Happy Easter

Happy Easter

We want to wish all of our friends and family a

very blessed Easter !!!

The above picture was taken this morning after church.

It's Been Awhile!

Wow, it's been a long time since I have updated you all on our Chaos! Today is officially the first day of spring! Thank goodness! We spent the day cleaning the shed to make room for all the equipment that will soon be moved into the shed to get ready for the spring fieldwork. And Scott is getting the lawn mowers ready for the spring. I, on the other hand, have been studying as much as I can for the RT Registry test. I have a little over one month of classes left before I graduate (May 13th, 2011) yes on my 33rd birthday! I have applied for my seat at the registry and I am waiting for a reply to schedule my test date (I will let you all know when my test date is.... after the test is over ;) I don't need anymore pressure on me! I do feel good about how my studying is going, I am really retaining a lot of the information! I am just ready to be done and enjoy life for a while! We are already in the middle of March Madness!! I am watching the ILLINI play as I type......I wish I could say they were winning... This past week the kids and I caught a little flu bug... headache, fever and congestion. Kayla only got one day of school in last week and Kyle and I were home on Thursday and Friday then it took me most of the weekend to catch up on strength....running a fever is hard on me.. LOL We celebrated Kayla's 7th Birthday a couple of weeks ago and will be celebrating Kyle's 5th next weekend. Wow they are growing up so fast....can anyone tell me how to get them to stop fighting???? I'm about to pull my hair out.....funny I seem to remember my mom saying the same thing:) I'll try to post some pictures of the kid's birthday party's in a few weeks.....Thanks for reading and trying to keep up with us! Back to the ILLINI...still loosing :(

In and Out!

That 1/2 inch of snow we got today was so pretty........until I forgot that my ABS taction system wasn't working on the van. Kyle and I slid off the road and into the ditch and thankfully I was driving "slow" enough ;) that I drove right back out! No worries, there was no damage to us or the van.... in fact, after I was back on the road (and not yet calm), Kyle starts giggling and says "That was fun, Mom". And he decided that "Whitey" (Van) is meaner than "Little Gray" (S-10). Because Little Gray barely got out of the same ditch and Whitey just drove right out! Sure did add some excitement to our day!

She did it again!

Kayla decided to cut her hair off again! Another 3 inches!
It makes her look so much older!

I think I may be cutting mine off today too!

Christmas 2010

Christmas 2010

It’s hard to believe Christmas has came and went. It’s already the first of January! I love the Christmas season and all the decorations and lights, and to see it all through the eyes of my kids is great…..but man am I ready for things to get back to normal! The kids are finally calming down and well….TRYING to listen to mom and dad.
Kayla asked for a karaoke machine and Santa delivered! Kyle asked for a new bike and ……..yes, Santa delivered (even if he had to leave a not so very nice note in his stocking and leave his bike in the shed to see later ;). I tried to upload some videos of the kids singing to their favorite songs with the karaoke machine but I am having trouble. I’ll try again later. These are very mild compared to what we’ve seen most recently :)
After Christmas, Scott and I decided to spend our Christmas money we received from our parents, not on bills! We bought us a new TV and entertainment center. We all love it and can’t wait to watch the ILLINI play tomorrow!
We have still been working in the shed the last couple of weeks. We almost have the ceiling up in the shed and the big insulated door is REALLY close to working! I will post pictures of the finished product, whenever that may be…hopefully soon!

Also, on a side note, Kayla has made some pretty good money from the Tooth Fairy over the holidays! She lost a tooth on Christmas night and another a couple days later!

Christmas at my Mom & Dad's and also at the Kocher family Christmas

Our tree and the presents that Santa left on Christmas morning

Santa brought the kids new blankets!

Our New Illini hoodies! (and "American Girl" Doll from Grandma Clara)

Thanks to both of our families for all the wonderful gifts for the kids and for the wonderful Christmas memories!

Another one bites the dust...

I finished the fall semester up on thursday with my last final. As I last posted, I thought I would be getting A's in all my classes if I did well on my finals. Well, I had a really hard time studying for them but I pulled it off (Barely)! I got all A's for the first time!!!! I'm super excited!

Only one fmore semester of classes and I will be DONE!!! I believe I will be done at the end of April and graduating on the 13th of May....Yes, my 33rd Birthday!!!!

It can't come fast enough!

December Update

I'm a little behide on my monthly update but I finally had a chance to sit down and update. I am 2 days away from officially done with the fall semester........I finished up at my clinical site, RMH, on Friday....kind of bitter sweet. I think I'm going to miss the diagnostic imaging staff there! I have 2 days of finallys this next week and then I am DONE and ready for a break! I currently have 3-A's and 1 -B. If I do well on my finals I may be able to bump that B to an A.

The kids are so excited for Christmas this year! Kayla is asking for a Karaoke Machine and makeup (yea!) and Kyle is asking for a new bike! We are not real sure Kyle will be getting a bike from Santa.......... It's been a rough couple weeks! :)
Yesterday, Kayla and I had a "mommy and Kayla Day" we went to Effingham to do a little Christmas shopping but most importantly we were going to get our ears pierced! Kayla chose chrystal daisy's and they look beautiful! (I also got one of mine repierced).

We had lunch at TGI Friday's and then went to walmart to get a few gifts! I believe she had a great day!

Scott has been working of the shed again lately. He's trying to get the shower hooked up and running, get our big insulated door on the front and the shed working and then the ceiling put up so that it can stay warm!

Tonight we are having an early Christmas party with Ashley! They kids and I are really excited to see Ashley open her gift from us....We hope she likes it!

I believe this is the first year the kids got SUPER excited about the show! Kayla wants to go sledding SOOOO bad! :)

I hope everyone finds this Christmas season to be wonderful! I'll update again at christmas time! Merry Christmas to all!

PS: Oh and I changed the blog layout and the title of my blog.....catchy isn't!

The price of soybeans!

Fall is my favorite time of the year! I love the colors, the weather, and the fact that I am getting ready to sign up for my LAST semester of classes...LOL.

School for us is going well. Kayla is flying into reading and math and although she is working hard, she is doing really well! Kyle is finally adjusting to Pre-K. We no longer have to leave him crying. Which has made the start to our day much easier. We are still stuggling a bit with him "being a big boy", each day is getting easier. Classes for me is still going well... I am AMAZINGLY still getting A's in my classes. Clinicals are also still going well too. Things are starting to "click" a little more everyday and my confidence level is growing by the minute! There are still a few days when I ask myself if I was crazy for going back to school but those moments are coming less and less often!

We have been teaching Kayla about helping out at home. She has been working hard at folding and putting their laundery away and sweeping the floors for me. Sometimes it would be easier to do it myself but what good would that do! She enjoys saving her money in her wallet!

Last month, Scott, the kids and I hosted a fall party for a bunch of our friends (12 adults and 13 kids) we grilled out on the grill and had a fire. My kids had a blast! It was our first "friend party" that we have hosted, and I think a good time was had by all!

I'll leave you with a funny story that sort of goes with the title of this post:

On the saturday of our party, the kids and I were playing around of the living room floor and I was picking on Kyle when I noticed a big chunck of wax in his ear.... I went to get a tweezers ( I know, thats not what I should have used) to get the wax out when I noticed that it was much smoother that what wax should be. I asked Kyle "Have you put anything in your ear lately?" Kyle said "ya mom, i put a bean in there!" I looked a little closer and noticed it was indeed a soybean! I asked Kyle "how long has the bean been in there?" He said "umm, about 5 days" I'm not sure if he really new that or he was making it up....but it was possible. So I made a few phone calls on how to go about getting the bean out of his ear and decided to use a hair pin and some veggie oil. After about 30 minutes I finally got the soybean out of his ear.....I was almost ready to put him in the van and go to the ER. That would have cost me about $500.00! Too bad I didn't get that price at the elevator when we sold our soybeans! Kyle told me I was "the best mom in the world" when I got the bean out..... That was a first, I normally hear "you're a mean mommy"!

Thanks for reading, until next time!

Happy Fall!

Fall pictures

Rolling into fall..

WOW! August and September seemed to have flew by. It's hard to believe it's the first of October already. We have all settled into our school routine....or at least most of us ;) Kyle is still struggling a little bit with school. He only cries when I leave home in the morning (leaving him with Ashley) and when I drop him off at school ;) He seems to really like being at school, just not leaving mom.

Kayla on the other hand is doing very well. She has a book to read every night as well as vocab words to recite. Kayla's favorite subject this week is math;) and her favorite time of the day is going outside. She managed to get hurt two Wednesday's in a row a few weeks ago. She was in PE both times. Scott wanted to send her to school with a football helmet on her head....she didn't think that was a good idea! Kayla also started religion classes at St. Mary's in Ste. Marie and is really enjoying it. There are only a total of 5 kids in her class.

Scott has been really busy the past few weeks....so we don't see him that often. The rain gave him a nice little break (one day of sleeping in). We are almost done with harvest...maybe only a week or so left!

My semester is going great! I am loving it at RMH. I am getting the feel of being a real tech and loving it! My classes are going awesome.... all A's. I even got my very first ever 100% a few weeks ago! I was so EXCITED!!! Actually, it was 103% because I got the bonus question right!

I hope everyone is enjoying this wonderful fall weather...we sure are! Until next time!

Angie