Our Merry Merry 2011

What a Merry Merry Christmas we had!!



The boys arranging the stockings for Santa before bed....



One last photo in their matching PJ's before we headed out to see Christmas lights before Santa made his way to our house.

Christmas morning at home was so wonderful! The boys were so surprised by how Santa brought them EXACTLY what they each asked for.  BooderBean: asked for a new bike with a horn...BrotherBean:  asked for a tractor.



BrotherBean had to open every gift from his tractor





He's getting really good at the Wii and was very excited for his Cars game!!!

Two hilarious photos were captured...BrotherBean got those "big boy" tank tops he has been wanting, ya know, the "wife beaters" or undershirt things....well as soon as he ripped the package open he flung one around his neck and it stayed there throughout the remainder of the gift opening :)

BooderBean got a NEW BIG BED from mommy and daddy for Christmas...and this was his initial reaction when we surprised him with it in his room...he was not so thrilled to give up his old bed at first.  Needless to say, he's been much happier about it after he warmed up to the idea :)

After all the present opening was over we took a break for a yummy brunch together before the large family arrived.

For the first time ever we were able to host Christmas Day at our house with Military Man's family. We all decided well in advance to have a much more relaxed holiday this time and get to actually get in some R&R and enjoy each others company rather than spend all day in the kitchen cooking and then cleaning it up.  Instead we smoked a few delicious meats, had some yummy apple cider, and had a full spread of snack foods and dips and heavy appetizers. We sat around and talked, watched all the little kiddos play with all their new toys, played a grown up game of dirty Santa, and unwrapped hundreds of gifts. 

But one good and bad thing happened....i barely got to take any photos!!! I did not get one photo of my little family all together, I didn't get in even one photo with my kids, BUT what I did get to do was sit back, relax, and enjoy the morning with my little family at home before the large family arrived and then was able to enjoy the whole day and not be frantic about getting photos of every little thing we did.  It was good, and bad.

Best gifts we received you ask??? In my opinion it's these!!!

He came, We visited, We laughed, We loved...

Without making myself tear up by writing this post....My brother, Kaleb, came to visit from his new home in the D.C./Virginia area!!!! Brother moved "back East" as they call it, back in August to accept a really awesome job as a safety engineer with a really big and great company, Bechtel.  He loves his job and is doing so well with it. BUT we love him more and miss him more!!!
He came back for the biggest rival weekend in Oklahoma football, Bedlam Weekend!!!
While he was in town we had a big ol' family meal and laughed, played, talked, hugged, ate, drank, and of course his sissy bawled her eyes out like a baby..come on, it's me, OF COURSE i cried! But like i told him...they truly are happy tears!! happy that his life is turning out so awesome for him!
Just wish the distance wasn't a 24 hour drive or a $500 plane ticket :)

Me, Kaleb, Sister

If anyone out there wants to donate frequent flier miles or buy me a plane ticket I'll take you up on it :)

TWO times TWO

That's what we did, we celebrated TWICE for BrotherBean! Once at his party on Sunday with family, few friends, gifts, cake, dancing to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, eating a big ol' cold evening stew for dinner, celebrating 2 other family birthdays (my father in law and my mom), playing with all our cousins and just about every single toy in our house made an appearance to my living room floor :)

birthday breakfast in his new mickey mouse bowel with all his favorites (eggs, fruit loops, grapes, yogurt, milk)

playing hard in his new construction worker set

his birthday cake that i made

THEN we Krouts woke up the next morning and celebrated again as BrotherBean officially turned the big T-W-O! We took the boys to Bass Pro Shops to visit the big jolly Santa and had a whole day there, then went to eat some absolutely fabulous German lunch at a local restaurant and bakery! Ended the evening with a yummy dinner, let the boys have a long bath, and snuggled them up for a

Mickey Mouse movie night.

BooderBean loved Santa...BrotherBean, not too interested...more interested in the candy canes the big man was handing out!

BrotherBean shooting the play targets with daddy

writing their letters to Santa

BooderBean mailing his letter!!

The best photo we could get with squirmy BrotherBean

This boy knows his pastries! He got to pick out any cookie he wanted from the bakery for lunch!

On a side note (and this is more for my memory bank more than anything)

 The Birthday party and Birthday day for BrotherBean started out just like his birth and just like his 1st birthday...with him sick :( He wasn't horribly sick at all, it's more just ironic because he was sick (as we painfully remember) on and off his entire first year and then on his 1st birthday he was spent it throwing up, and then his 2nd birthday morning he woke up throwing up again. Luckily this time it was due to congestion.

Love our little man to pieces!!

Happy Birthday to our big

2 year old chunky monkey :)

say it isn't so....TWO??

Crazy to me to think that in four short days this little cutie patootie, chunky monkey, man will be TWO years old!!! Where oh where has the time gone? It was just 2 short years ago yesterday (December 7th-Pearl Harbor day) that I was due to have my second baby, but little Baby K 2.0 decided to hang out in mommas belly for 5 extra days until he was ready! Then on December 12th at 6:11 a.m. he decided that even though daddy had just left for a big day of hunting, and big brother and i had plans of making grandpa a birthday cake and napping all day...that he would have other plans for us and arrive :)



Making a gingerbread house with mommy at Thanksgiving



this boy LOVES to eat!!!

What a fabulous day it was! Happy birthday (in 4 days) to our BrotherBean!!
Your Mickey Mouse party on Sunday is going to be so fun little guy!

Roll back the ol' camera...Turkey Days highlights!

What am I most thankful for? Too big of a list to even begin to write them down!

What I am most thankful for right now is my 64GB flash drive that holds all of my most precious items...family photos from 2006 and up! I was looking back last night over the photos from past Thanksgivings with our boys and decided we needed to see a few of those again :) Watch out, there may be an overload--i like my photos!

Thanksgiving 2006 (BooderBean 1.5 months old)

Milk belly face! He just nursed for like 30 minutes!

His first black Friday shopping experience with mommy and mimi

Talking to Daddy in Afghanistan on Thanksgiving Day!!

Napping on cousin Brian (or Briden as he later called him!)

Thanksgiving 2007 (BooderBean 1 year and 1 month old)

posing with mimi's turkey

his first Thanksgiving meal! and he loved it all!

getting his FAVORITES from cousin Amy and Aunt Sandy, hot dogs and green beans

Thanksgiving 2008 (BooderBean 2 years and 1 month)

working on his tractor with grandpa

jumping in papa's pile of leaves

4 wheelin' with grandpa

washing dishes with Aunt Tonya

Thanksgiving 2009 (BooderBean 3 years and 1 month. BrotherBean 8months in mommas tummy!!!)

New Baby Krout inside mommas belly at 8 months--wow that's a big belly!

BooderBeans turkey hat!

BooderBean helping daddy put together brothers crib for his arrival the next month

Thanksgiving 2010 (BooderBean 4 years and 1 month. BrotherBean 11 months)

BrotherBean "trying" to put a puzzle of brothers together

BooderBean and grandpa putting a puzzle together

our boys all decked out in Camo!

Happy Thanksgiving from my fabulous boys!!

Happy Turkey Day 2011 to you all! Photos to be posted later from this year!

"Aunnie"

This is the name i have been dubbed by my awesome nephews! Although it hasn't always stuck for very long (meaning, once they could say "Aunt Cinda") the youngest nephew has actually let the name stay and to him...i am and will always be Aunnie.

Oldest nephew, i call him Saucy-who knows why really??, came to stay with the boys and I last weekend and OH MAN did we have fun! Military Man was off doing his Military duty and i had a house full of 3 energetic, excited, boys!
It was so awesome to see my now, grown up, nephew doing big guy stuff! Instead of me getting to read them their bedtime story, he did it! He sure loves his baby cousin, BrotherBean, and he helped him with every single thing. Helped pick him up when my hands were full, helped him and BooderBean feed and water our turtle, helped me in the kitchen, etc.

This was on the ride to Aunnie's house for the night! BrotherBean looks scared :)

it's dark, but this was snack time after we first arrived at our house. of course they HAD to eat first thing, silly boys

Making their own mini pizzas for "guys night"

The boys all had so much fun making these! They had 3 helpings

"Guys Night" means watching a movie and eating in the living room floor

Our creations!

The second breakfast of the morning!

Painting pumpkins with all the boys :)

Although the weekend left me exhausted because it was also the Spring forward time change weekend and the older boys decided that their internal alarm clock would wake them at the new time of 5:19 a.m.! Grandpa called to check on things about 9:20 that morning and i remember telling him "we have ate breakfast twice, colored with chalk outside, had a soccer game outside, painted pumpkins, and snuggled in my bed and it's ONLY 9:20!!" Needless to say the coffee pot was on all day long and by that evening a glass of wine had been poured :)

I just love that little boy so much! I cannot believe he is already 7 years old and in second grade!!
We will be doing weekends with him way more often!