Good Friends and Grilling on Christmas Eve

On Christmas eve we joined up with our neighbors, the Wests, for an amazing Prime rib and Turkey dinner grilled up by our Iron Chef husbands. A little snow from the night before couldn't stop these guys from firing up the grill : )

Taylor is a master chef and he gave Taber one of his own customized recipes for the fabulous Christmas turkey. It involved a recipe for the brine that we soaked the bird in for 48 hours, a flavorful rub, savory aromatics, and a mop to be brushed on the turkey as it cooked every 20-30 minutes.

The recipe also called for a stock pot and a roaster with a rack. We didn't own either of those dishes but thanks to this turkey, now we do! I'm excited for my new dishes and hope they help me expand my cooking repertoire.

Taber tended to that turkey with true dedication. He was out there checking on it every hour or so, basting and turning and monitoring the temperature.

Taylor came over a couple times to look at it with his expert eye and to share his grilling wisdom with Taber. Thank goodness he lives so close!



Since Daddy was outside the rest of us came out to play in the snow. Brinley looked so cute all bundled up like a pink and brown marshmallow.

My little snow bunnies

Grandma Karen getting in on the action in her stylish denim snow gear.

One final check and the turkey was done! After all the work Taber put into it we couldn't wait to eat it!

We took the food over to the West's where Taylor was finishing up his Prime rib.

Taylor then showed Taber how to cut the turkey for optimal presentation.

The food was so mouthwateringly amazing. I think this will forever be the way we prepare our Christmas turkey.

After dinner the girls joined with Abby and little William to act out the nativity. Teya was Mary, Brinley was a sheep, Abby was an angel and William was the baby Jesus.

I think when the baby came on the scene the girls kind of forgot their parts and just gravitated towards him. They all kept petting his sweet little head. It made me smile to think that the baby Jesus surely had that same compelling draw to all who came near him.

We were so happy we could celebrate Christmas eve with our neighbors and dear friends the Wests. Not only have they opened our eyes to the world of year round grilling, but they have been the truest most wonderful friends you could ever hope for. We will miss them terribly when we move!

Happy 8th Anniversary!

The first time I saw Taber he was standing up in front of my Field studies class for a study abroad we were preparing to attend in Mexico. There were 20 girls in the class and only 5 boys. Naturally all of us girls were checking them out as they stood in front of the class. My friend Hilary turned to me and gesturing to Taber whispered, "That guy is hot." I nodded in agreement and jokingly said, "yeah, I bet we would make cute babies!" We both laughed. : )

A few months later when we were down in Mexico I started getting to know him better. I quickly realized he had a lot more going for him than just good looks. He had a way of making everyone around him feel calm and comfortable. He was funny, playful, and easy to get along with. I also got to see his spiritual side and was impressed with his strong values and integrity. Then one day in our Spanish culture class he got up and preformed a rousing rendition of La Bamba on his guitar. I watched with starstruck eyes. On top of everything else he could sing and play guitar!? That was it. I was smitten.

A year and a half later we were married and for the last 8 years he has stood by my side as the greatest love and support I have ever known. During our first year of marriage he supported me through two busy semesters, 21 credits each. When I was drowning in my studies he lovingly showed me ways to be more efficient with my time and to excel in school. When I was student teaching he would get up early in the morning and make me a sack lunch. The other teachers I ate with deemed him husband of the year for that act of love.

He has always made me feel like I can do anything, and he encourages me to spread my wings. As the years have gone many things have changed, graduation, new jobs, going back to school, starting a family, changing careers, etc... But with all the changes one thing has always stayed the same. Taber is still that fun, easy going, steady guy who supports me in everything I do and makes me feel like anything is possible. There couldn't be an easier person to live with. He's calm and relaxed and tackles life's challenges with patience, optimism, and perspective. I love him so much, and it turns out I was right all those years ago, we do make cute babies!

An Early Christmas Present

This weekend we got the best early Christmas present ever! A visit from my sister Naomi and her little family. Even though she is 7 months pregnant they made the effort to drive all the way out from Chicago for a short but fun packed 3 day trip. It meant so much to us to have them come out, and it really made it feel like Christmas.

When they got here first on the agenda was a visit to Taber's work. Kevin had never seen it so we brought all the kids along and took the big tour.

It was awesome when we got to the Snacks division where Taber works. The Snacks team loaded us up with fruit snacks, Bugles, Chex mix, dunk-a-roo's and other good treats! We even got to sample a new product in the works. It was yummy yummy!

We also got to hit our Church Christmas party (see first picture) and once the kids were in bed we played games and ate goodies late into the night.

The next morning since Kevin is Kevin and the king or running nuts, he somehow convinced Taber and I to brave the cold weather and join him for a nice 4 mile run around Rice Lake. It was actually really beautiful and an awesome way to start our day!

Once we got back we loaded up the kids for a trip to a Christmas tree farm that had a petting zoo and a playground with a zip cord.

The girls were fascinated with the chickens, goats, and random peacocks.

They also loved the playground, even though it was 20 degrees outside and covered with snow.

The boys really loved the playground too.

In fact, I think they might've loved it more than the kids! They went on that zip cord over and over again. Their arms were pretty sore the next day :)

Teya was so thrilled to be out in the snow. She begs me to go out in it just about everyday so it was nice to be able to indulge her request.

That night we got a babysitter and headed out to the Mall of America. We ate dinner, did some last minute Christmas shopping, and watched the Blind Side, which was AWESOME and a movie I highly recommend to anyone!

This morning they joined us for church and the girls all wore matching Christmas dresses. They are the cutest little munchkins. It will be fun when Naomi's baby is born and we have FOUR little girls running around!

It was sad to see them go but we are so glad they made the effort to come out. Their visit definitely made for one awesome early Christmas present!

Friday Foto: Holiday Yumminess

Fantasy Fudge

Chocolate, White chocolate, Peanut butter and butterscotch.
My tummy was happy. I think my neighbors were too. : )

The Power of Music

I always think it's amazing at this time of year how quickly and vividly Christmas memories came back as soon as I start listening to Christmas music. Certain songs bring me all the way back to elementary school when we'd go down to the library in the morning and all the grades would gather around the giant tree and sing Christmas songs.

Other songs make me think of singing with my sisters around the piano, caroling with my high school friends, going to concerts at Temple Square and singing in my church and high school choirs. Music was always a huge part of the holidays for me and even though I sadly don't sing as much as I used to, at Christmas time it's hard to keep myself from bursting into song every few minutes. : )

I think Teya enjoys the new "songbird" mommy and has even learned some of the lyrics so she can join in with me. We sing while we clean the house, in the car, taking a bath, coloring time, you name it! Teya has even branched off into some of her own compositions that mostly have to do with sharing, losing priveldges, and using kind words. It's funny to see how serious she gets when she sings things like, "Oh we have to be kind and share...cuz Santa don't likes it when we use mean voices....oooo aaahh ooooo...." Pretty good stuff. : )

I've also made an effort to start singing in our choir at church. This hasn't been easy considering that church is 3 hours long and choir is an additional hour after that. Add the 25 minute commute each way and your looking at a 5 hour deal. Obviously the kids can't handle that so Taber takes them home and soldiers on his own through lunch and nap duty with cranky kids so I can stay after and sing. I know it's not easy but I hope he knows how much I appreciate this sacrifice. I'm really excited to sing with our choir next Sunday. It's been way too long.

Singing really means a lot to me. When I sing about the Saviors birth the words combine with the music to touch my heart in a deeper way than I think they could on their own. The scene at the manger, the angels singing on high, the sleeping child in Mary's lap. It's all so real when I sing about it. When all the hectic busy parts of the season start to overwhelm me I sing Silent Night, and suddenly the stress is diffused and my heart is full and I'm ready to focus on the things that matter.

That being said I'll leave you with a song that has become mine and Taber's favorite this season. Taber discovered it and shared it with me. Now I'm sharing it with you because it really is amazing! (And even if you don't watch the whole thing you have to at least get to the first chorus, it's just incredible!) Hope you enjoy :

Taking a break

This weekend we took a break from all the moving stuff to focus on doing some fun Christmas activities. On Friday night Taber and I went to the holiday party for his division at work. It was held at the Mills City Museum in downtown Minneapolis. There was fabulous food, private museum tours, and my personal favorite, a live band! It's not often that I get to put on my dancing shoes so I definitely let lose a little and boogied on the dance floor. Taber was a good sport to join me and let me tell you, the guy still has some serious moves!

On Saturday we decided to head back into Minneapolis with the girls to see Santa and check out the " A Day in the Life of an Elf" display at Macy's. It was pretty packed and when we saw the line winding all the way around the 8th floor I got a little nervous. Luckily it moved quickly and before long the girls were giddily touring elf land and watching all the animated little elves at school, in the kitchen, making toys, conducting reindeer flight school and sorting letters to Santa. I was too absorbed in the display to take many pictures but here's a couple.

at the entrance ready to go in

Taber and Brinley with a Christmas tree choir in the background.

At the end of the elf land tour we got to go see Santa. It was nice because he was in a private room so we had him all to ourselves without any distractions. Teya had a lovely chat with him and told him she wanted Ariel the Little Mermaid and some Polly pockets.

Brinley was not quite as excited to visit with Santa.

I love this picture, on one side Teya is as pleased as punch knowing that she has personally dictated her wish list to Santa, on the other side Brinley is melting down from stranger danger anxiety. So classic : )

After visiting with Santa we grabbed some cookies from Mrs. Claus's bakery and then we went up to the 12th floor for lunch and some great views of the city.

Tomorrow it's back to business with some Realtors touring the house, relocation paperwork, and baby steps on sorting before the movers come. With everything on our plate I'm glad we had such a nice break this weekend and really got to enjoy some fun holiday festivities!

Friday Foto: Tough Times for the T-Wolves

This picture illustrates the pathetic state of the Timberwolves right now. If you look around at all the empty seats you would think the game was over. Nope. This shot was taken in the middle of the game. Guess it's hard to sell tickets when you're the second worst team in the NBA. Taber got a Celtics hat for Christmas. Sorry T-wolves, we're moving on.

We still had a great night at the game though. Since the T-wolves are so bad we decided to just bring the kids and make it a fun family outing.

Highlight of the game for Teya was the cotton candy. She was trying to wave the cotton candy man down when he was all the way across the stadium. When he finally got to us she was one happy little girl.
Brinley had a blast too. She was entralled by the game and couldn't keep her eyes of the megatron. She would dance and boogie to all the music and clapped like a true fan when the T-wolves made a basket.

It ended up being a bit of a late night but it was so much fun going downtown with the girls and getting one last game in at the Target Center.

Bad Mom Day

Yesterday I had a bad mom day.
I could blame it on a million things.
Moving stress, holiday stress, getting our house on the market stress, etc...
I'm not going to use those excuses though because I know I can be better.

All the things I've been stressing about don't even compare in importance to the two little people who call me mom. They don't need a perfectly clean house to show the realtor. They don't care if our Christmas cards are late. They won't mind if we bring all the boxes of "things I need to sort and get rid of" to our next house. What they need is their Mommy.

They need me to sit down and eat a meal with them. They need me to help them with their drawings and to compliment their fine artistic skills. They need me to read to them and teach them about the pictures they see in their books. They need me to be patient when they are cranky. They need help dressing their Polly pockets and fitting shapes into the sorter. They need me to be calm when they spill things and make messes because people are more important than things and houses were made to be lived in.

At the end of my bad mom day I found myself in Teya's room, kneeling by her bed and watching her sleep. I stroked her hair and whispered an apology for wasting one of our days together being a grumpy mom. I thought of a Michael McLean song I heard called a Lullaby for Me. One of the lines in the song says, "Today I couldn't be the mom you needed me to be, and tonight I wish that you could sing, a lullaby for me." Everyone has bad mom days, but I'm going to do my best to make sure I don't have another one for a long long time.

Easy and Delicious

The other day I had some extra bread stick dough and I remembered a great little recipe we used to make when we were kids. I don't know what we called them, Sticky buns maybe? Gooey yum yums? Cinnamon tasties? Something along those lines. Anyway, I made them again and they were as easy and as scrumptious as I remembered. I thought I'd share the recipe since it is the season for sweet indulgences. Plus, this is a great one to make with kids : )


Ingredients:
10-12 large marshmallows (one marshmallow for each bun, so just depends on how many you want to make)
1/2 stick of butter, melted
3/4 cup of sugar
1 T cinnamon (you can use more or less, just depends on how you like your cinnamon and sugar topping)
1 package of Pillsbury dough ( I used bread stick dough this time but I've used crescent roll dough too and they came out great)
Muffin pan
Cooking spray

Directions:
1) Spray muffin pan with cooking spray
2) Combine cinnamon and sugar
3) Take a strip of dough and wrap it completely around a marshmallow. Pull it over the top and bottom so it's closed up to make a marshmallow dough ball.
4) Dip entire dough ball in butter
5) Roll dough ball in cinnamon sugar mix till it's completely covered
6) Place dough ball in muffin pan

Cook at 375 for 10-12 minutes and Wah Lah!!! Gooey, delicious, cinnamon heaven!

A Rigg Ranch Thanksgiving

We were very fortunate to be able to celebrate Thanksgiving with Taber's family at their ranch near Grand Junction Colorado. Their property is just off the Colorado river and they have a little lake stocked with trout right in their back yard. Behind them stands the Colorado National Monument, a beautiful backdrop of plateaus and canyons. It is one of the most breathtaking and serene places to be. Before this trip we hadn't been back there in two years. It was so nice going back and introducing Teya and Brinley to such a beautiful part of the country.

For weeks before we went out all Teya talked about was riding Grandma's horsey Ben. It didn't take long before she was up in the saddle.

Brinley got to sit in Big Ben's saddle too and even took a brief little ride with Grandma. Her favorite thing though was just petting the horses and feeding them grass. She called the horse "buddy" because that's what she calls Monty and I guess horses and dogs are the same to her. Anyway, it was cute to hear her say, "Er-go Buddy," every time she fed him a bite.

Here are some more horse shots from a different day. You can see the monument in the background. Gorgeous. Teya and her cousin Sklya got to ride with Grandma this time.

Taber's brother Brett and his wife CJ came in from Arizona to be with us. They have 4 cute kids and Teya and Brinley loved being around their cousins. Here are some shots with Aunt CJ and River on Ben, and the 3 boys, Landon, Paker and River on Mindy.


Besides riding horses the other main attraction was fishing. I think I saw Taber out in that fishing boat more than anywhere else the entire trip. First thing in the morning and the last thing before the sun went down was fishing. He helped Teya catch her first fish and she was pretty proud of herself.

Here's Taber with the girls and his parents on one of their many fishing excursions.

Teya and Skyla getting ready to go out in the boat.

Some of our fine catches.
I even caught one once Taber let me use the lucky fishing pole.

And Brett and his boys on a walk down to the Colorado river.

At night we stayed busy too. One night we built a fire and sang songs and roasted s'mores. Another night we set off a pretty impressive display of fireworks. And one night we just jumped around and took funny airborne pictures. It doesn't really take much to keep us entertained : )

On Thanksgiving morning Taber and I went into town to run a Turkey Trot 5K. He beat me by 9 seconds but I set a new PR and finished 10th out of 77 in my age division so I was happy : ). It was a nice way to prepare for the feasting ahead!

For the big Thanksgiving dinner we went to Taber's older brother Jeff and Kathy's house. Kathy made an amazing meal and in true Thanksgiving fashion, we all ate way more than we should. My camera actually died at this point so here are some pics from Mama Rigg's camera of aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and cousins!

The rest of the vacation was filled with black Friday shopping, visit to the dinosaur museum, birthday celebration for Papa Rigg, game nights, tractor rides, and of course more fishing. On Thanksgiving there are so many things I am thankful for, but most of all I'm thankful for family. I only wish we lived closer so we could see them more! Here are a few more of my favorites with Teya's cousins.

Teya and Skyla. 4 years apart but total best buddies just the same.

Parker and Landon. Both as sweet as they are good looking.

All the Grandkids on Papa's tractor. We sure will miss seeing these cute faces!