Cronk + Stukenberg = Gerber Baby!!

Isn't she just the "gerberest" baby you have ever seen?? Aunt Kori love you sweet Eden!

Family

I know some of you have been waiting to see these for a few days, ahem, Nikki, so here you go! It isn't often that the original Cronkettes are all together, so of course mom will not let an opportunity pass to grap a photo or two of her girls!

Amazing Clouds

This past Sunday the sky was just mesmerizing...I knew it wouldn't totally capture how it looked, but these are pretty close...

Army Boy??

Andrew has been growing his hair out for along time and we all agree that we LOVE it long! He looks so stinkin cute! He talked awhile ago that he wanted it cut "short" like his dads. I told him that perhaps when he got out of school we could cut it. Aunt Amber asked us if we could keep it long for her wedding and I was happy to oblige...I wanted him to hang on to those long locks as long as possible! Well Ambers wedding was this past weekend and when we woke up Sunday morning a haircut was one of the first things on Andrew's agenda. He said it was bothering him because it always got in his eyes! So here is the before and after! It is taking some getting used to!!

Raisin Tadpoles!

Well, this isn't something I ever thought I would say...We have had the pleasure of caring for the 7 tadpoles of my (I can never figure out what the actual title is) but he is my 2nd cousins child. They are on vacation and we are also keeping an eye on their house and feeding their chickens and gathering eggs and picking strawberries and we are loving it!! The most fascinating part though has been the tadpoles! We have been able to see these things turn in to frogs!! When we got them a week ago yesterday there were 7 tadpoles that looked like the one on the right in the picture below. And over this week we have seen 3 of them turn into frogs as you will see in the final picture. They are super tiny, about the size of a pencil eraser. They started out looking like tadpoles then you notice that they have 2 legs, then in a day or two they have 4 legs and then they start looking more like frogs, but still with a long tail then before you know it they are tailless and up on the dry land climbing the walls and hopping all around! It really has been amazing! With the development of the first frog I got so excited when I saw that it was up on the dry land, I ran upstairs and woke Brian up to tell him about it!! =) So thanks so much Kevin for letting us care for your tadpoles!

Happy Fathers Day!!

There is no one I love more than this man. I am so thankful that he is the father of my babies!

Wicked Awesome

On Saturday May 24th Brian and I headed to Chicago to spend the day with one of my dear friends from college, Marie and her hubby Ryan, who were staying downtown celebrating their 10th anniversary. Some of you will remember that Brian flew one of my college friends in to celebrate my 30th birthday (one of the most thoughtful birthday gestures ever!!) Well, Marie is that friend! Ryan and their daughter Sydney also came along and while they were here we spent a day in downtown Chicago going to Shed aquarium and going to the top of the sears tower and then eating dinner at Ed Debevics. Well this time all children were left in the capable hands of grandparents and we spent the day just the four of us! We had a great time! We headed in to the city mid morning and first thing on the agenda was to see the Broadway show Wicked. Well we didn't realize until that morning that the Memorial Day Parade would be going on starting at noon and many of the downtown roads would be closed! Long story short what would have been a very easy drive to the theater parking lot, turned into about an hour trying to get to an alternate street and a lovely tour of the bowels of Chicago! Finally we got to an intersection where we could see the road that the theater was on, but the road ahead of us was closed. We were already late for meeting Ryan and Marie so Brian suggested that I hop out and walk to the theater, he would find a place to park and meet us there. Well those of you who know me well, you know two things about me. 1. I have absolutely NO sense of direction and 2. Downtown Chicago scares me! But for some reason, possibly the fact that Ryan and Marie were probably waiting for us, I grabbed my cell phone and the map and jumped out of the car, kinda without even thinking! And lucky me, because I took this leap of faith, I can now officially say that I was apart of the Memorial Day Parade in downtown Chicago in 2008 as I darted in front of a marching band as I crossed Michigan Avenue! So I met up with Ry and Marie in front of the theater and Brian joined us shortly after and let me just say, if you have not had the chance to see Wicked....GO SEE IT!!! It is WICKED AWESOME!!! =) After Wicked we headed off on a fairly long jaunt to a restaurant called Fogo de Chao's. It is a traditional Brazilian restaurant that serves all you can eat meat that has been slow roasted over an open fire! I had read an online review that said you could expect to pay about $35 per person. We decided that it was a special occasion and that for downtown that wasn't really a horribly high price so we went for it! Well it was an amazing place and the meat was to die for! There was 16 different cuts that day and the servers come around with a cut of meat on a spit and if you want some they just shave it off right on to your plate! There is also an all you can eat salad bar and all you can eat side dishes. We ate our fill and were ready to leave, and then came the bill. I so wish we could have had a video camera on Ryans face when he opened that folder!
Oh well! It was a great experience and something we don't do, ever, so we will chalk it up as lesson learned that we should ask ahead of time and not make assumptions based on an online review!! Here are some other photos from the of the day!

Catching Up

I know I am posting alot tonight...but I am in a groove so I am trying to get caught up!! Andrew has asked me numerous times throughout the year if he can bring Emily for his Show and Share day. (He "gets" to bring an item in every Thursday to show his classmates and they have the opportunity to ask questions about what he brings). I have always told him that is doesn't work because Emily is sleeping during his show and share time. Well when he asked last week, I couldn't turn him down because it was his last one for Kindergarten and I don't know how much longer Emily will be a novelty to him! Here are the photos from our time in his classroom. He was such a proud big brother!! I put Emily on his lap and he says in a strong voice..."This is my sister Emily and I play with her everyday! And she can crawl really fast and I can make her laugh!" The questions that the kids asked were. "Do you really play with her every day?" "How does she crawl?" Which of course he allowed Emily to demonstrate, by placing her on the floor. She did a great job and crawled right across the room to me at record speed. All the kids thought that was hilarious. And notice two things...Check out how red Andrew's face is in the first picture....They had just come in from recess and it was super hot and humid. Several of the boys, including Andrew, were just dripping with sweat. Must have been a great game of kickball! Also, notice Emily's face in the 2nd picture...doesn't she look terrified??? Oh wait, now that I look closer....perhaps the face is because her leg is folded up behind her body!!
Show and Share is at the end of the school day so Kelli, Emmers and I sat on the lawn and waited for Andrew to be dismissed. Emily doesn't really like to crawl around on the grass yet, but I snapped these two shots and love em so thought I would share them too!

My first grader

Andrew is officially done with Kindergarten and I can hardly believe that I have a first grader! It seems like just yesterday when he was born and now he is all grown up!! As we were leaving this morning I told him I wanted to grab a quick picture of him to see how much he has changed since the first day of Kindergarten. When I compared the two, I almost cried!!! I am so proud of him and all he has accomplished this year!! He is such a sweetheart and even though he can be a stinker sometimes, he is really a good kid!

Cheap Entertainment!

When Brian built the new garage last summer we tore down the old one, which left a large concrete we'll call it a patio, but I use that term loosely. It is great for the kids for riding bikes and running around and coloring beautiful pictures with sidewalk chalk. The only downside is that there is a low spot that collects water when it rains. It wouldn't be so bad except it is just a little bit outside of the back door and it never fails that the van is parked right along side it. At least with the new arrangement this low spot is out in the open. When the old garage was there it was right inside the side garage door. So picture this....it's raining, and it has been raining for a while. You are all dressed and ready to go somewhere and you get three kids dressed and ready to go and you stand at the back door waiting to make the dash 5 feet from the house to the garage. So you decide to go and you all race across and mom throws open the side garage door and you all run in....right in to a gigantic puddle that has formed. This happened more than once...totally soaking wet...all of us...up to our ankles!! Well, now you see the puddle as soon as you walk out the back door and we are able to avoid it for the most part. There of course is the occasional 6 year old boy who just simply cannot resist the temptation!! Anyway, back on task here. The other day the kids had played hard all day and it was HOT!! and HUMID!!! (gave me some flashbacks of last year when I was so miserable and HUGE with child!!) And Brian had worked all day long outside as well. Later in the afternoon it started to get cloudy and cooled off a little bit and then started to rain. Kelli and I had already gotten cleaned up and went to get a few groceries while Andrew and Brian finished up outside and Emily was napping. By the time Kelli and I got home it was pouring rain and Andrew was running around in the rain having a blast and soaking wet! Emily had woken while we were gone and Brian was sitting in the garage with Emily in the stroller. When Emily sees me she is no longer content to sit, but wants to be held, so I took her out and held her for a while and then she got bored and wanted to get down and crawl around. Since the garage is not the cleanest place for crawling, I only let her down for a few seconds, but when I picked her up her legs were already black with dirt. So I headed for inside to get her cleaned up and get dinner ready. Wow, this is getting lengthy. Well on the way in, I see our famous puddle and decide to clean off her legs a little bit in the puddle and then take her in and give her a bath....Well, she went nuts!! I have a feeling this girl is going to LOVE the pool this summer! Please ignore her bright red knees from crawling around on the concrete! I promise she wasn't in any pain and the redness went away after only a short time....=) These pictures of the puddle party make me smile and I hope you enjoy them as much!!

Last full day of school

Update....Our play group is a fair weather play group, so I didn't have to make the decision between the two! So instead of basking in the sun by the pool, I spent the entire day on my knees scrubbing our dining room floor! YUCK!!!! I don't feel I have ever gotten the floor really clean in the 6 years that we have lived her, I know disqusting right. But everything I use seems to leave a film or residue. SO on my hands and knees I scrubbed with a mixture of vinegar and water and it still looks crappy. Pardon my french. SO I scrubbed the whole thing again with plain water thinking maybe it just needed to be rinsed. Nope, no improvement. So then I went over the whole thing with windex thinking that would maybe restore some of the shine, nope. So then I scrubbed it with a mixture of water, dishwashing detergent and laundry detergent. And while this I felt left it the cleanest looking, it still looks dull and well yes, crappy. So if anyone out there has any tricks for sprucing up laminate flooring, I am all ears!!


Well, last August I dropped my baby off for his first day of kindergarten and stood in the hallway sobbing because I couldn't imagine him being gone from me all day!! Now here we are the last full day of school and I am frightened at the prospect of having all three kids home with me all day! What a swing of the pendulum?!! At least I am not sobbing. We will see if that statement is still true later in the summer! So my plans for today? I am waivering between going to a play group with Kelli and Emily or getting a couple majorish projects done on my last full day with Andrew occupied at school. I will let you know later which I decided to do! =)

Excited!

(Not sure why, but half of this post is underlined and I cannot get it un-underlined!!)

Well, I got my new computer and I LOVE IT!!! It is so fast that I can hardly keep up! It was taking me 15-30 minutes to edit a picture with the old computer and now I am getting them done in about 2 minutes!! Talk about a time saver! So I am now just catching up with the shoots I was waiting to edit and then I should be able to start posting more regularly again! Here are just a few pics from the last couple of days. I can't beileve Andrew only has 2 more full days of Kindergarten! It has gone SO fast! I am excited for Kelli to have him home this summer, I think she has missed him! They play so well together (most of the time)! Emily is standing on her own more and more and you can see her thinking about taking a step away from the furniture, but then she chickens out and goes down to her knees and crawls to where she wants to go. I am thinking it won't be too much longer before she gets brave and takes that first step! She is still doing well in the attitude department and is more happy than sad, which is such a great change!! The whole family is appreciating it! We are heading to Andrew's school in just a little while. Andrew has Show and Share every Thursday and is allowed to bring something from home in to show his classmates. He has asked me several times if he can bring Emily and I always told him no because it is always during her nap time...but since today is his last Show and Share of Kindergarten I thought we could make it work! I am sure the kids will love it! Well, that is it for now...Looking forward to be able to be more consistent with updating! I am sure we will have many summer adventures to chronicle!!