Thanksgiving

(Everyone before the race)

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. We started the day off with a new tradition. My cousin D invited me to run in the Utah Human Race 5k and I decided to recruit some of our friends and family to join us. It was a lot of fun and a great way to start the day! I had only ran in one other 5k and I did that a week before I ran my half marathon. So I was excited and nervous to run this 5k. I didn't really have any expectations, I just wanted to try and do my best. I was really happy with the end result! I finished 4 minutes faster than my last 5k and had a lot of fun doing it! Another plus was that all the registration fees for the race went to the Utah Food Bank. I'm so glad D called me and I hope we continue this for MANY years to come!

Our family after the race

Our friends Mike and Trisha

We spent the rest of the holiday at my parents house. This year was a little bittersweet for me, mainly because this will probably be the last Thanksgiving dinner held at my childhood home. I truly love my parents house and all the childhood memories I have there. But, I know life goes on and so will I! We had the whole Rigby clan over this year and we had a great time. The food was DELICIOUS and the company was FABULOUS! I think this is the first year that I didn't stuff myself. I wasn't feeling all that great and it helped when it came to pigging out! I ended up getting really sick last night, and let's just say I won't be eating any leftovers! Except maybe for some pie :)

There are so many things I am grateful for this year. I won't list them all, but I wanted to list some of my top ones.

Things I am grateful for:

1. Our beautiful eternal family - immediate and extended!

2. A loving Husband who loves me unconditionally! (I thought he deserved his own line :)

3. My Savior

4. The Gospel

5. Our Wonderful Friends (we are so blessed to have you in our lives!)

6. Trials - Especially this year

7. A Healthy Body (And the healthy bodies of my family!)

8. Our Warm Home

9. Temples (We are blessed to live SO close to SO many!)

10. Music

Me and My man!

Our little family

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and Happy Holidays!

rough but real times

This past month has been a very trying time for our family in various areas. And it seems like things aren't going to be getting better anytime in the near future. Recently a certain friend posted something that I honestly laughed out loud at. Mainly because a lot of times I feel the same way. She stated "Reading other people's cute blogs makes me want to throw up a little." Blogs are a funny thing to me. People always appear to have the most happy and perfect life on their blogs. I guess they could argue that they are turning their blogs into books...but I would think that they would want to remember the good along with the bad. The times in my life when I have grown the most were during the tough times. Many of the blogs I read seem to be picture perfect! They have the perfect little family, and being a mommy is the "absolute best", and their kids are so perfect and get along perfectly together! Now, I'm not trying to offend anyone, my purpose in venting is that I want to try and make our blog more "real". I have been guilty at times of making our life seem picture perfect. But I will tell you right now that my life is not perfect. My marriage isn't perfect, our family isn't perfect, and my kids aren't perfect. I consider us to be a very normal family.

I will admit, being a mom isn't always the best. Just last week I had a doctor's appointment and my doctor asked if I was a stay at home mom. When I answered yes, he asked how it was going. My response was "It's okay". He laughed, but I was being honest. That day it was going just okay. I told him that my answer changes from day to day along with the answer to "Are you planning on having any more kids?" I consider my job to be very challenging and difficult at times. Don't get me wrong...I do love being a mom and if it came down to it, I wouldn't change it for ANYTHING! But at times I truly struggle. What mom doesn't? There are days when I want to rip my hair out. But there are also days when I could spend all day hugging and kissing my boys because they are the cutest and most sweetest things in the whole world. Those are the days that make all the hard days SO worth it! And I have to admit...my boys are pretty cute!

During this rough time in our life, I hope to try and be more real. I want to document the good along with the bad. I want my boys to know that they were naughty at times and I hope that we can look back on them and laugh together. I also want to be more positive. If you didn't know, I can be quite negative at times but that is something I am working on to change. I want to have more faith that things will work out for the best. Deep down...I think that they will. With Thanksgiving upon us, I have so many things to be grateful for! I hope and pray that those are the things I focus on this month instead of the bad. Here's to being more real!

By the way...thanks for letting me vent!

A night out with my little man

I had the opportunity this week to go on a date with my handsome Wesley! My Dad offered us some Jazz tickets but Rob had class, so I decided to have some one on one time with my little man. It was such a fun night! Wesley could hardly contain himself all day from the excitement. He was also excited to see Grandpa, Uncle TJ, and cousin Brady working away at the game. And to top it all off, Hobby joined us as well! It was so fun to watch his excitement throughout the whole experience. He was a little nervous at first with the loud noises, but by the end of the game he was cheering and screaming at the top of his lungs. It was super cute! I really enjoyed the time alone with Wes. He is growing up so fast and is turning into a little man right before my eyes. What a great date night! I hope to do it again soon. I love you little man!

Pure excitement before the game started!

Heather and Bobby (aka Hobby!)

Helping Grandpa at work

Holy Merlin Magician Batman!

We had such a fun week, full of fun Halloween activities! It started off with a fun a little party the boys were invited to at our good friend Nicole's house. This was the first time that both of the boys were in their costumes together. They looked so cute! Wednesday was Wesley's Halloween party at preschool. They got to wear their costumes, trick-or-treat to each other, and do a couple of fun Halloween crafts. Wesley loves school and loves candy! It was a perfect day for him.

His whole class

Wesley and his buddy Chase

The whole class on the magic carpet

We had Chase over to play one day and the boys got a kick out of these vampire teeth.

They didn't know what to do with them at first...It was HILARIOUS!

On Friday we went to my niece's school and watched their Halloween parade. The boys LOVED seeing all of the fun costumes. Even the scary ones! By Saturday, the boys couldn't wait to go trick-or-treating! Beckett had even practiced enough that he could say the cutest "trick-or-treat" I've ever heard! Poor Rob got sick with the flu and wasn't able to join in the festivities. I'm sure he didn't mind all that much, he isn't a big Halloween fan. We went out trick-or-treating with my niece Kendra that night around our neighborhood. After we had gone to the first two houses, Wesley said "I LOVE trick-or-treating! It is SO fun!" After hitting up our neighborhood, we went to my parents house for our traditional chili dinner. It was delicious as always and the boys scored even more candy! We then went and visited Rob's parents and ended the night at my grandparents house. We didn't get home until almost 11pm and all of us were SPENT! I'm surprised the boys didn't pass out from sugar overdoses!

Our little Batman Family

Trick-or-Treating

A close up

MEOW!