Christmas

Christmas was great this year. Ryan and I have tried to set some traditions for our family and I think we have a few things in place. The first weekend in December, we set up the tree and watched Elf. The second weekend we went to see the lights at Temple Square. The third weekend, we went to SLC and visited the reindeer at Thanksgiving Point. It was really a great month and I think we started some traditions that helped us to get into the spirit of Christmas along with spending time as a family.

Christmas eve, Spencer was so excited, as any kid would be. We negociated 7am as a wake up time. Spencer wanted 5, I wanted 8, we reasoned on 7. Or so I thought. When at 3:30 from the living room arose such a clatter. I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter. When what to my wondering eyes should appear? SPENCER CELEBRATING CHRISTMAS BY HIMSELF!!! Yes, Spencer had opened all his stocking stuff, and multiple presents already. I was like, What are you doing? And he says, it's Christmas. And I said, yes it is, but it's not 7. Back to bed I sent him, upset of course. About 7:30, he woke up again and roused us out of bed to celebrate the visit of Santa as a family.

After opening presents and setting up Rock Band and watching the training session, Ryan and I went back to bed for another hour. Then it was off to Disneyland! Part II will follow this blog entry.

ODE to the suit

So Ryan has been wanting a new suit for a couple months now. He has been to Men's Warehouse a handful of times and had a few picked out. Men's Warehouse was having a buy one get one half off sale. It's a great deal, but it's still a lot of $$$ to have to fork out. In the meantime, he was back and forth on getting one. One day I was on overstock.com looking for something and decided to see if they sold suits. Sure enough they do. And lots of them! They are great prices, much better than what Men's Warehouse was offering. I pointed that out to Ryan and for 12 days he got on the website every opportunity he had. We talked about suits non stop. Colors, and stripping and 2 piece vs 3 piece, Sean Johns and Kenneth Coles. I was mentally exhausted from talking about suits. Finally he decided to buy one. It came, he put it on, danced around a bit. Needless to say, he loves it. It's a great lookin' suit and even better, it was a SWINGIN' deal. Gotta love that!

Here's to you babe! You look great!

Temple Square

I love temple square in the winter. This is our second annual trip there and we had such a great time. The crisp chill in the air and beautiful lights are awesome.

We went to the Joseph Smith Memorial Bldg for a break from the cold and to get some hot chocolate. We let Spencer do some exploring while Ryan and I sat in the lobby. Spencer wanted to go upstairs to look over the balcony. So he headed off to the elevator. I could see him from the distance in and out of the elevator, but he never made it to the balcony. After about 20 minutes he came back and was so confused because he couldn't get to the balcony level. He was like, I went to level 2 and that's not it. So we said, what level are we on? And he said this was the lobby level. We then told him to push the button right above the lobby button. So off he went to try that. He was in and out of every elevator (there are 4-5) ushering people in and out trying to get to the balcony level. Probably a half hour later, he comes zooming back and was frustrated he still couldn't get to the balcony level. Then it hit me that the 2nd level was actually listed as the mezzanine level. So I suggested that and within minutes, Spencer was hanging over the balcony waving.

Come What May and Love It

As you can probably tell, I am in LOVE with this saying. I admit, I'm not one to sit down and watch General Conference. I think it takes away from the spirit when I can sit at home and watch it on my big screen. If the opportunity presents itself, I will listen to it on the radio. Regardless, I always try to read a few of the talks when the Conference issue of the Ensign comes.

The other day when I was feeding Dillan, I grabbed the Ensign and flipped through it. I found the article, Come What May, by Elder Wirthlin. Needless to say, I loved the article. The past few months have been rough in my personal life. Of course, I would love for things to work out the way I want them to. But sometimes that is not always the case. This article gave me the encouragement to be okay with what life brings. Things might not be the way I want them to, but life is about trials. The Lord might have other plans for me and I have to be okay with that. So COME WHAT MAY, and LOVE IT!

Neighbor and Friend Gifts

2 down, 73 to go. I LOVE Christmas!

Christmas treats

The holiday season brings so much goodies! My specialty treat I share, is Chocolate Pizza. I got the recipe from my mother and I love it. It takes only 10 minutes (seriously) and it's all done in the microwave (even better).

Dillan's Blessing

November 30, 2008

Living Planet Aquarium

more Dillan pics

A friend of mine enjoys photography for a hobby. She came and did a 'shoot' with Dillan the other day. Here is a sample of some of the pics she took. Way to go Angie, they are great!! (In the picture with the bear, that's a birth mark, fyi.)

Random pics - dillan

Sorry, for some reason the last pic uploaded incorrectly.

My Good Lookin' Hubby

Random pics - spencer

the Old days...

This is a picture of the house I grew up in. It was taken after the hurricane. There are a few changes, but for the most part, it's the same. So many memories come back to me when I see this picture. Playing bball on the driveway, trying to angle the car in the shade and actually hitting the wood part between the garage doors (lmao), sneaking out my window, hanging from the brick arch and the bricks actually breaking off....

but when I see this house, the one thing that sticks out in my mind is my mother. I miss her so much. If given the opportunity to see her today, I would first say how sorry I am for all the things I put her through. I understand now being a parent, just how much she only wanted me to be happy and safe. She made so many sacrifices for me that I never understood or realized.

I would then share with her how proud I am of her, who she was and the life she led. She was always so dedicated in everything she did.

Next I would share with her my beautiful daughter. She always encouraged me to have another baby, lol. As stubborn as I am, I told her it would never happen. My sis-in-law pointed out to me that Dillan most likely already has met her grandmother. That my mother was probably there when Dillan left the presence of her Heavenly Father to come into our lives. I have to think that my mother pobably gave Dillan a list of things to do to get retribution, lol.

Life is short. Enjoy the ones you love while you have the time.

Sleeping Beauty

4 weeks old, I can't believe how fast it's gone. Dillan is such a great baby. When she is awake, she is alert and wide eyed. She sleeps, for the most part, in 4 hour chunks. I have gotten lots of different views on who she looks like. Some say she looks like Spencer, some say she's a Rigby. She looks like I did from some of my baby pictures. I think she looks just like Ryan. She has some slight curl to the baby hair, not much though. Maybe she will have straight hair like her father. Inevitably it will be thick. She will do lots of changing and I'm anxious to see what the future brings.

Spencer is filling the roll of big brother to the fullest. He constantly wants to feed her and hold her. He rushes to tell me she is fussing and tries to calm her crying.

Ryan has stepped in and has been quite helpful. He calls her Little D, which has now become her nickname around our house. He takes his turn getting up with her on the weekends (although I am consulted a few times on what to do) and he usually offers a couple times a week to help out.

We have had such great support from family, friends and neighbors. We probably had 2 weeks of meals brought in from friends and neighbors. (I think it kind of spoiled Ryan, we are back to grilled cheese and frozen pizzas! :))

I am back to work and back to my sports. Dillan just goes along with me. It's still surreal to think I have a little one after so many years. I almost feel too old to be doing it again!

8 is Great!!

TAGGED

8 TV Shows I Love to Watch

1. CSI - Vegas (original is always the best)

2. Dancing with the Stars

3. Desperate Housewives

4. Dalls Cowboys Cheerleaders (come on, it's AWESOME)

5. Nancy Grace

6. Seinfeld reruns

7. Glen Beck (yes, I do enjoy some politcal controversy from time to time)

8. Friends reruns

8 Things that Happened to Me Yesterday (I started this a few days ago)

1. I was able to actually exercise!

2. Killed 4 flies at work.

3. Went to the dentist ( no cavities, whoo hooo!)

4. Made dinner (first time in a whole week, thanks so much neighbors and friends!)

5. did some laundry

6. didn't have a diet coke

7. went to work

8. had salad for dinner

8 Favorite Places to Eat

1. Training Table

2. Pei Wei

3. Chili's

4. Firehouse

5. Mandarin Garden

6. Fuddruckers

7. Cafe Sabor

8. California Pizza Kitchen

8 Things I am Looking Forward To

1. A night without having to get up to feed the baby

2. Being able to play basketball again

3. Volleyball tourney in a few weeks

4. Sleeping in again

5. Christmas

6. Being able to fit in my skinny jeans once again

7. a Halloween party on Saturday

8. Dillan's blessing day

8 Things on My Wish List

1. a Maid

2. a cook

3. new basketball AND volleyball AND running shoes

4. to be skinny again, tomorrow!

5. long hair

6. finished basement

7. finished yard

8. snowboard

8 people I tag

1. Kristen

2. Jillian

3. Liz

4. Heather

5. Shantel

6. Steph

7. Mel

8. Kristi

And whoever else wants to play!

The Bow

I have not been a huge fan of the massive, gi-normous bows and flowers that moms attach to their baby's heads. BUT I have recently had a change in opinion. We were given a headband with the cutest interchangable bows. I had to take a picture. So CUTE!!!

My YouTube Debut

We have a friend that has bought in on a new product. He needed someone to do a 'how to' on the product and I was the lucky one of his friends. Check it out.

www.qubeappeal.com
(you will have to cut and paste, sorry!)

Big Brother

Friends and Family

P.S. I need to change my blog title, I know. Changes coming soon...

the First Night...

I survived. :) I'll just say that I hope she gets on a regular schedule in the next day or two.

Dillan Jane Rigby

October 9, 2008 3:59pm 6 lbs 10 oz 19.5 inches

Yep, she came early. I was on the schedule to be induced on Monday. I saw my doc on Wed this week and was still at 2 cm. No contractions, no nothing. I was looking forward to Thursday. I was planning on cleaning the house top to bottom and cleaning the windows inside and out before it got cold. I put Spencer on the bus, waved goodbye and less than 5 minutes later, my water broke. No big gush, but a slow leak. I wasn't 100% positvie that's what had happened, and it was my doc's day off. I didn't want to have to bother him if it was something minor. In the meantime, my house was going to get cleaned. So I did the bathrooms, dusted and did the inside of the windows and blinds. After that I packed the last few things for the hospital bag, just in case. THEN I called the on-call doc. Their office was in Smithfield, clear on the other side of the valley. So rather than drive all the way there, I just went to the hospital. Sure enough, my water had broke and I was dialated to a 3. Doc was called in and still, no contractions, so they started me on the potassin.

After probably and hour on the drip line, I couldn't handle the contractions anymore and asked for my epideral. The anthesia doc came in and started the procedure and the next thing I knew, Ryan was sitting down and completly white in the face. He was about to pass out, lol. After that, it was smooth sailing. Things were going well there and then the baby's heart rate went down a little. The nurses came in turned off the drip line and just watched. The contractions were coming hard and fast and they think that the baby wasn't getting enough time between contractions to recover. But after we gave her a break, her heartrate went back up. From there, they checked me again and I had dialated to a 7 within an hour of starting the drip line. They called the doc back in and when he checked me he said, "Whoa, better go change my clothes, we're having a baby." I had gone from a 7 to a 10 within another half hour.

So doc came back in, and after two pushes (seriously 2 pushes) she was here! They grabbed her and went to clean her up and I had time to eat a sandwich, lol then they brought her over to me. It was quick and fairly simple.

I feel very lucky and blessed that my pregnancy and labor went well and was very easy compared to many people.

We made it home today safe and sound. I drove the van with both kids (ryan had driven separately to the hospital on Thursday). It was so surreal. I have kidS. 2! So weird.

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