RIP, Spring Break

Rest in peace, Spring Break 2016, I hardly knew ye.

While others were posting fabulous beach/red rock/pool/fluffy clouds-and-unicorns pictures of their spring break trips, we spent most of the week at home.  It was rainy/snowy most of the week, and I was working mornings still, so the boys watched The Lego Brickumentary on Amazon Prime every day. Every day. They would pause it to run and try and create new creations. We didn't clean the downstairs floor every night because, futile.

My camera is full of pictures of their Lego city stuff, so I just picked three.

Max finished his snowboarding course the Friday before. He is getting so brave on the slopes and loved riding the bus up with his friend Andy.

One of the nicer afternoons of that week, we were invited to The Homestead Resort in Midway by some friends.

These froggy statues are everywhere.

It has a huge steamy, deep crater, full of people learning to scuba dive, and there's an indoor pool that we had all to ourselves. Cute Jamsey loved the goggles, and loved having strong Maxwell carry him all throughout the water, while I saw on the edge with water-shy Andrew. I keep vowing he will get swim lessons.

 

The Daltons were so nice -- they treated us to dinner and things from the gift shop. Check her out at GoAdventureMom by the way on Twitter and her website. She inspires me to be more adventurous with my boys.

March MADness

We were way into basketball this season. College and professional. The boys filled out March Madness brackets, and 5-year-old Andrew picked Buffalo to win it all because it sounded the coolest. They were all sad/mad/very bummed when the Utes were eliminated.

JB had U of U season tickets, and would take turns taking the big boys. This was a giveaway night.

I have not seen either of them wear these thingys since, by the way.

JB's dad scored great tickets to a Jazz game, and JB took Max with him that night. We are rooting for their playoff chances.

Then, our friends invited us on a date night with them to a Jazz game last week. This is the only picture I took, to show that we were sitting behind the pink ladies. They always make it on TV.

My two big boys will watch any basketball game, just like their dad. The two little boys will get grumpy about it and demand "Paw Patrol" any time the TV is on. Hence the other part of the "MADness" title of this post.

Scott and Kristina

We are so excited for JB's youngest brother Scott and his new wife Kristi. She is kind, funny, and has the energy to play hide-and-seek with my boys. So...perfection.

They got married on Good Friday at the Bountiful Temple. Waiting afterward outside:

There they are.

The wedding lunch was Cafe Rio at a nearby Stake Center, and the reception was at a beautiful location in Bountiful.  We tried to get a picture of our four boys all with their matching ties. James didn't want me to put him down by the others, and Andrew I believe was trying to keep his face smiling here?

One attempt:

 

 This one is the winner. Cheesy Andrew, handsome big boys, and James playing with his belly button.

 

Inside, we posed with the newlyweds.

And they tried to get a picture with all of the nieces and nephews. Look how good the babies Millicent and Harvey are in the back. In the front, great job by the rest of the cousins, except for that pair of legs in the corner. ...

 

Those legs belonged to James, who was noping out of the picture. Kate was, too, to give him some company.

Stick a fork in him, he was done with picture taking. 

 

Sitting to rest the pins. While sitting, I missed the frisbee toss and first dance, but did see the rehearsal dance and cake cutting.

 

A couple more of my handsome big boys.

JB and boys wore the matching ties again on Easter Sunday and it really looked like we planned ahead and did that ourselves, but really, we have Scott to thank for getting married. Congratulations!

Cousins

Our baby girl is going to have lots of cousins close to her age on both sides of the family.

On the 'deuff side, my brother Michael had Katherine last October (after 3 boys), my brother Peter's had Daniel born just last week, and my sister Emily's baby is due also in July (surprise gender).

On the Richards side, she has Harvey and Millicent born last fall, seen here in this picture JB took at Benjamin's baptism in January.

And coming up is Bart and Collette's baby boy next month. Collette and I were teased about also taking a picture together at the baptism, but she had a nice baby bump, and all I had at that time to show for my pregnancy was extreme nausea, tons of extra spit and a larger chest. 

All these cousins on both sides will all be the same school year. Remember, the last batch of 4 Richards cousins are also all in the same year:

(September 2013)

Pregnancy 2nd trimester update: heartburn mostly at bay for now, energy is what is to be expected for a mid-upper 30s woman pregnant with #5 (FIVE!) who works at 4 AM.  And still so.much.spit. I can fill a cup in an hour.

My first two pregnancies had no spit; the third and fourth, I slept on a towel over my pillow for all the drool. Now I just cuddle a towel to my mouth like it's my blankie. That way I still have the nice-feeling pillow case against my cheek. But, recently JB confessed that I am now snoring. Open-mouth + stuffy nose = sawing logs. Yikes!

The only time I feel normal from all this spit is when I'm eating, so, hello weight gain. My boys are used to my baseball-player-spitting antics, but they remind me to chew gum if we are in public. I think I embarrass them. I fight against being depressed by this spituation -- it really helps me to keep planning and making girly things, and to feel such lovely kicks and movement inside.

Cooking goals

It's nice to find a recipe that people like -- nay, love. Be it my boys, my co-workers or neighbors, or my extended family members.  Recently for Richards family dinner I made a Caramel Apple Pound Cake. We've had it there before as made by others; this time James decided it needed just a sampling first on our counter after church. The sticker on his hand came from good behavior during nursery.

 I took three pictures in a row of his tongue getting closer before I stopped him.  And I cut out that tiny portion of frosting, don't worry Richards fam.

I mainly like to bake. Cakes, cookies, brownies, breads. I am extremely blessed to have a husband who is talented at cooking and makes dinner nightly. I mean, for example, if I set out to make spaghetti, I boil water in a small pan and add bottled sauce.  JB pulls out the larger pot (so boiling water doesn't overflow) and salts the water and stirs the noodles and makes a bolognese from scratch and grates fresh cheese for the top.

So, to any neighbors or ward members who are reading this, if you have ever received a meal from us after a new baby or death or illness, if it tasted good, it was JB.  I either tried to be his sous chef, or I kept Things #3 and #4 out from underfoot. Because anybody could cook so much more easily if they didn't have screaming children biting their ankles, am I right or am I right?

Hey girl

Recently we had our official 20 week ultrasound. I thought they might move my due date up, because I felt kicks so much sooner and felt better earlier than in the past, but they say she's on track still for around July 22-24 as a due date.

Everything looked great, which was a relief, because after our cruise came all those worries about the Zika virus and pregnant women. And the doctor made kind of a big deal about my last baby being 9 lbs 6 oz, but did say baby girls tend to be smaller.

She moves so much. Her hands were up by her face, and then down by her thighs and then up by her stomach.

I can't wait to see what she looks like. Judging by the ultrasound, she looks like her brothers (because that's what their ultrasounds looked like, and pretty much every other baby, haha).

People say James looks like me. Here I am at roughly his age:

Too soon to tell if our girl will look like this:

 

Years ago, I saw this painting in the BYU Bookstore while there for Women's Conference. I came around the corner where there were lots of paintings all up on the wall, and this one just jumped out at me and brought tears to my eyes. I almost thought the title of it would be "Millie," it haunted me so. I saved a picture on my phone. It's called "Looking Down," and the painter is Julie Rogers.

11 years ago, when I was first pregnant and lolling around ill on our old blue couches, I remember sitting straight up like a bolt of lightening had hit me, thinking, "THAT'S it. Millie is what I want to name a daughter."

The song about her in "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" goes, "Simple and sweet, and sassy as can be. Bless her beautiful hide, for she's the gal for me!"

She's such a strong character in the movie and the short story. She has all those brothers (by marriage) that fill the house with their presence and rowdiness (like this baby girl's brothers), but she gets them all whipped into shape. 

She stands up for herself, but is able to forgive, and I envy that.

ThinkBabyNames says the name means "rival, eager work; helper to the priest; rival; laborious; eager; bee; honey; gentle strength; brave strength." What a nice definition.

KC wedding - Stephen and Sarah

Last weekend my youngest living brother got married, in the Kansas City LDS Temple. I was 14 when he was born and I remember the night clearly.  I kept thinking, "Um, who is letting this baby boy get MARRIED?"


I flew out for two days and 3 nights, and while I missed my boys and husband very much, I really enjoyed spending time with my Deardeuff family.  Two of my brothers couldn't go (one is about to have a baby; the other had back surgery), but I see them here in Utah....though I could do so more.

My dad, with Havala, my younger sister Emily's daughter (the last time I was in KC was for Emily's wedding).

Now we are both pregnant at the same time, with our babies due in July pretty close together.

My brothers Michael (flew from Seattle), and James (lives in KC-area). These are #s 4 and 5 in the lineup.

My brother Seth (#7) and his wife Caitlin, and my mom waiting outside the temple.

All five sisters together: Me (#2), Sarah (#12), Emily (#8), Rebekah (#1) and Rachel (#9).  I realized while driving in the dark with 3 of them, that they sound an awful lot alike. Similar mannerisms and voice inflections. Ergo, that's probably how I sound. So, girls, you too could be on the radio.

The newly weds.

Family picture.

Their reception was in Hamilton, Missouri, at one of the buildings owned by the Missouri Star Quilt Company. Stephen and Sarah met there. She was working there, and he got a job there after he came home from his mission. The owners are good friends of my family, and now they and their company are famous.

Small towns and cities in Missouri have brick walls with huge murals on them.  This one is of quilts, and I thought my quilting-talented-Mother-in-Law might really like to see this, as well as all of the shops and sewing centers in town.

The famous Jenny Doan and me at the reception.

I have a lot more pictures of the reception that I sent to my brothers Joe and Peter that couldn't be there.  Here are my mom and me. She sat for most of the time; I think a reception line would have been too hard for her to be standing in.

 My 16-year-old sister Sarah is quite adept at the selfie. She took this one below.

My boys now have three aunt Sarahs - JB's little sister, my little sister, and now "new Sarah" as we dubbed her at sibling sushi night.

Saturday lunch was BBQ, of course, because yum and because Kansas City.  I didn't take any pictures of that food because I felt bad for JB missing it -- wrestling four boys at home alone, with the two younger ones suddenly feverish and sick. After I flew back, I pretty much held Jamesy all day long. That boy is grumpy when he's sick. Andrew becomes stoic and goes to some inner place of peace, and curls up with a blanket.  May he be an example to us all.

I doubt my brother Stephen reads this blog (I wonder if some siblings forgot about it or even know about it. Narcissist that I am, wanting attention as one of 12 children), but congratulations anyway, bro!