Here is a picture of a couple who have been married for 11 WONDERFUL years!!

Yup, it's true. 11 years ago on December 20, 2000 Morgan and I were married in the Salt Lake Temple. We were just babies I tell ya!! We looked so young! Maybe it's because Morgan had just turned nineteen four months before we were married. I had just turned twenty.

To celebrate our anniversary we decided to go spend the night at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake.

What's nice about celebrating your anniversary right before Christmas, is that everything is decorated beautifully!

Here is a picture of the courtyard taken from the balcony of our room.

Here is a close up of the fountain. Very festive eh?

Now that you have seen some of the outside of the hotel, here are some snap shots of the inside.

I have to say that the lighting was terrible to get pics.

Lobby

Here is the view from our bed. We had two rooms. A bedroom and a living room area.

Our bathroom. My word there was so much marble!! It was beautiful!

For dinner we walked over to the Little America. On our way into the hotel I couldn't help but take the time for this photo op.

It was so nice to be able to spend time alone together, you know with out the kiddos. To talk about old times and to truly realize how lucky we are to have found each other. It's funny how even though we were trying to have alone time, we talked about the kids a lot. We can't imagine our life with out our babies.

11 years ago I married the man who has taught me how to listen, to trust, and how to be me. A lot has changed since our first kiss, but the one thing remains true, each time I hold him, my heart skips a beat. I love you Morgan Griggs!

Breakfast with Santa

It was that time again. Our new Christmas tradition. Breakfast with Santa.

This year Nana and Grandma came to join in the festivities.

All you can eat breakfast is always a good thing.

Nana and me

Grandma with Carson

The Grinch stopped by our table to say hello. Notice someone missing? Yep, Avery. She was so scared of the Grinch that she grabbed onto my leg and screamed in fear.

Here is Avery safe by her papa

While waiting to sit on Santas lap the kids wrote a letter to send to the big man.

Bailey asked for an American girl doll and a Guitar as a back up in case he doesn't bring her one ;)

Logan wants a trick bike.

Avery wants a princess scooter

Carson wants a lightening McQueen remote control car.

They also had cookies to decorate. Avery made sure she frosted her cookie with pink frosting :)

Finally after waiting in line for a long time the kids got to sit on Santas lap.

The kids got to pick out a stuffed animal after telling Santa what they wanted for Christmas.

Family pic with Santa himself

After we saw Santa we went over to our families favorite pit stop. The candy table! Did I mention it is all you can eat?

As always Breakfast with Santa was a big hit. I can't wait til next year. Maybe Avery will have warmed up to the Grinch.........maybe not :)

Hurricane winds!

Wow! What a wind storm we had. Luckily we had minor damage to our home and fence compared to most. Here is what Deseret News had to say.
Wind gusts of 102 mph, 100 mph and 86 mph were recorded by the National Weather Service in Davis County. A 100 mph wind gust is the same as a category 2 hurricane. A state of emergency was even declared in Centerville.
Crazy winds I tell ya! So bad that school was canceled for two days and power was out in some cities for 48 hours!

Here are some pics of what wind can do. Not to self. Do not attempt to video or take pictures during hurricane winds. You will get hit with debris. As I was out filming some video to send to Morgan, I was hit with a flying shingle. Luckily it hit me in the arm and only left a small bruise.

Here is a shot of our roof. We will need to replace the entire thing.

We had panels fall over on all three sides of our fence. It wouldn't be so bad but the dogs can get out and run the hood.

Driving through the neighborhood it looks like a disaster zone. Ummm maybe because it is?

Siding was actually ripped off of houses!

With some help from the neighbors we should have our fence back up soon. As for our roof, Kody, Morgan's brother, will be coming to replace the entire thing. I'm so grateful for homeowners insurance and family who are willing to help!

First time for everything

We have always had two Christmas trees in our home. One in the living room and one in the family room. The one in the living room is "my" tree. I get to make it pretty. No one gets to help hang the ornament and so they are perfectly spaced :) The one in the family room is the "kids" tree. This tree was the tree Morgan and I had bought for our first Christmas together. It is a small little tree but perfect for a second tree. On the kids tree we hang all sorts of ornaments. Mostly toy oriented ornaments and the kids baby's first Christmas ornaments as well. This year however, we decided to go oh natural :) Morgan found a small tree lot by his work that sold trees for $1.50 a foot! So with nothing to lose, we bought our first real tree!

Here is the tree Avery wanted. It was actually a tree branch but she didn't care.

And there she is. Our tree.

The only way to get our tree home was to tie it up on the top of our car. Made us feel like Clark from Christmas vacation. If you haven't seen this movie borrow it from me. It's a classic!

The kids were so funny on the drive home. We kept hearing a squeaking noise coming from the roof of the car. I told the kids that we probably have a squirrel trapped in our tree and it was coming home with us. Of course they had to fight about who will get to keep the squirrel so I told them it was probably a family of squirrels and that everyone can have one of their own :)
As the wind went through the branches, Carson yells, "Mom, the tree is waving at us!" we couldn't help but laugh.

Here is our tree all decked out in all it's glory. I LOVE Christmas!

It's been a while

Holy moly. It has been a long time since I have blogged about anything! I'm such a slacker! Especially because I have a phone full of pictures to upload. With that said, here is a run down of some things that have been going on in the Griggs family.

The the theme at Creekside this years is to be champions. At the beginning of the year, Bailey and Logan had set some goals they needed to accomplish by the end of the first term . Since they were able to achieve their goals, they were awarded gold medals at an assembly. I'm so proud of them.

Yeah yeah, she is cute, but don't let this little face fool you. She is the master of disaster!

Popcorn anyone? Yeah that's right, all this lovely stuff on my stairs is none other than popcorn. Not just any popcorn, yummy movie theater kind! What a waste! Morgan took Carson to go see Cars 2 and brought home the left over popcorn for the kids. Avery decided to stand at the TOP of our stairs and throw the popcorn every where! It's a good thing we have dogs that helped with most of the clean up. Did I ever mention I HATE to vacuum the stairs? Yeah this wasn't fun!

Awe, isn't she a doll?! Yeah, wait til she is left alone in her room for "nap time"

She will get bored and do this!

That's right, goodbye Genesis and Exodus! Poor Bailey was so upset to have lost some of her Bible :( Little stinker!

Thanksgiving has come and gone but one night as a family home evening, I had the fam write what things they are thankful for on strips of paper that we made into a paper chain. I loved how each of the kids had a strip that said family. That is what I am truly grateful for too.

Meet Mr. Gobble. A.K.A our Thanksgiving turkey. Avery fell in love with this frozen bird at the grocery store and named him Gobble. She cuddled that thing right up until I had to put it up on the check out belt. And even then she cried! She told us she wished that "he" could walk.
Let's just say I had to cook the turkey in secret. I had put Mr. Gobble in the fridge three days before Thanksgiving so it had time to thaw out. When ever Avery opened the fridge she would say, awe, look at him! Little does she know that she has eaten her Mr. Gobble on a dinner roll and in enchiladas.

Carson came home from preschool with this cute pilgrim outfit. He kindly told me, with a bold look on his face, that his teacher said he could take it off when he got home :) He he

What better way to start out the Christmas season than with some Christmas carols!
Bailey has been getting up early twice a week to go to choir practice for the Creekside choir. Bailey loves to sing! Here she is after a concert that was held at the Kaysville tabernacle.

Here is to keeping up on our blog. I really have missed it.