In the Chirstmas Spirit. . .

I've been laughing ever since I heard what Tanner said in Primary on Sunday. Apparently the Primary President asked in Sharing Time what kind of gifts could they give to Jesus this holiday season. When she called on a child, they would come up and say some kind of service they could perform and put a piece of hay in the manager. Then she called on Tanner. He ran up to the front of the primary room, grabbed his hay and said loudly, "I wish I could go to every single BYU game in the WORLD!"

Big Blue Eyes

How can you resist such an adorable baby? I love this age of babies! Logan is so fun right now, he is such a flirt and loves to smile at everyone. What can I say? He is so cute!

The Polar Express Ride

As you see, Tanner was extremely excited about going on the Polar Express and meeting Santa. Thanks to the Danleys, we were able to go on the train's first Polar Express ride this season for free! It was so fun and now after doing it, I can say I would pay to go on it again. It was just like the book, we had hot chocolate and warm cookies, we sang Christmas carols, and yes, we even picked up Santa at the North Pole.

Here is one of the elves named Pop Tart. She seemed overly fond of Bryson and made an effort to talk to him as much as possible. I'm not quite sure what I think of that. But, what can I say, he is hot stuff (like his Dad)!
This is the first year Mckay didn't scream when he saw Santa. However, he was very cautious of the man with the beard. Mckay knew he needed to tell him he wanted "a racetrack with cars that crash into each other". I was proud of Mckay for being so brave and talking to Santa.
Logan on the other hand wasn't to excited to meet the scary looking man and Tanner couldn't believe he was actually meeting Santa!
Garrett told me that there is no way this was the real Santa, but he enjoyed the whole experience like the rest of us and had fun reading the Polar Express book as we traveled. We finished the night of right with a trip to Dairy Keen.

My Favorite Trick or Treaters

LOGAN the LION

GARRETT the PIRATE

BRYSON the HIPPIE

TANNER the KARATE KID

MCKAY the CROCODILE

What a fun Halloween night! We went to the trunk or treating with our ward and got lots of candy! The 3 older boys thought this was only a good start. So Paul followed the boys (and friends) around the neighborhood for a very long time getting more candy. After, we all went over to our neighbor's house (the McQuarries) to a Halloween party and had dinner.

If any of you are in need of some candy, we will send some your way.

Snow Canyon

Our plan for UEA break was to go to San Diego. We were going to go to the BYU game (of course) and then to Legoland and SeaWorld. But because of the fires, we had a change of plans and decided to go stay in the St. George house. The funny thing is, our kids weren't sad at all about the change, they love St. George! We played outside a lot and had fun soaking up the sun.

Tuesday we went to Snow Canyon, had a picnic and went on a hike. The boys wanted to go on the same hike we went on 2 years ago, with Parkers, were Garrett cut his head open. Garrett was determined to do the whole hike without a fall.
Here are the big boys going down into the lava caves. They were in search of "the spot" were Garrett slipped and cut his head open. We even found a rock that looked like it had blood on it. Its wierd what boys get excited about.

What a bunch of handsome boys I have! I love the warm Southern Utah weather right now. I think I'm ready to head south for the winter. . .

We also got to go and see the first Parker boy for Chad and Michelle. I wish I would have taken a picture of him, he is so cute and little! This is number 6 for Michelle, so now everyone seems to be putting the pressure on me. Don't worry I'm not planning on making any announcements.

Edwards' Eerie Edibles at the Ritchie Resturant

I was so excited to do a little Halloween dinner for my family this year! I told my neighbor what I was doing and asked her if I could borrow a strand of her Halloween lights...and look what I got! Janette came over that night and decorated for 3 hours while Paul and the boys were at the football game. This picture doesn't do it justice, with the strobe light and all the candles burning, it was pretty amazing!
Because I spent awhile getting food ready, I had to be like Cory and get a few pictures before we ate. Here is one of our appetizers. . .

This is one of our desserts. . .
We invited the Chappell's over to celebrate with us, some of the kids dressed up for the party. Bryson was very excited to show off his "costume".

When it was time to begin, we dimmed the lights and got out the menu. I had the kids try to guess what each item on the menu was. They came up with some interesting names of their own. You can only imagine some of the names our boys came up with trying to gross out the girls.

Thanks Mom and Dad for a fun tradition. I was so excited to have our party, I'm not sure who had more fun, myself or the kids. I also have to thank Paul for being such a wonderful husband. He watched Logan for me so I could get everything ready and then stayed up until midnight to help clean up.

Is this the cutest little 3 week old baby ever? Logan celebrated his first 4th of July and basically slept the through the whole thing! Luckily he looked pretty cute, even if he was mostly sleeping, in his sweet little Americania outfit.

Our day started by a big breakfast at Grandma and Grandpa Ritchie's house with all of our cousins. We then left to go on what has now become our annual 4th of July hike to Stewart Falls. Most of you know the shortcut way we like to go, and luckily we were able to get through the new gate (with a guessing the code) to the start of our hike.

We went with Ryan and Jessica's family along with my friend Susan. It took us awhile to get everyone situated and Logan in his baby Bjorn, but finally we were on our way! This was the first time that no one else was on the same trail we were on, and we thought we had the mountain to ourselves! Then, about 5 minutes into the hike we heard a loud growl. We all stopped and the kids got quiet, and then we heard it even louder again. It was coming from the bushes right ahead of us! It was obviously a bear. So, we all turned around and quietly and quickly made our way back to the car. The boys haven't stopped talking about it since! It really scared us, especially with the boy who was attacked just a couple of weeks ago on the other side of the mountain.

We were still determined to get a hike in. So we went to the beginning of the Timp hike and started up the trail to the first waterfall. I remembered it being "really close" from last summer when Paul and I hiked this trail. But with nine kids and an extremely hot day, it took quite awhile. The kids where great though, we had plenty of water and Logan slept the whole time.


The waterfall was very refreshing and the boys had fun cooling off for a bit. Luckily we saw no wildlife that seemed dangerous, other than a little squirrel who was determined to help us eat our picnic.
After our hike, we went home and got all cleaned up and then went to a BBQ at Ryan and Jessica's. Then, after days and days of waiting, Tanner got to finally do fireworks! Can you tell from this picture that he was excited? We finished our amazing Costco fireworks just in time to sit on the backporch and watch the fireworks from Memorial Hill with the boys.
Needless to say we all slept great that night, well all except for Logan...