Our new home

After two trips to Pennsylvania since January and hours and hours (mainly Tim) of searching for a place to live......we have finally found a home. Our first trip to PA allowed us to rule out some of the areas we were looking to live. The second trip to PA we hooked up with the most helpful agent ever and decided to narrow our search to Forks Township.

In my idealistic world we would have a 3-4 bedroom house, a big fenced backyard for Xavier to run free, a finished basement, a playroom for the kiddos, and a two car garage. Well, I soon realized if I wanted all these things we'd be paying way too much to rent it and there simply wasn't a whole lot of houses with all these specifications in Forks Township. I had to reign in my worldly desires and come back to reality. Eventually I accepted the fact that I can't always have everything I want when I want it. It's nice to dream though. ;)

The townhouse we found will be great for our immediate needs. We also hope to buy within the next 6-12 months. Our new home has 3 bedrooms all on the upper level, which we really felt important. There are 1 1/2 baths or 2 1/2 baths, I can't remember. The basement is unfinished but there is a separate room for storage. There is also a 1 car garage and a small backyard. Our neighbors both have fences, but there isn't a fence to the back of us. I'm glad Xavier won't be running into our neighbors yards. There is also a bike/running trail about a block from us and a park within a mile. We are so happy to have finally finished our search and we can sleep soundly knowing that when we move in less than 4 weeks, we'll have somewhere to move to.

S3 Luncheon

S3 had it's final hurrah on Sunday. We held our annual end of the year luncheon to celebrate another successful year! There were a ton of people there. We held the event at Blondie's Restaurant in Okemos. We are so lucky to have had such an amazing group of people to be friends with throughout the MBA experience. Many of them will be a short drive from us, so we hope to keep in touch. Sniff! Sniff! I'm going to miss hanging out with all these amazing people.



This was the only picture Xavier sat still for. I'm so happy he was smiling and looking at the camera.
The rest of the time he was trying to climb over the booth, he ran into the men's bathroom, and pretty much all over the restaurant. I wish I could bottle an ounce of his energy.



Kim Galione, Dave Cataldo; Adam, Annie and Violet Briggs. Both of these gals served as co-directors with me. Kim and Dave are getting married this summer in New York. Yeah we are so excited for them. Xavier will miss saying "Go SOX!" every time he sees Dave. I'll miss seeing Dave get the biggest kick out of Xavier saying that to him. Adam and Annie will be near DC so we hope we can see them on our trips to D.C.



Michela is such an awesome and fun gal. She makes amazing Brazilian food! I have really enjoyed getting to know her and Xavier is sure going to miss her son, Yohann. They are two peas in a pod. Michela will be taking my place as one of the co-directors for next year.



Left side to right side: Brent Clore, Maria Pintar, Lori Rader (Next year's S3 co-director), Priya (so New York and classy), Dave Cataldo, and Kim Galione. Maria was also another S3 co-director. She is such a sweetheart and so informed and involved in helping those who are less fortunate than many of us.






Sylvia, Dave, Asher, and Nelina Anderson. They were the first people we became friends with in the program. They stayed with us the first day they arrived in Michigan. Xavier and Asher have become good friends. We will definitely miss this cute little family.



Aimee, Aiden, Connor, and Brandon Walsh. Another family we wish we could take with us to Pennsylvania. Aiden and Xavier have loved hanging out and being boys together. We will miss all the amazing parties they had at their house! They were the best hosts ever!

Baby Shower

My extremely creative and talented party planning friend, Aubrey, threw me a baby shower on Saturday. It was perfect! Every little detail was covered from the food, to the decorations, to the games, and the great company. I hate to admit this, but I was the only thing not perfect that day because I showed up a half an hour late. Yeah I'm a dork! My pregnancy brain is definitely less than stellar. I thought it started at 11 and I had a cheerful call from Aubrey at about 10:45 asking if I was still coming? Of course I was, but apparently I had the time wrong. I was supposed to be there by 10:30. Big woops!

This is what the invite said:
It's that time of year when the snow starts to melt,
When joy for the warmth is always heartfelt.
But along with the sun there will also be showers,
To ensure that May will being plenty of flowers.
So as we look forward to each little sprinkle,
We see Ashley's eye holds a small, sparkling twinkle.
For she knows that her bud will be a tad late to bloom,
As he's set to arrive sometime in June.
So let's shower Ashley with laughs and attention,
As she showers "Baby" with love and affection!
This is what the invite said:

Here are the rest of the details in pictures. Aubrey also has a great talent for taking pictures, so all of these are from her.... :)

First, the decorations:





Since I'm having another boy Aubrey decided to do a baby essentials shower. Since it was held in April she went with an April showers theme and "sprinkles" of attention on the mom-to-be.



The food was delicious. It was a brunch style buffet with crepes and breakfast burritos. I had one of each. Yum yum!





Could this be any cuter?!




THE GAMES:



First, everyone had to tell a parenting story. I had to pick the funniest, the sweetest, and the most dramatic. It was fun to hear all the great stories that us mom's can relate to. We had a lot of good laughs.

The second game we did was the baby alphabet. We had to write down something that had to do with babies for every letter in the alphabet within 2 minutes.



The third game was the most entertaining. Everyone had to find a partner. Then each team chose which person would be the baby and which would be the mom. Then the "mom" had to feed baby food to the "baby". Everyone was a good sport about wearing a bib and having another adult feed them! Here are some great pics!








Then I opened gifts and chatted some more with the girls!



Left to right: Lynda Zechar (one of Tim's coworkers from MAC! Love this lady!), Marisa Christensen, Katie, Val Abenroth, Tiffany Alldredge, Alexis Phillips, Stephanie Prosser, Daniell Miner, and Ann Overson.

I had so much fun and I'm so glad I got to have some more girl time. I'm definitely soaking it all in while I can. Thanks to my wonderful friend Aubrey for planning the whole event and for all the wonderful ladies who came to share this moment with me and my soon-to-be little guy!

My expert climber

This is what happens when I leave Xavier by himself for only a minute. We were coming home and I had a bunch of stuff in my hands. So I ran in the house to put the things down and thought Xavier was following me. I turned around to see this. He had managed to somehow climb on daddy's bike all by himself. Before this shot was taken he was actually standing on the seat of the bike. If I would have taken a second longer he probably would have ended up on the top of the fence. Boy oh boy!

Feeding the ducks

I love when it starts to warm up because there are so many fun things to do outside. One of Xavier's favorite things to do is feed the ducks. So we made our first visit to the Red Cedar since the fall to see if the ducks were out. Sure enough they were swimming around.



Kameron and Xavier could hardly contain their excitement. It took a while to get them to even sit down by the water. They kept tossing the bread to the ducks and giggling.



We ran out of bread pretty fast, so the boys started chasing the ducks all around the grass. Kameron was so excited he didn't stop running the entire time we were there.



And of course, Xavier had to sneak in a tackle to his little cousin. Kameron's such a trooper. One day I'm sure he'll be bigger than X-man. All I have to say is what goes around comes around.

Interview with Xavier

One thing I want to start doing for each of my kids birthdays, at least once they can talk, is to write down their favorites. Then I'll compile them in a book so they can look back and see what things they liked each year.

Here is what Xavier likes at the age of 3

Favorite food: pasta
Favorite fruit: grapes, cantaloupe, and watermelon
Favorite vegetable: carrots
Favorite drink: fruit smoothie
Favorite treat: everything! M&M's
Favorite t.v. show: Thomas the Tank Engine
Favorite sport: baseball and basketball
Favorite color: red
Favorite place to go: the park
Favorite animal: tiger
Favorite sea animal: shark
Favorite activity to do with daddy: tackle and wrestle him
Favorite activity to do with mommy: stretches/yoga
Favorite book: I love you so by Marianne Richmond
Favorite song: Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes
Favorite art activity: painting with cars, marbles, or golf balls
Favorite scripture story: Samuel the Lamanite or Jonah and the Whale
Favorite game: hide and seek and sleeping lions

Birthday Clips

These video clips are for my family who couldn't be there.


Snipe Hunt



Happy Birthday to You!

Xavier's 3rd Birthday Party

We had Xavier's 3rd Birthday Bash on Saturday. He had a blast! I had kind of decided to do a balloon theme because Xavier's really liked the movie Up this year. I did a balloon pop-up card for his invitation, which I'll have to post on here.



I made a balloon banner.



We also put balloons around the house and had a bunch loose for the kids to play with. The balloons were a hit with the kiddos.



My wonderfully creative and crafty husband thought it would be fun to make an Up house on Thursday night. Once he gets an idea in his head he doesn't give up until it's done. So he found an actual plan for an Up house online and built this. He stayed awake until 4 am completing the framework. Then Friday he painted it and added all the detail. Saturday before the party he added the balloons.



Here is the final product. I think Tim missed his calling as an architect. He also happened upon a Mr. Frederickson luggage tag at school, so we put it on the porch of the house. I also had a hand puppet that looked like a snipe, which we put on the top of the house.



I made cupcakes for Xaviers cake and frosted them all different colors. Then I attached ribbon to the bottom of each one. When all the cupcakes were frosted I arranged them to look like a balloon bouquet.



The main activity was a snipe hunt. I gathered all the kids together and told them that Mr. Frederickson called me and said he needed help finding his snipe.
First I showed them what a snipe looked like.
Then I asked Xavier to tell everyone the sound a snipe makes.
Third I told them they had to clap their hands and say "Here snipey, snipey."
Fourth I gave them each a piece of chocolate to feed to the snipe when we found it.
Last I told them there would be some clues around the house that would lead us to the snipe.

After they found all the clues we ran outside to the Up house to find the snipe sitting on top of the roof.



Most of Xavier's friend were able to make it to his party, which I was really happy about. This was his birthday party, but more importantly we wanted Xavier to have one last fun party with all his friends before we move next month. Xavier was so happy to have all his buddies at his house all at once.

We may not have a lot of space, but everyone had lots of fun despite the cramped quarters. This is who was at the party:

Grandma and Grandpa Richardson
Aunt Mary
Katie, Kameron, and Allison Richardson
Garret, Daniell, Addison, and Braelyn Miner
Aubrey and Bauer Boardman
Brandon, Aimee, Aiden, and Connor Walsh
Michela, Joel, Yohann, and Ewen Griffin
David, Sylvia, Asher, and Nelina Anderson
Emily, Ellie, and Kate Becker
Jamie, Cohen, and Eli Helgesen

Thanks to everyone who was able to enjoy this special day with us. We love our friends and family!



The birthday boy! For weeks Xavier has been telling everyone that he was going to get Donald, Douglas, and Molly (trains from Thomas the Tank Engine) for his birthday. I had originally been planning on something else for his gift, but we knew if he didn't get his trains for his birthday he'd be disappointed. After all the festivities we had him open our gift. He was so excited when he opened the box. All he could do was shout "I got Donald, and Douglast, and Molly!" over and over again.



I can't believe another year has passed and my little boy isn't so little anymore. He is becoming such a big boy! He brightens our days and we can't imagine life without this bundle of energy and excitement. Xavier is our train loving, bubble blowing, mischief making, car racing, ball throwing, guitar playing, creative thinking, shark hunting, dare devil, loveable, and irreplaceable one of a kind amazing boy!

The Sharkman

Xavier asked Tim this week what he wanted to be when he grew up. Tim answered, "A businessman. What do you want to be when you grow up Xavier?"
Xavier responded "I want to be a sharkman and take care of sharks."

We watched an interview Anderson Cooper did on 60 minutes with a man nicknamed the Sharkman. He lives in South Africa and films sharks without being in a cage. He baits them and then swims amongst these circling sharks to learn about them. All he has on is his scuba gear and his camera. A little brave and a little crazy. It was pretty amazing. Xavier couldn't stop exclaiming "There's a shark daddy. There's another shark!"

So what do you want to be when you grow up?



An interview with the future Sharkman.

Spring has Sprung

The last couple weeks have been absolutely gorgeous here in Michigan. It's been sunny and in the 60's and 70's. We've been outside enjoying the weather as much as possible. The one thing that makes me smile right now every time I go in and out of my house is this picture:



I have tulips, daffodils, and some kind of purple flower in my backyard. Xavier loves helping daddy weed and water the flowers. He has his very own corner of the garden that he digs in for hours.



Today was an especially rainy day. Xavier is my amazing puddle jumper! Luckily for him there is a permanent puddle of water right in front of our carport. I finally got Xavier some rain boots. He loves them and we decided to break them out on this rainy day.

I had to run some errands so we hopped in the puddles and then hopped in the car. As we were driving to Party City to pick up a helium tank and balloons for Xavier's birthday party it started to rain so hard I couldn't see 2 inches in front of me. I was terrified. Not only that, but I was asking myself why on earth I'm running errands on such a rainy day. I said a little prayer to keep us safe and I just kept driving hoping the rain would lighten up quickly. We arrived at Party City a couple minutes later just in time to hear the tornado warning sirens go off. I called Tim and asked him what i should do. He said to go inside. As we were in the store the employees announced that they would be heading to the basement for shelter. They left me with the choice to leave or join them in the basement. I chose the latter of course. So Xavier got to play with all their extra party supplies. Thankfully he didn't destroy anything and was actually really good while we were in the basement.

After about 10 minutes we were able to leave the basement. We quickly bought our balloons and helium tank and headed home. When we got home I noticed there were a ton of worms in our parking lot. Xavier loves to look at the worms, so I decided we'd stay outside and play in the puddles.



Here is the worm Xavier picked out to be his little friend.




Xavier is showing me his worm. He named him Russell.

We also learned some interesting facts about worms today. They have 5 hearts. They don't have eyes. They can sense light. They are hermaphrodites. They grow in cocoons the size of a piece of rice.



When daddy got home Xavier didn't want to be in the house any longer. So he went for a ride on his bike. He's only ridden this a handful of times and he's really starting to get the hang of it. When he rides it around the neighborhood he tells me he's going on a journey.

Easter Basket Surprise!

Here are a couple video clips of Xavier discovering his Easter basket. Sorry it's kind of dark, we were up pretty early and I was too lazy to walk down the stairs to turn the light on.

Shark Attack! Happy Easter

I only have a couple pictures from Easter. I had charged my camera the night before knowing I'd be taking lots of pictures at Grandma and Grandpa's house. When we started taking pictures our camera died. Low and behold after investigating the matter I found a 9 minute video clip Xavier had taken of himself playing with the camera. Note to self: Don't leave camera where Xavier can reach it. Tim's mom let me take a bunch with her camera, so when I get those I'll post them.



This is Xavier's Easter basket. Xavier is obsessed with whales, dolphins, and sharks right now. His favorite are sharks, so I went with a shark theme for his basket. I included a National Geographic book about sharks, a shark plane, a great white shark toy figurine, a dolphin figurine, a shark hat, a few wind up ocean toys, some shark stickers, a hammerhead shark hand puppet, and one m&m bunny.

The night before Easter Xavier couldn't wait for the Easter bunny to come to Grandma and Grandpa's house. He was 100% certain that the EB was going to bring him a shark. So after he was in bed I put out his basket. I found some plastic shark eggs and had a trail of them leading up to his basket.

At about 2 am Tim said Xavier woke up and was pretty much in and out of sleep the entire night. He couldn't wait until morning for the Easter bunny. It's kind of funny how excited he got because we didn't talk about the Easter bunny much at all until a couple days before Easter.

Finally when it was time to wake up for good Xavier followed his shark egg trail to his basket and was amazed at all the shark stuff! We got up pretty early and didn't want to wake up anyone else so we told Xavier to whisper. That was basically impossible once he had his shark toys in hand.

We also had an amazing Easter dinner as always and our annual easter egg hunt. Xavier has a tendency to try to open the eggs and eat the candy as he goes. I kept trying to tell him that if he just put as many eggs as he could into his basket he'd have more candy at the end. Well, the desire for instant gratification won him over. He probably only got about 15 eggs. (There are at least 300-400 eggs thrown all over Grandma and Grandpa's backyard. That was enough for him anyway since he's been on a sugar high all week from his 4 total egg hunts.