Baylie's first week!

I can't believe she is a week old!  This post is mostly going to be a picture purge so be prepared for lots of cuteness!!

Time is flying already!
Baylie is the best baby!  She had a rough couple of nights after coming from the hospital, but she got it sorted out really quick!  She only wakes up twice at night to eat, she gets her diaper changed, eats and goes right back to sleep!  It is SO nice!  She is a very content baby.  She likes to just look around and seems so curious about everything!

She is a great little eater!  She lost five ounces in the hospital and had already gained it all back at her appointment Monday!  We are predicting that before long it won't be just those cheeks that are chubby!  She eats so fast and so much she starts to cough and choke!  Dang girl just can't suck it down fast enough!

Monday Nate was able to reschedule his job interviews so he headed to Salt Lake and we go to have Baylie's first "Girls Day" with her mommy and Mimi!  We gave her a little manicure and took her to run a few errands.  She loved being held all day and got a little spoiled!  Monday night we rode down to Kaysville so Baylie could meet a few more special people!  For my Mom's side of the family this is the first baby in a really long time!  My youngest cousin is 9, but he was born out of state so we didn't get to enjoy him so the last time we had a baby around was 12 years ago!  So everyone has been freaking out.  Baylie got to meet my Aunt Niecey and a few cousins and all the other aunts and uncles will get to meet her soon!  She was sound asleep for all her visitors!  She wouldn't wake up for anything!  Maybe next time they'll get to see her huge, wide eyes!

She's not such a fan of lying on her back without being swaddled!

Baylie also got to meet her cousin Wyatt!  They are just five weeks apart and it will be so fun having them close together in age!  She looks so ity bity next to him!

And just one more picture to leave you with :)  Love this Lil Miss!!

Lieutenant Nate Griffin

Friday was a big day!  Nate graduated with his Bachelor's degree in Business Entrepreneurship with a minor in Military Science and commissioned as an officer in the Army of these great United States!
We started out the day in the hospital.  Everyone was pretty great about helping us get on our way quickly, but Nate was anxious!  Nothing was fast enough!

 He was running to the car, leaving me in the dust!  Come on!  I had just pushed a kid out of me, I was going as fast as I could!  We got home quickly and he ran through the shower and then headed on his way.  My mom stayed back to help Baylie and me get ready.  We got there just a few minutes late, but I was just glad we made it!  We had been worried for months that the timing wouldn't work so good and I wouldn't be able to go. But I did!

It was a great ceremony.  Brian Tarbet, who just retired from being the adjutant general for the Utah National Guard was there to commission Nate and he was also the speaker.  It was so great to have him there!  Not only is he a great mentor for Nate as far as the military goes, he was our bishop growing up and he is the most amazing man.  We are so grateful to know him and it was really special to have him there.

Nate taking the Oath of Office

MAJ Badell and SFC Cook

Nate has had some great experiences in the ROTC. I also have learned a lot and am so grateful that we get to be part of a "military family". We won't ever have to move to a different land because he will stay in the Utah National Guard, but it will definitely provide some neat experiences for us. I already feel so grateful for the increase patriotism that I feel.  We live in the greatest country in the whole world and it is our responsibility to support and defend that!

God bless the USA!

Nate has worked so hard to finish school and complete everything he needed to for this great day.  Congrats Love!  You are amazing!  Now to just find a job!

Baylie Elizabeth Griffin

What a week we have had!!  I am going to split things into a few posts so it isn't so long and so you can just read what you are interested in!

First things first...

We are now a family of three!  Baylie Elizabeth Griffin was born on Wednesday, December 12th, 2012 at 6:27 pm, weighing 7 pounds 8 ounces, 20 inches long, absolutely perfect!
Here is her story.  Monday the 10th we went to the doctor with high hopes.  The week before he had said that he would strip my membranes and hopefully that would get things going a little faster (I had been dilated to a 1 for about 3 weeks).  Well when we got there he wasn't able to do that since I still wasn't dilated enough.  I was crushed!  I had totally gotten my hopes up that she would be born within the next couple days and then the doctor basically made it seem like nothing would happen ANY time soon and I would have to wait to be induced on the 21st.  I may have been a little over-emotional (I'll blame that on the hormones!) but I definitely cried. I was so ready to meet our Lil Miss. Nate was so good about it and pointed out that this is such a good thing and we were both really healthy so she would come when she was ready.  So that was a turning point for me.  I decided to plan on the 21st and then anything earlier would be a bonus, but I didn't think there would be any bonuses.
Tuesday night we headed to Kaysville because Nate had some job interviews set up for Wednesday.  I hadn't wanted to go to Kaysville for a while because I wanted my baby to be born in Logan.  But now she wasn't coming until the 21st so we could take a trip down for the day, right?  Wrong!
Tuesday night at dinner we had pineapple, I joked with my parents and Nate that supposedly pineapple induces labor.  They made me eat half the bowl.  I was sick!
Wednesday morning I woke up at about 5:15 having what I thought may be contractions (seriously, everyone kept asking me if I was having contractions and I was so confused.. how was I supposed to know what they felt like??)  So I got out of bed so that Nate could sleep without me tossing and turning, he had a big day of interviews ahead!  Well I sat on the couch in my parents' basement and watched the clock.  They were coming five minutes apart, weren't they supposed to start out a lot farther apart and slowly work closer??  There was no way this could be happening.  Nate had interviews, we were in Kaysville, and it was exactly what I wanted!  (Let's be honest, I do love getting what I want!)  I went to wake up Nate after about fifteen minutes, I couldn't just let him sleep through this!  We were both hesitant and I think he thought I was being delusional, I maybe did too.  So we sat on the couch together and timed them.  They were not very painful but were very consistently five minutes apart.  Now my parents had gotten up to get ready for work.  We went upstairs to inform them what was going on.  I've never seen two people so anxious not to go to work!  Who knew if this was even the real deal??  At 7:30 Nate called the doctor and he said we should not only come back to Logan, but head straight to Labor and Delivery!  My goodness, maybe it was real!  We packed our bags and got in the car.
About halfway to Logan I looked at Nate in between contractions and said, "It's the PINEAPPLE!!!!" Now people, I'm sure it wasn't really the pineapple that brought on labor, but we can pretend it was and it'll make the story even better!
We got to Logan a little bit before 9:00, but I didn't want to go to the hospital yet.  I was nervous they would send me home, I didn't want to spend more time than necessary sitting there in that nasty bed, and to be right honest, I was feeling weird about it!  I was so excited to meet our baby, but also freaking out a little!
So what did we do?  Go home to shower and get ready.  I wanted to start out feeling clean and fresh because I knew that feeling would go away rather quickly!  After we both showered we sat in the living room and waited.. just sitting there.. waiting and watching the clock.  Finally we decided that was ridiculous and we might was well just go find out if today was the big day.
We got to the hospital at 10:30 and walked to the check-in window.  I wasn't quite sure what we were supposed to say at a time like this!  The nurse lady looked at me and said "Are you having a C-Section?" to which I responded "I hope not!" So then she asked, "Well are you being induced?"  "Umm.... no.. I've been having contractions five minutes apart for the last five hours".  She looked at me with one of those 'here we go again' looks.  The other nurse lady looked at me and said "You are doing this for real on 12-12-12??"  I smiled and said "Yes I hope so!"
They took me back and got me all checked in to my room.  The nurse came in to check me and I was still at a one.  NO!  She said it was a "big" one, but a one still the same.  She said they would check me again in an hour and hopefully I had made at least a tiny progress or else... maybe.. I would have to.. go back home.   No!  So we waited.  An hour later, the doctor came to check me.  I was at a TWO!  Barely a two, but who can argue with progress??  And then, I heard the best news, "I'll just break your water" YAY!  We were here to stay!!
Sidenote:  Having your water broken is SUCH a strange experience.  I literally felt like I just wet the bed, right there, with all those people watching.  Remember that clean and fresh feeling I wanted to start with? Yeah it was long gone now!  Sick!
Back to the story.  Shortly after that, I had my epidural.  I love modern medicine!  Nate made me a little nervous about it.. he HATES feeling numb. I asked the nurse if people go completely numb and can't even move their toes and she kinda laughed and said "Sometimes" as in "Sometimes but mostly only crazy people"... well folks, that was me!  I was DEAD.  Couldn't feel a thing or move my toes for anything.  It was so weird.  She would move my leg and I just laughed because I could clearly see it moving but had no feeling of it happening.
For the next few hours they checked me once an hour and I was dilating about one centimeter each hour.  The nurse told me that people with "cervix's like mine"  (whatever that means!) tend to go really fast once they get going.  I asked her what that meant and she said she thought once I got to a four I would start progressing really quickly.  The big four finally came and I was getting excited!  When she came back to check me an hour later I was hoping for a six, I told her let's just skip five and go right to six.  She laughed and said "Okay let's see!"  Then she got a funny/weird look on her face.  Oh no. Okay, please at least just be a five, five is good enough.  "You're going to be surprised" she said.  Hmmm.. What could this be?  "You're at a nine."  Wohooo!  A nine!
And then, an hour later, a ten!  We were ready!  But now they wanted me to do what they call rest and descend.  They have you rest for an hour once you are at a ten so the baby can drop all the way down (But she had been waaay low for weeks!)  and it also helps stretch things out so first time moms don't have to push as long. I was all over that!  We waited about 45 minutes and then the baby's heart rate started dropping pretty low with each contraction so it was time to start pushing!  I started to push at about 5:45. I didn't feel like I was doing it right.  I mean, wasn't this supposed to hurt and make me scream and cry?  Wasn't I supposed to at least grunt with the pain and pressure? No... none of that was happening.  I must be doing it wrong.  I asked the nurse if I was even pushing and again, she laughed (we had the best nurse ever, by the way!) She told me I was doing great, just keep doing the same thing.  Twenty minutes later she told me I better stop pushing.  Wait.. what?  Why? Was something wrong??  Nope, she just needed to call the doctor because Lil Miss was coming!  She made the call and then had to sit and hold Lil Miss's head in while we waited for the doctor.  We laughed and chatted for about ten minutes while the doctor made his way in.  He walked into the room all calm and cheerful like normal, then looked down and went into rush mode!  He was kicking his shoes off and rushing about getting ready because this baby was READY!  I pushed three more times and there she was!  They laid her on my belly and it was just like they say, love at first sight! I had waited so long for this little girl and there she was!  I couldn't stop smiling!  They took her to get her all cleaned up and it was amazing.  Nate got to cut the cord and was right there holding her tiny hand as they got her all washed off.  He was so cute!  I knew he would be the best daddy, but I don't think I was prepared for how much love I would feel to see him with our baby!

 The nurse asked him if he wanted to hold her and he rushed over, saying "I've only waited my whole life for this!"  Love that man!  He was so great throughout the whole thing.  Except when he kept leaving and coming back with breath smelling like candy and treats from my parents in the waiting room.  That was not cool.  I mean really people.. I didn't eat for 12 hours!  That is unacceptable!
Anyway... We spent about an hour and a half just enjoying Lil Miss Baylie.  It was amazing to have that time with her all to ourselves before letting our families share in the excitement, even though they were dying!  My parents had been at the hospital since about 11:00, they just couldn't stay away!  And neither could my brother and Lindsay, they couldn't wait to be an aunt and uncle!  Nate's parents were also there, anxiously awaiting the arrival of grandchild #17!  We are so lucky to have so much love and support!
Finally, we were ready to head up the Mom and Baby floor.  The nurses told me there were two ways to get me there: a wheelchair or a gurney...  Umm remember how I couldn't move my toes?  Yeah that wasn't going away any time soon!  So two poor little nurses had to roll me like a sack of potatoes from one bed to another.  I felt so hopeless!
Once we got upstairs, my mom was literally busting down the door!  The nurses had to tell her to stay back for just another minute while they got me all situated.  Patience is not her strong suit!  But then, everyone finally got to come in!

Baylie meeting her Mimi and Aunt Lindsay

Again, it was love at first sight!  We didn't do super great at taking pictures of all the visitors... we still need to round up all the different cameras!  But it was a lot of fun seeing everyone love on her for the first time!  

And then...

My wonderful, fantastic brother saved me!  That was probably the tastiest Spicy Chicken Sandwich that Wendy's has ever sold!  Mm mm good!  

We had a little time to just enjoy Baylie and everyone get to know her and then it was bath time!  They set her up right on the end of my bed so I could watch the whole thing and then Nate got to wash her hair.

He also got to change his first diaper ever...

Yes, those are rubber gloves.  He could NOT risk getting poop on his hands!  Not only did he wear rubber gloves, he sanitized up to his elbows when he was done.  And no, that wasn't just the first one.  Every diaper he changed while we were in the hospital looked a lot like this one!  Silly boy.  I would have thought with so many nieces and nephews he had done this before.. nope!  But he's a pro now!  Practice practice practice :)

We had a great couple days in the hospital.  She is an angel baby.  She slept at night great, only waking up a couple of times to eat and then going right back to sleep.  I had a really rough first night.  Everything had just been too easy, something had to be hard, right?  They asked me to get up and go to the bathroom and that's when things took a turn for the not-so-good.  I could still barely feel my legs, but I could feel enough!  I was in a lot of pain and feeling tons of pressure.  The nurses came in and started right to work. They got me on all sorts of IV things and helped everything stay calm.  Looking back now, they handled it SO good!  I was hemorrhaging a bit and was WAY swollen. They were so calm and took great care of me.  Later, when I was feeling a lot better, a different nurse mentioned that I had hemorrhaged a little and some panic set in.  People!  That is something women die from!  But no, they didn't use that term at the time and it made all the difference.  Now, everything is totally fine and I'm feeling a lot better!  Thank goodness for nurses who know just what to do!  All of our nurses the whole time were really good!  I was lucky in that area!

Friday morning we were in a rush to get home!  We really wanted to be out of there at 8:00 so that we would have time to get ready for Nate's commissioning ceremony at 10:00.  Talk about a rushed day!  Read on to post #2 for the details on that if you'd like!

Philosophy On Life

     So I've been thinking a lot lately about family and how important it is.  Obviously our little family is growing and that is cause for celebration and contemplation.  I am so excited to have this Lil Miss come into our lives!  But on top of that there has been a lot of different things going on in our extended families.  It has been great to see how much love and support there is.  Nate and I are both so lucky to have been born into the families that we got!  Family is important.  And as I've been thinking so much about family, I keep thinking about my Grandpa Hyde.  A few years before he passed away my parents gave him a jar of questions, things that we would all want to know about him.  Some of them were playful, entertaining questions, and others were deep, meaningful questions.  He answered one a day in a notebook and after he passed away it was a great treasure to us all.  The question that perhaps ended up meaning the most was "What is your philosophy on life?"  He answered that question better than any of us could have hoped and his answer has become somewhat of a family motto.  So I thought I'd share, because I've been thinking about it so much lately and I think we all need this reminder!

Life

Life is pretty simple.  There are only two priorities: one is things and the other people.  People are always more important than things.  Some things are more important than others: i.e. education, food and shelter; but things are never as important as people.  

Now for mortals - some people are more important than others.  In order, they are spouse, children, grandchildren, brothers and sisters, cousins, aunts and uncles, neighbors, ward members, church members.

If you never put things above people and never put less important people ahead of the important people, you won't go wrong.

It's a lot easier to like people you don't live with, but that does not change the formula.  Almost all problems happen when you put things or less important people ahead of the most important people.

Money, pride, honor, power, and houses are just things.  You kids take care of one another, I know you will take care of your children, God makes that easy.  Remember: People then things.  Your people are more important than other people's people.  

~Ed Hyde

So there it is.  To all my people, I love you, I hope you know that and never forget it!

Gettin Ready for Lil Miss

The last couple months have been a lot of fun!  We have been able to spend a lot of time with family and we have been doing some fun things to get ready for the baby!  We loved spending the weekend in Kaysville for  General Conference.  I have had two awesome baby showers, one from Nate's family and one from my Mom's side of our family and we were so blessed with all sorts of wonderful gifts!  We have amazing families!  I still have one more shower to go, with my Dad's side of the family, and I am so excited!  It is such a fun time of life!

I decided that I wanted to make everything for the nursery for Lil Miss!  I have been workin my little tail off to get all sorts of sewing projects done, but they are finally complete!  Here's a little peek at what I've done!

We scored a free carseat from our Sister-in-Laws friend who had twins!  Thanks Katie!!  Nate saw a carseat one day when we were out and about that was covered in Minky and he thought it was way cool.  So he "encouraged" me to cover ours!  It turned out better than I expected and I am excited that it will keep Lil Miss warm up here in the Frozen Tundra!

This is one of my favorites of everything I made!!  I accidentally didn't buy enough fabric for it so I freaked out and panicked (As I always do when crafting!!)  and then it ended up cuter than it would have been if I bought enough of the gray flowers!  I love the stripe and the little trim I found!  I bought the pattern here and it was great, so easy to follow and so cute!

Everyone says Boppy Pillows are a must!  But they are so expensive!  So I found a pattern and this ended up being the quickest and easiest thing I made!

I made this fantastic nursing cover (Nate refers to it as the Hooter Hider) that has a hidden pocket on the inside!  Sorry bout the wrinkles... everything is a bit of a mess right now!

Next comes the crib bedding!!  I am obsessed with this stuff!!  I made sheets that were so simple and will match better than anything I could have found in a store, a ruffled crib skirt that almost put me over the edge (HUGE shout out to the Gammy-to-Be, my sweet momma helped SO much with this and kept me from throwing my sewing machine at the wall), the circle quilt turned out better than I could have thought!  I was so nervous to tackle the quilt because I have never done anything like that before and I am such a perfectionist when it comes to crafts!!  But I did it all by myself and I am SO pleased with the results!  Hopefully Lil Miss will love it for many years to come!  I also made crib bumpers, but forgot to snap a picture of them!  I was so nervous about them because of the piping, but it was much easier than I expected!  I didn't think I liked them at all, which I was way bummed about, but once I got everything done I loved them!  It was a lot of work to do all of that, but I loved it!  I am so happy that Lil Miss will have all these cute things that no one else has!  I love the colors and it is exactly what I wanted!  Nate is just happy to have the kitchen back.  It was a long couple months as it doubled as a craft room!  He is such a trooper and will be a great Daddy!

Over the weekend we got to go pick up our crib!!  I was extremely excited to say the least!  The crib makes everything feel real.  We picked out the one we wanted months ago, but decided to wait until things got a little closer before buying it.  (Huge THANKS to Nate's parents for helping out with the crib!! This baby is spoiled already!)

Last night for Family Night we put it all together!!  It was a really fun night!  The only time in our whole lives we get to set-up our first baby's crib!  Yay for first time parents!!  Nate keeps laughing at me but I want to remember all these little moments.  So here it is!!

I am so happy with how it all turned out!  I absolutely love it and I can't wait to lay Lil Miss in her adorable bed!  Nate even said "cute" in our dinner prayer when thanking Heavenly Father for our blessings to be able to do all this!  We truly have been so so blessed.  I keep waiting for something to not go just perfect because that is how it has been all along!  But we just keep sitting back in amazement at how many blessings we are receiving.  Big thanks to all the family who have helped us get ready for our baby and many more thanks to a loving Heavenly Father who sees fit to bless us so abundantly!

We've got just over six weeks to go and are getting more excited every day!  I keep waiting for one of us to feel nervous but we haven't yet.  I'm sure it will be overwhelming and hard, but we are not nervous!  I am still feeling pretty darn good!  I truly have been a lucky one as far as pregnancies go!  There are definitely times when it is hard or uncomfortable (and let's be honest, I have definitely had my share of ridiculous meltdowns!!), but I'll take it!!  Nothing beats the feeling of my Lil Miss moving inside of me!  And I can't wait to hold her and feel her on the OUTSIDE of me!!  Yay for babies!!

**I hope I gave credit where credit was due for all the patterns and How-To's!

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Tuesday Nate and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary!  Time flies when you are having fun!  We have had a great two years and it is fun to sit back and reminisce.

We went to Park City last weekend to enjoy some time away!  We went shopping at the Outlets and got a few fun things for Lil Miss!

Yes, I will encourage Lil Miss to have a swimsuit fettish just like her Mama!  Gotta start 'em young!

 We went to dinner at a yummy little Italian restaurant on Main Street and enjoyed a delicious carmel apple. It was really nice to have some time to just relax and not worry about anyone else's schedule or getting to work or anything like that.  It seems like lately we have been rushing from here to there none stop so it was great to just chill!

Our actual anniversary did not go so well... Monday night we went over to Tremonton to our nephew's violin recital.  Nate's brother-in-law asked if we wanted any corn and my mom and I had been wanting to do freezer corn so we decided to go for it.  Literally.  We picked 30 dozen ears of corn.  That is 360 ears of corn!  It BARELY fit in the trunk of the Mousetrap.

The corn was nice and ripe so we didn't want to leave it for too long so we decided it would be best if we headed right to Kaysville to shuck it and cut it off the cob.  We didn't get there until about 9:30 and it was just about midnight when we finished.  We were pulling out of the driveway at 12:01 when my Momma said "Oh and Happy Anniversary!"

We started driving and were talking about two years ago being the night before our wedding. Nate asked how I slept that night and I told him I slept just fine. He said he slept dang good too, neither of us was nervous at all.

So we were just cruising along chatting like we always do (seems like we make that drive way too much!).  I tend to put my feet up on the dashboard when we are in the car for a long time but this time for some reason when we were in about Ogden area Nate told me I should put my feet down.  I looked at him kind of confused and he said "If we got in an accident that would mess you up."  So down my feet went.

It was getting really late and we were both tired but Nate wanted to keep talking so he didn't get too sleepy. As much as the drive can be long and boring, I also sometimes love it.  We don't get much time to just sit and talk together so I enjoy it.  We were talking about anything and everything, just pluggin' along. When we   were about half way through the canyon, I started thinking to myself We are going to hit a deer, I know we are going to hit a deer.  I just felt like we have driven through so many times it was inevitable at some point.

Sure enough.  We hit a deer.

It was running straight towards us, not from the side or anything.  We didn't see it until it was about ten feet in front of us and Nate didn't have time to hit the breaks or anything.  Luckily it was a relatively small deer.  It took out that huge chunk of the bumper and thank goodness went under the mousetrap instead of through the windshield.  We were both a bit shaken up, but kept driving for a ways.  Nate decided it would be a good idea to pull over and get a police report for the insurance.  Once we pulled over it hit me and I was so shakey.  Nate kept telling me to calm down but I just kept seeing the deer running into us and thinking of all the bad things that could have happened. I am so grateful that the airbags didn't go off or that none of the other possible things happened.  We were truly being watched out for.  I know that our Heavenly Father takes care of us and keeps us safe!  I know that Nate was prompted to tell me to put my feet down, just in case. And I was prepared for the shock of things, even if I still did get a little freaked out.

We got home much later than we would have liked and then couldn't go to sleep we were so wired!  We spent the morning of our anniversary driving a stinky (awfully stinky) Mousetrap around to some repair shops.  It's a goner!  No more Mousetrap.  To all the neighbors who have had to look at and smell the rotting deer splattered across the front of the car, I am truly sorry!  Every time we have to walk out there, I gag!  Hopefully it will get towed off today!

Not exactly the way we would have liked to spend our anniversary, but it will definitely be one to remember!!  And I am glad for the experience to help us realize that Heavenly Father is always there.  He never forgets us, especially in our times of need.  He knows what is best.  I don't know what I would do without that knowledge, it gives me such peace and comfort!

The Best Place on Earth

A couple of weeks ago we got to go to Lake Powell with my family!  This is the vacation we look forward to most every year.  I don't understand why some people have never been!  I have been pretty much every year of my entire life and I am so glad that I married someone who understands the greatness and loves it just as much as us!  Lake Powell is beautiful and so much fun!

Although it was a really fun trip, it was also a little bit of a National Lampoon's type thing!  It started out just great, we all rode down together and Momma Hyde had put together a really fun game of everyone's top 5ish favorite songs which we had to listen to and guess who's song it was.  It made the long drive so much faster and we loved it!  Things took a turn for the not-so-great when we started setting up camp and Nate asked me where my bag was... That's never a good thing to hear!  I could have sworn I saw him walk out with it, but apparently, he did not.  And thus, the bag was left in Kaysville. Fab-u-lous.  Luckily, my aunt and uncle +kids were coming down a couple days later so they could bring it to me.  Until then, I got to wear all sorts of great things!  I have always made fun of Nate for wearing "Junior High Shirts" (nasty t-shirts with the sleeves cut off).  What did I get to wear?  Nasty Junior High Shirts.  And men's spandex short shorts (I'll let you just imagine how great that was!).  I was lookin good to say the least!!  I also didn't have any hair elastics to pull back the mess, so I enjoyed a lovely hat, also courtesy of my wonderful hubby!

Now ain't that just the cutest couple you ever did see??

We had a really fun few days, despite the bag being lost!  Dressing like a 14-year old boy was a once in a lifetime opportunity, so I decided to just grab life by the horns and enjoy it!  (Well... maybe not enjoy it, but at least tolerate it pleasantly!)  

Such an artist

Since Nate had surgery in May and I take hard falls, we decided this was the summer of no water sports for the Griffin's.  We let Nate stretch it a little and surfed since there isn't much risk of getting your shoulder yanked.  He had a blast and loved Brady for his "ballast" :)

He also likes to show off his nice legs while surfing

It was so much fun to have the Nixon's come with us for a few days!  Their kids had never been and Brady and Steph hadn't been for much too long.  Unfortunately they have had a couple bad experiences, and I'm not sure this one turned out much better!  They brought down both sets of keys to their van, just in case they locked the key inside... then accidentally locked BOTH keys inside.  OOPS!!  

Who needs a Slim Jim when you have marshmallow roasters?

Without too much trouble they were able to break into the van and I don't think I have ever seen Brady so happy! I believe his exact words were, "Oh Nate I'm so happy I could kiss you."  Uh... let's just stick with thanks!

Even though there were a few bumps in the road it was still a great trip to Powell!  But when you love it as much as we do, is there such thing as a bad trip to Powell?  I think not!

Life is Good

I always thought it would be fun to have a blog, but I never thought our life was quite exciting enough for anyone to want to read about!  But, now that things are getting a bit more exciting around here I think it's time to keep our family and friends who we don't see regularly up to date on the goings on of our life!

So for today let's just catch up!

Nate is currently doing an internship at JBS, a meat packing plant in Hyrum.  It is right up his alley and he has been enjoying it so far!  Me, not so much!  He comes home smelling like dead cows... not the greatest!  However, we got really lucky that he scored this internship.  Not lucky, blessed.  Things like that don't just happen and it is the perfect internship for him right now.  He also did classes at USU for the first couple months of summer, but now he gets to sit back and "enjoy" just working!  He will go back to school the very end of August for his last semester before he graduates!  He will get his degree in Business Entrepreneurship (which I can NEVER spell without the help of spellcheck!).  We are also very excited that in December he will commission as a Second Lieutenant in the Army upon completion of the USU ROTC program.  He has worked really hard toward this and it is fun to see the light at the end of the tunnel!  Well, the end that is really just the beginning.  But who doesn't love new beginnings??

I am currently working at Logan River Academy where I am a shift supervisor/adolescent counselor.  I seriously love my job. Most of the time anyway!  It can get stressful and overwhelming sometimes, but for the most part it is so rewarding.  I just graduated in May from Utah State University with my degree in Sociology.  I am so glad I finally settled on this major because it was so interesting to me!  I toyed a lot with different ideas (such as math and accounting) and finally decided to pick something that would keep me entertained and interested, instead of bored but "smart".  I am so glad I did!  I learned a lot of great things that will benefit my life a lot more than knowing how to do all sorts of ridiculous equations.

I had a lot of love and support along the way to graduation and I am so grateful for my amazing family and also for the great family I married into!  They are all so fantastic!  I was really excited to have so many of them come up to my graduation ceremony. Even more so because Nate and I wanted to make the day even more special by announcing to our loved ones that we are adding a little one to the mix!  We lined everyone up for a big group picture and said "1,2,3, say 'Lyndsey's pregnant!!'" At first, no one really reacted (and the poor lady taking our picture was SO confused!!), but then they all realized we were serious and everyone burst with excitement!  Some wonderful stranger was able to capture some pictures for us, which will be fun to look back on in years to come!

My brother was so surprised!  He'll be a great uncle :)

I love my Grandma Carole's face in this one! She just looks so happy

The whole gang who came to support me!  My fam accidentally all wore yellow, not planned at all!

It was truly a great day!  I am glad to be done with school, but I don't think it has really sunk in yet, I think it will once Nate goes back for Fall Semester and I am just kickin it at home still!
We are still living in Logan, for now!  We are hoping to move back to Davis County in December.  December is going to be a really crazy time, that's for sure!  Nate will graduate and commission, we hope to move, Christmas, and of course. Lil Miss is due on December 14th!  Except we really hope she comes on the 12th!  Because then her birthday would be 12/12/12, which is awesome!  Even better because my birthday is 9/9/90, it just needs to happen!!
We found out last week we are having a baby GIRL!  Well we sort of  found out last week.  We really found out on June 20th, but had to keep it a secret for a month because I was only 14 weeks when the doctor told us he was 90% sure we would have a girl.  Talk about a hard secret to keep!!  There were so many times I wanted to just scream it to the world, but I refrained!  We had an ultrasound on July 23rd that confirmed she is DEFINITELY a girl, and not scared to show it!  We decided we wanted to do something fun to announce the gender to our families because we had a some feuds going on!  My mom was CERTAIN the baby is a girl, and Nate's mom thought she was a boy, and Nate has a funny little fear of girls (he thinks they are dramatic and high-maintenance... not sure where that came from!!) so he was guessing boy.  A phone call to everyone just wouldn't do!  So...

We got our families together and put them into "teams" of who thought boy and who thought girl and then we made them count a whole jar of jelly beans!  There were about 3 more pink jelly beans in each jar. I am really mad that I got caught up in all the excitement and forgot to take pictures of the actual counting!  It was a mad dash.  The "girl" team finished first and my cute momma started jumping up and down and running in circles.  She was thrilled!  She was so certain she was right she had already bought Lil Miss a present.

Her first boots!  Stinkin' cute!!!

I asked her if she had a back-up plan and she said no, she was certain she was right! Good thing she was!  It was such a fun night.  All of Nate's sibling who live close were able to come (and we really missed Brandon and Carolyn), my brother and his wife came up, and Nate's "second family", the Law's also all were able to come.  We are so lucky to have such a great family!  I love them all.  We had a barbeque and did some swimmin and talked all about babies!  Jared and Katie are expecting their 2nd in November and Amy is having twins in just a couple weeks so there was plenty of pregnancy/baby talk goin around!  I am so excited that our baby will have other little ones to play with!  

Life is so good right now.  We have been incredibly blessed and I can't wait to see what adventures come in the future for us!  

Whew!  Sorry that was about the longest update ever!