Wii

There were a lot of Wii's at Grandma's house on Christmas. Ben and Holli's family got one, Court and Jason got one and my Dad surprised my Mom with one. Mylie got to test her skills out. This is her playing baseball. She rocked at pitching, but struggled with hitting.
Papa was helping her with her stance.

And here are Mylie and Max boxing. Hilarious. Oh, how I wish I would have gotten my camera out when Grandma was boxing. It was priceless. She has moves.

Christmas Morning

Mylie was concerned that Santa might not find us since we would be at Grandma's house. We left him a note and thankfully he found us there. Blake was not so interested in opening presents. He was interested in playing with his new toys (and the boxes they came in).

Mylie asked Santa for a real camera, could it be?

"Mom! It's a real camera!"

"And it even has a case!"

I'm excited to get her pictures downloaded. I think it will be fun to see all the things she took pictures of on Christmas Day and the week we were in Idaho Falls. It was such a fun Christmas Day. I'm not sure the last time that all of us where there on Christmas morning together. Watching all 5 of the grandkids was so much fun. The kids got great presents and the adults got spoiled too! I'm amazed that Jeff actually got everything packed in our car this morning.

Christmas Eve

For Christmas Eve this year we decided to forego the traditional Ritchie hamburger dinner and Courtney, Bailey and I decided to make an appetizer dinner. Of course, we had to watch "A Christmas Story" while we were working.
We put Jason to work.

"How's that lil' smokey Court?"

Blake volunteered to test things out ...

but then wasn't so sure.

And Mylie showing off our yummy dinner!

Mylie and Blake opened their new jammies from Mommy and Daddy.

{Man, he is a cute Batman!}

All the Ritchie grandkids under the tree.

And Grandma reading the Christmas story.

Christmas Eve was just the beginning of a wonderful week!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

We got to Idaho Falls on Christmas Eve and there was a lot of snow! That meant sledding! Eliza loved having Grandma pull her in the sled.
And it meant rides on the sled behind the 4-wheeler.

Awwwww! They are so cute, it was so fun to have Court and Jason there. I miss them!

Jason got in on the sledding.

One of my favorites, Mylie and Max.

Darcy was loving the saucer.

"Brrr Mom!"

Look at Uncle Ben go!

Merry Christmas from Mylie & Blake

Our 2008 in review:
January - Mylie can’t wait to become a big sister. We are busy getting ready for baby.
February - We welcome Blake Jeffrey on Superbowl Sunday, he weighs in at 9 lbs, 22.75 inches long. (We’re thinking linebacker.)
March - Jeff accepts a new position as the supervisor at the Canyon County Misdemeanor Probation Department. Mylie starts spring soccer, brrr!
April - We enjoy a few warm spring days and are still getting in the swing of having a family of four.
May - We take two trips to Idaho Falls this month. Mylie loves playing with her cousins. Jeff paints Mylie’s room a beautiful shade of purple
June - We enjoy the Star Mule Days parade. Mylie earns a bike and we go on many rides.
July - We spend the 4th of July weekend in Jackson, WY with the Ritchie clan. The kids and I stay a week in Idaho Falls. Mylie and Max play from sunup to sundown everyday.
August - Hammond reunion in Provo, UT. Blake starts rolling over and gets his first two teeth.
September - Mylie plays fall soccer and Jeff coaches. Mylie starts going on weekly outings with Grandma Breach and has so much fun!
October - Mylie dresses up as Tinkerbell and Blake as a bear for Halloween. Blake starts crawling. We take a trip to Yellowstone with Grandma, Papa, Uncle Ben, Darcy and Max. Mylie takes her first ride in a motorcycle sidecar courtesy of Papa.
November - Mylie turns 4! Grandma and Grandpa Breach take her to Disney on Ice and she loves it. We host Thanksgiving at our house.
December - We are looking forward to Winter Garden Aglow with Grandma and Grandpa Breach and going to Idaho Falls for Christmas with the whole Ritchie family!

Mylie + Drake = BFF

Mylie was SO EXCITED that Drake got to come over and play on Friday night. In fact, she sat on the couch peering out the blinds for 90 minutes, just waiting for him to get there. They like to play Mom and Dad. I like how Drake is a domestic Dad and he is making dinner while Mylie sits at the table and waits ... she has learned from me. They play together so well and were even happy to let Blake play with them too. Drake is such a sweet well behaved boy, he can come over anytime!

Conversations with Mylie, part 4.

This morning, a little after 6, I heard Mylie crying in her room. I went downstairs and she was half asleep, but crying. I asked her what was the matter and she told me she was having a bad dream. I asked her what her dream was about and she told me that someone said "butt" in her dream. She then told me that if you say "butt" at Grandma's you get get soap in your mouth. She then promptly fell back asleep.

I went back to bed and laid there and giggled. Never a dull moment around here.

Conversations with Mylie, part 3.

Mylie: Momma, I really want a kitty,
Me: No Mylie, I don't like cats.
Mylie: What about a dog?
Me: Talk to your Daddy.
Mylie: I know Mom, what about a camel?

Fast forward to the next day.

Mylie: Momma, can we get a pig?
Me: No Mylie, pigs live on farms.
Mylie: We could buy a farm.
Me: No kiddo, I like living at our house.
Mylie: We could just buy a farm and put it in the backyard for the pig to live at.

I *attempted* some Christmas pictures this morning.

I'll let you guess how they went. Sigh.

Conversations with Mylie, part 2.

Tonight Blake was getting into something and Mylie picked him up to move him. Blake is a little ... shall we say chunky, so after she sets him down she shows her muscles and says, "I am Ironing Man!"

Conversations with Mylie.

At breakfast ...
Mylie: Mom, can I have marshmallows on top of my Cocoa Krispies?
Me: *silent pause*
Mylie: I promise I won't tell Gramma.
Me: *laughing* OK.

One of my favorite ornaments ...

Last weekend we decorated our Christmas tree. I love getting out the tin of ornaments, because nearly all of them have meaning. I can remember who gave them to me or where we bought them. I came across one of my favorites that Jeff's mom gave me 2 Christmases ago.

Christmas 2006 was just a few months after my Grandma had died. Oh my heart hurt at the prospect of Christmas without Grandma (and still does). Grandma was all about holidays and Christmas was something special. Even we didn't always spend Christmas Day in Idaho Falls, we always spent part of Christmas week there and the thought of not having her there, of Grandpa not having her there, just hurt so much.

As I unwrapped a present from Mary my eyes just filled with tears. It was a simple ornament that said "I'm spending Christmas with Jesus this year." In the little box was this poem:

I see the countless Christmas trees
Around the world below,
With tiny lights like heaven's stars
Reflecting in the snow.

The sight is so spectacular
Please wipe away that tear
For I'm spending Christmas
With Jesus Christ this year.

I hear the many Christmas songs
That people hold so dear
But earthly music can't compare
With the Christmas choir up here.

I have no words to tell you
The joy their voices bring
For it's beyond description
To hear the angels sing.

I know how much you miss me,
Trust God and have no fear
For I'm spending Christmas
With Jesus Christ this year.

I can't tell you of the splendor
Or the peace here in this place.
Can you imagine Christmas
With our Savior, face to face?

May God uplift your spirit
As I tell Him of your love
Then pray for one another
As you lift your eyes above.

So let your hearts be joyful
And let your spirits sing
For I'm spending Christmas in Heaven
And I'm walking with the king!

I'm pretty sure I will tear up every year when I hang this ornament on the tree. But it was the perfect gift. I'm also pretty sure every year when I hang this ornament I will be grateful for Jeff's mom and for her finding the perfect gift to soothe my heart.

Cookies for inmates ...

Every year our ward does a cookies for inmates drive. Every year I think, "Wow, there are some nice women here who bake cookies for inmates. I, however, am not one of them!" See, its not that I am mean or cold hearted, it is that for the last 10 years I have worked in the criminal justice system. Jeff works in the criminal justice system. We are well aware that people who are in prison are not there for petty crimes. They have usually done something that has hurt someone and I just could never get into the whole cookie for inmate thing.

My heart has softened this year. But let me back track a little. For 6 years (before my kids were born), I was a juvenile probation officer. About the last 4.5 of those years I worked in Nampa and Caldwell with kids who had committed serious offenses. So serious, in fact, that a judge had taken away their freedom for a long period of time. Many of these individuals were gang members. Although I knew I would work in juvenile justice after my kids were born, I wanted to do something different, I didn't want to work with the same types of kids. The last few months of my pregnancy (with Mylie) solidified this. Once I was at the juvenile corrections center visiting with a kid who had just been recommitted to the state. I was probably 7 months pregnant or so. He was not happy and threw a chair in my general direction. Nice. One of the last home visits I did, at 8 months pregnant, I was at a home visit with the gang unit (from the police department), where they found a whole bunch of gang paraphernalia and knives in the kid's room. The kid then told me that he had been carrying a gun most of the times I met with him.

Well fast forward a bit. This last kid, the gun carrier, committed murder about a year and a half ago. Just waited in a house with a gun and shot someone (another gang member). He has been in jail and although it made me sick to think about it, unfortunately, he wasn't the first kid that I used to supervise that had murdered someone. I didn't think a lot about it. Until October, when the prosecuting attorneys office called me and said they wanted me to testify at this kid's sentencing hearing. He had plead guilty in exchange for the PAs office not asking for the death penalty. They were asking for life in prison.

I informed them that I hadn't worked for the probation department in 4 years and they should contact someone there to testify. They informed me that they had and that the probation department would release the file to me because I knew the kid best. I did know him best, I supervised him for 4.5 years. He was 9 when he was originally placed on probation and 13 the first time he was committed to the state - which is when I took his case. I supervised his case through one more commitment, through inpatient drug and alcohol treatment, and intensively in the community, seeing him 3-4 times a week. I knew this kid quite well. Although he had done a lot of bad things, he was always pretty respectful of me.

So a few weeks later, I was in court on the stand for 45 minutes being questioned by the prosecutor and cross-examined by the defense attorney. The "kid" now 23, wouldn't make eye contact with me as he was sitting at the defense table. After I testified, the Judge called for a recess. I was speaking with the PA and mentioned that I didn't see the defendant's mother there. She told me that he had not had any family with him at all during any of his hearings. The sentencing hearing lasted all day and was continued to the following week. I went back to court the next week, interested to watch the end of the sentencing.

Now, I like to think I am kind of tough. You have to be working this kind of job. You have to realize that people make choices and they must deal with the consequences. However, this was tough to sit through. I arrived as the victim's family was making their statement to the Judge about how this defendant took away their son. I teared up a bit. Then the prosecutor made her closing arguments, referring back many times to the testimony I had presented. She recommended life in prison without the possibility of parole. The defense attorney made her closing arguments. She talked about how everyone is this case is a loser, how the victim's family has lost their son, how the defendant has lost all his support, no family, no gang members, no one there to support him. How he is truly a man alone. Once again I teared up. I'm thinking to myself, "C'mon Ritchie, toughen up!" I've never gotten teared up or emotional at court before. I'm sitting there with police officers and in the courtroom of the Judge I work for and I feel like a bleeding heart social worker - which just isn't me. Then the defendant got up and made a statement to the victim's family.

The Judge then sentenced him to life in prison, 35 years fixed, which means he can't ask for parole for 35 years, he'll be 58. I left the courtroom, sat in my car and the tears just flowed. Now don't get me wrong at all ... I believe he needs to go to prison for life. He took someones life. Not only that, he is suspected in another murder and tried to pull a gun on the officer who arrested him. He deserves to be in prison. But my heart was sad. This young man was a little boy when I first knew him. This young man was sentenced to life in prison, and his mother wasn't even there for him. Then it hit me, I wasn't a mother when I was a PO, and being a mother changes the way you look at everything.

The next week I was a Relief Society presidency meeting (its the women's organization for our church, I'm one of the counselors). As we are going through the agenda, the president asked me if I would head up the inmate cookie drive this year. I was so amazed that she knew my heart was softened. I told her this story. I told her I had a different outlook this year (I don't even think she knew how I had felt before).

I don't necessarily feel different about inmates in prison. But what I do realize is that it is not up to me to decide if people deserve to be the recipients of service.

Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

For I was an hungered and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

{Oh, and by the way, I got up and shared this story when I announced the cookie drive. The women in our ward made a total of 60 dozen cookies for inmates this year. Wow!}

Random Website Week.

So I just very randomly found this website and am definitely bookmarking it!
http://www.fixya.com/

If you are having a technological problem (I have them often) you can type in your model number or just your general problem and there is some free help. I haven't posted anything, just looked in the archives, but just figured out a couple things that have been vexing me.

Hope this helps someone.

For the fashion police out there ...

http://nomoremomjeans.blogspot.com/

Just found this blog and love it! {Courtney and Bailey, you must read it, you will snort out loud and then call me and we will laugh so hard.}

Makes me want to go shopping!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Christmas season is in full swing already at our house. The kids visited with Santa yesterday at our church Christmas party.
We got our Christmas tree last night. (Look how cute my boys are out tree shopping!)

Mylie thinks that tying a tree on the car is so cool!

And then got the decorations up last night. We threw in some Christmas music and Christmas movies and took a drive tonight to look at lights. There is one house in Boise that has amazing lights and we go every year to look at it. We pulled up to it tonight and Mylie said, "Whoa, does Santa live here?" So cute! I love this time of year. I love watching Mylie get excited.

10 months (and a few days) ...

How did the months go so fast? Blakey is already 10 months old. At 10 months, he loves to eat, (in fact he finished off a whole quesadilla at a restaurant last night), he still really loves his bottle, he says "Oooooooo" and "Da Da Da Da" (though I tried so hard to teach his to say Mama first), he is so wiggly - diaper changes are not fun, he wiggles his little butt a lot when he crawls, he really likes to walk along the furniture, he laughs so hard - especially when Mylie snorts at him, he gets into everything, he wears size 18 month clothes and size 4 diapers. He still get tons of kisses from Mylie and me. AND Mylie still thinks she is in charge of him ...

For the record, the bruise and cut on his forehead healed, but he woke up with a black eye today. He also has a terrible cold, again! He was not going to sleep unless Mama was holding him last night, so we are both pretty tired today.