Fall Festivities 2011 Part 1

I love fall this year! SOOO beautiful! We have only had a few cold days...and it is almost November! This makes me all sorts of happy {except that it could cause a long late winter}

We started our fall festivities with a fall couple get together where we went to dinner, carved pumpkins and played games!

Ty + Matson carvin away

Ty the artist

 

                                                                                           Heather's cute painted pumpkin!

The finished product

Now he is exhausted

SO cute. He loves it

 

Our next adventure was to St. George to spend my birthday weekend with my family. It involved Ty going shooting with my brothers and dad, ice cream with my mom, golfing for Ty and I, the gym, then a sunday birthday brunch with my mom. I was very fortunate and blessed to get lovely present from my mom, Marissa and Ty :)

The beautiful boots, scarf, curling iron and yummy cookie 

Pics from St. George

 When we first arrived in STG we ate at this cute little mexican restaurant. Very authentic and Ty said it reminded him of Mexico. I took a pic while waiting for my mom of the cool Proof sunglasses and the beautiful sunny day outside. I love STG weather :)

my attempt at golfing :)

Ty relaxing on the golf cart

Gotta love STG weather

He was pretending to be sad...he wasn't :)

Ty taking a swing

Heading out.

This is Ty's ACTUAL bday presents to me :)

The story behind Ty giving me those Nike ID shoes was classic. So we drove home from STG on Sunday {my actual bday} and Ty wanted to give me another present since it was my actual birthday. He asked "can I choose which one I give you?" and I said "sure" and he ran out of the room all excited. He came back and had me open it...and to my surprise {it was a surprise because we had told one another we were gonna just wait and give Nike ID's to each other for Christmas....and I knew all my other presents so it was my only surprise} was the Nike ID's I had created a few weeks prior. SO cute. I was way surprised and stoked he got me them. THEN he said OK hold on!! Then he runs out of the room again and comes back with another Nike ID box....and he says "OK you are gonna give me these for my birthday!" HAHAHAH classic Tyler :) he buys his own present for me to give him. He was beyond excited until I told him he couldn't ACTUALLY have them until his bday then he got super bummed. Only like 1 week until his bday now. He has survived with a few sad whimpers when he sees me wearing mine :) I love his enthusiasm and surprises. Makes life and birthdays that much more exciting AND enjoyable.

"good relationships don't just happen. they take time, patience and two people willing to face any obstacle thrown their way."

{6 months to us!}

It has been 6 months since we took this picture. 6 months since we became husband and wife. 6 months since I became a Richards. 6 months of fun, love and growth as individuals and a couple.

6 months of marriage to my best friend.

It's our 6 month anniversary :) I told myself I wouldn't be silly and count EACH month but since it is half way to a year AND it is our 6 month on my birthday it only seemed right to make a deal about it.

 

It really was the best day of my life thus far. It was a day I can always look back on and be happy.  It was a day I know everyone involved enjoyed along with us and a day of memories for a lifetime.

I spent the first week of this 6 month adventure in Cancun....then the next 4 months in Tennessee with Ty as he did summer sales. It was a lot of fun, learning about one another, being in a new place and enjoying our time in Tennessee {even if I was a bit bored often....I still enjoyed myself overall}. Then we journeyed back to Utah and spent the last 2 months here going to school and being back near family. What I have enjoyed the most out of these 6 months was having my best friend there always. He was there to make me smile and laugh even when I was not in the mood too {you always appreciate that later}. To entertain me and bring the best and expect the best out of me. He continues to amaze me each day with his dedication, his love and endless hard work.

I know these next 6 months will be just as great as the first. I know it will have more laughs, memories and fun to add to this blog. I can't wait to see what the next 6 months bring as well as the months and years to follow after. All I know is that I will be happy spending that time with this man. Here is to 6 months but more importantly to our lifetime together :)

"Love is a symbol of eternity.  It wipes out all sense of time, destroying all memory of a beginning and all fear of an end"

I love Pinterest.

So I know I am SO behind on this whole pinterest craze but I just got into it....I LOVE it. {OBSESSED}
First off I cannot get enough of all the cute holiday DYI decorations! Then the food ideas...genius! I already made one of them {lasagna cups & they were delicious}

http://www.kevinandamanda.com/recipes/dinner/mini-lasagna-cups.html

There are many more ideas I have come across that are genius and I really want to do. I feel like I have been missing out on the wonderful world of pinterest until now but I am way stoked I finally joined in.

{Here is one of those genius/adorable ideas}

An anniversary picture each year like this. Gonna do this in 6 months! :)

ANYway...it's my birthday in 3 days. I am on fall break. Going to STG for the weekend. FUN times = new post soon! :)

CaLiForNiA trip :)

So over general conference weekend my mom asked all her kids to take a trip to see our grandparent's at the house in Volcano, California. They needed some help with things around their 10 acre estate and since we have 4 boys and 4 girls who are strong and can easily give their helping hands, we all went out to enjoy a fun, hard-working weekend at Gma and Gpa Forbes' Cali house. We left SLC around 6:45 and started our trek, I drove first. We decided to play a car game, categories, to help time pass by faster. {and it definitely helped, especially for me!} It was pretty amusing to have all of us go through the alphabet and figure out a movie title, fruit, sports team or something with a specific letter {the movie one was the best and q & z are the worst!}. After our 10 hour drive we arrived at their house at 3:30am and slept....for like 5 hours. haha then we had a delicious breakfast and began our day of hard work! {Although it looks like I didn't do anything but take pics of everyone working, I did do work- yard work, moving things to the burn pile and more :) But no one but myself takes pics so no proof of that haha}

Rissa painting

Ty and Scott doin work on the wood pile

Chris getting the porch fixed

Mama and Linds doing some inside work

We had many loads to the dump. Lots of throwing away and organizing. Tyler took it upon himself to revamp my grandparent's newspaper post because it looked old and worn down. So he did and he added a little "Forbes" touch to it. THEN we found a dead squirrel on the road in front of my grandparent's driveway and we decided to bury the poor thing. It was a work filled weekend but don't think we didn't have fun because we did still! Played frisbee golf, played hand & foot, explored their property and watched football.

The finished product with a Forbes plaque added

Marissa being scary with the screwdriver!

Ty getting Doug off the driveway

Burying Doug. RIP.

Ty being a good groundsman for Doug's grave haha

Marissa and I....we are weird :)

Brother....he likes to be scary as well :)

We were having some fun around this time :) 

haha Oh Sam :)

I found this trip very entertaining in all different ways. I really enjoyed getting to show Ty where I have formed a lot of my childhood memories with cousins and siblings. It was also funny when my Gma brought out her book I wrote for her in middle school and told Ty how happy and proud it made her to have me write a book about her. He read it and laughed at me since I wrote it so long ago {let's just say I am sure my writing skills were not up to parr then ;)} Another funny thing was how Ty kept trying to get his hands on my Gpa's tractor...he really wanted to drive it. Well Gpa wasn't having it but I caught a picture of him cruising around by himself on it. He loves that tractor :)

Well we finished helping my grandparents with things needing to be done around their house and yard like the porch and wood piles thrown away etc. {according to them they said we did in 2 days what would have taken them 4+ months to do} Then we enjoyed the rest of the time with our grandparents and each other :) The boys went to priesthood meeting together and the girls went through Gma's old christmas decor and earring collection. I love spending time with my family. It was great to spend time with all of them and the trip back to Utah was just as fun as the one to Cali {but more scenic since we did it in the day on the way back}.

 < the finished porch

My big brothers...creepers :D haha

"You don't choose your family.  They are God's gift to you, as you are to them."

During this trip my mom wanted to get some family pictures done and although I am not posting the ones of all of us {my mom probably wants to keep those pics for a Christmas card} I do have one of Ty and I :) 

Our next family vacation is with the Richards in November! 5.5 weeks! Can't wait :)