Wedding pictures

A good Friday night

A few things that make for a good end to a long week.

Roses from Curtis.
A clean kitchen.
Three sleeping babies.
Strawberry smoothies.
Home-made nachos.
And..... HARRY POTTER!

Yep, we're still not done. but reading it together has been lots of fun.

Pics from dinner

We had lasagna! "What do you mean it's GONE?!?!"

Not as bad as Curtis might have thought.

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What I found in Elizabeth's bed

Five books
Two pillows
Three decorative pillows
One teddy bear
One sippy cup
Several pieces from the doll house
A naked baby doll
Clothes for the naked doll
The doll swing
A puzzle

During her quiet time, she told me, "Mommy, fell out of bed and hurt my back. There's too much stuff in my bed, can you help me find some room?"

What Micah learned

Today, Micah learned that if you throw a hanger at your Mommy, who is holding your baby brother, you will get quite a reaction. And, if you do it again, to get the same reaction, you will get in trouble with Daddy.

Thoughts on spanking

You know you are a "good" spanker when the child asks for the other parent.

You know you have given a "bad" spanking when the child pats you on the leg and says, "Thanks for the soft spanking."

Girly Time

Elizabeth and I had a little bit of girly time today, and here's what we did.

Family Friendly

Despite the use of the bad word "poop" (apparently twice), our family blog has received a rating of G.

Krajca Visit

This weekend, Curtis' Dad and his wife, and Curtis' brother and his family came to visit. We've had a great time seeing our adorable niece, Charleigh and our nephew Justin, who can DRIVE! Here are a few pics from this weekend.

The Krajca cousins

Aunt Terra holding Benjamin next to Charleigh
Aunt Terra and Benjamin
Aunt Kierstyn, Charleigh and Uncle Curtis

Papaw and Memaw with the kids

Memaw and Benjamin

I've got it!

Harry Potter, book 7, went on sale at 12:01 am today. I was in line at 11:30, ready to pick up my book. My equally anxious best friend, Christi, and I went to Wal Mart at 8:00 pm to get our bracelets. These read bracelets insured us a place in line for the book. I felt bad for poor Christi, who is 7 months pregnant, as we stood in line for almost at hour.

But, I know she would say that it was all worth it! Plus, we can add it to our list of good Harry Potter memories, though this one doesn't top my all time favorite of sitting in line to see the third movie, while I was nine months pregnant. the best part was Curtis and Michael trying to get me up once the line started moving.

Good times!

Matchy-match

Another attempt at a family picture. Here we are getting ready to do to Curtis' softball game. We all have matching "jerseys" with Curtis' number on the back. I know, kinda corny. Benjamin has a baseball onsie that works perfectly.

If that's what they're like in public...

... I can't help but wonder what they're like in private.

Today Elizabeth and I were in the bathroom at the public pool. There was a mom, who had two girls ages four and two (I guess). This mom was trying to get her youngest ready for swim lessons, the older was chatting up a storm and asking the favorite question, "why?" rather than getting ready for swim lessons. The mom turned to her and said, "Just shut up, and get ready!"

I know the frustration that she must have been feeling. I feel it all the time! Yet I was shocked at hearing that mother telling her daughter to shut up. This mom is also in Micah and my swim class, so I get to "watch" her a little more. She just seems uptight, on the edge, and not happy about being a mom.

It was convicting to me as a mom. I know that motherhood isn't always sunshine and roses. And there have been times when I've lost my "Mommy Cool". And I'm not trying to say that I'm the perfect mom. The conviction was for me to remember that in all times and even in the most frustrating situation, I should show my children Christ. That is the highest calling of motherhood, to point my children to Christ. And when I don't, I need to ask their forgiveness, and repent.

I was also reminded to savor the joy of motherhood. It seems like most of the time I am spending my time worrying about the laundry, the appointments that I might be running late for, and what's for dinner. But that's not what it's about. The time that I had with my children today, is over. I will never again get those moments back. I need to remember the blessing that my children are, and savor the joy that they bring.

There are my thoughts on motherhood for the day.... maybe even for the month! :-)

The Mommy Challenge

Two of my friends, Rachel and Hannah, encouraged all of the blogging moms out there to take pictures with their children, rather than always being the parent behind the camera. Here's what I have to show from the challenge.

The Johnston Stomp

Here's Elizabeth, doing what Curtis affectionately calls, "The Johnston Stomp." When Elizabeth gets mad, or frustrated, she stomps her foot. Curtis noticed fairly quickly that I too stomp my foot when I become mad or frustrated. When Curtis and my Dad were playing racquet ball once, and my Dad made a play he wasn't pleased with, he stomped his foot. So apparently, it's not just the brown eyes and good looks that Elizabeth and I inherited.

Save the Raccoon?

If you are a faithful reader of our blog, you will recall a certain incident with a raccoon in our garage (see June 22nd). Since then, we have become increasingly aware of any friendly critters which might happen upon us at night. We have seen the same raccoon a few other times, prompting Curtis to thing about calling Animal Control to get some traps. But who wants to deal with that?

Part of me says, "Yeah, get the dirty nasty creature!!!"

The other part of me remembers a movie I saw as a child (presumably Disney) about a sweet, cuddly, friendly raccoon, who became trapped in a house that was being moved.

Most of me is leaning towards the nasty night creature though. So, I say, "NO! Don't save the raccoon!" Let's get that crazy raccoon! In a nice humane way of course.

Meow Poop

While we were in Kansas for Megan's wedding, we stayed in this big, beautiful house in the middle of no where. It was so nice to all be together in such a beautiful house! Since this house was out in the country, there were a couple of cats. One of the cats got in at some point, and here's the story of what happened.

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My Job

When we pulled into the Wal Mart parking lot today, Elizabeth asked me, "Is this where you work?" I replied, "No sweetie, Mommy doesn't work." "Yes you do Mommy! You work on the dishes. And you and Daddy work on picking up!"

The world may not see the value in what I do, but I think my daughter might be figuring it out.

The whole thing makes me appreciate, respect, and value everything that my Mom did for my sisters and I.

1 year old

How to keep Micah busy:

Water and dirt. 'Nough said.
I love how even though Micah is a big one year old, he loves squeezing himself into tiny little areas. We are always finding him between furniture, under furniture or in cabinets.

Give him a bag of pretzels, and he'll busy himself. Sometimes they even end up in his mouth!

Any outside activity is greatly enjoyable! Even when the mosquitos are eating him for dinner.
Always stay hydrated! The cute thing Micah does is take a drink, run around, take a drink, run around some more... so on, so forth. No wonder he's so thirsty!

The Arnold

Our friends from church, the Arnolds, have a little girl who is only three weeks younger than Elizabeth. Here's a picture of the two of them from this evening, while all Mommys and Daddys were out having "adult time". Thanks for the pic Dayna!
The Arnold have also just welcomed Will into their family. Will is three days older than Benjamin! About nine or ten months ago, Erin and I were driving together. She told me, "I'm going to the doctor tomorrow, I'm pregnant, due on the 27th of May!" My response, "Me too!" It was hilarious!

God has blessed us with many wonderful, Christian friends. We are especially blessed with the Arnolds and their children. Now I'm working on getting them to adopt a little boy Micah's age. :-)

Cell Phone Pics

Sometimes, in the midst of the chaos, I can't get my camera fast enough. But, I can always get my hands on my cell! Here are a few pics that I find adorable.

Benjamin, wondering how in the world he is going to survive this crazy family! That, or he's coming up with the next medical break through.
Is there something on my face? Good thing I'm so cute!
A career as a beautician is not in this little girls future. Yes my friends, that is a comb rolled into her hair.

Elizabeth-ism

On Sunday, I was putting Elizabeth in the van after church. Because of my skirt, and the angle I was at, I kinda "threw" her into her seat. Thankfully, I ha a really good hold on her. Apparently, it was too good of a hold, because she told me, "Owie Mommy! You hurt my blood!"

How Much

Even though I'm not exactly new at this whole Mom thing, there are still some things that amaze me. Like....

How much laundry three little people make.
How much in town gas mileage SUCKS!
How much milk we go through in a week.
How much those gallons of milk cost.
How much I change Benjamin.
How much I change Micah's clothes.
How much time my daughter will spend watching PBS.
How much peanut butter gets eaten.
How much I'm learning to hate certain songs on the kids' CDs.
How much I love bed time.
How much I love taking my kids outside to wear them out.
How much fun Chuck E Cheeses can really be, especially with a three year old.
How much I love watching the kids sleep.

I guess that's one of the fun things about being a mom. There's always something happening that amazes you, even if it is just the laundry.

Target

Today I made my first trip to the store with all three kids by myself. I felt like a side act at the circus! You wouldn't believe all the looks that I got as I unloaded the kids from the van. It was like the van was the clown car.

Then, I hear the comments, "Wow! You must really have your hands full." Yeah, no joke.

And of course there's the, "How old are they all?" comment.

The comment that I get that I'm the most used to is, "How old is he?" as they point to Micah. Most people guess two.

And the comment that ticks me off the most, "That poor baby must be hungry!" No, he's just mad that crazy strangers are telling his Mommy how to mother. Not to mention that he's strapped into a car seat!

The tricky part of the trip is getting everyone into the store safely. I almost have this mastered, since I've had to do it a few times at the pediatrician's office. But the Target parking lot is a little more daunting than the doctor's office. Here's what I did today..... put Benjamin in the seat part of the basket (while strapped into his car seat), put Micah in the basket, and Elizabeth rode on the back. That's roughly 85lbs of kids!! Make steering a little challenging.

But, I'm still alive, I didn't lose anyone, and all's well that ends well.

Grandma

A few days ago when we were at Target, Elizabeth saw a woman who looked like my Mom. She said, "Mommy look. That lady looks like my Grandma, but isn't. My Grandma lives far away, in Kansas." And she's right. So Grandma (Mom), know that we think of you all the time, and miss you very much! Thank you for being such a huge part of our lives, even though we can't see you as much as we would like. You are a tremendous blessing to me, Curtis, and our children.

Micah get's back

We've been telling Elizabeth for a long while that she needs to be nice and gentle to Micah, because, "One of these days he's going to be bigger than you, and he will get you back." And even though he's not as big as she is, he got her back tonight.

They were (as Elizabeth tells it) dancing. Micah was done, but Elizabeth kept messing with him. And one point, she was holding him in a mild head lock. Well, Micah wanted done of that, and bit her.... hard. Shannon, I thought of you! Now I know why you felt the need to bite. :-)

smiles

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Check Ups

Today, Elizabeth had her three year check up, and Micah had his 15 month check up. Here are the stats.

Elizabeth is 41 1/4 inches tall. To put that in perspective, the average three year old is maybe 39 inches. She is off the charts in height. In weight, she was between the 90th and 95th percentile, weighing in at 37 lbs. for her height, she's actually skinny.

Since I know everyone's dying to know, Micah weighed in at 32 lbs (which is how much Elizabeth weighed at two!), which is off the charts. He is 33 1/4 inches tall, again, off the charts. The funny thing, is that his head circumference is actually bigger than Elizabeth's! It's all those big Krajca brains, right Curtis?

Both kids were deemed healthy, and big. :-) Way to go Krajca kids!

Our 4th

4th of July, not our 4th kid. Just in case any of you had some crazy ideas. :-)

It was a cloudy 4th of July here. We went to the pool at noon, and even though we had a few showers, we were able to stay for two hours. That was nice because then everyone took naps!

We checked the time for the local fireworks, and saw that they weren't going off till 9:40. But since Elizabeth had a nap, and seemed to not be too tired, Curtis was going to take her to the high school to watch. As Curtis was telling Elizabeth what they were going to do, Elizabeth said, "Mr. Lee (Nickles) had to hold me up so that I could see. We had to climb up to the top of the benches, and Stephen was there, but not any more. Mr. Lee is cool." So, here's a shout out to Mr. Lee... you're so cool that Elizabeth remembers you from last year!

Unfortunately, the time was off, and the fireworks were ending as they got in the car. Thankfully we were able to watch the fireworks from Boston on TV. Elizabeth gave my Mom a call saying, "We only got to watch a few fireworks, but Mom said that we could watch fireworks on TV, so we're watching TV. Look, there's green, and blue and purple rings, but I didn't see many fireworks outside. I had to go home. So, okay, I love you!"

Again, why must she talk so much?!?!

Happy 4th!

Wedding day fall

Minutes before my sister walked down the aisle, I proved myself the graceful sister, yet again.

My Mom had just come into the bride's room to pray with all of us. I walked over to where my sisters were sitting, but there was no place for me to sit and still be close to them. So, I opted for the coffee table right next to their couches.

Let me take a minute to explain that this wasn't an ordinary coffee table. It was a youth table. There was the frame of a real table, with cardboard for the table top. But in a very tricky fashion, the cardboard was covered in fabric.

So, I slowly sit on the coffee table, making sure it was sturdy. Since it didn't give right away, I assumed it would be fine, and sat all the way down. Keep in mind, this is minutes before we all walk down the aisle. I have my hair done, my dress is laying just right, everything is ready! As I sit all the way down, the cardboard gives, and I fall through the middle of the table, landing flat on my back with my feet straight up in the air!

Other than a few bruises, and a sore back , no harm was done. We were even able to put the coffee table back the way we found it.

If you're ever worried about having a boring wedding, just invite the Krajcas!

Whale bumps?

Last night, we went swimming with our friends the Findleys. For those of you who don't know the Findleys, they have a very sweet two year old, Alexis. Alexis is a tiny little thing, well at least when compared to Micah. When she turned two, which was just about a month shy of when Micah turned one, Micah out weighed her by five pounds and was almost only an inch shorter.

Anyway, last night at the pool, the water was a bit on the chilly side. Poor Alexis was shivering and had blue lips. Micah on the other hand was fine. I made the comment that we knew it was too cold and time to leave when Micah was so cold he was shivering. To that, Michael responded, "Yeah! It would be live seeing a whale with goose bumps!"

Flower Girl

Since Elizabeth's so adorable (and because of a lack of options), she was the flower girl in Megan's wedding. She had been looking forward to the whole flower girl things, especially the new dress with pearls.

At the rehearsal, she never made it down the aisle at the right time. At one point, she was hiding behind the doors into the sanctuary, saying, "I can't do this!" All this made us a little nervous about the actual event.

The wedding day dawns, and Elizabeth is ready! As we were all getting ready in the bridal room, she was walking around throwing her flowers or "practicing" as she called it.

I made my way down the aisle, followed by our cousin who pulled the aisle runner out. The ring bearer came down, and we all held our breath waiting for Elizabeth. I could tell by the look on her face that there was no way she was coming down! The wedding coordinator helped her down. She took a couple tentative steps, with her basket over her face. Don't know why, but suddenly she freezes. Curtis was ready, and headed up the aisle to help her get down. She walked hand in hand with Daddy, until the end of the aisle, when she remembered her flowers. When she realized she hadn't thrown any flowers, she basically freaked out. She hit the ground, but not before throwing her entire basket of flowers up in the air. That's the sight Meg and Daddy see as they come down the aisle. What they couldn't see was the look on my Mom's face. It was hilarious! Most of that was due to the fact that Elizabeth almost took Mom's head off with the basket! Funny! It was kinda sad because she kept telling Curtis, "I didn't do a good job!" It was pretty sad, but about the time the wedding was over, I think she was okay.

Thankfully, she behaved pretty well for pictures, and that's where most of the memories will be. Plus, Megan was very laid back about the whole thing, and didn't care about the flower girl, as long as she was still married.