Jarom's first steps!

This video is too large to email, so I am putting it on here.  Two days ago Jarom was standing in the kitchen and he took a couple small steps.  David started recording just in case he took any more, and this was the result.

Sorry I am so noisy in the video.  I was so surprised to see him take off like that.  I think he must be practicing when no one is looking.  I'm so glad he did this when David was home so he could see it too.

Also - I just noticed I am wearing the same sweater I was wearing in the last video I posted.  That's not a favorite shirt, but rather proof that I am cold a lot and have only a few warm shirts :-)

Jarom's Giggles

When I last posted I was pregnant with baby number 5!  Jarom Charles was born August 18th, 2012 at 8:43am weighing 5 pound 9 ounces and 18 inches long.  He is now three months old and full of giggles!

This video is for the family that still hasn't met him (pretty much everyone but my mom and Kari and Bryce).  Hope you all can meet him soon!

Christmas

We're home from church today, due to one sick kid, and no hot water for the past 3 days, so I thought I'd post something on here.  I have a lot of things to update the family and friends on, so the next few posts will be in random chronological order (assuming I get more than one post done).

I'll start by posting about Christmas, since those are the first pictures I came across.  We didn't do a lot of Christmas decorating around here, but we did get the tree up:

A short time before Christmas we figured out a way to be able to go visit family in Colorado, which was a nice surprise for both us and them, since we originally thought we were going to have to stay here.  So, we were very blessed to spend Christmas vacation with Grandma and Grandpa Alder, Shaunna, and Marie on David's side of the family and my parents, ALL of my 8 siblings, their spouses, kids, and fiancee on my side.  The Christmas get-together with the Cochran side of our family had 29 people there.  It was great, and our kids had a lot of fun playing with all of their cousins.

Christmas morning at Grandma and Grandpa Alders:

 Yes, I am that cheesy - I made matching pajamas for my family for Christmas and had everyone wear them on Christmas Eve so that we could have this Christmas morning picture:

 I didn't take any pictures of the Christmas party with my family, but I do have this one of my kids hanging out with their Uncle Noah and cousin Oliver:

Fast asleep Christmas night after a long and fun day.  They each have a pillow pet and I made them each a blanket for Christmas:

While we were in Colorado, Grandpa Alder had an early birthday celebration for Cailin and Katie:

On our way home we spent New Year's Eve in a hotel in Salt Lake City so that we could visit David's friend Ben and his family, and meet his new baby.

We had a wonderful Christmas and are very blessed to have been able to spend that wonderful time of year with so many people we love.

I'm back...

So, after almost a year of not blogging a single thing, I need to try to start up again.  A lot has happened since I last posted on here.  Anyone that bothers to look at my blog is probably related to me or is friends with me on facebook, so I probably won't tell you anything you don't already know.

The biggest thing that has happened (VERY) recently is that we moved to Washington state!  We have been here just over a week.  David came here for a job interview back in May, and after months of going back and forth on if we should take the job or not, we finally decided to go for it.  He moved here in mid-August to start work and find us a home, and the kids and I joined him at the end of August.  We are living in Bellevue, east of Seattle, and that is also where David's new job is.  This is a big change for me, as I have lived in Colorado my whole life, but I am trying hard to make the adjustment.

We had a fantastic summer.  The best part of our summer was our two weeks in Florida where we got to spend two weeks with David's brother Jason and his wife Jenny, and experience many fun things in Florida.

Yesterday was the first day of School for Cailin and Katie.  We took them shopping this past weekend and let them each choose an outfit for their first day of school.  This is what they chose:

They also wanted their hair done pretty for the first day of school, so we rag curled their hair the night before, and it turned out very cute.

So far they seem to be liking school.  Cailin said she hasn't really made any friends yet, but I am sure she will as more time passes.  And, just so you can see how big all of my kiddos are getting, here is a picture of all four kids:

All I want for Christmas...

I found the pictures of Cailin after she lost her first tooth.  David took this the day she lost it (bottom).

 Today I picked the girls up from school and Cailin came running out of her classroom excited to tell me that she lost her second tooth!  She lost her other bottom front tooth - kind of hard to see in the picture.  She is very excited to see what the tooth fairy brings her tonight.

Summer pictures

Random summer pictures I thought I'd share.  

I love my new washer and dryer that we got for a super good deal the day after Thanksgiving last year.  What I love even more?  The fact that my kids love them, too, and want to do the laundry.

 Cole playing with his newest cousin Sophia (Carrie and Dan's daughter).  Sophia is 6 months younger than Cole.

 The girls got this for Christmas when we lived at our old house, and we finally got it built this summer, thanks to David and Marie's hard work.

 Our first house project.  When we bought the house it had this ugly, old, hollow red front door.  The red I liked, the style of door and fact that it wasn't secure or insulated I did not.  So, David worked hard one day (with a bit of assistance from me), and we replaced it with the beautiful door on the right.  We are planning on painting this one red, too.

 Cole is turing into quite the monkey.

 We were lucky to have David's brother Jason here for a while during the summer.  What happens when Uncle Jason comes over?  You get to play fun new games like the one they are playing here called "Guess the flavor of jelly bean!"  Here the kids are all ready to play the game.

 Here are the flavors of jelly beans that Jason is feeding them.

 And this is what happens when they discovered that the game isn't so much fun.

 Elijah turned 3 on July 5th and David's parents were in town to help us celebrate.  They treated us to a family outing to see Toy Story 3 the morning of his birthday, and so we got him a Toy Story cake to match.

 We have a fun park not too far from our house that the kids really enjoyed on the hot summer days.

 Our church had a pioneer day celebration where we had a picnic, games, and other fun things like pony rides.

 Cailin was SO happy to get to ride the horse.  She really likes horses (unicorns especially, but horses, too).

 Another milestone in our lives.  Cailin and Katie started Kindergarten in August.  Here they are on their first day of school.

 I decided I wanted to take a picture of all four kids every year on the first day of school, but my first attempt didn't go so well.  Maybe next year's photo will turn out better.

 Elijah started preschool this year, too.  The preschool through the school district is really expensive, so I joined a preschool with some other moms at church.  We bring all our kids together for it and we take turns teaching the class.  So far Elijah loves it, even if he is still pretty shy.

 His gigantic backpack.  He isn't a big Spongebob fan, but preschool started a few weeks after public school, so this was what was left on clearance at Target.  Well, I suppose he could have chosen Hello Kitty, but he didn't.

 I got home from a church meeting one night and found Daddy reading bedtime stories to the kiddos.  He's such a good Dad.

 Katie and me goofing around with the camera after the story was over.

 Another first!  Katie lost her first tooth the other day!  Cailin lost her first one in August, but her picture was taken on a different camera and I can't find the right memory card right now.

 A couple of days ago I snapped this picture of Cole playing with Mater.  If anyone else in the house tries to touch Mater, he either runs away or doesn't stay still for them.  For some reason Mater and Cole get along really well.  So well that Mater even comes up to Cole when he goes on the back porch.

 Then I turned and got this picture of the three bigger kids playing in the sandbox.

 Then I turned back to Cole and Mater and this is what I found.  Mater doesn't like having anyone else put their hands in his cage because it's his territory, but apparently he invites Cole right in.  

Cochran camping trip, August 2010

At the beginning of August the entire Cochran clan went camping for a weekend at the church owned property in western Colorado.  My parents, all nine siblings, and our spouses and kids totaled 28 people and we had a lot of fun.  I didn't take a ton of pictures while we were there, and I still have to get the group pictures from my dad, but here are a few that I took.

We attempted to go fishing at one of the lakes.  It was a flop because no fish were biting, and only a few minutes after we got the poles out it started raining and thundering so we had to head back to camp.  But, the boys were able to catch some snakes during the short time that we were there.  Let me apologize in advance to Grandma Alder for showing this picture of Katie (Grandma hates snakes).

 How we transported most of the group to and from the lake.  You can see the thunderclouds in the background that we were trying to escape.

 Cailin and Morgan were buddies.  It was cute to watch them play together (and with Jack, the dog).

 Katie roasting marshmallows.

 Cool morning outside our cabin.  Daddy built a fire and the kids were using it to warm up because their irresponsible mother forgot their coats at home.

 Katie goofing off...

 and then she challenged me to do the same thing.

We had a great time at Ragged Mountain with my family and can't wait to do it again soon!