My Two Mummies

I was a little relieved that there wasn't a Trunk or Treat in our neighborhood this year. I remember when we moved up here and went to our first trunk or treat at the church, I just kept thinking "What a chicken-liver, city-fied way of doing this. Where is the fun of REALLY trick or treating?" Kelsey was 1 at the time. Like I was going to make her little one year old legs walk the neighborhood uphill both ways or something!! Anyway, we got to go trick or treating the good old fashioned way this year and I loved it. We walked.


Kelsey decided she wanted to be a mummy. Her deciding factor was, bless her little heart, the fact that we already had white fabric strips cut out and rolled up from a few years ago. No, they are not wearing toilet paper!! She knew mom wouldn't have to make anything special this year if she decided to be a mummy. Let's just hope that her thoughtfulness for her mother continues through the teenage years!

Kendal didn't have a choice, but she didn't care. She got to look like sister and walk the sidewalks with sister. That was good enough for her. She wasn't into the candy too much either, probably because she didn't realize what it was! She was interested in the glowing pumpkins on the porches more than the candy. At a couple of houses she actually took the candy out that she was given and gave it back to the people in the doorway! If only I had the will power!!

Kendal has a new thing, when I get the camera out, she squishes up her little face, smiles, and tips her head back. It is so cute. Kelsey laughs at her when she does it. It was a super duper Halloween this year. Matt bought 2, 6 pound bags of candy. We ran out last year and had to start giving away Kelsey's treats and finally turn off the porch lights. This year that is not the case. We have a bunch of candy left over, I mean a BUNCH! I really am on a diet!

One more note, our friends the Arnold family learned 2 days ago that Andrew's liver cancer is terminal. It is spreading too quickly. They were hoping to do a liver transplant, but there is enough cancer in the veins surrounding the liver that it is too risky and really wouldn't make a difference if he did get a new liver. They are an amazing family and I sure enjoy them and their amazing example of goodness and faith. We hope the next few months are so full of good times for them. Please hold your children close and love them tonight, and continue to pray for Andrew. We saw him trick or treating tonight dressed as a doctor. He is a great kid.

Labels

Some of you know that our Kendal is labeled by the early intervention folks as "an oral sensory seeker." This morning after she got the best of 3 scrambled eggs, I gave her a nickel sized piece of ice, just to see what she would do with it. She put it in her mouth, spit it right back out, did the sign for "HOT" and stuck it back in her mouth and smiled. Then she proceeded to chomp it right up. Like 4 chomps and it was gone! So I gave her another and another and she was making such quick work of those ice cubes, now full sized, I just had to laugh at her. She loved it. So, they say that adults that chew ice are oral sensory seekers, but have evolved from toddler-piranha stage of chewing on EVERYTHING to adult-ice chompers and sunflower seed chewers. Now you all know! Go label all the adults that drive you absolutely crazy by chomping ice in your ears as ORAL SENSORY SEEKERS!

This picture is so cute. While we were down to Capitol Reef over the weekend, we found a tree that had littered a bunch of leaves on the ground. Kendal promptly laid down and smiled. I made her do that exact thing for some fall pictures I took of her a month ago.

Just a little more.

Just a few more pictures from my wonderful weekend. My mom and dad, they are SO groovy!









Matt and Kendal. I love this picture of them. Kendal sure loves her daddy. Last night when she heard him come home, she nearly tore off the back door knob trying to get out to the garage to see her da da.






Matt looks thrilled doesn't he? Someone should tell him how lucky he is to have such an amazing wife! Just Kidding, I am sure he knows because I remind him all the time!





I do want to give everyone the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows update. Matt finished his book on CD, well actually 17 CDs yesterday morning on his way to work. When I got home from my parents' house on Sunday night, Matt was in his green car, in the garage listening to it. This was around 7:20ish. I brought the girls in, fed them, got them to bed, and he was still in the garage. I opened the door and offered to pop him a bag of popcorn, but he didn't want any. He stayed out there until around 10:40. I was in bed when he came in. He said he wasn't finished, but close. At least he knew what the major outcome was. So he finished the last CD on his way to work the next morning.
My Harry Potter adventure lasted until midnight last night and then I told myself I had to go to bed. I don't read during the day because my kids would be totally forgotten, so I will read some more tonight. I am on page 638 of 750ish, so I am getting really close to finishing and it is getting so exciting!! Matt is horrible with secrets and he wants to tell me so bad what happens. I keep telling him to just shush.
Our friend Joe made the comment that Auer and Stick should be on CD for Matt. Auer and Stick are authors of an Equine Surgery textbook Matt has. He would totally love it!! Joe, I thought of you and hung my head in shame last night when I went to bed because I was so caught up with Horcruxes and Harry Potter, I didn't post last night. I will do better. JK Rowling is just so amazing!!

A nice fall day in God's Country

Why have I been slacking in the post writing? I have not been reading Harry Potter all weekend, I ran away and headed south. My girls and I, and my friend Jen and her 3 boys spent the weekend at my parents' house. We had a super time. On Saturday we went down to Capitol Reef and spent the day letting the kids run and run and run. The day started out pretty cold, but it turned into a super fall day for a little playing and a picnic.

Here are the 5 kids of the weekend. They had a blast playing at Capitol Reef.
They got along pretty well most of the weekend, but Sunday afternoon they were getting a little snappy and sassy, and oh yeah, dramatic and crying (that would mostly be the females of the crew!). Kelsey, Jacob, and Aiden had a good little trio going on. Kendal and Jack had a 2 day pushing contest going on. I am not sure who won, but it didn't matter because when we got back to Heber City, Kendal just kept saying "Jack Jack, Jack Jack" and wanted him. I think she might have pulled his hair when she got to him, but it was just so heart-warming to hear her call his name!

Here is me, my new haircut, and my sweet little girls.

Kelsey and Kendal
One little tidbit, I forgot to pack Kelsey a jacket or even a sweatshirt (I packed Kendal 4 of each!) so she had to wear her pajama top over her shirt. How smart am I? Although Jen let her wear one of the 17 jackets she packed. I love it when I do smart things!
There are alot of deer hanging around the orchards at Capitol Reef that are not afraid of people. This little herd let the kids get pretty close to them before running off across the river to safety. Mom and Dad, thanks for letting us stay and have such a good time. Thanks for feeding us and keeping the little ones busy. Jen, thanks for still being my friend after you learned some of the wierdness of me. You really did just hit the tip of the Rachel-iceburg, there is alot more wackiness and undesirable traits of mine to be uncovered. I will try to keep most of it hidden, for everyone's sake.

Potter Fans

Forgive my lack of a post yesterday, I am aftaid that Harry Potter has taken over my life. I held off reading yesterday until Kelsey went to school and Kendal was napping, and then I couldn't take it anymore. I read until Kelsey got home and I had to make myself put the book away, in the other room. When the kids were in bed last night, I got it out again and read for a few hours, instead of posting. Sorry!
It has even taken over Matt's life. Yes, the Matt you all know is listening to Harry Potter on CD in his car. He listens all the way to work, all during lunch, all the way home, and then if he is at a good part, he will sit in the garage and listen for a little while!

One of Rachel's quirks

A few nights ago I woke up around 3:30 to a strange noise. I thought it might be Kendal kicking the bed frame or something, but as I listened closer, I realized it was right outside my bedroom window. It was a scraping and tapping sound. So I got up and peeked out the window to see if it was I thought- a deer. And yes it was. A buck was totally using my poor little sumac as a rubbing tree. I opened the shade and it ran away a few steps. I could see antlers, but I couldn't tell how big he was. He walked, or should I say strutted around the house to the front. I went to my front window to get a better look and to see if I could tell how big he was. He strutted, I mean a true blue, male strut right up to the stop sign on the corner, gave it a nice rub and slowly walked to the neighbors' yard. The nerve!!


So today was so beautiful, I went outside to do some more fall yard work and look at what I found ALL over my lawn! Little piles everywhere. Then look at my poor little sumac, he rubbed all the bark off in a few places!

My sumac has not looked this sad all summer, it already lost its leaves. There are branches, you just can't see them!

Kendal's speech therapist came today. It went well. It reminded me that the occupational therapist that came last week and told me to get Kendal a sensory rice bin. So when Kelsey went to school, I got out the rice bin I made her and she had a great time. This is a big step for me, I hope you all realize that. I am pretty much a nuerotic, psycotic, control freak, mess hater. This was a big deal for me. Do you see the rollerskate on the floor in the picture? I left in there on purpose because the occupational therapist told me last week that my house is too clean (if she only looked in the bathrooms and under my bed!). She also told me last week that I am too strict. I set limits and then I hold my girls to the limits I set. Since when was that a bad thing? I am not a Nazi parent or housecleaner and my children are not perfect listeners, that is for sure! Anyway, she loved it, but as soon as the rice started to leave the bin in large quantities, we were done with that exercise!
I really loosened up today, as you can tell, I let my girls paint. Kelsey gets to paint every now and then with watercolors, but never with real paint, let alone Kendal! This is another occupational therapist idea. She bought these fun poster paints at our wonderful Kings for Kendal to play with when she came last week. She had just told me that my house was too clean when she got the paints out for Kendal, so I let my blood pressure and pulse hit the ceiling without saying anything when she opened one and handed it to Kendal. As I was breathing quite rapidly watching my 2 year old paint, I just kept telling myself that this lady went to extra schooling for a few years and that she knows what she is doing.

So a few days ago we went to Kings and bought some poster paints of our own. I finally broke down today and let them paint. Kelsey has been asking me for 4 days to paint. I figured the rice escapade went okay (although I still had to vacuum again!!) so what the heck, let the kids paint!

They had a super time. I sure hope it comes out of Kendal's shirt!! See Kelsey's apron? Kendal wouldn't leave hers on!

By the way, my friend Brittany had a little girl last week. Her name is Malia. She came 5 weeks early, but all is well and they came home a few days ago. I can't wait to see her, I bet she is gorgeous!

One more thing, I just started the 7th Harry Potter book a few days ago, even though it has been in my possesion for a few months! I had a quilt to finish when it first came out, and then I just kept telling myself different things I had to get done before I could start it. So, I was too lazy to reread the 6th one to remind myself about the current situation. Could someone please tell me the significance of the R.A.B. locket?

Jen's Party

My friend Jen, the amazing mother of 3 boys, had a Halloween Party yesterday. We went and we had a great time. She had the kids frost cookies and I only had one, or was it two?

The kids decorated pumpkins with the cutest plastic face parts that just poked into the pumpkins. The kids all thought that it was so funny with the crazy faces they made.

We also bobbed for apples. The kids were having a great time. Jen used warm water thank goodness!

Some of the kids seemed to be having a rough time getting an apple, so the moms had to give it a try. I think the last time I bobbed for apples was my freshmen year at the Senior Halloween Carnival. I remember Grant Olsen contaminating the water, so that didn't last long! I also remember the nastiest and grossest spook alley I ever went to in the girls locker room. Small town spook alleys are always bloody since Halloween is around the deer hunt. That is enough said.

Kelsey got soaked and wanted to do it again and again!!

Where was Kendal during all the fun? Jen has a great backyard with a bunch of bikes and scooters. Kendal loved it. Her little nose and hands were freezing. She did come in for a little candy every now and then.

Thanks for a good time Jen. Kelsey is still talking about all the gross things they felt with their hands like Frankenstein's eye balls, somebody's intestines, and a bunch of other grody stuff that Kelsey loves!

Wow, I have a lot of hair, well, HAD a lot of hair!

This next picture is not for the queasy-stomached kind of people. I am hoping that my brother tells me that he threw up in his mouth again. I doubt it. It isn't nasty, but it isn't too sweet looking either.
The coolest lady cut my hair on Sat. She told me that I had such thick and course hair while she was chopping it off. Okay, not chopping, she was cutting, shaping, and molding in a very precise manner. Anyway, when we were finished we looked down at the pile of hair on her floor and were surprised. I made her take a picture of my old hair for me. I am not sure if her tiles are 9" or 12" tiles, but that is a lot of hair! Do you know how many 50 year old bald men would love that much hair? Okay, how about a guy that is 35 years, 1 month, and 22 days old, wouldn't he love that much hair too? (Speaking of hair, you should go to Andrew's blog. The link is on the left. They just posted pictures of Andrew at a BYU football game over the weekend getting to meet the players with his cute little bald head. Andrew has another surgery on Tuesday, the 23rd. Pray for him.)


As I look at this picture, I am reminded of college days. My 2nd year I remember doing the apartment cleaning for the end of the quarter cleaning inspections. I had two roomies with long, blonde, beautiful hair that shared a bedroom and bathroom together. I remember nearly loosing my biscuits when they cleaned out their shower for inspections!! Oh my goodness, it was the nastiest thing. I am wrinkling up my nose and feeling the gag reflex right now while I am thinking about it. Amber or KarriAnn, if you read this let me know. I know you sickos took a picture of your shower prize! Glen, you can throw up now.

The Cranes Leave the House!!

We were invited to go bowling tonight. It was a little rough talking Matt into going, but we made it. Matt woke up early near Koosharem (go look that one up on your map!) this morning and did a little vet work and then drove 3 hours home, just to leave again to do more vet work in Coalville. He was tired, but he went bowling with us.

Kelsey loved it and once Kendal got the hang of just pushing the ball off the ramp, she liked it too. The first couple of times she was really concerned about that big pretty ball of hers going away from her. She chased it a little ways down the lane and I ran after her and we both promptly landed on our softly cushioned rears. That lane was so waxed up I think there was zero friction, just lotsa glide. Remember learning in physics class (thanks by the way Mr. Petersen!) about what would happen if there were zero friction? Things would just keep going at a steady rate and never slow down. Well, I didn't slow down, I was on my hiney before I even knew it! There were a bunch of preteen boys bowling by us and they really enjoyed the show.

Kelsey Kelsey Kelsey, she had a great time. She likes bowling and she likes to play with Jacob and Aiden. It was a perfectly good time for her.

These are our friends, Jen (amazing mother of 3, yes 3 boys), Brian, and their boys who invited us to leave our cozy little boring home for the evening and bowl with them.

I showed Kelsey the little air blowers.

This is Kendal learning about taking turns. She really did pretty well.

What do I say here? This is us, bowling! Thanks Jen and Brian for a nice change and getting us out of the house for something other than work and the grocery store!

I am in so much trouble. I just deleted my Naughty Rachel Irrigation Box post. Tara read it. Now you see, I love Tara. I adore Tara, actually, I nearly worship Tara and she saw how naughty I was. Sorry Tara and other sweet girls who used to be some of my Young Women!! What a shining example of goodness I am. Tara is the proud driver of my old red Sunbird. Only someone VERY amazing could ever drive that car as well as I did, and Tara is it!

In case you were wondering

In case you stayed up all night thinking about my sweet Kendal's external body orifices, she is doing much better today. Still a little gross diaper or two, but nothing like it was. She had a super night and so did I. I went to bed at 9:40. Can you believe that? I haven't gone to bed that early since I was 8 years old! She ate more this morning in 2 hours that she has in the last 2 days combined. Hooray!! Thanks for all your lost sleep on our behalf.

It is Scrapbook and Quilting Season in Heber CIty!

I took this picture for my sister and anyone else who was appalled at my last shopping spree at The Thrift Store. I actually went to a trendy store and the best part is, I bought something!! Yes, don't keel over Tori. But if you look at the picture closely, you will see that I shopped on the $4.99 rack!! I can't help it, I love a bargain. Why spend $36 on a shirt when you can pay $5?? Anyway, I bought 3 shirts and spent 20 bucks, cute shirts even!! But I will be going back to The Thrift Store, I guarantee that!

Okay, it is time to get out the scrapbook paper and fabric! Snow has arrived in our little valley and I don't think I am quite ready for that yet, but I really need to get busy with inside things now. You know, cleaning behind the stove, giving the laundry room a well needed spiff job, washing walls and baseboard, all the stuff that got neglected during the summer and gardening season. I also get to catch up a little more with my scrapbooking. Since I started quilting, I am so far behind in the picture books of our lives!!
This is Kendal being pulled by Kelsey. She loved it so much, she just laid down and watched the cloudy sky go by.

Kelsey wiping the snow off of our poor freezing pumpkins!

We don't have any snow boots that fit Kendal so I didn't let her go outside with Kelsey at first. That was a mistake!! Kendal sat in front of the window watching big sis outside and just whimpered. She tried telling me all about it, but I just heard "baa baa maa ba bu bu ba buu maa maa." Which I am sure meant "Da@# it mom, let me out too!" So I did, with no snow boots. She was totally happy.
This is the cutest thing. Kelsey asked me for a carrot and 2 buttons. Doesn't her little (18") snowman look like a snow chicken? She made it all by herself!

This picture is with mom being a Clydesdale. "Go Mom go, run faster Mom!"

Now Kelsey's turn as a work horse and Kendal's turn to be dead weight.

Kendal's Rumbling Tummy

This post is totally dedicated to my Kendal's digestive tract. Leave now if you need to, I will understand. I will start with Friday, although I will skip over the really nasty details. Kendal started getting lots of nasty diapers on Friday. Oh well, they do that right? So then she threw up in the middle of the night, yuck!! I do have to commend Matty, he was super. She acted fine all day Sat, a few nasty bellyache diapers. I gave her some Immodium AD for little tummies that afternoon and all seemed well. Sunday morning at around 5:00 am she started throwing up again! I figured that Immodium stopped her up so well, that it had to come out somewhere. Sunday she acted like a perfect angel, maybe because we didn't let her go to church! She didn't have a great appetite, but all was well.
Monday brought ALOT of nasty diapers, so I gave her more Immodium. By the way, is giving medicine horrible at anybody else's house? Early Tuesday morning brought more vomiting. Matt slept with her the rest of the night and would holler at me when he would hear her belly rumble, I would run in and we would catch the mess. It was pretty good deal except that both of us got NO sleep!! So Tuesday we went through a package of diapers, not really but it sure seems that way! We didn't want to give her anymore Immodium because that always seemed to make her throw up. Well, last night she killed that hypothesis! I didn't give her any yesterday and she threw up anyway! I slept with her last night and kept hearing her little tum tum rumble and then a few minutes later she would wake up to her little bum bum stinging and we would change her diaper. I am a little tired today because last night's escapade started at 12:47 am!!
So today's update, a few nasty diapers, not too bad. We will see what tonight brings! I have seriously washed every pair of jammies that little girl has at least 3 times in the last few days. Not to mention all the sheets and blankets!! So here she is today at around 9:30 this morning after a rough night.


Brittany, what more could a girl need besides a phone, a princess purse, and nice comfortable spot to rest? Oh yeah, shoes.

The Sunglow Slip

Kelsey was pretending to be a cat yesterday. I told her that cats at our house have to go outside and no, I didn't want to pet her. So she told me she was going to go make a kitty bed so she wouldn't have to go outside in the cold. Here is her kitty bed and it looked so dang fun that Kendal had to crawl in also. Tori and Glen, remember all the things we used to do with those couch cushions???


So now come the topic of Kelsey the Kitty's forehead. She has a sticker on it and for some odd reason so did I. Mine was of a pig. I am not sure how it got there, but I remember pulling it off, actually painfully, when I was brushing my teeth before I went to bed. I think Kelsey pulled the ol' Sunglow Slip on me.
The Sunglow Slip is something I learned in high school, at the Sunglow Cafe. I was on a date with a cute boy named Tom and one of our friends was our waitress. He told me "Watch this, I can get Trena to hold this salt and pepper without her even knowing it." I was so excited to see this feat, besides, Tom was a wanted guy in our county so I was just excited anyway!! Trena came over and took our order and chatted with us. Of course she was being a silly, chatty 17 year old because she was talking with Tom, yes cute, charming Tom. So as Tom is talking to her, he never broke his speech and just put those salt and pepper shakers in her hand while he was talking. She was so inthralled in the the conversation, she grabbed them and held on to them. When we were finished ordering she walked off, looked down at her hands and promptly returned our salt and pepper. It seriously worked that slick. You should try it one day. I think Kelsey did something like that to me, she just chit chatted with me and stuck that pig sticker on my forehead without me realizing it. The ol' Sunglow Slip works everytime!

Matt's elk hunt post

Last week I emailed my brother and asked him if he ever looked at my blog. We live 3 hours apart and I don't talk with him very much, okay hardly ever. So I was wondering if he ever checked us out because he has never left a comment or anything. So he emailed me back and said yes, he looks us up every day or so and keeps up on the Cranes from our blog.
I emailed him back and told him to leave a comment to prove it. Have any of you seen a comment from my bro? Do you want to know what he did? I got a personal email comment today. I can't even prove to you guys that my brother was really here! But I will tell you what he said. He wrote, "Why don't I see anything posted about Matt's elk hunt?" So here it is, Matt elk hunt. The rifle elk hunt ended yesterday, just so you all know. Matt came home empty handed.
He spent a little time down south hunting, but found nothing to shoot. I didn't post that he was gone almost all of the past 2 weeks because I didn't want any wacko to read this and know he was gone and then come and scare the bahonies out of me. By the way Wackos, you are not welcome here. Go find something better to read! So Glen (that is my bro) there is Matt's elk hunt post. I even had Matt take the camera a few days in hopes that he would get some great shots for me to post!!

Kendal gets away with murder, or equal to it

Saturday afternoon Kelsey went with a friend for a few hours and that meant Kendal had the run of all the toys with nobody to get mad at her or take them away from her. She loved it. Kendal is alone with me when Kelsey goes to Kindergarten, but I usually make her take a nap while sis is gone. So Kendal had a great time.

I caught her dancing with Genevieve, a major no no when sister is here!

She loved playing with Kelsey's off-limits big Barbie doll. See that look on her face? She knows she is getting away with a Class B felony at our house!

She also got to play with a little jewelry!

I think her favorite was the roller skates. She actually did really well, I would say better than the 5 year old, until she hit the tile. Right after this picture was taken the camera got put away and I had a little lovin to do. She is usually pretty tough when it comes to falling down, but she sure let me know she was either hurting or really mad about falling on her little patoot!

I love Walmart, in Utah or Summit County anyway!

I am so full of controversy lately. I put up a yard sign today that states my views, no more agreeing with everyone and not telling them what I really think just to be nice. I really don't want WalMart to come to Heber City. Really I don't. I truly do love WalMart, I spend a lot of money there, but I just don't want it here. I don't mind the 15 minute drive to Park City to bump into other people's carts and shelving displays because it is such a small and cramped store. I would rather do that than have it in my sweet little valley. So there you go, that is where I stand, have always stood, and will continue to stand. For those of you who don't know, this is a HUGE issue here. We all get to vote on it in November and decide the fate of Big Box stores in Heber City!!
While I was outside taking a picture of my controversial sign, I thought I would show you how cute my front porch is this fall. We grew all of those pumpkins on our 1/2 acre of happiness!! Well, there were quite a few more green ones that didn't color up in time! The corn stalks are courtesy of Jen, since I didn't plant corn this year - THANKS Jen!!

Okay just one more random picture. This maple tree is in my sweet neighbor's yard to the south of us. Isn't it gorgeous right now? I get to see it out of my kitchen window, living room, and bedroom windows. I love it. It makes me think of how beautiful Corvallis, OR must be right now with all of its maple lined streets.