Stink-e-cheese

Dawson has been off track now for a few weeks and he is officially BORED! Yesterday he said he wanted to do something fun and could we go to Chuck-e-cheese. I was in a nice-mom mood and told him we could. I made sure we stopped somewhere on the way to get me some lunch so I didn't have to eat their nasty pizza.

Dawson's favorite game is the snowmobile ride/game. He is really good at it too!

Only one was working, but that didn't stop Linc from sitting on the broken one and playing like it was really working.

Linc loved EVERYTHING! He has a hard time moving from one thing to the next- he has a tendency to want to do the same thing over and over and over.

Linc's favorite thing was this Monster Truck ride. He kept coming over to get more tokens and getting in it and starting it over and over. I don't think he remembered ever going there before so everything was new and fun! He liked the big singing characters, but wanted to keep his distance. Heck, I think they are a little freaky and I am 32 years old! All in all, we had a good time with few melt-downs. Check Stink-e-cheese off our list for at least another few months. :)

Family Pictures

These are the outcome of family pictures that I mentioned a few weeks ago. I have a girl named Kami Snarr, who owns Salted Paper Photography who has taken the boys pictures a couple of times. I absolutely LOVE her and her work. She is so talented! The one above just turned out so perfect with the colors from the sunset and everything.

We went out to the Great Salt Lake, of all places, to have these taken. Besides the pungent smell of brine in the air, it was actually a really beautiful, pleasant evening out there. Dawson kept saying how stinky it was out threre, but Lincoln didn't seem to mind.

Linc was in HEAVEN! Anywhere he can get wet, muddy, or both- can't be a bad place at all!

This is one of my favorites! He was actually looking at some birds.

I love this one of Linc and Daddy

We took Sturgis with us so that he could be in some of the pictures. We had to keep him close though because in this place, there was a lot of broken glass that we didn't want him to step on.

Awwwwww! what a handsome boy!

Classic Sturgis and Linc....

She took this one of Dawson and Sturgis' footprints in the sand. Linc was a mile down the beach at this point and was not coming back anytime soon.

So I think they turned out good. I love the fact that they are so natural and how they capture the boys' real actions and personalities instead of a fake, cheesy smile.

Since I don't feel like doing my laundry, I will participate...

8 TV shows that I watch (in no particular order)

1. The Office
2. Grey's Anatomy
3. Gossip Girl
4. NIP/Tuck - hasn't started yet
5. The Hills
6. SpongeBob
7. Survivor
8. Dirt- also hasn't started yet

8 Things I did yesterday (this is a stretch because I had a pretty lazy day)

1. Woke up
2. Read the paper
3. Took a shower
4. Ate YUMMY Chile Verde and Taco Soup
5. Ate a piece of a caramel apple
6. Took some pictures
7. Watch people carve pumpkins
8. Went to my mom and dads for dinner

8 Places that I love to eat

1. Tepanyaki
2. Cafe Rio
3. Texas Road House
4. Ruth's Chris
5. Steak Pit
6. Porcupine
7. Rafaels
8. Melting Pot

8 Things I am looking forward to

1. November 5th - will it ever end?
2. Thanksgiving- grammy's rolls!! YUM!
3. Week in Hawaii with Jeff :)
4. Replacing my nasty carpet
5. Christmas Parties
6. California Trip - if i can talk Jeff into it :) He thinks once a year is enough- HELLO?
7. Spring
8. 4th of july 2009

8 Things on my wish list

1. My friends and family to be happy and healthy
2. Lincoln to be potty trained
3. more patience
4. 1/2 of Lincoln's energy
5. A Live in Maid
6. The back seat of my car to not be dirty all of the time
7. New carpet
8. Lincoln to keep his pants and/or diaper on for more than 2 minutes

Tag 8

1. BreeAnn
2. Moo
3. Jen Y
4. Holly
5. mom
6. dad
7. Leslie
8. Tam

Fun Weekend

This past weekend Jeff was out of town and we needed someone to entertain us, so we invited my best friend Jaime to come hang out with us. Her little girl Rylee and Linc are just a couple months apart and they LOVE to play together. We have already told them that they are getting married and so far, they are all for it! Jaime also brought her niece, Shelby, with her to sleep over on Friday so we had a HUGE, messy party with the kids. Really we just ordered dinner from Chili's, the kids had a bath, and watched a movie, then went to bed. But the messy part was true!

These pictures are from yesterday when we went over to Jaime's dad's (papa Deano) house to have our annual Pumpkin Carving Extravaganza. Papa Deano is one of the best grandpa's that I know. (There is some very strict competition in this group, so that is saying a lot) He always puts on a full spread of food- this year was homemade taco soup and chile verde burritos. YUM! He also had stuff for the kids to make caramel apples- with all the toppings you could imagine! The kids loved it! Then we carved our pumpkins. Ours didn't get finished, so I will post some pics when they are all done!

All the kids playing in papa Dean's back yard.

Dawson and Shelby with their m & M covered caramel apples.

This was the highlight of evening on Friday. I made sure there were no "parts" showing. Look for this picture in Dawson and Shelby's and Lincoln and Rylee's wedding videos!

Election

Nationalized Health Care: Truth or Consequences

Even though I donate a good portion of my time and money towards an organization that is political in nature, I have hesitated to blog about it. However, I wanted to share this video with everyone in case any of you thought that Universal healthcare sounds like a good option for our country. If you have followed the election at all, you know that Barack Obama has a plan that he wants to introduce, should he win the election, that would basically be a single payer healthcare system, with the government being that single payer. The association that I belong to is called NAHU, National Assoc. of Health Underwriters. It is basically an organization of health insurance agents and insurance carriers. It's probably pretty boring stuff to the average person, but they put together the video above that is a true story of one of our members, and contradicts the documentary SICKO (by Michael Moore) by providing the actual facts and figures and not just a bunch of political rhetoric. I first saw it when I went to the annual convention in San Diego this past June. I thought it was very interesting and confirmed what I had believed all along about Single Payer systems. Anyways, your vote for president may or may not matter, living in Utah, but who we send to Washington as our Congressmen and Senators DOES MATTER!!!! They are the actual law makers and they need to represent OUR views and positions to the rest of Washington. If the link above doesn't work, go on youtube and type in Truth or Consequences. It is worth your time!

Happy Birthday Evan & Jones

Happy Birthday to 2 of my favorite people!!!! My cousin Jones' birthday is today!! He was just like our other brother growing up. He was always around and got the brunt of my frustrations of being the middle child most of the time. He claims that I beat him up relentlessly. Unfortunately for me, we actually have video of this, so I can't deny it. :) There was the time that he bit himself hard and said I did it. My saving grace was that the bite marks were obviously HIS! I do have to give him credit for letting me dress him up like a girl and put make up on him and curl his hair. He was a good sport. That was just last week. ha ha ha! Not really. Now we are great friends and there is very little biting or tripping between us. He is truly ONE OF A KIND and I love him dearly!
Little E, Eman, or Evan James Crane as some people refer to him turned the big ONE yesterday. I can't believe he is already a year old!! He has always been such a handsome boy and is such a little character!! He has started to walk and thinks he is so cool! He is quite the novelty in our family and puts up with a lot of mauling from the other cousins. :) Linc tried to push him out of the way the other day at grandma's and Evan pushed him right back!! Go EVAN. Linc needs someone to push him back every now and then! :) I have a feeling they will be great friends as Evan gets older and can play with the big kids more. We love Evan and can't imagine our family without him!!! Happy Birthday buddy!

Sleeping In

I just wanted to report that we did not make any progress with Linc sleeping in, but my 6 year old took it apon himself to take care of Linc so I could sleep in. They were just watching TV in my room, so I was snoozing a bit. I woke up and realized they were now watching TV in the family room so I went to check it out. Dawson had turned on a show for Linc, poured them both a bowl of cereal and they were just chillin. Now THAT'S what I'm talking about. I don't think I am going to let Dawson go back to school ever. :) hahaha! He is my little helper and LOVES to do anything I ask. Anytime I ask him to help me with something, he almost gets excited to help. He hardly ever complains. He is my angel and i don't know what I would do without him!