The Fair

Last night we met Shane, Juliet, and Murry at the Washington County Fair.  I had been debating all day on whether or not to go since Adeline was still battling a low fever, but she woke up from her nap fever-free so we went.  I'm so glad we did, because both girls had a blast.

First we went through all the animal barns looking at all the fancy show animals.  We saw some of the prettiest & fattest rabbits I've ever seen!  And some pretty funny looking chickens, too.

Then we went in the little petting zoo portion.  Murry was so excited and grinned the whole time we were in there.

After we ate some yummy fair food, it was time for rides!  We started with the carousel.  Annabel liked it at first, but when it sped up, she started crying so Daddy had to hold her the rest of the ride.

Then it was on to the bigger kid rides for Adeline.  One of the many advantages of being tall is that Adeline got to ride some rides most 2 year olds probably wouldn't be tall enough for.  She chose this mini roller coaster after the carousel.  I was a little nervous that I'd have a crying child in the middle of this ride, but she absolutely loved it!  During the first drop she squealed with excitement and had the biggest smile on her face the whole time.

Then we rode the swings.  This was my favorite, but when we got off Adeline kept asking for "the one where I can scream" so she rode the caterpillar again with her daddy.

The last ride was the motorcycles, then we headed home.

We had so much fun.  I'm glad we went on the cheap night because our little thrill-seeker would have broken the bank any other night!

The End of Summer

It has cooled off a lot here lately.  At first I thought it was just a fluke thing, but then cold front after cold front kept coming through and it's almost like summer is over already.  I'm not complaining though.  My favorite month is coming up in just four days!  Technically Fall doesn't begin until later in September, but I count the 1st as the beginning of Fall.  :)  So anyway, this is how we've wound down our summer the past week...

Annabel woke up from her nap one day with these big giant curls on top of her head.  So cute!

 We got Annabel to take a few steps the other day.  She's starting to stand independently more often.  She can't get to this position without pulling up on something or without us setting her down on her feet, but she's becoming more and more confident.

I know she looks like such a ragamuffin here, but Jon sent me this picture while I was at bunco the other night.  She climbed up here all on her own.  Scary!

She loves getting into these cups on the floor of our pantry.  We have to close the door every time we get something or she's pulling out cups left and right.

This little one had to get on the dining table the other day to investigate a package we'd gotten in the mail.  I can't turn my back for a second!

I've got climbers on my hands!

We had pancakes Saturday morning.  We gave Annabel a whole one after she'd eaten about 2 cut up in small bites.  She was excited about it!

We spent Saturday evening making a skirt for Adeline to wear to church the next day.  Yes, I went to JoAnn's and bought fabric & elastic and turned it into a skirt!  I'm still in shock over it.  It is by no means perfect, and does look homemade, but nevertheless, it's cute.

Caught them wrestling.  They were both laughing.

Sunday was our Fall kick-off party at church.  Everyone is supposed to support their favorite team.  I think we were the only TCU fans there.  Oh well!  They brought Adeline to us during church saying she didn't feel well, but we stayed for lunch anyway.  She had untucked her shirt by that point.

It rained nearly all afternoon & night on Sunday.  That evening we sat out on the porch and watched it rain for a while.  Unlike her mother, humidity is Adeline's friend.  Look at those pretty curls!

Annabel's hair resembles mine a little bit more.

We are so thankful for the rain.  Our region is one of the worst in the nation as far as the drought goes.  We were so happy to get 4.25 inches on Sunday!

Last night I was nursing Annabel and Jon laughed and said, "She looks so big to still be nursing."  I got him to take a picture so I could see.  She does look big!  We are very pro-breast-feeding at our house, and I will miss these sweet cuddling moments, but I'm also ready to get her weaned.  She loves cow's milk and is eating as much food as Adeline, so I don't really think she needs the breast milk anymore.  We're on the road to be weaned by mid-October!

We plan on finishing out the week getting well.  Please pray for healing at our house!  Then this weekend is an exciting treat!  Jon and I will celebrate our 5th anniversary on Saturday with a relaxing trip to a cabin in the woods in Eureka Springs.  My parents are coming to keep the girls, then they will bring them to us on Sunday and we'll spend the last night all together as a family.  I'm looking forward to it!

First Day of School

So both girls were supposed to start their Kids Day Out program at our church today, but it ended up only being Annabel.  We'll get to that later.  But first, check out this cutie on her first day of school.

She went right to her teacher this morning with no hesitation, which I was so glad of.  Her teachers said she did great.  She wouldn't nap, but she ate all her lunch and even tried to eat the other kids' lunch that they dropped on the floor.  Hah!  That's my good-eating-Richey girl!  She was very happy to see me, but I could see no signs of tears.  I think she enjoyed it!

I made these little treats for the girls' teachers.  It's a cream cheese caramel dip with a golden delicious apple on top.  Of course, I found them on Pinterest.  Here's the link: Teacher Treat  The only difference is that I had to make my own caramel because I couldn't find the pre-packaged dip the recipe suggests.  

So anyway, my first day of KDO was not how I'd envisioned it.  Adeline has run a low fever off & on all weekend, but I wasn't thinking much of it since we'd all had colds & Annabel had been diagnosed with an ear infection on Friday.  The doctor checked Adeline's ears at that appointment, but they were fine and she hadn't developed a fever at that point.  Then yesterday afternoon her fever really spiked and I started to worry.  I thought maybe the pneumonia was rearing its ugly head again.  Adeline I spent the whole time Annabel was at KDO going to the pediatrician, then to get chest x-rays, then to get blood drawn.  The result being that she does NOT have pneumonia (thank you, Jesus), but her blood-work did show she has some sort of bacterial infection.  The pediatrician had said her tonsils looked terrible.  So she's been prescribed a month's worth of antibiotics.  Please pray this returns to me my once very healthy little girl!

Annabel's 1st Haircut

Annabel got her first haircut before her first birthday.  I know that seems crazy, but she needed it.  She had this weird patch of baby hair that never fell out & just continued to grow & grow so it was way longer than the rest of her hair.  Most of it is on top of her head so I could get that in a ponytail without it looking funny, but she had one patch on the back of her head that really needed to be blended with the rest of her hair.  I called up my friend Amberley this morning and asked if she could squeeze us in.  Second children kind of get the shaft because it was a spur of the moment thing and I didn't even have my big camera to document the moment.  I did my best with my phone.

This is kind of blurry, but you can see how long that patch of hair was in the back.  It kind of looked like an old man comb-over..hah!

Sitting in Mommy's lap before we began.

And afterwards with Ms. Amberley.  She was too squirmy for me to take any pictures during.

Oh I just love how much better it looks now!

We left it long on top so I can still get that ponytail & big bow in there.  

Thank you, Amberley!

Richey Ramblings

So here we go again with another super long post with lots of pictures & random happenings/things that Adeline has said lately..

The other day we took Tulip to the vet for her yearly check-up.  The vet walked in & said hello, Adeline responded with, "Hi!  Jesus loves me!"  The vet laughed and said, "Yes, yes He does love you.  That's awesome."  Adeline said, "Yes that IS awesome!"  I hope she never forgets how much Jesus loves her.

We've started letting Annabel just crawl around outside and she loves it.  She doesn't mind the grass or dirt and just plays and tries to do everything Adeline does.  She's filthy when we go in, but she has fun, so it's totally worth it.

Adeline got this tattoo at the baseball game the other night.  It stayed on forever.  One day we went to the post office and she had on her crown, her wand, and this tattoo.  It was so tacky, yet so funny.  I had to take a pic for her Aunt Ashley to show her all the things she's going to let Preston do that we used to say we'd never allow.

Annabel fell asleep sitting up the other day.  I texted this pic to Jon and he replied, "Aren't you going to go lay her down?"  No way!  Why would I risk waking her up?

We met some friends at Boingo Bounce the other day.  Yet again, Annabel thought she was just as big as Adeline and insisted on getting in the little bounce house with her.

We went to visit an elderly lady on our church's shut-in list last week.  Adeline made her a card before we went.

All ready to go visit.  She has her purse full of toys for her & "Sister."

Sometimes I guess Adeline starts to feel left-out and tries to be like Annabel.  She starts mocking the baby sounds Annabel makes, crawls around, and sometimes asks to sit in Annabel's high-chair.  Annabel didn't quite understand why big sister was in her seat.

We went swimming at our friend Hunter's house one day & Adeline wore her hair french-braided.  This is what it looked like when I took it down that night.  So cute!  Adeline did so well in the pool.  I sat on the top step holding Annabel and Adeline wore her life jacket and swam all over the pool.  She'd even get in & out by herself.  I'm glad she likes the water.

This face always makes her daddy laugh, so she does it often.

Tater Tot sent her some princess pjs.  She wants to wear them every night.

On the princess note, Adeline is obsessed.  We don't even watch princess movies.  I guess it's just born in to girls.  The other day I put on a skirt and she flipped out.  "Oh Mommy!  You so pretty in you cute little skirt!  You wear that today, Mommy.  Please don't take it off!"  So if you see how she acts about me wearing a skirt/dress, you can imagine what it's like for her to wear a dress.  I have to beg her to put on shorts, so about 90% of the time, she's in a dress.

We went to visit Shane, Juliet, and Murry on Saturday.  The girls had so much fun playing together and getting out every single toy in the house.

Adeline loves to listen to her Uncle Shane play the ukulele.  He even showed her how to play.  We are so blessed to have such great relatives.

Got a quick shot of Annabel standing up.  She's doing this more & more lately.  She can stand just barely holding on to something forever, and has even started standing without holding on to anything.  Jon got her to take 3-4 steps a couple times yesterday.  She'll be walking before we know it!

This is her silly goose face before going in to church Sunday morning.

And this is after church.  The nursery wears her out!  My mom said all of a sudden her cheeks look chubby.  I would have to agree.  She feels a lot heavier too.  I think she's going through a major growth spurt.  We can't seem to give her enough food.  Last night she ate more than Adeline did at supper.

She loves playing in the play house!

Yesterday every time I'd step out of the room she'd get hurt.  I'm not sure if it was her or her sister causing all the trouble.

And today is Aunt Juliet's birthday.  We made her a play-doh cake this morning & sent her a picture.

Potty training has brought out the worst in us all.  Adeline does great with peeing, but has a hard time with the pooping.  She started doing the whole "withholding poop" thing that the pediatrician assured me is common.  This in turn makes her constipated, which makes it hurt when it finally does come out, which makes her scared to poop the next time.  It's a vicious cycle.  And I have a very hard-headed, stubborn child.  Some would say I'm paying for my raising.  It has left us both in tears multiple times and me feeling like a terrible mother.  I've lost my temper and screamed more than I would like to admit, but I put it on here to offer encouragement.  It has started getting better.  She is no longer scared to go in the potty, but she's still having a few accidents.  I think it's hard for her to tell when it's time until it's almost too late.  So I try to watch for all the signs and get her to the potty in time.  We pray every morning for a good day and for Jesus to help Adeline go poo-poo in the potty.  Then when she does go, we pray and thank Jesus for helping us.  Then when she refuses to go and I lose my temper, we pray and ask for forgiveness for our ugly behavior.  

I want so desperately to be a mom who never screams or loses my temper.  I pray for it all throughout the day, every day, and not just about pottying.  I'm doing much better, but not because of myself.  I couldn't do it without God.  That's what's so wonderful about the beautiful saving grace of Jesus.  We can't always be good and do what's right, but we can always ask for forgiveness and for help to do better next time.  I try to stress that to Adeline.  I think it's such an important concept for kids to understand that we can NOT be good.  Nobody is good all the time.  It's impossible.  But the good news is, we have Jesus, who IS good all the time and who covers our sins.