Our BIG news...

Jordan & I are beyond excited to announce that we will be welcoming Baby Richards with loving arms December 2012! "For this child we prayed, and God answered our prayer." -1 Samuel 1:27

 

We truly could not be more excited! We would appreciate all of your prayers as we embark on this amazing journey :)


Love & Blessings,

J & J

Oh woooow!

It's been almost 3 months since I've blogged!! WHAT?! There is so much we have to share :)) I am going to have to split it up into a few posts... definitely don't want to overload you with too much info all at once lol

Well, I have yet to take pictures of our beautifully finished back yard, so not like me! In my defense, we have been having some seriously weird weather aka CRAZY rainstorms! I will definitely take care of that by the end of this week. We have already had our family & friends over a few times, and have definitely been enjoying our fire pit :) The rain has also prevented us from finishing the dog run, boooo. The weather is suppose to stay nice for a while - so hopefully we'll be able to get started on the dog run soon. Other than working around our house, we have just been enjoying the nice weather & spending time with our family & friends. Jordan & I also took a spontaneous trip to The Oakland Zoo a few weeks ago - it was SO fun! Highly recommend it :) I will put some pictures up of that adventure as well.

That is just a smidgen of what we've been up to... we also have some VERY BIG news to share, but that will have to wait for a few weeks... stay tuned :))

We hope everyone is enjoying the start of Summer!

Love & Blessings,

J & J

At a loss for words.

The town that I've grown up in is turning into a place that is unrecognizable. It use to be two lane roads and hay fields. I use to feel safe walking to and from school. Now, I'm not even sure this is a place I'd want to raise my family. Being that Jordan is in law enforcement, we hear and see things first hand, most of the time. We also have many friends and family that are in law enforcement. The things that are going on in this town or the surrounding towns seem to just be getting worse and worse. Whether it be the immense amount of gang activity or the home invasions/burglaries. Then today, I turn on the news to see that a Deputy Sheriff has been killed in the line of duty, he was serving an eviction notice. Really? What is this world coming too? The fact that a person thinks that it's okay to shoot & kill an officer, who was just doing their job, is completely disturbing to me. My heart goes out to the families of all of those that were affected by the tragedy today and to all of those that selflessly put their lives on the line everyday to ensure that we are protected. Especially my BEYOND AMAZING husband. He works so hard everyday, he goes above and beyond what he is required to do. He sees the worst of the worst, the scum of the earth, but still comes home with a smile on his face and love in his heart. Most of the time, I don't know how he does it. I am so proud, thankful and inspired by him daily. I pray that God will protect him always, and continue to bring him home safely to me everyday.

Love & Blessings,

Jenna

As usual.

As usual. I am going to start out this post apologizing for the lack of posts. I honestly don't know why I don't post from my phone, that is where most of my pictures are & it is something I have with me all the time... hmmm... maybe I'm on to something ;)

Since my last post about Jordan's b-day, we haven't really been up to much. We have been focusing a lot on our adorable house. We truly feel so blessed to even be homeowners. Some days we just sit out in our newly almost finished backyard & smile :) We bought our house almost 2 years ago, I believe it will be 2 years in May. When we bought our house, it needed some "love" - fresh paint, new carpet, a few new light fixtures. The backyard needed a lot of "love" - it was dirt & 4ft high weeds! All of the interior stuff was done prior to moving in, it was so nice to have a couple of months before the wedding to get it all done. That way it was move in ready once we were married. I don't think I have done a post about all of the interior work we did on our house, I will have to find those pictures & post them. I did however post about The Beginning Of Our Backyard Remodel <--- There's the link to said post :) You can see in a few of the pictures from that post that there was still one section right off the deck that we needed to finish. We knew we wanted a fire pit, we weren't exactly sure of the exact plans for it at the time though. Fast forward to now... We had a few days of sunshine these past few weekends, so Jordan decided to finish up the second section of our deck, and this past weekend he finished the fire pit. It turned out great & we can't wait to use it! The only thing left to do now is cement the dog run on the side of the house, right now it is just dirt & dirty dogs don't make Momma happy :( Not to mention, after it rains, they can't be out there for a couple of days because the dirt turns to mud. Yuck! We are definitely "outdoor" people, we love to bbq & have our family & friends over, so having our backyard mostly finished is amazing & we can't wait for this rainy weather to clear up so we can throw some parties :) As soon as the rain clears up I will take some pictures of all of Jordan's hard work - it looks so great & I am so proud of him!!

So there is a little bit of what The Richards have been up too :)


Love & Blessings,
J & J

Holy Cow!

It has been FOREVER since I've written a post! I am really hoping to get better at posting regularly :)

What have The Richards been up too? Well... Jordan celebrated his 28th birthday on January 27th :) We had already made plans to go down South to visit Katie & Will, it was nice that the days we were going to be there also happened to be around Jordan's birthday. We left the day before his birthday, that way we wouldn't be driving the day of his actual birthday. We made it in pretty good time, we arrived late Thursday evening - the weather was amazing! We stayed at Katie & Will's apartment, which was nice because we got to spend a little extra time with them that way. Our second day there, we drove to Long Beach. We stopped & had lunch at a cute little Mexican restaurant, then we headed to the actual beach. It was such a nice day out, we just spent time relaxing & playing on the beach. The boys played disc golf, while Jane, Katie & I laid out on the beach :) After that we walked around downtown Long Beach, strolled into some shops, got some coffee & then headed back to the car, so we could go back to the apartment & get ready to go out to dinner to celebrate Jordan's birthday :) We went to a very yummy restaurant, I can't remember the name of it at the moment, but Jordan was in heaven with the delicious brisket he ordered, they smoked the meat in a huge machine right in the middle of the restaurant! After dinner, we went & picked up Jordan's favorite pie from a cute little bakery, went back to Katie & Will's & Jordan blew out his "candle". Later on that evening, just the "kids" went out to Buffalo Wild Wings - they have a cool game night type thing they do there & we all played, it was such nice weather that we sat on the patio area & enjoyed a few drinks & a lot of laughs. Jordan & I woke up Saturday & went to get a coffee, just the two of us ;) We hadn't spent any time alone together since we got there. We sat outside & soaked up the beautiful sunshine, while we did our bible study together. We headed back to the apartment & got ready to head out to Hollywood for the day. Hollywood - WOW! Definitely not as glamorous as I thought it would be lol We went & saw all of the stars "stars", The Chinese Theatre, looked in all of the weird little shops, did a ton of people watching, took a ton of pictures & then we went back & had an early dinner at the California Pizza Kitchen. It was a long, but fun day! We headed back to Katie & Will's for the evening, we spent the rest of the night just relaxing at their apartment. Sunday morning, Joel, Jane, Jordan and I woke up bright & early and went to a really cool local church. After church Katie & Will met us for breakfast & then it was back to the apartment to pack & get ready to head back home. It was a very nice weekend away, we couldn't have asked for better weather or company! :)

Here are some pictures from our trip...

The Birthday Boy at his birthday lunch :)

Oh, William.

Funniest thing, ever. This began his 1st of many birthday desserts!

Jordan & William playing at the beach.

Diggin' for somethin'.

B-e-a-utiful day.

Jordan, soaking up the beautiful weather.

J & J

William & Jenna

Happy 28th B-day Jordan!

A little seal swam by while we were looking for shells!

Birds! Birds! Birds!

We were feeding them candy corn & hot tamales. FYI: They do not like hot tamales lol

Jane, Katie & Jenna - relaxing at the beach :)

Jenna & Katie, waiting to be called for dinner :)

Jordan's 2nd birthday dessert of the day.

My handsome birthday boy!

The Richards Fam at Jordan's birthday dinner :)

Jordan's 3nd birthday dessert of the day.

Making his wish ;)

William & Jordan getting the game started at Buffalo Wild Wings.

Brothers :)

Sisters :)

Our names were on the t.v.!

Fun night out in Fullerton!

The "kids", on the way to Hollywood :)

Capital Records

Hollywood Blvd

L.O.V.E.

Jane & Katie at The California Pizza Kitchen.

Joel & Jordan :)

The men :)

Oh, Elvis.

PJ, always the jokester!

The fam in front of The Chinese Theatre :)

When we got back home from LA, I threw a party for Jordan with my family, I made a VERY yummy recipe that I found on Pinterest, called Crockpot Cilantro Lime Chicken! Here is a pic of the center piece I threw together for the table - it was definitely all things Jordan :)

That was A LOT of pictures! I will update a little more tonight hopefully :) Hope everyone is having a blessed start to 2012!

Love & Blessings,
J & J

Home Good's :)

If you haven't been to a Home Good's store, I highly suggest you go. ASAP! They have any home decoration you can imagine, for every room in your house, even outdoors & I thought they had pretty reasonable prices. Right before Jordan & I got married, we picked out our family room furniture. At first we thought we wanted a sectional, but with the way our family room is laid out, we couldn't find one that would work. We ended up getting a 3 piece set from JCPennys - we are so glad we did, it allows for much more seating room & many different ways to arrange it. The set includes an over-sized (very comfy) chair, a loveseat & a regular size couch. We also inherited 2 of Jordan's Grandpa's recliners after he passed away. We have rotated each of them in & out of the family room & office :) Our family room isn't particularly large, it fits the 3 piece set nice, but with either of the recliners it was always kind of crowded. Not to mention, there are only 2 of us living here, we really don't need all of that seating ;) So, after saving all of the money I received for Christmas... I finally decided what I wanted to do with it... buy an entry table! I have looked around at a couple of stores, but nothing really caught my eye. I had been hearing about this "Home Good's" store for a while now, the closest store is in Stockton (Yikes!). So this past Saturday - my Mom, Sister & I piled in my car & off we drove to Stockton, in search of the perfect entry table. We arrived & I was excited to say the least... when we walked in... I almost died! That store is aaaamazing! Enough talk... here is the pic of my purchases!

Isn't it THE cutest?! I also purchased the baskets underneath the table there as well. I am obsessed with them & wish I had them in every room in my house ;) I got the little lantern at Mulberry Lane with a gift certificate I had been holding onto for the perfect purchase & my Mom gave me the little tree-book combo!

Our over-sized chair use to be where the table is, that area is also right near our front door, so it was a little crowded before. Now it's nice & spacious - I LOVE IT! The table coming into our house, then sparked an idea in Jordan's head. He wanted to do some remodeling of his own ;) I'll explain with pictures, it will be much easier.

This is where our t.v. use to be mounted. It was always a little high, due to the mantle. Jordan finally decided it was the cause of all of or neck aches, because we were having to look up at it all the time.

So, now our t.v. is here! That nook is intended for a t.v., but originally Jordan didn't want it there. That cabinet under the t.v. use to be a hutch, Jordan cut the top off & made the top of it out of the pieces he cut off, so we could have a place to store our dvd player & cable box. Quite the handy man he is ;)

That mirror use to hang directly across from the mantle on the wall above our loveseat. It's a little small for above the mantle, but it will do for now, until we find a bigger one we like :)

This is where the mirror use to hang. I have always wanted an old window with some cute saying on it... "Believe", "Blessed" & "Est. 2010" are in the running for being stenciled on there. I just need to decide already! lol Thank you to my Uncle Vic for providing the old window, he's the best!

And there you have it - our family room re-model! We love it & keep finding ourselves just staring at it all :) Jordan keeps saying it finally looks like a home, because we have more things up on on the wall & stuff. He's too cute! lol He said that a part of him didn't really want to do a lot to the house, in case we had to move because of the whole FBI thing. Thank God that isn't happening! We also made a few changes in our bedroom... we put the brown leather rocker that we got from Jordan's Grandpa in the corner of our bedroom, Jordan is loving having an area to sit & put his shoes on in the morning before he goes to work :) We also FINALLY put matching lamps on our nightstands (it's the little things that make me happy lol) I have hated the fact that my nightstand was the only one that had a lamp on it. I am so crazy about those things! It's crazy what a difference a second lamp can make, it just makes our room look a little more finished. We have kind of been neglecting it, decoration wise. There isn't much up on the walls in there. No one is in the but us anyway! lol Its slowly coming together & we love it :)


Love & Blessings,

J & J

Re-NEW.

"For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future"
-Jeremiah 29:11

Woke up this morning to this verse playing over & over again in my head. Feeling a little renewed after last night & blogging about what I have been struggling with... it felt good to get that off my chest. I have decided to start my one year bible over again. Jordan & I purchased them last year... sadly we didn't finish them. We let unimportant things get in the way & take up too much of our time. I am going to dive into it heart & soul. I need to let go and let God.

Happy Wednesday! Be Blessed!

Love & Blessings,

Jenna