Summer Update

Good news! We have a date for a meeting with our adoption agency. Next Wednesday, August 6th, we will be going to Indy to spend the day with the director. This is a big step we've been looking forward to all summer. We'll learn more about what we'll be going through in the next several months.

Speaking of baby news... here are a few pictures of the baby's room, before and after we remodeled. Michael did a great job from demolition to drywall and Mandi did some awesome painting.

And we want to thank Eric and Alison for loaning us a whole carload full of baby stuff! It was like Christmas in July looking at everything. Cooper certainly enjoyed it when he and Shelby were here the other day!

We love our nieces and nephews!

We've been lucky to get to spend some time with Dalayna, Brayden, Bryce, and Audrey recently.

Michael thinks he can show Brayden a thing or two about cooking after watching Mandi's favorite tv station, the Food Network.

Apparently Mandi has a very comfy lap. Here she is with Audrey and Brayden...

And again with Bryce and Dalayna.

Bryce's favorite thing is tractors. He had a stow-away on this trip.

This is one of three new posts, so make sure you look at them all!

4th of July

We had another fun weekend at the lake this 4th of July.

Sunset on the lake, how romantic!

As you can see, several universities are well-represented in the Rigney family.

Corn hole is a favorite way to pass the time.

The games occasionally get competetive with a little bit of trash-talking.

Fun Summer!

Michael and Mandi let me in the house on a hot day to cool off, so I thought I would let everyone know what I have been doing. Mandi's friend, Tyson, gave me a new bike tire. Oh, how I have missed having one. Don't I look great wearing it?


Michael was outside today trimming some tree limbs. I thought it would be fun to play hide and seek. Can you find me? I hope everyone's summer is going as well as mine.

Summer is here!

We are all very glad that summer is here, although Mandi and Michael are still working for a few more weeks. We don't really have any big adoption news to report. The most recent happening is that two out of six of our references have received letters to send back to the agency telling them how awesome we are. When something more interesting happens, we will definitely post it. Here are a few random pictures from the past couple of weeks.

This is Mandi learning to drive the short bus from school. She thinks she is a pretty good driver!

While at the lake for Memorial Day weekend, Michael, Sam, and Chuck put in the pier.

Check out Michael's Uncle Bob. He's proud of that black eye. You should see the other guy! He was actually in a car accident on the way to the lake. Everyone is fine, by the way.

Mandi has grown a green thumb. She hasn't killed her flowers...yet.

Big news

Surprise! I'm very excited because Michael and Mandi told me I'm going to be a big brother. Too bad I don't know how soon it will happen. I guess I'll just have to wait patiently. (I'm not very good at that.) They explained to me that we are going to be adopting a baby as soon as we are chosen. They sent their application earlier this week to their agency, St. Elizabeth/ Coleman, in Indianapolis. Both Mandi and Michael had to get fingerprinted and have physical exams to complete the paperwork. The next step is to be approved and then they will go to an all-day workshop to learn more about the process. After that a home study will be done. That means someone will come here and look at our house and talk to Michael and Mandi, and I will have to be on my best behavior. Next comes the waiting part. We wait for a birth mother to choose us. We aren't sure how long all of this will take, but we are very happy to have things moving forward!

Spring Break

It's Michael and Mandi again, but Kramer wanted to make sure you didn't forget about him. Here's a fun picture!

Spring Break has gone by way too fast. We had a lot of fun in Hocking Hills, Ohio this week. We hiked some trails and saw some pretty caves and waterfalls. The cabin we stayed in was small, but we liked it. Mandi's favorite part of the trip was shopping for new decorations for the kitchen and Michael's was the ribs he had at Millstone BBQ. We both loved the hot tub.

The weirdest part of the trip was this sign for a chinese auction. We still haven't figured out what that is. Can you really sell Chinese people?