Family

I've been holding onto these drawings by the girls so I could blog them with my family photos. I love them. And I'm going to hold onto them forever. I think what I love the most is I know who I am in them right away with my dark curly hair.

Art by Cecily

Art by Jocelyn

Self portrait of Cecily

I mentioned a few weeks ago that we got family photos taken of us. We just got them back and I was pretty excited...until I saw them. Before I start on my rant I need to tell you how important family photos are to me. I would give you all my worldly possessions just so I can keep my photos. I can sit for hours looking at them. I don't demand perfection I just want all the photos raw and I'll do what I want with them. I felt very strongly about this even when we were taking photos for other people. Now onto my rant... Granted it was a mini-session, the kids rebelled, and I look very fat but I was bummed she only put a few of us as a family when I know there are a bunch more. I really like the ones of me and Chris. (Her photo effects are obnoxious though, and not to mention her proof is so dark I can't even see the whole photo, maybe a little lighter?).View all of them HERE.

When I was waiting forever to hear back from photographer 1 I emailed a friend in the ward and asked if she could take my family photos and she said YES! We went to a different place and I just felt like Lindsay got me and we had a lot of fun with her. Asher was out of control, and I'm still fat but the girls and Chris were fantastic! Lindsay sent me a sneak peak last night and now I am SO super excited to see the rest. Thank you SO MUCH Lindsay!

October! WTF?!

-Fiona turned 4 month on Monday. I haven't taken pictures of her yet. She's not doing anything new which is nice. She decided to not rush it. She's content to play on the floor and eat her feet (which is my favorite!)

-Cecily got new glasses. She was due some in July but when I did my appointment in March she didn't have any glasses so the prescription he gave her wasn't accurate. I finally got her an appointment here in Fort Collins with a pediatric ophthalmologist. (He's the only one here in Northern Colorado. So anyone trying to decide what to be when they grow up this guy makes bank!) Can you tell why she choose these ones?

-Chris brought me flowers yesterday! I was so ecstatic! It's been a long time and he knows it melts me so it was a really nice treat.

-Asher woke up Wednesday morning with this bruise on his  right eye. Thank goodness he's a boy and no one worries too much about little bruises like this on a 2 year old. Growing up with my parents doing foster care I live in fear of CPS.

-Jocelyn had a fever Wednesday night so I kept her home from school yesterday. She was still burning up last night so I kept her home today but she's doing just fine now.

-I went to the doctor about my toe infection and got antibiotics. It's already pink instead of flaming red. I'm happy cause I want to get a pedi while in AZ.

-We got a package from Nana and Papa Richards yesterday. (The only thing that got Jocelyn off the couch all day). Asher got this original art by his papa. It's priceless and I can't wait to frame it!

-Still waiting on photos from the photographer. It will be two weeks tomorrow so hopefully I'll get a sneak peak soon. A friend in the ward is a new photographer and so she said she'll take some more photos of us tomorrow. I'm really excited!!!

-Here is this months desktop.

-I just got invited! Hope you can make it too....! (sake tini = sushi)

Have a great weekend!

Country Fair

2 months ago I was called to be Relief Society Activities committee leader. We only do a couple big activities a year but the lady I replaced is so awesome I was really feeling like I had some big shoes to fill. The RS President is so super amazing (seriously, I want to be her when I grow up. A million times cooler than Martha Stewart) and her counselor that I work with and they were really patient with me while I tried to keep up with them. I'm an organized person but when it comes to planning I'm a "throw it together" kind of gal. So this threw me out of my element and it was a huge learning experience for me.

It was a mother/daughter activity and it turned out so great. We took a hayride up to the house and had chili and rolls. We did a blue ribbon contest for jams and Jellies, Pies, and an "other" category for cakes, cookies and any other desserts. (ps: my pumpkin bars won this category!) We did a sewing and pie crust class. Then the girls got to go to the country store and pick out carmel apples, hair band kit, pumpkin bracelet kit, caramel balls.... it was so fun for them!

My committee is amazing. They did all the decorating and set up. There were lights... I really wish I got to take more photos once the sun set. But it was a perfect evening! (I wish I got pictures of my girls too!)

So I tried a couple new recipes this week.
Swiss Steak (my mom's is better, sorry Paula)
Scalloped Chicken (it was kinda bland. I might do it again and add some more veggies, and a more flavorful scallop potato mix)
Slow Cooker Tamale Pie (super good! For sure doing this one again!)

Nothing

As I mentioned before Chris was sick. So we didn't go anywhere. We didn't do anything. Actually I take that back. I took Chris's car to get a carwash for our one year anniversary. It has not had a wash since we left AZ. Anyway, we watched a lot of TV, played a lot of wii, and ate a lot of pumpkin bars (and ditched homework).

Chris downloaded the dumbest, most addictive game for the ipod. It's called pocket frogs. You breed frogs and create all kinds of rare breeds. We just sat next to each other and played it the whole time.

Fiona found her tongue. She sticks it out all the time. And if you stick your tongue out at her she'll stick hers out. Too cute! I'm getting it clipped at her 4 month appointment on Friday. So no more heart shaped tongue.

When Asher goes to the bathroom he likes to lock himself in the bathroom. He can unlock it but sometimes he'll lock it before he closes it and we have to take the door knob off. He got stuck in the bathroom the other day and was calling for us from the door knob hole.

And we had a tea party in the basement with the girls.

It was a wonderful weekend and hopefully a wonderful week.

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

Random Friday

-I finished Mockingjay (FINALLY!) I had a hard time getting into it because I didn't like where things were going with it. Even though the book wasn't that great, I felt like the whole series was wrapped up in pretty paper tied up in a nice big bow. So I'm content. I really don't want to post any spoilers, and Chris hasn't even tried to finish reading it so I'm trying to keep my feelings inside.

-I made THESE awesome pumpkin bars last night. So yummy. For the powdered sugar part of the cream cheese frosting I only put 1 1/2 cups cause I wanted to take more cream cheese and it was perfection. So moist. So yummy.

-Fiona and I are making a trip to Mesa Oct 8 - 11. I'm pretty excited to eat sushi, the good egg, costa vida, native new yorker and filburtos while I'm there. Oh and see everybody too. (winky face)

- Chris and I got a wii and the wii fit plus. I have been weighing myself everyday and it's been so great to see my progress. The other night Chris weighed in and it said he lost a pound. He did some exercise and then weighed in again and this time it said he lost 4 more pounds. Kinda weird. He did it 4 times and came up with the same weight every time. So I did it and I had lost a pound since weighing in that morning. Score! The next morning I weighed in and it said I had lost 9 pounds overnight. Ummm... pretty sure that's wrong, and physically impossible! I did some research and found out when weighing in on carpet the little feet need to be on the board. I was so mad! So I did it and I've still lost weight since my last doctor's appt in July. I just haven't lost as much and I weighed 5 pounds more than what I thought so that always sucks. Oh well, now things are more accurate.

-Chris got a C+ in his history class. He didn't even give us credit for the discussion questions we answered. A big fat ZERO!

-Cecily's new favorite color is rainbow. 

-This week Chris and I went as a family grocery shopping. This was a bad choice. Oh but then the next day we decided to go to Sams Club all together again. Another bad choice. As fun as it is for Chris and I to be together it's just too much for Asher. Maybe in a year we can all go together. I had Fiona in the snuglie and people could not get enough of her. She's such a ham!

-I just learned in my employment law class that more truck drivers die every year than police officers/detectives.

-Chris is home sick today so I get to play nurse. Except I've been told I'm a mean nurse. I like to think of myself as a concerned nurse.

-This Friday last year Chris and I were living the craziest day of our life. We had our whole house to pack up and 2 weddings to photograph. We just told our parents we were pregnant and we were moving to a new state the next day. Very stressful. This has been the fastest year of my life and full of new things.

Thank you craigslist!

Since I had to start over with everything for Fiona I've just been buying things as she gets to the age. Well, she's full on playing with toys. I'm sure she would be content chewing on her hands and feet (my favorite) she gets so nasty wet. I bought her one toy at walmart for $4 bucks. I decided it wouldn't be gross to look on craigslist for chew toys. I found 30+ toys for $20. I probably could have offered $15 but that's just not my thing. I brought them home and dumped them all in the washer to clean off the nasty cat and baby germs. 2 hours later it was play time! Except she was asleep. The kids were biting at the bit to play with the toys and Fiona so I let them at them. Note to reader: playing with infant toys is over stimulating for 2+ year old kids. Holy cow they were crazy and the toys were all over the house. Fiona is loving all her new toys. I got some teething toys set aside for when she gets to that point.

We've also sold almost a $1000 worth of stuff this month on craigslist. It's pretty much awesome. So if you know anyone who wants 300+ DVD cases. I'm the one they need to talk to.

Sorry no menu planning this week. I can't even remember what I made for dinner the past week! I'm trying a new recipe tonight though. It should be good! I did want to try THESE last night but Wal-Mart has been out of pumpkin forever! I was just informed by Molly that there isn't any anywhere because of the frost last year. You know what I say to that? Poo!

Here is a video of Fiona laughing filmed with Chris's new ipod touch.

A green weekend

Chris did a photo job up here 2 months ago and we just got paid, and we sold our video camera (hallelujah!) so we took a trip down to Boulder to buy Chris the new ipod touch with camera. He was pretty excited. We had driven down last weekend but they sold out within the time we left our house for the hour drive. We called before we left again on Friday and they had plenty this time. When we got there the lady recognized us (hard to miss a family with 4 little kids in Boulder. We were a freak show!) and told us we could have 10% off for making the drive again. Turns out we couldn't get that because it was still too new to offer discounts on it and they gave us apple care for free instead.

I hit Old Navy up cause they were having a huge clearance sale and got a ton of stuff for cheap. Including a nice pair of khakis for Chris for $1.38! I found these shorts for Chris and he calls them his train conductor pants. Choo! Choo!

This mall is super nice. I figured out only rich people live in Boulder. They had this awesome sand play area with sand toys provided. The kids had a blast.

Fiona started to fall asleep while in the snugli. People were whispering and pointing at me and I couldn't figure out why. But it was because Fiona was nodding off and then kept waking up cause she didn't have support for her head. Pretty cute stuff according to Chris. I couldn't see her cause she was forward facing in the snugli.

Chris and I watched 180 degrees south on Friday. It was a beautiful movie. Then on Saturday we watched No Impact Man. It was very entertaining and got Chris and I thinking about the things we can do to be a little greener. I think what made such an impact on us was watching 180 degrees and to see how beautiful and amazing the earth is. And then to watch no impact man and see piles of trash and what not. People throwing trash out their car windows and all the take out boxes... it was offensive.

Saturday we woke up and it was super cloudy with this weird mist rain. It was beautiful! And stayed around 48 degrees all day. Around 12pm I realized this is not good cause my family pictures were at 4pm! I waited till 2:30pm and decided to go ahead with the pictures cause the weird mist rain stopped. We looked good and I hope we got a couple good ones. Asher was super cranky, the girls were wild and Fiona was a perfect happy baby. She looked and smiled at the camera better than anyone else. I can't wait to get them back cause I really want them to be perfect but I know I need to have realistic expectations with 4 kids. I wish I got some pictures of just the kids all dressed up so you can get a taste of how cute they were but it was seriously so exhausting getting them ready and wrestling them while at the park I didn't care anymore at that point.

Sunday was a really nice and relaxed day. I love getting to recharge and do nothing. I'm usually very crazy about having a nice Sunday dinner with my fancy dishes but I felt like wearing my pjs all day and eating pigs n' blankets (with cheese). The only bad thing about yesterday was Chris scrubbing Asher's poo out of the carpet. No bueno.

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!