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I’ve been eagerly anticipating Nicole’s birthday.  I think it’s because it feels like it’s been a long time since we celebrated a birthday around here.  The birthdays in our family fall as follows:  May, June, July, December, December, December.  It was a challenge to celebrate all our December birthdays this last year because we were preparing for our move.  I was feeling a tremendous about of stress and anxiety.  I did my best to give my kids a special day, but my heart was not in it last December.  We even completely missed celebrating Zach’s birthday because the kids and I weren’t even in the same time zone as him for his birthday (not to mention being apart for our 11th wedding anniversary as well).

Anyway, that time is behind us and we are so ready to give Nicole a birthday.  I contemplated throwing a party for her with all our great Seattle friends, but I didn’t think a party was right for her, I couldn’t imagine her enjoying a party. I decided that in lieu of a party, we’d go to the park with some friends and have cupcakes and then celebrate just with family on her birthday. 

Today was the best day for the park in terms both of weather and of availability of our friends.  Here are some pictures from the park:

The first and second grade put on their annual musical program/play.  Ila had been sick and grumpy so I left her home with Zach and took Charlotte and Nicole to the performance.The girls seemed to enjoy the show and Isaac was glad that we came.  We sat on the floor on the side that Isaac was on.  Isaac filed in with his class and took his spot on the bottom row of the riser.  As soon as Nicole saw him standing in his place, she stood up, walked over, and climbed into an empty spot near him.  I removed her from the riser as quickly and quietly as I could, but something about the way she just assumed that she was part of the show made me laugh to myself a little bit.

Isaac watched us much of the time, even though it meant that he was facing the wrong way for most of the show.He didn’t seem to know many of the words in the songs and he was often late on the actions (it was somewhat amusing to watch).  He also coughed into his elbow frequently whenever they were singing.  Isaac seems to always have a cough these days.  I took him to a pediatrician about it and they took a sample of his blood for an allergy test, we’re still waiting for the results.

Check out this clip of Isaac during one of the songs:

Charlotte has been excited about going to kindergarten for a long time, probably since Isaac started school.  I think that she thought she could go as soon as she turned 5 last December.  Isaac tried to tell her the other day that she wouldn’t like homework to which she replied “I don’t know if I’ll like homework yet.”  I’m glad she’s willing to reserve judgment on details like that.

On Tuesday morning Carriage Crest held their Kindergarten Roundup.  While the parents met with the principal, the kids got to go with their future teachers to see their future classrooms.  Charlotte enjoyed the experience and is even more excited than she was before.  The first thing she said when I saw her was “Mom, did you know they have play dough in kindergarten!!”  She said that they read a story about kindergarten, she played with a doll and play dough, and they did an art project.  She cut out a bus and drew herself in the driver’s seat.  She said that she was going to drive the bus when she was bigger.  She even reported that she had made some friends.After the meetings, the kids got a chance to ride the bus around the parking lot.  Charlotte picked out her outfit and perhaps I should have guided her to a pair of pants without a hole in the knee, but as you can see, I didn’t.  She likes to wear these pants with her leg through the knee hole.

Charlotte listened carefully to the rules and as the bus driver described to her how to sit, she made the appropriate adjustments.  I can hardly imagine sending my little girl off on the bus each day, at least she’ll have her big brother with her. 

According to the principal, the school board is voting on if they will make all the schools in the district only offer full day kindergarten.  I have been planning on half days for Charlotte, so I’m anxious to find out their decision.

I wasn’t going to write about Easter because I didn’t get a lot of good pictures.  I was trying to capture some great video and I wasn’t thrilled with the results of that effort either.  Nevertheless, I really loved Easter morning this year, so I decided to write about it anyway.

The Easter Bunny of my childhood carefully lined furniture with bright, colorful candies.  I loved the way it looked to have all the furniture in the room lined with evenly spaced eatables— it’s like the way it looks when a thick layer of snow lines every branch of a tree in the winter.  My kid’s Easter Bunny spent far less time distributing candy.  Our bunny just didn’t have the attention span or energy for meticulously placing candy.

I love that my kids have not hit that mad grab for candy age where they race around fighting each other for the biggest haul of sweets.  Isaac and Charlotte walked around collecting candy, but they took their time and shared with their siblings and were excited every time they found a new stash of goodies.

Here is a video of Charlotte collecting candy:

Nicole was not interested in collecting candy, only in walking around eating some every so often.  We couldn’t convince her to put candy in her basket, but she did insist on carrying her basket around as she ate.

Ila’s reaction was my favorite.  She sat by a the fireplace the whole morning next to a line of candies.  She kept looking at the line of candy and then giving me the cheesiest smile.  When she ate the candy, she took a long time eating each piece.  She’d pop it in and out of her mouth and smile real big and say “candy!”

The following videos both feature Ila and her line of candy.  In the last video, Nicole tries to talk with her mouth full of candy.

We were lucky to have Great Grandma Cochran and Great Aunt Margaret for family night this week.  The kids were so excited when they saw them arrive.  They danced around yelling that they were here.  Zach taught a lesson about choosing the right and gave the kids CTR rings.  Charlotte told me that she will never be naughty again because she has her CTR ring on.

We were able to introduce Great-Grandma to the wonderful world of skyping by calling Laresa, Grandma, and Grandpa Cochran.  I still find myself in awe of what we can do with technology these days.

My favorite part of the evening was when Great-Grandma read the bedtime stories to the kids.  Isaac and Charlotte were so excited to share some of their favorite books with Great Grandma and Great Aunt Margaret.

As the kids were going up to bed Margaret said “we’ll have to come again sometime.”  Charlotte responded “you can come next week!”  I heard her excitedly telling Isaac that she had invited them for next week as she headed up to her bed.

Remember this book that I had adapted?  Well, it kinda fell apart last week at church, but it’s destruction gave me an idea for a new project, just in time for Stake conference.

They are letter sized pictures that I had taken of our house and one generic picture of a park.  I glued the pictures on to some thick paper and laminated them so that there was a picture on each side.  I also cut slots in the pictures for sliding people in and out.  I imagined Nicole making little scenarios and putting people to bed or baking or taking a bath or going to the park.  I also made some more laminated people to go with it and threw in a few random pictures for the kids to be creative with.

All of my kids enjoyed the picture cards.  Ila preferred to just use the little people and play peek-a-boo in the pages of a board book with them.

We invited two other couples over with all of their children.  The kids had a movie night while the moms and dads played games.  I was a little worried about how the movie part of the night would play out because the group was made up of 8 little kids (I put Ila to bed or it would have been 9). 

But, it went fine.  Nicole had a hard time settling down, but her dad took her into her room and read her a story and she fell asleep.  The adults were able to enjoy playing a game and eating a variety of delicious snacks while watching our little ones on a video monitor from the kitchen/livingroom. 

Also, the Easter Bunny came after everyone else left:

(Our Easter Bunny comes on Friday night so collecting candy doesn’t interfere with getting ready for church)

It’s been a busy day and I should be in bed, but I wanted to post some pictures, so here I am.

At 12:30 we joined the wives and children of some of Zach’s cousins (and his aunt) for an Easter Egg Hunt.  It was hosted by a preschool that Olive (a cousin’s daughter) attends.  Nicole and Ila were just happy to be outside and at a park.  I couldn’t convince either one of them to collect eggs.  Charlotte, collected eggs, but also made sure to play while she collected.

Here are some pictures of some of my girls with their second cousins:

It was a beautiful sunny day.  I was surprised how quickly everyone left.  It was probably only a half an hour after we arrived that everyone was gone except for me and my girls.  We had fun on our own.

We put a baby gate up on the playroom door.  But I’m not sure if I want to keep it there.  I feel cruel locking the girls in to play.  Ila hates it.

It seems like a reasonable thing to lock the girls in to play while I finish cleaning the kitchen.  Especially when you consider this next picture:

Yes, that lovely pile of socks, technology, and a spoon are in the toilet.

Is it cruel of me to restrict their freedom so, or is it a normal thing to do and they’ll just get use to it?

Charlotte doesn’t like loud sounds.  Whenever I get out my mixer, she puts her fingers in her ears in anticipation of me turning it on.  She flushes the toilet with her elbow so that she can plug her ears against the sound of the toilet flushing. I knew she did this in public restrooms (which often have extra loud flushes), but I didn’t realize that she did it at home too until just the other day when I saw her flushing with her elbow.

Today, when the nurse came in to give me a shot at the doctor’s office she plugged her ears and buried her face in a chair.  When I asked why she plugged her ears, she said “because I didn’t want to hear you say ouch.”

We love the library, especially when we find a new fun book.  So instead of catching up on all the other things I have to write about, I thought I’d recommend a book.  As you may know, Charlotte absolutely loves cats, so we were sold on the title alone.

If you like silly interactive books like the classic “There’s a monster at the end of this book,”  then you’ll love this one. If you can’t wait to get to the library to check it out, here’s a video of the author reading it.

The sequel is also fun:

Here’s the video.  I noticed that she is reading a slightly different version.  She wrote an “Americanized” version where she changed things like tin opener to can opener.

I just have not had it in me lately to stay up and blog so now I feel very far behind.  I think I’ll start back up slow.

Nicole discovered that I had gotten the Easter Box out and this is how I found her:

Notice how she’s opening up all my egg coloring kits.  Those little dye tablets look a little too much like candy.  She had a smear of Orange dye across her face and I found a tablet with a little bite out of it.

Can I just start off by saying, Isaac does not like to write.  I offered him a dollar to finish up this story with one more page and he turned me down.  I love his writing.  I love hearing how his brain puts ideas together.  His teacher asked him to write a journal of his trip since he took Friday off of school to go.  Here is what he wrote: (The perfectionist in me wanted to have him start over on the cover and write the title in the center with better spacing, but I had to let go and let it be his).

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We were so excited to be in Utah for General Conference this year.  It was our first time back since we moved away in October of 2009.  We have really missed living close to Mom and Dad Cochran.

Here are some pictures.  Why?  Because I love pictures:

We arrived safely in Utah late Friday night.  On Saturday the weather was beautiful.  We visited with our great friends, the Kelsons, and the kids played out side with no coats and at times with no shoes.  The kids had so much fun that on the way home, Isaac told me that if we don’t ever move back into our old home (which we still own), then he would think I’m a bad mother.

Here’s what it looked like outside the next morning:

So those of you watching conference that noticed the spring flowers on Saturday and the Snow covered branches on Sunday, that’s just about what it is like.  The snow is melting quickly though, so who knows what tomorrow will be like.

We have been in the car since about 7:50 AM PST and now it is about 6 PM PST with many hours left to travel.

This will be my first blog post from the passenger seat of the car.  Here are some pictures:

Nicole held on to her backpack for the first part of our journey—she really loves that backpack!

Ila has gotten a little bored, but mostly she’s been fine.

Isaac tried to help navigate, but he didn’t know how to use that GPS well.

If you got any strange phone calls from me earlier today, this is probably why:

Also since it’s April Fools day we periodically see very strange things like monkeys jumping around on cows or our cats running along side the van (or at least the children believe us when when we say we see such things).  They even tried to get into the act by telling us about the crazy things they’ve seen.

Oh, and if you see this while we’re still on the road, you can check out where we are by clicking here.