Merry Christmas!

May the joy of the season be with you all year long . . .

A Toddler's Photo Essay

Technically, Brianna is still a toddler because she is 3 years old. However anyone who has ever met her knows she has never been a baby. I think of her as 3 going on 30.
She loves to take photos. One day she found my camera and took a bunch of pictures of our house. Instead of deleting them, I thought I'd publish what the world looks like to someone who is 3 1/2 feet tall.

The entry way. (Artwork by Caious and Andrew)

Living room bookcase. (Made by Bill)

Her treasured hand-me-down backpack from our neighbors. For some reason, she put it in the master bedroom.

Roomba sweeping the hallway.

Wow. Roomba looks much bigger than usual.

Her little brother is a favorite subject. (This was actually taken in late October. That's why he looks so much more alert.)

And so it Begins . . .

For some reason, the powers that be have decided to bring us back to reality in the heat of summer. They decreed that school will begin August - yes AUGUST - 7th.

Kaiti is now in 7th grade.


Caious is in 5th grade.

Andrew is in 3rd grade.

Ellie is now in 1st grade.

Even though it is hot, the children are all anxious to start a new school year. They are excited to see their friends again, and they look forward to getting out of the house and away from chores for a few hours a day.

The Ellie-bration

Ellie's birthday was the day after Dallin's blessing. Grandma and Grandpa were anxious to get back to Utah and left with Kaiti at 3 a.m. (Buddy obviously does not like to be away from home for long. That is a subject for another post.)

We wanted everyone to be part of her birthday celebration, so we had birthday cake with everyone who came to the blessing.



She wanted a white cake with red and blue fireworks on top of a white background.

Our honored guests could select Dryer's "red, white and no more blues," Safeway Select rocky road ice cream or - much to Bill''s chagrin - FDD (frozen dairy desert) to go with the vanilla cake and vanilla frosting.

. . . and There's More!

On her actual birthday, we had a small family dinner. Ellie chose tater tot casserole, green beans and jello for dinner. Can she have a birthday without a cake? Of course not.

This time she asked for yellow cake with vanilla frosting (and the same fireworks decorating scheme).

. . . But Wait! There's More!

Her party didn't take place until a few days after her birthday.

She invited the five friends who were in town for a slip 'n slide extravaganza.

. . . and a lunch of hot dogs, watermelon, grapes and carrots.

As we already know, birthdays must include cake. This time, she decorated chocolate cup cakes with M&Ms and marshmallows.

After all of the celebrations, I needed a rest . . .

Happy Birthday Elbow!

A Blessed Occasion

Grandma Kathleen and Grandpa Buddy drove from Utah (with the boys) to attend Dallin's baby blessing. They even supplied the adorable blessing outfit.

Dallin was very good during the blessing. He was wide awake, but didn't make a sound. The rest of the children were also very quiet and I was able to hear what Bill said.

We were very blessed to have friends and family members celebrate this occasion with us.

The Parry family came with baby Jill who is only 5 weeks older than Dallin.

The proud fathers with the napping newborns.

A Spectacular 4th of July

Independence Day in Tucson can be an interesting experience.
Some years it is unbearably hot.
Some years it rains.
This year, we had both the heat and the rain - in the same day.
The unusual weather produced this:


This was taken in our cul-de-sac while we were on our way to the ward party. This ward has an awesome party at our Relief Society President's home. They have a fantastic back yard that includes a pool, a guest house, a basketball court, a trampoline and enough grass for 150 people to dine in comfort.

Kaiti and Ellie participated in the entertainment. Ellie sang "You're a Grand Old Flag" with gusto. Kaiti sang "Proud To Be an American" with the rest of the young women (we missed the photo opportunity because the baby needed a diaper change). They sounded fantastic.


Independence day would not be complete without our traditional 'fireworks' cookies. (spritz colored red white and blue). Bill loves spritz cookies. So I make these every year for him. Unfortunately for him, it takes about 360 days for me to forget how much I hate making these cookies. So I only makes these once a year.

We rounded out our celebration at a barbecue with friends and family and watching the local fireworks . . . from a comfortable distance.

Numerologists Take Note

As you may (or may not) have noticed, my two youngest children both have birthdays in June. Even though Dallin was due much earlier, he was born just three days before Brianna's 3rd birthday.
The most remarkable thing is the numerical expression of the dates.
Brianna: 6-19-06
Dallin: 6-16-09
I'm sure it means something . . . I just hope it's something good.

Happy, Happy Birthday Brianna Dear . . .

Brianna is now 3 years old.




For her birthday dinner she chose grilled salmon, rice and broccoli because: "Oh. I love broccoli."



Grandma Kathleen baked and decorated a Winne the Pooh cake for her.
A word to the wise: if you are making a Winne the Pooh cake, it's worth the effort to get the Wilton brand official Winne the Pooh food coloring. We had a slight food-coloring mishap and the "Pooh" cake turned into what the boys called a "poop" cake. It was still very tasty.

Our good friends, the Mitchell's came over to celebrate with us.


and showered her with gifts. Like Hannah Montanna lip gloss and candy.


Her brothers gave her a pink ball and her parents gave her a brand new bike (not pictured). She was delighted with everything.


The celebration continued the next day when Grandma and Grandpa Drake came to visit.


They gave her an adorable outfit, two great books . . .


and a toy that makes bath time so much fun.

Introducing . . .

Dallin Jay Crawford

Born June 16, 2009

at 2:23 a.m.

Weighing 8 lb. 5 oz.

Measuring 20.5 inches

He is a good sleeper

and a good eater.

Our entire family is delighted he has arrived.

At Least They Are Dressed

My cousin used to scoff at the children who would accompany their mothers in public dressed strangely. She hated to see a little boy with shorts cowboy boots and a cape trailing his mother through the store. Then she had a few boys of her own. Now she is just happy they are dressed.

With five children to care for, that is exactly how I feel.

One of Brianna's best creations: A lovely tie-dyed t-shirt and her "rainbow" pants under two (yes, two) swimming suits. The look is completed by her lovely fluffy hair style. Note: I didn't take her out in public dressed like that. I made her put the swimming suits away and I convinced her to let me tame her hair . . . a little bit.

The rest of the children were lucky enough to get colored hairspray at the end-of-year school carnival.

Kaiti wanted blue.

Caious went a more patriotic with red and blue to compliment his white hair.

Ellie picked green with blue highlights. (The official school colors of Wilson K-8, a school she doesn't attend, even though she loves wearing her brother's hand-me-down shirt.)

Brianna went with pink. What else?

He's Usually More of a Monkey . . . but . . .

Generally, Andrew can be found climbing something or swinging from branches. Which is why we tell him he came into our family when we went to the zoo, and a monkey followed us home so we removed his tail and named him Andrew.





For his school play "Rumpus in the Rain forest" he was selected to play the part of an ant, even though parts for monkeys were clearly available. (If you look behind him, a whole bunch of children were dressed as monkeys.) But I digress. He made a wonderful ant and sang his songs admirably.


I wish I had brought the video camera to record the production. But I had a bad seat so I would have recorded the backs of people's heads. Plus, I still don't know how to upload video. Even though the still shots don't really do it justice, it's all I have.

If you notice, Andrew only has one feeler attached to his visor. I'm not sure why , but it seems fitting.