Lost and Found!

It's been a while since my last post. Part of it was the busyness of Thanksgiving and Christmas and everything that goes with this time of the year. But more so was the fact that my digital camera was missing! We had our older camera that sucks batteries like crazy, takes blurry pictures, and is a pain to upload to the computer (hence the reason we bought the new camera!), so I avoid taking pictures with it. I had searched the house, the diaper bag, asked the boys, and even asked family if we had left it at their homes, but no camera. Kenny decided if we couldn't find it, then he would get me a new one for Christmas. But before we spent money on something we already had, and were sure would turn up just AFTER we bought a new one, Kenny wanted to search the house again. While I was out Christmas shopping, he tore the house apart for 2 hours, still no camera. While he was cleaning things up, he found the camera box behind our printer on our computer desk and decided to put the paperwork/manual away inside it. He opened the box and low and behold THE CAMERA! McKay is my 3 year old OCD child that likes to sort things and recently likes putting things in similar size boxes and bags. I'm almost positive he found this box with a picture of a camera and thought "I know the perfect thing to go in this box, the matching camera!" AAARRRGGGG! Anyway, now that I have a good camera again, I promise to be better about posting!

Kenny's New Job!

After working at Chaffee Traasdahl CPA for two years (to the day), Kenny has accepted a new position at a firm in Scottsdale, Brent Stewart PC. They offered a substantial raise that was difficult to resist. It is still a small firm, but they deal with larger clients and less individuals. We were really sad to leave Chaffee Traasdahl, but are excited for the new opportunities. He begins this week!

Happy Halloween!!

You'd think between the ward Trunk or Treat on Saturday and Halloween on Wednesday, I'd be able to get one picture with all 4 boys together in their costumes, but it didn't happen! I could barely get them to hold still long enough for individual pictures.
Tyler wanted to borrow his cousin's Sorcerer Mickey costume, but we weren't able to get it on Saturday so he used last year's Jack Sparrow costume for the Trunk-or-Treat, and dressed up as Mickey on Halloween. Ryan chose to be a "Karate Ninja," Mckay was Tigger (complete with bouncing!), and Brayden was a dinosaur.


On Halloween we ended up down the street at Larsen's house with the Lamb's. The dad's took the kids around the neighborhood while the mom's passed out candy. The kids came back and dumped out their loot to trade, and played in the back yard while the adults hung out in the front yard. It was a fun night!

Carving Pumpkins

I always think it's funny to see my kids different personalities when they pick and carve their pumpkins. Of course, Tyler has to have the biggest, because he is the oldest. Then Ryan has the second biggest, but taller and thinner. Mckay wanted a smaller one, but as round and perfect as possible. The boys picked Brayden's to be the smallest, and it actually has a flat side so it lays down, just like him.



The big boys couldn't wait for us to cut off the top so they could start digging out the seeds and "guts." Ryan especially likes this part!



Mckay kept saying "I CAN'T touch the YUCK!" After some encouragement, a couple handfuls, and a spoon, he just wanted a paper towel and to wash his hands. Brayden sat in his swing most of the time, and after 3 others, we decided not to carve his pumpkin.



Tyler wanted a cool scary pumpkin with sharp teeth and spiderman eyes. Mckay liked circle eyes, nose, and mouth, very simple. Ryan wanted a happy pumpkin with a square top and eyes, 'cause it's different than the usual, and one tooth missing on top, and two teeth missing on bottom, like him.

Tagged....

I was tagged by both Felicia and Kristin.
The instructions they gave me were as follows:
The rules are to post 6 items about yourself (habits, traits, deep dark secrets, etc.) on your blog, then tag 6 more people to do the same. Then you have to post a comment on their blog so they know they have been tagged.
So here is what I came up with:

1) I love ranch dressing. I know this isn't much of a surprise to many of you who know me, but I really love ranch. I would put it on almost anything and everything if I could. Not just out of the bottle ranch (but it will do) , but creamy homemade ranch is the BEST. I know which resturants have "good ranch" and which just buy it. My friends call it my "ranch tooth," like the commercial.

2) I don't like dessert. Most people think that is a great diet plan, but I balance it out with a more than healthy love of greasy, fatty, salty foods. I love almost anything deep fried or covered in melted cheese. Even better dipped in "good ranch" and with a Dr. Pepper!

3) I love eating out! If I could afford it, I would eat out everyday. There's enough variety between fast food, and sit down resturants, and salad bars etc, I never get tired of it. Nothing I make at home ever tastes as good as a resturant. (Probably because I'm too impatient to spend that much time in the kitchen.)

4) I wear more pink than I ever thought I would. As a kid, pink was not my favorite color, it wasn't even close. Now in a house full of boys I have seen plenty of reds and blues. In order to have some things girly I have been wearing a lot of pink, probably overcompensating a bit.

5) I am not a morning person. Although I get up everyday with the boys to do breakfast and scriptures before school, I secretly wish to just go back to bed. In my mind, there are only 2 good reasons to be up early; 1- to go Black Friday shopping, 2- Leaving for Disneyland! Everything else should wait until after 9 or 10 am.

6) Fathers and Sons weekend is better than any birthday or Christmas present. I know it is only one weekend a year, but I absolutely love sending the boys out of the house and spending time with the girls. It is the perfect time for a pedicure, dinner out (somewhere Kenny doesn't like), and SHOPPING!

So I tag: Lorena, Alysen, Koe, Michelle T, Heidi, and Megan

He's starting to smile!

There's nothing like a baby's smile!

Look what Makenna did!

Ryan came bouncing off the bus last week yelling "Look what Makenna did!" Makenna is my friend Mindy's feisty female version of Ryan, and since our kids spend so much time together they act like siblings. So, I'm thinking he's tattling about something silly, as usual... until he shows me his mouth and his front tooth is missing. This is a shock considering, just that morning he showed me it was loose. Then I think he must have done something to bug her and she hit him, but still I ask what happened. Then they tell me she pulled it out at lunch recess for him so the tooth fairy could come. They were both very proud, but Ryan said it kinda hurt and it bled a lot. The first thing both Kenny and Mindy asked was, "Should he have to split the money with Makenna?"

Brayden's Baby Blessing

Last Sunday was Brayden's baby blessing. Our sacrament meeting begins at 9:00, which is also the time Brayden likes to eat. Kenny's the executive secretary so his meetings start at 6:00 and I am on my own to get the four boys and myself dressed and out the door in time. In the rush I got Brayden into his carseat where he promptly fell asleep. After the announcements, prayer and song Brayden started to wake up and was expecting to be fed. I held him off the best that I could, but he was not too happy. When it was time to do the blessing. Kenny started walking towards the front of the chapel with Brayden when he noticed the bishop was looking for the microphone, it wasn't there. Bishop and his counselors quickly scrambled to get the microphone but it took a few minutes, that Kenny probably describes as an eternity since he was standing in the middle of the isle about half way to the front of the chapel. The bishop then asked the entire ward to sing a special rest hymn while they got the microphone all set up. Kenny gave a beautiful blessing, and the grandpas kept Brayden quiet with his binky. After the blessing we took the sacrament and I quickly rushed Brayden into the mother's lounge to feed him, by this point he was pretty unhappy with the whole event. While getting situated in the mother's lounge I was listening to the first counselor's testimony and feeling relieved to have it all done, when I heard the counselor invite the congregation to share their testimonies and especially invited Kenny and me to come forward. The other moms in the mother's lounge all smiled at me. Luckily as Kenny went forward he excused me explaining that I was taking care of the baby right now. While feeding the baby, I listened to several other testimonies, including an old man whom we couldn't really understand, and finally my mom gave a very strong heart-felt testimony. After the closing prayer I hurried out of the mother's lounge to meet my family. People kept talking about the excitement, which I understood as the microphone, or my testimony (or the lack of). But I later learned, the old man, who is not exactly all there, was walked off the stand into the foyer because he was talking nonsense. Out in the foyer he became combative and tried to fight the counselor and other men. During my mom's testimony, his wife, also not exactly all there, tried to get up to bear her testimony, but was told there wouldn't be enough time. So another crazy old lady in our ward walked up to the stand to bring her down and they all walked out. Through it all, my mom didn't miss a beat. Now I know we will always remember Brayden's Blessing day. Also, Kenny has been assigned to be sure that there is a microphone available before sacrament meeting begins on each Fast Sunday.

Quick Update

So, I thought we might start with some highlights of the last year.


Kenny's graduation in April with a bachelors degree in Accounting. While we are so proud, the excitement was short lived when he began the Masters program 2 weeks later. Just 1 more year... right!?


Disneyland with the Crockett Family in June. Kenny's parents took the entire family (9 adults and 10 grandkids,+1 on the way) to California for a week. We had a blast at the beach, the Newport Beach Temple, and of course Disneyland.


Tyler turned 9 and started 3rd grade. Ryan turned 6 and started 1st grade. Mckay is now 3 and will start preschool in January.


And we saved the best news for last, the birth of our 4th (and final) son, Brayden Michael Crockett, born Sep 1, 2007, 2:27 pm, weighing 7 lbs 15 oz, 20.5 in long.

We've Surrendered!

So we've given in to peer-pressure and have started a blog. We figure it's a nice way to stay in touch with distant family and friends. Not to mention the journal factor of recording all the crazy things our boys do and say that we never end up actually writing down. Anyway, here we go...