Cody & Julianna: 2014

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Interviews with our Soccer Stars!

Blake and Louie's first season in soccer! The field was a couple of blocks from our house which made it easy to take our scooters over to practice. It was a little cold but they hung in there to chase a read and white ball into a net. I think they really liked it... but here are their thoughts.

LOUIE AND MOM

M: "Louie, what did you like about soccer?"

L: "The medals and kicking the ball into the...what is it called?

M: "the goal."

L: "Oh yea,"

M: "Do you think you want to play soccer next season?"

L: "Yea!"

BLAKE AND MOM
M: What did you like about soccer?
B: Look at these dinosaurs!
M: Blakie, what did you like about soccer?
B: These dinosaurs do soccer.
M: Blake, do you want to play soccer next season?
B: Yea! And kick the ball like this!

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Kidzania!

Kidzania was the perfect place for Blake's birthday party. The guests were... Louie, Mom and Dad. Kidzania is its own little town where kids can earn money (kid bucks) by learning how to be a fire fighter, or plant a garden or paint a house or make their own pizza or how to be a pilot (full size cockpit). Then they can take their kid bucks and buy food, toys or have their faces painted. The boys had an absolute fantastic time. This might have to be a repeat in the near future. We just couldn't get to everything!

And to top it all off... the next day, we celebrated at Cheesecake Factory! He was so entranced with HIS little chocolate birthday dessert that a photo wasn't even a consideration. Not even a nod.

Happy Birthday to our Blakie! We love you so much and everything that packs along with you... dinosaurs, dragons, books, books and books, blue blanket (still), airplanes, fishies, sharks and a few more dinosaurs. We love to watch you charge at life with full gusto; learning from both the ups and downs. You are quite the conversationalist on the phone with a broad vocabulary. You were quick to learn your numbers to 10, colors and some of the letters in your name. As we drive to your preschool, I love to listen to the songs you sing-- especially the ones you create adding your own little twist. You love to swim, ride your scooter with your shark helmet, play soccer and just started to ride a bike. It's hard to believe how much you have changed and really grown into a little boy. We love you and look forward to another year of surprises, laughter and continue to wonder what's going on behind that charming, sly grin!

Friday, April 4, 2014

Bikes

First day on our bikes. Surprisingly, Blake is just as cautious as Louie. Thank goodness! Not sure how long that will last. They were the same way when they got their scooters a year ago. And now, they zoom around on those lightning fast! Picture below is Louie going for his first solo ride using the pedals. He made it 10 feet!!!

Friday, February 14, 2014

Happy Valentine's Day: A Day of Discoveries

Happy Valentine's Day! Louie is doing well to keep his lolly still but Blake is on the cusp of a giggle and was torture for him to TRY to remain still! Discovery #1: Sugar and photos don't go together.
The boys had a fun night making Valentines for school. These mustaches were for Blake's preschool... there were kissy lips for the girls and mustaches for the boys. We made hearts and more mustaches and kissy lips to mail to our families.

Above, I lovcd watching Louie write his love notes on each valentine for each grandparent. He would draw the words out slowly to hear the sounds and then wrote his squiggles to represent his words. "IIIIIIIII loooooove youuuuuuuuu. So cute!

Louie made bird feeder Valentines for his class as school. After he finished the first one, I realized we were in for a long night. The pattern is methodical and perfect. According to Louie, each one had to be like this. My suggestion of "random selection" to expedite this process did not compute in his engineering brain. After Louie completed four of these, he was done! So yes of course, I had to finish the remaining 20 for his class. This Pinterest idea is cute, but not for the faint of heart. Discovery #2: I think paper valentines are going to be a great idea for next year!

Discovery #3: Next time, throw away Blake's Valentine's candy from school while he takes a nap. There was so much, it strung out for days! I couldn't get him to eat regular food... he held out for the sugar! I mean, I really can't blame him. However, the sugar ignited this burst of energy which couldn't be contained. Blake was hopping through the kitchen, jumping of the couch, and running circles in the house. This kid has a huge smile (full of candy) for a reason!

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Super Hero Training Camp!

Louie's 5th Birthday was so much fun! We held a Super Hero Training Camp for all of our birthday guests. Louie had a perma-grin for two hours! In order to earn their capes and masks to best fly over the city, all guests had to go through grueling challenges to prove they could be a Super Hero. Besides going through an obstacle course to test agility, they also had to prove themselves through challenges such as trying to lick their elbow with their tongue,

or sing Happy Birthday to Louie in a disguised voice or possibly the most difficult... actually catch a villain with their laser spray (squirt bottle).

After our graduation ceremony of Super Heroes, we celebrated with cupcakes for Louie's 5th Birthday!

Happy Birthday to our Super Louie! At age 5, he is still loyal to his trains, loves to wear his new tennis shoes that make him run the fastest, likes to swim with his gobbles (goggles) on and ride his scooter with Blake and his friends. A highlight each day is riding the bus to school. He is learning his alphabet letters and sounds so quickly. He hopes to learn how to ride a bike this year. At home he helps with a few chores, enjoys reading books, can say his own prayers, likes to play games with mom and wrestling with his dad. Louie, we can't imagine our life without you. We love you.

And to all of our birthday guests...Thanks for coming to make Louie's day so awesome!

Not to be forgotten... our own Batman in Training... Blake!

Ohhhh, he loves the wings on this Batman costume because really they are "dragon wings." And no one can convince him otherwise! Such a fun age.

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

FUN DAY at Preschool

Louie says, "K4 Ponies Forever!" He loves his preschool and his teacher Miss Meg. Today they ended their transportation unit with all these fun activities. I think Louie spent the most time with the scooter activity since his teacher was riding down the hill with them. I wish I had one of these water tables in my backyard...

Discovering different tire tracks in paint. The day was unstructured to allow the children to spend time where they wanted. Louie couldn't quite stay away from the draw of the scooters...

Welcome to our blog! What a change...we went from blogging about our travels to blogging about teething, taking first steps and talking about Elmo. Such a 180 degree turn and we love it! Louie and Blake are such a joy to us and can't imagine life without them.

Truly, we are thankful for adoption--for this is the way we will add to our family a third time. We are open to different nationalities, either gender and hope for an open adoption. We are comfortable going through a private attorney or an agency.

Please feel free to share our blog. Thank you in advance for mentioning our quest for adoption to your family and friends!

With Love,
Cody, Julianna, Louie, Blake and our dog, Murphy

About Me: Julianna

I was born in a small town in Tennessee. We lived there until I was in the fifth grade -- what a great place to grow up! In the nearby woods, we would play "house" by designing floor plans with sticks as our walls and a piles of leaves for furniture. As a child, I loved to play games, ride bikes and play barbies. With a family of six kids, often my dad would engage us in a game of hide and go seek to wear us out for bedtime. Or, my dad would play "wild music" on the piano and let us dance around to get our wiggles out for bed. Looking back, I think we must have been a high energy group of kids. This might be why we only could have "sweet cereal" on Saturdays. However, on Christmas morning, each child got their own box; which would be gone by the next day. My poor parents... 6 kids hopped up on sugar plus the Christmas chaos! Our family of 8 then moved to Ft. Worth, Texas. We happily adjusted to Texas BBQ Brisket and Blue Bell Ice Cream. We took advantage of our location and would visit my dad's parents in El Paso for vacations. My grandma made us feel like her greatest treasure. During high school I couldn't wait to DRIVE! After parallel parking an enormous green station wagon, I passed the driving test and had my license in hand. I was very social. My brother Jeff and I were very active in our church youth program. I participated in plays, church volleyball and basketball. I loved going to youth conferences and would sew new outfits. My sewing career was short lived...I'm too much of a perfectionist and would spend more time pulling out stitches rather than sewing them in. I left this talent to my mother and sisters. In high school, I helped to make homecoming floats, joined the pep squad and the German Club; which really was a party with the cutest guys at school. Ummm yeah, I think I have been boy crazy since I was 12. My crushes' names would end up in the doodling of my school notes. At age 12 I may have seen one too many soap operas when I stayed one summer in El Paso with my Aunt Barbara! College was creeping up and I needed money. Therefore, I've had a job ever since I was 15 working for a sandwich store, gelato ice cream store, Dunkin' Donuts (gained 10 pounds in my first month and saw the necessity to quit!) and as a receptionist my senior year for an attorney (work release program). After high school, I went to BYU and LOVED my independence. At age 21, I took an 18 month break from college to serve a mission in the Arizona Temple Visitor Center. By far, this experience was one of the highlights of my life--serving and loving the people of Mesa. Before graduating with my Bachelors in Education, I went to study abroad to Israel for four months. I learned about the Jewish and Muslim cultures, religions and histories... fascinating! I will always have a sincere respect for the rich history taken place on that soil. During my first three years of teaching first and second grade, I earned and graduated with a Masters in Education. I continued to teach in Utah for a few more years. I loved teaching but wanted to find new opportunities to stretch myself in the field. I moved to Washington, D.C. and began to work as a literacy trainer (of teachers) for a non-profit in Baltimore, Maryland. For four years, I had the wonderful opportunity to help improve children's education in inner city schools. My favorite memories were those of helping young children find and cultivate the love of reading. The success of learning to read increased their self worth and opened doors of opportunities in their future. I continued a similar position with George Washington University working with the DC public schools, teachers and students. I loved my time of living in D.C. Many opportunities helped me to appreciate and learn of our nation's history. I'm such a "hands-on learner." Knowing this about myself, I took advantage of my location and traveled to a few countries across the Atlantic Ocean to learn of their cultures and histories. D.C. will always be an important chapter of my life filled with wonderful friends --and of course, where I originally met Cody. In 2005, I returned to Utah and began teaching second grade. This is when I became reacquainted with Cody and our life together started its course.

About Me: Cody

I was born and spent the majority of my childhood in Bountiful, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City. I was a fairly social kid and spent more time than a normal 5 year old visiting all the senior citizens in my neighborhood who had nicknamed me “Windy”. Apparently, I talked a lot. I was just there for the Iced Oatmeal Cookies sitting on their kitchen counter. So I would talk and talk until I could close the deal and walk away with my Iced Oatmeal cookies. I think they knew what my intentions were and would milk me in their boredom. Just give me the cookie! The steep hills of Bountiful provided the perfect childhood existence. Steep hills for sledding and skiing in the winter and the twisty streets made great neighborhood night games and Olympics in the summer. Life really is simple as a kid and maybe it is best to enjoy the first portion of your life in a relative blissful ignorance. Mom and I followed Dad to Juneau, Alaska for my 9th grade year, as part of Dad's work in developing mining operations. After a year of playing football on a rocky dirt field with a team of female line(wo)men, I was glad to move home and be a part of Bountiful High School's first back to back high school football championship. I really had great friends and was active in choir, madrigals, student government and sports. I bought my first car when I was 15 ½ (it supposedly sat in the garage for the next few months while I waited to turn 16) with my own money. I worked at Farmers Insurance at nights and mowed lawns in the summers. This was my first experience in just how expensive life was going to be. Either that, or I had high expectations of myself and what I wanted to accomplish, but I did learn early on that you'll get out what you put into something. My parents, to their credit, really stressed work work work. This undoubtedly helped me day in and day out when serving an LDS Church mission to Alabama. It drove me nuts to see the lack of work ethic some of the other missionaries had. Spending two years performing community service and other church activities was probably the most difficult but most worthwhile challenge in my life to that point. But, the best part is that none of it is for yourself. Service is a great thing to learn at 19 years of age. Following my mission I attended the University of Utah and received a degree in Business Management (Finance) while working full time and was active in student government, Sigma Chi Fraternity and participated as a moderator for a weekly radio and TV show called Coffee and Politics. During my senior year, I received an internship in Washington DC, which completely changed the direction I thought I was headed. I loved the energy and great minds I met and worked with in Washington. Following graduation I worked in New York City for an internet start up that eventually closed its doors following the events of Sept. 11. I jumped at the chance to move to Washington DC and began working for U.S. Senator John Ensign shortly after. I spent four years working on healthcare and financial industry policy before heading to Las Vegas to do some campaign work. In August of 2005, Mom and I took my Grandma and Grandpa Meyer to visit the sites of Washington DC. The whole time I lived there, I really hoped it would work out that they could come and visit and could show them around. We had a great time and on our last day I took them to a favorite Saturday morning market and breakfast joint called Eastern Market. As fate now has it, I ran into a mutual good friend, Jill Chappell, who told me Julianna was moving to Salt Lake. I am getting ahead of myself. Let me start at the beginning...

OUR STORY
A couple of years ago in D.C., I had taken Julianna out a few times. We got to know each other over Mexican food at three different locations. However, at the end of our third date, instead of inviting me in, she gave me a luke warm side hug at the door. I understand girls have this need to be pursued but an awkward hug doesn't really lend itself to an “oh baby baby” hot pursuit! Please. So, three years later, our story picks up again when I ran into Jill at Eastern Market. She wasting no time reacquainting us, called Julianna and handed me the phone. Julianna asked me if I could take a precious duffle bag of shoes she didn't have room for on the plane. These were essential items needed for her first week of work in Utah. With lack of time in heading to the airport, she met me in front of the Smithsonian on the Washington Mall for the handoff. The day she arrived in Salt Lake, she called to get her shoes. I was in Houston at the time and promised her bag of shoes at the end of the week in exchange for a dinner of steak fajitas. I think in her mind this meant two things: the comforts of Mexican food and a reason to buy new shoes until her own arrived safely. After our date of steak fajitas, it all went quickly from there.