An EarLY morning!

Izzy, Tyson and Beau after the egghunt

Beau saw another egg

Beau found his basket!

Beau wearing Grampa Newman's shoes

Colorin Eggs

He didn't like that the eggs changed color :(

Enjoying a little ride with cousin Izzy

Big kisses for Daddy- I love this pic :)

Me and my hunny :)

Good morning! I'm up early and as I was pouring my morning cup of coffee, there were 3 deer running through our field...so peaceful up north this morning! So I thought I'd take a few minutes to update our blog while the boys are catching their zzzzz's.

Not a whole lot has been going on really- we've been just busy keeping up with our everyday things. Chuck's getting ready to head back to work shortly. He's been putting a lot of bids out there some of which have came from word of mouth, his new website and some leads off Service Magic. It's definitely going to be a huge adjustment for beau when he goes back to daycare! He is so attached to us but we're looking forward to him being around other kids. He's been saying a few new things but it amazes me how he can comprehend sooo many things- example: I'll say "beau can you throw this away for me?" And he will put it in the bedroom garbage. "Beau pick up the red block" and he will. We'll ask him "Beau are you going to be nice?" and he'll say "no." He also has been outside a ton with Chuck while the weather's been nice and they work in the garage. Chuck was fixing a trailer so beau was right beside him checking things out. In the house he'll grab his plastic tools and pretend he's fixin his truck. He's sure is a little boy through and through!

This past Easter we were at mom and dad's and the kids had an Easter egg hunt outside. Beau did well! He found 9 eggs and Izzy found 10. He'd find them and point to them and run and get them. We'd been practicing at the house so he knew what they were AND I loved seeing his expression when he opened a plastic egg and found a jelly bean! He loves jelly beans! Mom and I took him to see the Easter Bunny and he did not like it at all, which I knew he wouldn't since he's only 17 months so I got my picture taken too :) He also was afraid of the eggs when we colored them. He saw them white then we took them out of the dye and they were a different color and he didn't like that at all!

I've been keeping busy training for Gramma's marathon. I'm up to running 3 miles now. I try every time I run to run 3- sometimes I do, sometimes 2 but the main thing for me is that I'm running!! That was my goal: to run and not completely hate it. I'm actually enjoying it and am so proud of myself. It's an awesome feeling to know you are accomplishing your goal and pushing yourself! I think I'm going to sign up for my first 5K which is April 18th. As of right now I just need to find a sitter (chuck is in a home show that same weekend). If I can't, I'm thinking of doing it with Beau in the stroller and just walking it. Another plus to running is that I have lost 13 lbs! It's taken me since the beginning of the year, but I feel tons better and more healthier!

I've posted some fun pics for you- EnJOy!! AND Enjoy this beautiful weekend! HOpe all is well with you!

Finally a Post!

Did I mention beau is climbing on everything now hehe :) Boys will be boys!

Buds :)

ICECREAM YAY!!

Beau and his new cousin Tyson

Icecream!

Fun being 1!

"I don't know mom!"

I've been totally neglecting our blog...so I thought I'd give you a little update of what's been happenin in the Richardson household :)

Chuck's been staying home with beauman doing the daddy daycare thing. And boy is he BUSY! Beau is quite a handful this year compared to last year when chuck stayed home with him! Running and climbing...being a boy :) He sure is having fun with him and they really are buds. Chuck's annual home show is coming up in a few weeks and he's got a few new things up his sleeve. He had an awesome ad placed in the homeshow guide and is hoping to give on the spot bids with a new program he's going to buy. If you haven't already, check out his website at: http://www.northwoodsconcreteandmasonry.com/ He's also on Facebook so look him up! HOme show is in March. I'm also going to be in it for my work... :)

Beau is learning so many new things and it's so hard not to laugh at him when he's being a stinker! He is defintely boy through and through!! Some of his favorite toys are hangers, the broom, his trucks, his suitcase for gramma's house (he will carry this around the house!), any dish towels (he pretends to wipe the floor) and his newest trick is climbing! On everything!

Chuck's been trying to get out on the lake when ever he gets a chance...Tom and Maggie came up 2 weekends ago and they spent all weekend fishing- they had a great time! Didn't catch a lot, but they still had a great time. He's out fishing today so we'll see how he does :)

I've been keeping myself busy with the boys, work, book club, scrappin and I recently started a quilt class. Quilt class should be interesting since I don't even own a sewing machine or sew :) But I thought I'd try it out (I'm hoping to use my mother in laws machine)...I'm also going to walk the Gramma's 1/2 Marathon (13 miles) with some friends and sign up is in a week- so I have a little time to prepare myself for it (it's in June). I've been going to the Y and trying to keep a weekly walking goal each week. I wanted to accomplish the Marathon before I turn the big 3-0! I'll keep ya posted on my progress...

We celebrated our 5 year anniversary yesterday...I can't believe it's been 5 years already! We had plans to go out but decided to just stay in, eat some pizza and order a few movies off the PPV :) Our kind of night!

I posted some fun pics for you! Enjoy!

LIFE! Some pics for you...enjoy!

Where has the year gone?!

Okay so I admit I've been horrible at keeping up with the blog, but LIFE has been happening all around us!! I'll try to be better :)

So much as been happening since September (my last post)! I don't think I can possibly write about 3 months but I think I can sum it up in a nutshell...

First of all, our baby boy is now 1! I can't even believe it! Where has the year gone, seriously!?! It takes forever when you're pregnant and when they're here, you blink and they're 1! Last weekend we had a little party for him...monkey style of course with banana splits! AND he started walking the day of his party! He is so funny walking around the house...he looks like a little mummy. He's also got 6 teeth now, says 'Yeah' after everything and of course eats everything under the sun! He definitely is a little mini chuck! His little personality is totally boy! He got a lot of really nice gifts last weekend and loves his new wagon that gramma and grampa newman got him. Gramma and Grammpa R. got him a his own little remote too that he loves.

Chuck is done working now for the season and will be home with Beau until the spring. I'm now back to working 5 days a week which I guess is okay with me since this is our busiest time of year...we have a lot of 1/1 renewals. Work is definitely keeping me on my toes between the renewals and new business!

I've posted some pictures for you...enjoy!

Enjoy your Thanksgiving this next week and remember all that there is to be thankful for...Chuck and I are most definitely thankful for family, a warm home and...life.

Our Labor Day Weekend

How did you spend your labor day weekend? I was fortunate to have 5 days off and chuck had 4 days off so we squeezed as much as we could into the weekend. We headed to my parents camper in Cambridge on Friday night. We didn't get there until 10pm but figured it was easier than trying to leave really early saturday morning. Saturday the campground had some inflatables set up for the kiddos and Halloween at night. Maggie and izzy got there around 11am on saturday so right away we took the kids down to the inflatables. Izzy was a little afraid at first but was really enjoying them after she had her icecream. Beau even had a little icecream and met some new faces: Tripp, Aubreah, Mindy and Mal.

Saturday night I dressed Beau up as a bowhunter for halloween...he was so cute! I tried to upload a pic but for some reason it didn't work. I'll try to get it up tho. He got tons of candy, well, I did.

On Sunday night chuck and I met up with some friends for dinner and went to Dave and Busters- if you've never been there, you should go. It's large adult arcade (like a chucky cheese for adults without kids running around) with drinks, games, music, guitar hero :) I can honestly say I was pretty embarrassed by my guitar hero skills. Dawn and I got booed off the stage while playing...LOL! But it was still fun and at the end of the night we had 840 tickets so Dawn and i each left with a little monkey....oh yeah, and a shot glass. Beau stayed at Gramma and Grampa's that night- yes, I actually left him overnight and didn't go into panic mode. Although I missed him terribly the next day, it was good for chuck to get out and have a night out.

After a great weekend, it was definitely hard to get back to work on Wednesday! Just when I started to get back into the swing of things, it was Friday :) Now that's my kind of week- I wish every week was a 3 day work week! LOL!

Enjoy your weekend!

Beau loves his cousin Izzy

"Do I have any on my face?" I love this picture of izzy!

Beau with his new friend Tripp

My sister in law maggie and I. I really enjoyed spending some time with her. She's pregnant with their second and is due December 26th! A Christmas Baby!

Beau having some icecream. He ate his own little sunday!


The inflatables...see why izzy was so afraid at first!

"A bad morning may have prevented an unforseen accident...."

These are the words from my Gramma as I was emailing back and forth with her about my crazy morning I had had yesterday. I do have to agree with her on this...I guess everything happens for a reason even if it doesn't fit into our schedule!

My evening was much more enjoyable than my morning. I picked up Beau from daycare and Vicki had given me a bucket of apples from her apple trees. So, after dinner and after Beau and I had our evening walk, chuck helped me peel and core apples and I made a batch of apple crisp. As I was making it, I was thinking about my friend Joni's comment she made on her blog about enjoying the simple things in life. That was what my evening was all about. Seeing my son crawl to me when I picked him up from daycare and seeing the joy on his face when he saw me, going home and having dinner with my boys, enjoying a nice long walk with beau while he blabbed away, smelling the aroma of the apples baking while making apple crisp and enjoying the cool air while the windows were open last night in the kitchen...these are the simple things I was able to enjoy last night. Even though it was a crazy, busy morning, my night ended peacefully and I was able to once again thank God for this wonderful life.

IS iT NapTIMe yeT??

I'm sure many of you can relate to the type of day i'm having today! It started out just fine...I woke up at 6am- which by the way is a little earlier than the norm. I got myself all ready for work, fed my little man, gave him a bath and before you know it we were out the door. By this time, I was already running 15 minutes late (how does that happen when I thought for sure I'd be early??!!) and I still had to pick up my friend and coworker terra. I'm heading down the road, take a sip of my coffee and bam...the lid falls off and there's HOT coffee all over me and my seat. So, 10 miles down the road, I turn around and head home so I can change my clothes. I pull in the driveway, chuck's already outside waiting outside for me (weird how he knew something was up) and asked if there was anything he could do to help...I said "nope" as I'm undressing and rummaging around the house...into a new pair of clothes I go and a quick kiss out the door and I'm back on the road again....this time I'm in 'Martha Mode.' Yes, I'd be referring to Martha Stewart- "get it done" mode. So I'm driving down the county road and it dawns on me that I don't need to pick up terra today, she's at our other location...ah a sigh of relief. But now it's 7:45 am and I'm still about 20 minutes from work....called my daycare lady to let her know I'm late and not to worry. I pulled into Vicki's around 8:05 am and she was gone- she had to run her boys to football practice so beau and I hung out and played while waiting for her arrival. She arrives- again a quick kiss out the door to beau and away i go to GIS. I finally arrive at GIS - as my coworker is calling me worried - at 8:35. What a morning! This little Martha is tired and is wondering, "Is it naptime yet?" I do not like getting out of my morning routine, which I'm sure many of you can relate to. All day I've felt like I've been running around with my head cut off. It's 2:15 now, and I'm really looking forward to picking up beau, heading home and enjoying a nice evening with my boys. Enjoy the rest of this crazy Wednesday!

House for SaLE!

Another busy few weeks at the Richardson Roost! Beau is crawling now! AND standing up on his own. It's like he knows what he's not suppose to get into because he'll giggle when he's by something that we've already moved him from- it's a game to him. So, now that he's crawling, we're busy following him around. Since the basement is finished and all the furniture is downstairs, other than 1 couch, the upstairs living room is wide open and makes a perfect play area for Beau. It's all childproof- no cords, plants, etc.

We got Beau's 9mth pictures taken yesterday at Joni's. Beau got a little crabby and was tired so we'll have to go back for take 2. We got a few tho and JOni and I were able to catch up a little which was nice.

The house is officially up FOR SALE! Keep your fingers and toes crossed! It'll be up for sale until the end of December so we are really hoping we get a bite on it. All it takes is the right buyer to come along. We have a little plan worked up and we need the house to sell before we can move forward on anything! Now that all the house projects are done, Chuck and I have just been enjoying our weekends and weeknights. No more working on the house! Yay!

In his free time, chuck's been busy shooting his bow, playing farmer chuck over at his grandma's land, etc I recently started a bookclub in the Grand Rapids area and our first meeting will be in October. I've also been keeping up with my online bookclub that I have with some family and have also squeezed in sometime to scrap! Last weekend I scrapped 8 pages after Beau went to bed!

Anyways, I hope you all enjoy the weekend and the labor day weekend! We're off to the cities for the holiday weekend! Thanks for checking in!

No More Projects!!!

Well, we're done!! We have finished our list of "to do's!"

• Thank God the Basement is done! That's all I have to say about that! I think chuck would agree...It was a lot of work for Chuck, but he did it! We love the new space and hang out in the basement most nights. Thanks babe- xoxo
• New flooring- living room carpet, kitchen floor, bathroom floor, bedrooms, entry way, laundry closet.
• New driveway
• New multch
• Rocks for egress wells
• Shelving in the laundry room

So does anyone want to buy a house?? We've had 2 realtors out this past week to interview them and find out what they think. We're thinking by the end of next week our house will be listed :) We are plenty excited about that!!

I've posted some pictures for you...enjoy!

House UPdates!!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Summer Fun!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

This is the LiFe

It's a gloomy Sunday morning and I thought I'd sit down and fill you in on all the Richardson news...I think it's been awhile.
Our beauman is already 8 1/2 months old! He's definitely been keeping chuck and i on our toes as we continue to learn more and more about parenthood! I'm sitting here thinking about all the happenings and all the things chuck and i have learned or experienced and i'm sure you can imagine...in the past 8 1/2 months chuck and i have changed oodles of diapers, given tons of baths, visited the doctors office plenty of times due to a 'cold', learned that after a long day at work all it takes is our little boy's smile and it makes it makes the day better, etc! Of course we love to watch Beau learn new things and see his facial expressions when he tries a new food, feels a new texture or hears a new sound. He really is forming his own personality more and more everyday!! AND he's becoming quite a big boy now...literally! He's wearing 12 months! He's not yet crawling (which is quite alright with me! It makes it a ton easier :0) but he gets into the crawling position then tumbles to his tummy. He's probably thinking "why crawl when I can roll everywhere!" LOL! He loves his dump truck and the sound of the air compressor...
Our basement is finally finished!!! I can't believe it's done! We just moved the TV and furniture to the basement this morning since the new upstairs carpet is coming Tuesday. Chuck's putting in the new bathroom floor tonight. We've worked up a little plan which some of you may have heard...we're going to list our house on the market. We're interviewing a few realtor's next week so we'll see what happens!
During the mist of all that we have going on, we've still found some time to get out and enjoy the summer! I've posted a smile box for you so you can have a peek! Thanks for checking in!

PS- Carol and I took 1st place for the largest northern at the Women on Water tourney! We won $430 and are going to get shirts made up for next year! LOL!

I've got 2 TeetH!

Saira and Beau

Great Gramma

Gramma's loving this!

My "hunny" Izzy

Uncle Billy Joe

"Nice Puppy."

New Cousins!!

Great Grampa Joe

Well, first off let me start out with this little quote I came across...

"Life is not orderly. No matter how we try to make it so, right in the middle of it we die, lose a leg, fall in love, drop a jar of applesauce." Natalie Goldberg

I woke up this morning to find that our little man got his 2nd tooth! I can't believe it! Beau's also been trying to crawl...if we put the remote in front of him he'll get one leg under him to start crawling but then goes to his tummy! That's not all he's been up to either...he now says, dada, mama, baba. He's been eating fresh mangos and all sorts of fruits and vegetables too! One of his favorites is avocados with bananas! This has also been quite the experience for Chuck and I too! Before Beauman we never bought mangos or even had a fresh avocado and now we are enjoying them ourselves! I've been busy making Beau's babyfood and freezing it, which has been a little more work but at the same time kinda fun and addicting!

Last week, Beau got to spend time with Great gramma and grampa joe. They drove here from new mexico to see all the family and made a special trip to our house to spend the day with us. We'll hopefully get to see them again in a few weeks at my parent's camper. We enjoyed our time together and beau loved all the snuggles and kisses he got too!

Our 4th of July consisted of camping with my side of the family, seeing Chuck's brother and his family from Missouri and a little trip out to the lake to have breakfast with all of chuck's cousins. It was a big weekend for us- beau got to see so many cousins! He even got to spend time with little Izzy! He even met cousins he'd never even seen before! Chuck's brother has 3 kids and they just swarmed around him when they saw him for the first time. On Saturday night we set off fireworks at Dan and Carol's...fun times!

As for the business, Chuck is definitely keeping busy! He's actually looking for some help. He has one employee but needs another. At the end of June he surpassed the amount of work he did last year and to think he still has 3 more months of good weather! Wow! We feel very fortunate and would like to thank those of you that have referred chuck. All it takes is one job and it's like a snowball effect! Even with all the business, chuck has been able to squeeze in a little fishing time and time for the garden :) I'm not sure if you know this about Chuck but he really enjoys gardening! He grows it and I can it :)

I've been keeping busy, well, makin baby food, strolling and swimmin with beau, reading, and this past week I started running- let's see how long this lasts! I'm really looking forward to this weekend because it's my annual "Women on Water" fishing tournament on Lake Winnie. GO team Richardson/Procopio!!! This is our 4th year doing it and Carol is my partner- we always have a blast doing this and it's something I look forward to every year!! Dan and Chuck usually hang out for the day while Carol and I are on the lake. Chuck and I also get a night out this weekend too! Yay!

Hope all is well and enjoy the weekend!!

Later gator!