Just in from Colorado Springs...

***DISCLAIMER: Pictures were taken through the window for safety, thus the crappiness***

Chris, Austin, Aaron and I were just sitting peacefully (well, Austin was jumping on his mini tramp) Saturday evening when around 5pm we see this HUGE police RV outside of our window. (of course the first thing that comes to my mind is , great now the re-sale value on our property in going down)


So I bring it to Chris attention, and he decides to go out there and ask them what is going on. (Silly him) They tell him to not go outside his front door. So of course something is happening out front so I run to the kitchen window, and this is what I see...

Austin really wanted to go out there and help the "cops", said he would be safe because he was going to be with them. Do you know how hard and long it took to explain to him that it was not safe to be out there, and even though the "cops" have guns, doesn't mean no one is going to get hurt. I don't know if he really understood, I think he gave up just asking, thank goodness it only lasted 3 hours.

So I get the story, and here is what it says... (We had the Colorado Springs SWAT Team in our front yard)

Springs man threatens to shoot police

Members of Colorado Springs Police Department's Tactical Enforcement Unit swarmed the Sierra Point Apartment complex on Van Teylingen Drive, Saturday, after a man threatened to kill police. Sergeant Dennis Dougan says, "We set containment up, because if he truly is serious about killing a police officer he would not hesitate to kill anyone else either."
It all started shortly before five o'clock. Police say the man reportedly said he'd shot people at his mom's house; a claim that later turned out to be false. He then drove to his place, 3230 Van Teylingen Drive, barricaded himself inside and said he'd shoot anyone who came to his door, including police.
While the SWAT team swarmed the complex, the people who live there couldn't return home, but were forced to wait for hours. John Hesli says, "I was just out and about and decided to come home you know...and its a shock. Jeremy Wardell says, "We pulled up here and you know, its blocked off so its kind of a wild situation going on."
Shortly before eight o'clock Saturday night, the man eventually surrendered. Police say he was unarmed.
The suspect's name wasn't immediately available, but he's described as a 46 year old white man.

Sebastian Ashley Crane

The newest member of the Crane family, Chris's sister Lisa little boy. Sebastian is such a little sweetheart. Here is a "tender" (my Grandmother Pierce's word) picture of my mother-in-law Jean kissing Austin who is kissing Sebastian. I just love it! enjoy...

Austin and Aaron 6mo. Comparison

Well, I thought I would just show you the differences and similarities between Austin and Aaron at the same age. Enjoy!

Phone Pictures

Here are a couple of more pictures I took with my phone. Reasoning for the phone instead of the camera is so I could send the picture over the phone...

Austin and Aaron

Aaron all pimped out in his suit for church

Spur of the Moment Day at the Zoo

This morning at 9am, I asked Austin if he would like to go to the park or the zoo (stupid question to ask him I know) of course he said the zoo. We have a membership there so we stayed for only two hours. Don't know how many of you have been to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, but it is very hilly. And when you are pushing a stroller with two kids, it gets very tiresome.

9am was a perfect time to go, hardly anybody was there and the animals were out and about and busy. Austin enjoyed feeding the giraffs. His main goal was to see the hippo's. We were able to see the Peguins being fed, and the gorillas being very active. There was on disturbing female gorilla. She would eat, throw it up, eat it, throw it up and so on. I thing we saw her do this more than a couple of times. GROSS! Well the caretaker said that this is a learned habit in captivity, and she does it to get attention. bleghck! We did see this cute little baby gorilla. He was all over the place, the caretaker said he had been like this since early this morning (hmmm... reminds me of Austin) Well, we had a fun time, Aaron enjoyed watching it all from the stroller - he stayed awake the whole time. I didn't take my camera because it just stinks right now, and also the batteries needed to be charged. I did take a couple of pictures with my phone, yes I know my yucky camera would have been better, but you know the batteries. So try to enjoy what you can see.

Here is the crazy little active monkey...He was running, swinging and jumping around everywhere.















Next is Austin's Favorite the Hippos, two of the hippos were sleeping sooo cute, don't know if you can make it out (regretting I didn't have my yucky camera) but the hippos where sleeping with thier noses where touching. Austin said they were kissing... Awwww Hippos kisses.















Well hope you enjoy, don't worry I didn't take a picture of the female gorilla eating her throwup, I am not crazy.

Be sure to scroll down...

Be sure to scroll down to see all of the updates. Wouldn't want you to miss the fun!

My Love of Aprons (I take after my mother)

Don't know how many of you out there wear aprons, but they are a wonderful thing. They save your clothes from who knows what when you are cooking, cleaning and crafting. I know there are tons of other uses out, but these are the ones I mainly use them for. Some of you are thinking ugh.. aprons... they are so ugly... But do not fear, I have found a couple of adorable ones that I have fell in LOVE with. Please take a look below...

MEG MCELWEE
This one I fell in love with while I was blog hopping. Meg designed it and created a pattern that you can buy at Motessoribyhand.com. She has alot of other lovely patterns also.























HEATHER BAILEY
The next apron I fell in love with has no pattern yet, I am sad, but cannot wait till Heather has it up for sell, she also has a fabric line which I am drooling over. Here is her site to go and see it, I need to get her permission to use her photo, Click here to see the apron

The Men In My Life

I thought I would share with you a special moment in my life...My Men
I love the way they love each other, and have fun.
Enjoy these pictures of one of those moments...

Mmmmm.. Rice Cereal and Nothing Else

So Aaron has found the joy of rice cereal. He LOVES it! I made the mistake of buy the banana flavored rice cereal, big mistake. My child loves the bland stuff. He must get that from me. You see, Chris is a Chipolte fanatic, but I do not like the spices they have (I am a wimp), I am more of a Qdoba girl, Chris calls them bland, but eats there for me (isn't that sweet). Ok, back on subject... here are some cute pictures of Aaron chowing down on some yummy bland rice cereal.

Crooked Crack

So I have yet to tell you about Aaron's "Crooked Crack". Yes, he literally has a crooked bottom crack. It is very cute. When he was about a month old, I had to take him to get an ultrasound and x-rays due to this thing. You see, where the crack goes crooked (vears off to the right) there is a dimple that goes a little too deep for the doctors comfort. I guess this can be caused by the spinal cord being attached all the way to the tail bone which is not good, it can make it hard for the child to walk, or not be able to walk at all. But every thing turned out alright for Aaron, he just won't be able to have the profession of a bottom model (don't worry, we didn't wan't that to be his life long goal anyway) Here is a cute picture of his bum... (Sorry the picture is not the best, I need a new camera)

Chris's Hockey Skates

For those of you don't know, Chris plays on an adult city hockey team. He has a enjoys it(but his body does not), Austin has a ball watching him play also. The last game we were at, both of Chris's skates some how broke at the same time, CRAZY!!! So we had to buy him some new skates which we got a great deal on. (thanks to Chris's boss Nate for telling us about hockeyoverstock.com)
OLD SKATES















NEW SKATES Nike Flexlite 4 Senior Ice Hockey Skates

My Cousin Molly's Favorite Things

All, my cousin Molly has a wonderful website where she talks about and review many neat products. Every once in a while she has some AMAZING give aways! Today only she has a package for some scrumpious cupcakes from a bakery in Chicago called "Cupcakes". Check out her site and enter to win! Remember to check back often for more great product and fun give aways!
Just click on her button under Things I Love called a few of my favorite things

A Little bit of Kaarina

I thought I would share a little bit of my sister Kaarina!
Austin was watching this with me and I asked him isn't what she doing weird? He said no, she's beautiful. I thought that was so precious!

Ice Skating - Getting Ready for Hockey Season

Chris and I took Austin Ice Skating on Saturday evening. I stayed in the bleachers with Aaron and took pictures while Chris went out with Austin Ice Skating. Austin is really doing a great job, he can't wait for Chris to take him to the Sticks and Pucks session so he can take his hockey stick out on the ice. We are going to be starting him on a Hockey team this next Season (I Believe it starts in September. We are very excited! Here is a cute little video of Austin Ice Skating. He is doing very well, but still falls down a lot. I think when we get him into hockey he will have a lot more dicipline to not fall down.

Here is a cute picture of Aaron waiting with me up in the bleachers

Austin's New Suit

Austin got this awesome suit for Christmas. There is a jacket, but he is not wearing it for this picture. I had to blur out the background because of our messy house. Doesn't he look so hansome. He is growing up to be a cute (I would use the word hansome, but he rather I call him cute) young man.

MIA - Sorry I have been not updating

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

Sorry I haven't updated in a while. Been busy with the holidays, I know that is no excuse, but hopefully I can make up for that with this post.

Please look below to catch up on what has been going on since my last update.

I have been having camera problems (time for a new one, ugh and yeah) So you will have to wait till I collect pictures of Christmas from others.

Here is a Christmas present Chris got me (and our whole family) that has been taking up a great deal of my time, RockBand. I don't know if any of you know a lot about it, but you can have up to 4 players (2 guitars, 1 drummer and 1 singer). I have really enjoyed the singer part. I have completed all of the medium level songs, and am now trying to master expert.

I had a little photo shoot with my boys for a Christmas Card. We had lots of fun. The hats that they are wearing are from Finland when my parents and sister went this past summer. It is the four winds hat that the Laplanders (Indians of Finland) wear. Austin had fun making silly faces for the camera.


Austin, Chris and I had so much fun making this gingerbread house. We watched "The Grinch" while we decorated it. During the process Chris and I had a marshmellow contest. We saw who could throw the marshmellow the highest and then who could catch it in thier mouth. Austin loved watching his parents act silly. Don't know who exactly won (I think it was Chris, but we will just say that I did). We had some left over candy so I created a little nativity scene at the back of the gingerbread house. Hope you like it.


Grandma Burns borrowed Austin for a fun day of Christmas shopping and Cookie making. Austin had so much fun. Here is a picture of the Yummy cookies they made.


Last we have some picutes of Austin's 4th Birthday (Nov 15). We had fun at Fargo's Pizza, eating yes, pizza and cake, and opening gifts. Then we headed off to the iceskating rink for some fun iceskating. Austin loved all the fun gifts he got! He was able to wear the Finland hockey Jersey my parents got for him at the Ice Skating Rink.

Austin's First Artist Moment

Well, I think this happened when I was feeding Aaron. Austin decided to be an artist on the wall of his room. He actually did very good with his "A"s, yes I know they are upside down, but he did pretty good especially with out help. He hopefully should not do this again, he did get time out in the corner, I did have him scrub at it a bit and we had a long talk about how when he gets the urge to draw to do it on paper.

Our Ward Trunk or Treat

We had our Ward Trunk or Treat last night. It was fun, short and chilly. Austin dressed up as Darth Vader (that was his choice). Aaron was our little Nuggett's Basketball Player (we chose that for him). Our Cousins Emmalee was Dorothy Gail and Dominic was the Cowardly Lion (From the Wizard of OZ). They has lots of fun trunk or treating. Emmalee was afraid of Austin (I don't know why, I wouldn't let him wear the mask.. I think it was the sword)

Well, for those of you who don't know what a Trunk or Treat is, it is where you go trick or treating at the trunks of each car in the parking lot.

Well, enjoy the pictures.

Paul Walker Look-a-Like??

So, I walked in to KMart the other day looking for a specific toy bin organizer. They had me fill out a survey and while I was doing that, two check out ladies came over to tell me how much Austin looks like Paul Walker (Actor - 2 Fast 2 Furious). What do you think?

The Pumpkin Patch

Austin, Aaron and I went to the Pumpkin with my sister-in-law Lisa and her two kids Emmalee and Dominic. We had such a fun time. The kids enjoyed running around, looking for the perfect pumpkin. We were able to pick some raspberries also, they were delicious! Thanks Lisa for the fun day out!