Every Who Down in Who-ville Liked Christmas a Lot...

The Devourer comes with a beard this time of year...Zeke is having an Exodus experience: every morning, he gets up, pads to the door, and lo! Frozen drink, strewn along the entire length of the deck! He's learned the trick: if you take more than you need at any one time, it disappears. We're thinking Moses would be proud of how quick he is on the uptake.
Just another day of keeping the Sabbath day holy; we take it seriously in this house, you betcha.

Eve, Ty and Gracie were treated to the 70-whatever-th Annual Castle Rock Star Lighting Celebration (Shane was partying elsewhere); gorgeous, coat-free weather while we joined every other citizen of Castle Rock downtown for hot chocolate, Santa, carriage rides, fireworks, and the lighting of that beautiful star, beacon to all weary travelers that yes, you have reached the community with not one, but two McDonald's franchises. No playlands, but crappy food to be had all the same.

We love this place, but it is pretty heavily family-populated; most days, that's the great perk. At Starlighting, not so much. We waited one hour for the horse-drawn carriage ride through the throngs on Perry and 5th Streets, and what are these poor knuckleheads to do but wrestle the time away? We lead a charmed life: once again, no bones broken, no skulls fractured. We know we're tempting fate...

The moment of truth: on the carriage: 4:56 p.m. I was just aggro enough that I actually feared for the driver's life if she cut off the line before we were firmly planted on the hay bales.

Our view of the fireworks: love that white church, so small-town and picturesque, boasting a live nativity. I don't know what it is with Crawfords, we can't get enough donkeys.

Map is to scale.

The YW put on a Santa's Workshop to babysit the ward's young'uns while their parents attempted to Christmas shop...a raging success: no one went missing, and no structural damage was recorded. My kids, though...not a granule of sugar in the entire town escaped those precious lips. Bedtime? Just as easy as you'd expect...

Did anyone think for even one second that Shane wouldn't ingest cookie sprinkles directly from the bottle?

Evie, showing off this year's Hallmark ornament from Grandma K: this is from Barbie Diamond Castle, Eve and Grace's sole reason for living. The ornaments are a long-running Kulwicki tradition: my sainted mother raids all metro area Hallmark stores, BEGINNING IN JULY, to procure at least two ornaments per child/granchild, per year. We've got a tree full, in various states of repair, and this year will actually have to break down and buy a tree just to hold the Barbie collection. We're inches away from needing a separate Star Wars tree as well...

Crazy 8's Tag

8 TV Shows I Love to Watch:
Um...wow. That's a lot to list.

1. Simpsons (Always and forever, amen!)
2. Arrested Development (back in the day)
3. Sports Night (mocked endlessly for it, but it was a blessed two seasons)
4. BBC America's Version of What Not to Wear
5. Super Nanny (seriously, is that even on anymore?)
6. The Backyardigans (almost too clever for words)
7. Spongebob Squarepants
8. Do Broncos games count?


8 Favorite Restaurants:
This oughta be easy, maybe...if it doesn't have a playland or serve its condiments in packets, I'm not a regular patron.

1. Los Hermanos (I'm with ya, Jodi, and all my Provo homies!)
2. In-N-Out
3. Alerto's (Fountain Valley-dreamin' on such a winter's day...)
4. Claim Jumper
5. Um...it's apparent I don't even come close to eating at 8 different restaurants in one calendar year. Perhaps Linda needs to clear her schedule a bit more.

8 Things That Happened Yesterday:
1. Grace did not have preschool
2. Painted portions of Grace's room a delightful sugary purple
3. Picked up remnants of library book Zeke destroyed while I was upstairs painting portions of Grace's room a delightful sugary purple
4. Got a new library book! Bliss!
5. Had YW Presidency Meeting
6. Took Grace to ballet
7. Took Eve to ballet and tap
8. Failed to walk puppy and therefore waded through the destroyed library book and other Zeke-produced disasters


8 Things I'm Looking Forward To:

1. The BYU-Air Force game this Saturday (supposed to be int he 60s -- outrageous good fortune!)
2. Mutual tonight -- neither I nor the girls I work with are in charge! Yippee!
3. The culmination of Evening in Excellence on Sunday evening
4. Christmas, Christmas, Christmas!
5. Sean Penn's new movie
6. Date night! When that will be is up for grabs, but it HAS to come up sometime, doesn't it?
7. U2's new album...if I can only hold out until the new year!
8. U2's new tour...we'll take 3/4 of the kids this time around...who wants to host us if they play in your city and we trek out to watch? Anyone? Anyone?

8 Items for My Wish List:
No problems here! My life is a wish list!

1. The backlog of U2-related products we don't yet own, to our shame (remastered discs, DVDs, etc.)
2. Curtains!
3. Paint! Applied by someone other than me!
4. New dining room set
5. Coffee (or other beverage) table for front room
6. That hiking the pooch every day translates into 10+ pounds of weight loss
7. That people would stop discussing Dancing With the Stars as if all of the world's problems are answered by it
8. Competence in my calling


8 People I Tag:

1. Jyll
2. Jennifer Minor
3. Alex (have you been tagged elsewhere?)
4. Gretchen
5. Julie Allen
6. Kelli
7. Kristi
8. Alyson

Sorry about duplicates...I didn't pay the kind of attention to Jodi's post as I ought!

In This Place We Call Home/Everyone Hails to the Pumpkin Song

I'm not lyin' to you about the gorgous Fall we've had...Halloween day was in the high 70s, and by that magical evening, we were only in the 60s -- unheard of for a Mile High (or higher!) All Hallow's Eve, and to say that a good time was had by all would be a dramatic understatement. Our fabulous Stake President owns a ranch outside of Castle Rock and opens up his property for all of the area wards to use for various functions like scout camp, Trunk-or-Treats, etc., and this was our first turn at the Polson Barn (kind of like "The River" in its folkloric proportions). Here, part of the gang sits ready to be pulled by the merry Stake President himself on a huge twilight hayride around his property...were they giddy? I think so!
Pirate Princess Eve and her Fountain Valley homie, Desi Messer: where did two nice little small-town girls learn those signals? Eve has found the best group of girls through Activity Days and school, can't wait to see them go through their teen years together (or maybe, now that I'm serving in YW, I can), hoping they're always this happy and chummy.

Gracie, smiling! Mark the date! Here she's wearing the official costume of the season, though I don't know why we chose to wear it in a barn...see what I mean about needing that Holiday Inn Express stay? But she was thrilled to see all of her little Sunbeam buddies and load up on a wacky amount of candy.

Now that's a motley crew if I've ever seen one. But if evildoers from another galaxy show up, we're covered.

Earlier in the day, Gracie had a preschool party and got to march around the Rec Center in a costume parade...since she'd be painting and gluing and having recess, we chose a more battered princess gown for daywear, though she's still the most luminous gal there. Her brothers and sisters didn't dress up or have class parties (the school opened "late" in the year and opted not to take classtime but rather to have a Fall Festival the next day), so she's my only photo op. Weird for me...I think in terms of blog posts and scrapbook pages, and I'm a litte letdown, lemme tell ya.

Punkin' paintin'...everytime I volunteer in one of my preschoolers' class parties, my kids have a major meltdown...I'd like to say it's because they're all keyed up and can't handle their emotions, but that would be very optimistic of me, wouldn't it? I am the mother who ruins Halloween! Just say it!

When I Am Baptized

Like his Aunt Diane (my sister) said in her talk: this is one of those Golden Days we'll always remember, whether we want to or not. And we want to.
I hope I'm not giving anything away here, but Ty can be very reluctant to be the center of attention or to attempt something with which he's unfamiliar, but he was a prince on his baptism day, just walking tall and proud as I've ever seen him...what a joy he is, and although I know I've said my kids very seldom surprise me, he certainly defied my expectations.

Ty's a blessed child to have been born to a father who is wonderful in all ways, but particularly because he's worthy to perform these sacred ordinances for him...he may not recognize it for years to come, but he could do worse than turn out to be just like his father.

Our many thanks for our friends and family who made this day possible: from their attendance that day, to their presence in Ty's life since the day he was born, from grandparents to primary teachers, it takes a village to raise a child, and we're thankful for the village that's convened around our boy.

To Be Six Years Old Again

I always think I'd want to be a kid again, but not really, unless I was Shane. This kid is just fearless, unmarked by the daily insults and general overwhelm of the childhood experience, and just L-I-V-E-S. Love him and admire him both. He's the only Crawford I know, and we're talking about the entire family tree, who isn't mortified by the mere thought of the entire staff of Red Robin coming out to sing him a Happy Birthday. He'd be kind of insulted if they didn't.
One of his two birthday gifts from the parents: tetherball for the backyard, and electronic darts for the basement (part of our long-term plan to stock that happy room for all we hibernating Crawfords will need come winter).

My kindergartner, who just thinks his teacher, his school and his friends are the best in the world...we've had a great experience at Clear Sky, and are truly grateful. Our first year was not the easiest in terms of finding buddies for Shaney (or Gracie, or me, for that matter), but he's surrounded by a great crew, and loves every day and every new adventure.

A chip off the old brother...the family joke is that Shane has plenty of his own opinions until he hears Ty's.

This is so Shane, but even more so: it's a Star Wars game, and it's not mere fun, it's life-or-death.
A sketch of Shane: giggles, wrestling, scooters, Star Wars, playdates, soccer, swim, wishing for football, cars, legos, computer games, anything loud and funny. Shane's a constant joy.

You knew this picture was coming, right? You can take a kid to Chuck E. Cheese, but you can't leave without him. That oughta be a bumper sticker.

Behold, the 8-Year-Old!

And the beat goes on...Ty turned 8 on the 12th. All the cliches are true: I can hardly believe he's this old, but, then again, I've been there for nearly every second of this precious kid's life, and, yup, he's definitely eight. Not a second younger.
Ty's a lot like me: not a big fan of food, just revisits the same 4 or 5 favorites, and never tries anything new, or an item that has touched another item, etc. His latest favorite: The Waffle House, so on his cold and rainy birthday, we invaded Castle Rock's ode to waffle-y goodness, and doesn't his expression say it all? My boy was in heaven!
The rest of us? Not so much. I should have opted to stay at that Holiday Inn Express, I need the smarter thing to happen.

Mom and Dad's gift: isn't this how all the greats got started? Lessons are sure to come, but he's dragging his feet somewhat on starting piano. Though we've tried to assure him that all real rock stars can pound the ivories, we secretly think he considers it a girl thing.

We broke down this year and did it: The Chuck E. Cheese (or Carlos E. Queso) party...the ultimate sell-out! And yet, didn't have to clean the house, plan activities, clean up...just got to enjoy my kids and many of their friends in an extremely loud and busy environment, devoid of all responsibility excepting the barest exhibition of manners and operation of the camera. I'd recommend it in a heartbeat, if everyone hadn't already done it before.

Typical Ty: Star Wars, dinosaurs, Mars Mission, tetherball, soccer, basketball, baseball, Transformers, bikes, McDonald's, Cinnamon Toasters cereal, lemonade, the wackiest sense of humor (his dad and I have NO idea where he gets it from)...love that kid!

I'll Show You Which Pumpkin Patch is Most Sincere!

Of the countless gorgeous Autumn days we've enjoyed, it wasn't too hard to pick the best of the lot to head WAY up north of Denver to Anderson Farms for all the pumpkin patch joy we could stand, and we weren't disappointed. Obviously, there were pumpkins galore, plus corn mazes, hay wagon rides, the feeding of various critters, and on and on. The kids were in germ heaven, and it was a banner day for hand sanitizer and Claritin for all.
My kids rarely surprise me, or do things that are out of character (maybe a sign that I spend too much time in their faces?)...these pix of them and the pumpkins they love are just so typical of them as individuals. This shot is just Eve all over...can't put words to it, but don't you think so?

In real life, Gracie is a smiler, but no so much with a camera pointed at her. She managed to take a nosedive in a haybale maze and scraped a few good lines and imbed even more gashes in her forehead, just days before our scheduled Christmas pictures. Of course! She's got that great sense of timing in common with all of her siblings.

Ty Cool, master of all he surveys.

And Shane. Would any post be complete without a shot like this of Mr. Bo-Baney?

Grace and the Yak...seconds before he/she/it slimed her hand, I warned her not to touch her eyes afterwards. As I'm reminding her the second time, she turns around, wiping her open palm into her eye and asking "What did you say?" Awesome! Didn't take but an hour for her eye to be leaking...whatever it was leaking. And don't forget the joy of taking your three-year-old to the porta-potty and having her pick up the urinal cake for you to identify and examine...like I said, it was a germy, bordering on nasty, day, which they all just loved like nothing else.