Christmas Goodies

This time of year I am transformed into something that I'm normally not, sort of a combination of Betty Crocker and Martha Stewart. I spend hours looking at holiday magazines, reading recipes and cruising the internet and Pinterest for food ideas and crafts to make and mix up for Christmas. These are just a few of the goodies I made this year (with Becca's assistance) - sugar cookies, Hug and pretzel snacks, dipped peppermint oreos, and my grandma's Martha Washington candy. Of course I didn't get to everything I wanted to make, but at some point you just gotta say "ENOUGH!" Happy Holidays!


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Powell Kiddos

These two cuties are waaaayyy different when it comes to photos. HE wants nothing to do with it, and SHE loves the camera!!!! :) Maybe he'll come around one day!

It's Kind of Their Thing...

These girls LOVE the jumping pic!

Diaz Family

These were the HAPPIEST kids! So much fun to shoot!

Where is He Now?

I know what you're thinking... Ryan's birthday was yesterday, sooooo Lori's being sentimental and posting his first baby picture. Wrong. I have absolutely no idea who this baby is. But I often wonder about him.... 20 years ago, I did give birth to a beautiful baby boy. And like most of the parents, we bought a photo package taken in the nursery of the hospital of "his 1st photos." A week or so after we got home from the hospital, we received our packet. I was so excited that we got it in time for Christmas, and I went out and bought a bunch of photo frames, and gave all of them out for Christmas gifts! Never once did it even occur to me that.... this didn't look like Ryan at all, but instead I thought "oh my goodness, they just change so quickly." And I had been drugged up pretty good, so what did I know? And it also never occurred to me that I had never seen the sleeper he was dressed in, but I just assumed that was something the nursery had put on him for the photo. And I didn't think it was odd at all that the baby in the photo had a REALLY red rash on his face that I had never noticed on Ryan. I was a first time mom, it didn't seem unrealistic that his skin might be broken out one minute, and completely cleared up the next. So, Christmas presents were given and everyone ooohed and aaahed appropriately.

Fast forward to the week after Christmas. I received ANOTHER photo packet in the mail. With these photos. That were CLEARLY my sweet baby boy. He looked just like his daddy's baby picture, and he was wearing the same clothes he was wearing when they brought him out of the nursery to me. Yes, I am Super Mom and couldn't pick my baby out of a lineup. BUT IN MY DEFENSE neither could anyone else!


So I do often wonder about Baby Number 1, and what he's doing today and what kind of young man he's grown into, or if he's EVEN A BOY... And I hope that he brought as much happiness to his mom as Baby Number 2 did to me!


Speaking of Baby Number 2, here's the Birthday Boy! I hope that your 20th Birthday was the best ever, and now the Countdown to Vegas begins!!!! Have a great year!

Three's Company!

More fall family photos... with the Smoot kids!

Brown Family

These guys were troopers... it was COOOOOLD during their shoot!!! Poor Jett's chin was quivering! But these cold kiddos still managed to be SUPER cute!

Fifteen

Baby Girl is 15 now! I can't believe it... just yesterday she was watching Dragon Tales and I was reading "Charlotte's Web" to her every night... Gone are the days of Barbie Dreamhouses and Crystal the stickhorse.... (by the way, she named EVERY toy or stuffed animal Crystal...) We're on to bigger things now, like Drivers' Ed! YIKES!!!!

Enjoy your year, Becca, you're only fifteen once!

BirthDaze

Today begins the official Riggins Family Birthday Month. Before this month is over, not only will we have celebrated Christmas and New Year's Eve, but also all 4 of our birthdays. To say it's a busy (and expensive!) month is an understatement!

The festivities kick off tomorrow with Becca on the 2nd, then Ryan on the 6th, Mike's is on the 10th, and I finish it off on the 21st. We celebrate in inverse order of our ages. Yes, I'm the oldest.... but for 11 glorious days Mike and I are the same age!

People often ask if we planned it. Um, no. Ryan's birthday just worked out that way, and Becca wasn't planned at all! Both of the kids' due dates were Thanksgiving Day, and they both stubbornly held off until December. When Ryan was born, after my due date passed, we thought it would be kind of cool if he was born in December like the both of us. I was thinking more like December 1st, but he waited 8 long days past his due date to show his sweet little face and conehead. Then with Becca, lots of people weighed in with "I hope she's late, it would be so awesome if she had a December birthday like the rest of you"... I, on the hand, being 32 years old and feeling 18 months pregnant, wanted my doctor to induce me on Halloween. My mantra was "get this dang baby out of me!!!"

So the four of us have suffered through trying to plan parties around holiday events, and gifts wrapped in Santa wrapping paper, but the truth is - it's the best time of year for birthdays! Who cares that we never get to have swimming parties or cookouts - we get to celebrate when all the halls are decked, and people have a smile on their faces and a Christmas carol in their hearts. Some have suggested that we celebrate our "half-birthdays" in the summer, but what would be special about that? We'll just keep on singing "Happy Birthday" amidst strains of "Jingle Bells" and baking birthday cakes alongside Christmas cookies!

Have a happy December! We will! :)