DOG GONE (it)!

So....with the milder weather the ground thawed enough. Enough for my free-spirited, mischievous (and annoying!) golden retriever to get the idea to dig her way out to go on a walk-about. AAAAAAAARRRRRHHHGGGGG! She's driving me crazy how she does this. Miko, being the German Shepherd police dog/mother hen that she is, always thinks she has to go after her. So this is how it goes down. (We've actually spied on them before). Tiggi digs the hole, Miko looks around nervously, Tiggi disappears through the hole, Miko squeals, wimpers, and looks around nervously again, then goes after her.

(Tiggi Hoodini)



(Miko to the rescue)


So I had just got back from the gym, and there's a couple messages on the phone. One lady who says she found my dastardly dogs (OK those were not her words they are mine) and she put them back in our yard. WELL they're not there anymore because there's a huge HOLE under the fence. Now, there's nothing more fruitless and frustrating than driving around random streets in the neighborhood looking for two fast-moving animals. The whole time I'm worried about them getting run over, or maybe freaking out a kid or two, or them getting caught by the pound and having to pay a ton of fines.
We live in the friendliest area...or maybe we just continue to get really lucky. After driving around for an hour, I went home to find a different lady than the one who called earlier - she'd found the little punks by a burger joint helping themselves to some scraps on the ground. I could tell that she was an outdoorsy, dog-lovin type of lady. She has two golden retrievers of her own so at least she had a blanket in the back of her SUV and didn't get her car too dirty. It was such a blessing to have her help us out like that! She read our address off their colars and somehow found our house. I thanked her and we chatted for a bit.

As we chatted, she made the comment, "Your dogs are like your kids" which I inwardly balked at, but she just did me a huge favor so I wasn't about to argue with her - maybe her dogs are her 'kids' but to me, pets and kids are worlds apart. I just think it's funny and kind of sad how lots of women are choosing to not have kids these days, but they still have those motherly instincts and so they shower their affections, money, time, etc. on a dog. Obviously I like dogs, they're great companions (I especially like mine for running and hiking) but they just can't compare to your own flesh and blood, a little wonder running around with some of your characteristics mixed together with their own personality.

I am so grateful that I am able to have children. Mikayla drives me CRAZY sometimes with her little tantrums and 'food finger painting/tossing' (every mother has to deal with, I know, but I know it's all part of healthy development). BUT SHE IS SO SWEET AND SO FUNNY so I guess all the times she gives us kisses or makes us laugh makes up for her toddler ways. When she does something 'naughty' like turn off the T.V. or make something fall over, she runs and hides! And she sometimes grabs your face and looks so intently into your eyes and jabbers in her language like you should understand. My favorite thing lately - when we put her to bed at night, after some songs and a prayer, we whisper little things to her, which sometimes makes her giggle, and then she whispers back.

These little moments are ones that as a parent I never want to forget.


(Do you like my boufy hair? This 'highly recommended' lady did it - only took FOUR hours and WAY too much hair product...)

"The Best is Yet to Come"

I wish I would've kept a quote book throughout my life like my friend Amy used to. She would write down funny/insightful/quirky quotes said by her family and friends. I am sure I would have some GREAT little treasures of things all of ya have said! When Mikayla starts talking in legible sentences, my goal is to keep a little quote book of the funny things she says. Anyway, I've been trying to update my little quote section at the top each time I post, and most of the ones I've put up there have just been from memory. But I have no more ideas. What are all of your favorite quotes??? (Be warned though, if you comment and share a quote, I might just steal it!)
For this month, my favorite quotes come from a talk I read from the January Ensign -"The best is yet to come" and "Faith is in the future, not the past" - Jeffery R. Holland. That just sets a very positive tone for the year, and it's pretty refreshing when it's so common and so fashionable to be a complainer, you know the talk - the economy stinks, our nation is falling apart, we're all gonna die from the icecaps melting, I have the worst in-laws ever, we don't have enough money, etc. etc. I've definately got caught up in negative patterns a few times this past year, but this year I want to believe that the best is yet to come, and our lives really aren't that miserable, we are actually pretty spoiled and pretty lucky to be living in this country, imperfect as it is. And our families are pretty great too, imperfect as they are!
A few months ago Kraig had an opportunity to apply for a job in Montreal, Canada. Now, I LOVE to see new places and to travel, but after the initial thrill of going somewhere different had worn off, I remembered that I love the United States, and that I did want my kids to grow up here and have opportunities that will enrich their lives. By opportunities I mean little things (but in my mind important) like the chance to play American sports, to be part of U.S. history in the making, to grow up with American traditions and culture and friends. While I really appreciate my experiences growing up in England (especially my awesome British friends) I do think that it's not easy to grow up being the foreigner (but not completely). You feel kind of like a mutt - not fully either nationality.
Also, I am going to appreciate Utah for all of the great things there are here. Sometimes I wished I lived somewhere with more diversity and with more money allotted to education, but there are so many great things here - lots to do, family-friendly, I love my ward, skiing is 20 mins. away, I have some family here, lots of memories from when we'd visit in our childhood, and so on...

Here's to a more positive and grateful 2010.

Update

Back in October I lost my camera...so I was discouraged about blogging for a while...but we got a new one for our Thanksgiving trip, so I'm up and running again. We had a wonderful time for Thanksgiving. We went to Rancho Cucamunga, CA to stay with Kraig's brother Kent. They just bought a big beautiful home and we got to help them break it in. Mikayla was in heaven with all of her older cousins who loved to entertain her, plus she got to play outside in the warmth, and she couldn't get enought of pushing around their little doll stroller. Kraig's ENTIRE family made it for the big dinner, and it was a busy, noisy crowd. There was always at least one kid crying, it seemed! We played a lot of games with the kids, watched the BYU-Utah football game, and rode bikes in their backyard. This is Mikayla with her cousins Grace and Levi - she loves Levi especially! He's just so entertaining and nice to her and likes to make her giggle. It was fun to hit some sales with my Sis.-in-laws (with no kids), and we played at a beautiful park in 75 degree weather. This is all the cousins playing in the leaves at the park. Game day. Kraig and I wanted to go to the beach, but his family were all saying it was 'too cold'. CRAZY CALIFORNIANS! (Gotta love 'em).
This is the little doll wiped out on the way home to Utah. As for this month, I am thoroughly enjoying the Christmas season. I've had some fun decorating for Christmas this year....Here's a couple of things that I think are really pretty that I found at...shhhh...don't tell anyone...the dollar store. Okay. I know it's kind of tacky to get decorations there, but I wanted to keep costs down and these things fulfil their purpose for now. When we move into a larger house I'll probably need to get different decorations anyway, right? I even got up the gusto to hang the lights on the outside of the house this year. Usually Kriag does it, but he's pretty busy every Saturday, and by the time he gets home from work it's FREEZING and dark, so I knew it wouldn't get done for a while, so I did it. The only problem - I hung them so that the wrong plug (the 'female' end) is near the electrical outlet so now we have to run an extension cord all the way across the driveway to plug them in, and we have to make sure not to run it over, and it's really cold to have to go unplug them, etc. Next year Kraig is doing it.
Mikayla is quite entertaining every day (even when she's throwing tantrums it's hard not to laugh) and she's my little buddy. Here's a couple of videos of her fooling around at home.

Honey, apples, and my beanie baby

Autumn has been extremely busy for us. Between finishing home projects, committing to an exercise routine, adjusting to new callings, and adding another student to tutor, we've been doing some fall harvesting.
Some of you might not know that we are backyard beekeepers now - anyway, we got our second batch of honey and it is GOOD. It's a lot darker, sweeter, and milder than the first batch. In September we decided on a company name, bottled it up, labeled it, and sold it at our first Farmer's Market. The market was a really fun atmosphere, and the other venders were nice and down-to-earth. It was nice to make some $$ too! Our company name is "Gemstone Honey Co." since we live in an area where all the streets are named after gems. After harvesting the honey, it gets filtered through this mesh cloth. This is about 30 lbs. of honey I'm guessing. Bottling it up....an exercise in patience and cooperation to say the least. Kraig has since sold a case of it to his coworker, so we have about 15 jars left (and we have a good supply for food storage for ourselves).


We've also been harvesting our apples. I used to think it would be fun and kind of romantic/quaint to have fruit trees. I was livin in a dreamworld. It's cost-effective, but it's far from fun - it's a lot of work! Our tree has produced thousands of apples, and I've picked so many off the branches and off the ground but it seems like it will never end. Mikayla has been having fun though. She LOVES to gnaw on apples and help me pick them up. This girl loves to laugh, too. In this video she thinks it's funny to watch me jump up to pick a few hard to reach apples. But it seems like she was just trying to laugh because she enjoys it so much. Silly li'l boo.






I have just been savoring this time with my little girl, when she is so full of life and happiness. Her latest craze is her winter beanies. She used to hate hats, and would pull them off immediately. I wanted to change that for the winter to keep her warm, so one day I pulled out all of her hats and sat with her in front of the mirror. I started putting the hats on my head and acting goofy - she of course thought it was a game and wanted the hats on her head too. She would look at herself in the mirror with her hat on, walk around the room, and then check in the mirror again. It was too cute. Ever since then she's loved to wear her beanies. One night she brought it to me to put it on her head, so I did. It was bedtime, and I took it off for her to go to sleep but she started to throw a fit, so I let her sleep with it on.


Here's another one of her fave's.



Other quirky/cute things she is doing right now:

- plays hide and seek with us. She can't hide yet, only knows how to seek. LOVES to find us under a blanket, behind a door, etc.

-stashes her toys in random places. I went to yoga class the other night, unrolled my mat, and out flew a little toy man she plays with! When friends come over they often find little surprises in their purses or diaper bags.

-giggles when we get out yogurt or crackers. She loves the Brenton whole grain ones (yes!)

-somehow figures out how to push all the buttons she shouldn't on our electronics (like erase phone #'s in the memory of our phone, or cancel recordings on the computer)

-chases the vacuum

-wants to push the stroller and grocery cart (riding is so last year)

-is obsessed with pens, pencils, crayons, and paper. Already has 'decorated' our window sill

-likes to sit on the bottom of slides (this is a problem)

-feeds her bottle to her doll, and loves to feed us her soggy goldfish (yum)

-knows when it's time to get in her crib for the night, so she runs and hides behind it to play peek-a-boo...she already is mastering the art of stalling.

-This is our favorite. She loves to give head bumps to show affection. This is a picture of her asking for one. She lowers her forehead and looks into your eyes. Irresistable...



We love this girl and feel like very lucky parents, and in general very blessed in our lives....if only I was magic and could clean the house like Mary Poppins and then spend the rest of the day playing...

Was it worth it?

We've needed more dresser space and wanted some real nightstands for a while now...so a few months ago, we found a set of nightstands and a dresser at a yard sale. I asked how much for the set and the man told me it was $45...I only paused for a few seconds to decide whether or not it was worth it, plus the work I would have to put in to make them look decent, and the man quickly lowered the price to $25. I couldn't pass up the deal and so in a matter of minutes committed myself to yet another furniture refinishing project....for some reason I like to punish myself and take on these kind of things. I think it's the good deals I can't pass up, plus furniture in the store is marked up SO much, and I like the creative aspect of it where you decide what stain to do, knobs, etc. If I'm gonna do it I find solid, quality furniture that needs a facelift - no compressed sawdust junk. Anyway, this is what the pieces looked like when I was sanding them down.

Finished sanding and with a couple of coats of primer --debating whether to keep them light or do a dark stain.




Decided to go with a dark stain, but the stain didn't 'take' since it had been whitewashed previously. I could've spent HOURS and hours sanding them more, but I paid $25 for these things - I wasn't about to invest that much time in them. I figured that sometime we'll actually buy a nice bedroom set and just pass these down to our kids or something. SO.... I painted them a dark brown. I was kind of skeptical about whether it would look okay or not, but they were sitting around for so many weeks and I just wanted to get 'em finished. So this is how they turned out.

I'm not completely thrilled with them (stain wouldn've been so much better) but we're enjoying the extra storage space and I don't think they look awful. But after calculating the money I spent on primer, paint, sealant, and knobs, I didn't just spend $25 on these things, I spent about $100 and about 4 - 5 hours of my time. (Knobs can really add up quickly)
The question I have in my mind is was it worth it? I'm still wondering.....

This is definately my last furniture project.....maybe......let's hope so. Too much work.

Triathlon weekend

Last weekend we had 4 Cramers compete in the Daybreak Triathlon - Kraig, his two brothers Kent and Klaron, and Klaron's wife Amy. I am kind of chicken to do the half mile swim in the lake again (did it 4 years ago) but....I am planning to make myself just get over it and do it again next June. Kraig is trying to recruit even more of his bros to do a St. George one in about 9 months, and I can't just stand by and watch this time. This is gonna be too exciting to do as a family.

So anyway, they all came to stay for a few days and we had a really good time! We went on a walk up Little Cottonwood Canyon and visited the quarry where the rock used to make the Salt Lake temple was excavated.

This is her latest trick - climbing on anything she can.



The colors were beautiful up there - I love this time of year in Utah.


As we were driving back we hit a HUGE rainstorm. I took of this picture a few minutes before it started pouring.

This is when Mikayla and I were waiting at the finish line for everyone. She got a little ancy....ansy....(anyone know how to spell that word?)



Here's Kraig running in to the finishline.




Amy, Klaron, Kent, and Kraig at the finish line.


We all had a good time together! Especially Mikayla and Teagan (Klaron and Amy's boy)- they LOVED playing together and interacting. They just clicked. They would look at each other and smile, then one of them would crawl or walk away, and the other would follow. My favorite was when I got them to push each other on Mikayla's bike.



The last day Amy and Klaron were here, we went to 'This is the Place' Heritage Park and learned a few things about how this state began. There was lots more to do and see than we anticipated.




Thanks for coming you guys - looking forward to St. George!

Teddy Bear Picnic

I had to throw a little party for my Kayla bear turning 1...of course, as people say, the first birthday party is more for the parents than the kid who has no clue what's even going on. I had fun with the theme and decorations and the cakes. I was so busy playing hostess, though, that I didn't take many pictures of the decorations...so you'll have to use your imaginations. I hid large teddy bears around our yard - in the bushes, in the tree, on the ground, and had some picnic blankets and benches for our guests. I tied clusters of helium balloons to a couple of picnic baskets and to the benches, had a few miniature teddy bears sitting around miniature dishes near the entrance, and had a table set up with a huge Winnie-the-Pooh and little jars of honey around him (from our beehive) for the guests to take as a party favor. I don't think that many people actually paid much attention to the decorations, but oh well I had fun doing it. We played the Teddy Bear Picnic song and just had snacks, opened presents, and then of course had her attack a cake. Here are a few pictures of the cakes:

This is the one I made for everyone to eat.


This is the one I made for her to attack.


She took a little while getting into it, but she really had a good time.







Our little baby is growing up too fast.