hypnotized underwater?

              Griffin: "I wanna be hypnotized underwater."

"Hypnotized, where did you hear about that?"

           "Awana"
           
"Awana?"

         "Yep, after you know Jesus, you get hypnotized"

At this point, I'm laughing so hard, there are tears just streaming down my face.  We were all in the car, so I just kept facing forward, so he wouldn't see me.

Jeff says, "baptized?"

         Griffin says: "yep, baptminized!" If you don't know Jesus, you can't go to heaven."

I'm grateful for the deep down laughter that, that brought to my day, but mostly I'm glad we were all together for that moment.  Jeff and I shared that moment equally and were involved equally and will always be thankful we get to do this parenting thing together.  I love you, Jeffery!

The only question now is, where DID he hear about being hypnotized.  I guess that's for another day :)

   Bring on the year of the "four fingers."

He's 4!

He's 4.  It's bitter sweet...yah yah yah...I won't go into that here, 'cause I poured into Griff's journal on this topic.  The only I could really get out of Griffin for a party was flashlight hide and go seek...so we went with it.  I was leaning toward a detective theme, but everything I saw was a bit cheesy, and it wasn't coming together.  SOOO in my search, of course on pinterest, I came across the "mustache bash" theme.  I went with it and it turned out so cute.  His birthday kinda caught my by surprise this year, so I must admit, I cheated and used a TON of stuff off of ETSY this year. 

I read a blog my lovely friend/cousin, Loleeta, posted about the perfect "mom blog," so here's a little blog truth for you...the morning of Griff's party he started crying saying he didn't want a mustache party, but instead wanted a DINOSAUR party.  A dino party?? this kid has never touch a dinosaur in his life, his father hates dinosaurs, and I have NOTHING ready for a dinosaur party.  We ended up talking our way through it and he did get excited and enjoy it, so there's some "mom blog" truth for you.

As a photographer, the camera is a bit haunting.  What I mean by that is, I always have to be ready for the perfect shot, which leaves me less than present in situations/parties/what have you.  BUT if you give it up and are present it always lingers in your mind that you are missing the shot of a lifetime.  I gave it up for this party.  My FABULOUS sil, Denise, took almost ALL of these shots for me and I love them.  I am so grateful she did this for me.  I had my phone ready for a few shots and yes I did use it, but not very much. 

Thank you to everyone who helped me pull this off.  I KNOW I couldn't have done it without all of YOU!

 The flashlight hide and go seek was a totaly success.  So very fun! 

Our Christmas Puppy :)

Merry Christmas to Ailee.

We'd like to introduce to you the newest member of our family: Charlie.  Griffin named him TOTALLY on his own.  We could completely live with that name, knowing our other option was probably Sonic or Mario :).

Yes, he's all of ours but we all know he was really for Jeff and Ailee.  PROPS to Daddy for knowing his little girl.  She ADORES this little guy.  They both take abuse from each other very well.   Ailee, surprising, deals with his little teeth like a champ, and Charlie takes the lovin' with much patience.

  

 No animals were harmed during this hug session :)

Both of our kids LOVE to join him in his bed, which usually means they are both in there and Charlie gets the boot!

First project of the year completed!

What was supposed to be a fast/quick craft turned into a 5 month project, for no real reason, just life I guess.  In September, my boy and I had a date at Looney Bean, with an amazing Cinnamon roll I might add, to start our "R.I.D.E." project.  It got off to a great start and that's where I left it for months...oops.  Well, anyway, I finally finished it and it's up in his room.  We have a serious Travis Pastrana lover in this house.  We're hoping to be able to watch the new 3d Nitro Circus movie with him, we'll have to check the reviews when it comes out. :)

 I bought these letters at hobby lobby, they are the paper mache 3d kind.  My goal was to modge podge them, but i haven't had much luck with that stuff, so I went with a glue stick. 

  

And just like that they are up and the boy loves them!