Well, the holidays/Christmas has really snuck up on us this year! As I write this, Kellen is sneaking up to the tree to yet again pull down the ribbon and grab a few bulbs! That kid is into everything! With that said, lets start the updates from the year...
Kellen - Kellen Paul was born on March 10th! It was so exciting and now our all boy house-hold is complete! Ty and Colt were super excited and have always been awesome big brothers (maybe not always to each other - but always to Kellen;). Kellen is falling in line with Tyler and doing things pretty darn early. He rolled over around 2 months, started crawling at 5 month, stairs by 6 months and my mom taught him to go 'down' stairs (the right way) by 8 months. Now, at 9 months he is walking along everything, crawling up onto everything, everything goes in his mouth, he tries to stick his fingers in all electrical outlets and got himself zapped a bit by putting a computer cord (plugged into the wall) into his mouth. We have had to be on our toes with him more than any of the others! He is just awesome though - happy and laughing constantly. He also just got 2 teeth while we were in NC!
Colton - Colt started out the year pretty rocky with his treadmill accident that happened right before Christmas. He recovered really well after a few months of often times weekly dr visits and his scars have healed pretty well. He gashed his nose open in late January so we got our first experience with stitches...Oh and then he had to get his forehead glued shut about 6 weeks after that. GOOD LORD. We have had smooth sailing after that though! He is so happy go lucky and hilarious. He turned 2 January 21st and has lots of big events such as learning to ride his big boy bike with training wheels early summer. He is a total daddies boy (Kellen is a mommy's boy;) and always cracks us up. His latest funny comment is: 'I want to go outside daddy, I promise I won't freeze my nuts off!' WHAT?! That was a jaw dropper, but pretty funny! He loves to sing at all times and sometimes breaks into dance. He is a pure lefty and has proven to be pretty athletic like his older brother. He loves to throw everything, play football, occasional baseball, ride bike and LOVES shooting hoops. I am thinking football is his game because he can basically knock Tyler's block off - he will go crazy on Ty if Ty ticks him off and it usually ends up in Tyler (yes, the 5.5 year old) crying and Colt getting whatever he wanted - he has given him a few punches square in the nose and put him in a few sleeper holds that Ty cannot even begin to get out of;) All I can say is - with all these boys...let the games (and black eyes) begin! AND one last note - Colt is now potty trained! Ty was a couple months after his 3rd bday and Colt just took to it! He literally only had 2 nights of accidents and for the past week and a half has been in big boy underoos 100% of the time and even gets up in the middle of the night to go!! Who can say 'cha-ching...NO more pull-ups!?'
Tyler - Ty has had an awesome year! He turned 5 last May 20th with a Super Mario birthday and is just the best kid ever! He was in swim lessons a few times and learned to swim (about 20 feet at a time) and has been in the FBA (Fargo Basketball Academy) a few times and has done great. The last time he was definitely the leader of his class and coach Tom said he should certainly get moved up to the next level! Al and Corey worked with him and taught him to ride bike without training wheels early in the summer and he just loves it. We spent most of the late spring, early summer and early fall outside. Ty loves all outdoor activities, jumping on the tramp, LOVES baseball, basketball, riding bike, football and even kicking the soccer ball around! Even though Ty was above avg for his kindergarten placement test, we made the last minute decision to keep him in pre-school 1 more year. He was fairly shy and always would have been one of the youngest in the class. We did a lot of soul searching and CRAZY amounts of research and talking to all kinds of people from teachers to experts to people who have taught him to parents who sent their boys early or kept them an extra year and it was overwhelming that it made the most sense to keep him and have him be one of the older kids, more mature going into all stages of school and adult-hood, and give him that extra year just to be a kid. We thought he would feel bad seeing his school friends get on the bus and he couldn't have cared less. He adapted great and is so much more mature and outgoing - this was 100% the right decision. He has loved his extra time at playcorner and is now in his 3rd year of pre-school;) Yes, he is one of the biggest kids there and I like to think after being tall and 3 years of pre-school...next year he will be the 'uber-kindergartener!' OH - forgot to say Ty lost his first two bottum teeth while we were in OH! Al and Gisela called us on a Sunday morning saying he lost his 1st tooth while eating pancakes...then they call about 5 saying he just lost another eating pizza!
Corey and I - We loved out time off for parental leave - spent the whole time with family. We took a trip to MSP to see the Twins with Al, Gisela and the kids for their innaugural season in the new stadium - it's amazing! We also bought a RV timeshare at Hart Ranch with my parents and Shelly and John so made a couple trips down to Rapid City - both times with all my family and Al and Gisela went with us once as well. SO fun - swimming, biking, sightseeing, fires...we love it there! Corey took a new job with the Premier National Team at Microsoft and is a Technical Account Manager to some of our top Microsoft Customers - a couple of his accounts are Borders Books and Dominos Pizza. It was a great change for him and he loves it and I am still on the same team as I have always been (Services Engagement Manager for the Southeast - providing sales and project management for billable technical services). We are both so lucky to love where we work and the people we work with. In Sept we headed to St. Pete Beach for 4 days for our 7th anniversary (I think? I'm bad with dates and years;) - just relaxed and hung out on the beach! We also met up with an old Disney friend and her husband (Malia and Barry) and had so much fun after 10 years!! We enjoyed the new Bison football season with lots of tailgating and cheering and also decided to buy in on on some season basketball tix - so we are Bison crazy these days! In Nov we headed down to OH and caught a Sunday Browns/Patriots game and Monday night Bengals/Steelers game - and then speaking of season tix, we got Tar Heels tix again this year and headed down to Chapel Hill for the game against KY with Al and Gisela. LOVED IT! We got a tour of the Dean Dome, took pics in Roy's office and locker room, got a big win on game day and did all the fun touristy stuff we haven't done there in so long!
Other than all that crazy stuff - the other big events were Al, Gisela and my mom Kaye all retiring within 3 monthso of each other! They have all been living up to the old saying 'you are busier in retirement than you are working'...they are all definitely enjoying and truely living life! Derek, my brother-in-law, also came back the end of Summer from a full year in Kosovo!!!! - good thing it was never announced the soldiers (on their charted flight) were getting in over an hour early and NONE of us were there to greet him off the plane...GRRRRR. Ok had to vent on that 1 last time;) Well, time to close and get ready for a housefull of 25 of Corey's family tomorrow!!! I hope you all can answer the same way Colt does when we ask him how his day was...'FANTATHSTIC MOM!'...here's hoping you all have a 'FANTATHSTIC HOLIDAY SEASON AND YEAR YEAR AHEAD!'
The Cruchets
