Mia Elizabeth Richardson

Mia was born on September 22 at 11:11 am. My sister Janelle was able to be there for the birth and it was such a neat experience to have her there. At my 37 week checkup Mia was breech, so my OB said he would try to turn her at 39 weeks. I told Janelle she might need to come down earlier so she could be there for the delivery and she changed her flight. Then of course, Mia turned! But my dr. said he was willing to do an induction after 39 weeks so my sister could be there. The induction was set for the 22nd at 5:30 am. Around 2:30 am I started having contractions, which I was very happy about because I was feeling a little guilty about inducing without a valid medical reason. Jason and I got to the hospital at 5:30, my doctor broke my water around 8 am, and at 11:11 Mia was here!
Baby #2 has been a very different experience for me. I was excited and happy when Kate was born, but also terrified and nervous. And either Kate picked up on my nervousness, or she was a fussy baby, because she wasn't the easiest baby. From day 1, I have felt much calmer with Mia. I have been able to really enjoy having a newborn. And she is a sweetheart! She is pretty mellow for the most part, she tends to get fussy in the evening and wants to be held, but besides that she seems very content. It is very sweet to see Kate with Mia. She does get jealous, but she loves to hold Mia and give her hugs and kisses. We are so happy she is part of our family!

Dance and swim lessons

Kate has been begging me to take a ballet class so I signed her up for a princess ballet class this summer. It has been so fun to watch her and she loves it! She also took swim lessons at the beginning of the summer from a friend in the ward. The lessons were only for two weeks but Kate liked them so much and is such a little fish that I decided to sign her up for them at a year round place near our house. Hopefully she doesn't get sick of swimming!

Summer projects

I have been working on a couple of projects this summer. One is an A to Z wall for the playroom and the other is the nursery. I'm not quite finished with Mia's room; I still need to hang a butterfly mobile and I will fill the picture frames once this little one makes her entrance and we get some good pictures of her. Overall I am pleased with how it all turned out.

Disney cruise

Thanks to my dad and Bev, we got to go on another disney cruise last week! We had a blast and it was great to see some family members that I don't get to see very often. Our first stop was Nassau and we went to the Blue Lagoon beach. The water was so blue and clear! I guess I am used to Galveston which is sort of gray and not at all clear! We played in the water, built sandcastles on the beach and played on the big obstacle course they had set up in the water. The next day we went to Castaway Cay which is my favorite stop. It's a disney owned island, so you can literally walk off the ship and onto the beach. We played in the water for awhile then we rented bikes and rode around the island. After lunch, Jason took Kate back to the boat for a nap and my sisters and I went to the adult side of the island. It was so relaxing! I got to just sit and read for an hour with no interruptions. The last day we were at sea, so after playing in the pool with Kate for awhile, my sisters and I went to the spa and used the saunas and these wonderful warming beds that they had. My dream house will definitely have one of those beds in it!
We had kid free dinners almost every night thanks to the awesome kids club on the ship. Kate got to dress up like a different princess every night and run around and play as much as she wanted. We also went to the theater every night because the shows they do are so fun. The music is familiar because it's all from the disney movies, and at different times during the show they would blow bubbles into the audience, or throw confetti at the end. The shows were a little loud for Kate, but she still liked going to them. We had such a great time. Thanks dad and Bev!!

Future photographer?

Kate has been loving to take pictures lately. It is always fun to look at them when she is done and she what she managed to capture. There are a lot of duds, but she does get a few pretty great shots. Here are a few examples.

Easter 2011

Just a few pictures from Easter

Mia Elizabeth Richardson

Jason and I are glad the baby is healthy. Kate is THRILLED it's not a boy!

Relaxing day?

Kate had a fever last night, so I found someone to cover me at work for today and since Kate has two birthday parties to go to on Saturday, I decided to make her sit around as much as possible so she could get better and not miss the parties. Well, relaxing was not on her agenda. Here is how our "relaxing" day went:
ate breakfast
painted each others nails
promptly removed nail polish
took a bath
played a board game
had a picnic lunch in the front yard
painted pictures
played another board game
washed all the outside windows
played in the sprinklers
played in the sandbox
had popsicles
took another bath (thanks to the popsicles)
played another board game

And the day isn't even over yet!



Whew! I'm exhausted, but Kate seems just fine!

Christmas 2010

Even though she didn't get to dress up in a costume, Kate was also very excited for Christmas. She loved decorating the tree, seeing all the lights on the houses, hanging up her stocking (and taking it down again) and drinking hot chocolate by the fire. Since we stayed in Houston for Christmas in 2009, we made the trek to Utah this time. It is so much easier to fly with Kate now that she will watch movies! Between the portable dvd player, Jason's itouch and ipad, and my iphone, she had plenty of media to keep her entertained. Kate must have been super good last year because Santa followed her everywhere! We had our family Christmas the morning we left, and then we stayed with Jason's sweet oma (grandma in German) for a week. Christmas Eve we went to my cousins house and I got to see my 92 year old grandma. She is still as spunky as ever! Christmas Day we opened presents at grandma and grandpa Richardson's house and that night went to Matt and Alicia's place to make dinner and open more presents. The day after Christmas we had dinner at my dad's and Kate built a snowman with grandpa (mostly a big blob of snow that she stuck a bunch of sticks into) and opened more presents. One day my dad and Bev were kind enough to take Kate for the whole day so I could go shopping with my sisters. They went to the aquarium and Kate had a blast. We also went to the BYU Carl Bloch exhibit with Jason's family while we were there and went to temple square to see the lights. It was such a fun trip and so good to see everyone!

Big girl bed

We kept Kate in a crib for a loooong time because she never tried to climb out and I figured "why mess with a good thing?". She finally did start climbing out when she would wake up in the morning, so we converted her crib into a toddler bed. The look on her face sums up how she feels about her "new" bed. Despite all new princess sheets and blanket, she still asks me if she can have her old bed back. I just can't bring myself to put an almost 4 year old back into a crib!! Poor Kate.

Halloween 2010

I know this is ridiculously late, but I still want to post about it so I don't forget! This was the first Halloween Kate was super excited for. Last year we were in San Diego, and the year before was fun but she was just too little to understand what was going on. This year Kate told me everyday for a month that she was going to be a princess, and everyday it was a different one. HEB (similar to Albertson's for you non Texans) had cheap princess costumes so by the time Halloween actually rolled around we had Ariel, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Tinkerbell, and Snow White costumes. Snow White must have won out because that is what Kate wore to Jason's work party, the neighborhood fall festival and the ward trunk or treat.