Let it Snow!

Evan has really wanted to make a snowman this year. When we talk to Grandma Saunders on the computer we can see that she has snow at her house and Evan keeps asking me when the snow is going to come to our house.

It doesn't often snow here in Northern Virginia and, when it does, it usually isn't the right kind of snow.  If it actually sticks, there isn't enough to really play in. Needless to say, we were very happy to wake up Tuesday to find a winter wonderland.

While Bennet was taking his morning nap, Evan and Mommy bundled up, grabbed our sleigh, and headed outside to make use of the perfect sledding hill we have in our backyard. We made a very friendly snowman in our front yard. He kept falling over, but on the third try we got him stable enough to stay up right.


When it was time to wake Bennet up from his nap, Mommy discovered she had locked herself out of the house. The scariest part of the whole experience was when she discovered how easy it was to break back into the house.
After climbing through an unlocked window and waking up baby Bennet, we decided we weren't done playing in the snow.  We bundled him up and brought him outside to do some more sledding.

Our Friend Santa

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around the Kraczek house. We put our tree up the weekend after Thanksgiving and have since put up the rest of our decorations as well.


Evan has been so excited for Christmas this year. He was not happy that he had to wait till after Thanksgiving before it could be Christmas time. Now that it is Christmas time we have to discuss each morning what day it is and how many more days it will be until Christmas day.

Who wants a candy cane?

If you ask Evan what he wants for Christmas he will tell you that his friend Santa loves him and is going to bring him a snow globe, a candy cane and legos.



This is the first year he has gotten excited about Santa - and boy is he ever. Whenever we get to see Santa it is like meeting a celebrity for him and I love to see his innocent awe at getting to meet THE Santa.

Yummy! and other baby cuteness.

Bennet just started eating baby food and he is loving it. I haven't found anything that he won't eat yet, even the spinach rutabaga baby food pictured here.  He makes a huge mess but he is sleeping better at night, so I can't complain too much. 

We had Bennet's baby picture taken a few weeks ago. He is a very photogenic baby and we had no trouble getting him to smile for the camera. I bought a nice frame and, while I was debating on where to hang it, Bennet found it on the floor.  As you can see, he was very taken with the baby in the picture. He was so excited, he and the baby in the picture smiled and laughed at each other for a while before I took the baby in the picture away.  Once I clean the finger prints off of him, I will hang him up so he can smile at all of us.

Halloween 2013

We had a fantastic Halloween!  We went to 4 parties, with trick or treating at two of them, in addition to trick or treating around the neighborhood Halloween night.

 At our ward trunk or treat, we all dressed up for the fun.

We had a lot of fun carving pumpkins the Sunday before Halloween. Evan and Mommy carved a silly face into our pumpkin and Daddy carved a scary face into his. Evan didn't like the scary face very much, but it didn't seem to bother the squirrels as that is the one they decided to eat.

On Halloween Day after going to a friend's birthday party in the morning, we headed into the city to go trick or treating at Daddy's law firm. Evan loves taking the metro into the city. We counted all the stops till we got to Daddy's work.













All in all, Evan made off with more candy than we could eat in a year.

We pulled out the shark costume that Evan wore when he was a baby and, though Bennet isn't crawling yet, he still makes a very cute shark.


Happy Halloween.

A BYU Football Adventure

We were so excited when BYU announced that they would be starting their 2013 football season with a game against the University of Virginia. With Charlottesville being only 2 hours away from our home in Falls Church, Virginia, we knew that we had to get tickets and go cheer on our Cougars.


It was quite an adventure, besides having two young children we had some crazy weather too. The game included a two hour weather delay in the middle of the first half with heavy rain and lightning requiring the stadium to be evacuated.








During the lightening storm we took shelter in UVA's physical science building. Evan took a nice long nap and Mommy wished she had something else to eat besides popcorn.

After two hours we were let back into the stadium. The lightening had stopped but the rain hadn't  We didn't get as wet as Uncle Scott and Aunt Elizabeth because we hid out under the bleachers but we did get rained on a bit. We stuck it out and stayed to the very end. Even though there was crazy weather, even though we didn't get home till after midnight, and even though BYU didn't win, we still had a great time and can't wait for BYU to play another east coast team so we can go to another game.

A Visit from Uncle Christian

On his way to Kurdistan, Uncle Christian stopped off to visit us in Virginia. We were so excited to take him to some of the cool things we have here on the east coast. As soon as he got off the plane, we headed for the Air and Space museum by Dulles Airport. Evan had so much fun showing Uncle Christian all the planes and especially the Space Shuttle Explorer.

Day two was spent on the National Mall. We took the metro to the Capitol where we took a tour and had a nice picnic lunch before spending the next 6 hours walking from one end of the mall to the other visiting all the monuments and the national archives.

We spent day 3 at Bethany Beach. Going to the beach on a Wednesday meant that we didn't have any traffic or crowds at the beach, so we were able to spend all day there. Uncle Christian and Evan had a great time playing in the waves and collecting 'sandy' crabs. Bennet and Mommy enjoyed the sand on the beach Bennet even ate a fistful before mommy could stop him. When it started to get dark, we headed into town for a yummy crab feast. We had so much fun with Uncle Christian we hope he comes to visit again soon. 

Yay Bennet!

Bennet rolled over for the first time today. (8/17/13) We were all at the table eating dinner when he did it. We all cheered!  It is fun to celebrate his little milestones.