The Crafts

 Kate spent this weekend in Ames with Matt as they stayed with Uncle Mike. And  if a bad 80's movie creeps into your head  when you hear that you shouldn't be alarmed. It's becoming an annual tradition and as also is tradition, Matt documented this excursion and is guest blogging the event for our enjoyment. . . .  The trip started with a Friday afternoon visit to the Sukup Basketball Complex so we could take in Iowa State Women's Basketball practice. After an hour long discussion about her favorite player, Anna Prinns, I had Kate convinced that Anna was going to be busy practicing and that we could not try and talk to her or distract her. Kate begrudgingly accepted.  Of course the first thing to happen when we walk in is that Anna and Amanda Zimmerman come directly over to us, introduce themselves and say hi to Kate. After a few minutes practice starts and Kate is over the moon forever remembering to not trust Dad about anything further. A few...

Looking at these pics do you notice a theme? Someone loves being a big sister.  Someone also has a hard time sitting still and that is why many of those pics are blurry. I have to take the photo as fast as possible because I don't fully trust Miss CJ to not toss little Natalie to the side. Still...there is a whole lot of love here. (Kate loves Natalie too but has taken less of a motherly role with her.) ********************* We had a visitor last weekend. Uncle Mike made the short drive to the Craft house to pay a visit to his newest niece. I think Mike and all of his nieces will get along just fine. ************************* Our dining room is the hot spot for art projects and since Natalie's arrival I haven't really stayed on top of keeping the dining room / art center clean. (Note: I cropped the mess out of the picture to save your eyes from exploding.) The room has taken on a life of it's own. BUT a lot of great ...

What's up? What is new with you? We've been a little absorbed here and I feel slightly out of touch with the rest of the world. I did, however, find time to watch the debates so I at least remember there is a presidential race going on. I won't tell you who I'm voting for. Matt and I agreed we weren't even going to tell Kate. That way as she grows she can decide for herself what kind of policies are important to her. Although I imagine it will be quite awhile before she cares. Matt started growing a beard. He does this on only two types of occasions...vacation and new baby in the house. He has since shaved it off. His beards are always short lived but the girls had fun rubbing his whiskers for the past several days. Aunt Lindsay came for a short visit last weekend and in honor of her arrival we had a dance party. CJ arrived in style wearing a Scooby / fuzzy cat / Cinderella ensemble.  Afterwards we taught the girls how to do the chicken dan...

It's a girl! Our long awaited baby Craft is another girl! Natalie Claire Craft made her appearance Sunday, October 7th at 5:54 p.m. Matt and I are now parents to three wonderful little girls and I couldn't be more thrilled about it. Long story short I had been having contractions for a week plus. So when I woke Sunday morning to more contractions I didn't think much of it. I dressed myself and the girls for church but Matt put a stop to that. He was worried that if this was real labor then chasing two little girls while I suffer through a contraction in the church pew would be a poor decision. But as per usual, the contractions stopped (AGAIN!) and we took the girls to Sunday School. With only the occasional contraction plaguing me I grabbed Kate about 11 a.m. and we made our Wal-Mart for groceries. While pushing our cart I about doubled over and realized that maybe these contractions weren't false labor. I sure as heck didn't want to have a baby in Wal-Mart so Ka...