Alainna's date---

 Alainna just went on her "date" tonight. They went to Joe's Crab shack. (Alainna's number 1 favorite restaurant.) Here are a few adorable photos they took of the special evening-

 She got to build her own sunday. As a little kid, I would have given *ANYTHING* to do that! It was the coolest thing ever, in my mind. :)

After dinner and ice cream, Papa took her to Goodwill and bought her a new winter coat. Since I wasn't there, I don't have any stories to tell here....just pictures. :) It is such a precious thing when a little girl's heart is tied to her Daddy's.

Publish Post

Ooops!!!

Well, this is embarrassing- I made a mistake in my last post. Levi just turned SIX not seven. I cannot believe that I did that! *ug*

Levi's 7th Birthday---

 Oh my goodness gracious, Levi is seven now. How time does fly...
He is such a sweet little boy, and has such a special personality. We love you Levi!!!!!
Levi's birthday was on Sunday, and he wanted to have the Woltersdorfs and Leamans over for dinner. Twas a fun afternoon...

 His Birthday cake-

 Our traditional "red neck" candles.

 (P.s. I love Liberty's faces!)

Praise the Lord for Levi!

A family day---

Hello all,
Wow- I really have not been the best of bloggers lately. Finding time now a days is like trying to find never-land. (well..that's not entirely true. I do have time, it's just how wisely I spend it that decides if I can make a blog post.) Life around the Koch household lately has been absolutely wonderful. We haven't done anything super special lately, but life in it's self is a wonderful thing.

Just last Saturday our family went on a little trip. I'll give you a little peak into that morning-
Every Saturday is a busy day for us. We normally have company over the next day, so we need to make food, clean the house, find the little's constantly missing Church shoes, get outfits ready, etc. The day is a full one. Last Saturday, my family and I were in the midst of this, (and a little behind) when my daddy came in, and announced that he was going to take us all on a little trip for the day. I guess you could say we were a little shocked that a trip would even be considered since its SATURDAY, but never-the-less, that's what Papa wanted to do, so that's what we did. Boots were pulled up, hats were pulled down, and we all marched out to the van. We brought a little picnic lunch, and some snacks, then started down the road. Our original destination was a hike on this massive rock somewhere, (I forgot where it was...) but it turned out that it was far too windy to do that safely with the little kiddos, so we explored around a river.  We found neat sticks, rocks, and grasses. -you know, the good things in life. :) The day was simply amazing to say the least. We arrived back on our door step at four in the afternoon, and busied ourselves with the rest of our chores. In the end, everything was completed, everything was cooked and prepared. Once again, my Papa showed us kids that we should take advantage of every day. Make memories. It is difficult to actually get out there and do it, but when your children are all grown up, do you think that they will remember that Saturday that was just like every other one, or do you think that they will remember that Saturday, in which they had a great adventure together?

My favorite things

 

 Volleyball is definitely one of my favorite things. (even though I'm an expert looser at it) I love playing it with friends from Church, and especially with my cousins. I like playing when people are not so concentrated on winning as much as they are on having fun. Yes you want to win, everybody does, but you don't want to play when everybody is unhappy. -how fun is that? A team who works together and has a happy and cheerful spirit, will almost always win. Playing it at the beach is the best. I hope we will be able to play a lot of this sport this summer, at home, the park, and the beach.

Thanks for reading! :)

-Jessica

Crafts of late

 I sketched out this design a couple weeks ago. It was the first one, so of course I could make some changes, but I thought it was fine for now. Next time I would level things out and do everything right, and not free-handed. (except, I used a bowl for the circles. :) I'm not that talented to make a perfect circle like that!)

 I was thinking I would paint it metallic gold, and turquoise. What do you think? Any other colors? I was also thinking of like, a salmon color...but I didn't know if that would match...Comments? Suggestions? I wanted it to be very bright and cheery...

 I also made up this pattern for lacy fingerless gloves. These are the first ones, and I don't quite know if they look good...( you know how when you've been working on something for a while, you start to loose sight of how it actually looks? Or anything else you could do? -that's what happens to me anyways. :)

 The cuff is nice and stretchy.

What do you think? Would you wear something like this?

Thanks for reading. :)
-Jessica

Cute barn cake

I have been making SO many cakes this week. I've make a total of 5 cakes just within the last three days. I make 3 today, and 2 on Thursday. All of which are for Levi's birthday parties. He had a Birthday party on Thursday with the Gauls and Bradleys, and I wanted to make a 'special' cake for him. This is what I ended up with-

 I taped paper to the back of a cutting board, then covered it with plastic wrap.

 Then I make a whole bunch of little guys like this-   (above) A little chick.

 -A cow.

(I know, I know. The cow looks nothing like a real cow. I would have used black licorice circles instead, but...I didn't have any. BTW, do you like the grass he is eating? lol)

 -A little piggie.

 -A sheep.

 And then it all assembled! Yeah, it's kinda a crowded farm yard, hu?

 And,  just to let you know, the yellow stuff on the chick, is NOT cheese!!!! My cousin Cassandra walked in while I was making them, and thought I had put cheese on it. *yuck* ---It's colored coconut. :)

 -The birthday boy! Now going on SIX!!!

 Yeah, we do the "red neck" birthday candles. Gotta love it!

 The barn is on fire!

Happy birthday my little Levi. (It's tomorrow.)

Then, today I make a barn cake *twice* as big, with twice as many animals. The barn looks more like...well, a barn, and I added a horse cupcake. (the horse cupcake is covered with rolled out caramel, then a big nose is made with a caramel as well. Doesn't quite look like a horse either, but it works.)

I also made another lemon cake with homemade lemon-butter frosting, and homemade lemon pie filling. -Can't wait to see how it all turns out. I'll (hopefully) make a post of it next week.

I'd like to know what you all think of it. Any ideas, or comments?
Thanks.
-Jessica