Of course, as soon as you make a decision like that, things will conspire against you to thwart your plans. Tammy ran to the store to get matching shirts and pants for the boys and made it back in time to get everyone dressed. Once we got all the boys dressed up the messes started magically appearing. Owen soaked his shirt while trying to do his hair. Gavin slobbered all down the front of himself. Owen got a bloody nose on the way to the store.

Once we were in place it was time to position the boys. Not an easy task. Owen needed to be in the back so you couldn’t see his bloody shirt. Braeden had to hold Jackson in such a way that he didn’t look like he was dying. Gavin needed to keep his arms down and shirt on. Jackson is a baby, enough said.

All in all the boys did great. We got some great shots that really captured the boys personalities that we are going to love having in the years to come. We also got some great shots of Jackson that will be great to pull out for all Prom Dates. It may take another baby to get us back to the studio, but you can’t argue with the results.

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

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!

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!

Sledding at Grandma’s

Rocking New Years

Gavin and Mommy strutting their stuff

Getting silly with the popsicles

Hunting for Babies from djcramer on Vimeo.