Fun Christmas!

Christmas at our house was an awesome day!!! On Christmas eve, we watch an awesome movie about the Nativity from the church and then the girls acted out the story with their Little People Nativity. We talked a lot about the 3 gifts of the Magi and why we give presents at Christmas time. To celebrate Jesus's birthday!
Then the girls opened 3 simple gifts. Each one got an Usborn book that they love, a new dolly to sleep with and ther fabulous Spongebob pijamas!!! They loved them so much!!!

For Christmas Rachel REALLY wanted a dinosaur and her Grandma Patty gave her one that walks around and ROARS! She loves it and it makes us laugh! She even made it roar over the phone to her Uncle Jeff, who is on his mission in Ghana, Africa!

Santa gave each of the girls a super hero, flying monkey. They have masks and capes and slingshot around the room and scream! They were a definite hit at our house!!!

And sweet Sarah is showing off her new necklace from Grandma Patty. It has a tiny CTR ring on it! She wears it all the time and loves to tell everyone what it means! Her cousin Quynhie has one just like it!

We also got a karaoke machine from both sets of grandparents and it is a total hit!!!! Today we even sang Christmas songs (with one little "I'm too sexy" in the middle)!

And there is my sewing machine!!! Thanks, Richard! I did a little sewing while I was growing up and I am excited to do more now! I am starting small, fixing holes and stuff like that. And for Rachel's birthday I am going to make her an apron! Wish me luck with that! (0:

Richard got a few things like... an Indoor/Outdoor weather station, Wii-remote charger, and a Nerf ball gun that he chases the girls around the house with (good pick, Becky)!

So, Christmas was a little different. We missed our families and friends, but enjoyed doing things just as a little family. We thought a lot about the ones we love and miss!

We spent Christmas Eve dinner with some great friends eating authentic Italian lasagna! And Christmas Day we had dinner and played the Wii with some more friends in the ward. We have made some great friends and we are so grateful to share this season with them, too!

Yesterday we went down to Nauvoo and did some temple work. We are so blessed to live so close to the temple! And we fed the missionaries last night, which was a blast! They hadn't had Stir-fry on their missions and they loved it! We also had some Chocolate cake to celebrate "Graduating Christmas" (according to Sarah).

Church was cancelled again this week. Unlike last week (7 degrees below zero and super windy), it pured down rain all day yesterday and most of the snow melted and then everything froze overnight! So it was way too icy and scary to get over to the church. What a wacky couple weeks for weather!

Great week for us! I can't wait to hear how all your holidays were! Hope there will be some fun in store for us on New Years Eve!!

Eight Rockin' Years!!!!!!

Happy 8th Anniversary Richard & Becky!!!

I just wanted to post a quick one for my honey! Last Sunday was our 8th anniversary! It was a fabulous day back in 2000 at the Salt Lake Temple. My mom and I got lost trying to find our car (and my new husband) under the Conference Center and we were late for the wedding luncheon. The reception was busy and the wrestling match at the bouquet toss was classic! That day was one of the happiest I have ever had!

Being married to my best friend is more than I could have ever hoped for! Richard is kind, patient, sweet, gentle, funny, smart, tough, and strong. He has the Spirit so strong in his life and he blesses our family with it! We are both strong personalities with lots of opinions. We make each other better, stronger, and smarter every day! Being married to Richard is the second greatest gift that the Lord has blessed me with!
I love you, Richard!

*We celebrated (on a different day) and did a bit of shopping and hit the Olive Garden (thanks, Kate, for the gift card! You ROCK!). It was nice to get out and just sit and laugh together!
Happy Anniversary! The next eight years are going to be a super wild ride and I am glad that we get to ride it together!!!

Merry Christmas!!!!!!

Merry Christmas 2008


Hello from the Midwest!!! Last year we talked all about the changes going on with us. Sheesh, that was Nothing compared to this year! So we invite you to hang on for our ride!
This year was spent enjoying our time with friends and family and getting ready for our move to Iowa. We had an amazing time at the two weddings in Richard's family (Jon & Jan in May and Marianne & Brian in September), helping a little in Grandma Joy’s garden, Grandpa day’s farm, and swimming in the pool!!!! We also got to spend memorial Day weekend with the Becky's family in Eden, ut! We spent a few Saturdays up the Hogle zoo with friends and family, enjoying the freedom, exercise and fresh air.
AS we got ready to move, we had a great going away party (with an awesome corn cake and everything!) and 30th birthday celebration for both Richard and Becky. As a family we spent time outside, enjoying the mountains and canyons.
Since the 2 ½ day move out to the Midwest (in October), we have been settling in and getting used to the Midwest. It is starting the get cold and a little snowy! Our ward has been amazingly welcoming and serving and has put us to work already!

This year:
~Richard worked hard to finish up his schooling at Utah Valley University, Making the dean’s list and graduating with his Bachelor’s Degree in Business management in August. Also In August he ran the Highland Fling 5k with Becky (thanks for your help, hon!). He took Becky to Cedar City for the Shakespearean Festival to see her favorite play (Taming of the Shrew) and had a great weekend trip. And Richard went to his last BYU game with Becky before we moved. It was a fun and hot day! We will miss that! Then Richard drove the moving truck across the country with his dad (with half a sick day) and got our home set up with help from his parents. Being back in his mission must be interesting and fun for him. Right now he is taking Organic Chemistry lecture and lab and is getting ready to start his Doctorate Program in March. The ward is using his talent of working with the youth by calling him to be the Sunday school teacher for the 13-18 year olds. he and Becky are also called as Ward Temple Patrons.
~Becky had a busy year, too. In March she took a trip with her girlfriends down to Las Vegas and had an amazing and rejuvenating weekend there. Becky had the chance to go up to salt lake city to see her sister-in-law, Luvir, become a citizen of the United States, which was amazing! She “ran” the 5k with Richard and was so proud of achieving one of her goals. Another of the goals that Becky has been working on is to live more healthy and lose weight. She is doing great and will keep working hard! Becky was also blessed to witness the tender mercies of the Lord like watching a good friend bring a baby home from china, after many miracles (the family was sealed in November). Becky is using her kitchenaid mixer and taking the world by storm. She was called to be the 2nd counselor in the primary presidency.
~Sarah had a great year! In may she graduated from Kindergarten and started t-ball. She liked to stand and chat at first but then she got into it and hit and ran really well and chased that ball wherever it was! We cut 11” off her hair and sent it to Locks of Love for wigs for kids! Sarah started 1st grade and loved it! She had her 6th birthday in the backyard. We borrowed the neighbor’s HUGE water slide and had pink cupcakes! The move was fun for her and she loves her new room she shares with Rachel. Her school is amazing! She has art, science, music, gym, and so many other fun things! The library is the biggest elementary school library we have ever seen! For Halloween she was Ariel and she looked great at the school parade! Sarah lost her first tooth in November and loves having a new tooth coming in!
~Rachel had a busy year. In January she turned 4 years old and hasn’t looked back since. She also gave her 11” of hair to locks of love. She swam like a fish all summer. ON the move, Rachel heard a song about the Mississippi river and she sings it every time we cross the river now. She also got to start in preschool and she adores it! She just counts down the time until she gets to go every day. She went on her first bus ride with mom to the pumpkin patch and had a blast! Rachel dressed up as Snow White for Halloween and had a blast at the trunk or treat! She loves to play in the basement with her toys and princess tent!
~Emma’s year was one for the record books. She moved into her new big bed and loves it! She wore her first big girl ponytail in her hair. In June, Emma turned 2 years old and had a great chocolate cake and new baby. Then, a week later she broke her left leg and wore a purple cast for 4 weeks! She crawled around on the floor at first and then she started walking around on it! What an experience for a 2 year old! After the cast came off, Emma swam as much as she could! She took the move the hardest and she carried her ducky blanket around the house all day for weeks. She now is doing great and loves to drag the chairs around the kitchen and move the magnets around on the fridge and get a snack from the pantry. Emma is just getting big!

So, that’s what our family has been up to! We are so blessed to live so close to the Nauvoo temple. It has really made us make time for temple work. We are looking forward to another joyful year and we hope your new year will be blessed, too!

Love,
Richard, Becky, Sarah, Rachel, & Emma

PS The mystery post from last week was a close up of my super wool gloves/mittens that my mom gave me last year. The kind that pull back so you can use the fingers. I never thought that I would use them and then we moved here. 7 degrees below zero on the way to church, people!!!
PPS Check out a new small (but cool) accomplishment of mine on my curlyhair blog! Thanks! (0:

Christmas dressing up!

Here is a picture of the family before church today. Our Christmas program was today, so the girls got to wear their new dresses. Cute little girls in black and white! They loved them!
And we had to set the camera to do the timer thing to take our picture (sorry Richard's head). But it's a cute picture of us, anyway!
Things here are busy, but great! Richard has been working for UPS during the day and going to class 2 nights a week and doing another job 2 nights a week. He is really busy and tired but grateful for his jobs. They are a blessing!
I am busy doing the holiday preps and getting ready for the next few weeks. I am keeping up with the working out (I need a stress reliever!) and cooking new kinds of things all the time!
The girls are getting ready for Christmas programs on Friday (last day of school before break) and just getting into the Spirit of the season. We have 3 or 4 countdown calendars and Emma loves to do them! Sarah and Rachel gave some really cute dolls to Toys for Tots yesterday. They liked them so much and wanted to keep them at first, but then they really wanted to give them to other little girls who didn't have dolls. It's so cool to see the girls serve and share.
Next week I will post our Christmas letter and card! I hope that everything is going well! We love you guys!
AND check out my other blog (http://www.mycurlyhairdays.blogspot.com/) a few times a week for funny stories, thoughts and goings on at our house! It's public, so no names or places (thanks!). The girls sure make me laugh and are great kids! You can click on the link at the top of the page on the right!

Mystery pic stuff

Star Fruit! Yeay! We are learning about all kinds of different fruit and veggies and the girls just tried star fruit! One of my favorite Thanksgivings was spent in Hawaii at my Aunt Janice's house. We had the regular stuff and then we had more exotic stuff, star fruit, bread fruit, etc... So much fun!
Here is this week's mystery picture! Something very important to me!

I started another blog...

Hey guys,
I just wanted to let you know that I started another blog that I am just going to write my ramblings down. It's public, so I don't use real names or places, so please don't use our real names or location, for our safety. I would love it if you stopped over to check it out anytime! The address is http://www.mycurlyhairdays.blogspot.com/ if you want to check it out! I will still do my updates on the fam and stuff like that here, but my silly thoughts and stuff will be there. If you need a laugh and something to think about, head over there and check it out. I will put links on the right side to head over there, too. Thanks for reading!
PS Now you when I comment on your blogs and stuff, my name is "mycurlyhairdays", instead of "Becky (0:". Just so you know.

A super-useful gift and our Christmas preps!

While Grandma Patty was here, we went out and did some Christmas shopping. One of the "totally awesome" gifts she got for us was a convertable dishwasher. Needless to say, it has changed my life. I'm not spending all my time over the sink. The girls love loading it and unloading it! I hope I can keep their enthusiasm for loading the dishwasher forever! Thanks so much, mom!

And this week we busted out the Christmas tree, decorations, calendars, candles, etc... Each year we get a new ornament (or make one) to put on the tree to remember what we were up to that year. Last year it was an ornament from Disneyland (after the AMAZING trip). This year, we went for the John Deere tractor! We always write the year on it. The girls love the tradition. It is fun to pull out the old ones and talk about them. We started this tradition because we were married just before Christmas and some of our friends and family gave us ornaments for our wedding and we thought it would be a fun thing to remember things that we did over the years. We have a football snowmen, a star that says HOPE, an Ice Cube snowman from Victoria Canada, and some other fun ones. It's a fun thing that the girls look forward to every December.
I have to get finished with my Christmas cards and get them out asap. Hope your holidays are going great!!!

Mystery Pix

Last week's was totally a cheese grater. It was just a cool picture I wanted to put up. I love things that look so graphic like that!




This week... so, what do you think?

Turkey, Chicago Style Pizza, and one "Wicked" Weekend

This last week has been a really fun one at our house!!! My mom flew in to the local airport on Wednesday night. We put the turkey in a brine that night and Richard made his famous rolls. I love that my husband is a good cook! It's kind of hot! (0: That next day we roasted the turkey and it turned out AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have never had turkey that was that good! So, I will brine my turkey for the rest of my life. It's pretty easy, but it makes an amazing difference. Both of my little sisters did the same thing and had the same awesome results! I am proud of us! My mom was an awesome help. She just got in the kitchen with me and did everything she could to help. And the whole time she was here, she was all over washing dishes. That was so nice because I was starting to get burned out of doing them by hand. It was a great break!!!!

Friday we ran over to the Sears where my mom purchased a fabulous Christmas present for my family, a Kenmore convertable dishwasher!!!!! It was delivered yesterday and it washed it's first load last night and it was amazing! I am so grateful to my mom for her thoughtful gift! I know that there are more important things in this life, but I am thankful to be able spend more time with my family, instead of standing at the sink all day!
After picking out the dishwasher (I totally just spelled that "dishwarsher"!), we drove to Nauvoo and did some temple work. My mom and I went together and Richard watched the girls and then we switched. It was so fun to be in the temple with my mom! She is such a strong and amazing woman, mother and grandmother and an great example to my family.
Saturday was a busy day for us. We had lined up 2 different babysitters for our girls throughout the day, so we (Richard, my mom and I) could drive into Chicago and see "Wicked". It is about a 3 hr. drive and it was fun to sit and talk with my mom about her family and things going on in her life. Driving into Chicago was cool. None of us had spent time there, just in the airports. So it was fun to look around the city, at the Sears Tower and all the amazing buildings. We parked and my mom flagged down a cab (we weren't sure if we needed to go over by a hotel, but she stuck her arm out right where we were and a cab stopped), which took us to Giordarno's Restaurant and Pizzaria. Everyone in the ward recommended this place for real Chicago style pizza. So we went in and ordered our pizza and then went window shopping while it cooked. We went into Tiffany & Co. and looked around. That was so much fun! Earrings, necklaces, rings, pins. So fun! And I am sure that there was so much more jewelry somewhere in the back. My mom tried on some big solitares (2 and 2.75 carats) and we joked around about them! Then it was back to the the pizza place for lunch. It was awesome!!!! Huge and yummy and great cheese and we took most of it home! I think we each only ate one slice!
Then we hopped in a cab and headed to the Oriental Theater for the 2pm performance of "Wicked". The theater was so beautiful and ornate. We sat there just looking around in the theater for like 10 mins. before it started. Because of some awesome chicks in Springville, UT (thanks Heathe, Lori, etc...) I had heard the music and knew the storyline of "Wicked". But seeing it on stage was amazing! The costumes were fabulous and the actors blew me away! Elphaba was played by her stand in/understudy that night and I hoped she would still be as good. She was BETTER than anyone I had heard as Elphaba. At the end of the first act I was clapping and screaming! It was spectacular!!!!!!!!!!! The whole show was so amazing and I can't wait to see it again! I am looking around trying to see where we can see it next!

So that was our week last week! It has been quite a ride! But I am so glad that my mom was here for it! Living away from our families has been really different and it was cool to just show her around our city and see what we are up to! It made the move feel more real. I think the she had a fun time with us, too. And the girls just played and played with her. Every night they wanted her to read to them before bed and they wanted to sit by her all the time and hold her hands all the time. Mom also carefully applied pink lipstick to Sarah and Rachel at least twice and they LOVED it! I think that I saw some mascara on Sarah's long lashes one time, too!

My mom left on Sunday and I started feeling sick and am still not quite fully recovered, but I'm getting there. Of course, both of her flights were delayed so instead of being back in Utah by like 10:30pm, she finally landed by 3am. And her blackberry was still on Central time so she was 45 mins late for her meeting on Monday. But all in all, I think that she was glad she made the trip out!!!

We were so happy to have her! I love you Mom! You are the best!

PS Did you guys notice on the counter thing on the right, the Ghana flag? Is says Accra next to it. That is my little brother in Africa on his mission. He has been able to get onto my blog! it is so awesome! What a blessing the internet can be! I am thankful for that today! (0:

Sarah's Tooth & A Twilight Night!!!

In a new state, a new city, a new apartment, and at the age of 6, Sarah has lost her first tooth. It had been loose and wiggly for a week and we weren't concerned until we saw another tooth coming in behind it. So Richard decided to take it out and Sarah was so excited! He wrapped some floss around it and tugged! Well. that only got it part of the way out and he couldn't get the floss around it again. So he whipped out his leatherman (yes, that's right, his leatherman) and opened the pliers. Sarah took one look at that and said, "I don't want those in my mouth!!!". He pulled her tooth out quickly and she had a visit from the tooth fairy that night! She has another loose tooth and one coming in behind it, so we will be prep-ing for the next adventure (hopefully minus the leatherman next time)!!!

Sarah minus her tooth

And our "Twilight" adventure! Richard and I got tickets for opening night and we got a sitter for the day. A great friend in the ward told us she would watch the girls a few hours early and we had a late lunch at Chili's (thanks Britt, for the giftcard!). Then we headed over to the theater (not many theaters around here) for the 4:30pm showing. It was half an hour early and only a few other people in line. We sat and enjoyed the movie together. It was a good movie. There were a few buggy things (Jasper looked constipated the whole time and Mike was a little over the top), but we really had a great time (Alice was a cutie)! What a great night together!

Our "Twilight" t-shirts!!!

Mystery Pics!!!

Ok, last weeks was pretty easy! I was going to do a few cool things to the picture, but didn't have time. So, most of you are right. They were verical blinds. So wonderful right by my sliding glass door! Hopefully this week will be tougher!!!

Here is another one that Richard took. Thanks for playing along. Maybe I'm not as tricky as I thought!!!