Moving Day 2010 - Conclusion

Now for the end of the story!

The A/C was broken when we arrived, but a guy came that day to look at it. He said the entire unit needed to be replaced. The unit we had used freon, but those aren't used any more, so we needed a completely new unit. He had to talk with our landlord to get approval on what to do next.

Wednesday it rained again, and the A/C guy came again, too. He said they had the approval from the landlord, but they couldn't install a new unit in the rain because it can't get any moisture inside. So we worked as much as we could stand it on Wednesday in the heat. My dad and Peter were able to stay through lunch, and then they headed back to Dallas.

Thursday morning brought the installation of our new A/C unit! *Hallelujah!!!* We drove my mom and Jordan's mom around town and showed them Jordan's school, the church building, the temple, and some other sites while our A/C unit was working hard to cool down our home. We continued unpacking that evening, and we were finally able to sleep in our own home!!!!

Friday morning I arranged the items above the cabinets in the kitchen with my mom's and Jordan's mom's help. Then we took my mom to the airport.

Jordan's dad arrived Friday afternoon, and Saturday he helped Jordan hang curtains, hang a big picture over our bed, fix a kitchen chair, and other things, too, I'm sure. Claire, Jordan's mom, and I went to Walmart to stock our kitchen.

With just a few bumps, we have managed to settle comfortably into our new home. We are so excited to be here. Here's a view of some more areas of our home:






We are so thankful for everyone's help with our move. It's been a long time coming, and we would not be as settled in as we are if we hadn't had all that help. Thank you all so much!

Here are some parting pictures of Claire with most of her grandparents.


If you're coming to Baton Rouge, let us know! We'd love to see you, and we have a sofa bed waiting for you!!!

On a Roll, but Not Going Solo!

Last night I put Claire down on her back in her room while Jordan and I hung up this mirror in the kitchen. The strawberry picture is what I hung over the sink. I'm excited about that!


When I walked by Claire's room, I found her on her tummy! I was so surprised! I rolled her onto her back, and I went to tell Jordan what she had just done. When I went to her room again, she was on her tummy again! Then I rolled her to her back and went to get my camera. When I came back, I found her like this!

Later I went to get my phone so I could record the action, and I found her like this!


Here's Claire, on a roll!




This afternoon I put Claire in this play area, and each time I checked on her she had almost rolled over, but then she would go onto her back again. The last time I checked on her, she actually had rolled over. I guess she didn't want me to see her do it!

Claire has only rolled over from her tummy to her back twice. A few days ago I mentioned that Claire's curiosity would help her roll over from her back to her tummy. She already seems like an expert at that! She rolled over 6 or 7 times last night, and she has rolled over many times today, too!

Fun With Dad!

Claire loves to play with her dad, and I love to watch them play together!


It seems like he can always get her to laugh! The other night, we sat down for dinner, and Jordan said a blessing on the food. During the prayer, though, he sneezed. Claire thought that was the funniest thing she had heard that day because she cracked up laughing! We laughed for a while, too! Then we finished the prayer and ate dinner. Jordan entertained Claire by pretending to sneeze and doing other things to make her laugh. What fun!

The Kitchen

My mom and Jordan's mom got the kitchen basically unpacked on Tuesday, despite the heat. On Friday morning we were ready to tackle the task of arranging items above the cabinets. I began by cleaning off some of the dust that was up there.

Then came what I thought was the hard part: the actual arranging. I don't think I've ever done this before. My great-at-decorating sister-in-law, Mel, has always conveniently been around when I have moved, so she has always done this for me. But with my mom's ideas, Jordan's mom's reassurance, and by starting with one section at a time, I think it turned out pretty well! And it wasn't too hard, either!



We still need to hang things on the walls, but we're getting there!

I guess it's hard being 5 months old!

I had no idea how hard it could be to be 5 months old. I wrote today's previous post this morning around 11 and then waited for the video to upload. Since that didn't work, I just decided to post without the video, and I included a bit of an update of what had happened into the afternoon. Well, here's what really happened today:

8:15am - Claire wakes up, happy as can be, talking. She eats breakfast.
9:45am - Claire takes a nap
11:30am - I wake up Claire to eat lunch. (Yes, I wake her up in the day. And she sleeps beautifully at night!)
12:30pm - I get Claire to sleep, and I start making my lunch.
12:40pm - Claire wakes up and cries before my lunch is ready. I put her in her bouncy seat and eat lunch. She seems totally happy.
1:15pm - Claire seems tired again, which I understand. I try to get her to sleep. She cries, cries, and cries. At times she settles down, and I think she'll actually go to sleep. But she doesn't. I even put her in her crib for a bit, and she was fine for a few minutes, but then she started crying again.
1:45pm - Claire is still tired and crying. I begin getting a bottle ready for her.
2:00pm - Claire eats her afternoon snack and falls asleep half-way through the bottle, but I wake her up because I think that, if she finishes her bottle, she could sleep until 5:00pm. (Wrong!)
2:15pm - Claire is finished with her bottle and needs a diaper change. She spits up all over herself, so I change her outfit, too. (By the way, this was my 2nd time to change her outfit today because she spit up on it. I just don't remember when it happened the first time).
2:20pm - I try to get Claire to sleep, but she just won't have anything to do with it. But she's obviously very tired. I try many different ways to get her to calm down and sleep. She never goes to sleep.
3:00pm - I have had enough of the constant crying, and I need a break. So I put Claire in her crib to let her cry. She doesn't at first. I finish my post that I began this morning. Then I pump.
3:25pm - I'm finished pumping, and I say (another) prayer before I get Claire, who has been crying for quite a while now, from her crib. I calm her down.
3:35pm - I try to get Claire to sleep. It doesn't work.
3:45pm - I try another way to get Claire to sleep. She finally goes to sleep. At this point I'm thinking I have until at least 5:00 before she wakes up because she was sooooo tired, and I'm looking forward to accomplishing some things around my home.
4:15pm - I notice that Claire is awake, but I leave her alone because she isn't crying. Maybe she'll go back to sleep, right? (Wrong! - Again!)
4:25pm - Claire starts crying, again. I play with her and interact with her while I try to continue to organize the living room.
4:50pm - Claire starts crying, so I feed her dinner. During her dinner, she pooped. I went immediately to change her, but the damage had been done. I had to lay Claire down on her stomach to begin the diaper changing process, since poop was coming out of the back of her diaper. At this point I consider letting her just wear a diaper. But I put yet another outfit on her.
5:10pm - Claire is finished with her dinner and plays happily by herself in the living room.
5:45pm - Claire is tired, so I get her to sleep. This time it only took about 5 minutes.

So here's what she has (already) worn today:

• PJ's
• pink onesie with heart pants (She spit up on this).
  
• red onesie, (the one Jordan and I got when we found out she's a girl) (She spit up on this one, too).
  
• orange onesie (She wore this when she was crying in her crib for a long time. It was wet around her neck when I got her up from that, but I decided to keep her in that anyways). (She pooped on this one).
  
• pink onesie with little hearts on it (keeping my fingers crossed!)

But even with all of this, it's hard not to smile when I see this sweet, (even if it is slobbery), face!

5 Months Old

Claire is 5 months old today! So next month she'll be 6 months old, and that's half a year! Wow! Time flies when you're having fun!


I do have so much fun with Claire. I love getting to stay home with her. Every single moment is not always easy, but I know that even the harder times are worth it. For instance, it's not fun when she is soooo tired but still fights going to sleep. But when she finally does go to sleep, I love looking at her sweet, peaceful, beautiful face. And Claire is very rewarding, too. She gets so excited to see me, and it's times like that when I just tell her that I love her, too.

These days, Claire LOVES to play with - and especially to eat - her feet. She is still a runner; when I put her down, she'll often just move her legs like she's running. A couple of weeks ago at church, Claire was lying in my lap, and she was running, and my friend next to us got a real kick out of it! (Get it?!! Okay, sorry!) Claire has rolled over from her tummy to her back twice now, but she hasn't done it lately. She gets close, but she hasn't rolled over again. When she's lying on her back, she loves to try to see what's behind her; I'm sure this curiosity will help her roll over from her back to her tummy at some point. She smiles when someone says to her, "I'm gonna get you!" (That's what I did to get her to smile for this picture!) And she laughs/screams/squeals with delight if you say that to her and chase her around the house as you get her. (Someone else has to hold her, of course). That is so fun! She is also my Super Sleeper! She usually goes to bed between 10:30-11:30, and she usually sleeps until about 8:00. (I am REALLY thankful for that! - That helps me so much!) And when she does wake up in the mornings, she just talks and talks. It's pleasant to hear her sweet sounds on the monitor to wake me up in the morning. I remember when Claire used to have to work soooooo hard to move her hand to grasp a toy. Now when I put a toy in front of her, she gets really, really excited by it, and she reaches for it right away. She gave up her pacifier about a month ago. She used to want it when she was tired and crying. But about a month ago, she would cry even more if I tried to give it to her. So now she doesn't use it. Also, Claire loves playing with her dad. They have so much fun together!

Here's another example of something that's not so fun. Claire got up at about 11:30 to eat her lunch, and she was happy for about an hour. Then she went to sleep for 10 minutes. Since then, she has been tired, she has cried a lot, she has eaten again, and she has cried a lot more. But she won't go to sleep. She just wants to cry.

I have a video to post, but it won't upload. Hopefully I can upload it to another post soon.

Claire's Room!

We have Claire's room set up now! I'm so excited!!! Peter put together her crib and the bookshelf (still with no A/C).


Then we put the bedding on.

And then Claire got to try it out! I think she likes it!

And here is her room. We are going to move the thing hanging from the ceiling to the corner when we get the right hook for that.


I love it!

Moving Day 2010 - Part 3

Tuesday morning I looked outside and was greeted by this sweet site:

This was finally the real moving day! We had been building up to this all summer, and it was finally here! So we headed towards Baton Rouge!!!! Jordan and Chris were in the truck, Jordan's mom drove her car, Rebecca drove one of our cars, and I drove our other car with Claire and my mom. Claire, my mom, and I took our time on the road, so we didn't caravan with the others. My dad and Peter also drove and met us there.

On the way, I got a phone call from the realtor. She told me she went to our condo that morning and left the keys inside. Then she gave me the bad news: Our A/C was broken. She said she had already called our landlord, Jason, and left him a message, and she was going to email him and call him again. But she just wanted to let us know.

To make matters worse, it was raining when the truck got here.


No, actually it was pouring. So everything was unloaded in the pouring rain.

Everyone got soaked! (Well, Claire and I stayed dry compared to everyone else, I guess. Everyone else was soaked to the bone!)

Thankfully, everyone helping us was a good sport about the rain.

It took 2 hours to unload the truck, and then Chris and Rebecca had to drive back to College Station.

With everything inside, the unpacking began. Here's the living room,
the bedroom,
the kitchen,
the bathroom,
and Claire's room.

We accomplished a lot on Tuesday, but it was so hot in our home! We had the windows up, but water got in, so we couldn't keep all the windows up the whole time. Claire got the coolest spot in the house: she hung out in the garage where she could feel an occasional breeze.
Once we had had enough, we went to a hotel that's about two minutes from our house. - And we get to subtract our hotel bill from our next month's rent! I'm very glad about that!

Moving Day 2010 - Part 2

This past Monday, we continued our move. (Click here for a reminder of Moving Day 2010 - Part 1 and for Jordan's views on organized moves!) In order to be as organized as possible, we designated separate areas of the house for items to be placed in different vehicles. Everything pictured below (plus a few pieces of furniture from upstairs and the piano) went into the Penske truck.

Four guys arrived to help load the truck sometime after 10am. They commented that it was nice that everything was already boxed and that everything was well organized. (I guess Jordan's not the only one who has had to pack someone instead of just move someone when he has agreed to help someone move). They loaded the piano first. Just a little bit later, three more guys arrived, (and they were glad the piano was already in the truck!) Less than five minutes later, the truck was loaded with everything from the Cooper house! By 10:30am, they had all taken some Gatorade and left.

Claire spent a few minutes with Dad in the Penske truck. She didn't have any idea about the adventure we were about to undertake!


Then Jordan went to the storage unit and waited for the movers to meet him and load the truck with everything else. The two-hour time frame when the movers were supposed to show up came and went, and there were still no movers. Then the lady working at the storage unit said that we owed more money, (which we didn't), so she said she wasn't going to let Jordan in. But she finally did. And then the movers did show up. So then everything was back on track.

By Monday night, the truck was loaded, and the cars were loaded. We were ready to hit the road in the morning! Baton Rouge, here we come!!!

Wedding: Pregame ... Getting Ready

The morning of the big day Marianne came over and did Laura's makeup. (And can I just say that Marianne had a baby NINE days before this?!!! And she lives in Washington State! She is amazing! It meant so much to Laura to have her there. Thanks, Marianne! Wow!)

Laura is still getting dolled up.

And now she is all dolled up!

Then Laura, Mom, Jennifer, and I went to get our hair done.


I asked one of our hairstylists to take a picture of us. - This is how it turned out.

So then we asked a different stylist to take our picture. She was very detail oriented. She suggested we go outside, and she fixed our jewelry, our clothes, and dust and cobwebs from the things behind us. I'm so glad we got this picture because it's really good, and it's WAY better than the other one!

Next Stop: The Temple!

Date Night!

Jordan's parents offered to give us one last night out before we head to Baton Rouge. We gladly took them up on that offer!!! It was fun to get dressed up and go out.


This happens to be Houston's Restaurant week, (which happens to be 3 weeks - don't ask me about that one!!) During Houston's Restaurant week, many of the super nice restaurants have a 3 course meal for $35, which is much cheaper than normal. So we went to Brenner's on the Bayou and took advantage of this deal.


This is the view from the restaurant. It was very nice!

Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa, for watching Claire so we could go out. We had a good time!