Happy Halloween!

We're hoping everyone has a spooktaticular day! Its been a busy week for us, full of festivities & fun (and a bit of stress, but isn't that normal?)

Monday: We had our annual Halloween playgroup where we all get together with the kids in costume.

From R to L: Elle the Ladybug, Sariah the Pirate, Cora the Turkey, Kaitlin the Pink Dragon & Nathan the Green Dragon

We were over at Susan & Tessa's house & they have this indoor slide thingie that Sariah loved to climb all over. Seriously, she should just be a monkey every year, because she's one everyday.

Yes, I put my costume on for awhile for this one, I mean, hey, I made it, I should get some use out of it!

Aren't we the two cutest pirates ever?

This next pic is what happens when you try to get two almost two year olds to stand next to eachother & smile.

Wednesday: We had our Ward Playgroup party. I didn't get any pictures, but my friend Heidi did, so I'll post some when she sends me them.

Thurdsay: This was our busy day, we had the Library Halloween party in the morning & our Trunk or Treat that night.

Here's Sariah during the "Parade of Costumes" at the Library, yup, I'm back in mine too...

The rest of these are from the Trunk or Treat. Because Doug was home so last minute, I didn't have time to make him a pirate costume. Instead he dressed up like a Nerd Herder @ the Buy More from the TV show "Chuck" (Seriously the best show on tv right now, and nobody watches it because nobody got his costume...)


Arrr maties! We may not be fierce pirates, but we're cute!
Look its Doug vs. The Pirates! (Its how they name all the Chuck episodes... Chuck vs. the Ninja, etc.)
This though, was the best costume of the night.... Look, we had Shrek at our party!
Its been a crazy week, but we've had lots of fun. Tonight we've got the Neighborhood Halloween Party & then maybe it'll be a little quite for awhile (or at least till Thanksgiving!) Happy Haunting Everyone!

24

The last 24 hrs. have gone something like this:

Doug sends email, trip may be cancelled.

Doug & Marin slack off at night, Doug doesn't pack.

Doug goes to work, waits for confirmation email about cancelled trip.

Doug gets a "plan to go until further notice" email.

Marin & Sariah go to playgroup.

Doug calles, time to go.

Everyone rushes home, Doug packs, head to office, go to airport.

Drop Doug off, hope for cancellation phone call.

Marin & Sariah go to Walmart x2 & mall.

Marin calls Doug, flight leaves in 40 min. still no cancellation.

Marin & Sariah arrive at home.

30 sec. later Doug calls, trip cancelled, needs a ride.

Marin sighs, have to get back in car.

Doug calls again, nevermind, got a ride back to work.

Marin rejoices!

Pumpkins Carving w/ the Missionaries!

Okay, Pumpkin carving was something I really, really wanted to do this year, but Doug wasn't as enthustiastic about it as me. So when the missionaries called and asked if they could come to our house with Brittney to carve pumpkins, I was all about that!

Sariah totally got in on the carving. Here she's helping Daddy "draw" the face on his pumpkin.She got really into it, maybe because its the first time we've let her color on something that wasn't paper. ;)

Mmm.. scooping the goopy innards out!

On the upside, we saved all the pumpkin seeds and toasted them in the oven today. They were super yummy!

And now, the final products! Here's the Sister's pumpkin...
Here's Doug & Sariah's...
Mine is pirate themed to match our Halloween Costumes!

And Brittney did a bat on her Jack-o-lantern!

We had a really fun time! We also sipped cidar & munched on cupcakes (thanks Brittney!) and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies (thanks Sisters!) After the Sisters left, Brittney and I played some guitar hero 3, which was totally fun, except I need a second guitar...

Anyways, I'm super excited about this week, because I'm loving Halloween this year & we're going to wear our costumes at least 5 times, so I'll post pictures as the week progresses!

SuperBaby!

She runs, she jumps, she saves the day!

So You Think You Can Dance? - The Road Trip!

Its the moment I'd been waiting for since season 4 of So You Think You Can Dance? started back in May - the tour stop in Milwalkee!!!Sarah, Erika, Hilary and I road triped over there to catch the tour, which was pretty sweet! It was fun to go as a group. We didn't get lost, we found parking preatty easily & we were early enough but not too early, so that was great!

Here we are at the front of the Bradley Center, we'd totally make top 20, don't you think?

Not that we'll actually try out next year or anything, I totally prefer to watch.

Here we are at our seats, we had pretty good seats. They were on the floor, and a bit back, but we could still see faces and expressions and things.

Here's just a couple pictures from my favorite dances from the second act. I didn't think to take my camera out for the first act, but that's okay. Just as a disclaimer, I have a favorite dancer, and it is Mark, he's definately a different kind of guy & dancer and we're a different breed of fan. We're all just basically "a little left of center" as Mark put it.

This first picture is from a group dance called "The Dance." I thought it was one of the best non-hip hop group dances of the season!

This second dance is from "Bleeding Love" which is a lyrical hip hop featuring Mark & Chelsie H. (Marksie!)

I had a totally awesome time and I loved every minute. We were a bit bummed because one of the favorite dancers, Katee had a neck injury and only danced the first group dance & the final couple dance, so it was a different show than I think others had previously seen, but it was still very enjoyable. Of course I could watch them every night if I were rich enough to follow the tour and get tickets to every venue, but that's okay, I'll settle reliving it through Youtube... ;)

I can't wait for the show to start again next year!

See all my pics from the tour:

SYTYCD Tour 2008 - Milkwalkee

Wanna see what SYTYCD is about? Or at least the dances I have pictures of, check out these youtube clips...

THE DANCE:

From Portland, OR:

From Tacoma:



From the tv show:


BLEEDING LOVE:

From Tacoma:



From St. Paul:


From the tv show:


The Finale of the live show from Tacoma:

Pretty!

So I meant to write this post a week ago when the leafs were turning such pretty colors, but hadn't fallen off the trees en masse quite yet, but the day I finally took my camera with me to capture the beauty of Autumn it rained, so I didn't really get the pretty shots I wanted, but here's the best I could do.

I esp. like this magenta next to this bright orange...
The view as you drive down our street.


Anyways, it was nice to come back from Texas and be reminded of why Fall here is so nice. What isn't nice is the 8 hrs I spent last week raking all those leafs off my grass so they wouldn't kill it, only to have a bunch more fall, making my work futile. At least the city finally picked up the big piles!

So in conclusion, here's two totally pointless pictures of Sariah that have nothing to do with leafs, but also don't warrent their own post. Check out her shiner!Okay, actually its black ink from one of the stamps she got on her hands at the library story hour last Friday. She must of wiped her eye with the back of her hand before the stamp was totally dry. At least she missed her clothes!

This is her playing this morning.
I bought her this little people set a couple weeks back because it came with big blocks she could stack and I thought she'd like that, but it turns out she prefers to play with the two little people that came with it. She esp. likes to make them hold hands, its very cute!

Yep..

Where is your cell phone? purse
Your significant other? Doug
Your hair? boring
Your mother? improved
Your father? golf
Your favorite thing? create
Your dream last night? missionary
Your favorite drink? sonic
Your dream/goal? college?
The room you’re in? living
Your hobby? crafting
Your fear? baren
Where do you want to be in 6 years? here
What you’re not? skinny
Muffins? cranberry-orange
One of your wish list items? minivan
Where you grew up? Texas
The last thing you did? breakfast
What are you wearing? clothes
Favorite gadget? wii
Your pets? hamster
Your computer? stupid
Your mood? worried
Missing someone? Lisa
Your car? manuel
Something you’re not wearing? earrings
Favorite store? Target
Like someone? Doug
Your favorite color? blue
When is the last time you laughed? last night
Last time you cried? soon

Marin Sews Halloween Costumes -or- How to Suceed in Sewing by Trying Really Hard

I'm offically really proud of myself. This time last year, I could barely sew a straight line! Now, I've sewn, not only one, but three Halloween costumes! Check them out!

This one I just finished tonight, its a Wonder Woman costume for Abigail, complete with shiny arm bands and red boot covers.



Ya'll remember this one, its Sariah's Pirate Costume...

...well even cute little pirates have Pirate Mommies, so here's my costume.


In case your wondering, I have a pattern and was going to make Doug a pirate costume too, but he's got a business trip over Halloween and will miss all the fun, so no costume for him this year.

I'm having such a good time sewing, it puts me in a happy mood, and it feels really good to learn a new talent. I can't wait for Halloween!

Texas Pics!

Click the pic!


by sisterrigby

Texas Fun!

We've been kind of off the radar for a couple of weeks, but that's because we took a long awaited and enjoyable vacation. Sariah and I flew down to Austin on Monday, Sept. 22, and Doug followed the Saturday after. We had tons and tons of fun visiting Grandparents and friends and doing all those things that we can't do at home, ironically many of them involving ice cream (Amy's, Blue Bell, etc.) We also enjoyed some Rudy's BBQ, Mesa Rosa, Mr. Gatti's pizza, HEB...

But lest you think our whole trip was about food, we also had tons of fun swimming, playing at parks, visiting relatives and friends, and enjoying the Texas heat. I won't bore you with the details, but let the pictures speak for themselves, once I get them all uploaded to webshots. The link is coming soon...

The benefits from this trip weren't just rest and relaxation though. I attened the Temple in San Antonio with my mom on one day, which was wonderful and insightful for me. Plus Doug and I did a lot of talking about future plans and changes we wanted to make in our lives. Something about being away from home made choices easier to make. We also learned we liked having our lives more scheduled, so we've implimented a nightly planning session before bed, similar to what we use to do as missionaries, where we outline (and write down) everything we need to do the next day. In turn we accomplish more and forget less. Our house is cleaner and prettier, and we're feeling loads better about our choices and goals. That, my friends, is what I call a sucessful vacation!