Joyeux Noel 2017

James was old enough to help us decorate the Christmas tree this year. He didn't like that we kept taking all the fun things and putting them on the tree. We have added so many ornaments to our collection that we had a hard time finding places for them all. 

Other preparations for Christmas included making several batches of cookies, driving to Pennsylvania to ride the Strasburg Railroad Santa Train, and checking out the lights at the D.C. Temple. The boys loved all of it, especially the Santa Train, Bennet was dancing with glee as the train pulled into the station and James kept pointing at the train and repeating "Train!" until we were allowed to get on. 

Christmas morning was filled with joy as we opened our presents. James needed no help opening his presents and his favorite word of the morning was "open!" 

Before it was too late, we made our annual trip to the National Botanical Gardens to see the Christmas trains exhibit. They change the theme every year and all of it is made out of plants. 

Baby Boy #4

Baby boy #4 is due to arrive April 23rd. We seem to be specializing in rowdy rambunctious boys. 

Give Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving 2017. We hosted this year and invited Uncle Brent's family and Aunt Emily (Mommy's Sister) to come feast with us. It was the first time we extended our new table out as far as it could go and, because we had taken out the wall in the kitchen, we were able to seat 15 people around it. The food was delicious and everyone ate till they were stuffed.

James and his cousin Matthew were so excited to have a friend to sit next to. They had lots of fun passing food back and forth to each other.









After cleaning up dinner and taking some time to digest, we had all the kids come back to the table to decorate Gingerbread houses. Everyone enjoyed themselves and ate a lot of candy in the process.

James is 2 years old

Though we affectionately call him James the destructor, we love him and wish him a happy birthday. The boys and I took him to Frying Pan Farm to "moo" at the cows and "baa" at the sheep. We had a great time.

Since he loves ice cream more than anything,
we made him a messy ice cream cake with hot fudge sauce and a brownie base.

Evan's first tag

Though we hope he doesn't grow up to become a hooligan, Evan had a lot of fun helping Aunt Emily with her tag on the art wall in front of the Kennedy Center.

Candy

Along with cooler weather and nice colors, fall brings a lot of fun activities each year.  We once again were able to enjoy many of our favorites.

After all the parties and trick or treating leading up to Halloween, Evan and Bennet were over it and only stayed out trick or treating for about 30 minutes. James, however, refused to come in with his brothers and made Paul take him out until he had filled up his bucket twice.

We have a lot of trees in our neighborhood and on a nice fall day it is fun to rake them into a big pile and let the kids jump in.

Home Again

After a long car ride home to Virginia we finished off the summer with some DIY. There was a wall in our kitchen that we didn't like so we cut some holes and made a big mess.

Then, after watching some youtube videos and getting advice from Grandpa Saunders, we got to work putting it back together. It took us 3 weeks, but we now have new lights in the kitchen and more space without that useless wall.








The solar eclipse of August 21, 2017. was a total solar eclipse visible within a band across the entire contiguous United States, passing from the Pacific to the Atlantic coasts. We weren't close enough to be in the path of totality but we were close enough to see it mostly covered. We went with our friends to the Dulles Air and Space museum where they were handing out special eclipse glasses and watch the moon pass over the sun.

First day of 2nd grade

And just like that the summer was over and it was time to send the kids back to school.

Lets Race!

This year I wanted to try out running. After talking Paul into training with me, we set to work getting in shape. I got a training schedule off the internet and we dusted off the treadmill. Paul was the first one to run a race. He ran the Lawyers have Heart 5k with attorneys  from his Law Firm, WSGR.

The original plan was to just run the Provo Freedom Run 10k together, but after finishing it seemed a waste to do all that training for just one race so we decided to keep going.








Our next race was the South Jordan Glow Run 10k. It was along the Jordan River Parkway from 11pm to midnight. Everyone was all decked out with glow sticks and headlamps. It was very peaceful to run in the dark almost by yourself.  We are so grateful that we had Grandparents to babysit while so we could run these races.











On the 24th of July, Pioneer Day in Utah, we ran the Temple to Temple 5k from the Provo temple to the Provo City Center Temple. My brothers Jon and Alec Joined us along with Paul's brother Mike and his family all wearing our Kraczek family reunion tee shirts.















Our final race for the summer was the Crack of Dawn 10k down Millcreek canyon. It started at 6:30am. We ran the race and were back at Grandma and Grandpa Saunders house with bagels for the kids before they were even out of bed.


After all that running we drove home and haven't run since.

Additional Fun with the Kraczeks

In addition to spending a whole three day weekend with all of Paul's brothers and their families during our Kraczek family reunion, we had several other opportunities to spend time with our Kraczek grandparents, Uncle Mike's family, and Uncle Scott's family during the course of the summer.  For James, this led to a lot of crazy comotion that was not always easy to explain later.

Bennet used this as an opportunity to make creations in Grandma's basement and Evan loved getting to know some of his Kraczek cousins.

Amanda, for the fourth year in a row, had the opportunity to make Grandma Kraczek's birthday cake.  This year it was a blackberry lime cake, which we preceded with a coconut shrimp and steak dinner.  James loved the cake, but his favorite part may have been feeding his dinner to Boo, who was a very sweet labradoodle that belonged to Uncle Mike's family.







Uncle Mike's family invited us to some fun activities, including a plastic turtle race at BYU and playing at the beach at Manila Creek Pond in Pleasant Grove.

Towards the end of our trip, we took Grandma and Grandpa Kraczek to both the Loveland Living Aquarium and the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point.  It is quite possible that James enjoyed the icecream at the dinosaur museum more than any boy ever has before (Daddy was not allowed to have any).

Kraczek Family Reunion

It had been eight plus years since all the Kraczek boys were together and never with all their families.  As we ran out of excuses to not to get together, we finally bit the bullet and decided to have a family reunion.  This means that we tried to fit about a decade's worth of family get togethers and three family reunions into one three day weekend.

On the first full day, we gathered the troops together and headed over to Pleasant Grove to hike Battle Creek Falls.  Although he wasn't the fastest hiker, Bennet may have been the most enthusiastic.  The boys also found a cave that they considered moving into before learning that there would be no way to power an iPad.

Following the hike, Aunt Elizabeth presented a private show for us at the BYU planetarium where Evan tragically learned that one day the earth would explode.  Once we are able to help him get over this shock, we headed to a weenie roast up Provo Canyon.

Not satisfied with his hot dog, Evan tried chasing down a rattlesnake for roasting over the fire.  Thankfully, Uncle Brent explained the dangers of catching rattlesnakes, so we all engaged in safer activities such as playing football and climbing Bridal Veil falls instead.  It was a thoroughly exhausting day, but very enjoyable.

On the second day, we headed as a group over to Seven Peaks water park.  Bennet loved the tube runs and his brothers also found the park to be very enjoyable.  We made sure to wear plenty of sunscreen so that we would not look like lobsters for the next activity, which was getting a full family portrait (see above).  I think Evan's favorite activity of the day was the Kraczek Family Jeopardy game that Paul put together to cap off the night as he refused to go to bed while most everyone else in the family was enjoying answering questions about each other.

The third day involved everyone listening to Grandpa Kraczek's choir performance at his ward.  In the afternoon, we roped both our Kraczek and Western extended families into the reunion so that we could accomplish the rare fete of having three family reunions at once.  It was a lot of good quality time spent together and we hope that we do not have to wait another eight or so years before doing it again.

Best summer ever!

"Push me fast and slow Grandpa"

We love Grandpa

We did so many fun things this summer.







Bennet kept telling us he needed to climb to the top of the mountain. You can see the Wasatch mountains from anywhere in the valley and Bennet was getting a pretty good view of them from the swing in Grandma and Grandpa Saunders' backyard.

Grandma and Grandpa Saunders made sure Bennet got to hike some mountains. 

cute cowboys

In addition to climbing mountains, we went to the Riverton rodeo and the Ogden train museum.

We also went bowling, to visit Jesus at the SLC Temple, mini golfing and other fun things at the Lehi fun center, and mining for treasure in Grandma and Grandpa's back yard. These kids never got a chance to be bored.

Grandma made sure we always had plenty of ice cream

Hanging out with cousins

We never got tired of being pushed in the swing

Even just hanging out at Grandma and Grandpa's house was fun.

Grandma's big bathtub

code-apiller

Dinner for two

With Grandparents around to watch the kids, Mom and Dad were able to go out by themselves. 

Evan and Bennet loved going to swimming lessons or "swim school" as Bennet called it. We also had passes to Seven Peaks water park that we went to with both the Kraczek and Saunders cousins. Bennet can't get enough of the waterslides. 

It was the best summer ever and my boys refuse to even discuss the possibility of doing anything else next summer besides driving back and doing it all over again.