December at the Richardsons

Nativity by the Carrollton Texas Stake

Every year the Carrollton Stake puts on a Nativity exhibit. It is free to the public and open Friday and Saturday sometime in December for the public to view. I have been able to help the past two years to set it up and decorate. It is quite the undertaking. We start on Monday 9am and go through Thursday. We are usually there from 9 until around midnight each day. It opens on Friday morning thru Saturday evening. We then take it all down Saturday night so the church is clean and ready for Sunday church. It really is pretty incredible and I have loved doing it. I wish the pictures could do it justice but they really don't. There are 500 nativities from all over the world. It's pretty awesome!

They also have different singing groups or individuals who provide music while people are viewing the Nativities. The kids were able to sing with the Primary from our ward on Saturday night.

A visit with SANTA!!!

Jib Jab - Merry Christmas Elves!!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Twilight!

Well.... I have to say that I really loved the movie. It was not as great as the book by any means, but the movie was pretty darn good I thought. Edward is much hotter in the movie then the previews or posters. Thank goodness.... I was worried about that. I went on Saturday night and the pathetic thing is I went all by myself. I have never went to the movies by myself before - so sad. I had to see it though. I miss my friends! Would loved to have went to it with the CATS!!! I miss you guys. Let me know what you all thought of it, and hopefully you went together or found someone to go with. So, my review as Marcie would say is I am still a little giddy over it! Thumbs up!!! One last comment Jasper was a little disturbing.... his hair, his pale skin, or just the way his eyes seemed to look surprised all the time ---- just made me giggle a little!

Castle Hills Knights!! Jackson's awesome Soccer Team

Jackson just ended his Fall soccer season. His team had an AWESOME season. They played 12 games and didn't lose one game. They have been playing together for 3 seasons now, with a little bit of Indoor soccer as well. They have really learned to play well together and have an awesome coach. This is the first season that was full soccer field so they really got a great workout every game. They ended up playing in the championship game. They got medals and a trophy! It was a lot of fun! For the championship game they spray painted their hair black and silver like their shirts and loved that. Pretty crazy for 6 & 7 year olds but they had fun. Now straight onto Indoor Soccer and Basketball. I am literally a bus driver between the two kids.

Great season Castle Hills Knights!!!

Rugby is 9 Years old! (hard to believe)

Happy Birthday to our sweet dog Rugby! I can not believe we have had her for 9 years. She has been such a great dog! Not to say she hasn't been hard work and a little high maintenance. She really has been an awesome part of the family. The kids love her and she is so loyal to them and us.
Every year for her birthday she gets a cheeseburger from McDonalds. Boy does she love that! This picture we captured today while she was enjoying her favorite birthday gift.

Ok it is a little creepy, but the kids found it to be hilarious!

More pics of her enjoying her cheeseburger.... She also got a new dog bowl and new comfy bed (dog bed) to sleep in. She is starting to gray and slowing down quite a bit but still doing pretty well. Happy Birthday RUGBY! We love you!

SPOOKY Halloween Night!!

Halloween finally came! After partying all week the big night was here. We had some of our good friends over for pizza and cupcakes then got into our costumes and we hit the Castle Hill streets. (Castle Hills is the name of our neighborhood) It is a total Zoo on Halloween in our neighborhood. We literally get hundreds of trick or treaters. The streets are filled full of kids. Sometimes it is hard to make it down the sidewalks because of all the kids. Before moving here I have never seen anything like it. Car loads come and park and piles of kids get out of each car. It really is crazy! Usually people get their chairs and sit on their porches and just hand the candy out instead of letting them ring the bells or knock. You really just don't get a break long enough to shut your door. Rylie and Kayla were cats this year and Jackson and Marissa were Star Wars characters.

We had reached the third door and this huge Darth Vader came walking up to us. We had Jackson stand next to him and we got a picture. We called them Vader and mini Vader. It was funny!

We made it to alot of houses, have way to much candy and saw a lot of great friends and costumes. Another fun Halloween for the Richardson Kiddo's!

I have to add just a couple more pictures. I forgot the carving pumpkin pictures.

Trunk or Treat - LDS Style

We had our annual trunk or treat at the church Wednesday night. It was alot of fun. They had some games in the gym. Face Painting, Fishing for a Treat, Bowling, Decorate your Own Cookie, Bean Bag Toss, and a few others we didn't make it to. We then headed out to the trunks to get some treats. I did not get hardly any pictures - darn it. Here are Rylie and Jackson right before we left in their costumes. Darth Vader and Black Cat!!

A week of Halloween FUN!

Halloween the past three or four years has turned into a week of parties instead of just one night of trick or treating. I am usually exhausted by the time November 1st comes around. We had a trick or treating party at Britt's office on Wednesday to start it all off. The kids go from office to office and trick or treat. Then we go to the conference room where they have a little party. This year the lady that is in charge went all out for the kids. She had ordered pizza, had goody bags and pumpkins filled with candy and toys and had ordered these yummy cupcakes from "Sprinkles" a well known cupcake joint in Dallas. I have a picture of the cupcakes, check out how big they are. YUM! She also had a Halloween cartoon playing on the conference room screen while they ate. It was a fun time for all of us.

"Y" Princess Group

Britt and Rylie joined the YMCA Princess Group. If you haven't heard of it it is a group of dads and daughters 4 years - 4th grade that get together and learn different things. Kind of like girl scouts. The dads are in charge and plan and do it all with them. No moms involved (kind of). A few weekends ago they had their 1st of 2 big campouts. They went to Oklahoma and stayed at a cabin. There are 9 other dads and daughters in Rylie and Britt's group. They went fishing, horseback riding, learned how to start a fire, and went on a great scavenger hunt. The girls found a grasshopper and decided to keep him as their camp mascot and named him Hermit. They stayed for two nights and had a great time. They will have another campout in the Spring and for Valentines day they go downtown Dallas and have a daddy daughter dance with all the Y Princess groups in the area. Other than the three big activities they meet together once a month in someones home and have a activity or do service for someone. I like that it gives the dads and girls the chance to spend one on one time with each other and the dads are in charge.

30 YEARS OF WAITING....

After waiting for about 30 years, Britt finally was able to go to a Dallas Cowboys game! It was AWESOME! We had great seats and could see everything really well! We got there really early so we wouldn't miss a thing. The tailgaters were quite a sight. I can not believe the things people do in the parking lot before the game starts. Some people have quite the set up for tailgating. We found our seats (really early) and Britt just sat and took it all in. I don't think he left his seat one time. I know he thought he was in heaven! We got some great pictures of T.O. and Tony Romo. I looked everywhere for Jessica Simpson but I couldn't find her - darn it! The guy sitting behind us I swear was from the "Gotti" Family. Total Mafia looking - scary! The Cowboys won! Yahoo! We had a great time! So glad you got to go Britt and that you had such an awesome time. We are definetely going to have to do that again!

"The Half"

Well, I did it! I signed myself up to do a half marathon. My stomach is queasy just thinking about it. It is 13.1 FOREVER miles and it is in November. I can run about 8 1/2 miles comfortably now. I shouldn't say comfortably because I really don't feel all that comfortable when I get my run done. But it does make me feel somewhat accomplished. Now if I can just do another 5 miles on top of it? I have run a 5k and I liked it. So maybe the half won't be so bad. Yeah right!! Big difference between a 5k and a half marathon - just a measly 10 miles. No biggie!

Get Ready - Get Set - GO!!!! EEK!

Just GROSS!

What do you do if you walk into your garage and see this creeping across the floor......

Well, if you are me, you totally flip out and run in the house to get your husband and kids so they can see the sickest thing on earth (besides a snake). Little did I know they would flip out too! Britt came out told us all to back way up and get him the broom! He got it onto the broom somehow and flipped it into the empty lot next to us. He hurt his leg doing it because even though he may not admit it, he was just as creeped out by it! It was as big as my hand - aagh it is making my skin crawl just thinking about it. It was creepy and gross! I am still a little flipped out by it and it has been 3 hours since we saw it! We have had a few neighbors tell us that they have seen tarantula's in their garages but I didn't think they meant this big. We have some empty lots next to our house that they are getting ready to build on. Every time they start getting the dirt ready we get creepy crawly things around the garage, ie... mice, scorpions, and now tarantula's - sick sick sick.

Do you ever....

look at old family pictures and wonder where has the time gone? Well, I was doing just that last night and came across these pics of the kids when they were 2ish. After a few giggles I couldn't resist putting them up on the blog. Look at our cute chunky babies.

They are still both very much our babies just not so small and chunky anymore! We sure do love our kids!