Red, White, And BLUE

This 4th of July season we spent time with Tab from Fresh Mommy and her family. We had lots of fun and laughs. Starting from an awesome yummy cook out to the amazing fire work show that our men put on for us ladies. The weather was so nice for us and because their pool was out of order this is what we had to keep ourselves cool from the weather...


Although the adults didn't play in the water Aliyah sure had fun with it. :)



Sophia had lots of fun in the water too, but then she decided to sit and relax in the shade with her mama!

After much enjoyment in the "pool" Aliyah did some swinging in the trees. And of course Aunt Crystal had to help her get high enough on the branch to keep her butt from smacking the ground. :)




FUN!



While playing in the grass Aliyah found a tiny itty bitty frog! It was so cute!!!!



When night time came around we whipped out the sparklers and fireworks!!








Our 4th of July celebration was so fun, and I'm glad we were able to spend it with family. :)

I hope everyone had a fun and safe 4th of July, I know I did.

Toodles

Reflecting

As I've been jumping from blog to blog I've seen several different posts where people have broke down their year month by month. Just adding something special that happened in that month. Since 2011 is just a day away I feel if I were to wait any longer I'd miss my opportunity to share my year with you...

January 2010
While waiting for the cold weather to leave us here in MI we enjoyed the warmth of hot cocoa and snuggles with each other.
I'm sure something happened in January, I just can't remember. ;) Would you like some hot cocoa?


February 2010
We celebrated my nephew, Jude's, 1st Birthday. I couldn't believe how fast the year had gone by. Jude loved opening presents, but not so much with the whole eating the cake bit. But that's okay, he was still cute.



March
Dresses for Haiti. After that horrible earthquake hit Haiti the ladies at Faith City got involved. We came together to hand sew dresses made out of pillow cases for the little girls and we made blankets galore. It was so fun to get together with all the wonderful woman of Faith City for a great cause. I made 2 dresses. And although it may not seem a lot I worked hard on making those two dresses the cutest dresses EVER.




April 2010
Tristan & Jude's first Easter egg hunt. It was so cute to see the boys searching for their eggs with their own little prizes inside. We had to make sure they weren't snagging other kids eggs and only getting their own. After our egg hung we took a few family portraits.


Trip to Grand Rapids I went on a mini road trip with the ladies at Learning Zone Preschool to a workshop for Early Childhood Education. It was a great way for us ladies to bond and get to know each other a little more. We had to walk to our workshop from our hotel and I spotted this beautiful scene.


The Ladies!!


May 2010
Jeremy and I celebrated our 2nd year Anniversary. One of the best parts of my year was being able to celebrate another great year of marriage. I can't wait to celebrate many more with my wonderful husband.



He's the best in the world... that's for sure.

Although May was filled with love and joy as we celebrated our 2nd year anniversary it was also filled with sadness and heart ache as we said goodbye to my Grandma who went to dance with Jesus. We miss her so much but know she is no longer suffering and is looking down on her family smiling from ear to ear. ;)


June 2010
Jeremy and I spent alot of time at the shooting range keeping our target shooting up to par. We both have a growing interest in hand guns. Jeremy's is more extreme than mine but I do enjoy going to the shooting range and practicing on my aim. It's fun, but also a great way to learn how to properly shoot and handle a gun. I wasn't comfortable with even putting a finger on a gun before Jeremy took me and showed me how to handle a gun properly and safely. He's a great teacher.




July 2010
In the months before we had planned a Kautman family reunion. I've never attended a Family Reunion for either families (the Fays or Kautman) at least not one I can remember. So it was fun to meet distant cousins, great uncles or aunts that I've never met or haven't seen since I was to little to remember. The only thing missing was Grandma, and although she wasn't there in body she was most definitely there in spirit.




I took on a project this month that I had been wanting to do for a very long time. I re holstered our dining room chairs. I wanted something with black and brown in it and found this pattern. After getting it home I realized it doesn't quite go with our decor but I still put it on and figured later I would change it again. That's what I was planning on doing anyway. I big accomplishment for me I would say. I didn't even use a how to I just went in blind and figured it out.



August 2010
Celebrated my 23rd birthday with a little kitty named Ammo. We went to the kitty orphanage and picked him out of all the other little kitties looking up at us with big kitty eyes. I initially had chosen a female cat that was all black, when we went to fill out paper work Jeremy suggested I go in the kitty room one more time and make sure that was the one I wanted. So I did and you know what? I changed my mind. I ended up choosing a male cat that was black and white. We took him home that day and have spoiled him ever since. I mean, he even has his own room. :)


Along with getting a new kitty I also ran the Crim.

It was an amazing experience and will do it again next year with out a doubt. I finished the race in about 36 mins witch is pretty darn good for your first time. I ran with Marla and Dana a couple of friends and co workers. We ended up serperating at some point during the race but met up at the end and took a few victory photos. :)



September
We celebrated my little niece's 4th birthday. It was an Alice in Wonderland theme complete with tea party and a visit from Alice her self.


We also did face painting too. I had to get a flower on my whole face.


October
My best friend Brittney got engaged and one of the first things she did to prepare for her July wedding was begin the hunt for the perfect dress. Did we find it? We sure did!



This halloween was Jeremy's 2nd time EVER carving pumpkins. A new tradition we both enjoy doing. Can you guess which one he did?


November 2010
I went to Seattle for the very first time with my sister in law Tabitha. We had so much fun. We got to go to a lot of cool places, one was the Space Needle. It was huge. We got to go all the way to the top to see the beautiful city up high.





December 2010
I volunteered my time for a great cause. Standing outside Sam's Club ringing the bell for Salvation Army. Now, I know I don't need to explain what ringing the bell means because I think it's pretty much world wide.


Jeremy and I celebrated our first Nerdy Christmas. :) Our theme of our Christmas cards we sent out. It was so much fun. I'm not sure how we'll top next years.


As I close my New Years Post here are my last Truths...
Day 28: What if you were pregnant or got someone pregnant, what would you do? Well I can't get anyone pregnant, but if I were pregnant I think I would be happy. I know Jeremy would like to wait a little longer to have kids, and when I say little I mean little. But I think I am ready to expand our little family. It would be a good thing.

Day 29: Something you hope to change about yourself. And why. I hope to change my eating habits. I'd like to say I have a great eating habit and my diet is healthy but it's not. I need to change that for me and my body. I think it will help me to have more energy and do better when it comes to cooking, cleaning, and doing my job. And add a little workout routine in there. That would be the ultimate change I'd like do. So I guess that means I'd like to change my body. :)

Day 30: A letter to the one you love.
Jeremy,
I can not express to you what you mean to me . Since I was young I knew you'd be a big part of my life, even if I didn't know that meant we'd be married. I enjoy waking up next to you every morning and giving you kisses goodnight. You are one of the best things to have ever happened to me. I can't wait to see what God has in store for our family. And when we have kids what they will look like and how they will turn out. But I know for certain that my love will never change and I will love you forever and always. I love you husband... thank you in advance for all the great wonderful years ahead. :)
Your Wife
Crystal


Be safe everyone as you celebrate the New Year.

Toodles

Christmas Party I & II

Christmas started Thursday night for us. We went to Jeremy's Aunt's house and spent time with his family there and then Christmas eve we did Christmas with his siblings and parents. It was a relaxing and very fun filled night. We were definitely blessed with some goodies there. I got a few scarves and Jeremy got some things for our cars. And I got the cutest ornament ever by my ummm... Niece... :) Bianca.

I love that it has Ammo on their too. Because he is part of our family!

We also made fried Oreos, Twinkies, milky way, and fried a bunch of other goodies. The Oreos though were the BEST! They were so yummy!


Then Jeremy's Dad read the birth of jesus to us all. It was awesome. All the kids gathered around to listen to the amazing story of Jesus' birth.


After going home we got our matching Pajama's on and cuddled in our bed with the "fire" on the Tv... :P


laid our heads down for what was to come the next morning!

Stay tuned for Party III tomorrow!

Toodles

30 Days Of Winter +Day 6

Jeremy and I had our niece and nephew over, and some of you might recognize one of them, It's Baby Blue, Tabitha @ Fresh Mommy is her mommy!!! We were being asked ALOT by Little Man, our nephew, to come over to our house. And since we were having him over we thought why not, lets have Baby Blue over too. Jeremy kept Little Man company doing what boys do best, play video games, and Baby Blue and I made cookies!Yes... that is chocolate on her face, she kept sneaking chocolate chips! She made a big mess with them on the counter, I'm starting to think she did that on purpose so she could snag more than one!Trying to get Jeremy's attention so he can watch her stir the cookie dough.After we baked cookies she saw the lemons in my fruit bowl, so she said, "Crystal, I have a lemon?" So I cut up a little wedge and she sucked on that for about a total of 2 seconds.
After she was done with your lemon, Baby Blue and I made a tent because she was trying to get me to climb under Uncle Jeremy's legs to hide with her, but, I'm a little to big to squeeze in between the tables we have and the couch. After we got bored with our tent, which was about 4 mins, we painted each others fingernails. I just had her use sparkles on me, that way you couldn't see color all over my fingertips instead of my nails. But, I have to give it to her she did a pretty good job keeping it on my nails. She would just dab it in one spot though.
Here is Little Man with Uncle Jeremy. He loves playing Little Big Planet on the PS3, as do I. He was really concentrated on that game, when I called his name he wouldn't even look at me. :)
After Little Man got to play the video game for a bit we ate some dinner, then watched Veggie Tales: The Toy That Saved Christmas. We also played with some flashlights we found and turned off ALL the lights in the house, it was lots and lots of fun! We most definitely will be doing it again!

Until next time

Toodles

30 Days Of Winter +Day 1

7:00 PM - *Ring Ring*
Me: HEy Stephan
Stephan:Hey Cj (My nickname), Malayna is going into labor, I'm on my way to get her and take her to the hospital.
Me: Okay, well, call me when you get there.
Stephany: Okay, bye.

7:30 PM - *Ring Ring*
MOM: CJ come get me and we'll head up to the hospital now.
Me: Okay I'm on my way.
Mom: Take your time and watch out for kids! (yeah I don't know either!?!)

8:00 - We get to the hospital and Malayna is told to walk around for an hour to help speed up her labor and bring her contractions closer together. Every few mins she stops and cringes from the pain. At this point, she is ready to shoot this baby out.

8:30 - Malayna convinces the nurse to let her lay down, and she can't stand to walk any longer. Surprisingly, the nurse, who wasn't very nice, gave in.

9:00- ONly dialated 4

9:00 - 2:30- Sitting around with family talking about way back when we were little, and reminising. Then.... Stephan comes out and says they are starting any minute now.

3:15- Tristan Clark was born into our world, 6 pounds 6 ounces, 18 inches long! And he has my brothers nose!!!

There they are, he is so tiny! Kudos to you Malayna. You did awesome.This was just minutes after he came into the world. Malayna looks so good for just giving birth! woOT!
4:30 - Got home and went to sleep
7:15- Got up and went to work ( I know it I'm exhausted.)
Soon, I will be in my bed catching up on some ZZZ's
P.S. I forgot to take my camer to the hospital, I know how could I, and so I had to use my phone to take these pictures, not to bad for an iphone ehhh!

Toodles