Rigg's Annual Halloween Party 2012

When Taber found out that his company wanted him to start work on October 15th in West Chicago, the first thing I thought was, "I guess we're going to have to do our Halloween party early this year!" 

So that is just what we did. Friday the 12th we hosted our bash, and the following Monday Taber started work in Chicago. We've got our priorities. :)

This year Taber finally gave into my begging and agreed to go as Jasmine and Aladdin! Isn't he perfect? He could totally get a job at Disneyland in that outfit... ;)

Here are some of the fun costumes that night:

Punk Rockers,  Chef and a cute witch.

George and Martha Washington, NICU nurse.

Replacement Refs, Desi and Lucy

S'mores, Cowboy Sheriffs.

Wayne & Garth from Wayne's World, Business Casual & Day of the Dead (winner of scariest costume) 

Mucinex Booger and Mother Nature, Fancy Lady and Mr. Magoo.

King and Queen, Legos, 

The Good Fairy and Pinocchio, American Gothic

We also had a few great minds thinking alike. We had the California Edition of Where's Waldo, and the 25th Anniversary Edition of Where's Waldo. They all looked pretty fabulous :)

And now for the costume contest winners. 

This year we did it a little different and instead of having 1st, 2nd and 3rd, we had specific titles to vote for. 

Most Creative Costume went to:

Kendall and Kenta who came as Punk N' Pi 

(you can't see it but on the back Kenta wrote out the whole number figure for pi. True math geek dedication ;)

Funniest Costume went to:

Joseph and Kemper who came as Heman and Shera in HOMEMADE costumes. (Kemper even sewed Joseph his own little fur loin cloth) Everyone was dying laughing. So so awesome!

Host's Choice for Best Costume went to: 

Kaddiz and Stephen who came as a Beekeeper and his Queen Bee. 

Kaddiz handmade their costumes, including the painstaking process of dying 50 little fuzz balls, cutting out tiny wings, and gluing them together to make the bees on her beehive and on Stephen's mask. Amazing!!

And the winners of the BEST COSTUME, voted in by a landslide were...

Gary and Susan who came as Bert and Mary Poppins. (I knew they were going to win when they spontaneously started singing, "It's a jolly holiday with Mary." Too perfect. 

This year, with all the moving preparations I didn't have time to pull together my usual minute to win it games, so we played Family Feud instead. 

I just used an app I bought on my iPad and hooked it up to our TV. Worked out great!

We played girls against boys. The girls put in a good effort...

 But the boys dominated.

After the games, we ate, chatted, ate some more, and just enjoyed the evening with our wonderful New Hampshire friends. 

 Great party, great night, and glad we were able to continue one my favorite Halloween traditions :)

Applefest half marathon 2012: One last hurrah! 10-6-2012

2 weeks before Taber started work in West Chicago he decided to run the applefest half marathon one last time before saying goodbye to New England. (I would've joined him but 2 surgeries in 4 weeks kind of took running off the table for me... I'm finally starting to work it back into my routine again, slowly but surely :)

 The night before the race we had our traditional pasta feed with other friends who were running. Since spectating can be pretty challenging I decided to carbo load with the runners too :)

 On race day we loaded up the kids and drove Daddy to the starting line. The girls wished him luck and promised to cheer really loud when they saw him. 

The gun went off and we all gave Daddy high fives as he passed by the starting line.

 Then we headed over to mile two for another cheer stop. We got to spectate the race with Thomas and Abby whose mommy and daddy were both running.

 Cam loved clapping for all the runners

 Daddy passed mile 2 looking strong! The girls were ready with cheers and high fives to pump him up. 

 After mile 2 we didn't plan on seeing him again till the finish line, so to kill time, Teresa (who was watching Thomas and Abby) and I took the kids to Dunkin Donuts and then found a park where they could play.

When it started getting close to Taber's projected finish time we loaded the wagon and headed back to the finish line. By this point the kids were spent so we had to bust out the iPad for back up.

 Luckily it kept them all VERY entertained while we waited :)

 Cute Thomas and Brinley cheering on the runners.

 Before we knew it Taber was coming down the home stretch, on track to set a new PR on the very challenging and hilly applefest course. 

 With about 100 yards to go he stopped by the curb and grabbed the girls to finish the race with him. They ran their little hearts out and I snapped this picture as Daddy and his girls finished strong. 

Proud of Taber for running a great race, for setting a new PR on that course, and for showing the girls that the best finish is when we finish together.  

Pumpkin Patch 10-5-2012

The first weekend in October we took the kids to a pumpkin patch

 The weather was so beautiful and warm that the kids were in short sleeves and shorts! Rare for a NH October!

 Besides picking out some lovely pumpkins the kids had fun exploring the farm and stopping for photo ops. 

 Cam loved the pretty flowers.

The most precious pumpkin of all. 

September Highlights 2012

September was a busy crazy month

 I got to go to Connecticut with some of my friends to speak at a multi-stake youth conference. Afterwards we hit up one the most yum-a-licious burger joints I have ever experienced. Great conference, great food, great company :)

I had surgery

Twice

But it was worth it because I totally scored a Rolo McFlurry, AND got out of housework and diaper changing for a week :) Also just found out last week that all my pathology reports from the 2nd surgery were clear!!! Happy Day!

Our little bug-a-boo was diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder. It's been so wonderful to connect with other mom's who have kids on the spectrum and learn about all the incredible resources out there for our children. Cam has been doing therapy 3 times a week and is doing amazing! He's learned so many signs, he's pointing to things, responding to his name, and working hard to make new sounds. Proud of our sweet little guy.

My awesome mama flew out to watch the kids so Taber could interview and we could go house hunting in West Chicago

The kids were in heaven with grandma here

They didn't want her to go

She's just too much fun!

 While Grandma was in NH, Taber and I were in Illinois. We got to hang out a little with my nieces and my sister Naomi! YEAH!! but mostly we were house hunting.

And after 4 days of fast and furious hunting, and 3 days of intense negotiating, we got a house!! Anyone traveling through Chicago is always welcome to stay!

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS:

We camped out in backyard for Labor Day weekend

We spent Labor day at our favorite beach in Maine

Teya started FIRST grade!

 Cam and Brinley high jacked Teya's Barbie Jeep while she was at school (several times) to go cruising. It's Cam's new favorite way to travel.

Teya learned to do a flip on the trampoline. It's terrifying because It looks like she's going to break her neck every time, but she sure is proud of herself. 

 And Cam found a new way to express himself without destroying my walls. Sidewalk chalk :)

So that was September, and now, I am almost caught up on my blog :)

Teya's first day of first grade!

Little miss Teya started first grade this year. 

 She was dressed as cute as a button on her first day. Taber went into work a little later so he could be there for the big event. Poor girl had both of her parents in full paparazzi mode. She was a good sport to put up with us :)

 Sweet little thing

When we got to school she found her best friend Mia.

 For the 3rd year in a row they got assigned to the same class!

It was a tough transition at first from half day kindergarten to full day school. The whole eating lunch at school thing was hard, being away from Brinley all day was hard, and the first bus ride was so traumatic that every time I even mention the word bus I swear she starts to cry. Knowing we'd have to pull her out and start her in a new school in Chicago anyway, I decided if she didn't want to take the bus, we weren't going to make her. 

After that first rough week she is now doing great. She loves her teacher, loves doing homework, and is a champ at all her spelling tests. Hope she does as well at her new school as she's done here. Proud of my big girl first grader!

One last trip to Maine: Labor Day 2012

On Labor day we decided to take one last trip to Maine, because we can never really get enough of Maine, it's our favorite. :)

We started with some beach combing in Perkins Cove

 The girls found lots of shells and shiny rocks for the buckets. Cam founds lots of shells and shiny rocks to put in his mouth. ;)

 We grabbed some ice cream and toured the cove, then headed over to Oqunquit beach.

Kisses for Mommy? please? (he's not having any of that)

 He'd rather be splashing in tide puddles. 

 Daddy will give me kisses though :) 

Love him

 My handsome beach boys

It was really a perfect day

That ended with a delicious Maine seafood dinner. Happy bellies = happy babies :)