Reintroducing ourselves...

Its us, The Wiggins Family! Back from a long dry spell here in the blogging world. Don't get your hopes up, I'm not thinking this will become a regular habit again but I'll try to do a little better. We've been enjoying a very busy summer with several trips to the beach, an ALFA conference, an upcoming trip to the lake, and still another conference to attend. Russell is as busy as ever with farming, cattle, and trying to accomodate a little boy that LOVES to farm with his daddy but is still in diapers and can't drive a tractor. Not exactly help, just yet. Here's a little update on our crew...

on the way into Shipwreck Island,

one of our favorite summer spots!
Riley Grace is 10 1/2. She finished 4th grade at Andalusia Elementary and will be starting 5th grade soon at Pleasant Home School. She is super excited about this change and has been hoping for this for quite some time now. She'll be riding the bus to school for the first time and for now that is quite a novelty in her eyes. I'm excited for her and hope this change goes smoothly. She's enjoyed spending time at Brian's some this summer and is going to be getting a new baby sister there on Monday. Everywhere she goes there's lots of babies! I feel for her sometimes. She's still a pretty big help although I will say the newness has definately worn off of these brothers and sisters. They are often "on her nerves". She didn't do swim team in Montgomery this summer but she's spent a whole lot of time in the water. She LOVES to swim and is an excellent swimmer! She's growing up WAY WAY too fast and is becoming a young lady. She is only about a half size behind me in her shoes and loves that she can actually wear some of my shoes. School will start the first of August and my full time helper will be out for most of the day. Makes me a little sad.
Maggie Ruth is 3 1/2. She's still the one I have a hard time putting words with. She's as friendly as they ever made a child **if she woke up on the right side of the bed**. But watch out world if its "one of those days." She's much more of a girly girl than Ryles. She wants her nails painted everyday a different color. When we were at the ALFA conference she'd ask random ladies, "what color is your polish?" It was hilarious! She totally has an opinion on what she wants to wear everyday. Rarely do I pick anything out that she's agreeable with. She's even learning to do her own hair. She brushes it and tries to put it in a pony tail. She also still loves to hang out at the shop with all of the men. She's a social butterfly for sure! I can honestly say though she is as much fun as she is a handful. She is constantly making me laugh. She talks with her hands a lot and I love to see the expression she puts into all of her statements. Hard to believe she'll be 4 in a couple of months. She thinks that when the bus comes to get Riley she'll get to get on and go to school with Amy. (Garner that is, who will be in 1st grade, but Maggie has NO idea there is any age difference in the two of them.) We'll see how well this goes when RG gets on the bus and she can't.

And then there is the brother! He's 18 months old now! Everyone always told me there is just a difference in boys and girls and to be honest I couldn't understand how they could say that, well.... there is! This boy is like pure SUGAR most of the time. I could just eat him up he's so stinkin' cute. He has my heart in the palm of his hand. But the other tiny part of the time that he's not sugar, he's a MANIAC!!! He is wide open, full speed ahead, 100 mph, nonstop, fulltime, 24/7 energy! His body only stops moving when he finally gives it up and goes to sleep. There is nothing in our house that is out of his reach. Trust me- he CAN get to it. He's not exactly talking just yet. He says Da-deeeee (daddy), clear as a bell but that is really the only word we understand. He has learned to nod and shake his head though so we know what he wants. And unlike anyone else in this family ;) he has a fit when he doesn't get what he wants. Not just a mild, get over it really quickly fit- its the kind where his legs turn into noodles, his back arches so that his head is closer to the ground than his feet, his teeth are clenched and he is somewhere between growling, screaming and crying. He's usually greeted with a good ole' fashion whippin' as he's coming out of the body contortion. So far we haven't broken him of this but we're not giving up hope (or spanking)! Really though, most of the time he's just sugar!
And one last bit- we're expecting our 4th little bitty in January. I'm about 15 weeks. I'm actually due the same date I was with Jack. If this baby comes 2 weeks early like Maggie Ruth and Jack did we might just squeeze 3 birthdays into one day. Jack was born on my birthday (Jan. 7th) and if we miss that date we can go for the 8th, Riley Grace's birthday. We'll find out what we're having in just a couple of weeks so I'll try to post again then. Thanks for hanging in there with me during my leave of absence from blogging!