Christmas Day

Christmas Day is always fun but a little crazy around here. We get up early and see what Santa has brought us then open the rest of the presents. While mom makes breakfast, dad starts messing with all things electronic. He was real happy this year because he got no clothes just electronic gadgets. After breakfast we have some downtime and just laze around for awhile.

In the afternoon it is time to go to Dorothy and John's for the big family get together. That is where it gets kinda of crazy. My sisters and I are not the quiet soft spoken types and neither are our children. We ate insane amounts of food, played games and opened presents. The kids loved everything they got and someday when I am brave I will tell the story of how Donna, Dorothy and I got potato chips for Christmas.

We had a great day and lots of fun. Here are a pic of all the cousins and I only had to threaten them once to get them all to smile.

Christmas eve

Christmas Eve in our family is reserved for just the five of us. Steve had to go to work for a little in the morning but had the afternoon off. We decided to go see a movie in downtown Fort Worth. A big thanks to the parents of all the children in my classroom who were very generous and gave me gift certificates to different places including the theater and restaurants. This was a fabulous gift for people who love to go out but hate the expense. Anyways, we went to see Alvin and the Chipmunks which was a great family movie.

While in downtown we went to see the big tree and it was beautiful. We also went to visit the Water Gardens which we had never seen before. It is a very cool feature of downtown and we intend to visit it again in the future.

When we got home we cooked king crab legs. This whole family loves seafood and the legs we got were over a pound each. Ally, Matt and I were only able to finish one but Steve and Steph ate two and were very stuffed.

It was then time to open the traditional one gift and then we all watched Dr Suess's grinch cartoon. It was a wonderful day and I am so glad we spend the day with just the five of us it is our special time.

Ally's Christmas joke:

What does a cat on the beach have in common with Christmas?

Sandy claws : )

House lights

Decorating the outside at Christmas time is a big deal at our house. This year Steve took it a step beyond. He created along with the help of the kids five snowflakes to go on our roof. Two of them our over 6 feet tall and the other three are over 4 feet tall. It took a complete weekend to just make the snowflakes and another weekend to put up the other lights. Ally says our house is the brightest in the neighborhood.

A closeup of a snowflake

Jingle Bell Jog

This morning we did the first annual Jingle Bell Jog for our school district. It benefits the scholarship foundation in our area. Ally calls it the "fun run" because she enjoys running. Mom is not as fond of running but the twins wanted me to do it so I walked it. The course is just one mile so it went fairly quick. Steve and Stephany were cheering us on the sidelines they are not joggers or walkers. There were lots of people there and it was a good way to start the morning. The finishers in order were Matt, Ally, and then mom but I did walk and talk with a friend from work so maybe that slowed me down.

Matthew came in 190

Ally came in 203

Mom came in 315

I love these kids

This is the week for school conferences and Mommy has been busy attending them because Daddy had to spend the week in east Texas. I am glad to report that all the kids are doing great in school. The teachers only had good things to say and while of course we think they are wonderful it is nice to hear other people say it too. I do wish though that those very well behaved kids at school would be less argumentative at home but hey at least it is just at home.

I have another reason to crazy love these kids they let their mother dress them up and take the cutest pictures. They only whine a little and I consider that amazing since they all are in the double digits age wise. This picture is one I took to hang on the wall for Christmas time, let's hope they still like me when they are 30 and I am still hanging it.

Lost items

Our family has a gremlin and he seems to be hiding things. We have lost many things in the last few weeks including a pair of glasses and a knee brace. There has been many hours of searching and while we have found many things they were not what we were looking for. Mommy has decided that during the week she has off for Thanksgiving she is going to purge the gremlin or at least the clutter that is helping him. The kids hope some of their stuff is still around afterward.

P.S. Ally has named the gremlin the Greenie Meanie

Halloween

It's Halloween night and the children are running from house to house frightening all in sight.
They remember trick or treat and their moms hope thank you also. As they come home she checks the candy and reminds them before bed "brush your teeth please" as the dentist bill dances in her head. Here are the ghouls and goblins that left our house tonight and all came back with the treats of the night.

Steve's treat was not so sweet a friend took pity on him and gave him a beer.

Fall festivities

Halloween is one of the favorite times of year at the Cochran household. Steve decorates the yard and house and we love all the fun activities during this time of year. This weekend we went to a corn maze about an hour away in Gainesville. We did fairly well and only had to backtrack a few times.



Later that day it was time to attend an adults only costume party. Steve and I were pretty basic a pirate and a vampiress. My sister Donna and her husband Jason were also pirates along with my sister Dorothy. The must see of the night though was my brother in law Johnny or as the kids now call him Aunt Jenny, he was a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader. He went all out even shaving legs, stomach and chest. We now have images in our head that we may never get rid of.

Ally's Halloween jokes : )

What's a vampires favorite holiday?

Fangs-giving

Where do baby ghosts go during the day?

dayscare centers

Grandparents

Recently Grandma and Grandpa Robinson came for a visit. Grandpa has many, many relatives in Texas and we always get to meet someone new. This time it was his cousin Roberta and her family. They have a little place ( a few hundred acres) about an hour from us. It was a beautiful place to visit and everyone was so nice. One of the kids favorite things to do with Grandpa is fish and since Roberta's had a pond they gave it a try. Ally is usually the champion fishergirl but this time her brother came out on top. None of the fish went home with us they all went back in the pond but the kids had a great time. The count was Matthew 3, Ally 1, and Stephany a lot of lake weed.


Grandpa and Matthew, the champion

You can't win with these genes

Last week it became time for the annual eye checkups for a few members of our family, the ones out of disposable contacts. Ally had said she was having trouble seeing at school so we decided she needed an exam. The doctor made it official everybody in the house now needs glasses or contacts. We told the kids when both sets of parents can't see more than 10 feet in front of them it is in your genes you are destined for glasses.

Ally does say her glasses are the coolest pink color and it is amazing to see everything so much better. We think she looks adorable.

How this blog thing started.

Lots of my friends have blogs and while I thought it was a great idea I just didn't think I had the time. Recently my daughter Ally has been making a daily family newspaper but she really wanted to be able to share our family news with all of our various scattered friends and family. So attempting to be the good mom I have started this blog for Ally and I to share our family news.


my fellow blogger Ally