CHRISTMAS 2008

CHRISTMAS EVE
Jared had to work most of Christmas Eve. He came home for a few hours during the day, but had to go back to work for the evening. We went over to the hospital later that night and the kids opened their new Christmas jammies there and had fun running around the empty cafeteria. So during the kids and I tried to keep busy. We did a gingerbread house kit.
We had lots of fun putting this together. The kids made up their own rule that if candy fell on the floor it had to be eaten by them. Alot of candy ended up on the floor. Lucky for me we had leftover halloween candy. We used banana runts for the front awning of the house. I think it turned out really cute. Matthew kept asking me when we were going to eat it. I told him the candy was too old to eat, but by Christmas day night the front walkway of gumdrops was gone.

CHRISTMAS MORNING

Both kids got a Webkinz in their stockings. Matthew was very excited because this is his first webkinz. Amanda got 3 new ones for Christmas. And both have been having lots of fun playing on-line with them since they adopted them.

Hooray! More car stuff! This one we can take on trips because it folds up to the size of a lunchbox. Thanks G-ma and G-Pa Bunker.

Santa gave Amanda some moon shoes. They are like trampoline shoes.

Getting some air in her PJ's!

Jared had one of these helicopter toys when he was a little boy. He saw it in a Kmart ad and had to give it to Matthew. It was the most popular toy for everyone that day.

This is the clean version of our family room after Christmas morning. But of course you can't see all the garbage and wrapping paper by my feet, or all the toys on the fireplace.

Ethan loves cars and that is pretty much all he got for Christmas. All the kids are glued to the TV watching a movie that Santa brought them.

Grammie gave Amanda a daddy pound puppy to go with her family she got last year for Christmas. Last years didn't include a daddy puppy.

Amanda has been taking piano lessons for about 8 months. Her Christmas recital was playing at a nursing home. We did a duet together. She did a good job. Only mom messed up. Amanda played it perfectly!

Merry Christmas from the Griffith's

I probably won't get a chance to blog til after Christmas. So I just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas.

Our family has felt truly blessed this year. We have done alot of fun things as a family. In February we went to Floridaaaah! It was nice to be able to leave the cold of Michigan. In the summer we went to one of our favorite Michigan destinations and that is Holland, MI. The beaches there are wonderful. Jaclyn and the kids visited family in Utah for 2 weeks which is always one of my favorite trips. I miss and love my family! In September we journeyed to Northern Michigan and Mackinac Island. You can check out all of our adventures on our previous posts.

The year wasn't all fun and games. Life is never without trials. Jared works alot of hours being a busy 4th year resident. But we manage and still get to see him plenty, but never enough for me or the kids who adore their Daddy.

A few good people we know passed on this year. Our good friend and neighbor George Monty died a couple months ago. We pray for his wife and son everyday. My aunt Kara also lost her battle with cancer just before Thanksgiving. I know she is missed by all who knew and love her. And my sister-in-law, who is more like a sister, lost her father just recently. May God bless all families this Chistmas season.

We are very excited for what this new year will bring. A new state to move to, a new house to live in, a new job to go to. Connecticut will be lots of fun for 1 year. I hope we get some visitors for the year we will be there. We feel truly blessed to be able to be there.

I hope each of you feel the love of our Savior, especially this wonderful time of year to celebrate His birth. Merry Christmas!

Ethan the Racecar

Ethan loves cars and loves the Disney movie "Cars". So he often passes the time by pretending to be a racecar. Although in his mind I think he actually believes he is the racecar. He runs around our "racetrack" several times each day. But the video speaks for itself. He is just so cute and fun!

Amanda's Baptism

Amanda and Daddy all ready for the special day. Even mother earth decided to dress in white for the baptism. It snowed 2 inches! It was a wonderful program. Matthew said the opening prayer. Grandpa Bunker gave a talk and so did Grammie. Jared performed the baptism and gave a wonderful confirmation blessing. Amanda and her friend Emily from school sang a song. After comments from the bishop, Antonio who is Amanda's friend from church gave the closing prayer. We had family and lots of friends from church that came for Amanda, then to our house afterward for some food. YUMMY! Thank you to all who came and all family who sent something special for Amanda on her special day!

Just a picture of Grandpa Bunker with all the kids. He made a special trip to come for Amanda's baptism.

Amanda got her own set of scriptures with her name of them. She was very excited to take them to church today.

Happy Birthday Amanda!

Hooray! You are 8 years old today. Mom got the idea for a present birthday cake from Britt's blog. Thanks for the idea! We celebrated by having Amanda's favorite dinner which is Portugese soup. We had cake and icecream and opened presents. Amanda had a friend party on Saturday and Mom took us to see High School Musical 3 in the theaters. What a blast!

She had lots of fun opening her presents!

Amanda loves to go into Mom & Dad's bathroom to brush her teeth and use our toothpaste. So we gave her her own toothpaste just like ours. Doesn't she look like the next commercial for Arm and Hammer toothpaste, missing teeth and all!

Pretty pink poodle Webkinz she has wanted for a long time. We also took her to get her ears pierced this evening. It was a suprise and she was so brave. I took my camera and being the forgetful person that I am sometimes, I completely forgot to get it on video. But she is super excited to have pretty pink flower earrings for the next 2 months!

What Have We Done?

I had a hard time falling asleep last night. I didn't stay up to watch the election. I think I already knew what the outcome would be. But I still had hope that McCain could win this. But when I woke up this morning and turned on the TV, people were rejoicing at what a momentous occasion this is. We have made history by electing the first black man as president of the U.S. I just started to cry. Not for joy, but for fear. My stomach hurts because I am worried what is going to happen to this country. I have never been so interested in an election before, but I got really involved and did some research on the candidates this time around.

We have made history by electing a black president, but we have made history by electing a socialist president. Barack Obama is as far left as they come. He is the most liberal senator and now the most liberal president. If you think that he will solve problems, just think again. He will take away our freedoms, our right to choose our own health care, he and all the democrats that just got elected will make sure that the government will intervene in our lives and "fix" what is wrong.

I don't want the government to be in my life. They already steal from us and now they will steal even more. I don't want to be told how to raise my children, where I can worship, what doctor I can see and when I should see them. I don't think that it is patriotic to pay more taxes. I think the middle class should work hard like the rest of the hard working upper class Americans. Most people think it is okay for the "rich" to pay more taxes. But ya know what, they already do. The more money you make, the more money the govenment takes. Even if everybody is taxed at the same 33%.

I think we all need to be saying our prayers for our leaders that they will put some brains in their heads and lead this country in a less socialist direction. If everyone prayed for our country everyday, then surely the Lord will hear the prayers of the righteous. I am seriously afraid of what Obama is going to try to do. Let's pray that there are some willing to stand up to him and the rest of the liberals in goverment. We all need to be praying and fighting for our freedoms!

Halloween Night!!

Spider Man! Spider Man! Does whatever a spider can!!!

Every one of our kids has worn this Tigger costume at least 2 years in a row. This year it was Ethan's turn.

Amanda has 3 missing teeth which only adds to the scary pirate look!

Our 3 munchkins getting ready to fill up those bags with candy.

A house in our neighborhood goes all out for Halloween. He had less this year, but the kids thought it was cool! He had his dancing skeletons singing to Halloween Music.

The kids found a huge pile of leaves just off the sidewalk. They couldn't resist jumping in them. Some of the kids lost some of their candy. I won't complain.

Amanda and her friend Emily from school jumping in the leaves. And below is Spidey, who got stuck and had to be lifted out!

Here is a video I took on Halloween night. Another house in our neighborhood has an awesome theater system and he sets up his projection screen outside. He was playing Guitar Hero on his Wii and the kids were dancing in his driveway! Some people have way too much time on their hands.

Teachers on Strike, Mom Needs a Valium!

So I get a call Monday morning while I am making Amanda her lunch for school. She is already eating breakfast, dressed for school, bus comes in 15 minutes. It was the school district saying that school is cancelled due to the teachers union organizing an illegal strike. They want smaller classes and super-duper expensive insurance. So that changed my plans for the whole day. I made calls to the superintendent and the union representatives letting them know how unhappy I was and that I thought that nobody on either side had the children's best interest in mind. Both parties were only thinking of themselves.

So I made the best of it and took the kids to the museum with a friend. I figured I should at least let my kids have hands on education.

I get a call Monday night saying that no agreements were made and that school was cancelled on Tuesday also. So I took the kids to the zoo with the same friend. Again, more hands on education and the zoo was completely empty. We had a great time. While we were at the zoo the school district called and said no school on Wednesday. Bummer.

It rained on Wednesday so we just had to hang out inside the house, plus the house needed to be cleaned. Phone call again, later in the afternoon. No school on Thursday. How long will this last? Well, the school district had to get the courts involved and now there is a court order that all teachers must report to school on Friday. So I will wake up early to get my kids ready for school and there better be a bus to take them and bring them home.

Honestly, what is the point of a teachers union? I don't think that the teachers would have gone on strike if the union didn't tell them to. Now the teachers and the union will be fined and I am not sure if I even want my kids going to public school. It has really changed my mind. If I can afford it in the future, my kids will go to private school. I don't think they have to deal with politics like this.

So there, I have vented and I feel better. School tomorrow!!!!And I really don't need a valium.

Our Trip to Northern Michigan!

We just took a trip to Northern Michigan. We stayed in Mackinaw City for a few days, but we took a ferry over to Mackinac Island. It is spelled differently(but pronounced the same) because the Americans kept the French spelling of the name when they took over the fort on the island. The island is unique because they do not have cars there. Everything is horsedriven, or you can ride or rent bikes. There is no bridge to the island, you take a ferry. They do allow snowmobiles in the winter and the kids can drive them to school. The movie "Somewhere In Time" was filmed on Macinac Island. We had so much fun visiting the beautiful parts Michigan has to offer.
On the ferry to Mackinac Island.
The ferry was the kids favorite part about the trip. They thought the big boat was super cool!
It was a bit cold in the morning, especially on the ferry.
This is Mackinaw Bridge. It seperates Lake Michigan from Lake Huron and is the only way to get to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It is as big as the Golden Gate Bridge in SF.
View of Main St. on the Island.

Fort Macinac view from the street.
This is the Grand Hotel. It is the hotel where the movie "Somewhere In Time" was filmed. You can't walk on the grounds of the hotel unless you pay for it.
View of the Grand Hotel from our ferry ride.

One of our stops on our carriage ride was to the Butterfly House. We went in and had fun looking at all the beautiful butterflies. I like the pink and black one. It is actually moving it's wings at that moment and you can tell by the way the camera took the picture.

Matthew wanted to catch the butterflies, but they have a no touch policy. You must leave them alone. That was fine with Ethan. He did not enjoy the butterflies. They kind of freaked him out.
Butterflies were everywhere. But they especially loved the windows.
This butterfly was huge and just hanging out by the window.
Amanda found this cool butterfly. I have never seen one that you can see through.
Matthew is not asleep, he just likes to act silly when a stanger takes our picture.

I was hoping for more fall foliage. But the colors had only changed about 10%. But I found a few changing leaves.
Here are some of the horses that took us for a carriage ride.
Amanda enjoying a snack while going through the forests on Mackinac Island.

One of the views on our carriage ride.
Our carriage ride ended at Fort Mackinac. We didn't stay and check it out too much because we were so hungry. The ride was longer than we thought.
We did stop to eat at the bistro at the fort. This was the view we enjoyed while eating our lunch on the outside deck.

We rented bikes and rode around the island. It was about 8 miles to go all the way around. Jared and Amanda shared a bike.
Mom got to pull the boys along in the Burley cart. All enjoyed the bike ride. It was my favorite part of the day!

On our last day in Mackinaw City, we drove across the bridge to the UP(upper peninsula). There was not a whole lot to do, but the kids didn't mind throwing rocks in the lake.
Matthew was doing the backward throw of rocks into the lake.
Jared and the kids on the boardwalk with the cool red and white lighthouse.
It was actually warm enough in the afternoon to play on the beach. The kids got in the water (which I thought was very cold) but Jared says "no sense, no feeling."
My boy never gets dirty!

We decided to take a detour to Traverse City which is about 2 hours SW of Mackinaw. We did a few extra stops along the way to pick apples and eat lunch.

There was a cute apple orchard so we stopped and picked apples, ate doughnuts, and let the kids play on their playground. She is deciding which animals to take on the Ark with her.
When we stopped for lunch we took a nature trail that goes over the river and "wetlands" by the picnic area. We needed to stretch our legs.

Running down the boardwalk.

We made it to Traverse City!

Just west of Traverse City is the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes National Park. There are miles of these dunes that end at Lake Michigan. We climbed them and Matthew was the first to the top.
Amanda and Ethan make their way to the top of the first climb.
It was a warmer day and the sand got hot. Amanda figured out that if she buried her feet a few inches that the sand was cool and kept her cool too!
Matthew climbed the dunes with Mom and Amanda. This is as far as we went and you can see how red his face is. He had a great time.
This is a view from the top of the dunes looking back to how far we climbed. That is a smaller lake in the background, not Lake Michigan.

Too tired to keep going, must stop, need water.
We all made it to the top, but not to the lake. That was another 2 miles of climbing in the sand. No Thanks!

We went to the scenic view of the dunes (which was not quite as long as a hike) that go strait into Lake Michigan. It may not look very far down in this picture, but trust me it is a long way down.
Another view of the dunes. You can see the footprints of people that have ventured down the steep climb and eventually back up.
Dad and the kids on the dunes. It looks like they are standing on a cliff, but it is just very steep behind them. It was very cool!