Long time no post...

Hello!  It's been a crazy amount of time, I know.  Lots has happened, so I'll recap:

I turned 30.  Yikes.  Luckily, I have amazing friends who helped ease me into it with a rousing last night as a 20-something and a fun day of celebrating the first day of my 30's.  We went on a bike-patio crawl through central phoenix and enjoyed the nice weather.  Here are some pics:

 

We bought a house!  The plans are still up in the air - remodel and sell, keep, who knows.  It'll depend on whether or not Luke Ave sells.  This new house is in a great location, but in need of some serious TLC.  Here are some before shots:

Beautiful and super functional laundry room

Well constructed built-ins...

This is the master bath (note all missing pieces of an actual bathroom) that you actually walk through to get to the not-so-finished master bedroom.

The kitchen is a disaster, the floor-plan's a mess - but it's gonna be great!  I'll keep posting the changes we'll make! 

Ryan and I celebrated 2 big anniversaries - our 4th, and Gus' 1st.  Can you believe we've had Gus for a year?!  Here what he looked like the first week we had him and here's what he looks like now

Can you believe it!?  Our little boy is all grown up.  (Yes, I'm that sappy over a cat) Our niece also hit a big milestone and turned one.  Time has been flying!  I'll be better about the blog posts - promises, promises!  Hope all is well with everyone!

Kerrie  

Christmas 2008

Merry Christmas!  Ryan and I celebrated Christmas in one of the few places around the county without snow!  Thank God!!!  Christmas Eve was spent in Gold Canyon at Ryan's parent's house.  

Every year we search for the Christmas pickle and this year's proud winner was - ME!  

Christmas Day was spent with my family at our house.  There were 19 people squeezed into our little house since there was rain, but we had a lot of fun!  Here's my super cute niece operating her Super Duper Reindeer Pooper!  

We hope everyone enjoyed their holiday!  We're looking forward to 2009!

KK

:)

Puma Anyone?

I love the comments!  You guys are too funny!  As for the dog, we borrowed Jake - our brother-in-law's dog.  He's a good boy, but has a loud bark!  Gus is not too thrilled, so we think getting a permanent dog is out of the question.  So what's the next logical choice, according to Ryan?  A Puma!  Naturally.  Since Bengal Tigers and Cheetah's are only available through zoo permits, a Puma or Leopard seems like a perfectly reasonable option.  Ryan seems to think we have a Vegas circus/magic act going on at our house.  

Other than that, nothing new to report.  I still don't have a camera (can anyone recommend a good one?) but will send pictures of the Christmas Tree as soon as I get one! Bye for now!

KK

:)

They're Baaaaack!

Guess what!  Our alarm works!  We were able to test it out when someone tried to break in - AGAIN!  My theory (one officer agreed, the other had no opinion) was the thief's "methy" girlfriend came back to get our replacements.  

Our neighbor saw a rather scraggly woman knocking on our door and I saw her leaving when I pulled up to the house.  In my too-much-tv mind, I think she was the girlfriend coming back for more, and was scared off by the alarm.  The officer on duty back in September warned that it may happen again.  Apparently once you know what goods you have and where you stash them, it's much too tempting to leave it be.  So, once the insurance check clears and you replace - they strike again!  

This post is not to scare, but to warn.  In these tough times, people want what you got!  The officer from last night suggested we arm ourselves.  I tried to explain that Ryan and I are the last two people to be trusted with a gun.  We'll see how I feel after round 3...

:)

KK

Update

It's been too long - I know!  It's hard to blog with no camera!

The first big event was the wedding of my college roommate and long-time friend, Sally!  It was in the historic Union Station in Indianapolis.  It was a very fun week and a VERY fun wedding.  Here is the bride and bridesmaids:

Ryan and I made lots of new friends, mostly from Sally's high school:

The other big event was, of course, Thanksgiving.  We went to my Aunt Lynda and Uncle Tom's who hosted a fabulous day!  Here is Julia with her Aunt Kerrie and Uncle Vinnie:

It was a beautiful day, so we got to eat outside.  Here is one of the 4 tables:

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

K&R

Happy Halloween!

You gotta love the time of year when the weather turns cold, the leaves change, and hundreds of children dressed as Spiderman come begging for candy!  Well, here in Phoenix, it's still in the 90's, the cacti are still green, but we do have trick-or-treating!  The Kruse household actually set a record for most candy given out since we've lived there, which was great!  We team up with the neighbors across the street and have cocktails while we pass out candy at the end of our driveways.  Too fun!

The next night, we had a Halloween party.  Lot's of character's showed up! Here are some good ones: 

Hannah Montana, Adam Sandler's best friend in The Wedding Singer, and a Thief (get the irony?)

 

The Birthday Boys: Camile Toe, Hugh Heffner, Don Draper

Hey, hey, hey!  It's the whitest Fat Albert you've ever seen!  (Notice Easy E and the Ceiling Fan in the background!)

Vegas, baby, Vegas!

It was our (now) annual pilgrimage to sunny Las Vegas for a little R&R, ice cold beverages, and of course, Jimmy Buffett! Here is a picture of our whole group (minus 2):


Pretty good following! Kudos to the Boos family for starting a mighty fine tradition and allowing other Parrot Heads to join! Speaking of Parrot Heads, anyone ever guess they'd see Diep in this get-up?!

We LOVE it and think this is a look you should sport more often, Diep!

Another good get-up (there were far too many to showcase them all) was this little ditty. While the Kruse's are not publicly endorsing or denouncing any candidate, we found this funny either way...

That's all for now! As Jimmy would say, "Its a jungle out there kiddies, have a very fruitful day".

K&R