Ice Skating

We've been wanting to go ice skating all break, so we decided to go for it tonight. Check out the world's smallest skates and cutest child.
Macey did really well walking on her skates, and slid and skidded all over the ice. Macey wasn't the only one having her first ice skating experience! Thomas had never been before. He was a natural. Winter Olympics 2010 here he comes!

This is how we spent most the the evening though! GENIUS! We just stuck Macey on this cone and pushed her with us! It worked perfect.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas one and all! Our little family had a great week here in Provo. Monday it snowed and snowed, at least a foot. So I spent the day making a gingerbread house. I've been making them yearly since I was young.

We had to stay in town to manage the apartments. With no family in town, we spent the holiday with friends. Christmas Eve we enjoyed time at the Bishop's of the singles ward house. The Hunts treated us just like family. They do a major production of The Nativity every year. Macey was a little shepherd and we were Mary and Joseph. It was so much fun.

Bishop's specialty is making the wisemen's "crowns". They are made with heavy duty aluminum foil and lots of creativity. Check out the foil masterpieces.
Christmas morning was our first with just our little family. Macey loved opening presents and got lots of stuffed animals, clothes, and these little mice finger puppets that hide in their box.
Thomas got some tools including a riveter. He got me two flat screen monitors for my computer. He's just as excited about them as I am. We had a tasty Christmas lunch with the O'Dell's.

We are going to Indiana next week to welcome my brother home from his mission in England. It's been over a year since we've been back. I'm looking forward to visiting all my family and friends. Tyler has never even met Macey or Lachelle's youngest Alexander. More posting to come!

Tagged and such.

We've never been tagged before! So I thought we better do it! Thanks Kristin! 6 quirky things about us. Thomas wouldn't write his own, so I'm doing them for him! It was easier to think about little known quirky things for him than for myself.

1. Thomas has a photographic memory. I don't fully understand it, but seeing or reading something once means that it is in his little head.

2. Thomas wants to own a giant Galapagos Island Tortoise. He thinks it would be a super fun family pet to have in the backyard. No one knows how old they live because they have outlived the first scientists who started studying them. He thinks it would be cool if in like 300 years it would still be in the family... a family heirloom turtle!

3. Thomas has cat eyes. Check them out next time you see him. It is a condition called bilateral coloboma. It is pretty rare and even more rare that both of his eyes are like that. His vision isn't affected by it except for being more sensitive to car lights while driving at night.

4. I want to be a mother of multipules. Weird I know, but that is my hearts desire. I would love love love to have twins, triplets, or even quads. Sign me up.

5. Thomas and I didn't see a movie in the theater together until after we were married. In the last 3 1/2 years we've seen less than a handful (maybe 5...). We just aren't major movie people.

6. Thomas and I are adamant "anti-spanking" parents. 85% of today's parents were spanked as kids and 69% spank their own kids (babycenter.com). There is no way we will ever spank our kids; not even "once in a while" to make a serious point. Don't get me started... I'll get on a soap box.

I tag Driel and Evan and Ben and Lachelle!

We also went to dinner at The Roof on top of the Joseph Smith Building in downtown SLC. The owners of the complex we manage took us for Christmas! Check out our view!

Happy Anniversary Chicken Pot Pie. 3 years and counting!
She came out to help us shovel walks, but she had to hold her babies and wouldn't walk in the snow. She kept saying - Stuck, up please (tuck, uppease)

Girl in the plastic bubble...

Utah is a cold, cold place. Macey and I, along with some friends, run in the mornings. It's been a little too cold for Macey though and she cries while we are out. Last week I went running on my own before she woke up so that she didn't have to suffer. After a week of that I decided 1) I'm a social exerciser 2) no one likes getting up earlier than needed. Solution to the cold: Make little Mace a bubble of warmth!

After a few hours and phone calls to The Sewing Master (aka my mom) Here is what we came up with. This was Macey this morning on the bubble's maiden voyage. She didn't fuss once in the hour and ten minutes we were out! SUCCESS!Reason for the cold - beautiful snow. Macey loves Aunt "saa-saa"

Chrissi hosted a fabulous Ugly Sweater Christmas Party! DI was no good to me, so I didn't wear one. Chrissi on the other hand found a real treasure to be cherished! Her treats for the party would have made Martha Stewart proud. Ask her for her whoopie pie and mint brownie recipe...

Not the best picture, but this helps you see the sweaters. Evan, Jaime, and Sarah and Ty. Ty's little number won him the "ugliest sweater award" for the men.

Bath Baby

Macey has started doing this funny thing where she goes into her room and picks up as many toys as she can hold. She then wanders around the house holding them all, occasionally sitting to play. When she wants to get up again, she has to pick up EVERYTHING and hold it in her arms. If she drops something she'll bend down to get it, dropping something else; it can take a long time to get moving again! She can't move on with out everything; nothing can be left behind.

So she was holding all of her things when it was bath time. So the best I could do was to convince her the only take the water safe things. She LOVED her bath today. What a goon!

Christmas is comin' to town!

What a fun time of year. I looked at the calendar this week and could NOT believe how far into December we are! I said to myself

"Self, you're never going to get your Christmas cards in the mial, you haven't
even TAKEN a family picture, let alone done anything else."

This was Tuesday. I think Christmas carding is a treasure so I buckled down and got to work...
Wednesday afternoon - picture taken by friend Rivka
Wednsday night - Thomas photoshops my ugly mug to make it not so ugly
Thursday morning- take CD to Walgreens where they gave me a rockin' deal and were done in 11 minutes!
Thursday afternoon- write letter, print address lables yada yada yada they will be in the mail tomorrow! How is that for some quick work. Check out the finished picture! My theory is if you take enough pictures, you are bound to get a decent one you can fix with photoshop...

Moriah and Macey helped me with the dishes. They wore my tupperware as hats! I wish I could have gotten a better picture. So funny.

Cousin Christmas dinner! Sarah, Christa, Darcy, Macey, Me, and Kaley
I love having family in Provo!

I like winter food.

Gardening season has come and gone, but a few things are still out in our garden. I have kale (the purple stuff), green onions, carrots, and parsley. I'll post a great kale recipe sometime soon.
I'm a super dork I know; check out this monster carrot I found yesterday! Most are about the size of walnuts - short and fat. This was a very proud moment for me. Mace-face was checking herself out in the reflection in the bumper. She even kissed herself.

At Macey's the grocery story you get a coupon for $.50 cents off a turkey every time you spend $25. This is pretty much the only place we shop! We just love it... We boycotted Wal-Mart about 7 months ago and haven't looked back. Anyways, since Macey's is where all my money goes I ended up paying $.98 cents for a 23 lb. turkey! It was in the fridge thawing for 8 days! I finally cooked it tonight. Check out the time on the clock... 9:43pm. It took 7 hours and 43 minutes for this bad boy to cook. I was planning on 5 hours. Good thing we had some leftovers in the fridge for dinner! We would have starved waiting for it. I will now have a freezer full of cooked turkey bird meat to put in my chicken recipes for the rest of the winter! Hurray!

Thanksgiving - Orderville Style

We love going to Thomas' parents. Orderville is always an adventure!

Thomas and his dad Terry decided to change the tire on this monster (Terry loves large machinery...). Notice the itty-bitty jack this thing is sitting on!

Breaking the bead on one massive tire! They were out there all morning changing 3 tires.Orderville, like most small towns, is obsessed with sports. So every year on Friday and Saturday after Tgiving they have the Turkey Tournament for their high schools' alumni and spouses. Men play basketball and women volleyball. The teams are made up of families. So two of my sister-in-laws and I played on a v-ball team together! We were 5-1 so we played the championship game and WON! Below is our team (minus Sally) with our sweet volleyball prize!
I'm not gonna lie... I was SUPER nervous. Everyone else on the team was really good and I've never played organized volleyball (unless YW's counts...). All in all I had a great time! I feel like a true Griffiths now; I've won a sporting event. I am a part of the family officially after 3 years.

Thomas played some great basketball! His team didn't win, but he did make the alternative team! He rocks. What an athletic family I have. This is what we did most of the weekend! Played in games or watched them. Mace and I got sick again the Sunday before we left and stayed sick. I didn't eat much for Thanksgiving and she threw up all over her Grandma's backseat... oh a Grandma's love, she didn't even mind. I think we are finally better though. Cross your fingers.

Hurray for decorating for Christmas! That is next to come!