Happy Birthday Samuel!!

We are so thankful to celebrate Samuel's birthday. It is hard to believe he is already 9 years old, the time really has gone fast. Samuel continues to have a sweet kindness about him. At 9 years old now he loves people and easily makes friends no matter where we are. We are so thankful for our son and for every year God has given us with him. Happy Birthday sweet Samuel, we love you very much!


8 years old

7 years old

6 years old

5 years old

3 years old

Claire's boo-boo....

Claire, in her excitement to be able to be in Samuel's room, ran into the corner of Samuel's desk. It resulted in a gash in her forehead, ALOT of bleeding, one distraught mommy, a few calls to a certain father-in-law, and a daddy who knows how to use a butterfly bandage. Fortunately the gash is small, deep, but small.

Thanksgiving in D.C.

We were able to spend Thanksgiving with Brian's family in Washington D.C. this year. Our trip was wonderful and included LOTS of eating and playing. We are thankful for family willing to open up their homes for our crew to stay in. Samuel has waited so long for a boy cousin that he really enjoyed his time with Will. (and Will loved Samuel as well.) Thanks again to everybody for a wonderful week.

Thanksgiving Continued...

While in D.C. we had a chance to see several sites with Samuel and Abby. We were able to have a tour of the capitol and also visit Arlington to see the changing of the guards. Thanks Rachel for watching Isabelle and Claire so we could have some big kid fun.

Competition Results.

Due to needing to unpack and repack, kind of like Mae does all the time, here is the quick update on Abby's competition. She did well, though she was a little disappointed she didn't do better. However, she still won 4th place for bars and beam, and when we looked at her last scores and these scores, almost all of her scores went up. So, in the end, she is ok with everything but more motivated to keep working! I don't have time to post pictures or video, but will do it when we get back home! Happy Thanksgiving everybody! Love, The Crofts

Look what came in the mail today.....

"Ok, let's see visit the what? Hmmm."

"Oh, uh huh, uh huh...."

"hmmm, but how do I...."

"...wow I didn't expect that!"

"Alright who's sick?"

Story time with Samuel.

Abby takes on Florida

For our homeschool co-op, Abby had to make a state or country out of cookie dough. So she decided to make Florida! Now, why the state is pink, and the ocean green? Who knows! (she is a girl) The dots in Florida represent the oranges, and the cookies at the bottom are the Florida keys!

No we are not dead, just homeschooling!

Sorry for the lack of blog postings. I do have pictures to post, and Abby has more gymnastics coming up so wait in anticipation, it will be coming soon!!!!!

Welcome King Peter, Queen Susan, Tinkerbell, and Claire-bell.

We are still buzzing from the sugar high, but we had a great Reformation party at church. The kids had fun dressing up and playing games. Even Brian got into costume! (I went as a tired mom who has had sick kids all week!!!!)


We welcome all guesses as to what Brian went as!








The clouds parted to welcome the arrival of the cheetoh stealing ballerina! (ok, so we were to cheap to buy Claire a costume and just put a ballerina skirt on her!)