Griffins Forever

Too Much, Too Soon

2012-08-29T19:21:00.000-07:00

On our way back from CA, Ami lost her first tooth. I had been thinking that I wanted to get some family photos in before she lost any teeth. Not that it really matters, but there's something about those cute baby teeth and I really love her smile just the way it is!! She also started kindergarten that week. Then, today I get an email about PTO. Whoa, slow down! Let me digest all of this. My baby girl is growing up.

There's many times in a day that I can't wait till my kids are more independent and then when it starts happening I want to freeze time! Darn it, I just want to have my cake and eat it too!!

(Hopefully I can add some pics soon. Can't find them for some reason.)

Where have the Griffin's Been?

2012-08-29T19:09:00.000-07:00

A better question is where haven't we been. Since my last post we moved to Colorado. We flew to PA for Scott's first graduation in May. We were able to visit some family we hand't seen in 5 years. BONUS!! Throw in a couple trips to Provo for extra measure. And then this month we drove to CA for Scott's second graduation. The first one was like a teaser. You are almost done with school, only 3 more months to go! We are excited for grad school to be another chapter written and are trying to figure out what to do now. Oh, yeah we have those 3 kids to raise!!

2011-12-18T09:06:00.001-08:00

Ami and Her Cleverness

2011-12-12T16:30:00.000-08:00

Ami: What's the biggest light?
Me: I don't know.
Ami: The sun!

Duh, mom!! That is one bright kid I have.

Isaac @ 5 Months

2011-11-27T17:18:00.000-08:00

I had this cute video where Isaac is laughing that I wanted to put up, but for whatever reason the audio isn't working. Darn it!! But here's a picture instead of him looking all grown up and this was a month ago!! It's not the best quality since it is a phone pic.

Last week I took Isaac to the doctor for his 4 month check up. Yeah, yeah I'm only a month late. He weighs 15lbs 4oz. And is 26 inches long. He is doing great and is overall a pretty happy baby. Today has been a little trying. Sundays always are with little ones. Typically he is soooo sweet I just want to eat'em up.

Some Tidbits

2011-11-13T08:56:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure how time passes by so quickly. The saying that "the days are long but the weeks are short" holds true in our house.

The picture on the left Isaac is 3 days old and on the right is about a week ago, so 4.5 months. It's always fun to go back and look at what the kids use to look like. At that moment in the pic you thought they were the most adorable creature and then later they sort of look a little goofy, still cute. : )

I can't believe he started rolling over 3-4 weeks ago. Funny how for the first child you have a post specifically for such an event, you know the time, date, place. The third, who pays attention to details. As long as they eventually become a productive member of society who cares how they go there, right? Really there is some guilt in me of not documenting my boys' milestones as well as I did Ami's.

This is Spiderman, not Eli! He loves this shirt and I can barely get it off long enough to wash it. One of the older boys at church showed him how to use his web. At first he wasn't coordinated enough to hold his middle fingers down with his thumb and would say, "help me." And if you try to use your web and you don't have the Spiderman hat (he occasionally loans it out) on he tells you, "you aren't Spiderman." You must have some Spiderman attire on!

Matchy Matchy Jammies

Ami is always wanting to help Isaac. At first she would drag him around in his bouncer wherever she went. One day I found her in the bathroom with him along side her. She didn't want to take her eyes off him.

The kids got a REAL treat this year. They got to go to two trunk or treats and trick or treating. Ami decided she would be a witch this year and use the costume Grama made for her last year. Luckily Ami's sunbeam teacher (pictured above) was gracious enough to help with the kids at our trunk or treat, since I was in charge of the food and kitchen clean up.

3 Little Piggy Opera

2011-11-06T08:34:00.000-08:00

Ok, so this is a proud moment for me for two reasons. One Ami appeared in her first play ever. She was the cutest piggy. One of the ladies in our ward decided to put together this little show with the kids just because she wanted to. It was really fun to see Ami "perform." A lot of times she is really reserved when you catch her dancing around.

And the second reason I'm proud is I figured out how to make a movie, albeit not the greatest and post it on here all WITHOUT the help of Scott.

YAY, for first!

2011-08-18T15:32:00.000-07:00

Two months later and I will pick up where Scott let off. This time around it was all natural!! We arrived at the hospital after a day of contractions. We were there less than a hour and Isaac was born. It was so quick there wasn't time for them to hook up an IV or any of the other crap they typically do. It was AWESOME, I highly recommend it!!

Overall, he has been a good baby. There were a couple weeks that his napping during the day was a little frustrating. It went with a whole lot of rocking and short naps. It seems like things have gotten better this week. I'm not as frustrated and feel like I'm being productive in other ways besides meeting my kids needs. Becky has gotten here groove back!

Lots of time has been spent with family this summer. Grandmas came and went. And then we had a mini Griffin Reunion with all Scotts' siblings and kids. Shortly after Scott had a conference in SLC and the kids were able to hang with Grama, Grampa, and Ryan. The summer has went by too fast. Scott will be starting seminary next week and a new semester of school the following one. He is half way done!! He's hoping to take the kids camping next weekend. The only chance this summer.

I'll post pictures later.

Isaac Ryan has Arrived

2011-06-24T20:59:00.000-07:00

I'll let Becky post the whole story later, but it went very quickly. We were in the hospital less than an hour before he was born. Isaac arrived at 6:30, weighs 8 pounds 12 ounces, is 21.5 inches, and is doing fantastic.

It's Been Way Too Long

2011-06-03T07:06:00.000-07:00

What has happened over the past four months?

Ami turned four!! Her only request was a yellow cake and a party with her friends.

Ami is very excited about letters and is always asking how to spell words. Below one of the words is "Expedition." It's not perfect but it is fun to watch her learn to put things together.

Scott, the kids, and Grampa worked hard on the yard and it has paid off. We now have grass to run and roll around on. Luckily I just had to keep everybody fed and hydrated. (One of the benefits of being pregnant or having an awesome husband and family!)

The kids love going to the park any chance they get. On this day it was particularly fun to have Dad with us. You can see that we have quite the monkeys.

Last but not least we are starting a business with Grama. A lot of energy and time has been going to working on this. We will soon be entering a beta phase with quilt designers and retail stores. It's exciting to think where this might go.

Finally, we are in anticipation of our little Isaac Ryan arriving in the next couple weeks. Last night I had a few hours of false labor. It got me moving enough to pull out the stuff I need for my hospital bag. With each child urgency has become less. This is 38 weeks.

And that is all folks!!

It's a Boy!

2011-02-05T10:33:00.000-08:00

We had an ultrasound yesterday and confirmed that we are having another little boy (I think we both suspected it would be a boy)! Ami was extremely disappointed as, "We already have a little brother." Then we told her that we are planning on naming him Isaac Ryan and she perked up, "We are going to have a Ryan?!?" So I think she will adjust. Eli on the other hand has no interest in having a younger sibling, regardless of the sex. He enjoys his status as momma's little boy.

Isaac was extremely cooperative with the ultrasound tech. She was able to get pictures of everything relatively quickly. Posted below are the first head shots of our little boy:

Eli Turned Two!!

2011-01-26T13:17:00.000-08:00

Eli turned two over a week ago. I think we are in trouble. I look back at videos of Ami and he is well past where she was at this age, because of watching her. He has his sweet side to. He comes up to me and hugs me and says "Wuve". If you can't tell from his pj shirt and train set he LOVES trains. Anytime he sees this shirt he wants to wear it, so on his birthday he wore it as a shirt. I love this guy!!

Quotations

2011-01-18T18:27:00.000-08:00

I ran into a couple of quotations in an article by George F. Will that I thought were fantastic.

Hence our exceptional Constitution, which says not what government must do for Americans but what it cannot do to them. Americans are exceptionally committed to limited government because they are exceptionally confident of social mobility through personal striving.

Just thought I'd share.

Just Busy

2010-09-30T00:00:00.000-07:00

What can I say? Life has gotten busy. In between early mornings with seminary and late nights with grad school our family naps or schedules something fun to do. Pretty much if it isn't on the calendar it probably isn't going to happen. And even if it is, sometimes it still doesn't happen. One would think that Scott is the one that is busy, but it affects us all. In a good way.

All this craziness has forced me to look for things that I'm interested in. I am taking a photography class and hope to learn how to use my fancy schamcy camera. (I have to figure out this toy before I can get anymore!) I ran my first 5K last Saturday. And when I'm watching TV alone while Scott is busy with his team, I'm teaching myself to crochet. So, it's all good, just different.

I have joined with a few other moms to do a preschool co-op for Ami. She always says in here prayers that she wants to be blessed to go to school. So, if you can't tell she loves it! She was excited for it to be at our house for the past couple weeks. It is often amazing some of the things that come out of her mouth. She sounds like a little adult.

Eli is talking more and more. Thank goodness! This has helped with biting. He has to do everything sister does. He picks things up so quickly. He is a little mama's boy. He can melt my heart.

We are still alive, just busy.

P.S. Pictures to get posted more often, so check back for those.

What Challenges Lie Ahead?

2010-08-16T00:00:00.000-07:00

We are about to start a new chapter in our lives. Wednesday Scott starts teaching seminary and next Monday he starts his grad program. We are excited and nervous. One of the biggest challenges is going to be the early early schedule. Scott is a night owl and especially if he is working on something that he enjoys. Wish us luck!

Pictures of the Cuties Posted

2010-08-10T00:00:00.000-07:00

I'm going to try to start posting regularly again, but not today!

Blah... Ha ha

2010-03-12T23:00:00.000-08:00

New pictures are posted. I just haven't had the energy to post an update. Sorry, hopefully things will get back to normal around here.

With a new house comes...

2010-02-01T23:00:00.000-08:00

What comes along with a new house? Nope, not termites. Nope, not a hole in the roof. Your not even getting hot. I'll just go ahead and tell you. A new calling. The Bishop found out that we were staying in the ward and instantly talked to Scott about me being the new Primary President. YIKES!!

Last Sunday was the first Sunday that I had any responsibilities. The way to start is with it being the last Sunday and the President being in charge of Sharing Time. That way the following month you can be the floater.

I'm excited, nervous, and scared all rolled up into little ol' me. If I start writing about a nervous break down, you'll know why.

Shhh...I'm Hunting!

2010-01-25T23:00:00.000-08:00

When Ami isn't watching Curious George, she has quite the imagination. For Christmas we got her some legos. She can make anything out of legos or paper. Today I was picking up the house and Ami came up to me, "Mom, I shot an elk!" with her lego gun in hand. A minute later she comes back, "I'm going to pick it up." I asked her, "What are you going to do with it after you pick it up?" "I'm going to hang it on the wall," she said. Duh, mom! Oh, how proud both grandpas and Uncle Steve will be.

Sold!

2010-01-14T23:00:00.000-08:00

So it's been a whirlwind few weeks at the Griffin household. Late last year we decided to sell our home! Hoping to take advantage of the tax credit that expires at the end of April. We met with a Realtor who has turned out to be absolutely amazing. If you need a great Realtor who knows absolutely everything about homes in Albuquerque, check out Rosie Singleterry. She's incredibly nice, responsive, and knowledgeable. Forgive the plug, but she really has made this entire experience much easier.

We painted and touched up a few things before and after going to my parents for Christmas. After coming home we listed our house on Monday, the 4th. We didn't get a single call all week. I was discouraged heading into the weekend. We went and looked at some homes on Friday, but had to tell ourselves that we couldn't get too serious until we were under contract on our home. We had an open house on Saturday and were told we had a pretty good turnout but that open houses typically don't generate any serious offers. Sunday afternoon we had a voicemail from a Realtor asking if she could show the house. We called back and she said that they didn't want to look at it any more because we were under contract already.

This was news to us! We called Rosie and she said that she had received an offer and hadn't had a chance to call us. I think she wanted to come over and surprise us with it. We were very excited. Rosie presented the offer to us later that evening. It wasn't full asking price, but was very close so we countered only pushing back on a few fees the buyer wanted us to pay. We were confident that the counter would be accepted but also worried because the buyer wanted to close on February 11th. Four weeks is pretty quick for a closing so it meant that we had to find a new home ourselves by the end of this week or we would be moving into an apartment.

We scheduled with Rosie to see some more listings on Monday afternoon. But the more we talked about it, the more we liked a listing on Big Bend. By the time we met with Rosie on Monday, we had all but decided on the Big Bend listing. We saw the other listings first and then went back to Big Bend for a second look around. It was the one that we wanted to get. We had to wait until our buyer accepted our counter offer which didn't happen until Tuesday morning. On Tuesday night we made an offer to purchase Big Bend. They countered on Wednesday evening and we accepted the counter and initialed the changes on Thursday! They graciously agreed to let us into the home almost 2 weeks early to to paint (the "custom paint job" done by a renter was a doozy.) My Dad will be coming down to help and we hope to get the whole house painted that week. We will also move into the home on Saturday Feb. 6th (anyone want to help?), and pay rent for a few days , in order to get out of our home and clean it. We plan on doing both closings on February 11th.

This has been a stressful process, but we are excited to have a new home (we get a garage and a doorbell!) The new home is in our current Ward, so we are happy about that. We also are excited about the neighborhood. We saw a few people as we were looking at it, and they were nice and excited about us buying the home.

It's been a whirlwind week. From listed to under contract on our new home in about 10 days. The appraisals and inspections are starting to get done this week and next. We are trying to get paint, carpet, and help with moving scheduled. Lots of work, but we sure are excited about it!

P.S. After I typed this up and posted it, Becky asked me if I mentioned that it was Eli's birthday today. All he's gotten for his birthday are a few new teeth, which have made him a joy to be around. Happy birthday kid!

New features (in the kids and the website)!

2009-11-30T23:00:00.000-08:00

So we added some video (or long photos as Flickr calls it) to the photo page of our blog. The first two videos are of Eli starting to walk! You'll have to have Flash installed in order to view them, and there are a few bugs that I still need to work out, but it does work.

You'd think we'd have learned our lesson with Ami walking so early, but no, we've been encouraging Eli to walk as well. He seems pretty tickled with himself when he takes a few steps, but mostly he just falls on his bum. It makes Becky sad because it means her little baby boy is growing up.

Becky also commented that with Ami, the videos were a big production, music, credits, etc. Wtih Eli, he's lucky that we have them posted! Poor kid. If there is a next one, he'll be luck to have any photographic proof of his existence.

Annual Trek to Balloon Fiesta

2009-10-10T00:00:00.000-07:00

5:30 AM Ready to head out the door.

After making it through traffic without Scott ripping someone's head off.

Trying to keep the babe warm.

The balloon we picked out for Grama, if she where to have a balloon, mother hen. Just kidding Terry, it's more about the decor in your old kitchen.

Ami waited ALL week to go see the balloons. She wasn't disappointed.

My Baby Boy is Growing Up

2009-09-30T00:00:00.000-07:00

It really has hit me lately that my little Eli is growing up in fast forward time. The other day we put him in the wagon with Ami and I thought Ami would have to hold him. Nope, not really. He held on just like he knew what he was doing.

Then he has started teething recently. When my kids teeth it means that soon they will be walking. It makes me a little teary eyed.

Today I took the kids to the park and wasn't quite sure how it was going to go. I hadn't taken them since Eli has become mobile. I let him down and he was as content as could be with the sand. He ended up climbing up to the top of one of the play sets, like that was what he was born to do.

I guess I'm a little more emotional about this go around since it seems to be happening so fast.

STUBBORN

2009-09-24T00:00:00.000-07:00

Sunday mornings around our house has become Brutal, yes with a capital B. Ami puts up the biggest fit about wearing a skirt or dress to church. We give her choices but to no avail she still doesn't want to wear the cute dress with the flowers or ruffles, she wants to wear PANTS!!

This Sunday Scott got Ami ready for church and she was looking soooo ADORABLE!

He even did her hair with a cute bow and and lots of barrettes.

Five minutes later she had something else in mind.

So, from now on she is going to be SHOVED into a dress at the last minute to reduce the time her parents want to SCREAM! No time to be angry you gotta put on your church face honey! In 1, 2, 3...

Labor Day Weekend

2009-09-15T00:00:00.000-07:00

We went to Caballo Lake with the Struves and had a BLAST! The kids had soooo MUCH FUN!

"You got mud in your face, you're a big disgrace. Somebody is kicking your can all over the place." Sorry this picture brought that song into my head. Eli LOVED playing in the mud as you can tell. There was no point in trying to keep him out of it.

Ami couldn't get enough of the jet ski. She would start crying whenever we would take her off to give somebody else a turn.

It was great to experience the lake through our kids eyes. Everything so new and awesome to them. It gave me a wonderful perspective on life. What could be better than hanging out at the lake with your family and friends...

Maybe a nap!