Will is FIVE

Yea William! We had a blast celebrating Will's 5th birthday last Wednesday. We went to breakfast before school and ate with Bobbi and Kimmy. I brought cupcakes to Will's school for the celebration. And at dinner we went to Applebee's and ate with my Mom and Dad and Kimmy and Ashley. The staff came out and sang to Will, he was so excited! It was fun. The only downer was the baby got sick and Blake couldn't come to any of the fun events cause he was playing nurse to baby. Good Daddy. Will only kind of noticed and he had a great birthday! On Saturday we had a birthday party for Will. His grandmother from Pennsylvania came into town to celebrate his birthday too. Will had his b-day party at Jeepers, it's an indoor amusement park for little kids, or as Blake calls it, a cesspool of disease. We had a good time, but birthday parties are exhausting. I didn't sit down all day. Oh, and I got sick thanks to me kissing the sick baby all the time. Here's some photos from the few days of William David Loder's birthday celebration.

Busy Busy...

This has been a busy last couple of weeks. Blake and I had friends from Kentucky stay with us a couple of weeks ago. I actually didn't take one picture of them... so I guess I will show you a pic of them from the wedding in August.
We had fun with Sarah and Jimmy in town. They came out to look for places to live in case they make the move to AZ in January... good to know your options! we really enjoyed having them around. I could imagine having game night with them any day of the week and loving it. The last night they were in town I made a sort of hodge podge of italian foods for dinner. The baby loved the spaghetti! So did Will, plain, just like Uncle Ben.

And then...

Kimmy graduated!!!!! Yeah, her name was actually listed in the program! It's for real.




and then I drove back down to Mesa from Flagstaff on Friday for Blake's holiday party and Saturday was my work holiday party... where Blake and I won so much in the casino portion that we won three raffle prizes! One of which was an Ipod Shuffle. So exciting.
On Sunday we met all the Loder's at Joe's Crabshack. It was so cold we actually bundled up the baby. Mitten Baby!!!
Will loves Joe's Crabshack cause he can play pool before dinner. He is really good at chalking the stick. He was too funny, making up rules and playing with his hands after he chalked the stick. Cute. I can't believe he is going to be five tomorrow. Time has really flown by too quickly.

Yeah it's been awhile

I finally found some time to upload new pics of the kids and give you an update.
So, I cooked my first Turkey this year. It was a long process, but it was tasty. I won two turkeys from work and I got a brine recipe from my girlfriend Katie. The night before Thanksgiving I had to prep the birds and submerge them in a salt and brown sugar brine. Jenny came over and helped too. We put one of the turkeys into a heavy duty trash bag and into the roasting dish. As we were transferring the dish into the fridge a piece of thyme poked a hole in the bag and turkey juice spilt all over the back and bottom of my fridge. Annoying and gross!!! Well, we cleaned it up and triple bagged 'em. It was well worth it, the turkey was delicious. I also made Granny's mac-n-cheese and Marie's sweet potato caserole. Both of those dishes were good too. Blake made his Granny's stuffing, also delicious, and we made so much that we have eaten leftovers for the entire weekend. It was enough to feed Kim, Ben, Alyx, JD and Jenny all weekend too. After Thanksgiving my family traditionally takes our family photo for the Christmas card, but it was raining too hard and we rescheduled to Saturday, here's some of the pics.





The day after we took these pics I dressed up the kids in little outfits I intended to use in professional photos, but lately things have been tight, so I took the pics myself and I think I took some winners. The kids had a good time too. The baby was more interested in throwing rocks, and Will, of course, obliged in throwing them too.
We took pics at the Dobson Ranch Inn, where our wedding reception was held, and at Bobbi's new house in Scottsdale. We had a great time playing in her backyard!

My wisdom teeth...

So I had my wisdom teeth removed last Friday. I was having headaches I believe were related to the lower ones and the dentist told me they were food traps, so I got them removed... I delayed the whole ordeal a few years. Well, I should have done it earlier cause they struck a nerve (more susceptible to do this when you are older than 26) and now my lower left lip, chin and gums are totally numb. I hope the feeling comes back cause my lip feels humongous and I feel all irritated everytime I touch my chin... Grrrrr! Get those wisdom teeth out early!!!

To some cute and good blogging... the kids are doing great! The baby really has started to move. He started walking a few weeks ago and now he sort of runs around. It is so cute. He chases Will around the house, he just loves his older brother. He is saying "Da Da" and I swear he says "Brother". Every morning he calls for me to come get him, by crying really loud, and then he calls for Brother while I am changing his diaper. It is precious. William is doing good too, but I think he is starting to really react to me giving Eddie attention. If I do something for Eddie I must do it for Will. And Will makes sure that Eddie gets equal attention too, For instance, I was reading to Will the other night and he informed me that we need to include his brother in the nightly routine. So now when I put them to bed I always let them each pick a book and we read them together. They are funny.

Here's some recent pics of the kiddies.

Busy weekend!

Little Shark turned one on Friday! Yea Eddie!!! It was so cute watching him tear into the cake. He eventually turned it into mush and then started flinging it on the floor and walls of the kitchen. I actually took a hose to the highchair when he finished playing with his cake.
Will was Harry Potter for Halloween, so cute!

He got to go trick or treating with his girlfriend, Acacia, who was a princess, she kept changing her mind on who she was, Cinderella one minute, Belle the next. They were adorable and really cleaned up while trick or treating.

I think I will need to take some of Will's candy to my co-workers tomorrow! Will probably won't miss it cause he has been filling up on cake, sweet rolls and cookies... my house has been a regular bakery this last weekend.
Marie went home today and we are going to miss her, especially me, Marie always is so helpful when she comes out. She helps with the kids and house work, but most important she makes Blake so happy. He always has a good time when his Mom comes out. Wish you could have stayed longer Mimi!
We all went to the Zoo on Saturday while she was here and saw some interesting things at the Zoo.
The kids were so cute. Will kept finding picture ops around the Zoo and would ask Mimi to take his picture...
The baby was so cute! He is one in these pics, can't you tell =)
Well I finished up the weekend helping a friend with her baby shower and a dinner with my family and Mimi. It was a busy and fun weekend!

Will and I made sugar cookies this morning before school and work. The perks of working at 10am are hanging out with the kids before work! Will just got back from Utah with Blaine and Shane. They were visiting Shane's family. Will had a great time, but dang I missed him! He had a good time cutting out the cookies and I tried to let him decorate the cookies tonight before bed, but he just wanted to eat the frosting, who can blame him...


Well my Mom surprised me tonight by coming over while I was at work and decorating my tree out front for Halloween... cute!!!! She also left a pumpkin for me under the tree. It was like Christmas on Halloween. I love my Mommy!!

Well now I need to make some crafty things for a friend's baby shower...A crafting I will go...

More from the Crawfords

Hey everyone. Edward Riley's birthday us quickly approaching! Mimi is coming to town to visit us and will be here for his first birthday! We are so excited.
This weekend we had a lot of fun... The boys and I went to Kiwanis Park for a picnic with my work. We played some games and Will got to smash the heck out of a pinata.
He was so excited he shouted, " I'm gonna kick your butt!" Everyone started laughing. I was embarrassed and entertained all at the same time. It was so hot at the park, the baby eventually was stripped to his diaper and he was still not having a great time. I think he needs to be able to walk in order to enjoy a day at the park.
Will made some friends too... My co-worker has a daughter named Casey, she is three and she is adorable! Will and Casey loved going to the top of the hill and rolling the soccer ball down the hill and chasing it. It was so cute and Will had such a good time.