Long post...lots of pictures

Pulled out the Bumbo chair for Jax today. He looks so cute just hanging out :) He seems to really like it. He sure loves to be upright and likes to be able to look around at everything going on around him. Can't believe he's going to be three months old in a week!

So I know it's a little late to post about our 4th, but it's been a busy week and I haven't been able to post before now. We had such a great holiday. We had our good friends, Andrew, Erin and baby Emma over for lunch. Grace decided to play pirates, as you can see in the picture below. We got this dress up stuff in the dollar clearance at Target and Grace just loves it. Funny how kids just love pirate stuff these days. She kept saying she was a scurvy pirate which was making Andrew crack up.

So we were supposed to play Dutch Blitz but the guys chickened out and determined we should watch The Patriot instead. Good call since it was the 4th. At night we went to the fireworks. Jackson slept through the whole ordeal. Grace was hilarious. She sat on Papa Krause's lap with his hands over her ears and her hands over his hands (so sad I didn't have my camera along)! He said she kept going back in forth in her opinion of the fireworks. One moment she was saying how much she loved them and the next saying she didn't like them because they were too loud.

She was pretty tuckered out after such a busy day.

Friday I was putting some thing away and when I walked back into the living room I came upon this very sweet moment. So glad I managed to get a picture before Grace noticed I was watching them.

Grace loves her baby brother so much and just wants to do everything with him. I managed to get a few more of them while they were watching their Baby Einstein movie.

We had our family night on Friday and our story was on Noah's ark. Jordan managed to find this huge refrigerator box to be our ark. Grace loved decorating it. We hid stuffed animals all around the house in pairs and she had to find them. Such fun!

Saturday we went to the farmer's market and Grace ate so many blueberries and cherries I thought she'd be sick. I didn't get a picture, but man was she covered in cherry juice from head to toe!
Sunday we had Andrew & Erin over again and we managed to convince the guys to play Dutch Blitz and Canasta. I took the cake with Canasta which was such a self esteem boost for me :) Not really, but it was a lot of fun.

So now that I've pracitcally written a novella recaping our last week and bored you all silly, I think I'm going to head to bed. Good night & God Bless!

He's Always Been Faithful

Been a hard week for the Krause family and some of my friends...this song by Sara Groves came to mind. The song is very beautiful and says what I feel so perfectly.

Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me

Morning by morning I wake up to find
The power and comfort of God’s hand in mine
Season by season I watch Him, amazed
In awe of the mystery of His perfect ways
All I have need of, His hand will provide
He’s always been faithful to me.

I can’t remember a trial or a pain
He did not recycle to bring me gain
I can’t remember one single regret
In serving God only, and trusting His hand
All I have need of, His hand will provide
He’s always been faithful to me.

This is my anthem, this is my song
The theme of the stories I’ve heard for so long
God has been faithful, He will be again
His loving compassion, it knows no end
All I have need of, His hand will provide
He’s always been faithful, He’s always been faithful
He’s always been faithful to me.

What a promise! God knows exactly what we need and His hand will provide for those needs. We can't see the big picture, but God knows exactly what His plan in our life is. I love the phrases, "Season by season, I watch him amazed. In awe of the mystery of His perfect ways" and "I can't remember a trial or a pain, He did not recycle to bring me gain". I know first hand the validity of these promises. God has "recycled" so many of my trials into such gains (reminds me of another favorite Sara Groves song "Less Like Scars").

Hoping you are all as blessed by the message of this song as I was.

Smiles, 20 Questions and Waterballons

I finally got pictures of Jackson smiling. I was leaving the camera on the counter so that if he smiled I could run and get it, but I was always too late. The last few days he has been smiling more at a time, so I was able to get pictures : ) There are more pictures of his cute smile here. He is starting to coo and giggle now too. It is so neat to see all these changes in him. It is bittersweet though - knowing how fast he is growing and with this being our last time with a newborn. Anyone relate?


Anyone who knows Grace the slightest bit knows she is such a curious little girl and is always asking oodles of questions. Well, lately she has been asking me what every word she hears/sees means. They are words she has been using for a while, but for some reason is questioning what they mean (or maybe she is just trying to drive me nuts or see if I'm paying attention to her)??Everything from "free" to "push". Thursday she asked me, "What does it's not fair mean Mom"? That one took some thinking on my part to explain. What a funny, sweet girl she is!


Filled a couple hundred of these for the youth party the other day. My index finger is still recovering : ) We had a great time though - was definately worth it. We played Capture the Tiki which is a twist on capture the flag which involves water balloons and tiki torches. Not being the expert on tiki torches, I didn't realize that you have to buy a certain type of oil to use with the torches to make them light up. Unfortunately I didn't learn this before we were ready to play the game. So the game wasn't quite as fun as it could have been, but it was probably a lot safer (teenage boys and fire - what was I thinking, honostly)!. Jord brought the quads out at the end of the night and now I think Pastor has the itch to get one/some :) He and Dana had a lot of fun on them. You can check out more pictures of the party here.

normal day

I was looking through one of my old notebooks from when Grace was a baby and came across the following quote:



"Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so." Mary Jean Iron



Sometimes I need to be reminded to slow down and appreciate all that God has blessed me with. To enjoy every moment I have with my family and friends. To see them for what they are and not take them for granted. So glad I happened upon this reminder.



God Bless!













Grace and Jackson snuggling on the couch. So stinkin sweet!

here goes nothing...

Okay fellow bloggers - I did it....I'm writing my first blog entry. Jenny - if you're out there in blogger world - THANK YOU for motivating me to finally do this :) Not sure how much time I'll have to keep up with this or even what I'll write about - but who knows, it should be fun :)