5th Annual Christmas Music Video

The wait is OVER. The tradition continues and the ugly sweaters live on!  Let the holiday weekend BEGIN!
Love,
Dan, Suzanne, Nova and Griffon

Here are the previous music videos, in case you need a refresher:
Christmas Video 2011
Christmas Video 2010
Christmas Video 2009
Christmas Video 2008

happened....

so alot has happened.....

halloween happened:

including pumpkin patch, pumpkin carving, halloween party and trick or treating.

and i made some festive pillows for the holiday that i may or may not be really happy about. nova helped and it was a fun project.

 

moving happened, a mile and a half north to save us some pennies..no pictures...just picture ALOT of boxes and chaos. but we really like where we are at.

shaving griffon's head happened. yep, i said shaving....he was loosing his hair in patches. so while i was amid holiday food preparations dan shaved it.

dan participating in 'mo-vember' happened...and then he just decided to grow a beard....maybe we put griffon's hair on dan's face----we'll never tell.

thanksgiving happened

 cousin camden visited with dave and elisa

 these kids growing happened and is happening....PLEASE SLOW DOWN!!!

 and now christmas is happen-ING and the christmas music video is in the works....and you aren't going to want to miss it!

oh sweet sweet internet

i never realize how much i use the internet until i don't have access to it. our internet has been on and off the last little while and i am happy to be re-united with connectivity to the world.

as far as our comings and goings, my sister came to hang out for a week and i went and hung out in idaho for a week but failed to document ANY of it. go me. but it happened and it was so fun to see family and introduce them to griffon. however, we didn't make it through airport security without mis-hap: you want the scoop? well read on dear friends, read on.

you see, we were doing good, we made it to the airport on time, we got our bags checked and i had griffon strapped to my front and my bags in back---like a mullet but backwards---the party--griffon was in the front, my business--my bags---were being pulled behind me....but i digress......we were doing good! i should be a traveler! this is cake----i totally look profesh! we (my sister, nova, griffon and i) were getting ready to head through security when griffon started making some weird noises......"hmmm"....thought i, "i should probably have a burp cloth handy in case he decides to puke on my chest, it would really cause a stain on this shirt--and that would be pretty nasty.".....but i needed to grab ID's, tickets and all that jazz to hand to the lady in security. SO.....as i was grabbing "all that jazz" out of my bag, it started. the spewing that is. 'ah crap!' thought i, "shoulda grabbed that burp cloth---but too late now. its not too bad i guess." but then he kept going. and going and GOING.
i heard it splattering on the floor.
i saw it pooling on my chest and flowing down my body.
i felt it seaping into my clothes.
i felt it absorbing into my shirt and i felt it on my skin.
i smelled it and luckily i didn't taste it.
i frantically was saying something like, 'heath---bur---oh---gah---ahhh!!!!' to my sister heather ahead of me when i finally saw that my only option was to slosh out of line. my sister turned, confused as to why i was leaving my spot in line and she came over to see what was going on. nova, had her shoes off and seemed confused as well. it didn't take long for heather's senses to tell her what just happened---my child had turned into a faucet, a fountain, a volcano.
then a security guard came over and said, 'uh, ma'am, you don't need to take your baby out to walk through the security ga..........' but as i turned and she saw the fluid all over me she said, "OOOHHHH......do you want some paper towels...?"................ "yes please," i replied----"or if you have a mop or a new shirt that would be dandy too".....but i kept that to myself, cuz i am polite like that. as i was cleaning myself off, griffon off and the floor off, nova exclaimed definitively---'wow, that is so gross. i do NOT want to be a mom someday!' ha! although motherhood isn't always glamorous, it sure is never dull and i would never trade it for anything.

but all things considered both kids traveled great and i was so grateful to be able to see everyone. i was also super grateful to have help coming and going on the airplane.

so moving on.....
here is a pic of nova's bed before we left---nacho, her bear, who is 'light tan' was going to be lonely, or so nova thought, so she piled all of her other stuffed animal friends on the bed so he wouldn't feel so bad. i thought it was pretty cute. she had a good talk to them all before we left too. she is such a sweet kid.
 

AND....then the day after we came back, we had our ward trunk or treat party. we were a family of supers this year and i think we pulled it off pretty well. thanks to dan's mom and my mom with the help of nova's costume and mine. and thank you dan for making me a killer crown.

posing

super man and super-girl

pose super girl!

can you tell this girl has read her comics---she knows how the fly!

batman vs. superman.

apparently wonder woman is married to batman....who knew?

and the girls

it was super fun to dress up together. and nova has been talking about it ALL MONTH LONG. she is all about the superhero's and when dan mentioned saturday afternoon that he might not dress up she told him that wasn't an option. AT ALL. but as we were driving to the trunk or treat dan and i were singing and nova sighed from the back seat and said, "my family is so crazy." HA!

keepin it real

i'll be honest, i am in a sleep deprived haze and am kind of in survival mode. ok, really in survival mode. i have been doing my best in keeping up with everything and consider it a success if i get my teeth brushed. as crazy as life is right now i am loving these two kids. (however, if you would have asked me last thursday i was on the verge of putting them both on craigslist. i am just keepin' it real--it was a really hard day.)

family home evening--griffon leading the music and nova and dan helping. it was super cute.

 nova started preschool. she is LOVING it. i am doing it with 2 good friends and they are the greatest group of kids. we take turns doing it at each of our houses and its going really well. nova on her first day.

 nova wrote preschool herself in this one---i told her the letters and she wrote them--she was really proud of her R----she has been working hard on that one.

 changing clothes after church

 this was the first day i had preschool. the kids got here and they were working on learning centers and LITERALLY 10 seconds after they started going on it.......

 THIS happened: thats, right---zoom in on that pic---out the nose and EVERYTHING. luckily i hurried and cleaned him up--and the floor while the kids were still occupied.

 johnny appleseed day 2012--griffon is second guessing his family selection---we told him tough cookies. :)

 last saturday we went down to the farmer's market and nova has been saving her money. she really wanted to buy something at the market. she chose flowers. dan and i kept trying to tell her that flowers die, and it really wasn't the best way to spend her money, but she was dead set on it. so we told her if it was something she loved, she should get it. so she did.
she selected carefully:

 dan talking about the money---her looking sort of forelorn about it

and paid for it by herself.

















and was super excited about it.

 also, in other news, nova is SUPER into super hero's lately. dan has taken her on dates to the comic book store and she really loves pretending to save the world. here she is as wonderwoman.

 but really, i think she just thinks its hilarious to wear her underwear on the outside of her pants. she giggles everytime she does it.

a family of four plus martin

nova and i capitalized on griffon's nap and made some paper boats with styrofoam people and had put them in the tub and raced them. here is nova with her winning boat.



 here is nova oog-ling her brother. man she loves that boy.

 2 weeks ago we took griffon to church for the first time.

 nova had fun showing him off.

 we also took griff for a walk and nova brought 'martin' along as well. martin is our 2nd baby. he normally is pretty quiet, but according to nova, he 'can get pretty stinky and he wakes up 16 hundred and 36 thousand times a night.'

 griffon and martin.

 griffon in some orange jammies loaned by cousin camden--thanks elisa!

 yesterday we made our family of four official. well, not really, but we blessed little griffon. i know as a mom i am completely biased. but he looked really adorable in his church clothes. (side note: i have been debating standing outside a grocery store and having a poll set up to rate the cuteness of my children to get a true outsiders perspective......you know so i can validate my opinion. thoughts???? hahaha....just kidding. really thought, stranger things have happened outside a grocery store in CA...just sayin...)

anyway, i opted to not have him wear all white and we blessed him in a shirt and tie--which i made with liquid stitch--the tie, not the shirt----i may or may not be REALLY proud of myself for that---but i digress. here are the pics for those that couldn't be here!

we also had dan's family here for the weekend and it was so much fun having family here. because we don't live close it is a real treat when we have people here to play!
our family of 4 and the best pick we could get on our camera. (sorry martin.....you missed the photo--maybe griffon is looking for him?)

 and apparantly griffon was confused....this was NOT a crazy face picture. but its good to see he is in the right family---he knows how to pull a crazy face. i can not NOT laugh when i look at this picture! HA!

 a close up of our boy

 tired of pictures.

 both my handsome men

 and the sweetest boy on the block. it was such a sweet day. dan gave him a really awesome blessing and i felt so blessed and overwhelmed to be trusted with another of Heavenly Father's special spirits.