We are thankful for chains on the tires.

The Griswold/Gratton Family Thanksgiving began with an almost 7-hour car ride to June Lake, CA. Drew listened to her iPod, watched TV and looked out the window. I was highly impressed with her handling of such a long drive...her longest to date!

On Thanksgiving Day we watched a little of the parade, and played outside with "the boys" Cole, Carson and Cade.
Cade was being a little shy, so Drew played the role of official Thanksgiving Indian "Howling Coyote." She wasn't shy at all.
While she enjoyed the turkey and jello, she didn't touch her mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn or green beans. She did manage to save room for apple crisp and pumpkin pie. Surprise, surprise.

Friday was a bit chillier and the bigger coats and warmer hats came out.

The wind whipping by Drew on the zipline also caused a bit of a chill. In case you can't see him, Jeremy is pushing Drew...he borrowed some hunting gear from my cousin when the went and shot some skeet that afternoon.
On Saturday we got so much snow, we were able to sled down the driveway (that's Jeremy and me, in case it's not clear), but it also meant we had to dig our cars out and leave at 1 instead of 10am.

Drew finally got to use her hot pink snowsuit that Grammy and Boppa got for her last Christmas and she enjoyed doing some sledding.

But I did hear the words "I want to go back in the cabin" several times while we were in the snow.
Ski School for Drew next winter!

Frosty the Drew

Since Mommy got a brand new iPod last Christmas that is still unused, she decided it was time to pass down the original. It is full of kid's songs, lullabies and Christmas songs. We will just have to keep an eye out to make sure she doesn't stumble on to NWA.

Click here to see Drew's rendition of Frosty the Snowman

I'm thankful for...

...cheeks that can store up food for the winter.

Girls Rock

And we're... WYLD STALLYNS!

Mommy's 30.....bleh.

We had a little get-together this weekend with some friends to celebrate the big three-oh. 'Twas a good time withe great friends except for the frigid Southern California fall evening we had to compete with. On my actual birthday (Monday), I had lunch with Mom and Drew at PF Chang's and dinner with Dad, Jeremy and Drew at BJ's Pizza.

more Halloween pictures

I've come to learn that certain people get angry if there is a delay in my blog postings. So here are a few more from Halloween from our friend (and Lauren's uncle), Scott. You can see more of his "real" work if you click here.

daily dose of Drew

When I went into my bedroom to check on Drew after she had been in there with the door closed for several minutes. She emerged with a Q-tip sticking out of one nostril and said:

"Mommy, I'm like Pokey-o."

Heh, heh, heh Trick-or-Treat! (that's' what a witch says)

We had a full month of Halloween this year. I don't know how we're going to pump her up for Thanksgiving when there are no costumes or candy involved! But I know she is excited for snow at the cabin (so let's cross our fingers it will be cold enough)!

Last weekend we went to the Boo Blast in full costume and Drew was kind enough to grace us with a pose. It was warm, so we traded in our matching tights and witch's boots for orange Crocs. On Halloween, we first went to the mall with Meghan-the-Tiger and Trick-or-Treated at many of the stores and got to visit Grammy at Crate and Barrel.
Then, Meghan and her parents along with Baby Lauren and her parents (more pictures of her later) came along to Trick-or-Treat with us. After every house, Drew checked her bag to make sure the candy was still in there. She was probably wondering what happened to the candy from the mall since there were empty wrappers instead of candy.
Toward the end of the night, the girls needed a ride in the wagon. Some people in our caravan (we had a crowd of 12 for 2 Trick-or-Treaters) felt the wagon was better served for empy beer cans.
We ended the night with a cupcake appetizer followed by a pizza dinner with a side of a Kit Kat and 2 peanut butter cookies for dessert. And then 3 teeth-brushing sessions. It's a miracle she wasn't sick. Baby Lauren's Uncle Scott came over with his super professional camera to take some pictures of the girls, so we'll post some more when he gets them all edited :)

Twas the week before Halloween....

and all through the house, a little girl was dreaming of candy like cheese to a mouse.

She smiled when she thought of all the candy she would eat,

the costume she would wear and how she'd shout "Trick-or-Treat!"

Kit-Kats and Reeses and M&Ms too, witches and pumpkins and ghosts who say "Boo!"

One more night to wait, she's behaved her best,

no hitting or yelling at Nikki the Pest.

"Under my spell" it says as she smiles for pix,

for how else can you explain parents giving a 2-year-old Twix?

Blurb!

I am so excited...I just got news that my first family photo album is on its way. I created a 360-page book with 1100 photos from a program called Booksmart that I downloaded from Blurb.com. I have been working on it a little bit each day since May (with numerous upgrades from Blurb and edits by me) and I can't wait! I was convinced after I saw the blog of a friend of a friend. Click here to see her version. The only difference is I think she is a photographer, whereas I am not. Compared to the old days of scrapbooking and every other photo-book website I've seen, for $100 I think I'm getting a great deal. I'll post the outcome.