Crystal is doing WHAT???

Life has been CRAZY busy!

But if you know me, you know that busy is good. When I am busy is when I do my best work. What makes this all even better is that I am gearing up for the HOLIDAYS.

With 2 birthdays this month, Halloween, another birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and then New years...the rest of the year will be a blurrrrrrrrrr. :)

To add to all the special holidays, here is the scoop on the rest of my schedule....

1.

The most important!!! I am a Mom. The girls keep me pretty busy with all the little things. Both of the girls have (what seems like to me) lots of homework everyday. That takes at least an hour. With subjects like math, English and LOTS of Reading. Justin is great at helping out when he can. Then there is the extra stuff like, Emma being Class Representative. She was so excited and nervous. It was so cute to see her want and achieve something that she wanted so much. She had to write a paragraph about herself, read it to the class and then everyone had to vote. The scary thing is that she was the only girl who ran against 3 boys. Her class is mostly boys which she thought would swing the vote. Being Class Representative makes her part of the Student Counsel. She has meetings after school about twice a month. On top of that she is apart of a study group that meets twice a week for 2 hours after school. Both of the girls will be starting soccer soon to add to the madness.

2.

I am a wife. This one comes easy for me, thanks to the great man I married. There are a few areas I wish I was better at...like doing the dishes and laundry. Another area Justin is great at helping out. I am luck to be married to my best friend.

3.

I help run our business. I am very lucky that I get to work with my husband. We get asked all the time how we make that work. Honesty, I think it is magic. Where one lacks the other excels. That makes us a great team. Amazingly it works great for us.

4.

I am a "Class Room Mom". I volunteer 2 times a week in Grace's class. I enjoy it. I get to help the kids with their reading test, read books, help make fun stuff and best of all, spend a little extra time with Grace. She is a great student!

5.

I am V.P. of Membership of the PTA at the girls school. I am having a great time with this and serve with a great group of women. They all have an amazing dedication to the school, but most impressive is their dedication to their own families. It has been time consuming at moments but, (with a pat on the back) I have increased our membership by many.

6.

I am still Ward Chorister for our church. And I am still loving this calling. I do wish it was easier to get people to come to choir practise though. :) But I understand how busy life is for everyone.

7.

I am "Stake Young Woman Camp Director" for our church. This one is a biggie but so far it has been an amazing experience. Basically, I will in charge of just over 100 girls who will attend a week of camp over their Spring Break. We are starting to plan already. We have a theme, a place, and several activities already planned out. I am sure I will blog about it more in April 2010.

**

THAT IS IT. That is my, totally satisfying, full plate. I hope I did not bore you too much! By the way....the picture at the top is my school picture taken for this year. It brought back memories. The last school picture I had done was almost 15 years ago!

The Nick Hotel

This year Grace wanted to go to the Nick Hotel in Orlando for her birthday. We kept telling her they were all booked up. So Friday came and we picked the girls up from school. We told them we had to run a few errands after school. That always gets them in a bad mood. So we start driving and talking, girls grumbling, and the next thing we know Grace is asleep. Perfect! She has no idea we are driving her to the hotel she has been begging to stay at. Watch the video...she was so suprised when she woke up. :)
Here is the girls bedroom...
Here they are having fun on the bunkbeds...






While we were there we went to the Nick Studio. It is basically the old school game show, "Double Dare"

We got to see a girl get slimed. Both the girls had a fantastic time!

Grace Turns 7

Happy Birthday to Grace! She turned 7 on October 4 this year. We had a fun little birthday party for her. She asked for 2 main things. One of them was an ice cream cake. Thanks to DQ for doing one JUST the way SHE wanted it. A pretty Princess with pink trim. The second thing was to stay at the Nick Hotel in Orlando. I will post it separately.

Here she is with a few of her gifts. I can't believe has fast time goes by. I love how independent and opinionated she is. She makes us smile!

Anyways....We love you much Grace!

UPDATE on the "Baby Squirrels"...

The squirrels are doing Super Great! They are now living in the tress where they belong. It was fun raising them but it has been even more exciting to see them released and playing in the trees for the first time. They LOVE it. They even have squirrel friends already! I think our squirrels are popular because they have the hook up on great food! :) Not to mention the squirrel condo Justin built them. It rocks! (Not Pictured.)