6 More Weeks of Winter

The Ground Hog predicted 6 more weeks of winter so that means more indoor fun.

Jayden attended another Nature Ranger class the beginning of the month about birds.  Jeff and I were both lucky enough to attend the class with him.  We were able to go out on the trails to see if we could find any birds, but only seen a few since the weather was a little brisk.  The wood peckers were out and some song birds.  The coolest part of the class was when the kids were able to dissect an owl pellet.  Jayden and another kid are looking into what the owl ate and decided it had to be mice.

Jayden proud of his dissection.

The special guest that came to the class.  We learned a lot about owls and really neat to see one so close.
 
Best buddies!  What they do best on the way to school!

 Here is Grant trying to help me clean.  Well, not really.  He just loves the vacuum and tipping it over and riding it.

The 100th day of school!  Mrs. Cust's neighbor was a special guest and read to the kids.  They love when Ms. Janet comes and reads to them along with the special treats she brings.
 
Silly picture!
 
Jayden's teacher Mrs. Cust is an amazing teacher.  I love that she lets me hang out in the class and have a little fun with them.  Mrs. Cust read a book to them called "The Snow Globe Family" and then they had to journal about what it would be like if they lived in a snow globe and here is how they turned out.

And here is Jayden's!  You may have figured out that I came up with this lesson for the class.  Loved the idea and just had to do it!

Making a snow bed...pretty cozy, but a little chilly.

One of our beautiful snow storms.  We are starting to look forward to spring, but we still have a little winter left I guess.  The snow is defiantly better than ice, so bring it on.  Plus the snow is tons of fun.

Just a pretty look at one of the pines.

Jayden enjoying every minute he gets outside in the snow.

The start of our kitchen remodel.

Demolition.

Start of finished product.

We hope you all have a wonderful month and look forward to another few weeks of fun!

Until next time...
Jeff, Heather and Jayden
 

A New Year, A New Adventure

Life is so unpredictable and we never know what will happen or where we will go.  This year will probably have its up and down and highs and lows, but that's life.  Here at the Kraus House, we have been just enjoy the simple things.  We made a decision as a family to make more time for old fashion fun.  Life is crazy busy and we forget about the simple things.  You don't need to spend a bunch of money to have fun.  So most of our adventures this year have been all about not spending hardly a penny and still having tons of fun.  We hope that you all enjoy the adventures we did and hope that you can take time out to have fun the "old fashion" way.

Jayden and I were lucky enough to fit in some time with my friend Amy and her girls; Kendra and Kylie.  Hollywood Cinema had a special that on Tuesdays the movies were $5 with free popcorn.  We went to see Frozen and loved it.  It was Kylie's first ever movie and she did great.  Amy's husband Cory joined us and I believe he was highly entertained by Jayden and his contagious laugh.

We rang the New Year in with friends, Zach and Kristin and Jeff's brother Chad and wife Stephanie.  Kristin put out all kinds of good treats and we enjoyed a few cocktails.  I did beat everyone at Wii bowling and pretty sure Stephanie and Kristin rocked the game Catch Phrase.  It sure was a great time hanging out with everyone and having a few cocktails.

The cutest couple.

It's been a little chilly here is Wisconsin so our fireplace has been keeping us warm along with the kitty.

I don't know if anyone of you have tried doing this on a freezing Wisconsin day, but you just have to try it.  We had a blast boiling water and throwing it to see what happens.  You can see a few pictures of how cool it looks.  I believe we tried this about a dozen times over the cold days in January.

 

Pretty cool how it looks.  I'd love to try throwing off our balcony some time.

Jayden has joined a group through a local nature preserve called Nature Ranger's at Bubolz Nature Center.  Every month they meet on one Saturday and get to explore in Nature.  For January they were able to try snow shoeing.  Jayden loved it!  Pretty sure we will never be able to get him out of loving being outside, he just loves being out in it.

Orange anyone?

Santa brought Jayden this Marker Maker and he loves making his own colors and naming them too.

We are very lucky to live right by a popular snow hill.  We made a visit there not too long ago and here is a little fun.  Notice how Jayden is riding?  He is riding his boogie board on his feet.


Posing for the camera.

What else do you do in the winter while your parents shovel?  Make a snow hill.

Having a blast riding his hill.

Along with all that is above, our family has enjoyed many battles of card games and board games.  Pretty sure that I will never win against the guys, but we sure have tons of fun.

We hope that everyone is enjoying the New Year and hope that everyone can partake in some new adventures.

Until next time...

Jeff, Heather and Jayden

Winter Wonderland!

We hope that everyone has had a wonderful holiday season as we have.  I will keep it short and sweet and hope that you enjoy all the great adventures we have done.

 Grant turned 1!  As you can see he enjoyed his cupcake greatly.

Jayden recieved this award.  So proud of him.  His teacher let it be a surprise and he loved it.

We had to celebrate Christmas early with my family since I worked Christmas day.  Here are the boys waiting patiently to open a many gifts.

We will take this gift any day!  What a wonderful person Jayden is turning into.

This is one of many silly face pictures that I took of Jayden.  He insisted that we take them so time would go faster for everyone to arrive Christmas Eve.

Jayden and Gabbi waiting to open gifts.  Oh did they enjoy every gift and it was so enjoyable watching them open.

Love this picture of Jayden and Great Grandma!

 The guys didn't want anything to do with pictures, but the kids we great sports.  We sure enjoyed ourselves and the great food on Christmas Eve.  Very happy that we can have everyone over to celebrate every year.

Gotta love the poses of Gabbi!

 Christmas Morning at 5am.  Excited to see what Santa brought.

 Santa enjoyed his treat.

 Santa brought this lego train set along with many other things.  Think this topped the list this year.

 Chad and Stephanie!  We took a trip to Nordic Mountain to enjoy the 34 degree weather and ski.  It was my first time and didn't do to bad.

 Snow at the ski hill.

 We survived!  No broken bones.  We both only fell 3 times.  Didn't think that was bad for my first time.

 Stephanie and I had a blast.  A new yearly tradition.

Making pottery with his new pottery wheel.  I love to watch Jayden while he is in his creative mode.  He is thinking so hard yet so excited for how it will turn out.

Happy Holidays!

Jeff, Heather and Jayden

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

We hope that everyone has had time to reflect on the things/people they are thankful for and hopefully do a good deed onto others.  This month I'm going to do something a little different.  The reason why is to reflect on the things/people that are most important to us and how thankful we are for those around us.  Recently Jeff decided to take another storm chasing trip to Illinois mid November.  I thought he was crazy and told him to be safe.  Next thing I new, he was loading the car, the new car, and heading off on his journey; alone.  It never really hit me about my feelings about the storm chasing until the next day when Jayden and I were home alone and tending to the house.  What if something happens to him?  What would I do and how could I manage on my own?  The answer wasn't there right away, but then my mind cleared and it was obvious.  My family and friends and my trust in God would pull me through if anything happened to my love.

We are thankful for everyday even though we don't get the chance sometimes to voice it.  Our family means the world to us and if we ever needed anything, we could depend on their help.  Friends for so many memories and so many "talks" in time of need.  My faith in God, knowing the protection I receive and the trust in knowing I'm never alone.  Our home to keep us warm and safe.  Our jobs to support our family, our many adventures to make so many memories, the food on our table...I could go on and on.  We are thankful for the things that we all take for granted such as the service the troops do for our country, the mail person for delivering our mail, the garbage people, the firemen/women, the police, nurses and service workers.  Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

I want to share with you some pictures from Jeff's storm chase and share some of the stories he shared with me about his journey.  Even though I'm not a fan of his travels and love for the storms, I learned that it is beyond the storm.  It is the warmth in his heart to help those that are in need afterwards.  What an amazing things to be able to do when help is needed greatly.

The day started out with this warning.

The beautiful skies were a good sign it was going to be a pretty active day.

Here the storm had just started to  build.  This is of one of the wall clouds, the beginning of the storm.  You will notice that there are no more pictures of the storm here after since the storms were moving so fast, Jeff had to keep on the move to stay safe.

After hours of chasing the storm and being chased by the storm, Jeff seen some power flashes(when a transformer blows) from a distance and seen a tornado on the ground.  He headed to the town, thinking it was a different one, not knowing this little town was even there.  The town of Gifford, IL, population of about 1000 people.  He pulled up to this area not knowing the extent of the damage.

Here are some pictures of the damage right after the storm.  Jeff didn't take too many pictures since his real mission was to help those in need and start the rescue mission.

 

 

 

 

 

 I don't think I need to say anymore about these pictures; they say enough on their own.

 

Help has arrived as some of the community arrive to see how there neighborhood was torn apart.  Just put yourself and your family in their shoes and wonder for a moment, where would you begin and what would you do.  Most people couldn't believe what they were looking at and wept.  Jeff said it was very emotional to see these townsfolk "come home".

 

This picture if you look close, there is a cop and a towns person.  They are trying to get to this tractor so they can start clearing debris from the roads so help can get into the town instead of just the the outer limits. Jeff thought this may have been a town garage for the community.

I do want to share some stories behind some of the pictures Jeff took.  I hope I can share them as well as Jeff did and hope that you can find how touching they were to me as he shared them.

 

Jeff and another man were out looking and calling for anyone in help.  They stumbled upon a woman sitting on the ground holding her purse in her pajamas.  They asked if she was hurt and checked her out a little.  They asked her story...I was in the basement and remembered my purse upstairs.  I went up to get it and that is the last I remember.  So the tornado tore through her house with her in it when she grabbed her purse.  She was a little banged up and she was full of mud.  They found a chair for her to sit in and covered her with this blanket.  Jeff mentioned that she was such a brave 82 year old that was so up beat and didn't seem too shaken.  After Jeff told me this story I asked if he took a picture of this brave women and he said no, that he wished he did.  When looking at stories on the internet, he stumbled upon this picture; it is the woman they helped.

 

This house was torn to shreds.  Jeff and the other man walked around asking if anyone was in here and they heard a lady cry for help.  Jeff kicked in the front door and weaved through the debris to find the women in the room to the left covered by a mattress.  She was very shook up, but mostly unharmed.  Every home they walked upon, the hiss of gas leaking and the smell was so strong.  Jeff said that you had to be so careful, but people needed help.  A lot of the towns people left there home, knowing the storms were going to be bad and some were at church not know what was even happening.

 

This couple on the right are searching through there home for their dog Cooper.  If you look close enough, there home used to sit to the left on this picture.  Jeff helped them dig through the rubble for about 15 minutes before moving onto the next home.  The man wept the whole time.  I couldn't imagine loosing your beloved 'friend' in something like this.

I hope this moves you as much as it has myself.  Please thank those around us that do the little things in life and don't take it for granted.

This time of year there are red kettles everywhere for the Salvation Army.  Please, if you have even an extra penny, please drop it in the kettle.  It is a way to help those in need and those that are in need will be thankful for all that you can do.  We wish you Happy Holidays from our house to yours.

Until next time,

Jeff, Heather and Jayden