December Fun

We have had a fun busy December so far! Here are some pictures of our fun.


Picking out the perfect tree



All decorated. Pictures do not do justice. It is 12ft. tall and very wide and a lot prettier than the picture turned out.



We joined Tim's brother and family for a night in downtown Seattle. We stayed at a hotel downtown and went and saw all the Christmas sites! The windowsill made a great "Stage" for the programs the kids put on for us.




Riding the Christmas Carousel that they set up just for Christmas each year.




The kids and their cousins



Having a Hot Chocolate break



The kids each wrote a letter to Santa and mailed it at Macy's



Back to the hotel where the kids exchanged gifts.




Our Family in the hotel lobby




We woke up to snow and when we got home the kids took advantage of the white fluffy stuff outside!

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year I will post again after the holidays!

CCTI (Chief's Call to Initiation) Dinner

November 14th was Tim's big dinner! After 2 months of initiation Tim is now a "Real Chief" (Initiated). Not all E-7's are initiated they have to choose to participate. It was a long 2 months of trying to balance the CCTI (Chiefs Call To Initiation) process and do his new job but he did it. They had a very nice dinner and ceremony at the end. It was fun to get dressed up and see him rewarded for all his hard work. This is exactly where he wanted to be at this point in his career. We are enjoying being able to sit back and enjoy a goal being reached.



Off to the dinner. I love getting to see him in his more formal uniform!


At the dinner.



Tim's mom and I got to pin on his anchors that go on his collars.



They had the spouses go up and they gave us a letter of recognition. They said they know that these Chief's didn't make it to that point in their career on their own. It was really nice. They also gave us a pin (same as the ones they wear on their collars). However we the spouses out rank our husbands by one rank and ours are black instead of gold like the special operations wear. It was pretty funny and meaningful at the same time.




Tim's parents and brother and his wife came.
And our good friend John came also. He is a retired Chief of the Coast Guard. We met him at our very first unit in Alaska 14 years ago. It was neat having him there. He was actually Tim's boss way back then when Tim was brand new out of boot camp. I know he enjoyed seeing Tim reach this milestone in his career.

Where's Nixon

Where's Nixon? Something that is becoming a common question in our household. The other day Tim and I told him to go up to his room to take a nap. We were finishing up a conversation then I went up to make sure Nixon got in bed. Hmmm? I walked in his room the light was on and there was no Nixon to be found. Maybe he went in my bed I thought. So I walked out and looked in my room. No Nixon. Huh? So I told Tim I can't find him. Then we both thought check under the bed. Tada poof there was Nixon sound asleep under his bed.

New Coast Guard Add

After I took this picture of Tim washing both boys' hair at the same time and realized he had one of his CG shirts on, I thought this should be a new add for the Coast Guard. You know some catchy phrase like you can do more than one thing at a time or something. It's not easy to give two boys very excited to play and splash in the water a bath at the same time. Especially when one hates getting his eyes wet and the other is learning that from him. Good job Daddy!

Halloween and Pumpkin Time

We had a fun Halloween Season. Here are some fun pictures of our time.

Picking out Pumpkins

Now that we got them we need to carve them!

We had Nixon's with a cute face, Simon's was a Storm trooper face and Paige's was a traditional Jack o lantern face.

Now for the fun Trick or Treat Time

Mommy was an Olympic Snow Skier, Nixon was Blue from Blue's Clues, Paige was Ariel from the Little Mermaid, Simon was Jango Fett from Star Wars, and Daddy was a Biker Dude!


We went Trick or Treating with our cousins. Paige and Emma were both Ariel and looked so cute dressed up the same and had fun looking alike. Paige got lucky and didn't have to wear a wig since she already has the right color of hair for Ariel. Hmmmm Maybe next year I should have her be another red headed character???? Pippy Long Stocking maybe, she has red hair.

We hope you and yours had as much fun as we did. Thanks for checking in on us!

Simon is 6 years old

On October 22nd Simon turned 6 years old. I can't believe my little man is 6 years old and in Kindergarten. He had a fun birthday. On his actual birthday we he had a little party in class for him that Nixon and I got to join in the fun and then we had a cupcake cake for dessert at home. Then on the weekend we had a really fun nice little party for Simon. It was great and easy and low stress for us. We rented the party room at the community center and they had it all set up for us with a room for the kids to play with all kinds of toys, balls and a jump house. Then we moved to a room all set up for presents and cake. All I had to do was put on the table cloth, serve the cake and ice cream cups (thank you Aunt Jaime for the pre-done ice cream cups idea) and juice boxes and that was it. The only clean up I had to do was make sure all the plates and juice boxes made it into the trash can. And with the price of birthday places this was very affordable, it almost seemed to good to be true. Simon had a blast and that's what mattered for his big day. Here are some fun pictures. He has a friend over for a play date today I will include at cute picture of them too.


Simon at school on his Birthday


Celebrating his actual birthday at home



All the kiddies at The Big Party



Getting ready to blow the candles out on his Star Wars cake.




I think we have a lot of super heroes covered in this picture. We have Spiderman and Superman playing with Star Wars toys. As I write this they are still dressed up but have moved on to an Indian Jones game.

Mom Wins!!!

So here is a little fact about our little Nixon. He will not keep his jammies on! So each night we check on him he is just asleep in his diaper and then in the morning he is freezing cold. Doesn't seem to bother him but it does bother me his Mom. He gets all of them off, zipper ones, pants and shirt style ones. So I saw these in a Khol's add the other day and thought ah ha! I call them little old man jammies. They are adorable and for 3 nights now he has woke up with his pj's on! Thank you buttons!!!! I believe mastering the button skill is far off so this should do the trick for a while! He now has 2 pair of nice new jammies with buttons.


One tally mark in the Mom's column!

Speaking of his sleeping habits. We have some friends whose son sleeps with a golf club (a real one) and I thought how cute but wouldn't that be hard to roll over on at night. Well, Nixon sleeps with 2 yes 2 wooden miniture Louisville Slugger baseball bats. They are the real deal, wooden and about a foot and a half long. He naturally loves baseball and Simon naturally loves basketball. Kind of cute niether one was pushed by us to either of those they kind of fell in love wtih them on their own around 18 months old.

Then and Now

Then :
2005 Paige's first day of Kindergarten and Simon's first day of preschool

And Now :
2008 Simon's first day of Kindergarten and Paige 3rd grade

Even more accurate for now is with Nixon in the picture. Which when Simon goes into 3rd grade will be when Nixon starts Kindergarten. So if I can remember in 3 years I will add another picture to the Then and Now. Kind of cool the kids are all 3 years apart in school.

Big day of Firsts

Well Tuesday was a big day for the Crothers Household. Simon started Kindergarten, Paige 3rd grade and drum roll please........ Tim had his first day at work at Chief!



Paige and Simon all ready for their big day! Paige picked out a Hannah Montana shirt and Simon a Star Wars shirt.



Simon loves his new teacher and class and wishes he could stay all day.



Paige was a bit nervous the night before but she said she loves her new teacher and classmates!


So now to the part of Tim making Chief. We went out of town to Las Vegas for about 9 days. Two days before we left to come home his Chief called and congratulated him that he was making Chief on Sept. 1st. We were hoping he was going to make it but we thought IF he did it would be in Dec. We were pleasantly surprised that 1. He made it and 2. he made it now not later. He made it off the test he took in May 2007 so it's been a good 15 months of waiting.



They had a ceremony where Tim's Chief and I got to pin on his anchors.



And they had Paige put on his cover (hat) with his new anchor pin on it. Talk about warmed my heart to see our little girl get to take part in her Daddy's advancement. I am so glad I kept her out of school today for it. The boys were right by her side.



Here is our Chief. One of the guys asked Paige if she knew her Daddy no longer had a first name it's just Chief now.



Off with the old (bye bye crows)


And on with the new (hello anchors)


It was neat to be there today and see people walk by him and say, "Hi Chief". For the last 14 years whenever I have been to his work I have always seen him address every single Chief that has walked by and I myself have always called his Chiefs Chief. Now it was everyone that walked by saying hi Chief to him. His Captain came over and talked with us afterward and he said he wanted to come congratulate me and said he knows that no one makes Chief all by themselves. That was really nice of him and I greatly appreciate him telling me that.

We will now be in Seattle for 4 more years. Once he made Chief we have to be transferred and luckily for us there was one other Chief position open at another unit in Seattle and they decided to move him to that office. Otherwise we would be packing up and moving in a couple weeks.

I want to shout out a Congratulations to our good buddy Wayne, he also made Chief the same day Tim did and we are hoping he gets transferred to Seattle.

And to Tim, I love you and am proud to be at your side.

Vegas Baby!!

We had an awesome time in Las Vegas for our Summer vacation! We enjoyed the nice warm sunshine and time in the pool and all the fun things to see.

This was the kids' first time on an airplane. We flew down and then drove back with Tim's parents.


Aren't they so cute carrying their own bags through the airport?!


First time on a plane (Paige flew as a baby but doesn't remember it)



We took a Limo from the airport to where we stayed! The kids just loved it!


Here is the M and M at M&M World and the Coke Bear. I think the biggest hit with the kids was M&M World.



Fun in the Sun!



Simon and Nixon both took off with swimming. We got them swim masks that cover the nose and that was all Simon needed by the second day he was diving in. Real diving head first. Nixon got comfy with his floaties and now will jump in by himself and swim around.


Here we are looking at the Lion Habitat at the MGM and then Fremont street.



Fremont street and the Bellagio fountains!



I threw a buck in just for fun! (Didn't win anything of course)



Playing some air hockey!



Daddy won this for Nixon at Circus Circus and he just held on to it for the rest of the night, it was so cute.


FAO Schwartz Toy Store in Caesars! This reminds me of the movie BIG. Remember that movie? I know it dates me.



Rockey punched out Simon at Planet Hollywood and leave it to Simon to find Darth Vader and a Storm trooper!




More fun in the pool!




My two older boys playing video games on the way home in the car!

Well we had a great ending to our summer hope yours has been great too!