Lookin' Good!

Okay...so I got Dal a suit for Christmas which ended up being two suits. I am not going to go into the long story of why there ended up being two. The short of it is that we might be keeping both, but are hoping to just keep one. The problem is, though, we can't decide which one we like better. I think Dal is just too good lookin' no matter what he has on.

Despite that, we need some input on which suit to keep. Here are the two choices, in no particular order. Make sure to answer our poll on the right to let us know which one you like best...we'll probably take your opinion into consideration!

Christmas Continued...

Santa came through with a stroller for Kelsie. Now if we could just get some clothes for her babies!

While with the fam over Thanksgiving, I made name signs for each of the kids' rooms. I think they turned out really well. They might not have been the favorite present this year, but they liked them and have already chosen where they want them hung in their rooms.

Tyson also got a Planet Heroes space ship from Santa. It was just what he wanted. We didn't get around to writing letters to Santa this year, so we had to call him on Christmas Eve. He was busy with the elves, making toys, so we left him a message. Apparently he got it in time since we each got what we asked for. What a great Santa!

Now that Kelsie has her bright neon orange purse and yellow heels (thanks to big brother, Tyson) she is ready for the world. She has been clomping around in those shoes since she got them. I am a little nervous she is going to break an ankle or something. The price we pay for beauty!

Since I was nervous to spend the holiday with just our little family (I am used to millions of people around on Christmas) I decided that we would have the missionaries over for dinner. That way I would be able to cook a big meal (and not waste it all) and keep my mind off of being away from family! It worked. It gave me plenty to do all day and we had a great time. The meal was excellent and the missionaries, as always, brought a great spirit into our home.

Most of our day was spent lounging around, playing with our new toys. In fact, none of us even got dressed until right before the missionaries showed up for dinner at 6:00. It was a great day. I hope you all had a great Christmas too.

It's HERE!!!

The anticipation for Christmas this year was more than I had ever imagined possible. All day Christmas eve, Ty was counting down until Daddy got home so that it would be almost Christmas day. We had a great Christmas Eve dinner at some friends' house, set out our doughnuts for the big guy and even got the kids to bed at a decent time. Thankfully, Ty let us sleep until around 7:00 before he couldn't stand it anymore. WE read Luke 2 in our bed and then ended up waking up Kelsie...I guess she didn't remember that it was CHRISTMAS!!!

In Rigby style, we hung the sheet to keep any sneaky eyes from seeing stuff they weren't supposed to. Dal explained to Tyson that the youngest family member gets to go into the Living Room first. He insisted that Kelsie was not the youngest and that he should go in first. It wasn't until he realized nobody was going to get to go in unless it was done that way, that he gave in.

Kelsie was just SO excited about the treats in her stocking that she couldn't have cared less about anything else...that was until we started opening presents. Her stocking treats were soon forgotten in a flurry of wrapping paper!

Dal was the present master this year. For some reason he REALLY likes to do that...does it have something to do with when he was growing up...a power thing? I don't know. He did a great job. We did it one at a time so that it would last as long as possible...still wasn't that long. I am going to have to get used to this small Christmas thing.

Note to self...the kids liked the presents from the dollar store AS MUCH IF NOT MORE than the more expensive gifts. Dal tries to remind me this every year, but for some reason I feel like I am jipping them if all the presents come from the Dollar Tree. This is going to have to be continued a little later...gotta run and make the house look like I have done something productive before Dal gets home from work. To be continued...

Ginger Bread House...Move Over!

Making Ginger Bread Houses is a great Christmas tradition...just not one for me. I love the idea. What's not to love...eatible houses covered in frosting and candy...Yum! The trouble is the ginger bread. Have you ever tried working with that stuff? First, you have to have the perfect recipe. Then you have to cut your house pieces EXACTLY right. Then bake them the right amount of time to get the correct firmness. Then comes the fun part...trying to get the pieces to stand up and stay standing up with all the decorations on top. I guess I just don't have the patience or talent for it. The last time I tried, at Enrichment several years ago, my roof pieces didn't quite meet at the top. I decided it would be a sun roof. The sister teaching the class was appalled that I would leave it that way. What can I say...I am not a perfectionist.

My parents had the right idea. We made Christmas trains out of graham crackers when we were kids. Same idea...glue it all together with frosting and decorate with candy. You just didn't have to deal with ginger bread...that was the key. Yeah, we had a lot of broken crackers, but who cares...it's a broken cracker!

Fast forward to 2008 and my attempt at starting fun Christmas traditions for my kids. I decided that I would take any chance out of the equation. We made rice crispy treat houses. I would say they can't fail, but you just have to look at the pictures to see that the roof presents a bit of a challenge. My friend, Eimile, and I got together with our kids last week to make houses. We made the kids' houses first, so we learned from our mistakes. The roofs were a bit heavy to withstand all the frosting and candy and eventually became flat. I think a flat roof is perfectly acceptable. After all, the house I grew up in had a flat roof.


Kelsie couldn't care less that her roof was flat. In fact, the only reason there is even any frosting on her house is because I helped her put a knife-full on. The rest went straight into her mouth. I think she finally got a few pieces of candy on the top too...the ones she didn't like very much.

Tyson, on the other hand, really struggled when his roof came down. He kept saying, "It's not perfect...it's not good enough." I tried to explain that it was my fault the roof fell down, not his, but he wouldn't listen. Once again, we have been traumatized by a Christmas tradition gone bad (Letter to Santa didn't go too well last year). I think this one can be remedied next year though with a little more stable construction.

I cheated a bit with my house after seeing all the roofs collapse on the kids' houses. My roof had a little cardboard and a couple of chop sticks to help it maintin its shape. Anyway, the point is...rice crispy treats are the way to go. If you want it to keep it even simpler, buy the ones from the store and cut them into bricks for your house. They are the perfect consistency for building. And they taste way better than stale ginger bread. We used a combination of homemade and store bought on ours. I think we have found a new tradition for the Rigby family. We will never do anything but Rice Crispy houses from now on!

Merry Christmas from the Rigbys

The Christmas Card Process went a lot smoother this year than last. We had one photo shoot and were able to get a decent picture. I am not sure if it is on-the-wall-for-the-next-four-years-quality, but it was cute enough for a card. And yes...it is still going on the wall so that Kelsie can finally be represented on the family wall in the living room.

I even got the cards sent out on time. Most of you reading this should have received it by now, but just in case something happened (freak act of nature, malicious post man, etc.) and you haven't received our card...here is the picture for all to enjoy!

We hope you all have a great Christmas and have fun over the holiday season. We miss seeing all of our friends and family, but love getting updates on what is happening in your lives. Merry Christmas!

We are still alive!

OK...so by now, you have probably noticed that I am not a very consistent blogger. I promised myself when I started this blog, that I would not let it consume me and take over all my time. I think I have done a pretty good job of that...maybe a little too good of job! Sorry! We have been busy (like everyone else) and this just hasn't made the list of things to do until now. So, like usual, you may get several posts today (depending on how long I can put off working out this morning) and then who knows when the next post will be. I apologize, but that is just how it has to be.

So anyway, we went to Idaho Falls for Thanksgiving and two weddings...my brother, John and one of my roommates from BYU, Lindsay. Dal, of course, had to be back to work the week after the holiday, but the kids and I stayed for another week and a half. It was great fun. I think we ended up going to temple square three times while we were there. It's funny how we never seemed to make it there when we lived in Salt Lake, but this trip I couldn't seem to stay away. Thanks to Jen, we actually got some pictures.




The weddings were both great. We got to hang out with family and to make everything even better, it didn't ever get that cold. It was great. I was extrememly nervous to come home for several reasons. First, I knew I had to do all the things I had been putting off for weeks when I got home. Second, I had to drive home by myself with the kids. It was the first time...Dal wouldn't ever let me before. With a lot of prayers, the drive went PREFECTLY. The kids were gems and we made record time. It makes me think I can go visit whenever I want (Dal doesn't agree). The icing on the cake was that I made the trip for less than $45 in gas. Can't beat that. Too bad gas is going up again. Merry Christmas to us!

It was fun spending time with friends and family...sorry if we missed you. Now that I know I can drive by myself, though, I can come more often and get to visit everyone on the list. See ya all soon!

Happy Halloween

Halloween has come and gone and we had a great time once again in the Rigby household.

Tyson was a knight in shining armor and Kelsie was a dragon so cute that no knight would even think of slaying her!

Kelsie staked herself out with her friend on the minature golf game at the ward activity and pigged out on candy. Luckily, Mackinsie didn't mind the fact that Kelsie was eating all the candy from her pumpkin!

Kelsie LOVES my friend, Becky. Dallan keeps asking if it makes me feel bad that she likes Becky more than me. I think it is great. I know my baby still loves me, but she loves to play with Becky. As Becky points out, she even says "Becky." OK...so it sounds more like Kee-Kee, but we know what she means. It was kind of funny today at church. Becky was home sick so when Kelsie went to sit with her (a weekly occurance), she was so sad not to see her there. In fact, she didn't believe her eyes and had to go back several times to make sure Becky still wasn't there.

Jack O Rigby

I know you have all done it already and it looked a lot like this, but nonetheless, here is our pumpkin carving 2008 experience!

Dal and Ty bought the pumpkin (yes...at Food Maxx...we ran out of time!), Ty drew the face all by himeself, Daddy did the carving and Mommy (with minimal help from the kids) cleaned out the gunk!

Yes on 8!

A New Princess

My friends, Eimile and Shannon, threatened to give Kelsie dress up clothes for her birthday. They both have three girls each and the princess-ness of their houses always make me laugh. Well, they followed through on their threats and this was the result. All the other little girls were very helpful in showing us how it all worked and were so proud of the finished work!

Birthday Wishes

So...I forgot to put the clips of the kids blowing out their candles. I'm so embarassed! Here are the stars of the night...Tyson...

...and Kelsie

I have to explain Kelsie's cake as well. It is not quite as obvious as Tyson's but goes along with the theme, nonetheless. I was trying to come up with something a little more girly that fit with the star wars theme. My friend, Eimile, thought cinnamon rolls could pass as Princess Leiha's buns. I ran with the idea (it was the only one I had) but went with an ice cream cake roll instead of the rolls. A little bit of a stretch, I know, but she doesn't care...she's only 2 (almost)!

In a Galaxy Not So Far Away...

Yes...it is that time of year again! We had a galactic birthday party for both Tyson and Kelsie last night. "A Star Wars Party for Kelsie?" you may ask, but it is true. She loved every minute of it. I figure I wouldn't be able to get away with it next year, so we might as well let Tyson have the party he really wants!

I got the idea for these TIE fighter ships online and thought, "Oh, those are cute and look way easy. I can do that!" Ha! The wings, which are currently in the trash can, took me about 6 hours to make. Yeah...I know...everybody has a better way I could have done it. I don't want to hear them! Oh well, the turned out cute (thanks to Becky for saving the day and helping me with the frosting last minute) and the kids, especially Ty, loved them!

We had masks for all the kids to color and take home. Kelsie chose (with the help of her big brother) R2D2. She was very cute. Unfortunately, we didn't get a picture of our little Master Yoda because he wouldn't sit still long enough to snap one.

Kelsie was eating up her cake and ice cream. She even had seconds, which if you have spent any amount of time around her, you know is something worth writing about. Notice the red and black in the background. She was talked into moving over to the dark side by some very pursuasive recruiters (thanks Lewis boys!) and a promise of a free T-shirt and lightning powers!

She was, however, the only one of the party guests, to choose the dark side. The rest of them crammed around the blue and green side (I don't know...is it called the light side, the good side, just the force?) Way to choose the right!

A Little Aloha

Okay...so we've been back for a week now, but it seems like forever...I'm losing my tan already! I don't have very many pictures, so this is a mini blog with many more pictures and stories to come. We were lazy and let everyone else take the pictures, but not we have to wait until they send them to us...Not happening very fast, Jen! Anyway...we had a great time but we are happy to be back home with the kids and all the craziness that comes with it.

Heidi had a few extra leis after the luau, and I didn't want them to go to waste. After this picture, they decorated our house for the rest of th week!

This is just a picture to show the location of our house that we rented. It was a great location. Do you see that sand right off our deck? Where the plants are, is where you go down a couple of feet to the beautiful sandy beach below!

Dal and I stayed in Wikiki one extra night after everybody else flew out. We stayed just a couple of blocks from the beach. This picture was taken from our balcony, but it doesn't do it justice. We could actually see the surfers from our room. We didn't stay there too long (North Shore is WAY BETTER), but it was fun to walk around all the touristy stuff!

Like I said, there will be more to come, but I wanted to get a little something down before it was totally outdated. Check back for more soon!

Strong Kelsie

Kelsie is really into doing push ups lately. She likes to show us her muscles too, but we didn't get that on camera this time. For your entertainment...our strong Kelsie...(don't mind the hair...it is the end of the day and the cute curls never last past nap time)

So Pretty!

For those of you who have spent any amount of time with Kelsie, you know she loves to have "pretties" put in her hair but that there is something inside of her, stronger than human comprehension, driving her to pull them out as soon as they are in.

She will hand them to me so I can put them in her hair and then immediately pull them out. She then gets the saddest look on her face and she hands them back to me to get them put in again.

I've been using tough love therapy to solve this problem...I just don't put them in...EVER! It makes her sad, but it makes me more sad when she rips a handful of hair out with each pretty she yanks out.

With that very long introduction...


Last night, Kelsie found a bag full of her pretties and brought them to me. She would take them out of the bag, one at a time, and say "Here-go-Mommy!" How could I resist that? I would put one in and she would immediately hand me another. Eventually, we had the whole bag in her hair. She even left them in for a few minutes while she showed her Daddy and looked at herself in the mirror.

Her will power gave out, though, and she eventually started ripping them all out. Luckily, I calmed her down enough to allow me to take them out in a safer manner.

I think we are making progress, though, because this morning I put some clippies in her hair and then distracted her with some Pringles. She forgot they were in her hair and left them in the entire time we were at the park today. Wahoo! Hopefully this is a sign of what is to come.

A Farewell to Disneyland

We said goodbye to Disneyland this week with our last visit on our annual passes...they expired yesterday! The best part of it was that Dallan came with us for the first time. He took Wednesday off from work so we could go one more time.

We drove down to Anaheim Tuesday night after work and got a hotel room for the night. For most of you, that may seem like no big deal, but for the Rigby family it was huge. I don't think we have ever done it as a family. We got on Hotwire.com (which I now love) and got a great room for only $56. We didn't get there until 9:00, but we had promised Tyson some swimming, so swim we did. I don't think we got anybody to bed until around 11:00. Tyson got his very own bed...which confused him because he thought the boys should share a bed and the girls should share a bed!


The next morning, we loaded up the stroller (to the tip over point when the kids got out) and walked to the park (it took about 15 minutes). It was a hot day, but other than that a perfect day for Disney.

Kelsie mapped out our day. Most of the time she used the map as a hat, but every once in a while she made it look like she knew what she was doing. I think the only reason she wanted one was to bug Ty...she liked to take whichever one he was holding.

The favorite ride was the new Toy Story ride over at California Adventure. It was the longest line (not bad at 20 minutes) but we had to go on it three times because Ty loved it. I came to the conclusion that I am a horrible shot. I just pulled the string as fast as I could and hoped to hit something because when I tried to aim at anything, I was way off.

Tyson made huge strides this trip. He got all his courage together to try the Star Wars ride and absolutely loved it. He couldn't stop talking about it. As soon as he and Dal got off, he wanted me to take him again. It was the funniest thing ever, whenever we went "light speed" he would put his hands up in the air, like on a roller coaster, and yell, "Wheee!" He would talk through the entire ride, telling me what was going to happen and pointing everything out to make sure I didn't miss a thing.

He also FINALLY got up the guts to go on Buzz Lightyear (after we gave him ear plugs and insisted it was just like the Toy Story ride). He of course loved it and we went on that 3 or 4 times (no lines).

The afternoon got a little hot so we took a breather in Mickey and Minnie's houses. Dal really liked Minnie's bed.

Kelsie has learned the art of the cheesey smile. I didn't post them all, but there were a bunch of picture of her with this same smile. She loves to smile for the camera.

She learned a lot from her brother. At the end of every ride, she would throw her hands up in the air, yelling "Wheee!". This was especially humurous as we finished a ride like Winnie the Pooh. She definitely got more out of the trip this time than all the others.

Kelsie and I tried to relax on Minnie's couch, but as comfy as it looks, it was hard as a rock. Come on Minnie...splurge a little!

As always, we have to take a swing at pulling the sword out of the stone. Ty wanted to make sure there were no wizards around before he tried. He was pretty upset when it didn't work, but I explained that a wizard was necessary to help get it out...he didn't want to get it out anymore!

At the end of the day, we had all had a great time. Having the double stroller was a life saver because Ty saved his energy and the walk back to the hotel was no big deal. We loved having Dal with us. Too bad we won't be going back for a few years now. I think we have had our Disnyeland fix this year, but we will miss it.