Pine Wood Time

We had our Pine Wood derby last Wednesday. Our ward invited the Activity Day girls and siblings to join in the fun. That meant that Andrew got to make a car too. Tyler and Andrew both designed their own cars. They had a little bit of help with the cutting from Lee and Grandpa Crookston. They each had a great time making a car. It's a good thing they liked making the cars, because our Pack really messed up with weighing the cars, and that really affects the race. (Hey, I was busy with another portion of the event. We talked about the weight limits during our meeting, so I could only assume they would follow the requirements.) We did have other activities to do in the gym when they were waiting for their turn to race, like a balance beam, eye test, pit crew pictures, and two estimation jars (Tyler won one), etc. but, it turned out to be a lot more work and not much participation. Oh well, live and learn. Before they could race and get their Driver Licence each participant had to sign a Racer Contract. It stated: I will have fun. I will enjoy cheering for others. I will not eat all the donuts. I will not touch other people's cars. I will still have fun. I cut away part of the contract, so when they signed it they were really signing a paper behind it, and wrote their name on their award. (Which no one told the Bishopric they were judging, luckily one of the counselors has a daughter in Activity Days and was there and willing to help.) I was too busy most of the time to even watch the races, but I think the boys (and girls) had fun.

 Tyler proud of his car. There was some confusion about which part of his car was the front during the sanding process. Tyler actually ended up turning his car around and changing which side was the front.



Andrew proud of his car. Anyone that has been anywhere near Andrew during the past year or two knows he loves Star Wars and jet packs. His inspiration for his car was of course a jet pack.

The judging table. The pink car is not my Emma's, but I thought it was fun to see the difference between the girl and boy cars. 

We borrowed the movie Down and Derby from the library and watched it with the projector on Saturday. I am glad Lee didn't act like the dads in the movie. It's not really worth watching, so I will spoil it for you and tell you the funniest quote (even if it is not realistic). So, the dads want to have the best car and letting the boys help do the work would ruin the car right, so they keep telling the kids that they can help when they get to the fun stuff. The boys figure out the dads want them to go away bad enough they will give them money to go to the movies or pool or something with their friends. So, now the boy walks in and asks the dad if they are to the fun stuff yet, and the dad hands them money. The boys are sitting on the curb with money and one says, "I can't wait until I'm a dad and get to make a car."

Tyler actually really liked the very, very, and I mean the credits are about to roll, end.

Coming soon to an elementary school near us...

Woodruff Elementary Broadway Musical Review　

Featuring Tyler Crookston

 Showing Friday, January 28<sup>th

At Woodruff Elementary
950 West 600 South, Logan
Showtimes 6pm and 7pm

No tickets required.

Featuring songs from Seussical the Musical, Cats, You're A Good Man Charlie Brown, Annie, The Lion King, Oliver, and Peter Pan.

(Note from the PTA: We will NOT be allowing pictures during the performances. It's too distracting to the people sitting next to you and the kids performing.)</sup>

Merry Christmas!

The children are nestled all snug in their beds.

How do you know about that?

Tyler is in a summer playground group. It is done by Logan city and the kids get to go to a park each afternoon. They have a theme for each day and do crafts and other activities. He was looking ahead at the themes for this week. On Wednesday they are having a dance off. He was excited about that and then noticed that the theme was "Go Disco!" Then practically in one breath, he said this...
"Oh, all you need is a disco ball, black sunglasses so nobody can see your eyes, a big black hair circle wig-do you know what I'm talking about? a comb could get stuck in it, a white shirt and a blue kind of sparkly suit thing, a necklace thing with a big jewelry thing on the end, well something that is a big circle thing made out of gold and another necklace with nothing on it, so you have two necklaces, and don't forget the disco ball, and oh yeah, the jacket/vest thing has a collar on it, and then you need black shoes-like tap shoes but they have the clickers taken off of them, and they make you one inch taller-well how much is an inch?, maybe they make you two inches taller, then you can dance with one hand on your hip and you move the other one up and down in the air and sing ah, ah, ah, ah, stayin' alive, stayin' alive."
I asked him where he learned all of that and he said, "I don't know maybe a commercial?" Then he wanted to know if I was going to get him all that stuff. I told him maybe for Halloween.

Remember when phones used to give you a busy signal...

That would be my blog right about now. But not busy like I'm working on it, busy like I'm too busy to work on it.

So, insert any of my kids names, and this is what our summer has been like.

And since I'm adding links, I guess I will add this one too. I stumbled across it last week and thought it was fun. And I didn't even go to that school.

I do have lots to update, maybe I will get to it eventually. Maybe.

Running in the TOU/2 Marathon

I've decided that I am going to run the Top of Utah 1/2 Marathon August 28, 2010. Several people from work are going to run in it. A few years ago I wanted to run in the full marathon, but it was after I had broken my foot, which takes a long time to heal from. It's just not once you get the walking boot off that you can start really walking without limping, let alone running. I must be getting old...it takes a while to heal from things like that. I started running anyways and got a Baker's Cist, which is a bubble of goo right behind the knee, it's painful and needless to say I didn't run in the TOU Marathon.

I have started running a few times a week. I even got my younger brother Neal to sign up for the half marathon. My neighbor, Mark, has ran in several marathons and runs 7 to 10 miles every Tuesday and Thursday in the morning. However I've ran with him in the evenings when he's supposed to be in bed to be able to run at Icon for his part time job at 4:30 in the morning. I bet he was really tired that next morning. Since we went running at 11: 30 pm. He's a really good runner and I feel like am struggling to keep up with him. He says that I set a fast pace and I push him. It's definitely fun to run with Mark and neither one of us wants to admit weakness in front of the other.

I'll be running with Neal in Layton on Saturday morning if anyone wants to join.

Come see our new house!

You’re invited to the

Crookston Family

“Meet and Greet”

Open House

Saturday, April 24^th

2 pm until 7 pm

At our new home!

905 Knowles Lane, Logan

(just off 10^th West and Three Point Avenue, about 400 South)

Questions call Lee or Becca

(435) 213-3279

"I bow my head and close my eyes and say a little prayer"

The night before we moved, we all had a bowl of ice cream (I needed it gone) during family scripture reading. After the ice cream was gone, and scriptures were over we said our family prayer still sitting at the kitchen table.
Laura bowed her head right into her bowl.

Purple Cast

Emma has a purple cast on. I think she has been doing great with it. She stayed off of her leg for a week, but it didn't slow her down any. She would army crawl anywhere she wanted to be. Now she walks on it. I don't really know how to keep a busy three year old off of her leg. Grandma told her to hop on the other leg. She does sometimes, but mostly she just hobbles on it as if was a cane, not much weight on it, just used for balance. I think she walks like a pirate, straight knee and a peg leg. She gets more x-rays done on the 14th. They will either take the cast off and leave it off or put on a smaller cast depending on how the bone looks. Three weeks isn't so bad, it could sure be a lot worse.

The InstaCare Called This Morning

Yesterday when Emma came out of story time at the library, she was limping. I asked Emma what happened and she said "Hurt". I asked Andrew and Toby (our neighbor that goes to story time with us) what happened, but they didn't know. I asked the teacher what happened and she didn't know. I figured she would be okay, just needed some time. When I asked her where it hurt she said "Knee". She has a scraped up knee from a few days ago. It is the only place on her leg that looks hurt. Later when she was still limping, I asked her what happened and she said "Boy". She then would agree with what I said. Did a boy knock you down? Ya. Was it an accident? Ya. Did he help you back up? Ya. Did he say he was sorry? Ya. And then I threw her a curve ball. Did your teacher see it? And she said No.
When she crawled into the kitchen I decided it was time to have a doctor check her out. I took her to the InstaCare and she got this sticker.
She told the doctor her knee hurt and when he checked her leg, she had two different places that she said "Ouch" to. They took four x-rays and the doctor said they looked okay and sent us home.
This morning the InstaCare called. A radiologist looked at the x-rays and thinks she should be put in a splint, just in case. The spot in question is just under her knee.
She is in a splint that starts at the top of her thigh and goes past her toes. She can't put any weight on her leg at least until Monday when she sees an orthopedic doctor. It's a good thing I haven't packed these yet.

How big is Laura?

I just weighed Laura. Fully dressed she is 19 pounds. She is almost 18 months old. Our doctor had us switch her car seats a few months ago. He said that even though she hasn't reached the magical weight of 20 pounds yet, she has good muscle tone and head control. She can have juice occasionally, but for the most part she drinks whole fat milk and an Ensure type product. He told me to give her full fat foods like cheese and yogurt. I can't even find yogurt that isn't low fat. She doesn't feel like it if you pick her up, but she is a pretty good eater.
Here is the funny part. This pink shirt is a size 9 month. It is Carter brand, which I remember with the boys (Emma was smaller too) was a brand that was sized small. So, if the tag said 9 months, they could maybe wear it up until they were 9 months old, but no later than that. Actually this shirt might be a dress, but it fits her as a shirt, so that might also explain the smaller sizing.
The two pictures were taken less than a week apart. This shirt is one I put on her in a hurry one morning. I grabbed it out of the laundry basket, but it is Emma's shirt. It is a size 4T. Emma has, I mean had, two shirts this style. They now belong to Laura. Just another example of my saying, don't trust the tag size.
P.S. The dress I got Emma for Easter is a size 6. Her legs are too long for smaller sizes.

USU Gymnastics Season

We enjoyed going the USU Gymnastics meets again this season. You just can't beat free tickets. The scores are sometimes closer than others, but USU didn't win any of the meets we attended. For a couple of meets Tyler and Andrew started watching the scores and realized that "we" didn't win. When we were in the car on the way home, either mom or dad would ask, "Who had fun?" They said, "Not me, we didn't win." We had a lesson about sportsmanship. (And also told them that USU hasn't won any of the meets we have gone to for the last four years.)
For the last meet this year (the only one I remembered to take the camera to), the boys got invited to watch a movie at the Merrill's house across the street just as we were leaving. They really do have fun at the meets, but of course they went to watch the movie.
The girls sure had fun. It was senior night, and they loved holding up the signs when it was the lone senior's turn.
I caught a shirt. Emma thought it was so cool. She opened it like a present, and Laura enjoyed the ribbon. I actually put the shirt on Emma, but it is an adult size large, so she took it back off. A few minutes later I caught another shirt, well, they threw it into the empty seats on our same row. I gave it to the lady sitting on the row behind us. Lee caught a shirt the week before, but as he caught it the lady sitting behind him scratched him with her fingernails (on accident) because she was trying to catch it too. She said something about her daughter (she was on the team) and Lee gave it to her.
We got a poster signed on autograph night and three of the gymnasts commented to Tyler about his dancing. We were sitting close enough to the bottom that they could see his great moves. He was also on the jumbo-tron a few times too. They told him to keep it up, and that he should be a mascot. It was a great season.

Green Eggs and Ham

I do not like green eggs and ham!
You do not like them. So you say. Try them! Try them! And you may. Try them and you may, I say.
I make green eggs and ham for St Patrick's Day Dinner every year (it might seem like a breakfast food, but that is Lucky Charms). The boys are used to it, Emma needed some persuading, just like in the book. She is probably too young to remember that she ate it that way a year ago.
This year to accompany the green milk, green eggs, and ham (I don't attempt changing its color) we had rainbow muffins. The kids thought it was great, I thought they looked tie-dyed. They were a fun new addition to our food coloring altered dinner.
Andrew and Emma used the shamrock cookie cutter to cut their sandwiches for lunch. I bought the "new color of love" all green m&m's around Valentines (because I remembered last year thinking they had bags of green ones in February, why not in March?!) and put them with some gold wrapped Rolos in a cool container as a delicious display, but that was emptied long ago.
We had a fun day. Except Tyler said he got pinched a lot at school even though he was wearing lots of green. I guess grade schoolers haven't changed.

Parenting Advise

Scott (my brother) and Elise welcomed Gray Douglas Gibby into the world on Sunday, March 7th. (One week past his due date.) Scott and Elise will be great parents! They probably don't need this, but as an activity at her baby shower we wrote down advise and put it in a cute book for future reference. I ended up writing three pages! So, I guess if I post it here, you can also learn from my mistakes. (Is that why I had so much advise to give?)
Not in any specific order, here is the list.
*Enjoy the stage they are in. *Take lots of pictures. *Use shampoo with a pump lid, use all the other soap you get as a refill (babies are slippery when wet). *Don't trust the tag size, especially Carter brand. *Binkys are easier to get rid of than a thumb. Pull the plug like a band-aid, all at once. It will be harder for the parent then the child.*If you want them to keep a hat or bow on, start early. *Use a pre-wash, we like Shout. *Talk to other moms, you are not alone (and sometimes it is nice to hear someone else had a worse day than you did). *Have fun (from Tyler). *Presentation counts, kids might eat better when sandwiches have been cut with a cookie cutter, make apples fry size, cut string cheese and carrots into "coins", etc. *Don't leave pens in a child's reach. *Recycle, especially when they get to be school age. We have a special spot for each kid to hang favorite work, when their spot is full, they have to choose something to take down if they want something new up. *Make everyday fun. *Make a holiday funner than a normal day. *Know the symptoms of Mastitis, don't live with it. *Follow through, for both bad consequences and rewards. *For a tummy ache, rub clockwise. *Don't spank in anger. When upset, clap your hands; you might be surprised how much force you use. *Make stuff (from Andrew, he was talking about daddy making German Pancakes, but it could be crafts (even for boys) and other activities too). *Bath and Body Works sells small hand sanitizers that fit great in a purse or diaper bag and smell lots better that dirty diaper hands. *Every child deserves a mom that will take a shower and put a ribbon in her hair. *Before discipline think "Does this have an eternal consequence?" example: spilling milk-no, telling a lie-yes. *If nursing, (my cousin said, try it for at least eight weeks, don't give up...it is hard.) wear a bracelet that is easy to get on and off, and switch arms that you wear it on, so you know which side to start with during the next feeding. *Patience is a virtue most parents don't have. *Use the free diaper bag from the hospital as a trial run for a few weeks, then you will know what features you like or don't like if you buy a different one. *Adjust the switch in the mother's lounge, so you can hear the talk or lesson. (Yep, that mic the teachers complain about using allows you to hear the classroom.) *Don't be afraid of food coloring. It helps when potty training too, just a drop in the bowl and kids make the color change. *Start saving "pencils" (Tyler means Box Tops and Labels for Education, they both had pictures of pencils, the Campbell's logo just changed). *Baby oil helps get marker and temporary tattoos off skin. *Mr. Clean Magic Eraser works like magic, it can get marker, pen, crayon, and more off walls and furniture. *Check out Signing Time at the library. They make movies that are educational and entertaining. Sign up for Sign of the Week on their website. *Take a time out for yourself, not as a reward. *Laundry (and dishes) are never done. *Don't forget Family Home Evening, family prayer, and family scripture study; make it a habit early. *Don't threaten children with something you won't follow through with. *Go on dates, marriage comes before children.*Something that my aunt said that I really liked was, Each child is different, love them each individually and unconditionally.

So what is your favorite? What advise can you share with me?
P.S. Elise, some of these I didn't write in your book, I just remembered them. Thanks to Laura for reminding me about markers.

Under Contract

We are under contract!! We will be moving into this house the first week of April. It is here in Logan, but on the other side of the city. We will wait to change schools until next year, so we will be doing a lot of driving back and forth during the last two months of school. During the next few weeks we need to buy a fridge. (We would love to buy lots more new furniture, but that will have to wait.) Lee said he would bring home boxes from work today. Maybe that will help this move sink in, it doesn't seem real yet. Move number fifteen, here we come!