20 years of LOVE!!!

♥ ♥ ♥

 Every year since 1991,

my family has celebrated Valentine's Day at Sakuras Steakhouse.  Here we are 20 years ago. One big happy family... celebrating the day of love with no one else but eachother.
♥

 1992

Not sure which is classier... our corsages or the neon restroom sign in the background. Jon and I were rocking almost the same hairstyle except my bangs were a tiny bit longer. (My cousin Jamie lived with us at the time, so she got to experience our  LOVEly tradition).

♥

1993

our picture is missing (sad face)
♥

1994

Was apparently when grunge and chokers were in.

♥

1995

 I'm pretty sure my Mom got a 'buy 2 of the same hairstyle cuts, get the 3rd for free' cause Ksavera, Jon, and I had the exact same hair.  Hana clearly opted out cause she preferred the 'tucked behind the ears' look.

♥

1996

Must've been the year I learned to apply lipliner and lipstick... way too dark.

♥

1997

My cocia Sonja was in town.  She and my parents had to of gone somewhere tropical cause they are far too tan for Washington.  Jon looks like he is having way too much fun this year.  Ksavera and I are clearly best buds, and Hana must've known this was the last year the cake came with the photo.

♥

 1998

My Grandma was in town and even the cook joined in for our family photo.

(This is the same cook that lost control of the fork one year...

it hit Hana on her forehead).

♥

 1999

Was the year I graduated from HS which is crazy to think about.  Alicia lived with us at the time... and Hana is still sporting the same hair but with a tad bit longer bangs since the 1st picture.

♥

2000

The year my Dad decided to class it up a little by wearing a suit jacket over a T-shirt.  Hana I think decided to try the profile view so we can't tell that her hair is exactly the same... tucked behind both ears.

♥

2001

Who's the blonde chick?!?

Oh... it's Ksavera.

I bet it took me over an hour to place those bobby pins in my hair...

and Hana!!! She changed her look.
♥

2002

Was the year... hopefully... our awkward years were left behind.

♥

2003

The year we mastered the perfect tripod pose.

♥

2004

An attempted but failed tripod pose repeat.

♥

2005

Someone LIED to Ksavera when they told her bangs were in.
♥

2006

Ashley's 1st year at participating in the yearly tradition (the 7 years prior he didn't get an invite cause we were only dating).  He looks so happy to finally be included.

♥

2007

Who's the creepy mustache man in the background?!?

Oh... it's just Jon. 

Ash must've seen the picture from 2000 cause he totally copied my Dad's sweet style.

♥

2008

Our group grows as Caitlyn has joined our family.

♥

2009

There are 3 things to comment about in this picture.

1- That's not our Mexican exchange student... it's Ksavera!!!

2- I didn't gain 20 pounds from eating at Sakuras all these years... I am 7 months pregnant, and

3- The cook had to be included in this years pic in order to help Jon hold my Dad up after he enjoyed a few too many large hot sakes.
♥

2010

Another new addition... Ashton!

Who looks like he is still in shock from when they lit the grill on fire.
♥

2011

A year of 2 new additions...

Ksavera's husband, Jason and 4 week old, baby Kellen!

Thanks to Cocia Ksavera... Caitlyn thinks this smile IS her pretty smile.

♥

So that's how the Rychlinski/Riggs/Thompson family

celebrate the day of LOVE!
♥ ♥ ♥
Thanks Mom & Dad for an amazing family tradition.

Family is Forever!

Slightly embarrassed...

… yes, that’s how I’m feeling for not blogging lately. I haven’t been ignoring my blog… in fact I view it frequently from my phone in order to keep up with all my other blogging buddies. This January… and February has been a little bit busy for us here in the Riggs’ house. Not only have we had a gazillion things going on, but my children changed leaps and bounds just these past few months. For example:

ASHTON

Ashton: began jumping out of his crib, therefore the change was made from crib to day bed and with that transition my used to be wonderfully sleeping son changed into one that is not interested in sleeping in his room or bed at all. Hm… not that big of a deal you might think, but need I remind you that we just transitioned Caitlyn into not only sleeping in her own bed but sleeping through the entire night. So Ash and I were determined not to bring Ashton into our bed… thank goodness our bed is NOT what he was interested in. Instead he wishes to sleep with his big sister {so stinking cute}… all was going well… for a few days then our house got hit with a few viruses which brought havoc to our new sleeping routines and last night I ended up sleeping downstairs on the couch with Ashton after an hour or so of trying to calm him down, Ashley slept in Caitlyn’s twin bed, which left our bed {with our extra comfortable and almost addicting fleece sheets} all to our cat, Roger. Ashton is still trying to get his last four canine teeth which will probably start coming in the same time his two year molars start to come in… just because that’s how my children like to teeth- late and all at once.

Also new with Ashton- he began his first parent toddler swim class without his sister Caitlyn {she’s in a class all her own now-without us swimming with her}. The first day, I’d say maybe he was just a little interested and since then his interest in swimming in his class has declined and his interest in swimming with Caitlyn in her class has increased. Since the beginning of this year we’ve bundled our kids up and packed their swim bags each Tuesday and Thursday and I hate to say this but I’m happy that tonight is our last night. I look forward to having a few more nights during the week of just being at home and relaxing.

More that’s new with him… he had his 1st and probably not his last visit to the ER after deciding to dive off of his chair and into our coffee table he ended up with a few stitches to his bottom lip. That was an experience I’m sure he’ll never remember but I will never forget.

What else is new… he is speaking very well… and singing! He and Caitlyn line up piles of bubbles on the bathtub ledge and sing Happy Birthday to each other every night and then blow away each pile of bubbles {another thing that is just too darn precious}. He’s also working at potty training {in fact, he just woke up from a nap with dry pants and then went on the toilet}. We’re still far away from being a diaper-less family… on a good day he goes on the toilet once or twice.

Despite his change in sleeping habits, being sick, and teething, Ashton continues to be a sweet little guy… He definitely has a huge spot in his heart for his Mommy and his Babcia… and of course his Dad and everyone else too, but right now especially for just the two of us.

CAITLYN

Caitlyn is also growing leaps and bounds. Just yesterday, she turned 3 ½!!! Her preschool class celebrated her half birthday {something they do for the children with the summer birthdays} and I brought cupcakes. The teacher asked what kind of crown Caitlyn wanted to wear on her birthday. A cow crown is what she wanted and a cow crown is what she got… who knows… but still totally cute! I had my 1st ever parent/teacher conference yesterday and Caitlyn seems to be learning at the appropriate speed {she needs a little work when it comes to clean up time though}.

Like I stated above Caitlyn graduated from the parent toddler swim classes and started the independent swim lessons. Watching her swim and pay attention in her class has been amazing. I occasionally get to sit out and watch Ash swim with Ashton and Caitlyn swim with her class and when I do I feel so proud of all of them.

Caitlyn LOVES to sing. Her favorite song is Jesus loves me, second is jingle bells, then Happy Birthday {She’ll even sing Sto Lat in Polish}, then twinkle twinkle little star, then her ABCs. Oh then of course she makes up songs too, her best songs come to her in the bathtub and they usually all have a line about her being a princess and loving polka dots.

She finally sleeps in her bed almost all through the night. Maybe 1 night a week she’ll come into our bed in the middle of the night.

She has a star chart which we have learned to LOVE… since after Christmas, Santa headed back to the North Pole and we couldn’t use him to get her to listen to us anymore. We needed something to entice her to sleep in her bed, do her chores {like make her bed and brush her teeth and the knots out of her hair} and… well… just to simply behave. So far, it’s working really well and she’s earned herself a pillow pet and a trip to the movie theatres to see Tangled {the sweetest movie I’ve seen in a long time}. Age 3 ½, I think, will be my favorite!!!

Ash and I keep busy… nothing actually new with us. Still working and keeping up with the daily routine of having two of the most precious kiddos on earth while also keeping each of us in love with each other.  A challenging task, I think, when we’re running low on sleep fumes… I don’t mean that I love him any less {in fact-I love him more each day}… but I wouldn’t be surprised if he asked me for a guy’s night out soon... Despite our lack of sleep... we're considering adding a 3rd little one to our family.  I pray every night for guidance toward the right decision.
Ash really is the BEST husband, friend, and partner in parenthood… in the World!!!

I promise I’ll get back to blogging regularly.

Holiday Catch-Up

Oh... we've been busy already this month. I can't believe it's half over and I haven't blogged about the holidays or anything else. There's so much I have to share with everyone. First, I'll start with the holidays:
Christmas Eve Eve was spent playing BUNCO at Ash's aunt and uncle's house.  This holiday tradition is one of my all time faves. I'm sad to report that Mario and I were not the Table 1 champions we once were. I think we're gonna make a strong come back next year though. 
Christmas Eve was spent by attending church, where Ashton went potty in the church toilet probably 7 times and poop once, so needless to say... everyone went to church but Ash and I spent the majority of it in the bathroom.  I made sure we were in the pew for the singing and lighting of the candles during Silent Night... it's my favorite part of the service.  Afterwards we went to my aunt and uncle's house and then to Ash's parent's house. Christmas Eve is probably one of the busiest days for us during the holidays.
Christmas was spent alone at our house. We opened presents, ate enough probably for the entire week, watched movies, took naps, played dress up, shot a few hoops, sang Happy Birthday to Jesus, and simply enjoyed each other.  We celebrated with Ash's family on the 26th and my family on the 1st, both occasions were wonderful and our children were showered in gifts.
New Years Eve was spent at Jon and Mandy's annual cocktail party.  The overall turnout was smaller, but all of my favorite people were there.   We spent the night dancing, singing, eating, laughing, and having fun.  Jon's rendition of The Little Mermaid's Les Poissons is definitely a memory that'll make us laugh for a long time. 

The holidays are a busy busy busy time of year and I might complain a little about having something to do every single night of the month of December... but really I wouldn't have it any other way.

Here's a few collages of the holidays:

Christmas

New Year's Eve

Sometime Early New Year's Day

After the holidays were over I found myself quickly getting my house back to normal.  I organized almost every single room and closet in this house.  While taking down the decorations I took a minute to take a picture of my new favorite flower. 

This Amaryllis was a birthday gift to me and I absolutely LOVED watching it grow.  This flower was amazing the way it bloomed so incredibly fast into a bright red shimmering flower.

Gorgeous!

Speaking of GORGEOUS...

my nephew, Kellen Dean, 

was born a little after the new year on his due date,

January 5, 2010.

Caitlyn and Ashton love their new cousin.  Caitlyn is absolutely precious when she holds him and takes care of him.

It snowed sometime during the holidays too, so we bundled up and played outside.

That's a wrap.

Merry Christmas!

We wish you all a very
Merry Christmas!

Traditions

This year we've kept true to a few of our holiday traditions and we might of even created a few new ones.

Hunting for that perfect tree was on our list of continued traditions. 

While hunting, Santa made an appearance which made my childrens' day.

Ashton yelled, "Santa!" the entire time we searched as the carolers and Caitlyn sang, Santa Claus is Coming to Town.

Fun tradition! 

A new tradition on our list was the Preschool/Church Christmas Pageant.

This one might only be on our list of holiday faves for the next few years... until all our children grow out of it, I guess. Their rendition of Angels We Have Heard on High was music to my ears and the chorus gave me and everyone else in the audience a good chuckle!

 Chex mix was a must! This year, I made no short of 30 batches. Those that made it to the sweater party got a very yummy party favor.

 Cookie decorating was squeezed in last minute with a lot smaller of a crowd than usual.  Caitlyn, 38 weeks pregnant-Cocia Ksavera, Babcia, Ashton and I decorated our hearts out of 6 dozen holiday cut outs...

and when Dad was upstairs, he totally missed out on Santa's very quick visit to our house.  While decorating cookies, Cocia Ksavera caught a glimpse of Santa through our back window, Caitlyn jumped outta her chair and ran to the other, bigger window to see him, he peeked in at her, waved, and gave a hardy, 'ho ho ho!'

Caitlyn, Ashton, and I went to every single window in the house to see if we could see him fly away on his sleigh.  We actually did find lights in the sky that looked just like Santa and his Reindeer and we watched them until we couldn't see them anymore.

Each of the kids have countdown chains in their bedrooms and in the kitchen is a special count down for Jesus' birthday, so far Jesus' birthday countdown cake has 21 candles on it.

4 more days!

This Christmas is my favorite so far... and it's not even here yet.

♥

Naughty or Nice?

My children were definitely on the NICE list!  There was no one in line to see Santa so we got to sit and talk with him for a while. Surprisingly, Caitlyn shared her list with Santa. Ashton was somewhat shy, but after he ate his entire candy cane in record time, he had the courage to talk to him. He kept trying to go back up to Santa while lifting his shirt and saying, "belly button!" 

PRECIOUS! 

Sweater Party 2010

Appropriately dressed for the 'Ugly Sweater Party',

but my kids were far from... 'ugly'!

In fact I'd say they were pretty darn adorable.

 Posing for next year's invitation.

 This year we posed for a group shot.

It wouldn't be an Ugly Sweater blog post without the collage.

This year, a lot of holiday cheer was shared and we all looked so good sharing it. Thanks for another fun year.  Although I was grunting and groaning during the preparations for this annual event... (and afterwards while steam cleaning my carpets)... We'll definitely be doing it again next year.

Homecoming

Really...

this is what we came home to...

a 50 degree temperature difference.

The kids loved it, but it made me skip the annual thanksgiving turkey trot. 

The snow was great for the tenth annual Browns Point v North End Mud Bowl though.

King 5 and KLEW both showed up to report on the event

(if you get a chance, check out the coverage by clicking HERE and then click on the "thanksgiving traditions: football and family" video )

Maui

 

It took me a while to decide how to post about our 11 day vacay to Maui, Hawaii. I took over 200 pictures and each shares a memory. So here goes a list...

Our Favorite
Maui Memories

First would have to be the plane ride.  Caitlyn has been on a plane numerous times before but none that I think she can remember.  Our flight was super early in the morning so the kiddos traveled in their jammies and at the end of the flight changed into a sun dress and shorts and a muscle tee.   They traveled like champs, both taking a really long nap making it easier for Ash and I to enjoy our complimentary Mai Tais.  They were both super excited as you can see on Ashton's face.

My second favorite memory would have to be my children's smiling faces.  It's super easy to get Caitlyn's smile on camera but Ashton's a little bit of a challenge.  When we ask Ashton to smile and say cheese... this is the face we get. I'm not complaining cause it's still super cute!

Below's another attempt of catching his cute smile... a little better.

Third and fourth fave... the Beaches & Banyan Tree.

Ka'anapali Beach at Black Rock

Baby's Beach

 and Makena Beach.

♥

Mostly I loved the Banyan Tree because my children looked so darn cute hanging around it's roots.

Fifth fave... the huge icecream cones we got after our submarine ride... making my 6th fave...

The submarine ride.

 Seventh favorite memory- the Trade Winds, not only did they keep our condo cool, they blew Caitlyn's hair perfectly for this pic.

Eighth fave is how stinkin' cute my kids look in sunglasses.

Ninth favorite memory- Ashton learned to swim with only water wings... and wait for it...

Caitlyn learned to jump off the side of the pool, sink to the bottom, swim under water with her eyes open all the way to the other side of the pool without water wings or a life jacket or anything but her parent's encouragement. AMAZING!

Tenth is the fact that we were not only the Canasta King and Queen on this vacation, we also stomped our components in shuffle board.

Eleventh- our view was also AMAZING!

 Day view

 Night view

and a view of the full moon that lit the beach for mine and Ashley's walk after his 30th birthday dinner.

Which leads me to another memory... the fact that Ash and I turned the big three-oh on the island of Maui.

Thirteenth- the memory of naptime. 

Swimming plus sunshine equals the perfect nap.

Below are a few pictures of my darling children napping.

Ashton napped many times in my arms... whether it was on the beach, in a lawn chair by the pool, or even relaxing on a raft way out in the ocean.

Fourteenth great memory was floating in the Pacific Ocean with Sandy and Caitlyn when a giant sea turtle swam right up and underneath us.  Caitlyn definitely tells that story the best.

Fifteenth fave=friends.

and last is snorkeling at Black Rock

(Ash and Ian jumped off of it too)

Although only 16 memories are listed above... so many more were created.

Thanks, Maui, for so many memories!

Middle Earth

Tonight, Cocia Ksavera came over and watched Caitlyn and Ashton while Ash took me out to dinner.  After dinner, we joined Ashley's cousin's cousin, Mario, and a gazillion of his buddies to celebrate his birthday.  The evening out was fun.  When Ash and I were getting close to coming home, Mario came up to us and expressed to us how happy he was that we made it out to celebrate with him, he said something like,

"I'm so happy you guys made it out to celebrate with me tonight...

cause you guys are kind of part of that middle earth." 

Not knowing exactly what middle earth was, we all smiled and nodded... and then finally asked,

"what exactly is middle earth?"

He gladly explained to us that Ashley and I are still young enough to hang out...

but we also have children so we have to be responsible and tuck in early. 

We all were laughing at the new term and his explanation of it... middle earth. 

 

We got home around 11pm, Ash and I said good night to Ksavera, peeked in and said good night to our precious sleeping daughter, Caitlyn.  Peeked in to say good night to Ashton, who woke... so I cuddled him for the past ten minutes (while I thought up this post in my head) and tucked him back into bed.

 

I'll tell you what...

Ash and I had a wonderfully fun night out,

but I am most happy and blessed to be a part of middle earth.

Happy birthday, Mario!

And an early happy birthday to Jon and little Miss Avery Jeanne!

We love you all.