This was Jon’s first official Father’s Day and he really had a great time. I gave him a trailer that attaches to his bike so that he can haul Noah around. It’s been great because now we can go on family bike rides. We don’t have any pictures of this yet but will soon.

It’s been such a busy summer already. Noah enjoyed his first trip to the aquarium. He loves watching our uncle’s large fist tank, so this was a great trip for him. He just loved it. He likes watching all the bright colored fish swimming around. We also had a picnic in the park in Riverdale with some friends. Our friends just totally doted over Noah, saying how cute and smiley he was. He’s really easy going and doesn’t get upset when people he doesn’t know hold him. He’s just happy to have people paying so much attention to him We always joke that when we visit family or friends everyone dotes over Noah and forgets to even say hi to us when we come with him. Its’ all about Noah and we are just the ones that bring him..

Noah’s hair was getting really long and unruly again, so we got the clippers out and buzzed his head. It turned out so dang cute. Short, but really cute. Everyone says that he looks like a little boy now instead of a baby. That was about three weeks ago and already it’s getting really long again. His hair and fingernails grow so fast.

The weather final turned out good so we’ve been able to spend some time at my Aunt’s pool. Noah’s very first time in the pool was about two weeks ago. He has the cutest little swim outfit with a hat that snaps up on the sides. My aunt has a little turtle that we put him in so he can float. The minute we put him in it, he starts kicking and kicking his feet. He’s a great little kicker and we have no doubt that he’ll be a great swimmer some day. During the summer, my aunt takes a half day off work every Tuesday, so we go to her house every Tuesday for some family pool time. Noah loves it.

We recently drove to Boise to visit my other Aunt. It’s a long 6 hour trip, but Noah did great the entire way. She has a hot tub and Noah liked having his feet dipped in the water. Mostly he enjoyed sitting on their deck, looking out over the river. My Aunt and Uncle loved spending time with Noah because they don’t get to see him very often. Once again, he was spoiled and doted over. They gave us a great book to read to Noah about an ant on the railroad track. It’s a cute little rhyming book and Jon does such a great job of reading it to him because he creates all the voices and noises. We also had an opportunity to stop off to see the Malad Gorge, which is really beautiful. It’s just this really deep gorge out in the middle of nowhere in Idaho, but it sure is amazing.

Yesterday Jon went on a small hike around Silver Lake up Big Cottonwood Canyon with Teri and the girls. It was such a great day and it was a perfect hike for all the little kids. Noah loved watching all the ground squirrels and we even got to see a young moose frolicking in the marsh near the lake.

This month, Noah figured out that rolling could be a means of transportation. When we sit him on the floor, he loves to lay back and then start rolling every which direction. He hasn’t figured out how to get his knees underneath him, but it won’t be long. The rolling certainly gets him moving at this point and it gets him into everything. The first time he realized he could get around by rolling, he rolled over to the movies and started pulling them all off the shelf. He still doesn’t have teeth either, but we don’t think that’s far off either.

Noah is ours forever

We are so happy. On April 11th of this year Noah Weldon Crane was sealed to us in the Salt Lake temple.
It was one of the happiest days of our lives! After the sealing we blessed him in front of family and friends at our church. I did the blessing and I was so glad that I was able to do that for him and for our family. The spirit was very strong. Everyone had such a good time. Noah was great until he fell over sitting up on the floor and bonked his head, but he recovered quickly.












It was an amazing day filled with love, family and friends.

On a different note we finally finished with having our rv pad and patio poured and done. We have been dealing with a weed patch next to our driveway since we moved in and a mud hole in the back yard since we ripped out the rotted deck, so over 2 years. Here are some before and after pictures for you.


right of driveway before right of driveway after w/new rv pad




back mud pit before new patio after

I will end with some more picture. Some are from Easter with the Webbs and family and some are just of Noah. Enjoy

Gina playing let's go to bed
with Laine and Ryann Sydney at her birthday party

Extreme closeup of Noah "the Brick"
Noah w/ Mommy













Noah in his Easter Outfit

Oregon Coast

We just got back from an incredible week long vacation to the Oregon Coast. Our Aunt Beezer turned 50 on the March 13th, so she rented this humongous house on the beach in Lincoln City and invited us all to come spend the week with her. The coast was so amazing! It was wet, rainy and cold the first few days, even with the weather we still had a wonderful time. We took great walks on the beach. One morning we made the mistake of taking a beach walk at high tide and Tomi was almost washed away by some big logs coming back with the tide. We watched amazing sunsets together, and looked for treasures on the beach like shells and agates. Noah did so well flying. He slept both ways on the plane. Jon had a blast flying his kite with Beezer,Dana, and Dick. We also won 200 bucks at the indian casino one night and used it to pay for all of our excursions! The best part of the Oregon coast was the pure majestic beauty of everything. We took a drive to seen the Cape Meares Lighthouse and were awe struck by the beauty all around us. We drove through white trees covered in moss that laced themselves together to form a tunnel. We drove by the surf pounding rocks far below us. We had so much fun on our whale watching tour and saw half a dozen whales. It was way to hard to get good pictures. For some reason whales don't like to sit still while you take pictures of them. One day we all took a trip together to see the aquarium. We really enjoyed the tunnel where you saw sharks and sting rays swimming over your head. On the way home we decided to visit the Yaquina Head Light house. Normally it cost money but we were happy to see that it was a free day! What a view! Thursday night we celebrated Beezers birthday and had a huge meal of paella cooked by everyone with direction from Beezer. Beezer really enjoyed her book that everyone worked so hard on. It was a printed scrap book of Beezer and everyone in her life. What a perfect way to end a perfect trip. You can't ask for more then to spend time with family in one of the most beautiful places on earth.

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.