Favorite Fictional Characters

Our elementary school does a LOT of dress-up days. The whole week of Dr. Seuss's birthday had dress-up themes, the whole week of the book fair had dress-up themes, holidays are dress-up days, kindergartners dress up for the Q and U wedding, first graders dress up for Clown Day, plenty of spirit days sprinkled in here and there. These photos are from "dress-as-your-favorite-fictional-character-day" from the week of the book fair. Ben is Mario (that makes sense since Mario Kart has pretty much taken over our lives since Christmas). Emma is Hermione Granger (since she loves all things Harry Potter, she came up with the ensemble all on her own...I'm not entirely sure how one of Ben's church shirts and a fuzzy glove with the fingers cut off fit in, but she was happy with it).

Lydia and Mom

We spend a lot of time together, me and Lydi. Emma and Ben are off to school, Josh goes to preschool three days a week, Afton sleeps a lot (and even when she's awake, she's not much for conversation). Lydia's most popular requests during our time together are, "Can I do stamps?", "Will you read to me?", "Can I have a snack?", and "Will you take a picture of me?"

Lydia is quick to share her hugs and kisses. She's very affectionate and gets very excited about things, often giving a gasp of surprise to punctuate her delight. "*Gasp!* My slippers were under the couch!" She likes a good joke and has a great belly laugh. One of my favorite things about her is her low, often raspy voice, it sounds so cute coming out of her little self.

She has no idea she's only two years old. In her mind she is in every way an equal with Emma, Ben, and Josh...heck, or with me and Scott for that matter. I've heard her all too often reprimand the other kids in an awfully familiar manner, "You have a choice. You can stop that right this minute or be in time out."

Emma and Afton

[It's taking me so long to post photos...these are about a month and a half old.]

It's great having a helpful and loving nine-year-old like Emma around. Her favorite thing to do these days is hold Afton (or sit on the floor by her to sing her little songs). I don't mind, not one bit. I'm all for encouraging such a strong sisterly affection, not to mention she's old enough to actually be really good at it. She can get her to sleep, she can soothe her fussing when I'm tied up. Go sisters.

For the Mothers

My Mom's birthday was in February.

She and my Dad have long been fans of doing the crossword puzzle together everyday. And they love each other like crazy. She deserves a pillow!

Scott's Mom's birthday was in early March.

She has many chickens in her kitchen. Once Austin and Katina tie the knot in July, she'll have a total of 12 chicks. She deserves a kitchen towel set!

Valentine's Day was about a month ago, but in case you hadn't noticed, The Real Cruze Family is a little behind the times. These are the tulips brought to me by two handsome men in my life, Scott and Ben.

These are to help me think warm thoughts. We got spoiled over the weekend with gorgeous weather: sunny and in the 70s. Perfect. Then yesterday and today have been full of rainy 40s. Yuck!

He can fly...well, not really

Josh undertook the ambitious project of making himself wings. He carefully cut them out of an old cereal box and colored on one side thoroughly with the rainbow crayon. I helped him tape them on to his arms. He flapped around the house for awhile, having a good time. Then as I was doing dishes I heard him jump off the couch and then mumble, "Mmm, rats." I turned to see a slightly confused and dejected look on his face as he looked from the couch to where he stood to his wings, then around that circuit again. I asked if he was trying to fly for real. He explained, "Yeah, I mean, I knew probably I couldn't...but I thought maybe it would work...since I have these wings..." The photo is from before his failed flight. See how hopeful he is?

So, about a month ago it snowed...

It was actually a pretty good little accumulation (for Tennessee...stop laughing, Utah). The kids missed two and a half days of school for it. I didn't even take any photos of the kids themselves in the snow...they were all over the neighborhood with all their friends. And it was cold, so the little girls and I stayed in and got the hot chocolate ready. It was really nice, wet, packable snow. These shots are from day three, the aftermath: our Frosty, the battlefield (hard to tell, but there are four different forts in the field next to our house), and footprints on the deck.

Ta-da! Snow, a month late.

Afton = Growing

This baby's getting big!

2 months old

25 Things

And while we're tagging and everything... (thanks, Laura):


25 Things You've Been DYING to Know About Me

1. This tag came over to the blogosphere from Facebook. Which I am not on. I mean, I went and made a profile once a year or two ago, but haven't been back since. I just don't get it. But apparently the rest of the world does.

2. I can't stand for the sheets and covers to be in a disarray when I'm sleeping. They need to be as neat as when the bed is freshly made. All of the kids are the opposite. Every single night they kick the sheets to the bottom of the bed and sleep with their blanket all twisted and curled around them. It drives me crazy. Who can sleep like that??

3. I really like mowing the lawn.

4. I like swinging on swings. Really tall ones.

5. I can curl my tongue into a clover-shape.

6. I've been pulled over twice (once for speeding, once for running a red light) but no tickets!

7. Foods I did not like growing up but now I love: avocado, red/yellow/orange peppers, zucchini, yellow squash, mushrooms.


8.I love peeling things. As in skin. I can't resist a blistering sunburn (no matter who it's on). Lemmie at it! Peel, peel, peel. Ahhh.

9. I can't stand wasting. I'm like an old man who grew up during the depression. We recycle everything the center will take. Every time I scrape food into the trashcan (or toss in a banana peel), I long for a composter. I save shoe boxes. I keep every piece of paper that comes our way which is blank on one side (from school, junk mail, etc) for the kids to draw on. They need special permission to use paper that's white on both sides. I reuse the big yogurt containers. But don't call me "green" because that's too trendy. And it's not really true anyway.

10. I love taking excessively long showers. (I guess I can selfishly stand to waste water. See? Not green.)

11. I have absolutely zero rhythm. I've always thought dancing looks like fun, but you will never catch me doing it outside of my own home with the kids. Too embarrassing. Remember that Seinfeld episode with Elaine dancing?

12. I love baking but do not do it as often as I'd like. I feel like I can't unless the kitchen is spotless...which is very rarely the case.

13. I wish I had kept up with piano playing.

14. I am not a patient teacher.

15. I like doing puzzles. To the point that it's almost embarrassing. Back in the day, when I didn't have anything to do on a weekend I'd just sit myself down and tackle a 5000 piece doozy. Good times.

16. I hate throwing up. It's the very worst kind of sick to be. I'd rather take a beating.

17. Foods I did not like as a kid that I now tolerate (but don't like): mustard, cheesecake, chili beans.

18. The last paying job I had was as a mail sorter at BYU. (I liked it.)


19. I never thought I'd be interested in exercise, but over the past couple of years I've become a semi-chronic gym-rat. I've been taking some time off since I was so sick right before Afton was born and of course after Afton was born, but I've started to miss it everyday. I'm ready to get back in the groove.

20. My favorite color is blue.

21. Food I did not like as a kid that I still don't like: pickles, any and all seafood, pies, cobblers, and basically any form of warm/baked fruit.

22. One of my all time favorite sounds is any time we have the baby monitor set up in the hallway upstairs, and Scott and I are downstairs while the kids are all asleep, and we suddenly hear one of them start snoring very loudly.

23. I won second place in a speech contest in 5th grade (it was about American inventions...I chose the Polaroid camera.)

24. I love root beer. And peanut butter M&Ms.

25. I'm having some right now.

Can you believe...200?

Doesn't it seem like really cool bloggers are always giving things away when they reach significant milestones? (100th post, 1 year anniversary, etc) So here we are, my 200th post. Lucky for me I found this fun game over at Natalie's tonight:

This is how it works..... The first 3 people to leave a comment on this post will receive a hand made gift from me during this year. When and what will be a surprise. BUT, in order for you to leave a comment on my blog, you have to post this on your blog first. (That means that sometime during this year you will send a gift to 3 people as well.) Get it? So, the first 3 people to comment on this post will be the lucky ones.

Please keep in mind I will be needing your patience and make no promises other than you will something before Dec. 31st. (This post has taken me nearly 45 minutes--Afton's a night owl.)

Blessed

Afton was.

We had quite a great, loving crowd turn up. We're actually missing about 13 people in this shot who all had to take off before we could gather for photos.

Emma = Artist

"Artist" is on Emma's short list of answers to the classic, "what do you want to be when you grow up?" question. Of course her answers list changes frequently and is always at least three deep. But her love of art and her (correct) conviction that she is good at it has kept "artist" as a prominent contender for some time now.

Back in December we got a note home from her art teacher at school, Ms. Yates, that some of her work had been chosen to be displayed in the Knoxville Museum of Art. I think Ms. Yates selected about five or six pieces of art from each grade to send in for display. Emma was over the moon that she was one of them. We wanted to go see it earlier, but being in and out of the hospital through December then finally coming home with a baby made it tricky.

At last, near the end of January we made it in and we were not disappointed. Emma beamed as we took dozens of photos of her with her "Starry Night" rendition. Scott's parents wanted to come see it with us too which made Emma feel all the more special.

I hadn't been to KMA for years and years. I don't know if the third floor hands-on-for-kids setup was new or if I'd simply forgotten all about it. In any case, the kids loved the big rolls of paper and jumbo-sized lite-brite.

All of the creativity around us inspired some silly faces.

The joy of the simple outing elicited many smiles.

Lydia's earnest attempts at getting a drink from the water fountain evoked the biggest laughs...

...and the sincerest form of flattery.

Teeth, or lack thereof

Thursday:

Friday:

On neither of these days did we have the slightest idea that any teeth were loose. Very sneaky, Ben.

Emma = Thoughtful

Seriously, the girl goes above and beyond. At the beginning of the school year I signed up to send in a game for the classroom to have (for rainy days when they have recess inside). I sent in Phase 10. Just the other day Emma made a point of telling me that she had played it. I detected that tone of voice she uses. The one that's full of pity and I know she feels sorry for me and is trying to make sure my feelings aren't hurt, but trying not to let these things show and to act casual. After some questioning, it turns out no one had played it all year and Emma was afraid I'd be sad that no one had played my game so she talked a few kids into playing it with her that day at school and wanted to be sure I knew it was being used.

Then the other night, I was upstairs getting the kids settled into bed. Emma is allowed to stay up reading a bit later than the others, but since she shares a room with Lydia, she usually stays downstairs to read. So when I came back down, this is what I saw:

That's the chair 1/2, the most comfortable spot to sit, and where Scott and I sometimes recline to watch a little tv in the evenings. Emma must have noticed this, because she had spread out a blanket for us, lined up all of the remotes on the arm, and labeled her offering so we'd be sure to know what it was for.I love that girl.

It's no longer just gas

Afton started charming us with these beauties last week and we can't get enough.

Eye Trivia

How well do you know your Cruze kids' eyeballs?

Retiring the '08 books

Since the new year has begun I figured it was time to get rid of my '08 list and start on '09. I don't know if I'll have time to read as much this year but I hope so. I love it. For posterity, here's my full list of books I read in 2008 (most recent first...I finished the Book of Mormon sometime after Christmas, just in time!):

The Book of Mormon
The Peacegiver - James L. Ferrell
Mayflower - Nathaniel Philbrick
The Choice - Nicholas Sparks
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - J.K. Rowling
A Girl Named Zippy - Haven Kimmel
Stolen Lives - Malika Oufkir
The Blue Castle - L.M. Montgomery
Breaking Dawn - Stephenie Meyer
Three Cups of Tea - Greg Mortenson
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J. K. Rowling
These is My Words - Nancy Turner
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - J. K. Rowling
The Host - Stephenie Meyer
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - J. K. Rowling
Listening is an Act of Love - Dave Isay
Emily of New Moon - L.M. Montgomery
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith

Listening is an Act of Love was one of my favorites, I keep recommending it to everyone I know (including you, go read it!). These is My Words was another really great one. And I might as well own it, I also liked Breaking Dawn. Three Cups of Tea was the most inspiring, but unfortunately it was very tedious to read. I wish a different author had picked up the amazing story, I couldn't stand the one who did. The Peacegiver is one that I would like to read each year and recommend to everyone as well.

Anyway, here's to a very literary 2009!

Simplify

This is our theme for 2009.

Not that we were really looking for a theme. It just kind of happened. Last year our calendars were full and the responsibilities and tasks and objectives seemed to come in tidal waves...each new one cresting before the last had really finished receding. Much of the busyness was fun stuff, it wasn't all hard work. But there was just so much of it (and it was surrounded by all the stuff that was hard work) that it crowded out the full satisfaction. Go, go, go, rush, rush. Then just before Christmas, here comes our beautiful baby #5.

And we stopped.

And the new pace was set.

We're taking things easy and not over doing.

We decided we would take the whole year off from birthday parties.

We decided to take the year off from vacations too. We packed and unpacked a lot last year and we're looking forward to staying close to home for awhile.

We even decided to bag spring soccer and softball.

I'm sure things will pick up again. Even now it's not like we're sitting around meditating by the fire all day long. We're still "busy" with all the totally necessary normal daily stuff. And soon enough we're bound to find ourselves back to our usual runaround ways. We may even get restless and take a trip after all by autumn. But for now it feels really, really good to just be.

Projects

And perhaps the last for some time. Keeping every one fed and clean is about all I can manage presently (and the occasional quick blog post, of course).

I made this bag for Susan for Christmas. I like it. It has a lot of my favorite fabrics and I copied Cally on some accessory ideas for the interior.

I made this rocket (modeled by Josh) for Andrew (tutorial found here). I skipped adding the little astronaut because I was short on time!

I made this necklace for me (tutorial found here). I want to make more, it was easy!

Oh, and look who else is getting crafty? Grammy taught Emma and Sydney how to cross-stitch.