The Baby's Room

It has taken awhile to get the baby's room ready but it is finally all complete. There has been a significant transfomation in that little room. See before and after pictures below...

Before:

After:

So the little pink room is all ready for our little baby girl, whom the stork should be dropping off any day now!

-Jeremy

Ms. Prego

Here's a few shots of Mary at full-term. She's doing a particularly nice job at being pregnant, and I hear it isn't easy.

-Jeremy

More Family

That same weekend (continuing from the last two postings) we also had Jeremy's side of the family in town. Mike, Jeremy's older brother, and his family, Zoe, his wife, and two children Eliana and Toby, were in town from CA for a visit and a wedding. They were actually here for about two weeks. The weekend before everyone went up to Hazelton to visit where Craig and Molly Marie (Jeremy's twin brother and his wife) and his parents live. It was nice for us all to be together in one place. That rarely happens. The next weekend (the weekend of my baby shower), everyone (except Craig and Molz) came back down to our area, which is also where Zoe's parent's live. It was so great to see Mike and Zoe again. We wish they weren't so far away. It was really neat to see Jaron interacting with his oldest cousin, Eliana. Even though they're about a year in a half apart in age, he's old enough now where he can sort of play with other children. He doesn't remember Ellie, but it didn't take long for them to get used to each other. The night we had to say our goodbyes was really hard for me. Knowing that we won't be seeing them until next spring or summer is difficult. It's amazing to me how I have grown to love Jeremy's family as if they were my blood. I'm so glad they are in our lives even though they are 5,000 miles away.

Jeremy's oldest brother Mike, his twin brother Craig, and his dad.

We went to a pumkin patch. The kids really enjoyed it.

Jaron's youngest cousin, baby Emma (Craig and Molly Marie's 4 month old)

All the Riggall cousins together in one spot. This is no easy task!

Ellie turned 3 while they were visiting, so Zoe and her mom threw her a birthday party. She loves the binoculars we got her!

Mike and Zoe

Grammy with her two grandsons, Toby (Mike and Zoe's boy) and Jaron

Mike and Jeremy playing with the kids

The Riggall family

Jarid and Tiffany

We've been pretty busy lately. The weekend of my shower we had a lot of family in town from both sides. My sisters, Mom and in-laws were in town for the baby shower. During the baby shower, Jeremy was able to have his dad and my sister, Tiffany's fiance, Jarid stay at home and cut some trees down. Jarid loves his chain saw and I can see why. He's really good with it! We had two unecessary trees in our front yard that he cut down and you can't even see the stumps where he cut them. He also cut a bunch of branches off of our big tree in the back yard. Now we have sunlight on our back yard! It looks so much better. Thank you Jarid!

It's amazing how similar Jarid and Jeremy are. Tiff told me from the beginning before I even met him how much he reminds her of Jeremy. Not looks, but in personality and interests. It's neat. I'm excited for they're growing friendship as brothers. Anyway, Tiff and Jarid stayed a couple nights with us over the weekend. We really enjoyed having them. They are getting married in May of next year. Yay! Here are a couple of shots of the happy couple and Jer and I.

Baby Shower

Last Saturday my Mom and sister, Geniene, did the sweetest thing and put on a baby shower for me. It was so nice of them. We had a really good time. It was held at Geniene's house.

They had some of my baby clothes stringed up on a clothes line. What a great idea!

I had a sceptor and a crown. I felt like a queen.

They hung up my old blankie that I carried around, obviously forever. I can't believe after all these years, it's back! I loved that thing.

This is now hanging in Abigail's room above her changing table.

My mom, my sisters and I. I am very blessed.

Thanks to my friend, Mary Hand, for taking such great pictures and passing them along!

Just the 3 of Us!

I am so excited about Jaron being an older brother. Just seeing how he behaves around his cousins and other babies reassures me that he will be a loving big brother. Sure, there will be some adjusting to do, but as much as he loves to give hugs and kisses, I think he'll just love doing the same to Abigail. Right now, we are trying to soak up as much fun and memories as a family of three as we can with our little guy while we have the time... but not much. :)

Getting Ready

The Riggall's have been pretty busy lately trying to get the baby room ready for little Abigail. Just about every evening Jeremy has been in there painting over the dark blue color that the former owners of this house decided to paint the once beautiful dark wood trim in. It takes about four coats of white to cover it completely and painting trim is very time consuming anyway. For some reason, that is the color the owners chose for most of the bathroom and the kitchen trim as well, so it has not been a quick easy paint job on this house. All this to say that we finally finished the trim in the baby's room and were able to get started on the fun part, coloring the walls! I have been helping here and there when I'm able, but it has mostly been Jeremy. It's not easy for him to come home after a long day at work, eat dinner and then get started on painting before bedtime almost every night. He's been very faithful and dedicated to getting the job done a month prior to the birth of Abigail...and he's almost there. We hope to have the painting done and the room in order by this weekend. That's our goal anyway. I can't wait so we can relax a little bit before we have to start packing bags (for the hospital), getting ready for our little girl, and soaking in our last couple of weeks as a family of three. There will always be plenty of projects to do around here though. I think the bathroom is next. We have high hopes and dreams for this place, but a little break after Abigail's room will be nice. Once her room is finalized and everything is in place, I will post some pictures. In the mean time, you'll have to put up with pictures of our sweet little 18 month old boy. I also wanted to add in a few pictures of a recent babysitting adventure Jeremy and I had when the Simrak boys came over for an evening. Boy did they have fun! And so did Jeremy and I. It gave us a good idea what it will soon be like with a larger family.

Little Gabe. Isn't he so cute?

It is no easy task trying to take a picture of the three of them.

Jaron and Gabe are only 7 1/2 months apart.

Uncle Jeremy tackeling the boys.