Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Independence Day - 2011

We had a wonderful Independence Day and hope that everyone else did too!!  Let us always remember the Lord our God, return to Him as a nation, defend and preserve our freedoms for ourselves and for our posterity, and also remember the men who fought and died to give us the freedoms we enjoy today!  Here are a few pictures from our day...


Sayer

Shenandoah

Sabrina and I 
(I put together a CD of our favorite patriotic songs by downloading them from iTunes.  It was a lot of fun to do and everyone ended up really enjoying it.  In this picture, Sabrina and I are finalizing the selections. :)  We were the only ones that new - everyone else was surprised!)

Stasia

Seth blowing up balloons while watching a video of patriotic songs performed by the U.S. Air Force Band.

Sienna

A holiday in our home wouldn't be the same without a game of aggravation!

The Game Board

The decorations looked great!!  My younger siblings did a fantastic job!!

If you know our family, you know that a food spread like this is pretty rare - it was strange to buy all of the junk food!  But it was a fun treat! :) 
(as a note, the hot dogs were all beef and nitrate free - so they were a little healthy ;)

BBQ Beans

Tater Tots

Happy Independence Day!!!

The cake 
This is the first year I've made one of these and I really enjoyed doing it.  It was such a hit that daddy said it will have to be a new Cochran family tradition. :)

I thought it looked very pretty and went just perfect on our patriotic plates.

Enjoying our flag cake!

Getting ready for the show

My fireworks pictures did not turn out very well, but here are a couple of them anyway!

We had a lot of fun!!!

I was going to post a neat video I filmed of the fireworks (which turned out a lot better than my 
pictures! :) but, I couldn't get it to upload right now.  Maybe another time!






Monday, August 15, 2011

Bullet Proof George Washington

In light of Independence Day being a few weeks ago, I wanted to do a re-post of one of our favorite American History stories.  As well as a few great quotes.  Please click this link and read the post!!!

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Introducing...

...Our Puppy...

Sampson!!!
He is great with the animals.  Isn't he cute?!

Friday, August 12, 2011

Aunt Brenda, Uncle Drew, and Cousins

The end of June/beginning of July, Aunt Brenda (mommy's sister), Uncle Drew, and our cousins -Logan, Luke, Elizabeth, Hannah, and Maraeah came for a visit.  It was SO good to see them again!!!  They live in Montana and it had been four years since we had seen all of them (two years since we saw Aunt Brenda and Luke).  We're so glad you could come!!!  Here are some pictures from the days they were here.

Aunt Brenda, Uncle Drew, Logan, Luke, Elizabeth, Hannah, and Maraeah

To start off their visit, we tried to get rid of a few flies!  Mommy was paying 10 cents per carcass! :)
Logan 

Getting quite a few

The first day, we only had one swatter (we quickly realized we needed to increase our storage of arms :), so Luke went after them with his hands!

That's one way to get rid of flies... they did a great job!!!

Hannah set up a delightful picnic for her and I

We were joined by Maraeah and Shenandoah!

Making laundry soap
 (we just started doing this a few months ago and we love it!  It's really economical too!)

Aunt Brenda helped me

The boys building a lego castle

The floor

"Pause real quick and look everyone!"

Ladies at tea

All dressed up

Cousins 
- Sabrina, Elizabeth, Sienna, and I

Ring around the pumpkins 
(our made-up version of ring around the rosies :)

Playing horses

Sabrina and Hannah

Zipline time!

Brothers

"Okay guys, bring it back!"

Hannah's turn

Logan and I built this wedget "exorbiter"

Foodline

Seth, Maraeah, and Sayer

Late-night game of kemps 
(yes, I know, it's kind of a funny picture! It's hard when you take it yourself!)

Finishing the game the next day
(This picture is much better!)

Even I need float devices! :)  

Shenandoah

It has been SO hot - the pool felt great!!!  The only sad thing was...

...Hannah and Elizabeth got stung!  

Cousins

We went shooting!!!
Ready to go!

Logan's turn

The targets

Luke

Some of the onlookers and target callers 
(is that a term?  I don't know. Whatever you call the people who tell you if you hit the target! :)

Logan

Joshua

Uncle Drew

Taking a break

Instructions

This is Sabrina's plate - she did really well!  
(she even got one in the black center!)

Re-loading

Back at the house, Logan gave me a bullet anatomy lesson

Thanks to Logan, I think I could now give you a proper and thorough description of the differences between a rifle and shotgun bullet! :)

Playing kemps

Joshua, Aunt Brenda, Uncle Drew

Mommy and Daddy

Group cousin shot!

On the stairs