Our First Gingerbread House :)

Gotta love the background. My kids like to build forts. lol

Our first gingerbread house! Yay!


Must be extra tasty. :)

"Kaitlyn! Kaitlyn! Where are you?" No sound....Caught Ya!

We we made our first gingerbread house. I figured not to bad for the first time. Although it was quite the work with two little ones. Yet the poor house didn't stay together very long. The roof didn't want to stay on. lol Yet Kaitlyn was very anxious to eat the house. As you can see, I found her on the counter chowing down on the candy the day after. lol

Kaitlyn's 2nd Birthday

Kaitlyn enjoying her birthday cake

Blowing the candles



Kaitlyn smiling while everyone sang happy birthday to her.

I have to say...I did not decorate this cake. It was my awesome husband, Roy. Some of you may not know, but he is really quite the domestic guy! This is his first time decorating a cake with decorating tips. I think he did a pretty good job! I got a bit jealous and told him the next time we make a cake, I get to use my cake decorating kit. Then I can try it out myself. lol We have "BK" on there. One of Kaitlyn's many nicknames is "BK" which stands for "Baby Kay"

not Burger King. ;)

This is my niece Janessa and my sister, Rebecca.

My Sweet Dad/Grandpa Richardson :)

Grandpa Critchfield :)

Brian (brother-in-law), Diana (sister) & Grandma Critchfield

Kaitlyn opening her presents. She wouldn't let go of the cow Grandpa Richardson gave her! It was so cute and sweet.

She received a stuffed cow from Grandpa Richardson. She loves it soo much!

Opening presents

Amanda & Kaitlyn before church on Kaitlyn's birthday. Happy Birthday Kaitlyn!

I have to say Kaitlyn is the sweetest little girl. She is always full of smiles. She likes to help out mom and dad all the time. If I start sweeping the floor, she will grab her little broom and hand me the dust pan. She is always saying, "Thank you" to people. She even tells me "Thank you" when I change her diaper! Even when we went to the doctor for her two year old check-up, the nurse gave her a shot and Kaitlyn still said, "Thank you!" When we tell her we are going to have ice cream she will pull out the ice cream from the freezer, grab a spoon, and the scooper. She definitely knows where everything is. lol

She loves tubby time and bubbles! She is always sensitive to others. If her big sister is crying she will grab her blanket and put it up to her face and wipe her tears away or give her a hug. Kaitlyn, we love you!

Decorating Grandma Richardson's Grave on her Birthday

Well, we made it over to Benjamin, Utah to decorate Grandma Richardson's (my mom) grave on her birthday! My little ones never had a chance to meet her on this earth, so hopefully this is something they will enjoy doing as a tradition and way to remember her.

I left early from work so we could decorate before it was dark outside. Last year we had to use the car headlights to shine on the grave so we could see. This year was perfect..and we had snow again. :) Love you Grandma Richardson/Mom! :)

Roy's Birthday 2010

We had a small celebration for Roy's birthday. We didn't have Jessica and Ammon with us, just the two little girls. Roy's parents later stopped by. Roy and I are now be the same age for 21 days and then I will be a year older than him again. I always give him and idea of what the upcoming year is like. I told him 36 isn't too bad. :)

Halloween 2010

Jessica's Pumpkin

Ammon's Pumpkin

Amanda's carved pumpkin and Kaitlyn's pumpkin.

I almost forgot to take a picture of the kids...so when they stopped by the house trick-or-treating I took a picture. Ammon is a pirate, Amanda is a princess "Belle", Kaitlyn is a poodle, and Jessica is a cheerleader. She is wearing my old drill team sweats from high school. lol

CUWCD's Pumpkin Walk

As you walked through the gardens they had halloween music playing. They had so many activities I think everyone had a good time.

This was really clever...it is our logo for our Gardens, "Central Utah Gardens."

I thought these pumpkins were pretty creative using Mr. Potato Head parts.


We had our Lab Director at our Utah Valley Water Treatment Plant do the puking pumpkin demonstration. It was funny to hear the kids all say "eeeewwwwwwwwww!!!!"

Amanda, Kaitlyn & Me

This one was from Benjamin, Utah where I grew up!

I think this one won the contest.

We had my company Halloween Party and "Pumpkin Walk/Contest out in our gardens. It was a huge success and we had 57 people from the public enter the pumpkin carving contest. I was amazed at the different things you could carve with a pumpkin.

Kaitlyn dressed up as a poodle. She has a little tag on it saying "Fe Fe" on it and Amanda wanted to be a princess again. She had a hard time trying to decide. At first she wanted to be a ghost, then a pumpkin, then finally a princess. Iliana painted her face that day. It was a big butterfly. :)

Halloween Decor thanks to Amanda

I love this picture of Kaitlyn looking out the window! :)

I had to post these pictures of what Amanda made at Iliana's house. They were so fun and creative so we decided to put them up in our front window. Amanda was so proud of her hard work! It was fun taking these pictures...little Kaitlyn would look out the window and say hi to us.

Ammon's 10th Birthday

Well it is hard to believe Ammon has turned 10...although at times he tries to act like a teenager and be all cool. He had his birthday on September 14th. We had him this year for his birthday. He was able to get some transformers, football gloves, and alligator pillow pet. We also got him some new church clothes...which he was in desperate need of! His suit, belt, shirts were getting tight and his church shoes were falling apart. So finally he is in good shape hopefully for awhile. :)

We had just learned that Ammon likes the guitar and their mom mentioned this to us. I guess the guitar she was looking at was $100. We figured that was a bit too much and Roy mentioned to his mom to be on a look out for some guitars at yard sales. If you know Roy's mom, she is quite the bargain shopper. Well she found one for $5 and it had a broken string. She got it repaired for $10. Not bad! We figured we would have the guitar for the family and if Ammon continues to have an interest in the guitar he could play it.

Mommy Model Contest - Outcome

Congratulations to Amy #1 in winning the Mommy Models Contest on http://www.mommymodelblog.com/! She was amazing! Also, a HUGE THANK YOU for those who voted for my shoes! I came in 4th place out of 25 shoes and received 142 votes. I was definitely surprised! Thanks again everyone! It was fun!

Spanish Fork Half Marathon - 9/11

Mandy & Me before the race

Richardson Cousins

Me, Lynn Richardson, Collette Richardson, & Troy Richardson

We all won something in the top 3!

I decided about 4 weeks out that I was going to do the Spanish Fork Half Marathon. I have never done this race but have heard about it for a couple of years and thought it would be fun.

It worked out also that my friend/co-worker, Mandy McClellan, was going to do the race also. I was so excited to know I had a friend doing the same race. It is definitely more fun when you have a friend there! :)

I felt pretty good during the race. Roy and my two little girls were there to cheer me on at different sections of the race. :) I love that!

I was hoping to finish before 2 hours but be faster than my time at the Utah Valley Half Marathon. If was was really lucky - try to beat my first 1/2 marathon time before I had kids. :) I am pleased to announce I finished in less than an hour and beat my last race time! Woohoo! :) Also, to my huge surprise, I came in third place in my age division! I was so excited!!

After all the awards were given out I saw that my cousins all received awards...so of course we had to take a picture! :) I didn't even know they were going to run the race. :) So fun!