"I Love You Roxie"

Roxie is well loved, especially by Gabriella. I'm amazed at how much love toward animals Ella has. It would not surprise us in the least bit if she grew up to be a Vet or a Zookeeper or lived on a Farm. Regardless, I know she'll have a ton of animals in her care someday (just not at our house \"/).
I came downstairs one day to find that she had made Roxie a picture and posted it up right by her bed. She loves her wanted her "To be happy and always think of her (Ella) when she looks at it!" Since then Roxie's art wall has been growing and she now has 5 or 6 pictures tacked up to look at. I can't bring myself to take them down. So they'll stay there till they fall down. I really love watching my children's personality unfold - I really love being a Mom.

Winter Writer's Cafe - January 16th

Bailey has the neatest 2nd grade teacher this year - Ms. Faire. She's young and vibrant and really willing to go the extra mile for her class!

The kids wanted a Christmas party but with all the having to be politcally correct crap, Ms Faire was told she couldn't have one. So in an effort around this, she decided decided to have a Winter Writers Cafe as an alternative. The kids were told to write a poem or a story that they were going to get to read to their parents at the Cafe. She sent home cute invites and had cookies and hot chocolate. This was supposed to take place December 12th, the last day before winter break, but the snow came with a vengence and the kids started their winter break earlier. So it got rescheduled to January 16th. Bailey had wrote a poem and a story (which he tried to finish but it was really long). He read the Poem at the Cafe. I'm a proud Mom!

Bailey's Poem - The Snow Man:

The snow was falling

My bad sister was drawing

A snow man was walking

He filled my stocking

With a bunch of candy

And his name was Manny

This is Bailey sitting next to his good friend John. Bailey thinks John looks like Slash from Guns N' Roses. He calls him that! (LOL! But I think he does too!) Bay wishes his hair was like this - Oh No- I think we may be raising a little rocker!

"Mommy, I WANT TO BAKE SOMETHING RIGHT NOW!!" January 5th

Gabriella has been enjoying spending time with me in the kitchen. She loves to cook and do anything bake wise! She's usually attached to my hip in the kitchen. The only thing she wanted for Christmas this year was an Easy Bake Oven. I remember wanting one so badly when I was her age! So my little Chef received one (amoung other baking stuff) from Santa Claus this year. (I definitely want her to love to cook and bake.) We had so much going on after Christmas that we didn't have time to do the Easy Bake and use her new cupcake decorating machine (which by the way, was a complete piece of junk and waste of money). She also had been playing with her other new toys.

On the first day back to school (Ella's a Kinder so she goes to school in the afternoon) that morning she came to me and told me that she wanted to bake something using her new oven. I told her that the next day would be better but she wouldn't have that! "NO! Not tomorrow, I WANT TO BAKE SOMETHING RIGHT NOW!" Now usually I don't tolerate the temper tantrums well but I could tell she really wanted to do this and I felt bad that we had waited so long to do it. So I put my plans on hold and we had a morning in the kitchen baking. She baked a little round cake and frosted it. She thought it tasted perfect. (I thought it tasted disgusting! But that's Easy Bake cake mixes for ya!) We then baked more cupcakes from a regular cake mix so she could use her frosting machine to decorate them! I really enjoyed my time with my daughter and I'm really thankful she LOVES to cook and bake.

Happy 2009 New Year!

We celebrated the new year at our good friends, the Bakers, house with a large group of people and kids. It was so fun! I'm grateful to have such good friends! I usually get a picture with all of us on New Years Eve and then the New Year! This year, I have no idea what I was thinking, but I forgot. So Happy New Year! I hope 2009 is going to be a good year!

Surprise! We're going to FRANCE!!! December 27th

Ever since I've been 12, I've had this obsession with Paris. I've dreamed of going there and seeing the Eiffel Tower and all the beauty that France has to offer. I took French in High School, studied Fashion in College and even decorated Ella's room with a Parisian flair. I love hearing about French culture and looking at pictures of the Eiffel tower. I'm all about France - My beloved France!

So when Hyrum and I got married I told him it was a dream of mine to travel to France. He told me that someday we would go there. In 13 years we've been working hard on getting his schooling done and having our babies. Now that the kids are 6 and 8 and Hyrum's got his Masters with a good job - it's time! We had been talking about doing a large trip, a second honeymoon, for about a year. I kept dropping hints that Paris would be fun to go to but we hadn't made any committments or plans. So on Christmas morning, much to my surprise, I opened my stocking to find French CD's, French vocabulary book and a traveling France itenerary book. I looked at Hyrum and he smiled and said "I think it's time to plan your trip!" I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE THIS MAN! HERE WE GO!!!!

On December 27th we booked tickets to travel in May for 12 days! I still can't believe it! It seems surreal! We're going to Paris, Versailles, Caen (to see the Normandy beaches), Loire Valley, and then to Nice (and surrounding cities like Marseille, Monacco and Monte Carlo) to see the Mediterranean. It should be quite a trip! Thanks to my Mom, Hyrum's Parents and Andrea for watching the kids while we're gone. I really appreciate them!

Have I said that I love my husband! Thank you Hyrum - you make all my dreams come true!

Cousin Sleepover (I must be crazy!) Friday, December 26th

The girls were having so much fun with their new outfits and wanted to have a sleepover. I told them that the next night they could come to our house for one. They were so excited! I also had Caleb (Avery's older brother) over to keep Bailey entertained but they disappeared to go play Legos and the Wii so they weren't interested in picture taking. It was a fun, eventful evening! Hyrum chased and surprised the girls while I got it on the video camera! It's so funny - definitely something they are going to laugh about in later years! Lots of giggling and playing. I don't think they went to bed till midnight and I know the boys didn't fall asleep until 1 or 2am! We'll definitely be doing this again!

Lydia, Gabriella and Avery watiching Tinkerbell.

We had pink peppermint ice cream! Lydia couldn't get enough. I mean this girl licked that bowl clean! I asked if she wanted more and I could tell she did but the other two were wanting to go play so she opted to go be with the girls! So funny!

Christmas Evening

We went over to Mom and Dad Rigtrup's home in the evening to celebrate Christmas with family. I was so tired from the days festivities that I didn't get a whole lot of pictures.

Grandma and Grandpa had given their 3 granddaughters a special gift this year. They had gone to the Shakespere festival in Oregon and had picked up these Renaissance outfits for the girls. It must have cost them a fortune! They are quite the outfits for dress-up. I can see these might be used for Halloween. The girls squealed with delight. It was really fun to watch. Grandma had also found the butterfly wands that lit up and played some Chinese rock song that drove us CRAZY all night. They had fun and she still loves dressing up in this outfit!

The beauties - Avery, Gabriella and Lydia

Butterfly Power! Max and Vance are the two looking longingly at the all important wands!
We (or I should say Gabriella) had drawn Lydia's name for Christmas. We decided to do a Pinkalicious theme (it's a really cute book). We gave her the book, pink skirt and I made the shirt. (I love it!) She looked adorable!

Roxie's Present

Gabriella had been saying to me during the Christmas Season, "Mom, when are we going to get a present for Roxie?" I kept putting her off and forgetting about it with everything we had going on. So Christmas Eve she asked me again just before she went to bed. Oh crap! I totally forgot! She said it was OK because she had made her a gift. This was so precious I wanted to be sure it got on the blog! The next morning after we had our Christmas, Roxie got hers from our blessed Ellabee! So here's the gift....

A Homemade Puppet!

You can't see it here, but Roxie was afraid of this. I'm not sure if it was because it was attacking her (Ella's way of introducing the puppet) or if it was because she stuck it on her face. Either way Roxie had a present of her very own!

Ella's actually telling Roxie to be careful and not rip the puppet. She didn't want to "fix it" again!

Christmas Morning 2008

Christmas morning tradition for the kids is you don't get to go downstairs until Mom and Dad are up. I like to go turn on the lights and music while Hyrum gets the video camera ready. I'm not sure how many more Christmases we have of them following this tradition. I could hear them yelling about the gifts before they made it to our room. It was a fabulous morning, a fabulous Christmas!

First Look (or was it...)

Gabriella so excited to see what Santa brought!

Bailey's new skateboard
A new doll for Gabriella (I think this makes 11. I know, but she asks for a doll every year for christmas and Birthday! What are you going to do? She's got her own orphange in the playroom!)

Loves and thanks! It had to be documented!

Christmas Eve 2008

We had a different Christmas Eve this year - a very laid back evening. (Thankfully.) We had our good friends the Paternoster's over for dinner, decorated sugar cookies for Santa, talked about the Birth of Christ, saw Santa run across the yard, and then put the kids to bed. It was great!

Watching where Santa is on the computer. This was really cool because it showed the different time zones and how he was making his way toward them. (We started this in the morning!)

Marcie, Erik & Brooklyn and Bailey and Ella

Decorating cookies for Santa. More like eating cookies for Santa.

Mr. C's note to the kids
Goodnight to all and to all a Goodnight!

Winter Wonderland

I love snow in the month of December! It makes Christmas! I think it's so beautiful. It's when it goes into March and April that I begin to really hate the white stuff. But it was really fun to watch the kids get giddy with excitement while playing outside.

Goody Gumdrops! It's the Rigtrup Christmas Party! December 20th

So Hyrum and I have had a Christmas party for the last 4 years. I LOVE Christmas but I especially love this Christmas party. In the past it's been mostly an Elder's Quorum party but since Hyrum is no longer President, we decided to expand the guest list and make this an Annual tradition. I was really surprised we had as many guest show as we did since there was a serious snow storm outside!

One of the funnest things about the party (next to "no kids allowed") is the White Elephant gift exchange. It's hillarious! There's always such a selection of "gag" gifts. I think people plan for this all year! This year we had a box of junk (literally), men's thong underwear (with happy faces all over it), a "how to kiss/treat a girl" book from the 1950's (with personal notes) and a bunch of crazy other stuff! My stomach muscles hurt from laughing so hard!

Don't miss next year's "Ugly Sweater Christmas Party!" Game on!

Gary & Christi Jacobs, Krista Mitchell, Kelly Jensen and Jake & Cindy Rigtrup

Gary measuring how much is left in the bottle.... Making sure the Peguin lights up! A HOT gift this year. Remember to raid your local Big Lots for next years bird light up!

A VERY cold train ride to see Santa! December 20,2008

Mom and Dad Rigtrup decided to take everyone on the train to the North Pole (Snoqualmie) to visit Santa. We were so excited for the train ride until we discovered there is absolutely NO HEAT on board the train. WHAT?! I think this was the coldest day of the year.

We then had to wait outside to actually get into the building to visit the bearded man. Seriously, I don't think I've been this cold since I lived in Idaho during the Winter! The kids had a great time until they froze up but we are really grateful to Grandma and Grandpa Rigtrup for the experience and I think we all have a true appreciation for Santa! Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa!

Bailey and Caleb

Hyrum and Dad

Me (just before my frost bite)

I tried to prolong this picture and visit as long as I could because we were warm and indoors!

The kids thought this guy looked cool in his vintage sheriff's outfit.