Ho ho ho!!!

Okay, granted Maggie ended up playing with the boxes and wrapping paper mostly... but Grandma T's baby doll captured second place, hands down. She was captivated by the eyes and the bottle of milk that she couldn't drink:)

Favorites of Tate & Eleece

I kicked off my photography blog... now I just need to find something to say with all the pictures I have back logged.

Charlie Brown Christmas

Maggie reminds me of Charlie Brown in her Christmas dress.

Oh Christmas Tree

Unpublished

I have so many pictures of Maggie that I haven't shown anyone. Anyway, I thought I would share a few from months previous.

Inside the Crib

Under the bridge during intermission on our morning bike ride

I knew this size wouldn't last long

Our little explorer learns to stand

Only her Dad would allow her to put dirty bark in her mouth

Gall Bladder Christmas

It has been over a week since Sara's Gall Bladder was removed. The day surgery went smooth, we went in at 2PM and were driving home by 7PM, just enough time to rescue me from Obama's war speech. We had the best doctors, which we attribute to everyones thoughts and prayers. Sara is recovering well. She has been on her feet and working this week. Meanwhile, I feel sorry for myself because I have cold. Sara got the house decorated for Christmas, I think it looks awesome. I like to stay up late just so I can hang out with Christmas tree lights. My favorite thing Sara does is turn the tree on... which lights up our little living area... yes, life we be pretty dull without her.

9M

Nine short months. She caught her first cold... just when we were getting accustomed to sleeping through the night. It is probably from collecting signatures in the cold for "residents against rising HOA fees" or it is from HER COUSINS. It's got to be her cousins. For her nine month checkup, she didn't even flinch when the doctor stole blood from her heel. I attribute that to all the rough housing she does with her Dad. Her official weight 21 lbs 4 ounces and 29 inches long. I thought my arm muscles would keep up with her growth... not true.

Candyland

Our house was like Candyland after a visit from Grandma. Our empty Advent Calendars were filled with Chocolate, our jars were restocked with Gingerbread and Mints. Currently, I am chewing on the Gum she left us. It probably hasn't been good for our colds but it sure has been good for our Christmas moral. Thanks Mom!

The Hawkins

It's hard being a photographer when all your relatives are beautiful.

The Donovan's

Tasha's Favorites which just so happen to be a lot of my favorite images too!

Behind Grandma Torgerson's Shed

I have so many fun pictures from Thanksgiving with the family. I thought I would start with this short series behind the shed. And a lot more to come...

Thanksgiving

So many great pictures but this captures everyone that was there.

Happy Halloween

Tonight was our ward Trunk-or-Treat. I was super excited to dress Maggie up as a Ballerina this year. My sister Tasha made her tutu and the rest of her ensemble we had around the house. Maggie loved her tutu and was having the best time playing with it while I was dressing her. She had a great time checking out all the other Halloween costumes at the Trunk-or-Treat too. I can't wait for Halloween night to be able to dress her up again! Happy Halloween!!

Reflection

Sara is reading a book. I am learning Facebook, PHP, SQL and Wordpress. Meanwhile, Maggie is crawling around the kitchen, under tables and chewing up any loose paper. Ironically with all the social networking I am exposing my brain to... I don't have time to post Maggie's latest discoveries.

Yes, Maggie is crawling! She loves to follow me around, which is nice because I worry about what paper product she is consuming while contently playing out of sight, but usually she will follow me into the kitchen and play quietly until she bumps her head... at least this way I know what is getting into.

Maggie is standing! Soon I will need to lower the crib because she enjoys standing up and reaching over at things. She also uses this new leveraged point of view to get at unsuspecting paper products, magazines and books. Suddenly the house is full of hostile objects.

Maggie is developing taste. She loves her squashes, sweet potatoes, rice cereal, oatmeal, pears and books, of course. She is finicky about avocados, peas and carrots. She starts blowing food out if she doesn't like it... hopefully this is just a phase.

A little tutorial: To Add Banner

Thanks to anyone who wants to add my banner. Here are some simple instructions:

Step 1) Under Layout, add gadget
Step 2) Select HTML/Java Script
Step 3) Cut and Paste the Code below in content box and save!!!



<br /><!doctype transitional//en 1.0 -//w3c//dtd public html xhtml http://www.w3.org/tr/xhtml1/dtd/xhtml1-transitional.dtd><br /><a href="http://www.stanfordrichins.com"><img width="100%" alt="Stanford Richins Photography" src="http://www.stanfordrichins.com/graphics/logo_banner.png" /></a><br /><br /></!doctype>

Customize it! If you have wide side banner change the above value [width="250px"].

Let me know if you add the banner. Thanks:)

The Upside of Website Up!

I finally published my new website. It's clean. I like it! Because I am crazy and refuse to use a template site or hire it out... these things take more time than I care to admit. Now hopefully I will have time to post on Maggie and Sara. Anyhow, I would love to hear your feedback, especially if something is upside-down or if you think there is room for improvement.

Music or No-Music?

6.5 M

Maggie is starting to scoot around on her belly. She is also starting to get attached to objects, mainly the ones you have in your hand like cell-phones, calculators, forks and bills... I pretty much let her chew up everything, except the forks of course. Anyway, here is the latest photos of her discoveries.

6 months

15 lbs. 3 oz. - 50th percentile

27 inches - 95th percentile

Maggie is getting to be such a big girl! She loves to play with her toys and put everything in her mouth. Her first tooth came in on Tuesday. We have started her on rice cereal and will soon be making her way towards fruits & veges once we start making her baby food. Maggie is just starting to sit up on her own and we are always close by to catch her when she falls over. Maggie loves attention and loves to be held. She fully recognizes her mom and dad and will smile with delight when she sees us. Maggie just started to say "ma ma " although I don't think she really knows what it means. She is so much fun to be around and we are loving the stage she's in!

non-reader's visual summary (July/August)

High Water

On morn' of Thursday July 30th, we threw our plastic wrapped items and backpacks into the truck and headed for Zion at 4am. Our trip was temporarily put on hold while police officer Levitt, in Hurricane, wrote out a ticket. Thankfully it was not for speeding and only for not having a front license plate. We arrived at the visitor's center 9:30 sharp, picked up our overnight permit and caught our shuttle to Chamberlain's Ranch.

If you want to hike the Zion Narrows there is nothing better than starting from the top. We started in a rolling cow pasture, following the Virgin River, slowly watching it carve below the surface. Taya insisted we tell stories the entire length of the trip

The first day we past through the first narrows, my favorite section. We also past the waterfall, which is a great place to swim. We also past Kolob Creek, where the water gets warm and slippery, deep and murky.

There are twelve designated campsites in the Narrows, our permit was for twelve, but due to lack of sunlight we camped at ten. Our site had dozens of spidery dandy-long-legs, which kept me from sleeping most of the night.

The next day, I awoke to find that a squirrel had eaten most of my remaining food. Luckly, Taya had packed enough food to feed a family of five, including vienna sausages, jerky, bagels, energy bars and extra cereal. I had no idea I would be craving vienna sausages!

The journey out was beautiful. We had to swim through a few areas, which was fun. We filled our water at the Springs, which taste delicious. We didn't take too many detours and were home by 9pm and ready to sleep in our beds.

Camping with the Donovan's

I loved camping when I was a kid. It seemed like a free easy way to live and nobody cared if you were covered in dirt and smelled like a campfire. I never remember packing. I don't recall any sleepless nights. I don't recall unpacking either. I do however remember roasting marshmallows and staying up late telling spooky stories. In fact, I sometimes wondered why all children didn't run away and live in the woods.

Friday after packing for half a day, we left with the Donovan's for Mt. Charleston, about an hour north of Las Vegas. We arrived early enough to get a camping site at Old Mill picnic area. It was chilly and I was thinking about why I packed everything I did but left my jacket at home. I guess when you are constantly sweating you forget that there are places in the world that are cold. Well, my jacket was not the only thing I forgot. The chocolate bars for smores were sitting in the freezer at home and the oil and spatula for the pancakes were sitting in the cupboard. I actually didn't even think of those things until were cooking.

But there were plenty of things that were just as good as I remember. The tinfoil dinners were delicious. The marshmallows were yummy, especially melted on the peach cobbler. The fire Brian built was warm and smokey as any fire I recall. And the stars... well, I am glad I remembered to look up because I almost forgot there were stars in Nevada.

Camping with the family was not quite like I remembered but even without smores or sleep, it was still fun!

5 1/2 Months

Today Maggie looked close to crawling. It has been five and a half short months. She has made some recent discoveries. She recognizes her name by turning to look at you when you say Maggie. She wants to put everything in her mouth, including her toes. She pulls toward any solid foods that Mom or Dad are eating, she really wants to eat something more solid than milk but we are still holding out. She continues to love the outdoors. She can be in the middle of a piercing scream but the instant she steps over the threshold outside, she is calm as a stary night. She sleeps from 8pm to 5am, with a sleepy feeding around 10pm. She loves to be talked to and held. She is developing coordination in her hands. She can hold her own bottle and can pick her pacifier up and put it in her mouth. She smiley more and has more reactions, which makes parenting that much more rewarding.

Birthday

One thing I love about Sara is the reminders she gives me that her birthday is almost here. One month out and she gets giddy, "Do you know what today is?" I should know by now but I swear my brain is not wired to remember dates. "One month before my birthday!" Birthday month begins, which means nothing really changes except, Sara is making plans and talking about all the things we are going to do. Special favors are done under the guise of birthday month. One week out and presents begin to arrive and we celebrate early, after all it is birthday week.

Finally it's here. The funny thing is in a few minutes I will be wakening her with Maggie and then we are off cleaning the house because the Donavan's are coming out to celebrate and we are going camping, yes camping. Sara even let me influence her birthday plans. This is a big experiment with two toddlers but if nothing turns out at least we will have an adventure.

Happy Birthday Sara!!

Apple Pie Fourth of July

On the Road

Last weekend we visited family in CA. Per Paige's request, I'm getting the pictures up with more frequency. These were fun pictures, especially taking pictures of Tanner and Brayden. Enjoy!!!

Traveling Maveling Maggie

#32 & RJC (Never Released Photos)

Happy Birthday Blake and Baby Ray!!!

Carly's little boy Raymond John born June 5th at 12:11pm
8 lbs. 14oz. 21 inches
Same day as his Uncle Blake