Wednesday, December 31, 2008

New shoes

Here is a better look at Rigley's shoes and brace. Donovan picked out the flag pattern.

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Rigley is done with casts!

Rigley got his last set of casts off today! Here is Marlon, the cast tech, cutting them off and Daddy keeping little hands out of the way. As thankful as I am that Rigley is out of casts, I'll miss Marlon - he rocks!

Here is the new brace. He'll be in this 23 hours a day for the next 3 months and then we'll gradually decrease his time in the brace until he's just wearing it at naps & sleeping at night. He will sleep in it until he's 4. The brace is to prevent relapse; the serial casting did the correction and the brace keeps his feet corrected.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Christmas with Grandma Dixie

Sunday afternoon we went to Grandma Dixie's for lunch. It was so nice to see her & get to spend a little time visiting.


I told you Rigley liked this toy. He fell asleep with it in his mouth on the drive back from Grandma Dixie's.

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Christmas with the Skinners

After hanging out at Grandma & Grandpa Nelson's for a bit, we headed up to Grandma Nora's for Christmas with the Skinner family.


A picture of all the kiddos: Brighton, Bo, Jeffrey, Samantha, Dalton, Rigley, and Zachary
Rigley chillin' with Aunt Dava

Grandpa with his three grandsons: Brighton, Bo, & Rigley

Donovan with his dad, sister Dava, and brother Dalton

Christmas at Grandma & Grandpa's

Saturday was the day to celebrate with Donovan's side. We went to his dad & step-mom's and his sister & her family came down as well.

Grandpa giving Brighton a gift.

Rigley really liked this toy.
Aunt Dava, Uncle Dalton, Grandpa, & Brighton watching Bo open his present.

Friday, December 26, 2008

Christmas at Mimi & Papa's

The day after Christmas we had Glynis's family celebration. 3 of the 5 siblings and their families were present.

Lucy loves Rigley and really wants to play with him. She is 5 months older than him, so I'm sure they will be good buds once he gets a little older.

Rigley is the youngest, so he got to open the first present. As you can tell, he was very excited! :)
Brighton was very into opening gifts this year and got way too many from everyone. At least Mimi got him a suitcase to help us haul some of his new toys home!
Gracie's expression was so cute when she opened her Pixos; she was so excited!Everyone getting in on the gift opening.

Opening his first gift wore Rigley out, so this is how he spent the rest of the evening.
I can't believe I didn't get a picture of all the cousins together. This is the closest I came - everyone except Rigley is in this shot (plus Aunt Nicole!).

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Rigley's First Christmas

We had a relaxing Christmas morning at home. Brighton started getting more excited the more awake he became! At not quite 5 months, Rigley was really only concerned with when his next bottle would be.
While it was Rigley's first Christmas, I think Brighton got the better end of the deal! I guess that's just what happens when you've already got everything left over from an older brother.

Brighton got his own computer from Santa. You might remember from an earlier post that he likes to try and get on my laptop so he could (in his words) check his email! Hopefully, this will keep him off my computer.


We sold our big swing because Rigley didn't seem to like it. However, he liked swinging at Mimi's house. So, Santa thought it would be good to get him another swing and give it another try.
Brighton with his ladybug and hippo. Up until just a few days before Christmas, whenever someone would ask what he wanted from Santa, the only thing he would say was a ladybug. We have no idea where that came from!

After presents, we had breakfast - french toast, Brighton's favorite. Then, we got everything packed, grabbed the dog, and headed north to celebrate with family.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve 2009 was Rigley's first and Brighton's third. It was also the first Christmas Eve we stayed at our own house. We decided to make pizza for dinner.

Brighton loves to help in the kitchen. He even decided what cheese he wanted and we made one end just cheese for him. Then, he wouldn't eat any of it once it was done!


The boys got their Christmas jammies on after dinner.
Donovan read about the birth of Jesus and we did the interactive Nativity.
As a compromise of our own families' traditions, we decided that the boys could open one present from mommy & daddy and their presents from each other. Brighton liked helping everyone open their present. Here he is helping Rigley open the present he chose for him.
Here is Brighton opening his gift from Rigley.
Good night kisses

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Baking Christmas cookies

December 20, 2008

Brighton wanted to bake sugar cookies for Christmas. I gave him a choice between that and gingerbread and he chose the cookies we "put sprinkles on." He was a great helper.




Rigley even helped us out.Here is Brighton with the fruits of his labor.

Daddy & Rigley retired to the family room while Brighton & Mommy finished up decorating the cookies.

Mommy's workout buddies

December 19, 2008

A few weeks ago a reporter from a local magazine came to Stroller Strides to do a story. Well, they came back on Friday to do a photo shoot for it. My boys looked fab in their new gear!
The story should be in the February edition and you can access it online. I'll post a link when it runs.

Santa's Wonderland

December 19, 2008

Friday's playgroup was at Santa's Wonderland at Bass Pro. Brighton and Rigley did really well visiting with Santa and his reindeer.

There were some little tables with pictures to color and stationary to write a letter to Santa. Brighton's letter asked for a ladybug for him and new toys for Rigley. Brighton also colored some pictures with his friends from playgroup.

Since Evangel's classes are over, Daddy came to playgroup with us!
In true Christmas spirit (Bass Pro style), part of the wonderland was shooting a toy crossbow at images of animals in the woods.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Playing together

Here are a few pics of Brighton & Rigley playing. Over the past two weeks, Rigley has really started to think his big brother is very funny.



Christmas at Silver Dollar City

December 14, 2008

We finally found the time and had nice enough weather to take the boys to An Old Time Christmas at Silver Dollar City.

Here they are with a reindeer standing in line to see Santa.
Neither one of them cried, but Brighton wouldn't talk - only nodded!
As you all know, no trip to SDC is complete without a visit to the ball house.

They had a place where you could decorate a Christmas cookie. However, my non-sweet toothed child was very bored with the experience and kept asking to go get a pretzel!

We stopped for a pic in Santa's sleigh on the way out.