National ZOO

Our first official family-only outing since Livy was born was back in September:

to the NATIONAL ZOO!

Here's the play by play:

Walking out of the metro tunnel to find that it is pouring rain and walking the 3 or 4 blocks to the zoo entrance

Kylee telling us she needs to go to the bathroom with one block to go

Kylee having an accident at the entrance to the zoo while standing in the never-ending line to the girls bathroom (poor girl!)

Steve keeping the kids happy with snacks while I feed Olivia in a back hallway.

Checking out the Giant Pandas eating bamboo (totally cool!)

Trying to take a picture of the kids with the Giant Panda with no luck since the kids won't look at the camera at the same time

Steve backtracks with Kylee to the bathroom (again) and misses out on a close-up of the pandas

Seeing the lion and tiger and hearing them roar!! (totally cool!)

Cody and Kylee completely falling apart at the farthest point from the entrance and fighting over who gets to ride in the stroller for the long ride out.

Cody and Kylee surfing in the middle of the metro car aisle

Kylee falling apart again between the metro and our car adding an extra 15 minutes to our trek home.

Grabbing a pizza to go from Costco on the way home to feed our hungry and exhausted selves ASAP

Sitting around our table at home devouring pizza and laughing our heads off when Cody said, "That was so fun! Why didn't we stay longer?"

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And here are the 5 lovely pictures to prove that we had a grand old time with our arms full of kids, snacks, and gear. Cody and Kylee are the only ones pictured, but BELIEVE ME, we were ALL there.

Smile!

No Brains Needed

While getting ready to start his homework yesterday Cody said to me: 

"Do you know how easy this is? It's so easy that I don't even need to use my brain."

I said, "What will you use if you don't use your brain then?"

"A pencil!"

First Grade Fake Out

Cody was so excited for his first day of school! He asked for a sliced apple for breakfast (and nothing else) because he wanted to be healthy.  We had a great morning getting ready for school and had everything ready an hour before the bus comes.

"Put your ones up for First Grade!"

During breakfast Steve called from work to say that school was cancelled. WHAT?! A lady at work had told him about it. Apparently she hadn't had power all weekend because of the hurricane (and still didn't have power) and about 1/2 the county was that way. We were oblivious because we had been fine.

Cody. was. so. sad.

But then he got over it and we had a lot of fun together.

And now for the REAL first day of first grade....

Kylee just had to wear her backpack too.

a walk/run to the bus stop only pausing for one second so I could get a quick photo

and as soon as they saw the bus stop they took off running (I couldn't keep up very well with Livy in one arm spitting up down the front of both of us and a camera in the other hand) 

and then...

Cody hopped on the bus as soon as he could without even looking back.

(He was so excited to ride the bus this year!)

Kylee would have hopped on too if I would have let her.

But instead we walked home without our favorite Cody. 

Kylee talked about buses all day long and asked me about 10 times why she wasn't big enough to go to school. 

And Cody made it safely home as happy as can be. 

On the walk home from the bus stop he told me that his best friend is Sam and that he ate all his lunch and that his teacher couldn't wait to see him tomorrow and that he got to read Star Wars books.

Looks like it will be a great year!

Lacey and Tyler Came!

We're so glad we had more visitors! We love it!

Playing at the Beach at Gun Powder Falls State Park

Late night Kinect tournaments

D.C. Temple

Taking the Metro and Touring D.C.

Lacey and Kylee in the WARM water of the Chesapeake! Our kids only knew the freezing cold water of Northern CA before this trip.

It was nice to have trees and shade right next to the water.

Touring DC:

Thanks for coming Bleazard's! We had lots of fun!

Sugar: 4g

"Hey Mom! This ketchup only has 4 gigabytes of sugar!"  --Cody

Video: Livy at 2 Months

Livy is so fun at 2 months old! 

Her and Steve like to catch up with a bit of conversation after the kids go to bed.

I am sorry that the video quality is so bad. I was just trying to catch what I could before Livy was too tired.

When you see her sticking out her tongue she is copying Steve. It is pretty fun to talk to her and then watch and listen to her "talk" back.

Livy is the Champion

Kylee was sitting next to Livy on the floor with a pile of 5 Crowns cards scattered on the floor around her. Cody was a few feet away building Legos.

Cody: How's 5 Crowns going?

Kylee: Good

Cody: Are you winning?

Kylee: No. Livy is.

That got my attention so I started watching Kylee. She was narrating the game in a quiet voice and passing Livy her cards and helping her discard. Then she said, "Hey mom! We both got jokers!" 

I have to say if it was Cody playing cards with Livy that Livy wouldn't have a chance at winning...speaking from experience watching Kylee play with him.

Cody's Primary Spotlight

A few weeks ago Cody was spotlighted in Primary. Here is what they shared about him...

Primary Spotlight Name:___Cody Cramer_________________________ Birthday:__July 31___________ I was born in:___Utah________________________________________________________ Eye color:__Brown____________________ Hair color:_Light brown____________ Brothers and Sisters:___2 younger sisters: Kylee and a brand new sister named Olivia_______ Pets and/or animals:_________________________________________________________ Favorite Color:__Blue__________________ Favorite Food:___Butter :)_____________ Best School Subject:__Computers______________________________________________ Favorite Primary Song:___Don’t have one________________________________________ Favorite Scripture Hero:__Samuel the Lamanite_____________________________________ Favorite Place to Go:___the beach_____________________________________________ What do you want to be when you grow up and why:__be a bank person because I like to count money and save it_______________ An interesting story about you: Cody loves to read. He learned to read when he was only 2 years old because he loved books so much. When Cody was 3 years old he read a page every night from the Book of Mormom Stories book. When he got to the end where Moroni promises that you can know if the book is true he prayed about it and knew it was true. __________________________________________________________

Mega Party Weekend: Livy's Baby Blessing and Cody Turned 6!!

My parents and all of their descendants were able to get together a few weekends ago. They all wanted to meet the newest member of the family. It just so happened that it was Cody's birthday too and on the same day we decided to have Olivia blessed at church.

Cody had been counting down to his birthday since it was Kylee's birthday two months earlier. So it seemed only right to him that people should be traveling across the country to celebrate with him. As soon as everyone arrived we started his Star Wars birthday party!

My sister Brooke always come through with great decorations. This totally awesome banner is all thanks to her.

And a Cramer birthday party would not be complete without a treasure hunt to find the gifts (this one is written in Yoda style thanks to Cody's talented mother). Here is Cody right after he received his first clue. He couldn't wait!

Lego Harry Potter for XBOX from his mom and dad. 

Star Wars Trouble complete with R2-D2 sound effects.

A Star Wars Lego set

Another controller for twice the fun

Of all the presents, Duncan was most envious of the band-aids.

Cody got binoculars from the Rich's.

Cousin Time is awesome!

Hanging out on the stairs.

We went to Cheeburger Cheeburger (yeah, that is NOT a typo) and had all the grease we could ever wish for: onion rings, burgers, and fries!

And a Death Star cake for dessert! He might look like he is singing--but he isn't. Cody doesn't sing and he will make sure you don't ever expect him to  :)

My sisters are so fun!

We had about 6 projects going on all at the same time here. And really we had a great time hanging out together even though we must have been lost in our crafty concentration at this moment. I didn't know that we had stopped talking for even a second, but here is the evidence.

Blessing Day! We were rushing out the door and snapped this shot before jumping in the cars.

Bob, Duncan, Sara, Cody, Tiffany, Olivia, Steve, Kylee, Brooke, Aubrey, Gma Ellen, Gpa Dean

Pin the light saber on Yoda!

Nice!

Cody spinning Aub.

And Miss Livy was a great hostess. 

I think she showed everybody a great time!

As we waved goodbye from the window Cody turned to me and said, "I wish they lived next door...I wish all of our grandparents were our neighbors!"

Sounds great to me!

Thanks for coming out everyone! We loved it!

Kylee at Top Speed

"I'm goin' top speed and my legs aren't breakin'!" 

(said while running outside today)