Am I the only one...

Am I the only one who does their laundry and then sets it on top of the washer and dryer?  I am still anxiously awaiting the laundry fairy to fly in and fold it!

Sometimes I have days, weeks like this!  I just use the top of the washer and dryer as my dresser.  Think I've gotten dressed in the laundry room every day this week!

Just being honest!

Our Elf on the Shelf

This holiday season we have started a new tradition, thanks to Auntie Heather!  We have a special visitor that watches us during the day, and then flies to the North Pole at night to tell Santa if we have been naughty or nice!

Before we wake up she comes back and hides in a new spot to watch us for the day.  So each morning when we wake up we have to find her!

When she first came to our house she didn't have a name so Griffin named her.  He picked the name Sally!

I would encourage everyone to pick your own Elf on the Shelf!

We sure have been having a lot of fun with our elf!

Frosty

Griffin has been begging to build a snowman and finally the snow was wet enough to make one.

This Frosty only lasted long enough to take pictures, so Joe had to make a smaller one with his parts and pieces.

Fun in the corn maize

One Saturday in October we ventured over to the local corn maize.  Griffin had a lot of fun leading us through the maize, riding the little "moochoo" train, watching pigs race, sliding, and of course eating kettle corn.

We got bored in the maize and by the time we reached the half way point we decided to just jump the rope and be done with it.  Of course we had to buy some kettle corn, and a sucker!  Joe adores kettle corn. If ever we come across a kettle corn maker you can bet he will be in line waiting for his big bag of kettle corn.

Crazy to think this was only a month ago, and now the roads are covered in ice, the fields have been plowed and are covered in snow, and we are getting ready for our Thanksgiving feast!

Oh the weather outside is frightful...

We sure did get a lot of snow this past weekend, and Griffin is loving every minute of it! Friday after work he could hardly wait to get his snow clothes on and go outside and make some tracks!

It snowed all Friday afternoon, evening, and most of Saturday!  Griffin is looking forward to learning how to ski this season, and he is anxious for Santa to come.  Now that there is snow he has informed me Santa can make it to our house, and he can even live here!

I am ashamed to admit, I still have my Halloween decorations up, and the pumpkins on our front porch, I am sure are frozen until spring...on a happier note we have been rockin' out to holiday music, and I've already got presents wrapped and ready to go under the tree...just no tree yet!

I am getting especially excited to watch National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation on Thanksgiving Day! It's a tradition!!!

For Dad...

Dear Dad,

Last time you came over you wanted to pick this up, however I put it in the mail already.  Then you told Heather you didn't get to see it.  She told me you sounded disappointed.  Please let me remind you, you never asked to see it.

So for your viewing pleasure I am posting it!

Your Welcome,

Tabby

Ella on the Tractor

'Nother pic' of Miss Ella!

Went for more of a vintage look with this one.  I just love her facial expression.

Edit of Miss Ella

Miss Ella is one of my favorites to photograph. She is full of personality and has all kinds of fun expressions!

I hope you like this Heather I am going to work on your cd...got to get mom's chip to you too!

Family Picture

Today we ventured out to take a family picture.  Joe scouted a place, and I brought the camera!  Getting a picture of Griffin smiling was no easy task.  He wanted to play with the ducks in the river, or run around through all the beautiful autumn leaves.

This is one picture we all agreed was a favorite. I am still working on editing some of the others but am anxious to get this printed and framed. I've had a bad habit of finding cute frames and then not putting any pictures in them!

I've still got a lot to learn about editing in photoshop and I am sad to say I ordered some of my prints before I was happy with my final edit...oh well...lesson learned.

Love these boys!

"Heaven may be hidden in the clouds, but I see it every day, just by being with you."

Joe's Marathon

Joe ran his first marathon this past week.  He has been training for a long time and was quite nervous for the big day, but he of course did great!

His stats:
finish time: 2:51:24
pace: 6:33
He finished fourth overall for the marathon runners, and second in his age group for marathon runners.

Griffin and I are very proud of him and were more than happy to go and cheer him on. We left the house at 5:25 am to drive him to the starting line, and then stopped at a couple places along the way to take pictures and give him some encouragement!

Griffin was so pleased every time he spotted his daddy.  He was even cheering some of the other runners. My favorite was when a couple of ladies were walking by and he screamed out "Come on ladies don't you know you are supposed to be running? "  So funny everyone around us just started cracking up!

Beat twice in a row...darn it!

Joe and I went to the store and picked up a few games we could play with Griffin.  One game was the beloved and ever so memorable Candy Land.  I must say as I whipped out the board it brought back memories of childhood!

I am sad to report that Griffin beat me two times in a row! He didn't just beat me he skunked me.  I don't know why but he got all the good cards and I kept getting the ones that send you back down the path...the only time I was ahead was when on the first turn!!!

The proud winner!

Dad Life

This really cracked me up so I thought I would share!

Are you really mine?

Lately, I have been trying to pay attention more, love more, and appreciate more.  Mostly, I have been focusing on my family, because they deserve to have my full attention, my full appreciation, and all my love!

Today I asked Griffin if he would come out and help me water the flowers.  He was elated to be able to help out.  He also will never miss out on an opportunity to play with the hose!  So while we were out working he found his squirt gun but it was late and cold so I told him we wouldn't be filling it up tonight.

I walked over to water my daisies, had my back turned only for a few seconds and turned around to see this...

I just had to smile and realize, for the umpteenth time, this little boy is smart!

This little piggy...

Griffin had a really fun time in his sunbeam class.  They learned about food and made this cute little apple pig.  Griffin was so excited to show it to everyone!

Really I thought Griffin was going to want to keep it somewhere special but he had something else in mind.  I made him pose with it before he ate it.

Oh and in case you are wondering he ate the whole thing, apple and all!

I love his "smile for the camera" face!

Parenting: Touching the Hearts of Our Youth

I found this to be very touching.  I think, sometimes, I am guilty of "not being in there"...  I am pledging to be better and to enjoy the moments I find myself in.

2010 Summer Fun

We were so lucky to be able to spend two full weeks together this summer. We spent one week at Heather's house and then the next at mine.  We did all kinds of fun stuff together!

1. Watched How to Train your Dragon (super cute, I might add)
2. Went to two different water attractions
3. Watched movies
4. Took pictures but not as many as my mom would have liked
5. Celebrated Mom and Joe's birthday with a festive "rainbow" theme
6. Sat on the porch and talked and watched the kids play
7. Played at the castle park
8. Midnight Taco Bell jaunt
9. Just plain ole' had fun hanging out together
10. I won an ipad (will do a separate post about it)

It was hard to have everyone leave my house.  It was so quiet and lonely.  I just ended up sulking around for the weekend wishing everyone would come back.  I am happy to report that we are back to our normal routine, except now LJ moved away, so I am still feeling lonely.

Super Hero's

Griffin and LJ were super hero's last night.  They fought all the bad guys in the front yard and then came in to duke it out with one another.

It was very entertaining to watch these two jump around and fight each other.  Griffin is going to be so lonely when LJ leaves.  LJ is so good to wrestle with him and teach him how to play Nintendo.

Police, and Soldier Men

Griffin loves to play dress up.  While we are working he often dresses up as a police man and shoots all the bad guys in the back yard.

On Sunday we had dinner at Pockie and Julie's house.  We had a little lesson about putting on the armor of God.  Julie put together this neat little outfit for the grand kids to put on as she read the scriptures talking about putting on the armor of God.

Griffin absolutely loved this.  The sword was sharp and dangerous.

Reunion 2010 snippets

Perfect Summer Day

A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing,  the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken. ~James Dent

Time away, together

For the past week Griffin and I were able to spend some time with Nate, Heather, Ella, & Tank.  It was a lot of fun to spend time with them.

We spent many days at the park, and playing in the warm summer sunshine.  Can't believe summer is officially here now.  I've already got my first sun burn!!



For the most part Griffin and Ella get along quite well. However, Ella does not like it if Griffin is playing with Tank while she is playing with Tank.

Ella is growing up so fast.  The last time I saw her it seemed like she was still a baby, but now she has officially graduated to toddler hood!  She is talking a lot more and is very smart.  She knows what cows, ducks, doggies, fish, and kitties say.

Ella really reminds me of a little monkey.  She loves to climb all over everything and everyone!  She even goes up and down the big slide all by herself, I am still in utter amazement over that one!

Heather is keeping herself busy during the day watching two kiddos from the neighborhood.  She is up by 7:30 every day making breakfast, vacuuming, pulling weeds, mowing the yard, cooking, mopping, changing diapers, you name it she is doing it.  I don't think she really stopped for long to just sit.  I was amazed and motivated by her energy and ability to just keep going even though things weren't always going as planned.

Just realized I didn't get any pictures of Nate, but he is busy working as well!  I didn't see him, or him, leave in the morning, and a lot of the times he came home right before we were getting the kiddos ready for bed.  A worker man!

Time at Heather's house is always fun.  Griffin loves it there and he was really sad to leave.  He told Tank he loved him and would never forget him.  Just melted my heart.

I am sad to be back because it was fun to spend time with family and get away from our daily routine. Griffin did really well on the trip down and back and I am happy to report he stayed in his car seat the whole time!

Joe and LJ were busy while were away.  They both worked long days.  I think they did enjoy the quite, but they both were ready for our return!

Now onto my next big project for the summer, potty training Griffin!

Banana box fun

Griffin loves playing with boxes.  He likes to make a long train with the tops and bottoms of banana boxes, and he also likes to use them for race cars.

Joe decided to load him up in one of his banana boxes.

Griffin really had the giggles while he was in his box.  I think he was surprised he could actually fit with the lid on.

Running, haircut

Griffin is just like his dad he loves to run!  Every night he asks Joe if it is running time. Sometimes they will run around the neighborhood, or sometimes through the yard, and on cold winter night or rainy ones  they will run around the island in our kitchen.

Love when his hair gets long because it just starts to puff out like a mushroom!  Today it wasn't as poofy as usual, I think it might have been because he had a bath.

Griffin was very excited to get his hair cut.  He was talking with the stylist and having a good time.  Underneath his cape he had his gun so he was shooting people every once in awhile.

His hair cut turned out cute, we got rid of the mushroom top.  He thought it was so funny when he looked in the mirror and saw all of his hair spiked up!

His hair cut didn't turn out as fabulous as when Aunt Heather cuts it, but it needed to be done.  He didn't cry and I am very proud of him.  I will have to take a picture of his new hair cut, just realized I didn't get the a photo of the finished product!

Dear Griffin...

Dear Griffin,

Since you were not buckled into your car seat did you know you could have slept on the nice nest we made you for on the floor?

Lovingly,

Dad & Mom

Griffin said so.

This past Sunday at Church Joe and Griffin were walking outside.  Joe spotted a bike locked up to the bicycle rack and the conversation went as follows:

Joe: I wonder who rode their bike to church today?

Griffin: Oh that is Jesus's bike.

Happy Mother's Day

To all the Mother's who read my blog I hope you have an extraordinary day, and I hope you know how important you are to your children and your sweet heart!

Being a Mother has been the most challenging job I've ever had, and I think it will be the most challenging job ever!  I know it isn't easy, but I also know that being a Mother is the most important calling any of us will ever have.  It is a challenge and a blessing all at the same time.

Here are a few of my favorite quotes from a real life super hero Marjorie Pay Hinckley.  She was a wonderful wife and a wonderful Mother and I just love her.  She has given me lots of pearls of wisdom and reminds me to be happy even when my daily routine seems as though it is getting monotonous.

"Home is where you are loved the most and act the worst."
— Marjorie Pay Hinckley

"I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails.
I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp.
I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbors children.
I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden.
I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder.
I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived."

— Marjorie Pay Hinckley

New hair cut and color, Zebra girl

While my mom was here I was able to sneak off and get my hair cut and colored. I wasn't planning on getting it colored but my stylist talked me into it.  I put long layers in my hair and of course got it trimmed.  It feels much lighter and I think I will be able to make it through the hot summer months without chopping it off!

My goal is to keep growing my hair, but it seems it always get to a certain point and then I get too hot with it and decide to go short. We will see.

All the girls went out for lunch on Saturday.  Ella Bella pudding and pie was super cute in her zebra outfit.  I must say she was not the sweet little angel she usually is while we were trying to dine!  Perhaps that is the way all babies are.  They know you are trying to relax and enjoy yourself so then they just start acting out.  She's cute so I forgive her.

Cute and happy kiddo's!

This week we have Grammy and Ella here!  Nate and Heather left for a cruise and we get to watch Princess Ella!

Before they left they did some skyping.  Ella is quite the skyper.  She was sending kisses to her mom and dad via my computer screen.  Good thing I have some computer wipes because the screen was a bit, should we say cloudy?

Heather and Nate have called quite a few times to make sure Ella Bella is okay.  I just wanted to post a picture that proves she is...oh and she loves me!

I asked her if she liked being at Aunt Tabby's house and she happily replied, "Ya"!

At the moment I am not sure she is going to want to leave!

Computer Hog

Griffin loves to watch You Tube on my computer.  Anytime I sit down to do something he is right there climbing on my arm wanting to watch You Tube.

He likes to watch videos that contain the following subjects:
-Monster Trucks
-Airplanes, Helicopters
-Spiders
-Spiderman

He is pretty spoiled because he has two computers to choose from. Mommy's computer and Daddy's computer, I wonder why he always chooses mine, maybe because I am on mine more?

Spiderman lives at our house!

Griffin adores Spiderman, and he thinks he is spiderman.  Here are a few funny things he has said to me lately regarding Spiderman.

Griffin: Mom?
Mom: Yes.
Griffin: Spiderman loves you.

I am ashamed to say up in the corner of my kitchen there is a cobweb.  The other day my sweet son says to me:
Griffin: Oh look mom one of my web's is up there!
Well after that comment I just can't bring myself to vacuum it up.  He gets so excited every time he spies it and he loves showing everyone who comes over.

He currently has one Spiderman shirt and he has to wear it everyday.    I am on the look out for more Spiderman apparel.

As we were putting on his shirt the other day he said:
Griffin: Oh look mom it's me!! As he was pointing to his shirt.

And a comment not related to Spiderman.  The other day we were Skyping with Heather.  Heather mentioned that he got a hair cut and Griffin replied while rubbing his head: "Yeah its pretty fancy"  We just started cracking up.