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!

Chicago May 2010

At the end of May David had to go to Chicago for some training for work.  We sweet talked his sister Marie into coming to stay with our kids so that I could go with him.  We left on a Sunday and got back the following Friday.  All we really got to do together the entire trip was go out to dinner after he got off work in the evenings.  The rest of the time I hung out alone.  I spent my time reading and shopping at the nearby mall.  Here are some pictures from our trip. 

This is the only picture we got of the two of us together the entire trip.

Gino's Chicago style pizza.  The guy that hosts Man vs. Food went here when he was in Chicago, so we figured it was a pretty good place to try a true Chicago pizza.  Underneath all this sauce there is a sausage patty that covers the entire pizza.  I think we were both full after one slice (maybe David ate two).

 We found this car in the parking lot near our hotel.  The plate is for an area in Japan that David lived in.

Double decker train that I rode to downtown Chicago (alone, might I add).  I had to take this picture because the girls really like watching Dinosaur train on PBS, so I thought they'd like to see the train that Mommy got to ride.

 Downtown Chicago.

 Union Station.

 Some nice men offered to take my picture because they saw I was alone.  They were obviously tourists, too, or I wouldn't have let them for fear that I'd never see my camera again.

 The only place I went to during my day adventure to downtown was the Aquarium, and that is where I got most of the pictures I took during the trip.

Baby beluga and mommy.

The pacific white-sided dolphins were beautiful.  They were the reason I braved going downtown alone.  I spent most of the day just watching them swim.

 View of Chicago coming out of the aquarium.  I'm not sure I'll be dumb enough to venture to the center of a big city alone like that again (stories I won't share on here for fear of scaring my mommy), but the aquarium was fun and this part of the city was beautiful with the buildings, green parks, and lake.  I wish David didn't have to work the entire trip so that he could have gone with me.