Newest member of the family

Introducing the newest member of the Crane clan "Lola". We got Lola yesterday July 3rd. Her owners already had 2 beagles and decided 3 dogs was too many. She is 6 months old and house broken for the most part ;) She is half boxer half Labrador. They call her a Boxador. She is so beautiful and so well behaved. She loves children and has grown up with four under the age of 6. She is great with Noah and they chase each other all over the house and yard. They like to play tug a war together and Noah just laughs and laughs. She is definitely not a pocket dog like Chico. She is so sweet and we love her already.
We were going to wait until Noah's birthday in September to get a dog but we just couldn't resist her. We can't wait to spend many many years with Lola.

Yellowstone 2010

We just got back from a great trip. After spending a couple of days in Wyoming with Grandma and Grandpa we dropped Noah off with Grandma and spent 3 days in Yellowstone. We had such a good time. We were lucky and able to see a lot of wildlife. We even got to see a grizzly bear with her two cubs and also so a wolf from a distance. It rained the whole time but we didn't care. We came prepared with the right gear and umbrellas. Yellowstone is so beautiful. You can certainly see God's hand in everything. Noah had a wonderful time with Grandma and Grandpa while we were gone. His favorite is riding the 4 wheeler with Grandma around their property at a blazing 4 miles an hour. If you let him outside he would run to where the four wheeler was parked in the shed and try to climb on. He is such a fast little squirt and runs everywhere now. We are so grateful to Grandma for helping to give Tomi and I some much needed vacation time with just
each other.

(Insert exciting interesting title here)

I just thought it was time to write another blog entry. It has been a while. Things are going good. My business is picking up. I started a vinyl letter business and have been getting a lot of orders lately. The best part is that I enjoy it. Especially when I get to create new things for people. Noah has now learned to give us "loves" He will just lay his head into you and snuggle. It is great! Best part of any day. Aunt Teri invited us to go to "discovery gateway" with her preschool group. Noah had so much fun! He had even more fun after playing in the fountain. Tomi just had a birthday and we really had a good time. I bought here season tickets to Hale Center Theater. We saw 3 Musketeers on the Sat. before here birthday then went to a great new restaurant our neighbor told me about called Fuji. Amazing food and the cook does a great show in preparing it for you. My favorite part was watching Tomi catch shrimp flipped into her mouth by the chef. Tomorrow we leave for Star Valley Wyoming then after a day or two we are dropping off Noah with Grandma and Grandpa and going to Yellowstone for a few days. I love Yellowstone! One of my favorite places on earth. This time I am hoping to get a glimpse of the elusive Yellowstone wolves. I am really looking forward to spending some time with just Tomi and I. I love Noah more then anything but Tomi and I do not get a lot of alone time. Well I am sure I missed a lot of important things I should have mentioned in here but I am not going to worry about it. So long for now.

In Memory of Chico

On Saturday March 6th 2010 I took Chico in the have him put down. He has had an Auto-immune disorder for a long time and it was getting worse. Upping his medication did not seem to help at all and did nothing but give him bladder issues. That is all I am going to say about that.
I wanted to instead focus on all of the love and companionship that we got from Chico. He was such a loving dog and friend. Chico would not hesitate to jump up on your lap and snuggle with you at anytime. At night he would sleep at the end of our bed in his dog bed but would frequently sneak out of his bed to crawl under the sheets into our bed to snuggle. He kept Tomi company whenever I was gone on the road for the railroad and kept my side of the bed warm. It is now hard for us to sleep at night not feeling him sleeping on our feet and hearing his snoring. The house seems very empty and too quiet without him. He was always there to meet us when we came home. He loved going for walks; In fact so much so we couldn't say the word out loud and had to spell it instead so not to cause a frenzy of jumping and whining. We spent many hours driving with Chico to Wyoming to see my in-laws and he spent almost every min. on your lap sleeping or looking out the window. We weren't the only ones who loved Chico. He was very close to his Aunt Deedre and I suspect he may have harbored a secret wish for her to take him away when she would visit. ;)

In the short time that Noah knew Chico he loved him so much. Whenever Noah would bonk his head or get upset for any reason all we had to do was take him over to Chico to pet him and he would instantly get happy. Noah and Chico had an arrangement. Chico would get whatever food Noah dropped on the ground whether it be on purpose or accident. This helped to make Chico a fat and happy doggy. Noah loved to chase Chico around the house while laughing hysterically. I believe Chico just tolerated this but he never got upset with Noah even when Noah caught him. I know that even if Noah can't vocalize it he missed Chico. Sometimes we catch him looking out the back door, through the glass for Chico. Chico we love you very much and hope to see you again some day. You have been the best dog ever!

love,

Mom and Dad and Noah.

Christmas 2009

This last Christmas was Noah's 2nd and he seemed to get it a lot better this time. We had a plan to have him crawl out to all the toys and start having a party while Tomi video taped the whole thing. In reality what happened is a crawled over to the neck pillow we have and played with that instead of the tickle me Elmo or the inflatable toy filled with balls. Isn't that always the way. You buy your kid a toy and they play with the box! Before we had Christmas we took a trip to Star Valley and visited with Grandma and Grandpa. The trip was much easier then our last long car trip. Thank you portable DVD player we couldn't of made it there sane without you! Noah had fun playing lunch lady with Grandma. Christmas Eve we had a family party with my side of the family and all the nieces fawned over Noah. He is a real chick magnet. We had a great time singing all of the Christmas church hymns out of the song book and that really helped get everyone into the Christmas mood and make you think about the reason we celebrate Christmas. The birth of Christ our savior.



Here is a picture of me ,Noah and some of his nieces doing the conga at the family party. He really is quite the little dancer ;)
Here is one of my new favorite pictures of Noah. He got a little too excited playing in his new ball house Christmas morning and puked. So we washed Noah and the balls at the same time.







Here is a Christmas morning picture of Noah,Mommy, and Elmo. Elmo seems to be a bit ticklish but then again so is Noah. We had such a wonderful Christmas. It was so fun to see Noah get so excited. I am so blessed to have such wonderful loving family to spend not only Christmas but my life and beyond with. It really doesn't get any better then that.

2nd Adoption

We're so excited! We've been approved for our 2nd adoption. That means the agency has all of our paperwork and agrees that we can adopt again, so we now just have to wait for a mother or couple to choose us to adopt their child. We're so excited for Noah to have a little brother or sister. Please pass the word along. You can view our profile here. Wish us luck and keep us in your prayers.