Bennet Paul Kraczek

Welcome to the newest member of our family... I can't believe we are now a family of 4!

Baby Bennet was born at 12:24 in the afternoon.  He was 8lbs 13oz and 21 3/4" long; he is a big baby. He was only 5 days late because I didn't want to wait any longer. Evan was 8 days late, so I guess late is just how I roll. 

Evan was so excited when we introduced him to his new baby brother. All he wanted to do was give him hugs and kisses. One of the first things Evan did after meeting his new baby brother was sing him "I am a child of God". Talk about a melt your heart moment.

I am so proud to be the mother of two beautiful boys. 

We are so grateful for all of the help and prayers that we have received from all of you as our family has gone through this time of transition.  We are particularly grateful for Grandma Saunders, who stayed with us for a while. She was especially helpful when Bennet had to stay in the hospital for a few extra days to work on his tan and eliminate his jaundice; we don't know what we would have done without her.

In re Banana - Commonwealth vs Evan

Ladies and Gentleman of the jury,

Today I will be representing the Commonwealth in a case of a most heinous act.  An act so heinous that it will leaves us all a little afraid to leave a bowl of fruit unattended.  And I will show that it was done deliberately and by a miscreant so at ease with his behavior that he did not feel the need to flee the scene before consuming the fruits of his crime.  In short ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I will prove to you that we are dealing with ... a banana thief.

First, I will be presenting to you eye-witness testimony from a Northern Virginian man who stepped out of his shower to see signs of banana carnage from not just 1 banana,

But two bananas,

We will also show evidence from the scene of the crime, where it appears that the bananas were dragged to the edge of the counter...

Something that would have been done from a shorter individual who could not just grab a banana from above.  You will also notice the height at which he ditched the stickers.

Finally,

We will show a picture of the Defendant as he attempted to consume the evidence:

So Ladies and Gentleman of the jury, today we will ask you to find the Defendant guilty!  Guilty of waiting for his dad to jump into the shower, so that he could pilfer bananas.

Easter Egg Hunt

In just a few short weeks we will be welcoming a new little one into our home. So, as a last hurrah before we sequester our selves into new baby life, we invited our friends over for an Easter brunch / Egg Hunt.

The day before our hunt, Evan helped mommy fill about 200 eggs with yummy candy and, on the morning of, Daddy spread them out all over our backyard for the kids to find.

Even though our Virginia spring seems to be on a delay, it was a lovely sunny morning, perfect for our egg hunt. There was so much yummy food and everyone had a great time and got lots of eggs.

Long Distance

Isn't technology great! With Grandpa Saunders in Kurdistan and Grandma and Grandpa Kraczek on an LDS mission to Johannesburg South Africa it is so nice to be able to stay connected. Every week or so we get online for a video chat and catch up on each other's news.  I know that my kids will grow up thinking nothing of it but to me it is a modern miracle.

Happy Birthday Daddy

We had a very nice relaxing birthday for daddy this year. Daddy has been working very hard lately, so what he wanted most for his birthday was just to relax with his family and enjoy the day. Evan made sure Daddy felt loved by singing him happy birthday songs all day and making sure that there was a birthday cake with candles.

Every year mommy makes him a special birthday cake of his choosing. This year Daddy chose chocolate and cherries for the main ingredients, so we had a chocolate cherry upside down cake of Mommy's own invention.  It turned out a little gooey, but that did not detract from the yumminess.

In search of Snow

Evan has been dying to go sledding ever since Mommy bought him a sled this winter. Mommy even found Evan asleep in his sled one morning when the sled had been left in his room overnight.

Being from Utah, I have always taken for granted that there will be snow in the winter. So, after many promised snow stoms that turned out to be duds, the Kraczek family went out in search of some snow to sled in.

We headed up to a ski resort in Pennsylvania where we knew it would be "snowing" and got Evan a ticket for the kiddie tubing hill.

Evan was so excited that Daddy had found him a mountain for sledding. Mommy has as certain bias about what can be constituted a mountain, but we won't go into that. Never the less, the kiddie tubbing hill did not disappoint. Paul dragged Evan up the hill and pushed him down it for about an hour and a half till we were all sledded out and ready to go home.

It was a great day and hopefully next year we won't have to go so far to find some snow.

Evan is 3 years old

Evan turned 3 years old so we threw a great big party to celebrate. We invited about twice as many people as our little house could comfortably hold and had a wonderful time.

This is my first attempt at a shaped cake, and I am quite proud of the outcome if I do say so my self.

Evan has been into rockets lately so we went with a rocket ship theme complete with rocket ship party hats, a rocket ship cake,

And a rocket ship made out of cardboard boxes I brought home from work. I decorated the living room with construction paper planets and filled the place with streamers and balloons. Evan was so thrilled, he has been talking about his birthday for the past week telling Paul and I that we needed balloons, and party hats and a cake with candles on it for his birthday and being so disappointed that his birthday wasn't for a few more days.

After everyone left we opened presents and among the many cool presents was a new rocket ship from Grandma and Grandpa Saunders. It is the weirdest thing though after only a few launches the rocket ship was broken and needed repairs. It is a good thing that Mommy and Daddy got him tools for his birthday so he could fix it. It has needed several repairs since its first launch and it is just a good idea to keep your rocket ship well maintained so it doesn't break down while it is in space.