The Epilogue...

Sooooo just when my Sunday could not have gotten any worse, it did! Things were really going smooth after that rough morning and let me tell you, I needed that more than chocolate cake! Now that is saying something. We got to celebrate my brother-in-law Hyrum's birthday and had a fabulous day!! He is so special to us and we are so grateful he is in our family! It would not be complete without him! Any who, after a crazy morning, beautiful rest of the day, and what felt like a peaceful nighttime routine, turned out to be one of the most emotional nights for me...ever!

As we decorated for Christmas last week I was thrilled to put out my most FAVORITE decoration. A beautiful snow globe with a golden christmas tree surrounded by glitter and snow. The base is a gorgeous cherry wood and on the bottom there is a wind up knob that makes for a magical christmas serenade. This is no ordinary snow globe. This was my Grandma Darline's. A snow globe so beautiful, peaceful, elegant, sincere, and simple. A snow globe that was a perfect resemblance of my grandmother. I only had two things from her after she passed. My sewing machine that will become a family heirloom and THAT snow globe. She did not have much, and I cherished those two things with all of my heart.

Notice that I am using past tense in regards to the snow globe?? (every sad face imaginable insert here). Well after we put the boys to bed on Sunday night, David and I snuggled up on the couch. Just enough time to get relaxed and then we heard a "BOOM, CRASH, SWOOSH!" The sound of glass shattering was inevitable. David automatically ran into the bedroom and I heard him whisper "that was mommy's snow globe Stephen." My heart sank! I just started bawling and praying, then bawling and praying some more. David hurried to clean up EVERYTHING. From glass shards everywhere, to water, glitter, and my emotional mess! Stephen ran out to me and honestly made every sad emotion turn into comfort, love, and relief. He just held me and said "Mommy I am so sorry." Five minutes later he was still holding me saying "Mommy I am still so sorry." He wiped my tears and gave me more love than I ever thought a three year old had in them.

Normally, I am not a sentimental person...at all! You can ask all of my family. I have never really been attached to "things," especially for long periods of time. It may be because I LOVE change. However, it may also be because quality time (not gifts) is one of my love languages. The other reason is because when we pass away, all of those "things" stay here on earth. This time was different though. I MISS my grandmother so much, especially with it being the Christmas season. To be able to share that snow globe with my kids meant everything. Actually, the boys were kind of infatuated with the beautiful snow globe and I should have realized right then, but I didn't. Normally the snow globe was put up high too, but ya know...chairs get moved and kids learn to climb. I am sure Stephen tip toed and put that glorious shiny glass ball full of christmas goodness in his room somehow. It just so happens that he also sleeps on the top bunk...aka a higher drop for all things!

Just when we think things can't get any worse, they do! They do indeed!!! It is all about perspective and attitude though. We have the right to have OUR time, time to take everything in, grieve, cry, have five minutes so we don't explode, whatever it may be. Then, we have the right to recover. Recover from the feelings that overwhelmed us. From there we can choose how to continue our day. Try to look for the beauty and blessings in all things. Trust me, when we dig deep, we will find it in some form. Sometimes doing so is not easy, but having a positive outlook is a complete game changer!
       

What a Whirlwind!!!

Today has been such a CRAZY day!!! This morning we were planning to take a family picture after church. We NEEDED a new picture to put on our Christmas cards. We tried taking family pictures a couple months ago and it was completely unsuccessful!!! As we were getting ready Lynn fell off his riding airplane outside and got all scratched up. We fixed him up and realized we were running out of daylight. We rushed to meet my brother-in-law Hyrum for pictures and his camera was almost dead. They could not find the camera charger so we had about 2% battery to get one good shot! Then he had to get an SD card from someone because that was missing too. As we were driving I said "I totally want Mt. Hood in the background!" We pulled up to our location and the hood was over Mt. Hood. THE HOOD WAS OVER MT. HOOD!!!!!!! No mountain top was visible... AT ALL! So we opted to walk down to the dock on the water. That special magic hour was in full force. The sun was shining among a beautiful Northwestern backdrop. The first picture was snapped, the camera died, and we realized the SD card was not in the camera. How many more things would have made it more obvious that we were not destined for family pictures that day, right???? Lesson learned!

Back to this morning... As I prepared us for church, David was gone at morning church meetings. Everything was great and I was determined to be out the door by 11 am (church starts at 11:30). Well all of the sudden a pipe starts spewing water under our bathroom sink. I turned the water off, panicked, and started clearing everything out from below the sink while trying to clean up the water. As this was all happening my boys came over to the bathroom door giggling at each other. I look over and my youngest son, Lynn, is COVERED in my LIPSENSE!!!! My expensive Lipsense lipgloss. AHHHHH!!!! I held it all together and thought, no big, I will just clean him off (but it was NOT coming off.) Well I go back to cleaning the bathroom and then I hear "mom, Lynn has the red paint." I looked out and he had a red paint bottle on my beautiful grey rug. I saw it was all closed up and thought "he is totally fine!" Next thing I know Stephen is running to me with the red bottle of craft paint. IT IS OPEN! I come out and my boys have red paint all over their sweaters and pants! I just about lost it. Okay lets be real... I LOST IT!!!!! As I am freaking out I look all over the house to see if paint is anywhere else. Well what do you know. Finger painting covered my french blue hutch.

.......I wanted to pull my hair out and curl up in the fetal position....But I had to act fast. All the paint on the hutch was cleaned up quickly and I decided that the boys were going to church just as they are. One, it was a story to tell. Two, I did not have any extra time to change them, Three, I did not want to change them and have them get another set of clothes dirty. Can I get an AMEN!!!!!!! What a morning!!! As I was herding my kids to the car, running around in heels looking like a chicken with my head cut off I realized something special. All of those incidents that happened this morning resembled everything that I do. My boys are around me all the time and just love to use all the things that mommy uses. Their curious little minds wanted to explore. These are days that, yes I cannot wait to hurdle over, but at the same time I love the learning experiences for both me and my boys. Plus, I was THRILLED to have Stephen come to me with the open bottle of paint. HE IS LISTENING!!! He told me when Lynn was getting into something he should not have been. I was so proud of Stephen for knowing when to get mommy!!!

Oh my goodness, when we got to church and walked in I knew everyone was going to say..."what happened??" ...and they did! This story was so ridiculous, hysterical, and beautiful all in one. So when we got home I knew our Christmas picture was obviously out of the question. Then, light bulb!! Why not just take a picture that depicts our life... so that is just what we did...

This is totally us! David and I, madly in love! Stephen chasing Poppy and Bammy's cat, while Lynn's doing his own thing. David and I enjoy dressing up, while the boys LOVE their footie pajamas. Lynn still has lip gloss all over his face and you cannot even see Stephen's face because as of recently he LOVES to hide in pictures. Our beautiful, crazy life! Love, The Richardson's

Definitely Living That "Life Full of Surprises"...

Life has been a whirlwind!! Of course things have been busy, so how does life feel like it seems to get even busier!?! David and I have recently gone through some serious life changes. Here it goes in a nutshell...

We left Kaiser, and also found out that his Epileptologist moved to a new clinic so it was the perfect time for us to find a new doctor.

Through multiple references we found a new Epileptologist at Legacy Neurology. David had about a one hour appointment with him that ended with light at the end of the tunnel. SO MUCH LIGHT! We were beyond thrilled. He knew and studied David's past history, knew all of his doctors, said what he disagreed on that our other doctor was pursuing (which now all makes sense!!) and has just been a huge advocate for David.
        
Many of you also know how much we battle with his prescription costs. They are astronomical!!! $800+ a month. Sometimes we can get on prescription assistance and sometimes we can't. We had been battling prescription coverage for the last couple months because he was going to run out and we also had not seen his new doctor yet. Finally his doctor was able to set up a plan for him and worked his tail off with insurance to get his medication covered because there is no generic and David has tried EVERYTHING (or everything that is in the same family as other prescriptions.) We literally got the new prescription the night before we were going to leave on our California business trip (where he was going to run out of meds the night before our plane ride home.) That could have been a nightmare, but Heavenly Father made sure that we were taken care of and blessed us with hard- working, competent people. We were set!!!
        
Next we went to California! It was beautiful and the first day we got there we rented a car. We went to a delicious breakfast (thanks Greg for the suggestion), talked with some of the people outside eating by us, and loved the sun shining. Then we went to the Newport LDS Temple, and loved the people there SO much I could cry happy tears! Nicest people ever!!! We drove down to Newport beach and had the biggest, cheapest, yummiest ice cream cone ever. Walked along the pier and the beach!! Made our way to the hotel and registered for our business conference. Then we chatted with others strolling in and we were just getting so pumped up!
        
After that we wanted to grab some Buffalo Wild Wings (it was boneless wing Thursday of course). So, we made a to go order, grabbed it, and ventured off to get gas at Costco. That is when things started to change. We were at a stop light in front of Costco and David started feeling a seizure coming on. So he took his preventative medication. It was coming on strong so I zipped into a spot in front of the store and the grand mal took over. Normally he will have a seizure and be wiped out and we would have just gone home, but this was different. It was not stopping and he was starting to turn blue. I immediately called 911 and thank goodness I was in front of Costco because they have their address on the building out front (gotta love Costco!) The fire fighters and paramedics came and as soon as one approached me I just broke down. He was so sweet and helped me mutter out what I needed to say. When someone has a medical emergency, I just get into what I call "nurse mode" and help. Until it is said and done and the emergency team arrives is when I realize what is going on and it hits me. They gave David oxygen and he still was not aware of anything. He did not actually wake up until he was mid way through the ambulance ride to the hospital. I have never actually seen anyone close to me taken away in an ambulance so it was a rough night.
        
We got to the hospital and it was so busy!! Also, our phones were both dead and we still had a rental car to return, plus figure out how to get back to our hotel. The firefighters stayed with us the whole time and were my saving grace. They were the best and we talked all about places to explore in California. They honestly helped us so much that night. Words cannot express how touched I was that they made sure we were okay and had what we needed the whole time. David was ready to get out of there the moment he got in. He does NOT like being in hospitals (can you blame him?) We had really great staff though and made it through. Our doctor explained to us why David cannot drive anymore and that was a big blow. He was not very tactful in talking with us and it bothered David. However, being at that stop light made me realize that if David would have been in the driver's seat who knows if he or others would have been safe as he felt that seizure coming on. We also felt prepared for this as his new epileptologist skirted around the idea of not driving. We did not fully believe the ER doctor until we talked with David's epileptologist and it was solidified. We just have trust in him and he is tactful in a way that the other doctor was not.
        
So what do you do when your husband does construction and remodels homes for a living and cannot drive! Cannot take home depot trips on the fly! We change our business plan and mindset! This conference we were at (the one that David was determined to stay at) was a life changing experience for us and definitely set us up for success. It will not be easy, but it will be rewarding and definitely what our long-term goal was anyway. We are expanding our real estate investment company and David and I are working from home managing it all!!! We are thrilled beyond belief about this, but we are indeed working our tails off as well as living on a prayer!! Life has a funny way of rerouting us when we need it most, even though it seems like it may be the most inconvenient time, it's not! As we put faith in God, we begin to recognized why life took a different path and how we are being blessed beyond our wildest dreams!!!

Finding Hair That Works For YOU!!!

Okay, so many have heard me raving and ranting about my new hair style!!! I seriously have never been so in love with a hairstyle before!! It is so important to find out what works for you!! Here is a list of questions that I put together when looking for a new hair style & stylist:

- Find a picture (I use Pinterest) of a style that you like. Find one for a cut and one for a color (or if you are lucky you find one that is exactly everything you are looking for!)
- Is the stylist in my budget? One of the most important questions because if they are not in the budget it is not going to work. Period!
- Send them a picture before your appointment of what your hair looks like now and what you want it to look like. Then they have an idea of time, cost, if it is doable, etc.
- Get to know your hair. For example...I KNOW that my hair pulls red tones. Sometimes I roll with it, but honestly I do not like red in my hair. So I make sure to tell my stylist that every time! I also use a purple shampoo to cast out red/yellow tones in my hair.
- What TYPE of hair do you have? For example... my hair is fine, yet thick. It actually takes a lot of color to do my hair even though it is short. That can help you understand the cost as well.
-  What type of cut will you love most: what works with your face shape, what is manageable, do you need to be able to wear it back or up, how will you style it? So many questions to ask!!
- Make sure that you feel comfortable with your stylist. Get to know them and YOU are the client so make sure that you feel like your opinion matters. Because it does!
- NEVER leave with wet hair!!! I promise!! This is a MUST!! Reason being is that a GOOD hair cut is finished dry because they can see what your hair REALLY looks like. So much is disguised when your hair is wet. I PROMISE this is sooooo important!!
- Have your stylist teach you how to style your hair and what products work best. They do not have to be products that the stylist sells either.
- Get help with learning how to let your hair air dry. This is something that was really important to me because sometimes I am RUNNING out the door! Or camping, or too hot to use a blow dryer, or just do not want to!

I have had so many GOOD and BAD hair experiences that I can't even tell you how many HAPPY and how many SAD tears there have been over hair.

When I walk out of a salon, I want to LOVE my hair right away. Not wait for me to go home and style it like I normally would style it. I recently JUST found that out!!

MY must haves - I want somewhere close to home so if I have a sitter I do not have to drive far away just for hair. It has to be in my budget, a friendly person, appreciate a professional manner, does not take forever (like I said I usually have to get a sitter). The hairstyle has to be easy, and I cannot have one where I put it in a ponytail everyday. I get sucked into the ponytail rut too much! I just have to avoid it completely. Short hair works for me because I have learned how to wear it so that is feels like a "style" yet it takes seconds to do. I am always looking for ways to make my life simpler and this is one of the ways I have found. Now color is tricky for me because I LOVE all sorts of color styles. I have found that I just wear whatever color I think works, is a bit more natural looking for me, and that is low maintenance. For example... I just do not have the time or money to do a blonde weave anymore. But that is okay because I have found other options that I love!! Bayalage is a fantastic low maintenance coloring technique! Below is the picture that I used to get the cut and color that I wanted!!! Remember...I am not in Hollywood like she is (always remember that when you take a picture in as well) but I sure love how my hair turned out!! No filters necessary for my pictures!

    

Entrepreneurship Through Direct Sells

I LOVE this!!!! I fully support DIRECT SALES!! It doesn't come easy or free. You work your tail off, but get to do what you love. You choose something you are passionate about, communicate with others, work from home (which is a HUGE necessity for me and BLESSING all in one) as well as provide for your family in a way that you could not do if the opportunity of direct sales was not there. During my business education in college I took a sales class. In that class a guest speaker came and instantly changed the volume in the room. He had our attention immediately as well as gave us a platform to stand on. He showed us how something so subtle makes a BIG difference. I was lucky enough to shadow this man for a whole day and he was the NUMBER ONE example I have ever had for direct sales. He was real, raw, passionate, driven, helpful, and did what he could to provide for his family! He works from an office in downtown Portland, but goes from client to client at their downtown offices. Lets just say as intimidating as direct sales may be, it is worth every bit!!! I am and always will be a HUGE supporter of direct sales!!

The article that definitely peaked my interest!!! 
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/regan-long/the-brutal-truth-about-those-pyramid-schemes_b_10602586.html

Success In Marriage!

Sooo... I will be the first to admit that marriage is HARD! It is also BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!! David and I have began to realize how different we are, but how those differences can compliment our relationship and one another so much. We have been married for four years, and these last two years building our business have not been the easiest. Let's just say we LOVE being self employed, but we also have to step back and realize how much there is to learn!! It can be so easy to work to complete exhaustion and put our own relationship and time together on the back burner. The only "extra" time we have is easily acquainted with others because we make the time. When we do need each other, but are torn between responsibilities, work, kids, etc. we can usually set those needs aside and think "oh my spouse will understand that I HAVE to do 'this'." However, that is just not healthy. A proper work-life balance is so vital for a successful marriage!

So today I came across this blog post and LOVED it!! These are 5 steps to a healthy marriage by blogger Kristyn Morgan. The link is here. Check it out and tell me what you think!!

These 5 steps are so simple, yet so incredibly important!!! I love the boldness behind each one as well. No excuses, just do it!! Today and from here on out I will do my best to make these five steps my top priority.....because it is so worth it!!!!! Also, why shoot for the stars, when you can reach the moon?? In other words, why settle for less, unhappiness, inconsistency, or anything else, when your marriage can be even better!!

My WHY!!!

Who am I and why Usborne?

Hi everyone!!! I am Amanda Richardson and am from Washougal, Wa. My hubby, David, and I have been married for four years and have two beautiful boys (1 and 3). We are an entrepreneur family at heart and already own two businesses that keep us very busy. Being self employed has been such a huge blessing in our lives! We are able to put our family first whenever need be. My husband is very hard working and spends most of the time operating our businesses. We have a home remodeling business as well as a real estate investment company. For the love of homes right!?! haha he is the Chip to my Joanna!! Anywho, yes we flip and renovate homes and love every bit of it! However, I am a full time stay at home mommy and work the business while the kids sleep or we all work side by side as a family. My three year old thinks it is the coolest thing ever!! Using drills, pliers, hammers, etc. But this momma needs a break sometimes!! I have an absolute love for books as well! So when I found Usborne during an online party I was hooked. My husband and I dream of having our own library and one for our kids too. We know how important reading is and it holds a very special place in our hearts. Especially for my husband because he had to relearn to read and write his senior year of high school. He knows how much of a blessing it is to read (again). During my childhood, reading was an adventure and brought me so much hope, gave me motivation as well as inspired me when I needed it most. As our kiddos grow we want the same for them. We will also be homeschooling, doing school co-ops when they start school and I love the books that Usborne offers!!! In a large nutshell...this is WHY!

    

For Kicks and Giggles!!!

This was a post I had started and left up about a month ago!!!.....

So much has happened since my last post, which was in April. We have moved into a new house and we absolutely love it here! My brother Adam married his beautiful bride and my new sister, Kiersten. We are all so ecstatic about that! They are such a sweet, loving, caring and wonderful couple. They just moved to a new home and job in Nevada. Such a fun new adventure!

On May 13th (yes Friday the 13th haha) I went in to have a double knee surgery. Don't worry, it was suppose to be pretty minimal. Just screws out of my right new and arthroscopic diagnosis on my left knee.

This is what my husband decided to add to it!!! .......hahahaha

I am a mommy blogger. Yes, I have lots of stress. No, yes, I say no. I don't like burritos. My mom always said, life is like a box of chocolates and I think that is good because I love chocolate as long as you mix it with peanut butter and coconut. Oh, my minivan is superb. The only thing that could make it better is shiplap and an island with one less wall. LOL

Could not help but post this!!!! SO hysterical to me!!! Thanks David!!!

God is Good

For the last couple of months David and I have been praying to find a place to rent or buy. However, in this market we are not having luck and I cannot wait for this bubble to pop because rent is out of this world expensive in the PNW right now. We have some goals to reach before we buy for ourselves and I cannot wait for that day! In the mean time, we have been greatly blessed, I mean seriously blessed. Our prayers have been answered and I cannot thank God enough for providing for our family's needs.

I have really bad knees and am going in for another knee surgery next month. With that being said...our 3rd floor apartment is killing me. I cannot wait to get away from these three flights of stairs before we even reach our front door! Now I will not say that this opportunity just fell into our lap. Like I said earlier, we have been actively searching everyday for months. We live in a desirable area, which has made it harder to find a property that is also in our budget. When we put forth the effort and ask for help, Heavenly Father provides. Sometimes it is not in our own desired timeline, but that is because He can see the bigger picture that we cannot. We cannot sit back and expect things to change. We have to show our Heavenly Father that we are willing to do anything and everything to make change possible. I believe this with my whole heart. For years I have seen the blessings happen in our life together as a family. They really are more like miracles to me and only continue to happen.

There is no better way for me to express how incredibly grateful I am for a loving Heavenly Father. Sometimes we may feel that our needs and prayers seem so little or simple in a world full of so much heartache. Let me tell you though...they are not! We are not! We are His children and He loves us unconditionally. Everything is valid and real with a sincere heart! God is good!

Lynn is ONE!

Happy 1st Birthday to our sweet Lynn!!!

Yesterday was a beautiful day! David took the day off (still in recovery mode from OHSU, but he is back at the grind stone today) and we got to celebrate Lynn's FIRST birthday! I cannot believe our cute little Lynnagins is ONE! He is an absolute sweetheart and always has a smile on his face.

We had such a fun day! Started out with a mini photo session, went to one of our property's and the boys loved playing in the trees, then we went to JJ Jump where they bounced the day away! We came home to have a yummy turkey spaghetti meal with corn. Delicious! Let's just say we had a fabulous day!

   

Feeling So Blessed

Words cannot express how grateful I am for our family and friends. Starting with family... we feel so deeply blessed to have such a loving, helpful, concerned, and open family. Also to have our family live so close to us!!!! Each and every one of our family members is there to support and help us as much as possible. Honestly, I wish there was a way for us to show how incredibly appreciative we are. I love our family so much! Each one of you has played a major part in helping David to be here at OHSU. From watching our boys, to being with David, driving us, prayers, love, phone calls, laughter, and so much more. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts! You are all amazing!!!

We too have some seriously wonderful friends that have reached out to us so much. Thank you for stopping by to visit with David, and those who have sent him such sweet and kind messages full of so much love. Thank you to my sweet friends for being there when I needed someone to watch Stephen or Lynn because we had another family emergency that created a change in our original plans. This week has been so eye opening for me to understand how important it is to be flexible in life. I have a hard time with that because control and plans keep my anxiety at bay, but I definitely need to learn to feel comfort with more spontaneity and when things change quickly. This week has been great for that!! I also want to thank those that wish they could stop in, but their plates are also full. We totally understand and feel for you at this time. You are all so sincere and full of so much love. We are forever grateful for those that have come into our lives. Your outreach and love does not go unnoticed. Thank you!!! 

          

Hospital Bound

We finally made it up to OHSU yesterday. In my opinion, one of the most beautiful hospitals ever. OHSU lies atop the Marquam Hill and the drive up is stunning. We get to be in a sea of luscious green while the trees are in full bloom. However, when we get to the campus there is just a special spirit here. One that lies in the heart of a volunteer. A spirit of compassion, love, and sincerity. This is also how we feel about the staff that we have been blessed with while David is up here in the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit. He has a week of inpatient testing here to locate and understand his seizure activity. He is by far the cutest, sweetest and most adorable patient ever in an adult setting (lets face it, nothing beats the face of a sweet little kiddo in Peds, but I am sure David was picture perfect as a child in the hospital!) He is my favorite patient ever!

We have been enjoying and making the very best of our situation up here. Our boys have been able to come visit their daddy and we all think he looks just like an Easter bunny. Don't you? So adorable! While David had some tests done today I got to go on a quick walk outside. This was fun because I took a picture of the flag pole that we see out our window every day. I could also see David in his room, which was kinda awesome and weird at the same time. You never know how many people can see in until you leave the room and feel like, oh no, the whole world can see us!! Oh well, it's worth having that beautiful PNW sunshine coming through our windows. Plus we lucked out to get a corner room. Instead of just one window we have four. Pretty spoiled I'd say! While on my walk I took a couple selfies, hospital pics, etc. It felt fantastic to get some fresh air on such a glorious spring day, but shhh...don't tell David because he can only walk a couple feet around his room. Pretty much has to stay in bed all day and he is being monitored 24/7. So he vicariously lived through me on my walk!

OHSU has always been my favorite place in Portland and I would come here often as a teenager and in college to just visit, think, and see the view of Portland. Anytime we have friends or family come in from out of town we usually take them on the tram and sky bridge. It is so much fun! One day I dream to be a nurse here, and this visit is making me so antsy to become an RN, so we will see what happens in the near future. Gotta love inspiration right???

Finding the Joy in Cooking

Have any of you tried to cook, but just did not like it..one bit? Well that is me!! I used to love to bake, that was before I had kids...now there is no way that I would bake like I used to because I can just see myself losing all self control. However, if I do bake we will keep just a little of what I made, and deliver the rest to others. That way it is fun for our family, they get some of the goodies, and others do as well without anyone feeling guilty about eating a whole batch of something.

Enough about baking...now back to the original question. See how sidetracked I get? Tangent could be my middle name! Any who, I have never been fond of cooking and I think that stems from not finding the creativity behind it. Growing up, we had wonderful food and my mom always made sure there was some sort of vegetable(s) with our dinners. However, we had more simple meals, which I loved and appreciated as I had two full time working parents.

Time can be limited, but my kiddos usually take a good afternoon nap and that means it is the perfect time to cook!! I just need to take advantage of that time. I have decided to find some delicious Pinterest meals that I will be using to get more creative and actually find the joy in cooking. Discovering more beyond the task itself has always been a goal of mine. So hopefully this whole thought process will work. David and I recently decided that we need to make healthier meals and beef up our vegetable intake. So yesterday my sweet brother Andrew (the ultimate chef) and I went to Chuck's Produce. This is a local store and let me tell you...it is AMAZING! You feel like you have stepped into a rainbow of deliciousness and it just makes you crave all things healthy! So we stocked up there and of course at Costco (our home away from home).

Last night was the first of many nights to come of healthy, mouth watering dinners. I made these Turkey Taco Lettuce Wraps by Cooking Classy (recipe here), but since we recently ran out of chili powder I used taco seasoning and I did not add chicken broth because there was already enough liquid left in the mixture from the juices of the turkey. Then I topped them with a bit of mozzarella cheese and sweet peppers. YUMMY!!! As a side dish we had cauliflower seasoned with vegetable seasoning and a slice of unsalted butter. Everyone in my family loved it and ate it all up. Big news for my picky three year old, but we are really working on having him finish his dinner. So everyone was happy, tummies full, and no guilt of having seconds because it was all so healthy!

    

Easter Egg Hunt

Being a part of the Camas/Washougal community has been such a wonderful experience. From parades, to first Friday events, Christmas downtown with fake snow (it seriously felt like a dream in a snowglobe). Today we got to go to the Washougal Easter Egg Hunt. The afternoon was filled with an egg hunt, music, Easter bunny, cotton candy, sno-cones, and much more. We had a blast!! Here are my two little chickies taking a break from the search so that their momma could have her own picture perfect moment.

    

Meet Our Lynn!

So much has happened since I have last written on my blog, that I just cannot play catch up so I am starting fresh! However, there is one tiny detail that turned our family of three into a family of four!!! This is our absolutely adorable, sweet nature baby boy Lynn Elden Richardson.

Lynn is almost one year old now. He was born on April 5th, 2015 (Easter baby). That day, our little Stephen became a big brother!

I feel so very blessed to have the absolute sweetest, most adorable little family! Can you tell that I might be just a bit biased ;) Here are some of our Fall family photos!

Christmas feels like it was just around the corner...

Our life from 2015 in a nut shell! Thanks and hope you enjoyed a little bit of catching up.

Simplifying Life!

Finally getting back into blogging and I am going to make this a daily habit. Short, long, it does not matter. This is my online journal, blog, outlet to the world, website, all for me and for others to enjoy if they'd like! We have so many new things coming up in life that I cannot wait to share with you all! Hope you enjoy and will write a quick catch up post here soon.