Dedicated to Bryson

This post is going to be all about Bryson since he doesn't get as much blog time as Abby does.

The boy is hilarious! From his funny face expressions to the things he says, he always has us laughing. They are things you have to experience because writing them down just doesn't do it justice.

Here is one example.

We were on our way upstairs to have lunch and this is what he says.

Bryson " Want sauce(apple sauce) bud? Yup! Ok."

He practically parents himself. I have found him with his nose in the corner a few times.

He climbs on everything. He is very "helpful" by pulling things out of the drawers, off the cupboard and bringing them too you saying "Thank you".

He always asks people if they are ok if they get hurt.

He is getting really good at using a fork and spoon, at the same time, he is an ambi eater :)

He loves eating, reading, his blanket and being a mess.

He loves his dad! He runs and gives him a big hug every time he comes home. He is a cuddle bug and very loving. Until he starts wrestling Abby anyway.

I could go on and on about how much we love this little guy but most of you have stopped reading by now so I will skip to the pictures. Although he is harder to get a picture of than Ben.

Funny Moments of the week

abby came down stairs with a little bag of raisins and said "raisins are a great idea for a healthy snack."

When I put Abby to bed I always ask her what her favorite part of her day was and she asks me the same.

I said "Reading with YOU was my favorite part."

Abby says "I am not U Mom, U is a letter. I am Abigail."

The other night Abby came out of her room sometime after 10pm saying she couldn't sleep and wanted to watch a movie.

Ben " Abby you need to go back to bed, it is passed your bed time, it is even passed my bedtime."

Abby " Then maybe you should go to bed dad."

Sorry for those who have heard this story already. (Sadly this is verbatim and not an exaggeration)

Lady in church as I am walking out of Sacrament meeting " wow you are finally looking pregnant and not just chubby"

Me"Excuse me?" (thinking I am sure I heard her wrong)

Lady repeats " You are looking pregnant now and not just chubby. You were looking chubby for awhile and I was wondering if you had been eating too much."

Me: stunned silence (not sure what to say to that, Thank you?) I wasn't offended, just shocked at the lack of tack some people have.

I told my friend Allyson about it and I couldn't remember the ladies name, without any other description besides what the lady had said she knew exactly who it was (Sad)

I had a good laugh about it.

I thought I would post a picture so you could see that I am in fact pregnant and not just over eating. Well I might be over eating, but I am also pregnant :)

I am 24 weeks (6 Months) for those who were wondering.

Abbyisms

After examining my belly abby lifted up her shirt, touched her belly to mine and said "I think they are going to be best friends."

Abby helped me clean up the basement and when we were done she said "a job well done."

After going #2 in the potty she wiped her (clean) hand across her forehead and said "few, I' glad that's over."

I said something with my mouth full and abby told me "mom, you have to swallow and then talk"

Whenever I went shopping with my mom and she picked out something I didn't like, my "nice" way of saying I didn't like it was to say that it would look cute on her. Abby's nice way is saying "um nope, that is too small I guess we shouldn't get it"

Thanksgiving week highlights

Well we had 3 yummy Thanksgivings this year. Which fit in nicely with being in my 2nd trimester and being hungry as a bear (and sometimes grumpy as one too:)

Abby Helped me make some quilts to send over to Afghanistan for Brandon to give to the people in the villages they visit.

Ben took me out for my birthday, it was a much needed night out on the town. (Thanks baby)

Of course the awesome BYU win over the U! Go Cougars!

It's a.....

It's a 1 lb Baby! I did it! I held strong and didn't find out. As a reward Ben bought me a sausage cresandwich from BK. YUM! The baby looks great and is measuring about 6 days ahead of scheduel but not enough to move my due date up. I guess it will just be a chunk like it's brother and sister. They gave me a dvd of the ultrasound and I have watched it endlessly to see if I can "see anything". Ben thinks he "saw something" so he is going for boy. Take a look at the shortened video and tell me what you think (no professionals please :).

Baby Shower

We are soon to begin a baby boom on both sides of the family. Within a 5 month period 4 of us are having babies. We had a baby shower for Ben's sister Lisa at the Olive Garden. All the girls were able to come and we had a great time. Good luck Lisa! I hope you don't miss Thanksgiving:)

My ultrasound is tomorrow. I am very excited, I hope I can resist finding out. My only strategy is to tell the tech when I first walk in "no matter how much I cry, beg or plead, DO NOT tell me." Wish me luck, I am going to need it!

Princesses on Ice

Let's just say we had fun, but my money would have been better spent if we had stayed at home, dressed her up in her princess dress, turned on dancing music and gave her a huge bowl of popcorn to eat.:) She was more interested in dancing next to her seat and eating popcorn than the actual performance. In true Cochran fashion she asked to leave early, so we did.

Abby's 3rd Birthday

We had a fun week celebrating Abby's 3rd Birthday this week. She got 3 apple trees from Grandma Elaine. We had lots of family come over and everyone was very generous with their gifts. Abby loved them all. The present that stole the show was from Uncle Bryan and Farah. They gave her a Cinderella dress. She wants to wear it when I take her to see Princesses on Ice next week. Thanks for everyone who was able to come and make Abby's birthday so special. Happy Birthday Abby, We love you!

Friends

Some of my High school friends got together this week. As you can see the girls were a little more cooperative than the boys :) It was fun visiting and letting our kids run wild together.

Halloween

We had fun decorating pumpkins for family night. Mine was baby feet in a heart (my original idea was a pregnant silhouette, but I didn't want people thinking it was a naked lady). Abby's was an elephant. Bryson's was a bear. Ben's was a weighted companion cube from the game Portal (You would have to be a computer nerd or the spouse of one to know what it was :) I made Abby's costume this year. She was a fairy princess. Bryson was a lion even though be said he was an ewok. I was a princess as requested by Abby. We didn't get a picture but Ben was a scientist (yes he wore one of my old lab coats. ) We had a fun party with the Robison's and with our ward.

Ovens, Clothes and Creepies

The oven beeper went off announcing it was the desired temp.
Abby: "What was that?"
Me: "That was the oven telling us it is ready."
Abby: "Mom, ovens can't talk, they don't have mouths."

After spending the majority of my day in my jammies I decided to get dressed.

Abby: "Why are you wearing those special clothes?"

Me: "I thought it was probably time to put some real clothes on today. Do you want to change out of your jammies into some real clothes?"

Abby: "Um, not really."

Ben: "Those Halloween monsters are creepy."

Abby: "I'm not creepy, Bryson isn't creepy, Mom and Dad aren't creepy. We are not all creepies."

Subjecting Myself To Humiliation

So since this very well might be the last pregnancy I have, I am trying to capture these last memories. With my other pregnancies I never really took many "belly" pictures so I thought I would take one each week to see the evolution of the belly. So these are just a of the ones I have taken. Most are quite unflattering due to being sick. The first set of pictures is 4 weeks and the second set is 16 weeks. They aren't completely in scale but you get the idea. How can I be this big and not have gained any weight you ask? No idea, it baffles the mind :)

To peek or not to peek

So in a few weeks is my ultrasound. Ben has never wanted to find out what we are having. I told him that once we had one of each we wouldn't find out the gender until the birth. That is obviously the case this time. He thinks I will cave and take a peek to see what we were having. I don't plan on peeking so hopefully my will holds strong.

Just wondering if you found out for your babies or not.

If you care, I am 16 weeks, the HB today was 147. It is already kicking me, no dainty flutters like with Abby, these are more like being flicked. This may or may not be a surprise but with all the fun from the first trimester I haven't gained any weight despite my big belly.

Support Our Troops

Whatever your views may be about the war, it was still important to show our gratitude for the service these soldiers give for our country. They are leaving behind their families in order to help preserve our nation and other nations freedoms. I know they would appreciate hearing from all of you. This is Brandon's address in Afghanistan. You can write to him or have him deliver the letter to someone in his platoon that is in need of encouragement.
We love you Brandon and are so proud to have you serving our country.

LCPL Brandon Cochran
4th LAR C Co
2nd PLT Unit 40650
FPO-AP96427-0650

Worst Mom Of The Year

So this is my entry for the Worst Mom of The Year Award.

Here is the story...
So Bryson and I had finished lunch and Abby was still slowly eating hers. Abby stayed upstairs eating her lunch before her nap while Bryson came downstairs with me while I worked on Abby's Halloween Costume. I hadn't heard anything from her for a little while and went upstairs to see if she had fallen asleep on the coach. This is were I found her sleeping.





















When I picked her up to put her in bed she started crying that she wasn't tired and was still eating her lunch. :)
P.S. I did not force her to stay at the table she was there by choice :)

Book Report

My latest books I have read.

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

I give it 3 stars

It has the same basic plot line as The Divinci Code or Angels and Demons, but this one isn't about the Catholic church, It is about the Masons and mans ability to become like God. He comes so close to getting it right but misses the mark in the end. It has a few mormon references which I thought was funny. It moves kind of slow because he spends alot of time explaining history and symbolism which is interesting but slows the story down. I like it but probably won't read it again.

Book of a Thousand Days By Shannon Hale

I will give this one 3 stars also

Again I liked it but probably won't read it again. It is written as journal entries by the servant of a princess. It is about loyalty, friendship and love. Slightly predicable but a good read.

Percy Jackson Books 3, 4 and 5

I give them 4.5 Stars

I love love love this series! These are the last books of the series. It is about greek mythology and a young hero named Percy Jackson in the modern world. It is written for young adults and stays true to the age group it was ment for (what I mean by that is that it doesn't evolve through the series to an older audience like the Harry Potter series did)

Thanks Barbara for introducing me to this series.

Any goods books you want to recommend would be welcome.

Queen of Africa

Can I add to the last post that just wearing clothes makes me sick...

Perhaps I should move to a third world country where they have no food, water or clothes :) Maybe they'd make me their queen.

Oh Cruel World

Warning this contains some whining.

So I just needed to vent a little of the ironically painful things that make me sick. (by no means a complete list)

Water is essential for life right? Not for me, in our house it is known as the "W" word. Just the name or mere thought of it makes me sick.

It is no big secret that I like to watch my fair share of TV, but no more, for in this cruel world even TV has betrayed me and causes the lose of my lunch.

Scrolling down a page on my computer. What? I know it's pathetic.

Last my fear of food which has now become the "f" word, the mention of any kind, type or amount of food, again....sick!

So I end this post before I am forced to scroll down it...

We've got the beat!

Our baby's got a heart beat of 159. Yup we are expecting another baby!

April 9

Yes I have been sick, but thanks to the miracle pill called Zophran (the anti-nausea med they give to chemo patients) I have been able to function. Ben put it best when he said " With the meds she only throws up every couple of days instead of every couple of minutes."

We will NOT be finding out what we are having. So it will be a surprise. Although I will be surprised if it's not a girl.

My platelets are already low, but hopefully they will stay high enough so I can get an epidural. :)

We are very excited. Abby is more excited than anyone.

Twitter: Making Sense of the Madness

You've all heard of Twitter, but many of you probably don't know what it is. If you want to find out, I wrote a post on my other blog, and you can get the normal people version. http://bit.ly/x98fB.

Abby Says...

I am a big gore (girl) so I need a big pop tart.

My bum is called a wedgie.

Have you heard the story Handsome and Gretel?

Is the sun shinning on Madison?

What color is mom? Purple?

That's the mama sprinkler and that is the papa sprinkler because otherwise they are really cute.

Bryson has started to speak in sentences. We are still trying to successfully get it on camera.

"I got a book"

"I don't know?" while shaking his head

my favorite "Thank You!"

Out of the mouth of Abby

Stop it! You're too much!

Good thing the animals are peaceable.

I can't go to sleep, it's too hard.

I have a bella (belly) There are 3 bebas in ma bella (3 babies in my belly)

My tummy is sick, I need a brownie to help me feel better.

I am SO hungry, my tummy is rumbling and rumbling.

Chill it out Bryson.

Park hopping with Grandma

Grandma Elaine came over on Friday. Abby made me Jello all by herself. It was delicious. We went to a park and were attacked by bee's so we left. Bryson felt cheated because we were only there for 2 min, but there was a big pumpkin so that made it better. We decided to go to a different park and had a great time playing in the water.

A Word of Warning

Short version: don’t get a gym membership at Gold’s Gym. They don’t deserve your money.

Medium version: they’re salesmen either don’t know what they’re talking about, or they are deliberately misleading and sometimes tell outright lies. Even if there are two people on the same account, the contracts are treated separately, and if one person (me) wants to use the other person’s time (Alison) then you have to pay a $100 transfer fee.

Long version: The facility is great, the people at the desk are nice, and from what I can tell the trainers are too, but the sales group is less than helpful and the corporate “office” is a nightmare. Endless answering machines, no phone calls are ever returned, no cancellation agreements, and no help for you. So even though a new member can sign up for $575 for 3 years ($16 a month), the best an existing member can do is $692 for two years ($29 a month).

So for anyone who’s not working for Gold’s Gym, I give them 0 of 5 stars and I recommend you stay far, far away (check the Google or InsiderPages.com reviews if you think my experience was abnormal). For anyone who does work for Gold’s Gym, if you had treated me well, I would have been a loyal customer for years, but now, you’ll get my $692 (only so you don’t ruin my credit) and you’ll never get another penny from me. Ever.

Update**

I’m not changing my mind about how many phone calls it takes to reach the corporate office, or their responsiveness in calling you back, or their clueless/slimy sales team, or about never going back again, but Evelyn in the Orem Corporate Office might be the one saving grace in this whole affair. She was very helpful, polite, and willing to work with a customer in the way that you’d expect modern companies to work with their customers.

Abby Talk

"When I was a little gore (girl)......"

"When I was a dragon......"

"Hmm, I am really tired."

In her attempts to get a toy out from under the chair:

"I could really use some help down here."

"D starts with Duck."

Flickr

I started using Flickr again to find photos covered by the Creative Commons license and figured it had been awhile since I'd added any photos of my own. So here's a few of my favorite things.

Farm Country

We had a great time. Abby was awesome on her first solo horse ride. (thanks Jen for standing in line) Bryson loved the animals and licked every animals cage including whatever mystery substance was on it. Abby loved being with some of her cousins and can't wait to go back.