Kids.Kohtz.org

Some new and old pictures to enjoy!

I promise to post new pictures soon! I just have not taken them off the camera for some time!

Strep throat has been going through our family the last few weeks. First Brayden had something in his ears and throat then Lauren tested positive for strep. She finished her antibiotics and three days later started another course for more strep. Then I finally got it this week. Watch out Jackie, it kind of hurts!

The kids spent a few days in Columbus with their Grandparents and Haley while we went to Colorado for skiing. We are planning on taking them next year. Lauren had a hard time being away from us for 5 days, as she always does, but Brayden didn't miss a beat! But she was great when Aunt Haley was with her! (I think it was kind of hard on Grandma)

Brayden suddenly decided he wants to do homework and is getting his letters figured out. He can write out the "B" "r" and "a" in his name and can fly through the alphabet flash cards. Speech is going well. He goes twice a week at UNK master's program and KPS comes to his preschool once a week. I think he now talks in complete sentences and I can understand most of what he says. He also walks around counting (usually to 15 or 16)and just repeating the numbers. Brayden has been having friends over, it is definitely different than little girls. Lots of running, play fighting, and very loud!

Lauren lost her third tooth in Columbus while we were gone. She is saving all her tooth fairy money separate from her other money. She has her "car savings" at the bank, her piggy bank here, her money she wants to spend but won't spend and her tooth fairy money (that's 4 different places she saves). Other than the tooth money, whenever she gets money she evenly spreads it out between her different accounts! Lauren was invited over to one of her boy classmates house to play games . Evidently these two were very competitive!

I don't think we have taken any pictures this month. Lauren is still awake in bed at 10:00. First it was her DS and now she is going over her math flash cards. Brayden just turns over and goes to sleep. Maybe that is why Lauren is a bear in the morning and Brayden is ready to have a good time!

Received Lauren's Health Report Card from school. She is 48 inches tall and weighs 49.2 pounds. Brayden was sick last week and he happened to be weighed, he comes in at a weight of 38 pounds. Brayden had an ear infection last week and does not mind taking the medicine which is really nice! Lauren finished selling Girl Scout cookies and she has sold a total of 255 cookies. Yahoo!!

Received Lauren's report card today, she is doing very well in school. Her is what was written in the teacher comments section. "Lauren has made amazing progress in kindergarten. She is so very helpful, is writing very well, and is very likable. Lauren has shown wonderful progress in reading and writing. She continues reading well at Level G. WOW! What a great accomplishment. Lauren is a very quiet person. She is volunteering often and is willing to take part in all classwork when requested. At this time the only thing she can work on is adding coins together. Lauren--I am so impressed with your hard work and reading skills. Keep working hard. Mrs. H."
We went out for ice cream per Lauren's choice since her report card was sooooo good! Brayden continues to like Ben 10, Star Wars, Batman, the list goes on and on. Ryan and I have been playing Star Wars everyday lately. Brayden is also able to count to 14, but will only do it when he feels like it. Lauren joined Girl Scouts this year and has been introduced to selling Girl Scout cookies. Her and I went out last Sunday to sell cookies and she had fun going to houses.

Lauren lost her first tooth yesterday. She pulled it right before bed. The tooth fairy came last night but the bill fell on the floor under her bed with all her squirming. She was quite upset when there was nothing under her pillow but we convinced her the tooth fairy was here!

I posted two sets of new pictures, lots to look at. We had a fun and exciting December. the kids had their first two snow days and we got a lot of snow. It has been so cold we can hardly play outside. We had Christmas in Columbus kind of early but that was a lot of fun. I put some pictures up of the kids Christmas program up. then we headed to Nashville for a week. That was also a great trip. The kids did great on the 14 hour drive (each way). Lauren and Jackie went to a huge ice sculpture exhibit and we all went the Opryland hotel for their Christmas light display. The kids, ken and I went to Chuck-e-cheese while they shopped and then a movie while they shopped some more. On the way home we stopped at the St. Louis Arch. Brayden loved the ride to the top and Lauren loved the view from the top so that was a lot of fun! Even with that 4 hour stop, we still made it to Omaha just after 10 pm (we left at 7am).

Enjoy the pictures.

OK, I have two new sets of pictures posted. The first set are a few of the photos we ad taken of the kids in early November. We have not seen all of them yet, but so far they look real good. The next set is a few of Lauren turning 6 and some of the kids at the Lincoln Children's museum. We did Christmas in Columbus yesterday since my whole family will be all over the world over Christmas (Switzerland, Nashville, and Colorado). It was kind of ealry but it was lot of fun spending the day with everyone. Haley and Thomas Skyped in for an hour and a half. Almost like they were there. Lauren and Brayden had a great day there with food, sledding, gifts, and walking on the ice. Always fun when Conner and Abby are around! Then today we had the Sunday School Christmas program which Lauren and Brayden were in together. Lauren spoke and Brayden hung an ornament on the tree. They did a great job!

I'll put up more pictures hopefully before we drive to Nashville.

Still haven't re-loaded the software for the pictures. Our baby girl is 6 now! Hard to believe. I think she had a fun weekend, lots of excitement. We had a YMCA party for her and 9 other girls (and Brayden) today. We swam for an hour and then had a giant cookie, followed by time in the game room. Lauren had a real fun time! She also had two separate get-together's with Jackie's family and my family, we even Skyped Haley and Thomas in from Bern. Almost felt like they were here! She does have her first sniffles though since School started so that's a bummer.

I was putting Christmas lights up outside today and I told Lauren I thought they were all white. She was bummed and said Christmas needs lots of color and everyone puts white lights up. As I got into the box though, the lights were red so she was happy. We might add some multicolor lights on our one lonely tree!

Brayden is still all boy. Tonight after he had been in bed for an hour, we heard little footsteps in the hall. He was standing in the corner, sunglasses on, toy gun pointed up, getting ready to storm the room. I couldn't help but laugh. His Mom didn't think it was funny! He also had fun jumping on my outdoor Christmas lights as they lay on the ground. He liked the "pop" sound it made.

Promise to get pictures soon!

No new pictures yet, the computer crashed and I have yet to get the photo software loaded. Luckily the pictures all safe and mostly backed up. But we do have some good ones to post. So a brief update. Brayden is doing a few weeks of a wrestling class at Kearney High, he seems to like it. Mostly tumbling and rolling around, and a little bit of wrestling. He loves school and doesn't like day care right now. First thing when he wakes up, he asks if he has to go to Jennys followed by a happy Yaaaay (doesn't go) or a sad Awwww (has to go) and then asks about school with the same reactions. He is always so happy in the morning, just up and going in moments.

Lauren has the big 6 coming up this week. YMCA swim party on Sunday with friends and small family parties on Thursday and Saturday. She is doing a great job in school. Listening to her read is so much fun. Her books at the start of the year were so simple and limited in words and now they are sentences and paragraphs with big words. She can tell time now and she has counted to over 200 then tells me how she would count all the way to 1000. I think she could count forever. Guess that's it for now.

Here you go Aunt Candi, pictures are finally posted.

Lauren is now able to tie her own shoelaces, which means that she now has a pair of tennis shoes with laces. She loves having her new shoes. Brayden also has officially mastered #1 and #2 on the potty. Yahoo! Brayden did say a comment that was funny to us about toileting, "No touch pee pee, no wash hands". We explained to him that is not the way it works and is now good at washing his hands. Also yesterday when Brayden was at preschool in his Batman costume one of the girls in his class came up and touched his "Batman sixpack", he just smiled.

One of Brayden's favorite sayings is " Bad Mom, Bad Dad". Not exactly our favorite words we like to hear out of his mouth. He likes to use them when he does not get what he wants. Brayden had his preschool Halloween party today and had a lot of fun being batman, will get some of those pictures up soon. This week was the last week for Brayden's soccer, which he really enjoyed! Next plan is swimming lessons. Brayden went to the dentist for the first time today with his Dad or should I say he cried and ran around the hallways. So, he never did get to have the dentist look in his mouth, will try again in 6 months.

School has been going well for Lauren, she recently moved up a reading group which she was happy about since her best friend is in that group. Now that Lauren is spelling out pretty much anything she sees, Brayden now comes up to Ryan or I and says letters to us and we sound them out for him which is really cool to have him do that! Lauren had her first fieldtrip for school and it was to the pumpkin patch outside of Gibbon, it was a little wet and muddy! She had a lot of fun though, I was able to go along on the trip. It has been a long time since I have rode on a school bus and it was Lauren's first time which was really cool for her.

On our way to church this morning Lauren told us that there are people who don't think God is real, she also said that some people worship things such as statues. She said that she knows God is real! On our way back from church this morning she told us the story she had learn about in Sunday School, which was very cool to hear her tell us. I will have to let the Sunday school teachers know that what they are teaching is being heard. The kids also sang in church today which was cool, since it is the first time they have sung together. Of course it is on video for anyone to watch.

Surprise Haley, new pictures already! What a great trip to Omaha we had! We went to Vala's pumpkin patch on Thursday, which truly is huge. We were there for hours and never even made it to the actual pumpkin patch. We then went to the hotel and Brayden kind of just chilled in the room with Mom while Lauren and I swam. The kids then bounced around the room for a while and then we woke up and all went swimming again. Next was a trip to the zoo. Brayden could stare at animals forever. He was amazed! They had a very small baby gorilla being held by a lady and he did not want to stop watching. Then the adult gorilla was right by the glass and he did not want to leave. Lauren really wanted to see cheetah's (her class animal) but we missed them, that was a bummer. As much as Brayden could stare, Lauren loved to tell us we had already stared at 10 different gorillas, get moving already! They both had a lot of fun!

Today we went to a birthday party for one of Brayden's classmates and apparent new best friend. They talk about each other a lot! We also watched the UNK homecoming parade and Lauren's last volleyball practice today. It was a busy few days! One thing we noticed with all the driving, Lauren spells out many and most signs and asks constantly what does it spell! Very exciting to see her sponge information but it does get old telling her what every sign, semi, billboard, car, etc says between Omaha and Kearney!

Yesterday Brayden's preschool teacher told me that he likes the clean up song and tries to sing it, but instead of saying "clean up" it comes out "ean up". The interesting part though is that all the other kids started copying Brayden, the goal is for Brayden to copy the other kids not for them to copy him. Guess he is a leader, not a follower.

Snow in early October! The kids were really excited and we were outside a lot today. Lauren has been on her fall break last week and she still has another week off, part of her non-conventional calendar. Next week we are going to Omaha for a few days to the zoo and pumpkin patch. That's a nice part of the two long breaks when everyone else is in school! Aunt Haley spent a few days with us, she read to Brayden's class and went swimming with the kids. Real nice to see her! Brayden finished T-ball and has started soccer at the YMCA. T-Ball was fun, he has a natural swing and throw. I think he likes T-ball better than soccer so far, the Y has a lot of kids in soccer so there is a lot of standing around. Brayden has now gone a week without any poo accidents. We bribed him with a star wars toy(new favorite, along with batman)if he went a week and he did it. No more throwing away underwear! And of course Lauren had to get something so she picked out a snuggie, the blanket with sleeves you always see on the infomercials. Lauren is also in volleyball right now. They are doing a good job teaching the basic hitting styles and simple rules. So you may have picked up on all the kids activities. We have dance and gymnastics on Tuesday, followed promptly by T-ball/soccer. Wednesday is church night, dinner and class until 7:30. Volleyball on Saturday and you can usually, literally throw in a school fundraiser or after-school activity somewhere else in the week.

New pictures are up!! Busy day for Lauren, School, dance, and girl scouts. We switched her dance class and now she is with several friends from school. Girl Scouts also has several girls from her school. She does better when she knows people! Great report from her teacher last night at our first parent-teacher conference. Said she is reading great and a very sweet girl. Brayden still loves his T-ball and school. He goes Tues and Thursday morning to preschool, Wed nite to church, and Sunday School. All in the same classroom so he is very comfortable with it. He won't even say goodbye anymore. Lauren and him are together on Wed nite. She sure likes being with her bro!

The kids finished their half marathon at school. the kids run before school and get to cross the finish line when they get to a cumulative half-marathon. Brayden enjoyed it so much, we let hiim run with his sister. He probably did a mile a day and Lauren up to 2.5 miles in a day, usually around 1.5. Brayden was everyone's favorite, as the youngest most energetic kid there. Somehow, many of the older kids got to know his name and loved cheering him on!

Skype (internet video phone) has been great to stay in touch with Haley. We talk most Sundays and the kids and Haley have played Chutes and Ladders and Sorry Sliders. Lauren and Haley read together and work on her words and letters. We even had lunch togeether one Sunday. Simple and free technologhy is great! It is worth getting a cheap camera for your computer to talk to her!

Enjoy the pictures.

Here are some pictures of Brayden's first day of preschool. Now he is excited for school and has lots of fun. This is what we expected, as compared to the "boring" comments. There are also a few pictures from the state fair and Brayden's first t-ball practice. Kind of a whole bunch of kids running around, but there are balls, bats and tee's involved.
Jackie is going to be helping in Laurens class every other thursday starting next week and she is excited for that! Lauren told her today the she will pick out Moms clothes and jewelery whenever she comes to class! And Aunt Haley is going to visit braydens preschool class and read a book to them when she visits from Switzerland next month!

So we were watching a few old episodes of flipper the other day. Scared both the kids real good! They had sharks and sunken cars full of bullet holes and all kind of things. Lauren said no ocean for her because she knows there are sharks in the ocean and she also knows no dolphin is going to save her from the sharks like flipper does! Bright kid.

Brayden has had a few accidnets lately but is doing real well with the pee, definately still does not have the poop down yet though. Bummer! He comes home from preschool and just says it was boring. Now he doesn't want to go anymore. So now both our kids cry before we drop them off! Thankfully, 15 seconds after we leave, they both have lots of fun. Lauren has her first round of achievement testing this friday - math and reading. Thank goodness for no child left behind!!