Kids.Kohtz.org

We are going to make another attempt soon at keeping this up to date with pictures and comments! New computer and picture software should make it easier and convenient! Check back in December!

It has been a fun and busy summer for us so far! Sad to say it is kind of wrapping up with school starting after next week. We just returned from a vacation to Colorado and had a great time. We spent a few days in Denver and the rest in Colorado Springs for the Kohtz family reunion. Highlights of Denver would be the American Girl and Lego Stores for the kids. We also visited the Natural History and Science Museum as well as the Hammond Candy Factory. Jackie was inspired by the huge selection of stores, I think she wants to go back! Colorado Springs was a great time also. We went up Pikes Peak with cousins Greg, Doug and Vicki and their families. Lauren and Brayden loved the top, we let them climb all over the rocks. We hiked in the Garden of the Gods, went to waterfalls, cliff dwellings and underground caves. Saturday was entirely with the extended family so that was fun. Lots of people we have not talked to in years and the kids meet many for the first time.

So about the kids.... Like I said, the summer has been going fast and I know we haven't been able to get to the pool/park/picnic as much as we'd like but I think they are having fun. Lauren finished up daisey's with a day of fishing. We all did that and the kids had fun. She is still doing gymnastics in the summer, not a big fan of tennis lessons last month which was a surprise to us. Swim lessons, Bible School, Swimming pool, piano lessons, summer reading program. I hope she's having a good summer.

Onto Brayden. He is pretty much into legos. If he gets a new one, the very next thing he says is "if I get one more, I will never ask again" and "can we pick out legos for my birthday." He is way into his friends, always wanting playdates. He had fun with VBS, and puddleducks camp. If you remember his sword in shirt, he has a new thing now. He wears his winter gloves with exposed fingers all the time becasue they make his hands invisible. If he puts those on, watch out, he's going to get someone!

What else, several trips to the lake. We have been able to bring some friends there (thanks mom and dad) and we went to Peanuts and the Gang one evening at the outdoor ampitheater. Jackie and I were ready to leave after intermission but the kids wanted to stay so that was fun.

Haley and Thomas visited us last week and we will see them again next week at the papa and gigi's house. Some exciting news from them...they are expecting their first baby next March. Also, Craig and Jamie's twins will arive any day now so the family is growing.

NEW PICTURES!!!!!!

Where to start! Jackie and I were just talking about how bad we have become at updating this. Problem is the pictures haven't been coming off the camera. So look for pictures next week (I know I won't get to it until the weekend. I read on my brothers blog that he is going to update my website so you can leave comments and be more interactive. Its so nice to have such a cool (read that as geek) brother who can do so much on the computer!

Anyway, we just returned fro Keystone with the kids. We skied for 3 days and everyone had a great time. We went with two other families so both kids had their best friend with them. lauren exceeded our expectations! She skied all the greens and had really no problems once she found her confidence. She is still a snow plower but started to figure the turns on the last day. She absolutley loved going from peak to base and was not happy when we made her wait for others! Brayden also skied with us. He took two days of lessons then we worked with him the third day. I took him down Schoolmarm (looooong green)on saturday and he just cant quite yet stop so I ended up snowplowing down while holding his jacket on the flater sections and just carrying him on the steep areas. i was exhasuted after that but he loved going down with me! He discovered snow mobiles also (grandpa and grandma...He wants one for Christmas. Just saying...). Jackie is now a great skier also! She did some long steep blacks with no problem and even one short run with moguls. I actually had fun on the moguls this year as well! The kids also loved swimming out side all 4 nights but especially the evening it snowed while we were out in the pools. Very fun! Thanks to the Shaffers and Tremels for going with us.

So what else is new. Brayden is still in gym class and like everything he enjoys it but if you ask him it was "boring". He will be starting swim here shortly again. We have pretyy much decided to hold him from kindergarted next year. He will go to Zion lutheran preschool which is a 5 day all morning with lunch so hopefully that won't be "boring" for him. He still loves his legos, star wars, and playing good guys/bad guys. I am a little ashamed to admit he plays Call of Duty on the X box (my fault) but at least he knows before he can play, he has to do math homework on the computer. Its a program from Lauren's school and they have a module for preschoolers so he does several a day.

Lauren is still our super smart little girl. She finally missed her first spelling word. BUT, she insists she did not, simply the teacher misunderstood a letter. She continues to test off the charts in reading and math isn't too far behind. Very proud of her work. Her teachers even tell us she is coming out of her shell. She just finished up some real good tennis lessons but shes not sure if she likes that yet or not. She starts piano soon and is getting ready for her dance recital in May. She loves to play school at home. We have a full size classroom in the basment complete with desks (mostly upside down storage containers) and all the accessories. I wish we could play with her more (she asks every day) but we often find an excuse not to (terrible, I know). So when you visit, offer to play school with her and she will love you forever.

Guess thats it for now, look for pictures (maybe a video if Craig can modify) soon!

I have clearly not been good at posting about our kids! Have tons of pictures to share with you, but not today. I will try to bring any readers still checking out the site up to date.

Lauren is still busy as always. She does dance and gym on Tuesday and tennis on Thursday. She is enjoying tennis and is really getting good at it but she wants to play a game and they have not done that yet. Dance continues this year without the complaining like we had at the end of last year. She has lost several more teeth here lately and has 2 nice big front teeth in her smile. She had one tooth pulled last week because her permanent tooth was coming in behind it. Good thing we brought her in, the root was very long and the dentist had to sedate her to get it out. The tooth fairy has left $2 bills and gold $1 coins. She even put a tooth in water so the fairy would have to jump in to get it and leave fairy dust behind! She is also selling girl scout cookies right now and has went way past her first and second goals, so that is exciting. School is still the same for her. A little shy and afraid to get too involved but she has a few good friends (and some drama)and continues to do very well with her test scores and learning. At least this year there has been no crying before we drop her off, as long as there are no surprises. She has to know both lunch options and she has to go potty right before she gets in the car. Mostly she is a very bright, happy girl with a side of where in the heck did that attitude come from. She spends a lot of time in her room setting up hair salons, spas, stores, and school. She loves to play with her American Girls and is still very much into crafts and art projects.

Now for Brayden. He is always our cheerful, happy kid. From the moment he wakes up till he goes to bed, we really have no issues with him. He is in preschool and they are working on letters and sounds this week. He told us today at dinner that he had to go in timeout today at school(his first ever). When asked why, he didn't remember, go figure. He does hockey on Sunday afternoon and sometimes enjoys that. Basically hes still learning to skate but wears all the gear so it doesn't hurt at all when he falls. He is also in a gymnastics class on Thursdays. He loves to play with his friends and likes to have sleepovers and that usually goes well. He is still in speech and really is only limited by his ability to make all the sounds. So some of his words are still difficult to understand but I think he is progressing (his Mom doesn't though). So kindergarten is an option for him next year but we are leaning towards him waiting another year to help his speech along. We signed him up for another preschool that's 5 days a week and he could stay till after lunch, so he should be alright with that. What else, he loves to play the wii and nintendo ds right now, basically anything Mario. We have spent hours and hours with Legos and Lincoln logs lately and lots of time out in the snow. Still into fighting pretend star wars battles and all other boy things.

Planning to trip to Keystone,CO for skiing in March with the kids so that should be lots of fun. Oh, how could I forget, Lauren asked Jackie when we get to go to Omaha so they can shop at Justice (her new favorite clothing store). That definitely put a smile on Jackie's face! I will try to get some pictures up soon.

Finally, Disney pictures are posted.

Disney pictures are almost ready! Check back soon! We had a great time in Florida. We did all the Disney parks over 7 days. the kids had a blast and were in awe with some truly amazing shows, parades, rides, characters, you name it, they enjoyed it. I will go into more detail with the pictures. For now, its back to real life. School has restarted for Lauren and Brayden is back after missing a week. He started swimming lessons again today and got all his hockey equipment Saturday. He looks pretty good all decked out. Now the skating lessons commence.

Lots of new pictures to look at again. They pretty much tell the story of our summer! First day of school pictures for both of the kids and lots of pictures from te summer. Lauren has some from softball and golf. She did enjoy golf quite a bit so we need to get her back out doing that again. Softball was only so-so! Brayden did summer soccer and is now in a fall league. He seems to enjoy that. he also did gymnastics and will be startign that again next week. lauren will start dance and gym also but she may not continue on with the gym part of it, depending on her teachers (long story).

Otherwise, you can see several trips to the lake for lots of fun. lauren tried to waterski twice but got too much water in her face both times, which was appearently my fault. I think she'll get it next year. They still are huge swimmers and could spend days in the water.

Lauren also lost her first top tooth yesterday. I actually pulled it because she was spinning it around and having a hard time eating. So she let me wiggle it once and out it came! Bradyen's quote of the month would have to be "Dad, could you take my shoes off, my arms are too tired from holding my ice cream"

School is going well for both. Brayden is just back in the swing and he is always excited to go. Lauren actually wakes up in the morning and gets dressed and is usually cheerful. Crazy change from last years attitude! She scored very high on her reading scores this week, just at a 3rd grade level and she continues to read anything we put in front of her.

enjoy the pictures!

Lauren is back in school and is loving it. So far this year there has been no difficult mornings and she has had no "I'm not going" moments. That has been great. She really likes first grade but she misses her kindergarten teacher. The candy man (teachers husband) has came on several occasions with popsicles and candy so of course that is a huge hit with the kids. And the best part of 1st grade is no homework!

Brayden started soccer. He is a very aggressive, fast little player. He is always in the mix and if he gets in the open, watch out because he is fast. He is also doing a tumbling/gymnastics class which he has been enjoying. He is kind of bummed that Lauren is in school and he has to wait! He'll start preschool in a few weeks.

They are both running the Meadowlark marathon before/after school. Lauren is already up to 3 miles after 2 days and is motivated to get the entire marathon done this year. Last year she stopped at half. Brayden is also running again and is sure to be crowd favorite again!

I'll try and get pictures up again soon!

I posted a bunch of new pictures yesterday! Can't wait for the weekend! Omaha on Friday and Saturday with fireworks at Rosenblatt and the lake on Sunday and Monday with more fireworks and Aunt Haley and Arwin.

All kinds of fun new pictures to share! But not tonight.

Lots going on this summer. Jackie and the kids have been to the pool a bunch and are loving it! Lauren has turned into a very good swimmer and Brayden has no fear! So a quick rundown on summer activities so far. Lauren is finished tennis and VBS, still doing swim lessons and softball. She is starting golf and puddle ducks. Mix that in with the pool and play dates, she has been a busy and tired little girl. She is loving her summer vacation!

Brayden is also done with VBS and is in gymnastics now. He will be starting his swim lessons and soccer soon. He has several very good friends he likes to play with, may even try a sleep over with Evan soon!

We went to the lake this weekend. To much water at Whitetail so we took the boat out to dirty Lake North. Lauren rode on a tube and tried to ski. She was very close to getting up, hopefully she'll try again next time we can ski off the beach. Should be much easier. Otherwise lots of swimming and jumping off the dock. We watched toy Story 3 today. The kids really liked it. Brayden didn't want to put his toys away at bedtime so they can find their friends when they play together after he falls asleep. I asked him about it later and he said he knows they don't do that, he just didn't want to put them away. Little stinker! But I think his Lego interests have shifted from Star Wars to Toy Story.

Check back for pictures soon!

Schools out for summer!! Kindergarten is done, hard to believe. Lauren brought home all kinds of fun things on her last day of school. Her teacher had them make similar drawings, letters, numbers, etc during the first and last months of school, talk about amazing progression! We got a very nice little graduation certificate and picture in cap and gown, several year long journals and other arts and crafts. She also won the "author of the 4th quarter" award for a story she wrote all by herself. She finished the school year as a letter M reader, which is well into the 2nd grade level. It is explained as working less on reading words and more on comprehension and context. Her teacher said Lauren and one other girl in her class are the only kindergartners in her 25 years to reach level M!!

Brayden is also done with his preschool class. He also had a lot of fun this year. He went two days a week for 2 hours this past year. He was always excited to go to school and picked up quite a few things along the way. Lets just say he is our social, outgoing child (although Lauren has made big strides this year).

Right after school was out, we loaded up in the van for a 14 hour drive to Tennessee for Mackenzie's graduation. It was a fast trip but we had a good time. The kids and I went to the Science and Technology museum and Jackie did a little shopping before we left. We stopped at Worlds of Fun in KC for a day on the way home. Very hot, but also a lot of fun. Lauren liked the "Fury of the Nile" the most and Brayden like the other water ride the most. Lines were very short so we got our fix of the favorite rides. We got home late last night and its onto summer activities.

I'll try to download the pictures some time soon so check back. One last thing, We booked our trip to Disney world in October!

Bradyen's birthday was the 3rd. He wanted to have an underwear party where all the kids just wore their undies but we didn't think that was such a good idea. So he had a pirate party! We rented a big bounce-a-roo and the boys loved it for short periods of time, then would get bored and off to something else. But they always came back the jumper, especially when the pirate swords and water guns came out! The pinata was also a big hit! All the little boys got several swings at it and it just wasn't breaking so finally Dad had to knock out the pirate treasure and candy! Lauren wasn't at the party because she had three other parties that weekend and one happened to be at the same time. Don't feel to bad for her though, she went to a "carnival party" with a bounce-a-roo, cotton candy, snow cone, popcorn and games.

So what does a 4 year old boy like? He loves legos and star wars. That about sums him up right now. If they are Star wars legos, that is even better. He still carries his sword everywhere he goes. He puts it on his back down his shirt. Everyone expects to see it there and always asks where it is when he can't bring it with him. Preschool is about done for the year. He loves going to school and wishes he could go every day.

Lauren only has two weeks left of kindergarten then she is off to a fun summer. It has been a fun year for us to watch her. She can read about anything really enjoys school, but if you ask her she'd say its boring. Soccer is finished for the Spring. She really enjoyed it this time, maybe because there were no snotcycles this year!! She has been busy with birthday parties (5 or 6 last few weeks) and playing with her friends. She has had one BEST friend for most of the school year and they do great together - no fighting! And what a difference a year makes. She is now a sweet little girl again. She is pleasant in the mornings and likes going to dance! Just a few months ago, everything was so hard on her, everything she had to do involved crying and drama! To be a little girl!!!!

Should be a fun summer for us. We are off the Nashville the day school gets out for Mackenzie's graduation and then tennis, softball,golf, camp, VBS, swimming, itty bitty beavers, and I am sure I am missing about ten more activities.

Enjoy the pictures!!

I have finally saved some pictures, but am only current through part of April. So hopefully you will see more soon. We have done all kinds of things since our last post, don't even know where to begin.

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!