Loooooong Post

Okay, I have had enough people say that I haven't posted anything in months, so I have decided to sit down and actually update everyone on the last 3 months in the Pond home. Since my last post we have had Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and two birthdays. It was a crazy time and we have not quite settled down from all of the excitement. During that time we either forgot to take pictures or remembered our camera and left it at someone's house, so as for pictures I will post what I have which are mostly Christmas. Richie's parents came down to visit for an entire month over the Christmas season. The original plan was to stay three weeks, but they found a remodel job while they were down so they had to extend their time an extra week in order to finish the project. It was a fun time having them down. We had a full house and were bursting at the seams. Now the house seems so empty and makes me long for more company so that I can have everything full again. So, enough with the wishing and lets get to the pictures.We might as well start with the cute one. This wa Allie's Christmas dress. I put it on and she twirled and twirled and then had to go downstairs so Grandpa could take a picture. She's been into getting her picture taken lately. Now whenever she puts something on or is doing something cute she says, "Mommy you need to take a picture of this." She cracks me up.

Every year we go up to my grandparent's house in Prescott for their Christmas party. We have Mexican Food, do the nativity, and then Santa brings stockings for everyone. We don't know how much longer we will be doing that so this year my family decided to start our own and my parent's home. We all got together, had dinners, did a short nativity (with only 3 grandkids), and then all of the grandkids got stockings. My siblings and I also got together and gave our parents dinner and tickets to go see the Smothers Brothers. If you have no idea who I am talking about we seriously need to talk about what you think is comedy. It was a fun night and I look forward to doing it every year.

Now on to Christmas. As you can tell from the pictures below, we may have gone a little overboard with gifts this year. It was kind of hard to stop when we were playing Santa for more than just a two year old. Allie is the absolute best person to by presents for because she loves anything she gets, but being able to provide Christmas to other members of our family was great. After the one we had last year, this year made up for it.



There are many more images to share but I'm tired of uploading. As you can tell, we had tons of fun and a full house!

Next was my birthday. It was fun I got to eat Macayo's and spent time with family. I also got to work from home so I didn't have to go to the office that day. My sister-in-law and her family drove down that day to spend the week with all of us so it was fun to have them here a s well.


Last but not least, New Year's Eve. We spent it over at Robbie and Callie's playing games and eating until we were about to burst. It was a fun time of family and friends.

Needless to say, we had a great holiday season and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. There is nothing better than family!

Haircut and Halloween

Well, the day before Halloween, Richi took Allie to get her haircut. We only want it trimmed with a few layers to help her bangs blend in and the first thing the lady did was cut off 3 inches. It was sad to see her beautiful, long hair be chopped, but it still looks cute. She can make anything cute.

She is getting so big!

We spent Halloween at my parents house and Allie went trick or treating with her cousins. We carved pumpkins and then took the kids around the neighborhood. Allie wanted to go to every house. She loved that complete strangers were willing to give her candy. She was Snow White and loved her dress. She would've slept in it if I would've let her. She still puts her shoes on and says, "Mommy I'm going to work okay?" It's amazing what they understand and absorb from the world around them.

Cheezy!

RICHIE GOT A JOB!

We would like to thank everyone for their fasting and prayers on our behalf. On Thursday Richie officially became the new Project Manager for Aspire Design. He starts tomorrow and we are so excited! This year has been a huge struggle, but so many blessings have come because of it. We have had more blessings than sorrows during this time, and now we are going to have so much more. I feel like shouting from the roof tops. I want everyone who reads this to know that I know that Heavenly Father answers prayers and that his Son lives. My testimony has grown so much in the last year and I know that the Lord doesn't present you with any challenge that you can't handle. I also know that he will make your weaknesses become strengths and that if you place your yolk upon him he wil help you. He loves every one of us and wants us to come to Him for help. He is waiting at the door and knocking. We just have to open it.

Tag of 8

Kim tagged me and I am actually going to do it this time! Doing this is part of my pre-new year's resolutions. So, here we go:

8 shows I love to watch (I have more than 8 so this is hard to limit):

Criminal Minds
Big Bang Theory
How I Met Your Mother
House
NCIS
Heroes
Privileged
Without A Trace

8 favorite restaurants:

Macayo's
Manuel's
Carolina's
Olive Garden
El Charro (the one in Prescott, not Mesa)
On the Border
Macaroni Grill
Buca di Beppo

8 things that happened yesterday:

ASU lost to USC (I'm tire of them beating themselves)
Got to know Randy's new girlfriend Katie
Opened a new bank account
Shopped for new work shoes for Richie
Stayed up til 2:00 talking with Randy and my husband
Played Candy Land as a family
Made Pizza
Cleaned my bathroom

8 things I'm looking forward to:

Richie's first paycheck!
Mom and Dad Pond coming down for Christmas
Megan and Kennis's twins being born
Getting Pregnant (yes we're trying)
Primary Activity on November 15th! (it's going to be awesome)
Richie's Birthday
Carrie Underwood concert!
Quitting work! (getting ready to start the countdown)

8 things on my wish list:

Going on a cruise
Being debt free (except for my house, and this is going to be within the next year)
Being a better Primary President
Tile in my bathrom
My backyard being done
Fart like Randy (inside joke)
Having twins
Being a better Visiting Teacher

8 people I am tagging:
Stacy, Stephanie, Natalie, Callie, Tiffany, Lindsay, Holly & Marcie, Lindy(you ned to start a blog and now's your chance!)

I Do Cakes!

......and flowers, and table cloths. I guess I should say that I do parties. I finally got a picture of Lindy's wedding cake from my mom. I showed it to everyone at work and they were all wondering why I was working behind a desk. So, I have decided to post the picture. Spread my name to friends, family, and people you meet in the grocery store. I don't care. This is something that I enjoy doing and would love to do more often. Please ignore the flies. I did not put those on the cake!

All in One

I already know, so you don't have to say it. I have been quite the slacker when it comes to updating our blog. Not by choice. I know I say it a lot, but I have had no time. Between Primary, being a wife and mother, work, and putting together a wedding, I have been a little busy. So, here are the important events that have happened in the last 5 months. The only event I won't be posting is Lindy's wedding. I am still waiting for pictures from my mom. So, here it goes.

***Allie is TWO!***

That's right, my little girl is 2 years old. She turned two on March 4th and we had a birthday party for her at our home.

It was so much fun. Allie is the perfect kids to buy presents for. With every gift she opened she would have this excited gasp followed by a "Thank you so much" or "How cute". She did it with every single gift. After she was done opening gifts, she placed with each one over and over again. She had to make sure she took time to enjoy each individual gift. There are many things I love about her, but since she is two I will list two things I love about Allie:

1. She always brings a smile to my face. It's true. It doesn't matter what type of day I had at work. The moment I walk through our front door I know I will get the best greeting. Or, if I am having a low self esteem day, she seems to know because she will come up to me and start playing with my hair and say "Mommy so beautiful". It's great.

2. She is a genious. I know all parents think their kid is the brightest around, but I have to disagree with them. My daughter is so bright. I don't know where she gets it from. She has been able to have full conversations since 18 months. Not just coming up and saying "cookie" or "juice". It's always, "Mommy, I would like some juice please". The other day we had the misionaries over and all of a sudden we all got quiet because we heard Allie singing a song. She was singing "I Am A Child of God". It was the cutest thing ever. I love my little girl.

*** Our 4 Year Anniversary***

Richie and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary on March 13th. We didn't get to do much, but it was at least good to spend some time together. I took the day off of work and we just hung out. That's what happens when you work, it falls in the middle of the week, and you have a kid. We are going to try and do something fun for our 5th. Sorry, but no pictures.

***Easter***

We had a quiet Easter this year. We had the typical Easter baskets and went to church. I was able to get pictures of Allie in her Easter dress. She is too cute.

She is very photogenic!

***Had my First Primary Activity***

My Presidency and I put together our first primary activity and it was a hit. Since the ward split, we decided to do a "Meet the Bishopric" night. We had dinner with the bishopric and then played games with them. The kids loved it. Everyone wanted to sit by bishop, or be on bishop's team. There were some kids at the activity who ditched their baseball games because they told their mom that they wanted to have dinner with the bishop. It was a lot of fun. In the mix of things I forgot to take pictures of everything. We did get a picture of the bishopric with al of the kids. So, this is my Primary:

***Said Goodbye to Friends***

We had to say goodbye to some good friends of ours. Brandon got shipped to Korea in the air force so his wife Tiffany and daughter Addison moved to Utah to live with her folks while he is gone. We really miss them. Things aren't quite the same now that the've left. One of the hardest things is that Allie always asks "Where's Addison? Where's Tiffany? Where's Uncle Brandon?" I don't have any pictures of us with them because I haven't gotten them from my sister-in-law yet, but I do have pictures of Allie and Addie.

***Lindy's Wedding***

Lindy is married. It was a great day, and everything turned out perfectly. The cake was beautiful, the tables were awesome, the flowers lasted, and the stream worked. Yes, it was a beautiful wedding, and I had a fun time doing it, but I am so glad it's over. I think I worked just as hard at this wedding as I did my own. I don't have pictures yet, but I will get them. I am actually in the process of putting together my own wedding blog to market my wedding services. I do flowers, invitations, cakes, food, just about everything except the pictures and video. After this wedding I realized that I shouldn't be wasting my talent. This is something that I have always enjoyed doing and I want to do more of. So, I will keep you informed about the site and my services.

***Fun Stuff***

That's just about everything that has gone on in our life since February. Nothing else realy exciting to tell. These final pictures are just ones that I thought were too cute to not post. I even included a video of Allie's first swim of the summer. Enjoy! Until next time.

She loves her puppies!

Such a character!

Primary President

I have been so bad with this lately, but I have good reason. The month started off with my first monthly close at work. The first day wasn't bad, and it seemed like it was going to be smooth sailing and the rest of the month would be relaxing. Then, on the 3rd we went to church and found out that our ward was splitting. It was cool because the ward was so huge, and it was one of the last things President Hinckley approved before he died. It's cool to think that the last moments of the prophet's life were spent thinking about you and the needs of your ward. So, I didn't see my husband for most of the rest of the day because he was in with the Bishopric as they tried to get everything started because we were changing buildings and we lost every single auxiliary presidency and all of the teachers for the classes. SO I went back to work and everything was smooth there until I got a call from the Financial Analyst from one of my facilities saying that their AR and billing was off for 3 facilities. To make a long story short, my boss gave me the wrong account information so I was coding everything to the wrong spot. So, that meant late nights for me for the rest of the week. Then, to put the icing on the cake, on the night of the sixth I was called by my husband to meet with the Bishop. I have been called to be the primary president in our new ward. The only calling I have ever had in priamry is the pianist. That's the only calling I've had anywhere. So, I went from barely on the totum pole to the very top. And with that calling, I had to choose couselors, secretary, and all new teachers, scout advisors, activity day leaders, nursery workers, and pretty soon a nursery leader. man oh man, has life been crazy. Richie is tired of me always talking about Primary, because that's all I ever talk about. When I'm not at work, I'm at home going through primary stuff or emailing the second counselor in the bishopric names for potential teachers and leaders. So, if I seem a little out of it at times, I am just trying to keep myself afloat as I wait for the waves to stop crashing in. I have enjoyed my calling so far, even though it has been hectic, and I really enjoy my presidency and think we will have tons of fun.