My Blog Stinketh...

...and let me just tell you why. See, my camera broke. I mean, really, it did. The flash no longer works and so just about every picture I take with it comes out super dark and blurry.

I took a hiatus from blogging for this reason. Unbeknownst to me, people cared that I was gone. Well, okay, let me rephrase that. TWO people cared that I was gone. And a big THANK YOU I give to those two people. Nice to know you got a couple of friends...

So, because of those two inquiries as to where the Gridley family disappeared to, I now give you another purging of photos. This is what has been happening over the last few months in our neck of the woods--well, prairie.


September 24, 2009
Nathan and Ryan playing dress up with their cousin.


September 29, 2009
Overnight visit to see cousins in Nebraska. Good times.



September 30 and November 6, 2009
Visit to the new Children's Village with friends and cousins.



October 12, 2009
Big snowstorm. Frosty came to visit our backyard.


October 27, 2009
Getting ready for the ward Trunk or Treat. Addie was a ballerina. Nathan and Ryan were dinosaurs. They had cute dino hats to wear but wouldn't put them on for anything. Such is the way two year olds are.

Nathan chasing his tail..

In between all of these events...Just playin' around..

Addie with money in between each of her toes.

Nathan with a hat on. I love it.

Bought some wings on Halloween clearance. Nathan wouldn't take them off. Even for nap time!

Well, there you have it. Kiddos are growing up fast and keeping us more than busy. Aren't they adorable, though? I mean, really..

Fun Pics

Ryan on the left, Nathan on the right. What do you think--does Ryan have a drooling problem?

Addie got her face painted last night. Cute butterfly, huh?

Minus the Water

Who needs to pay money to swim when you can do it in your living room?

Looks Like We'll Be Having Fried Green Tomatoes

So this is our first attempt at a garden since living here in Cheyenne. Well, I should say that it is actually our first attempt EVER at a garden. We got these tomato plants put in the ground at the end of April. It is now the middle of September and we have since brought these babies inside in hopes of getting them to turn red. It's just starting to get too cold here at night, and has never gotten over 100 degrees during the day here this whole summer. One or two are turning red, but it looks like we might be eating a lot of fried green tomatoes. Next year we hope to do better...

New Pics are In!!

Thanks to my fabulous friend, Julia, who takes amazing pictures, my family's faces have been captured on disc for this year of their lives. I have to admit, the photographer was amazing. My children, however, were not. Ryan wouldn't smile for ANYTHING. Addie and Nathan definitely were the better behaved, which is only as good as a 4 and 2 year old can be. And we all know how much Ben loves him a good photo shoot. I guess I'm the only one who really wanted to do this thing. Huh. What's new!??! Anyway, enjoy and please do let me know what you think of these beauties. I'll be anticipatingly waiting!
Here is the link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/rgridley/Family2009?authkey=Gv1sRgCMvRlr3An8GqFQ#5380049348544869154

Nathan and Ryan Are Two! (Wait, does that technically mean that they are four?)

Things are 100 miles an hour around here now that the boys have officially turned two. We celebrated with family by having a cake (one for each boy) and ice cream. It was good times had by all.

Here's Ryan

And Nathan

Had to throw in a couple of Addie and Daddy

And the finished swingset project. Probably took about 50 hours to complete, but I'm proud of Ben for doing it all by himself. Way to go! The kids love it!

Where Did July Go?

Admittedly, I have not posted in some time. I was thinking over the reasons why, and mostly it's just pure laziness. I get more interested in reading other people's blogs than writing on my own. I will try to change that because for a while there I was kinda getting good at blogging.
So as not to make this post extremely long and boring, I thought I'd just give some highlights as to what's been going on these past few months:

--Snow (well, hail) on June 11th
--Addie turned 4 years old on June 27th!!
--Addie got a haircut. You should have seen the fit she threw at the barber shop so I ended up doing it myself when we got home.

--4th of July trip to Utah to see Kaysha get baptized.
--Visit to the new Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House.
--Summer fun with pools and watermelon.

--Sprinkler system installed in front, side, and back yard.

--Sod installed in part of front yard, along with side and back yard.
--40 plus hours put into a swingset we bought from Sams. Still not done, but getting really close. (I shall not take any of the credit. It's been all Ben).
--Lovely friends from Utah coming to visit for a few days.

--Frontier days in Cheyenne, including pancake breakfast, parade, professional bullriders, the Thunderbirds, and an AMAZING night concert from Kenny Chesney. Yeehaw!--Signed up for another race on August 8th. This one's just a 5K.

--Reached a summertime low of a whopping 57 degrees (faranheit) on Wed, Jul 29th. I couldn't tell if it was the end of July or the middle of November. Seriously, it was THAT cold.

--2nd annual Peterson Family campout this weekend. Olympic themed. Should be loads of fun. Hopefully there will be pics to come...

So there's an update for ya. Can't say I haven't blogged in a while now:) Hope everyone is having a fabulous summer!

xoxo

Only in Wyoming...

...do you scare off an antelope that is feeding as you're taking an early morning jog.

Addie and the Beanstalk

Addie got a little ol' bean to have a growing experiment with. I tell ya what, she was excited! Her primary teachers gave it to her a few weeks ago. Paper cup, plastic bag, dirt and a little ol' bean--roll 'em all together and we're hoping for that big ol' beanstalk we read about in those children books. I, honestly, didn't think much would come of this little ol' bean, but here she is with her preciousness now. Just waiting for it to get leetle beet higher so that she can climb to the top and snag us some of those golden eggs. As we've been waiting for this stalk to grow to send our Addie out on the limb (no pun intended, well, not really) we have enjoyed some very exciting news!
Veggies! Bean veggies were actually growing on this stalk. (I was mightily impressed because we Gridleys don't have much of green thumbs at all). We've had about 5 come and go on the stalk at certain points but can I just say that this something that makes us quite proud. Guess after this whole experience I'll have to go into gardening--must mean that I'm good at it, and Addie will most surely fall in love with Jack when she sees him at the top of the beanstalk. She'll have to tell them that he'll just have to wait and to catch back up with her in about 18 years.

Ben...well, I can already tell what he's thinking about all of this:

L'aventure de L'amour

For all the awesome deets of how Ben and I celebrated our 5th anniversary, go here

Today Makes 5

No, not 5 children. But close.

5 years of being married. And 3 children to boot.

We're on a roll, aren't we?

Love you, Ben! Here's to many more (anniversaries....and children:)