Missing you....

This is a song that Mom told me to listen to right after I found out Grandpa had finally went home. Thanks so very much for sharing this with me and well now I will share with all of you. The song speaks for itself.

I Love You All And Miss You Much!



I am forever grateful to the Lord for allowing me to come home to visit my Grandpa before he goes home to be with Grandma. This is a memory that will always be in my heart and I will never forget as long as I live.

I will miss you so much Grandpa... All your funny little stories about life and our family. One of the things I missed once Grandma was gone was how you two would tease and push each others buttons. Not only was it always amusing and funny but I felt such a sense of security with the two of you knowing that through all the years how much the two of you loved each other. You always know how to make someone feel so welcome and loved no matter what the situation. Your ambition and passion about life and not sitting back watching it go by but instead making a decision to go for it! I am going to miss walking down that hall of photos... To me it represented a long lifetime of love and family. I am going to miss the round coffee table that for some reason always reminds me of Christmas time and the display of ice skaters and the gumdrop tree! Grandpa you are the heart of this family and I want you to know that it will not be the same with out you.

Though it is hard for me to say goodbye to you Grandpa. I want you to know that I am so happy for you to be able to go home and see Grandma. Plus you never know... maybe Sampson is waiting there too! :) I know that Grandma is missing you as you are missing her. I will forever hold on to the words of wisdom and love that you have given to me and pass that on to my children and grandchildren as well. Always and forever you will be a part of my heart that I will never let go.

Your Sweetheart,
Emily

Take me out to the Ballgame!

Well as my sister likes to say we have officially become Texans now that we are going to sport events and driving an SUV! :)

We were given tickets to the Texas Rangers game against the Seattle Mariners by a co-worker of Ryan's. The seats were pretty neat because we were only like 4 rows above the Rangers dugout! It was however about 99 degrees and we had a 5 minute bout of rain (which was kinda nice to cool off with)! When we were leaving there was a beautiful rainbow as seen in picture!

The picture with the large dome like thing is the unfinished brand new Dallas Cowboys Stadium... right by the Rangers Stadium! Kinda neat to see... it is going to have a retractable roof on it! Crazy!

Oh and the big black thing... Well that is our new ride! Very spacious! I am however a little nervous driving it not only because it is much larger than anything I have ever driven. Unfortunately I had the misfortune of getting pulled over twice in one day for speeding! OUCH! So needless to say I listened to the officer and everywhere I drive now I use the cruise control! :) Best part about it is that we don't have to drive 2 vehicles when guests come to visit! (HINT... HINT...) :)

Love you all & missing you bunches!
See ya'll in a few days!

Fourth of July...

It was our first "4th of July" without the Litwin family who we had a tradition of going to their home each year and enjoying a festive block party with fireworks and yummy food with them! We truly did miss not being there this year and now Ryan is insiting upon focusing our family vacation back home around the 4th of July! ;)

However though it wasn't the same we did end up having a really nice time watching fireworks with the boys. We just packed up a nice picnic dinner and headed out to the lake which was convenient being less than 10 minutes away and found a spot on a lawn by one of the Marina's on the Lake. We didn't know if it would be the "It" spot but because it was already crowded at 4:30 p.m. we decided to stick it out and hope for the best! We were so excited when the fireworks began because we couldn't have asked for a better spot! The boys laid on the blanket and just got to stare up into the sky at the beautiful fireworks for full 40 minutes! I myself wanted to experience this because as a child I remember going to lay on the lawn at Oak's Park to watch fireworks with my Dad (sorry Mom... I am sure you where there but for some reason this one particular time I only recall Dad taking us) when I was little. It was such a neat experience and so that Ryan and I got to do the same with the boys meant a lot to me!

Miss you all and the countdown to our visit is quickly approaching! YAY!

Noah's Big Boy Haircut!

It made me sad because he officially looks sooo much older (in my eye's of course) but he does look handsome... "Just like Daddy" he said! :)

Lazy Days...

Basically we have learned that when you live in Texas... You MUST have a pool! I know you all are gonna be so jealous of our pool but "Hey what can I say" ... We have to make the best out of it! We have managed to be able and have two floaty mattresses in it at once so Ryan and I can sunbathe... Unfortunately once you do that there's not much room for the kiddos to swim! We wonder if our neighbors think we are crazy being in our pool like we think it's a real pool! We feel goofy but we have enjoyed it! Eli has asked if we can have a pool party also like the last two we have been for school and baseball but the difference is they have "Real" pools and well I don't think we could fit 15 kiddos in ours! I guess I have to look at the bright side that Eli doesn't see the difference! :) I will enjoy those days while I can! So there you have it... The Ritter's version of a pool! :) (for now anyway)

Oh and by the way did I mention that Ryan forgot to put sunscreen on and came out looking like a pink lobster! He is trying to get rid of his t-shirt tan! ;)

Nothing too exciting these days other than having a lot of lazy days! We miss you all!

Eli's 2nd Tooth Lost...

Ok... so we won't go through every tooth lost but I figured since these are the very first one's I might as well post them! He actually lost this one a week after the first one it is just taken me that long to get here! We were out to breakfast and he was complaining that it was hard to eat and well it popped out right then! :)

Yesterday was Eli's last day of school in kindergarten and he claims he is now a 1st Grader! He is pretty proud of himself! We are very proud of him too because in February he wasn't reading AT ALL! 5 months later he is reading like crazy! He has been reading books for the 2nd grade level! He is my Mr. Smarty Pants! We are excited for it to be summertime because it means we are that much closer to coming home for our vacation! The countdown is on... August 5th! Not much exciting has been going on around here... just surviving the 90 degree weather we have had for the last two weeks minus 1 day in the 60's (quick little storm). The heat hasn't worn out it's welcome yet but from what I hear August is the month usually everyone starts to get a little sick of it! Fortunate for us we are going to be visiting back home for the month of August so we will get to escape the heat! :) Well it is time to go... so until next time!
Love you All!

Fabulous Surprise!

So it was Tuesday the 22nd of April and I was having one of those days! Ryan called home to talk to me and I was a grump! He then told me he was gonna bring me home a surprise to make me feel better! Well that doesn't happen that often so when he got home he told me to go outside to the car to get my surprise! Well I was stressing because the week before I had found a kitty just like "Pumpkin" at the pound. I had also contacted the landlords to see if we could have another cat in the house. The only problem was I had not yet told Ryan they had said "No"! So all I could think about was how we were gonna have to take "Jerry" (the cat back) when all of a sudden Shannon & Sven jumped out from around the corner! Well of course because I was so emotional I just fell apart! Balling like a baby! It just felt so good to have them here and they couldn't have picked a better time! We ventured around the city and went to the Lake! We just kinda gave them a mini tour of the area that we live! They even got to experience a good old rain & lightning storm too! We also went to Six flags... Sven, Eli & Ryan went on a few big coasters! Eli had to tell his father to "Open your eyes, Dad"! :) Needless to say we had a wonderful time with them and it was very sad to say goodbye again... but I know we will see them soon!