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.

Trick or Treat

This year Morgan had to work Halloween night. It was a bummer! Lucky for me, my mom and Luis came and came along with us.

Due to Avery's chicken feet, she wouldn't walk. She was either carried or stayed in the stroller. I got a work out that night!

All of the hard work paid off. Here is all of the goodies the kids got.
I didn't feel bad sneaking any candy from them this year. I worked just has hard to get this candy!

The kids got itty bitty pumpkins from the Krums.

Logan fell asleep on the floor after trick or treating. He was tuckered out!

Making faces

Our family loves to carve pumpkins. In years past we have gotten really creative using stencils, tooth picks, and even power tools! This year was low key carving. We used a good old sharpie and kitchen knifes.

Gut it Logan!

Heaven forbid Carson was to get his shirt dirty.

It's tradition to have Nana and Nano over to help in creating our pumpkin family.

Of course if Carson had his shirt off, Avery had to have hers off too.
She sure enjoyed squishing the guts of her pumpkin. She even put the guts back inside of the pumpkin after it was empty.

She even had to give her pumpkin friend a kiss :)

Halloween costumes

You all know I LOVE to make my kids unique Halloween costumes. Here is what the kids were this year.

Carson was a smore.

Logan wanted to be Indiana Jones

Bay was a cupcake

Avery was a chicken.

And what is a chicken without it's yellow feet?

I got so many compliments on Bays cupcake costume and Avery's chicken that I decided to enter the kids into some costume contests.


Morgan heard that the Red Zone was having a costume contest on Halloween day. So I got the kids ready and went and entered them.

1st prize was a $100 gift card
2nd place was a $75 gift card
3rd place was a $50 gift card
And 2nd place goes to.............The Griggs family! Because they couldn't give up more than one gift card they labeled us the buffet family. I had Logan wear Bay's popcorn costume from last year, so technically they kids were all food :)

I also entered them into the Layton City Halloween Bash Costume Contest. Again, the grouped us into the food category lol
Man I better start thinking of next years costumes.

It's party time

It's party time! Halloween style. This years theme was, holidays.

Valentine's day

Fourth of July

Pirate day ;)

Birthday

Christmas

Fourth of July

Pioneer day

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving

We had a fun time eating, mingling and playing a fun game called, Werewolves of millers hollow. Can't wait til next year!

Tradition

For 4 years now it has been a tradition to have a small kid Halloween party for the kids on our street. This year was no different.

Here is Avery digging for a prize in "guts" aka jello :)

Candy corn toss.
The kids had to try and toss candy corn into small pumpkins.

I had Carson wear his Buzz costume to the party. There was no way he could have had a fun time doing anything while wearing his smore costume, especially bobbing for apples.

I love HALLOWEEN!!