Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas.

My children made it on the nice list again this year!

Sweater Party 2011

I almost forget to post about the sweater party.

Thought I'd slip in a collage of my faves along with a list of some of the memories.

shots

shots

shots

shots

shots

shots

EVERYBODY!

chicken feet

Riggs Rigging the awards

Rissa... the jello bartender

GG

shotskis

By the sound of this list...

it was a wild party.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Ok... 

Let's start with Thanksgiving... 

I'd say that was the beginning of the 

Most Wonderful Time of the Year!!!

Like usual... we did the Turkey Trot (no pictures though)

then I joined Mandy (Jon's Fiance... blog post and pics coming soon), 

and watched the annual Mud Bowl... 

it was rainy and cold but our hot totties kept us warm.

 Then we were off to Aunt Cindy's for an early dinner...

Where Caitlyn took over a hundred pictures on self timer... 

they turned out like this

...and this...

...and even this...

Then we went to the Riggs for a movie and dessert. 

 Thanksgiving... done!

♥♥♥

December has been filled with something on our calendar every single day and night.

Including things like...

 Hunting for our tree in the rain and wind storm of 2011

 Waiting afterwards for Santa who probably got caught in the storm... so he never made it.

 Decorating both trees...The kids helped a lot this year... 

 So a lot of my ornaments turned out like this...

 The kids were in 2 Christmas Pageants this year... one for preschool and one for church.

 Ashton was a donkey for both and Caitlyn was an Angel for one and Mary for the other.

Both had speaking parts and she memorized and recited her lines PERFECTLY

And let's not forget our annual Holiday Sweater Partay!

 More self timer shots... courtesy of Caitlyn

 This year we tried something new... shotskies. Boom!

 Collage 

Group Photo

The morning after... self timer photo... by Caitlyn.

 We baked 144 cut out cookies using my Grandmas recipe...

 Is that Betty Crocker... Martha Stewart... or Erin Riggs?!?

Then... while decorating all those cookies... 

SANTA was peaking in our windows

 ... checking to see if the kiddos were being naughty or nice.

 More self timer pics of the kids with their favorite friends. 

 silly

goofy

 fun

The best!

♥♥♥

There's still more to go...

Including...

 Caitlyn as Mary

 Caitlyn as a Ballerina Slug

 She was so perfect... I cried.

 I think this brings us to present day where Ash's sister got some deal on Living Social for a photo shoot...

A few other things this holiday season has involved, but not captured on camera are:

Basketball practices

Open House at our Pastor's house

work Christmas parties

church Christmas pasrties

My Holidork Sweater Collection at work.

♥♥♥

And coming up in this last week before Jesus' big celebration is:

Zoolights

Caroling with the kids group at church

Bunco with my ladies group

Bunco with Ashley's family (one of my favorite Holiday Traditions)

and the making of a ton of  Christmas Eve and Christmas Memories!!!

My life may be busy, but I sure L♥VE it!

Seriously... Since September....

...we've been busy! I have no clue why January is considered the New Year... once you've got kids in school... the New Year starts in September! With September came the start of many things, including: Preschool, Sunday School, and Soccer... along with a long anticipated new work schedule for me, a new bible study and the addition of ballet.  So, once again I find myself returning my blog in need of a Fall recap.  Since September this is what the Riggs Family has been up to.

We wrapped up a winning season of micro soccer.  Caitlyn scored her first goal at the last game {Come to think of it...I think Ashley and I still owe her a pony}.  Not only did she have a lot of fun playing for the Vikings, Ashley had a great time coaching and I had a great time cheering and really bonded with the other parents.  We've all actually just turned in a team registration to start basketball this winter... keeping our same awesome coach and players!

 Caitlyn and Ashton with Gram and Pappy after one of the games.

Ashley and I got to escape together alone to the good old city of Dubuque, Iowa.  We actually did not have high expectations of the city and I took along a few books to read anticipating that Ashley would be super busy with his conference.  Instead, we were pleasantly surprised when we were able to spend a lot of much needed time together, wine tasting, dining out, going to a comedy show, and walking along the Mighty Mississippi River. Thanks to my fantastic husband, I was even able to spend an entire morning relaxing and rejuvenating at the spa there.  Needless to say, we enjoyed our time together which re energized our marriage and our parenting spirit.

When we returned to Washington the Halloween Holiday seemed to be in full swing.   We spent one night carving pumpkins, and many other days and nights going to the pumpkin patch for field trips, attending Halloween carnivals at church, Halloween parties at preschool and at our friend's house... and of course there was Trick-or-Treating with our favorite Trick-or-Treating Crew... The 'Newettas'.

I only got one picture of Ashley and I with Ben Roethlisberger and Troy Polamalu at the 'adult' Halloween party, which was fun as always... The Johnson's out did themselves.

We attended the wedding reception of our dear friends, Mr and Mrs Adam and Megan Briscoe.  They recently got 'Maui'd' and came back to WA for a beautiful reception.  Megan was such a gorgeous bride... and if I don't say so myself... my kiddos cleaned up pretty well too.

I just had to put this pic up cause it's a really good one of my two favorite guys!

 ...Let's see... what else... 

...OH... 

we celebrated the surprise birth of our Bestie's Babe, Rylan Johnson

He made his debut into this world 8 weeks early, but since then with much love and lots of prayers, he has grown and excelled and might even be coming home to them tomorrow!  
Congratulations on your growing family!
♥

Speaking of birthdays...
we also celebrated a few others.
One being that of my other Bestie's daughter, Avery.

Really I just had to post this picture.  

Take a minute and look at the excitement on all the kids faces!

All the kiddos really did have a great time... as did the adults.  

 While the above mentioned little babe (Rylan) was in the NICU, I had the privilege to watch his big brother, Gavin for one day.  I had a blast... and even gave all three boys mow-hawks.
These three little guys are gonna be trouble...
aren't they the cutest!?! 

 And last but not least... we just finished up celebrating mine and Ashley's birthdays.  This picture is courtesy of Caitlyn setting the self timer on the morning of my birthday, after cinnamon rolls and before showers.  Some days {these seem to be my favorite days}... this is how the Riggs roll!