Family Fun

Austin's parents came to visit for Thanksgiving. We all had such a great time. Jensen especially.

One day they headed to Omaha to see the Air and Space Museum.

Luke inherited a love of puzzles from his Grammy. They worked on this one together one afternoon.

Austin's mom brought the boys some Ironman gifts - they were in heaven!

We wanted Austin's parents to get a taste of Thanksgiving and Christmas at our house so we did some of our Christmas activites like decorating Christmas cookies.

Austin had a little too much fun

We all had a really good time decorating the cookies.

Black frosting? Why not.

Jensen didn't quite understand that the frosting was supposed to go on the cookie rather than in his mouth.

Austin's dad with his favorite grandkids!

Austin's mom meeting her first granddaughter.

We had such a wonderful visit with Austin's parents. We hope they can visit again soon!

I couldn't end this blog without some shots of our darling baby Eliza.

Grandma do you miss me?

She's definitely a morning person

She had a good night's sleep - 12 hours straight!

How could she not brighten everyone's day?

The new Christmas mascot

Eliza was so happy to receive her Christmas stocking made by Austin's grandma.
She made all of these stockings. She is amazing. The size and perfection of these stockings revolutionize Christmas for me. When I was a kid, all we got in our stockings was candy - but with the size of these stockings, the possiblities are limitless.

She was sad that there was no candy in there - takes after her mom

Pretty in pink

Don't judge me on how messy the room is in this video - I've been sick for the last week and a half.

Luke's 4th birthday and hospital visits

Eliza is so beautiful! She is starting to show a little personality with her little smiles and "laughs." It's so fun having another girl around here!

I love getting her dressed in the morning. She always wants to wear pink! She's so adorable.

Luke turned 4 on Nov. 17th (yes, we are a little behind on our blogging. Expect another entry in the next couple of days.) Luke is a good little helper. Luke apparently knows what a good helper he is. The other day he was saying, "mom, do you wish you had more boys like me?" Ha! Yeah, except the other day when Luke got mad at Jensen when they were playing outside. First I heard Luke say, "fine Jensen!! You're not on my team anymore!!" Apparently that didn't affect Jensen at all so Luke said, "Fine, I'm going to throw a rock at you!" He nailed Jensen with it before I could run out there. Luke's got a pretty good arm and Jensen's got a pretty big head - bad combination. Jensen had blood running down the back of his big head. So yeah, where can I get more boys like that?

Luke didn't mind the Christmas wrapping paper for his birthday presents, he was just excited for all the gifts! Jensen was too till he realized he didn't get to open any...

Birthday cake: Chocolate with tons of frosting and a hot wheels on top = Every toddler boy's dream.

Toy Story 3 figurines?! He was raisin' the roof, lowerin' the floors - right Haley?

BFFs Eliza and Mommy

Poor Austin has been in some horrible pain the past 6 weeks - basically since Eliza was born. He finally went to the dr., had an MRI, had a consultation with a spinal surgeon which resulted in surgery - removing 2 herniated discs (can you believe how small the incision is?)! So painful! He was a real trooper through it all. Especially the surgery part. We are happy that he is on the mend and grateful that he seems to be recovering so quickly. Still got some stitches though!

He was home from the hospital that afternoon - pretty much unheardof for a person with the surgery he had. He got home and immediately started studying for his exam in 4 days. True dedication. You can see in his face that he still has kind of a swollen face from the fluid pumped into him and laying on his front for the surgery. He did awesome on the test by the way.

A few days before Austin's back surgery, I had surgery on my eye. I had this zit-like thing on the bottom lid of one of my eye's. The eye dr. said she had to cut it out to make sure it didn't come back. It was probably one of the most terrifying experiences of my life. First the nurse put this painful drop in my eye. Then the dr. stabbed a needle almost right in my eye to numb the area - ouch! Then the nurse held my eye open while I watched as the dr. brought her scissors over to my eye and started cutting! All the while I can see the nurse is dabbing up tons of blood with q-tips. Ugh! Not cool or fun. Then she put a stitch in it.

Luke LOVES Eliza. Even when she's crying he wants to hold her and cuddle her and try to make her happy. He is usually successful too. He'll just cuddle with her on the couch and sing to her. This time he was so soothing he put himself to sleep too!

Eliza had to be tested to see if she had cystic fibrosis (CF) as a screening came back high for her. They a sweat test on her to see if she had it. She cried quite a bit but at least I got to hold her. She does not have CF, which we are so grateful for.

Eliza Kramer, President of the Girls' Club at our house

Halloween

My sister Sarah made these little tutus for her girls, my sister Bethany's girls and my girl for Halloween. Eliza didn't do any trick or treating, but she looked like a doll baby in this. The top is from Aunt Dana, it says "Brand New." So cute.



This top is pretty cute too, from a friend in the ward, it says "I'm cute, my mom is cute and my dad is...LUCKY!" Austin didn't think it was very funny, but I did.




Jensen inherited Austin's super long eye lashes. It's probably too early to tell, but I don't think Eliza was so lucky.

Just under 3 weeks old and already a hockey fan! Definitely takes after her dad there.


"Mummy's little Pumpkin" - ha! Thanks Shawna!


Luke designed this pumpkin on paper all by himself - no prompting. Austin carved it from Luke's drawing. I think it turned out great, definitely better than any pumpkin I've ever designed.

Austin had a tradition going where he would design and make the boys' costumes. He got way too busy with school this year though so we had to buy them. But at least I got both costumes for $9 total! Not a bad deal. Luke wanted to be Darth Vadar and Jensen, Batman. They got good use out of the costumes too - 3 parties! We even skipped out on the 4th. Fun Halloween!

With winter just around the corner, this is what these guys dress up in every day to continue their hours of fun on their 4-wheelers in the yard - the gift that keeps on giving - thanks Grammy Kramer!

At the YMCA Halloween party with friends. left to right, Jensen, Lilly,Luke, Adam, Kobe, Jamie. All kids of podiatry students the same year as Austin. All such good friends.

Leave it to Austin to take this cool artistic photo of the boys in the 'stumes in the back seat. Looks a little creepy if you ask me.



Don't tell Luke, but we actually bought him a really cool, really big light saber on clearance for his birthday. The one you see here is only half of the light saber. Anyway, we told him we "borrowed" this one for Halloween and had to "put it back." We actually bought it months ago before we knew he wanted to be Darth Vader. Worked out pretty well.