Mary Paul Turns 2 and Addi Looks Like a "Who" !

Last weekend we went to Mary Paul's Second birthday party on Saturday. It was just a day trip but it was a lot of fun!! Mary Paul is so funny and full of personality! She knows what she wants and when she wants it and is quite the little ham!!! She had a good time at her birthday party and all the cousins had fun too! Happy Birthday to Mary Paul!

On Tuesday night we FINALLY decorated our tree. It has been up with lights since before Thanksgiving but I did not want to decorate it until everyone could be home. It took us that long and Mom saying," No one make any plans for Tuesday night!" for us to get our decorations up. We had a lot of fun decorating the tree all together and I got more video than pictures, but here are a few.

Sunday morning I had to take a couple pics of Landon and Addi because they were in such great moods and Addi looked like either an elf or a Who from Who-ville! Her outfit was quite loud but it was too funny not to wear. She got a lot of attention at church and she loved it!!

This weekend we are having a very Christmasy weekend as my family comes to town for some Gatlinburg fun! Us and about a million other people probably, but it should be fun! It will be a really busy weekend because the kids band Christmas concert is Sunday afternoon after covered dish and then the church preschool Christmas party is after the concert. Crazy schedule!!

So, until the next post...Ho, Ho, Ho!!!

Mary Paul entering her party in her new birthday party outfit!!


Landon waiting for the party to start by playing with blocks. Wow!! Not trucks!


Addi not in the mood for her picture to be taken! Too bad, Mom has a camera!!


Mary Paul entertaining everyone with a dance!



Catching Addi while she wasn't looking! My baby girl!


Kaori with her always constant BIG smile!!


All of six of the cousins, with more to come :)


Mary Paul's party time!!!!






Mary Paul definately LOVES her cake!!





John giving us some entertainment on the piano. He is teaching himself and is really good!! He is so talented!


Landon and Addi Sunday morning before church. So what do you think...elf or little Who from Who-ville??



The night we decorated the tree, Andi was getting some Daddy attention. She looks so grown up!


All of us were in pretty silly moods after decorating the tree!! Landon and Addi were loving playing with the figurines.




This picture was back at Mary Paul's party, but it so truly depicts Kaori's personality!! She is so happy go lucky!!

Thanksgiving 2008!

Well, Thanksgiving is already over and I can hardly believe it! We had a great Thanksgiving Day and Vacation with lots of family, friends and of course food!!

We went to Atlanta on Wednesday night to my mom's house. The next day all of our family on Mom's side came over and we had a busy day of celebrating Thanksgiving, some birthday's, my cousin's highschool graduation, precious memories of those not with us anymore, and then ending the night with a game of Catacombs in the dark and a family dance party! Even the little grandchildren were in on the action. We were all quite exhausted!! It was a great day and we had beautiful weather!!

On Friday afternoon the rain began and so did our journey to our old stomping ground of North Augusta. We loved seeing old friends at church and Mike's dear friend Willy. We stayed with the Thompsons, who are Mike's second parents, out on their land. They have a double wide trailer that sits on their land that we think used to be used for a hunting lodge. They now use it for a guest house. That is where the Griner's bunked for two nights. It was sort of like camping because it is really small and we discovered that the shower did not work, so we had to go to the Thompson's house for showers. It was an adventure!!! The kids loved it and we made a memory! We had a great visit with the Thompsons and love them dearly. We could have stayed longer to spend more time with them and hope to see them again before another year and a half go by.

On Sunday afternoon we started the 5 hr. drive home on the curvy and steep mountain roads of Ashville, NC. We drove through some of the yuckiest weather I've been in in a while. It actually rained the entire weekend we were in North Augusta, but we made the best of it. One of the highlights was when we went to visit Mike's friend Willy who owns a gaming tournament center. You walk into his place and it is filled with screens and screens of video games, Wii Systems, Rock Band, and Guitar Hero. We stayed there over an hour and I had fun playing the Wii Fit for the first time and Rock Band. I sang Eye of the Tiger and Carry On My Wayward Son by Kansas on Rock Band,John played guitar, and kid named Will played the drums. We were really rockin' it!! It was fun since I have never played any of those kind of games before. We were also able to go to my favorite Pecan store called Pecans Unlimited. They have the best chocolate covered, candied, praline, amarhetto, cinnamon, dark chocolate, and just about kind you can think of pecans. I love 'em!! Even Addi and Landon like them!

We got home around 9pm on Sunday night and needless to say were pretty tired!! I am glad the little ones and I have a day to try and catch up!

So, now I can officially say Merry Christmas!!!

We laugh at these pics because here are the kids "playing in the pool" or at least where the pool used to be. As you can see, they can still have fun with pool toys!







This was John's first year to cut the big bird!! He was a little intimidated, but had plenty of coaches on hand to give direction.



One of the things we did on Thanksgiving was to honor the highschool graduation of my cousin Adam Sheffield. We are so proud of his achievements and look forward to all he accomplishes in his life! Oh, and of course, G-Mama had to embarass him!



Landon was in love with these two new riding toys mom purchased the day before we came. They were actually all too little for him, but he made them work. After all they are trucks!!



Our dance party gets more fun every year as the little ones get older. Here is John, Addi and Mary Paul following G-Mama's instructions.


Addi wanted Mary Paul to dance with her but Mary Paul kept falling down. As you can see Addi's last resort was force to try and get Mary Paul up. We had to stop this before it got too hairy, but I had to get a picture first.



I started dancing away with Mary Paul and then Addi wanted in on the action too, so Ryan and I had to do a switch-a-roo in dance partners.


Addi and I dancing the night away. She was having a blast clapping her hands and spinning around. You can also see Ryan and Mary Paul doing some acrobatic dancing behind us. It was a lot of fun dancing with everyone!!






This is what Landon did most of the time during the dance party.


Here are a few pictures of our "trailer adventure" out on the Thompson's land. We had a good time and the kids got a kick out of sleeping in the same room.







A couple of family pictures with our "Dr. Barry" and "Mrs. Karen" Thompson. Mrs. Karen fed us good home cookin' all weekend!! We are so thankful for our visit and time together!