Christmas 2009

This year we packed up and headed up to Fairfield for Christmas. We got up there Wednesday night and hung out and relaxed most of Christmas Eve. Nels and I volunteered to cook Christmas Eve dinner to give Janis a break. We cooked Prime Rib, Fried Breaded Shrimp and made homemade fries. This was the first time we had ever done a prime rib, so with good directions from my dad it turned out great and was sooo easy to do! I was a little nervous, after all you don't want to be remembered for ruining Christmas Eve dinner :).

Nels and Tate hard at work frying the shrimp and fries in the garage. Thanks Tate for all your help!

Slicing the fries, check out the potato slicer! So handy!

Luke, Lacee, Kaden, Kolby, Ashley and McKay were all up there too.
All the girls: Ashley, Andrea, Janis, Macee, Annie, and Lacee
All the boys: Tate, Nels, Charles, Luke, Mckay, Dylan, Kaden, Kolby, and Carter

The kids spreading Reindeer Food so Santa would find us.

Kaden, Kolby, and Dylan are all one month apart. Lacee got these adorable PJ's for them all last year when they where born. I am glad we where together for Christmas. We may as well call them the "three musketeers" now! I see lots of mischief at future get togethers!

Dylan on Christmas morning

Inspecting his toys

Carter's loot from Santa

I could tell that Annie is really starting to grow up this year. She didn't want any toys from Santa, just clothes and an MP3 player.

Macee got her barn set

Dylan has found his nose!!

Making sure Carter's train table looked ok.

Christmas Day was so wonderful. We stayed in our PJ's and played with toys almost the whole day. We did venture out later on that afternoon to play some basketball at the church. Lots of late nights, game playing, and of course eating way too much good food! We sure had a great Christmas and am grateful that Charles and Janis let us come take over the house. I am so thankful for my family and that we can be together forever! We have been so blessed in our lives!

P.S. Thanks Lacee for taking all of these pics for me (my camera wasn't working).

Disneyland Cont....

Here is our Disneyland trip continued, I know it's about time. I had to start with this picture of Macee. This was our last night there and we were soooo sick of park fried greasy food, we needed something good to eat. So we walked to the Cheesecake Factory and ate some gooood food. As you can see, Macee thouroghly enjoyed her ribs!

Day 2 we spent the day at Sea World. It was so nice not having to fight the crowds all day. I think the Shamu show was hands down our favorite.

Annie touching the "bat rays."

Waiting for Shamu. We sat in the soak zone first, but then chickened out and moved to higher ground.

All the kids getting ready to go shoot up Toy Story.

The big Christmas Tree in the entrance to Disneyland.

The whole crew!!

Happy Birthday Dylan!!

I know I say this with each of my kids birthday posts, but I really can't believe that Dylan is already a year old! This has been such a busy year that time has literally flown by.

Why I Love My Sweet Little Boy:

1. He slept through the night after just a few months and will sleep 12 hours to this day every night. (I know this shouldn't be the top of my list, but I do love that he is a good sleeper).

2. He has a very sweet, calming spirit. He is so content and mild tempered (he must take after his mom :) lol).

3. He is a snuggle bug, which I absolutely love. My favorite thing to do is feed him his bottle in his rocking chair in his room. When he is done he lays on my chest and will snuggle until I lay him down.

4. He has a great little smile that can brighten anyone's day.

5. He can captivate an audience while just playing with toys.

6. He is very playful and is starting to get a little more rambunctious.

7. He crawls on his fists and is starting to scale the couches.

8. He loves to rub his mouth all over the front of the stove and wipe his hands all over the front of the dishwasher.

9. He is a fast learner, we haven't had to block the stairs with anything, he has fallen down 1/2 way once and now he stays away.

10. He is always happy to see anyone in his family and can make them happy by just flashing them his smile.

We have been so blessed this past year with a healthy baby and kids. We are so blessed to have Dylan as part of our family, we love him so much and can't wait for all of the adventures that await us with him!

Our Disneyland Adventures

A few weeks ago we took Annie, Macee, and Carter to Disneyland, California Adventures and Seaworld. Dylan got left behind and partied with Grandma and Grandpa Griffin. We went with our neighbors who have kids pretty much the same age as ours. The first night we got there we went and walked around Downtown Disney and ate at the Rainforest Cafe. It had a very fun atmosphere with thunderstorms and the animals would periodically come alive.

All of the kids in front of the Christmas tree in Downtown Disney (minus Carter, he was not feeling photogenic)

Waiting for the gates to open for our first day of fun! We took pictures with Mickey in the "C" of California adventures.

Macee and Maddie meeting Ariel

Waiting for the parade in Calfornia Adventures to start. It was really neat. All my pictures turned out dark.

Everything was decorated for Christmas! It was beautiful!

This is the Castle.

Carter pigging out on Cotton Candy

Hang on tight! Notice Carter was not afraid of going first. He loved evey ride and wanted to do them multiple times.

I must say Carter did great, but this is how we took him back to the hotel every night. I think a half day would have been perfect for him. The first day we spent about 14 hours between Disneyland and California Adventures. We crammed in as much as we could between the rides, showes, and of course waiting in lines, just to wait in another. We thought going the weekend before Thanksgiving would not be so busy. Turns out everyone else was thinking the same thing! Stayed tuned for our second day in California.....

I hope they call me on a mission to...

The other morning the boys and I were out for a walk. Carter and I were talking about where Nels served his mission and what you do on missions, etc. I told him that daddy went to the Philippine's and that you teach people about Jesus. I asked him where he wanted to go on a mission when he got older and he said, "McDonalds!"

Lovin It!!!

In August I brought 2 of our old horses in from my dad's old ranch. I am boarding them at the place where I used to take lessons as a little girl. My girls are now taking lessons from the same people that taught me. We have sure been enjoying every minute of having them close to us!

Meet Stormy. He is 17 years old and totally kid proof! He is the babysitter and is very lazy!

This is Willie. We have had Willie for 21 years (ever since he was 2). He is 23 now and still has a little spunk left in him, yet Carter can ride him by himself in the inside arena. This horse has done it all, he has been in the mountains, drug calves, been showed in 4-H and everything else in between. He is definitely the favorite and the girls take their lessons on him because they can actually get him to go!

I have also been able to ride and exercise some of the horses that Gary and Linda have because my kids hog the horses the whole time and never let me ride! I do enjoy riding the younger horses and I have been able to sneak a lesson in for myself also. I grew up with horses and used to show in 4-H and did a lot of ranch work on them. I sold my childhood horse 4 years ago when I got pregnant with Carter. I was boarding him at this same place before I sold him. It has been so good for me to be able to share something that I love with my kids and so good for them to learn a new skill and hobby! I do need to get some more action photos of the kids because they really are staring to get good, especially Annie!

June

In my desperate attempt to catch up on our blog from this summer, this is what we did in June. I want to someday get these all printed out into a hard bound book, so sorry these are so yesterday's news.

The first part of June my sister Amanda, her two kids Kasen and Addie along with nephews Quest, Koby, and Kylan were all in town. We decided to load into the Auction's two 15 passanger vans and make our way to Red Lodge. With coolers full of food, fishing poles, strollers, 15 kids, and 7 adults we piled in and were off to Wild Bill Lake. We got some crazy looks while we were walking around the lake trying to find a spot. We pretty much took it over.

Getting the fishing poles ready

Not the best pic of me, but everyone else looks good
Aunt Lauraleah, Addie, Andrea, Dylan, and Taylor

Here is half the group
Annie, Macee, Uncle Ben, Taylor, Spencer, Koby, Quest, Lauraleah, Addie, and Aunt Amanda

Trying their luck, I think we did end up catching a few

The end of June was also our ward campout. We went back up to Red Lodge to Greenough Lake.
I think we wore Dylan out. This was his second camping trip of his first 6 months of life.

Macee and Carter playing Bocce Ball (have no idea how that is spelled)

I think this picture captures Dylan's little personality. So happy, sweet, and always ready to play.

I think this is the biggest fish that Nels has ever caught! LOL!

Annie was reeling them in!

I love him in this hat. He is about 6 months old in this pic.