11/30/15 Thanksgiving!

11/30/2015

We had some nice quiet quality family time.  We played pickle ball and some table games.  There was a ping pong tournament at Aunt Laura's house.

Aj and one of his buddies Paul came and spent Wednesday through today.  

Funny Holly story.  So Holly and Katie got Kindle fires at the beginning of the school year.  Sometime in the last 6 weeks Holly lost hers and I guess was afraid to tell us so she waited several weeks to mention it.  So now it's just gone and she has no idea when the last time she saw it was or anything.

So I told Holly no TV until she finds the kindle yesterday.  So she cleaned her room, looked in the living room and the family room and the piano room.  And Katie's room. And it's nowhere. 

So Dad's like maybe we should take away candy because she really likes candy.  Then she'll find it (or tell us where she lost it that she's afraid to tell us!) 

And Holly's like, no. I know, you can take away my tablet time!

Silly girl!  Well we still have no tablet and I guess she gets her way cause she's still on candy and TV today.

Aj, Paul, the girls and the Riley twins and I went for a hike up the mountain that over looks quail lake yesterday.It wasn't a bad hike (very uphill but not too terrible) and the view was really awesome.  It was only just about an hour or so hike.  It was a nice little getaway.

We got the tree up and decorated last night so I guess we are ready for December.  Sigh.  I hate it that all the stores are so busy and everything is so commercial.  Oh well.  

When you open your box there is a # on each bag.  On that day of the month you open your bag. There is a small gift, a note and a scripture for each day of December for 21 days.  Nothing too exciting but I wanted you to know we were thinking of you and have a lil something each day.  

I went for a walk this morning and I think the temp is about 30 degrees.  I wore a sweatshirt and gloves but I feel like I froze through and through and I'm still shivering and can hardly type.  So I'm gonna sign off and go boil myself in the tub to get the chill out!

Hope your Thanksgiving was fun and you got some yummy food!  Can't wait to hear about your week and see your pictures!  I loved your little quote, ask and ye shall receive mama.  Ask and e shall receive.  Does that mean I have to keep asking?!  Cause I loved my pictures!!!!

quote for the week:

…And why of all the attitudes you can acquire, it’s the attitude of gratitude that can be the most important and life-changing. 

Take time to reflect on all you have to be thankful for daily and it helps to diminish the things that aren't making you happy!

love you lots!!!! Gobble gobble.  Mom

11/30/15 Letter from AJ to Bryce

Hey Bro!

Dad let AJ take the convertible Mustang to Zion...
with girls!!!!

I just got back from St. George for the weekend! Man we got caught in terrible traffic all the way back from southern Utah and then caught in a snow storm from Nephi to Provo. It was some white knuckle driving for sure in the snow and was pretty stressful as everyone was bumper to bumper and sliding all over the place. It ended up taking almost 5 and a half hours to get home when it usually take about 3 and half when there is no traffic and weather problems. 

This weekend has been awesome. We had our turkey bowl football game with the 8th ward, talent show, giant dinner, ping pong tournament at Ben and Laura's and Friday went hiking in Zion with some girls from my BYU ward and Saturday hiking near quail creek with mom and the girls. Also BYU won their basketball game and football game. The only bummer was that Dallas was gone all weekend up north with his wife and wife's family so I only got to see him for a minute when he got back and I was leaving. I'll throw some pictures up from the weekend.

Playing in the turkey bowl

Last week I gave a talk in my BYU ward on thankfulness and I shared a cool Japanese parable I found to illustrate. So there once was a very stressed and tired student, who was struggling to finish assignments and prepare for his examinations. He approached a wise professor with a handful of complaints about how hard life was and how he wasn't sure if he could do it and how he was unhappy. The wise professor shared this story:

Aj's intramural volleyball team -- the volleyllamas

A man was journeying through the mountains and was chased by a tiger, he ran and ran until the hungry tiger corned him to the edge of a 15' cliff. The man began to climb down and looked below to find 5 tigers waiting to devour him. In his dire, nearly hopeless circumstances he looked to his left and saw a beautiful, perfect, delicious strawberry. He picked it and enjoyed the best strawberry of his entire life. The professor stopped telling the story and the student finally asked SO what happened? Did he escape? Did the tigers get him?? The professor said, " That's the end of the story" "That's all". The student demanded a ending to the story and the professor explained: The morale of the story is that many of us are running around unappreciative of the things God has given us. Enjoy what he has given us and live in the present.

“Are you running around, grinning over the feeling of being the luckiest, most fortunate and appreciative person in the world because of what IS  present in your life today, or are you consumed with fear, what you DON’T have in your life or what may possibly happen some time in the future?”

So the morale is that even with all the stressors in the mans life he enjoyed the small moments and was happy despite deadlines, fears and uncertainties in life.

All the group working on their master's program together

Love you man and have a great week.

11/22/15 Performing, BYU and winning the championship in volleyball

Lauren Riley, Miranda, Holly, McKenzie Riley
singing If I listen with my heart for Stake Primary
Leadership meeting

11/22/2015
I can't believe how quickly the month has flown by!  Seems like it shouldn't be Thanksgiving yet but it's this week.  Do you have lots of dinners planned for Thursday?! 

Holly did a great job of singing for the primary meeting.  Her and Miranda and the Riley girls sang and I accompanied and we all did just fine.  It was in the RS room and it was pretty packed.  They had a pretty good turnout. 

At the same time the YM/YW were having a stake meeting with the bishops so Katie got to listen to question and answers.  The girls went in the hallway and listened to the meeting too.  Both our meetings ended about 6 and then we went to Gma's for dinner.

Wednesday night was the evening of excellence so Katie and I went over and had dinner (soup and rolls) and they had a nice meeting. Bishop spoke.  Each of the girls got up for 1 - 2 minutes and talked about what they have been working on for personal progress and they each had tables with displays on them showing some of their work.  We have some pretty talented artists in our ward.  

Thursday was relief society.  The girls were invited although when they arrived they snatched them up to the nursery so I didn't see them all evening. I think they enjoyed it though.  They like to play with the kids.  

Ryan Hoppie, Andy Griffin, AJ Griffin, Robert Hoppie
at BYU vs. Fresno game (BYU won 52-10) in Provo

I'm playing organ for sacrament meeting this week and next so Dawn Wright spent a little time giving me some hints and how to's. I've played before but it's been a really long time.  I'm trying not to be nervous about it. 

Dad went up to Salt Lake City for the Dixie vs Logan championship game.  Logan won.  Dad got to watch all the 3A, 4A, 5A games and eat at some yummy restaurants and then go to BYU game so I'm pretty sure he had a great weekend with Aj and Robert Hoppie and his son Ryan.  

For girls scouts this week we were working on a special agent badge.  We had an officer come over (Mike Sittre, WCPD) and he showed the girls some things on the computer, talked about fingerprinting and showed them how to lift a print off a cup.  He talked about his job and some of the things he does.  The girls enjoyed it.  They were very focused and interested in what he was saying. 

Marlee came and spent Friday night with us.  I took the girls to McD's for dinner and then we shopped at walmart for awhile.  Afterward we came home and watched a movie and worked on a project together.  Our movie ended about 10:30 so we kind of had a late night. It was fun. 

Saturday the girls played volleyball and won the WCCC 6-8th grade volleyball championship.  They got trophies and treats and it was pretty cool.  That's the first team I ever coached that won it all the I remember.  (Katie says one of our teams that I was coach on won a couple of years back but I don't recall that!)  It really didn't have anything to do with the coaching anyway -- I was just in charge of a really talented group of girls.  

We went to DI and then stopped and visited Gma and Gpa for a little while and then the girls played outside and I worked on my project and house work and stuff.  

It's been a good week and it's nice to think that we have some down time coming up this week.  I hope we can watch movies and play games and just chill out and have fun this weekend!

With Thanksgiving coming I thought it would be appropriate to include a couple of thankful quotes: 

The happiest people don't have the best of everything they make the best of everything they have.

Legends Volleyball team with trophies after winning
6-8th grade WCCC tournament
Mrs. Barney, Holly, Rebekah Hughes, Eliza Smith, Hailey Fisher
Katie Griffin, Shelly Griffin
bottom: Hannah Barney & Madeline Wright 

Don't think of the things you didn't get after praying think of the countless blessings God gave you without you asking.

This week I spent some time thinking about all the things I am thankful for and writing them down on a list.  I easily filled a whole page without trying.  It is kind of cool to take the time to think of all you have to be grateful for and focus on that.  I encourage you to take a page in your journal or notebook or whatever and start keeping track of all you love and appreciate. It's a good thing to keep on-going in life too.  After awhile you even start realizing more and more that is great and wonderful in your life. 

I am thankful for my wonderful family and all that I have received in my life.  I have been blessed with a wonderful husband who loves me and loves us and honors his priesthood and works hard and is so complimentary of us and helps us want to try to do more and be better people. (Not to mention the Thursday night BBQ bonus! Yummy)  I have been blessed with amazing children who are turning into wonderful adults.  I am so proud of each of you.  I am so thankful that you all have developed your talents and love the savior and are trying to do right every day.  

There is a couple of quotes that I believe fully.  David O McKay said: No other success can compensate for failure in the home.  and Richard G. Scott said It takes time, great effort, and significant sacrifice to "train up a child in the way he should go."  But where can you find greater rewards for a job well done?

I just want you to know that I feel truly blessed to have wonderful children and I hope that you will continue to accept life's challenges and strive to do your best each day.  

Love you!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Mom

Blessings with faith

   Blessings with Faith…

Colony Circle home

Colony Circle backyard

Colony Circle backyard. a little haven

 

Several years ago life seemed very full. I had three little boys, worked full time, we had a small vending business and my husband worked as a radio announcer.  Our little house didn’t have room for any more kids and our budget didn’t seem able to handle anything more either.  I felt very satisfied with life and felt we had all the children we were going to have.  

Holly and Bryce dancing and playing on the tramp

And then I had a dream.  

My dream was unlike any I’ve ever experienced.  I saw two little girls, one a small girl about 9 months old and the other a toddler, sitting on a blanket in an unfamiliar back yard.  I knew with certainty that they were my little girls.  I woke up and felt that I was supposed to have two more children.  

I was not immediately happy with that thought.  I couldn’t imagine how we could possibly afford any more children.  We were already struggling with what we had.  There was no room for little girls in our home.  I was also struggling with having enough energy to complete all that needed to be done with just three children.  How could I possibly take care of five children?  

Katie likes to do her own make-up!

I struggled for a long time with feelings of doubt and uncertainty.  My husband and I talked about it extensively.  I really didn’t think we could do it.

Family twister

At some point a close friend said the words I needed to hear.  She said, “Shelly, Heavenly Father has always taken care of you, right?”  And I said yes.  She said, “You just need to have faith.  Things will work out.”

And the decision was made.  I took a leap of faith.  Within a short period of time I became pregnant.  We didn’t share the news with anyone because I was still not sure how we could possibly work this out and I didn’t want other people to judge me.

The little miracles started happening about that time.  My husband was offered a part time job that he could do at odd hours that paid pretty well.  This allowed him to continue to be home during the day while I worked and I home in the evening while he worked.  

I put our house up for sale.  One of the only people that even looked at it bought it.  

Holly's favorite spaghettio's for lunch

The Monday after an offer was made on our house we decided to take my lunch hour and find another home.  We had limited funds and I really wanted to live close to my work so we only had three homes to look at that fit our budget.  We had an appointment with a realtor to see one of those homes. He called and said he would be 15 minutes late so we decided to drive around the neighborhood.  We turned into the circle we now call home and saw a house at the end of the street that looked nice.  The price tag had been reduced but was still about $10,000 more than we felt we could afford.  We called the number on the sign and asked if we could come in right then.  She let us in and it was a cute house.  

Katie cow! (Holly cow in 2 years!)

We went back to the other home with the realtor but decided almost immediately that we had found our home.  We called and offered the $10,000 less and the offer was accepted.  

There were a few bumps in the road as we tried to sell our home and purchase the new one.  For awhile we were afraid we were not going to have a buyer for our home and might have to make payments on both homes while we tried again to sell our house.  Slowly but surely it all worked out though.  Our buyers came through as planned the week we got into our new home.  

It was a happy time as we started showing friends and family our new house and showing the 3rd kids bedroom and announcing that it was for our baby.  Some were slow to catch on…Bryce?  It’s a girls room… won’t you have to do some redecorating?  No.  It was perfect for our new addition.  

Doing laundry, Katie's way

The miracles continued after we got into our new home.  It seems there was an overpayment on our last mortgage and we received a check in the mail.  There was an over payment on our mortgage insurance, with another check in the mail.  Moving closer to town saved us so much on gas and car repairs that the increased house payment didn’t even seem to affect our budget at all.

We had Katie on December 21, 2001 and Holly on December 12, 2003.  We have continued to be blessed in our lives and have found a sweeter spirit in our homes as these little girls bring happiness and joy to us all.  They have brought out the best in their brothers as they have helped to care for and love these little girls.  

Our rowdy boys have changed from always competing and “beating up” each other to each taking a girl and helping out each other.    

I know that my life has been blessed and improved because of my faith and I am grateful to Heavenly Father for being patient while I decided to have faith.

Doing dishes, Katie's way

   

D&C 90:24 Search diligently, pray always, and be believing, and all things shall work together for your good…