Settling In...

When we woke up the day after our arrival, Taber had to go to work (poor guy) while Kevin, Becca and I held down the fort. We mostly just relaxed and played with the kids until Taber got home.

The girls did TONS of art projects, including some gingerbread houses, and pretty much kept themselves entertained the whole day!

Although, I did take the opportunity to spin the girls in the office chair for awhile... and then watch them try to run away :) Hehehe!

When Taber came home be was surprised by a new blog book from Becca. He, in turn, surprised her with some beautiful roses. (It was their 10th anniversary.)

Then Kevin and I volunteered to babysit so they could go on an anniversary date. It was sooo much fun hanging out with our nieces and nephew. This trip was our first time meeting Cam so we were just eating it up!

And I think Becca and Taber had a pretty good day as well :) Happy Anniversary guys. Glad you made it another AWESOME year!

New Hampshire or Bust!

On December 20th, the girls and I cleaned up the house, packed our bags, picked Kevin up from work, hopped in a taxi to the airport, and then began our evening flight to New Hampshire to spend Christmas with my sister Becca and her incredible family!

It took a little tag teaming to keep the girls entertained and quiet, but things actually went pretty smoothly. At the airport, Kevin took turns watching the girls and feeding them food from McDonald's whilst I took one girl at a time and ran them up and down the halls to wear them out for the flight.

On the plane we were well equipped with stuffed animals, coloring supplies, and Dora the Explorer! The girls did great, which meant mom and dad were still sane when we arrived in NH at midnight.



And lucky for us, we were greeted with an enthusiastic Becca who set the tone for the rest of our fun-filled vacation!

When we got to the house we were met with wet kisses supplied by Monty-the ever-licking-dog and lots of hugs from Taber... and eventually Teya, Brinley and Cam! Yes, we woke up the whole house, stayed up till 2 in the morning, and then hunkered down to await our early morning wake up call from all the excited little kiddos and 7 days of partying Rigg style!

To be continued...

A New Christmas Break Tradition?

Perhaps! Personally, I LOVED the beard, but I don't know if Kevin can handle the irritation again. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted :)

Christmas Preparations

The Christmas season keeps everyone busy! Here is a little of what we did to get ready for the holidays:

We went through all of our clothes and toys and took the things we didn't use any more to donation boxes around town so other little kids could enjoy them...

Brooklyn worked hard designing our Christmas card so I could send it out...

Then I spent a lot of time making presents for everyone on the Christmas list. I didn't manage to get pictures of everything, but this is the gist of it...

As Christmas got closer, we decorated our house from top to bottom...

And then we packed our bags and flew out to New Hampshire to spend Christmas with my sister Becca and her family! More to come on that later.

Scary Moments in Motherhood...

A couple weeks ago my entire family got Croup. For the most part it was just an annoyance, but after a little while Lily started to get a little worse off then the rest of us. Then, a couple days into it, I went to get her up from her nap and was handed a major surprise.

She was really emotional so I put her on the couch and went to turn some Dora on to help her feel better. As I was switching on the TV I heard her coughing again and quickly glanced back to see if she was okay. What I saw was my little girl COVERED in blood! It scared the hooby jooby out of me and I immediately ran to pick her up, stuck her in the sink, and called my mom in a panic. The blood was coming from her nose, out her mouth when she coughed, and in bouts of vomit. It totally freaked me out!

Turns out, she had such a bad bloody nose, it was leaking into her stomach and causing her to cough and vomit blood. It took about 15 minutes to get the bleeding to stop and then another 15 minutes to scrub all the blood off of her. Here is a picture I took of her after about 5 minutes of scrubbing. Saddest most horrible thing in the world!

Moral of the story? 

1. Motherhood can be REALLY scary!
2. Anyone who can call their mom for help at the drop of a hat is a LUCKY and BLESSED individual.
3. If your kids get Croup, use a humidifier so they don't get dry throats and sinuses that can lead to terrifying bloody noses!

Thanksgiving in Detroit

For Thanksgiving this year, Kevin, Jennie and I, packed up the girls and headed to Detroit to spend time with Andrew, Sharon, and Eve.

Early Thanksgiving morning, Kevin and Andrew left to participate in the ward Turkey Bowl. They don't remember if they won or lost, or even who's team they were on, but they had a ton of fun and got REALLY muddy!

When they got back from their game, Kevin and I packed up the stroller and headed out for our annual Turkey Trot. We didn't have enough money to register for a real one this year, so we had our own "Poor Man's Turkey Trot" on the streets of Detroit and on a nearby track :)

After we conquered our 4 mile run, we showered and began preparations for our amazing Thanksgiving feast, complete with Kalua Turkey, homemade rolls, mashed potatoes, deviled eggs, jello salad, and pie... LOTS of PIE!

Then it was time to veg out! Lily took her usual place on Jennies lap where they watched Dora the Explorer via the iPod, read scriptures, and snacked on leftovers.

Brooklyn also managed to lay claim on someone... her Uncle Andrew. Unfortunately for him, she is a little less peaceful than Lily which resulted in Andrew getting poked, prodded, and pounced on for hours on end!

And dear old Kevin vegged out Nintendo style (with a little company from Andrew.)

The next day we headed over to the Henry Ford Museum (compliments of my sister Erin).

We saw LOTS of planes, trains, and automobiles.

And some weird statues as well! (3 out of the 5 people in this picture are fake.)

And then we let all the kids play to their hearts content... adult kids included.

But of course, Brooklyn's favorite thing at the museum was not inside, but outside... and not technically part of the museum either :)

That night we enjoyed a fondue party and a Stargate marathon before heading to bed to rest for our long drive home in the morning.

We had so much fun with the Smith's and are so grateful for their friendship and hospitality. The food was great, the activities were great, and the company was fantastic!

A Surprise Visit

Right after my birthday, I got a surprise visit from my BFF/Cousin Jennie! And by surprise, I mean Kevin had just come back from a business trip and told me he left a bag at the airport and we needed to go get it. When we pulled up at the curb I looked out the window and saw this girl standing there and thought to myself... "Wow, that girl looks a TON like Jennie... wait a minute, that IS Jennie! What are the odds that she would be at the airport at the same time we are picking up Kevin's bag? We should offer her a ride. I wonder where she's going? I hope its to see me..." Then I saw Kevin returning to the car WITHOUT a bag and it dawned on me (yes, it took that long) She IS coming to see me and its a SURPRISE!!!

Anyway, we were lucky enough to get her for 2 whole weeks, with some side trips thrown in for good measure. One was to DC where Jennie had a job interview that she nailed (and later accepted) and the other was out to Detroit where we had Thanksgiving with our other cousins, Andrew and Sharon (more to come on that later.)

We didn't do anything too crazy or adventurous while Jennie was visiting. We (and by "we" I mean "I") mostly just enjoyed taking care of the girls and attending to the regular needs of a household as a tag team instead of an individual. The girls loved having the extra body around though. I think Lily enjoyed it so much that she decided Jennie could be her special mom and I could be Brooklyn's. She became very possessive over Jennie and VERY attached.

They played tons of games together, read books, and played hide and seek in boxes...

And pretty much ANY time Jennie was sitting down, Lily was in her lap :)

But don't worry. We didn't spend the whole trip being mommies and maids. We got to eat out a few times, have some girl time, and we even went Geocaching together.

 

It took us a while since we were lugging little girls around on our shoulders, but we eventually found not just one...

But TWO geocaches before heading to Red Robin for a delightful dinner!

 

Oh! And I mustn't forget, Brooklyn found this fuzzy caterpillar while we were out (and begged if we could keep it as a pet)...

And Kevin got to show off like the crazy man that he is :) Fun times! 

Then on the 28th, after we got back from Detroit, we got to celebrate Jennie's 29th birthday! Yay for birthdays! Kevin made an amazing Texas sheet cake with Symphony bar topping for us all to eat, we sang, opened presents, ate pizza, and just enjoyed each other's company.

We felt so blessed to spend some more time with Jennie and can't wait till we get to hang out with her again. Thanks for the visit Jen. We love you!