John's 36th

Hi all, I realize its been far too long since I posted an update of the goings on the Richardson household. The biggest event in march was John's 36th Birthday. Since he's the introverted half of our marriage some of you may not know him that well. So here's a few of the things that I love about him.
He is very, very funny. As a matter of fact he uses that against me any time he's in trouble becuase he knows that if he can get me laughing I won't stay mad as long.
He's tenacious. When he decides to learn about something (whether it be grilling on the BBQ, a church calling or learning an new musical instrument) he's all in. His enthusiasm for whatever he's interested in is one of my favorite qualities.
He's very musical. He's a beautiful guitarist (some of you may know) but because he plays by ear so well, he can also play the piano, banjo (a present for his 35th BDay) and harmonica. As a matter of fact, if you gave him and instrument and 6 months, I think he could probably play just about anything.
He's a great dad. That devotion to whatever he is interested in spills over to his children in a big way. He's very involved and both kids adore him.
Since John is the private half, I won't continue this post any longer as I'm going to spare him the pain of reading any more about himself. but I just wanted do say one more time. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! I love you.

BELIZE with Ease

Hi Everyone! February has been a crazy month so here is a belated post of our fabulous trip to Belize. It took 3 planes and roughly 12 hours to get to Ambergris Caye ( the island where we stayed) but it was well worth it. It was beautiful, layed back, and romantic. We went with my parents (Connie and Charles) who are a lot of fun to travel with. I have to say that they are pretty adventurous and did everything we wanted to including an 85 foot high jungle zip-line and snokeling with nurse sharks and sting rays. We saw beautiful mayan ruins, went reef fishing, SCUBA dived some of the most beautiful and famous dives in the world and ate some really great seafood on a beautiful carribean beach. We would have more pictures from our dives if our new digital dive camera hadn't died on the first dive ! Oh well, we still have the memories and I have to say that they are pretty great. We're waiting on a few dive pictures from a couple we met there so I'll post them when I get them. In the mean time here a few of my favorite pictures of our wonderful adventure.

She's ONE!

That's right. It's been a year since little Sarah joined our family. We love her spunk, smiles and laughter so much. Her daddy says that she's a little spitfire and I have to agree. She can stand and clap her hands (which she proudly does as often as possible) and is very good at making her wants known even though mamma and dadda are her only official words. She's a sweetie and we can't imagine our family without her!

Here are a few pictures of her birthday parties. As you can see Johnny helped her polish off her 1st birthday cake which, judging by her smile was O.K. with her.

I know I'm a month late but I've finally got a chance to post a few pictures of the Christmas Holidays. Little kids make the holidays soooo much fun. Here's Johnny on the "Polar Express" aka Heber Creeper meeting Santa. He got a bell and a candy cane so who could ask for more. I couldn't help thinking as other adults on board that they were missing the key ingredient to the magic ... children.
As you can see, Sarah Couldn't tak her eyes off of Santa. He was wonderful! She loved the candy canes but Johnny thought they were too peppery.

We had a wonderful holiday. Here's a slide show of the rest of the trip which included several family parties, Sledding at Big Cottonwood park and Soldier Hollow as well as an afternoon at Classic Skating!

Here are a few pictures of Johnny and Sarah at a park in Las Vegas. I thought I'd take some pictures to show those who don't live here what a Las Vegas Winter Looks like. They're from before Christmas but I haven't got around to posting anything because Christmas was so hectic this year.
Sometimes it feels like my part time Job is taking the kids to the park. Our pool is great in the summer, but in the winter we don't really have a yard for the kids and they have so much energy. Thank goodness there are a lot of great parks around for us to visit.

Here Comes Trouble

Sarah always on the go and into everything these days. She's a lot like a puppy in that she'll eat anything off the floor and watches to see what she can take of Johnny's table for and extra snack. As you can see, this day it was the rest of his mac and cheese!

My Boys

For Flashback friday I thought I'd post a few of my favorite pictures of Johnny and his dad. John never had any brothers (4 little sisters) so he was really excited when we had a boy. He's a great dad and as you can see, they are 2 peas in a pod.

Thanksgiving at Grandma and Grandpa Evans

I was reminded yesterday that I've been negligent in updating my blog so here's a new post for those of you who are tired of seeing my halloween pictures.

We spent Thanksgiving up in Salt Lake with my family this year. It was good to see everyone and as always the trip was too short to do see everyone as much as we wanted.

Johnny loves his Grandma and Grandpa Evans' house and especially their yard. He was so excited to ride on Grandpa's tractor that he was jumping up and down and shaking. The wide shot shows them mowing the middle lawn. Their land actually goes back to the big wood pile lining the fence by the building obscured by the trees. The swing set and play house are also blocked but you get the idea. Mom and Dad have lived there for nearly 40 years so this is the yard I grew up playing in.

Sarah was sick the last 2 days of our trip so my mom would rock her to sleep. She's a great grandma. My children are so lucky becuase they have 4 wonderful grandparents who love and make them feel so special.

I think I may be the last person on the planet or at least my blogging neighborhood to be tagged. I was hopeful it wouldn't come my way because I didn't want to try and write 6 "interesting" things about myself. However, I've enjoyed reading yours so here we go.


1. I love to learn. I like to watch documentaries on almost any subject and have a very good memory for details and random factoids. Until having children ruined my brain I used to remember phone numbers after hearing them once and hardly ever wrote down the food orders when I was waiting tables as I worked through college. Having said that, I have a TERRIBLE time remembering names. I honestly don't know the names of half the people in my ward even though I can tell you there occupations, how many kids they have, there ages etc. It gets very embarrassing.

2. I have a problem with "spoonerisms" and its getting worse the older I get. When I'm speaking, the word I'm thinking of in my head gets switched somehow and comes out as a similar but unrelated word. One time I was talking to John about my food allergies and said that I hoped I didn't ever go into "prophylactic" shock. When he did a double take and asked me what I'd just said I repeated "anaphylactic" shock not realizing I'd ever said anything different. If you know John very well then you can imagine how much mileage he got out of this one.

3. I'm compulsive about straightening crooked picture frames and wall hangings. I also hate when things aren't square. I think it comes from my dad. He's done beautiful finish carpentry as a hobby for years and has built a lot of the furniture in their home. Anyway, his attention to detail must have rubbed off.

4. I really like to scuba dive although I don't get to often enough living in a desert. I also like snow skiing and rock climbing but I don't do those too much right now because of the babies. Fortunately, we can hike as a family (as long as John carries the heavy backpack or child).

5. I'm a recovering "A" type. I used to worry about doing everything perfectly (as evendenced by my grades up through Highschool, scholarships etc.) Then I decided that life was to short to be stressed out all the time and that trying to be perfect wasn't very much fun. So Then I decided that mediocre was the way to go (as evendenced by my grades in college). Now I fluctuate somewhere between the two depending on the circumstances and find that the "A" type is starting to rear her ugly head more the older I get.

6. I love my bed. I really, really love my bed. I love to sleep which is suprising because for someone who loves to sleep so much, I really don't seem to get very much.

Halloween

Trick or Treat! This year Johnny was so much fun! As soon as our neighbors started putting up Halloween Decorations, he started waking up and asking me "Is it Halloween Day today?" That really helped us get in the spirit so we spent more time decorating and doing "Halloween" things that we have before. Johnny loved picking out the decorations and candy at the store and He must have eaten 20 of Aunt Laurie's eyeball cookies. Johnny changed his mind about what his costume should be about 100 times. His favorites were a Thomas the Train, a Power Ranger, Spiderman, Darth Vader, and a Witch! As you can see, we opted for Thomas. Here he's standing next to his best friend Adam (aka Batman).


Of course Sarah didn't understand anything but that didn't stop her from wanting to hold her brother's pumpkin and eating his candy if he left it within her reach. Isn't she the cutest little Ladybug that you've ever seen?

Last, I have to give John credit for carving really great pumpkins. He got off work early on Halloween and came home and Carved Sally and Harry while I carved Jack. Of course Johnny liked them all but He LOVED Harry. And for that matter, so did the trick or treaters. Even the teenagers who came to our door told me that our pumpkins were "tight."