Lots of Snow! - February 16

 We've been waiting all winter for a BIG sticky snow and we finally got it!  We had five inches on the ground when we woke up and got another five inches during the day.  We spent most of the morning playing the snow...

 Zane loved "breaking trail" through the deep snow.  He was excited to discover that it had snowed more while he was taking his nap, so he could make fresh tracks!

 Thankfully I ducked before this snowball hit me...Colter's got pretty good aim!

 Monique worked on building "snow chairs" for the snow fort.

 Sabrina has been practicing her steering while sledding down the hill. She's finally getting it down!

 Laurel wasn't quite sure what to think of everything. She did get to sled down the little sledding hill a couple of times, which made her giggle.

 In case you couldn't tell, this kid loves snow!  Wyatt spends hours outside building, sledding and shoveling.

The kids started working on a snow fort...aka "winter Mountaintown".

Angry Birds with Daddy - February 4

I downloaded the game "Angry Birds" to my phone today and showed it to Danny after he got home from work. He made fun of it for approximately 30 seconds before hijacking my phone and playing for 30 minutes.  He even had his own cheering section!

Danny: "Shhhhhhhh.....boom!"

Colter: "Ahhhhh! You did it, Dad! You got the pig with the helmet! Awesome!"

 

Monique: "Are the birds scared when they fly like that?" It's fuzzy line between real and pretend for that one, but we assured her that none of the pigs or birds felt scared or got hurt. : )

Danny: "Die, pigs! Die!"

 

Wyatt: "Good job, Dad! You got the last one with the speedy bird!"

Sabrina: "Can we just see what the next one looks like?"

Danny: "OK, just one more time." : )

Quotes from Zany Zane - January 31

Just a glimpse of some of the zany things Zane said today...

"I saw the 'bobomidable' snowmonster outside my window last night.  He lives at our house now."

"Can I do cutting and stapling lessons today?  Those are my favorite"

"My big Jay-Jay {his favorite stuffed horse} is going to have several baby horses in a few days."

"How do jellyfish make jelly?"

{after asking Sabrina if he could preach from her little pink Bible}

"This is from Romans.  In the Romans 6:8 it says, 'You should not speak to your parents that way!'  That is what the Romans says."

"Scary things are all pretend.  But not scary things are real."

and finally, my personal favorite...

"You are my best mama in the whole entire world!"

Laughter - January 18

Just a few of the things that made me laugh today...

Gigi and Gpa taught the kids a song for the Lord's Prayer.  Today Monique was singing her version to Laurel in the car...

"Our fathers who marched in heaven, hallowed be my name. My kingdom come I will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

Here is a picture I took today of my little snaggle-toothed baby girl who laughs whenever her brothers and sisters are laughing...even if she is in another room!

And finally...

During our family worship time Danny has been going through a question and answer book about God.  One of the questions tonight was "Why did God make people with different colors of skin?".  This is something we talk about often in our family and as we were sharing our thoughts Danny points out that in our family we have different colors of skin, different colors of hair and even our eye colors are different. 

Colter quickly responds, "Yeah, 'cause Gigi has white hair and I have brown hair."

Castles - January 6

Colter and Sabrina spent some time playing with their respective castles this afternoon...

Sabrina: "Here is your seat, Princess.  Dinner is served." (begins to hum softly)

Colter (in a gruff dragon voice): "Daddy, when are we going to destroy them...we need to do it today.  OK son, get the canons ready."

Sabrina (after Colter has loaded the canon and shot her castle): "Stop, Colter! Stop!"

Colter (with the dragons flying over Sabrina's castle): "Well then get off my land. The dragon owns all of this land and he wants you off!"

Sabrina puts her princes and princesses into the carriage and leaves for a new land...in the kitchen.  Colter's dragons follow in their pirate ship, determined to attack...and the saga continues.

Griffis Top Ten 2010 - January 1

This past year was a blessed year for our family full of lots of adventure. Here are some of our favorite memories...

10.  finding a surprise patch of huckleberries on an afternoon hike (August)

9.  creating (and "living" in) Mountaintown (spring and summer)

8.  chopping wood for our first full Idaho winter (spring and summer)

7.  killing a farm-raised turkey (given to us by friends) for Christmas dinner

6.  flying on an airplane to Florida for Liz and Will's wedding (November)

5.  visiting our Texas family (October)

4.  exploring Idaho with Noni and Papa during their summer visit (late June-early July)

3.  having Gigi and Gpa living with us the last few months of 2010 (September-December)

2.  celebrating Colter and Sabrina's baptisms (September)

1.  moving to Idaho (February)

New Years Eve Talent Show - December 31

Photo and Video Highlights

from the

First Annual Griffis Family Talent Show

Sabrina sang "Do Your Ears Hang Low?" and recited the books of the New Testament. 

Wyatt shared three talents with us, including playing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and reciting the books of the Bible in order from Genesis to Revelation.

Gpa read a poem in Middle English while Zane took his picture.

Danny's talent was touching his tongue to his nose.  He also sang us a song in Spanish...the kids loved it!

Colter and Zane displayed some interesting gymnastic moves. Here Colter makes Zane fly like an airplane.

But a post about a talent show just wouldn't be complete without some video, so here are some highlights of the evening...enjoy!

Happy New Year!

Presents from Texas - December 25

This post is especially for Noni and Papa...we love you!  Thanks for such wonderful Christmas presents!

Wyatt's "greenhouse"

Sabrina's pony

Colter's pirate ship

Monique's Olivia dollhouse

Zane's train

Laurel's piggy bank

Christmas Day 2010

Just a little peek into our Christmas morning...through the eyes of our kids!

We had to wait forever at the top of the stairs before we could come...

running down, down...

down to the living room!

It took us a couple minutes to figure out which present belonged to which kid...as you can see Laurel didn't quite understand.

Monique got a new bathtub for her Baby Stella.

Colter loves his new nerf crossbow.

Zane and his train become fast friends.

A purse, with a phone, was a great gift for little Laurel.

While build your own cars were perfect for Wyatt.

And Sabrina's craft box made her a very happy little girl.

Before opening the rest of our presents, we had sausage balls and orange juice...

and listened to Daddy read the Christmas story.

Then it was time to open the rest of the presents.  Daddy got a new family picture for his office.

Wyatt decided to prolong the surprise by keeping his eyes closed while opening his presents!

Then it was stocking time...once again, Laurel didn't quite get it, but we helped her out.

Merry Christmas...from our family to yours!