GOINGS ON

Just a couple of observations and such of the family:

* First off - Samantha attended her first major league baseball game on April 22nd, 2008. The Phillies came into town against the Rockies. Matt Holiday hit a bomb to center field to put the Rockies in the lead, but Manny Corpas blew his third straight save in as many nights in the 9th inning and the Phillies won.

* Ryan has been calling sneezes "Bless You's." It is so cute. Of course, no matter how many times we tell him that a milkshake is called a 'milkshake' he still wants to call it a 'shakemilk.' I love the way he talks.

* One of the cutest things about Samantha is that when she 'talks' she will bat her eyes as if she is flirting. It is the cutest thing. The not so cute thing she does is grunt and groan all night long and keep us up. Hunter and Ryan slept through the night at an early age, but Samantha is struggling and Stacey isn't getting a whole lot of sleep.

* Hunter is in the mode of baseball right now. We went outside and played baseball again tonight. I held Sammie so Hunter played catch against his pitch-back net. I told him to try and catch 10 balls in a row. On the 9th one I would stop him and remind him that he was on number 10 and that he didn't want to drop it (I was putting the pressure on). He would get laughing so hard and throw the pitch and not catch the 10th ball. This happened twice and on the third go around he caught the 10th ball.

Art Show

Mr. Ryan didn't have to go to school last Thursday. We thought this was kind of weird, but they cancelled school because they were getting ready for the school art show. Well, we didn't think much of it and went to the artshow that night. WoW! Were we amazed! The school was decorated from ceiling to floor with art pictures that the kids had done throughout the year. Each room had one item that each child had completed and each room had a theme. For example, Ryan's class is called The Frogs so their classroom was decorated in the theme of frogs. There was a pond and all sorts of creative frogs and animals that you would find at a pond. It was a really neat set-up. Ryan was so excited to show us his artwork, yet he was a little shy and embarrassed. But he was proud to show off his work. It was so cute and so amazing what the school put together. Unfortunately, neither Stacey nor I took a camera or video camera.

Pinewood Derby

So, Hunter had his first pinewood derby last week. We spent a lot of time painting and sanding his car. We tried to do all the tricks to help the pinewood derby go a little faster and get that extra speed to edge the other cars. By the time, I got the wheels on his car for him, I was just hoping that he would win one race. We arrived at the church and saw the new metal track they had laid out for the derby. I had Hunter go test his car on the track to make sure the car worked. His car rolled to the bottom of the track and so I knew that the car would work. Then a couple of other kids started putting their cars on the track and Hunter was beating thier cars every time. I decided that Hunter would at least not come in last place and that made me feel a little better. Finally, Hunter got to race. Somehow his car won his first race. I don't know who was more surprised - me or Hunter. I will never forget the look on his face when he realized he won - I think he was in a little shock and had to look at the big screen that showed the place of the cars, then he looked at me with this huge shocked look on his face. His friends were cheering for him and it finally sunk in that he had won! He was so excited. The next race, Hunter won again and there was still shock and excitement on his face. He won his third race, and I started thinking that maybe we did something right in making his car. However, he took third in his next race and second in the next race. I was humbled. But Hunter ended up winning 5 out of the 8 races he ran. When the final tallies came out, he took 5th place. He was so excited about that and I was impressed that we finished so high. Thanks to Grandpa Griffin and Grandpa McClanahan for thier techniques, help, and equipment. Had Hunter and I tried to do it alone, we definitely would have come in last....or second to last.

Trip to Utah

I have to catch up on our trip to Utah. On March 14th, Stacey and I packed the family in the car and we headed to Utah. We left after work on that day and drove until about 11 pm at night and found a hotel in Rock Springs. The kids did fantastic in our drive. We thought Samantha would have a hard time but she did wonderfully. We stopped for food and gas on a couple of occasions and she fed and that was enough to keep her happy on the trip. Of course, she slept a lot of the ride and made for a horrible night in the hotel as she was up all night long. On Friday, we drove into SLC and went over to Great Grandma McClanahan's house and visited with her for a while and had lunch. Then, we went to Grandma McClanahan's house and visited with Melanie and the girls until Grandma came home. The reason why we went to Utah was to bless Samantha and to let the family see Samantha. Marci and Jon, Amy and Jeremy, Jena -Dennis and family, and Mom, Dad, and Brandon came from Idaho to see Samantha. With Tim and Misty and Melanie and her girls we had a full house. Oh yes, Brook and Emily and family also joined us for the blessing. We figured we had 45+ people in the house for the blessing and them feeding them. Grandma and Grandpa McClanahan were so awesome to host everyone and feed them! The next day we were able to visit with all the family and then they had to head back to Idaho Falls. On Monday, Stacey and I and the family ran around SLC and hit some stores that she wanted to go to. Then, that night we had dinner with the Albrecht's and the Monroes at Ruby River. On Tuesday, Grandpa, Hunter, and I worked on his pinewood derby car. He was so excited to work on that. We cut out the car, buffed the wheels, and placed the first coat of paint on the car. Wednesday, we had to travel back home to Colorado, but we had such a good time in Utah - especially being able to see family and for family to see Samantha!!

Finished

So, I met my goal for the year and I read the Book of Mormon all the way through. My goal was to read the Book of Mormon 7 pages a day and it would take about 73 days to finish the book. I started around Januray 2nd or 3rd and finished on March 25th, about 8 days later than I expected. I attribute it to the fact that we went to Utah last week (gotta blame it on something). But even though I am few days late, I am still excited about reaching my goal of finishing the book and was only a little off on my target. Setting and accomplishing goals are so important in life as well as reading scripture. Do both or combine both and you will be set in your life. I guess now I need to start over or read the Bible...

Talent Show

Today was the Westridge Primary Ward Talent Show. Many of the kids showcased their talents as did Hunter and Ryan. Hunter built a lego castle and put it on display. He named it SKELETONS & MONSTERS vs. KNIGHTS. It was a fantastic lego display that he spent most of the night working on. Ryan made two batches of brownies (with his Dad's help) - enough to feed the whole primary. Both of them were so excited to display their talents and they did a wonderful job. Stacey and I were so proud of them!!

What's Your Lunch Special?

Stacey, Hunter, Ryan and Samantha came to visit me at work yesterday and take me to lunch. We went to a nice sit down restaurant. We sat down, ordered our drinks, and took a look at the menu. We visited for a while and our drinks finally arrived. Hunter and Ryan quickly started slurping down their drinks as Stacey and I visited on the far side of the table. All of the sudden I heard a big SPLAT on the floor. Stacey and I looked over to see Hunter bent over with stuff hanging from his mouth and nose as he had just got done upchucking on the floor. I grabbed a waiter and told him what happened and told him that we were going to leave. They totally understood and told us not to worry about the bill and we quickly left the building. It turned out that Hunter was fine and he had been reading while Stacey drove the family to my work - he just got a little car sick. We got him all cleaned up and doing fine and we quickly ran into Panda Express and grabbed some Orange Chicken.

Don't Smile

One thing that I have always done with our boys when they are in a bad mood or are crying is that I will say "Don't Smile!" However, it is done in a way that is kind of silly and always makes them laugh. Even when the tears are streaming they still get a kick out of it and laugh. Even after the hundreds of times that I have said it, they still laugh. Well, last night I came home from work and Stacey was in bed tired after a long night's battle with Samantha. She was awake but was pretending to sleep for some reason, so I whispered "Don't Smile!" and of course she couldn't hold it in and starting laughing. We ended up laughing and laughing about it for quite some time. Just one of those silly moments in the Griffin family that made us laugh!

Firopractor

Ryan is such a little cutie. I just have to mention that whenever he talks about going to the chiropractor he always calls it the "firopractor" and that he is going to get "adusted."

Going to the Firopractor to get Adusted. It is so cute!

Hunter's busy week

This week has been a very fun and exciting week for Hunter. First of all, at school Hunter dressed up as George Washington, his hero, and his class put on a wax museum exhibit. All the students had sticker on their hand that people were to press to activate the Wax statutes. So, Hunter was the wax statue of GW. His teacher let the students all decide their own thing that they could say and Hunter's went somthing like this, "Hello, My name is George Washington. I want to be remembered for the Washington Monument. If I were to come back today, I would free America from the British." It was so cute! He did a fantastic job. Stacey made a cool costume for him, equipped with a white wig with curls like in that time period. Then, later that night Hunter received his bobcat award in cub scouts. I think I embarassed him some. The ward does not present the bobcat in the 'traditional' manner of turning the kid upside down and the mother pinning the badge on - once the kid does a good turn, then the badge is turned right-side up. Anyway, I asked the scout leaders if we could do that and they thought it would be great. So, I turned Hunter upside down and Mommy placed the badge on him. We were so proud of him getting his bobcat badge. He memorized all the cub scout promises, mottos, handshakes, etc. and worked on the requirements for getting the badge. He is on his way in the scouting program.

Today (Sat. March 1), our family got together with the neighbors - the Feigers and ate lunch. Before that, Hunter and Ryan played with their little boys in the park. The weather was absolutely beautiful today, pretty warm for this time of year - around 70 degrees. After lunch, Hunter and I sat up his baseball pitch-back and he played with that all afternoon. He said that he wants to become as good as Clint Barmes from the Colorado Rockies. It didn't take Hunter long to get the hang of the device and in no time he was easily catching the balls that would come bouncing back in his direction. That kid wants to be a ball player!!

Grandma Griffin Visits

On Wednesday February 20th, Grandma Griffin came to visit us for a week. Hunter and Ryan could not wait for her to arrive. We loved having Grandma here for a week. With her new job she can work from any computer anywhere so it allowed her to come and visit us for so long without having to take time off from work. We had so much fun! Of course, she spent a lot of time holding Samantha and spoiling Ryan and Hunter, but they loved it so much. Samantha even smiled for the first time - over and over again - while Grandma was here, and had a lot to do with her smiling. When Grandma wasn't with the kids, we got to visit with her, watch some movies, and played a lot of Ticket to Ride. But as all things do, her visit had to come to an end. We were very sad to see it end. But we are excited to see her and the rest of the family in a couple of weeks when we head to Utah for the blessing of Samantha. We can't wait!

Garbage Men

Ryan has always had this thing for Garbage trucks. He thinks they are pretty cool for some reason. Today, both Ryan and Hunter got the opportunity to act like Garbage men as they went to my firm and picked up trash outside the building. The wind blew a lot of trash over the past months in to the bushes and trees outside the firm and made everything look grimy. So, Kirby Joseph agreed to let Hunter come and pick up trash and earn money. Hunter invited Ryan to come along as well. We spent over two hours crawling through bushes and thorny trees picking up trash, but in the end the boys did a fantastic job. The collected two large bags of trash and really cleaned up the outside of the building. At times, they would get distracted but we were able to complete the task. Hunter was excited to earn money and Ryan was excited to be a part of the whole thing - though he only earned $1 but did a lot more work than that! However, Ryan did find a dollar bill while picking up trash which he was so excited about. I am so proud of how hard they worked and how good everything looked when they completed their job. They are such good and wonderful boys!!