The POLAR EXPRESS

We got to take the boys on the Polar Express train this year. It was so fun to get into the holiday spirit. Logan loved his jingle bell and reading the Polar Express book, but he freaked out when Santa came around.

Tanner won the prize for singing out the loudest in our train.

What do you think about this Santa? I totally think he's the REAL thing! Looks like he has had one too many hot cocoas.
Santa with Tanner, Garrett, and their friend Kaleb. We had a great time on our train ride to the North Pole to pick up Santa. The kids loved drinking hot chocolate and eating cookies while our reader on the train told us jokes, read stories, and lead us in some favorite Christmas songs (my favorite part).

TuRKeY DaY 2009

We got lucky this year and got to have Grandma Elda (Paul's 90 year old Grandma) come to our house for Thanksgiving dinner! She is so fun to have around, and she make really yummy food. We got to hear about a few of her most memorable Thanksgivings and what she thought about Donny Osmond winning "Dancing with the Stars".

We tried to keep the kiddos busy before dinner doing a little Thanksgiving placemat activity page that I printed off online (what do we do before having the internet)?
Not only did Grandma Elda come to Thanksgiving dinner, but we had Scott and Natalie's family and Ryan and Karen here too! I am so grateful for my family! We had so much fun hanging out this weekend. I wish I had taken more pictures, but we were too busy playing.

I am so grateful that we had Mom and Dad around this year. While they were gone on their mission, our Thanksgiving dinner just wasn't as tasty. Mom's turkey, rice potatoes (remember these Argyle cousins?), and pies are always amazing.

Logan has become Grandma Elda's biggest fan! He LOVES to be with her. Logan had gone over to Grandma's house Thanksgiving morning and "helped" Grandma make her yummy carrots. When we sat down to dinner, that is all he wanted to eat and he wanted to let Grandma feed him.

Bryson got to move up to the adult table, no more coloring cute little placemats for him!

Thanksgiving wouldn't be Thanksgiving without a Turkey bowl. And we had the perfect weather to go play a great game of football in the backyard. We ended up getting quite a few neighborhood recruits. While the boys played, the girls had fun sitting on the back porch visiting and looking at the ads planning out our shopping for early the next morning.

I'm learning with my boys, when you say "lets do something else", that means "lets move onto another sport". So after we finished the football game, we went down to the church to play basketball. I got to play in this one, and my team had so much fun kicking my brother's butts! (Should I say that? Oh well at least I wasn't as offensive as Max Hall).

After all of our sport games we finally got to come home and have pie (yummy) and then play "Word on the Street". This our new favorite board game. However, I must warn you that it brings out the feisty side in my Dad...

Perfection - Focus - Thorough - Undeviating Course

My dad likes to "make a lesson" out of just about everything he sees around him. He picks up a golf ball, he learns a lesson about it and shares it with people. He watches a basketball team score 100 points in a game, somehow there's a gospel lesson or life lesson buried in there as well. He does something stupid or watches somebody stupid doing something stupid ... yep, another life lesson. So, learning from the greatest life lesson learner since Stirling W. Sill (James W.), from my everyday experience I have learned a life lesson that I wish to share with you all.

The week prior to Thanksgiving a business partner and I went to Australia for some meetings. The flights were, relatively speaking, uneventful. (On a prior 14-hour Brisbane flight I had a window seat, I woke up to find that my tray table, unbeknownst to me, was being used by the old man next to me as the location to store his dentures for some purpose still unknown to me.) But, on this trip, there was one experience worth noting. On the flight from Salt Lake to Los Angeles I was sitting on the aisle seat with a vacant seat next to me and a Chinese gentleman sitting on the window seat. Now, I have been hearing for years that the Chinese are quickly matching and likely going to over-take the US in the world economy and as a world leader. I have gone to investment conferences where I have been told that if a firm does not have a strong Chinese presence they will soon fall behind as a world player. We are involved with a manufacturing company that regularly sub-contracts with Chinese fabrication companies in order to be and stay competitive in their bids. Clearly, the sheer numbers of the Chinese makes a huge impact (kind of like the baby-boomers in the US, but multiplied by 40), but there is something more. Until this flight, I just couldn't put my finger on it...until now, watch the video and this "life lesson" will become more apparent.

I have called this Life Lesson "Perfection - Focus - Thorough - Undeviating Course". I believe this (along with 1.3 billion people) is the secret to upcoming Chinese supremacy. I looked over as this man had literally both pinkies up his nose at the same time. I watched as he pulled his left pinkie out of his left nostril ... slowly ... and the booger, still attached to something on the nasal vestibule, came out with his pinkie but stretched until his pinkie was about three to four inches away from his face. At that point the booger could hold no longer and it released from his nose with a snap and landed on his finger ... hard crusty on the outside (initially attached to his finger), squishy snot-like on the inside (the last to release from the nose). With my face distorted with disgust I watched as he scrutinized his hard-fought reward. He then turned to me, saw my contorted face, and returned to his work oblivious and unconcerned about my repugnance. He rolled up his treasure between his thumb and forefinger and flicked it on the ground between us.

Given his lack of concern about my disgust and recognizing this as a rare opportunity, I pulled out my iPhone and recorded the rest of his treasure hunt. Obviously what was recorded is only a fraction of the actual event. But, I hope you can see the focus ... the thoroughness ... the undeviating course that this man epitomized. If this man is a snapshot of their society, can there be any wonder, with that focus and thoroughness, why 1.3 billion Chinese will not be deterred? The life lesson is obvious: If I want to be the best at anything, I too, must learn to strive for perfection and be the best at whatever I strive for. :) (Was that a stretch?)

While Paul was gone...

I got really bored while Paul was in Australia for a week on business (I still think he was playing) anyways, I whipped up this little gingerbread house! Isn't it totally awesome? Okay, seriously, we went to a Gingerbread house exhibit at Thanksgiving point with Kristen and her kids. Cory was gone too, so we decided that we needed to play! Luckily Grandma and Grandpa came along, because two 2 year olds can do a lot of damage in a place like this!
Can you believe this is a Gingerbread house? It was incredible! It even has a reflecting pond in front. They said it was from a Young Women's group, those girls must have had some talented leaders.
This train was my favorite! You probably can't see the trees very well, but they are grape "twigs" dipped in chocolate with sprinkles. I seriously would love to attempt this with my boys, it was so cute!
The kiddos had fun decorating cookies and drinking hot chocolate...
looking at trains (I love Logan's surprised little face here)...
and getting their faces painted! They were a little busy and asked if one of us wanted to paint faces, so Grandpa stepped in and let his artistic ability roll.
After, we went to Kristen's house to watch the BYU game while the kids played in the first snowstorm of the year! Kristen is going to be wondering why she ever left the nice weather in California for this, but the kids had a blast.
This picture cracks me up. Look at Rachel, I don't think she can even see! But she stayed out with Tanner until the bitter end. I guess that is one way to keep your face warm. It was fun to see Kristen's house, they have done a lot of work there and it is really nice! Thanks for playing with us guys!

Our first TEENager!

I can't believe that I have a 13 year old! Bryson decided this year for his birthday he wanted to go to The Last Samari in Park City. Great choice! The Heywoods decided to come with us, which is always fun to have cousins to help celebrate.

Here is Garrett is motion trying to catch a shrimp (man, I need a good camera).

Logan wasn't quite sure about this place. When the chef started the fire in front of him, it scared him big time! He wanted to watch, but wanted to make sure he was holding on tight to my neck.
Here is Bryson with his birthday gifts, a Sports Authority card and a BYU Snuggie. The Snuggie has seriously been a hit, I even like to use it! I have always made fun of them, but don't knock it until you try it.
Bryson wanted an eclair cake for his birthday cake, and Grandma Edwards' made him a really yummy one!
I couldn't resist giving my 13 year old a kiss after he blew out the candles. I told him I knew what he wished for, but he wasn't to get a kiss from any girl except his Mom. Bryson is so fun to have in our family. He is an example to his brothers and loves to hang out with his family.

Family Pictures 2009

Seriously, family pictures stress me out big time. Trying to get 5 boys to cooperate and be happy and the same time is pretty much impossible. Then on top of it, trying to actually find a day that works for all of us and the photographer is another challenge. We have been trying to do pictures for 2 months now and had to keep rescheduling for different reasons. So, the leaves aren't colorful but, we did find a fun setting just 3 minutes from our house and the weather was perfect. The miracle about this whole day was that Logan would not take a nap (which he so desperately needed) but was actually happy and smiling when we did our photo shoot. I am still waiting to get a couple of pictures back of all the boys together, can't wait to see how they turned out!

The Ritchie boys

Logan - 2 1/2

Bryson - 13

Garrett - 10

Tanner - 8

Mckay - 5

Logan (again, too cute!)

Our BYU football road trip!

I have a lot of blog posting to catch up on, but I didn't want to miss out on posting about our super fun road trip to California! Because BYU was playing on the Sat. before UEA in Vegas and then the next Sat. in San Diego, we decided it was a perfect time to take a week off and play.

Our first stop was in Vegas. The boys went to the game with their Dads, while Jessica and I went shopping with the little ones. On Sunday, we went to Clawson's house to celebrate with Paul's sister her 43 b-day (yes, she is the pregnant one). She made us a yummy dinner and we had fun seeing their new house and going to their new ward where Charles was just called to be Bishop!
On Monday we drove to San Diego and went to the San Diego Zoo on Tues. Garrett was the lucky kid who got picked during the show to feed the sea lion, he even got a big kiss on his cheek. He was one brave kid!



Here is our family with 2 of the Newitt girls. Don't girls make our family look good? Jason Newitt works with Paul and their family came with us and Ryan and Jessica on our trip. It was so fun to hang out with them, I fell in love with their girls (they have a Brynlee - which is my favorite name) and they have a daughter that seemed to take a liking to Bryson. We had a lot of fun with them and I enjoyed getting to know Allison better. We had fun doing a little shopping at night, texting back and forth while driving, and running in the mornings.

For my Argyle cousins - Jason Newitt's Dad was Uncle Reed's best friend growing up in Lake Shore. Small world! Paul and Jason met in the MBA program at BYU.
On Wednesday, we went to SeaWorld. This was a sad day for me because I forgot my camera. These are a few pictures that Allison sent me.


On Thursday we went to the Wild Animal Park. The Moms took all the little kids around the park while the Dads took the older kids on a fun Safari.





On Friday we went to Legoland. This was the boy's favorite ride, the Catapult, it jerked you around like crazy!



And then we stopped at Washington DC for the afternoon (hee, hee) just seeing if you are still reading. This is actually all made out of legos, pretty cool, huh?


On Saturday, we packed up and then Paul and Ryan took the boys to see the Midway Aircraft Carrier.

Then we all went to the game, go cougars! It was a hot game and we enjoyed the California hot sun shining down on us for one last time before we got in the car to drive home.