Thanksgiving 2011

We were with my family this year for Thanksgiving. It was a special year because my cousin Erich and his wife were here from North Carolina. We don't get to see them very often so it was nice to catch up. They brought their 2 kids Caden and Alayna. Alayna is about 9 months or so and it amazes me how much older Emily seems. I mean I understand that she is older but I continue to forget that she really isn't a baby anymore. Emily, after a nap, had a blast playing with the kids. Caden would chase her around the house and she would dissolve into giggles. It was so fun to watch.

Em got to spend Friday with Daddy and Papa (my dad) while my mom and I went out and did a little shopping. She had a great time. She enjoys her walks with Papa and having him read to her. Once we got home we packed up and headed home.

On Saturday Emily's cousins came for a visit. Brynn, Brielle, and Bennett had yet to be to our new house. Grandma and Grampa Krause watched all four kids while Brian, Beth, Kevin, and myself went to the Badger game. It was a great game and the kids had fun together too.

It was a long and exhausting weekend. We have so much to be thankful for. We are truly blessed with great family and friends. I am looking forward to another year full of blessings and good things.

October is Over?!

October was a crazy busy month for the Krause family. Kevin and I had a couple of wedding celebrations and there are several family birthdays to celebrate as well. Plus we were fortunate enough to attend many of the Brewer playoff games. Because of all of this I haven't blogged in awhile.

Emily continues to be a happy go lucky kid. She loves to run around outside and explore things in our house. She can say many words and can be quite demanding when she wants something. Em hates hearing the word no and it has brought on a couple of tantrums. But overall she is doing great!

We were able to squeeze a late visit to the Pumpkin patch right before Halloween. We went to the same patch that we went to last year. I think Em could have done without the corn maze but she loved running around the pumpkin patch picking out our pumpkins. I am looking forward to this being a family tradition of ours.

On Halloween this year Kevin had to unfortunately be out of town for work. My good friend Aubree invited us to go trick or treating with her kids. Emily was so cute dressed up as a pumpkin. She liked to grab the candy from people and put it in her bucket. But I am pretty sure her favorite part was the wagon ride. A fun time was had by all.

Look how tall I am!

Picking out the perfect pumpkin with Daddy

My little pumpkin

Going to get my candy

Enjoying the wagon ride with Tae

Wisconsin Sports Baby

It has been a crazy time in Wisconsin for our sports teams. We were lucky enough to take Emily to a Badger game at the end of September. We went to watch Kevin get those knees up with the UW alumni band. We had a really fun day but it was very windy in our seats so we only stayed for the first half. Emily loved clapping and cheering for the Badgers though!

This past weekend Kevin and I were able to go to the Badger Nebraska football game. Thanks in part to my dad who was able to babysit on a Saturday night! Emily had a great time with Papa reading about Choo Choos and listening to his Donald Duck impression. Bucky did not disappoint. Badgers beat the Huskers! Kevin and I had a great time.

The next day we took advantage of Uncle Brian's playoff tickets and went to the Brewer game. We had a ball. Emily did great tailgating and had a pretty good time at the game too. Thanks to Grandma and Grampa Krause who helped keep her entertained! We will continue to cheer on the Brewers as are hopefully headed to the world series.

!

Walking on Sunshine

Emily started walking last week. On a random Tuesday she must have decided that she had had enough of cruising and crawling. And she has never looked back. When I picked Em's up from daycare that random Tuesday they told me that she had taken about 8 steps. Which is more than she had ever done before. She did the same thing a couple of times at home that night. Wednesday morning came and I was a little concerned that maybe she had forgotten how in her sleep. Boy how wrong was I!?! Now her favorite thing to do is walk laps around the island in our new kitchen. She even believes that she can almost run. Which often results in a lot of falling. She loves chasing too. It is so fun to chase each other around the kitchen and listen to her giggle. Emily is a ball of sunshine these days. You can see on her face how happy she is that she is now upright and moving more quickly.

Settling In

The move is over! I am so happy to write those words. It has been an extremely stressful, crazy whirlwind summer of showings, appraisals, and closings. Now we are working on settling in. We have a good majority of things unpacked but still have a long way to go. I continue to dig through the mountains of boxes in our garage to find things. But it is all worth it, I love our new house! I can't wait to watch Emily grow up in this house. Speaking of Em--she has done great with the move. Besides being a little more clingy to mom she is her same little self. She has adjusted to her new Tupperware cupboard and continues to investigate things. I am secretly hoping one of the first things she learns to do in the new house is walk. I hope to post some pictures was the mess of boxes is a little more manageable.

Every day is a new day

Lately I have been noticing how Emily absorbs everything around her. Every day it seems like she has learned a new word or skill. She loves to say hi and bye to everything. She knows where her nose is and likes to poke mommy and daddy's eyes when you ask where her eye is. Lately she stacks cups in order of size. When she is finished she gets a big smile on her face and claps. On our drive yesterday I noticed that she started "dancing" in her car seat to the music I had on. Now when I ask her to dance she swings her body back and forth. Its pretty cute. It is very apparent that she is constantly learning and taking in everything around her.

Hanging in the playhouse, talking on my phone!

Moving on Up and Walking?

As most of you heard we were lucky enough to sell our condo very shortly after putting it on the market. After accepting the offer we started scrambling to look at house. With the help of our excellent Realtors we found a newly constructed house in a neighborhood in Verona that we have always wanted to be in. It is very close the elementary school and has a lot of kids in it. If everything continues to move smoothly we will be moving at the end of August. Kevin and I will be sad to see the condo go as so many wonderful things have happened to us there. But we are very excited about our new house.

In Emily news she has started standing all on her own and has even taken a step or two here and there. She has not quite figured out the walking thing but it definitely won't be long. More than likely by the time we move she will be walking all over the place.