A Visit from Grandma Karen

Last week Grandma Karen flew in from Colorado for a quick visit over the 4th of July weekend.

The girls were pretty excited to wake up and see their Grandma at the table with brand new coloring books.

Since it was a sunny day we decided to brave the holiday traffic and go to the beach. It took us 2 hours instead of the usual 1. Totally worth it : )

 The girls showed Grandma all the best ways to dig in the sand.

 And Koa enjoyed his new upgraded beach tent. 

(side note, little chub chub has lots of names but lately we've been calling him Koa, short for his middle name Kekoa, and it's kind of starting to stick. Anyway, just in case you were wondering who the heck Koa is, now you know : )

I took a similar picture to this last year. Brinley's a little bigger but still loves being tossed up by daddy.

This picture just makes me smile. Kids + beach = happiness

3 Generations

A lot of people think Karen is my Mom when they meet her.

 I think I could pass for her daughter ; ) 

Sand Mermaids

Warming up in the beach chairs.

It was the perfect day with Grandma and I'm so grateful we had that time together. 

Sadly her trip was cut short when we came home from the beach and found that Taber's Dad had been in a serious horseback riding accident that left him in the hospital with 6 broken ribs. It was really scary and Mama Karen made arrangements to be on the next available flight to be with him.

Before she left she gave the girls each their own special book and sat down and read with them. They are so lucky to have such a special Grandma.

Papa Rigg is out of the hospital now and at home recovering. The ribs will take awhile to heal but we're just glad Mama Karen was able to get back there and be by his side during a tough time.  

Even though her visit was short, we were able to make fun memories and enjoyed every last minute she was here. We love you Grandma Karen! Thanks for coming to see us!

Today I feel like a champion

Is that Becca, the marathon mama, gracing the front of a Wheaties box?
Oh yes, yes it is.  

(There are definite perks to having your husband work for a cereal company ; )

 Today Teya said, "Wow mom, I can't believe you're on that box."

Breakfast of champions baby, and today I feel like a champ : )

Why you ask?

This is why. Here is my work out Calendar for June.  It shows that for the first time EVER in my life, I worked out every single day (except Sundays) for an entire month.  It was hard and inconvenient and a challenge to find the time.  There were many days I had dig deep for the will power to get it done. But I made a commitment that I was going to do it and I did. That's what champions do right? So I'm riding a little high right now and wanted to share it with the world (or at least the small population of the world that reads this blog ; ) I may not be in marathon shape or even all the way back to my pre-baby weight, but my clothes are fitting better, I have tons of energy, and my kids think their mom is the star of the Wheaties box. Gotta feel pretty good about that ; )

The latest and the greatest...(in phone pictures)

Here are some of the latest happenings as captured by our camera phones.

Monty trying to be cute like the baby. Poor jealous little doggy.

Saturday morning pancake breakfast at Applebees to support our neighbor's soccer team.

I decided to forego showering and putting on make-up so I'd have more time to gorge myself on pancakes. Totally worked.

My friend Laura made this lunch for my girls.  It was so cute I had to take a picture.

She also gave me a much needed hair cut. 

I'm growing it out again but at least she gave it some shape and style while it's in the awkward phase.

Someday it will be long and luscious again like little miss pantene hair. Seriously, the girl has amazing hair for a 5 year old.

Brinsie all dressed up for her friends princess birthday party. 

 She gets to have her first friend birthday party in less than 2 weeks and I'm in my party planning zone right now. It's going to be good...

Cam has been hanging out with some of his baby buddies but he always seems to make them cry when I try and take a picture.  

Maybe they're just overwhelmed by his animal magnetism and oozing charisma ; )

Last weekend the girls got invited to a bounce house birthday party.

A Justin Bieber bounce house birthday party.

I was The girls were pretty excited about it. I mean really, who doesn't get a little Bieber fever now and then?

And I threw this in because you can really never have too many cute baby pictures. Cam is the stud of the universe and my favorite 5 month old in the world. 

And that is the latest and greatest from our phones. : )

Bedfellows

A mother's bed is never her own. (Well, at least this mother's bed)

Lately I've been sharing it quite a bit with these two hooligans.

Cam has stopped sleeping through the night thanks to those darling teeth that have been coming through. So he ends up in there to comfort nurse.

And ever since Brinley potty trained she wakes up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night and then crawls into bed with us. I'm usually too tired to protest so she'll sleep in there till Cam gets up and then it's just one big bed party.

Oh and the fuzz ball in the top left corner has also staked out his own plot of territory. 

Makes for a pretty full bed sometimes. 

I'm sure when they're all grown up I won't look back and wish I had kicked them out though. 

Being pushed to the edge is worth it when I get to have such adorable little bedfellows : )

Father's Day Weekend

For Father's day we wanted Taber to be the king of the weekend, so we did the things "King Taber" loves best. Mainly BBQ, Grilling, playing with his kiddos, running and food.

We kicked it off with a trip to the the Rockin' Rib Fest on Friday night where we sampled the finest BBQ'd ribs in all of New Hampshire. If you know my husband and his obsession for BBQ sauce you would understand that Rib Fest to Taber is like Disneyland for kids. He was truly in his happiest place on earth : )

I didn't mind the ribs either, Taber has really started to wear off on me : )

Cam's 2 little chompers aren't quite ready for ribs but I'm sure he'll be drenching his meat in BBQ sauce like his Dad as soon as he's able.

The girls loved the Ribfest and wore themselves out on all the bounce houses.

Then we indulged in some homemade birthday cake ice cream with buttercream frosting swirls. Best ice cream ever.

Happy Daddy and his 3 little Rigglets.

We couldn't go home without a bag of kettle corn the size of a child.  Definitely another successful year at the Rockin' Rib Fest.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Saturday started with a 10 mile long run for the Tabster and a 6 miler for me. 

Then he spent the morning swimming with the kiddos and jumping on the tramp.

The kids thought it was quite the treat to play outside with Daddy

Cam was out there too (Don't want him to look back at these books when he's older and wonder where he was during all the fun ; )

Unfortunately mommy was not out there enjoying the fun. I guess I caught Teya's raging fever from last week and it kept me sidelined for the rest of the weekend.

I had big plans to pamper king Taber on Father's day but he was the one pampering me in my sickened pathetic state. 

And that is why he has totally earned cool Dad (and husband) status.

I did drag myself out of bed to make him German pancakes but then I crawled back in while he took the kids to church and I took a 3 hour nap.

After my nap I was feeling much better and I helped him get some good man food together to grill up for dinner.

Steak tips, corn on the cob, red potatoes and asparagus all fired up on the grill.

Despite my inconvenient illness it was a great weekend and I feel very lucky and grateful that my kids have such an awesome Daddy and for my wonderful Father and Father-in-law too! 

Baby's first solids

Our little guy had his first taste of rice cereal this week. 

From his initial reaction, I think it's going to be an acquired taste.

Here's how it went down.

 Alright! They're finally going to give me big people food! Now we're talking!

 Whoa, what? This stuff is gross.

 Like seriously gross!

 Like I think I'm going to hurl gross.

Haha! Well that was fun, but let's not do it again any time soon okay?