My New Obsession

Some of you know...some may not. I have a new obsession. Some may call it a hobby. Others, a good deed. But really. It's an obsession. And I'm okay with that. Her name is Ashley (sorry sis...). And she's a good 900 pounds. Dark skinned. And if I could bring her home with me, I would (sorry honey).

The first time I met her, she was offstandish. Ignored me and the boys. Wouldn't come when she was called. But, she would be a good horse to learn on (or so I was told). A dream of mine is to own a ranch of sorts. With lots of land to let all of the animals I love to roam freely. Horses. Lots of horses. And dogs. The beauty of it all is that they all can live in the barn. Outside of my home. But that's another blog post in itself.

Anyway, the boys and I started going out to the stables to learn the ropes with Ashley. She has been a school-horse her whole life. The stables she resides at now adopted her from a not-so-great situation. After learning her story, I better understood her character. She truly just needed attention. And love. And that, we could give her. We immediately started spoiling her with carrots and apples and lots of grooming. From there, I've been getting lessons in the round-pin and arena, not only in the saddle, but on the ground as well. I've been learning so much. And so has she.

Now when we come out to see her, she comes right up to the fence to greet us. She listens to me and my commands and adores the boys. She's such a good horse. I swear, a truck could drive right up to her and she wouldn't spook. Trey loves putting his hand in her nostrils and walking under her belly. His head grazes the bottom of it and he laughs...both boys like riding her. Although Drake says "woah" a lot, which confuses her. But it's so fun. It's become part of our routine. The barn owner keeps telling us how much healthier and happier Ashley has become since we've started coming out there. And that...that makes me happy =)

Things I don't want to Forget

Dear Baker and Bird-

I just wanted to take a minute to write down a few things that I don't want to forget. So while this is addressed to you, it's really more for me.

Drake- You hate Lunch Bunch. You cried the whole time because you thought Mrs. Sullivan forgot to bring you to me in the parking lot. You ask me to wait for you in the car every day when I drop you off. You love Scooby Doo, every super hero and something called Sym Bionic Titan. I have no idea what that is. But you talk about it often. You are addicted to chocolate milk, although I've found that if I give you plain milk, you don't notice. You have however, started to enjoy water. In a cup. With an open top. You know how to get out of your carseat and out of the car for that matter. You also know how to get Trey out. This somehow makes me feel better. You hide all of your good toys from your brother. And tell on him when he's getting into trouble or doing something that might hurt him. I love that. When you see me in carline at school you get a smile a mile wide on your face and scream "Mama!". Brightens my whole day. You like gymnastics. Your teachers think that you're going to be a stuntman when you grow up. You can walk the whole balance beam on your own. You will only wear Crocs. You love to brush your teeth and take showers by yourself. You beg to play in the front yard with the big kids. And you had a pet frog named Pointy- for one whole day.

Bird- You are a monster. A good monster. But a monster all the same. You get into anything. And everything. Specifically the toilet. And garbage can. And dog food. And dog bowls. And the dog water bowl. You love playing on the lanai. You love drinking out of anything with a straw. You have 8 teeth. But I think your molars are coming in. You love the wagon. And wearing your brother's shoes. You're obsessed with remotes and phones. You pretend to talk on the phone a lot. And say something that sounds sort of like "hi". Daddy claims you said "ball", but I haven't heard it, so I'm not sure I believe it. You love to dance. You enjoy riding Ashley and walking underneath her. You often pretend that Cougar is a horse and try to ride him. He hates it. Tolerates it. But hates it. You chase the dogs often. And think it's hilarious when they eat out of your hand. You cry when Drake takes toys away from you. And you cry even harder when he locks you out of rooms. I'm sorry about that, give him a year or so. 

To the both of you- I love you more than you'll ever know. Daddy too. I thank God every day for blessing me with the two of you. 

XOXO- Mama

Visual Aids

I'm obviously obsesssed with my kids. And taking pictures of my kids (can't wait for my new camera for Christmas honey!!). And editing pictures of my kids. With the abundance of football in our lives right now (woo-hoo), I have a lot of time to edit. So here you go. A look into the life of Team Keraus.

Thanks for the Cookie Monster brother.

"C" is for Cookie! I love him =)

The new Dragon pool...

Mama love... <3

Catchin' something!

Sandy Kid...

Loves swimming in the ocean!

Cover Model

I love my cheese crackers...pretty much the ONLY thing my brother doesn't take away from me!

What's this in my toes??

Like I said. Always. Climbing.



That face...



The eyes...

Future's so bright...

So as I'm doing this, I'm becoming very aware of the ratio of Trey pictures to Drake pictures. And I must plead my case here. I'm not favoring one son over the other. It's simple. Drake won't let me take his picture anymore. Any time I pull out the camera he runs. Or at least stops whatever cute thing he was doing at the moment. I swear.
Thanks for looking...more to come =)

It's Fall!

Yay! It's Fall!
Okay. Truthfully, we live in Florida. We won't REALLY ever SEE Fall. But the weather has started to break. A little. Really. Like today, it was only 75 when we woke up. That's something. I swear.
But without a doubt- it's October. One of my favorite months. I love decorating the house (even though Matt hates it and complains about it...yada yada yada). I love making Halloween cutout sugar cookies with orange frosting and sprinkles. I love talking to Drake about what he wants to be for Halloween as the costume catalogs pour in. Today it's the Green Goblin. I will Tweet daily about what he wants to be. Let's see how many times he changes his mind. I refuse to buy a costume until a few days before as I'm sure he will want to be 12 different things before the 31st. 30 days? That's a LLOONNGG time to a 3 year old. And Trey. Poor Trey. He will just have to be the sidekick to whichever hero or villain Drake decides to be. As long as Drake doesn't want to be Beavis, I think we'll be okay.

Hey! That's MY Name!

Things are going well around here. Drake seems to be liking school...although he's gotten into the habit of saying that he doesn't want to go in the morning. I chalk that up to me waking him up in the morning. Anyone that knows my kids knows that they like to sleep in. They get that from me. When there isn't an alarm, we get up around 8:15 or 8:30. So, I know why he's saying he doesn't want to go to school. But after some waffles and chocolate milk, he's geared up and ready to go. Once we are at school, he's anxious to get into the classroom, but never fails to tell me to wait in the car. Today his teacher said, "You know Drake, that's an awful long time to wait in the car!" He said, "That's okay." Ah. Gotta love him.

Thanks for the Firetruck Grammy and Grampy Keraus!

Trey. Where do I begin? It's monkey see-monkey do. All. Day. Long. Drake goes in the other room. Trey goes in the other room. Drake is drinking with a straw? Trey must drink with a straw. You get the picture. Unfortunately, he also must try anything Drake tries. Hence the reason every chair in our house is either hidden or on it's side. The kid is like Houdini. Climbs onto everything. Scares the heck out of me. He's trying to talk too. When he hears one of us say "Hi" to anyone, he chimes in with some sort of babble that sort of sounds like "Hi!". And the dancing. So fun. Whenever a song with a good beat comes on, he'll stop whatever he's doing and start dancing. Arms up and everything. Very cute.
I'd love to go on, but Drake just puked in the leather chair. And for those of you that know my husband, if I don't attend to it immediately, the sky might fall on us all =)