WHO GOES THERE??

So I'm just curious who all, if anybody, reads our blog? So if you read it and you love me, write a comment saying "Hello" :)

In other news, our trip has been great thus far and we still have 2 weeks of it left. Holidays are stupendous. Don't expect many blog posts throughout the rest of our trip, but look forward to a plethora of great ones when we are home!

MERRY CHRISTMAS WEEK!!

Merry Christmas!!

We decided we wanted to have a little Christmas celebration with just our little family before going down to Arizona so that we wouldn't have to take up packing space bringing all of our presents to each other down and back. Robert has finals tomorrow morning, and we leave the next day, so today is our Christmas! Merry Christmas to all!!! Here are a few pictures of our decorations and festivities.

Wreath and Window Decorations

Our Christmas tree (I was so excited to have a big one this year!! It's been up for more than a month)

Our stockings. I made them exactly the same as the one I had growing up that my Grandma Hall made me. I'm going to put a few more decorations on them, I just ran out of time this year. But they'll be done next year for sure... maybe ;) We hung them up with bent paperclips and duct tape. Hey, it works, right?

Christmas Morning

She LOVES it. She played happily in it for almost 2 hours this morning. With how she's been teething wise the past few days, that's nothing short of a miracle.

$50 to Tucano's his favorite restaurant, which I got for $25. Yay for bargains!

The best part about Meet the Robinsons is watching how absolutely hilarious Robert thinks it is :)
Any guesses what Robert got me? He wasn't exactly tricky with how he wrapped it.
Yep, a non-stick skillet! I was in desperate need.
After presents (and a couple more hours of sleep) we had waffles, eggs, and summer sausage for breakfast. Natalie and Logan DeVore also came over to play this morning. They brought a Christmas present for us - A Little League World Series Wii game. Robert has already spent about an hour playing it :) Today has been a wonderful day!

Merry Christmas 2010!! Make it a great one!

Happy 7 months!!

Today Lydia is 7 months old. She's gained maybe half of a pound and hasn't gotten any taller. Maybe she's spending too much time teething to think about growing. I might have jinxed it when I said her teething hasn't been that bad. The past few days have been a constant battle. Screaming, not eating or sleeping, and just being a pill all day and night long. She's finally giving me a break and has been sleeping most of today. I don't blame her. She's probably more exhausted than I am, poor thing. We're hoping she gets it all out of her system before our trip, but realistically that's wishful thinking. We'll just take it as it comes. Her biggest development this past month has been that she's started climbing up on things.

Let me clarify that she's learned how to climb UP, but not climb DOWN, so it never ends well. Either she gets mad that we get her down from things, or she falls down.
Although you can hardly see it in this picture, she has a little line bruise by her right eye. She fell into the side of the door jam. I'm sure it's the first of MANY bruises this active, mischievous, and curious little girl will receive.

Even in the midst of teething frustrations, we love and adore this little joy in our lives. We don't know how we ever lived without her.

WELCOME BROOKLYN MARIE!!!

Robert's older brother Terrel and his wife Jenn welcomed their first baby into the world yesterday at 4:46pm. Brooklyn Marie weighs 5 pounds 10 ounces. Mom, Dad, and baby are all doing great and will be going home tonight or tomorrow. We can't wait to see them in a week. We're so excited that Lydia finally has a girl first cousin her age. I hope they can grow up the closest of friends. From the pictures we've seen, we think Brooklyn looks a lot like Jenn, except when she's sleeping then we can see a little bit of Terrel in her :) Anyway, CONGRATULATIONS TERREL AND JENN!!

Salt Lake Temple Lights

We finally made it up to Salt Lake this year to see the temple Christmas lights with my sister Katie, her husband Mike and daughter Alena and also my sister, Breanna who is up here visiting. We weren't able to go last year on account of me being pregnant sick and tired. It was so great to be able to walk around Temple Square and see all of the different lights and displays and performances they have there.

I feel so blessed to be able to live in an area so central to the history of my Church. It's become home to us, and I never thought anywhere but Mesa, AZ would feel like home. I'm thankful for all of our friends and family that make our life in Utah so great.

Ward Christmas Party

We had our ward Christmas Party on December 3rd. Our Primary acted out the Nativity while singing the song "Picture A Christmas." They did awesome. I took on the responsibility of getting all of the costumes. Special thanks to Mom Richardson, my sister Melissa, and my Aunt Pam! I couldn't have gotten all of the costumes together on short notice without you guys! Also, thank you to the Nixons for being Mary and Joseph and to all of our teachers that helped with crowd control. You all make the jobs of those of us in the Presidency SOOOOO much easier.

It's too bad we didn't get a better picture of the 3 wise men. They were my favorites! You can only see the back of the tops of their heads in any of the pictures.

The junior Primary was all of the animals - sheep, goats, cows, and horses. Simple, but it worked and they were all so excited about it :)

Santa came to the party, so Lydia had her first Santa experience. I don't know what her expression means, but at least she didn't scream.

It was a wonderful party. The Relief Society did a great job putting it all together! Merry Christmas Provo Peak 4th Ward!

Thanksgiving in AZ

Once again we were lucky enough to be able to go home to Mesa, AZ for Thanksgiving and visit our family and friends. Our Thanksgiving Day festivities always begin with Dunkin Donuts at my parents house. Bavarian Cream are the family fave.

I wasn't trying to be artsy with this photo. One of my 3 year old nephews took this, but it has my Grandma in it so I'm posting it. Grandma Hall and Uncle Dave and Aunt Pam got to join the few of us that were there It was an off year for my family so all the married kids were with their in-laws. Luckily mine and Robert's families are so close that we can spend at least a little time with both every holiday.

My brother Scott was the M.C. for the day. (Master Carver)

The day after Thanksgiving we have another Thanksgiving at Robert's Grandpa and Grandma Richardson's house. After the kids begged and pleaded to a bunch of the adults to drive them around the backyard on the golf cart, I guilted Robert into taking them around. Out of the 7 or more kids that loaded onto it, there was only one minor casualty. Not bad.

Lydia napping with her Grandpa :)

These are a few of our cute Richardson cousins with Lydia.

As you can see, Lydia was starved for attention the whole time... NOT!! It took a day or so of adjusting to it, but once she was comfortable she absolutely LOVED all of the constant attention she was getting from everybody. It put her in a funk for a while when we were back home in Utah because Robert and I alone weren't giving the 300% attention she had gotten used to. She's finally back to normal, just in time for us to go back down for more than 2 weeks where she'll get the constant attention again. What can you do? It's a good problem to have.

On Black Friday, Robert and I scored a deal on a Band Hero Bundle for Wii (game, drums, one guitar, and mic) for $75. Robert wouldn't ever admit to it, but I think this is what he wanted more than anything for Christmas. So when we saw the deal in the deal in Walmart's ad it didn't take us long to decide that we were going to get it. Here Robert is rocking out with Aubrie and Logan to "I Heard It Through the Grapevine." Popped collar and all. Classic!

We got to spend a few hours at Kaci and Aaron's with a bunch of our friends. We call ourselves the Nertz Nerds (I would explain why, but I don't feel like it :). If you don't know what Nertz is you should learn. Anyway, 3 of us Nertz Nerds had babies this past year. First Lydia was born, a month later Sylvie McMullin was born, and a month later Ty Skouson. This is Sylvie, daughter of Jon and Janette McMullin. I'm sure eventually they will be great friends, but for now Lydia will just be a bully. This picture is seconds before Lydia took the pacifier out of Sylvie's mouth and put it in her own. She'll learn someday.

All in all, a perfect trip other than it just being too short. We can't wait until we go down again next week!!!

Half a Year!!!

We reached the 6 month mark!! It seems like time is going by faster and faster, and I'm trying to enjoy every minute with her that I can. After trying to sit her still long enough and failing at least 20 times before finally getting the above picture, I decided it's a lost cause, so for future months we'll have to try and get good just candid shots :)

A few things I want to remember about her at this stage:

• She has for real hand and knees crawled twice, and although I thought she would all the sudden take off and not stop the first time she figured it out, she has yet to decide that hands and knees crawling is easier than army crawling.
• After 2 months of me repeatedly saying "Ma ma ma ma ma" to her, on our way down to Arizona for Thanksgiving Robert said, "Da da" to her ONCE and she said it right back to him, and now she says "Da da da da" constantly. It makes me very jealous, but I think it is so cute at the same time :)
• She weighs 17 lbs 8 ounces and is still 27 inches long
  
• She sits unsupported and can get from a crawling to a sitting to a crawling position all by herself.
• We're still working on her getting to like solids. She does better with swallowing from a spoon and what not, but she just hates the whole routine for what ever reason. It got to the point where she would practically have a conniption when I would put a bib on her, like she knew what was coming. After some coaching from my mom when we were down for Thanksgiving she's been doing better to the point that she will tolerate about 10 or so whole bites before she starts squirming and throwing a fit. It's a working progress.
• Aside from the occasional teething tantrum, she is a genuinely happy and fun loving baby and we can't get enough of her!

This orange dress is one that Robert's Aunt Diana made for Lydia. It is by far one of my favorites. Thanks Aunt Diana!!

Sitting all by herself. Such a big girl! And she's turning into a little poser :)

What does a teething tantrum look like?

Well, allow me to show you. It looks like this...

And a few hours later it will still look like this...


But if you're lucky eventually the Motrin will kick in and you'll get a couple hours like this...

It honestly hasn't been horrible. She's had a few rough nights like the one you see above and there will be days in a row that her sleep schedule is out the window, but usually she's fine as long as we stay on top of the pain with occasional Orajel, and then if that's not enough a little bit of Motrin does the trick. No teeth have actually cut through yet, but I can see her 2 front bottom teeth right beneath the surface ready to break through to freedom. Praise be the day that they finally do!

Side note: Some of you may find it amusing that instead of cuddling and trying to comfort Lydia, I took a moment to video and take pictures of her instead. Others may think it's cruel and unusual punishment. I call it thorough documentation of her life. Now when she's older and asks, "Mom, what was I like when I was teething?" I can say, "Well, let me show you." :)

Leaves Are Falling All Around

About a month ago, November 7th to be exact, I decided to do a little photo shoot with Lydia. She was wearing a very cute Sunday outfit, and the leaves had finally started falling off of the trees around our apartment. Only one problem, looking at and playing with the leaves is so much cooler than looking and smiling at Mommy for a picture. We tried...

And tried...

Finally we picked her up to try and get a cute family shot. Success!

Then we put her back down, and after about a dozen more attempts and making complete fools of ourselves to anyone walking by, we finally got this shot...

And then we were done, and walking back inside she instantly returned to being mesmerized by the leaves again :)

Looking or not I think all of these pictures are adorable! I love our little Lady!
A plethora of catch up posts to come :)

Serving in Primary

"No calling is beneath us. Every calling provides an opportunity to serve and to grow. The Lord organized the Church in a way that offers each member an opportunity for service, which, in turn, leads to personal spiritual growth. Whatever your calling, I urge you to see it as an opportunity not only to strengthen and bless others but also to become what Heavenly Father wants you to become." - Dieter F. Uchtdorf "Lift Where You Stand"

The majority of my callings have been in Primary. I have served as a teacher and I am currently serving in my third Primary presidency. I LOVE IT!!! I have learned more about myself and the Gospel through my callings in Primary than at any other time in my life. A sad event occurred recently that made me realize once again how near and dear to my heart my calling and the Primary children I have served are to me.

This is Allison. She was one of nearly 100 children that were in the Primary in which I served in my first 2 presidencies. While she was riding her bike with her dad and little sister, she was hit by a car and killed. (For full story go here) When I heard this news I immediately recalled several personal memories that revolved around Allison. Different comments she made during Sharing Time, teaching her and the other girls her age a descant to "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" for the Easter program, and other memories that are too special for me to put in words. It made me realize that although I have done my best to impart some of my knowledge and testimony to the now closer to 200 children I have come in contact with in my callings, each and every one of them, including Allison, have impacted and continue to impact my life in ways they'll never comprehend.

My heart aches and goes out to Allison's sweet family. May the Lord comfort you in your loss and grant you peace.

"Families can be together forever, through Heavenly Father's plan. I always want to be with my own family, and the Lord can show me how I can. The Lord can show me how I can." Children's Songbook #188

Mr. T

This is Mr. T.. This is one of our Thanksgiving month traditions. For family home evening the first Monday in November we color a picture of a turkey and fill in the tail feathers with things we are thankful for and tape it up on the front door. Then there's another one that we fill in throughout the month.

I love this month and the rest of the holidays!! I'm thankful for being thankful!

"My Daughter Ate My Homework"

Yep, Lydia ate Robert's homework. It all happened so fast. One second she was on one side of the room. The next second she was on the other side of the room eating Robert's homework, and before I could get to her, there was a bite size chunk gone and I couldn't find it anywhere.

We got a big kick out of it. Robert had to redo it on a different paper, but he still also took the eaten one to school just so he could tell his teacher, "My daughter ate my homework."