The Princess' 1st Birthday!

Happy Birthday to the Princess of this Griffith Household!  I can't believe it, she's 1!  Her birthday was Tuesday, November 8th.  We didn't really do much that day!  After everyone was home that evening, we went out for a nice birthday dinner at Texas Roadhouse (score that it was Kids Eat Free night).  Then we headed to the local Toys R Us to pick out some birthday gifts for her.  She received her very own 1st laptop, and also her 1st kitchen! 
Saturday was the big day!  It was birthday party day!  I stayed  up preparing and baking as I normally do for our children's parties (Chuck E Cheese here we come)!  Mayleigh had a special lavender and purple crown cake, and a #1 cake.  That morning we had our last week of soccer games, and returned home a little later than hoped.  So, that meant we hit the floor running finishing up most of the details.  At 2pm, guest started arriving to the castle and coming down the red carpet!  Everyone snacked a bit and then it was time for some Royal Games.  Each child decorated their own crown, and they loved doing this.  They decorated for about 20 minutes.  Then we played our own version of "Pin the tail on the donkey", which was "Put Mayleigh in her Castle".  A friend had made Mayleigh's castle out of poster board, paint, and paper, and it was AWESOME!!!  I printed little pictures of mayleigh and placed a crown on her head!  We used these for each child to tape to the castle blind folded.  It was lots of fun!  We also played Pass the Frog and Build the Castle (which was boxes wrapped in silver wrapping, but they enjoyed destroying the castle the best)!!!!!  We sang, ate cake (those who got chocolate cake enjoyed a BIG piece), and opened presents.  You can see that Mayleigh enjoyed her lavender and purple crown!!!!  After the party, Mayleigh went down for a long nap!  She had fun, but she wasn't too sure what to think of all that fun!

Run for Sight 5K, We will be there!!!

Attention friends & family! Come join us as we Run for Sight and support the ministry of Lighthouse for Christ & our missionary friends, Josh & Maggie Ghrist.

Lighthouse for Christ is a non-profit ministry in Kenya dedicated to healing the physical and spiritual sight of the people along the coast of Kenya. We provide free eyecare and treat 30,000 people yearly, who could not otherwise afford to fix minor or major eye problems. For more information, check out the website at www.lighthouseforchrist.org.

 


Details...

Run for Sight 5K
Date: Saturday, December 3, 2011
Location: Faulkner Park, Tyler TX
Packet Pickup & Race Day Registration: 9:00-9:45 a.m.
Race Starts: 10:00 a.m.
Registration fee: $30 (includes t-shirt plus donation)

To register, click on the following link to print form:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/16714219/Run%20for%20Sight%205K%20Race%20Entry-1.pdf

*You can mail entry form & payment to address listed at the bottom of entry form or drop it off at Lifeway Christian Bookstore in Tyler. To be guaranteed a shirt, the form must be turned in by November 15th.

*This is a fun run. Walkers, strollers, and doggies are welcome!

*If you have any questions, please email: jmghrist@gmail.com

Griffith Baby #4

Yes, that's right!  Our family is growing again!  We will soon be a family of 6!  Dan says that we will soon become to everyone not the "Griffith Family" anymore, but the "Griffith Clan".  Baby #4 is definitely a surprise blessing from God.  I'm praying God has big plans for this child!!!  The initial shock has worn off a little and we're getting used to the idea.  Okay, I'm getting used to the idea.  Dan was super excited when we found out.  It is really funny how God works.  Who would have thought that I would be the scared one, and Dan would be the one so excited!  That's how it was, and still is at times!  Maybe because I still remember the aches and pains of pregnancy #3.  Please pray along with us for an easy, uncomplicated pregnancy, and also for a little more excitement for me!

Baby looks healthy, and is due to arrive April 20, 2012.  That's right, 5 days after tax season!  We couldn't have planned that any better, HEHE!!!

The powers of Score-man

Just a quick blog from the soccer fields! This morning Josh had a soccer game at 8am. You can imagine how hard it is to get 3 kids ready and out the door by 7:30. It was the coldest morning of soccer season so far, and after being out at the fields watching joshs game for about 10 mins we decided to wrap up mayleigh in a jacket. While doing this, we missed our teams goal being scored, and low an behold it was Josh that scored it! He was so excited! Running around with his hands up! Play continues for a few minutes, and one of joshs teammates kicks to score and it bounces off of the goalie straight to Josh. He took anshot, and scored goal #2. Once again running around with hands in the air so proud of himself. After his game we were in the car and I asked him how his first goal was scored, and his response "I don't know! I guess I had the powers of Score-man!". This is a very fitting comment for him because right now they talk about super powers ALOT!!!!

Family Photo Shoot

Okay Okay Okay!  I know it was May when we took these, but I never shared any pictures and I wanted to!  So, here are a few pictures of The Griffith Family, just a few months late!  Oh, and that's Jessica!  She a special part of our family!

First day of School

Monday was a very memorable day in the Griffith Household!  Josh started Kindergarten at the local public school.  We made the decision to put him into kindergarten again because we just felt it would be better for him to be the older in his class rather than one of the youngest!  And, this is going to be such a different experience for our child.  Last year, he was one of 13 children in a class with 2 teachers.  He was just down the hall from smaller children, and was the only class down that hallway.  Kindergarten was half  the day starting at 9 and ending at 1:30pm.  This year we are up and running by 7:50 for school to start at 8am, and out again at 2:45 to wait in the carpool line for 30 minutes.  He is down the hallway with at least 4 other classes, and many older children coming through the hallsways.  It was a bit of a scary day for me to let him go.  Although, if we hadn't done kindergarten last year I think it would have been a much harder transition.  The harder day came on Wednesday, which was the first day to drop him off.  He hopped out of the car and walked into that BIG school with such confidence!!!!  It made me smile and tear up at the same time. I know God will use him in BIG ways at the BIG school!  God is using this time to mold the person he will be someday!

Nathan's first day wasn't near as scary!  He's back at the same school for year #3.  He walked right in and started playing with a lot of the same friends he had in class last year.  He does have a different teacher, and the other difference is that he is going 5 days a week now instead of 3.  We wanted to give Mayleigh some time at home with Mommy since both Josh and Nathan received that before going to MDO at the age of 2. 

Summer Fun, for the last time

With the summer winding down and school starting we wanted to take the boys for one last fun activity.  And oh did they have a blast!  Nathan started out in the kid area just going down the small whale slide.  His explanation was that he was "going to be like Jonah and swallowed by the whale and then spit out".  Then we were able to move him up a little bit and he started going down some of the bigger slides.  He loved those.  Josh really wanted to go down some of the even bigger slides.  We decided we would ride double with both of them.  Nathan exclaimed the whole way up the stairs "I'm not going down that blue slide".  Well, we believe that sometimes you just gotta make you kids do it once, and if they don't like it, then they don't have to do it again.  We got to the top, got in the float, and the worker said "You ready", and off we went.  Nathan started out with a squeal of fear, and about 1/3 of the way down, it turned into laughter and giggles.  He loved it.  When we got off, he immediately wanted to go again, and guess what....that's all he wanted to do the entire rest of the afternoon!!!  Josh also loved it, and decided to go down by himself.  He also gave the single rider big, fast slide a try, and he loved it.  I didn't get many pictures of these slides because I was enjoying the slides myself.  Here are a few pictures of the afternoon!  We shut the place down!

 

Summer is almost over

Summer is almost over and we are still alive!  We have survived the heat, and all 3 kids under one roof for most of the day.  We filled our hot days with Vacation Bible School (Josh attended 4 sessions), lots of swimming (in our lovely blow up pool in the beginning, but also at the gym pool), spending time with friends, a couple of trips to Rangers games, and a visit from the Griffith Grandparents from Mexico.  As you can see, the boys took swim lessons early this summer, and they LOVE to be in the pool.  We do make it to the gym pool at least once a week, and I wish we could go more, but with all 3 kids, it's just a hard feat!  Mayleigh also loves being in the water.  She prefers to stand on the steps and splash the water to being in her float. 
School starts in a little over a week and both boys will be going 5 days.  Josh will start Kindergarten at the local public school, and Nathan will start 5 days at LPS.  One of my goals as the boys are in school is to focus a little more on our blog.  I'm no great writer, I just want do be able to update you all a little more!  We hope you have all had a great summer!  Hopefully we will see you more in the future!

NO MORE TRAINING WHEELS!

We have one that got a new bike with training wheels and one that decided he was ready to take them off.  Here's a video of Josh his first day without training wheels.  He's turning and riding all over the place now!

Happy 4th Birthday Nathan

Can you believe that Nathan is now 4?  I can't!  You just never believe someone whey they say children grow so fast, until you have kids and it's ABSOLUTELY THE TRUTH!
Mommy had big plans to take Nathan to the zoo on his birthday since big brother was in school and that would be something special we could do.  BUT, we had a week of sickies around our house, and mommy got it on Nathan's birthday.  Mommy wasn't as sick as the others had been, but very tired and weak.  So, we didn't make it to the zoo that day.  We also ended up having to take Mayleigh to the doctor because she was suffering from her first ear infection.  But, we did muster up the energy to make cupcakes so we could celebrate later that evening.  Nathan had a blastball game that evening, so we had a lovely dinner of Mac N Cheese, at the request of Nathan, and headed to the tball game.  After the tball game we came home for presents and cupcakes.  We also finished icing the Thomas the Train cupcake cake for school the next day.  Here are a few pics of the celebration...

Happy 5 Months to our little princess

Happy 5 month birthday to our little princess!  She is certainly becoming the little princess around our house!  Her brothers adore her and love helping with her!  Josh is the first to run to her when she starts to cry to calm her down.  He always says "Mayleigh, your big brother is here".  Nathan, he just wants to kiss her all the time.  We are certainly looking forward to watching her grow, but not too fast!  She's already growing way to fast if you ask me!

Trip to Houston

This past weekend we had a short trip to Houston to visit the rest of the Griffith Family.  Dan's parents made a quick trip from Mexico, and we were able to go to Houston to visit.  Although our visit was short due to Dan's work schedule and an opening day of T-Ball with a game at 1pm.  But we were able to get there on Saturday night and visit, and then have a day of the Houston Zoo on Sunday.

 Cousin Benjamin in his "tourist" get-up!  Funny thing is, he's the one that lives there!

 This is a fake giraffe, but made for a cute picture!  Tried to get the same picture of Josh, but he was just a little too heavy for Daddy to hold him that high up!

 Very cool tunnel that goes through the aquarium!  Mommy also went through with Nathan!

 I thought carousels were suppose to have horses???  I guess not at the zoo!

Well, he'd had enough of the zoo!  He was waiting to ride the train!