Be our Valentine

Our Valentine's Day this year was focused on the love we share as a family. We don't do gifts. Instead, we like to do little things to make the day special, such as write notes to each other and have delicious food and treats.

Joe had to get up early and go to work, so when the rest of us woke up, we were surprised to find heart-shaped doughnuts and balloons waiting for us, along with little love letters creatively folded into hearts for each of us. To top it off, Joe had decorated my car with window paint.




We spent a fun evening together at home over a "fancy" dinner of Parmesan tilapia and molten lava cakes. I love my family so much!

Water girls

We're back in the blogging world!

The girls took swimming lessons all through January. It was Allison's first time. She is our timid child, at least by comparison to her sister, so we were curious as to how it would go.

Allison was happy to be in the water on her first day, but she ended up in tears because she wanted nothing to do with the instructor. She wouldn't go out in the water with her. She would only stay on the steps and kick or blow bubbles.





Olivia, on the other hand, jumped right in and became the fish we know her to be.




At each new swimming lesson, Allison showed a lot of courage and progress. Her second time, she consented to go out into the water with the instructor, although only on her stomach, not her back. We encouraged her to do one new thing every lesson.




The kickboard became one of Allison's favorite parts of swimming lessons and was a huge motivator in getting her to go out on her back.






By the end of the month, we decided swimming lessons had been a success. Both girls grew tremendously. Olivia was able to do the front stroke farther and better than we had ever seen her do before. It was a fun winter activity!

A nice end to 2011

Our first Christmas event was the traditional Griffin family party, which we hosted on the 23rd this year. Below, the cousins are playing a game.



On Christmas Eve, we went to my mom's house. She gave the girls pink dress-up cloaks, which they absolutely loved.



Below is a video of Christmas morning. At our house, Santa fills the stockings and gives maybe one or two other gifts. Any other gifts are from family members to family members.



Christmas 2011 landed on a Sunday, so we got to go to church and then spend a peaceful day together with just our little family. We spent time teaching the girls about the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and bearing testimony of how much he means to us in our lives. We talked about why we give gifts and how the Savior gave us the greatest gift of all.



On Monday, the girls got to try their new scooter and bike.







We rang in the new year a few hours early, at dinnertime, with our little family and a bottle of sparkling cider. (Olivia is wearing one of my sister's old dance costumes.) Joe and I barely made it to midnight to watch the ball drop on TV. I think we might be getting old. :)

July 2012

Spelling champ

In the past week we discovered that Allison, who is 3, knows how to read and spell. Of course, she can only do words that are spelled phonetically. But, she learned it on her own and surprised us with her thinking skills. She loves to watch her sister do homework, and she has always loved books. She pays endless attention when someone is reading to her.

Click on the video to see Allison's quiz. She has been spelling our family members' names for a long time, and we had previously quizzed her on the words "yes," "no" and "cat." All remaining words are ones she is being asked to spell for the first time. She just figures it out.

Spiders, ghosts and skeletons

Our Halloween fun started at the beginning of the month as we made these massive spiders for our house.



We came up with the idea on a whim and went for it. We designed our own way of making them and found supplies along the way: aluminum roasting pans, foam pipe insulators, multipurpose wire. We hand-sewed faux fur over every inch of the darn things. It was a truly frightening process. I think we might have been possessed to even think of it. Our family room was completely coated in shedding fur. It was all worth it, though, when we saw the excitement on all the neighborhood kids' faces.





My girls love to be scary, so they didn't have a problem posing when Daddy pulled out the Hipstamatic app on his phone.













As always, the girls had fun at the neighborhood trunk-or-treat.







One of their favorite parts of this year's Halloween was handing out candy to the other kids.





We went home for a spooky dinner after the trunk-or-treat. The girls squealed with excitement every time the doorbell rang. They took turns handing out the treats.





After dinner, we all went out for some old-fashioned trick-or-treating.

School pictures

Olivia's first-grade picture just arrived. She looks so grown-up to me! If you want to see how much she's grown since kindergarten, click here.

Now that's love

My youngest sister and her husband bought an old house and are working on remodeling it. They've pretty much gutted the place and are living with my mom in the meantime. Unfortunately, my brother-in-law badly hurt his knee and had to have surgery. He will be out of commission for at least a month! He limps around on crutches and can't bend his knee. He was personally doing most of the remodeling, so the house has been put on hold. It is so frustrating for the poor guy.

Joe and my mom and I took pity on him and spent time last weekend loading a truck full of construction debris and taking it to the dump. It was a labor of true love, because that dump was enveloped in a grossly disturbing stench. Plus we were surrounded by thousands of crazed sea gulls. It was actually kind of scary! We couldn't help but think of a certain movie...

True Aggies

At the end of September, we took the girls to our old stomping grounds. Joe and I both graduated from Utah State University, home of the Aggies (hence the A on the building). It's where we met -- where the magic began. :)

Joe was in Logan most of the week for work, so the girls and I joined him for a little bit. The girls loved running up and down Old Main Hill.





After we had gone home, Joe visited the Logan temple and took this beautiful picture at dusk. We have such fond memories of Logan and USU. They will always have a special place in our hearts.

Baby people and baby pigs

In September, the girls got to meet their new cousins for the first time. They were so excited. Olivia got to hold both at once, and Allison wanted to hold Victoria first.

Afterward, we took big brother Kade off his parents' hands and went to the state fair. Joe had scored free tickets, so we invited my other sister and brother-in-law to join us.







We took this pig picture for my sister Laura, so she would feel better about having to nurse ONLY two babies.















The state fair had a sea lion show that was really neat. The sea lions were seriously talented, and they kept our full attention.