Thanksgiving Recap!

We have so much to be thankful for!

This year we did almost the same thing as every year... the day started off with the annual turkey trot.

While the girls (and Steve) completed the turkey trot...

the men competed in the annual mud bowl...

and it was muddy!

After we all got cleaned up we traveled to Aunt Cindy's house for dinner.

Where we watched the kids play and play and play.

and then we traveled to Ash's parent's house

where we ate again and watched a movie.

This year was especially fun to watch my children play and enjoy the company of all our extended family. We sure missed my dad though, but we are very thankful he is the 'working man'!

I hope everyone's Thanksgiving was as fun and relaxing as ours.

7 Months

Yesterday he started crawling... he totally skipped the stage where he was supposed to just be able to sit up on his own and play contently... he went straight to crawling and I know my life just got a little busier.
Ashton's favorite things:

his jumper,

Caitlyn,

his Mom and Dad,

all his home made baby foods,

eating in general,

crawling for toys,

chewing on his toys,

the seahawks... and steelers,

all the funny noises his mom makes,

when Caitlyn throws any ball in the air,

sleeping by at 8pm and waking by 7am,

laughing, and

sleeping with his face snuggled in the covers.

He is still just as happy as can be... but now he's on the move!

I never knew my heart could carry so much love...
I love love love him!

Brian, This One's For You!

Our first get together for the Steelers since our cousin Brian left...

It just wasn't the same without him...

We miss you Brian!!!

Autumn Activities

Some of our Fall Fun has included...

...hunting for rocks...

...painting rocks...

...and arranging them in a pretty pumpkin patch!

(These little Rocks are by far Caitlyn's favorite thing to play with right now.)

Caitlyn has prepared a few meals for us!

Her absolute favorite to help with is a Rychlinski friday family favorite as well.. Mini Pizzas!

We've carved many pumpkins!

Vicki and Steve took Caitlyn 'Trunk or Treating'.

Caitlyn still won't stop talking about all the cars and candy and the big truck that made her scared so she cried and then held on to Pappy so it was ok!

We've enjoyed brisk fall walks.

We've posed in our costumes...

and last but not least...

We Trick or Treated!

We made a ton of stops to see our loved ones on the way to the Newgard's house.

This year was so so so much fun watching Caitlyn and Avery go house to house and listening to Caitlyn say 'trick or treat' (toot toot) and 'thank-you' (uncoo) and 'MORE' (MOOOOOORE) while running to the next house!!!

oh yeah... and we attempted to get a picture of all four of the kiddos who were all way too intersted in the candy they just brought home.

I laugh evertime I look at this collage cause about one minute after all these were taken Caitlyn and Avery went on Sugar Mode and nothing was gonna stop them.

Thanks Tiffany for letting us celebrate the holiday with you and your absolutely adorable children.

click on any of the above collages to enlarge the pictures...

Hope you all enjoy our Rocktober as much as we did!

Happy Halloween!

Stay tuned for a ton of pictures!!!

Trick or Treating was so much frun with the Newgard gang!

Yay... this is my 200th post!

Baptisms

Ash's Mom and Sister, Vicki and Scarlet, were baptized on Sunday.

Family and friends gathered at First Lutheran Church to celebrate the joyous occasion.

Congratulations, Vicki and Scar, let your light shine!

ROCKtober Continued...

Saturday was the 2nd Annual Johnson Halloween Party!  As usual, it was a rockin' time!  Ash and I went as Fred and Wilma Flintstone (Pebbles and Bam Bam had a babysitter).  We began the night with the wheel of death... somewhere in the middle was sumo wrestling, beer pong, the wheel of death again, pole dancing, costume prizes, dancing, and the night ended with us being tucked into Bedrock by Ash's parents (our DD/babysitter... thanks so much Vicki and Steve)!

The picture collage explains it all...

I LOVE ROCKTOBER!!!

Special thanks go out to the hosts withthe most... Sandy and Ian!

and to my in-laws... Thanks Vicki and Steve!

Go SEAHAWKS!

We had a totally amazing adult day last Sunday... the ONLY thing that could have made it better was if the Seahawks wouldn't have gotten their butt kicked.

Hana, Scarlet, Ashley, and I got tickets to go to a game a while back and our buddy Matt and all his buddies taught us exactly what tailgating is all about! We had an absolute blast... We ran into so many friends, played a few games, chanted and cheered. We'll definitely have to go to another game!

Thanks so much to Matt for showing us a GREAT time!

Oh... the things I do to make Ashley happy! Go Seahawks ;-)

Pumpkin Patch Pics

Between rain and wind storms this Saturday, our family ventured to the local pumpkin patch. We enjoyed the pumpkins, squash, puddles, chickens, bunnies, turkeys, mud, ponies, more pumpkins, and more rain.  Ashton was awake the entire time in the baby front sac and Caitlyn jumped over pumpkins, though puddles and mud. We had an absolute blast. This has become such a fun tradition for our family... I already look forward to next year when Caitlyn can show Ashton the ropes. 

While we were pumpkining, we were also getting our hardwood floors installed. They are half way finished and I LOVE LOVE LOVE them already!  Also... We as a family, have totally renamed the month of October to ROCKtober... cause this month totally ROCKS!!! We have been so super busy and I'll try my hardest to keep up with the blog so yuns can see what we've been up to... stayed tuned!

Sweet 6 Months

Our little Ashee is half a year today!

He is such a mover now... comfortably rolling everywhere.

His giggle is so contagious!

He loves to eat... just rice cereal but this week we'll be starting some veggies.

He's been sleeping through the night for a couple months now.

He's toothless still.

His hair is growing in fast.

He's in size three diapers and size 6-9 month clothes.

He melts my heart with just his smile and LOVE him more and more each day!
Another half a year has gone by so fast. I love celebrating his months of life. It gives Ashley, Caitlyn and I a chance to slow down a little and really celebrate how lucky we are to have such an amazing, happy, and healthy addition to our family!

Happy half a year, young man!

New Things

Just a few new things in the Riggs' house:

Caitlyn: Her verbal flood gates have finally opened and we are being showered with words and even sentences.  She mimicks every word that we say now (including sapsucker). It used to be that we would write down and count how many words she knows... but she knows way too many to count now... YAY! My favorites are: Ashee (Ashton), waffoo (waffle), appoo (apple), bash (bath), shry (cry), beebee (baby), moona (moon), Bubbee (Babcia), and Pappee (Pappy) She still continues to sign a lot and with her sign and baby words... I can almost understand everything she communicates.  She'll finally sit still enough for me to loosely braid her curls.  I thought she was going to be a toddler that does not nap... but she naps for my mom and she's napping right now... so we'll have to wait and see where this is headed. She has learned to play her own CDs now, so she constantly wants to be DJ in her room while everyone dances.

Ashton: He is growing leaps and bounds! We started him on rice cereal which he LOVES and can't get enough of. We also have tried oatmeal and he thinks it's okay.  When he's not in our arms or his jumper... he rolls all over the ground... sometimes in circles and sometimes from one end of a room to the other. It's real fun to watch him watch Caitlyn. I think he just tries his hardest to roll to wherever she is... and she's everywhere.  He's gotten to be quite the dancer now that Caitlyn DJs for him. He loves bathttime, sucking on his hands, playing with his toes, and his Sister. He's lost most of his baby brown hair (except for a small patch in the back) and there is hair replacing it, but I can't quite tell what color it is... sometimes it looks blonde, sometimes it looks red, sometimes... it still looks brown.  He can sit up if he uses his arms as a tripod but isn't safe enough to do it all alone.

Ashley: He's taken up golfing and he LOVES it. Now when I say LOVES it... I mean it... when he comes home from golfing he's got this natural high on life thing going on and I LOVE it!  And of course he is still an amazing husband, dad, and partner in parenting!  Oh yeah... and he even got me HARDWOOD FLOORS! We started out with laminate thinking that they would be easier to maintain with the kiddos, but one dropped childrens bowl and a chip in the laminate later... he called and the company is upgrading our floors. I couldn't love him more right now... and always!

...and Me:  I've been going through a bit of a rough spell... I just couldn't keep up with maintaining a perfect house, teaching and spending time with both my children, being a loving wife, a working woman learning a new job, and a healthy exerciser still trying to shed some pregnancy pounds.  I was blaming it all on lack of sleep and the fact that I have two children, but when my sister got a tatoo and I absolutely lost control of all my emotions, I realized that this had to be more than lack of sleep. I met with my doctor, thinking that maybe I was experiencing postpartum depression... she didn't think so. She actually recommended weaning Ashton from the breastmilk.  She thinks my hormones that help produce milk may be making me miserable... I personally thought that she'd admit me to Western State Hospital, but she didn't.  So... we might be weaning soon... that's what's new with me :)

Happy birthday, Hana...
thanks for getting a tatoo and helping me realize that I haven't been myself lately.

First Foods

Just a few days ago... we started Ashton on some rice cereal. He absolutely LOVED it and now he can't get enough of it. I seriously couldn't feed it to him fast enough.  There was one point he actually took the spoon from my hand and fed himself! What a fun experience... it was so totally opposite of feeding Caitlyn her first bites, which made me one happy mama!

So Long Summer...

...and Welcome Fall!

We spent the last minutes of fall enjoying the 88 degree weather in our backyard kiddie pool.

And we welcomed the fall enjoying good company at the PDZA and the spaghetti factory.

***Thanks Tiffany, Avery, Jackson, Mom and Dad

for the many trips and all the fun at the zoo!***

I also trimmed up Caitlyn's hair all by myself.

When I became a Mom who knew I'd wear so many hats...
the latest... hair stylist!

I wonder if Bebe's Salon has any open stations?!?

5 Months

Sweet son of mine... I can't believe it has been 5 months.  Ashton loves to roll over and over and over from back to tummy and tummy to back. If he'd have his way he'd probably be standing, eating, giggling, and sleeping all day.  He's still a fist sucker and every now and then he'll find is thumb. He uses the pacifier only for a few minutes after he eats.  He such a champ when it comes to Caitlyn tugging on his arms dancing and hugging and kissing him.  He still rarely gets upset enough to cry hard and lights up my life with a good giggle.  We've gotten into quite a routine which has given me lots of alone time with him in the morning...
what a perfect way to start any day!

Happy 5 Months, Son!

Doin' the Puyallup

Yes... we did it... the Puyallup that is! My Mom, Caityln, Ashton, and I spent all day there Tuesday!  Caitlyn got a dizzy pass from Babcia and she slid down the gigantic slide, rode on cars, motorcycles, and boats (all about 10 times each)... saw cows, pigs, and goats... ate krusty pups, earthquake burgers, cotton candy, and carameled apples. We had such a wonderful time in the beautiful weather...that's right it was 80 degrees at the fair and we embraced it! Thanks, Mom for such an amazing day filled with tons of wonderful memories! and thanks Caitlyn and Ashton for being such sweet angels. 

Also... Thanks, Dad for placing our travel bug in a cache at 

Memorial Park, Lower Burrell, PA.
*******************

We also saw this train of red hatters and my Mom and I both looked for Grandma...

She must have missed this train :)