The Griffins

Axton's 1st Day in Sunbeams, Gabe's 1st day in Nursery

2012-01-10T13:24:00.000-08:00

...and I didn't get any pictures. ;)

Gabe is at about 22 months old now, but I haven't put him in Nursery because he still isn't walking well. I didn't want him to get trampled. This last Sunday was our opportunity because Axton's age group moved up to Sunbeams.

Primary and Nursery teachers/leaders are Saints. That's all I can say. I'm so grateful for them. Both boys did great (as far as I know), and I got to sit through Sunday school with Dan for the first time since I can remember.

God Allows Tragedy

2012-01-06T10:04:00.000-08:00

I'm feeling older this year. Not only because I will be 30 in May (another post on that later), but because each and every year brings more blessings and more tragedy.

Tragedy and pain to me is something that I didn't quite experience until married life. Not to say that Dan has brought tragedy into my life, but that with getting married and having children comes life experience. With life experience and added associations come the risk of greater loss. Because of the loss I've found myself to be more understanding, less judgemental, and every day closer to the person I set out to be in the first place.

The profound realization I've come to this year is that tragedy, pain, loss, and trials cause me to experience a type of love for people that I couldn't possibly fathom without having endured them. Call it EMPATHY, but I never truly understood the word until recently.

I'd say that EMPATHY is the same as HUMILITY. When you see someone you love endure something that you've had a similar experience to, which thing pushed you to your personal limit and humbled you to your core, you wish that they didn't have to experience the same. But since thy do, you have increased love and understanding toward them. So much love and understanding that they couldn't possibly understand. In fact, I think it could come across as a competition to them. "My struggle was harder then yours."

I suppose this is where Christ and the Garden of Gethsemane come in, and I can see why it was important for Christ to endure every pain that we would experience. BECAUSE THAT EXPERIENCE CAUSES LOVE/EMPATHY - "THE TRUE LOVE OF CHRIST."

Therefore, how could we ever become "perfect" if we could never attain that love. And how could we ever attain that love had we never experienced the tragedy.

And now I think back to my darkest moments when I was pushed as a person farther then I thought I could ever endure, and I wondered to myself, "how could God let this happen?"

I understand now.

Christmas Eve

2011-12-24T19:09:00.000-08:00

New traditions in the Griffin home. This is the first Christmas we've had at home with the boys. We opened one gift (jammies), made a graham cracker train (awesome idea Jen!), and sprinkled reindeer food. We pulled out the Bible for the story of Christ's birth, and now off to bed!

Merry Christmas!

A Post in Mobile Uploads

2011-11-29T13:20:00.000-08:00

The month of October flew by...wait, is it almost December? The monTHS of October and November flew by. I guess the best way for me to show you what we've been up to is to upload my mobile pictures...

Axton and Gabe's Monster Hats came and they've been wearing them ever since.

The entire month of October was spent planning and preparing for Adobe's Halloween BAZAAR. Our team won best decorated area, and we decided to spend our 5K prize money going out to paintball and dinner next Tuesday.

Above is a bad upload of hearts being spray painted red. Above that is me looking really really tired as I try on the completed costume for the first time.

The night before our Halloween party at about 2AM, I took Axton to the ER because he wasn't breathing well. Turns out he had croup. They gave him steroids that made him bounce off the walls and sent us home.

Me making Dan try on his Hatter's hat while he was busy talking on the phone...

My boss and co-worker had a grill-off in the month of November. This is my boss preparing 6 salmon fillets in his office. It smelled really good, I promise.

This is Thor after a couple of days with Rex.

Did you know that nail polish remover works well as windshield de-icer?

The wreath that Erin showed me how to make last year still looks fantastic.

I lied to Dan and got caught BIG TIME. I pretended to go to work in the morning and left him with the kids. Instead of going to work, I picked Tara up and we went to the new H&M. It worked really well until Dan called and said he was on his way to my office to get something out of my car....AHEM. "Honey I'm not at work, I'm shopping with Tara today in Salt Lake". It went over real well. ;)

I'm Convinced

2011-10-25T15:15:00.000-07:00

It took me about 10 years to come to grips with the fact that I live in Utah. I have a lot of Colorado pride, and I haven't been willing to admit for a long time that Utah is just as beautiful and more then Colorado in some places. I think most of my appreciation for Utah started when I started working at Adobe. We have a lot of people in our offices that moved here for their job, and they are always saying how beautiful Utah is, and how awesome it is to live here. I have started to appreciate the mere 5 minutes that it takes to get to a good mountain hike or lake to water ski on. Utah is a wonderful, beautiful place - and I'm proud to live here. Lately the Utah economy has made me proud as well. In the midst of a still-declining market, we've managed to create jobs and add growth to Utah County. Visiting Adobe executives had made the comment that "Utah County is the new Silicon Valley" I commend our local political leaders for setting goals when it pertains to unemployment and market growth and achieving them. They don't just talk about it. At the same time, and as much as I complain about it, Utah County has been able to allocate budgets toward new construction - putting money back into our local economy and giving people jobs. Our political leaders have made some good decisions and it's quickly showing as other places in the United States are continuing to struggle in this economic crisis.

I'm proud to be a "Utard", as my brother would say ;)

God Delivers Kleenex

2011-09-28T08:32:00.001-07:00

I'm a person who works through things. Rarely do I run into a problem that I can't solve by working harder, trying harder, "being gooder", giving more, or praying harder. This last month I found one, and little by little its worn me down. It's nothing big or life changing, but frustrating. I feel like stressful things in my life are gathering up to an inevitable breaking point, and I've been avoiding the breaking point. I feel like the UNIVERSE wants me to break, and it won't give up until I do. I've switched my energy from trying to avoid to breaking point to trying to delay my breaking point until the most convenient time. I had a voice message from my mom this AM that I stopped listening to mid-message knowing that it would break me down at work.

I decided to do something mindless for a moment and went onto Facebook to take my head elsewhere. There, on FB, was my breaking point by way of sweet message from a friend that I poured my soul out to this morning at 5:30 when we walked instead of ran because my stomach was so upset from all the stress: "What I wanted to say this morning but couldn't find the words for was: Find your strength. And then do it tenfold. You can't be strong unless you have the power to back it up, so find your power."

The tears came.

And that's when I looked down at my desk to desperately grab for a napkin or paper to hide my tears, and there was a brand new box of Kleenex planted there front and center. I know where it came from, but the unusual circumstance that it was there just when I needed it was enough for me to feel loved by God.

So now that I'm broken, the universe can go elsewhere and leave me alone.

Raincoat Weather!

2011-09-19T14:28:00.001-07:00

Date Night with the Hubby: The Grand Lux's Asian Nachos and Les Miserables

2011-09-06T12:31:00.000-07:00

Since we would be spending Labor Day weekend at my parents' house in Denver, I thought it might be a good opportunity to get away for a night with Danny. It's been over a year since our last outing to Las Vegas for Dan's friend Kris' wedding. Gabe was still in-belly.

I bid $55 on any 4+ star hotel in the Denver area on Priceline.com (gotta love an adventure), and we ended up at the Inverness Hotel. After that I shamelessly copied Brandon and Kelli Eudis' idea of going to see Les Miserables at the Bule Theater. They will be visiting Denver this next weekend and seeing it too. (Wait, does everyone know I work with Brandon Eudis? Growing up together and a state away twenty years later, we are sitting next to each other at work. It's a strange world.)

We set off with no idea about where exactly the Invernes was, and where we would be eating dinner (maybe Taco Bell after the hotel room and theater tickets?). But to my sheer delight, the Invernes Hotel is off of the same exit as my long lost love: The Park Meadows Mall. And to my EVEN SHEERER DELIGHT, there was a Grand Lux restaurant, sitting there in all it's Grand Lux glory.

We went there and had the ASIAN NACHOS, and talked about the only other time we'd been to The Grand Lux in FL with John and Christy Denney. They were the ones to introduce us to those Asian Nachos. I will always be grateful for them in my life (are you wondering if I'm talking about the Nachos or the Denneys? :) I meant to do that)

Anyways, then we were off to the Bule Theater for Les Miserables. Neither Dan or I had seen it before. I read the book for one of my classes in high school, and sang "On My Own" in choir. I had no idea that it was about not getting the guy you want. I thought it was about Jesus. (I guess it sort of is)

I love looking at people all dressed up (or not) at the Bule Theater. The performance was AMAZING. The music was so ridiculously touching. I cried a few times.

Then back to the Hotel and a good, long, relaxing...

night sleep. Where was your mind?

First Day of Preschool!

2011-08-31T12:25:00.000-07:00

He looks so much like Danny when he was a kid in this picture!

We drove up to the school, he practiced saying, "Miss Jesse", we walked him into Room #5, and he promptly changed his mind about wanting to go to school. LOL. We stayed for a minute to make him comfortable, and then darted out the door. He'll be fine today going to cooking class and art.

Does Your Kid Look Like Jack Black?

2011-08-02T11:33:00.000-07:00

Well mine does. I'm not gonna lie: the fact that you can see "the crazy" in Gabe's eyes similar to those of Jack Black's worries me just a little.

...Ok, maybe a lot.

Text Message To Shannon at Wax Me Too:

2011-07-26T22:42:00.000-07:00

Surprise work swim party Thursday. It's an "oh shit" moment. Do you have any openings today?

...and that's the beauty of having a wax specialist that takes text messages, my friends.

Poop in the Grass.

2011-07-16T10:12:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning and I'm scrubbing the sink full of dishes that greeted me when I woke up this morning. I'm also just finished with making Axton his favorite breakfast, Crepes. Dan is running around getting things together for his yard work day when I hear Axton say, "poop in the grass?"

"Sure Axton, there's poop in the grass." I say, not even looking up from working.

"No Axton, you can't poop in the grass." Dan says, and I chuckle because I thought Dan was joking.

A few minutes later I'm noticing that it's awful quiet, and I'm wondering if Axton is actually getting into trouble with the dog poop in the back yard grass.

By the back door is a little pile of clothes...including underwear. I go out onto the back deck to see little Axton, stark naked squatting in the grass over a little pile of poop.

It was funny for a second, but then there was the horrible smell...and poop all over Axton's legs...and poop on the concrete slab in the backyard...and flies.

At least the poop in the grass incident comes with easy clean-up. Out comes the big bucket of warm, soapy water (that Axton sits in) and the hose. There are worse places for the potty-training 3 year old to be pooping, that's for sure!

Lake Powell

2011-06-27T20:54:00.000-07:00

This was one of the best years in Lake Powell, HANDS DOWN. I'm not sure John and Christy would say the same considering they spent the first night up with their vomiting boys and then the 2nd night at the Bullfrog ER getting one of their boys' head stitched up...then there was the time later that week when we had a tsunami while John was pulling his boys on tubes...

Anyway, Lake Powell was fun for US. ;)
I think what made it so fun was that each family was in charge of an activity on their dinner night. It was so cool to see what every family brought to the table.

Dan and I did the Meekus sighting. We had Meekus wanted posters hanging around on the houseboat and talked about Meekus eating bad boys. Dan had made a Meekus with light-up eyeballs and swam up to the housboat after dark. It was a big hit again, but little Austin was too smart for his own good. I think he was onto us.

John and Christy did Italian night. The boys slicked back their hair and the girls did a poofy bump. Then we played minute to win it. That was a first for us, and it was a hoot.

Martha and Crea did pirate day. We had the shrimp boil on the top deck, black eyeliner for everyone (my dad looks pretty cool in black eyeliner, but Cole's friend Kestin took the cake for "best looking in black eyeliner"), and a scavenger hunt for pirate's booty.

Brett, Kristy, and Kim did Mexican with a pinata...or black trashbag made to look like Meekus. It totally worked and the kids didn't complain ;)

One of the nights we made a todum pole and bonfire, and then lit off fireworks. Another night we went on a black ops mission and sent John and Brett to secretly board a friends neighboring houseboat.

(lizard in Carter's hands)

totem pole and fireworks

For some reason, Dan is always the one to get called upon for ridiculous gigs in Lake Powell. Above is a picture of 4 boys lighting a firework out of Dan's crack. ???? Earlier that week, they lowered Dan into a deep, sludgy hole to see what was down there. I'm sure if he wasn't putting our kids to bed on black ops mission night, he would have been called upon to be a streaking merman. Who knows.

The best part of the trip for me was the fact that our little boys did so well. Gabe took some killer naps, and toward the end of the trip Axton did too (he missed the pirate booty hunt and a hike to the Indian ruins - we just couldn't get him to wake up!). Axton finally decided to be brave and swim his little heart out on the very last day. Now he can't stop talking about the houseboat and "Papa Mac's boat", and he still asks for "Gwama" every day.

It was a great trip. Thanks everyone for a fantastic time!

Father's Day

2011-06-27T20:21:00.000-07:00

Ours was good. We had Cole in town because he was attending BYU football camp. We packed it up and went to Dan's parents' house for dinner. They had gotten Dan's dad Jeff out of the recovery center for the day (first time out of the hospital or recovery center since February) and we were able to celebrate with him.

This picture of Jeff and Cherei is AWESOME.

The Grandkids and "Papa" minus Maddie, Ava, and Corey.

The banner and cupcake tags were so last-minute, but were cute!

Happy Father's Day!

What Happened To Your Blog?

2011-06-26T12:29:00.000-07:00

I moved it over to:

keepcalmandcallyourmom.com

Come follow me over there and put me in your reader. I'll keep this blog as a family blog only, and probably won't post here very often.

I'm sharing the Keep Calm and Call Your Mom domain with my mom, and we are putting our recipes and projects up there. It should be fun! If you liked me before, you'll like me there too.

LOVE,
MEG

Did YOUR Kid Teach Him This?

2011-06-24T20:15:00.000-07:00

The first time this happened was in Lake Powell. Axton said, "Daddy Look!"

"Doggy sad!"

And he isn't that far off.