Bringing in the New Year in Atlanta!

For the New Year we went to Atlanta, Georgia for the Chick-Fil-A/Peach Bowl. LSU played against Georgia Tech and played the best we have seen all year. We had a blast! Atlanta was a fun place to visit, we parked the car at our hotel and were able to walk everywhere we wanted to go. Everything is in walking distance in Downtown Atlanta. There was a Bowl Parade where the LSU band go to show off their talent, and we got to see someone very important, MIKE THE TIGER! We walked around the rest of the day visiting all the different things Atlanta has to offer until the game started. After the game we made it back to the hotel just in time to see the apple drop on TV. We were so tired that it didn't take long to fall asleep. The next morning we went to see the King Tut exhibit at the Atlanta Civic Center. I really wanted Austin and Alexia to see this because I remember seeing this exhibit when I was small. My Memaw and Pepaw Johnson took me and I still remember it to this day. It was very interesting to learn about King Tut and the things found in his pyramid. Then we headed back with an 8 hour trip home. It was a really fun New Year! Us at the Georgia Dome
Chick-Fil-A Cow

Mike the Tiger!

LSU Band

Little Miss King Tut!

Just a little Catch Up

I know I missed a month or so of updating so, I thought I would let you know whats been going on in our lives. Here are just some of the things we have been doing the last month and a half.We are at the Messengers Christmas Land.

The Messengers' are a family that decorates their house with millions of lights and decorations. I remember Dad and Mom brought Chad and I as kids every year.

Now it's a tradition we keep by taking Austin and Alexia.

Austin and Alexia touching the North Pole.

It was actually cold outside this year,

but some years we are able to wear shorts.

We have the weirdest weather!

Alexia's basketball team posing for a quick shot after a game.

They were awesome! They never lost one game.

They came in first place, and got a big trophy.

It was so fun to watch them play, they were so aggressive.

Way to go, Alexia!

Christmas Dinner with Mom, Dad, Chad, Stacy, and Caleb.

We had a pot luck style dinner with Mom and Dad's church.

We had a great time.

Austin's school band getting ready to play at a Christmas Program.

We are so proud of him and his accomplishments. A couple of days after the program, his band teacher made all of the band members try out for Honor Band (a few students from different schools in our parish play as one band). She says it gets them used to playing in front of people by themselves. Well, normally 7th graders don't make the band, but they have to try out anyway. Guess What? Austin made the band, we are so excited for him.

We are so proud of you, Austin!

Alexia and Sean putting lights on the roof.
She is such a little daredevil.
Austin wouldn't even climb a few steps on the latter.
He likes to stay flat on the ground.

Cute Little Kitten!

Sean and I at a LSU football game.
We went to 4 games this season.
It was a lot of fun,
but we were not prepared for the bad season LSU had.
But, it's OK we still had a great time.

SNOWING IN LOUISIANA? REALLY?

Something amazing happened down here in Louisiana. It SNOWED!!!!! We woke up this morning to find the ground covered in beautiful white snow. The kids quickly bundled up and went out to play for hours of fun. I tried to upload more pictures but there was some kind of error with the Internet. Anyway, here are a few that came up. It was such a fun day, the only thing is that we don't have the right kind of shoes for snow, so our feet were absolutely frozen. We went through about 10 pair of socks each, but SO worth the trouble. Thank you God for such a beautiful day. My Little Snow Angel
Big Brother Pulling Alexia and Sarah on Beach Boogie Boards
(the closest thing we have to a sled)
Merry Christmas Everyone!

Girls Day Out

Mom and Alexia before the massage started.
Mom after the massage. So relaxing!

Saturday was such a fun day because it was my 34th birthday. There were a couple of arts and crafts festivals around town so we decided to make it a "girls day out". We got some cute things like earrings, fall decorations, and of course yummy goodies from the bake sale. It became so hot around 1 o'clock that we decided to leave and go eat lunch. After, we weren't ready to call it a day, so we went and got our nails done. We all got French Manicures. Really Pretty! What a nice day, I love to spend time together with my whole family, but "girl days" are so special. These are memories that Lexi will have forever. Later that evening Sean took me to eat dinner at Copland's Seafood Restaurant. It was delicious as always. Thank you all for making my Birthday so special.

Their Trash, Our Treasure

We were coming home the other day and on the side of the road was a bike. It was in a pile of storm debris. So we stopped and asked our neighbor if she minded if we took it. She said she had put it out there because she was planning on moving soon and didn't feel like having to take it with her. Then her husband came out and said he has a 3 wheeler bike if we wanted it too. We said sure! It has a basket on the back of it, it's really cute. I have been wanting to buy a bike for a while now, so this was such a blessing.

We are so Punk Rock!!

Lexi and Sarah with their masterpiece the "sleepover cake"
Grabbing gifts from the treasure bucket
Punk Rock Girls
Cotton Ball game!

We had a very busy weekend that started the minute Alexia got off the bus. We planed a sleepover for Friday night. First, she decorated her "sleepover" cake with her friend Sarah. After every one arrived, we had a treasure hunt. I would recommend this for any birthday party. It had 12 clues and ended with one big treasure. All the girls got a gift bag and were able to fill the bags with lots of treasures. It had candy, pencils, erasers, stickers, socks, and many more fun things. It was a big hit, all the girls loved it! Next, they took their "punk rock" pictures. They all dressed in their cool clothes and put on crazy eye makeup. They were so cool! Next, they ate pizza and the sleepover cake. Then finally, Alexia opened all of her gifts. I think this was her favorite part of the party. They stayed up all night long, giggling and having so much fun. I didn't get much sleep either but it was well worth it. Happy Birthday Alexia!

Growing Up

Our sweet Lexi is growing up, she turned 8 years old last week. If I dwell on the years past it brings tears to my eyes. My babies are growing up too fast! How can it already be that I have a 12 year old and an 8 year old? I can't believe how fast time goes by and how old this makes me. OK, I guess that's enough of my pity party.

We had a small family party for Alexia on her birthday. We had pizza and chocolate cake with pink icing. She got lots of board games, clothes, and MONEY! She will have her big sleepover this weekend. We are planing all kinds of fun thing to do, so I'll post new birthday pictures next week. She also wanted to thank everyone for the birthday emails. Happy Birthday Lexi!! We love you!

Westside Jr. High Band

Austin played in his first football game last night. The group of band members just started playing last year, but they sound awesome! They are all so talented. Way to go Austin, we are so proud of you! We can't wait to hear you playing at LSU someday.

The Past

After reading Amber's blog, I decided to "yearbook" my family. We thought it was so funny. So, I decided to show you what we would look like in the past. WARNING!! Some are a little scary. Me in the 80's
Austin with long waves in the 80's
I didn't even need to do this one, I can show you my own yearbook.
Alexia in the 60's (we kind of think she looks like an alien)
This one is "gay Sean" in the 90's
Alexia in 84'
Austin would make a pretty girl.

We call this "fat Sean"

MY MAN!!!

1. Who is your man? Sean David Murry Bligh Griffiths

2. How long have you been together? We've been together over 11 years! Married 10 great years.

3. How long did you date? We only dated a year.

4. How old is your man? He is 28, I'm 5 years older than him. I used to not like to tell people he was younger than me, but now I'm like Yeah, I got me a younger MAN!

5. Who eats more? Well, he eats more, but just by looking, it looks like I do.

6. Who said "I love you" first? He did!

7. Who is taller? He's 6'3 and I'm 5'4.

8. Who sings better? I do but that's not saying much. We love to play the game Rock Band and I'm the lead singer.

9. Who is smarter? Sean is actually one of the smartest people I know.

10.Whose temper is worse? Me, I'm hot tempered, but calm down fast.

11. Who does the laundry? Me, I wash the clothes and fold them, but now that the kids are older they get to put them up.

12. Who takes out the garbage? Sean used to, but now Austin gets to do the dirty work.

13. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? I do. Always have.

14. Who pays the bills? I pay the bills, but he makes the money. It's a good trade off.

15. Who is better with the computer? I guess we are equally as bad. I do type better, he types with two fingers.

16. Who mows the lawn? He used to, but once again Austin gets all the work we don't want to do. Although I do like working in the yard, so I cut it about once a month.

17. Who cooks dinner? I cook about 4 days a week and Sean grills twice a week. He loves to grill, we call him King of the GRILL!

18. Who drives when you are together? We both do but I hate when he does. He scares me to death!

19. Who pays when you go out? He does.

20. Who is most stubborn? He is, its his way or no way! Unless, I want it my way. That trumps all.

21. Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? He is, all I have to do is cry a little ( I can't help it, it just happens!)

22. Whose parents do you see the most? Mine, his are in Tenn.

23. Who kissed who first? He did.

24. Who asked who out? He definitely did, he asked me out for a month strait but I kept saying no because I thought he was too young.

25. Who proposed? He was moving to New Orleans and wanted me to go with him. I said I can't go unless we are married. He said OK. The worst proposal of all time!

26. Who is more sensitive? Let me think................Me, of course.

27. Who has more friends? We have the same amount of friends, he just spends more time with his. I don't mind spending time alone, but when I do get to hang out with friends I have a really good time.

28. Who has more siblings? Sean has 1 older brother and 2 older sisters. His sister Erin died about 4 years ago of cancer. I have one younger brother, baby Chad.

29. Who wears the pants in the family? He does with all the big decisions, but I do all the day to day stuff.

I can't believe I did it, it' been over a year since I have updated! I'm so proud of myself. I'll try to continue with out a year in between.

Last Sunday our church rented a huge slide and put out baby pools and slip and slides for the younger ones for 4th of July. Austin and Alexia had so much fun, but it started to rain. The weather ended it kind of early. They both wore red,white, and blue clothes but I forgot to take their picture, they looked really cute and patriotic. Later in the week on Wednesday, we woke up and took the kids to IHOP. It was delicious! Then we jetted over to see Transformers at the theater. We all really liked it, at first I thought Sean and Austin would be the only ones to enjoy it, but we all really thought it was good. After the movie, we went to Dad and Moms for a delicious BBQ. We had marinated ribeyes, pork, chicken, potato salad, beans, apple pie and ice cream. YUM! Of course I never took my camera out to take pictures, but we had a nice time. Later that night we popped fireworks. What a fun day, Happy 4th of July.

Alexia got a new bike without training wheels and is determined to learn how to ride it. She had an old bike with training wheels on them, but every time she rode it she would fall. So now she is afraid to ride a bike, she is almost seven and is wanting to learn before her birthday. Sean has been working with her every night, but no luck yet. I tried to help her but almost passed out after about ten minutes of running down the street.

Sean and Austin went and saw pro wrestlers for WWE last weekend. Sean has been waiting since Austin was a baby for him to get into wrestling and now Austin loves it. They got to sit on the third row and Austin got to shake hands with some of the wrestlers. His favorite is John Cena (the picture in the middle). They had so much fun. Alexia and I had some "girl time" and went shopping and to the movie. We went and saw Nancey Drew, it was pretty cute.

New Deck

Last weekend we built our new deck. Dad brought us to Home Depot with his truck and trailer to help us pick out all the things we needed. Sean did such a great job. He worked on it Saturday and a little on Sunday. Austin, Alexia and I helped as much as we could without getting in the way. When Sean works around the house it's just best to stay out of the way, but I was proud of him because he was very patient with us. I love my new deck, it's so nice to be in the back yard now.

Where to Start............

Ok, lets start with a few months ago. We have had a busy past few months. We've had softball games, school functions, end of school parties, vacations, painting, and much more. I take so long between blogs that this might take a while.

First, Austin made the softball team this year and we had so much fun going to all the games. They only won one game, but it was still fun! I have to mention that Austin is going into the 6th grade and will be in junior high! I can't believe I have an 11 year old. Am I really that old?

Lets see we've painted both of the kids rooms. We ripped up the carpet and painted the concrete. It looks pretty good, any things better than the stained carpet that was in there before. I think we're going to do our room next, along with our long list of to do's. We're going to put in a wood deck in our back yard. I just have to wait until Sean is up to it. He works really hard and long in the heat, so it might be a while. The list never ends of things I want to do to the house, at least that's what Sean thinks.

We went to Disney the day after school let out. We went for seven days of fun. We really had so much fun and didn't want to leave. We went to all four parks and both water parks. We also got the diner plan and got to eat so much food, we were actually getting tired of eating. Ok, not really but it was alot of food. That made our trip to Disney perfect. I seriously could go back every year. I do have to say though by the end of the week my feet hurt so bad, because Sean made us rush to every single ride and show so we could see it all. We were tagging along behind him because we have to take about 3 steps for every 1 step he takes. Other than the sprint running we had a fabulous time.

Also, Mom and Donna you aren't the only ones who love to plant flowers and work out in the yard. I thought I would post some pictures of my yard also.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell , that Alexia got a princess make over at Down Town Disney. She loved it! She got to walk around the rest of the day with her beautiful makeover. She was so cute! The boys (Austin and Sean) were a little jealous so we had to get them a make over too, for some reason it just didn't look as cute.