I’m so grateful for church each Sunday. It really renews my spirits and gives me the strength and focus to face the coming week. I also love all the people I get to see at church. They really are my family away from home.

Plus, I get to dress my kids really cute! haha

Funny story:

At church Ben told Hallie that the song we were about to sing was a Christmas song about when Jesus was born. Hallie opened up her book and followed along with her finger then belted out, “Jesus being born. Jesus being born.” Over and over again at the top of her lungs. (Of course in her best singing voice.) I didn’t care if anyone else thought it was disruptive we thought it was the cutest thing ever!

Two of my friends came over last night and we canned our hearts out. We made salsa and raspberry jam. I had so much fun hanging out with them. I laughed so hard that I cried at one point. Good friends make the world go round.

Thanks Kami and Rebecca you two are the best! I can’t wait to do it again.

I’ve decided that Hallie would win a personality contest. Sure she is in her terrible 2’s and I could pull my hair out most days because she is so stubborn and emotional (especially now that she has given up naps). And really she thinks she is 15! But with that said, she gives meaning and lots of laughter to my life. Here are some recent conversations:

“Mom look! Look Mom a pull-up!”

She pulls her regular diaper down and looks at me with a huge smile.

“Did you know that Mom?”

____________________________________

Me: Hallie what are you doing?

H: Probably………nothing

____________________________________

Me: Hallie look at all the cars here at the store. (I was trying to distract her)

H: Wow! Jesus made them.

____________________________________

Some of my favorite things she says are:

Probably

Actually

That’s my favorite

I love that!

Sure are, sure is

Doing good

I good at making messes

Diego (her imaginary friend) come here right now!

Hey chubby boy

Delicious

Gracias

Real quick

Be right back

See you later

Peace out

______ time! (church,breakfast,lunch, dinner, sleep, etc.)

With Ben’s cousin Jeff and his wife, Anniele, in town over the holiday weekend we got a babysitter and went for a night out on the town. Where did we go you ask? Wegman’s, the local grocery store! haha It really is a cool place because it has so many different foods to choose from. The three of them chose sushi, which I hate, and I ate a salad.

We love when people come visit us!

I LOVE Thanksgiving! It is such a wonderful holiday full of food, family, and friends. Combine those three sitting around a table while talking about all of the things that you are grateful for, it doesn’t get better than that! This year Ben cousin Jeff and his wife Anniele flew out from Utah to spend the holiday weekend with us. We love them!

The past two years we have gone over to the Stoker’s house (Ben’s 2nd cousins) for Thanksgiving. Carol makes EVERYTHING from scratch and we have never eaten better food. This year with Jeff and Anniele coming we decided to invite the Stoker’s to our house for dinner. Let me just tell you that I will never think of Thanksgiving the same again. All of these years I’ve always thought of things that I am grateful for but sadly I think I have taken the actual dinner itself for granted. Cooking this year was so much work. I love cooking so it wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy it because I really did. It’s just that it was exhausting and I never realized the effort that went into it. So thank you to everyone who has ever made anything that I have eaten on Thanksgiving. 🙂 Namely Mom, Chenie, LaRae and Carol. Wow you are angels!

Hallie only ate rolls. haha All that good food and the only thing she likes are the rolls. She is funny with textures and she never eats meat. She didn’t even like any pie!

What was on our table:

Turkey

Homemade rolls

Fruit salad

Homemade Cranberry sauce

Mash potatoes (15 pounds to be exact. Yes we have a lot left over!)

Sweet potato surprises (Aunt Tammy’s recipe)

Homemade Stuffing

Green beans

Homemade pies: Pecan, Lemon Meringue, Apple

Pumpkin bars

Thank you Carol for once again blessing us with your Turkey, rolls and fruit salad. We sure love you!

This daughter of mine better end up in the olympics for the amount of coordination she has. Here are some of her latest feats.

I can’t believe my little guy is 4 months old. He is our chunker for sure! He is starting to show his personality more and more and I love it! He is a smily little guy and we all get a kick out of his laugh. He is getting really good with his hands and he loves playing with toys. Ben was really anxious to try him on oatmeal cereal. We have fed him three times (well I should say Hallie fed him) and he did really good with it. However, I don’t think I’m going to be consistent with it because he is obviously getting enough food. 🙂 He is sleeping good at night. He usually does 4-5 hour intervals which I am grateful for. He even slept one whole night through. My body is used to waking up during the night so when I did and knew he hadn’t gotten up yet I panicked, said a prayer, and went to check on him. Now that I know he can go the whole night I think I’m ready to sleep train him. Here’s to hoping it goes fast and easy.

Here are some pictures for you to enjoy of my fat little guy!

Oh how I love him!

This years Halloween was celebrated on two different occasions. Both of which were not actually on Halloween. I decided that every eight years when Halloween is on a Sunday we will not go trick or treating. I’m sure on those years there will always be lots of parties prior to Sunday so the kids shouldn’t feel too bad. Plus I think it’s a good way to teach them about not compromising the Lord’s standards to fit into the world.

The first party we celebrated halloween at was full of kids, kids, and more kids! Hallie was so excited to finally wear her Cinderella dress that Nanna made for her. Thanks mom!! I decided not to put Kyle in his full on costume because it was so warm and we were going to be inside. So he got to wear a halloween inspired outfit instead.

The next party we attended was thrown by our church. It didn’t start until 7 pm which is Hallie’s bed time so we only stayed for a few minutes and I didn’t take any pictures. Ben decided not to go with us (he hates Halloween!) so it was impossible to hold Kyle, help Hallie play the games and take pictures.

Here are some pictures I took tonight since Kyle never got the real chance to be a lion.


After the third halloween with kids I have learned that I will always be alone on halloween. Ben refuses to celebrate or attend parties. He did say however that when Halloween falls on a Monday (family night) he will go trick or treating with us. Yay for every eight years! lol

I guess I never put “likes to celebrate halloween” on my list of what I wanted in my husband. 🙂

We hit the road and decided to do another road trip a couple weekends ago. There is a place called Luray Caverns that, from pictures, looked simply amazing. It was a 2 hour car ride and the kids are never good in the car so we left saying a prayer that we would make it to the caverns without any meltdowns.

Ever since we stopped putting Kyle in his car seat to sleep he has started to improve during car rides. He still has his moments but for the most part he was an angel those 2 hours. Hooray! I wish I could say the same thing for Hallie. She was awful! I guess by 2 years old I figured she would have grown out of her “horrible traveler” stage. But alas not yet!

One of the coolest things that surprised us was the fact that the caves were all under the store/tourist shop. Ben and I figured we would get on a bus and drive somewhere else but instead they opened up a door and we simply went down stairs. It was remarkable! They give you a tour guide and head phones to walk you through the caverns. The tour is just over an hour. The place is huge!

On the way home we decided to take the scenic drive through the Shenandoah mountains. It was so beautiful! I don’t know how people can look at nature and not believe in God.

It was awesome to see the amazing caves and the beautiful mountains. Nature is truly stunning!

Too bad there was construction on the way home and what was supposed to be a 2 hour drive turned into a 5 hour drive. Ahhh!!!! It’s amazing I still have hair and finger nails after that car ride!

Personally I think Hallie is hilarious. Every night when Ben gets home I sit there and ramble off all the funny things Hallie did or said. Lately I’ve been trying to be better about writing them down. Here are a few:

Sunday morning conversation:

Mom: What’s your name?

Hallie: Marie Crane

Mom: Correction-Hallie Marie Crane

Hallie: Points to each family member and says, Kyle Marie Crane, Mommy Marie Crane, Daddy Marie Crane

After telling her what our names really were we asked her one more time “what’s your name?” She said, “Cinderella Crane”

Tuesday Conversation:

M: Hallie Kyle is sleeping what would you like to do just the two of us?

H: Umm cook dinner

Setting the scene: I’m cutting potatoes and Hallie is putting them in them pot.

H: Mommy it’s talk time

M: Okay what would  you like to talk about?

H: Jesus, Heavenly Father

Mom smiles!! 🙂

Thursday Conversation:

H:See you later momma. I going to castle…prince.

M: Just make sure he’s good looking before you kiss him.

H: Be right back momma

Car Conversation:

H: Jesus house big. My house small.