Rigg Life

Fitting it all in...

2012-01-24T21:16:00.000-05:00

Well we're 3 weeks into play practice and 10 weeks into marathon training and it's definitely taking some creative juggling to fit it all in. Luckily some good things have fallen into place to make it possible. Like our awesome neighbor who has offered to come over on Friday nights and watch the kids for free while we have play practice. She's this sweet college girl who I'm sure could use the babysitting money, but she won't charge us since we're doing a church activity. I honestly almost cried when she told us that. Such a blessing : )

So this is kind of how the weekends go:

Friday afternoons I swap with a friend or get a babysitter so I can do my long run. Last week it was 17 miles so we're talking close to 3 hours of running. I usually get home around 4 and then I have a couple hours to stretch, shower, recover, make dinner, and get ready for play practice. Play practice is from 7-9:30, so we get home close to 10pm, then Taber sets out all his stuff for his long run and we go to bed.

Saturday mornings Taber wakes up around 4:20am to get his long run in. Last week he knocked out 17 miles all before 8am!! He is the man! While he's running I work on getting everything together to entertain and feed the kids for 4 hours during rehearsal. We bring the pack and play, baby monitor, blankets, booster seat, baby food, bottles, extra clothes and diapers for Cam, and toys, DVD players, coloring books, snacks and lunches for the girls.

Sometimes we even bring their bikes so they can cruise around in the gym.

The girls do great during rehearsal. They just play with their stuff and the other kids whose parents are in the play. Cam is a different story. He requires a lot more work, especially because he needs naps and diaper changes and someone to spoon feed him his meals. Taber and I usually take turns juggling him since we've only been working on music, but once we start blocking I think some of the young women in the play are going to be on Cam duty since we'll be needed on stage.
(I really just wish I could fly the Grandmas out for a few months! I'm sure they'd love being on Cam duty!)

After play practice it takes us forever to round up all our stuff (we seriously bring half our household) Then we get home around 2 and we are so wasted from long runs and rehearsals and late nights and early mornings that we barely have enough energy to drag everything in the house and crash.

Not a lot of housework happens over the weekends.

(Sorry Mom, I swear it all gets cleaned up by Monday!)

After play practice nothing sounds better than a nap, but the kids are such good sports about all this that we really try to do something fun in the afternoon.

Last weekend it snowed, so after rehearsal Taber took the girls outside to play in it.

He was going to take them to see Beauty and the Beast in 3D too, but when it was time to come in and get ready for the movie they were having too much fun and chose to stay home and keep playing instead.

I know all this makes from some crazy weekends but I really love what we are doing. The spirit has been so strong in some of the rehearsals that more than once I've had to wipe away tears. The music and the script are amazing and working on them has helped me to focus more on the Savior in my daily life. I play the CD with the music all the time and the girls are even starting to sing the songs. It's the best having our home filled with such beautiful music. I love it, and I'm so glad we're making the effort to fit it all in : )

Three Things Thursday

2012-01-19T23:25:00.000-05:00

So one of the blogs I read does this Three Things Thursday deal where every Thursday they post about 3 random things. And even though Thursday is almost over, I'm going to be a copy cat and do it too. Here are my 3 things in no particular order:

1) The last Christmas decorations standing:

I put away all the Christmas decorations the day after New Year's but I still can't bring myself to take down everyone's Christmas cards. Seeing the faces of so many people I love, smiling at me every time I walk by just gives me the warm fuzzies. Thank you so much to everyone who sent us one! They really do warm my heart. : ) One more week, then I swear I'll take them down : )

2) Fun with Jenga

We got the girls Jenga for Christmas and I'm impressed with all the ways they use it to entertain themselves.

They love building domino type structures to knock over

And they love testing their ability to concentrate and hold still while Taber builds towers on their foreheads.

Brinley is the absolute champion of Jenga meditation. While Teya squirms and giggles, Brinley holds still as stone and lets her mind go to her "happy place" (When Taber asked her what her happy place was she said, "Chuck E Cheese." ; )

3) An Unusually warm winter

Besides one random snowstorm in October, his has been an incredibly mild winter. We didn't get any snow until last week and even that has melted. I know Teya is upset that she hasn't been able to play in the snow and Taber is itching to build another igloo, but I certainly don't mind that the kids can still play outside on the trampoline in January.

(also if you're wondering about their pink eyelids, they were having a playdate and decided to give themselves makeovers, hence the pink eyeshadow : )

1 year, 16 Teeth, and Two visits to the Emergency Room

2012-01-17T00:13:00.001-05:00

Our little Cam man turned 1 year old last Friday.

He loves his bottle, soft blankets, giggling at his sisters and wreaking havoc around the house (i.e. unrolling all the toilet paper, pulling out all the DVD's, pulling things out of cupboards and off of shelves, you know, typical 1 year old mayhem. : )

He is busy busy busy. He army crawls so fast it looks like he's swimming across the floor. He's not walking but he pulls up on everything he can get his hands on, and knows how to climb up and down the stairs like a champ.

One of his big accomplishments this year was sprouting 16 teeth in 12 months. 8 on the top, 8 on the bottom, including 4 molars. Made for some rough nights and lots of drool, but I sure love that toothy little grin.

Despite all those pearly white chompers he still prefers mostly soft food. Baby food, yogurt, canned peas, canned green beans, bananas, mushy sweet potatoes and oatmeal are his go to favorites.

He is really, really, ridiculously good looking (gets it from his Dad) and even though he has yet to say any formal words, he fills the house with his adorable low belly laugh.

Besides sprouting lots of teeth and learning to climb and crawl, Cam has also given us a couple of scares this year. In September he had a febrile seizure that landed him in the hospital for 3 days. Our doctor told us that from now on we'd have to watch him because a spike in fever, or a high fever over a sustained period of time could trigger another seizure.

We experienced that today when his fever spiked and his whole body began to tremble and seize. His lips and fingers turned blue and his skin became blotchy. I called 9-1-1 but this time I was able to stay calm (for the most part) and hold it together until the paramedics arrived. Cam's seizure lasted around 5 minutes but he didn't lose conciousness. He did throw up in the ambulance from the high fever and when we arrived at the ER his temperature was 106.

It was very hard to see our sweet little man in such a scary condition. Thankfully the doctors were able to get the fever down by layering Motrin with prescription Tylenol with codeine. They also discovered the cause of the fever, a double ear infection, and took care of that with a shot of antibiotics.

After 3 hours in the ER we brought our sweet guy home and he is doing much much better. I have an appointment with his pediatrician tomorrow and hopefully I can find out more about what we can do to prevent these seizures and also how best to handle them when they happen.

The good news is he's home and on the mend. It's been an eventful but wonderful 12 months, and now I'll end with a few cute pictures from last Friday's birthday celebration:

Didn't take him long to snatch the whole cake and ram it in his mouth.

Baby likes the Cakey

Happy Birthday little Cam!! Thanks for bringing so much happiness into our home!

Things are about to get Crazy Busy

2012-01-12T00:17:00.004-05:00

I like being busy. I like having places to go and things to do. I like having commitments and responsibilities. It's fun, and I kind of think it helps me stay productive. It can also make me drop balls and run around like a mad woman, but in a weird way I kind of dig some of the chaos that comes with being busy.

That being said, things are about to get CRAZY busy over here, and the next 3 months are going to be a little intense! Let me explain the layers of craziness:

Layer 1

Taber works full time + has to go back on 3rd shift once a week+ commutes 45 minutes each way to work + serves as the 2nd counselor in the Young Men's presidency at church (which means lessons on Sundays, activities on Wednesdays) + is the father of 3 small children.

I work full time as a stay at home mom to 3 small children (which in itself constitutes crazy busy) + serve as the 2nd counselor in the Relief Society presidency at church (which means teaching, coordinating activities and presidency meetings twice a month) + sing in the ward choir.

Layer 2

Taber and I are both training for the DC marathon in March so we also have to fit in 30-45 miles of running a week. This is especially tricky with our long runs. Right now we are up to 16 miles, which takes us close to 2 and 1/2 hours to run. Next month we will have to run 19 and 20 milers, which will be 3 hours of running. Usually we would get a babysitter and do this on a Saturday but then there's layer 3...

Layer 3

Since we weren't busy enough ; ) I decided to try out for our Stake's production of The Savior of the World, which is a musical play that depicts the events surrounding the birth and resurrection of the Savior. I was shocked and excited to get the part of Mary, but they didn't have enough men try out and really needed more so they convinced Taber to be a part of it too. He is playing a shepherd in the first act and the apostle James in the second act. I think the play will be amazing but the rehearsal schedule is pretty demanding. From now until the show in April, we have play practice every Friday night from 7-9:30 and practice every Saturday morning from 9am -1pm. Not sure how we will fit our long runs into this schedule because we don't want to be in play practice all morning and then leave the kids with another sitter to go run for 3 hours. I'll probably have to do some kind of baby-sitting swap during the week to get mine in and Taber might have to split his runs or do some in the early early morning before practice.

So yeah, we kind of have a lot going on, especially because we're BOTH doing the marathon and the play, and someone needs to watch the kids, so it's a real balancing act to try and juggle it all.

I know balls will get dropped and some things are going to be neglected, but as long as I keep these three munchkins at the top of the priority list, we'll get through it okay.

I might not shower every day or get very much sleep. I might not make my bed or match all the socks or mop my floors or vacuum as much as I should. I might not have time to read and comment all my favorite blogs or troll Facebook as much as I like to ; ) I might feed my family frozen pizza or cold cereal for dinner during the week, but I know that it will be worth it in 3 months when we get to be a part of 2 big events that we'll remember for the rest of our lives.

So that's what's going down at the Rigg household, let the craziness begin!

End of December Massive Picture Dump

2012-01-09T22:49:00.000-05:00

We did a lot of stuff at the end of December when Naomi and Kevin were in town, but I am currently a little overwhelmed with all that is on my plate right now so instead of individual posts I'm just going to do a big fat picture dump to wrap up December. : )

Prepare for some serious scrolling!

Cool stuff we did with the Hanks fam:

Imajine That Indoor playground

This place is the bomb. Indoor jungle gym, bounce house, soft climbing playground, play kitchen, play grocery store, puppet show theater, costumes, instruments, craft room, etc.... The kids had a blast.

Mr. busy body loved being set loose in there too.

Look at that face, I am seriously smitten with this kid.

Boston Children's Museum

When you have small children the highlight of Boston is usually the children's museum ; )

(Taber had to stay home with Brinley and Cam since Brinley was still really sick that day.)

Hanks fam in Bean Town!

Hours of entertainment for the kiddos (and Kevin)

Teya and auntie Naomi

Lily and Auntie Becca

Hula hooping! After a little practice Teya was rockin' it!

She also discovered the joy of jump pictures : )

Kevin bought me this book at the gift shop. I seriously have no idea why...

The boys had a man-cation day where they went candlestick bowling and saw Mission Impossible 4.

And Naomi and I had an afternoon out for shopping!

Teya practiced modeling for my new camera. After she saw this picture she said, "wow, I look so grown up!" It made me a little sad when I realized she is right : (

Uncle Kevin doing some modeling with Teya.

And me modeling my super stretchy fish lips. (yeah I got skillz ; )

Chuck E Cheese

On the day they left we did one last hoorah at Chuck E Cheese

The girls and the Mouse

Kiddie Rides!

They have a new virtual roller coaster ride that all of them got a huge kick out of, even Cam.

It was so much fun having the Hanks family here and we are just so so happy that they made the effort to come out and spend Christmas with us. LOVE YOU GUYS!!

Celtics Game

After the Hanks left, Taber and I got to go to the opening game for the Celtics

It was fun to be there opening night and soak in all crazy excitement in the atmosphere.

Good times, great date night, and that's it for December!!

Someone gets a little excited about Christmas over here...

2012-01-03T10:32:00.000-05:00

And that someone is miss Teya Rigg.
You will witness it, at the end of this post, but first a quick Christmas recap:

This year Christmas was extra awesome because my sister Naomi and her family came out from Chicago to spend it with us.

The girls loved having their cousins around for a week and it was cute to see them all in their matching pajamas on Christmas morning.

Matching sisters Teya and Brinley!

Matching sisters Becca and Naomi!

The girls showing off their new shawls that Grandma Karen knitted for them.

Taber and Cam on his very first Christmas!

He loved crawling through the wrapping paper and playing with everyone else's presents : )

Uncle Kevin made Taber this sweet frame for his Hartford marathon medal and bib.

Taber made all my Christmas wishes come true and got me the DSLR camera that I've been drooling over for years. (do you like how this picture was taken with our old camera and is all blurry? it was definitely time for an upgrade!) I took over 300 pictures the first day I had it : ) I still have a lot to learn to unleash the camera's real potential, but I'm excited to start taking better pictures.

I made Taber 2 blog books to cover all of 2010. Each book covers 6 months and is just under 200 pages long. It was a labor of love that took me many many hours to finish, but it's always worth it to see Taber and the kids pouring over the books and smiling over the memories.

Happy Taber with a little piece of our family history.

So now I've made blog books from 2007-2010. I just need to make 2 more to catch up on 2011 and I'll finally be up to date : )

The highlight of Christmas though was seeing the kids get so excited about everything.

I don't think I've ever seen a kid more excited about Christmas than little miss Teya.

She was so pumped up that she literally screamed/shouted every word she spoke for the first 20 minutes of opening presents. Brinley was still a little sick from the night before but Teya managed to stir up plenty of excitement on her sister's behalf over her presents. You have to watch this video to witness the intensity of it. And prepare yourself for the 1:16 minute mark when the excitement reaches fever pitch. This is Christmas magic at it's best!

Christmas Eve 2011

2012-01-03T10:15:00.002-05:00

We started Christmas Eve off bright and early with a chilly but fun long run. Taber, Kevin and I are all training for the DC marathon in March so it was awesome to be able to run together.

We ran 13.1 miles on the Applefest half marathon course in Hollis. We wore Santa hats and got lots of honks and waves from all the warm people in their cars watching the crazy runners freeze their tooshies off. Good times I tell ya, good times ; )

Later that evening we invited some friends over for a Christmas Eve dinner and nativity with the kids. We made Cafe Rio sweet pork and Zesty chicken and had a tasty taco salad bar.

After dinner Darby read a book about gingerbread men to the kids to prep them for gingerbread man decorating!

She brought each kid their own personalized homemade gingerbread man with their name stamped into it. She also brought frosting and lots of fun things for them to decorate with. Darby is amazing!

The kids had a blast decorating their little men.

When they were finished we gathered everyone up to act out the nativity. Teya's little friend Mia was Mary and she was the most precious and sweet Mary I've ever seen. She really got into the part and held the little baby with so much tenderness. So so sweet.

We had quite a few more girls than boys so instead of 3 Kings this year's nativity had 3 Queens. Teya, Sophie, and Brooklyn (not pictured) Who was actually a Fairy queen with wings.

Soon it was time to change into jammies and get ready for Santa!

Teya and the Knutson girls in their Christmas PJ's.

And Cam and Austin working the red and green stripes.

Brinley had matching jammies too but sadly she missed out on all the festivities as once again she was hit with a horrible round of the sickies. She threw up several times right before everyone showed up and then she passed out at 4:30 p.m. and never woke up the rest of the night. Santa felt so sorry for her that he threw in a few extra presents the next day. Poor sweet girl : (

Things That Make Me Happy

2011-12-20T15:04:00.000-05:00

My chubby little alarm clock, standing straight up to greet me with his toothy grin : )

(Even at 2am it's hard not to smile at that)

Teya and her original fashion creations.

My grocery shopping entourage.

Brinley in her sassy new hat and black boots.

My girls

My Boys

These sparkly little eyes

Can you blame me for being happy? : )

Gettin' Christmasy

2011-12-15T22:52:00.000-05:00

Christmas is coming and the goose is getting fat...

We busted out the Christmas decorations shortly after Thanksgiving and the girls have been SO EXCITED ever since. (I had to use all caps to try and capture the intensity of their excitement.)

We put the nativity up and hung the stockings with care. Then it was time to pick out a tree. The girls couldn't wait to go with Daddy, but the morning they were supposed to go...

poor Brinley got the pukes.

She couldn't keep anything down, not even a sip of water. But she was devastated at the thought of missing the tree chopping, and after the most heartbreaking tears and pathetic begging I finally caved and let her go. I know that probably makes me a bad parent but if you had seen her eyes, oh my goodness! The heartbreak!

So Teya and little sickie pants accompanied Daddy to the tree farm and found this lovely pine. They chopped it down and brought it home, along with a car seat full of puke. I guess Brinley was doing all right until Taber put her back in the car and she didn't want her barf bowl on her lap so she kicked it off and then hurled all over her lap. Poor little thing.

We got her all bathed and cleaned up and she passed out on the couch.

Meanwhile the rest of us got to work decorating.

The tree they picked was tall! To get the star on, Taber stacked the stool he's standing on in this picture on top of a kitchen chair and I spotted him while he wobbled around trying to reach the top branch. Teya couldn't even watch it was so nerve wracking! Luckily he got it on without falling, but one of these days we should probably invest in a ladder. ; )

Cam thought it was all very entertaining.

And eventually Brinley woke up, feeling TONS better and joined the fun.

The girls did a great job keeping the ornaments spread out and out of Cam's reach.

Tada!!! We're ready for Christmas!

When it was finished we all oooed and aaaahed over it's awesomeness : )

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Other Christmasy activities...

Our church does an outdoor live nativity every year so we took the kiddos to see it.

They wanted to sit in the very front so they bypassed the chairs and planted themselves right on the ground. I took this picture when it was over and got a good chuckle from Cam and Brinley's faces. Cam is like, "Can't. Move. Too. Puffy." and Brinley is like, "hehehehe! I'm a pink marshmallow!"

After the show they got to go inside and meet the cast. The nativity was a great way to get the girls focused on the more meaningful parts of Christmas and remind them why we celebrate and give gifts.

Another thing we are doing this year to teach them about giving is the 12 days of Christmas. We picked a family who has been through a difficult trial recently and the girls were very excited to help cheer them up.

Taber got really excited too. He wanted to dress the girls all in black with ninja masks for ultimate stealth. I told him that this "operation" didn't require quite that level of intensity, but he still had them draw out a map and discuss silent communication tactics so they could stay under the radar and not get caught.

So far their deliveries have been a huge success. They've mastered the stealth tactics and have taken great joy in this nightly ritual. The best part is that this simple act of secret giving has suddenly switched their brains from thinking about all the things they want and wondering what they are gonna get, to thinking about others, wondering if they will like their surprise and brainstorming what we should bring them next. They always come rushing back, full of adrenaline and excitement. My mommy heart is full when I see them finding joy in giving. I guess that what getting Christmasy is really all about : )

Diva Playdate

2011-12-12T13:34:00.001-05:00

The girls have been begging me to let them wear some of my make up.

I always say no because I don't want them to trash my make up

and I don't like them looking too grown up. (they grow up fast enough already.)

But they begged and begged, relentlessly.

So when their little friend came over to play,

I finally gave in and let them have a makeover diva playdate.

Once they were all dolled up, man alive were they happy.

They squealed with excitement and ran off to find dresses to complete their diva look.

Something about make up and dresses just unleashes all their sassy poses

Working it for the camera

Teya thinks a cheerleader-esque fist pump and pointed toe is the ultimate fashion pose. I think Brinley was trying to copy her but it didn't quite turn out ; )

Fancy faces

Diva life is not all posing for the camera. They like to make cookies too.

And of course everyone must taste test the cookie dough.

Then they requested a dance party. All of Teya's playdates seem to end with dance parties these days.

Kelsey had an umbrella and thought it would make the perfect interpretive dancing prop.

They requested "sad music" (because I guess umbrellas = sadness) and came up with some of their finest choreography yet.

Kelsey told everyone they had to have sad faces when they danced.

Teya's sad face

Brinley's sad face.

Really. I told her to do sad and this is what she gave me!

So now you know, all it takes is a little makeup, some cookie dough and umbrella music to turn a normal playdate into a Diva playdate ; )

A Visit from Mama and Papa Rigg

2011-12-09T13:41:00.001-05:00

About 10 days before Thanksgiving Taber's parents called with the exciting news that they were flying out to spend the holiday with us.

This was an unexpected surprise that was the result of some other good news. Taber's Dad had been diagnosed with Mantle Cell lymphoma back in March and had been battling cancer for most of the year. After months of Chemo he went in for a pet scan at the end of October and found that he was cancer free. I can't tell you how amazing it is to hear those words about someone you love.

Once they got the good news it wasn't long before they had their tickets booked to New Hampshire.

The kids were so excited when they got here that Teya was jumping up and down and Brinley was literally rolling on the floor ; )

Cam was happy to see them too and showed off all his clapping, climbing and crawling skills.

Grandma came loaded with fun activities for the kids, starting with a gingerbread house.

This is the perfect combination of happiness for my girls. Candy and crafts. : )

She also brought them a new stack of books and they relished all the reading time with Grandma.

The day before Thanksgiving we went to Outback so we wouldn't have to do major cooking 2 days in a row.

While we were there poor Teya started complaining about pain in her ear. It was so bad she was sobbing and couldn't eat her meal. We ended up taking her to the urgent care and sure enough she had an ear infection. I thought this was such a sad/sweet picture of her trying to muster a smile despite all the pain.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal (see post below) and then Melinda, Mama Rigg and I left the boys on clean up and kid duty and caught the last matinee of Breaking Dawn. I wore my wolf girl shirt for the occasion ; ) All the haters are gonna hate, but I LOVED it!! And I also think I'm switching back to team Edward...maybe... ;)

Other highlights from their visit include a taking the kids to see Arthur Christmas, which was awesome and a perfect family friendly movie for the holidays. Cam even sat still and watched it for a whole hour!

We had beautiful weather while they were here and got to spend an afternoon at the park after our movie.

Climbing cutie

Happy squishy face

Love these smiles so so much.

I thought this was a sweet picture of Brinley and Grandpa.

I was trying to get a picture of Taber and his parents with the kids and a nice stranger offered to take one of all of us. I love it when people do that : )

Later we celebrated Papa's birthday and somehow the girls managed to get gifts too. ; )

After a tough year with Papa Rigg's health we are so grateful he was able to come out and make new wonderful Thanksgiving memories with our family.

A Simple Thanksgiving

2011-12-09T13:00:00.000-05:00

This year for the first time in our marriage we didn't travel to Utah or Colorado for Thanksgiving. Instead, Taber's parents flew out to NH and we hosted a humble little Thanksgiving at our house.

Taber took care of the turkey so there was no pressure on me. This was his 4th time grilling one and he's got it down to a fine art.

The smoky, flavorful, juicy masterpiece.

The Draschils came up from Boston and Mel brought some amazing pumpkin, chocolate silk, pecan and banana cream pies.

We kept it was very casual and low key but the girls decided they wanted to wear dresses. : )

Teya even fixed her own hair with a bow to match.

Melinda brought Thanksgiving coloring pages for the kids to keep them entertained at the kids table.

We ate all the traditional Thanksgiving fare, although this year I tried a new sweet potato recipe and it was AMAZING! I will definitely be making it again for Christmas. You can get the recipe here.

It was a simple Thanksgiving.

We ate on paper plates.

But the food was incredible and the company was even better.

My belly and heart were full.

I really couldn't ask for anything better : )

Turks and Caicos final post: church, birthday cake and other randoms...

2011-12-04T22:53:00.001-05:00

Okay, last Turks and Caicos post! Just wanted to throw in a few more random things:

First of all, the city we were in was called Providenciales but everyone called it Provo. We landed at the Provo airport and I was like, "Yeah! I'm a Provo girl!" I had to take a pic in this Provo hat to give a shout out to my hometown. Provo, UT may not be as exotic as Provo Turks and Caicos but I love it just the same : )

Our second day on the island was Sunday so we needed to find a place to go to church. After a little research we found there was a branch of our church on the island and that they met less than a 10 minute walk from our hotel! We were so excited!

It was a tiny branch and the meetings were translated into Creole since half the congregation didn't speak English. It was fast and testimony meeting so I got up to bear my testimony and it was funny having a translator because when I told I joke, half of the congregation laughed after the punchline, and the other half laughed a minute later once they got the translation ; ) The members were so warm and welcoming and we ended up staying for all 3 hours. Then they invited us to a fireside on Wednesday night that a General authority was coming to speak at. We figured why not? We don't have any plans!

So Wednesday night rolled around and I think people were a little surprised that we actually showed up ; ) This is brother Willy, he is a new convert and was just full of excitement for the gospel. When he saw us again he said in a thick Creole accent, "I'm glad you are here! You are my bruddah and my sistah!"

I love that he said that because that's really how we felt. We had read a scripture in Sunday school from Ephesians 2:19 that said, "ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God." It applied so perfectly because when we came to the island we were literally foreigners and strangers, but once we walked into the church we were fellow citizens, "brothers and sisters" and it was just amazing to know we have that connection everywhere we go.

After the fireside we swapped emails with a few people and on Friday one of the guys emailed Taber to see if he wanted to come play basketball. We were going out for my birthday dinner but decided we could stop by the court since it was close to our restaurant. They ended up playing for close to an hour while I chatted with one of the wives who is from Canada, has two small kids and loves to run. We had plenty to talk about : )

When we left to go to the restaurant we bumped into another lady from church who said, "Oh my goodness! We've seen you guys so much if you stay for another week they're going to give you a calling!" I laughed but I totally would've taken one if they offered it. It's crazy how you can feel so connected to a ward after just one week.

That night we celebrated my birthday and our last night on the island with some good eats and chocolate cake.

The next morning we spent a few more hours on the beach before we had to pack up and head to the airport. We were pretty sad to leave.

But I stopped being sad when I got home and was greeted with more birthday celebrations and the 3 cutest kids in the world. It's hard to feel blue when you get a homecoming like that : )

Turks and Caicos part 2: Horses and Conch Diving

2011-12-04T12:26:00.001-05:00

So I've been taking care of two barfing babies this weekend

and after cleaning up my 5th pool of puke I decided I needed a little escape.

Nothing like Turks and Caicos pics to take me to my happy place : )

One of the top 5 things to do on the island, according to Tripadvisor, is horseback riding on the beach and in the ocean. All the reviews made it sound amazing so I said, "Let's do it!"

First they took a few minutes to teach us how to steer our horses, slow them down, stop them from grazing, etc... and then we headed off for the beach.

We followed a dirt road and then wound our way through a sandy jungle trail. After a few minutes the trail opened up to a private beach with a breathtaking view of the ocean. The horses knew exactly where they were and made a straight line for the ocean to cool off their bellies in the water.

It was amazing to ride right into the ocean and glide through the water on our horses.

One of the guide's dogs followed us to the beach and when we went into the ocean he swam out after us and jumped on the horse with his master. I thought it was pretty funny to see a dog riding a horse in the ocean. ; )

My horse was in heaven in the water. She was born on the island and has been doing beach rides since she was a baby. She spent most of the ride with her nose in the water blowing bubbles so I nicknamed her "Snorkel" : )

We spent almost on hour riding in the ocean. It was so serene and beautiful and relaxing.

Our guides were great and even took our cameras so we could all get pictures.

This was definitely a bucket list experience and I'm so glad we got to do it.

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The other excursion we did was a Conch Diving cruise that Taber booked for my birthday.

It was awesome to be able to get on a boat and get some different views of the island.

We saw this crazy shipwreck and a huge ghost town resort that went belly up when the economy tanked.

Our tour guides jumped in the ocean and dove for conch and starfish. They pulled some up to show us what they looked like and then they let us loose to get our own conch shells.

It was tricky to find the conch but we did see a lot of star fish

I found this 7 point beauty and pulled her up for a picture.

It was pretty hard to spot the conch shells on the bottom of the ocean because they camouflaged so well, but after about 30 minutes Taber was able to pull up two gorgeous ones and brought them back to the boat.

In our tour group of about 20 people, Taber was the only one who found his own shells! Everyone else got the ones the tour guide had pulled up. I think he felt pretty proud of his manly conch hunting skills after that ; )

Once we all had our shells they took us to Iguana island where we gutted them and chopped them up for a salad. The animal thingy inside looked pretty nasty but hunter boy was totally into it and ate part of it after he pulled it out. Blech.

Once the animal thingy was out we had to scrape the seawood off. Meanwhile our tour guides were using the meat to make a salad.

The salad was tasty, but I kept picturing the slimy conch in my mind and couldn't finish it. Taber was glad. More for him!

We got to explore Iguana island which is literally inhabited by thousands of iguanas. We saw a ton of them and I kept begging Taber to give me his shirt so I could catch one, but he didn't like the idea so this is as close as I got. ; )

After our picnic on the island they took us out to the reef to snorkel one last time. Turks and Caicos has the third largest reef in the world, Australia is number 1 and Belize is number 2. The water was clear and the fish we saw were incredible. It was hands down the coolest thing I have ever done on my birthday.

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By the way: The WINNER of the goodie care package for guessing the price of our T&C groceries is Rachel Murdock! She guessed $95 and the total price was $92! Isn't that crazy? I'm used to expensive groceries in Boston so I thought it would be close to $50, but when the girl said $92 I almost died! Guess that's the price of living in paradise : )

Turks and Caicos 10 year Anniversary Trip Part 1

2011-11-28T15:30:00.001-05:00

On December 21st, Taber and I will have been married for 10 years! We decided to celebrate a little early though since we didn't want to leave the kids during the holiday season, so a few weeks ago we said goodbye to our responsibilities and flew off to the lovely island of Turks and Caicos.

When we were planning our Anniversary trip we thought of a lot different options, a cruise, New York, Europe since it's so close. Then last year our friends went to Turks and Caicos (an island in the Caribbean I had never even heard of before) and when they came back and showed us the pictures I was like, "Duuuude...That's where I wanna go!"

We had a direct flight from Boston so everyone on board was leaving the cold and heading for blue skies. As a result they were all very excited and chatty. When the island finally came into view we looked out the window and were greeted with a rainbow spanning across the turquoise water. (You can kind of see the rainbow in the picture.) When the captain said we had arrived at Turks and Caicos everyone started cheering. It was awesome.

We flew through customs, took a cab to our hotel, swapped our winter clothes for swimsuits and less than an hour after landing we were sitting on the beach and pinching ourselves to see if this was really real!

The island turned out to be just what I was hoping for, warm turquoise water and white sandy beaches, + hot guy to share it with ; )

We spent the week just enjoying each others undivided attention. It was so nice to actually have full conversations without being interrupted by "the fruits of our romance" : )

We spent a lot of low key time reading on the beach. I finished 2 books, probably the first 2 books I've read since becoming a mother of 3. : )

When we weren't on the beach we would check out bikes from our hotel and cruise around the island.

One day they didn't have the beach cruisers so we had to take the tandem. Tandem biking is harder than it looks! I'm glad we tried this after we'd been married for 10 years and not on our honeymoon. Definitely requires lots of patience and communication!

We also did lots of snorkeling since there was a reef directly in front of our hotel. Taber was smart and bought some snorkel masks and flippers before we left so we didn't have to pay ridiculous fees to rent them. There were lots of awesome fish and one day we even saw a pretty big barracuda.

The beach is such a difference experience without the kiddos. Don't get me wrong, I love taking our kids to the beach, but it was just a nice change to be able to play too : )

In fact, the kidless beach freedom made us a little hyper : )

Woopee!

I guess we took a lot of jump pictures.

We were excited ; )

Usually we'd wrap up our beach time when the sun started setting.

Then we'd shower and get all dolled up to go out to dinner.

This is another thing that's really exciting about a vacation without kids. You can go to fancy restaurants, at any hour of the night and take as long as you want to eat your amazing food : )

It's usually such a huge deal for us to get a babysitter and go out to dinner alone. In fact, I think we've only done it once since having Cam! So yeah, going out to eat every night was the coolest!

This collage is an ode to all the yummy food we ate on our vacation.

Just thinking about it brings a tear of happiness to my eye. :)

(p.s. all the cool people take pictures of their food, trust me. )

And speaking of food, everything was ridiculously expensive on the island so we hit up the local grocery store to get stuff for lunches so we wouldn't spend our entire life savings on meals. Even the grocery store was crazy expensive though! Can you guess how much the few items in our cart cost? I will seriously send a goodie care package to whoever guesses the closest!

Okay, well this post is already getting ridiculously long so I will pause here and save the rest for another day: )

The Ultimate Granny Nanny (and Grandpa ; )

2011-11-25T22:40:00.001-05:00

Earlier this month Taber and I left the kids for a week to celebrate our 10 year Annivesary. You might think, "Oh those poor kids! Left behind for a whole week!" but don't feel too bad for them, I'm sure they had more fun than we did thanks to my parents, (a.k.a. the ultimate babysitters. : )

Grandma and Grandpa got in late at night, so when the kids woke up and saw they were there it was like Christmas morning.

Even our dog was excited to see them.

We took them out to dinner the night before we left as a pre-THANK YOU! for being brave enough to watch our kids for a week. (we figured it might be good to butter them up before we threw them back into a such a demanding stage of parenting : )

We really had nothing to worry about though. My parents are seasoned pros when it comes to kids (and grandkids.) They're kind of like the Olympic gold medalists of child rearing. (Seriously.) Here are some of the things they did to earn their gold medal status.

Chuck E Cheese, with 3 small children, on a Saturday night.

That takes guts! No pictures but the kids mentioned it several times so I know they had a blast. : )

Making and decorating sugar cookies. (the secret to a 5 and 3 year old's heart)

Crafts, crafts, and more crafts! Including coloring and putting together this playhouse that Brinley's preschool teacher brought over. A week after they left Teya was still talking about how much fun she had doing crafts with Grandma.

McDonalds' playland. Another brave adventure when it comes to keeping track of the girls and keeping wild man Cam off the floor when all he wants to do is crawl around.

A visit to the doctor's office for poor little Cam who was struggling all week with a terrible chest cough and wouldn't sleep through the night. My mom thought he might have an ear infection but the doc said it was just a very bad cold. I really appreciate my mom for taking him in to be sure, and I really appreciate my dad for getting up with him in the middle of the night every night! That's love : )

Another act of love was my Dad's personal mission to take care of every fix it project in our house. He fixed our mailbox (which had rusted off the metal and completely broken off after the snowstorm) he fixed all my curtain fixtures that the kids had pulled down or out of the wall, he tightened all my loose cupboards, mounted toilet paper holders and towel holders in our bathrooms, cleaned out, vacuumed, and scrubbed our cars and shampooed all the carpets and stairs. It was so amazing to come home to a clean and organized house. My dad is the coolest : )

Of course my mom did her fair share of cleaning too, including mopping my floors, cleaning out our garage, washing all the laundry, washing all the bed sheets, the comforters, and even my curtains!

She also helped the girls make me a birthday cake, decorate the house with balloons and birthday signs and wrap little presents so I could celebrate my b-day with them when I got home.

I was already just so happy that they were watching our kids, I couldn't believe they did so much on top of that. I really feel blessed and lucky to have such amazing and thoughtful parents.

Even though we had a snowstorm the week before they came, the weather warmed up and they were able to spend a lot of time outside and at the park.

I found these pictures of them playing with the kids at the park and they just about melted my heart. Seeing my Dad so relaxed and in his element as a grandpa is the best.

And I LOVE this picture of my mom and Cam. You can tell they're both just so happy.

Little man didn't miss me at all with such a wonderful grammy to snuggle.

The smiles on the kids faces say it all.

Grandma and Grandpa can babysit any time!!

Halloween with the Rigg Kids

2011-11-21T12:59:00.001-05:00

When our city postponed Halloween for a week I was majorly bummed since Taber and I would be out of town on the rescheduled date. I really didn't want to miss it so we dressed them up anyway and decided to check out trick or treating at the mall.

The girls were a lady bug and a bumblebee and Cam was the cutest little elephant to ever ~~walk~~ army crawl this earth. ; )

I had some face paint so I did some fun little designs around the girls eyes and on their cheeks. I thought they looked pretty cute.

We met up with Teya's bff Mia and headed into the mall.

When we got inside it was chaos! I guess since the city wasn't doing trick or treat everyone and their dog was at the mall. We waited in line at the first store for 20 minutes just to get a pathetic tootsie roll. We got in line for another store but 10 minutes into the wait we decided to ditch the mall and take our friends up on their offer to trick-or-treat with them in Massachusetts. We said goodbye everyone at the mall and headed down to Mass.

We got to our friend's house just as it was getting dark and the kids were not happy that we subjected them to picture taking before they could go knocking on doors for candy. This was the best shot of all 3 we could get. : )

The girls had a blast when we finally let them loose outside. They ran from door to door and got quite a nice collection of candy. It was pretty cold though and Brinley tapped out after about 20 minutes and sat in the car with me and Cam to get warm. It was a fun night and I'm glad we got to see the kids trick or treat.

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A week later they had trick or treating in Nashua. Taber and I were on our Anniversary trip but I told my parents about it and showed them where the costumes and the face paint were.

I figured my Dad would probably just do a few little designs on their eyes like I did but he found a book with face paint designs and let the girls pick the most elaborate ones they could find.

Teya picked butterfly eyes...

and despite Teya and my mom's best efforts to dissuade her, Brinley insisted on having an ocean face. Teya was very upset that Brinley's ocean face did not coordinate with her bee costume but you can't really argue with a 3 year old once they've set their mind on something.

The girls and their make up artist, Papa Uda.

My mom stayed home with Cam and passed out candy while my Dad took the girls trick or treating. It sounded like my dad had a blast and I'm so glad he got to enjoy some fun bonding time with his granddaughters. : )

The Snowstorm that Crippled New England

2011-11-16T20:51:00.001-05:00

On October 29th we were getting the kids ready for the Trunk or Treat at our church when snow starting coming down hard. The Trunk or Treat was cancelled and by 9pm we had lost power. Our power went out during Hurricane Irene but only for a few hours so I wasn't that worried. The kids thought it was awesome getting ready for bed with flashlights and we went to sleep thinking we'd be up and running in the morning.

When we woke up the next day there was still no power. Our house was a chilly 60 degrees and there was a 10 inch blanket of snow covering our yard.

Church was cancelled so we bundled up the kids and got to work shoveling the driveway.

The girls were so excited about the snow and we didn't realize at that point how much damage it had done so we just let them play and enjoy it for awhile.

Then Taber went to go check on some of the families from church and that's when we realized how bad it was. Since the snow had come early, all the trees still had their leaves and the heavy snow made them come crashing down. Hundreds of trees and power lines were down, taking out the power for over 80% of Nashua.

Here's a video Taber took driving around our neighborhood of some of the damage. It's pretty crazy to see all the broken trees everywhere.

No power in the winter means no heat, and the forecast for the next few nights called for temps in the low 20's. Fortunately in our church we have an emergency plan that includes a list of all the people with generators in case of a power outage. The "generator families" were kind enough to open their homes for people to take hot showers, get a warm meal and in many cases, have a warm place to sleep since the temperature inside of the homes without power was dropping into the 40's.

Some of our friends with power let us bring our frozen food over to their freezer so it wouldn't go bad. Then they kindly sent me home with a pot of hot chili and homemade bread. Despite the huge inconvenience of not having electricity, it was actually kind of fun to be in campout mode at our house. We bundled up, broke out the candles and headlamps and tried to make an adventure out of it.

That night we moved all the beds down into the family room by our fireplace so we could stay warm. The fire kept us nice and toasty but the rest of the house was dipping into the 50's so we stayed contained to the family room where we played, slept, and ate.

The next day was Halloween but the city postponed trick or treating for a week and school was cancelled. I felt really bad that the girls had been jipped out of trunk or treat, Teya's class party, and now trick or treating. Luckily our friends who live 40 minutes south in Massachusetts had power and invited us to trick or treat with them since their city was still doing it. The girls had a blast (pictures to come later) and when we came home we were overjoyed to find that our power was back on!

The next few days we hosted families who still didn't have power. People came to shower, do laundry and sleepover. School was cancelled all week until Friday and our internet and phones didn't come back until then either. Luckily by Friday most of our city was up and running again but our poor neighbors in Connecticut were still without power for another week!

In the end we spent 40 hours without power. It was a crazy adventure that taught us a lot about emergency preparedness in the winter and gave us a new sense of gratitude for things like central heating, our dishwasher and Cam's white noise machine : )

Taber conquers the Hartford Marathon

2011-11-14T13:45:00.001-05:00

Hello blogosphere. I have missed you : )

Things have been a little crazy but they're starting to settle down so prepare yourself for a picture overload as I crank out the posts over the next few days to get caught up.

First up: Taber the dominator kills the Hartford Marathon.

Hartford is just a 2 hour drive from us so the night before the big race we drove down to get settled in. The city was bustling with marathon fever and it was fun to see signs everywhere welcoming the runners.

We hit the expo and Taber picked up his bib number and timing chip.
He looks so excited : )

One of the booths was giving out Larabar samples. They had a sign that said, "Just take two please" But when Taber told them he worked for General Mills (GMills owns Larabar) The lady gave him this giant bag with at least 100 bars. SCORE!

The kids did great at the expo, they scored free glasses and suckered Daddy into buying them some sporty little headbands. : )

After the expo we went over to the park for the Pasta feed so Taber could get in a good carb load before race day.

Then it was back to the hotel to attempt to get some rest. Attempt definitely being the key word here. We were all crammed in one small room with Cam in his pack and play and the girls on a blow up bed that wouldn't stay inflated. They replaced it around 9pm and then had to come in again at 3am to fill the replacement back up with air. Also our toilet flooded and maintenance had to come up and deal with that. It was a rough night but with pre-race nerves I'm not sure how much Taber would've slept anyway.

Despite the lack of sleep Taber was up early and ready to roll. We were only a 5 minute walk to the starting line so he hung out and stayed warm until the last minute.

This is the view of the start and finish line from our hotel room. Once we sent Taber on his way we hunkered down in the room and alternated between watching the live broadcast on TV and watching out the window.

I had signed up to receive text message alerts when Taber hit the 10K, half marathon, and 20 mile mark so I would have an idea of where he was. For some reason I never got the text for the 10K and I was freaking out wondering what had happened to him and if he was okay! Luckily I got the half marathon update an hour and 49 minutes into the race and after that I was able to calm down knowing that he was okay and cruising at an awesome pace.

I was very grateful for the hotel room to corral the kids and keep them entertained. Especially because it was chilly and very windy that day.

Before long I received a text that Taber had crossed the 20 mile mark in 2:51:05. That was my cue to load up the troops and head down to the finish line with our cow bells and posters.

We met up with our my friend Darby whose husband was also running it and anxiously kept our eyes out for our runners.

Soon we saw Taber coming around the corner. He was well under his goal of sub 4 hours and crossed the finish line in 3:54:00. Here are his thoughts he posted on Runkeeper after it was over:

"Wow what an experience. New PR by a good 45 minutes. Going into the marathon my main goal was to break 4 hours and I'm happy to see my time starting with a "3" in front of it. I felt like I might be able to push for a 3:40-3:45 so I decided to start the race with the 3:40 pace group. I couldn't find the 3:40 pace group so I just started off on my own. Mile 1 felt great. Found the 3:40 pace group at mile 2 and decided to hang with them. This was probably my biggest mistake because the pace group was running a very fast 1st half to bank a lot of time for the 2nd half. I clocked a ridiculous fast mile 2 and 3 (7:42 and 7:48 pace) before I realized that this group was not the right pace for me. Once I clocked 8:03 for mile 4 I knew I was going to be hurting later in the race. I started to let up and eventually settled into my own groove of 8:20-35 splits. I took a gu after mile 8, 17 and then again around mile 22. Those fast miles early on really wore on me during the last 6 miles. I ended up getting through the first 18-20 miles at a decent clip, but the last 6 miles I hit a wall. At that point I was glad I had banked enough time to start running 9-10+ min/miles because that's all I had in me. The last 4 miles were especially tough with the wind (20-30mph) coming head on. I finished at 3:54 and was spent! It was so awesome having the family there to catch me. The marathon was put on really well and had a ton of water stops. Also the finish shoot was really impressive and there was a ton of loud screaming fans. Overall a huge success and a very memorable weekend with the fam."

It took awhile to find him after he finished but when we finally did we made sure to let him know how proud we were.

Marathon Dad!

We took some pics and then dropped him off at the massage tent.

While we were waiting for him to get his massage the girls kept themselves entertained by digging up an impressive collection of earth worms. I know it's disgusting but it kept them busy so I wasn't about to stop them.

When it was all over we took our runner boy to Five Guys for a victory burger.

I guess spectating a marathon is almost as exhausting as running one if you're a 3 year old.

Brinley literally stayed passed out through the entire meal.

We're very proud of our Marathon man for training so hard and pushing past the pain to reach his goal on race day. He really is such a great example to our kids and a huge inspiration to me. WTG Taber!!

Rigg's Annual Halloween Party 2011

2011-11-04T10:02:00.001-04:00

I love love love Halloween! A holiday that gives me an excuse to dress up and throw a party? I am all over that! This year I felt like the planning was a lot easier since we had a year of experience under our belts. The party ran smoothly and was a huge success but I still learned some things this year that I think will make next year even better! (Such as more costume prizes, better voting system, some new games and possibly a spook alley! Gotta start planning these things early ; )

Originally we were going to be Dora and Diego, but when my "Dora" wig arrived in the mail I realized it looked more like Cleopatra hair. Plus I've done Dora before so we decided to switch things up and went as Mark Anthony and Cleopatra.

We had about 40 people this year and everyone brought fabulously spooky desserts and appetizers. My favorite were the candy corn rice crispy treats. WOW! those were awesome!

The costumes this year were SOOOO good! It was tricky trying to narrow it down because everyone received lots of votes! It was so hard to just give 1st, 2nd and 3rd which is why next year I think we'll do some house prizes and category prizes too.

Here are the awesome costumes:

Steve Jobs and the iPhone, Punk Rockers,

Dog the Bounty Hunter and his wife Beth, and the Flintstones.

"Bad News,"Leonardo Da Vinci and the Mona Lisa,

Carl and Ellie from UP, Static Cling and She Devil.

Settlers of Catan game board and victory journal, Mark Anthony and Cleopatra.

Dominos delivery boy and Pizza, Father Time and Mother Earth.

Candy Corn, Vintage Comic

Popeye and Olive, Adam and Eve and baby apple.

And now for the winners:

First place went to the Blanchettes for the second year in a row! Last year they were the Grinch and Cindy Lou who. This year they got tons of laughs as Sonny and Cher. I don't know how Jenn convinced Casey to dress up like that but watching him work those heels and flip his long hair all night was hysterical!

2nd place went to the Fry's for their re-creation of Russ and Teresa's engagement picture from the 80's. (background story below)

It's kind of a big inside joke with our church friends. Russ used to be the bishop and when he posted the old engagement pic on Facebook everyone went nuts over it. The feathered bangs and jean jackets were just too funny! When the Fry's showed up dressed just like them with a wedding announcement and their iPod blasting "Take my Breath away," No one could stop laughing!

And 3rd place went to the Nelson's who dressed up as a black and white TV couple from the 50's. This is not a black and white photo, they just painted their skin gray! Definitely impressive and well deserving of their prize!

We enjoyed an evening of chatting, eating, and crazy minute to win it games (see post below for games). It was a lot of work to put together but soo worth it when it was all said and done. Now I just can't wait for next year, I already have some costume ideas brewing in my head.... ; )

Halloween Party Minute to Win it Games 2011

2011-11-04T10:02:00.000-04:00

We had so much fun playing Minute to Win it Games last year that we decided to do it for one more year. There were lots of laughs and cheers as we watched our friends complete the challenges. Here are some of the games we played:

Ready Spaghetti: two players had to move soda cans from one table to another using only their mouths and a spaghetti noodle. They had to build a tower of three cans before the minute was up.

Mad Dog: Each player had a ruler with two boxes of tic tacs glued to each end. Payers had to put the rulers in their mouths and shake till all the tic tacs came out and then their partner had to do the same all within a minute. Messy but so funny to watch!

Baby Blocking: Players had to balance a plate on their head and stack 5 blocks on top of the plate without falling. This one is WAY harder than it sounds! 2 of the 4 players got it.

Nervous Nelly: Player had pedometers strapped to each arm and leg. They had to shake, wiggle and move around as much as they could in a minute to try and get a total of 500 clicks. I will definitely be posting video of this one later, SOOOO funny!

Rapid Fire: Players had to use rubber bands to knock over a tower of 6 empty soda cans. The cans had to be completely cleared off the table before the minute was up.

Separation Anxiety: Players had to sort 50 M&M's by color with only one hand. If they accidentally put the wrong color in a cup they were disqualified. I actually practiced this one with Teya and she was able to do it so I tried to make it harder by using 60 M&M's and no one got it! Guess Teya just has mad skills!

Ka-Broom: Players had to set up a marshmallow on a plate on the edge of a stool. Using a broom to tip the plate they had to launch the marshmallow up in the air and catch it in a cup, 3 times. This one was intense but so much fun when the players caught the marshmallows!

We also did a game where players had to bounce ping pong balls off the ground and onto a table and try to get them to stick onto a piece of bread with peanut butter. Much harder than it sounds! We finished with one more round of nervous nelly to break a 3 way tie between some of the teams. Whoever got the most pedometer clicks in a minute won. It was tons of fun and hopefully I'll be able to get some video up because watching this stuff in action is hilarious!

All Things Halloween...

2011-10-28T10:00:00.001-04:00

Forgive me if I've been a little absent from the blogging world.

I've been busy with preparations for our Halloween bash which is tonight!!

We sent out these invitations a few weeks ago and ever since then I've been in full throttle party planning and prep mode.

We've been slowly decorating the house a little more each day. It's looking pretty spooky!

We've also been working on our costumes.

This wig is a little sneak peak! ; )

Also on the agenda: Pumpkin carving.

The girls did a great job scooping out the guts.

They helped Daddy pick out a great design and supervised him while he carved away.

The finished product. Spooky spider!

Even better in the dark!

Last weekend I had to do some serious shopping for the party so Taber took all 3 kiddos to the pumpkin farm by himself. Brave daddy! The girls jumped hay bales for over an hour.

While Cam the man munched on apple cider donuts.

(you can see the sugar in his eyelashes, that's good stuff!)

They brought home 5 more pumpkins which we painted on Monday for FHE. The paint has been holding up pretty well through the rain and snow from the past few days.

On Wednesday, I had a little bat cookie making playdate for the girls since they were feeling a little left out by the Halloween party for grown ups only.

I found this idea on Our Best Bites, Here. I loved it because it was something the girls could do themselves without any help. (Even the 3 year olds!)

Teya and her bat

Mia and her bat

Brinley and the remnants of her bat.

Chocolate never lasts long around this girl ; )

We used candy eyes and cut wings out of cardstock. I think they were supposed to have fangs but Teya wanted smiley faces.

This project passed my two main criteria, easy and delicious. : )

After cookies the girls had popcorn and watched a Clifford Halloween movie while the grown ups enjoyed some lovely adult conversation.

And that's what we've been up to. Now back to party prepping!

Teya lost her 1st tooth!!

2011-10-20T15:18:00.001-04:00

A couple weeks ago I noticed a permanent tooth coming in behind Teya's baby teeth.

It kind of freaked me out for 2 reasons.

1) Two sets of teeth just look shark-like and kind of scary

2) Baby teeth are the last babyish thing Teya is holding on to. Once she loses those I feel like she's going to grow up on me and I'm not ready for that!

Once I got over my freak-out I told her she needed to start wiggling her baby teeth so they'd come out and we could make room for the permanent ones.

She wiggled and wiggled until that baby tooth got so lose it was ridiculous.

Finally last Sunday she let me have a go at it. She was definitely scared but once she let me really grip it it popped right out. Taber caught it on video and her reaction is priceless. She literally says, "I'm so happy I'm crying!" You have to watch it.

That night she put her tooth safely under her pillow for the tooth fairy.

Meanwhile the tooth fairies were in a quandary over how much a 5 year old's first baby tooth is worth. Tooth Fairy B thought $1 was good but Tooth Fairy T thought such a significant milestone deserved more. Luckily Teya's tooth fairies have a Facebook account and were able to consult with other fairies across the country. After several fairies weighed in it was decided that the first tooth was indeed significant enough for a $5 prize, but all the other's would go for $1.

The next morning Teya woke up to find that her tooth was gone and in it's place was a crisp 5 dollar bill and a note written on flowery paper in handwriting so tiny it could only have been written by a fairy.

She was on cloud nine and said she didn't even feel a thing when the tooth fairy took her tooth. Those fairies have skills, no doubt.

Later I took her to the dollar store so she could spend her money. Since there's no sales tax where we live she was able to pick out 5 things. True to character, she skipped right past all the candy and went straight for the puzzles and coloring books. She bought a princess puzzle, a my little pony coloring book, some glow in the dark stars, a Tangled notebook, and then without any prompting from me, told Brinley she could pick one thing out too. Brinley chose a stuffed caterpillar and both girls were happy as could be.

The whole thing was pretty exciting and fun to mark off another big milestone for Teya.

(and her fairies. : )

Cam's 9 month pictures and stats

2011-10-18T15:11:00.002-04:00

These were supposed to be Cam's 6 month pictures but between ear infections, crazy schedules and just trying to find that elusive slot of time where he is happy, fed and doesn't need a nap, they ended up being his 9 month pictures. : )

So yes, Cam is now 9 months old

He weighs 20 lbs 10 oz (58th percentile)

and is 28.5 inches long (53rd percentile)

We have finally gotten him on a real schedule where he takes two naps a day, then goes to bed at 6:30 and sleeps for 12 hours. GLORIOUS!

He is eating a lot of solids now. We still do baby food but he also likes pasta, bananas, avocados, sweet potatoes, cooked carrots, Cheerios, bread and pancakes.

He is also finally taking a bottle and is officially weaned! (full post to come on this later but lets just say that for me, weaning my little piranha has been a very good thing ; )

He army crawls like a champ and can get almost anywhere he wants at record speed.

He is also still a major thumb sucker and has sucked his poor little thumb raw. I tried covering it with a sock the other day to see if he would go for his other thumb but he just screamed for 30 minutes till I took it off and then he popped it back in his mouth and fell right asleep. What can you do?

So that is the latest and greatest with our little man. Hope you enjoy the pics, I think they came out pretty cute : )

Happy handsome boy.

Rockin' the orange puffy vest

Munching his kakui nuts (love how they match his eyes btw : )

This one is my favorite! Love it so much I can't stop looking at it. :)

HUGE thanks to auntie Naomi for making him that cute malo and sending out the haku and kakui nuts.

Adorable

My chubby love : )

Some serious props for my man!

2011-10-14T16:38:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow Taber is running the Hartford ING marathon. Any time anyone runs 26.2 miles they deserve some serious props, but today I'm giving him props for the incredible effort he's made just to get to the starting line. I signed him up for this marathon as a Christmas present. Merry Christmas honey, you have to run 26.2 miles! But first you'll have to log hundreds of training miles, give up sleeping in on Saturdays, and dedicate what little free time you have to get ready to do it. I'm such a nice wife : ) Seriously though, I think he was a little scared when he unwrapped the training schedule I printed out for him and started to process what I had just committed him to.

I gotta hand it to him though, he took up the challenge and went for his first run on Christmas day. He built up his base all winter and ran a half marathon in the spring. Then in July he really got serious and for the last 18 weeks has dedicated himself to the intense training required for a marathon.

Because he works so much and has limited time with the kids he made a conscience effort to avoid running if the kids were awake. As a result there were many days when I watched him come home from work after a long tiring day, play with the kids, help put them to bed, then fight past his exhaustion to lace up his running shoes and put in a run. He didn't have time to just sit and unwind. no time for TV, no time for surfing the net, just work, eat, run, sleep.

Saturday mornings were dedicated to long runs. Sunday's we have church at 9am so no sleeping in for him. He had to carve out time for runs on business trips and vacations, he had to run in the rain, in the heat, in the dark hours of the early morning or late at night. It was not easy and there were days he was ready to quit. But he never did. He kept at it, averaging 150 miles a month for the last 3 months. Surviving on 5-6 hours of sleep a night. If that doesn't deserve serious props then I don't know what does! I have been completely inspired watching him. He probably doesn't know this but when I'm up against a challenge in life that seems too daunting to tackle, sometimes I'll chant to myself, "Just BLT. Be like Taber!" (true story) : )

So props to you Taber. Can't wait to watch you get out there and kill it tomorrow!!

Cape Ann Whale Watch

2011-10-11T23:31:00.000-04:00

Thanks to Groupon and the fact that we didn't have to do major long runs last weekend,

we were able to cross another big one off our New England bucket list;

Whale watching.

In my 30 years of life before this trip I had never seen a whale in the wild before.

It was awesome, like, literally filled me with awe. : )

We brought the kiddos because they're cute and funny and we figured if people got bored of looking at whales they could stare at our kids and be entertained. ; )

As we headed out to sea I had a smile on my face and was feeling good.

I probably should've brought some Dramamine though because after a few minutes on the boat I started to feel some sea sickness coming on. During the hour ride to where the whale's feed I definitely struggled.

Luckily the kids didn't get sick and enjoyed the sea breeze and the gorgeous weather on an unusually warm and sunny October day.

They brought one of their favorite books, The Snail and the Whale to keep them entertained on the boat and to pump them up for whale sightings.

Mostly they just liked hanging out on the deck and watching the ocean whiz by.

About an hour out to sea the captain spotted some whales. The boat slowed down and everyone clambered out to the deck to see.

Sure enough, out in the distance we saw whales! 3 humpbacks swimming towards our boat.

They got closer until they were only a few yards away.

The girls were FA-REAKING out! Every time a tail popped up they squealed and screamed. Taber actually caught a little video of it and it's the cutest thing! I posted it below so you can hear their excitement and also if you listen closely, some of Cam's non-excitment. He was a little tired and cranky at that point. The first 30 seconds is the girls freaking out and the last 25 seconds shows a few shots of the whales.

We watched the humpbacks for close to an hour and also saw a minke whale, a molo molo (which is a huge fish that looks like a shark) and some big crazy tuna's that were doing wild flips and jumps out of the water.

All that whale watching really wiped the girls out and they crashed hard on the ride back to shore.

When we got back on land and my stomach had a chance to settle again, we stopped at a really yummy restaurant called Passport for a late lunch/early dinner.

Taber ordered a lobster roll (which normally I'm not a fan of) but he let me try it and it was AMAZING. Finally a lobster roll that lives up to the hype!

And then we ended our excursion with ice cream because that always just feels like the right thing to do. : ) Definitely glad we bought the Groupon and got to see such amazing animals in the wild. I would highly recommend it to anyone but if you're a motion sickness light weight like me, don't forget the Dramamine ; )

B is for Brinley

2011-10-07T15:22:00.000-04:00

Brinley's preschool teacher sent me these pictures from school and they were too cute not to post.

B is for Brinley.

C is for Carrot and Cactus

Using shapes to make "Mat Man"

And Brinley's impressive drawing of Mat Man

(or Mat girl, she later told me, since she put a bow in his hair)

And one more drawing just because I think she's got skills for a 3 year old! This is one she drew of President Monson during conference last weekend. Love that she totally gave him a tie : )

Applefest Half Marathon 2011: Post-baby comeback race!

2011-10-04T11:10:00.000-04:00

For the last 6 months I've been slowly but surely working my way back into shape after taking a 9 month break from exercise and responsible eating while I was pregnant . : ) I signed up for the Applefest half marathon back in April to give myself some extra motivation to get out there and run.

Last year I came with "big baby" (AKA my prego belly) to cheer on Taber, my sister and a bunch of friends that were running it. This year it was pretty awesome to be pinning on a number too.

After watching everyone run it last year I knew the course was insanely hilly with the worst of the hills coming in the back half. Those hills really freaked me out and I was hesitant to set a time goal for myself. But then my running buddy Kendall told me that every time her sister races, no matter what, she always goes after a PR. I was inspired by that and it made me think of that quote, "It's better to aim high and miss than aim low and hit your target." So I decided to aim high and set my sights on finishing under 2 hours, which means I would need to sustain at least a 9:10 pace for 13.1 miles.

To prepare for race day I ran the Applefest course twice in training so I could get a feel for those hills. Both times I pushed pretty hard but couldn't get it under 2 hours. I was nervous, but hoped that with good weather and race adrenaline I could get there.

Then the day before the race Taber did something unbelievably awesome. He told me he was going to forget about his own time goal and run as my pacer to make sure I got my goal. I seriously could not believe it. I was literally jumping up and down and squealing with excitment. It was like being handed a secret weapon with superpowers. Once he told me that I was like, "Bring it on you big scary hills! I'm running with The Taber! You got nothin'!"

Seriously though, knowing that Taber would be running with me was the best confidence booster I could've asked for. He also volunteered to run with the fuel belt so I could stay hydrated (water stops are only every 2 miles at the Applefest.) I was so pumped to have my own personal one man entourage. Pacer, water boy, motivational coach and even camera man. With Taber by my side it was going to be a good race.

We woke up that morning to cool weather with drizzling rain. Perfect running weather. I ate some toast with peanut butter and banana then we loaded up the girls and drove over to the high school. Taber and Joseph dropped me off with Teya, Brinley and Brielle and went to park the car. We had only 30 minutes before it started and I still had to drop off my bag, find my friend who was watching the girls to do a kid pass off, meet up with a running blogger friend for some pre-race pics, stretch, and most importantly, do my port-a-potty routine. Navigating the crowd with 3 little girls who walk slower than worms crawl was going to be a problem. Luckily I bumped into Taber's training buddy Rob and he offered to watch the girls so I could drop off my bag.

I ran up to the gym and checked my bag, met up with my blogger buddy Lauren for a quick picture and good luck wishes on the race (I'll post more about our meet up on my running blog) and squeezed in a trip to the port-a-potty with not a minute to spare. Taber got the girls situated with the babysitter, we took a quick picture and then we lined up with Rob, Ricky and Joseph near the front.

The race director said "GO" and we took off with the crowd. Rob, Ricky and Joseph pulled away from us pretty quickly. I could see Rob and Ricky in the distance but Joseph was long gone. I worried that we might be going too slow but Taber told me to hold back and stay with him. We finished our first mile in 8:11, well under our goal pace. Mile 2 brought us to Merrill hill which we plowed up no problem and clocked an 8:30 pace for the 2nd mile. We saw the girls at that point and they were screaming and cheering and reaching out for high fives. We slapped them some skin and the lady next to me said, "Aw! How motivating!"

We finished mile 3 in 8:32 and took advantage of a nice long downhill to pick up a fast 8:08 pace on mile 4. I felt strong, energetic and awesome during those first miles. Taber had his phone and was taking little videos while we ran. He would tell me when to speed up or slow down and do form checks every once in awhile. He also told me I looked awesome and made it look so easy. I was like, "Man I should run all my races with this guy! I'm lovin' this!"

Here we are at mile 4 all smiles and thumbs up.

We hit a good hill at mile 5 but luckily there was a guy there playing the bagpipes for some motivation. We finished that mile in 8:38 and stretched out our legs to pick up some speed on the downhill at mile 6. Since the worse hills are in the second half our strategy was to run the first half under pace and pick up as much time as we could on the downhills so we'd have a buffer when we got to the big hills from miles 8-11.

We saw our friend Kemper cheering at mile 6 and then we saw Rob's wife Darby a half a mile later with personalized signs for us! We clocked an 8:22 pace for that mile and felt good as we got close to the halfway point. Mile 7 was mostly flat and we were well under pace so didn't push hard and kept it steady at 8:47. After mile 7 we downed our chocolate GU's and geared up for the long stretch of hills I call the gauntlet.

The gauntlet is brutal but I had run it in my training and knew what I was up against. We jogged, we shuffled, but we never stopped to walk. It started raining pretty hard right as we were heading into the first hill but I didn't mind because it kept us cool. At mile 8 we caught up with Rob and Joseph and ran with them for awhile. Joseph hadn't been able to train since he started MBA school at the end of August and even though he flew through the first 8 miles, the hills started to take their toll and he fell behind. Rob fell back too but I knew we had to keep going because if I stopped I wouldn't be able to start again.

The rain made my feet wet and soggy and my legs felt heavy going up the hills. Taber told me to dig deep and started talking about all the people and things that motivate us to run. I blocked out everything but his voice and forced my legs to keep moving. Our splits through the hills were 8:59 for mile 8, 8:40 for mile 9, and 9:35 for mile 10.

When we got to the top of the last hill in the gauntlet Taber was celebrating but I was spent. He was ready to pick up the pace and coast in for the last 2 miles but I was starting to break down. Mile 11 was 9:15. My legs were so tired and even though Taber said run, all I wanted to do was walk.

"Come on babe, you got this! Just stay with me and you're going to PR!"

"This is all I got." I told him. "It's all I can do not to walk right now."

"15 more minutes of hard running and you're done. Think of why we run. Think about Cam. Don't stop."

That must've done it when he told me to think about Cam because I picked up my legs again and finished mile 12 in 9:02. Then we were back to Merrill hill. The cruelest part of this course is a 75 foot climb on the last mile. I wanted to cry. Taber started to pull away from me and I finally gave into my screaming legs and stopped to walk. Taber was having none of that though. "Stay with me and you're going to like what you see at the finish line, we're almost there, just stay with me!" I grabbed his arm and told him to pull me but he said, "no, you're going to do this yourself." I knew he was right, so I summoned every last ounce of will power and commanded my legs to run. I got to the top and it was all downhill from there. I ran as hard as I could. I heard Taber shouting, "Yeah! you're doing it! YEAH!"

We rounded the corner back to the high school and saw all our friends and our girls shouting and cheering for us. Someone was holding Cam and ran him out to give me high five as I was passing. Darby took this picture right then. I could see the finish line and knew I was going to PR, I saw my girls and my sweet baby boy, my friends were there cheering for me and I had Taber by my side. It was an amazing moment.

My official time was 1:56:15. Smashed my 2 hour goal and set a new personal record. My average pace was 8:53 min/mile and I placed 19 out 70 in my age division. Not bad for my post-baby comeback!

Huge congrats to Kendall my running buddy for a strong finish on her first postbaby race. She had her baby a week before Cam so it was awesome training together with so much in common.

Also congrats to Joseph for finishing his first half marathon ever in an unbelievable time for a guy who literally has not run since August!

Many thanks to Darby, Melinda and Teresa for braving the rain to cheer us on and helping out with the kids during the race.

And many thanks to Taber for being the best pacer, water boy, coach, motivational speaker and friend I could ask for. He is my real secret weapon. So grateful to him and the kids for all their support (even though Cam and Brinley don't look super supportive in this picture ; ) I couldn't have done it without them!

And I'll end with a little video of the clips my personal camera man took while we were running. : )

Foodie Fanatics

2011-09-30T10:57:00.002-04:00

So our friends the Draschils may possibly be the most fanatical foodies I have ever met. They've been in Boston for 2 months and they've already discovered more amazing places to eat than we have in 2 years. They actually check out foodie movies from the library and research places to eat! (true story.) They also know all the little joints that have been featured on the food network and make it a point to eat there. If you ever need advice on cool places to eat, ask the Draschils, you can't go wrong.

Case in point, last weekend we were hanging out at the Boston children's museaum and they were like, "Oh there's this super famous bakery just around the corner with the most amazing sticky buns ever!" (apparently the sticky buns won some food war thing on some foodie channel) Anyway, we go to the children's museum all the time and I never knew that little gem of a bakery was just around the corner! Sadly they were out of their signature sticky buns, but we did load up on tons of other yummy desserts and devoured them before I could even take a picture. They were that good.

After dessert we decided we should probably have dinner, so they led us to this amazing food truck called Roxy's with gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches that are out of this world!

Everyone was taking pictures by the truck (apparently it's going to be featured on a food network series soon) So we jumped in and got some pictures too.

The sandwiches came out piping hot and they did not disappoint.

Best grilled cheese I've eaten In. My. Life.

It was a very cool "Boston Moment" to be on some random street on the west side of BU, eating gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches from a famous hipster foodie truck, and we owe it all to our fanatic foodie friends. Thanks guys!

Brinley's 1st day of preschool year 2

2011-09-30T10:57:00.001-04:00

Brinley started preschool again with Mrs. Darby and I think it's been really good for her to have her own special thing that she does without Teya and Camden. She goes once a week for 3 hours and always comes home with the most adorable projects. The other day they went apple picking and made t-shirts with apple stamps that were so cute! Next year I'll put her in something that's 3 days a week to get her ready for kindergarten but for now this is just perfect.

My sister Naomi did a cute preschool interview with her daughter on her first day I decided to copy her idea . Her are some of Brinley's current favorites as a 3 year old preschooler:

Food: Corn

Wish: To be a rainbow unicorn

Color: Blue (I don't think that's really her favorite color but when I asked her, Teya whispered "pink" so I think she said blue to be different. She's funny like that. ; )

T.V show: Wild Kratts

Treat: Chocolate (for real! This girl is JUST like me!)

Activity: Play with Teya

Frog Catchers

2011-09-30T10:57:00.000-04:00

My girls may be girlie but that doesn't stop them from catching frogs.

It took a lot of squealing (see clip here) but they caught Mr. slimy speckles and were pretty pleased with themselves.

Who knew a squishy frog could make a kid so happy?

Teya wants to be an animal rescuer like Diego so even though she caught him, she wanted to be sure we were planning on letting him go.

But not before she tried to turn him into a prince.

(Don't worry, I stopped her before her lips actually made contact with Mr. slimy. ; )

Apple Picking at Smolak Farms

2011-09-25T22:06:00.000-04:00

Even though it's been freakishly warm lately (80 degrees yesterday and today with lots of humidity!) We did have a somewhat cool Fallish day last weekend and it put us in the mood to go apple picking.

We went with our good friends the Knutsons. It's always fun hanging out with them because we have twinner families. 2 girls and a baby boy for each us.

Our girls love their girls and it's non-stop giggly happiness when they're together.

We went to Smolak farms in North Andover and started off with a hay ride around the giant orchard.

After the hayride the girls got right to work apple picking and Cam got to work being ridiculously adorable in his little man outfit.

Teya made good use of the Daddy ladder to get all the "beauties" that were up high.

Teya probably picked over 90% of the apples in our basket. Brinley was too busy eating them to bother with picking more. ; )

Cam really wanted an apple but he had to settle for his Gerber apple wheel.

And maybe a little hay too : )

Riggies in the apple field.

And we'll end with the classic bale of hay and pumpkin pic.

(Just ignore the remnants of hay dangling of of Cam's lips. He still hasn't learned what does and does not qualify as food ; )

Run to the Rock Half Marathon 2011

2011-09-21T09:39:00.002-04:00

A couple weeks ago Taber thought it would be fun to do the Run to the Rock half marathon in Plymouth, MA as a warm up for the big races we've been training for this fall. (I'm running the Applefest Half marathon on Oct 1st and Taber is running the Hartford ING Marathon on October 15th)

We decided to do it very last minute and since we really didn't have time goals or big expectations for the race we stayed up WAY late the night before playing Settlers of Catan with some friends. By the time they left and we got ready for bed it was 1am. Our babysitter was coming at 6am and our alarms were set for 5. Naturally in that 4 hour block of time that I was supposed to sleep, Cam woke up twice and needed to be nursed, Brinley woke up and needed help going potty, and Teya woke up with a bad dream. When my alarm went off at 5am I was seriously so tired I thought I was going to puke. I looked at myself in the mirror with my bloodshot zombie eyes and thought, "Girl, you must be straight up out of your mind if you think you're going to run a half marathon this morning."

And apparently I was straight up out of my mind because I then proceeded to put on my running clothes, lace up my shoes and pack my running bag to head down to Plymouth.

Our babysitter showed up right on time. I went through meticulous detail describing Camden's routine and then handed her the page of instructions I had typed out just in case she forgot anything (I was a little freaked out since this was my first time leaving Cam for longer than 3 hours and I wasn't sure how he was going to do without his favorite milk lady.)

On our drive down I was still super tired and delirious. We talked about our game plans. Taber wanted to beat his time from last year (he ran it in 1:49:28) and I wanted to finish it without injuring myself. I figured I would run a 10 minute pace and probably come in around 2 hours and 10 minutes since my 11 miler the week before was exactly a 10 min pace. I was nervous though because of my lack of sleep.

The nerves continued once we got to the starting line. Basically I got in the port-a-potty line and when I was done I got right back in it. By the time it was my turn I had to go again. I rotated through the line about 3 times before the race started. Taber took a lovely video interview of me doing my nervous pre-race port-a-john ritual which can be seen here.

Finally it was time to go. We took one more little video of ourselves at the starting line, (click here.) and then we were off.

Taber ran the course last year so he prepared me for the hills and told me that the first 6 miles had the worst of them. He said the course was like a roller coaster with lots of ups and downs but virtually no flat running. Knowing what I was up against helped me take it all in stride. I pushed through each hill with steady focus and took advantage of the downhills to pick up speed. My legs felt great and the weather was nice and cool so I decided not to walk through the water stations and just kept pushing ahead. Soon the first 6 miles were behind me along with the worst of the hills.

There was another big climb at mile 10 which almost broke me but I managed to shuffle my way to the top. Then one last hill at mile 11 and I was on the homestretch with just two miles to go. My legs were tired and heavy and the sleepless night was starting to catch up to me but I forced myself to keep moving. I didn't think about anything but putting one foot in front of the other. Left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot, until I was running towards the finish line where Taber was cheering me on.

I crossed the finish line in 2:00:53. 10 minutes faster than I had expected and less than a minute away from my Applefest goal. I was so shocked I involuntarily started crying. I did not expect to react that way at all but I literally couldn't help it. It's just kind of amazing that our bodies can go from barely being able to run one mile 6 months ago to being able to run an entire half marathon.

The race was empowering and it gave me the confidence that maybe I can hit my sub 2 hour goal for Applefest in a few weeks. Also Taber dominated and beat last years time by 3 minutes! He finished in 1:46:30, a new PR for him. Total rockstar.

When we got home we were happy to hear that Cam did awesome with the babysitter (even though he refused to take his bottle, he filled up on rice cereal, sweet potatoes and baby puffs : ) The girls did great too and were so excited to see our medals and hear about the race. Teya snapped this lovely picture of us rocking our race t-shirts.

And then, being the adventure seekers we are, we decided to top off our crazy day by babysitting our friends' 5 kids, (including their 4 month old twins) so they could go on a birthday date. With our kids + theirs we had 8 kids under 8 and 3 of them were babies. If the half marathon didn't wipe us out that sure did! We hit our pillows before 10pm and welcomed our hard earned sleep. ; )

Boys + Google = Cliff Jumping on Labor Day

2011-09-15T17:27:00.001-04:00

On the Sunday before labor day we had the Draschils over for some grilling and backyard marshmallow toasting. The plan was for them to sleepover and then we could wake up and do something fun in the morning.

Well by the time we got all the kids in bed (and apparently that includes Joseph since he disappeared after putting the kids down and Mel found him hours later passed out on the bed) it was pretty late and we still hadn't come up with a plan for Labor day. As it got close to midnight we got the crazy idea to make Melinda call the Marriott and ask if we could swim in their pool. I don't know how she did it but that girl worked her magic and got us the green light to swim at the hotel the next day for free.

So that was that. I went to bed in awe of Melinda's power to get anything she wants and with the plan to swim in a nice clean chlorinated pool in the morning.

Well when we woke up we found Taber and Joseph churning away at their computers and I could tell they had other plans in mind. I asked what they were up to and with big excited eyes they started spouting off about water holes and Horseshoe falls, and google maps, and all kinds of stuff that didn't sound like a chlorinated pool. Turns out they had done a Google search and found some grass roots website for swimming holes in New Hampshire. They found one that was just 30 minutes away with a little waterfall and a 15 foot rock for cliff jumping.

Despite their excitement I was skeptical. How on earth were we going to find this unmarked waterhole with no signs, maps, or roads leading into it? The boys, however, felt confident they could get us there. They had scanned the area with google earth satellites and after they found all the landmarks described on the website, Joseph dropped a pin on his little GPS app and we loaded up the troops in search of Horseshoe falls.

It took a little searching but to their great credit, the boys found the swimming hole and I have to say, it did not disappoint.

There was plenty of slow moving shallow water for the kids to play and float around in.

The babies did good too, lounging in the tent and even taking a few dips in the water.

Taber and Joseph were quite pleased with their googling skills.

And I'll admit, it was fun to see them go from being cute dads taking the girls on a floatie safari to jumping off the rock like teenage boys again. It was the best of both worlds.

And don't think Melinda and I just sat back on baby duty the whole time either. You better believe we were jumping off that rock too cuz that's the way these mama's roll. : )

I made a video to document our awesome braveness. Some bragging rights go to yours truly for being the first to jump and also to little Teya for being brave enough to jump off one of the lower rocks. (She wanted to jump off the big one but I don't think her swimming skills are quite to that level. She's a brave little dare devil.)

Teya's First Day of Kindergarten

2011-09-12T01:10:00.001-04:00

The day after our scary experience with Cam was Teya's first day of kindergarten. I felt pretty torn that morning between staying with Camden in the hospital and seeing Teya off to school on such an important milestone day. I didn't know how it could all work out. Finally I called Taber and suggested he bring Teya to the hospital so I could fix her hair there and take some pictures and then have Taber take her to school.

The nurses heard me talking and when they figured out it was my daughter's first day of kindergarten they insisted I leave to see her off. Cam was the only patient in the pediatric unit that day so he had two nurses all to himself and they assured me he would be in capable hands while I was gone. I knew they were right, and I knew Teya would be very disappointed if I wasn't there, so I called Taber and told him to come and get me.

When I got home I went straight to work getting Teya all ready. She had picked out a pretty pink and white outfit complete with a brand new bow my friend Laura had made to match. I curled her hair and when she looked in the mirror I could tell she felt like a million bucks.

I could not get over how darling and grown up she looked.

When we took her to school she was still beaming. We sent her off with her class and even though I felt a big lump in my throat watching her march through the doors I managed to hold it together with only a few tears escaping before we walked away.

Brinley on the other hand has cried her fair share over Teya's departure to school. She did okay on that first day, maybe because both Taber and I were there and she got to go on a playdate right after. But the next week when we took Teya to school Brinley burst into tears when she realized she couldn't go in with her big sissy. She has really missed her best buddy in the afternoons but luckily Teya's school only lasts 2 1/2 hours so at least they're not separated for long.

Taber took some super cute footage of Teya's first day which was nice since I wasn't there to pick her up after school. I made a little video of us dropping her off and Taber's post kindergarten interview which is pretty adorable. It's fun to hear her little voice explaining all the stuff they did and I love how the first thing she mentions is the rule about holding onto the rail. (This girl loves rules like no other.)

At the end of the video I think it's pretty clear that miss Teya is going to love kindergarten. : )

Friday Foto: Costco Cuties

2011-09-09T16:29:00.001-04:00

My grocery shopping buddies.

Doesn't Cam look cute sitting up like a big boy in there?

Also love how you can totally tell these two are related ; )

p.s. 15 minutes into shopping Cam decided he was done with the cart. He threw his head backwards and arched his back, screaming till I took him out. I had to lug that 20 lb beefcake around the store in one arm while pulling the cart with the other. Thought my arm was going to fall off! Probably won't try the cart thing again till noodle boy gets more comfortable holding his giant head up by himself ; )

The Riggs and the Draschils hit Maine

2011-09-07T17:12:00.000-04:00

Taber has been itching to get up to Maine all summer and we finally got the chance to go a couple weeks ago with our Boston buddies the Draschils.

First on the agenda was a lobster boat tour. This was the 4th time we've done one but it never gets old. : )

The kids were excited that our captain reeled in several keepers or "keepas" as they pronounce it.

(Also I think it's kind of weird that the dude in sunglasses stared down our camera during this picture. If he wanted to be in the pic he could've at least smiled! ; )

Awesome picture of Teya, Brielle and Brinley sitting in front of the pier. I just love their messy hair, Bree's serious face and Brin staring off in the distance. Makes me smile : )

After our lobster tour we hit up a local ice cream stand.

(This girl takes her ice cream very seriously)

Cam was too tired for ice cream but I had to take a pic of those juicy lips : )

The girls also enjoyed hanging out on the dock watching some locals fish.

All of this was at Perkins Cove in Ogunquit, Maine. It is so beautiful and picturesque there, I'm glad we made it up this year before the summer ended.

After our ice cream we loaded up the troops and headed over to the beach.

The kids wasted no time immersing themselves in the sand.

This was the first time we let Camden get in the sand and he thought he was in sandy buffet heaven! He seriously kept shoveling that stuff in his face like it was gourmet dining. I tried to stop him but it was a losing battle.

The girls wanted their legs buried but Taber and Joseph went one step further and buried their whole bodies.

Three little heads in the sand. Adorable.

The Draschil's baby Joslyn is a month older than Cam and has been sitting like a champ for months. Cam has always been a noodle boy and never had much interest in sitting up, but there's nothing like peer pressure from a cute girl to motivate a guy to action.

Look at me Mom!! I'm a big boy!!

(Thank you Joslyn for teaching Cam to sit ; )

Glad we got to enjoy such a beautiful day in Maine and extra glad we got to share it with the Draschils. Friends always make good things even better. : )

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Update*
So after I posted this I realized I forgot to include two of my favorite pics that Melinda took of our beach day with her super fancy DSLR. Definitely want these in the blog book so here they are :

This just makes me laugh. The drool, the sand under his nose, the scrunchy smile. Love that baby.
(Also can you believe those teeth?! )

Me and my little man. I might have to blow this one up and frame it. So sweet.

A Scary Night

2011-09-02T21:51:00.002-04:00

A few days ago we had quite the scare with our little baby Camden.  Wednesday afternoon he woke up from his nap burning up with a fever. I took his temp and it was 103.7. I gave him Tylenol and called my doctor who said to watch him and if it didn't come down to call her. An hour later his temperature was the same. I called back and they told me to bring him in. After a thorough examination the doctor determined it was a virus and told me to wait it out and keep layering Tylenol and Motrin to control the fever.


When I brought him home I gave him some Motrin and put him to bed but he was so hot and uncomfortable he couldn't sleep. I was supposed to go to a Relief Society presidency meeting that evening for church but I had a strong feeling I should stay home with Cam. He was very fussy and irritable but finally went down again around 8pm. He woke up an hour later still fussy and burning up. I gave him some Tylenol and passed him to Taber to soothe him.

Shortly after I handed him to Taber he started vomiting like I've never seen a baby vomit. It was thick and streaming out of his mouth and nose. We brought him upstairs to clean him and give him a bath.

Taber held him and I started to get him undressed. Suddenly his body started to spasm and after two violent jerks my heart froze and I looked at Taber and said, "what was that?"  right then Cam jerked backwards one more time, his eyes rolled back into his head and his body folded over like a rag doll.

Looking back there are probably a million things we could've or should've done different. Most of all I wish we had been able to stay calm, but watching his body go lifeless like that was so horrifying we couldn't help but panic. Taber tried flipping him over and moving him around but he was completely unresponsive. His body was lifeless, his lips started turning blue and we realized he wasn't breathing.  Taber told me to call 9-1-1 and  I frantically dialed it on my cellphone. I just kept thinking, I don't know how to do CPR on a baby.

The dispatcher came on the phone and asked what was happening.

"My baby stopped breathing! " I told her. "please help me, he's not breathing!"

She asked me my name and told me to try to calm down. I ran upstairs and saw Taber trying to suction him with a bulb. I looked at Cam's limp body and his blue lips and saw the fear on Taber's face.

"Get Mary! GO GET MARY!" he said.

Mary is our neighbor across the street who is an RN.  As I ran back downstairs I heard Taber yelling, "Help Me! Help Me!" I started to sob hysterically and began pleading out loud with God. "Please God! Please help my son!"

I ran out into the night in bare feet still clutching the phone with the 9-1-1 dispatcher but was so panicked I couldn't hear what she was saying. I rang Mary's doorbell over and over but she was watching TV and couldn't hear it. The 9-1-1 dispatcher was asking me questions but I couldn't answer coherently. I saw Taber run out of the house with Cam's limp body. His face was turning gray and he still wasn't breathing. I wondered how much time had gone by. How much longer did we have?

"Mary's not home!" I said.

"Get Beth!" he yelled. Beth is our other neighbor who is also an RN. I was about to run to her house when I heard the dispatcher say sternly,

"Becca, I need you to calm down so you can help your son. You need to listen to me and do what I say so we can help him."

"Okay." I sobbed. "What should I do?"

"You need to lay him flat on the ground."

 We were outside and didn't want to lay him on the driveway so we ran in the house and laid him down. Taber still had the bulb and was trying to suction his airways. Every second that passed without a breath was filled with agony. It had been at least 3 minutes since he stopped breathing. I felt like he was slipping away from me and there was nothing I could do about it. I cried and cried, begging for help over and over again, praying someone could fix him.

Taber grabbed the phone from me and put it on speaker. The dispatcher directed him to clear Cam's airways. He tilted his head back and swept his airways. I saw Cam's chest rise and fall. It was the tiniest gulp of air but it was a breath.

"Is he breathing?" The dispatcher asked.

"Yes!" I said. "Yes, I saw him take a breath!"

"I want you to put your head right next to his mouth and every time you feel him take a breath a want you to say, "breath."

I did as she told me and again Cam took a tiny gulp of air.

"Breath!" I said.

 Again his chest rose and fell

"Breath!" I sobbed. "Breath!" Fear and anxiety started to leave my body in heaving sobs.

"You're doing great Becca, just stay calm, you're doing great."

Seeing his breaths relieved some of my anxiety but his body was still limp and his eyes were glazed over. Taber told me to get Beth and he continued to follow instructions from the dispatcher. I ran to Beth's house and rang her doorbell. She was still in her scrubs and when she saw me bawling on her porch she ran right out. "Cam stopped breathing!" I told her. "He's breathing now but he doesn't look good." She ran across the lawn with me back into our house.  At this point I could hear the sirens and a minute after Beth got there a fire truck, police car and ambulance showed up. Paramedics and officers streamed into our house and started tending to Cam. He was awake now and very lethargic but the color was returning to his face and he seemed to be improving with every minute. My neighbors started showing up at the house. Mary came in and I fell into her arms and sobbed and sobbed.

In all that chaos and noise, with Taber and I yelling and the sirens and the house full of people, somehow the girls stayed asleep. I feel like that was a tender blessing because if they had seen me so unhinged and seen Cam the way he was I can only imagine what that would've done to them.

As the paramedics were assessing Camden everyone assured me that he looked much better and told me it was going to be okay. Cam was interacting with the officers and pulling the oxygen mask off his face. Mary said she'd stay with the kids so we could both go to the hospital. I rode in the ambulance and Taber followed behind.

At the ER Cam was still running a high fever so they gave him Tylenol and put him through a battery of tests to try and figure out what was going on. They determined that he had a febrile seizure caused by his high fever and believed he had aspirated some of his vomit which is why he stopped breathing. They thought the fever was caused by a virus, possibly hand foot and mouth disease, but gave him a shot of antibiotics just in case it was bacterial.

Cam was in a miserable state from all the tests and the trauma of the evening but finally around 2:30am he drifted off to sleep.

They admitted us to the hospital to observe him and make sure he didn't have another seizure. In the morning his fever hadn't improved with the medication, so they decided to keep him one more night. He was so sick he slept for 24 hours straight in the hospital, only waking up to nurse every few hours.

I stayed in his room, watching him sleep, watching his heart and lungs on the monitor, not wanting to leave his side. Despite a continued high fever he didn't seize again so after 2 nights in the hospital they let us take him home.

It was an exhausting experience but we had such a great outpouring of love and support from our neighbors, friends from church and Taber's work, as well as many kind messages from concerned friends and family on Facebook. I can't tell you how much those messages lifted our spirits during that scary time. Every time my phone buzzed with another text or voicemail or Facebook alert it was like a little electronic hug to help get us through. : ) We also felt the many prayers that were being offered on Cam's behalf and were so uplifted by the spiritual strength we received. I know Heavenly Father was watching over us and have a testimony of the power of prayer, especially when so many prayers are being said for one person.

This experience has taught me to be grateful for every minute we have with our loved ones. I look at Cam differently now. My heart swells with gratitude for each little laugh, each little cry, each little spit bubble and toothy grin. : ) I'm so happy he's still here with us and know that angels were watching over him on that very scary night.

Getting my Buns Organized!

2011-08-31T10:28:00.004-04:00

Warning: The "before" pictures of my disorganized house contain graphic images of messiness and chaos. Please resist the urge to un-friend me after seeing the condition I let my closets get in this past year. I promise I have reformed my ways!!

Okay, a couple months ago I posted this plea for intervention after my epic disorganization led to an embarrassing forgetful mommy moment that affected Teya at preschool. Thankfully I got some great ideas in the comments of that post and I have been putting them to use over the last few months. Here are some results of my rehabilitation.

You may remember this picture, the table of doom where important papers, bills and mail would get sucked into a black hole and be lost, forgotten or destroyed by the kids.

Goodbye table of doom, hello table of order!

Several people suggested I buy filing trays to sort my mail right when it comes in. Now I grab the mail, immediately throw away the junk, then sort the mail into magazines, correspondence, invites/announcements/events and bills to be paid. I also bought a little mail holder to put my outgoing mail in so I can just grab it when I'm going out and stick it in the mail. Last of all I bought the little organizer drawers to put coupons, gift cards and important receipts in.

Also after forgetting Teya's roll-a-thon pretty much everyone suggested I get a big fat Calendar to put all our family events on. I opted for the dry erase kind and have color coded the events for each person in the family. The little pockets below the calendar are where I put anything with event info on it, so b-day party invitations, letters from school about upcoming events, dr. appt reminder cards, etc... That way when I see an event on the calendar I can just check down in the pockets for additional details. Also I've been using the calendar app on my phone when I'm not near this calendar and it has saved me!

And now I'll address my closets. This is embarrassing, but here we go.

Despite the pictures you are about to see I actually keep a relatively tidy house. (Yeah, sure, Becca, we believe you.) Seriously! But my closets are my weakness. Out of sight out of mind, and since I was pregnant most of last year and then dealing with a new baby for most of this year my closets got seriously neglected. Anyway one day I read this post and I got inspired to just pull out the trash bags and take back my closets! I attacked them with two mantras:

1) A place for everything and everything in it's place

2) If you don't need and and don't use it, Throw it away!

So here's how it went:

Laundry closet before: There is a radio on my dryer. There is also a box of decorations from Teya's 4th b-day party a year and a half ago on the shelf. The pampers box had papers in I haven't' touched since we moved here. There is also a basket of socks that don't have mates but I kept holding on thinking one day they'd magically reappear. Also there is no where to put folded clothes in here.

Laundry closet after: I threw away the papers, threw away the socks without mates then started making a place for everything else. I stored a few things in the basement and put other things where they should go. Now I can actually fold my laundry in here. So much better!

This closet is also in my laundry room/bathroom. I'm sure it's for linens but I use a closet upstairs for that so it's become my paper goods, party dishes, tools, batteries, lightbulbs and random junk storage. problem is, could never find things in here.

Did some more throwing away and place designating and now I can actually see the floor and find stuff I need.

It really helped to put this shoe organizer in here for little things like batteries, lighters, matches, light bulbs etc... A place for everything and everything in it's place!

Coat Closet: Sadly I did not stage this picture.

This is honestly the horrendous state it was in when I came to work on it. This closet has been my nemesis all summer. I never got around to fully de-wintering it so it still had lots of winter gear it it and all our random bags would just get thrown in here on the floor and it was a huge mess. We also keep all our running gear in here but it didn't really fit in those drawers and everything was overflowing.

Brought in some bigger storage drawers for the running gear and all those bags. Also put some baby gear like the snugli and Cam's beach tent in one of the drawers. Filled up a box for goodwill of old shoes that nobody wears that were taking up tons of space. Also put old jackets and winter gear in the good will box. Made a place to hang my purse and put our church bag so it's ready to grab on Sunday mornings. Threw lots of stuff away.

Me and this closet are finally friends again.

(Brinley in the Good Will Box. She was not included in our donation ; )

So embarrassing as it is to post those before pictures, I'm really happy to have my closets back. My main strategy was to put things in one of three categories: trash, donate, or find a it a proper home.

Next up: The kid's closets, my closet and the linen closet. Should go pretty quickly now that I'm on a roll : )

Stuck in the Middle

2011-08-26T10:22:00.000-04:00

Lately I've noticed Brinley kind of struggling with her new role as the middle child. I think it's tough because Teya is doing so many big girl things and starting kindergarten and just has a personality that demands a lot of attention. Cam also gets lots of attention by default since he's the baby and can't do anything by himself. So that leaves Brinley stuck in the middle.

While she enjoys doing big girl things with Teya, I think what she really longs for is to be the baby again.

In fact, I think she's launching an "I'm the baby" campaign by casually taking over Camden's baby items.

It started with the the bumbo seat which is now her go to sitting chair.

She'll even stack it on her Dora chair for a boost.

I also found her in Cam's high chair the other day.

And his car seat

And his exersaucer

She really liked the exersaucer and tries to high jack it whenever he's not around.

She also loves the baby swing and will sit in there for hours

I don't have the heart to tell her to get out or that she's too big for those things.

It's hard being the middle kid, but I hope she knows she'll always be my baby, no matter how big she gets.

From Camping Trails to the Catwalk

2011-08-24T00:04:00.002-04:00

On our last day at Camp Joseph the girls were scheduled to attend their little friend's Barbie Fashion Birthday party. The party was at 3:30pm. We were 2 hours away in Vermont. We figured if we left at 1pm we'd be okay... until we got sidetracked by 24 flavors of soft serve and crispy golden onion rings. That deliciousness put us about 45 minutes behind schedule.

(Mia the birthday girl)

We put the pedal to the metal and made it into Nashua at 3:45. The girls were filthy and still in their camping clothes but we had no time to spare. I quickly rushed them in the house, stripped off their stinky campfire clothes, threw dresses over them, undid Teya's braids, put bows in Brin's hair and hosed them down with perfume.

We arrived at the party at 4pm, only 30 minutes late and just in time for the girls to hit the catwalk.

You never would've known they had just come from a campout.

A lot of Teya's preschool friends were at the party, including her teacher Mrs. H! She was so excited to see her again!

Mia's mommy went all out and every detail was perfect. The kids got to do a little fashion show on the runway and it was pretty darn cute.

Teya striking a pose on the runway

Teya and Brinley with the birthday girl

Eating dinner with an explosion of pink. Pink food baskets, pink trays, pink table cloth, pink cups, pink dinnerware, pink napkins, pink girly heaven. : )

Teya modeling the feather boa, necklace and sunglasses from her goody basket. So stylish.

After dinner, a pinata and b-day cupcakes it was time to go. The girls had a great time and I was proud of myself for getting them there (looking cute no less) on such a crazy timeline. My mommy powers must be getting stronger ; )

Camp Joseph with our FWLLFs!

2011-08-21T21:54:00.001-04:00

You know what's awesome? Going to Camp Joseph up in Sharon Vermont with our friends from church.

We went last year and LOVED it so much we've been looking forward to going again all year.

You know what's extra awesome? Going to camp Joseph with our FWLLFs (friends we love like family) The Draschils, who were once our exceptionally awesome house guests but are now officially Boston residents and will be here for 2 years while Joseph's in grad school! We're so pumped that they're on the East coast and are already planning many future rendezvous between our families. : )

We went up there last weekend and the girls were super excited about their camping braids, their tinkerbell headlamps (modeled by Teya) and the GIANT marshmallows (clutched tightly under Brinley's arm) that we brought for roasting.

When we got there we realized that after 6 hours of packing half our household for this trip, we had somehow forgotten to pack matches! Taber bravely snagged a burning stick from someone else's fire pit to try and get ours going but transferring it proved a little dangerous. Luckily our neighbors had an extra lighter and loaned it to us for the weekend.

With the fire burning the S'more fest could begin. Pretty sure I ate enough of those babies to hit the double digits. Definitely a highlight of the weekend for me.

We opted for a cabin instead of a tent this year since I'm not brave enough to sleep in a tent with a 7 month old.

Even in the cabin with his pack and play Cam struggled the first night. He was cutting yet another tooth and it kept him up all night. Luckily the 2nd night was TONS better. He only woke up once and slept in till 8.

He was a very popular attraction amongst all the kids. Who can resist a camping baby?

The kids ran themselves ragged, playing, exploring, swimming, catching frogs, lizards, caterpillars and all sorts of fun creatures.

The grown ups had fun too playing hard at the waterfront (see post below), frisbee, volleyball, and laughing and talking around the fire late into the night. We also had a talent show but I totally FAILED and didn't take any pictures! (So unlike me). I blame it on the fact that both Taber and I were dancing and I couldn't find my music and got a little flustered before it all started.

Anyway, forget to take pics but here's one of Taber practicing the day before. He did the hoop, which he hasn't done in years but still totally rocked it, I danced a hula to Palehua, the girls sang original compositions, and we even convinced Joseph to do one of his hilarious pantomime scenes with Melinda. It was tons of fun and they decided to make it a Camp Joseph tradition because everyone liked it so much.

Here's a little 15 second clip Taber took of my hula so you can kind of get an idea of the atmosphere.

After two days I think Taber was seriously ready to move our family out into the wilderness and live off the land. I really think it's his dream to either live in a cabin or an igloo. While that probably won't happen any time soon (or ever, sorry babe) We'll always be big fans of camping, especially at the beautiful, fun and very awesome, Camp Joseph.

Wet and Wild on the Waterfront

2011-08-21T21:00:00.000-04:00

One of our favorite parts of Camp Joseph, if not the favorite part, is being on the waterfront.

There's a great little pond up at camp named the "Waters of Mormon" where the kids swam, rode the raft and caught lots of frogs and salamanders.

There's also a river just a 5 minute drive from camp with a sandy beach where the kids played for hours without getting bored.

Melinda brought her awesome DSLR camera and took some of these adorable pics by the river. Totally made me want a camera like that but I burn through so many camera's that I'm a little hesitant to make the investment.

Still totally glad she brought hers and captured some of these shots. Love this one of my drool baby.

Also LOVE this one of Taber and Brinley digging together in the sand. They both just make me smile.

The little kids had so much fun splashing around and making mud pies.

And the big kids had fun getting crazy on the rope swing across the river.

I really wanted to get some pics so I attempted to cross the river with my camera hoping it wouldn't get wet. (um yeah, stunts like that are probably why I burn through so many cameras.) Anyway, It was tricky because the river got a kind of deep and had a decent current. I stumbled around and almost gave up, but after a precarious pass off to Joseph, I managed to get the camera across and now have these awesome pics and even a video to highlight the awesomenss of grown ups gone wild on the rope swing : )

Future Drama Queens?

2011-08-15T16:12:00.001-04:00

Back in the day, like WAY back in the high school day, I was a drama geek.

I tried out for every play and didn't care if I was an extra or the lead, I just liked being on stage and performing. I was in Annie, The Wizard of Oz, My Fair Lady, The Secret Garden, The Music Man, Hamlet, Two Gentlemen of Verona and a handful of other plays we put on at my school.

Call me a nerd but I totally loved the theater and I swear my drama skills made me be a better teacher when I got my first job teaching Spanish. Teenagers want to be entertained ALL the time so keeping their attention required a little dramatic flare, and you better believe I tapped into my "skillz."

I think as a parent you secretly want your kids to love all the things you loved when you were growing up, so when I saw that the theater in Manchester was putting on a summer series of 45 minute condensed musicals for kids, I jumped on the opportunity to expose my girls to a little bit of theater : )

The first play we saw was Beauty and the Beast. It was really good despite Gaston being slightly less masculine than I remember. The girls loved it though and were thrilled when they got to take pictures with the cast after the show.

The highlight was meeting Belle of course.

And I don't think Teya minded the prince too much either ; )

The next week we went they did The Wizard of Oz. It was awesome because we had just taken the girls to the Wizard of Oz exhibit at the Boston Children's museum so they were way into this one. It also brought back good memories of my munchkin days when I was in that play : )

The favorite hands down though was Ariel the Little Mermaid.

The girls could not wait to see Ariel on stage and got all dolled up in their best Mermaid attire for the event.

The play was awesome and they did a great job with the scenery and some really fun "special effects" for the Under the Sea number.

Afterwards they actually went through the cast line TWICE to make sure they got all the mermaid pics their little hearts desired.

I think prince Eric borrowed Gaston's wig. They really should retire that thing.

Not sure if these plays convinced them to follow in their mama's theatrical footsteps, but I do know they had a great time and loved seeing some of their favorite princesses come to life on stage. : )

Updates!!

2011-08-08T00:12:00.001-04:00

Been on a little blogging hiatus with all the craziness of summer going on. Things are settling down a little so I finally put up some updates and hopefully I can catch up on my blog reading over the next few days!

you can scroll down for 3 new posts on our trip to Denver, Taber's nephew's wedding, and traveling with our little man. : )

Weekend in Denver

2011-08-08T00:09:00.001-04:00

Last weekend we trekked across the courtly for a massive Rigg gathering to celebrate Taber's nephew getting married. We really wanted to be there to see all of our relatives and especially to spend time with Taber's Dad who has had a rough last few months between chemo and his broken ribs. We left the girls back in NH with some really good friends and brought Cam along to show him off to all the Rigg clan that hadn't met him yet.

It's been a month since the horseback riding accident and Papa Rigg was up and about and looking really good despite all that he's been through. Cam was happy to get some good snuggles in with his Grandpa.

Taber's brother Brett and his wife CJ flew in from Arizona and brought their youngest son, Rockwell, who is just 3 months older than Cam. It was fun to see the two little Rigg boys together. (please excuse Cam for showing off his "abs" in this pic. Sometimes he gets a little cocky ; )

Brett was a total blondie when he was a baby so Rockewell looks like a mini Brett and Cam is a mini Taber (with his mama's Asian eyes ; )

I have a feeling these two are going to grow up to be the best of buds : )

While the boys were bonding, my Rigg sisters and I went off for some pedicure pampering. Doesn't get much better than pedi's with the girls!

That night the rest of the Rigg relatives starting coming in from Utah and California and Alaska. We all met up for some Mexican food and had a great time catching up.

It's a long and often pricey trip to get out West but always worth it once we're with all the fam. Love my Rigg family so much and couldn't ask to be part of cooler group of people : )

Eric and Ashley's wedding

2011-08-08T00:08:00.001-04:00

The reason for the great Rigg gathering was to see handsome Eric Rigg marry his lovely bride, Ashley. They were married in the Denver Temple and it was a beautiful ceremony. Eric was just a cute little 12 year old kid when Taber and I got married so it's definitely a trip to see him all grown up and married himself! Time definitely flies!

We took a ton of pics (of course, because we're Taber and Becca) but here are few of my favs from the wedding day. Again, it was just so nice to be there with all the family. The Riggs are seriously the funnest people to be around and really know how to have a good time : )

The happy newlyweds coming out of the temple

Taber and his gorgeous mama

Me and Papa Rigg

Cam meeting some of his gorgeous cousins, the Walton girls and Stephanie Rigg

Stephanie married our nephew Devin last year and I finally got to meet her for the first time in person! She is as cute and sweet in real life as she is in all her pictures : )

Taber, Regan, Brett and the littlest Rigg boys

This was the first time that Regan met Cam and I think it was mutual love at first sight : )

Family family family!

After the temple we had a nice lunch back at the hotel, took a fat nap and then headed over to the reception. I get a little sentimental at weddings and definitely shed a few tears watching the couple take their first dance, listening to the toast from the best man and watching Ashley dance with her Dad. It gave me the realization that someday that will be Teya dancing in a white dress with her Daddy and I know I'll be a blubbering bawl baby when that happens!!

I took a break from the festivities to help the groomsmen decorate the car.

One more trip to the chocolate fountain and then we sent the happy couple on their way and wrapped up the evening.

Congrats Eric and Ashley! Married life rules!

Good little travel baby

2011-08-08T00:08:00.000-04:00

My friend recently posted about flying with her child and said something to the effect of, "if your kid is good on the plane, everyone instantly thinks you're the most amazing parent."

And I would have to add that if your kid is bad on the plane, everyone thinks you're a lousy parent who probably needs a nanny 911 intervention.

I have been on both sides of the coin.

Bad parent: Teya screaming her head off on a red eye flight back from Alaska for 45 minutes while everyone around us was trying (unsuccessfully) to sleep.

Good parent: Cam sleeping like a little angel between our seats on one of our flights back from Denver. When he woke up people saw him and said things like, "Wow! He did so good! What a good baby, I didn't even hear him!"

They smiled and gave us the, "you're such good parents" look. And we accepted, because you gotta take it when you can get it!

He actually did do exceptionally well for the LONG days of travel with multiple flights and layovers. It also helped that we could tag team baby duty and when I got tired of holding and rocking Taber could take over.

There were a couple delays and some pretty long flights but we're proud of our little guy for finding his sweet spot and dozing off so people thought we were total rockstar parents in the traveling department. Thanks for making us look good little man.

Left Behind

2011-07-28T10:48:00.001-04:00

I've moved enough to know how painful it is to leave behind wonderful friends.

This month I've also learned how painful it is to be left behind.

4 of my dearest friends are moving away and I've been surprised by how many times I've spontaneously burst into tears knowing they're leaving.

Last night I said goodbye to my dear sweet Becca. She was the first person I met when we moved here and quickly became like a sister to me. We trained for a half marathon together, went on beach trips, saw Wicked in Boston, watched each others kids, had game nights, date nights, temple nights and just a lot of fun together. She taught what it means to be a good friend, serve others with joy and compassion, teach my children with patience and love and always speak kindly of others. She has a zest for life that is absolutely contagious and I will miss her more than she knows.

I also said goodbye to another dear friend, Suzanne who moved last week. I'll never forget how on my first Sunday here she offered to watch my kids so we could unpack and get settled in. I was touched that she didn't even know me but was eager and willing to serve. I soon found that Suzanne and I shared a love for parties, girl's nights out, karaoke, Lost, and the Biggest Loser. She was my visiting teaching companion and someone I could always call at a minutes notice to help with my kids. The day I saw the moving truck in front of her house I sat in my car and cried. I'm glad she'll only be 2 hours away in Connecticut because I WILL be visiting her whether she likes it or not ; )

My good friend Amanda moved last week as well. We had them over for one last dinner before they began their long trek out to Utah and it was so sad saying goodbye. I was Amanda's visiting teacher and our girls were in the same primary class together at church. Amanda was so fun and easy to talk to, our visits sometimes lasted close to 3 hours because we couldn't stop gabbing! She was always so willing to help out with my girls and never made me feel like it was a burden. Love that girl and will miss her a lot!

Laura D is also moving but thankfully she's still here for another month. Like Suzanne and Becca, Laura is one of the first people who reached out to me when we moved here. She invited us over to dinner after our first Sunday at church and we became fast friends. We ran a half marathon together, she helped me decorate my first fondant cake, we've done countless babysitting swaps and she is the best hairdresser you could ask for. One time she came to babysit so we could do a Valentines date and she brought us chocolate dipped strawberries just because she's awesome like that. She also came and made us sushi and tempura on New year's eve when I was 9 month's prego with Cam and didn't feel like going out anywhere. I will miss her spontaneous free spirit and easy going personality.

Before they left I organized a final girls night out at Angela's pizza to say goodbye . Amanda couldn't make it but we had a good turnout and enjoyed lots of chatting, laughing and of course, eating good food.

Girls Night Out

Me and my Becca Boo

This is my "I'm mad at you guys for leaving me" Face.

I will miss these amazing, wonderful and awesome ladies. I will try to be brave and not cry every time I pass their empty houses. It's tough being left behind but I'm happy for them and know they will do great things and be a huge blessing to everyone who meets them.