Merry Christmas!

We would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas from the Crane family! We have had a pretty good year.

Raymond is still working for Sterling ATM helping with bill of materials, production scheduling, and shipping. He is serving as the Sunday School President at church. He still likes playing the guitar and playing basketball.

Jamie is teaching piano and voice lessons. She has around eleven students. She is serving as the primary chorister and the choir accompanist at church.

S is in third grade now. He loves to read books, especially if they are funny. He is learning to play the piano. He also likes to play video games with his brothers. The games they like to play this year are Angry Birds, Fancy Pants, Active Life Explorer, Little Big Planet and Star Wars.

A is in second grade. He likes animals, especially big cats.

G started kindergarten. He is adjusting to the longer school day as well as the homework. He likes to make cinnamon toast.

J is in preschool. She loves all things "girl." Her favorite color is pink. She likes princesses and ponies. She also likes to play pretend.

Aa is a very active two year old. You never know what he will get into. He loves to do whatever his brothers are doing.

We welcomed a new little girl into our family this year. Ju is now three months old. She loves to be held. She has a great smile. She has slept through the night almost since day one.

We are looking forward to 2012 and the changes it will bring! Wishing you happiness in the year to come! Love you all.

Movember

Have you heard about "Movember?" During the month of November "Mo Bros" grow a moustache to raise awareness of men's health. You can learn more at http://us.movember.com/about
Here is Raymond's Movember 'stache.

Halloween 2011

I'm a little slow posting these, Thanksgiving is only a week away, but here are some pictures from our Halloween this year. First a group shot before trick or treating.
J decided to be a fairy this year.

Aa went as Frankenstein's Monster. He didn't want to wear a costume until I put candy in his "Feed Me" pocket.


A wanted to be the Grim Reaper.

Gideon wanted to be Bumblebee the transformer. I didn't have a Bumblebee costume, so I was glad he changed his mind and decided to be Superman.

But then he changed his mind and really did want to be Bumblebee. This is what we improvised.

Samuel's class did a Zombie dance for school to Micheal Jackson's "Thriller." So for school Samuel looked like this.

But for trick or treating he wanted to be the transformer Megatron.

Hope you all had a great Halloween!

It's a Girl!

On September 14 we welcomed a new baby girl to our family. We are so excited! She is named Juliandrea.

A Very Dora Birthday

Here are some pictures of J's birthday. Not only was her cake Dora, but she got a lot of Dora presents like a Dora Snow Cone maker and a Dora dress up set. She got some cute hair barrets as well.


A also celebrated a birthday. He loves big cats and wanted a snow leopard cake. It turned out really nice, but the pictures are on my camera which I can't find. Hopefully I'll find it soon so I can let you see his cake. He got a really fun game for the Wii that all of the kids have been enjoying.

Jumping out of swings... backwards!

We have a swing set in our backyard for the kids to play on. G just learned this summer how to jump out of the swing. So, of course, the next feat to accomplish is to jump out of the swing backwards! Unfortunately he found out this wasn't such a great idea the hard way. He landed on his right arm and broke both of the bones in his forearm. He gets a cool new hard cast on Wednesday!

That cake is scary!

Aa celebrated his 2nd birthday recently. I decided to make him a Cookie Monster cake because he has a Cookie Monster book he loves to read. I thought the cake turned out really cute.
Aa thought the cake was okay from a distance, but if the cake got close to him, he grew terrified!

He wouldn't even blow out the candles.

So funny!

It is birthday season at our house. We also celebrated my sister's birthday. Here is a strawberry cake I made for that.


We just celebrated Raymond's birthday and in a few more weeks we will celebrate J and A's birthdays as well. So, more cake pictures to come!

What a June!

This June has been very busy with summer vacation activities. I went to Loveland, CO with Raymond's sisters for the weekend. We had fun getting pedicures, eating out, shopping, and just visiting without any children or men-folk. It was a lot of fun and I'm glad I can relax with them. As soon as I got home we set out for the Grand Canyon. I had not been since I was a toddler and Raymond had never been, so it was an exciting adventure for the entire family.
We arrived early in the morning and stopped at Desert View Watchtower. The view was fantastic even though the tower was not open yet. Here the kids saw a rabbit and a lizard. The wildlife was one of the kids favorite part of the trip, especially the lizard.
That evening we took a hike to Ooh Aah point on the South Kaibab trail. It was beautiful. It was the parents favorite part of the trip. Here are some of the beautiful views.


We also watched the sunset. The next morning we hiked down the Bright Angel Trail. The kids and some of the adults only went down a little ways. Juliann made it to the 1 1/2 mile resthouse while Raymond and Lee went down to the 3 mile resthouse. Jim and Josh walked six-miles in to Plateau Point.


The next morning we stopped by the Indian ruins and stopped by Desert View Watchtower again so we could go inside. The three older boys all earned their Jr. Ranger badges and were very proud of that accomplishment.



We had a great time with Jamie's family. It is definitely one of those "must see" places.

Guess what? I'm still around!

I know it has been a very long time since I wrote on my blog. But we are still here! S and A just finished 2nd and 1st grade. G finished preschool and will start kindergarten in the Fall. They are all very excited for Summer Vacation. We will be starting our official Summer Schedule tomorrow.
J is the princess that likes to wear pink every day. Aa is a very active toddler that likes to find mischief. He is very cute though and does everything with a big smile!

Raymond is still working at Sterling ATM. He is also busy trying to sell the property we have in West Valley. We may rezone it to commercial property and lease it to a dance company instead. It is a lot of work for him to do. I am gearing up for summer and still teaching piano and voice lessons. I am also preparing for baby #6 in September. Now you are all updated, right?