Will this be you?

Hope you all had a FABULOUS 4th of July!
Details of my birthday and our holiday weekend to come soon!

Weekend Madness

My Friday was kinda crazy. Shawn had been gone all week on a business trip to Florida. I really missed having him around, but we did okay. My house was a disaster, and I had plans to get it a lot cleaner so that Shawn wouldn’t have to come home to a mess. Instead the bunk bed that I had ordered ended up being delivered that afternoon (It looks just like this one pictured, except has a twin on the bottom). I wanted to surprise Shawn and get it set up before he came home. So instead of cleaning (like I should have done)…I assembled the bunk bed all by myself (I know...crazy!). I was excited to have it done, and so was Caden…but it would have been a lot easier if I would have just waited for Shawn to help me. I am really happy with it, and Caden loves the fact that he gets to climb a ladder to get into bed.

Putting the bed together also set me back timewise. We had bought tickets to the Princess Wishes – Disney on Ice Show for our nieces for Christmas. I planned on picking them up around 5:30 pm so we could grab a bite to eat before the show. Instead I ended up at their house around 6:15 pm. It ended up okay though…we grabbed some Chinese from a shop around the corner from the arena, gobbled our food down, and still got to the show on time.

The girls and I had a great time. Honestly, I don’t think you can ever go wrong when it comes to Disney. They really know how to put on a show. I have yet to be disappointed in anything they have ever done. It was nice to be able to spend some time with Caroline, and Abby without the distraction of my own children. These girls really are such sweethearts, and I am thankful to be their Aunt.

I hope they had as good of a time as I did.

Saturday was “jam” packed as well. My mom’s birthday was on the 21st so everyone got together for a lunch at Olive Garden. I love spending time with my family. Not everyone was able to make it, but a lot of us were there. My mom turned 65 this year! I can't believe it! She is really a wonderful person, and I am glad that we were able to spend sometime with her. We ate, laughed, and celebrated. Then we had to jet out of there because Shawn and Caden had tickets to the Monster Truck Jam.

Shawn, Caden, Robbie, and Mason all went together. He was really tired, and needed a better nap. They had tickets to go to a Pit Party, but they should have just passed on that, and gone to the actual show that started later in the evening. Instead they were at an overcrowded "Pit" and then had to wait a couple of hours for the actual show to begin. Caden still had a fun time even though most of it was sitting in Shawn's lap trying to fall asleep. It was nice for him and Shawn to be able to spend some one on one time with eachother.

What we have been doing lately...

With December now here, our life seems a flurry full of activities. We began December with a bang by going to Broadway Palms rendition of Babes in Toyland. We always love going to these lunch theatre plays. It is an entertaining afternoon with food, family, and friends. The kids are always mesmerized by the performers. We didn't stay long enough to take pictures with the cast, but we still enjoyed the show!

After the play we headed over to the airport for my company's Children's Christmas party. They clear the whole hanger out and load it with all sorts of things for the kids to do. They had bouncers, rock climbing, the tall slides that you sit on a burlap bag to go down on, and of course Santa. They even had the fire department, and police department there with thier bikes, and a fire truck. Caden immediately was drawn to the truck and stayed there until the firefighters kicked him out. The kids ran around like chickens, and I was able to catch up with some friends, and coworkers that I don't see as often. The kids had so much fun they did not want to leave. (This last picture that I have here was taken as we were leaving the party. It was a cloudy day, and the sun had just broke through the clouds...so pretty!)

We eventually got our kids out of the playland only to head over to a performance by City Lights. City Lights is a singing and dancing performing group that Shawn was involved in during High School. His good friends mom had started the group, and had invited all the alumni to come to the latest performance. They had a slide show of all the previous performers, and some of Shawn's friends showed up. Afterwards we went out to dinner, and they reminisced about "the good times." (BTW-this photo was taken by Caden...he really loves the camera)

Somehow we managed to squeeze one more thing into that crazy day. Shawn's dad came over to watch our kids while we headed over to a Christmas party that a woman in our ward (church congregation) was having. Thank goodness we had already eaten because she had the best spread of yummy treats that you have ever seen! I seriously would have stuffed myself silly if I wasn't already stuffed in the first place. It was nice to mingle with others, and hang out with some friends.

This day had me tuckered, and I was ever so grateful for my bed in the evening! The following day we attended church. Shortly after we returned home Shawn packed up and headed for the airport for a week long trip to Atlanta, GA. He was conducting a training seminar for his job. I debated whether to go out there with him and the kids, but ended up opting out.

It was hard having him gone this whole week, but I sure got alot done. My house had been suffering, and without him here, I was able to clean up many of the areas that needed my help. He kinda joked that he should go out of town more often! Kudos go out to those single mothers out there. I have no idea how they do it! I love my children, but man I missed getting those little breaks once Shawn would come home from work. I was so happy when Shawn called and said that he would be coming home late Thursday rather than Friday evening.

Last night we went over to Julie and Robbie's and hung out for a few hours. It was so fun to watch Sydney and Gemma play together. I really wish that I would have gotten some pictures of the two of them. It looks like they are going to be good friends. They remind me so much of each other.

Now we are into the weekend, and Christmas is quickly approaching. I still feel like I have a million things to do in order to be prepared for the holiday. I hope to get some shopping done today! And then it is off to Shawn's company party! One thing that I did get done was my Christmas cards...now I just need to drop them off at the post office! If anyone still wants one...just email me your mailing address. Toodles!

The Chronicles of Narnia

After the funeral was over I headed home to pick up Shawn and the kids to head to The Broadway Palm for their childrens lunch theatre. This time the play was based on The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe. We had a blast as usual. Even though Sydney is not even 2 yet, she will sit still the whole time! They are always captivated. This has been such a fun tradition to go to these as a family. I feel like we will have many memories of the great times that we have had here. Again…if you live in the area, and are interested in going, let me know! My sister reserves the whole front section. She has even reserved seats for next season -- so let me know if you would liek to go to any of those shows! The shows are wonderful, and the food is okay. Because it is a large group you only have to pay $15 and that includes lunch, soft drinks, the show and tip! It is really worth the money!

After the show the actors always come out to sign autographs and take pictures. Caden decided that he didn’t want to have anything to do with that, and refused to get in the pictures with me and Syd. Oh, well…maybe next time!

Cookies!

With swim lessons and other summer activities the kid swapping hasn’t been as regular as usual. This Friday I had the Olson clan for about 3 hours. We had a lot of fun today. When they first got here we just played a bit. Then we decided to watch the movie “Everyone’s Hero” (Which is a really cute movie). We pretended to be at a movie theatre, and had popcorn.

Later the kids got hungry. They sat at the table and drew pictures while I cooked some Dino chicken nuggets (thanks Costco!) & apples. While they were eating I thought that it would be a fun treat to make cookies together. So afterwards, the kids helped me put in the ingredients for Peanut Butter cookies.

It was one of the funnest things ever. I gave them each their own fork, and they all took turns criss-crossing the cookies. It was something simple, but the kids loved it. The best thing was eating our masterpieces!

Now I have to think up some more fun activities for us to do in the future! Any ideas?

Worth the Drive

On Friday, we made a last minute phone call to our friends the Ashton's. Shawn and Mark share the same birthday so we are bound to think of them atleast once a year! hee hee. We really enjoy their company, but since they live on the other side of town we rarely get to see them. We thought it would be nice to go out for a late "birthday" dinner for the two of them. Unfortunately we couldn't get a babysitter on such short notice, and decided that we would put it off for another time. Shawn and I were talking after I had gotten off the phone with Cindi. Because of different conflicts the next time we would be able to get together would be a month from now. We decided that we would make the 45 minute drive out to their house, and Cindi's sister could watch both our kids while we went out.

It was a long drive, but I am so glad that we decided to make it. We went and ate at Famous Dave's....and ohhhh my....that was good food! I have never eaten there before, but I am so glad that Mark recommended it. We got Famous Dave's Feast, and shared it between the 4 of us. They even gave Mark and Shawn these huge Sundae's for their birthday. I left there stuffed, but man was it worth it! I highly recommend this restaurant!

Afterwards, we were debating whether or not to catch a movie. We decided to opt out, and go back to their house to hang out. We went back to find that our kids had had a blast playing together. It didn't click until the way back to their house that it was as if Cindi's sister was having to watch two sets of twins because our children are the same age! It was probably a little chaotic, but she did a great job. They did some face painting, and I left my camera so she could take some photos. Sydney looked so cute as a little cat (try to ignore the fact that she is trying to pick her nose!). As usual...Caden did not want to participate...so there are no fun pictures of him.

While we were there Caden got a hold of the camera. He loves to take pictures, and whenever he finds the camera he starts snapping away. I have to say that I was so impressed with one of the shots that he got of Lanah. I may have a budding photographer on my hands!

Over all it was such a fun evening. I am so glad that we took the time to go out there, and I actually thought it was nice that our kids got to play together. They really had a lot of fun, and so did we. I am so thankful for our friendship with this family. They are great people, and so much fun to be around. Mark and Cindi always have a way of making me laugh until I cry. That is a great thing. I thought about what we would have missed out on if we would have not gone. I think there are many times that we decide not to do something because it is "so far", and don't want to "waste" so much time in the car. Some things are just worth the drive...I need to remind myself this more often!

Here is some pictures of Caden, Sydney, Lanah, and Payton. They surely are a cute bunch of kids!

How popular was your name?

I ended up on the Social Security Website the other day, and was looking at the most popular baby names of the past year. I noticed another box on that page that said "Popular Birth Names by Year". This feature allows you to choose a year, and also gives you the option to see how many births there were for up to the top 1000 names during any particular year. So the curiosity got the best of me and this is what I found.

• The year I was born there were 13,467 other Crystal's born (my name was 18 on the list!)
• The year Shawn was born there were 9,272 other Shawn's - He was #39
• In 2003 there were 3,628 Caden's born into the U.S. (His rank was #111, but I swear all other Caden's were born around me because they are everywhere! I thought I was being original!)
• In 2005 there were 7,352 Sydney's (her rank was #30)

To think that there are that many Crystal's that are the same age as me...blows me away! It is not a very common name these days. I just thought this was cool because it actually had the numbers & rank of each name. It really gave me an insight of how "unique" our names were when we were born. Let me know if you try it out! I find it rather interesting.

Kid Swapping

About a month ago, our family got together with The O. Family for dinner at the park. Justin and Shawn are good friends from high school, and we have always tried to continue to nourish the friendship. They had Kent a few weeks before Caden was born and we were determined to make them be friends. :) Every time we would get together we would plop them next to each other and take photos. The Boys always seem to have fun together, but we wondered if they actually remembered each other between our visits. Over the years, the Olson's have moved around. They were gone for a while to Virginia, but they recently moved into a house close by.

As Karyn and I were chatting away at the park we some how got on the subject about how hard it is do get anything done while we have the kids. I joked around about how nice it would be to have a robot that I could have around when I wanted to make a quick errand without the kids. That is when she offerred to do a kid swap. She would watch my kids for 3 hours at a time, and then I would watch hers. She had been trying to do the same thing with her sister, but it wasn't quite working out. So she said to call her if I was interested, and we would go from there.

I went home and looked at my calendar...lo and behold I had an appointment that I needed to go to the following week. So I called up Karyn and took her up on it! Let me tell you it was wonderful! I was able to go to my doctors appointment and then do some shopping --- ALL BY MYSELF!! It was very refreshing! When I was all done it was so nice to go and see our children playing together. Karyn also has Mallory (2) and Eldon (will be 1 in August).

When we got back from our vacation I was able to return the favor for her...and we have agreed this is the best thing ever!!! After a few tweeks we have decided to take a plunge. Only instead of watching each others kids once a week(which equates to 2 times together--once for each of us) for 3 hours at time we will switch back and forth on Mondays and watch them for 6 hours! I know it sounds crazy, but Karyn did it on Monday for me! (THANK YOU!) It was fabulous! There is alot that you can get done in 3 hours, but 6 was even better.

Our theory was this...sometimes it takes a little bit to get going. With having 6 hours you really can get alot done, and the kids only are going 1 place a week. We really hope that it will work out. I have to tell you it has been great to have this opportunity. It has been something that I have always wanted, but hadn't found someone that it would work out so well with. If you can find someone...do it! It is such a blessing!

The great thing about it is that Caden and Kent are really starting to develop a deeper friendship than the "plop me down and take a photo" induced friendship of their parents. Hopefully when they get older they can look at all the photos from when they were babies, and see that they truly have been friends for life! We hope that Syd and Mallory will be able to say the same. Here is a slide show of all the fun that these kids have had together through the years!