AJ Neff Arrives!!!

My sister Candice, finally had her baby! A little boy! He is all Adam and so adorable. They named him Adam Mark Neff Jr., he was 6 lbs 6 oz and 19 inches. I am so happy that he his here and healthy! I am so excited for Candice and Adam to begni the journey of parenthood. Congratulations Candice and Adam!

Here are so me adorable pictures of their little guy...

Welcome to the world AJ... we love you!

My Life...?

Here are some random parts from my most recent days... and a few random thoughts inbetween....

1. Jackson spends most of his day in time-out (yes, I have a 2 year old). The other day I went to go get him out of his room and this is what I found.... He had gotten into some lotion that I had in a box in his room. Lesson #1: When a child moves to a bed and is no longer in his crib - you cannot keep anything... absolutley nothing in their room that they could get into. Lesson #2: When child is incredibly quiet - they are most likely doing something they shouldn't.

2. I try to go out on alot of walks. I usually walk about 2 or 3 miles. The other day I got lost and walked 4 miles. Pretty sure it was a little more than my preg body was used to, I was in a little too much pain by the time I was done.

3. Jackson got nailed right inbetween the eyes while out playing with the neighborhood kids. The bruise has slowly turned into a slight black eye. I think he looks like a tough guy with it.

4. My sister Candice is days away from having her first baby. She has had a couple showers so far and it has been so much fun watching her open all her fun gifts for her little one. She still does not know what she is having and i am so anxious to find out, I can't imagine how anxious she must be.

5. I am selling my Microdermabrasion machine. With a second baby on the way, I decided to be done working. I have it on Craigslist and have let a few Dr. offices know about it. I have had a few people interested but nothing has been set in stone. If you know anyone out there who might be - please pass the word along.

6. I am currently reading the book "The Host". It is Stephanie Meyers new book. It's a pretty good one. Nothing quite like Twilight, but still a good read.

7. Something weird about my child. He has an obsession with shoes. He absolutely freaks when he is not wearing his shoes. I think I could say he has a breakdown when he does not have them on. Somehow I get him to take naps and go to bed without them, but other than that, they are on first thing in the morning and they do not come off until he goes to bed. It is so bizarre.

8. This brings me to another subject about Jackson, shoes, and time-outs. Today I realized, just putting Jackson in his room for a time out doesn't really work. He could care less. And actually, I think he thinks its funny. So I tried taking away his dog that he sleeps with, that didn't work... I thought about spanking him, but then felt too guilty... so finally I decided to take away his shoes. OH MY!!! He went nuts! Can you believe it, his shoes? What is this kids obsession with shoes?

9. T.V. ... I just watched American Idol. I am glad that David Cook won. I have always liked him. But I loved "Little David" too. In fact, I don't think I would have cared either way. I can't wait for "So You Think You Can Dance", I love this one - even a little more than "American Idol". And how about "The Bachlorette"? Was that not hilarious! I loved all the geeky guys. I couldn't believe what some of those guys would do for her attention... come on... did they really think she thought any of that stuff was attractive?

10. I now have just 10 weeks left. I know is still along time, but I feel like once you get to 30 weeks, you can start counting down in weeks and that always feels good. So rather than saying, "I am 30 weeks preg", I can say, "I have 10 weeks left". It is a great feeling!

Fathers & Sons

My incredible dad was blessed with 4 daughters, 4 wonderful daughters... ha ha. Finally, on their 5th try he got his boy. My dad went many years without any boys to take to the ward Fathers and Sons camp out. So now to make up for it, whenever Fathers and Sons comes around he gets all the son-in-laws that live near by and head out for a night of camping.

This year Scott took Jackson to have a night out with the boys. The camp site was only about 10 minutes from my parents house so we decided if anything went wrong, he could just come back to the house. Thankfully, things went great! Jack had so much fun. They had cabins to sleep in with bunk beds, which Jacks thought was soooo cool, and little miny streams ran through the whole campsite so he was pretty entertained throwing rocks and sticks into the water. Jackson and Scott, doing the Father & Son thing.
Give this kid a flashlight, water, sticks, and rocks and he will entertain himself for hours! I am so glad that my dad now has so many sons to take with him. They have so much fun, and I know Scott loves going each year. I am so excited that Jack can now join the crowd. Its fun for him to be out with the boys and sooooo nice for me to have a night off with the girls!

Bye Bye Crib....

It is that time... time for Jackson to leave his crib and move on to bigger things... a "Big Boy Bed". With baby #2 on the way and only 2 1/2 more months to go, we figured we better get him out of the crib and used to something new so that we have a place for the new little babe to sleep at night.

I took Jack to pick out some bedding and we talked all day about how when Dad gets home he would set up his new bed and how fun it was going to be. So Scott came home, started to set up the bed and realized that we were missing some of the parts to the bed. It was to late to call the company we bought it from so we layed him down in his crib and he went crazy.... he did not want to sleep in his crib. He kept pointing to the headboard of his new bed and saying, "No, that bed, I want that bed"! I had no idea he was really excited to sleep in his big bed. It was so sad. So that next morning I called the company and went and picked up everything we were missing. We got it set up for that next night and Jackson was finally able to sleep in his big boy bed.

Here he is... still excited about the thought of sleeping in a bed.
Here he is.... not so excited about sleeping in a bed. Ha ha.
All in all, things have gone pretty good. He still crys everytime he has to go to sleep, but he always has cried, I think it's his way of working out the extra energy. He doesn't get out of his bed at night, not even in the mornings. But nap time... that is a different story. I have had a really hard time getting him to stay in his bed and actually take his nap. The only I have gotten him to sleep is if I lay with him. Which some days I don't mind, but other days I have things that I would like to get done. I have heard that alot of kids drop their naps when they change to a big bed, unfortunately I think this will probley be the case with Jackson. It's slightly depressing, but it's gotta happen sometime, right?

Mother's Day

I love Mother's Day. Especially now that I am a Mother... it's the closest thing to a day off that I come to. Scott always does his best to make it a special day for me, and this year it was fun hearing Jackson say, "Happy Mommy's Day"! I love gonig to chruch and hearing all the talks and lessons focused on mothers, listening and watching the primary kids sing in sacrament meeting, getting yummy chocolates as we leave sacrament meeting, and ending with a cute card that Jackson made in nursery.

After church we went to my parents house and had a delcious dinner grilled by the men, played outside, celebrated not only Mother's Day but Scotts, Adams, and Candices Birthday. It was a really fun day!

Scott, Miles, and Adam grilled for the girls. I love how men almost ALWAYS grill for Mother's Day. I guess its the one "appliance" they know how to handle.
Jackson loves to go out on the 4-wheelers. He calls this blue one the "BYU Cougar". And yes, he came up with that all by himself. My dad would take him down the hills and go really fast, Jacks loved it. You would think he was on a ride at Disney Land!We looked out the window and saw Adam, also known as, Uncle Abo and Jackson sitting outside together. They looked like they were having a deep conversation, it was pretty funny. Jackson loves his Uncle Abo! After all the playing outside and rides on the "BYU Cougar", Jackson was pretty warn out. He cuddled up with Miles and had his arm tickled and took a nice break from all the hard playing he had done.
Scott took Jacks on one more ride before it was time to go home. He came back with a bunch of flowers for me. It was so sweet, a great way to end my Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day to all you women out there. I hope your day was filled with lots of love!

Lucy's Baby Blessing

Little Lucy was blessed this weekend. It was such a fun weekend with all the family in town.

Dennis and Jenna were here with Davis. I think Jackson might me a little scared of Davis, I am not sure if its because they are the same size and Davis is only 9 months or because Davis knocked him down a couple times when he was pulling up on Jackson. Ha ha, poor little Jackson. Someday he will realize Davis just wants to hang out and be boys together.

Kristen and Garret brought little Duke (their Yorkie puppy). He is so cute and all the kids adored him. He does so well with them chasing him all around the house. Although every once in a while, you would see him cuddled up on his mom and dads suitcase, it looked as though he thought this was his safe zone. I love this little dog, I think I may have to get one of my own some day soon?

Lucy looked so precious in her blessing dress. She looked like a baby princess. And with all the loves she gets from her older sisters - she is a princess. The whole family after church. Say cheese. All the grandkids. Lillie, Abbie, Lucy, Jack, and Davis. I loved Davis in his little suit - what a stud!

Suprise Baby Shower!!!!

My sister-in-law Jaime shocked me with a suprise baby shower Saturday afternoon. Here is the story:

A few months ago she mentioned throwing a baby shower for me. She brought it up that one time, and never again. So of course, I forgot about it and never thought twice about the conversation. Little did I know, for the past couple months she had been talking with my mom, sister-in-laws and mother-in-law about planning the whole thing. She planned it for the same weekend of her baby blessing for Lucy, so that all the Randalls could be there. Saturday afternoon they got me out of the house for an or so while they set everything up and all the guests arrived. I came home, and Abbie told me I was needed downstairs. I got to the bottom of the stairs and was shocked to see my friends and family all around the room! It all was a bit confusing at first, but it slowly came together and I realized what had happened.

I am always so amazed at peoples generosity when it comes to showers. I got so many cute things for my little baby girl... clothes, toys, burb cloths, blankets, a stroller (hooray), and all the lotions and potions that make babies smell so sweet!

Jack had so much fun at the party. He thought it was my birthday, so for the next couple days after that he would sing me bits and peices of the hapy birthday song... it was so sweet.

The food was so yummy. My favorite pasta salad, Salad de Maison (a Richards tradition), and angel food cake with whipped cream and strawberries.... mmmmmm ....

Thank you so much to everyone that helped make this party happen. It was so fun! The food was delicious, the games were so fun, and the whole thing was such a suprise!

Thank you to everyone who came. It was so fun to see you all and have you celebrate this special time in my life!