Christmas 2012

Here are some of our fun snap shots from Christmas morning, our first year all together at our house.

Thanksgiving

This year we spent Thanksgiving with Hayne's side of the family.  His parents live down in Landrum, South Carolina, on a beautiful horse farm.  Here are some great pictures of the family, including a new addition to arrive for Brad and Elizabeth in March of 2013. There is so much to be thankful for this and every year.

Superhero Halloween

Halloween is a fun time for any kid, and Black Mountain certainly does it right.  Between birthday parties, school parties, and the actual trick or treating, it was a full week of costumes and candy.  Here are a couple pictures of the kids in the their costumes.  They were the best superheroes ever.

Everybody Dance Now

This fall Laela is enrolled in her first ever dance class. It is a modern dance class that she goes to every Tuesday evening with her friends Bella Rose and Ellen.  My friend Sunday, Bella Rose's mom, did the leg work to find a good place for the girls to take lessons and Becky, Ellen's mom, and I jumped on board.  From the day I told Laela about dance until her first lesson, she asked regularly about it.  We had to buy her a leotard and tights and so of course she tried them on every time I would let her.  Even now, after three weeks of lessons, she still wakes up asking if today is dance.  I am glad she likes it so much, but I had a feeling it would be a good fit for her.  It would not surprise me if she dances for a long time, but there will be no pressure from me.  I hope she tries a lot of different things to experience them and figure out what she likes best, but for now she is dancing and loving yet another reason to be with her friends.  

Waiting on the porch to go to her first lesson

Warming up

I had to add this one of Hollings.  She cracks me up!!

Laela, Bella Rose and Ellen

Beautiful Girls!!

A New School Year

September marks yet another school year in the Griffin household which is also a first for one of us.  Two days a week, Cord joins the two-year-old class at Montreat Morning School.  Laela is in her second year, and has graduated up to pre-k, yes, that is one year before kindergarten.  Crazy, I know!!  Both of them seem happy and excited to go and I love the stories that come home.  I am trying very hard to ask specific questions so I get more than, 'nothing' when I ask what they did at school that day.  So I ask about songs, coloring, crafts, and going outside, and it seems to be working a little bit.  Laela told me about a trek her class took down to Lake Susan where they learned about some animals and plants that live down there.  The most I have gotten out of Cord is that they sing a song that requires everyone to put their pointer finger in front on their lips and say, "Shhhh."  Apparently there is a song they sing about hunting a bear, and of course one must be quiet while hunting bears.   I am really pleased with the friends they have and are making, how wonderful their teachers are, and the new elements, like music, art, and Spanish that the school is introducing this year.  It is really quite amazing to watch your kids grow up, and I hope that their earliest memories of school will be positive ones!

First lunch box 

On the elevator up to school

Laela has so 'been there done that' with the first day of school

Summer Memories

It has been a long time since I blogged on family life in the Griffin household.  School has already started (blog coming forthwith) and I failed to discuss what we did the remainder of the summer.

First of all, Hayne did an incredible ride across the state of North Carolina.  In July of 2011 (I cannot believe it has been a year) a fellow Asheville firefighter, Jeff Bowen, was killed in the line of duty.  Hayne and several other firefighters, who call themselves the Carolina Brotherhood, rode from Wilmington to Asheville to raise money for Jeff Bowen's family.  Firefighters came from all over the southeast to lend their support.  At times, it was a difficult ride.  The heat index often rested in the triple digits, and they rode close to 80 miles or more every day.  But in the end, the brotherhood's efforts gifted the Bowen family with over $25,000 toward the education of his three kids.  I love the way these men and women look out for one another on a daily basis, but especially when things are hard. I am very proud of my firefighter and thankful for his efforts to help others.  Here are some photos of Hayne when they arrived in Asheville.    Also, you can see pictures from the entire journey at carolinabrotherhood.com

After the ride, we all went up to the great, white, North to spend some time with the Johnson family.  In the summer, there is nothing white about Minnesota. It is beautiful, green, and sometimes freaking hot. It is not what one would expect for a place that far north, but none the less, it was one hot summer.  In fact it had been a record breaking year for heat in Minneapolis, but of course the heat wave decides to break as soon as we head for a week on the water.  However, this did not stop us, especially the kids, from having a fantastic time.  We played, ate, swam, roasted marsh mellows, fished, ran out of gas (dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb), and ate some more.  The whole family was there, including my cousin Maddie and my brother's dog Wrigley.  Even with 10 adults, 6 kids, and 1 dog all under the same roof, it was a total blast.  I love being with my family, seeing the cousins play, dance, and swim, and just spending time together.  I am already looking forward to next year :):)  These pictures are in thanks to my mother, because I hardly took any while we were there.

We also spent some time down at the farm with Hayne's family.  The kids love to go there as there are tons of places to run, play and just get totally and completely filthy. This summer we put the kids up on one of the horses.  Cody is Cord's favorite horse of the three, and he is great with both of them.  He greets them both by nibbling on their heads as they climb the fence to pet him.  It's pretty sweet.  Papy, Hayne's dad, put the saddle on Cody and took the kids for little rides around the yard.  Laela is already asking for permission to let Cody run.  It is pretty impressive because she already has great balance and really seems to love it. Cord loves it too but as a two-year-old the balance thing is a bit difficult still.   Papy also got Laela up on the four wheeler for the first time ever.  I think the noise bothered her but for the most part she had a great time.

Our summer has now come to an end.  We are still trying to figure out an earlier bed time and waking up in time for school, but we'll get there.  I am already noticing shorter days, and color popping out on the trees.  I love the fall, so I don't mind at all, but our summer memories were sweet and I am incredibly thankful for that.

Swim Lessons

This past week Laela took her first shot at swimming lessons with some of her favorite friends.  Here are some of the shots my friend Becky took during their last lesson together.  It was a fun week and I was so proud of how well the girls did.  

Ellen, Ella Brooks, Ms Jaci, Laela and Julia!

Julia has the best faces!

Laela swimming to the steps

Strike a pose!