New Years Eve

You know you are tired when you choose sleep over staying up till midnight to celebrate the New Year :) Christopher unfortunately had to spend most of the day writing a paper for one of his classes so the boys and I had fun hanging out at home. We put back up Sam's tent now that we aren't expecting any visitors for a while. He had a blast putting all the pipes in where they fit and every time he did one by himself he would shout yah! and clap. Once it was all put together we spread out his sleeping bag and he did his usually pay where he wanted me to sit. Liam was taking his long afternoon nap so we got to read several of Sam's favorite books. When Chris got home we decided to talk about our goals for the year. Of course numero uno is eating healthier. With that in mind we took the boys in their PJ's and had our last Maggie Moo shake and have now rid the house of treaties. Hopefully we can stick to it for once.

On a fun note Sam gave Liam his first horsey ride. It was sooooo cute. And Liam is even wearing his cowboy sweater... granted he is missing pants as they were about to get in the bath, but it is still super cute! I really have no idea what we did for fun before the boys, they crack us up non stop! I know this New Year will bring so many more laughs and lots of precious memories.

Primary here we come

Today was my first Sunday in my new calling as Primary Presidency secretary. It was an interesting one since 90% of the ward is out of town so we had about ten children all together. I already know I am going to love it though. I LOVE the primary songs and as a member of the presidency you are in there for both singing times! Woo hoo! It is rather tricky with the boys though. I was able to get Liam to sleep during Sacrament meeting so the plan was to drop Sam off at nursery and Chris would take Liam. Unfortunately there was only one other child in Nursery so it was impossible to sneak out. In the end Sam spent most of the last two hour block on my lap in Primary. He seemed to really enjoy it until we started watching a video on David and Goliath and all the kids got suckers but him... then he went and hung out with Dad. When we got home it was football time! Sam LOVES to yell at the TV with Chris! It kills me every time. He just sits there and shouts and throws up his touchdown arms we taught him every now and then. We got a video of it but I have yet to figure out how to post videos. We also figured out a mystery today. Sam has been getting cups of water drinking a little and then raspberrying them out. We couldn't figure where he got it from till this evening we were watching Elmo and he was trying to whistle. So he took a drink of water and tried to whistle but just raspberry's it. I cannot believe that he is big enough to watch something and mimic it days later with no prompting! Gesh I guess it is time to really pay attention to what we are watching! The boys are also taking baths together at night now which Sam LOVES. Liam seems to like it and rarely cries. He usually just tucks his legs up and eats my hand. Sam gets REALLY mad though when we go to take Liam out. He splashes and points to where he wants Liam to sit. I have a feeling they are going to get a long really well :)

Christophers 28th Birthday

Christopher turned 28 today! Woo hoo! Being his mellow self we celebrated rather mildly. We had a big chinese food lunch hung out around the house and went to Barnes and Noble. He got lots of great giftcards so we now have a small stack near our computer. It is fun to look at them and think of things to purchase :) He loved hearing several of the neices and nephews sing him happy birthday! On a more stressful note since he has no school we decided this break would be a good time to get Liam to put himself to sleep and sleep through the night. As I type he is crying in the next room. I thought for sure after Sam that this would be a lot easier the second time around-- wrongo. It is so heart wrenching hearing his little cry, especially when I know I could make him happy in a snap just by nursing him. But Christopher is a rock (thankfully one of us is) and we will see how it goes. Along with this comes the removal of the bottle from Sam. Ughhh. It is just so hard to do since he goes to bed and for naps blisfully easy with one. But now that he is 18 months it is time. Next on the chopping block will be the binky, this is going to be along week :)

Back to normal...again

Well we took Felicity off to the airport today. We took a little side trip to the University of Richmond Law school though so she could check it out. She is thinking about applying there along with a few other schools. It was so beautiful! I felt like I had been transported back to London. All of the buildings were gorgeous! The architects were brilliant though in that their new buildings are exactly the same style as the old. I always hate when you have a gorgeous old school and then there are a bunch of buildings built in the seventies when there was apparently function apparently killed form and architects literally could not think outside a box. Sam loved it because there was a big lake in the middle of campus with lots of "quack quacks-hi" as he says, with a little wave, when ever he sees ducks. Liam was a dream and slept the whole time. It was sad to say goodbye to Felicity. Particularly because now it means back to reality and at least eight loads of laundry. ughhhh. Sam was helpful though with his "sweeping Sam" (a broom that talks when you sweep and actually says 'I'm sweepin Sam!' which is awesome!) We got a huge Tupperware bin to pack up all the Christmas decorations. I always hated that song from forgotten carols: I cried the day I take the tree down, yet I find myself sympathetic. This was such a wonderful season this year and all this build up and now it is simply over. I find myself longing for the week before Christmas when everyone is in a good mood because a much needed break looms and anticipation hangs in the air. I suppose it gives me something to look forward to all year long.
Moving on-- Our friends Brett and Kendra were kind enough to watch Sam for us tonight so we could go see a movie for Christopher's birthday. We went to see Charlie Wilson's War, Liam was of course an angel and slept through the whole thing. I won't say much about it except that I saw Enchanted yesterday and very much prefer ed that. It was interesting and something I had no idea about but had way to much "bad stuff" to justify the rest of the story, which could have easily been told with out it. Well Christopher's birthday is tomorrow yippee! I can't believe how old we both are becoming... you would think having two little boys would really hit home the fact that I am now an adult but oddly enough ever year I am shocked by how old I am... I know lame, since I am only 26 it seems silly to complain about my age. I have given some serious thought to it lately though and have decided it is probably time I stop shopping at my beloved teenybopper stores like hollister and abercrombie. While I absolutely LOVE their clothes every time I go in there now I feel sort of silly, as if the workers are looking at me thinking "Aww that mom is in here shopping for her daughter-- what a cool mom" or worse "aww that mom is trying to compete with her daughter, how sad for her." Although I am not ready to resign myself to Christopher Bank just yet. There needs to be a store for the tweens of adult hood! On that note it is off to bed so I can get this aging bum out of bed to work it to death tomorrow at the gym!

Christmas at the Crawfords

Yippie our first Christmas on our own! Well technically not on our own since my older sister Felicity came to visit! We had such a fun time. Now that Sam is at the age where he "gets it" to a certain extent Christmas has become a lot more fun. This Christmas Eve Chris and I got to actually have a parade of presents from our bedroom to under the tree! We had tons of present from all his Aunts and Uncles and lots of gifts from gift cards and presents from Grandparents! We had the Motab Christmas concert playing in the background as we arranged the presents and stuffed all the stockings. We watched A Christmas Story and had a disgusting amount of candy then hit the hay around 11. We were lucky that both boys slept in until seven on Christmas! Sam LOVED opening all his presents. The big hits this year were the ride on Zebra and his tickle me Elmo. Sam has become obsessed with Elmo! I personally loved the book he got from Christian and Kara called "You can do it Sam"! It reminded me of the Kissyfur book Chris had as a little boy. We had two huge meals for Christmas Breakfast and late lunch. Sam went from toy to toy and crashed for a three hour nap! Liam was adorable the whole day and has started really responding :) He loves to coo and talk and is so different from Sam. He loves floor time and unlike Sam does not want a human binky! Instead he likes to be bounced to sleep. Christopher and My arms and legs get great work outs. Over all it was a very nice and mello Christmas. I was worried that I would be very homesick but more and more I am realizing that where ever my boys are that is home. All I need to be happy is Chris and our two cuties! I am truely blessed!