Family

Jim's parents arrived on Friday for a two-week visit, and we have been crazy busy since the moment they arrived. 

Before Jim and Sharon got here, Brennan wanted to "chalk" for them.

After they arrived, we made a trip down to see the new house.  They loved it even more than I expected!

On Saturday morning, Jim, Jim, and Brennan went to a train expo downtown, while Sharon, Cora, and I ran errands for Brennan's birthday party.  After lunch and a speedy lawn-mowing, we headed to Brennan's preschool for their Spring Fling.  It was a lot of fun for the kids, and I stood in line behind Bo Bice, whose son attends the program.  I love Nashville.

After the Spring Fling, we found out that we could get into the new house to see the completed drywall and take window measurements (we need to purchase blinds).  It was so exciting to see the walls in place!  

Master Bedroom:

Storage Room:

Kitchen:

Right now our house closing is scheduled for May 13th.  That is just thirty-one more days!

Yesterday, after church, we had Brennan's fourth bithday party.  That warrants a post of all its own, but here is a teaser.

Today Brennan and Cora are at the zoo with Grandma and Grandpa, and I am attempting to restore order to my life.  There are piles of gifts, extra party supplies, and a general mess that needs to be taken care of, I probably ought to catch up on laundry, and I desperately want to finish my kitchen table and chairs so we can start using them again.  If I can find a few minutes to sit down at my computer, I see more posts coming this week!

Happy Easter! 

I hope you had a wonderful day, celebrating our risen Lord!  We went to church this morning and then had Easter dinner with some friends at their house.  However, our Easter celebrations started a few weeks ago with an Easter egg hunt:

A few nights ago Brennan colored Easter eggs for the first time.  He really enjoyed it, and his favorite part was, of course, the stickers.

Between his birthday and Easter, Brennan has gotten several new additions for his Thomas tracks, and he is absolutely obsessed with building elaborate layouts.  He has a renewed passion for his trains.

My mom sent Brennan an Easter gift too, and I only gave him part of it because we're going to save the rest for a "moving gift" (aka "a keep-yourself-busy-while-Mommy-packs-and-moves-us kit").  He got this amazing book of stickers that are bright and big and organized by theme, and Brennan decided to create sticker scenes on different sheets of paper.  He worked on it all day yesterday.

It has been so fun sharing another holiday as a family of four, but I have to admit I'm glad it's behind us.  I've got a million and one things to think about including a construction-themed birthday party that is in a week, a family visit (praise the Lord!), and tons of packing.  Oh, and today I agreed to be the crafts director for VBS this June.  Never a dull moment. 

Today was Brennan's first ever Christmas program and also the first time he has ever "performed" on stage. Jim and I were both able to be there for this special occasion, and we beamed with pride. The kids did a great job, but they were perhaps on the stage a bit too long. Brennan looked like he needed to go potty (no accidents, thankfully), and by the end, the girls next to him were full-out headbanging to Feliz Navidad. All in all, it was a fun morning, and even Cora seemed to enjoy herself, as she remained quiet and awake throughout the entire concert.

I mentioned in our last post that we started cutting our own Christmas trees a few years ago with our good friends.  It actually emerged into a huge group trip that I looked forward to every year, and it just isn't the same now that we're alone in Tennessee.  Anyway, I'm really not sure which year was our first, but the first set of photos I can find are from 2005.  I thought it would be fun to look at the photos through the years to see how our family has grown!

2005 (Pregnant with Brennan):

2006 (Brennan, eight months old):

2007 (Brennan, twenty months old):

2008 (Brennan, almost 3):

2009 (Brennan, almost 4; Cora, 2 months): 

It will be fun to see what our tree photos look like five years from now!

Years ago our dear friends Doug and Susan suggested that we go with them to cut down a live Christmas tree straight from the field.  It was fun and so much more rewarding than buying one at Home Depot, so it quickly became an annual tradition.  This past Friday we made our trek to check out a new tree farm in the quest for the perfect tree. 

It was freezing cold, and we bundled up Cora as much as we possibly could, but we weren't about to let her miss out on this important experience!  Brennan was beside himself with glee, and he was more excited about the hunt than he was about the actual tree we chose.

It is usually a whole second day before we get lights, ornaments, etc. on the tree.  I absolutely hate doing it.  But this year putting the ornaments on was actually a lot of fun.  Brennan handed them to me very carefully, one at a time, suggesting where I might want to hang them.  He loved showing me the ornaments as though I had never seen them before: "Oh look, Mommy!  It's an angel!"  In the end, he was very proud of his work.

I have always been a fan of fake trees for their convenience and symmetry, but over the years I have been won over to the live tree thing, as long as we go cut it down ourselves.

On December 1st, Cora was exactly two months old.  (Sorry I'm a bit behind!)   Here are some shots from the days surrounding that fun milestone:

Each month we take a picture of Cora with her big stuffed lamb, Lulu, to showcase her growth.  We did this for Brennan, too.  (I'm hoping to post his old slideshow sometime, if I can get around to it.)  Here is the month two photo:

The first thing everyone notices about Cora is, of course, her hair. It is pretty amazing. It is actually lightening and thinning out a bit, all while getting longer. We have to flatten it out with gel, and even then it doesn't always lay down.

Here are some pictures of what Cora looks like straight out of the bath when her hair dries naturally. Several people have said she is quite the rock star!

Halloween was so much fun at our house this year. My sister Jenny was here to help us celebrate, and we started things off right on Wednesday night with some pumpkin carving / decorating:

On Friday, we took Brennan trick-or-treating at Daddy's work...

And on Halloween morning Jenny and I took Brennan to his first live symphony concert!  The Nashville Symphony Orchestra performed "Halloween on the High Seas," a concert geared toward children ages 3 - 8.  It was a little less than an hour in length and had a storyline woven through the concert about pirates looking for a key to a treasure chest that could only be opened on Halloween.  It was engaging but not cheesy, fun but still a classy symphony.

All of the musicians dressed up as pirates or sea creatures in honor of Halloween.  One person even played with an eye patch on!

Before the concert started there were great pre-concert activities in the hallways and lobbies.  There was an instrument petting zoo, allowing kids to touch and try most of the instruments in the orchestra.  Of course, Brennan didn't want to try any of them and was shy and uncomfortable.  The only thing he was willing to do was sit in Jenny's lap at a piano when no one else was in line.

There were also some tables for coloring parrots on sticks which were later incorporated into the concert, but of course, Brennan didn't want to color, either.  He did, however, want to play a ring toss game, and would have kept tossing all day, whether he got a prize or not.

The Halloween fun ended on Saturday night when we went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood.  I don't have any photos of the affair since it was dark and I already had pictures of Brennan in his costume, but suffice it to say it was a huge hit.  Brennan ran with such enthusiasm from house to house, and that was a huge change from last year when we couldn't convince him to leave the house!  Jenny and I had fun reliving our childhood through Brennan.  The whole week was fun for everyone.

October is really flying by, and Cora is three weeks old today! Some October highlights for the Riggs family include...

Rooting for the Penguins:

(I think Cora is this year's good luck charm, considering how well the Pens have started the season!)

Buying a Halloween costume:

Visiting the Pumpkin Farm:

... And sleeping (or not sleeping as the case may be!):

Can't wait to see what November holds for this new family of four!