Random thoughts....

I love freezer cooking!  Tonight we are having beef stew....beef stew that I made with my best friend over 2 weeks ago.  Tonight we are enjoying dinner and I didn't lift a finger to make it (today).  I am looking for some new freezer cooking recipes?  Any suggestions?


Ethan has been on "purple" for nearly 19 days straight.  For those of you who haven't had a kiddo start school yet, many kindergarteners have a behavior chart that is color coded.  Red= bad day, Yellow=you got warned of your bad behavior a few times today, Green= you had a good day, Purple= you had a great day, you went above and beyond on something!  I am slightly surprised so proud of him.  It must be hard work for a kid who generally talks non stop and can't sit still more than 30 seconds. 


I went to work today...as a nurse...at the hospital.  It has been nearly six weeks since I have worked and it was so good to be back even if just for a few hours.  I was surprised though how much I missed my kids.  Somedays, I dream of going in to work and having adult conversation (and making money) but once I am there, all I do is think about them.


The neighbor kids just showed up to play at our house.  They say that our house is like "heaven" because apparently we have "every toy" and our house is "always a mess."  Well, welcome to heaven.  At the beginning of the year, I was apprehensive to let them all come into our house since it is usually not "guest worthy".   I learned very quickly that they don't care.  They love to come over and we love having them.  They are all getting bundled up to go out and play in the snow.


I am seriously considering signing up for a sprint triatholon this August.  I can't even run to the mail box without getting winded.  I am certain that the twin pregnancy weakenen my already wimpy stamina and muscles.  I remember back in high school and college when on a somewhat frequent basis, I had reasons to be proud of myself.  I studied really hard for a test and aced it.  I practiced for weeks and made drum major of our high school marching band.  I got accepted into nursing school after a grueling semester of science classes that I didn't think I would pass let alone get straight A's.  I didn't get last in a track meet.  (haha, my coach said he could walk faster than i could run)  Now, though, as a SAHM, I do lots of dishes, laundry, diapers, puzzles, and playdough.  I have this deep desire to work hard at something so that I have that sense of achievement...something that is just for me. 


We are redecorating our bedroom on a dime-budget.  Our room is definetly not the "romantic refuge" it should be.  Over the past 5 years, we have had a revolving door of 4 babies co-sleeping with us and now that we have our room back to ourselves, it needs a face lift.  I will post some before and after pictures soon.  I have already hung some table cloths as curtains...thankyou pinterest!

Thats all for now!  Time to get some hot chocolate going for all these cold hands that are about to invade my kitchen.

This Guy....

We have big news in the Crane household.......

This guy, learned to to tie his shoes tonight!  This is a big night at our house, and I am so proud of him for not giving up. 

 As adults, we forget how frustrating being six can sometimes be....always tripping over your shoe laces and having to ask for help tying them. 
But tonight, we have one big guy who thinks he is big stuff...because he can tie his own shoes.  Sometimes the little things in life are really the big things.  We are proud of you, Ethan!

Let's start from the beginning....

My husband, bottom right. 

Me, with  my attitude...5ish.

How do you decide what your family is going to look like?  Did you always know you wanted 2 kids, or maybe only one?

I was raised by a single, devoted hardworking mother.  Once I realized I was going to be an only child, I knew I wanted a big, loud family.  In my mind, I wanted 4 children so that when we went to theme parks, they would always have someone to sit with.  Luckily, at the same time, God was preparing my future husband for the same desire to have a big, loud family!  Although, for him, it was second nature.  He had three siblings, two brothers and a sister. 

The first time I remember seeing him was back in 1996.  We were both 15 and he had just moved to town.  Their family came to our church and my mom and I happened to sit next them.  After church, we talked and I invited he and his brother to youth group that evening.  My first impression of my beloved was that he was awfully tall (my boyfriend at the time was quite the opposite), he had a sprinkling of freckles on his fair skin like me, and he seemed quiet...which intrigued me.  His first rememberance of me is not at all the same.  I won't speak for him, but apparently, we had met before.  We went to same school (it was a big school, okay?) and he ate lunch with my not-so-tall boyfriend.  After several months of me choosing the wrong boyfriends...he snagged me during a game of pool during a ski retreat with our high school youth group.   We were partners and he sank the 8 ball causing us to loose the game.  He was so funny, and handsome. He smelled wonderful and I liked the way his jeans fit.  I was hooked.  That was January of 1998. 

Our first dance, Valentine's 1997 
 Indiana Roof Ballroom
Ballroom

He "asked me out" on January 23rd and we went to our first Valentine's dance that next month. 
And as they say...the rest is history.  We had our smiles and trials, but in the end, we both knew that we wanted to be together.  He was my lobster.  We were married on November 1st, 2003 in the same church where we (according to me) met. 







While we were dating forever, we would fantasize about what it would be like to be married and how many kids we were going to have.  I was determined we were going to have 4 kids all very close to one another.  So after our third child arrived within 4 years, it was a no-brainer to finish of what we had started and try for the last and final baby.  We were blessed and it happened quickly.  Between our second and third children, I had a miscarriage so after that heart breaking time, we decided we wouldn't share any more of our pregnancies until after the first ultrasound.  This pregnancy didn't feel much different from the other three...similar amounts of morning sickness, food aversions, etc.  However, one difference was my level of exhaustion.  I remember on several occasions, I would lay my head on the table at dinner time and nearly fall asleep while the house would be chaos around me.  I chalked it up to being pregnant and taking care of three small children, while working as a nurse 3 days per week.  Little did we know, we had two precious girls growing inside me. 



On the next post....I will share how we reacted to seeing two beating hearts on the ultrasound and what a twin pregnancy was really like....stretch marks, daily mental breakdown, the unknowns.  Should be a blast!

Our new blog!

Hello! My name is Emily and I am a mother to five small children all born within 5 short years.  On a daily basis, the top five things that I have people come up to me and say are:

1. "Are they all yours?"  yep...they're all mine:-)
2. "You have your hands full!"....sure do...that is an understatement
3. "I don't know how you do it!"...  I don't either, maybe I should start a blog so I can remember   these days
4. "Are they twins?"....yes, and yes it was a HUGE surprise!
5. "Are you done having kids?"....yes, we are very blessed....but we are tapped out at five.

A older picture from a lazy Saturday morning as
they took over our bed.

This life we are living, raising these five gifts from God, is passing by so quickly.  I know they will be the best years of our life and I don't want to forget a crazy, messy minute of it!  A picture to get us started and then I have to get to the laundry and the crumb covered kitchen floor.  More to come...