Let's see, what has happened since my last post...

I've figured out that I dislike the end of summer because it means cold weather is right around the corner. Andrew and I are of same mind when it comes to cold weather, we want it to go away! One of the good things about fall is that at night we can open the windows and cool the house off then during the day when it is warmer, we don't have to run the AC.

Another bummer about the end of summer is that the days are getting a lot shorter. A few nights ago the kids wanted to go fishing so after dinner we headed down to the pond. After only a few minutes down there I caught a bass which we put on a stringer. Then Andrew caught one, but it was too small to keep. I caught another, too small to keep, and before Andrew or I could catch anymore Shane said it was time to head back to the house. It was getting dark out and we had to drive through the pasture with the baby calves so he wanted to be able to have some daylight to make sure we didn't hit one lying in the grass.

We celebrated the kids birthdays with family and friends. We had a total of 24 out this year. The kids chose chicken tetrazini (Brooklyn's choice) and skillet chicken (Andrew's choice) along with corn, french bread, a fruit platter and cake. This year Brooklyn wanted a princess cake and picked the crown cake. Andrew picked Wall E, which turned out pretty well. I took Friday off to work on party stuff. I got the cakes baked in the morning and was able to start decorating them at 11am. I had a couple volleyball games that night so by 4pm I had to call it quits. The turned out ok, but maybe could've turned out better if I had more time to work on them.

Then Saturday morning, the day of the party, Andrew had his first soccer game. He is playing through Upward at our church and has mostly non-church members on his team. Shane is the assistant coach. Brooklyn and I cheered Andrew on from the sidelines. It is pretty funny to watch kids that young play any sport. Andrew surprised me and instead of being in the middle of the crowd trying to kick the ball, he was on the "outside" waiting for a teammate to pass it to him. There are only 4 games left in the season so we'll see how things progress.

Now that birthday parties are over, we are on to the next thing which is Auburn Fair. The boys are going to ride their tractors in the parade (4 generations of Koci's) and the rest of us are going to ride on the trecker (or the trailor pulled by the trecker) in front of them. Eric has already got permission to run to our float to ride on after he gets done walking with the band (how funny). This is kind of a special year for a couple reasons; 1. Jeff has been gone during the weekend of fair for the past few years due to a hunting trip in Maryland (to which he declined the offer this year in order to do the parade), and 2. it's the 100th year of the Auburn parade. Andrew is so excited to ride his tractor in the parade and wear his bibs. He bought some new boots to wear as well with some of his Birthday money so he would be ready for the parade!

Pictures of recent times

Here are so pictures of when Jeremy was passing through Kansas on his way to New Hampshire...

Jeremy shooting his pistol at the mail box

The huddle to see how well Jeremy did

Jeff & Eric shooting clays

Jeremy and Shane shooting clays with Eric pulling... and Andrew pretending

Jeremy, Mike, Jeff, Andrew, & Shane

The boys and dad

The boys and sis

The fam, missing Meaghan, Heather, & Paige

A change of appearance...

I don't know what exactly made me decide to chop off all my hair, but yesterday I decided to just do it. Maybe it's the fact that I am having my 10 year high school reunion this weekend, or that my uncle passed away this past week, or that I needed a change in my life, but whatever the reason it is done.


This isn't the best picture but it's what I have for now. I'm sure I'll be taking more and I'll share them with you when I do.

Over night guests

Yesterday Shane's twin brother Jeremy stopped in town before heading to his new home in New Hampshire. We had the family over for supper which was nice. After supper the boys (with their toys) headed outside for a demonstration. Their demonstration/testing of new toys turned out to be an evening full of entertainment for the rest of us. Jeff had gotten a new pistol not that long ago and hadn't been able to test it out in town. Jeremy had his pistol with him and Shane got his out as well. After they ran out of bullets, Shane pulled out the riffles and the boys shot at clays for a while. Quite the entertainment I must say! It was fun to see Jeff, Shane, and Jeremy together again goofing off. Eric stepped in a little bit too and shot at some clays. he actually did a pretty good job! I left my camera at work so I will post some pics tomorrow.

A bunch of new

Brooklyn is almost 3 years old and has been in a twin bed for a couple years now. Pretty normal sounding except we have had her box springs and matress on the floor this whole time. In the beginning we didn't want her to have too far to fall if she happen to roll around a lot in her sleep. Then it turned into me not being able to find the bed I wanted for her. Finally, I found it!! Nebraska Furniture Mart had the bed that I had envisioned for Brooklyn. My mom and I picked it up Saturday morning and Shane put it together for Brooklyn later Saturday evening. She was sooo excited to have her new bed!

We also got a new kitty this past week. A friend called and had rescued a kitten on her way into town. He had been rolled by a semi truck on the highway but was ok with the exception of a scrape or two. She named him Fin and called me to see if we could take him. He is extremely lovey so we decided to see how he would do as an indoor cat. After only a day he was litter box trained. Andrew likes to have him sleep in bed with him. Fin makes a great addition to our family!

A little July and August

I've been a little behind getting pictures/videos posted so I am going to try and catch up with this post.

I think I finally have it figured out (thanks to Meaghan's help) and have put up videos that I have taken this summer. This first one is when we took Andrew and Brooklyn to KC to see baby Caden. He would've been only a few weeks old.

We had Vacation Bible School at church late in July and the theme was Boomerang Express. here is a picture of Andrew at VBS for the first time.
Shane and I taught 2nd grade and had a fairly large group. We had anywhere from 11-13 kids depending on the night. It was a lot of fun, but exhausting too.

These are some pictures from the beginning of August for Barb and Grandpa Koci's birthdays.

Andrew holding Caden

Caden getting a little fussy

Finally Caden fell back asleep

Caden being fussy while Brooklyn and barb are trying to wake him up for a feeding

This is a video from Heather's party this past weekend. This is a fairly normal occurrence between the boys. Why is it that boys can't seem to stop picking on each other? Maybe it's because they love it so much and they are kind of cute.

The week in review

We have had a fairly busy week for the end of July. Sunday thru Wednesday evenings we spent up at the church with VBS. Andrew had a blast with Ms. Doneen and Ms. Ally. His favorite part of VBS was playing sharks and minnos in rec. I can already hear the conversations now ... "Andrew what is was for favorite thing about school today?" "Recess mom!"

I was able to stay home with the kids Tuesday and Wednesday and we had a lot of fun. Tuesday was kind of rainy so we played inside and worked on cleaning the house a little bit. Wednesday we ran errands (birthday shopping) and had lunch with Shane. I was able to mow while the kids were "napping" (more like playing in their rooms, but I like to think that they were napping). Then they got up and helped me pick beans in the garden. It was a little muddy from the rain, but we got four rows done. I have already canned about 20 pint and a half jars and will have another canner full to do this weekend.

Now it's Friday, the kids are spending the night with G&G Renyer, the house is pretty clean, and I can't think of anything to do tonight. It's pretty sad when you get older and you realize that your life really does revolve around your kids. When they are gone I am actually a little bored :( I should probably get some scrapbooking done, but I might just lounge around the house with Shane instead!

Tomorrow the kids are getting their birthday pictures done. I just hope no one falls and gets a huge scratch or big bruise tonight ... cross your fingers!

to western Kansas and back

Last weekend we took a little road trip to western Kansas. It was reunion time for my mom's side of the family. In years past, and since my grandparents passed away, we had been going to either Estes Park or Winter Park for our reunions. This year the family decided to take the reunion old school by going back to where they were held when my grandparents were still with us. I have to say I love western Kansas. My grandparents lived about a mile east of the Colorado line and could see for miles around there house. Everyone knows everyone and helps out with everything. You have to drive about 30 miles to get to the nearest WalMart (which had been in Goodland only a few years). I just love everything about it what can I say. Anyway, back to the reunion. It was held at the fair grounds in Sharon Springs. I am a little disappointed that we couldn't stay for fair weekend, but that's how life goes. I didn't hear a final number of how many actually came, but I think we were expecting a little over 100. Most of the family still lives in the western part of the state so there was little drive time for them. We had about a 5 hour drive with two children that like to pick on each other. It definately wasn't as bad as it could've been, but it also could've been better.

It was Kacie's (my youngest niece) birthday on Saturday. I felt bad that we were driving on her birthday so I made arrangements in Hays to have a cake made at Dairy Queen. She was completely surprised! I kind of forgot an essential peice to making the surprise party go off without a hitch, but we were traveling so I should get a little break. Who says a knife to cut a frozen ice cream cake is essential anyway?! Thank goodness Shane had his knife on him, and that he cleaned it since the last time we went fishing a few days prior.

So Sunday was the potluck at the reunion and I wanted to do something special since we were back were we had been when my grandparents were around for the reunions. To do that I decided to make a cake with their picture on it. It was my first cake using the eatible pictures so I think it turned out pretty well considering we traveled across the state of Kansas with it and I was in a hotel room when decorating it. I had forgotten, but was reminded by my Aunt Carolyn, that Saturday was my grandpa's birthday so it made my cake even more special.

Now we are back in town and gearing up for vbs at church. Our theme is the Boomerang Express so I have been working on Australian Outback stuff to put in our room. So far we have made Ayers rock, aboriginal art, and boomerangs to put in our classroom. I sure hope the 2nd graders like what we've done!

July 4th ... a little late

We headed over to Aunt Tammy and Uncle Mike's for the 4th this year. Mike made delicious prime rib in the Green Egg for dinner! The kids started off doing poppers and parachutes while it was still light outside. Then came some of the nighttime fireworks. We had a blast as always at the Hampton's!

Brooklyn with the popper

Brooklyn & Andrew in thier chairs waiting for the fireworks to start

Andrew, Shane, & Brooklyn working hard at controlling the sparklers

What are we going to do mom?

"What are we going to do" is a phrase that mom's (and dad's) probably hear about 100 times a day. Last weekend we decided to do something and took the kids to KC to see Caden, Ryan and Amy. Andrew and Brooklyn got to see him for the first time and were a little unsure of the "new kid in town". After only a few minutes they warmed up to Caden and wanted to hold him. Both did very well at supporting his head and making sure he didn't cry.

Then we headed down to The Legends to eat at T-Rex and walk around for a little bit. The boys went to Cabella's and the girls went to Nebraska Furniture Mart. I was a little disappointed because I had complete confidence that NFM would have the perfect bed for Brooklyn, but I didn't have any luck finding what I have envisioned for her.

Sunday we headed over for pizza night a little early in order to go down to the pond for a little fishing. Shane was the only one who caught anything and his one fish is nothing to brag about. Back to the house for pizza, but the kids had to take a little ride with Grandpa Koci before they wanted to go in for supper.

Today we went and bought our fireworks. The kids couldn't wait any longer ... seriously everyday about every second Andrew has been talking about either wanting a horse or needing to stop for fireworks. The fireworks we can handle right now, so the horse thing will just have to wait a few more years. Do you think he'll forget about it now that he has fireworks? Wishful thinking on my part? Anyway, we shot off a couple parachutes when we got back. Here are a couple of pics the kids would let me get before running off to the next item of business for the evening.

Father's Day

Father's Day weekend was yet another busy weekend. We had my side of the family out Friday evening for some bbq chicken sandwiches and the fixins. Mom and dad took the kids home with them so Shane and I had all of Saturday to ourselves, and what did we do? Nothing, we did nothing; it rained so we couldn't mow, we had already cleaned the house, and the kids weren't around to entertain us so we decided to head off to Lawrence to walk Mass and see the new things to see. Of course it was nice until we got there and then it started to rain. We ran to Buffalo Bob's thinking it would maybe blow over while we ate lunch, but it didn't. After walking in the rain for maybe five minutes we decided to head back to T-town. That night we went to a reception for a couple of my friends that went to Mexico to get married (what I would do if I had to do it all over again!). After some good food and a little dancing we left to get the kids and get home. Jeff, Barb, and Jessie came out for lunch (a mexican fiest as Jessie called it) after church. We had fun visiting with them and showing them some of the things we had done since the last time they were out. Then we were off to the Hampton's for supper. Mike made some yummy chicken in the green egg and Tammy made my favorite tater casserole. The kids (of all ages) jumped in their pool for a quick swim before desert. Home around nine rounded out the weekend festivities ... ready for Monday and another week at work ... oh wait, just kidding!!!

As expected, June has been pretty busy so far. We started off the month with a family garage sale over at Grandma and Grandpa Koci's house. We did pretty good for being "out of town" and having mostly little items we were trying to get rid of. I think Grandpa came out ahead of the rest of us as he had quite a few tools (high dollars) that he sold. The kids had fun at the sale as well with their cookie stand. Strangely no one wanted to buy cookies if the kids weren't sitting right there at their table. I guess seeing two adorable kids makes some people hungry and seeing a grown woman doesn't! Coincidentally the garage sale fell on our anniversary. Shane and I have been married five years ... what a ride it has been!

Then June 9th our newest nephew was born, Caden Koci. Shane and I made a trip to KC to see Ryan, Amy and Caden last Wednesday. I wish I could say that it made me want to have another little one, but I think I am leaning more towards Shane's reasoning, we have the perfect pair a boy and girl. Plus I got to thinking about needing another room and right now we are pretty full. Anywho, Caden was a perfect little guy congrats Ryan and Amy!

The rest of the week we spent time in our semi neglected yard. The weeds had taken over in a few spots and the garden needed some tending to. While Shane and I worked hard in the garden the kids took advantage of the warm day and played in the sprinkler in the backyard. It was quite amuzing at times.

We also made time for a trip to the zoo on Saturday. I'm not sure if they were more excited about the animals at the zoo or getting to ride on the train, but they had fun at any rate!

May activities galore

We started off the month by throwing a baby shower for Ryan & Amy (hosted by Grandma Koci, Aunt Tammy, and myself). Several from the Shane and Koci sides of the family joined us for a brunch in honor of the soon-to-be newest addition to the Koci family, Caden. A simple game of baby camouflage entertained the guests as they arrived. Then we had lunch and played a game of guess what's in the bag. Ryan and Amy made out with a lot of fun things for little Caden!

On Mother's Day we had a fun time with family and helped Aunt Tammy celebrate her Birthday. I had picked up my own gift this year because I wanted some working boots and that seemed too difficult to explain to Shane which ones and what size and everything else that went along with it. The kids were with me when I got them and they "picked" them out for me!

A couple weeks later we helped Kody and Paige celebrate thier high school graduations. Kody, our nephew graduated from Mission Valley

High School. Paige, our cousin, graduated from Washburn Rural High School. Kody had a graduation party on Friday before graduation and Paige had hers on Saturday. Then graduation Sunday came and went, and now the two of them are "adults" and ready for what lies ahead.

Memorial Day weekend we had Jeremy & Meaghan with us from LA. We played quite a bit of pitch and packed as much into the weekend as we could. Saturday night we had the Brinkman side of the family out for a bbq. It had been a while since we had all been together. Then Sunday night we headed over to the pond for the annual campout with the Koci's. We caught a lot of fish, told a bunch of stories, and enjoyed the loveliness of a night at the pond! Memorial Day we had some old friends, the Giles, out for grilling and some shooting. Jeff, Barb and Jessie came out as well to do a little shooting, it was like old times with boys out in the yard with their guns. Then J&M left us to head back to LA on Tuesday.

Now we're in June and still trying to recover from May. I can't believe 2009 is half over and I still haven't gotten everything done that was on my wish list to have done in 2008. I guess the old saying time flies when you're having fun is true for this crew!