First post since weeks before Christmas...

It all went way too fast!!! On the day after Thanksgiving when I go Black Friday shopping and we pull out the holiday decorations, Christmas feels so far away. And, I love that. I love knowing that we'll be "in the season" for weeks. I love my decorated house, the smell of cinnamon candles, the kids' infectious excitement and of course all of the pretty white lights!! But I seriously get post-Christmas blues. The weeks fly by and now it's over. Yesterday Quinn and I started by taking down the tree and everything snowballed from there. We got EVERYTHING put away and cleaned up in one day. And, now I'm sad.

Our days got pretty full as Christmas got closer (and then the snow craziness of course!!!) so I haven't posted for two weeks. So, here's what's happened...

Grandma Lorrie turned 60!! We took her to Ken's Truck Stop for breakfast. What? A loving daughter can't take her mother to a truck stop for her birthday? You wouldn't question it if you've ever eaten there. Their breakfasts are to die for (plus they have an awesome game room for the kids!).

Lots of milestone birthdays in December. We celebrated our friend Armand's 40th birthday with dinner at Gianfrancos (AMAZING italian restaurant in downtown Snoqualmie). Great food, wonderful friends, lots of drinks and a crazy blizzard outside. We ended the night at Finaughty's pub, but the power went out during our first round of drinks. The snow was blowing so heavily that I completely missed two turns and our driveway on the ride home (and I hadn't even been drinking!).

Nathan finally got the Rock Band II for Wii that he'd been waiting for since his birthday. He saved up all of his money to buy it but it didn't come out on Wii until December. We lucked out and Quinn's friend Tia at Nintendo got one of the last two in stock for us on the day it came out. THANKS TIA!!

Then of course our lives were turned upside down right before the holiday by the massive snow fall (well at least massive in my "i've lived my whole life in the NW and have never seen this much snow at once" experience). Quinn and I both made it to work when we needed to and luckily had the week of Christmas off. The kids of course loved it, every minute of it. Lots of sledding. In the beginning the snow was light and really cold which isn't great for snowballs or snowmen. But, we have a great sledding hill right down the street from our house. The snow got so deep by Christmas that the kids were able to snowboard. Pretty cool since Santa brought Garrett a snowboard for Christmas.




We celebrated Christmas with Jeff, Ginger and the boys in between snow storms at their new home in Kirkland. We had a great dinner, exchanged gifts and mostly watched the kids run around like crazy.


For the most part being housebound was pretty fun, but it snowed so hard on Christmas Eve that we couldn't get to my uncle Chris' house for our traditional Grigg family get together. This was the first time EVER that we haven't been together on Christmas Eve. We tried to make the best of it though. We went sledding, then came inside for hot cocoa. Later, I surprised the guys with a DVD slideshow I put together of pictures from 2008 - pretty cool. I missed being with family but we still had a great Christmas Eve. It did make for an early and much easier time though getting ready for Santa's visit. I'm usually up until at least 1:00 am wrapping presents and packing stockings.

Santa came...he brought Gater a snowboard with boots and bindings (SO cute!) and Nathan a trampoline. The boys got a few presents from us too - board games, DS and Wii games, new cell phones, a Spongebob guitar, snowball shooters (it was SO hard not to pull these out when the snow started to fall!), nerf guns, and more...


Now it's Sunday night, Christmas is over, and I have to get up and go to work tomorrow...so, so sad! But we've got a fun New Years Eve party on Wed to look forward to. Happy holidays!

The flu and lots of basketball

The flu, or a nasty cold, ran through our family this week (Quinn got the flu shot this year and still got it - lucky guy!) Garrett got it first, then Nathan, and finally Quinn and me. Nasty stuff. I'm just glad we got it over with before Christmas.

So, not a lot of activity here this week other than basketball. Practices for Nathan on Monday and Friday, tryouts for Garrett on Saturday morning, and a game for Nater on Saturday afternoon. The highlight was definitely Friday night when Nathan's coach, Ken, let Garrett and one of the other little brothers practice with the big boys. I was amazed (and so touched I almost cried - although I cry at everything, doesn't take much!) at how sweet the big kids were with the little ones. They were giving them high-fives, and yelling and clapping when the little guys got a basket. They were shooting on the 10 foot rim so it was not small feat for the little ones. Garrett was in HEAVEN. Coach also let them play during the last 5 minutes of the scrimmage. Thanks Ken!!!

The Snoqualmie Rebels had another tough game this week (all the way down in Federal Way - we travel all over heck and back with this new league). Although, silver lining, we did score almost twice as many points as last week. We lost; but we're getting better and the guys are having fun.

Garrett had his final basketball tryout this weekend and LOVED it again. He'll find out what team he's on after Christmas and start games in January. Quinn bought Garrett new basketball shoes on Sunday and he didn't take them off all day. "They make me jump higher, see Mom." :)

Then, the boys tried very hard to play outside in the half inch of snow we got last night. Not enough to sled; but enough for Nater to pull Gater around the backyard on a tobogan. Not a better big brother in the world!!

Basketball and a decorated tree (finally)

After more than two months of practice, Nathan's basketball team, the Snoqualmie Rebels, played their first game. Didn't turn out exactly as we expected. When we showed up with 12 players and the opposing team only had 5 we actually felt sorry for them. Well....they kicked out butts.

I finally figured out how to adjust the lighting on my camera so hopefully my pictures will get better as the season goes on.

BUT...our boys played tough - really tough. We were in it but our shots weren't falling. In our defense, the other team had already played several games going into our match on Saturday. A lot of it was first game jitters for our boys. Plus, we are seriously playing up this year. Last season, we won all but one game, and most of them by double digits. So, getting to play in a more competitive league is going to be fun for the boys.

Garrett also started basketball last weekend (no pictures yet!). But this was only the skills assessment/practice. They don't get assigned to teams or start games and practices until January. Since he's a July birthday he was one of the smallest kids there. But, basketball is a natural sport for him so he did great. Other than the pure craziness and chaos of the process he loved it.


And...we finally found matching lights for the Christmas tree. Even with all of the ornaments we have it still looks a little sparse because it is HUGE.

The good part of having a gianormous tree is being able to fit ALL of our ornaments on...especially my most favorite - the personalized glass ball ornaments handmade by my brother-in-law Justin. Love these.



Lots of stuff going on this week (especially crazy since we've all been sick at one point or the other). Usually colds will only hit one or two of us at a time; but this one hit all of us. A definite highlight of the week though was watching Nathan play the saxophone in his first band performance at the CVES Holiday Festival. Even though we were in the front row I still only got one or two pictures (and they weren't very good)!


That's it for now...only 16 days till Christmas!!!!! :)

Oh Christmas Tree.....I *heart* Clark Griswold

I look forward to this day every year!!! Picking out our Christmas tree!!! We always go on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and always to the same tree farm up in North Bend. It's usually a fun and easy process - we search for our tree (usually takes 15-20 minutes to find a good one), Quinn gets the tree up onto the truck and then we go inside the tree farm cabin to see Santa.

BUT...this year not so easy. The trees were totally picked through. After almost an hour we still hadn't found "the one". So, we went inside the cabin there to warm up and visit Santa. BUT...Santa wasn't there yet and they didn't know when he'd arrive. So...out for more tree searching.



Then we found it! Our tree! It was kind of hard to gauge because they had cut the branches off the bottom few feet of the tree; but the top of the tree was perfect. Quinn started cutting. Once we got it down we could tell it was much bigger than it looked! It took the two of us to get it in the truck and down to the baler (this story is already way too long so I won't go into the details of how funny and frustrating it was trying to get it into the truck! :) We got it baled, and tied onto the truck and went in to see Santa. Garrett gave Santa a handmade pipe cleaner bracelet with 9 jingle bells on it (one for each reindeer) that he made. Garrett asked Santa for a tent trailer (he loves camping) or a snowboard, Nathan asked for a trampoline or an Xbox 360. So sweet!


We finally got the tree home and when Quinn took it off the truck we started to worry about just how tall it really was. We pulled out the tape measure and realized it was 2 feet too tall to fit in the house!! Hysterical. We are SUCH Griswolds! Quinn chopped a foot off the bottom and a bunch of branches off the top and it fit within a quarter inch of the ceiling. It is huge. It totally doesn't fit in the living room. It is SO funny. It's so big that the four sets of lights I had wouldn't cover the whole thing. So, we've put on lights and decorated about 2/3s of the way up. The top of the tree is bare. I've bought two more sets of lights but neither set matches the ones already one the tree. Beyond frustrating! Seriously! I will post pictures once the tree is completely decorated.




I need to take some pictures of the lights on the house too. Last year I bought a cool light system that syncs the blinking of the lights with Christmas music that it plays through speakers on the front porch. We covered the house of white lights. SO PRETTY! Quinn is my Clark Griswold. Love him! (especially when he climbed on the roof to put the lights on the eaves!). He didn't even get upset when the lights burnt out fuses the first three times we plugged them in.


I love Christmas!

Catch up time....AGAIN!

No excuses though. Once we hit Halloween it's non-stop around here until after New Years!! Although with all the sports it's pretty much been a lot of the same since my last post. Nathan and Garrett both wrapped up their soccer seasons so that lightens the load a bit. I took a few pictures (well over 1000). Now basketball starts!




Halloween was great. Nathan dressed up as a zombie surgeon and Garrett was a skeleton pirate - too cute. Nater went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood with his buddy Zane. While Garrett and I met up with Owen, Jeff and Ging to trick-or-treat up and down Grandma's street. Again, I think the boys had more fun handing out candy than trick-or-treating.





Nathan's birthday was a blast. I can't believe he's 11! We had dinner at Red Robin with Grandma, Jeff, Ging, Owen and Stuart, then presents and cake at home. He got lots of the things he asked for on his birthday list; but I'd say his favorite were the stilts! (He already has a unicycle and a pogo stick. He HAD to have stilts...right?)




For his "friends" birthday party we went to Challenges NW, a ropes course in Snoqualmie. He invited 11 of his friends and they had a blast.


This is a picture of Nater flying through the trees on the "Flying Squirrel".



Grandpa Steve and Grandma Kay came over that weekend too and brought Nathan a MOTORCYCLE (or a "hot rod" as Garrett calls it) for his birthday. He was in shock. He absolutely loves it. He's ridden around the neighborhood a few times but is dying to get it out somewhere where he can ride fast...ugh!




I'll post more after Thanksgiving. YAY...can't wait to get those Christmas decorations up!!! I love Christmas!!!

More of the same...

Another crazy week flies by. Nater's week was full with soccer and basketball practices. He fit band practice and crossing guard in there too. The weather was nice this week so he and his friends Zane and Drew rode their bikes up to the basketball park. I'm not ready for winter weather! Nater scored a beautiful goal today as the Orange Crush tied 4-4.


Garrett's big thing lately is reading. He is a phonics-master!! He read through a whole series of Bob Books (a series for beginning readers) and as promised when he finished I told him I would buy him a new Bakugan (yet another line of toys the kids must have - the most recent version of Pokemon or Yugi-oh). He had his third soccer practice/game today and he still LOVES it. He scored a goal and his team won. He was pretty happy.

It was a great day for soccer. Sunny and crisp but not too cold. After both games, Quinn went fishing on the Snoqualmie River in Chad's new boat. The boys and I came home a made lasagna and brownies, then played board games. Pretty awesome day!!

The big news for Quinn and me this week was putting an offer in on another timeshare week at Peterson's Waterfront in Lake Chelan. We're waiting to hear if the owners accept the offer. It's for the week right before school. I really want it (crossing my fingers!).

Soccer and lost photos!!

Garrett had his very first soccer practice on Saturday. HOW CUTE IS HE!!!!! I took at least 100 pictures. Unfortunately, all but 6 of them disappeared from by memory card - along with pictures from the pumpkin patch and playing at the river. Just writing about it makes me want to cry! Luckily I didn't lose them all.


Nathan had a soccer game on Saturday too - in the pouring down rain. It was a really close game but we lost by one. The kids played so hard.


Nathan played goalie for most of the game. He took a hard one right in the chest. So hard you can see the imprint of the ball on his jersey! He's crazy tough!


This is where I would post our beautiful pictures from the pumpkin patch (I got some really cute ones too) - so sad! The silver lining...we get to go back to the pumpkin patch again (Quinn's idea - although I think he was just trying to get me to stop whining!). That means more pumpkins (and more yummy homemade donuts from the farm!).

A trip back to Cusick

Aaron #5Quinn grew up in Cusick and we still have lots of friends there; but we don't visit as much as we'd like. Usually only one or two trips a year. But we couldn't miss Homecoming at Cusick High School. Our nephew Aaron is a freshman on the varsity football team. The team is undeafeated and doing REALLY well this year. Quinn's friend Sonny (the younger brother of his best friend Roy) is the head coach. We're really, really hoping they'll make it to the State Championship this year. It would be the first time in Cusick history. Our beatiful nieces Lydia and Nadine were princesses in the Homecoming royalty court too. Aren't they beautiful!!
Nadine and Lydia in the royalty court!
Nadine riding in the car to the field
Garrett and a few of the MANY cousins we got to visit - Jacob, Lydia, Emily & Libby!The timing was perfect for this trip too because we got to visit Tonya and her family, see their super cool new property on the river AND be there for our neice Sevyn's 10th birthday. I can't believe how much "visiting" we stuffed into a 3 day trip. The boys were great travelers and we had a blast.

Crazy week!

I always forget how crazy back-to-school is. You have to get back into the after-school routine. No more coming home from summer camp and playing Wii! This is our first jam-packed week of the new school year. Soccer for Nathan on Mon and Wed, Soccer for Garrett on Wed, Band Night for Nathan on Wed, Running Club for Nater on Thursday and the Mt Si Wildcats Football Game on Fri! AND, if we can squeeze it in...guitar lessons for Garrett on Tuesday. It's crazy. But, I wouldn't have it any other way.
{The picture above is of the boys on Garrett's first day at CVES Kindergarten - they start 1 week later than the rest of the school. How do you like the shirt he picked out! Love it!}


We did find some time last week though to head up to the park after school for some basketball and soccer. The weather was awesome and we were all having a great time until Nater kicked the ball as hard as he could right at Garrett's head. Still no clue why. You should have seen the look on Nathan's face. He really didn't mean to. The ball barely brushed Garrett's ear when it passed by but it scared the bejeebers out of him. Which lead to tons of tears and us leaving the park!