Holiday Fun and Adventurous Travels

As Brad mentioned we went down to Salt Lake City for Christmas this year and got to stay at my sister's new house. My sister, Katie, is now less than a month away from her due date!! She is going to have a little baby girl named Alice Cameron Stanger. I am so excited for her and I cannot wait to see my new little niece. I am amazed how I come to love Aiden more and more everyday. Every day there are moments where I just feel overwhelming joy at watching him grow, learn, and show such unconditional love and such pure innocence. Being a mother is the most wonderful thing to experience. So, I cannot wait for Katie to have these same moments and opportunities with her little girl.

I got a little side tracked...haha.....So Christmas was so much fun with my sisters and my Mom and my little brother. The girls did a lot of shopping and we played a lot of Cashflow and watched a lot of movies together. (Cashflow is a board game that we discovered is lots of fun!) It went by so fast! 5 days was not enough time together. Aiden got a jolly jumper from Grandma Lucy and he loves it! :) He has always been a big jumper and loves to bounce so this was a perfect gift for him.

We came back to Coeur d'Alene for New Years and we had fun playing Bunko with the whole Griffitts clan. Brad's best friends Mike and Chris were in town and we had tons of fun hanging out with them and catching up. Brad and I both also saw the movie Avatar twice :) It is a fantastic movie and we highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it yet.

Brad and I were pretty happy to look back on our New Year's goals for 2009 that we accomplished. Brad got into medical school!! This was our #1 goal and we were so happy that we are going to Kentucky this summer. Some of our other goals included preparing for Aiden's arrival and that also went well and we are so blessed to have him. Another one was also for Brad to graduate from BYU in Mechanical Engineering, which also came to fruition. All in all this year has been such a wonderful year full of many many blessings. We are excited for what is in store for 2010.

After New Year's I went to New Jersey to visit my best friend, Alison, who I grew up with. I hadn't seen her since my wedding so it was fun to see her and her family again. We did a lot of shopping together. One shopping excursion was at the Shore Hills Mall, a very ritzy mall with TONS of stores. It has all the designer stores like Gucci, Dolce and Gabbana, Neiman Marcus, etc., but it had lots of other stores too that I love such as Anthropologie. I love that store! I got to see New York City for the first time, although it was a pretty quick little drive through the city because it was too cold with Aiden to walk around outside. We also went and visited Alison's school Franklin & Marshall. I got to meet a few of her friends and co-workers and we went to a really yummy Indian restaurant. The last day there Alison and I got pedicures together. It was a really fun trip! Before leaving I was really stressed out about the plane ride out there and back all by myself with Aiden, but Aiden was SO good. I found out that he is a really good traveler. I could tell that I was being looked after on my trip. It was such a blessing that everything worked out so perfectly. (Pictures and video will be coming...I need to download all of them still)

Now we are just settling down after the Holidays and all our traveling. Nothing much else to report. In a few months my brother Tim is getting married in San Antonio, Texas and that will be our next trip :) I am excited to get the chance to see all of my family again and I am so happy for Tim and Ruthi. That is all the news for now. Hopefully we will be better about posting the next while. We love all of you guys!

Christmas with Aiden

This Christmas Jessie, Aiden, and I were able to meet up with Jessie's family down in Salt Lake City. Jessie's sister, Katie, and her husband just built a new house, so we went there and met up with her mom, brother James, and sister Amy. We had a great time, and enjoyed being with family. I 'll let Jessie fill you all in on the details. One of the great little gifts that Jessie and I got ourselves was a baby backpack for Aiden. We figured we could really use it while walking around in the airports and such. On our way back we were all exhausted from the week, including little Aiden. The poor guy couldn't take it any longer and ended up falling asleep before we boarded...then of course he woke up just before the flight and was wired the entire time. Great timing. We love him so much. We hope you all had a great Christmas!

And the Griffitts are going to...

The University of Kentucky! Brad just found out today that he got accepted into medical school at the University of Kentucky!! The doctor who interviewed him last weekend was the one who called him and gave him the news. He told Brad that he and the entire admissions committee enthusiastically wanted him to attend their school. We are so happy and excited. Brad LOVED it there when he went to the interview last weekend. It is a beautiful campus, he loved the faculty, and Brad's sister Meagan and her family live there :) School will start the beginning of August so we will probably leave for Kentucky pretty soon after the Fourth of July this coming summer.

I am so proud of Brad. He has worked so hard to get to this point and we are just one step closer to achieving our goal. It is such a relief to know that Brad will not have to apply or re-apply next year to any schools. We are so glad to not be in limbo anymore and have a life plan in view. We are so blessed that he was accepted to our number one school. It is amazing to see the Lord's hand in every step of our lives. We are so excited to get to Kentucky and start the next part of the journey! Thank you for everyone's support and prayers.

Aiden's First Halloween

Aiden had his first Halloween and his first little Halloween outfit. We found this jack-0-lantern outfit at the store a month or so ago and had to get it. We figured it would be perfect for him. When we put it on him, though, it was way too small for him, even though it was supposed to be his size. The poor kid's legs were all crunched up inside the bag and the hood wouldn't fit over his head. We made him stay in it for 15 minutes and set him free after some complaining. At least we got some pictures in. That night we went over to the Astin's for a small little party. Thank you Astin's. We had a lot of fun.

In other updates, Tyler officially enters the MTC tomorrow. He, Mom, and Dad left yesterday and headed down to Provo to say their goodbyes and get in one last trip. We are going to miss him, but know he is doing what is best and know he will be a great missionary. We'll miss you, Tyler!

We were able to get Aiden to laugh on camera the other night. We are so blessed to have him in our lives.

Lots To Tell

It has been quite a while since we have posted and lots has happened! First of all, Brad turned 25 on September 4th. It happened to be the weekend we made a trip down to Utah. Since it was Labor Day weekend Brad had an extra day off work so we figured we had better take advantage. So we were in the car for half of his birthday, but when we got to Logan, where his sister Tawni lives, she had his favorite cake waiting for him. It was so sweet of her to make it at the last minute :) Thanks Tawni we love you! And then that night we went to my sister's house in Salt Lake and he got a second birthday dessert there too :) I got him some books he has been wanting to read and also the new Taylor Swift CD. We are both big fans of her music. And then the day after his birthday, on Saturday, we went out to eat for his birthday dinner at a pizza place. Our trip was tons of fun. It was nice to be able to visit friends and family that we have really missed since we moved from Utah. It was kind of crazy jumping from one place to another because we wanted to fit in as many visits as possible, but it was definitely worth it! Everyone finally got see the baby and he was super good for the entire trip.And since getting back to Coeur d'Alene he got a late birthday dinner as well and his mom got him a new suit. So, his birthday definitely got to be extended, which is fun :)

The second big news is that Brad got an interview at Drexel University's medical school. It was on September 21st and it went well! A BIG BIG thanks to Trevor and Tamar for letting him stay at their house in Phillie so Brad didn't have to pay for a hotel. Thanks you guys! He had a faculty interview then a student interview and he thinks both went well. He also liked Phillie although it would be a big change for both of us to live so close to a such a big city. He was very honored to be in the very first rounds of interviews and he is hoping that he will hear back from them sometime in October (with good news of course). He has yet to hear from the other medical schools he has applied to, but right now no news is still good news. We are excited to see what other schools he hears back from!

The third piece of good news is that Aiden will be 3 months on Friday October 2nd! He is so big now and his personality is really starting to come out! He smiles all the time and in the last few weeks he has also started to laugh :) It is so cute. We will have to see if we can get it on camera. Just yesterday he laughed from being tickled for the first time. He is also very strong and can stand while we hold just his hands and when we lay him on his tummy he can lift his head really high off the ground. Also, one of his favorite things is his bath! He gives a huge smile when we first put him in the water and then he splashes and squeals the whole time. He is so adorable and I am so happy and lucky to be his mom. He now sleeps in his crib and he sleeps from about 9 or 10 p.m. until 4 or 5 a.m., which is wonderful! Although, of course, he occasionally has his bad nights when he gets gassy and wakes up more often than that.

That is all the news for now! We are happy fall is here and are excited to continue to see Aiden grow and to see where Brad will get accepted to medical school :) We love you all!

Aiden and his cute fall sweater.

Aiden in his cute Sunday clothes.

Cameron, my brother-in-law, with Aiden.

Brad blowing out his candles on his delicious apple birthday dessert.

I just thought Brad's face was cute and funny in this picture.

We Captured the Elusive Aiden Smile!

It finally happened! We successfully captured on film Aiden's big smile. He has been smiling this big for a couple of weeks now, but just couldn't get it on the camera. He makes all sorts of cooing and funny noises when he smiles like this, but still no laughing. It seems like he's really close to letting all the laughs out though. We are really looking forward to that day, and when that happens, there will be a video on here. Anyway, we thought we'd share some of these great pictures with everyone.

We just thought this one was too funny not to put up.
This one and the next show his big smile. We absolutely love it. Plus, it helped pass the time during Stake Conference today. :)

Gigi loves this picture. He's smiling and cooing. Great!
So Jessie was trying to get him to sleep in the rocking chair. I don't know how he was able to fall asleep with his head cocked to the side like that, but he was out after a few minutes. He always smiles a little bit when he falls asleep. Like everything else, we love it. :)