Here is a cute picture of Mike and Ike (he...he). Also, we posted a video on our blog and then on my family blog as well if you want to check them out.

Will being like Mike

Happy 12th Birthday Steven

I can hardly believe that you are really that old. Hope you have a great birhtday!!

And then there were four...

Just wanted to let you all know that there will be a new little Pitcher in early October.

Productive Morning

It is 11:47 and so far today has been a very productive day. I have exercised, given Will a bath, fed Isaac twice, swept the kitchen floor, mopped the kitchen floor, raked the front yard (4 bags full and there is still a pike taller than Will), done a load of laundry, and taken a shower. I am very happy to have gotten so much done so far. I still have a lot to do but even if nothing else got done today I would still feel like I've gotten a lot done. What about everyone else? Oh, my brother and his wife are having their third girl this morning. I'm so excited for them.

Video of sledding

This is Jason making Layla go sledding!

Sledding

This morning we decided to go sledding. We tried to go down the hill that we live on, but it is WAY too steep. Jason slid down one side of the house, almost propelled off the pad we built for the playground, and ended up imbedded in the sticker bush at the bottom of the hill, not to mention coming to a dead stop against a giant rock, which left a nice bruise on his back. I decided to go down the other side, which Jason stated, "Just for the record, this is a bad idea." I did propell off the neighbors retaining wall, lost the sled, and landed on my Rt hip. Which I am happy to say is bruising nicely. We packed the kids, and the sleds into the car and went over to the church and slid down the hill there. The snow is frozen solid so you walk on the top and don't get dirty and snowy. It was tons of fun. We didn't last too long because Layla and Ryan didn't want to sled. Jason did grab each of them once and forced them to ride down. See our family blog for more pics.

Nauvoo

Has anyone been to Nauvoo lately? When did you go? What did you do? Did you take young kids with you? We would love any information anyone has to share. We are thinking of going there in the spring... if it ever comes! Thanks!

Valentine's day

What is everyone doing for Valentine's? We don't really have any plans until Friday. Then we are going out to eat and then maybe walk around the mall. I know, very exciting. I might see if we can go to the Botanical Gardens instead. I went to Longwood gardens in Philly once and loved it. Ever since then I have wanted to visit all the gardens I can. The Botanical Gardens in OKC aren't nearly as cool or as big as the one in Philly but I am still excited to go. I also think we will have our traditional pink heart-shaped pancakes for breakfast. Mike is also taking half of Wed. and all of Thursday off so when he gets home we are making cookies to take to Will's friends for Valentine's. What is everyone else planning?

Trail Mix???

I don't know why these are sideways, but they took so long to download that I am not trying again... just turn your head!!

We recently have been trying to come up with healthier snack ideas. Aunt Jess gave us the idea of making a trail mix snack with some good things in it as well as some yummy treats. Mikayla recently celebrated the 100th day of school. Each student brought in 100 somethings to share and mix into a snack mix. We thought to combine the two ideas and make something unique to our tastes. We talked about what we might put into the mix. We came up with several things that we like and would be good. I went to the store to get the groceries. What we ended up with was a monstrosity, but they seem to like it. Should anyone like to try this, here is the "Recipe"

Quaker Oat Square Squares Cereal

Cocoa Puffs Cereal

Swedish Fish

Gummy Worms

M & M's

Reese's Pieces

Pretzels

Animal Crackers

Cheetos Puffs

Raisins

Conversation Hearts

Directions:

Dump everything into the biggest bowl that you own. Mix it all up. Eat it, being sure to leave the raisins, the only good for you item, in the bowl.

Rebecca's 14

Here is a picture of Rebecca on her birthday. She didn't make it to school today because she was sick, but by dinner time she was well enough to go out for ribs to one of our favorite restaurants, Tony Roma's. It was delicious. You may also notice Rebecca now has braces. She got them just 2 weeks ago.

Happy Birthday Rebecca!

Happy Birthday Rebecca! Now that you are 14, we would like to line you up for babysitting!

Ryan's First Birthday!

Yesterday was Ryan's first birthday! Checkout our family blog to see more pics. We had a party on Saturday! It was lots of fun.

You've got to try this

I got the message below in an e-mail and after I did it I couldn't stop laughing. Try it and post your results...

Ralph

OK, so this is really weird, but it works..

How Smart is Your Right Foot? This is so funny that it will boggle your mind. And you will keep trying at least 50 more times to see if you can outsmart your foot, But you can't.
1. While sitting at your desk, lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles.
2. Now, while doing this, draw the number "6" in the air with your right hand. Your foot will change direction. I told you so .....And there's nothing you can do about it. Make sure you pass this on to your friends...they won't be able to believe it either!!

Happy Birthday Mike!!

Happy Birthday Mike! Hope you have a fun day. It is kind of sad, as we are all getting older...our birthday's just don't mean as much as they used to. I can remember my birthday as a child...the whole world revolved around me. Mom would start the day wishing me a happy birthday. If it was a school day you would get a special treat brought to share. Sometimes you would get a special crown, or pin, so everyone would know that it was your special day. You would get to have your favorite dinner, cake, ice cream, and presents (presents that you didn't have to think about paying for!!) Anyway, MIKE, I hope your birthday can be fun and memorable, and a little child like!
PS Be sure to go to Mike and Adrianne's blog to see a great birthday pic of Mike!!

Nothing too new at the Crowl's

There isn't too much going on here...Jason has his own shop now. He has been super busy, leaving home most mornings at 4am and getting home around 6pm. It is hard on him, and all of the rest of us too. But we are really grateful that he has so much work. His mom is working at the shop answering phones and keep the place presentable. It has been really fun for him to get to spend a little more time with her. We are excited that he will be able to make a significant amount more money there, although it is a lot more expensive to rent the shop and pay the other bills that go with it.
I have been keeping busy with my calling and taking care of the kids and the house. I still work occasionally, but only about 20hours per month. I am still trying to lose weight, does it ever stop? I bought a new treadmill a couple weeks ago and have been enjoying breaking it in. I have less than 20pounds to get to my premarriage weight, which I haven't seen since then. I am working hard because we are going to Florida with Jason's family in April and I will have to be seen in a swimming suit with Jason's mom, sz 4, and his sister, sz 2 or smaller.
Austin has been busy with preschool where he learns letters and numbers, dinosaurs, plantes, and all kinds of really cool things. He also loves to play playstation. We have to limit his time on it because he would stay in the playstation room all day and all night. We converted our fourth (I NEVER know how to spell this word) bedroom into a playstation room with a projector screen. It is pretty cool.
Layla just started gymnastics. She is totally potty-trained. She is also our little spoiled princess.
Ryan will be a year old next week. He is walking like a drunk homeless man, which is just adorable on someone less than three feet tall. He is such a happy baby, laughing and smiling all the time. He has five teeth now, and just learned to spit.
That is about it. I put a few new posts on our family site this morning too!

What is new with everyone? Mike asked to get transfered to a different part of the base so he could do some engineering. Isaac is still sick and gave it to Will (who is now almost better). We have been sick in our house for a long, long time and I am really tired of it! Will had his first dentist appointment today. Mike is building cool shelves for our walls and I lost a pound this week. We really don't have much to write about this week. What is everyone else doing? Anything fun?

I couldn't think of a good title

So, it's been quite a while since we've posted anything. At first, I couldn't remember what I had used for the new google sign in, and then I just got lazy. Since our last post in december, quite allot has stayed the same. In fact Nick is the only thing in our lives that seems to change other than the weather. He is now extremely proficient at rolling which he proved today by rolling off the bed when Andy went to see what Laura dropped. No one was very happy about the incident. Last week we took him in for his 6 month well baby check and found out that he weighs 21 Lbs, and is 29 inches tall. Most of the clothes he wears now are for 12 or 18 months. I think it's the fault of the radioactive power plant nearby. Well, I hope that it won't take us this long again to get other pictures up. Take care every one.

Sarah Smiles for the Camera

Happy birthday to Mandy, Andy, and Mike for January. We hope you all have or had wonderful birthdays!

Happy Birthday Mandy, TODAY!!

Happy Birthday to you! Hope you have a great day!

Happy Birthday to Mandy...tomorrow

Hey Mandy, Happy Birthday tomorrow. We thought we'd say something today because we remember right now and don't want to forget to tell you. We are sad we don't live close to you anymore. We loved having you live just a town away from us. We also hope you have a great day tomorrow!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Happy Birthday Andy....Now let's see, how old are you? 24...I am 27 and you are 3.5 years younger than I am...Anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!

BRRRR...

In case you have not heard me complain yet, I wanted to let you all know: IT IS COLD HERE!!! Today I went to the grocery store, it was -16 outside. We are under wind chill advisory, the news said: If you must go outside wear hat and gloves. These conditions can lead to hypothermia and frost bite. Needless to say, I have not left the house much lately. I just checked them mail for the first time in 4 days. I hate to send Mikayla out to school in this, but she doesn't seem to mind much. Wind chill readings are 25 to 30 below for this morning. By the end of next week they are forecasting a warm up... 15-20 degrees!! Did I mention it is COLD?!?! I know that if we make it through January, we will survive the winter!

Mike got selected...now we wait

Richards,

FYI, I just formally approved you for the 21 month EE program. You'll get something official from the registrar, and hopefully AFPC will support an assignment.

Take care!

Juan R. Vasquez, Lt Col, USAF, Ph. D.
Assistant Professor
Air Force Institute of Technology

Sunbeams

Braden officially became a Sunbeam this week in primary. The nursery leader made hats and ribbons for the kids to take with them to primary. I had to sit in those little tiny chairs in the front row holding Braden during singing time and sharing time, but he went to class without me just fine. Thank goodness! Hopefully next week he will be able to sit without me the whole time... I'm not counting on it though.

Family Pix

We had a great Christmas this year, or last year... I put up lots of pictures of our activities on the Pitcher Family blog, HINT HINT!

Just so you know...

Mike just took the GRE yesterday and did an awesome job! I am very proud of him. He got a 1440 (670 on English 770 on Math). So, if you talk to him, make sure you congratulate him.

Even more

Pictures continued

Fun in Maryland

Here are pictures of our trip to Grandma and Grandpa's house. We had a great time and took a lot of pictures.

Pictures of the Kids

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! We have had a wonderful day so far. We actually got to sleep in until 7:45!! We decided to wake Ryan because the other kids were ready to come downstairs and open presents. Santa was VERY good to us. The kids had lots of fun. We are all ready for a nap now, and it is only 10am. We will be going to Mom and Dad's for a pizza dinner (Adrianne's family tradition).
I will be posting more Christmas picture on our family blog, if you are bored.
We love you all! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Happy Anniversary!!

Today is mom and dad's 35th wedding anniversary. Dad once told me that tonight is the longest night of the year...I wonder why they got married on this night...don't think about it too hard though, they are our parents!
We love you! Happy anniversary!

Turbocharger Jet Engine

Hey, I'm considering trying to make a turbocharger jet engine. Wouldn't that be cool? Here's an interesting web-site that talks about it. http://www.salvatoreaiello.com/main.shtml What do you all think?

Mike

Let it snow!

Nick's first time in the snow might be the only chance he gets this year. I didn't expect a snow storm in the first week of December, but we certainly enjoyed it. Especialy sence I got out of PT for two days, though we still had to go to school. Nick didn't understand the principle of snow angles

It's the most wonderfull time of the year

We love Christmas. We've been wanting to put these pictures up for a while now, so here they finaly are. Hope you enjoy them. Not too much new has been happening around here, but we did get Nick in for his four month well baby on friday. He weighed 18 lbs, 2oz, 95%. 26in tall, 90%. head 75-90%. He will now only fit in 6 month clothes. I'm worried he will never fin in anything for more than a month at a time:(

Excitement at the Crowl's

Today Ryan took his first steps. Once I caught him out of the corner of my eye and was not positive that he had done it. Then a little while later he did it again! He is 10months and 3days old. A little early in my opinion, but he is so cute, I guess I won't cut his legs off!
He also had another great accomplishment. He dialed 911 with his mouth and the cops showed up! It was the same one who came about a month ago when Austin dialed 911. Fortunately he was pleasant. I tried to lecture Ryan about dialing 911 when there isn't an emergency, but he just laughed at me. O'well, maybe his mother should pay more attention to the phone and where she puts it!

Laura and Sarah

Here you go Jessica:)

Cumpleaños felices Laura

Arrepentido esto es tarde. ¡Espere que usted tuviera un gran cumpleaños! ¡Adoramos y le perdemos!

Sarah May is Here!!!

Sarah was born on Monday December 4th at 7:36 PM. She was 19 inches long and weighed 6 pounds 10 ounces. After the delivery the doctor, who happens to be the bishop in a ward just North of us, asked if he could play us some celebration music. He played and sang some beautiful songs for about 15 minutes. All went well today and we are all so happy to have Sarah with us. I will post more pictures tomorrow. The picture that shows Sarah's face the best is the one with Laura's mom holding her.