Rigg's annual Halloween Costume Party: Chicago Edition

Back in October we held our 4th annual Halloween costume party for the first time in Chicago. 

We had a good turnout and the costumes were all so fun ! Hope you enjoy the pictures!

 As the host and hostess, Taber and I dressed up as Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) and Wilson (the volleyball) from the movie castaway. I had a blast making the costumes and loved the way baby bump got to be part of the ensemble too :) 

Here are all the other costumes:

Doomsday preppers, a Samoan royal couple, 

Elvis and hippie, Fear the beard Red Sox player and she devil. 

 Little Red Riding Hood and the Big bad wolf dressed as grandma, 80's couple

Lady bug and Gentlemen bug, Muldoon and the Velociraptor from Jurassic Park. 

Native American Couple, Robin Hood and Maid Marion

Justin Timberlake and Brittany Spears, Renaissance couple.

And the costume prize winners were:

4th place: Mary Poppins and Burt

3rd Place: Lion Tamer and Lion

Tied for 2nd Place: Piñata and Piñata breaker

 Tied for 2nd place: Gru, Agnes, and Fluffy Unicorn from Despicable Me

1st place: Fake Taber and Becca. 

(Thomas is bald and doesn't have facial hair so seeing him get all Tabered out was hilarious! Also Jolene's fake pregnant belly, black wig and hawaiian garb was awesome! Love these guys so much!)

We had a fun time eating, socializing and playing some warm up games. 

then it was on to Minute to Win It. 

 this year we played Suck it Up

 Stack Attack

Separation Anxiety

 Nervous Nelly (laughed my guts out during this one!)

 Hanky Panky

 Rapid Fire

 Junk in your Trunk

 And Face the Cookie, which was won by Gru, giant fake nose and all!

 then it was time for prizes. I put together some fun themed prize baskets this year and they seemed to be a big hit. 

 We took pics of the winners with their prizes and then it was time to go. 

Another awesome Halloween party down in the books. Hoping to make it even better next year!

The Best Apple Pie Muffins Ever Recipe

So I made these today and had to share because they are AWESOME!! and sharing is the right thing to do.

I would normally just link you to the recipe I found, but all the reviewers who gave it a 5 star rating had made several significant changes, and if you don't read the reviews, you won't know what changes to make. So I'm just going to make it easier for everyone and post the recipe WITH the changes that make it the best apple pie muffin recipe ever.

Ingredients:

Topping: ( I doubled what's written here because I love sugar like that ;)

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup oats
1/4 cup butter (softened)
1 tsp cinnamon

Muffins:
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/3 cup applesauce
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 cup buttermilk
2 cups firm tart apples, peeled and grated

Directions:

Topping: In a small bowl mix together sugar, flour, oats, butter and cinnamon until crumbly. Set aside.

Muffins: In a large bowl whisk together brown sugar, applesauce, oil, egg and vanilla until smooth

In a separate bowl, sift together flour, soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Stir wet mixture with flour mixture alternating with the buttermilk.

fold in apples, mixing just until combined

spoon into greased muffin cups filling 3/4 full.

sprinkle topping over evenly.

Bake at 350 F for 25-30 minutes until golden brown and tops spring back.

My whole family loved these, even Cam the picky eater devoured 2 in like 5 minutes. Recipe made 24 muffins for us. happy baking!

October Phone Pics

Daddy's work party 10-5-13

At the beginning of October Taber's work hosted a little festival for employees and their families. 

 The girls loved getting their faces painted and jumping in the giant pumpkin bounce house

 Cam loved the hayride and thought it was the best thing ever sitting right behind the driver and the horsies!

 Yeah for Daddy and his fun work parties!

General Conference 10/6/13

 A highlight of October is always General Conference. We love listening to the prophet and apostles and having church at home in our jammies :)

We also love conference snuggles!

Weekend in Michigan 10/12/13

One of Taber's associate HR managers was getting married in Michigan an hour from where our besties the Hogges live, so we decided to make a weekend trip of it and use the wedding as a good excuse to visit our friends. 

Almost all of Taber's HR team made the drive out to support Allison and Dan.

It was fun to get dressed up and enjoy all the fanciness of a wedding. 

Allison was a beautiful bride and the wedding was gorgeous. 

 The highlight though was seeing the Hogges. 

Teya and Aspen were born on the same day, and Brinley and Rowan are just a year apart. 

So fun seeing these girls play together. 

 Also so fun seeing the kids interact with Taber's best friend Nate. They love him like an uncle. 

The kids had a blast paddling around on Grandma and Grandpa Hogge's lake in their back yard.

Cam liked it too but he was a little disappointed to be on Mommy and Daddy's boat and not on the "all kids" boat. 

One last shot of the Hogge and Rigg kids. Love these guys like family!

Other October Randoms…

Every few months we get to help clean the church, our whole family gets to help out, even little Cam man. (he's a vacuuming pro!)

Grandma Karen sent out a Halloween care package with fairy costumes for the girls. 

They were pretty excited :)

Taber taught Teya how to shoot hoops. She's actually pretty good for a small fry.

Look at that follow through in the wrist!

Nothing cuter than a ballerina baller :)

The kids also had crazy hair day in October (and apparently crazy face day too for Teya)

They were proud of their "crazy dos" but next year they want me to include multi colored hairspray.

And that's the phone pic wrap up for October. Still to come, Halloween play dates, Costume party, and pumping carving. Stay tuned...

Kayaking and the Nauvoo Pageant: August 2013

Back in August our friends, the McLane's, invited us to go Kayaking with them on a Saturday. The night before we were supposed to go they called and said they were still going kayaking but they also decided last minute to go see the Nauvoo pageant since that night was going to be it's last performance. They invited us to tag along so we said SURE!

The next day we got up early and headed over to a local lake for some kayaking

The kids had a blast playing in the water and fishing. 

Then we loaded up our cars, grabbed some lunch, and headed out on the 4 hour drive to Nauvoo, IL!

We got there about an hour before the pageant started so we got to visit the Nauvoo temple and take some pictures. It was so beautiful!

 Cute Cammer in front of the Joseph and Hyrum Smith statue

The Riggs and the McLanes in front of the temple

 And one more view of the temple because it's so pretty :)

From the temple we walked down to the pageant area where they were having a big pioneer pre-show celebration with folk dancing, tug of war, stick pulling, sack races, and all kinds of fun activities. We also got to meet some of the cast members which was really cool! The McLanes invited their friend Frederick, who was visiting the USA for the first time from Uganda. This was his first introduction to the LDS church and it's history and he was so impressed by the pageant and the atmosphere that he later said it was one of the biggest highlights of his whole trip to the US. 

The pageant was incredible. Wonderful music, singing and dancing with the beautiful story of the early Saints in Nauvoo woven through it. 

It was especially neat to have the Nauvoo temple as a backdrop. The girls were enthralled with the show but since it started pretty late and went way past Cam's nap time he struggled to make it through. Luckily we had the iPhones to keep him entertained. :)

Since we decided to go at the last minute there weren't any hotels available, so we stayed in a boy scout "lodge" which was more of a rustic cabin with hard bunk beds. There was a bunk room for each family and a room with a twin bed for Frederick. It was definitely an adventurous setting but the kids were so tired that they hit the pillow and were out for the night. 

Outside view of the "lodge"

The next morning we went to church in Nauvoo. There were hundreds and hundreds of people there because of all the tourists and cast members so the church was packed! It was fast and testimony meeting and even though there was a massive congregation of hundreds of people we didn't know, Teya decided she needed to bear her testimony. So she made the long walk from the back of the cultural hall all the way up to the pulpit, by herself, and bore the sweetest little testimony. Frederick loved church so much he wanted to stay for all three meetings. By the end of the 3 hour block he had his own Book of Mormon and was excited to contact the missionaries and visit the church when he returned to Uganda. 

After church we did a little site seeing around Nauvoo.

We took the kids to the family living center where they got to see what life was like for the pioneers back in the 1800's.

They got to make rope, sample homemade bread, see how rugs were woven and play on pioneer toys. 

They also got to sample gingerbread cookies at the bakery which were delicious!

After that we said goodbye to Frederick and the McLanes and headed off to visit Carthage Jail where the prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were martyred.

We got to Carthage and caught the last tour of the day. It was a sobering experience to see the window where the prophet fell after being shot. Being there filled me with an even greater sense of love and gratitude for the life and work of Joseph Smith and the incredible sacrifices made by him and the early saints. It was such a neat trip and worth the last minute scrambling to make it happen!