Katie is awesome!

 This was our kitchen last year after Jason did the hard wood floor and the new counter tops.

 While Jason was working on the back splash he found that the cabinet with our cups in it had been pulled off the wall some (the cabinet actually had bowed and was deformed) from the kids pulling on it to get cups out.  So he decided to get a new cabinet. 

 This is my new cabinet with almost twice as much space inside!  And who doesn't need more cupboard space?

 This picture (although a little too brightly taken) shows my awesome new backsplash, my new bigger cup cupboard, and my beautiful table runner and curtains.

 My amazing sister-in-law, Katie, made me curtains and a table runner.  I LOVE THEM!!  We have been living in this house for over eight years and have never had kitchen curtains.  I told Katie I wanted just a little bit of fun color in my kitchen and she did this all on her own.  She rocks!

 I love it Katie!

This is my new KitchenAid mixer.  I am finally a grown-up because I own one of these.  It originally cost $549.  After a sale, a rebate, a coupon, and Kohl's cash I paid $240.  And I had it shipped to my friend who lives in Delaware so I didn't have to pay any taxes!

Layla's Baptism

This Sunday Layla was baptized.
In our church people are eligible to be baptized when they are eight years old, or older.
That is when they are truly able to understand good and bad
and make choices, and therefore be held accountable for their choices.

Layla wore a beautiful white dress that her cousin gave her.
White is worn to symbolize purity.
Everything went well.
Layla was very beautiful and we were so happy that she made the choice to be baptized!

Austin's 10th Birthday

 Austin turned 10 in April!  Double Digits!

First time we have had two number candles on one cake!

He is really turning out to be an incredible boy; he is a great helper and 

a good example to his brother and sister.

We sure love having him in our family.

Austin and Ryan both got haircuts shortly after this birthday party!

While you were out

There is a show on HGTV called While You Were Out where designers come in and change something around in your house while you go on a two or three day trip....Something like that happened at my house...only it was nothing like that....

I worked all weekend.  Friday (6:45am-9:30pm), Saturday (6:45am-8:45pm), and Sunday (6:45am-8:30pm).  It was rough....very rough....

When I got home on Saturday night I was laying in bed and Jason told me he had something important to tell me

Uh oh

While I was out, he had the talk with the kids.  Yes, THE TALK!!!!


With the kids....


all three of them....


To give him a little credit we had been avoiding it for years....like six years.  Every couple weeks the kids would ask questions like, "How do babies get inside mom's tummy?"  or "Why do we look more like dad when we were in mom's tummy?"  or "Part of the baby comes from mom and part from dad, how  is that possible?"  or "where do the babies come out of the mom's tummy?"


This weekend it was a conversation about Grandma Patti and how she is not Dad's "real" mom (she is his real mom, she is not his birth mom...but she is the only mom he had and she is the best mom ever!) and Dad doesn't share genes with Grandma Patti.  (he doesn't share jeans with her either!)  Layla said, "But when Grandma adopted you, you should have her genes now."  Then turned into a conversation, again, about how you get half of your genes from mom and half from dad....


And they had THE TALK!!!

He used the p word and the v word.  They giggled.  And they talked about marriage and the s word and how special it is between a mom and a dad and how private it is.  He also told them they can talk to us anytime about it and ask us any questions.

So, maybe I will never go to work again!  Maybe I will stay home and protect my children from their father telling them awful things like that....

Or maybe I will be grateful that he did it and got it over with so I don't have to be the one to bring it up first with the children!

School Pictures

Apparently Austin's anti-photogenic genes are catching.  Layla wanted to keep these pictures, but I reminded her that she is so much more beautiful than this picture shows.

late 6th birthday post

So, since I have another birthday in a week I thought I better post Ryan's 6th birthday that was about 2 months ago.

Vacation

We just got back from Florida after a weeks vacation!  It was wonderful! 

I don't have any pictures because I borrowed my dad's camera and he has all of the pictures. 

But they are coming soon....

We went to Legoland and have some of the coolest pictures ever!  If you haven't been, you should go.  Let me know when you are going and we will come with you!

Just wanted everyone to know that pictures will be coming soon so you can vacation with us!

Blessings for going to the temple

This is my van.  I still love my van.  But those wheels, those stupid wheels, I don't love them.  I don't even like them very much!

The brilliant people at Honda worked with those brilliant people at Michelin and came up with a "run-flat" tire.  Sounds pretty good right, it won't go flat, you can drive 30 miles until you get to a shop and they can get you a new tire.  Awesome!  Except that you can't just buy new tires, you have to buy a whole new wheel/tire set up.  At about $700 a piece!

Oh, and the tires pretty much suck, so you are talking about replacing them about every year or two.  Add that up...$2800 at least every two years.  UGH!!!

So we have been ignoring the fact that our tires are bald and need to be replaced.  I have noticed that the car slides when the ground is wet at all.  We have talked about getting new wheels that normal tires will fit on, but that will also run about $3000 and we just don't have that right now.

Last Tuesday we went to the temple.  It was a rainy day and the car was sliding.  Jason said that we needed to make getting new tires a priority.  I pulled out my handy dandy phone and checked on Craig's List to see if by any miracle there was anything that would work to replace our tires.

The very first add was for GTO wheels that fit the 2005 Honda Odyssey.  Four rims for $250!!  They had just been listed the day before.  After we got out of the temple Jason called the guy and met with him that evening.  They fit, they look great.  The next day he got new tires and put them on.  Everything worked perfectly.  And when all was said and done (we had to get all new lug nuts too, of course!) we spent less than a third of what we had been expecting.

It was an incredible blessing and I am sure that it was because we were going to the temple that everything worked out smoothly (and that we didn't die with our bald tires in the rain!)

And the rims are pretty sweet!  Jason made our Honda center caps fit

Mummies

This is a funny conversation we had yesterday in the car:

Ryan: Mom, are mummies real?

Me: No, mummies are not real....well actually, I guess there are real mummies.  A long time ago people used to wrap up the dead pharaoh's and people like that and bury them.  But they didn't come to life and walk around.  Things that die don't come back to life...well until Heavenly Father resurrects them...then they come back to life, but they aren't creepy like mummies.

Ryan: ??????

Christmas Day 2011

With Jason working Christmas Eve we all had to wait for him to come home from work before we were allowed to go downstairs and see if Santa had come.  He got home just after 7:30.  he quickly opened his Christmas Eve present and put his new jammies on.  Mommy went downstairs to make sure Santa really had come to visit and then the kids all came thundering down the stairs.  We spent the first hour or so playing with the fun things that Santa had brought us.  Bey blades (a game the kids love) and a new Wii game.

We started opening presents after a while.  We start with the youngest family member who chooses a present for someone else.  Everyone takes turns and we open one present at a time.  We then take time to play with and investigate each new present.  We weren't even half way through opening when it was time to get ready for church.

After church we went to Grandma Carol and Grandpa Steve's for dinner.  We exchanged presents with them and then stayed and visited and played with them as well as Andy, Laura, Nick, and Noah.  We finally headed home around 7pm so we finish opening our presents.  It was a fabulous Christmas.  (Notice my boys matching sweaters?  And Layla's new dress?  I also have a new dress on thanks to Laura and "the mall" in Washington State.)

Christmas Eve

  This year was a little different for us.  Jason and I both worked on Christmas Eve.  I worked dayshift 7am until 7:30 pm at night.  Jason came in to work at 7pm and worked until 7:30am on Christmas morning.  This made our Christmas Eve a little strange.  Grandma and Grandpa Crowl kept the kids all day on Christmas Eve (so Jason could sleep) and treated them to an amazing day.  They definitely had more fun with them than they would have had with us.  I picked the kids up that night after work and took them home for a quick reading of Luke Chapter 2 and prayers and bed. We remembered to leave a gingerbread man out for Santa to snack on.  We also remembered our tradition of opening one present on Christmas Eve.  It just always happens to be new pajamas that we get to wear.  ( The kids are FINALLY figuring out the jammie tradition!)

So I sent out Christmas cards this year with a little review on how our year went.  I mailed about about 35 cards with copies of this letter.  Today I printed out the last two and delivered them.  As I printed out the first of these two Layla said, "Mom, why does that say `2012 year in review?'"

Did you catch it?

2012!!!!  Crap!!!  O'well, I hope that all of my friends and family understand!

Say Cheese!

 Once again, Austin takes an awesome picture!  When he handed it to me he said, "You will probably want me to do retakes, I don't know why I was making this face!"

 Not quite sure why Layla is making this weird spaced out looking face either, but she is still cute.

And Ry's first school pics.  At least he did better than his brother did with his first school pic!

 This is Austin's Kindergarten picture.

 This is Austin's First grade picture. 

Pumpkin patch

Friday we went to the farm and picked pumpkins. It was tons of fun. The day was nice and warm and Grandma, Grandpa, Laura, and the boys joined us!
On the hay ride back with our pumpkins. The sun was shining a little too brightly!

Grandpa and Daddy in search of the perfect pumpkin.

Looking for the perfect pumpkin!

Austin and Layla on the hay ride!

Laura enjoying the trip.

Mom and Dad trying out the reverse picture feature on my new phone!

Jason and I playing with the new phone

Austin and Nick on the trains

We could not get the kids to look up at us to take a picture!

My little vegetable babies!

The Pinewood Derby

(this is the first, second, and third place winners)
Austin had his first pinewood derby contest this week. Jason helped him shape his car. I helped him sand it. Aunt Emmy and Uncle David helped him paint it. And it was awesome.
He was UNDEFEATED!!! His car never lost a race. Although after he accidentally pulled one of the wheels off it did slow down considerably. It was awesome.
Jason was at work, but was able to catch the final heat!

Austin showing off his winning car!

Jason explaining what he did to help Austin make the car so awesome!

First day of school

(Mike I posted this picture for you....classic Austin face!)

After postponing the first day of school twice, the kids finally went back to school on Wednesday, August 31. They were all really excited! We had some spare friends with us that morning as their mommy was in the hospital having their new little brother.

Layla, waiting for the bus and wearing one of the beautiful hair barrettes made by Aunt Laura

Austin's favorite part of the whole day was when another little boy asked him if he was new and he got to take his glasses off and say, "it's me, carson!" I think it was his superman moment!

Ry had gradual entry and I went with him to see his new class room. He was SO excited!