The Griffith Family Blog: November 2014

Thanksgiving 2014

We had a great Thanksgiving this year! My cousin Kristina and her family made the long drive down from Michigan to spend some time with us! We did a ton of activities around Atlanta and had a wonderful Thanksgiving feast!

The table setting...

A close up of the place setting with our wedding china, my grandparents' sterling silver and Ellasen's hand written place cards.

While the food was cooking we made a little kid friendly dessert! The kids had fun making little turkeys!

Finally Ready to eat! I didn't get a great picture because all the kids were ready to dig in, but the food was great!

Thanksgiving night we took a trip down to Stone Mountain to see all the Christmas lights! We rode the sing-a-long train and played in the great barn! It was beautiful (but cold)!

Friday we took a trip to the World of Coke Museum in Atlanta. We learned all about the history of Coke and got to taste all the different flavors from around the world. Afterwards we walked around Centennial Olympic Park home of the 1996 Olympics. We topped off that outing with a trip to The Varsity (an Atlanta staple) for lunch.

On Saturday we split up a little. Ellasen, Sofi, Kristina and I went to Cabbage Patch World Babyland General Hospital in Cleveland, GA. It is basically a big store that sells Cabbage Patch dolls and accessories, but they also have all the staff dressed as nurses, a giant tree that "births" Cabbage Patch babies, a nursery where you can watch the babies get their first checkup, and tons of other cute little touches. You can actually pick (literally PICK) your baby out of a head of cabbage, name him or her and take an oath of adoption. The girls were beside themselves!

A Cabbage Patch baby being born

The girls with their babies

While the girls were at Cabbage Patch World the boys went to the North Georgia Zoo. This zoo is super interactive, and I think the boys had a lot of fun. We met up with them after lunch, and we got to tag along for the pony rides!

Last goodbyes

We forgot to break the wishbone before our company left so Ellasen and Tim did it! Ellasen won!

We had a great time over the holiday weekend, and we were so thankful to have family in town to celebrate with us! We loved showing off our "new" state, and I am so glad the little cousins are building lifelong bonds like the parent cousins have with each other! I know we have many more good times ahead!

Ellasen's 5th Birthday Celebrations

Well, our big girl turned five the other day, and we celebrated over a few days! The morning of her birthday I put a number 5 candle in her cinnamon rolls to kick the morning off right!

Her birthday was on Friday so I made cupcakes and treat bags for all her friends and teachers at school.

We had Ellasen's favorite dinner that night and a special giant cupcake just for her. We opened a few presents and talked to the grandparents.

Saturday was Ellasen's party! We went to Monkey Joe's which is a big warehouse full of bounce castles, slides and obstacle courses. Bouncy houses are Ellasen's favorite thing in the world, and she has no fear of even the biggest ones so we knew this would be perfect. We reserved a party room and after jumping for an hour we had pizza, apples and yogurt for lunch. Then we sang happy birthday and ate some more cupcakes! Presents were next and then it was back to the bouncy houses for a few more minutes of jumping!

Party Room Set Up

It was hard to get a good picture of her she was moving so fast!

All the friends having pizza

"Happy Birthday to YOU!"

On her birthday throne

At the bottom of a slide

We had a great time celebrating this big girl and all of the joy she has given us for the last five years! Thank you to everyone who wished her a happy birthday, sent her a gift or card or came to her party! We are so lucky to have people who love this little bug as much as we do!

Ellasen is 5 Years Old!

I cannot believe that five years ago today this little bright eyed bug came into our lives! She is truly one of the kindest, sweetest and most loving kids I know. She is so smart and funny it blows me away. I am so proud to be her mom, and I am so glad her sisters have such a great example in their lives! Ellasen is in private kindergarten where she excels. She goes from 8-3 5 days a week. Her teacher's name is Ms. Winter and she says "Ellasen is an absolute joy to teach."She really takes pride in her work and in her daily reports home. She can't wait to show me everything they have been up to during the day! She also wants me to read her daily report right away, and she loves to get her homework done as soon as she gets home. I hope this continues as long as possible! Ellasen's favorite subjects are reading, writing and art, but she is gaining more and more interest in math every day. She really likes Spanish too, and she will often tell me what the Spanish word for something is when she sees it. For her birthday this year we are giving her one hour a week of gymnastics and ballet. I know she will love it. We are also going to look into some art classes for her soon. I will forever be grateful to Ellasen for making me a mommy five years ago, and I am really excited to see what this next year brings for her!

At 5 Ellasen:

*Can tie her shoes

*Can read over 100 sight words

*Can sound out many more

*Can write the whole alphabet in upper and lower case

*Can do simple addition and subtraction

*Can feed her sisters baby food or yogurt

*Loves to read and write

*Loves to sing and perform

*Loves Disney's Frozen, Doc McStuffins & Curious George

*Weighs 37 lbs

*Is 43" tall

*Sleeps from 7-7:15

*Doesn't nap

*Takes quiet time in the afternoon on the weekends

*Loves her sisters and will play with them and entertain them

*Has an amazing memory

*Can count as high as you want her to in any way you want (by 5's, 10's, backwards, etc)

*Loves pizza, chicken, spaghetti, fruit, green beans, ice cream, fish and mac & cheese

We love this girl to the moon and back, and we are so glad she belongs to us!

Eden and Everly 11 Months!

This photo shoot was a complete fail! The minute I would position one the other one would move...they were ALL over the place!

Eden and Everly are 11 months old today. I am starting to plan their first birthday party! I can't believe it has been 11 months since we had these girls. They are so sweet and special to us, and we truly can't imagine what life was like before them. They are getting more and more fun every day. I regularly find them playing and laughing together. For some reason they each think the other one is hilarious and it is pretty cute to watch. Their individual personalities are developing more and more all the time too, and it is fun to see what little people they are becoming. My goal for last month was to drop a feeding and to start offering sippy cups at at least 2 meals a day. I accomplished both! The girls go straight from breakfast to lunch with no bottle or nursing in between. I do try to offer the sippy cup at least twice a day. So far we still haven't had any luck with them actually holding it and drinking out of it. I have tried two kinds. One where they have to tip it up and one where they can use a straw. Everly is getting pretty good at using the straw, but I still have to hold the cup for her. They can both drink out of the tippy ones, but again only if I hold it. I have also tried breast milk, water and juice in the cup. I am sure we will get there soon enough, but I don't remember this being an issue with Ellasen so I am open to suggestions that have worked for you! My goals for next month are to continue to offer the sippys and to limit pacifier use to the cribs. The girls are pretty into their pacifiers (way more than Ellasen at this age) so this might be tricky, but it is time for sure. The girls have had colds for what feels like forever, and are getting tons of teeth, but they are still really happy babies for the most part. We love them to the moon and back!

Here are some things we notice about both girls:
*They wear size 3 diapers
*They wear size 12-18 month clothes
*They nap twice a day (2 hrs in the morning and 2 hrs in the afternoon)
*They sleep from 7 PM -7:30 AM)
*They eat three solid food meals a day
*They are both getting a row of top teeth all at once
*They can clap
*They can wave
*They can say mama, dada, yaya, gaga, baba and kaka
*They get super excited to see Ellasen
*They love Gunner and aren't always super gentle with him. He doesn't mind at all.
*They will reach for someone to hold them or cling to someone they don't want to put them down

Here are some things we notice about Eden:
*She is really working on strengthening her legs, arms and core through lots of tummy time. She isn't crawling yet, and we have an appointment to see a physical therapist to give us some more things to practice
*She weighs 16 lbs
*She loves to eat
*She is not a huge fan of formula or bottles
*She wakes up happy in the morning and isn't desperate for food
*She cries most when she is tired
*She has a little stranger danger. Some times she is fine and other times she will cry if a stranger even talks to her
*She loves to make noise with her mouth and by banging toys and her hands on hard surfaces
*She is a snuggler. She loves to be held and curl up into you.

Here are some things we notice about Everly:
*She is crawling and starting to pull up to her knees
*She is very independent and will go to anyone
*She weighs 17 lbs
*She wakes up starving in the morning and even changing her diaper is too long to wait
*She loves to explore the house and is always on the go
*She cries most when she is hungry
*She has no stranger danger at all
*She only likes to snuggle when she doesn't feel good
*She loves to sleep. I almost always have to wake her up.
*She loves to be chased when she is crawling
*She loves to play silly games like she will hold up her hand for you to grab or kiss and then take it away when you try. She thinks that one is particularly funny.
*She regularly tramples Eden or pulls her down, but at least once a day she will sit with her to play for a while despite the fact that I think she would rather be on the move.

These girls are two of our favorite things, and we couldn't be more proud of them!

Monthly Update November

So I will actually have quite a few posts this month I think. We have the twins monthly update, Ellasen's semi-annual update (she is turning 5!), Ellasen's birthday party post and some Thanksgiving posts. Because all of those things are separate from this post this month's monthly update might be a little sparse, but here goes!

Tim's dad came for a visit. He had never met the twins!

Grandpa with Eden and Daddy

Grandpa with Everly

Grandpa with Everly and Ellasen

Sleepy girls! It is hard to tell from this picture, but they are asleep exactly the same way

Everly...sound asleep. She will sleep anywhere

Eden Cutie

I put winter hats on the girls and they couldn't stop looking at each other!
"What's that on your head?!"

My grandma gave me her set of English tea cups and saucers. I grew up taking them all out of the box and matching them with their saucers. It is a very special memory for me and she wanted me to have them! Ellasen and I got them all out the other day to play. She enjoyed it as much as I did when I was a kid.

We had a date night to a place called Top Golf. It is a driving range with targets that you try to hit for points. Think ski ball/bowling/driving range. There is a high top table behind every tee and they serve really good food and adult beverages. We had a GREAT time!

Tim lining up his shot

My friend Melissa...she is 7 months pregnant!

I wanted a piece of art above the couch in our upstairs living room, but I couldn't find anything I liked so I painted this. I am no artist, but I like it!