Richardson Report

Josh and I are trying to give the kids an "experience" gift each year, instead of a "thing".  This year we gave Hannah, Brynne, and Logan tickets to a BYU football game!  They'd been totally jealous of their Utah friends going to BYU games.  We happened to be watching a game on TV one night this fall and they advertised that BYU would be participating in a bowl game in San Francisco.  We had to take advantage of the proximity.  We hoped it would be a hit...and it was! Sadly, BYU lost, but I think they enjoyed themselves anyway.   Josh said that they were in the second row of spectators, so they had great views. The outing also included a trip to IKEA to pick up new bookshelves for Hannah and Brynne.  They had old bookshelves that Jenny and I used a LONG time ago when we shared a room (remember those Jen?), but a few days before Christmas we heard a scream and a crash...and those shelves were laying in a broken heap on the floor.  So...

I really can't believe it's been three weeks since Faith was born. She is an angel of a baby.  I always thought all my kids were pretty easy babies (well, except Kenna - she had challenges that caused us both a lot of frustration).  Faith tops them all.  I don't know if it's my increased experience as a new mom, Faith's personality, a special blessing from the Lord, or some combination of the three, but we have had a fabulous three weeks with this girl. Faith doesn't cry very much, as long as she's not being ignored.  Not that she gets ignored very often, but occasionally I've been in the middle of taking hot things from the oven and she's had to wait - she cried then.  But usually she's pretty laid back.  Even when she's hungry, she's easy to distract. She put herself on a schedule starting on day one.  What newborn does that?  She wakes up fairly consistently, sleeps her long stretches at night, and has awake times in the morning ...

If you're looking for something sweet to do with your young children, I highly recommend the craft in this month's Friend magazine.  My girls thoroughly enjoyed it, and were able to do it themselves (I cut out the window opening to make it simpler for them). http://media.ldscdn.org/pdf/magazines/friend-december-2013/2013-12-05-make-your-own-manger-eng.pdf

I can't find any photos of Hannah on our computer, but here are pictures of the other kids. Who does Faith look like? Brynne Logan Logan Kenna Natalie Faith

This song came out three years ago.  I've been in love with it since I first heard it.  One of the best "pop" Christmas songs, in my opinion.

Faith is a week old now.  Things are going incredibly well.  I mean, compared to all my other newborn experiences, this one is a breeze.  We are all so thoroughly enjoying this little girl.  It helps that she seems super chill and laid back.  I'm making a special effort to find time to chronicle some of these early weeks in the blog so that I don't forget them! Sleep - Faith is fairly predictable in her routines.  She sleeps for two four-hour stretches during the night with a feeding in between.  So sometime between 10pm she settles into her deep sleep and wakes up around 2am, eats (which takes awhile, usually - I watch a good chunk of a movie during this time), then sleeps for another four hours or so - until 8 or 9am. I'm starting to be more careful not to let her oversleep during the day - no more than three hours at a time.  It seems like after a long nap, she spends about two hours having intermittent periods where she eats, snoozes, "pla...

We had no name chosen before going to the hospital.  We did have several revolving short lists. When the kids came to visit we decided to have them weigh in and help us choose the perfect name for our newest family member.  I think Josh, Hannah, and Brynne were the most decided about what names they liked best, with Faith being the one that they all had in common.  Logan gave it a thumbs up (that was about the extent of his contribution - ha, ha).  Choosing a middle name for Faith was harder because it is such a solid sounding name that doesn't really flow into anything else. In August when we were in Utah, our friends helped us make lists of potential names.  Aspen was on those lists and was one that we instantly liked, but we didn't think we wanted it for a first name.  We have a tendency to shorten names/create nicknames...and Aspen leads to a doozy.  So we had ruled it out as a name option, but still really liked it.  When Josh suggested u...

Ah yes, so many lovely plays on words with our new little one's name. So much is running through my brain.  I'm sure this will be broken up into several sections as baby duty calls.  I can hear her starting to rustle even now. First, the birth story.  After my last freaked out post about inducing, I ended up....getting induced!  Actually, I thought about it all week and eventually decided that not only was it going to be okay once I got over my disappointment of a pitocin-free birth, but at 42 weeks, on a holiday week, it would make way more sense to have the baby at the first part of the week when I could be fairly sure that the hospital would be fully staffed (and I could be home for Thanksgiving).  So when I had my appointment on Monday and the doctor told me his recommendation was to induce starting that night, after a brief discussion with Josh, we agreed.  My doctor had still said that he would do whatever I wanted, and if I changed my mind to cal...

I had my appointment today.  No change cervically (since I know you all wanted to know that!). We discussed the possibility of induction next week.  I have an appointment on Monday to make a final call on that.  The process would involve going to the hospital the day before in the evening, getting cervidil inserted to soften my cervix, and if that didn't throw me into labor, doing the whole pitocin thing the next day.  Which for me also means an epidural, since I wouldn't do pitocin without that for a second time. HOWEVER - I really, really, REALLY don't want to be induced.  And I honestly don't feel like the baby is ready to come.  However much I wish she was, my mothering instincts (??) or something are screaming at me to just wait and be patient. I forgot to ask the doctor if he would wait longer than 42 weeks.  I know that wouldn't be standard practice and he might have malpractice insurance issues or something that make him nervous to wait. ...

Yesterday for scripture study I was studying in D&C about chastening, which led me to a fairly recent talk by Elder Christofferson about that very topic.  In the talk, he shares a classic story by Elder Hugh B. Brown: April 2011: “As Many as I Love, I Rebuke and Chasten” God uses another form of chastening or correction to guide us to a future we do not or cannot now envision but which He knows is the better way for us. President Hugh B. Brown, formerly a member of the Twelve and a counselor in the First Presidency, provided a personal experience. He told of purchasing a rundown farm in Canada many years ago. As he went about cleaning up and repairing his property, he came across a currant bush that had grown over six feet (1.8 m) high and was yielding no berries, so he pruned it back drastically, leaving only small stumps. Then he saw a drop like a tear on the top of each of these little stumps, as if the currant bush were crying, and thought he heard it say: “How could you...

Tomorrow is that magical date that we've been waiting for since the middle of March when we realized a new baby was on it's way. I may have high hopes that this baby will come SOON, but I'm prepared to be disappointed. After another visit with my doctor, I haven't dilated any more than I was last week, which wasn't much.  Bummer. But when it finally happens, it will happen fast, I'm sure.  I'm usually pretty quick.  I've been going on walks and eating pineapple and chocolate to no avail all week.  I'm kind of pineappled-out, actually.   The really crazy and bizarre news is that I actually lost a pound.  Like, seriously.  Is that what other people experience who don't have out-of-control weight gain during their pregnancies?  I'm eating whatever I want and as much of it as my squished stomach can take and I'm NOT gaining any weight.  Doctor hasn't seemed concerned - he hasn't even mentioned my weight, so it must not be an issu...

This is one of our family's favorite recipes, but I can't find a version of it online, so I'm posting it here to save it.  It should probably also be named heart attack bread!! For starters, you need enough bread dough (or pizza dough) to make two loaves (or two medium pizzas).  I often use my Better Home and Garden cookbook's pizza dough recipe. For each loaf of cheese bread, mix together 8 oz cream cheese, softened 6 slices cooked, crumbled bacon 1/2 cup diced sautéed onion 1.5 cups grated cheddar cheese Use your hands and just squish that stuff together! Roll dough into large rectangle shape about as big as a jelly roll pan.  Place filling in a long line down the center of the rolled dough.  Make slanted slices into dough along each side and braid shut.  Place on greased/corn meal sprinkled jelly roll pan.  Bake 350 for about 20 minutes or until bread is cooked and browned on top. Let sit five minutes before slicing and serving. Fantastic...

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1993/04/spiritually-strong-homes-and-families?lang=eng I found this awesome talk awhile back.  Our family scripture is D&C 88:119 and this talk by Elder Wirthlin is based on that scripture. However, it is a fantastic few pages of counsel to parents about building a strong family unit and I highly recommend it!  In today's social climate, I firmly believe that we must be purposeful and have firm direction in where we are taking our family.  To that end, I really think that in some ways the idea of having a "house of order" as is mentioned in the scripture is almost the most important principle listed.  Know your goal, and have an orderly, Spirit-led plan for how to reach it. Not that we're perfect in this by any means!!! I had to laugh yesterday when Josh was talking about this concept in Sunday School and how we feel that regular family home evening is so important.  I immediately remembered our most recent one ...

I'm a little annoyed and WORRIED that I haven't found the camera after our trip.  What's strange is I have the battery charger...so the camera must be somewhere as they were packed together for the entire trip.  I've got to find it before the baby comes, for sure, but I also wanted to share some photos from our trip. So here's the baby update: I'm not dilated or effaced at all.  Not even a smidgen.  So unusual for me.  Usually I'm like 3 cm dilated and 50% effaced with a month left to go.  We'll see what this means, but I hope it's not a bad sign! I feel fantastic.  Oddly enough, better than I've felt in months.  Partially I think it's the increased iron supplements - that is really helping my energy level.  But my body feels better too. I've gained less weight with this baby than ANY of my other ones.  Woot!  Woot!  for me, right?  I have a few secret methods that seemed to pay off for me this time. *Start at a h...

Josh's birthday present.  Yay!   I'm still learning how to use the thing, but it seems pretty nice so far.  I have to figure out how to do photos all over again, so photos from our trip will not be immediately forthcoming.   :-) Baby update - only 3-4 weeks or so to go!  I can hardly believe we are finally getting THAT close.  It is crunch time in terms of final preparations.  I hope to be ready by the end of the month, just in case this baby comes as early as Natalie did.  (Oooooh, wouldn't that be nice!)

After finishing the book "Little House in the Big Woods", the girls were inspire to do their own quilt projects just like Laura Ingalls.  They were so diligent!  They each chose two fabric pieces and sewed them together to make a "patchwork quilt" for their stuffed animals.  Below is Natalie's quilt made especially for pillow-pet.  Kenna asked me to hold her quilt while she took a picture.  She really got into the whole sewing thing.    Painting in progress.  Working on the final project - the dresser.  Now their room is basically put together.  I'd like new curtains and some accessories, but the bulk of the project is finished.  I would take a picture of the finished product, but every time I think about it, I am upstairs and the camera is downstairs - and, well, you know how that goes. Finishing one room meant that Hannah and Brynne could work on their room!  That was an ordeal.  Their ceili...

Ha!  Josh found my missing photos for me.  They were downloaded into a folder from last year.  Go figure. Working on lower case letter sounds  Matching upper case letters The girls making Chinese stir fry after our week reading "The Story of Ping" and learning about China. Natalie's been practicing her balancing, but I think jumping off is her favorite part! Last Sunday I took pictures of the three younger kids, but don't really like how the photo quality turned out.  They look sickly or something.  I haven't had time to play around with the photos.  They were in a dressy mood!  My sweet 8th grader after school this past week.  The every day look.  ;-)  Painting the bedroom furniture on Saturday.  So fun!   The bedroom is almost done - one more piece of furniture to paint. Don't want anyone to think I don't love my eldest...