Denise in town

It's rare that people who don't live is Utah would find themselves in St. George for the weekend, but my good friend and former roommate's dad moved here, so hopefully we'll get to see her. I haven't see her much since she moved to Seattle.

ready to go meet more people

Mia loved his big cheeks

Reading time

I'm pretty sure Griffin doesn't understand anything we read to him but it's fun to do anyway. He likes to look at the pictures and grab the book. Brandon likes to show him cartoon on his iphone.

"Hello Bugs"

Pretty sure more kids would aspire to be mailmen if this were really what the mail trucks looked like

Winnie the Pooh

Griff's first trip to SLC

We finally got Griffin up to SLC where he met A LOT of new people and visited some of our favorite places. Unfortunately I didn't get picks of everyone. I'm much less quick with the camera these days. Oh well.

Melanie is like a mother to me. She's my best friend's mom. Griffin took right to her like a grandmother.

This is Kristy but I didn't get one of her face :(. Griff is checking out their dog. He didn't look too sure of things and pulled up his pant leg as if to try to get it away from the dog

My cousin Heidi and kids

My cousin Sheri and daughter

Sheri's oldest daughter

Brandon's good friends and previous co-workers Matt and Rebecca at the Soup Kitchen, one of B's favorite lunch places

Mmmmm, Porcupine Grill for dinner

with Russ and Adam

At the house and with the old roommates B had for a lot of our friendship/dating time. Cory and Lynn. This is Cory's house

Here are the wives of the original roommates. Tara (Cory's wife) and Michelle (Lynn's wife).

Awww, Tif (at Porcupine once again, but for breakfast)

Chad and Candace

Griffin was a fan too

Can't believe I don't have any pics of the Jennys, Rachael and Jane, Shannon, Kristy, my previous co-workers who put up with my green first trimester, etc. I'm really getting bad with my camera

A NEW New Years

Things have definitely changed. For one, I didn't get any pictures of New Year's Eve. Two....well, we opened our cooler the day after a the kid's welcome New Year's party at our friend's house and what we found pretty much summed things up...

Happy New Year!

Summing up 2011
We got pregnant
We went to Norway
We barely got out on our mountain bikes (I didn't at all, but got a few road in)
Brandon graduated from the U with his Masters in Social Work
We moved to Washington, UT (just outside of St. George) where Brandon got a job as a therapist
      and co-director at a new youth academy
We celebrated our first anniversary
Griffin was born
Adjusting to and loving being parents

Griffin's many faces

Griff has so many facial expressions. Brandon and I were playing with him and were lucky to capture this series of faces. He usually freezes up for the camera

Griffin - Three months old

So much has changed in 3 months. The biggest change is that he's starting to smile. We had to work really hard to get him to do it at first, but the week of Christmas they started coming more freely. I can't always get it on camera because he goes serious when he sees the lens, but sometimes we can distract him enough to capture it.

Official 3 month pic

That's my Mr. Serious

Christmas gifts. Notice the blurred arm? He's ALWAYS moving

Of course this happened right as we were walking out the door

He loves to suck on his hands

bumbo time

Just finished a bottle

He loves to watch Mr. Green, a toy that can quiet him in the middle of a cry fit

Letting me know he hates tummy time

Baby's first Christmas

For Griffin's first Christmas we got a tree, but weren't able to cut one down due to a snow storm on the day we planned to go. Hopefully next year. We did get the kind of tree Brandon grew up with instead of the full tree like the one I grew up with that we got last year. I really liked the skinny tree. It reminded me of the Charlie Brown tree. Plus Brandon got to put the lights on the way he did it growing up and it worked (see last year's post for story behind that one). We finally got some tree ornaments and decorations including a stocking for Griff. It was my first desert Christmas season. The warmer weather was nice. Some friends even came to escape the Salt Lake inversion (Don't miss that) and we got in my first bike ride since Griff. Merry Christmas to me!

Staheli Farms. We got the tree to the right of me

I've always wanted to string popcorn and cranberries and I finally did it.

Tradition

This year Griffin helped me deliver the hot fudge sauce

Two of our friends also had boys not long after us. Here they are together for the first time

Gooseberry Mesa with Jenny H

real nice

Britt hanging with Griff

Jenny H

Jenny W

Jenny and Britt

Lynn and Michelle

Cory texting Tara who was in SLC

We spent Christmas with my parents in Colorado. There was no snow and plenty of family. We missed Casey and Beate, but hope to see them in February. This year the house felt much more like home compared to the barely moved-in house last year. It helped to have a full house too. We also spent some time up at the ranch some family friends manage. My dad helps Mike, the manager, do ranch work every morning. He's even learning to drive the machines. I was impressed. B got to go help one day too. We hope to get back and do some more when we can.

Christmas Eve

Original 5 kids on the fireplace. Spouses and children on the couch

My cute, cute mom

Notice the spit-up

Ella LOVES "her Griffindor"

True

Tuckered out

Christmas Day

Watercolor painting of the house I grew up in. I love it.

Ehren was able to calm an over tired Griffin

Casey and Beate + kids on Skype in Norway

Dad giving one of his famous speeches

Perfect!

Nativity

Griff played baby Jesus...for the first half

Hanging out with cousins, aunts and uncles

He loves Archie the monkey

First trip into really cold weather. He reminded me of Randy in "A Christmas Story".

In the spirit of Colorado ranching

The Ranch!

Mike, ranch manager