Laughter Burns Calories

And after watching this... I think I lost 10 pounds!!! How cute is this?

"Excuse Me"

Evan has become quite an expert at saying "excuse me" after little burps, etc... but I thought it was a little excessive when he said it after every hiccup this afternoon!

A video of Evan

Many of you don't get to see or hear Evan on a regular basis, so here's a quick video of him doing what he does best... making a mess with yogurt :) He says hello too and it's super cute. Enjoy!

New Business Website

To all of you that may be interested in what I am doing these days... here's a link to my new PartyLite business website.

www.partylite.biz/christinareich

Let me know if you have any questions or you're interested in any of our products!

PartyLite-My New Business

As some of you may know, I have just began my new business as a PartyLite Consultant. PartyLite is one of the biggest companies of independent consultants that sell top quality candles, lotions, oils, etc.

I recently quit my part-time job with Curves to look for something more flexible and fun. With PartyLite, I can make my own hours and never miss special events with my family, including vacations. I'm really looking forward to all of the people I will meet and the opportunities this new venture presents. My sister-in-law, Ginger, just started and got me interested. I'm really looking forward to doing this along side of her!

I will soon have my own website up, so please feel free to look through the catalog, shop, and see the wonderful specials we have for hosts and guests too. Who knows... maybe you'll consider trying PartyLite as your own business!

I'd love to have you book a show and let me come in to your homes to share PartyLite's new Winter/Spring 2008 catalog. If you are interested about PartyLite or booking a show, please contact me at my business email. It is CMReich@yahoo.com

Thanks for all of your love and support. I look forward to sharing more about this exciting new adventure later. Have a great week!

House Happenings #4

More progress is being made. We've painted the dining room/kitchen and are currently working on the guest bath. Here are some more pictures of the finished master bedroom, Evan's room, the kitchen/dining area, and the guest bedroom. We'll have more later!

Happy New Year!

Well, it seems unreal that yet another year is gone and we are already almost done with Day #2 of 2008, doesn't it?

In reflecting on 2007 and how faithful God has been to our little family, I can't help but be overwhelmed by emotion and greatly humbled. A year that had began in such sadness, lonliness, and desire to be "home" had life hard to bear at times. Little did we know that a dear life-long friend of mine would find a job posting, care to email it one day in January, and it would end up being that little ray of hope that in the end brought us HOME. (Thanks, Ash!) And again in December, we were blessed with our first home. God is SO good!

There are so many other wonderful things that happened in 2007 and we look ahead with eyes wide open to what God has in store for 2008.

May each of you be richly blessed and find joy in every day. We love you all.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Christmas 2007

Christmas 2007 was as much fun as ever, and probably more! We were able to see family and friends from Monday the 17th through Christmas Day. While our heater decided to go out on the 21st and would be off an entire week, we managed to survive the cold and enjoy the Holidays. We escaped to the homes of others as often as possible!

Ginger made it up with Andria for a day visit and got to see our new place, let the kids open their gifts, and share lunch before heading home. It's so wonderful to see Evan interact with family that he hadn't had much time with before. We love our day visits!


My good friend, Kate, came down the evening of the 21st to exchange gifts, go out to dinner, and hang out awhile.

Bryan's best friends, James and Derek, came from Santa Cruz for the weekend of 22nd and 23rd. They spent their time hanging out on the slopes of Sierra Summit, snowboarding and trying out some new gear. They had a blast; so much in fact that they are on their way now to ring in the New Year with us!

Christmas Eve we spent with my extended family. Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, etc. got to eat together, visit, and enjoy the laughter of having a white elephant gift exchange and then playing "Mafia". Not necessarily the most Christmas friendly game, but it was fun! LOL. We made it home in the extreme fog (very scary) and spent time with Evan around the Christmas tree as we read "The Night Before Christmas" and he opened his ornament for 2007. It was a clock because Evan has been nearly obsessed with clocks this year.





Christmas Day we woke up, opened gifts as a family in our pajamas, and just reflected on how our lives have been so blessed this year and why it is that we as Christians celebrate such a glorious day. Later, we met up at my sister's house for more gifts with our immediate family and Christmas lunch.



Overall, it was a most memorable day. Evan was REALLY in to the whole gift thing and LOVED ripping the paper off of things. In fact, he wasn't quite sure how to react to the one gift bag he received. He took the tissue out first, then proceeded to turn it upside down and dump his gift onto Bryan's lap. But, as smart as Evan is... he then began refilling the perfect-sized bag with all of his new puzzles! Clever!





We hope that each of you had a wonderful day rejoicing in the birth of our Lord and Savior. Merry Christmas!

House Happenings #3

Here's some more photos of the house and all we've been up to. They are in no special order and range from the back yard to the play room and some decorating too! More to come!

House Happenings #2

Well, we are officially in OUR house! It took a day or two longer than expected due to some miscommunication on the seller's side, but we managed to work something out and had keys by 4pm on Friday.

Once in the house, we noticed a huge need for cleaning carpets and fresh paint ASAP... so the carpets got cleaned Friday night and Saturday was spent painting. Sunday became moving day. Thanks to all of the help from our families and our friend, Drake, we managed to get everything at least into the garage by Sunday afternoon.

With me still out of commission with a slipped disc in my lower back and a displaced hip, I feel that we'll never get this place put together. I want to do so much and I just can't! But I also know that Bryan is working SO very hard to accomplish tasks as he finds/makes the time. Today he managed to get half of the Christmas lights up and tomorrow we will hopefully have a tree to be decorated. It's all coming together nicely and it's so fun to realize it's truly OURS.

Here's a few pictures to tease you... more to come!

Comfortable Pens...

are always needed when signing your name a hundred times. Guess I better find one fast... we sign for the house tonight! Praise God!

Closer to Moving Day

So, escrow should be officially closed 1 WEEK from today. Exciting? Most definitely! Stressful? A little. Packed??? NOPE!!! Not even one box! Can you believe it? "Mrs. Organized" hasn't even started. So if you're free (or just plain bored), you're more than welcome to come pitch in, LOL. I am going to make this post then tape my first box and get packing. I think the busyness of this time of the year has my mind and time elsewhere currently, but I need to get started. Please pray that I'll be in the right mindset to just start and finish what needs to be done. Hopefully next weekend we'll have some pictures of the inside of our new home to show and then you'll be able to watch as we make this house into our home.

On another note... we hope Thanksgiving was wonderful for each of you. We had an amazingly fun time with Bryan's grandparents, his brother's family, cousins from Chicago, and his aunt. We were so blessed to all be together. Ginger and I spent much time scrapbooking in the evenings, the guys played their video games, and it was nice just relaxing. We also took the kids to Johnson's Christmas Tree Farm in Boulder Creek and stopped in Casa de Fruta on our way home to eat lunch, ride the train, and also ride the carousel. It was a great trip! (pictures to come)

T-H-A-N-K-F-U-L-N-E-S-S

T- The ONE True God loves ME and is always faithful
H- Husband who is perfect for me in every way
A- Afternoon naps
N- Never having to sleep outside, walk to work, or hope for food
K- Knowledge and education
F- Family and Friends who pray for us daily
U- Unexpected phone calls, letters, emails that brighten my day
L- Love (1 Cor. 13:4-13)
N- New house to move into for Christmas
E- Evan :)
S- Special moments spent together
S- Sunrises and sunsets, some of God's most beautiful creations

What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving?

Unhappy Feet

Okay, it's probably just me that found the title funny :) But I didn't like "Happy Feet" to begin with, so here's a late picture of our little sick penguin on Halloween. Aunt Stacey was able to capture a picture of him.

House Happenings

Well, it's official... we've opened escrow this morning on a house!!! So, if all goes well, we should be in OUR new house by Christmas. Please pray that all goes well with the 30-day escrow and we can get easily moved and adjusted by the end of the year. We are so excited to become home owners and this house is just perfect for us. It's 9 years old, 4 bed/2 bath in Kingsburg, great yards for Evan to play, and plenty of room to grow. We'll keep you updated on the progress and look forward to having you all as guests in the near future!
(Just not all at once, LOL)

Buddies

Evan's still not feeling well so his cousin, Noah, decided he should probably keep a close eye on Evan. It was cute to see Noah (3 mos. older) staying near to Evan and being a good buddy all morning yesterday. He'd sit with him and even was playing with his hair at one point. That's so different than their normal growling, chasing each other, and otherwise just being boys. Here's a few pictures of them together. What great buddies they are!

Pumpkin Carving #2

Tonight we had a pumpkin carving party at Michael and Stacey's house. We got together to carve pumpkins and eat a great chicken enchilada dinner, topped off with pumpkin pie for dessert. We had a great time although Evan has been under the weather with a temperature of 101-102 yesterday and today... so you'll see him missing in photos. Hopefully he'll be feeling better soon.

Noah is concentrating... notice the tongue :)

Bryan getting into his work!

Mikayla showing the "gunk"

Me finishing my ghost carving

Our lil family of pumpkins

Pumpkin Carving

Evan got to carve his first pumpkin. He played more with the seeds than anything and tried putting a few in his mouth, discovering it wasn't so great raw! He was so cute with his little pumpkin. These holidays have such a different appeal when watching your own children enjoy the old traditions.