First Day of Preschool

I can't believe it, Nathaniel started his first day of preschool today!  He has been excited about this day for a long time!  He would ask, "Mommy, when do I get to go to school?"  I did great this morning and I didn't cry.  I think it helped having daddy's help today!  I know he will have lots of fun learning new things.

15 Days!

In 15 days we are going to Disneyland!!!!

I am just so giddy with excitement!!  I have never been to either Disney park and always dreamed I would go one day, but didn't think I was going in 15 days!  My wonderful In-Love's decided on Father's Day that they wanted to go and take Nathaniel.  We were shocked and couldn't believe it!  We did a little reveal party for Nathaniel last night and took a video on my mom-in-love's camera.  I'll have to post it another day.  


To make it a little fun we made a Mickey cake and showed Nathaniel a few YouTube videos of what we were going to see and he was so excited!!  I loved his little face lighting up with joy!  He said, "I want to go now!"  Nathaniel saw the cake and immediately said, "I want half the ear!"  He made us laugh with the half part.  I thought he would want the whole thing!  Eating the cake was fun because it turned all our mouths and teeth black.  It was quite attractive!

I also made Nathaniel a little banner to count down the days until we leave.  He gets to cut off either Mater, McQueen, or Mickey each day.  The castle is the day we leave!  Did I mention I'm excited!!  

We are also driving and making lots of fun stops along the way.  This will be a first time for me driving out West and I can not wait!  It's gonna be a two week vacation and I'm just praising God for this amazing blessing!!!  Wow!

The Christian Calling by Ariel Valdivia

A year ago today, my daddy went to be with the Heavenly Father. Today I have tears, but with those tears God brings joy. Joy that can only comes from the one who created me and saved me from an eternity in Hell. Because of His son Jesus,and his sacrifice on the cross for my imperfections, I can spend an eternity in heaven with Him. My daddy knew of this joy and wrote a sermon about what our calling as believers are to be while we are still living in this world. I thought it would be appropriate since he is the one who pointed me to Jesus and encouraged my walk with God.

 The Christian Calling

 Jesus told the disciples that as they went out to serve Him they would find that people would hate them. But they were to remember that the people Hate Jesus first. Maybe the disciples were feeling that they were going to enter into a very glamorous life, a life of ease and position and glory. Jesus quickly set about to dispel that idea. He knew they were headed for trouble. They would be beaten and hounded and put in prison. Jesus knew they would suffer ridicule and banishment. They would be cruelly put to death, but someone says today, those days are gone forever, people are not persecuted and put to death for Christ sake in this modern age. That is a mistake. In many parts of the world today we find Christians suffering terrible affliction for their faith. Even right here in America there are many who suffer daily for Christ sake.

 2Timothy 3:12 All that will live Godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. That's why the nominal Christian, the one who is just happy to have his name on the church roll, that kind of Christian will not suffer. His religion or lack of it may not cost him anything in this life. But real Christians vital Christianity always brings a cross, sometimes we here Christians whine and say I don't understand it. I am trying to live for Christ, yet I'm always being persecuted. Well, what did I expect? When you left the devil's side and lined up with Jesus, did you expect the devil to ignore it?

Look, The very first minute that this church opened it's doors to 650 members, that very first minute all of us there became the mortal enemy of Satan and right then the battle began. Satan started to plant seeds of doubt, disagreement, discouragement among the people. Satan and his legions started to dance around as celebrating their victory when they saw our church split. Satan is hard at work- causing war, immorality, broken homes, and shattered lives. That's why Jesus said in this world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. He also said, "Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

 Don't enter the Christian life expecting an easy life and a bed of roses. It's a battle between the good in you, and the bad in you, a battle between your carnal nature and your spiritual nature, a battle between the force of Satan and the forces of Jesus. We know being a Christian sometimes is tough, but it is not a heavy load that we need to carry on our backs. Being a Christian is a blessing that we need to appreciate. If we think it is too much attending church every Sunday and serving becomes to much for us, it is because we have not understood the meaning of the Christian calling.

I'm thankful that I had a father who loved God. I'm so thankful he pointed me and everyone he met to the cross. If you have never made the decision for Jesus, I pray that you choose him today.

Samuel is 4 Months Old!

Weight 14lbs 8oz. 32%

Height 26.25 in. 93%

Samuel is 4 months old! Gosh the time is flying!! It is so neat how at this age Samuel already has his own personality.  He is loud, when he cries, when he talks or coos, really loud.  He definitely lets us know when he wants our attention.  He does not like the swing like his brother did, and he doesn't really like the pacifier, but he loves his thumb.  We are trying to break him of this now so we don't have issues with it later.  We shall see if we have success!  Samuel can roll over from left to right when on his stomach, and he can almost roll from his back to his stomach.  I just started him on cereal this week one time a day and he is doing well and not pushing the food out. His schedule usually looks something like this.

7:00 eat
7:55 nap
10:00 eat
11:05 nap
1:00 eat
2:30 nap
4:00 eat
7:00 eat and then straight to bed.

He recently dropped his 10:00pm feeding and now sleeps all the way through!

Samuel has won our hearts and we thank and praise God for this sweet and precious baby boy! We are enjoying every milestone!

Parent-Child Commitment

Today we stood in front of our church to commit to rear Samuel in a Christ centered home.  What a blessing to be able to have a church who commits with Lesh and I to help us show the love of Jesus to our child.  Our church has a fantastic children's ministry and we are so blessed by it.  May God give us wisdom, discernment, grace, patience, and all the power that he gives, to rear Samuel in this fallen world.  We love you sweet boy!  Thank you to one of my best friends, Gillian for taking the pictures!!

Never Say Never

As a teenager I always said, "I'll never get my driver's license!" I did when I turned 16.

As a single 20 something I said, "I'll never get married."  I got married at the age of 26.

As a young married couple we would visit other couples homes that had toys all over their house.  We would look at each other and say, "Our house will not look like that!" Ha, we have toys everywhere!

After I got married I had a fear I would never get pregnant.  I had my first child at 31.

Up until the last few months Lesh and I said, "We will never buy a minivan!"

Never say never!

Two days ago I was tutoring and Lesh went to a meeting at our church and the plan was for me to go home after tutoring to put the boys down to sleep.  Lesh called me and told me to come up to the church instead of going home and that we could make a date of it since my mom was watching the boys anyway.  I was excited about for my surprise date! 

Once I picked up Lesh from the church he told me which way to drive.  We pull into a Toyota dealership and I asked, "We looking at a van?"  We have been minivan hunting for a couple of months looking for a used one that had all the features we wanted.  We walked the parking lot and Lesh stopped me in front of a 2011 van.  We had been looking at 2008's so I was confused as to why we stopped in front of the very nice looking 2011.  I started looking at it, got inside and started to get excited.  Then Lesh says, "If you like it, it can be ours in 45 minutes."  What!  Apparently when I had talked to Lesh on the phone earlier and he said he was working, he was actually negotiating a price with the dealership.  So, of course I said yes!  We were looking at top of the line 2008 Siennas, and for a middle line 2011, it was only a couple thousand dollars more for a much newer one.  

We have had it 2 days and we love it!  I took it grocery shopping yesterday and it passed the test.  Nathaniel can open and close the doors on his own and I can open them remotely.  Samuel hasn't a clue, and hopefully more baby Richardson's in the future will enjoy the swagger wagon too!  FANTASTIC!   That option is my favorite!  

Never say never, cause when you do, it will probably happen anyways.

Samuel is 2 Months Old

Goodness, poor second child!  I have not taken as many pictures of Samuel as I did as Nathaniel, but I'm trying! It's hard though stopping what I'm doing to snap some shots!  Here is Samuel's 2 month pics.

Weight 12lbs. 9oz.

Length 23 3/4in.

Samuel's daily schedule right now looks like this:

Awake 7:30- Eat

8:15-10:30- Nap

10:30- Eat

11:15- Nap

1:30- Eat

2:15- Nap

4:30- Eat

5:15- Nap

7:30- Eat then straight to sleep

10:00- Dream feed

It's of course not always like this, but this is the most common schedule within 30 minutes difference or so.

He is now sleeping 9.5 hours at night, he wakes up around 5ish and fusses some, but then goes back to sleep until about 7:30.  He has started to smile and coo a whole lot and it is so sweet!  He generally eats about 3.5-4oz. at each feeding.  Some evenings he cluster feeds ever 2 hours until bedtime- I guess that is due to growth spurts.  

Nathaniel is doing great being a big brother and is so helpful to me.  He wants to hug and kiss him all the time so I do have to watch him when he's around Samuel.  I know they will be best buds!

It is so fun to be a mamma to these two boys! I am so blessed!