Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Surprise Visit with Grandpa!

We got to spend a night with Derek's dad last week! What a fun surprise! Emily and Timothy had a blast with their grandpa. AND Grandpa got to see firsthand just how busy his little grandson is. At one point Timothy grabbed a pen out of his pocket and started waving it around. As D's dad grabbed at it, he got only the top and TK ferociously snatched the pen back...leaving the topless pen to be waved around. He finally was able to get the pen from Timothy, but watching it all happen was quite comical. Our boy has some quick hands! I've said it before, but to really believe the stories about Timothy's eating habits and his nonstop movements, you just have to see and experience it for yourself!

Emily had a fantastic time with Grandpa too! She loves him so much and talked about him nonstop the whole next day. I LOVE the pic below of the two of them!! This is what makes the distance hard...little snippets of what it would be like if we lived closer to all of our family. Thanks for the visit Grandpa, and for dinner. We had so much fun...it was just way too short! We love you!!!



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Saturday, July 25, 2009

Emily Surprises Me!

Today I was cleaning up after lunch in the kitchen. Derek had taken Emily upstairs for her nap. I didn't hear from them for awhile and I assumed Emily had gone to sleep. Derek called for me to come upstairs and said Emily wanted to read to me. She and Derek had read Brown Bear, Brown Bear together and she decided she wanted to read to me. Because I have not read that book to her in forever, I thought I would appease her and "listen" patiently...hence my smiling in the video (me thinking, this should be good:) To my complete and total surprise, she "read" the whole book to me. She has done this before with other books, only by memory, of course. But usually, she does it with books that we have been reading a lot and she NEVER lets us get it on video. She surprised us today!:) I had just been telling Derek earlier this morning that I was so proud of her, that I could tell she was really starting to want to read. She knows lots of words by sight and can sound out some of the letters to 3-4 letter words and can figure them out without help...so needless to say, she thinks she is a really big girl:) I am happy for her and sad all at the same time...very bittersweet. My baby girl is growing up and I couldn't be more proud of her! The funniest part of the video is her facial expressions, especially when I look at Derek to chuckle! She isn't lacking attitude and spunk, that's for sure. Anyway, for those with interest, we got her on video cracking us up!

Thursday, July 23, 2009

So Big, So Fast!


My baby boy is turning one in a month...yesterday marked 11 months of being so blessed daily with this sweet little face! It's funny how you forget how tough the first few months can be when your children's personalities really begin to appear and you fall more and more in love with them! Timothy Michael has brought immeasurable joy to our family and, though it sounds trite, I can't imagine what our lives would be like without him. As we get closer to his first birthday, I find myself clinging to the desire for him to stay a baby! Silly, I know. I just can't believe a year has gone by! You are a joyful little boy, Timothy, with an infectious smile and personality, always quick to make all of us laugh. We love you so much!
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Thursday, July 16, 2009

Happy Birthday to Our Favorite Guy!

It was a fun night at home with just the four of us...per Derek's request. He is very easy to please! I made some Korean food and a chocolate cake...2 of his favorites and that was that. We all ate too much and really enjoyed being together. Unfortunately Timothy isn't much of a party animal yet and he missed the family photo...that's what happens when you crash at 8pm I guess. Emily, on the other hand, was non-stop after a piece of chocolate cake...finally crashing at 9:30!
It was a fun and sweet night. I love you Derek! Thank you for EVERYTHING you do to make our lives so wonderful! You bless us in so many ways and I thank God for all of your 35 healthy years!!!

Em and I put only one candle, b/c Derek, as she told him, is the number one Daddy! Plus 35 would have caught my table on fire! (just kidding Babe!)
Emily helping marinate the beef.
She is already asking how long it is until her bday and whose bday is next:)...gotta love it!
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Sunday, July 12, 2009

Summer Nights with the Windows Down...





No words needed for these...she is too cute! Sometimes she really wants to feel the wind in her hair and other times, she fusses if they are cracked a millimeter! Either way, we had a fun ride home from my mom's house the other night and got these pics in the car. I love the way her hair looks! Emily is a silly girl...with a LOT of hair!
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Thursday, July 09, 2009

He NEVER Stops Moving!

I have been promising to get video for days and while it isn't the best ever, I finally took the time to show our youngest monkey walking. He is all over the place! Usually he finds something to pull up on, gets his balance and then takes off. He is such a happy boy and has loved his new freedom because he can move around even more now...oh JOY! {enter sarcasm} Really though, he is still so little that he looks really hysterical teetering around and it is so fun to watch him discover his new abilities. He is still ridiculously strong...it actually hurts when he stands on my legs and tries to push off! A couple of days ago, he nearly crawled out of my arms and had I not hung onto his legs, he would have bitten the floor...face first! Not even 5 minutes later, he pulled a Whoodini on us and got out of his tight buckle in the stroller and was hanging upside down, head first about a foot above the concrete driveway. Lovely! I see an ER visit in our future! I just happened to be standing right there and caught him in time...thank you Lord!!

I have a feeling this kid is going to give us a run for our money!





Thursday, July 02, 2009

Much Updating with Slideshows, Videos, and More!

It has taken some time to get settled this week. I feel like we have been running like crazy over the past month. We knew it was going to feel a little nutso traveling so much with 2 young kids, but we had no clue as to what we were really in store for! Overall, they did fantastic, but we had some tough days for sure.

If you are new to the blog or just missed what we've been up to, here's the rundown. We traveled (by plane) to VA for Derek's mom's 60th bday and his little bro's 30th. I was there for 2 weeks and Derek left after a couple of days to go back to work. While in VA, I also traveled to see my family a couple of hours away. We were gone for 2 weeks and then I flew back to Nashvegas with Em and TK...finally reuniting with my hubby!

We had about 2 weeks at home and then left for California. After we secured a place for our two furry children, Gizmo and Bear, (thank you Coutcher's and Ana!!!) we spent a whole day flying to San Francisco and then driving to Sonoma Cty. (Healdsburg to be precise) for a dear friend's wedding that Derek and Emily were in. Oh and I should mention here that the night before we left, RIGHT before Emily got in bed, she was dancing around the living room and twisted her foot...BAD!! She went to bed and woke up the next morning at 5am to catch our plane with a really swollen foot...poor thing! Let me just say that going through security was F-U-N!!!! The absolute highlight of this day was seeing Benji, Rebekah, and Caroline at our layover in Dallas! I did not want to say goodbye to them!! The absolute low point of the day was on the long flight from Dallas to San Francisco. All 3 of our seats were not together. Surely we thought someone would at least give a seat up so that one of us could sit with Em. The flight attendant asked 3 PEOPLE and they ALL SAID NO!!! Unbelievable!! I was almost in tears thinking that Emily, at 3 years old, was going to have to sit by herself. Everyone around us saw and heard what was going on and no one would move. Finally, as we were just succumbing to the harsh reality, a woman walked on the plane and gave up her seat and then another woman got on and they both moved to let Derek sit with Em and me across the row. Thank you sweet sweet women...wherever you are!!!!

Finally we got to San Francisco, then drove to Healdsburg, had the wedding activities, took part in one of the most beautiful weddings ever and then drove to Carmel a couple of days later. We stayed there from Sun. until Sat. morning and it was wonderful. We enjoyed lots of things (more on that below) and were blessed by the whole experience! This past Sat. we traveled all day again and got back to Nashville around 9pm. We stopped by my mom's to pick up our car and say hi to my family that was visiting and then headed home. To say we were tired, well...........

On the drive to our house, D and I smiled as we talked about our anticipation of greeting our dogs, immediately putting our sleeping children directly in their own beds, taking showers in our own bathrooms, and then crawling....literally...into our own beds! That would have all been really nice, if our upstairs air conditioner wouldn't have broken in our absence causing us to sleep on our living room floor with Emily and Timothy sleeping in the pack n play in our laundry room....hahaha!!!! It's much funnier now that the air unit is fixed and I have been able to sleep!

So here we are, back in the 'Boro. Em's foot is almost healed up completely and Timothy is walking EVERYWHERE (video to come). We are super glad to be home and even got to visit with my bro's family for a couple of days. We have more family coming next week and look forward to seeing them as well. In the meantime, we will catch our breath and enjoy D's long weekend off from work!

What follows below is the choppiest post I have ever created, but it seemed the best way to catch up on everything that went on this past month. You will find video from the Cali trip, then tons of pics from the Cali trip in a slideshow, and finally further down some pics from the trip to VA. You will have to do a lot of scrolling down to catch it all. Unless of course, you are like me and just reading this part made you tired!:)

Jumping on the Bed

A vacation just wouldn't be the same without one of the Kramer's jumping on the bed. We had just gotten to our hotel in Carmel and Emily immediately started jumping. So, of course Timothy jumped too. Hard to believe that last year on our beach trip, we got Em on video jumping and she sounds and looks so little...and of course Timothy's arrival was still months away. Anyway, it's a short one, but cute!

"If I Had a Little White Box..."

It is a little difficult to hear, but this video is from the beach. I was singing a song with Emily and she thinks it is so funny. I LOVE her laugh!! She daily requests that we sing this!

California Trip 2009

After much debating and wasting time, I decided to share our pics from our trip through Shutterfly (look below:). I can't caption any of the pics this way unfortunately, so you might not have a clue as to what you are looking at, but oh well. And there are TONS of pictures, so I am totally not responsible for the time-waster that viewing my pics will become for you!:) Unfortunately our Picassa Web Album is close to full and I don't have time now to go through and remove pics, so this will have to suffice.

Just so you have some clue as to what these pics are:
*Monterey Bay Aquarium
*Derek's Grandpa's House in Carmel
*Playing on Carmel Beach
*Drive to Big Sur on Highway 1
*Swimming at the Hotel Pool
*Dennis the Menace Playground in Monterey (it was the most amazing playground)
*Sitting in a really cool tree on Carmel's Beach (we take pics in this same tree every year)

It was a really, really wonderful trip. Carmel is so beautiful and as soon as the TN humidity hit us, we wanted to go back!!

California Trip 2009

Click here to view these pictures larger

VA Trip Pics...Finally!

I figured with all of the Cali pics to post, I better complete the first part of the month's travel pics. It was a BUSY month! So here goes...lots of fun with cousins, grandparents, uncles, and aunts!

Em's Halmi gave her this magnifying glass so that we could explore outside and we had a blast...I LOVE this picture! She is such a silly goose!

lifting weights with Uncle Sean

celebrating Uncle Sean's bday...Emily loved getting his cake ready. She even helped with the letters, hence the lovely very large writing.

My very sweet nephew, Carter. He loves Emily and Timothy so incredibly much!
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My sweet baby boy! It is so rare that he is this still...sleeping and eating, that's it!

My silly nephew LaShaad


the curly twins!

giving Aunt Lorri trouble trying to get down!

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Scaling the staircase...little daredevil!

Camping out with cousin Madison

Playing with Uncle Brandon

Fun with Madison and cousin Noah...too cute!!
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She is growing up so fast.

funny little guy!

Emily and Timothy with their grandma (Halmi) and great grandmother (Halmuhnee)

Finally reunited with Daddy!!! (she actually lost her shoe while running towards him:)
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