Happy Birthday Jaxon and a Happy New Year!

Wow! Another year has ended and my little guy is also a whole year older! Doesn't seem like it's been 3 years already. What alot of changes we have been through in those 3 years....with moving from TN to NJ and than back home to WA, having a new baby, finding out about Ryann's Diabetes, finding out that CJ could have siezures if his temperature gets too high and than of course Jaxon having breathing problems when he gets sick. But you know what...I think all of those things (though I wish we didn't have to go through the diabetes, siezures and asthma) have made us stronger as a family. I get such a thrill (a joy) when I see the kids helping eachother out through it all and just looking out for eachother...it just warms my heart! We are a family...and though we may fight and argue with eachother at times we always got eachothers' backs!

Anyways, we are celebrating Jaxon's birthday tonight over at the DQ (same place we did it last year as well)...Jaxon's loves his ice cream (the boy's got a sweet tooth, wonder if it's because I craved Reece's peanut butter cups when I was pregnant with him?) Then we will spend New Year's Eve at home with the kids and see which kid can make it all the way to midnight! Last year Doogie was the closest and made it to 11:30 before he finally crashed. I have a feeling he will make it this year no problem!

So the Crowe family is wishing everyone a Happy and SAFE New Year's! And Happy Birthday to my boy, we love you so much Jaxon! You light up our lives with joy and laughter and we are blessed to have you in our lives!

Now I am leaving you with some pictures of the Birthday Boy that I took today. I asked him how old he was and at first he held up two fingers...but then I told him that he was now three so he was trying to count on all of his fingers and figure out what three was!

Some pictures...

Okay, I'm finally getting around to posting few pictures. I didn't take as many pictures as I would of liked too on Christmas Day...too busy helping kids unwrap presents and picking up discarded paper and ribbon I guess! I think the biggest hits were the nerf dart guns (we all got one) and we have been have a blast having dart gun wars together! Doug and I were talking about starting a new gift giving tradition though since the kids just get so much stuff and they really don't need too much. Most things end up getting broken by the end of the week anyways. One of our friend's (his daughter goes to school with Doogie and Jayde) was telling us a bit about what they do. They only get 3 presents...one is from Santa, then one is something fun and the other is something that makes them beautiful (or a better person). I think that is how Doug explained it to me...I will have to ask him again. I think that is a great tradition though and helps teach the kids more about what the true meaning of Christmas really is. Christmas is just getting so commercial these days that all the kids want is the toys and then they get upset when they don't get more toys or didn't get what they wanted. But I think if you made it clear from the beginning that you were only going to get 3 presents and it was always that way than they wouldn't complain about it as much (or atleast you hope they wouldn't!) I mean seriously they don't need alot of stuff... I think it's one thing if they get clothes because that doesn't really clutter the house up and get wrecked like toys do, but I know speaking for me...these guys have way too many toys as it is and half the time the toys aren't really that well made and just fall apart after a week or so of playing, or they get pushed aside and forgotten never to be played with again. So I guess my point is less is more! I think it would be better to buy one big gift or just a few than a bunch of little gifts that are going to get trashed. Doug and I only got the kids a few presents this year (2 from us and 3 from Santa) of course one of them they haven't really gotten yet. We are going to get them an outside play structure but are going to wait until Spring (or until the snow goes away and it's a bit warmer) before putting it up. We are going to do one of the design your own ones so that the kids can help pick out what features they would like their structure to have.

Anyways, I had always promised pictures of the kids working with the perler beads so I've included those as well. They worked really hard on their creations. The girls would just use a set pattern and Doogie would make one of his own creations. They all really enjoy playing with them and I think it's great that they don't have to stick with one pattern if they don't want to but they are able to get creative and make anything they want! So we hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and I know we did. We are looking forward to a New Year and a new start. And I can't believe that my little guy is going to be 3 on New Years Eve!!

Merry Christmas!!

It's times like these when you like to sit back and think about all that you are thankful for. Now while I'm always thankful for our friends and family and of course our health...I believe I'm extremely blessed to have such a great husband and 5 beautiful children. Now Doug and I have our moments like any married couple where we butt heads and don't always see eye to eye, and we both have our stubborn streaks and a bit of a temper...but I wouldn't trade him in for anything or anyone in the world! Because no matter what happens in our lives we are there for each other...guess you could say we are one unit! Where one person is weak, the other is strong and when one of us can't find the words the other can. So I guess what I'm trying to say is "Thank you Doug, for making me the luckiest woman alive. I love you so much and I'm so blessed to have you in my life and I'm going to enjoy growing old with you!"

Alright, alright...enough mushiness for now! Now on to other Christmasy stuff! Unbelievably the kids actually slept in this morning and weren't up at the crack of dawn! I think it had something to do with the fact that they were all up late last night. We do our Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve that way everyone can just relax and enjoy being together on Christmas without trying to rush around and get a big dinner on the table. So we had everyone over for dinner last night and I think the kids finally got to bed around 10 last night! Then Christmas morning we just have our family Christmas where we do our presents and spend time together and than later in the afternoon the rest of the family can come over and exchange gifts if they would like. It's a nice tradition that we have decided to start and we cherish our personal family time together. It's such a joy to watch the kids open their presents and see their faces light up. Christmas just isn't Christmas without a child (or children) around. They just make the season so much more magical for us all. The funny thing was the kids didn't even want to tear into their presents until we had opened up the gifts that they had made for us at school. They were just so excited to show us what they had done and I (and Doug) will treasure their gifts forever. Because right there, shows what Christmas is about (well part of it anyways!) it's about giving to other people more than the receiving. And it just warms my heart to see them so excited to give more than to receive their own gifts.

And now I am off to go and spend some more time with my children. And to just enjoy this special time with them...because it just goes by too fast!! So Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you are able to spend it with family and friends. And I promise to post pictures soon! :)

Winter Break

One thing I like about the kids not having school is that there is no crazy rushing around in the morning to get everyone up, dressed and fed and out the door. However, I must admit that I miss my quiet time. Okay, I'll admit it's not really quiet time since I have one child atleast with me in the mornings and usually up to three. But it is amazing how just taking a couple kids out of the mix makes the house seem quieter. Though I gotta say so far they are all being really good...must be that threat of Santa is still watching you and can take all your presents away! I've been trying to keep them busy though with making cookies and crafts and they seem to be enjoying that. We made a craft yesterday with the perler beads that kept them busy for over an hour since it takes quite some time to put one bead on each peg in the design they pick out and then I would iron the beads together for them. Jayde unfortunately missed out on this project since she was at a birthday party so we will be doing them again today once the little guy is down for a nap. I'll have to take pictures of them this time to show you just how hard they are working on these!

Last week was their last week of school until next year...which of course really confused some of them. Jayde asked me if that meant she would be in a different class when she got back. I then had to try and explain to her that they would be going back in a new year, not a new school year...I'm still not sure if she totally understood that or not. Last week was pretty crazy though, since we are getting just slammed with snow over here. Everyday except for Friday (which they get an early release anyways) was delayed two hours. And jammed into that week I helped out in both Jayde and Doogie's classes with their "winter" parties. I like to be able to help out in their classes, it's always fun to see what they are doing and it's a good way to get to know the other kids in their classes and also the other parents who volunteer.

Last Friday Doug went on his annual Christmas shopping with his good friend. Since I noticed that some of the prongs on my wedding ring were bent I asked him if he would take it in and have the jewlers fix it while he was up at the mall. When he dropped off the ring he called me back and asked me what the heck I had done to my ring! It seems like the prongs weren't only bent, but a couple of them had completely broken off! So I am pretty lucky that I didn't lose my diamond! The jewlers had to send it off to get fixed and it is going to take around 3 weeks before I'm going to get it back. I feel pretty naked without it! I didn't realize how much I mess around with my ring, I will be pretty happy when I get it back!

Everyone is pretty excited that Christmas is almost here. The bottom half of my Christmas tree is looking pretty bare (except for the lights) since we had to keep moving things up higher and higher to keep CJ from destroying things (and the cats too!) We had considered actually going up to Seattle for Christmas this year (since both Doug's sister's are up there now) and we thought it would be fun for the kids to be with their cousins on Christmas to open presents...but with the weather being like it is, it just didn't seem like a good idea this year. So we will be staying home for Christmas and having Christmas dinner at our house. The house won't be quite as full as it was for Thanksgiving (we had a total of 18), but 13 still isn't bad!

So anyways, we are just hanging out trying to stay warm in this crazy weather (which by the way I just look out the window and it is snowing once more). So the Crowe Family is wishing all of you a very merry Christmas and I promise I will try and post some more pictures soon!

Snow...

It's funny how just last week the kids were running around in just a long sleeved shirt outside and now they are all bundled up in their winter jackets, hats, scarves, gloves and boots! They are all enjoying the snow though (well most of the time!) The girls aren't too thrilled when they get nailed with a snowball (though they like to throw them at other people!). I've already had to have a couple talks about if you throw snow on someone you got to expect to get it back! CJ likes to walk around in the snow, but if it gets on any bare skin...well he doesn't like that one bit! So far school hasn't been cancelled but we've been getting two hour delays and since it is now snowing again... I have a feeling we're going to have two hour delays (and maybe a cancellation) for the rest of the week and then they are out for their winter break.

Hmmmm...I'm trying to think if there has been anything else going on.... Well Jaxon has been using the potty on and off for me (more off than on, but hey...it's a start!) I found out Elmo uses the Potty DVD and we have been watching that this week and everytime after he watches the movie he wants to go in and go. Than when he goes he yells "yeah, me!" So it is pretty funny! I know he is ready, since lately all the times he has gone in the potty it was because he told me he needed to go. I just need to get better at helping him remember all of those other times. I'm going to work on doing that with him when the holiday craziness is over. I still can't believe he is going to be 3 at the end of this month!!

Anyways, I added a few pictures for your viewing enjoyment. The one of them in the leaves was just taken last week before we got hit with these cold temps and snow. And then there is poor CJ telling me that he has had enough of this cold, wet, white stuff. He got some on his hands and he wasn't liking it one bit! I will try to add some more pictures of the kiddos later.

Christmas Tree Trimming Pictures

Just please ignore the fact that some of my children aren't fully dressed! To be honest I think my children would be happier if we lived in a nudist colony...clothes are just so confining for them! Ah well, I'm assured by others that this is something they will start to out grow...eventually! Anyways though, they all had a great time decorating the tree...regardless of what they are wearing (or not wearing)!

Acording to the weatherman, we are looking to get 1-3 inches of snow today (mixed with rain). So the kids were pretty excited to hear that...guess I need to start hunting up hats, gloves and scarves! So maybe I'll get lucky this weekend and get some snow pictures!

Anyways, nothing super exciting going on. I need to finish up making my Christmas presents this weekend, I just need to find a bit of spare time! We are also going to the Nutcracker this weekend...well the three oldest and I anyways! Doug is going to stay home with the two little guys.

O' Christmas Tree...

We finally got our tree up last night. I broke down and finally let Doug get a fake tree... It actually looks really nice though I do miss the smell of pine (guess I'll just have to get a pine air freshener or something!) It came pre-lit so that was nice not to have to hassle with putting lights up. The kids were so excited to get the tree up and help decorate it. Of course CJ thinks it's his mission in life to undecorate it (maybe after Christmas I'll let him help with that!). So between CJ and the cats it's been fun trying to keep the ornaments on and unbroken (the cats are ahead with one broken ornament!) I'll try to post some pictures later of the tree and the kids decorating, I didn't get too many since I was decorating as well.

I thought I would have to make another trip to the ER last night...with Jayde this time. I was downstairs doing laundry and heard this huge crash, since my hands were covered in soap, I asked Doogie to run up and see what was going on (nobody was crying). He came back down and told me that they were just playing... A few minutes later I heard it again so I went running up there (this time there was some crying). I go into the girl's room and Jayde was sitting/lying on the floor grabbing her leg/foot and crying. I knew immediately what that loud noise had been then...she was jumping off the top bunk of the bed! I asked her didn't she know better than that (which she of course responded with no). So I checked her foot over and luckily it wasn't broken (and believe me she is lucky she didn't break something). And with Jayde being such a great actress it can sometimes be difficult to tell just how badly she is hurt. So I got her to the couch and had her hold an ice pack to her foot for a while. When Doug got home with the tree she was so excited that she forgot to limp! So I was pretty sure then that she had just jarred it and probably scared herself in the process. She was complaining about her foot being sore this morning, but she wasn't limping...

Wednesday's are Jaxon's preschool days (along with of course Doogie and Jayde and Ryann). Usually he is really excited about going to school, but he had a rough night last night and had trouble sleeping (which meant he ended up in bed with me). When we got to school he didn't want me to leave, so I stayed with him during their outside time (they start the day that way) and when it was time to come in and do music and broke away...and he screamed, and screamed, and screamed! So I ended up hanging out in the preschool office for a while since I wanted to make sure he calmed down...let me repeat that he never does this at school. I could hear him screaming on and off for their whole music and the preschool director went and checked on him and said that he was one pissed off little boy! LOL! Guess he was lying on the floor next to the door just kicking it and screaming! So we were hoping that when they went back in the room and get distracted with all the activities...but that didn't work either. His teacher was trying really hard to distract him, she sat down near him and just started to read a book....every once in a while he would lift his head up from the table and would listen, but then he would start screaming/crying again and his nose was getting pretty snotty. So I decided that I would just take him home, he is at the tail end of a cold and just wasn't at his best. I went in his classroom and was talking to some of the other parent helpers in there before he noticed me when he finally noticed me his little face just lit up and crumpled at the same time (he was happy to see me, but still just so upset!) and he called out my name and just ran over to me and held on. When we got home he just vegged on the couch for most of the morning, so guess it was good I took him home with me.

Hmmm...what else...well since I've had a few people ask me what the kids like and what sizes they wear, etc... I'll just go ahead and add it on here as well...

Doogie: size:10/12loves legos, bionicles, dragons, reptiles, amphibians... Not sure what his favorite color is right now, but he does like green,blue,red, black....

Jayde: size 7/8loves girly stuff, princesses, tinkerbell, dress-up, animals (horses are her favorite), favorite color: Purple

Ryann: size 5/6Loves all the same stuff Jayde does, really loves Dogs and favorite color: Pink

Jaxon: size 4Tloves to build with blocks and legos, play with cars and trucks, balls, loves Blue's Clues, Max and Ruby and Elmo. Right now his favorite color is Red (but that varies from week to week...last favorite was green and before that blue...) :)

CJ: size 24mo/2THe likes pretty much everything Jaxon likes, he likes to play with cars, balls and manipulate things with his hands. He is a very busy little guy and never stops moving!

Poor Doogie had a rough day yesterday... it was showing tell at school and he had brought one of the bionicles that he had designed and made himself to show. Half way through the day he got in trouble because he wouldn't stop playing with it at his desk so he was told to go put it away. He put it in the coat room and when he want back to get it after school it was gone. He hadn't put it away in his bag and left it out in plain view and someone took it. So he was pretty upset and it took me a while to get him calmed down when I got there. His teacher was helping to look for it and also one of the other mom's but no luck. We're hoping that someone will turn it in, but I'm not holding my breath. So unfortunately he had to learn a lesson the hard way of what can happen to his things, and also how much it can hurt a person when their things are stolen...

Well I can't think of anything else super exciting right now, and I hear Mr. CJ stirring...

CJ

Well I had to take Mr. CJ in to the doctor this afternoon. I noticed that he had dried blood in his ear and was worried that he had burst his eardrum. Normally I try to get morning appointments but since we didn't call the doctor's until the afternoon...well you know what that means! I waited over an hour to see the doctor (and it was one I hadn't seen before since our usual doctor wasn't there this week). Luckily CJ was really good (I knew he wasn't feeling good because he wasn't getting into half of the things he usually does!) and he even fell asleep while we were waiting. He of course woke up though when the doctor was trying to get a look in his ear...he wasn't liking that at all and it really wasn't a pleasant way to wake up! He couldn't really get a good look because of all the dried blood but he was guessing that his eardrum ruptured. So he is now on antibiotics and eardrops for a while and will go back in for a check up in two weeks to see how his ear is healing. Poor little guy was just beat though after waiting over an hour for the doctor and than having to wait for his prescription by the time we got home he just crashed.

Jaxon still isn't feeling all the great either. While I was gone he was having a lot of coughing fits which caused him to throw up, so Doug was having fun too! When I got home we gave him another breathing treatment and that seems to help. The doctor that I saw today is also on call this weekend so he said to just give them a call if we needed anything (since he had asked who else was sick and looked up Jaxon's records). Hopefully we won't need anything, but it's nice to know they're there when you need them! So far, while he has a horrible cough, his breathing is pretty normal.

Otherwise everyone else seems to be doing okay, though they all have snotty noses and some of them are coughing a little...So I think we'll just take it easy this weekend and try to get everyone healthy and hopefully stay that way for Christmas.

Is anyone out there???

You know there are days that you wonder who really reads your blog...well I figure mine is just read by our family and friends and I appreciate those who come by and see how the crazy Crowe clan is doing. And I figure that even if nobody else read my blog that would be okay too...I also like to use my blog to help me remember all of the little (and big) things that happen in our life.

Nothing super exciting happening at the moment. Jaxon is starting to get a cold again and was having alot of coughing fits tonight, so I went ahead and gave him a breathing treatment and that seemed to help calm him down. But I'm sure I'll be checking up on him throughout the night making sure he is breathing normally.

CJ is getting a bunch of teeth in all at once and is feeling pretty miserable. His poor little gums are so swollen and red, I wish they would just pop through and put him out of his misery especially since they have been like this for more than a week. He's also been having a pretty snotty nose which I think is a combo of getting a cold and teething.

Jayde is also starting to come down with a cold. So far it hasn't seemed to be slowing her down too much, so I'm hoping she gets over it quickly.

Ryann, yep you guessed it, is also getting a cold... I hate it when she gets sick. I mean it's bad enough when your child is sick anyways. But when your child is sick and has diabetes it can be a nightmare at times. Right now her blood sugar isn't doing anything super drastic...it has gone low a few times but not really bad and when I give her something to get it back up, it stays up and doesn't go back down which is good. So I'm hoping that we can get everyone healthy quickly and keep them that way!

Doogie, dare I say it...I might jinx us....isn't sick (and hopefully will stay that way, knock on wood). Doug has been teaching him to play chess and he has really gotten into it. I guess Doug played on the chess team when he was a kid (something I didn't know until recently), so who knows...maybe Doogie will follow in his father's footsteps with that (they are so much alike anyways!) Doug is also showing Jayde as well and she has been really interested in it too...which of course means that Ryann wants to do it too! Which I think is great!

Doug is recovering from running his half marathon last Sunday. I think there will be more half marathons in his future since now he wants to beat his time and make it better (and one of his buddies ran a marathon just a couple weeks before Doug and did it just under 2 hrs...so they've been challenging eachother good naturally!)

I'm just trying to keep up with it all. My laundry room is a total disaster area since I'm trying to sort through everyone's clothes and weed out things that are too small and see if they will fit someone else, some are for spring/summer so they need to get packed up and I still need to find all my winter clothes for the kids (Doogie and Jayde's hand me downs). So you don't even want to see my laundry room, it is not a pretty sight and you would probably run away screaming in terror...because heck, that's what I feel like doing! I'm working on getting my Christmas presents all finished and hopefully done in time. And trying to get organized to tackle my new job of "yearbook editor" for the kids' school, I'm going to have everything for my yearbook stuff on just one computer and hopefully that will help keep me organized. I also need to call the photography studio who took all the kid's pictures and let them know that I will be the new contact person. So I'm a little nervous about being the head honcho on something like this, but I'm sure once I learn the ropes all will be fine (I hope!!)

So anyways, now you know what the crazy Crowe clan has been up to this week! Thanks for checking in on us! :)

Way to go Doug and Jenni!!

Well they did it! On Sunday both Doug and Jenni ran the Seattle half marathon! They both finished just a little bit over 2 hours, which is awesome! We are all very proud of both of them. I was a little bummed that I didn't make it over there in time to get some pictures of them running, but I'm glad that one of Jenni's friends were able to get a few of them afterwards. And then I got some pictures of them with their medals when they got back to the house. So CONGRATS to Doug and Jenni for sticking with it and making it to the finish!!