Fall Frenzy

OK...I've got A LITTLE (to say the least) catching up to do on my blog! I have yet to post from BooderBeans TWO birthday parties, our annual Fall Break camping trip, and many other things this month. BUT before i do a major catch up post...lets just focus on the here and now--Halloween and Fall 2011!

I introduce to you...our Deer Hunter and his Deer!!

(photos aren't that good, YOU try getting a fidgety 22 month old to sit still when there are pumpkins and a costume to play with!)

   

Over Fall Break we took the boys on our annual Krout Family Campout. Had a great time, great weather...and oops-a broken camera so hardly no photos were taken. BUT on our way to the campout we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and took the boys to a great pumpkin patch

and had a great ol' time.

The boys were so ready to go into the fields and get their pumpkins but I had to play mom for a minute, and make them pose for the traditional photos :)

BrotherBean was trying to be big like big brother and tried so hard to find the perfect pumpkin! after roaming around the patch for a while he finally decided that "WAY over there" was the perfect one :) Love this little man and his milk belly! Love my chunky monkey!

My big man BooderBean was so proud to be a big boy this year and do more himself...as in cut his own pumpkin and all!

They both screamed "CHEEEEEEEEEEEEESE MOMMYYYYYYYYYYYY"

love. them. to. pieces.

A 5 year old interview

Well Mr. BooderBean has now been 5 for four days and i finally had to chance to sit him down for his 5 year old interview.  As i mentioned before, i decided it would be fun this year to ask YOU all to ask him questions and let him answer them...some were funny because the questions were way out there so i told him if he didn't understand the question then to just give me a funny answer, which he loved!

Now, folks, these answers are straight from his mouth, no filtering or editing was done--although maybe i should have, i just wanted to remember years from now exactly what he was thinking at age 5.

What would be the best day ever for you as an almost 5-year-old?

• "A day of playing all day long with my toys in my bedroom"

What is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?

• "Playdoh Piano"

Now that you are FIVE, what is your favorite thing to do on the weekend?

• "Play games on daddy's iPhone"

BooderBean are you full of Poop? (this was from Military Man's very best friend-our "Uncle Mike", who is currently deployed in Afghanistan-BooderBean just adores this man!!)

• "That is not a propriate word" (as he said with a scowl on his face, hahaha)

How do you like school?

• "It is good"

What is your favorite memory of when you were a young lad (4)?

• "Going to Big School and playing with my little brother"

What is the best thing about turning 5?

• "That i get to chew bubble gum now" 

What will you be able to do now that you are 5 that you couldn't do when you were 4?

• "I can touch the top of the counter at home now" (what??? he could touch the top of the counter at age 2)

What does your mommy do for a living?

• This is a 2 part answer as he didn't understand if the question was what does your mommy do OR what does she do for work. So he gave both: 
  "what does my mommy do? well at night i know that mommy lays in bed and watches TV and then falls asleep with it paused and then it's on night long because sometimes i get up in the middle of the night and she is asleep with the TV on, she does this because she is so tired i think" HAHA good job buddy, yes, mommy is tired isn't she :)
  "what does my mommy do for work? She probably gets to work every day and gets a cup of coffee and then does her computer work" HAHA does he know his mommy or what!!

What does your daddy do for a living?

• Again with the 2 part answer:
  "What does my daddy do for work? My daddy works for the Armory" notice he said FOR the Armory, not AT the Armory? HAHA
  "What does my daddy do? Well daddy lets me play on his iPhone sometimes and he smokes cigarettes"--yup, that's right he said that..so this sparked a whole conversation for sure.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

• "A cowboy that has a big farm and a construction worker"

If you only got to keep one thing you own, what would it be?

• "How come I only get to keep one thing?" So I explained that if for some reason something happened and we only were able to keep one of his toys or something what would it be-he thought for only one second and then answered with tears in his big brown eyes "I would keep pig and home blanket" Home Blanket has been his blanket since he was only a few months old, and both stuffed pig and home blanket go literally everywhere we go!

Do you think your mommy is a control freak? Lol (p.s. Some of the best mommies are...I should know!) ;)--this is from my friend, who kinda knows i might be.

• "Piano" i told him he could make something up if he didn't understand :)

What is your advice for other big brothers out there?

• "To take care of the little brothers, I would do this by if there was a bad guy that came to the house, i would beat the bad guy up!"

What do you think of your little brother?

• "That I love him!"

What is your favorite cartoon show?

• "I have two, they are Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Jake and the Never land Pirates, can I watch a show now????"

If you could go anywhere for one day, where would it be and who would you want to take with you?

• "I would go to a water park! I would take my brother, my mommy, and my daddy, oh and Maggie and Gunner. Oh wait--Maggie and Gunner can't swim, they are dogs, never mind"

What is your favorite color at age 5?

• "Red and Blue"

What is your favorite food?

• "Shrimp, of course, and orange juice and grape juice"

What is your favorite thing to wear?

• "Jeans and boots, well Wranglers and boots"

Thanks our BOY! Happy 5 years BooderBean Krout!!

We had a Cowboy Cookout for him at the Krout family farm and had fishing, a bonfire, hotdogs over the fire, smores, etc.! He loves hotdogs and wanted to take some "funny face pictures" he told me.

I managed to get one photo before he tore into the gifts!

I included a few photos from his family birthday party we held last week.  Photos from his friend birthday party we are holding this weekend will come next week.

Zoo Dayz

I forgot all about posting this and, even though the photos are not good at all i still wanted to post :)
My awesome college friend, and now fun momma friend Emily and I took our kiddos out to play at the zoo a few weeks ago when the HOT weather finally gave us a break!

BooderBean had a hunting day with daddy so it was just me and my little man headed to meet pretty little Hadley and her momma.

The weather was perfect and the kids had so much fun playing and seeing the animals. We took a picnic lunch, rode the train, saw the new baby elephants that were recently born, and just spent the whole day hanging out.

And i think we got by with only 2 fits from the kiddos the whole day :)

OH and Emily and i got our work out on as well--do you even know how worn out you can be from pushing a 30lb kid in a stroller all over the zoo?? we do!!

(they loved the bouncy gym!)

The photos are really not that good, i mean really! But oh well-it's memories :)

FIVE in FIVE days

My big man will be turning a whole hand full of fingers-FIVE-in just 5 short days!

He's pretty pumped to be able to give a high 5 and that be how old he is, or so he tells me :)

here are some amazing things this boy can do now:

• he can count to 100 without any help (and probably higher but we stop there).
• he can color very well now, staying in the lines is his new favorite thing to do.
• he can get him self completely ready for school in a very handsome outfit and always makes sure it's done "the way a cowboy would do it".
• he is getting really good at reading, memorizing, adding, and spelling.
• he has the best memory of anyone i know, he can remember something we did years ago and will have the littlest details to remind you.
• he is such an amazing big brother-BrotherBean loves him so much and wants to do everything he does just to be like his big brother.
• he loves whole heatedly and shows it in big ways.
• he has the tightest bear hug of anyone, and can squeeze a neck in a hug like no other.
• he knows just about as much as his daddy when it comes to guns and ammo and hunting, he can tell you exactly what to do and how to do it and be precise.
• he is friendly and outgoing and shy and quiet all at the same time.
• he enjoys books and puzzles so very much.
• he loves to have you tell him stories about "things that happened to you when you were growing up".
• he knows that if momma has a headache that all he needs to do is lay in her lap and her headache magically goes away ;)
• he is getting very good at his chores now: setting and clearing the table, gathering trash on trash day, getting his items ready by the door for school each evening.
• he still has his favorite stuffed animal and blanket that go EVERYWHERE with us, they are simply referred to as "pig and home blanket".
• he would wear boots and wranglers every day of the week if he was allowed.
• he is becoming a master roper and bull rider and practices daily.

Country Kids

Part of me wishes I could tend to a garden and keep a garden the way my amazing father-in-law does. Each year he plants a wide variety of vegetables, watermelons, and pumpkins on his farm.  I don't know how he keeps up with it with the ease and grace that he does, he also has a couple hundred cattle and a more acres than i can count of tending too as well!  I love this man, I can't say it ENOUGH, i truly was a blessed and lucky woman on September 4, 2004 when i gained him as my Father-In-Law.  This man is a saint I tell you, a saint!!

BooderBean was SO proud of his watermelon picking with Grandpa

BrothrBean adores those two!!

BrotherBean learning to use the outside faucet, he was obsessed!

BooderBean has definitely fallin in his fathers and grandfathers footsteps and picked up the gene of gardening and anything outdoors, and BrotherBean is always right behind him following and doing EXACTLY what big brother does.

Some of the vegetables and watermelon were ready for picking last month so we headed over one evening to let the boys help grandpa get to pickin'.  They had a blast and were SO proud of themselves! and let me tell you, those were THE best onions I have ever ate!

BooderBean picked every one of these

I know these are tons of photos..but I couldn't narrow it down for the post :)

School Daze

Yup, Mr. Big Boy BooderBean is considered a "schoolager" now! He finally got to join his friends and jump into the next milestone of his big boy life:  First Day of School: Pre-K style.  \

Although mom did not win and get to purchase the adorable plaid backpack i have had my eyes on all summer...Dad and big man won and he got to pick out his own cool backpack. Maybe i can still get that cutesy one and carry it myself! Man i need a girl huh :) 

The drop off was a bit harder than his momma would have liked, i guess i didn't really prepare myself for tears and clingyness.  But when i showed up at 3:15 to pick up my big man he was all smiles and proud of himself as he strapped his backpack on and showed me all around his classroom and the play area.

Here are a few of the highlights from his day, ALL in his words mind you:

• "my favorite thing we did was play outside at recess. that's what they call it at big school, recess, not just playground time"
• When MilitaryMan and I were asking him all of our 100 questions about his day we could tell he was getting annoyed because he then said this "is this how it's going to be EVERY day? that you ask me every single question about my school day over and over?" hahaha!! sorry son, but yes, your dad and I care, and that's our job :)
• When we explained to him that he didn't have to play with the mean little boy that is now in his class that was also in his daycare class, that he had a whole new class of friends he could make and he could play with all of them, he then said this "well i can't because they all speak Spanish or something"...oooooh boy! well not ALL of them do, but a few do and he must get his over exaggeration from me :)
• "look mommy they have a race track INSIDE and a one, two, one, two like we have at home!!" (a one, two, one, two is "Hopscotch")
• "I like Mrs. Alred, she is nice, she told me i didn't have to fall asleep at Brain Break like you said i did, she said i just needed to rest"
• "I got to see HENRY and MiKayla!!!!!!" and then "hey, did you know i have been friends with them since we were in diapers" hahah seriously? what an adult thing to say!

He had a great day and was really looking forward to going back today! The drop off this morning, on day two, was much smoother! Not one tear from him at all, now me? I walked myself strait to the car had a good ol' cry that my little boy is growing up!

I remember thinking that the moms that did this were silly!! Of course kids grow up, they have to, hello?? but Man, you become a mom and, it hits ya hard!

So happy he is enjoying big school--he even said he thought it would be cool if little brother could come soon! Slow that one down buddy!! :)

The call we've been waiting for...

Mr. Big Man BooderBean will be starting Pre-K on Monday morning! I'm sure you remember my previous post about us stressing out over the Pre-K issue, well our prayers have been answered-the district here opened up an additional Pre-K class and most kids on the wait list will be starting on Monday.  Looks like it was a good idea to take off on Friday for a BooderBean and Mommy day after all :) We have some shopping to do!

(Huge thanks to Amie Haar for making a spur of the moment cowboy day into a fabulous photo shoot!)

Stay tuned next week for "first day" photos!

S-E-V-E-N

SEVEN years!! That is how long I have been able to do the following items:

• call myself Mrs. Krout
• snuggle up with a married man ;)
• kiss my best friend and know that I'll be able to do that anytime I want to
• use the phrase "i don't know, let me check with my husband and I'll get back with you"
• use the phrase to the guy that changes my oil at the mechanic shop "oh i have no idea about any of that, my husband usually takes care of all the vehicle stuff"
• buy an anniversary card
• celebrate the Labor Day weekend with an added flare

Thanks for SEVEN years of memory makin' baby! Thanks for putting up with your sometimes crazy, emotional, stressful, goofy wife!

September 4, 2004 was a fabulous day!!

Orange Power

OK...not really Orange Power, as in OSU Cowboys, more like Orange Cuties!

We got these outfits for the boys this past summer, and it was instantly my favorite look on them both! We had them wear this outfit to many family gatherings, cookouts, get together with friends over the summer and got so many compliments on the cutie pies in orange!

Like all things on BrotherBean lately, he was quickly outgrowing the shorts (poor tubby boy) so i wanted to get some great pics of them in the outfits before they were outgrown! We grabbed the boys up for some HOT play outside and asked our dear friend Amie Haar to come over for a quick photo session.  Even though the boys probably gave her a run for her money, I think she did a fabulous job and the photos turned out great! 

I can't believe how much these two boys have grown up over the past year!! BooderBean will be turning 5 in a little over a month and still loves to pose for the camera, BrotherBean is 20 months now and is just so fast and full of energy that it's hard to get him to sit still. He loves to say "cheeeese" and will do great if he's sitting still.

Can't wait for the Fall to come and have GreyGill Fish do our Fall Family photos!!!