Boxtown and lots of kisses!

We finally got some time to work in the basement this weekend! We had been wanting to get the main room set up so that the kids can play down there, even though it isn't finished. It is a little more room for them to wear off some energy. When we built the house, we had our builder save us all the boxes from the cabinets and appliances so we could make stuff with them. Brady is in heaven! We spent a good portion of the day, when the Buckeyes and Cyclones weren't playing, cleaning up so that we could set up a play area. Then, on Sunday, Mike went to work making a little town with all the boxes. It was a lot of fun! We were watching the Clark boys, and they seemed to enjoy it, too. We made one of the boxes into a "McDonald's". The pictures were taken before the sign was added, but you get the idea. The boys were going in the box and saying "Welcome to McDonald's. How can I help you?" Then, once again, Bree and Ty were kissing each other good-bye, so of course we had to get it on camera. Today, I caught Bree on camera with her shades on, puckering up, so we thought we would share "kisses" with all of you.

A Kiss For YOU!

It's been awhile!

I know, I know. It has been a long time since I last posted! I have been getting flack from certain people in my house about updating the blog, so here you go. Since I last posted, Brady turned 3, I had a birthday, number to remain a mystery, and we celebrated Halloween. Actually, we celebrated a TON of birthdays. Between Mike's family and my family and our friends, we celebrate 13 birthdays just in October. That doesn't include the birthdays that we celebrate in August and September, so this time of year is full of CAKE! We have been enjoying football season, even though ISU hasn't had a very good season and OSU has lost a few as well. We also enjoyed a day at the Center Grove Orchard with our friends, the Jones'. I am not going to write a ton...just post a lot of pictures, so you can see for yourself what we have been up to.

Home Sweet Home!

Well, I know it has been a LONG time since I have posted anything, but I haven't had internet. I finally have it, so I can finally post again. We are in our house. We moved in July 15 because our contractor was ahead of schedule by 6 weeks, which is pretty much unheard of, but we are so happy to be home! I will try to get some more pictures posted soon, but here are a few.

We have had a great weekend filled with our first Prairie Festival (Huxley's celebration), a Homecoming for a friend who has been in Iraq, and Fan Fest at Iowa State. It has been such a busy weekend that we are all exhausted. Look for more posts now that I am back online. Hopefully will be able to keep up a little better.

Weekend of Fun!

We had a great weekend! Saturday afternoon we played at the park and went to have supper at my favorite restaurant, La Fuente. Love that food!

Sunday, we went to church and Jeff gave a great mesage, but what else is new. Then home for lunch and some short naps and off to the pool in Nevada. It was a little chilly, but both kids actually got in the water, so we were very excited. I love the water, so it has been hard having two kids who don't. Then it was off to dinner with Mike's grandparents, which was also wonderful. After dinner, we found a band playing at bandshell park, so we stopped and let Brady play at the playground and we listened to some decent music. Mike had an interesting encounter with an 8ish-year-old, who felt the need to use the "F" word on more than one occasion. Mike asked him to stop using it, or he would have to talk to his parents. A few minutes later, Mike was pleasantly surprised to have the child come back and apologize for his language! I had the pleasure of visiting with one of the athletes that I used to coach in college, when I was coaching Special Olympics teams from Ames. He didn't remember me, but I remember him. He was and is a very nice young man (not sure exactly his age). Anywhoo, we got some great pics of the kids. Still hoping to have the house done soon. I think they will be done painting tomorrow. Will update when I know more.

Quick Update, Lots of Pics

Just a quick update. We are still trucking along with the house. The painter is there this week. He hopes to be done by Friday, but could be done on Monday. Fixtures are hopefully getting put in next week as well as flooring. Mark, the contractor is working on the deck this week, so that should hopefully be done, weather permitting (not looking good according to weatherman). Every time we go, it gets harder and harder to come back to the apartment, but we will be so excited when we get to move in for good.

Brady and Bree are doing great. Brady is still working on colors. We are having more luck now that we have linked each color with someone he loves. For example, red is Nana's favorite color, so he remembers red (most times). Hopefully the links will continue to help him remember colors. Bree is still working on walking. She doesn't just take off, like we keep thinking she will, but I am sure that will happen soon enough. She still goes between us and from something to us and has started going between other objects, ie. couch to chair. Before we know it, she will be all over the place. She is also getting many teeth right now. One of her molars have actually come in and her front teeth aren't all in yet. Below are a bunch of pictures that I felt like sharing, so enjoy. :)

The drag racing begins!

Front of house with stone.

Back of house with stone.

Front door with stain.

The plastic tape measure that Brady stuck in the oven, when I wasn't looking!

More of the tape measure.

wonderful weekend

We were fortunate to have had a wonderful weekend. While I know many around the state are dealing with loss and destruction from flooding, we are blessed to have missed any damage. We continue to pray for those who have to deal with water in and around their homes.

Friday, we got to spend the day with the Sklenars. We miss having them in Ames, but at least they are closer than they were when they were in Burlington. Brady and Jackson had a great time playing together. Jackson even gave Brady a tractor to take home when we left. Jacky took some great pictures of the boys, and then they took a tumble off the step they were standing on. Brady took the brunt of the fall. Jackson is a bit bigger than Brady, so having his weight and Brady's weight caused much distress for Brady. He scraped his forehead and in his hair, but he is "tough." While we were there, Uncle Dave brought Shelby to meet us so she could stay with us for the weekend and attend the Iowa State Women's Basketball camp. When she arrived, Brady took off running down the hill toward her. Before he knew what was going on, his legs were going faster than he wanted. He had a look of terror on his face as he wasn't sure he was going to be able to stop. Once he got to the bottom, instead of trying to stop, he just jumped at Shelby. Thankfully she caught him and received a huge hug from him. On our way back to Ames, we crossed the dangerous Des Moines river. It was amazing to see how high it was. It was at least to the bottom of the bridge.

Saturday, we attended the wedding of Sarah Bohnker and Travis Smith. It was a beautiful wedding. Sarah had written a song that she sang to Travis before she walked down the isle. She has a beautiful voice and the song was amazing. She did a great job. I know I wouldn't have been able to keep it together at my wedding to do that. Paul Sabino, the family pastor at our church, officiated the ceremony and did a great job. We are so blessed with pastors at our church. They all do a wonderful job teaching.

Sunday was an extremely busy day. It started off with dropping Shelb off at camp. Then I ran home to help get the kids off to church with Mike. Then back to camp to watch Shelby compete in the competitions that she had made to the finals. She did a great job and it was fun to see her compete. My parents and sister made the trip up as well, so it was fun to see them. Mike and the kids joined us at camp when church was over. We went to lunch with them after at Old Chicago, which is a great place to eat. After lunch, we showed them the house and they headed home.

For us, the day wasn't over. We headed to Story City to spend some time with Mike's family for Father's Day. Since they have had a lot of flooding, the guys weren't able to do their usual golf outing, but we had a great time anyway. Before we had supper, Grandma decided to get the slip and slide out. As you can see, the "kids" had a great time! It was fun to see Mike being Mike again. This is the first time since his knee surgery that he did something spontaneous and I was so happy to see him doing stuff like that again. He will always be a kid at heart, which Brady loves!

Now we are trying to get back into a schedule, which seems almost impossible during the summer, especially with the construction of a new home. Hope everyone had a great Father's Day!

Cabinets and more

I know it has been a long time since I have posted, but things were a little busy last week with Bree's birthday and going to Winfield for the weekend. We had a great time celebrating Bree's birthday. We started the day off with all three of us going into her room and singing the birthday song to her and she cried! I think it was because no one was picking her up, but it could have been the singing. :) Mike had the day off due to a golf outing for Wolfe Eye Clinic, which got cancelled. We had an appointment at the Electric Wholesale to pick out all of our light fixtures. Wow, there are a ton. Then we went to Perkins for breakfast and Bree's first taste of pancakes, which she loved! She ate a whole pancake. Then we went to Huxley to play at the park and Mike went golfing with his dad and two other doctors at TCI in Polk City, which he said is a very hard course! We did have cake and ice cream at supper time, and Bree likes to eat cake, but isn't really crazy about getting it all over her hands.



We had a great weekend with the fam. My sister that lives in Wisconsin was home also, so it was good to see them. I can't remember when the last time we saw them was. I know it was before they went to Florida, in March, so it has been a long time. The plan was to celebrate birthdays. Alex, my nephew turned 17 in May and Bree turned 1 last week.



We got there about 9 on Friday and had a great meal. At about 4am, Bree decided she didn't want to sleep anymore and since we are in the same room, I didn't get to either. Finally, at about 6, I decided to try to give her a bottle. Wrong! I forgot the formula at home, so we jumped in the car and ran to Mt. Pleasant, which is about 15 min away and the closest place to get formula. Of course, as we got out of town, she fell asleep. The rest of the day was filled with garage sales and the school carnival. Brady got spoiled by both of my sisters and Nana that day. He was filled to the top with sugar and carnival toys.

That night, we celebrated birthdays. Bree got spoiled, yet again and the rest of us were spoiled with great food from my sister, Dawn. She is a great cook, so it was delicious beef tenderloin and shrimp on the grill.

Sunday was filled with yet another great meal and getting ready to go home. We decided to skip homemade ice cream so we could get back to assess any damage Ames was having due to flooding. Luckily for us, there was none in our neck of the woods, so we dodged a bullet that time.

Last week was a quite, yet busy week. We have been getting more cabinets and trim in the house. It is starting to look like you could live there, minus some flooring. Each time we go, we don't want to leave because we just want to live there. God is definately teaching us patience in this adventure! I will try to post pictures later. My camera and computer are not cooperating right now, so will try again later.

Front door

Here is a picture of the front door. I know it is kind of dark, but at least you can get an idea of what it looks like. It is so exciting to see that in. It is starting to get more and more real that we are actually going to be living there!

I have heard that the creek is rising, again, so pray that it doesn't get as high as last time and that we will not have to evacuate or that all the people who spent the last 3 days cleaning up the mess they have from the last flood don't have to start all over again! Many families in our area are still not back in their apartments, several who are pregnant and ready to "pop" anytime and several who have children.

What a weekend!

Well...our weekend started out pretty wet to say the least! On Friday morning, the kids and I had some errands to run, so about 10:30, we decided to venture out. WRONG! I noticed that in the parking lot in front of ours, there was a LOT of water and thought that was strange. Then, I got to the end of the driveway and the street was covered with water. Looking back, I probably could have made it, but I was chicken. I have seen all those horror stories on tv where someone has tried to drive through water and stuck, or even worse, swept away. I decided I didn't want to try it with two kids because I didn't want to have to carry both of them through water and I wasn't sure how deep it was. So, we went back to the apartment to get tennis shoes and socks (I had flip-flops on) and get the stroller and venture out on a walk. By the time I got back out, which was about 30 minutes later, the water was up to our parking lot. I moved my car to higher ground and prayed that it would be safe! Brady kept saying, "I want to play in the lake." As the day went on, it got higher and higher. Finally, in the afternoon, I called Steph for help, yet again. She has saved us in the past many times (in other cases). She came and got us and took us to her house. By that time, the water was up to our building. Jared and Steph were nice enough to let us crash at their house for the night. We don't know what we would do without great friends like them! In the pictures, you can see a progression of the flood on the car. That is the parking lot in front of ours. By the end of the flood, you could only see the roof of this car. I didn't really get a picture because when we left, it was to that point, and my hands were full of bags and kids, so I didn't get any pictures. :) When we got up the next morning, we decided to come home and see what the damage was, if any. Luckily, we drove right up to our building. My car was fine, our apartment was fine, and all was good in the Kruger house again!

We didn't get a ton of sleep because the kids were out of their normal environment and had some trouble sleeping, so we were all tired, but we had planned on having Bree' birthday party that night, so we had a lot of work to do to get ready for that. Thankfully, the park we had chosen was not one that flooded. Mike grilled hamburgers and hot dogs and we had cake and ice cream and enjoyed time with family and friends. My friend Hollie's sister-in-law, Andrea, made Bree's cake. She did a great job! As you can see, Bree had a great time at her party. She wasn't shy with her smash cake. She dug right in and found that it was pretty tasty. She was haming it up for the camera too. She wiped the frosting across her eye (good thing we have a few eye doctors in the family!). Bree was SO tired after her party, she fell asleep in the car on the way home and didn't wake up when we took her out, which is extrememly rare for her! It is hard to believe that our little princess is already a year old. I am sure that I have said this before, but time has gone by so fast! Her actual birthday is on Thursday. She is so close to walking, but gets into everything by crawling and pulling up on things. She has 5 teeth. She is such a happy baby and we are so thankful for that! We have been blessed with such a wonderful gift from God!

As for our house, it is geting even more exciting. It is hard to go there and leave. We all just want to be in for good, especially after the flood experience! Today, I think the plan is to put in the front door. All the mudding should be done on the drywall. They hope to get all the doors installed this week. On Thursday and Friday, they plan to prime and texture the walls, set cabinets and start putting up trim. I will try to post more pictures of it as more things get completed. They have also gotten siding on the entire back of the house, except the dining room. There is siding on other places, too, but with all the rain, it has been difficult to get too much accomplished.

Zoo and house stuff

On Saturday, we spent most of the day at the zoo. We had a great time! We took one of Brady's little buddies with us and met Ryan and Kristy Miller and their children there. It was IPTV day at the zoo, so we saw Curious George and Wyatt from Super Why. The first time we went by them, Gabe, Brady's friend got his picture with the characters, but Brady was having none of it! Caden, the Miller's son, also got his picture with them. Then we saw all kinds of cool stuff. We got to see Rosie and JP, the elephants, lions, tigers, but no bears. Brady was sure he was going to catch some Monkies, but didn't have any luck. All of the boys were mostly excited about riding on the train. We also fed the fish and goats. Gabe about fell in the fish pond, which would not have been fun, especially since it was a little chilly that day. Brady loved feeding the goats! He kept laughing because, apparently it tickled his hand. Bree was very well behaved all day too. The pictures are from the train ride. As you can see Brady was hanging on for dear life. Not sure why, but he wasn't going to let go until we got off. Not sure if you can see, but his knuckles were actually turning white.

I haven't taken many pictures of the house lately, but there hasn't been much to see. Progress is being made, but it is hard to see. I think the plumbing is all done as far as it can be until we get cabinets, sinks and floors. The electric is all in. The insulation is done and they did the basement, which they weren't supposed to, so since it was their mistake, we got it free! :) Today, they put all the drywall up! It is so cool to see it taking shape. We walked in and couldn't believe that it looks even bigger yet! My closet is HUGE! I am so excited. I can't get any pictures of it right now because the lights aren't in and the electric isn't on, but it has its own vent because it is so big! This will be the first time that Mike and I will be able to fit in the same closet, which is exciting since neither of us have a ton of hanging clothes. Still hoping to be done the first part of August. These pictures are of the living room/kitchen and of Brady and Bree sitting on top of the fireplace. Mike thought it would be funny to set Bree up there, so of course, Brady had to do what Bree was doing. If you look close, you will see that Bree woke up with some wild hair after her nap!

We will be celebrating Bree's 1st birthday this weekend. It is hard to believe she is already one! The time really goes by fast. I now understand why people keep telling me to enjoy them while I can because before I know it, they will be off to college.

Tagged and house stuff

When I went to the house today, it was a little busy. There were several people there working, which I like to see. Those who were working included, Mark doing some plumbing, the electrician, the heating and cooling guys, and the siding guys. It is fun to see progress. They put a little bit of the siding on yesterday and got the fireplace in as well as the furnace. My wonderful sister shipped me a garbage disposer and a hot water dispenser, which I am so thankful for! My other sister was in surgery today having a piece of her ruptured disc removed from her back. OUCH! Cut story: I had called a friend and left a message this morning for her and when I hung up, Brady said, "Mom. Mom. Tell Laura I be praying for her!" Why he felt the need to pray for her, I am not sure, but I thought that was pretty awesome. I hadn't said anything about prayer or anything to him. He came up with this on his own. Then, I called Mabes (my mom), to see how my sister was doing (before surgery). Brady asked who I was calling and I told him I was calling Nana. He asked why, so I told him and he said, "Tell Robin I be praying for her." Maybe he is going to be my little "prayer warrior" as our pastor once put it.

Thanks to Hollie, I have been tagged in this thing, so I am writing about myself, which, like Hollie, I don't do much. Anyway, here are my answers.

I am…working on Bree's birthday party.
I want…to move into my new house so I don't have to see naked laundry guy anymore!
I wish…my parents lived closer.
I hate…spiders
I miss…having a yard for Brady to play in.
I fear…scary movies.
I feel…relaxed at the moment, both kids are napping and the house is picked up, life is good
I hear…the wind blowing outsite.
I smell…nasty food that my neighbors are burning.
I crave…any chocolate (I am on a diet)
I search…for good recipes, which usually just means calling Hollie or one of my other friends.
I wonder…what my children are going to be like when they grow up.
I regret…things that I say sometimes without thinking first.
I love…my husband and my kids
I ache…after mulching at my parents houses.
I care…for my family and friends.
I always…am up for hanging out with friends and family
I am not…creative
I believe…that Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
I dance…any song that comes on with my children.
I sing... Jesus Loves Me and The B-I-B-L-E many times a day.
I cry…whenever the mood strikes.
I don’t always...think before I speak.
I fight…with submission.
I write…my blog and my journal
I never…want to lose faith.
I listen…my children playing and laughing
I need…to do dishes and laundry.
I am happy…when I am with my family and friends.

So, I have to tag someone, and the lucky people are Kristy and Leslie. :)

Weekend in Winfield, more house stuff

We had a wonderful time in Winfield this weekend. Saturday was a big day for Brady. He got to ride the golf cart, play with our friend's son all day, and go fishing. Brady caught his first fish. Actually, the first fish on his pole. Last time he went, Papa let Brady reel in the fish he had caught on his big pole. This time, Papa put the pole in for him, and as soon as he took it, there was a fish on it. He reeled it in like it was no big deal, but once it got to shore, he freaked out. He didn't like it and wanted it to go back! Between, our friend's son and Brady, Papa spent most of his time untangling and fixing fishing poles! It was still fun. We also got to eat some morel mushrooms, which I missed out on last year due to being pregnant. Mike got to spend some time on the golf course, and we also spent some time helping my parents put mulch around the new house and what was left went around the old house.

The house is coming along. We went through today and decided where we want all the electrical stuff. The bathtubs are in. They will continue working on plumbing and electrical stuff this week and then insulation and drywall next week. We are now thinking that it will be done the first part of August! It is hard to believe that that is so close. That will be perfect timing since Brady's birthday is in September. Hopefully we can be in and have a big party to celebrate both his birthday and our new house! Bree is turning one in a few weeks, which also seems hard to believe! The time has gone by so fast, but we have either been selling our house, moving or working on our new house since she was about 6 weeks old.

I don't have any pictures of the house, but I thought the second picture was a cute picture of Brady and Bree, and it is hard to get both of them to smile and look at the camera at the same time, so thought I would share it.

Deck, windows and more

As you can see in the pictures, it looks like a house. We have all the windows in and almost all of the framing is done. We now have a deck on the back of the house, at least the frame. You can't walk out on it yet, but it is there. When I was there today, they were framing the rest of the basement and putting in the holes for the vents. They had also framed the fireplace for the upstairs. The rest of the week, they will be working on the plumbing and electrical work. We will be picking out the stone for the outside as well as doing a walk-through to decide where we want all the electrical outlets. SO many decisions. Brady is doing great! Now, we just need to get back on the potty training thing. Bree is really crabby lately, but she is getting her 4th tooth, so it must be hurting pretty bad because she keeps pushing on her mouth. She is also not eating very well. I can't wait until it is over!