The Kramer Family

Butt I thought you love to swim

2012-02-02T11:49:00.000-08:00

Austin swims a lot. He swims anywhere from 2 to 8 miles at a time, usually at least 4 days a week. He goes through a good quality swimming suit pretty fast. Today, the lifeguard at our YMCA, stopped Austin before he got out of the pool and told him that he had a hole in his swim suit. He reached back there to feel how big it was and he could fit his whole fist in there! This poor high school girl must have been horrified! You could see...everything! Here is a picture of the hole, but we put a white washcloth underneath so you wouldn't have to be scarred like the little girl at the YMCA. This picture doesn't do the hole justice though, seriously it's HUGE and the pool was totally full while he mooned everyone swimming for an hour. Also the little child watch area and the fitness center and the cycling room and the weight room all look into the pool area, so who knows how many people saw! I can't stop laughing!

Also, last night Austin came home and told me that he twisted his ankle and fell in a parking lot and fell flat on his face, with his whole body, including his chest, on the ground! On top of the that, his keys went flying, 3 feet under someone else's parked car. He's had a rough couple of days! Poor little fella.

Austin's 31st Birthday...and other stuff

2012-01-24T10:46:00.000-08:00

Austin turned 31 yesterday. What an old man! (I turned 31 16 days ago.) The kids had fun making him a birthday hat and presents and also buying him a gift or two.

Ice cream birthday cake - yum! With formula one race cars on it.

Golfer Jensen

Austin's dad got the boys some "dog tags" with their names on them. They wear them all the time until Jensen decided his was supposed to be on his dog stuffed animal, since "it's a tag for a dog."

Me with my big girl. 10 more weeks till she gets her baby sister!

Can't wait to put her in some dance class or something when she's a little older. I think she'll LOVE it!

She's finally starting to get a bunch of teeth.

A few pictures...

2012-01-18T06:49:00.000-08:00

Sorry, it's been forever since we updated our blog. Here are a few pics of us recently...

My brother Justin and his family came to visit us for New Year's. They only live 3.5 hours away and it's so nice to see them every other month or so. For New Year's we went to the Holiday Inn for a party they were throwing. Austin and I had won tickets for 2 families so we all got to go. It was SO fun! This pic was at the Iowa Historical Museum. Also very fun.

The kids got so much great stuff for Christmas. Luke loves star wars and got a new light saber and star wars pjs from Austin's mom.

The kids woke up at 4:30am Christmas morning. We decided to go ahead and do Christmas since we had to leave for Church before 9am.

Jensen loved the gift Luke got him. Gotta love these sweet moments.

After about 4 years of Austin working on this model, he finally finished it! I don't know how he does these things. They're so small and you have to have such a steady hand, I would have messed it up 100 times. It's pretty cool, wish you could see it in real life. He did everything on it down to the little, tiny details. He would work on it every few months when he had time.

Our cute girl. Loves chocolate chip cookies. Can you blame her?

Her Christmas outfit.

Shawna got her this cute shirt and Jensen got her the headband for Christmas. Either way she's adorable.

This is another project Austin's been working on. My sister Sarah was so nice to buy all the materials for this cool advent calendar. We were going to make them at her house over Thanksgiving, but ran out of time and energy. Austin spent literally 30 hours on this thing over school break. As you can see, he very artistically talented. He made each box design himself, painted everything, etc. He is a man of so many talents. This calendar is so cool. Come by our house around Christmas and you can see it in real life.

Eliza giving out Chocolate kisses...

Happy 3rd Birthday Jensen!

2011-09-26T19:38:00.000-07:00

Jensen turned 3 years old last week. It is so fun to watch little kids on their birthdays. It's almost as good as watching them on Christmas...almost.

Dancing with excitment for his new batman clothes!

Birthday boy complete with birthday crown, compliments of Luke.

Austin spent 6 hours decorating this cake for Jensen. It was very awesome and loved by all.

One of the birthday chefs. Thank you so much Grandma Flake for the aprons! You've saved so many shirts!

Austin bought this little doll for Eliza when he found out he passed the boards. She LOVES this little thing and carries it with her everywhere, holding it close to her. It's so cute!

This "tongue" picture is for Whitney, who ALWAYS seems to have her tongue out in all her pictures. Get over your tongue, Whitney.

Look at those eyelashes!

We made cupcakes for Jensen to take to his preschool class. They were a hit with all the kids, especially Jensen.

Per grandma's request, Eliza walking...

Civil War This Way ------->

2011-09-09T07:35:00.000-07:00

I just can't believe this cute little girl is mine! I kiss her a million times every day! I just can't get over her!

She went down her first slide and loved it!

Look at that cute wispy hair! She's such a happy and sweet baby.

Luke started pre-k this week. We are excited for him and he loves it! He started yesterday but already he's made a friend. We went there earlier this week for the open house. The teacher had a fun scavenger hunt for him to do. It ended at the school's new playground, which was really fun.

Jensen and Luke are best friends and Jensen is having a very hard time adjusting to Luke being gone for 3 hours a day. It's kind of cute and kind of sad. Today he cried when we dropped Luke off. I'm sure it will only take another few days for him to adjust. He's a good little boy and attends an art class at the YMCA. It's once a week for 45 minutes.

Jensen got a new shirt and new backpack for his first day of "preschool" at the YMCA. He is obsessed with super heroes so it was easy to find his new favorite shirt.

Luke wanted a darth vadar shirt for his first day of school. Those are pretty hard to find. Once we did find it, a few weeks ago, Luke has shown it to every single person who has walked through our door. It's pretty funny. He's shown it to visiting teachers, home teachers, missionaries, and other vistiors.

Luke and Jensen at the open house at Luke's school.

Luke's "locker"

Last Saturday we drove to Lamoni, IA. It's a small town on the border of Missouri and Iowa. The RLDS church used to be headquartered there. They have a university there, Graceland University, and give tours of Joseph Smith III's home. Pretty neat. Anyway, every Labor day weekend Lamoni hosts a civil war reinactment (totally free). People come from all over the country to participate in this. It's really popular. They have signs all over the town to show you where to go "Civil War" and then arrows pointing. I think they take the reinactment a little too seriously! It was really neat and the battle was amazing. Luke loved it, Jensen was kind of scared because it was so loud. Neither of the kids could wrap their brains around the fact that it was fake. They both thought we were actually watching people die on a battle field.

Did you know Abraham Lincoln had teeth like this?

Honest Abe. This guy recited a bunch of excerpts from some of Abraham Lincoln's speeches. Pretty interesting.

Look at how the women were dressed. It was so hot that day too. Neat dresses though. I have to admit I've always wanted to wear one. The host of the event said the average person there spends $1200 on their period dress and accessories. Pretty expensive hobby!

A few Saturdays ago we went to the downtown farmer's market. Living in the midwest, about 95% of the land in Iowa is farmed so every day of the week there is a farmer's market somewhere. The one downtown is the most talked about. It is really popular and trendy here and it did not disappoint. They had all sorts of farmers, including some Amish farmers, and vendors selling all types of foods and homemade jams, jewlery, elk meat, and on and on. Everyone had samples too of free, fresh watermellon and cataloupe and elk jerky and Indian food samples and on and on. There were tons of entertainers too playing music or free crafts for the kids. It was a lot of fun. We were there until it closed (about 3 hours). Eliza loved most of it, but passed out from all the partying.

They had a magician there doing free balloon animals for the kids. Luke got this weiner dog.

Jensen had an orioles had on so he got this bird in a cage. Really neat. These farmers markets are definitely one of the perks about living in the midwest. We can't wait to go again! Austin is already out of the homemade black raspberry jam we bought last time. Yum!

Surgeons in training

2011-08-25T09:09:00.000-07:00

Jensen: all scrubbed in and ready to operate on his his first patient - Luke! (notice Luke has his eyes closed)

Would you trust this guy as your surgeon?

How bout this guy? Austin just finished a surgical lab where he had to learn the steps to scrubbing in and sterilizing to be ready for surgery. It's incredible how many times each spot on their hands are scrubbed and how many precautions are taken to make sure their "sterile field" is not broken.

Can you tell she's a daddy's girl?

More Church sites and the State Fair

2011-08-17T10:25:00.000-07:00

We recently had my family's reunion in Nauvoo, but with all the site seeing and kids (19 grandkids mostly under 8) there was just not enough bonding time, so we headed down to my brother Justin's house in Kansas for some more family fun. We had a few stops to make on the way. First we went to Liberty Jail. I can't believe the horrible conditions they lived in for so many months. As the sister missionary was giving the presentation and tour of the Liberty Jail, she kept asking our feelings on certain things. Jensen kept responding to her, very loudly, "AWESOME!" Somehow it didn't quite fit with the spirit of the place.

Then we headed to Independence and saw the RLDS/Community of Christ temple and the cool museum inside with many artifacts such as Liberty Jail door and key, Joseph Smith's "dressing kit" and lots of other stuff. Then we headed across the street to the Temple Lot to see the temple markers (since they took our the cornerstones)

On the way home from Justin's, we stopped at Adam-ondi-ahman, which is very beautiful and different from other church sites I think. All of the roads were gravel and what there was to view or "site see" was just the beauty of the place.

We also stopped at Far West and saw the 4 cornerstones at that site.

We had so much fun with Justin's family. We got to be there for Miles' birthday party and go to a lego exhibit and build some lego exhibits ourselves and go to a lake water park...it was a very fun weekend. Best of all, our kids got to play with their cousins who they love so much.

Yesterday we went to the Iowa State Fair. We were there for 9 - yes nine - hours. We got there around 10:30 and left around 7:30pm. We saw all sorts of amazing stuff including this pumpkin weighing in at 1295 pounds! Image carving that thing for Halloween!

Luke saw this roller coaster and had to ride it. Of course he's not big enough to go on it by himself so Austin went too. Austin and I were sure Luke was going to cry the entire time and be scared of roller coasters the rest of his life (this one was huge and known to scare people) but Luke did pretty well and actually loved it. He was proud of himself for going on it. I couldn't believe he wasn't crying by the end.

The petting zoo is always a favorite. They had all kinds of animals for the kids to pet and feed: camels, bison, yaks, apalca, antelope, goats, porcupine, zebras, etc. Really fun and neat.

Even Eliza got into it. I took this picture especially for Bethany as she loves this animal.

While at the fair, the kids got to see a gator show and got to touch one. It was pretty cold, so the gators were all over the place. I was afraid the guy was going to drop him on the boys.

Two proud conquerors of the "Crazy Mouse" rollercoaster.

Of course we saw tons of buildings full of horses (huge and miniature), cattle, pigs, "Avenue of Breeds" and of course huge boars. This guy weighed almost 1200 pounds! His name was Fatty. He's on facebook if you're interested in "friending" him.

Austin said that this ostrich nearly pecked Luke on the head while we were taking this picture!

What's wrong with that guy?

Austin, Luke and Jensen signed up for a "grape stomp" competition. They took a 5 gallon bucket of grapes and dumped it in a big barrell. Then Austin, Luke and Jensen took of their socks and shoes and climbed in to smash the grapes (see video at the bottom). They had so much fun. They smashed out 17 cm worth of grape juice and won second place in the competition! I can't believe how much fun they all had....they definitely changed my love for grape juice though!

We had so much fun at the Iowa State Fair. The kids were so good and loved every minute of it. Wish you all could have been there!

"Family: isn't it about...time?"

2011-08-09T18:21:00.000-07:00

About 2 weeks ago we had a family reunion in historic Nauvoo, IL. It was a Flake (my maiden name) reunion and we had such a wonderful time despite the horrible heat and humidity.

Minus one brother on a mission, all of my siblings, parents and nieces and nephews were present. My kids LOVED having cousins to play with all day every day! They still beg for their cousins and tell everyone about them.
This is my family: Dad, Mom, Joel and his wife Melanie and their kids Ammon, Preston, Wesley, Natalie, Emery, Savannah and Morgan (on the way), Sarah and her husband Matt with their kids Merrody, Joel, Jackson and Norah. Justin with his wife Kelsey and their kids Eden, Jude and Miles. Austin and me with Luke, Jensen and Eliza. Bethany with her husband Paul and thier kids Grace and Alice. Haley and her husband Greg. Beautiful Whitney. Ashley and her husband Ben and their girl Cheyenne. Derek (not pictured as he is on his mission) Dillon (getting ready to go to BYU and then his mission) and the youngest, Cassidy. These are the best people you will ever meet.

My parents with their 19 grandchildren. My mom made all of the grandkids "Flake Cousin Power" t-shirts, which made them all even cuter than they already are. All over Nauvoo people were commenting about them.

The three newest editions: Alice (born 10 days before Eliza), Cheyenne (born a few weeks after Eliza) and of course cute Eliza. Hopefully they will be great friends.

Here they are again. So cute! Eliza was pretty tired that day. All that touring and not much sleeping. Still pretty in pink though.

The proud mothers: Me (Eliza), my younger sister Ashley (Cheyenne) and my younger sister (by 14 months) Bethany (Alice).

This picture is not of Nauvoo but was part of the family partiest, so I included it. Austin and I are standing on our favorite suspension bridge in Des Moines. You can see the capitol building in the distance. If you look really closely you can almost see Luke sitting just off the bridge on the sidewalk. He has recently developed a fear of walking over bridges...

Me and my older sister, Sarah. A few years ago I dyed my hair brown and everyone said we looked like twins. Now though, we just look like sisters. Good enough.

While we walked on the historica "Trail of Hope," Austin pulled our double stroller like it was a handcart. Pretty rough.

It was so beautiful out there, right by the Mississippi.

We found some shade under this big tree. It was SO HOT and SO HUMID!

Luke memorized a scripture about the Nauvoo House for the reunion. He gave it several times, very proudly. Here he is in front of the Nauvoo House.

Carthage Jail. My beautiful sister, Whitney and I by Carthage Jail.

Jensen was attached to my brother Dillon, so of course Dillon is in this family photo at Carthage. We wouldn't mind adopting Dillon. He's so great!

Inseperable...

My older brother, Justin and Eliza. He said she is his very favorite. (Was I not supposed to tell people that?)

Eliza loved the Nauvoo Pagent. She just hung out with Cheyenne the whole time.

Luke thinks he would have been a great pioneer!

Austin on stilts. Does he really need to be any taller?

On the way home from Nauvoo we got to have little Grace in our van. They all had a blast!

Greg was so good with the kids and even got Eliza to be friends with him. My sister Haley got a good deal!

My sister Whitney is good at entertaining kids...and getting them all excited and loud - ha!

Paul found out his "DJ Name Mixer" compliments of the Reese's Puffs box. His DJ name is Buckwheat Charlie

Bethany and Paul were so nice to stay for an extra day at our house after the reunion! Their daughter Grace loves liberty bells and Des Moines has a small one. She loved it though it "wasn't the real one."

We had so much fun with our family! We all miss them so much. Please come back!!

Grammy was here!!!

2011-08-09T08:44:00.000-07:00

Daddy and baby 'Liza were really excited to go pick up Grammy Kramer for her visit to Des Moines

It was a lot of fun to have grammy stay with us.

everybody look at me

Jensen loves his Grammy

Eliza started crawling at 8 months, then within 5 days she was crawling up the stairs and pretty much walking around the room using couches chairs tables etc.

We started going to this great community pool with 2 awesome waterslides when Mom K came.

Daddy's girl

Two Kramers in designer swim attire.

Luke made mom a Halloween mask for next year.

Luke and Mom and a little bit Heather did this 350 piece puzzle in about an hour total over 2 days. Luke and his Grandmother both LOVE puzzles.

The scenic walking bridge over the picturesque Raccoon River

Eliza is a real connoisseur of classic motorcycles, this, the 1923 Indian used as a patrol bike for the Iowa Highway Patrol is one of her favorites!

Nice couple

Mom looks like she's wearing her bowling league shirt. After a good start mom's game went down hill. Austin...a model of bowling perfection boweled a 164. 1........6.........4!!!!!!!!!! Awesome.

We were so glad that our Grammy came to visit and cant wait until she comes again! We LOVE it when people come to visit.

Ladies and Gentlemen...Start Your Engines!!!

2011-07-04T13:03:00.000-07:00

While running some errands I saw an indy car racing team trailer at the Verizon store. The marketing people were setting up a booth to promote the Iowa Corn 250 Indy car race that was happening in the next few days. I stopped and talked with the guys there, and told them I would bring the boys back to see the car that they were setting up. They said a radio station might be coming to do a promo and possibly give away some tickets. I did some calling around to radio stations and nobody knew anything about tickets, or appearing at the verizon store. I pretty much gave up hope that we would get a "free ride" to the race. The next day we all went up and tooks some pictures and had a good time. The guy I had talked to the day before said that there would definitely be a radio station giving out tickets there at 6pm. He said that I may want to show up a little bit early. Even though Luke had a baseball game at 5:30, I went BACK to the verizon store for the 3rd time. Almost as soon as I got there, the guy I had talked to the previous 2 times came up to me and and handed me 3 tickets to the race. I thanked every verizon and radio station person in the parking lot and then headed off to see the rest of Luke's baseball game. I was so excited for the boys and for myself. None of us had ever seen an indy car race!

The most promising rookie driver of the 2011 season!

Do NOT carpool with this guy!!!

Eliza was too young to handle the machine like her brothers had...but a lot cuter!

Morning of the race, with our cool "necklaces" We were all SO excited. The racing didnt start until 4, but we got there at 2 for all of the festivities.

This is the new indy car design for 2012 with it's designer standing up there by it conducting a Q&A. He seemed a little shy actually.

I had a lot of christmas requests coming at me all day long, so I guess if your want to see a few million dollars worth of sports/race cars come on over on Christmas day.

This is how real race car drivers walk around all the time. Practice!

Of course, the thing that the boys were most fascinated by was this big rock right outside the racetrack (Making their uncle Paul proud). Other things to find in this picture of the "cool rock" (for you where's Waldo fans) are an empty beer can and a dirty sock!

POSERS!

We saw 3 different races that day. This was right before the Mazda series cars began their race. They are on the pit road in the background. They go about 120 mph around this track.

Luke was excited for the real indy cars to start.

VERY EXCITED!!!

Jensen: NOT EXCITED.

He is scared of firewoks which they shot off around the track on the cars' last lap before they went racing. That was a bad start, and combine that with the ENORMOUS amount of noise that the indy cars make as they go around the track at almost 200 mph, Jensen was not into it and hid under his blanket for the entire race.

We got Jensen to pull his head out of the sand for a few seconds to take this picture. It really was a unique and awesome experience. I am so glad that we got to go. It was just SO fun spending 12 hours with those guys making great memories!

There were tons of freebies at the race which included flags, t-shirts, posters, toys, magazines, photos, media guides. It was cool to get all this stuff to remember the race and our fun time there.

THE RACE AFTERMATH:

I showed Luke how to draw an indy car and he has been drawing 4-5 each day. This is one week after the race, and he drew it completely on his own. He is a fantastic artist. I asked him what kind of sponsor he wanted for his car and he decided on quaker oatmeal! Funny kid.

I drew a car also. This is a guy named Mike Conway who has a cool story. He almost got killed in the Indy 500 last year and has worked his way back.

The boys design race tracks and hold races on them all day long now. They are constantly coming upstairs and begging Heather and I to come look at their race track and watch their race. It is so often that we usually take turns going downstairs now.

These are the Mazda Series Cars. A 16 year old boy won this race.

This is the real Indy Car race. The cars cost 1 million dollars and can go 240 mph. The air was so humid on race night that there were 10 foot long vapor trails steaming off the rear wings of the cars as they went by. The tv announcers said that this race was the best that they've seen in the past 3 years. We thought it was amazing!

Us lately...

2011-05-24T09:34:00.000-07:00

"The Easter Bunny Talks!!!"

2011-04-26T11:22:00.000-07:00

We had a pretty great Easter. The "Easter Bunny" made a scavenger hunt for each boy to find their Easter Basket. Luke had to read his own clues to find his basket.

Austin's school hosted an Easter party for the kids. Jensen almost hyperventilated when he saw the Easter Bunny walk in. The boys ran up to him. Luke was very surprised that "the Easter Bunny talks!" Pretty fun.

Gotta love those big, beautiful blue eyes, incredibly long eyelashes, sweet, soft baby skin, red little lips, cheery cheeks, precious little baby smell and to top it off, she loves to have her tongue sticking out. She is so cute!

Every year for Easter my mom makes these adorable and delicious bunny cakes. They seem simple enough: cake and icing. Ours were a total and completely flop. It was awful and embarrassing. Luke was my helper and we were both pretty frustrated. I was sure that Austin would be able to make it work, but no such luck. We ended up eating a mess of cake and icing. Next year I'll get instructions from my mom.

Austin volunteered for the job to bone the ham after Easter dinner. He had a little too much fun with it, disecting every part and telling the kids and me the name of each bone and artery and I don't even understand all of what he told us but he was very into it. He's such a smart guy.

Luke's new favorite Sunday activity is to go through the ads and write down things he wants to buy: My Little Pony, Graco, Chuck, Marvel, Pony...he's got quite a list after a few weeks!

Typical self-portrait by a mom who is the designated family photographer so no one ever takes a picture of her....except herself. Happy Easter Heather.

The kids love to play Memory. I really enjoy it too, though I don't enjoy when Jensen sets it up. He places the squares in a long line where some of the squares are on top of others, and some squares you have to walk to in order to turn them over. Definitely adds a different element to the game though.

Austin finally getting what's been coming to him...

Uncle Dillon

2011-03-29T12:15:00.000-07:00

My younger brother Dillon came for his spring break. He is such an awesome kid. He's student body president at his high school, valedictorian, plays basically every sport available and is involved in all sorts of different clubs. On top of that he's super spirutual, super smart (obviously), very friendly, very fun and very helpful. We were so glad he came to visit us for spring break. On his second day at our house, Luke challenged Dillon to a puzzle contest. They each had 100 pieces to their puzzle. Game on! They worked fast and furious and Luke finished a few minutes ahead of Dillon. (granted, Luke has done these puzzles quite a few times so he had an advantage for sure, but he is 4 and Dillon is 18...you decide) Luke was so excited when he won, he was doing all sorts of trash talking and also saying that he wants to join a puzzle team and if anyone asks if they can "borrow him" for a puzzle, that we should let them. He kept going on about being the champion and then finally consoling Dillon and giving him pointers. It was hilarious!

Dillon is really into weight lifting. Austin took him to our YMCA while he was here. The boys wanted to dress "just like Uncle Dillon" so we got out a tank top for each of them. Dillon loved showing off his "guns" to his nephews.

This little lady got to meet her Uncle Dillon for the first time. She won him over with her long eyelashes and beautiful smile. Dillon's nickname for her was "Baby Eyelashes".

Austin bought the boys Candyland the other day. In fact, they got it the day Dillon arrived so, as you can imagine, they played it a number of times while Dillon was here. I think Jensen won most and Luke had to be comforted most.

This Japanese structure and garden is on the outskirts of Downtown Des Moines. It's really a neat place though we never figured out why it's there.

Another activity we did while Dillon was here was a group date - and by "group" I mean we got Dillon a date and we took the kids too! The girl was a good sport about it and we had a lot of fun. The bowling alley we went to wouldn't let us use the bumpers but let the kids used a ramp instead. The ramp was totally unpredictable and half the time the kids gutter-balled it and the other half of the time they got a strike. They had fun either way.

In our tour of downtown Des Moines, we also went on this suspension bridge. Pretty cool. Some of the bridge was glass so you could see down into the water. Pretty trippy.

The Iowa Historical museum had a lot of interesting information, as well as this lego construction of the tallest building in Des Moines.

The sculpture garden is always a cool place to show people. Dillon got really "into" it.

Thanks for coming Dillon! We really miss you!

100 mile club!

2011-03-15T19:59:00.000-07:00

How is it possible that Eliza gets cuter every week? "She is so awesome," as Austin says.

Austin started swimming pretty regularly in the beginning of December. He decided to take the 100 mile swim challenge at our local YMCA. Most people take a year or more to complete the challenge, Austin did it in 3 months! Upon completetion of the challenge, they gave him this great shirt. There are very few people that have completed the challenge at our YMCA. I'm pretty proud of this guy.

I can't believe Eliza is almost 5 months old! She started eating cereal this week. She's been eyeing everyone's food for a week or more now. She was very excited to try cereal and actually seems to really like it and I like to watch her eat it. She is so cute whatever she is doing.

Is it embarrassing to admit that my boys had never made paper snowflakes before today? They checked out a book from the library last week about making snowflakes. It was so fun to see how excited they were when they unfolded their snowflake! Can't believe we didn't do it sooner. (Jensen's snowflake is hung up on the wall behind him. Kind of hard to see I guess. He's holding the snowflake book.)

Luke got a little button-happy with our camera this week. The shots didn't turn out as bad as I thought they would be...

We got these breastplates at the dollar store as well as the plastic sword in Luke's hand. Gotta love the Dollar Store. Months of entertainment (we've had them 3 months and of course they are all falling apart) for $2. Not bad!

Luke is addicted to puzzles. He does a few a day. He doesn't do the 12-piece ones, he does the 100-piece ones. He's starting to get pretty bored of the 15 puzzles we have, so he just does them all at once!

Ironman, stay away from MY man

2011-03-08T11:12:00.000-08:00

Poor little Jensen has another cold sore on his mouth. This is his second one and he is only 2 years old. Austin and I both get cold sores, they are so, so painful. Poor kid.

Eliza has been sick this week with a slight fever and a bad cough. She'll cough so hard that she throws up. She is still so cute and pretty happy considering.

Look at her runny nose in this picture. She looks like one of those cabbage patch kids we had when I was a kid - does anybody remember those? They looked like they had snot coming out of both of their nostrels. Weird.

Austin also has had a cold sore for the last week. When he gets a cold sore on his face, he doesn't shave because it would spread it all over his face. Anyway, he finally cut off this gross beard after Luke and Jensen tried to rip out the hairs from his beard.

This is what I found one morning!! I leave my bed for two minutes and come back to find I'd been replaced!

Austin was a little surprised when he realized what was going on.

But he was pretty tired so he went right back to sleep.

Luke and Jensen love to wrestle with Austin. I can't imagine how crazy it will be when they are teenagers. Luke loves to trash talk. If you listen, you'll heard him saying stuff like, "you ready for the kick out, little baby?" to his dad.

Cousin Power!

2011-02-28T09:41:00.000-08:00

My brother Justin's family came for a visit last weekend. We all had lots of fun. Eden, Jude and Luke spent one morning doing 10 puzzles. Good memories.

Many creative hours were spent coloring at this table during the weekend. Kelsey even drafted a donut logo.

Kelsey and ger groupie.

Yesterday Luke asked me to come downstairs to see what he'd been working on. This is what I found. He had created his own art gallery, or Luke's wall of fame.

I'm not sure what caption to put for this picture. It seems no words could do it justice.

Eliza may be the happiest baby we've ever had. I wish her grandparents could see her!!

Uncle Justin with his favorite baby

Even when she's crying she's adorable

Clifford and Paul?

2011-02-22T10:41:00.000-08:00

Last week Eliza turned 4 months old! In some ways she seems so much older than that, but in other ways the memories of being 9 months pregnant still haunt me.

Still Daddy's little girl

She's starting to grab rattles and cuddle stuffed animals.

Still not rolling over yet, but her brothers spent 15 minutes today showing her how to roll (they had a lot of fun doing it).

Clifford came to our public library. There were tons of kids there. The boys were so excited - Eliza slept through it. The boys stood in line for 20 minutes to get to hug Clifford and give him a high five. It was pretty fun.

This guy is the local PBS spokesman. Jensen was so excited to get a picture with a real celebrity.

Another picture of the PBS guy...or is that Paul?...I can't tell them apart.

Clifford was here

Austin has been craving his favorite sandwiches from the restaurant at the Garden Valley golf course. He actually called the place and asked them how to make them. The chef was new and hadn't heard of the sandwiches, but she was taking notes on Austin's description of them and love for them so they are sure to appear on the menu soon.

Baby Lady gabbin' it up

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-15T21:14:00.000-08:00

Austin made me this beautiful and fun Valetine's Day card. He is so thougthful and wonderful. He is the best Valentine ever!

After I had Jensen I dyed my hair brown for fun. After months of trying to keep up with the roots, I decided to just dye it back to my regular color. To make a long story short, it was bleached (without my consent) and my hair has been badly damaged ever since. 2 years later - I got a hair cut today that finally cut off the last of the damaged hair! (and yes, I do have THREE cold sores on my face!) I got some layers too. I like the haircut pretty well. Should be fun.

Big brother with his favorite sister

How well will these two play when Luke goes to school? Will they play dollies or ironman?

Per your request....

2011-02-09T12:50:00.000-08:00

This is for all those Eliza fans out there who keep requesting updated photos of her (Mom, Sarah, Ashley...and others who I'm sure are out there). Here are some of the cutest ones from the last couple of weeks.

Austin's sister, Shawna came for a visit! She had some quality time with Eliza reading her Mercer Mayer books - always a favorite.

Only a really good aunt would climb into a buggy like this with a passenger and a driver like that!

We had a lot of fun when Shawna came including a first-time visit to Chuck E. Cheese! Austin and Shawna scouted out all the games. They have some really great ones for kids, but which one did Austin and Shawna pick for the kids? One that started out "parental guidance suggested...lots of violence..." Incidentally this was the boys' favorite game. They got to blast spiders and other insects.

Shawna's favorite game was this one...

Eliza even joined in the fun taking a horse back ride!

I thought Ironman was supposed to be a good guy, Eliza didn't agree...

We've spent some good times lately with my brother Justin and his family.

At a University of Kansas basketball game...

Rock, Chalk, Jayhawk! Eliza was their biggest screaming fan

Family Fun

2010-12-20T20:21:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-04T08:06:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-06T12:01:00.001-07:00

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.

I couldn't help myself...

2010-10-28T18:32:00.000-07:00

When you have a baby girl that's as cute as ours, there are so many good pictures that you just can't decide which ones to put up. So, you can scroll as fast as you like, but you're going to see a lot of a cute baby!

We blessed Eliza when she was 6 days old! Pretty sure she slept through the whole blessing and all of sacrament meeting.

She was blessed in the same dress that my six sisters and I were blessed in. Pretty cool! Thanks to my mom for saving it and letting us use it! Even though she did accidentally burn a hole in it the day of the blessing! I don't think anybody noticed though with this doll baby wearing it.

My parents came to town for Eliza's birth and then my brother and his family came from Kansas for the blessing. While they were all here, we made some serious caramel apples - Jensen's face is the result of stomach pains after eating too much candy and caramel! He was only comforted by grandpa.

My parents tried to kill two "kids" with one stone by swinging over to Kansas while they were visiting us. It worked out pretty well actually. They took our boys on their road trip so Austin could study for his tests and I could get some rest. The boys had so much fun! We're so glad they got some alone time with their grandparents too. Among some of the fun things they did, one of them was going to a pumpkin patch!

I can't believe this pumpkin patch was free! I need to move to Kansas. 5 cousins having fun: Jude, Eden, Miles, Luke, Jensen

Another stop on their road trip to Kansas was Liberty Jail. My parents did an excellent job of explaining Liberty Jail to Luke because he always talks about it and in great detail. It really made an impression on him.

Proud grandparents of grandchild #18!

Mom came bearing gifts for the kids. She bought the boys these matching PJs, which they insisted on wearing every night. Whenever Jensen has his on he is often seen in this pose along with him making a great sound effect of webs shooting out of his hands.

Austin and his 3 kids! I can't believe we have 3 kids!

Austin's mom bought Jensen a great gift for his birthday - a battery for this 4-wheeler! It's just been sitting dead in our yard until she bought one for it. We are so grateful. Now Luke and Jensen have one and they spend hours in the backyard chasing each other around, having races, ramming each other, etc. It's so fun to watch, they have a blast!

Doesn't she look like she's about to say something profound?

If this picture doesn't make you baby hungry then you must be made out of rubber.

Thanks for nothing, dad and Justin. Learn how to smile.

Baby beauty queen.

I told you I couldn't help myself - she's just too cute.

Luke and Jensen LOVE their baby sister. They always beg to hold her and then they fight over whose turn it is to kiss her. I hope they are always this sweet to her.

Austin is wrapped around this little girl's finger and she is barely 10 days old. Daddy's "little princess."

Can you blame him though?

My mom did everything from waking up with the boys, making them pancakes every morning (she was too good to them), doing the laundry, sweeping the floors, picking up the house, taking care of me and Eliza, making the food, taking out the trash - there was no end to her energy and work. She even finished some sewing projects here and taught Austin how to sew!

ELIZA

2010-10-21T08:43:00.000-07:00

The pre-game warmups

Eliza Kramer +30 seconds

Guess what her favorite conveniece store is.

To be honest the boys were equally interested in Eliza as well as looking out the 6th story window of the hospital room.

I thought this was going to be a bubble bath!!!!!

Best dad ever. Austin is always able to settle Eliza down . She loves to be held, especially by this guy.

Dad's little girl

Luke is a great big brother and looks out for his baby sister.

It was a big surprise to us how into the baby Jensen was. The day we got home, Jensen wanted to hold the baby ALL of the time, he didn't want to share her with Luke or Heather or Grandma or anyone. Whenever he leaves the room and comes back in he says "Where's my Bebe?!!"

Peek-a-Boo

Eliza with her bodyguard: Grandpa (that guy means buniness)Flake.

Mom is excited about this baby, and this baby is excited about her grandma!

We are so grateful to mom and dad flake for coming to take care of us while we had this new little one.

The New Kramer Family

Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-04T19:42:00.000-07:00

Iowa has some awesome pumpkin patches! When I was a kid in West Virginia, we always went to the pumpkin patch, every year - it is a highlight of my childhood. I think the same will be said of my boys when they're older. It's just too fun!

We're getting excited for Halloween around here! For our Family Home Evening activity last night, we made Halloween frames, compliments of DMU from last year! Austin "helped" Jensen with his. Jensen was pleased with the outcome.

Luke was pretty proud of his too. He did it all by himself.

Luke started taking a preschool cooking class for kids - Kinderchefs. He LOVES it! I casually mentioned in a family email that I wish I had the skill or modivation to make Luke an apron. My mom decided that Luke had to have one and then she went above and beyond and got him a chef's hat too! Of course she got one for Jensen too! So thoughtful! Jensen didn't take his off for hours after it came in the mail.

This pumpkin patch has an old "Herbie car." Our kids love it!

Long slide + huge hill= tons of fun! Luke went down by himself a bunch of times. Jensen wasn't quite convinced that it was safe, probably next year he'll go for it.

This place seriously had everything, Jensen sat in for the driver of the kiddy train.

Corn pool anyone? Austin wanted to stay here all day, he was so relaxed in it. There were slides that went right into the corn pool. The boys went down them fowards, backwards, face first, etc. It was a lot of fun! Time flew here and before we knew it we were almost out of time to pick a pumpkin!

Austin trying to "round up" the straw steers with his rope. It took him about 10 minutes to finally get the rope around a non-moving steer. I can't imagine how hard the real deal is.
Luke pretended to be rodeo riding this straw steer.

You don't want this thing taking a nip at your finger tip. Austin was tempting it pretty badly. I was fairly certain we were going to leave the petting zoo in a rush to get Austin and his fingers to the hospital. Close call.

Luke is in some serious need of a bike and some practice time. We have some little trikes at home that are way too small for him. It makes Austin so mad to see Luke moving forward on one of these with his legs, rather than pedaling the bike. Either way, these tractors made for a great time!

Despite my best efforts to shame him, guilt trip him, bribe him, do whatever I can to make him cut his hair - Austin won't and is growing his mop on top out. His hair is naturally curly and he has chosen this time in all of his whole life, to see how curly and fro-y it can get. Sometimes he'll be laying on my lap and his massive amount of fro will get in my mouth! Now, to make me even more mad, he has started growing some facial hair too. Woof! I don't want Eliza's birth pictures to have a guy like this in them! What can I do?

I don't know where he gets it, but Luke's new favorite item of clothing are tank tops! Pretty strange. Someone gave us one once and he LOVED it! Then I saw one at WalMart for $1 and thought it would make a good football practice shirt, but he wears it as a regular shirt all the time. I guess he doesn't know the stereotype that goes along with tank tops.

These boys are getting so big, especially Luke, he is such a good little helper. Sometimes I have to ask him to stop cleaning up Jensen's messes so Jensen can learn to clean up his own. You couldn't ask for a better older brother/oldest child than Luke - he's a good boy. He and Jensen play for hours and hours, best friends. You know it's time to have another kid when they are completely entertaining themselves for that long. It's time for another challenge, baby #3 here we come.

Just like any member of a Flake family, this kid LOVES his chocolate!

A long time ago, I think it was for Luke's 2nd birthday, so two years ago, Austin's Grandma bought Luke a subscription to "Wild Animal Baby" magazine. It has been one of the BEST presents ever! Luke loves getting something in the mail. Then we read it, do the activities, over and over and over again until the next one comes the next month. They keep well too because they have a harder cover and pages, meant for kids to play with and read over and over. We have all our old ones and read them over and over again. Now that Luke is getting a little older, he gets the magazine "My Big Backyard" which is the one for toddlers. This one has stories geared more towards toddlers with long attention spans and has activities like using scissors and stuff that he can do. I haven't checked with Austin's grandma, but I'm pretty sure she's supplying this one too because it keeps coming. Anyway, thanks Great-Grandma Williamson, these little magazines provide hours of entertainment each week and teach the kids about different animals - they love them!

Eliza Kramer due October 17th!! My mom gets here on the 16th so I hope I don't go early! I need her help - thanks for coming mom!

Jensen's 2nd Birthday!

2010-09-23T09:05:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Jensen's 2nd birthday last week. He is obsessed with football so Austin made him a football cake. It took him 5 minutes to decorate this baby. Pretty impressive. Jensen loved it!

Luke was pretty jealous of Jensen's presents, and is much looking forward to all the many presents he thinks he'd going to get for his birthday.

Luke was the present delivery boy. Second best job to actually opening the presents.

Jensen got a lot of fun stuff including this sheriff set from Grandma Flake.

Luke used his own chore money to buy Jensen this birthday gift. Pretty cute. He also wanted to buy himself a few birthday gifts though. When we explained that that's not how you do it, he made sure to buy something for Jensen that had two of them in the package so they could both play with the new toy. Sword fighting ninjas, pretty cool I have to admit.

This is now Jensen's favorite accessory - replacing his superman/batman cape that Grandma Flake made him. Luke puts it on whenever he gets the chance too.

Jensen got this fun phone from his Great Grandma Williamson - Austin's grandma. It records voices and has a lot of other fun features. I'm pretty jealous of it myself. He gabs for hours on it. He definitely doesn't take after his Grandpa Flake in that area.
(I think Jensen looks a ton like his cousin Jackson in this picture)

It's been raining a lot here lately - not really anything new. I usually don't let the boys play in the puddles, but I needed a submission for Ashley's naughtiest kid contest. My kids had a blast being naughty - even though I was letting them. Seems like that would take the fun out of it.

Jensen took my "letting him play in the puddles for a picture", too far and sat down in the water and got his face all muddy and ended up taking his pants off and running a little wild on his 4-wheeler before I caught up with him. We really like this guy and can't believe we've only had him 2 years! We're excited for little Eliza in less than a month!

summer adventures

2010-08-28T12:26:00.000-07:00

This is a summary blog that covers our trip to Yellowstone (July 22) through today (aug 28).

Austin decided that we should have a backyard campout. We got a great deal (10 bucks) on this fire pit through craig's list. We roasted dogs, brats, and smores, then Austin burned 150 ft of baseboards in the new fire pit. Austin told a scary campfire story to the boys about "THE MOSS MAN." Luke was terrified. Of course when we asked him to go get something from the house later that night he refused citing the fact that the Moss Man was going to "get him"

Happy campers: Jensen, Heather and Eliza.

Luke was an awesome helper. He set up all of the tent poles, pushed them into the tent and then plugged in the tent poles. He also towed all the firewood over from the chopping block to the fire pit.

roof warrior: Four of our friends were SO awesome and came over and helped us re-roof the garage the Saturday after we got back from Idaho.

this guy's got a rap sheet a mile long

this is the finished product!!! It took about 12 hours! Thank you so much to all who helped.

For how much time all of these kids spent in the car over the three days we were at Yellowstone, they all did really well.

Austin got some shadowing experience in with his favorite podiatrist in Boise, Dr. Lowe. He shadowed a 3 1/2 hr lapidus fusion surgery, and loved it.

all of the "buddies" got back together one more time for a romp through Yellowstone.
(Benson Montano, Luke Kramer, Asher Montano, Jensen Kramer)

The rainbow that projects over the mist generated by the Lower Falls in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. This is the scene from one of the 300 plus steps that take you down "Uncle Tom's Trail"

This is the view from the lower viewing platform of Uncle Tom's Trail. The lower falls are twice as tall as Niagara falls!

A family photo taken...well almost a family photo taken at the the lower falls of Yellowstone. Where's Luke? well, when Austin went to pick him up for the picture, it caused Luke to drop his toy airplane down into the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, which in turn caused him to have a complete meltdown. Austin tried to go down and retrieve the plane, but Heather would not allow this. All was forgiven with the promise of a new plane. The most amazing thing about the whole hike to the lower falls was that Jensen walked back up all 300 steps all by himself! All of the people coming down were amazed. We were most amazed.

Our great friend Carina was such an amazing hostess and tour guide! We were so grateful for her family letting us stay in their cabin near Yellowstone. Carina's father has a rough airstrip at their cabin, and on the last morning before we left, two random airplanes came to land on the strip. It's an understatement to say that the boys loved getting to see the 2 planes these guys flew in on.

We were really glad to have taken a 2 hr. detour to see this, the first National Monument of the United States: Devil's Tower. In the middle of a beautiful nowhere near Gillette Wy, Devil's Tower juts straight up a quarter of a mile into the sky. It was really amazing to see. Turns out (they think) that this was the core of a volcano where the exterior was worn away over time and the hardened lava core was left behind. Either that, or like the indians tell it... a bunch of girls who were playing one day were trapped on a steep hill by a grizzley bear who tried and tried to get up the hill but only managed to carve grooves in the side of a growing mountain.

We happened upon this great place in Rapid City SD on the way to Mt. Rushmore. Its the Dinosaur Park. Absolutely free, and really cool. Definitely the highlight of our kids' day.

Finally made it to Mt. Rushmore. Just amazing.

A quite disturbing phenomenon has been noted about our son Luke...When he sleeps, he looks exactly like Jay Leno. Yikes!

*on a side note, the first 3 pictures were taken with a 7.1 mpxl. camera we got from walmart for 39 bucks. The rest of the pics were taken with my camera phone. Which look better?

"Is the vessel sea worthy?"

2010-05-29T19:26:00.000-07:00

After Austin left today, we tried to keep ourselves busy to keep our minds off it. We did a big project in the yard and these boys were hard workers, with the dirty faces to prove it. 3 hours in the morning plus 3 hours in the afternoon=No more rock bed!

Looks like he smeared ash all over his face. The bathtub had to be scrubbed after they were done.

We bought a boat! Austin grew up in FL, his parents live on the water and have two boats so when we moved to Des Moines and he saw that they had a few "lakes" nearby, Austin wanted one of these little boats right away. He finally found a great deal on the day that Ashley and Ben came to visit us! We bought it, our neighbor gave us some ores and it's been a blast! We are the first on my side of the family to have a boat. Eat your heart out, Joel.

The captain of our "boat"

While out on the water, we saw a few turtles swimming around. Austin reached in and pulled one out of the water. It was much bigger than we anticipated. It even scratched him and we could hear it hissing. It tried to escape, the boys got a little scared of it - and put their feet up, etc. Luke ended up liking it and naming it Hiccup. We let it go after Ashley wasn't startled at all by it.

Jensen loved the boat, our boys are hooked. Austin almost took them out at 5 this morning so they could go before he had to board his airplane.

Mister Hiccup

Two sailors

Luke LOVES being on his baseball/t-ball team. He's got a pretty good swing too. Austin gets to help coach. There are about 9 kids in his team and he has loved every minute of it.

Luke's love for the letter "O" meets Cheetos

You can't tell at all that Ashley is pregnant. We had so much fun when they came to visit, and Ben and Austin got the patio doors fixed!!! We hope they'll include us on their agenda every year when they visit Ben's family. Thanks for coming guys!!!

This is what Jensen does at Luke's baseball games. He loves his little friend, Lilly. He's a real lady's man though, he flirts like this with every little girl at church.

A real baller

Coach Austin Kramer - we miss him!!!

Aunt Shawna's Visit

2010-05-01T11:21:00.000-07:00

Jensen's new favorite way to play "peek-a-boo"

Luke and Jensen are generally best friends though recently Jensen has been going through a growth spurt and has been grouchy for the past week which leaves Luke saying things like, "I don't think we can have another baby, Jensen is too naughty. Well, maybe we just shouldn't have another Jensen."

Austin was so proud of this piece of artwork. Go Cougars! Gotta love sidewalk chalk

Shawna and Jensen renewed their friendship pretty quickly.

He followed her around...

and shared his food with her!

Luke was not so charitable

Cute little devil

It's not possible to get a good picture of Austin and his sister Shawna so I guess this one will have to do. The others looked like awkward engagement photos. I guess they do look like brother and sister afterall. Thanks for coming Shawna!

Yah I know, It's too many pictures...

2010-04-14T17:57:00.000-07:00

These pictures are in no particular order, and since Heather is probably burned out about telling this spring break tale, here I go...

Grammy Williamson n' Jensen

It was really fun to renew acquaintances with my cousins. Amanda was 11 years old last time I was up in mass, now she's got a cute little boy. We really liked Ray, he's a great guy!

Great Grammy and all of her great grandkids, and pretty much all smiling great grand kids, of corse you know we had to take 75,000 shots to get this one (because of my kids of course)

Aunt Sue aprehended Jensen while he was eating an earth mover.

Unca Dave

Heather and I agree that going on the mayflower II was on the top ten list of the cool things that we saw on the entire trip. They had actors onboard that acted as if they were Mayflower passengers and other parks personel to answer questions. You could ask as many questions as you wanted... and I did. I didnt like talking to the period actors because it was just awkward, but I lierally talked to another guy for about an hour and just fired question after question. It was SO much more interesting than I thought it would be. One cool thing that they said was that the Mayflower was origionally supposed to land around the mouth of the Hudson, but they got off track and landed in Plymouth, which was coincidentally the name of the port town that they origionally sailed from in England. They didnt name the place that they landed plymouth, It was actually named that six years earlier by land surveyers. Also the origional Mayflower was sold for scrap in the 1640s.

HELLO PILGRIM!
It was freezing. FREEZING!

We took the boys around the harbor, In the boys' opinion, the coolest things there were the floating docks.

Family picture in front of Scituate light. Almost everybody was "onboard."

Posers at Scituate Harbor.

This is what it looks like if you mix 3431 Miles, 14 states, 12 days, a toyota camry and 2 toddlers together

Uh... Jensen was supposed to be the navigator...but...he was pretty neglegent, so we bought a GPS.

Jensen wanted to go over the falls. He was pretty bummed. Good thing this was the last day of the trip or this might have ruined it for him.

The Sacred Grove. I loved it.

This picture is an eternal testament...to me being right and Heather wrong. I set the timer up and put the camera down probably 100 ft away, and down 10 steps. Heather said that there was "NO WAY" I was going to make it in time. Hmmm. Whos that tall drink o' water then?

The USS Lionfish, a WWII sub. You can get a hint of an idea of how cramped the living conditions were. The doors "hatches"are too small even for Luke to walk through.

Jensen and I manned the gun on the deck of the lionfish. It troubled me when I found out that Jensen had brought live amunition for it!

This is the bridge of the USS Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. a destroyer that was built and fought during WWII. It also fought in Korea and Vietnam. It is most famous for being the ship that boarded an inspection party of American sailors onto a Russian freighter at the height of tensions during the Cuban Missle Crisis blockade. The JPKJr was used in filming the movie "13 Days." One of the ship's caretakers let us onto the normally inaccessable bridge. He was the son of man who sailed on her. It was very interesting.

View of the "Big Mamie" which is the nickname of the USS Massachusets, not my wife, or my baby for that matter. The USS Massachusetts (BB59) served in both the Pacific and Atlantic theaters. It is one of the most decorated warships of all time. During it's first cruise (in the Atlantic,) it sunk a german controlled french battleship from over twelve miles away. It's main weapons are nine 16 inch guns that fire high explosive projectiles. The "bullets" are four feet tall, 16 inches wide, and are propelled by more than 150 lbs of gunpowder. The Massachusetts was involved in the bombardment of almost every beachhead that US Marines took in the Pacific theater including Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

4 tickets to the gun show!

(5 inch guns on Joseph P. Kennedy Jr.)

The boys had to close the hatch to stop flooding in the lower compartments.

Im gonna bunk with you BUDDY!!!

Luke for some reason was hamming it up. He walked aroud the ships for 4 hours.

Luke's Grandpa Kramer flew in a bunch of these when he was in the Army.

Lets see what this thing can do!

Jensen and his Cobra gunship

Luke and Big Mamie

In front of the 16 inchers

Heather and her obsession with anti-aircraft weaponry. I don't understand it!

The Stay Puffed Marshmallow Man

the view from 1250 ft...A quarter mile up...the 102 floor

Thats one ugly blimp!

Jensen was a good sport on the 86th floor observatory. It was SO windy

9/11 WTC site. A absolutely somber and sacred place.

Uptown Girl (from Liberty Island)

Out of four different people that we asked to take a picture of us with the Statue of Liberty, THIS was the best.

This is my "art" photo. Pretty good huh!

Lady Liberty saluting the excellence of the BYU cougars

A real New Yorker

Subway...im hungry

Majestic D.C. Temple

Luke spent 6 months worth of "allowance" on this mini snow globe from the national zoo. Jensen must have bought his souvenir with bailout money, since we don't pay him for the kind of "WORK" he does around the house.

This statue is dedicated to all Marines. It's pretty impressive. There is one extra hand holding up the flagpole. It represents the hand of God.

The tomb of the unknowns was one of my fovorite things we saw whie in DC. 24/7-365 soldiers have been guarding the remains of fallen unknown US soldiers since 1937.

"KNOWN BUT TO GOD"

@ Robert E. Lee's Mansion overlooking Arlington Nat'l Cemetary

3 old buddies back together again... Jensen, Austin, and of course The Spirit of St. Louis.

Jensen trying to "borrow" an aircraft from the Air and Space Museum

Mr. Jence goes to Washington (unfortunately a couple of days late since they passed the health care bill the day before)

That is Abraham Lincoln sittin' back there, so show some freakin' respect!

The fountain at the new WWII memorial with Washington Monument in back. They said that they fundraised to get money in order to build the memorial. It cost 200 mil to make, but the WWII vets actually raised 300 mil. The memorial had every major battle in every theater listed somewhere within it.

Im glad Matt was out of school when we took these b/c the kids were going "a little bit wild" on the President of West Virginia University's lawn.

There were also two homeless bums there on the Pres' lawn (Matthew Malone above; Austin Kramer bottom)

The science guys

This was Luke threatening us that he was about to go Huck Finn on us and ride the river outta here!

Stopped by Newel's place, no iPADs though.

This is a mean trucker we met in Jersey! J/k it is really me. Heather wishes I would stay like this always, and I would, but I have to maintain a professional appearance for med school.

Well,.......................that is it. I started this deal-o at 9:00. The time is 12:49. It took me a long time to come up with not funny jokes. Im tired now, so, hope you like dum.

Slumber party! (minus the "slumber")

2010-03-03T17:42:00.000-08:00

Austin (aka "best dad ever") built the boys a huge fort in our living room. It literally took up the whole living room and used every quilt, comforter, sheet, blanket and many baby blankets. It was massive! Austin and the boys were in heaven! Austin decided that he, Luke and I would sleep in it that night. Austin laid down tons of pillows and stuff for us to sleep on, but at 11:40pm, I decided I wanted some sleep so I gave up and went to my bed. Austin and Luke slept in it all night long.

Jensen wasn't mad at all that he didn't get the "privilege" of sleeping in the fort. That baby values his sleep too! He did like waking them all up in the morning though and climbing in "bed" with Austin.

Luke had his own private room! He was pretty excited about it. He can't wait for the next fort - maybe Austin will give him his own private bathroom too.

This is one of the few pictures of Jensen actually sitting down in the fort. Most of the time he would walk around in it, ripping down all sorts of blankets and stuff. He couldn't quite grasp that you had to crawl around in it.

The first thing Luke says when I go to fix his hair is, "Don't get water on me." Meaning, "Sweet, kind, beautiful mother, please do not get water on my shirt or face." Yet, when Luke does Jensen's hair for church, he basically baptizes him - the kid was soaked. Luke thought it was a small price for Jensen to look so good.

Luke did his own hair too - notice there's basically no water on his hair or clothes...

Austin made Luke this hockey goalie's mask about a year ago. It's pretty fun and the kids love it. He completely made the thing up by himself. Pretty talented guy. Luke is usually not the goalie because he gets so mad when people "score" on him, but somehow he doesn't mind being the goalie for Jensen. Probably because Jensen picks up the ball half the time and the other half he hits it the wrong direction.

Doesn't look too confident does he?

Jensen is a yogurt lover. This kid will sit down and eat a 6 pack of yogurt in minutes if you let him. If it's served in a bowl, he literally licks it clean.

I've been "pumping some iron" lately. Notice my huge muscles that are oddly shaped like a tennis ball...

No mom needs to "pump iron" when they're hauling around a huge baby every day - look at that beast!

Different ways to eat Spaghetti

2010-02-22T14:29:00.000-08:00

It turns out that Luke is a pretty dainty spaghetti eater...

Austin has no shame when it comes to spaghetti...

With Jensen, eating spaghetti is a full body experience...

Jensen loves this little monkey his Great-grammy Williamson got him. Jensen is already so cuddly but it is so cute to see him cuddled up with this every night...I mean cuddled with the monkey, not with Austin.

We let Jensen do the FHE activity the other day - markers among other things. Turns out he treats markers the same way he treats spaghetti...

Luke got this pictures from his Grammy Kramer for Valentine's day -

Luke tried to do his hair for church one Sunday. Reminds me of dad's hair for some reason.

Austin's sister Shawna got the boys these cute jerseys for Christmas. Go Lightning!

My new haircut - a bit frizzy at the time but you get the idea

Luke LOVED basketball!

Des Moines University's Winter Gala for all of the medical students and their spouses. It was really fun, except for the very loud live band.

After our classy night, we went to Arby's for dinner - we are classy!

Videos:
Luke cutting Austin's hair - it's only fair, right?
Everybody playing hockey on our icy driveway.
An example of Luke's "moves" during basketball season

It's a fire station..that's why it was red!

2010-02-02T09:40:00.000-08:00

Luke's preschool group went on a field trip to the fire station. They're running low on volunteers, they'll take pretty much anybody who's willing, so Jensen signed up!

Anybody recognize this lady? She's the new mascot for the Ankeny fire station. Is it any wonder why?

Luke just showing the ladies around a fire truck. He was in his element.

Some of the preschool kids.

Pretty cool statue...I mean the yellow one.

Jensen's pretty cute...who am I kidding, he's adorable! He keeps getting more teeth and more wispy hair! Then he comes at you with a sword, and you can't help but pick him up and kiss him - not the reaction he was hoping for.

One of Luke's favorite meals: pancakes with chocolate chips. Oh yes, they're good. Then Austin makes Luke a Y pancake for BYU, this completes his perfect meal.

Dr. Austin Alan Kramer...how ya like me now - boom shakalaka

Like his Grandma Kramer, Luke LOVES puzzles. He's recently started doing the 24 piecers which he's pretty proud of.

FHE at the Kramer home.

Second portion of FHE - peanut butter cookies and sliding around the kitchen floor in a laundry basket and box.

Gemtek All-Star Team photo shoot

Austin and his new gun.

LONG Overdue!

2010-01-26T11:46:00.000-08:00

These pictures are completely out of order, but at least they're up, at least that's how I justify it to myself.

Jensen's first ice cream cone...

"Bubbles, bubbles everywhere but not a drop to drink"...or at least I tried to get Jensen not to drink this troth full of bubbles! This was at the Science Center and the boys were covered in bubbles by the time we left - what a great bathtime they had when we got home - they were the bubbles.

We went to the Science Center here for the first time the other day - thanks to some great friends. Luke examined this snake to make sure it was real - he was pretty hesitant at first.
l
A good friend bought me a little birthday cake for my birthday. It came in the packaging you see on Jensen's head. Yeah...it had a lot of sugary frosting on it...

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Luke is a superstar on his basketball team - go owls! I am basically the only parent that claps and cheers during the games. I like to cheer Luke on as he's running in no particular direction all over the court. It's hilarious! These kids have no idea what they're doing. The rim is 6 ft. tall and it's so cute to watch these kids try to make it! Mostly they just run in whatever direction "coach" tells them. Once I yelled out to Luke from the stands, "Get the ball, Luke." I didn't even think he could hear me. Apparently he could because he ran right up to a little girl, who happened to be his teammate, and grabbed the ball right out of her tiny hands. This guy is for reals about his sports.

Austin was planning to do an FHE on his mission and the importance of missions, etc. So he decided to make a Chilean dinner for us including main dish and salads to go along with his lesson. He made "completos" - the complete hot dog - a dream dinner come true, as you can see on Jensen's face in the background...

Jensen got this cool shopping cart from Mom Kramer. It's got so many uses!

The boys absolutely LOVE the capes mom made them of Batman and Superman. Though they have never seen a cartoon about these "superheros" so they claim Superman is a really bad guy and Batman saves the day.

After the votes were counted, the winners for hottest sister starting with the all time hottest at the top of the stairs: Heather followed by Bethany, Haley, Ashley and Cassidy (6th and 7th place winners Whitney and Sarah are not pictured)

We went on a fun hike while in Idaho for Christmas. Austin of course brought his new machine BB gun. He literally had to hide it when we were near civilization because it looks real!

Best picture of all time for Haley. Talk about "bad pictures of good people." Thank goodness Greg already proposed...

I'm not sure who this picture is of...can't quite recognize the person...

I know, what happened to the rest of mom? Seriously, she's lost a ton of weight and looks wonderful and is so happy. But true to most of the pictures in her life, she does of course have a monster cold sore in this picture.

Pretty much the cutest cougar fan.

On Christmas break, we were able to see some of our great friends in Idaho - the Montanos! It was short but so fun! We are excited to see other friends this summer!

Go Cougs! Luke and his cute cousin Grace - BFF! Luke wore this to the NHL game that he and Austin went to in Dallas, as they missed the end of the BYU vs. Utah victory! Austin is addicted to the Tampa Bay Lightning and many of our vacations are planned around going to one of their games. Boston, here we come!

We let Jensen take the wheel on the way home from our Texas Thanksgiving party. He really is a good driver - Dillon and Cassidy should take lessons from him!

Thanksgiving was tons o fun at Justin and Kelsey's. They are the perfect hosts and every part of the trip was a blast! Haley and Bethany's family came too. Haley was the favorite aunt reading to 6 nieces and nephews.

For Austin's birthday, Austin's mom got him this incredible diploma frame! He was so excited! It really is beautiful and classy. It will look perfect in his future podiatrist office. But for the time being, it doesn't quite fit in with my diploma's frame which was $2 from WalMart.

Jensen is getting taller and his fine motor skills are getting better, so Luke is having to be more creative with the stuff he doesn't want Jensen to touch. Luke has started using the refrigerator as his personal space. At first, he stuck a car or two in there on the bottom shelf. These were his favorite cars that he didn't want Jensen to even think about touching. Next it was some candy, then he added some spoons and now he's sticking his favorite junk mail on the top shelf! Just a little out of control.

We had a crazy ice storm last week. When we moved here, people warned us of them. I couldn't imagine what an "ice storm" was: rain that froze as soon as it hits something because it's so cold? Why not just snow? Anyway, it was crazy and cool. Everything was covered in ice including side walks, patios, trashcans, you name it. Icicles were hanging from everywhere and coated everything. They froze power lines and left over 28,000 people without power. We lost power for a few hours.

This is a picture of the antenna on the truck. So bizarre.

Hey, I have never claimed to have any artistic ability whatsoever - so yeah, I'm pretty proud of this cake. It does in fact say "29 Happy Birthday Austin" though you can't really tell so much. Also, Luke spent half an hour putting on 29 candles, plus 2 "decorative" ones. Incidentally, the decorative ones must have been soaked in gasoline or something because they went up in flames right away, leaving wax all over the prize winning cake. If you like frosting with an inch of candle wax on it - you would've LOVED my cake!

This was Luke's reaction to Austin's masterpiece of a "Herbie car" birthday cake. I hate to remember the way Austin reacted when I presented my birthday creation to him. The words disappointment and embarrassment come to mind. I like to leave plenty of room for improvement.

Definitely NOT a Flake!

2009-11-14T11:19:00.001-08:00

The other day Jensen climbed up on one of our "dining room chairs" and grabbed an apple out of the fruit bowl. He just started chowing down - where did this kid come from? Definitely not from the Flake side of the family. We only chow down on hohos and maple bars - ha! He does it just about every day now - it's so cute and so funny!

Do you want to hire this guy as your pharmacist? Ha! I have started to let Luke fill my medicine box every week. He loves it and is so careful to make sure each slot has one of everything and then counts them, etc. He's pretty thorough - I'd highly recommend him to anyone and his labor is cheap.

This is the picture we'll put on the flier to advertise his services - such a trustworthy face!

Here is a picture of the beautiful and SAFE deck Austin's dad made for us! Thank you so much! It has changed our life - seriously.

Austin got yet another cold sore on his face. He couldn't shave for a week or two as he didn't want to spread it all over his face, unlike some people (Joel). The week or two that he had a beard completely reaffirmed my severe hatred for beards - ugh!

It's a very long and embarrassing story (for me) but here is a picture of our two riding lawn mowers. The smaller one is the one I bought - without having Austin look at it! Stupid, stupid, stupid. The bigger one actually works well and was a great deal! We just had to get one. With Austin gone all the time, I have to mow the lawn with the boys and it's just impossible. We have about half an acre and it takes me over an hour to mow the lawn with the push mower, so we bought this baby. Now Austin MAKES time to mow the lawn! Sweet deal for me!

If you're a mother, you've probably felt the temptation to take a picture of you precious, cute, perfect baby when they are asleep. I couldn't help myself...

of course, when you give into temptation, you have to deal with the consequences when I woke my sweet baby up from his nap too early! Woops!

Some videos of Jensen eating an apple - so funny and cute! The other video is of Luke, Austin and Jensen (kind of) playing with this hockey game we got off craigslist for free! I love that page!! So many hours of entertainment! Thanks to the wonderful family who gave it away for free!

Halloween Fun

2009-11-03T20:34:00.001-08:00

This is a little late, but we had a wonderful Halloween!

Austin made Luke an exact replica of a 1909 Boston Red Sox uniform. Jensen was a skunk, another costume Austin made. He's pretty talented.

Luke with his loot!

Why does this picture make me think of Pepe Le Pew in tap dance shoes? Jensen is really cute anyway, but skunk is just a great look for him!

This picture took some coaxing, but we couldn't find any red baseball socks Luke's size and we thought tights would be warmer - makes for a great picture!

The boys wore their costumes for three days in a row. The first day we went to Austin's school Halloween party (yes, he is in medical school and not elementary school). I guess they put on a little Halloween party for the students' kids every year.

We never got a good shot of Jensen's costume.

At DMU, painting pumpkins. I think Austin got into it more than Luke.

Halloween isn't complete without decorating Halloween sugar cookies. Can you guess which ones Austin made? I think he was trying to make up for not carving an awesome pumpkin this year. (Austin did the ghostbuster, the cheat (from homestarrunner.com) and an eagle.)

The artist at work.

This was the first time Luke actually frosted the cookies himself. He LOVED it and got really into it...literally! Just kidding...sort of.

Pumpkin Patch Time!

2009-10-20T19:06:00.001-07:00

We had so much fun on Monday! We left right after Austin took his final for his Biochemistry class (he's done with his first class in podiatry school!). We headed about 30 minutes north to a place called Cambridge, Iowa. We had heard from many people that this was the best pumpkin patch to visit, and it did not disappoint! They had so much to do there and it was so reasonably priced.
First we visited the petting zoo complete with incredibly stinky pigs, goats of all shapes and sizes, Clydesdale, chickens, roosters, turkeys, ducks, rams, etc. It was fun and the boys loved it! They had exact replicas of the houses of all 3 little pigs - one of Luke's favorite stories lately as he loves to say "Aaaaaachooooo." Kids.
Then we all learned how to milk a cow (there was no real cow involved so I'm not sure how different the real thing is.) Next we let Luke lead us through the kid's corn/hay maze; he loved it! Then there was this awesome slide (very reminiscent of the Alpine Slide in Utah, except not on a mountain) down a hill. We had races and the boys had a blast.
Then we took the "10 minute walk" over to the pumpkin patch. On the way we passed an old "Herbie Car" which was so exciting for Luke. He didn't want to leave it. When we got to the pumpkin patch, it left quite a bit to be desired but it was fine I guess.
Lastly, we went and played in their huge barn of corn kernels. It was so fun!
After 3 fun-filled hours, we bought one of their home grown, homemade caramel apples and we were ready to go. We were all famished on the way home so we stopped at a place in Ankeny that we had a coupon for from the Entertainment book. It was a buy one get one free thing and we got meals for all of us at some delicious BBQ place for less than we would have paid stopping at fast food. A perfect ending to a perfect day.

I suppose we could have paid the 25 cents to buy some food to feed the animals. But why do that when Luke loved finding corn on the ground and letting the baby goats eat out of his hand.

Luke and his new baby goat friend.

Luke (and Austin) found the perfect pumpkin in the not-so-perfect pumpkin patch. I say that because I have such vivid memories of the awesome pumpkin patches I went to as a kid in West Virginia. This one was really barren and picked over. It wasn't too fun because it was pretty gross. The pumpkin patch was probably the least fun part about the place.

Austin put his fingers through the fence to feed these turkeys - not the smartest thing he's ever done. They almost snapped his fingers off! This was the face he made as it happened.

We all had a fun time swimming in the corn! Luke let us cover him up like burying him at the beach. They had slides going into the corn. The "rules" for playing in the corn were to make sure you took out any loose items in your pants, etc. because if you lost it in there, it was gone for good.

Jensen couldn't decided between the many pumpkins they had to offer.

He put a lot of time and effort into pondering which one to pick.

Finally found a winner! "I'll take this one!"

Although the corn bath was probably Luke's favorite part of the pumpkin patch, Jensen was not quite as entertained by it. I think he got too much corn in his diaper to be happy about it.

Luke was ecstatic when he saw his beloved "Herbie Car" in the distance. He went running for it. He was a little disappointed that it was almost completely hollow inside, but as you can see, it didn't phase him for too long.

This was probably my favorite part about the place. They set up this awesome slide down this big hill. You take a sled to the top of this baby and hold on for dear life sliding down this thing. It was so fun! (click on the pic to see how excited Luke really is)

All Goats Go to Heaven

Austin and Luke learned to milk a cow on this specimen. Dad, you would have been so proud...you too Ben!

First Snow!

2009-10-10T09:48:00.000-07:00

(Jensen giving the snowman a "high five." He was napping when we were building it.)

We woke up this morning to a winter wonderland! The boys were so excited, including Austin! But Austin had to study, so I pulled out the snow pants, boots, gloves, hats, coats, etc. for the little boys and me. After half an hour of pulling gloves on as tight as possible and fighting Jensen to get the rest of the clothes on, the boys and I were ready to go! Luke was determined to build a snowman, Jensen was content making "baby snow angels" in the snow. Then we pulled out the sled and I pulled the boys around. Jensen loved it! Then we hooked the sled up to Luke's little 4 wheeler, though it didn't work all that well, it was still fun.

Austin was able to take a little break from studying to come help with the snowman! There wasn't a lot of snow, but it was perfect snowman snow. (Luke and I even had a snow ball fight!) Austin made the base of the snowman, I made his middle, and Luke made the head - that's why it's a little small. We didn't have the normal stuff for eyes and nose, etc. so we used dum-dum suckers for eyes and a nose (worked great!) and then a twizzler for a mouth. A real Flake Family snowman (made of candy!). Then we put on a cap and gloves that dad gave us last Christmas (it's for a girl so we never used it). Anyways, it worked great and Luke was so happy to have a snowman in his front yard! After we were done, we went in for some hot cocoa! What a fun morning!

In other news, Austin tore down the nasty old shed in our yard. It was such a beautiful day yesterday that Austin decided to take a break from studying for a little bit and rip down the shed. It only took him a couple of hours - he's a real man! He found a lot of weird stuff within the walls of the shed. Man was that place disgusting.

These guys were pretty proud of their work and understandably so

Luke gained a love for eating snow today.

Snow Struck Lovers

These mask/hats are so handy when it's so cold!

Look at the snow packed on those tires! We need to get this bad boy some snow tires!

Luke starting the snowball fight. And yes, I did "accidentally" hit him in the face with a snowball.

Luke tried his hand at pulling Jensen in the sled, but Jensen only weighs a few pounds less than Luke so he was struggling.

I love the little snowflake on his long eyelashes.

This swing was broken when we moved in, but Austin fixed it right up.

BFFs

First sled ride ever!

Wow, what a gross place.

2009-10-08T19:24:00.000-07:00

My old roommate from college, Crystal, stopped by our house tonight with her three little kids on their way home from Denver to Champaign, Illinois. She is a trooper, she drove 15 hours all by herself (in one day) with her 3 little kids. Her husband was doing rotations at the hospital and couldn't go.
It was SO FUN to see her. We only lived together for a year or two but she was such a wonderful friend. I learned a lot from her and grew a lot from my friendship with her. She is one of those people that will tell you what she thinks. She's not afraid to give you a compliment because she is confident in herself. She represents some of my favorite memories from college. She's so fun and funny and such a good friend. So many great memories! PLEASE come by again Crystal!

What is it about boys that, no matter the age or that they just met minutes ago, they love to wrestle.

Cute Jensen! He looks just like Austin and is just as fun!

Video: Luke helping prepare for Crystal's visit. Now that he is a "big boy" he likes to take on more duties. He started vacuuming today and vacuumed the whole first floor! He would have done the whole house if I wasn't in a hurry. He is such a good boy. He cleans up the toy room every night, though sometimes it takes him an hour. He cleaned it up tonight after Crystal and her kids left and let's just say it wasn't an easy task. What a trooper!

Wicked!

2009-10-07T06:33:00.000-07:00

So I pretty much have the best husband ever! He's so nice and bought us some tickets to the Broadway musical "Wicked." We had heard from everyone how wonderful it is and it didn't disappoint. We had SO much fun! First we went out to eat at this fancy Italian Restaurant (Centro) - it was so good! Then we headed over to the musical. We had a wonderful babysitter who we kept until after 11pm watching our boys. She's their favorite and Luke kept asking when she was coming all day long and then even before 7am this morning. Needless to say, we knew we left our kids in good hands. Anyway, it was so fun and I'm so glad we got to go! We both loved it and the whole night was "magical" (as Joel says). Thank you Austin!

In other "wicked" news, here are some pictures of our kids when they are being "wicked" (Jensen loves to throw his food on the floor) and Luke loves to provoke him. Not to mention Luke's new booty dance which he only started doing during general conference when they sing the hymns! He won't do it any other time! What a weird kid!

Keeping it real

2009-09-22T06:00:00.001-07:00

One of Luke's favorite activities: boxing with dad. Luke's got a mean right hook.

Austin's mug shot with his diploma - evidence that he did indeed finally graduate

Austin's dad and Luke spent about an hour figuring out which of the 200 hot wheels we have, is the fastest. Dad was so disappointed that it wasn't the Ferrari, but was some unmarked "brown car."

Austin's dad gave Jensen some tips on basketball. Now he's "ready to go pro."

Austin's been wanting a gun and trying to convince me that it was a good idea for about 2 years now. I finally gave in and let him get a gun just like his dad had in Vietnam, except Austin's is a plastic bee-bee gun.

This is a picture of Jensen's favorite part of his first birthday.

Austin's dad hit 3 homeruns from Luke's pitches - I don't know if that's good or bad.

This shot is for his all-star baseball card

He's so cute!

With the recent start of a new football season, Luke has loved watching football with Austin. On Saturday, he watched a lot of the BYU game. During the game, he ran into the toy room, found these livestrong and breast cancer support bracelets that Jensen plays with, and he put them above his calves as the football players wear. Seriously, this kid is for real about sports. He turns 3 soon and in many sports, 3 is the age you can start playing. We are excited for him. He will be in heaven. I’m interested to see if other kids are as good as he is in any sport. Seriously, he seems to be above average athletically.

We literally have a baseball game every night of the week and sometimes during the day. Luke is very observant of the games. He and Austin went to another baseball game a week ago and sat around the scoreboard and stuff, pretty fun. Anyway, Luke watched very closely how the pitcher winds up to throw the ball and how the batter holds the bat. Now, when we are playing baseball, he winds up for real just like a real pitcher. And he gives me advice on how to hold the bat! What a fanatic! He does his own drills for baseball (which he made up) including him rolling the ball away from himself and then running and sliding to grab the ball with his glove. He loves to race you for it. His other drills including sliding and saying “Safe.” Luke's been practicing sliding into home plate, in the living room. He's gotten quite a few rug burns - which he doctors with a sticker!

White Coat and a Walker

2009-08-28T09:50:00.000-07:00

Wow, life is pretty wild around here but so fun! We are slowly making more improvements on the house while Austin is taking on more classes and studying his brains out while Jensen is learning to walk. It's pretty fun and we have a great time! Though we really, really miss everyone back in Idaho. We will be so ready for family when Thanksgiving rolls around - Dallas here we come! We're already excited to party with Justin's family and the Gabrielsen's. Hopefully we can talk mom and dad Kramer into visiting us before then.

I put up some random pics and some videos of Jensen walking - that was a week ago and he's much improved since then.

Also, last Saturday was Austin's white coat ceremony. It was really cool and a pretty big deal. The students (on their way to being doctors for the rest of their lives) "donnetheir white coats for the first time (starting off their healthcare profession) and signed some oath to take care of their patients and keep up on the changing research, etc., etc. It was really cool and I was SO GLAD I got a babysitter for it.

Jensen gets cuter every day. Don't you think so?