I am beginning to realize why I hate to clean...

Bode has been into making messes lately, BIG messes. I finally have started to put locks on everything throughout the house because I can't clean it up anymore (I am sure that he will find something else to get in to). Within 24 hours, Bode made these 2 huge messes, on top of the regular messes he makes. I couldn't help but laugh at first, but then when cleaning them up, I got really frustrated:(

Peiton had woke up from her nap and it is normal for Bode to go in and just play in the room while she is still in the crib. It kind of makes it nice because it entertains her for a little bit longer. Well, I was downstairs cleaning of course...and after about 5 to 10 minutes of him being in there Peiton started screaming, that was my que to go and get her out of her crib. Well when I walked in, this is what I found...

Bode had taken all the toys from Peitons room, the toys in his toy box from his room, all of the baskets on her shelf's full of hair bows, diapers, lotions and what not. He then took the wipes and pulled everyone out of the bag, got all of her books and put them in there. There was a whole lot of everything in that crib. And to top it off, Peiton was in there screaming because she had no where to stand anymore, and Peiton's crib is set to the lowest setting, it was a crib full of stuff!

I am so mean to let her sit there and scream while I take pictures, but at the moment I was laughing pretty hard...not so funny when I decided to actually clean it up so Peiton could go to bed that night. The nice thing about it was that her room looked spotless, due to everything being in the crib:)

Well so the next adventure, Bode was the ring leader and pulled Peiton into the fun. I was in the office working on somethings for maybe 5 minutes or so. I came to check on the kids and this is what I found this time....

The little munchkins cleaning out the kitchen for me. Another mess for me to clean up. But then again, the good thing is, it forced me to clean out ALL of my cupboards, which needed done desperately:)

After making all of these messes, Bode decided to take a crash, right smack on the middle of the floor with his dinosaur and "George" the monkey:)

He is soooo sweet while he is sleeping:)

On Saturday night 26 of us went sledding to Soldier Hollow. It was a blast! I have never done this before and I am so glad I went. My friend Alicia put the big group together so we could get a better deal...a lot of work for her:) Thanks Leish! Our final trip down the hill was a 26 person train...it was so much fun. I have now decided we need to take Cooper and Bode, they would have a blast!

Getting ready to conquer the hill. So nice that you don't have to walk up the hill, I guess that is why you pay the money you do:)

Adventures down the hill..

Some of the ladies...Trisha where are you??

"Nerd Alert"

For school today, the kids were suppose to dress up as "nerds." What really determines a "nerd" anyway. Well this is what Cooper thought a nerd should look like. I think we did a pretty good job.

Doesn't he make one cute "nerd"?

Love you my goofy "Nerd!"

St. George 1/2 Marathon

I am back from a quick (too quick), fun, warm & relaxing trip. We had a great time and it went by way to fast.

We left our cute fam's about 12:30 on Friday afternoon and headed down to St. George. The drive was filled with fun conversation and Lou lou' name that tune, which made the time go by pretty fast. When we finally arrived in St. George, the thermostat said 63!! It was so nice! Kind of lame to get excited about 63 degrees, but when you leave home at 25, it seems really nice:)

We stayed with my grandparents who are the best hostess's. I love to spend time with them, they are so full of personality and I just love to sit and talk with them. Soon after we arrived we were off to eat...had to get that pre-race carb load, and we just love to eat:)

I was so dreading doing this race, the training wasn't so great and I was so worried about my back and leg. But I surprised myself and did alright. Keysha rocked it, I am going to brag for you Keysha because I know you won't do it:) She finished with a time of like 1:43, a 7 something mile! She is one tough Chick-ita and my grandparents were amazed by her toughness:) Leslie did great to, without having ANY training, she sprained her ankle a while ago and hadn't been able to run on it. and she did awesome too.

It is always so great to have a awesome cheer team. My mom is always so good to support me in all my races. If she can be there she will be and I love to have her support:)

The race was done and it was time to play and eat. Keysha's parents treated us to a yummy lunch at Texas Roadhouse ( I love that place) and then we headed to the theaters to see Bride Wars. I thought it was a cute flick, kind of slow at places, but a fun show. And the huge bowl of popcorn and Hot Tamales I indulged made it even better:) After the movie my mom treated us to a dinner at Bajio and then we treated her to some ice cream at Cold Stone...yes, I think I did mention that we like to eat:)

Come Sunday morning we weren't ready to go home, ready to see our fam's and relieve our husbands, but not ready to go home to the cold. Little getaways are always so much fun to look forward too and I guess I will just have to look forward to this again next year.

Thanks Grandma and Pa for letting us stay with you. You are the best!
Keysha and Lou lou I had a great time with you...you guys are a riot and we had some great laughs and you both smell so yummy how couldn't I love ya?
And Mom, you know how I feel about you...Love ya much and so glad that you came with us.

We will say "SEE YA!"

I am off! I am so lucky to go down to SUNNY (57 degrees, sounds so great!) St. George for a little girls getaway. The purpose of the trip is to run the Painter's 1/2 marathon, which is going to be tough because the training has been very weak because of my little back issue. But, I am still going to do it anyway, and I can always use the little getaway. It actually is kind of nice that I am going into this race with NO expectations and I can just have fun, well that is until mile 8 and then when I hit a wall and can't finish the race, it might not be so much fun:) But the time to veg, watch movies and just be with good friends, my mom and grandparents is all worth it.

A special thanks goes out to my awesome husband, who again lets me do these little things (he knows it is in his best interest if he wants a sane wife, well somewhat sane wife). And again he always supports me in everything and I mean everything that I want to do. Thanks babe! Have fun with the kids, I know they are excited to spend time with you...dad time is play time! Love ya much!

{My little Pei-Pei}

Peiton has made such a change the last couple months, it has been so much fun. She is FINALLY walking, I think she realized yes, I am 16 months, I probably should be walking now. One day she just started and has not stopped since. Now that she has been walking, her attitude has changed. She is much happier and she can entertain herself much better, which makes my life a little easier. Before she needed my constant attention and needed me right by her side, and this has changed a bit.

She also LOVES to smile for the camera...isn't she so dang cute?

The few words she says are "Da-da" and "Aw-o." We are working on a few more.

This is a self portrait that we took ourselves, I am surprised how good she smiled:)

I love this little girl so much, all though she is a challenge everyday, she brings so much joy in our life. We are so happy we finally got our little "princess" and that she is...

I HEART my Chiropractor!

My back and my leg have had some serious issues lately, they have really thrown me for a loop. Back on Thanksgiving I started having this awful pain. I would get these legs spasms coming from my groin muscle down my leg through my thigh. They were awful pains, so bad that the day after Thanksgiving I couldn't even walk, which kept me home from all the "Black Friday"sales (Keysha I know that doesn't sound bad to you:) I was pretty much kept up in bed that whole weekend which really made me super mad! The pain started getting better, but not all the way. I finally went to a Orthopedic who diagnosed me with having IT band issues, I did all the exercises he told me and really nothing got too much better. Then a couple of weeks ago the extreme pain came back, worse than it was before. The spasms going through my leg were so much more intense that I would just drop to the floor whenever I would have one. By then I realized that this is more than just a muscle tear or something, it has to be something with nerves. So I made an appointment with the Chiropractor because I had to get this fixed or find out what is going on with my body. So off to Dr. Hudson I went!

I got there and he took some tests and did some x-rays and found that my spine is messed up. It kind of starts making the curve like scoliosis (not as intense, and not the whole spine) and because of that, the pain is finally starting to kick in. It makes me wonder how long it has been like this, all my running probably has something to do with it (not going to stop me yet) who knows, all I know that from the 5 adjustments I have had so far, the pain has gone down 75% I don't get the shooting pain down my leg anymore, I just have pain in my back and some movements trigger a little sensitivity to my leg.

I had never been to a chiropractor before and now I am now sold on going regularly. (I think I will have too) The theory behind the Chiropractor is really cool. How the spine controls the body movements and how it is attached to all these nerves, kind of complex for me, but what I do understand about it, makes me think it is pretty cool.

No more private...

Well it has been about 10 days since I last posted anything, I guess you could say slacker, or no time, nothing really going on, no desire or any other excuse I can come up with. But I am back and I am no longer doing this private thing. I tried it for a while and I really don't like it too much, who know's maybe I will be switching back to private again. Hopefully not.

New Years Day

For the last couple of years we have been meeting the Richard's family at a breakfast place to have breakfast on New Years morning. The last couple of years we have been going to this place called Brinton's, it is one of those places where the decorating isn't so great and you may not think it would be the best place to eat, but I haven't been disappointed yet. There food is actually really great and I gobbled mine right up. It is a fun tradition that we have started and I hope it continues to go on.

After breakfast we came home, Collin took the boys sledding and we sat on our rear's the rest of the day. That is always nice for a little bit, but by the end of the day my rear was pretty sore from sitting all day and my eyes were sore from watching too much TV. But, it was a great day and a wonderful holiday season!

New Years Eve

New Years eve was actually pretty fun this year. It seems like New Year's is kind of put on the back burner when you have young kids. You can't really find a babysitter on New Year's and it is too much of a hassle to take the kids anywhere so you just kind of don't do much. Well our friends the Jones' invited us over for a New Years get together and we were planning on bringing our kids with us. We wouldn't have lasted long because Peiton would start freaking out about 7 and who knows what kind of mood Bode would be in. Well earlier in the day Collin's mom called and said that they wanted to come out and tend the kids that night...WHAT? Awesome! It truly was a blessing, we needed the night out without kids so much. So we still went over to the Jones' and had a fantastic time eating, chatting and playing a little Rock Band. Collin has never played it before and he was pretty dang good, I was quite impressed:)

Alica, Me, Rachel

Jason and Collin

TJ

The Jones' were the first family to welcome us into the neighborhood, she dropped by with her yummy caramel corn and we hit it off. We have known them for almost 4 years now and we have had a ton of fun memories with them. They are the type of people that would drop anything that they are doing and help you if you are in need. One thing that I love about Alicia is that she always lets the people she loves know that she loves them she is very great at speaking her feelings and I really admire that. They have been fabulous friends.
As for the Olson's, I have mentioned them before, it is amazing that two of the nicest people found each other and got married. They are both gems and both hilarious! Rachel is the best story teller, she can make a boring story and way exciting story. We are pretty lucky to have these amazing families as some of our closest friends. Thanks for the great night folks!



When we came home, this is what we found. Cooper was so pumped to stay up for the New Year and it just didn't quite make it. Thanks so much Holly and Charlie for tending, it meant a lot and we had a great time because of it. Your awesome!

Some of my favorites of 2008!

Christmas

Christmas was great this year. I can't believe it has come and gone. That is one thing I don't like about Christmas, you plan and plan for this holiday and then in one day it is gone. But we do have the memories and this year we made many.

We started off on Christmas Eve in Heber for the Edwards family party (no pics, I spaced taking pictures). We had some yummy food, some fun games and a special visitor. We then made our way to Collin's parents. There we had some more yummy dinner, by the time I was done with this dinner, my tummy ached so bad, the thought of eating made me nauseated. We did a little program, Cooper sang "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth," I didn't even know he knew it. It was darling. And then we started the present opening, the kids got spoiled as usual and so did we.

On Christmas morning, Collin and I got a unexpected Christmas gift, the kids slept until 7:30, we actually had to wake Bode up. This is amazing! Bode never sleeps past 6:30. We couldn't believe it, it was fabulous. Cooper was so excited to see what Santa brought him and Bode and Peiton just loved unwrapping everything. Bode did his share at unwrapping almost every one's presents.

We spent the whole day in our jammies, having naps, watching movies and just vegging. It was awesome. We finally did get dressed and headed to my parents for Christmas night activities. We has some more yummy dinner and did a little karaoke while the kids ran around wild. This year for Christmas gifts we drew names and instead of buying a gift for that person, you had to go and do something with that person. It could be whatever, go to a movie, help that person if they needed help with something or just spend time with each other. My mom and dad spoiled us too, our trip to California this past October was our Christmas, and they still surprised us with some more gifts, one being the coolest, a scrapbook of our trip to California, it is awesome.

Like I said before, I can't believe this Christmas is over, we had a good one and I guess now that Christmas is all down it is time to move on to those New Years Resolutions, which are always so much fun to plan. I hope all of you had a great Christmas and now have a Happy New Year!

Christmas Eve & season greetings...

Day 24- Christmas Eve festivities & the Richards wish you a Merry Christmas!

“Twas the yearly happenings in the Richards Family”

Twas the night of Thanksgiving, Natalie sat in her house
Reminiscing the past year, with Collin her spouse.
The time has now come to send cards out to share,
In hopes to make contact with those whom we care.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of Christmas time danced in their heads.
And mama in her pj’s, in a blanket did wrap,
To write this poem of a 2008 recap.

When down in the kitchen there arose such a clatter,
For a bucket of paint did tip over and splatter.
Once again have I painted a room in our home,
For I like to constantly change the place that I roam.

One accomplishment that I’d like you to know,
The St. George marathon I did run, that my shoes surely show.
Obsessed with diets and workouts and keeping house clean,
I keep busy, doing the mommy thing.

With Collin life stays so lively and quick,
Except for the month that his knee was too sick.
A basketball injury, then surgery came,
Luckily a cruise to Mexico his injury did not maim.

Now Cooper! Now Bode! Now Peiton and Nat!
A good father and husband, we are sure of that.
Replaced the main floor, UTES WON! He’s so merry,
And he still makes us watch “Little House on the Prairie.”

Now Cooper leaves every morning for first grade
And this past year in baseball he played.
He’s starting to read and play basketball too
And loves to ask questions like all seven year-olds do.


Coop’s the best big brother any kid could wish for.
He lets Bode wrestle him right to the floor.
And Peiton, she loves her older brother,
For he cuddles and protects her, she wouldn’t have any other.

Next there is Bode; he works on his own time.
But for a four year-old with downs, he is definitely in his prime.
Still waiting for first words and diaper-free days,
He likes to sneak over to the neighbor’s and resume his play.

His favorites consist of watching all movies,
Reenacting all the actions, we think it’s pretty groovy.
He loves cheese quesadillas and going to preschool on the bus,
He sure is the light in the lives of all of us.

Last but not least there is Princess Peiton
With her, the drama of a girl, we know has just begun.
Now she is one and loves the attention on her,
Loves to scream, loves to laugh, loves her daddy for sure.

Pei Pei’s all over the place, crawling from here over to there,
And she can even walk, but on her own she does not dare.
We love her sweet personality and are so glad she is here,
And look forward to seeing her grow even more this year.

That’s a quick run down of our year, we hope you enjoyed
And that the length of this poem, of you it did not annoy.
We find ourselves so blessed with great family and friends,
We wanted to share the events of our year up till its end.

Springing into this holiday season, let us remember our savior dear,
He is the reason we celebrate, during this exciting time of year.
Hold close your family and friends, the ones that make your life bright,
And :”Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!”

Written with help from the all talented, Hollie Sorenson! Thanks Haws!

All I want for Christmas...

"All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth!"

Cooper lost both of his top front teeth on Saturday. He scored big with the tooth fairy! One fell out while he was eating his sandwich and he didn't realize it, all he realized was it was bleeding. He came up and told me that his tooth was bleeding and I took a look and I said " Coop, your tooth is gone!" and he replied "I ate my tooth!" He was a little startled. Well he had one next to it that was so ready to come out and he wouldn't let me pull it out. I told him, when you leave two teeth under your pillow for the tooth fairy, they usually leave double the money, it worked! I yanked that thing out and he scored with the tooth fairy. I love how he talks with his missing teeth, he has a little lisp and he looks too cute.

Swimming anyone???

"Swimming anyone??"

Yes, that would be a diaper, 2 swim suits and one swim diaper...I think he is prepared!

Cookies for Santa

Day 23- Make cookies for Santa

I guess you could say that we really didn't "make" the cookies. All we did was take them out of the plastic wrap, place them on the pan and a few in our mouths (I love cookie dough) and toss them in the oven, and ta-da! Beautiful Christmas cookies for Santa's tummy!

This is the Place...Christmas style...

Day 22- This is the Place Monument

For the Van Wagoner Christmas get together my mom and dad took us to This is the Place Monument. We usually go here in the summer and enjoy a day full of fun activities, this was something new. I loved it in the winter. It just brought such a great Christmas feeling, there was snow on the ground, music being played, nativity, hot apple cider at Brigham Young's home, Santa, goats, train rides and pioneers shouting "Happy Christmas!" And it wasn't even that cold until the end when are feet about had it walking in the snow.

Bode figured out that he could eat the snow, and he couldn't stop. There was snow on the ground, he ate it. Snow on Cooper's hat, he ate it. Snow on the bottom of his boots, he ate it.

Thanks for the great night everyone!

Church and hand-me-downs...

I always love to get the kids all dressed up on the Sunday before Christmas. This year it didn't really go as planned, but is worked out okay and I saved a little money. The plan was to have them all in red, black, white and grey. Cooper, I got him a new sweater and he had some grey slacks and I thought he had some black shoes, which he did, but they were to big (hand-me-downs) we put them on last night and his foot looked 10 times bigger than it was. Doubling up the socks wasn't going to work:( so his outfit didn't really work out.

Then there was Bode, I bought him some new black shoes for his outfit (which he is not wearing) and I decided they were too much money for one pair of black church shoes that he would wear twice, so I opted out on putting him in the Christmas outfit I got for him. Instead I got out a old red sweater and his brown cords. Now I will take back his black shoes and the black cords that went with his hand-me-down sweater.

As for Peiton, everything worked out great and she looked darling (I thought, besides the rash she has all over her face that I can't figure out what it is). She was wearing a darling hand-me-down dress that was worn by a few of Stacy's girls.

Anyway, they all turned out darling and like I said before, I saved some money and don't you love hand-me-downs? They are the best!

Merry Christmas everyone! I can't believe we are almost there! So exciting!!

LIttle People Nativity

Day 21- Little People Nativity

We go this nativity a couple years ago and it has always been so fun to play with. Today after church (notice after church we get into a scrounge clothes and just relax) we got it out and went through the Christmas story and then Bode had fun making all the figurines fight and tackle each other.

Make snowman or snow fort

Day 20- Make a snowman (we did snow fort)

Cooper has been waiting for this day that he can go play in the snow with his dad. Everyday since it has snowed he has asked me when he and dad can go out and play in the snow. Today was the day! Collin is so great to take them out and play and build amazing snow forts and what not. As for me I like to stay nestled inside where it is warm, call me a party pooper but the older I get the less fun I am.

There still wasn't quite enough snow to make it as big as they would like, but I think they did a great job!


As the kids went outside, Peiton and I stayed inside and ate...yes ate, what I do best.

Peiton has this new thing where she loves to put on her shoes and the the shoes she likes to put on are the really pretty ones, with bows and it all. This was her selection today...

I love that she is such a girl!