So it goes...

 

Well the month and a half went by too quickly. We had such a great time over Christmas! We enjoyed a great ward party where the kids got to "shop" for gifts for the family. I also had a super fun night at a gift exchange with girls in the ward. Once Joey got here things went into high gear. We started his visit by going to see the new Star Wars film. I thought it was great, but I think the boys had warm up to it. After church on Sunday we headed north to the Twin Cities to go to the Mall of America. We did it last year and it was a ton of fun and we thought Joey might enjoy it. It was a short trip but we had good time. 

It snowed Christmas Eve and we had the best time going out to play in the snow and we made a pretty good snowman. Christmas morning came with lots of great gifts and food. We had fun Skyping with the grandparents too. Johnny was back to work after Christmas so we spent the rest of the days trying to keep ourselves entertained. Joey gave me a day off which was greatly appreciated. I went to my doctors appointment sans kids and then had lunch with Johnny at the hospital. then I took myself to see Star Wars again!

New Years Eve Johnny was working so Joey and I took the kids to a party some people in our ward were having. We played volleyball at the church for a bit. While everyone else had dinner we went to the hospital to see Johnny and have some ice cream. We went back to join the party at the Henderson's to eat and play games. We had a great time and good laughs. 

Once Joey left it was back to our normal routine which now includes weekly doctors visits and weekly ultrasound and NSTs. The kids are not loving being at the doctors so much, but I am enjoying getting to see my baby once a week and getting to spend lunch with Johnny at the hospital. Things are going well with the pregnancy. Baby is growing at the right pace and heartbeat is good. It looks like a Cochran and we got to see some hair today in the ultrasound! Daphne is not enjoying school very much this week. We had been having so much fun with it and then we took a break while Joey was here and ever since it has been a little bit of a struggle. Johnny has been looking at job opportunities for the last couple of weeks and has had a few phone interviews that have gone well. We are heading to Wisconsin in a couple weeks for a face to face, which I'm excited for, but we are going to have to wait til after baby comes to go visit other places.

A long time coming

If I waited to post this next week it would have been a whole year since I wrote anything on here. I just couldn't let that happen, so here it goes! 

This year has gone by faster than I can believe. I cannot fathom that it is December today! We are in holiday mode and I couldn't be happier about it. I LOVE the holidays, always have, always will. We had a great Thanksgiving week. No family again this year, but we did spend it with great friends. We are expecting Joey here for Christmas, which the kids a super excited about. They love Uncle Joey! 

Johnny's year has been good. The beginning was a little rough. He was just getting worn out from all the long hard rotations at the hospital. He would come home looking so tired and drained sometimes. I worried for him, but he made it through.  We had to take a little vacation for him. We went to our favorite place Disney World. It also worked out that Joey got to come which made things even better for Johnny! I love how much more time he has now that he is into his second year of residency. He gets a little more freedom, but more responsibility now. I think he likes it that way though. 

 I haven't been up to much. Spending time with my kids, being pregnant, working on my little sewing job, serving in Primary! I did get to take my first trip by myself since I have had children. I wasn't for the best reason, My Grandma passed away, but it was a great visit with my family.

 Daphne and Quentin are growing up way to quickly and soon they will have another sibling to love. They are great little friends and I love catching them being sweet to each other or playing nicely together. Daphne is so silly and comes up with goofy ideas and Quen thinks its hilarious! They fight too, but what siblings don't? I am doing school with Daphne to get ready for kindergarten next year and she is doing amazing! Quentin is such a boy and loves to run and throw and get into any trouble he can. 

We are loving life right now and I hope things keep getting better everyday. I also hope I can get back into the groove of my blog again. I hate that I missed documenting a whole year of our lives. I can remedy that though. I WILL do it!

Singing Girl!

We had a great week! The beginning of the week I was doing little jobs around the house and playing with the kids. Wednesday after dinner I went to the church to practice a song I will be singing. I had a great time. The ladies that are singing with me are great and we sat after practicing and talked for awhile. It was nice to get to know them better and to have a little girl talk! I also took advantage of having the car and no kids, so I went to a couple stores.

Friday was the big night! We were having a party at our house. Johnny wanted to get together with his resident friends, so we made Elizabeth's birthday the excuse to get everyone together. We had a nice time. People brought over great food and my cake turned out great! The residents in Johnny's year are so nice and it was great to have company. You all know how much I love to host!

Yesterday was a busy day. I woke up early to get my shopping done. When I got home Johnny and I decided to go get Family pictures done. So after getting ready we headed out. We were happy with the pictures. We went to Costco and Lowe's while we waited for the pictures to be printed. 

We had to head straight to the church to help set up for our ward Christmas party. We got there late, but everything got done and it was a great night. We had dinner and then there were a couple of musical number and then a good ole carol sing! We did another short little practice for the song I'm singing which went great! Johnny dragged us to two more stores after the party so the kids and I were pretty pooped today. We all took a long nap after church. Daphne got to come in to primary today to start getting used to Sharing time. She did okay, but it was hard for her to stay in her chair. I can't believe she is going to be in Primary already. Where is the time going? 

Here are some cute videos of Daphne singing Christmas songs!

Happy Birthday Doodles

Monday I spent my day cleaning house and prepping for Daphne's party. We really didn't decide to have a party until last week so I didn't have a lot of time to plan stuff. We decided on easy. I made a simple lunch and to just let the kids play in the pool and sprinkler and have some water balloons for them to pop. 

The big day arrived and I'm grateful to say everything went very smoothly that morning while I made all the food and got everything ready. I was a little nervous because when I woke up it was overcast, but the sun came out and it turned into a beautiful day. Daphne woke up asking when her party was and when her friends would be here. She was so excited. The kids had a great time and I'm so glad. 

Daphne requested a chocolate cake with berries and I was happy to oblige. I trained her well! I was happy with how it turned out and everyone loved it.

Wednesday we took advantage of having the car and went to a playgroup the stake has. It was at an awesome park in West Des Moines. It is on a lake with a beach. It has a great playground and a little splash pad. The kids had a great time and I got to meet some new girls. We are actually going to go to another play group with a couple of them tomorrow. We also went to the mall and Costco since we were on that side of town.

Playgroup on Thursday was very nice. It was at a great play ground. It was so nice to get to know some more ladies a little better. Daphne had a great time with the kids and I think my have found a best friend. Eliza is 3 as  well and they just loved each other. 

Friday we went out again cause I had some things I needed to get for the house. It was a horrible outing. Daphne pooped in her underwear THREE times. The last time I just bawled while I cleaned her up AGAIN. I am getting so frustrated with this potty training thing. She knows how to do it, but she chooses not to use the potty and it is wearing on me. We have been working on this for almost a year off and on and she does really well for a month and then decides not to go anymore. Its just so frustrating. 

Saturday was fun filled. We headed out as Johnny came in from his last night shift. It was sad to go have fun while he was home sleeping, but he needed it. We went to our ward's Pioneer Day Party. We had stick pulls and games and a cute little covered wagon for the kids to ride as well as a potluck lunch. Daphne had a blast playing with friends and getting to run around.

That night we went to the Indianola hot Air Balloon Launch! Johnny volunteered to be the doctor on hand at the first aid trailer so we got free tickets. Let me say it was so cool. Daphne couldn't believe how big the balloons were and Quen got pretty into it to. I would say there were at least 50 balloons! It was a perfect night to be out to. They had a live band playing, so Daphne and I had to have a dance party. We especially liked the parrot, monkey and puppy balloons. We had a great time! 

I'm happy to say that after a hard week in potty training Daphne has had no accidents the past two days. I think our decision to withhold movies has helped a lot. Hopefully it lasts. that would top off this awesome week! 

Brother and Sister

Monday started out with a walk to McDonald's for a lunch date with my two awesome babies. When we got there I put Quen in the stroller with Daphne. She started being so cute with him and telling him how he was the best brother and how much she loved him and they were just giggling. It made my mommy heart melt. had to ake a picture and of course the camera came out and I got these serious faces. We had a great time playing in the play place and walking and talking. Quen fell asleep in the Moby wrap and it was so sweet to have my baby fall asleep on me again, its been awhile and I loved it.

We also started doing homework sheets with Daphne. Its just hand writing, but she is doing so well. I am a very proud mama. The rest of the week was pretty normal: doing chores, playing games, reading books. Johnny worked every day this week so we were stuck at home. We went out Friday on a walk to go to yard sales, but it didn't last long because it started to rain pretty badly.

Johnny did get to come to Church with us and it made it a vast improvement from last week even if she had accidents in both dresses she wore. We had a great day taking naps and watching a movie together. 

Unexpected Guest

We had such a nice week this week. Johnny continued doing orientation and got to come home early a couple of days which was so nice. On Wednesday Mindy brought her girls over fo a little play date and the girls had a great time and continue to play well with each other. it was also really great to get to know Mindy a little better. I have never been good at getting to know someone one on one. I prefer to be in a big group and listen to everyone talk and just observe, but I guess its always good to learn new skills.

On Thursday we got ready for Joey to come visit. He called us on Tuesday with a little plan to come visit and we are so glad to have him whenever he comes. It was great too because Johnny got to come home early that day. 

Friday was Joeys birthday! After I got some chores done around the house the kids and I took him out for a great birthday lunch. We love the salad bar at the local grocery store chain so that what we did. I think he liked it to. We may have depleted the store of all it's raspberries. 

Quentin also turned 10 months this week and every month I'm so amazed at how fast the previous month went. I can't think of anything out of the ordinary this month. He has two bottom teeth now and he is starting to crawl. He really is just the best little boy and we love him to pieces!

Friday night Joey so graciously babysat for us so we could go to the Family Medicine Recognition Dinner. It was so nice to get all dressed up and go out without the kids. I think we have left the kid(s) with a babysitter so we could go out 3 times since Daphne was born so its just a little bit rare. There was dinner and then a presentation of the graduating residents. We had a great time. The dinner was delish and the company was great. We sat with Johnny's year of residents and had a lot of laughs.   

Johnnys fellow residents minus one.

Saturday we were up bright and early to go to the Farmers Market. The people around here rave about the market and let me tell you it didn't disappoint. There was live music and tons of free samples. All the food was delicious and we left with all the produce for the week and some extra treats. After lunch and a little shopping it was back home to relax and play games.   

Daphne came home with this little princess bike from our neighbor. Bob is the neighbor that gave us the lawn mower and he is just so sweet. We are definitely going to be taking him some cookies this week.

We are here!

Wow, how did this happen again? Its been another month since I posted. Life has been crazy busy getting ready for the move, actually moving and then setting up house. 

Three generations of Cochran men have slept in this crib!

Quentin turned nine months during all our crazy. He is growing up too fast. He is so smart and I can't believe how well he eats. He got one bottom tooth this week and has the second on the way. He has learned to wave goodbye and to high five. He loves that he can follow us around now and loves to play with his sister. He is still a crazy mamas boy and that makes it hard to get anything done.

We are liking in here in Des Moines. Our house is nice and in a great location. It is quick to get anywhere. It was so helpful to have John come help us on our move. We used the horse trailer to move our stuff from Colorado. Driving up was a long day, but I'm glad it only took a day to get here. So much better than driving across the country. We got here on Thursday last week and we unloaded and then stayed in our relater's condo for a couple of days before we got to move into the house. We weren't supposed to move in until Monday, but the previous owners moved out early so we got to move in on Saturday. We spent the weekend working in the yard and cleaning and moving what we could with the car. On Monday we had movers come and help us(we have the best relater, he paid for the movers and let us use his moving truck). Then is was unpacking and more unpacking. 

I am starting to feel like we are settled now. It has been slow going with the kids being so cranky, but the main floor is basically done now. We need to buy a couple more pieces of furniture, but we will get them over time. 

We have got to relax a little since being here. On Thursday night we went to a fellow residents house to have dinner and get acquainted to a few of the people Johnny will be working with. Yesterday we went to Adventureland (the local amusement park). The kids loved it. We had a blast ridding the rides and swimming in the water park. We had gone as a group with Johnny's co-workers, but got separated pretty early on. 

So life at the Cochran home is going well. I will try to get back on track with keeping up with the blog.

Lamar Days

I didn't work this week and it felt weird not to have anything to do in the afternoon. I kept busy though trying to get stuff done so we can close on the house.  Monday evening we went to the high school to watch Bekah's choir performance. She did well and it was fun to get to listen to the band and remember how much I used to love to play. We went to get ice cream after the performance and we had some good laughs. 

Wednesday Mary, the kids, and I went to Colorado Springs to do some food storage shopping and go to the bank. It was nice to get out of Lamar for a little while and we got our chores accomplished. Daphne was happy cause we took her to McDonalds for lunch and she liked get all the snacks at Costco.

This weekend was Lamar Days. They had a little parade so we all went. Daphne hasn't been to many parades and she loved running and grabbing the candy though she teared up a couple times cause all the kids were faster than she was, but a couple were nice and shared with her. After naps we went over to the park to take in all the festivities, but it was pretty disappointing this year. We stayed to let Daphne play on the playground.

Johnny and I both had talks today in church. We talked about the blessings of reading the Book of Mormon. I think we did pretty well. 

The Big Move

Well I have missed a few weeks, but I was pretty busy the last two Sundays. So now I have tons to catch up on. 

Quentin turned 7 months old on the 24th. He is getting so big and grown up. He wants to move all the time as is evident in his monthly pic. If you set him on the floor he immediately turns on his belly. He is still a mamas boy and prefers to be in my arms at all times. He is eating some solid food and is a little picky. So far he only likes to eat sweet potatoes, corn and any fruit. He also likes real rice not the rice cereal. He can play peak-a-boo and loves to grab anything in arms reach, cords seem to be his favorite right now and I am constantly having to take them away from him. 

Johnny's last week of rotations seem to take forever but Friday came and our lives changed very quickly that day. After going to the doctor to get Quentin some shots we picked Johnny up from his last day as a med student. We headed home, but before we went to our leasing office to see if we could move out whenever we wanted (I was previously told we could not move out until the last day of our contract). They told us we could move anytime we wanted so we went home and decided we wanted to move a whole week earlier than expected. All I can say is the next three days were a blur of packing cleaning and getting things ready for our move. We decided to stop by in Des Moines to drop off our stuff and look for houses before we headed to Colorado. I was also excited to get to see the place we are going to be living for the next three years! 

After packing the truck and driving the two days to Des Moines We were so glad to get unloaded and be off the road. Our kids are always so good traveling, but after the three previous days of not so much mommy time and the car breaking down it was nice to be off the road. We didn't get to rest though because looking for houses is hard work when you a dragging two little ones along with you. I'm not surprised, but a little disappointed we didn't find anything while we were there. So the search continues over the internet. The rest of the drive went very well and we were happy we got here safely.

We have been having lots of fun here at Nana's house. I can't decide who loves who more, Daphne or Tanner. We figured they would love playing with each other.Quentin loves all the attention he gets and he loves his bouncy gym. I have found a little job doing house/yard work for people in the ward. Its good to be making money and having things to do while I'm here. Johnny is hoping to get a job substituting at the schools here. Other than that our life is as normal as it can be. 

What we've been waiting for!

Our seven year anniversary was on the tenth. We didn't do anything because we wanted to wait to celebrate until after the match. So the week was spent waiting for this week to come. I know I shouldn't spend so much time looking to the future and focus on the present,  but I have been waiting for us to match for YEARS.

Monday we found out that we DID match and it was so nice to know that we did it and that Johnny would have a job in the summer being a REAL doctor! We are so proud of him and all the hard work he has done to make his dream come true! It was also St. Patty's Day and we celebrated with Corned Beef and Cabbage. 

The rest of the week was long and hard for two reasons: one because I had to wait until Friday to find out where we are going to spend the next three years, second because Johnny had the night shift all week. It was hard to have him gone for so long. On top of his 12 hour shift he had to stay for morning report and rounds which means he really had a 16 hour shift everyday. Hard on him and us. The kids seemed to sleep horribly all week so none of us were getting any rest. 

Well the long awaited Friday came and we found out we are headed to Des Moines, Iowa! It was not what I was expecting, but we are so excited! I really didn't care where we went as long as we got in some where. It will be so nice to feel settled and have friends and feel a part of a community.

Johnny says the program is good and the hospital is very nice as well as the people he will be working with.

Saturday after Johnny got home from his last night shift he took a little nap and then we headed out to celebrate! We went out to dinner at Longhorn Stake House. It was super tasty and we all were stuffed so we decided to take a walk around the mall. We also went to get our groceries for the week. By the time we got home we were all pooped. It was a week of ups and downs and now its time to get busy with the move, finding a house, and Johnny's LAST WEEK as a med student!

A week with Johnny

This week was a little strange. Johnny wasn't felling good so he stayed home on Tuesday and Wednesday. He said he needed to go in the next day and he tried, but we got over a foot of snow Wednesday night so he couldn't get the car out. Then we got another 6 inches Thursday night and couldn't get out again. So we got lots of Johnny time. We played games and had a little fun in the snow. It was great making a snowman with Daphne. She didn't help much in the actual building, but she kept asking for a nose and mouth for her little snowman. She also kept asking why Elsa was sad and made it snow and I will give you one guess what she named the snowman...

Tuesday we went to the doctors which was overdue for Quentin. He had to get shots and he was so good. Daphne and I both just got well checks. We have to go back in two weeks to get his 4 month shots. Then we will be caught up with his shots, but he will need to get his six month shots soon too because he will be turning 6 months in a couple weeks. He is getting so big and I finally have his weight (15lbs.) and height (25.5in.). Daphne got hers checked to: weight (31lbs.) and height(36.5in.). They are growing to fast.