Snow and Sledding

When we bought our tickets to go to Arizona for Christmas I didn't really think we would need all of our snow gear. Good thing we brought it anyway! We've been staying at a cabin up in Flagstaff and are surrounded by several feet of snow. It's been perfect for the kids and they've had a blast playing in it. Here are some fun pics from our sledding excursion the other day.

Brinley didn't actually sled down any hills but she looked so stinking cute all bundled up.


If you look to the right of me you can see tiny people down on the pond that our sledding hill led to. It was so fun because once you hit the ice you would just slide and slide.

Top left: Aunt CJ and cousin Landon piggy back sledding. Top right: Snow bunny Brinley with Grandma and Grandpa Rigg. Bottom left: Teya telling her cousin Landon that eating snow is "dis-stusting!" Bottom right: Teya is the king of the snow hill!

Teya still struggles when it comes to putting on her warm gear (as in weeping and wailing when we try to put it on her) but once she's in it she loves being out in the snow. She made snow angels, threw snowballs at daddy, and loved sledding down the big hill.

Here's a cute video of Taber pulling us to the hill and then going down with Teya. You can see how pretty the scenery is here and it's cute to hear Teya scream when she gets going on the hill.


Sledding in Flagstaff from Taber Rigg on Vimeo.

Christmas 2008

On Christmas morning Brinley was the first of all the children to see the spoils that Santa left under the tree. With 14 people coming together for Christmas including Grandparents who love to help Santa out, the present volume was pretty intense!

Teya was happy to finally get her beloved Dinosaur from Santa. She actually ended up with 3 dino's thanks to her awesome Aunt and Uncle. When I asked her what her favorite present was though she told me it was her soft stuffed leopard that Santa put in her stocking. I guess cute and cuddly won out over green and scaley after all : )

Even though Brinley is still quite small she seemed to enjoy her first Christmas. She loved the wrapping paper and managed to stay awake for the first 30 minutes of present opening. After that she passed out but Teya was happy to lend a hand and open the rest of her presents.

It was a great morning and so much fun to see the magic of Christmas come alive in our children and nieces and nephews. We feel very blessed to have been able to spend it with so much family and hope that this Christmas will stay in Teya's memory for a long time.

Christmas Eve Highlights

The best part about Christmas is being together with family. This year we were able to fly down to Arizona to be with Taber's parents, grandma, and brother and sister. Here are some of the highlights from Christmas eve:

1) Seeing the girls with their Grandparents. Teya, who is normally pretty stingy with her affection climbed right up on Papa Rigg's lap and snuggled into his shoulder while she watched a movie. I think he felt pretty honored since a lot of the time she won't even do that to her own mother!

2) Making sugar cookies with her cousins and aunt CJ. When her auntie poured flower on the table and told them it was "snow" Teya was so excited! She hardly touched the cookie dough but spent the whole time sifting through and playing with her snow.

3) Seeing all the kids do the nativity scene. This year Brinley played baby Jesus and I must say she was the happiest baby Jesus I have ever seen. She literally laughed through the entire reading of Luke II. Meanwhile none of the kids needed any prompting to go see the baby. They were hanging over her manger in complete adoration, no acting required.

4) Reading the Polar Express with Grandma Karen: Teya enjoyed the story but was even more impressed with the silver bells Grandma passed out to all the kids.

5) Introducing Brinley to her Aunties and Uncles who had never met her before. So far I have rarely seen Brinley anywhere but in the arms of all her relatives who are so happy they finally got to meet her. What a lucky little baby!

6) Seeing Teya play school with her Great Grandma Louise. Grandma is going to be 80 this year but she still gets right down there with the kids to color and play with them.

7) Seeing all the Rigg boys together. It's always good to see Taber getting in some good bonding time with his Dad and brother.

8) And finally, only having to wrap 1 present after the kids went to bed! After staying up all night wrapping in the past, I'm glad we were on top of it this year!

7 Happy Years

When I was 15 I wrote in my journal a list of all the things I wanted in a future husband. My teenager self inlcuded such important details as 1) must play guitar, 2)be athletic 3)make me laugh and 4) be good looking. Well lucky lucky me, not only did I marry an amazing man who is responsible, hard working, intelligent, honest, devoted, and good with children, he also happens to play guitar, is athletic, always makes me laugh, oh yeah, and gets an A++ in the good looks department! Happy Anniversary babe! Enjoy a walk down memory lane!

Nov 2001, engaged and counting down the days to be Mrs. Rigg

December 21, 2001: Married in the Timpanogos Temple to my true love

Dec 2001, Honeymooners in Hawaii

June 2002, 6 month Anniversary

September 2002: We both made Living Legends perfoming group at BYU

April 2003: Graduation at BYU

October 2003: At a High school football game at Becca's first job teaching High school

June 2004: Meeting for lunch near Taber's work in California

Nov 2005: Thanksgiving in Colorado (Pregnant with Teya)

March 2006: Welcoming our first daughter Teya Ku'ualoha

April 2006: Taber graduates from Business school

Oct 2007: Living in Tennessee with toddler Teya

July 2008: Welcoming our second daughter Brinley Grace

September 2008: Living in Minnesota with Teya and baby Brinley

November 2008: Family of Four

December 2008: After 7 years, still a perfect match : )

Bring on the Cold!

" There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes"

-Guy at the warm gear store

-10 degrees? -24 with wind chill? Bring it on Minnesota! Bring it on!!

I married the biggest Loser!

At a time of year when a lot of people are gaining weight, Taber has been losing it. A couple months ago he joined the biggest loser challenge at work in hopes to maybe lose 10 lbs or so. Since I've been working on losing my baby weight I gave him a few tips to follow that first week like drinking more water, cutting out soda, watching his portions, etc... He just followed those simple things and threw in a little exercise and in the first week he had lost 3 lbs.

Motivated by the loss he really dug in and started tracking what he ate and working out more consistently and in 8 weeks he lost 24 pounds and won the $300 prize money from work. Three weeks later, even without the competition at work, he continues to eat healthy and exercise and is maintaining his weight loss. I'm very proud of him and motivated by his discipline and healthy life changes. Here are some before and after pics.

Before and After side by side

More After pics. Lookin' Good babe!

Snow and Santa

Teya can't get enough of the snow. Whenever we go somewhere, before she gets in the car she has to stop and make footprints. When we're driving in the car she stares dreamily out the window at the snow covered landscape and says things like, " I just can't wait for more snow. Snow makes me happy. I love the snow." After learning about seasons in preschool she has also started saying. "Winter is my favorite season. I love the winter. I don't want it to be spring, I want winter." I guess I'm glad she feels that way since we live in a state where she's guaranteed a LONG winter! : )

The girls also got to see Santa this weekend at our Christmas party at church. Brinley was pretty neutral about the experience. She didn't cry but she wasn't her smily self either. Teya was excited though. I told her to speak loud because it was noisy so when it was her turn she sat on his lap and in a loud voice proclaimed, " I want a DINOSAUR!" I think he got the message : )

I also had to throw in this bonus picture of Brinley staring at the camera string. Not only is her face priceless but I had to show that her eyes are turning kind of green! Who would've thought since Taber, Teya and I all have brown eyes!

She's on a roll!

Yesterday Brinley turned 5 months old and also mastered her newest trick, rolling over. I put a little video to show you the progression of her roll. For the longest time she'd roll half way and then get her arm pinned underneath her and couldn't pull it out. Then you'll see in the clip, one day she just figured it out and now there's no stopping her! Every time I put her down on her back it's only a matter of seconds before she has popped back up on her belly.

And here's a short little clip of her laughing. Her giggles are the best!

It's begining to look a lot like Christmas!

The great thing about living in Minnesota is that all the snow gives me such a happy white Christmas feeling. Yes, it is FREEZING! (It was 5 degrees the other night) but when it's cold outside it's that much more motivating to make it cozy inside. : )

As part of the cozy Christmas preparations we put up our tree last week. Everybody helped, even Brinley, although she couldn't do much except watch us and look cute. Still, she did a darn good job of looking cute. : )

When we went to go pick out ornaments for the tree I asked Teya if she wanted teddy bears or fairies or princesses. This is what she picked out instead.

I guess that should come as no surprise from a girl who asks me everyday if Santa is going to bring her a dinosaur. I try to suggest other things she might enjoy from Santa like a doll or a pony or some pretty dress ups. Nope, all she wants is a dinosaur. (and for me to draw pictures of dinosaurs so Santa will know what she's talking about)


At least she let me put her in a pretty red Christmas dress. As long as she'll indulge me in a few frilly dresses and bows she can have her cars and dinosaurs. : ) The face she's making in the first picture is her new "smile for the camera" face. The second one is her "stop taking pictures of me" face.


Besides the snow we've definitely had other things this week to help us gear up for the holidays. On Saturday night we went to a work party for Taber. They had lots of great food and even had a little station for the kids to build gingerbread houses.

Here's Teya with her masterpiece gingerbread house. I also had to put in a picture of Brinley and her fancy little jacket that she inherited from her cousin Brooklyn. I almost couldn't get the sleeves over her chubby arms but it was worth the squeeze the see her looking so stylish : )

Then today we went to a Creche display put on by our church where they had literally hundreds of different nativity scenes from all over the world displayed for people to walk through and enjoy.

Here are some of my favorites. I had to include the Native American and Japanese ones (top left and right) since that is part of my heritage. But I also threw in the penguin and the Eskimo displays because Taber, being from Alaska, has mistakenly been assumed to be an Eskimo who lives with Penguins. : ) (You can click on the collage to enlarge it and see them better)

So week one of December already has me excited for Christmas! You've got to love a holiday that you can celebrate the whole month long!