dance recital

These are picture of Annie's dance recital. She did such a great job. She loves to dance. She spend a lot of time at home dancing around the house. 

New camera

Here is the first picture taken with our new camera. See how good it is. It shows every wrinkle. We are having fun taking pictures of all the Christmas events our kids are doing. There are more pictures to come. 

Winter storm 2006

Brad and I always have a little joke when we get some snow. We say oh my it looks like the snow storm of 2006. We finally have some snow on the ground. It is really pretty and I love it. I would rather have it snow than rain any day.

I know it has been a long time since my last post. Shame on me. I have been waiting to post some pictures that we took on Brad's work camera. I keep forgetting to ask him to bring it home. I am hoping for a new camera for Christmas.

Well Thanksgiving is over. I hope you all had a great turkey day. We sure did. This year my parents decided to come down to help up celebrate. Since they already had Canadian Thanksgiving up there we decided to forgoe the usual spend all day cooking and cleaning to enjoy a 20 minute meal and went out to Golden Corral for their turkey dinner. It was great. The food was actually pretty good and I didn't have to lift a finger. We then went out to see Happy Feet which I thought was quite cute. We went to see the Joseph Smith movie on Friday before wending our way over to temple square to see the Christmas lights turned on the the first time this season. It was a fun day. On Saturday we got to witness the great Victory of BYU vs UofU. What an exciting game for those of you who were able to watch it. BYU won in the last 3 seconds of the game. Even my mom was cheering very loudly.

Well all in all we had a great weekend. Thanks for coming down mom and dad.

TGIF again

I have to say this is not the first post that I have written since my last. I have tried two time previous and have lost it in the connection. I didn't have the patience or the time to write it again. We only have a few more days until Halloween and the kids are so excited. Brad will actually be here to take them trick or treating. I am so grateful. I will hopefully borrow a camera and post some pictures of my cute kids.

Catie is really excited because tomorrow she gets to go see a BYU girls soccer game with her team. They are going to the Brick oven for dinner and then to the game. Unfortunately I cannot go because I have to help with the Ward party tomorrow night. I hope she has a great experience. Her goal is to play soccer for BYU someday. She also had a birthday this week and turned 11. I can't beleive I have an 11 year old. I know my parents are probably saying I can't beleive I have a 34 year old. This next month is very busy for birthdays in our family.

Tomorrow is official sleep in day. I am not getting out of bed until I have too. I can't wait for the time to change so we don't have to get up in the dark anymore. I feel like it is still nighttime. I don't know how we did it all those years with early morning seminary. It was barely light by the time we went to school.

Well as usual I have someone crying for me. Until next time.

I'm tired.

Life has been busy here at the Ritchie household. We had our last soccer game of the season today. I am so releived. It will be one less thing to get to. The kids are getting excited for Halloween. Luckily this year Brad will be home to help them with their trick or treating. That makes it nice for me. Nathan decided he wanted to be a power range. We saw the costume at the store today and he hasn't taken it off since. He is very excited. Catie decided she wanted to be a clown to match Sarah but we are having some difficulty finding her a costume. I think I might have to pull out the old sewing maching and make her something. Heaven help me. Annie is going to be a witch. Luckily we already have that costume so there is one less thing to worry about.

I have decided this week that I could live on 5 hours of sleep at night if only I could get there. Between teeth and colds there is no rest for the weary. Sarah popped a tooth this week and ended up with an ear infection and a sinus infection. I am afraid she has inherited her daddy's sinuses. Poor thing. Hopefully we will be on the mend and both of us can get some sleep. You forget how much less sleep you get when there is a baby around. None the less we love her.

Well I'm off to make dinner. Bye for now

I'm tired.

Life has been busy here at the Ritchie household. We had our last soccer game of the season today. I am so releived. It will be one less thing to get to. The kids are getting excited for Halloween. Luckily this year Brad will be home to help them with their trick or treating. That makes it nice for me. Nathan decided he wanted to be a power range. We saw the costume at the store today and he hasn't taken it off since. He is very excited. Catie decided she wanted to be a clown to match Sarah but we are having some difficulty finding her a costume. I think I might have to pull out the old sewing maching and make her something. Heaven help me. Annie is going to be a witch. Luckily we already have that costume so there is one less thing to worry about.

I have decided this week that I could live on 5 hours of sleep at night if only I could get there. Between teeth and colds there is no rest for the weary. Sarah popped a tooth this week and ended up with an ear infection and a sinus infection. I am afraid she has inherited her daddy's sinuses. Poor thing. Hopefully we will be on the mend and both of us can get some sleep. You forget how much less sleep you get when there is a baby around. None the less we love her.

Well I'm off to make dinner. Bye for now

I'm tired.

Life has been busy here at the Ritchie household. We had our last soccer game of the season today. I am so releived. It will be one less thing to get to. The kids are getting excited for Halloween. Luckily this year Brad will be home to help them with their trick or treating. That makes it nice for me. Nathan decided he wanted to be a power range. We saw the costume at the store today and he hasn't taken it off since. He is very excited. Catie decided she wanted to be a clown to match Sarah but we are having some difficulty finding her a costume. I think I might have to pull out the old sewing maching and make her something. Heaven help me. Annie is going to be a witch. Luckily we already have that costume so there is one less thing to worry about.

I have decided this week that I could live on 5 hours of sleep at night if only I could get there. Between teeth and colds there is no rest for the weary. Sarah popped a tooth this week and ended up with an ear infection and a sinus infection. I am afraid she has inherited her daddy's sinuses. Poor thing. Hopefully we will be on the mend and both of us can get some sleep. You forget how much less sleep you get when there is a baby around. None the less we love her.

Well off to make dinner. Bye for now

I decided that it has been long enough since my last blog. Tonight Erin and Scott left for home. They came down for conference and so Scott could take a trip to the Grand Canyon. Erin and I had a great time and I will miss them terribly. We had many a trip to Cafe Rio for those of you who will be jealous. I have to say that I get sick of it by the time family leaves and I don't really eat it again until they come back. It was fun to have Erin's kids here without other cousins. I feel like I got to know them a little better. Nathan and Gracie played surprisingly well. The kids discovered scooters which Scott quickly went out and bought them their own. Matthew is a funny little kid. Erin and I took him to Walmart with us one day and he walked by an isle and saw some key chains. For those of you who don't know he is obsessed with keys. He calls the key chains hookers. He picked one out that Erin volunteered to buy for him and then as we were walking down another isle decided he wanted another one. So I immidiately pipped up, trying to distract him, and told him that Uncle Brad had a lot of hookers at his work and that he would give him one. I soon realized what I had said and Erin and I burst out laughing. We had a great time I am sad it is over but I am looking forward to my mom and dad's visit in November.

We are all doing fine here we are looking forward to a busy October. October is China month so we don't see Brad a whole lot. He was lucky enough to be here for our ward Father and sons camp out. He was excited to take Nathan. This was their first camp out together. It will be a busy month but we will perservere. Love you all. Until next time.

It's cold

We have had a low front move in today and it is cold. I had to take Catie shopping because she only had one pair of pants. So we left everyone at home and went shopping and got some lunch. It was very fun. We spent the morning going from one soccer game to the next. Catie's was at 8:00 and it was cold. They won 3-0. So they are 4-2 in the season. Then we went on to Nathan's game which was at 10:00. You would think that it would have warmed up but it was colder. I took Sarah home to be with Catie where it was a little warmer. I wish I had a camera so that I could share the moments with you. Nathan has this look on his face every time he scores a goal. It is really cute. He has to look at his daddy for approval and of course Brad is so proud. He is going to be quite the athlete. Catie is a great goalie on her team. She even stopped a penalty kick today. We have had a great day so far. It is going to end with a date night for me out to Outback. I am so excited! We have a $50 gift certificate so it is basically free. I sure need a break after the last couple of weeks that I have had. Well by for now.

Home from the hospital

Well for those of you who read Lara's blog. Annie has been in the hospital with pneumonia. We went to the instacare on Sunday thinking that all she needed was some medicine to make her better and we ended up in an ambulance on the way to Utah Valley Hospital. She was in a dangerous situation so they wouldn't let me drive her to the hospital. I of course started to panic and burst into tears. I had to pull it together when the nurse looked at me and said stop it you are scaring her. So I pulled it together really quick. She spent Sunday night and Monday night in the hospital and we got to bring her home today. She has to be on oxygen and a whole bunch of medication. We are going in tomorrow to see what her oxygen levels are so I will update you then. Pretty tough Labour Day Weekend!

Where did the summer go.

I know it has been a while since my last post. I have been very busy. I was in Calgary for two weeks then Melinda drove back down with me and we had some shopping to do. We had a great time in Calgary for those of you who want to see pictures link on to Melinda's or Lara's blogs. My camera is broken so I wasn't able to take any pictures.

The girls started school this week. We are very excited. Catie is in 5th grade and Annie is in 2nd. I can't believe how time flies. Catie is now only a head shorter than I am and almost the same size shoe. It will not be long before she is as tall as me. I am afraid she is having another growth spurt as we speak. We have already started soccer season. Nathan and Catie are both playing this year. Catie has started a competition league and they won their first game on Saturday. I am so much more nervous for her than I wasn't when it wasn't a competition league. For those of you who remeber Joel Wride his daughter also plays on the team. She is quite good as well.

Nathan, we have decided, is a little bit of a ball hog. He is the biggest one on his team and knows just what to do after watching his sister for the last few years. I think he will be great at whatever he does. Nathan is also starting preschool. We found a school within walking distance. We are so excited. The poor thing is so bored at home with mama. He gets to take a tumbling class there once a week. He just stays right after preschool.

Annie will be starting piano this year and she is really excited. It is her birthday this week she is turning 7. We haven't decided on a party yet. It's pretty hard to plan one with the long weekend because everyone is off having their last hurrah.

Well I feel like I have caught up a little. I wish I had pictures. Hopefully we will get a new camera soon. Bye For now!

TGIF

Well another week has passed and I thought I should catch up on my blog. I am very jealous today but all of my sisters are together but me. I will be sad missing Kerri. I hope to see her one of these months on one of Brad's trips to Colorado. I hope you all have fun without me. I would have been the best waterskiier there.

We of course are going waterskiing in the morning (surprise surprise). I am looking forward to it. i can actually ski now without being so sore that I can't move the next day. I keep telling Brad if he would take me every day I would be really buff. Tomorrow Cedar Hills is having their annual 24th of July celebration. It starts with a parade(which we will be missing), then there is a carnival. I am told that the firetrucks come out once an hour or so and spray everyone down. Then they end the day with a huge fireworks display that is in the field two blocks behind my house. We will have a bbq then watch the fireworks. It should be fun!

I am enjoying my new calling of Nursery coordinator. I spend two hours on my feet on Sunday running between three big nursery classes. I am the need filler. Any need the teacher has I fill it. I love the kids though they are very cute.

July is almost over and I am finally in the swing of things with my children. We always struggle with boredom. It isn't like the old days when all the kids were outside playing. You drive through my neighborhood and you do not see any kids during the day. It is so bizarre. We washed the van this morning for our fun activity. We got wet and the kids had a great time. Nathan right now is golfing with his daddy. He was so excited this was his first time hopefully he won't drive Brad crazy!

Well bye for now. I hope you all have a great weekend!

Happy 4th

Happy 4th of July to everyone and happy Canada Day. I haven't written in a while. We had a fun family reunion last week end. We went to Elberta Utah. The church has some property out there with a dairy farm. We had a great time with Brad's family. We had a talent show on Saturday night which was the 1st of July. I thought it would be kind of fun to sing O Canada since it was Canadad day. Brad joined me in the song and he did pretty well until the end when I burst into tears and he couldn't finish it. I felt so silly. I had no idea that I would have that kind of emotion. I am a true Canadian I guess.
After the reunion was over our friends from Portland came to stay with us. We had a great time with them. We took them waterskiing on the 4th and then had a bbq and some fireworks. It was a really fun day. We wish they would move back here to Utah. We miss them.
I enjoyed my first try with Skype (or skippie as Lara calls it) today. I thought it was pretty fun. I am excited about this reunion next summer. I hope everyone is as excited as I am. It will be one summer that I will be able to get my family down here in July. Well bye for now I have to get the kids to bed.

I am sick of the heat and it isn't even July yet. I know I can't complain to all those in Arizona but I am hot here in Utah. Anne Marie and I had some fun today looking for spots for the reunion. We are going to try to check it out on Thursday and make it a lunch no kids day. I hope we have some success. The kids are currently taking swimming lessons. They are loving every minute of it. Catie is comming a long way learning her strokes. Annie is surprisingly fearless and Nathan's teachers can't get him to put his head in the water. Who knew he wouldn't like to get his head wet. He has no fear of anything. They will be sad when the lessons end on Thursday. July will be a busy month though so I am glad that they will be done.

It was fun to listen to the conference call last night. I wished that I had been hooked up so my voice could have been heard. I will be for the next call. I am excited about this reunion. Well bye for now. It's time for bed. Love you all.

more pics

I couldn't figure out how to get these all on one post so here it goes.

The recital is over. Yeah!

I wanted to post some pictures of our weekend with Mimi and papa unfortunately we ventured out only a few time due to Mimi's foot. We took some cute pictures of the recital however. Here is a preview.

Cute Girl!

Brad took this picture of Sarah and we thought we would share. We think she is so cute. Well as you all know Mom and Dad are down here visiting. The first day they were here mom fell and broke her foot. So she has been hobbling around the past few days. We made her feel better today by taking her to Cafe Rio (I know you are all jealous). We went to the ballet dress rehersal today and the girls did well. It will be fun to see the real thing on Saturday. Well that's all for now. We will try to get a picture of the cast and post it.

It's hot!

We are starting to get hot here in Utah. It is supposed to be 98 today. Sorry mom we do have airconditioning though. The kids are out of school and I have no idea what I am going to do with them for the summer. They are playing in the water outside for now I don't think that will entertain them all summer though. We have a few fun things planned. We will be going to Calgary. We have our friends Heidi and Roger comming on the 5th of June. Brad wants to go to fish lake for a long weekend and we have a family reunion at the end of June. So far we had our nails done yesterday and today we went for slurpees with Brad.
Sarah is now trying to crawl. She makes it to her hands and knees and then falls on her stomach. I wonder how long it will take her to figure it out. I need to get my camera working so I can send pictures of her. She is very cute. She is a girl version of Nathan. It is scarry.
Well I'm starting to sweat sitting upstairs at the computer so I will say bye for now.

Yeah it's a long weekend!

It has been pretty good week. We ended the week by going waterskiing (surprise surprise). I got up on two skis than I got up on one ski. I was so proud of myself but I am paying for it today. We took Nathan and Sarah with us. Sarah decided to escape from the reality of being stuck in a life jacket by having a two hour nap on the boat. It sure was relaxing for me. After I skied I bathed in the sun on the back of the boat. I almost took a nap it felt so good.
This next week is the last week of school for the girls. Catie is very sad because she loves school. She is a very good student and she loves her teacher. They are already signed up for swimming lessons for June. They are on the boat all summer but they don't swim much. They don't have the luxury of a private dock and beach like we did growing up.
Tomorrow we are having dinner at Mark and Anne Marie's. We are excited to go. It should be fun. We don't do enough together considering we are the only family here. On Monday we are hosting a Ritchie BBQ. Hopefully all will go well. The weather isn't very good right now. We dropped from 88 yesterday to 55 today. It is supposed to improve but we will see. Well that's all for now. I am looking for pictures from Lara still. Hopefully we will see some soon.

Just another week

We had a great weekend. We bought a trampoline for the kids. I guess this is the year for the trampoline. We are still working on our yard and garden. We have almost all of it planted now. It seems like it has taken forever this year. We are always excited about the veggies we grow. It's funny the little things that you get excited about. We have such exciting lives.
We only have two weeks left of school. It's hard to beleive that we are almost done another year. We are trying to decide what to do for our family vacation. We decided to go to either fish lake or Bear Lake. I am voting for Bear Lake. We will also make the trek to Calgary once again. We are still not sure when. We are looking forward to Mimi and Papa's visit in June. I think this will be the first time they will have come to visit this time of year. They are coming to see the girls perform in the Hansel and Gretel ballet. Well that's all for now. I have to get the kids to bed.

Brad Skiing

Brad went skiing on Tuesday and one of his coworkers took some pictures. I thought you would like to see them. He is at Utah Lake which actually looks quite pretty. Utah Lake isn't the prettiest lake to look at usually. Nathan is his boating buddy. You can see him here pulling the rope in from the water. I thought these pictures were really cool.

The boat is out!

I wish that my camera was working because there were some great photo moments this morning on the first boat trip of the season. For anyone that doesn't know Brad is a boating maniac. It was barely 75 outside and he jumped in the water for a ski. All the rest of us were in our long pants and jacket. It was great fun though. It was Sarah's first experience she did not like the life jacket. She did fall asleep in it though and it kept her head from bobbing. We only spent a couple of hours on the lake but we had a great time. We came home to the Saturday grind. We got six tomatoes plants in the ground and a whole lot of flowers. Brad bought me a potted flower arrangement for mothers day to put on my front door step. We have had a very busy Saturday.

We are having a crowd for mothers day tomorrow. I sometimes wonder why I want to have people over because it is so much work. But I love it. I love having people come to visit us. Well back to work. Happy Mothers Day to all you mother and Udda Mudda's (you know who you are).

It's Tuesday

What a busy day. I got up exercised, went to the dentist, took Sarah to the Dr., picked up her perscription, picked up the girls from school, took Catie to Soccer practice, came home, made dinner, fed Sarah, ate dinner, cleaned the kitchen and now I have a moment to sit. I had a sensative tooth so I had to go to the dentist to have it fixed. I have anxiety over the dentist, so he gave me some laughing gas and let me watch Seinfeld. That help a lot. He had to dig out some fractures in my teeth. Luckily they weren't big or else I would have had to have a crown. Anyway I hope the problem is solved. Sure wish Sean was here. We found out today that Sarah has some acid reflux. She has a horse voice without a cold or cough. The doctor put her on prevacid I hope that solves the problem. There is so much guess work to having a baby. She got her first set of shots today and she was not happy at all. I hate the shots for little babies. Well I've got to put the kids to bed now and get ready to go have my hair cut. I hope it turns out. My sisters will laugh if I hate it because I always hate my hair cuts. Oh well it grows. Bye for now.

Great Weekend

The weekend is comming to a close. We have had a productive fun weekend. Brad and I had two date nights. We went out with his parents Friday for Brad's b-day dinner. They took us to a Thia place call Thiafoon at the gateway in Salt Lake. The food was so good but you didn't get enought for the money. So we each had a big bowl of icecream when we got home. We spent most of Saturday getting ready to plant our garden which we love doing. I have become a real canning expert. Last year I learned how to can our apples from our apple tree. I made apple pie filling and bottled it. We had fresh apple crisp all winter long. It was yummy. Brad wanted to fire up the boat today but never got to it. Hopefully Monday night. We went out to dinner with Brad's brother Dan and his wife Richele. We had a great time with them. Dan ran a marathon today. I think he is crazy. Brad wants to join the craziness just to do it once. Today Brad took Nathan with him to Home Depot to buy some sprinkler heads. They had a kids class there to make a Mother's day present. He made me a little chair out of wood that had a hole in the middle for a plant to go in. It was so cute. They gave him a little apron for participating. He said he got to use a screw driver and a hammer. He was so proud of himself. I will have to put a picture of it on when I can get Brad to bring his work camera home since mine is broken. Tomorrow is the day of rest and I am looking forward to resting. See you later.

Just another day!

Well today has been busy as usual. We went grocery shopping and to ballet. I got to visit with Anne Marie today. We are excited about the Corbett family Blog. It is fun to read the entries. Tomorrow Brad, Nathan, Sarah and I are going to the Zoo for Annie's field trip. Brad is a volunteer chaperone and I am going just to tag along. Nathan is pretty excited about it. I am too because I won't have a bored little Nathan on my hands. We finally got Sarah in her crib. She has been sleeping on a double bed in her room surrounded by pillows. I hope she likes it. I don't want to be up all night with her because she hates her bed. There is no rest for the weary. I get two date nights this weekend and I am so excited. I have a baby sitter for tomorrow and Saturday. I haven't seen my hubby in a while because he was in China so I figured we could go out twice. I am really looking forward to the break. Well time for bed. Until next time.

I'm here!

I finally am able to log on to blogger.com from my home computer. Yeah! Brad fixed it for me so I can join in the fun.

Have A Nice Day

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Mission Hills Shenzhen China 180 Holes of Cussing

Pictures from top to bottom:
Snack Shack
My caddy and Me
Hole # Double Boggy for Sure

Back to the U.S.A.

After a long and exhausting time for both Amy and Brad the Ritchie family is complete again. Welcome Home Brad!

Pimp Myspace

Happy Birthday Brad

Happy birthday to you
happy birthday to you
happy birthday dear Brad,
happy birthday to you.

We love you!

Hope You Like Your New Blog

Welcome New Bloggers!

Welcome the Ritchies to the world of blogging. Now they definitely need a new camera so we can see some pictures. Have at it Amy!