Happy Birthday Jesus, Joey and Jackson!

So, December 16th was filled with lots of birthday fun this year! First Jackson had school that morning where they had scheduled a 'happy birthday Jesus' party which he loved.  He was a little confused because anytime someone said 'Happy Birthday Jackson!' He would say 'Happy Birthday To You Too!' It apparently was everyone's birthday on the 16th.  We went from a great day at school (minus a trip to the principal's office...yikes! Another post for another day) to a place called Going Bonkers.  And boy did he go bonkers!!!  From there we went to Chucky Cheese where he played his little heart out and even got to meet Chucky Cheese!! If you haven't seen the video on facebook already you'll have to check out my little man's dance moves on the videos at the bottom of this post.  The next day we had more birthday fun at my parent's where we opened gifts, ate great food and celebrated Joey and Jackson.  We somehow ALL ended up underneath my parent's dining table a.k.a. 'the fort'.  All I know is Jackson LOVED it!!!!! So, I think his birthday was a huge success!!!

December 16th sure was a day of birthdays this year!

Self Portrait- I Heart Faces Photo Challenge

Here is my photo entry for the new I Heart Faces photo challenge.  I think I look good rockin' the 'stache.What do you think?

Christmas Time

I love christmas and had a really hard time this year waiting until after Halloween to decorate.  I made it to the first weekend in November and then christmas was officially going to be in my home.  Jackson has helped me make ornaments and we have had fun decorating while listening to christmas music.  This is just such a special time of year and it blesses me to think of what it really means in the hope of my Savior Jesus Christ.  

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Our homemade advent calender with small bags 50% off from Hobby Lobby and dollar store christmas chocolates.  Jackson wakes up ready to open his gift with a small treat inside.  He gets really excited trying to find the correct number and opening the bag for a new treat each day.  He is also learning patience, which isn't the fun part since he sees the bags and really doesn't like that he can only get one per day.  Good lessons to learn non the less.  

Hope you all have a wonderful christmas!!! God Bless!

Some of My Favorite Things

Ok, for some reason there have been a few things that have come up within the last few weeks that have really made me super happy, so I thought I would share them with you all today.
Ok first of all has to be 103.7.  This radio station plays Christmas music 24/7!!!!  It is the best, and I have it on in my car every holiday season!
Second, I found the best ever pound cake recipe! It is a cream cheese pound cake and I ate this thing in two days!!!
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cream-Cheese-Pound-Cake/Detail.aspx
Third, I found the most comfortable lounge pants in the whole world at Victoria's Secret.  Seriously, they fit perfectly and are so comfy that I may live in them all day!!!
http://www.victoriassecret.com/ss/Satellite?ProductID=1265342767389&c=Page&cid=1287144204520&pagename=vsdWrapper

So anyway, these things made me happy and I hope you find some joy in them too!

Trick Or Treat!!!!

So, Jackson's 3rd halloween proved to be the best one yet! (well if you're measuring it by the amount of candy consumed)  We had a great time watching quite a few Halloween specials on tv yesterday, not to mention practicing our  knock on the door and....'TRICK OR TREAT!
Let me give you a little back ground leading up to this spooktacular day.  First of all, we received the gorilla costume about three weeks ago and have been getting our money's worth out of it for sure!  We decided to let Jackson play with it and he has probably been in his costume nearly every day before the BIG day.  He loved it!  We also were wanting him to wear it because he used to be extremely afraid of gorillas and our fear was that he would be scared of it.  So, all that to say that he really loved his costume.  Well, as it started getting dark we told him it was almost time to go trick or treating so we had to get our costume on.  His reply was, 'No thank you. I don't want to be a gorilla today.'
WHAT!!!!  The ONE day that he is suppose to wear his costume, he doesn't feel like it.  Oh great.  Well, after reasoning with him, bribing him and trying everything, we eventually just put him in it kicking and screaming.  He refused to wear the head, but he at least was part of a gorilla.  We went around to a few houses in our neighborhood and then went over to my parent's neighborhood where we hit up a few more houses.  All in all it was a great halloween!  I also had to post some pictures of our halloween party the night before at my parent's house.  Thanks mom and dad for hosting a TERRORIFIC PARTY!  :)

Bahahaha! Darrell and Stephanie you guys rocked the gangsta fo sho!!!

 My mom and dad were cheap Rangers fans.  They had all the gear with all the tags on.  Hehe.

 And here we are.  I was Jess and Joey was me from our college basketball days.  Do you love Joey's wig?  I do want to say that I don't feel the beard really portrayed me in college, but whatever.

Hope you had as much fun with Halloween as we did.  Thanks for reading!!!

Gross Goo!!!!

So it was pumpkin carving time in our house a week ago and whats not blog worthy about that, so here we go.  Armed with only a small 'scooper', some newspaper and a little elbow grease, daddy and Jackson set out to get all of the 'goo' out of our perfect pumpkin from the pumpkin patch.  The only problem was that Jackson, my little sweetie is not a big fan of icky stuff on his hands as evidenced from last Halloween's pumpkin carving experience. I love this pic.

Well, apparently he still is not a fan of preparing the pumpkin, so I thought I would post a video showing you.  So, here we are in our garage getting our pumpkin prepared to be carved.

Haha! Oh great times.  Well, we may have struggled with the preparing the pumpkin, but our family was very proud of our finished pumpkin!  Jackson picked the design, of course the 'SCARY' monster, and daddy and mommy carved the design.  I do want to add that while we were carving, Jackson had the little hole puncher and was poking holes in the back of the pumpkin the entire time we were working.  I think he had a few hundred holes when we were finished.  It was definately a team effort here.  So, here was our finished pumpkin.

Hope you have a GOOreat Halloween!!!

Fall Fun!

Well, as much as I would like to blog more, my time just isn't allowing it right now.  I have lots going on, but hopefully I will hit the high points of what is happening in the Kraus house from time to time.  I really wanted to blog about the fall projects Jackson and I did a few weeks ago.  Joey was gone for work and we told him that when he came home the house would be decorated for halloween.  Well, armed with only the items within my craft box, Jackson and I got to work on some homemade halloween fun. 

Here are the bats with purple crystal eyes that we cut out, and the picture in the frame is a fun pumpkin coloring page that Jackson so beautifully colored. 

These are the candles that are already in my house decorated with a little ribbon and glittery bat stickers. Some orange flowers and raffia always make for great fall decor, not to mention scary spiders! 

This is the old window and sill above my fireplace where we put another of Jackson's beautiful colorings and a homemade wreath from fun sparkly black ribbon and some black feathers.  

Here is our eating area where we borrowed this AMAZING candleholder from my mom and covered it in spider webs.  That great black lace table cloth was from last year's halloween party.  The little chair back decorations are the remainder of the black ribbon I had attached to some black paper that we made into cones and stuffed with orange flowers. Cheap and easy!

Again, reused pumpkin decorations from last year and some homemeade napkin rings.

 This is my favorite craft we did.  Jackson helped me stencil this banner with black ink and we punched holes and strung twine to hang it. A few glitter stickers later and we have a cute halloween banner. 

And last but not least, my favorite little surprise decoration.  A paper 'stache for my son's picture.  HAHAHAHA! I was hanging the banner and decided to add a few spiders to this cute framed picture.  Well then I decided this particular picture needed a little 'dressing up'.  I laugh everytime I look at it..and so does Jackson!!!!

Happy Halloween everyone, and hopefully before Christmas I will post the pictures of us at the Pumpkin Patch.  Here's to hopin'!!!

Oh, How I've Missed You

It has been a while Blogger since I have seen you.  It has been a long time since I have been here.  What has happened you ask?  Nothing really.  It isn't you, its me.  The busier I get the more you are neglected and for that I am sorry.  I am trying to update and continue recording the memories that I don't want to forget.  So, here are a few that I thought I would share.
Jackson is in 'school' now!!! Yea!  He goes two days a week for four hours a day.  It really has been such a blessing for him and for me.  I actually have some designated time during my week that I can call work time.  It has been great.  Jackson is just thriving at school.  He is such a social butterfly anyway and so he gets to be around kids his age, which is perfect.  He also loves to learn.  If there is something right now that he is obsessed over, it is his ABC's.  He knows about 4 ABC songs which he sings OVER and OVER!! He loves the sounds of the letters, which he goes through the house saying OVER and OVER.  And he loves finding all the words he can that start with each letter.  I took him to pick out a toy about a month ago, and what did he want, flash cards!  I took him the other day to pick out something and he chose an ABC puzzle.  Oh, my little book nerd.  He is so fun and talks so much that I am laughing and exhausted all at the same time.  He loves to quiz me all day long.  'Momma, what letter sounds like 'duh'?  He shouts 'D!!!' before I ever have a chance to answer. 'Momma, what words start with 'g'?  gorilla...what else,...garden....what else....goose.'  This is ALL day.  You can imagine my relief that school brings. :)  He really is so fun and I am so thankful that I get to watch him grow up and learn.

My other Jackson story that I love is that he loves to say the letters of the words on his flash cards so he will look at the word Dog and say, 'D...O...G..that spells dog.'  And he moves on to the next word.  Well he got to X-ray and he says, 'X....and looking at the dash, he puts his finger on his face, furrows his brow and says, 'hmmmm? and then finishes R...A...Y.   It was so funny! He had no idea what that dash was so now whenever I ask him to spell X-Ray, he spells it 'X....'hmmmm?'...R...A....Y.  Haha!  I don't want to tell him that it is a dash cuz the way he does it is just so dang cute!!!
Well, I had to get these little gems of my life on my blog so when my memory fades, these memories will still be here.

HU-AH!!!

I love my son and his crazy comments.  Which is why I always have a notebook handy to remember his silly stuff.  Here is something that I had to share.




This is the conversation I just witnessed.
Jackson: 'Daddy can I jump on your bed?'
Dad: No
Jackson: 'Daddy can I stand on your bed?'
Dad: 'I guess thats ok'
After he stood there for a few seconds....
Jackson: 'Well this isn't fun. Daddy can I 'hu-ah' on the bed?'
Dad: 'Hu-ah?'
Jackson: 'Yeah.' As he jumps as high as he can, yells 'HU-AH!' and lands on his bottom.
Dad: 'Then no you can not 'hu-ah' on the bed.
Bahahahahaha!!!!  I love that kid!!

Rain! Rain! Rain!

Just a few pics in the rain!

I Can Fix It!

I posted this on facebook but thought I would post it here for those that didn't see what Jackson said to me the other day.

So Jackson was hugging me and saw a pimple on my face and said

 'Don't worry momma, I can fix that! I just need to get my drill.'

 So he comes back with his plastic drill and drills my face and says.

 'Pretty.....but not quite. I know what I need! I'll get my saw!' 

BAHAHAHA!!!

The Details

So we have been pretty busy with Raspberry Rain Images lately and working on catching up with pictures,  hence the extreme neglect of this blog.  However, I really do want to continue to update on what is happening in the Kraus House.  I thought I would post a few pictures of our new house.  These are detail shots, not sweeping wide angle shots.  There are really two main reasons for this. First, the house is just pieces right now.  We are taking our time with the decorating, trying to be careful with what we spend.  Second, the house was a mess when I took these.  There you go, the truth comes out.  So, I promise more pictures in the future, but for right now, here are a few pieces of the house. I am my mother's child, so a good deal makes me happy, so keep reading to hear about all of the good deals we have gotten!

This is above our fire place.  It is an old window frame and window sill from an old barnhouse that I got at canton. Those old mason jars are from there too. I love items with a history!  There is something about old and new together that makes me so happy!

Of course I had to take a picture of a picture.  Hehe..  This is on the wall by our dining table.  I love it cause it just has all the little details of my sweet family.  And then those birds are from Pier One, salt and pepper shakers for $3.00!!! I didn't think anything in that store was $3.00. This is one of the chairs around our dining table.  We found these at a resale shop for 7.00 each!  A little paint and distressing made these perfect for this little table.

I am in love with this that Joey found at a resale shop.  We painted, distressed and put on some super cute light blue glass knobs and there is our tv stand. It was $17.00 by the way.  All the credit for this one goes to my super thrifty hubby.  Way to go babe!! Oh, and those vases used to be black.  Just a little spray paint fixed that.

These are some pieces of our guest bathroom.  I love that the previous owners put in the se super nice faucet and sink. The slate is just perfect in there too!  How cute and contemporary.  

I put a sweet pic of Jackson in a distressed white frame on the counter.

This is in his playroom.  Let me explain.  The 'playroom' is actually the garage converted to all things children.  The previous owners insulated it and made it functional for their three children, which was GENIOUS! 

I strung some twine and some clothes pins to hang his artwork that he does out there.  He loves to finger paint and this was a fruit loop chain that we did as well.  I love that Jackson likes to be creative.  He calls this his 'art show'.  And when he shows off his playroom, he likes to take them through what each painting is.  (Auntie, I think he takes after you :) )

Here are a few fun things in his playroom as well.  This is a tunnel he got last christmas from my parents.   There is his Thomas the Train set at the end of it. He has his little table from his Nan and Beasch that he colors at and eats his snacks.  You can also see the enormous amounts of toys as well. Not to mention he has his own tv in there for all the Dora and Wiggles.  

And of course one final image of my sweety pie playing with his train set.

So, I know this doesn't give you a broad look into the house (I will get those pics soon I promise), but I did want to show a few of the detail shots I have taken lately.  It is a slow process, creating a house into a home, but we are on our way and soooooo excited!!!!  

God and Sex

Ok I just listened to a seriously amazing sermon by Matt Chandler on God and sex. If you are single or married or dealing with discussing this topic with children, it really is great.  If you have listened to him before than you know that he is real, raw and honest with pretty much everything, and this subject is no different.  He is unashamed to discuss things that historically the church has failed to teach.  But, I need to throw in a disclaimer..... he does discuss some seriously adult topics, just in case your child is with you :) (that could be a little awkward).   Anyway, thought I would just throw this out there.

http://fm.thevillagechurch.net/resource_files/audio/200910161900HWC21ATAAA_MattChandler_CultureAndTheology-GodAndSex.mp3

Engagement Session

We are working on getting a new blog and website going, but until then I have posted a few pics of the engagement session we did this past weekend. Thanks RJ and Chelsea for being the best!

Sweet Family

Thanks Darrell and Stephanie for letting me take your sweet family pictures. I had such a good time and hope you enjoy them!