Christmas Eve 2008

Here we are on our way to Church.
Merry Christmas to all our fabulous friends and family, from the Klenke family.

Crazy 8's

Okay so I have been "tagged" is that right? I don't even know....but here we go:

8 Shows I Love to Watch...
1. American Idol
2. Forensic Files
3. Anything on HGTV
4. Fox news
5. The Weather Channel
6. The History Channel
7. Deal or no Deal
8. Man vs. Wild

8 Restaurants I Love...
1. Los Cucos
2. Any Pizza place
3. Chick-fil-a
4. Pappasitos
5. Fuddruckers
6. La Finca
7. Casa Ole
8. All Mexican Restaurants

8 Things that happened today...
1. Read the paper
2. Drank 2 cups of coffe
3. Laundry
4. Updated my blog
6. Read a magazine (Better Homes and Gardens)
7. Hugged and Kissed my sweet kiddos about a million times
8. Cleaned and freshened the guest room

8 Things I'm looking forward to...
1. Being completely DEBT FREE (about 15 days to go!)
2. Seeing my kids sing in the Christmas eve service
3. Watching my husband excel in his career (I work in the real world through him)
4. Getting our house painted (interior)
5. Cade starting Kindergarten
6. Putting in a swimming pool
7. Watching the kids ride their NEW bikes (shhh! Santa is working on this)
8. Meeting Jesus (just not to soon!)

8 Things on My Wish List...
1. A new and much cooler ride
2. A bikini body with no effort on my part
3. Good health for my kiddos (so far so good)
4. God's blessings for our family
5. Aaron to continue to have great success at work
6. Custom curtains through out the downstairs
7. A stronger more intimate relationship with my Heavenly Father
8. A long and happy marriage with my wonderful husband!

8 People I tag to do this on their blog...
1. Kay
2. Stacy F.
3. Debbie H.
4. Anyone
5. else who
6. reads this
7. and wants to
8. participate. :)

Christmas Vacation

Hi

I am back! I am all rested and relaxed on our much loved Christmas vacation. I have updated our blog's appearance, I hope you like it. I have taken off some things and a few more. I have decided to take a new angle with this blog in the new year. I want to share more with you about how our family is growing under the love and protection of our Heavenly Father. About 2 years ago Aaron and I joined a Sunday School class where we have been taught God's plan for us and how to listen when God speaks to us. I am a completely different person because of this. Aaron and I are trying our best to raise our children according to His Word.

Enjoy these pictures of Madison and Cade as we get ready for Christmas.

Time

So I hate when people say they are just so busy to do whatever...yada, yada, yada.... My usual cold hearted response is yeah were all busy so +*%&$$##. BUT I think I may really just be too busy to keep this blog up to date.
I have 591 pictures stored in my camera and some of them are just darling. You may never be able to see them unless you are holding my camera in your hand. That is just my current reality. I do however have high hopes of catching up with this over Christmas vacation and of course I will be totally current during the beloved summer.
Check back with me....just not too soon!
KK

Cade's 5th Birthday

Here are some long over due pictures of Cade's birthday. I am having trouble keeping up with this site and facebook and my real life....Sorry.

Halloween 2008

Here is Cade waiting to go to his Pre-school Halloween party. Mittens is close by...

Here is Cade at his school party. There are only 6 students in his class. I still can't believe that!

Here is Cade on Parade at school.

Cade and Madison are participating in the cupcake walk at the Halloween Festival.

4Th Picture in my 4th Folder

I was tagged by Shana to post my 4th picture in my 4th folder.
This is a cute picture of my kids and their sweet little cousin having a water balloon fight at sundown on Labor Day. This makes me miss those relaxed days of summer with NO HOMEWORK!

No Training Wheels!

Yippee!!! Cade is now riding without training wheels! We have been talking about taking them off but he said he wanted to be 5 first. He will turn 5 in just 2 weeks. Yesterday he came home from the hardware store with Aaron and he told me he was ready. Aaron took off the wheels, held the back of the seat and off he went!

Fall things

The kids are unloading Pupmkins at the pumpkin patch at church.

Here we are getting all ready for Fall. The kids are baking, Mittens is busy growing and we were making ghosts to hang outside.

Posing by the little scarecrow.

Mittens is getting spooked!

The house is now ready for trick or treaters!

Jolly old St. Nick

So we went to Garden Ridge to get a new flag for our flag post outside. While there we were looking at all the fun Christmas stuff they have out. We saw this neat Santa who sings and swings his hips and arms. If Aaron wasn't there to control me then we would probably own it right now!

Happy Birthday Aaron

Aaron just celebrated another big birthday! Here we are celebrating in Bay City with "Nana". We also used this recent picture as our blog cover picture....that is why there is a little green eyed dog in the picture.

Karen Kingsbury and the Crockpot Lady

So I absolutely love to read Christian fiction (and non-fiction, but that is a whole other conversation...). I just finished reading all the Francine Rivers books and I have been searching for the perfect next collection. I keep coming across Karen Kingsbury books but I never know where to start. I finally got on her website: http://www.karenkingsbury.com/books/ and read the book lists. It recommends where to start in her series....yippee! So I am going to start with the Redemption Series. I usually get my books from the public library so I got on the website to put the first book in that series on hold but I am 5th in line for it!!!! This is tragic! I am so bad at waiting.
If you are reading this and you have the Redemption series....I would love to borrow it!

My other exciting new thing is The CrockPot Lady. That is not really her name but that is what I call her. This lady has a blog where she cooks a different crockpot meal each day for a year. COOL! Tonight we had the Ziti, tomorrow night we will be having Candy Chicken. The Ziti was really quite good. I added Italian sausage because it didn't have any meat in it.
http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/

Bible stories

This morning Cade has his bible out and was ready for church. Madison sat with him and was reading to him from his bible. I just had to snap a picture! How precious!

My Problem......

Okay so here's the problem.....

I get time off from work and I am so very excited then I take on little projects around the house and one thing leads to another and I find myself needing something from the store.....before you know it I am standing in the middle of Wal Mart, Charming Charlie's, Katy Mills, (you can fill in the blank). I spend money being home. Does this happen to you? I was driving to HEB today and I passed by Charming Charlie's. I usually don't have time to browse because I am ALWAYS in a hurry. Today I am in no hurry at all.....

On the flip side I did end up getting a new purse and wallet that I did need. It ends up my little Madison has excellent and decisive taste. She helped me eliminate choices and narrow in on something that wasn't for a "very cool" mom but would increase my style. (She is painfully honest). This purchase did cost me one pair of greens Crocs for Cade, for waiting so patiently and some bling for Maddy for being my style consultant.

This is actually a little cuter in person, a little more shiny etc... the wallet is so neat it is hard sided and opens with a clasp...I just LOVE it.

Bottom line...if I want to be home then I have to work.....that makes no sense does it???

My life does seem so full of irony.

Staycation

The kids and I are on a staycation from school. We just found out that we have the rest of the week off. There are still many KISD schools without power and many Katy families without power and/or water. We actually have everything restored and have for quite some time. We even have our satelite working great. I feel indulged when I know others are really suffering.

The kids and I went to Hobby Lobby to get some crafts today. We figured we needed to fill the time. I am not sure who enjoys "crafting" the most, me or them!

After being home with them this week it has made me realize how much I long to be more available to them. I would love to be able to go to their classrooms and volunteer and eat lunch with Maddy or drive Cade to Pre-school. I also love cooking nice meals without rushing or feeling stressed after a chaotic day at work. Last night we all cuddled up and read books and I actually enjoyed it! Maybe that's because I wasn't totally burned out after working all day. Maybe it's time for a change....I wonder what Aaron will think....hmm...... I better be cooking some really yummy meals!

I am including this picture because I absolutely LOVE it.

The rest of the story...Hurricane IKE

So we did survive The big hurricane. We have a couple missing shingles, some fence damage and a few leaky windows. The kids and I are safe and sound. We were without power for less than 24 hours. Our phone and internet service is in and out and the power still flickers. I am exhausted I mean truly and completely exhausted. I am going to take a hot bath and sleep until I have to wake.
Thanks for all your prayers and phone calls.

Hurricane IKE update

This is the playground Cade's Pre-school, it is
littered with branches and leaves.


hurricane wind damage


This is a house in our neighborhood.

Hurricane IKE

Well this is supposed to be the big one for Houston. Hurrican IKE is on it's way. Aaron is in Canada working and I am home with the kids. My neighborhood has really pulled together and we are all helping eachother out. The neighbors know that I am home without Aaron and they have been so supportive and helpful. Brad came by with his brother and moved ALL my backyard stuff into the garage, this includes disassembling our playground! Paul and Elizabeth have offered any type of help we may need during and after the storm, Thanks guys! I was going to go to Stacy and Brad's house to hunker down with them but with all our neighborhood support I have decided to stay put.
The kids are taking naps right now in preparation for a long night ahead.
Please pray for our family and all the families who are experiencing anxiety right now.

BUNCO!

So I have finally joined a Bunco group at my school. I have decided that the kids can survive one night a month without me. Aaron can hold down the fort while I get out with some teacher friends. I have played twice now and I haven't won anything yet, BUT I have gotten Bunco a couple of times. It is really nice to visit with ladies that I don't get to really talk to that much. We also bring yummy food to share!

Labor Day Fun!

We had lots of fun over Labor Day weekend! We visited with Grandpa-T, Aunt Shelli and Uncle David. We had a cookout and water balloon fights, what a great way to wrap up the summer. We also went to Bass Pro shop to look at all the animals. This is the closest our kids have come to actual camping! I am not against camping, I just don't want to sleep outside or have bugs and animals crawl on me.

Back To School

Madison started second grade today. Our little baby is getting so big! She has a real sweet teacher named Mrs. Garner and she has already made a new best friend named Julia. How sweet......

Cade starts at his school next week...stay tuned!

Happy Birthday K-Paw!

Aaron's Dad celebrated his 62nd birthday on August 12th. We went to LaRosas' in Pearland for our family celebration. We had GREAT mexican food and a lot of fun. I think Doug had the most fun!