Happy Birthday Lauren

Six years ago, on February 25, 2009,  God blessed our family with a sweet little girl. We have had all boys since having her, so as you could imagine, she is a special little lady to all of us, brightening up our world with the color pink.  We are so thankful to have her in our lives. I dedicate this post to our daughter, Lauren Jana...

.....you were counting down the days until you birthday

.....you are in Kindergarden this year and love it

(you even wore a dress on your first day of "homeschool" :)

.....you are looking forward to planting flowers in Spring

.....you love horses

.....you love to color and draw

.....you still play with your babies

.....you enjoy building puzzles

.....you are very close with Luke and enjoy playing together

(the two of you are only 15 mos. apart)

.....you love to sleep in

.....you are reading very well

.....you love to have girly time with your mama

.....you have lost 4 teeth so far

(and your two front teeth are loose)

.....you have a fun personality and are a delight to be around

.....you love your brothers

....you would still like to have a little sister

.....you are a natural night owl

.....you like to watch movies

....you are so helpful with the baby

.....you are a little mama to your younger brothers

.....you love it when Nate helps you build your Lego friends

.....you love math

....you like to have your fingernails painted

.....you wear my high heels around the house

.....you love going back to PA to visit family

.....you love having your ears pierced

.....you like to play UNO with Noah

.....you can still carry Adam on your hip

.....you love to clean

(and it blows my mind)

.....you were excited to get a new bike

(but you were very disappointed that it wasn't pink)

.....you enjoy being outside and are looking forward to Spring

.....you are the vegetable lover of the family

.....you are very affectionate

.....you love to take walks around our neighborhood 

.....you love to help me in the kitchen

.....you eat oatmeal every morning for breakfast

.....you have a heart for God and pray often

.....you do your own laundry from start to finish

.....you have your own pink Bible 

.....you love listening to music

.....you are in the children's choir at church

.....you have much better fashion sense than your Mama

.....you still love to cuddle with your Daddy

.....you have neater handwriting than your brothers

(surprise, surprise)

.....you still sleep with your "Woof" and "Bear"

(your little brown doggie and pink bear that you've had forever)

.....you finally have your own room!

We have enjoyed watching you mature this past year. You are  extremely dependable for your age as well as a very hard worker. Your cheerful heart is such an encouragement to me. Your love for your Daddy and brothers really is the sweetest thing.  I love having a daughter. I do realize that I have an enormous responsibility to teach you and set an example of  how to be a godly woman. God has been so gracious to be working even through my failures. I can hear your faith in your prayers, thanks be to God. Our prayer for you is that you grow up trusting in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, and that you will grow in your faith through the years, witnessing His love to those around you. 

Happy Birthday Lauren

I Love You,

Mommy

I'm still here....

I thought I would drop in to let you know that I hope to soon post photos of our February. Our family is in the middle of the tummy bug right now, so my priorities have been elsewhere.  Five down and three to go.....good times! 

It is late and everyone is tucked in for the night. I thought it would be nice to let you know where I have been. After all, I did say that I was hoping to be posting on my blog more often.

All of our photos are on our home computer downstairs, but I did have some from last summer on my lap top. I chose this one because it is precious.   

This is Jared with his little girl, who just turned six in February. Lauren still loves to crawl up onto his lap and cuddle with her Daddy.....and it melts my heart every time.  

 You'll be hearing from me soon. I hope you all are getting ready for Spring. I know I am!

With Love,

Lisa

January

So I decided that it would be fun and doable to share some photos looking back at our month...I'll try to do this at the end of each month.  January is a good time to start fresh with something new right? I am often reminded that there are certain people who really enjoy see photos of the kids.  I am such a lousy blogger with too much time in between my posts. The whole reason I have my blog is so my family can "see" what we are up to, namely my growing children.  So this is my attempt at helping you get a glimpse of our life where we are. I habitually take a ton of photos of our everyday....because these are actually the special times for me....the everyday. Photographs bring back a flood of memories when I look at them....I don't ever want to forget the little things in life, and taking random photos of this and that helps my memory as the years move along.  

**Disclaimer....the following photos are of my children smiling and enjoying life. Don't let that fool you...sometimes they don't get along, have bad days, and whine about nothing. I just don't happen to take photos of my kids when they are in raw form. **

Most of our kids were sick the first half of January. We were all supposed to attend a wedding of a friend of ours, but Jared and Noah were the only two able to attend. I was sad to have to miss it, but was content to stay home and take care of my sickies. By God's grace I never did get what they all had, and everyone has recovered. Anyway, here is a photo of two of my handsome men. Noah found that cool coat in his great grandmother's attic while we were in PA over Christmas. It belonged to his great grandfather, so it's pretty special to Noah. These two fellas sure do enjoy one another's company. Noah loves spending time with his Dad.

There isn't a day that goes by that I don't hear the sound of our oldest son strumming his guitar. I actually like listening to him play. He is pretty good which makes listening enjoyable and easy on the ears. (However, when he plays his electric guitar he does that in his bedroom with the door closed...it is soooo loud and I can hear it just fine through the floor!)

It was so cute to find Noah giving Aaron his own personal concert....and that little guy LOVED it. He even had his own little snack of cheerios...just in case. (And by the way, Aaron is about 8 mos. old in all these photos.)

In the Cochran home we like to teach our toddlers how to properly start fires in the fire place....Jared says that they're never too young to learn. (Don't worry Mom....that totally was a joke.)

Adam is such a character, giving us lots of laughs. Some of the stuff he says is hilarious. He is definitely two, and all that comes along with that age. In the midst of the two year old challenges, we really enjoy his personality. He is never at a loss for words.....ever.  Oh and he absolutely loves being a little helper to anyone who will let him.

One day I found these two goof balls sitting up in their tree. They apparently had built some sort of platform....and I am sure it was totally unsafe, so I just yelled at them to be careful. That way if they got hurt, I had at least warned them. 

Noah and Nate have their moments of course, but are best buddies and get along 99 % of the time and I am so thankful for that. 

Lauren and Luke are really into puzzles....building them like everyday. They got a few new floor puzzles for Christmas so they have had fun building them.....and then their expressions would change.  They would become dismayed as they watched baby Aaron run over the pieces with his walker, busting up all of their hard work.  Thankfully they can't stay mad at the little cutie.

To pass the time, we like to hide our baby in big oversized back packs just for fun.

Luke takes his special time with Aaron very seriously.  The kids are often helpful by keeping an eye on Aaron while I am busy with something for a minute, like trying to wipe peanut butter out of my 2 yr. old's hair and ears....don't ask. Anyway, it is so sweet to listen to Luke talking to his little brother. As of right now, Aaron is officially crawling. So this photo of him calmly sitting are loooong gone.

Luke was into a bit of a lincoln log phase for a while. He loved building tall towers.  We keep that giant bin of logs in a closet and pull them out every-so-often. I don't know how I missed taking a photo of our living room when there were 4,000 lincoln logs strewn all over the floor....I'm quite certain I will have ample opportunity to capture that disarray in the future. 

Why yes my children do wear shorts in January.

I love this photo of these two, for a couple of reasons. This is how Lauren carries this little chub around....so cute. And I love how you can see his little teeth. He has cut even more since this photo was taken.

We were either going to or coming from our Wednesday night activities we have at our church. This is a highlight of our week. The kids really enjoy this time....we all do.

They are genuine goof balls.....what can I say.

Thankfully Noah loves babies....or we would be in big trouble. I am extremely thankful for the love that this big guy shows the little ones. His tenderness is a delight to see. He is very helpful.....but I still can't get him to change a dirty diaper. I still haven't given up hope though!

I got a kick out of watching Noah read this story to his siblings. He wrote this story a few years ago and it just resurfaced....so fun. It was about an astronaut named Logan.

Pig pile on Noah!

I warned you....these photos are just random shots of our days. There were many days in January when some of the kids didn't even make it out of their jammies....I love those kind of days. Not when they're sick of course...but just those warm and cozy days of winter.

My sweetheart with his littlest dudes. They are all about Daddy when he gets home from work. I love to watch our pile of kids attack him in the entryway as he walks in the door from work....now that's something I need to get a picture of. Not that I would ever forget those times....but just because it is a truly precious sight.

The following two photos are raw evidence of why Lauren needs a sister! (Do you notice the blonde in pink holding a gun?!)

When Lauren is not playing "war" with her brothers in the living room, she is wearing a purse as she does her copy work.  Most of you all know that we homeschool our kids....maybe some day I will do a post to answer the question of  why in the world we would ever do that!  As for now I will say that we absolutely love it....yes, it can be challenging, but in the grand scheme of life it is one of the best decisions we have ever made....I couldn't imagine not homeschooling them.

Nate and Lauren tend to do some of their school side by side...lots of noises annoy Nate, but he does enjoy Lauren's company. While I was taking this photo of Nate my eye caught the lego chaos in the background. Let's take a closer look at it shall we.... 

I love my Nate, and I love how my Nate loves his legos, but his lego mess drives. me. crazy. I ask him how he can stand this mess and he cheerfully says "I like it".....and I do believe him.  The rule is to keep his legos contained to his table....but somehow they always manage to invade our school area. I will say though that it is pretty cool how he is always working on something, and really enjoys this outlet. And by the way, this is about a 1/4 of his lego collection shown in the photo.....so you can only imagine!

Nate was excited that the sun was shining after a long bout of dreary days.

We like to start our kids out young at chess.....just kidding. We all just learned how to play last year and it is addicting. I will say that I may have or may not have been beaten multiple times by more than one of my children.

Jared never lets the kids win...ever. Although I myself have defeated him on more than one occasion, and like the good wife that I am, I rub it in. It's good for him. 

I don't know who has the most challenging personality.....sometimes I think Luke would be the winner of that one. But then on the other hand he is so darn sweet and affectionate, melting this mama's heart. 

Noah is undefeated in chess when he plays his siblings...unless you count the times that he is sweet and lets them win, (without them knowing)....just so they know what it feels like to win.

So that was a little bit of us in January. I promise you I was there....just behind the camera the whole time.  I am happy to share these everyday moments with you. 

We love and miss you all, and I hope you enjoyed the photos of our brood. Maybe I'll get on a roll and actually post something in February.