Matt is 32

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATT! Welcome to THIRTY-TWO years old!













We celebrate birthdays with a cake for breakfast and presents at the same time. Being Asher was up till 1 am, I had to find something to occupy my time, so getting birthday morning ready was my time occupant. I must say, a birthday on December 26, the day after Christmas is pretty exhausting.












Matt showed me this picture when we were dating and my first thought was: WOW, Matt. You look like your mom! Now I think Matt looks like all his siblings also very, very much. Same mouth and eyes and face. It is remarkable.




















I love this picture too because Matt looks TERRIFIED of his cake and is just so darn cute. I love how happy Grandma looks- that has not changed one bit.












Matt is up for dressing in Gymboree any time and often is my favorite helper when I am trying to get a picture of Asher, who is ALWAYS in motion.













Matt is also not afraid to look silly ESPECIALLY if it is going to make Asher laugh












Matt is very handsome and luckily, passed a lot of that down to his son














Matt endures being beaten by a toddler very well














Matt is very snuggly








Matt is good company at the movies















Matt... looks like this dude...















Matt loves his son
















Matt loves his wife and even will wear outfits that match his baby and brother-in-law and leave them looking like a happy family of alternative life-style



















Matt loves Valerie and does not mind when she begs him to give her a pedicure because he is nice like that














Matt loves his family













Matt loves Jesus













Matt, I have often said- and still say- you are the best man I know. Your faith has never wavered, your love, never lapsed. Your allegiance to your God and your covenants inspires me to always want to be my best self. You are a good, kind, loving, feeling man and I am honored to be your wife. I hope that we make your birthday one that you feel loved and cared about during.

We love you~

Celebrating the Season

Merry Christmas week to you all! I wanted to share a little of our Tuesday with you. It was a beautiful day! My very first laurel got married. She is a special girl- she is also a convert and I remember the first Sunday she came with her friend Carrie to church. It was the Sunday after President Hinckley died. Anyway, she is such a special girl and asked me to take photos at the temple. It took some figuring out, but we made it happen and all four of us were so blessed! It really was a great time





Asher at the feet of Jesus. He was actually there for several minutes talking to him. It was very, very sweet.



















The amazing nativities from around the world. My favorite one was one from the US in svarovsky crystal, but I loved all the German and African ones as well.







































Valerie actually let me take some photos of her too, I am grateful for that.















Asher was very sweet too. When we went into the Visitor's Center, he said "ooooooohhhhh!" and was just mesmerized. We stayed in the foyer of the temple for about 45 minutes waiting for Danielle and Jason since it was so freezing outside and Asher was good in there too. He loved to flop down on the floor and look at his reflection from the high-gloss marble on the floor. It was funny!

Anyway, it was a good day for us and we have been wanting to go to the temple for a while. One day soon, I would love to actually attend a SESSION, but as anyone knows, Asher is a handful, so much of one, I really do not want to force Valerie to watch him in a confined space for two hours, so... We are waiting for him to grow up OR possibly, one day Matt can do a session, then I will do one in the spring when we can take him outside or to the national zoo, since it is right down the road.

We have gotten Christmas cards from about everyone and are so thankful to see everyone's happy family on our fridge. Thanks for sending those! Ours are on the way. Of course, I forgot to include the Newsletter we all wrote... so that will be separate. We hope your Christmas week is blessed and wonderful and that no one feels so much "Christmas Pressure!" that you get angry with your own family (speaking to myself here, I have been very conscious this year to not let that happen). Much love to you all!

Happy birthday DC!

Almost 7 months ago, we made the latest addition to our family. And it's his birthday TODAY!

I think I can speak for all of us when I say that life is a little brighter (and a lot more fun) with David in it.

I'm learning a lot from him. He's teaching me how to be a better person. David is a leader. He has a good heart. He supports and encourages and empowers. He is the greatest man I know. We all should want to be more like David.

I think EC speaks for all of us.

Happy birthday David! 35 years young! You're well on your way to your goal of becoming a spry old man.

I love you.

AC

Merry Christmas from The Sweater

Jason had another excuse to wear his beautiful Christmas sweater last night. That thing has well earned every penny spent to buy it, I'll tell you that much.
I have so many friends in Texas that are incredibly musically talented. So it only makes sense one of our friends would throw a SINGING Christmas party. Where we all sat around the piano and sang for 3 hours. Well, I didn't sing the whole time, but that's besides the point. And there were many stunning solos prepared and performed. It was a great time, if not a little more up-ity than Jason and I are used to. Lots of people were dressed up all fancy. (I guess including Jason...new to the outfit this year was a sweeeet, horribly clashing tie.)


I also learned the easiest and MOST DELICIOUS peanut butter cookie recipe last night. You ready for this? You're going to be blown away if you make them. They were soo good!! I'm not kidding, my favorite peanut butter cookie ever.

2 cups of peanut butter
2 eggs
2 cups of sugar
350º for ~8 min

That's it. She also put in milk chocolate chips and peanut butter chips. I ate about 10. Well, maybe not that many, but I had to restrain myself. She dumped them off her plate before leaving and I took almost all that was left home for me, and me alone.

The secret is the brown bag...and lots of butter

My office had a Christmas potluck yesterday. Everyone made one of their favorite dishes and brought it in to work, and then we had a contest and everyone voted on their favorite dish. Guess what dish won??

Grandma Croshaw's brown bag apple pie!!!!

Just sayin, I'm doing my part to spread the goodness from coast to coast.

Lets all be like Buddy the Elf

I love doing this EVERY SINGLE YEAR!

HERE is our Office Max "Elf Yourself" :-D

From Ohio

One snowy day Jack went outside to play and proceeded to work extra hard to clear the deck. It actually brought tears to my eyes to see him working so hard. He really wants Santa to bring him lots of gifts this year and he is really trying to be a good boy. His sister on the other hand, she isn't caring as much but that is another story. He did a great job!

My kids were some of the first to get to Santa at the Ward Christmas party this year and he wasn't having kids on his lap until later. I was a bit bummed. Cole LOVED Santa this year and couldn't stay away. Jack and Mia loved Santa however, Jackson knew that this was only one of Santa's helpers, (it was his primary teacher) Santa can't be everywhere. He was happy with that, thankfully! I also realized that I have no picture of Jackson with Santa.

Pizza Santa

We were out running errands around dinnertime when I remembered that a local pizza place had a commercial about having pictures with Santa Claus. He kind of reminded me of the Gimbles santa from Elf. I didnt have my camera with me, just my phone. (AND I forgot to take my camera to the ward Christmas party for the the 3rd year in a row.) So I guess this picture is as good as it gets for us. This was the first year no one cried about seeing Santa. For the last month my kids have said they want to ask Santa for Colby: a scooter, Eva: makeup, and Lilia: a scooter. Minutes before I asked them what they were going to tell Santa they wanted and Eva had changed it to a big Barbie car with lots of Barbies and Colby changed his to an Xbox. (That one was thanks to his daddy's suggestion.) I had to remind them what they really wanted, and what Santa was already planning on.

"Clausa"

Asher has started talking. Yesterday EVERYTHING was "OOOOOOO kaaayyyy." Today, he saw a picture of himself with Santa from last year and he pointed to Santa and said "Clausa!"
Here is a photo from our ward Christmas party last night. This is just one of those kodak moments that couldn't be passed up and has me thinking this is totally Asher. He STOOD on Santa and even got a kiss from him. Ain't he cute?

Santa Pictures

On the way to the Post Office to mail eBay packages, I noticed a LOVELY sign outside the local nursery- FREE Santa Pictures with Reindeer Saturday! I pretty much got Asher dressed about 2 minutes later and off he went. We should all post Santa pictures. Valerie and her friends are on their way now and tonight is our ward party, so there will be Santa pictures a-plenty for us.

Everyone should post kiddo Santa pictures for the Grandparents.

It Could Be Worse...

Check out this link to see what are the top ten worst places to live. Don't forget to read the first paragraph under #1. All I can say is thank goodness Grandma and Grandpa are retirees. Number two and number nine should also be familiar.

Familial Resemblance

This was a picture taken at Valerie's birthday party. I was attempting to make Asher laugh and as you can tell I succeeded. Earlier today Crystal told me she noticed I bore a striking resemblance to a famous "person". That famous "person" is shown below.



When I saw this picture and then saw the above picture again I couldn't help but laugh very hard at the resemblance. I knew some of my ancestors were English I just never expected them to be made out of clay.

Photos of recent events

Valerie's birthday is Monday. We had her (surprise) party today


















I decorated the tree (ad exhaustum) Thursday












Teenagers have a sense of humor when it comes to gifts. This is Turkish Delight. Long story.












Daddy is FUNNY













Asher is too













Major bonus to children 12 years apart is lots of admirers of the little guy












Awesome skating assister












Fantastic cake- I found the maker on Facebook.












BEST CANDLES EVER! Everyone was super-impressed and thrilled. Mission: accomplished












Celebraters













We will not talk about what happened after this picture in detail. It involved lots of screaming, and a broken ornament and two hands of lollipop sticks for a certain little boy...













Best shot of the day (note thermostat, it was quite a lovely time for me). I do not like taking photos of toddlers. It is official.














Rascal