2017 :: week 47

November 19

Lauren gave the article of faith in primary and really wanted a parent to help her. Even though she gave her part in the primary program over the pulpit in Sacrament meeting just fine the week before she got a bout of nerves and needed some reassurance.

November 20

The kids had the week off school for the Thanksgiving holiday. Going into the week I was a little worried about how we would survive, but we fared much better than I feared. Monday we went to the zoo with the Wilsons and had great visit. We got to ride the train and see a lot of fun animals. That night we had pizza for dinner at my parents' house. My cousin Maria and her family was passing through on their way to Wichita and we spent an hour together eating and catching up. The kids went to play in the basement and Lauren ran back up yelling, "Memaw! There's a bird in the basement!" Upon further inspection we discovered that it was not a bird but a bat!

November 21

Landon came over to play for awhile in the morning and then we went to Science City together. The boys had a fun time playing together, and we nice to include Lauren in their games too.

November 22

Wednesday was the coldest day of the week and so we went to the Lenexa Open Gym for an hour in the morning to get some wiggles out. Lauren's friend Daphne, her brother Nicholas, and mom Jolie joined us. Then we delivered Meals on Wheels. We have a weekly route, but it felt especially meaningful to pass out meals the day before Thanksgiving. Both Will and Lauren seemed personally affected by some of the residents we met, and their extremely humble circumstances. We live a life of such abundance. I'm grateful for the opportunity to interact with people that are outside of our normal "bubble" and the good health we enjoy.

November 23

We celebrated Thanksgiving with the Throsells this year. Anthony and I made our usual--green bean casserole and rolls. Anthony also tried out a new recipe, a knockoff Ruth's Chris Sweet Potato Casserole. It was really good!

November 24

We didn't go to a single store on Black Friday (though I did buy a few things online). We worked in our yard for several hours, though you wouldn't know it now. The leaves just keep coming down like crazy. In the evening we went with the Ule family to the Luminary Walk at the OP Arboretum. It was beautiful!

November 25

When we moved Will was 19 months old and I was pregnant with Lauren. At the time our kitchen seemed big. Six years and two kids later it isn't feeling so big. We decided getting rid of the wall between the kitchen and family room will help us maximize the space we have. Anthony and I worked on removing the trim and drywall for about an hour and then our friend Steve helped us cut down the rest with his reciprocating saw (which we do not own). Next week we will be getting new floors in the two rooms. It it amazing what a difference it makes in the openness of the two rooms already!

2017 :: week 46

November 12

Will and Lauren participated in the primary program Sunday. Both kids delivered their parts well. Will talked about the importance of prayer and said that he feels good when he prays. Lauren talked about how God has long used prophets to communicate with his people. They both sang the songs and were in general pretty cute. Elliott was captivated and paid attention better than he does most Sunday. I did not have to take him out once. It is hard not to enjoy the primary program. 

November 13

Will's class celebrated Mrs. Martin's birthday Monday afternoon. Will has really lucked out with great teachers. Mrs. Martin is kind and positive and pushes Will to get out of his little perfectionist box. She has brought several exercise balls to the classroom and then rotates through the class so each kid gets a chance to use one if they'd like.

November 14

I love going to water aerobics classes and can hardly believe that it has been almost five years since I first started. I love being in the water and getting a good work out that doesn't make me sweat!

November 15

Will was invited to attend his first pack meeting Wednesday night. Even though he won't be 8 for another month they had him come so he could pick up his pinewood derby kit. The derby will be after his birthday in January. I was a cub scout leader when we lived in Springfield and the pack meeting brought back many memories.

November 16

Both Lauren and Will read several books to Elliott Thursday night. Elliott has an insatiable appetite for books. I love watching my babies read together.

November 17

Lauren class held their Thanksgiving Feast program Friday afternoon. The kids performed a few Thanksgiving songs and then ate some simplified Thanksgiving foods (deli turkey meat, apple slices, mac and cheese). They showed off Thanksgiving-themed crafts, like this cute turkey hat, and other fun things they are working on in their classroom. It is nice having Anthony work so close, he was able to come too!

November 18

My cousin Natalie and her family were passing through town Saturday evening and stopped to say hello. They were driving from their home in Troy, Michigan, to spend the week at her sister's home in Wichita for the Thanksgiving holiday. The cousins and second cousins had fun playing in together in the Wilson's basement for an hour while the adults visited.

2017 :: week 45

November 5

Taking the nursery kids for a walk at the half way point is crucial to our success each week. We all enjoy a little change of scenery. The kids get to run around and burn some energy and the adults get to enjoy some wide open spaces. We typically have 8-12 kids in nursery each week. We first stop in the only section of the cultural hall that is not used during the second hour. We let the kids run for about five minutes. Sometimes we do ring-around-the-rosies, pretend we are animals or walk along the lines. Sometimes they just run back and forth. Then we walk to the water fountain and have the kids line up against the wall. Each one gets five seconds to drink. If the kids are behaving we head outside and walk halfway around the building to the door near our nursery room. The music leader is usually waiting for us when we get back. We get the snack ready while they sing. Then we have the snack and lesson. Breaking things up and getting some fresh air helps me maintain a positive attitude.

November 6

Emily called me Monday afternoon and asked if I could help her catch a mouse. She said she was with her boys in her bedroom and out of the corner of her eye she saw a mouse scurry past. Lauren and I headed over and Lauren and Tyler found the mouse under a hat in Tyler's room. Lauren was very pleased to be part of the solution.

November 7

This kid makes me smile. I love getting to spending my days with him. He is happy about 95% of the time.

November 8

We had gorgeous weather Wednesday and the kids and I stayed at the part for close to two hours after school. The kids ran around and played and I talked with mom friends. It was really nice to stop and enjoy the sunshine and fun company. Unfortunately, the days are getting so short the sun was close to setting by the time we got home!

November 9

Lauren now goes to bed half and hour before Will. She needs more sleep than him and has been struggling to wake up in the morning. This is a change she is not very excited about. To ease her into it Anthony and I have been taking turns reading with her to help her wind down and distract her from the fact that Will is not in bed. We have been reading the Cowboy Kate and Cocoa and Princess in Black books together. These books are a great fit for her and I'm enjoying sharing the time with her. The downside is it now feels like I am putting kids to bed for close to two hours from starting with Elliott to finishing with Will when Anthony is not home.

November 10

Friday night we headed to OPC for the annual fall movie night in the cafeteria. The kids and Anthony watched Free Birds and mingled with friends. I worked the concessions and gained a greater appreciation for the individuals who run the real movie theatre concessions. Making popcorn without burning it is no easy task! Scooping it quickly is harder than it looks too!

November 11

We had a full, fun Saturday. In the morning the older kids had the primary program practice. Anthony, Elliott and I ran some errands while they practiced. Then, Lauren and Anthony fit in a date to see the My Little Ponies Movie while Will and I did some housework and did other quiet activities around the house. Will's friend Trevor came over to play for awhile. They had hoped to play some basketball, but it ended up raining all afternoon. That evening I made some yummy copycat zupa toscana and we got ready for bed.

2017 :: week 44

October 29

Lauren and I went "trick or treating so others can eat" Sunday afternoon with the second grade and kindergarten girl scout troops at OPC. The weather was perfect and we were able to gather quite a bit of food in about an hour.

October 30

Elliott drew this elephant. He was very pleased with himself when he showed it to me. He has started drawing on the magna doodle daily. He often draws things that are totally unrecognizable to me and tells me it is daddy (his most frequent muse). But this looks like a very abstract elephant to me too! I find watching my children's capacities grow to be a very satisfying part of parenting.

October 31

Trick or treat! Halloween season came to a very cold end Tuesday. We went trick or treating with a fun group--the Wilsons, Steiners and Mansings. We went down our street, up Cody and then up and down 99th Place. The kids requested to go home after about an hour. Last year we were out longer, but it was unseasonably warm. This year it was so cold Lauren kept stopping to rub her hands together and would explain to whomever asked, "I need friction!"

November 1

Will celebrated a George Springer home run during game seven of the World Series. It was a disappointing post-season in the John household. We weren't excited about either team in the world series, but Will aligned himself with the Astros (thanks in part to most of his baseball loving classmates aligning with Houston) and enjoyed watching parts of the games.

November 2

We have started taking family walks in the evening when Anthony gets home from work. It is fun to get a little exercise and discuss the events of the day. I would like to keep this practice up, but with daylight savings coming to end on Saturday, it is hard to say if we will be able to. We have to leave almost immediately after Anthony gets home from work in able to get home before it gets too dark.

November 3

Elliott loves big machines. There is a lot of redevelopment happening in Downtown OP and every time we pass through Elliott points out the big trucks, diggers and cranes.

November 4

I looked over at Lauren during dinner Saturday evening and noticed that her front tooth was at a 90 degree angle. I asked her if it was loose and she said, "yeah, a little." I asked her if I could touch it and was shocked to feel it was barely attached. She was too scared for me to pull it out right away, but after baths she agrees to let me try. It came out easily! Lauren losing her first tooth was an unexpected way to end the week.

#fortomandalleternity

#T💓L

Our siblings seem to get married in pairs. In 2010 Alicia and Hillary got married seven months apart. In 2011/2012 Emily and Melanie got married five months apart. This year Jill and Laura got married three weeks apart! It was a crazy month of wedding festivities and travel, but for the best reasons.

The first week of November we headed back to Utah, this time flying. When we knew we'd be making two trips to Utah in three weeks time we decided to drive to Jill's and fly to Laura's. We figured we'd tackle the drive first while we were more energized and had a better chance of avoiding winter weather. Flying was significantly faster. But flying and the associated costs (like renting a car) ended up costing about three times as much. In the end we were very pleased with our decision to drive to Jill's wedding and drive to Laura's.

We left for the airport at the same time we'd normally leave the house (7:50 am) on a Wednesday morning. The boys sat together on one side of the aisle while the girls sat together across the aisle. We flew to SLC via Denver and had two relatively uneventful flights.

Carly graciously agreed to host us again. We arrived at her home right around 3pm, about seven hours after we first left our home. We relaxed and chatted with her for a bit. Then Carly took the four older kids down to Provo for dinner and a BYU Women's basketball game. They had a blast! It was our kids' first game in the Marriott Center and they were pretty pumped. They got to go on the court and dance during half time and explore the arena with their cousins. Will was pumped about getting on the big screen and they got to meet Cosmo. Rumor has it that Lauren even got a quick ride of Cosmo's shoulders, something she was very pleased about.

We hired two girls from Carly's ward to watch Camille, Elliott and our niece Leah. Anthony and I joined my parents, sisters, aunt, uncle and some friends at the Mount Timpanogos temple where Laura received her endowment. It was a really neat experience to be at the temple with all my sisters.

Post-temple, pre-Zupas. After Zupas we went home and watched game seven of the World Series. Very exciting!

Thursday Will and Lauren were Sadie's "Show and Tell." Will was pretty shy about being there, but Lauren loved the attention. Camille stole the show, hamming it up for Sadie's classmates.

After our visit to Deerfield Elementary we drove up to West Jordan to see some Cranes. We got some Wendy;'s for lunch and Andrew arrived from FL. The kids played in the backyard while the adults talked wedding logistics. Anthony and I took the kids for a walk over to the play yard and then got ready to head back to American Fork.

Unfortunately, about ten minutes before we left Lauren threw up. We were hoping it was just a one-time thing, but she threw up once again in a bowl we took in the car with us when we left Emily's house. This was not good. We quarantined her to the Nielsons basement and crossed our fingers her illness would not spread. She was very cooperative and spent the rest of the day watching Sofia the First by herself downstairs.

The six original Crane ladies (mom plus five daughters) met at nail salon and got pedicures together.

Will and Sadie worked on writing and illustrating a book together. (More on that here and here.)

My good friend and former roommate Candace drove up for a quick visit! It's always great to see her and hear about what is going on in her life.

We baked a TON of cookies to supplement the reception food.

Lauren made it through the night vomit-free. She had no fever and was in good spirits so we went ahead with the day. Unfortunately, her cousin Elise was not quite as lucky. She threw up while we were at the wedding. :( We all got ready and Carly generously watched our kids for us while we went to the sealing ceremony.

Carly also did Lauren's hair in a really pretty crown braid. It looked amazing and Lauren was so excited about how "fancy" it looked. This is a blurry picture but you get the idea.

As usual there are ample opportunities for picture taking of post-ceremony. Here are a few of my favorites:

A few hours later we gathered at the Cedar Hills Club House for a Ring Ceremony and Reception. Tony officiated the ring ceremony and both Laura and Trevor said sweet things.

After the ceremony we partied! Family and friends from near and far came to join in the celebration. One of my favorite parts of weddings is the gathering of loved ones from different stages of life. Various friends from our Texas and North Dakota days as well as friends from Kansas that have since moved to Utah all attended.  

(Lauren was very nervous about getting burned by a sparkler.)

Saturday started off slow. We were all tired from the day before. After a quiet morning Carly and I decided to get all crazy and go to the store to buy some journals. Wild! Unfortunately, as we were driving an uninsured 16 year old driver decided to pull a u-turn and "thought [I] had passed" and ended up driving into the rear passenger side of our rental car.  Being that I was driving a rental we called the police to make sure that everything was documented. To my great disappointment, the police officer didn't notice that the other driver's insurance was expired. Because of this, a year later I am still in a dispute with the rental car company over ~$3.000. I guess if the boy and his family was responsible and responded to the many phone calls made by insurance company and the rental car company I wouldn't be dealing with it either. I am still appalled at the irresponsibility and selfishness of his parents.  

Such a headache! Suffice it to say, Budget Rent a Car has horrific customer service (they initially refused to give us a new vehicle and made Tony drive the clearly damaged vehicle) and a family in Lehi has no integrity but that is neither here nor there. 

That afternoon another good friend and former roommate stopped by to say hello. Melissa happens to live around the corner from the Nielsons and her two older kids have been in my nieces class at school. What a small world! It was a good visit and cheered me up from the events of the morning. We laid low the rest of the evening too. Ben Gaines came by to say hello and we ate some pretty amazing burgers from Cubby's after the kids went to bed.

Camille and Anthony were the next victims of the illness we brought with us. Anthony, Carly, Elise and Camille stayed home from church. My kids and I drove up to West West Jordan to hear Mikey's blessing.

Will and Sadie took some great selfies while we were getting ready for church. In addition to their love of selfies, these oldest cousins share the trait of being early risers.

Family and friends at the blessing

The rest of Sunday was pretty relaxed. We visited and I ruminated about the car accident. I apologize for everyone that had to listen to me rant.

Monday we flew back to Kansas. We were on the same flight as my parents and Lauren got to sit between Memaw and Pepaw on the flight home. We had a relatively uneventful flight to Denver, short layover and then another uneventful flight into KCI.

The kids loved the moving walkway in the Denver Airport.

It felt good to get home. We had a great time at both weddings, but were feeling pretty worn out after round two!

Congratulations, Laura and Trevor! We love you! Thanks for being patient with me for taking almost an entire year to write about your wedding.