Oooo! Mom! Yoga!

www.Mommyoga.com is something my sis-in-law created a few years ago. She has a pregnancy yoga video that I followed, with my girls... and she sent this to me in congrats for Gabriel.. A baby and mom yoga video where you do yoga with your baby. The girls caught sight of the look of the DVD and knew it was Auntie A's yoga. Chloe begged to stay up to do yoga before bedtime and 'calm down'. As soon as they saw the baby was needed... they ran to their room and grabbed their 'babies' to do yoga with. Chloe sat through the first 40 min or so following closely to what Auntie A was teaching. I appreciate the healthy influence she has had on my children. I loved the DVD too!
It's a good reminder to us of Ohio's beauty, as well! We were just starting this in this pic.

Yum, Yum Cereal

Brian's first time feeding our little G cereal... He eats and eats and eats!
He likes his dad... and his food, too!
These were his first official bites of rice cereal.. two days ago.

Goodbye Ms. Meg!

The other day was officially the last time the kid-o's will see Ms. Meg and her horses....

Chloe was afraid after not being around them for a while, but Eva-- completely verbal and not afraid. I think this was a great experience to have someone as kind as Meg invite them to be a part of her and her 'horse' families life. I know I'll miss having the familiarity of horses around the kids. Maybe someday we'll get horse riding lessons. That would make me happy.

Richters on Wheels!

Eva has learned to ride her bike Santa has given her... he is the bike giver!
Chloe fell on her 'cushy tushy' and still kept going!! What a trooper!

Gabe kept trying to get out of the stroller. He's going to be a handful when he gets mobile, for sure!

Looking over all these gadgets to add to the blog, I was thinking about the purpose of every one I saw. Some, just reflection other laughing, etc. You probably are all familiar with the 'gadgets' if you blog. I found some nice ones, and being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, I've felt pulls at my heart for each of these I've selected at the side. Families, past and present, future children, being personally and financially prepared.... provident living.org is an awesome sight where you can learn to be savvy in 6 basic areas of life. It's really something! B and I are working on bringing down debt right now. We'll see how this goes.
I am so impressed to say, that families are sooo crucial. Having Little G in the hospital last week, I carried him in to the ER and handed him over to strangers who knew nothing more about him than what they saw. I thought to myself, "Be careful. Be wise. He is my everything!" How often does our Heavenly Father feel the same way when he hands us an infant 20 inches long, 8lb or so and all we know about the infant is what we see right there? I'm sure he says each time to us, "Oh (Jessica), be careful, be wise... this child is priceless to me." And if something goes wrong, how often must he be thinking, "Oh (Little G) I'm so sorry. I wish there was another way."
Our lesson in RS on Sunday was about Sealing, and the Sealing Power restored to the earth in Kirtland OH.... It was very touching and I wish I could've just sat and listened for ever! We preserve things we care about... waxing cars, protecting pictures, sealing and preserving food, painting houses and materials with material to make it last. It made me self-analyze. Do I show my family that they are THE most important things to me? Sealing is a noun and a verb I think. If I just cruise on through life and think 'ah, ya... we're sealed,' it assures nothing. I have to endure, love, serve and sacrifice to be sealed and deserve that blessing. They are worth the stretch marks, the bags under the eyes, the ever expanding waistline (caused not only by child bearing but by stress munching) followed by the frumpy 'I forgot to do my hair today' hair, the pinches in the budget because I don't get a paycheck for being at home... all those things make me a MOM. Brian's love is worth the meal fixing, house cleaning, redundantly repeating redundantly, resetting the toilet seat, dealing with 'his' kids when they act up...all that makes me his WIFE. I hope I show my love for them each day. I hope they don't have to ever think twice about my desire to be a mom and wife. I love them. I'll love them more than just 'till death do us part. I'll love them forever.

One little, two little Three Little Richters...

Middle E, born 10/29/05

Big Sis C, born 3/29/04

Little G, born 10/7/08

I've been thinking about how they all look alike, and I just thought I would post these pics of our kids...
Upshot of Baby G for all those not 'in' on the scoop, is that he's miraculously better. We haven't and the doctors didn't find any infections, even though they tested everything in the world on this poor guy. He just spent 4 days with a very high fever,and then two more days with a low fever after coming home. Now, he's just getting used to not being held all the time (sigh). He got rather spoiled in the hospital, I admit. What precious spirits in this world! They don't look identical, but you can tell they have some relation.... I might even put up a pic of Brian as a baby soon...

A trip to the hospital KRMC

Here our little G is with his IV in his hand, and his Rockstar binky... he had a fever around 102.5 in this pic. Stay tuned for updates with his cultures. The poor guy went through so much testing Mon morning when I took him in with 103 somethin' fever. They did urine, blood cultures, xrays and a lumbar puncture. I could hold him through most of it, but they made me stand outside for the xray and for the lumbar puncture I withdrew myself for fear of attacking someone who was causing my son pain... mothers growly bear instincts were there indeed. I was jumping around and pacing, pacing, pacing in the family room they had off the ER hallway trying to use some of my energy up before I just unleashed hades or broke down in a hysterical sob. I found it to be very helpful!

Here daddy is feeding the fussy baby who now, will not nurse at all (not good for me or our budget, but I'm still trying) He's just not satisfied as fast as he was with these little bottles. (dagnab-it) The girls came to visit me yesterday and B got off of work early for... safety precautions. I definitely did not need him in the Las Vegas hospital too, so I'm glad someone found the gases and fixed them right up.

Eva's first day in sunbeams. We start church at 1pm now so she was really tired. She picks out her outfits now, too.

This was Chloe's drawing of Heaven. There's our family all across the top, then two angels with circles representing the light coming from them. both girls apparently. then there's GEZAZ (jesus) who is standing on steps covered on the top by a cloud. The three on the bottom are (left to right: Joseph, Noah, and Mary- wearing a dress and a baby in her belly.) Under this she wrote HVN- heaven. What a precious daughter of God! Chloe is wearing her favorite dress (decided from her dad's decision that this was his favorite dress on her) and she is now a CTR 5.

This is Gabe's first temp he had... and at the time I thought he's sleep it off. This was how he fell asleep after we had gotten exaughsted form holding him all day, very still, with little getting done elsewhere in the house. Reminds me of a pic when Chloe was really sick too.,..and she was holding her Jeffrey Giraffe that her A Krista had gotten her for Christmas. He is obviously not even in Nursey yet.... What cute chunky legs though! (The race car blankie that Ms. kim had made for him)

Dual Duty

somehow the washing machine entertains more than just my cat... they had their faces pressed up to the window and wow-ing... hahaha. the simple things in life.

patty-cake sister!

Here's E doing patty cake with little G... that's his fav song right now

Where Have all the Dresses Gone?

The girls were sooo excited when we opened up a package from my mom the other night. It was just about bed time and I used it to bribe the girls to clean the room up. (win for me) The dresses were made just for them, and came with a white turtleneck to help keep my girls warm and toasty. And what did they do as soon as they emptied out the box and put the dresses on? Twirl, of course! You can see from Eva's face that this was not the first twirl-- she's getting a bit dizzy. Mom sewed these dresses much by hand (go, Mom- go, Mom) and it looks spectacularly perfect! They got some other fun goodies too. We've eaten, read, and played with all the fun stuff in it plenty of times since we've opened the box. Chloe's favorite thing is the dress and the Nutcracker story, and Eva's favorite thing is the dress and the bear books.
These dresses couldn't have come at a better time. I'd just spent an entire day in Las Vegas looking for a nice, simple long dress that wasn't ridiculously priced. I found a lot of shorter skirts, longer really fancy frilly skirts, and short sleeve dresses. This outfit is warm and flexible... Great pick, mom! Where does anyone go to find the nice dresses for their girls anymore? I can't say I'm going to sew them although I'm awfully tempted!