We're Having a . . .

When we see babies we have such Joy,

The brothers promise they will never Annoy,

Will we need clothes or even a Toy,

Because we will be having a

GIRL!
Can you believe it? We're still in shock and so excited. (Isn't she cute sucking her thumb? Just like her brothers.)

The boys are excited too, mostly. Elliott cried and said he wanted a brother. I explained that he already had 2 brothers. But he said he wanted another one. I said maybe another time. When Daddy asked if they were excited to have a sister, Donovan shouts "YES" and Elliott says "I'm excited to have a brother after my new sister" We'll see, no guarantees. :) What a new adventure this will be!

Floor Hockey

This year, Donovan was interested in playing floor hockey for his school. Of course, he's Dan's child! So, we had him try it out and he loves it!

Dono in his new helmet

This is Donovan's 1st game of the season. He's new to the game, but for a beginner he is doing great and learning and getting better all the time!

Dono is on the right with the white helmet.

Dono's in the center of the picture with the white head.
His team has done great. They've played 2 games against the 2 toughest teams so far and won them both. Donovan has even gotten a badge to put on his shirt for playing while his team scored a goal (they give badges instead of the point system in pro-hockey). He's very proud of it and hoping to get more. They have so many kids on the team that he doesn't get a ton of play time.
I guess now I would be considered a hockey mom and Dan a hockey dad. We're glad we've got kids who are interested in many things.

Grrrr Jan 13th

This was so funny. Roswell found my tattered oven mitt, slipped it on and started growling at me with it. He's growing up so fast and continuously making us laugh.

My Little Reader

Donovan has been reading words since the beginning of kindergarten this year. He's read lots of little books and some library books with some help. During his Christmas break, he found this book and asked if he could read it to me.

I of course said sure. He read the WHOLE thing on his own cover to cover! It was amazing. It's I think 62 pages! I'm so proud of my little reader. I love how much he's learning even if it means that we can't disguise things by spelling them out anymore. Good job Dono!

Merry Christmas 2009!

Christmas was very exciting at our house. Dan woke up with a flash at 6:30am thinking that he heard the boys downstairs crinkling wrapping paper. Silly Dan, the kids are still in bed. But now mommy's awake too. So we get up and wait... wait... wait... Out of impatience, Dan wakes the kids at 7:30 (We were hosting Christmas dinner -lunch rather, and wanted to be all cleaned up before anyone arrived.) to get started.

The Earl boys in matching Christmas jammies!

Elliott started crying when he saw a stick in his stocking (refer to last Christmas post for our stocking tradition) because he didn't think he would get any treats for being good.


After the sticks were removed, Rossy found his treats.

We had to remind Ross to open presents, he kept wanting to play with his shoes. But hey, he's happy, right?

Enjoying gifts.

Found more shoes!

We had a wonderful Christmas and were once again spoiled by our loved ones! Thank you for all the wonderful presents!

We then had a fabulous lunch with other friends who have family far away like us. We also played fun games and even had a little excitement from all the kids. It was a great day.

Gingerbread

Nama and Papa Earl sent a fun Christmas package that the boys enjoyed making. First we got to make gingerbread men.

Before we started (as you can see, Ross really wanted his cookie)

Ross was happy he got some finally, but didn't want it to wear any accessories.

Putting on the hats and buttons.

Decorating

All done

Mmmmmm!

Dono's man

Oops, wasn't fast enough to catch him with his accessories.

Then we got to build a gingerbread train.

Ta Da! Elliott already wants to take the candy off to eat!

This was a fun activity for the boys, they had a great time. Thanks Nama and Papa!

Welcome Baby Ainsley! Dec. 17

Congratulations to Amy, Jason, & Aidan!

We welcome our newest niece, Ainsley Caileen Brown!

She's so beautiful, and the first little lady of the Earl grandkids.

Big brother Aidan.

Happy mommy Amy

A Night in Bethlehem Nov. 12th

Once again, we traversed afar (not really, only about 20 min.) to Bethlehem to celebrate Jesus' birth. Our branch youth got to play out the nativity for all of us. It was fun to dress up in period attire and have a nice night with good food and a good re-enactment. Even though there were a few mix-ups and some misinformation, it was a success. It was a great way to feel the true Christmas spirit.

Last of the Real Trees Dec. 12

We chopped down the 'ol pine tree. We went to a tree farm to find our Christmas tree.

The boys had a blast not having to walk forever to find the right one.

Roswell decided to chow down on the snow.

We found it! The boys helped Daddy cut it down.

And decided after we found out how much it cost (prices have gone crazy), that this would be our last "real" tree. :(

The day after Christmas we got a steal on a great tree that was pre-lit. Now I can put it up after Thanksgiving instead of waiting for a good weekend. That makes me happy!

Timber! Nov. 28th

After much debate and frustration over lack of edible fruit, we cut down our pear and apple trees. They were way too large and mismanaged and all the good fruit was too high up where we couldn't get it. We figured that if we cut them down now, we could start over again. So the Smiths and Drauts came to help us in our attack. I wanted to be a participant, but was under strict orders from Dan to not lift a finger (I had an earlier scare and was of course sick too).

Tom and Dan cutting the trees

Rossy being Stephanie's special helper.

Teamwork (Dan w/ Elliott and Roswell)

Elliott helping Stephanie fill the barrow with leaves.

...and delivering them to the burn barrel.

A cute surprise came back!

Tom and Dan making the burn barrel.

Burn away!

Even though our back corner is now barren, we have ordered a variety of new fruit trees to come in the spring. We will be having dwarf sized (but regular fruit sized) apple, pear, peach, and cherry trees. I'm very excited for them to come but sad that it will take a few years to reap the fruits. I'll update when those come too.

Elliott's Zoo Trip - Nov. 7

Dan likes to take the boys on separate outings to give them "daddy and me" time. Elliott chose to go to the zoo. His favorite place. He LOVES animals, in fact whenever we have our family night and ask if there is any family business, Elliott always has to tell us that he loves animals.

He was excited to go without brothers!

The arctic fox in full winter coat.

Elli-otter

A roaring tiger

Penguins enjoying the cold.

Uncle John's Cider Mill 2009

This was our 2nd annual Uncle John's trip. The kids love it, but this day was frigid! Winter was surely coming! We enjoyed the indoors and seeing the mill working making cider that they sell in the store along with pumpkin donuts. MMmmmm.



The boys had fun picking out pumpkins (while Papa, Roswell, and sick mommy stayed in the car)

You can see that coming from AZ, Nama was sure cold.

Then we decorated the pumpkins.

(Well, Ross sat and watched us)

Elliott's design

Donovan's pumpkin that he did himself.

Halloween 2009

For Halloween this year, my parents came out to spend it with us. We celebrated by going to a party at our branch building. It was lots of fun.

Elliott the half lion/half pirate. arrrrrr

Fro Papa with my little Rossy lamb

Pirate Nama with Fro Papa

Elliott lion

Dono the airplane.

Dono crashed more than a few times. We lost the tail in the end. :(

Dan was a Grateful Dead fan/hippie, and I was a convict

Halloween is such a fun time to step out of your shell and be something you're not. What will we do next year???

Zowie -October

The most wonderful thing has happened to my family--more specifically my sister Alisa and her husband Jake's family! They get to adopt this beautiful sweet girl Zowie! They were granted custody of her in October and are awaiting their court date in February to make her officially theirs.
She will be four in Feb. and she is just a bundle of joy (or so I've heard, I have yet to meet her).

We're hoping all will go well and that there will be no problems with the judge. Then they will be able to take her to the temple to seal their family for eternity. We're so excited for this sweet addition.

Donovan's Fall Party - Oct. 30

Dan and I get the opportunity to help in Dono's class on Fridays (we switch off each week). The Kindergarten class had a Fall Harvest Celebration (they don't support Halloween) on my Friday. It was fun to watch them have fun fall activities.

Donovan sure loves Kindergarten and he is learning so much.

Sorry

I apologize to anyone who checks up on our blog. I had a spell of computer-itis going on for a while and I'm trying to do better. The computer's hum does not make me nauseous anymore, so I will be backtracking and catching up on what I've neglected to blog over the last couple of months. Bear with me, there will be a bunch of posts but I will make more of an effort to keep it up in the future.

Lack of Posts

Sorry it has been a while since Crystal has posted. This pregnancy has hit her hard and she is yakking like a supermodel. I'm not very good at posting this stuff, but most of the last few weeks have been pretty mundane (besides the vomitting).

Sincerely,
Dan

A Grand 60!

Happy 60th Birthday Dad!

We love you and wish we could be there with you to celebrate. We look forward to seeing you in 2 weeks! Have a marvelous day!

Primary Activity

We had a fun (and very cold) stake primary activity day in Charlotte.

Some of the kids in our stake. We started off by making scripture story bags to teach during family home evening.


Donovan making a prayer rock.

A relay race doing acts of service. Here Dono is folding laundry. (I'll have to let him help me more often. I thought it was funny when he "folded" the socks individually too.)

Holding onto the rod (using the word of God to help guide us)

Then we went on a hayride. First we got pulled by a tractor, then an amish neighbor brought his horses and wagon to take us on a more authentic ride. It was lots of fun. What a nice neighbor!

Donovan and Mommy

Surprise! Guess Who's 30??

It was fun being able to pull off a surprise party for Dan this year. I did a lot of fanagling and got our friends the Forsyth's to watch the kids and "set up" while I took Dan out for his birthday dinner 2 days early. Thank you Emily and Benjamin!!! Dan had no clue. In fact he was a little bothered that the Forsyth's had to leave early and we had to be back by 6:30 so that they could leave. Boy was he surprised! He came home to a house full of people. We counted 31 friends and their kids. I was surprised that we all fit into the front rooms! Thank you all for coming and making this a special birthday.

A hockey rink, what else??

I think the kids really wanted some cake!

They all helped Dan blow out the fire hazard.

Dan and his friend Jeff.

Jeff works with Dan and is also a professional magician. He offered to do a little bit of magic for the party. It was a hit!

I hope you had a wonderful birthday sweetie! Even though this was a few days before, we also got to spend his real birthday with him all day. We had a few days this week full of surprises! We love you!

More...

Isn't it great when you get to re-use clothes? This will be the 3rd time for this beauty!

#4's ETA = June 2010
We love surprises!

Star Student

Donovan came home with this badge today for being an awesome student! I'm so proud of you buddy!

Red Flannel 5K

Ever since I ran a 5K in June, Dan has wanted to do one with me. He looked up different races around the state and found one in his hometown. Cedar Springs is a small town that is well known for their red flannel pajamas. There used to be a factory that made them and now the name stuck -Red Flannel town. The street sign posts have metal red flannel jammies hanging from them all around town. It's really fun. Well, for the Red Flannel Festival, they also had a 5K. So of course we signed up. Our wonderful friends, the Smiths, took our boys Friday afternoon to have them spend the night so that we could have a night to ourselves and run without any worries. It was great! It's been so long since we've had a kidless night! We checked into a hotel in Grand Rapids (with a jacuzzi tub! which helped us relax our muscles) and had a night on the town. We got up early and headed further north to run the race.

wow I'm really short!

It was so cold! I was glad that the shirt they gave us was long-sleeved or I would have been frozen! It rained the day before and was threatening to do so again. We warmed up and then the race began. It was fun going with Dan. We both did very well. We stuck together the whole time except for the last sprint. Dan beat me by 15 seconds, and I was able to beat my last time by a minute. And the rain stayed away until we left. Yea! It was a great day. Dan wants to run again next year to beat his time, but I'm not sure I'll want to just yet.