Sleeping Prince

I had big hopes for my little man when he transitioned to his big boy toddler bed, I planned to have the perfect bedding sewn by my own hands and ready for his big first night....that ship sailed and life got in the way and before we knew it little man was ready for his first night in his big bed and the materials were still waiting for me at Hobby Lobby.  So MilitaryMan did his magic and surprised us when the boys and i got home with the baby bed taken down, big boy toddler bed put up, room rearranged, and a certain somebodies favorite tractor blanket in place for the night!
I still have BIG plans for my first major sewing project and making new bedding for both boys rooms, and curtains, and who knows what else...so stay tuned!

THIS is our cutie patootie at 8pm last night...

He only made it 4 hours before he woke up and padded his little barefooted feet across the house to our bed and climbed on in :). Here's to hoping tonight goes better and lasts longer, while i love the snuggles i know my baby needs his bed!

Two is lookin' pretty darn cute!

When did the little HAM in my life turn into a little boy???? My chubby little baby has turned into a chubby little toddler man and I love it.

Over the past weekend we took BrotherBean in for his 2 year Well Child Check, and also met up with our awesome friend and photographer GreyGill Photography to have BrotherBeans 2 year photo shoot!

At Age TWO BrotherBean..

• weighs 32lbs and is 34inches tall!!1
• loves watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse more than anything in the world
• has mastered the phrases "no, i not like it", "it's hot, i not like that", and "no, it's yucky" (all while waving his hand in front of his face like something smells bad...and all while sitting in his highchair at a meal if he decides he doesnt' like what you have cooked, or has decided he is just not going to eat today.
• loves candy! i mean LOVES candy!
• is a master at winning your heart over with his smile and sweet voice saying "hi mommy, hi daddy" as you are trying to get on to him or correct him for something he should not be doing
• can say 5 and 6 word sentences and usually says 2 sentences at a time! he's so smart!
• loves to read, loves to look at books
• loves anything to do with animals, puppies, turtles, and kitty cats
• loves to wrestle and watch his cousin Shelby wrestle
• loves to do anything his big brotehr is doing, he is his shadow in every aspect
• is king of the repeater game
• loves to roll the windows down and sing in the car at the top of our lungs
• can do the "hot dog" dance like nobodies business.

Pearly Whites

WHEW! BrotherBean survived his 1st dentist visit and BooderBean survived his 3rd with no cavities for either of them!! Both boys did so good and sat so still for our fabulous pediatric dentist. 



checkin' out the fun chairs at the dentist office (of course Mickey joined!)


BooderBean is an old pro at this...he just climbs on up in the chair and settles in for his cleaning while he watches Cars movie on the mini TV over his head, all of course while sporting his awesome dentist visit glasses.  BooderBeans first visit at age 3 had us leaving sad...the poor boy had 4 cavities and need caps! FOUR! It shocked MilitaryMan and I to our core because this is the boy who doesn't have a sweet tooth in his body and at the time would only drink milk and water.  She said some kids just have sensitive teeth to cavities. SO when we left this check up we were so glad to hear that everything was in check and his teeth looked great, except for the massive overbite (sorry bud, you got your moms genetics on that one and will probably spend your junior high and high school years in braces like i did). 



Getting his teeth cleaned and counted for!

BrotherBean did so awesome! Well he was a bit fidgety and wanted down a few times but we busted out some blue surgical gloves and that entertained him while he got his teeth cleaned! We were worried about this one too because he fell on Thanksgiving day and knocked his front tooth back causing it to bleed quite a bit and has since changed from pearly white to a sad shade of grey.  Oh i hate it for him, mainly because he'll have it till he's 7 or so!!! Doesn't bother him one bit though, he'll proudly show off his "gay teef" for you anytime (as he calls it).  She said his tooth was just fine and as long as he doesn't injure it again he would just have a discolored tooth but at least it would stay intact.

See ya in 6 months dentist lady for another check up!



Playing before going back for his cleaning



Getting all cleaned and counted for!



Sweet Sweet Baby G's

BrotherBean has got to be the funniest two year old i know! I mean i remember BooderBean being hilarious at this age but BrotherBean is stealing the show!
He's making big strides as a two year old:  had his first dentist appointment yesterday, we will be havnig his 2 year old photo session done this weekend, and then he goes for his two year well check Monday.  I"ll update next week on it all.

For today I'll leave you with a few funny photos of our little guy last week!  We were taking down the Christmas decor and he decided that the Baby Jesus from the children's Nativity needed to be played with a little bit more. This Christmas season he has been able to communicate much more and has now started calling the Nativity Jesus: "Baby G's", and even says it with a gangster voice!!
As i am packing items away i see him snag up Baby G's and run off to his room...i go in and check on him a few minutes later and this is what i find!  He tells me he needs to read Baby G's a book, and then says he needs to rock Baby G's that Baby G's is sad. He makes a sad, melt your heart face, and grabs a blanket for Baby G's :) LOOK closely...you can see Baby G's snuggled up tight!!

Cute, funny, creative, smart BrotherBean!!

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!