It's a BOY!!

A few months ago I mentioned that I was going to be an aunt again. David and Erin are pregnant and due in June and this past week we found out that it is a BOY! Jack is going to have a baby brother and we couldn't be more thrilled. Actually, probably the happiest person is Olivia because she holds onto the coveted title of "Baby Girl"...whew! She really treasures her role as the baby girl in the family but with both of my brothers still in the childbearing mode (their wives actually!) we know that a new baby girl will most likely be arriving on the scene in the next few years. But she dodged a bullet and holds onto the title. And so with great anticipation we wait for the arrival of Ryan Mattingly Killion and know that he will add so much joy to our family just as Jack has. We love you Ryan and can't wait to get our hands on you!!

Double Snow Days!!

The last 48 hours have been quite interesting. The St. Louis area has been blanketed by about 8 inches of snow and my kids have been home since Monday at 3pm..,whew! And to top it off Aaron left for D.C. Sunday evening which I think was planned when the forecast was discovered! And so we have had double snow days which means double mugs of hot chocolate, double wet snow gear littered through every entrance to our house, double dressing and re-dressing and double shoveling! Mama is ready for Daddy to be HOME! The girls will probably be the first kids dropped off at school tomorrow. :) Just kidding (kind of..)...we have had a lot of fun but I am ready to get back on track and ready to reclaim the house. Jordan and Olivia spent many hours outside the last few days and didn't come inside until I made them. I gauged their time outside by the brightness of their cheeks. When they became a bright hue of red I knew it was time! They would have stayed out there ALL day! Rachel and Madi were of course huddled under blankets reading and drinking coffee. Nothing new! I am actually not sure if they know that it even snowed.

And so this was our first try at shoveling our ENORMOUS driveway. I am cursing the person that poured that ridiculous driveway since it is at least double of all of our neighbors. I thought our old driveway took a long time but this one doesn't even compare. I finally gave up and only did Aaron's side of the garage since my car is four wheel drive and his isn't. Wasn't that nice? And that still took me forever with my sweet next door neighbor helping me. I am hoping it melts soon because I refuse to shovel anymore. Where are the young boys knocking on doors asking to shovel? They were nowhere to be found today. I am sure they saw our driveway and decided to pass...I don't blame them!

The girls had fun finding all of the new hills to sled down. And I must say that we have some pretty good hills here. They were thrilled and had a blast with all of their new friends. We even met a new girl today named Olivia so that was a bonus. She was much more conservative with her sledding than my girls who like to go down flights of stairs and off huge embankments but I am sure they will break her into the "Crowell way". :)

I must make a confession before I end this entry. When the automated phone call came cancelling school, the girls were still awake and getting ready for bed and I acted like I was talking to Aaron so they wouldn't know that school was cancelled until the next morning. Pretty clever huh? I did it two nights in a row...ha! I knew they would never go to bed if they knew school was cancelled.

And so on this 28th day of January I wanted to wish two special men in my life a Happy Birthday. First, I wanted to tell Peyton Ray Happy 12th Birthday. If God would have blessed me with a boy I would want him to be just like you! I am sad that you live in Houston now and I can't see you every week but I so enjoy our visits and thank you so much for teaching me how to ride a rip stick. Next time I come to Houston I am going to show you my moves! Ha!

And also Happy 49th Birthday to Trey Smith. I told him tonight at dinner that there aren't too many men that I can honestly say that I love but Trey is one of them. He is such an incredible mentor to Aaron and to myself for that matter and we are so thankful to have him in our lives. He has taught me more about what it means to be a Christian than any other person on this earth and for that I am eternally grateful. He is a great man!

Sleepover for 7!!

On Thursday the girls had a half day due to parent-teacher conferences and so the girls asked if some friends could come home from school with them. I happily agreed thrilled that they were reaching out to their new friends at their new school. Well, that quickly turned into 5 girls coming home and last time I counted I had 4 children myself and since I do not drive a bus (I have admittedly thought about it though) I needed to make some arrangements. My sweet next door neighbor Carrie (who has 5 children herself) agreed to take Jordan and Livi home in her car so needless to say both of our vehicles were at max capacity! They quickly changed out of their uniforms and the beautification process began. Everyone started trying on each other's clothes, the hair straighteners were fired up and everyone was giving each other beauty advice. Oh, to be 12 again. (And to try to eliminate the little girls bothering the big girls, Jordan and Livi went to Grammy and Papa's house for the night. Jordan didn't like this arrangement and definitely let me know.) And so after a carb loading pizza lunch we headed to the mall. Wow! Have you ever chased around 7 tweens in a mall...EXHAUSTING! I was trying to be a cool mom and not hover over them but I also felt uneasy about letting them our of my sight so I followed at a safe distance and only got the occasional "Mom, we are fine!" Luckily it was mid afternoon, during the week and so the average age at Chesterfield Mall was about 65. Did I mention that it was 7 degrees? I think most reasonable people were huddled at home under a blanket. This cold weather won't keep the Crowells home!

The big shopping goal was for each of them to find a pair of colored skinny jeans for the big middle school dance. Each girl was successful in their hunt and I believe we have every color under the rainbow spoken for. They should be quite a sight at the dance. They also found matching necklaces, sunglasses and other treasures. So, the shopping trip was complete and headed out. When we got home of course they were starving after their shopping workout so we quickly prepared a spaghetti dinner. They woofed that down along with garlic bread, 4 dozen chocolate chip cookies, mozzarella cheese sticks, chex mix, about a dozen clementines and toffee. Whew! Enjoy it ladies because it won't last forever!

And then they informed me that they wanted to see Mandy Moore's movie A Walk to Remember. And so I headed to Blockbuster... well, the last copy of this 8 year old movie had just been rented. What are the chances of that? And so I headed to another Blockbuster (did I mention that now it is 4 degrees?) and finally found the movie. Praise God. So everyone got settled with every blanket and I mean EVERY blanket in the house and layed in a big pile and watched sappy "teeny bopper" love stories. They all cried! Ha!

About midnight I put Aaron on watch duty and headed to bed. They were perfect. No drama, no fights, no hurt feelings...nothing! If anyone has daughters you know what a miracle this is. We might have broken a world record! And so the first Messiah sleepover was a huge success. These are some of the sweetest girls I have ever met as well as their parents and I can't wait to see how their relationships develop in the next few years. We are truly blessed to be a part of this wonderful community. God is sooooooo good!

Rachel and Madison are 12!!

Yesterday was Rachel and Madison's 12th birthday and I still can't believe they are 12!! Time is flying by. I feel like it was yesterday when we brought our two bundles of joy home from the hospital. We walked in our front door with each of us carrying a carseat, set them down, looked at each other and then said "Now what?" We were new parents that didn't know anything about having babies and here we had 2! We were instantly in love with them and have been ever since.

When I was a litttle girl I begged my mom for the twin Cabbage Patch dolls with brown hair. She searched high and low for them and gave them to me on Christmas morning one year. I thought I was the luckiest girl alive but then God blessed me with the real thing!! He is so GOOD! Little did I know what I was wishing for and how much work it was going to be. :) We quickly got into a routine and learned to function on very little sleep.

And so I feel like I blinked my eye and now they are twelve. What joy they have brought into our lives!! I remember when they learned how to walk at barely 10 months, their fascination with Barney and Superman, the first day I walked them into kindergarten and nearly had a meltdown, I remember them dancing to the "Joony Song" over and over again (this was their favorite song from the movie Benny and Joon), their many trips to the beach where they always met a friend, their first year at camp and how much I missed them and a thousand other memories over the years.

I have loved watching their relationship grow with each other. I love how they still call each other "Sis" and how they can't sleep apart. I love hearing them laugh at night when they are trying to go to sleep and can't help but feel slightly jealous that they have the ultimate human relationship in a twin sister. I remember reading once that identical twin girls are the closest relationship humans can have. I believe it because I see it every day! I have loved being their Mom for 12 years and I can't wait to see what the next 12 bring. I love you so much Rachel and Madison!! Happy Birthday Girls! XOXXO

2009 is HERE...Happy New Year!!

This year for New Year's Eve we decided to have a party and have all of our friends sleep over and have a big breakfast in the morning. We thought this would be a cheap, safe and family oriented alternative rather than going out. At the stroke of midnight as a thousand horns blew in the living room Olivia continued to sleep right in the middle of all of the noise. It was quite impressive.We had a great time with more "catch phrase" (girls won again..as usual!) and poker of course. Around 4am our friend Mike Lawton decided to get makeup applied and dress in my heels. This is so out of character for him it isn't even funny. I am so glad I had my camera. Our sleepover consisted of every bed and couch full of people. Olivia even had two friends in her twin bed...comfy! Breakfast turned out to be a feast with eggs, sausage, bacon, biscuits, cinnamon rolls and french toast. Very yummy! And for the rest of New Years Day we sat on the couch and watched football. What a perfect way to welcome 2009!!

Christmas 2008 RECAP

And so the last party was had, the decorations are on their way down (this will take a while) and the last present has been opened....CHRISTMAS 2008 is OVER. In some ways I am ecstatic and other ways I am depressed. I love this time of year but I also love the quiet of January.

We celebrated with the Walters, the Crowells, the Dunns, the Killions and fun was had by all. The pics will prove this for sure. Some highlights were getting Rockband..the girls might be on tour soon :) ( save your money..he he!), Ugg boots for the twins, my new telephoto lense, American Girl for Livi, and lots of craft stuff for Jordan. I loved the "deer" Livi gave to Papa Brain...classic. I loved Madison's face when she got her diamond, music note necklace from New Papa and New Grandma. I love the fog machine that Papa gave to the girls...another classic Papa gift. One year Papa gave Livi got a huge container of cheese balls. This was her favorite present for sure! Aaron's favorite gift this year was a huge collage print of the girls to hang in his office. I must say that it is pretty great! I loved the cake mix that Olivia got for Rachel because she know how much Rachel loves to bake. One of my favorite gifts that I gave was a photo purse to Grandma Colorado and I didn't even get to see her open it! But I have heard from her several times saying how much she loves it.

We enjoyed our first Christmas in our new house and have started some new traditions. This year Santa left presents under all of our trees...all 5 of them which was pretty exciting for the girls. As soon as they thought they were finished they realized there was more! This might be an expensive tradition but it was very fun! I loved the letters that Jordan (who still desperately wants to believe but really doesn't) and Olivia left for Santa. They stapled a Christmas card to the letter with arrows drawn stating who everyone is...very cute!

And so with mixed emotions I conclude the Christmas Season. I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas filled with the love of Christ...THIS is the true meaning of Christmas and I am so thankful that He is in my life and that He was born for each and every one of us. I hope everyone gets a chance to open THAT gift!! Don't leave it unopened...it is the most amazing of them all!