Thursday, August 27, 2009

Sleep Overs and the Attack at Chick Fila

Chris and I LOVE to eat lunch out. I bet if we stopped eating lunch out we would save quite the bundle-- but we love it so oh well. Christophers six sisters also like to eat lunch out. This combination makes for a lot of fun mid day snacking! Earlier this week we met his sister Kelly and his parents at a chic filet. It was super crowded as usual and there were tons of kids in the play place. Since I couldn't sit right next to the window I spent a lot of the lunch standing up and looking in the window. I had just done a window check and watched Sam climbing up the big plastic steps when I hear Liam crying, not his whiny I got a toy taken cry but his I am really hurt cry. I get up and walk quickly over. Before I can get to the door though I hear Sam screaming crying, I start running. I fling open the door and two moms who are standing right there say to me "Oh no I think he got them!" Liam appears pushing himself down the ridiculously unslick slide sobbing while Sam climbs back down the steps this time bleeding from several locations on his face. Apparently there was a little boy sitting at the top of the stairs kitting kids with his shoe when they came up. He had hit my little niece Ashlyn and then turned and hit Liam. Sam seeing this climbed up and pushed the rotten kid off Liam. The child decided a shoe wasn't good enough and proceeded to scratch and hit Sam's face! The moms (who's children had also been accosted) were trying to figure out where in the world this kids mom was while trying also to get him to come down. All three of us expressed our exasperation at parents who simply dump their kids in play places and walk away. I herded the kids back to our table where I showed Chris and Kelly what happened. Chris calmly walked into the play place, crawled up into the big toy and dragged the kid out. He then proceeded to walk around the restaurant asking women if it was their child. When he finally found the neglectful parent he very nicely (to my dismay) let her know he was terrorizing the play place and showed her poor Sam's bleeding face. What does she do she simply says "Oh I guess you don't get to play in there anymore". I thought I was going to scream. This is what happens with passive, neglectful parents you get kids who hit other kids with their shoes! Maybe it is because I have been reading SOOOOOOOOOOO many books on raising boys this summer and working so hard to make Sam and Liam be nice boys that I nearly fell off my chair when I heard her response. (by the way if you are looking for a good book Parenting with Love and Logic is awesome as is Raising a Modern Day Knight.) I tried to get a picture of Sammys face but he wouldn't stop smiling silly boy!
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So after that rough day I thought he needed a little something fun, so he had his first sleep over! And it was coed! Lucy came over and they had way to much fun. So much fun Chris had to eventually separate them into two rooms. It is funny because Chris and I had previously discussed how with the world we live in today our kids would probably not do sleep overs, just late overs. But we figure that doesn't include family and hello the Tillmanns are practically family!
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(after a long night of giggling)
Speaking of awesome friends we were lucky enough to show Abby off to our good friends the Grady's! They were up in UT for a very busy weekend wedding (Leslie's Brother) and were kind enough to make time to come see us! We had so much fun sitting and eating good food. You really know you are good friends when you can go three months with only texting and brief emails and when you see each other again feel like no time had passed! Hopefully it will be that way when people come to visit us overseas... which better happen!
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We also took the kids back to the farm since the weather was to die for and now all the summer camps were over so it wouldn't be so crowded. I figured since I already had a zillion pictures it would be okay to risk shooting in manual mode. While I still need some serious work it was a fun morning of photoshooting. I especially like this one of Lucy, although it does look sort of Grapes of Wrathish.
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Liam was getting a little tired of me constantly being all up in his space.
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Sam would say cheese but would never actually look at me. He would just say it over and over as he looked everywhere but at the camera.
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Kristen and I were pretty excited though because Lucy NEVER looks at the camera and smiles and she actually did today for a few pictures! Whoo hoo break through!
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The next few weeks are unfortunately not going to be as much fun. Christophe rs parents leave Monday for the MTC (their farewell is on Sunday along with Abby's blessing, lots of pictures of that especially since I made her blessing dress!). Then the movers come to pack the things we want THERE when we get to DC on the 4th and then come back again to pack and move the stuff we want in storage. It is amazing the array of crud you acquire over just seven short years of marriage! Christophers parents won't even recognize their basement without all of our stuff strewn across half of it. I have been trying to organize it all but am so weirded out by this whole process. We are not allowed pack ANYTHING because they are liable for it if it breaks but we need to have everything organized and itemized. Kind of a pain. We also have to have everything separated into three categories. What we want right now in our apartment (which is already furnished-- making it hard to decide what decor to bring) where we may be staying anywhere from ten days to ten months (that is a lot of seasons we "might" be in DC for). Then there is the going into storage until we have an assignment in DC (basically our ghetto furniture that we may use again in eight years). Finally what we don't want now but want when we move abroad. OH MY GOSH. This is some crazy organization, and I think of myself as a pretty organized person. Add to all this an adorable four week old little girl who believes she will die if she is not being held and we have got some serious work ahead of us!
At least the place we are moving to is gorgeous and has a bagillion grills.
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Why on earth would you need that many grills that close together and could you imagine how uncomfortable it would be if they were actually all being used simultaneously by separate people? Awkward. We also have a preschool picked out for Sam. Sure the tuition is the price of my college tuition but it looks amazing and I am really excited for him. Can't wait till the state Dept. starts pickin' up the tab for that one! And possibly best of all there is a huge gym in the basement so I can finally start getting back in shape and it is just downstairs! So see you in a week and a half DC!

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Out & About

The weather has been great lately so we have been doing a lot outside. Every Tuesday in August Thanksgiving Point has 2 dollar Tuesdays where the dinosaur museum, Gardens and petting zoo are all only 2 dollars. (which is great because they are usually an arm and a leg) They are always CRAZY busy because everyone wants to take advantage of the cheap price. We took the boys to the dino museum with their cousins Ashlynn Morgy and Ava and they had a blast. The next week we tried to go tot he barn. We thought we would get there early and beat the crowd. When we arrived the line to get in was out the barn and a good 100 yards down the street. I felt awful because the boys were psyched to go but there was no way I was fighting that crowd to pet a goat so we headed home. This week we tried the Gardens figuring since they are HUGE the mass of people would be spread out. It was fabulous! The flowers were gorgeous
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and Sam even got to pet a wild bunny (that makes up for not going to the farm right?).
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I tried to teach the boys how to roll down a huge hill but it didn't really work. I forgot how much that hurts. When your a kid it is so fun you don't notice but man rolling my currently chunky body down a hill was not that fun. (Kinda like when I tried the slip N slide and got lovely bruises!). The boys got to feed the hundreds of fish that were in the Monet Pond. It has a gorgeous bridge with hanging baskets every few feet.
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While I went to the secret garden to feed Abby the boys took a break in the roman gardens. Sam plopped himself down and crossed his feet and popped open his cup of goldfish.
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Liam seeing this went to the other side of the rotunda and copied him exactly. Sooo cute!
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We met the Tillmanns and Sam Lucy Reese and Liam had fun running up and down the huge hill in front of the waterfall while we ate lunch and Abby got a little sun to help get rid of the little Jaundice she has left.
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We went home for nap time and then met back with the Tillmanns at the children's garden. I forgot my camera and was so bummed because they had so much fun playing in the water feature, a gigantic Noah's arc where the animals squirt water into a splash zone. A day totally worth the tiny price!
Down At The Farm
TO make up for the petting zoo Chris and I took the boys to Wheeler farm. I always thought it was an expensive place but it is actually free! Chris came a few times as a child on school field trips and actually milked one of the cows :) The boys had a blast running after geese and feeding the ducks. What they loved the most though was climbing on and pretending to drive the tractors.
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When they weren't doing that they were playing with the many safety cones.
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The animals were all acting a little crazy that day. One of the beautiful Paints was running all over the field making lots of noise and charging the other horses. Then the pig apparently felt like eating out of the trough wasn't good enough and just got right in it.
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Then there was the goat who would hop up on the fence whenever anyone came near it. Liam thought he was pretty cool but wouldn't get too close.
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It is just always fun to see the boys running around all wild and crazy.
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I can't believe the summer is almost over!

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

What is most fun is...

The completely unnecessary yet completely wonderful aspects of having a girl:
Ruffle Bums
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fancy little eye masks
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Tiny bracelets
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Big bows for your wipe container (thank you kelly elaine!)
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its fun to have a girl :)
I do so love my boys though... even if they do ruin all their clothes with Popsicles or as Liam calls them "helows" (no idea on that one).
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When I photoshoped this photo I was startled by how much Liam looked like the Joker :) so cute but a little creepy.
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Saturday, August 15, 2009

I'm a robot, I'm talkin' like a robot

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Sam and Liam enjoyed an episode of Curiouse George the other day where George made himself a robot costume. Afterwards Sam requested that we make him one also. Chris and I may have gotten a little carried away :)
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The boys had so much fun walking around like robots. Sam would say "Robot" over and over while Liam would just say "bot..bot" and waddle a little.
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We also took some pics of Abby for her baby announcement. She is so stinkin cute! While I love this one:
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Chris and others like this one because it shows both her dimples, although it is a little bit of a goofy face
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And just in case we wanted to take her for a walk we have the worlds smallest wagon to cart her around in:
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Wednesday, August 12, 2009

so much to do so little time

Not surprisingly we have been pretty busy lately. I feel bad because while I love blogging (more of reading other peoples blogs...) it has unfortunately become dead last priority. I would like to catch up a little though. Before Abby & Daddy arrived I stayed up with my parents and the boys were spoiled with nightly scooter rides (according to Sam it is granddads gooooter) down to a gorgeous flower garden!
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The boys loved to walk around and smell all the flowers and sit on the little bridge. Liam is really funny and dying to figure out how to jump. He gets WAY down low and then jerks his body up but his feet never leave the ground.
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After a lap or two around Sam would throw on his bike helmet and he and granddad would gooter on home. I caught the cutest picture as they zoomed past the house on night. He literally looked like if he were any happier he would burst. (its on my parents camera... gotta remember next time I am up there.)
They loved playing in the backyard, Liam particularly liked the dog bowl.

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Unfortunately we learned the hard way that neither boy is allergic to bee stings as they both were stung twice. Sam now has a health fear of them though and we are trying to teach him that everything that flies is not a bee.
We also participated in swim lessons with Fischer and Lucy!!!
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Sam LOVED it and much to my surprise was the thread that held the lessons together apparently. We had a rough morning one Thursday and left Liam at home. Sam refused to get out of the car at swim lessons and was crying for "his Liam". I of course dragged him out and over tot eh pool where both Fischer and Lucy were waiting neither of which would get into the water with out Sam, who continued to cry and throw a fit until I finally gave in and we went home skipping lessons to his precious Liam. Who I am sure within five mins of being home he hit.
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I had a blast talking with Jordan and Kristen and joking about the flirting going on between our teacher and a lifeguard :) ON the last day the kids got a report card (which was not filled out, whats up with that) and a treat! I am glad his first lessons were such a good experience.
We had fun celebrating the 24 of July with Chris's family and lots of food and fire worls!
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Sam had so much fun running around crazy with all 20 of his cousins!
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Since Abby has been born the pace has really picked up. She is such an angel baby but that might have something to do with the fact that there is ALWAYS someone wanting to hold here. I think the longest she has been put down is a diaper change ;) That's what happens when you have a big family full of girls!
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It is wonderful when we go out to eat with family, like we did for Christopher's Aunt Beverly's, because I actually get to use both hands to eat because Abby is being passed around :)
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I must say I didn't realize how much I needed a girl until she came. She already adds so much to our family. And another big plus is how much more fun girls are to dress!!!
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It is amazing though how seamlessly Abby has fit into the family. I boys act as if she has always been here and are already very protective of her. She has already completed one full night of sleep with out waking up :) and certainly has her daddy wrapped around her finger. What a blessing!

Saturday, August 1, 2009

This morning I got to wake up with.....

Miss Abigail Quincy Crawford
Born July 31 st at 8:32am
7 lbs 4 ounces 19 inches and LOTS of dark hair
She was very patient and waited a full 24 hours after her Daddy arrived to come! We are both doing great and will be heading home after only a short 24 hour stint at the hospital. When they brought her back in from her bath with a little mowhawk and purple bow I thought I was going to die. HOW CUTE IS SHE!!!! She has double dimples like Sam and her daddy and came out ready to eat anything that came close to her mouth! Needless to say I am in love :)
Her brother Sam is completely smitten with her and was sobbing when we didn't leave the hospital with him. He told me "Mom you have got to come home with your three friends, Sam, Liam and that one!" (he held up a finger for all three and then did a tadda motion toward Abby).