the adventures of rich, brittany and maza

8 months!

2012-02-12T15:11:00.001-08:00

maza has 8 months under her belt now--can you believe that?

a few things about 8 month old maza:
she is trying more and more new foods and has decided she wants to eat what we are eating now.
she makes this little "o" mouth and when she does it, she whistles a little bit. it is so funny.
she can clap! (see video below)
she "played" in the snow for the first time.
she flew on an airplane (her third trip--seasoned traveler already!) for a visit to california and loooved being outside. she went on her first swing, and on a trampoline and loved seeing her aunties, uncle and grandma and grandpa.

playing with her cousin jack

playing in the snow!

swinging with grandpa

our cute 8 month old girl!

The password: maza

and in other exciting news.... we are moving to the great state of OKLAHOMA!!! rich got accepted to a one year general practice residency program at a VA hospital in oklahoma city. way to go rich! we are so happy to know where we are going after graduation! oklahoma here we come!

7 months!

2012-01-19T10:11:00.000-08:00

Our girl is 7 months old now! This last month she has grown like crazy. A few things about 7 month old Maza:

--She has two bottom teeth! They came in about a week after her 6 month mark and she loves using those teeth to bite into anything she can get her hands on
--She can sit up all on her own and loves to sit and play. She doesn't really like being on her belly and we have been working with her wanting to put any weight on her legs.
--She squeals and can be quite loud at times.
--She has been trying lots of new foods, her favorites as of right now are apples, sweet potato and little pieces of mom's grilled cheese sandwich.
--She loooves baths--especially the splashing water part. Who ever knew baths could be so much fun when you can finally sit up?? :)

latest family picture

I have been working on crocheting a sweater (with lots of help from my friend Melanie) for Maza and have finally completed it!! I love it!!! And I think Maza looks so cute with it on!(do you see the little teeth?)

Finally getting big enough to wear some of her new cute clothes!

Maza Christmas Video

2012-01-09T05:51:00.000-08:00

Maza Christmas 2011 from Richard Bradshaw on Vimeo.

The password is maza

Christmas!

2012-01-01T08:19:00.000-08:00

This Christmas we decided to head up to Toronto to spend the holidays with Rich's family. Before we left, we had a pre-Christmas and opened presents from the Romero's. Maza was spoiled from her Grandma and Aunt Halli and loved opening presents--especially the eating wrapping paper part. :)

On the 21st we drove up to Toronto. Maza loved being at Grandma Bradshaw's house. She loved playing in the front room with Grandma and Jack and especially loved taking her first big girl bath complete with bubble bath and toys. It is so fun she can sit up now!

Christmas Eve was very nice. Maza and Evelyn had matching outfits and looked so cute together! Evelyn wasn't really interested in taking pictures, but that's okay. They are such cute cousins. Maza loves Evelyn and is always smiling and laughing at everything she does. And I think Evelyn likes her too--most of the time anyways. :)

We had quite the crowd this year, so we decided to act out the Nativity story. Maza and I were angels, and I have to say I think Maza is the cutest angel I have ever seen!

Delicious Christmas Eve food.

Christmas morning I unfortunately was not feeling well. What the heck? Who feels sick on Christmas?! So, I didn't get many pictures of actual Christmas. But Maza loved opening presents and she looked so cute in her matching dress with Evelyn.
Spending time with the Bradshaws was lovely. We played lots of games, ate great food, went to the temple, saw a movie and lots of other things. We had a great time. On our way back down to Pittsburgh we made a little stop at Niagra falls. I was happy just driving by and looking and decided to stay in the warm car. But here are some pictures of the few brave souls that got out of the car.

We stayed the night in a hotel in Erie, PA and enjoyed swimming in our big indoor pool and hot tub. Maza and Evelyn were just too cute together (Can you tell we love having them match??)

And the Christmas fun finally ended when we got home and opened up more presents! Maza loves her new book from Great-Grandma Wirrick!

Merry Christmas to all of our wonderful friends and family! We love you.

Florida

2012-01-01T06:56:00.000-08:00

For Thanksgiving break this year, we were able to join my family down in Orlando and check out the new Harry Potter theme park!! (technically we went to Universal Studios, but Harry Potter was what we were really looking forward to). And we were definitely not disappointed! We felt like we were really in Hogsmeade. We drank butterbeer at three broomsticks, and got wands at Ollivanders. We even heard Moaning Myrtle while we went to the bathroom. :)

The rest of the theme park was really fun too. We got to ride some roller coasters. This one was particularly cool because you got to pick music to listen to as you went along!

We went on a boat ride and almost got attacked by jaws. We also got to try to shoot some aliens at MIB.

We visited Jurassic park and ate at a cute 50's diner. We also got talked into going on the water rides with dad on our last evening there. Right in time for the sun to set, and us to be wet the rest of the night. You can tell we are really happy about it too. :)

We were having fun all day long, that by the end of the day we were so tuckered out! Maza was a champion the whole time. I really can't believe how well she did.

For Thanksgiving dinner we did something a little different this year. We went to a dinner theater at Al Capone's. It was a little cheesy, but we had a good time!

After we went on The Mummy ride I just had to buy everyone tatoos. So here we are sporting our Egyptain tatoos--even Maza got one :). We had a great time hanging out together in our condo too. We watched 3 of the Harry Potter movies, played games and ate food. Vacations can't get much better then that!

And, if you can believe it or not Maza is now 6 months old!!
A few things about 6 month old Maza:
She has decided to not sleep through the night anymore. bah.
She has started eating solid foods--mostly just rice cereal
As an early Christmas present my mom got her a high chair. She loves to sit in it!

5 month old Maza

2011-11-10T11:52:00.000-08:00

Another month older, another month of new things...

Maza has learned how to grab her toes and likes to try to eat them.

Maza can now have her hair in pig tails!

Maza celebrated her 1st Halloween with a weekend long celebration! We went to the dental school to visit dad and be part of a parade. We went to our ward Halloween chili cookoff/trunk or treat. We had a Halloween party which was so fun much. Such great food and such great costmes. we had a great time! Maza dressed up as a wishing troll complete with hot pink hair. I was a princess barbie and Rich was a GI Joe. check out all the pictures here.

we got to go watch rich do a presentation at school and she attended her first lecture on mini implants (she snoozed through the whole thing) :)

My mom came to keep me company for the weekend while Rich was away in Utah and she got to play with Grandma all weekend. It was a fun girls weekend with shopping, crafting and good food!

She got to meet her Uncle Matt who just got home from his mission in CA. Abi and I had a great time making our sweet t-shirts and it was so fun to see Matt again!

4 month old Maza!

2011-10-13T11:14:00.000-07:00

Our little Maza girl is 4 months old!!

A few things about 4 month old Maza:

She is 13 pound 12 ounces 24.5 inches long. 50% across the board
She has rolled from her back to her belly and her belly to her back multiple times (and almost always when we are not looking)
She can laugh ( I wish she laughed more!)
She smiles ALL the time
She sleeps about 10 hours at night (yahoooo)
She loves going on walks in her baby carrier so she can look around and see everything
She gets compliments daily on her hair and her big blue eyes
We were contimplating her being slimer for halloween because she loves to suck on anything she can get her hands on--her favorite being mom and dad's hands!

She is such a sweet girl and gets more and more fun every day. We love her!!

maza laughing

2011-09-25T11:42:00.000-07:00

i think we can officially count yesterday as the first day maza really laughed. her grandpa bradshaw was visiting and she found him to be quite funny. she has such a great laugh, i just love it!

we're baccckkkk

2011-09-23T08:24:00.000-07:00

i was incredibly nervous about flying back with maza by myself. i said many many prayers and they must have been answered because she was an angel the whole time. on both flights i was able to take the car seat, she ate, she smiled, she slept, people were so nice to us, i couldn't have asked for a better trip. it was SO good to finally land in pittsburgh and see rich again! it is good to be back.

since we have been back we have jumped right into fall.

maza and cousin jack reunited once again. they are 6 weeks apart.

we have been cheering on BYU. i know they would be playing better if they knew they had such a cute cheerleader rooting for them.

maza sporting her one of a kind pitt dental dress made just for her by her grandma bradshaw. she was a HIT at the picnic we went to!

rich and some guys from his class who also had babies this summer. so cute huh?!

maza is getting closer and closer to rolling over these days. last week i was on the computer and looked over to find her like this!! i don't know if it officially counts as her first flip over because she never figured out how to pull that arm through--but i'd say she gets at least a 95% for this one.

maza is now 3 months old!! a few things about 3 month maza:

--she started sleeping through the night while we were on vacation 8-9 hours! sooo exciting, life is great now! :)
--she smiles more and more
--she has started trying to reach out and grab things and interacts more and more with the hanging toys on her play mat
--her hair still sticks strait up
--she has been to 9 states

so long sweet summer

2011-09-23T08:06:00.000-07:00

as the end of august drew to a close, rich had to head back to pittsburgh to start school. it was sad to see him go, but lucky for maza and i we still had a week left of our vacation! we still managed to have a little fun...

maza and i spent our first night away from each other! maza got to hang out with grandma while i had the wonderful opportunity of going on a daddy-daughter campout with all three of my sisters and dad! i don't think this has ever happened, or will happen again for that matter where we are all together. we had a very fun time (at least i think we did--my sisters might say something different) we all slept in a tent together, and went on a early morning hike and the best part was a stop at dudley's bakery for breakfast on the way home.

maza got to wish everyone a happy first day of school while we were there.

we had lots of girl time!!

mom, maza and i went on a roadtrip to utah for swiss days! we had so much fun, and maza was a champion traveler! we found lots of treasures at swiss days and came back with a very full van. :)

we also were able to see lots of family on both sides while we were there, but wished we could've stayed for a whole other week so we could've seen everyone! it was especially great to finally meet corbin. he and maza are only 3 months apart. so fun!

hello california

2011-08-21T17:45:00.001-07:00

next stop on our trip: san diego. and let me tell you, it is good to be back in california! i am soaking up all the sun i can while we are here.

maza with her aunties.

maza lounging in her tub

our cute smiley girl

maza is just part of the family. isn't she cute sitting at the table with everyone?

pool time!

while mom and dad were in vegas for the weekend rich and i went on an adventure with everyone up to julian. we walked around town, had a delicious lunch, got bread at dudley's. we had a really fun day!

maza and i sporting our sunday best.

matching skirts we bought together in pittsburgh!

The Pacific Northwest

2011-08-21T17:01:00.000-07:00

rich has the month of august off and we decided to head out west! --3 years down, only ONE MORE to go!!!

first stop: seattle. we stayed with grandma and grandpa wirrick and were able to see aunts, uncles and cousins. it was so nice to visit with them and be back in washington.

maza and her great grandma!

my favorite day was probably when we went out to auntie and uncles house to help auntie celebrate her 80th birthday. we decided that it had been 9 YEARS since we had seen each other. way too long!! i have such great memories of auntie's house, it was fun to be back. and of course, maza was a hit wherever she went.

rich, maza and i with auntie and uncle.

next stop: portland (salem). we drove down from seattle to visit rich's brother john and his family. we had a great time with them! we loved playing tennis and eating delicious food. they have a beautiful home and it was fun to check out the area.

hannah and josh were so good to maza. hannah was such a good helper and loved to feed maza, change her diaper, pick out her clothes and sing to her.

while we were in oregon maza turned 2 months old!! a few things about 2 month old maza:
--We had a doctors appointment right before we left and she is over 10 pounds!! She is a great eater now.
--She has learned how to smile and we cannot get enough of it.
--She sleeps a stretch of 5-7 hours at night and then will go back to sleep for another 3 more or less.
--She loves to be held facing out--she wants to be looking at everyone and see what's going on
--She still has rockstar hair and gets compliments on her hair all the time.

we love our sweet girl!!

maza is 1 month old!

2011-07-11T08:37:00.000-07:00

today we had maza's one month check up. she now weighs 8 lbs. 13 oz. she's gained almost 2 lbs. woo hoo! i also figured today would be a good day to update you on what has been going on these days! she has been a busy girl lately. she had her blessing on the third of july and was lucky enough to have both sets of grandparents to share in her special day! she looked like a little angel in her dress that her grandma bradshaw made her, and the cute headband was made by my friend melanie.

we had so much fun having my family here for a whole week! only my mom has been out to visit so i loved having my whole family here!

we were able to celebrate the 4th of july together. we headed downtown in the afternoon to watch a pirates game. it was hot! mazie was a champ. we were planning on just staying and hanging out downtown and then watching fireworks but we decided to bring maza home after and grandma & grandpa bradshaw were going to watch her. well, as soon as we got back a HUGE thunder storm hit. we were halfway to my family and couldn't decide if we should go back or keep going. after huddling under a tree for a few minutes we decided to make a run for it back to our car and go rescue my family who were all huddled under a blanket protecting the food and rich's camera. i so wish i could have gotten a picture of them!! by the time we got to them we were all completely drenched!! thank goodness mazie wasn't with us. we went home, got all clean and dry and played games, lit sparklers and attempted to watch the fireworks through the trees on our porch. not quite what we had planned, but it will def. be a 4th of july to remember! :)

maza also went on her first out of state trip to kirtland ohio for the day. she did great! it gives us hope for all the travels we are planning on this august. it was a beautiful day and we had a great time learning about the history of our church. we finished the day with dinner at max & erma's. YUM!

my family was also able to help me celebrate my birthday on the 6th!! we went out to dinner at texas roadhouse which was sooo delicious. so no one in my family will confess, but someone let slip it was my birthday and i got sung to texas roadhouse style, complete with a cowboy hat and having to sit on a saddle. embarrassing!!! hence, why i am wearing a cowboy hat in this picture. thank you everyone for the birthday wishes, it was a great day!

and...just a few pictures of cute 1 month old maza!! we just love her so much.

she is finally here!

2011-06-16T10:00:00.000-07:00

well i don't know about you guys, but i was starting to think our baby was never going to come. i was planning on sending out an e-mail asking for round 2 of guesses but luckily she came just in time! around 3:30 the morning of june 8th i started feeling contractions. we left for the hospital a little after 8.

my last pregnant belly shot!! woo hoo.

i got my epidural around 12:30 and at 7:37 that night maza bradshaw made her debut weighing 6 lbs 15 oz and 20.5 inches long. i couldn't believe how beautiful she was, and how much hair she had!! :)we have got lots of comments on her name. maza was my great grandma's name and we just love it. we also thought calling her mazie would be pretty fun.

here she is just a few minutes old:

the next day. i can't believe how much she changes every day!

on friday we came home from the hospital. our first official family picture. (well, atleast where i am fully clothed) :)

abi made us such cute welcome home signs. we are so happy to be home! i can't believe it has already been a week since maza has been a part of our lives. we love having her she is such a sweet girl. i have been so lucky to have such great help. my mom was here until monday and roxanne and auntie rae have been hanging out with me this week, as well as living next door to abi plus great friends who visit and bring me food. i am one lucky girl!.

pictures of our little mazie girl now one week old.

thank you everyone for your thoughts, prayers, presents, notes, and continual support. we love you!

when will the baby come??

2011-05-23T07:10:00.000-07:00

to make this whole waiting and wondering business a little more fun we'd like you to take guesses on when our baby girl will make her arrival! (you can also guess on her weight, height etc. if you'd like)

here are the facts:

my original due date was 5/28/11
at my ultrasound based on her size they decided to push it back a week to 6/4/11
at my doctors appointment last week they told me i was dialed to a 1.

most recent pictures:

(i just had to put the most recent picture up of her room. original artwork by richard bradshaw himself--soo cute huh?!)

we are just so excited!!!

baby room

2011-05-17T05:39:00.000-07:00

rich and i have been working hard getting everything ready for the arrival of our baby girl! i figured you might want to see pictures of our progress. there are still a few finishing touches we'd like to add, but we are pretty much ready for her now! i love just walking in her room and looking at everything. we really are so excited.

we'll see how long this actually stays organized...

roxanne made this cute car seat cover. i love it!

4 weeks to go!

2011-05-02T06:56:00.001-07:00

pottery

2011-04-05T12:05:00.000-07:00

rich and i just recently finished up our 8 week long pottery class. i had always wanted to try it, and we decided it would be so fun to do it together!! yesterday we finally got to go pick up everything that we made. i am just so excited and happy with how everything turned out i had to share!!

we had SO much fun! neither of us had ever taken a pottery class before. rich was a natural. others in the class/our teacher made comments like "you should def. keep this up you're a natural" or "really, you've never done this before?!" ....no one ever said anything like that to me. but i'll be okay. :) we had such a great time spending saturday afternoons together and it will be so fun to have our pottery around the house to remember this time in our lives.

all our our pieces.

rich's creations in use during dinner last night.

my favorite little pot that i made

nothing like hitting a deer to start your vacation

2011-03-16T12:46:00.000-07:00

rich and i wanted to go on one last trip just the two of us before the baby comes so we decided to head to cape cod/boston for a week. we left on saturday planning on driving to new york the first night to break up the driving and visit some friends! great plan right??

well, sometimes life does not go quite according to plan. about 45 minutes from our destination in the middle of a 4 lane freeway a rather large deer decided to cross the road and run in the same direction as our car. we hit him on the drivers side and he rolled off the side crunching in the front light area and taking off the door handle while he was at it! luckily no other cars were in the road at the time and we were both safe, just a little shaken up. we were able to get to the next exit and a tow truck came to take away our car leaving us sitting at a gas station with all of our stuff. we were looking pretty homeless. dave was so nice to come pick us up and we finally made it safe and sound to their house around 1:00 AM. thank you dave and catherine for rescuing us!!!

after a lot of phonecalls and yes a little crying on my part we were back on our way in our rental car monday morning. thank goodness for insurance. it was a bit of a rocky start but we still managed to have a great time!!

we took a ferry to marthas vineyard one day. it was cold but very beautiful.

we took the train into boston one day and walked the freedom trail. boston is such a cool city. i love all the old buildings.

we spent a day driving up the cape. we went to cape cod potato chip factory and went on a tour. we saw some lighthouses. we had lunch at hearth n kettle. we got saltwater taffy. we saw a cool old windmill.

we spent a day around our condo going out to a fancy dinner and seeing a movie. we also went swimming at our resort.

we had a great time and loved sleeping in and not having to go to work/school for a few days. it was just what we needed!

we were really hoping our car would be fixed by the time we came back, but alas it is still up in new jersey and we are back in pittsburgh. we will make the trek back up to go get it on friday!!! and hopefully this will be the last encounter we have with a deer for a looooong time. :)

on a side note: i am 30 weeks along!!! i can't believe it. time is just flying. i feel like she will be here so so soon. so here is the most recent picture i have. enjoy!

i guess i really am pregnant!

2011-01-18T11:59:00.000-08:00

so guess what? i am officially half way through my pregnancy...and i have a tummy to show for it!!! i was beginning to wonder if i really was pregnant. it wasn't until christmas break that my stomach suddenly appeared and i feel like i am expanding every single day now. it is the craziest thing. but is also kind of exciting. i decided we best start documenting. so here are the most recent pictures of me (21 weeks) showing off my new shirt and shoes we got this weekend while out shopping for maternity clothes!!!! i tried to last as long as possible, but i guess it is time.:)

we also made our first baby purchases this weekend. it was so much fun. i wanted to buy everything!!! at old navy we bought 2 pairs of shoes and 1 shirt for a grand total of $3.65. how awesome is that?! the little shoes are the cutest things i have ever seen in my life. i loved it. we are getting more and more excited every day about our baby girl and can't wait to meet her!

top 10 of 2010

2011-01-02T14:20:00.000-08:00

1. finding out we are going to be having a baby girl!!!! she will be joining our family the end of may/early june. we are so excited!

2. moving down the street into a duplex where we are now next door neighbors with abi, arie and little evelyn. we love being neighbors!

3. we spent a week in outerbanks in an awesome beach house with dental friends. we have decided it is our new favorite vacation spot!

4. rich has real patients now! he is in his third year and is just moving right along

5. brittany has been working at a new doctors office for the whole year now and is loving working part time so she has time to do fun things like learn to crochet and take ASL with her friend brook.

6. it was a year of parties. we found many excuses to get together with all of our friends here--pie parties, byu games, halloween, fondue, donut making you name it! we are so thankful for all our wonderful friends here.

7. we got in lots of other fun traveling besides outerbanks including toronto (rich's parents), chicago (a very fun spring break) , DC (visiting rich's aunt and uncle), and new york city (long weekend with brook and linwood). we love to travel!

8. we survived another winter in pittsburgh, even through a giant snow storm in february where we received 21 inches of snow in one night!!!

9. we headed out west for a few weeks this summer and managed to see a lot of family and friends in utah, idaho (family reunion with rich's family) and washington. we love being out west and with our families!!!

we spent thanksgiving in California full of manly activities for the boys (paintballing, hiking, and football) while the girls got manicures, saw tangled and made many tasty foods. we also managed to all play some tennis!

10. volunteering. we volunteered to help out with special olympics and had a great day cheering on all the competitors. we also participated in the pittsbugh children's festival where we spent the afternoon with an alpaca, a pig, some miniature horses, and a bunch of goats (not the best smelling of our outings). we went to cosmopolitan pittsburgh which was an art crawl and fancy-pants party where we manned the craft booth. we loved dressing up and eating all the fancy foods.

2010 has been another great year. we look forward to what 2011 has in store for us!

fall is my favorite

2010-11-10T14:28:00.001-08:00

it's actually a toss up with summer but fall here in pittsburgh is just beautiful and so much fun!! we have been pretty busy these last 2 months!

1. we moved!! only 3 houses down...but if def. still counts. we now live in a duplex next to abi and arie and little evelyn (rich's sister. her husband is going to business school so we will be neighbors for the rest of our time here!!) it is much bigger and we have such fun neighbors. we have a little dinner group going and see each other most days. it is so nice to have family close by.

2. ligonier days! someone at my work told me about this fall festival last year and i never got to go. so rich planned a fun day for us to go this year and i was so excited!! ligonier is this quaint little town about an hour away in the middle of nowhere. for being such a small town there were TONS of people there! they had a parade, tons of craft booths, so many delicious foods and a battle reenactment. my favorite was apple dipped in batter, deep fried and dipped in caramel. SOOO GOOD.

3. radical days! each year in pittsburgh they dedicate a week to the people and all different venues/events are open to the public for free!! the zoo, museums, canoeing, film festivals, art, so many fun things!!! one day abi, evelyn and i went on an adventure to phipp's conservatory! it was SO COOL. it is this crazy huge greenhouse with the most interesting things! they have a butterfly room, a chocolate tree, a rainforest, banana tree-- so fun! we had a great time exploring--and best part of all--it was free!!

4. halloween party! abi and i (with lots of help from our husbands) threw a halloween party this year. we had so much fun planning and preparing and i think it was a hit! we had pumpkin bocci, a cake walk, homemade rootbeer (my FAVORITE PART)lots of treats, a costume contest and rockband going over on our side. everyone's costumes were great! if you want to see more pictures click here.

looking forward to thanksgiving in CA. can't wait to see my family!!

so long sweet summer

2010-09-15T17:39:00.000-07:00

Why is it that summer always goes by too fast? Since I have been a slacker, you get one large update on all of our summer adventures!

To start off the summer with a bang rich and I were able to take 2 weeks off school/work and head out west. We flew into SLC and spent a little over a day hanging out with friends and family. From there we drove to Idaho falls to spend a week at the Williams family reunion with rich’s side of the family. The week included golfing/swimming at hicee, a family talent show (rich and I sang a duet “you and I” by Ingrid michaelson complete with rich playing the ukulele), a 80th birthday celebration/decades dance in honor of rich’s grandpa, a tennis tournament, softball, frisbee golf, 4th of july parade/fireworks and a trip to Rexburg to see my cute school. It is changing so much I can’t believe it! We had such a great week spending time with family, I wish we could see each other more often. We were also about to see my grandparents and spend a night with them, as well as see cami, mark and all of their cute kids.

From Idaho falls we drove to seattle, Washington to spend the next week with my family at my grandma’s. it was SO good to see them! I was able to spend my birthday with my family. birthday festivities included a much needed hair cut, shopping, claim jumper for mud pie and a birthday dinner at grandma’s house complete with aunts and uncles. I love seattle. It was fun to show rich around where I grew up. We went by my old house/school/church. We went to pike place market which is my favorite place. We went to game works. We played tennis with my dad and sister. We went to the lake and saw my friend Alicia. We saw a movie (Last Airbender—don’t see it! The TV show is sooo much better) Rich and I went to work for my dad one morning. I was able to work on a craft project with my grandma just like old times. We were also able to see where Abi and Arie live and spent a day with them—favorite part was going to their local farmers market and finding these cute hats. It was great. I love my family and was so happy with how many people I was able to see on this trip!

Back in Pittsburgh we managed to have tons of fun as well. We saw a pirates baseball game, played some tennis, volunteered for the Special Olympics, went to two concerts in the park (Ingrid michaelson and Guster), Rich went on a canoeing trip with the young men. we also volunteered at a fancy pants art gallery/party called cosmopolitan pittsburgh with our friends brook and linwood. Two weeks after we got back Abi and Arie and baby Evelyn moved out to Pittsburgh! In just a few weeks we will both be living in a duplex together. It is going to be a party! It has been great having them here. We went to Ohiopyle, about an hour and half from here and had a picnic and played in the water. They are famous for their natural rock water slides. The water was a little low (and cold) but we had a blast.

The perfect end to our summer was a week at Outer Banks, NC. On our way we were able to spend some time visiting Rich's cousin Patrick in Charlottesville, VA. We had so much fun seeing where he lived, the University, eating delicious food and wandering through their wonderful farmer's market. he even cooked us some chard (still undecided whether i like it or not) :)So back to Outer Banks... We stayed on a huge three story house right on the beach with some dental school friends. We had SO much fun!! The weather was beautiful, the water was so warm, it was perfect. We spent the majority of our time at the beach/pool but we did venture out and did a few things. We saw the Hatteras lighthouse which was really cool, went to some sand dunes (close to where the wright brothers first flew their plane), had some Carolina BBQ, went on a bike ride, and explored some of the shops around. We didn’t want to come back that’s for sure.

p.s. sorry about the collages, they don't do the pictures justice but i hope you at least got a little taste for what each place was like!

NYC

2010-06-13T16:56:00.000-07:00

over memorial day weekend (we left thursday night, came home sunday night) rich and i went to new york city with our friends brook and linwood. they were the best tour guides. brook's parents live in queens right now so we were able to stay with them which was so nice!

we decided we saw everything we wanted to see and more on this trip.
a few highlights of day one:
we took the ferry and were able to see the statue of liberty along the way.

we wandered through china town. we tried bubble tea. we saw many interesting forms of meat hanging in windows.

we went to the art museum. there was so many famous paintings there we were able to see which was awesome.

for dinner we had the best korean bbq chicken EVER and then for dessert something even better. we went to a store where all there is are cupcakes. i think it is my favorite place ever now. rich and i could hardly choose one, but in the end we chose one called half and half. half chocolate, half vanilla with a cream center and chocolate chip cookie dough bits on the top.

a few highlights of day two:
we had a picnic in central park. it is HUGE. i couldn't help but sing enchanted songs every time i saw a bridge.

we saw the temple. it really is in the middle of all the hustle and bustle of new york.

we went to some fun stores, FAO shwarts-- where the giant piano in BIG is, rich and brook played for us. we went to the apple store, nintendo world and brook and i drooled over all the clothes in anthropologie.

for dinner we had new york style pizza. also very tasty. for dessert we went to the stardust diner. it was SO fun. people that want to make it to broadway but haven't quite gotten there yet work there and sing for you all night long. they were great! our favorite performance was love shack complete with banging our silverwear on the table when they sung "bang bang."

both nights we walked around times square. the lights and billboards are unbelievable. it was so fun walking around!

day three highlights:
we went to church and really enjoyed meeting so many people from around the world. rich was able to speak to a few people in portuguese which i always think is fun to hear (not so sure about how rich feels about it :). we had a nice dinner and then on our way out visited the place where the world's fair was held and went in the queen's museum.

a midwest spring break

2010-05-12T15:42:00.000-07:00

so rich and i have are loving being out in pittsburgh because so many great places to visit are within driving distance to us. for rich's spring break this year we decided to go out to chicago. i had never been before (besides the airport) and we thought it would be nice to drive through elkhart indiana to see where rich went to high school and everything too. my parents so graciously let us use one of their weeks so we got to stay in a nice condo (bigger than our apartment i'm pretty sure) about an hour out of chicago.

our week consisted of a lot of relaxing--reading, watching movies, sleeping in, eating junkfood; a lot of fun--playing golf, tennis, horseback riding, going out to dinner; and a jam packed day of adventures in chicago. i loved it! we went to the hancock observatory and got to see the whole city from high above, we took the metro over to a cubs game, we went to the chicaco art institute, we had the best chicago style deep dish pizza i have EVER had and just enjoyed walking around the city taking tons of pictures along our way.

we came back rejuvenated and ready to jump back into work and school. we feel pretty lucky we were able to do this, and are already looking forward to our next adventure, new york city for memorial day !!

st. patrick's day

2010-03-22T16:50:00.000-07:00

this year, march 17th happened to be a beautiful, sunny 62 degree day for us here in pittsburgh. i am so happy that is warming up you have no idea! my husband is so wonderful and humors me in my crazy love for holidays and wore green all day. i still couldn't convince him to pinch anyone but that's okay i guess. :)

i came up with a great menu for our st. patrick's day feast including soda bread, irish mashed potatoes and salad with everything we could find that was green (and some red peppers too because we couldn't let the poor little guys go to waste. for dessert i had big plans of making rainbow cupcakes... they didn't turn out quite the way i planned but we ended up with some pretty sweet tye-dye cupcakes instead!

snnoowww

2010-02-10T09:48:00.000-08:00

so rich and i have had quite the eventful weekend. friday afternoon it started to snow and didn't stop snowing all through saturday. we ended up getting about 21 inches!!!!!! we decided to go out saturday morning to explore and and ended up spending the entire day outside. our car was completely buried. it was a good thing we had nowhere to go! :) (our car is the one in the very far back!)

we wanted to take a walk and decided to go see our friends ben and kelly. we found them outside shoveling out their cars and we helped shovel for awhile. it was CRAZY outside. everything was completely white! the only people out driving were trucks and EVERYONE was outside shoveling and marveling at the snow that was still coming strong!

we took a little break inside having some delicious soup and playing cards. then our friends drew and lindsey joined us. luckily, they have a gigantic truck and we were able to get around and see more of our surroundings. we went back to their place and went out and built my very first snow fort. it was pretty cool if i do say so myself!

now you might think this is the end of the story...but no. rich (and everyone else in the city) has had school cancelled the last 3 DAYS. tuesday night and as we speak it is snowing again. we have received another 4 inches so far. no end in sight yet. craziness i tell you! i have never seen so much snow in my life. all in all we have loved the snow... we have had a blast. let's hope it stops soon though because let me tell you, driving our little car in the snow is not very fun! hope everyone is enjoying this february and doing something fun for valentine's day. i love you all!

christmas in california

2010-01-13T05:23:00.000-08:00

this christmas rich and i got to spend two weeks in san diego with my family!!! i absolutely loved being home. we fit in a lot of fun activities in those two weeks...

ward christmas party complete with matching sweaters.

looooots of game playing. this particular game is great dalmudi (sp?) zack has a collection of hats that we like to wear while playing. :)

christmas eve: we all built a totally awesome fort upstairs and slept in it christmas eve.

and of course we had to take tons of pictures posing in front of the tree...

christmas morning! traditional picture of all the kids on the stairs...youngest to oldest.

great gifts all around. i love christmas! and i love my family!

we saw avatar in 3d and loved it!!!!!

celebrated our one YEAR anniversary!!!!!!

drove over to sedona arizona to visit rich's grandparents and had a great time seeing them.

played some tennis which i have missed wayy to much!

celebrated the new year with fondue, a movie on our new projector out on the deck, ping pong and looots of good food. an added bonus to our new years festivities was maryanne (rich's sister) and her family came to help us celebrate!

it was a GREAT christmas break! i couldn't ask for anything better. we are back in pittsburgh now and were welcomed back with lot and lots of snow. i miss the sun already!

it's official

2009-12-07T12:29:00.000-08:00

after sitting for almost a year now i have decided to write an entry in our blog and join the cool kids in the blogging world. i am inspired by all my wonderful friends and family and look foward to keeping in touch with everyone!

well, what can i say? life is good. rich and i have been married for almost a YEAR now. how crazy is that?! we'll be coming up on our one year anniversary on december 27th. we have had a great year!! in honor of our first year being married i thought it would be fun to come up with our top 10 stories for 2009 (or in other words or first year of marriage)

1. learning to drive a manual car in the land of narrow, hilly streets. a very big accomplishment for me that i thought i'd never accomplish at the time
2. rich taking and passing his second year boards. woo hoo!!
3. watching BYU football games every saturday with friends and yummy food
4. playing countless numbers of monopoly games (i'd say maybe around 100 games)and rich always kicking my butt no matter what i do!
5. visiting family coast to coast and even in different countries (canada) :)
6. cheesecake brownies have been our dessert staple this past year. we are in love!
7. taking advantage of student price tickets to musicals including les mis and into the woods. so fun!
8. 4th of july in pittsburgh--i'd highly reccomend it. pre fireworks motorcrossed show and best fireworks we've ever seen.
9. buying our very own baby christmas tree and getting to decorate our apartment for christmas togehter. i love christmas!
10. both enjoying our callings--rich as young men's president and me teaching the crazy but very cute six year olds in primary

it's been a great year and we can't wait to see what's in store for us in 2010. if i don't write until then merry christmas and happy new years!!!!!!!! i love you all.