Happy Birthday, Daddy!

If you like to party - July is the month to be at our house.



Kent has entered the last year of his 20's. We were discussing how quickly our 20's have gone by. We've been married for 10 years, bought our first home, have a little "farm", Kent own his own business, and we have four fantastic wonderful children. Not bad accomplishments for our 20's.

The kids and I bought Kent a holder for his cell phone and a rain gauge. Now when it rains we will actually know how much we got and everyone will quit telling us it didn't really rain that much ;) .

Happy 1st Birthday, Ben!

What a year it's Ben. I never imagined myself with 3 boys but now I can't imagine another way.

Ben being my fourth baby was going to be a scheduled c-section on his daddy's birthday! Kent had a very busy week trying to finish things up before the baby came so I decided that we would celebrate his birthday early. I thought his parents might want to take him out the night before so I decided that July the 2nd was the best night. I made a rather large meal of all his favorite foods. I didn't feel "right" all day and while eating dinner (which I didn't even touch) I knew things were starting. I had been to the dr/Labor and Delivery several times do to pre-term contractions. I was given meds to make them stop and then sent home. Monday night they didn't stop so we loaded up the kids and took them to Nana and Papaw's. The plan was to put them in bed and then go to the hospital. Madisyn was so upset she didn't want us to leave. I was hurting the whole time and had just about had all I could handle so we finally left.

We got to the hospital and Dr. Sarinoglu was still there. After putting me on the monitors and watching my contractions he decided to go ahead and take Ben. I had the worst experience of my life getting the spinal. I decided then and there that a trip to the chiropractor would be in order immediately before my next delivery. Ben was born at 12:20 am Tuesday, July the 3rd.

We nicknamed him Tree Frog because he loved to be in this position. He only weighed 6lbs 15 oz so he seemed long and lanky.

I can't believe how much he has changed. He is such a smiley boy!

On the 3rd we had a little party and he had his first brownie. He has since discovered sweets and gets very excited to eat them.

For his 1st birthday I decided to make a cake with cupcakes. After spending some time looking online I chose to make balloons.

He isn't walking yet but the pulling up is happening more and more. Griffin was 15 months old before he walked so I'm not concerned. 15-16 months sounds like a good time to have a fully mobile Ben. His army crawl gets him into enough trouble. Thankfully he has a wonderful big sister who puts things back that he drags out.

The cousins - getting 5 children ages 7 and under to sit still is not as easy as it appears. But here they are - all the Richardson grands.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Griffin!

I got a new external hard drive for Mother's Day. I quickly began transferring all the piles of CD's and files stored in various computers on to it. Then it quit working. I finally figured out the problem today so all my pictures are back!!!!

Griffin Free entered the world on Tuesday June 7th, 2005. I worked a very hot auction the Saturday before and had some swelling in my feet and legs. I also had a terrible allergic reaction to some medication that Saturday morning. The swelling didn't look any better on Monday so Kent's mom took me to see my OB. He sent me to the hospital for observation. I remember having to leave Madisyn and Ty at the Labor and Delivery hall door. It was awful! I was alone and not really sure what was causing my "issues". I ended up staying overnight for observation and around 7 the next morning the nurse wheeled the bed out of the room and said "You're having a baby today." . I don't know how many times I called Kent before he finally heard the phone (he had stayed at the hospital with me until close to midnight - it was a triage room so no where to even sit comfortably). I was so scared he would miss Griffin's birth. He made it just in time. If the guy hadn't had such a hard time with the spinal he might have missed it.

Aunt Robin stayed with me in the hospital after Griffin was born. I received so much help after Griffin's birth. Madisyn and Ty went to McDonald's and swimming frequently.

So our little Griffin was born just after 8 am. He weighed 7 lbs 13 oz and was our smallest child so far. He seemed so tiny. Griffin was named after Kent's grandpa Lawrence (Vicki's dad) and he has my dad's middle name. I love to hear him say his name is "Giffn Ree".

Sadly, I have been unable to locate the pictures from his 1st birthday. I'm praying that they are on Kent's computer.

Griffin has had problems with cow's milk. He was doing an allergy elimination diet around his 2nd birthday. His cake that year was an Angel food cake that we later topped with strawberries.

Around the time of his 2nd birthday he had a little accident. He is our most accident prone child. He wasn't quite two and he fell in the shower and we think he broke his nose. Almost 2 years later and he still has a faint bruise! His head is like a lumpy rock LOL.

He's going into such a big boy and is very quick to let everyone know that he is "biiiiiiiig". If prompted he will reply that he is a "Biiiiiiiiig boy". In the last few months he has made tons of improvement in his speech. We still have to have him slow down to understand but he is such an expressive child. When he's talking his hands, feet and head are all moving in completely different directions!

He still talks about his cake with dirt on it! LOL

I can't imagine life in the Witcher household without Griffin. We love him so much!