The Cramer Family

That’s right! The boys are both well on their way to being potty trained.And to celebrate the monthly savings of $60+ per month (plus the added bonus of not cleaning up human waste) we broke down and spent $10 on party gear!.

My family came over, with even a visit from Uncle Steve all the way from Provo! It was great to have everyone together and I know that the boys had a great time. I mean, what’s not to love about uncles to play with, sugar to inhale and all the batman/spiderman masks you could ever need?

We got set up on a couple date last night with Paul and Kristina Kelly. Everyone came to our house and then the Grandparents stayed around to be with the various sets of twins. Paul and Kristina have a boy and a girl twin who are 9 months old. It was fun to go out and talk about our various experiences. Seeing their twins at such a young age brought back lots of memories. Both fond and not so fond. In some ways it was really nice to have the boys not be able to go anywhere when we put them down. But I don’t miss the long nights.

After dinner the Kellys had to get home so they could get the boys down. Tammy and I took advantage of the babysitters to go to a movie. We went and saw the new movie Just Like Heaven. It was definatley a chick flick, but one of those chick flicks that is actually ok to go to. It had the guy who played the main character in Napolean Dynamite in a supporting role.

Definitely worth seeing. And if it gets you out of the house away from the kids. All the better

As I left the house today I said goodbye to the boys we went over our usual list of requests for the day.

“Be good, and be nice to mommy!”

I realized we might have a lot more work to do as the boys then continued with the requests

• “And not fight each other?”
• “And not cough on babies?”
• “Not pull the cats tail?”
• “And not punch brother?”
• “And be nice to babies?”
• “And not hit Chloe?”

I’m sure they were still coming up with things as I went out the door. Now to all those people out there who say that you shouldn’t say “No” to your kids because it is too negative. “GET A GRIP”. Kids need to be told no often and regularly. Of course you should do it in love and not be a jerk about it, but one of the jobs that you have as a parent is making sure that your kids know what the bondries are. Society has rules and if you don’t know the rules then you will get in a lot of trouble. Sure there are times that boundries need to be crossed, but the understanding of when that is appropriate and where the boundries are is essential for making good decisions.

I’m proud of my boys and their desire to do what is right. Of course they drive me crazy because it seems that the desire is too often overcome by other temptations (just how loud will this cup crash on the floor?) but I love them and know that they will become great men someday

• “You touch that poop you eat it”
• “Don’t eat that book!”
• “Did you know your bench is dripping?

The boys fascination with dinosaurs continues even after a more scary visit to the dino park up in Ogden.

Tammy is doing such a great job raising these boys. She is continualy looking out for new activities for them to try and then goes out of her way to make it happen.

We now have almost every room free of boxes and are now starting phase 2 of the moving in process. Painting! We are going to have the kitchen a nice red and then look for good colors for the rest of the house. Something in yellow and beige I’ve been told (I just work here) Poor Tammy though, I am not always (ie hardly ever) the best person to work with when it comes to painting. I don’t know what my problem is, but I am not a “Happy when helping” painter.

Also this weekend we cleaned out the garage to the point where we could drive and park both cars in the garage. First time in our married life that we’ve had both vehicles covered.

When I drove up to the house after work today the door opened as soon as I stepped out of the car. Chloe looked like she had aged 7 years as she now had white hair all over.

Turns out that Owen went into the kitchen under the guise of giving Chloe some dog treats, but instead was throwing flour all around. So we had a nice version of Ice Capades with flour providing the necessay friction!

I am so lucky to have the best wife in the world who is the BEST mother for these two crazy boys.

Tammy I Love You!

We took the boys to the Park yesterday (A week ago). Even though it was freezing cold the boys had a great time! There is a new playground next to the duck pond and there were plenty of slides for different levels

The best part of the day was Chloe chasing the birds. There is a chain link fence that surrounds the pond where all the ducks are hanging out. Chloe didn’t realize this barrier was in place and started running full speed at a duck on the other side. He just sat there looking at her as if to say “Come on dog, just try to get me.” Well, Chloe did try, and it was awesome! Full speed straight into the fence. I could hear the ducks laughing as she turned tail and came running back to us. Awesome!

Since both of the boys and I are sick today I’m working from home. I’m keeping an eye on the boys while Tammy is at the gym. Staying with the boys over any extended period of time makes me really appreciate everything that she goes through each day with them.

The boys are in a very interesting stage right now where everything has to be done their way. Case in point.

Owen was in his high chair eating peanut butter crackers. He informed me that he was done and wanted to get down. So I went over and lifted him out of his chair. Usually after eating his hands are dirty and they need to be cleaned off. So when I inspected them and pronounced them clean, Owen was not happy. He was planning on having his hands cleaned, so dang it! that’s what we were going to do. He then proceded to climb BACK into his high chair and smear his hands in the peanut butter so that they could be washed off. He then told me that he needed to have his hands washed. So I obliged.

Tammy and I both have a pretty good stubborn streak, so I’m sure we are just getting our comeuppance. But MAN! these boys are fun.

We went and had ice cream at ColdStone last night. We figured that we didn’t get out on Monday as a family, so we were going to be flexible and go out on a different night.

The boys love sprinkles on everything. Of course they were going crazy when given all the different choices of toppings, running back and forth in front of the counter chosing each topping as their favorite. In the end we went with the topping that they mentioned the most number of times. Are we living in a democracy or what?

Very good ice cream and even though they had a lot of sugar in them they still went to bed. Of course we could hear them talking for an hour after putting them down, but they didn’t come out and eventually fell asleep.