brother and sister

oh these two little cranes are totally brother and sister. i was freaking out that i wouldn't be able to handle them both, and i was totally right. haha, but i'm taking it day by day. now i know how moms get white hairs, wrinkles, and bad backs.

how have i not lost all my baby weight yet? i chase after sofia daily, i often forget/don't have time to eat lunch, and while nursing, i drink more water than a camel. but the amount of smiles i get from lucas daily makes up for every pound gained. kind of. 

lucas is still a dream kid. sofia is still absolutely hilarious. they are both ginormous, above 90% in height. sofia is learning so many words, they weren't kidding when they said they'll start repeating everything you say. jeff called me crazy the other day and said "Coo coo" and sofia ran around the house saying "coo coo, coo coo." 

anyway, here's updated pictures of them both. they are growing before my eyes.

sofia mae crane

22 months

lucas jefferson crane

2 months

love all of sofia's teeth, her bangs, her "jackie nose," and how her shoulders are shrugging a bit. love kissing lucas on the lips, and he loves it just as much. 

spoiled

i have been completely spoiled. i'll admit it. i have had a lot of help with the two kiddos.

my dad and my step-mom drove up from San Diego, spent the day with us, then drove back the next day. isn't that crazy??! they wanted to meet lucas so bad, and see how much sofia's grown, that they took the time out to come up for a quick weekend.

going up the canyon to see waterfalls is one of our favorite things. so we took them there. you don't get much of this in san diego.

the grandkids all adore my dad. sofia fell in love with him quickly. he didn't even have to do anything. not fair! i bathe her, feed her, clean her poopy diapers, and i still have to work hard for her approval and love.

this little guy loves anyone who will hold him...

after their quick visit, my cousin, Zoe, moved in with us. she came up early to get a job before BYU starts in the fall. it gave us a glimpse of what it will be like with a teenage daughter. i loved having her here so much, and sofia was very fond of her new roommate.

a few weeks later, zoe's parents came up to get her settled in. tia mary came early to spend time with me and the kiddos. we went up to the alpine slides in park city.

jeff said sofia did great on the slide. the scary part was riding the ski lift up to the top of the slide. sofia kept peeping down, and wanting to stand up. jeff thought she was going to jump off.

 this is zoe, our adopted teenage daughter.

this week, the fun ends. i will no longer be spoiled. that is, until my older sister, Melody, gets here in september for a wedding.

Crane Reunion 2012

i love family. not just my side of the family, i'm one of those girls who also loves their in-law family. there are only a handful of us. bear lake is something we look forward to all year. dave and pauline, thanks for making it happen. they rented an 8 bedroom place, there were 16 adults and 21 grandkids there. can you believe that??

i'll start with a picture of me and jeff. not a great shot of either of us, not the photographer's fault...our fault.

grandma ruth, jeff's g-ma, has a million great grand children. this is her most recent...my lucas.

although sofia could care less that a picture is being taken of her, i really like the way my husband looks here. hubba hubba. good picture, babe. i don't know at what age kids start flirting with the camera, or actually smiling...apparently sofia is not of that age yet, as you will see from all the pictures of her.

sofia is so tall. i felt like she was closer to the size of her 4 year old cousins, then the ones her age. this is cute seth, they are about 2 months apart. i told you she's a giant.

look at her ponytail! she's about to attack...

then decides to change her course...

goes in for an unwanted hug...

and somehow poor seth ends up on the floor.

no, we didn't put a porta-crib outside for sofia to sleep in. mike, brooke, maddie and matt put together an olympic games of stuff we do everyday. jeff dominates at putting cribs up. i'm so proud.

lucas is a dream. i can't even explain how much i love this kid. he is the best baby i've ever had. sorry sofia, you weren't the best baby. sofia is fun now, but didn't love sleeping as a baby, especially at night.

on sunday, july 29th, 2012, jeff was able to bless our baby. it was a sweet blessing. though my side of the family was missed so much, i'm so glad that his whole family was there to participate.

after the blessing, traci took some family pictures of us. jeff was trying to tickle sofia, which is why her mouth is open in every picture.

here's the picture Traci took of us last year, look how sofia's grown:

and here is this year:

jeff and his bro's are so alike. it's scary.

i hope this family reunion tradition continues when sofia is a teenager. i love seeing her play with her cousins. i know they will be such great examples to her and when she's in high school, she's going to need good friends around to help her. her cousins will be those good friends, i just know it.

a quick visit

we got to see jeff's sister, traci, and her 6 kids. and it was glorious. it was only for the morning, but we loved every minute of it. they live in bend, oregon and were in park city for the weekend. i actually stole these pictures from traci's blog.

we went to kneaders, our fav breakfast stop.

look at this cute kid. i LOVE lucas...

this is traci. she has SIX kids. i know, i know, it doesn't look like it. doesn't she look amazing?? not fair. hopefully sofia has the crane genes and not my thighs.

i love it when sofia runs through the sprinklers. she does it often. i would to, if i wasn't so worried about re-doing my hair :)

it was a glimpse of what our family reunion will be like. sofia had so much fun with her primos!

The Help

i truly believe that every new mom should have hired help for a minimum of 6 weeks. someone to cook/clean/do laundry/play with your other children/bring you water/everything else. serious face.

that's why i love moms. pauline, jeff's mom, came to provo the day i got home from the hospital. she was AMAZING. i didn't touch a dish. she took sofia on walks. she got her dora stuff. she supported me through breastfeeding. she cried with me. she made me food. she held lucas. what more could i ask for? i am so grateful that i have a mother-in-law who i actually LOVE. not all my friends can say that. i want her to come for every baby, even if it's my 8th (not that i think i'm having 8 children!)

the day pauline went back to california, my mom flew in. i love my mama. sometimes i look at her and just think, "how did you do it?" my sisters and i are so close in age, it's crazy. she doesn't remember how she did it. let's see, what did she do while she was here? i didn't touch a dish, again. she cleaned my toilet. she organized the kids room (she's the most organized woman i know). she brought goodies for both the babies. she let me cry A LOT in front of her. she was my mom. 

i am so grateful for the help i have received through this tough time in my life. i forgot to mention one person. Ashley crane...jeff's sister. she was the one who stayed with sofia the entire time i was in the hospital. spent the night with her, fed her, changed her very dirty diapers, clothed her, danced with her, did "ring around the rosie" with her a thousand times, woke up with her when she had an episode at 3 in the morning (did i mention sofia got 4 more teeth since lucas was born, FOUR?!!). she loves her tia ash. i don't know what i would've done without her. 

i feel like i'm doing an acceptance speech of an award or something.

thank you pauline, mom, and ash. love you guys. here's a picture to make it all worth it...

Lucas

thursday morning, 6:15 am, my first contraction happens. 10 minutes later, another contraction. 8 minutes later, another. 6:45 am, i wake up jeffrey. i decide to eat a bowl of cereal, then get in the shower and get ready. 9:00 am rebekah saves the day and comes over to watch Sofia. 

9:30 am we are admitted to the hospital. i am 5 cm dilated. everything was happening so fast. so much faster than Sofia. it turns out my nurse was my friend, jennifer, who I danced with at BYU. 

heather bliss was there every step of the way (just like she was with sofia). i was so lucky to have her document everything. her hubby, eliot, took over the "sofia shift" and ended up watching her from 12-4 pm! i was so grateful he was willing because sofia absolutely LOVES her tio eliot.

jeffrey was amazing through the whole labor, i didn't expect any less of him.

after just an hour and a half, i was dilated 8 cm. this baby was coming fast.

the amount of pressure i was feeling was unbearable, so jeffrey kept keeping me entertained to try to get my mind of everything.

we have a picture just like this with sofia's labor...

somtimes when i was in pain, he'd do something like this...unfortunately it didn't take the pain away, or make me laugh.

heather took so many pictures of jeffrey and i, which i was glad because i feel like we barely have any together. it's always of jeff and sofia.

here's heather...

yes i tried to sleep. so not successfully.

at about 12:35 pm, i started to push. after just a few minutes, i was so tired that the tears just started flowing. i felt like i had been pushing with every single muscle of my body...even my eyelashes hurt. how do people push for 3+ hours?? unbelievable!

12:45 pm, after 10 minutes of pushing...

lucas jefferson crane becomes the newest addition to our family.

check out his feet. massive.

 nothing like a father and son. although sofia is totally daddy's little girl, i could tell jeffrey's heart melted at the sight of his first son.

it's sad to see how swollen kids are right after birth.

love seeing Lucas' hand compared to jeff's.

my doctor, dr. savage, was actually out of town. she warned me of this and reassured me that her replacement, dr. harrison, was amazing. she was right. i absolutely loved her and would recommend her to anyone and everyone.

it's funny how a woman can devote 9 months to growing a child, then go through excruciating pain and rip her body apart, only to have a smile on her face a few minutes later, and an unexplainable amount of love for another human being. i guess this has to happen for the human race to go on.

how can you not love this little guy?

we love being a family of four. lucas has been an angel child. i think God knew i needed one in order to have more in the future. sofia was quite a challenge. understatement. he sleeps a lot. jeff and i aren't used to it, we check to see if he's breathing. or we are scared he'll be up all night. nope.

being a mom is seriously the best feeling in the world. the amount of help i've received is amazing. i'll blog later about all that...i just wanted to get the birth story out. hope you enjoyed. can't wait for you all to meet him.