School's Out!

Now that I am finally on Winter Break, I have a chance to catch up on what we have been up to. I just finished fall term with only 12 credits and it was definitely hard to squeeze in enough time to study and get homework done. Luckily, my mom was able to watch Griffey most of the time when I was in class and my dad and Lisa helped out a bunch too.

Next term will definitely be a lot tougher because I am taking 16 credits, doing a practicum (observing in a classroom), and tutoring at a middle school. Also, I have to take classes earlier in the day and haven't quite figured out what I am going to do with Griffey. I am starting to get a little worried about how busy and stressful next term will be, but for right now I am just going to enjoy my winter break!

Although this Christmas is going to be a bit different, I am still excited to do all the traditional holiday things, especially for Griffey's sake. We went and saw Santa at the mall and Griffey has been dressing up festively.



I also had a Christmas party to try to get in the Holiday spirit. I had a lot of fun decorating for it. I used four rolls of white streamers and lots of white balloons to make it a winter wonderland. I even had crafts set up for the kids. Everyone brought really good food too. It was pretty fun and I think everyone enjoyed it. I get really nervous when I am in charge of something like a party because I really want everyone to enjoy it. That's partly why I had a party-to face my fears! I forgot to take pictures until the very end, so I only have a couple and some people had already left. Oh, and we didn't let the boys in the pictures! haha


Hopefully Adam will be able to enjoy his Christmas even though he isn't where he wants to be. I sent him a couple packages and I know some other people did too. We are very grateful for our family and friends and the support they have been giving us, especially Adam, throughout this year and this holiday season. I bet it is so hard for Adam being so far away from family and friends, especially this time of year, and I have so much admiration and respect for him because he is being so brave and strong through all of this.

Happy Veteran's Day

Happy Veteran's Day! I am so thankful and proud of all the veterans, especially my husband, for serving so selflessly for all of us. I love you Adam and I am very grateful that you are my husband and the role model and father of our child.

Christmas For Adam

For anyone wanting to send Adam a Christmas present or card, you should know that it takes a few weeks for the mail to get to him so you should start thinking about it soon.

I know he would appreciate just a simple card or letter telling about what you have been up to. He would appreciate hearing happy stories from family and friends.

If you are wanting to send a package, you can get a flat-rate box from the post office for pretty cheap and fill it with goodies that would remind him of home.

You can just do an internet search on what soldiers like to receive or email him and ask him. He likes movies, music, snacks, puzzle books, and things to remind him of home. He loves Big League Chew and other bubble gum.

Let me know if you need help figuring out what to do for him and really, just a simple card or letter would make him very happy!

Halloween!

This Halloween, Griffey was fortunate enough to participate in many photo shoots! We love taking pictures of him and I think he is starting to understand that he is going to have to endure many photo sessions in his life, so he puts up with us and the camera.

We can already tell that Griffey loves candy just like me!
He was in shock with all his choices laying right out in front of him!

Griffey dressed up as a sock monkey for Halloween. He loves sock monkeys. My mom made him one that lays in his crib with him. Griffey hasn't named it yet. Here he is with his sock monkey friend and the socktapus.

He loves his friend.

No Griffey! We had to teach him that it is not okay to eat one of your own!

Griffey was dressed up for Halloween and I was dressed up for the USC-Duck game. We won of course!

Makenna, Griffey, my mom, and I went to Deterings Orchard out near Coburg a few days before Halloween for Griffey's photo shoot and fresh apple cider. It was so good!

We brought this carved-out pumpkin with us. I think after all the pumpkin posing and the fact that he had to sit in the pumpkin on a couple different occasions, we may have ruined the fun of pumpkins for him. Hopefully he isn't too scarred!

This is when we knew it was time to go!

Makenna did the hay maze. I think her height may have been a slight advantage!

Griffey loves Pumpkins!

This Halloween wasn't very eventful because Adam wasn't here and it's just not the same without him, but it was still very fun to introduce Griffey to all the traditions of Halloween. He was too young to trick-or-treat, so we dressed him up and took pictures and then he hung out with Grandma while I was at the Duck game.

I am excited for next year because Griffey will be older and walking and although he won't understand Halloween or the concept of trick-or-treating, he still will be able to score us candy!

Germs

Griffey-one day old.

Sometimes I worry too much what other people think. Actually, too often I worry what other people think. I don't worry so much about what people think about me, but I worry about if people are happy and what role I am playing their happiness.

I am not the type of person to say I don't want something in order to be polite, even though I am a really dying to have it. You know? Like saying "oh no, that's okay, you have it..." when you really want it. Just say you want it. I feel like that leads to weird, unecessary resentment of silly little things. So, I feel like I do a good job of speaking my mind and standing up for what I feel is important. I don't understand the point of being passive aggressive.

With that said, I still worry to much about hurting other people's feelings. I know it is good to worry about others because it motivates you to help them, but I think too much about it. I am glad that Adam is my husband and that I can run my feelings in this realm across him because he gives me a great perspective.

I don't know if it is because he is a boy or because he is Adam, but usually when I tell him all that I am thinking about something and how I don't know if I should do this or say this because someone else might think this or do this...he always tells me to not worry about it. He says that their own feelings are on them and I am wasting my energy worrying about what they might get out of what I say or do.

It is nice being married to him, because he helps pull me back to that place when I get too caught up.

Since I have become a mom and the spokesperson for my little man, I have had to put his needs ahead of everything else. His health, happiness, and wellbeing take top priority, especially over my overworrying about what people will think.

Because of this, I have come to the conclusion that it may sound rude to ask people to act a certain way around Griffey or do things a certain way because of Griffey, but I don't care anymore. My top priority is Griffey and I hope people can see where I am coming from.

The reason I am stuck on this is because I felt rude asking people, especially adults, to wash their hands before touching Griffey. It seems weird to check up on another adult's hygeine, but it is necessary and so I will stop worrying.

I don't want Griffey to get sick, especially if it is preventable. I don't want Griffey to get sick more than I don't want to hurt other people's feelings.

Please wash your hands. Especially after going to the bathroom- that is just gross. Please cover your mouth when you cough and stay home if you are sick. Please understand how scary it is to have a newborn in this germy world, especially during flu season.

How do I politely ask someone older than me who thinks they know better than me, to wash their hands or stay far from Griffey. How do I approach other parents about telling their kids to wash their hands before touching Griffey?

Griffey's Blessing

While Adam was home on leave, we had Griffey's baby blessing at Church. Adam did a great job with the blessing and we had a bunch of family and friends come to our ward to share this experience with us.

Over the summer, I took on the project of sewing Griffey's outfit. This was a huge feat for me, because I had no idea how to sew and the ladies at Joann's Fabrics actually told me to get help and didn't believe in me. I guess I asked too many novice questions. They seemed very unsure of me.

Well, I figured it out with some help and I think I did a pretty good job!
Haylee loves Griffey and showed it with kisses after his blessing.
Grandma Booher, Uncle Fred, and Nathan made the trip from Washington. Grandma and Grandpa Dimock also came from Utah. It was great to have so much family here too meet Griffey and see Adam. We had a lot of fun catching up with everyone.

Here is Griffey in his fabulous outfit. It was supposed to have a bowtie, but I didn't quite master that in time. He still looks handsome though!

I'm glad my dad and Lisa got a picture of us all three together while Adam was home! We don't have too many, especially because Adam despises taking pictures.

My two men in their new outfits. Adam got a new suit especially for Griffey's blessing. He was due for a new one considering he got his last one for his mission, I think nine years ago.

Griffey always admires how cool his daddy is.

I am really grateful that Adam was able to give Griffey a blessing while he was here. I think it is a wonderful gift to Griffey from his daddy and I am appreciative that in preparing for his blessing, Adam and I were able to sit down together and talk about our hopes and dreams for Griffey.

Through envisioning how we want Griffey's childhood to be, we were able to see what kind of parents we want to be. The main hopes and goals we have for Griffey is that he may be happy and healthy and understand the importance of sharing his blessings with others-whether they may be his knowledge, his talent, his compassion, his testimony, his humor, or anything that he has to give.

I am grateful for what a wonderful little boy he is and I am excited I get to have him in my life forever.

Pumpkin Patch with the Girls

Last weekend, Griffey and I went to the pumpkin patch with Desi, Carlee, and Haylee. I had fun taking pictures of the girls and walking through the pumpkin patch. Here are a bunch of pictures from our trip:

Carlee thought the cows were "pumpkins." I told her to pick out which pumpkin she wanted and she pointed to the baby cow. She was saying "hi pumpkins" to the cows and was confused why we were walking around the field of orange things when we went there for the "pumpkins."

Adam's Leave

We were so happy to get to have Adam come home for two weeks. He got in on September 29 in the evening and left October 15 in the early morning. I have to admit that I was nervous about seeing him because I didn't know what it would be like. I was a little worried that I wouldn't know how to act or what to say at first and I was nervous that he would be different. I have just heard so many stories about people coming home and being way different.


I, of course, had nothing to worry about. Adam is Adam and he will always be my husband and the man I married. It was very strange seeing him at first though, because I haven't seen him in real life for six months. I am so used to seeing him through the computer that it was kind of hard to comprehend seeing him up close and right next to me.

The airport was pretty empty when Adam's plane landed, so of course everyone that was there saw us reunite and saw Adam pick up Griffey for the first time. Adam was embarrassed, so we got out of there pretty quick. Griffey was in a fussy mood when Adam arrived, so when Adam picked him up for the first time, Griffey started crying! I thought it was pretty funny.

From the airport, we went straight to the Hilton in Eugene. I booked us two nights there because I am staying at my dad's and we wanted to feel like we had our own place for a little while. The unfortunate thing is that Adam came home the day my classes started, so I was busy balancing school and homework with Adam. Of course, Adam always comes first and I was able to get my homework done while Adam was sleeping or hanging out with friends.


Here is Adam holding Griffey on the morning after he arrived. Griffey did not act like Adam was a stranger. You could tell he knew his dad. I am grateful for Skype because Adam and Griffey get to see eachother and Adam will stay very familiar to Griffey.

When I came back to the hotel from my class, Adam and Griffey were sleeping exactly the same. Even though my class was only an hour long, Adam was nervous about watching Griffey. Luckily, Griffey slept the whole time, so it was easy on Adam. It took Adam a few days to get adjusted to this time zone. At first, he wanted to go to bed at 8 or 9 and I wanted to stay up and hang out with him. That only lasted a few days though.

I completely understand why Adam was nervous about watching Griffey at first. I am sure he felt like he had to come home and know how to be Griffey's dad right away, but no one expected that of him. I explained to him that it had taken me 6 weeks of being around him all the time to understand him as much as I did, and Griffey was still a mystery to me at times. I think Adam did amazingly well and by the end of the two weeks, he was very confident in watching Griffey even during my three hour classes and while I slept. I am grateful that Griffey was so open to bonding with Adam. You can tell he loves his dad.

Our family reunited!

On the first Saturday after Adam got here, we went to a Duck game. I waited in line an hour before the ticket office opened to make sure I got Adam a spousal ticket to go along with my student ticket. The game was in the evening, but we went earlier in the day to tailgate with some friends. We bought matching sweatshirts for the game. I thought it was cute and it was Adam's idea!

Aaron, Carl, Desi, Chris, Adam and I all sat in the student section together. The guy behind me is picking his nose.

I had a lot of fun and I didn't even get bored! It was pretty cold though, but I got hot chocolate and then I was fine. We were lucky that we didn't get rained on because it had been raining off and on all day. After the game, we went to Applebees. It was delicious. Here is a picture of the new Duck plane.

The next day, we went to the coast and spent the night in Yachats. Mark offered to let us stay in his cabin for free and we definitely took him up on it. The weather was wonderful. We never make it to the coast when it isn't rainy and windy, so it was awesome to have it sunny the whole time. The flowers in front of the cabin were beautiful!

Griffey and I getting ready to go on a walk with Adam before it got dark.

The beautiful sunset.

We found a really neat hollow log, so we had to take a picture with it!

Our family. We went on a walk along the ocean for about 45 minutes before it got too dark. It was the perfect weather and the perfect way to spend an evening with my family. I remember thinking that I couldn't get any happier than I was right then holding my husband's hand with my son cuddled up close.

Back at the cabin, Adam and Griffey cuddled up together. I love how you can see Adam's love for Griffey in these pictures.

Griffey looked so cute all bundled up tight.

We stopped on the side of the road to look at the sea lions. There were tons of them and they were so loud!

After we got home from the coast, we hung out in town a lot- shopping, going out to eat and movies, going on walks, and visiting family. I was also going to school monday-friday, but I took Friday afternoon off from class and we headed up to Portland with Adam's brother, Carl. We stayed in a hotel in Hillsboro and hung out with Carl, Adam's sister, April, and her husband, Aaron. We just relaxed and watched the Duck game and went to the temple. It was very nice to get to the temple while Adam was home.

Although the two weeks went by pretty quickly, I am very thankful that Adam was able to come home and that we were able to do so much and have so much fun. I really felt like no time had passed and nothing had changed from when Adam was here before. The only differences were that we didn't have a house and we now have a kid-little changes...haha.

It is tough having Adam here by my side and then all of a sudden ripped away again, but it will get a little easier and I know that we are half way done. It also helps to think that the next time I see Adam, he will be home for good.