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.

The GOOD, the BAD, and the UGLY

The GOOD: We finally got the moldy smell out of our storage room and future theater room! We had a water leak in our garage years ago that dripped down into our storage room. What started as a misty smell, turned into mold spores. We had some guy come and clean it all out this week with some chemical peel. Now I have to go through all our storage items that are sitting out in the backyard in a tent and figure out what is worth keeping (if we can clean it) and what we need to throw away...for example: a mattress, our Christmas tree, baby items, etc. It stinks (pun intended)! But, I am so happy to finally have it cleaned up.

The BAD: The day the guy came to work on our storage room, we had our back door wide open and mostly unwatched all day from 12:00 p.m. noon to 1:30 a.m. It was on Wednesday, the day of the big and cold storm. Apparently some mice were trying to find cover and found our house. The next morning I almost had a heart attack when we saw one running across the mudroom floor. We finally captured it with our BBQ prongs and put it in a shoe box (the prongs have been scrubbed and sanitized since then). The boys decided to give the captured mouse to our neighbors. So, they ran over and left it on their front porch, then doorbell ditched them. It was pretty funny, they scared Mandy (my friend) big time, and now we better watch out for revenge I'm afraid. We know their is still at least one more mouse in our house, and I won't sleep well until its gone! Given that we haven't seen hide nor hair of a mouse in our home for five years, we are confident (and hopeful) it is directly attributed to leaving the door wide open to receive them.

The UGLY: Paul has SWINE FLU (it's really ugly)! And yes, this too happened on Wednesday. Paul came home early on Wednesday saying he didn't feel very good. He took some Motrin and a nap and woke up saying he felt well enough to still go to the Court of Honor. At the Court of Honor Paul shook the hands of 6 boy scouts. About 20 minutes before the Court of Honor was over he began shaking with chills and was white as a ghost. He was really sick. The next day he got the lovely Swine Flu test up his nose and it came back positive. Paul has truly been wiped out with it. I put Paul downstairs on the couch where he is "quarantined" until he's better. I have done a ton of laundry since then, sprayed lots of Lysol, and said "wash your hands!" a hundred times. We also have spent $450 to get our whole family on TamiFlu in hopes the rest of us don't get it. So far, so good. Good thing it is General Conference this weekend, I think everyone is a little scared to get around our family.

Fall Favorites

Fall is a busy season at our house! With 2 boys in competition soccer and 1 in football, we are always on the go. But, I love going to their games. I took these pictures yesterday of our newest quarterback. Look at his form, I have to say, we may have the next Max Hall in the making! He is begging me to let him play tackle next year with the kids that are a year older then him...
One of my favorite memories this month was Logan went to Nursery for the first time in a very long time and liked it! After church he came home, crawled up on the swing on our front porch and took a snooze. Nursery had worn him out (which is hard to find something that does).

And of course, Paul's b-day! The kids and I got up early Sunday morning, decorated and made him breakfast. After church, we had a family dinner with the Edwards' and had one of Paul's favorite desserts, key lime pie.
And while I am talking about favorites I have to say I love all the scents of Fall, my pumpkin spice candle and my newest find, Ginger Vanilla lotion from Bath and Body Works. Yum! It seriously makes me happy to put it on every morning, you've got to smell it.