Beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

This was the best of many. I never realized how hard it was to get three kids to look at the camera at the same time. Now if I could only get them to all smile at the same time!

Our Christmas Tree

The house smells soooo good! I love a real tree.

Our ornament for this year. Five (for the five of us) snowmen in a MINIVAN, perfect right?

Gavin picked out his own ornament this year. I thought he would pick out the regular Batman ornament since he had a Batman birthday and was Batman for Halloween, but he picked out the '60's Batmobile instead. (He likes to watch the original '60's Batman movie with this car in it, Cheesy Movie!!) It even plays the old Batman Theme when you push the button on the back.

Mason's ornament, his second Christmas

I fell in love with this as soon as I saw it and knew it was perfect for my baby girl!! Isn't it so precious? You can't really tell in the picture, but the ribbon says "Baby's First Christmas". I cannot wait for Christmas morning!

Everyday

Gavin as Spiderman

He is really into all types of superheros and wants to be a different one each day. Mason loves to hang out in big brother's room and jump on the bed

I love bathtub pictures! Not really sure why, but I think kids look so cute with their wet little faces and big eyes.

Sporting a 'hawk

And I thought my bed hair was bad!!

What an angel

Gavin is loving preschool and I am amazed at how much he knows and what a little sponge he is! He is so inquisitive all the time. He is really into super heros and is always saying the funniest things! He loves music and loves to dance.

Mason is ALWAYS on the go except when he is in his high chair. He also LOVES to eat. I am either chasing him down or feeding him. He loves raisins, grapes and his thumb, but only his left one. It has a callus and is red and cracked. I tried to bandage it to give it a break thinking he would suck on the other one, but it didn't work.

Chloe is crawling like crazy and has been standing a lot on her own. She has three teeth now with more on the way. She has her two bottom ones and her left incisor on top and watch out, she bites!! Her hair is coming in think and getting longer, but still not lone enough for a ponytail...one day.

Griswold Family Christmas Tree

We didn't have any crazy road ragers try and shove us off the road, we didn't fly over a snowbank and we didn't forget our saw, but we did sing Christmas carols and get stuck!! Thank goodness my husband is tough and literally pushed the truck over 2 feet sideways to get the back tires into some traction! He was so sore that night!

Ready for an adventure! 

Mason was not happy about being stuck in the middle but once the sled started moving he was giggling almost the entire time, he loved it

Weeeeee!

My Three Bundles : )

Did I mention I was the horse for the sleigh?

We thought we saw a perfect tree at the top of the hill so Cody ran up it only to find out it had a huge bare spot on one side, thanks anyway sweetie!

Still looking. It was a beautiful day and the view was amazing.

Mason wanted to walk like the big boys

Found it!!

We stopped at Big Jud's on the way home. We ordered one Big Jud burger for all of us to share, but we told Gavin when it came that it was his and he had to eat it all. The look on his face was priceless! He was very happy to share.

This was actually on the way to Island Park. Gavin got hot and took off his coat and his shirt. He asked to look at the map and when I turned around he was topless! What a kid! Nothing like solving your own problems.

Turkey Day

All the Cousins

Brigham, Taylor, Bailee, Gavin, Chloe, Madisen, Faith, Megan, and Mason (he was almost asleep and not very happy!)

All the cousins-Take Two

It was the first Thanksgiving for Brigham, Bailee, Chloe and Megan

Madisen and Gavin playing memory

Grandpa and Chloe

Chloe's first Thanksgiving Dinner. All she wanted to eat was rolls and carrots

Grandma brought crafts for the kids

Mason and Grandma coloring

Mason kept trying to eat the crayons when grandma wasn't looking

Gavin and Madisen making Gingerbread Men

"Not the gum drop buttons!!"

Taylor thought it was hilarious to put stickers in the middle of the kids foreheads, they didn't think it was so fun

Paul and Bailee

Erin and Brigham

Leave it to Chet to turn his Gingerbread man into Hanky the Christmas Poo

He sticks his tongue out when he's concentrating just like mom and grandma!

Crafts and coloring

Megan

Watching football and eating caramel corn

November

I cannot believe how fast November flew by. Maybe it was because 3 kids, work and life keep me so busy.  I have never in my life changed so many diapers, did so much laundry and cleaned up so many messes only to have them reappear within a matter of minutes! Oh, and if I had a dollar for every time the kids pooped within 5 minutes of me putting a new clean diaper on them, I would be a millionaire! : )  

I had another birthday so I am a little older and wiser. The day itself was miserable. I had to work 7am-7pm and I was crazy busy! I didn't get to take my lunch until almost 8 hours into my shift. The "highlight" of my day was when I was rushing down the hall (for the thousandth time) to get a patient some pain meds when I heard one of my patient's husbands tell his wife (and I quote) "This nurse isn't worth a sh*t, I've ran out of coffee twice." If I would have had time I totally would have let him have it!! First of all he wasn't even my patient and second of all I'm not his waitress! Lucky for him he was gone the next time I went in her room.

The real highlight was when I got home. I came into a unusually quiet house with some shuffling in the kitchen and out pops Cody and the kids 'SURPRISE'!!  They were all so giggly and happy which made my bad day go away! They even made me a cake with PINK frosting (my fav. color). They sang to me and after I ate the extra delicious steak dinner my hubby made me we had cake : ) I also got lots of HUGS and KISSES!! It was the perfect ending to a crappy day.

 No, Cody isn't going bald. This is what some crazy lady did to his hair with the dullest scissors ever!! Cody applied for a new job and they needed a sample of 25 pieces of hair to make sure that he's not on drugs. They could've been a little more conspicuous don't you think? I was so mad!! His sister cut his hair, really short, to try and hide it, but it's still pretty visible. Thank goodness for hats!! I guess we will be sitting on the back row at church for a while!

Gavin, Diesel and Kellen

One of my friends has what she calls "Pie Night" every year. It's the night before Thanksgiving and all we eat is PIE!! The reasoning is that by the time you are done eating Thanksgiving dinner you don't have room for pie, so we eat it the night before, great idea right?

All the adults were upstairs and the kids were downstairs "playing". One of the dad's came up and said "Uhm, there is a community bath going on downstairs." The boys (ages 3 and 4) decided they wanted to bath, together. (Apparently in kidland it's ok to bath together after only knowing each other a little over an hour). They all got undressed and in the tub and all we could do was laugh : ) KIDS ARE AWESOME!

P.S. I changed Chloe's diaper in the middle of writing this and guess what!? You're right if you guessed she is pooping!! Cha-ching

Chloe is Crawling!! (and other fun things)

Chloe is Crawling from Teri Fry on Vimeo.

 With a hair-do like that you must have had some nap!

 I'm not the only one who's happy to see you

 Vacuum attack

If you point your finger at Mason he will come and grab it and try to stick it up your nose. He just started doing it last week and I seriously have no clue where he learned that. He is such a silly kid!!

 The "hair hockey" champion

He concentrates better when his tongue is flapping in the wind

 All 3 playing together : )

 Attack of the drooling baby!

 Snuggle Time!!

(Mason is ALWAYS on the move and refuses to participate in snuggle time. We'll catch him one of these days)

Gavin doing his "homework". He absolutely LOVES preschool and can't wait for Tuesdays & Thursdays. He is such a smart kid and has the best memory ever!! 

Babies, babies everywhere!!

From the end of July to Mid Oct. my mom went from 4 to 9 grandkids!! These are the three youngest: Paul with Bailee, Mom with Megan, and Erin with Brigham. Can't wait until Christmas!!!

Grandma Lorna

After a courageous battle with cancer my Grandma passed away at home in my Aunt Paige's arms the morning of Oct. 26, 2011. It was surreal up until her funeral because Grandma was invincible and I couldn't grasp the concept that she was gone. I saw her two days before she passed and she was asking me about the kids (who were home with Cody because I was just coming onto night shift) and telling me "I'm just fine dear." We always joked that Grandma's head could be on fire and she would still tell everyone she was "just fine."

Her funeral was a perfect tribute to her life. She was buried in a simple wooden casket just like she wanted. I heard so many wonderful things about her from so many people. I don't think I have ever heard an ill word spoken about Grandma. She was a wonderful and amazing person and will forever be missed. I have a big empty space in my heart right now and I long to hold her soft hands and hear her laugh. I love you Grandma and can't wait to see you again on the other side. I expect you to have a hot loaf of your legendary bread waiting for me!

Grandma B and I

I hope one day I can be half the woman she was

 Grandma at her 80th Birthday last year

 (right before she was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma)

 

Things I don't want to forget about Grandma B:

-Her Amazing Raspberry Patch

-Legendary Homemade Bread

-The only person I ever knew to say "Oh Horsefeathers!"

-The Big Strawberry Cookie jar with the homemade wooden lid because the original got broken

-Every time I would call I would say "Hi Grandma, this is Teri" and her reply would be "Yes dear"

- She was one of the few people who still calls me "Teri Jo" or "T.J"

-She rarely wore pants. It was always skirts and dresses

- One Halloween she dressed all in white and covered her rocking chair in a white sheet right in  her doorway. She had her door open so as we walked up her front steps and looked through the screen all we could see was Grandma's head FLOATING!

-When ever someone would tease me for being small or short she would always tell me "Dynamite comes in small packages!"

-She was the inventor of "Cellarball". When the old cellar needed to be torn down, she had them leave the cinder block walls. She planted grass in it, put up a volleyball net and Viola "if you build it they will come!" We would play Cellarball until we couldn't see anymore and even then sometimes we would put lights up. Grandma was the final judge, what she said stuck even if everyone (including her) knew she was wrong!

-As a child we would climb on the haystack because let's face it, it was fun!! Grandma would tell us over and over again to STAY OFF THE HAYSTACK! She would get so mad at us!! We knew if we heard the back door slam it was either time to hide or run away fast!!

-Grandma never passed judgement, on anyone

-She believed in you, no matter what

-Grandma was my escort when I went through the temple for the very first time and even though I had no idea what I was doing she was so patient with me

-Money didn't matter and everyone counted

-She use to buy me Tiger's Milk bars as a kid and to this day I still find myself buying them and thinking of her

-She could make anything out of whatever she had around the house

-She would stand on her back porch and ring her cowbell to let us know it was time to come in

- I know just about every Dr. Suesss book by heart thanks to her and the countless hours she spent reading them to me as a child

-Grandma had the softest hands of anyone I know (and my mom has the same! )

Famous Grandma B Sayings:

"I know I'm somebody cuz God don't make no junk"

"Always live your life in a way that when you wake up in the morning Satan will say "Oh Darn! She's awake again!"

"How Neat"

"Oh for Heaven's Sake!"

"Oh Horse feathers"

"Service is better than self indulgence"

Lorna Mae Wadsworth Butikofer

 

Artist - Runner - Music Lover - Dancer - Marksman - Friend -  "Gun-totin' mama" - Cellarball judge - Positive attitude - Love Unconditionally - Wife - Sister - Daughter - Grandma - Great Grandma - Simple - Feisty - "Always wearing a dress, a smile on her face and a song on her lips" - Sewer - Cowbell ringer - Raspberry Patch Grower - Legendary Bread Maker -Respect -Patience - Gardner - Poetry - Lover of God - Flower Grower- Selfless - Honesty- Family - Charity - Example - Lover of everyone- Laughing - Enthusiastic - Very loud fan (who needs an entire cheer squad when you have Grandma) - Herbalist - Fixer of ALL boo-boo's - World's best lifeline!