Merry Christmas 2014

Merry Christmas 2014 to all our friends and family. 2014 has been quite an exciting year for our family. Here's a quick recap by family member.

Jared continues to enjoy working with Symantec. Although, things are changing over there. His division along with a few others will spin off into their own company. At first, we were quite nervous about it. But now, Jared feels confident that this is a good move for his company and is excited to see what growth may come available for him over the next year or so.  Jared also spent some time this year focusing on balance in his life. He played on a soccer league and ran a half-marathon. He also began serving as a temple worker in our local Mormon Temple. It has been a huge blessing for our family and for Jared as an individual. 

Andrea loves being a full-time stay at home mom. After nearly two years of not working outside the home, she finds life has filled up in ways she never thought possible. It can be exhausting, but that doesn't mean she doesn't love it. This year she had her tonsils out and took up running. Andrea ran her first 5K and loved every minute of it. She was hoping to run more races, but discovered she was pregnant. This is the 3rd Christmas Andrea's spent pregnant. She is so happy to be pregnant, even though it really is the pits on so many levels. Our new baby boy will arrive in April!

 The three sweet boys we already have fill up our lives in so many ways. Ethan is in first grade, is a proficient reader, a killer soccer player, and smart as a whip. Not much gets past Ethan. Grayson is in pre-Kindergarten. He loves homework, but often complains about actually going to school. He is learning to write and recognize his letters and numbers and averages 5 points per game on the soccer field. Landon is Andrea's little buddy. He misses his brothers when they're at school, but enjoys hanging out with mom one-on-one. That brings us to our little girl, Miriam. She is growing so quickly. Miriam is a huge help around the house. She loves to help empty the dishwasher and clean up spills. She continues to be the most popular person in the house.

Our little family is very excited about the coming year. We will add one more Krause to our little haus. In fact, we will be moving into a bigger haus this year as well. We are thrilled to be homeowners again.  After living in a house built in 1959 for nearly four years, I am excited to live in something brand new. We are extremely grateful for our many blessings. Sometimes it feels as though we aren't deserving of so many wonderful things. Don't get me wrong, we had our share of trials this last year. But the good far outweighs the bad.

We are very grateful for our Heavenly Father's hand in our lives. We are also grateful for our Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ. Our hope is for our friends and family is to discover Him and let His love surround you. He is the greatest gift ever given.

To move or not to move

Jared and I really lucked out on the house we rented 3.5 years ago. It has been a great little home for our family. Unfortunately, the house did not grow when our family did. Our lease is up over the summer and I'm about 95% positive we will not renew the lease. I just don't really want our new baby to sleep in the living room.
In our exploratory search for a bigger place, it became evident pretty quickly that our best option will be to buy a home. We couldn't seem to find anything to rent that would financially make sense when it would cost the same and/or less per month to purchase a home.
We started looking at options. New construction is really tempting. The price is right and we wouldn't have to do any renovations. After living in a home built in 1959, this is a very tempting prospect. Seriously, people, it can be frustrating living in an older home. For example, my kitchen cabinets don't stay shut! You close one on one side of the kitchen and another one pops open on the other side of the kitchen. Plus, renting is hard sometimes. I have never felt like I've been able to make this house my home. It's more like the place where all my stuff is.
I have loved our little nook of Orlando, but I'm ready for a slower pace and a quieter life. Seeing as Jared has a 30-45 minute commute to work every day, we decided to look elsewhere. Guess what? We found the perfect little place. In fact, their town sign says it's "Someplace Special" and I agree. It's quite possible we're going to pick up our little, but big family and move to Mt. Dora over the summer. I'll admit, it's a little terrifying. It means new friends, new church, new school, new doctors, new stores, new everything! It also means being 45 minutes away from Jared's family instead of 5. although, we would be about 30 minutes closer to my family. After our visit yesterday, I think it's totally going to be worth it.
I have faith we'll end up exactly where we need to be. I just hope it's Mt. Dora, because that's where I want to be.

OUC Half Marathon

I ran a 5K in August. It was the Celebration of Running 5K and kicks off the annual race season in our area. In the race packet was a "You've done a 5K, why not do a Half Marathon" flyer. It even had a training schedule. Jared saw it and decided he was going to do it. Over the next 13 weeks, he started training. I have to say that this was a commitment for both of us. It meant he was gone from home more than he already is, which was a sacrifice for me. It meant that he was working his body pretty hard, which was a sacrifice for him.

All his hard work paid off yesterday when he ran the race. We were so proud of him so of course we had to show our support. The race started and finished at beautiful Lake Eola downtown. 13.1 miles is a long way to run and that meant the course went right by our neighborhood. After a hurried breakfast, the children and I went to the end of the street to cheer Jared on at the 4 mile mark.

 The weather was beautiful, but after the first hour of running it was apparent that although it was December, humidity would show up and make the runners miserable. Jared was a little disappointed in his time. I am sure he would have shaved at least 5 minutes off if it had been a cooler, drier day.

 After cheering him at the end of the street, we loaded into the van, navigated crazy traffic, and found the finish line. We had time to walk around Lake Eola and enjoy the Christmas decorations and music. Then we found a spot on the curb to cheer Jared to the finish line. We even had time to take a selfie.

 Almost there! Jared told me later that he was so tired but knew we'd be at the finish line so he kept running. He didn't want the children to see him walking. Grayson was disappointed Jared didn't win the race. He was actually almost an hour behind the top female runner. The winner of the whole she-bang finished at just over an hour! Can you imagine running 13.1 miles in an hour?! That is pretty amazing. For his first race, I thought he did great! He finished in 2 hours and 14 minutes. Go, Jared, go!

Family shot with our half-marathon man. Grayson did say he was impressed with the medal. And so was I. That thing weighed at least 5 pounds. 

Over it

I am over it! It being illness. In the last two weeks, we have had colds, pink eye, vomiting, diarrhea and a lice scare (thankfully we avoided that last one). No one has been spared and it made for an exhausting two weeks for this mom. So, I'm personally requesting that we begin this week healthy and well rested.

Grayson seen here in a rare place for the middle of the day. I found this photo of the camera when I uploaded birthday pics. Landon must have snapped our first casualty without anyone's knowledge.

Grayson is 5

Grayson turned five nearly two weeks ago. He was so excited to be five years old. We had a big party that was super easy. We had no theme. I ordered Little Caesar's and served a couple of salads. Grayson doesn't like cake, so we got Mike's Italian Ice instead. It was delicious. I was going to play games, but the children seemed to entertain themselves in the backyard so I didn't bother.
Grayson invited his friends and family and we just visited and enjoyed one another. It was kind of perfect. Everyone was so generous. I was very grateful for everyone making Grayson feel so special on his birthday.

Grayson received some really fun gifts. Thanks again to all our friends and family for their generosity.

Serving up Mike's Italian Ice. It really is delicious. If you live nearby, you should go to their shop and enjoy a yummy treat.

Grayson even celebrated his birthday at school. His teacher, Mrs. Fisher, gave him two books and a fire truck craft. I'm pretty sure Grayson felt special all day which makes me very happy.

Grayson learned to ride his bike without training wheels earlier in the year. Gigi and Papa took him to pick out a bigger bike and helmet for his birthday. I gotta say, he picked a good one. The TMNT helmet has a fabric bandanna that blows in the wind as he flies down the street on his cool bike.

Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving! It is the best holiday ever. We were able to enjoy Thanksgiving with my family in St. Augustine this year. Thanksgiving day also happened to be my brother's 30th birthday so we celebrated him as well. If I'm being honest, the day didn't go exactly as I'd planned. I just felt so tired and worn out. Unfortunately, sweet Miriam became sick over night and I was literally up all night with her. We were both a little cranky. Regardless, dinner was delicious and I was so happy to be with the people I love the most.

My little brood enjoying story time with Daddy. These are my biggest blessings.

Girls have to stick together. Miriam and her cousin, Lyla. Two beauties inside and out.

18 weeks in and feel so much better. Especially grateful this year for our newest addition.

Even got to spend some fun time with cousins while we were in St. Augustine! Cousins are the best. I really should blog about how awesome my cousins are. 

Miriam's Photo Shoot

The boys found the camera and had a photo shoot with Miriam. Here are some of their best shots. She was really cheesing it up. We love her so much!

Green Meadows Farm

This is a photo heavy post! We went on a field trip with Grayson's class to Green Meadows Farm. We went a couple of years ago with Ethan's class. It was just as fun this time around. It is a great place and if you're close by, you should try to get over there. I should mention that Grayson insisted on wearing his overalls. He sounded incredulous when I asked why. Of course, farmers wear overalls! So, I quickly called Aunt Stacey to get back the overalls I had already purged from the dresser.  I think Grayson now wants to farm professionally.

Duckling!

The farmer and his piglet!

Pony ride.

Old tractors everywhere on property. Grayson was ecstatic.

Baby goat.

Hungry goat.

Chasing and catching chickens was hilarious. Poor chickens. Although some of them seemed used to it and just stood there and let the children pick them up.

Piglets! My personal favorite.

Growing pig.

Baby chicks! This is Grayson's friend from class. I think he has a crush on her. He tells me that they play house every day and he is the dad and she is the mom. He also chose her as his wife when he was the farmer during "Farmer in the Dell." 

The whole gang waiting to milk a cow.

Milking a cow. This was Grayson's favorite!

2 Photos

Ethan works so hard at school He is a great student and loves to learn. Apparently there is a list of 1000 sight words (words readers should know by sight in order to become successful readers). This list was made by finding the words used most frequently in writing. It starts out with words like "my, like, when, etc" and works up to words like "various, decimal, Japanese, etc". Ethan started out the year knowing nearly 400 sight words! I found out at Open House that this was definitely impressive, as all but one other student was hovering between 50 and 100. Mrs. Rivera (Ethan's teacher) said that once a student reached 1000, he or she would receive a trophy. I felt confident Ethan would earn that trophy by the end of the year. I was blown away that he earned it before Thanksgiving! So proud of this hard-working boy of mine. Here he is with his star reader trophy. 

Just a little girls bedhead! She is big enough to eat with us at the table now and is really trying to manage that spoon. She's so big.

Fun with Grayson

For my individual outing with Grayson, we were able to go to Universal Studios and Universal's Islands of Adventure. He was the perfect boy to take there because of his true love of Harry Potter. Here are some photos from our big day.

Left Kings Cross Station for Hogsmeade on the Hogwarts Express. It was amazing and it felt so real. Seriously, it was the most magical thing ever. We felt like real wizards on a real train. Jared was so jealous.

Not a great shot, but this is Diagon Alley. It was packed, so we didn't go too far inside. We ate lunch in Hogsmeade at the Three Broomsticks. Grayson didn't care for the butterbear, but he devoured his chicken legs and french fries. We had a blast! We even secured a wand for Grayson's birthday present. He looked at every single wand before choosing the replica of Severus Snape. I must say, it is pretty awesome.

Hanging with Millhouse while we ate our popcorn. 

Playing with Curious George. This was one of the highlights. We had so much fun in this interactive part of the park. The sign warned we'd get wet, but we naively thought we'd be fine. We ran up to shoot some water cannons and as soon as we arrived a bell rung out and dumped gallons of water right on top of us. It was hilarious. We both freaked out and laughed so hard. It was awesome.

Hanging out in Fievel's playground. This was so fun for me. I love the American Tale movies.

Minion Glasses! 

Grayson and I had a great day. He probably gets the least amount of one on one time with me and this trip was past due. I love this boy!

I have a 7 year old!

People, I have a 7 year old and it is freaking me out! I honestly, remember Ethan being born and being brand new like it was yesterday. And now, I have a 7 year old who can read and write and score soccer goals and who is kind and thoughtful and amazing. I am truly blessed to be his mom and grateful Ethan made me a mom.
Jared has pointed out how important birthdays are in large families because sometimes having so many children it is really hard to put individual focus on each one. I've tried to combine birthday parties for the children and he always asks me not to so that individual attention can be given.
Ethan's birthday was on a Wednesday, so Landon and I met him at school for lunch and brought cookies for his class.

There's this gator out front and Landon insisted on a photo with him.

Lunch time with these cool kids.

After school, we waited for Jared to come home so we could carve our pumpkin! I also let Ethan choose the night's menu and we had breakfast for dinner. Here's everyone carving the pumpkin. Grayson would have you know that he extracted the most "guts" from the pumpkin.

Ethan had a birthday party the weekend after his birthday, but I prefer to give our gifts on the actual birthday so we didn't wait for Saturday. Ethan was very excited for his party. One morning in September, I woke up to find a list he'd written with three things he wanted for his birthday: Skateboard, Helicopter, and Chima Legos. With the help of Gigi and Grandma, this list was totally doable. He also insisted his Aunt Stacey make his cake and drew a pretty detailed drawing of the cake for her to follow. It was amazing.

Don't worry, he will wear a helmet! I just couldn't cover up that face for this picture.

At his party, Ethan was humbled to see the gifts people brought him. He said in a tiny whisper, "All those are for me?" He is so sweet. 

Here's the drawing Ethan gave Aunt Stacey to design his cake.

And here's the finished product. We asked him what his inspiration was and he said, "I wanted to design a cake no one has seen before. I wanted something unique." Well, I think he did a swell job.

Happy birthday, Ethan!