Mommy & Morgan Day

Morgan went in for a routine wellness checkup this week & since her throat was just a tiny bit red & scratchy (but no fever or soreness of throat) the doctor swabbed her throat. Imagine my surprise when the next day the doctor's office called to say she had strep throat. My response, "Should I go get her from school?" Seriously! She still wasn't even feeling bad. So with Morgan home from school, we had a Mommy & Morgan day. And one of her requests...making "magic finger jello" in heart shapes. It was a fun day with my baby girl!

Waterfall Weight Limit?

How many kids can fit on our waterfall?

At current count...24!!!!!

Family Work Projects

Growing up it seemed that whenever my family all got together for a holiday or a long weekend there would inevitably be the family work project. I always thought my Dad must have planned some project right before we all arrived like adding on a patio covering, framing out a bedroom in the basement, building shelves in the fruit room...so that he could have some extra slave labor.
On Labor Day I had new insight into my previous perception. Most likely my Dad was trying to get a project done before everyone got home and it just took longer than anticipated...hence the family shows up and everyone pitches in to get it done. On Monday, the Crump Family started its "to do list" bright and early so we could be done before friends showed up to bbq and swim. The main project was to get the old, deteriorated trampoline out of the ground and the new trampoline safely installed before guests arrived. Of course, nothing can be that simple! So as all our friends arrived, Kyle was still in the hole, surrounded by various rusted trampoline springs, a variety of weeds that had been growing unseen in the hole and a deteriorating old tramp frame that was difficult to dismantle and pull from the hole. Without exception...every Dad that walked into our backyard headed straight to our work project and in short order dismantled & hauled off the old trampoline and cleaned out the entire hole. So a big Thank You to all you Dads...Carl, David M., Jason, Brian, & Troy for laboring at our house on Labor Day. And an extra shout out to Jared & David D. for staying late to install the new trampoline. We are so lucky to have our Arizona Family that we can always count on!

Happy Anniversary from our Kids!

Today is my anniversary (well actually OUR anniversary...I do share it with Kyle). Anyway, Kyle took a half day off work and took me to a movie which was a great present. But my cute kids had been scheming for the past week...so when we got home we had a vase of homemade flowers and the best card from the kids in honor of our 21 years of marriage. So cute I just had to share it!

21 THINGS WE'VE LEARNED

FROM OUR MOM & DAD

21. Dad deals better with the school principal.
20. Everyone can be called Superman but very few actually are.
19. Never take a dog hunting...even if his name is Hunter.
18. Never never never never never never never never never GIVE UP.
17. European boobs should ALWAYS be covered at the beach.
16. Get 'r done.
15. Never get engaged on someone else's wedding day.
14. Ice fishing is NOT that fun.
13. We would make a hot pioneer family.
12. Buckle Jeans can cure EVERYTHING.
11. Diet coke and chips ARE a meal.
10. Do what you love and love what you do!
09. Be positive.
08. Strive to be your best.
07. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is here on this Earth.
06. We are an eternal family.
05. Follow the prophet.
04. Serve others.
03. Small things really do matter.
02. We have a loving Father in Heaven.
01. Our parents ROCK!!!

A Mother's Homework is Never Done!

The kids are in bed and the house is quiet, the lunches for tomorrow are packed and in the refrigerator, backpacks are repacked and hanging on hooks by the door...AND I JUST FINISHED MY HOMEWORK!!! I'm not kidding. I had more homework tonight than my 3 kids put together. We seriously sat down at the kitchen table all together to begin the homework process. Tyler was done first and off to search the internet for a dirt bike that he is never going to get. Morgan was done next and headed outside to play house with Cassie (our dog). Lincoln was done next and off to take a shower and choose out her new school outfit for tomorrow. And there I was...all by myself...still filling out the countless forms and paperwork that gets sent home at the beginning of each year. Seriously! My husband called me from out of town and I was like, "I can't talk...I've got to get all this paperwork done and handed in tomorrow." And you've GOT to PAY ATTENTION to what you are filling out. One check in the wrong box and they may just give your child too much acetaminophen or you've suddenly volunteered yourself to be in charge of all the classroom parties for the entire year.
Then my husband made the mistake of asking me what I'm going to do tomorrow with all the kids back in school for the day. Well, you guessed it...more homework. I've got to go to a music store to buy specific reeds for a 6th grade saxophone player and another store to buy the music book they'll be using all year (could the teacher not just order them in bulk and then not give it to the kid if they didn't bring in their money?) I then have to sign up at Fry's & Basha's so that our school can earn money from my patronage of their stores (another process that must be completed yearly). I'm then off to buy school supplies that were not mentioned on previous lists. I must remember to stop by the school and complete THREE forms that then allow me to be a volunteer at the school, get my picture taken for an id badge and, if I think I might want to volunteer for a field trip, must visit the district website and complete that information. This all must be done yearly even though I am in my 8th year of volunteering at this school.
All in all, I really miss summer vacation!!!

Dream Big

What a surreal moment! I am in Copenhagen, Denmark listening to Beyonce on my ipod and blogging on a computer that is in Danish but yet I can pull up my blog from another part of the world and pictures that were taken before I even left home. Technology is crazy!!! We encourage our kids to set goals for themselves but sometimes I wonder if it is possible for them to dream big enough for this ever changing world we live in. Certainly as a teenager I would not have been able to comprehend the amazing opportunities that were in my future...let alone understand such technology that had not yet been created such as ipods, blogging, digital cameras, texting my kids before we taxied down the runway to say I love them again, checking my e-mails in another country, etc. And so I wonder what amazing opportunities still lay ahead for myself and for my kids. I guess that will give me something to ponder as I lay awake jet-lagged tonight. Then tomorrow we climb on a ship to travel through various ports throughout the Baltic and so for the next week I will leave technology behind and explore the history of some amazing European Cities.
Note to Readers: My teenage daughter thinks I am the ONLY mom that listens to Beyonce so if you too love Beyonce, give a shout out so my daughter can knew her mother is NORMAL.
Note to Burglars: Though I am not at home...our very large & scary guard dog is along with a housesitter that is a Green Beret, martial arts expert and a member of a local SWAT team.

My New Love

I am so in love with this little guy. This is my nephew Zachary Kevin Warner. I have been able to spend so much time with him these past few weeks. I first saw him on July 3 when we arrived in Utah and it was love at first sight. He is named after my brother Kevin who passed away 7 1/2 years ago. There is something in the way he smiles that reminds me of my brother. He is such a sweetie and we've had lots of good cuddle time together. And my sister is amazing! This is her 5th baby and she is such an organized Mom. Her house is very calm, always clean and she makes entire meals from what they grow in their garden. She is my sister that lived in Arizona until two years ago. We parked our RV in front of her house during our visit and it felt like we lived near each other again...walking in the front door without knocking, making ourselves at home, treating each other's kids like our own. I miss them living in Arizona SO MUCH but I love how happy they are in their new location and know that is what is best for them.

Kyle's Motto - Tri Your Best

So what do most 42 year old men do on a Saturday Morning at about 4 AM? Well for Kyle, June 6 before the sun came up and while his wife and three kids were still catching some shut eye for a few more hours (well not too many more hours since we had to leave for a swim meet at 6:30 AM), Kyle was loading his bike & helmet, swim cap & goggles, running shoes & ipod into his jeep for a Sprint Triathlon at Lake Pleasant. And for any of you non-believers out there... here's the pictures to prove it.

Photos of Kyle's Lake Pleasant Triathlon

Our Dad is Superman!!!

So I know that there are a lot of really great Dads out there and we would even like to wish all of them a Happy Father's Day. Forgive us if we burst anyone's bubble with this next part...but our Dad is pretty much the best Dad on the planet. In fact, we would even go so far as to suggest that our Dad may be a superhero. Since he is out of town on this Father's Day, we've been snooping around just a little to see if we can confirm our suspicions. Evidence to date includes: an unusually large number of superman neckties (how many does the Dad at your house own?) and other superman paraphanelia such as fridge magnets, note pads, etc. It also seems that he throws suspicion off of himself by constantly calling other people superman. Interviews with numerous business, church and neighborhood colleagues verifies that they have been called superman on more than one occasion by our Daddy.

At the very least, our Dad possesses superhuman qualities such as the ability to rise at 5 AM and go for a 6-8 mile run then come back & swim laps in the pool. He then works a 10 hour work day and while driving home remembers to call the appropriate child and ask them about their school exam, talent show, swim meet, school play, sport or dance practice, etc. He joins the family for dinner and regales them with trivia that is so random but has been garnished from that day's learnings, radio listening, scripture study, self-help book, etc. He always has some advice for how each kid (& even Mom) can get more out of their next days swim practice, cross country run, gym workout, lifeguard class, backyard basketball drills, etc. He always believes that each of us has the ability to do a little better, try a little harder, stretch ourselves a little more. (I think he forgets that we aren't superheroes.) He doesn't go to bed until the last child is in bed and then reads from some kind of a motivational or leadership book before going to sleep. He then wakes up 6 hours later and does it all again. And his schedule on a weekend...last weekend he trekked close to 20 miles with a youth group. And the weekend before that he did a Sprint Triathlon then came home, did Saturday chores, then helped with a Young Women Fundraiser. You can see that he rarely runs out of steam.

So on this Father's Day we want to send a super duper amount of love out to our Daddy. Superman or not...you save the day for us on a regular basis.

WE LOVE YOU!!!

Lincoln, Tyler, Morgan & Daniece