Pachelbel Bedtime

I love this! Do I hear an "amen!" out there from the other mommies and daddies?

Mommy Brain II

This is part II of what seems to be a continuing saga for me. You might remember awhile back I posted about Mommy Brain. Well, it seems that I have had another. one of these moments.

The picture is of a can of Allens Collard Greens, seasoned southern style. Now, never in my life have I had collard greens. I was at HEB today buying food for College Lunches tomorrow. We're having Mexican food, and I'm going to make some beans. Well, apparently I picked up a can of collard greens at the same time I got the cans of beans. Mommy Brain.

Yesterday, I picked Curtis up from work for lunch. When we got home, there was a street cleaner in our cul-de-sac. Thinking Micah would enjoy the big noisy truck, I quickly got him and Elizabeth our of the van. Turns out Micah is more than a little scared of the street cleaner, and ended up freaking out.

After lunch, we were getting ready to take Curtis back to work. Elizabeth went outside to get in the van, and came running back in, saying that the street cleaner was back. Nope. I had left the car running the entire time we were in the house for lunch. Mommy Brain.

Back to the problem at hand. Anyone want a can of collard greens, or have a suggestion as to what I should do with it?

I know....

I shouldn't post so much in one day. But I've been having to work to put Ben to sleep, which means I have lots of time for thinking and blogging.

So the most recent theme of thought has been blog titles. And I would love feedback. Here's what I'm thinking.

Stay the same.... Party of Five.
Controlled Krajca Chaos
Or in reality.... Krajca Chaos (no control about it!)
Krajca Confusion
Krajca Confessions

Hmmm. All good. Need feedback.

And I need for sweet Benjamin to quit screaming and go to sleep!

Last But Not Least

We have Benjamin's randomness.

1. Despite what a lot of people think, he is not our smallest baby.

2. He likes to talk. A lot!

3. When he's finished nursing, he pops off, so loudly that you can hear the pop, and lays there smiling, like he's saying thank you.

4. When we were in the hospital when he was born, he got kicked out of the nursery for crying too much.

5. Curtis and I dubbed him our "Prettiest Baby at Birth."

6. He and Micah share a room, and he usually ends up waking Micah up at least once during the night.

7. He had his infant cry for a lot longer than the other two. But he's making up for it now!

8. When he cries really hard, his belly button pops out.

As far as tags, if you want to be tagged, consider yourself tagged! :-) Grand-Daddy, this might be a good opportunity to revive your blog! And Grandma, this might be a good time to start blogging!

More soccer pics

Here are a few more pictures of our little soccer player in action. Here's what you do in Pee Wee Soccer.

You run.

You kick the ball.

You hug your friends and have a good time.

And at the end, you yell, "PEE WEE SOCCER!" and throw your hands in the air. Well, at least that's what you're supposed to do.

For Kristy Bell

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Micah's Randomness

1. The best belly laugh ever comes when he is tickled.

2. Micah loves squeezing into small places.

3. Picking on big sister is becoming an art form. And apparently, he needs to practice.... a lot!

4. Even though Micah is a big kid, he has the sweetest personality, unless you're Elizabeth.

5. My Mom has joked that Micah has puppy hands. Really big and he'll grow into them. They are the chubbiest hands!

6. When he talks on the phone, he'll say one random word, bye-bye, love you, and then he hangs up. Hot dog tops his list of random words.

7. If one year olds have best friends (which I think they do!), than Gracie Mae is Micah's best friend.

8. When Micah hugs, he now uses his arms, rather than just leaning.

No tagging today. I'll just wait for someone who has already been tagged to get on this! But if I did tag someone, it would be Hannah A, one of Micah's favorite people. Hint hint, Hannah.

Elizabeth's randomness

1. Elizabeth is scared of cars. I guess that's a good thing, but when she freaks out, and won't go into the parking lot, it makes thing challenging.

2. Her favorite store is Hobby Lobby. A close second is Target.

3. She thinks she can e-mail.

4. We got the name Elizabeth form Curtis' Grandmother and Carol from his Mom.

5. She uses the phrase, "love on me" when she's sleepy, or when she's afraid she's in trouble.

6. There hasn't been a book yet that she doesn't like, and want to memorize. Upon memorization, she "reads" the book to us, or corrects us when we read the book incorrectly.

7. She has a knack for retelling events in the most dramatic and comical way.

8. She loves to sing. Her current favorite songs are "Come Thou Fount" and "Nothing But the Blood" both of which are hymns.

Since none of the people I tagges yesterday have responded, we'll tag a few more people (all of who are mothers to Elizabeth's friends).
Kristy Nickles, Rachel Anderson, Sherry

Curtis' Randomness

1. He can swaddle a baby better than anyone else I've ever met.

2. He can be OCD about the most random things. Like his silverware.

3. Being the computer geek he is, he told me he, "thought he was falling in love with me" over IM.

4. Curtis' isn't a big reader.

5. He buys great jewelry!

6. Texas is the only state he's ever lived in, and if he has his way, it might stay that way.

7. Even though he doesn't have the greatest singing voice, he sings to the kids every night.

8. Curtis saved jars full of old coins, hoping that one of them would be worth something.

Oh, and it's time to do some tagging! Let's tag some of Curtis' friends.....
Michael, Matt, Charles and Kyle

Growing Boys

Today, both boys had well visits at the pediatrician's office. Here's the run down.

Micah, 18 months
33 lbs
35 1/2 inches tall
Basically, off the charts, big boy. The nurse said a lot of kids don't even hit 36 inches by the age of two, and Micah will hit it before two. So, we can all just imagine how big he will be as an adult! He had to get two shots, but after a lollipop, things began to look up.

Benjamin, 4 months
14 lbs 14 ozs
25 1/2 inches
He is in the 65th percentile for weight and the 75th percentile for length. The funny thing is that his head circumference is off the charts, and bigger than Micah's was at four months! The doctor said that Benjamin had amazing motor skills for a baby his age. Normally, babies are just rolling over from tummy to back. Benjamin can roll both ways with ease. Apparently that's rather rare for a third child since usually their older siblings baby them. But, since the other two are still young, he's having to fend for himself. Oh, and he got four shots and an oral vaccine.

Two healthy boys!

A Week of Randomness

Awhile back, several in the blogging world were doing 8 Random Things, a list about oneself that is nothing but random. I loved it! So here's mine. My hope is to write 8 random things about each of my family members this week.

Kierstyn's Randomness

1. I like to have chunks in my icecream.... chocolate, nuts, brownies..... but not fruit!

2. I can make cookies in the amount of time it takes to preheat the oven.

3. By nature, I'm not a very organized person, but I am trying!

4. I've never passed out.

5. My family used to call me Grace.

6. When I started college, I either wanted to be a teacher or a dental hygienist. For those of you who didn't know me before my mommy days, I taught middle school for two years.

7. I like to dip my french fries in my frostie.

8. One of my biggest fears is having the house catch fire.

Stay tuned, tomorrow I'm going to do Curtis' Randomness.

Anthony!

On Friday, our best friends Michael and Christi, welcomed their second child, and first son, into the world. This picture was taken less than an hour after he was born. He was so alert! Isn't he beautiful, I mean handsome? :-)
The proud new parents
Christi and I.

Michael and Christi have been there to celebrate the birth of each of our children. We are so excited to be there with them as they begin the next chapter of their lives with two beautiful gifts from God. Alexis and Anthony are very blessed to have two wonderful parents, and Michael and Christi are very blessed with two wonderful children. We love you guys! Congratulations!

For the record

All three of my children are taking naps! This, my friends, is the result of answered prayers. Thanks Hannah! Now I'm off to either take a nap or do something highly profitable.

soccer

Yesterday, Elizabeth had her first day of soccer! Trying to be the very realistic parents, we weren't expecting much from the whole thing, especially on the first day. But Elizabeth surprised us! The first thing they worked on was dribbling the ball, kicking with the inside of your foot, and not using your hands. It was really cute to watch Elizabeth run around the field with her hands behind her back! A neat thing that they do is have a parent participate with the child. Curtis was just about as excited as Elizabeth!
She took a quick play break with Piper, her friend who is also in Pee Wee Soccer, back was ready to get back on the field.
Here she is perfecting her kick.

This was when that batteries in my camera died. After some kicking practice, they shot goals. Elizabeth really like this part, and was excited when at the end of the class she could make a goal from where the cones where (about five feet). She really loved it when I would yell, "Yay, Elizabeth!" and Micah would clap.

Look-a-like

Well, I'm not sure I agree with the whole look-a-like meter thing. But before I tell you who we think the kids look like, what do you think?

Oh, and does anyone else this it's a little suspicous that all three kids look equally like mom and dad?

A few pictures

I was noticing that it had been several blogs since I had shown off my kids. Tragedy! Here are a few pictures from this weekend. Micah, "flying" on Mommy's feet.
Benjamin's new Aggie outfit. Yeah, the hat was a little low. :-)
The one picture that we have from the whole Waco fiasco. This was taken at breakfast on Sunday morning at the hotel. Elizabeth was telling the events of the previous day.

A long night

Here's how our night went

9:45 Check into hotel
9:55 Begin unloading van and getting kids into hotel. Notice a large group of jolly people.
9:56 Homeless man approaches us for money.
10:00 Homless man in baptized in hotel pool by the group of jolly people, one of whom (apparantly) was a minister.
10:15 Get Micah down in room while Curtis walks Benjamin in hallway, trying to get him to sleep while Elizabeth and I get a little snack.
10:45 Both boys are asleep, now we try to get Elizabeth asleep.
11:15 Give up on getting Elizabeth to sleep, and Curtis and I go to sleep.
1:00 Benjamin wakes up.
1:30 Benjamin wakes Micah up.
The next several hours are spent trying to get the boys back to sleep. In the middle of all that, Benjmain has a MASSIVE blow out diaper, dirtying his PJ's, his blanket and Curtis' shirt.
3:10 Get Benjamin to sleep. Curtis leaves to try to drive Micah to sleep.
4:00 Even though the driving dind't work, Micah is finally asleep.
7:00 Benjamin wakes me up.
7:30 Micah is up, as is everyone else in the family.

Thankfully, the hotel had a really nice breakfast, we got oru new tires, and made it home at about 1:00.

Here's hoping the rest of our week isn't as exciting as out weekend!

A change of plans

Tomorrow, Curtis' and my niece is being dedicated. Curtis and I really wanted to be there to share in the special day with Chris and Terra. So, we made plans to head up to Wichita Falls, spend tonight with Curtis' Dad, then surprise Chris and Terra at church in the morning.

Surprise is on us!

We were driving down Hwy 6, just about 200 yds from our exit in Waco. I was in the back trying to help the kiddos go to sleep when I hear a terrible noise. I quickly tell Curtis to pull over, but he can't, we're on a bridge. Then there's too much stuff on the side of the road. Finally we get off, and just as we suspect, our back right tire is flat. We call our insurance, and have someone come out to help us.

At this point, it's about 8:20 and there are so tire places open. The road side assistance gets there, and put our donut no, but we can't go more than 50 miles on it. We're 90 miles from home. A very nice man at Pep Boys was staying late to see if we could patch the tire. But, when we got the tire off, we quickly learned that there was no patching that could fix it, we would need a new tire.

So tonight, we are staying at a hotel in Waco. Tomorrow, we will go buy a new tire and head home. Even though we are very disappointed to not be able to join our family for Charleigh's dedication, we are very thankful that we are safe and sound. Oh, and thanks Mom for your help finding a hotel and getting in touch with the nice tire man!

dehydration

This past Monday was the first game in the fall softball season. It was also the first day of ballet, so it was a little bit of a crazy day. To make life a little simpler, we had Little Cesar's pizza, which included a 2 liter of soda.

Here's the conversation we had about soda at dinner.

E: Can I have some soda mommy?

Me: No.

E: Why not?

Me: Because I don't want you to get dehydrated before Daddy's softball game.

There was then an explanation of what dehydration is... when your body doesn't have enough water. At the softball game that evening, Elizabeth has the following conversation with Lindsay.

E: I couldn't have soda at dinner.

L: How come?

E: Because Mommy doesn't want me to get hedydrated. That's when your body doesn't have enough water.

And off she walked, thinking she had just explained something new to Ms. Lindsay.

Mommy Brain

I had heard of preggo brain... where you can't think straight during your pregnancy and can blame it on the little life growing inside of you and sucking away brain cells. Now, I am thankful that at this moment I DO NOT have preggo brain. But I do have a bad case of Mommy brain. Here's an example from today.

I went to Wal Mart for an odd assortment of items... a toaster, milk, broccoli, glue... only the Bryan Wal Mart would meet my needs (For those of you not from this area, the Bryan Wal Mart is the Super Wal Mart). So, I bravely loaded up the kids between naps, and headed out with the people my momma refers to as "the unwashed masses." OF course, I had forgotten my list on the kitchen table. Mommy Brain.

I head to the check out, thinking that I have gotten everything. After picking what I hope is the shortest and fastest lane, I realize I forgot diapers. Mommy Brain. After fetching said diapers, I head back to the check out. I take my purchases and children out to the van, only to realize that I forgot the crescent rolls, one of the main ingredients in Veggie Bars. Mommy Brain.

Being the loving wife I am (ha!) I take a 12 pack of Diet Dr. Pepper to my hard working husband. While he is loving on the kids, I open the wrong van door. Mommy Brain.

I get home, only to realize that I can't find my broccoli. Mommy Brain? I"m not sure. I don't even know what happened to my broccoli! Weird.

After nap time, I go to pick Curtis up from work. I had to get out of the van to get Elizabeth's snack, which had fallen onto the floor. Curtis comes out, and stops abruptly, pointing at the ground. I look, and he's pointing to a Wal Mart bag which has part of my groceries (including the broccoli!). Of course half of the groceries are now bad from sitting out in the sun for two hours. Apparently I lost a bag of groceries when opening the wrong door for Curtis. Mommy Brain.

So tonight, I went back to the Bryan Wal Mart, to pick up pictures, and to replace my lost and spoiled groceries. I'm not even going to go into details about the craziness of the Wal Mart! But the most annoying thing was that there was no one there to get me my pictures, which was the whole reason I went to Wal Mart rather than HEB!

Now, I'm going to bed to rest my Mommy Brain.

Paradise

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The things kids say and do....

Elizabeth was talking to herself in the bathroom mirror. She came out and told me (she was pretending), "Micah was a bad boy. For punishment, I locked him in the bathroom." Sure. That's logical!

Micah found the pepper at a restaurant, and of course felt the need to dump it out. I moved it, finished putting his shoes on, only to realize that he had the salt. I told him to brush off his hands. He stuck his hands in his hair, and pretended to brush his hands in his hair.

zoo

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Day at the zoo

Today, we went to the zoo! My kids had never been, so it was a fun day for all. all the kids had on their "zoo shirts", which were coordinating safari shirts.


Elizabeth had a giraffe on her shirt. She was very excited to see the giraffes, especially the baby giraffe. The day got even better when we were able to feed the giraffes! At first, she was very nervous, but after she let Micah give it a try, she was good to go. The funniest part was when the giraffe was looking for more food, and started licking Elizabeth on the neck.


Micah had a rhino on his shirt, which says "Rhino Crossing." Maybe it was because he had been hearing "rhino" all day long, but he was very excited to see the rhinos. Before we left the rhino habitat, he was saying, "nino" and pointing to his shirt. At the end of the day, Grandma took us to the gift shop, and guess what Micah found... a rhino! Micah had a lot of fun at the zoo. I think his least favorite part was feeding the giraffe, who managed to get his lips all the way around Micah's arm.

Benjamin did a very good job. By the end of the trip, he was hot and tired! The most fun he had was hanging out in his Grandma's arms, just taking in all the sights and sounds.

Hopefully, I will be able to upload all the pictures we have soon, and make a slide show. We got some great pictures with Grandma and Aunt Shannon. It was a great day!

Fishing with Grand-Daddy

The kids and I are in Wichita, Kansas spending the last part of the summer with my parents. They just bought a new house, and moved in this past week. One of the perks of my parents beautiful new home is a pond, complete with fish. Grand-Daddy bought both Elizabeth and Micah fishing poles. While Micah hasn't had a chance to use his yet, Elizabeth has. Here are some pictures from her first fishing adventure. Grand-Daddy explaining that part of being a fisherman is being patient. That was a hard lesson to learn for Elizabeth.

My favorite picture.

Future Aggies

Class of 2026, 2028 and 2029