The Crew-Man Turns 4.....

Today we are revisiting October 3, 2012.

The day Crew celebrated his 4th Birthday!!!!

Crew requested a "cars birthday"

We kicked off the day by taking him to lunch.
His choice, JCW's.

Then to the store to pick out
a present that he wanted.
Yes, it was Legos.
{mom, stop rolling your eyes!}

 After a birthday dinner at home

 we decorated and ate cupcakes,

and opened a few more presents.

HaPpY BiRtHdAy CrEwByDoO!!!!


Every year I like to interview my boys.

I call it.... 
"The Birthday Interview"

These are his exact answers.
I did not manipulate them in any way.
Crew is so sweet, He just makes my heart smile.

What makes you happy? I Love you

What is your favorite animal? Doggy

What is your favorite thing to eat? Strawberries

What is your favorite thing to do? Play Legos, play Xbox, riding 4-wheelers, go to the sand dunes

What is your favorite TV show? Sponge Bob

What is something you are really good at? Building Lego cars

What is your favorite movie? Madagascar 3

What is your favorite color? Red

What is your favorite song? Howlin'for you by The Black Keys

Who is your best friend? Miley

What do you and your mom do together? Water the flowers

What do you and your Dad do together? Play video games

What is your favorite sport? Soccer

Where is your favorite place to go? The cavin "cabin"

What is your favorite book?  Elmo

What do you want to be when you grow up? I want to do things around the house and wear a worker hat. 

I asked, "you mean like a construction worker?"

Yes, it has wrenches and a drill and more wrenches and a chainsaw.

After I finished asking Crew his questions;
 he turns to me and very seriously says,
 "Mom, you forgot to ask me what my favorite mini figure is!"
So, I asked. 
What is your favorite mini figure?  The Alien Queen

There you have it, folks....
A look into the mind of a 4 yr. old.

Flash back to.......

August 11th 2012

On this beautiful, summer day in August,

I finally hiked to the top of Mt. Timpanogos

along with my step-dad Dan, and brother Trevor.

Mt. Timp, as the locals call it, 

is the 2nd highest mountain in the Wasatch range.

The summit of Mt. Timp. is 11,749'

Everyday when I look out my kitchen window I see Timp.

It was calling to me and I could resist no more.

I knew I had a hiking buddy just a phone call away.

My step-dad Dan is part mountain goat.

He hops, skips and  jumps, up the mountains.

I got hold of him.

We planned the day.

And last minute Trevor joined us.

A few of these pictures have been borrowed, 

because most of mine where not adequate.

Me and the boys spent the night at my Moms

that way she could watch them for me.

Matt would come pick them up after he got off work.

The plan was to be hiking by 7am.

It was more like 8 or so when we actually

began our accent by way of the Aspen Grove Trail.

This pic was taken at 8:52 am.

Trevor and I  have no idea what is in store for us.

To me- this was halfway to the summit.

I really had a false sense of  hope here.

We were hiking along great,

 felt like we should be getting close.

Came around the bend and....

Boom!

was hit in the face with this!!!!

East face of Mt. Timp.

We hiked to the saddle.

That was difficult but I was still in good shape.

Trevor was suffering major blisters and sore legs.

Dan, nothing phases Dan. 

I didn't even see the man sweat!

Steep switchbacks all the way to the steel shack at the summit.

This part of the hike was really rocky, but cool. 

Felt a little like a castle walls.

Had my second sense of false hope here.

You climb up through a steep crack,

feels like you are climbing stairs to the top of a castle tower

where you land on the glorious summit of Mt. Timp

but once again......

big fat nope!

You can see that tiny little point sticking up 

at the end of the ridge. 

Yup, that is our final destination.

Took us around an hour to reach the summit from the saddle.

But we did it and holy freakin' awesomeness it was!!!!

It is indescribable.

Pano from the top, showing the steel shack and the valley below.

Looking out over Utah County.

I called Matt from the top
and told him to go outside and wave
 at me because I was waving at him.
So somewhere in this picture
is a teeny tiny Matt, waving up at me!

I made it to the Summit Building.
Woo Hoo! Feels amazing!
Too bad I look insanely horrible.
But I just hiked my butt off,
what do you expect?

My awesome brother Trevor. 

You made it Trev!!! You killed big Timp!

We reached the top at 11:56am

Dan showed his special spot he always

goes to when he hikes Mt. Timp.

We ate lunch and rested for 30 min.

And no we did not sign in.

We have more respect then that. :)

Looking out towards Jordanelle Reservoir.

Trevor was was amazing during this hike.

He would mention the kind of pain 

he was in but I never once saw him

struggle or even slow down.

Looking back down to Emerald Lake.
The hikers down below look like ants now.

 This hike seems to have it all-

and alpine lake just below the summit,

a small glacier, waterfalls along the trail,

high alpine meadows with beautiful wildflowers,

even mountain goats-

though we did not see any today.

Trevor, Rachelle & Dan
On our decent.
We stopped at the small shack at Emerald Lake
 (directly below the Summit)
One of the rangers took this group shot of us.

Looking back up main canyon.

So proud of us and so ready for my shower. 

This is an awesome hike people!

I challenge you all to get out there and hike.

It's beautiful and challenging.

The view at the top is worth the sore legs.

Some like it HoTtTtT......

With Matt working graves for the past almost 3 years,

dinner time is the one time of day we are all together as a family.

Because we are so rarely all together,

I try to make dinner time a family ritual.

Of course I  have all my standard go-to  recipes

but have become so bored with them lately. 

So what do you do when you want to spice things up???

 You turn to your best friend Pinterest. 

:)

Last night for dinner I made the family these hot little mamas!

get the recipe here

brrrrttt..... aye, aye, aye!!!!

Delicioso :)

Pleasant Surprise....

Okay, so as you know I am working 

on some new year resolutions.

One of them is to get organized.

I am making slow progress, 

but heck....

 I have a year to do it! 

So- I started with one of my dresser drawers. 

It is my jewelry/catch all drawer.

I didn't clean much out

 but........

 I did find a precious but long forgotten, camera card safely tucked away.

I am known for always putting things in a "safe place".

Somehow never to be found again.

It was always a funny joke when I worked at AMM.

I even had a filing bin named "a safe place"

Yet, I could never find anything. 

It's really, freakin, stupid annoying.

But- it is what it is.

So back to cleaning out my drawers.

At the bottom of my jewelry organizer

under a stack of bracelets is where I found the card.

I now remember why I put it in this safe place.

It would not download for some reason.

I tried in several different computers.

Did the whole troubleshooting thing online.

Nothing.......

I was super sad because I knew it had Cody's birthday,

a visit with my Dad, even 4th of July pictures.

I knew that someday I would figure this camera card 

situation out, and needed to keep it safe until then. 

That some day accidentally came Friday night.

Right away I tried downloading once again

but this time on my newer laptop.

And it worked!

Holy freak!

I was so very happy.

It was humming right along. 

It was at pic 47 of 301.

Then it stopped dead in its tracks.

It was going on 2 am.

{Yes, that whole get more sleep resolution

 has not been working out so good.}

So, I decided to go to bed .

I would mess with the computer in the morning.

Next day....

Tried again, and failed several more times.

Got on the Nikon website. 

Tried their suggestions...blah, blah, blah.

But then........

late last night as I was closing down my laptop

I noticed a file window still open,

 clicked on it and

 BOOM! 

You guessed it.

All my precious pics were there.

I went through each one slowly

 reminiscing and smiling through happy tears.

It was the best surprise I have received in a long time. 

Absolutely priceless.

Here a just a few shots.

You don't understand how hard it was to

not post all 300 of them. :)

Cody is so young!!!

Love this.
 Crew in my heels, paci in mouth, playing with Legos.

Grandpa Simcox took the boys to Toys R Us.

Went to the Aquarium with Grandpa S.

Crew just melts my heart!!!!

Visiting Riverton Cemetery.

Cody's 7th Birthday.

Crew & Landnen

Krispy Kreme 

Why do they have to grow up???

First off- funny Crew talk.

This morning after getting the older boys off to school

I walked into my bedroom where Crew had just turned on the TV

but not the DirecTV box. 

So there wasn't anything on the screen except HDM1

 or something like that.

Crew then asks me if I know what it says on the TV?
I answered yes.

Crew: It says Greetings!

Me: Oh, it does. What does that mean?

Crew: Oh, it's just people talk.

Me :(laughing) Oh, really! Just people talk!

Great way to start the day with my 4 yr. old. 

He is full of insightful wisdom. :)

....................

During this beautiful Christmas season we had recently;

the kids would play outside until they turned into icicles.

Unlike last year when they never even put

their snow clothes on, not even once!

On Christmas Eve I found the kids outside

with the neighbors building this happy little snowman.

I always love to see a snowman in the yard.

Brooke, Landen, Cody, Miley, & Crew

A happy little snowman

Goofy faces

Landen

Ty

Crew

It is January but we are flashing back to December.

 Many times I would begin a post then never finish it.

 So during my 2013 blog more resolution

 I will be finishing up many of those old abandoned posts. 

.........................

Christmas Traditions

 It's December now and Christmas is in full swing around here.

 I have been all kinds super busy with crafts,

 baking, scrap booking, decorating, celebrating and even going on train rides. :)

 I have managed to do all these things and 

still maintain the many hours I like to spend on Pinterest. 

Now, that is multitasking people! 

So... today I busted out some of the most amazing sugar cookies I have ever tasted.

 Holy Moly, me-oh-my!!!!. 

These babies left me speechless. 

Here is a link to 

the sugar cookie recipe

I baked with today.

 {and yes, I did find it on Pinterest  *wink}

Crew was the most adorable little helper.

Seriously, he made this whole thing so much more fun.

His sweet, little hands were very busy stamping the cookie cutters

all over the dough in every direction. 

I would show him how I do it then he would look up at me and say,

"it's okay Mom, It's fine."  

My heart melted and I knew he was right.

It was okay.

It didn't matter if they were not cut out using

 as much of the negative space as possible.

It was a very memorable moment with him.

I am so glad he wanted to hang out with me

 and make me smile until my cheeks hurt!

Before the kids were home from school 

I had all the cookies all beautifully baked.

I will not be frosting them yet.

Tonight I am watching my neighbor's 3 girls

and thought this would be so fun to do with all the kiddos.

 Going to be sugary madness around here. :) 

Okay....the results are in. 

Here are the  pictures from our

 Christmas Sugar Cookie Decorating Bonanza!

Paige, Miley, Landen, & Brooke

My boys were involved for about ten minutes.
Didn't even get a pic of Landen.

These three little angels stayed with me the whole time.
It was so fun. They talked me ear off.
Sang me Christmas songs. And frosted many
beautiful cookies for me. :)

Crew was into it but ate his as fast as he was decorating.

Hard at work.

Miley kept asking me if her cookie was beautiful? Love it!

Brooke is always sweet as pie and very shy.
It was fun to get her talking and goofing around with me.

Paige is such a little grown up.  It was great talking with her,
she sang me songs from her choir program and shared
silly stories with me. I was in girl heaven tonight. 

Next time I want to frost cookies I am so

 calling these girls over.

 Sorry to admit this but I had way more

fun with the girls then the boys tonight. :)