Richard and I are way excited to announce that we are expecting a little girl! Wahoo! If I can get decent enough scans of some of the ultrasound pics, I'll post 'em, but, since we don't have internet up in Midway, or our scanner and stuff hooked up, that may be awhile. We love Christmastime and we still have some more decorations to put up. I love the holidays! I love to bake and decorate trees, although I've found that putting lights on the tree can be a major pain. That's all for now!

Mission Call!

My brother David is going to serve an mission for our church starting December 17th and he will be going to Frankfurt, Germany. We are way excited for him. He is the first sibling to serve a mission in our family. Go Elder Dalton!

Growing family

Richard is now an uncle and I'm an aunt! Richard's brother Stephan and his wife Emily had their first baby, Ella Rose, on November 4th. Well, Susie and Jess, if you ever read this, better get movin' pretty soon, huh?!! :)

The babies

Cliffton walks really well now and he absolutely loves lights and light switches (if you pick him up he automatically looks around for a light switch and says “eh-lie” which means light). He also loves buttons – anything electronic! And he loves to run free! I guess he’s kinda like his Uncle Dagan, he’d say his parents are just “holding me back”! Richard and I took him to Toys R Us today (Sept. 29) and he had a blast running around looking at not just toys but also at the floor, the ceiling fans and lights and things like shelf price tags. He was so cute when he got pretty scared of this dinosaur toy but at the same time was fascinated by it and kept pushing the button to make it move. Cliffton appears to be getting his 9th tooth and he likes to brush his teeth although not for very long at all.

Our baby #2: I’m going to refer to her as “she” because I’m the mom, that’s why. She’s gone from an embryo to fetus (after 10 weeks) which means all the parts she needs for life are formed and she is about the size of a peach. As of today, 10/18/08, she is starting her 14th week. Her heartbeat can be heard and her skin is nearly transparent. Some of the intestines are outside her body because her tummy is too little to hold them all. Vocal cords are starting to grow and her tail should have disappeared by now (did you know we all had tails before we were born?). She will begin to hear sounds now and can be startled by loud noises.

I tried to hint to Susie (see pic. above) about our upcoming pregnancy using 'sugar babies' candy and 'lavendar baby lotion' that I gave to her back in August, but she figured it out when she saw Cliffie's onsie that says "I'm going to be a big brother!"

About us...

Hello everyone! Wow, there’s a lot to tell and first of all, if you haven’t heard, we’re having a baby! We found out on August 11, a few days after I had sadly received a ‘negative’ on a pregnancy test. This one was really faintly positive! We’re both so excited to have another lil’ bug in the Richard Stacey clan and we’re kinda hopin’ it’s a girl this time. The due date is April 19th – 3 weeks before Cliffton’s 2nd birthday.
That same week in August was Richard’s graduation from BYU. Oh yeah, we is both collige grajiates! Richard graduated with a B.A. in Music - yes, his trombone skills can make any woman swoon!

This past spring Grandpa and I planted a lot of veggies and pretty much everything I planted didn’t turn out. Thanks mostly to Grandpa, however, we’ve been enjoying garden fresh zucchini, grapes, peaches, pears, tomatoes, corn and strawberries. Later, apples and potatoes will be ready. This past summer has been a peach heaven, let me tell you! I’m also taking a free home gardening course offered through our stake and its been great so far. I hope to one day have my own garden - we're not sure if we can do any gardening in Midway.

Richard and I are still in the midst of moving all of stuff up to Midway where we’ll be living for the next 2 years apprx. Most of our belongings are there now. Richard’s been working in Midway at the Zermatt Resort for some time and we were hoping the move would help us save gas $. He may end up working in Park City though – if a better job turns up. Park City is about the same distance from Midway as Midway is from Provo.

Yellowstone, Sept. 6-13, 2008

As a graduation present to Richard, his parents, took our family to a vacation of his choice. Richard wanted to go to Yellowstone, so we spent September 6-13 in West Yellowstone, Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Teton area. It was fun and Cliffie was pretty good. After letting him out of the stroller though, it was pretty hard to get him back into it as he struggled as hard as he could to be free! The 5 of us plus all of our luggage and later, souvenirs were all packed into one vehicle for the trip! Definitely cozy! Luckily, we all seem to like each other. I was sick for most of the trip (thanks mostly to pregnancy I think) but I still had fun exploring and taking pictures. I only have a few on our own camera but Loretta & Darrell took about 1,000 so you can check out their blog for a whole bunch of those pictures (darrellandloretta.blogspot.com). We saw a lot of wildlife and got a little too close to buffalo near the end of the trip!

Cliffton & flour power

Cliffton got into his Great-Grandpa's flour and had so much fun! I almost didn't want to take him away from it (almost).

It's Aunt Michelle!

Cliffton doesn't get to see his Aunt Michelle very much as she's completing her residency in Pediatrics over in Hawaii. We get to see her about twice a year and this past August we went with her and the fam to the Living Planet Aquarium near Salt Lake City.

Loretta, Me and Emily

1st Birthday! May 10 2008

Cliffers

My lil' family

Cliffton in the water

While in St. George, UT, with my Mother-in-law's (Loretta) side of the family, I took Cliffton in a pool for the first time and dihydrogen monoxide with some bleach has a new fan!

Bryana and me!

Bryana, and her sister Elizabeth, are my longtime friends. We're going on 14 years come this summer! Our parents suggested we take summer school together back in 1994 at the ghetto middle school in Orlando that Susie and I went to for 6th grade. Bryana is so darling and she's the hottest kindergarten teacher in Utah! I had to share some pictures of us.

Mr. Bug

Cliffton can now kneel by himself and he can pull himself up to standing when he holds onto furniture. He's such a strong lil' guy! I gave him the very first haircut I've ever done, about a week ago, and he doesn't look too bad. He loves to visit with his grandparents here in Utah and he gets to see his other grandparents (my parents) in a few weeks when Jessica gets married up in Idaho! We'll be taking off right after Richard finishes his finals. Enjoy the pics!

pictures, jan-feb.08

updates!

Cliffton and I are taking a sign language course together, twice a week, and it is so simple and cute. Although Cliffers doesn't pay attention, I've learned the signs for several animals and foods. He is scooting around everywhere doing the 'army crawl.' Richard is studying at BYU, getting ready to graduate in August. He enjoys his work as a night auditor up in Midway, UT but we agree that this night schedule won't last much longer - he's trying to get a daytime position up there in accounting. I'm doing well. Up until the end of January, I was working at a cousins' home doing some cleaning and babysitting but now I'm at home again and its been really good. I'm preparing to do my first marathon this year which will most likely be in September. However, we can't afford, at least right now, to pay the registration fee. I'd like to just walk on, but it looks like all marathons require you to have a bib #. What else?..... I've been reading more and I love it! Richard and I have gone to DI to get cheap books and I'm remembering back about 15 years ago when I would regularly read several books a week. I hope Cliffton and his future siblings all like to read! one final note: Richard and I saw a musical last night, "She Loves Me," and I had a blast. It was such fun to get out on a date and to have some great entertainment. Richard thought the main girl was a lot like me when she got all emotional. Hmmmm....well, since I liked her, I took it as a sweet compliment! :)

Nerd test!

I thought this was quite funny! I scored 37 on it, so, I'm "not nerdy but definitely not hip." I am a "wannabe nerd."
http://www.nerdtests.com/nq_ref.html

oh goody! my teeth and "meet the parents"

I got my wisdom teeth pulled out today and its kinda icky, however, I actually feel pretty good.

So, I'm quite excited for Friday and Saturday.....on Friday I'm getting my hair colored and I've only had that done once by a co-worker and once I did it myself.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do.  I doubt I'll do darker than my original color though.  Then, on Saturday, my parents are in town for a short while.  Mainly, they are here to meet Jessica's fiance, Rhett, and go up to Idaho to meet Rhett's family and do wedding plans. 

Florida pics

More cute pictures!

Cliffie pics!

This is one of the funniest cliffie pictures ever! We took this while going from FL back to Utah.

Welcome!

This is our first blog posting and I'm excited to have a website just for the 'cutest family ever!'  I hope everyone enjoys looking at Cliffie pics.  Much love to all of our friends and family!