What a Storm!!!!

So I don't know if any of you heard about the storm we had last week here in Pasadena, Ca, but we had a "hurricane" strength wind storm. We had winds up to 107 mph. It was incredible. I was laying down trying to get Coulson to sleep around 10pm and the wind was blowing pretty hard. The lights started flickering off and on and it scared Coulson so we went out to the family room with Daddy. Nate and I sat there around a candle and talked until the boys fell asleep in our arms. The power still was off and the wind seemed to be getting worse by the minute. We didn't know what to do, so we just went to bed. Nate opened the blinds so we could have some moonlight in our room. We just laid in bed for hours listening to this incredible storm. Nate fell asleep and I just kept getting more and more scared. I laid there and could see things snapping and flying around. I was convinced that a tree was going to come right through our window. I was going to move everyone out into the family room, but convinced myself that I was just paranoid. I woke Nate up and told him that I wanted to have the 2 boys in bed with us so they didn't get cold. We put them in bed and I think having them in bed with us, comforted me enough to help me fall asleep. I fell asleep around 4 in the morning. At 8 am, Nate woke me up when the power came back on. We opened the door to see the damaged and this is what we found...

All the shingles had come off the roof of our apartment complex.

This was the huge tree at the entrance of our complex.

It ripped the sidewalk up too and can you see the car underneath the tree?

Our parking is in a gated area and since the power was out you couldn't get in to park. The car owner went to go hand-crank the gate when the tree fell on his car. Bummer!

Our apartment window is right there where this tree fell, good thing this tree blew the other way. I was also laying in bed and watched that flag pole bend in half like it was a straw!

Pasadena was declared to be in a "State of Emergency." School was canceled and so my friend Britany and I drove around checked out all the damage and took pictures.

The Target sign fell into the street.

This was the big news... you might have seen this on the news. We live only a block from this gas station. A couple trees fell and totally smashed this gas station.

The entrance to Nate's work.

Our old apartment complex.

There were some families in our ward that went without power for over a week. We were pretty lucky and only went for about 12 hours without power. The news said tonight that they estimate that the this storm caused about 75 million dollars in damage just in Pasadena. It is times like this that really make you think about things, like food storage! We are just so grateful that no one was hurt.

A No Fun Day :(

Last Tuesday was a no fun day at the Rich home!

Coulson is potty training right now and so the other day he went potty and then climbed up on the counter to get his treat out of the "potty treat" jar. The bathroom floor was wet from him just having a bath and on his way down, he slipped and cut his chin open. I, of course, did not stay calm when I picked him up from the floor and saw the big gash on his chin with blood gushing every where. I panicked and couldn't find my cell phone (I later found it on the table, I obviously was not thinking straight) so I ran to the neighbor's house, where I called Nate and told him Coulson would need stitches and we needed to take him to the ER. He came home right away and we took him in. It was a long day! He ended up getting 7 stitches. They tried to glue it back together, but it was too big of a gash. Here are some pictures of our eventful day!

Before the stitches...

We had to let the medication sit for an hour while it got numb. We got creative!

7 stitches later...
All better...

That night when I was reading him his bedtime stories, he told me his tongue was hurting. I didn't know why, so I took him in the bathroom and had him stick his tongue out. I about died when I saw his tongue. He had bitten 2 big chunks out of it when he had fallen. He had little flaps of skin you could actually pick up. I felt so bad. It looked awful, this picture doesn't even come close to how bad it looked.

Tonight we went and got the stitches taken out...

I think I have brainwashed Coulson a little, because every time he does something dangerous he shouldn't, I always say, "You better not do that or I will have to to take you to the hospital" When he fell, he kept saying, "Mom, please don't take me to the hospital."

I felt so bad for him, but he was so brave and never complained about it hurting at all. Kids are so tough, I think it is the Moms that are the babies. We love you so much Coulson!

Boys will be boys!!

Today our little Romney is 3 months old! I can not believe it. It seems like Romney is growing up so much faster then Coulson did when he was that age, because I am busy with 2 kids. He is such a sweet baby. He is always smiling and content. We love you Rom-Rom!!
Secondly, our Coulson is all boy!! Wherever there is dirt, he is there!

Halloween Festivities!!

Halloween was so much fun this year! Coulson was our little lion and Romney was our little pumpkin. Coulson was so excited to go trick-or-treating. Kids make the holidays so much better!



Avery throws a Halloween Party for the kids every year. They go trick-or-treating to all the departments. Coulson loves going to "Daddy's Work" He also won the costume contest again this year (2 years in a row)!


Our little lion was wore out after 1 round of trick-or-treating, so we had a little nap and then got ready again and headed out for the evening.
That night, we went to Old Town Pasadena and went trick-or-treating around to all the stores with our friends Nathan and Britany and Glen and Samantha. We ended the night with a yummy dinner at Buca Di Beppo!

On Sunday, we had our good friends, Nathan and Britany over for our traditional "Dinner in a Pumpkin" and carving pumpkins. We had a lot of fun!

We left the carving up to the boys! Coulson had his own little pumpkin he carved! He picked his pumpkin out of the pumpkin patch in Idaho and it came all the way back to California in his suitcase!

He was so funny, he wouldn't smile or put his shirt on all night!
The finished products! Great Job Boys!!

Our Crazy, But Wonderful Life....

Life can be crazy when you go from 1 kid to 2! We are now starting to learn how to get into a somewhat normal routine with 2.

Coulson loves his new little brother. He has been so good. Our little Romney probably gets at least 500 kisses a day from his big bro.

Coulson loves to do everything matching with his Daddy and brother!

I think this picture of our little Rom Rom is so funny. He looks so serious!
They love having baths together. Poor Romney gets splashed a lot!

On Labor Day, we went to Griffith Park in LA. There they have pony rides for the kids and we thought Coulson would love that and he did!

At first, we just bought Coulson tickets to ride the small ponies that are hooked up to a wheel and that an adult could walk along with you. He loved that, but we soon learned that he didn't need us.


Our sweet little Romney!
Dad bought Mom a cool new stroller to contain both kiddos!
After the little pony ride, Coulson told us he wanted to go on the big track. At first, we were a little hesitate that he wouldn't want to do it once we got up to the line. He didn't look back once and jumped right on "Bulleye" and loved every minute of it. We will for sure be back to that park.

Our new little cowboy!