Lets play catch up:)

Halloween dinner at Tucano's!
Bean Museum with the Kiddo'sHOME MADE costumes are the best!!!...Thank you Gma for the help.
Our Bat!

Our witch!

Our Cat!

No prompting needed with this kid...just point and shoot!

"I get 'im!""Put um up!"

Four wheeling in Moab!

Don't you just love the white trashness of this shot:)

Tuckered out!

Harvest Festival...Stroller crew!

Walking crew...minus the kid in the striped shirt.

Drive up the canyon to look at the leaves.

What ran out in front of our car on the way:)

It has been a hectic few months around our house. We finally got the internet at home...after 2+ years with out. The man of the house says he's going to have to have it for the next chapter of our lives.

We have been busy having fun this fall and also busy making life altering decisions for our family. There is a lot to tell but for now I'll leave you with the pictures:) I've got to go get ready for the Utah Football game...This will be the first attempt with the full load of children.

Finally!

I think I'm sooo funny!

We have been super busy the past month. Weird how 3 kids will do that. I have officially decided that two little ones this close together just might be worse than twins:) But I am LOVING every minute of it.

The Girls playing in the rain.She LOVES to feed herself!

Bears games at Grandpa Dan's

Football season started, which we love. The first game of the season was on a thursday, which is a school night for K so we took the Cage. I thought her outfit we came up with was AWESOME...thanks to Aunt Bobbie.Gabe is getting bigger and bigger. He laughs, plays, coos, hates his back, loves his tummy, sleeps a full 9-11 hrs a night:), and is such a beautiful addition to our every-growing family.
We have been playing with cousins while kk is in school. You can't tell by this picture but she really does love it:) But she does NOT love being stuck.She loves to splash & dive.Utah rugby Alumni game!

That's Adam there in the middle with his head down:)
Cutie Jayci stealing granola bars...doesn't she play innocent well?:)
This lovely contraption is my AWESOME double jogger. I searched for months. and finally found a great one. I will take a better picture at the zoo tomorrow. It really has been great.
Well my kids have had it so I need to go.

Gabriel's blessing

I'm not sure I got everyone that needed to be invited with my email... so we are blessing Gabe on Sunday Oct. 11th at 2 pm. If you would like the address and would like to come please call Michael or I...or talk to your family and I'm sure I got the email to one of them:)

She's gone...

Kailye headed back to school today. I still really can't believe she is in the first grade. We went over yesterday for her to do a reading assessment test and the teacher told us she is reading at a 2 grade level...Thank you Grandma Maxwell for getting us learning readers!!

This is the first day our entire family has been up before 8 since Gabe was born...OK lets be honest, since school got out last year:) It was nice to get up this morning and have Keija and KK awake and happy. Even Gabe woke up for a while.

She was super excited to take this picture...Can you tell?
Keija is not sure what to think yet.It is going to be so strange not to have Kailye home to help with babies. I really love haing a "big kid" to help and play. Well I'm off to take a shower...before noon-WOOHOO!

Oh how I love my old blue jeans!!

I am 3 1/2 weeks out from the birth of our little man and I am feeling better everyday! The weight is not just melting away anymore but I am down 5 lbs. from what I started the pregnancy at which is 20 lbs. down from what I started The Kage's pregnancy at. yay!!!

I must say I am glad to be done with the baby cooking for a while. I loved being pregnant this last time around but I also LOVE my blue jeans and T-shirts. I know that is what I wore while I was pregnant but there's something to be said for being able to button them up and bend in the middle:)

Gabe is getting bigger and bigger everyday. He is now 22 1/2 inches long and weighs 9 lbs. He gets very frustrated when he can't get his little body to do what he wants. I love watching him lift his upper body and look around until he get to tired to move:)

The Cage is, so far, loving this big sister stuff. She tries to give the baby loves as much as she can. She is getting much better at being soft:) She is also in FULL on toddler mode. This is my favorite little age..1-3..no real fits yet, no talking back, just pure joy!

Kailye starts school on Thursday and I am so sad. I am not one of those mamma's that wants her babies in school all day. I love having her home. She is so much help and she is also who I talk to all day:) She is very excited though. Michael and I debated home school this year but she just loves her school and we can make up the difference in education at home.

Michael and I are well. We are very blessed and are so grateful to live near so much family. We haven't seen as much of each other lately but I am SOOOO grateful I married my best friend. I would change anything we've been through together..good or bad!

update.

Sorry I have not been a great blogger. I used to do it all the time but I just don't find much time to get to a computer with Internet:)

I'll just give a quick update...

Kailye has grown 4inches this summer...no joking. I can't believe how grown up she is becoming. She loves to help out with Gabe and Keija. I really am not sure what I'm going to do when she goes back to school:( She LOVED her dance classes this summer and said she wants to do more ballet this Fall. I am very happy with her decision because every time she came out of class she was very disciplined and controlled the rest of the day...which if you've met my Kailye you know just what a feat that is. She is also going to continue to take piano lessons as well. She is VERy excited to start 1st grade, and a little nervous. I was not thrilled with her teacher last year so hopefully this year will be better. We are on a waiting list for a charter school for next year...cross your fingers.

Keija is getting bigger and bigger. She also loves to "help" with baby Gabe. It amazes me the loving spirit my little monkey has. She grows an instant and protective attachment to each member of her family. She just loves to be around any and all of us. I thought after we had Gabe she seemed bigger and just figured it was my new perspective but then I went to get her dressed and she really did grow a lot in the past 3 weeks. She is our Chunky monkey and I can't imagine our family before she was part of it. She makes everyone laugh. She also now LOVES to get into everything. Michael has been putting locks on all the cupboards:)

Gabe is getting bigger...slowly but surely. He weighs 8 1/2 lbs now and 21 1/2 inches long. I can't believe he's grown 2 inches in 2 weeks. His wrinkly little skin is just now starting to fill in. he is such a sweet little guy and we just love him. He also has followed the track of the girls and is sleeping through the night. By through the night I mean from 11:30 to 7:30ish. I am very grateful for it because Keija will wear you right out all on her own:) Any extra sleep is wonderful!!

I have been busy taking care of babies. It is very strange not to feel like I am waiting on something. I've been waiting on babies for the past 2 years and before that I was waiting to quit working:) It was a little adjustment for a week or so to get use to just being. I love that I get to stay home with my children and I'm so grateful Michael has been blessed with the ability to work. He tries very hard to make sure all of us are happy and I love him for it.

Michael is still working for his dad. We are so grateful he is able to do so. He has been working a little construction lately on a house his dad owns. He keeps bringing home antique toys and adorable 50 year old leather shoes. I love them!! He really enjoys working construction from time to time because he loves to work hard. He has been just incredible the past few months and I'm so grateful he's here.We needed a family picture for a scrapbook Natalie is doing so we took one the other night. I'm not a huge fan of taking pictures right after having a baby but I didn't swell too much with this one so I like this picture.

I will try to do better at keeping up...I keep forgetting all the cute and funny things my kids do and that is the whole reason I started to blog.

Our little miracle.

Gabriel Zeniff Griffee

Our story ended up being much longer than we anticipated...but well worth the wait!

We headed to the hospital at 7:30 and after they got me all set up they started the pitocin at 9:30 am. Things started off very slow...very slow. The contractions were regular but I barely felt a thing...so they upped the pit to full strength to get things moving. Well the contractions got stronger and stronger but with absolutely no progress. The contractions kept getting stronger and stronger but I sat at a 4+ nearly the entire day. Finally around 6:30 pm I had them give me an epidural. Which gave me a little relief and rest for a while. Still no progress though. That is very strange for me because I am usually 5 centimeters to birth in 20 minutes.

After I got the epidural and was a little more aware we noticed our little man's heart rate kept dropping during each contraction. It would always come back up though so they monitored a while longer with internal monitors for his heart rate and contraction strength. The doctor said the contractions were strong enough that the baby should have easily dropped and been born by then. He then explained to us the risks of continuing this way.

That's when our little world flipped upside down. The doctor let us know we could wait a while longer and see if he drops down but he thought the cord was likely around the baby's neck and it wouldn't do any good. He also told us if we kept waiting and his heart rate kept dropping down below 60 it might not come back up. This left us with the option to do a C-section. I was instantly scared. I hadn't told Michael but I hadn't hardly slept the two nights before we went in. I just couldn't get past the feeling that something was going to go wrong. I prayed and prayed but I knew there was something. I know God has a plan and I know we will be able to handle anything he throws our way but that doesn't make the premonition any less scary.

After I mentioned this to Michael, while we were trying to decide what to do, he said he had been having the same feeling. It was reassuring and petrifying at the same time. We prayed about it and decided a C-section (and quickly) was the best option. After a blessing from my wonderful husband and lots of tears and worry we headed to the operating room. As soon as we made the decision to do the C-section we both knew it was right and everything would be okay. Our prayers were now focused on the health of our little boy.

There is nothing in the world like hearing the first cry from your baby, but I have to say this time was a new kind of feeling. I'm so grateful to have a faith filled, loving family to support me and my husband and I don't know where we'd be with out them. We are thankful to all of you who prayed for us and we love you.