Scott and I are so excited to announce the birth of our 5th little nephew…

Jackson Ray Cramer

Such a Perfect little Babe!
He was being so cute…I made sure Scott was ready with camera in hand for
every little yawn, smirk, and stretch!

Jackson is the is the son of Scott’s oldest brother Dan and his wife Tammy.  Baby Jackson did not want to come into this world easily….At a a healthy 9 pounds 6 ounces he decided he would like to enter this world posterior (meaning facing up instead of down.) This makes the process more painful, longer, and stressful on both mom and baby.  But Tammy did beautifully and brought this beautiful little boy into the world with a smile.

This is Dan and Tammy’s fourth son, they are amazing! The Cramers are a family of boys…
let me lay it out for you.

Scott’s Father Joe had one brother (no sisters)
Joe married Janet and they had 5 sons
Daniel…he married Tammy who has 5 brothers (no sisters) they now have 4 sons (no daughters)
Steven…married Elizabeth who has 3 brothers (no sisters) they are expecting a son in October
Scott
Jeff
Robert
As you can see we are a family of many men and few women, but if all the little boys are as cute as Jackson I say…
BRING ON THE BOYS!

Congratulations Dan and Tammy, he is adorable and we are SO excited for you!

Scott and I are so excited for our upcoming adventure in July…We are going with Mothers Without Borders to Zambia Africa!  Mothers Without Borders is a service organization that works with the orphaned children of Africa.  They have bought over 80 acres of land in Lusaka, Zambia where they are working to build a children’s resource center for the children that have been orphaned due to AIDS.  The progress that they have made over in Zambia is absolutely amazing! They have already built a housing facility for children where they are taken in and are taught about family structure and have access to education, counseling, vocational training, spiritual development, and health care.  It is so exciting, my family will be joining us on the excursion so we will be able to experience this all together! We will be staying right at the children’s resource center where we will take part in helping to build the school and health care facility on the grounds and work directly with the children who live there.  Not only is Mothers Without Borders working to create their own refuge for the children, but they support many other service groups in the area.  We will have the opportunity to serve in these organizations as well by working in orphanages, serving and feeding the street children of Zambia, helping with medical screenings, and much more.   I should have thought of posting this on my blog long ago…we are leaving on June 29th and will be there for the month of July, so the time is approaching quickly. They have given us a list of things that are desperately needed over in Zambia and we are working on gathering as much supplies as possible. If any of you are interested in donating and taking a part in this we along with the children of Zambia would greatly appreciate it! This is the list…

For Children’s Resource Center

Backpacks for kids- clean, strong, in good condition (Jansport, etc)

Flip flops- size 6-12, adult and 8-12 children

Sports bras, small, med large

Sweatshirts – children sizes 6 up to adult Medium

Dish Cloths and dish towels

For team activities:

Mini- Hygiene kits- washcloth, hand towel, full sized bar soap in Ziploc bag

Baby bed sheets and receiving blankets

Baby blankets, baby sleepers & pjs

Yarn, crochet hooks sizes g-k

6 inch paint brushes for oil based paint

latex gloves

Kids Camps

Soccer balls-please deflate

Pumps

Long rope suitable for group jump rope activities

Medicines for screenings:

Painkillers – adult, children, infant

Iboprofin and Tylenol 

Plastic Syringes- no needles

Anti fungal cream (lots & lots)

Eye drops, both saline and antibiotic

Cough syrup/drops

Antibacterial creams

BP Cuffs & Stethoscopes

Hydrocortisone cream

Antacids (tums, rolaids, etc)

Guaze pads

Small cups for dispensing liquids at the clinic

Latex gloves

Snack size Ziplocs for take home pills

Silver colored sharpie markers

Worm medication

Black medium point sharpies

Ace wraps

Band aids

Lice treatment

Medical tape

Deep Heat

We realize that many of the items on the list (medical supplies) will need to be new and unused so this can be difficult to just find around the house. But if any of you work at a doctors office or clinic it may be possible to get some donations!  This is a big project and we would appreciate any help we can get…please let me know if you have any questions. We cannot wait to meet these children and know that even just the smallest effort can make a big difference. You can checkout the website to find out more about the organization www.motherswithoutborders.org

This is a picture of some of the children living at the resource center

I have had a love hate relationship with my college career. One day I am loving my classes and feeling great about school and the next I am ready to drop all my classes and throw in the towel.  The fact that I have basically taken every other semester off to have adventures in Washington DC and Europe with Scott has really helped space things out, but has also made graduation get farther and farther away from me. I guess all I can do is take it one semester at a time and be grateful for the good days! (ok i am making it sound so horrible, i really do love school…especially now that i am in the advertising program, my classes are awesome.) But I have to say that when a semester comes to an end it brings a huge sigh of relief. On Tuesday after taking my last final I was walking to my car in disbelief that after cramming for finals and having a highly stressful week I only had 7 days to regroup before Spring semester would start. Then I saw this…

A kid on campus sporting his sword and sheeth.

Do these people really exist?

I was so happy! Seriously a huge smile came across my face, i cannot think of a better way to celebrate the end of a semester then with a good sword fight.

I have been waiting to post these amazing pics of little Sawyer until Erin sent out her birth announcements, so the day has finally come when I can share his photo op with the world!  Is he not the sweetest little boy you have ever seen? They happened to snap this picture at such a perfect moment, he is such a good baby he even smiles in his sleep! We have all had so much fun with Sawyer, we cannot get enough of him.  Sawyer is the first grandchild in both Jared and Erin’s family, he has all 8 of his great-grandparents, 4 grandparents, 7 uncles, 2 aunts, and a mommy and daddy who all love him to pieces…so you can just imagine how we are all fighting for our time with him!

With a face like this, how could I not be obsessed with him?

Scott and his older brother Dan decided to take a trip out to North Carolina to visit their bro Steven and his wife Elizabeth who are out there working for Cisco.  As you can tell I (Nicole) am writing this post and no, i was not on the trip so this should be interesting.  I couldn’t get Scott to write a post about his trip so I though I would give it a try.  I mainly wanted to write to thank Elizabeth for her hospitality and taking care of my husband for the weekend. Seriously, she was so great. She drove them around, gave them a tour of Raleigh, a tour of Duke, made them dinner, the list goes on and on. (and all of this while she was sick being 11 weeks prego.) They had such a good time.  When Scott’s parents had only been married for a year or two they moved out to N. Carolina so Joe could go to medical school at Duke.  They absolutely loved it and talk about their great memories all of the time, so when Steven and Biz had the opportunity to go out there for a year they were stoked.  Ever since they moved out there last July Scott and Dan have wanted to make a guys trip out to visit.  The highlight for Scott was Duke. He said the architecture was amazing and so European, it reminded him a lot of Oxford. Also just because all growing up he has rutted on Duke and finally got to walk the grounds.

The Duke Chapel

The inside of the chapel.

They spent the rest of the weekend checking out the local farmer’s market, visiting the North Carolina campus along with the Carolina Basketball Museum, eating delicious homemade meals (which he does not get at home,) and enjoying some good old male bonding time!

Thank you Biz and Steve for having the guys out to visit, they had a great time.

P.S.  I will not be letting Scott leave me home alone again any time soon. This was the first time we have been apart since we have been married, and I hated every second of it. I seriously didn’t even know what to do with myself for 5 days. So for selfish reasons I will be keeping him here with me.

On Wednesday we got a phone call from Scott’s mom, Janet, saying that his younger brother Robert had gotten his mission call in the mail, he was going to open it that evening. We were all so excited, this will be the 5th and final Cramer boy (minus future generations) to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! Amazing, Joe and Janet raised 5 Eagle Scouts, 5 BYU students, 5 Melchizedek Priesthood holders, and now 5 Missionaries! Now that is something to be proud of.  It was cool that night we were even able to have Scott’s older Brother Steven and his wife Elizabeth, who live in North Carolina, there via video chat. Our little nephew Gavin was so funny, he loved that he could talk and see them through the computer, check out how cute…

This video kinda spoils where he is going but…lots of rain= Everett, Washington! So exciting! We all had a bets on where he would be called and Robert totally guessed Washington! We are so excited for you Bobo, you will make an incredible missionary. A kid from our ward also got his call to Everett the same day, and they will both be reporting to me MTC on June 24th, kinda crazy, maybe they will be companions.

The next day we got a phone call from Steven and Elizabeth, they too had some very big news…THEY ARE EXPECTING! We are so so excited for them, their due date is the 3rd of October so they will have a little Halloween baby! By then Steven will be finished with his training for Cisco in North Carolina, and they will have moved to Oklahoma where he has taken a job. I am so happy for them, Elizabeth is from Oklahoma and has not lived at home since before college. She has been so patient and will now not only get to live close to home, but will have her mom near by to help with the little one. Congratulations, we love you!

This will be the second baby to join the Cramer clan in 2009, because Scott’s oldest brother Dan and his wife Tammy are expecting a little baby of their own on June 9th. This will be their 4th little boy, they are one man short of their own Cramer basketball team.  I cant wait for their little guy to get here. As you can see from the video above, Dan and Tammy officially make the cutest babies of all time.  We are so excited for you guys, congratulations!

Can I call these my ride? My new mode of transportation? Yes, these are my Rollerblades aka my in line skates! Since my poor car was smashed in that ridiculous accident, and by the way is still sitting out in front of our house because the other guy’s insurance is not claiming liability, I have been forced to think outside the box if I want to get around.

Scott and I have been sharing his car for the last week and a half which is SO fun considering he works towards Salt Lake and I commute to Provo for School. But on Thursdays and Fridays I don’t have school so Scott can just take the car to work, and if I get desperate I call my mom or dad for a ride (yes I feel like I am in middle school again waiting for my mom to pick me up, pretty soon I am going to be calling collect from a pay phone and setting myself a curfew so I can get a ride before the parentals go to bed.)

But today I was desperate and mom and dad were busy, so what did I do…I busted out the Rollerblades!

That’s right, I’ve been gettin my craft on with the arrival of two sweet little one’s in my life.  I absolutely love to quilt and sew, this does not mean that i am good at it, but I do enjoy it.

My first creation as of late was this cute rag quilt.

My lifelong friend Linds had a beautiful baby girl on January 23rd. They named her Keely Shae Draper. She seriously is gorgeous and so tiny, she was only 18 inches long. She is going to be perfect and petite just like her mom.  I was really sick the day she was born so I didn’t get to go see her until she came home from the hospital.

She was so little she had to wear the tiny shirts from the hospital for like a week until she could fit into her newborn clothes!

She is so precious, Congratulations Lindsay and Cody!

My 2nd project was this cute receiving blanket for my little nephew.

A few weeks before she was due, Erin and I found this adorable flannel fabric at our favorite fabric store, Material Girls Quilts in South Jordan. I decided to make her a cozy blanket out of it for little Sawyer.

Once again, I owe this footage to my little sis Sydney

Aren’t these noises just the sweetest you have ever heard!?! I love this little man with all of my heart.  I cannot believe we have gone our whole lives without him. Erin and Jared are doing so good, they are tired, but doing good. Parenthood just seems so natural (at least from my point of view, they are probably thinking, “what the heck are we doing?”) But they are great, I love you guys and your adorable baby…my nephew!!!

A couple of weekends ago the company Scott works for put on a pretty sweet concert (many of you probably know or even went to it)… MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice.  I really don’t know how to put it in words, maybe chaos, yes entertaining chaos would be what I’m looking for.  So funny, everyone comes to the concert decked out in 80’s get up ready for some retro oldies and Vanilla Ice opens up with his “new hit” Dirty South Side. You could read pure confusion written on everyone’s face, not to mention that at one point he had the entire crowd chanting “FAM-I-LY, FAM-I-LY.” Scott and I just kept looking at each other like, “what?” (Just for Dan and Tammy’s sake, clarification, it was more of a “Whhhhhaaaaat?”) Once he busted out the  Ice Ice Baby and Play that Funky Music things started to pick up.  MC Hammer came out with like 12 backup dancers and a full on choreographed show that was actually really good and fun to watch, the dancing was awesome.

Let me warn you before you watch this video, my little sis syd was in charge of filming. She must not have been aware that dancing while filming makes for pretty poor quality!

It was fun, my little brothers and sister got to come with us and get treated like big shots. They got all dressed up and were so excited. Up in the VIP room we got dinner and ice cream, but even better then that we got to sit in a separate room where all the exclusive VIP’s were like the Jazz players, it was pretty cool.

Poor Scott was so busy, he was running around the whole nights, but i guess hard work pays off cause he got his fair share of time with vanilla and hammer. He said they were actually pretty cool guys, but their days of fame are long gone. They are both like 45 and 50, not that that is way old or anything but to be rippin around rapping on stage and doing the running man for an hour straight…they may be a little old for that.

It turned out to be a big success for Scott’s company. Just as a side note for those of you who don’t really know what Scott does, he works for an investment firm called C3 Enterprises. This company (which he absolutely loves) owns a number of smaller companies that they help manage and grow into larger successful companies that can function on their own.  One of their largest companies is Groove. They sell and distribute satellite systems like Direct TV and Dish Network. They recently started a new company Nok, it’s a summer sales program to sell their Groove satellites. So this concert was a big kickoff for Nok. They got their name out there and were able to get some new recruits for this summer.
We all had so much fun!

Last week I was driving home with my dad and two brothers from playing tennis.  We were just driving along when the car two in front of us decides to flip a U out of no where. The WM semi in front of us had to slam on it’s breaks which forced me to slam on mine, right when I came to a complete stop a pickup truck slammed into the back of me and shoved me up under the semi. Talk about whip lash. My poor little mazda got munched in the front and back, sandwich style. Luckily none of us were hurt, just a little shaken up.  Yes, getting in an accident was scary and getting my car smashed is a pain, but working with the freakin insurance companies is definitely the worst part!