christmas recap

We had too much fun this Christmas. Not only did we have fun looking at Christmas lights, attending Christmas parties, going to the stake Christmas creche exhibit, watching Christmas movies, and reading Christmas books... but we also:

Made snowflake candy necklaces:

William had a blast making these... and making a blue mess while he ate them!

Visited Santa Claus (or attempted to):

The boys would not see Santa Claus. At the ward party William wouldn't even go into the same room! James squirmed out of Santa's arms. So we decided to go to the mall for a second try. William hid behind my legs the entire time. James warmed up a little... but neither would sit on the jolly old man's lap.

Opened way, way, way too many presents (thank you!)

This picture is for my dad. He gave James an ice cream scoop (all the grandchildren get them... feeding their need for ice cream early on). James decided that he needed to eat something with it immediately... so he had some Froot Loops.

And even with all the hustle and bustle we remembered the reason we celebrate it all. William is quick to tell you that "Christmas is about Jesus." Hope you all had a good one!

lost and found

According to William, yesterday was a bad day. James probably would have told you the same thing too. You see, James lost his blankie. Yes, the blankie. The one that goes with him everywhere. The one that must be in his hand while he sucks his thumb. The one that he cannot sleep without. The one that is getting so tattered that it has a hole where he can slip his wrist in while his hands are busy holding other things.

For a year now I've been telling myself to buy a back-up. But I didn't. And then yesterday tragedy struck. We were loading in the car to head to storytime (one of our absolutely necessary weekly adventures) when I realized that James wasn't holding his blanket. I ran in the house (the boys were buckled in the car) to find it. I can always find a missing blankie in less than 2 minutes. I searched the house for over 5 minutes and couldn't find it. So we headed to the library sans blanket. I thought for sure we'd come home and William or James would immediately find it. Nope. I put James down for a nap anyway. He screamed and cried like someone was torturing him.... so we looked again. William and I pretended we were detectives. The fridge. The pots and pans. Under the bed. The washer. Everywhere. I guess we weren't very good detectives.

No one is happy when James misses his nap, so we headed to the store for a new blankie.Upon our arrival back home I put a tired James in his bed with his new lovey. It worked! Hurray. He must have been really tired to let it fly though because when he woke up he was furious with the impostor! He wanted nothing to do with it. If William tried handing it to him he'd fling it away as though it contained some disease!

And then this morning the three of us were sitting on the couch watching William's favorite--Sid the Science Kid--when James got up from the couch. I heard him in the kitchen shutting the lid to the breadmaker. Nothing unusual... the boys love to put toys in there. Finally he came back to the couch looking so proud and there in his little hand was the blankie! I couldn't believe it! Of all the obscure places that I searched I overlooked that one!

All is now well at the Crane's and James is peacefully napping with both of his blankies.

food storage

I don't know about you... but one of my many goals for the year is to get all our food storage taken care of. Our church encourages every family to have a three-month supply of food. I just heard about this great site: http://funwithfoodstorage.net/. This week they are doing a ton of great giveaways so check it out! What are your tips for getting your food storage together? What about your emergency kits (check out this site)? (another one of my goals)

oh baby!

James has recently started to carry around a bear, treating it as though it's his baby. He feeds it:

Lays it down on the bed, covers it with his blankie, and shuts the door so it can take a nap:

And mostly, he loves his "baby" a whole lot:

Sometimes he even wants to change the "baby's" diaper. I asked James if he was going to be such a helper when we have a real baby and he told me 'uh-huh.' I'm sure that he will.

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.