CiCi's Play Date!

Hi Everyone,

So as you can tell I am trying to be a little better at updating this blog every month to tell you about our activities. I am sitting here pondering what to write... Our April was filled with lots of fun and exciting activities. I just cant think of where to start, hm... Well I guess I will start with playdates and the park!

Some of the lovely ladies at our church who have children have been diligently trying to schedule play dates. We have had a few successful ones. Caleb loves all of his new buddies and always gets uber excited when he knows we are heading for the playground at the park. Caleb has particularily grown very fond of his friend Jed. In fact, his mom Shelli and I made several plans to keep these boys entertained as they play so well together.

One of the playdates this month with Shelli and her son Jed was at the park on Russel just pass Nellis Blvd. After playing for about an hour we decided to continue our play date and visited Ryan at CiCi's to grab some lunch. The boys had a blast stuffing their faces and playing in the arcade. Oh! Let me not forget, Shelli and I also gained a few pounds that afternoon after eating lots and lots of pizza, salad, and dessert. We joined the boys in the arcade and tried to win several prizes for them, we were successful at wininng candy and rubber duckies. I tried about four times to win these lamb stuff animals that were festive looking for Easter. After three times I decided I was going to give up because it was frustrating to waste all of those tokens and not get anything out of it. Right before we were getting ready to head out we had two tokens left, tons of rubber duckies, and tons of candy. Shelli and I both decided we did not want anymore rubber duckies or candy, so I gave the machine with the lamb stuff animals another try... Wow! You will not believe how excited we got, I won two... two lambs! Thats right, I am officially the master at this game! Well not really just for that moment.

Here are a few pics of the boys! Let me not forget to tell you a little bit about Thomas. Since he is a little younger he probably does not understand enough to get as excited over pizza and arcades... However, he did enjoy himself by making a big mess for his Daddy's employees to clean up and stealing one of Jed's breadsticks!

Bring on the heat!

Looks like our days of perfect weather are over... Wait! Scratch that, does Las Vegas ever have good weather? The weather in Vegas has been a little weird; hot, sunny, windy, cold, cloudy, etc.-

Wow! Did February and March already pass, now its April? Where does the time go these days? I feel like there are never enough hours in the day to accomplish everything I want to do.

Here is a little update on our family...

Ryan: Good news! He has fully recovered from his appendectomy. As usual, Ryan is a workaholic. He has been extra busy with CiCi's as there have been some changes. Ryan is now managing the store up in North Las Vegas. I am not too happy about this move as I dont like that side of town, but I know he will do great!

Deanna: I am in my 3rd week for a Business Finance course. After this class I have 6 more to go and then graduation. I typically keep myself busy with my motherly duties, household responsibilities, and going to school.

Caleb: He is finally showing more interest with potty time. He goes to the bathroom nightly before bath time. He is very talkative and loves to tell stories. He often tells me stories about the TV shows he watches. He has warmed up to Thomas more and he is always worried about his baby brother. He checks on him in the middle of the night before crawling into our bed. He has become better at understanding his role as a big brother. He always tells me how much he loves his "baby."

Thomas: He is now 6 months old. Again, where does the time go? I feel like I just brought him home from the hospital. Thomas can now roll, roll, and roll. He never wants to stop rolling. He is trying to crawl but often becomes frustrated about how much effort it takes just to move a few inches. He is learning to sit up. He usually can sit up for about 10 seconds before he kicks his feet and falls back. We have him back on his breathing treatments, and he is scheduled to do some allergy tests around 9 months if needed. In light of all these allergies, Thomas has a few first words he loves to share with me... those words are "baba" which means bottle... and "dada" which means, well I dont have to tell you, its obvious! Yes! I am a little jealous he says "dada."

In light of our busy lives, we had a surprise visit from Ryan's Grandpa and Grandma Richardson. They were driving through on their way back to North Dakota. We had lunch at Lucille's BBQ and then said our good bye's as they were on their way to Utah to see other family. Though it was short, its always nice to see family.

January and The Circus!

Wow! January was filled with lots of activities. Ryan and I took the boys to the circus at the Orleans Arena. Our good "new" friends Kevin and Kristen Miller joined us! They have two kids as well, Madi and Shayne. We learned an interesting fact about them, this brother and sister share the same birthday just different year! Madi is a few months older than Caleb and Shayne is a few months older than Thomas. Though Thomas is probably still too little to play, I know that they will all become best buds!

The circus was a blast. Caleb really liked the dirtbikes. Ryan and I both liked the elephants and the tigers. Thomas enjoyed all the light's! I know most of my pictures are of the elephants, but to be honest, they were the biggest thing I could take a picture of and I loved them the most out of the show! I am even thinking of owning an elephant as a pet. (Well not literally!) But it sure is nice to dream and make believe!


Other celebrations this month.... Ryan and I celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary. We decided to celebrate early and went out to dinner and the Phantom of the Opera show, the Weds before our anniversary. Dinner was very delicious. We ate at Gordonbirsch (not + on spelling). Ryan's old boss Tim was kind enough to get us a $50.00 gift certificate. All we paid out of our pocket was the tip and the appetizer. We also got an awesome deal on Phantom of the Opera. We bought our tickets for half off. So when you think about it, we bought the tickets for the price of one! Cannot beat that deal. Though many would think we did not have good seats, I think we had awesome ones! We sat on the balcony and was able to see everything. I am very thankful we did, because the giant chandelier is scary! Sorry no picture taking was allowed at the show.

In more news... we ended our month with Ryan in the hospital. He had pain for about three days. Finally the night of the third day he decided that maybe listening to me was a good idea. I picked up my younger sister Kiani to watch the boys and I took Ryan to the hospital. After hours of waiting in the ER, they finally found time to give Ryan a catscan. He tested positive for appendicitis. I left the hospital around 4 am to come home and get a little sleep. Unfortunately, when I got home both boys had a fever, so this Mama got no sleep. I decided that I would get things situated here at home and then head back to the hospital. Ryan text me and let me know that he was scheduled for his surgery at 9 am. He was out of surgery at 10:30 am and the surgeon himself called me. I returned to the hospital around 11 am and stayed there watching him recovery until about 4:30 pm. I was exahusted but relieved at the same time that he would no longer feel pain. My dear husband is not human. He was walking around and getting dressed on his own before we left the hospital. He refused wheelchair service. In fact, he told the nurse, "I am not leaving in a wheelchair so do not waste your time getting one." I told him in front of nurse that if he fell in the parking lot, I was leaving him there because I was in no shape to be lifting his stubborn butt up off the ground. Good news! He didnt fall in the parking lot and we made it safely to the car. He was lucky!

Brotherhood

Look at these two cute boys! It was a beautiful day out and I decided that being lazy and doing nothing in the house wasnt gonna cut it! I had to take the boys out for a ride in their new wagon. Caleb particularly was excited because he loves to go outside. Thomas, well... I think he is just too young to know otherwise.

On this wagon ride, we walked around the neighborhood and played a little game of identifying objects. Caleb on his own pointed to flowers, trees, trucks, cars, and even barking dogs. At one point, he said "Mommy, there is a scary dog in that house." (The dog was barking loud).

Caleb also decided to tell his brother a story about Thomas the Train on this wagon ride. Though I am not very sure of what he said, I know he ended with, "Mommy, I want to watch Thomas the Train, so go home." Lol! I followed his demand and we made it safely home. But before I gave Caleb his little treat to watch his Thomas DVD's, I told him he had to take some pictures with his baby brother. He simply replied, "Okay Mommy."

For the first time since Christmas I was able to get a few shots of the boys together. At some point Caleb was into taking pictures and making all these cheesey smiley faces. Thomas on the other hand only lasted about two minutes and then realized that this picture taking could go on forever if he allowed it. So can you guess what he did next? That is right, he started to have a fit and I would have to say if it was early in the morning, he could have woke the whole neighborhood.

I must say I am very pleased with these pictures because they miraculously all turned out awesome!

Motherhood = Procrastination

Wow! Has it really been that long since I lasted blogged about our busy life here in Las Vegas... I guess it has been that long?!?!?!

Well for starters, let me update you once again :-)

Ryan- He is still working at CiCi's. Some major changes have been going on, which I cannot reveal just yet, but I hope that these changes bring us the blessings we deserve. He took a break from storage auctioning but plans to get back into it this coming Monday. He is also very busy with the second job-business has picked up but not enough to make it as worthwhile. Though we still work hard at the job because its money we can earn.

Deanna-I am back in school! I know so quick huh? I am currently taking a research and evaluation course, part I. To be honest, I am not liking it one bit! I am finding myself struggling to want to learn the material. I am also keeping busy throughout the week with the boys and watching Elana (Our niece). I feel like I am constantly doing laundry, dishes, and changing diapers. Must be because I am doing all those things...

Caleb-He is exercising his usual terrible two attitude! We are trying to proactively potty train him because he no longer fits size 6 diapers. He still wears them but leaks almost all the time which can be more of a problem for Mommy than for him. He is still in love with Thomas the Train stuff. He has taken a liking to a TV show called Team Umizoomi.

Thomas-He is now 3 months old, rolling over on his side, and teething. We just recently discovered that he might have a milk allergy. I was nursing him, but due to health issues I had to stop. We have him on a soy-based formula, which so far is working okay for him, but I think he still has a sensitive stomach.

Family Update- We have made some awesome new friends who had kids as well at the church we are attending. Ryan and I have decided to start going to church in an effort to seek something new in our lives. We believe this is something that we both need and want to expose our kids too. What brought us to start going to church is all the hardship we have gone through this past year. We are finding that church is soothing and worth our time. We have met some really nice people and are learning lots of new lessons. Everyone is very welcoming. Caleb especially enjoys the nursery time. He gets to play with other kids and learn little lessons. This past Sunday he made a puppet and a cereal necklace... He was so excited that he said, "Mommy I want to do it again."

Well that is about it... I will write some more when I have more time... Thanks for reading!

Awaiting Our Blessings

I realize its been forever since I last updated everyone on the Richardson family here in Las Vegas. We are almost done with the summer heatwave weather and will be saying goodbye to those three digit temperatures.

Whats happened with the Richardson's since my last post? Let's see....

Caleb-We celebrated his 2nd Birthday on August 14th. He was so pleased with all the gifts he got, especially all the Toy Story stuff and his drum set that Mommy and Daddy insanely decided to get him with the knowledge of Thomas arriving soon. Caleb is still learning to potty, I think its going to take some time but eventually he will get it, right?!

Ryan-Same old same old with this young man. I am not sure where he hides all that energy but he sure has lots of it to stay busy with CiCi's, auctioning storage units to make money, working our slow but somewhat steady 2nd income job, and coordinating our neighborhood garage sales. Not to mention finding time to play his computer games, cell phone games, and the Wii. He has spent some time with Caleb playing handyman and drumming. I think its going to be very interesting once Thomas arrives and Ryan will have two boys to teach the essence of hardworking ethics. He is such a good father and our family is blessed with his presence.

Me-I decided to take a leave of absence from school as we all await the arrival of baby Thomas. Yes, this does push back my graduation date by 60 days but I really want to just have some time to focus on Caleb and welcome our new baby boy! I do not start school again until October 12. I am hoping that Thomas will arrive soon. My due date is Oct 3, but my doctor plans to induce me at 39 weeks which is about 8 days away :-) Either way, Thomas will be here soon and we cannot wait for his arrival. Caleb is so excited and I think its cute that he still believes Thomas is in his belly and not mine.

Our future plans...

Ryan and I have made the decision to spend Thanksgiving again this year in North Dakota. I think we have slowly made it a family tradition. This year we actually plan to drive up there, and I believe this long road trip should be very interesting. We promise we will not try to drive the whole way to ND. We actually plan to take two days to drive up there... Ryan's mom lives in WY which is about 13 hrs from Las Vegas. We plan to stop there then head out the following next morning for another 8 hrs of driving. Either way it should be interesting.

As for Christmas, we plan to spend it here in Las Vegas with family. It will be a small Christmas this year but none the less it will be spent with family.

Well, that is about it that is going on. I will write more once Thomas has arrived and post pictures :-)

Taking in the Summer Heat

We welcomed summer weather a few months back and we are just starting to get use to the sporadic heat waves that hit our valley. We try to get out for some fresh air as much as we can without feeling overly heated. Fortunately our little chunkiness Caleb is an outdoor kid. The three digit weather that we have been experiencing these past few weeks does not phase him. He loves to be outside no matter the weather conditions. Unfortunately, I (Deanna) cannot stand the heat with my current pregnancy condition so Daddy (Ryan) volunteers to stay out longer with Caleb to keep him happy.