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!

Two Much Fun

My little Man... starts preschool!

Well, it's true... Ashton is also in preschool this year.  

He is in the Two Much Fun class for two year old kiddos. 

He goes once a week and loves it.  

I was hesitant to put him in the class... wondered if it was too early.

Ashley was a tiny bit worried that he'd cry when we started to leave, but he walked in... 

went straight to the trucks and trains... and that was it.  

When I picked him up, both teachers complimented him on his table manners... 

I was beyond proud. 

I took a gazillion pics of him before school, but they all turned out like the ones below... so I waited to take a pic of him after school and he looks ten times happier. My little man is growing so fast... soon he'll be going off to college.

 outtakes

Love him!

Micro Soccer

 Go Vikings!

Seriously, aren't these the cutest little soccer players EVER!

Pre-Kindergarten

Caitlyn started Pre-Kindergarten today.  

♥

When I asked what she did on her first day this is what she said:

'I played with play-doe, had circle time, sang Jesus loves me, ate donut holes with frosting and it tasted so yummy, I painted a reindeer, and Ms. Judy said what's next and I getted my back pack... and I had so much fun and I waited for my Momma, and Ms. Judy called my name and then I saw my Momma and then I went back home with Babcia'.

♥

I really typed that word for word while she spoke it.... LOVE HER!

Recapping Another Month

August came and flew by.

Our summer didn't really start until the 3rd week of August... and by that I mean we had gray-cold rainy weather until then.  I thought about skipping the whole... 'I probably have Seasonal Affective Disorder from our crappy summer weather' post, but then thought if I read this blog ten years from now it'll help me remember that the summer of 2011 only had maybe... 6 sunny days and... yay... what a thing to remember.

I'll try again to recap this month in pics... or collages. Here goes:

We've started the remodel of both our upstairs bathrooms. 

When it's finished... I'll post before and after pics

We've gone camping and hung out with Sven Miller

We ate a lot of s'mores

I had surgery to remove a blackberry thorn from my knuckle and had my tendons tightened which was a little bit more than I had planned for (sorry if this pic grosses any one out). 

My sister Hana got engaged to her BF of 2 years, Jonny

We've learned to jump off a diving board

Caitlyn and Ashton went to their 'Meet and Greet' at their preschool

(Yes... you read that right... my little man is starting preschool too this year).

Thought I'd add another one of just Ashee cause it's cute

Just a few other things...

We went to the zoo a few times and to the sprayground.

We baked on the rainy days.

We had an 'alone weekend' and went to a wedding while the kids camped.

We flew kites.

We played with our cousins.

We went to a BBQ with our new friends  from church (which was totally fun because they all have kids Caitlyn and Ashton's age... the kids outnumbered the adults... and was so much fun).

I called in sick for too many days trying to recover from my hand surgery... thanks to my mom and husband for all your help and thanks to my children for helping take care of Mommy's huge owie.

August in a nutshell.

Caitlyn's 4!

My sweet girl is Four!

We celebrated once again at my Aunt Cindy's and Uncle John's house. 

They have a great pool and all the kids had a great time.

I wish I would have taken more time to get more pictures of all her guests. 

Let's see... what can I say about little Miss Caitlyn Leigh... now that she's 4?!?

She loves riding her bike and jumping on the neighbors trampoline.

Her favorite food is macaroni and chicken nuggets for dinner...

for breakfast- it's cinnamon toast and sausage.

Her temper is shrinking and her heart is growing. 

She says things like, "O.M.G. and Really?!?" at the funniest times.

She currently thinks that her Dad is on the 'naughty list' which apparently means he's only getting socks for Christmas.  

She is the camping queen. 

She got her first bee sting at the beach. 

She's afraid of airplanes... and bees.

Her favorite song currently is 'Row Row Your boat'.
She loves school... she starts playing soccer for the Vikings.
Her team color is orange and she is #1... Her coach is smoking hot!
When asked what she wants to be when she grows up... she either says, a nurse, a doctor, or a mom.
(except for right now when I asked her... she said she wants to be a pigeon.)
She can count to 48... although she skips numbers 26-47 :)
We've shared a few girly dates recently and she got a purple feathers and tinsel in her hair.

She reminds me that she's 4 almost once a day... 

and tells me that she is going to skip 5 and go right to 6 since she eats a lot of vegetables.

I was just trying to think of more things to type so I asked her to tell me about herself so I can put it on the blog... and she replied,

'I'm 4... I have stickers, money, puzzle pieces, and Ashee shares his toys with me... and paint.'

That's her in a nutshell.

My Monkey

Caitlyn has mastered the monkey bars. 

She was slow at first... but not any more. 

She flies through them at lightening speed. 

The Pool

Our Summer wouldn't be complete without a trip out to my Aunt Cindy and Uncle John's pool.  Luckily one of our friend's daughter turned 1 and they had a party at the pool... otherwise I'm not sure we would have made time to get out there... not to mention the weather hasn't been very encouraging either. 

It was a little rocky at the Riggs residence trying to get both children packed up for a day full of swimming and sun, but once we got there, it was nothing but relaxation and rays. 

 Caitlyn can swim the entire length of the pool (if she starts in the shallow end... if she starts in the deep end she gets too scared).  She graduated from life jacket to water wings and she rocks them!

 Her and Brayden took turns jumping off the diving board... they love each other a lot. It's sweet!

Ashton was all about the relaxing part of the pool.

  Occasionally Caitlyn would take a break from all the running, jumping and swimming to relax with her bro.

Ash floated over on the noodles and decided to join in the picture.

***

And lastly... one of my favorite parts about swimming ALL day... 

 is a good night's sleep.

And on a side note:

Recently Caitlyn was enjoying a playdate with her buddy, Mitchell, when she suddenly realized when she looked down to play with her toys... she couldn't see them because her hair was in the way.

So she cut it.

Now she has bangs.  

♥ 

4th of July 2011

 Our 4th was celebrated the exact same same way as it has been for the past 12 years... at the Riggs' house while we also celebrate Ash's Dad's birthday.  Although a lot more mellow than years past, fun was had by all.  Caitlyn even lit off a few fireworks.

 A few years ago, I took a pretty neat picture of the sunset from their house and gave it to Vicki, she framed it... and if I don't say so myself... it turned out spectacular!  So of course I thought I'd try my hand at a few sunsets again. I think they turned out OK.

 The weather and the sky especially was amazing this year!

Happy Birthday, Steve.