2012--A Summary

This year has been really fun and busy.  We’ve had a lot of basketball games, ballet, moving, and all the fun that goes with building a house. We haven’t moved IN to our new house…but when we told our previous landlord that we were starting the building process, she said she would put our rental house up  for sale and see what happened.  It sold the first day.  So we moved into another rental house for a few months while our house is being built.  (Thanks Bruce and Jen!!  We owe you BIG time!)

Aside from moving over the summer, we spent our time going to a few continuing education courses (quite the date night, eh?) and visiting with family.

We've had some visits from family and friends this year. We always have a fun time going to Yellowstone and showing visitors our beautiful area (even if the wildlife was lacking at times…sorry Ridpaths!!).

Trevor is crazy busy, but is still the best husband and father ever. He’s busy with work, church callings and the kids and balances it all so well.  When he saw a lag in the calendar, he filled it with prairie dog hunting, pheasant hunting, and deer hunting…whatever he can find.  I sure love this man and all he does for our family.

Kim stays home with the kids and runs them to and from their activities.  Many of you can relate J I’ve worked a few days each month at the office to fill in.  I love having the few days to be a real adult, but I find it makes me miss my stay at home job.  I love being able to spend time with the kids each day.  I also love playing city league volleyball and going to the YW activities each week.  I’ve found a new love: picking stuff for a house.  I’m sure the time will come when I’ll get sick of it.  It hasn’t happened yet J

Tyler turned 9 this year.  He’s such a good kid and really likes school, basketball, swimming and cub scouts. He continues to be a wonderful big brother and loves to play and wrestle with Jason when he gets home from school.  Friends are getting so important to him lately, and he’s always disappointed if he can’t go play at a friend’s house.  So it begins, I guess. He has some great friends, though, so I don’t worry when he wants to spend so much time with them.  They’re good influences!!

Hailey just turned 8. The last post on this blog talked about her baptism.  She loved every minute of the baptism and program!  She’s such a loving, fun little girl. She and Ashley decided they wanted to sign up for ballet this year.  They’ve been having a GREAT time.  Their teacher is really good at entertaining while teaching.  It’s neat to see them learn so quickly and like it at the same time!!

Ashley is 6 years old.  She’s such a happy kid and sure likes school and playing with her friends.  I love hearing her giggles throughout the house.  She knows how to make anyone happy. She wants a bunny more than anything.  Poor bunny-less Ashley. She also loves going to ballet with Hailey.

Jason is 4 soon.  Weird.  He started preschool this year and goes twice a week.  He asks every morning if it’s a “school day”.  You’d never know how much he loves it by the way he whines after he finds out it is, indeed, a “school day.”  But he does have so many good things to say about school each time I pick him up, in spite of the whining I hear before I drop him off.  He holds his own with the older kids and always wants to join in their playing.  He loves wrestling with Tyler and wants to play basketball like the rest of his sisters and brother.  Alas, he has to be in kindergarten for that.

We are so grateful for our Savior’s birth and atoning sacrifice.  We count our blessings every day and are so thankful for our family and friends and the opportunities we have.  Thank you so much for blessing us with your friendships.  We love and miss you all so much!

Hailey's Baptism

Hailey had her 8th birthday not too long ago.  I sure love this girl. I can't believe she's already 8 and making the decision to be baptized!

We had a family birthday party and went out to eat in the next town.  We also stopped by a place to look at garage doors. :)  I'm sure she was very excited about that, but she did say it was fun so I didn't feel too guilty.

I DID feel bad for her at the restaurant because she wanted them to sing to her, so I asked the waitress and she said she would gather some people. Then at the end of our meal the waitress came over and said she was sorry, but they were too busy and no one could sing to her.  It was so sad.  Mostly to see the disappointment on Hailey's face.  Come on, they can't take 30 seconds?  I told her we'd sing extra loud for her at home and she seemed to be OK with that...or maybe it was the cookie they gave her that made her happy again... We came home and had cake and opened presents.

The next day was Hailey's baptism.  She was SOOO excited and couldn't wait.  I sure love that with her sensitivity comes the sensitivity to the spirit as well.  After her baptism she came out of the font and was crying.  I hugged her for such a long time.  It was really neat to be able to be there right after and to share that with her.

My parents and Trevor's parents were able to be there and give talks.  Um, wish I had taken more pictures than this...

During the program she was so intent on listening to everything.  Her favorite Primary Song is "I Know That My Savior Loves Me." She wants to sing that song for every FHE each week. It's a newer song, but she loves it and tears up every time she hears it.   So I had the senior primary girls sing that after she was baptized.  Thanks girls, you did a great job!!  

I love this little girl.  She's such a big helper whenever I need anything.  I love listening to her giggle with Tyler when they sit and talk with each other.  She always wants to "babysit" if I'm busy doing something and need some quiet while I'm talking to the contractor or looking up some appliance or fireplace or something (my only past time these days)  She loves school (math and PE), and loves to cuddle.  I hope these days last a long time!!  The teenage girl horror stories have me worried.

My Birthday Present

I wouldn't usually post about my own birthday, but this year was especially fun.  Since the kids are getting a little older and more aware of months/days/etc, Tyler has a little count-down on his calendar when one of the family's birthday's are coming.  They've been notifying me each day about how many days are left until my birthday.  They're so sweet :)

Last week, Tyler and Hailey wanted to give me an "early birthday present".  So they wrote me a book.  After seeing how much I liked it, Tyler wrote me a sequel. :)  

(Ashley also wrote me a couple books, but I'll have to include that one in the next post because I just didn't have time today.)

I was telling my sister about the drawings and she really wanted me to post the pictures so she could see them.  So here they are, Amanda! :)

The first book is on the left, and the pictures of that book follow.  Then the sequel comes after. Enjoy!

Notice my "competiters" are very sweaty.

Blow this picture up if you have to, it's worth it.  That buff man is all sweaty only lifting 50, but I'm lifting 100--in front of my workout video.  

I personally think that's a great illustration of our mini van.

Actually, a dental hygienist.  But I do give sweaty, nervous people injections.

Ah, isn't that the sweetest thing?  I'm tucking them into bed, and we love each other. 

Now for book 2.  And now you know how old I am.

This might be my favorite sequel ever. My son has a promising future in writing/illustrating.

Don't know what that's supposed to mean.  I've "been better at driving" ??

His head exploded :)

I love my kids.  Completely.Love.Them. 

I hope I can be the mom they deserve.  They're such great kids.

Ballet and Halloween

They obviously go together, right?

The girls REALLY wanted to do ballet this year.  So we signed them up and they're having a blast.  I'm just wondering when the "gracefulness" develops?  It's funny listening to them leap across the dance floor. Very...ahem...graceful.

This was our ward trunk or treat night.  

On a side note: I wasn't able to be there because I made a trip to help my mom who had to unexpectedly go through quadruple bypass surgery.  Since she had to have her sternum opened up, she isn't supposed to use her arms for 8 weeks until it heals...the point of this side note being:  I wasn't there to do Ashley's (or Hailey's) hair.  Don't judge.

First Day of School

It was almost two weeks ago that these three had their first day of school.  I thought I would have more time, but I guess not...here they are on their first day

Jason had his first day of preschool the next week.  He goes two days a week and he was SOOO excited...as you can see :)

The next day, though, he woke up and told me he didn't want to go to school.  Great.  He didn't have to go that day, but he did the next.  When I picked him up the second day, he was glad he went.

And just for fun, here's the progress on our house.  I'm very excited and wish it would move a little faster!!  This is the back of the house.

The poor kids get dragged there every day so I can see how much has been done.  They actually love it, though.  They chase all of the rabbits and climb the big piles of dirt and rocks.  I kind of wish  we could keep the big dirt piles.  They provide hours of entertainment.

Family Pictures

I decided I'd better post some of the family pictures taken while at our family reunion in Bear Lake.  There were a bunch of pictures taken, but I just picked a few to post.

This is all the Croft kids and their families, my Grandma Croft (and Aunt Jeannie) and mom, Ed, Dad and Karan.

The Croft Kids

Us :)  Trevor, Me, Tyler, Hailey, Ashley and Jason.

Summer 2012

We've had a busy summer!  We've been traveling a lot and visiting family as much as we can.  Here are some random summer pictures:

Jason and Saibra.  They're adorable :)

Ashley and the other's got a little wet in a fountain/splash pad.

We played on this at the Art Walk.  Turns out they have a lot more things to do than look at art.

Lunch with some friends.  Thanks guys!

We went to a lot of bouncy house/trampoline places over the summer.  Who knew these could be so much fun?

This is the basement of our vacation rental in Bear Lake that my family stayed at.  It was huge and amazing.  The kids LOVED this whole area and stayed there a LOT of the time we were in the house.

Some hiking with the Johnsons.  Good times.

I'm making a goal to take way more pictures.  I keep thinking of all the places we went this summer and wonder why I didn't take any pictures of our adventures. :) 

Half Marathon

Now I will tell you a long, boring story of the half marathon I ran with my sister and brother-in-law.  It wasn't boring for me, but it may be for you...it's more for my journaling benefit, anyway :)

My sister asked me if I would run a half marathon with her.  I said yes :)  So I did a 12 week training program I found on the internet.  Turns out my brother-in-law, Scott, was also running in this race.  I was really excited and nervous.

That morning we had to get up at 3:00 a.m. to go park at the mall and take some buses (at 3:30 a.m.) up to the start line in Provo canyon.  Why so early, you may ask?  Because there were a million people.  More like 3000. But they had to bus everyone up there because there was no parking at the start line.  

I included this picture of our sustenance choices.  There were a LOT more gu gels, but we had already put them in our hydration belts to carry with us. I can't tell you what a fan I am of these.  I wouldn't have thought they could keep me going like they did.  It's crazy what a boost it gives you when you start to feel sluggish.  Wish I would've tried them earlier in my 12 week training program.  Bummer.

The consistency of the gels are kind of gross, but I like them the most (over the chomps and jelly beans or shot blocks) because I think they work the best. Don't worry, we only used about 3 each.  This picture is of the rejects.

When we got up to the starting area, we had plenty of time to hang out.  It was freezing cold.  They had a bunch of fires set up along the side of the road that we stood by most of the time until the sun came up.  There were a BUNCH of porta potties that we could frequent.  I took full advantage, but you had to stand in line forever.

This is my sister and I at the start (well, like a half mile back from the start)  We looked for my brother-in-law, but didn't see him.  Boo.

My sister and I are wearing matching outfits (because we're cool like that) but we wore our shirt/sweatshirt over top of our sweet tank-tops the first mile of the race.

I ran faster than I usually did while I was training, so I was worried I'd hit a wall.  Most of the race I just drank from my hydration belt and used their water cups (every couple miles) to pour on my head.  I didn't hit any walls, thanks to the gels.  I did get pretty tired and was ready for the race to be over around mile 12.  I could see the finish and didn't want to sprint, but then they had a bunch of people lined up ringing their cowbells on either side before the finish line.  How can you NOT sprint in front of all those people?  So I did.  My awesome brother-in-law was there at the end with a powerade for me.  I hadn't felt nautious until I stopped, then I felt like I was going to lose some gu gels.  I didn't :) Would've been kind of embarrassing to throw up on brother-in-law.  He's a veteran of the marathon/half marathon races, so he says we should run a full marathon next.  My hat's off to all the full marathon runners.  That would be a LOT of running.

I wanted to finish in under 2:00 hours.  I did :)  I finished in 1:47.25.  So I feel pretty good about that.  I think it's about an 8:12/mile average?  Although the app I was using on the run said I ran 13.21 miles, making my average mile about 8:07.  But who's counting? :)

This is my sister, Amanda, and I after the race.  I'm the one on the left.  Hehe, she already used that joke on Facebook, but I thought it was so funny I stole it to debut on the blog.

This is my sister, me, and my brother-in-law, Scott.  I included the flexing picture because I think it's the funniest thing when someone Jones's your picture (man in yellow behind us).

So that's it.  I WISH my phone took better pictures because then I could include pictures of the AMAZING lunch we went to at Tucano's after the race.  All of my in-laws came to cheer us on, and then we all went out to lunch afterward.  It was sooo great!  It was so wonderful to see and hang out with everyone.  Such a great bonding experience all around. :)  Thanks Manda, for convincing me this would be fun!  A new tradition has been started.

Race Day

Hailey is in a "girl's running club" called She Can.  At the end of their season, they sign up for a race in town.  They encourage the girls to race the 5K, but I knew Hailey probably wouldn't be ready for that.  Plus, all the other kids wanted to sign up to race, too.  So I signed them all up for the 1/2 mile fun run.

I signed up for the 10K and then ran with the kids in the 1/2 mile run, too.  Pretend I'm in the picture wearing a blue t-shirt, too.  Also, pretend they have race numbers on...we put them on our coats instead because it was 32 degrees and snowing outside.  Brrr.  Tyler was 3rd, I think.  I ran with Hailey and Ashley in the middle of the pack, and Trevor "ran" with Jason to bring up the rear.  Jason wasn't dead last, only 2nd to last. :) But you would have thought he won the way he ran across the finish line as fast as he could.  Cute. He keeps mentioning the race he ran in.  Mentions it lots of times...

It was a pretty fun day. My race went pretty well, too.  I thought I would have been colder running the 10K, but it wasn't too bad.  The bad part was squishing through the mud when the race went off road.  It slows you down a bit.  I placed 5th in the women and 3rd in my age group with a time of 51:45.  So hopefully in a couple weeks I can do the half marathon in under 2 hours.  Here's for hoping!  I'm sure that will be the next post you hear about :) Wish me luck!

Guess What This Is Going to Be?

I guess I've neglected the blog long enough. It's been such nice weather (except this week) that we've been spending a lot of time outside.

So, guess what this big hole is going to be?

That's right. You wanna see our view from the living room?

Nice, huh? I'm pretty excited to be trying out this next step. It's come with some bumps, though.

After telling the owners of our rental that we are going to start building a house, they decided they would put this house on the market to see what happens. It's been a little stagnant here.

Well, they had a couple showings the first day on the market. Turns out they got an offer and accepted it. :) So now they're giving us 30 days once the home inspection report comes back. (The inspection went well, I know the home inspector. Bummer.) I guess it's really our own fault since we didn't want to sign another lease and just go month to month...but our house will be finished before a lease was up, and we figured we'd take our chances since this house was overpriced anyway. We thought it wouldn't sell quite so quickly.

As a side story, one of the realtors said it was a fluke because these people flew in from California for a day to look at houses and saw a moose in the yard and they were sold. Dumb moose. One of my friends joked that this is my nemesis moose :) I also saw it (I'm guessing it's the same one) a couple weeks ago and it surprised me pretty good. I was jogging early one morning and kind of watching the ground when I looked up and saw the moose standing there about 10-15 feet away (partly hidden by the hill I was on and it was behind a tree). It didn't chase me, but I did grip my pepper spray just in case it was a nervous mommy moose. :)

So now we have to find another rental for a few months while the house is being built. I think we've found the perfect solution, though.

Let me know if any of you have any good suggestions for home building. :)

Pinewood Derby, Part 2

For an Elder's Quorum activity, Trevor planned a pinewood derby race. There were only two rules: 1) no combustible engines (flames) and 2) no impeding other cars.

The activity turned out REALLY fun. I thought my husband was the only one that would be spending hours on his car. Nope. There was talk around the ward about what everyone was planning and working on with their car. There were 19 entries and All of the family was invited. It was a really good time.

Here are a couple of videos of Trevor's car racing. He did a turbine on his car, or a ducted fan? I'm not really up on his lingo, but it sounded cool. He wired himself up a little automatic switch, too. So when the gate dropped, the fan would switch on automatically. It turned out well-- there were a couple other really fast cars that were close to Trevor's times, but there were technical difficulties on the "take off" in a lot of the heats.




Getting ready for the races :)



I was in charge of the food. So I took a picture. Thanks for those who helped! :)



Here are a couple pictures of the standings. Like I said, Trevor took first but a few of his competition cars had some technical difficulties on some of the heats, taking them out of some of the races...




Trevor's car:

Afterward, everyone was planning on what they would be doing next year for the fastest car. Trevor even got a couple calls with big plans of racing at least 2 x's a year, having committee's, rules, different categories, etc. Good times. Crazy Elder's Quorum.

Pinewood Derby, Part 1

It's been a couple weeks since Tyler had his pinewood derby race, I'm a little slow in posting. But I figured I'd better get it in before I'm posting about Trevor's pinewood derby race next week (he's doing one for an Elder's Quorum activity--it's kind of funny how so many of the Elder's are really into this. There's only one rule: You can't impede any one else's car...they all have big plans)

Anyway, Tyler was really excited for the race. I think he took 3rd in every heat but one (he took 2nd in that one). He was fine with it, though.

Tyler's car is in the middle:

Here he is waiting for one of the races to start:

And here he is after it's all over. He was REALLY excited about his "award" of "Toughest Driver." He got Toughest Driver because his little lego guys kept falling off the car when it hit the end of the track. He must've mentioned it three times about how he thought it was "cool" he got "Toughest Driver." :)

For the life of me I can't crop this or flip it to post on here the right way. Dumb blogspot.

Daylight Saving's Time

Me: We should probably start getting you guys to bed early since Daylight Saving's Time is coming up.

Ashley: What's Daylight Saving's Time?

Me: It's when we turn the clock forward or back an hour. In the springtime, we turn the clock forward. So when you go to bed at 8:00, your body will still feel like it's 7:00.

Ashley: Oh, I see. So it's a trick to get us into bed.

Trevor's Birthday

It's been awhile since I've posted. I just haven't had much to say, I guess. But the other day was Trevor's birthday, so I'll add some pictures of that.

It was a fun day. He had the day off, so we sent all the kids off to school and Jason to a babysitter and we went skiing. :) It was really nice just being able to go on a long date during the day with Trevor. I love that man. I hope he had as good a time skiing as I did. It's embarrassing how much better he can ski than I can. But oh well.

When we got home we had some pizza and then cake. Jason still has some pizza on his mouth in the picture. Also, he never wears a shirt anymore...because Hulk doesn't wear a shirt. Naturally. I just looked at the last post and apparently this behavior has been going on for some time. Nice. :)





Hailey burned her finger on a candle. I thought it was picture worthy :)

Jason's Birthday and Christmas

Jason's Birthday is just before Christmas. I hope I didn't confuse the kid too bad this year--we were traveling to Idaho for Christmas day, so we had an early Christmas. Our early Christmas just happened to land on Jason's birthday (the day before we left to travel)...and I wanted him to have a birthday that was separate from Christmas, so we had his early birthday two days before our early Christmas (his real birthday) and had the real Christmas on Christmas day :)

This little guy is so much fun to have around. Each child that we have I just love the new stages they go through and all the new things they learn. Jason's into the Super Hero stage. He runs around acting like a super hero all the time, I think I mentioned it in the previous post. He got this Captain America mask and shield and LOVES it. That was the first present he opened. Then he did a bunch of super hero poses.



We convinced him there were more presents he should open and he would like the others, too. He did, but wouldn't take off the mask and would only put the shield down while he was busy with the wrapping paper.



He took some breaks to look in the mirror with his meanest Captain America super hero face.



More breaks for poses.



And still more posing. He doesn't even care about the other presents :)



We sure love our little three year old. He brings us entertainment and excitement every day. The last few days Captain America has gotten a break because he now has been running around with green pajama bottoms and does his best (loud) hulk roar. He'll also inform you that hulk does NOT wear a shirt, or shoes or socks. It's quite a struggle to convince him he needs to wear these things when we go to the store or anywhere else. Then as soon as we get home he strips and puts on his hulk pants. Trevor thought it would be funny to put green food coloring in the toilet once as he went, so he would think he was peeing like hulk or something. Jason figured out his little trick and insists that I get the food coloring every time he needs to go. I'll entertain this for a little longer, then maybe introduce a new super hero or something.


Christmas (both of them) were great! Here's a picture of our early Christmas.

And for some reason I forgot the camera for the Christmas in Idaho with all the family around!! Nice. I had my phone so I got a couple with that, but none were very clear so I'm not posting them. Jason got sick as we were driving and continued to throw up the whole way there. Then Ashley also got sick so we spent most of the first day and a half in Idaho with a couple of sick kids. Also the day after we got back, Trevor and Tyler got sick. Along with Grandma and Grandpa. Good times. Still, it was worth it to see everyone and I'm glad the busy times have slowed down a bit!