Christmas at the Greenway House!

Christmas at the Greenway house started the night before. Grandpa read the Christmas Story and the Adam Greenway family acted it out.

Christmas at the Richins Home

Christmas morning at the Richins household did not start off well. Little boys didn't sleep the night before and was a basket case that morning. Not even the lure of presents could cheer him up. After a long conversation and some serious persuasion we talked him into at least going into the living room to see the Christmas tree.


That is when the excitement began. He saw presents that hadn't been there the night before, the cookies and milk were gone and there was candy!!



He got a children's video game that he has been excited about for months (he plays it everytime we go to Target or Walmart).



He got tools just like Dad's!!!



He got a stuffed pig that he thought was "silly", but he loved it. He didn't want to put it down. He also got some fun other toys that snapped him out of that cranky mood.



It turned into a great present opening experience!

Technology!

I love modern technology. I am now 28+ weeks pregnant and the doctors decided that they wanted to make sure Sadie was growing like she was supposed to. So, I got an ultrasound. Here are the pictures that they gave me.

Sadie's arm

3D profile shot

Isaac's New Thing

Isaac has always hated hats. It was a rare occasion that we could get him to wear a hat. This being said, an older Sister from our ward decided that she wanted to make Isaac a ski cap before we moved away. She got it finished right after we moved, so Dad brought it home from work one day. Well, Isaac thinks that it is the greatest thing in the world. He wears it everywhere (until his head gets hot and then he carries it with him). He has even started to wear it to bed. We think it is hilarious.

No Time!!

Ok, so since the last post we had to get our house in Hershey ready to sell, pack, move, settle, and attempt to unpack. We had to do this despite being pregnant, working full time (Ty) and trying to wrangle a 3-year-old. (Not to mention coming down with the swine flu 1 1/2 weeks after moving) But we did it!! It just hasn't left any time for updating a blog. Here are some pictures from our "final" walk through of the new house, before we moved in.

The kitchen

The Living Room (facing the dining room and kitchen)

The Living Room (standing in the Dining room)

The basement family room (standing by the stairs)

NEW HOUSE!!!!

I blame this all on Ty. He said that when things happened with our moving situation it would move fast. I must say he was right.

We got notice on Sunday morning (Sept 20) that there was someone very interested in buying our house and we might receive an offer that evening. At about 8:30 p.m. our realtor called and said they had indeed received an offer on the house but it was very low and did we want to counter. We did counter and went to bed elated that someone had actually made an offer on the house. The next morning I got a call and our realtor said that she had received a counter on our counter and did we want to accept it. Their counter offer was acceptable, so now our house was under contract our closing date was set and we didn't have a house to buy. So we went into emergency house hunting mode.

By Wednesday (Sept 23) we had come up with 2 houses that we liked (I had already seen quite a few that were still listed and they weren't suitable for our needs) and that we hadn't seen. Based on what we'd seen on the internet, we were fairly certain that we preferred 1 over the other and that was probably the house that we were going to make an offer on. We saw the first house and thought it was a good back-up if the other one didn't work. Well, the other one didn't work AT ALL. It was too small and poorly laid out. So we made an offer on the first one at about 2:30 p.m.(that we really did like and it had everything that we were looking for). By 5:30 we knew that our offer had been accepted and we were now under contract!

So, here is a picture of our new house! (We close on both houses October 27th) If you wish to Google Earth or Bing Live View it, the address is 2123 Circle Dr, Carlisle PA.

It's a . . .

We had our (approx) 20 week ultrasound today. The baby was not very cooperative. First it was breech and then it was laying on its side facing the placenta. It made it very hard to see many of the features that they wanted to see. It took a while to get all of the views of the head, the heart, the face etc. When the tech went to look at the sex of the baby, she laughed and showed us that the baby had its legs crossed at the ankles and she couldn't see anything. She suggested that I get up and move around a bit and then maybe when the Dr. came in, he would have a better chance. Well I did as she suggested and the Dr came in and took a look. He told us that he was fairly certain (not 100%) that he knew what we were having based on what he couldn't see, rather that what he could see. He wasn't able to get a good picture, but he could see that there wasn't something there. So, by the process of elimination. . .

IT'S A GIRL!!!!!!!!!!

Pictures

Ok, I promised baby pictures. The first ultrasound picture is at a little over 10 weeks old. It was the first time Ty got a look at the little one. I had gotten some ultrasound pictures way early in the pregnancy, but they didn't even resemble a baby. Just a blob with a heartrate. This picture actually looks like a baby. You can see its head, body, arms and legs.



This ultrasound picture is at a little over 12 weeks. I went in for a heartrate check and the baby didn't want to cooperate. So they just did an ultrasound. It was in there just a wiggling. This ultrasound picture is looking down on the baby. You can see it's head and body and its two eyes.



We go back on September 15th and at that appointment (if the baby cooperates) we will find out if it is a boy or a girl (or as Ty likes to say a flamingo or a giraffe).

Isaac Watering the Tree

Isaac's New Toy

The other day as we were heading home, we noticed this man putting a sign on two toys. The sign said "FREE". So we stopped and asked if the toys worked. To our surprise, the man said yes. He explained that his grandchildren had grown out of these toys and he was cleaning out his garage. So we loaded these toys up into our car and brought them home!

Isaac learning to ride

Isaac getting going

Isaac having fun!

Never in my wildest imagination did I think that my kids would ever have a powerwheels car or bike. There are just better things to spend money on. But, these were free! We couldn't pass it up.

Kitchen Remodel

Here is our kitchen remodel. It took us over a year (cuz we tried to do it ourselves). We finally gave up and hired a contractor to finish it. (Thanks John!!) The first picture is what we started with. The second picture is what we lived with for a little over a year. The last picture is the finished project. John did all of the soffeting over the cupboards, the tile work, the trim work and the floor. It looks so much better.

Before

DURING

FINISHED!

Isaac's New Trick!

We showed him how to bend over, touch his head to the floor and then jump. He did it on the first try and then we couldn't stop him. We kept having to redirect him because he would start to do the roll and it was obvious that he would crash into something. But, he kept doing it over and over and then would just laugh like he was having the time of his life.

Summertime Pictures

What a Summer!!!

It has been the craziest summer.

June started out with the discovery that Baby Richins #2 was on the way!!! (pictures to follow)

That same day we started the remodeling of our new kitchen so that we could put our home on the market. Lucky for us, my brother is a contractor and did the work himself. He did a great job (before and after pictures to follow). We also had (well Ty had, 'cuz Emily was suffering for morning/noon/night sickness) the great "opportunity" to declutter our home and move at least 1/3 of our belonings to storage. Ty did a great job and our house feels empty.

July saw us putting our home on the market and allowing total strangers access to our home to critique it and see how spacious it really is without all of our clutter. Isaac turned three this month (pictures to follow) and we celebrated at Grandma and Grandpa's house with hamburgers, hotdogs and cake. It was a great time, especially when we got to set the street on fire with fireworks from Wal-mart. We also got to see a picture of our little bean and see that it is growing and doing well (kinda makes all of the nausea and fatigue worth it).

So, that is an update of our summer. I will get pictures posted ASAP.

Tired??

We spent the day at Grandma's and Isaac had a good time running around with Gavin. He played and played. Normally we leave Grandma's and I plan on him taking a cat nap as we drive home, but today we left a little later than normal and I didn't want him to sleep. I gave him his balloon and allowed him to watch Dora in the car (a treat reserved for the drive over to Grandma's house). It didn't work.

FREE CHOCOLATE!!!

I just found this website (thanks to bouncing around on some other websites) that is offering FREE CHOCOLATE FRIDAYS!!! Here is the web address.

https://secure.realchocolate.com/default.aspx

It is even good chocolate!!!

Emily

Mischief

Aren't Sundays supposed to be a day of rest???

This past Sunday we decided to spend the day at Grandma and Grandpa Greenway's home after church. As the adults were in the kitchen getting lunch ready, the children (Isaac 3, Gavin 2 1/2, and Will 1 1/2) were in Grandpa's bedroom watching TV. Well they were supposed to be anyway...

William toddled into the kitchen and we noticed that he cleared our sinuses as he walked by. Upon closer examination, his mother could see that he had a glob of a gel-like substance in his hair. Upon much closer examination (one sniff was all that was really needed) it was determined that someone had found Grandpa's stash of mentholatum (like Vicks's). As the adult investigators investigated, it was discovered that Gavin had finger painted Grandpa's comforter, Aunt Emily's dress (which she admits that she should have hung up), and one wall in grandpa's bedroom with the sinus clearing rub. William appeared to have been an innocent victim (see www.theothergreenways.blogspot.com for a picture) and Isaac a bystander in this mess.

BUT . . .

Later that afternoon, the boys were sent downstairs to the family room to play. We figured that the toys were down there, the TV was set to play Elmo's World and the adults upstairs were close enough to hear if there were any real catastrophes. Aunt Lynn was the one to stumble across the next scene. She went downstairs to get some toys for the smaller boys that were upstairs. As she came onto this scene the only thing she could do was laugh and call all of the adults down to take pictures.

ENJOY!!!

I Love This Picture

Isaac, Gavin and Grandma Greenway. This
is one of my favorite pictures of all time.

Fun in the morning

A long, long time ago, when Isaac turned one he got a bag of blocks. For the longest time he only enjoyed them when he was flinging them around the room. A few months ago, he realized that he could get just as much enjoyment out of them if he stacked them. So one day, with the help of dad, he built a "tall tower". I think they used up all of the blocks they could find. Isaac was very excited. I am sure he was just as excited to knock it all down.

The other thing that Isaac has come to enjoy (thank goodness) is his "choo-choo tacks" The morning this picture was taken he had been putting them together and having a blast doing it. As you can see, he was less than thrilled when we wanted him to stop long enough to take a picture.

Isaac also loves to color (more to come on that front). He also has discovered that the holes in his ears match the size of the crayons. How could he resist?? Thankfully (and I am sure it will happen someday) he hasn't discovered that his nostrils are just the right size to accept toys, crayons, peas, etc. I am keeping my mouth shut and my fingers crossed on that one.