Forgot to post these...

I forgot to post these with my new post below. We had another ultra sound last Friday since Andrew and Kate were unable to make the first (due to H1N1). Grace didn't really want to cooperate, her face was buried in the placenta, and just like before she had her hands and umbilical cord in her face trying to chew on them. Click on the images to enlarge for better viewing.



She weighs 2.5 lbs and they estimate that she will be around 6 lbs at birth. Kate was only 6 lbs 4 oz, so my MD thinks I just don't make very big babies. Both Andrew and I weighed in the 7 lb range at birth, nice & average. I'll leave birthing 10 lb babies to someone else!



Don't forget to read the blog below, it is new too, just forgot to add these on. -SR

October/November

Okay, so I've admitted to myself that if I post once a month, then I am doing pretty good. The end of October was lots of fun, with Halloween & a pumpkin carving party with some friends (of course the only picture I have to show for the party is the actual finished product pumpkin, go figure).

Also, for those who don't know, if you click on the pictures as you go, they enlarge for better viewing.



I had to work on Halloween, so I made it home around 8p and Andrew & Kate had already been trick or treating. I think Kate had more fun answering the door and giving out candy while dressed up as a vampire. She wanted to be something "dark" this year, was her exact expression used when deciding on a costume. Nana Laurie made this custom cape she is wearing, along with the trick or treat bag to match. Isn't it beautiful!



Kate got to wear her costume to ballet the week of Halloween, and many people wanted to know where she bought her fabulous cape. The response was "Nana's workshop"; if only she knew how spoiled she is. (I'm beginning to think she does, she just chooses not the lead on.) The teeth only stayed in for the pictures, as they were uncomfortable over her braces. Andrew said she was very picky this year about what houses she would go up to. If there was any sort of scary decoration, even fake spider webs, she opted to skip that house.



Since mom was at work when she needed to get ready, she was on her own for make up. She did ask permission prior to the event, which I appreciated very much. I think she did a pretty good job for playing the part of a vampire, I wonder if that was the look she was going for?



This was her pumpkin she carved (with help of course). We had a friend of mine from work over with her 2 kids, along with a neighbors kid. I think carving pumpkins is always more work for the parents, kids are good at delegating the design plan and sitting by to make sure the project goes as planned. We made English muffin pizzas, but skipped the caramel apples this year because of the braces situation.



Kate ended up staying the night at her friend's house that night & thanks to the blizzard we had earlier that week, there was lots of snow for sledding. I had to work, but my friend Jen sent me this picture of Kate during the fun. Lovely expression!



The nursery project is in full swing! Andrew completed the stripes for the nursery. They look wonderful! It was a very time consuming task, that involved a tape measure, pencil, level, tape, & caulk, along with lots of patience & a couple late nights. We will call it a labor of love; having a perfectionist for a wife, he has perfected his skills on how to deal with me & my project ideas. He did such a great job, don't you think?



The night the tape came off, the chair was delivered (our lovely glider/recliner) and I was ready for all the other furniture to be put together. It has been in boxes since September, but all of the sudden I felt like it needed to be done right away. Of course, my very patient husband humoured me and set it all up that same night. There is still lots to be done, curtains to be found, wall decor to be hung, but as we just started our last trimester, we should have time. I am always a ball of stress needing everything to be done right away, otherwise maybe it won't get done in time & Andrew is just like my mom with sayings such as "it will all come together, stop worrying" and the ever favorite "it's all good". And it truly is "all good"! -SR

October 09 Part I

We have had an eventful October so far and still have a few things planned ahead. Kate has been on fall break the past couple of weeks and is looking forward to getting back to school next week. I probably started this blog with unrealistic expectations. Posting monthly rather than weekly is probably more likely to happen, but I will continue to strive to post more regularly.





Construction began on the nursery (used to be the office). We have all the furniture ready to put together just waiting for painting to be completed. Kate decided she really wanted to help, so as you can see I think she had more fun painting pictures on the wall. The first layer of paint has since gone up and Andrew will be working on completing the painting this weekend (hopefully). The colors we have chosen are cream, khaki, & sage, and there will be an accent wall with stripes. Can't wait to post the finished project! Who said girls have to have pink? Kate's room is pink with polka dots, I think we only need one pink room.

While on baby news, after much persuasion from family & friends we finally registered this past weekend at Pottery Barn Kids & Babies R Us. We've been trying to get a few things every couple weeks, as we are starting new. All of Kate's baby things have been passed on to others in need of it, plus for those who know me, I am the opposite of a pack rat. Do people really hold on the baby things for 10 years? In fact, Kate's crib has gotten a lot of use. It has been through Kate, Hannah, Stephen, Ethan, Linnea, and now Gavin.




Kate and her friend Paige at the Mountain Vista High School football game. They did a dance clinic earlier that day with the Poms Dance Team and performed on the field during half time.



Kate has been participating in this every year since kindergarten. We have a video, I just couldn't figure out how to post it. I will have to consult IT (aka AR) later to figure it out.

For more pictures see www.theharderimage.smugmug.com (you'll have to copy & paste in a browser, I couldn't figure out how make this a hyperlink), click on Junior Dance Camp, password: vista. Kate is in quite a few.

Kate is really enjoying ballet this year and signed up to perform in the winter production. She recently told me after completing both the cheer clinic & dance clinic at MVHS that she has decided she wants to do dancing in high school instead of cheerleading. We shall see how many times it changes over the years. The child can run a mile in under six minutes, I'm thinking she should join track. Only time will tell.



Yet another hobby is singing. She is third from the left in yellow. The first three years we lived here, she was in the choir at church. This year was the first year she could join the choir at school, so she opted to do that instead. This was her second performance this year and she has another scheduled this winter. I too had a video for this one, but will have to wait on IT.



After the performance we snapped a quick shot together and headed out for ice cream. Although it was in the thirties that night, Andrew & Kate both love any excuse to eat ice cream. I myself am more of a salty snacker.



Andrew's parents came last weekend for a quick visit and to bring Kate her Halloween costume (pictures coming soon). Nana Laurie makes one every year for Kate. They get together, discuss the options, make sketches, and talk over the phone many times to touch base on the progress. It has become quite the tradition. Thank God for Nana's who can sew (Mom has no desire to learn, and in the words of my mother from very early on "Sarah, you do not ever need to learn to sew, it takes more patience than you have). Laurie & Kate decorated the house for fall/halloween. Kate is posing here with Bruno & Violet - don't know if you can see that close, but Violet looks like she is winking.



The whole family (taken by Homer & Laurie during their visit). We somehow managed not to get any pictures of them while they were here. I'm trying to get better.



24-25 weeks, only 3 1/2 months to go. It goes by really fast! If I had a scanner I would post a picture of me pregnant with Kate three weeks before I was due. I look about the same as I do right now. Funny how different our bodies are from 17 to 27. -SR

First Blog!

Welcome to our Ritter Family Blog! I have actually had this blogspot address since last March and it has taken me this long to get motivated to figure out how to use it. I deleted my myspace account, after much encouragement from my husband, and this was the middle ground. He even said that he would post on the family blog too (we shall see). I was looking for our most recent family picture to post on the first blog and realized it was from April (upper right). So I decided I would just post a few pictures from over the summer and try to commit to get better at taking pictures on a regular basis. Most of you know that my mom is a professional photographer and I blame my lack of picture taking on her. She always had her camera, so I never had to have mine (a common problem shared with my younger sister, Anna). The sad part is that I will usually either forget to take the camera with me, realize it is dead when I need it, or have it in my purse and never get it out. So hopefully keeping this blog up to date will motivate me to take more pictures and document our lovely life as it happens. Maybe it will also motivate me to catch up on my scrapbooking... fat chance! My mom just completed Kate's 1st year of life scrapbook at my house this summer. Common theme here; maybe my mom will post on this blog too?



We attempted learning to ride our bike without training wheels. Andrew decided it was time just to take them off and she would figure it out... we still have not figured it out. Our newest conversation/motivation with Kate has been that she will have to learn how to ride a bike before she can drive. The ball is now in her court!



Kate's 9th Birthday weekend was spent with Nana Laurie & Papa Homer (Andrew's parents in from Kansas). The actual party was held at Amazing Jakes, a supersized Chuckie Cheese, with lots of friends from 3rd grade ready to start the summer. Kate opted in lieu of gifts for her friends to each bring a donation item for the Denver Dumb Friends League, a local animal shelter. It was a great day when Kate dropped off the items (I wish I had a picture of that).



Kate's birthday was in May & Andrew's in July, in between (June) we celebrated my mom's 50th birthday by taking a girls trip to Atlanta, GA with my mom, my grandmother, and myself. Lots of fun, however, I personally have no pictures to show, but my mom has plenty (imagine that). Good times!

In July Andrew's parents came down to help us tile the living room and celebrate Andrew's birthday and the fourth of July. Actually truth be told, Andrew helped them tile the living room (they are professionals with all the work they have done on their house) and I think I kept Kate busy. Kate did all the work decorating her dad's cake and if you can tell by his goofy expression, he posed in this picture for her. Silly daddy!



My mom came for a visit in July. We worked on scrapbooking, took a trip to Celestial Seasonings in Boulder, took some pictures of Kate (see right, Miss Kathryn), and on a Saturday that I had to work, Andrew took them to the Unsinkable Molly Brown Museum. I hear they had a fabulous time... I was museumed out (if that's a word) from all the Gone with the Wind/Art Museum/Tours we did in Atlanta that June.



Kate ended the summer with a trip to Girl Scout camp for a week. I was so excited for her, some of my fondest childhood memories were from summer camp. She had a great time and I still need to develop her pictures from that week. This picture was from the day we dropped her off in front of the mess hall, right before we got the cold shoulder as we tried to hug and kiss her goodbye. Andrew was totally cool with it as we walked away (I think his comment was something to the effect of "she'll come around), as I tried to figure out where I went wrong to be embarrassing her so early on. I couldn't remember there ever being a time that I wouldn't hug or kiss my mom goodbye (unless I was mad at her, which I could understand). I think the teenage years start earlier & earlier these days!



1st day of fourth grade. I have actually managed to get this same shot on the first day of school every year since kindergarten. We moved here a week before Kate was to start kindergarten and now that was four years ago. So far fourth grade has been a great year! We just spent a week at home recovering from the H1N1 flu that is spreading through the schools like wild fire and now we are focused on catching up on school work. Fall break is right around the corner, so I think we aren't stressing too much if we still have some work to complete. No interesting pictures there, but I will try to catch some more soon. Maybe once a week (aiming high)? -SR