The Ritch Life

The Ritch Life

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Time flies when your having fun!!

Whew what a crazy week. My life has be a crazy whirlwind this last week because I have been living it up as a single mom. Michael has been busy at a camp all week training up middle school leaders. So Tobi, Gabby and I have been holding down the fort and let me tell you I have a new appreciation for single moms. I don't know how they do it. Especially my sister with a bouncing, jumping, non-stop two year old. Last Thursday Tobi turned 2 months old! I can't even believe it. I cannot begin to share how much of a blessing Tobi has been to us. God knew what he was doing when we where put together. I love him so much! Well we went to the doctor on Thursday as well. He got two shots which broke my heart but he is continuing to do well. Tobi now weighs 9lbs 12oz and is 21.25 inches long. He is getting so big. Here is his two month picture with his turtle friend and bowtie onesie.


I made Michael a matching bowtie so now they can dress alike. We had a busy week. Gabby got sick with a ear infection, eye ulser and fleas. After a very expensive vet visit she is doing much better now. On Saturday Tobi turned 9 weeks old and we went to a wedding. For this photo I choose some fabric that we picked up in the mountains. It has sea turtles on it! Here is the cutie pie:


Our friends TJ and Elizabeth got married on Saturday night and the wedding was beautiful! It was Tobi's first wedding and he was a perfect angel, as always. He almost stole the show..Almost Elizabeth looked beautiful. After the wedding Tobi, Gabby and I decided to take a surprise trip to see my family and spend the day with them on Sunday. This week as been busy with VBS stuff with church. Tomorrow we go get Michael and I can't wait I have missed him so much. Oh here is a cute picture I took of my two guys before Michael left:


And Tobi looking cute:


Take Care,
Michael, Merrissa & Tobi

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Tobi is 8 Weeks Old!

Tobi turned 8 weeks old on Saturday. It's hard to believe that Tobi is almost two months old. Before we get to his super cute 8 week picture I wanted to update you about the home visit. Our social worker came on the 7th to interview us and check and see how we were doing so we can finalize our adoption. It went well and we have already gotten the report in the mail. Things have settled back to normal around here as we are adjusting from our vacation. Here is Tobi's 8 week picture:


It's not an illusion Tobi is SMILING!!! He just started doing it last week and I can hardly believe it. It is so awesome when he looks at me and smiles a smile that lights up his whole face. It melts my heart. If he could talk right now I would give him anything he wanted if he would just smile at me.

We have had a pretty busy few days so far. We had our home visit and then my sister Kari came up for the weekend. It was so much fun to have her here. We did our favorite thing and went to IKEA yeah shopping!! Tobi really enjoyed it too. In fact I think his favorite part was getting a feeding in my favorite kitchen!! I picked up a bookshelf for Tobi's room, some storage containers, and some cheap white sheets that I am going to turn into shower curtains. I think I will start sharing my sewing projects with you guys too. I have already made Tobi some pants and I am currently working on a jumper. I also got some fabric to make Tobi and outfit for a wedding we have coming up.

On Sunday we went to church and then later to a baby shower well really a get together with presents for Tobi. It was a lot of fun! There was great food, great company and several great games of the couch game!! I almost didn't want to go home but Tobi was needing to eat again. On Monday we went shopping at Hobby Lobby and they were having a huge sale. I tell you Kari has a lot of paitence for looking at things in the clearance section. So good she got a $119 mirror for $5. IT WAS AWESOME!! I ended up with a corkboard with pictures frames on it to hang in my classroom to put pictures of Tobi in it. It was a good day but then she had to go home. Sad! On Monday our friend Chris celebrated his birthday so we took him to lunch and hung out with him for a little while. I guess that brings us to today. Well today was a rough day...Gabby was sick. We had to take her to the vet because her eye was swollen. Come to find out she has a eye ulser, she also has fleas (which I knew about because I was trying to get rid of them and I thought I did..bad mountains!!), an ear infection and really bad tartar build up. Well we got four different medicines and it cost us over $300 and we still haven't gotten her teeth cleaned yet. We did make her an appointment to get them cleaned at the end of the month so at least now she will have clean breath. AWESOME!!! Michael will be leaving on Thursday for a week at camp so it will be just me and Tobi and Gabby holding down the fort. Tobi also has his two month appointmen ton Thursday so I will update with stats then. Until later!

Take Care,
Michael, Merrissa, & Tobi

First Family Vacation and 7 Weeks Old!

So we took our first family vacation over the July 4th weekend. We ended up going to the mountains for a week and my (Merrissa's) parents came for the weekend. It was tough packing for two people, a baby and a cute dog but luckily it all fit in the car! We had a blast but were very tired by Monday. I think Tobi really liked the mountains although it did mess with his sleep schedule. While we were at the mountains Tobi turned 7 weeks old, my Mom took a million pictures..ok well close to it but she loves it and who wouldn't want a picture of Tobi, and Tobi started smiling. It warmed this Mama's heart to see her baby boy look at her and smile. We hung out in town and drove through the parkway looking at God's beautiful creation. We also went to an Elk reserve and got to see the beautiful Elk. We took some pictures in our red, white and blue in honor of the fourth of July. Also in honor of the fourth we selected a fabric with fireworks on it for Tobi's 7 week picture. So here is his 7 week photo:


Isn't the fabric awesome! As I am writing the post my son as already turned 8 weeks old and will be two months old on Thursday..but that is another post. My mom took some fantastic pictures of us at the mountains but I don't have them yet but here is some that I took:

My Dad being silly:

Tobi's riding in the cart at Walmart:

Tobi sucking his thumb for the first time:

Well we had a blast in the mountains and another post will follow with Tobi's 8 week photo.

Take care,
Michael, Merrissa, & Tobi