Let's Bowl, Let's Bowl, Let's Rock & Roll

Sorry - had to get that Grease 2 song out of my head with the title.

Anyway, Chris and the girls have developed a lovely new game - Body Bowling. It works like this - the giant pins (Christmas gifts from Nana & Pappy) are lined up, the girls curl up like a ball and Daddy "hurls" them toward the pins in the attempt to knock as many of the pins down as possible.

There are no winners to this game - except for me, as I get our hardwood floors in our hallways polished to a beautiful shine.

I'm just waiting to get a call from child services on this one...

Sunday Six

Today's six questions were all about colors.

1. How many colors are there?

Anna: 5

Ashlyn: 10

2. Can you name some colors?
Both: Black, pink, brown, gray, purple, blue, red, orange, yellow, red, white, tan (our girls sure do know their colors)

3. What are your favorite colors?

Anna: blue, green, gray
Ashlyn: pink, purple

4. Where do we get colors?

Anna: From the coloring box

Ashlyn: In the box

(Their crayons are kept in a box)

5. Who made all the colors in the world?

Anna: God

Ashlyn: Daddy (big smile from Daddy on this one)

6. Name something colorful.

Anna: Mommy & Daddy's bed (our quilt is very colorful and that is where we were sitting while asking these questions)

Ashlyn: My shirt!

More pics with the new camera

I'm learning more about our new camera (Panasonic FZ7). It has a 12X zoom and we are hoping that zoom will pay off once the girls start doing more organized sports. This way we can take pics from the sidelines and actually get some decent shots.

I was playing around with the camera's zoom on Friday and took this one of the magnolia out our back door.

This one was of some flowers we had in the house. Just thought it looked pretty.

New Camera!

So we have done hours of research (should not be a shock to anyone who knows us) and we finally decided on a camera. YEAH! We received it in the mail early this week and I'm still figuring out how to work the sucker. It has lots of great settings and a VERY large owner's manual (I'm talking War & Peace large), so I'm sure it will take a while to figure it all out.

However, the camera does have a "simple" setting so I popped off a couple shots of the girls (Anna on the left/Ashlyn on the right). I can definitely tell the pictures are clearer than the ones our old camera produced. So far I'm happy. I'll just be glad when I learn what all those darn buttons and icons mean! What happened to "Point and Shoot"?

Sunday Six - a couple days late

Sunday Six is something I saw on Kelly's blog. I don't know Kelly, but have seen this little feature on a few blogs I enjoy visiting. It is a cute little "game" and I thought we would try it out.

The gist of it is that each week Kelly posts six questions to ask your children (of any age) on Sunday. You then post their responses and the hilarity ensues (ok - maybe the responses aren't hilarious, but they'll give you a good giggle).

Here are Ashlyn's & Anna's responses:

1. Who was Martin Luther King, Jr.?

Ashlyn: Daddy

Anna: Mommy

2. Why was he an important man?

Ashlyn: Because he was reading the Bible.

Anna: Because he was angry.

3. What did he want?

Ashlyn & Anna: the Bible (can you tell church was a hot topic in our household this weekend?)

4. Why is peace important?

Ashlyn: Because he was trying to point him in the butt.

Anna: Because he ran away and shoot him in the tuckus.

5. What is the Nobel Peace Prize?

Ashlyn: The King of Baby Jesus

Anna: The King of Baby Jesus

6. What are you doing to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Birthday?

Ashlyn: We're going to get a cake!

Anna: A cake and some candles and he's going to blow out the fire.

As it is icky and rainy in our neck of the woods, I was able to complete this task fairly quickly since we are confined to the indoors. Big thanks to The Kept Woman for stepping in for Kristine this week.

Photo #1: A Houseplant

This was a houseplant we actually took care of for my mother-in-law while they were out of state for a while. We never got around to giving it back and she hasn't asked for it back yet (this was over 4 years ago - we're hoping she forgot about it - ha).

Photo #2: Something you secretly enjoy, but bitch about anyway

This is our treadmill. I probably don't bitch about exercising too much, but I do occasionally. I actually really enjoy working out - it is a stress reliever for me.

Photo #3: Something disgusting

I have an aunt who sends us fruit every Christmas from a wonderful fruit company in Florida. The first orange we cut into was pretty scary - this is it. My DH thought it would be a good idea to take a pic of it in case we all suffered some sort of freaky citrus poisoning from eating the other fruit in the box (the rest of the box was perfect by the way).

10 on Tuesday

1. The girls go to preschool today (ah - my cherished 4 1/2 hours every Tuesday and Thursday) and I hope to do some scrapbooking. I have several other errands/task I could be doing, but I need me some "me" time.

2. In the craziness of organizing all our paperwork to fit into our brand new filing cabinet, I found some business cards of people I haven't spoken to for years. I hope to try to get in touch with a few of them.

3. I was downloading some pics to have printed off to use during my scrapbook session today and found this one on the left. I meant to blog about it WAY before now, but never got around to it. We saw it while out to dinner in Asheville, NC for my birthday. I wondered at the time if it would be bad for me to go in while the store was closed and just roll around in the diamonds - I mean - my name is on the store for Pete's sake! According to the sign, they are MY diamonds!

4. We are going to attempt to take the girls to a Predator's game this month. Oh my! The Gaylord Entertainment Center has NO IDEA what is in store for it.

5. One of my best friends from college was supposed to have her baby girl yesterday via induced labor. Her husband is in the military and has been overseas. She was actually due Dec. 23rd, but the baby held off til Daddy was able to come home - yeah! I can't wait to see pictures.

6. I have lost 2 pounds within a week and a half in my weight loss endeavor - hooray!

7. I HATE lifting weights, but I sucked it up and went to the Y this morning and did it. I hope to do weight training 2-3 times per week. I can do cardio stuff all day long (well - not really), but weight training is awful. Of course, if you can find a big hunky guy to watch while you lift weights your perspective changes....just kidding Chris.

8. The girls turn 4 this month and I'm still trying to work on a combined theme of horses and superheros (their choices - not mine). I'm thinking the superheros can ride the horses in some sort of twisted Lone Ranger meets Superman kind of scenario. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

9. I desperately need to clean our house, but am postponing that til Thursday's 4 1/2 hours off. I'm hoping I don't have to spend the whole time doing that, but at least it will be uninterrupted time.

10. I'm running out of time and still have to get the critters ready for school. Gotta go!

The Last of the Christmas Photos

So - as I have now spent WAY too much time downloading pictures (not to mention realizing how desperate I am for a new camera), I decided to do a slide show as part of my main side bar (see left). Plus, this gives me a place to display several pictures at a time on any particular day. In this case, there are pictures from Christmas morning and our trip to Mississippi. I plan on changing those soon, so be sure to check back.

We were all so blessed this Christmas. Apparently we have been VERY good girls and boy (Hubby is the lone man in the house - poor guy) this year or at least we were able to fool Santa into thinking we were. We actually had four Christmas celebrations! Chris' Dad & Stepmom (Papaw & Mamaw - Pictured in the photo on the left) as well as Uncle Travis came over the Saturday before Christmas to have dinner and open gifts. Christmas morning we had our own celebration with the four of us and my Dad (Grandpa). Christmas afternoon Chris' Mom, Stepdad (Nana & Pappy), Uncle Spencer (see photo below) & Grammy came over. And last - but not least - the girls, Grandpa & I drove to Mississippi to spend some time with Mimi, Grandpa Ray, my mom (Grandma), Uncle Steven & Aunt Teresa. Mercy - what a whirl-wind holiday season!

So the Riggs household's cup definitely runneth over this holiday season. A BIG thank you to our family and friends and we hope you all have a wonderful New Year.

Gingerbread Factory

I'm finally getting all our holiday pictures loaded. I plan on getting lots of the pics on here, but am having to do them in shifts - so keep checking back.

Anyway, I have a few photos of the girls decorating the gingerbread houses Mimi and Gpa Ray (my mother's parents) gave to them while we were in Mississippi. Gave them a good little project and another way to destroy part of their house (just kidding).

Anna is in the orange shirt and Ashlyn is in the pink shirt. Ashlyn was actually more into eating the candy decorations toward the end, but both houses turned out great. They were quite proud of themselves.

One side note: Royal icing is AMAZINGLY sticky and quick drying - I'm talking concrete! It took me forever to get it off me.

Such Big Girls

Holy cow!

Where has the time gone - really!?!

It just seems like yesterday I was moving them from the bassinet to one crib. Then from one crib to two. Then from cribs to toddler beds. Now my almost 4-year-olds have moved into twin beds. It is freaking me out! Their room looks so different! It is like looking into the room of teenagers (not really, but I tend to exaggerate anyway).

My parents gave the girls their comforter sets for Christmas and my Dad was in town, so we took down the cribs and put up the twin beds while Daddy was at work yesterday (I don't think he's shedding many tears over missing that whole process). Anyway, the girls LOVE their new beds and slept pretty well last night.

Here's a couple pics of their room now.

Happy New Year!

Hope you all had a very safe and fun New Year's Eve.

We are back from Mississippi (8 1/2 hour trip) - glad to be home, but hated leaving family (I'll be posting pics soon). The drive was okay, but very rainy and the girls seemed to want to stop at every public restroom along the way. We have used so much hand sanitizer that the girls hands are about to fall off.

We were graciously asked by some friends to come over last night, but by the time we got home we were exhausted. I hated to miss the fun, but I pretended to ring in the new year at around 9pm and went straight to bed (pitiful).

Daddy was thrilled to see his girls and said it had just been too quiet around the house. I'm sure the girls will up the decibel level around here today.

Now, for something I truly HATE to do, but I'm a list make and I fell compelled to do it - make a New Year's Resolution List (ICK). Maybe if I put it on the web I will be more likely to do them - yeah, right...

1. Clean out our garage - this is first and foremost on our list because we can barely fit one vehicle in there right now and we've been saying we're going to do this for at least two years. Chris received quite a bit of equipment and Lowe's gift cards to turn himself into Bob Villa and put up the shelves and cabinets he wants so THIS IS THE YEAR!

2. Make healthier meals for the family - we really don't eat that bad, but we could definitely eat better. As a side note to this one, I would also like to plan out menus on a weekly basis so I'm not rushing around at the last minute trying to figure what to make for dinner.

3. Lose this last bit of "pregnancy weight". I don't really think I should be allowed to call it that since I was pregnant four years ago, but that's what I'm using - Don't Judge Me! A friend and I are going to work together on this so maybe we can push each other along.

I have other smaller projects that I want to accomplish throughout the year, but these are the biggest and the ones that I most want resolved.

Hope everyone has a great New Year's Day.

Christmas morning pics

I have SEVERAL more photos to come, but thought I would go ahead and get these on here for your enjoyment. We've had a wonderful holiday and the girls and I are now in Mississippi with family. We had to leave Daddy at home because he had to work (and earn money to pay for Christmas!) - we sure do miss him.

10 on Tuesday

I stole this off Rachel's blog who stole it off another blog....anyway - I thought it was a good idea so here goes...

1. The girls, my father and I are driving 8 hours to Mississippi tomorrow to be with my mom's side of the family. Looking forward to seeing them - NOT looking forward to the drive.

2. I feel bad that we can't take the bikes that Santa brought the girls for Christmas to Mississippi with us - just no room. I'm sure they won't be traumatized, but it would have been fun for them.

3. My hubby and I were planning on getting ourselves a new digital camera as our gift to each other. That has now turned into a new water heater - I can barely contain my excitement.

4. I'll be glad when new TV episodes start airing (i.e. Gilmore Girls, Earl, The Office).

5. My hubby tends to take on rather large home improvement projects when the girls and I are away. I'm a bit scared to see what he takes on this time.

6. I need to hunt down a couple books I haven't read yet to take on my trip tomorrow. I love to read but never take the time to do it anymore. Eight hours in a minivan will definitely encourage me to do some sort of reading.

7. I cooked two rather large holiday meals over the past couple of days and am quite proud of the results. I don't tend to take on such grand endeavors, but we wanted the families to come to our house, so I bit the bullet.

8. I received a gift certificate to a department store where I had been drooling over a certain pair of shoes. I went to the store this morning to purchase the shoes and they were completely gone in the color I wanted. Darn popular shoes!

9. I dread taking the decorations down and secretly hope that will be dear hubby's big project while we're gone (I'm sure he is cringing as he reads this).

10. I had better get off here and finish packing. AUGH!

Hope you all have a Safe & Happy New year!

Just for fun...

We were sitting around our tree looking at the ornaments and the presents and I decided to grab the camera. I haven't taken pics for a couple of days and my trigger finger was getting lazy. I thought this one of Chris and the girls was pretty cute - Anna is on the left/Ashlyn on the right.

It's Christmas Eve!

Stuff Portrait Friday

I'm trying this out for the first time. Very random, but kind of fun. I got this idea from my cousin-in-law (is that right?) Jen and just thought I would try it out. The site she got it from was Random and Odd - another blog. Check it out and play along.

There are three "random and odd" things you are supposed to take pictures of. This week's topics were:

One Ornament - This was the very first ornament I ever received as a baby. From my Grandparents Felten and we have to put the whole set of these up high now as the girls love to play.

One Gift - I love to wrap presents and this is one of my favorites. Just simple brownish-gold paper and an old wire bow I had lying around the house from one of last year's decorations.

Something Stuffed in a Stocking - This lovely engagement ring was in my stocking exactly 6 years ago Christmas Day. Definitely my favorite gift in a stocking (or otherwise).

Noel, Noel.....

...Born is the King of Israel.

That's how the song normally goes - right?

As the girls and I were out running a few errands today that song came on the all-Christmas-songs radio station. We've been listening to that station all month and the girls love it. However, they tend to do their own interpretations of the songs. As is the case with this song. Here was their version.....

"Noel, Noel...Barney's the King of Israel"

Are you kidding me?!? Yes - it is a bit sacrilegious, but they are only 3 and I think God may actually get a little chuckle from this incident. As funny as this whole thing is, I am more upset that my children are inserting "Barney" into their songs considering I have absolutely banned anything Barney from being shown or entering this house. Don't really know why, but the big purple guy just annoys me. Of course, I can't keep them from seeing him at other places so I'm sure they have seen him before.

Maybe I can do some sort of exorcism to get the dino out of their heads....hmmmm....I'll have to think about that one.

4 days til Christmas - oh my!!!

Raisin Bran + 3 year old = Bad, very bad

Anna was up sick last night for about 2 1/2 hours (not as bad as it sounds, she was mostly just awake).

Mommy was VERY tired.

Mommy slept in a bit (til about 7am) because of being up in the middle of the night.

Ashlyn gets up early.

Daddy takes Ashlyn downstairs to fix breakfast as Mommy is still asleep (thank you Daddy).

Daddy gives Ashlyn Raisin Bran for breakfast.

Ashlyn is still trying to master the whole #2 bathroom session.

NOT a pretty situation for Mommy (or Ashlyn for that matter) later in the morning (I won't gross you out with the details, but will let your imaginations wander).

Daddy isn't allowed to give Raisin Bran to the girls anymore.

Frosty the Snow....Cupcake?

Well - I had to make cupcakes again for the girls' preschool classes, so I decided to get "fancy" again. I looked up some cute ideas for winter/Christmas cupcakes on the internet and found one I thought I could pull off. It worked. I think they turned out pretty good if I do say so myself. And they really weren't that hard (thank goodness). Now I just hope Anna can get over her sickness so she can go to class tomorrow. She will be heartbroken if she can't.

7 days til Christmas!!!! Oh my!

Another Breakfast With Santa Pic

Just thought I would post another picture from POTATO's Breakfast with Santa last Saturday morning. This was a cute one - our girls are such hams! Ashlyn is on the left and Anna is on the right.

And Chris and I spent his lunch hour looking at digital cameras - which will be our Christmas present to each other this year. I can't wait to get it and start taking more pics to put on this site and to use for scrapbooking purposes.

Hometown Shout Out!

Okay - I realize how lame it is for me to title this post using the words "Shout out", but I'm trying to be "hip" & "cool" - yeah, right.

Anyway, this is a picture I snagged off my hometown newspaper's website. My hometown is Maysville, Kentucky - not too far from Cincinnati, Ohio. A smaller town, but I'm quite fond of it. They had snow last week and someone took this lovely photo of the decorated downtown streets. This town holds a lot of memories and I always love going back to visit.

Our big claims to fame: George Clooney (yep - I've seen him in person and literally lost the ability to speak), Rosemary Clooney (before my time, but I LOVE White Christmas), Miss America Heather French (went to high school with her - very sweet girl) and me - of course.

Breakfast with Santa

Our POTATO crew had Breakfast with Santa this morning. This is a yearly tradition and we had a wonderful time. We have been talking about it all week in the hopes that Ashlyn would concede to getting on Santa's lap (as she wanted nothing to do with him last year) - it worked. She really enjoyed it and actually ended up giving Santa a big hug before the event was over.

One funny note - a friend (also with twin girls) sat with us and brought her friend to help. She said her friend wanted to have twins too. We both gave each other a knowing glance and I told her, "There is no better birth control than coming to one of our POTATO events". So true....of course - I wouldn't trade our critters for the world.

A little more artwork

So we got our hair cut this week and actually had to go back because they were so fidgity the first time that the hairstylist couldn't get a straight line going. Anyway, you can see a bit of their hairstyle as well as their lovely watercolor paintings we did yesterday. Ashlyn is in pink and Anna is in blue.

Chalkboard creations

If you've been to our house, you have seen the great chalkboards/bulletin boards Chris put up for the girls in our kitchen. They are used on a daily basis and hold many of the girls' art projects.

The pics below showcase some of the girls' chalk drawings. Anna (left) has drawn a few different sleds and some "4"s and Ashlyn (right) has drawn a lovely multi-legged spider . The pictures change everyday and Ashlyn has actually been on a kick of drawing pics of Daddy. I'll have to get one of those posted on here soon as that is hysterical.

I love Christmastime!

I LOVE decorating for the holidays. I love turning on cheesy Christmas music, fixing a big cup of hot chocolate and decorating the tree & house. I'm also a sucker for gift-wrapping. Not sure why I like to wrap presents - I'm sure it has something to do with my tragic upbringing as an only child (just kidding mom and dad). Anyway, we actually did our decorating a couple days before Thanksgiving as we were going to be out of town that day.

We bought a new tree this year - finally. Our old tree was actually one brought to this country on the Nina (or the Pinta - can't remember which) and then passed on throughout time - finally ending up at Chris' Dad's & Stepmom's house. They graciously gave it to us and we - being the tightwads that we are - were more than happy to take it off their hands. This is one of the those trees where you have to attach each branch individually cutting up your hands and arms in the process. I literally never put the thing up without cutting myself - lovely way to start the holiday - a blood sacrifice to the Christmas tree.

So we bit the bullet and bought a new one. We shopped around (of course - remember - we are tight wads) and ended up actually getting our tree from Big Lots! LOVE Big Lots! We got a great pre-lit tree with multiple light flashing settings for MUCH less than the other stores were charging. And the great thing is that it only took me about 5 minutes to put the tree together - amazing! It would have taken me at least an hour to get the old one together.

So here is a picture of our decorated tree and an ornament we got for our family this year. Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

I'm addicted to slide shows.

Just one more for now...these are pics from this past weekend. We took the girls to the little pond at the entrance of our subdivision to do some "fishing" with the rods Papaw & Mamaw got them.

Slide show from the Zoo

Just thought I would try out this feature again. Gives you a bunch more pics without taking up too much room. Enjoy.

Warm weather = Zoo!

I can't believe the weather has been so nice. It is the end of November and 70 degrees outside - crazy!

We decided to go to the zoo yesterday because it was so nice and we didn't think it would be too crowded - that is an understatement. There was only one other car in the parking lot when we got there and I swear we were the only people in the zoo for the first 45 minutes. It was kinda eerie actually, but I loved that it wasn't crowded and the girls could run around all they wanted.

This pic is the girls acting like monkeys swinging through the bamboo trees. They had a great time.

Go Buckeyes!

My wonderful husband took me to Asheville, NC this past weekend for my birthday. We had a wonderful time and part of that time was spent watching the Ohio State vs. Michigan game on Saturday along with an entire restaurant full of Ohio State alumni and fans. It was a riot and we had a great time. Since we are so glad the Buckeyes won, I am posting this pic of my hubby along with Brutus - the Buckeyes' mascot - taken outside the bar & grill where we watched the game. I'll post more about our weekend soon.

Another crazy weekend...

One of these days all four of us will be well. Seems like we have just had one illness after another and that didn't change this weekend.

Friday night Chris and I went to see the Broadway Series' The Lion King. It was wonderful by the way. Anyway, Nana stayed with the girls and just before we left I felt Ashlyn's head and she was quite warm. She has had LOTS of drainage lately and I assumed she was just coming down with a sinus infection. We gave her some medicine to help with her fever and cough and then left for the evening. When we got back Ashlyn was still up and just didn't feel good. I think she and I only had about 1-2 hours sleep that night and I decided to take her into the dr. the next morning. To make an already long story shorter - Ashlyn has strep throat. Poor baby.

So we packed up Anna and Daddy and sent them to Nana's for 24 hours (Ashlyn wouldn't be catching after 24 hours on the antibiotic). Ashlyn spent the next 24 hours resting and I spent the next 24 hours sanitizing EVERYTHING. This house has never been this clean.

Thankfully, Ash is feeling better and Anna hasn't shown any signs of strep.

These pics were taken Friday morning when Ash was still feeling pretty good. The girls were helping Daddy rake leaves. Well - Anna was helping rake leaves and Ash was pretending she was busy by pulling off the berries from the holly trees - that's my girl!

Party girls!

This is what happens when you party too hard on a school night.....

Buckeyes Rule!

My husband has become quite the chocolatier. He has also decorated some amazing cakes in his past as well. In fact, I think this might have been his "calling". Now if we could just find a wealthy relative or friend to fund this endeavor....(any volunteers?).

Anyway, Chris' office was having a potluck last week and he signed up to bring a dessert. Since he is from the Buckeye state and is a HUGE fan of THE Ohio State University football team (the Buckeyes), he decided to make the candies known by the same name and made to look just like the nut-like buckeyes. For those of you who don't know, buckeye candy is made with peanut butter and chocolate - yum!

Now Chris had never made these before, but found a recipe on the internet and decided to go for it. The girls and I were at church choir practice and he had them almost done by the time we got home. Here was the final result. I'm so proud.

Story Time

Our local library has a wonderful storytime and we try to go every Wednesday. Miss Sandy does a great job and the girls love it. We've been going to the Mt. Juliet Library since they were little so it has become a bit of a weekly tradition. I have never taken my camera, but this week they were encouraging the kids to dress up since it was the day after Halloween, so I thought I would bring it along. This is a pic of the whole group after Miss Sandy had read the story of the Square Pumpkin. Anna and Ashlyn are on the far right side. Not all the kids dressed up, but several did.