merry christmas!

my merry christmas

Today the boys turned off the TV without me asking (a small Christmas miracle). When I went to check on them, this is what I found:

the verdict is in

A whopping 81% of you who voted in the poll thought that baby Crane #3 is going to be a girl. So I'd like to take the opportunity to congratulate all 6 of the people who voted for a boy--cause you are right! We will be adding the third boy to our clan at the end of May! We took the boys with us, thinking it would be a quick trip. Boy were we wrong! We waited an hour to get in and then, once they did the ultrasound, we waited another hour for the doctor to come chat with us! Ridiculous!!!! William was pretty good though and could even point out the baby's hands and feet. James was another story... in part because he didn't take the nap that he should have beforehand. William was disappointed that he was wrong--but we decided that the next one has to be a girl! I totally agree.

choo! choo!

Choo! Choo! Choo!

What's coming down the track?

Choo! Choo! Choo!

It's something big and black.

See it steaming as it chugs along.

Hear it ringing as it says, "Ding, Dong."

Choo! Choo! Choo!

There is goes again

Choo! Choo! Choo! Choo! Choo! Choo! Choo!

It's a big black train!

Who Whooooo, Who Whooooo

It's a big black train!

Recently my dad has taken up collecting trains. We had fun playing with some of them in July while we were visiting my parents home--watching them go around the track on the balcony or racing them down the long hallway. At the time he told me that he had collected some for his grandchildren. In the last week or so we received four very large boxes FULL of trains. Some of them we'll save for when the boys are older--as they are a little more delicate--but for now, we set up a small track around the Christmas tree. The boys love it! William is very good to not make the train go too fast and always makes sure that the cars stay connected.

James, however, gets a little crazy and wants to make it go full speed (which then causes the train to derail)... so we often have to place the train cars up on a shelf until it's time to play with them.

We look forward to many years of playing with these trains.

Thanks so much Dad!!!

"And I had but one penny in the world. Thou should’st have it to buy gingerbread."

– William Shakespeare, Love’s Labours Lost

Since last year's attempt at a gingerbread house failed I decided to suck it up and buy a gingerbread house kit. We put it together for family night on Monday. James couldn't resist snitching the candy--again....

and again...

While William and I had fun decorating the house (and tasting a few candies as well.)

secret hideout

Recently, my boys have found a new hiding spot. Everyday they take out the toy baskets, sit their little selves down, and shut the cupboard door as far as they can. Although it's nice and spacious for James, I think it's getting a bit cramped for William. He doesn't seem to mind though. They are so easily entertained!

William was sad so James went to comfort him. I'm the luckiest mom to have such sweet boys.

It has gotten quite chilly here. This afternoon William and I enjoyed some hot cocoa--our first of the season. Here is William's drawing of the two of us enjoying our delicious beverage:

William is red. Mom is purple.

YUM!

crunch!

For about a month now we have been having a mouse problem. When I'm sitting in a quiet house (which isn't too often) I can sometime hear something crawling around the ceiling. I often find a mouse dropping or two on my canned food in the garage. Rich and I have both seen it scurry away. So a few weeks back I bought some mouse traps. I didn't want to see a dead mouse though. Lucky for me they make some where the mouse crawls in and is trapped so you never have to see it... just throw the whole thing away. Well, this mouse is smart and wasn't going for it. In fact, he mocked me by leaving a dropping on top of the trap!

On Tuesday I was getting the boys ready for storytime. I had just finished strapping in James and was walking around the car to buckle William. Rounding the front of the car I saw something from the corner of my eye and then heard a CRUNCH as I took another step. I figured that I had smooshed a cricket and turned to see. Boy was I wrong! It was the mouse!!! Seriously, I couldn't have done that if I tried! I felt so bad as it convulsed around and started bleeding. Hurrying, I scooped it up with some old magazines and threw it in the trash. It was awful! I realize that I wanted to kill it in the first place--but not like that! I know I'm crazy, but I still feel bad when I think of it.... but at least it's not living in my house (or garage) anymore.

guess what?

So I figured it was about time we shared our news.... That's right, baby Crane #3 will make his/her debut sometime at the end of May. We're excited to have another baby in the house. The boys came with us to the doctors and William thought it was pretty cool to see the ultrasound. He's convinced that we are having a girl.

Several months ago we were shopping when William explained to me that we needed another baby. You see, James is a big boy and we need a baby brother for him. I asked, "what if it's a girl?" No... it had to be a brother. On several different occasions he told me similar things. Then one day, just for arguments sake, I explained that we already have 3 boys in our family and that I'm the only girl... so we need another girl. Well, that logic struck a chord with him because ever since then we can't convince him otherwise. Hopefully he's not too disappointed if we find out it's another boy! What do you think we'll have? (Take the poll on the side.)

thanksgiving weekend

We had a wonderful, long weekend. I love it when Rich has time off! Wednesday Rich took off early from work and the two of us went to a movie (we saw Twilight). It was a fun start to the weekend.

Thursday was full of football, baseball, family, friends, food, and fun. I made pies in the morning (with one tragedy involving lots of glass breaking all over the kitchen). James was a big helper.

The boys loved playing outside at Grandma's house.

They got so dirty that they had to take baths before we even ate!

On Friday we avoided all stores and instead took the boys up to the high school baseball field.

James and Rich in the batting cage.

William thought it was so cool to play on a big field!

William playing on the big field!

I think he could play baseball forever! I tried to get some pictures of William's rosy cheeks but he wouldn't hear of it... this is the best I got. James, on the other hand, sat down to pose for me.

Saturday, while I was out, Rich and William finally carved our pumpkin! Laugh if you must but we couldn't let a perfectly good pumpkin go to waste without consuming it's seeds (that are roasting as I type.) We also ventured to one of our traditional holiday spots--North Pole City. The boys were in awe of the Christmas wonderland that surrounded them.

And this morning they awoke to a house decorated for the season. Tomorrow we'll tackle the tree.

do you see the resemblance?

Elise had this on her blog and I just thought it was hilarious.

I have been trying to play catchup on blogging since I got back from California a month ago. It's just been so crazy around here between Young Women in Excellence (and all things Young Women) and sickness and everyday life. I finally have California updates though. Enjoy!

oak glen
jacob's baptism
pumpkin factory
awesome uncle jacob
friends and family
little travelers

birthday celebrations

I think William's birthday was a success! (Warning: Lots of pictures and videos!)

In the morning, he got to watch his favorite Saturday morning cartoons... and Rich even bought him "special bird cereal" (aka Froot Loops) for breakfast.

William ended up not feeling too great that day so we took it pretty easy. He was super excited about opening presents and loved them all. We probably could've wrapped up some of his old toys and he would have been excited about those too!

William with all of his presents.

This year I decided to do cupcakes instead of a cake. William could not make up his mind about what he wanted! Everyday he told me something different. Finally we settled on baseball cupcakes.

Blowing out the candles.

Yummm!

William decided that he only wanted to lick off the frosting... even though he loves chocolate cake.

On Sunday, we went over to the Crane's and William got even more presents... and another cake! Lucky boy!

While he ate his dinner I found him and BenSam playing with all the actions figures he got. It was hilarious.

I even caught a little of it on video...

William is just so excited to be FOUR. (Of course, he keeps talking how he'll be 8 next, like Jacob... hopefully by his next birthday he'll understand that we can't just skip 5, 6, and 7!) He loves to be an even bigger help to me now because he's so big. One of the highlights for him was having everyone sing to him at Primary on Sunday. He thought it was so cool and told me, "I wasn't even shy!"

Yea for birthdays! Yea for 4-year-olds!! Yea for William!!!

William

Yesterday William told me, "It's hard being a 3-year-old." Well, today is his birthday... I guess it's a good thing he's not three anymore! I really can't believe I have a 4-year-old!!! William is such a fun boy to have around. Here are four reasons why:

*He loves to help. Whether it's making waffles and cookies or doing the laundry or emptying the silverware he's always a good helper.

*He likes to do the right thing. When I'm in the other room William makes sure that James doesn't get into any trouble (which James loves to do). I don't have to worry about leaving them in the room by themselves because William will make sure they don't get into too much trouble.

*He's polite. He's always sure to say "please" and "thank you."

*He's sweet and complimentary. Not only does he love to give great hugs to all of us but he often tells me how beautiful I am. You can't get better than that. (I think he's learned from his dad.)

There are a million other things that are endearing about William... but I have presents to wrap before he gets home!

Happy Birthday William!

the magic kiss

When I was a little girl and we needed to wake up my Grandpa Allred, my mom would tell us that the only way was to kiss him on the cheek. We would try other things but the kiss was the only thing that ever worked. And why wouldn't it? It worked for Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, right?

So when I got tired of being woken up by whining and poking and my eyelids being pried open, I told William that the sure-fire way to wake me up was with a kiss. It worked especially nice in the beginning because I could lay there, pretending to be asleep, for just a few more minutes until he remembered the secret. Now, however, he usually comes in, plants a big wet one on my cheek and asks, ever so sweetly, "Mom, can you please get me some more milk?"

This past week we were all feeling pretty crummy so when James stumbled into our room in the middle of the night I just let him crawl into bed--not something I usually do. Some time later I was aroused from my slumber by someone pulling on my pajama leg. I chose to ignore it. I was exhausted! But then I felt two little lips kissing my cheek! James must have seen William do it a few times and knew that it worked!

And so I continue in the tradition of my favorite fairy tale princess. Besides, who doesn't want to be woken up by the kiss of a prince (or two)?

for rachelle

My sister, Rachelle, needed us to do this experiment so she could get extra credit in her child development class. It has to do with "conversion"... you remember this from your days in child development right? Anyway, I tried to email it to her but it was too big... so now you all get to enjoy it.

climbing on up

While we were in California, James learned how to open doors and climb in and out of cribs.

This did not make for good naps while we were there. I didn't think it would be a problem when we got home because his crib is bigger and our door knobs are harder to open. Boy was I wrong! Within 5 minutes of putting him in his crib at home he was out and had the door open. And so, this past weekend we bought this:

I have to brag on myself. I put the entire thing together by myself (except for some heavy lifting from Rich and minor help from William). Yeah, I'm awesome.

So far it's working out great. William loves sleeping on the top bunk. Even during the day he asks if he can go lay down on the top bunk. This coming from a boy who quit his naps 1 1/2 years ago. He's always playing "pirate ship" up there. He's always asking if James can go up there too... and that makes me nervous. James is just too crazy. (Just this week he chipped his tooth on the bathtub.) I'm certain that James will fall off the top. Please pray that he doesn't.

happy halloween!

A few weeks ago, before we left for California, we went to the pumpkin patch. I'm not a huge fan of Halloween but I do love going to the pumpkin patch every October. The boys had a great time looking for pumpkins,

posing for pictures, and taking a train ride.William picked out a great pumpkin for us. Unfortunately, between coming and going and all the other activities we had going on this week, we didn't have a chance to carve it! So sad. Maybe we'll do it tomorrow anyway. Who cares if it's November?! Besides... we have to at least gut it so we can roast the seeds! Yum!

Last night we went to BenSam's birthday costume party. This is my nephew, BenSam. Isn't he cute?!It was a blast! Thanks Bob and Daniela! William decided to go as Tigger. We tried to get James to be a giraffe.We had no such luck. He went as Batman.

And then today. Today was crazy. William and I spent the afternoon baking cookies and pies for the ward Harvest Party (and thus had no time to carve a pumpkin). But before the ward party we had to stop by the company trick-or-treat. This time both boys were superheroes. I wish I had gotten a better picture of Batman and Spiderman. William had a blast. The boys were both so loaded with candy that we had to empty out their buckets before going on to the next activity. Every department has a theme. This year Rich's department did "The Great Outdoors"... thus the tent.

The ward party got thrown onto the Young Women so I had one of the girls take it on as a value project. She did a great job!!! The Young Men hosted a chili cook off before hand. Good food = happy people = successful ward dinner. William's favorite game was the cake walk.He didn't care if he won or not, he just liked walking in the circle. When they started to give out the cupcakes to anyone William happily refused saying, "But I didn't win!" He's goofy. One thing I can say for my ward is that people always stay after to help with clean-up... even if they weren't remotely in charge of the activity. It usually goes pretty quickly that way. The boys decided to play a little game of basketball while they waited. It was fun to watch William get in there with the "big" boys.

When we arrived home I saw that some of the neighbors still had their lights on and doors open for trick-or-treaters. I asked William if he wanted to knock on a few doors. I was really shocked when he said, "No." I guess he was all trick-or-treated out. Besides, we didn't need anymore candy!

How was your Halloween?