All Growed Up!

After a year of trying to convince me... she finally did. I chopped Madison's hair right off yesterday. It was not an easy thing for me to do. I have to admit that I was not feeling well when I did it, but now I love it. No more wild woman. She looks so much older.

Madison's messy mane before...

Madison all grown up...

Too Much Excitement For One Night

Well, I love the fourth of July. I love to take the kids to see fireworks and have barbecues and wear those corny shirts that you can only wear once. This year though, turned out to be quite a bummer. First of all, all of our family was out of town, so there was no swimming and barbecuing. So we thought that we would make it a fun night and go somewhere to watch fireworks. We went down to Mesquite High School because they had fun things for the kids to do. Well the sky was looking kind of nasty and I wasn't sure if we should go, but Judd insisted that we would be fine. We arrived at Mesquite at about 7:00 p.m. and all was well, besides the fact that it was stinking hot!!! They had a bunch of stuff for kids to do, water activities and jumping castles. They were charging $1 per ride so I bought each kids 5 tickets. They couldn't decide what to do first. Madison wanted to jump in the princess jumping castle and Nolan wanted to jump in the dinosaur jumping castle. We picked the dinosaur castle and its a good thing too. As soon as we got in line the wind started blowing like crazy. Somehow, the princess castle deflated and blew over!!! Thank goodness there were no kids in there. Then Nolan started freaking out because the huge dinosaur head that was on top of the jumping castle was blowing down towards him. Poor kid, I can't imagine what he was thinking. The look in his eyes was one of pure terror. I thought this was kind of funny, shows how insensitive I am. He kept screaming "don't put me in there!!" I think he may be traumatized and never jump in a jumping castle again. So, on we go... The wind was blowing harder and dust storms were blowing in. I decided that being out there with all of the kids was a bad idea. The baby was sound asleep in the stroller through all of this, thank goodness. I told Judd we needed to go, and I would take the kids back to the car while he helped his friend pack up his stuff. So here I was pushing a stroller loaded with lawn chairs, food, drinks, blankets, and a baby; trying to keep him covered because the wind kept blowing the shade visor thing down, and trying to hold the stroller up because it was trying to blow over. Madi and Nolan are at my heals, and I can't remember where we parked. The kids are crying because of the storm and we are walking up and down every isle of the parking lot. Somehow, I totally kept cool, and didn't scream or flip anyone off. It was amazing. We finally found the car and are still alive today. Whew! We ended up watching fireworks on TV at home which was better than nothing. Here is a picture of the kids right before the drama unfolded. I hope next year brings even more excitement. Oh yeah, I never did get my $10 back. Blast!

Madison, a little confused

Quote of the day:

Madison- "Papa called while you were laying Nolan down for a nap"
Mom- "Oh yeah, what did he say"
Madison "He said that they were leaving for California today. They are going to the temple to bless baby Satan this weekend"
Mom- "You mean baby Peighton honey"
Madison- "Oh, Peighton, right"

Fun Stuff

I stole this from Natalie. It was so fun and I've had nothing interesting to post lately. Love ya Nat!

My Man...
1. Who is your man? Clinton Judd Rich
2. How long have you been together? 7 years
3. Dating/Engaged/Married? Dated 7 months/Engaged 2 months/married 6 years
4. How old is your man? 30


You or your man?
1.Who eats more? Judd does, he can eat for 10 people, where the heck does it all go?!?!
2. Who said I love you first? Probably me.
3.Who weighs more? Judd, thank goodness
4.Who sings better? Definitely Judd
5. Who's older? Judd is 5 years older than me
6. Who's smarter? We are both smart at different things. He's very good at math, and I'm better at everything else. Just kidding
7. Who's temper is worse? mine is probably worse!
8. Who does the laundry? Judd does, I don't touch it. He loves it, he says its relaxing-psycho
9. Who does the dishes? I do when I'm home and when I'm gone he does
10. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? I do, Judd has to sleep closest to the door. He says in case anyone ever broke in he has to be close to the door. Its a guy thing I guess.
11. Who's feet are bigger? Judd's
12. Who's hair is longer? Ha Ha. His chest hair is longer!
13? Who's better on the computer? I am, that doesn't say much because I'm not very good on it at all.
14. Who mows the lawn? Judd does. We always pull chairs around the window and watch him. for some reason I think its funny
15. Who pays the bills? He does, I don't even know where the check book is
16. Who cooks dinner? Judd did when we were first married, but he's since gotten rusty, so I do now.
17. Who drives when you are together? Judd does, I hate driving with him in the car
18. Who pays when you go out to dinner? Either one of us, it doesn't matter
19. Who's the most stubborn? Oh, me for sure
20. Who is the first on to admit when they're wrong? Judd is. Even if I am wrong, which never happens ;) he usually takes the blame either way... poor guy
21. Who's parents do you see more? Mine
22. Who named your dog? Well, our dog died, but Judd named him Arelius Maximus after the Gladiator movie, I thought it was an awesome name for a bulldog. RIP max ;)
23. Who kissed who first? Judd kissed me 30 minutes after we met. He wasn't shy back then. After I left the party that night, I didn't call him for a few weeks. Not because he was a bad kisser, but because I was caught off guard. He was actually romantic, I had to regroup and get my game back.
24. Who asked who out? He asked me out, these are fun things to remember
25. What did you do? We went to a party and had a bench pressing competition. I didn't win
26. Who's taller? Judd
28. Who has more friends? Wives always have more friends
29. Who has more siblings? I do
30. Who wears the pants in the relationship? Judd wears the pants about the money, and I wear the pants about everything else.

Family Reunion

We went up to the rim this weekend for my dad's family reunion. We had a pretty fun time. We were only able to stay one night, but the kids sure enjoyed themselves. I stayed in my parents camper with the baby, while Judd had our older 2 kids and my nephew Aden in the tent. I must say I had the better end of the deal on that one. He did have some fun stories to tell about it though. Madison went to lay down for a nap in the tent in the middle of the day but then came to tell us that she couldn't fall asleep because there were buzzing sounds. We didn't think much of it until later that night. When Judd took the kids for bed he had noticed that he didn't shut the tent door after he had set it up. During the day about 200 flies and other types of bugs had made their way inside and were buzzing around all over the tent. He tried to shoo them out but there were just too many. So he swatted all of them with his hat. His hat is looking pretty nasty today as you could probably imagine. The next morning I asked how they slept with all the flies and Aden said "Judd's hat is a real killing massine." It was cute.
He also had a restless night's sleep because all of the kids kept rolling off of their air mattresses. He had Madison and Nolan on their own twin mattresses and he was sharing a queen with Aden. He had gotten up in the middle of the night to put Madison back on her mattress and on his way back he tripped and fell onto the queen size which made Aden launch into the air and onto the ground. He was laughing and Aden stayed asleep through the whole thing. Shows how hard they played during the day!

Here is some video of a game we played. It was a doughnut eating contest where you had to have your hands behind your back and eat a doughnut on a string. Judd thought that he would be good at this game because he has a big mouth, that is until James, my bro in law stepped up. I'm sure you can tell which one I'm talking about. He eats his whole doughnut in .5 seconds. Its pretty amazing.

This is video of the kids doing the doughnut eating contest. Keep an eye on Nolan, he's up to the usual.

Even Bears can be cute

Quote of the day:

Mom "Nolan, please stop being so crazy. What has happend to my sweet little boy?"

Nolan "I don't know, maybe I turned into a bear or something."

Bad Karma

Today I noticed that Nolan has very bad Karma. He's 3 1/2 and I'm at that point where I'm deciding to keep him or give him away. Just kidding, I do love him. He is starting to be more aggressive towards his sister lately. I don't feel the need for punishment though, because 9 times out of 10 he punishes himself. He'll punch her and in the process of making a break for it he'll run into a wall, or stub his toe, or hit his head on some random object. I'm going to try and keep the video camera ready, because I could seriously win some money. Below are some pictures of Nolan crying. I don't know why I posted these, except for the fact that they make me laugh, especially when we are having a day like today!

Dylan's Blessing

This is a shout out to my little sis. Baby Dylan had his blessing this past weekend. I love these pictures. Makenna is super hot! Oh yeah, baby D's cute too!!!

Back on the train

Okay, I've not posted anything in a while. Every spare second I found myself consumed in Stephenie Meyer's new book. It was really good but I'm back on Earth now. We are off to go camping for our family reunion this weekend so I'm sure I'll have something more exciting to say by Monday. Have a great weekend ya'all.

Like Father like Son

Check out these hairlines. Judd didn't start going bald until he was 20. It looks as if Coulson has his genes, but he's starting much earlier. The cul-de-sac is going to be a fashion statement for the boys in the Rich household. For what they lack on the top of their head they make up in masculinity.

Weed Managment

Meet Nolan...

He is a 3 1/2 year old boy with a lot of energy. Sometimes he doesn't listen to his mom, even if she askes him to calm down 500 times. How does mom surpress this energy? By having him pull weeds on a hot summer day. It has worked wonders!

Quote of the day

"I can't believe I have to take care of 2 brothers now. Like when one is crying and the other one is going to the bathroom and needs to wipe. Or one needs a binky and the other one is hungry. I'm not an octopus, I don't have 48 arms, I'm just a human."
-Madison

Coulson belly button update

Well we had Coulson's Dr. appointment today at Phoenix Children's hospital. It went great. Basically we waited 3 hours for the doctor to say "it looks great, he's a beautiful boy." So he's fine. I guess our Doctor was just taking a precaution. It ended up being remnants of the umbilical cord and its gone now. If you ever have to go see a specialist at PCH be prepared to wait and take a lunch. Even though it was a long day it was very humbling. I realized that I complain about my kids far too much. There were kids there with their parents and they had serious medical problems. No matter how loco we get over here, I still have it easier than many parents and I need to stop complaining.

Madison the mess maker

Is this cruel and unusual punishment???? I'll let you decide.


Madison changes her clothes at least 10 times a day, sometimes more. Where do all of the old outfits end up? You guessed it, on the floor. Now, I've been dealing with this for the past 2 years and have tried everything, but to no avail. I've resorted to this... Behold Madison's wardrobe.


Don't worry she still has 2 shirts and 2 pairs of shorts.

I'm soooo hungry

Okay, so I love nursing, but holy cow. I feel like I can't eat anything. I ate chocolate yesterday, and I paid for it last night. I should say that he paid for it. He was not happy. Today I found myself staring into the refridgerator for 15 minutes trying to think of something to eat. I can't do lettuce becuase that makes him gassy, anything with cheese is a no, actually any type of dairy, nothing with any type of spice or tomatoes. I'm running out of options. I guess its good for a post baby diet. Then I was really craving a blt, but I can't have lettuce or tomatoes or mayo, so basically I am having a bacon and toast sandwich. YUMMY! So... does anyone out there have any meal ideas. Help a sister out!!!