Tis the Season

Saturday night we went to the Christmas Parade here in town. It was a great night for it...not too cold!
Maddox praying for candy...just kidding! Have you noticed he always has to be doing something with his hands in the photos I take of him. I'm not sure what this one is all about.

The boys liked the old firetruck all lit up. One of their favorites.

Along with Good Old Santa and Mrs. Claus. Maddox giving me his "Mom....I HATE this stocking hat!!!" face. He adjusted it multiple times. Although he has a big head, this hat just does not fit comfortably AT ALL. Either his eyes are covered or his ears are hanging out!

What a nice way to start out the Christmas season!

The Big 7-0!

Happy Birthday Mom! Here are some pictures that I got ahold of. Some are oldies and some are from just the other night.

Julie singing a special version of the Birthday song to Mom
Kiley (aka Mom) reaching up into the cabinets with a spoon just like Mom does when she can't reach something...which is often.
Mom riding in the back seat with Gavin and Maddox trying to get the semis to honk at them.

Mom was the winner of "Pin the Macho on the Man" at my bachelorette party.

This is an oldie...senior picture maybe??

Me bouncing Mom on the trampoline when I was in high school...I wouldn't let her get off. I have a feeling she'll never get on a trampoline again.

Mom butchering at Cindy and Ervan's...let's see who is the dumb one that can't spell dum! Could it be Justin?

Mom on her wedding day

Not sure what this is...I've heard it's her sun-bathing outfit?

Too bad your birthday is nearing an end...it has been a good one!

SURPRISE!

Wow, what a weekend it has been? A couple weeks ago my family and I decided to have a surprise birthday party for my Mom. Her birthday is on Thanksgiving this year...and she going to be 70!!! Yes, I know it sounds crazy, but she IS going to be 70 years old. Believe me, she doesn't act 70. What 70 yr. old has a party like the one you'll see coming?


Anyway, she had mentioned to us on more than one occasion that she didn't want a party..."they're just too much work", she said. Well, a lot of children take into consideration their parent's wishes. Not us! We knew she would enjoy a party and got it put together in a couple weeks. The problem was trying to keep it a surprise. She is VERY nosy...and asks lots of questions...ALL of the time. I, for one, am a terrible liar and knew that I would be the one to blow it. I steered clear of her a little, but that's impossible when you talk on the phone almost every day. She watched the boys while we went to St. Louis for the day and hung out at our house where we had to hide some things...make sure she wouldn't get on the computer and see pictures we had saved, etc. etc.


Here was the plan: My sister Elaine called to tell Mom that she was coming home for the weekend so that her husband could hunt...so it was planned that we would have our Thanksgiving celebration Saturday night at her house, yes her house. She fixed turkey, noodles, dressing, you name it...she fixed it. If you're ever having a surprise party this is the way to go! (Then it's not that much work) Honestly, this is the way it works. Mom fixes the main meal and we all bring the extras...so if we were to have done it differently and not let her do it all she would have known something was up. So, we let her cook. Then, we had extra friends and family meet over at my brother's house just next door at 6 and all come over together to surprise her.




A little after 6 pm, all of my immediate family was hanging out as Mom was getting everything finalized...the food was pretty much all lined up and ready to eat when a knock came at the garage door. Brent answered it...it was someone selling Christmas cookies. So, he hollered at Mom and told her what the situation was....and she knew who it was (so she thought). It was Nathan, a young relative, who often comes by selling things. So, back through the utility room she goes and opens the door to find....a garage full of people shouting "Surprise!!" and singing Happy Birthday to her. You talk about surprised! She was absolutely clueless! She couldn't get over how full the garage was of people and loved that they all had came to help her celebrate.




After everyone was settled in...we had another surprise. This time it was relatives of my Mom's from Chicago that had made the trip home just for her. Phil and Lucy...they are a hoot! When it came to thinking of ideas for entertainment...they popped into our heads. Here they are...keep in mind that Mom has no clue who is in the ape costume...and that it is VERY, VERY, hot in that costume...he takes a breather toward the end.


I broke this up into 2 videos because I couldn't get it to work otherwise. Don't forget to watch both.

Later, Larry and my niece, Kiley, took the stage...and were they ever a hit! They both did an awesome job! (This is also split up...into 4 different videos)

Shoot! I cannot get the rest of the video to upload...I guess it will come at a later time. At least this gave you a peek into the PARTY that was had at the Kocher's on Saturday night. Check back for more...and please, please feel free to leave a comment. I am dying to hear your thoughts.

I'm So Excited!

I'M SO EXCITED I COULD EXPLODE!!!!! These were the words coming out of Gavin's mouth after school yesterday. He knew that he was going to get to go hunting for the 1st time with Grandpa Dorn.

Here they are getting ready to go! So far I haven't heard of any success...I'll be sure to post if I do. Besides, the success has already been accomplished. The smile on Gavin's face says it all!

Santa Stopped by Already!

Yesterday morning we had a new bed for Pepper and a scratching post sitting on our porch with a bow on it. Gavin and Maddox were very excited for Pepper. Santa must have known that Pepper was going to need a place to keep warm in the garage for the winter. Gavin used an old towel of ours to cover him up...he will be such a good "big" cousin.

The boys brought Pepper inside to watch them make birthday cards for Jeremy.

Thanks Santa for making their day! (and Pepper's too)

Happy Birthday Uncle Jeremy!

The boys wanted to wish their Uncle Jeremy a Happy 32nd Birthday today!

Kelly and Jeremy with Gavin when we brought him home from the hospital.
Gavin enjoying Jeremy's Harley

4-wheelin buds!

I couldn't find any pictures of Jeremy with Maddox. Strange! However, Maddox thought that Jeremy would like this picture of him ramping up his jungle gym with his Jeep.

We hope you have a Happy Birthday Jeremiah! By the way, Maddox picked out the song.

No earplugs!

I am reporting from St. Louis this morning...Larry drug me...I mean we were lucky enough to get tickets to a Metallica concert last night. It was fun! Larry was so excited...it was an awesome show all in all. ( My favorite was the light show! I really haven't seen anything like that before.) I just wish I knew the songs word for word like everyone else. I should for as many times as I've heard them, but the place was packed and there was a lot of energy in that arena!

Note: Larry bought ear plugs for me...I used them for the opening bands Down and The Sword

I didn't use them for Metallica though! Larry was proud of me...

These are all the photos I have for now...I took a few with my cell phone, but they're not good at all. I wanted to take my camera so badly, but Larry told me they'd confiscate it. He should've stuffed it in his pants. No one would have noticed!

We may have a few pics coming later. Off to shop!!

All camo-ed out!

Today Larry and Debbie took the boys to get all geared up and ready for next weekend's hunting season! They are very excited. They were nice enough to send this photo that they took today since I didn't get to see their camo. Looks like they're all set and ready to go!

Gavin will be going hunting with Grandpa this year for his first hunting experience. I think he'll be a good hunter...Maddox will be staying home with us for another year or two...I think he'd scare all the deer away yet this year.

What a crew!

Last Saturday Mom and Cindy drove to Louisville to get some meat for the entire family. Our house was the first drop-off. The boys got right in and helped count out the packages. I'm sure they were a big help. All I know is that we had lots of laughs and in the end they were hired! They rode along to deliver the rest of the meat. I heard they were such good helpers. They even locked the keys in the truck! What would Grandma and Cindy have done without them?

Thanks for taking the boys for a couple hours!

Donuts with Dad

The boys had "Donuts with Dad" this morning for breakfast at school. PTO puts that on every year. The boys enjoyed it and I'm pretty sure Larry did too!

Getting buckled into the Jeep. It's not every day that they get to ride in the Jeep to school. I hear they were squealing their tires on the way there.

Maddox and Uncle John

Larry with his mouth full (Sorry Larry, I didn't figure you'd mind me posting this...I figured this was minor compared to some of your photos). Maddox showing me his grape.

Thanks to PTO for letting the kids have Donuts with Daddy today! They have been looking forward to this day!

Mom, I'm ready for church!

I had clothes laid out for Gavin to wear to church on Sunday and as I was getting Maddox ready this is how Gavin came out. He promised he was ready....keep in mind we were in a hurry! I didn't find a whole lot of humor in it at the time (enough to take a picture though), but what was a couple more minutes. He had his pants on his head, socks on his arms, and legs in his shirt sleeves.

Dear Santa,

I want this and this and this....

A couple weeks ago we got a Toys-R-Us magazine and had the boys look through it and write their first initial next to the things they thought they'd like to ask Santa for. Gavin would ask how much things cost and if he thought it cost too much he wouldn't put his initial down. I'm talking $30 was to much...he must not be our child! Then, Maddox went through and wrote his M lots of times. We were saying how we thought we would keep that magazine just because it was so cute too see their little initials. Then, last week we got a Wal-Mart flier. Gavin was at school, but Maddox started in right away. He went through and wrote his M's and I noticed he had little O's also. Curious to see what the O's were for, I asked. He said, "I made G's for Gavin since he's at school. I think he wants these things." How thoughtful!

The green helicopter is what I want, the blue heli is for Gavin (notice the O....we need to work on those) and the one on the right is for RJ! Don't be surprised if Santa brings RJ a helicopter this year...if he does, you'll know why!

We've got some moves....

Aunt Kelly made a Kidz Bop CD for the boys and surprised them with it after church on Sunday. I "think" they liked it. How about you?

Larry's showing the boys how to do a hurkey...I'm pretty sure he's done one of those before, but it will probably never make the blog. We'll just leave it at that. If you're family, you know which one I'm talking about. We even have a coffee mug with that photo on it, thanks to Rick and Amber.

Thanks Kelly!

Merry Christmas to me!

About a week and a half ago, I had gone over to Megan's house to video a project for Megan's daughter Payton and her friends. I then brought Payton over to my house to edit the video. When I got home Larry was on the phone with Kelly and so Payton and I headed back to the computer to get started. As I mentioned before, I check my email often, and I hadn't for at least 3 hours, so it was about time. I had two emails from Dell. I opened one of them and realized that someone had ordered me a new laptop...I was shocked! I told Payton not to tell larry that I saw the email and we'd go from there. I didn't open the second email from them. I wished I hadn't opened the first one, but I was curious!

After Larry was done helping Payton edit her video then he must've checked our email too and saw that there were two messages from Dell and that one of them had been opened. He came out into the kitchen and told me I was an "ass". I told him I didn't know why he was calling me that, especially since I hadn't done anything. However, we all know I am a terrible liar. He knew that I knew! I couldn't help but smile. He was trying to surprise me, but it didn't all work as planned. I guess I came home sooner than he thought!

I guess he used our debit card to order and the price of the computer was higher than our limit on the debit card. That's what the two emails were about. He told me later that he was going to call and order it in the morning. He called from work the next day saying that if I wanted a computer that we'd be getting it elsewhere...that he had spent forever on the phone talking to people that couldn't understand him and vice versa. He had been transferred numerous times and had to explain over and over what the problem was. He wasn't happy at all with their customer service etc. etc.

However, Wednesday I received yet another email saying that my order had shipped. Too funny! I called him and reluctantly told him about my new email. He was ticked, because he had cancelled the order and now they were sending him a computer that he didn't want. Lies, Lies, terrible lies! Anyway, he told me when he got home that I was an ass again and that I was indeed getting a new computer. I guess he never had trouble with the customer service and that he had called to change the email address so that I wouldn't get any more notices. He thought he had it all taken care of. He told me because he was tired of trying to hide it!

Today is my first day of trying it out...you know I had to try it out and make sure it was working properly. I love it! Thanks Larry...I'm a little bit sorry that I found out about it, but just a little. Also, thanks to Larry's family who tried to help him keep it a secret too!

Ice Cream Anyone?

Last weekend we spent some time at the campground with Grandma and Grandpa Dorn. Maddox started up an ice cream shop using the door as a sliding window. Aunt Kelly was his first customer. He was charging $5 a cone, $2 a cone, and then 30 cents for mine. Mom's must get the best deal.

I didn't get any pictures of Gavin...he was busy riding his bike!