Happy Birthday Garrett!

Garrett had the ultimate birthday party this year, every 10 year old's dream birthday party... Boondocks!   We had just gone there for a work party and because it had rained a little while we were there, we got a bunch of free passes to go back again.   So, Garrett's wish came true, I took a bunch of friends and all the boys (minus Logan - thanks Mom) to Boondocks.  They had a great time!
Here is Garrett with his good friend, Konrad.
After getting home from Boondocks, Garrett had his first comp. soccer practice and then came home to a family birthday party.  We had both sets of grandparents come over for a BBQ and brownie sundaes.
Garrett got a wiggle car for his birthday.  These things are so fun!  The boys are having a blast with this toy.  However, Logan is positive that it is his and is not very happy whenever Garrett gets on it.  This isn't a great picture, but I love the look on Logan's face.  Logan is determined to get Garrett off the wiggle car and Grandpa Jim is sitting in the back laughing at my crazy boys.
Garrett never wants to hurt my feelings, and I know that he isn't much into clothes, but he is really trying to look excited about getting a new shirt.  What a nice boy.  

We are so lucky to have Garrett in our family.  He adds a lot a excitement to our family, he loves to tease his brothers and loves to laugh and make others laugh.  Garrett is a great help to me and is such a good kid.  I can't believe that he is ten, happy birthday Garrett!   

Ritchie Reunion

Here are the boys trying to get some sleep before we get to the reunion.  Mckay and Logan are smart boys, because with 96 people staying in one big cabin (luckily its very big) we didn't get a lot of sleep...  but we had lots of fun! (Paul says they get the sleeping look with their mouth wide open from their mother... lucky kiddos)
Here are some of the Ritchie girls, they are really close (hee, hee...get it?) Three of Paul's sisters are on the couch, Michelle, M'Recia, and Wendy with Grandma Elda (86 years old... Go Grandma!) and Paul's mom, Carolyn.
Here is Paul with his other sister Adrienne.  They were setting up for the outdoor carnival, which turned out to be a highlight for the kids.  

Mckay getting all ready for the sponge toss game...
Tanner posing with his group...
Oh, and see Bryson and his cousins trying to look all innocent on the top balcony? This is just before they found their target...
Garrett!  He got soaked, big time.  But, what a good sport!
Paul braved the not so hot temperatures and took the boys swimming while I enjoyed sitting on the side visiting with cousins.  As you can see, Logan is not to fond of swimming yet.
The kids had a great time climbing the rock wall at Altamont. 
I am so grateful to have such a great family.  Grandma Elda had 2 boys, that married and each had 8 children.  Now she has 96 in her family with all the grandchildren.  That's pretty impressive.  It was so fun to see some of our cousins that we don't see much and visit with them.  I am so happy that my boys have such powerful older cousins to look up to as role models. 

My baby is TWO!

When I went to pull out two candles to put on Logan's pancakes for his birthday, I felt so weird thinking this may be the last time I only need two candles for a birthday.  I don't know why that made me feel sad, but it did.  Maybe its that cute little face that is trying so hard to blow out the candles. I absolutely love watching Logan right now, I can see the wheels just turning as he is trying to figure out the world around him.  I wish I could just freeze him at this age. 
Logan had a blast opening up his presents, he finally got it this year.  He couldn't rip off the wrapping paper fast enough to see what was inside.  His favorite toy was his bubble lawn mower. We haven't even had to put bubbles in it, he is too busy pushing it around the house. Happy Birthday baby boy!

Lost

Last night I was out on the front porch husking our first taste of corn on the cob for the year and Paul and Bryson were mowing the lawn.  When I came in, I couldn't find Logan anywhere.  I started to panic and called our neighbors to see if he had ran over and then called Grandma Elda to see if he had walked to her house.  No one had seen him.  I had peeked into every room and couldn't see him.  Then, when I went downstairs and started looking more closely, I found him curled up on Bryson's bed sound asleep.  Now that he is almost two, he sometimes fights me on taking a nap.  Yesterday had been one of those days, but when he couldn't take it any longer, he crashed.

Work Party at Boondocks

This year for Paul's work party, we went to Boondocks for the afternoon and then had a picnic at the park.  Paul works with such great people that we had a great time!  Logan and Regan had fun playing with all the arcade games.  We did a round of laser tag, which was a blast, but I was horrible at it!
Here's a bunch in our group getting ready to take off in the race cars.  This I think was the highlight of Boondocks for the boys.
I even got to go out with Paul (man he is a backseat driver), but we had fun racing with the kids and trying to cut them off.
The kids also had fun doing the bumper boats, of course half the fun is getting wet!
Here is Garrett and Tanner with their cousins, Ritchie and Jackson.  What tough boys we have!

Logan's fat lip

We hadn't been to the emergency room lately, and I guess with 5 boys, we are lucky we aren't there more.  Logan had a bad fall.  He was sitting on his little push car that was on the landing in our garage which is followed by 4 steps down.  I was pulling weeds outside and Mckay and Logan were playing, when Mckay ran out to find me saying that Logan was hurt and was bleeding.  When I found him, he was standing in the garage by his little car with his two fingers in his mouth and blood dripping everywhere.

I looked in his mouth and found a huge hole in his lower lip where his tooth and probably punctured his lip.  I started crying because I knew he needed stitched and that he wasn't going to like being held down for that procedure.  By the time we got the ER, we were both crying and had blood all over us.  I was happy to hear the doctor say they were going to give Logan a shot that would knock him out for a bit while they did the stitches.  Ah, that was wonderful!  After having six stitches in his lower lip, Logan woke up a little disoriented.  

Poor little guy!  I felt so bad for him.  I had almost got him off the bottle (I know he is way to old), and that is all he wanted after his stitches.  I have to say though, Logan sure has a cute little pouty lip.  Who can't feel sorry for you with a face like this? 

May Highlights

We had a fun busy month!  Here is a look at some of our fun activities(starting at the end of the month)...

1- Last weekend Paul went on a overnight hiking adventure with some friends while the boys and I celebrated the last day of school.  We were invited on Saturday to go to the Alpine Slide for a birthday party.  Here are Bryson and Garrett climbing the rock wall there.

2- Our end of school party for Garrett and Tanner and all their friends.  I threw a big party along with my neighbor.  She had all the girls finishing 2nd and 4th grade, and we had all the boys in the same grades.  They had a great time doing a giant slip and slide (down a hill in our backyard), having water balloon fights with the girls, and playing water balloon volleyball. Bryson went with some friends to Dairy Keen after school then went to a late night party that night.

3- Memorial Day Weekend.  We had Cory and Kristen stay in Heber, we had a great time with them.  Here are the boys with Grandpa having a contest to see who could eat the most pancakes.

3(cont).-  After breakfast, we took the kids on a bike ride down Provo Canyon.  It was the perfect day for a bike ride!  I hope we can do lots more of these this summer.  Later that night, we had a BBQ in our backyard with some friends.  What a great way to kick off the summer!

4 - Piano recital - Garrett and Bryson played in a piano recital and did great.  The most amazing thing of the night was that Logan actually sat still and clapped at the end of every song!  Of course, we couldn't get a picture of Garrett unless he was pulling a face, this is the best out of 4 pictures we took.
5- Mckay graduated from Preschool!  His teacher did a fun little commencement and the kids sang a bunch of songs and we saw a video of their highlights from preschool.  Here is Mckay with his best friend, Carter.  
6- SOCCER! - This picture is of Bryson, just after scoring a goal. Yeah!  We finished up the season and had a late night party for 15 twelve year olds in our backyard.  I found out that 12 year old pretty much entertain themselves, all I need to do is provide food and a yard and they will do the rest.  

Oh, and we had comp. soccer tryouts again.  Now we have Bryson and Garrett both playing on different teams.  They start practices this summer, I guess you can officially call me a "Soccer Mom".

7- Fathers and Children's Outing.  This picture is a little crazy, but this is how I figured the night would be.  The fathers in our ward took all the kids camping one night, while all the Mom's had a night off.  Paul and the boys had a great time!   I got to go to dinner with some girls in my ward and enjoy a night off.  I was a nice wife though, I didn't make Paul take Logan.

8- Pinewood Derby!  Tanner our newest scout, took first place!  
7(cont) - Mckay was determined he needed a car as well, so Paul made 3 cars this year!  Mckay's car actually took 1st, but being only five years old, we couldn't give him a prize.
8- Logan figures out how to climb up everything!  He is a monkey and can help with anything now.
9- I had another birthday!  I am now 29 (again).  I had a fun couple of days with lots of parties and treats!
Wow!  Now summer is officially here, and the kids are out of school!  I am excited for the change of schedule and can't wait for all the fun summer activities.