Family Fishing Fun.....

Well summer isnt officially here yet, but Brock has been enjoying some nice days by getting out fishing. He purchased me a fishing license and I haven't had a chance to get out yet(or wanted to) but I was feeling the itch and we all decided to go out as a family. We bulked up on snacks(what else can you do while your sitting watching your line, but eat?) and then we each drove out to the lake and got our usual spot. It was extremely windy that day, but we ended up a little off our usual spot between some trees, which really helped block the wind. The girls and I spent about 4 hours out there and during that time we caught about 4 fish all on MY line. I was the good luck charm I guess since as soon as we left Brock didnt catch another fish for the night. :) One thing he did catch though, poison ivy!! I'm sure we were all exposed to it by him at home, but he's quite allergic and it just kept spreading and getting worse. He eventually found some home remedies, but opted to see the doctor anyway as it was spreading. He got a shot of predisone and has been covering himself in calamine lotion that sometimes I wonder if I live with Santa Claus. :) I think we realized that his REMICADE treatments for his colitis is an attribute to this as well. Since it lowers his immune system he isnt able to fight back illnesses or infections as easily. I think he's on the road to recovery so were thankful for that. :)

Happy girls!!

Look what I caught!!

Ho, Ho, Ho!!!

Better than a cup of coffee in the morning.....

So school is now over with and that means that I have a couple weeks off, before the madness begins. I will be working this summer, yes, alot, yes, I can't be that lucky to have it off, but until then I have a couple weeks to enjoy with my girls. These last couple of days, Brezlyn and I have been able to spend some "alone" time together as Brock has been taking Briella and Kenzie fishing with him. You realize how busy your life actually is when you have a spare moment to think about it. In these few days that I've had off, I've noticed how much little time I actually get to spend with my girls. I'm usually working and then coming home, working out, making supper and cleaning up whatever messes I can. The girls are pretty independent and at least have eachother to play with and mind you I'm pretty much involved as much as I can get. With the arguements here and there, they definitely don't leave me out. What I do know is that I don't take alot of time to play with them or just sit and watch a movie. In these last few days, I've been able to do just that with Brezlyn as it's been just her and I. I know that cleaning can wait til tomorrow since I don't have to work the next day and I just take the moment for what it is. She has been such a treat to hang out with and I'm quickly seeing how much she has grown up already! I'm hoping I can get the same time with the other two, but in these moments that I have had, I'm slowly starting to realize that life is too short and you need to be grateful for every moment that you have and spend it with people that you love and that make you happy! Brezlyn created a drawing last night that I happened to find this morning. She showed it to me last night and said it was her and Briella holding hands. So when I woke up this morning at 5am(had a training for work) and was in the living room, I noticed that she put the drawing by the pictures on the window ledge. I just couldn't help but stare at it and smile. It made me happy to start me day! It was better than a cup of coffee in the morning....

Brezlyn and Briella holding hands with a heart!

Fits right in with the other pics!

Class of 2012

Hard to believe a have a Kindergarten graduate! Briella is a Kindergarten graduate of 2012. Brezlyn and I went to her graduation at RTR Elementary. Each of the graduates were assigned a letter for the alphabet parade. They needed to memorize a line and then dress up in a costume the corresponded with their letter. Briella was assigned the letter "C". The program was short, but sweet. The kids sang a couple songs and then received their diplomas. No, I didn't have tears in my eyes, but it made me realize that one of my little girls is growing up way too fast! Congrats graduate Briella! Mommy is so proud of you!!

My little graduate!



C stands for Chef!!



You can't help but laugh....

PICTURE THIS:   
      So I'm in the kitchen and I'm cooking tator tot hotdish for supper. Briella decides she doesnt want this for supper she wants either a lunchable or chicken nuggets. I inform her this is what were having and she has the choice to eat it or go hungry til breakfast. She decides she is going to cry, cry alot, over it. (I'm pretty sure she is tired and this is why she is so whiny). In comes Brezlyn who has been listening to Briella cry and whine for the last 5 minutes or so.
                Briella: Crying.....whining.....
                Brezlyn: Briella, why are you still crying? Stop it! You are not a baby, you are 5 years old. You're not 4 anymore so stop it. (You can just hear that cute little attitude in her voice as she is telling Briella to basically suck it up).

It was the funniest thing I heard the entire day and definitely made me chuckle. I had to share this moment with you as these are the moments I cherish.  A little laughter goes a long way...... :)

Hoppy Easter!!!

This is the day that the Lord has made, Let us rejoice and be glad in it!! Today is a day to celebrate Easter. Not only to get our kids excited about the Easter bunny coming and bringing eggs filled with goodies, but also to remind them that this is the day that Jesus gave his life to save ours. We are so thankful for all that we have! Our day started out with the girls waking up ready to hunt for eggs! They each found their eggs and then found their baskets full of goodies. We finally got enough sugar in them and then the girls and I hopped over to church and had to pay Wade and Hilary to give up a seat. It was so packed in there! Surprisingly, the service went by quickly, but was as slow as a funeral procession when trying to leave. :) We headed home and took some much needed naps and then got ready to go to the Buchert Easter at Wade and Hil's house. It was a wee-bit cold, but the kids had fun playing outside and then hunted down their easter bags from Grandma and Grandpa Buchert. Needless to say, I think the dentist has to love Halloween and Easter. We finally made our way home minus one kid, Kenzie spent the night at her cousins. So the girls and I (brock was at work) decided to make some Easter cookies to add to all the goodness. Way too many treats! So let's treat you to a few Easter pics:

Pretty little baskets...

I love this movie Daddy!

I thought they would be too big, mommy!

Our busy little bunnies...

Aprons on, check!

Cookies ready, Yummy!

Time flies when you're.....busy!!

Ok, so I guess I'm not too busy to make a post, but I've just been forgetful and ok a little lazy! :) So here we go....

So I got a call from Briella's school yesterday saying that she had been hurt on the playground. I finally got the message an hour later and Brock was already on his way to get her. She apparently was running and tripped over the wooden fence planks on the ground around the playground and fell flat on the concrete, head first!

So to give you an idea of what I'm talking about and the extent of her injury here are a few pics! :)Keep in her your prayers to heal quickly and that it should leave no scars.

What a tough cookie!

Ouch!

I had to treat her with something to make her feel better!

The day has come....

For me to finally be able to post something. I hope you all weren't going thur withdrawal? :) So for my first post in a couple of weeks I figured we would start with the bad news vs. the good news. Bad news is that I sprained my ankle at basketball again. (Don't worry, I'm done for the season :( ) I was going up to set a screen on a defender and he turned right into me and karate chopped me in the neck. So as I was gasping for air and holding my neck the feet flooded to mine and I was down(and in a lot of pain I  might add). We went on to win the game with only 4 players, but it would have been nice to finish the season out. Oh well, better luck next year! So moving onto the good news, I can finally post things! So here is Briella who had a dress up day at school last week and she had to dress up with a hawaiin theme. I found her whole outfit at the goodwill and dollar store. Cha-ching! She looked so cute that I had to post her pics.  

What the he** happened?

Ouch!!

Pretty cute for less than $10.

Strike a pose!

Finally.............

Ok, sorry Buchert Bunch followers, my blog has been down for the last couple of weeks. Im not sure if its the computer as Im on a different one now, or if its finally working. Just wanted to let you all know I haven't forgot about you and I hope to post something tonight(as i dont have pics on this computer) and keep your fingers crossed that it works. Love to all!!! :)

Learn something new everyday....

Briella as you may know is in Kindergarten. It has come to our attention that kids in Kindergarten need to know how to tie their shoes. We known this for awhile and have tried practicing here and there, but I just knew that Briella wasn't quite ready or interested in learning how. Well, last night as we working on her homework and spelling her last name and learning her phone number, I thought, why dont we just give the tying shoes thing a try. So first we got her shoe I showed her while she watched. Then we got two shoes and she tried imitating me. Well after getting a little frustrated(both of us) I decided that I would just show her really slowly and point out a couple key things to getting the job done and guess what......................

She learned how to tie her shoes!

My baby is growing up.....

This Sunday, my baby, Brezlyn, will turn 4 years old. It really only seems like yesterday that I was delivering her in the hospital. Brock and the girls just so happened to be watching some home videos of the girls when I came home. Brezlyn was around 15 months and Briella 3 years old. Kenzie was 9 and looked so innocent. I couldn't believe how little they all looked. So here's to memories from yesterday and to those I will cherish a lifetime....

Briella 2 months

Kenzie 7 years

Brezlyn 7 months



B-ball bruising

Last night was our first night of intramural basketball. We started a team last year of teachers from the district who play the co-ed highschool intramural league. It's made up of mostly highschool boys, but we do have a couple of girls on the teachers team. I was super excited to get back to playing basketball again, but unfortunately my excitement got the best of me. I ended up going after a ball and ran into another teammate and we both decided to step in the same spot and my ankle decided to take a roll and a crunch,crunch,crunch. I thought I was going to be ok after sitting out and getting some range of motion, but that evening after icing and elevating it just seemed to get bigger. Sleeping doesn't help the range of motion out any so it's very difficult to get up in the morning and walk. I ended up going into work today only to get sent home halfway thru since I wasn't able to contribute and my coworkers were concerned. I did speak with the nurse at the school and I'm going to give it a couple days to let the swelling go down and if its still really swollen I will prolly need to go in and get it xrayed. I'm pretty bummed though that I have to miss our next game on Thursday. Keep me in your prayers for quick healing!

Ouch!!!



Let it Snow

Oh the weather outside is frightful, but my dear it's so delightful
And since we've no place to go, Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!!

The girls were so excited to finally get out their snowpants and boots and play in the snow. Makenzie noticed that our second lot had a great hill to slide down on with the sleds. Brezlyn decided she had enough of the frigid air, but Briella and Kenzie were still going strong. Needless to say, each of them slept very good that night!



Family Fun

I often feel sometimes like I don't get enough quality time with my girls, especially in the kitchen. It often seems like a hassle sometimes when you're trying to get so much done on top of dinner that you just would rather avoid having help in the kitchen. So I figured we had a perfect opportunity to explore my girls cooking skills last night. We ordered a Little Ceasars Pizza kit from a fundraiser opportunity from my nephew. It just so happened that Brezlyn also had a cookie set kit that she wanted to use from Christmas. The pizza kit was pretty simple for the girls. They love cheese pizza so it was just a matter of adding the sauce and cheese to the premade pizza dough. The kit came in a set of 3 pizzas so they will be able to do this again. The cookie kit was more steps,but eventually they ended up in the oven and ready to frost. I don't know how well the will taste considering it was a kit, but the girls sure had fun making them. I was especially happy being able to have some great quality time with my girls in the kitchen.

First the sauce...

Next, the cheese...

Finished pizza.

Ready to bake...

Brezlyn was a great helper...

Iced and ready to paint...

Painting the cookies and ready to eat!



Early Birthday fun!!!

With Brezlyn's birthday coming up in Febuary we got an early birthday gift. Andy,Crystal,and Brayden were able to come to our house to celebrate with us. Usually they are only able to send her gifts in the mail as they are back at home in Vermont. So fortunately this year they were able to stick around from our family christmas and join us for supper. It was so nice to spend some quality time with them and Brayden. He is such a ham!! I swear he is quite the mixture of Andy and Crystal both. He really knows how to hang with the big kids. Pro wrestling may be in his future. :) Family is so important to me and I feel blessed every second I get to spend with each and every one in my family. Love you all!!!

Briella usually gets beat up, so it was Andy this time!

Brezlyn was trying to help her cousin walk.

Best birthday pic!!



Happy Birthday!!!

So I tried for quite sometime yesterday on many computers to try and get this message up for Brayden's 1yr bday yesterday. I ended up just emailing Andy and Crystal so they could get this message ON his birthday. So finally tonight I got the pic upload to work so here is your belated birthday message Brayden:
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday dear Brayden,
Happy Birthday to you!

We love you bunches and can't wait to celebrate your one year birthday together!!!

I guess since I saved the draft yesterday the post date will be Tuesday Jan. 10th.

Daddy, daughter time.....

The girls got some good use out of their coloring books and markers that they received from Deb and Bryan for xmas. They were stuck to the kitchen table for a couple of days just coloring away!! Brock didn't get to spend too much quality time with them over the holiday since he had to work so he tried making up as much as he could before he went to work one night. Here he is helping them color. Are they great artists or what? Briella was the best colorer in her preschool class last year and I think Brezlyn may be next in line. The scribbles outside the lines, well, that's Brock for ya!! :) j/k

Brezlyn's

                                                                       

Briella's

Here you go Cissy as promised, I hope you enjoy!!

Banana Cake Recipe

1 box yellow cake mix
1/3 cup oil
1 cup water
2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
2-3 mashed bananas
mix together and bake according to cake mix box

Frosting:
1 box banana cream pudding
1 cup cold milk
8 oz coo whip container
mix together and spread on cooled cake




The last few pieces, Kenzie was eating as I took the picture.