We had a great Easter!!! Darrin and I got these adorable Easter buckets at Target for 2 bucks! If you look closely Ethan's basket is full of Nuk nipples for his bottle, he is a bottle snob and has to have the 0-3 month nipples or he FREAKS out, he won't drink his milk and refuses to sleep. Good thing the Easter bunny knows what he is doing!



Here is Colby opening his basket, we hid Easter eggs around the room, Colby and Ethan went around finding them. Ethan did a surprisingly good job finding them, he sure knows how to keep up with his big brother.




Here is Ethan hiding from mommy, Is it poop or chocolate???? ( Baby Mama, everyone who has been pregnant should see that movie, so funny) Luckily it was chocolate, do I even need to say.... bath time!














The Craner Fam got together after church and had a great Easter dinner and had a super fun scavenger hunt. Each of the oldest neices or nephews got a group of the younger nieces/ nephews. Each group were given clues and took their group looking for the goods. All of the kids had a great time! Colby's leader was Savannah and Chelsea and Tyler were in his group.

Posted in: 2011, colby, ethan, holidays on Tuesday, May 3, 2011 at 2 comments  

Our good friends Caden and Michelle came to visit! We sure miss them!!!! Every time we get together, we have such a good time. Colby was so excited to see his buddy. the minute they came over Colby was ecstatic, they acted like they were never apart. Michelle and Chad's families are from Utah so we are very lucky and hopefully will get to see them a lot more. (hint, hint) We had a great time with you guys and can't wait to see you again. The last day we saw them we took the kids to the Bean Museum at BYU ( no not actual beans, I assumed it was a museum about beans, the name confused me- I'm glad I was wrong) and played at McDonald's after.

I love those grins!

Michelle was my home away from home in California, they are the sweetest family ever. Whenever I hung around Michelle I thought of my sister. The sweetest girl ever, I always wanted to be better whenever I was around her. She truly amazes me. I miss her!!

Posted in: 2011, colby, riss on at 2 comments  

Things have been crazy, hectic, and busy. I love it, I am never bored. I have never been this busy on a consistent basis. First it was just the unpacking, after getting settled in everything is still moving at a faster pace. Darrin has started his internship with Central Utah Clinic, he works in the marketing department. He works part time, which means I actually get to see my husband! I love that, I am counting down till retirement!
So far, things are working out great for us, the lord definetly has a hand in what we are doing. We are moving forward and everything seems to be falling into place. Such a nice change.

quick recap of events

-Sold our 4 Runner on Craigslist days before the move, it was on it's last leg and wouldn't have made it:( *craigslist is amazing, esp. in california, will be missed, love the deals



-We took Colby to Disneyland as a farewell to California. Colby's favorite ride was Dumbo, and his least favorite was Thunder Mountain. Colby is 40 inches tall- that can sometimes be a bad thing he did NOT like that ride, maybe next year. Darrin and I love Disneyland- if you are married to a Craner and don't think that D-land is incredibly awesome then it's grounds for a divorce (it's my favorite, I love it, love it love it tehe :)) Anyways..... taking your kids and seeing their expression and how excited they get is awesome, it takes Disneyland to a whole new level.





-The entire fam has LOVED getting out of that tiny apartment and into a home, Colby and Ethan are loving the space. Plus a backyard with a swing set and ANDY the dog. Colby loves Andy and is SO good with him. He pets him, lets him outside and back in, he would sleep with the dog if I let him. Penny and Greg are the easiest and sweetest people to live with, they should be more mean so we don't keep living with them!!! (me so funny)

-We went to Boise, and visited my fam! While there we ate at all of my favorite places, yum! ( I have quite a lot) We were able to hang out with family, visit, talk, chat, gab, goof off, I loved it! Colby and Ethan got to see their cousins, we had an incredible time. We were able to go to Benson's 3rd b-day bash and since the event Colby is very excited for his own party.
One of the main reasons for going was to get our car fixed. When we arrived, to our dismay, we found it would have cost a fortune. So, we made an exec decision to run the car to the ground until it dies, and in making that bright decision we ended up buying a very practical car. So we bought a Toyota camry hybrid. I have never wanted a camry but I have to say this car is growing on me and it has great gas mileage!!! Yeah!





Since being here Colby and Ethan are in love with playing outside, and playing with Andy.

Posted in: 2011, colby, darrin, ethan, riss on Friday, April 8, 2011 at 4 comments  

Bon Voyage... for now. I am a Craner so I know we will be back! My best friend Michelle watched Ethan for us all day so that we could spend the day at Disneyland with Colby before we left California. Ethan wouldn't have lasted but we will definitely come back for his turn.

We are leaving California and turning a new leaf. This was a lovely day to end California with. Colby as the age where he understands he is leaving behind his friends and we wanted to do something special for him. We are trying to explain to him that hopefully we will stay in contact with his friends and can go back one day and visit. He is a very good sport and I hope he can make some more great friends in Utah. We certainly have made some great friends in California and will be greatly missed. I am always scared to start a new chapter but I know that this is a good thing for us. We will really miss California and all of our friends that we call family, even our ward was our California family. We had some really great experiences here and we will miss it.

Posted in: 2011, colby, craners, darrin, riss, us on Sunday, March 27, 2011 at 0 comments  

 This was my car before I met Darrin. I will miss this car, I loved this thing. 4-runners rock! This was an older car and wouldn't be reliable for the journey back to Utah. We had to sell it:( I miss it!

Posted in: 2011, us on Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at 0 comments  

It is pure excitement for me to move back to Utah, I finally have family close by. I have always been a home body and it has been very nice to have family around. When ever a huge change occurs in my life (moving, career change) I have horrible anxiety. I'm a train wreck, and it takes about a month for me to recover and feel like myself again. Colby has been having a rough time too. I will tuck him in at night and ask him how he is doing with the move, he looks up at me and says "Mommy, I want to go home" or he will ask if Caden or Brynna can come over and play. Colby and Caden were in the same nursery class and after the first time going to church here, that night he told me he wanted to go back to his church. I know we will soon get on a routine and Colby and my anxieties will go away but I about melt to death when I hear him say stuff like that. I don't want my kids to go through hard things, sometimes being a parent stinks! Does this anxiety happen to anyone else?
After a couple weeks things are beginning to settle down. Since growing up we never moved that much. I always thought it would be so fun to move a lot - I'm now realizing- I HATE moving! Yuck. Since moving to Utah (for beauty school) I have moved 11 times!!! Crazy!

For the heck of it I've decided to make a pro and con list for Utah and California
Here goes......

California

P- made some great friends, friends I hope to keep for life, they were my other family
P- weather, oh how I loved the weather, perfect year around
P- close to the beach, I have visited like 20 and my favorite beach area is Laguana and San Diego a close second
P- shopping, not like I have a ton of money to shop but there is everything here, way better deals too
P- I loved the city of Rancho Cucamonga, fast speed limits, tons of stores and all super close by,
P- thouroughbred street, a neighborhood that in the association it states that your house MUST be decked out at Christmas time, the whole street is amazing, they have carriage rides, and sell hot cocoa and treats on their driveways, so much fun

c- so expensive!!
c- houses, property taxes, car registration, insurance everything went up by a long ways, you better make bank if you want to live in California and in a nice enough area to feel safe
c- about a million freeways, you need a GPS the first year until you get the 10-20 u use down to a science
c- rush hour towards LA starts at 6-10 am and starts again leaving LA from 3-8. Plan wisely where u want to visit

Utah
p- family, it is so nice to be around family, sunday dinners, or for double dates, babysitting, holidays- it's great
p- being driving distance to my fam, not having to pay plane fair, YUCK!
p- having access to Craners boat, muhaha (that's my evil laugh!)
p- living in a house, with a backyard, TONS of room for the boys, LOVE IT

c- freezing!!! brrrrrrr C-O-L-D
c- have to drive 1/2 hour to get anywhere, everything is so spread apart
c- 1 freeway, the freeway, I don't think I can ever get lost :)
c- speed limits, so slow

Posted in: 2011, riss on Monday, March 21, 2011 at 4 comments  

My baby and me!















Ethan chillin on the bed. We were living with zero furniture in the house for 4 days, Ethan knew where to kick it.














My boys would always hang out in just their diaper or underwear. Now that we moved to Utah they are always fully dressed, so much colder!!!!!!!















Colby is so smart, I was getting short tempered trying to pack up the kitchen while Ethan kept coming in and unpacking everything. Colby blocked off the kitchen for me and then started playing with Ethan to make him happy. Such a sweet boy!

Posted in: 2011, colby, ethan, riss on at 2 comments