Three to Infinity

Hudson James Behrens Krause

Born November 29, 2012

7 pounds 13 ounces

20.5 inches long

For the past nine months I have been worried about being able to love three kids at one time. I love quality time with each of my children. I love carrying them and looking into their eyes. I love doing whatever they want whenever they want. One day I was asking Luke about how I was going to love one more child. He simply said that I would "love three to infinity." Luke was the one who loved me to infinity and then I loved him back to infinity. This goes back to when he was little and he wanted to express his love and he would say "Mommy, I love you 20... which then become 100, 1000, 20,000, etc..... then a google... and eventually "I love you infinity".  Luke was never worried. Now I see what he means. I love having one more to love. Love multiplies.

We really loved the name Hudson as a strong name with a long history. The first recording of Hudson as a surname was in 1466. Hudson Taylor was a protestant missionary to China that founded one of the largest mission agencies in the world. He was known for his service and sacrifice.  Henry Hudson was the first European to discover the Hudson River and Hudson Bay in his search for the North West Passage.  We love that the name reflects exploration and bravery. The reference to water makes the name enduring, steady, and constant. These are characteristics of his father that I hope Hudson will inherit. Dave picked James as a complimentary middle name. I also wanted to include Behrens which is my grandfather's last name. He had three girls so after he passes his name will not go on. I wanted to keep the name alive one more generation. I am also thankful to my grandfather for helping support the education of his great grandkids. Love you always Grandy.

The proud daddy

Thanks to all our visitors that made Krause three as exciting as Krause one.  (Gretchen and Michelle came in and out before I could get their photo.)  Here is my sister... 

Jackie and Dave

Dave and Mike

Beth, Boden, and Bennett

Joy

Leslie and Marlaina

Ready to go home and start our new life. 

 

This is Dave..... a long time ago I heard some advice on how a couple could decide when was the right time to have children.  The answer is when you have "more than enough love" between the two of you.  This is something that I reflected on as we made a decision to have a third.  I know it takes a lot of love to raise kids.  And some days the tank can be empty.  But, I had confidence that God would give Alyssa and I more than enough love and it would overflow onto our children.  When I first saw Hudson I knew we made the right choice.  He is a miracle.  He is a gift from God.  He is handsome and strong.  I enjoy holding him, singing funny songs to him, and calming him when he cries.  As he opens his eyes more each day I feel like I am getting to know him.... and I can't wait to know him more and more. 

 

Halloween Weekend

The kids, Luke, Grace, Eva, and Lily later joined by Reina and Ryan went to 27 houses and ran the entire way.  The kids loved trick or treating so much this year. 

One of Luke's friends hosted the entire first grade class for a Halloween party.  Here they are posing for a picture before the hike.

For the fall birthdays in my family we went for the hike with the cousins.  The kids sprinted ahead and tried to scare us by jumping out of the bushes.

 

Eva got her own girl cake this year.  She has always liked this Dora cake when she would see it in the store.

Sorry this one is a little off center, but here are Bennett, Andrew, and Boden with their Angry Birds cake and the rest of the cousins.

Now, on to a shower for Dave's sister Jackie.  Here she is holding Drew, the newest addition to the Krause side.

 

 Jackie and Riley completed a relay to test their physical readiness to have a baby, a drinking test, and a intellectual quiz to see who was the more prepared parent.  Jackie won 2/3.

 

Sunday hike with the kids

 

 

What would I do without my pink laundry?

Eva has sugar and spice and everything nice.  Girls have a special way about them.  I love how she skips everywhere, dances in the grocery store, and sings instead of talking.  She is the greatest example of living life to the fullest and she gives me a reason to as well.  I love when she comments on things being beautiful or amazing.  I love how she laughs at everything.  She is so caring and kind.  She helps Luke when he gets hurt by bringing him bandaids and his favorite stuffed animal.  She still gives great hugs and says I love you often.  I am so lucky to have her and I don't know what I would do without her.

Although she is sweet she can keep up with all of the older boys... like her brother and her 6 boy cousins and she will be leading the younger boys as well, her new brother in November and new boy cousin in January.  She will try anything.  She is good at batting, running, scooting, biking, doing the monkey bars, etc.  The picture below is of Eva doing her "wheelie."  The have scooter races with the neighbors and they call anytime they lift up one foot a wheelie.  She is actually a little too good and too fast on this scooter for a three year old.

Who knew a three year old could also ride a bike without training wheels?  Second children do learn everything so fast.  I love her boy bike and boy helmet as she pedals around our street.

Eva has also been doing so well with spelling words and beginning to read.  She really enjoys it.  I think girls just like some aspects of school more than boys.

 

And now... she is four!  I will miss my three year old Eva but I love her more and more every day.  We had such a special day today.  Eva helped make her cake and muffins for school.  She got to orbit the sun four times at her Montessori celebration.  Luke helped decorate her room.  Eva danced in her new dress up outfits to the music from her new piano.  Luke gave her a magnadoodle which they both loved.  I love seeing the sparkle in Eva's eye on such a special day.

You will always be my favorite girl.

Luke lately

Luke's curiosity level is so high it is good he was born in the age of Google.  Luke loves looking up some of the biggest and fastest things in the world.  He asks me, I estimate and am usually off by a factor of 5, and then we check on the computer.  Here are some of his favorites on You-tube or Google.

Top 5 fastest men ever in 100m
Fastest superbike in the world
Smallest weight in the universe
Bloodhound scc breaks the 1,000 mile barrier
2011 ReMax World Long Drive Championship
260 mph drag boat
15 fastest things in the universe...the problem is number one is a hypothetical physics theory of a tachyon that travels faster than the speed of light.  Luke loves it and pretrends to travel on one and calculates the time it will take to get to Eris.  The only thing is that in his mind it is not hypothetical.

Yesterday Luke wanted to calculate the weight of everyone on Pluto...

• Luke 3.08 pounds
• Eva 2.04 pounds
• Baby 0.5 pounds
• Ollie the stuffed animal 4.95 grams
• Lewis the stuffed animal 5.09 grams
• Lamby the stuffed animal 8.7 grams

He also wants to go to Australia to golf on the longest golf course in the world.  I told him that tickets were a little expensive, $2,000 each.  So here is his plan... right now his rate is 25 cents a job above and beyond his normal chores.  If he does really well he can earn about $10 a month, $120 a year.  Then when he is 12 years old I am having on him do some babysitting where he should get payed better, he may even be a caddy at 14 so I figured $240 a year.  When he is 16 he can get a job at Aldi where he can make $11/hour and he will need to work there for about 18 weeks.  He was asking about his training and how he will know the codes to everything and I reassured him about the training process.  So in 10 years he will have saved over $4,000 for plane tickets.  He plans to pay for Eva's ticket in full.  He also wants to have some money left over.  These calculations don't include giving or spending... but he is so sweet in his goal setting and taking care of his little sister. 

Devil's Lake

We left our drive way to go camping and the temperature was thirty-nine degrees and rainy.  We were wondering if we should camp in the bad weather.  We decided we would drop off the trailer and then go out to lunch, to an apple farm, and to Super Walmart.  Luke and Eva loved the pizza hut buffet.  Luke had his pepperoni pizza and bread sticks and Eva had olives, eggs, ham, and pudding from the salad bar.  At Super Walmart we got a fire starter and pillows for the kids.  I packed while they were sleeping so the pillows never made it to the pile.  Eva picked out a zebra print case to go with her travel pillow.

The kids favorite drinking fountain.

 Luke and Eva had a great time playing at the campsite.

 

 Luke asked if I packed the swim suits.  Well, no.

 Luke found this stick for daddy to hike with.

 We hiked twice on Sunday because the weather was so nice... well not 39 degrees and rainy, it was still cold and windy.  Luke tried to estimate the weight and age of every rock.  Eva was leading the way with her hiking stick.

 Luke had his first allergy appointment and we discovered his list of allergies.  He has been doing so much better since we have been treating it correctly.  However, his top allergy is dogs.  He loves dogs and knows he can not have one.  The next best thing is his pretend dog Lewis.

 

 

  I love being together and this is the first time we have ever gone camping with just our family.