Old Habits Die Hard

Actually, this one died easier than I thought it would originally. Anyone who has spent much time around Dallin knows he is a huge thumb sucker. Also, they would have seen the ratty blanket he named Elmo that goes everywhere with him.  Well, at the age of 5, he has decided to stop sucking his thumb. He has not sucked it for 4 weeks now.  Here's how it went down: We make him save his own money to buy toys and it was taking much longer than he would have liked so I finally told him that is he stopped sucking his thumb for 10 days straight I would buy him a toy and if he went another 20 days after that he could get another one.  That seemed to do the trick. For the first 3 days he wore a glove on his hand and after that he didn't need it anymore. Only a couple of times he forgot but instantly remembered as soon as it went into his mouth. We told him that was OK and as long as he caught himself he wouldn't have to start over on his day counts. It wasn't long until he realized having Elmo around made it harder for him not to suck his thumb, so he asked me to put Elmo up high in the closet where he couldn't get it. He was very sad about it but said it had to be done. After Elmo was gone, he didn't wear the glove at night anymore and didn't have a problem falling asleep without sucking his thumb. This Saturday Dallin is going to pick out his second toy.  I did tell him if he starts to suck his thumb again I get to take the toys back, but I honestly don't think it will be a problem. He doesn't seem to miss it anymore. I am one happy Mom. I wasn't loving the idea of sending him to kindergarten a thumb sucker. I would like to say it was because of some awesome parenting technique of mine, but in reality all I did was offer the bribe. He wanted two new Skylanders so he figured out a way to stop sucking his thumb.  Awesome Job, Dallin!

Remember, It Is Still Winter

I have to remind myself, as well as Dallin, that even though we had a weekend in the 60s that is it is still winter. All the snow has melted, but here are some photos of after Christmas when we got a ton of snow. I am sure more of this is to come. I will say one thing I like better in PA than in MI is there seems to be a lot less wind. When I dress warm, I actually stay somewhat warm because there isn't a cold wind constantly blowing. 

New Year's Eve

We let Dallin stay up this year till midnight. He was way excited. He spent most of the night making confetti out of paper. And there was no waiting till midnight to throw it either. We threw it quite a lot between 10 and 12. 

Also, we made a costume. We have been having a Harry Potter marathon this past week, so Dallin has been having fun playing wizard, even insisting people at church call him Harry. Dallin and I decided he needed a wand, so we made one from this and a bit of this tutorial. Russ had an old pair of glasses he has not worn since before we were married that he removed the lenses from, and we were set. Dallin played Harry Potter all day, even at the grocery store.

Not bad for paper, hot glue, and paint, huh? Dallin wants me to make more so both Mom and Dad can have one too. He has been making Russ use a chop stick.

Confetti!!! And movies. "The animal is inside out.....And it exploded." Can anyone name that movie?

I also so a cute idea to interview your kids every New Year. Since Dallin loved to make videos, he was all for it. Enjoy!


VID00009 from Nicole Richins on Vimeo.

Dallin made it all the way to midnight, though it was close a couple of times. When I tucked him in bed he wanted me to lay by him. It was literally 2 minutes and he was asleep. He was up at 8 am. We will see how long he makes it tonight. I hope he doesn't crash before 7pm.

Christmas

Thanks to my in-laws, I have a new camera. My last one broke on my Utah trip, so that is one of the reasons I haven't blogged recently. I have taken some pictures of pre-Christmas activities with my phone, but I am having a hard time getting them to show up on the blog. If I get it worked out, I'll post them later. For now you can see the photos we took with out awesome new camera. 

 Santa Came

 D loves Pokémon. This year he got a Pokémon guide book. He was pretty excited.

 You can never have too many Legos.

 Cocoa almonds. A favorite snack of the whole family. D was nice enough to share.

 Our little monkey.

 This one's for Grandpa Albert. We are all prepared for a hike.

 The fun gift from Mom and Dad.

 I am not sure what he is doing here. Kissing it? He was pretty excited about it.

 Star Wars! Of course, we had to watch the movie later that day.

Power Rangers Megazord. He picked this out himself with money from Great Grandmas. He loves it. We let him buy it on Christmas Eve and he played with it for hours. Christmas morning, before even seeing what Santa had brought, he sat down to play with it some more. Maybe we should let him do all his own toy shopping. :)

 Looking for the hidden pickle ornament.

 Dad even played Star Wars with Dallin. They ran in circles all around the house making all the sound effects. Dallin told Dad he would like being the bad guy because "bad guys can do whatever they want."

 I got a heated blanket for Christmas. I spent more of my Christmas right in this chair under the blanket  It was the warmest I have been in a long time. And, yes, Russ brought snacks to me. So sweet.

 Playing Kinectimals and loving it. 

 D and I are studying up on our Pokémons

Dallin got a kids sized sleeping bag. We decided to watch a movie last night so Dallin got all snuggled up to watch Harry Potter. Russ and I got the last movies in the series, so we decided to watch on every night.

We snacked all day, which was nice since I didn't have to cook anything. I did make a pumpkin pie per Dallin's request, but other than that is was crackers and cheese, chips and dip, cinnamon rolls, etc.  I have decided I am getting too old for rich snack foods though. I spent Christmas night throwing up. Russ was kind enough to let me sleep in till almost 10 this morning and I feel tons better. Other than the end, Christmas was great this year. Hope you all had a great Christmas was well. 

Finally...Catch Up Time

Sorry, I have been a huge slacker. I finally figured I can post pictures still on the blog without the before mentioned added steps by using Russ's google account. Since he never posts, I doubt he will mind. So you can disregard the part at the bottom of the post that says it is buy Russ. You know if will always be me. Here is a catch post.

In October Dallin and I went to Utah. While Dallin stayed with his Grandma and Grandpa Richins, I went to the Grand Canyon with my family. My Dad has hiked the Grand Canyon many, many times and I always have wanted to go. I figured this year was going to be my last chance so I decided to give it a try. It was hard to train with no mountains near me, but I did a lot of running and some long walks. The night before I was so nervous, but I am glad to report I did much better than I thought I would. Also, I learned that blisters, even popped blisters,eventually go numb when you walk on them long enough. Lew and Ty also hiked with us. They are rockstar hikers. Dad stayed with me. Of the 23 mile hike (about 7 down, 7 across, and 9 up), only the last mile or two where really hard on me. I was sure happy to see the top. 

The whole reason for the Utah trip was because my baby brother Ty was leaving on his mission. My mom was able to plan his farewell and temple trip when we all could be there, which was awesome because I am in PA and Ash is in AZ. It was fun getting all together.

Ashley was able to visit one of the weeks I was there. He came with her two youngest kids. Dallin was thrilled to have Katie there. At first Dallin wasn't happy when I said Katie was coming because he only remembered little 2 year old Katie, but when she got there he changed his mind. He said she was a big kid now and they had a blast together. He cried when she left. He was so lonely with just MOm and Grandma to play with.

Halloween we carved pumpkins. We never did when we live in Michigan, and dallin never asked. He just seemed to assume we couldn't because we lived in an apartment since there was so much we said we couldn't do because we lived in an apartment. Dallin and I carved all three of them because Dallin was too impatient to wait for Russ. I am pretty sure Russ was a bit relieved he didn't have to carve pumpkins.

Where we live Halloween is scheduled at the Saturday before from 4-6. It was strange to be trick-or-treating without it being dark. Also, people who hand out candy all seem to sit on their front porches. I guess that makes it fast because no knocking on doors and waiting, etc.  Russ likes the way they do it, but I am still not so sure. It is nice to know you won't have people knocking on your door at 10pm. Also, this year we missed rain from Super Storm Sandy that came on Halloween because of having it on Saturday instead.

For Halloween this year, Dallin wore two different costumes. First he was football player. It was a costume borrowed from my Mom. My little brothers wore the same costumes. (Notice it is Phoenix Cardinals  not AZ) Dallin made Russ wear his old high school football jersey so they would both be football players. After a little bit, they came back and Dallin helped Rus pass out candy. Then he decided he wanted to go again, so he put on his Shadow costume. Shadow is a character from Sonic in case you didn't know. 

Dallin turned 5 in November. He got to have three different birthdays, two in Utah and one in PA. His cake was an easy on this year.

For Thanksgiving we decided since this is the first year it would only be the three of us that we would get out of town. OK, so we only went about 45 minutes to OH and we go that far every Sunday, but still. We went to a movie, out to dinner, and checked into a hotel and spent a lot of time swimming. Dallin loved it. I have to say I thought it was a fun Thanksgiving too.

So now you are all caught up. I'll try to not get so far behind now. I figure I have a couple years will Russ's photo album fills up. We can worry about that then.

Little Writer

Dallin loves to make up stories and books. He is always "writing" a book. Recently I came across a website called Storybird. You can use art already there and write a story to go along with the pictures. Dallin asks to do it all the time. We recently figured out how to incorporate one of his favorite car games, Back And Forth Story, into Storybird writing. Dallin selected a group of artwork and started the story. (Of course, this time I did all the typing for him. Usually he does his own typing and the sentences are very short and hard to decipher.) When he finished the first page, we could make it Russ's turn and he would get on his computer at work and write the next page. We did this a few times till Dallin was ready to finish up the story. Dallin thought it was a blast and I had to read it to him over and over again. You can read it here.

I've Started Finally

My Christmas shopping, that is.  I've started looking for online deals to get some of my shopping out of the way. I've got some good deals too, mostly clothes. This year we have decided to use the idea I am sure many of you have seen on Pinterest. Dallin is getting something he wants, something he needs, something to wear, and something to read. That is it from Mom and Dad besides PJs to wear on Christmas Eve. Santa always brings one or two things and stocking stuffers. I already got the "something to wear" from some great online clearance deals. They are summer clothes, obviously,  but he is all set for winter anyway. I also got a great deal on a lunch box since school purchases are all done. That is the "something he needs" since next year is kindergarten and if he goes it will full day. The last thing I got was the "something to read." I got the book The Lightning Thief. Has anyone read it? I was hoping since he loves listening to Fablehaven, he might like it too.  It's the toy gifts that always get me. I never know what to get. Any suggestions? What are you all getting for your kids?