a full week of F-U-N... mama, can you have time off like this more often?

That's right blog friends... two posts in less than ONE week! Wow! This week has been so much fun- you really cherish the time spent with your child when you go back to work full time, that is for sure! Miss Trish said I could bring Griffin by if I wanted to run errands or take a little time for myself- but 'No Ma'am, No Sir, this Mama takes full advantage of ALL the spare time she gets with her little boy'...We went by her house on Wednesday to drop off our payment and stayed for all of 5 minutes- Below are some highlights from our week together...

On Monday, Griffin and I met up with Jaclyn, Gannon and Merrily for a morning of children playing outside in the beautiful sun while the mommies painted pots... I only painted one- I thought for the 'first time pot painter' it turned out decent- only wish I hadn't have painted it red...
On Tuesday, we went to Southlake for some shopping, Barnes and Noble and then met up with our dear friends Shara and Maddox. Miss Shara is expecting Baby #2, Berkley, in February. We had lunch at Snuffer's and Maddox and Griffin had so much fun playing cars together, or they had a blast watching their Mommies pick up the cars from the floor over and over again. After lunch, we walked around the square- and LOOK who we saw!!!!

Griffin was a little 'clingy' at first, but after Mama stood to the side and assured Griffin that Santa was 'just like Papa' and that his sleigh was 'just like a car' he warmed up a little bit more... then I encouraged him to show Santa his new bus book- and it was a match from then on!

This picture says it all... Now, every time he sees a 'Santa', Griffin says "Santa Coss", it truly melts my heart!!!

On Wednesday, we went to Bass Pro Shop and watched the Fish Feeding... Griffin was in awe of the 'BIIIIG FIIIISHIES'. It was a lot of fun!

They started off just feeding the fish with fish 'food' and then the 'food' became other smaller fish

Mama and Griff at the Fish Feeding

Of course, one of Griffin's favorite parts was not so much watching the fish eat... but the old truck on the way out of Bass Pro Shop-

I love the innocent look on his face here!

That night, we put up Christmas lights, with the help of Papa- thank you Papa!

Thanksgiving Morning, Griffin and Mama had a blast at our first Turkey Trot! We met several of our friends there and had so much fun in the Family Fun Run together!

Here we GO!

Griffin and Avery all BUNDLED up!

Mama and G Man!

We had a wonderful dinner at Truluck's with Nana and Papa for Thanksgiving

And then came home and decorated our Christmas Tree together

Griffin helped pick out all of his favorite ornaments and hang them on the tree

One of his favorite ornaments is an apple ornament given to me by a student... guess it will not make it to the school Christmas tree this year, and that is okay :)

On Friday, we went to Main Street in Grapevine to get a preview of The Polar Express Train and take in all of the beautiful sights of Christmas before the big rush...

All Aboard!

The Polar Express!

Mama and G

Thinking it Over

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Merry Christmas!

Nothin' but L-O-V-E!

long breaks are for spending time with those that you love, relaxing, catching up, and letting everyone in blog world know you are still around :)

For blog reading... It has been a while, please start from the bottom, read then look at pictures from the bottom to the top... It took long enough as it was to update and upload, so I did not go back and re-do :) Enjoy!

Griffin- 25 months old (11-22-09)
Loves reading his books

Always smiling

The only 'tuning in' to television involves watching baseball or (post baseball season) watching the racecars... he is enamoured! Notice the Lightning McQueen racecar slippers? :)

Wakes up reading, and singing about his cars :)

'The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round'

This would be where Griffin 'cleaned up' his cars one night as bath time preparations were being made... he was tickled with laughter upon my discovering where all of his cars were hiding...

This is the face that gave it away when I said 'Did you get everything picked up?'

Happy Veteran's Day! God Bless America!

Checking out his stash!

Hmmm, let's take everything out and put it back in, that sounds like a fun thing to do with sugary treats!

Knock! Knock!

'Tick Teat'

Super G!

SOOOOO excited about Halloween!

Getting ready to leave the pumpkin patch- trying to choose the best pumpkin to bring home

Tractor Time!

Loving the Hay House

BIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGG Tractor!

Not quite sure what to think of this giant tractor!

Making a Halloween craft together

Getting the hang of it!

Two years old!

Happy Birthday G!

Halloween Toys!

Lightning McQueen Bike- vroooom, vroooom!

Visit from the firemen on G's birthday!

Seriously cute!

Gotta' love that smile!

It's a 'hairplane' :)

Piano Man

Play us a song

TX OU Weekend

G and his buddies- sporting the burnt orange

Punkin' in the pumpkin patch

G loved running through the pumpkins

Happy Boy

What is that?

Always reading and rocking in his chair

Pure excitement!

Running through the muddy pumpkin patch

Lovin' on Avery

Picking out a spot on a pumpkin with Hudson- both are so meticulous!

Wow! August 30th- is that really the last update?!?! So much has changed with G-Man in the last two and a half months- gee, how time flies! Griffin has transitioned beautifully to going to Miss Trish's house full time during the week. The biggest challenge is waking him up in the morning- literally, he sleeps until the very last second, many days, having to be carried in his sleep in his pj's because he just doesn't want to wake up at 7:15--- hmmm, wonder where he gets his love of sleep from!? He loves playing with his friends there (there are two little boys right around his age) and he loves the 'babies' (there are two little babies that Griffin is so sweet and gentle with- talk about melting your heart) and another little girl right in between--- He plays and every now and again does crafts, he has taught the other children how to clean up... he does not leave until he has put his toys away- and this is ALL him... :) Griffin also has began talking up a storm and putting words together to form sentences and ask questions... It is the sweetest thing! He sings 'the wheels on the bus/car/truck go round and round'- instead of interchanging the parts of the bus and the sounds they make, he interchanges the type of vehicle. Speaking of, Griffin still L-O-V-E-S anything with wheels- ANYTHING with wheels! He is into cars of all sorts- more on that in pictures below... He had his second birthday and was greeted by the Coppell Fire Department for an upclose look at a 'big, big truck'- which he loved! Griffin now weighs a little over 28 pounds and is up to 36 1/4 inches long! It is just amazing how fast they grow! Last year at this time, he was crawling and cruising around the coffee table- this year, RUNNING and TALKING up a storm! Griffin was Super-G for Halloween this year- He loved knocking on the doors- it took him a little while to 'get' that he was knocking only for candy, not to enter the homes- more than anything, he loved coming back home to pass out candy. We had to turn the lights out around 9:00 to get him to go to bed. Anytime the doorbell rang, Griffin would say 'tick teat' and run to the door to see the kids. It was precious! Griffin still loves reading books, has taken a liking to coloring and loves his letters- he can identify almost every letter on his own now- and randomly--- talk about making a former kindergarten teacher PROUD! :) Griffin is the happiest, sweetest little boy--- he is such a blessing- he has the sweetest dispostion and just lights up the room with his sweet smile... Another thing that is too cute and needs to be caught on video for the 'cute factor' is what Griffin refers to himself as... 'Guh Guh'- from 'Guh Guh go night night' to 'Whoa Guh Guh' after a tumble, it is absolutely adorable to hear him refer to himself as this... especially as he correctly names everyone else- must have been too many days of hearing 'Guh Guh Guh Guh Guh Grrrrrriffin' when he was a baby!

Since it has been SOOOOOO long since his last update, the pictures are WAAAAYYYYY narrowed down... Enjoy the latest as you Grow with Griffin... Please do not become a stranger... promise to be better about blog posts :)