Seasons Greetings

Christmas Home Tours

Follow the link over to Boo Mamas for a tour of others Holiday decor.

This is the extent of our holiday decor. We are not very festive this year. It's a prelit so we didn't have to do a lot of work there. We didn't even hang ornaments. These are our Christmas cards. I usually hang the cards on our living room wall, but the wall is gone and I didn't know what to do with them. So now they are hanging on our tree.

the making of a new bathroom

I'm so behind on everything.

Here is a quick update on what has been going on.

Removing the walls in the kids bedroom. The first wall to go down was the one between the bedroom and the kitchen.

Removing the carpet and tacking strip. Cole is a pro at this. She had a lot of practice at Grandma Janes. Moe sleeping through the construction.
Seriously, Ed was sawing 15 feet from the bed and he didn't even flinch.

She loves to copy what her daddy is doing. Here they are putting up the new walls.


It's starting to look like a bathroom. That's the super duper extra large handicapped shower, for my sister and a large closet.

This is our new pantry and the doorway to the new bathroom. As you can see I was so excited I didn't wait for the pantry to be painted before I started moving the food into it. Hell, I didn't even wait for the last shelf to be put in. Not even the trim and the doors. Really I had no choice the tiny closet we had in the hallway was next on the demo list.

Laying the new tile.

The new toilet with a little lesson on plumbing.

Removing the chimney. See those blocks there. They weigh a frickin ton. Ed says they are only 60 lbs. My a**. My kids are 35 lbs each. I can pick them both up with bairly a struggle. I had a tough time with these. Could be because I had to carry them down the stairs from the attic too. This picture is of Ed struggling to remove the flue from inside the block. He's in the basement and I'm in the hallway closet upstairs.

Now my hallway closet has a hole down to the basement. The chimney is gone. Well not really gone it's on my front lawn. I think I'll hang some holiday lights on the pile.

Oh Nuts

"Honey come here let me brush your hair!"

"OK, Mommy you gotta get acorns out?"

"Acorns??"

"Yep acorns - nuts!" " You get nuts out!"

I laughed so hard, I peed my pants. (just a little)

Santa claus is coming to town

We had a nice little visit from Santa. He came into town yesterday by train on his way to the North Pole they said. I think he needs to check his gps again because the train was heading south.

Chrismas Traditions

These are the Christmas Traditions that I hope to keep for our family.

First we let the kids pick out their own wrapping paper, most likely from the dollar store. We won't need tags because they will know what presents are theirs by the wrapping.

We leave the wrapping paper out on Saint Nicholas Day Dec 5th - 6th for Santa’s helpers to pick up. That way mommy has more time to wrap the presents :) One of Santa’s helpers leaves a small candy or toy in the kids shoes.

Christmas Eve we go to a family member’s house or to drive around looking at lights. One of Santa’s helper stops by and leaves Christmas pjs for everyone.

I have felt drawstring bags with the kids names on them, that I plan to use every year for their PJs. I would like to make my own one day after our house is a little more settled.

We change into our Christmas PJs take pictures and read T’was the Night before Christmas

Before bed we leave out snacks for Santa and his reindeer. -cookies and milk for Santa - we sprinkle oatmeal with sugar outside for the reindeer.

There is always an apple or orange in the toe of the stocking. This is something my mother always did. The stocking will always have a new ornament for the kids with the year on it, as well as some small trinkets and stuff. I think my mother even gave us new tooth brushes in our stockings

I do have a Christmas pickle- I bought it because I heard it was a German tradition, for the first child to find the pickle gets an extra present. Now that I am finding out that it is not really a German tradition, I think I'm going to pass on this one. After all - it's a pickle! I think I will start to do this up a little differently. I have a silver bell that was my grandmothers. It is always the last ornament I put on the tree. Since this one has more meaning for me. I think we will change this one to whoever finds the silver bell first, gets to open the first present.

I would like to add an advent calendar with small ornaments for the kids to hang on their own mini tree. This will have to wait until the house is finished and the kids finally have their own bedrooms.

always watch what you say

Uncle Ray hard at work Uncle Ray spent the day yesterday helping with our foundation. So, he asks if we are going to get another dog soon. My first response was a loud-"NO!" I just can't go through that again. Then I started to revise my statement. I think my exact words were "Well, if a dog came into our life. I might consider it, but I'm not going out looking for one." "I think we'll just have goldfish!"

Then I swear, something like a half hour later this little guy waltzes into our back yard and bumps right into him. Thank God he was only around for a little while before his owner showed up. But, isn't he cute??? Now I'm trying to think up something clever to say about a bag of $100 showing up on my door step or like winning the lottery or something. You know that is never going to happen!

Daddies little helpers

CRW_1032, originally uploaded by patteykoch.

Our new bathroom is really under way. We picked up the tile for the floor yesterday. The kids love to "help" daddy.

another attempt at holiday photos

Why our Christmas cards have not gone out yet, and why they may never get out.

New address

We are moving! Our blog is moving, not us personally. The new address is a little more straightforward. It will be thekochfamilyblog.com It will take about three days to move. Until then you can still reach us here.

Berries

CRW_0964b, originally uploaded by patteykoch.

I just thought I would share this photo. I took it Monday at Grandma Janes house.

Superheros

I really don't like commercials. It's one of the reasons when we do watch TV it's usually PBS. Except when daddy is home. He likes to sit and relax in front of the TV. Anyway last night the kids and I were sitting on the couch snuggling, when this commercial with a little girl came on. I don't even know what it was about. I was too busy sniffing Moes hair. I just love that clean baby smell. It's like a drug. It really is!

So any way back to the commercial. It was a little girl singing the praises of mothers. She said something like "All mothers are superheros, they just are!"

That's when Moe looks at me and whispers "superhero" -Ahhhh!

I know he was probably just repeating what he heard, but I can dream any way right?

fun family foto

Bobbie, Russ, Dylan & DeanI took this photo when we went to Mi. Don't they look dashing in their suits. The boy were baptized the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Dean (on the right) is my new god son :)

At the end of my rope

Before

Well, technically Uncle Ray and I where at the end of a rope. A rope to guide this beautiful tree down and away from his pool. OK, so as we are standing there pulling to guide this tree, I'm thinking -I know I weigh a ton, but can my weight really change the direction of this tree? If this thing really wants to take out his pool, there is no way we are going to be able to stop it.

AfterNow part of that tree is in our block collection. As well as some scrap pieces of 2x4's from our new bathroom.

Why my son may never eat cookies again

"Mama bird."
"Mama bird is coming out."
Oh, great not another bird in the house. I thought we plugged all the holes. Though our house is like swiss cheese at the moment there are holes everywhere. Now they are both screaming "Mama birds coming out." So, I look around to see what they are screaming at. Nicole standing on a chair at the counter. Oh, it's OK it's just the egg I set out in a bowl to make cookies. Nicole cracked it open. "Mama bird." they both scream jumping up and down.

Why I did this I don't know. It could be, because I'm all about the facts. So, I go into the whole story about this being an egg from a hen. The mommy hen lays the eggs.... You know the story.
Anyway we get busy making cookies with each of the kids are back to fighting over whose going to do what.

You know sometimes there is nothing better than nice warm chocolate chip cookie right out of the oven. I give each of them a cookie. In which Cole quickly devourers hers and Moe's is still sitting in front of him. He looks at me and then back at the cookie. Very quietly he whispers "baby bird" and runs away.

I got Elfed

I got an email from Aunt Nancy and thought it was so great I had to do one myself. Just look at Moes face. I smile every time I see it. Click on the picture below to see us dance and then go elf yourselves.

Kissing Cousins

Cole and Dean

This is the conversation I woke to this morning...

Nicole;

"Moe, Nigel gone."

"Nigel in the ground"

"Nigel, Harley up in the clouds"

Michael;

"Build blocks!"

Nicole;

"No, build block Moe." -As if to say I'm trying to have a meaningful conversation here and all you can think about is toys