The family that runs together, has fun together : )

At least that's what we told ourselves last Thursday night when we took the kids to the high school track to get a little workout in. Well mostly Taber was there to get a work out in. I gamely dressed in my running clothes "just in case" I had a moment to run. The truth is my running efforts have been pretty minimal lately so I wasn't expecting anything spectacular but it never hurts to be prepared.The kids were so super excited to be at the track. I probably should've dressed them in more appropriate running clothes but at least Teya wore her "running shoes" and was itching to run the minute those little feet touched the track. Taber did some warm up laps with her and man she was cruising! Here's a little video of her in action. In my unbiased opinion, the kid has a future in running. ; )

Brinley and I were not quite up to speed with Taber and Teya. We still had fun watching those two and we got some good walking and even short bursts of toddler paced jogging in.

Taber was the real champ though doing fast 400's to build up his speed. He was burning up the track with 1:24 second laps (like a 5:30 pace). I was impressed.

During his cool down laps he'd take little victory jogs with Teya. I think she really thought she was at some big race because she was eating it all up!

As it was getting dark Taber handed over the watch and told me to try a lap. I jogged one to warm up and then I put on the watch and ran as fast as I could, which sadly wasn't very fast. My lap was 1:57, which is just under an 8 minute pace but I definitely couldn't have kept that going for a whole mile. After it was done I realized I hadn't documented my presence on this family outing so I pretended to run fast and Taber took this awesome action shot of me. Don't know what's up with that expression on my face but at least my presence was documented and you know what I look like when I'm fake fast running : )

Friday Foto: Poor doggy!

With two pink crazed dress-up queens in the house it was only a matter of time before they got to the dog.

Poor guy, at least he was sweet enough to let me take his picture.

Teya's first talk

Teya gave her first talk in primary last week. I wasn't sure how it would go because in our practice session she was really distracted and had a hard time putting it all together. Once she was in front of all her friends though she just lit up and did a great job. She spoke up loud and clear and was very animated. I was so proud of her and happy that Taber and I could be there to watch.

Here it is re-inacted (mainly for the grandparents). She gets off to a slow start (thanks in part to miss Brinley) and isn't quite as animated without all her friends there to watch, but it still gives you the idea. I also included an out take of our first attempt to record her talk that was REALLY interrupted by little Brin. Funny stuff.

Switching out of Mommy Mode

It happened a couple weeks ago when we were in Maine with Taber's mom. I was in early pregnancy survival mode, going through the motions of each day but still feeling nauseous, tired and blah-ish. Everything we did wore me out and this night was no exception. After a long day with the kids we finally made it back to our hotel around 9 o'clock and got the girls settled in bed. I couldn't wait to go to sleep, 9:30 was pushing it for my first trimester bedtime. I washed my face, took out my contacts and was brushing me teeth getting ready to go night night when Taber walked in with a devious little smile on his face.

"I just got back from the lobby and they're doing Karaoke down there!"

"cool." I said and kept brushing my teeth.

"We should go, you LOVE karaoke!"

"yeah, 22 year old me who didn't have 2 kids and wasn't pregnant LOVED karaoke. Old me is tired. Goodnight."

"Okay, but I'm just saying, my mom is here with the kids, when do we ever get the chance to go out and do something crazy like this?" And then he went in the bathroom and closed the door leaving that thought for me to chew on.

I stared at my tired washed out face in the mirror, "You're going to be 30 this year." My subconscious reminded me. "Better live up your 20's while you still can."

"Fine." I thought, and started putting my contacts back in. When Taber came out of the bathroom he was surprised to see I had already re-applied my make-up and was ready to "carpe diem" or (carpe noche, whatever.)

We got into the lounge bar area where the Karaoke was going on and I had my doubts. Small crowd, slow country-ish songs, looked a little boring to me. Still, my contacts were in and my makeup was fresh so I grabbed the song book and started looking for something to sing. I settled on "Ironic" by Alanis Morrissette because It just felt right to embrace the 90's at that moment.

When the music came on and I started to sing, something happened. It was like the music shut down my tired mommy mode and unleashed my inner diva! I sang my little heart out and the more I sang the more energized I felt. I honestly couldn't remember the last time I felt that good, that late at night. When I got done I snatched up the song book ready to go at it again. While I waited my turn I cheered on the other singers like they were my old friends. I stood up and danced with the 4 dudes who sang YMCA, and you better believe Taber and I pulled out our old country moves when someone sang "Save a horse, Ride a Cowboy." It was a riot!! Singing and dancing and cheering and laughing! I sang a few more songs and Taber and I sang "Lean on Me" together and we were just having ourselves a good old time.

It seemed like we became buddies with everyone in the room and before I knew it it was almost midnight. I picked one final song, "Any Man of Man" by Shania Twain and I gotta say, it was a crowd pleaser! The whole room was singing along and I was belting it out at the top of my lungs. That was the golden moment of the night for me. I'm a lot of different things at any given moment, but right then I wasn't the mommy, or the pregnant girl or the teacher or the housekeeper, I was just fun loving, carefree, un-inhibited Becca, and it felt good to be me. : )

Kudos and smiles and "great jobs!" followed my performance and then Taber and I said our goodbyes and called it a night. (best to leave on a high note ; ) As we walked back to our room I was still riding the high of our exciting evening. I kept saying, "that was SO fun! Wasn't that fun? Man that was fun." Taber smiled and squeezed my hand in agreement. When we finally got settled in bed we still whispered for another half hour plotting out an epic karaoke party for my 30th birthday bash. (yeah it's still 4 months away but you can never be too prepared...) At last I fell asleep with dreams of me 7 months pregnant in a fabulous black sequined dress and a sparkly birthday crown, Karaoke-ing like a true diva with all my friends. I was so glad I put my contacts back in and accepted Taber's spontaneous invitation for fun that night. If I hadn't I might not have remembered that even though I mostly run in mommy mode these days, old Becca still has plenty of feisty kick left in her ; )

Brinley's Birthday Celebrations

Here at the Rigg household we tend to stretch birthdays out as long as we can. Why have a birth-DAY when you could have a birth-WEEK right? That's what I'm saying! Last week Brinley turned two and we definitely stretched out the celebrations with our little munchkin.

TUESDAY: Grandma Karen was still in town so we did a little pre-birthday celebration with a cake and some presents from Grammy.

FRIDAY: Brinley's actual birthday, Taber and I took the girls to Friendly's for a birthday dinner. The waiters came out and sang the Birthday song for Brinley and presented her with her very own b-day ice-cream treat. (Teya got one too because sometimes it's hard being the "un-birthday girl ; )

SATURDAY: We took our little b-day girl up to Manchester to hit Chuck E Cheese. The girls went wild on all the toddler rides and Taber and I even got in a few games of hoops.

Brinley tearing up the toddler rides.

SUNDAY: Was Brinley's "family" party. If we lived in Utah we would've invited all our family over for a birthday dinner and cake after church. All the grandmas, grandpas, aunties, uncles and cousins would've been there. Luckily for us, even though we don't live by our real family, we've been taken in by a wonderful adopted family that feels pretty darn close to home. It was wonderful to have our house full of "grandmas, grandpas, aunties, uncles and cousins" who all love Brinley very much and were excited to be there to celebrate her birthday.

Taber grilled up some AMAZING ribs and we had hot dogs, hamburgers and bratz to go with. Everyone else brought yummy sides and it was really quite the feast.

Then it was cake time! I decided just to do a good old Costco cake because there's no way I wanted to turn my oven on in this awful heat! I don't think Brinley minded : )

The highlight of the night for me was when everyone gathered around to sing happy birthday. Hearing the rich sound of so many voices just made it feel like home. Having such a great support group of friends really takes the sting out of living so far from our families.

Here's a clip of that moment. I love watching Brinley's face after she blows out the candles. It's kind of like, "wow! I really did it!"

Eating her cake. I think she put that entire piece away!

The rest of the night was filled with presents, chatting and children running around wild until 10 o'clock. Brinley partied so hard that she slept in till 11am the next day! I think that's a good indicator that her Birth-Week was a success. : )

The Ultimate Day Trip

Last week when Mama Rigg was here, Taber had a day off so we decided to head down to Boston to do a little harbor cruise and maybe see a few sites. What started out as a little half day excursion turned into the marathon of all day trips. Everyone had a blast though and the girls did AMAZING considering the fact that we were in Boston for 10 hours straight with no naps. Here's the rundown of our day of play : )

First stop was the Boston Harbor to take a little cruise that would drop us off at the U.S.S constitution for a little site seeing.

The harbor was beautiful and the girls loved being on the top level of our ship looking out over the ocean.

It was hot day, but once we started going the wind was blowing on us and the girls really got into the boat ride experience.

Teya spotted hundreds of jellyfish and was pretty thrilled by the boat ride.

They dropped us off at the Navy ship yard where there are several battleships and the famous U.S.S. Constitution which is the oldest Naval ship afloat in the world! It was commissioned by George Washington and saw action during the battle of 1812. Pretty impressive.

We had to wait awhile for the official tour of the ship but it was worth it. They took us through all three levels and we got to hear some really cool stories and history.

It was hot on the boat though and the girls were starting to fade so as soon as we got off we grabbed some blue slushies and frozen lemonade. The girls cooled off quickly and were very proud to show everyone who would look their pretty blue tongues.

After touring around the ship yard we caught another boat back to Boston harbor. We grabbed some cute Boston T-shirts and hats for everyone and at that point this tired pregnant mama was ready to go! We'd already been out in the sun for 4 hours and I figured the kids must be exhausted too. But then we walked by some street drummers and they started dancing which didn't make them look very tired at all. You have to check out their moves in this video. Random strangers were stopping to take video of Brinley's little hip shaking action. It was pretty darn cute.

Boston Boogie from Rigg Family on Vimeo.

After their dance break the girls had a second wind and Taber and his mom were still going strong so I sucked it up and we headed over to the aquarium.

Of course they loved it, and I got to rest a little while I saved seats for us to watch the seal show.

Didn't get any pics of the seals but here's Teya with a seal statue. Close enough : )

The only way to exit the aquarium is through the gift shop and somehow on our way out these two charmers managed to convince Grandma to buy them each their own fluffy pink penguin. I had to take a pic of my little tourists. Pink Boston hats, Pink Boston shirts, and Pink Penguins from the Boston aquarium. Doesn't get much cuter than that : )

The day wasn't over yet though! While we were already down by the harbor we figured we might as well stop and have some great seafood. I thought the girls would crash but they held it together at the restaurant and the waitress actually said they were the best behaved kids she'd seen there in over a week.

Finally at 8 o'clock, 10 hours after we had left home that morning, we got back in the car and headed back to Nashua. Less than 2 minutes into the drive both girls were completely unconscious. I never would've expected to do all we did in one day with a 2 year old and a 4 year old but these girls did amazing. They definitely earned those puffy pink penguins : )

Happy Birthday Brinley Grace!

Today my little Brin Brin is 2 years old. As I was looking through old pictures I couldn't help but smile at her infectious little personality that has been nothing but pure joy since the day she was born. As a baby she was easy going, quick to smile, and always willing to give out loves and cuddles.

As she transitioned into toddlerhood her smile just got bigger and she was like a little ray of sunshine everywhere she went.

At two years old she is still a fun loving happy little soul. She's gotten sassier of course, comes with the 2 year old territory. Her favorite sentence that she sternly declares at least 100 times a days is, "I do it myself okay!?"

Still, independent sassy streak and all, we are so blessed to have this darling girl in our lives. Happy Birthday Brinley Grace! We're so happy you are part of our family : )

A Little Something I've Been Working On...

I've been working on this for about 12 weeks now and it won't be done until January 19th, but I thought I'd post on how it's going so far because even though it's still in the beginning phases, it's taken A LOT of energy to get to this point! We're calling it Baby #3 for now, but if Teya has her way it will be called Tykey if it's a boy, and Cutie if it's a girl : )

Teya's been really cute about this whole pregnancy thing. We weren't going to tell her until I really started showing but I've been so sick and tired that she was starting to wonder what was going on. Finally about 2 weeks ago she said, "MOM! You're tummy is always sick and you're NOT getting better! I care for you, Daddy cares for you, and you're STILL not getting better. Have you been eating too much candy?"

I had a good laugh from that and then decided it was time to let her know what was going on. Once we explained the whole thing and showed her pictures of a baby growing inside a mommy's tummy she was 100% on board. Now she's constantly making sure I'm getting enough rest and taking care of baby. If I'm eating something she's not sure about she'll say, "Mom, is that good for the baby?" She's also extremely excited to tell anyone and everyone she meets that her "Mom is sick but that's because there's a baby in her tummy and she's PREGNICK!" So yeah, once you tell your 4 year old the word is out! : )

Here's my belly at 12 weeks. Mostly just looks like I've been eating too much but won't be long before I'm round as a basketball : )

Last Minute Get-a-way

On Friday morning, not long after Taber had left for work, he called me out of the blue said, "What do you think about heading up to Maine this afternoon?" I had my doubts about finding a place to stay last minute on a holiday weekend, but I got online and was able to find a great little hotel so we decided to pack up our stuff and go for it!

We went back to Ogunquit where we spent our Memorial Day weekend because we loved it so much and wanted Taber's mom to get to see it. Our first stop was Perkins Cove where we grabbed a tasty lobster dinner with a view right on the coast.

After dinner we spent the evening walking around the shops and harbor at Perkins Cove.

This is one of my favorite pictures of the evening. Can you tell she adores her Daddy?

I also love this picture not only because it's the girls with their Grammy but their faces just crack me up. Teya's with her super scrunchy smile and Brinley with that space cadet look.

Here's a little view of the cove. It's so picturesque and quaint. We really love it there.

And of course we had to finish our stroll with ice cream cones. Loving the girls' vanilla beards!

The next morning we woke up and headed to the beach. It was perfect beach weather, warm and sunny.

We did our usual routine. Splashing in the waves, digging in the sand, finding seashells, and taking breaks for food.

We even got brave this time and actually put our heads under water and tried swimming. The water was 56 degrees so it was quite the shock going under but once we were used to it it was great!

Teya and Brinley loved being out in the "deep" part with us.

And as you can tell from her huge smile, Brinley also loved getting launched into the air by Daddy.

When the girls were done with the water we all worked together to make our biggest sand castle yet. I thought it turned out to be pretty awesome. : )

Finally it was time to say goodbye. We packed up our beach stuff, changed our clothes and loaded everyone into the car. The girls were pretty worn out but we made one final stop on our way out to see the nubble light house.

I think the girls were done taking pictures at this point, but you get the idea : )

Thank you Maine for another beautiful weekend! We will most definitely be back again : )