Chad and Amber Kraker

Hair Stylin

2010-12-13T21:41:00.002-05:00

Oh yeah

Binder

2010-07-28T17:35:00.003-04:00

This past Sunday we took a trip to Binder Zoo. I spent the morning harassing Amber about being ready on time, which didn't happen. We left about 9 minutes behind schedule. Luckily I misread the zoo hours off the internet, and forgot to take into account that google maps gives drive times are for people who drive 15 MPH under the speed limit. So we ened up playing in the parking lot for an hour and a half before the gates opened. At least we weren't greeted by a Wally World Style Moose and we didn't end up touring the zoo alone with a gun to someones head. Once we were in, everything went great. Enjoy the photo's

Home for sale

2010-07-22T21:18:00.001-04:00

This is a link to the virtual tour of our house. It makes me want to stay.
http://photoplan.planomatic.com/viewer.php?propertyTourID=5547

Easton and More

2010-07-02T09:26:00.004-04:00

Easton is doing great, and so is his Mom. Elijah and Elizabeth adaped quite well too. Elijah is pretty protective, he'll try and steal Easton from you if your holdig him and he'll not be happy with you at all if you try and leave the house while holding him. Elizabeth isn't so protective, she just likes to poke Eastons eyes. She has her own little box that she can stand on so she can watch Easton sleep, and she doesn't get sick of just staring at him. Easton himself, he just sleeps and eats.
Jillisa is leaving for home on Saturday morning, it'll be sad. We sure did enjoy and appreciate all her help. I can't help but think that Easton was a full term baby because of her help. The Kids are going to miss her a ton, and I (Chad) might even miss having her around too.
Last night Gandpa and Gradma Kleinheksel took us all out on the new pontoon boat. It was a great night, especially for Elijah who got to pee into the lake. (He loved it)
Have a great Holiday weekend!

Easton Thomas

2010-06-25T00:18:00.003-04:00

He's here! Easton Thomas Kraker
Born June 24 at 9:45 PM
7 Lbs 3 oz
Mom is doing great!

It's nice having a baby and not seeing him in an isolette. Thank you all for your Prayers.

More Success

2010-04-06T17:47:00.005-04:00

Just a little sucker spearing accident. It may appear that the sucker were more victorious than us, but that isn't true. Check out this blog for the story www.bkraker.blogspot.com

Success

2009-11-05T21:22:00.002-05:00

It's October!! BOW HUNTING

2009-10-20T22:22:00.003-04:00

I haven't gotten a thing.
My Dad and Brother are killing machines.
Oh well, at least I have my Mutton Chops

Bay City

2009-06-13T13:57:00.005-04:00

Last weekend we spent at the Bay City State Park. Ellie got pretty excited about the fish as you can see. Elijah was more interested in Bumpa (Grandpa). We spent a lot of time in Saginaw Bay bay but it was all worth it because we came home with our limit of Walleye.
On the way home we stopped at Bronners. Elijah was pretty excited to see the 20 foot tall Owl.....

Silver Lake

2009-05-26T21:42:00.004-04:00

Here are a few pictures from our Memorial Day Weekend. As you can see there was a lot of sleeping.

To answer a few questions that you might have....... Yes that is Jace taking a nap in the Shower, and the first picture is my neighbor walking up her driveway in a "Cow" nighty. I realize that it doesn't make sense to post it with our Silver Lake pictures but I didn't want anyone to miss this great photo. I'll Upload it to Winkflash if anyone is interested in getting a copy for themselves.

No Mr. President

2009-05-14T20:06:00.001-04:00

This is worth the 3 minutes.

picture perfect...even better

2009-04-08T13:39:00.002-04:00

so chad and i braught elijah and elizabeth over to chads brother and sister in laws house and had some amazing pictures taken of our kids. we had a little fun with elizabeth as you can tell. check them out on marc photography on our blog list! thanks so much andrew and tiffany, we had so much fun!!

picture perfect

2009-03-18T19:51:00.005-04:00

so i promised some pictures...

here she is ready to make the trip home!

we had an excited little helper waiting for us at home!

too cute if you ask me...she is laying on a boppy covered with a blanket

um what can i say...

so if you think that she is huge...well she is, she is getting way too big!!

alive

2009-03-08T22:05:00.002-04:00

we are all alive! ...and not to meantion home! yay!! this past tuesday we were able to take elizabeth home. it was a very wonderful day to say the least. everything went so smooth in bringing her home. everyone seems to be adjusting to the little one just fine. she doesnt make a whole lot of noise around here so its like shes not even here. every five minutes elijah has to find "baby" and be "gentle". he seems to love her more than we do. its very precious! she had a check up at the doctor on friday and everything looked great. she gained 4oz. which is so wonderful because that was one of the problems with her not coming home. she weighs a total of 5lb. 10oz. now. chad and i both do not want her to get any bigger, she is just so cute how she is. just a side note, i am doing fine. its definitely a challenge to feed a child every three hours, doctors orders and not have your own schedule but thats ok. like i said we are still alive. i also just wanted to thank everyone that has been praying the past two months for elizabeth and i, we have seen God work mightily in a lot of different areas and continue to see Him work everyday. thank you so much!! (pictures will be coming soon)

Partially home

2009-02-19T18:42:00.002-05:00

Well most of the family made it back home today, Elizabeth is the exception. Elijah was pretty happy to have everyone back together, but not nearly as excited as our little dog who spent that past three days alone.

Amber is doing especailly well considering that she had to leave her 2 day old daughter in the hospital. And Elizabeth is doing okay as well. Believe it or not we are actually praying for her to poop. The only thing we are waiting for is her eating and pooping. As soon as all that gets started we should be able to take her home. They are very careful not to say when they think she might be ready to come home, just because they don't want us to get our hopes too high. But until then we'll just be enjoying our full nights of rest!

Also- Elizabeth is going to get her 15 min. of fame a little early. The Holland Sentinel is going to publish a story about her....... it's actually about her getting a free book from the library but still-- pretty neat.

Thanks agian to everyone

Elizabeth Video

2009-02-18T16:54:00.005-05:00

Elizabeth Marie

2009-02-17T22:56:00.002-05:00

Elizabeth Marie Kraker
Born 9:07am Feb 17
5 LBS 6 OZ
Mom is doing great!

Elizabeth started out having a hard time breathing, and had to have a little bit of Oxygen. She is already done with that but is still having a bit of trouble eating. Both of these aren't a huge surprise considering that she was a month early. Thank you all for your prayers. I will update this hopefully tomorrow.

cute...hairy...little...33...clean house, thanks!!

2009-01-27T12:59:00.003-05:00

we had to have an ultrasound yesterday, specialist orders, and everything looks great. the lady that does the ultrasounds said that she is very cute. i couldnt see it but i took her word for it because shes been doing this for 17 years. she also said that she has lots of hair. im looking forward to that, hahaha! she is weighing in at 4lbs. and 2oz. this is a little underweight but still ok. we will still be going through with delivery if i go into labor anytime. i made it to 33 weeks and the doctor does not forsee me going into labor for another two weeks. God answers prayer, thank you so much for praying!!

...another special thanks to my mom k and tammy for coming to clean my house. does anyone know how hard it is to have someone clean their house and know that you could be doing it, oof!! its not fun watching thats for sure!! thank you so much mom and tam!!

32 weeks.....three years already!

2009-01-20T11:58:00.002-05:00

im on full bed rest now and not loving it. the only part i like is the fact that i can rest whenever i want to but that doesnt make things easier. i had a doctors appointment last week and i am not quite a 1 and 70% effaced. i really would like to make it to 34 weeks, which is on febuary 2. so please please pray!! 32 weeks is a huge mile stone in development but at 34 weeks i am able to deliver closer to home and she can stay closer to home also.
another lil tid bit... chad and i have been married for three years today. wow. time flies like none other. im still in complete love and owe of the man that i said yes to and learn too many new things on a daily basis about him. hes been a real trooper through this whole ordeal with the one safe inside and for that i am so thankful. his last words out the door this morning were "dont do anything". what kind of a husband says that, hahaha!? i love him sooo much!! (who in the world cries when they are writing a blog? maybe only prego ones huh? hahaha!!)

bored

2009-01-12T15:40:00.001-05:00

God is good all the time!! so i keep telling myself that. i have to relax and its not too much fun right now. please pray that God would give me a sense of peace so that i can relax.

special thanks!!

2009-01-07T20:10:00.002-05:00

so im not the type of person that will ask for help. id rather go nuts than ask! so my dear sister in law tammy came over today and cleaned my entire house. um, she said i didnt have an option of saying no and chad is now making me not refuse help. she is a little crazy because she likes to clean...it shows, she did a wonderful job and i owe her big time!! thank you so much tam!! ...and for any of you that want to help you might just have to show up too. and even more, i would love your company!!!!

new little boy...sleeping where...safe inside

2009-01-06T21:10:00.008-05:00

if you didnt notice we have a new little boy in our family...or wait that is elijah!! dah dah decided it best to give him a hair cut and i must say he did a really nice job. not to meantion his very first attempt at any hair cut in his life. needless to say i was a little on edge. for the sake of elijahs short temper and the fact that it might not look the greatest. he proved me wrong and it looks like we have a new little boy that is getting bigger and bigger every day.

so we decided it would be a good idea if we tried to get elijah to sleep in a big boy bed... this is the first night! i wanted to check on him and see if he was ok...and yes he is sleeping under his bed. so we moved him to a different spot in his room and he has slept there ever since.

and just a little update on the little girl inside... she is now 30 weeks and 1 day! you might think im crazy for putting the 1 day on there but when you might go into preterm labor every day counts for a lot of reasons. as my last post stated i am still not able to do much but now i really cant do anything. i am going a little insane with a messy house and a little stir crazy. but other than that im doing good knowing that she is safe inside! thank you so much for the prayers and i hope you will continue to pray that we might make it to at least 34 weeks. that goal is on febuary 2!

......and a little happy birthday to a special friend in utah!!

baby girl...safe inside!

2008-12-15T13:59:00.002-05:00

some people might have the wrong information or no information at all about this precious little girl inside of me. so i will attempt to fill you in. she is 27 weeks today and lively as ever, letting me know she is hear for mommy whenever i need her. three weeks ago today i had my routine 24 week checkup. since its in my history that i have contractions early they always ask how contractions are doing and how far apart they are. well i had some days where they were pretty regular so they decided to do a test that would show if i would go into labor the following two weeks. the test came back negative. negative is a for sure sign of no labor. positive is a sign you "might" go into labor. which brings us to one week ago today. i had to have another test done (same test different weeks). this test showed positive. once i am a positive i am always at risk to go into labor. so what does this mean for me? i cant do much! the biggest thing right now is that i cant take care of my son and i am having a hard time with it. i just have to sit relax and wait. the thing im thankful for is that i still get to see my family at Christmas parties. all of this to say that our God is great and i need to depend on him for every need that i might have (relaxing is not easy when you have to do it). all of your prayers have been helping and i hope you will continue to pray for this precious little gift to arrive only in Gods timing.

Too much Egg Nog for Elijah

2008-12-14T13:36:00.002-05:00

Little man tried taking a nap at Grandma and Grandpa this saturday. Apparently this went on for about 15 minutes before Grandma laid him down.

sledding!

2008-12-04T22:06:00.003-05:00

yup the biggest adventure this winter so far...and who forgets the camera, yup mama! we decided that christmas presents can be used before christmas. so we went and bought a sled for elijah, took him sledding and he didn't want to be done. even though he was a frozen blue little boy! to say the least he had a perma-grin the entire time. until next time the sled is safely tucked under the tree! (...and next time there will be pictures)

more hunting stuff

2008-12-01T08:36:00.001-05:00

some video we got thanksgiving morning

dads 2008 6 point

2008-11-30T13:18:00.001-05:00

this is a picture that we got earlier this year of the 6 point that my dad shot today.

leafy the snowman

2008-11-24T18:41:00.002-05:00

in an attemt to be a good dad i went outside with elijah to make our first snowman. (it also worked great for getting the leaves all cleaned up) he had no intrest in it at all, most of the time i spent pulling him away from the neighbors dog. as soon as we added the face to leafy the snowman ellie went into defense mode and ate a hole in it, and elijah he just stared. our neighbors were all pretty excited though, at least someone will enjoy leafy.

gun season

2008-11-19T22:10:00.003-05:00

this is a pic of the deer i shot opening day of gun season. I spent about 9 hours sitting in a corn field before this guy showed up. I don't have any pics of him dead because half of his antlers fell off when we were taking him down from the tree and he looks pretty pathetic only half there. oh well i'm sure he'll still taste okay

hard workin' man

2008-11-03T22:18:00.000-05:00

pretty in pink here we come!!

2008-10-29T19:56:00.003-04:00

so anyone have any advice about having girls... 'cause im having one!!! i did find out that everything was ok with me during this appointment. the lady that did my ultrasound said that i would for sure be back in to have another ultrasound to check cervical length and also have some more tests. but the biggest part is that she looks to be a healthy baby girl. she is measuring right on with the due date which will remain march 16. i just cant believe its a girl, haha! yay! i think we will be putting pictures up but i will leave that up to chad so stay tuned.

disappointing morning and an update on little man

2008-10-27T12:34:00.002-04:00

so this morning i woke up at 7:30, went into the kitchen, got my water ready to drink and looked at the stove... it said 8:34! for those of you who do not know, i was going to have an ultrasound today at 8:30. the problem was that i have an atomic clock for an alarm clock and it switched times last night without me knowing. so needless to say i do not know if i am having a boy or a girl and i dont know if im farther along than i am. im really sorry for those of you who were very excited to see what i was having! i will be updating as soon as i find out!!
an update on little man... he is doing really well today which is really good. his eye does not look any better, its swollen more today than yesterday. so his eye is about half open. he is my little trooper though, he acts as if nothing ever happened.
anyway, more from the kraker family later but for now i hope thats it, haha!!!

little man and stitches

2008-10-26T16:12:00.003-04:00

elijah took a spill in the tub this morning, the result was 6 stitches. it's all good. he took it like a man. as you can see from the pre-stitches picture, I think he looks proud. the worst part was watching the doctor strap him down to the table, not fun

happy birthday!

2008-10-21T12:23:00.002-04:00

happy birthday to chad!! elijah and i love this man soooo much and thought we would tell you about it. wish him a happy birthday if you want to, haha! (can't do nothing except love that face, haha!!!)

little man learns

2008-10-13T19:47:00.003-04:00

last week i taught little guy how to use the internet. and who would have guessed that the first thing he checks out is steve and heathers blog. about an hour later i caught him in the kitchen making bread. steve, be careful what you are posting my son is very impressionable.

Bring the Sandman home

2008-09-28T21:56:00.005-04:00

After reading a recent post on one of my best friends blog, I felt compelled to start a job search committee. Please help me find Stephen Sanders a local job here in West Michigan. He's great with computers and can quickly learn how to use any type of computer program. He is currently living in Utah but is willing to move as soon as a job is available.
Steve just made a loaf of bread............... and he is blogging about it. Help him please before he starts to knit.

President of the SS job search committee

-Chad Kraker

the attached video was taken a few years ago---
i should have seen this bread stuff coming.

ummmm....

2008-09-21T20:56:00.003-04:00

if bragging is a sin then i should probably do it anyway... gotta say that my brother-in-law is the best photographer in the world. if you don't believe me you can check out his blog if you want...marc photography. it's on my list! the last wedding that he posted was awesome!! probably could say a ton but i think i did enough sinning for one night.

love this guy

2008-09-21T11:18:00.002-04:00

he's not always this angry-- i think you'll like it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_MLUuNKjZU

wanna swim?

2008-09-20T17:35:00.001-04:00

chad shot his bow this afternoon and got a little hot......he went swimming when we got home, crazy man!!
we just met our new neighbors this weekend. we are pretty excited about them, they want to cut their trees down for grass to grow in their backyard. we are ok with that because then we can cut our trees down and have a lot of sun time and actually have a yard yay! not to meantion the newbies are nice too haha.

pictures

2008-09-17T01:27:00.000-04:00

just wanted to throw a pic on here so it isn't so incredibly boring.... this is little mang!!

so we set up a blog....

2008-09-16T21:15:00.000-04:00

alright, everyone and their brother is going to see this so here goes nothing...for real!