Getting there....

We had about a 7 hour drive, so we left around 7am. Somehow we managed to meet up with Bryan, J'net and Rick in Kingman, AZ at the same time. Uncle Rick wanted to have lunch at a good place he found in....Chloride, AZ! Where is Chloride??? and how did he find it???

It was called "Yesterdays" and it was good, they had great sweet potato fries! It was also the only place to eat, so it was a good thing they were open!!

It took us an hour to cross over the dam because of the construction on the new bridge! Lots of traffic and long lines of cars!

Its still an amazing site to see but the new bridge is unbelievable too!

Once its finished, the trip to Vegas will go lots faster!

Other Activites before....

Some of us attended the Las Vegas Temple! I'd forgotten what a big, beautiful temple it is!

Uncle Bryan & Aunt J'net always make things more fun!

After picking Mark up at the airport, he wanted to treat his Dad to a birthday dinner he would never forget! He took us to the Beliogio (sp?) for a wonderful buffet. It was amazing, the food was so delicious and beautiful! HAPPY 60th BIRTHDAY LAVERL!!

We just had to sample all of the fantanstic desserts!

FOOD, FOOD...all we did was eat! We'd meet for breakfast at the Denny's just so we could start our day out eating!! It sure was all good!

Crosby Family Annual Hearts Tournament

Every year the Crosby's get together for a little friendly competition, playing 'hearts' a game of strategy, skill and luck! They are all coveting this- the Crosby Trophy, to keep and cherish all year, displaying for all to see, who the best, most highly skilled player was!

Uncle Dave is holding the trophy, hoping to win it this year, but alas, last years reigning champion, Mitch Crosby, also won the competition this year, with Dave coming in 2nd, Reed 3rd, (a surprize!) and most everyone else tying for 4th! Mark was winning up until the 3 round, but as fate would have it, his luck went bad!

We had a good showing for players, Chad, Uncle Bryan, Reed and new contenter, Tim, Kristina's boyfriend!

Mitch, Uncle Dave, Uncle Rick and Kristina!

Trent, Mark, LaVerl and Jesse!

We stayed at the Fiesta in Henderson, NV where there was plenty of food, movies, and other activities to keep us busy. The basketball playoffs were another interest, but BYU let us down, although there were some UNLV fans there as well.! It was a fun time had by all and we all look forward to next year to see who has honed their skills to try to beat Mitch, who has won two years in a row!! Maybe we need to get a few girls into this!!

Elk--a forgotten post....

I meant to post this last month when it happened, but time has past! I am now getting to it. This picture was taken off our bedroom deck. You can see all the elk, lots of them. We have had lots of snow this winter, so the elk have come down to eat. This is our backyard. After the big snow it looked like a winter wonderland, so beautiful, pristine, so pure and clean! The next morning we woke up to this, a disaster zone! The elk decided they liked our grass and plants, they really like red hot pokers!

After the snow finally melted, we found more proof, this is right on our deck!

Lots more on the patio, all over our front lawn too and the walkways!

We caught a big, lone elk the other morning just eating at our grass. I tried to take a picture through the glass and got mostly reflection. We spooked him though and he jumped right over our 8 ft fence from a stand still, it was amazing to watch. Your Dad has been waiting with his gun loaded with these elk pellet things from the forest service to scare them off, but they haven't been back!

B-day Weekend

Milea turned 3 and loved ChuckieCheese's

Kaemon turned 5...wow! He wanted a superhero cake with a road and a house.
Milea's favorite animated character is Dora the Explorer and she wanted a Dora cake; not bad I must say so myself. I've been peeing estrogen the last couple days.

Our two birthday kiddos were spoiled by their grandmothers and mommy!

Milea sporting her new stylin' sunglasses and playing with her "laptop".

Quiz Results

Good job family on the quiz. Here are the results and the answers that I came up with. Feel free to double check my scoring, or dispute my answers.

1st- Kari- 14.5 + 2 bonus questions= 87%

2nd- Lisa- 15/19= 79%

3rd- Mom- 14/19= 74%

4th- Tied Bret 12.5+1 bonus question= 71% Reed 11.5+2 bonus questions= 71%

5th- Mark 9.5/19..

Correct Answers

1. Cinnamon toast +1

2. "Tis the Season" +1

3. 1978 Toyota Corolla +1

4. Charles Barkley +1

5. Sneezy +1

6. Mutt +1

7. Country Cousins +1

8. Eat it, or wear it! +1

Don't try it, you might like it. +1

9. Tex +1

Misty +1

10. Mom- 12/23 +.5

Dad- 3/11 +.5

Anniversary- 1/21 +.5

Mark- 3/24 +.5

Anniversary- 10/10 +.5

Chad- 12/29 +.5

Bret- 12/30 +.5

Anniversary- 8/19 +.5

Lisa- 8/3 +.5

Anniversary- 6/6 +.5

Kari- 6/6 +.5

Anniversary- 11/14 +.5

Reed- 4/19 +.5

Anniversary- 10/25 +.5

Tami- 4/4 +.5

Anniversary- 5/9 +.5

Total Possible- 19

Bonus questions- Lake Powell or China

Family History Fun!

So yesterday I was asked to speak in church. The topic I was assigned was "Family History". As I sat pondering on the topic, I realized how much learning about my family history really has impacted me. Elder Ballard says, "There is much focus on family, genealogy, and personal family history, providing young and old with a stronger sense of roots, identity, and belonging." Sister Mary Ellen Smoot, a former Relief Society President said, "I am convinced that as we study the lives of those who have gone before us, we are influenced by their testimonies and strength. I know that family stories can become legacies of faith in our lives." Growing up hearing all Mom and Dad's stories about our ancestors helped me do just that; develop a stronger sense of identity and belonging and strengthened my testimony. I was thinking of how awesome my family is, not only my ancestors, but my very own parents and siblings. I decided that I am going to start a binder of stories for my children. In this binder I want to include short stories that can help my strengthen my children's testimonies, help them know who they are, and find worthy role-models. Sooo, what I am asking, if you so decide to do it, is to write some sort of little story about yourself/your family that I can include in this binder. This can be something like a day in your mission, a time your prayers were answered, a time you received a prompting from the Spirit, your testimony, or just about how you and your spouse met. Anything really! I just want something about each of you that I can include in the binder for my children to better get to know you. Click HERE for two examples ( "The perfect cup of hot chocolate" and "Jesse Wentworth Crosby"). Feel free to make your story a page, a paragraph or include pictures. P.S. this includes my brother and sister-in-laws! Won't this be fun?!

First Flight in T-34c

So yesterday was my first flight in the T-34. Obviously this is not a picture of me. Although I was in the front cockpit, I had my instructor in the back (those last 2 sentences are for mom). I got to control the plane in flight, practice some touch and go landings (where you land and then immediately advance the power control lever and take off again) and fly the coastline of Alabama and Florida. In fact we did aerobatic maneuvers right above our house. We did a loop and pulled a couple Gs, some barrel-rolls, an aileron roll and some wing overs. Fun stuff. We stopped at a small airport, gased up and got some lunch on the house. It was pretty sweet. I couldn't believe how uncomfortable the seat got on my hiney at the end of the day. We did 2 flights yesterday and I'll get 5 more before I switch to the helicopter squadron to do my helo flights.

Crosby Family Quiz

Just for Fun

Simple Rules: You must answer the questions BEFORE reading any comments. Once you have come up with your own answers, then you may go to the comments section, and type in your answers, without being influenced by other answers you may see. This is based on the honesty policy :)

1. Complete this breakfast:

Hot chocolate, canned peaches and pears, and ______________.

2. Which Christmas song did dad like to sing year round?

3. What is the make, model and year of the "little car"?

4. What NBA basketball player did Grandma Crosby say our cousin Mitch looked like?

5. If we (the 7 kids) were the seven dwarfs, which dwarf would Chad be?

6. What kind of dog was Chico?

7. What was the name of the Clogging Group that dad toured with, in his younger years?

8. Finish these two common dinner table phrases

"Eat it or ___________"

"Don't try it, ___________"

9. What are two names of Ostriches we had?

10. No looking these up! Give the birthday and wedding anniversary (If applicable) of Mom, Dad, Mark, Chad, Bret, Lisa, Kari, Reed and Tami.

Bonus Question- Where did I (Tami) always want to go on a mission to when I was little? Hint- two locations are correct.

Kiddos

Our 3 kids playing together... Kaemon and Milea before their first day of gymnastics. Milea loves her leotard!

Have you ever seen a cuter bootie?!

SNOW, SNOW, AND MORE SNOW!

It all started on Tues. we had to leave for Snowflake at 5am and it was snowing a little in Eagar, but by the time we got over the mountain we were going 30 mph and ended up being late for our meeting. By the time we got done at noon, there was no snow anywhere on the roads. Wed. morning we woke up to about 3-4 inches of snow, but then it cleared up and was sunny and nice and most of the snow melted. So much for this MAJOR storm that was supposed to hit. Thurs it started raining and rained most the day and into the night. We just thought the storm and gone around us like it usually does! However, we woke up to this today!! A winter wonderland!

We measured about 14 inches of snow and that's not counting all the rain we got! Mesa is getting lots of rain and our friend said that Roosevelt Lake has risen 8-9 feet since last night! My friend in Nutrioso has been without power since 8:30pm last night, at least we are not dealing with that. We are staying nice and warm by the fire and just enjoying watching it snow! School has been cancelled for the second time this year! We are going to venture out on the 4-wheeler to get the mail, just for fun! This is a record breaking snowfall in the mountains and one to remember!

Is It Possible?? 33 years??

Yep, its been 33 years we've been married! On Jan 21'st we were married in the Mesa AZ temple! I remember it was quite the ordeal. We were supposed to fly from Salt Lake City the day before, but because of fog, our plane didn't even land! We now had to drive all night, about 16 hours to get there in time for our wedding the next morning. Luckily our good friends, Mike & Sigrid Jones, offered to help us drive, so we could get a little sleep on the way. I remember getting to Sonja & Randy's house that morning, getting ready, heading to the court house to get our marriage license, then to the temple by 9am. It was pretty wild, but a good, funny memory. It was a rainy day in Mesa. We took pictures, then we went to visit his grandparents who weren't able to attend. LaVerl had planned a great honeymoon in Mexico, we went to Alcapulco, where we stayed in the most beautiful motel, the Alcapulco Princess, -Mexico City, where we saw the piramids, -Puerto Vallarta, on the beach where I took a parachute ride out over the ocean, then we took a ferry ride across to Cabo San Lucas, after that, a short flight to Lapaz and by then we were feeling a little sick, so we skipped Mazatlan and flew home to Phoenix. I tell you all this because after we went to visit family, met everyone at St. George's for dinner, we realized we didn't have a place to stay in Mesa before we left for Yuma and the reception there the next day! We drove around and everything was full, then we finally found this little dump of a motel and they only had one room left because the carpet was wet from cleaning. We took it!

Another interesting note, we drove back to fly out of Phoenix the next day and met Dave & Mary there who had just gotten married a month before us, and they also went on their honeymoon with us!! Fun Times! Its been a great 33 years, lot of wonderful memories! Thanks honey!

Tagged, too....

Tami's & Lisa's posts were so cute and well done, with alot of thought put into them, with pictures, etc, that mine is almost embarrassing. I wrote these last Sunday and put them in my journal and wasn't going to post them, but here goes....

10 Things that make me happy--

1-My husband! He is so good to me! For our whole married life, I've been able to be a 'stay at home mom' and have gotten very spoiled because of it, hence the reason I'm still not working and have no more kids at home! He also will eat about anything I put on his plate and not complain, how can a wife beat that!
2-My Children! What joy and happiness they bring into my life. Now I have 6 more to love and best of all---I get grand babies!!! I will never understand how they all turned out to be so wonderful and good!
3-My testimony! It brings me such comfort and peace knowing that I have a Heavenly Father that knows me, loves me and has a plan for me to return to Him. He has restored his gospel back to the earth and I can't imagine how my life would've turned out without being raised knowing this to be true!
4- My home! I love living in Eagar, in a house my husband built for our family. Best of all, its paid for and LaVerl is making us more self-sufficient with our cow, chickens, well, and now solar and wind power!
5- My health! I've always taken for granted that I never get sick and that I just seem to always wake up feeling good!
6- A rainy or snowy day makes me happy. Rain reminds me of Tillamook, my home town, where it rained almost everyday! It also means I can stay home and relax!
7- A clean house! I don't like clutter or dust or dirty dishes left undone. However, I'm not a fanatic or a 'germaphobe', and what I can't see doesn't bother me to much.
8-Cooking for others! I love to feed my family and have people enjoy good home cooked meals.
9- My parents! I'm so happy to still have them and for them teaching me my good values.
I thank them for a wonderful childhood and for all they did and still do for me!
10- Chocolate! Its last on my list, but it did make the top 10! Any kind makes me happy--dark, milk, bars, chips, candy, hot fudge, hot chocolate, chocolate ice cream, Lenna's truffles, Extreme chocolate blizzards at DQ, etc. etc.

Now- 10 Honest things about myself-- This was harder because sometimes we don't want others to know our secrets!

1- I'm going deaf! Its true. I can't hear alot of what people say to me. I like to watch all my movies with the subtitles! Drives my kids crazy, except Chad, he likes them too!
2- I'm always on a diet! My cookbook has all kinds of diets in the back and I've tried them all.
Refer back to #10 on happy list!
3- I'm cheap! I can't stand to pay full price for anything. Name brand doesn't mean a whole lot to me.
4- I'm a hoarder and hider! (Tami must get this from me!) I stash away stuff for later and them most of the time, can't find it. For instance, our neighbors gave us 2 1lb chocolate bars for Christmas. I've eaten most of them because I've hidden them and LaVerl doesn't know where! I bottle jars of pears, peaches, applesauce, etc. and then they stay on my pantry shelves looking pretty! Saving them, of course!
5- I'm basically very lazy and a time waster! I can 'piddle' away a whole day and wonder what I did!
6- I love to read fiction and romance novels! It's a curse, I've had to stop! Refer back to #5
7- I love to eat! I love fast food, I love nice restaurants, I love junk, I love ice cream, etc.
Refer back to #2
8- I'm hooked on Sci-fi shows! I like fantasy and superman and vampires! I love my new DVR, now I don't have to miss to many of them!
9- I've always been self-conscious of my big, ugly false tooth and my short, fat, cut off finger! I try not to be vain and let it bother me to much, but sometimes it does.
10- I cry easily. It can be while I'm singing in the choir, hearing someone else sing, saying my prayers, reading a touching story, or watching TV, or if I get my feelings hurt, etc. It doesn't take much and the tears start to flow!

Now that that's done, I tag Kari and Dad!

Hey, we started a blog!

So Kirk and I always said that when we started our family that we would also start a blog. So shout hooray, we have indeed done just that. Here is our site http://kirkandkari.blogspot.com/ Hope you enjoy!

Christmas in Texas

Here's our 6 month old Bubba Baby Zauwen (what Milea calls Zallen). Here's Kaemon on his fast, new Lightning McQueen bike - he loves it!

Our excited kids before opening presents

Santa and Mrs. Claus...shhhhh, don't tell the kids!

A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!!

HAPPY DAY, WONDEROUS SURPRIZE, JOYFUL NEWS!! KARI IS PREGNANT!!
She is actually a little farther along than her baby sister, Tami!! (see Tami's blog!)
This is how they tried to break the news to all of us, while we were all together, with T-shirts that spelled out "Daddy" & "Mommy"! However, it took awhile for us to notice what they said!
We have all been praying and fasting for this for awhile now, and consider this a miracle and an answer to prayers!! I'm posting this picture because Kari was actually pregnant at Thanksgiving, but didn't know it yet, but the pose just seemed natural, like they already knew!!

WE'RE ALL SO HAPPY FOR YOU BOTH! AND FOR TAMI AND RYNE TOO.

Their babies will be born weeks apart, won't that be fun!!

Two Birthday Boys!

Chad turned the big "3-0" on Dec 29th! We all went to the Snowflake Temple that morning and then headed as far as Roosevelt later that day. As you can see, the beautiful water fountain was almost frozen over! Instead of baking a cake, Chad got a giant cookie to eat! Good thing he's easy to please!

On Bret's birthday, all the kids came over to play games, eat pizza and enjoy some good desserts! Later we all went to see 'Blind Side' at 10:30pm! We had the theater to ourselves!

These boys have almost always had to share their birthday parties! Good thing they like each other!
This was what Bret wanted for his birthday! His backyard patio poured. He and his dad worked long and hard, building the forms, leveling everything, hauling 80lb. bags of concrete, mixing it all in a wheelbarrow, working the concrete, etc. It was a long day and he still has one large form to pour! They can't wait to get grass growing in their backyard!

Christmas 2009

Christmas at the Crosby's was fun only because Bret's family was able to come. We would've been pretty lonesome without them and Chad. We missed all our other kids, but now that they are married, we have to share! It was sad that we couldn't dance the 'Christmas Polka' because our old record player stopped working, imagine that, its only 30 yrs old! We managed to keep a few of our other Christmas traditions- Mexican food on Christmas Eve, homemade PJ's, lots of games and food to eat. This year those that came got snowman pajama bottoms, to go with all the snow we had!!

We got Kingston all bundled up in my kids' old stuff, yep I still had the snowsuit, the snow boots, hats, gloves and the jacket that fit! It was really cold, the snow didn't melt for days!

Chad and London dancing to some of the Kingston and the Train!

old music LaVerl got for Christmas!