Graduation

10 more days and my babe will be an ASU graduate! I'm so proud of him and the hard work he's put into school (all while working and being a great daddy and husband). And now the job search is on! Jake has an interview with an engineering company tomorrow via video conference with the big whigs of the company in Wisconsin. It's a company called Strand Associates. He'll do great, but keep him in your prayers!

Baby brother or sister?

Well folks, the polls are in, and I'm sorry to tell you that 75% of you (and me!) were wrong. Tyler will be getting a baby BROTHER! (If I knew how to put that in blue I would. Anyone want to give me a quick lesson?) We were completely shocked, but so excited to find out that our little babes is a boy. I would have bet money (if I did that sort of thing) that we were having a girl. Oh how I wanted to go out and buy fluffy, ruffly skirts and bow making supplies. But those thoughts quickly vanished when I pictured my two boys wrestling with their daddy on a Sunday afternoon, playing with bugs and dirt, Tyler teaching his brother how to swing a bat or throw a football, and the special bond that is between a mother and son. I am so excited to have another fella in the house to love and take care of. Don't get me wrong, I will be so excited someday to have a girl, but for now I will relish in having my boys. Here's a sneak peek at our little guy. Dr. Beck quickly saw what he needed to see and said, "Uh oh, it's another boy! There's no doubt about it!" He then took the time to show us several different shots of our little guy and said that everything was looking perfect. Brain- good. Spine- good. 2 hands- check. 2 feet- check.

It's a boy!


Can you see his little mouth open on the top right?


Healthy spine!


Don't worry- this picture isn't as creepy as it looks. Turn your head 90 degrees to the right. Otherwise it looks like a creepy child with his mouth open like he's scared. Sorry if you can't find it. You can just go on thinking I have a creepy looking child in there.
He kept moving his little arm out in front of his face and then back out of the picture again, as if waving to his proud parents. Tyler didn't really know what was going on, but keeps saying, "I see mommy's baby on the cupooter (computer)." We called my mom on the way home and let Ty share the news with her. She asked, "What do you have Tyler?". He excitedly answered, "I hah brudder!" Can't wait to meet you little guy! I've gotten a few name suggestions, but I need lots more- bring 'em on!

Baby Richardson #2

So Baby Richardson #2 will be joining our family on April 25th (Jake's birthday!) and we couldn't be more excited! What a relief it was that we were able to get pregnant so soon after my miscarriage. We'll be finding out what he/she is next Wednesday. Will Tyler have a baby brother or sister? Take our poll to the right. While we're at it, any good name ideas for us?

The Summer

This past summer may have been one of the most difficult in my life. To keep it brief, I took on a job working from home creating a course for an online high school (while still nannying and teaching piano) and Jake would be home to take care of Ty for me. Well, Jake, being the awesome dad and husband and engineer he is, landed an awesome (paid!) internship opportunity with Central Arizona Project way the heck out there by Deer Valley. So I was going to have to work and watch Ty at the same time. Tyler is the type of kid that loves interacting with others... or maybe just his mommy. So it was pretty difficult to work and take care of him at the same time. Then we were so excited to find out we were expecting, only to have our hearts broken when I miscarried a week later. I thought I would be fine since I hadn't had a lot of time to get attached, but boy oh boy was it hard. Maybe it was the hormones, or maybe it was the fear of "what if we can't have more children" or who knows what, but it was a really trying time for me. But I learned to grow and put my trust and faith in the Lord. I didn't know what the future would bring for our family, but I was going to trust that the Lord would take care of us. I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the comfort I feel in knowing that the Lord is mindful of us! Although I would not like to relive the stressful, somewhat depressing summer, I'm thankful for the lessons I learned and the humility it has taught me. So without further ado, here is a picture recap (most likely not in chronological order) of our summer.

Jake on his way to interview for the CAP internship- it must have been the gold tie because they loved him! (No, his hair isn't really that tall- it's just a shadow my awesome camera made)


Uncle Jason got home from his mission in Costa Rica. We're so glad to have him back and excited for his upcoming marriage to Alison (pictures to come)


Making messes with oatmeal in our old kitchen. Oh yeah, we moved. Bigger, cleaner, newer, cheaper- can't beat that!


Hanging out with dad and learning to bat (left-handed of course. Jake is excited to have a lefty- apparently it's a great asset in sports).


Happy 3rd Anniversary McSweets! I know- let's be married forever, ok? Dinner at BJ's (thanks Scott & Alisse for introducing us to this fabulous place!).


Swimming with cousin Savannah


First day of nursery= disaster. But he loves nursery now and I love his teachers. They had a lesson on gratitude so I asked Ty what he was grateful for (didn't even know he knew what that meant) and he responded in his lispy voice, "JESUS!" What am I grateful for? That my not yet two-year-old son is grateful for Jesus. This is a picture of his first day. By the looks of it, I guess I must have been bawling in sacrament meeting. What else is new?


Slip 'n sliding with Brooke and Maddi. They loved it! Thanks Raylene!


Richardson Family Reunion in Heber area. We stayed at Bison Ranch (thanks Mike for sharing your time share!)and had a great time. We stayed up way too late playing Settlers with the siblings which only ended in a complete gridlock- no one could win! First time I've ever seen that happen. This is Ty getting ready to watch Dad go fishing.


For part of the reunion we all went to the place where Jake's ancestors had a log home. This is one of the logs from the log cabin. They helped to settle the area there. It was really cool- we could see rocks that were lined up that outlined parts of walls and whatnot. It was neat to imagine what it must have looked like.


We had to say goodbye to our two favorite missionaries. Elder Pebley and Elder Wilder. Jake was the Ward Mission Leader in our old ward and so they would come over at least once a week. I learned how to give them haircuts and we taught them how to play farkle (no time to explain... just google it).


We may have had a little too much fun with them. Elder Pebley (the one on his knees) and Jake were like soul mates. They really connected. Funny note: we told them we were moving and they were crushed. What can I say, we were their favorites! Then they called Jake a couple of days later and told him the area was being whitewashed and they were both being transferred two days before we moved- Elder Pebley called it sweet justice.


All packed up to move!


We took Tyler to his first in-theater movie: Toy Story 3. He loves Toy Story and almost sat through the entire movie. I may or may not have bawled in that movie and thought- that's going to be Ty in 16 more years. Who does that?!?)


Tyler and Savannah like to give loves.


Phew! You made it!

Been Awhile

So it's been a little while... okay a long while since I've last posted. The last picture I posted is with Tyler with a binkie in his mouth- The binkie has been gone for a long while now and a lot has happened since then.

I'll admit I went on a bit of a blogging strike. (Enter on soapbox) Oh, I looked at all of your blogs and commented and what not, but I was just striking against my own blog. Have you ever been reading cute, creative, witty blog after blog and suddenly become depressed because you realize that your blog is not as cute, creative, or witty? That was me. So I stopped blogging because I felt like I didn't have anything to knock your socks off with. I was talking with my friend Stacie (who I set up with her now husband- apparently I'm a pretty good matchmaker) and we were talking about how it seems like people always try to outdo others. You know- in high school it was who had the best clothes or the most boyfriends or the best party. And now it's who has the best job, the biggest house, the best holiday craft, the best dressed or well-trained kids. I realized I had totally fallen into the trap (thanks a lot Satan!) and was feeling down on myself because while I have a pretty darn cute kid (have you seen Ty? best looking almost two year old you'll ever meet!), he's not always dressed to the nines and most often has food smeared on his face. And while I have a very comfortable home, we're still renting and in school. But guess what? I love my life! I have so much to be grateful for and appreciate in my life! I'm crazy about my husband and son and we have a blast together! And I want to keep a record of the the things we do and accomplish, our struggles and failures, the funny things Tyler does and says. And I want to share them with you! But I'm back, without any promises to knock your socks off. This is just us. And I love it! Here's to not comparing myself with others! (Exit off soapbox)

The Ty Guy

Tyler loves to wear my sunglasses in the car. He'll put them on and say "coo" (cool). And then he'll point to the radio and say, "moe, moe" (more, more) until I find the Jack Johnson song on the cd. Once everything is set he'll start nodding his head to the music and begin his "jam session". He's very particular about the things he likes to watch/listen to. For instance, if we do a sesame street video online, it has to be this one with Elmo and the apple. And if we listen to play songs on our computer, we have to start with "It's a small world" or he'll get pretty upset. Silly kid. We're trying not to cater to all of his particular-ness because I don't want him thinking he can get everything he wants. It's hard to be tough sometimes- he's just so darn cute!



Tyler is talking all the time now. He can communicate so well. So well that he gets frustrated if there is ever a time I don't know what he is saying. I'd document more words that he can say, but he'll pretty much repeat anything we say. Some of his new favorite words are "Anony" (Anthony- our cute neighbor boy upstairs we watched last night), "bee ball" (baseball), and "Nenony" (Melody- his cousin). He can say everyone's name on my side of the family, and about half of Jake's family (which is pretty good considering there are 40 of us!). We'll be driving in the car and he'll start listing off people's names. And the funny thing is he'll group them up in families. Most often he'll do Ben and Cindy's family or Ryan and Becca's.

He loves to sing! I'll find him humming himself to sleep for naps, which is funny because until about a month ago he never wanted me to sing to him before bed time. Now we sing all 3 verses of "I am a Child of God" about 3 times before he goes to bed at night. He'll also sing "Clean Up" while picking up his train set or crayons, and "Happy Birthday" anytime he sees a candle.

Well, I guess I'm kind of proud of my kid. What mom isn't? One of the benefits of being a mom- you get bragging rights... and then other times you're totally embarrassed when your 16 month old kid rips a loud man toot in Kohls, and then flashes a toothy smile like it's the best thing he's done all day. I love you Ty!

Weekend o' fun

Oh how I love this man. We had a... "fun" weekend with the stomach flu. Jake came down with the stomach bug around 4 in the morning on Friday. Isn't it the worst when your kids or spouse are sick- so much worse than when you're sick yourself. Jake is so tough. After spending a little one on one time with the toilet, Jake decided he was well enough to go help his friend out with some pest control stuff. After 2 hours of that he realized he had overestimated his superhuman abilities to overcome the stomach flu in just a few hours and was back home in bed for the rest of the day. He hardly complained at all and asked for very little help. He even almost fainted at one point, but played it off like it was nothing. Well, the next morning at 4 am, it was my turn. Let's just say I handle being sick a little differently than Jake. I immediately began asking Jake to help me with this and get me that. And Jake was there to help me every time. When it was my turn to have the "I almost fainted" spell, I had to have Jake hold me up, tell me what to do (put your head between your legs- it works!), and be there by my side until it was through. Then I had to have my mom come over to help me while Jake ran to do some errands. Gosh- do you think I'm a little needy?

It's funny how something so unattractive like throwing up, staying on the toilet all day, having your insides turned out, sweating like crazy, and staying in a dark stuffy room all day can make you fall more in love with someone. But it happens. Taking care of each other really made me realize how much I rely on Jake and how sweet he is to me. I only wish I treated him better when he was sick the day before me! I'm crazy about you Jake! (but let's not do the stomach flu thing again).