Cruff Family Chronicles

Hey, everyone! The 18th marked 5 official months since we moved to Michigan. I get people asking me all the time how it's going and how I'm handling it. It really hasn't been as bad as I thought but it also hasn't fully winterized here yet either. Maybe I should re-write this post in the spring. So here's how I'm surviving and I'll write in "tips for you" style: Join a Church- If religion isn't your thing, pick something you're into like hiking, geo-caching, etc. and join Meetup.com. If religion is your thing, this is one of the most important things you can do. Now, I wasn't sold on our current church because: It was too big It wasn't my last church, TMCC Sierra Vista The music wasn't as awesome as TMCC We only knew a couple people. It wasn't TMCC So in conclusion, I just had to get over the fact it wasn't my first church, my home church, the church I was baptized in, the church where we had dinner with th...

Have you ever met a mom and thought "I want to be her?". Sophia's mom Erica is super patient and encouraging and I explictly told her "I want to be you when I grow up". Don't get me wrong, I LOVE MY GIRLS MORE THAN LIFE ITSELF. I could show it better, though. I will be the first to admit I can be hard on them, critical and I'm a yeller. I want my kids to be well behaved. No matter what you say about me, you'll never say my kids don't have manners. I am a work in progress and it's refreshing to see someone who can put those things I want to be, in the flesh. Obviously, we all have different parenting styles but I think we are kidding ourselves if we say there isn't room for improvement. So for every thing I need to correct, I can say 3 things that were positive. I can look them in the eye when I want something so I don't have to yell it and repeat over and over and over again. Anyway, this last weekend, Erica had us over for a playda...

Hey all! I went to MOPS and JUMP this week (moms groups) and we talked about Christmas traditions. We didn't really have any growing up and I would explain why but it doesn't matter. Now that I have kids of my own and Bri is getting to the age where she will understand traditions, it was fun to hear ones I would like to incorporate! I will go through some that I heard and ones that I would like to do. My friend Tiffany said her family recreated the Christmas Story with costumes while they read Luke 2. I thought that would be soooo much fun but I'm pretty sure no one in my family besides me would go for it. My friend Chellie remembers her and her siblings had their own wrapping paper and I'm going to be doing that too. I won't tell Bri until the day of which one is hers. A couple of people said they baked a cake for Jesus's birthday and that sounds like it might be fun but we will see how it goes. I'm not ready to commit to baking. Some people said ...