Fall 2012

This year we went with some of our friends to glean potatoes, the kids thought this was FANTASTIC! There was so much dirt, hooray!  Eddie had the most fun, his eyes, nose, ears and...well... everything else were so full of dirt from running up and down the powdery dirt road and kicking the dirt everywhere with his friend Josh. He was so proud of this big potato he found.  

Lily at the pumpkin patch.

Lily and Eddie with their happy faces and happy pumpkins

The kids did really well cleaning out their own pumpkins this yr

Lily is going through a new frustrating phase. She is old enough not to have a binky, and continues to bite the tops off of the ones she has. She sticks her finger in the hole she has made and continues to suck on the binky. Why does she still have them and why do I continue to buy more? Well, it is the only way I have found to keep her from sucking her thumb (which her dentist said is much worse than a binky for her teeth). If she uses her binky she uses it just for nap and bed, if she uses her thumb she wants to use it all day.

Ethan was so proud he carved his pumpkin mostly by himself this year!

Ethan turned 8 in October and we had a Halloween/b-day party for him. He had fun eating cake and mummy dogs with his cousins and being wild during the games. He also had a friend party and we took them bowling and had pizza. He was one happy boy.

Happy Halloween! Our 2 vampires and one "sleepy & the beast" We think this is a combination of beauty and the beast and sleeping beauty...we are not sure how she came up with this name

The boys both wanted to do something new this fall. Basketball and indoor soccer for Eddie's age didn't start until January so that left wrestling or ice skating. He was worried he would get hurt in wrestling so he decided to ice skating "so he could play hockey when he gets bigger". He LOVED it! I was a little worried what he would say after watching him lay on the ice most of the first day, but he came off the ice happy and got the hang of it pretty quickly!

Ethan got baptized the first weekend in November. He had a lot of family come to support him that day. We are proud of him for this big decision he made.

After a trip to the store I asked Lily to help me put the TP under the bathroom sinks, but first she had a lot of fun making "castles"

Ethan tried basketball this fall. That is him below jumping in the air. He loved it but it took awhile for him to learn how to be a team player. Once he started passing the ball and guarding his person things were a lot more fun for everyone.

Surprise mom, I'm mopping! Lily has learned she can use the bathroom stool to get into lots of new things she could never reach before, like the bathroom sink. She had filled her mop bucket up to the top with water and was having a fantastic time. I was shocked how much water was on the floor when I found her. I'm just glad it didn't warp the floors before I got it wiped up. She was so proud of herself, until I told her cleaning time was over, then she was really mad.

These are all the carrots we dug out of our garden this year! The bags are full, and I gave away 2 grocery bags  full. It took me a long time to wash, peel and cut them all but we are grateful to have them. Thank goodness for my new food processor.

Lil and I read stories before bed and nap, this is usually how she hugs my big belly while we read

On Thanksgiving we all participated in the turkey trot. Brad ran the 5K with Eddie & Lily in the stroller and Ethan & I slowly walked/waddled the 1 mile. The race was sponsored by my doctors office and I actually walked part of the mile with my doctor which was comforting to know she was close by in case I threw my self into labor. :)

Eddie made these pilgrim and Indian costumes at preschool, he was very proud of his work and allowed Lily to try them on too

Me and my girl vacuuming the floor together

Lily and her best pal Allie reading books together

Eddie and Arianne (Allie's big sister) working on crafts

Gingerbread houses. The decorations on the houses lasted one day.

I found Lily one morning looking at the tree, using the presents as foot rests.

Lily helping with dinner

One wild night at our house the kids decided to be Indians. This is how the boys came downstairs. It only took one look for Lily to start ripping her shirt off and running to get the markers to color on herself too. Silly kids. Unfortunately for Ethan the marker didn't come off in the shower the next morning as well as he hoped and he got to go to school with those on his face

It's almost Christmas!

The Santa had a really cool suit and beard, but he wasn't very friendly. Hardly and smile, and there was no HOHOHO

I got to help the primary kids preform the nativity for the church Christmas party again this year. Eddie was a cow and Ethan was a wise-man.

Lily looking pretty before church

Making Christmas sugar cookies

For those of you who have asked for a pregnancy pic, here it is. This is defiantly the biggest I have ever been during pregnancy. It has been a different experience all the way around. As most of you know we decided not to find out if the baby was a boy or a girl which has been fun and exciting. This baby also has a 2 cord vessel instead of a 3 cord like all of our other babies. (a vein & an artery in the umbilical cord instead of 2 veins and 1 artery.) I don't really know the best way to explain all the risks and complications this could lead to but so far everything has been great with this baby except for all of the extra appointments. When I hit 32 weeks I have had to go to the dr every Monday and every Thursday for about and hour and a half each visit. One day for an ultrasound and one day for a stress test. Despite the trips across town, getting someone to watch my kids and sitting in the waiting room a lot I am grateful everything has been fine. I am also grateful to my mother-in-law Diane and my friend Julie for helping watch my kids. We are also glad that after all the ultrasounds I have had the sex of the baby is still a surprise! We have an Albanian girl name picked out, but Brad and I are still divided on the boy name...which stresses me out a bit.

Here are a couple of pics of baby Cramer 4. Due Dec 29th, 2 weeks from today! We are SO ready for baby to arrive. It is exciting to think my next post will have real picture of our baby!

The last of summer, Sept & Aug

We got a little pool this summer and had a lot of fun in it!

Monkey see monkey do

Every year the city has a picnic for all their employees and opens up the fun land & mini golf for  free.

We always look forward to this day because we always have a lot of fun

They were a little serious riding the Farris wheel by themselves

Lily did really well on the Farris wheel, she closed her eyes on the way down a few times when she thought it was too scary.

One night we went to the park for a picnic dinner with Brad's parents. We had to bring the evening to a quick end when Lily got an upset tummy. We ran out of clean pants/panties and Diane suggested making a pair of pants out of this grocery sack until we got home. It is funny now, but it wasn't funny at all in the moment.

Every year our city has what's called the Snake River Roaring Youth Jam, sponsored by the arts council. They usually set up free crafts for kids all along the river. We go every year, make lots of stuff and have a lot of fun. This year because of the construction they found a place to have it indoors. We still had fun but are looking forward to next year when it is outside again. Eddie was on the news that night making this masquerade mask

This is Lily's mask, she LOVED the pretty feathers

Ethan loves crafts and actually made about 2 of everything they had available. He would have been happy to stay all day but as it was we went over our 2 hr parking time and got a ticket because I couldn't pull him away!

My friend Julie (left) had a connection to get a great deal on tickets to see Wicked in Salt Lake. Brad watched the kids all day so I could go.  We left in the morning, had a packed lunch at temple square and then went to the show. Julie had seen the show before but it was my and Erika's (right) first time. It was amazing!!! The singing, acting, costumes and story were all so awesome! After the show we headed home stopping in Brigham City for some Chinese. It was such a wonderful day with my friends and so nice to take a break and get away for awhile. I am so blessed to have great friends and a hubby who is willing to take care of things when I need him to

My little sister Bethany and her family were passing through ID on their way home to TN and the kids and I were able to meet them and my other sister Jeni from WA in Boise. We stayed at a hotel with a pool (which is where my kids spent most of their time) and we also went to the zoo. It was so good to see them and their cute kids. Below is Eveline, Shyla, Eddie, Lily & Ethan. We love our cousins, and wish all of our cousins could have been there that day...next summer!

We tried to get a pic of all of the kids standing by a different penguin but they were too busy running everywhere. I think they were done and had had enough of the group photo ideas.

Evi & Lil riding a Komodo dragon

All our cute little chick-lets

In this pic it is kind of hard to tell but I took Evi & Ethan into the butterfly house, there were butterflies everywhere! They were so beautiful. Ethan wanted me to take a pic of everyone, I didn't think I was going to get him out of there

Eddie sliding down the giraffe neck, wheee!

I was so glad there was a pool at the hotel, it helped burn off so much energy, thank goodness!

When Lil eats breakfast she usually wears a headband to keep her hair out of her food until I get it fixed. On this day she wanted to put it on her self. Silly girl she is always making us laugh.

Every year in Payson, UT where Brad's grandparents live there is a big labor day celebration. We love to go for a visit this weekend because there are usually so many fun things to do. Brad's grandparents live right across the street from the park they have the carnival set up in. The kids always have so much fun riding the rides.

Lil really wanted to ride the lady bugs. After it started and the ladybugs went up she was a little nervous, but by the end she was smiling and waving.

While in UT we spent some time at temple square. It has been 9 1/2 yrs since Brad and I were married in Salt Lake. Boy how life has changed since then!

We had never taken our kids to temple square before and it was nice to walk around and see the beautiful buildings and go to the visitor center and see the Christus and the beautiful paintings.

During our visit Grandma Della was in the process of waiting for a surgery to help her be able to hear again. The best way to communicate with her is by writing her a message on the dry erase board. Lily thought this was fantastic and didn't want to share the marker with anyone.

Brad's cousin's little boy was having his 1st b-day bash that weekend. There was a carnival set up in the gym of the church, a bouncy house, lots of games and treats

After they were full of sugar I rounded them up for a few fun photos

It was a really fun night. It was so nice to let them run all over and that that was ok. I think we all needed that. I was glad there was no water in the ducky pond.

Ethan ready for 2nd grade, wait what about shoes!

The boys were watching a funny video on the computer and Lily wanted to see too so I let her stand on a chair behind them. She really does love those boys.

Lily has been doing a new funny thing where she decides she wants to wear a dress over her clothes. I usually hear her screaming from her room because she is stuck, like the picture below or she will just come down stairs wearing one upside down, backwards, inside out.

I canned 14 quarts of pickles from our garden this yr. I had never canned pickles but they turned out fine and I was glad to have the mound of cucumbers off my counter!

This year we had the most successful garden we have ever had! We grew potatoes, cabbage and onions for the first time. Lots of cucumbers, zucchini  green beans, tomatoes, peas, carrots and more lettuce than we were able to eat. We have lots of cantaloupe but it seems to get bad before it gets ripe, I don't think it grows well here. We also got strawberries and rhubarb.  I'm hoping next year our blackberries and raspberries will be big enough to produce something too. It was really awesome to have so much fresh produce.

Silly Lily stuck in another dress. She made it down stairs like this in a panic to ask me for help. She stops panicking and smiles when I tell her she looks silly and I want to take a picture and show her.

Lily loves popsicles more than any other food right now. Since our freezer is on the bottom she likes to pull it open and get one out all by herself. The first few times she did this I was really surprised to see her wandering around eating something I hadn't given her. She is our independent girl.