Isaac and Santa!!

Well, for the first time ever, Isaac sat on Santa's lap (he was never interested before and we really never got around to it). He has been asking me for 2 specific presents for almost a month. I finally told him that he would have to sit on Santa's lap and tell him that he wanted those 2 presents. I told him that on the day marked 27 on the calendar, we would go and talk to Santa. I found out the other night that Santa had arrived early. So, yesterday we surprised Isaac and took him to the mall to sit on Santa's lap. He was so excited. He waited very patiently and when it was his turn, he walked right on over and got up on his lap. He talked to him and told him that he wanted the two presents. They had a great conversation and I even paid for a picture (they wouldn't allow you to use your own camera). As Isaac walked toward me his little eyes filled with tears and by the time he reached me he was just sobbing. When I asked him what was wrong he told me that Santa didn't give him his presents. Poor guy, he was so excited BECAUSE he though he was going to get his presents from Santa at that time. I felt so bad that he was that disappointed. It took him a few minutes to calm down, during which I explained all about Santa and Christmas Day etc.!! So now on December 1st we have to write a letter to Santa and remind him not to forget our house on Christmas.

Some Pictures

I have to apologize to all of those who are awaiting pictures. Out camera is not functioning properly so we haven't been taking pictures as we should. (We take a picture and then the battery dies. We replace the battery and take a picture and the batteries die (not quite so bad but it seems like it)) We will be getting a new camera soon, so the pictures will start up again.

We have had some fun the last few months. Sadie is crawling everywhere and then pulling herself up. I will get a picture as soon as possible. We went trick-or-treating on the 28th of October. Isaac was Buzz Lightyear, Sadie was a little cow and Mom attempted a witches costume (it was too windy). Unfortunately this is the only picture that we got (dumb camera). My brother and his family came with us and they did take more pictures (I will post some as soon as I can)


Another fun thing we did was go to see the trains down in Strasburg, PA. We had been down there once before with Isaac. This time we went down with my brother John and his family. They have a son that is close in age to Isaac. It was a blast. We had pre-purchased tickets, but got to the train station and all of the types of seats we had paid for were sold out. Instead of making us wait for the next train they just upgraded us to 1st class. That meant plush seating and a waitress that offered food and desserts. Unfortunately we had brought a picnic lunch and no money. But it was still a treat. The boys loved every moment of it (including my brother John!)









Here is a picture of Sadie in her crib. I had forgotten just how much little ones move in their sleep. She is all over that crib. BUT, she sleeps through the night and I am LOVING IT!!!!



Here are some pictures of Isaac at "school" (taken by my cell phone so not the best quality) He is in pre-school and doing very well. His social skill are increasing and he is starting to write, add and subtract. He loves to sing and play on the playground. He even has some "girlfriends". He tells me a lot about Maeve and Caroline. He notices their clothes or if they had something done to their hair etc. It makes me just giggle.

Sweet Sadie

She is getting so big!!

She loves everything and she does everything with gusto!! When she is in the tub, she is all over the tub. She rolls this way and that and loves to splash!! She get super excited when we even get her near the tub.



She is also sleeping through the night and has been for a while now. We try and get her in bed between 7-7:30 P.M. and then she sleeps until 6:30-7:00 A.M. Isaac goes to bed around 8 so the house is very quiet for a few hours.



I think she has also learned what the camera is for. Whenever I get it out she just grins. It makes it very easy to get some really cute shots of her.



This is a toy that we got Isaac when he was Sadie's age. We called it his control panel. He was obsessed with it. At that time he had such a big head that we would laugh and say that he was using his mind control and was taking over the world.
Well, it is Sadie's now and she isn't as impressed with it as Isaac was. I guess she won't be joining him in his world domination.

Buzz Lightyear

Isaac LOVES buzz Lightyear. This is probably the first time that he has decided that he liked something and then stuck with it. We have a poster of Buzz and Woody in his room, he has a bear that is dressed like Buzz and we call him Buzz Lightbear and he has seen all three of the movies multiple times.
The other day he asked me for a Buzz Lightyear costume and he was very persistent about it. He very rarely asks for anything so we went on a hunt for the costume. Lucky for him, I found one at Target that was on clearance (another crazy story). He likes to put it on and yell "To infinity AND BEYOND!!!!!"





This next picture is all Isaac's idea. He wanted to wear his Buzz costume and then he kept asking to play the "up game". Then he kept putting my feet on his stomach. We finally figured out what he wanted. When he was up in the air he would yell "To infinity and beyond". After he came off (whether he lost his balance or I tipped him off) he would say, "that's not flying, it's falling with style!"

Some Things

Here are some pictures of the goings on in our house lately.




Today (September 7th, 2010) was Isaac's first day of pre-school. It was a dramatic morning. The whole way there Isaac kept telling me that he didn't want to go alone, that I needed to stay with him. I kept repeating that I couldn't go to school with him, that I would come back for him as soon as school let out; all of the things that moms say to their kids to calm them down. When we got to the school he started to cry and kept saying "don't leave me, don't leave me". He was so worried the whole walk in; that is, until we got to the door of his classroom. His teacher said "hi Isaac!" and he turned around, waved and that was that. There were none of the hysterics at the door like I expected.




Sadie has discovered that she LOVES food. She will eat anything. In this picture she is chewing on a corn cob. Grandma Greenway introduced her to corn cobs and she loves them. She doesn't suck on them like Isaac did, she chews on them and gets all of the left behind corn. She loves any kind of food that she can pick up and get into her mouth. I am sure that if I put it on her tray she would eat it. For now, we are sticking with baby treats, baby food and crackers (and the occasional corn cob).



Sadie has also been working on some teeth. She totally surprised us with these chompers. Unlike Isaac, there was no fussiness, no runny nose, no sickness. She didn't even get swollen gums. One day there was a little dimple in her gums and the next there was two little sharp things that you could feel when she chewed on your finger. Hopefully all of her teeth will be this easy.





This little one is keeping me on my toes. She has decided that she can't sit still. She is one busy little girl. If she isn't trying to crawl, she is rolling from here to there and she gets to where she wants to go. For the moment, she isn't getting into too much trouble. I am sure it is lurking on the horizon.




These last two pictures are my new hobby. I have learned that I like to quilt. I love to find quilt block patterns and then put it all together. The top quilt is the first quilt top that I finished. I found a quilt block that I liked, I found some material that I thought would go together and had at it. It didn't turn out too bad. Now I just need to get the back on it and then get it quilted. The bottom picture is the quilt I learned on. Each block used a different technique and this is the end result. From a distance it looks pretty good, but don't get too close or you will realize that there are a lot of mistakes. But, I am pretty happy about these two "firsts".

Sadie at 6 months!

Sadie has a new love in her life - FOOD! She absolutely loves to eat. She gets very excited when she sees a bottle, but she gets estatic when we put her in the high chair and put her bib on. She knows what is coming. So far the only thing we've found that she doesn't like is peas. She likes everything else that we have tried. But she LOVES bananas, carrots and mixed veggies. We can't get those in her mouth fast enough.

She also (finally) mastered the art of rolling over. She now rolls everywhere! But, this is her new favorite position.

Sitting UP!!



She has been sitting up now for about 2 weeks and she awesome at balancing. In fact, she would rather be sitting and has figured out how to not tip over unless she wants to.



She is even getting good at reaching for what she wants. (Poor Isaac!)

Cape May Getaway

For Ty's 40th birthday, we decided to go on a "no kids" mini-vacation. We knew we had about 30 hours and we decided that we wanted to do something different. So after many discussions and debates, mapping, reading and studying, we decided that we would go to Cape May. Ty had never seen the Atlantic Ocean and Cape May came highly recommended. So we dropped our kids off at the Hintze's house and took off.
We had an enjoyable time. We learned some valuable lessons though. We learned we are not beach people. We went to the beach and after about 1/2 hour we were done. We learned we are picky when it comes to overnight stays. We stayed at a historic inn which ended up being a lot of money for a run down room that was smaller than our bedroom (We'd have preferred a Marriott or Hyatt). We learned that we would rather "go for rides" rather than get stuck in traffic trying to get somewhere (or get home).
All in all, we did have a good time and we learned that that isn't the type of vacation we would do again.



Here are the pictures that we took of us at the beach. It was beautiful! The water was warm, the sand was nice and we found some fun seashells to take home to Isaac.

Isaac Turned 4!!!!

For Isaac's birthday this year we decided that;

1 - He was old enough to have a true, invite friends over, kind of birthday party
2 - We didn't want a ton of kids running around inside of our house (or anyones house for that matter)
3 - It was going to be hot outside
4 - WATER was our answer

We talked to Grandma Greenway (her house is on a well so the water is free) and had a water party. Isaac invited all of the kids from his playgroup and primary class. We also had Isaac's cousins that came to Carlisle for the 4th of July weekend. There was a little kid swimming pool, an older kid swimming pool, a sprinkler and a slip-n-slide. There was also "Fort Greenway" that Grandma and Grandpa have in their back yard.
It was a blast. The kids had a great time getting wet. The weather was warm but not too hot. The parents sat around in camp chairs keeping tabs on their kids but also enjoying some adult conversations. The kids ate a light lunch while Isaac opened his presents and then they had cake. (thanks again to Aunt Tanya and Aunt Amy for their creativeness in decorating the cake). It was a great time.

Enjoy some pictures!!

So Funny

My friend Sally had a link on her website to this site. So, I had to see it for myself. I put pictures of Isaac (Luke), Ty (Han), myself (Leia) and my nephew Will (Lando) just to see. It is hysterical. Enjoy!!

Animas Vacation

Here are some pictures of our trip to Animas, New Mexico. We had a great time!!

4 Generations

We had the chance a few weeks ago to visit Ty's old stomping ground in Animas, New Mexico. While we were there we knew that we had to sit down with "Gramps" and get some pictures of him with our kids. This picture is four generations of Richins boys. Pretty cool!

Isaac and Sadie

Sometimes the "Kodak moments" just happen,

and sometimes they need a foot in the ribs of a 3 1/2 year old boy tickling him and making it a game while snapping photos and hoping one of them turn out!

Cutest Boy

I have got the cutest boy.

At Lowe's after finishing his project.

After eating his chocolate cupcake

(cuz' he went pee pee in the potty)

He's all ready for church.

Crazy hair (after his tub)

Enjoying the 2 feet of snow!

Isaac and Sadie

We were worried that when Sadie joined our family that Isaac was going to feel left out or neglected. We found out that this 3 1/2 year old boy didn't really care that there was a new member of the family. She didn't get into his toys, eat his food, or play his computer. In fact, this new little member of the family actually made it so that he got MORE TV time, MORE computer time and LESS of Mom keeping track of him. He was totally ambivalent of her for the first little while.



That all changed one day in Wal-mart of all places. He was in the basket of the cart and she was in her car seat. He reached up and began to pet her head. He looked at me and said "Mom, I love Baby Sadie". After that, he was willing to hold her and love her and kiss her. He gets concerned when she is sad and he loves to pet her head.



I think he is going to be a great, protective Big Brother!