New Year's eve 2011

It's the last night of 2011!! We had a low-key celebration tonight after church at the Rudd's. We usually try to do a fancy dinner out, but that just didn't happen this year. Instead, we all wore comfy clothes and had a fun night in with the kids. At 8:30, we put all of the kids upstairs in their sleeping bags with a movie and waited for them to drop. Our girls were the first ones out - Harper at about 9:15 and Delaney around 10. The adults played the usual Basement Olympics and hung out until right after midnight. Good times :)

Harper and Luke jam on the drums

Tyler and Delaney playing a Wii game

Fingers crossed that they fall asleep soon!

Craig playing Pop-a-Shot

Ness's turn

Andria S. takes her turn at darts while Morgan and the Hipps watch

Allan

You know it's a good party when someone (Claire) falls asleep on the stairs :)

Delaney is out...

... and so is Harper.

Allan took a picture of me checking Facebook on my phone which he claims I do way too much. It's his fault for buying me an iphone :)

Happy New Year!! We hope everyone has a blessed and safe 2012!!

Playdates

I tried to keep the girls busy over Christmas break by having some playdates with friends. We've had Claire, Alayna, and Emma and Sammi over to play for a couple of hours each. My girls were so excited when Emma and Sammi invited them over to have a tea party today. In fact, I think it was both girls' first playdate without me. I had the whole house to myself for two hours and I didn't know what to do! Mrs. Beth said that the girls were well-behaved and had so much fun.

Sammi and Delaney dancing to the Kinect game.

Emma and Harper's turn

Brock, Polly and Baby Jesus

The kids in Adventureland regularly pray for some missionaries from our church, Brock and Polly, who are currently serving in Sub-Saharan Africa. Delaney and Harper hear the names "Brock and Polly" every week and they have become a part of our imaginary family. Anytime the girls are playing school, church, doctor, or house, Brock and Polly are the imaginary students, children, patients, or friends. They also join us often for lunch and dinner. My favorite part is that, since we are just finishing up the Christmas season, Baby Jesus has become part of the mix, too. Just today, Harper was taking Brock, Polly, and Baby Jesus to the doctor to get some shots.

Polly's real-life mom, Ruth, sings on stage with Delaney at church, so I was able to tell her that Brock and Polly are at our house daily and to rest assured that they are very good friends with Baby Jesus. She thought that was pretty cute and said that she would pass that along in her next email to her daughter, the missionary.

Happy 5th Birthday, Delaney!

Happy 5th Birthday to our beautiful girl, Delaney! You are so incredibly loved and adored!

Delaney took a break from playing outside with Ross and Daddy to get her annual 10:43 am picture taken.

I'm 5!

We waited to let her open her birthday presents from Mommy and Daddy on the morning of the 26th so she could have her own special moment with just our little family.

Daddy's favorite gift was a Duke t-shirt that she can wear while they are watching basketball games together.

Delaney's favorite gift was a Barbie bath toy.

Merry Christmas from the Cochrans!

The Next Chapter

For those of you anxiously awaiting the next chapter of the Harper Sleeps saga, here you go...

She now sleeps on the floor!

Who knows how it started the first time, but it happened. She has fluffy comforter to lay on beside all of her other junk. As always, we start her off covered up, but the blanket inevitably ends up pushed to the side.
Another thing Harper likes when she sleeps is her little blankie or her hands up next to her face, just like Mommy does.

Happy Birthday, Jesus! Parties

I took the day off to attend the girls' Birthday Parties for Jesus. Allan was already off, so we both got to go. The girls thought it was so cool to have us both there. I was in charge of juice boxes for Harper's class (yay!) and a craft for Delaney's class (yuck!) - I'm SO not crafty!

Daddy helping Delaney with a puzzle while waiting for the party to start.

Waiting in line for her turn at the game - when did she become a big girl?!?

Delaney did great at the stack the boxes game!

Here is the craft project - glitter glue and sequins on a foam snowflake. Big. Huge. Mess! I think I am forever banned from craft duty - my plan worked! :)

Harper and her much less messy craft project.

Waiting for her turn at the Nativity story matching game.

Snack time! Believe it or not, she ate her carrots before her cupcake!

Harper and Mommy

Daddy helps Harper eat her cupcake.

Harper touching her nose during a game of Simon Says.

Daddy and Delaney

Mommy and the girls

Christmas at Boo and Grams' House

We had a beautiful, sunny day to go celebrate Christmas at Boo and Grams' house. It had been a while since we had been out that way and the girls were so excited to see the horses again. We had a nice, but too short, visit because Allan and I both had to work at church and Delaney was scheduled to sing for worship team.

Allan, Ken, and the girls look out at the horses in the pasture.

Harper got a Pucci Pet Puppy

Delaney shows off her Pucci Pet Pony and Cinderella doll

Grams also let the girls pick a treasure from the boxes of toys that used to be her daughter, Sarah's. Harper picked a My Little Pony and Delaney picked a Cabbage Patch Doll - exactly the opposite of what I would have thought they'd pick.

Boo and Grams and the girls

Delaney's Last Preschool Christmas Program

Delaney had her last preschool Christmas program tonight. The Pre K kids get to stay up on stage for the whole program while the younger classes just come up on stage one at a time to sing a special song. Delaney did a super job singing and doing the motions. Unfortunately, our video camera went kaput this summer and my digital camera just didn't zoom in well enough to capture any of her on the stage :( I might be able to steal a picture from Mrs. Krista sometime.

Afterwards, we went to eat at Cracker Barrel with Ken, Kathy, and Jon.

Delaney's fan club takes up a whole pew!

Harper's class won't get to perform until next year, but she enjoyed dancing in the aisles!

After the program the kids go back to their class for a parent to pick them up. Delaney and her friend, Adysen, had on the same PJs!

More friends from her class

Delaney and her teachers, Ms. Ashley and Mrs. Kellie.

The grandparents

We always take a picture in front of this tree at her programs.

Delaney and Mommy

Honey's 60th Birthday

Happy 60th Birthday to my wonderful Mom! Tonight a group of sixteen of us went out to celebrate. We originally planned to go to a nice Italian place in town, but they lost our reservation (I knew I should have called to confirm) and ended up at a BBQ place instead. No worries, though, because it turned out to be a much more relaxed environment where I didn't have to worry if the girls were being too loud or (shocker!) not staying in their seats - and we could take lots of pictures :).

I hope my Mom had a good time and knows how special she is to all of us.

Ken, Honey, Delaney - all of the December birthdays

Bully the Bull made an appearance to sing to her.

My Mom and her good friend, Candy

Honey and her grandkids

Mom and her two kids

Jake, Sam, Mom, and Ed

Honey and Delaney

Honey and Elvis, I mean Harper!

Jon and Honey

Ann and Honey

Me and My Mom