Soccer Star

Well, it's official. I'm a minivan-driving soccer mom. I guess we knew this day would come eventually, right? :) Abby decided she wants to play soccer this year, so she is on a team of 4- and 5-year-old girls with the Searcy leagues. Today was her first game, and it was a lot of fun! She was very excited to wear her uniform and use her new soccer ball (which just happens to match her uniform perfectly), and she got right out there and played like she had been doing it her whole life. Today was the first time the team was together, so it was an interesting experience. They practice for the first 30 minutes of the scheduled time, and then the game against the other team is the last 30 minutes. It was quite clear from the beginning that the other team had a few veteran players on it, and I'm pretty sure our girls had barely seen a soccer ball before, much less kicked one into a goal. Abby caught on very quickly during practice, and she was the first (and only ;)) one on our team to kick a goal during the game!! I was amazed at how well she did for her first game. Casey referred to her as "the aggressor" of the team. ;) One of the girls spent half of the game crying, and we had another one who mostly walked around with her thumb in her mouth. Basically, it was what I expected a soccer game with preschoolers to look like. Abby did get a little bit discouraged that the other team kept getting goals--she does not like to lose at anything! But it was a good time for us to reinforce those important life lessons like, "you just do your best," "it's ok if you don't win all the time," and "you still need to have a good attitude." I am hopeful that she will be able to handle this a little better as the season goes on because I'm pretty sure our team is the only one that has ALL new players on it. It will be an interesting few months... :) Abby Liz, you did an amazing job out there today, and we are so proud of you!!!

Prepositions and Multiplication

Ever since I graduated with my Bachelors degree from Harding in 2005, I have either worked in Preschool Special Education, or I have been a stay-at-home mom (and working on that Masters degree that I finally finished this year!). I'm not sure how any of this qualifies me to teach prepositions and multiplication to 8-year-olds, but that is exactly what I am doing now. I started a new job in August as the 3rd grade Math/Language Arts teacher at CrossPointe Preparatory... and I love it! The model of the school is amazing, and it works perfectly for our family's schedule. I only teach on Tuesday and Thursday mornings because the students do school at home on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I send home the assignment sheets for the whole week with the necessary curriculum, and the parents are responsible for teaching their children on those days. I have five sweet girls that make up my 3rd grade class, and they are such a blessing to work with. It is a lot of extra work at home, but I really do love what I am doing right now.

Abby has also started back to preschool on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, so it works out very well! Casey is able to take her in the mornings on his way to work, and I get done in time to pick her up. There is an older couple that we attend church with who keeps Logan for us on these days, and he loves going to their house! They keep 2 or 3 other children around his age, so he has a lot of fun. I feel so blessed to have a job that I love and childcare that we are all happy with!! Casey is still loving his job as Mailing Center Supervisor at HU, so we are also blessed with that.

Meanwhile, my kids keep growing. Here's the latest for Abby.

And we'll try this video for Logan because I laugh every time I watch it. :) We were playing at a friend's house, and Logan just loves playing with their kitty, Simon. The little girl in the video is Abby's friend, Adalyn.

Abby is 4!

I am apparently only capable of posting something here when there is a big life event in our family. :) I am a couple of weeks late, but we did have multiple celebrations in honor of Abby reaching the 4-year-old mark! We celebrated a couple of months early with Grandma and Grandpa when they visited from Ohio.

Then there was the family (plus Sean and Laura) party at our house the weekend of the Curtis family reunion.

We had a Candy Land themed party the day before her birthday to celebrate with a few of her friends. We were sad that Hallie and Lyla couldn't make it, but I'm sure Abby will just want another party to make up for that later. We did manage to get several pictures with Adalyn and Bella. :)

For her actual birthday, we went to IHOP for breakfast (sorry, no pictures). Then we had to make a quick stop back at the house to drop off a very sick Daddy (sad!) before the kids and I headed to The WonderPlace in Little Rock. Lyla wasn't able to make it to the Candy Land party, but she got to come play on Abby's birthday!

Plus, Mommy got to visit a little with Rachel and Tommy Nix which is always wonderful! Logan was in rare form so we didn't get to stay as long as we had hoped, but I think the kids had a good time! Then it was back home, and the birthday girl requested Sonic for dinner. :)

Abby is growing so quickly! She is 3 1/2 feet tall (90th percentile) and 41 lbs (90th percentile). She has been wearing size 5 clothes for months, and her latest pair of tennis shoes had to be bought at a size 12! She has decided that she needs to grow her hair and bangs out long "like Rapunzel," so we are constantly looking for stretchy headbands and hair clips to keep the craziness out of her face. :) She is very active, and (at her request) we have her signed up to play soccer this fall and spring! We should find out in the next week or so about what team she is on, and she is SO excited to get started.

We are starting a very informal homeschooling reading program this year since she is technically still in preschool. I wanted to wait another year before we really got into phonics, but she has been reading for several months already!! Since she is so eager to progress and read bigger words and books, I figured it would be better to teach her the correct way to sound out words than for her to make up her own methods. We will gradually be working our way through Handbook for Reading this year, and I am hopeful it will give me a feel for how we need to proceed with schooling next year for her. Some of her favorite books to read aloud to me right now include Fox in Sox and Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss. She loves to read Logan's board books to him, and Logan just soaks it up. It makes Mommy smile, too. :)

Abby is becoming quite the artist, and she will spend hours drawing, coloring, cutting, gluing, or any other crafting we will allow her to do. Daddy is especially artsy, so that is something special they like to do together. She got a couple of art/craft kits for her birthday, and they have already painted wooden butterfly magnets for the fridge, molded various items out of clay, and made flowers out of tissue paper and pipe cleaners. I am grateful that Daddy has a little more patience for these activities than I do. ;) Of course, these activities are always more fun for our girly girl if she gets to wear a fancy hat or dress while doing it!

She got the Hide 'Em In Your Heart CDs for her birthday, and we listen to them multiple times a day now. I love that she walks around the house singing scripture all the time, and Logan loves them! Favorite book characters right now include Fancy Nancy, Pinkalicious, Curious George, and Eloise. Favorite shows include Sid the Science Kid, Blue's Clues, Word World, and Strawberry Shortcake. Movies that are constantly on repeat are The Incredibles, Kung Fu Panda, Cars, and Over the Hedge. My sweet Abby is 4 (going on 14), and I just want to remember all of these little things she is loving right now! Thanks to all who survived this lengthy post. :) We love you, sweet girl!!!

Logan--18 months old!

My sweet baby boy is now 18 months old! I'm pretty sure this post is only one or two removed from the one where I said, "My baby boy is now one year old!" ... Sorry about that. I am currently working on getting my life organized so that I can fit blogging back into my schedule on a regular basis. Stay tuned (please? pretty please?) to see how that works out. In the meantime, you can just sit in shock and awe as I tell you how BIG my baby boy is at 18 months of age. Logan weighed in at 29 lbs at his 18 month check-up (90th percentile), and he is 33 inches tall (75th percentile). He has been wearing 2T clothes since he turned one year old, and I am stocking up on 2T and 3T for this winter! His language is finally starting to take off since he got tubes in his ears at the end of January, so it is exciting to hear him try new words. Some of his most commonly used words include: ball, mama (and mommy), dada, Abby, Nana, Pawpaw, book (ook), thank you (dit do), here you go (hee go), all done (ah duh), yes, no, yeah, yay, wow, uh oh, cow, kitty (kee), up, down, shoe, socks, banana, baby, go, bye, Blue's Clues (Boo's coos), and hot dog (gah gog). He only has a couple of animal sounds, but it is adorable to hear him meow, moo (boo), and ruff ruff. :) Even though he is surrounded by tutus, princesses, and all things PINK, he is definitely still all boy! He loves to play with any ball he can find, and he drives cars all over the living room. He loves to sit and look at books, and he is starting to take an interest in coloring. Music is definitely one of his favorite things! He always has a rhythm going, and he loves to dance. Logan is definitely my sensitive child. It doesn't take much scolding to bring that pitiful bottom lip out! He can also throw quite a fit, though, so it all balances out. ;) I just love this boy!!!

Rachel Cochran, M.Ed., ECSpEd

Yeah. This happened. :)

And now that I am DONE with grad school, I have great plans to update this blog with everything that has gone on over the past several months. Aren't you excited?? ;) Stay tuned for more details and pictures from the Cochran family adventures!

Logan is ONE!

This past Friday the 13th, Logan turned ONE year old!!! This past year has been insane, and I can't believe we are already here. He had his one-year check-up yesterday, and here are the stats: 27 lbs (90th percentile) and 30 1/2 inches (75th percentile). Big boy! Not like we didn't already know that... :) Since Casey was at Men's Retreat with our church group on Logan's actual birthday, we had the party with family on Saturday night. Here's the list of attendants: Our family of 4, Nana, Pawpaw, Mamaw, Bonnie, Andrew, Laura, and Sean. Yes, we did have ELEVEN people in our tiny house--and we all miraculously fit! January 13 was Sean's birthday, too, so we included him in the festivities. :) Aunt Tara and Uncle Peter were snowed in over in East TN, but we got to Skype while we sang "Happy Birthday" and watched Logan demolish his smash cake. I'm so glad they could be part of it that way! The wonders of technology... For those who are interested, his Farm cake and Haystack smash cake were both made by the amazing Sassy Sweets (aka Rachel Bashaw Grady & Deb Bashaw). The farm cake is ALL piped buttercream icing--it looked amazing!!

Since I just updated on all of his recent achievements, I won't make another list. We're headed to the ENT this afternoon to see about tubes, so I'm anxious to see if that will make a difference in his language development. He is such a happy, energetic boy--we love you, Logan!!!

It's the Little Things...

Hello, my name is Rachel, and I'm a total goob. I went for three full months without being able to put my hair in a ponytail. If you know me at all, you know this was basically a form of torture for me. So when I finally got my hair up into a ponytail this morning without too much pain, I celebrated by taking a ridiculously goofy picture. It is a significant event that should be remembered. :)

2012: The Year of All Things Awesome

Wow. Um.... hello, 2012. When did you get here?? I'm fairly certain I missed the majority of the past few months, so this whole "new year" thing kind of snuck up on me. After breaking my arm, discovering the bone tumor, and then having surgery on Halloween.... well, let's just say that there were a lot of heavy medications involved. October and November are a bit of a blur for me, but I think I started coming around somewhere close to Thanksgiving. The bone somehow managed to re-break a couple of weeks after the surgery since it was too thin to stabilize with a metal plate and screws (thanks, giant tumor), so recovery and physical therapy didn't go quite as smoothly or quickly as originally anticipated. All of that being said, please forgive my severe lack of blogging for the entire last quarter of 2011. Here are some of the highlights (that I can remember):

• The bone has finally healed, I've been doing physical therapy like it's the most important thing ever in the world, and so far I'm making decent improvements. The oncologist was impressed with my range of motion this week, so I have another month to continue improving before he determines if I will need another surgery to enhance my range of motion. Since I was in the sling for so long, a couple of spots in my shoulder joint have frozen up. The goal is to get them going with PT, but we'll have to see where we are in about a month. So far, so good!
• Both of my kids are being referred to an ENT this month. Logan is probably (definitely) going to need tubes after numerous double ear infections, and Abby might need to have her tonsils and adenoids removed. Abby is constantly testing positive for strep, so they are concerned that she might be a strep carrier. We should know more after their appointments on Jan. 17. Stay tuned...
• Logan is only a little over a week away from his first birthday! He is crawling at lightning speed, pulling up and cruising on everything, occasionally standing alone for a few seconds, and eating everything that is placed in front of him. This will be the boy that eats us out of house and home. He waves and says "bye-bye," and will say "mama" and "dada." He loves music, and his favorite songs are "Old MacDonald" (he sings the e-i-e-i-o part and always assumes the animal is a sheep by saying "baa baa") and "Jesus Loves Me." The current favorite game is to point to everything, say "dat," and then wait for someone to give "dat" a name. He also enjoys babbling at the top of his lungs while waving his arm around in the air--kinda looks like he's working on a hellfire and brimstone sermon, if you ask me. :) He loves being in the bathtub and is constantly trying to sneak his way into the bathroom when no one is looking. Favorite books include "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" and "Ten Friendly Fish." Did I mention he likes to eat?? He currently weighs in at a whopping 26 lbs! He is SO tall, and I'm pretty sure his first shoes will be a size 5 or 6.
• Abby is nearly 3 1/2 years old now, and she is ALL girl. Current loves include Fancy Nancy, Pinkalicious, coloring, playing dress up, Barbies/princesses, tea parties, and books. Lots and lots of books. She is getting a lot better at sounding out words, and she can usually read phrases like, "Hop on pop" and "I am Sam." (Can you tell we like Dr. Seuss? :)) She is dying to read and write, so we're doing a lot more of that than I would normally do with a 3-year-old. She loves to "share" with her brother.... which usually translates into, "Abby, why did you just take Logan's toy away from him?" "Because he's sharing with me!" Her logic is astounding sometimes. :) She's my big helper!
• Casey is now the Mailing Center Supervisor at Harding. He started this summer as the Postal Services Technician, and then he was promoted and given a raise in just 3 months! I am very proud of him, and he loves his new job. Hallelujah!
• I somehow managed to finish my grad school internship course this past semester, so there are only two classes left this spring! If I somehow manage to survive this semester, I should graduate with my M.Ed. in Early Childhood Special Education in May!!! Again--Hallelujah!

And now..... for the moment you've all been waiting for.... pictures! It'll be hard to narrow it down since there is so much time to cover, but I'll try to just pick out my favorites. I hope they are sufficient, and I'll try to post more on here soon!

Bella, Adalyn, and Abby dressed up for Halloween at school

The invalid, the pumpkin, the princess, and the dad at our church Fall Fest

My sweet babies :)

Grandma came to visit!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sweetest picture ever of my precious boys

Logan's early b-day party in Ohio--just pretend Casey's eyes are open. :)

"Look, Ma--two hands!"

I hope that made up for lost time. Blessings to all of you who made it through this post... and thanks for actually checking this blog. I promise we're still here! We have big plans for this year, and I just know that good things are on the way!!