So busy!!

It has been quite busy around the Richards' household lately.  I just finished TCC this past friday and will be graduating on the 15th!!  I can't believe it has been 2 years already.  Connor and Kara are wrapping up school with Mom and enrichment with only a few weeks left.  Connor has been playing lacrosse, so that has kept us busy too.  This week we are so excited to have our Memaw (my dad's mom) come and visit for a week!  It will be great to spend time with her.  Just wanted to give everyone a quick update.  Hopefully I will have some more pictures later :)

He is Risen!

Then Bursting forth in glorious day up from the grave He rose again!

And as He stands in victory, 

sin's curse has lost its grip on me!

Bought with the precious love of Christ!

Valentines

This past Valentine's Day, my good friend, Courtney, planned a Girl's Night Out.  We all arrived at Reagent with no makeup, no hair done, and normal clothes.  In the theatre dressing room all of us got ready together.  I think we spent about 2 1/2 hours in there getting all fixed up!!  After we were finished we went and enjoyed a picnic inside the beautiful lobby of the Reagent Theatre.  While we ate our very yummy italian dinner, we also shared about how God has recently been showing His love to us.  It was such an encouraging time.  Back at home Dad, Mom, Kara, and Connor all played Chicken Foot with the Melones.  They also enjoyed tasty chocolate fondu with strawberries and pound cake.

Happy Valentines Day!!

In the dressing room

Mrs. Coffey doing my eye makeup

Courtney and I

All of us girls

Snowshoe Mtn. 2009

Connor all ready to hit the slopes!

Kara got to build a snowman on the last day when it snowed.
Out to dinner....we walked from out condo over the the restaurant.  It was FREEZING and snowing pretty hard!

Our model shots for the front of a ski magazine....maybe?? :)  
WhiStLEpuNk

Mom and Dad on the Ballhooter lift

Ski bunny :)
Playing a game of Scrabble, where the extent of our words was, "coy," "it," and "dog." haha

I think mom had the longest word; "peaches."  Needless to say, Scrabble is not really our game :)


"When are you going to put pictures from Snowshoe on the blog?!?"  That's what Kara has been asking me for a couple of weeks now, so I guess I should put some up :)  We went to Snowshoe the first week in January and despite not having a snowfall until the last two days we were there, we still had a blast!  Connor was the only one who did snowboarding while the rest of us stuck with skiing.  We were so happy to be able to get our favorite ski in/out condo, Whistlepunk.  It is decorated kind of rustic and feels so cozy.  We all had a great time as a family!!

Where am I going???

This is my last semester at TCC and then I will be transferring somewhere else!  Right now there are three schools that I am looking in to; James Madison University (Harrisburg, VA), Old Dominion University (here in Norfolk), and University of Memphis (Memphis, TN).  I think I will found out sometime in March.  The Lord has really helped me to trust Him throughout this whole process of making a decision for next fall.  I don't know where I will end up, but I do know the Lord does.  He has my whole life planned out before me and that gives me great comfort.  He may even have something totally different planned for next fall, that I have no idea about yet.  It will be exciting to see where the Lord will open doors and lead me!   

Days gone by

I was looking through some pictures on my mom's camera and found these ones of Connor and Kara from this past summer :)

Connor and his LONG hair....he really looks like a surfer guy

Kara's Lenscrafters model shot :)

365 days without it....

January 3rd marked the day of when I had gone an entire year without chocolate!  My friend Jessi gave me this idea to start "no chocolate for an entire year."  For those of you who don't know me that well, I must tell you I LOVE chocolate, so giving it up for 365 days was quite a challenge for me at times.  There were two reasons why I did this; one reason was to be more healthy (I have a little sweet tooth:), and the second, more important reason, was to use this experience to show my dependence on the Lord in ALL areas of my life.  I also used it to draw me closer to Him.  Whenever I was tempted to give in and have a piece of chocolate, I prayed and asked the Lord to help me.  Back in January of last year when I first started this chocolate fast a friend gave me a Bible verse that directly applied.

~2 Corinthians 12:9-10~

"But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."  Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.  For the sake of Christ, then I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.  For when I am weak, then I am strong."

This helped to show me more clearly how I need to depend on the Lord in all areas of my life, whether they are small or big things.  Also, as a side note, its funny I don't seem to crave chocolate as much as I used to haha :)

First piece of chocolate!

It was so good!! :)

The Richards' Annual

Well, we had our yearly Richards' New Years eve party again this year.  We all had a great time with the Adams, Ammon, and Glover families!

Happy New Year!!!!

~2009~

The dapper boys

The lovely moms

The sweet girlies

The macho dads

Enjoying a time of worship before 2009

"10...9....8....7....6......5............!!!"

All the kids

Warning:  Watch out for Kara's freaky face :)

All the parents

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

On Christmas eve both Dad and I had to work most of the day, so Connor and Kara stayed home helping mom prepare food for the evening at the Melone's house.  We ate a wonderful dinner at the Melone's, along with the Murphy and Parson families.  Around 7pm we all headed over to church for the Christmas Eve Candlelight service.  That evening we stayed up late just talking, hanging out, and enjoying our new pajamas.  Christmas morning started early as usual.  The rule is no one can go down stairs until 7am, so of course at 7am both Connor and Kara are wide awake and ready to see what is waiting for them under the tree.  After checking out what "Santa" left under the tree and in our stockings, we then enjoyed a very yummy egg casserole that Kara had made.  Before the paper tearin' began, we had a devotion time to remind us of what we are celebrating at this time of year; the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Now came the opening of all the gifts!  We each took turns opening one gift at a time, so we could see what each other receives.  Playing with the new gadgets, napping, snacking, relaxing, and cleaning up (Dad:) made up the most of our Christmas afternoon.  That evening we got to enjoy a great Christmas dinner at our good friends, the Adams' house.  The night ended with a stop at the Barstow's house where many other church families had gathered to enjoy more yummy food, games, singing, and fellowship.  

I really can't believe Christmas is over.  It always seems that once it gets here it goes way too fast!  I am really thankful for this time though; not only because of the special times with friends and family, but also it's a time were we can remember how God sent his only Son, Jesus, to the earth to live the perfect life we couldn't live and then die for all our sins.  I hope everyone had a wonderful christmas!

~Merry Christmas-2008~

Christmas family picture

Christmas Eve with our new Pjs

Can you tell Kara's excited to have a Wii?!

Connor's new guitar

My new Dooney and Bourke.  You can tell that I had just gotten out of bed :)

Christmas morning breakfast

Playing Kara's new Wii