2019 :: week 52

December 22

Anthony and Elliott took a post-church nap Sunday afternoon. We had a great church meeting. Anthony mentioned to our friend that he was speaking in church and invited him and his family to come...and they did! They are active in their own church, but it was really nice of them to come. Christmas Sunday is always great, but I wish the congregation had been able to sing more. Anthony gave a brief talk about the value of going to church each week and not squandering the privileges we have.

December 23

Monday was a busy. In the morning Anthony conducted a funeral for a man in our ward. His death was a total shock. There are actual several members of our ward in really poor health and it sobering to think of how quickly life can change. In the afternoon we took family pictures at Black Hoof Park with the extended Crane family. We lucked out with pretty good weather. As always, the grandkids were the highlight. Elliott really hammed it up with some great poses. That evening some of the family came over to sauna.

December 24

We made our annual Christmas trek to Crown Center. It was a pretty nice day and the kids were able to climb all over the outdoor structures for awhile. Elliott took a few years off my life when he ran off and hid in the spaceship, but other than that it was pretty fun. We ran into a few friends while we walked around, so that was fun. Anthony worked in the morning and than ran a few Christmas errands, but he arrived home around the same time we did. We made zupa toscana for our family soup potluck and headed to my parents for the dinner and our traditional reading and acting out of the nativity. I made the mistake of putting off wrapping presents until Christmas Eve. It was a long evening of wrapping and I felt exhausted by the time we got in bed.

December 25

Christmas Day! We had a quiet Christmas morning at home, then headed to my parents to exchange gifts with the extended Crane family. The kids were really sweet and excited for both the gifts they received and the gifts they got each other. All three of the older kids got exactly what they asked for as well as a few fun things. The gift that got the most mileage was the whoopee cushion in Elliott's stocking. It didn't survive the day, due to rough, excessive use. All three kids loved that thing! We had dinner with my family and both sets of missionaries serving from our ward. After dinner we went to the church where the kids rode bikes and ran wind sprints while the adults played multiple rounds of knockout. It was a full and fun Christmas.

December 26

As soon as Lauren found out that the entire Crane family would be in town for Christmas she wanted a playdate alone with Leah. Leah is her only female cousin on the Crane side. Even though Leah is three years younger they still get along well and had a great time together. They played with Leah (Lauren's doll) and Hershey (Lauren's bear). I think Leah would have had fun playing with Elliott too--he tried to come into Lauren's room several times--but Lauren shut him out. This was a rare "girls only" playdate. They ended the playdate with Lauren painting Leah's toenails and then jumping on the trampoline and Elliott was permitted to join them.

December 27

Though these three boys appear to be just about the same size even though they were born in three successive years--Elliott in August 2015, Mikey in September 2016,and Caleb in November 2017. That evening after the kids were in bed the sisters all met at Emily's house and played an epic game of Harry Potter Clue.

December 28

Anthony got me a mandolin slicer for Christmas. Saturday morning we put it to use and made some french fries in our air fryer. They were delicious! We made them with Joe's KC seasonings and had a variety of dipping sauces--Freddy's Fry Sauce, Chick-fil-A sauce and traditional ketchup.

2019 :: week 51

December 15

Sunday morning Anthony left for his pre-church meetings as usual. It was forecasted to begin snowing during his bishopric meeting and as predicted, it did. The snow began to accumulate and at first the decision was made to only have Sacrament meeting. A short while later church was cancelled altogether. Anthony stayed at the church to get some work done, but was home by noon. He confirmed that the roads were indeed quite slick. It was nice to have a cozy day at home. In the afternoon we had a family sauna session. I think I am enjoying the sauna more than expected, in part because its warmth is so welcome in the wintertime. It was a total fluke that the kids were color coordinated, but I had to snap a picture.

December 16

School was cancelled Monday, so we had a mostly quiet day at home. Both of the big kids got to play with friends--Lauren's friend Stella invited her over for a few hours and Will went sledding with both Curran and Knox. After consulting some instagram accounts and pinterest I created a cross-stitch pattern for a gift I am making for my sister. I was a little frustrated with the snow day, because I had a long list of errands to run, but it allowed me to get some stuff done around the house, which was good too.

December 17

Will turned 10 on Tuesday! I can hardly believe we have a child that old. Will is the perfect oldest child for our family. He is bright, helpful, funny, adventurous, active, inquisitive and just so good. He loves sports and reading and has recently developed an interest in cars. He requested zupa toscana for dinner and Nintendo Switch games for his gifts. My parents, the Wilsons, our friend Sarah and the missionaries all stopped by to celebrate and wish him well. Even though Tony had a colonoscopy that morning, it was a great day celebrating Will.

December 18

I did a bad job of managing my holds and several of them came in at the same time! The Girl with Seven Names is a book club pick, so I will prioritize that, but I want to read all of them. If only I didn't have so many things to do and could read all day...

December 19

Both Will and Lauren were selected by their teachers to receive the "Kindness Counts" award for their classes. Each semester a boy and girl from each class are chosen and get to attend a small party. I told my kids it was an early Christmas present for me to know that my kids are kind and treat others with respect. I ran into Lauren's teacher in the office when I was pulling Will out of school for his well-child check-up and she told me Lauren was "a real leader in the classroom."

December 20

Crane Christmas began when the Staritias arrived Friday morning. The Allreds arrived at midnight on Friday, and the Toms Sunday (12/22) afternoon. Lauren was so excited to see her cousin, Leah. Leah and Lauren are the only girl cousins on the Crane side of the family. It is quite a reversal, my four sisters and I have 7 boys--with another arriving in February--and 2 girls between us.

December 21

Saturday afternoon we loaded up our van with a crew to go see the new Star Wars movie, Rise of Skywalker. Everyone seemed to enjoy the movie. I am not a very sophisticated Star Wars fan, so I was easy to please. Tony and I watched The Last Jedi the night before and I was able to ask Anthony a lot of questions, which helped me remember and understand what was going on.

2019 :: week 50

December 8

I momentarily freaked out when I went to check on the boys Sunday night. Elliott wasn't in his bed! At first glance I didn't notice him in Will's bed, but when I turned my phone flashlight on I easily spotted him. Elliott likes to cuddle. Unfortunately he moves a lot while he sleeps, so he is not an ideal bed mate. I debated whether or not I should move him, but moving him seemed riskier than leaving him. Will is a pretty active sleeper himself. It ended up being fine, but we won't make a habit out of it.

December 9

Speaking of active sleepers, Miles is getting much more active himself. He struggles to make forward progress so he often gets his legs stuck in the slats. Also, Anthony and I met at the hardware store over his lunch break Monday afternoon and finally bought our Christmas tree. We did not mean to put off getting a tree, but between our staycation the weekend after Thanksgiving and a tree shortage at Costco we were nine days into December without a tree. Sometimes it pays to procrastinate--they had discounted everything to 75% off and we got our tree for $8.75!

December 10

I really wanted to get a good Santa picture this year for Miles' first Christmas. If I have learned anything in my ten years of being a parent on Christmas it is that you must not procrastinate getting the Santa picture. The farther into December you wait to get "the picture," the more likely you are to put unnecessary stress on your marriage and alienate your children. This year I took the kids right after school three weeks before Christmas and it was perfect. I didn't make Tony come so I didn't have to expend any marital capital (in fact I may have earned some by not having him come!), and because it was so fast we had plenty of time to play with the toys Bass Pro set up to entertain the kids. The kids asked Santa for Nintendo Switch games (Will), accessories for her Our Generation doll (Lauren), and a baseball glove (Elliott). Miles just observed.

December 11

Wednesday morning it was my turn to host our ward preschool group. I had my reservations about joining, mainly because mornings are valuable to me as far as getting stuff done. Once I take Elliott to school in the afternoon my day is a series of timers alerting to me when I need to go pick him up,  then pick up the big kids, and then taking them to their various after school activities. Often, if I don't get it done before noon I won't have time to do it until after the kids are in bed. That being said, I have really enjoyed meeting with friends and doing simple activities with our kids. It has forced me to be more social and helped Elliott overcome some of his anxieties about being apart from me.

December 12

It was super windy when we walked to school Thursday morning. I was talking to Will and his hair was standing straight up! Lauren dropped a paper and was chasing it down when I took this picture. Thursday ended up being a pretty crazy day. After hosting the missionaries for dinner, I headed to book club at Bethany's (we discussed Protecting the Gift) and Tony hosted two of his former co-workers to sauna.

December 13

The little boys and I spent the better part of the school day at Wonderscope with my friend Tara and the boy she nannies Friday. It wasn't crowded and we visited most of the rooms. An unexpected bonus was a table full of donuts, which gave us the energy we needed keep going. Elliott thoroughly enjoyed the art room. Here he is posing in front of his painting of Alex Gordon #4.

December 14

Saturday evening Anthony and I were double booked. Our ward Christmas party was scheduled for the same night at his company holiday party, thankfully the church party started earlier and the work party went much later, so we were able to attend both. I had a great time at both and was particularly touched by the singing at the ward party. In addition to doing a sing-a-long, the children dressed up and sang songs about the birth of Christ. Lauren got to be Mary because she was the first girl in the room when they were handing out costumes, not because her dad is the bishop. Elliott refused to get dressed up, but he sang along loudly from the audience. He also requested more Christmas carols than anyone else during the sing-a-long. He takes Buddy the Elf's advice to heart, "the best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear."

2019 :: week 49

December 1

Lauren adds just the right amount of domesticity to our home. On Sunday afternoon she gave me the encouragement I needed to get our tubs of Christmas decorations outside of the basement and set them out. Originally I had wanted to decorate for Christmas while the kids were off school, but then I got a bad headache and wasn't up to the task. It was a bit magical watching Lauren's excitement as she placed each piece of the nativity just so on top of our piano.

December 2

Lauren is a great older sister to Miles. Before she left for school she asked me if Miles and Leah (her doll) could have a play date when she got home. I was surprised when she remembered and insisted on taking Miles into her room. It was actually quite helpful and I was able to get a head start on dinner.

December 3

Nothing gets the John family out of bed like the promise of free breakfast. Tuesday morning Chick-fil-A was offering free biscuits during their normal breakfast hours. We had to leave our house half and hour earlier than normal to ensure the kids would get to school on time, but everyone got up and was ready to leave the house ahead of schedule. It was a fun--and yummy-- start to our day!

December 4

Will had his first Mathletics competition Wednesday afternoon. It was a good experience for him even though his team struggled a bit. It is always a bit different to go from working on problems in the classroom or at home to answering them in a room full of competitors while under a time crunch. The questions were hard! They handed out a question sheet to the parents and I struggled with a few of them myself.

December 5

Our sweet Miles boy is nine months old! He continues to be a light in our home. At this point he is sleeping through the night (most of the time), putting everything he can reach in his mouth and trying his best to get around. Unfortunately he struggles with putting weight on his arms, so he mostly pivots in circles and scoots backwards. His physical therapist has us working with him to teach him how to army crawl and bear weight on one arm at a time. He loves finger foods and devoured the beans we had with our tacos on Tuesday night. As of this week he is officially weened. Miles is a social fellow and rewards anyone who makes eye contact with him a big smile. He seems to like adventure--swinging in the swing and getting tossed around by his dad make him grin with delight. He is such a sweet little guy and we love having him in our family.

December 6

Friday evening Anthony and I went to the Stake High Council Christmas party. We had a fun evening visiting with other bishops and their wives, but as much as anything it was fun to just go out together. We have been bad about prioritizing date nights this year.

December 7

Will had his first basketball game of the season on Saturday. It was against the team he played on in first grade and they are tough competitors. It ended up being a blowout, but Will played hard and held his own. A few of the kids on Will's team are new to basketball and this was the first "real" game they have ever played in. I was proud of the team and Tony's coaching.

2019 :: week 48

November 24

Miles now drinks from a bottle about 75% of the time! Hallelujah! Will and Lauren are both very helpful with feeding him his bottles. Anthony has started tithing settlement, which means his Sundays have gotten a little longer. It has crazy to think that this is his fifth year of tithing settlements!

November 25

The kids we out of school for the week, so I tried to plan something fun to do each day. After a busy day of cleaning and running errands, we went to Union Station and watched Elf on the big screen. When we left the the theater it had gotten dark outside and we spent some time walking around a mostly empty building. It was kind of magical watching the kids dance and run down the grand hall with the twinkling lights overhead. Union Station is one of my favorite spots in Kansas City, especially at Christmas.

November 26

Tuesday we went bowling with a group that was mostly comprised of Lauren's friends and their siblings. We had a pretty good time, but my kids got frustrated that some of the girls we shared a lane with didn't bowl as quickly as they did, thus "wasting" some of our time. That evening Anthony and I stayed up late and watched BYU play KU. Even though they lost, it was still a fun game and we felt proud to be BYU fans.

November 27

Wednesday all the kids got to play with friends. In the morning Elliott went over to Tyler's house and Will spent most of the day at Knox's. We invited the girls from Lauren's primary class over to decorate cookies and watch the new Lion King movie in the afternoon. Four of the six girls in her class came and they all seemed to have a good time. Three families with girls Lauren's age have moved into our ward in the past year and we are very happy about this.

November 28

I battled a pretty bad headache for most of the week, and was grateful to have a quiet Thanksgiving Day planned. We watched the parade in the morning and did quiet things around the house most of the day. The boys played a lot on the Switch, Lauren played with her dolls, and I did a lot of reading. Anthony made an amazing sweet potato dish for our Thanksgiving dinner with my parents and the Wilsons, and I made a green bean casserole. It was a relaxing, quiet Thanksgiving. Perfect.

November 29

It is getting a lot trickier to take a good family selfie. Friday afternoon we checked into the Marriott Downtown for John Family Staycation 2019. I was a little apprehensive about how crowded it would be and we lucked out--it was like a ghost town! We got upgraded to a suite and had the pool to ourselves. The shuttle took us to get our pizza for dinner and then we went back to our room and watched a few episodes of America Ninja Warrior together before going to bed.

November 30

We spent an absolutely wonderful day getting out and about in Kansas City Saturday. We woke up and went to Union Station where I made the kids ride the Christmas train (thank you to Will for riding the train he is much to old for to appease me and my love of good photo-ops). Then we rode the streetcar to the River Market and got an early lunch at Pigwitch. The food was delicious! We then walked on the bridge and down along the Missouri River. The river is high this year! We had fun exploring along the trail and speculating what it looked like here 200 years ago. We made a quick stop for ice cream at Betty Rae's and then spent a lovely hour at the library. It has a great children's section with lots of toys. Lauren read me a few books and Anthony and the kids built a tower with oversized Legos. We checked out the rooftop, but it was windy and we didn't stay up there long. At this point all four children we showing signs of getting tired, so we headed home so as not to push everyone past their limits. It was a good choice. We had such a great weekend and are already plotting when we can do a staycation again.

2019 :: week 47

November 17

It was an unusual Sunday. We normally have church at 10:30am, but due to the other wards in our building having Stake Conference, our ward met at 1pm instead. The afternoon flew by! Anthony took the older kids to the church to watch the Face to Face with Elder Gong, but Miles had not napped all afternoon, so stayed back and fed him and put him and Elliott to bed a little early.

November 18

Monday ended up being super productive, despite a few set backs. I got up and got my machines working for me--I started a load of laundry and a load of dishes before I took the kids to school. I went to the gym for the first time in a long time. However, when I got back from the gym and went to move the clothes from the washing machine to the dryer I noticed that the washing machine had not drained all of the water. Instead of letting myself dwell on expensive worst case scenarios--which I often do--I got online and was able to figure out what was most likely causing the problem. Then I saw found how to manually drain the machine and did it! I was able to wash three more loads after this with no problem. After I got the laundry up and running again I finished putting the new trampoline mat on the frame. It felt good to be productive because after the kids get home from school my energy switches to them.

November 19

Tony was in San Diego for the week attending a conference for work. While he was gone I continued my daily "mental health walks." He doesn't travel nearly as much as he used to, for which I am grateful. Luckily the weather was nice enough that I could take Miles with me. He seems to enjoy watching the world pass by as we was walk around the neighborhood. He certainly fussed less than he did when we were at home and I was trying to make dinner.

November 20

We made a quick trip to the library Wednesday evening to pick up some books for Will. While Will and I searched for books Lauren and Elliott did a scavenger hunt and put on puppet shows for each other. Will's teacher (Mrs. Votava) has really lit a fire under him and his reading this year. All fourth graders are challenged to read forty books over the course of the school year, but are only allowed a few from each genre. Will has maxed out his "graphic novel," "historical fiction," "science fiction," "mysteries," "fantasies" and "biographies," so we were looking for a few books that would be considered "realistic fiction." We settled on A Long Walk to Water about kids growing up in Sudan.

November 21

After I pick up Elliott from preschool we meet the big kids at the park. Even though we live extremely close to the park I usually drive straight there. When it is time to go the kids like to wait on the bench and have me pick them up in the van. They call the bench the "bus stop."

November 22

Friday morning Elliott's friend Kendall came over for a few hours so her mom could go to the doctor and pick up a prescription. Stephanie has been coughing for awhile and then ran a fever for several days--turns out she had pneumonia! Elliott and Kendall made me "cookies" out of playdoh, played with Paw Patrol toys and jumped on the trampoline.

November 23

Due to the massive amount of leaves we have in our front yard, it didn't take very long for Anthony to rake this huge pile. What takes time is mulching and bagging them up! Elliott, Will and our neighbor Curran enjoyed playing in the pile, but they also helped clean the leaves up too. Lauren and I spent most of the morning in her room doing a deep clean. We moved some furniture around to fit the way she uses her room now and vacuumed and dusted and wiped baseboards. We threw away enough stuff to completely fill a large trash bag and made a large pile of clothes, toys and books she has outgrown to pass down to Elliott or donate. That evening we treated ourselves to Chick-fil-A peppermint shakes and our second family sauna session

2019 :: week 46

November 10

Anthony and I ended the weekend together on the couch, discussing our plans and commitments for the upcoming week. We aren't always good about having weekly planning sessions, but our weeks go so much better when we do. Earlier in the evening Anthony hosted a BYD where he encouraged the youth to cultivate an attitude of gratitude and showed part of a Ted Talk by Brene Brown.

November 11

A cold front blew in on Monday and when I say cold I mean COLD! It felt like it was 6 degrees outside, even though it was actually 21 degrees. After the gorgeous weekend it just felt wrong. I didn't want to leave the house, but Elliott's preschool was putting on a literacy night and he really wanted to "go to the party at [his] school!" The teachers and support staff put a lot of effort into making fun activities for the kids so I am glad we went. Several people recognized Lauren from her time as a peer model and she liked being remembered.

November 12

This was the week of Elliott wearing a baseball shirt everyday. He wore Will's old Alex Gordon shirt Friday, but I didn't get a picture of that. This is what I posted on instagram: When this kid goes all in, he goes ALL. IN. Last winter it was Greatest Showman. He requested the soundtrack daily and wore his top hat and red shirt on the regular. Recently, during the MLB playoffs he started requesting baseball hype videos on YouTube and started to smuggle his glove, bat or ball with him whenever we leave the house. When I asked him why he doesn’t ask for Greatest Showman music anymore he replied, “Mom, I’m not that guy anymore.”

November 13

On Wednesday we went to the Smith's house for  the "preschool bookclub" Heather organized. Twice a month we get together to read a few books, sing a few songs, do an activity or craft, and play. It has been good for helping Elliott be less clingy with me. His friends that participate are Gideon, Kendall, Grant, Ethan, Neal, Mikey and Penelope. In this picture Rachel is reading one of Elliott's favorite Thanksgiving themed books, Turkey Trouble.

November 14

It was my turn to host book club Thursday night. Our basement is almost finished, so I gave my friends a tour before we got started. Here we are all in the sauna. Anthony's sauna definitely gets the most "buzz," when we talk about all the updates, but the whole thing is really amazing. Sometimes I can't believe we have all of this additional intentional space! We discussed The Gurnsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, which I had read before many years ago. This time around I listened to the audio-book and found it delightful. I am loving audio-books this fall. I have listened to nine audio-books since school started, mainly listening while doing chores and driving.

November 15

We had Lauren's birthday party late-over at our house Friday evening. Lauren planned the event with great care and attention to detail. She may have a future in event planning. Guests were asked to wear comfy clothes and bring a pillow and blanket. When the guests arrived they were greeted with the Kidz Bop Pandora station playing in the background and a table full of coloring pages and crayons. After they set up their stuff in the basement they came upstairs to color. While they were coloring and after everyone arrived I explained how we were going to decorate sugar cookies. Each girl got six cookies and we had several cups of frosting, candy toppings and sprinkles to share. When they were done with the cookies they washed their hands and headed to the front room to watch Lauren open her gifts. While she did that Will and I cleaned up the cookie mess and set out the plates and drinks for dinner. We had pizza for dinner and then went down to the basement to watch Descendants 3. The girls sang along and danced and had a pretty good time. I was so tired when it was all over though. She originally wanted a sleep-over, I can't imagine how tired I would have been if we had had 14 girls spend the night!

November 16

Saturday evening we had our inaugural family sauna. Elliott got too hot pretty quickly and played Smash Bros on the Switch while the rest of us sweat it out for about half and hour. It wasn't that bad. I tried stretching in the sauna once my muscles were warmed up and it felt pretty good. Who knows, maybe I will be converted to the sauna after all?

2019 :: week 45

November 3

Our trampoline is temporarily out of service. Sunday afternoon Elliott was playing in the backyard and asked Tony and I separately if he could have a knife to make "pumpkin pie" out of one of our Halloween pumpkins. We both told him no. The neighbor friend he was playing with went to his house and snuck a knife out of his kitchen. A third friend then stabbed it through the trampoline mat about thirty times.

November 4

Spending quiet mornings with these two boys is mostly wonderful. Their sweet smiles remind me of how blessed I am to be living the life I've always wanted to have. Since school has started I have been feeling frustrated with myself because I used to be able to "accomplish" so much more than I am currently. I know that having healthy, well-adjusted children is more important than checking things off my to-do list, but it is hard for me to get to the end of the day and not have tangible things to show for it. I'm much less "productive" than I was at this time last year. I have a baby that needs to nap three times a day and Elliott attends half-day preschool four afternoons a week, requiring me to spend thirty minutes driving him each way. My days are choppy and it makes it hard for me to volunteer at the elementary school, do meals on wheels or exercise like I was previously able to do. I am working on being okay with taking things slow and savoring the gummy smiles and snuggles.

November 5

Miles is 8 months old! The biggest changes that have happened in the past month are that he sleeps in his own room now and he is starting to ween himself. Unfortunately on top of only wanting to nurse when my milk is letting down and it is flowing fast and freely, he refuses all bottles so I have had to resort to feeding him formula with a medicine dropper on a few occasions. Most night he sleeps for about twelve hours with one 7-10 our stretch. I am getting more sleep and feel like a new woman. Miles can sit for long periods of time and only falls over when he gets off balance trying to look at something. He rarely scoots forward but I often find him several feet behind where I left him on the floor. He puts EVERYTHING possible in his mouth. He even tries to put the zipper pull on my jacket in his mouth when I am holding him.

November 6

The weather went from warm to cold and back to warm again this week. Between the shorter days and colder temperatures I have started taking daily mental health walks. I am trying to go in the morning before getting the kids ready for school, but go in the evening too if possible. Wednesday evening I was struck by the beauty in our neighborhood and how much I love where we live. I walked to Target to get some new bibs for Miles and then ran into some friends playing at the park. Tuesday I walked to Holy Spirit to vote, later in the week I walked to the library to return some books and our kids are able to walk to and from school daily.

November 7

Miles seems to really enjoy sitting next to the piano while Anthony plays for him. Anthony has been playing and singing more recently and we all like it.

November 8

Lauren came home from school Thursday afternoon running a fever. She had a headache in the morning, but her temperature was normal so she went to school. When we got home she laid on the couch all afternoon and was asleep in bed by 7pm. When she woke up Friday morning she was feeling great and her fever was gone. We kept her home and she and Elliott had such a fun day together. She made him worksheets--Elliott wants to learn to read--and they played with perler beads, colored popsicle sticks and organized their remaining Halloween candy together.

November 9

Saturday was busy! Next week is a busy week and we made a long list of things we needed to get done to get ready for it and we did almost everything. A big thing that we needed to get done was winterizing our yard. I cleaned out our garden and put stored the trelis, tomato cages and hoses until next year. Anthony worked on leaves and used the weed wacker to tidy up the edges of our yard. We cleaned out the garage and filled up both our trash can and our neighbor's (they are out of town until May and they let us use their can when we have overflow). Anthony took Elliott on a date (McDonalds and then baseball at the elementary school field) and Will and I went on an epic shopping trip to IKEA and Hy-Vee. By the time I got in bed that night my feet were aching, but I love checking things off a to-do list so I felt very satisfied.