Guess Who's 11 Months??

Can you believe this little cutie is 11 months old? I can't. The one year old mark is just a month away and I'm feeling sad about her growing so fast. It seems like when babies are a year old, people quit calling them "babies". I'm still calling her a baby. I don't care what you say.

Some things Faith is doing right now:

• TALKING. Yup. It's true. And she's not just saying a couple words either. She's got a few sentences down, people! She says the following words and phrases:

Mamma

Dadda

Look at that!

Who is that?

What is that?

GET THAT!

Hello

To call Levi she'll say, "AH LA!!"

• She could LIVE outside
  
• She's very interested in what I'm doing. Especially if I'm eating something. She wants to have whatever it is I have even if she has the same exact thing in front of her. She wants MINE.

• She sometimes gets worried when I walk away.

  


• She is into EVERYTHING!!! She wants to crawl to the grossest, most dangerous areas possible.


• The knees on her clothes are nearly impossible to keep clean.


• She is an extremely messy eater.


• She can go up stairs all the way and come all the way down all by herself.


• She's still nursing. And sometimes she bites. But I screamed once and she hasn't bit me since.


• She's been sleeping through the night for the last three weeks. I'm talking from 8pm to 7:30 am. It is pure HEAVEN.


• She has 7 teeth


• When you're holding her, she flaps her arms up and down and leans out until you take her where she wants to go.


• Like outside. I'm not kidding when I say she likes it out there. She wants to go out CONSTANTLY.


• The tops of her feet are totally raw and calloused from crawling so much.


• She loves any and ALL furry animals. She likes to visit the horses daily but shies away and laughs when they put their long noses near her. She's in love with our dog and the neighbors dog too.


• She is almost completely impossible to change. I'm always searching for the perfect entertaining item just so I can fasten the tabs on the diaper before she flips over and screams.


• She has taken a few steps and can get up from a sitting position to a standing one without needing support from someone or something else.


• She poops in the tub. Sometimes she does it when Levi's in there with her. Levi's freak-out session when he sees her poop is priceless.


• She is totally and completely in love with having her back scratched. She will stop whatever she's doing and curl forward. She gets her love of it from me.
• She loves to go on my runs with me. Sometimes I get lucky and she sleeps.
• If you can't tell from the picture, she also loves her Cabbage Patch baby.
• 

A Friday Favorite

So I have this adorable friend named Jen that does a 'Flashback Friday' segment on her blog every week. Friday is now my favorite day of the week because of her.

Since my blog is a little bit, I don't know... 'lacking' these days, make your way on over to Jen's blog. But only if you want to laugh.

You won't be sorry.

Click HERE!!!

Gooooooooooo JAZZ!

First off, turn up on your speakers.

'Basketball John'

is playing. And it's gooood.

I'm pretty sure that I'm married to the biggest Jazz fan around. We just watched The Jazz lose to the STUPID LAKERS. I can't hardly TAKE IT!!!!! And neither can John. When the Jazz lose, it doesn't put a smile on his face. Let's put it that way.

And speaking of faces:

Kobe Bryant's face. The arrogance. I cannot watch him. Good thing we're gonna kick the Lakers butts on Friday.

Ya gotta love the Jazz, baby.

My Mothers...

I'm really lucky. I have a wonderful Mother and a wonderful step-mother. Pictured above is my mom holding Faith. I think there's never a time that you appreciate your mother MORE than when you start having children yourself. My mom had seven children. Seven. That's hard work. My mom is a gifted composer and a beautiful woman. And we get along really well (once we got past those horrible teen years). And that's so important to me.

Mom, you did yourself proud! Just look at how great I turned out!!! Thank-you for all you do for me.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom. I love you!!!

Here's 5 of us (my oldest sister, Laura, must have been out on a hot date that night or something).

Joyce, Clark, Charlotte, Grant and me in the blue plaid sporting the mullet.

With divorce comes sadness. My childhood was full of sadness and heartbreak. No one wants to see their parents get divorced.

But what's great about it is that I got another mother a few years later. And she's wonderful. She raised 5 girls of her own and thought she was done. Then she got remarried and I (the youngest) was only four and she had to do it all over again. It can't be easy being a step-mother to 6 children. But she did amazingly well. And she really loves me. She's genuine. She's beautiful. And she's a great cook and she used to hold my hair back when I threw up (not after her cooking though. Just in general.)

Happy Mother's Day, Bette. I love you!!!

My Dad and Bette

Cowlick Love

Wanna know another favorite thing of mine?

The back of Faith's head. Every time I see it I fall in love all over again.

And I'm lucky because Levi had the same circular cowlick too except his was a bit more centered.

Love. True Love.

These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things...

I've decided that every now and then I'm going to tell you some of my favorite things. Hey, and I also know someone who has a blog titled the same thing! So I credit her for giving me the fantastic idea!!! Here's 10 of my faves. I promise you won't be disappointed!!!

Lancome Le Extreme Mascara in black. It's amazing. And if you use a great primer (like this one from Clinique) the results are doubly good!

Next? I need a good pen. There's nothing worse than writing with a crappy one. The pilot gel pens are the best. It's a FACT!

I like DHC skin care products. I'll mention some of my other faves at another time. But DHC's velvet skin coat is a great primer. And if you don't want to wear foundation over it, it still evens out your skin tone and minimizes pores. It's magic, baby.

My friend Becky did a favorite things post about favorite baby items. One of the favorite things mentioned was Bumpkins bibs. I have two and want some big ones now. I refuse to go back to the disgusting, mildewed, plastic puke kinds that take forever to dry. These wipe off in a flash and dry in a couple minutes. Love them.

I hate thick foundation. SICK! I like a nice formula that works great and gives even coverage. Clinique has the best one and I've tried several. The Dewey smooth brand leaves your skin moist (which is essential for the skin flakes I get on my nose, forehead and chin. You don't want to see a thick foundation on those areas. Nope. You really don't). An added bonus? It has sunscreen. My sunscreen lecture is forthcoming. Prepare yourselves now.

Those out there that know me know I'm doing Weight Watchers. I need low point foods that actually taste good. These are two points. And they're good. Real good. And that's important to me. I like Fiber One bars too. But these are good enough and they don't have the ill side effects. And for that I'm grateful. And so is John.

I'm a flosser. An every day kind of flosser. I like Glide because it doesn't feel like thread. Glide floss is magical. Yes. I said magical. And my gums are thankful.

I have sensitive skin that's prone to annoying problems like these and these. I have to be careful with what I use. If I use the wrong thing, it makes my very annoying skin issues worse. I love Cetaphil. I've tried to be fancy before and use other things. But Cetaphil works the best. 'Nuff said.

Mmmmm.... diet Root Beer. Okay, I know it's not the real thing. And it's definitely not Cherry Coke. But it tastes a lot like regular Root Beer and it's not caffeinated which is essential when you're nursing and having caffeine and a nursing baby don't mix. Not that I'd know anything about that or anything.

And last but not least, I like jewelry form JJill. I have a few choice items from them and they make me happy. The item below is on my wish list. Anyone wanna get it for me? C'mon. Don't be shy.

Blogapalooza 2008!!!!

Just stole the pic above off Tristan's blog! Thanks Tristan

Tristan, Me, Jill, Shauna (private blog) and Nancy.

As most of you know, the most important party of the year was held last night! If you weren't there, you missed out. But you were also missed (Lisa-Marie).

Blogapalooza!!!!!

I can't even begin to describe how much fun I had! I'm so glad I was able to go and meet all these wonderful women. I was about a half an hour late getting there and I was so worried! I kept saying to John, "I'm MISSING OUT AS WE SPEAK!!!" I was late because I couldn't find my stupid camera! Or my wedding ring! And I chipped my fingernail polish! Once I found my lost items, however, I was FINALLY out the door! The hour and a half drive with a bawling Faith and a whiny Levi in the backseat were totally worth it.

And before I get to the pictures, I have to thank my fabulous husband, John, who got off work early, drove me to Provo so that I could nurse Faith right before the party started, found something to do during said party, then waited in the parking lot for 40 minutes at the end while I continued to chat and then nurse ONE MORE TIME before he drove the hour and a half back home. Thank-You, Thank-You, Thank-You, John!!!

Okay, on to the par-tay!

Once I got there, the ice-breaker game was in full session. Lorena won the oh so coveted prize of Celia's delectable See's chocolates for getting the most answers right. The questionnaire had questions where you found the person that fit the fill-in-the-blank description. Such as:

• My husband and nursing infant are waiting outside in the car right now.

Hmmm.... I think I know the answer to that one!

• My video about Barf Training has gotten more than 1000 hits on YouTube.

Answer: Jessica

• I drove an hour in a quest to obtain a cupcake but was denied. The store was closed.

Answer: Rachel

• My daughter pooped in her sister's slipper. It was blog worthy.

Answer: Heather

My only regret is that I didn't get to spend enough time chatting with everyone and there were so many people there that I still didn't even get to talk to! Thanks Celia and Denae and everyone else who helped put this together! It was the GREATEST!!!!

Okay, on to the pics you've been dying to see!!!

Celia and Paige conducting (hey look! There's beautiul Bridget in the corner! Hi Bridget! )

Jill explaining her giveaway.

My 'Win' from Sally who has no blog. Thanks Sally!

Jill, Lorena, me and Denae

Me and the Famous Celia

Kara, Anne-Marie, Laurie (who was the lucky winner of MY 'Saturday Splurge' prize) and Me

Me and Paige. Paige's face says it all. THAT is how much fun we had!

Lorena and I

I wish I had more pictures! But I was having too much fun to take any!

It was so much fun to meet everyone on person. I had a pit in my stomach the entire day because I was so nervous! But once I got in that room, all my fears went away. You're all just as wonderful (more EVEN) than your blogs make you out to be.

And Shally!!! How on earth did I not get a picture of the two of us together??! It's TRAGIC!!

Happy Birthday Grandma!!!

I'm coming out of hiding only temporarily to wish my Grandma a Happy, Happy

90th Birthday!!!

Both of my Grandmothers are such classy beautiful ladies. And neither one of them look their age. Click the link above and check out my 95 (nearly 96) year old Grandma.

Grandma, thank-you so much for all you have done for me and my family throughout the years. You've led a beautiful life and passed down amazing traits. Plus, you have really great hair.

And you looked so beautiful today! No one would ever guess you were 90!

You're an amazing cook.

Why is it that a sandwich at your house tastes so much better than one at mine?

And why can't I get my roast beef to look and taste just like yours?

And don't get me started on your apple pie.

Thank-you for always saying how beautiful I am. Even during those years where we all feel so ugly, you always told me how beautiful you thought I was.

You've always been a fan of mine. And I always know I can always count on you for compliments.

Thank-you for always supporting my mom with her music. Your support means the world to her. And I'm grateful for the beautiful relationship you have with her.

I love you Grandma!!!

Random pic with my mom, cousin Marsha, Aunt Glenda, and Grandma Maudie Mae.

My brother Duke when he came home from his mission and my Grandma. I love that cute look on both their faces.

Grandma with some of her Great-Grandchildren

Grandma and me last year.

Time Off

I've sort of been stretched to the MAX lately. I've been gone every day this week and it won't quit.

And I'm not complaining.

I swear. I'd never complain about a church calling. Nope. Not me. I need those blessings. NEED them! And planning the Richey Family Reunion? It's totally not stressing me out. I promise. And painting my entire living room with rounded cornered walls tomorrow? Nope. I'm cool as a cucumber. Getting Levi's reading done, attending his field trip and having Faith hang on my leg and say "Nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn" all day long doesn't bother me. Oh, and the fact that my weight has plateaued to the MAX even though I want to lose 10 more pounds before next Thursday at Blogapalooza? I'm totally okay with that! Getting in my hour in a half A DAY workouts and having it feel totally worthless once I hop on the scale feels amazing. It's really the workout that counts. It's my stress-reliever. I don't need a number to make me feel validated and good about myself. Nope. The shower gift I have to get before Saturday and my Grandma's 90th birthday party that I can't bring children to are also things that I look forward to and I find it easy to fit them into my schedule. And the other family party on Sunday? And all the food? I love my family (this is true) !! Who needs a break from family togetherness on the weekends? Not ME, I assure you.

In light of all these utterly fantastic things, I will not resume blogging OR commenting until some time next week. If you catch me doing otherwise, please yell at me. Thank-You!

Recipe For Disaster/And Obligatory '10 Months' Post

Wanna know a recipe for disaster?

Spaghetti Sauce

+

A very cute baby

=

This:

Toilet paper

+

The same cute baby

=

This:

And this:

Some things Faith is doing now:

• Climbing onto and into everything and making it impossible to get important things done such as blogging. See example below:

• Pointing at everything she feels she must have and doing the puppy pant in order to obtain said item.
• Pretty much giving up baby food. She's ready for all the big stuff now and doesn't want you trying to shove some liquid-y goop into her mouth. She'll do it herself, thank-you very much and she prefers if you go to a lot of trouble to cut the pieces up small.
• Sticking everything in her mouth and nearly choking to death. Got a piece of clear plastic on the floor? She'll find it and scare the crap out of you while she wheezes and you panic while digging through her mouth trying to find it.
• Nursing. Yup. STILL. I'm actually fine with it and at this point wouldn't it be stupid not to go until she's a year old in a whole, I don't know 2 months? I think it's sort of funny when people ask me if I'm still nursing as if I'm nursing my 5 year old.
• Freaking out when she sees any furry animal such as our horses, the neighbor's horses, the dog, and even the bunny on TV.
• And speaking of TV, she likes that really annoying Teletubbies show. Hey, isn't the purple one gay? I seem to remember a controversy over that. She also likes Sesame Street.
• Ruining all her clothes by crawling at top speed in filthy areas. Nothing like a crawling baby to show you just how dirty your house is.
• Enjoying any and every bed. She crawls to the top, then to the bottom, then to the top. It's really just sooo much fun for her.

• Using her teeth for biting extra sensitive areas.
• Sporting 6 teeth!
• Waking up too many times at night
• Playing 'Hide-n-go-seek' with Levi and giggling the whole time.
• And lastly? Sporting 'The baby Grinch' do. I couldn't find a pic of the baby Grinch so the 'big' Grinch is going to have to do. But just look at the similarity, won't you?

The Faith Do:

The Grinch Do:

She's a busy body, but she makes up for it with all her cuteness.

Battle Of The Bulge

I've been watching "The Biggest Loser". I was going to make this post all about the winner and how much I like/dislike them. But because I haven't actually seen the finale that aired tonight, I won't. So.... puhlease do me a favor and DO NOT tell me who won in a comment. I'll find out tomorrow when I'm awake enough to watch it.

Every time I watch that show, I get majorly inspired. Especially with Ali. She's been amazing and has lost 99 pounds! 99!!! So here's my question: If people on that show can lose more than 100 pounds, why can't I lose a measly ten???!!!!!!! I like to blame it on the baby. And the nursing. I keep telling myself that the rest will come off when I wean Faith. But... will it? What if it doesn't and I actually (gasp) gain??!

And why can't I lose this:

A.K.A. this:

Even though the weight has slowly come off in other places, the belly bulge is still looming. I need a miracle. A secret miracle that someone knows out there and is willing to share with me. Cuz my own routine just ain't cuttin' it no moe!

Perhaps I should get rid of the 'Saturday Splurge'? Please say no.

I just don't think I can bring myself to do it. The splurge is my only saving grace keeping me in this whole 'weight loss' thing.

I need a vice. Give me a vice.

Great. Now that quote about vice by Alexander Pope that my Dad always recited to me is running through my head. Thanks a lot, Dad.

Just so you know...

I couldn't have said it better myself!

CLICK HERE!!!

I Got Nothin' But Fluff...

Remember my 'Redbox Post'? The closest Redbox is less than 5 miles away from my house. Convenient, right? WRONG! Even when I do online rentals to save some time, there is still the horrible line situation that awaits me when I arrive. And you can't wait in your car. Because if you think you can wait in your car and have your place saved in line you're just kidding yourself. No. The system is that you have to actually get out of your warm car and stand int he cold with the other losers that don't want to pay more than a buck for a movie. And you're going to get annoyed. And you're going to want to slap those zitty teenagers in the backs of their heads and tell them to just choose the stupid movie already!!!! But you'll stay calm and curse them in your head instead. But the old guy? The one that is behind you? He thinks he's pretty special because he just "has a return" and he can butt in front of you and the zitty teenagers. And he's not going to ask if it's okay. He's just going to do it. And no matter how hard you try to inch your way in line to show that you are, in fact, right behind the zitty teenagers, he's not going to care. He's going to walk right up to that touch screen and announce, "I just have to return these!" And he's going to smile some goofy smile and be oblivious to the fact that it's not okay.

And me? Well, I'm going to roll my eyes and talk about it over and over again on John's birthday (Saturday) and I'm going to drive him crazy saying, "Can you believe that he did that? I mean, CAN YOU???????"

I think it's time to move on from Redbox. Our relationship is strained and it's just not doing it for me anymore. Perhaps the online Blockbuster idea is the way to go. Or netflix.

Got any solutions to my problem? I need something cheap because *cough* there's a guy *cough* in the house who can't seem to *cough* stay awake during a movie. *cough, choke*

Ever.

My Brush With Fame

Ryan took this picture but was too distracted by our beauty to get the children in it. Thanks anyway, Ryan.

I met a famous blogger yesterday. And it was so much fun!! For those of you who don't know Jessica, you should! I was so nervous!! I told her husband, Ryan, that it's like Internet dating only it's for meeting girlfriends.

Jessica was beautiful, articulate, kind and everything I pictured she'd be. Jessica's hair lived up to its good name and so did her pretty blue eyes and sweet family. The only thing that I would have changed was being able to spend more time chatting with her. But I did get a bonus and got to meet her Aunt Stacy. And now they both get to be added to my list of people I actually know instead of people I hope to know. Jealous? Yeah. You should be.

Jessica was awesome.

Thanks, Jessica, for making time in your busy schedule for me and my two kids. Thanks, Stacy for letting me intrude on your beautiful home and "family time". And thanks, Ryan, for being our photographer and letting me give you crap about it.

This makes me that much more excited for Blogapalooza. It's going to be awesome! Just like Jessica!

Monday's Day at The Doctor - No Foolin'

Let's start from the very beginning (a very good place to start).

Faith had an appt. with the pediatrician to see what we can do about the wicked rash on her wrist. I first noticed it on Easter Sunday. You see, Faith has this beautiful bracelet that my friend, Marni, made. The bracelet has pewter letters just like this (click me). Faith had been wearing the bracelet for a few weeks with no problem. But on Easter Sunday I noticed her trying to scratch underneath. I took it off to find the most horrible rash ever.

And it was the worst right where the cute letters were.

So I went to the doctor yesterday and proceeded to wait 40 loooooong minutes for the doctor in the tiny second waiting room they take you in where you're deceived and think you're going to be seen any minute. It sort of put me in a bad mood. I'm pretty sure the doctor was eating lunch. Which is fine... except for the fact that I was stuck in the tiny room waiting for her!!!!

It was determined that Faith has an allergy to pewter and possibly other kinds of metals that aren't sterling, 24 K gold or stainless steel. I guess that makes up my decision in regards to the ear piercing. However, the doctor's office does use 24K gold for piercing. So we'll see. And all of Marni's bracelets are sterling. Thank goodness, too, because it's very important that my baby wear a bracelet, ya know. Faith got prescribed a strong steroid cream and we went on our way.

I had not been home for a half an hour when I got called by Levi's school. His teacher was on the phone with me and said that Levi had fallen (fallen because some other stupid kid PUSHED HIM DOWN) and was bleeding pretty badly from his head.

I rushed in a complete panic to the school where I found Levi at the nurses station , sniffling, shaking and trying to control the tears. He took one look at me and completely lost his cool and started crying hysterically!! There was blood all over his shirt, bloody cloths all over the office and I looked at his head and realized I was going to have to take him to the doctor. Poor little guy. I went home and gave him ibuprofen and nursed Faith really quick before I got on my way. The nurses put this over his head to hold the gauze on:

Levi was very worried that people were going to laugh at his "gauze bandanna" and was freaking out saying "They're all going to laugh at me! Take it off, take it off, take it off!!!!!!!!!!!!" So I took it off. But something had to be there because it was still bleeding profusely. So I did a shoddy job of taping gauze all over his head. My job looked a lot worse than the nurse's job. But Levi was happier with it. And that's all that matters.

Here's a picture of the gash. This picture makes it look like it was nothing, but what you can't see from the picture is how DEEP it goes.

We got on our way to the second Dr's appt. of the day. Faith screamed in the backseat and Levi kept thinking about what was to come and started crying all over again. The mere mention of "stitches" put him in complete hysterics. It was a fun 20 minute drive.

When we arrived, the stupid nurse at the front desk said the word"stitches" and Levi flipped a complete cow in the waiting room. Everyone was throwing me their "We're so sorry for you" glances. But the lady with lots of scabs all over was the only one who actually came and talked to Levi. Levi wasn't especially thrilled with the scabby lady's efforts to console him. Thanks anyway, scabby lady.

The nurse washed it and put numbing gel on the gaping wound. When it was all cleaned up, I realized how deep it really was when the skin was sort of flapping open. Yikes!!! The nurse washing it put Levi into another frenzy. But as soon as the numbing gel started working, Levi was a new kid and asked me if the doctor that was going to take a look at him was going to be "beautiful" or not. Silly kid!!

Turns out that Levi sort of needed it stapled, but the doctor knew this would cause major tears for Levi so she decided to glue it and so far the glue is holding well.

Here's the glued gash pic:

We went on our way home and both kids fell asleep in the car. Ahhhhhhh. It was so nice.

But then Faith wouldn't take a nap because she thought that 10 minute snooze in the car counted as one.

So... I put her in her high chair to feed her....

and she climbed out and fell right on her head!!!!!

But she was okay except for a blue lip. Don't ask how I was.

At least I got this picture of Faith's fangs before the incident. Somehow seeing those fangs makes me crack up laughing.

And Levi is fine.

And Faith is fine.

And they both could have been hurt a lot worse than they were.

So I'm grateful.

And also grateful that it's OVER.

Now on to April fool's day. No one better play any cruel jokes on me. I can't take it.