Long time, no blog

Sorry it's been a LONG time since we last posted anything. I know you're all so interested to know what has been going on in our lives so I will inform you.

HyVee and Harry Potter

Melanie and I both started back up working at a local grocery store. Melanie had a job in the bakery and I worked as a cashier.

One day Melanie and I wore pretty much the same outfit to work, so naturally we took a pic!

Here is a picture of the beautifully decorated cake for my birthday by Melanie. Decorating cakes was one of the many things she did while working in the bakery.

When Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince hit theaters, Melanie and I, and a few friends went to the midnight premiere. Only a few of us dressed up, but we looked good! Here is a picture of Caleb (Ron), Melanie (Harry), and Me (Hermione).

This is our group in the theater before anyone else showed up in it. We got there pretty early.

We Love the Royals!!!

Growing up in Kansas City, I've been a Kansas City Royals fan most of my life. A lot of people don't know this, but I really enjoy watching baseball games. Especially the Royals. They may not always win, in fact it's kind of a rare thing, but I'm still a loyal fan. This summer, we went to quite a few games.

Melanie and I
Melanie and I again.

Melanie and I yet again. I think people sitting around us got annoyed because we were pretty loud and excited fans :)

This was one of the last family outings we had before Melanie went back to school. It was a ton of fun.

Singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" during the 7th inning strrreetch!

We often got to games early because of T-Shirt Tuesdays! T-Shirt Tuesday is usually one tuesday a month, when the first 10-20 thousand fans get a free t-shirt. They're some of my favorite times to go to Royals games. In fact, in all of these pictures, we're sporting T-shirt Tuesday t-shirts. Sometimes we'd get there a long time before the game started and so we'd have some time to kill. This is how Melanie and I would spend it. Walking around Kauffman stadium, taking pictures, etc. Above is a picture of Melanie "supporting" Zack Greinke.

And here he is stepping on my head...

Melanie and I made up a lot of differnet cheers and things we would do to pass the time and enjoy ourselves during the games. Usually when we walked through the gates to get into the games melanie yelled, in a voice I can't describe, "I Love the ROYALS!!" So now it's something we all say frequently.

EFY and Youth Conference

This summer I had Youth Conference and EFY one after the other. Youth Conference was Friday-Saturday, and then on Monday I headed out to EFY.

Here's a picture of Me and a couple of girls from our stake at a dance.

Here's a picture of me and the other two girls in my group at Youth conference. This is a picture of us at a service project at a petting zoo. Karlin (yellow) Me (blue) and Jess (red).

This is a picture from the last night of EFY. Ashley, Me, Kate, and Brynn. We were suite mates. This was in our little "living room." Ashley and Brynn are from Missouri and shared one room. Kate is in my stake and we shared the other. It was a fun but extremely exhausting week.


It's a Boy!

We had a mini Crane reunion for a week during August.



We had a sisters baby shower for Carrie on one day. Above is the delicious cake we had decorated.

All of the sisters with the presents.

What a lucky baby! He's going to be one well dressed boy.

While we were all together we got some sister pictures taken. (It's kind of blurry because I had to scan the picture into the computer)

After we got our pictures taken, we went out to eat at Red Robin. Yum! This is all of us in the car on the way there.

We got balloons at Red Robin and took pictures trying to be Carrie. (she also has a balloon under her shirt)

Then we released them into the wind in honor of Brandi.

Another thing we did was before Carrie could come. We went to a Water Park.

Here is Melanie and Emily with another cake Melanie decorated for her birthday.

And finally, a traditional Sunday picture.

It was a fun summer. I miss having all of them here, but the Holidays are coming up and I'll get to see them soon!

I'll try to be better about blogging so the posts won't be so long.

Enjoy!

Our Favorite Dog

BRANDI CRANE

July 1, 1996 - May 19, 2009

One month ago today, we lost a beloved member of our family; our dog, Brandi Crane.

It was a five day stretch from finding out she was sick to when she had to be put to sleep, so it wasn't easy for any of us. We took her into the vet because she had a limp and we thought maybe her shoulder was popped out of place or something, but it turned out that she had Osteosarcoma, bone cancer. They said they could amputate it, but we didn't want to do that to her, so they said she'd probably have a couple of months to live. Two days later, her front leg was completely swollen and she couldn't put any weight on it at all. She got worse so much faster than any of us expected. She was stubborn through the end, not letting us help her do anything.

Brandi was by no means a perfect dog, but she was the best dog we could have asked for. She was our best friend and companion.

Some of her favorite words were:

outside

leash

walk

car

mommy!

daddy!

food

hot dog

treat

She loved going for family walks and loved getting outside any oppurtunity she got. When she was younger, she loved to play frisbee, but as she got older, her hurt her joints too much, but she still loved walks through the end. She also loved playing with her tug of war ring, but her teeth weren't as strong as she became an older dog, so she didn't like that much anymore. She also loved going on car rides and sticking her head out the window and smelling all the smells that were in the air.

Something else annoying/cute about her is before she went to bed every night she come in every room and check and make sure everyone was there. She'd nudge our bedroom doors open with her nose, sniff you and go to the next room and do the same thing. She always made sure we were okay.

Some things she didn't like were people touching her nose, and paws, being left out, animals in visible distance, or when you bothered her while she was eating. She also didn't like it when people would do much hugging or picking each other up. She'd start getting agitated and bark at you if you did that. Sometimes we'd pretend fight with each other just to get her agitated. It was really funny.

We will miss her a lot: all of the walks, all of the family pictures, everything!

She was the best friend we could have ever asked for. But we know she's in doggie heaven now happy, not in pain, and playing with all dogs past.

Happy Birthday Jill!!!!

Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday dear Jilly.

Happy Birthday to you!

Yesterday was Jill's birthday. She turned 24!!! describe Jill in a few words:

J olly

I ntellegent

L oving

L aughable

Jill is a ver fun big sister, who always makes us laugh with her witty humor. She is also very patient, which is good when you have annoying younger siblings :) Good luck on year 25!

We LOVE you!!!

Happy Birthday Carrie!

Carrie's 1st birthday.

Carrie's 23rd birthday

Wednesday, May 27th was Carrie's 26th birthday! We're all lucky to have Carrie as a sister.

Carrie in a nutshell:

Creative

Awesome

Remarkable

Really fun

Incredible

Energetic

Carrie's a really good big sister! I hope this next year is a good! We love you!!!!

The tassle's worth the hassle! part 2

Tony also graduated from school recently. On May 15 he got his Master's Degree in Organizational Psychology from Missouri State University. I didn't get to go to the graduation because I had a track meet, but Melanie, my mom and dad did, as well as Tony's parents.

Tony and Carrie after Tony graduated from BYU in '07.

Tony in front of MSU sign '09.

Both Families together.

Congratulations Master John!!!

The tassle's worth the hassle!

(I'm not going to take credit for the title, I found it online)

In March, Emily graduated from Brigham Young University-Idaho. My mom, dad, and I got to go to Idaho and watch her receive her diploma. Ben, Natalie, and Joe also graduated so we got to watch them too. It was a good trip. We took lots of pictures!

Roomies: Natalie and Emily (freshman year )

Natalie and Emily. Graduates!!!!

Ben, Natalie, Joe, and Emily. All of the graduate cousins.

Family

With her diploma.

In front of the Jacob Spori building where she spent most of her time.

BYU-I sign

In front of the Jacob Spori building again. Fun jumping picture.

Cute then....

Cute now!!!

CONGRATULATIONS EMILY!!!!!
We Love You!

Late postings

I am going to post some things I've been meaning to for a long time. So stay tuned!