Wow

Well,

Hello 2016.

It's been a whirlwind since the year left and started. 

Dave and I have embarked on a new journey for our family.  It's paid itself off tenfold, we are happy, healthy (finally) and life is good.

We wish nothing but the best for all of you as we close this blog down.

It's been real...

Love,

The Original Kraus House,

 

Dave and Courtney

Fly By

Well October just came and went didn't it?

We did all of the typical October things, pumpkin patches, fall festivals, pumpkin carving and Halloween.

The best part about this year though, we did it all as a family and outside of hospital walls.  The first time ever as a family of four.  How's that? You may ask, well, two of the last four years we've spent the month of October inside a hospital and the only other year we were out, Brayden was to fragile to be exposed to pumpkin patch, fall festival germs.

He really got into it this year and loves being a ghost no matter what the occasion or outfit.

Kaitlyn got into the pumpkin carving nitty gritty this year and laughed and squealed and she pulled seeds and guts out, you know, in typical girl fashion.

Friday night before Halloween we got dressed up and headed to the Spooky Sock Hop at school which was SO fun.

Kaitlyn took off to find her friends as soon as we got there but B was a little timid and unsure of all of the costumes.

Eventually he warmed up and had us chasing him all around th school.  Kaitlyn entered the hula hoop contest and made it to the final round.  She had a huge cheering squad of neighbors rooting for her but just couldn't keep three hoops going longer than the winner.

On Saturday we had a big BBQ in our court with our neighbors who are quickly becoming great friends.  Tables, chairs, a sofa and fire pit were lined up and down the street.

And we finished off the night sitting around the fire with our new neighbors who are quickly becoming our good friends.

And now...November is coming to a close.  We're getting ready to host our first Thanksgiving with family and friends and can't wait to spend the day with them all!

Five Facts

1.  We live in a small town nestled at the bottom of a mountain.  There's one gas station in town.  It has 4 pumps.  It closes at 7:00pm on Sunday nights.  I learned that the hard way.  Small town.

2.  You hear about "man caves" all the time.  I'm working on my Mom Cave.  It's my exercise room, it could be a fifth bedroom.  I've spent a good amount of sweat sessions in there and am loving it.

3.  We live at the bottom of a mountain.  There's wildlife everywhere.  We received an email from the kids principal about a bear and two cubs that have been spotted more than once at the entrance to our neighborhood.  We've got coyotes living in the woods behind our house and the deer are out of control.  Our bedroom backs to the woods and we heard some noises the other night that kept me awake.  Wildlife...I need to get used to it.

4.  I started seeing a chiropractor this week to help with my headaches.  My daily doses of Advil and excedrin need to stop so I'm trying to take a more homeopathic route.  It seems to be working so far.  It doesn't hurt that the drive out to her office is absolutely gorgeous.

5.  I've never been a big bath taker.  My first thought when I saw the tub in our new house was "great, that's going to be a pain in the ass to clean", never thinking I would get in it because really, who has the time?  Well, per Dr's orders on Wednesday, I made the time after a workout to get in and wow, it was so nice.  It's huge so of course I tried out all three seats and might have gotten really close to falling asleep.  I've decided I need to do make time for that more often!

We Got Boo'ed

You're probably wondering what that means.  We came home on Thursday afternoon and found this on our front porch.

It's a super cute little neighborhood treat for the kids.  The poem told us about the ghost and that we had to Boo someone else.

So we put together a basket and waited until bedtime on Friday night and then snuck onto our neighbors porch and left a Boo Basket for them.  It was super fun.

Saturday consisted of the Dads stealing construction comes and blocking off our street so the kids could run all over and play.

And have tea parties when they needed a break.

Today was spent playing outside for hours, coming in to rest and then heading back out to the pumpkin patch.

We went with my parents and my brother and his family and we all had so much fun.

It was a day full of slides, and apples and cider.

My parents graciously took the kids for the night since they all have tomorrow off and Dave and I do not.  We're capping off our weekend with our first fire in the new fireplace.

Here's to a good week!

A Storm...

Is a brewing...

I guess we'll see how our two new sump pumps and their battery back ups work.

In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy this beautiful view (and dream of the day that stupid dumpster and port a potty are gone).

Monkey See

Monkey Do

Kaitlyn takes gymnastics

And Brayden wants to too!

Jersey Shore

Over Labor Day weekend we took a trip up to Jersey to spend a beach weekend with my family.  I'm not sure why we haven't done it more often, but after making it there in three and a half hours and the kids, and my parents, talking about how much fun it was, I see more trips in our future.

The first day we got there we had a birthday party for Brayden and my Uncle who turned 70.  It was so fun to see family members that we used to see a lot as kids but now only seem to run into at funerals.  Mingling and catching up with them in a happy situation was a nice change.

We packed so much into two short days and didn't get a chance to do a lot of the things that I would have liked, but that just means we have to go back.

We played in the pool.

And my Dad even got in on the fun.  (Excuse the bad pics, I stole them from my Moms Facebook).  Let me tell you something about this picture of my Dad and the kids, which I'm sure will make my Mom cry.  I love this.  Do you see the pure joy on Aubrey and Braydens face?  There were a LOT of laughs while this was going on.  My Dad jumped in and grabbed the water gun and played with these kids for a long time.  Nobody cried, except me from laughing so hard, nobody yelled or got yelled at.  It was pure fun.  I have very vivid memories of playing in this same spot in this same yard with my Poppop.  I remember him pushing me in my swing hanging from a tree and singing "gonna dance with a dolly with a hole in her stockin while our knees keep a knockin and our toes keep a rockin...dance by the light of the moon...".  I love those memories.  I know just how hard it is to be a parent, and can understand why my Dad never grabbed a water gun and jumped in to play with me and my brother when we were kids, and that's ok, but I am SO happy that he's doing it with his grandkids.  They're making memories and that's so important.

There was also some beach time squeezed in.

As well as a boat ride.

We couldn't go to the shore and not hit the boardwalk for rides.  The boardwalk is one thing I miss when we go to the OBX, they don't have one and I feel like the beach and the boardwalk go together like peanut butter and jelly, you just can't have one without the other.

The kids had a blast

And all cried when it was time to leave

I'm so glad we went

And can't wait to go back!