CRAMER Bros.Trip

A few weeks ago we had a bunch of Cramers drive out from California for the annual Cramer brother back-packing trip. This time 6 out of 9 of the brothers made it. Not bad!

 My brother Steven and his wife Kathy were also in town from Oregon, so as soon as the Cramers left they came and stayed with me to keep me company while I was a single mom for 4 days. We kept so busy and had so much fun that the time actually flew by.

Here are some pics of the cousins playing together. Mikayla was in heaven playing chase and tossing the ball with her two boy cousins while we had a weenie roast and cobbler made by my awesome hubby with his new dutch oven.

                                                                                   Kathy with new baby, Emmalee.



This is my hottie with his new military-style haircut. I was cutting it to the normal length and he told me to do a #5 with the clippers, so that's what he got!









Mikayla and Teagan watching a movie after a long day playing in the dirt.

Here they all are right before they took off into the Uinta mountains for the trip. Kent, Kraig's older brother, took along two of his older kids and one brother Kliff brought his dog.  All in all, there were 6 men, 2 kids, and 1 dog. 

While they were gone we visited Thanksgiving Pointe, which has a lot of fun stuff for kids.

The Dinosaur Museum

Mikayla didn't appreciate the Triassic period-like sound effects or the dim lighting with huge dinosaurs looming overhead. We went this time last year and she was fine, but I think there's something about being 3 - 4 where their imagination really kicks in and they get scared more easily.

After the museum and lunch, we visited the "Country Farm" which has farm animals to see, ponies to ride, play prisons to hang out in, etc.

This goat couldn't resist Ashlynn's tasty shoe.

My cute sister-in-law got really excited about the baby goats.  She used to have them for pets at her home in Kansas.  Haha, you can just see the glee on her face. :)

We got to ride in a horse-drawn carriage.

The next day we hit the Thanksgiving Pointe Gardens, which are immaculate, beautiful, and huge.  It was a really hot day, so we hit it in style!  Cruised around on this golf cart for an hour and a half (totally worth the $25 in my opinion) and Steven and our friend, Joe Thiriot, rented Segways and had a blast!

The next day the Oregonians left, the Californians returned, and we got to hang out with the happy Cramer crew for one more day till they all headed back home.  It was great to see so much of our far-away family, thanks for coming you guys!  (Pics of their backpacking adventures will follow....maybe I can even convince Kraig to blog a bit about it)

July B-days

"Happy birthday America!"

This is what Mikayla shouted when I told her it was FINALLY the 4th of July.

We have a tradition of doing the local 5k run at 7am on Independence Day.

Then we go get the kids and head to a local breakfast diner.

Then on to the local fair for some (HOT) fun for the kids.

;)

We took much-needed naps, hit the parade, BBQ-ed, then of course, watched the fireworks.

We usually aren't real big on parades (unless it's a Disneyland parade or the Rose Parade)....they're a bit boring in our opinion. But this year, we had a lot of fun mostly because Mikayla was getting into it and getting lots of free stuff...like a fire fighter hat and a frisbee and a lot of CANDY.

Up until this parade, Kraig didn't know that it's common for the paraders to throw out candy. Well, we got a lot of salt water taffy thrown to us and NOW he's a fan of parades. My silly guy. ;)

Mikayla hates loud noises. When we were about to get out of the car to watch fireworks, she started to panic and insisted she wanted to stay in the car to watch. After we convinced her and she started to watch, she was dancing, singing, jumping around, exclaiming out loud, and having a great time, to the point that when it was time to go she insisted that she wanted to sleep right there on the grass and never leave. Sigh. Kids....

We also had a blast celebrating Kraig's 34TH birthday this past Saturday. He's an old man now! I pretty much spoiled him the entire day. He likes to make a big deal out of my birthday, and surprise me as much as possible, and so I have over the years tried to do a better job at surprising him. He's a lot better at it than I am though.
So, anyway, I as his super wife slaved away the entire day for him (with an injured foot I might add....but that story is for another day)
1. Made breakfast burritos and waffles
2. Took the family swimming
3. Had roast beef melts and watermelon for lunch
4. Opened presents (I gave him a dutch oven, which he has been asking for for a while.....and he has cooked in it 3 times already...win, win situation I'm thinking. 'Why didn't I get him this last year?' I ask myself.)

Mikayla gave him candy bars, a lego creation, and a handmade card.

5. Had cheesecake
6. Got a sitter and took him out to dinner (Sushi - he LOVES it)
7. Took him to see "Avengers". No, we hadn't seen it yet. Yep, it was pretty good for a guy movie. I appreciated the comic relief.
8. Enjoyed coming home to a quiet house and not having to put the kids down (or as I heard one woman call it, "Whack-a-mole" because they keep popping out of bed)

I love my man. I'm grateful to his mama for giving him life and raisin' him right. He treats me so good, makes me have laughing fits, provides for our family, and is a sweet and silly daddy who enjoys life.

18 months and SpIcY

We adore this little monkey!


At 18 mos., she's in the 70th %tile for her height, 60th for her head size, and 25th for her weight.

I really love/don't love having an 18-month old. I love how interactive she is, how they rely so much on body language to communicate, how she is learning new words every day, how exuberant about life she is, how cuddly she gets, how silly she is.

I don't love the huge mess she makes on the floor 5 times a day, how she climbs on EVERYTHING and pulls anything she can down, how she SCREAMS and throws huge fits when she doesn't get her way or we don't understand her, how she's starting to hit us and yell 'NO!' and be naughty.

BUT...I know it's all part of the deal. You gotta have both sides of the coin.

Some of our Favorite things about our Ashy-bear at 18 months

1. She loves to use me or Kraig as a human playground if we ever try to stretch out on the floor.

2. She fake sleeps and 'snores'

3. She always pulls her sandwiches apart before eating them.

4. She is mellow and quiet in crowds, busy and crazy at home. (She has really hurt me quite a few times, including cutting my lip, making me bleed under my toenail, a huge bash on the head with her hard head....I protect myself around this one now.)

5. She loves to blow bubbles in her drinks with straws.

6. She gets really cuddly and kissy with us.

Her favorite things right now are: cuddly teddy bears, lift-the-flap books, puppets, playing in our cars, being outside, getting herself wet, chasing Miko, wrestling Mikayla, splashing like crazy in the tub, and recently, SWIMMING. She is a little too daring for my liking.

Words she can say: cheese, "kay-koo" (thank you), mommy, daddy, Lala (Mikayla), Geeko (Miko), bu-faiy (butterfly), tee (brush teeth), aw- up (I want up), all done, dink (drink,) NO, MINE, gotchya, cracker, bubble...hmm, can't remember what else. She is a little parrot to Mikayla. If Mikayla says, "I want red" she'll try to say it.


LITTLE GIRLS ARE ALL THE SAME??? I DON'T THINK SO!


They all come into the world with their own unique personalities....you hear it all the time, but Ashlynn has been almost the opposite of Mikayla in everything, so in a way she's been pretty predictable!

Mikayla was an active, 'I don't need sleep' kinda newborn; Ashlynn was mellow and slept a lot (THANK GOODNESS)

Mikayla was a skinny babe; Ashlynn pretty chunky.

Mikayla didn't really care about blankies or teddy bears; Ashlynn LOVES her teddy and wants to sleep with him every night.

Mikayla would sit and listen to a long book at 18 mos.; Ashlynn lasts about 1 minute.

Mikayla was a finicky eater when we started on 'real' food, Ashlynn dug in with both hands to anything she could. She often eats all her food then sneaks up to the table and finishes off Mikayla's leftovers.

If we put a messy food on Mikayla's tray, she would poke it once and then cry to have her hand cleaned off...and then refuse to touch it again (like, when she was only one year old....totally weird, right?)

Ashlynn has been a more normal baby and will paint anything she can with her food, use her hair as a napkin (actually works pretty well), throw it, squish it, try to wipe it on us, basically create as much mess as possible.

Mikayla never really cared about feeding herself (even now, she wouldn't mind if we did!) Ashlynn is determined to feed herself and refuses to let us help her....thus the huge mess.

Mikayla cried for about 10 mins at the beginning of nursery for about 6 MONTHS. Ashlynn went into nursery last Sunday and didn't even look back. ("Toys? Kids? Snacks? I'm good! See ya mom!")

We love both of our little personalities that brighten our home! I need to do an update on Mikayla soon too, so watch this space if you care. :)

May

I can't believe it's already June!

I was just thinking about May and all the happiness I've felt. I need to record some of the happenings around here since my long-term memory is like a sieve (it's seriously embarassing sometimes....like when a friend will say to me, "Remember when you......" and I do NOT recall the slightest thing about it....eh hem, yes, that's me)

1. I have been on a home decor/organizing frenzy. Partly due to boredom with the mundane (and given that I stare at these 4 walls most of the day) and partly due to my subscription to 'Better Homes and Gardens' (thanks Mom and Dad) and partly due to that spring cleaning kick that comes each year!

I have been throwing out/donating useless stuff and grouping similar things, like in my kitchen drawers using drawer dividers. And I know that I sound like an organizing nerd, but when I open my drawers now it makes me happy!

I also gave my living room a little spring make-over and replaced the red accents with pink ones.

Lately I have been into making my home a reflection of all the things I love; things that are part of us and that bring us happiness. I don't really like spending lots of money and following trends too much. Too predictable. It's fun to find unique stuff for a good price. Like this cool medieval-looking goblet, I put it with my England display (even though it's from Savers for $4 - it helps create the feeling of old English castles and such).

This little rustic table just spoke to me when I was at D.I. trying to find a tray for my coffee table. I love that it is a little worn and has character. I especially love that it only cost me $5! It just needed a good polishing, a little bit of sanding on the edges to make it look like it's SUPPOSED to be old and worn out, and voila.

Also I found the tray for $2 and added my own strip of material.

This spice rack used to hang on the wall for keys and was white. We tore it down when we moved in and painted and I've been wanting to give it a face lift and put it back up for years. So one day, I decided to spray paint it antique black, then sand down the edges. And then I found those cute little glass bottles at D.I. to display some spices, added a few little trinkets and now it's a little kitcheny decor for us.

My wall here has been bare for a couple of years and I've been wanting to buy a large mirror or other decorative piece to put up but I didn't want to spend the $50 or so. So I got a bunch of random frames, spray painted them all off-white, printed out some of my fave memories, and created a grouping. I love to look at my little family being happy on the wall.

So now I'm done with my little frenzy and feel content for now. Now it's time to enjoy SUMMER! Woohooo!

2. Mikayla finally decided a few weeks ago that she was going to start using the potty again. Kraig and I were in the middle of re-organizing his man cave (tool shed, which was horrendous) and Mikayla went inside for a minute, then came back outside bottom half naked. I told her she needed to go back inside and get on a pull-up or underwear or something. To our surprise, she shouted, "YEAH! I'm gonna go put on my LIGHTNING MCQUEEN underwear!" (Yes, we bought her boy underwear) So we're like, ok, whatever, this will be short-lived like in the past. Well ever since that moment she has used the potty perfectly and WILLINGLY. I think she had one accident in 2 weeks. She has great control and has been initiating going potty herself. Woohooooooooooooo!!!! FINALLY!!!!!!! What did we do differently? NOTHING. (oh yeah, we waited for her to decide it was time)

3. We got a zoo membership and have already been twice. We got to see the new polar bear, seals, and river otters yesterday and the kids loved it.

4.Both of our girls' eczema has become really bad lately. Has anyone else's kids eczema gotten worse lately? The heat has contributed, along with us not using any steroid cream on them since we ran out, and I got to thinking that I actually don't want to have them on a steroid cream long-term. So I am trying other things. I have been researching causes of exzema a lot and I am determined to get to the cause of it. The tricky thing is it could be so many different things, and it's different for everyone.

Right now I am trying to heal it from the inside out. I am giving them flax seed oil once a day. The research says that people who suffer from exzema don't have certain enzymes needed to break down histamines in their body. Lots of different things can give us histamines - dairy products, pollen, soap, detergent,dust, mold, etc. etc. So you can try to eliminate those. Flax seed oil provides the body with the enzyme needed to break down certain histamines. So maybe my girls are reacting to milk for example, but if they have the histamines to break it down it's okay.

I have considered eliminating dairy products from our diet for a month to see if it improves, but the thought of that is daunting given that Me.ikayla probably gets most of her protein from dairy. So we'll see if flax seed oil works. It has the highest amount of essential fatty acids, much more than fish oil even, so regardless if it works to heal the eczema it's a great supplement!

5. I had a wonderful time with many of my old friends for a girls' weekend. It was so nice to get away and reconnect. I love how with old friends things change, but nothing really changes with your friendship and you just pick up where you left off. We went out to eat at a British restaurant and had fish 'n' chips, talked late into the night, crashed on my friend's floor, then got up and ate a delicious breakfast, went to the Salt Lake temple, and then hit City Creek shopping center for a late lunch and MORE talking. We had so much to catch up on! I love these women and don't see them nearly often enough. I am just surprised that so many of us settled here in Utah. Now it's going to become a yearly tradition!

6. Since Ashlynn is getting older, my girls have become really great playmates lately. Yesterday they had fun in the rainstorm.

It's been a wonderful month. Lookin' forward to June!

Snow and Sun Fun

This was in March......





And this was in April......

Gotta love the different seasons! Hope everyone had a happy Easter! We had a nice time at church and ate way too much chocolate and apple pie....and enjoyed every minute... (see Ashlynn, above)

Apart from some illnesses and allergies that have been in our midst during the last month, we've enjoyed this beautiful spring doing yard work, spring cleaning, and playing outside riding bikes and playing with our faithful dog, Miko.

She really is a beaut. She has mellowed out SO much in the last year or so, and is gentle with my kiddos, obedient, and my trusty running partner. (She protects me against the big bad dudes. At least, I like to think so)

She is now 6 years old, so in dog years she's middle-aged. I feel like we are done 'raising' her and now get to just enjoy her.

Life is hard with little kids sometimes. It can get really monotonous staying at home and doing the same thing each day. But I have to make it a point to look for the beauty and the good that surrounds me or I can easily get fed up. I used to see my dog as one more chore to do. But I have been trying to focus on her beauty and the awesome creature that she is.

What beautiful things did I see and hear today? My dog's big honey-colored eyes thanking me for scratching her ears. My little cherubic baby's kisses on my cheek. My little gal's voice, "Mom, I like you!" and "Dad, your hottie is home!" (when I walked in the door from tutoring) The birds chirping and cooing in the early morning. My freshly clean sheets on my bed.

It's all about the little things. ;)