Please?

This year I'm doing a Christmas letter with a picture and a real stamp and everything. Please e-mail me your home address supercrawford@yahoo.com. Oh, and if you want to vote on which picture I should print, I'll take your vote too!

2010 Photo Shoot

Is Summer Over???

Spelunking through the lava tubes at Craters of the Moon.






Sometimes it's necessary to transport Dalton illegally, but only when we're picking up a new...


BBQ! Happy Fathers Day Doug!



Willis Water slide.




Idaho Falls Zoo with our friends the Bess girls.


Wild Huckleberry picking after the Ward campout.


A local told us that we weren't finished picking till our hands were stained.


Because Jennie doesn't nap anymore.





Blue Angles.






Swim lessons.





Sometimes the trips to the Zoo, Arizona, Lake Powell, Craters of the Moon, Reeds Dairy, and the Pool were just not enough.


I loved every bit of our summer and already miss my boys, but hey, now I have time to blog. Bring on the school year!

2 Mile Fun Run

Abraham, Abby, Katie, Me, Dalton, Taylor and not pictured Randy ran on the 4th weekend down in Prescott. We had fun, enjoyed each others company, and started another healthy tradition.

I didn't tell Abraham and Dalton about the race till the day before, and Abe was so cute. He "trained" by running around my Papa's driveway 12 times and was even nervous that night as he went to bed. He came in first from our family and wore his number for 2 full days.

Here's my favorite part, the brother run down... Andy (the oldest and fittest) placed in the 10K. Randy ran the 2 mile fun run with us, but somehow was behind us and then in front of us and then again behind till we realized he was taking short cuts every time he could see the trail ahead of him...all in the name of a good photo of course. And then there was Brad, eating a dilly bar at the finish line. Classic brothers.

Behind the scenes were my Papa, Lenora, Sally, Ben, Marielle, and the babies all working the set-up, after race eats, goodie bags, and take down of the whole race. I love working with my family.

Seas The Day

Mama and Papa Nelson made this whole Lake Powell trip possible, I think they enjoyed themselves too.


Joseph enjoyed the sun a little too much resulting in sun poisoning. It didn't stop him for long though, not this kid.


The kiddos enjoyed cousins, boat rides and...


tubing.


The beach didn't disappoint either. Ice cream? Or bucket of sand?


Isn't my nephew so stinkin' cute!


The captain!


With 3 huge flat screen TV's, the B word (bored) was never spoken.


Cousins! Cousins! Cousins!


Inside was just as enjoyable as the outside, especially for the little ones.


Thank goodness for life jackets!


These girls love their daddy.


I may have married a pirate.


I skied, tubed, and enjoyed my whole family the whole time. Thank you Mama and Papa, and Thank you Brad and Lenora.

We're Off!

To Salt Lake for a day to visit Lew and do Salt Lake specific chores ie: shop, repair bosch, early morning walk with my old walking buddies...

To Lake Powell for a week of memory making with the Nelsons and a Fathers Day extravaganza.

To St. George to visit our long lost Klingonsmiths!

To the airport to say goodbye to Doug, he has to go back to work.

Just me and the kiddos to Arizona to spend an unspecified amount of time with family. My grandma Martha will be at my parents house and I can't wait to see her! She has yet to meet Jennie, can you imagine life without meeting my Jennie?

And then back home. Doug is my home. I'm already missing him.

Joseph's Birthday/ Baptism

Joseph's birthday breakfast... Chocolate and Butterscotch chip waffles, he's been talking about them since that day at your house Elise. Yum!


Doughnuts in class! My papa started this tradition. Joe's favorite is the maple one and he talked it up to his classmates all day, so when I brought two assorted boxes in just before the bell rang, every kid wanted a maple. They were good and some of them split one. I hope I can channel Joseph's ability to persuade when he gets a little older and the stakes are a little higher than doughnuts.


Joseph was so excited for his baptism. I'll never forget his smile in the font, he was positively beaming!


He had a ton of support with Abuella and Grandpa, Lewis, Grandma and Grandpa "C", Mishawn, Micah, Brock, Tanner, McCall, Jaymie and us of course making it to his baptism. His friends Maren, Parker and Addison were able to come too.

Thanks for making the trip everyone. You really made the day just perfect. Abuella, he loves navigating his new scriptures, and Grandma "C", he loves his green afghan. Thank you so much!

Grandpa Bud Dalton

Grandpa Bud died this morning. He's been suffering, and my Grandma has been caring for him for about 10 years. It's a blessing to know that he is no longer in pain.

I love this picture of both he and Grandma Martha at my wedding. You can see the love in his eyes, the health in his cheeks, and the happiness they shared.

He was quick with numbers, quick to laugh heartily, and quick to love my Grandma.

The Nelsons take over Lake Havasu City

Some families get together for Christmas or Easter, but our family celebrates Presidents Day with a bang! Lake Havasu City hosts the WPA Winter Blast each year which amounts to 2 hours of the best fireworks I've ever seen set to music and perfectly timed. That's the draw... or maybe it isn't. Maybe it's the 75 degree weather in the middle of my freezing Idaho winter. Maybe it's the Nelson Iron-Chef-cook-off, or the three new babies and their parents or maybe just spending time at my parent's new winter home or watching Chad in action serving his heart out in his ward as the Elders Quorum President, or seeing my nephews for the last time as they plan on serving the Lord on a mission for The Church of Latter-Day Saints or allowing my children to grow even closer to their cousins to deepen those relationships. Whatever the draw, I loved this past weekend, I enjoyed every second of it, (even though I was super sick the whole time) and it was absolutely worth the 16 hour drive. I love my family!

We're already having parties!

We've enjoyed Doug's sister Jolene and some of her family from Spokane in our new home already. Then Mishawn our niece and her son Brock (who is just days younger than Jennie) came up from Pocatello, and it accommodated them perfectly! And then my Jerusalem roommate Joanna came up from Bountiful with her 4 kids to pay a visit, we have loved every second of our new home being full of familiar faces, and so much love!

Poor Brock, most everything to play with was pink or had a princess on it. He didn't seem to mind :)

Christmas has begun

We estimated my favorite huge red tree to have 30,000 lights on it, (if any of you know the truth, please let us know!) Guessing which country the life sized nativities were from was a hoot, but the bubbles on the reflection pool were the highlight by far. Christmas on Temple Square will always be a favorite.

New Draper Temple

We went to the Draper Utah Temple open house the other day. We first watched a lovely video that helped explain the purpose and history of Temples. They then bussed us to the actual Temple. We walked through a maze of tents to the main entrance, and were immediately struck with the reverence of the building.

The tour was silent. My kids of course weren't silent. My favorite quote was from Joe, "Why doesn't Jesus have any toys in his house?" Good question I thought. Within the celestial room, and while looking at the enormous chandelier Dalton commented, "It just goes up forever." Sophia liked the sealing room mirrors the best, but that was toward the end of the tour, and she was about to turn the altar into a trampoline. Overall the font was the best part, with the oxen that Jennie kept saying, "mooooo" to. They had missionaries prepared at the exit to answer any questions, and refreshed us with cookies and tiny water bottles.

Doug and I both remembered attending the Las Vegas open house as youth. We waited in line for hours, put on booties, walked through, and were more concerned with our exhaustion than anything else. The Church has seriously streamlined the process, and I'd say we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Here's the sad part, my camera broke. It wasn't till later at home when I plugged it in that I realized that it just has a broken screen. So here's the only picture we have of us on the temple grounds.
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Joseph spoke in primary this past Sunday, and for his talk drew the temple, so here's his version. Notice Moroni.

Here's his talk... he wrote it, I typed it, he delivered it at the pulpit with ease. I was so proud of my big boy.

Hi, I am Joseph Crawford. My family is going to the new Draper Temple tomorrow. We are all wearing our nicest clothing. I will be nice to my brother and sisters all day. I am practicing good words. I am listening to my Mom and Dad. I am doing all of these things to show respect for the House of the Lord, the new Draper Temple. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.