Weekly Highlights

Monday Highlight= Caroline helping me type on the computer, she has learned all about the 'enter' button.

Tuesday Highlight=Caroline helping Mommy and Daddy clean in preparation for Miles and Sonya.
Wednesday Highlight=Made to Crave class with my church friends. Thursday Highlight= Entire family going to bed at 8:00!
Hope you all have a good weekend! I am off to enjoy my favorite day of the week!

Saturday and Sunday Highlights

This weekend's highlight consisted of spending time with my college roommate (Holly), her husband (John), and little Salie. Caroline was so excited when our company arrived. I had spoke to her about Holly's baby being in her belly. Caroline kept looking at Holly's belly, just waiting for the baby to be revealed. She is going to love getting to meet Salie soon!
We have been sorting through things and giving baby items to Holly and John. The funny thing is that Caroline does not want to let go of any of her baby items. She brought the baby seat outside with her Saturday and got stuck....
Picture #3-Caroline asked me if I would put her in the Wal-Mart bag on Saturday, but when I went to get her out she said, NO Mommy! You have to purchase me first! Her mind is expanding!
Sunday is my favorite day of each week. I love my church friends! I wish I got to see them each day! Have a great week!

Shopping Saturday

We started off the morning by heading to Benton to go shopping. Mom picked us up and off we went. We had plenty of stops, but Caroline was a sweetie!

Stop #1) Post Office
Stop #2) Donut Shop-Caroline only ate one donut hole
Stop #3) Office Depot
I had to explain to Caroline today that the riding chairs are not for children, but handicapped or older people. She did not want to get out of the chair!
Stop #4) Subway
Stop #5) Wal-Mart...there were so many people at Wal-Mart today!

Thursday Highlight

Thursday Highlight= Matt's Compliment

We all love compliments and I especially love compliments from Matt. Matt is a supporting and a complimenting husband. I chose the above picture to display for tonight's post because I will never forget when I was pregnant with Caroline. We were about to go back to the labor and delivery room and Matt told me that I was more beautiful than ever. Such a special compliment from a husband.

Well, today I received another sweet compliment from Matt. He came to the office this morning, and later this afternoon I received a message from him stating, You are so great at your job. I enjoy getting compliments from patients, but a compliments from my husband will always top the list. Love you Matt!

Monday and Tuesday Highlights

Despite Caroline's ear infection and fever this week, we have still had some fun times in the evening. Below are our highlights from Monday and Tuesday:
1)This basket has been in the family for generations. Caroline is currently using it as her living room chair. Memories!
2) Tonight I came home to find Caroline wanting to go to see Will and Lana....then she told me they would go swimming with her. She still has to learn her seasons. Ha! The life jacket was a little snug, but hopefully this Summer we will have a little fish on our hands.

3) And who can resist this sweetness? These curls really hold the combs steady!

Sunday Highlights

Daily Highlight= I walked into the kitchen to find my two favorite people stirring up a little something special. We have been on a big cooking kick at our house and I hope it continues!

Caroline and I also worked on cutting with scissors this morning. Aunt Julie gave her a cutting kit for Christmas so we periodically break it out and practice. She is getting better at cutting, but she has not mastered cutting on the lines yet. She enjoys cutting one piece and then tearing it the rest of the way. Just look at these sweet fingers and hands. I could eat them up!

Have a great Sunday afternoon!

Daily Highlights

Daily Highlight= Spending time with Matt and Caroline. We have played, played, and played all day. Caroline is napping and I have been planning a vacation. In a few months we will be heading to South Carolina and we are beyond excited. Caroline is excited also...she completely understands what vacation means... We are getting take-out dinner from one of our favorite restaurants to make tonight complete.

Highlight #2-New chalk board for scripture verses. Caroline has a picture Bible that she loves, but it only tells Biblical stories. The Bible does not have scripture verses, so I plan on adding a new scripture to the board each week.

Daily Highlight

I can already tell you my daily highlight for today...getting to spend time with this sweet girl. Love her! Good morning from the Ritchie Crew!

Daily Highlight

Thursday Highlight= making Valentine's Day cards with Caroline. I found this craft idea in this month's magazine for Valentine's Day cards. We made our cards for all of the grandmothers tonight. I do not want to showcase the final project till after February. Let's just say that it involves celery....

Daily Highlight

January 16 Daily Highlight- Meeting with Sunday School class friends for dinner.

January 17- Getting a new Disney Family Fun magazine in the mail.

No pictures today...I will pick back up tomorrow. My camera is currently in the cleaning process.

Daily Highlight

Daily Highlight=Matt's meatballs...yummy. I just love a man who can cook!

Daily Highlight

Daily Highlight=Getting to take pictures for Lana's Junior Homecoming

Lana asked me to take pictures of the girls while they were getting ready for their Junior Homecoming. Such an honor! I had so much fun! I will post the pictures once Lana gives me the okay.... Hope she is still dancing her socks off, because I am off to bed.

And a "just because" picture...I just love her.

Daily Highlight(s)

Here is to day one of posting the daily highlight. The daily highlight turned into actually posting three highlights for today.

Highlight #1- New reward system for using the restroom in the potty. Caroline used the potty four times today and was rewarded with M and M's. Thought I would never reward with candy, but this is where we find ourselves...
Highlight #2- learning a new focus technique with my camera. I took this picture with my camera of Lana's camera. Lana and I both got new cameras for Christmas and we have enjoyed learning our new settings together.
Highlight #3- Caroline and I got to watch Matt fly today. We are SO proud of him!

A Picture A Day Keeps The Doctor Away

Well, I have not announced this yet to all my blogging friends, and I debated and went back and forth about announcing it. However, I do think it is important to document these feelings and this time period for Caroline to read about when she is older.

Matt will officially be leaving for Kosovo in July. Many then ask Kosovo? Where is that? Well, Kosovo is near Serbia and mainly Albanian in population. It is currently at a plateau. Matt will be leaving with the Medevac unit later this Summer. As times gets closer we will keep you posted on more details.

As for now, I have started preparing myself for our family's first deployment. One of the things I told Matt I would love to do each day is to have the highlight of the day. The highlight can be anything from an action, an item, or an experience. This gives Matt a chance to experience our day with us. I was going to start this in July, but I thought it might be better to go ahead and get used to posting the daily highlight now. So, tonight I will post one picture and one highlight from our day. It is going to be hard to pick one daily highlight, we have so much to be thankful for each and every day.

Below are some pictures from this past weekend. Caroline is such a hoot! We love her so much! See you tonight for our daily highlight...

Out with the Old and In with the New

The Ritchie Crew has a new camera! I went to Bedfords last Friday and made the final decision. I am overly excited about the new camera, but I have just started reading the manual so I am learning new things every minute. The pictures below are set on the automatic setting, and it is going to take a while to learn the manual settings.

Matt had drill this weekend, so we had a girl's night last night. We had pedicures and facials.
Below is our new smile. Caroline walks around now saying CHEESE. She also is very opinionated and sometimes tells me, " I'll be right back, and do not take a picture of me."

Check out this face. Poor girl fell down.

We watched the game Friday night until we could no longer keep our little eyes open. Hadley and Caroline snuggled on the couch and became friends.

My two favorite people

Sweet Doritos Lips

Caroline made a reindeer(out of her hands and feet) this year for her school craft.

Happy New Year

We decided at the last moment to take a family picture at our house and it turned out pretty good. My parents are so proud of this picture, and they should be with an amazing and loving family. We celebrated Christmas this past Friday once my brother and sister-in-law arrived back home from their trip to Florida.
...well, and I forgot to post a picture from Caroline's first trip to the salon. Better late than never!
Grandma Etta added to our collection of baby dolls, and now Caroline has to feed four babies, stroll four babies, sleep with four babies, and take four babies everywhere we go. She is such a wonderful Mommy, but she cracks me up because since she cannot carry all four at one time, she always gives me the little boy baby. She treats the little boy as an outcast.

We have had a blessed and wonderful Christmas Season. Matt and I are both off work today, so we are headed to the Wonder Place to meet some friends. Cannot Wait! Happy New Year!