The Crapo Stars

San Francisco

2012-01-30T09:07:00.000-08:00

After we visited the North Pole, we drove to San Jose, CA to be with Neil's family for Thanksgiving. We got there Saturday night and went to church the next day. Madoc ended up with a fever and laid on my lap the whole three hours of church.

After dinner that night Neil and I left our sick children with Grandma and Grandpa and went to San Francisco by ourselves! We stayed for two nights and had a great time. We stayed at the Drake Hotel in downtown. It was really nice and pretty but it's an old hotel so our upgraded room was just really big and didn't really have anything special in it. We won't stay there again.

For breakfast we went to Boulette's Larder in the Ferry Building. Best. Breakfast. Ever. I don't remember what any of it was called but I had an almond tart and Neil had a fruit cake/bread. His was way better. But I had a European hot chocolate that Neil tried to recreate for the rest of the week. He couldn't quite do it but he got close once.

Then we did the usual. Walked through Chinatown. Walked along the piers. Ate clam chowder and fish and chips.

Then we went to Alcatraz which was by far the coolest thing we did all day. So fascinating. I've been to San Francisco before but never took the Alcatraz tour. I'm so glad we did this time.

The Golden Gate Bridge behind us as seen from Alcatraz.

After we got back to land we headed to Ghiradellis and split a brownie sundae. At this point it was getting cold and dark and I was really tired. The line for the trolley was ridiculous so we started climbing the hills. We made it to Lombardi street and went down and then back up that crazy twisty street. Then we managed to squeeze onto an already packed trolley and headed back to the hotel where we were really boring and watched tv until 10pm. At this point we were finally hungry for dinner so I sent Neil out into the dark and cold to find take out. Isn't he great?
The next day we checked out and went to pick up the car just to find out that the battery was dead. What an adventure. We finally made it out of the city a couple of hours later and home to our kiddos!

North Pole

2012-01-19T08:39:00.000-08:00

The weekend before Thanksgiving we took the kids to the North Pole. It was a lot of fun (except for the long windy drive through the desert and into the mountains). We got on a tram and the elves took us through a magic portal to Santa's Workshop.

Here we are in front of our tram. It had green velvet seats! Talk about fancy. We saw the reindeer in their stalls as we pulled up.

When we first got there we met some elves who led us through the Toy Hall of Fame. There were lots of cool old toys. The Hall of Fame was in Santa's "old" workshop and there were even some funny old toy prototypes.

Once Alabaster Snow (Santa's chief elf) took us into the toy shop the kids got to help the elves make toys for little boys and girls. Here Sadie is stuffing a bear.

They also got to play with Ram Rockets and shoot all the elves. Madoc really liked this part.
Our tour group had a lot of no-shows. There were only three families with a total of seven kids. The elves outnumbered them by a lot so the kids got a ton of attention. I think Sadie and Madoc had six or seven elves surrounding them. While the kids worked on the toys I let Charlotte wander around. Elves kept coming up to her wanting to hold her and find her dolls and toys. Apparently even elves can't resist cute little Charlotte.

After toys everyone got cookies and "snowman soup" or hot chocolate while the elves sang Christmas carols. Then we went to Elf school and learned all about how to be an elf.

After that the families went into Santa's office one at a time to write letters for Santa. Charlotte just tried to get the tree the whole time.

Then we saw Santa! He was a really good Santa. Charlotte didn't even cry.

At this point we went outside around a big fire to wait for the tram. It was really cold and the wind kept blowing the flames at us. Not a fun part of the night.

Our last stop was back at the lodge with Mrs. Claus. She read a Christmas story and then the kids colored pictures.
When we got to our hotel for the night we were all very tired. Then we discovered the hotel didn't have baby beds. Charlotte ended up in our bed and wouldn't go to sleep. Not a fun night, especially when we had to get up the next day to drive to California.

Primary Program and Visitors!

2012-01-18T10:00:00.000-08:00

Last year we became part of a brand new ward. Because of this our Primary Program didn't happen until the week before Thanksgiving. When Grandpa Crapo heard this, he decided they needed to come visit for the weekend.

That Saturday was the Pecan Festival. I ran the 8.5 mile race that morning with my running buddy. We knew a ton of people running the race that day. My only goal was to finish and I did. I hadn't been running that long since finishing nursing Charlotte. Unfortunately nobody made it in time to see me cross the finish line but I found them all eventually. And there was hot chocolate in the car from Neil! That more than made up for the tardiness.

We then took the horse wagon across the road to the festival. The kids had a good time. First we did face painting. Sadie got a pink butterfly on her cheek and Madoc had a fire breathing dragon on his arm. Grandma and Grandpa treated them to the petting zoo and the pony rides. And there was the obligatory jumping castles.

We had to cut the trip a little short and drag the kids away because Charlotte was cranky. Daddy had forgotten to bring any diapers or bottles or food. She was especially sad about her dirty diaper. Fortunately I was able to find a fruit leather buried in my purse and sucking on that kept her happy long enough for the kids to do everything they wanted.

We spent the afternoon getting cleaned up and having naps. I think the kids went with Grandma and Grandpa to go geocacheing before dinner. Sadie came back with a hand full of tiny needles. It took forever to clean out of her hand but then we were rewarded with a delicious dinner. Neil made chicken bellagio and it was soooooo good. I think he may need to make it again this weekend.

Sunday was the Primary Program and the kids did great. They both knew their parts and said them loudly and clearly. Too bad Madoc never sang any songs though.

Halloween 2011

2012-01-18T08:31:00.000-08:00

Charlotte and I got sick the week of Halloween. It was really bad timing. There are parties and school programs like crazy that week. And I had to make Madoc's costume. It was a very miserable week and everything got done last minute and only halfway really.

We hurried and carved our pumpkins before Trick-or-Treating. You can't carve them very early here because it's too warm and they rot. And the Saturday before was the ward Trunk-or-Treat and I was busy all day being sick and sewing Madoc's costume so we didn't get the pumpkins done then.

Sadie decided she and Charlotte would be hula dancers, just like Sadie was for her first Halloween. Madoc wanted to be a cheetah.

Yes, she's eating rocks.

Due to the time crunch our pumpkins were pretty simple this year.

2012-01-18T08:20:00.000-08:00

Neil turned 30 in October. Wahoo! I wanted to do a dinner party but there were just too many people to invite. So instead we made all of Neil's favorite desserts and had a backyard party. You can do that in October when you live in the desert.

Neil always makes cool vents on his apple pies. And his apple pies are yummy. Yes, he made his own birthday pie. But I made all the rest.

With the birthday cheesecake. Sadie was very happy about this.

And all the food. We had homemade cookies and cream ice cream, chocolate chip cookies, and hot chocolate too.

Here's the pie baked.

And a whole lot of kids on one swing. They had a good time. And so did Neil.

Hunting for Pumpkins

2012-01-18T07:37:00.000-08:00

We have several pumpkin patches in the area but one is quite close. It's only 15 minutes down the highway which is extraordinarily convenient when you have three small children. We didn't go in 2010 since Charlotte was due soon so we decided it was time to go again. We spent a few morning hours at the patch and as we were driving home Neil and I both agreed that it had been a highly successful morning. Everyone had fun, Charlotte was good, there were no tantrums, the kids saw everything they wanted, and everyone was ready to go at the same time with no complaining! We packed a lunch to eat in the car on the way home so everyone was ready for naps when we got back. How awesome is that?!

We rode on a hay wagon out to the pumpkin patch to pick pumpkins. Sadie found a good one right away. Madoc wanted the biggest one of course. We almost walked the whole patch before he finally settled on one. Sadie also found a tiny pumpkin for Charlotte.

This farm has awesome tire swings. The kids had lots of fun taking turns with the other kids.

Neil decided the pumpkins needed some shade.

I sat and watched while the kids were on the swings and in the trees.

The kids also saw some animals, walked the hay maze, and played in the bounce house. Once she was done jumping, Sadie announced that she was tired and ready to go home. Madoc was good enough to oblige her as soon as he was done jumping too.

Madoc's Baseball Day

2012-01-05T10:26:00.000-08:00

Neil and I were talking about 2011 and one of the things that we thought our family did well on was daddy/daughter/son dates. Every weekend Neil takes one of the kids on "date" of their choosing. Sadie almost always goes out to lunch but we try to suggest new things to keep the variety going. This October weekend was Madoc's turn. He and his dad headed into the backyard to play tee ball. After awhile Madoc had us all come out to watch. They had a good time and got very sweaty.

Random October Pictures

2012-01-04T08:40:00.000-08:00

October 2011

enjoying new books

Madoc entertaining Charlotte

morning Charlotte

asleep again

the new suit that was his birthday/Christmas present

General Conference Weekend

2012-01-03T16:37:00.000-08:00

Saturday

One of Charlotte's first walking videos

Sunday

2012-01-03T11:40:00.000-08:00

I'm just clearing out the picture queue. Here are some old ones.

August 2011

A very young, dirty Charlotte face

Neil unhooking the fridge to clean underneath it

a very sleepy lunch

September 2011

One of the many volunteer watermelons in our garden this year. It was huge and amazingly edible.

playing with the bells

Music Time

2011-11-14T14:04:00.000-08:00

These are really old. It takes me awhile to post anymore. Oh, you noticed?

We have greatly expanded our kid music collection this year. Madoc in particular loves to listen to his favorite songs. This particular day he spent all morning sitting next to my stereo on the counter, switching out cds and searching for the best songs.

One morning he asked for the gorilla song. I had no idea what he was talking about and I was looking through all the cds for any song that resembled a gorilla song. We even listened to the first 10 seconds of every Beatles song on one cd. Finally I put on a Raffi cd and just started skipping around. Finally Madoc said I had found it. Apparently "et les loups-garous" (and the werewolves) sounds like a gorilla song to a little boy.

And here we have some dancing. These were taken at the same time as Charlotte sitting on the table eating apples.

Quality of Life

2011-11-01T17:59:00.000-07:00

"Can I have some parmesan cheese on my spaghetti?"

"I'm sorry Sadie, we don't have any. I'm sorry I've been sick and haven't been to the grocery store. I'm sorry I'm ruining everybody's lives."

"You aren't ruining our lives; you're just making them very disappointing."

Breakfast Is A Three Course Meal

2011-10-26T18:07:00.001-07:00

"Madoc, do you want Rice Krispies for breakfast?"

(nods head) "Can I have sticky Cheerios too?"

"Yes you can. What do you want first?"

"Life."

Time...

2011-10-24T21:49:00.000-07:00

"Madoc, please go into the bathroom and go potty"

"I don't need to go."

"Madoc, please go potty."

"I don't need to go, I went before my bath."

"Madoc, that was a long time ago."

"It wasn't a long time ago; it was today!"

Baking with Madoc

2011-10-17T09:20:00.000-07:00

Last month Madoc helped me make graham crackers for a surprise for Sadie. We tried a new recipe from my cousin. I liked it better than my recipe because it didn't call for shortening. Madoc had a good time with the cookie cutters. He and I thought they were pretty tasty but Sadie didn't care for them. Apparently she no longer likes graham crackers.

Hide n Seek

2011-10-10T12:01:00.000-07:00

Remember when we posted about how we rearranged the furniture so that Charlotte can't escape the family room? Well, one day Neil put Charlotte in there while he was cleaning the kitchen. Later he heard her whining and cranky and went to get her. But he couldn't see her anywhere - just hear her. He finally realized that she had climbed into the bottom of the armoire and couldn't get back out. Now she climbs right in whenever we leave the door open. And the big kids have started to join her.

The Stinky, Nasty Formula is Back

2011-10-10T11:43:00.000-07:00

We finally had to give up nursing Charlotte and she's exclusively on bottles now. I hate formula but at least we know that if she's not eating it's her own fault. At her nine month appointment she weighed 13 pounds 12 ounces. She's so tiny and it's no wonder. We can hardly ever get her to finish a 4 oz bottle!

A Tiny Baseball Fan

2011-10-10T11:34:00.000-07:00

Neil needed proof that Cardinals paraphernalia could look good in pink. He called, asking for a picture, just as I had got Charlotte dressed for the day and was putting her down for a nap. She was not at all happy about changing or posing for pictures. This was the best I got.

Services Rendered

2011-10-10T11:31:00.000-07:00

A friend from school needed some flower girl dresses made at the last minute. I was able to help her out. They turned out cute, although not as perfect as I'd like. I didn't have much to work with though so it turned out pretty good I'd say. I made the dresses without seeing the little girls they were going to fit and we were modifying the pattern too. But they're done! Yay!

Apples and Charlotte

2011-09-15T08:40:00.000-07:00

For my mother, who called just to tell me that I needed to post on my blog. I didn't have anything to post about so I took some pictures of ordinary stuff yesterday. Here we go.

I was eating apple slices yesterday morning and Charlotte was enthralled. She followed my movements with her whole head, mouth wide open and tongue hanging out. I decided to giver her a slice just to play with. She was so happy with that idea. She was especially happy once I put her up on the kitchen table to take a picture. She sat there gnawing on her apple and slowly turning in a circle as she pushed herself around with her feet. So happy.

Pictures from today

2011-08-10T19:28:00.000-07:00

My family room looks like this nowadays.And despite all this someone still managed to get out of her corral

and decided to help me with the dishes.

Madoc found all the pillows in the house (minus just two) and built himself a cheetah nest.

Crayons and Pencils

2011-08-10T19:12:00.000-07:00

Today was the first day of school. Sadie is a big 1st Grader now! Last night we went to school and met her new teacher, Mrs. Mulay. She was exactly the teacher we wanted! And we found that she had several friends with her in class.

School started a half hour earlier this year and Neil didn't know what time we needed to be up. He graciously took care of the kids and let me sleep in (which I love!) but that meant I had only half an hour to get breakfast made, lunch made, and everyone ready to get in the car. That was a crazy morning! But we made it and still had time for some pictures. They look just like last year's first day pictures - just a little older.

Madoc's Party

2011-08-08T11:44:00.000-07:00

Madoc had his birthday in Indiana but we had a friends party once we got back. He wanted a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cake, just like last year, so that set our theme. Only 2 of the 4 little boys (and siblings) we invited could come but they were our best family friends so we were alright with that.

For Sadie's art party I planned a few activities but left a lot of time for playing. That did NOT work and I had kids bugging me the whole time. So for Madoc's party we made it much shorter and I planned every minute. But when the kids got here all they wanted to do was play. So much for games and activities!

Neil grilled hot dogs and chicken and we also had chips, popcorn, and apples and strawberries. And let's not forget cake! But I did forget the ice cream. Oops. Sadie was very upset about that after the party.

Charlotte is growing a little too fast

2011-08-05T10:07:00.000-07:00

Charlotte is a tiny, sweet thing. She'll be eight months old in a few days. While we were in Indiana a month ago she finally started eating solid foods (yay bananas!) and she pulled herself up for the first time. She had just barely started sitting on her own before we got there. But that was only the beginning. In the course of two weeks she went from completely immobile to walking around furniture. None of my babies progressed so fast. She learned to crawl quickly. It started out as a modified army crawl where she would get up on her knees every third step or so and propel herself forward. It was only a few days before she was all hands and knees. She also learned how to get back into a sitting position, pull up on anything and walk around it, and go up the stairs. I hope she doesn't want to start walking anytime soon.

Pulling up on the coffee table

Madoc feeding her a bottle

Ruffle bum - the outfit was mine as a baby

Sitting in the grass out in the backyard

A quick post about the weekend

2011-08-01T19:01:00.000-07:00

Charlotte decided to eat the laptop cord.

We have a volunteer watermelon plant in the backyard. This is one of the three watermelons off it (unfortunately they're not suitable for eating but apparently suitable to dress up).

Have you seen the pic of the kiddie car wash floating around the web? I showed it to Neil and on Saturday he made this. The water in the desert is so warm coming out of the tap that the kids just stood under it like a shower. So much for running through the sprinklers.

We spent all day Friday at a waterpark but I wanted to just play and enjoy so I didn't take the camera. The kids loved it (it was our second time) and Charlotte lasted seven hours! What a lil' sport. Neil and I took turns on a few of the slides but we spent most of the day in the wave pool on tubes and just swimming around. The kids liked having so much shallow water to swim in. But it was kind of a problem because they would just take off (especially Madoc) and would be in the middle of the pool with no adult supervision. I think I had a heart attack about twelve times that day.

And for an update, our ward split and we are now in a NEW fifth ward for our area. Neil is the new Elders Quorum president (he has been for a month or so in the old ward) and I got released from YW and called as the new gospel doctrine instructor. I taught for the first time on Sunday and it didn't go well. And to make matters worse I was the youngest person in the room (excluding Charlotte of course).

Four steps up is a bit high

2011-08-01T16:10:00.001-07:00

My seven and a half month old baby just climbed the stairs. Awesome.

The Fourth

2011-07-22T15:36:00.000-07:00

We didn't do anything really picture worthy on the Fourth of July. We hit the outlet mall, went swimming, ate hamburgers and hot dogs, and the boys nearly killed themselves lighting off fireworks. We made smores before bed and Neil made this fabulous berry pie. I think it had blackberries, raspberries, blueberries and strawberries by the time he got the pie full.

Visiting folks

2011-07-21T09:45:00.000-07:00

Our first full day in Indiana was a Sunday. We went to church and then headed out to my grandparents' farm. I always love going there to visit. Life is just simple there.

Great-grandma Shoaf and Charlotte. Charlotte is a big mama's girl and doesn't take to strangers holding her but she let Grandma hold her for a LONG time. What a good girl!

Trey and Grandpa. Grandpa was really funny that day and told lots of good stories. The best one was about a stone scraper made by Native Americans that he had. His house is full of arrow heads and the like that he has found in his fields over the years. Well an elderly gentleman offered him $1000 for this particular scraper but Grandpa wouldn't sell it. His explanation was: "I would have gone and spent the thousand dollars and then he would have my rock and I would have had nothin'!" How awesome is that?!

After a delicious pork chop dinner we took some to my dad and visited him at the fire station. We always have to stop at the fire station as Madoc demands it. Trey and Charlotte are hanging out (above) and Madoc sits in the engine (below).

The Commons

2011-07-21T08:48:00.000-07:00

While we were at my parents' we made a stop at the Commons. It used to be an old mall and now it's being made over with office, retail, event space, etc. I grew up going to play on the Commons playground. It was recently renovated and my family hadn't seen the new one yet. Neil was very sad that they took out the old because it had such cool (ie dangerous) play equipment but he said the new one was cool too. Neil and the kids ran around for awhile and then played hide and seek. Charlotte and I just hung out on the side.

This was a concave little dish in the toddler area. Charlotte thought it was fun to sit in and try to crawl out.

There is a huge climbing structure now. If you've been to the Magic House in St. Louis, it's very similar to the beanstalk only much bigger. The picture is horrible but I was too far away and couldn't get closer because I had Charlotte beside me and there was a lot of light behind them. But they're up at the top.

2011-07-19T09:00:00.000-07:00

We did a lot of swimming while at Grandma's house. It was so nice to have the pool right out the back door. No packing swim bags or worrying about who hasn't gone to the bathroom. One night Neil and I even went swimming after the kids were in bed!

The kids became much braver in the water on this trip. Sadie started swimming even longer distances, learned how to breathe without stopping, and perfected her technique for diving for sticks. Madoc no longer needs a grown-up holding on to him the whole time. And Charlotte just loves the water. The pool was 88 to 90 degrees the whole time which is MUCH warmer than our pool here and it made the whole experience so pleasant.

Could she be wearing any more floaties?

And a random pic of my dad and Trey.

County Fair

2011-07-18T20:47:00.000-07:00

More birthday pictuers...

After our birthday festivities we went to the fair and ate yummy food and after much begging the kids got to go on some of the rides.

And he's four!!!!

2011-07-17T11:26:00.000-07:00

We just got back from visiting my family in Indiana. While we were there my boy had a birthday and he turned four! I think he had a pretty good day. We spent the morning swimming in Grandma's pool then Grandpa took us flying. Madoc thought that was very cool. We got back just in time for cake and presents. Madoc really liked his presents. He's been wearing his Cars tool belt all around the house; the bike already has a flat tire; and I have a bloody ankle from the Razor scooter. He also got a ton of clothes and books. And we got him a Richard Scarry Eye Spy game that is so fun. We've played it everyday since we've opened it.

2011-06-16T18:00:00.000-07:00

Sadie, did you know that you are a very pretty girl?
Uhh! Everyone knows that!
Oh, they do huh?
Well, everyone that sees me!

More Old Photos

2011-06-16T09:22:00.000-07:00

With an emphasis on Sadie since she doesn't get much screen time any more.

Sadie re-reading Little House on the Prairie.

There is usually at least one of these somewhere in my house at all times.

Photo by Madoc

The girls have a bath.

Ready for church

I have five minutes...

2011-06-14T10:33:00.000-07:00

so I'll post some old photos.

I left the table half way through lunch to feed Charlotte. The kids moved EVERYTHING that was on the table under the table and called it a tea party.

Sadie is reading in Charlotte's high chair. She's kind of huge.

Eating a Lincoln Log horse.

Sitting! And then toppling right after this picture was taken (it was a week or two ago).

She looks too tiny to be in the high chair. Since she doesn't like food we use it for play time more than eating.

Lastly, over Memorial Day I had some fresh blackberries so I tried making my dad's blackberry cobbler. It's not an exact science and I was trying to cut down the 9x13 pan recipe for my tiny family. We stuck it in a pie pan and I added way to much sugar and Neil pulverized the berries (apparently I didn't explain myself very well) so there was too much juice. But after a day in the fridge the sweetness wore off a bit and it firmed up so it was still delicious.

6 months

2011-06-13T11:53:00.000-07:00

Charlotte turned six months old last week. We went in to the pediatrician's office today for her six month check-up. Her height is still right on track and her weight finally took a (small) upward jump. She's still a tiny little thing but she's growing! She weighed 11 pounds 13 ounces.

Of all my children Charlotte is the most ready to smile. Her face lights up whenever someone pays her any attention. She's almost "officially" sitting on her own. She prefers to stand than sit and has been standing since she was a month old - she's so strong! She has her favorite toys (including Neil's iPod headphones) and loves to splash in the bathtub with the big kids. They fight over whose turn it is to bathe with Charlotte.

We still can't get her to eat solids. She's had rice cereal, pears, and bananas but she spits them all out and clamps her mouth shut when she sees the spoon. Hopefully that will change soon because she needs the calories.

Unfortunately she's already preferring mama to anyone else. The Young Women kept wanting to hold her at mutual last Wednesday but she screamed like a banshee every time they picked her up.

Neil says I pushed her over with the zoom.

Where does it hurt, exactly?

2011-06-04T19:16:00.000-07:00

Madoc: "Mommy, this cookie is giving me a headache. I mean, this cookie is giving me a tummy ache. I mean, this cookie is going to make my belly hurt."

More Crapo Fun

2011-06-02T17:08:00.001-07:00

A few recent tidbits about my son can be found here, including a campout and some funny things that came from his mouth.

Another Milestone

2011-06-01T12:28:00.000-07:00

Charlotte recently started solid food. She's had rice cereal and pears so far. She's not a huge fan of the cereal and the jury's still out on the pears. She's a tiny little squirt so hopefully she'll take a liking to food soon.

The first year is over!

2011-06-01T08:12:00.000-07:00

Sadie graduated from Kindergarten on May 18th. I had no idea it would be such a big deal - it's only Kindergarten after all! But the whole elementary came to watch, plus the kids walked with their 8th grade buddies. Whole families turned out to watch with flowers and balloons in tow. And apparently everyone checks out early and goes to lunch afterwards. So Sadie came home at eleven and we picked up McDonald's on the way home.

Sadie waiting in line with her 8th grade buddy Rachel (she's on the right and I didn't get a single picture of her face.)

Making a lap around the gym.

Being recognized on stage with Dr. Juettner

In her classroom with Mrs. McNichols who we absolutely love!

Zoo Time!

2011-05-27T11:01:00.000-07:00

Just a little catch up. Back when school was still in I chaperoned Sadie's Kinder field trip to the zoo. Our zoo is very small so we saw almost everything in less than two hours. Good thing too because my kids were complaining about being hungry less than an hour into it! We saw the animals, fed the giraffes, and rode the zoo train. Then we walked to a park to eat and play on the playground. Sadie liked the otters the best. She thought their swimming tricks were pretty cool. And she was so worn out that she laid in my lap and slept the entire bus ride home!

Sadie at the lunchtime picnic

My Group - all but one were extremely well-behaved. I was pretty lucky.

Feeding the giraffes

and the end of feeding the giraffes.

Our first summer fun

2011-05-22T21:18:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went to a water park in town. Neil's work had bought out the park for the day so we got cheap tickets, free tubes, and lunch for everyone. The kids had a great time. First we headed to the kiddie splash pad and discovered that the water was freezing! Funny thing about living in the desert - if it's not over 100 degrees then the water is too cold to swim in due to all of the evaporation. Poor little Madoc went down a slide that was a bit faster than he anticipated and he went right under. He did not want to go down that again! He was shaking like a leaf for the next half an hour.

Next we went to the wave pool. After the first few waves hit Madoc decided he didn't like it. Sadie however loved it. While the boys went on the water slides I sat in a tube on the edge with Charlotte and Sadie took off into the waves all on her own. She had the biggest grin on her face as she bobbed up and down. But at the end of the day we made Madoc get in the wave pool again and he liked it so much that it became his favorite thing.

Mother's Day

2011-05-11T09:33:00.000-07:00

I haven't a single picture of Mother's Day because I'm the one who takes the pictures around here and I'm the mom so it was my day off. But despite the lack of pictures I think it was one of the best Mother's Days I've ever had (not too hard since there's only been six, but who's counting?).
I got to sleep in until 7:30! That's unheard of! I'm usually up at 5:30 now that the sun is making an early entrance. Then I played the waiting game. You know, the one where you're not sure if you're supposed to stay in bed because there are festivity plannings downstairs or if you can go ahead and get up. I got the option of breakfast in bed or at the table and I opted for the table. Who likes crumbs in their bed? Or eating by themselves? So down we all went to have Belgian waffles with strawberries and cream. Oh yum. And then the showering of gifts began! Lovely cards drawn by my lovely kiddos. Flowers to adorn my window. And this:

From The Vintage Pearl of course. And oh how I love it!

The kids were amazingly well-behaved all day. Sadie was really into the whole celebrate mom thing. I kept receiving drawings and crafts all day. From Kindergarten I got a juice can vase full of silk flowers and a pink peony broach that went perfectly with my skirt for church. And there were lots of hugs.
At church the women got cds full of instrumental hymns and primary medleys and mine now hangs out in the car. And the men took over so we could all got to Relief Society! Yippee! The only sad thing was when Sadie refused to go sing with the Primary kids without Madoc (her security blanket) who was asleep on Neil's lap. Oh well.
And after church we had another family for dinner. Neil made fabulous grilled chicken. That with roasted potatoes and cranberry and almond salad made my day! And our friends brought chocolate cake with pb frosting! Anyone who know me should realized that I could have had just the cake for dinner and been completely happy.
What a lovely day it was. Too bad it doesn't come twice a year!

He's just being nice

2011-05-10T14:08:00.001-07:00

Madoc has this yucky little habit of sucking on his blanket and Charlotte sucks on everything these days so they were sharing.

2011-05-09T11:04:00.000-07:00

I gave Madoc some rice and kitchen utensils to play with last week. He had a good time and made a great mess. And don't mind that pile of recyclables. They were soon taken to the curb.

Sometimes eating makes us sleepy...

2011-05-09T10:17:00.000-07:00

Charlotte generally eats as soon as she wakes up from naps. This particular day last week she woke up from a long nap, ate her lunch, and promptly fell asleep again. I didn't know eating was such hard work.

My Boys Have Been Here

2011-05-03T11:19:00.000-07:00

Neil cut out some dead bushes from our front yard on Saturday. But he can't just throw them away like a normal person. No, he has to stack them in the middle of my patio so he can burn them in the grill. Then Madoc commandeered them, added some grass clippings, and made a pretend fire.

Happy Easter

2011-05-01T06:12:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful, quiet Easter at home this year. In years past we have invited friends over for a big Easter dinner but the holiday sneaked up on me this year, as everything is lately. I can't seem to plan ahead with a baby in the house and Easter sort of surprised me. So we did without the big dinner in order to lessen the stress of the holiday and celebrated by ourselves.

Sadie found a recipe for Bunny Buns in the Friend magazine so I made those for breakfast. I was up at three in the morning starting the dough so that we could actually eat them for breakfast. Charlotte was a good alarm clock! Neil made some bacon and cheesy eggs to go with them. It was a yummy breakfast. Oh, and the buns were just orange rolls. You can find the recipe here.

The kids baskets were filled with new books, bubble refills, pencils, and new sand buckets. It seems that every Easter my kids get new sand toys because the heat and sun here make their old toys brittle and they all need replaced every year. We passed on candy this year and instead I made Rice Krispie treats shaped like tulips, bunny heads, and butterflies and decorated them with colored sugar.

Charlotte seemed happy about her first Easter basket. Or maybe she just liked being outside.

The girls had matching yellow dresses with white polka dots. I made Madoc a yellow tie with blue and green polka dots to match the girls.
We dyed eggs the night before and filled some plastic eggs with coins. And for the first year here we had our egg hunt in grass and not rocks!

Sadie and Madoc had a good time finding their eggs. Madoc had a little help finding the last of them. Sadie had beat him to all the most obvious ones and so we pointed out the ones hiding amongst the tree branches.

All the loot!

We have late church (not over until five!) So we had the ham in the oven on a timer. When we got home it wasn't long until we were eating a fabulous dinner of ham, potato casserole, carrots, salad, and deviled eggs. Yum!

2011-04-30T21:31:00.000-07:00

They really love each other.

2011-04-27T11:03:00.000-07:00

We had family portraits taken back in February but it took forever to get the picture cd back and then it took forever to upload them. But here is a short sampling. Charlotte was two and a half months old, Madoc is three and a half, and Sadie was five (almost six).

THE Birthday Party

2011-04-25T10:52:00.000-07:00

Once Sadie entered Kindergarten, birthday party invites started pouring in. Sadie has been talking about her birthday party for months so I decided to oblige her. This was her first really big party and I think we'll keep them rare.

We went with an art theme since Sadie loves all things crafty and artsy.
The Set Up

The Friends
The Activities
Face PaintingSelf-portraitsWatercolor Still Lifes

The Food

Quote of the Day

2011-04-22T12:46:00.000-07:00

The kids have built a boat out of chairs and couch cushions. They've been bugging me all day to put their baby sister in the boat with them. In frustration I told them, "Charlotte is not a toy! I am not putting her in the boat!"

Madoc's reply, "We know Charlotte isn't a toy. We just want to play with her!"

Birthday Wishes

2011-04-21T11:10:00.000-07:00

Have you ever seen a more pathetic attempt at blowing out candles?

Someone had a birthday!

2011-04-21T10:37:00.000-07:00

That's right! Someone is now six years old (and has been for several weeks now). Since my life is consumed with trying to feed Charlotte, I haven't posted about our birthday festivities.

Sadie and Neil always want cheesecake. And that's fine because cheesecake is delicious but I want cake! We took cupcakes to her class that day so Madoc and I got to enjoy a little birthday cake. We had sausage and bean soup the night before and potato casserole (with pork chops, etc.) for her dinner proper. She always requests such funny things for her birthday dinner.

I think she was quite pleased with all of her gifts. She got everything she had asked for, especially the new watch that she's been asking me to buy for the past two months.

More birthday party to come later!

The Woes of Being Six

2011-04-19T21:07:00.000-07:00

This is a girl whose life is in danger. In her words, she's dying from homework. Apparently, one complication of death by homework is that you can simultaneously die from salad. I had no idea six year olds could be so melodramatic - or that lettuce could be so cruel.

When her brother spilled his water and some of it splashed on her she went wicked witch of the west on us and started screaming about her brother making her life horrible. Her pouting and inarticulate growls had us entertained through the first half of dinner.

I don't think she was as amused as we were.

Pillow Fight

2011-04-16T08:53:00.000-07:00

Pillow fights have a long and storied tradition in our house. One of Neil's and Sadie's favorite games after she learned to walk was for her to toddle around the living room while he tried to knock her down by throwing pillows at her. It sounds abusive but she loved it. While Sadie never has been very interested in throwing the pillows back, Madoc takes the game seriously, sneaking up on Neil while he's sitting on the couch with a pillow in hand.

This morning after one such attack, Madoc decided to give Neil a chance to fight back. Handing Neil a pillow and keeping one for himself he said:

"Daddy, you count to four and I'll count to one."

Yes, that's much more sporting.

It isn't always greener on the other side...

2011-04-04T13:26:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago my yard started out looking like this:

By day's end it looked like this:

Neil worked long and hard that Friday to get everything finished. I tried to help but I was pretty much useless as the sod was too heavy for me to move. We had already put in the irrigation last year and Neil's been working all winter to drop the grade below the level of the fieldstone so that the grass would be even with it in the end. So that morning he moved more dirt, added sand, peat moss, sulfur, phosphorus, and gypsum, then rototilled the whole yard. After he leveled it off and passed the lawn roller over it a few times, he started laying down the sod. I helped trim and cut pieces around the fieldstone, trees, etc. I became very good at sawing through sod! I also helped water down the 1000 sq ft of sod sitting on our driveway. At the end of the day Neil was exhausted and I think we practically fell into bed. But now our backyard is green!

Charlotte

2011-03-31T09:22:00.000-07:00

I don't talk about her very often but she is absolutely the sweetest thing in our house right now. Here's just a bit about her.

She's about three and a half months right now. I finally have a baby with brown eyes and boy are they big! I think I get more compliments on how beautiful her eyes are than anything else. And she is often compared to a dainty little doll. She's so small! There were about five baby girls all born within a month or two. Charlotte's due date was first and she was born third and she's the smallest of all!

I think that months 2 to 3 are always hard with my babies (are yours?) but we're finally past that. We had a few rough weeks of no sleep which were very disappointing because she used to go til 3 am! But now she goes til one or two o'clock and then wakes every two hours or so. Not perfect but we can manage. And she always goes to sleep on her own. Yay for that! Some naps are 30 minutes, some are close to three hours. She's totally unpredictable.

This little girl is very alert. She's either asleep or taking everything in. People always comment on this too. The big eyes probably help her look so alert. She loves to stand. I can't really wear her in the baby sling because she is always standing up in it. She is very strong and can hold her head very still. We can't leave her anywhere high anymore because she's already scooting. One day she actually managed to slide down into the bathroom sink! She rolled when only a few weeks old with the help of an incline but she did it all on her own earlier this month. I've been trying to catch it on video and I finally got this tiny little clip.

This is an attempt at getting her to roll again so I could catch the whole thing. I was unsuccessful but it's cute anyway.

This is Madoc playing Patty Cake with her. She loves this game and will laugh when we play. She has a very cute little laugh but we don't hear full on giggles too often. I'm always tempted to get her giggling but it always gives her hiccups that last an hour.

The Homemade Goodness

2011-03-28T09:57:00.000-07:00

I made several Christmas presents this past year and I wanted to share them. But my life is crazy and so I'm finally getting around to it now that March is almost over.I like all of my babies to have two matching blankets. It makes washing them much easier. I use soft fleece and satin binding for multiple textures. Here is Charlotte with her new blanket this past week. I love the bright red, pink, and orange of the flowers and butterflies.
My kids and my nephew got some fun felt food. Jill has a good list of online tutorials. You can find it here. I also made strawberries but they're not in the picture.
Sadie and lots of sisters got flower hairclips.
My kids love building tents and forts so now they have a designated kit. I think this gets played with EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.
I first saw the idea on Bloom.
The original idea can be found here. I started making the ties to add to the sheets but I didn't finish in time, what with a new baby and all. So I wrapped it up incomplete and after a few days of playing, I realized that I didn't want to finish the ties. The kids didn't need them and it was much easier this way. And when I need extra sheets for company I just rob the fort kit!

Our kit consists of four twin flat sheets from Wal-Mart, clothespins, clamps, and Lego walkie talkies. I stuffed it all in a $5 fabric bag from Wal-Mart. The stripey sheets always make our forts look like circus tents. So fun.

Star Wars

2011-03-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

My kids have been asking a lot of questions about Star Wars lately. I'm not sure why. It must be the Lego Star Wars pajamas that Madoc got for Christmas. They want to know who all the characters are. So we decided we would watch the movies so they could see what it was all about. I think these are the most grown-up movies my kids have ever watched. Madoc thought they were awesome and would cry out in glee whenever something exploded. Sadie kept asking "who is that guy?" The answer was always Luke Skywalker. She just couldn't seem to keep track of him through all the costume changes.

St. Patrick's Day

2011-03-22T21:02:00.000-07:00

I'm one of those awful mothers who forgets doctor appointments, bills that need paid, and holidays every time there is a new baby in the house. So this St. Patrick's Day snuck up on me. Sadie actually reminded me of it early in the day and then halfway through getting everyone dressed I remembered again. We had to scramble and change a few outfits but we all managed to avoid being pinched.

We didn't have our green pancakes since I forgot but I did manage to put together a quick craft. Good thing too because to Sadie, that's what holidays are all about! We traced two sizes of shamrocks onto paper, overlapping them in interesting ways, and decorated them with different patterns and shades of green. Sadie actually made two.
And I thought about making our stew and soda bread that night but we had already planned on grilling and it was beautiful outside and everyone was out playing while Neil dug in the dirt so we decided to stick with it. We did have broccoli salad to add some green to our dinner and I made a last minute trip to the grocery so we could add green punch and cupcakes.

It was well after bedtime before dinner was ready due to Neil using all the daylight hours he had in the backyard so the kids were watching Kipper while they waited. All three of them.

Magical Tools

2011-03-20T08:03:00.000-07:00

In an effort to keep some control over the messes in the house, we've instituted a rule that upstairs toys are not allowed to be brought downstairs. Oddly enough, we have no problem with downstairs toys making their way upstairs. Probably for the same reason that upstairs toys have such a hard time getting back upstairs. That tricksy gravity has turned our stairs into a toy diode. (And that nerdy observation should make it obvious that Neil is writing this entry.)

There are a few important things to note about the following picture. (Madoc's hair is not one of them, though it is entertaining.) Those tools are very much an upstairs toy. That boy is downstairs.

Here is what he had to say on the subject:

"The tools came downstairs all by themselves.

"They turneded into a person and came downstairs and I didn't knowded because I was hiding. I was in here."

Well, that's a relief. And here I thought somebody was breaking the rules.

Cute Baby

2011-03-18T08:32:00.000-07:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2011-03-17T09:43:00.000-07:00

The Crapo kids on March 17, 2011

Did you know it's a dollar these days?

2011-03-17T07:46:00.000-07:00

The tooth fairy visited our house. Finally! I thought that tooth would never fall out and I was sick of hearing about it! Sadie asked me to pull her tooth out several times a day. It finally came out one evening when Neil pushed IN on it instead of Sadie pushing it OUT. It was just the right counterbalancing force or something.

Incidentally, we didn't tell her about the tooth fairy. Santa is just for fun in our house and I don't think my kids even know what the Easter bunny is. But in Kindergarten, the tooth fairy is ALL the rage. She had been going on about it for weeks. I told her to just put her tooth under her pillow and ignored the rest.

And the funny kid didn't want to put her tooth under the pillow because she didn't want the fairy to take her tooth. But she still wanted the dollar. In the end the dollar won.

Acting Out

2011-03-16T11:36:00.000-07:00

Monday after running errands Madoc was just mad. At what, I'm not sure. Mad at the world I guess. I was tending to Charlotte or putting away groceries or something when I heard Sadie yelling, "Mom! Madoc's putting ketchup on my back!"Sure enough, she was right. He grabbed a fistful of ketchup from his lunch plate and smeared it all over her. She hadn't done a thing to him. He was just mad.

Pi Day

2011-03-16T11:35:00.000-07:00

Neil's family loves Pi Day (March 14th) and Neil loves pie. Normally he would celebrate with an apple pie or some such but there was no way he had time to make a pie on Monday. And he was too busy on Sunday making me roasted red pepper soup and fresh whole wheat bread. So no pie.But Sadie has been wanting quiche for dinner and Madoc's been requesting chocolate pie for the past month so I decided to oblige them. I wouldn't normally celebrate Pi Day but I supposed it was a good excuse to get my kids to quit asking for all those pies.
I use Rachael's quiche recipe and this French Silk Pie.

Pictures for a Sunday Afternoon

2011-03-12T19:14:00.000-08:00

Charlotte likes to hang out with Daddy

watching Nanny McPhee for family movie night
everyone playing and happy
that's what you get when you wake up early and ruin Mom's nap

Cooing on the Couch

2011-03-05T08:20:00.000-08:00

Amidst crying, eating, spitting up, and sleeping, Charlotte occasionally has time to play and be happy.

Ice Cream Is Better With A Shovel

2011-03-05T08:00:00.000-08:00

We were having ice cream for Family Home Evening a couple weeks ago. Not uncommonly, the kids got their own spoons. When I glanced over at Madoc eating, I saw that he was using one of the big serving spoons.

His reply: "I like big things and giant things"

Charlotte's Blessing

2011-02-21T05:59:00.000-08:00

We had lots of family here a few weeks ago. Both sets of grandparents, John and Becky, and my sisters, Abby and Chelsie came for the blessing. The kids loved all the extra attention. And of course the treats. Why can't grandmas come without treats?Neil's family
My family

Charlotte wore the same dress as Sadie. It was made by my aunt who also made my wedding dress and its style mimics my dress.
the blessing circle

2011-02-17T18:49:00.000-08:00

We just had a ton of family in town and excepting the blessing day pics, these are the only photos I got. I really need to get my camera out more often.My cute sister Chelsie with my cute baby Charlotte and Grandpa Shoaf with said baby

2011-02-17T18:00:00.000-08:00

Have you had your cute blond little boy fix today? Let me oblige you.

He won't eat the grapefruit but he will drink the juice. He says it "freezes" him.

Valentines

2011-02-16T13:35:00.000-08:00

We had a lovely Valentine's Day and I have no pictures to show for it. The longer I'm a mother the fewer pictures I take. I find I'm just too busy managing kids and enjoying what we're doing to pull out the camera.

My mom watched the kids Friday night so that Neil and I could go out. We found a local Italian place called Mama Louisa's. It was divine! I've never had lasagna that good and the eggplant parmigiana was to die for! We are definitely going back soon. Then we went bowling. It was so much fun. The first game was hilarious. Neil kept getting gutter balls while I kept getting strikes. Our first game was 107-69. But he started to do better and won the second game, 114-74. I lost my strike streak but consistently got 7s and 8s and that's pretty good in my book.

On Monday morning my poor husband left before anyone else was awake. I am pretty sure I only half realized that he was leaving as he came to kiss me goodbye. (Gotta love seminary.) A while later Sadie came and crawled into bed with me and found something strange on her daddy's pillow. It was toffee from See's Candy! Yippee! My husband knows me all too well.

I made pink heart pancakes for breakfast and they were a big hit. Sadie took her homemade Valentines to school and came home with a bag full of goodies, including a cookie gram from her mom and dad. Grandma handed out Valentine cards and pink M&Ms, and Grandpa sent more cards from Indiana. And to finish the day off we had a festive dinner table with red tablecloth, white candles, and M&M covered plates thanks to Sadie. Oh, and Red Velvet Cake with cream cheese frosting for dessert. Yum!

2011-02-15T07:31:00.000-08:00

This little stinkpot is sleeping in my bed right now. I am convinced that being so darn cute is a defense mechanism. That way I forget what a stinker she was last night once the sun comes up.

Hangin' Around

2011-01-31T18:50:00.000-08:00

My little sloths make me laugh. They have such fun together.

Christmas Doughnuts

2011-01-30T11:44:00.000-08:00

It's become a yearly Christmas tradition to make doughnuts after opening presents. It seems that I have to relearn the same lessons every time about not letting the grease get too hot or it burns the outside and leaves the inside raw. I was determined this year to get them right.

I'm pretty sure I get a pass on the scruff and the hair. It is Sunday morning after all.

So far so good...

...and success! Perfectly cooked!

Happy faces all around.

Hot chocolate and doughnuts. It really doesn't get much better.

Christmas at home

2011-01-30T08:52:00.000-08:00

We had Christmas at our house the Sunday after Charlotte was born. There were LOTS of presents thanks to Grandma Shoaf! Sadie and Madoc had a blast. Charlotte slept through most of it in Grandma's arms.

Looking for their presents

Opening her stocking

He loves this Seek and Find book

this is the cute dress Aunt Chelsie gave Charlotte

Charlotte with all her loot

What it looked like the night before

And Again

2011-01-27T07:42:00.000-08:00

Seriously. This is beginning to be ridiculous.

And I've no idea what the socks on the hands is all about.

2011-01-22T19:40:00.000-08:00

I can't manage a real post but this is what Charlotte is doing right now.

Things that are making me happy today

2011-01-18T15:29:00.000-08:00

1. My husband took Charlotte downstairs and slept on the couch so that I could sleep when she wouldn't settle down after eating.

2. Charlotte fell asleep on her own for her morning nap.

3. Charlotte stayed asleep as I picked her up, carried her visiting teaching, and laid her back down in her bed to finish out a three hour nap.

4. My federal taxes are done!

5. I took my children to the park after school. That means I feel reasonably confident that my six week old can handle it.

6. As soon as my husband gets home I'm abandoning my children and going running. No one screams when I'm running.

7. It's really warm outside. Think mid-70s.

Take Two

2011-01-18T15:27:00.000-08:00

Again in the same bed.

Believe it or not, they are actually asleep.

New Haircuts

2011-01-16T08:29:00.000-08:00

For the big ones at least.

And evidence that three children cannot be photographed at once.

It seems to mimic its creator...

2011-01-13T09:19:00.000-08:00

This is Madoc's animal person. It needed to go potty but it wet its pants. Its mommy got mad. While I took its photo, it was yelling "Mama, I need to go potty!"

I think they're pretty cute

2011-01-12T14:10:00.000-08:00

A gratuitous photo of my two handsome boys

Lots and Lots of Candy was Consumed

2011-01-11T11:00:00.000-08:00

We made gingerbread houses with Grandma Shoaf the day after Charlotte was born.

Getting ready...Building...
The finished products...Sadie added a bit too much to her roof. She wasn't very happy about it.

Disappearing Act

2011-01-08T14:30:00.000-08:00

I came up the stairs one night last week, long after putting the kids to bed. Handsome Face sleeps with his door closed so I was surprised to see it open. When I went in to check on him, this is what I found.Never a good sign.

After looking around the bathroom and the corners of his room, I checked his sister's room and found this.
Melts your heart, that does.

About her birthday

2011-01-07T10:06:00.000-08:00

Charlotte Elise arrived the first week of December, a full week after her due date. She weighed 6 lbs 15 oz and was 20 inches long, making her my longest and smallest baby yet. She's also the only one who came on her own time and I think that's infinitely preferable to being induced.This one is a funny angle but we were in my giant queen sized bed where all three of us slept for many hours together. This is a horrible picture but it proves that he as there.Going home. She was so long that she didn't fit in the premie outfit I bought for the occasion. My other two fit in theirs for two weeks.

Sadie and Madoc love her to pieces. Sadie tells me that Charlotte is sooo cute about twenty times a day and Madoc always wants to hold her at the most inconvenient times.

Where did you learn that!?

2011-01-03T08:58:00.000-08:00

This is another Rocket Scientist catch-up post

Cute girl has been learning to read over the past year. Her learning accelerated when she started kindergarten last fall. We'd been having her read some of the simpler parts out of her story books and she would regularly read out of her phonics workbook but larger words and sentences were beyond her... or so we thought.

We have a family home evening book that we use for when it is the kids' turn to do the lesson. They pick an object out of the accompanying bag and then we help them give the lesson that goes with that object. Some of the lessons can be on the longish side and we are regularly running up against bedtime so there is often some paraphrasing going on between the printed lesson and the parent whispering into the child's ear.

About a month ago, it was my turn to help cute girl give a lesson about the Brother of Jared and the 16 stones. I whispered the first sentence to her and she repeated it. I started paraphrasing the second and third sentences and she looked up at me and said, "That's not what it says." So I said, "Well why don't you read it, then." And she did. The whole rest of the lesson. I kept looking up at the wife in amazement as she read words like 'righteousness,' 'Promised Land, and 'frightened.' Apparently, the wife was just as surprised as I was. She stumbled a few times and had to be prompted but read the whole thing mostly by herself.

At the end, when the wife and I both asked her where she learned to read all those words, she replied, "Well, I am in kindergarten."

Christmas Mail

2011-01-02T11:27:00.000-08:00

This is another Rocket Scientist catch-up post

Cute Girl and Handsome Face love getting mail. Christmas is a good time of year for that as they get several Christmas cards. Aunt Abby's cards are a favorite since they are usually musical.

The kids enjoyed rockin' around the Christmas Tree to this card.

Aunt Becky was so excited to have the kids for Christmas this year that she couldn't wait until the 25th to start giving them presents.

Inside were all the fixin's to make Christmas sugar cookies. I think it was obvious what Handsome Face's favorite part was.

There were also cookie cutters, hot chocolate, window stickers, and wrapped in cream cheese boxes was an outfit for the new baby. Rather convenient timing as she was born early the next morning.

Much thanks to everybody for cheering up the season.

"Deck the Halls..."

2010-12-14T10:00:00.000-08:00

This is another Rocket Scientist catch-up post

The day after Thanksgiving.

We can officially start decorating for Christmas.
Yeah. I'm excited too.
Or in the throes of a pancreas rattling cough.
That's ok, the kids are still happy to put up ornaments.
Or wear them.
Last year most of the ornaments ended up on the same two branches at the bottom of the tree.
They got spread out a little better this year.
Grandma came out to give us a hand.
I don't think I stopped coughing long enough to get off the couch.
Decorating is thirsty work.
Cute Girl figures out what stockings are for.
And they're both really happy about it.

Now we have somewhere to put all my presents.

Handsome Face

2010-12-13T17:00:00.000-08:00

In the middle of November the young women had an activity to learn how to make pie crust. The Rocket Scientist was going to teach them to make the crust but there wasn't going to be enough time to bake the pie too so we baked a pumpkin pie the day before. Handsome Face was really excited about the pie. He helped mommy mix up the filling and stood guard over it while it baked.

This is a pretty standard pose around here. I don't think we've had an alien infestation yet but you can rest assured that if we do, Handsome Face will take care of it with his astro-blaster in short order.

Thanksgiving

2010-12-12T16:00:00.000-08:00

This is the Rocket Scientist cleaning off the camera and catching up the blog while the wife rests.

We hung around at home and had a pretty low-key Thanksgiving. It was so low-key that one of the highlights was getting a crazy good deal on the turkey (29 cents a pound!) My brother-in-law brought his girlfriend down from Utah for the occasion. We made a bunch of gyoza on the Wednesday night before that was super good. We fried up one batch and still wanted more so we fried a second batch out of the extras we'd stuck in the freezer. That still leaves us with enough to have for dinner tonight.

I have an unfortunate tradition of injuring myself during Thanksgiving; it is usually incurred playing football but last year it was a freak accident where a flake of metal from my belt buckle got shoved through my thumbnail. This generally leaves me incapacitated and incapable of providing any real assistance cooking, cleaning, or taking care of children. Pretty much the only thing I can do in my disabled state is play video games and watch football; it's an excruciating ordeal but I usually recover despite the dirty looks the wife gives me. This year, as the wife was 8 3/4 months pregnant, and we were all alone hosting and cooking the dinner, I was forbidden to hurt myself and so declined the traditional turkey bowl. I stayed healthy. but failed in the job of taking pictures because this is all we got of the meal.

I did still manage to get some pictures of the pies.

Including my apple pie in which, as per tradition, I carved an un-boring steam vent.

I didn't bother taking a picture of the wife doing dishes as that would just be boring. Much more interesting is what the rest of us were doing:

Talking on the phone...

...and watching funny youTube videos.

She's Here!

2010-12-12T13:06:00.000-08:00

And getting more love than she can handle.

Pizza Pie

2010-11-08T07:16:00.001-08:00

We made pizza for dinner last night and I recently discovered that the kids will actually eat their pizza if they get to make their own. Cute Girl's always liked pizza but Handsome Face doesn't eat dinner at all so it's nice to get him to eat something. Even if they do refuse the vegetables.

Lots of Random Stuff

2010-11-08T07:16:00.000-08:00

I finally got my new camera after losing the old one. Hence the pictures on my blog. And we got a new surplus laptop from work so the Rocket Scientist and I have been busy updating software and such so we can actually use the new camera. We went outside and took some pictures of the kids just for fun.

Early Saturday Morning Love'ns

While Grandma was here, Handsome Face wasn't feeling too well. He fell asleep one day on the couch and we noticed that some clothing wasn't quite right. He looks for the tag to put in the back when getting dressed and this pair just happened to have a tag in the back and the front.

Cute Girl got watermelon seeds in Primary last spring. Here she displays the fruit of her labors (or her parents').

We made fun Autumn trees a few weeks ago. The colored leaves on my fridge are the only ones in the neighborhood since it's still 86 degrees outside. The trees don't lose their leaves here until Christmas.

Our Visitor

2010-11-03T09:35:00.000-07:00

Our Grandma Crapo came to visit last week. We had so much fun! The kids loved having someone around to give them extra attention. She even took them on bike rides to the playground several times which is something I'm just too tired and busy to do very often.

We didn't do much because we are really boring hosts. It didn't help that the Rocket Scientist and Cute Girl had work and school every day. But there were a few fun things in there.

On Tuesday we went shopping and out to lunch. Cute Girl was not happy to miss the lunch. But on Wednesday we picked her up from school and headed to an old Catholic mission. It was really cool (and free!). The art inside the chapel was very interesting. I think the kids even enjoyed it - at least they behaved very well. And Grandma bought them an Indian fry bread for a treat. What kid wouldn't like that?

That evening we headed to the ward trunk-or-treat. Grandma was amazed at how many kids were there. It was REALLY big.

On Thursday we just hung out at home but we did make Cafe Rio salads for dinner. I got the recipes from Kristin's blog. All of the salad lovers affirmed that it was well worth all the work. We still have creamy tomatillo dressing in the fridge. The Rocket Scientist and I have been eating it with chips every night. Yum!

And then Friday was the most boring day of all. Handsome Face had been sick all week (high temps off and on and an achey tummy) and I caught it Thursday night. Lucky for me my fever only lasted over night instead of all week. But it meant that Friday morning, both Handsome Face and I fell asleep on the couches and took LONG naps while Grandma and Dad read/played on the computer. How exciting are we?!

Friday we had a babysitter and all the grown-ups went to a dinner theater. It's so fun! We had good pizza and watched a great Halloween show. I love taking people there. So, hint hint, come visit me!

Sadly, Grandma had to go on Saturday morning. I guess Grandpa needed someone to come play with him too but Handsome Face didn't buy it. He cried after Grandma left.

Someone's getting older!

2010-11-03T09:01:00.000-07:00

The Rocket Scientist had a birthday last month! It was simple but fun. He and Cute Girl always ask for cheesecake for their birthdays. It was really good. And then he opened his one, lone present. A new iPod Nano! He was very surprised and I don't think I've seen him without it since. He was absolutely chomping at the bit to set it up.
After we opened presents we got a babysitter and headed out for dinner. We ate at Sakura, a Japanese sushi bar and teppan grill. It was yummy food and so fun to be out for his birthday.

Our Trick-or-Treaters

2010-11-01T12:13:00.000-07:00

About a month ago we asked the kids what they wanted to be for Halloween. Cute Girl sweetly answered, "I want to be a hummingbird so I don't have to make more work for you on the sewing machine." (She was a hummingbird two years ago - yay for reusing costumes!) Handsome Face answered, "A honey bunny." We have no idea where the 'honey' came from but he positively answered "honey bunny" for a month straight whenever asked about costumes.

I put the Rocket Scientist in charge of costumes but because of miscommunication I ended up whipping up the bunny at the last minute. He did figure out how to make a bunny costume but simple directions found on the internet are SOOOO not useful. So many times, this year and in the past, we've found directions for cute costumes that require SIMPLE things like gray sweatsuits or green long sleeve t-shirts or solid colored beanies. But guess what? You can't BUY simple things like that. This year we searched for a plain gray hoodie and could not find one. Of course, I thought too late about ordering one online. Oh well. Handsome Face got a costume in the end.We trick-or-treated Saturday night with just over a dozen other families from church (mostly) and the neighborhood. It was so nice not to have to go on Sunday especially because we went out last night just to drive and look at the lights and the neighborhood was CRAZY!One family from the ward couldn't go out because Dad was working and there are too many babies for Mom to handle so we took the big girl Grace with us. She was the cutest, most excited girl to be going trick-or-treating. The kids had a blast having Grace tag along.After an hour and a half of driving around the neighborhood with our friends, the Porters, and visiting all our church buddies' homes, the kids got two treats, a shower, and then BED! Yay for bed on Halloween!

Our Great Pumpkins

2010-10-31T17:19:00.000-07:00

We carved our pumpkins yesterday. The kids had a lot of fun. Handsome Face wouldn't put his hands in but talked about how fun it was to carve pumpkins while I did all the work. He chose a candy pumpkin. Cute Girl drew a very elaborate picture of a scary monster. It had four of every face part. We simplified if for the carving and it was kind of crazy looking. The Rocket Scientist is the master carver and always comes up with something fun. I, on the other hand, hate carving pumpkins and only tolerate it because I have to.

I thought my candy pumpkin turned out rather well.