Pajama Day - January 28

Today was pajama day at preschool. Wyatt decided to do his lessons in his pajamas, too!

Winter Walk - January 27

It got pretty cold last night and our neighbors left their sprinklers on creating some great icicles on their fence. The kids and I went on walk after lunch to investigate this icy wonderland and enjoy a small taste of winter.

Jacey and Monique - January 24

I love this picture of Monique and her friend Jacey. She was the first friend Monique made last February and they love playing together every chance they get!

Reading - January 23

Zane loves having Wyatt read to him in the mornings. Such a great big brother!

A Beautiful "Spring" Day - January 22

What? You mean it isn't spring yet? Well, you could have fooled us because it sure has been warm around here. It looks like we could go the entire winter without any snow (or any rain for that matter!). Today we enjoyed a beautiful afternoon in the backyard with some frozen yogurt treats!

18 Months Old - January 20

Zane is 18 months old, but he thinks he is as old as the rest of his brothers and sisters! He wants to go wherever they are going and do whatever they are doing. This month he started eating his cereal in a bowl with milk and a spoon...

and he has learned how to smile for the camera!

Light "Savers" - January 15

The boys bought new swords during our shopping trip on yesterday. They love their light "savers" and spent most of the morning running around the house in their capes and underwear fighting each other and any "beasties" they happened to discover.

Sabrina Ballerina - January 14

Sabrina's first ballet class was today and she was more than excited about it. She made me promise her before rest time that I would wake her up if she slept too long! She loved everything about dance class - the ballet shoes, the new friends, the pink skirt, the nice teacher. She is one happy little ballerina!

Griffis Family Top Ten for 2008

1. Adoption Day

2. Valentine's Day (AKA "the day we met our sisters")

3. Our First Christmas Together

4. Backpacking Date in Rocky Mountain National Park

5. Danny's First Backpacking Trip with ALL of the Kids

6. Sabrina and Monique's First Backpacking Trip

7. Family Bike Rides

8. Wyatt's Preschool Graduation

9. Knights and Princesses

10. Our Aquarium

Happy New Year! - January 1

We celebrated the new year with our traditional New Year's pizza.

Happy 2009!

Toys! - December 31

The kids and I are taking advantage of their time off from preschool this week and have spent lots of time playing with their new toys. Here are some of their favorites...

Cranium Cariboo (they have learned to play it without me sitting right beside them!)...

gears that let you build up high (Thanks, Noni!)...

a microphone to make their band complete...

Tinkertoys (even Zane likes playing with them!)...

an alphabet desk (Monique loves carrying it around!)...

and a magnadoodle especially for Zane.

Merry Christmas! - December 25

After opening presents at our house Christmas morning, we drove down to Lubbock for more present opening and Christmas dinner with my family. Here are just few snapshots from the morning...

Noni, Colter and Wyatt

Craig, Abi and Kim

Colter, Sabrina, Megan and Nathan

Monique, Cathryn and Jerod

Zane and Papa

Merry Christmas, from our family to yours!

Christmas Eve Traditions - December 24

Over the past few years we have developed quite a few Christmas Eve traditions that have made the day a lot of fun...

We love baking, decorating and eating Christmas cookies. We always seem to make dozens and dozens of cookies during the month of December, but they are usually for other people. The kids love that these cookies are just for them (with a few left on a plate for Santa!)

We also eat tamales for supper and go to our Christmas Eve service at church. After we come home the kids get to open one present each (their Christmas pajamas) and one family present (a game to play together).

After everyone is ready for bed we play our new game (this year it was Cranium Cariboo) before climbing into bed for one last sleep before Christmas morning.

And then, by some miracle, this is how everything looks when the kids wake up the next morning! : )

Monique's Special "Weekend" - December 21-22

We weren't certain Monique could handle being away from home for two nights, so we modified her "weekend" and made it an overnight visit during Christmas break. She had lots of fun and was very excited about her special time with Noni and Papa.

Monique was so excited when she climbed into Noni and Papa's car she could hardly contain her excitement!

She took all sorts of pictures on the drive to Lubbock. This is my favorite!

One of the highlights of her weekend was going to see a Christmas movie at the Omni with Papa.

Christmas Goodies - December 20

The kids and I have been busy with Christmas projects over these past few days...

Christmas almond bark (complete with red and green sprinkles!) for our friends in town...

tags for the bags of almond bark (the kids finger painted holly leaves for me)...

reindeer cookies for Colter's Christmas party at school (I used my new KitchenAid mixer - our Christmas present from Danny's parents - how did I ever live without it!)...

cute little felt mice to give as gifts to all the kids classmates at preschool (3 classes = 52 mice!)...

And of course our Christmas cards - without a doubt my favorite Christmas project!

"Ho, Ho!" - December 19

Zane has been avoiding everything related to Santa since the beginning of December. But today he brought me one of our Santa hats and patted his head. I put it on him, he said "Ho, Ho!" and walked away. Maybe he's decided Santa isn't so scary after all!

Sights, Sounds and Tastes of the Season - Dec. 1-15

We love...

the sight of a roaring fire...

and pretty Christmas lights...

the sound of jingle bells...

and "Christmas drums"...

and the taste of warm hot chocolate!