Nineteen years later....

So, I recently resurrected these silk tulips from the basement and arranged them into a basket on our dining table.  Not too exciting, right?  BUT these are special tulips!  They are some of the very tulips from the displays we had at our wedding.  Say what you will about silk plants, but at the time I couldn't fathom spending hundreds of dollars on flowers and NOT being able to keep them.  So, silk red tulips for our wedding it was......nineteen and a half years ago.

A few days ago, I caught Noah (of COURSE it was Noah, isn't it always?!) messing around with my tulips.  At first I was going to gripe at him to leave them alone, but then I saw his cute little (albeit mischievous) face poking through and it occurred to me....hey, here we are, Mark and I almost twenty years later together, and here's what we have to show for it (in addition to the amazingly long-lasting tulips, that is)...

A Noah!

And a Connor (who obviously doesn't think this is very exciting)!

And a Shelby!

Life has turned out pretty good for our little Ritchie family.  :)

Happy Easy-Way-Out Valentines Day!!

I swore this year would be different, that I'd be THAT perfect Mom who does the homemade cute Valentines and adds little cute candies surprises (I'm looking at you, Mindy D).  I even Pinned a whole bunch of super-cute ideas on Pinterest - I was SERIOUS this year.

And then, yup, about 7 or 8 days before Valentines Day, I took the easy way out and just ordered them again online.  Choose template, upload photo, press "Order" and viola - instant Valentines (well, with 3-5 days shipping time).  Four minutes tops.

But at least I DID update my blog background to Valentines!  I'll take the small victories where I can get 'em.  And really, these Valentines cards DID turn out pretty cute, right, even if they don't have candies on them?

To be honest, what turned the tide in favor of online printed cards versus making cute homemade ones was that I saw this one in an email from PearTree Greetings (love them!) and HAD to get it for Noah - I've referenced a couple times here on my blog how Noah fantasizes about being King Noah of all the Noahs of the world.  It was too perfect, I had to order it NOW.  And that was the slippery slope - one Valentine ordered, sheesh, I should just do them all online, shouldn't I?  My cute homemade super-special Valentines Day 2012 slipped away....

Connor was dismayed to hear that in fourth grade, you still have to do Valentines cards.  I finally got him to grumpily agree to this one:

 

Shelby wanted unicorn Valentines.  Of course.  She wants EVERYTHING in unicorns.  Every day, all day long.  Her favorite white unicorn stuffed animal is named "Magical Fairy."  Connor and Noah are STILL concerned about her Halloween plans this year (it's her turn to pick our family theme) and wanting us all to be unicorns.  But hey, if the princess deems it must be so, it must be so.  Well, except for Valentines - Queen Mommy decreed that Princess Shelby must have these cute little flower Valentines this year.

 

Oh, and all those other cute Pinterest ideas I have pinned for Valentines Day?  Let's just leave it at the fact that I still have my January star wreath on my door.  No Valentines spirit anywhere to be seen.  I didn't order matching Valentines shirts or pajamas for the kids this year.  We're probably not even going to have cute pepperoni heart pizza or cinnamon rolls (unless Carrabbas serves them).  And I'm secretly hoping the kids forget about our family tradition of our living room Valentines Day slumber party.  Yup, I'm definitely losing out on Mommy of the Year 2012 so far.

Oh wait, I just remembered - I DID order a custom pillow-cover for Valentines Day this year!  See, I haven't lost my Valentines spirit just yet!  But, you ask (or rather, my Mom asks), is it on a pillow yet?  Well, NO, but MAYBE I can get it on one by February 14. 

Oh well, let's see if I can do better with my Easter Pinterest board!!

But hey, I'm not done with 2011 yet!

We did some cool stuff in 2011 and my lazy tushie never blogged about it, so I'm gonna do it now.  Besides, blogging is my only form of scrapbooking (despite boxes full of papers, photos, stickers, etc) so if I want to remember all this stuff, I gotta get it down here while I'm still young.  Kind of.  You know what I mean.  NO jokes about my age, people.

Anyway, it's a long one. If you're really into us and want to read/look at all of us, go get yourself some popcorn and Diet Coke, and please enjoy!

~ January ~

January is our month of birthdays, with Connor and Shelby's birthdays only one week apart.  Connor turned 8 years old in January 2011, and, as you can see, getting a computer was pretty much a hit!

I even did a custom desktop for him (at the time, the boys LOVED the DumDum statue in Night At the Museum - but then again, who doesn't??):

Connor also got to go to NYC and see the King Tut exhibit with Grandma and Daddy.  COOLNESS.  Of course, upon exiting the show, the usher said something like, "Well, little fellow, how did you like the show?"  And Connor, in true Connor form (and having read and studied numerous books about hieroglyphics), replied, "Well, the hieroglyphic translations on the exhibit signs had several mistakes..." and went on to explain in great detail the corrections that needed to be made.  That poor usher did NOT know who he was dealing with!

And, a week later, here we are with Shelby's 3rd birthday, getting a Shelby-sized horse she can sit on.  Again, a birthday hit!

A hit, that is, only until Shelby named her new, beautiful horsie….NOAH.  Yes, she named it Noah.  Noah, her brother (not to be confused with Noah the horse), did NOT find this flattering and was completely irritated.

We celebrated Shelby's birthday with a trip to the fabulous Strong Museum of Play in Rochester, where, of course, the kids always do what they do at home…play the video games.  UGH!

But I love this trick photo - check out Shelby's face as she and Connor cling to the side of the building!  She looks more like she's velcro-ed on, rather than clinging on for her little life.  And annoyed about it, to boot!

~ February ~

February marked the beginning of an era for Connor…discovering the Math for Dummies book series.  We started with Algebra and Geometry, and now own every book and workbook in the series, including Trigonometry and Physics.  Yes, these are Connor's FAVORITE, most treasured books.  

~ March ~

March was kinda slow, with the exception of Connor starting Cub Scouts.  Isn't he handsome?  :)

~ April ~

The month of Noah and his birthday!  I did get his birthday blogged about here:  http://markandestelle.blogspot.com/2011/04/happy-birthday-cute-little-freckley.html.

And of course, an epic blog entry about Shelby - relive THAT fun (actually horrible - I still can't laugh about it yet) day here: http://markandestelle.blogspot.com/2011/04/she-who-shall-not-be-named.html.

~ May ~

Now we're warming up!  To celebrate Mothers Day, I bought some custom T-shirts for my kid gang about how their little brother/sister rocks.  Super cute, right?

Yep, this is what Mother's Day is all about:

And here we have one of my ALL-TIME FAVORITE photos of Shelby, one that will live on in Ritchie family infamy - the kind of photo that will make me laugh out loud every time I see it for the rest of my life:



In May, we also had a visit from Uncle Paul, which we celebrated with a family trip to one of our favorite restaurants, Koto.  Oh yes, the boys love their kooky Uncle Paul!

~ June ~

MORE fabulous kid photos!  We finally got the kids their passports, because you never know when we'll decide to jaunt off to the Bahamas.  Probably NEVER!  But anyway.  I like to refer to this collection as "Photos that only a mother and grandmother could love."   Shelby and Noah are okay, but CONNOR!  Omgosh, that hair.  And I was THERE!  I can't even blame Mark for that photo that Connor will now have to live with for the next 5 years.

~ July ~

Now we're talking!!!  We did our almost-pretty-much-annually summer pilgrimage to Idaho/Utah (Udaho) for the summer to stay with my parents at our house in the foothills of Cache Valley in Idaho on 7 acres.  Seriously, check out this view from the deck.  I never want to live in Utah again, but I SURE do loooove coming to visit!

But even better than THAT view, is going to all of my favorite restaurants around Utah (since Syracuse restaurants ARE PLAIN AWFUL)!!!!   Here we are celebrating Mark and I's 19th anniversary at THE RED IGUANA!!!! - a little dive of a Mexican restaurant on the wrong side of Salt Lake City that has THE MOST fabulous food.  Happy happy me!

While Grandma & Grandpa tended to the grandcherubs, Mark and I enjoyed a couple of kidless days in the Salt Lake area, staying at one of my favorite hotels, the gorgeous Grand America!  

We also spent a day at Sundance, riding up and down the chairlifts and enjoying the scenery.

A side note:  Don't wear flip flops on chair lifts.

Happy 19th, Markli! You're all right.

We looooooooove swimming at Bear Lake.  Our Bear Lake days are the highlight of every summer!

Here's Grandpa with his new squirt toy, waiting for someone brave to come in close enough to battle:

And ummmm, we bought this inflatable for the kids, but Mark took a creepy liking to it.

The boys (Mark, Connor, Noah & Grandpa) did a trip to Yellowstone and the Tetons.  Yes, they're wearing parts of pajamas.  Remember, I said BOYS trip, meaning Mark dressed them.  If you can call it that.  Ugh.

Here's Shelby thrilled to be enjoying fireworks with her "big girl" cousins Marinda and Katrina, visiting from Colorado.  Yay!

~ August ~

And since Grandma & Grandpa live in farm country, we stopped every day for Shelby to visit all of her favorite "horsie friends":

My pretty little girlie!  I love the sweetness of this photo.  We don't get too many of Shelby like this.  She looks so innocent.  Don't be fooled, though!  She's a feisty little OCD crabpot!

Laaaaa.  The Logan Temple.  Where Ritchie Inc. started.  And now look at us - here's our contributions to the world - three very misbehaving but I-love-em-anyway kidlets.  Yeah, I guess having Mark in the pic would have been ideal, but oh well.

And I initially thought I'd snapped a perfect photo of Grandma with the kiddos.  Until I saw Shelby holding up her shirt, showing off her belly button.  Yep, thanks, Shelbs.  That's special.

One of my VERY FAVORITE things about summer is my dad mowing a "field maze" on the property for the kids.  Isn't that the COOLEST thing?  AND, it keeps them busy for hours.  Yessss!  Here's Shelby venturing off:

And a new addition from Grandpa this year - BWA HA HA!!! LOVE this!!!

We finished off our summer with a lunch with our long-lost-Lentzs, meeting up at the Mayan (which was CLOSED for lunch.  poop.).   Hello hugs!

Here's the combined kid gang.  Ummmm, and Mark.  The weird old guy photobombing the kid picture.

And cute little Shelby and cute little Kiplyn:

On our way home, through Iowa, we discovered…..SHELBY!  We've driven this route (NY-UT) at least 2 dozen times in the past 10 years and we never noticed Shelby, Iowa.  Is it new?  Do they still create new towns?  Anyway, WooHoo from exciting Shelby, Iowa!!

~ September ~

Back home, we had Shelby starting her first day of preschool.  SUCH a little diva.  But a cute one.  :)

She went in without looking back, little independent girl that she is, leaving her dithering, sobbing wreck of a mommy in the parking lot.  *my last one...waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah*

~ October ~

Our first major kid injury!  In 8 years, can you believe that?  Anyway, Shelby was jumping around on the back of the couch with her bad big brothers, and she fell off and broke her wrist.  It slowed her down for ….oh, about a DAY.  She went right into dance lessons with her cute little red cast and did just fine.

To finish up October, of course, I always manage to document our Halloween shenanigans: http://markandestelle.blogspot.com/2011/11/all-ritchies-were-kung-fu-fighting.html.

~ November ~

Noah started losing teeth this year.  I don't know if it was in November or not, but hey, here we are.  You can't really see the missing teeth here:

But here, I'm pretty sure you can see.  See, like EVERYTHING.  Ewww, Noah!!!

And the beauty of losing a front tooth - extra straw access!!

~ December ~

I definitely got myself on the blogging wagon in December (4 entries, that may be a record!), so we're covered there.  And whew, that's IT!  2011.  Go Mommy!