Family pictures 2009

Here is a link to our latest family pictures. It has been a while since we have had them taken as a whole family. Ciera Boyd (one of my former seminary students) took our pictures and she did a great job...we love them. A few crazy things happened however.

We took the pictures by a little stream in the woods and Wesley, of course, fell in. He also could not stop throwing things and managed to throw a rotten horse apple into the water right by all of us. Yes, Wesley is our oldest child! My new WHITE jacket (that I spent a lot of money on--way more than I ever do for clothes) got rotten horse apple stains. It went through the dry cleaning process 4 times and there are still small stains that you can barely see...thankfully. Ken and Ciera also got horse apple on them.

Second, Ken and Wesley picked up poison ivy. Ken got it so bad that one of his arms was twice the size of his other and he has been on oral steroids for almost two weeks. He had to bathe twice a day and put several ointments on and we got to do laundry non-stop, washing everything he wore or touched for over a week. Gratefully, Wesley's wasn't quite so bad, but he did have a spot on his face that everyone at school asked about constantly.

Good thing we like the pictures :)

Family_Pics_2009

Utah Trip

We had a great time spending two weeks in Utah with family and friends. Enjoy the pictures:

Utah 2009

Mons and More

So, we went to Iowa so Cameron could visit his betrothed. Not really, but aren't they cute together and we wouldn't be sad if it happened. It was so good to see our great friends--the Mons family! Thanks for letting us stay at the Mons B&B. The food and accomodations were great!

Although, it didn't get much over 70 degrees the whole time we were there, we had a great time making a campfire and cooking smores and hot dogs. Here is some of our firewood:

Do you think he got enough?

Playing at the beach...

We slid down a cool rocket slide (you can't see the rocket--it is at the top)!

We went to a minor league baseball game (where our two older boys got scared of the fireworks at the end of the game--yes I did say the OLDER boys).

Then a trip to the zoo (isn't that cute)...

Yes, Wesley is letting the fish suck on his fingers. That's our boy!

The grand finale of the visit was the rock band party with costumes and everything...

And we oohed and aahed at our cute little Beth:

On our way home, in true Crow tradition we had to make a trip to the ER in Tulsa, OK. It was for daddy this time and he had food poisoning. Some missionaries and members of the church were there and gave Ken a blessing. It is so nice to have church members anywhere you go. He did survive and we rolled back into Dallas a day late and only a few hours before his third interview with JC Penney. Despite his sickly look, he must have passed the interview because he got the job. We feel so blessed! He was only out of job for 1 week.

Braxton, our nephew (Camie's oldest child), came to stay with Rhonda this summer. We had fun getting to know him better and the boys had a blast wrestling and fishing with Braxie. I know he doesn't look related since he can actually get a tan.

The Putnams also came to visit to celebrate Carter's birthday (we have a big 4 year old now). Carter really wanted his buddy Erick to come to his birthday party, so they came up and we played for a few days. We are glad that they are still fairly close and we can visit a few times a year! Thanks for coming Putnams.


The boys finally got new P.J's (Mario Kart Wii--which they loved) since their old ones were developing holes and paper thin.

And Carter is sporting a new hair style...the pull up look!

Bethany is starting to eat veggies now. One day, I put this cute bib on and I couldn't resist taking a picture of our little flower. The bib is so cute I decided to take it off and use it for looks only. It would surely get stained with gobs or bright orange veggies.

Nauvoo

We all had a great time at Nauvoo. There is such a peaceful and wonderful spirit in Nauvoo. Even Bethany had lots of fun--listen to her brothers make her laugh.

The boys got to make a rope...

Played pioneer games...

And even dressed up like pioneers. Aren't they cute?

Even though it was 90 degrees with lots of humidity, Cameron kept his pioneer costume on for about a half hour. We thought he was crazy, but he would have been a great pioneer.

Mom, Dad and Bethany even joined in the festivities!

We all took a ride on a horse drawn carriage and got a tour of Nauvoo. We were in awe of how much they worked and worked each day just to provide the basic needs of survival let alone their faith and dedication to God and the church. We are honored and grateful to belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints with such amazing pioneers that started it all for us.

Statues of Joseph and Hyrum Smith--martyrs of the Savior and His church.

It was so neat to see this beautiful temple. Last time I was in Nauvoo was over 15 years ago and I remember just seeing the few lone stones that remained from the original temple. We were able to see the Nauvoo Pageant (which was very inspiring and well done) and at the end it was dark and they lit up the temple while a recording of President Hinckley very poetically spoke of how this magnificient Nauvoo temple which was Joseph's temple faced west and over 1,000 miles away another amazing temple, the SLC temple, Brigham's temple stood facing east. Both temples served as book ends where volumes of sacrifices and events have taken place.

It was very emotional for me to hear President Hinckley's voice, see the Nauvoo temple and hear his spirt-filled words. The spirit was strong and I know that re-buiding this temple was inspired. When we first pulled into Nauvoo, you turn a bend and you immediately see the temple. When we saw it Wesley said, "It's even more beautiful than in the picture." And Carter pointed it out to us every time he saw it, which was quite a bit since Nauvoo is fairly small. I am thankful we were able to have this time and experience at Nauvoo.

St. Louis

On our way to Nauvoo, we stopped and stayed in St. Louis for a few days. Some of our friends from our ward (Ryan and Shauna Hinckley) recently moved to St. Louis for orthodontic school and graciously allowed us to stay at their home for a few days. It was so fun to visit with them.

Our children especially had lots of fun just running, swinging and playing super heroes with Nathan and Aerin in their backyard.

After Family Home Evening the kids had a pretty intensely crazy game of Twister. Luckily, there were no injuries.

We also went to Grant's Farm (where Ulysses S. Grant grew up) and had a nice train ride of the property, saw lots of animals, fed goats and watched a bird show. The best part was that it was all free. St. Louis actually has quite a few activities for families that are free! Thanks Hinckleys for a great time (and good food).

Here is Carter snuggling with Wesley. It is cute now, but we hope he grows out of this before his mission.

We also visited with one of my friends that I grew up with in SLC (Matt Lyman and his family) since they live in St. Louis as well (duh-we forgot to take pictures). Actually, they were leaving the next day to vacation in Utah and then move to Ohio. The last time we were able to visit them was about 5 years ago when they lived here in Ft.Worth, Texas and the next day they were moving to Michigan. The funniest part is that we had no idea they were moving both times. If we ever go on a trip to Ohio, I'm sure they will move the next day! We had a nice visit with Matt and Rosemary and the kids had lots of fun climbing trees and playing in a stream (really dirty but lots of fun).