My BFF, the BEAUTIFUL bride

....still Mollie Rubner

Just one of thousands of shots just like this!

Mr. & Mrs!

Bridesmaids!

Abbi, Mollie, Cara (& Ali) then....at a White Pines Ct. party

Cara, Mollie, & Abbi now.....still friends, lots of letters, visits, & miles later (and all married!)

Meet my best friend from kindergarten! This weekend Mollie Ann Rubner became Mollie Hart. I got the privilege of being a part of her big day. So neat to see your best friend the HAPPIEST you have ever seen her on her wedding day! Mollie and I (and Cara...in the pictures above) grew up on White Pines court and spent many a barefoot summer night chasing each other around the neighborhood, riding bikes to swim team, and going 1st day of school shopping for the same outfits. One Easter the bunny brought Mol and I the same bear and one of us dropped it in the mud (I won't say who:)!!). The other one traded with her so she wouldn't have the muddy one (so to could avoid trouble) and we never traded back! The muddy one got cleaned up and was as good as new!

Mollie has a heart of gold, which makes her new last name (Hart) perfect for her! She also married a boy from Nebraska and we all know you can't go wrong there! Congrats to the newly weds!

On another note, yet another prayer request.....Ryan's Grandpa Dale is in the hospital for pneumonia. Pray that he is able to make a swift and full recovery and be back playing golf in no time!

Thanks friends for reading and praying for us, we love how easy it is to get the prayer chain going through this and how blessed we are to have people to pray!

The prodigal dog:)!

Thank you friends & fam for praying for us! At 5:20 this morning my dad was going out to his car to head to the train station and he heard a squawk...our little into the wild adventurer returned! THANK GOD! She was covered in dirt, scratches, ticks, and is missing a patch of hair on her belly but somehow survived 2 nights with rain storms. She went straight to the groomer and got the full spa treatment (which they informed me she was not sooooo happy about!) I was at work today and this is the first free moment I have had to update! Thanks for the prayers.....we can't believe she made it back to us. We feel like a complete little family again!

PS....she escaped in the pass off between the groomers hands and mine and ran out the grooming room door at Pet Smart. Then me (carrying Griffin) and 5 Pet Smart employees chased her around the store until she saw a rather large dog enter the scene and retreated back to me....oh the drama!

another prayer request.....

So I have another one. That "other" family member I wrote about on the blog just a week or so ago is not in our house tonight. Our dog, Maci, is missing. We left for the weekend and she stayed at my parents with a dog sitter. While the sitter was walking her, Maci pulled out of her collar and hit the road. This is really unlike her. She never runs from us, but it was a new person and she was probably just not sure what was going on. In any event, she's been missing for over 24 hours now. We have looked, called for her, called animal control, shelters, put up posters.....just about all we can think of. PLEASE pray for us that we find her. She is our first baby......we love her dearly and it would be a huge loss for us as a family! We will keep you posted!

Prayer Request

Hi guys! Just wanted to send out a little prayer request. My Uncle Brad's family lives in Ceresco, NE and last night they were hit with tornados. Their main house is still in tact but they lost a lot and they need some prayers as they figure out how to put things back together.
We are praying for you, Brad, LuAnn, Mike, Stacey, and Meg!

Christmas cards.....

Here's a sneak peek at our Christmas card photo shoot this year. They were done at Grand Beach(the lake house) by a local photographer.....Matt Thomas. I know I AM a RICHARD worrying about the Christmas card picture in May. Ryan wondered about my obsession at first but then he experienced two things this past year that helped him to understand where I am coming from.......

First, last July Ryan and Julie (the in laws:)!) experienced the first Ron Stewart photos....the same guy that has been taking our family Christmas card every other year since we were tiny. It is an experience to say the least, but my dad beamed with pride because his photographer came out of retirement just as he had his first grandson. Truth be told the photos did turn out pretty good and we had a Christmas card moment to remember for all members of the family.

Second, last Christmas my Uncle Brad pulled out a stack of papers on Christmas day and passed them around to the grand kids. We each took turns reading carefully thought out Christmas letters delicately written each year by my Grandma, Norma Richard, since her and Grandpa's first child was born. She was dedicated to the Christmas letter cause and not only was she a wonderful author but the letters also pay tribute to the history of the times they went through as a growing mid west family. It was really neat to hear history unfold both personally for my dad's family and also historically. A little scary too as I could almost hear her as a young mother writing those letters, and now her baby's are grown and have grown baby's of their own. One of my favorite snippets from one of those letters talked about Christmas shopping for the boys (she had 3.....) and longingly looking at the doll isle. A letter or two after that she was shopping for a girl when her only daughter Connie was born. I could relate as I bought Griffin's birthday presents this year.....but know she cherished each dirty, rough house, boy moment....as do I!

My motivation for getting pictures taken right now is because I wanted to capture Griffin at one year old, and I LOVE photos. But I would also like to think that my devotion for the "Christmas card" is because a little piece of my sweet Grandma is in my dad and that part got passed down to me.....so that I can keep recording history as the years fly by.....almost as quick as they seemed to while we were reading those old letters.

....and we have landscaping!

This is the front of our house before we started....nothing there!
Ryan tearing up the sod.....this is when we thought our neighbors would be laughing the next day when we replanted the sod because we don't know what we are doing!
....getting there......half way done!
....soooooo close!

Here's a close up....

...and we're done! probably more pics of the front of our house than you EVER wanted to see:)!

For the past 2 weeks one thing has consumed the lives of everyone in our family. Ryan has been hard at work to create a level brick wall/planter (he is a stud at this by the way!!). I have been taking care of the flowers and shrubbery and Griffin has been overseeing the project. Here are before and after pictures. It doesn't seem like much, but it took a lot to make it happen.....it's not just a day or two project as we originally thought....ha ha!

Happy Birthday dear Griffin, Happy Birthday to you.....

my new ride...a shiney sport coupe!
time to party!
Dad and I
Dad making my crazy face!
my family!
some aunts and uncles

as you can see, I LOVE cake!another piece please!

now I can be like dad!another big boy toy, my train table!

June 1st, 2007 our first baby was born and Sunday marked 1 year! I remember each precious moment in the hospital, from my water breaking in the OB waiting room to the very first time I got to hold him(heaven on earth)! To me thinking that a year has gone by is impossible....I actually remember being out with him as a newborn and people would always say, "oh enjoy it, it goes too fast..." It always annoyed me because I didn't want to think about the possibility of time passing without me having a hold on it. As a mom though, I guess you never can. Griffin is absolute JOY and makes our world perfection even though we do have stressful moments (what parents don't!?!?!). Ryan and I have learned and grown so much all from a little 20+ pound ball of heaven. I am pretty sure almost all parents feel this way about their kids, which is why it is so cool that God lets us each have our own little families to love, cherish, and dote over (isn't that what he does with us!) Parenting is just the best gift....best surprise....and most exciting adventure for Ryan and I both and if this is just one year, we can't wait to see what else is in store! Enjoy photos of our 1 year celebration! I think that the cake was a HIT!!