Rusty & Carianne

Just because

2012-01-25T13:50:00.001-07:00

After church on Sunday, I took some pictures of Kate, just because.

Just because she usually isn't wearing a dress, but pajamas instead. Kate loves pajamas and takes great pride in picking which ones to wear. She is usually in her comfy tinker bell or hello kitty pj's by 2:00 pm each day. And there are always princess or "Rudolph" slippers to match.

Just because her hair is usually undone. Every morning I do Kate's hair. She will sit through a french braid or a twist. Sometimes I even can even convince her into pig tales or a pony. However, never fail every time I do her hair she takes it out! She will then hide the elastic bands and pretty bows in her underwear if she doesn't have a pocket.

Just because she is usually covered with sparkly costume jewelry and fairy wings. Kate loves to dress up and does so a million times a day. She is never spotted without at least a tiara or a pair of princess shoes. She definitely has a sense of style.

Just because she's cute.

Toy Story on Ice

2012-01-25T13:23:00.000-07:00

We were lucky enough to get tickets to see Disney's Toy Story on Ice when it came to town. Kate loved the show and its accompanying popcorn. The highlight of the show was watching Barbie and Ken skate. They were amazing! And the best part is....Rusty has agreed to dress up as Ken for Halloween. I am already on the look out for a light blue ascot.

More Christmas Fun

2012-01-15T13:53:00.000-07:00

(I had a few pictures that I didn't want to forget from Christmas)

We had a great Christmas with the Clawson family. This was the first year ever that we opened gifts on Christmas eve. We all agreed it felt kind weird, but once we started eating "Hot Mickeys" with chocolate syrup for breakfast it truly felt like Christmas. My parents made the traditional Christmas breakfast just for us, even though they would have to cook the same breakfast again the next day for more family. Thank you mom & dad.

Kate opened up her first 2 gifts from Grandpa & Grandma and then she was done. She took her new princess pillow and her new princess book and sat in the corner to read.

She also got a jewelry set that included these gold gloves. She loves all things jewelry and wears them often. And thanks to cousins Emilia & Pete, we have played many rounds of Pretty Pretty Princess.

After Christmas we visited the train park in Scottsdale. Kate loved it! She loves hugging all of the characters and seeing all of the lights. It was even more fun because Grandma & Grandpa were there.

During Christmas break, we also went to an italian circus with the entire family. We had front row VIP seats. This made everyone a little uneasy, because we knew that meant the possibility of audience participation. Rusty even exchanged seats with Gregg so that he could be "safe" The seats were so good that we also feared for our lives everytime the horses came out. The horses would run around the inside of the arena right infront of us hitting the wall with their feet. You know you have good seats when you can feel the horses breath in your face. Here are Kate and Grandpa during intermission.

Just as we predicted, a clown tried to embarrass Gregg. The clown made him put down his popcorn and start clapping. Jeff got invited to participate in the circus too. He was such a good sport, flapped his arms around like he was flying, tried to hold up the rope for a tightrope walking clown, and then helped 6 other big men hold the rope so the clown could walk on it. Grandma Buehner came with us, and opened up her newspaper later that week to find a picture of us. See if you can spot anyone you know, 3 Grandparents & Kate. See here on Page 7

Lastly, here is a picture I took of Kate at our ward Christmas party. All of the families were invited to dress up like characters from the nativity story. Rusty had the assignment of dressing up like a wise man. When Kate found out that her Dad was going to the party wearing a costume, she had to put one on too. The only costume she knows is her Snow White dress from Halloween. We tried to pass her off as being dressed like Mary. But she would correct us telling everyone that she was in fact Snow White.

We had a wonderful holiday and loved spending it with family. Kate is already counting down the days until Christmas comes again.

Rusty the Snowman

2012-01-02T15:24:00.003-07:00

Kate thinks its pretty funny to call her parents by their first names. Ever since she was two, she thought that her dad's name was "Rusty the Snowman." While up in Heber, we wanted to play in the snow and make one of our own.

Kate taking a nap. Just kidding, this is her snow angel.

We love to visit the snow. And we're sure glad that we don't have to live in it.

Christmas

2012-01-02T15:03:00.000-07:00

Christmas Eve at the Crandells was wonderful. We had a Christmas devotional, put on a family talent show, and exchanged some pretty funny white elephant gifts. The Crandells sure have a lot of talent.

Sam played the guitar and sang. Becky, Steven & Callie sang "Frosty the Snowman," Brennon & Amber helped us remember the signs of Christmas, Ben & Amy did a dance (the little girls joined in.), Kate sang "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." Other talents not pictured include, Andy & Cheryl's lovely duet, Adam's disassemble and reassemble of a ballpoint pen using only one hand, Grandma Crandell told a blonde joke, and Grandpa Crandell played the guitar and sang "Silent Night."

This picture sums up our Christmas morning at Grandpa & Grandma Crandell's house. 8 out of the 9 Crandell siblings were home for Christmas, including their spouses and kids. Kate had the right idea. Just sit down in the middle and smile at everything that Santa brought.

I love this picture too. Rusty is opening up Kate's present to him. She was excited to give him a Captain Hook hat so that he can play dress up with her.

Grandma spoiled the girls with new dresses and we went to church with our cousins. After church, we ate a lot of yummy food, played with our new toys, and watched movies together. We had a wonderful Christmas!

Tubing in Heber

2012-01-02T14:59:00.001-07:00

Since we were in Heber on Christmas Eve, we bundled up tight and went tubing down the mountain. Kate loved it! She even wanted to go down by herself. Her favorite part however might have been eating all of the snow off her gloves.

Family Pictures 2011

2011-12-17T21:36:00.001-07:00

Thanks J for the pictures you took. The turned out great.

Rusty vs. Romney

2011-12-12T22:53:00.000-07:00

Best Tan: Romney

Best Hair: Romney

Best Dressed: Romney

My endorsement certainly won't make any newspapers, but for what it is worth, Mitt Romney has my vote -- and not just because he is incredibly good looking. He is a man of integrity, a proven leader, and uniquely qualified to tackle the challenges facing our country.

Gymnastics

2011-12-10T22:17:00.000-07:00

Maybe this is why Kate loves gymnastics class so much.

(Kate is the one in black flying through the air.)

Disneyland

2011-11-22T22:00:00.071-07:00

We just got back from Disneyland!!! We had such a fun time with Kate and the rest of our family. Don't mind the picture over load. We had a magical time.

Emmie & Kate with Tigger

The tea cups were a favorite. But the girls preferred to just ride and not spin.

We loved Toon Town. Cora, Kate, Emmie, Pete & Jenna posing on Roger Rabbit's Fire Truck.

We were lucky enough to meet Mickey Mouse himself.

Kate, Cora & Jenna with Goofy

I love this picture. The dads riding with their girls, and Jenna with her grandma. Emmie doesn't look too happy. But we rode it a second time just to make sure if she liked it or not.

We attended the Princess Coronation Ceremony by accident. The girls were in heaven seeing so many Princesses right up close.

Paper streamers excite Kate & Emmie.

Kate loved dancing around the May pole

The longest line we waited for was to see Tinkerbell and Vidia in Pixie Hollow. The fairies were so nice to Kate. She didn't want to leave.

Kate was able to meet Minnie as we were leaving the park. They wore matching polka dots.

We had so much fun the first day at Disneyland that we decided to go back. And over night the park had set up their Christmas Tree. So we had to get a picture in front of it.

The girls and their grandparents.

Meeting Snow White

Kate got to drive the cars with her grandparents. She is one crazy driver.

The highlight of the trip for Kate might have been meeting Flynn Rider! She enjoys Rapunzel too, but has a thing for Flynn. Her dad embarrassed her when they met because he informed them of Kate's crush. Gotta love the smolder.

The last day we were there was Kate's birthday. We wanted to make the day extra special, so we had breakfast at the Plaza Inn with Minnie and her friends. Kate also wore her Snow White dress and was proud of her Birthday button. All day long everyone wished her a Happy Birthday.

Having met Minnie 3 times now, Kate and her are real close (as in BFF's).

Captain Hook made an appearance at breakfast.

And Eeyore was there too. You can tell from all of the food on Kate's plate that she barely had time to eat because there were so many characters that she wanted to meet. The food was really good though!

Cinderella taught Kate how to curtsy.

All of the girls dressed up and ready for some fun.

Outside Rusty's new favorite ride- Toy Story Mania. Silly girls in their 3D glasses.

Grandma and Kate

Seeing the sights from up high.

Sully from Monsters Inc. gave a hug big enough for 4 girls.

Rusty and Kate right before we left the park to drive home.

We had such a great time at Disneyland. Thank you to all of our family for making Kate's 3rd birthday so magical.

Happy Birthday

2011-11-19T23:05:00.000-07:00

Kate had a birthday!

She celebrated in costume, eating cake with cousins.

Do you want some cake? I saved you a piece.

We love you Kate! Happy Birthday.

Project Runway Hallowen Edition

2011-10-30T22:09:00.000-07:00

On Saturday you would have thought that our house was the set of Project Runway Halloween edition. Julianne has been in town, and she is a talented seamstress, as is my mom. Together they can make anything. This year's group Halloween costume theme was Disney. So everyone in the family dressed as someone from a Disney movie. Kate was lucky enough to have her grandma sew a beautiful Snow White dress for her. We figured Rusty & I needed coordinating Snow White costumes too. Here is what we came up with.....

The Evil Queen, Snow White & her Prince

Sleeping Beauty

Sleeping Beauty, Peter Pan & Captain Hook

All dressed up we went to a church Trunk or Treat. The girls found some more ponies to ride.

Kate loved the cake walk and won 2 times before we made her leave to do something else. She would have kept walking in circles winning cupcakes all night if we had let her.

The Queen of Hearts & her Card

And of course, we ended the night with candy! Both girls were great at saying "Trick or Treat" and "Thank you!"

A Day at the Farm

2011-10-30T21:43:00.000-07:00

We spent a full day at the farm with cousins. We first hopped on the hay rack ride that took us to the pumpkin patch.

We got in line to ride the ponies. Each of the kids were brave enough to ride. This was probably their favorite part of the farm.

We put the kids in the hay maze to keep them occupied and contained for a minute. I guess Bryce didn't understand how the hay maze works. He kept hopping over all of the hay walls and made it out all by himself.

Kate & Emmie dressed as real cowgirls to get their picture taken.

The barrel train ride was a lot of fun.

While at the farm we also visited the petting zoo and jumped in the bounce house. The kids had a grand time and loved spending their day at the farm.

Zoo

2011-10-30T21:21:00.000-07:00

Kate was lucky enough to have 4 cousins in town visiting. We love Paige & Bryce and Emilia & Peter and wish they lived closer. Even though the zoo was hot, we made the most of our time there. We rode the carrousel and hopped on the train and spotted an animal or two.

Thanks for "hanging" out with us cousins!

Grandma B's Halloween Party

2011-10-30T21:05:00.000-07:00

We had a great Halloween party with Grandpa & Grandma B. Grandma ordered a barrel train ride, which was a hit with the kids. We also celebrated with a witch pinata. Kate loved kicking the pinata and hitting it with a broom. But she cried when it busted open. Her tender heart kept her from getting a bunch of candy. We also frosted sugar cookies, and put on a costume parade. The group Halloween theme for this year was Disney, so all of the girls were a different princess. Kate's favorite part was when the girls got to dance around in circles wearing their dresses.

Grandma's Halloween Party

2011-10-18T21:25:00.001-07:00

Kate was invited to a Halloween party by her grandma. She was super excited to see all of her cousins and grandparents. Grandma had many activities planned for the girls. First thing each girl got a turn to help grandma make pumpkin sugar cookies. Later the girls helped decorate the cookies to look like jack-o-lanterns.

For lunch the girls helped make a pizza snake. Pretty scary. Grandma also made homemade caramel apples that were delicious! The girls also watched 2 Halloween movies and ate tons of popcorn.

When the girls weren't eating, they were buy playing outside. The trampoline, swings and sand could have easily entertained them all day. But grandma had more fun planned, so we brought the girls in for some coloring and crafting.

The girls got busy coloring their pumpkin pictures. Then they headed outside to make a jack-o-lantern out of a jar. The modge podge was a hit, Kate loved painting it on.

While the little girls were busy playing the big girls got to craft too. We made super cute SPOOKY blocks together. We can't say thank you enough to Grandma Crandell for all of the time and effort that went into putting on this Halloween party. At the end of the night, Grandma handed each girl a goodie bag that was filled with many treasures and trinkets. Kate loved her bag and was eager to tell her dad all about the fun she had with Grandma. Thank you again! We can't wait until Grandma's Halloween party next year.

We're Professional Campers

2011-09-15T21:58:00.002-07:00

In my last camping post, I mentioned how we enjoy camping, but don't consider ourselves professional campers because we don't go often enough. Well, we went camping again over Labor Day weekend up on Mt. Graham. Since we've gone camping twice in a one month period, that means we are professionals now.

We enjoyed camping with my brother Jeff and his wife Vita, and with Rusty's sister Becky and husband Steven and little girl Callie. Rusty's brother Sam and his wife Lacie were also up on the mountain and we got to catch up with them. We decided to take a nature walk before it got dark.

Here's the whole group. (not including Sam & Lacie)

Kate enjoys seeing things from up top.

We got rained on only a few hours after we set up camp. Kate and Callie know how to stay dry.

After dinner we broke out the marshmallows. Becky and Callie enjoyed the smores.

Kate knows how to relax. Feet up with a marshmallow in each hand. (sorry the picture is blurry.)

Jeff & Vita

We wanted to go camping on Mt. Graham because we had heard that there are church services on the mountain over Labor Day weekend. Lacie & Sam drove us up the mountain for church. We wore jeans and t-shirts, and sat in camping chairs and got to partake of the sacrament and listen to testimonies. This is the number of people who showed up for church on Sunday.

Kate especially enjoyed Sacrament meeting because when the little girls got bored and noisy, we took them on a walk. We happened to find a stream right behind the church gathering. Kate and Callie had a great time splashing in the water. We started out just letting them take their socks and shoes off. But that escalated to taking off shirts and pants, and before you know it these girls were playing in the water in their underwear during testimony meeting. Sorry I can't post those pictures, they are cute.

After church, Sam drove up to Riggs Lake. The lake is at 10,000 feet elevation and pretty much at the top. Kate said her favorite part of the camping trip was riding in the truck with Uncle Sam.

At the lake, Rusty showed off his "rock skipping" skills and then we piled back in the truck to head back to camp.

We had a great time on the mountain. And seeing as we are professional campers now, we're ready to go again.

What I Believe

2011-09-10T22:54:00.000-07:00

I created a profile on mormon.org. In the profile, I explain why I am a Mormon and some of the ways that I try to live my faith. You can check out my profile here. If you have any question or would like to know more about the things I shared in my profile, please do not hesitate to ask me. I really enjoy talking with others about my beliefs.

Updated Adoption Profile

2011-09-06T21:28:00.001-07:00

Carianne and I updated our adoption profile. We completely rewrote our adoption message and added new pictures. Please pass along the good word.

Camping

2011-08-24T14:24:00.000-07:00

We love to go camping, but don't go often enough to be considered professional campers. The plan was to camp with friends, but plans change and we enjoyed camping just the three of us. We set up the tent, made peach cobbler and watched a movie together inside the tent. I think we look pretty good for being so dirty.

In the morning we met up with our friends and enjoyed a cookout breakfast in the park. What did the kids do while the grown-ups cooked and chatted?

They played on the playground flooded with rain water! Kate played for over 2 hours in the water and by the end, she was completely covered in sand.

She had so much fun playing in the water that she slept the entire way home. Now that's what I call camping.

Our Summer is Over

2011-08-18T22:12:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of the summer we got to spend time with the entire Crandell family. Cousins Paige and Bryce were in town from Michigan so we enjoyed a staycation close by. We got together for some swimming with Grandma and Grandpa, good food at Red Lobster, and bear building at the mall. Kate loved being with all of her cousins.

Kate had never been inside Build-a-Bear before, so she was quite excited to go in and make an animal. She picked a bunny, but chose no clothes, because Bunnies don't wear clothes of course. Kate tried to put her bunny to bed and then decided to test out a bed herself. She didn't quite fit.

All of the cousins with their new stuffed friends. Thank you Grandma!

In July we were lucky enough to attend a private pre-screening of the last Harry Potter movie. You can't beat seeing the show before it opens, not having to wait in line, and then having a perfect seat right in the middle. There was a costume contest before the show started. Julianne dressed up like Dolores Umbridge. My dad wore a Mad Eye Moody eyeball. Special thanks to Rachael for the great show.

In July, Kate took a second session of swim lessons with her cousin Emmie. This was the first time that she took a swim class that was held in the deep end. Kate has really become a fish this summer. She loves to put her head under water and blow bubbles, although she is still not a floater.

With Julianne in town we gave the cousins a lot of play time. Here we are at the splash pad eating some ice cream that was melting too fast. Pete got to eat someone's left over cone.

We had a lot of fun this summer with cousins. Come back and play soon!

4th of July

2011-07-16T22:03:00.002-07:00

Rusty's family puts on quite a party every 4th of July. Rusty had been sulking for the past 2 years because he had missed out on the Independence Day fun in Heber, AZ. He hadn't been to Heber for the fireworks in 2 years and was pretty excited to be back. Even though the town didn't shoot off any fireworks (because of the fire hazard) we still had a great time.

We played Just Dance 2 on the wii. Rusty refused to dance next to me, he said my arms were too long and posed a safety hazard. We gave the little girls each an extra controller to hold. They thought they were scoring points along with the rest of us. We'll have to practice a little more to compete with Andy & Cheryl.

The Crandells also held a family race. Adam came in as winner with Dad Crandell close behind. Rusty did great and enjoyed the run. Kate even ran part of the way. Then she turned around and wanted to be carried the whole way home. We love that the Crandells love to run together.

We also had the first ever Crandell Family Water Fight! It was a combination of water balloons, water guns, slip-n-slide and capture the flag. No one was able to stay dry. We will definitely do this again next year, but we're planning on adding even more balloons and guns.

Thank you Mom Crandell for all of the awesome food. You sure know how to spoil us.

Since the town of Heber always celebrates the Saturday before the holiday, we traveled back home and were able to watch the fireworks with Brennon & Amber. Brennon took us up to his office at Tempe Town Lake and we watched indoors. It was the best place to view the fireworks. No crowds, and no heat! Happy Independence Day.

Mormon Battalion

2011-07-16T21:25:00.000-07:00

Before we left San Diego we had the chance to visit the new Mormon Battalion Visitor Center. This was our first trip here and we enjoyed ourselves very much. Kate loved the life of a pioneer.

Hotel del Coronado

2011-07-07T22:04:00.005-07:00

Rusty should become a travel agent! I say this because he was in charge of our accommodations while in San Diego. I think he did a pretty good job. He scored us a deal at the Hotel del Coronado. We had a great time relaxing and enjoying family time together.

We learned quickly that there is a right way to do the beach! Here is how we did the beach- First, we sleep in. Next, we put on our swimming suits and walked down to breakfast. We ate a lot because the omelets made to order were oh so good. The buffet breakfast had so many choices it was ridiculous. Third, we grabbed some chairs and towels outside courtesy of the hotel. Fourth, we walk a few yards and sat down. That's it! It was too easy and made for a fun day of relaxing in the sun.

Kate loved playing in the water. She loved running away from the waves and licking the salt water off of her lips.

We had fun in the sand too. Rusty & Kate turned me into a mermaid. And Kate got pretty good at digging holes in the sand.

We didn't spend all of our time at the beach. We also had lots of fun relaxing at the hotel. Kate loved swimming at the hotel pool. She actually preferred swimming there instead of the ocean.

We rented a bike and rode around town. We put Kate in charge of ringing the bicycle bell. It was a lot of fun, until I got the heel of my foot caught in the bike spoke. Rusty had to pedal by himself for awhile after that.

The beach was so beautiful we couldn't help but stop to take some pictures along the way.

Hopefully we can go back soon. We had such a great time that I have put Rusty in charge of all future family vacations.

Sea World

2011-07-06T17:38:00.000-07:00

When your husband says "lets go on vacation," you drop everything and go! I had been knee deep in school work for an online class. I needed a break...Rusty came home from work one day and announced that we were going to go on vacation. He planned the entire trip, make all of the accommodations, and even watched Kate for me while I scrambled to finish up school work so that I could leave for a week. We jumped in the car and headed to San Diego. Sea World was the first stop on our vacation. We took Kate there when she was only 6 months old. We knew she wouldn't have remembered the trip, so we went there again hoping that she would have a little more fun this time.

All three of us with Shamu.

Kate loved the sea stars. However, she didn't understand that you needed to hold the sea stars underwater. I was embarrassed when she picked one up and threw it into the water.

Rusty & Kate checking out the turtles.

We tried the sky lift that took you out over the water. I was paranoid the whole time about losing Kate over the side. Luckily, Rusty agreed beforehand to jump in the water if anything accidentally happened.

Kate's favorite part of Sea World was the Elmo land. She got to meet three of her favorite characters. She loved riding on all of the Sesame Street rides and watching the characters sing and dance.

Kate insisted that we ride in the Elmo Pig Fish. She liked riding as high as the fish would go.

In Elmo land there is a giant play area where kids can run wild. Kate was super excited to jump in this air house. She technically wasn't tall enough. Thank goodness for teenage workers who don't take their job seriously and forget to check the height requirements. She had a blast jumping and doing somersaults.

Rusty was nice enough to follow Kate up the giant play structure. I knew we would lose her if we let her go up there by herself. Rusty is such a good sport.

Kate had such a fun filled day that she fell asleep at 6:30, right after this photo was taken. We tried to wake her up so we could play some more. Sadly, she was out cold and didn't wake for anything.

We had a great day at Sea World. Kate loved it all, the penguins, dolphins, shamu and all the other animals. Except for the sharks- she said they were scary.

Swim Lessons

2011-07-04T15:40:00.000-07:00

3rd time is a charm. Kate was enrolled in the same swim class for the 3rd time this summer. She began her swimming career when she was only six months old. We were lucky enough to have the same teacher the next year when she was a year and half old. This summer she did great. And I was convinced that she would finally graduate to the next class. Bad news though, our teacher (the same one we'd had the past 2 years) got sick and we got substitutes for a week. To top it off, at the last class the instructor informed all of the parents that there was no report cards. In my opinion Kate did great. These are some of her favorite "tricks" that she can do in the pool now. 1) She likes to put her entire head under the water for a long time. (This one kind of scares me, but she always bobs back up.) 2) She can monkey walk like a real monkey! This girl can get herself anywhere she wants to go by using the pool wall. 3) She loves to jump in from the side and can do it without any help or prompt from me. (I just have to be ready, because she likes to surprise me by jumping on my face.) 4) She does not, I repeat, does not like to float on her back! She hates the lack of control she feels when floating, so instead she tries to wrap her arms tightly around mine like an octopus. 5) She can blow bubbles better than a motor boat. This is a skill she practices often even out of the water. 6) She loves to water! I didn't need swim lessons to discover that this girl is a swimmer. She would wear her swim suit all day if I let her. We have loved swimming this summer and hope to keep improving our skills.

Andy & Cheryl

2011-05-29T22:53:00.001-07:00

We celebrated a happy occasion in Colorado last week when Rusty's brother Andy got married to Cheryl. The funnest part was traveling together with Rusty's siblings. Seven of us flew over there and were quite surprised when the pilot mentioned that it was 44 degrees when we landed in Denver. Being Arizonans we had only packed flip flops and shorts! This was abnormal weather for Colorado but we made the most of it. Despite the heavy rain the day before, the wedding day turned out beautiful.

Here is the beautiful, and very happy couple.

Brothers

Sisters (and sis in laws)

Now fast forward one week--We just got back from celebrating the wedding reception of Andy & Cheryl in Heber. The little girls got to come along this time and they had a grand time staying at Grandpa & Grandma's house. The girl cousins stayed up late and watched Tangled and ate popcorn.

And they did a lot of jumping, swinging, and playing outside. Kate calls these girls her "friends" and loved spending time with them.

The girl cousins ready for a wedding party!

Bryce is lucky because he is the only man in this crazy group of girl grand-kids.

We had to get at least 1 family picture.

Congratulation to Andy & Cheryl. We loved celebrating with you. I have loved seeing how happy the two of you are. Welcome to the family Cheryl!!!

Best Day Ever!

2011-05-22T21:55:00.000-07:00

Kate has begun quoting lines from movies and uses this one often. You may recognize the words from the movie Tangled. On Saturday she quoted this line and actually meant it.

We started out the morning attending a friend's birthday party. It was a water party and Kate was thrilled to swim in the pool. She would nose dive in over the side or slide down the slide on her belly. She ate pizza, blew bubbles and hit a pinata. Thanks to our friends for the wonderful party. We can't wait until next year.

After the birthday party we headed to the mall to meet Mickey Mouse!!! The Disney store was having a grand opening and kids could wait in line to meet him. When Kate first saw Mickey, she was riding on her dad's shoulders and immediately clenched her body tight and started to scream in excitement! Rusty was nice enough to wait in line for over an hour so Kate could meet Mickey. Meanwhile Kate & I waited for over 20 minutes just to enter the store. Finally it was Kate's turn to meet Mickey Mouse. She walked over all by herself and just stood there as Mickey hugged her to pieces.

To end our day, we went to play at the train park. Kate has happy just to run around and slide down the slide as many times as she could. We ate cookies and played tag together. When Kate told us it was the "best day ever!" we had to agree because we sure had a lot of fun together.

Easter Egg Hunt

2011-04-24T21:48:00.000-07:00

At a community Easter egg hunt on Saturday we reviewed the rules with Kate. 1) Don't stop to break open the eggs. 2) Collect as many eggs as you can. 3) Its OK to take eggs from the baskets of other kids. Kate did well and enjoyed the hunt. I especially liked the hunt because it was over and done with in less than 5 minutes. Also, the plastic eggs were not filled with candy, but stickers instead. At the end, everyone gave back the plastic eggs they collected in exchange for a stuffed animal. Kate got to meet the Easter Bunny and play at the playground with her new stuffed animal. It's a lamb whose name is "Mary's Little Lamb" If you mistakenly call it Mary, she will correct you. Here are some of the Easter egg hunt highlights.

Waiting for the hunt to begin.

She's off to a good start.

Pleased with her hunting.

Not too interested in the Easter Bunny, but will stop long enough for a picture.

Family Easter Picture

I'm a mean wife.

2011-04-18T14:14:00.000-07:00

I'm a mean wife for making my husband run when he openly admits he is out of shape. I signed him up to run Pat's Run at ASU on Saturday. It's a 4.2 mile walk/run. He didn't want to do it. He even conspired to wake up early that morning and go running at our park so I that wouldn't make him do it. Seeing his clothes and running shoes all laid out nicely for him probably made him feel guilty. So instead, he woke up and ran with 29,000 other people. Kate and I dropped him off and I crossed my fingers that he wouldn't be too mad at me afterwords. Can you spot Rusty among the thousands of other running just waiting in their holding bin?

Kate and I had a pretty good time waiting for Rusty to finish running. Kate managed to find another bounce house. (I hope you don't think that all I let Kate do is bounce in jump houses regardless of my past few posts. She does have other interests I promise.) In the Kid Zone we ate everything we could find...cotton candy, popcorn, fruit snacks, and jamba juice.

When I signed Rusty up to run, I also signed up Kate too. Kate ran the .42 mile Kid Run with other tots her age (4 and under). When it came to the actual race time she wasn't too interested. She could have been bouncing or drinking more jamba juice and instead I was making her run. She wanted me to race the other kids and parents while holding her. And this would have been more fun for her and I, except that today I am not only the mean wife but the mean mom! She made it through the race, but wasn't happy about it at all. Here is the picture proof of my 2 runners.

If you look really fast at this next picture it looks like Kate is running. This picture was taken before the race and in reality it is just her eating a bag of popcorn.

After her race was over Kate did some real running. She saw Clifford the Big Red Dog and took off! Funny how this is what motivates her to run. (Next year I will be sporting this costume and we will finish the race with all smiles.)

I am proud of my 2 runners. They ran even though they didn't want to. And I think if you ask them about their races they will admit that they had a good time. And hopefully they will tell you that I am not such a mean wife or mom after all.

Happy Birthday to Me

2011-04-12T14:15:00.000-07:00

Rusty & Kate sure know how to celebrate birthdays. This is what they gave me for my birthday.

(Please ignore the "just got out of bed" hair and lack of makeup.)

We spent the morning at the Phoenix Science Center. We had a good time and only lost Kate once in the masses of people. Rusty and I played a round of "Mind Ball," where you had to put on a special headband and relax your mind enough to move a metal ball onto your opponents side. Can you guess who won? Rusty also played Mind Ball with Kate. That girl is the complete opposite of relax, so it was an easy win.

Here is Rusty laying on a bed of nails.

Rusty and Kate doing the pulley seat. Kate had it easy.

Here Rusty worked hard to build a house out of blocks that would be able to withstand an earthquake. Kate acted as our earthquake and shook his house to pieces.

On our way home I made Rusty stop by Krispy Kreme donuts for my free dozen!

We enjoyed Red Robin burgers with the rest of my family that evening. And finished off the day with my favorite Strawberry Ice Cream cake! Thanks for the great birthday!

Disney Princesses on Ice

2011-04-08T14:35:00.000-07:00

For my birthday this year, Kate gave me an early present. She got me tickets to see Disney Princesses on Ice. She is so thoughtful! (Thanks Dad for the tickets.)

We got to sit in the suite and enjoy the ice skating show in style. We dined on nachos and hot dogs before the show started. Kate was one happy girl.

Disney never disappoints. The show was great. Kate got to see some of her favorite movie characters and was super excited that Mickey and Minnie made an appearance. She also saw Jasmine, Mulan, Belle, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel, Snow White, Tinker Bell & Cinderella. Some of the wicked witches showed up too. I have no idea how people can skate with full body costumes on. Ice skating itself is difficult, and combine that with not being able to see through a giant mouse costume (Cinderella's mice) makes it doubly impressive.

Kate sat like this the whole time. I think its safe to say that she enjoyed the show.

It's About Love

2011-04-01T21:49:00.000-07:00

Carianne and I are thrilled to announce that we have been certified for adoption through LDS Family Services. Please visit our adoption page and pass along the good news.

San Diego

2011-03-28T14:35:00.000-07:00

We took a quick trip to San Diego because my cousin Jeremy got married. Kate went along for the ride. When I asked her if she wanted to go to California with Grandpa, she excited replied "Yes!" The whole ride up, I asked here where we were driving. She responded, "California." It wasn't until half way through the ride that I realized Kate thought that she was going to Disneyland. The smart girl that she is knew that Disneyland is in California. Sadly, I told her we were not going to Disneyland, but to the Temple. Disappointment came again when she realized that she could not go inside the temple once we got there. This explains why she isn't her normal smiling self in each picture. She is still thinking about how I made her drive all that way for nothing. Grandpa however was able to make her feel better.

Beautiful Bride & Groom. Annie looks awesome in her fancy dress!

Kate had her first sleep over with Grandma Crandell. She & Cousin Bailey drove with Grandma back to her house and stayed the whole weekend. Kate had the best time. They ate McDonalds, watched Bambi and jumped on the trampoline. Thanks Grandma, you're the best!

In other news. Kate's hair is still growing. Here is picture proof. We went to a fun Birthday party this past weekend and Kate had a grand time jumping. They had a bounce house and a trampoline right next to each other. She jumped from one thing to the next. Her hair did get a little out of control as you can see.

Zoo

2011-03-20T09:01:00.000-07:00

We are officially "a little" less busy. Here is an update.

I finished my six weeks of substitute teaching. A special thank you to my parents and Amber for helping watch Kate. She had so much fun with you. But I am happy to now be able to sleep in and clean my house. I have no idea how working parents do it all. And thanks to Rusty for putting up with me during those weeks, I wasn't the nicest person all the time. Moving on...after my last day of school Rusty and I went out for our Anniversary. Rusty & I have been married for 8 happy years! We celebrated by eating out and then going to the theater. We saw the musical, Hello Dolly, it was a great show.

Recently we had the chance to visit the Phoenix Zoo with Rusty's firm. Admittedly, I have never paid for my own admission to the zoo. It is too expensive, but have been fortunate to go with others who let me use their pass. We were in for a treat on Saturday, because not only was our admission paid for by the firm, but they also paid for a ride on the carousel and the zoo train. Both things we have never done because I am way too cheap. Not only that, we had lunch catered and Kate got to jump in the bounce house they set up. There was even a face painter there. Here are some pictures from our fun at the zoo.

Kindergarteners are Religious

2011-02-23T20:40:00.000-07:00

I didn't know Kindergartners were so religious. Some days these kids say some funny really funny things. Lately, I have overheard them saying a lot about religion. These kids may not be listening in class, but they sure are paying attention at church.

Example 1) One day at recess there was a maintenance man who was working on a water pipe in the ground that was leaking. The man had dug a big hole and was trying to work while Kindergartners surrounded him watching. Several kids started shouting, "The devil lives down there!" pointing to the hole. They were convinced that the devil was really living inside the hole that the maintenance guy had dug.

Example 2) We took a field trip to the Fire Station. Two Firemen showed us their ladder truck and raised the ladder up as high as it would go. The kids were very impressed. One kid asked, "Can I go up the ladder?" The fireman politely responded, "Sorry, because of liability issues, the insurance companies doesn't let us take kids up the ladder." The kid quickly shot back, "Well, who's the Boss?" The fireman told him the insurance were the boss. This same kid responded, "No, God is!"

Example 3) Today some boys were cutting paper in interesting shapes with scissors during their choice time. They were using the "snowflake" approach. One kid ran to me showing me his cut paper exclaiming, "Look! It's Jesus." He had thought that the shape that he had cut out looked like Jesus' head. He ran up to every other kid and told them, "Look! It's Jesus. He's watching over you."

Maybe the next time that these 5 & 6 year olds are acting out, I can use the religion card and tell that "Jesus is watching you. So, you 'd better sit still and pay attention!"

We're Still Hair

2011-02-20T21:36:00.001-07:00

We've been a little busy lately, but we're still Hair. Kate has crazy hair most of the time, not on purpose though. It looks great anytime she gets out of the bath and I comb it. It looks awful though, anytime she wakes up from a nap. She gets some serious bed head, and there is nothing I can to tame it (aside from putting her in the tub again.) This particular morning, Kate woke up and about blew me over with her hair. It looked as if she had stuck her finger in an electrical socket. Her hair was completely wind blown.

The good news about her hair is that it is getting longer. Finally there is enough of it to pull back in either pig tails or a ponytail. Though she doesn't really like to leave either of them in her hair. Here is her hair pulled back in a ponytail.

I shouldn't make fun of her hair, and should rather be thankful for the little bit she does have. Even if her ponytail does remind me of a certain pirate.

Kate's Fashion Tips

2011-01-14T14:14:00.000-07:00

Kate may have a future in fashion. She wakes up every morning and gets ready for the new day. She has found that she can dress herself easily and now doesn't have to wait for me to help her. I laugh every time I see a new outfit. Notice her thoroughness in choosing just the right shoes and accessories to compliment every outfit. Here are some style tips from Kate.

Fashion Tip # 1

Its all about layering.

Here she chose a blue shirt to layer underneath an inside out & backwards striped one. The combination works well with the ballerina skirt and Twinkle Toes shoes.

Fashion Tip #2

Your undergarments should always match.

Here she has matched a pink pajama shirt with a pink mini skirt. The pink cupcake purse is the obvious choice. And if you have light up sleeping beauty princess shoes, wear them! The only problem with this outfit is that the side & rear view do not follow the matching pink theme she was going for.

Fashion Tip #3

Arm holes are optional.

Here Kate chose to re-use the ballerina skirt in picture 1, only this time she flipped it inside out. It is a completely new skirt now! Sometimes it is best to wear your T-shirts backwards. However, the backpack hides some of her fashion detailing. See the next picture.

If put on correctly this plain old T-shirt becomes an off the shoulder knock out. And do I need to even mention the boots?

Shrek

2011-01-12T13:47:00.000-07:00

For Christmas we got tickets to see Shrek the Musical. Rusty was a little hesitant given our last Broadway show was Marry Poppins, which did not live up to our expectations. However, I assured Rusty that Shrek would be great. We were not big Shrek movie fans to begin with. I had seen clips of it on t.v. which made it look really good. As it turns out Shrek the Musical was great! The musical follows the story line of the first Shrek movie with songs intermixed. I especially liked Lord Farquaad who performs the entire show on his knees. He sure can make his "fake legs" dance though. Yes, there was a lot of burping and tooting involved but it was all done tastefully to music. If you are looking for a fun, upbeat show with good music, you should see Shrek the Musical.

2 Weeks of Christmas

2011-01-10T14:40:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Christmas for what seemed like 2 weeks straight. Its always a party when my sister and her family come to visit. We were able to spend lots of time together doing many fun things. We fought through the masses and walked around the Mesa temple lights. We celebrated my dad's birthday, Organ Stop style. All of the ladies went on a big shopping trip to Last Chance. We rode the train at Stillman Railroad Park. And we ate hot Mickey waffles on Christmas day. Here are some of the highlights.

Kate asked Santa for 2 things this year. 1) Candy and 2) Elmo in Grouchland DVD. Santa delivered and she was one happy girl. She also got many other gifts including her Jesse doll, which she loves.

It is tradition on Christmas Day to eat a big Breakfast at my grandparents house. Kate did a lot of jumping and ice cream eating!

My dad celebrated his birthday a few days before Christmas. We all went to Organ Stop Pizza and had a great time. The girls loved the lights and music.

On Christmas Eve, we went to a Grinch Themed Christmas Party with all of the family. The Grinch made an appearance and scared all of the little girls. And all of the dads and daughters re-enacted the nativity story. Here is Kate all dressed up. She didn't understand that the dress up clothes were part of the nativity story. She looked cute though.

Here are all of the little girls with their "Whoo" style hairdoos.

And here is a picture of the nativity re-enactment. If you can't tell from the picture, Rusty is playing the part of King Herod. (Notice the cowboy hat and badge)

After Christmas we also had had a picnic at the railroad park. Here is everyone on the train ready to ride.

Also at the park were some of Kate's favorite friends. She couldn't believe that Elmo was really there! She got pictures with some other characters too, Cat in the Hat, Cookie Monster and Tigger. We did ride the Carousel too!

We had a great holiday and enjoyed being together! Here is one last family picture of the Clawson Clan.

Red Lobster Christmas

2010-12-26T22:59:00.001-07:00

We love the tradition of eating at Red Lobster with the Crandell Family at Christmas time. This year we had an especially good time. Grandma was nice enough to prepare games for us to play while we waited for our food to arrive. I wasn't very good at the Christmas trivia. Do you know what Christmas move plays more than 300 times a year on t.v.? We also did a service exchange, which was very fun. I am excited for the free babysitting service that I got from Lacey! The food was delicious and the company was delightful. As you can tell from the pictures, Kate loved being with her cousins. Thank you grandma for a fun time.

Christmas Tree

2010-12-15T21:00:00.000-07:00

We got to pick out a real Christmas tree again this year. Last year, we drove to pick one out and then jammed the tree inside our car, squashing the then baby Kate. This year we wised up. After picking out a beauty, we opted to tie the tree to the roof of our car. Genius.

Here is Rusty and Kate with our tree on top of our car. You can even see our Christmas lights outside the front of our house.

Grandpa came over and helped us decorate the tree. Kate made hot chocolate for everyone. Here is our tree all lit up.

Recently we took Kate to sit on Santa Claus' lap. From the picture you can see that she is not too happy. Turns out we have created a little problem in regards to Santa. Every year her grandpa plays Santa Claus for church & work parties. And that is who she is sitting with now. Well, Kate has it all figured out. She knows that Santa is Grandpa and that may be the reason for the furrowing of her eyebrows. Santa gave her a goodie bag with a candy cane. When I asked her the next day who gave her the candy cane, she replied "Grandpa!"

We have plans to visit other Santa Claus' so that Kate will see that Grandpa is not the only Santa Claus. In the mean time we have been enjoying the holiday season in other ways too. We have been watching a lot of Christmas movies together. Kate's favorite is Santa Claus is Coming to Town. We also have been teaching Kate some Christmas Carols. She is quite good at Jingle Bells. She loves to talk about Santa Claus and tells me everyday that he is coming to her house. We are getting excited for Santa Claus to come.

Thanksgiving

2010-11-27T22:05:00.000-07:00

We are thankful for snow. We traveled to Heber, AZ to visit the Crandell Family for the Thanksgiving holiday. When we woke up Thanksgiving morning, we looked outside and found this...The first snowfall of the season. Even though we were still in our pajamas, we put on our shoes and stepped outside to play in the snow.

Kate was not interested in touching, eating, or even standing in the snow. She buried herself inside grandma's coat to keep warm.

We had a wonderful feast for Thanksgiving dinner. We ate until we were stuffed and then ate a little more. All of the Crandell Family was together, with the exception of one. This made for a full house with lots of activity. Kate loved all of the excitement. She played with her cousins every moment of the day. These are the girl cousins enjoying dinner together at the kid table.

Kate didn't really care for the pumpkin pie, but loved the "cream."

In 2010 we are thankful for many things. Rusty is thankful for his wife, Kate and his i phone. Carianne is thankful for Rusty, Kate and for her loving family. Kate is thankful for her tricycle, her Grandpas & Grandmas and for the game of hide and seek. We have been truly blessed this year and are thankful to our families for all of their prayers, love and support.

Happy Birthday Kate

2010-11-13T21:02:00.000-07:00

Kate celebrated her 2nd birthday with an Elmo party! I had shot down the idea of an Elmo party early on. Kate is already obsessed with the red monster and I didn't want to fuel that fire. However, I eventually gave in to the idea and embraced the themed party full on. Kate only has a 2nd birthday once. And at this time in her life she loves Elmo. And in her eyes there is nothing better than an Elmo party!

The entire house was decorated with red and orange. For dinner we ate pizza which is Elmo's official favorite food. We also had "Mr. Noodle" Salad (aka pasta salad) and drank from juice boxes. I had made cupcakes and cute Elmo cupcake toppers. We ate other red candies like "Dorthy" fish candies. We even ate popcorn, not because Elmo likes it, but because Kate does. Here are some pictures before family started to arrive.

Kate didn't want to blow out her candles after we sang Happy Birthday. She did agree to help me blow her candles out.

After the attention was off of her, Kate decided to sneak downstairs and eat her cupcake alone. There were so many people there that I guess she needed some alone time. So many family members came to celebrate with Kate. There was not an empty seat in the house. We are so blessed to have so much family nearby who love Kate as much as we do.

Kate opened way too many presents. She is one lucky girl! She sat patiently while Jenna read her birthday cards aloud. After every gift she opened she would try to sneak downstairs to play with it. Every time she opened something new she would get so excited and want to play with it right then. We ended up having to block the pathway to the stairs so that she would continue opening presents without trying to escape. Rusty and I gave her a tricycle for her birthday. She had a hard time riding it on the carpet. But quickly figured out that she could ride on back easily while Jenna did the hard work of pedaling.

Kate partied hard and loved her Elmo party. We can't say thank you enough to all of our family who came and celebrated with us. You helped make Kate's 2nd birthday incredELMO!

Disneyland

2010-11-11T23:06:00.001-07:00

We went to Disneyland last weekend with the Crandells. We had the best time. And we didn't have to pay for any tickets! Rusty & I did the free ticket service project earlier this year. And Kate was admitted free into the park because she is under 3. Nice. I wanted to share some of the picture and fun memories that were made at the "happiest place on earth." I can't wait to go back.

Does your family always stop and take this same exact picture? Ours always stands outside the Mickey Mouse lawn and poses for a quick photo op. We we are ready to start a fun day at the Magical Kingdom.

Kate's first ride ever at Disneyland was Dumbo. She rode with Grandma Crandell and was pretty excited. Grandma said that Kate giggled the entire ride from the moment it started.

Rusty is sad that he didn't get to go on the Dumbo ride. Just kidding. He just likes to make this face.

We were able to go on all of the rides in Fantasyland in no time. The crowds were not big, so the lines moved really quick. Kate enjoyed Mr. Toad's Wilde Ride, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Snow White, the Storybook Boat, and even the Casey Junior Train. After each ride she would say "More!" and show the sign for "more."

We went for a spin in the tea cups. Hopefully from the picture you can tell how fast we were going (not very fast). The hardest part of this ride is not spinning your tea cup, but trying to fit everyone's knees inside with the limited leg room. Kate loved the ride.

We met up with the big kids to ride the Matterhorn. At the back of our bobsled was Amy, Adam & Ben. Can you guess who was in the front of our bobsled? That's right....Kate!!! She rode with Grandma and was the front man in the bobsled. You might consider us bad parents for putting her on this crazy ride. Here's our reasoning...She is 35 inches tall. That is the exact height requirement for this ride. So why not. Kate does not have the emotion of fear. And after the bumpy ride down the mountain Kate said, "more!"

We got to meet Woody & Jesse. Yee-haw!

The advantage of going to Disneyland with family is that there is always someone else to hold your kid. Grandma must have had sore arms because she held Kate almost the entire time. And when not with Grandma, Kate would ride atop Uncle Adam's shoulders. Here we are waiting for the Pirates of the Caribbean ride to start. During the ride, Kate sat in front (again) and did get a little wet. We noticed that she was drying her face with something which looked like a napkin in the dark. In the light, it turned out to be her sock. Silly girl had taken her socks and shoes off and was just being resourceful.

This is a picture of Rusty. This is a picture of Rusty gloating. Why is he gloating you ask? See next picture.

Rusty walked off with Kate and came back 2 minutes later with this sleeping girl who was having so much fun that her little body gave out.

We sat and watched the parade while Kate slept. She wasn't asleep long because the music and dancing stopped right in front of us. When she woke up the first word out of her mouth was "Princess." No joke.

Given Kate's recent obsession with a certain red furry monster named Elmo, it is uncharacteristic of her to watch anything else on t.v. That is with the exception of the movie Cars. She loves cars and was super excited when we told her that she would get to drive one. You can tell she is serious driver.

One of our most favorite parts of the day was meeting the one and only Cinderella. We had a special meet and greet with her in a private royal room. Here Kate is showing off her T-shirt which has Cinderella's picture on it. Kate was super shy with Cinderella but couldn't take her eyes off of her the entire time.

Check out Adam's cool shirt he wore just for her. And Amy is so pretty she could be a Disney princess herself.

We stayed to watch Cinderella during Story Time. She was great. How did we get to meet Cinderella you ask? Well, it helps if you are related! Ha.

Kate ended the day with another ride on the Merry-go-round. This was one of her favorite rides.

We had such a great time at Disneyland. Rusty & I have been there so many times but both admit that it was so much more fun with Kate. Her excitement for everything made the experience new again. Thanks for the fun trip. I can't wait to go back!

State Fair

2010-11-03T14:32:00.002-07:00

We were craving some frye bread so we headed to the Arizona State Fair last weekend with my parents. Kate had a blast! I just wanted to walk around and eat yummy cinnamon rolls and french fries. However, the lights and music were a bit of a distraction for our almost 2 year old. Kate knew there was people going on rides and she wanted in on the fun. I gave in and let her go on 2 rides. The merry-go-round is always a favorite. I have never seen her smile so big.

She and I also went on this elephant ride. She loved it! Crazy girl even lifted up her arms while we were flying through the air.

If she had this much fun at the Fair, I can't wait to see how she reacts when we take her someplace special this weekend. Can you guess where we are going?

Happy Halloween

2010-10-31T21:59:00.001-07:00

She's a monkey alright! Kate dressed up as a monkey this year and it suited her just fine. I was a bear. And Rusty was a zoo keeper, as if you couldn't tell. I told him he could either be a zoo keep or a banana. He chose the first. We had a great time at our ward Trunk-or-Treat. And then we headed to my parent's ward Trunk-or-Treat party.

Kate was pretending to be shy the entire time, which made the asking for candy part difficult. Grandpa couldn't even coax her out of her shyness (which was all just an act.)

She even passed up the chance to ride on a pony. Poor girl was scared to death. Maybe next year.

When we got home, I couldn't find Kate in the house. I checked her usual hiding spot and found this. She had grabbed her bag of candy and hid in my closet. She is purposely closing her eyes in an attempt to make herself invisible so she can go back to eating her candy. Silly monkey.

We hope you had a Happy Halloween!

I Love to See the Temple

2010-10-27T21:56:00.001-07:00

A couple weeks ago, I was in charge of family home evening. Characteristically, I was unprepared and asked Carianne if she had any ideas. Out of the blue, Kate blurted out "TEMPLE!" We really don't know where she came up with this idea -- our guess is that she got it from the October Ensign which was all about temples. So, we sat down together and looked at the beautiful temple pictures in the Ensign. At the end of our little family home evening, Kate was in tears crying because she wanted to go to the temple (undoubtedly a ploy to avoid going to bed). It is hard to tell a kid that they can't go see the temple, but it was 8:00 at night. So we promised we would take her to the temple next family home evening -- a promise that Kate held us to by reminding us throughout the week. So, on the next family home evening, we invited a special guest and went to see the Mesa Arizona Temple. As you can tell from the pictures below, Kate had a wonderful time seeing the temple and going to the visitors' center.

Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-27T21:43:00.000-07:00

Kate had a great time at the Pumpkin Patch with Cousin Afton. Kate fed the cows and goats, but enjoyed climbing on the fence even more. Afton was nice enough to let Kate drive the tractor when they both shared the seat. Both Afton & Kate loved decorating their pumpkins. Stickers are Kate's favorite thing these days, so she was happy to decorate her little pumpkin with every sticker she could find. We walked through the hay maze, jumped in the air bouncer and knocked over many pumpkins. Thanks for the fun day.

Manicures & Pedicures

2010-09-19T14:40:00.001-07:00

Grandma Crandell came to town and that means pedicures!! Kate got to have both a manicure and pedicure with Grandma at the nail salon. The last time Kate went to got her nails done, she was afraid to put her feet in the blue water. This time, however she was much more brave. She stayed in the water as long as she could and even tried to sit in it. Her wet bottom didn't dampen her spirits though. Kate and cousin Bailey were spoiled with fabulous finger and toenails which included both flowers and glitter.

Here are the 2 girls showing off their finger nails.

(Sadly not all manicured fingers survived even the car ride home. Apparently nail polish comes off when you put your fingers in your mouth. Oh well.)

Here are the 2 sets of toes. Fancy.

Thanks Grandma!

Labor Day

2010-09-12T20:47:00.000-07:00

On Labor Day we drove to Safford, AZ to visit Grandma Clawson and pick some apples up on Mt. Graham. As a kid, we made the drive every Labor day to pick apples and then have a picnic at Grandpa & Grandma's house. This year we invited Becky and Steven to come with us, because they had just moved to the Gila valley. And because Kate wanted to see cousin Callie. We immediately got drenched with rain as we got out of the car at the apple orchard. This put a damper on my plans to let Kate experience apple picking for the first time. After waiting for a while so the rain could stop, we finally decided to get our apples the "cheater's" way. We bought some apples that had already been picked and put into boxes.

Once back at Grandma's house we had a big lunch with all of the family. Kate had a great time exploring everything there is to see at Grandma's house. She loved drinking peach punch and eating Schwan Man ice cream. But the real highlight was playing at the park with Grandpa. As a kid, we would love to visit Safford because Grandpa and Grandma Clawson had a park in their front yard!

The park is looking great with a fresh coat of paint! I love all of the bright colors. Kate would have played out here with grandpa all day if we had let her.

Thanks for letting us come visit Grandma. We'll see you next Labor Day!

On a side note, my mom helped me can 16 jars of Apple Pie Filling from the apples we picked (bought).

Family Pictures

2010-08-14T21:46:00.000-07:00

During July we went to Heber to visit our family. It had been a long time since all 9 Crandell siblings had been together at once. We were able to take a family picture of the whole crew. Rusty's cousin Tiffany took these great photos of our family. I will share the whole group family photo soon.

Cabin

2010-08-12T13:56:00.002-07:00

We just returned from a visit to my grandparents cabin in Idaho. As a kid, we would vacation here and its become a favorite spot every summer. Rusty was able to go on vacation with us, yeah!! We really got to relax and enjoy the cool weather. Here are some of the highlights.

1. Campfire

As usual the roasted hot dogs were delicious. We made our s'mores even more yummy by adding Nutella. And this year we didn't get to sing the usual campout favorites such as One Bottle of Pop, or Here We Are Together. This year, Kate & Emmie made the song selections. That meant everyone sitting around the campfire joined in The Wheels on the Bus, Popcorn Popping, and the Elmo theme song.

As you can tell, Kate loved the marshmallows and chocolate!

2. Yellowstone Park

The cabin is only 30 minutes away from Yellowstone Park. We ate a picnic in the park and watched the Old Faithful Geyser shoot off. And Kate even got her own ice cream cone this year at the Old Faithful Inn. We could easily spend an entire day in the park visiting hot springs, or watching wild life. However with Kate being close to nap time we had to make it a fast trip.

3. Floating down the river

Every year we plan a float trip. Since we had babies to look after the "big kids" took their own float trip a day earlier by themselves. And then the next day we took the little girls out on the water. Rusty was nice enough to steer the back of the canoe as we tried our hardest to paddle upstream so that we could turn around and have a nice float back down. The nice float turned a little stressful when Kate threw her shoe into the water. We had to turn the entire canoe around, paddle to catch it and then turn ourselves back around to head upstream. This was not easy to do with 4 adults and 2 babies in a 3 man canoe. We instead decided to just let the girls play on the dock and splash in the water. Did I mention that the river water is freezing!!!

We had a great vacation and enjoyed being lazy and eating lots of ice cream. Kate got to run around outside all day long. Carianne enjoyed playing cards and making crafts with the girls. And Rusty was happily preoccupied reading 2 books just for fun. We sure enjoyed our visit to the cabin this year. Apparently someone else enjoyed the cabin too.

Here is Rusty with Mr. Moose. We saw this moose all week long. He was spotted wading in the river, on the shore eating some grass, and even walking by our cars that were parked in front of the cabin. He must enjoy the cabin life as much as we do.

Crandell Reunion

2010-08-03T21:54:00.002-07:00

This year the Crandell Family vacationed close to home. We stayed at the Arizona Grand Resort and spent most of our time swimming at the resort water park. We also went out to eat together, took lots of naps (with our babies), jumped on the beds and stayed up late watching a movie and playing games. Hopefully you can tell from the pictures how much fun we had.

Here is Grandpa with 3 girls who loved to jump on the bed.

The lazy river was a favorite spot. We enjoyed drifting as a big group, which ended up clogging the river for the people behind us. Sorry to them. We also had Ben act as the "horse" and pull the group along.

Some of us who were daring enough rode down the water slides. The slide was fun, but left you with a serious water wedgie.

If you tired of the slides or the lazy river, you could sit in the ginormous hot tub or ride the waves in the big wave pool. It was even fun to stand by the water slide and wait to get splashed by all of the sliders.

This is a picture of the whole family eating at Claim Jumper. Awesome food! Even better service.

And lastly, just in case you doubted how much fun we had. Take a look at Ben. Thanks Crandells for a fun reunion. Lets do it again next year!

Sesame Street Live

2010-07-06T21:18:00.000-07:00

Many have often asked the question - Can Kate sit still for more than 5 seconds? The answer is YES!! We took Kate to the show Sesame Street Live at the Mesa Arts Center. And she sat still for more than an hour and a half! She loved seeing all of her favorite characters and could name them all by name. If you know Kate, you know that there is no one who can shout "Elmo" louder than her.

Swim Lessons

2010-07-05T21:41:00.002-07:00

Kate took swim lessons again this year. She was enrolled in the same swim class as last year because she still needed to acquire a few skills. Improvements were made in 1 year's time. She is a fabulous bubble blower and loves to jump into the water from the side of the pool. Her greatest talent is perhaps her ability to walk around independently in the water. However, this so called talent of "walking" became a source of stress and embarrassment for me. That is because Kate has become a little more independent since last year. She cried and screamed when either the teacher or I asked her to do anything other than walk. While the other kids practiced kicking and floating on their backs, Kate was busy walking around in circles. As her report card reflects much improvement over last year, it is recommended that she attend the same Sea Babies class once again next year (for the 3rd time in a row!) I shouldn't complain because the swim class served its purpose of "helping the child adjust to the water." Kate loves the water! And hopefully she will realize sooner than later that if she keeps walking and walking...she'll end up in the deep end.

Mumford & Sons

2010-06-08T23:37:00.010-07:00

I was treated to an early Father's Day gift this year. My brother-in-law, Brendon (music aficionado and author of the wildly influential blog Music Snobs Anonymous), felt sorry for me because of my lack of style and introduced me to the band Mumford & Sons. As soon as I heard them, I was hooked and I told my wife in passing that I would love to go to one of their concerts if they were ever in town. Well, as fate would have it, Mumford & Sons was going to be in town for the first time a couple weeks later and my wife used her highly refined, super-internet-shopping skills to get me tickets to the sold-out show.

I must admit, I was hesitant to go to the show because the band has a rich and unique sound which I thought would be hard to duplicate in a live concert. It’s one thing to sound good on a recording; it’s quite another to sound good live in a concert. Needless to say, Mumford and Sons did not disappoint. If it were possible, they sounded even better in concert than on their record. We were literally a couple feet away from the band thanks to Gregg and Rachael who staked out a spot right in front of the stage. Although my ears are still ringing, I would jump at the chance to watch them again.

I was less enthusiastic about the opening band, but maybe that was because I was too distracted by (1) the Jesus look-alike who played a rain stick covered with beer-bottle caps, and (2) the lead singer who didn't wear shoes.

Bike & Graduation

2010-06-01T21:08:00.000-07:00

With the weather not quite scorching yet, Kate and I have been going on a lot of bike rides. She loves her new bike seat. I tried really hard to find a decent looking (non princess type) bike helmet for her to wear. However, the best thing I could find was this bunny rabbit one. I like it. I would like it even more if she would keep it on during our rides. Before we take off, I always review the "Mom Bike Safety Rules." You know... no taking your helmet off, no trying to stand up, no kicking and screaming, etc. I have had to add a new rule- No pinching mom's back skin. She is quite the pincher nowadays.

This past weekend we went back to Rusty's high school. We went to support his sister Amy, who was graduating from high school. We had a great time an enjoyed the graduation ceremony. Amy was awarded what seemed like every award possible. Congratulations Amy!

Kate had a great time being at Grandpa & Grandma's house. She especially loved spending time with her cousins. They loved going on a walk, swinging together and jumping on the trampoline. We love our cousins!

Fun in the Sun

2010-05-05T13:41:00.001-07:00

As a kid one of my favorite things to do in the summer was play in the sprinklers! Since it is getting hot here fast, I thought Kate needed to have her own sprinkler fun. Turns out, she could care less about the sprinkler and would rather just play in the hose. (Don't mind my ugly patio in the background.)

I love that you can't see her eyes behind her hat. The picture that should come next is one of me with wet hair, because that is what happened next. She probably figured that she shouldn't be the only one having all of the fun.

Surprise!

2010-04-12T00:01:00.005-07:00

Rusty has never been good at planning surprises. He has tried many times. He always has the best intentions of surprising me but can never keep his secrets inside. He usually ends up telling me of his upcoming surprise, only days before its going to happen. Well, Rusty "got me good" for my birthday this year. He had been planning a surprise and did not let it slip out. This is what happened:

7:10 am I wake up and we open Birthday presents! Kate and Rusty sing the birthday song.
7:13 I open what looks like a birthday card. Looking closely I see it is an itinerary for a trip we will be taking.
7:15 Still confused, I ask Rusty if this is for real. He happily says yes.
7:30 Get packed and dressed.
8:30 Drop off Kate at my mom's house. We eat strawberry ice cream birthday cake for breakfast! (Thanks mom.)
9:00 We drive to Las Vegas!!!!!
3:00 Check in at the Bellagio Hotel and go swimming.
4:30 Get dressed for our gourmet buffet dinner
5:30 Eat and eat and eat. I ate 4 plates full. Delicious.
7:00 Leave buffet and walk to the auditorium holding tickets for the show.
7:30 Watch the Cirque Du Soleil O show. Fabulous!
10:00 Walk down the Las Vegas Strip.
11:00 Watch the Dancing Waters outside the Bellagio hotel.
12:00 am Finally go to sleep.

Here we are eating at the gourmet buffet. There was so much food to choose from that I found myself wandering around in circles. They had all kinds of fancy foods. The lobster ravioli with truffles was really good. Rusty enjoyed the crab legs that were pre-sliced in half. So all you had to do was pull the crab meat out, no cracking involved. We both filled up on the desserts. Some of our favorites were the apricot mouse, the creme brulee, bananas foster, sour cream cheesecake, and key lime pie. All of the food was great, not just the desserts. Here are a couple pictures from dinner.

After dinner we took our seats for the Cirque Du Soleil show called O. We sat on the third row and were technically in the "wet zone." Though we didn't get wet at all. For those who don't know, this show is put on by Cirque Du Soleil but performed in the water. The stage also doubles as a huge pool. So the acrobatics they do are just as spectacular as any Cirque Du Soleil show except they have an added water element. Instead of just flying through the air on a trapeze swing doing flips, the performers fly and flip and then dive into a big pool of water. I can't begin to explain how awesome this show was. They had high-divers, fire dancers, contortionists, synchronized swimming, acrobatics on parallel bars, trapeze bars, rope swings and more. The stage would be a tank of water at one time and then turn to a hard floor. Below is a video from the show. It is definitely worth seeing!

This is me standing by a sign advertising the show. And here are Rusty and I before the show started.

After the show ended, we went outside and walked down the Las Vegas strip. We stopped to watch the Danging Water outside the Bellagio hotel. This was fun because each time the water went off it danced to a different song. Going off every 15 minutes, we got to see it a few times. Here are some of my favorite shots taken from outside the Bellgio hotel.

This is video I took of the dancing waters. In case you can't tell, the music is "Viva Las Vegas" and the yelling in the background is me.

The Bellagio hotel was gorgeous! Though it had a big casino, it was not the first thing you saw when you walked through the hotel doors. What you did see was the beautiful botanical gardens, which filled the entire hotel with the scent of fresh flowers. The flowers were amazing, and all of them were alive and so fragrant. The botanical gardens had giant sized butterflies and bees (all made with real flowers) hanging from the ceiling. The botanical garden was one of the best things about this hotel.

This picture is of a dessert shop in the hotel that had 3 different flavors of real chocolate falling from the ceiling. Yummy.

As for Rusty and his surprises...I can only say that this birthday get away was a huge surprise! Rusty had the whole thing planned for awhile and wanted to say Happy Birthday in a big way. Thanks Rusty, you're the best. It was a trip to remember!

This picture proves that Rusty is full of surprises. I would explain, but as they say...."What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas."

Happy Easter

2010-04-07T20:18:00.004-07:00

We went to visit Grandpa & Grandma Crandell for Easter weekend. Kate got to experience her first Easter Egg Hunt at the city park in Heber, AZ. There was a hunt for kids 0-2 years old. The officiators had roped off some trees with tape and put decorated hard boiled eggs all around the inside. I wasn't sure if Kate would know what to do during the hunt. I gave her a quick briefing of the rules as we squeezed ourselves to the front of the line. Knowing that there was a real possibility that she would throw a fit once the hunt began, I crossed my fingers and pushed her in. She was off! She found one blue egg. And then another and another. Who knew that she was a master egg finder? It wasn't until the race ended that Grandma Crandell noticed that Kate had only picked up blue eggs. So either her new favorite color is blue or she is slightly colored blind (which runs in my family.) The easter egg hunt was a huge success!

Kate also got to see her first clown at the easter egg hunt.

The next day we hid the girls easter baskets. Grandma had the great idea to give the girls sun hats and put some goodies inside, instead of using traditional easter baskets. Kate was very excited to find her hat filled with goodies! She loved the chocolate bunny sucker as you can see.

We also hid more plastic eggs in the backyard for the girls to find. It was a slow process. Kate would pick up one egg, stop and open it, then try to close it before going off to find another egg. Here is grandma with her granddaughters. The hats and sunglasses make the picture.

Kate hopes everyone had a happy happy easter!

Phoenix Zoo

2010-03-30T22:29:00.001-07:00

We went to the Phoenix Zoo with Grandma Crandell when she visited for Spring Break. It was a perfect day for the zoo. It was fun to see all of the girl cousins together. Kate loved the petting zoo and the playgrounds. She is getting really good at going down slides. Grandma loved being with her babies. Uncle Ben loved paddling out in the middle of the pond with the ducks for more than 30 minutes. And I loved just being able to walk around and take it easy knowing that there was more than one set of eyes watching Kate.

Here are the girls with Grandma, Amy and Steven. Uncle Ben is hiding behind Callie's bum. Next, Bailey and Callie took a turn at the wheel.

Kate found the petting zoo quite fun. It wasn't so much a "petting zoo" as a bunch of fenced in goats sleeping.

Amy & Amber looking pretty. While Callie plays with a humongous head of lettuce.

And lastly, here are Uncle Ben and Aunt Amy with the newest members of the zoo family, the Orangatans.

Thanks Crandell's, we had a great time! Lets go again some time soon.

Just a small picture showing Kate on the slide. She loved the zoo!

Sister in Town

2010-03-21T21:37:00.004-07:00

I always love when my sister comes to visit because she brings a party with her. Julianne came in town for Jeff's wedding and stayed for 2 weeks with Emmie. Kate & I loved it! We got to see them a whole lot and play everyday. Here is a list of some of the things we did while she was here.

1. Aloha Festival - eating hawaiin food and watching the dancers.
2. Dairy Queen Party in honor of Brenden. The chicken tender baskets were awesome!!
3. Watching old home videos at Grandpa & Grandma Buehners. The Clawson videos aren't your normal home movie. Instead it is a recording of our sibling string quartet playing what seemed like every song in the hymn book.
4. Going to the park- lots of swings and lots of sliding.
5. Shopping - 30 % off coupon for Gap, Old Navy & Banana. Thanks mom for accidentally signing up for their credit card. I used this coupon 5 times at 5 different stores.
6. Sushi - First time trying it, hardest part was eating it all in one bite. I had to fight the urge not to bite it in half or cut it first.
7. Manuels Mexican dinner with the entire Clawson fam with the new addition of Vita to celebrate Jeff's birthday.
8. Driving to H & M and getting lost! More good shopping
9. Last Chance - Trying clothes on in the check out line because both lines were way to long and we figured we had to wait in one of them at least.
10. Cora's Cinderella Birthday Party - playing pretty pretty princess.
11. Craft night with the the girls. Our T-shirt refashions turned out great.
12. Picking oranges at Grandma Buehner's house.
13. Loosing Hairy-Anne. Printing Lost Dog posters. Putting them up. Getting the dog back.
14. More sewing. And realizing that I am not the best seamstress and I need to take my time.
15. Quick run to Chandler Mall while the babies slept.
16. Eating way too many goldfish crackers while watching What Not To Wear.
17. Taking lots and lots of pictures of the grandgirls. Each one turned out great.
18. Wishing that the 2 weeks were just a little bit longer!

Thanks for the fun times. We can't wait until your next visit!!

Jeff & Vita's Wedding

2010-03-17T21:46:00.001-07:00

Congratulations to Jeff & Vita!! We celebrated my brother Jeff's marriage last week. We are so excited to welcome Vita to the family. We had a wonderful day with you. Below are some pictures that highlight the grand event.

The cousin girls raced on the grass of the temple grounds.

Here is Kate enjoying the view atop her dad's shoulders.

The girls sure love their grandpa!

After the temple, we had a wonderful luncheon at the Landmark Restaurant. Then a quick nap and we were ready to party at their wedding reception. The reception was outside and decorated so beautifully. Jeff & Vita sure know how to throw a party!

The Clawson Family

Jeff & Vita with the girls. (I love this pic)

Gregg & Rachael looking classy!

Kate can't get enough of grandpa!

Julianne, Emilia & Brenden smiling big.

And lastly, my own family photo.

Thanks Jeff & Vita for allowing us to celebrate with you!

Crafty Kate

2010-03-17T15:55:00.002-07:00

Kate just finished her first class. I had signed her up for a craft class that met once a week. When she wasn't running around the classroom or eating crayons, we enjoyed our time together. Here she is showing her dad some of the neat projects that she had made.

We will definitely be taking more classes, however not for a little while. Kate was a little on the young side. She wasn't too interested in the coloring, playdough, or painting. She did love the glue though. Maybe when she stops eating the glue sticks she will be more ready for another class. We'll see.

Happy Anniversary

2010-03-14T14:34:00.003-07:00

This is Rusty & I before we got married seven years ago. We both admit that we didn't know what we were doing or getting ourselves into when we got married. For example, I didn't know that I was marrying a boy who never likes to take his socks off, and Rusty claims that he didn't know that he was marrying a girl who liked to walk around the house in pajamas and high heels (though I believe that he should have picked up on the early warning signs). I also didn't know that Rusty knew how to make excellent breakfasts (a secret he has kept until Kate arrived!), and Rusty says he didn't know that I would take on his most dreaded chore of folding and putting away clean laundry. Getting to know each other has been one of the many treats of the last seven years. The one thing that we did know though, that hasn't changed is that we are best friends, and we both feel lucky to have each other.

Updated: Mary Poppins

2010-03-13T22:05:00.001-07:00

Rusty bought me Mary Poppins tickets for Valentines day. We enjoyed the show (thank you mom and dad for babysitting), though it was quite different from the movie. Rusty wasn't a fan of the actress who played Mary Poppins and was sad that there were not more songs from the movie. We did have a good evening together and left with a greater appreciation for Julie Andrews.

Below is a recut trailer of Mary Poppins that made us laugh called Scary Mary. Enjoy!

An Essential Accessory

2010-02-24T21:58:00.002-07:00

Kate is often mistaken for a boy. This doesn't bother me because I do admit to dressing her in colors other than pink and purple. And she also just recently started to sprout a little hair. However if you knew her, you would see that she is all girl. Kate loves to wear purses. She walks around the house with any bag she can find over her arm. I had to explain to her that a grocery bag is not a fashionable option. So today we went for a little purse shopping! Who knew there were so many to choose from? Kate tried on many purses. Some had kitties on them, some painted in glitter, some decorated with butterflies. In the end, I think Kate made a classy selection. Now she has somewhere to put her pine cones, cracker crumbs and toy cell phone.

The Best Valentine Ever

2010-02-14T15:14:00.005-07:00

I just wanted to thank my wife for the best Valentine's Day ever. I am struggling how to convey how incredibly lucky I am to be married to Carianne, so sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. When I came home from church meetings today, I was first presented with a Valentine's Day card by our little beaming Kate.

Then Carianne reached into a Marry Poppins like bag and pulled gift after gift out for me and Kate.

And then, to top it all off, Carianne gave me a hand crafted valentine with five tabs attached to separate notes that she wrote to me.

I am so thankful and blessed to have Carianne as my valentine!

Snowball Fight

2010-01-05T21:41:00.009-07:00

Kate experienced snow for the first time in Grandma Crandell's backyard. Even though she was bundled up warm, this was how she felt about the snow.
As part of our Christmas Eve fun, we decided to have a good 'ol snowball fight. The family formed 2 teams and got to work building their barricades. The protecting walls of snow didn't stay standing for long. Apparently the Crandells are a little competitive and quickly destroyed each others snow barriers.

Here are some family pictures in the white snow.

Pre Christmas Check List

2009-12-22T16:16:00.009-07:00

We're getting ready for Christmas. We have checked several things off of our list of things to do before the big day.

We went to see the Mesa Temple lights with the Crandell Family. Even though there were tons of people, we still had a good time. Here is the whole Crandell Clan who saw the lights with us.

This is Cousin Bailey and Kate. They enjoyed the crazy stroller rides from their Uncle Andy.

Next on the To Do List was to have Kate sit on Santa's lap. You won't see any tears or hear any screams from Kate as she sits on his lap. She looks at him as if she knows him. Maybe that is because he sounds a lot like Grandpa.

Last night we decorated gingerbread cookies. We didn't do the usual gingerbread "boys," instead we decorated the entire nativity scene, complete with camels, donkey and sheep. Here is the finished product. Being that I married a competitive person, our sweet decorating activity turned into a full blown contest. You can help identify the winner. Please comment on which of the 3 Kings is your favorite. Rusty is sure that his is the best. I won't tell you who decorated which one so as to not contaminate the voting results.

I allowed Kate to pick a winner. You can see from the pictures which King she liked the best.

Oh Christmas Tree

2009-12-14T15:22:00.004-07:00

I know you are all dying to know about our Christmas Tree this year. So I thought I would answer all of your burning questions in this post.

1. Is your tree real or fake?
Our tree is real this year. We had a fake one, but it became a living tree from all of the mold growing on it. Leaky roof + rain + fake tree = moldy living tree. So we went out to fetch a real live non musty, mildewy tree this year.

2. Is your tree the most beautiful tree you found?
No, our tree is the second most beautiful tree we found. We first picked out the most beautiful tree. It was perfectly shaped, full and green. Rusty set it aside while we took one last look around at the other trees. We came back to that most beautiful tree ready to take him home only to find that someone else stole him! Truth be told, our tree is very beautiful.

3. Did Kate help you decorate your tree?
Yes, if decorate means eating ornaments and stepping on lights. Then yes, she was a huge help decorating the tree.

4. Will you show us a picture of your Christmas Tree?
Yes, here you go!

Here is Kate helping decorate the tree.

Here is Rusty really helping Kate decorate the tree.

Black Friday Shopping

2009-11-30T15:42:00.010-07:00

I love to shop. I love a good deal. I love that my husband doesn't mind shopping with me and will take me to the outlet malls 4 hours away just to shop on Black Friday. After our Thanksgiving feast, Rusty, Kate and I with the addition of my parents drove to the Desert Hills Outlet Malls in Cabazon, CA. The following is list of things that I learned while shopping the outlets on Black Friday.

1. Serious shoppers are there at midnight, which is when all of the stores open.

2. It is perfectly acceptable to shop with your dog as long as he is in a cute doggie tote or doggie stroller. It is however, not acceptable to tie up your dog outside the store while you go inside to shop. Next time Harry-Anne gets to come with us.

3. Some stores have the business model " There is no need to pick up after customers." Apparently people will still buy their merchandise even if it wrinkled and strewn across the floor.

4. It is possible for 1 man to buy 6 shopping bags full of Coach purses. Seriously, how many women are in his life that he is buying a purse for?

5. When looking for a table to eat at in a crowded food court, go ahead and sit down with someone else....even before they are finished eating. My mom made a friend when Rusty got up from his seat prematurely.

6. When shopping with a baby, you might have to stop and feed her every once in awhile. Sorry Kate.

7. It is possible to have a line for the women's restroom that is so long, it is not worth the wait.

8. Kate would make a good shoplifter. She's small. She's fast. And she always goes right for the door.

9. I heart Banana Republic. 50 % off everything in the store all weekend long!

10. Only go to the outlet malls on black Friday if you have loving parents who take care of your kid while you shop!

Family Photos

2009-11-24T21:03:00.002-07:00

Thanks J for taking our picture. They look great!

Cup Kate Party

2009-11-11T19:56:00.009-07:00

Birthday parties are lots of fun. Our little cupcake just turned 1!

We celebrated Kate's first birthday with a cupcake themed party. Kate dressed up for the occasion wearing a shirt I made her and her first pair of pink "chucks." We decided to make the entire party all about Kate. This meant only serving Kate's favorite foods. And everyone got to drink from a straw. Because Kate has always been a huge straw drinker. I made a garland out of different sized cupcake papers to hang over the dining room table. It turned out pretty cute. For dessert we had awesome cupcakes! The cupcakes were almost too pretty to eat, but let me tell you...they tasted even better than they looked.

Kate loved eating macaroni, green beans and french fries. All of her favorite foods.

Kate loved opening her presents. We knew she would love this part because she loves paper. She loves to rip it and then eat it! Too many presents for a little girl.

I realized awhile ago that Kate would not be able to blow out the candle on her cake unless I taught her. So every night leading up to her b-day we practiced. Kate has learned to blow on demand the only problem is that she can't blow very hard. So needless to say, I had to help Kate blow out our cupcake candle. She needed no help eating her cake.

We had a great party thanks to our families. Thanks for being there to celebrate our little cupKate's first birthday.

Happy Birthday Kate!

Halloween

2009-11-09T15:12:00.003-07:00

I know its late, but here are highlights from our Wizard of Oz themed Halloween Celebrations! With Julianne and cousin Emilia in town, we all decided to get dressed up. Before the big day we all went to a trunk or treat and did a "practice run" of how to go trick or treating. Kate would have preferred to go to only 1 car and then stop. In her eyes she didn't need more candy and she wanted to eat her one piece right then. Here is Kate with grandma and her lollipop.

Here is Grandpa with his 2 granddaughters. Cute girls. Too bad Kate kept eating her costume.

Here is the whole crew dressed as characters from the Wizard of Oz. We have the following 2 flying monkeys, 2 lollipop munchkins, 1 yellow brick road, 1 wizard, a tin man, scarecrow, toto, Wicked Witch, Glinda, and of course Dorthy.

Rusty made a fabulous lollipop munchkin. Video was even taken of him doing the lollipop guild song and dance from the movie. And believe it or not, Kate loved wearing her costume.

I didn't post a picture of myself but I can be seen in the group shot. I was a flyling monkey and wore a full fur suit the entire evening. We had a great time and I loved dressing up. It's so much more fun when you are not the only one who looks ridiculous.

Happy Birthday Kate!

2009-11-06T16:06:00.006-07:00

Need I say more to show how blessed we've been over the past year.

Pumpkin Patch

2009-11-03T22:21:00.006-07:00

We went to the Pumpkin Patch at Mother Nature's Farms while Julianne was here visiting. We had a great time. I was excited to show Kate all of the pumpkins. She had never seen one before and didn't really know what to do with them. She sat on them, licked them, and tried to pick them up but ended up just dropping them.

At the pumpkin patch there was a maze made out of hay. Kate did great and walked through the first part all by herself. However a bunch of big kids ran behind her and scared her so she cried until someone held her and walked through the rest of the maze.

Kate and Cousin Emilia loved sitting with grandpa on the tractor.

The girls got to decorate a mini pumpkin with foam letters and shapes. Kate didn't really get the idea.

Kate went inside her first "bounce house". She loved it! She didn't really know how to bounce inside, but enjoyed falling down and then getting back up only to fall back down again.

Cheap Family Photo

2009-10-28T15:31:00.002-07:00

Farewell Martín

2009-10-09T21:20:00.004-07:00

Martín, the Beta Fish, 2.5 years, of Arizona, died on Sunday, October 4, 2009 due to natural causes.

He was born (bought) in a small cup in February 2007 from Pets, Inc. Store. Martín attended school at Frye Elementary where he was the classroom pet of the Kindergarten students of Room #12. He received his name from the 24 students who took a vote to call him Martín. He never married for fear that he might eat any other Beta Fish who swam in his bowl. Martín relocated to Tempe, Arizona after his caretaker (Carianne) retired from teaching school and brought him home to live in retirement with her. He lived the last year of his life sitting atop a bookshelf overlooking a view of the living room.

Martín received a Graduation Diploma from Kindergarten, having had to stay in this grade for 2 years. He did not complete any other formal schooling.

Martín was never employed but rather spent most of his days swimming, eating, and swimming real slow so he could sleep.

Martín’s early years as a class pet were pleasant. He had many friends to play with and enjoyed playing dodge ball with them as they dropped crayons, leaves, and other small objects into his bowl without their teacher knowing. Martín taught the students about the anatomy of a fish and how to care for one. He was wise beyond his years.

While in retirement, Martín enjoyed playing hide-n-seek, floating around his plastic plant, and diving into the blue marbles of his bowl so that old food would resurface and he could eat leftovers. Martín did not however enjoy getting his fishbowl water changed. In November 2008, he took a fall while slipping out of a cup and landing face up in the kitchen sink. He spent 2 months in rehabilitation. The caregiver (Rusty) who dropped him in the sink felt very sorry for Martín and offered to buy him a new home. He accepted the bigger bowl with bright blue marbles and a bigger plant. He was truly happy.

Martín will now join his brother Spiderman (a.k.a. Undertaker–Batman) who was also a classroom pet of Kindergarten Room #12 in heaven. He leaves behind 2 caretakers who will miss him deeply and are still mourning his loss.

The viewing was held in his caretaker’s bathroom at 7:26 p.m. on October 4, 2009 and Martín was buried at 7:30 p.m. that same day.

In lieu of flowers, the family is requesting that donations be made to the Sea World & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund.

Martín was not only a fish, but a friend. Swim strong little Beta. Swim strong.

Splash Pad at the Zoo

2009-10-06T21:04:00.003-07:00

Trying to enjoy the last days of Summer, Kate and I went to the Phoenix Zoo for some splash pad fun. She loved it! Thanks to the Wild Wednesdays deal, we got in free and went for 3 weeks in a row.

Big Steps for Little Kate

2009-09-22T21:02:00.004-07:00

We got a lot of advice from experienced parents before Kate was born. One stranger told us, "If your kid starts to walk...knock them down!!! Things forever change when your child learns how to walk." Kate is just too cute to knock down.

Crandell Family Campout

2009-09-05T21:17:00.005-07:00

The first annual Crandell Family Campout was held at Patrick's Pond a couple of weeks ago. Rusty's siblings were all there with the exception of 2. Kate had never been camping before and you can tell from the pictures she loved it. The tin foil dinners we ate were delicious as was the scrumptious breakfast Mom Crandell made for everyone. Around the campfire we told scarey stories (but saved the really scarey ones for breakfast, so as not to freak ourselves out too much in the dark). It was so fun to see Becky, Steven & baby Callie who were visiting from Michigan.

Here is Kate right after she woke up. Happy girl.

Man, we look really dirty in this picture. I guess that is what camping is all about.

The Crandell Clan sitting around the fire to keep warm.

3 girl cousins with their moms. Bailey - Kate - and Callie!

Kate and her dad!

Cabin Kate

2009-08-11T15:15:00.006-07:00

Kate & I went to Idaho to visit Grandpa & Grandma's cabin. Here are some of our favorite pictures.

Kate got to watch Old Faithful erupt in Yellowstone National Park. She was not bothered by the rotten egg smell coming from the geyser. Sadly, that smell is something she knows all too well.

When traveling through the park, you should always be on the look out for bears. This black bear attacked Kate and wanted to come home with us for only $39.99.

While in Idaho we saw a lot of cowboys. Here is Kate with her grandpa. You can't tell from the picture...but her first word was "giddey-up." Serious.

We had a campfire with lots and lots of cousins whom I hadn't seen in forever. While there, I took the opportunity to teach Kate one of the most important skills she will ever need in this life- how to roast the perfect marshmallow. You can imagine the gooey mess it made. But it sure was good.

We had a great time and can't wait to go back next summer!