The post-nap hangover is always tough on Griff. Here he is waiting for us to bail him out of the crib.

Lily looking lovely on a Sunday afternoon.

Every once in a while we get a picture of her without red eye and it's possible to see how blue her eyes really are.

The Jazz are number 1!

Little silly-faced Griff.

Griff sat in Lily's chair. He suffered the consequences.

Griff tries to run away and hide and always ends up running himself into a corner.

Maddie and Thatch Merrick: rock stars in training.

I think they look pretty old in this picture.

Lily and her little baby doll. She's quite a little doll herself.

Just a couple of baseball fans chewing on a couple of baseballs.

Lily and Griff went on a tour of the Sweets candy factory. As you can see, it was a dream come true for them.

Extreme close-up! Whooooooaaaaa!

Griff kisses stuffed animals like crazy. He is a teddy-bear Casanova.

Lily and Griffin sittin' in a tree...

I like this picture because Griff is so happy.

" Welcome to our room. This is our lovely fan." Lily and Griff are very hospitable. They invited us in for a little St. Paddy's get-together.

This was just a little St. Patrick's Day fun from Melissa. Clover rolls and green German pancake. Delicious.

Lily and Griff wanted to model some of their PJs. They get so excited to put them on. Lily starts talking about "jammuhs" right after dinner.

Well we have a new baby in our family. Okay not "our" family, but my brothers'. Here is cute little Taylor Noel. And I thought Lily had a lot of hair. She is so dang cute and sweet. Congrats Mark and Joy!

I have been tagged by Daiana Springer, so here goes. Jake will hopefully be back in a few weeks when this semester is over.

10 Years ago...



I was going to Snow College. I had a lot of fun that year. I can't believe it has been ten years.

5 Jobs that I've had:

-Bagger at Harmons
-Telemarketing at Unibase
-a few shifts at The Gap (it wasn't for me)
-Telemarketing at Teltrust
-Zions Bank

5 places I've visited:

-Idaho
-California
-Austria
-Germany
-Portugal

5 things on my to do list:

-Go to Hawaii
-Go on a cruise
-Potty train our kids (at some point)
-Paint our house
-Go back to Germany

5 things you may not know about me:

-I hate hot dogs (most people know these things)
-I've had stitches 4 times
-I lived in Denver for four years
-I was pregnant three separate times in one year
-I hold my pen wrong when I write (Jake loves to tease me about it)

5 things that I am so thankful for:

-Jake
-Lily & Griffin
-My family & Jake's Family
-The Church
-My Friends

I hope that wasn't too boring, but there you go.

I wanted to write a quick post to tell Jake thank-you for all he does. He was so nice and had these tulips delivered to me a few days before Easter. It was especially nice because tulips are my favorite flower, and he gave them to me for my birthday on one of our first dates. I had told him that I liked them and he remembered. He is such a great husband and so thoughtful.

Well, I decided that Griffin deserved to be on here either way. I used different pictures than last time though, so now he apparently looks more like Jake. Jake is busy studying at the library and hasn't had time to update the blog. I just have to learn how to do a few more things, like upload pictures from our camera and then I could do more. Somehow Jake gave me permission to add things, but I better be careful or I'm sure I'll get cut off.

Baldwin Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Family search - Free family tree

This is Melissa writing so please don't expect this to be funny, but I stole this idea from Jared and Daiana Springer. I got a little carried away comparing everyone, but I'll just stick to these for now. I'm not sure how scientific it is considering it said that Griffin looked equally like us too, but it was fun anyway.

Baldwin Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Finding relatives - Geneology

Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

Baldwin Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebs - Collage - Morph

As many of you know, we get pretty excited about the Jazz at our house. We're pretty excited about the young team. And with the Jazz' success, there have been a lot of people comparing Deron Williams to John Stockton. Now, I don't want to disparage Deron Williams in any way. I'm a huge fan and I hope he stays here for a long time. At the same time, however, I can't help but think that if you're ready to compare him to Stockton it's been too long since you saw Stockton play. Thus, I'm posting this video to refresh your memory. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Lily and Griffin's second Christmas has come and gone. It was quite a lot of fun. They were as spoiled as you might imagine. They did pretty well about not messing with the tree too much. They loved to look at the lights and play by it. They didn't get too much into the snow. They're still a bit too little for that.

Speaking of snow, I've had just about enough of it. I shoveled more snow this year than I care remember. And I realize that everyone has to deal with snow plows, but I swear those guys have been out to get me this year. I've had to start shoveling about 4 feet out into the street in the hopes that the destroying angel will pass me by. (Rant over.)

The kids are starting to talk a little bit. They're pretty good at imitating single sylable words. They are pretty good at all the basics. Lily has branched out a little. Her best word is 'shoe'. I don't know why, but she just loves it. She also shooshes people. In fact, she has shooshed me several times. I was talking to her one night before bed and she looked at me and shooshed me. Needless to say, I was shocked. So, I waited a second and then did the same thing to see if she really knew what she was doing... and got shooshed again. Griff and I have been watching lots of Jazz games and having a good time. He loves the Jazz. He's also excited about the new coach and the direction that the Utah basketball program is heading. He is a pro at rolling his arms for Patty Cake and The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round.

I've tried to think of something to write about Melissa and I, but apparently we're terribly boring because I can't think of one thing to write about us. Oh well, maybe next time.

Here are the family socks. Santa came and filled them up.

The contents of Melissa's and my socks on display. A couple of interesting things here stand out. First of all, you've probably noticed that Melissa's sock is about 10% bigger than mine. Interesting, no? Also, compare our oranges. Melissa has a real orange, while mine is made of chocolate. Seems about right.

This was Lily and Griff's favorite part of Christmas. The nativity and the snow globe blew their minds. They played with the globe every chance they got. Their favorite thing was to listen to the snow globe music and dance.

Lily and Grandma B shooting the breeze on Christmas morning.

"Maybe I'm not ready to open any more presents, did you think of that? I'm just sitting here trying to play with this toy. I guess that's just too much to ask. Sheesh."

Lily is enjoying her Christmas chair. We realize that this only adds to her "I'm the ruler of the world" beliefs, but she liked it so much we couldn't help ourselves.

From the looks on their faces you would think that they were about to enter a long, dark tunnel. Lily is excited, but tunnels always make Griff a bit apprehensive.

Griff and Grandpa strike a pose at one of our family parties.

The kids wanted to get their haircut so that they would look their best on Christmas. They both got suckers, which made Griff very happy. Lily was also glad to have a sucker, but she still had a bit of a hard time not crying. Maybe she is like her old man. When I was little I was convinced that haircuts hurt. She cried a bit, but she hung in there.