Christmas Memories

The Christmas Eve activities included---Lots of baking for the big meal that night. I think we (when I say we I really mean mainly Deanne) made 18 pies! That is almost 1 pie for every adult. I made 4 pecan pies. Yummy. Kids decorated cookies. I took some time to blog and scrapbook. Cousins played. Movie watching. Got ready of the Christmas Pageant, had our big dinner and then did Christmas carols with the "boom whackers." Lots of fast talking and fun. It didn't take long for Hadley to figure out that she wanted to be an angel with Natalie. We decorated her costume making various things out of foil. Chad and Braden were sheppards and Austin was a wiseman.

Yummy dinner thanks to Eric. Prime rib and ham and rolls and Yorkshire pudding and baked potato. It was all delicious!!! Yum-O!

Christmas Carols using "Boom Whackers" led by Aunt Carol.

Year of the Guns

The boys were in heaven when they opened up their gifts from grandad! They each got their own BB gun specially sized for each one. They spent the next 4 hours shooting outside even though it was dark and freezing outside. They stood in the garage and shot stuff out in the driveway. I finally made them stop at about 11 pm so we could go home. The guns are to stay there at Granddad's house and be used there. That is good. I remember when I was a kid we would shoot guns with my grandad and go burn the trash. Hadley got princess dress up clothes. She loved them! And mom....well she also got a gun too. I'm not sure how excited she is about that. Dad wants her to take classes etc...we'll see how that goes.

I love this picture of Hadley and my sweet sweet Grandmother. My Grandmother has got to be the sweetest and nicest person ever. She never complains or is negative about anything. I love her so much and am glad that my kids have gotten to know her and will remember her.

The Week Before Christmas.....

So.....I think a lot of our Christmas traditions revolve around yummy food. After church we made Christmas sugar cookies. The kids really got into the rolling out of the dough and cutting them out. Then they really got into the frosting--of course.We had Christmas parties at school. These are some pictures of Hadley and Colten. Their nickname at school is "The Mr. & Mrs." They are inseparable.

Vandergriff school parties started in the morning with a big Christmas sing-a-long. Then there were classroom parties later in the afternoon. Chad is with his friend Lauren. And Braden is giving the magnum look?

Chad's Kindergarten Play

Chad made his acting debut in the Kindergarten play. He got to be the snowman and actually wore the same snowman costume Austin wore when he was in 1st grade.

After Church on Sunday we made our ginger bread house. I think this is one of our best ones yet! So Braden

Thanksgiving Week

We had a great Thanksgiving week! The kids had the whole week off from school so we had some time to do some fun things. Sunday night we went to Mom's house for dinner and the Dumini's came over. That night the boys all spent the night including Emossi and Lavani. Good times.
On Monday Mark took the boys for a real overnight hiking adventure. They all had backpacks with sleeping bags etc. and then went to somewhere on the Buffalo River. They hiked in and set up camp. Everything was great until the rain at 1am. Chad was the first to wake up to discover he was sleeping in a pool of water. They had a great waterproof tent but the problem was the ground cover that they put down acted like their own little swimming pool. Their bags were soaked and they slept the remainder of the night without their bags. That morning they got up and toughed it out. They did more hiking (in mud) and found some beautiful waterfalls.
They all had a time of their life despite the rain.

We spent Thanksgiving day at Nana and Grandad's house. We had a ton of pies and 2 turkeys. Mark fried one of the turkeys. Yum. Adrianne and her family also were there.

These are some pictures of Hadley and Nana cooking together. Hadley is a great helper.

We also had our annual post Thanksgiving meal Bingo game. Grandad calls out the numbers and then when you get Bingo you get a prize.

Friday Mark took Braden and Austin to play paintball with a bunch of other people from church. I gladly stayed home with Hadley and Chad. It was fun to hear all of the battle stories when they got back. Braden had a few pretty good bruises that he was proud to show off.

I'm Sleeping Again!

Can you hear the angles singing??? We have a new mattress!!!!
I have to admit I have never been one to think that a mattress can make that much of a difference in a person's sleep but I have changed. For the past almost 2 months I have hardly slept a whole night in our bed. I have made the couch or the trundle bed my new home from about 2am until morning. We have a 13 year old mattress and it looks fine but after laying on it for a little my while my back would ache and then the pain would go down my leg. Then when I would stand up I could barely walk. Finally this week we broke down and got this mattress from Sam's.
Wow! I can't believe the difference!!! I can sleep through the night. I am a new person!!!!

My Hadley

I love every minute I get to spend with Hadley -well almost every minute. There are a few minutes where it would be more enjoyable if she were napped but 99% of the time it is a lot of fun. She has become so animated and playful. Lately she likes to pretend that I am Hadley and that she is the mommy. She is so excited to have a baby sister and likes to talk about that all of the time.
One of my favorite times of the day is when I get to tuck her into bed. She has recently moved into her "Pink Room" and no longer has a bottle. So there is a big long ritual that we go through every night. It starts with her asking, "Mommy, tell me all da people dat love me." So I start with myself and say, "I love you, and daddy loves you...." and so on and so on. We name all the people in our family and extended family, neighbors and friends. She loves it. Lately we get through just our family and then I say and your baby sister loves you and Hadley gets so tickeled. She will squeal and then she has to hug me. She is so excited! Then she says, "What are we going to name her?" So then we will go back and forth between me and her saying names that don't really make sense like braden, or Chad. When it is her turn she will put her finger to her lips and think and then say, "I know! Let's name her......Heather!" Then she will laugh and laugh.
Then after we play the "name game" she will say, "What are we going to do with her?" This will go on for a bit all the while getting so excited at the thought of doing things with her baby sister. Then she wants me to tell her stories about her and her baby sister. This all takes quite a bit of time and we still have to sing songs but it is worth it. I can't stand how cute she is when she gets so excited at the thought of her baby sister.
I feel that she is growing up all too fast. I was looking at pictures of her today that were taken back in august and she looks so young! Crazy.

This is a picture of her this morning. The boys were all gone and we went out to breakfast together. Donuts. Yum. Our favorite donut store just opened back up!

Making play-do cupcakes at Nana's house.
Hadley Loves Minnie. This was done on an iphone app.

Tea party at nana's house. Mom and I were playing with her. She was the mom of course and we were having fun giving her a hard time. We were acting like impatient little kids and she tried real hard to be a patient mom. Funny.

Trampoline time at Colten's house

Boutique Show

So yesterday was the Holiday Boutique Show. This is the second show that my friend Heather and I have done together. It has been a lot of enjoyable work getting ready but it was so worth it! I really have spent only the last 2 weeks cutting out wood, painting etc...to get ready and now it looks like Hobby Lobby exploded in our office/craft room.

The hardest part about the whole show was loading up and unloading the car. Mom came and helped me get everything in the car the night before the show (Mark was gone on a Father/Sons camp out). Then I left early in the morning to get to the convention center to set up.This is a picture of what our booth area looked like when we got there.

This is a picture of what our booth area looked like after a few hours of setting up. (This picture mainly shows my side.) Right before the show opened I got kind of nervous and I was ready to change my price signs and charge $1 for everything. I'm glad I didn't because people came ready to spend money and by the end of the day I had sold most everything I had brought.

I brought in a few pieces of furniture to put in our booth.

This shows Heather's super cute Christmas calendars and on the table are her tile necklaces.

This show I added these little magnet packages. They had 4 magnets on a round piece of metal wrapped up and tied with cute ribbon. I could make these all day! I also individually wrapped each of the magnet boards. I think this added a lot. Especially being Christmas and all. I wish I had a picture of the crowds of people that came. From 10:30-1:30 it was packed with aggressive Christmas shoppers. It was a blast!

The 2 Heathers after a super long and super fun day at our second show!

Razorback Football

We have had a ton of fun going to the Razorback games this fall. We had a blast going to the Georgia game. Everyone was so excited to see the Hogs at the first home game of the season and we had great seats! We still had a great time even though we lost the game. Seeing the band made us think of uncle Kevin on his mission.

Braden in full Hog attire.

Last week Austin & Braden went to the South Carolina game. After the game they had passes to go down on the field. They were in Hog Heaven! They went to the press conference, played on the field, got autographs from some of the players and then had the same Steak & Shake lunch that all the players had. They couldn't believe that each "sack lunch" had 2 burgers.

Last night Mark took Chad to his first Razorback Football game. Even though Chad is only 6 he really liked being there and watching the game.

Shocker--New Post!

Well... I guess you could say that it has been awhile since I have posted anything on the blog. That is if you think 9 months is awhile to not post anything. The kids keep asking if I have posted anything since the ice storm and the answer is always the same. Nope. I have been looking for a way to keep up with my journal writing a little better and I think this is the way I'm going to do that. Plus when I found out that it really is true that you can "slurp" or print out your blog it made it seem like a no brainer because getting a cute little blurb book is one of my favorite things. I just need to commit to writing at least once a week instead of once a year. Maybe I will back track a little and put in the highlights from the past 9 months so I will have a more complete journal when I go to print it out. I am going to make this more of a journal with a few pictures and continue to do my yearly family scrapbook. So there will be more writing than pictures. I think.

October-
October has come and gone and let me just say that it was a crazy busy month with Austin and Braden's birthday, Mark's parents coming to visit, soccer, football, guitar, more soccer & football and Halloween parties. In between all of that I have been heavily involved with PTA stuff and trying to complete my 2 page "List of things to do before Feb. 15, 2010". Even though it was busy it has been a great month!

Braden did great on his singing part in the 4th Grade Musical, "Down Home in the Arkansas."

Hadley & Julia in their matching Halloween outfits that Nana made for them.


While Mark's parents were here we went on one of our favorite hikes to Lost Valley. The kids all had a great time hiking, throwing rocks in the river and climbing back into the caves. It was especially nice to have Grandma and Grandpa there with us!

Braden had one of the best Birthday Parties ever! It was a Mad Scientist party. The boys all got to blow some things up and then we had a special Mad Scientist come and set off rockets and cannons with them. It was a ton of fun! Is it just me or do Braden and Grandad look a lot alike in this picture?

Unicycle!!!!

Austin has really been enjoying learning how to play the guitar over the last year. He had out grown the guitar we had borrowed from Uncle Kevin so, for his birthday he got a new guitar!

Austin turned 12 and recieved the Priesthood. It seems really weird to me that I have a kid old enough to pass the sacrament. It doesn't seem that long ago that I was 12.

Yep- that is Mark with Mullet. We went to a costume party at some friends house and so we went as some Bikes Blues and BBQ Bikers.

At the annual Neighborhood Halloween party Kristen & I won first place for our Hog pumpkin!

"I'm a Pink Minnie Mouse!"

Skeleton, Mad Scientist, and Pink Minnie didn't miss a single house in the whole neighborhood. They all had a great time. Hadley seemed scared to say Trick or Treat but loved to yell 'Thank you!" after receiving the candy. She kept saying to me, "This is so much fun!!!"
(Austin is not pictured because he was with Mark on his first Youth Temple trip.)

Austin & Mark had a great experience on Austin's first Temple Trip.