Kansas Cranes

A shoutout to Mom

2010-05-10T18:57:00.003-05:00

Happy Mother's Day!!! You're the best mom anyone could ask for! :)

She's got game

2010-04-03T19:39:00.003-05:00

We got to spend our Saturday morning hanging out at the South Relays watching Laura throw the javelin.

I've never actually watched this event at a track meet before, and I was really impressed with how far those kids could throw.

Here is Laura showing how it's done:

Busy Birthday Month

2009-12-29T01:47:00.004-06:00

Alright. We've got 4 birthdays this month!

Thomas William John was born to Carrie and T. Anthony John on December 17, 2009. He's a cutie. He looks so much like Carrie and yet he looks so much like Tony. It's crazy! He's a great addition to the family! It doesn't feel all that much different with him here. He feels like he has always been here.

Melanie Joy Crane was born on December 22, 1989. We love Melanie. She's always keeping us entertained with her jokes, and her fun personality. She's just crazy and absolutely hilarious! No more "teen angst" for this girl, seeing as she turned 20. She spent the last few days of her teenage life getting out all of her "angst."

Thomas Anthony John was born on December 29th. Tony's a lot of fun. He loves the Red Sox, and pretty much all sports. He knows his stats. Tony is a great new dad to little Will. Carrie, Tony, and Will just moved here from Springfield, MO. Tony is starting his new job soon and I'm sure he'll be great!

Linda Crane was born on December 30th a few years ago. What to say about our wonderful mother? Words can't describe. She's always there for us. She's extremely patient with her five daughters and she always knows just what to say. Sometimes we don't want to hear what she has to say, but 99.9% of the time she's right! Extremely kind and funny, we're lucky to have her as a mom!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!

2009-12-24T14:20:00.001-06:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Happy Turkey Day!!!

2009-11-26T20:55:00.006-06:00

Here are some kind of random ABC things I'm thankful for:

A-Apple sauce B Broccoli C Cousins D Dogs E Extended Family F Family, Friends, Freedom Grandparents Holidays I Ice Cream J Jelly K Kansas L Licorice M Music N Nintendo (the old school one) O the Office P Pianos, Parents Q Quiet times R Rain Sisters T The wonderful Country we live in U Underwear (hey, it's important) V Vacations W Winter ( and all seasons really) X XM radio (? i couldn't really think of anything that started with an x, but I do love music) Y yo yo's Z Zebra Cakes

I noticed a lot of these have to do with food or music...so I guess those are two things I like a lot.

We had a fun thanksgiving. Carrie and Tony came here from Springfield and Melanie flew in from Utah. We're excited for everyone to come home for Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving!

JDRF Walk

2009-10-27T14:03:00.006-05:00

Me and a few of my friends went to the JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) walk to help raise money to search for a cure to Type 1 diabetes. It was a lot of fun. There was a couple mile long walk and then blow up obstacle course, tons of food, rides, etc. It was FREEZING! but it was worth it!

This is Me and my mom, and my friend Mairin and her mom. We were diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes within a couple of years of each other. I was in 3rd grade, and she was in 5th.

Me and my friend Nora on a ride they had. I was sooo dizzy by the end!

LtoR: Mairin, Ellie, Katie, Davey, Laura, Clare, Nora

We all tie dyed shirts, and put our nicknames on the back and various other things such as "DIEabetes."

Long time, no blog

2009-10-27T12:26:00.033-05:00

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

2009-06-19T20:38:00.011-05:00

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!!!!

2009-06-13T19:57:00.008-05:00

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!

2009-05-29T15:51:00.005-05:00

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

2009-05-29T15:03:00.007-05:00

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!

2009-05-28T21:26:00.011-05:00

(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

2009-05-28T21:25:00.000-05:00

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

March ---late posting

2009-04-14T22:02:00.003-05:00

The past few months have been pretty busy so I haven't written in awhile. My apologies because I know how much everyone loves to read about our life. jk :)

In March, I had six days off of school for Spring Break. Near the beginning, Aunt Norene, Uncle Dan, Aaron and Kristen came to visit for a day and we went around Kansas City.
For the last three days my dad and I (mom had to work :( ] went to Springfield to visit Carrie and Tony which was SOOOO fun!!!!
We got there Thursday night, and went to their house and watched Penelope, which was really cute. well, at least i enjoyed it. (We watched a lot of movies on this trip because it was so rainy most of the time)
On Friday morning we drove up to the St. Louis Temple and did some baptisms and then we came home that night and went to a Mexican restaraunt which was really good and then rented Dark Knight and watched it. I hadn't seen it yet, but loved the first Batman, so I knew I'd like it. It was really good! My dad liked it too, but was really confused because he hadn't seen Batman Begins so he didn't really know what was going on.
On Saturday we went up to Branson because we saw online that there was a place to mini golf and ride go carts. Unfortunately when we got there, it was closed because of the rain, so we couldn't go. So we drove around and then looked around at the mall for a few minutes and then headed back towards Springfield. We decided then to go the Lamberts, home of throwed rolls, which is a really cool restaraunt where they walk around with side dishes and throw rolls to you. It was really fun! It's a really popular restaraunt so we waited for about 1 1/2 hours before we got in. That night we rented Twilight :) and watched it. My dad and Tony weren't terribley excited about it, but Carrie and I liked it, so we watched it. They ended up liking it more then i think they will admit. It was earlier enough after we finished the movie so we played a game called Rummicube, which was a lot of fun. It's kind of like Phase 10. It took lots of thinking and strategy and "trickeration" as Tony put it. After the movie and Rummicube (sp?) we decided to go to the store and buy some ice cream and then we came back and watched Batman Begins, so Dark Knight would make more sense to my dad. He liked the movies better after seeing the first one, because then he realized what was actually going on.
It was a really fun trip!!! Thank you Carrie and Tony for letting us take over your front room.

I'll upload pictures tomorrow, but right now, it's off to bed for me :)

Visit

2009-03-19T11:10:00.004-05:00

Yesterday Aunt Norene, Uncle Dan, Aaron, and Kristen came up to good ol' Overland Park. We took them around Kansas City, went to Liberty Jail and Independence, and got some Kansas City Barbeque. It was so fun finally having someone come to our house for a change. And of course just fun to visit with them!

I hope they call me on a mission

2009-03-03T20:03:00.012-06:00

We took our good friend Matt into the MTC on Wednesday February 11, 2009. It was a sad, yet happy day, that was hard on us all. Matt is such a big brother to all of us, we're all going to miss him very much. Now I really am the only child! Matt was baptized on February 17, 2007 and got his mission call in November 2008. He got called to the Georgia, Macon Mission.

(Carrie and Tony couldn't come because of work and school, and dad wasn't there because he was on a business trip. that's why they're not in any of the pics.)

Here are some pictures of our adventure out to the MTC:

Top Left: After Matt opened his mission call, we had about four+ people on the phone with him

Top Right: Mom, Matt, Me after he opened his letter

Bottom Left: Matt and Emily, the last Sunday before he left

Bottom Right: Matt and Emily, right before he was set apart

Top Left: On the plane ride to Utah,we had an extremely nice flight attendant, Julio, who made our days a whole lot better after a really hard morning of Matt getting set apart.

Top Right: Me, Matt, and Emily on the shuttle to the car in Salt Lake

Bottom Left: We went to dinner that night at Brick Oven.

Bottom Right: Bryan Tyner, the missionary who baptized Matt, and Matt. He came up to the MTC with us. He is from Georgia, which is where Matt is on his mission. Coincidence? I think not!

Top Left: Matt and Bumble

Top Right: cutting open the pockets of Matt's new suit. I love his face. it's hilarious!

Bottom Left: Loading his 2years worth of luggage in the car

Bottom Right: Matt and Emily in front of the temple (you can't see it in the pic)

Top Left: Back away, we can't touch...

Top Right:I'm not touching you

Bottom Left: Jill, Melanie, Matt, Emily, Me, Mom

Botom Right: In front of MTC sign. Jill, Emily, Matt, Mom, Me, Jill

Top Right: Elder Wilson with his badge

Top Left: Traditional "mom" putting on the badge picture

Bottom left: us and Elder Wilson

Bottom right: Elder Wilson

On this day in history...

2009-03-02T16:50:00.005-06:00

In a lot of social studies class, and other classes sometimes teachers start with a "This day in history..." fact, so I thought I'd share one.
7 years ago I was diagnosed with Type 1 (Juvenile) Diabetes. My parents took me to the hospital at about 1 in the morning, I was really sick. We thought I just had a really bad flu. When we got to the hospital , there were a lot of kids there who were also really sick. We waited there for a little bit, and then finally my mom decided to go up to the front desk to try to go make an appointment for me the next morning because she didn't want me to get even more sick than I already was by waiting there for hours around tons of sick kids. When she went up to the front, the lady working asked her what my symptoms were, my mom told her. She told my mom that she needed to bring me back right away. As I was walking back, I remember that the other parents were really mad that they were seeing me, I'd only been there about a half hour, instead of seeing their kids who had been there an hour or longer. They took me back and the first thing they did was take my temperature and test my blood sugar. I don't remember how high of a fever I had, but I do remember that my blood sugar was 749. Blood sugar is supposed to be between 80-140mg/dL. They then took me to a different room and hooked me up to an IV. I remember that there was a doctor who was trying to make me laugh while they put the IV in so I would be distracted, so he was making funny faces, and more out of politeness then actually humor I laughed. (he was funny, but it's hard to notice how funny people are when they're sticking a needle in you!) and he said that I "was the only person he'd ever seen smile while they put an IV in." They put me on a stretcher and were taking me out of the hospital and all of those parents that were angry before, now looked sorry. They took me in an ambulance to the hospital downtown where they gave me my first shot of insulin and told me more about diabetes. I remember there was this nurse guy who wanted me to watch these movies about diabetes and stuff, but my mom told him that I needed to sleep. At this point it was really early in the morning, around 2-3am. So I stayed in the hospital for a few days and finally got to go home, which was nice. Although the hospital was fun (with the food I got to eat which was really good, I got to watch Disney Channel and play video games or do whatever I wanted all day after different people came in and taught me how to give shots, count carbohydrates, and other important stuff I needed to know) I was glad to be home! 7 years later and I still remember that day and week before really well.
Although diabetes isn't as easy as many people think it is, I try to focus on the positive. Honestly, I don't even remember what it was like to live without it, so that makes it easier I guess.
I'm very very grateful to live in a time when they have insulin and there are so many medical treatments for all different diseases. If I lived a hundred years ago, there probably wouldn't have been any medical treatment they could give me. I'm also very thankful for my family for always supporting me and taking care of me. Especially my mom who has always been there for me and takes care of me, and makes sure every thing's okay.
Besides a few minor adjustments, I've been able to live a normal life just like anyone else, except a shot or two (or...many more) here and there.
Sorry for the long, probably quite boring, story I just put you all through.
Happy 7th anniversary to me! I think I'll go bake a cake....

"There's no place like home..."

2009-01-29T18:40:00.004-06:00

Today is the 148th Birthday of the great state KANSAS!!! Here are a few great things about Kansas:

-It's the Sunflower State

-It's the Breadbasket of America

-BBQ

-KU Basketball

-The Kansas City Royals-they may not be the best team, but the games are still fun!

-The Wizard of Oz

-We live here!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KANSAS!!!!

Our Favorite Pooch

2009-01-27T09:31:00.027-06:00

Over the holidays our family went and saw Marley and Me. We all knew the 'hero died in the end,' but we didn't think it would effect us as much as it did. We all left the theater crying like babies. Not one of us wasn't crying. I thought it was going to be a funny movie, and it was, but the sadness was too much for me and the rest of our family I think. If you've ever loved a dog, Marley and Me is not a movie I would suggest to go see unless you want to be sad and upset and cry.
Brandi is getting older now, she's 12. She's been such a big part of our lives since she became a part of our family on June 6, 1999. (Her birthday is actually July 1, 1996) We all came home and hugged her and told her how much we love her. She is the funniest dog in the entire world, and has such a weird personality but that's what's so great about her.

Don't be fooled. She really is actually a really friendly dog. She could use some dental work, but to us, she's perfect! (We made her growl for the picture)

She's such a good friend to all of us. She always knows when someone's upset and really can sense people's emotions. When one of us has a certain tone of voice, she can tell we're angry & she slinks down the stairs. When we're sad or upset about something, she'll come over and sit by us. She's so aware, it's amazing.

There's nothing she loves more than a good backside scratching. She does a weird little dance when you scratch her back. Its so funny.

She loves playing outside and going on walks. Although she can't very much anymore because she doesn't have very good hips, which happens a lot with labs.

She can even drink from a cup! She's more a human than a dog sometimes.

She loves all of us unconditionally!

She's so patient with us and let's us take pictures with her all the time, although sometimes I swear she's rolling her eyes at us, like in this picture.

She's the queen of house. Or at least she thinks she is. She's the most obedient to mom and emily. The stairs is one of her favorite places to chill, but she also enjoy sitting by the couch where dad sits and sitting by the chair in our parents room whenever our mom's in there.

We Love her!!!!

She's so funny. She knows something under the tree is hers. We usually wrap treats or things for her under the tree. When it's treats, she'll sniff them out pick them up and unwrap them.

She also enjoys breaking open her easter eggs and finding the hidden treats inside.

Some people enjoy long walks on the beach. Her favorite activities include going for long walks...or rides!!! She loves car rides, and she loves going on walks with the family. Below is a picture of the family going on an annual Christmas walk. That's one thing we do a lot as a family. Although she's not facing the right way, we still love her. She's got a cute backside, eh?

She even gets in a lot of family pictures. She's more than a pet, she's part of our family.

SISTERS

We Love You Brandi!!!!

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

2008-12-30T22:19:00.004-06:00

Today is our mom's birthday. She is great! We love her so much and are grateful for everything she does for us. She is so thoughtful and always makes every holiday and event as special as she can. She always makes sure we're happy and having a good time and puts us before herself. She is the best mom anyone can ask for!! There are so many other great things about her, but there's a few.

Happy Birthday Tony!!!

2008-12-29T12:48:00.005-06:00

Today is Tony's 28th birthday, so I thought I'd give a shout out to him and write 28 things we all love about our favorite bro-in-law/son-in-law.

1. Tony is really funny. He always seems to make us laugh.
2. He can bust out some serious dance moves!
3. His ability to play a mean Nintendo game with me.
4. He tolerates us and all of our craziness.
5. He treats Carrie really well.
6. He's a really good singer/pianist
7. He's really nice
8. His sense of humor
9. His gorgeous brown locks
10. Good impersonations
11. Very patient
12. He has a voice that can only be compared to David Archuleta and Billy Joel. (Emily wanted that written. it is true though, he has a good voice)
13. He loves Carrie
14. He's very inclusive. He doesn't ever make anyone feel left out
15. He's outgoing
16. He knows tons of sports statistics
17. He is a good story teller
18. He has good taste in music
19. He makes me good mix cds
20. He has a good personality
21. He talks politics with my dad
22. He is very unselfish
23. He is a good big brother to all of us
24. He's low maintenance
25. He loves chocolate cake
26. He's always very helpful
27. He's smart
28. He's SPECTACULAR!!!

We love you Tony!!! Hope your 29th year is great!!!

♪♫ Have Yourself a Merry little Christmas!!! ♪♫

2008-12-25T17:48:00.008-06:00

Merry Christmas from the Kansas Cranes!!! We've had a good day so far. We've opened presents, played games, napped, and ate! What else could make up a more perfect day?! (I personally could go without naps because I don't enjoy taking naps, but everyone else enjoys them so I guess it's alright) I'll try to sum up our christmas in a little bit more of a creative way so here it goes:

Creative gift giving- Everyone usually has some sort of joke along with their gift or has a
theme with the gifts they're giving which always makes things fun

Happy- Everyone is usually in a really good mood all day today. Usually no fighting and it's just all
around fun :)

Really good food - Christmas dinner is the best! Ham, potatos, rolls, vegetables, desserts,
desserts, and more desserts!

Irratic Wrapping- Sometimes we have problems wrapping our gifts. Not mom, she's great! We
usually do a fairly good job, but sometimes they end up looking sloppy. It's
never disappointing, we usually come up with some creative reason as to why the
wrapping job was so terrible and we all get a good laugh out of it. :)

Spontaneous- I feel like on this day, everyone in our family is especially witty and some of the
funniest things are said that you just wouldn't expect and everyone is themself
to the fullest.

Traditions- Everyone has special traditions. One of ours is on Christmas morning, everyone gets
up and we have to all be awake and line up before we can go down the stairs and
open our presents.

Memories- We always have fun things happen and good memories every Christmas. Usually from
something someone's said, someone's creative gift, or just from playing games
together and having a good time.

Always fun- I don't think we've ever had a Christmas that hasn't been fun. There was one
Christmas where all of us were sick and slept most of the day, but we still had a
good time together when we were awake :)

Spending Time with the Family- It's nice to spend some quality family time with one
another. Christmastime is especially fun because we don't all get to see each other because everyone's in school and living in different states, but when we get together, it's the funnest we ever have.

I hope everyone has a good day today!!!!

Merry Christmas!!!!!

or for those of you who are Harry Potter fans: Happy Christmas!

Oh, There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays!

2008-12-23T23:30:00.020-06:00

Hello hello hello! This is Melanie updating. Laura complains about how she is the only one to ever update this Kansas Cranes blog, so I thought I would help her out. Now that it's Christmas and we're all just chillin like villains, I thought I'd take advantage of the lull to make a post. First of all, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!! We hope you all are enjoying the day. We are very grateful for times like this when we can all get together as families and enjoy each other's company (even if we are napping through most of it.) I was encouraged to take a nap earlier because Jill, Laura, Emily, and Matt wanted to play the game of Life Twists and Turns. It's this new electronic edition, and it's pretty sweet. The only problem is, it's a four-person game. Jill was kind enough to tell me I could be on her team, but she warned me that she would push all the buttons. So I went and took a nap on the couch while they all had the time of their lives playing Life. Okay, I'm making them sound really mean. The truth is, when we finished opening presents, I started to fall asleep in the middle of the floor (I woke up at 9:20--I was exhausted by 11:30!). They told me to go take a nap somewhere else so they could play where I was sleeping. When I groggily told them I wanted to play too, they directed me to the couch and the rest of the story is true. Jill really did say I could be on her team but that I wouldn't be doing anything. Well, I think Laura was planning on doing a little blog entry on the rest of our Christmas, so I'll let her talk more about that later. I wanted to blog about some fun stuff I've done recently.

On Thursday, December 11, my roommate, another one of my friends from the dorms, and I took a little adventure to Salt Lake City to meet up with Aunt Wilma and go to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert. It was so much fun! My mom got four tickets and sent them out to Jill and me, but when Jill couldn't go because of finals, I had control of the tickets. Aunt Wilma fed us pizza, salad, and bread deliciousness before she drove us all up to Temple Square to look at the lights before we went in. We were so glad she drove because if we would have tried to meet her somewhere in Temple Square, chances are we would still be looking for the place to park. The lights were so pretty, and Aunt Wilma was impressed with how many Kodak moments and photo ops my friends and I seemed to find. The concert itself was AMAZING! The guest singer guy was Brian Stokes Mitchell. He's a broadway star and has a lot of other cool things he's done that I don't remember, but I was so pumped when I saw in the program that he was going to sing the song "Through Heaven's Eyes" from The Prince of Egypt. I love that movie! The songs are so good. I highly recommend it to those of you who haven't seen it. Anyway, as he was singing fun Christmas songs before the Prince of Egypt song, I was thinking, "Perfect! He even sounds like the guy from the movie!" Then, when he introduced the song, he said how he is the singing voice for the character that sings it!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so excited! It sounded so good. I loved the whole concert! I forgot who the actor guy was that did the Longfellow Christmas and the Christmas Story from Luke, but he's the grandpa from Gilmore Girls and FDR from Annie and lots of other stuff so he was pretty legit. I could look up his name right now, but I'm too lazy, and I left my program in Utah.

Again, the concert was soooooooo good! I loved it. It was also a lot of fun to hang out with Aunt Wilma. My friends thought she was pretty cool too. I know this because they kept telling me. "Melanie, your aunt is so cool!" "Melanie, your aunt is awesome!" It's true. I tried to teach her my gangsta ways while Jill, Emily, and I stayed with her during Thanksgiving break, but she was cool despite my lessons. (She did catch on to a couple of things though. One time when I called her to update her on the plans, she answered with "Yo yo yo!" I was so pleased.)

Uncle Wayne and Aunt Ginger were at the concert that night too. After it was over, they came to where we were sitting, and Uncle Wayne told me that they were having the cousins over for dinner on Sunday. Oh baby that was good news. So that Sunday, Jill and I headed over to their house and ate a wonderful dinner with Uncle Wayne and Aunt Ginger, Laura and Roy and their girls, William and Mary, Devaun,Tanya, and Aunt Wilma. After we ate, we gathered around the piano and sang Christmas songs like "Star of the East" and the ones out of the Children's Songbook and Hymn Book. It was a lot of fun. It was the last bit of fun before my first college finals began...but that's another story.

Here's a couple more Kodak moments from Temple Square:

In the picture above, it's me, my roommate Kellie, Aunt Wilma, and my friend Jessica who lives across the hall.

Here we are at Aunt Ginger's after we sang Christmas Songs:

fun Fun FUN!

So as I was looking through pictures just now to post, I came across these from when Devaun opened his mission call! Congrats to both Devaun and Tanya on their mission calls!

The sibs that couldn't be there in person got to listen to him read his call over the phone.

Well, I had fun updating the blog! It's been real, but I probably won't update it again for awhile. I'm not very good with these things, and it took me a few minutes to upload the pictures and "format" it and everything. Besides, Laura is so much better, so I'll let her keep her job. (That's what we tell our dad when he asks us to do the dishes: "But dad, you're so much better at doing them than us."--It doesn't work)

Until next time!

Oh, and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOVES!!!!!!!!!!!

♪♫♪♫ It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas

2008-12-13T20:50:00.010-06:00

Christmas season is definitely my favorite time of year! It's been exciting for the past couple weeks seeing everyone put up their Christmas lights, putting up their Christmas trees, and hearing all of the Christmas music on the radio! Earlier this week it even snowed! After a couple weeks, we finally finished putting up our tree! We put it up and started decorating it, got tired, and then slowly but surely finished the job.

We got out the decorations and have put them up around the house. Even Brandi (below) has been getting into the spirit of Christmas.

Today, Mom, Dad, and I went to 'The Magic of Christmas' which is a show the Kansas City Symphony puts on. We got to go along with the other girls who receive the same scholarship I do to help pay for music lessons. Every year around Christmastime, the people who started the scholarship, take the girls and their parents or other family members to see the show. This was my last year to get to go because you can only get the scholarship until you turn 16. It was a lot of fun. This is a picture of me and my friend Amanda (she also gets the scholarship), outside, before the show.

This is me with my friends Amanda and Mairin with Rudolph.

I hope everyone is enjoying the few weeks before Christmas!

Elf Yourself!!!

2008-12-07T21:13:00.001-06:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Thanksgiving Pictures

2008-12-03T16:24:00.008-06:00

We stayed home for Thanksgiving this year. Here's a picture of Matt, me, Tony, and Carrie on Thanksgiving.

While we were getting ready for dinner and started to eat dinner, Brandi really really wanted some of the Turkey. Here she is sniffing the turkey and begging for food!

Here is Carrie and me on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. We both wore brown dresses and so we had to get a picture!

We went on a ton of walks while Carrie and Tony were here. Here is us just geting home. all bundled up. It was really cold!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!!

Happy (late) Thanksgiving!

2008-12-01T21:34:00.002-06:00

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving! It was a fun day and we all got to think about all of the many things we are thankful for. We were going to go out to Idaho, but seeing as I only had 3 days off of school and it would take a whole day and a half just to get out there and back, we didn't think we would be able to make another trip out there without dying! So instead, we had Thanksgiving at home. The first time in several years. Carrie and Tony got to come visit us from Springfield, MO and it was tons of fun to have them come up. It made our a house a little bit more lively. We all had lots of food and lots of fun!!!
(I'll upload some pictures when I get a chance, but right now, I really should be working on homework...)

Recovered Pictures

2008-11-28T19:25:00.009-06:00

Sorry. It's been a very long time since I last updated the blog. Here are some of the pictures from our trip that a computer guy at my dad's work was able to get off of the camera card that originally erased all the pictures before.

Walking to the Conference Center. It was really really rainy.
Inside after Conference.

After Conference. Outside

With the BYU cougar

The lovely Crane sisters in front of BYU

Trip to Utah

2008-10-16T16:06:00.011-05:00

On October 3rd (dad's birthday) my mom, Carrie, and I flew out to Utah and Emily drove up from BYU-I. All the five girls together at BYU since a long time ago. Instead of just writing a ton, I'm going to post some pictures that illustrate our trip. Unfortunately, we don't have any pictures from the first part of our trip because our camera was old and started erasing pictures so we don't have any pictures of us at Conference or of the five girls with momOf course all ofthe pictures where the 5 girls were together got erased, but not a lot of the others. we were able to put them on a picture CD before they got erased and we bought a new camera out there. On our trip we spent some time in Hurricane too at our mom's parents house. We helped our grandma start putting together a life history. We went through old pictures with her, and tried to help her remember everything that she could. Because Carrie had to work, she took a shuttle from Hurricane to the airport on Wednesday.

Here is Jill, Melanie, and I (Laura) in the Cannon Center, where Melanie eats every day. That food was really good!!!

Here is us with Jenny Oaks Baker. We went to the BYU Homecoming Spectacular which was way fun. She performed a couple songs and so did different groups from BYU.

We're not very good at taking serious pictures. We were trying to take a picture of us on the Cougar to replace the pictures of all five girls that got erased on the camera. We're just being weird in this one....

This one is better. Us riding the cougar

We spent some time outlet shopping in Park City. There was a moose in the entrance so we had to take a picture by it of course!

Melanie and a group of her friends were going to run the Cougar 5K. Although, when mom and I showed up to take a group picture, Melanie and her friend Andrew were the only one's brave enough to show up in the bitter cold. Not much of a group, but they had fun and we had fun watching.

We also got to watch the Homecoming parade while we were there after the run. In this picture there is (left to right) Janna, Jill , Melanie, (me)Laura, and Grant. Janna and Grant are a couple of friends Jill has had since Freshman year.

BYU is #1. 'nuff said.

While we were there, we thought Jill's hubcaps might have gotten stolen when she was in Salt Lake because it was after that that she noticed they were gone. But, then we saw them in the road and realized that they had just fallen off when she hit a really big pot hole. For the few days the hubcaps were missing, we enjoyed laughing at how ghetto her car looked.

Our trip was really fun. We got to see all a lot of family and had a good time!

The Life of an Only Child...(well sort of)

2008-09-20T15:50:00.005-05:00

It's been awhile since we've updated our blog so I thought I'd better write something or else people might stop paying attention to our lives altogether! so here it goes:
I, Laura, since September 2nd have been experiencing life as an only child. With both Melanie and Emily gone and back at BYU(s), it just leaves me, mom, dad, and our faithful dog, Brandi, home. I gotta hand it to all you only children out there: Life can't be too fun for you. Maybe it's just because I've always been surrounded by a lot of people that it seems so weird, but I'm still not so sure how I feel about being the only one home. Don't get me wrong, I love having peace and quiet and having a lot of space to myself. But, it can get pretty boring. I'm not saying at all that my parents are boring, because they really aren't. It's just weird not having anyone around to play rousing games of Phase 10, Balderdash, and Apples to Apples with. All of my friends who are only children now have been hanging out a lot more trying to keep each other company. I'm so glad my parents aren't like one of my friends' parents. She also has older siblings and is the only one left at home now. She said when she gets home from school, her mom sits her down and wants to know every detail of her life. She said her mom can hardly contain herself and asks about a million questions about her day at school wanting to know what she ate for lunch, who she talked to, if she enjoyed her lunch, if she wanted to have her mom pack a lunch for her instead, etc. etc. I thought she was kidding about how extreme her mom was, but no. It's true. I've witnessed it. We went to her house after a movie and the second we came in the door her mom rushed over "Can I make you guys something? Are you hungry? Do you want some brownies? Do you like brownies? etc" Us "ummm...cookies sound good." immediately her mom rushed over put her apron on and starting baking us cookies. It's okay though, her mom's really nice and everyone likes her. I just don't know if I'd be able to handle that much attention on me alone.
I've been keeping myself busy playing tennis at school and going to football games, etc. Life's still been okay with the absence of my sisters. It's nice to have my own space, but I still like having all my sisters back home.
Status on whether or not I like life as an only child: Undecided.
I'll let you know more in the future

Ra ra ra ra ra!!

2008-08-28T13:48:00.005-05:00

In honor of Melanie moving into the dorms and starting orientation, I thought I'd post some pictures of some of her previous visits to the BYU.

In the Fall of 2001 she rode out in "Jill's van" to drop me of at Heritage Halls. This is a picture of her, Laura and me right before they left.
I came home for Spring term in 2004, but went back for summer so Dad, Jill, Melanie, Laura and I drove out to go to the Crane Reunion and drop me off. *Sidenote--Mom and Emily stayed behind because it was the Verano de Amigos...While we were here we woke up early and hiked the Y--on Laura's 11th birthday. Dad opted to be the photographer for this shot. Some of you may remember that Jill and I commemorated the birthday walk earlier this year. If not and you'd like to find out more, check here for details.

I know there have been more trips, I just wanted to highlight some from the pre-high school era of life (for Melanie).

Best wishes for a happy year!

This one goes out to everyone who has a birthday this year...

2008-08-07T00:44:00.013-05:00

We celebrated Emily's 21st birthday in typical 21-year-old fashion. The festivities began early, around 1:00 at our local McDonalds.

The flier on our fridge did not allow us to forget about the magic that would take place at 103rd and Mastin this afternoon. And magical it was...

We may have been the only ones there over that were not either under the age of 5 or accompanying of child of that age group.

Ronald was in prime form with his tricks. This kid loved it and even screamed occassionally because he couldn't contain his excitement.

This little girl totally stood up and called out Ronald on his "McBooBoo." "Uh-huh, the ball is too under your armpit right now!" (It wasn't, but I'm not sure how he pulled that one off, because that's where I thought it was too.

Jordan LOVED the show...

...and was beyond amazed when he pulled the egg out of the bag that seconds before had been empty!

We also clearly loved the show. Even though we didn't win a free happy meal, one of a number of plates featuring Ronnie McD and friends playing various sports, nor a complete set of Polly Pocket Happy Meal toys. But Sue, Ronald's agent/tour manager, assured us we were all winners as we each got twisty straws and sick tattoos.

Group shot with the man himself. Melanie and Laura thought he sounded familiar and wondered if we know him sans makeup.
Sue also told us where his next gig was and encouraged us to become Ronald groupies. We'll see.

After our adventures at McDonalds, we stopped by to visit Mom at work. I'm not the best at setting the camera up for self-timer shots and caught a lovely corner of the table in this pic.

There were several crowns lying around. Very appropriate for the birthday girl. And Bumble loves anything red sequins.

Our next stop was the Johnson County DMV to get Emily a renewed license. There we stood in line with James, who was most excellent to chat with. We told him we may need his help stealing the clock from the wall (he was taller than any of us) if it started getting close to the time (4:08) when we needed to take a birthday picture of Emily, as per family tradition. Here he is, joining in the tradition. (This clock was actually brought from home--boring.)

Here we are in Matt's car, throwing our hands up in the sky as Kanye welcomes us to the good life.
A good life always includes tasty ice cream. Today I enjoyed one of the weirdest ice cream flavors I have ever come across: Blueberry Muffin Batter. I could not resist.

The festivities continued at Kaufman Stadium, home of our beloved Kansas City Royals, courtesy of Padge.

It was in the running for the most eventful game I have ever been to:

Laura caught a hot dog in the hot dog launch. This is a re-enactment. Her initial face probably would have contained more shock. Section 213 rarely gets much action in the way of hot dog tosses and the like. Tonight was the exception.

We were THIS close to the KCrew as they conducted the Hat Trick with a little girl who did not want to do it. We also made it onto the new hugest of huge screens during some fan footage.

Buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks...
...or enjoy some for free, compliments of the KCrew when we told them it was Emily's birthday!
Other highlights included the Hot Dog Race. This might actually be a lowlight. Mustard beat Ketchup. Again. No one cares about Relish. Because it's gross.
The Royals made a valient effort.

And to top it off, we heard David Archuleta's new single on the radio on the way home.

In all, I would have to say Emily's birthday was a home run!

Busy few weeks

2008-08-03T21:45:00.003-05:00

The past few weeks have been pretty busy for our family. Melanie got her wisdom teeth out on July 19th. After the surgery she was a little bit loopy. She kept repeating things over and over again, would hold her tongue and say "What's this?" and often couldn't tell where her lips were because her face was so numb. She also thought we had three eyes. It was pretty funny. It's a good thing she likes pudding and let me tell you, she ate a lot of pudding. Then on July 24th I got my tonsils. Getting my tonsils out was quite the experience. Exactly a week after I got my tonsils out I woke up in the middle of the night because my throat was bleeding. It only lasted for about ten minutes and with the help of a cup of ice water and a popsicle it stopped. We called the ENT doctor and went in to see him and he said that everything was okay. That night I got up twice in the night because my throat was bleeding but it only lasted for five minutes at a time. They both stopped by drinking ice water too. And then last night (Saturday) my throat started bleeding at 8:15 and then didn't stop. I ate 4 popsicles and drank a ton of ice water and nothing stopped it. So at around 10:30-11:00 we called my doctor and went in to the ER. A doctor at the ER looked at my throat and called my doctor, and they decided that they'd better go ahead and cauterize my throat, which I guess is kind of like burning the wounds closed. So, at midnight they started the surgery and I was able to leave and go home. It wasn't a very fun night, but at least I know that I'll be getting better very soon. I am so happy that they have doctor's and technology now so that they were able to do that for me. I hope everyone's doing well.

The Season I LIVE for!

2008-07-14T11:31:00.005-05:00

This summer I've been begging my parents to take me on some sort of vacation because I haven't been on one yet. After weeks and weeks of begging, they finally agreed and said they'd give me two full weeks of rest and relaxation.....except it will only be at my house....while I'm recovering from my surgery.
I'm getting my tonsils out on July 24th and getting more pollops removed (which the ENT said I would have to do after my surgery I got a year ago). Just three short weeks before school starts. The season I live for will be over...well, for me anyway.
My older sisters are always telling me that because I'm the youngest, I get everything...and I'm starting to beleive them. I do get everything...my immune system is weak. I get strep, and sinus infections, and I have a lot of allergies. Even some of my friends actually call me the "Walking Failed Immune System" because I get sick so often. So I went to the ENT (EarNoseThroat) Doctor this morning for a check up and they decided that it was time I get my tonsils out! Maybe the next time I go to the ENT doctor, when they ask "Have you had strep or any sinus infections, etc. recently?" and "How many times have you had strep in the last year?" I'll lie and say "No I haven't gotten strep recently." or "I don't recall how many times I've gotten strep or had sinus infections in the past year."
I'll neglect to mention the fact that I had strep in February (it's July, I don't think February's recent enough) and that I've had strep about 5 times a year, for the past 3 or so years....it must have just slipped my mind. :)
So I guess everything's working out the way it's planned. I asked for a vacation, and I'm getting one. My sisters say I get everything...I'm getting it all! I've got ten days to live it up! to have the last solid meal until I can only have liquids! to do everything I thought I'd have time to do in the next three or four weeks crammed into ten days! The end of the season I live for.

The First Post

2008-07-11T18:13:00.007-05:00

Well, our family figured that we'd get a blog, considering that a lot of our family and friends also have blogs so, here we go.
(This is Laura here by the way)
Life in Kansas has been pretty good for the most part. I guess I'll give you a little synopsis on each of our lives. (Oh man! It's summer and I just used the word synopsis...what's wrong with me?!?)
My dad, Laurence, has been traveling a lot and just got back from a business/family reunion trip on July 6th, headed out on another business trip on July 9th only to get home one short day later on the night of the 10th. He keeps himself busy, although I know he would much rather spend more of his time here at home with the rest of his family.
My mom, Linda, has been working at the local community college in the testing center. Sounds fun right? She does various tasks, such as looking for tests on the computer, helping people check in, and proctoring. Yes, that's right proctoring; just like the scary looking people in the movies that walk around during tests to make sure people aren't cheating. I don't think she's actually caught anyone in the act of cheating yet, but a few times she had a few experiences with people having various formulas or other helpful little "reminders" on their hands or arms, etc. Overall, she seems to enjoy the people she works with and the job itself.
Carrie and Anthony, who have their own blog but I'll write about them anyway, live in Springfield, MO, while Tony is going to school at Missouri State and Carrie's taking online classes through Oklahoma State. They seem to enjoy it there and hope to settle down somewhere in the Midwest. My dad hopes they'll buy the house that's for sale up the street, but I think they're planning to distance themselves a little farther away than just a few houses.
Jill is in Provo keeping especially busy with Law School. She likes it, although it is a lot of hard work and a lot of reading. And I believe (and it's a good thing too) that she's learned a few things while she's been there. Something I've really noticed is that she is a lot better at arguing. Sometimes it's not necessarily a straight answer, which you'd expect from lawyers, and she sort of twists your words around and usually...she wins the argument. Right now she's interning for a lawyer...well, at least I think. I'm not totally sure everything she's up to so you'll have to ask her. I do know at some point this summer she was on a softball team, but I think their season may be over now. Either way, she's keeping busy and even though she's working, etc. she still always finds a way to have a fun time.
Emily is home from BYU-I for the summer and has been working at an Accounting Company. She works from 8-5 Monday-Friday. She says she likes it, although it can get pretty boring. She's a receptionist and she answers the phone, makes coffee and other receptionist duties. Because she's just sitting there with not much to do, she's on the computer almost all day long. She usually comes home every day with a new fact about something she's read online or some current event she's found at cnn.com. When she's not at work, she finds time to take naps, take our dog on walks, and spend time with her boyfriend who also goes to BYU-I.
Melanie graduated from High School and is devoting most of her time this summer to make money for next year. She's been working at a grocery store here, Hy Vee, where all of us either have worked or are currently working at, and is hoping to make enough money to get her through her freshman year at BYU. She works almost every day at HyVee, except Wednesdays when she babysits a little boy from 8-5. She has managed to fill her free time reading Harry Potter books, taking our dog on runs, going to the pool with me and her friends, and spending time with her friends.
I, Laura, haven't had too much of an exciting summer but i have very much enjoyed the time off school. I also work at Hy Vee, but being the age I am, find it difficult to find many hours, so I haven't made very much money even though I would like to. I have been taking tennis lessons. It's been a lot of fun. Because I don't have a license I mostly just stay home all day because everyone is working, and do my summer reading. Haha, okay let's be honest now. I don't do too much summer reading but I will get it done before school starts. I love going to the pool and doing stuff with my friends when I get the chance.
And of course, our dog Brandi is doing well. She turned 12 on July 1st and is still a major part of our family life.
(Sorry I just wrote a novel)