Say Hello to the Newest Members of our Family

That's right...we have twin girls. They are so adorable! Our cute little babies came home to us the Wednesday before Christmas. These little ones are the greatest Christmas present I have ever received; they sure love to cuddle. :) Here they are: Eve & Cleo (short for Cleopatra).


Richard got me these sweeties for Christmas. They're getting over from a cold and ringworm, so they'll be a lot happier when they're better. I think I got a much better present than the sweatshirt I got him. (Side note from Hubby: I love the sweatshirt. The End.)

A Fun Baby Shower

I went to my friend's baby shower tonight. And I'll be honest, I hate going to baby showers. I don't have kids, so the conversation is awkward (the moms are talking about breastfeeding & I'm waiting in dread for someone to ask me when we're planning on having kids). But the evening was really fun. We played a few games and they were fun; I didn't have to smell or eat anything. :) We just hung out, chatted, and ate yummy food. The gifts were all so cute and pink!

The kicker was when we were cleaning up the party and a firefighter walked in. (The party was at a neighborhood community center, so they can just walk right in.) Apparently one of the alarms was tripped, but we didn't hear anything; it must have been some kind of glitch because there was no fire, just a bunch of ladies. That really capped off the night nicely.

Save BYU's Women's Research Institute

"A BYU education should be (1) spiritually strengthening, (2) intellectually enlarging, and (3) character building, leading to (4) lifelong learning and service." And that is what the Women's Research Institute has promoted for the past 30+ years. The research done through this department has linked researchers across the university and has touched lives around the world. As a graduate of the Women's Studies minor, I have personally seen the work people are able to do because the Institute is present. In my senior research class, I was able to have individual time with professors that may not have been otherwise available. In this same class, we had women from varying majors, which brought more points of view to our research and broadened what we were able to do.

I'm unclear as to WHY the Women's Research Institute is being dissolved, but I would ask the University and specifically the Committee that made this decision, to reconsider. People, not just women, are upset about this decision because it is taking a piece of the university from the students that have come to BYU to study. I feel that by closing the Women's Research Institute, we are stealing from future generations; not only BYU students, but from people all over the globe that could benefit from the research done there.

If you don't want the Women's Research Institute to close, please DO something about it. Write a letter/email, call, join the Facebook group, wear a shirt or whatever you want to protest this decision. Let them know what they are taking away!

Good News

As some of you may know, Richard enlisted in the Marine Corps a few months ago, but we have been waiting to see if he got the job (Military Occupation Specialties aka MOS) that he wanted, which is a linguist. We heard from his recruiter this month and he was accepted into his MOS. We're really excited about this. Rich goes to Boot Camp in March and I'm planing on staying here for that time and then we'll see where the Marine Corps takes us.

DON'T...

eat fried dough while on the back of a motorcycle with a helmet on.

#1: You can't get the food in your mouth because the helmet is in the way.
#2: You get powdered sugar all over your helmet and yourself.

Not that I've tried that or anything. :)

Waterfront Festival

Rich & I went to the Festival at the Newburgh Waterfront yesterday. It was a nice evening so we took the motorcycle down. We walked around and saw all of the vendors and got some fair food (we had gyros...yummy!). After the gyros, we were pretty stuffed so we're thinking about going back on Monday for more food! We ran into one of Rich's friends from high school, Carolyn. She had a booth for her business, Hudson Harmony; she sells homemade jewelry and soap/bath stuff. I bought a bar of the Joyfully soap and it makes the bathroom smell so nice!

I'm not sure what we're up to on Monday, so if you're gonna be around tomorrow, hit us up. :) Happy Labor Day!

Off to Camp

I'm going to Girls' Camp for the next couple days. When I come back, hopefully I will start blogging again. A thousand apologizes for being a bad blogger; I will explain in upcoming posts.

In case there was ever any question...

I am definitely my father's daughter. Duh! Well, today as I was pulling my hair back, I found 3 indisputable gray/white hairs. My father started graying young and I'm following in his footsteps. :) Sorry no pics; the glare from my shiny hair makes all of the pictures a ball of light. But trust me, they are there! I've seen white hairs before, but Rich tried to convince me that they were just "really blond strands". But the ones I spotted today are without a doubt white/gray. So what does my blogging audience think that I should do? Start dying my hair or live & let live?

In Saturday, I cleaned up my beauty and bath stuff. Mostly I got rid of dried up lipstick and expired body scrubs. One of the other tasks that I needed to do was check each of my nail polish bottles to see if it was still good (not crusty or clumpy, etc). In order to check that I painted each nail, which I had polished pink earlier this week. I think they look nice :) What are you thoughts? LOL. My young women at church had a good laugh; I hope you do, too.

A little piece of Utah...

Earlier this week, Rich & I were able to meet up with Andrew. He came out to New York for a business trip and we were able to steal him away for dinner one night. We were sad that Chelsey & Truman weren't there, but Andrew said that he ate his meal in honor of them. Here's the three of us at dinner:



After dinner, we took Andrew to see our apartment, which he pointed out had a living room that would be an awesome place to play Hand & Foot because it is so spacious (it's the only spacious part of the whole apartment). It was really great to see Andrew. And this is a good example for our blogging buddies, if you're in the New York area, give us a call because we would love to see you.

Snow Day

Today's weather is too outrageous to travel to work in, so Rich & I took the day off. Snow + Ice + Rain = Crappy Travel Weather. Jealous doesn't begin to express how I feel about my parents, who are currently enjoying the sunny weather in Hawaii. :) I hope they're having a good time. Also, I hope you guys are having nicer weather than we are or maybe you like the snow. I'm not one of those snow people. I prefer sunny California year-round to a hot summer and a frozen winter. Whatever you're weather you're having, have a great day!

New Template...Lost Info :(

Hello all you blogging buddies! I decided to update the blog for Valentine's Day. Every time I do that I lose all of my widgets (I love that word; widget widget widget). Anyways, if your blog isn't on my list, please comment and I'll add it back. Trust me, it's nothing personal, I just can't stop it from deleting my blogroll...grrrrrrr.

Things are good. Richard and I are working most of the time. The rest of the time we're hanging out together. Rich has been pretty busy the past week or so because the Elders Quorum President got married and then moved away the same week. Since Rich is the first counselor, he's picking up the slack until a new EQP is called. Church was snowed out today, so we had a quiet Sunday together.

Last week in Young Women's, we made homemade face masks out of oatmeal, bananas, cucumbers, etc. The girls tried it out on themselves and each other. It was a good time. :)