The Easter Egg Hunt (Vegas style)

On your mark, get set, GO!... All 28 cousins ready for THE HUNT. (Luckily all eggs are marked with the names of each cousin).
It seems to me that most of the boys' Easter egg hunts in Heber City have been done inside because it is too cold and maybe even snowing outside. If we have been lucky enough to get outside, we are all in jackets looking for eggs in brown grass that hasn't even had the chance to green up yet. This year was different though. The whole Ritchie family was together in Las Vegas for Jonathon and Eliza's baby blessing (sorry I should have taken a picture of their new little Abigail- she is adorable!). So, we decided to our family Easter egg hunt at M'Recia's house. The kids had so much fun!

As you can tell, this was not our typical Easter Egg hunt. The eggs were not hiding in grass, but rather they were in palm trees, around the cement basketball court, and floating in the pool. Bryson of course was not going to let this egg get away. He risked getting his clothes wet (which he swears he did it because he had to)
to get that one egg. Thanks to all of our older cousins who hid the eggs (which I might add in the most interesting spots) and made our Sunday afternoon so fun.

LOOK WHO'S 35! (in dog years)

Tanner turned 5 years old on April 3rd! He wanted a dog for his birthday. He talked about this for a long time. And even though Tanner was ready for a new dog, Mommy wasn't. So we settled on having a doggie b-day party with all the right trimmings. The cake above is our masterpiece. We had a fun time putting it together.
Tanner got lots of presents. But one of his favorites was the cookies that Grandma Edwards made him and sent in the mail. Our boys think it is the greatest think to get mail with their name on it. So, you can imagine the excited Tanner felt when he saw he had a package with his name on it.
Bryson and Garrett where a huge help with the party. They had planned a barking contest for all of our little puppies. They were very prepared and had even made up awards for all the different types of barks. They both took this very seriously and were very eager to help. The puppies thought that Bryson and Garrett were awesome!
These are the puppies that came to the party. I had to get a picture right after all the puppies were dressed up. It didn't take long for the puppies to want to take off their ears and collars. But, they all looked pretty cute for awhile.

Sometimes you get Lucky...

All of us can probably remember sometime in our life when we have won something unexpectedly. It is such a great feeling! Well what could be better for a 6 (almosy 7) year old, than to win a $100 shopping spree at KB Toy Store? Today was Garrett's lucky day! I had entered all my boys in a contest last week while shopping with my friends. I just did it to pass time while I was waiting for someone. I actually had forgotten all about it until I saw a call come in today from KB Toys! The girl on the phone wanted to talk to Garrett and tell him the news. To say Garrett is excited is an understatement. Now the question is what should Garrett do with all his money? What would you get if you were him? Would you share some money with your siblings? Give Garrett your ideas!

Bryson's Diorama

For Grandparents Day, Bryson needed to make an Indian diorama. He decided to do his project on the Inuit Indians (if you are like me and asking "who are they?' , they are otherwise known as Eskimos). This picture really doesn't give our work justice. Paul and Bryson made the dog sled (those dogs took hours to find, we looked everywhere!). The sled is made out of popsicle sticks, a clothes hanger, and a brown paper bag. Bryson and I made the igloo (out of marshmellows). And if you look close you can see the firepit and the lake.

Springtime in Heber City

Its hard to imagine that the day before we were all outside enjoying the nice Spring weather. But, Sunday morning we woke up to this. Tanner measured and we had 7 inches of snow! It didn't last too long, but we are very ready for warm sunny weather.
Our little McKay LOVES to be outside. He thinks he is one of the big boys and never wants to be left out of a party. I love to see McKay all bundled up!

Bryson and Garrett were so excited to try and make some money. They did a lot of shoveling between our house and G'ma Elda's. Good thing Daddy was there to help with the snowblower.

Is my Baby Normal?

McKay loves Baby Einstein shows! We only have a couple, and so when McKay spotted this new DVD at Target, I gave in! Yes, it also benefits me too because 1- he was content to hold onto it the rest of my shopping trip and sit still and 2- I was sick of listening to the other baby Einsteins we have.

McKay could hardly wait to get home and watch it, he even took a nap with it! Then, the exciting moment arrived...showtime! I sat McKay down thinking I now had 45 minutes to get something done. Ways I ever wrong. Within seconds, McKay was in tears! I couldn't figure out was wrong with him, until the next musical instrument was played by a puppet. He was scared of the instruments! Of course he wanted to finish it, but only with his Mommy there to hold him and protect him from the scary parts. He had a few cries and was actually shaking, but wouldn't let me turn it off. Talk about a real action packed thriller! Of course his older brothers think this is hilarious and keep trying to tease him. (Kind of like us teasing Cory when he was scared of plants...I remember chasing him around the house with plants, just to make him cry, poor child).

Anyway, if you have a baby that is between 12 mo. - 24 mo. please watch the 60 sec. clip of this movie at www.babyeinstein.com and tell me how your child responds. Simply go to their website, click on "DVDs, VHS, and music CDS" under products, and then there will be 3 DVDs to choose from. Click on Meet the Orchestra and watch the sample. Let me know your baby's responds. Until then, we will be working with a counselor on helping our child overcome his fear.

Our Spelling Bee Winner!

Last Thursday I got a call from the school saying that Bryson was one of two in his class that won the spelling bee and he would be going onto the school spelling bee contest the next day. We did a lot of studying that night and the next morning and Bryson was set! He was a bundle of nerves the next day and couldn't even eat breakfast. He was one of the youngest there with just the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades competing. I don't know who was more nervous - Bryson, Dad, or Mom. He did a great job and took 5th place out of the whole school! We are so proud of him! The word that forever will be engrained in Bryson's mind is mercuric. Bryson was very frusturated because he felt like He knew how to spell the word, but the lady pronouncing the word said mecuric, not mercuric. Paul said the same thing. (Are they competive or what?)

The spelling bee was on Friday, then this weekend I got a phone call from his teacher. She said that some girls in their class wanted to throw Bryson and Jessica (the other contestant) a party for both doing so well. So Monday morning I was supposed to take Bryson to school late while the class got ready. Bryson had no idea and was shocked to walk into a party for him. The class gave him "congrats" cards and a football!