We had a great breakfast with the Fam at Magleby’s Fresh before saying our goodbyes right there. They’ve changed the dropoff protocol at the MTC and now only one car is allowed in with the missionary and luggage. That’s right, no long walk down the hall, no Mormon-ad videos reminding how much you’ll miss your family, no separate doorway split. It was a lot easier on the emotions this way, but still a little hard to see my baby brother take off.

Good luck Flobert, you’ll kick some butt.

UPDATED: Just because I know how much Robert loves to correct my kids grammer, I thought I would save his current Facebook status message for posterity. “You going” indeed Flobert. “You going” indeed.

9lbs 6oz

23″

Delivered Sunny Side Up (Posterior)

• Star Wars Calendar
• Pegs for Crazy Hats and Shoes
• Dinosaur Sheets
• Sleeping Dog
• Sleeping Brother to use as book holder

Just to explain to anyone who reads this, I was tagged by a friend to write 25 random things about me. This is Dan logged into Tammy’s account because she wouldn’t put it on the blog herself and I’m tricky like that.

1. My 2nd toe is longer then my big toe.

2. Never leaves home without my lip gloss.

3. Owns at least 30 pairs of shoes. (and counting)

4. Seriously has the best husband ever, he puts up with all my quirks, works hard everyday and still comes home to help me with our crazy boys. He hardly complains and has learned to agree that it’s normally his fault! Really lucked out in the husband department.

5. Fell sorry for my husband when I’m pregnant because even if Brad Pitt himself tried to grab my rear, I’d still rip his head off.

6. Can “smell” light at night, so Dan can’t be on his iPhone, even under the covers.

7. Hate it when people try to micromanage me.

8. I drink an embarrassing amount of milk everyday.

9. Fall in love with my little babies like a bad high school crush. I adore them, think they’re perfect in every way, and annoy all my friends with how much I talk about them.

10. I’ve treated a goat’s cantelope sized scrotum.

11. I was secretly proud when told I was the best at the aforementioned task.

12. Apparently a bad parent for letting my two first graders walk home 3 blocks.

13. Always walk slower when I’m cold.

14. I get nervous whenever I’m driving on mountain roads considering my dad’s diving off twice.

15. I love spending less then I save at grocery stores.

16. Hate public speaking.

17. Have a love/hate relationship with computers.

18. Snuck my wedding cake onto the plane for my 1 year anniversary trip to Hawaii. The whole cabin smelled like cake.

19. Wishes I was better at decorating.

20. Can’t decide if I want to move to CA or live in UT, but refuse to live in the middle.

21. Secretly wishes my van would die so that we would have to buy a new one.

22. Over active guilt complex.

23. Still try to make my husband eat broccoli, even after 8 years.

24. Firm believer of set bed times for kids.

25. Had my husband write half this list.

This year we continued the Cramer family tradition of making popcorn wreaths to give to our neighbors as a Christmas treat. We decided to get Owen and Braeden more involved in the entire process even though we normally try to steer them away from metric tons of sugar and scalding hot liquids. They were very helpful through the whole process, though Uncle Steven and Uncle Scott may need to give them some food-handler pointers. Several wreaths became “family” property to prevent an unsuspecting neighbor biting into a dog licked gumball.

The boys set up all the plates and helped to mold all the wreaths as I divided the popcorn/hold-it-together-sauce mixture around the table. Hold-it-together-sauce is not the technical name but I can’t come up with anything better at the moment.

Braeden getting psyched up (this is before quality control sampling began).

The work in progress. Everything that was needed for assembling the wreaths. Plates, gumdrops, ice and a toy dinosaur.

Gavin was content with a supporting “I get any gumdrops I can grab” role.

The finished creation, artfully presented by Chef Owen.

So we made it through the whole evening with no fights, few burns, and some pretty good looking treats. Not to shabby for a non-health department rated operation!

Past Years

2005 (Nice small batch to get us started)

2006 (Skipped this year, something to do with a baby being born or something)

2007 (Unfortunate hair pulling incident right at the end)

As mentioned earlier, this boy LOVES anything to do with WALL-E and so we made him a cake from the movie. At first Tammy was going to make a cake like the main character WALL-E, but in searching on flickr for inspiration she found this cake:

Yeah. That’s a cake.

So the bar was set sufficiently high to let us move on to an EVE cake. Even though she’s a less complex character, it still was a relatively tricky cake to pull off, but Tammy did a super job, with M&M’s for highlights. Braeden helped in the tasting department, while Owen made sure the frosting was spread just right.

Most importantly, Gavin thoroughly enjoyed it.

I’m not sure where he picked up the necklace, but there you go.

Then of course the flurry of wrapping paper signaling present time!

8 seconds on the worm. Living in the future like I do now, I wish to add that this beloved gift was quickly eclipsed by the Christmas big-wheel he would be getting in a few short days. Glad it could be enjoyed for a little while.

Happy Birthday Gavin!

Taken on the iPhone, so forgive the quality. But just a quick shot to show how much Gavin LOVES WALL-E! His aunt and uncle, who haven’t seen the movie, have fallen asleep, his brother is leaning back, fighting the drowsies, there is a cute dog waiting to be played with on the couch, and Gavin LEANS IN to watch a movie he’s seen One hundred, thousand, million times! Now how do I get that kind of brand loyalty when it comes time to do the dishes?

Fortunately the restaurant had chicken strips so the boys were able to get something in their tummies besides the three grains of rice that they managed to keep down. The highlight of the whole meal were the chopsticks though. They started out trying to grab things, but a few minutes in they both figured out that the sticks could also be used to stab the food and worked much better that way.

At the beginning of lunch with the chopsticks as intended:

Braeden figures out that you can stab the chicken instead.

Thanks Dad for a great lunch, tons of fun!

All three boys had a blast running around trying out any game that caught their eyes. The nice thing about 5c games is when the machine eats your money you don’t feel too put out by it. I watched Braeden stick 3 nickels into a machine that wasn’t even on before realizing it.  So with $3 worth of nickels burning holes in our pockets you can bet we had a great time.

NickelMania is also our traditional Bachelor’s party hangout. The night before I got married my mom gave Steven some money and told him to take me out for a bachelor party. Being the ever savvy and creative person that he is he chose this fine establishment for my last night of freedom debauchery. Thanks Steve!