the carousel @ the district

We took nate to the carousel at the district for the first time a few weeks ago. He had a blast. He rode a horse and a deer and then we had to go. He was distraught that he didn't get to ride the elephant and the froggie but he had a great time. I always like seeing him get so excited about new things! I think we'll be making trips to the carousel a little more. A perfect activity after a little shopping!

september brought us two nieces!

Meet Jaidyn & Adison! Both are little girlies on Wes' side of the family. Jaidyn was born on September 1st and Adison was born on September 25th. Moms and babies are doing well . . . we're glad they're both here happy and healthy.

They both live across the country so I'm a little excited to meet them in November.

Griffeth Boys: 3 Griffeth Girls: 1

Yep, I'm going to be even more out-numbered. We're having another boy!

I have to say I'm pretty excited about that news. My fingers were crossed for another crazy boy running around to be able to keep up with my goofball Nate. Now he'll have a partner in crime. I have quite a few friends with two (or three) boys pretty close in age and they are so cute together.

And, it will be alot cheaper.

The doc said that everything is looking great, which always gives me a sigh of relief. I always love hearing the heartbeat & I especially love seeing the little guy on the screen. He was moving like crazy today during the ultrasound!

St. George Rodeo - yee haw!

A few weeks ago I told Kiley that Wes was going to be in Minnesota for a week in September. She was nice enough to invite Nate and I to St. George to go to the rodeo with them! Wes sure missed out on some cowboy fun.




We left on Thursday morning with two 2-year-olds in tow and drove to St. George. We had a great 2.5 days with Kiley and her cute family. Kiley was nice enough to let me eat at my favorite restaurants and go to a few stores we don't have in LV. We went to the outlet mall & DownEast Home as well as going out to eat at Bajio's and Pizza Factory. Kiley and I were both so impressed with Hadley and Nate. While they had their moments, they were SO well behaved! We only had to play referee a few times!

They got to play outside a little bit at a few parks which they loved. We still aren't in park mode in this lovely HOT desert.




After all of the eating and shopping for two days, we made it to the rodeo. Kiley has the cutest set of grandparents who go to the rodeo every year. Her grandpa is decked out in cowboy gear . . . I love it. They were nice enough to let Nate and I come along for the ride.




We got there a little early so the kids had time to see the animals & run around before the rodeo started.




Nate and Hadley loved the rodeo. I have to say that they both enjoyed it in their own way. Hadley was content to sit/stand and stare at the animals for HOURS and Nate had a touch of A.D.D.




Hadley spent a good chunk of the time on her grandma or papa's lap which meant Nate had Kiley all to himself. Nate LOVES Kiley and it showed at the rodeo. He wouldn't leave her alone! He gave her endless hugs and a few kisses and was acting so incredibly goofy. He had us both laughing pretty hard a few times!

Kiley's parents & grandparents were soooo cute with Nate. Of course Hadley adores them & Nate was right behind her joining in the grandparent fun. They treated him like he was their own and he loved it!





Back to Nate and his inability to sit still. He had a few moments where he was mesmerized by the cowboys on a horse. But the rest of the time he was a goofy-delirious-silly-crazy-energy filled-looney little boy. Still loving being at the rodeo but it was like I had filled him with a bag of candy before we walked in the door. But, I DIDN'T. I managed to keep him in our seats for a chunk of the time but we did get up and run around a few times. He ran alot. Before the rodeo started, Kiley kept saying to Hadley . . . "tell the horses we'll be right back" to try to get her to leave. Eventually Nate picked up on it and the rest of the night he told me that he'd "be right back". As we walked around the rodeo - he'd run a little bit in front of me, fling himself around, and yell "be right back". While it was a little obnoxious to follow him around like this - I was laughing out loud. He was by far, the silliest I've ever seen him. I tried to capture his goofyness.




After all of our rodeo fun on Friday night, Nate and I drove back to Vegas on Saturday morning. We had Ty's birthday party Saturday afternoon & it gave Kiley some time with her family (her hubby Brandon drove up Friday night). Nate's been talking about seeing horsies, cows, sheep & cowboys for 2 days now. And he keeps asking for Kiley, Hadley and Hadley's grandma & papa.

We had a great time - thanks again, Kiley & your cute family!

US Open in New York City!

I checked one thing off my "10 things to do before I die" list this weekend.



The US Open in New York! I grew up with parents who L O V E tennis and it rubbed off on me, for sure. We went to Wimbledon in 2001 and I've always wanted to make it to the US Open. Now my love of the game has rubbed off on Wes . . . he loves it, too!



It all started when Wes got an email from Southwest telling us that they now fly right in to La Guardia in NYC. Before you had to fly in to Long Island which was a pain. So that got the wheels spinning in my head and before we knew it we had free flights & a free hotel booked! {The lovely perks of a traveling husband.} Luckily my parents ROCK and were happy to take Nate to the cabin for their Labor Day weekend.

We left on Friday morning and had a very long day of travel. We made it to our hotel and shortly after walked over to Cafe Habana to meet our good friends Laurel & Brad for dinner. They'd heard of this restaurant but had never been there and it was delicious! I had the best tacos I've ever had. It was great to be able to catch up with them. We've been spoiled in the last few years with getting to see them a few times a year even though we live on opposite sides of the country. {I forgot my camera that night!}

We were exhausted on Saturday so we slept in and took the Subway to Time Square. College football started that day and there were tennis matches on TV so we spent a few hours at ESPN zone having lunch and watching some sports. We then walked down a few blocks to Gershwin Theatre to see Wicked! I saw it a few years ago in NYC but it was Wes' first. It's a fabulous show!




We had tickets to the US Open on Saturday night. The matches are supposed to start at 7pm. We got there at 6:15 and the Roddick day match had just started! We didn't mind because it was fun to watch his match on the big screen on the US Open grounds. There were 30,000+ people there with us watching on the big screen!




It also gave us time to explore Flushing Meadows!



His match was over 3 hours long so we didn't even get in to Arthur Ashe stadium until 10:20 that night. We were supposed to see two matches but because they were so behind, they moved Safina to another court and we got to watch James Blake. He played like crap but I've always liked him so it was fun to see him play!






We didn't have tickets for Sunday but they announced that they had a few tickets left and they'd be on sale Sunday morning at 9am. So despite getting back to the hotel at 2:45am . . . we set the alarm for 7am to get ready and out to Flushing Meadow by 9am only to find that they were sold out! So, we joined about 60 other people trying to scalp tickets to get in to the day session. The day before tickets were going for a small fortune so we weren't very confident that we'd get in for a reasonable price but it was worth a try. After about 30 minutes, I sent Wes up to a different area and I stayed down at the bottom.



About 5 minutes later I saw two tickets in Wes' hands! A guy from Europe walked off the subway and walked straight to Wes. He had two extra tickets and sold them to us for a STEAL of a deal! He had tickets right next to us so I think he found the first normal looking person he saw knowing he'd have to spend the day with them! We were thrilled and spent the entire day watching tennis. We watched Serena Williams win, Rafael Nadal win (i love him!) and Venus Williams lose. It was a great day of tennis!




On Sunday night we went straight to Bleecker Street Pizza to pick up grandma style pizza. Laurel got it for us last time and we'd been craving it for a year! We took the pizza over to Laurel and Brad's and visited with them a little more.



We slept in a little on Monday, too and then roamed around the city for a bit before we had to catch our flight home. The best part about this trip to NYC is that we were there to watch tennis so we didn't worry about seeing anything in New York other than the tennis courts. We allowed ourselves to catch up on some sleep after having two nights of only getting 3.5 hours instead of getting up early to be out on the town.

A few other things about our trip:

- New York has PERFECT weather right now. It made me really excited for FALL in LV. We have a while, though.

- Walking everywhere is fabulous. We loved it.

- We did so well with the Subway this time! Last year when we were in NYC we took taxis quite a bit but we took the Subway almost the entire time this trip. Wes knew where he was going most of the time and a few times I pulled through and got us where we needed to go.

- Holy cow, there are some very smelly parts of NYC. Not enjoyable for a pregnant lady.

TENNIS ROCKS! The only bummer was that I missed my 10 year high school reunion. Yes, it's been ten years! But we had a great time on our weekend getaway.

our 2 year old - Nathan

There’s so much to say about Nate at the age of {2}. He’s our crazy, funny, quirky, tender, goofy, precious, loving, naughty, comical, lovable little boy.

It’s been a while since I’ve written about his little personality . . . so here we go . . .

He must have all of his “friends” in his bed for naps and bedtime. His friends consist of Horton, George, big puppy, little puppy & horsie. Oh, and we can’t forget green blanky.



His current movie obsession is Cars. Recent ones include Curious George and Horton Hears a Who. He still loves all things Sesame Street.



He dumps everything out. Nothing stays in containers. Nothing stays on his plate. He always dumps.

He’s our chatter-box. We’ve gotten up to a 6-word phrase so far! (a phrase meaning words put together to get his point across but by no means a complete sentence with prepositions.)
Some of my favorites that I can think of are: “windy day – sun bright”. “sorry daddy. Sorry mommy.” “Nate no poo-poo church.” “Watch meeee, mom/dad.” “Oh man.” “aaah, Gosh.” “Come ooonnn mommy, dance!” “fast song, mommy.” “Nate toes cold/hot.” “tubba.” "eat rice, beans and chicken."

He loves to be thrown in the air. The higher the better in Nate's opinion.



He loves to jump. Right before bath time every night, Wes lets him do "big jumps" from his nightstand.

He either eats a lot or nothing at all. Some all-time favorites are cucumbers, mac & cheese, orange juice/apple juice, grapes, any candy, popsicles, eggs, toast (English muffins/bagels). He'll eat just about anything my mom gives him but is quite picky at home.

He’s peed in the potty a handful of times. Once in public - I wasn’t ready for that one. He tells me regularly that he would rather poop in his pants than on the potty.

He likes his sleep. He takes a nap every day and sleeps 7pm to 7am every night. (give or take 30 minutes).

He asks if we are going to Abbie’s house or Kiley/Hadley’s house at least three times a day.

He loves all things boy.

Is obsessed with coloring. He always pulls up a chair for me to color with him.

He loves to play golf in the driveway with Wes. He uses a big ol’ golf club and hits a soccer ball. He thinks it’s hilarious when he hits the ball in the street because dad has to run after it.

He tells me when things are too messy.

He’s very particular about my hair. He tells me to put it up or down throughout the day. He now refuses to let me do his hair. Yes, he’s quirky.

He absolutely loves to clean. He’ll pull out wipe after wipe and clean the house!

He always wants to help cook. He especially loves to cut things.

He still loves to play in water.

He loves wearing mom/dad/grandma’s shoes.

Loves to read.

Loves playing in rocks & being outside.

He is obsessed with the fact that he’s a boy. He always tells me he’s a boy and is quick to point out when he sees a man.

He can be such a sweetheart and soooo mean in a two minute span.

If I didn’t see him being mean, he always tells me what he did. “I hit. I push. I kick.”

He knows a kiss will get him a long way.

He loves to shoot hoops and hit a ball with his bat.

We sure do love this crazy, funny, quirky, tender, goofy, precious, loving, naughty, comical, lovable kid of ours.