Boys-Only Basement Campout

Jason and Jaxon decided they needed to have a basement campout this weekend. I managed to snap some pictures at the start of their campout and I did get to eat dinner and dessert and watch the movie with them. After that, I was banned to the upstairs and it was boys-only in the basement.

Here's the set-up. Jaxon insisted that they both have a tent set up. I'm pretty sure that Jason will only be able to fit his head and shoulders in his tent, but I'm sure he'll give it his best shot!



Here's Jax eating cheese pizza and S'Mores.



The boys watching the movie, Tangled. Great movie by the way!



Here's how we roast marshmallows in the Riggs' home. We don't have a fireplace, outdoor fire pit or anywhere safe outdoors for a bonfire. This is when having a gas stove is a major bonus.



No skewer or wire hanger? A meat fork will do just fine.



Mmmmmm...


Who doesn't want a bite of that?!?

TEE BALL!!!

Jaxon has been looking forward to playing Tee Ball for months. His first game got rained out and he was absolutely devastated. This past Saturday he had his first game. Well it's not so much of a game as it is drills and stations to learn the basics of tee ball. He was a little shy to start and just stood and watched the rest of the team warm-up. Then once they started the stations he jumped right in and had a blast.

His teammates were running around like crazy and their coaches were asking them to sit down. Guess who was already sitting down and hadn't moved since the first time they had been told to sit? Yes, Mr. Rule-Follower Riggs.



Little Slugger hit the ball right in to the fence. And here comes another one.




There's our little buddy!



He loved fielding the balls. Although he had some issues with the kids that were throwing balls. He spent most of this station retrieving thrown balls and returning them to the coaches.




Hitting practice:






Jax and his teammates running the bases:

Lunch Date With My Little Man

As Jason and I were leaving for our date Friday night, Jaxon kept telling Daddy he wanted to go on a date with Mommy. He didn't forget either. He woke up the next morning asking if he could go on a date with mommy. So, Jax and I went on a lunch date. He chose Culver's for lunch and then he took me shopping for new clothes (Daddy's orders). We had a wonderful afternoon and I can't wait until he asks for another date.

Me and my favorite three year old ready for our date!



My little date walking in the rain to Culver's.



He loves his Culver's.

Happy 8th Anniversary

On May 24th, Jason and I celebrated our 8th anniversary. Jason had a softball game the night of our anniversary, so we waited till the weekend to celebrate. Jason decided on a steakhouse called, Alexander's Steakhouse. The fun part of the experience is that you have the opportunity to cook your own steak if you want, or you can pay the cook $3 to grill it for you. We thought the experience of cooking it ourselves would be fun, well Jason cooking them anyway. We had a great night and ended at the movie theater to see Fast Five. The kids had a great night with their sweet babysitter, Brittany.

Our Little Garden

Our house really has a great backyard, with a lot of awesome landscaping. There was a little garden already in our yard. It was about 1 ft. X 4 ft. We wanted to plant several things, so we decided to expand it a bit. Being the unprofessional farmers we are, we took it on by hand. Yes, rather than rent a tiller. Or ask our next door neighbor to borrow his. We hand tilled the area to expand it to 10 ft. X 9 ft. It was a LONG day of physical labor, but we are so proud of our little garden and excited to enjoy some fresh veggies this summer (as long as we get some green thumbs real soon). We have always had a large garden growing up, but I have never planted or taken care of one on my own and neither has Jason. We're calling this our "Learning Summer".



Here's the area as we were getting started. We had already tilled a row when we remembered we wanted a before picture. Oh well..



We had a great helper though! Jax had his rake and helped me raked up the dirt and grass as Jason tilled it up.



Jaxon and his daddy planting cucumbers.



Sissy woke up and came out to help later in the day and I couldn't resist her sweet smile.



Here's our little garden. We planted red bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, green beans, rosemary, basil, nine tomato plants (yes 9!), cucumbers and lettuce. I'll update throughout the summer. We do have some green bean sprouts coming up, so I'll have to get out there and take some pictures.

Happy Mother's Day

We had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend. We spent Saturday morning at the home improvement store buying flowers and vegetables, then went home and spent the beautiful afternoon in the sun planting. It was a perfect weekend with my little family!


Here's Jaxon helping his daddy stir the concrete for the stepping stones he and Dakota made for their grandma's for Mother's Day.



Me and my beautiful kids on Mother's Day, headed to church.






This video is pretty cute. Jason had asked Dakota if she loved Daddy and she kept saying no. Then he'd ask if she loved Mommy and she'd shake her head yes. When I got the camera out to record it, she of course wouldn't do it anymore, but it's still cute.

Easter Pictures

We had a very talented friend take some awesome pictures of the kids in their Easter outfits.

I love the way she is looking at her big brother here!






I know she'll kill me for this in a few years, but I had to!

One of the Best Days of My Life

I did love my wedding day and all of the events leading up to that. And I loved both days my babies were born. And I know there are many more days I have loved. But this past Thursday was an experience I will never forget.

Jason text me early in the week saying there was a possibility the kids and I could fly Space-A (available space only) on a C-130 to Wright Patterson Air Force Base and then to the Air Force Museum. I was ecstatic about the idea, thinking I wouldn't get a chance at this for 10 more years. We kept the plan to ourselves and waited till Wednesday night to tell Jaxon. He said (yelling), "I get to be a pilot! This is going to be awesome!" Then he let me know that he would need to wear his flight suit, since he would be a pilot, of course.

This was one of the most amazing opportunities I have ever been given. There is an AF rule that does not allow Jason to be on the same (military) flight as any family member. So, Jason flew our pilot's family on a different plane. Our pilots that day were wonderful and even let us sit up in the cockpit for the entire flight. This was very good news for this motion-sick prone gal. There's just so much to say about our day, I don't even know where to start...


Daddy and his kids in front of the Herk.






Jax and Daddy in their flight suits, ready for the big flight. As people in the squadron saw Jaxon, they noticed he didn't have ALL the patches his Daddy did, so he eventually got hooked up with the right patches. He was a little stressed about not having boots like Daddy. He even asked me the night before to go to the store and buy him some.





After the flight to Dayton, Ohio (WPAFB), we boarded some buses and headed to the Air Force Museum. We had to get up that morning in time to leave the house by 6:00 AM. The kids were exhausted, but neither of them slept on the flight. I guess they were too excited.


Within minutes of being in the museum, Jaxon passed out.



Jaxon "flying" an F-16 at the museum.



Jax and I checking out the Holocaust display.



Consolidated B-24 Liberator - My grandfather, Bob Payne, was a nose gunner on this airplane during WWII. Dakota and I are standing outside the window where my grandpa rode. (Sorry about the name of the plane).



Jason and Jaxon in front of an A-10. Jax has a toy A-10 that he plays with. It's one of his favorite airplanes. After Jason lifted him up to look in to the A-10's cockpit, Jaxon said, "Yep, I'm sure I wanna fly this airplane when I'm bigger." That just made his daddy's day!



Cute kiddo peeking out the back of a Herk.



Close-up



After the flight home, Jaxon insisted on sticking around and helping the Load Masters complete their duties, which included putting all the seats back up against the wall.




On the flight back to Peoria, Jaxon really wanted to ride in the back. I did not. He was insisting on it and after I explained to him that Dakota and I would not be riding in the back with him, he said, "Bye Mom. Have a good flight and I'll see you later." Ok. The Load Master's promised me they would take good care of him, and boy did they ever. They lifted him to look out the windows several times. They even put a headset on him for quite awhile where he carried on a conversation with our pilots for several minutes.



Jax and Load Master, Matt, hanging out in the back of the Herk.



Once we were back in Peoria, Jason took Jax back up to the flight deck to "fly" for awhile.

Baby Day

Our church up here celebrated Babies last Sunday. Because Jaxon doesn't promote to the preschool class till next month, he got to march in the Baby Parade with us. We had heard that the families go all out by dressing up with a theme and decorating a stroller or wagon to match. We saw princesses, cowboys, race car drivers and fishermen. We didn't allow a lot of time to prepare and Jason couldn't be with us due to drill weekend, so the kids and I decided to celebrate Mommy's "Go Cats"! K-State theme it was.