June 6th Photo Shoot

These pictures were taken by A Stolen Moment Photography. I got some of Lilliana in her blessing gown & some of her wearing some specially mama made items. Cameron is just being his cute, handsom self.

I'm Back

Ok, so I have taken a 5 month hiatus, but I am back now hopefully with more realistic expectations of myself. I am going to aim for at least one entry a week and if I have more great. Well, the biggest change for our family in these last 5 months is the birth our a beautiful baby girl, Lilliana Faith Crane, on April 27, 2009. I was blessed to have her at home, as we did with Cameron, with Brian, Becca (an amazing college friend) & my midwife, plus the other attending midwives. My mother-in-law watched Cameron who managed to stay up until about 5 minutes before Lilliana was born at 2:09am.
Cameron has done amazingly well with her and loves to exclaim, " I love my baby sister very much" or something to those ends any chance that he gets. He also likes to hold her and and give her hugs and kisses. He has been a great helper and I am so grateful that he has done as well as he has with this transition
Lilliana is a very smiley baby, who has started smiling and almost laughing with joy at Mommy, Daddy & Big Brother. Lilliana is also very demanding due to the fact that she has allergies that cause her a lot of congestion, but we are going for her 2 month appointment tomorrow and hopefully will be given some good resources to help her with them. I will totally admit loving having a baby girl to dress up and make cute.
I actually started making hair bows, tutus and bracelets for her and have received so many compliments that I decided to try selling them. I am hoping to open up shop in the next week or two I just want to be sure I understand the legal side of things (i.e. taxes and such) before I jump in. I have several dozen hair bows, several tutus and a few different jewelery items already done though. So when I open up I will have a good inventory of item to sell. Besides that I have been keeping busy trying to figure out how to be a good mom to two children while still keeping up with house work, cooking, being a good wife and trying to find a small bit of leisure time & getting enough sleep all in one 24 hour day.
Brian did amazingly well last semester despite having to take care of me and my broken foot & our child and the house during midterms & having a baby born right before finals started. He had a short three week break and is now back in school for the Summer about to start his summer midterms. During his break he took it upon himself to check off something from his honey-do list, what a great guy. When this Summer semester is done Brian will have completed his first full year of his doctoral program and will only have two more left. He has decided that he really likes the Orthopedic side of physical therapy and has to decided to follow up his schooling with an orthopedic residency program that will add some more letters to his title when he finishes that program he will be Brian Crane DPT OCS. He is also looking at a fellowship program to do afterward that will add 6 or 7 more letters to that alphabet soup at the end of his name.
Anyway, as mentioned earlier I will aim for once a week. I am not going to chronicle the last five months or try to make up for them, otherwise I will not end up keeping up with the current info. I will, however, try and go through pictures and add those with blurbs about them. I hope everyone is doing well & I am going to try to keep in tough better as it was kind of depressing to fall off the face of the earth for 5 months.

Cameron put his shoes on all by himself

Cameron put his shoes on all by himself for the first time on Saturday, here is the result.

Playing in the cave with Daddy

Cameron feels that any location has 5 closed sides is a cave. Here is Cameron and Daddy in his "cave" (vanity bench alcove) in Mommy & Daddy's bathroom after bath Friday night.

Happy New Year, a Little Late

Cameron posing after his breakfast of a banana & a peanut butter, honey and cinnamon sandwich (one of his favorites) this morning


So, I realize that it has been since before Christmas since I posted. I just wanted to say thank you to all those who we heard from and who had us in their prayers over the Holidays. In case you haven't heard yet, we did find a car. We are down to a subcompact (which is surprisingly roomy) after having a minivan. I am still trying to get used to it, but I am very grateful that we found such a great car. I am even more grateful that we found it before having to resort to canceling our pre-Christmas trip to San Antonio. Brian did very well in his classes, getting all A's & 1 B, so again thanks for the prayers. I will fill anyone who actually checks this in on more details later. I just wanted to post this cute picture and felt like I had to at least say something. We really did have a great Christmas and New Year's Eve and we really enjoyed getting to see so much family; two of Brian's siblings and their families (each have 5 kids) came in to Brian's parents' house to visit. We hope all of you had great a Christmas too and that you are enjoying this New Year to the fullest.

Your Prayers Please

I normally wouldn't do this, and not many people read this anyway, but there are a few things we are in need of your prayers for. The Monday before Thanksgiving, Cameron & I were in a car accident. Cameron and I are both fine, but the accident resulted in more damage to our van than it is worth to us to be repaired. Our van has been nothing but a money pit for the last year and we have been trying to save for a different vehicle only the have our money pit swallow our savings every time we get close. The problem is that we only have one vehicle and insurance wants us to make a decision by Monday the 8th what we are going to do. They will stop paying for the rental at which point we will have no vehicle (makes it tough to look for a vehicle). Brian's parents have been kind enough to loan us a beat up old truck of theirs they don't hardly ever use, but Cameron's car seat doesn't fit in it. So basically we have to find a vehicle that fits in our budget by tomorrow or shortly there after. We found one Saturday late afternoon that we really liked, but our mechanic was already closed and we didn't want to buy it with out having it checked out first (our van was a lemon despite looking excellent on paper). However, they wouldn't take a deposit to hold it for us. So it might have been sold. Anyway, if we could have some prayers sent our way to help us find a good reliable vehicle that is in our price range ASAP, we would really appreciate it.
The second thing I would like to ask prayers for is Brian's finals (he would kill me if he knew I was asking for this). Due to the accident and trying to take care of everything that it has involved, including the arduous task of finding a new vehicle, Brian hasn't had nearly the amount of time he has felt he needs to do well on his finals. He has been such a support over the last few weeks, but I know that he is really worried about his finals and the lack of time he has had to study for them. He has next over the next 5 days and they are all brutal and he really hasn't had much time to study properly. So if there could be any prayers sent his way to help ease his mind and help improve the effectiveness of the time that he does have left to study I know that we would both appreciate it a lot.
We hope all of you are still in the school part of your lives will have the Spirit to guide your studying and to give you peace to know that your very best will be good enough. Happy finals prepping and yay for when it is all done!

Grateful for the Season

We had a really amazing Thanksgiving. I know that Thanksgiving has passed, but I didn't write anything about it so now I will. We had our first Thanksgiving with out extended family this year. We hosted at our house and invited two other families from our ward to come. I baked three pies, two pumpkin & one apple cranberry, the night before. The day of we got the turkey ready, made stuffing from scratch, cut/peeled/boiled/mashed nearly 10 lbs of mashed potatoes (most of which were not consumed), open two cans of corn, and made gravy from the turkey drippings. We managed only to run one hour behind schedule, which is pretty amazing considering Cameron was not happy with the lack of attention he was getting. the two other families brought several side dishes and deserts each and the was so much good food it was very hard to choose what to eat. One of the families we invited are vegetarian. It was funny because when I invited them they said they would love to join us so long as we wouldn't be offended if they brought tofurkey. I responded that I would be at all offended so long as they wouldn't be offended if I didn't try any. Cameron however, when he saw it sliced up thought that it looked like a cookie and wanted to try some. I really wish that I had a camera in my hand to capture the face he pulled when he realized that the little tastes I gave him was not a cookie. After we ate we talked at let our stomachs digest and settle our food a little before we attempted desserts. We had lots to choose from and they were all delicious. We feel so blessed to have been able to spend such a wonderful Thanksgiving with such great people.
We are greatly looking forward to Christmas and have already started to do somethings in preparations for all the festivities that come with the holiday that celebrates our Savior's birth. After going on a vocal music hiatus of almost a year and a half (choirs meeting times didn't work with our family schedule for a while) I have come back with a bang. I was going to sing at the ward Christmas social, but was at the tail end of a cold and bypassed that. However, Wednesday I am singing at our Christmas enrichment, Sunday I am singing two solo's and with the choir in the musical Christmas sacrament program in the morning and in the stake choir at our stake Christmas Music concert. I have been so grateful for these opportunities, music means so much to me and it truly has been spiritually uplifting for me to practise and rehearse and prepare for these performances. I think that I will be sad when they are done and the next big music thing won't be until Easter; which I may or may not be able to participate in depending on when peanut feels like joining our family. We hope you all have a merry Christmas and remember why this holiday is so special. Take the time to put Christ into your Christmas celebrations. His birth is celebrated because He lived His life & gave His life for us. I know that Christ is my Savior and yours and am so grateful for all that he did and continues to do for me and my family.

My Poor Little Guy

Cameron is sick again. He had just finished a round of antibiotics and had been feeling well for about a week when he picked up a bug from his aunt, who we have now discovered has an upper respiratory infection. Oh, and his pink eye came back as soon as he caught whatever it is he has. I am so tired of having sickness travel around my house like it were playing a game of bumper cars. My poor little guy is down and out with a fever in the 102 range, a terrible runny nose, a cough that makes his mommy cringe and labored breathing that makes her want to cry. We have had a weekend of long nights & I couldn't even get ahold of my pediatrician to get him an appointment. I am hoping to avoid antibiotics again, but I doubt that will happen. Anyway, any prayers that anyone feels like sending our way would be much appreciated.

I Survived Cameron's First Hair Cut, oh and he did too.

I will be the first to admit that I can be a bit dramatic about silly things. I can even admit to myself that it is silly for me to care as much as I do, but I still do care. Today I took Cameron to receive his first hair cut, unless you count the 2 times I have trimmed his bangs before. I must have talked myself out of and back into going at least a dozen times since I made the appointment Monday afternoon. And again, while I know that it is just hair (at least I know it in my head) I have struggled with the idea of getting his hair cut since the first time Brian started asking me when I was going to get it done around his first birthday.

I don't know what it is about Cameron's curly tresses that evoke so much emotion in me, and I am slightly ashamed, but not totally, to admit that this appointment had me in tears several times in the days leading up to it and in the car ride there. I guess to me, and most people who have seen Cameron or pictures of him, Cameron's curls are part of what makes him him. In fact, I almost backed out yesterday after lunch with Brian at school when we had at least a dozen people comment on how cute his curls were. It is not like I planned on chopping them off, and I didn't if you looked ahead at the pictures, just trimming them. I suppose to me a first hair cut is one of the many first steps Cameron takes to becoming a big boy and not just my baby boy anymore, and I was in charge of when this particular step took place. I wasn't sure if I was, or am for that matter, ready for Cameron to be on his way to being a big boy yet. I made sure to take lots of pictures, way too many actually, in the days leading up to the appointment and right before we left to help ease my troubled heart.

Here are a few of the before shots, front & back

Well, I made it to the place, talking myself through the whole drive. Telling myself things like "It is just hair"; "Cameron's hair cut does not change who he is"; "His hair really is curly a trim won't change that (I was mortified of the possibility that a trim might make his curls go away)"; and various other things of that nature. All the while, Cameron was oblivious to his mother's inner turmoil over such trivial matters as what his hair looks like and was thoroughly enjoying the cracker he was eating on the way. When we got there the staff was extremely friendly, both to Cameron and his barely able to compose herself mother. We went to a salon that only cuts children's hair & they had two cool truck seats for Cameron to choose from, it took him three times of changing his mind before he settled on the yellow one he eventually sat in. I apologize in advance to anyone who like the show that I I am about to mention. They had a TV with a Dora video on and the staff was amazed that Cameron had never seen Dora before (we don't watch TV). They expressed a sentiment that I too feel, that Dora is one of the most inane children's shows out there & that it addresses children as if they are imbeciles repeating everything several times as if once or even twice weren't enough. I felt bad for them that they have to have it on all the time, but that is what most kids watch these days so that is what they are stuck watching. Cameron was sucked into the TV, as he usually is since he doesn't get to watch it at home, but was quickly distracted and involved in the conversation or the various toys to play with. Cameron did amazingly well. He sat still and enjoyed himself, except for the blow dryer which we decided to forego when he got very scared and started to cry- Mommy doesn't own one so he has never heard one before. They were very good about listening to what I wanted done and talking to me through out the whole thing too. The hair dresser, her name was Judy, said that I didn't have to worry about Cameron loosing his curls anytime soon because the curl goes all the way up to the roots; that knowledge did wonders to ease my troubled mind. When it was all over they had a special baggy and certificate for me to take home with some of the curls they cut from his first hair cut. All in all, it was a pretty good experience and I actually like his hair cut. Cameron still has curly hair, which I love; but I don't have to pull it out of his shirts or squirt it down with water to keep the frizz at bay, which I didn't like; and the curls are not tickling Cameron in the ears, which he hated. I took lots of pictures while we were there and of the after so here are a few.

During the cut

Cameron showing off his new haircut

See he still has plenty of curls

Hooray for craftiness

this is what my front door looks like thanks to Michaels' super awesome 50-70% off holiday stuff sale last week & about 10 minutes of my time. Brian made me smile when he asked how much the wreath on our front door cost, he thought I bought it. I already had the grapevine wreath form so minus that my wreath cost me just under $5. Cameron actually helped me put the leaves on, which was a pleasant surprise. I was afraid that I was going to have to stop and make it during nap time. Pretty much every season/holiday change I unwrap what I have on the wreath and add something else more seasonal, hooray for inexpensive decorations!