Thanksgiving with the Griffitts

We have so much to be Thankful for and we had such a great Thanksgiving. It was the first Thanksgiving we had been home for four years. Tawni and Ryan were able to come up and celebrate with us. We sure felt the hole that was there by the absence of the Zastrow Family and Tyler, but it was good to reflect on all of our blessings. We had Steve and Marilyn and Randy and Wendy over for dinner. Then we went to a movie. Afterwards, we went to Grandma Shar's for dessert. It was nice to hang out.

Tawni is half way through her pregnancy and her little belly is starting to grow. We are so excited for another little Grandson!

Tawni, Sandy and Jessie

Tawni and Ryan at the Resort on Friday night. I think we have found a new tradition. We went downtown about four o'clock and ate at Dockside and then we were able to just step outside in the back to watch the fireworks. We had a great spot to sit and had an excellent view.

Jessie, Aiden and Brad. Aiden loved the fireworks. His eyes were as big as saucers the whole time.

Fun at the Resort

Our family at the Resort. We were missing so many of our family members! We were thankful that Tawni and Ryan were able to come celebrate with us.

Lyle and Darbye.

Brotherly love!!!!

Lyle, Darbye, Marilyn and Steve

Jessie, Aiden and Brad

Watching the Fireworks!

Here are Lyle, Darbye, Ryan and Tawni waiting for the fireworks to start. We were so lucky, because it rained most of the morning and then in the afternoon the clouds lifted and it was a beautiful, clear night with no wind. Ryan and Jessie had never been in Coeur d'Alene for the Christmas celebration, so we were happy to share this with them.

This is such a cute picture of Marilyn and Steve. Thanks for not only being related to us, but for being our friends! We love you guys!

This picture was taken at Grandma Shar's after the fireworks. Aiden and Mylie hanging out. They are so cute!

Little Em!

These boys are so cute and they really love their sister.

We loved that the boys would always call Emily "Little Em". Whenever Emy would try to take something away from Atlas, or cry, or whatever she did.....they would say"NO LITTLE EM!!!" She is definately spoiled.

Extra Kentucky Pictures

Here are some stray pictures that Tawni had on her camera from our trip to Kentucky. This was a BBQ place that we went to for dinner on the night of my birthday. The food was ok, and we forgot that in Kentucky certain counties still allowed smoking in the restaraunt. Luckily, the company was awesome!

When Coen was in school one day we took Emy and Atlas to Build-a-Bear to get stuffed animals. Coen already has a bear named Hayden, so Emy got a kitty named 'KIKI' and Atlas got a very brightly colored bear named "Ronald McDonald". He knows what he likes.......what can we say. We figured Atlas would pick out a bear that would stand out. We had so much fun helping them put them together.

We put voice boxes in the animals that Alan and I had recorded our voices into. I have to say that after five minutes of listening to our voices that I was sick our ourselves, but they will always be able to here our voices when we aren't there. We did end up telling Atlas that the batteries would wear out if he pushed the box too many times, so it did get less annoying.

Tawni and Ryan are having a BOY!

Tawni and Ryan had their ultrasound today and found out that they are having a boy!!! We are so excited for them. Everything looks good and she is still due April 19th. Almost half way there. We look forward to seeing our next little grandchild!

Our Missionary is on His way!

This was the last picture that we got of Tyler when we dropped him off at the MTC. We drove up and there were about 100 missionaries standing on the sidewalk greeting us. It was a little overwhelming for me....I am not sure how Tyler felt because it all happened so fast. They opened our door, Tyler got out, Alan grabbed the suitcases out of the truck and they started to whisk him away. I made sure to stop him long enough to take this picture and give him a big hug before he walked away. As we drove off Alan said he tried to look back and see if he could see him, but he had just blended in with all the other missionaries and dark suits. I did shed a few tears, but we know that Tyler was ready and that we wouldn't want him to be doing anything different than going on a mission right now. We are so proud of Tyler and his decision to serve a mission!!!

Here is a picture of President Reynolds, Elder Griffitts, Uncle Steve and Alan the night that Tyler got set apart as a missionary. We were able to stay at the Gerrard's the night before Tyler went into the MTC and he was able to see Matthew also. It was a great last evening together and we thank everyone for helping to get Tyler to where he is. We will miss him, but are so excited for him. His first email to us was very positive and he sounds like he really likes his companion (who is a 220 lb. football player). Right away they had sports in common.