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!