Vacation with the Cochranes

We went to FL with Chad's family last week for 7 days. Chad's parents, siblings, sister-in-law, and nephew all went. We had such a great time. Every morning we had a home-cooked breakfast by Pop then went out the the great kid pool. The big boys played at the pool, while Sutton napped. This kid pool was the best! It was only 1 foot deep but had a slide, jungle gym thing, and water spouts. The boys had a blast.

Cohen and Cale are only 5 months apart so they were a handful! Make that 5-6 handfuls. Everyone took their turn parenting those two. It definitely takes a village to raise two 2-year olds. Lol! They were cackling and having a blast one minute, then pushing and crying the next minute. It was so much fun to watch them play. Neither of them liked the beach, but Sutton LOVED it!

Showing their muscles!

Happy as always

We also went to the Alligator Farm and the fort Castillo De San Marcus in St. Augustine.  The boys loved all the alligators and crocodiles.



Chad is acting crazy, as always. The boys look perplexed:)





The boys checking out the Komodo Dragon



Cale being brave looking into the cannon at the fort!



The Cochrane boys

 We had such a wonderful time! We are so blessed to have such a great family. My sister-in-law is pregnant so next summer will be even more exciting!

Life is sweet!!



Birthday Party Fun!

Cohen's friend Ethan turned 3 on Saturday and we were invited to his fabulous birthday party.  We met all the other friends at the Fire Station.  The firemen gave each boy a fireman's hat. Then the boys were free to explore the fire trucks and climb into the driver's seat.  Ethan evan rang the bell on the firetruck! It was such a great party.

Cohen is such a handsome boy!

He was totally mesmerized by the trucks.

He even let Sutton help him drive.

It was impossible to get all the kids to look at the camera.

Happy Birthday, Ethan! What a great party!!

After the fire station, we went to Ethan's house and the boys played on a bounce house, ate hot dogs and cupcakes.  Sutton even grabbed my cupcake out of my hand and took a big bite.  We had a great time.  However, it would have been MUCH better if Chad were there because I had to carry a screaming, fighting Cohen out of the party under my arm because he did NOT want to leave.  Along with Sutton.  I felt like I was wrestling a 35 pound alligator!  Chad had an excuse though...his great friend's wedding reception was at the same time as the party.
I felt a little less embarrassed about my tantrum-throwing toddler when Ethan's mommy told me that a few other kids had to be carried out of the party screaming too:)
Thanks, Andersons, for giving us such great memories! We love you!

Kelly

Sutton is 8 Months!

My, how time flies!  It is truly amazing how fast little ones learn new things. Sutton is such a fast learner, and is already pulling up to stand.  He crawls very fast, then uses my shirt to pull to a standing position so we are face to face.  He has no new teeth, just his two bottom ones. I am loving that he doesn't have any more teeth yet. I love the gummy smiles that babies have.  ----Cohen had 8 teeth at eight months!!

He refused to sit in the chair. Chad and I tried numerous times. He would just squirm out!

He is always such a happy boy!

Most mornings when I go to get Sutton out of his crib he is standing up holding onto the crib rail, smiling and talking to me.  He and Cohen are having so much fun playing together.  They take baths together now without the infant tub. Cohen likes to pour water on Sutton's head, and Sutton cackles when Cohen does this. It's so precious.

Sutton went to the pool for the first time a few weeks ago and loved it. He smiled and laughed the whole time.  We are headed to the beach soon so I'm looking forward to making memories with my boys at the beach... all 3 of them:)

Make some great memories of your own:)

Kelly

Beautiful Days!

We are staying busy around here!!  Most days that I am not working the boys and I play outside, go to the park, Monkey Treehouse, or the zoo.  We have had several showings of our house lately so once the house is spotless and clean we leave!  I literally finish cleaning, get the boys up from their naps, and take them straight to the car. With Sutton crawling so fast, and Cohen being two, the house gets so messy, so fast!




Sutton Henry's first time in a swing




Cohen loves brushing the goats again this year!
He sat right next to this guy and just brushed him.





This is Cohen and his friends Duke and Liam. Duke and Liam are
the two boys that go to Miss Lily's with Cohen and Sutton.
Miss Lily sends us pics of the boys all day. I love this one!



Cohen is such an animal lover.

Loving My 3 Boys!

Ramblings

Several times throughout any given day I talk to God. I was a "say your prayers at bedtime" kinda gal until I got pregnant with Cohen in June of 2009 and that went out the window as the first trimester sleepiness took over. Since then I literally fall asleep within one minute of laying down. 
I have decided I am now a "talk to God all the time like he is sitting right beside me" kinda gal. I like this better. I talk to my Father all the time in my car, when I am in the shower, and when I am awake at night with Sutton.  I feel like this has strengthed our relationship. I think you should try it too:)

Speaking of being awake with Sutton at night. I have a confession....
I don't let him cry it out anymore when he wakes up at night. I happily get up to nurse him and cuddle him, no matter what time at night it is. I have realized with my second child how fleeting those middle-of-the-night-feedings are. I only wished Co woke up at night and wanted me to hold him and soothe him to sleep. So I will continue to nurse Sutton at 2am as long as he wants too....and I may even nurse him until he is 2.....and I don't care what anyone says about it!

I have also been getting Cohen out of his bed and moving him to our bed a couple of nights a week. I love it when he sleeps between Chad and I, and Chad enjoys it too. Cohen likes to hold our hands, fingers interlocked:)  My heart cries,
"Oh, dear Father, how you fill our hearts up with so much love and praise to You! We are not worthy."

Hope you have a great weekend!

Kelly

Potty Time

Cohen is such an awesome kiddo.  I think he is such a smart boy.  Our babysitter Miss Lily has been teaching him to use the potty for about 6 weeks now.  He has 0 desire to use the potty at our house, but goes 75% of the time at Lily's.  He always poops in the potty at her house....at home he says, "No potty!" and screams.  But, I am in no hurry to potty train him right now, so I'm going to wait until he tells us he has to go.

He is such a kind-hearted child, yet is super-prone to meltdowns recently.  Everything is a big deal to him after 5pm. These tantrums don't help well as I am trying to wean off the Prozac. When he has these extreme meltdowns, it really challenges me and makes me feel like I have no parenting skills.  Now that our house is for sale we never leave without it being spic and span.  This is where his toddler tantrums become very stressful.  Having to clean and straighten the house while also dealing with a typical 2 year old really stresses me out.  But I must remember, this too shall pass.

But in the meantime if any one has any parenting books or skills related to dealing with 2 year old meltdowns, I'd love to hear about them.

Here are some pictures of our wild, crazy, but oh-so-loving big boy Cohen Michael.

We went "Krogering" and he had to share his stickers.

Glad Sutton doesn't have any hair.

This is his new favorite thing to do:)

Oh, Cohen, how we love you so!! Words cannot express how richly blessed we are.

7 months!!

Our sweet baby boy is 7 months now!  Wow!  It is so hard to believe.  Sutton is full of smiles and is such a lover.  He loves his Mommy more than I can explain.  When Cohen was his age, he would coo and talk and smile at me, and it just melted my heart.  However, Sutton is different.  He really just stares at me like I am the most wonderful, beautiful thing he has ever seen.  Numerous times while nursing he just stops and smiles at me like he cannot get enough of his Mommy.  I hope this lasts a long time.

Tonight I asked Chad if we could call him "Henry" instead of Sutton because I love "Henry" so much.  He, of course, said "No, I think Sutton is such a cool name." I love Sutton, but I also love Henry.  I feel like I used 2 perfect names on one child.  So we are going to be struggling for more boy names when we decide we are ready for #3.

Sutton is still an extreme spitter.  He is trying out for the Olympic Team, actually.  And we think he has a great chance:)  I hate it when people say their child has "projectile vomit" when it really just goes a couple of inches from their mouth.  I will never misuse that term myself again after having our little Sutton Henry.  He is really impressive about 24 times per day.  He throws up at least a half an ounce after each feeding, sometimes more like an ounce and a half.  (Being a nurse, these amounts aren't merely estimates.....nurses can tell you how many milliliters they pee each time they go to the bathroom just because we always have to be right on with our measurements:))  And when he throws up, it will go, on average, 1 foot away, sometimes 2.  I can tell when he does if I am not around because Cohen says, "Uh-oh, Sut-TON!!"

Sutton,
You are such a sweet, happy boy!  You cackle at your brother every day.  I hope you boys always remain very close.  I will be one happy Mommy if you love Jesus, love your brother, and love and respect your parents. You are meeting your milestones very quickly...."overachiever!!"  You got your bottom two teeth at six months.
You started sitting unassisted at 6 months and 2 weeks.   By 6 months and three weeks you were crawling. This makes my life a little more difficult! You can get across the room very quickly! But as long as your brother is close by, you don't go too far:)  You have started to "talk" and say "babababa" often. Cohen copies you. I wonder if you guys are speaking in code sometimes. Cohen gets really bothered if someone he doesn't know tries to talk to you or look at you.  He runs over to you in your stroller or carseat and puts his hand over you and says "Sut-TON!" in a whiny voice.  He is very protective of you.
We love you to the heavens and back!!
Mommy, Daddy, and Cohen