The makings of a great date night

plus

plus

equals a nice quiet date night for Mommy and Daddy.

Because of the craziness of getting three young children ready for church on Sunday morning, Curtis and I try to keep a low profile on Saturday nights, getting ready for the Lord's Day. Since we usually aren't doing anything, and the kids are usually in bed by 7:00, we have dubbed Saturday night our Stay at Home Date Night. This Saturday, we will be out of town, so we had date night a little early.

We rented what turned out to be a very fun and cute movie. Plus, I love watching movies where there isn't language violence or naughtiness. We popped some popcorn, and ordered some spinach dip from Cheddars. We also got their mud pie, but I couldn't easily find a picture of that.

All this had made for a very enjoyable evening for Curtis and I. Finally!! Some quiet time!

Elizabeth's thoughts on growing up

Some of the best conversations with the kids are when we're driving. I'm trying hard to remember this, and not be on my cell phone the entire time we're driving, and instead spend time talking to the kids.

Today, I had success in that area. Elizabeth (and Micah a little too) were talking about growing up. It went something like this.

E: When the pool closes again, my tummy will start to grow, then I'll go to the doctor, and a baby will pop out! It will be a baby girl.
Me: You know, before you have a baby, you need to get married.
E: And before I can get married, I have to find another godly man since Daddy is already married to you, and Benjamin is too little.
Me: Well, you'll never be able to marry Benjamin, he's your brother.
E: So?
Me: You just don't marry your brother!
E: I don't even know who I will marry. I don't know his name.
Me: But God does.
E: Yeah.

There was more talk about having a baby girl, and how both her brothers would have a baby boy, but her brothers couldn't have babies in their tummies, but their wives could.

We arrive at our destination, unload, and head into the store. Suddenly, Elizabeth says:
At my wedding, I will have MY OWN flower girl, but I don't know her name, but God does.

Kids, they seriously crack me up! Another thing I'm learning is that you speak often of God, and they will remember. It just happens to come back at strange times, and in strange ways.

Krajca kids love the water

If you have never bathed of been swimming with my children, it really is a sight to behold! It's like they're part fish. Elizabeth freaked my friend Amy out when Amy took her to swim lessons for me when Elizabeth was 13 months old. Elizabeth had no fear of the water, and would jump in, go under, and even swam under water at 13 months! Micah is following along, loving his bath time, where he pretends to swim, blow bubbles, and sticks his head under the water just for fun. He and Elizabeth make a contest of who can stay under longer.

Baby Benjamin is the same way so far! I took the above picture today during bath time, which is one of his favorite daily activities! When bathing Ben, you have to make sure you get him all clean before you lay him down. Once you lay him down, all he wants to do is lay in the water, screaming, laughing and splashing. He loves having water dumped on his head, and doesn't care if he has water on his face.

Pool time this summer is going to be busy with my three little fish.

Big boy hair cut

Tonight, I faced my fears, and gave Micah a big boy hair cut. My definition of a big boy hair cut is a hair cut which is all the same length, and that length is short. I wasn't planning on giving him a big boy hair cut, it was just simpler. And for the record, it was much faster too. Micah before his big boy hair cut (see how sad he looks about his non-big boy hair cut?)
A very happy Micah with his big boy hair cut (wet).
Still happy about that new hair cut! What a cute face. Ha! I should have taken a picture while we were cutting! Oh, and the nice little booboo on his forehead is from Sunday, when Micah ran into a table at Fuddruckers.

I don't know why, but if you could hear the screams that child made while I was cutting his hair, you would think he was losing a body part rather than just hair. And you can just imagine how hard it is to hold a child of Micah's size still. All this one more reason to make all of his hair one length... less room for error. All this is just one of the many joys of having boys!

What a difference a year makes!

2007

2008

De-lurking

Somehow, I missed this wonderful little holiday, which was over two weeks ago. But, I know about it now, so here's the deal. I know our blog gets quite a few visitors daily (usually well over 50), yet often, I go for days with out getting comments on my fun, witty and always amusing blog.

Now's your chance! If you're a reader of the Krajca blog, yet haven't ever commented, today's the day! And even if you have commented, do it again, just to make me happy. For those of you who don't know, to leave a comment all you have to do is click on the comment button at the bottom of this post, and leave an anonymous comment, but don't forget to tell me who you are!

And if you're one of my regular commenters, feel free to say hi too!

Looking forward to seeing all my lurkers!

House of luuuuuv

This week my Dad is out of town. I say that like he's just in another state, when in reality, he's been in GERMANY! And since my Mom seems to be a glutton for punishment, she came to visit me this week. The timing was providential as we had to make a trip to Austin on Tuesday. But as always, my Mom and I have been able to find lots of tasks to do to keep ourselves busy on the days we weren't in Austin. Being the wonderful mom she is, she's always finding ways to help make my life a little easier... from freezing meals, to doing laundry, to helping me organize.

While she was here this week, we make a trip to Hobby Lobby. While we were there, my Mom decided that Elizabeth needed some Valentines decorations. My Mom and Elizabeth decorated for Valentine's Day, and had a blast! Here are just a few of the pictures.

The heart is hanging to the right of the front door.
The front door, complete with sparkly heart clingies and heard garland.
Close up of the window clingies.

These are not the only decorations that grace my house at the moment. Elizabeth and Micah put more clingies on the window in her room, and doilies on the windows in the kitchen. I now have more Valentine's decorations than I did Christmas decoration.

My Mom is such a blessing to me and my family for so many reasons. Stuff like this is just one of the ways she blesses us. She's always finding little things to do like this that will make my kids enjoy the little things in life, building memories. Thanks for the visit Momma! We luuuuuuv you!

You know you're a real scrapbooker when....

You take pictures of scrapbooking get togethers to scrapbook.

It takes at least two trips to the car to get you supplies.

You can't lift your scrapbooking bag while pregnant.

When CM comes out with new things you get excited.

You know what CM is and you have your consultant on speed dial.

Hobby Lobby adds are checked weekly for sales.

Vellum makes you happy.

You order pictures in bulk.

Snapfish, Shutterfly, and Winkflash all make sense to you, and you have accounts with all those places, plus Wal Mart, Walgreens and Club Photo.

The thought of digital scrapbooking is a little disturbing to you.

You have an organized system for all your scrapbook stuff.

Your husband knows scrapbook lingo too!

This post was inspired by the almost 450 pictures I am about to order. Sad, I know!

Killer Weenie Dog

After our wild and crazy trip to Austin, this past Thursday, we had a nice quiet afternoon. Well, maybe I should say we had as calm and afternoon as possible! To aid in the calmness, I let the kids watch some TV. Elizabeth wanted to watch a movie that was in the car. The van door was still open from the unloading process since I still had to grab a few things. I sent Elizabeth out to the van to get the movie, only to hear a very crazy sounding dog barking, and Elizabeth screaming. I turn to see our neighbors weenie dog jump out of the van, still barking, and Elizabeth high tailing it into the house, still screaming.

I'll be totally honest. I laughed so hard! I'm not sure who was more scared, the dog or Elizabeth.

Harley babies, Happy Father's Day Grand-Daddy!

For those of you who aren't aware, my Dad would LOVE to own a motorcycle. But, my Mom says only over her dead body will that happen. When I got a call from Sears saying they were having a Harley event, I knew I had to take the kids to get pictures for Grand-Daddy!Elizabeth and Micah, workin' on the Harley.
Okay, is that not the sweetest face EVER?!?! However, in order to have symmetry, we ordered the picture below. Still a very cute picture!

Micah thought it was so fun to pretend to work on the Harley! We ordered the picture below because I think this will be the last time you see my son on a motorcycle!

And last but not least, sweet baby Ben! He was the best out of the three, very smiley and happy. And yes, I almost left him in his helmet, but thought the little Harley hat was cuter.
Another little tidbit, Elizabeth and Micah are both wearing their own do-rags (feel free to correct me if I spelled that wrong!). Right before Micah was born, Dad bought Elizabeth hers and took her to watch the airplanes. When Benjamin was born, he did the same thing for Micah. And they are actual Harley do-rags from the Harley store!

To Austin and back

We made it. In one piece. There were moments where I wasn't sure that would happen. In detail, here is what it's like to travel with the three Krajca kids to Austin and back in one morning.

My goal was to leave the house at 6:15, allowing plenty of time for traffic and breakfast. We had barley pulled out of our cul-de-sac, at 6:20, when we realized Curtis for got his lunch. No biggie. We head to Shipley's to get some breakfast and caffeine and then head towards Curtis' office where he will work out, shower, and then actually work. As we are pulling onto the Hwy, he realizes that he has forgotten his clothes. I start crying, as I see my well laid plan falling down around me, and turn around. I drop him off at work, and hit the road.

About 20 minutes into our drive, Elizabeth informs me that her TV screen (yes, we are one of THOSE families now!) is blue. She is also very quick to inform me that Micah's screen is NOT blue! I pull over, hoping that I will be able to get this figured out and save my sanity. Turns out it was just a cord that had been pulled out, thank you Micah! Crisis avoided, back on the road.

About 15 minutes after that, Micah is very frantically exclaiming, "Poopy!" over, and over, and over. After holding him off for as long as I could, and finding a place to pull over, I stop in what was once the parking lot of a gas station. Elizabeth quickly informs me that she has to go potty, Micah is still screaming, "poopy!" and I just to get done as quickly as possible so that the baby will stay asleep. I begin to change Micah, who isn't poopy! I put him back in his seat, grab Elizabeth to help her pee on the side of the road. There was literally no where to stop! She very quickly realized it was cold, and decided she didn't have to pee after all. All that, no poop, no pee, and an awake baby! Oh, goodie!

By the time we reach Elgin, which is about 30 minutes from where we need to be, we all had to stop. Turns out it was Benjamin who was poopy. Let me tell you, unless you have three sets of hands, dealing with three kids in a bathroom, alone, with no stroller, is a NIGHTMARE! As I begin to change Benjamin, I realize that I have dropped the only clean diaper I had brought into the bathroom, into the toilet. Way to go Mommy! Thankfully, the super absorbent core wasn't effected, and I was able to shake and wipe most of the water off. I'm not even going to think about all the possible diseases that my sweet baby might now contract.

Finally, we make it to the helmet place! I refuse to pay for the parking garage, and always park in a shopping center which is very close, and walk. I had the double stroller, and was ready! But, my grand plan didn't take into consideration the slight detour I would have to take since I couldn't do stairs. Nor did I bring warm enough clothes for Elizabeth, who felt the need to remind me during the entire walk, that her hands, face and lips were cold.

See Benjamin's blog for details on the appointment. All went very well!

We walk back to the van, load everyone up, and set out to find a McD's with an indoor Playplace. Thanks to my wonderful hubby, we found one. The kids and I enjoyed an hour playing at McD's, eating and changing diapers.

At this point, it's about 10:45. I knew the boys were tired, but I also knew that Micah would sleep on the way home making that his only nap of the day. I wanted to make it a good one, so we headed to a Christian book store to buy a couple CD's. That was another NIGHTMARE! But, I couldn't very well freak out right in the middle of the Christian bookstore, so I packed everyone up, bought a CD for myself which I ended up not liking, and got out of there ASAP!

The ride home was nice and quiet. No stops. It was perfect!

All in all, a successful trip. But a trip that I am not planning on repeating any time soon! Oh, and please forgive any parts of this blog that don't make sense or have terrible grammatical errors. It's been a VERY long day.

Gracie Mae and Micah

Our sweet friend, Matt and Ashlee, have a daughter who is three weeks younger than Micah. They have been friends since the first time they met (in the picture below)! Micah and Gracie Mae in April of '06. Gracie Mae was only a couple weeks old.
Awwww! So little, they couldn't even hold their heads up. Notice how HUGE Micah's head is.
Unfortunately, you can't really see Matt, Ashlee and Gracie Mae. But I love this because Micah and Gracie Mae were baptized on the same day.

Gracie Mae and Micah playing with Ms. Ashlee this time last year.Playing at the softball field.
This picture was taken last night. Micah and Gae Gee Mae (as Micah calls here) were having so much fun playing together! I am so thankful that all my children have friends who are so close in age, and so thankful for the parents of all these children who are like minded and encouraging to us.

a few pictures

Benjamin was not at all thrilled with this whole picture thing. He wasn't thrilled by much at this point.

A cutie

Just for the record, Elizabeth looked adorable today! I even did her hair in a heart french braid. Of course, I didn't get a picture, and she took it out as soon as we got home.
Elizabeth is very concerned with how she looks. She will change her clothes multiple times through the day. Accessories have become a very big deal as well, and her current obsession is with belts. We have been trying to remind her that it's not about how she looks on the outside, but how she is on the inside. We remind her that she needs to be beautiful on the inside and then she will be beautiful on the outside no matter what she's wearing. Well, some of this must have been sinking in, because today, after I got her dressed, she asked me where Curtis was. I told her that he was in the shower. She replied, "I want him to see how beautiful I look on the inside!"

Sympathy

Benjamin sends his condolences to all the Cowboy fans. Apparently, he shares in your disappointment.

More matching jammies

Out of the mouths of my children

Elizabeth and I have been having many conversations about God and Jesus. One of our most recent conversations began when talking about where God is. She is convinced that He is in the clouds. I've tried to explain to her that He is everywhere, and she quickly points out, "Yeah, like the clouds!" This particular conversation began a little differently, with her asking about where Jesus was. I told her heaven (safe answer, I know). She promptly, and with a slightly annoyed tone told me, "No he's not Mommy. He's hanging on the cross for our sins. With blood."

While driving Curtis to work earlier this week, I began slowing down as we exited. Elizabeth quickly inquired, "Oh no, why are we slowing down? Do we need gas?"

Micah has been full of funny conversation too! He and I had some rare alone time while the other two kiddos were napping. I was working on taking down the Christmas tree, and he was digging through my wallet. Suddenly, he begins screaming, "Icee! Icee!" I turn around to see him running at me with my Sam's card. This tells me two thing. We go to Sam's too much, and I bribe too much.

When we are at my parents' house, we stay in the basement. One morning, Curtis was changing Micah's diaper downstairs and they heard Elizabeth begin to push a chair around, directly above where they were. Micah looked at Curtis and asked about the noise, "Truck? Dinosaur?" What a boy!

Ask Benjamin

The fist part of this clip was taken shortly after Benjamin's surgery (thus the huge bandage). The second part of the clip is from today.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

New Addition

Ha! Scared you, didn't I? :-)

We have added a new play room to our house! It was my Mom's idea, and part of her and my Dad's Christmas present to us. We converted about 2/3 of the garage into a room where we can keep toys, the kids can play when it's yucky outside, and just a new fun thing for them.

Here's a shot from the doorway into the garage. We painted the wall to the right.

This is to the left, behind where the colorful bins are. Micah figured out very quickly that he could scale the shelf. Have to keep an eye on him!
And here are the fun and colorful bins, which house a lot of the smaller toys.
This is my favorite part of the room! We used chalk board paint on part of the wall! So much fun. This wall is where the door into the house is, and the garage door would be to your back. Elizabeth really does love the room, she was just looking a little dazed when I snapped the picture.
We have a little picnic table set up where Micah likes to play with his new construction site.

So thanks to my parents! We are loving our new addition. Thanks also to the Ackermans who helped us paint and Laura helped with the shelves.

A long time ago...

when Elizabeth was still a baby, I was totally caught up on everything. Laundry, dishes, cleaning, organizing, everything. My house (or duplex at the time) was in order. And despite my best efforts, the efforts of my Mom and sisters, and countless friends, I don't think I will ever have a day like that again.

But, today I but together a puzzle with Elizabeth. We even glued it and are in the process of deciding where to hang it. I don't think I could do stuff like that AND have an empty To Do list. And I'd rather take the puzzle and time with Elizabeth.

Conversations

Curtis: What's that stain on the bed spread?
Me: You don't want to know.
Curtis: Did Benjamin spit up.
Me: No, quit asking, you really don't want to know.
Curtis: Go ahead and just tell me.
Me: A sippy cup of milk tipped over and leaked out on the bed spread for the two weeks we were gone.
Curtis: You were right, I didn't want to know.

New Year

I've been seeing a lot of blogs having to do with the new year, resolutions etc. And since I'm such a follower, here are a few of my goals.

The Random Ones.....
Learn how to make salad dressing.
Finish one book that doesn't have a "Mommy How-To Section".
Keep the van relatively clean and always have the oil changed on time.

And of course there are the regular ones....
Exercise more.
Eat better.
Be more organized.

So here's hoping that we all are focused, and reach our goals!

300

After leaving Kansas at 7am, we arrived in Austin at about 4:45. It was a very smooth trip. Except for the freezing rain which caused several accidents, right before our eyes. And the blow out diaper from Micah. And the stupid people at McDonald's in Gainsville who were rude AND screwed up our order. And when Micah got lost in the Playland tubes at McDonalds. And when Elizabeth didn't sleep. And when I realized that just because we were in Austin didn't mean we were done traveling, we still had to get home (two more hours!). But other than that, it was a good trip, and it's very good to be home!

And if you're wondering about the title of this post, this happens to be the 300th post on Party of Five! What a way to ring in the new year!