Crazy Crawford Cousin Christmas 2009!!

Ok. I know I'm REALLY overdue getting these pictures out! No judging please! :) I have gotten the comment from a few people that "we are always going somewhere!" I didn't really think going to visit family in 2 states meant that we were always going. I feel like it's really important to keep those family ties strong.... Anyway, when I blog about our "trip" I guess I feel like we're having those family get-to-gethers that everyone else has, we just have to travel 800 miles to get to it! We live away from all family...and really love it here, but something we definitely miss is having memories with family. All of David's siblings came out to San Jose this year for Christmas! That was a Christmas present in itself! David, Cathy and Ginger all married within about 2 months of each other and Greg got married the year after. The fun thing about that is that all of our kids are around each other's ages! The Crawford home was a BLAST this Christmas! I'll try to capture the fun we had by showing some pictures and telling about some of it!

Abbie and Hawley are almost a year apart...but they seemed to be 2 peas in a pod! So fun to watch them play. They always wanted their hair done the same way or wanted to dress alike. You know, the typical girl thing. They were just instantly bonded from the time they got together until the time we all left! It's funny because Abbie and Hawley both have only brothers...so it was great to have some girl power! Then once Cathy and Dan showed up with their 3 girls, they really felt the power!

A Crawford tradition is to receive pj's on Christmas Eve. We were missing a few cousins here, but had to capture the ones that were there! Everyone is sporting their new pajamas and having such a fun time! The kids ALL did so well! I couldn't believe how much fun they had! They would stay up so late and get up so early. I really thought we would have crabby fighting kids. They couldn't seem to get enough of each other! SOOOO fun!

Holden is Justin and Ginger's baby. He was born a little early and is still so Little! He is 4 months old, so he can hold his head up and look around, but his little body looks like a newborn. He is small and light and just FUN to hold! We all wanted to hold him! I only got a few pictures of that, but I'm sure Holden had withdrawls after he left San Jose. I don't think he ever got put down! Your arm never felt like falling off after holding him for a long period of time! I miss him!

Uncle Greg and Uncle Justin each read the kids a Christmas story on Christmas eve after the kids settled down from getting new jammies and stuff. Always fun to see the uncles getting involved! :)

Crawford tradition from the time David was a kid until now is that the kids have to wait at the top of the stairs to come down. Then they are allowed to go and get their stocking and open anything that is inside of them. They like to really DRAG the day out! Poor Eli was still feeling a little sick on Christmas morning. His fever had gone away, but he was definitely not himself! We forgot to bring their stockings, so had to improvise and bought stockings at the dollar store. It for sure was not one of those "spendy" Chrimstmas' but it was a fun one nontheless...

As I was saying, it wasn't a big spendy Christmas. The kids each got 3 things. We told the kids our main Christmas present was traveling. They were really good about it. I thought I'd get a little complaining when I said that. They surprised me by being understanding and wrote on a list the 3 things they would want. They weren't big huge expensive things either! I think they were just so happy to be with their cousins....it didn't even matter what they got! That is truly the way I like Christmas to be! When we can just enjoy the feelings and the spirit of Christmas. Am I sounding like a broken record? Does that make me sound old since no one even knows what a record is anymore?

The Langlois are practically family to us. We love them like they are our family. When we lived in San Jose, we were always doing something with them! They have always been so good to us and have taken a special liking to Abbie Claire. Doug, Sheri, Sara, her fiance Steve and Jake....we love having them over and spending time with them for sure!

Abbie and Hawley couldn't seem to get enough of those boys. They were hanging on Jake and Steve probably more than they wanted. Jake definitely has a Crawford Fan Club whether he wants it or not! Abbie can be shy with people after not seeing them for a while, but for some reason, when she sees Jake she picks up where she left off! She loves him!

Steve Fisher is Sara's Fiance. We really like him! He and Sara do alot of Country dancing. The girls all saw Steve and Sara dancing and wanted to try some of that. What a fun guy huh? I think he got more than he bargained for! He seriously was sweating picking up all these little girls and swinging them around. He taught them a bunch of lifts and stuff. At one point one of the girls went and got an ice pack out of the freezer to cool him off and a wash cloth to wipe off his sweat! They didn't think to say they had enough so he could cool down, they just took care of the overheating man that was lifting them into the air! Notice Abbie and her pointed toes! She just loved it! Now whenever we pick her up...she swings her legs in some of these poses and just points her toes like crazy! Fun times!

Grandma and Mason! Don't they look cute together? My kids have a special bond with these grandparents. I think it's because we lived with them for 6 years. I know, 6 years...huh? So Bob and Linda seemed like a 2nd set of parents while we were living there! We really did enjoy it. There was a lot of good that came from us staying there. I'm sure they're glad to have their home back now though!

Oh man are you in for a treat now! It is time to view the Crawford Family Talent Show! Who would've known there were so many talented people in one family? :) Side note....the thing that is funny is that we PAY money to have the kids do sports and take dance lessons, but the kids didn't do anything in the talent show that we actually PAY for! Keep scrolling down...you'll see what I mean. I didn't get pictures of everything...but you'll get the idea of how much fun we had! We had Dan and Cathy sing "Meet me in Montana". They have great voices! It was fun to watch. That song is Dan Seals and Marie Osmond...so I don't know quite why they are wearing the wigs....the beautiful wigs might I add....but they were funny anyway. :)

After each performance, Eli would come out and read 2 or 3 jokes from his joke book that Grandma Jefferies (my mom) sent to him! They were pretty good! A great filler in between the acts for sure!

Mason and Jane announced each number. They were great MC's of the night!

These boys are getting pretty famous for their breakdancing skills! They did a number and really got everyone all pumped up! It's fun to see them dance with their dad. David is such a fun dad. I feel lucky to have such a great guy in my life! Can you believe David is 36 and still doing the worm on the ground and doing handstands? He gets that from his dad. Bob is still doing handstands and stuff. What a bunch of great people we have in our family!

our Abbie is very friendly and loves to be heard for sure. But for some reason, she has total stage fright! It seems so funny to me because she's so headstrong and such a leader, but won't perform when you ask her to. As I mentioned earlier, she wouldn't do ballet, but wanted to do jump roping for her talent. There's a great daddy again doing jump roping with Abbie to help her not be so scared to be up on stage. Must be nice to be so in shape, huh?

Here are some of the other numbers. Singing, playing the flute, playing the guitar, tae kwando or however you spell it, and many other things. It was a great way for the cousins to see what each other had going on in their lives since we live so far away from each other.

We have been looking forward to doing this for a while. I don't know who came up with this idea, but we gotta do it again for sure!

Uncle Greg is a DJ for all the youth dances in the area. He is GREAT and they all love him! He DJ'd a dance for just our family and man did we have soooooooo much fun! Even Grandma and Grandpa were dancing!

We just danced the night away! Even the little guys! It was so cute to watch everyone! They were doing a big train, and then sometimes we would all be in a big circle and at one point Greg dedicated a song to Darlene and they slow danced while we all cirled around them! I love that we feel so much love in this family! Family is where it's at! It makes me miss my family too! These are the times I wish we all lived closer! sniff sniff....

One night we took the little girls to get their first pedicures. They had so much fun! It was cute to see all these little girls getting flowers painted on their toes! It's fun to be pampered at any age!

Whew! This is a lONG post! Now do you see why I took so long to get it out? I still need to get a few more uploaded from a couple more events that we had. This is going to be all for tonight though. This is Aunt Darlene making a rice krispy house with the kids. They started eating it hte minute it was done!