Ward service project on our house

Our ward came over last Saturday to help work on our remodel. There were about 50 people there! There were men on the roof helping Craig, there were people cutting wood, cleaning up the backyard and front yard, women bringing lunch..drinks and cookies
for all of the hard workers! Some of the women (and men) were in the house cleaning! (My cabinets were scrubbed down, the oven and the floors swept and cleaned! It truly was one of the neatest experiances Craig and I have ever had. We feel so truly blessed to be friends of such wonderful angels!

Pioneer Day '09

Yep! It's already that time of the year again. We go to the attic, find our 'pioneer attire'....hop in the van and drive to the church where we eat, socialize, look at the interesting booths and take a family picture! I love it! This year was just as fun as the last. My only regret was that I didn't hit the dessert table until the end....but even then there were still some tasty treats! I have to add that my husband looked so darn cute in his suspenders. (What a great hubby to dress up for me!) We brought our chicken ..(no, not to BBQ) to show the children there. ( I think she even enjoyed it! ) We went next door to Hurst Ranch and got to play with the water pump and pick whatever we wanted out of the huge garden! We brought back some tomatoes and the biggest cabbage I have ever seen! (I made cabbage-ham soup with it later for dinner and it was good!!!!) I love Pioneer Day!

UPDATE!!!!! (Sorry- you'll have to look sideways for a bit!)

Summer Vacation at Knotts Berry Farm!

Knotts Berry Farm!

Playing in the shark tent!!!

Whitney's Kinder Graduation

We are so proud of her!!! On to the first grade!

Caeden and Sydney -bonding time

Andrew's cool green cast!

Sorry it has taken soooo long!

Okay, so it has almost been a year since I have written on here... So much has been going on! Our beautiful baby girl is trying to stand now! She is getting her first two teeth!! We absolutely adore her!

My oldest son, Andrew, broke a bone in his wrist about a week and a half ago...He is loving having a cast! (He actually broke it right before we entered the gate to Knotts Berry Farm!)

Brendan is doing great! He is really enjoying his summer break.

Whitney is getting taller and just got a new haircut for first grade! She wanted it a little longer than her shoulders... She is having fun putting headbands and pony tails in it!

Logan is getting ready for preschool! I can't believe how time flies. Poor guy had to get all of his shots. :( (And we just were informed that he needs to go back to get one more. I don't know how to break the news to the poor little guy.)

Caeden is just as talkative as ever. He is almost three and therefore the word, "WHY?" is a favorite.

As for Craig and myself, we are just as busy as ever! Our house is almost completed! (We were adding 2 bedrooms, a family room and a bathroom to our house.) There is still lots to do but I think we don't really need to hurry and finish the last parts of it...we are looking forward to a little break. (Not the kind of break Andrew gave us last week...with his wrist..) There is always lots to do around the Rigby house, but we are doing great! :)

So anyway...we are enjoying this summer break and hope each of you are too!

THANKSGIVING!!!!

To start off, I am so thankful for my family. This includes my husband, Craig and my 6 wonderful children, my parents, sisters and their families. I am also grateful for my mother and father-in-law my sisters in law and brother in law and their families.

We enjoyed Thanksgiving this year at my sister Christine's house. She owns a 3 story house with 8 bedrooms and 5 baths...so there was plenty of room. I brought my famous home baked pumpkin pie and we all sat under the crystal chandelier laughing and chatting about days long ago. (tissue anyone?)

Well, it went something like that.... :) We did all meet at Christine's beautiful new house. We had a lot of fun. My parents have 19 grandchildren now! So we had a lot of cute little ones running around and older ones watching them! WOOHOO! :) It was GREAT! I love family get togethers!

Whitney's Glasses!

Whitney wears glasses now! She has to wear them all the time.....so she picked out her favorite colors. Her favorites are a pair of hot pink ones. (Which broke the first day she used them!)

Everyone is doing great.....here are a few more pictures.....:)

Halloween!!! We love it! We found out that Logan does not like Halloween because it is too scary! He didn't like going to the stores because of the Halloween decorations. Whitney loved it because, after all, she gets to be a princess. Andrew and Brendan dressed up as their favorite characters from books for school. Andrew was Klause from "A Series of Unfortunate Events." Brendan was...but who else? Spiderman. :) Logan wanted to be Batman and Caeden discovered that dressing up is not fun, so he went as himself. (He was ALMOST a dinosaur.) Sydney was a banana. She looked so cute..and sweet. I could eat her up! We had lots of fun!!!! (Oh...Craig and I went as a 50's couple.) We'll post more pics later. :)

Proposition 8

Family and Friends....

The time is coming when we will have to vote on some important issues for our state and country. One of the issues is Proposition 8. This proposition is extremely important for all of us. If you do not know much about it...please go to www.protectmarriage.com to learn more about it. We will be voting to keep traditional marriage..marriage between a man and woman. This is not a proposition that will take away any rights from anybody who is gay. They will be able to keep the rights that they already have. However, if marriage is redefined to include same sex couples, it could mean losing our rights as parents and our religious freedom. By law, we will have to accept the changes that will occur because of it. Already in Massachusettes, they have the same-sex law and it is causing grevious consequences. A parent was arrested when he went to the school to simply ask that he be informed beforehand that his KINDERGARTENER was going to be taught and receive a book containing same sex marriage. That's all he wanted.

A catholic adoption agency had to close because the state was after them for not placing children in same-sex marriage homes.

With our strong belief that marriage is ordained of God and that it is to only be as He had instucted..(between a man and woman) Churches such as ours will appear to be "discriminitive" and will likely be punished.

I am not a very political person...(although I should be!) But this will affect what I value most in my life. My family and my religion. As a mother, I want to teach my children what is true and right. I do not want those rights taken away. I do not want the government teaching my children what they think is okay. PLEASE! PLEASE! VOTE YES ON PROPOSTION 8!

PICTURES!!!!

Syney - 1 month old! Isn't she so pretty?




Daddy reading a story . I love this picture. Brendan and Sydney!

Okay...so I think we are finally getting into a routine, now! I have some "new" pictures to show everyone....(I say "new" because Sydney is changing every day it seems.) :)





Andrew, Brendan and Whitney are doing great in school...they are getting excited to dress up at school. (For Halloween they get to come to school dressed as their favorite book character. Whitney will be...who else..but Snow White! (I know everyone is shocked at that). Andrew wants to go
as Calvin. (from Calvin and Hobbes.) Brendan isn't so sure yet...after all, these things take a lot of thought. :)





Logan and Caeden are doing good....they are adjusting still to..no, not the baby....to eachother! They are so completely opposite in personalities they have a hard time getting along. We did see a good time today at Walmart...They had fun hiding from eachother in the fabric, and then running away from eachother, trying to tag eachother. (Thank you Walmart people for allowing a game of tag in your sewing section.)





Sydney is getting so big! She is already outgrowing her 0-3 month clothes. She is 6 weeks old and likes to smile and coo. She loves watching everyone, but cries when any of the children cry. So sad! She is a beautiful little girl and we are having a lot of fun with her!





Well, that is our latest family update....Hope everyone is doing great!

Finally a sister!!!!!

Daddy holding his new little girl.

Sydney Emma Rigby

SHE'S HERE!!!!

August 26th at 10:50 we had our little girl! She decided to come three days early before the scheduled induction! She weighed in at 8 lbs and 1/2 ounce. She's 20" long and she has a lot of brown hair with blonde "highlights". We named her Sydney Emma...Sydney being a name that I have liked for a very long time and Emma, after Joseph Smith's wife. (A lady who is an amazing example to me.) The doctor and nurses said that she looked really healthy and good...rosy colored skin and chubby. :) We absolutely adore her!! She is so pretty and has such a cute little cry. She loves to eat and be cuddled.

We feel so happy and blessed to have her in our family. She is wonderful! The other children love her so much, too. Caeden constantly gives her kisses and they all want to hold her all the time! There is absolutley nothing in the world that tops the happiness of bringing a new little baby into your family. We are so happy.

And so, Christine, here are some pictures that I have beeen promising...now you can stop bugging me about it. :) :)

Baby almost here!

I went for a doctor's visit today and got some great news! The doctor is going to induce me on August 29th! YEA! We are so excited! She is doing really well and the doctor said that he can see hair on her head in the ultrasound! (This is a special moment for us since all of the boys had hair and our Whitney was bald!) A girl with hair!! I can't wait to put cute little bows in her hair!

Well, this weekend Craig will be going up to girl's camp and scout camp! He is going to have lots of fun! :) The youth in our ward are great! But hopefully the baby won't come while he's gone.....!!!! I guess I should learn how to deliver a baby myself, huh? HAHAHAHAHA.

Sorry...no cute pictures still....I will hopefully put some up really soon!

Proposition 8

Hello there! I wil make this one quick. If you haven't heard, or even if you have...this is something extremely important to all of us. In November we will be voting to protect marriage. (To only recognize marriage between a man and a woman.) Craig and I went on the website www.protectmarriage.com and learned even more about this...and what can happen if we don't vote for this propostion. There are other places that are already having extreme consequences because thses marriage rights were not protected. Not to scare anybody, but if you get on this website, you will understand that our religious freedom can be at stake later on. I am not a very political person, but I want to raise my family in believing the way we choose to believe and not be forced by the law on what to teach my children, contrary to our beliefs. Please take the time to read about how important this is and try to get others to vote for this proposition. Thank you!!!

....no baby yet! But we are getting so excited!

Last Saturday we had Pioneer day for our Stake. I made the children and myself "costumes" to wear to it. (Hey, it's a lot easier to spot your children when you have four of them running around in the same outfit!) We enjoyed corn on the cob, watermelon, and different booths that were very fun and interesting. One of the best booths was the dessert contest booth where they had desserts galore!!! Everything from chocolate chip cookies to a beehive cake that somebody made. We decided to park ourselves in that corner of the festivities so that when the judging was done we could grab what we had been eyeing! YUMMY!

Other people from the ward brought homegrown fruits to share with everybody. We brought the peaches from our peach tree. They were gone within minutes!

There were old fashioned games that the children enjoyed and a quilting booth that had beautiful quilts that some of the ladys had made.

A friend of ours from our ward was taking family pictures of everyone.... it was so much fun!

Well, we have about 6more weeks left until our new baby girl joins the fun. Time has really flown by!