Riggs' triplets

many of you knew the Riggs when they lived here in vegas. i am often asked how they are doing and what they are up to, so i will tell you and give you some pictures of the triplets. we spent the last couple of days at a cabin in sundance and the riggs joined us one day. kim and i were close friends and it was hard to see them go, but they seem to be happy. for all of you who miss her too she did tell me that she really misses living here and has tried to think of ways that they could have stayed or could come back. she said that they had a real hard time adjusting to life in utah.

anyway, the triplets (as most of you know) were born very premature and the two boys, Cole and Brock, are deaf. they are almost 1 now and they are getting their implants at the end of august. insurance covers it once they are 1. they are the cutest little things and kim and clayton seemed very together. when the time came to feed them it was like tag-team feeding frenzy. clayton took one, kim took one and our friend courteney took another one. it was actually quite under control until courteney's 6-week old baby started crying and she had to stop feeding one of the triplets. not to mention the other 8 kids we had in the cabin running around us and yelling and playing. it was actually a great time and not as chaotic as it could have been. kim said that she may start a blog soon, then we can keep in better contact with them.

i promise i did help once i took a couple of pictures.

Cabin Fever

we spent last weekend at a cabin with some friends. we were up in Duck Creek and it was beautiful. the weather is great and the whole cabin atmosphere is so wonderful. my kids loved 4-wheeling. cole would just sit on the 4-wheeler while it was parked, just waiting for somebody to take him on a ride. then the helmet was too heavy for his little neck so his head would flop around and he still wanted to go!

we also went hiking, and my kids love to hike. we have done so much hiking this summer and the kids never complain. i don't know if i am just more brave or the kids are better, but i would have never even considered hiking with all of them a year ago. now we have a blast and even cole walks for most of it.

Denver

Busy, busy, busy. we love to get away from the vegas heat during the summer so we have been busy. last week we spent some time in Denver with my sister and her family. the weather was perfect. we were there for my nephews baptism. he is the first grandchild to be baptized and it was a great experience. i don't see my sister very often so when we get together we just want to do nothing and hang out and talk. so greg kept the baby in vegas a couple of days so i could hang out with my sister without him. one year olds are too high maintenance. greg and cole joined us in denver a few days later. both of my parents are from denver so we still have a lot of family there so it was great to see everybody.

now we will stay home for a week and then off to utah. it's just too hot here. here are some pics of the week in denver.



the pictures:


- the cousins
- everyone watching fireworks
- my sister and her family
- my parents

California Dreamin'

this past weekend we went to cali to get away from 107 degrees here at home and we accomplished it. i have to say it was even a bit chilly there. the weather was cool and cloudy and i loved it. we stayed at the hyatt on huntington beach and if you have never been to this hotel you should go. it is beautiful and right on the beach. we went with a couple of friends and the kids played on the beach the majority of the trip. it was very chilly and the kids complained a bit, but then we would run up to the hotel and jump in the hot tub and all was well.

we love traveling and i have to say it is getting easier and easier as the kids get older. the baby was the only one who was kind of a pain in the butt on the beach. not because he didn't like it, in fact he loved it, but the sand is incredibly annoying when you have a baby. but for some reason he was rubbing his face in it, and if i cleaned him off he would drop down to the ground and rub his face and head in it all over again. go figure. he loved it.

just for future reference. if anybody is planning a trip somewhere and thinks, "man it would be fun if another family came with us to hang out with" then call us, we are pretty much up for a trip any time, and we love going with other families. The kids have so much fun playing with other kids and lets face it, if the kids are having fun, then we're having fun. so let us know. here are some more pics of the trip.

To all of you readers out there

As you may have noticed I have changed a few things around here. Just needed a little revamping. I added some new sections on my sidebar. Books I have read, books I am reading and books I want to read. I put this here to spark some on going conversation. I love to read, but I often find myself not sure what to read. This year hasn't been so bad since I have a bookclub to tell me what to read, but in years past I was never quite sure what books were good, tasteful, entertaining, and well worth the time spent reading it. So, what I want from you is your input. Have you read any of these books? What is your opinion on these books? What are you reading that you just can't put down? I want to know.
Since I am asking so much from you, I will be the first to start. I will give a quick rating on a few of the books I have recently read and maybe inspire a few of you non-readers to dive in.

The Twilight Series - I feel it is almost pointless for me to comment on these books since pretty much every mormon woman has read them recently, and if she hasn't she is being pestered by all of her friends and family to get to it. A great, easy, fun, quick way to lose yourself for a few days. That's right, I said a few days. Even though the page total of this series is roughly 1800 pages, it seems most people can get through it in about a week. You do forget that you have a husband, children, friends, or for that matter any responsibility at all while reading these. That's part of the beauty of them. I give this series 4 stars!!

The Thirteenth Tale - Very interesting. I don't quite know how to critique this book. I really enjoyed reading it, it is very eerie and very fascinating, you really want to know what happens to these characters, but I don't think I would read it again. I would definitely recommend reading it just for the sheer weirdness of it. I give this book 3 stars.

The Eyre Affair - Extremely clever. It's a story set in the future but the year is 1985 (try to figure that one out). Very cleverly written and if you love Jane Eyre you should probably read it, but I don't think I would run out and buy all of his books. I give this book 2 and a half stars.

The Book Thief - Loved it. It is set during the Holocaust, so it definitely isn't going to cheer you up, but it is incredibly moving and a beautiful story. The most interesting thing about this book is that it is told from the point of view of death. That's right, the good old grim reaper is telling the story and it makes for the most intriguing point of view I have ever read from a book. I definitely give this book 4 stars.

Help me Utah friends!

I am in need of some information. We are planning on spending the month of July and part of August in Utah, we have a house in Alpine we will be staying at to escape the Vegas heat. Hwever, I need some things to do with my kids. Play groups, swim lessons, youth basketball teams, fun activities for the kids, gymnastics, dance, pools, anything. I would love to enroll them in classes and things so we kind of have a schedule and I don't wake up everyday thinking, "what are we going to do today?" So if anybody has any info please pass it on. I would love to see all of you and get together with you all as well, so let me know what you are up to this summer too. Thanks, see all of you soon, Kristy

Another Scare

Man, when it rains, it pours. I have done nothing but sad posts for weeks now. This one is no different. Carson has been complaining about a neck ache for a couple of days. I figured he just slept on it wrong and told him to stop being a baby. (I'm a bad mom) So, yesterday I barely touched his neck and he started crying and I thought, "Ok, maybe something is really wrong". So I looked more carefully at his neck and it was bulging. I took him to our family practitioner and he started asking me all these questions about how he had been feeling. I said that he had been sent home from school last Friday because of a high fever, but it went away after a couple of hours. Anyway, as I started thinking about it as he was questioning me I realized that he had been acting very odd for a couple of days. Very low energy, periodic fevers, and moodiness. I didn't even think that the the neck problem would be related to him not feeling well. The doctor said that he was very concerned because he could feel a growth on Carson's neck and with the high fevers it was something that needed immediate attention. He told me to take Carson to Sunrise Children's Hospital immediately. Carson needed blood work done and a catscan to determine what the growth was. Scary.

So Greg took him to the hospital, and I had to wait at home with the other kids with a huge pit in my stomach, just waiting to hear. After an IV, many viles of blood and a catscan (my poor baby), their diagnosis was very fear-relieving. He has an infected lymphnode. It is easily treated and nothing to worry about. If, for some reason the medication doesn't calm the lymphnode then they will have to do further tests and possibly remove it, but the doctor seemed pretty positive that it would.

There is nothing worse than not knowing what is wrong. So many possibilities run through your mind (and none of them are good), so while I was waiting for the diagnosis, I was just praying that they could determine the problem quickly and that the doctor would be thorough in his examination. My prayers were answered, I am so happy that he is going to be fine. Thanks to my friends who were so quick to call and ask if I needed help when they heard that Carson was in the hospital, I am very blessed.