Happy Birthday to Kellen!!

Well today was a fabulous day - Kellen's 1st birthday! I can't believe how time has just flown by - I think back to...
*my not so fabulous labor
*my anxiety of 'how am I going to spread my time between 3 kids'?!
*having Tyler want to hold him all the time after we got home from the hospital
*my 4 months off with Corey also taking 6 weeks...while spending tons of time as a new family of 5 both here in Casselton, in Bismarck or the lake and in the motorhome - even Kellen's 1st trip to the new Twins stadium!
*Crawling between 4-5 months
*Him laughing and thinking the funniest word in the world was 'ouch' ;)
*Kellen just lighting up whenever his big brothers would play with him
*Lots of teeth and super cute smiles and laughing (sorry Ty and Colt - Kellen has been the best baby of the 3...hardly ever cries
*finally for the 1st time - knowing I am outnumbering most people in how many kids they have, so their opinion really doesn't matter unless I'm wanting it - and finally admitting, I love sleeping with all my kids and for anyone who has a problem with that -they can take a long walk off a short dock!;)
*First steps and taking off walking between 10-10.5 months
*Being a great eater of any food we give him
*Loving to play basketball and shoot like his big brothers
*And finally having his first cupcake ever this morning for his birthday breakfast!

Time certainly does fly by. It's sad to think that he isn't a baby anymore, but it's so fun watching him grow and thinking we may have more of a handful than even Colt on our hands! He walks around and shakes his hand and yells at Brutus (in-laws dog), he shoved Colt with 2 hands this morning just because he felt like it and his favorite thing is to do a belly flop on anyone who may be laying around the ground. He also enjoys throwing laundry into the bathtub full of water and threw some toothbrushes in the toilet last week. Ty is still pretty shy, but Kellen and Colton will be sure to ruffle some feathers if anyone messes with their big BRO!;)

2 quick updates on Ty and Colt - Tyler had his Kindergarten screen this morning and it went just awesome. We could have NEVER made a better decision than to give him an extra year to play and learn and explore and mature. He got 7.5 points higher this year (85 last year and 92.5 this year) and Mrs. Holland was extremely impressed with his motor skills (said most kids flail their arms around and things when walking backwards or standing on 1 leg and hopping - but NOT Ty, he did it all with his hands in his pockets!!)...he also did great with his simple addition and could just look at a picture and know how many of something was on the page. He did really great drawing a pic of himself - last year it was a stick man, this year a full fledge star wars looking kid and even drew teeth on himself! He knows his address and can get his phone number right about 60-75% of the time! These are just huge changes from last year!! Ty also just completed another Fargo Basketball Academy session with 6-8 year olds and was solidly in the middle of the pack - and now it's time for 10 weeks of swimming for both Ty and Colt...holy crap. Can you stay 'driving from work to Casselton, back into Fargo and back out to Cass every Mon, Tues and Weds for 10 weeks?!'

Colton is just as hilarious as ever! He and Ty have majorly gotten back into baseball and Corey plays with them almost every night. Colt's favorite movie is The Sandlot, and he calls himself the Great Hambino and Tyler is the Great Bambino. He is actually sleeping right now with his ball and glove;) This kid is a firecracker, but hilarious and great natured. he is always making the girls at PlayCorner laugh like crazy. He told me he wanted to get his teacher Nicole a special valentine...'Celery';) He also wanted to bring a sucker for Alyssa when she started working there again. He likes to knock Tyler's block off if Ty messes with him and loves to help cook. He just loves making his own pizza! He talks and sings constantly and he could care less if he knows the words - he just goes with it;) His latest 'Colton Classic'...he wanted to take a bath Sunday night and I said no, you already took one earlier...he screams 'FINNNNNNE!' and stomps away and started stomping up the stairs. I ask him where he's going and he screams at me 'I'M GOING TO PEE IN MY BED SO I CAN TAKE A BATH!' OMG. Seriously. THAT is Colt;)

Other than that - Corey and I went to Mexico for a week and had a blast with some friends from DC and are looking forward to the weather around here getting nice some day so we can start playing outside more!!

Ok that's all for now - lots of ramblings and randomness!

Have a good one,

Kelly

Five (5) lessons about the way we treat people (LOVE THIS!)

Five (5) lessons about the way we treat people
1 - First Important Lesson - Cleaning Lady.

During my second month of college, our professor

Gave us a pop quiz. I was a conscientious student

And had breezed through the questions until I read

The last one:

"What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?"

Surely this was some kind of joke. I had seen the

Cleaning woman several times. She was tall,

Dark-haired and in her 50's, but how would I know her name?


I handed in my paper, leaving the last question

Blank. Just before class ended, one student asked if

The last question would count toward our quiz grade.


"Absolutely, " said the professor.. "In your careers,

You will meet many people. All are significant.. They

Deserve your attention and care, even if all you do

Is smile and say "hello.."

I've never forgotten that lesson.. I also learned her

Name was Dorothy.

2. - Second Important Lesson - Pickup in the Rain

One night, at 11:30 p.m., an older African American

Woman was standing on the side of an Alabama highway

Trying to endure a lashing rain storm. Her car had

Broken down and she desperately needed a ride.

Soaking wet, she decided to flag down the next car.

A young white man stopped to help her, generally

Unheard of in those conflict-filled 1960's. The man

Took her to safety, helped her get assistance and

Put her into a taxicab.

She seemed to be in a big hurry, but wrote down his

Address and thanked him. Seven days went by and a

Knock came on the man's door. To his surprise, a

Giant console color TV was delivered to his home. A

Special note was attached.

It read:

"Thank you so much for assisting me on the highway

The other night. The rain drenched not only my

Clothes, but also my spirits. Then you came along.

Because of you, I was able to make it to my dying

Husband's' bedside just before he passed away... God

Bless you for helping me and unselfishly serving

Others."

Sincerely,

Mrs. Nat King Cole.


3 - Third Important Lesson - Always remember those

Who serve.

In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less,

A 10-year-old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and

Sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in

Front of him.

"How much is an ice cream sundae?" he asked.

"Fifty cents," replied the waitress.

The little boy pulled his hand out of his pocket and

Studied the coins in it.

"Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream?" he inquired.

By now more people were waiting for a table and the

Waitress was growing impatient..

"Thirty-five cents," she brusquely replied.

The little boy again counted his coins.

"I'll have the plain ice cream," he said.

The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on

The table and walked away The boy finished the ice

Cream, paid the cashier and left.. When the waitress

Came back, she began to cry as she wiped down the

Table. There, placed neatly beside the empty dish,

Were two nickels and five pennies..

You see, he couldn't have the sundae, because he had

To have enough left to leave her a tip.


4 - Fourth Important Lesson. - The obstacle in Our Path.

In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a

Roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if

Anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the

King's' wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by

And simply walked around it.. Many loudly blamed the

King for not keeping the roads clear, but none did

Anything about getting the stone out of the way.

Then a peasant came along carrying a load of

Vegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, the

peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the

stone to the side of the road. After much pushing

and straining, he finally succeeded. After the

peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed

a purse lying in the road where the boulder had

been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note

from the King indicating that the gold was for the

person who removed the boulder from the roadway. The

peasant learned what many of us never understand!

Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve

our condition.


5 - Fifth Important Lesson - Giving When it Counts...

Many years ago, when I worked as a volunteer at a

hospital, I got to know a little girl named Liz who

was suffering from a rare & serious disease. Her only

chance of recovery appeared to be a blood

transfusion from her 5-year old brother, who had

miraculously survived the same disease and had

developed the antibodies needed to combat the

illness. The doctor explained the situation to her

little brother, and asked the little boy if he would

be willing to give his blood to his sister.

I saw him hesitate for only a moment before taking a

deep breath and saying, "Yes I'll do it if it will save

her." As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed

next to his sister and smiled, as we all did, seeing

the color returning to her cheek. Then his face

grew pale and his smile faded.

He looked up at the doctor and asked with a

trembling voice, "Will I start to die right away".

Being young, the little boy had misunderstood the

doctor; he thought he was going to have to give his

sister all of his blood in order to save her.

A few funny stories from this week!

1. Corey and Ty were working out together the other night – doing situps, arm curls…all of it…and he and Ty were laying in bed later and Ty had rubbed his stomach and said ‘yeah, I think I lost a little here (and patted his belly)’ and then he flexed and said ‘and I think I got a little more muscle here – right where I wanted it (and rubbed his bicep)’ – so funny! He was totally serious;)
2. Colt and Ty were going round for round the other night and Ty was really pi$$ing him off – then Colt and Corey were heading up the stairs to goto bed and Corey tells him to say goodnight to mom…’goodnight mom!’ – say goodnight to Kellen …’goodnight Kellen!’…and say goodnight to Ty…’NO!’ ----SOOOO funny! Then they were laying in bed and Corey said, you are sure a good boy, daddy loves you…and he says ‘yeah, but not Tyler, he’s a nerd!’ and he was serious;)
3. Ok – 1 more…tonight they come inside and I heard Colt kind of crying and Ty came in 1st. I asked why Colt was crying and Ty as cool as a cucumber says ‘oh, he just fell on the ice’ and he kept on walking in. Then Colt comes in kind of sniffling and I look and see a cut over the bridge of his nose and it’s a bit bruised and swollen and I’m like ‘what the heck happened to colt’s nose?!’ – and corey says Ty hit him in the face with a hockey stick. Nice, for 1, Colt’s nose is probably broke and 2…we are raising a fabulous liar!
4. Ok 1 last one – Kellen can stand and I bet he will walk in the next few weeks!

Later!

Kelly

Merry Christmas!

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

Updates...

Well hello! I haven't made a post on here forever so I figured I'd do a quick post to update you all on the boys...Tyler turned 5 the end of May and literally about 2 weeks before school started, we decided to keep him at Playcorner and pre-school 1 more year. He did great on his Kindergarten screen, but we just figured he was always going to be the youngest and we'd rather he be one of the oldest in his class and we are so glad we made the decision...he has had SO much fun being at PC and he is totally fine when his 'schooly' friends go off to school, which is something we worried about. So he started year 3 of pre-school and is loving it and also just finished a 5 week session of bball at the Fargo Basketball Academy. Basketball alone really validated our decision as well...last year when he did 2 of the beginning basics classes he was one of the youngest and this year he was one of the oldest in the session and has done fabulous - Coach Tom uses him for examples and he has really shown huge improvement and is one of the 'leaders' of the class rather than the follower that he tended to be last year. Oh! I also forgot that Ty has 2 teeth that are loose...so looks like the tooth fairy will be making a visit to The Cruchet household in the next couple weeks...I wonder what the going rate is these days?

Colt is Colt - crazy and hilarious! He told Tyler a couple weeks ago he was going to call the cops on him and send him to jail. He also told us he wants to be football player when he grows up to 'smash people into the ground and then throw them in the garbage!' ummm, nice. He hasn't had any trips to the ER lately so we're all good on that front. He is doing really well potty training and we have a challenge going with his daycare that if we can have him potty trained in 2 weeks...we will get Chinese for the staff for lunch one day! He has been in underwear every night and all weekend with the exception of sleeping, so he's doing really well!

Kellen is so much fun these days! He started crawling at 5.5 months (he will be 8 mo. on Nov 10th) and has been all over the darn place - somewhere between 6.5 to 7 months he also started pulling himself up onto everything and started doing stairs around 7 months as well...he can take a few steps while holding onto things, so he's shaping out to be a little Tyler who was early with everything! He absolutely loves Ty and Colt and for some reason, all Ty has to do is look at him and Kellen starts full on belly laughing. He continues to be a fabulous baby that is always SO happy - he either sits and watches or sleeps all the way through the bison football games...fireworks and all! He also started saying mama mama around 5.5-6 mo and is started to get a lot more syllables going:) His favorite things these days are to pull himself up on everything - push a balloon around and chase after it or laugh at Tyler.

Same old same old with Corey and I - we just put the RV away for the winter:( but had some great times and even had it out to a few bison games for tailgating. Corey is getting his knee scoped in a couple weeks so will be set back a bit for bball this winter, but will be good to get it done. We did a trip to St. Pete Beach in Sept for 4 days for our 7th anniversary - great time of just hanging at our hotel or the beach and saw one of my long lost - great Disney friends and her husband one night (Malia and Barry) who live down in Tampa!! We also have a trip coming up in Nov to Ohio - we are hitting a Browns/Patriots game Sunday afternoon and then Monday night Bengals/Steelers game!! The Browns game will be freezing - outdoor stadium 1 block from Lake Erie!

alright - other than that, nothing too major going on...I included some 6 mo pics I took of Kellen and some randoms of Tyler and Colton and our neighbor Olivia...talk to you soon and Happy Halloween!

Kelly

An original song by Colton John Cruchet at bedtime...

ABCDEFG...HIJKLMNOP...LMNOP...TWINKLE TWINKLE LITTLE STAR...QRSTUVWXYZ!

I can tell Colt will be a great interviewee in the future...he obviously had a brief memory lapse in the middle of the song, which was telling by him repeating LMNOP 2x, but hey, he went with it...he wasn't gonna let on he didn't know, he just kept on truckin...with a new twist on an old alphabet song!

Kelly

Tyler story

Ok I haven't made a post for months! I will do one in the next couple days to catch you all up on Kellen and all of our goings-on, but wanted to post a funny Tyler story. He is in art camp everyday this week from 1-3 and yesterday when we picked him up he was just pumped. He said - 'Mom! look what I got!' ...He said I got a bag and an earth! It was a green mesh bag (and an earth stress ball deal) and he says, 'now mom, I have to tell you about this bag...it is NOT a garbage bag, it is a grocery bag and you should take it to the store and get your groceries in it so we don't get so many other grocery bags that create more garbage for the earth!' - I was VERY impressed;) So they must have an earth theme this week which is great - definitely cool to hear a 5 year old come home and tell a story like that!

More to come...

Kelly