This is the only Christmas Picture I can find, maybe they got sent out with the wrappin paper?

Once Every Six Months

Once every six months is good for blogging, right? I think sometimes I should just shut it down, but then think maybe one day I'll get back to it... I add something to Facebook about as often? Maybe I'll get better, but maybe it"ll be another six months.. we'll see.

We had a great and chaotic Christmas at the Griffith house. It's been nice not having a lot of places to go and just be able to hang out at home with the kids? The house is a wreck, and I don't even care. I'll clean when they go back to school.

Junior Prom

Gavin and Hallie went to the Junior Prom last night at the Capital Rotunda and participated in the Promenade. Gavin was really nervous for the promenade, it was up in the air most days whether he was going to do it or not. They had their day date in Salt Lake with another couple and then came back to Tooele to get ready for the real date. We of course had to follow him to her house so we could get pictures. Steve, Gracie and I went to the Capital to see the Promenade. We (Me and Gracie)loved admiring the pretty dresses. I think we should have a prom for grown ups, I want to play dress up. LOL.

Easter

So maybe I'll just get major events on here. I really wanted to try to update my blog more often, but life is ", so crazy, even my scrapbooks aren't keeping caught up. So, for our annual Easter trip, we traveled down past Hansksville, about 20 miles to an area called "Little Egypt". It really should be called "Little Goblin Valley", because that's what it looked like. The first day the wind blew terribly, then we had two great days, and we were rained out on Sunday, literally. We ran into 3 rattle snakes, yes 3, which we have never done on our Easter trips. Two were literally walked right over, they were the same red color of the sand. My Grandma wasn't able to be there, as she is still in the hospital trying to recover from her surgeries. This tradition was started by her parents and she loves it so much and so do all of us, so it's really sad not to have her there. We love you, Grandma!

1 year ago

Okay, I don't feel so bad now, I went to check out my fellow blogger's sights and there were only three of you that had posted since "1 year ago"!! I guess we are all too busy.

More Christmas Photos

Christmas 2010

Yes, yes, yes, We are still here. Just crazy busy all the time. I just never get around to blogging, as well as many other things. So... Now that all the hooplah is over and I can sit down and relax, I thought I would start the upcoming new year right, by posting on my blog. I hope that I can keep up through the new year. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, I know we did. However this morning I really thought that after this week of the kids being home and fighting and fighting and fighting, it would have been good for them if Santa didn't show up.

Gavin's legal

Gavin got his driver's license this past Tuesday. I don't know who was more nervous, him or me. He passed with flying colors and is so excited to be legal now. He wasn't to happy to hear that he couldn't drive any of his friends around for 6 months, though. We are looking for a little beater vehicle to buy, that gets decent gas mileage, if anyone know of one.

Mexico, where its warm!

We got back last night from a week in Mexico. We stayed about an hour outside of Cancun in Playa Del Carmen. It was awesome. We stayed in a great resort that was all-inclusive, which is the only way to go with 8 mouths to feed (my cousin Jessica came with us) The beach was really nice, 100 times better than our last two resorts. We had so much fun playing in the ocean, that was what the kids looked forward to the most. I was a little nervous that I would be a nervous wreck about them drowning in a wave, but I wasn't and we had a ball. We spent a day at Xplore, where we rode the zip lines, water hammocks, rafted through stalactite's and stagmites and then swam through them and rode atv's through the jungle, it was awesome. Steve and I weren't able to dive because the winds were too high out on the ocean, so the port was closed :(, but that just meant we had more time to spend with the kids. I was really bummed that Gavin didn't get to dive. Needless to say, we were not ready to come home to 30 degrees. I will have more pictures maybe by tomorrow, I want to make a slide show. So tune back in.

"Sweet" Sixteen

Gavin turned 16 today, it's very scary that I am old enough to have a 16 year old. We had a party at the house last night, with all three sides of his family, it was great. Tonight he had his first date planned and we were going to drop them off, because he doesn't have his license yet, and go on our own date,(we had gotten rid of all of our kids. Thanks Grandmas and Aunt Andrea). He decided he wanted to go on a double date with us, which really surprised me. I think he was really nervous about how to pay and tip at the restaraunt. We had fun and it was cute to see him opening the doors for her and being a gentleman. We had them sing to him at the restaraunt, I don't think he loved that. We finished the evening off with the new Sherlock Holmes movie. (Sorry there is a duplicate picture, I didn't want to take the time to figure out how to remove it)

Christmas in the dark

Christmas turned out great, even though we lost power until about 3:30 in the morning on Christmas Eve. We cut back on Christmas this year because we are taking the kids on vacation in January, but they still made out like fat cats, between us and their Grandma's and Grandpa's. Is there a way un un-spoil children??

Piano Recital

Gracie and Gage had their Holiday Piano Recital this month. They both did great, it is so fun to see them improving and "enjoying it."

Gingerbread Trees

We tried gingerbread trees this year instead of houses, and I think the mess was bigger. Grandma Shelley, Kay and Makaila were here and we had a lot of fun. Steve still had a hard time letting the kids help, though, we are going to have to work on him.

Finally Posting-Halloween

I feel like I have to post the Halloween pictures before I can move on to Christmas, so here you are.

Cleaning and cleaning and cleaning

Since the kids have gone back to school, I have been trying to get my major projects done, that I didn't get done all summer. I keep getting interrupted, though, and it is taking me forever. I got the basement cleaned, ick. I got my salsa made, 69 pints. I am not sure whose bright idea it was to get 2 bushels of tomatoes, and I can't get the smell of peppers and onions out of my house. I have had to try to fit 12hours of CE for real estate in, so that I can re-activate my license and go into the office a couple of days a week. And this week I have been working on the play room. It was sooo bad. We couldn't even get the closets shut any more. So, I have before and after pictures. All I have to do now is organize my scrapbook stuff, and the bonus room is done. Yay! What next? Oh, ya, zucchini bread, I like to make a bunch and freeze it for winter.

You are the best teacher, Gage!

Berek has insisted on keeping his training wheels on his bike. And we thought that Gracie was cautious. But yesterday one of them got bent and threw his whole ride out of wack and the only fix for that was to take off his training wheels and force him to learn to ride. The kids were all down riding on the road, and Gage was holding Berek up while he ran with him, and then he would let go. It was so cute to see him helping him. Gage was red faced from working so hard, so I went to help. After I helped him for a few minutes, Berek wanted Gage to help instead, Ahh. While we were eating dinner he was talking about Gage helping him and turned to him with such admiration and said, "You are the best teacher, Gage!" It was so sweet. Gage just beamed, he was so proud.

Permit, yikes!

Am I really old enough to have a teenager driving? Gavin got his driving permit last week. He is so excited and has been bugging me to death to drive. Everyday after school he wants to go drive, errands, hauling garbage, whatever, just to get behind the wheel. So if you are headed to church or to the store and one my vehicles is driving really slow around the lake, that's Gavin behind the wheel, not me (not that I don't drive the speed limit:)). We seem to have a train of cars behind us until the road straightens out. I will be very excited when he has his license and can run over to town by himself and run errands for me.

Back to School

Does it make me a bad Mom to be so glad my kids are going back to school? I loved having them home, we did so many fun things this summer. But, I love that they are going back to school, so I can get something done. It will be nice to have a few moments of peace and quiet without all of the fighting.

Gracie was by far the most excited for school, but the boys were excited too, and a little nervous, even Gavin. They all had a hard time falling asleep. Except for Gavin, each one of them woke up at some point in the night and couldn't go back to sleep for over an hour. They are going to be dragging, as is Mom. I should go back to bed instead of uploading pictures to my blog and Facebook.

Gavin is in 10th grade this year, a Sophomore. Am I really that old?? He has a tougher schedule this year, we'll see how we do. Gracie is in 4th grade and got the teacher she has been hoping for since the first of 3rd grade, Mrs. Baker. Gage is in 2nd grade and got the teacher I had been hoping for, Mrs. Feldmann. The twins are in 1st grade, all day this year!!! (You should see my cartwheels, they are really not that good) They didn't put them in the same class, which I wanted to try, but that's okay, I guess. Berek got Gage's teacher from last year, Mrs. Gladney, and we love her. Bridger got Ms. Nash and I think we will really like her, too.

Canopy (zip-line) and ATV Jungle tour

As promised, here are a couple photos from our zip line experience. It was a blast. We bought the DVD that they make during your whole tour and the crew was really funny and friendly. My boys were so funny when they watched it because they are so protective of me and didn't think these guys should be that close to their Mom. There was one zip line that they sent me down without holding the line and it made me spin backwards and it was a really fast line. One of the crew, the one I am on the 4-wheeler with, zipped a long behind me and caught me. As he was watching, Berek said, "Mom, does he like you, why did he do that." Then Gage said I shouldn't be hugging other guys when Steve took a picture of me with the whole crew. And Bridger didn't like me on the 4-wheeler with the guy doing the wheelies (he had all of the girls on the tour get on to scare us to death). Too funny.