Snow Fun

Last week we had extremely cold weather. So cold we couldn't even go outside. The kids didn't have school the first three days of the week. We had fun baking cookies, reading stories, and playing; but we were all anxious to get outside. Jeff's sister Gaylene was also here that week. We had all sorts of fun ideas of what we could do while she was here. The only problem was, everything we wanted to do was outside. She was a good sport and the kids enjoyed having Aunt Gaylene here to play games. They were all sad when she left.Luckily, by the end of the week it warmed up. We were able to go out and play in the snow. We all bundled up nice and warm and headed over to the park to sled.

Jeff and his sister Gaylene.

Our cute little Brea was so adorable in the snow. She had fun sledding down and even walked up the hill by herself. I got quite a few pictures like this. She sees me holding the camera and says Cheeeese!

Jackie and Dad built a big, heavy snowman. The next day Jackie decked him out with a carrot nose, stick arms, hat, gloves, and scarf. He was a handsome snowman for a few days, until the sun came out and our snowmen melted small, small, small.

Thanksgiving

I unfortunately have no pictures of our wonderful Thanksgiving this year. None the less I can write and say how Thankful I am for my wonderful life. We were able to stay home this year, and have a lot of Becca's side of the family come to celebrate with us. We had quite the feast. Wow, it was a lot of good food. We smoked our turkey - Yummy and had all the trimmings, salads, rolls, pies, and even cute turkey favors (which we forgot to set out with the table setting, so we enjoyed them for dessert). It was so fun to have family here, to visit, play, and hang out with them. Grandma actually came out early and stayed for a week. We were all spoiled by having her here. I realized how important family is and what strength can be there. We have a wonderful family and count that as one of our greatest blessings.

Kid food creations

We invited some friends over the other night to play games. Jackie wanted to make a delicious snack to give them. A few days before, for Thanksgiving, Grandma had let Jackie and Dallin help make these cute little Turkeys out of chocolates, carmels, and candy corn. Jackie decided to make a chocolate treat. She melted white chocolate in the microwave, put them on mini Hershey bars and added a candy corn on top. They were actually pretty yummy. Then she got out cheese, cut it into squares and placed on top of cheese it crackers. All the while, she is bossing Dallin around giving him orders on what his job is and how he needs to be faster. Dad was gone, Brea was asleep, and Mom was laying on the couch listening and laughing. They did a good job, there was only a small mess to clean up, and we had a 'delicious' snack to feed our guests. They were so proud of themselves. Here is the outcome of their hard work.

Jackie is now SIX!

Jackie celebrated her 6th birthday and enjoyed every moment of it. She decided to go to Chuck-E-Cheese for her big celebration. She was allowed to bring one friend with her, and she also was lucky enough to have her Grandparents, two uncles, two aunts, one cousin, and her immediate family all there to celebrate with her. We typically don't have that kind of extended family here to celebrate birthdays with us because we live so far away from everyone. But this year, we hosted Thanksgiving at our house and since Jakie's birthday was the day before, she got to have a lot of family there to celebrate.

Jackie really wanted a castle cake for her birthday. I am not a big fancy cake decorator so I was a bit nervous how this would work. We started by googling 'easy castle cake' and found lots of great ideas. She picked the one she wanted, I improvised a bit, Grandma made the icing (which was wonderful, I am not a good icing maker - but she did give me a great tip - add shortening to the icing, it really made a difference it was so fluffy and pretty). Here is her Castle cake, she thought it was fantastic.
Grandpa decided to entertain the kids by playing a fun little wrestle game. Five on one, but he amazingly handled all of them and no one got hurt. What a guy!
Jackie got this beautiful dress from Grandma and Grandpa, with a matching dress for her 'sparkly baby'. She put it on right after she opened her presents that night, she looked just like a princess and felt like one too. What more could a parent want for their daughter on her birthday. It was a great day. (The picture at the top of this post shows Jackie and her doll in their matching outfits.)

Halloween

Our scary gang. Dad the rock star, Dallin the dinosaur, Jackie the princess, and Brea the Bear!We started our Halloween celebrations by making a Haunted Gingerbread house. This is a fun tradition that we enjoy doing for Halloween. I think next time we should do it after Halloween so that we can put all of that Halloween candy on it and then, after enjoying it for a few weeks, just throw it all away!

Our finished product, displayed lovingly in our Kitchen. We put it up high so that it stays in tact!

This is our beautiful princess Jackie. She was very picky about what costume looked like a princess. We found this one, and the shimmery middle won her heart.

Dallin was a "Brontosaurus". Once he got in that costume he went wild. He loved to put the dinosaur head down over his head and scar everyone. I think he really thought he was a dinosaur when we couldn't see his head. We would pretend to be scared until he popped out and said, "don't worry Mom, it's just Dallin". He really enjoyed his costume this year.

Brea is a darling little bear. It is actually the same costume she wore last year, but it still fit. Jeff took them trick or treating and said that at every house she would try and open the candy so she could eat it right then instead of putting it in her bag. She had a lot of fun getting so much candy this year.

We had a "real" scare on Halloween. As Jeff was leaving with the kids I was asking him if he wanted a flashlight, since it was dark outside. During our conversation the kids were out front and Dallin saw our neighbors out across the street. He decided to run over and say hi. Well, he said he looked before he crossed the street, which he might have, but when he was 3/4 the way across Jeff realized were he was a yelled at him to come back, which he immediately did. Right at that same time a car came around the corner. (We live right on the corner of a pretty busy street). Jeff threw his toy guitar at the car to get them to stop because he was afraid they wouldn't see Dallin. They did stop and Dallin learned a good lesson. Jeff and I and our neighbors got quite the scare though. That is the closest I have every come to seeing a child hit, not something I ever want to see again. Dallin now crosses the street holding an adults hand.

Soccer

This year both Dallin and Jackie played on the same team. This was Jackies 2nd year and Dallins 1st. Jackie really enjoyed it, she ran hard and was always right on top of the ball. She even made a goal! It was a fun year for her. Dallin had times when he liked it and times when he did not. I think he needs a bit more time to really get into it. It was nice having them both on the same team.

Pinedale Half Marathon

I ran my 2nd Half Marathon last month. It was the Pinedale Half Marathon in Pinedale, WY.

I had the privilege of running it with my awesome Mom & Dad. My Mom and I ran nearly the whole race together which was a lot of fun. It is so much more enjoyable to run with someone. I enjoyed running with my Mom and visiting with her, she is an amazing person.

I drove down from Colorado with little Brea. Jeff and the kids stayed home because they had a soccer game on Saturday. Brea was such a great traveler. It was fun to spend time with my family. Thanks Mom and Dad for running and encouraging me to do so as well.

Family Pictures

I have a wonderful friend that took our family pictures for us. We met at a beautiful park and she snapped away for over an hour. She ended up taking 500 pictures of our family - wow! They turned out really cute. Pictures are something that I really cherish. I make it a priority to take pictures of our family at least once a year. I love having them hanging on my wall, especially when a photographer can catch my children in those "perfect" moments. That is exactly what she did, she got some amazing shots of my children (which can be difficult). I can harldy wait to print them. Thanks Candace, I can't express to you how much I appreciate it.

Love this picture! It makes me smile everytime I look at it. Doesn't it make you just want to let out a big, wide-mouth, tummy-rumbling laugh.

Cramer Family Reunion

For Labor Day Weekend we headed to Moab, Utah to meet Jeffs family for our yearly family reunion. We stayed in these cozy little cabins at Slickrock campground. It was great to be with family, be outdoors, and just relax.

This is Gaylene and Becca on top of a REALLY HIGH ROCK. We felt like we could conquer anything after climbing up that. It was tough. Climbing on slickrock in tennis shoes, up a steep slope is no easy task. We didn't want to come down once we were up, but we eventually slid our way down. Thanks Gaylene for coming up with me. Moab is HOT! Even in September. We were very happy to have a pool at our campground, and the kids had a blast there. Aunt Gaylene was great, she played with the kids and kept them entertained many a times.

Chistian is rockin-and-rollin; gotta love those sunglasses. We found this neat park in town. It not only had a great playground, but it had this 'musical' section. They had all kinds of instruments for the kids to play. The amazing part was - as they all played the music actually sounded good together. What a fun idea!

Dallin getting into the groove of the music. Becca and Brea play some tunes. That is one big instrument.

We found this secret sand area. It was like a gigantic sand box hidden between some rocks. The kids played for hours there. Here is Brea posing pretty. We didn't even set her up that way.
Where is Jackie, oh there is her head! She got a kick out of being buried alive, and so did we when we looked down and only saw this little oval in the ground.

Mister serious Dallin, had a blast on the rocks, he just didn't want to show it. Jackie, Dallin, and Brea all enjoyed climbing over and up the rocks in Arches. They were a bit too brave and daring for kids their age, but we all made it back in one piece and they had a great time.

Cute kids

I thought this picture was adorable, they just looked so sweet. We had a membership to the zoo this past year. It was nice to be able to go as often as we wanted and not worry about paying. Colorado Springs has a really nice zoo and the kids enjoy going there. This was our last trip for a while because our membership ended and we are going to wait until spring to get a new one. The kids are posing in cracked open eggs. They have a great play area with all sorts of fun things for the kids to play on and around. They also have giraffes you can feed, and birds to feed (those are the kids favorite). We also enjoy seeing the orangutans and bears.

Dallins Birthday

Dallin celebrated his 4th Birthday last month. I can't believe my little boy is already Four! He has this idea in his head that four year olds do not take naps. Dallin still needs naps. It is a daily struggle becasue he knows that he is now four and four year olds do not take naps. He is growing up too fast, but we sure love him.

Dallin chose to have his good friend Drew come to Chucky Cheese with him. They had a blast, running from one game to another. We came home to a yummy 'candyland' cake that the kids decorated themselves. (They thoght that was great, and Mom agreed since she didn't have to do any decorating). Dallin was excited to see a new Spiderman bed (bedspread and sheets). We are hoping this will encourage him to stay in his bed through the night. He has been finding his way into Mom and Dads bed every night. Mom and Dad have a full size bed and it gets a bit uncomfortable with a four year old squished in the middle. But it really isn't too bad until Jackie decides to join the crowd in bed at 2am. That is a bit too much.

Dallin is a happy kid. He started preschool this year and has made some new friends there. Whenever I ask what he did, the only response I get is about the kind of snack they ate. He does enjoy his food. We have a had a fun summer and Dallin has become very adventurous on our outdoor treks. He loves to climb rocks and trees and jumb off of them. He is very imaginative and enjoys preteneding to be a "Green Creature", spiderman, a superhero, or just playing family. He knows he is the strongest, fastest and most powerful, and tells us and shows us daily. I love the innocently proud ego of children, they really believe they are the best. Keep that attitude Dallin.

Dallin has a very sweet heart. We will take away a treat from Jackie, for disobeying, and the next thing we see is Dallin giving his treat to her. He always shares and tells us (after we punish someone) that we are mean and we should not have done that. He is still a cuddler and likes to be hugged, have his backed rubbed, and sit on our lap as we read a book. He enjoys reading books and will sit for quite a while if we read stories to him. One of my favorite things to do is to snuggle with my children.

Our sweet four year old is a boy and likes to act like a boy at times. He gets really excited when friends come over, and acts quite wild (I am hoping he will grow out of that!). We are still working on keeping our hands and legs to ourselves a.k.a no hitting, kicking, ect. It is tough for him, but he is learning. We love our little boy and the joy he brings into our lives. He has the cutest little voice right now, I wish he could keep it forever, and the freckles. We love you Dallin.

Splashpark end of summer fun

We took one last opportunity to play at the splash park. We actually just discovered the splash park that is really close to us. The great thing was, there was nobody there when we first arrived. We had the whole place to ourselves.

Here is our sweet Jackie with four missing teeth right in front. The top two just recently came out, but the bottom two have started growing back in. So cute!

Dallin and Jackie enjoyed hanging out under the "water umbrella" (as they called it). They thought they were "safe" in there, even though they got just as soaked under it as the did outside of it.

Brea stretching to reach the "shooter". Her brother and sister got her a lot and she figured out how they did it. She just needed to get a bit higher so she could spray them back.


Jackie wanted to get warm so I told her to lay in the sun. Not too long afterwards all three were laying down suntanning.