Snow Before We Rake The Leaves??...CRAZY!

Isn't crazy to think we received our first snow before we raked our leaves. Actually we have raked our leaves and mowed our lawn twice since the early October snow...Crazy I know. Here are some picture of our fall fun in the leaves. It has been a beautiful November so far! God Bless and enjoy the weather!

"Helping" Mike and Liz rake their leaves on the day after Halloween.

Truly helping Mike and Liz rake their leaves!

Our neighbors Ali and Emily had a blast playing with Alex all afternoon. Alex loved it just as much!!

Laying in the leaves with Ali and Emily. They just loved posing with him...I bet I took 50 pictures of the three of them!

Alex's offical job was the "leave smasher". He was the best kid for the job, we fit so many leaves into that trash bin!

Happy Halloween!

Alex and Mommy pre-trick-or-treating

Taking a picture with Dad was so much easier...I think it was the talent of the photographer!Our Little Dragon at his school party.
Alex and Mommy trick-or-treating at our neighbors...isn't the little dragon butt the cutest you've ever seen! The front view was just as cute too, with the wide hips. I just loved it!

Ringing the door bell at our neighbor Jacob's house...this was the only house Alex actually rang the door bell and he didn't act too shy. (he refused to say "Trick-or-Treat"). Alex didn't really enjoy trick-or-treating as we only went to about 5 houses, but once we got home that is when the fun began. Everytime he heard the door bell ring...he would go running to the door saying "Trick-or-Treaters!!!" The three of us all enjoyed a nice, relaxful Halloween at home handing out candy.

Snow...on October 10th??!!!??

BELIEVE IT OR NOT....IT SNOWED ABOUT 6 INCHES ON OCTOBER 10, 2009!!!
Just wanted to share some photos of Alex playing in the snow on Saturday morning. He was so excited that it snowed...he was just bummed that he couldn't "shovel". Luckily for Chad, it was warm enough out that the snow didn't accumulate on the concrete!
The first of running through the snow...I know this picture is blurry, but it shows how much snow was on the ground!

This is awesome!
Hurry and take the picture Mom,,,I have lots of playing to do.

Happy Harvest...??!?

The 1st Snowman of the year!

Fall Already??!!??

Seriously my last post was the beginning of August...I am such a slacker!

Well Alex and I are back in school and one of us is just loving it...and it's not me. I do have a much better group of kiddos to work with this year and I am enjoying it...but not totally loving it.
Chad just got a promotion at the Nebraska Medical Center as a Project Leader for the Facilities and Planning Department.

Alex is growing so much and KNOWS so much. He is starting to out smart us and the little things we used to do to change the topic or to get him to avoid something...doesn't work with him any more.

The little dude is just growing up so much. Alex has not had a wet pull up for five straight days...Yeah!
Even as an educator I can't believe that he knows his ABC's (although he may not pronounce them the best yet!), knows most of the basic colors, shapes, and has a memory like I have never seen before! He recognizes who's parents are who at school and he even knows the cars they drive! Unbelievable!

Here is a little update on us and a couple of pictures to make you laugh...enjoy and Happy Fall!

Alex running around "nake" and decided to help Dad hang the new curtain rod.
Cooking with Mom this summer!

Chad & Alex enjoying life camping with Uncle Brian, Aunt Tiff and Papa.
Just watering the lawn like everyone else does...naked!
Have no fear...he knows how to pee on a tree and he's not afraid to do it.

Alex before he lost his pants...helping Nana water the lawn and play with rocks. We went to Mullen to see my parents in August. We all had a blast...Alex especially! He loved being outside in Grandpa's big shop playing with tools, the vacuum, this car, you name it...he found it in Grandpa's shop! Big A - Out for a Drive!
For Chad's b-day his wonderful wife :) got him a tee time at Sand Hills Golf Club in Mullen!

Joining us at Sand Hills were our great friends Chris (right) and Gary (middle) Shives.

I promise to do a better job of updating our blog this fall!

Keith UpClose....Real Close!!!

Enough Said....right?!!!!!
This was my birthday gift from Chad this year. I knew that Keith Urban was in town this year on my birthday. I knew we were going to the concert with one of my girlfriends and her husband, Tracy & Ethan Mann. I knew that our seats were kindof up high. BUT I didn't know that Chad had a trick up his sleeve, by getting us up close to see Mr. Urban!
The wonderful thing about watching Keith, beside for his looks, is that he is so musically talented!!
This is one of the guitarist in Keith's band. He came over by us, sat on one of the amps and that would be my hand you can see and how close I was from him!

A terrible picture, but good attempt to get a pic of Chad & I on my birthday at the concert. Love ya babe...Thanks for a great birthday!

Summer Fun

We have absolutely loved our summer! There is nothing like a mom who gets to stay home with her child...even if it is just for the summer!! We have done so many fun and memorable things this summer that neither Alex or I are excited to start school again in a week. Just talking about going to school brings tears to my eyes....so enough about it. Here is a snap shot of a couple of the things we did this summer - when we had a camera.

We had friends over! Caleb and Adrienne came over to play a couple of times. I made chocolate chip teddy bear pancakes...they were lovin' life!
Here they are all squeezed into one of the cubbies in our toy chest.

Chad helping the kiddos build a track for Thomas and his friends. Both Caleb and Alex LOVE Thomas...and poor Adrienne...she doesn't have a choice!

The end of the night...winding down watching Thomas on the tube. The look on Adrienne's face says it all, "You boys are obsessed!"

1st CARNIVAL!!! AND WE LOVED IT!!

We enjoyed a nice saturday with the Wewel's and all of the clean personal working at the LaVista Fair Carnival. :) Chad, Alex, John & Thaden on the carrousel!

Alex loving the motorcycles, as he is riding on the back of Thaden's "Harley!"

Chad and Alex rode down the tall slide, Mommy even got to ride down the slide with Alex...just no picture. :(

Alex and Thaden riding the train...more than once of course!

Needless to say, these two boys had a blast!
PLAYING AT THE FALTI'S!

We got to go play at Mary & Pete's house one Saturday afternoon and Alex just loved making monster puppets (made out of playdough) on his fingers....well they all loved it. And Mom enjoyed talking and catching up with Megan and Dad got to help Marc with his new roof.
ALEX LOVES TO READ...ESPECIALLY ABOUT THOMAS!

I love these moments....when I walk into a room and find Alex doing something that just makes my heart melt. This was right before Alex got his big boy bed and I caught him laying on the floor reading books. Alex loves this Thomas book so much that we read it before nap and bedtime everyday! He has every page memorized and will always say the last word on every page!

Wow...How Times Flies!

For some reason the pictures of Alex's 2nd birthday are at the bottom of this post, so after our update will be the pictures from his party.

Now don't get me wrong...I am fully aware that our blog is totally out of date...I just never upload our pictures onto the computer for posting. But wait no longer. I decided for times sake to just post several pictures and give you a brief discription of each to get you caught up to what has been going on in our lives...ENJOY!

Here is the fast forward version of our 2009 so far...or what has happened when a camera has been present!

This is what a bath looks like on most nights for Alex...a couple toys, laying on the belly with water dripping onto his feet! The water dripping is essential!

Alex loves taking baths (aka: "bafs") and this time Murphy decided to join him for most of it...and A-man loved it!

Our first "whole" apple...check out the next picture to see the damage!
Not too bad, ugh?!! Mommy was so proud of him for eating this much of the apple that now Alex thinks we can grab an apple out of the fridge, take a couple of bits and then be "All done!" Oh well.

Easter 2009

Alex with our wonderful neighbors Alli, Christen and Gracen on his very first Easter egg hunt. He loved it! And Aunt Tiff came with us too. He wasn't too excited about picking the eggs up at first, but once he knew he could put them in his basket...he was lovin' it!

Alex and the Wooden Gang after the hunt! They all love each other so much!! After hunting Easter eggs, Alex of course had to drag Aunt Tiff and Mommy to play at the park, even though it was pretty chili.Finally we got Big A loaded in the car so we could eat after the egg hunt...look at that chili red nose!
Alex opening his Easter baskets. Of course he loved his Thomas the Train book!

Nana and Aunt Tiff bought Al Peep Glasses....Aunt Tiff's dog chuck thought he looked pretty good!

It snowed right before Easter this year so Papa and Alex built a snowman, and Alex loved every minute of it...even if his hands were all red! But...building a snowman wasn't the only thing Alex helped Papa built.......
he also helped Papa, Dad, and Uncle Derek build the new sun porch for the hot tub.

And he takes his building seriously. Chad helped him climb the ladder...this was only the first of about 500 trips up th ladder. Alex loves his tools and helping Daddy and Papa build!

Chad & Mia on the left and Uncle Brian & Aunt Tiff on the right....crashed after the awesome Easter turkey feast prepared by Nana!

The whole Kruse family! From left to right Mr. Alex, Maria, Chad, Sarah, Derek, Tiffany, Brian, Mary & Cary. We are quit the group....this was taken right after Easter Day Mass. What a blessing it was to have everyone together for such a wonderful holiday.

Just Playing Around!

Just another lazy Sunday spent with the Wewel's! Alex and Thaden are reading books together...who would have thought that the two of them together could sit this long - they are always on the go and love each others company...for the most part!

Alex lovin' life in his sand box...mom was even nice enough to let him have a little bit of water. For those of you who know Alex well...you know he LOVES water!

This would be Alex saying "Please, can I have more water for my sandbox!!????!"

This would be Alex "who isn't tired" laying under our end table.

Alex has two loves in his life. He loves tools and he loves....

CLEANING! And this particular time he wanted to "vac" in Mom's flip flops I guess.

Our good friend ANG (aka Angie who now lives in Wisconsin...we are so sad...we love and miss you ANG!) Anyway, ANG loves Runza (which they don't have in WI) and so she picked up some chicken strips on the way to our house. As she was eating them, Alex decided she needed some help eating the french fries and since ANG was dipping her chicken he needed to walk over and dip his fries. Well as you can see from the picture...the honey mustard spilt right on his head and Alex was not to trilled about it - but took it like a champ. ANG and I were laughing and crying so hard, I am lucky I got this picture taken.

A Break for Mommy and Daddy!

Chad and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary this May and the sweet husband he is surprised me with a trip to Kansas City to stay in a suite in the plaza. Nana, Papa, Uncle Derek and Aunt Tiff took Alex to Randolph for the weekend to watch him and brought him back just in time for his birthday party. Chad and I hung in the plaza and meet up with some of our great friend from KC. We even managed to sneak down to the new Power and Light District for a couple of drink. What a cool area! This was the view as Chad and I threw back a couple sitting on the couches looking at the big screen at the Power and Light District. We totally enjoyed ourselves on our little trip away. It was definately needed for the both of us!

The ZOO!!
Alex wasn't too concerned about the animals at the zoo...but he was loving the WATER!!