Almost all of the GIRLS!

We had our annual Christmas party with the girls while I was home. Juli and Cassandra hosted it at Juli's house. The food was great and the company even better! The only thing(s) missing was...Tara, Amanda, and Candice! We missed you all. We are all growing up and it is evident by how hard it is to all get together!!

Kelsey had her second little boy...precious!

The Holidays!

Now the Holidays have passed and I finally have some time to do some posts! We had such a great Christmas....It was fun having Blake home for Christmas since we were with my family this year. Our family and loved ones spoiled us! We appreciate all our family does for us- We are so blessed! Thank you, thank you, thank you! xoxo

We had a little Christmas party with the Browns before we went to Boise for Christmas. Our agenda included, dinner and a movie followed by a fun night of ginger bread house decorating. laughing and crying caused by laughter are never absent when getting together with Josh's family!

Christmas Eve was nice with the Bolinder family and Grandma and Grandpa Richards were there too. We had a little Nativity. Brogan was a little Wise Man.

A Christmas Eve tradition... PJs! This year it was especially great...

We had a pretty good laugh when Josh got a matching PJ set. Not even Dad got the matching set. So we had to take the photo opportunity...

Good Morning!

Typical Richards Christmas!

Dad looks MAD... He must not have gotten what he wanted : 0

In case you are wondering who the stranger is...that is Tracey...Blake's friend from Australia! She is a very sweet lady. Tracey saved all her money to come visit the USA, she even brought little gifts for everyone. If any Boise natives were wondering about the fluke white Christmas you can thank Tracey! She prayed for that snow and reminded us each morning she was the cuase of the whiteness! Boise has not had a white christmas in years...It was really pretty. (thanks Tracey!): )

KIDS= Better Blogs!

So I like this blogging okay and all, but as I look at my fellow blogger pages one thing is for sure- Kids make blogs better. For this reason I have decided to add Kate to my blog. I watch Kate a couple times a week. I have watched her since she was 2 she is now almost 5.
Yesterday when I watched her she wanted to play dress up in my clothes. As you can tell from the pictures she thinks she is a little DIVA.
For those of you who may think this will speed up the process of adding to our family of two....wrong. The cuter blog with the addition of kids is getting closer, but we have to conquer grad school first! As Josh asks me every time I get baby hungry..."How old are you...?" Now I can say 23! But that is still young! : ) Although, I know Josh is going to make the best dad. He loves it when Kate is around. He would not let me throw away my birthday balloons cause he thought Kate would want to play with them...and he was right!

23***23***23

Yes I turned 23 years old yesterday! Josh made this cake all on his own. I think he just got excited to make it so he could put Michael Jordan's number on it!
I came home from work to this nicely decorated masterpiece...Josh was busy while that cake was baking I guess. What a nice husband...
We went to dinner and went up to Josh's parents- a pretty mellow birthday bash, which is just great for me! Josh spoiled me as always. One gift he got me was padded spandex for spin class- little did he know he bought me Men's. The padding is just a bit different on those : ) Thanks babe!

SLC weekend with the Browns

We had a great weekend in Salt Lake with Josh's family. We went down on Saturday morning. Jeff got tickets to the Christmas Play at the conference center, it was really good- a true reminder of the meaning of Christmas! By the way if you need to stay in Salt Lake I highly suggest the Marriot! I have never slept better in a hotel- seriously the most comfortable bed- Cheryl (my mother in law) even asked the front desk if she could buy two of the pillows! Ha Ha Ha- they sent her to the website where they purchase from.
After we went to dinner we went to the Festival of Trees! I did not realize this event took place outside of Boise? It was really cool to see that many trees, Some people are SO creative! There was even a blown glass tree...WOW! We ended the weekend with the Christmas broadcast of the Spoken Word on Sunday....
A Holiday Weekend Extravaganza- thanks Jeff and Cheryl, you're so good to us!

Fall in Hidden Springs

The day after Blake got home we went for a hike up to the water tower. It was a beautiful day and he told me some missionary stories- we had some good laughs! It kinda weird how he was gone for 2 years, but after returning it feels like he never left...

Home Again!

Well, I decided I do not have time for daily blogging like some people! Blake has returned! I flew home to surprise my family the day he got back. Josh had school so he could not go. It was great being there for when Blake came home. Of course Hayden found a way to get past the security. He bought a refundable ticket- once through he called and refunded it! If you know Hayden this is no shocking story. Blake has done some growing up- he is more mellow now, but still has his funny and crazy personality that makes us all laugh.