preview

Because such cuteness can't wait.

Fall Festival

Every year for Halloween, we go to the Reformation Day Celebration at church. This year, it's a day early, which means it's tonight! Excitement is running high in our home today, as the kids prepare their costumes. Elizabeth is for sure going to be a fairy ballerina. Micah's for sure going to be a policeman. And I'm for sure that I want Benjamin to wear a flight suit and be an "airplane man".

This year, I've decided to chill out and not tell the kids what they were going to be. In the past, I've picked themes, and make sure all the kids coordinate. Here's a look back at our previous Fall Festivals. 2004, We went as the Flinstones, and our friends the Achesons went as the Rubbles. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it in my Wilma costume. But look at how cute Pebbles is!
2005, I was pregnant with Micah and Elizabeth was a sweet little sweet 16 month old. Since Curtis and I were expecting, we thought it would be funny to go as rabbits. When we moved into our first house the week before Halloween, that plan fell trough. But we did have a little pink bunny!

2007, We had a ladybug and a bumble bee. That year was a HOT year, and I thought my children were going to melt in their costumes! That was the year we should have all gone as rabbits. I was pregnant with Benjamin!

2007 was a ZOO of a year!!!!

So Micah was my little monkey, Benjamin was my little lion, and Elizabeth was a giraffe.

I think my favorite year was last year when I had:

a knight

a princess

and a dragon!

Next year, I'm going back to a theme!! I have two ideas of what to do with my FOUR (!!!!!) children. Dorothy, the tinman, the scarecrow and the lion. Or Goldilocks and the three bears. What do you think?

The boys on their new brother

Benjamin was staring at my belly. I asked him if he wanted to try to feel Timothy. He nodded his head enthusiastically, so I put his hand on my belly. To encourage Timothy to move, I pushed down on Benjamin's hand. In a very worried voice, he told me, "Stop! You squish her!" I reminded him that Timothy was a boy, a him, not a her. "He not girl. He not boy. He's Timothy!"

*****************************

Micah wasn't able to go to Covenant Kids, so he and I took a trip to Wal Mart. On the way out our conversation went something like this:

Micah: Is Timothy a boy name?

Me: Yes.

Micah: We should name him AnneMarie.

Me: I like the name Timothy! And AnneMarie is a girl name.

Micah: I know, maybe if we name his AnneMarie, he'll turn into a girl.

A couple Elizabeth-isms

Elizabeth came running into our room, freaking out, and exclaiming, "I think I just saw an invisible man!"

***********************************

While talking about her dance class, she was telling me about the girls in her class. She told me, "Most of the little girls are 5. But not Alice. She's 6. But I think she makes a small 6."

Our RMH story

For many of you, this isn't a new story. But as we kick our fundraising into full gear, I wanted to share with you all how blessed we were by the Ronald McDonal House (RMH) and hopefully you'll see our motivation to help them raise money.

We received Benjamin's diagnosis of craniosynistosis on November 27, 2007. Though we knew that it was possible that Benjamin would under go this major surgery, we really didn't think it would actually happen. We were praying that Benjamin would be healed, or that maybe this was all one big medical mess up. After receiving the news that our 6 month old had this rare deformity, and that in six days he would be undergoing major head surgery, all we could do was remind ourselves to breath. Breath in, breathe out.

When I woke up the next day, I found myself in a whirlwind of planning. Family had been notified, prayers were already being lifted up, there was cleaning, cooking, packing and child care to take care. I also found myself spending hours on line, trying to find every bit of information I could on the surgery. And though it wasn't a high priority, I knew I needed to make sure Curtis and I had a place to stay, to call home, while we were in an unfamiliar city, without our support system.

Our neuro surgeon refereed us to the RMH in Austin. It was such a weight off our shoulders to know that there was one less detail that needed to be taken care of! One less thing for me to plan, to arrange, to worry about.

We arrived in Austin, the evening before Benjamin's surgery, we checked into the RMH. They were kind, caring, and very warm. It was so nice to have a place to call home, while we were away from home.

After Benjamin's surgery, he spent 24 hours in the PICU. Only one parent could sleep in the room with him, and since I was the food supply, I pulled out the fold out couch and settled in for a very long night with very little sleep. Curtis, however, was able to go back to the RMH, sleep in a comfy bed, and get a shower the next morning (the PICU didn't have showers). Once Curtis got back to the hospital, my dad took me back to the RMH to shower. It was refreshing to get out, to have somewhere to rest and get cleaned up.

We only spent 3 nights in Austin, at the RMH. But what a difference it made! Though we had people offer to pay for a hotel during our time in Austin, I was thankful that the RMH was there for us, and we only had to pay $10 a night! Other than the low cost, there are also many other benefits to staying at the RMH; a family room, a play ground for other children, eating quarters with meals provided.

I know how greatly the RMH blessed us during a very hard and stressful time. I can only imagine what a blessing it is to families who have a child in the hospital for longer amounts of time.

Please consider how you can help the Ronald McDonald House Charities. You can donate to our team, by clicking the link on the right hand side of the blog. You can also join our team, and walk with us as we raise money and support this amazing charity. If you're interested in joining our team, click on the link. Then go to the link that says My Team Page.

Lights of Love

So far our fundraising efforts for the Ronald McDonald House aren't going so hot. Let's kick it into full drive, and start raising some money for families who find themselves in the same situation as Curtis and I were in.

If you haven't done so yet, take a moment and go over to Team Cranio Kid's site (the link on the right side of the page, Lights of Love). Then see if you can help us make our fundraising goal, or possibly join our team!

Always Forgiven

This is the hymn of the month at our church. Every time we sing it, I'm so humbled by the mercy and grace God has shown me. If you're interested in hearing part of the song, go here, and click on Always Forgiven.

Always Forgiven

I don't deserve

to be your servant

and how much less

to be your child.

Anger and wrath -

sure condemnation

should be my portion,

my just reward.

Never have seen it

Never will know it

Your loving kindness

enfolds my life.

All you have shown me,

is grace, love and mercy

Now and forever

I am your child

Freely your pour out

your loving kindness

Father of grace

You welcome me in.

All of the sin

I have committed,

was placed upon

your righteous son.

And now you see me

through his perfection,

as if I'd never

done any wrong.

Always forgiven.

Always accepted.

No fear or judgement

before your throne.

New blog title

The boys had been causing an especially large amount of trouble. I looked at Curtis and told him, "God is using them to sanctify me!" Curtis laughed and said, "Yep, you're being sanctified by your sons."

When we found out that we would be blessed with another son, I laughed, and thought of how much more intense my sanctification process would be.

And there you have it! The title of our blog: Sanctified by Sons and One Daughter.

Little Aggies

Christi and I had the idea of making Aggie overalls for our kids this football season. I started out strong, and finished the boys' overalls weeks ago. When it came time to do Elizabeth's overalls, I fizzled out. But this past Friday, I finished Elizabeth's, and we were able to take some cute pictures of the kids. Elizabeth (class of '26), Alexis ('27), Micah ('28), Benjamin ('29) and Anthony ('30)

The following pictures were taken at Mr. Norval's feed store. Norval was kind enough to let us bang around in the back room for almost an hour, attempting to get a few good pics of our little Aggies.

Even though the Aggies lost horribly this weekend, we're attempting to keep the Aggie spirit strong! Gig 'em Aggies!

Even cuter without a tooth

What the heck?!?!

Cute monkey! We love George.But can anyone tell me.....
...why doesn't George have a tail???

Teeth Drama

Remember when Elizabeth smashed her mouth into the slide, about 2 1/2 years ago?

And how I was a very good Mommy, and took her to the dentist, right away? The dentist, who I should mention was not a pediatric dentist, told me that everything was fine and there would be no long term problems. Little did I know, the dentist was an IDIOT! Actually, I'm learning that it's not just that dentist who's an idiot, but any regular dentist, who is dealing with children.

A couple months ago, I took Elizabeth back to the dentist for a cleaning. She saw a new dentist this time. This visit was the 4th time she'd been to the dentist, and had her teeth looked at since the slide incident. After my insisting, they took some x-rays (only of the back teeth), and discovered that she had "one tiny cavity".

Did I mention that I think adult dentists are idiots when dealing with children?

Thankfully, we were referred to a pediatric dentist.

The first thing our peds dentist asked was about her loose gray tooth. I told him the slide story. He asked if I had told our regular dentist about the loose tooth. Of course I had! He then informed me that the two front teeth don't normally come out till around age 8, and that this was a HUGE red flag that something was wrong.

He also told me, based on the x-rays that the other dentist had seen, that Elizabeth had not 1, but 3 cavities!

After taking x-rays of her front teeth (you know, the gray ones that had been damaged, that the regular dentist didn't think about x-raying) we found out that the nerve in the loose tooth had died and was decaying AND was infected! The decay is about to spread to her permanent tooth.

So tomorrow, Elizabeth goes to the dentist to have three (relatively small) cavities filled and one tooth pulled.

I really like our pediatric dentist, and trust that he and his staff with do a great job. But if you happen to think of Elizabeth (and me) tomorrow morning, around 10, please say a prayer for us. Thanks!

Party of Five

In the near future, I'll be changing the blog title and adding a cute new header. Until then, I thought I'd be a little nostalgic, and look back at some of my favorite pictures of our Party of Five.Our first picture as a Party of Five

December 2007: picking out our Christmas tree, days before Benjamin's surgery

May, 2008: March of Dimes

Christmas morning, 2008

4th of July, 2009 (I was pregnant with Timothy, but just barley.)

September, 2009: at the Rangers game!

More on baby Timothy

After our ultrasound, we were given a DVD of little Timothy in action. I have some great moments of him trying to suck him thumb, playing with his feet, and trying really hard to get away from the tech. I'm trying to get the footage uploaded to share, but it's just not working so far.

Until then, I thought I'd share (more for my own memory when I someday work on his baby album) a few little things about Timothy.

• Timothy has the strongest kick of all my babies. Benjamin was my most active baby. Micah was so big that all I remember is how much it hurt when he moved. From what I remember of Elizabeth's pregnancy, she was pretty mellow, and was quite content to snuggle under her daddy's hand.
• Timothy's due date is March 1st (based on my calculations) and March 4th (by the doctor's calculations) and February 21st (by the u/s tech's calculations, which are based on size). I'm hoping he will be born on 2-22-10 because that's a nice even number.
• Though he is measuring big, it's not "too" big. (Too big is 2 or more weeks bigger than your due date.) And since we're having a scheduled c-sec, it doesn't bother me too much if he is big. I would like to not be miserable in the last few weeks of pregnancy though.
• We are not planning on calling Timothy TJ, Tim, or Timmy. We'll call him Timothy, just like we call Benjamin by his full name. However, we do know that it will probably be shortened at some point, and that's a-ok by us!
• Based on his measurements during the ultrasound, Timothy weighs apx. 15 ounces. At 19 weeks, a baby usually weighs about 9 ounces.
• During the ultrasound, Timothy had his hands and arms over his face, and his legs crossed. I was afraid that he would be trouble, but we were able to get the "money shot" determining he was a boy. And the ultrasound tech was able to get a couple profile pictures by taking the picture from the opposite side of where he face was. Doesn't this little boy know how much this family loves taking pictures??

Timothy's brothers and sister are really starting to get excited about his arrival. Between being able to call him by name, and all the baby things we've been able to purchase, Timothy's arrival is starting to become more of a reality. We feel so blessed to be adding him to our family!

Date night!!

Curtis and I are ready to leave on our first day night in 3 months, thanks to the youth group at our church. Our wonderful youth director and his wife do an exceptional job at fostering servants' hearts in our youth. I've reaped the blessings of these youth before, as they helped me deep clean the nursery at church. Now they are blessing Curtis and I with a much needed night out.

Thank you Brain and Janelle for all you do for our church, specifically the youth.

WPC youth, thank you for serving!!! You really blessed us tonight.

Adjusting

It's a boy! The Krajca family will now be a family dominated by boys.

Curtis and I had talked about how adding another boy would totally change the dynamics of our family. We would be the family doing soccer/baseball/basketball on Saturday mornings. I would have to learn about swords, trucks, bugs, and pirate talk. Funny how one little baby totally changes the possible family dynamics!

Everyone, except for Mommy, thought we were having a girl. Most of the people I talked to thought I was having a girl. We were shocked when the ultrasound tech said, "Well, look what I see between those little legs! You're having a boy!" Even though I was expecting to hear that we were having a son, I was still surprised. I looked over and Curtis, and he was shocked. Flat out shocked. He really thought we were having a daughter.

Obviously, we are thankful and excited to welcome Timothy Joel into our family. But there's been some adjusting in our family. When we told the kids our news, the looks on their faces were priceless. Poor Elizabeth was pretty disappointed. She told us that she was happy, just not excited. She then went on to ask, "Why did God think we needed another boy?!?" I was thankful that she realized that it was God who is giving her a new brother, and not just some random bad luck that she doesn't get a sister. The situation provided a great opportunity for Curtis and I to talk to her about how we want God's will, because God's will is what's best for us, even when we don't like it.

Micah's adjustment was very smooth. At first he kept saying, "But I like girls!" After some thinking, he decided that, "Girl are boring. I like boys!" This morning, he realized that he's the biggest brother of the three, and that made him quite happy.

Benjamin still thinks there's a girl in mommy's tummy. I expected his transition to be smooth since he's so young still. We just remind him that Timothy's in mommy's tummy, and all is well.

I was surprised that I didn't have to adjust to the idea of having another son. Maybe it's because I thought we were having a boy all along. But deep down, I was kinda hoping for a little girl. I loved the idea of doing the pink girly thing again. I cherish my relationships with my sisters, and longed for Elizabeth to have the same. Even though girls have their challenges, I get Elizabeth. There are many times a day when I just look at the boys and have NO idea what they are thinking or why they are doing the things they are doing.

When I found out that a son would be joining our family, I was downright giddy! I could hardly contain myself, and Curtis had to remind me that people were looking at me while we were at HEB. I've always heard there's a special bond between a mother and her son. And I do have a special relationship with each of my boys. The thought of having another sweet bundle of blue bring such joy to my heart.

And I will speak for Curtis and say: though he went through more mental adjustment that I did, he too is very excited. He was a little more concerned with the kids' adjustment, but once he saw that they were happy, he allowed himself to get excited as well. He had in his head, a mental picture of holding and talking to a baby girl. So he had to mental switch the way he thought about our baby and the first few moments that he would have with our son.

More than anything, we are thankful that God's will has allowed us to be blessed with another child. We feel truly blessed to be a house full of boys (with one wonderful daughter thrown in the mix) and look forward to the many adventures that are sure to come away as we are sanctified by sons (and 1 daughter!).

IT'S A BOY!!!!

Sweet baby profile. Can you tell he has his hand on his head?
Both hands on his chin.

Our proof!

I guess.....

We find out tomorrow if we'll be adding a Timothy or an AnneMarie to our family. Who do you think will be joining us? Be sure to vote on the sidebar to the right!

Lost Things

Things just aren't where they're supposed to be. Here's a look at the misplaced things in my life right now. There's:

• dirt in the tub
• paint in the sink
• rubber bands in the washer
• and tissues in the dryer
• cups in the coach
• a pirate ship in the laundry pile
• pennies in the bed
• scribbles in the teacher's manual
• crayon on the walls
• nail polish in the bathroom sink
• food on the TV
• fruit snacks in the carpet
• snot on the sleeves
• and toothbrushes in the hallway.

I know this kind of stuff won't last forever. But it sure is exhausting.

I also know that in the grand scheme of things, having a nice clean house shouldn't be the goal of my day. But it sure would be nice!

I've heard that one day I will look around at my clean, organized house, and miss the sticky little hand prints. But that's not today.

So today, I'm tired and overwhelmed by my list of things to accomplish. Yet trying to enjoy it, because I know it won't last forever. Deep down, I really do know that this time with my kids is like gold. But I think that thought might have gotten lost under all the laundry.

Just in case you all are right......

Have you noticed the poll on the side bar? We find out in 5 days if Timothy or AnneMarie will be joining our family.

So far, the results are pretty one sided. And just in case you guys are right, I had to buy this sweet thing. Just couldn't pass it up.How adorable is that??? And for $2?! Yes please.

And yes, the baby will be born in February, right at the end of the month. We'll have a scheduled c-section, probably right at 39 weeks.

How much would you pay

Here's what I got today while garage selling:

Fisher Price Rainforest Swing $140 (Babies R Us)
Fisher Price Rainforest Tub $30 (Wal Mart)
Graco SnugRide Car Seat in Zurich (that's the color) $150 (Graco website)
Moses basket $30 (and ours has a little cover and a pad!)
Infantino Sling Rider $30 (Babies R Us)

Total, if purchased new: $380


Want to guess what my total was??




It's pretty amazing!




How much would you pay for all this?




How about......

$55 for all of it!!!!!! That's a savings of $325!


I'm feeling pretty good right now.