Captain America turns 4.

Trevin is very into all super heroes right now. Everyday he has me put a cape on him (a pillow case), so he can be a super hero. Being a super hero entails saving Mom and Cheyenne from all the bad guys, most of the time that mean shooting them, with anything that might resemble a gun. Occasionally Chey gets to be a super hero too, but for the most part she gets to be a damsel in distress with mom.  So it wasn't very hard to decide what to get Trevin from his birthday this year... SUPER HERO anything. His favorite superhero at the moment is Captain America so that's the theme we stuck with.

At our house presents couldn't possibly wait until after dad gets home from work. So presents happen first thing in the morning. Before we even eat breakfast or get out of our PJs. 

First present... A Captain america shield. Trevin usually uses a bucket lid so he was very excited to have the real deal. 

 Next up... A Captain America action figure that talks and has a shield and a gun!

 Third came the Captain America helmet... Now you see the whole picture. (except Trevin decided it was better to wear his shield and helmet, while using the little action figure gun too.)

 I love the look on T's face in this next picture. He was more than excited to open his very own iPod. (Mom's old iTouch). We reset it and made it all kid friendly. Trevin already knew how to use it better than mom anyway. We loaded a bunch of super hero pictures to it. Left only games on it and of coarse his favorite music. Oh the green cover is new. 

 He was thrilled and promised he would even share it with Cheyenne. 

We had lots of fun during the day... Trevin rotated between playing the iPod and being Captain America. Trevin got to go to Chick-fil-a with dad for a special birthday lunch.

Later in the day we had our brand new home teachers stop by. They are honestly the best! Trevin was asleep but they dropped off a present for him. Trevin was way excited to wake up to another gift. 

 For dinner the kids had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at Trevin request. (Mom and dad at lasagna.) Then instead of doing cake and ice cream. We headed out to Farr's Fresh ice cream to let the kids load up on whatever ice cream they wanted. It was a lot of fun and I think they liked not having any restrictions on toppings. 

  A quick picture with his birthday balloons before heading off to bed. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TREVIN!!! 

(Chey had a great time picking out the balloons!)

A few of our Christmas activities...

I love Christmas time with kids... I love Christmas anyway, but usually just the Christ aspect of it. But with kids I must admit the Santa/reindeer/elves portion is A LOT of fun. Cheyenne has really picked up on the Christmas songs In fact I sing them each a song when I tuck them into bed and the other night she asked me to sing "Santa Baby" I was shocked and did a pretty pathetic job since I don't know the words.

Trevin and Chey both love to sing " I want a hippopotamus for Christmas."  But the favorite song at our house is Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. 

Needless to say I have been watching the newspaper to find out when and where Santa's reindeer would be so we could show the kids. Since you don't get to actually see reindeer very often. So when Weber State held their "Fill the sleigh" event we mad a special trip to see Santa and his reindeer. The kids were so excited.

Santa brought 2 reindeer with him Blitzen(left) and Snowflake(right). Snow flake of coarse is one of the reindeer in training, so he doesn't actually get to pull Santa's sleigh on Christmas yet. 

 Here's our picture with Blitzen. The toilet paper is our donation to Santa's sleigh. Cause Santa is too busy making all the toys to make toilet paper for the kids that don't have any. Trevin had about a million questions when we got there. He wanted to know if they put a tent over the reindeer so the couldn't fly away. The answer Yes.

 Blitzen, they really are very pretty.

 Inside with Santa! We got to see Santa quite a few times this year, but this is my favorite picture (it was the one at WSU). Trevin asked for a race track with a ramp. Chey asked for a dolly and a duck.

 This is a different day. We've started the tradition of taking Grandma Donna ( my Dad's mom) to J&J to see all the pointsettas. While we are there we take pictures in the flowers. It's a lot of fun... this year we went late in the season and there weren't very many varieties left... next year we'll have to go earlier.

Traditional Christmas Card

Merry Christmas! I finally got Christmas letters sent out. I know I probably missed people so here it is for anyone that is interested. Hope you all have a wonderful holiday!

Friends and Family,

Can you believe we are at the end of another year! We hope that this past year has been full of wonderful memories, for ours certainly has.

Gage has been a busy man.  He managed to have 3 different church callings this year.  Perhaps the hardest change Gage had to face this year was turning 30 (he still doesn’t act his age)! Don’t worry it hasn’t slowed him down. He takes on a full load at work and home. I can always count on him to get the kids riled up just before bedtime. They love their dad!

McKenna loves all the time she gets to spend at home.  Two toddlers are a constant source of entertainment! She has taken on the task of holding preschool at our house 2 days a week, and loves getting to see the kids excited to learn and play. In her spare time after cooking and cleaning McKenna loves to go on dates with Gage more frequently.

Trevin has changed so much this year. He is proficient at using Mom’s iPod touch, navigating the computer and racing on x-box. His electronic skills must come from his dad.  His imagination is as wild as ever.  Most of his adventures right now involve him being a super hero. Trevin prompted the at home preschool.  Every morning starts with the same question “Is it preschool day?”  He loves to learn!

Cheyenne is all girl! Her favorite colors are pink and purple. She too has an active imagination and can almost always be found carrying a doll, stuffed animal or Barbie.  Chey has a stubborn side and refused to potty train, regardless of mom’s pleadings. After mom finally gave up, Chey decided she was ready and has been dry since. She loves her “long Rapunzel hair” and her earrings (her reward for potty training).

Our family is excited to welcome baby #3. Trevin is set on having a brother and Chey is sure we are having a sister. We can’t wait to find out in January! Gage and I are just thrilled to have a couple of months off of diaper duty before we start into the baby phase again.

We love our Savior and express gratitude for His love in our lives.  We feel so blessed to know that He lives. Our hope is that you too have felt His love and know that you can always turn to Him in times of need.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to each of you. 

Love, the Crabtree's

Simple joys

Today the kids wanted to play outside. Trevin got a new scooter from his cousins for his birthday and wants to ride it every chance he gets. Anyway I bundled the kids up and sent them outside. Next thing I see the two of them are having a snow ball fight! I know it hasn't snowed for a while...we have a skif of snow along the fence line of our backyard in our garden area. Can you picture it? A very muddy snowball fight. They had a blast!
The funny part is when they decided it was time to come inside the first words out of Trevin's mouth were, "Mom, we accidentally got snow on our gloves." Chey was quick to add, "and mud!"
I love these two and didn't mind cleaning up the mess since it was all just an ACCIDENT!

Remind yourself...

A little reminder that we only see a small glimpse at a time.

I try to look for the positives in my life every day! My husband, my kids and especially my Savior make it possible to get through the rough days and know that everything will turn out ok in the end. 

A conversation with Trevin after he woke up and walked into our room this morning.
GAGE: "Did you finally decide to wake up?"
TREVIN: "My old bones, said body it's time to get out of bed!"

A Canova Christmas Party

 Today was the Canova family Christmas Party. They went for a none traditional party that turned out being a blast! We all went ICE SKATING! We had a nice lunch before hand and all the kids loved watching the hockey team play while we ate. When public skating hours started the kids couldn't wait to go "borrow their ice skaters!" I sent Trevin and Gage thinking that Cheyenne wouldn't be interested at all. I was wrong. As soon as Trevin and Dad had their ice skates, Cheyenne sat down next to them and took off her shoes. She needed some ice skaters too! I was so impressed at how quickly these two figured out how to walk in their ice skates. They both took a couple of wobbly steps then... piece of cake!

With all of the adult cousins around we had plenty of help on the ice. Trevin and Chey loved it!! A couple of my cousins played hockey in High School and trevin thought it was fun to go with them cause they just picked him up and went "really fast!" 

 It was a work out to skate bent over holding up a little kid.. So we had the kids come sit on the bench outside the ice rink to take a rest... even though I think the adults benefited from the "rest" the most.

 Every time Cheyenne had to come sit on the bench she said the same thing. "I meed ice skating more." Dad came and sat by her fro a little while to keep her company. Aren't they cute!

My little crew. We had such a fun time.