The budding photographer...

Spencer LOVES the camera.  (To clarify, he loves to take pictures with the camera...He does NOT love to be IN pictures!)  Frequently I pick up the camera and find a series of "self portraits" of himself, or pictures of all the kids watching TV on a Saturday morning...Your know, the really epic happenings at the house!

While I will not subject you to ALL Thirty-Six of these (yes, 36 in this little series!) I thought I would treat you to a small sampling of his creative genius.

It's important to get a picture of how messy the floor of the car is...

And your shoes...

And the view out the window...

In each...

Direction...!

 "Let me get one of Michael's knees..."

"And of Tory's hand..."

(I am kind of glad we have THIS face preserved for all time...!)

 Thank Heavens for digital cameras...I think I'd be much less forgiving of this charming behavior if he went through actual rolls of film this quickly!

Pinocchio!

Howdy, all!  In case any of my readers find themselves bored, with nothing to do Thursday, Friday, or Saturday night this week, I thought I'd extend an invitation to Herriman City's "Pinocchio"!


It's an adaptation of Pinocchio, where the star is a GIRL!  Original music, some fun songs...But best of all:  Sydney, Megan, Tory, and Spencer are in it!  It starts at 7:30 all three nights, the cost is low ($3 over 12 years old, $1 ages 3-12), and it's and the W&M Butterfield Park Pavilion.  (If you want to come, I'll be happy to send better "where" information!)


On a side note...Anyone watch "The X-Factor" last night?  What did you think?  I totally enjoyed it...I found myself liking Simon better on THIS show than on American Idol!  Just wondered what anyone else thought...!


Anyway, everyone have a delightful weekend...It's only a couple of days away!

State Fair!

Saturday, September 10, 2011


Saturday the Crabb clan (minus Cody, as he is most decidedly out of the country...!) visited the State Fair!  Our very generous matriarch (Thanks, Mom!!) paid for all our admissions, and even bought enough ride tickets that the kids could each pick a couple of rides to go on!  (Probably the best State Fair visit ever for our kids!...We never fork over enough money for TICKETS!!)  First stop was the Butter Cow.  We always stop there to take a look at my aunt Debbie's latest brilliant work of art.  After the butter cow, we stopped over in the art building to see the talent shared there.  Amazing stuff...Visual art is not a gift I have.  I love seeing others share it!  We set some of the kids off on rides, and then the BLACK cloud that was threatening unleashed itself on us.  It POURED!


Dilemma:  What to do...Do we head toward the exit, or just wait it our for a little while and hope it stops?  That decision was made easier by the fact that waiting under our little awning kept us a little dry, whereas running for the car would have definitely soaked us.


We meandered through the livestock barns.  We admired the chickens for FAR longer than we would have under normal circumstances...and arrived in the sheep/goat building just in time for the "grand finale" as they crowned the winner because of a more desirable slant to it's rump.  (Snicker!)


By then the rain had let up, so we wandered back out to let the kids use up the rest of the tickets.  (While also sampling, I might add, the deep fried Oreos, deep fried Twinkies, and some funnel cakes!  Before you think us gluttons, I'd like to assure you that we passed on the BACON-wrapped, deep fried Twinkie.  Even I have my limits.)  


We went back to grandma's house to enjoy some yummy chicken salad (thoughtfully prepared by her neighbor, who always takes pity on my mother who "doesn't do food!), chips, and fruit salad.  Then we watched the kids put on a little show (always!) and did a little karaoke before we had some dessert and went home for the night.  


Thanks, Mom, for a fun day full of family!

Michael's First Day of School!

Tuesday, September 6th, 2011


It's official!  My baby started Kindergarten today.  I'm sure proud of how big this little guy is getting!  He has been SO excited about school...this last week, when all the other kids were in school but he hadn't started yet, just about killed him!  Anyway, here he is, looking so handsome in his Providence Hall uniform clothes.  (And new shoes that DON'T light up, because that's not allowed...He kept reminding me that we needed to get new ones.)

(My handsome Michael...! Gonna miss this stay home buddy!)

I feel like this whole new chapter can open in my life...sort of.  Maybe.  If I can ever get through that "To Do" list I've been making for a year now of things to do when all my kids were in school...!  

Wrap up the week...

August 3-6, 2011

As lame as it is, this is where my record keeping go sketchy!  I was having so much fun I forgot to write down all the stuff we did!  We spent some time at the pool with the Crabbs, we rode bikes, and even went on a hike!  Lee took these fun cloud pictures of the storm that was rolling in just before dinner.

Shawn had to work all week, so he couldn't come up until Friday night.  But like I said, Rhoda was so brave and came up with her 4 kids on Wednesday to hang out!  It was great to have her!  We all kept laughing at how Spencer and Michael think of Rusty as this itty bitty baby, and they talk to him with their squeaky, high-pitched voices.  Too funny!  They brought up a Smurfs DVD, and we broke one of our trailer rules and let them all watch a movie right in the middle of the day.  Usually, that's only allowed in the morning, or at night...but the SMURFS...?  How do you say no the that?!


Friday morning, we got some streamers out and Rhoda decorated the front of the tent for Shawn.  We had steak and baked taters for dinner (I'm not sure if it's Shawn's favorite, but it is for sure one of MY favorites!) and then had s'mores.  The kids did a couple of skits...Always fun to watch the creativity of those silly little ones!

(Clockwise from L:  Rhoda, Rusty, Wes, Shawn, Spencer, Me, Lee, Josh, Mily, Megan,
Tory, and Michael.  Sydney is back from girls camp, but she's taking the picture!)

(This is Sydney, the night she came back from girls camp.  She rebuked us all for lighting fires the wrong way (aka: using lighter fluid...Gasp!) and proclaimed it was HER turn to show us how it's done.  This is her (flashing gang signs?) behind HER beautifully built fire!)

(Shawn and Megan...The kids were having fun looking at
pictures I took in the dark with my flash...)

(Tory and Sydney)

(See what I mean?  They would pose in the dark, (like Syd!) and
then run over to see if I got the "pose" in my shot.)

(Sydney knocking Tory's chair over during the "dark" spell...)

(Sydney celebrating, because she knocked Tory over...)

(Tory with Josh...Josh brushing his teeth at the fire...!)

All in all, the St. George/Camping extravaganza was a delight!  We had so much fun, hanging out with cousins!  We hated to come back...back to work, back to getting ready for school, but we love the memories this trip created.


Here's to more camping fun NEXT summer...since we're about at the end of our camping weekends.

Week in the Woods...

Tuesday, August 2, 2011


This is where our lazy week in the woods begins.  We were really excited, because Rhoda was bringing her kids up on Wednesday and staying with us, and then Shawn would come up Friday night after work.  We spent some time camping in Bear Lake with them a couple of years ago, and it was such a blast! We love that Rhoda was brave enough to join us, with all 4 kids, and without Shawn for two nights!


But I'm getting ahead of myself!  :D  Sydney and I woke up bright and early and headed to the church to send her off to girl's camp.  I thought she looked nervous...but I'm sure if you ask her, she wasn't even a little bit!  We pulling into the parking log, and she looks at all the girls with their stuff and grumbles, "I have WAY more stuff that all these girls!"  Turns out, they all took their stuff to a leaders house the night before! :D  They tossed her stuff into a trailer, and she settled in to wait until it was time to go.  I gave her a hug and a kiss, and waited until she was loaded into a car before I pulled out.  (Oh my heck...How do I have a child old enough to send away to Girl's Camp!?  Sigh.)


I went home, grabbed the clean clothes for the trailer, grabbed some tents, and then went to Rhoda's to pick up their bikes.  Then I headed back up to Kamas to join the rest of my family.  We enjoyed a tasty steak-n-taters dinner (Yum!) and roasted marshmallows over an excellent fire, courtesy of Dad...oh, and Michael, who spent the evening collecting fire wood to use.  Then he spent the rest of the night carrying around a giant log.  At one point, he told Spencer, "Look.  Now we an play 'Tater-totter'!" Lee and I laughed so hard!  ;D

More Vacation Story...

Monday, August 1, 2011


Poor planning being what it is, I ended up scheduled for work tonight.  You know, clear down in South Jordan.  And I don't get OFF work until midnight.  Not so convenient for driving back up the canyon to join the family.  But, as luck would have it, Sydney's very first year of girls camp begins tomorrow morning.


So we woke up this morning, just kind of were lazy, and then we went to the grocery store to make sure that Lee and the other kids had food (since I was stranding them without a car for a whole day!)  After a little Mac-n-Cheese for lunch, Sydney and I headed for home with a car full of laundry.  We did some wash, grabbed some Subway for dinner (See?  Totally craving it...), and then I left her home while I dashed off to work.  She stayed up late in my room, finishing up some laundry (thanks, Syd!) and watching "The Little Mermaid".  After seeing the musical, she was excited to compare it to the movie!  Funny girl!