We have been in the house since we can’t get out due to the roads so we have been cooking and making crafts. Tay and Hunt Dog had so much fun beading and making cool creations!

Finally got this up on the wall.  It was so much fun to make.  Taylor bought the wooden Princess saying at  A C Moore.  She painted it with pink glitter paint and we hung it on the wall over her name.  Her name we made with alphabet letters that Wal~Mart carries.  They are made by Provo Craft.  We painted the sides white and picked out matching scrapbook paper and mod podged it to the front of the letters.  Using an exacto knife we trimmed the paper away and then lightly sanded the edges to give it a finished look.  I love how it turned out and so does Princess Taylor!  Have fun being crafty!

These are super easy to make and I have made several for friends, nieces and of course, Taylor! You can make them too over at http://www.skiptomylou.org/2008/09/09/keep-on-rollin/
I love that website! I hope to be sewing a lot more this year.

Can it really be 2010?  I remember being in 3rd grade in 1985 thinking that the year 2000 was so far away and here I am in 2010!  I hope everyone has a great New Year.  We celebrated with the children and played a new game we got from Aunt Stephanie called Beat the Parents.  It was a lot of fun and the children beat us 3 times!   We also made tons of snacks and drank Yoda Soda.  It is a tradition every New Year’s Eve:

Just mix Ginger Ale with Lime Sherbert and drink!

Grant named it Yoda Soda….. well I am sure you can figure out why!

Happy New Year!

It is snowing and has all day!  This might be the big one!   The kids had a blast sledding down the hills at our new house!  Here are some photos:

Roger has the most fun in the snow with the children!  Hunter and his Dad!

They are predicting more white stuff tomorrow!  We may be snowed in for a couple of days and that is quite fine with me!

The weather forecast is calling for snow!  So to celebrate the possibility of snow….my blog is snowing!  Cool huh?

We also made snowflakes out of paper and taped them to the windows.  We are wishing, hoping and praying for Snow!

I found this idea several years ago, not sure where I found it but we adopted it and the children have the best time with this tradition.  On November 30th we wrap 24 Christmas books with wrapping paper.  We place numbers on them from 24 to 1.  Starting on December 1st we read book labeled 24.  We then countdown to Christmas unwrapping one book each night.  The children can keep up with how many days till Christmas while reading their favorite stories.  It is a tradition that has stuck!  Maybe it is a new one your family can try.

Some of our favorites are:

I Spy Christmas by Walter Wick and Jean Marzollo

Olive the Other Reindeer by J. Otto Seibold

The Grinch Who Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss

Look Alikes Christmas by Joan Steiner

Where did they Hide my Presents? by Alan Katz and David Catrow

Dear Santa Claus by Alan Durant

This year we are adding A Lump of Coal by Lemony Snicket, requested by Benson

I am so thankful that Tay loves to wrap!

Hoping you have a wonderful tradition filled Christmas and holiday!

Roger is so fun to be married to.  He has always dreamed of taking 2 slip and slides and gluing them together to make a HUGE slide for the children.  Today was the day.  We have the perfect hill for slipping and sliding on.  This is our last hoorah of summer:

It is amazing what we come up with when the van is in the shop and we are stranded at home.  Roger had some foam rectangles that came in some collectible cards that he bought.  I had ordered some wallets from www.shutterfly.com and had leftovers so we decided to make the Crooks Family Memory Game.  Taylor is an expert with Modge Podge and we finished making them in no time.  If you want detailed directions on how to make them just let me know.

Grant and Hunter playing with their Dad, they loved seeing pictures of themselves and tried to get those matches first:

Summer is here and I love making stuff with the kids.  I saw these really cool Alphabet and Number Molds on Let’s Explore Blog. The kids had a blast making crayons.  They are really neat, they can also be used for cookies, soaps, ice and brownies.  I highly recommend them!   Find them here:   http://lets-explore.net

McKay is our Mr. Wizard, he loves making concoctions and Goo or Slime is his favorite!  We were home all day because it was rainy and our van was in the shop.   Here’s McKay and his blue Goo:

The recipe:

1 cup water

1/2 cup Borax (laundry booster)

Mix until Borax is dissolved

In a seperate bowl mix:

1/2 cup (4 oz. bottle) of white school glue

1/2 cup water

food coloring of your choice

(we used Neon blue and tons of drops, hence the blue hands!)

Take the glue mixture and pour it into the Borax mixture, stir with plastic spoon or use your hands, the mixture will begin to form a gooey slimy ball!  There will be left over liquid, just throw it out when you have your slime mixed well. Store in a plastic bag when done playing.

We have been super busy!  We found a foreclosure that we fell in love with, are in the process of buying the foreclosure!  We know it will be so worth it once we get in the house but it has taken months to close!  We also finished up school and we now have a rising 7th grader….how did that happen?  My kids are growing way too fast!  Thanks for checking out my blog and I hate that I have not posted in a while. 

The mom bucks and smily chart are back.  I have had tons of people ask for a template.  I will get one up soon.  I really just made it in Microsoft Word.  It was super easy.  Roger has a smily chart that is absolutely wonderful and the kids respond to it well!   Have a great summer and enjoy the special times with your kids.

The slip and slide means summer has arrived!

James Bond went to India last year.  The movie never came out though…oh well…maybe we can build up enough buzz to bring it back…maybe?

Special thanks to Mark Daniel and Ben Manis for the help!

What do you get when you take two socially awkward young men and let them roam free while the jocks practice?

Watch the video for the answer…

Our kids love their grandparents and have the best time at their house.  They have the best creek to play in.  Papoo just put in a cool tree swing that everyone loves! 

Taylor loves it….

Landon loves it too…

Hunt Dog would rather get wet and muddy in the creek while making mudpies..

Our local park had a flashlight Easter egg hunt that was a lot of fun.  The kids were not too sure about the creepy looking bunny though.  Grant took one look and said…”You have rectangle teeth!”

Grant was the least scared though, he would run up to the bunny, hug him and pat him on his tail! 

When it got dark, the lights were turned off and a mob of screaming kids running with flashlights made a mad dash to find as many eggs as possible!  It was a sight to behold.  Benson actually got lucky and found a prize egg that had a seat cushion and 2 tix to a local baseball farm team.  Roger was excited about that! 

The well hidden eggs….

Happy Easter!

I love our neighborhood in the Spring!  When the homes were built, each yard was beautified with Flowering Pear Trees.  I had to take a picture of the sight I see when I drive in.  This is also my Photo of the day! 

Here is another sign of Spring.  Taylor picked a flower and was too lazy to put it in a vase.  She told me she was being creative.  That is her excuse for everything now!!  My room is messy because I am artistic!  I just roll my eyes at her! I do love her artsy crafty side though!  

It will not turn upright for me….just turn your head sideways! 

I got a wild hair and decided to make green food for St. Patrick’s Day. I made Lemon lime koolaid, green muffins, and pistachio pudding. In the morning when Grant woke up, I told him that a leprechaun stopped by and brought breakfast! He had the best time drinking leprechaun juice and eating green muffins!
Later that night we made shamrocks from canned bread sticks. You make 3 hearts and then put them together. We sprinkled them with green sugar and baked them.

My lesson today was about the Book of Mormon and how it was published.  I found these cute scriptures made from candy.  Here is the link  http://www.sugardoodle.net/mambo/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2966&Itemid=5

Taylor had the best time helping me!  Here is how ours turned out:

Here is Tay reading them:

They are super easy to make and our Primary loved them!

We went all out this year with our Valentines!  Hunter had the best time making these shovels:  http://jas.familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts?page=CraftDisplay&craftid=11375

They turned out so cute and Mack made some for his teachers!

Happy Heart Day!

We absolutly love football.  The Super Bowl was greatly anticipated by each of us.  I love it because I get to make tons of food and we all get to be together and eat!  Benson loves Big Ben and wore his jersey.  Grammy and Uncle Jon came over.  Uncle Jon was cracking jokes and was picking on Benson’s face paint. Here is the conversation they had:

Jon: ”You know what will wash that paint off after the game?”

Benson: “What?”

Jon: “Your tears when the Steelers lose!’

Needless to say it was an intense game and we were so excited that the Steelers won.  Taylor painted my face and McKay’s face.  I painted the other kids face.  We had a blast!

Roger and I both got suckered into buying the Nerf Longshots for the kids for Christmas, we bought each of them one because we hate when they fight over toys.  Once they opened them, their names were written onto every piece of their Nerf Longshot, even the 15 darts that it came with.  They had fun playing with them on Christmas day but not so much anymore. They are a bit bulky and poor G money can’t even lift his when it is all put together. (The box was bigger than him!)  I am also tired of picking up Nerf darts all day!  One day we plan to let them build forts outside and have a Nerf battle.  Here’s the Nerf guns from Christmas, our duds for the year!

Tay took this picture with her new camera, she sits beside Mac in the van! 

We love to hike, it is so relaxing to be outdoors and enjoy nature but the real reason we like it is because….it is FREE!  All we have to pay  for is gas and some $5.00 footlongs.  We decided to go to Price Lake with Roger’s Sis, her 2 kids and his Dad.  We had a great time throwing rocks in the creek, throwing the football and eating our subs.  We did not get to really hike this time since we had an 8 month old baby with us.  She is a cutie so we did not mind.  The only real problem we had was that we ran out of gas on the Blue Ridge Parkway while we were driving up a hill. (Our gas gauge is broken so don’t think that we are really stupid!)  We were so happy that Roger’s Dad was behind us and he went to get us some gas.  We had to take 2 trips to get gas because the van was on an incline and the gas would collect in the back of the gas tank!  We finally made it home!  Here’s a picture we took. The Blue Ridge Parkway is beautiful!  Just make sure you have a full tank of gas.

We absolutely love to play board games.  We got tons of new board games for Christmas from friends and family!  I wanted to list some of our favorites.  We have been playing a lot of the classics.  We absolutely love Memory and I found these great Memory games at Land of Nod.  www.landofnod.com

One is a candy matching game and the other one is Classic Memory.  We have learned that Hunter is the Memory Master when it comes to these games.  I highly recommend them.

Another great game we got are a set of  card games.  We have had the best time playing Old Maid and Farmer in the Dell (which is like Go Fish).  Here is a conversation that happened today after church:

Mom: “Hunter, do you have the farmer?”

Hunter: “Go Fish!”  “Mom, do you have the WIFF?”

Mom: “The what? What is a WIFF?”

Hunter (showing me the card) said, “you know the Wiff.”

Mom (laughing out loud)  “Oh that is so funny, you mean the Wife. Like in the song the farmer takes the wife!” 

Needless to say it was very fun and we had a good laugh and Roger cracked up too! He is really coming a long way with his reading and the games we have been playing give him tons of practice.  Here are the games:

Another game we love that does not require any reading is Blokus. Our 4 year old can play this with us.  It is a strategy game that I could play over and over.  Here is the game, we got ours from my brother but I have seen them at your local stores such as Target and Wal~Mart.

Another great game we got from Roger’s sis and nephew is Backseat Drawing.  The concept is you are telling someone how to draw something and they have no idea what they are drawing.  It reminds me of backseat drivers that tell you how to drive when you are driving!  I have seen them at Target and once again our 4 year old can play this.  It causes lots of laughter and fun!

The kids are growing up so fast and this time that we spend together I cherish, before I know it I will have a house full of teenagers that may not think it is cool to play these games anymore.  Hope you have fun playing games with your family!

I hope everyone had a great holiday and new year!  Work started back and so did school so we have been busy with that.  I will post some pictures of our trip to Price Park soon but right now I am too tired!