Happy Birthday Nate!

Nate turned 10 today. We are so lucky to have him in our family! He is such a fun boy! We had Costco muffins for breakfast, I took him and Jake out to Panda Express for lunch, picked up some donuts to take to his class, hamburgers for dinner (with Grandma and Grandpa deCesare) then off to the girls' choir concert and out to Golden Spoon for dessert with Grandma and Grandpa Krummenacher and Grandma deCesare (he doesn't like cake). Here are some pictures of his birthday: Nate wanted a suit of all things for his birthday. I had forgotten untill about 10:00pm last night so Brent and I ran to Kohl's. Luckily they had one size 12 left.Nate got his best friend a bb gun (with his parent's permission) for his birthday so I thought he would like one. I saw this Red Rider (you'll shoot your eye out) bb gun at Walmart and had to get it. We of course watched The Christmas Story a few days ago so he would be excited when he opened it. He loved it!He has wanted as he called it a Rib Stick forever. I guess this is the new thing all the boys want now. It is actually called a Rip (not Rib) Stick and Nate now knows this after his siblings repeatedly corrected him today. He is already getting pretty good at it. Here is a picture of the girl's concert tonight. I had to show it so everyone could see how many kids are in choir at their junior high. This is all five choirs combined for a song together at the end. The kids go all the way down the stairs and down the aisle. They have an amazing music program and choir teacher at their school and are expected to learn songs Brent and I sang in high school, regional, and all state (Brent) choirs. We feel so lucky that they have such a great experience in junior high.Lastly, here is a close up picture I took of Sarah after she got her retainer at the ortho today. She can't stop smiling. She is now wanting whiter teeth so the ortho gave her some whitener to put on every night.

Christmas Lights at the Temple (Sarah's Braces are Off!)

Sarah's choir sang at the Mesa Temple last night. Here are some of the pictures from it.
This was the best picture that showed all the temple lights in the background.Look at Sarah's teeth!!! Aren't they pretty?
Warming up with some hot chocolate!

Brent found my camera!!!

My friend Mary and I decided to take the kids hiking on Veteran's day in Novemeber. Little by little we ended up bringing her four kids, my four, Todd and Jen's five, three of my friend Natalie's and 2 of my other friend Stephanie's kids. So two adults brought 18 kids with us to the desert to hike and have a picnic. We found a picnic table right next to a little playground on one side and a little mountain on the other. Mary and I hung out and let the little ones play while the older kids went exploring. We all had a great time and really it was not hard at all to bring all the kids because we had some great older kid helpers and lots of cell phones. A few weeks later Brent needed the camera and that's when it hit me that I had not seen the camera since the day at the desert. I let some of the kids take it up the mountain to get a picture so I was sure that the mountain was where the camera was and I was sick about it. Luckily, a few days ago Brent found the camera under the seat in his truck! Two good things came from this: 1. My camera was not left on a mountain in the desert, and 2. It was not my fault!! Here are some pics from the day at the desert.
Here is the car ride. (Don't tell their parents!) I have a problem with telling kids they can come with us places and then forgetting about how many people I can actually fit in my car! We had 12 people in my 7 passenger car. Oops.This is the shot the kids got on the infamous mountain I thought the camera was left on. You can kind of pick out 2 of my kids in the background.

Biggest Loser Update

Down five more pounds this week! Woo hoo! I'm only eating beans, salad, veggies, fruit, and a grain a day but I'm down 24.5 with 5 weeks to go. My only problem now is the asthma is acting up right now so exercising takes twice as long to get a good workout because I can't work out very hard. Doctor wants me on the steroid (Advair) but I'm afraid to take it because I read online that people gain weight on it.

Primary Activity Day Visit with Santa

We had our Christmas primary activity day last Saturday and I just got back the pictures from our photographer. Can anyone guess who our wonderful Santa was? Yep, Frank! Our usual Santa was busy that day and absolutely nobody in our ward would do it so I asked Frank when he and my mom were over for dinner and he didn't even hesitate to say yes. I had to tell the boys that Santa was busy that day so Grandpa was going to help us out. Thank you thank you thank you Frank! You were our best Santa ever!

Crum Nativity

Brent was the older version of Joseph for the nativity at the Crum family party which meant he was the narrator. All of the kids in the whole family were able to be in the nativity this year so it was fun for all of the parents to watch. My favorite was Kim's little Jarrett. Ask Kim why. This was the last Crum Christmas party we will have so it was a little sad. We are so thankful for all the time and effort all the aunts put into making those parties such a great memory for all of us. (thanks for the picture again Glenna, STILL no camera)

New Steve's Krazy Sub!

Andy just opened his Krazy Sub yesterday! Doesn't it look great? I hate to say it but I'm a little jealous of how great it turned out. We are so happy for Andy and Joni!

Brent went to help them out on the first day of opening.
(Thanks Glenna for the pics! Still no camera)

Background Mess

Well I've had quite a time trying to do the cute background thing! I was so proud of myself for finally figuring it out but obviously I've had issues! Hopefully people can now read the blog, let me know if you can't. I'm not sure if I'm smart enough for all this technical stuff.

I made a Biggest Loser blog for those of us who are in the contest and made the background black with white text. Apparently some people saw only a white background on their computers so with the white text it looked like nothing was there. They would change the text to black so when I would go to look, I would see the black background with black text. I finally got to the bottom of it and just made the background white with black text so we would have no more confusion. Why doesn't anybody else have this problem???

Hopefully I'll get the hang of it eventually. I think I need to always stick with a light background and black text.

(Only down 1/2 a pound this week! Not a happy camper!)

Jake's Christmas List

I went to check my e-mails on the computer the other day and I found this list that Jake had typed up. I copied and pasted this list to the post because I thought it was pretty funny.


Jake’s Christmas List

Dear Santa,
Here is a list of things that I would like for Christmas. I’ve been extra good this year. Merry Christmas!

1. new tramp pad with 104 springs
2. webkinz (little kinz) penguin
3. hat for webkinz
4. eyeclops bionic eye
5. havoc heli helicopter
6. text messenger
7. iCoster
8. Rubix Revolution
9. Fly Pen
10. socks
11. underwear

What is really funny about the list is that we bought about 5 of these things for him already. I e-mailed the list to Brent and asked him if he thinks Jake saw our stash of gifts. Brent was amazed at how close the list was (right down to 104 springs for the tramp!) but most of these things are hidden at Krazy Sub and there is no way he saw them. At least we know we got him what he wants right? What's up with the socks and underwear though?!


Another funny Jake thing: I heard Jake and Nate talking about something they were trying to split between the two of them (not sure what). Nate was trying to get away with having more than Jake and thought Jake would buy it. I saw Jake thinking for a second then he said: "Nate, 13 is an odd number so you couldn't have the same number as me!" Maybe this is normal seven year old thinking but, I thought it was pretty smart of him!