Today was my official due date so I thought I'd do another post about little Griffith. He's a darling little guy and getting cuter and fatter everyday. He's still pretty mellow and is even having a longer sleeping stretch at night sometimes which I've been grateful for. (Probably a fluke but I'll take it!!!)

One of my favorite things about little G so far is that he likes to sleep with his arms above his head... wonder where he got this from...

He's Here!

I got online today and my iGoogle countdown told me I had 17 more days until our little boy's due date.... only he is lying right next to me in his little hospital crib! Griffith Garrity made his entrance at 12:02am on June14th. He weighed in at 7 lbs 12oz and was 20 inches long. Overall things went really well with the labor and delivery and I'm fairly sure I'm a fan of the natural birth vs. c-section. Of course, that's only if I'm allowed to have an epidural!! Bring on the drugs! (I was so thinking of this scene in Baby Mama about epidurals and I had to laugh) I'm pretty sure I would have died without it unless by chance the contractions got easier as it got closer and it really is true that after your babe comes out and they put him on your tummy you don't even feel them stitching you up.

We feel very blessed to have little Griff be a part of our family and that everything went relatively smoothly. So far he's pretty close to a perfect baby. I can't complain! He's getting cuter and cuter everyday.

Thanks for all of your love and support and for those of you who helped babysit, clean, bring meals, or send little gifts. We appreciate it all!!

Memorial Day Weekend

Over the Memorial day holiday weekend the Garrity grandparents payed us a visit. In anticipation for their arrival I purchased concert tickets to a three-in-one show. The bands performing were Kansas, Foreigner, and Styx and the event took place in Tooele, UT, a town about 40 miles west of Salt Lake City. The bands played at Miller Motorsports Arena, an outdoor venue so all the concert-goers sat in camping chairs and layed on blankets. We found a spot right behind one of the food tents just close enough to smell the sweet aroma of $7 brats sizzling on the grill. We were amused by the performers inability to pronounce the name of the town. It's pronounced too-will-ah, not very easy to guess from its spelling, "Tooele". Luckily their ability to sing exceeded their geography knowledge.

The bands did not fail to entertain and the whole thing lasted about four hours. We ended up chatting with the guy running his portable resteraunt. We expressed our amazement that they continued to provided for a hungry crowd through the duration of the entire evening. The streaming line of people never ceased until they closed. Not wanting to waste any of the food they had leftover, they offered it to us. What a great way to finish the evening. After the final set, fireworks lit up the sky. Maybe they had mentioned there would be pyrotechnics, but it slipped my mind so it was a pleasant surprise.

On Monday we went miniature golfing. Nolan and Amber came along. The course offers a full 18 holes and various levels of difficulty. Rather than using a clown's mouth, a moving drawbridge, or an oscillating wheel, the topography challenges the golfer to play the breaks accordingly. As we walked the course, Miriam wanted to hold Grandpa's black ball the whole time and Rowan was just content to be outside. As the game drew on, the participants grew weary. It's hard to persevere through all 18, but we did. After playing, Nolan and Amber took Mom and Dad straight to the airport. Another weekend that seemed to fly by.

Christmas In July

Keegan's mom came for almost a week in July and brought a car-load of baby stuff! She said she felt like Santa in his sleigh on the drive from Beaverton to Logan. I'm not sure how she fit everything- but she did! She's already fulfilled the role of spoiling her grandkids and they don't even know it yet.

Thanks to Craigslist and family hand-me-downs (thanks Clara for sending all of your stuff with her!)... the twins are pretty much set with clothes and gear. Here's a list of things she brought:

• 2 Cribs and mattresses
• 4 boxes/bags/crates full of baby clothes and blankets (at least!)
• 2 car seats w/ bases
• 1 double stroller
• 1 play mat
• 1 baby bouncer
• 1 baby swing
• 1 crib mobile
• 1 diaper changing pad
• 1 Medela breast pump w/ accessories
• 1 box Costco baby wipes
• Lots of baby shower gifts from great grandmas and great aunts!
• 2 handmade baby quilts and other bedding (she finished making the rest while she was here and even had enough material left over for a curtain valance!)
• 1 small suitcase for Grandmas things

I'm sure I'm forgetting some things that were in her "sleigh" but you get the idea! The best part of all is how inexpensive everything was! I mean two cribs that convert into toddler beds WITH mattresses for $50?!!! I was amazed! So thanks Grandma for taking the time out of your summer to do all of the leg work and find all of these sweet deals on baby gear and adding your own personal touch to them! And thanks for being willing to make the drive to haul it all here!

Riddle Me This

For those of you who like riddles, but don't have critical thinking skills of Robin, here's an easier one for you:

Can you guess our big announcement? Answer provided below

In light of this event, we'll soon be adding a PayPal button to the bottom of this page for those of you who would like to donate. :-)

¡suıʍʇ ƃuıʌɐɥ ǝɹ‘ǝʍ :ɹǝʍsuɐ

Goodbye Elder Zmoos...for awhile

Last week I went down to South Jordan to visit with a bunch of the Monson clan because one of my "boy cousins" went into the Missionary Training Center in Provo, UT and then on to Chile. He and his three brothers live in Iowa so we rarely get to see them. Because we had a family of almost all girls, and the Zmoos's had all boys, we were the "girl cousins" and they were the "boy cousins." :-)

Jesse is the last of his brothers to serve a mission for the LDS church. He is so cute! About 2 feet taller than me but so cute! I think one of my fondest memories of my little cousin Jesse is when his family came to our house in Oregon. His older brothers and mom told us if we really wanted to see something funny, we should start the movie "Rescuers Down Under." It didn't take more than two minutes to find out why. I've never beheld such a dance in all my life. He was a fairly beefy young lad and full of attitude. When the movie began he stood up off his chair and stood extremely still and didn't say a word (at that time in his life that was rare). As soon as the fast drumming music started he absolutely freaked out! He ran in place and jumped in the air so fast it was like Billy Blanks ordered him to go triple time! It was crazy. He then expanded his running in place to running all around the living room. If only we would have recorded it. I'm sure the Zmoos' have it somewhere.

It was great to see so many family members that we don't see often enough, but mostly it was good to see again how much little Jess has changed from that intense toddler to such a sweet and mild-mannered young man. He'll be a great missionary and we can't wait to see how much more he'll grow over the next couple of years.

MTC

This past Wednesday the whole Garrity family, minus Sawyer, took Kessler to the LDS Missionary Training Center in Provo, UT. The Oregon Garrity's (Mom, Dad, and Kess) flew in Tuesday and the Utah Garrity's (Keegan, Me, Nolan, and Amber) met them in Provo that night after work. We were all able to take Wednesday off for the grand farewell.

We went out to eat at Red Robin which is one of Kess's favorite places to go with his friends... they went once a week (at least) and he'd always get the same thing. He had told me before his special order but it was pretty funny to actually witness this. I got to sit on the end with Kess and Hailey his girlfriend. It was fun to hog them for awhile. I was able to get in a few words of sister-in-lawy advice ;-) Not that he really needed it, but it was fun for me to reminisce about my mission and MTC days. It was good to hear his perspectives and attitudes on different things as well. He really has a positive outlook, and more than anything else, that will help him to be successful over the next two-years in Albeuquerque, NM.

One of the highlights of the evening was when Hailey slipped off to the bathroom and I got to have the "so what's going on with that relationship" talk with Kess, and then the same with Hailey when Kess went to the bathroom. They've been close friends for about 2 years and it's going to be tough to not talk on the phone to each other every night and hang out during the Christmas and summer vacations. Ahhh....the withdrawals .... not fun. But again, they both have a good attitude and perspective about things, so they'll be fine. There's a lot more I could say about that, but I'll move on.

The next morning we met the crew at the MTC at about 11am. After repacking suitcases and taking pictures, we headed into 12 o'clock orientation. While still outside Keegan spotted a familiar face and started chatting with him. It was his old mission president, President Rowe. He now has a calling at the MTC as a Branch President over groups of missionaries. Keegan and Pres. Rowe hadn't seen each other since Pres. Rowe left the mission in June of 2003. Later when Kess was checking in, a nice sister was giving him his name tag and said, "Elder Garrity, hmmm, we had an Elder Garrity that served with us in Omaha." To which he responded, "Yep, that was my older brother." :-)

We got inside a big room with a lot of other families with missionaries and listened to a few different speakers which were all very good and then watched part of the classic video, "Called to Serve." I used to have that thing memorized before my mission so it was entertaining to watch it again. After the video we gave our final hugs and said our goodbyes. The last time I was in the MTC was five years ago to the day- but I was the missionary leaving! It was interesting to notice the different perspective this time around. I was able to look around a lot more at the other families saying goodbye- it was an absolute ball-fest! It really is such a huge mix of emotions that it's hard NOT to cry! You are so proud that someone you love so much is willing to go out and serve for so long, but so sad that you won't be able to be there with them or see them for so long. One of the speakers used the term 'bitter-sweet' and it's so true. That speaker was also correct when he said that sometimes saying those difficult goodbyes are best done in how you would take off a band-aid. The slower it is the more painful and drawn out it will be. So it's best to just rip it off all at once and get in over with. Still painful- but better.

Our goodbye was an emotional one. Kess was at the end of seven different people and he slowly made his way to the other end, hugging us one by one. All of us were crying! When he got to the other end he was supposed to go out one door and we were supposed to go out another, but there was such a big crowd of people that he just had to stand there with everyone he had just said goodbye to. It could have been really awkward but it wasn't bad. We just all gave another round of hugs and then headed on our way through oir separate doors.

We took it slow going back up to Logan after wards. We ate lunch with everyone in Orem, took Hailey to her apartment in Provo, stopped in at Hannah and Karls again in Lehi, got some go-ped parts in Draper, picked up Nolans snowboard that had come in at the airport in Salt Lake, stopped in to see my classroom in Brigham, then headed to Keegan's office in Providence, and then finally home.

It was nice having Keegan's parents here the next couple of days. We went mini golfing at a place all decked out for Halloween, went out to eat, and just hung around Logan- it was great.