Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Virginia Living Museum



Jordan and I took Fischer and Sam to the Virginia Living museum in Newport News today. They had an awesome time! They were able to see and touch live crabs and lots of huge fish, jellyfish and stingrays. Sams favorite remains ducks though. For some reason he just loves those guys. He stood and stared for a long time at the alligators, it was a pretty intense staring contest but in the alligator won out. Outside there was a beautiful walk way where they got to see Wolves, coyotes, deer, Bald Eagles etc. There was a great interactive part where the boys dressed like chipmunks and could crawl through tunnels. Sam also decided to taste test the fish that were in the Bald Eagles nest... yummm no germs there I am sure. What is terrible these days is getting either of these cute boys to look at the camera. Sam used to be such a ham and now you say smile and he translates that to "she must want a picture of the back of my head". So included are some pictures but I can't be held responsible for their quality :)


Sam Looking Cool Lttle Chipmunk Boys The Crawfords Have Landed



Sam Checking out the "Sea Star" Sampling the delicious Fish Liam enjoying chillin in the stroller


Sunday, January 27, 2008

Baby Showers, vistors and general craziness

This was an extremely busy week. Christopher had an Ethics test so it felt like it was finals all over again! I felt like we were ships passing in the night this week :) On Friday we had a fun baby shower for Jordan! I threw it but it was at Terishas house, which was fabulous because her home is amazingly welcoming with a TON more space. We had a great turn out and I ended up not getting home until eleven PM! Jordan as always was a gracious recipient and received a lot of adorable presents.The theme was "baby's first..." but due to my apparent lack of explanatory skills I don't know how many people got it :) It still went off beautifully though. Then it was rise and shine early on Saturday for our Primary activity. It was a meet your teachers breakfast for the new year. We also played who's line is it anyway where three people would say one fact which was true about only one of them and the kids had to guess who it was. On one of my turns I had to say I was from New Jersey and was Left handed. I did so waving my left hand and speaking with what was probably a horrific New Jersey accent. The kids all flipped out though shouting "It's Sister Crawford!!!" It obviously was not but was sure fun to pretend. This weekend was augmented in its "funness" by Kerstin visiting from DC. She got more than her fill of Thomas the Tank engine and Elmo! It is always a blast having her though. Her sense of humor cracks me up and I LOVE how easy going she is. Kerstin makes it easy to be her friend and I adore that about her. No high maintenance I need a call every other day. We had the Thornocks and the Grady's over to share pizza and play games so Kerstin didn't die of complete boredom with just Chris and I. We also watched our good friend Jill Stevens compete in the Ms. America pageant. She made it to the top 16 but was then eliminated-- oddly enough right after the swim suit competition where she was the only one wearing a one piece! JERKS! It was still wonderful to see her go so far. The excitement continued when I did my first Sharing Time! It was great and the kids were wonderful and I think they had a good time. I no longer get nervous to speak or teach in church so it is mainly excitement. I figure A.) Members are very talkative and always want to tell their stories B.) They are very forgiving or at least very forgetful C.) Kids could care less what you are teaching about as long as you have a big bowl of warm cookies to give them :) It appears this week is going to be as busy as last week. With only three days to go till we go to UT there is a lot to be done! While I am so excited to be going home and seeing our families I cannot be more bummed that I won't be here when Jordan gives birth. I cannot express how helpful she was when we had Liam and I am so sad that I cannot be there for her. I know her mom and Matt's mom will be here but just to be able to take Fischer and let him play with Sam for a while or bring in meals... I guess when I get back I'll just have to jump right on it. I know Sam will be dying to see his best friend. Fischer left nursery early today and Sam had an absolute meltdown and was screaming "ISCHER!" up and down the halls. It is ridiculously adorable how much those two love each other! Who knew two year olds could be such good buddies. I hope it stays that way forever!

Sunday, January 20, 2008

For the Love of Packing Peanuts




My mom being the amazing lady she is sent us yet another fun package. Although it was filled with toys and books for the boys Sam thought the best present EVER was the packaging peanuts. He spent forever throwing them around and then of course "cookie monstering" them into his face. He and Christopher had a blast rolling around and getting them stuck everywhere! even now days later we have yet to vacuum them all up!
He also has a renewed love of the little piano my parents bought him for his birthday! He Loves to put his legs straight out, rest the piano on it then try to balance objects (his teddy bear, his bowl of fish's etc) on it while he bangs away. My theory is that he loves it so much because Elmo plays the piano at the end of Elmos world. Though he LOVES when I shout out the color he is tapping and he will try to go super fast and trip me up. It was nice to have something to keep them busy though since I was down for the count with strep Throat this weekend. I forgot how severely your throat can hurt. I was actually in fear every time I had to swallow. Chris took great care of me though and with the aide of some really strong antibiotics I am no longer contagious or in pain. PHEW! It was a fairly good weekend to have to stay inside though as we got a good three inches of snow! This is VERY unusual for this area so Sam had fun going outside and seeing the neighbor kids and college students pelt each other with snowballs. It was a nice warm up for him for when we arrive in Utah in two weeks! Yes we are heading west. Christopher's Unit is now going to Afghanistan. Apparently 18 months in Iraq was not enough. Thankfully we have been blessed and Chris does not have to go!!!! He does however have to go back for two weeks to help prepare all the soldiers. I shudder at the thought of what those poor families are gearing up for. Those 18 months were some of the hardest and longest of my life-- and we didn't even have children yet. I literally cannot fathom how I would handle it now with our two boys. I am not even talking about the being the only parent for 18 months I am talking about the constant fear that my boys could grow up without a father. I would be sick every day with worry. Okay moving on because I just can't think about it. On a VERY happy brighter side Chris's little sister Robyn is pregnant! She will be due right around our little Lemers first birthday! I think it is a little crazy but they seem hesitantly thrilled. The baby will come a few weeks before their first anniversary. It is so funny because Chris and I were talking about how last Christmas we took a beautiful expensive Crawford Family picture and we though well that will be good for at least a few years. Then about two weeks later we found out we were expecting Liam... Then IN the fall Robyn gets married and now pregnant so in a short time it will be missing four members of the family! But that's what happens when the families are growing I guess!

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Busy week full of laughs



This week went by extremely fast... well more specifically this weekend went by way to fast. Due to the amazing sale at Steve and Barry's we made the drive to VA Beach twice this weekend. Once by ourselves and the other time with our good buddies the Grady's. Thankgoodness the Thornocks lent us their portable DVD player. Sam thought it was magic having Elmo in the car with him! Christopher also got a treat and we actually went to Red Lobster the second time we went down even though Leslie and I hate fish, pretty sure their biscuits alone are reason to go there! We had a great time playing games this weekend and embarrassingly enough plenty of snorts escaped me. The Thornocks and the Grady's came over and we played Cranium and Apples to Apples. I had never played cranium although we had owned it for at least two years now. Christopher astonished everyone when he guessed a Dolly Parton song without any humming at all-- it was truly miraculous. Apples to Apples as always was a blast even though after at least three games not a single one of my cards was picked-- no one gets my humor apparently. Once again Chris had me rolling though as he put down Amputations when my topic was useless. I don't know why that tickled me so much but I was in tears. We also watched the Best Two Years this weekend. Neither Chris or I had seen it and we both really enjoyed it. If nothing else I now REALLY want to go to Holland!




I also had a ton of fun making cupcakes for our teacher training we held today after church. Half were daisy's made with bright yellow frosting and petals made of cut marshmallows and the others were "cub"cakes made with chocolate frosting and snowcaps, red hots etc. they turned out pretty cute. At least all the little girls seemed to like the flowers :) Sam had a blast this weekend knocking down every tower Chris made and then tearing the pieces apart pretending to be cookie monster. It was ridiculously cute. Chris got this tower built behind him while be was distracted but it didn't last long. As you can see Liam has gained control of the remote but Sam keeps a hand on him just in case he decides to change it from Sesame Street. Well back to the grind tomorrow. I am looking forward to the possible trip to UT and even better the amazing possibility of the Pages living by us wooo hoooo!!!






Sunday, January 6, 2008

Swimming on a Saturday



We took the boys swimming at the Y on saturday. While Liam slept the whole time Sam had a blast. There were three little girls there who played with him the whole time. They also had all the water features going which was really fun for him to play with. I taught the girls how to play Marco Polo and do handstands which they all thought was pretty neat. I love swimming there because the pool is one of the few ones that is kept warm. You walk right in with no painful gasps. Sam is getting braver and braver which is great since I want to get season passes to water country USA for the summer.

Today we had church at one o'clock. I MUCH perfer nine but what can you do. Liam and I were both feeling pretty sick so we only stayed until after I finished everything with Primary. I am nervous the Liams cough hasn't gone away, especially now that I found out another boy in the ward has RSV and was in the hospital for six days! I am going to take him in to the doctor tommorow and see what we can do. We're also going to get Sams eye rechecked. I just hope he doesn't have to lance it again I don't think I could make it through that. Classes start again tommorow. So that means way less time together, but hopefully this semester will be less stressful without all the job search stuff :) Here's to a new semester!

Friday, January 4, 2008

Why some police officers stink, good sameritans abound, and a little prayer goes a long way

Today was an eventful day. Since Christopher was still up in DC I decided to get Sam and Liam as tuckered out as I could resulting in what I hoped would be a long afternoon nap. In order to do this I loaded them up in the Thornocks car and headed to the gym to go swimming with them then work out and let them play in the kid area. About a half a mile away from the gym I hear a large bang and the car starts to rattle. I had a flat front tire. Of course this occurs in our friends car and at a time when everyone of our friends are home for break and Chris is in DC. I didn't really know what to do. I took a deep breath and said a little prayer. I tried calling Chris but since he deals with sensitive information he is not allowed bring his phone in where he works. So I loaded up Liam and grabbed Sam's hand and we started walking. The very first car that passed was a police officer. I thought for sure he is going to stop since he saw the car with Hazards on and now a women with two small children walking in what couldn't have been more than 30 degree weather. I didn't even see a break light as he passed by. The next car was an older women who pulled over and was so kind. She even had a car seat that she keeps for her grand daughter. Coincidence? I think not. She dropped us off at the gym and the boys and I headed straight for the play place. I told the girls who work their about my plight and Lisa immediately says "you know I have AAA you can totally use it!" She then proceeded to call AAA and they said they would have a person there within the hour! Lisa handed me her AAA card and the boys were able to stay there while I headed back out to wait for the Tow Truck. On the way there Three gentlemen asked if I needed help!! While I was standing by my car another two cars stopped and asked, but don't worry yet another police officer drove pass without even a nod. The car was fixed quickly and without a problem. Often I look at my beautiful boys and almost cry that they will have to grow up in this world. I become overwhelmed with the amount of violence and hatred that seems to abound. Then days like this come along and my faith is once again renewed in the decency of mankind. Each person that stopped was pleasant and sincere. I am so grateful for a swift answer to a simple and panicked prayer.
On a lighter note we had the Grady's and the Moon's over to "play games" and have desert. Of course we spent the next three and a half hours talking while Sam and Atticus played and Liam hung out. It is always soooo much fun to just sit and talk with other couples. It always leaves my cheeks hurting from smiling and gives me so much to think about for the coming days. Of course it always helps that we all have so much in common, but I think the batch of LDS kids going to Law school here are exceptionally amazing. Especially those in the 2L class. It will be hard to leave here in a year and a half. Thank goodness for blogs to stay up dated!

Thursday, January 3, 2008

All cars are NOT created equal


Christopher had to work in DC today and tomorrow so it is just me and the boys here in Williamsburg. Luckily we had playgroup to break up the monotony. I LOVE playgroup. Trish is always a wealth of information when it comes to kids and always has such good ideas. Today Elizabeth and Atticus came for the first time and that was wonderful! It is always fun to talk to people in the other ward who we don’t see as much. I say playgroup is for the boys and it is wonderful that they get practice sharing etc. but more importantly I attend for my own mental well being. It is heavenly to get a little break in the middle of the day and talk with another adult. Even if the topics are usually concerning our children! Plus Trish’s playroom is to die for! And I love going over there. Which brings me to the title of this post. To preface: I am married to an amazing man who loves to spoil myself and our children. Even when we have basically no money, thanks to school, he will find a way to spoil us. When he was in Iraq I used the power of attorney possibly a little liberally and bought a Landrover which was subsequently totaled after making it all the way cross country (you gotta love teenage drivers). Christopher got to drive it once on leave ;) Knowing we were headed off to school and trying to be more fiscally conservative I convinced Chris (not hard) to buy a smaller more affordable car, and then proceeded to complain about it all the time. Yeah awesome of me. Christopher being the kind of guy he is surprised me with a new landrover last spring. Now I really love this car, it’s the perfect size and has all the features I love… apparently though my boys HATE it. When Samuel was a baby he would SCREAM anywhere I went, and he would never tire out. We tried everything. Buying a new car seat, facing him illegally forward (just to see if that was the problem—it wasn’t) everything. He finally grew out of it around seven months. We thought it was a fluke because babies are supposed to love the car and thought Liam would be different. Unfortunately not. Everywhere we go he cries, the second we turn the car off though he stops. Well since Chris took the car to DC I was going to be stranded with out a vehicle and have to stay home for two days, which if you know me is something horrific. Luckily we took our friend the Thornocks to the airport and they said I could use their car today. I am sure they would not mind me saying that it is an older Honda with 130K miles and no bells or whistles--- but my boys LOVE it. Driving to playgroup today Liam went out! I thought ‘well he was tired!’ Then on the way home he zonked again. I look back because of the unnerving silence and Sam is sound asleep with my cell phone open to his ear! Again when we went out to dinner on the way there and back Liam went out! The moral of the story is while I have champagne taste in a beer bottle budget (as my dad always says of me) my boys are much less picky! Needless to say if we ever again have a late night with Liam the Thornocks can be expecting a call!

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Family pictures



Well after about a million atempts we finally got some family pictures we love. I swear everything was working against us to get these done. The first time it was raining and we braved it anyway... then discovered there was no memory card in the camera we had used-- this AFTER posing in the rain for tons of pics. Aren't cameras supposed to tell you when there is no card? Then Sam was afraid of Santa etc etc. I think these turned out really cute though. Sam keeps switching back and forth between being glued to chris then me then back to chris. Today was Chris's turn so in the picture Sam is snuggled up to him. Luckily though I had adorable Liam in the picture who had by far the cutest outfit thanks to his Aunt Felicity!

It snowed today for the first time and since Liam has a cold I took just Sam out in it. He kept saying no! no! (he hasn't mastered his 's') He also did the cutest thing ever to Liam. While making dinner Liam was chillin in his bouncie chair and Sam came to visit. He walked over to Liam and picked up his hand and held it out then gave him five with his other while shouting "Yah!" I seriously died. It was so cute. I kept trying to get him to do it again but apparently it was a spontaneous one time thing. We also put together his huge tool set, as we continue slowly doling out his christmas presents. He LOVED it and spent the whole time with his safety goggles on, when he wasn't forcing me to wear them. Its a good thing they included those because man did we do a lot of drillin!