Catching Up

At this point I don't even think the usual blurb about "oh it has been so long since we blogged..." will do any good. We know it has been that long. Learning how to parent two wonderful and energetic children has been that time-consuming. Please know we love you all and wish you could be our neighbors and see our kids all the time!

To get you caught up to speed, here is what we now all look like, and yes we added another member to the family (more on that later):

Bernie

Grant

Lucy

Dianna

Dave

The Crest Family

Bernie is the newest member of our family. He is a mini schnoodle (poodle and schnauzer mix). He was born on June 6, 2011 and officially became part of the Crest family on September 10, 2011. He has been a blessing to our family and quickly become a best friend to the children. After about three weeks of potty training and other general discipline, he is now a friend to Dianna too! He loves cuddling, tummy scratches, romping around with the kids and playing catch with the tennis ball.

Grant now has most of his teeth and is growing like crazy. He loves to play hide and seek in our master closet. He eats tons of banana, graham crackers, and yogurt. Grant sings and "dances" with us in the car or at home and generally loves music. He has quite a few words in his vocabulary like shoes, outside, mommy, daddy, and Jesus. We can also get him to fold his arms now at the beginning of a prayer.

Lucy is also growing like crazy. She now loves dress up with her Cinderella, Belle, Sleeping Beauty, and Repunzel dresses. She just got a set of princess mini dolls from her GG, Grandma Garlock and carries them around in her backpack that Kristy gave her. She is learning all the movies in the Disney catalog and it is hard to say what her favorite is right now. She goes to the library with Mommy and Grant every week and will bring home 21 books (3 per night) and 7 DVDs of any kind of kid show (bless Dianna's heart for lugging kids + huge loads of materials to and from the library).

Dianna is now a coordinator for Bountiful Baskets, a produce co-op. Her early Saturday mornings are spent as a volunteer unloading trucks and distributing the load to up to 100 people. She is also still the Relief Society liaison for anything food storage and spends quite a bit of time weekly buying large orders and distributing to members of the ward. She also has a lot of fun getting together with her book club girls every month.

And for Dave, I am working hard at Deloitte and am now a fifth year, significantly only because it is typically the last step before manager. I work on clients in the real estate and hedge fund/private equity spaces. At home the name of the game is bedtime routines or taking the kids out to give Dianna a breather. When not busy with work or family I typically work on my calling as ward clerk or play basketball with friends and coworkers.

Birthdays

Dianna’s Birthday
Dianna asked for a brand new purse for her birthday and she usually goes for the simple and inexpensive but this time I suggested she get something a little nicer. So she picked out a gorgeous new purse from Fossil. Back at home we had a nice dinner for her at In-N-Out, another of Dianna’s favorites and watched a redbox once the kids were down to round out the evening. This birthday was just about Dianna to a T. I love you honey and hope your next year is a good as the last!
-Thanks everyone for the presents and cards. It was nice to be remember!-Dianna

Dave’s Birthday
I really only had one birthday wish this year: to grill my own steak! We got some ¾” thick choice ribeye from Costco… mmm they were beautiful. Dianna made a fantastic cake as well and we had a nice family dinner and opened presents and ate cake. Thanks to everyone for their birthday cards and phone calls and Facebook posts!

Dog Sitting

Our friends needed a babysitter for their dog while they went out of town and we took the opportunity to see if we’d like to have a dog or not. The dog is an older female lab and was an angel of a dog. Lucy and Grant could not get enough of playing with her and every once in a while we had to separate them for the dog’s sake. She did great with kids. Dianna and I enjoyed it because she pretty much babysat for us. We also enjoyed having her because she forced us to get out of the house a little more. Oh… and we didn’t have to clean the kitchen floor at all because she licked it clean every time the kids ate! All in all I think we took one big step closer to getting us a puppy… maybe sometime this year?

Forth Worth Trip

After the Easter weekend I took the week off and my mom and Peter stuck around to watch the kids for us. Dianna and I took advantage of the wonderful gift to take an exotic vacation to… Ft Worth. Yeah, we drove about 45 miles to a little hotel on the west side of Ft Worth and hung out there for five days. We spent the week at the movies, eating out, seeing a few sites, and best of all… sleeping.
We went to a couple of really cool places in Ft Worth. We spent a morning at the Federal Bureau of Printing & Engraving, i.e. the place where they print paper money. It is one of two places in the country they still print money! It was cool to see all the different security measures and all the stacks of money sitting on the factory floor. One cool thing we learned is that the company isn’t a part of the government, they are a separate company and the government pays them between $0.06 – 0.08 per note! Also, if a sheet of bills gets jammed or shredded or something, the printers have to tape the sheet back together to account for every bill before they can leave that day. It was a pretty fascinating place.
We also went to the stockyards which is like a big old western town section of Ft Worth. They do a cattle drive a couple times each day with the biggest longhorns you’ve ever seen. We just walked around and ate some food and took some pictures for the kids. They also have a huge bar called Billy Bob’s. They call it a Honky Tonk but it was really just an enormous bar/concert hall/restaurant/dance hall kind of all-in-one. We went for Country Line Dancing Beginner’s Night and learned a pretty intense line dance. It really got us out of our comfort zone and to let loose a little. We felt so good we thought we’d try another not-so-Dave-and-Dianna activity: karaoke. It was a blast! Dianna sang Carrie and Kelly and I sang the Strokes and ZZ Top. What a hoot!
To round out the week Dianna and I took ourselves to one of our favorite places: Six Flags. We got about 4-5 hours in at the park going on almost all of our favorite rides at least once before they started shutting them down due to high winds. After all these years it is still so much fun for us… doesn’t ever seem to get old a good roller coaster!

Easter

Hey yall, it’s Dave again. Since the two kiddos are occupying more and more of Dianna’s time and energy, we have found that we have to tag-team the blog to get it done. So I will be writing the next few entries!
Family came down for Easter: Mom, Peter, Melissa, and Steve (a few days after). They had a fun time catching up with Lucy and Grant. It was a nice breather for Dianna and me since we got to get out of the house quite a bit without the kids. We gave Dianna the day off for Easter dinner and made a nice meal so she could relax. We made fish, we heard it was a tradition and it was tasty!

Here are some pictures from the weekend. The kids looked so cute in their easter outfits!

Grant's First Birthday

Grant turned one!!! I can't believe how time has flown. It seems like only yesterday that I was still pregnant waiting to have him. He has been such a joy. Grant is a fun loving boy. He still laughs at everything. I mean everything! He laughs when I change his diaper, he laughs when dogs lick their paws, he laughs when we head butt each other, and for so many other reasons. He has his moments for being tough, because if he isn't laughing he is crying! Boy does that boy now how to put the crocodile tears on. But that is okay, he is laughing way more than he is crying. We love him!

For his birthday/Easter weekend Grandma B, Peter C and Melissa C, all came into town. It was fun having them here. The kids loved, loved, loved the attention. Grant's birthday was nice and small just family. That's the way I like it! I made a cars and trucks birthday cake and let him go to town on it. Lucy wanted to help (of course!) Thank you everyone for sending gifts. He loved all the toys, books, and clothes. He is such a stud in the new digs.

We love our boy and can't believe how big he is getting!





















I love these videos because you can see Grant’s personality so well. Lucy is cute as a button too. I also love that Grant is eating the cake so slowly. He did that for probably close to an hour. It was super cute to watch. Lucy wanted to help him with the cake. He did not quite get the concept of opening presents, but that’s okay because he loved all of the presents once they were opened!

Here are just some of the cute pictures from that day.

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day! I read this and thought it was appropriate. I love you Mom! I may not always show it or say it, but know that I do!


Motherhood: An Eternal Partnership with God

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland shares an encouraging tribute to mothers who, through both challenges and accomplishments, work in partnership with God to raise His children.

The work of a mother is hard, too often unheralded work. Please know that it is worth it then, now, and forever.

One young mother wrote to me recently that she felt like the world expected her to teach her children reading, writing, interior design, Latin, calculus, and the Internet—all before the baby said something terribly ordinary, like “goo goo.” She worried because she felt she didn’t measure up or somehow wasn’t going to be able to be equal to the task, the mental investment, the spiritual and emotional exertion, the long-night, long-day, stretched-to-the-limit demands that sometimes are required in trying to be and wanting to be the mother God hopes she will be.

But one thing, she said, keeps her going. I quote: “Through the thick and the thin of this, and through the occasional tears of it all, I know deep down inside I am doing God’s work. I know that my motherhood is an eternal partnership with Him.”

Mothers, cherish that role that is so uniquely yours and for which heaven itself sends angels to watch over you and your little ones. Yours is the work of salvation, and therefore you will be magnified, compensated, made more than you are, better than you are, and better than you have ever been. And if, for whatever reason, you are making this courageous effort alone, without your husband at your side, then our prayers will be all the greater for you. Know that in faith things will be made right in spite of you, or more correctly, because of you. We thank all of you, and tell you there is nothing more important in this world than participating so directly in the work and glory of God.

May I say to mothers collectively, in the name of the Lord, you are magnificent. You are doing terrifically well. The very fact that you have been given such a responsibility is everlasting evidence of the trust your Father in Heaven has in you. He is blessing you and He will bless you, even—no, especially—when your days and your nights may be the most challenging. Rely on Him. Rely on Him heavily. Rely on Him forever. And “press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope.”

Official Web site of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
© 2011 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Sparks Group!

We have some really awesome friends. On the left are the Sweetwoods (Ryan and Holly), and in the middle are the Williams (Matt and Dani). Every year we have a reunion that we have affectionately begun to call the "Sparks Group". At one point we all lived in the Sparks II apartments in Provo, UT. That is where we all dated our respective spouses. There are lots of other ties to each other that make up this web of friendship, like Dianna and Dani are actually some kind of cousins who share a great grandpa or something, and all the boys lived on the same floor in Q Hall (dorums at BYU) and knew each other before their missions.

This year was our turn to host, so everyone drove on in to Frisco, TX. We had several days of fun and catching up and eating good food (easter candy, IBC, and 7 layer bean dip) and playing our favorite games ("The Name Game", "Hand and Foot", and Lawn Bowling). The girls did a salon trip and the boys went to play Topgolf. We got babysitters (two of them) to watch our five kids for Saturday afternoon and got some food and did some shopping. We partied late each night like we were in college still, but then had to get up with the kids early the next morning which reminded us we were not in college still. When everyone left we were beyond exhausted, but a good, happy, smiling deliriously exhausted.

Kids are from left to right: James Williams, Genevive Sweetwood, Allison Williams, Grant and Lucy. And if you noticed, the Sweetwoods have another due in a few weeks.

Cute Kids

Here are a few things to get yall caught up on our cute little kiddos.

Grant now has two bottom teeth, one big front tooth half in and the other front tooth just barely poking out. I make fun that he looks like the beggar from Aladdin the way he grins with his funny, cute teeth. Or maybe he looks like Jack Jack a little (the baby from the Incredibles). We will let you decide.

Lucy has wiggles. A lot of them. We found that she was intolerable during Sacrament meeting unless we tired her out first. So I walk with her to Church and by that I mean... she insists on running the entire way all on her own. We do manage to count some trees on our way there and we usually sing a song or two as well. When we get to Church she plops down on the pew and we have a nice calm Sacrament meeting with her. I am saying this as it has worked about six times now... so knock on would for me please. Lucy with wiggles during Sacrament meeting is no bueno.

Snow Days!

Texas experienced global cooling this winter... it was one of the coldest and snowiest on record. We had four consecutive days where schools were shut down and hardly anyone braved the roads. The thing is in Texas, it mostly ices, so it would rain a ton and then freezing temperatures would kick in soon after. This is what I am talking about, a girl in our neighborhood got on the news by being video-taped skating on the street outside her house:

http://www.wfaa.com/video/featured-videos/Woman-figure-skates-on-icy-street-in-Frisco-115187064.html

Christmas 2010

Hi, it's Dave. Dianna and I fell way behind on blogging so we are tag-teaming to try and get caught up quick.

Christmas was in New Jersey this year with Dianna's family. All the kids came up with all their kids and we had one big house of madness! Good thing the Archibald version of madness mostly involves a ton of junk food, card games, pajamas all week, grandkids screaming and some movies. We anticipate this to be the last New Jersey trip since Dianna's parents plan to move out west, so we made sure to eat lots of Luigi's pizza and soak in all the good New Jerseyness before we left! The kids were angels for the flight there... I took Grant all by myself on one flight and Dianna took Lucy on another. On the way back my early morning flight got cancelled from snow but luckily it left later that day. Thank goodness my brother in-law introduced me to Angry Birds. Dianna stayed a few extra days and flew back with the kids. Thanks to the Dianna's parents and siblings who entertained our kids and shared the workload for a few days... it was a great Christmas present.