The Big Baptism Day

Nick was VERY excited about getting baptized. As soon as he turned 8, he asked Troy to practice, so he knew what to do.

This picture is taken by this cute little old man who is in charge of getting the font ready for each baptism. Doesn't Nick look thrilled!

It was a great day, with family & friends there to support Nick. He looked so dang cute in his little blue blazer & tie!

It had been a crazy week, and when I mentioned that we could go OUT to eat after his baptism, he jumped right on that idea. We (along with about 25 other family members) went to IHOP! You gotta love that boy!

Another Example

I had mentioned here that when the Dennings concentrate, their tongues stick out. Here is yet another example of that. This picture was taken by Troy's sister this summer. Their boys had built a half-pipe in their back yard, and Troy was trying it out, and obviously, it took A LOT of concentration!

Memories...

Troy's parents have been scanning old pictures, so we can all have digital copies of them. It has been fun to see pictures of Troy when he was little, and pictures of our kids that I haven't seen in years!

Here is one that his Dad e-mailed me just the other day. Hard to believe that it was almost 15 years ago.

Look how dark Troy's hair is, and how BIG mine is!!

Grandma Farr

My Grandma Farr has been sick for a while, battling ovarian cancer. At the beginning of December, she got much worse and we knew that she wasn't going to be around much longer.
My Grandma passed away on December 30, 2008. I have no doubt that she was waiting for Christmas to be over, and for Nick's birthday to be over, so it wouldn't affect anyone's celebration.

She will be missed. She was the perfect Grandma. She was funny, kind, hard working, and ALWAYS had a positive attitude.
She remembered each of her grandchildren and great grandchildren's birthdays, (She is the Grandma that always sends $5 in the birthday card, and makes sure it arrives ON the actual day. (Nick's birthday was no exception).

She remembered your favorite cookie/candy and made sure she had them on hand at Christmas time.

As a wedding gift, she made a quilt for each of her grandchildren, and a baby quilt for the first baby of each grandchild.

She really was amazing, and I hope I can be half the person she was!

Happy Birthday Bud!

This year was Nick's turn to have a Birthday party, but the poor boy was born 4 days after Christmas. This year, the Holidays were such a crazy time, and with being in Primary and getting ready for the next year, I talked to Nick about having a half birthday party. He thought that was a great idea, and I was so thankful to not have to jam ONE MORE THING into my week!

On the day of his birthday, we invited some friends over to have a snow party. We had pizza for lunch, and they spent HOURS out in the snow building forts.

These are two of Nick's buddys from the neighborhood - they were on one team

This formidable duo was the other team...notice the tongue, it's a Denning attribute whenever they are trying to concentrate on anything, you will see another example in a moment...

The battle was long & I am happy to report, there were no serious injuries

It ended peacefully, when Nick & his army surrounded the other fort.

That night, we went out to dinner with Troy's family. Nick chose one of his favorite places to go - Red Lobster - that boy can put away the shrimp!! We came back to our house after to open presents, and much to his excitement he got

Once again, he immediately wanted to put them together. He dumps them on the floor into piles and gets out the instruction book

It takes a LOT of concentration...

Happy Birthday Bud - to my most favorite Nick in the whole wide world!!

Christmas

We hosted Troy's family on Christmas Eve. We had delicious food - fondue (a new family tradition), and my kids of course LOVE to open presents. We go youngest to oldest, so Jon went first

Shouldn't their be some sort of rule that the present should NOT be bigger than the person? Troy's parents gave him a remote control car racetrack that he had been wanting - he was very excited!

Nick had a very LEGO Christmas...so I had to put in this picture, because I think it is the one of the only non-lego presents he got. It's a fishing pole. He and his buddy go "fishing" in the creek (aka irrigation ditch) that runs along Neff's Lane - he was very excited about it!

Here is my beautiful daughter in her darling Christmas outfit...yep...her Utah beanie & a ringer t-shirt...Anyway, she has been DYING for the Playmobil house. She has outgrown her doll house (mostly because it is pink & purple & girly). She was one happy chick when she opened this!

I was so glad that we had everyone over to our house. Our kids ripped into their presents immediately, and we had Legos, Playmobils, and racetrack ALL over the place!

Gingerbread House

In the spring our Relief Society had a "Service Auction". We have this amazing woman in our ward, who is amazingly talented at so many things. One of the things that she auctioned was a gingerbread house. She would bake the gingerbread, and provide everything, and help me put it together. I was soooo excited when I won!

November came, and I was getting really excited to have a REAL gingerbread house this year. Well, unfortunately, the sweet woman who was going to help me, had to have her appendix out, and then her daughter ended up having to deliver her baby about 10 weeks early. I told her not to worry about it, and she said she put me down on the calendar for November 1st 2009 to call & schedule out gingerbread day. (She is so cute, she felt so bad that she brought us a gingerbread candle, The Gingerbread Man story book, and gingerbread men for each of us)

So, it was off to the store to buy a kit. Not only did we see the gingerbread house, but Jon spotted a gingerbread train, and thought it would be cool to have. So home we went. The next FHE, we decorated them. We had a blast. I thought I should take a quick picture (I am trying to be better at taking pictures of family events). Notice their "smiles"

Knowing me, I must have made some comment (I am sure it was very sweet, and not at all sarcastic) about their smiles, because this is what happened next...

M. Troy Griswald

Many of you may or may not know that there is a little friendly competition that goes on in our neighborhood. It is about many things - triathalons, racquetball, etc. But at the end of every November, (especially on our street), there is a little showdown on Christmas lights.

I wish that I was better at photography (sorry Carin, I have forgotten so much!) and this picture does not really do Troy's light show justice... He had lights lining the entire roof (including the skylight), and the first night the sidewalk lights went on, I was worried that a plane might mistake us for a landing strip!

Troy's birthday is just a week before Christmas, and this year he asked for MORE Christmas lights - he has plans to have stripes of lights going down the entire roof, and there has been talk of renting a "cherry picker", so he can get to the top of our big trees out front - it should be a sight!

Where to Start...

It has been so long since I have posted anything new - and something more than just a few sentences. We have had a CRAZY December. I have pictures to go through, before I can post much, but my goal is to have some done by tomorrow.

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!