Captain America turns 4.

Trevin is very into all super heroes right now. Everyday he has me put a cape on him (a pillow case), so he can be a super hero. Being a super hero entails saving Mom and Cheyenne from all the bad guys, most of the time that mean shooting them, with anything that might resemble a gun. Occasionally Chey gets to be a super hero too, but for the most part she gets to be a damsel in distress with mom.  So it wasn't very hard to decide what to get Trevin from his birthday this year... SUPER HERO anything. His favorite superhero at the moment is Captain America so that's the theme we stuck with.

At our house presents couldn't possibly wait until after dad gets home from work. So presents happen first thing in the morning. Before we even eat breakfast or get out of our PJs. 

First present... A Captain america shield. Trevin usually uses a bucket lid so he was very excited to have the real deal. 

 Next up... A Captain America action figure that talks and has a shield and a gun!

 Third came the Captain America helmet... Now you see the whole picture. (except Trevin decided it was better to wear his shield and helmet, while using the little action figure gun too.)

 I love the look on T's face in this next picture. He was more than excited to open his very own iPod. (Mom's old iTouch). We reset it and made it all kid friendly. Trevin already knew how to use it better than mom anyway. We loaded a bunch of super hero pictures to it. Left only games on it and of coarse his favorite music. Oh the green cover is new. 

 He was thrilled and promised he would even share it with Cheyenne. 

We had lots of fun during the day... Trevin rotated between playing the iPod and being Captain America. Trevin got to go to Chick-fil-a with dad for a special birthday lunch.

Later in the day we had our brand new home teachers stop by. They are honestly the best! Trevin was asleep but they dropped off a present for him. Trevin was way excited to wake up to another gift. 

 For dinner the kids had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at Trevin request. (Mom and dad at lasagna.) Then instead of doing cake and ice cream. We headed out to Farr's Fresh ice cream to let the kids load up on whatever ice cream they wanted. It was a lot of fun and I think they liked not having any restrictions on toppings. 

  A quick picture with his birthday balloons before heading off to bed. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TREVIN!!! 

(Chey had a great time picking out the balloons!)

A few of our Christmas activities...

I love Christmas time with kids... I love Christmas anyway, but usually just the Christ aspect of it. But with kids I must admit the Santa/reindeer/elves portion is A LOT of fun. Cheyenne has really picked up on the Christmas songs In fact I sing them each a song when I tuck them into bed and the other night she asked me to sing "Santa Baby" I was shocked and did a pretty pathetic job since I don't know the words.

Trevin and Chey both love to sing " I want a hippopotamus for Christmas."  But the favorite song at our house is Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. 

Needless to say I have been watching the newspaper to find out when and where Santa's reindeer would be so we could show the kids. Since you don't get to actually see reindeer very often. So when Weber State held their "Fill the sleigh" event we mad a special trip to see Santa and his reindeer. The kids were so excited.

Santa brought 2 reindeer with him Blitzen(left) and Snowflake(right). Snow flake of coarse is one of the reindeer in training, so he doesn't actually get to pull Santa's sleigh on Christmas yet. 

 Here's our picture with Blitzen. The toilet paper is our donation to Santa's sleigh. Cause Santa is too busy making all the toys to make toilet paper for the kids that don't have any. Trevin had about a million questions when we got there. He wanted to know if they put a tent over the reindeer so the couldn't fly away. The answer Yes.

 Blitzen, they really are very pretty.

 Inside with Santa! We got to see Santa quite a few times this year, but this is my favorite picture (it was the one at WSU). Trevin asked for a race track with a ramp. Chey asked for a dolly and a duck.

 This is a different day. We've started the tradition of taking Grandma Donna ( my Dad's mom) to J&J to see all the pointsettas. While we are there we take pictures in the flowers. It's a lot of fun... this year we went late in the season and there weren't very many varieties left... next year we'll have to go earlier.

Traditional Christmas Card

Merry Christmas! I finally got Christmas letters sent out. I know I probably missed people so here it is for anyone that is interested. Hope you all have a wonderful holiday!

Friends and Family,

Can you believe we are at the end of another year! We hope that this past year has been full of wonderful memories, for ours certainly has.

Gage has been a busy man.  He managed to have 3 different church callings this year.  Perhaps the hardest change Gage had to face this year was turning 30 (he still doesn’t act his age)! Don’t worry it hasn’t slowed him down. He takes on a full load at work and home. I can always count on him to get the kids riled up just before bedtime. They love their dad!

McKenna loves all the time she gets to spend at home.  Two toddlers are a constant source of entertainment! She has taken on the task of holding preschool at our house 2 days a week, and loves getting to see the kids excited to learn and play. In her spare time after cooking and cleaning McKenna loves to go on dates with Gage more frequently.

Trevin has changed so much this year. He is proficient at using Mom’s iPod touch, navigating the computer and racing on x-box. His electronic skills must come from his dad.  His imagination is as wild as ever.  Most of his adventures right now involve him being a super hero. Trevin prompted the at home preschool.  Every morning starts with the same question “Is it preschool day?”  He loves to learn!

Cheyenne is all girl! Her favorite colors are pink and purple. She too has an active imagination and can almost always be found carrying a doll, stuffed animal or Barbie.  Chey has a stubborn side and refused to potty train, regardless of mom’s pleadings. After mom finally gave up, Chey decided she was ready and has been dry since. She loves her “long Rapunzel hair” and her earrings (her reward for potty training).

Our family is excited to welcome baby #3. Trevin is set on having a brother and Chey is sure we are having a sister. We can’t wait to find out in January! Gage and I are just thrilled to have a couple of months off of diaper duty before we start into the baby phase again.

We love our Savior and express gratitude for His love in our lives.  We feel so blessed to know that He lives. Our hope is that you too have felt His love and know that you can always turn to Him in times of need.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to each of you. 

Love, the Crabtree's

Simple joys

Today the kids wanted to play outside. Trevin got a new scooter from his cousins for his birthday and wants to ride it every chance he gets. Anyway I bundled the kids up and sent them outside. Next thing I see the two of them are having a snow ball fight! I know it hasn't snowed for a while...we have a skif of snow along the fence line of our backyard in our garden area. Can you picture it? A very muddy snowball fight. They had a blast!
The funny part is when they decided it was time to come inside the first words out of Trevin's mouth were, "Mom, we accidentally got snow on our gloves." Chey was quick to add, "and mud!"
I love these two and didn't mind cleaning up the mess since it was all just an ACCIDENT!

Remind yourself...

A little reminder that we only see a small glimpse at a time.

I try to look for the positives in my life every day! My husband, my kids and especially my Savior make it possible to get through the rough days and know that everything will turn out ok in the end. 

A conversation with Trevin after he woke up and walked into our room this morning.
GAGE: "Did you finally decide to wake up?"
TREVIN: "My old bones, said body it's time to get out of bed!"

A Canova Christmas Party

 Today was the Canova family Christmas Party. They went for a none traditional party that turned out being a blast! We all went ICE SKATING! We had a nice lunch before hand and all the kids loved watching the hockey team play while we ate. When public skating hours started the kids couldn't wait to go "borrow their ice skaters!" I sent Trevin and Gage thinking that Cheyenne wouldn't be interested at all. I was wrong. As soon as Trevin and Dad had their ice skates, Cheyenne sat down next to them and took off her shoes. She needed some ice skaters too! I was so impressed at how quickly these two figured out how to walk in their ice skates. They both took a couple of wobbly steps then... piece of cake!

With all of the adult cousins around we had plenty of help on the ice. Trevin and Chey loved it!! A couple of my cousins played hockey in High School and trevin thought it was fun to go with them cause they just picked him up and went "really fast!" 

 It was a work out to skate bent over holding up a little kid.. So we had the kids come sit on the bench outside the ice rink to take a rest... even though I think the adults benefited from the "rest" the most.

 Every time Cheyenne had to come sit on the bench she said the same thing. "I meed ice skating more." Dad came and sat by her fro a little while to keep her company. Aren't they cute!

My little crew. We had such a fun time. 

THE ZOO

I'm a horrible mom and charged my camera just to forget it on the counter! But this is something worth remembering... so sorry no pictures.
Today we woke up and started our normal routine. Santa brought our Christmas present a little early. Better said Santa had the RC Willey delivery guys bring our Christmas present early. They came earlier than expect so we were left with a whole day with nothing planned. Luckily Lindsay called that morning and we found out that her and the girls were all headed to the ZOO!!!  The Hogle Zoo is free on the last Wednesday of the month in November, December, and January. So we packed a lunch, gathered our winter coats and hats and headed to the zoo. It was so much fun. Not very crowded and the animals were extremely active. The baby Elephant put on a show playing in the mud. The rhinos ran around their little yard. The gorillas did more than sleep. The tigers were up and moving around. And it was lunch time at the Giraffe house when we got there. We ate lunch under one of the awnings where the kids could watch the monkeys. Then we even let the kids play for a little while on the playground. The tube slide that looked like a snake was a huge hit. The kids loved it and never complained about being cold, even though it did snow a little. I loved it because all the animals looked so healthy with their winter coats on. I think we just might go again in January!

:)

Sometimes it's the littlest things that make me laugh. I love this quote... because I do this ALL THE TIME!!

2011's First SNOW DAY

We love snow days! Especially when they land on a Saturday! The kids were so excited to look out into the back yard and see snow when they woke up. It wasn't long before they were bundled up and playing in it. The best part about this year. They both wanted to stay outside for longer the 5 minutes. In fact the problem was convincing them after a couple of hours that they needed to come in and eat lunch!

After having fun at home all morning, keeping themselves entertained while mom and dad did chores. We decided to break out the sled at a local park. What a great idea. The hill was small enough for both of them to walk up by themselves and big enough that they had fun sledding!

 Trevin liked the small disc sled. Hmm, I wonder if it that had anything to do with the color? ;)

 Cheyenne loved the tube! 

The only down side was having to leave. Although we did give in to the pleadings of "please just one more time" quite a few times!
Happy SNOW DAYS!

A preschool field trip

During "F" week ate preschool we went on a field trip to the Fire station.  

When we got there the firemen had just been called out. But they were back pretty quick and the kids thought it was fun to watch them park the fire engine. The firemen were so great with the kids and made sure that everyone had fun. First we toured the fire truck and even got to play with the hose. 

Next was the ambulance. The kids thought it was lots of fun to walk through all the vehicles. Next up a tour of the kitchen and bedrooms. WOW. This was probably the favorite part, especially when they saw the 3 refrigerators! 

 Last but not least, one of the fire men dressed up for the kids. They wanted to show them that even though they sound funny through their mask and look scary with all their big clothes on they are nice guys. So the kids wouldn't be scared of them. It worked. The kids all gave him a hug or high fives. Then they taught the kids how to stop drop and roll. and gave them all helmets!

 If you haven't toured the fire station with your kids, you should!

HALLOWEEN TRADITIONS

Pumpkin Carving was so much fun at our house this year. Trevin and Cheyenne picked out their own pumpkins and designed their own jack-o-lantern faces. The best part was getting to light the candles and blow them out every night!

 We had lots of chances to wear our costumes this year. We went to a pumpkin walk, had our preschool party, went to visit grandma and then had Halloween. So we were in our costumes 5 different days!! The kids loved it.

Trevin decided he wanted to be a fighter pilot. So we looked at lots of costumes online before he found teh perfect one. "Green and a hat!" He loved it and was the toughest fighter pilot I've ever seen. 

Cheyenne originally wanted to be Little Mermaid. No surprise there. We started looking at costumes on line to get some good ideas (I was planning on making hers). This is where the surprise comes... She saw a  picture of Pocahontas and decided that's what she wanted to be instead. I didn't mind. Pocahontas sounded easier to make and Cheyenne was so excited with with finished costume. Isn't she a beautiful Indian Girl. 

Visiting Grandma Nicholls. Picking up nuts from her yard. One of my kids favorite activities at her house. 

Our little preschool had a Halloween party. They all had so much fun. We played pin the nose on the pumkin, pass the ghost, bean bag toss. Then we decorated cupcakes and drank "blood juice." Preschool is always entertaining, but it was especially fun this time. 

A picture of our Halloween decorations this year. Trevin saw our neighbor decorating her house at the beginning of October and came inside to tell me "Laura has awesome Halloween decorations. Do we have any?" That's when we decided to break out the Halloween box. We made ghosts out of milk jugs this year that turned out way cute. I forgot to take pictures while they were lit up, but the kids loved it.

Kami and her family were here for Gerin's mission farewell. Which means they got to be here for Halloween. It was so much fun to go trick-or-treating with them. Here is our little crew before we headed out. we lasted about and hour and a half. Then the kids decided they were tired and that their buckets were HEAVY! So we headed home and passed out candy.

I REALLY, REALLY HOPE THIS ONE DOESN'T TURN OUT TO BE A TRADITION!!! Two years ago (almost to the day) Trevin fell off the stool while he was brushing his teeth and cracked his tooth... We ended up at the Dentist, then sedated to have it pulled. Well this time was a little different. Trevin and Cheyenne hit heads. I didn't see it, but this is what they told me. I rubbed Chey's head better and then rubbed Trevin's. That when he told me that his teeth hurt too! A quick look revealed that he had cracked the front half of his tooth off. Janae stopped by to look at it that night and we were at the dentist office early Friday morning. Xrays and a quick exam showed that he had cracked it down to the root. (The dentist was surprised that I hadn't had to pull the front piece off.) This time they were able to pull it out right away. It was nice that Trevin was old enough to not get fully sedated, just some laughing gas. What a champ!

Cheyenne was very good at the dentist too. The thought it was fun to wear their costumes (The whole dentists office dresses up for the week before Halloween). 

I'm just glad it was on the bottom again!! 

I told Trevin all about the tooth fairy on the way home from the dentist. He was pretty excited about the whole thing. We took his tooth with us everywhere on Friday and he told everyone that the toot fairy. He ended up falling asleep early on Friday night and woke up Saturday morning and said "Oh man, the tooth fairy didn't come! I forgot to put my tooth under my pillow!" We reassured him that if he did it tonight the tooth fairy would still come. He got his tooth out right then and put it on his bed so he wouldn't forget again.
That night he put his tooth under his pillow and fell right asleep. Then at about 4:30 in the morning woke up throwing up. We were sitting in the middle of a mess on his bed.  I was telling him not to worry that I would clean up his bed, when he asked, "But Mom, did the tooth fairy come?" Let's just say he was very excited to check under his pillow and find out that YES the tooth fairy did come.

So that definitely seems like that's all that could have happened this weekend but there is one more thing I have to add. We got in a car accident. We were stopped at a signal and got rear ended. Trevin was holding my phone at the time and it flew out of his hand. When it happened I told the kids, just a minute, someone ran into our truck with their car, I'll be right back. Trevin quickly responded with "Yeah, that car almost broke my hand right off!" It wasn't very bad. The lady that hit us had only had her car for 8 days, and wouldn't be driving it home. Our truck didn't show any signs of getting hit. The officer that came to the accident asked if she could talk to my kids and get their information. I helped them answer her questions. Gage showed up just then. So I talked to him for a minute then I heard Trevin ask, "Do you have a gun?" I turned around to see the officer showing Trevin that yes she had a gun. Then he started pointing to the other things on her belt and she was very patient and told him this is my tazor and my radio, etc. I think this was the highlight of his day, even more than getting his tooth pulled. Cheyenne was so excited to tell everyone she saw that day "A car crashed rigth into us, like BAM!" All in all it was a very eventful day.

SICK DAYS

It's official we have been hit with our first winter sick days. Chey got a cough on Saturday, which meant no sleep at our house. Even pulling out her humidifier didn't seem to make breathing any easier for her. She threw up a couple of times because of how hard she was coughing. Which meant lots of laundry for mom, since it always happens in the middle of the night. Sunday Trevin really wanted to go to primary. This is the first time I've had a sick child since Gage was put in the high council. So we all got ready, I took Trevin to church and Cheyenne and I sat outside in the grass while he enjoyed primary. I'm not sure that arrangement will work out when the weather gets cold. 

I caught Cheyenne's cough/cold/body aches on Monday. Tuesday I declared a "SICK DAY." Trevin asked me "What's a sick day?" I told him it was when we stay in our pajamas and watch movies on mom's bed all day long. The kids thought it was pretty cool. 

It's been two weeks since Chey got sick and we all still have coughs. Hopefully they don't last all winter, we are just happy to all be feeling good enough to go trick or treating.

FISHING...

This year for Labor Day I had to work which meant our regular Bear lake trip wasn't going to happen. So we decided to take the kids fishing... at the fish farm and then they could help dad eat whatever they caught. 

 We helped them pick out some fishing poles and dad taught them how to carry them so they didn't hook anybody. Trevin and Gage picked out a good fishing spot and we got to work.

 They kids waited patiently with their lines in the water for a few minutes, then we took the cheater method and threw in some food.

 Trevin fished while Chey threw in food. Trevin was so excited when the fish bit and he pulled up his pole and there was actually a fish on it! You can see it in his face.

 He caugth a nice rainbow trout and was very interested in how dad took out the hook and then smacked this fish's head on a rock.

 Showing off his catch! I can't wait to send these two out fishing for real.

 By this time Cheyenne knew how this worked and told Trevin to throw food so she could catch a fish too. She was just as excited when she pulled her fish out of the water.

 The difference... she kept her distance while dad unhooked the fish  (she let Trevin help).

 Then it was time to take a picture with her tiger trout. I told her to help dad hold it and she immediately said no. Then she came up with a great alternative. I had said to help dad... which in her mind didn't have to include touching the fish. Why is Gage smiling so big??

 This is how Chey helped dad hold the fish. She is just like her mom... so she can stay home with me when the boys go out fishing!