Martha's Vineyard Part 1: While Taber was working...

Last week we packed up the fam for 5 days and joined Taber on a business trip to Martha's Vineyard.

Since I'm pretty sure my family has no idea where that is, here is a map for you guys. : ) Martha's Vineyard is an island off of Cape Cod a few hours south of Boston.

On the first 3 days of our trip Taber was working from 8-5, so the kids and I went off on our own little adventures while he took care of business.

On the first day I loaded Cam in the Snugli and herded the children a half a mile from our resort to the beach. Brinley was excited.

It was WINDY! so so windy! But Cam was protected by his blankey and slept soundly the whole time.

The girls weren't fazed by the wind or the freezing water temps either. They hiked up their pants and went straight for the water.

They ran in and out of the water squealing like little guinea pigs.

And speaking of pigs, on the second day we headed to a nearby farm and saw some cute little baby ones. Once again it was windy windy but the girls were troopers.

I was feeling exceptionally brave one day and took all 3 of them downtown for some lunch and shopping. We got a lot of stares and heard, "Oh wow, you sure have your hands full." more than once. ; )

They were actually pretty well behaved at the restaurant but kids have a higher volume level and like to pretend their straws are walrus tusks, so we still got funny stares.

When we weren't at the beach or galavanting around town we explored the property where we were staying. It was really beautiful and there was lots of room for the kids to run free and wild.

Cutie pies by the duck pond

I loved having a break from home and not having to worry about anything but playing with my kids for a few days. It was also great that all of Taber's meetings were at the resort where we were staying so during his breaks he could come visit us. After his meetings were done we stayed 2 extra days and that's when the fun really picked up. Stay tuned for more...

Kicking off Running Season

Taber kicked off the running season 2 weekends ago with the Alton big lake half marathon up by lake Winnipesauke. We booked a hotel up in the white mountains area and decided to make a fun little trip out of it.

Taber ran with his friend Rob, so Rob's wife Darby and I sent the boys to the starting line early in the morning and then came down with the kids about an hour after the race started. We actually saw Taber and Rob running around mile 6 as we were driving to the finish line. They were looking strong and awesome.

While we waited they had a "Kids Zone" set up at the finish line with coloring, toys, leis, and cowbells.

The kids stayed thoroughly entertained.

Well except for Cam who has a tendency to sleep through all our adventures. Sweet little nugget.

When the runners started coming in we headed to our spots on the street. William and Brinley blew bubbles at the runners.

Teya and Maddy rang the heck out of their cowbells and cheered with all their might.

Soon Taber's bright green shirt came flying down the street. 13.1 miles and the guy was still smiling!

He finished in 1:50:54, which is a 8:28 min/mile pace. Hello speedy Gonzalas! He felt great about it, especially since the course was incredibly challenging and hilly. (worse than Applefest for my friends and family who know that course)

Rob finished just a few minutes after Taber and they got some dang awesome medals. (not gonna lie, totally had some serious medal envy!)

The food at the finish line was awesome. They had the usual chocolate milk, bananas, bagels, etc.. But they also had pizza, homemade ice cream and birthday cake! Heck yeah!

Cam woke up when he smelled the birthday cake.

After the half marathoners were finished they had a 1K for the kids. Teya was SO pumped about this race. As it got closer she informed us she needed to stretch.

Brinley said she was going to stetch too. Guess this is how she stretches.

We lined the kids up and gave them a talk about pacing and not worrying about winning but just having fun and all that good stuff. Brinley wanted me to run with her so I lined up too for my 1K workout of the day : )

They had their own police escort motorcade. It was pretty awesome.

The race benefited the make a wish foundation, so all the kids ran holding star wands with wishes written on them by terminally ill children. It was really touching to see. Teya ran the whole way and we were so proud of her.

Brinley came in dead last but she was such a trooper and so stinking cute running her little heart out.

They got medals, water bottles, and suckers at the finish line.

After our busy morning we went back to the hotel where Teya crashed HARD! She never naps but she was out cold for several hours.

Brinley and Taber relaxed with some pool time. Luckily I coaxed Teya out of her slumber to enjoy the pool for a bit, if she missed it she would've been devastated.

I'm proud of all my little runners and excited for running season since I can actually participate in it this year! On the deck we have several 5K's, a half marathon, and a full marathon for Taber in October. Let the running fun begin!

Cinco de Mayo con los Riggs

My kids are 1/8th Mexican so you better believe we were celebrando our Mexican heritage on el Cinco de Mayo.

I busted out the old Spanish teaching decorations with a few new ones to keep it fresh.

Brinley saw the decorations and said, "It's my birfday party!" Teya said, "Why are we having a Mexican party if we're not even Mexican?" And I said, "you are part Mexican." She was pretty shocked. Guess we need to start having more fiestas : )

Mi latin lover, (aka el Guapo) came home with some fajitas, quesadillas and burritos from our favorite Mexican joint, La Carreta.

We chowed down with some festive merengue music in the background and ended the party with some latin dancing.

yum! yum! yum! Delicioso!

Fireside Talk

Thank you to everyone who shared insights and quotes for my talk on Sunday. It all came together very nicely and several people told me that the message was just what they needed to hear. So thank you again to those who emailed, left comments on Facebook, or commented on here. (even though blogger was on the fritz and erased your comments, I still got them in my email : ) Your thoughts helped me frame it all up and it was nice to have so many great perspectives.

Several people have asked for a copy of my talk so I put my notes together with a copy of my slides and made a link to it below. The slide images are low quality so if you want to see them more clearly, once you click the link, you can go to the file button on the left side and click "download original" to get a higher quality file. Also I should warn you that the talk is pretty long (probably takes at least 10-12 minutes to read), so yeah, just a heads up ; )

Here's the link, hope you enjoy it! Daughters of a Heavenly King

Need your suggestions/stories and thoughts

Dear friends, family and anyone who reads this blog:

I need your help! I'm speaking at a stake Relief Society fireside on Sunday and need some ideas on the topic of self esteem and loving ourselves. I have a pretty good outline but would love to add some stories of people's personal experiences or insights on learning to love yourself and feeling confident about who you are.

Here are a few questions you might think about:

-What experiences in your life have helped you overcome self doubt and feel special, beautiful, loved or valuable?
-When you feel negative thoughts about yourself creeping in, is there anything you do or say to chase those thoughts away?
-how do you avoid self esteem pitfalls such as comparing yourself to other people?
- who is the most beautiful woman you know and what makes her beautiful?

Any comments or stories would be much appreciated! Thanks everyone!

A Day in the life of a stay at home mom part 3: This day still isn't over?

And now I present the final installment of a day in the life of a stay at home mom: This has been a fun little exercise and helped me realize that even though I may not always have tangible evidence to prove it, I'm a pretty productive and busy little bee. I encourage anyone who reads this to try it out, it's kind of fun to see all the things you can cram into a day.

By 6:30 I'm pretty pooped but thankfully evenings are aided by the equally tired by still incredibly hands on Dadio. Major major props to all the single mom's out there (or mom's whose husbands aren't around to help in the evenings.) You women are amazing to handle days AND nights on your own!

Taber comes in and I pass off the chub so I can finish dinner

Breakfast for dinner. We eat pretty gourmet around here ; )

Omelets for the grown ups

Pancakes for the kids.

Nice how the little savages completely ingore their silverware and eat with their hands. Like I said, some days you choose your battles.

Brinley dissapears from the Table then comes back with pink marker all over her. "Mom! Dis marker writed on me!" Naughty little marker.

I wipe her arm then take Cam upstairs to feed him.

Come back down to find this

Daddy/daughter wrestle time. Highlight of their day.

Cam is only slightly amused. And I am rocking the frazzled ponytail look. I swear I DID shower today, but the hair can only take so much before it succumbs to the ponytail.

Airplane!!

Me too Daddy!

Girls are having fun so I decide they can skip their baths while I bathe Cam.

Sweet naked little baby

All clean and ready for night night. 1 down, 2 to go!

Brush out the sugar bugs

Teya too.

Bedtime story with Daddy. Song, prayer, lights out. Phew!

"MOM! I want a bottle!" arg! We're trying to wean her but I've never been strong when it comes to weaning. I cave, here you go Brinsie.

FINALLY the kids are down (8:40ish) Taber changes and heads down to the basement to get his run in.

I look at the mess in the kitchen and think about cleaning it.

But eat a snackie instead. Greek yogurt, my new love.

And then I indulge in some blog surfing. If I stall long enough maybe Taber will finish his run and I won't have to clean the kitchen by myself.

What do you know? My plan works perfectly and Taber finishes just as I'm finishing reading my blogs. We clean the kitchen together. Go teamwork!

It's 10:40pm, but I take some time to work on the talk I'm giving on Mother's day in church. Taber helps me brainstorm some ideas, We get a good outline going.

It's creeping up on midnight. We're just about to hit the sack when this little guy wakes up and he ain't happy

Maybe it's gas. Pump those little legs! He toots, but keeps crying. He sounds a little congested.

Suck out the nose. He definitely doesn't like that.

How bout the mirror? That does the trick. Now he's happy. Feed him, change him, put him back to bed.

Past midnight now. Technically a new day. Mommy is tired, Daddy is tired. Doggy is tired. Hopefully we'll get a few hours of sleep before we have to do it all over again. No wonder all I wanted for Mother's day was a nap : )