Pixar Shorts

I love the Pixar short films they have made.
Boundin' ... which I think is one of my all-time favorite ones.
I am amazed at the ingenuity of the people who make these films. Sometimes I look at my life and feel like I am living the short films. I wonder if this is how they get their ideas, from their own personal lives.
I have taken to carrying a little notebook around with me ... or should I say I try to remember to take it with me ... so I can write down the little daily adventures in my life. I find myself laughing on a daily basis at the antics of my 3 little angels. Here are a few of their most recent "shorts":
Here I thought Jordan was doing so well eating his breakfast ... only to discover he was putting the cheerios down his shirt.
It took Constance 45 minutes to get ready for school ... when she is normally ready in 15-20 ... why? She had to finish the book she had started the day before.
When we are leaving to go anywhere ... Jordan has to tell everything "bye". "Bye tree", "Bye Princess", "Bye house", "Bye Sissy", "Bye Daddy's truck". Of course, he also gets on his little big wheel bike in the house and tells me "Bye Mommy", waves and then drives into the other room.
Driving to a different Fire Station ... Mike got the day he works changed and also the station he works at. This is new to Jordan and who knew it would be so hard on him. Previously, Mike was at the Fire hall by the airport ... which Jordan absolutely loved because he got to see two of his favorite things, firetrucks and planes. When I was taking the kids to see Mike at work after the change ... Every intersection we passed through ... Jordan screamed. We were missing all the turns to go and see his daddy. I don't think he believed me when I kept trying to reassure him we were indeed going to see Daddy. Of course, he was happy to see daddy ... but then he wanted to see the planes.
Dominic has discovered a new game. He will stand holding onto your legs and then he will try and step on your foot ... He started this with Mike and he would start laughing so hard he would almost lose his balance.
One day after Jordan had climbed into his car seat, he proceeded to look at the bottoms of his shoes and found some mud. After pointing it out to me he then started to lift his shoe to his mouth to "eat" some of the mud off. When I tried to tell him it was "yucky" ... He just looked at me and started to laugh.
Dominic has figured out how to unload things. He is really quite talented at it. Whether it comes to the laundry basket full of dirty clothes, the chair with folded laundry ready to be put away, the shoes put up for the night, or even the toy ark and all its animals. It doesn't matter ... He is pretty quick and so you have to work really fast ... or you will be on clean-up duty. Nope he hasn't learned that part yet.
Jordan discovering himself in the mirror and playing ... I think he learned this from watching Constance dance in front of the mirror and watch herself while she did it. It is really quite funny to see.
Recently the city was doing some repair work on some water lines on the street. Jordan would stand for hours in front of the window just watching the tractors work. He would get very upset when they would leave or we would leave our house to go anywhere. First thing every morning he would go to the window to see if they were there. He has had to say "goodbye" to the tractors ... they finished their work and have gone home.
My dad has a pair of boots ... Jordan has discovered them. I have gone looking for him at my parents only to find him in their closet taking his shoes off and putting my dad's boots on. It is funny to watch him try to walk in these boots ... they go all they to the top of his legs. Sometimes he is walking with the feet pointing towards his back. When he is done ... he takes them to my dad and tells him "grandpa's turn".

Gotta Luv 'em

After Jordan finishes eating his breakfast ... he tells us he is done and we get him down from the table, Mike is finishing getting his breakfast ready. Next thing we hear is Jordan, who has climbed back up into his chair (he is no longer in the highchair ... he has upgraded to the booster), telling Daddy, "Daddy sit" while pointing to where Mike usually sits. Mike sits in his seat with his oatmeal and the next thing out of Jordan's mouth is "Daddy, bite, bite, bite."

Constance and I were playing the Wii. We played a couple of games of tennis ... and one game of bowling. I got a spare upon which Constance informed me "That wasn't really that hard Mommy. Lot's of people can do that. Just thought you should know."

Jordan asks for some shredded wheat in a bowl without milk (like sissy). Mike puts it in the bowl and Jordan disappears into the living room. 5 seconds later he comes back in with an empty bowl and proceeds to tell us he is done. Yeah, right! Come to find out he dumped his shredded wheat into his bucket.

I was giving the boys some muffins for breakfast. I made the mistake of cutting the one for Dominic into quarters. I soon discovered that wasn't going to be enough as 1/4 went in his mouth followed shortly thereafter by another quarter. After I got those out of his little mouth, I cut the remaining muffins into 16ths. Something I will remember in the future.

Jordan is in "help you" mode. He likes to "help you" open the van door. He and sissy fight over who gets to open the door to the house. Today he wanted to help me carry the diaper bag from exercise. It was really fun when he wanted to help me open the cans of tomato sauce. For some reason he didn't think I should hold the can or the opener and would try to pull the can out of my hands while I tried to open it. Thankfully it didn't get dumped all over the floor.

I have been trying to help Jordan understand the concept of sharing a little more. Somedays are better than others. Today he was playing with one of Mike's firetrucks and I pointed out that it was daddy's and he was sharing with Jordan. To which, Jordan repeated that daddy was sharing. (Ok, sounds good.) I was putting something in the freezer and Jordan was right there. He saw the ice cream and quickly pointed it out and quickly said "Daddy share?" Checkmate.

Jordan tends to leave his sippy cup anywhere. He really doesn't think too much about it. It is not uncommon for Dominic to find it and try to empty its contents before Jordan finds him with it. Normally there isn't too much of a problem when we get the cup away from Dominic until the other day. Dominic had finished his bottle. He had eaten. But evidently he wasn't done. He found Jordan's sippy cup and proceeded to drink from it. Jordan saw his cup and quickly took it back. Dominic got MAD. He burst into tears and kept trying to get the cup back from Jordan. Of course, this all happens while they were on my lap. After Jordan grabbed his cup, I picked Dominic up to try and get him to calm down. Normally that might have worked ... but Jordan came and sat on my other leg and so the cup was right there ...

This sums the past 2 days for me! At least these are the things I remembered to record.

The Christmas Story

A few years ago we started a new tradition with my family. My brother and father have purchased some land a ways out of town. My brother has a barn and some animals you would expect to see.

Just before Christmas ... depending on when all of my family can get together ... we go out to the farm to read the Christmas story in the loft of the barn. There is something about reading/hearing of the manger and smelling the smells of all the animals that creates a lasting impression.

The time and the energy my parents put into the preparation is amazing. It is a wonderful reminder why we celebrate Christmas.

Along with the surroundings, my parents have gone through the trouble to have the food be similar to what they would eat ... which the kids have absolutely loved. (surprisingly)

From the Christmas story, to singing Christmas songs, to enjoying the food and the other Christmas stories shared ...This is a tradition we all love and look forward to each and every year. It is nice to take a step back from all the hustle and bustle and enjoy the peace and to remember. I am so thankful for that gift. It is priceless.

Adoption

3 years ago we got a call that has changed our lives. We were in Idaho with Mike's family when we received a call telling us that we would be able to start the adoption process. Words can't even begin to express what was in our hearts.

We started the paperwork as soon as we returned from Idaho. I felt a strong need to get the paperwork done as soon as possible. I didn't want anything to be waiting on us ... so we worked hard for the next 4 months to get as much of the paperwork in as possible. Our caseworker came on a Thursday to do our home study. He told us there was a birth mother due in June and if we could get our paperwork finished ... we just lacked signing some papers, photo collage, letter to the birth mother and then approval ... he would really like to show her our profile. Wow ... we weren't expecting that. I asked him to email the forms and we would get it taken care of.

The following Tuesday, April 17, 2007, Mike was at work and I was headed home from my moms after printing off all the papers we needed to complete. The entire way home I kept going back and forth about taking the papers by the station to have Mike sign them. After going back and forth for a little bit I finally decided to go ahead and get it done. As soon as I got home there was a message from the caseworker, Matt, he was on his way to Nashville, TN (from Atlanta, GA) ... the baby was 10 weeks early, was there any way we could get the photo collage together, letter to the birth mother and one of the forms signed? He would come by to pick them up.

I put Constance back in the car and headed back to my mom and dad's (my computer was acting up). On the way I called my sister-in-law, Carol, and asked if there was any way she could come help me. She got her boys and met me. We quickly got the photo collage done. The letter to the birth mother came together after we found out a little about her. It was amazing. Matt came by at 10:30 pm.

The next day we went about our day. We were out running errands when we got the call telling us "Congratulations, you have a baby boy! How soon can you get down to the Hospital?" We told Matt we would be there in an hour, then the phone calls started, we had to find someone to babysit Constance.

We got to the hospital and met E. She was so sweet. We got the chance to talk to her for a little bit. She had picked out a name and we found out that she really like the middle name, "Emmanuel". We wanted to keep that. We picked out the name Jordan. E. walked with us down to the NICU so we could see him for the first time.

Words can't even begin to express how we felt. Love for E. for the sacrifice and the love she had and still has for Jordan and for the gift she has given us. Love for our little boy.

Jordan Emmanuel Cook was born on April 17, 2007 at 4:40am. He was 3 lbs 8 3/4 oz. and 16 1/2 inches long.

Constance had been praying for at least 1-2 years for twins, One boy and one girl. We told her about her little brother on her birthday, April 19. She was so excited. We took her to meet him. She was a bit overwhelmed with all the stuff they have in the NICU and couldn't wait to get him home.

Jordan was in the NICU for 2 weeks. We were given "grandparent passes" so we could come and see Jordan anytime we wanted to. I was there every day, Mike went when with me when he wasn't at the Fire Department. I am so thankful for all the friends and family who watched Constance so we could go and spend time with Jordan.

The adoption was finalized, after few little hiccups along the way on March 18, 2008.
We were able to be sealed at the Nashville Tennessee Temple on March 23, 2008.

Jordan has been such a blessing. He brings such joy and much laughter into our lives on a daily basis. We are grateful each and every day for the many miracles that brought us all together!

Christmas Lights

I remember growing up in Tennessee ... I always loved Christmas. We didn't always have snow. I remember a wet Christmas. A Christmas Eve tornado. I remember flooding and rafting down our creek in the back yard. I guess that is one thing we have always had is a variety as far as the weather is concerned. One thing we started when I was young was going to Opryland Hotel to look at the Christmas lights. This is one of the traditions carried over ...

Constance gets so excited to go.
We ended up driving around town to look at all the lights. At first Constance was a bit disappointed but she quickly got into it and enjoyed seeing all the decorations.
The Monday before Christmas we headed to Opryland Hotel ... tradition ... to see the lights and decoration. It happened to be the same night my sister and her family were going to see the lights with her husband's family.

It was a wonderful night. We enjoyed the time together and just taking it all in.

Gingerbread Houses

A very dear friend invited our family and several other families to make gingerbread houses at her house. Thankfully Mike was with me or there was no way I would even attempt it myself.
Constance dug right in and decorated her little house. She did so well and had so much fun. Her Aunt Carol had prizes ready and Constance won the "girliest" gingerbread house. She was so pleased.
Jordan was full of energy ... no surprise. He wasn't the least bit interested in making a gingerbread house. He was much more interested in eating whatever candy he could get his little hands on ... and candy was everywhere. Let the Candy Marathon begin. He ran from table to table ... attempting to get candy before mommy stopped him. It was a bit of a challenge to keep his little fingers off all the beautiful gingerbread houses too ... You could just see his little eyes looking at the candy on the houses ... He was only able to take one marshmallow off the gingerbread house his cousin, Sidney was making for Charlie. He "was helping decorate it" ... and next thing I new his little and took it and bye-bye marshmallow.
Mike was on Dominic duty. A little less running around for him. He had a good view from the couch as I ran around the room chasing Jordan.
It was a wonderful evening with family and friends.

Laughter and Frustration

Dominic and Jordan are so cute to watch. They play so well together. Many days I hear them laughing and playing.
One day I was on my computer and the boys were playing "peek-a-boo" beside me. Dominic was laughing so hard I was sure he was going to tumble over and hit his little head.
They will go in their room and just play ... Dominic watches Jordan and just gets so tickled with him ... and of course, Jordan keeps doing whatever it is he is doing just to keep Dominic laughing.
Of course, Jordan is the big brother. He is always looking out for his baby brother. He makes sure we "don't forget" him. He is very quick to correct him on anything. He will tell him "NO Nic" if he crawls somewhere he doesn't think he should go. Little Dominic gets a little frustrated ... he can't seem to do anything right. I try to tell Jordan that Dominic is doing nothing wrong ... he doesn't hear it.
Today as we were getting the boys to put them in bed, Jordan asked for a treat. I told him no, it was bedtime. He proceed to tell Dominic, "No treat Nic, No treat Nic ..."
Cute little stinks!