Two Weeks with Grandma!

We snagged some of Grandma Tammy's pictures before she left last week. So here are just some of the things that went on during her 2 week stay. We all had a lot of fun with her here -- she spoiled us!

The kids were so excited to see Olivia in the nursery.

Craft project #57: egg carton caterpillars

Smoothies!

Cody is so sweet with babies

Olivia bonding with her new bunny which is still without a name. Some people in this house think the name should be Tron after a certain geeky computer movie, but the others in this house with some sense of taste disagree.

Cody made a sign for selling some homemade popsicles in the neighborhood. The sign said, "Popsicles: 50 cents. If you don't have 50 cents give me a dollar"

Kylee got some Olivia books from the library for Olivia to read. 

Kylee also let Olivia hold Monkey Berta, which is a big sign of approval for the new little one in the family.

Another treat! Making cookies with Kylee's Easy Bake set.

Two cute girls with flowers in their hair! Kylee has been on a kick lately where she doesn't let anyone do her hair so it always looks CRAZY (which drives me crazy!) I finally convinced her to put a flower in her hair to match Olivia. (yeah!)

Craft Project #89: Weird gummy bugs made from molds. They were fun to make, but not so much to eat!

Kylee and Grandma made pancakes every morning for 2 weeks straight.

Saturday Project: organizing the food storage shelves in our basement. Good job boys!

Taking the sand toys to the park.

Making brownies for a Father's Day treat.

The weekend before Olivia was born Grandpa Airplane came to visit for a few short days. Grandpa and Grandma took the kids down to Aunt Gwen's for a BBQ celebrating Nikki's high school graduation. They had a blast! Steve and I decided to stay closer to home and ended up going on a date to the Cheesecake Factory. It was our first time eating there. We fell in love with the red velvet cheesecake. Yum!

Special Treat #46: Bunny Brownies. Made with peeps, M&Ms, and crushed graham crackers and were surprisingly good. They tasted like s'mores.

This is only about 1/2 the stuff that went on during Grandma Tammy's visit. We had tons of fun and miss her a lot! It made the family of five VERY HAPPY!

Olivia's Birthday

Happy Birthday Olivia Grace Cramer

I knew it was going to be a good day when Tiffany told me that I didn't need to go to work today, but I forgot how much fun it is to have a new baby.



The kids came and had fun taking pictures of each other with Olivia.















Kylee had her first big sister tantrum.







Tif might have had Olivia in our car if my mom wasn't here to watch our kids. We are so glad she is in town.

Tif and the baby are both doing great. Our family is so blessed. Days like today make us so grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are so grateful to have an eternal family.

DC Temple and My Birthday Shindig

My birthday was a great day! 

Thanks for all of the Facebook messages, cards, gifts, phone calls, and emails by the way. They were wonderful!

I didn't celebrate with the usual cake and candles this year. I got to go to a sewing class to teach me how to use:

{{ my new sewing machine! }}

(That's right!)

My class was at a specialty sewing shop about a half an hour from our house, near the DC Temple (and it was so much fun!). Since I was very close to baby delivery time Steve and I decided it would be best for me to not go alone (and possibly get stuck in DC traffic trying to get to the hospital). So while I was at my class Steve took the kids over to the temple. They had never seen this temple before so they were really excited and had a lot of fun walking around the grounds, posing for pictures, and even taking some of their own pictures with the camera. We didn't worry about getting them dressed up or anything...it was about as relaxed as it could be. Which was perfect.

(Taken by Kylee)

(Kylee wanted to get a picture of her looking up at the Angel Moroni)

(Taken by Kylee)

(Taken by Kylee)

(Taken by Cody)

Kylee is 3!!

Last Wednesday Kylee turned 3!

Her birthday festivities started at 6:00 am when she got to open her presents from mom and dad before Steve headed to work.

She got Sleeping Beauty and Beauty and the Beast!

During the day we played at the park with friends, watched Sleeping Beauty, and Kylee took a little nap. The second Steve got home the kids were ready for presents and cake...

Kylee wanted to start with the presents. So we did a little treasure hunt around the house leading her to her hidden stash of goods. Cody was just as excited as Kylee to find clues, but we tried to help him give Kylee a chance to do it herself. So Cody would read the clue to Kylee and then he was not allowed to say the answer or run ahead of her. It worked pretty well.

Finding a clue by the washer and dryer....

A clue in the coat closet...

Up the stairs....

Cody obediently walked a few steps behind Kylee. You could tell he was just dying to run ahead...what a good brother.

After they found the gifts in mom and dad's closet she got to open them up. Cody was like a little vulture constantly asking Kylee if she needed help. Poor kid.

She got a Dora doll....

and some big girl underwear, foamy pink shampoo, bracelets, nail polish, books, a necklace, chapstick, a purse, and some sandals from grandparents and aunts.

Kylee even let Cody help her when she couldn't open a present.

After our yummy french toast dinner (Kylee's favorite) we sang and had "cake" and ice cream. The cake was actually brownies because Kylee doesn't really like cake. And of course she wanted Sleeping Beauty on her cake this year. Steve did a really good job don't you think?

After dessert the kids had fun playing with gifts and then somehow the Light Sabers came out. The kids had way too much fun beating on dad. Who needs a pinata?

Thanks to everyone who remembered Kylee for her birthday. She had been talking about her birthday for weeks and every time she got a phone call, Skype call, birthday card in the mail, or a package it made her so happy! She felt really special that day. We have a great family!