My Few Christmas Pictures

So here are the very few pictures I actually took of the kids on Christmas. Enjoy!

Santa came!

Wow, Christmas was sssooo much fun this year! Santa was very good to Olivia and Cooper! I enjoyed it so much - the kids got everything they asked for and then some. I really hated to leave this morning to come back work because I really wanted to play with some of their new toys! =)

I know you won't believe this - but I took very FEW pictures on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. It was HARD for me since I'm a picture-holic *but* I really wanted to focus on enjoying the kids and watching them open their gifts and seeing their reactions. They are only little but for so long and in a few years, they won't believe in Santa anymore! Plus, you miss so much of that when you try to get all those cute pictures. It's not the same to see it in a picture instead of in real life. So, I purposely kept the camera at bay. Now, I did get some cute shots of them at my in-laws house so I will try to post those later. Again, I only took a few!

Al surprised me with a some black Rainbow sandals which I've been asking for for what seems like FOREVER. He's so great because he always listens and gets me things I ask for. I'm so spoiled! My parents gave us a new Dyson vacuum and it's the bomb. I'm in love with that thing! Our old vacuum was the one I bought 13 years ago when I moved away from home. So, we really, really needed a new one. You would not believe the dirt that thing can suck up. Crazy!

Anyways, I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Ho Ho Ho!!!!

Merry Christmas!!!!

Santa Pic and School Pics

Al and I took the kids on Saturday to see Santa. It was quite the adventure and pure TORTURE waiting in line at the mall, but the end result was well worth it! Olivia and Cooper sat on his lap together and I got a decent picture of my two kiddos! Thank you Michele for uploading these for me. =)

Cooper told Santa he wanted moonsand (which my response is - oh no Cooper, he may not have time to get you moonsand this year! Ha ha!) and Olivia said she couldn't "remember" what she told him she wanted. I had to pry her off his lap though, she didn't want to leave!

Olivia's 5K picture. She's so pretty!

Cooper's 3K picture - he looks like such a big boy!

The Griggs as Elves!

Check us out! =)

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/6xFWtEK2W4zSKfhH58m3

Proud little girl

Olivia won Terrific Kid for the month of December at Thomas Hart. I'm so proud of my little girl! Way to go Baby Girl!

Tomorrow is the last day of school for the kids until after the New Year. Cooper is *really* looking forward to no school....he inherited his loath for kindergarten from me. I hated going to school until I was older. I'm not sure what they do in 3K all day but according to him it's "bowing" (that's boring in 3 year old talk folks).

Anyways, nothing new to report in the Griggs household. We are getting ready to celebrate Christmas with my uncle Mitchell, Aunt Jackie, Keisha, Ashley and Madeline. It'll be a lot of fun and I always enjoying seeing Madeline (and you too Keisha - *wink*). The kids love their Uncle Mitchell too and he's bringing deviled eggs - which are Olivia Grace's absolute favorite! =)

Hmmm.....where to start.....

You wouldn't believe all that's gone on since I last posted! Let's see, where to start? Well, for starters, the motor in the Ranger BLEW. Yeap, you read that right - the motor went out in Al's truck. Perfect timing I tell ya. So, we've spent the last week and half carpooling and weighing our options. Spend a fortune to fix a 93 Ranger or look and see if we could find a good deal on something newer and used. After talking about it, praying about it, and asking everyone we knew what *they* would do - we decided to look for Al a new truck. He bought a 2006 Dodge Dakota Quad Cab. It's black (just like his old Ram - ha ha, and he said he's NEVER have another black truck) and loaded. We got an AWESOME deal on it so I can't complain. I really think Al is on cloud nine right now. =) I like it simply because it's got 4 doors and a back seat - I hated only having one vehicle we all could fit into.

We had a really fun weekend this weekend. We made Gingerbread houses over at Gamma and Papa's house on Saturday. And we went to the park and the kids put their letters to Santa in the mail box by the HUGE Christmas tree in the middle of town. I'm ready to get the kids fed and off to bed! I'm beat! =)

Making gingerbread houses at Gamma's. The kids really enjoyed this! So Tina and myself - it was the first time either of us had done one.

Tina and Loren's train.

Olivia and her finished house - her Aunt Mary helped her with hers.

Cooper cheesing with his house - I did all the hard work folks - he simply ate candy off the house and stole some of the icing! LOL

The Christmas Tree in the middle of town - see Olivia to the left? That thing is HUGE.

Don't you just love Cooper's face? He was mad because I asked him to stand beside me instead of sitting on the ground. Stinker!

The kids putting their Santa letters in the "Santa Mailbox" - whoever thought of that idea is a genius.....the kids loved doing this!

The kids in their Christmas clothes before church this morning.....aren't they the cutest ever? =)

Christmas Parade

Saturday morning we woke up bright and early and headed to town for the annual Christmas parade. We met up with Adam, Tina and Loren and had a really good time! The kids had a blast and I think the adults really enjoyed it too.

Santa on the fire truck - the kids went WILD.

You can't come to our parade without seeing the Red Fox! It's our school mascot for the high school.

Loren, Cooper and Olivia - December 2008

Loren goofing off before the parade.


Cooper.......being Cooper! =)

Random pics to check up

How did I manage to get behind in my posting? I still haven't posted pictures from Louis' birthday party on the 29th. Sorry folks....these pics will have to do. I have some pictures from today that I want to post tomorrow so I got to move on!

Olivia dressing up as a "bandit".

Sheriff Cooper T. (ignore the cheese face folks - ha ha)

Sweet Louis! Here he is skating at his party. I can't believe the little guy is 2 already! He had a great party (even though he did have a USC cake - ha!) and got lots of neat stuff. It was a lot of fun - we love you Louis!

Cooper practicing his football stance. =)

So, today we headed into town first thing this morning and went to the parade. It was a ton of fun and we had a great time with Adam, Tina and Loren. After the parade, we went and ate lunch, did a little shopping for Olivia a Christmas dress and then relaxed until it was dark enough to go look at Christmas lights. I LOVE doing this with the kids because it was one of my favorite things to do as a kid during this time.

I picked up my Christmas cards that I ordered online at Walmart.com today and they looked HORRIBLE. I was totally bummed because I really wanted to get them out by Monday. I showed them to Al and he turned around threw them in the trash! I agree, I either had to order new cards or just not send any out. They weren't even close to being acceptable - so I'm working on getting a refund from Walmart.com and I re-ordered some on shutterfly.com. I've ordered from there before and they do awesome work, it's just a little more pricey. Oh well. Lesson learned....don't use walmart.com because they do cheap work!

Another one

Olivia lost a second tooth! Right beside the first one she lost last week. =) Now she *really* looks like a little Snaggletooth.....but don't call her that, I learned the hard way this morning that being called Snaggletooth hurts her little feelings. =(

The kids Christmas program was last night and they did great. Cooper was really into. He loves to be in front of a crowd and show off.....not really sure where he gets that from. Ha! Olivia looked very cute in her new pink Christmas pjs. I took some pictures but they came out too dark so you'll just have to take my word on it. =)

Nothing else really going on.....we're looking forward to the Christmas parade in the morning and then the Tree Lightning in the evening. Supposedly Hartsville purchased one of the trees that wasn't chosen to be in the White House this year. So, that might be really fun to go too. I still need to upload the pics off my camera....I'm working on it! =)

Is it December Already?

I feel like I just had a mini-vacation! Wow, what a jam packed 4 days we had! We had so much fun - it was so hard getting up this morning and getting the kids back into their routine!

First off - GO TIGERS!!! Al and my dad went to the Clemson/Carolina game on Saturday. Which left me at home all day with the kids. Well, I decided it would be a great morning to ride to Florence and go see a movie. We saw Bolt and I recommend it to anyone. The kids loved it and I thought it was really cute too. I actually liked it better than Madagascar 2. Louis' birthday party was also Saturday (Happy Birthday Lou Lou!!!) at the skating rink. I can't tell you how many times I took skates off and put them back on. Off/on, off/on....I thought I would lose my mind. The kids had a lot of fun - Olivia even skated with "big girl" skates on. She's still got a ways to go but she's getting better at it each time.

Friday we put up our Christmas tree and all our outdoor decorations. The kids were on cloud nine helping me with the tree. I let them put the ornaments on - of course, after they went to sleep, I *had* to fix them and fill in all the gaps! LOL Now I have to figure out a way to keep their little hands OFF the tree. They are driving me crazy constantly touching it and pulling ornaments off and then saying "oops, this one fell" - Yeah right! =)

I'm still stuffed from Thanksgiving! It's my second favorite holiday behind Christmas. I look forward to eating up to my eyeballs in turkey and dressing each year. When else do you get to do that???? My poor dad had to work though so that he could be off on Saturday to go to the game....we missed him but he didn't really seem to mind working. =)

So anyways, that's our update over the holidays. I'll post some pictures of Louis' party later. I may even try to get one of the front of the house. If you know me, I don't do decorations (only a tree in the house) so the fact that Al and I have decorations on the porch and in the yard is a big thing. I really got bit by the Christmas bug this year! LOL I guess I'm just so excited because this is the first year *BOTH* my kids have been into Christmas and really looking forward to it. I mean, the only way I can keep Cooper out of trouble is to say "I'll call Santa!" so we're having a ball right now. I'm not sure the Easter Bunny will have the same effect on him though........ha ha!