Kittens, cats, and more...

The boys played with kittens at Grandma and Grandpa Kocher's this afternoon. Meet Oscar and Sharpe' - I am guessing Rhett named them...I don't think mine would've came up with Sharpe', but who knows. This is Gavin and Pepper watching the rain come down...

Mmmmm...Yummy!

This afternoon we went with my niece Mallory and nephew Rhett to get some more strawberries. We picked some last week and decided we needed to go again. We love strawberries at our house. They definitely don't last long around here.

Being silly...

How old is he? You'd think he was 1.

Being goofy...

Gavin really gets into picking strawberries. He can be such a hard worker...if only he stays that way! He does a good job too...

Do I have to? (updated)

I really don't want to post tonight, but I guess that's part of the deal. I am up 1.2 lbs. I really enjoyed myself this weekend...what can I say?

I wish it was as easy to lose weight as it seems to be to lose my mind. We are planning a trip to Wyoming on June 7th. I looked ahead at the calendar for something else in June...guess what, Larry's vacation doesn't start until the 14th. It would help if he could go along too. Geesh! It's a good thing I don't have a schedule for us to work around...then again, that may be the problem. It looks like we have an extra week to begin our planning.

I'll update when I hear from Mom tomorrow...she's thinking she's in the same boat I am. We'll see!

Update: Mom just called to let me know how she did. Let me start off by saying she's been completely "off" this week. She didn't exercise much...ate lots...and guess what...she LOST 1.8 lbs. That's the biggest loss she's had in a long while. How exciting for her! I told her she needed to eat more...
Now she's only 3.4 lbs away from her 20 lb. goal and PARTY!

Happy Birthday Do-Do!

This is a belated wish for my niece, Jordan...from Sunday! Happy Sweet 16 girl! I was just reminiscing and remembered Maddox's attempt to say Jo-Jo when he first started talking and we ended up with Do-Do!


Jordan and Mallory at our wedding in '00
Gavin and Jordan...not sure what's going on here...Poor Jordan!

Jordan giving Maddox a taste of her candy...I'm thinking it was licorice

Jordan and I at her confirmation. I'm her Godmother. This is Jordan and Taylor before prom this year...all dolled up...beautiful girls!

Happy Birthday Jordan! It looks like we'll be seeing you this weekend. Lots of love....Hope you had a Happy Birthday without us!

Happy Birthday Chelsea!

Sorry it's a belated birthday wish from Saturday Chels!

Chelsea and I...she made the CUTEST flower girl!

Chelsea reading Gavin a bedtime story at Grandma and Grandpa Kocher's

My two "helpers" making/eating a hamburger casserole

Chelsea and Maddox taking a break from decorating Easter eggs this year...
Chels with Grandma and Grandpa Kocher on Graduation night
Chelsea with Gavin...we made it just after Gavin's ball game...Maddox was camping!

We love you so much Chelsea! Happy Birthday...we hope to see you a lot this summer!

Congrats to Chelsea!

She graduated from 8th grade last night. She looked so pretty...but I have no pictures to share. Mom sent me these from earlier in the week. Chelsea's having her party tomorrow. Steve always used to make the kids' birthday cakes. This year Chelsea wanted a pink and purple cake...so here it is in the making.

She wanted polka dots like I used on Mallory's baptism cake...and Steve always makes it personal around the edges. From what I can gather...it looks like Chelsea helps with the pigs...or scoops poop ??, plays ball (softball and volleyball) and rides with Steve in his semi. She's definitely a farm girl...haha! Job well done Steve...now I have to mention the spelling...leave it to me! I'm thinking that there were 3 people in on the decorating of this cake and not one of them knew how to spell CongraTulations...how could any you make it past 8th grade without knowing that! Just kidding...for as many times as that word gets misspelled it needs to be changed.

Just a photo Mom had on her camera from the other day...the boys were all sitting together on the chair watching cartoons. (Maddox, Rhett, and Gavin)

Chelsea, we are very proud of you and wish you luck in High School next year! Love you!

Weekly weigh-in

I was down .4 lbs. this week. I'm fine with it...let's hope next week goes better though.

It's much more rewarding to have bigger #'s.

I'll update Mom's progress when I hear from her tomorrow.

(Update)
Mom's up .8 lbs this week. I wish it' would've been a loss for her...I'm sure she does too. I'm sure she can take a .8 lb. gain though, I'm thinking she's had much larger gains before...just like me. Remember those days!

Boys, baseball caps, and bumbos

We had Mallory at our house for a couple hours last Monday afternoon. We enjoyed her visit as usual!Gavin was getting ready for his ball game and thought Mallory might like to try on his hat...he was right!

Funny faces and giggles galore!

I might get fired for this one...we don't really have any more baby stuff around here anymore and Larry was getting a cooler ready to take snacks for Gavin's ball game. He ruled this one out since it said Coors Light on the side and we did have another one to use. However, we found that it made a great Redneck "Bumbo seat". It was all Maddox's idea...

Larry and Maddox's Birthday

This post is long overdue, I have been putting it off knowing it would take forever to upload the photos. The Sunday after we had Maddox's birthday party we decided to head to Fairview Heights and go to Monkey Joe's. Some friends of ours had been there recently and said their kids had a blast so we decided to go do something "different". The boys LOVED Monkey Joe's, but after 2 1/2 hours we decided to head into St. Louis...it had been raining all morning and the sun decided to come out around 3:00 or so. We headed to the zoo for just a couple hours and hit some of our favorite spots. After the zoo closed, we headed to the turtle playground just across the interstate. We didn't realize it was there, but because of the detour due to construction we stumbled across it. It was simple, but fun. Then, we were headed home and decided to find a spot to eat. We turned around and headed back to The Melting Pot. Larry suggested it...I thought it was a great idea and hoped the boys would like it. They did enjoy it so I'm glad we went.

I forgot to mention we ate at Hooter's for lunch. Have I mentioned Larry's fav place to eat is indeed Hooter's. He claims it's for their wings...
Gavin pushing his balloon away because he was NOT Bridget's boyfriend!

One of the huge blow-ups at Monkey Joe's...there were 4 different ones and a little area for toddlers too.

Zoo photos...I love the butterflies!

Turtle playground

The Melting Pot...this was our first course...cheese fondue with veggies and bread

3rd course...the meat...lobster, shrimp, filet mignon, pork, steak, chicken, etc....

Dessert...with chocolate fondue for the dipping! Mmmmmmmm! The birthday boy showing us his muscles after eating SOOO MUCH food!

We are glad we took off and headed there for a short trip...it was definitely worth it!

Brownies and Hooters...(updated)

have you heard of this new diet? You should try it...KIDDING!

Really though, I had a rough time Friday-Sunday. I went to Evansville with Larry...we ate at Hooters. I can eat healthy there, and I did...EXCEPT we ordered fried pickles and I ate my half. I ate nearly a half of a pan of brownies from Friday to Sunday. Thank you to my neighbor Wendy!!!!!!!! I tried to tell her that we didn't need them...she insisted thinking that they would be for the boys. Ha! My boys don't eat brownies that well..however, I do! They were delicious though!

I went the whole weekend eating things and not really knowing how to count the points, I just tried to eat reasonable amounts. I must not have done too bad, that or it's going to catch up with me next week. I was down 1.6 lbs. today...very surprised! I felt like I had done terrible all weekend.

One more thing...you know how last week I said I ran 20 minutes and then 7 more....today I ran 33 at once. It was just one of those days where I felt like I could go forever...too bad that doesn't happen more often!

Good luck to all of you who are working at this weight loss thing...hang in there with me!

I'll update tomorrow when I hear from Mom: Mom just called and she was down 1 lb. today! That's a big number compared to her last few weeks. Great job...looks like your new menu has helped!

Mud, mud, and more mud!

That seems to be what the boys are into these days with all the rain we've had. Today we had lunch at the Campground for Mother's Day with Debbie. Here they are with their crew...what a bunch!

Kyle explaining to me that he is NOT going to get in the mud because his Mom told him not to. What a good kid?!?! Bribery didn't even work.

Getting his first hosedown...later came the strip-down! Gavin was too embarrased to walk around the campground in his underwear...not Maddox though! You could see his white "little" legs and belly coming from miles away. He sure got a lot of attention that way!

Thanks for all the Mother's Day wishes...it is by far the hardest job yet the most rewarding!