Her Party

December 11 we celebrated Rogue's one year of life with friends and family. We had the party at my parents house in the basement so there were no Christmas decorations. Since her birthday is so close to Christmas I want to make a habit of not making her birthday too christmasy. Her party went off without a hitch. You never know with a crowd of 30 or so people and almost half of them being under 3. Fortunately Rogue was healthy and took a good nap that day. She was still going strong when we left around 9:00p.m. Needless to say she crashed on the way home. Thank you to all that came to celebrate Rogue's birthday. I can't believe that her birthday has come and gone already. Seems like just yesterday she was a tiny little eight pounder!

12 Month Well Child visit

Rogue had her 12 months well child doctors visit yesterday. All went well. There was a small concern when Dr. Lund looked at her right eye. Of course Rogue wouldn't hold still for the doctor to get a good look but it seems she has "something" Dr. Lund thinks a pediatric opthamologist should look at since they have better equipment. Dr. Lund thought it was probably just an enlarged blood vessel but better safe than sorry. So we are waiting to hear when the appointment for that is.

Her Stats:

weighed in at 22lbs in the 50th percentile
Measured 30 inches in the 75th percentile

I haven't downloaded any of her birthday party pictures yet but go HERE and you can get a preview of her 12 month pictures.

She's 1!

Today my dear child you turn one year old. I just can't believe it. This time last year we were still calling people from the hospital to tell them of your arrival. The past year has gone so fast. You have brought so much joy to our lives.

Here are a few of the things you have accomplished in the last year:

Smiling at 5 weeks

Rolling at 8 weeks

Sitting up at 5 months

Crawling at 6 months

Walking at 9 months

In the past month your vocabulary has exploded. You often say dada when you dad calls us from work, when you drop your sippy cup from the highchair and we say "uh-oh" you repeat the "oh", and most recently you say "hot" except it comes out HAAAAA, with quite the exaggerated face.

We keep telling you to stop growing up. The last few months have been so much fun with you. Here's to another year kid. I'm sure it will be even better than your first!!

First Pony Tail

Post Family Farm and Happy Halloween!

Last Thursday me, Rogue, my mom, Teresa, Rain and River headed to Post Family Farm. The sun wasn't shining but it was raining! Amazing I know. Seems this fall is a wet one! We feed goats, ate the best doughnuts ever, and took a ride to the pumpkin patch. Rogue had a blast and absolutely loved all the animals.


Saturday night we headed over to my brother Joe's house since he lives in a subdivision. We got to see a lot of cute kids in their costumes and we even walked to a few houses ourselves to trick or treat for Rogue's first time. Thankfully it didn't rain but it was definately windy.

I heart Fall

A few weeks ago we headed out to the Dykstra farm for some good fall fun. It was a perfect day to see all of the kids in their costumes. Rogue's costume hadn't come in yet but we were able to borrow one from her cousin Jordyn, so no spoilers here. I thought she made an adorable little ladybug.




Of course we had to head to Crane's orchard on a nice fall day as well. It was a bit chilly but we got to walk through the orchard and taste some yummy apples while we waited to eat. Rogue got to pick out her first pumpkin just down the road too. I just love fall and all the fun it brings. I don't think there is another season like it.

Two More Down

It has proven to be a successful start to the season. My dad took this nice seven point buck from the lucky, bank tree stand on Monday night October 5. It was about a 30 yard shot (to the power lines). If you take a close look at the picture, you will notice the shot was a little further back than preferred. Dad was hoping for a double lung shot and ended up with a beauty of a gut shot. Chad and Dad tracked blood for a little over a hundred yards before the trail disappeared and the sun went down. Needless to say the night ended in disappointment. The next morning I got a call from my dad saying he found the deer, ah relief. It was a couple hundred yards from the tree stand and reeked of gut shot. It was no treat dragging this monster up to the van, but the head mount will look nice on my wall.

I went quad riding in Manistee with some Friends on Saturday October 10. On the way up, I couldn’t help but think what a beautiful morning it was for hunting, and I could only imagine what I might be missing in the woods. We had a good time riding the trails, but I made sure the next morning that I was in that same lucky tree stand that has proven to be very productive. Around 9:00am this spike came walking in from behind me and presented an irresistible shot at 15 yards. I took the opportunity and put one right through the vitals. It only had 4” spikes, but it was a surprisingly large bodied deer. Good Times!

Early Kill

I decided to try out the early doe season this year and I found success.

It was Thursday night, September 17 the first day of the early season for doe. I decided to sit in my lucky treestand at the bank with my bow. At 7:20pm I decided it was too warm and I most likely wouldn't see anything. I was about to leave my stand when this doe came trotting in. It gave me a perfect broadside shot at 20 yards, and I took advantage of the opportunity. It was a good double lung shot and she went down about 50 yards from where I shot her. I guess you can call that a good start to the season.

Catching up again

I've been meaning to blog about a few things including Allegan County Fair and Pumpkinfest but just haven't had the motivation until now. In early September we went as a family to Allegan County Fair. Man, is that fair big! I can't remember ever going there before and there was lots to see. Rogue loves animals, she constantly bugs Hildee and Boone, so it was no surprise she took a liking to the pigs. One pig was very friendly and she got to touch is nose a bit. She would just laugh and laugh. It was really cute. The nice thing about Allegan was that they had wash stations after almost every barn so we could wash up after petting all the animals.



This past Thursday while Bryan was at school I met up with my family for a little while and had some dinner then met up with the Van Bragt's and even ran into the Dykstra's. We made a feeble attempt at getting pictures of all three of them but as you can see Leah is missing and Rogue was getting a tad frustrated by all the long grass. Thankfully the rain held off just long enough for us on Saturday to head out and watch the parade. I was very impressed at how long the parade was. Rogue even got her first "parade candy", smarties, she wasn't too impressed.




I just thought I would include this picture of Rogue. The other day Bryan had to do some work on the glider since it had gotten a severe squeak and about drove us nuts when we rocked Rogue. Now that Rogue and Bryan fixed it its like brand new!

9 month Well Child

Today was Rogue's 9 month visit even though she's pushing 10 months. Everything checked out perfectly and she is growing right on track. Here are her stats:

Height - 28 3/4inches 75th percentile
Weight - 19lbs 11oz 52nd percentile

Way to grow Rogue!

Total Slacker

I seriously can't believe that it has been over a month since I lasted posted! The remainder of our summer has flown by. I'll just do a quick update of what the Kraker House has been up to. Nothing really, yet we seem to be so busy. Get togethers one weekend, camping the next. You all know how summer goes.

One big change our family has gone through is Bryan being on first shift. Its so weird to say that we have a semi normal schedule. Gentex is working some mad overtime so Bryan has to work most weekends which totally blows but we are very thankful that he has the job that he does. I do have to say its weird having a husband on first shift. He had been on second shift for 2 1/2 years so in the evenings I could do whatever I wanted to. Now thats completely different, not that I'm complaining.

Rogue isn't up to much lately either. She is seriously days away from walking. She will take a step here and there and then decide its a little to scary to walk and she will plop her buns down and start to crawl.

These pictures are from last weekend when we camped with the whole Kraker family. Our computer monitor died over the weekend so the pictures are courtesy of Andrew and Grandma Kraker.

Dads have it so rough don't they?

yep, I'm the mom that didn't even put a swimming diaper on her kid let a alone a swim suit.

A morning with Kenley

This morning we had the pleasure of having my cousins baby, who is exactly a week older than Rogue, come over to play. The girls had fun playing together before their nap and yes they napped at the same time! Talk about luck. After the naps we went for a little bike ride, thankfully I did not have to pull both those chunks! Bryan was saying that he could actually feel a little pull behind his bike. It was fun Miss Kenley, come over again soon!!

Just a few

Just thought I would share a few of Rogue's 6 month pictures. Uncle Andrew did a great job as usual.

Conestoga Campground

This past weekend was our first official camping experience as a family of three. I have to say I was a little nervous about this. Rogue had been doing really well the last week or so sleeping through the night, but a few nights before we were to go camping she started getting up in the middle of the night. I hoped that she would wear herself out while camping and sleep through the night. Not the case the first night but the rest of the weekend she did really good and slept through. She even slept through the storm we got early Saturday morning! I will say that all children did amazing. We have a few more camping trips to do this summer and I can't wait!

Here is our campsite. Looks kind of messy from a busy day.

Jordyn "helping" Rogue with a toy

Playing peek-a-boo

First horse back ride

Needs a little comforting from dad

Playing on the playground



Go and check out Rogue's 6 month photo preview at Marc Photography. They are adorable!!!

Considering Seperate Beds

I go to get ready for bed and this is what I see. I have been dealing with this for the past 4 years. I prefer a bed nicely made, I fold back the covers and get in. Then in the morning I fold back the covers and get out. Bryan on the other hand prefers absolutely no tucking but rather twisting of the covers. What you didn't see in these pictures is me trying to un-tangle a pillow from the sheet. This is for sure my biggest annoyance about being married. I can handle anything else but don't mess with my bed!

Laundry Day

Yesterday I was kind enough to help out dad with the lawn, but I didn’t want my mom to think that I was favoring dad so I decided that today I would help out mamma by doing the laundry. She deserves to be helped just as much as dad, even though, she doesn’t work near as hard as dad does. Just kidding mom, I know that I can be a handful, especially, while I’m teething.

I love you mamma,
From baby Rogue

Mower Baby

I can tell my dad is a hard working man and is always busy selflessly helping the good of our community. So this afternoon I took it upon myself to mow the lawn for him. It proved to be more of a challenge then I expected since I am only a pint sized baby. I had a hard time reaching the steering wheel, and I won’t even mention what I had to do in order to reach the foot controls. I hope my daddy really appreciates me helping him out because this was not an easy feat.

I love you daddy,
From baby Rogue.