Honesty Awards- May 2014

Hunter and Kailyn both received an award for Honesty in May. This award was chosen independently by there respective teachers. What a neat accomplish for them both. They also got a coupon for a cup of free ice cream from Golden Spoon. Needless to say, these were used up quickly.  We couldn't have been more proud of our awesome Hunter & Kailyn!

Kailyn receiving her award from her principle.

The smile says it all!

Hunter getting his award.

I sure love this boy!

He is such a hard worker. Go Richardsons!!!!

Swim Lessons 2014

This year we decided to sign all four of our kiddos up for swim lessons at the same time. The water was surprisingly a bit cold, but the kids did awesome. 

Kinley LOVED her daily swim dates with Steven. He is such a great teacher!

She's definitely a natural in the water.

Hunter sports his cool blur giggles. He worked hard learning some new swim strokes. Hopefully he'll be up and ready go swim team next year if he wants to do it.

And he's off!

Alton gives it ago. He is so close at doing it on his own. He can actually go a couple of feet of his own, but then realizes what he is doing and panics. So silly. Kailyn did the exact same thing and it finally clicked for her. I wasn't able to get a good picture of her at swim lessons, but she is now in love with the pool, asking to swim every chance she can get.

Kailyn turns 6 yrs old! - 6/10/14

Kailyn became another year older and wiser this month. She wanted to celebrate her birthday with Mr. Elephant (her stuffed elephant she got from her baby shower) in true elephant style.  She received a super cute dress, made in Canton, TX, from her Texas grandparents. Dad helped her make an invitation and we headed out to hand deliver her invited. She had do much fun and giggled a lot. So fun!

Cute dress and now from grandparents.

Such a sweet girl. This is her party invite.

Steven did an amazing job making this invitation for his princess.

In case you are wandering, there are no elephant cakes in the grocery stores.  Therefore we got our creative juices flowing. She chose a strawberry case and we made the rest with Rice Krispy treats. Steven helped me mold and figure out the rice Krispy parts. Love him!

The finished product (minis the ears). My sister Kim helped with parts of the eyes, flower and grass. This cake was definitely a team effort, but really fun to see it come together.

Kailyn LOVED it. Success!!!

There was also an elephant piñata that I hand made, but I don't have a picture with me right now. Her birthday party was a big success and I think she felt really loved. We played an elephant game by connecting out hands (tails and trunks) in a circle and passing the hula hoop around the circle. Party favors included their gathered piñata candy, bags of peanuts, and cute elephant sun visors that they each made. Kailyn is such a joy to have in our family. She us smart, beautiful and full of life. She loves to sing, dance, do gymnastics, play Barbies, and anything to do with elephants. She claims that she wants to be an elephant. Maybe she will save the elephants of the world someday!

 

Kinley Turns 2yo - May 17, 2014

It's hard to believe our sweet little caboose is 2 yo! Time is going by way too fast! We got her a yummy cake with farm animals and took it to the new splash pad near the Cubs stadium in Tempe. Our cousins met us there and I think she had tons of fun. It was super crowded and REALLY hot, but we made the most of it. She also got a cute outfit from Grandma Mullin, but in the picture she was mad because she didn't want to  try on clothes.

She sure loves being two! She is talking up a storm (and using complete sentences thanks to her older siblings). She is a fish in the pool and loves to sing! She twirls her hair around her finger and sings songs when she is tired.  She also loves to try on anyone's shoes that they have left laying around. Her favorite foods are fruit, masked potatoes and whatever mommy is eating (off my plate, even if it is the same as hers).

Silly picture with Kinley and her brother, Alton. Sent to me while I was at girl's camp. Love these little ones!

Taken by her cousin Madison. She loves wearing sunglasses. What a funny little girl!

Memorial Day Memories -May 2014

Memorial Day turned out to be pretty fun, especially since nothing that happened was actually planned ahead of time. Steven and I went exercising in the morning and then the kids jumped in the pool. They swam for about 2 hrs and then we thought, it sure would be fun to have another family over. So, we called my sister and her family. They too had been swimming for about two hours, but still agreed to come over. We had hot dogs and watermelon. Yum! We swam for a little bit more and then pulled out the sit in kayaks. We spent an hour or more all trying to learn how to flip the kayak. Steven got it on his second push. Pretty amazing considering that he hasn't done it it probably 5-6 years.

Kinley's first time on the ocean kayak. 

What a cute little girl.

Lunch with the cousins (Kinley is 2 yo and Mackenzie is 14 to).

Kailyn will go anywhere when on a noodle.  By the way, she learned how to swim without assistance (or noodles) the weekend before her 6th birthday. She has been in pool heaven ever since.

Cousin Conner and Alton.

Alton trying out the new inflatable wave runner while Hinter learns the balancing act on the kayak. They were having a blast! It's fun to see them getting along.

Speed racer Alton.

Go Hunter!

Dad helps Kinley give it a go! She loved it!!!

Rim-2-Rim Sprint -May 2014

Yes, I call this Grand Canyon rim-2-rim hike a sprint because we were bookin' it. The girls I went with were marathon runners and their endurance was incredible. Steven, the most wonderful, amazing husband ever offered to be our chauffeur for the trip. He drove the entire trip, helped with setting up/taking down tents and cooking. We couldn't have done the trip without him! On Friday morning, we headed up to the north rim. The weather was threatening with rain and thunderstorms which made me a little anxious about our big hike the following day. It took us a solid 7-8 hours to make it to our campsite. We drove they heavy rain and even snow, so crazy! Luckily there wasn't snow at the campsite, but it was quite cold (in the lower 40's).  We put up our tents and then headed over to the north rim lodge for dinner and pictures.  It down poured while we ate, but has stopped by the time we were walking around to take pictures. Perfect!  The sky was cloudy and smoky (because of a big fire in Oak Creek Canyon), but still beautiful. The Grand Canyon is just such an amazing place.

This picture was taken at our first viewpoint. You can see Mt. Humphreys (the highest Mtn in AZ) in the distance. We started the hike around 5:15am, in the dark (and very cold).  

First bridge crossing.

The girls (Erin Wilkes, Maile Farnsworth, Brenda Sibley) wanted to take a picture of the steep cliff. The picture doesn't do to sheerness of it justice.

We were pleasantly surprised to see some wildlife as we approached Cottonwood campground.

We got to the river by 9:30am. The water felt great on our feet. This was taken at Phantom Ranch across from the Bright Angel campground.

View of the suspension bridge that we were about to cross.

View looking down the river (west).

Looking up river (east). You can see the South Kaibab suspension bridge in the distance.

This picture was taken for Kailyn. Pink is her favorite color.

The afternoon storms were starting the threaten us.

The dark patch of trees in the middle of the picture is Indian Gardens. We never got rained on coming out, but the clouds and breeze kept us cooled off. It was perfect!  Overall, it took us 9 hours rim-2-rim!  It was a great trip (even if I did lose 5 toenails. Ouch!)!!!