Oh Tannenbaum, and other fun stuff!

Today is Sunday and I didn't go to church! Yup, none of us did, as a matter of fact no one in our ward did. Indianapolis had it's first "bad enough to cancel church" snow storm. Not that we got a lot of snow, but that after it stopped snowing it started raining, my car is covered in a nice blanket of ice, and so are the roads. I tried to take a picture but you couldn't really tell. So I am using this extra time to update, and I feel like I have a lot to update! OK, so first I want to tell you about our Christmas Tree finding adventure. We found this great Christmas Tree farm where you can go and pick out a tree and cut it down yourself. It's not like going into the Uintahs like our family is used to but it was still fun, and we have decided to make it our tree tradition while we are here. The farm has wagon rides, hot chocolate, and Santa. None of the boys were afraid of Santa this year, that made it really fun!!

So, at the zoo here they go all out with decorations for Christmas and they are open until 9pm. We took the boys and had such a great time. Santa is there also, but you have to pay for those pictures. Also Santa's reindeer are there, however the male reindeer learned how to put his antlers under the fence and move it so on the day we went they weren't there. We are going again on Thursday and we are very excited to see the reindeer!

We are having such a nice time while Dave is on break. Austin and Taylor will be done with school Wednesday, and we will have even more time all together. What a great time of year it is! Earlier when we asked the boys what Christmas was they said it is when Santa comes, which is true in some aspects, but now when you ask them they say "it's Jesus' birthday!" How great.

These are a couple of pictures of all the boys making a snow alligator! They LOVE being outside in the snow, it is so fun!!

These last pictures have nothing to do with the snow, Christmas, or our break, but I thought they were really fun. The first is of Dave's Grandma and Grandpa Rigby, the second is of Dave's parents and the third is of us!

First Snow in Indiana

Well it happened, it snowed in Indianapolis! Today the temperature is a frigid 20 degrees. BRRRRR!! Yesterday, Dave took a little time off his studies to take the boys out back and go sledding (on the biggest mountain in Indiana..hee-hee). Here are a few pictures from their adventure! Please try not to notice that my older two are not in snow pants, or boots! This snow caught me a little off guard, and to be honest I thought that their suits from last year (the one Caden is wearing) would still fit...boy was I wrong. Anyway they are layered, and they could have cared less, they had such a blast. Taylor did ask to take a warm bath when they were done! I love these boys!!

Caden and Daddy

Cheeeez!

Taylor driving, and Austin riding.

I know this one is a little hard to see, but it is Taylor, making a snow angel, I love the expression of happiness on his face!

Taylor

One of my angels making an angel.

Well, that's all for today! I hope you are all warm and happy.

Wanna Laugh?

My friend had this link on her blog, pretty funny, and you can do it too!! Ha-Ha.

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1162147944

Our Turkey Day Adventures

So this being our first Thanksgiving away from "home" we decided it would be a fun thing if we packed ourselves into the car and take the 9 1/2 hour drive down to Charlottesville, Virgina to spend some time with Dave's sister and her family. That idea alone was enough to get me excited. Dave's sister and I are really good friends and I was totally missing her. However the idea only got better as we were able to find a decent priced airline ticket for Dave's little brother (well, little being 21) who we have not seen since we took him to the MTC to ship him off to Japan! So last Tuesday night Ru arrived. Dave still had class Wednesday, so we left as soon as possible after he got home. We were on the road by 4pm. Because of our late start we decided to stay in a hotel in West Virgina. Around 8am on Turkey day we hit the road towards Charlottesville. We arrived and the festivities began. Dave's sister had everything perfect. She even put together a few fun crafts for the cousins to do. She has a little boy just 7 months younger than Caden, and a little girl that will be 1 in a couple months. The cousins played really well together.

Sterling, Caden, Taylor and Austin

On Friday evening we drove away form Charlottesville towards Washington D.C. We spent a good part of the day Saturday seeing the sights. One day however, is not enough. The highlights were Arlington Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Lincoln memorial, WWII memorial, Washington monument, the Nation's Capital and of course the White House. Funny thing, I ran into a friend from here who had also gone to Virgina to be with family for Thanksgiving. Small world.

Austin and Dave

Me and Caden

Taylor, Uncle Bob, Austin

Me, Taylor, Austin, Dave, and Caden

The boys and Uncle Bob

Austin, Me, Taylor

Caden got a little tired after walking so far.

We had a great trip, and made it safe and sound, sound? what does that mean? Anyway...we had a supper nice time being all together. Now that we are home, well it's back to routine. Dave has what is seeming to be a never ending week and a half, during which he has 9 different exams, tests, presentations, and tooth model work that has to be done. The good news? On Friday the 7th in the afternoon, it will all be over and we will have our first semester under our belt. Dave will then have the next 3 weeks completely off. No school = no work!! Yeah!! Well, I guess that's all for now. Ciao!

Why do I read other people's Blogs?

I have been tagged...Thanks a lot Dana!
I don't feel like I can come up with 7 things to say about myself, but here goes.

1. I HATE spiders. I will literally jump up onto the counter if there is one crossing the floor. I will not kill a spider because I am afraid that it is going to jump up and get me. When Dave and I lived in our condo, I watched a spider for 3 1/2 hours, making sure I knew where it was so that when Dave got home he could "take care of it". Pathetic, I know!

2. I LOVE football. BYU Cougar football mostly. I have been a fan since I was 4 years old. My mom and or dad would take me to games and to this day I still enjoy watching them. I know every word to the cougar fight song and will sing it for you if you ask nicely!

3. I recently have gotten into the vampire books, don't know what I am talking about? That's too bad, you are really missing out. It is a little shameful that I am so addicted to a story about a teenager who falls in love with a vampire. I find my thoughts are constantly on their lives, like I know them or something! The author does an exceptional job of describing every character and scenario.

4. I love to bake. I love to get my little Food and Family magazine and try out all the yummy treats.

5. I don't know how to drive a stick!! Seriously, I don't. Never have learned and probably never will.

6. My first kiss was awful, honestly, after that I didn't think I was ever going to want to kiss another boy again. Those of you who know me, know I got over that phobia pretty easily!! Too much info? Sorry.

7. I love the smell of coffee. I make it a point to walk down the isle in the store that has coffee so I can smell it. The best though is when I get to go to Starbucks...oh am I in heaven. (I don't get coffee for myself, I am partial to their steamed milk with hazelnut. Right now for the holidays they have gingerbread, yummy!)

Well, look at that! 7 things about me. I guess I am supposed to tag now right? Well I tag...Andrea and Shanti!

October update even though it is November

Hello! I think I can safely say Happy Holidays! Crazy, I know, but have you been to the store lately? Everything is decked out for Christmas. I feel a little bad for Thanksgiving. It seems like it goes form Halloween right to Christmas. I really like Thanksgiving...all that food. Oh, ya and getting to be with family. We are lucky this year because Andrea and her family are in Virginia, so we are going to be driving down to spend Thanksgiving with them. Kinda nice for our first Thanksgiving away from home to still get to spend it with family!

Well, as far as an update goes...yup! I've got nothin'. School is still the same for Dave and the boys, and Caden and I are happy in our little routine.

I don't want to jump the gun, but I think, finally, after 6 years, Taylor is finally potty trained! YEA!!! His teacher was so nice she approached me with the idea of sending him in pull-ups and they would work with him at school. Academically the boys are ready for 1st grade so she thought this would be a good thing to get under the belt before next year. I am so grateful, of course I had been trying but how much can you do when your child is gone for 8 hours of the daylight! It took him 1 week, and we have only had a couple accidents since! Woo-Hoo.

Well I guess that just about covers my up date. Here are a few recent pictures!

Halloween night, well early evening. We thought it was funny that Taylor posed in all his shots, we never told him how to do it.

The next pictures are a few from Bloomington, we went down there on Saturday to try and get a new family picture. I am not posting it because you will probably all get one in your Christmas card and I want it to be a surprise!!

OK, that takes care of that! Thanks for looking, see ya after Thanksgiving!

All the fun we had with Grandma!!

OK, so in my last entry I told you all to look back later for pictures of all the fun we had while Grandma was here. Well guess what? I forgot to take the camera everywhere we went except the zoo, so sorry, that's all you get pictures from. I will however be happy to tell you about all our adventures.

Kerrie or Grandma or Mamma, who ever you are talking to in our family arrived on Thursday morning and despite her tiredness Caden and I whisked her off to meet Dave at school and go to lunch.

On Friday Kerrie, Caden and I took the 35 minute drive to the outlets just south of Indianapolis. We had a nice time, however I had forgotten my cell phone and was preoccupied with the fact that today was going to be the day that the boys school was going to need to get in touch with me. Well they didn't but I didn't know that until we got home.

Saturday was a fun day that I really regret not having my camera, if I had, you might get to see me climbing a tree! We went to an apple festival at a local orchard. The boys had a great time being hoisted up to pick apples, searching under branches for raspberries, and stomping thorough the pumpkin patch to find just the right pumpkin! After all that hard work we had a yummy hot dog and an even better apple cider slushy! YUM! Dave had a test that next Wednesday so he was unable to come with us, but we had a great time!

Saturday evening was the Relief Society General broadcast, and our stake did a huge service project that consisted of 500 Hygiene kits, cards for the Ronald McDonald House, quilts and nightgowns for humanitarian aid, 500 puppy pillows for the Riley Children's Hospital and fleece blankets for the local Fire and Police departments to give to kids when they needed to be taken out of their homes for any reason. It was an amazing sight to see so many great women giving of their time and talents to help someone they would never know! The broadcast was as always an uplifting time to listen to those called to lead and direct us.

Sunday...Well, Sunday was Sunday!

Monday was going to be a great day, the boys were pumped up as they got on the bus to go see the "dinosaur bones" (the Children's museum). I even made special arrangements to pick them up from school a little early so we could have plenty of time to explore! We arrived at the museum and guess what? IT WAS CLOSED! How do you explain to 3 little boys after talking it up so much that they couldn't go in. Let me tell you, it wasn't easy and I spent the next few days hearing about how the "dinosaurs were locked".

Tuesday morning grandma went to Austin and Taylor's classroom and spent some time observing and helping. I joined her at lunch time and we had lunch with them.

If I remember correctly, Wednesday was pretty uneventful, a nice day but nothing really to share!

Thursday was a fun day, Dave was finished with his test and had the day off. We all went to the zoo, I know I have talked about it before but the zoo here is incredible. We packed a little lunch and spent just over 5 hours there. We got to pet sharks, but the highlight was probably the fountain that shoots up out of the ground. Here are some pictures from our trip to the zoo:

Austin touching a shark!

Caden on a shark on the carousel and Mom, Caden, Austin , Taylor and Grandma on the train. Dad came along for the ride but he took the picture!

Austin, completely enjoying the fact that he was getting wet, and nobody was stopping him!

Caden deciding if this was OK... Guess what he decided?

Taylor taking a break from running around getting wet!

Taylor and grandma! Fun grandma, hua?

Well, that pretty much wraps up the adventure with grandma. We were all sad to see her go, up until a couple days ago Caden was still saying that he "lost grandma." Cute!