My Family Tree

Lauren & David

About Lauren

I grew up in Houston, Texas. I grew up with an amazing family, and have wonderful memories of my life in Houston. I have wonderful parents: Bill and Liz Griffin, and the best siblings: Alex, Bill, and Kelly. I also want to mention my Step-mother Judy, who was an absolutely amazing woman and full of life. I went to The Kinkaid School from Kindergarden thru my Senior year. I was huge into gymnastics and cheerleading, and I always dreamed of cheerleading in college (well, that never came true but not for lack of trying). I moved to Austin in August 2001 and attended the University of Texas where I graduated with a B.A. in Studio Art with a Specialization in Photography. I also have my M.B.A. from the University of Phoenix. Enough about my past, I am currently still living in fabulous Austin, Texas with my amazing fiancee David Chatfield and my most amazing son Connor Chatfield. I absolutely love being a mom.

My favorite things: FOOTBALL!! I love football, both college and pro. My favorite teams are University of Texas Longhorns, The Houston Texans, and The Chicago Bears. I also love reading (I read anything and everything), hanging out with David and Connor, swimming (anything that is outside and by a body of water), playing golf (which I am horrible at), watching any kind of dance show (I wish I could dance), celebrating all holidays, and watching Crime Shows.

My unfavorite things: Baseball (do not really care for it), flying (used to love to fly but now have a fear of it), running (but I still run anyway), tomatoes (hate them!), and not being able to see my family in Houston all the time. I love y'all!!

 

About David

The places I grew up were Indonesia, Australia and the US. Spending the majority of my youth overseas was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I wouldn't of had it any other way. My family consists of my awesome parents Alan & Teri, and my three unique brothers Andy, Jonny & Tommy. Growing up, I attended more schools than I can count on both hands. I did attend four different high schools (Ocean Reef, Kepner, JIS & Cinco Ranch). Since about 8th grade I have been very into photography, and for the longest time I wanted to be the next Ansel Adams and work for National Geographic.

In the summer of 2002, I left our family home in Katy, Texas for college in College Station. In December of 2006, I moved up to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and finished my bachelor's degree in Business Administration. After college, I moved back to Houston to start my career. I ended up working for a national photography company specializing in studio family portraiture. In the fall of 2009 I decided I wanted a change and transferred to Austin, TX. I am still in Austin with my beautiful fiancée, Lauren Griffin, and our amazing, but mischievous, son Connor. I still can't believe I'm a dad.

My favorite things - Nebraska football, collage football then NFL football in that order. My favorite teams are the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers, Houston Texans, and the Miami Dolphins. I also like video games, bbq'n, and spending family time with Lauren and Connor. I also enjoy working on cars/trucks, camping and home projects.

Dislikes - For the most part basketball, baseball, the Oklahoma sooners & the NE Patriots.
How we met

The very first time Lauren and I met was in the fall of 2009. Lauren had come in for an interview for a full time position with the photography company I worked for. I sat in on the interview with my manager and regional manager at the time. I remember thinking after she had left, "Why can't I find a girl like that?". I was disappointed she didn't get the job at that time due to an already planned vacation during the company's blackout dates.

Then, about 9 months later, the studio was short staffed again, and the company hired her on without the new manager at the time conducting her own interview of Lauren. When new people started with the company, I was friendly towards them but usually didn't talk a whole lot to them. Lauren had just about enough of that, and on the first day that we had to close the store together she was determined to get me to open up and talk to her. She said "You are going to talk to me, and if not I will talk enough for the both of us". From then on we became close friends. Over the next few months we started to talk and joke around at work more and more. When the studio was slow, we'd watch movies or tv shows on my phone.

We started talking more and more outside of work through text messaging. We had gone out with our fellow coworkers in group settings a couple times. Then came the Christmas season at our studio where we worked an insane amount of hours together. She would always bring me coffee or red bull in the morning. After our shifts, we started to go out more and more, just the two of us. When we weren't working together or hanging out outside work, we would text each other constantly. I remember one night after a long day of work Lauren said she was gonna stay up at work after she clocked out to do one of her online exams for school because she could get a better WiFi connection up there. I really didn't want to leave her up there at work alone and didn't want to go home so I told her I would help her with the exam. By the time the exam was done, she had never had that much fun taking a test because we joked around and had fun with it.

The rest of that Christmas season we hung out after work almost every night going out for drinks, going to movies or getting something to eat. She invited me out with her that New Years Eve to accompany her to a couple of her friends New Years Eve parties. Not too long after that, we started dating.
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Tuesday, December 20, 2011
How we got engaged

Lauren and I got engaged 10 days after our son Connor was born on the night of December 20th, 2011. Lauren had gone upstairs to lay down while I had Connor with me downstairs. After about 10 minutes I decided that I didn't want to go another day without being engaged to the love of my life. I looked around and found some ribbon string. I had originally planned on tying the engagement ring to the string and place it around Connor's neck. But it didn't really look right so i tied the ring around one of his little wrists. I carried sleeping Connor upstairs and walked around to Lauren on her side of the bed. I got down on one knee and handed our sleepy baby to his mother while telling Lauren how much she means to me and how I wanted us to spend our lives together. She hadn't noticed the ring around Connor's wrist until after I had finished talking and then her eyes got big when she noticed the ring. I took it off our son's wrist and asked Lauren if she would marry me and she said yes. Then I placed the ring on her finger and we kissed. She wasn't expecting a proposal so soon after our son was born and I was able to completely surprise her with it.