Valentine's Days

We had a wonderful Valentine's celebration this year.  On Saturday we took the boys out to eat at Chili's to celebrate.  Rich even dressed them all in red just for me (he hates to be matchy and I love it).  I wish I had thought to get a picture!!!  Drat!  The boys were all well behaved and everyone thought Alex was just the cutest thing when he danced to the music.

Sunday afternoon William and I (with a little help from the other boys) made some marshmallow pops for his class Valentine's party.  They were so easy and a huge hit!

Monday morning the boys awoke to a heart attacked door and a few little goodies at the breakfast table.  (I just love Valentine's day!)  After a long wait in the doctor's office we headed over to the elementary school for William's party.  Again, no pictures, but everyone had a good time.

In the evening Rich and the boys gifted me with a gift card for a massage (I can't wait till Saturday!) and some awesome boots (because I said that I couldn't pull them off and Rich insisted that I could).  Rich requested a homecooked steak dinner for his Valentine's Day gift.  Easy enough.  I bought a nice thick New York strip steak (thanks for the suggestion Austin!) to grill that night.  Thankfully the weather cooperated and it was a perfect night to grill outside!  We also grilled some asparagus and had some baked potatoes (with the works: butter, cheese, sour cream, salt, bacon... mmmm!)  We topped it all off with some chocolate covered strawberries and homemade cheesecake. 

It was the perfect Valentine's Day!  I just love my boys!

Snow Days--Part IV

It is a beautiful, sunny 77 degrees today.  I can hardly believe that only a week ago we were snowed in!  The weather is crazy to say the least.  Can't it just stay like today all year round?  That would be lovely.  Now that the snow is all gone I can document the last (hopefully?!) of our snow days.

Wednesday morning we woke up to loads more snow.  Rich left on a business trip to DC and we were both amazed that his flight left on time.  It snowed most of the morning and we just hunkered down inside where we were nice and cozy warm.  The boys cuddled up on the couch and looked at books together.  I had been sick for the beginning of the week so it was a nice way to spend the day.

Alex saw me taking a picture of his brothers and decided he would pose for me.

Alexander didn't want to go to sleep that night but instead fell asleep on the couch watching shows with me.  He has never done that before... silly boy.

The next day (Thursday) school was canceled as well.  I knew we needed to get out of the house or we'd all go crazy.  Thankfully our home teacher had come over Wednesday to shovel our driveway so that I could get out!  What a relief.  The boys spent the morning setting up battles with their army men.

William even convinced me to make parachutes for some of them.

After Alexander's nap we headed over to the church to let the boys run around the cultural hall.  We stayed for a good hour and let them get all their pent up energy out.  The boys threw balls around,

played their own version of soccer,

ran a ton of races,

and, of course, Alex had to pose for a picture.

We ended the day by heading to the store to let the boys pick out dinner and dessert.  Their choice?  French bread pizzas and ice cream sandwiches. 

Little Model

We will take a brief break from our snow day posts (since we actually didn't have a few days this week that were snow days... hurray!). 

Last night Rich took William and James to a Thunder game. 

Alexander was so sad that they were leaving without him.  When I saw that he was getting ready to throw up (it's his favorite trick... cry and cry then start coughing til you throw up... if you don't get what you want) I asked him if he'd like a bath.  He immediately liked that idea (thank goodness!)  so we headed down the hallway.

He lined up all the little superheroes on the edge of the tub just like his brothers do.  I thought it was cute so I ran to get the camera but by the time I got back he'd knocked them all down.  He wouldn't set them up again but he sure wanted his picture taken.  He would give me a really cheesy smile and then point at the camera.  That was my cue to take another picture of him.  He was cracking me up.  Here are the results from our little model.

Isn't he just the cutest little guy ever?

Snow Days--Part III

Uggh... I'm behind in my blogging once again!  I have been sick for the past several days.  I never get sick... but when I do it's awful.  Thankfully, Rich was here to help me through the worst of it and pick up a few things before the next storm hit and he went out of town!

So, William ended up being out of school for the rest of the week!  We didn't do anything much exciting for days 3 and 4 but Saturday (snow day #5) we headed out to Grandma's house to go sledding with Aunt Lisa.  It was a perfect day... just enough snow to have fun but warm enough to not be frozen!

 

 Lisa and Alexander

 William and James

 Lisa about to push William and James down the hill

William about to push James and Lisa

James and Lisa went down and slid right off the sled at the bottom.  After that, James just wanted to go home... but we convinced him to stay for just a little while longer!

I think Alex liked sledding the most!  He could hardly wait for his next turn.

Alex waiting his turn

James making a snow angel while waiting for his turn to sled

After a while we gave up on sledding and decided to make a snowman.

James was a little more interested in throwing snowballs at Lisa.

Alexander didn't want anything to do with the snowman... he just wanted to sled again.

And here's the final product... our tiny little snowman!

Thanks Lisa for such a fun snow day!


We were supposed to have our Stake Conference that weekend... but the snow prevented that from happening... so we spent a nice Sunday afternoon at home.  The boys even helped me make some valentine's (which I need to send!) and then we headed over to the Crane's in the evening. 

Thankfully William had school on Monday and Tuesday.  He was so happy to be back!  Unfortunately another storm rolled in last night and it is snowing like crazy out there again!  More snow day fun to come!

Snow Days--Part II

Another successful snow day here at the Crane house.  We started off the day by watching Punxsutawney Phil (on YouTube) predict an early spring... we can only hope!!!  Next we pulled out my little red mailbox.  My thought is that we can write letters or draw pictures for family members (since it is the month of love) and we get to check the mailbox every night at dinner.  The boys (especially William) loved it.  In fact, for his game tonight he asked if he could draw more pictures for the mailbox!  Fine by me!

When Alex woke up from his nap the boys all headed outside with Rich (while he shoveled the driveway).  Alexander didn't play in the snow yesterday and he was super excited.

I even ventured outside for a bit... but it was frigid!  The boys had a blast... especially throwing chunks of snow at Rich!  William again lasted the longest and said he had a great snowball fight with Rich.

William with a giant snowball to throw at Rich

 James with his snow castle

 Alexander really wanted to wear this bike helmet

The funniest part of the day was when James humored us with some physical comedy.  He just loves to make people laugh!  Enjoy!

We just had to get out of the house so we took the boys to McDonald's for dinner tonight.  They had a blast running around... Another snow day tomorrow!

Snow Days--Part I

Because of the impending snowstorm (aka Wintergeddon 2011) we got a phone call from the school last night informing us that school was canceled for today.  We have been enjoying our day at home thus far.  For a mid-morning snack the boys wanted to eat some snow.  Rich had the ingenious idea to pour some snow cone syrup on top... snow cones with real snow!  It was a big hit.

While Alexander took a nap we went on a little scavenger hunt around the house.  I think the boys had even more fun when it was their turn to hide the clues.

James was begging all morning to go out in the snow.  I kept telling him to wait until the snow stopped falling... but it never did.  So after lunch we bundled the boys up and Rich took them outside.  I watched and took pictures from the cozy, warm house.

All bundled up and ready to head out into the cold

 William getting ready to launch a giant snowball at Rich

After a while, James had had enough of the cold (although later, after he had warmed up again, he was asking to go outside!).  He came in and had a nice warm bath while William and Rich went on some more "adventures". 

Check out those rosy cheeks from the cold!

They didn't last a whole lot longer though and soon everyone was warm again and drinking hot chocolate.... Followed closely by popcorn and a movie (The Lion King).

The rest of the afternoon was spent trying to keep all the boys happy and from driving the others insane!  We built a fort in the playroom

and after dinner made some snow ice cream.  Delicious!

School is canceled tomorrow as well... we shall see what adventures it brings!