Atlanta

Wow, it's been a busy couple of months. Thanksgiving was GREAT. We got to spend time with my family, eating, shopping, playing games, etc and we even got to see all of Jon's family too. It was a great relaxing weekend. Let me tell you though, the shopping part wasn't very relaxing. I don't think I've ever hit so many stores in one day as I did on Black Friday and I didn't even get any really good deals.

Noah's getting so dang big and cute. I can't believe he turned three months old this week. He's turned into this new little boy where he talks, smiles, laughs and plays. It's so great. Here's a few new pictures. He was a Cow for Halloween. . . very cute!


My job sent me to Atlanta, GA for a few days to meet with a company. It rained the entire time we were there, but I could still tell that Georgia is a beautiful state. I was surprised at how green it was. We flew in on Wednesday and out again on Thursday, so we didn't have much time there, but we did slip in the time to go to the Atlanta Aquarium. WOW! It was AMAZING! And I guess that it should be since it is the world's largest aquarium. I am however disappointed that I didn't get very many good quality pictures while I was there. They had HUGE tanks that housed thousands of fish! I had a few favorites like the whale sharks, beluga whale and the petting sections where I got to pet sharks, sting rays, shrimp, star fish, horseshoe crabs, and all sorts of other stuff. It was a blast.

Hectic Life

I don't know how working mothers do it. . . I started back to work about three weeks ago and I am really struggling. Where do you find the time to do it all? I get home and only have about 4 hours with Noah before I have to go to bed so I can do it all again the next day. It's frustrating me! And it makes me so sad that I don't get to spend more time with him. Thank goodness Jon is such a great dad and husband. Jon's the daytime dad and works at night while I work in the day and play the nighttime mom. It's a really hectic schedule where Jon and I don't see much of each other, but it's working out ok so far. Thank goodness for Marilynn too for her coming to watch Noah for the hour and a half each day between the times Jon and I are changing roles. She's been a lifesaver! I truly am just counting down and keeping my fingers crossed that it won't be much longer before I can finally go part-time or quit all together so I can stay at home with my son.

Noah is growing so big. I can't believe that he's already 7 weeks old. He's growing so much. He's so much more alert now and you can tell he's starting to see things because he's always gawking around and getting over stimulated. We had some pictures taken at JCPenny the other day and they turned out so cute. As soon as I can get the computer back up and running, I'll scan and post the pictures.

My sister threw us the most amazing baby shower a couple weeks ago. Our friends and family truly spoiled us so much. She did this great thing where she asked everyone to bring a book and write on the inside a message to Noah instead of bringing a card. We got so many great books that are such a great addition to Noah's little library. We can't wait to start reading them to him. Can you see little Noah in his swing amidst all his new treasures?

Speaking of which, our computer bit the dust. We've been fighting it for a couple of weeks now and finally, something went terribly wrong and now it won't work at all. They seem to think that somehow we fried the mother board or something else serious. What a joke! If it's not one thing, it's 47 other things that go wrong. Once again, thank the Crane's for borrowing us their laptop temporarily until we can figure out if we can fix ours or have to buy a new one.

We went up the canyon the other night to take pictures of my sister's family. They turned out really cute. It was such a beautiful drive. . . all the colors changing. We truly are blessed to live in such a beautiful world!

Well, I know it's been a while since we've posted and all this post does is gripe, so I'll leave it here and leave you with some of the newest pics of our angel baby! Noah!

So Blessed

We count ourselves as the luckiest parent's in the world. We have been blessed with a beautiful, healthy baby that we love so much. Despite the fact that Noah is only about 2 weeks old, he is so well natured. He sleeps most of the time, just waking up long enough to eat about every 4 hours. After he eats he has about 15 minutes of awake time, then off to bed he goes again. We know that this won't last for long, but we're cherishing every moment right now. I just thought I'd share a few more pictures and reitterate how blessed, lucky and happy we are to have this little guy in our life. I've been lucky enough to have a few weeks off from work with him and am already dreading going back to work. We're hoping one day soon that the employment situation will work out so that I can stay home full-time to be with our son.

Hope you enjoy the pictures.

He's Home

It's finally official. . . we signed the paperwork and were able to bring our new son home on Sunday, September 14, 2008. He is so precious and feels like he's always been a member of our family. We've named him Noah. It's amazing how such a little guy can so drastically change your life. We know that life will never be the same, but we're extremely happy to have him here and to welcome him into our home.

This last week has been such an amazing experience. . . from getting the call to go to the hospital, to running the birth mom to and from the hospital in labor, to witnessing the delivery of our son and to the touching moment when the birth mom placed her most precious angel in our arms and said congratulations. . .this week is a time we'll never forget. Our Heavenly Father guided us to this point, through the months of paperwork, meetings and Dr. appointment and finally through this week, and for that we can't express our gratitude. This process has been a miracle that we're so blessed to play a part in.

We are such proud parents and want to thank everyone for all their love, support and acceptance. This is such an exciting time for us and we're so happy that you can all share it with us.

back to Star Valley

We got a chance to go back to Star Valley last weekend. It was our brother-in-law's birthday and he decided everyone should go camping with him to celebrate. We had such a good time. We camped near Palisades reservoir. It is absolutely beautiful up there. We skipped rocks from the shore and ate way to many smores after dinner. One night we all sat around the camp fire and played a game called Mafia. It was a lot of fun. Basically everyone draws a card with 2 people being cops and 2 people being killers and everyone tries to smoke out the killers while the killers try to kill everyone off before they are caught. We stayed up until midnight playing. Tomi and I were going to go back to Tomi's mom's to sleep but where deterred by the 35 minute drive and elected to stay in the trailer with the Lunds. We were awoken at 6am by little Ryann and Laine standing over our bed. With Ryann telling us quite loudly that it was time to get up! We tickled and laughed with the girls for a while and had a fun time. The kids got to enjoy rides on the four wheeler and going out in the row boat. It was so good to be away from everything and just get to have a blast with family. We would love to go again some time. Oh I also caught 4 cut throat trout. Unfortunately they were so small together they wouldn't make one good fish. Well that is about it from the Crane's for now. Love ya all.

Uintah Camping

We were able to go with a few friends camping overnight in the Uintah's this last weekend. We had a great time. It's so amazing to be able to get out of the city and feel the country air once in a while. It's so beautiful in the mountains. . . the peace and serenity give you a feeling of calm and comfort. The area reminds me a lot of home (Star Valley). It was good to get away for a while and put things in perspective. Plus. . . I think Jon and I both needed a break for a while. :)

Interestingly, I got to play cook the first evening. . . we had tin-foil dinners in the fire. Steak and chicken with onions, garlic, potatoes and carrots. Then our friend talked us into doing what I'd call "orange cakes" also. We sliced off the top of the oranges, dug the insides out the best we could, then poured cake batter into the hollowed orange. Just like the tin-foil dinners, we wrapped them in tin-foiled and let them bake the the coals. You can see them behind me in the picture. Dinner was great and the "organge cakes" were pretty good too. Very interesting to say the least.

It was a quick trip, but we sat around the fire, talked a lot, played games, fished at and walked around Mirror Lake, and stopped at the Oakley Rhode Island Diner here to eat on our way out of town. We had a great time.

Final Product

So we're finally finished with the basement. Once again, the photos don't do it justice because you can't really tell the color of the paint, but it sure does look and feel brand new. I also found some pictures we took when we were looking at the house before we bought it. So now you can see the before we moved in and after the remodel pictures.

Living Room:
Before we moved in and right after the flood:
After:















Bedroom:
Before: It's from a different angle because we moved the door.









After:












Nursery:
Before:









After:



Then we did some additional things like redo the laundry room and add a bathroom.
The first one is the laundry room, the second is the new hallway (laundry room in door on the left, the furnace room is behind the two slat doors and the bathroom is at the end of the hall), and the third is the new bathroom.












Like I said, you can't tell the colors well, but I think it turned out very well. Feel free to come by and see it all if your in the neighborhood. :) Now we've just got to think about what we're going to do to the upstairs.

Walk Like an Animal

Once again, we used our Hogle Zoo passes to spend a few hours at the zoo with my sister and our nieces. We had a great time and I think we got some great pictures this time. They have a ton of new stuff this time, including the "Conservation Carousel." We got to ride the carousel and the train., something I've never done. We didn't get there until about 4:30 p.m., but it was so nice because everyone else had already left, so there were very few people there. It must have been dinner time too, because we got to see the leopard gnawing on this bone. . . pretty neat. What a great gift. . . one that keeps on giving. We're loving our pass and can't wait to continue to use it throughout the rest of the year and to soon be able to enjoy it with our own child.