Yay for a new year!

2009 was completely a blur! Between working 2 jobs and trying to be a good mommy and wife--I don't know where it went. I'm hoping 2010 brings some needed relaxation and less chaos! Facebook has taken over my attempts to blog since it's quick and painless :) This year I am going to try to keep up a little more with this. 2009 in pictures soon to follow...

Quarterly Update

I'm not sure why time is going by so fast lately. Since I'm working all the time I barely have time for my kids let along keeping up here. I guess it's time for an update :) Trust me...you didn't miss much! The main event in the last few months is our baby girl turning 5!!! I can't believe she's such a big girl! She's so sassy and adorable. Cassie definitely has a mind of her own and likes to be in charge. She's very particular about the little things-like what she wears. It can be frustrating but at least she knows what she wants! Here's a few pictures of our birthday girl...









Next came the beginning of Spring and our somewhat annual trip to pick daffodils. The girls had a great time. I love Spring!





In April the girls and I went to California for Easter. Chad stayed home to work (poor guy!). We had a great time! My sister Kati and her family were able to come down too. It had been much too long since we saw them last! Sadly I had to leave my camera with Chad so he could do some work for me back home and I have no pictures :( My mom needs to send me hers!

2 weekends ago we went to Atlanta and Chad's parents watched the kids while we went to Six Flags. The girls had a great time and were completely spoiled. Chad and I got on one ride and then were totally rained out :( That NEVER happened in California! That's what we get for living in the south. We waited a few hours and then left and saw a movie instead. Fortunately we bought season tickets for a few dollars more and we can go back this summer. It was still sad!

That's about all that's happened in the Crowe household. Like I said--you didn't miss much! Coming up...Holly turns 8 next month and gets baptized. I can't believe we'll have an 8 year old! Along with that comes visits from my parents and Chad's parents. We are excited to have company! We'll also be putting our house back on the market this summer. That's loads of fun too (insert major sarcasm here). But you do what you got to do. I just hope it sells quickly!

More California Pictures - a day in the snow

Our poor children...they have never really seen or played in the snow. They are so deprived! We took advantage of the snow in California while we were there and spent a day up in Snow Valley. Chad skiied and the kids and I went sledding. It was a beautiful day! The best part is that you can take the chair lift up to the top of the hill to sled down--no dragging the kids up the hill for me! Poor Holly kept getting stuck half way down and then she'd just leave her sled and run the rest of the way. Thankfully someone else would grab it on their way down. A bit frustrating for her but she seemed to have fun anyway!

The day was made even more exciting by Holly losing a tooth at the top of the hill.

How is this possible?

How can almost 2 months have passed since I last updated this. Unbelievable! Life's been busy, that's for sure! We spent Christmas in California this year which was fantastic! It's hard to travel with kids for Christmas but it's worth it! Coming back with all the extra stuff is especially hard. I thought I was so smart by buying most of our gifts online and having them shipped to my mom's. Then I got there and see the HUGE pile of boxes waiting for me to wrap and to somehow get home. We somehow managed to squeeze it all in just barely under the 50lb limit per bag--whew!

Here are some pictures from Christmas...

Sitting on Santa's lap at the branch Christmas party

Christmas day



Chad and Cassie mixing ingredients for her easy bake oven--so cute! (it's actually a cool-cook oven that works with ice cubes. It really doesn't "cook" anything :)




Okay...this picutre of me is absolutely horid and I only post it to tell you how awesome Chad is! A few months ago I was working on the computer (as usual) and Chad was watching TV. One of those 30 minute commercials came on for a collection of Rock Ballad CDs. Chad kept it on for quite a while and I was singing along to pretty much every song on there. I jokingly said he should buy it for me.

So my sweet husband hunted down the collection on the computer and surprised me for Christmas. I laughed so hard. I love 95% of the songs and it's the kind of music I sing at the top of my lungs in the car--totally cool :)

Thanksgiving

We had a great time in Atlanta with Chad's parents for Thanksgiving. Lots of yummy food and a nice, relaxing time with family. The girls love going to Grandma and Papa's. Once again I didn't take many pictures. I did get these of the girls playing in the leaves. They had a blast!

Happy Birthday Chad!

Happy Birthday to my sweet husband. Thank you for all you do for us and for always making me laugh. I'm so glad we get to grow old together!



This is a few weeks late (major procrasinator here) but we actually did celebrate on his birthday :) The cake was an ice cream cake from Coldstone Creamery--cake batter ice cream with cookie dough and chocolate chips--YUM!

Bowling!

When did bowling get so expensive? It's crazy! We went a few weeks ago as a family. Holly had gone earlier this year on a school field trip and kept talking about it so we went. Thankfully I was able to do a mystery shop at the same time which paid for half of the fun. If we paid for it all ourselves it would have been $80 for 2 games each and shoes--holy moly! We had a great time and played with the bumpers for the kids--Chad and I took all the help we could get too :) I hate to admit it but Holly actually beat me in the second game! This will be a rare outing for the Crowes but it was sure fun!