookies. 

On that note I want to remember the time that Addie and I snuck away after Kimber and Lucy were in bed and went to Wal-Mart at 9:30 at night to get groceries.  It was the night before everyone was arriving to celebrate the 4th of July and we were fresh out of everything so it was going to be serious shopping.  It takes about 30 minutes to get to our Wal-Mart and I remember Addie and I singing to the radio and having a great conversation.  We ended up getting home at about 12:30 and after we unloaded all of the groceries Addie was hungry so she ate a bowl of Cheerios.  It was about 1:00 by the time she ended up going to bed.  She has talked about that experience so many times and refers to it as the time she "stayed up all night."

Maybe I don't have to wait until their grow to find out if they remember these things after all.

Memory with Grandpa

Jared's Grandpa Miller has Alzheimer's.  He no longer lives alone and has trouble remembering most things.  Sometimes it's comical and sometimes it's sad.  For example he has told me many times the owns Chase Bank.  He also told me that he opened the border between Mexico and Arizona and that he personally elected the first woman president of Mexico.

But in the same visit he might tell you that his wife, Grandma Miller, who died in September of 2009 and Jared's Mom, Marlene are still alive.  He says people keep telling him that they are dead but they aren't!  According to him they have been in Hawaii for a time, lost on his childhood ranch and as for now they are visiting the ranch waiting for him to come get them.

We get a few visits from Grandpa and his caretaker, Edith, every week.  Since he sees us frequently he still remembers my name as well as Jared.  He knows who my kids are but doesn't know their names. 

Most of the time when he is here he sleeps while me and Edith visit.  Last week during one of their visits he took on Kimber in a game of Memory.  He got two matches by chance but Kimber was so happy to have someone to play with other than me.

It's such an ugly disease.  It's just devastating to watch someone who was once so wise and a wonderful storyteller lose their mind to Alzheimer's.

7

I'm behind in my blogging, as usual.  I'm trying to get caught up but it seems like so many events fall by the wayside because I just don't take the time to blog like I should.

On the 5th Addie turned seven.  Really?  Seven?  What is happening to me?  I was holding her in my arms, blinked my eyes and suddenly she was seven.

Addie's birthday actually started the night before because Kimber was dying to give Addie her gift.  Addie kept requesting a hair salon for her birthday and I just wasn't sure how to make that happen.  I wasn't going to invest in a whole get-up since we don't have the room and she would quickly outgrow it.  I thought and thought but just didn't know how to make it happen.  Then the funniest thing happened.  The gal who does my hair was having a garage sale to Kimber and I hit it up.  There, laying on the ground in the dirt was Angie's mannequin head from beauty school!   Kimber and I knew it would be perfect for Addie and the price was right, ONE DOLLAR!  Addie could curl, color, cut and comb to her little heart's content and I wouldn't feel bad when it was time to throw it away.

We kept it hid for just over a week when Kimber finally couldn't take the excitement any more.  We stuck Angie (we figured that would be her name since it was written in permanent marker across her neck) in a bag and gave Addie the goods.  Jared and I were expecting Addie to flip out when she pulled the tissue paper out and saw hair filling the bag.  But no way!  She pulled Angie out and it was love and first sight!

I'll just say that was THE BEST dollar I have EVER spent! 

Not only was it Addie's birthday but it was also her turn to be the Superstar Student for her class.  She put together a poster with all types of pictures and fun facts about herself.

Kimber, Lucy and I picked up Addie for lunch and brought her home.  We ate all kinds of nasty food like chicken strips, french fries and root beer.  Healthy, right? I think not, but it was so fun! 

After lunch we took her back to class where she served Andes Mint Cookies to her class.  Miss E. has a tradition in her room where she gives the birthday kid spankings for their birthday.  She puts them over her lap, calls a student up to catch any tears that might fall and pretends to give hard spankings.  All of the class laughs and and thinks it's so funny to watch the birthday boy or girl squirm.  And she doesn't stop once their age is reached.  She gives a few extra, one to be a good reader on, one to be a good friend on and so on.  It was really fun to see Addie get all the attention in her class for a few minutes.

Her teacher also had her do the calendar board with the class so I could see how it worked.  It was really fun to watch Addie lead the class through their routine but my favorite part was when they did compliments.  The students raise their hands and are called on by the calendar person one by one.  They give that person a compliment and in turn the calendar person thanks them.  I wasn't expecting much, just a few shallow compliments but was so surprised when the kids gave sweet compliments to my little Addie.  I heard a lot of "you are such a good friend" and "I like your shirt" but it made my heart happy when a few of the nicest boys in her class told her that she was very beautiful or that she is very pretty.  How creative on her teacher's part to give the kids an opportunity like that.

Once Addie got home from school she soaked up every minute of getting to watch Kimber and I work around her.  She was looking forward to skipping her chores as much as she was looking forward to opening presents.

For her birthday dinner she chose pizza.  Again Aunt Jeanie and uncle Kenny ate with us. 
I love these pictures of Addie as she opens her junk box.  (A RIchardson Family tradition where you get a box or bag filled with your favorite junk food.)

There must be a wad of hundred dollar bills at the bottom of that bag.  Maybe it's keys to a new car.  Could it be annual passes to Disneyworld? 

No!  It's a bottle of Sangria! 
In true Addie fashion she requested brownies with marshmallows and frosting in place of cake. 

I truly thank Heavenly Father for Addie.  She keeps this family going and is my number one help.  She is mature and organized and kind to everyone.  Last week I went to parent-teacher conference and her teacher told me that she had just done a social test with the kids to see where everyone was at friend wise, making sure there was no bullying or anything.  One by one she asked each child privately who their top three friends were.  Addie was at the very top of the list.  I'm not saying she is popular but that she is a friend to everyone.  There is one boy in particular in her class who is slow and the other kids have a hard to being friendly to but Miss E. says Addie is always patient and friendly to him.  I love returning her to school after lunch and seeing the kids hug her.  She is a sweet girl who I am grateful for every day.

Five

My little Kimbie turned five on the 28th of February.  She started her count down at least a month early and every day reminded me, many times during the day, how many days were left until she was finally five.  I think she was expecting some type of physical change when she woke up on her birthday morning but to her surprise she woke up the same ol' Kimber.  Just one day older.

Around here birthdays are all about YOU.  You choose each meal, you get to relax and skip your chores and you get all the attention.  I offered to make Kimber anything she wanted for breakfast.  I offered all kinds of stuff but in the end she chose a bowl of cereal. 

Since her birthday fell on a school day she took a treat to her class.  She chose No Bake Cookies, her favorite.  Her teacher sent her home with her favorite snack, popcorn and M&M's and some cutesy hair bows.  She's a great teacher and really made Kimber feel special.

For dinner we again offered her anything she wanted.  She is so easy to please.  All she wanted was a bean burro from El Cupido's.  Aunt Jeanie and Uncle Kenny ate with us.  It was simple but lots of fun.

Kimber could hardly wait to open her presents. She hardly ate her food but rather stared at her presents like she would suddenly get x-ray vision and the contents of her gifts would reveal themselves.

 I love my little Kimbie.  She keeps things real around here.  I love her honesty, her compassion and her sense of humor.  Can't wait to see what this year brings for her.

We started a new tradition this year for birthdays.  On the weekend closest to your birthday you get to join mom and dad on their date.  You get to choose where we eat and what we do.  Kimber got lucky and had two dates.  We didn't have a chance to take her with us when we actually should have so on her actual birthday Jared took her out.  She chose spaghetti and meatballs at a little Italian restaurant. I thought that would suffice but she made it clear that she needed a date with both parents so she got go with us this past weekend.

I remember having daddy-daughter dates with my date and how special I felt.  I saw that same glow in Kimber and realized I needed to make those dates happen more often.  We snapped a quick picture of the two of us while Jared was talking with some friends.

Food Fight!

We have food fights at our house on a regular basis.  It's always Jared and me against Addie and Kimber.  They usually involve the main course and for Addie it pretty much always involves vegetables. 

But these aren't the types of food fights you see on TV.  No food is thrown across the kitchen, no one gets a spoonful of mashed potatoes to the face.  Instead it's me and Jared trying to get the girls to eat the food that's put in front of them.  They each have a lengthy list of foods they do like but seriously, is it going to kill them to try something new every once in a while?  Or to eat something that some one else enjoys even if it's not their favorite?

On Tuesday I was feeling really good about my day since I had started my Chicken Cordon Bleu at 10:30 in the morning and all I had to do was fix my sides and put it in the oven that evening.  When dinnertime rolled around I gave both Addie and Kimber half of a piece of chicken and it was within moments that the complaints started:

"We've never had this!, I hate this!, What's in here?, Why didn't you make something else?, This looks gross!" 

It gets so old and our words sound like a broken record as we try to explain what's in the food and tell that that if they don't eat they will he hungry later because they won't be getting anything else.


But I was fed up!  It seems like they complain every. single. night.  So I finally told them that they were in charge of dinner the next night.  They had to think of it, cook it and clean it up.  They got really excited but we weren't about to make it easy on them.  We were going to give them a taste of their own medicine.

They decided on breakfast for dinner since it was something that Addie knew she could cook.  Addie took on the pancakes and Kimber was in charge of making syrup and bacon, which I helped her with.

Addie was cooking her little heart out while Jared went on and on about how hungry he was and asked her if she could hurry up.  I kept on Kimber and told her that we were starving so she needed to hurry the syrup up.  They were trying to explain that they were trying to hurry.  I could see Addie getting stressed and I knew it was beginning to work. 

Kimber was in charge of setting the table and had to get that finished while she was still working on the syrup and accidentally let it boil over.  The kitchen filled with smoke so what did we do?  We complained some more!  "It smells in here!  It's so smokey!  What did you do?"

Addie was working so hard on the pancakes but was losing little crumbs along the way.  "Addie you are getting crumbs in the other pancakes!  That's gross!."  The poor girl just kept saying she was doing the best she could.

Eventually dinner was done and on the table.  Jared and I sat down and before we could even pray I started in on them again.  "Is this all?  This doesn't seem like very much food.  Why didn't you make more stuff to go with it?"  I saw Addie's eyes begin to well up with tears and I knew she was going to lose it.  After the prayer we served ourselves and started eating.  But the girls had to get Lucy's food ready before they could eat.  While they worked on that Jared asked if there was chocolate on his pancakes.  (I have ruined my kids and they can't eat pancakes without chocolate chips.  Jared is the black sheep and the only one who likes them plain.)  "I hate chocolate on my food.  There is a piece of chocolate chip touching my pancake."

Poor Addie had had enough.  She darted to her room in tears.  I let her stew while I ate but made sure she heard my complaints.  "Is there brown flour in these?  Who put BROWN flour in my pancakes?  These are cold!  It took so long to make dinner that now my pancakes are cold.  I can't eat these now."  In all reality they were just as yummy as always.  
 
I finally felt like it was time to reveal ourselves and our little scheme.  I went to Addie's room and we talked everything over.  I asked her how she felt when I complained about the food she worked really hard at making and was SO happy when i realized she got it.  She said it really hurt her feelings because she was going the best she could but it was a lot of work.  I reassured her that her pancakes were yummy and she decided to join the rest of us. We talked about it together around the table with Kimber this time and although I don't think it sank in quite as deep, she also got it. 

So did we win this fight?  Addie told me she will always try her food now without complaining and that right there is a small victory.  Kimber had a great time playing restaurant but like I said I think it sank in a little.  Even if we just get a month's worth of complaint-free dinners then yeah, I guess we did win.