Christmas in Chico

We got back on Monday from our Christmas in Chico at my sister's house. My parents and sister, Mary, and her fam joined us there. It was great to be in our old stomping grounds and see some friends. Most of the time, though, Nelson played with these two cute girls:

Elle (3) & Macy (5) - Lora's two girls

And, I enjoyed watching him play with his cousins that he hardly ever sees and tried to get as many smiles as possible out of this cute little guy:

Kason (6 months) - Mary's little man

Richard, well, he enjoyed his time off reading, fixing Lora's computer, and watching movies with Adam, Mary's husband. (sorry no pictures of those things)

It was great to get away, be with family, and have warmer weather for a week. Now we are back to the snow and wondering why we came back... Just kidding, but the bad air quality is definitely taking a toll on Nelson's asthma.

Anyway, we hope you all had a very, merry Christmas! We did!

The Big 30!

I told you that I was a slacker on about everything right now! The slackerness has also included waiting a few days to write about Richard's 30th Birthday! Seriously, I don't know how it happened (him turning 30). One night I went to sleep with a 20-something man and the next morning a woke up to a 30-year-old! Crazy! How are we getting so old?! I'm glad that he is nine months older than me, so I can get used to the whole 3-0 idea. He still looks great, though, right?
Anyway, I tried really hard to make this day special. As most of you know, Richard and I have completely different interests so it takes special effort to do a whole day of "Richard things". It wasn't that bad actually. It was a day filled with books, food, more books, and more food. The two things he loves more than anything else in the world (besides Nelson and me)! He got his main present a couple of months ago when the new Joseph Smith Papers book came out. He had to get it early because we went to a book signing/lecture that same week that it came out. So, on his actual birthday, he got a book of pictures of Nelson and him with captions of "30 Reasons Why I Love My Dad" (a big hit with Nelson), some Church History site books I got for free awhile ago, and $20 from my parents (which has almost been all spent by books that he bought at Benchmark Books & DI). I told him that since he got 10+ books for his birthday, he only gets one for Christmas.

A couple of weeks ago, we celebrated his birthday with some of our neighbors. Spencer (who lives across the street) turned 30 at the beginning of November, so Brittany and I went in together for their surprise party! Our awesome neighbor, Mike, made these incredible invitations! At the party, I gave Richard a project I had been working on for quite awhile. I emailed a bunch of his friends and family members and asked them to write down memories of Richard and I put them into a book called "30 Memories (or more) of Richard". I loved collecting the memories (and they keep coming in). There's nothing better than reading memories that make you laugh, make you cry, make you say, "What?", or make you say, "Yep, I'm pretty lucky he chose me!" And, that's how I feel! I am pretty lucky! I get to grow old with this guy!