A million ways Alex is awesome

Alex figured out how to shrink this video of the dance I did for my ward's skit night!!! So now I can post it for all to enjoy...

Hopefully it measures up to the dance done by the band that made it famous, OK Go.

Alex, gracias un mil.

Happy Birthday Matt!!!

Matt! It's your special day. Too bad we aren't all together to go to dinner and a movie for your birthday. I hope you have a great day and know how much we all love you! You had to be one of the cutest little boys of all times. You're so wonderful and deserve a happy birthday! Love you lots!
Dana

Scrooge Yourself

You've surely all been elfed by now, but have you been scrooged?
Enjoy
http://www.scroogeyourself.com/?id=1687653996
http://www.scroogeyourself.com/?id=1688949740
Colin

Merry Christmas!!

I just wanted to take a minute and let you all know how much I love you. I'm so grateful to be part of this family. I wish we could spend more time all together, even talk more, but still...I feel so lucky. I'm grateful for the examples you all set for me. It's no wonder how you all turned out with a mom and dad like we have. They are the best, thanks mom and dad for everything you've done for our little family. I couldn't have dreamt up a better family, I'm not sure anyone could. (Is dreamt a word?)
I love you all so much and wish I could celebrate the Savior's birth with you. Some day! That's what I have to keep telling myself. I hope everyone has a great Christmas Eve/Day, you are all so wonderful and deserve a happy happy holiday!
Dana
P.S. To all the nieces and nephews, I hope Santa brings you what you want too! :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEX!

Happy Birthday! We wish you were here. It is showing great big snowflakes right now. We hope you have a happy day and look forward to more photos being added.

love,

david and debby

p.s. if anyone knows how to rotate those photos, i would be grateful:)

12 days of Christmas...sort of

I just emailed this to everyone and realized 3 seconds too late I should have just put it on the blog. So here it is.

Jack's favorite song

http://www.croshawfamilyforever.blogspot.com/

Ice Storm

So we were affected by the big ice storm that hit the country this week. Luckily we got our power back last night. We were without power for about 36 hours. I never want to have to go through that again. The longer I live in Oklahoma the more I understand the need for emergency preparedness!! We were actually in pretty good shape, better than most. We have a gas fireplace we could use for heat, a gas stove to cook on and hot water heated by gas. It got really hard when it started to get dark and there was hardly any light anywhere. That really starts to affect you psychologically. It really makes me appreciate the pioneers and what they endured crossing the plains, especially those with young children. I honestly can't imagine...the pioneers really are my heroes. Whenever I have a hard time with something I try to think about the pioneers and think about how easy I have it! The kids thought it was kindof fun, using flashlights and sleeping in mom and dad's room. There is a picture of them watching a video in the car during Ray's PT appointment. (Ray had knee surgery last week so this has been double hard for him!)

It is amazing how much power a little inch of ice can have, the destruction it can cause. It honestly looks like a war zone here. Virtually every tree is bent or broken. There is an older neighborhood next to ours with lots of big trees. It is so sad to drive through and see all the broken trees. Some trees were literally split down the middle (I thought of all your beautiful trees, dad:). There were over half a million people without power in Oklahoma, not to meniton all the people in Kansas and Missiouri. I really feel for your family, Crystal. Lots of people have died in car accidents and from house fires and carbon monoxide poisioning as a result of alternate heat sources being used. The entire state was literally crippled. It really reminds you who is really in charge. But, we made it through and everyone is okay. When the power came on last night I screamed and Elliot started jumping around saying "We did it, we got lights!" It was really cute. It makes me really appreciate all the modern conveniences we enjoy!

love, Becky

Help Help I need a recipe

For the past 3 years or so, I have been invited to attend Christmas and Thanksgiving dinner with my best friend Tiffany's family. Her aunt makes the most-awesome sweet potatoes! They are creamy and have a strusel-like topping...

I love them, in fact, they were not at dinner last year and I have been thinking about them ever since.

Does anyone know of a recipe for such a dish?

We are driving to Missouri and then Kansas, then back to Missouri then home next week and the day we arrive, I am in charge of making Christmas dinner for my family while my mom shops.

We are having so far:

Ham

My favorite "funeral" potatoes

green beans

salad ( I wish I could find that sesame/raspberry salad dressing Lori had- that was TO DIE FOR, I would eat salad every day if I could find it...)

sweet potatoes (Somehow)

Broccoli and Cheese

bread


I am the only one who likes dessert of all my siblings, so maybe a cake or a pie, but maybe not.

Am I forgetting anything that I should make?

Wish us luck- this is a 20-22 hour drive and we have to go straight through to and from...

Somethings to consider.

Most-Dangerous Animal in the World

Click on the above link to view the most dangerous animal in the world. Yes this is a very dangerous animal.

Right now Crystal and I are watching an interview with Mitt Romney and Sean Hannity and Alan Colmns. As I consider certain the prospect of Mitt Romney being the next president I must admit I'm not fond of the idea for various reasons. One of the reasons is because I don't think it would reflect to favorably on the church as a whole. If he did anything wrong I'm 99.999% sure that opponents of the church and those who are fence sitters would blame the church or at least the fact that he is a Mormon.

Also, as I was watching the interview and I noticed his reaction to them asking him about something Mike Huckabee said about Mormons and the belief that Satan and the Savior being brothers. I noticed that I'm bothered by his reaction whenever anyone asks him about the deep doctrinal questions and the not so deep doctrinal questions. His reaction is generally the same. He stumbles on his words and becomes visibly uncomfortable. I know about his speech and I respect the fact that he gave this speech regardless of how it will effect his candidacy. However, as a Mormon it bothers me that he struggles with owning up to what he is when the cameras are on him. One of the only things I know about his father is that he was quite the opposite.

The other thing that bothers me is that he has had a history of waffling on issues where he should not waffle. During some of the early debates I watched I noticed one of the candidates showed that he really had guts when it came to his stance on moral issues. He never danced around the question nor did he become uncomfortable when he explained what he believed. This candidate was not Mitt Romney. Instead it was Senator Brownback from Kansas and sadly he dropped out of the race. There were times Romney spoke about certain moral issues and he danced around those issues.

So no I really don't want Mitt Romney to be the Presidential candidate. If he were a little stronger about who he was and what he believed and would own up to his deep doctrinal religious beliefs then I might approve a little more of him.

I read a story to the boys I teach on Sunday about a Mormon soldier. To paraphrase the story his rough and tough drill sergent said that what got him about Mormons was that they "were good even when they didn't have to be." Perhaps it would be appropriate to say is Mitt Romney true to what he believes no matter how many people are watching him? I think for him being a public figure it's extremely important that he represent Mormons in a positive light.

Matt

It feels like the spring!

It is so odd, weather-wise here! Last week was bitingly, freezingly COLD! Today is it 70 degrees and GORGEOUS. IT is a bit breezy, like a perfect day in late April or May. Today, walking Valerie in to school we were both like... it doesn't feel like Christmas, but it is undeniably GLORIOUS today.

The funny thing is- she NEVER wants to wear a coat (I wonder where she gets that from :-/) and since I got her the wool coat for her birthday (I will have to post pictures, she looks like a little fancy grown up), she wears it whenever I let her. I have always wanted a coat like that and I was worried she would not appreciate it, but she LOVES it and I am grateful.

Valerie fasted- really and truly for the first time this weekend. She was under the good influence of her friend, Vanessa. Vanessa is from Charlottesville and she stayed the night Saturday and after I told her our ward was fasting, she said she wanted to fast too and that she has breakfast, but skips lunch... all the way to dinner. So. There was the good example, and Valerie followed suit. She fasted for Vanessa's dad who is really having a time with his back. She was writing so furiously during Testimony meeting about how she was feeling and how she was praying that I could feel that precious child's testimony so dearly. I still have the notes, and I actually took them up to the stand with me when I went up to show my gratitude for the Gospel, my family, another birthday of Valerie's and FINALLY finishing graduate school. It was the most I have cried in church in a long, long time. In fact, the most I have cried about being done with the thesis... which trust me, I have been holding in. That was the single hardest experience of my entire life. Not only did I endure it, the meeting was the best one I have ever had. I felt the love of the Lord so strongly. The next day, going back to get the signatures of my advisor and committee was a joyous occasion and Valerie got to come with me. Everyone was so happy to see her. She is so blessed, her life is unrecognizable from my childhood.

Anyway, I just wanted to post something, that is what is in my head for the moment.

Love, Crystal

On the third (actually... fourth) Day of birthday...

Happy Birthday Valerie!!

Valerie,

Happy birthday to you!!! It was a wonderful day when you became part of our family. We hope you have a happy, happy birthday and look forward to sometime actually being able to see you on your birthday. Please let us know what you do on your special day, and what you receive for your birthday as well. We love you.

xoxo

Grandma and Grandpa Croshaw

Christmas compositions

hi everyone,

i have been thinking about Pres. Eyring's talk about recording daily occurrences where we recognize God's love for us or someone else. how about all of us do that this month. you could email them to me and i could compile it all together in a family account of our experiences? i think it would be great reading. i love you all. xoxo mom

Uplifting

I love Wintley Phipps and this video makes me smile and gives me goose bumps. It reminds me very much of a class I took for my ministry minor called "African American Religion" during which I learned an amazing amount about the black population amongst us. I loved that class and it gave me such passion. If you like this kind of music (why is Amazing Grace not in the hymnal?!) with a gospel flair, check out the Nation of One Soundtrack. It (and the movie it comes from) will open your eyes to a kind of music that is incomparably stirring.

Did you know music (and especially drums) are used in Africa as a way to communicate to other tribes? When Africans were exported for slavery, it was drums and singing that slaves used to communicate to other slaves so that they could steal away at night, after working all day, to isolated areas in the woods, etc to sing and worship. Truly ALL they had was their faith. Not only were they stolen from their families, any children they had were often sold from them and they were daily de-humanized... but the spirituality remained strong and even better than that, defined the slave population.

I could go on and on about this, but I won't today... take a look at this short video. It is stirring.

If you like this, check out the one I posted on my own blog... I am still crying from the message therein.