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.

New Nursery

Well, it's about time. . . Jon and I finally finished the nursery. The pictures don't do it justice, but it really turned out so dang cute. The walls are green, with the ceiling, trim, etc being painted white. The "wallies" are my favorite part. They were a little messy to put up, but turned out really cute! We had a problem with the dresser, so we've found a new one and just haven't got it put together and put in the nursery yet. Notice the cute blanket on the crib. . . I made it myself. :) Can't wait to bring the baby home to his new room!













More pictures of the rest of the house yet to come. . . I still have some finishing touches I'd like to add before posting the final product. :)

Free At Last

We're free of all the construction finally!!! I can't tell you how good it feels to finally feel like I got my house back. The contractors finished up the remodel and at the last minute, we decided to splurge and get new carpet because ours was cheap and looked so bad. The installers were here on Friday and boy, I am very surprised on what a difference carpet makes to a house. We've been working every single night for about the past month to finish up the little things. . . painting (14-16 hours on the weekends), baseboards, doors, etc. and finally on Friday we were able to start moving stuff back out of the garage and the dining room. WOW, I think it looks great! We've still got a little left to do in that we're waiting for my brother-in-law to help us move some of the larger pieces of furniture that I'm not tough enough to help Jon with. . . and then we just have to clean out the garage and we're DONE!!!! As soon as we get the last of the furniture moved and the final touches on the nursery, I'll take some pictures to show the place off. We still have a few things to do like put blinds up in the nursery and install a new light fixture, but those things shouldn't take much time. It's all starting to feel like home again. . . and not a moment too soon. Soon we'll be bringing the little one into this home and I'm so grateful that we've been able to complete this before he comes.

Baby News

Ok, we just can't hold it in any longer, particularly since most of you already know anyway. . . we're getting a baby in September. We got a call a couple weeks ago that some birth parents had picked us to place their baby with. We met them at the agency a couple days later and fell in love with them. We are so happy, they are such a neat couple and we can't even begin to express our appreciation for what they are doing for us. Our heart truly goes out to them and the circumstances they are in, but we're also so happy at the same time. Guess what? They're having a boy! He's due to arrive in September! What a perfect time of year! We just wanted to share our joy with you all! We're still thinking about names, but we're leaning towards Noah Weldon Crane. What do you think?

3 Year Old Party

It was Ryann's 3rd birthday last week. What a perfect day. . . the sun was shinning and all was well with the world. And what can possibly be better than spending the day with your family, eating and basking in the pool? Of course, as usual, the family spoiled her too. Here's a few snap shots from the party.

Construction

Hallelujah! Construction on the basement is finally under way. The basement flooded on April 6th and we just started doing the repairs today. I can't believe it took that long to have the damaged stuff ripped out, let things dry, then for us to get quotes from contractors, decide on a contractor and determine all the extra things we wanted to have done. What a process. So now our basement is totally empty and everything is in the garage. I feel like a redneck now, living out of my garage and parking in the driveway or on the street. Sorry if I offend anyone. . . don't get me wrong, garages are a great place to store things, but I really like to park my cars there instead.

Anyway, as things progress and start looking better, I'll post pictures and show the progress. It should look brand new when we're all done. :)

Old Friend

Yesterday I met my friend Allen at the Zoo. I had not seen him in 10 years. He moved to Oregon and we lost touch. He called me the other day and said he was in town so we decided to meet up at the Zoo. I got meet his kids Audrey and little Al for the first time. We had a lot of fun. The kids really liked the Gorillas and also the Giraffes. We went up to the second floor and the Giraffes could almost lick you they were so close! Right before we left we went on the little train they have. I hadn't done that since I was a little kid. I wished Tomi could of come but she had to work. I was on call and luckily didn't get called in. We sure are getting some good use out of this Zoo pass my mother in law got us.