November adventures

We took a trip to Salt Lake to see Aunt Stephanie get married. Above is a pic of the boys waiting to see her w/Uncle Jason


Aunt Stephanie giving boys the boys a big hug, she was beautiful!

Ethan doesn't take naps anymore but he was so worn out and board he did. Unfortunately while sleeping in his clothes for the reception his gum fell out and stuck to his new white shirt. Oh well. (:

There was a ton of traffic in Salt Lake, everyone was tired and worn out. Even Aunt Candace, Aunt Lindsay and Uncle Jason took naps.

Our 2 handsome boys at the reception, it took several tries to get them to look at the same time, with their eyes open

Eddie attached himself to grandma that weekend. They look great.

Ethan Keira and Eddie helping w/Aunt Stephie's dress

Swimming was the boys favorite part of our trip aside from meeting Teresa (one of my best friends from high school) and her kids at an indoor play land. I can't remember the name but it was a lot like Chuck e cheeses with rides and fun stuff to wear the kids out.

We took a trip to McCall and spent T-day w/Jeni, Jeremy and Shyla at a time share. It was a lot of fun and very relaxing. We took the boys swimming almost everyday at the gym. Brad played racket ball, ping pong and snorkeled in the pool w/Ethan. Above is a pic of us making candy houses, yum.

Ethan worked really hard on his house

Eddie is really concentrating on his house. Most of the candy didn't make it that far

Getting a little practice for his sister in a few months

The boys LOVED Shyla, her toys and especially watching her blow raspberries

We slept upstairs in a loft, it was really high and made me a little nervous sometimes but thankfully nobody slipped or fell. The boys thought it was really fun.

Eddie showing Ethan a little brotherly love

Even though it was not wanted

There were 3 foxes that would come around at night looking for meat and eggs. The boys were so excited the first night when one came and sat out side of the sliding glass door and waited there until we opened the door with something to feed it. They were beautiful!

Ethan thought since the fox was so close it would be ok to touch it! But mom panicked.

We had a movie night our last night in McCall and watched Wall-e, the boys loved it.

We bought a tree from a tree lot for the first time this year, usually we cut one down. The boys have decorated and decorated it many times in the last couple of days. Thank goodness for non-breakable ornaments!

Before the snow came Ethan spent most of the summer and fall finding bugs. This was the last grasshopper he found. Ruby. He wanted to keep it in a jar in his room, but after have lost several grasshoppers in his room already mom said this one had to stay outside. but he wanted a picture of it.
The boys working to clean up the leaves

Helping mom rake leaves

Making and eating Halloween cookies is always a treat

For Preschool we went to the pumpkin patch. They got to ride the train, run through the corn maze, pick a pumpkin and eat a cookie. The boys LOVED it!

Ethan in the train with his friends

Eddie was SO excited for the train

Ethan in the corn maze

Eddie running through the corn maze

Eddie, Ethan and some of Ethan's preschool friends and their siblings

Ethan picking his pumpkin

Eddie riding in the pumpkin wagon

Grandpa Greg came over bringing treats, and read them a few stories before bed. They love spending time with their grandpas and grandmas.

I tried to get a pic of Eddie in his costume but he ran an hid under the table, he thought he was so clever.

Surprise! Got you!

Here is Eddie making his not so sneaky escape

Here is a good pic of Eddie's full Dragon costume. He kept saying,"This is SO Cool mom!" and "The tail is so pretty!"

Eddie cleaned a little of his pumpkin out, mom got to do the rest.

This was the first year Ethan would stick his hand in the pumpkin and clean it out by himself! Yeah Ethan!

Eddie wanted a sad/scary pumpkin

Ethan wanted a vampire pumpkin, thanks dad for your help. Look at those sharp teeth!

Ethan turned 5 Oct 28th, sometimes I can't believe he is that old already. He was so proud of himself for being able to blow up balloons for the first time.

We had a b-day party for Ethan on Halloween morning. I think they all had a great time playing the games, playing w/Ethan's gifts and eating candy from their goodie bags.
This is a pic of Ethan opening his gifts from his friends.
Ethan was a vampire for Halloween. This was the first time we have ever done face paints and hair color. He was SO excited about it. I have a great picture of him but will have to post it next blog because I cannot get it to attach right now.

We babysat Allie for a couple of hours and the boys loved it! I think poor Allie was a little overwhelmed but enjoyed watching them run around and try to entertain her.

Bear Lake

This is finally my last post to catch up on our summer!

I have been wanting to go to Bear Lake for a long time but our summers fly by so fast we never go. So we decided that we would schedule a weekend in and actually go this year and it was a lot of fun. The lake was beautiful and the boys had a blast in the sand and water despite some of the not so fun things that happened.
When we arrived Friday evening we made dinner and set up camp. There were no trees in our camp site and it was REALLY hot! Then we headed down to the beach. Having never been there we didn't know what to expect so we borrowed some life jackets just in case. As Brad and I were hauling everything down to the beach Ethan ran right into the water and started swimming. I was glad then that he was wearing a life jacket not knowing how deep it was or I would have probably had a heart attack. As we learned a few moments later Bear lake does not get deep for a long ways out. Ethan has no fear when it comes to anything. Eddie however, stood on the beach and panicked as he watched his brother diving and splashing. When we got back to camp and got the boys ready for bed we discovered I had forgotten the firewood. Ethan wanted to roast marshmallows really bad and was determined we were going to have a fire. He ran all over our camp in his PJs gathering twigs. by the time we had everything ready for bed he had gathered enough to make a very small fire. Someone had left some briquettes in the fire pit so we made a small fire over that and each had a few marshmallows. Ethan was so proud. That night it took a long time to get our excited boys asleep. The campers next to us kept me up until 3:30am! Laughing, drinking and being really obnoxious. I was exhausted! The next morning we discovered our plans for breakfast were not going to work. ): So, we got back in the truck and drove 45min to the closest restaurant. By the time we got back to camp we only had an hour until check out time. So we loaded everything up. Ethan waiting very patiently to go to the Beach and this time we sat in the back of the truck and drove everything down to the beach. We played for several more hours. The boys loved the rubber raft. Brad would walk it out a long ways and then climb in and paddle it around. It was funny to watch because way out was still only knee or waist deep. Eddie was happy to stay close to shore or in the boat. Ethan had a fabulous trying to tackle Brad and then being thrown through the air back into the water. When we finally called it a day the boys were exhausted, so were we. We also noticed Brad had lost his wedding ring some where in the lake while he was throwing Ethan. The boys loved the trip, and have asked several times, "When are we going back to Bear Lake?" We plan to go back next year, but having been there we will be better prepared, and hopefully have a smoother trip.

The picture above is of me and the boys riding in the back of the truck down to the beach. They were so excited!

Below Eddie is eating his s'more.

Ethan cooking marshmallows

Eddie jumping on the air mattress while we were trying to get things ready for bed.

Ethan gathering sticks

Cautious Eddie digging on the beach

Ethan after his first swim. "I'm freezing mom!" Duncan (our miniature poodle) was freezing too.

The life jacket was a wee bit big. (:

Brad pulling the boy out for a ride

This is about all of Ethan we saw most of the time we were at the beach. He loved it.

Brad laughing at crazy Ethan, trying to convince Eddie to get in the water.

Eddie and I hung out on the beach most of the time. The two dots you see in the back ground is where Ethan and Brad hung out most of the time. It is a long ways out but only about waist deep.

Happy Campers?

We were invited to camping with some of our friends. While Brad was at work I loaded up the truck with all of our camping supplies. 10 minutes before we were about to leave to pick up Brad from work, it started to downpour. I quickly ran to the shed to get a tarp and tucked it around the camping gear. What I did not think about was that all of the rain would run right off the tarp, down into the truck, and soak our camping gear. Because our friends were already at the camp site ahead of us in an area with no cell phone service, we were unableto get ahold of them. We didn't want to just not show up since they were expecting us. But we weren't sure if we wanted to go either. We decided to go up, eat dinner together, and hope the rain would stop. When we got up there we realized Brad didn't have a jacket and everything was soaked. EVERYTHING. I had packed a couple of blankets inside of the truck and our friends said they had some extra sleeping bags so we decided we would stay. We put up the tent in the rain, ate dinner, and Brad set up in the tent with Ethan and I set up in the truck with Eddie. It was a long long night for everyone. The next morning everyone was freezing. As the sun came out and we warmed up a little, we all took a walk before packing up. The area was really beautiful. We didn't get too far before the boys were tired, having had little sleep. We decided it was time to head home. Despit the cold, wet start, we were still glad we went.

Our trip to WA

We took a trip to WA the 2nd week in Aug. We drove our van with our family and Jared's to Kennewick and stayed a couple of days at Mom and Dicks where Bethany was also staying. Then headed to Dash point where we met Wendy's family.
We camped at the beach for a couple of days sharing a tent with Wendy's family. The first day was rainy and cold. Eddie cried most of the time we were on the beach and wanted to be held because the sand was cold and scratchy. ):
Ethan loved it and spent his time gathering shells and pretty much anything he could find, including a small dead fish and part of a crab and begged to keep them even though they smelled terrible! Below is a picture of Ethan with a big find. And above is a shot we got of Eddie while he was happy for a few minutes.

The next day we decided to go to the Science center in Seattle since it was still raining. Everyone loved it. Below is a pic of Eddie. They had big dinos that made noise and moved. Just as I set him up for a picture the dino moved his head toward Eddie and he panicked!

Here is a pic of Brad playing in the play area with Ethan.

Below is a pic of me and one of my cute niece Eveline. (Bethany's baby)

Here is a pic of Grandma Terri playing w/Eddie in the water area.

Here is Eddie on a huge Caterpillar

Ethan loved the butterfly exhibit. The rainbow beads and necklace you will see him wearing in most pictures belongs to Eveline. Silly kid.

There were star fish, hermit crabs and other sea creatures you could pet. Eddie would not touch anything except the star fish once after he saw Ethan do it.

Ethan touched about everything!

Family pic

Bethany and Eveline

Brad's stinky find.

Here is cold Eddie and Dad

Here is fussy Eddie and worn out mom

Happy twins! David and Benjamin loved the beach that day, especially David.

Ethan trying to get warm in a little puddle with his latest "Treasure" a clam

Ethan was so sad when I told him we could not keep the clam as a pet. I told him we could take it's pics to remember it by but that he needed to go back in the water.

Happy Ethan! We woke up and the sun was finally shining! He is standing on top of a very tall stump.

The second half of your trip we said good bye to mom and drove to Birch Bay and spent a few day with Dad and Carren, the Grandparents Mattie and some of Carren's family. Ethan loves having cousins he can run and play with. They had so much fun. Here is Grandma Kauer playing with David.

Grandma Gale holding sweet little Allie (Jared and Nikki's baby) There were plenty of babies to be held, we all loved it especially the grandmas and grandpas.

This is one of my favorite pics of Jeni and Jeremy's baby. Happy Shyla in her stroller ready for the beach!

Eddie had a difficult time most of the trip. He cried a lot and wanted me t hold him most of the time. I think it was mostly lack of sleep and mom holding all her nieces and nephews and he didn't like that. I was thankful when dad took him for a nice long bike ride. Eddie really enjoyed it too. Thanks dad!

I thought this was a cute pic of dad holding sleeping Eveline

Aunt Jeni helping Ethan roast a marshmallow.

Here is where we all congregated to eat and get warm by the fire

When we decided to go to Birch Bay we didn't know what to expect since none of us had been there. What we didn't expect was the beach to be covered in rocks! There were lots of shells and hermit crabs for the kids to find and collect. Here is a group of us wandering the beach. Almost everyone is holding a baby. (:

Ethan and Lilly finding baby hermit crabs.

Ethan and his bucket of "beach treasures"

"Can I keep ALL of them mom? Please?!"

Summer helped the kids paint and glue to make all kinds of things with the treasures they found on the beach. They loved it.

I finally was able to hold my nephews for the first time after camping with them and sharing a tent with them for several days and nights. But my happy moments holding them the last few days of the trip never lasted long. But at least they happened! I just love those cute little guys!

Ethan, Mattie and Eddie playing in the rocks on the beach.

Eddie enjoying the rocks

Eddie heading back to camp with his wagon full of "sand toys"

Here are my sisters and one of my brothers. Jared, Jeni, Bethany Wendy and me in a huge tree. I love my siblings they are my best friends. I am already thinking of our next trip together next Aug. I love you guys, you are the best!

Here we all are with our families. Brad, me, Eddie, Ethan. Bethany and Eveline. Jeni and Shyla. Sterling, Benjamin, Wendy and David. Jared Nikki and Allie. Wow our family has really grown in one year! Since last Aug we have 5 new babies and ours on the way in March!

Here are all the cousins. Benjamin, David attacking Eddie. Shyla. Eveline Ethan and Allie. It was really difficult to get them all in one place at the same time, and mostly happy. (:

Etah Mattie and Eddie. A happy little trio.

Happy Cramers!

Me and Brad

The last night we took the boys and Mattie to get some ice cream and met everyone down at the beach to watch the sun set. It was beautiful.

Here we are waiting for the sun to go down. Carren, Dad, Bethany and Eveline, Grandma and Grandpa Gale, Ethan and Eddie.

Here is Eddie with Great Grandpa Eddie sitting by the fire the last night.

After sleeping in a tent for 6 nights we were all ready to sleep in a real bed and take a nice long shower! Our little ones were so dirty by the end of each day. There were showers but they were not great.

Before heading home we met at Nikki's parents house (as presentable as possible after 7 days of camping) and had Allies baby blessing. We said our sad good byes for another year. Some of us a little more emotional than others. (:

Then we climbed back in the van with Jared's family and headed back to moms house in Kennewick. We stayed the night and drove the rest of the way in the morning. In all we put 2050 miles on the van. The boys and Allie did really well considering the time they spent in the car. not that they didn't have thier moments. Overall it was a great trip, it was good to be together and the boys loved it.

Finally a new post!

I am so behind blogging I decided I will have to just do a little at a time to catch up!
Our summer flew by so fast, we have been so busy.
If you haven't heard we are expecting baby #3 March 3rd! We are all excitied, especially Ethan who is really hoping for a sister. We will find out Oct 12th if baby is a boy or a girl.
These are some pics of our tip to the fair. Above and below are pics of them enjoying their corn dogs. Eddie had katsup all over his face that he did not want wiped off!

We saw most of the animals. Eddie was scared of the pigs and kept saying, "Scary pig, scary pig!"

He also has a sheep baa right in his face, but thought that was funny.

The boys used their money to buy cups of feed at the petting zoo. The pig had just had piglets the day before and the pony had a baby a few weeks before they were so cute. Eddie loved feeding the goats.

We told the boys they could pick a ride or a game. Ethan has been wanting a pet of his own (besides our poodle Duncan) so when he saw he could win a goldfish decided that was way better than a ride. He had to throw 8 ping pong balls into cups, we told him it might be kind of difficult and if he didn't get one into the cups he wouldn't get a fish and not to cry. He said ok, threw the balls and didn't make it. The dread on his face was so sad but he didn't cry. The lady felt sorry for him and pretended he made it anyways and said, "OK! I'll go get your fish." She said she doesn't like to see sad kids. Ethan was so excited! We were excited for him. Eddie was too short for all the rides except the merry go round, he was sad he didn't get to ride the four wheeler ride but loved the cheeta

Before heading home we got them some cotton candy, they loved it. Eddie was such a mess! We had a lot of fun together. The boys were exausted and fell asleep on the way home. Brad and I we hapy about that too. (:

Fun in the Sun

My first blog post was about our trip in May, so I decided to make this post a longer one to catch up June and July. June 13th Eddie turned 2. Ethan was SO excited about it and told everyone. He helped wrap presents and picked out balloons (they loved the balloons!)

I made Eddie a truck cake. The first thing he opened was a bubble airplane that makes bubbles come out the back while the propeller spins. Eddie was so fascinated with it he didn't want to open anything else. Grandma Diane and Grandpa Greg got him a bubble mower and he LOVES to "help daddy mow grass."

Aunt Stephanie was in town for a couple of weeks and the boys had so much fun with her. She made Ethan this vampire costume that he wanted to wear EVERYWHERE! This is him wearing it next to a clown at the circus. We went with Stephanie and Grandma Diane. Ethan loved the acrobats and spent the next couple of days doing tricks on the swing set.
Diane bought the boys these horns. The are really really loud. Brad conveniently went to Boise that weekend for a conference, but the neighbor and I endured them until the newness wore off. O:

Ethan doing some acrobat tricks.

Eddie trying to be like big brother.

Brad brought home this box from work, it is refrigerator size. Ethan colored it and has wanted to sleep in it every night for the last 2-3 weeks!

For the 4th of July Grandpa Larry and Grandma Carren and Orion came down and we had a lot of fun! This is Eddie at the parade.

This is Ethan and Orion trying to get warm after swimming.

This is Grandma and Eddie watching the fireworks.

And a few pics of the kids doing sparklers.

Ethan is on a t-ball team, the fire dragons. He has really improved from the first game. It's funny watching the little kids in the outfield sitting in the grass, digging in the dirt...

He has games Mon/Wed. On Tues/Thurs we find other ways to keep busy like the movies, library or the swimming pool. This summer has been so busy, but a lot of fun.