Merry Christmas

           We hope everyone is enjoying the season and remembering the wonderful blessings that come from the gift the Savior gave to each of us. Our year has been full of blessings that have brought us closer together and closer to the Savior.
           Lana is growing like a weed. She enjoys everything life has to offer and takes advantage of all there is to learn about. She has started to sing along to songs and enjoys playing the piano and drums. She is also our little artist who spends countless hours drawing and coloring. She loves the idea of her baby brother and enjoys kissing my belly. This year she has really taken in the Christmas season and has found a love for Christmas lights. We have taken her out a couple of times to cruise around Albuquerque to see some well decorated homes.
          Larry has spent most of the year as a full time student. The company he was working for was sold and we decided there is no better time for him to gain an education. He has declared his major in Psychology and is still deciding if he wants to be a counselor or get his doctorate and become a clinical psychologist. The expected graduation date from UNM is 2011. He is our A student who enjoyed most of his classes. He is very active in the church and doing service. He has been a great dad spending a lot of time working with Lana. He has been pretty successful with potty training Lana so far.Larry was called as a Sunday school teacher of the 12 and 13 year old. He loves every moment of teaching.
        Nina has been a busy bee as well. In June we found out that we are expecting our 2nd child. We have enjoyed the pregnancy and are excited about the new baby boy that is joining the family. Nina is still in school and should have her associates by the end of Spring term 2011. At some point she will finish up at Highlands University. She is still working as a pharmacy technician and plans to work up to her due date. She is looking forward to the break from doing both work and school. She loves being mom and tries to find time to do fun things with Lana. She was recently called as a Young Womens adviser for church. She has enjoyed teaching the classes and working with the girls.
        All in all it has been a fun year full of adventure. We look forward to the coming year with all the blessing we have coming. We look forward to being sealed together on January 2nd and Maximus coming in February. We hope everyone has a wonderful and safe holiday season.

Big news!!

Larry and I are very excited to announce that we are going to the temple on January 2, 2010. We have worked so hard for this and are very grateful for all the preparation we have taken to get here. We are ready to take this next step in our lives and make the life long commitment that is involved. We are also very excited to be sealed together as a family, which we are doing on the same day. It's an exciting moment in our lives that we can barely wait for.
We are very grateful for all the love and support we have received from family and friends. We know how important this moment will be for the rest of our lives. We are blessed with so many wonderful people that have contributed to the happiness we feel in our lives.

November

November has been an exciting month. Our pickle bug celebrated her 2nd birthday with lots of friends and family. I couldn't believe our little home held so many people. It was a great time and wonderful company! She really enjoyed being sung to and eating her cake.
The picture of the car above is from November 28th from the Twinkle Light Parade in Albuquerque. It was a lot of fun. The rain was a little bit of a bummer but we all stayed pretty warm and dry.


Of course it's that wonderful time of year when joy, thanksgiving and thoughtfulness is in the air. There is something about Christmas time that just makes the soul sing. For the McCracken household its time for lights. We have our house decorated and are sharing our joy with all who want to see it. We are hoping each year it can get bigger and better. Larry really enjoys putting up the lights and did a pretty fantastic job! We plan on putting our tree up here really soon. We seem to keep our selves so incredibly busy this year. Good news is that the semester is almost over for a nice little break!

We were able to spend Thanksgiving with my parents, sibilings, The McQuarries and Larry's parents; all at one time!! It was great. It was a feast with a lot of people. I couldn't imagine life any other way. I love being surround with people that I love and love me. After the big gathering, Larry and were able to make it to his Grandma Smith's house to again, be surrounded by wonderful loving company. We showed up a little early and were able to visit and hear cool stories from Grandma. it was a great Thanksgiving and we truly are grateful for all the blessings in our life. Our 1 1/2 kids, who have really brought us joy, for the gospel, for repentance, for family, for school and the support we give each other to make all our dreams come true.

YUM!!

Since I have been pregnant, Larry and I have been a lot better about our time management. I have tried to incorporate more baking into my time. I really love cooking/baking and being in the kitchen. The best part is Larry gets such a sweet tooth when I am pregnant so all my goodies have a place to go. I found this website on my friend Jessica's blog and took a look at all the cute ideas for treats. I found this recipe for pumpkin bites that look so magically delightful. I thought I would share it with everyone, since they look so dangerous. I hope to make them here soon. When I do I will let everyone know how they are.

http://www.bakerella.com/pumpkin-pie-bites/

I'm blue.......

So there is nothing like doing your homework and thinking your child is quietly playing or watching the T.V. I suppose for the first rule of parenting is: If you can not hear your child check on your child. A quiet child is always bound to be getting into something.

Larry and I were busy doing our homework the other day thinking how well behaved our little angel was being. Larry was on the phone when little miss angel comes up to me with blue hands. I was far from happy that she had colored her hands and left her in the living room with her daddy to get a baby wipe to clean. Needless to say a baby wipe was far from what we needed. When I made my way back to the living room I found Larry laughing as hard as he possibly could and Lana as embarrassed as can be. Not only did she manage to color her hands, and her mouth, she decided to color from her chest down to her pants. I couldn't believe her. She was a huge mess.




Our little artist in training. Why she had to pick herself as her the canvas I don't know.

Flying kites

We bought a kite at Smith's that was marked down. We had so much fun flying the kite and playing at the park. It was a lot of fun. It's amazing that the wind is strong enough in the fall to enjoy the kite.

Balloons

We took the time out to check out the balloons on opening day of the Balloon Fiesta. It was pretty neat. We didn't go to the actual balloon fiesta park, we went close enough to get a good view. We were able to see the balloon inflate and everything from where we were. It beat sitting in traffic and dealing with all the people.

Chase that balloon!!

Some Sunday mornings are more eventful then others. This happened to be one of them. This past Sunday (September 20th) Larry was making his special Sunday breakfast when out little outdoor toddler spotted hot air balloons. Our house is a good place to watch balloons, they constantly fly over us. Last year one landed up the street from our house.

We saw how excited Lana was about the balloon, so when we saw two descending close to our house we jumped in the car and followed them. My work is about 2 or so miles away from the house and a lot of balloons land in the open lots. Lana and Larry had seen one land up the street from my work about a week earlier. Well anyways we followed one balloon to find a different balloon getting ready to land. We pulled up just in time to watch it land.

While we were out watching the balloon be taken down, Lana got so scared. The loud noise that the burner made scared her so bad she wouldn't let us put her down.

Zoo trip

Mama, Lana and a Zebra. Lana kept saying neigh neigh. At least she gets the idea of sound to animals. She loved them. It was hard to make her part from them.
The elephants were also a hit. We stayed and watched them a while. They were very animated and full of life. The little one was a ham and a half. A train went by and scared them so bad they were circling each other and in a protective circle. I didn't know elephants made such crazy noises. One resembled a lion growl, who would have ever thought.

The zoo was a lot of fun this past week. Even though we all caught a little cold. Lana really liked the seals, but it was hard to catch her and a seal in the picture at the same time. Even though she barely slept the night before and woke up early she was a fairly happy camper. She enjoyed most of the animals. Yes, it's true she only enjoyed some of them. She wasn't a fan of the apes.

Here she is hiding from the gorilla. She really disliked them. She kept hiding her face and saying ewe and ahh. She cried some when we set her down to look in the window. She didn't even want to see them. She waved at one and then got shy and scared.

This guy cracked us up. He was peeking at people. It is a very playful large kitty. Lana loved him though. Our camera kept dying so we didn't get a whole lot of pictures. We hope to go to the zoo again next month before school goes into full swing. Its something we can afford to do other then the wonderful hiking and cruising around we do.

To Fenton and beyond

We spent the last part of our week camping at Fenton Lake in the Jemez mountains. It was beautiful and wonderful weather. I am very glad to report the bugs were few in numbers. There was mostly nats, which I can deal with it. Our camp site was a prime location for chipmunks, which at first were cute and enjoyable. They soon became a slight annoyance and were everywhere. The only other animal run in we had was with some racoons trying to find something to eat and bothering the near by dumpster. Lana did very well with everything. She didn't cry too much and she only threw one tantrum when she was tired, over some dogs she saw

We spent Friday looking around at the hatchery, fishing and hiking. It was a busy day that left us with a tired baby. She had a blast fishsing, granted she needed a lot of helping casting and was more interested in the passing trucks.

One happy kid!

The Hatchery

Lana helping Daddy with the fire

The flower Lana picked for me :)

Helping with the tent set up
All in all it was a wonderul trip and the families that stayed next to us were both wonderful and very kind. We were able to enjoy a beautiful mountain rain storm on Friday afternoon. We made a shelter and ate some soup with it pouring. Nothing is a bigger reminder of God's love then being out in the open with nature. We enjoyed our fires with nice long talks and readings. We are excited for our next big camping adventure. We stopped off at Soda Dam and stopped for Indian tacos and frito pie on the way back to reality.

Here ducky ducky ducky

Today we decided to take a trip to the duck pond. Trying to get our daily walk in can sometimes be trying. We enjoyed our little family trip, having some good laughs at Lana. We fed the ducks, turtles and fish. Oddly I never knew turtles or fish ate bread, but we figured they have adapted to their their life in the pond!

Baby Due Date!!

It's offical the baby's due date is Febuary 28th, 2010! We had orignally thought Febuary 5th, as did the doctor but the sonogram says the 28th. The baby is healthy and has wonderful measurments and a very good heartbeat, 169 beats :) We are very excited about the baby and are already planning how we are going to fit everything.

our grass

We have succesfully planted grass in the desert!!! It has come in very full and green!! We are very excited!!

Where's your car?

Well Sunday morning was a beautiful morning, like any other. Larry got up early as usual to water the grass in the back yard, eat breakfast and study. Me, being the lazy pregnant mommy I am, was still in bed getting some rest with the buggy monster. Larry went to open up the blinds to let the morning sun in and in shock he ran back asking "Where's your car?". I don't know if I have ever jumped out of bed so fast! He ran back to the living room and ran back in asking me "where is your car?". All I can think is, where ever you parked it last night. Very puzzled I ran to living room and to my surprise it was gone!!!

Someone had stolen our car Saturday night. In a panic I called the police and rushed to get ready. Larry ran out to his car to find it had been riffled threw. The cop came and got all the info he needed and told us that 14,000 cars were stolen in 2005 and 10,000 were recovered. All we could hope is that we could find our car because we couldn't afforde another one. The cop also told us the owner tends to spot their car long before the cops. Well we quickly got ready and jumped in the Maxima, which I should add was having some car problems (which ended up being a broken coil). we drove around sad and disheartened. My parnets called and brought us lunch and sat and talked with us, helping us with some other options. Well my parents had some things to do and said their goodbyes.

As we sat in defeat so sad, my mom called "I found your car! I found your car! Whooo HOO!!!" I couldn't believe the words she was saying. They found my car 2 blocks away from our house with out a scratch! Some low tires but that is minimal. We went to them and waited for the police and CSI. We were able to take our car home. The bum used 1/2 a tank of gas (my Versa didn't even use a full tank from ABQ to Durgango. 1/2 a tank can last me a while!). I am guessing they went about 50 miles. I am so glad we found our car the same day it was lost! We have had the keys changed and the computer reset.

What a Sunday it was.

adding on to the family

Great news! We are pregnant again!!! We are very excited. The "d-day" is Febuary 5th, 2010. We can't wait and are very excited to the addition to our family. We are a little over 6 weeks (yes we have a long way to go!)

Small update

I know I am horrible at keeping this up! I am staying pretty busy with school and work and then life :) Lana has seemed to adjust very well to having daddy home with her. Larry, for those that don't know, was laid off in April. He spent a month working on our yard and spending time with Lana. He is now back in school and enjoying his classes. We have somewhat adjusted to the bump in our road. We are looking into both going to school full time and working part time. I may just take a class as I can and continue to work full time until he finishes school. Daddy has been wearing our angel out during the day. She can't even stay awake to enjoy Blue's Clues :)

We bought Lana a little pool, well it was bigger then expected, that she has enjoyed swimming in.Larry and I have jumped in with her. She is a very active child. She loves to dance and draw. I had my study guide out and found her coloring in my body parts for me. She will know the muscles in her body better then anyone else now. We are BioPark Society members, isn't that nifty, and took a trip the zoo around the time of our anniversary, We have been trying our hardest to keep activities going on. Our schedules are so busy that we just need a break!

All on all we have been pretty good. We have planted 3 trees in our yard. 2 Aspens and an Autumn Blaze Maple. Our yard is finally starting to look alright. Our neighbors have been very happy with it. We had big plans for the yard but with the lay off we bought them on hold. Our run down shack is become a beautiful palace that we have fallen in love with.

I am still working on gettin my personal training certification. I am hoping with it I can have more free time to be mom and student. Working in the pharamacy has been alright but its not the business for me.

I will try to keep up better then I have!

hunting

Lana's big thing lately is to put objects into baskets/boxes/canisters and such. So Easter was right up her alley. Unfortunetly the wind was so bad and cold we couldn't have the hunting outside. It has also rained the night before and we have nothing but dirt in our yards. It's kind of awful!! Lana had fallen alseep while everyone was over, after she ate some BBQ. When she woke up we did some hunting in the living room. She is one funny kid, she gathered her eggs in her basket and later put them into her purse. I think she had a good time.

We really enjoyed our Easter. It was busy but fun. The sacrament meeting was wonderful. Some really great performances. It was also nice to see family and spend time with everyone!

Easter cookies

We decided to do cookies with Lana. We bought sprinkles for her to use and man was it messier then expected!! She managed to dumb all the stars on one cookies and was stamping them with the shakers. We really enjoyed spending this time with her. We don't always have enough time to do fun little activites with her like this. We both really enjoyed it.

Larry's transformation!

For those that may not know, Larry has taken a huge interest in body building. He loves the gym and very dedicated to it. Right now he is training to be a personal trainer as is planning to finish his certification by May. Many who see him now forget how far he has come! He is bigger now, still trying to get to his goal weight before he cuts down some. He is proud of his 365 lb deadlift!! he did 5 sets of 5.

Lana has been going to Gymboree for a couple of months now and really loves it. We are working on being more independent, which is a huge issue for her. She is a very cautious mommy loving girl. Getting her to go on the obsticales alone has been difficult. She is very weary of other children as well. She is growing so fast! 

We have been finding a lot of "art" on our walls lately. Thank goodness for paint!! Even better is she has parents that like to redecorate! We have been working on the house some more. We took a small hiatus, because of work and school. We just redid our kitchen floor and painted our bedroom. 

Ou Bedroom was all blue before, but we decided to leave one wall blue and do the rest brown.

     Here is our finished project!

                                                            Lana is all about helping dad!

    This is everything we found under our floor