Holland

You could look at this picture and say- oh wow, that looks just like the Netherlands right there. I'd agree with you except for one thing---the hills in the background

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Update

Emmy: Awesome Mom and an expert at raising two kids. She's loving biking up Provo canyon which we've been doing a lot with Jimmer and tennis. Emmy's pretty good at tennis, she was the runner-up state champion in high school and is now my tennis coach, which is quite the task. She's also busy getting back into running, learning Photoshop and our camera. We're excited to run in the first annual temple to temple 5k here in Provo on Pioneer Day. Jimmer: He's starting to learn this whole communicating thing which has been really helpful. He's a full-out toddler, tantrums and all. We found out the other day that he can climb out of his crib (even at the lowest setting), though he chooses to stay in most of the time thankfully. He loves going to the park, going to Grandma and Grandpa's, watching the Lorax and Tangled, eating cookies/goldfish/dirt/sand, reading books, throwing rocks, grass, and dirt. We discovered that he LOVES fireworks (or just being able to stay up late to watch the fireworks). He's a very social kid; he loves being around other kids and feeling their legs and shoes. He loves nursery until it's actually time to go. He loves Jesus, the Temple, Mommy, Daddy, and especially Jeffrey. Jimmer is the only one that can get Jeffy really laughing, it's pretty cute to see. Jeffy: He's our 5 month old. He loves everyone, especially Jimmer. He's a very smiley baby and is now rolling all over the place. We thought he loved sleep but he's grown out of that. He's very coordinated for his age and is very good about grabbing cheetos, the phone, and anything else out of my hands. He looks a lot like me when I was a baby. He has some bad days but mostly good days. He has one dimple, very short and chunky legs, and a misshapen head that has improved a lot since month 1. He's very lovable, squirmy and very fun to hold. I'm really blessed.

Here we go

So I got a few free minutes before Church starts so I thought I'd type up a blog post. Warning, it'll probably be one of those random ones. It's just much easier to type this way. -Baby #2 is due any day. A few weeks ago we got an ultrasound and the kid was in the breech position. We sent out a mass text to our family to pray for him. The next day we had a doctor's appointment and after the doctor talked with us for 20 minutes about the problems with breech and c-sections he felt Emmy's stomach and sure enough the kid turned the right way. That was a huge blessing for us. At that same ultrasound his stomach was 2 weeks too small and then the last ultrasound we found out that his stomach caught up. So that means that Emmy won't need to get induced tomorrow which was going to happen if his stomach had stayed small. This little guy has given us some neat experiences. -I'm not that nervous about this one as I was with Jimmer. We've done a lot of things to prepare. Emmy will have 3 solid weeks of help between me being home, Jenny, Becky, and my mom helping out. Jamie's volunteered to help out a few days as well. We're really grateful for everyone helping Emmy out with Jimmer and the new guy. If anyone else wants to take Jimmer for a few hours the week of Feb. 11th through the 15th we'd really appreciate it. So we've done a lot to prepare like clean the house, set up everything, and get other things in order that we know from the first time will help out. With Lily's help Emmy made freezer meals that should last us 3 weeks as well. I'm not looking forward to going through the whole not getting sleep thing again but I'm just so excited about having another son and going through that whole newborn stage again. It'll be really fun to see Jimmer with the new guy. We haven't settled on a name and what Emmy likes changes every other day but I think we have 4 or 5 names that will at least be on the consideration list. -So baby stuff has been occupying my mind and life lately but there have been some other things going on as well. The job is going well, I've gotten some good sales. They've let us use our company card the last 2 weekends to go on some dates. So we went to La Jolla and dropped over $100 and Texas Roadhouse and dropped over $60. We also saw the Hobbit and went out to ice cream. I liked the Hobbit. I didn't like it much as I saw it and right after but the day after I liked it. The Misty Mountains song got stuck in my head for like a day. The Hobbit definitely had a familiar Lord of the Rings feel to it which is why I liked it. I despise the Goblin King and Brown Wizard, though. The Goblin King was like the dude in Phantom Menace, not Jar Jar but his leader. We saw The Bourne Legacy last week, I didn't really like that. I haven't liked Jeremy Renner because I HATED Mission Impossible 4. We saw that on the way back from Europe and I thought it was one of the lamest movies I've ever seen. Ever since then I just haven't liked Renner. With the Bourne Legacy I just don't think it had the same feel as the Bourne Identity. I also think it's getting old, I mean how many secret organizations are there? It's kind of the same story over and over. -Jamie and Colby both got engaged. I really like their fiances so they'll be good additions to the family. I'm also looking forward to when they'll have kids so that our kids will have more cousin buddies. We'll be out in CB the first week of May. I'm still trying to figure out if it'll be too cold for jet skiing or not. -So last winter Utah had it pretty mild, this winter we've been getting a ton of snow which we have really needed. It's also been really cold which I could do without but if there's snow with the cold then it's a little more acceptable. We did get freezing rain the other day which is really foreign to Utah, it was really slick. Well, that's all. At least it's something, right?!

QB U

Emmy suggested that I blog so I thought I'd be a good husband and obey. I'm in one of those moods to just write random thoughts and brush off being cohesive. -Tonight was fun at mutual. We went to BYU's recycling maze. I had fun timing the deacons as they ran through and organizing their races. I told Emmy that I really hope I'm in the ym presidency again when Jimmer's a deacon. -I love fall weather. I love how each week it gets cooler and cooler and how the trees slowly change colors. Tonight it was low 50's, high 40's. I have great memories for each part of the year, but there's something about fall- the coolness in the air, the wonderful smell...it's all nostalgic and just great. I try to remember the good memories from similar weather and there's just too many of them. There's walking home from class or late night studying and just enjoying the night time, or there were the hay rides when I was a teen. There's also biking home from an appointment on my mission and being grateful to have familiar weather and smells. The weather also reminds me of my freshman year and going home to Iowa for a few days, surprising mom, and opening my mission call. I also brought home my laundry so I could do it at home and it would be free. I lugged around a huge bag of laundry on the bus, trax, airplane and then all back to save $3. Considering inflation, though, that $3 is now worth $5 or $6 so I'd say I came out on top. -The most spiritual moment of my life is when Jimmer was born. I loved it when Emmy got to hold him for the first time and then I got to hold him. Man, it's just so amazing and indescribable. I'm getting really excited for our next baby and that next amazing moment. I think it will be really special to see Emmy hold the next baby again and then for me to hold him. I think what will also be really special is to see Jimmer hold him. They'll be good buddies, two really special spirits, along with my Emmy, another special spirit. Speaking of Emmy, she really is such a great mom...I knew she would be, but she's been even better than I thought she'd be. -In August I stayed home from Church with sick little Jimmy. As part of our little "sunday school," I talked to him about Jesus and showed him our painting of Jesus and the little boy. Later, Jimmer was looking up at the picture, there was something really neat about that, almost like realizing these were the beginning steps of Jimmer's lifelong journey of learning about and getting closer to his Savior. -Jimmer's a really funny kid. The nursery workers think it's really funny how excited Jimmer gets about snacks and certain toys. I can relate, I get really excited with ice cream, steak, and other good foods. We often walk around the temple, and Jimmer loves pointing at the temple. -So, the election is less than two weeks away...crazy. I'm nervous about it, but I can also accept either result. I mean, it would be absolutely awesome if Romney won. But if Obama does win I think our nation deserves him. That doesn't mean I haven't tried to make sure my guy wins and won't continue fighting for the things important to me, but ultimately I think a society deserves the leaders they elect. Having said that, Romney's going to win, 70% sure on this one and it continues to go up each day. -BYU football...ugh. It's ironic that BYU...Quarterback U...is only 1 good quarterback away from being 7-1 or even 8-0. Luckily, I've tempered things down this year to just being a fan and not a fanatic. I still LOVE college football and it I didn't have the family responsibilities I would sit and watch college football all day every Saturday and just eat wings, pizza, artichoke dip and chips...mmmmmm, doesn't that sound good. -Speaking of things I'm crazy about...the jet ski fund is up to $643. So only like $9,000 to go. I'm taking donations. -Man, me and Emmy had such a fun Europe trip. We bring up our trip often and enjoy talking about strolling the streets of Paris, driving the Battle of the Bulge sites in Belgium, tram hopping in the Hague, walking around Koln's zentrum, or biking Heerenveen. We like talking about all the chocolate we ate and the vla, doner kebabs, Indonesian food, and good desserts. It's kind of running joke now that whenever I go to Europe I almost always accidentally buy carbonated water while I'm there. I HATE carbonated water! But because of the way I travel, I can't throw it away and must drink it. We do hard things afterall. Except when it comes to toothbrushes apparently. Emmy's fell on the floor at one of the hostels we stayed at. She thinks it's disgusting to share toothbrushes so I let her use mine and I had to use my finger. When our family drove in Rome it was one of the worst driving experiences of my life. We kept on getting lost and going around in circles. I think it took us 2 hours to get out of Rome. I didn't want that to happen in Paris...but it somehow did. Luckily I knew where our hostel was in reference to the Eiffel Tower and to the Seine River. We found our hostel after only being in the center for 10 minutes. In Germany I hit 160 km/hr. I thought it was pretty cool except that cars were still zooming past me. I was also disappointed that 160 km/hr is only 100 mph, so yeah, there's room for improvement. Whenever we go back and spend more time in Germany we're going to get a better rental car to take on the Autobahn.

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Lil Update

Dang, I'm a lousy blogger these days. So I've been going through my old blog entries- copying them so I have a backup and attaching labels to each entry. It's fun reading through them. This morning I copied and labeled entries from Feb. 2007 where we went to Burroughs Burros and I won the squirt gun war...good times. I was wondering where the old blogs are for Bit of Whit, The Fruit Roll up and Pdub's blog. There are some good reads in those. Politics just really bother me these days. I get pretty upset so I have to control how much I read, watch, and listen to about politics. This is a really important election, though. I keep feeling the urge of wanting to do everything I can to make sure Obama isn't re-elected and we take the Senate. The tough part is figuring out what I can do to help. I love my family. It's awesome coming home everyday to Emmy and Jimmer.

Some well known facts about Dad

-Dad's quite the business guy- he knows business really well which is why he's been successful at it.
-Dad was always obedient to Grandma and Grandpa and was always solid in the Church
-Dad likes the jet ski but the main reason he got it and plans outings with it is because of how much his kids love it. Both Mom and Dad are really good examples to us about putting the needs of others first.
-Dad's definitely a family guy. He's always been about spending time with his kids. When I was a baby it hurt Dad a lot that he had to study when I would want to play.
-Dad's the middle child which makes him more of the peace-maker type...I've noticed that about a lot of middle children. It's funny how birth order makes a difference.
-Emmy is impressed with how much Dad and Mom love the grandkids. I mean they are willing to watch Jimmer for 2 weeks while me and Emmy are in Europe. They're also trying to convince us to go on a 7 day cruise with my other siblings and they'll watch all the grandkids for a week. Dad genuinely loves his grandkids and that is neat.
-Dad's willing to help with anything. If ever anything goes wrong, my first thought is to call Dad. It's cool to have that support.
-Dad is funny and likes to laugh.

...We love Dad, happy b-day!

Colbers

So we have Brian's b-day on the 19th, Jamie's on the 21st, and Colby's on the 23rd. I remember being confused on when Jamie's and Colby's b-days were, but then I remembered that the 21st is younger than the 23rd. When Brian was born that still worked. I was worried that Annie would be born sometime after the 19th and mess up the system but she was born on the 15th so it still works.

When Colby was out here for college I got to know him a little better- he's really fun to play mariokart with, was always willing to take me and Dallas out to eat with his meal deal and was just a really fun, cool guy to be with. He also shares my love for playing Risk, and once he gets back I'm ready to schedule an all nighter for Risk.

A few memories of Colby growing up- he was pretty chill, he was totaling willing to let us give him a swirly until Mom found out. He was the same height as Jamie for awhile, while that could be humiliating, he took it in stride and was cool with it.

A few years ago Dallas asked me if I had to choose to kick someone out of the family who would it be. Ya always hate to answer a question like that but if I HAD to pick, it would be Colby. A couple reasons why- whenever me and Emmy talk about Colby, somewhere in the conversation Emmy will say how cute Colby is. He makes us older kids look bad. He's pretty much good at everything- he got straight A's through high school, was good at the cello, varsity in football and baseball, Prom King, and student body something, VP I think. See what I mean? Getting his mission letters has been great, and we can all tell that he's a really good missionary...one more thing he excels at...what a stud!

Now Mom, of course I don't really want Colby out of the family, just trying to make a point.

Happy b-day Elder Beck!

No one understands us.

Jamie Lynn--I gotta say that Jamie is the most interesting of the Beck bunch. She's definitely a leader and not a follower. Jamie likes to have fun, likes for others to have fun, and makes sure others are included. She was a cute baby and a cute little girl. Jamie was as tall if not taller than Colby for a few years. She was into sports, especially volleyball. I don't remember talking to Jamie much before my mission, but after my mission she was really into the color effervescent. It was kind of her thing. In school she decided it was her favorite color and everyone thought she was cool because she was different like that. Jamie made varsity cheer as a freshman and pretty much got straight A's through high school, I'm telling ya, the younger kids make us look bad.

Nowadays Jamie is up here in Provo and we're getting to know her a little better. She's always willing to watch Jimmer and to teach us how to dougie or to do other dance moves. She also does the freshman thing of taking us out to eat or buy us food with her meal card which we think is pretty sweet. We have chocolate ice cream ready for her for when a guy breaks her heart but so far she's been doin' the heart breaking.

She's a cool sister, an excellent addition to the family and life would be boring without her. Props to Jamie.

Happy birthday Jamie, love ya!

I have a lot on my mind and even though I don't think I'll be able to really express my thoughts and feelings, but it does help to blog them.

I love fall, we've been on a few drives to enjoy the foliage- the Nebo and Alpine Loops. Man the colors are amazing, and the pictures don't do it any justice. I've been in DC the past couple of days and have really enjoyed the scenery, experience, and feel of it. There's a familiar Fall smell that resembles the same smell in CB...it must be the humidity.

I've really enjoyed DC- the architecture and the feel remind me of my mission and living in some of the big cities in Europe. It'd be really fun to have the urban/metropolitan experience. My co-worker and I walked a few miles trying to find a restaurant and there's just something to taking an evening stroll in the city, enjoying the atmosphere, and thinking about what it's like to live here.

Jimmer made me real happy tonight. I called Emmy and heard Jimmer being fussy in the background. Emmy put the phone up to him and he stopped crying and made his funny little noises when he's excited. Me and Emmy talked a little more and then Jimmer was again fussy, she put the phone up to his ear and again the same thing, he got really excited. Man I love Jimmer and Emmy. I never could have imagined how much I could just love Jimmer and Emmy so much. That probably comes out weird, but man I just love them so much. I know Emmy loves me, and now it's special to know that Jimmer loves me too.

I've been really disturbed by some of the international political events recently. For one, I'm glad we're getting out of Iraq because I don't honestly think things will ever fully improve to where we could feel totally comfortable about leaving, but it's just frustrating because this feels like it's a political move only by Obama and that I think things could really get bad in Iraq with Iran next door. The Gaddafi killing has really disturbed me and I'm not quite sure what my opinion or feelings about it are. I mean he was a bad dude who did bad things. He killed a lot of his own people and deserved punishment, but how he died is really uneasy with me how he was captured and paraded around and then executed in front of the masses. It's just interesting and disturbing to me how a brutal dictator of 42 years is one day ruling the country and later is at the mercy of the people. Man, I think I'm probably not clear at all, because I don't even know what I'm really thinking. Maybe it comes down to just pitying him. I mean, he was a bad person, he did bad things to his people. I couldn't help but feel sorry for the guy. Here he was pulled and beaten out of his hiding place, bloodied and shoved out of the truck...begging for mercy from the people he never showed mercy to. And then he was shot in the head and his body is still being paraded as a trophy. It's very disturbing to me, and I feel really really bad for him. Watching the footage on the news channels is disturbing, but also fascinated me because in that footage Gaddafi is not a leader/dictator of a country, but a person. Just a regular person, a child of God, someone as reliant on the mercies of the Savior as I am. He controlled billions of dollars, an entire country, navies, armies, but this did nothing for him in the end. He's just a regular person- nothingness. The whole thing also reminds me of the scripture about Korihor and about how in the end Satan abandoned him, like Satan does with all those who choose to follow him. It's just amazing to me, and I realize my thoughts are confusing and I'm probably feeling/thinking too much of this situation, but I pity Gaddafi. I pity him for going back, unprepared, to his maker, having to be fully accountable for everything he did. The whole thing is disturbing and creeps me out, but ultimately I'm just sad for him and his soul.

Emmy blogged by the way. She's trying to do it more regularly. Check it out:

http://kaseyandemily.blogspot.com/

Sky

If there's one guy who's gone through a lot, it's Skyler. Growing up he got like 3 or 4 broken arms that I was somewhat responsible for like when I encouraged him to be superman and jump off the pool table or when I chased him during a water fight and he tripped over something. I think I did something else to him but I forgot. Probably the worse thing I did was when we were playing basketball, we were both going after a loose ball and I fell on top of him, pushing his head into the corner of a brick wall. Yeah, it wasn't pretty, he could have died if it went a little deeper. I didn't push him on purpose though. Man I was cruel to him at times. We boxed once and I just took it to him, poor kid. When he had appendicitis on a band trip I was still giving him a hard time, I think I pushed him or something. We haven't lived in the same place for a few years, which is probably why he hasn't broken anything in awhile.

In college I really started noticing how laid back, chill, and fun Skyler is. We had some fun time together throwing pumpkins off a bridge, little vacation trips, going to basketball and football games. He has always been someone that I admire, because of how he treats others, and how he always is interested in those around him. He's a good dad, a good brother, a good son, a good worker, a good friend, a good Priesthood holder, etc. Sky's just a good guy.

Happy b-day Sky!

Little La

Kasey: Little La, why are you so little?

Kayla: I don't know

That's pretty much how most of our conversations started the first 10 years of her life. It's really crazy to me that she is 16 now! The baby of the family is driving and dating now. I remember Kayla's birth better than the rest of my siblings...obviously because I was 12. Kayla has the personalities of everyone in the family and she can easily turn one on and the other off. A couple combinations in the family are a little strange, like when me, Dallas, and Jamie went to Grandpa's funeral together in Virden, New Mexico, I think that was the first time just the 3 of us had been together...a little strange. We need a connecting person, I think Kayla can be that with every combination.

The younger kids definitely make the rest of us look bad. They're good at pretty much everything. Kayla is the fun one, good at sports, good at school, good at music, and solid in the Church. She's also a sweet baby sister. One reason why I like Kayla so much...or like Emmy so much is they both remind me of each other. Kayla needs love, and loves to give love. She loves Mom and Dad so much, loves cuddling with them and just loves being their baby. It's cute.

Happy b-day Little La!

Some little known facts about Mom

-Probably the biggest multi-tasker I’ve ever met. When I go home it takes me about 10 minutes to see what Mom is up to by looking at the 2 or 3 calendars in the kitchen of things going on, her to do list on the kitchen table, the scriptures she’s memorizing inside the cupboard, the stack of books she’s reading all at once. It’s pretty incredible…I’m very much like her except my lists are all online.

-Mom has a lot of faith and is very obedient. She does what the prophets say because…well, they’re the Prophets! It certainly wasn’t easy rounding up the 7 kids for FHE or to read to us as we ate dinner, but she’d always do it…while exercising at the same time!

-Mom’s a Richardson and loves to travel and have fun. It was important to her when we were little to take us all over the country, and we certainly did. She’s definitely kept that up. She also likes to plan fun activities.

-Mom was a heartbreaker when she was in college.

-Mom’s the oldest of 13 kids

-I honestly have no idea what Mom’s favorite food is. I don’t think it has to do with me not being very observant but more about Mom being very chill and accommodating.

-If you ever want to see how important family is to her just go to her house and you’ll see pictures of her family EVERYWHERE! When Colby and Dallas were on their missions she would call their cell phones a lot to hear their voices on voicemail. She likes for the family to be around and together. Sometimes she wants everyone to be around, but mostly she just wants to bask in the togetherness of her family being around.

-Mom’s a nurse and has done a pretty good job for them at Mercy, she’s made herself very valuable to them

-Mom loves the Church, loves her family, and is the best Mom ever

...That's actually pretty well-known

Happy Birthday Mom, love you!

DJ

Dallas was the first baby to be born in our family that I remember really well. I don’t really remember Carrie as a baby, probably cause I was only 3, and with Sky I was only 15 months. We were at a pool party at Bruce and Starr’s house in Mesa and Mom’s water broke. It was pretty exciting and was fun later getting to hold the baby and everything. From day 1 I thought I would make Dallas the mini-me. I taught the kid football, read the Book of Mormon with him, and got him all excited about BYU. I’m not sure if Dallas remembers me doing some of those things with him. It’s kind of a joke now, but in the family we have the older kids (me, Skyler, and Carrie), the younger kids (Colby, Jamie, and Kayla), and Dallas who thought he was an older kid, but really is a younger kid. But Dallas had it made because he got to be the oldest kid with the younger kids and the youngest with the older kids. He also got his own room which I was jealous of. We treated him pretty good, I don’t ever remember picking on him, Skyler probably did. They say that the middle kids are normally the peacemakers, and it’s pretty accurate in our family.

My junior high and high school memory isn’t that great, but fast forward to when I got back from my mission, Dallas was a stud- he’s always had his head screwed on right. He did well in sports, school, music, and is pretty good at dancing doing his Johnny Appleseed dance. On my mission I was pretty good at picking out the members “that got it.” Dallas “gets it.” He understands what this is all about and that’s very important. It’s pretty cool that he’s up here still, we’ve had some good times. Last fall we threw a pumpkin off a bridge. He’s also the only person that was around for the two events in my life (getting shot in the squirt gun war and losing the intramural softball championship) that just make me mad every time I think about them. He helps me laugh it off. He’s just a good buddy. Dallas is good to everyone around him. I really don’t think I’ve ever heard him say something negative about anyone. That’s pretty cool.

We're trying to slowly make kaseyandemily.blogspot.com our family blog. So we put up some videos there.

You got Jo'd

Before there was Jimmer, there was the more famous Jimmer, and before that, there was the Jo. Early on, Carrie was that little sister who annoyed you cause she wanted to be around you and play with you, terrible, huh? Growing up in a boy-dominated family she realized she had a few weapons in her arsenal against her brothers- her violin and singing. She successfully got me and Skyler in trouble, mostly Skyler, by utilizing these weapons. Sky often had to dance with her as punishment. Later on in jr high and then high school when girls were alright, a sister close in age was no longer an enemy but an ally. I realized she was pretty cool and fun to be around...it also helped that she was a cheerleader which meant she had cheerleader friends too. My senior year me and carrie did show choir and were in a play tgether. We were tight and only became more and more tight since then. College was awesome, and a big part of why it was awesome was because of Carrie. Our tightness is what led to moving to park place and played a contributing part in me meeting Emmy, Kyle meeting Becca, Alan meeting Nieman, and Carrie meeting Bret.

Me and Carrie are still tight as evidenced by this sweet gift she gave me (some think it was for Jimmer, but please).

Getting Jo’d means chatting with Carrie, doing fun things with her, and seeing how neat of a person she is. She’s a thoughtful and awesome sister, and life just really would be much more dull without her

Anyway, hope you someday get Jo'd. Happy b-day Carrie Jo!

Papa glove, mama glove, and baby glove

Dadda, Dadda

So the other day a little girl knocked on our door and asked if our kids could come out and play. I told her to come back in a year...because Emily's pregnant!!!!!

I came home from Church meeting one day, Emmy was taking a nap, so I got on the computer and saw an email from her with an attachment:

It didn't take that long for me to figure out what was going on.

That's right sports fans, Kasey's gonna be a daddy. Emmy's due date is March 15th!