I smell Oscar....

Here is a movie trailer that I put together in iMovie after a ride at Picture Rock a couple days ago.

Riding Dirty - the movie trailer

I can see this being comparable to "Good Will Hunting" in how Afflek and Damon got their start, I think people will be referring to this as my big break.

The making of a Christmas card...

Hollywood actors often say "Don't ever work with kids or animals", which I think we can all understand if you've ever tried to get a picture of a kid or a pet doing what you wanted them to do. Jill wanted to get a picture of Cooper posing by our tree to put on our annual Christmas card.

This is the first year that Cooper really understands the Santa theory. One day when we were asking him what he wanted Santa to bring him for Christmas, he went and got this porcelain Santa decoration we had out and showed him the pages in the catalog of things he wanted for Christmas. So Jill asked him to take some pictures with Santa in front of the tree, so he went and got Santa to pose with.

From Cooper and the Tree

And of course no posing without our beloved blankie

From Cooper and the Tree

Then showing some love for Santa

From Cooper and the Tree

Jill then decided to take a little break from the photos. Cooper then told her he wanted to take some more pictures with "friends", so he went and assembled his favorite buddies.

From Cooper and the Tree

From Cooper and the Tree

Then he started assembling other "friends"

From Cooper and the Tree

From Cooper and the Tree

From Cooper and the Tree

From Cooper and the Tree

From Cooper and the Tree

And then Tigger got tossed...

From Cooper and the Tree

And Cooper got a timeout.

From Cooper and the Tree

But after that, he was back to happily playing with his trains

From Cooper and the Tree

From Cooper and the Tree

Cooper doing his Winnie the Pooh Exercises

Cooper is in the middle of his potty training, and his reward for successful deposits is a video. He loves the Winnie the Pooh videos, and one night Jill heard him talking it up as she was cleaning up the bath when he was watching his video.

The next day we got the video camera out to catch it....

Cooper and Bo at the Zoo

When Jill headed north to Alaska to see Kate, the newest Lovejoy member, Cooper and I spent a week on the farm in Oklahoma with Frumpy & Grumpy. It worked out that his cousin Bo was up visiting from Houston, so the two got to hang out together at the zoo. Roughly 6 weeks in age difference between the two, and they got along real well for their first interaction.

Some pics from the event...


Introductions over, now time to gaze at the animals

From Cooper and Bo at OKC Zoo

From Cooper and Bo at OKC Zoo

They quickly decided they were buddies and had our first hug

From Cooper and Bo at OKC Zoo

Myself, Cooper, Bo, Becky and the giraffe stopped for a pose

From Cooper and Bo at OKC Zoo

They wanted their picture taken by this leftover ghost that was up for Halloween

From Cooper and Bo at OKC Zoo

From Cooper and Bo at OKC Zoo

Cooper gave Bo a stiff-arm when he tried to get in the statue with him, but Bo is too big to be deterred

From Cooper and Bo at OKC Zoo

Then they decided they could play together on the next statue

From Cooper and Bo at OKC Zoo

From Cooper and Bo at OKC Zoo

Uncle (to me) Bob pushes the kiddos around

From Cooper and Bo at OKC Zoo

Starting to run out of juice

From Cooper and Bo at OKC Zoo

And some more statues to pose with

From Cooper and Bo at OKC Zoo

Bo posing it up

From Cooper and Bo at OKC Zoo

From Cooper and Bo at OKC Zoo

From Cooper and Bo at OKC Zoo

From Cooper and Bo at OKC Zoo

Then well all headed out to the farm to feed the two bottle calves, Halle and Henry. Cooper was busy checking out the tractors, but Bo was quite interested in helping feed.

From Cooper and Bo at OKC Zoo

Happy cows come from MJ & Yack's farm...

From Cooper and Bo at OKC Zoo

Its been a whirlwind couple months for me, working 60 - 80 weeks (plus travel time) and being constantly on the go when not working. More posts to come in the next couple weeks as I start to ease back the throttle for 2010 and hope to recharge my batteries a bit. I need to get some rest and reCooperation in now as we'll be back to having a newborn in about 2 months. Yikes!

Tricking and Treating

From Cooper the Cow - Halloween

Cooper worked on his "Trick or Treat" quite a bit in preparation for his big night. The kids were out early on our street (even before dusk), so Jill and I got Cooper dressed and ready to hand out candy on the porch. Much to Cooper's dismay, the kids were strangely all on the opposite of the road working the south side of the street houses first. Cooper called out "Hey Kids, you want some candy?" over and over again but he didn't have any takers.

Sensing his growing frustration, we just decided to shut off the porch light and take him to a few houses to trick or treat first then come back and hand out candy. We hit up 5 - 10 houses, took lots of pictures and videos and then headed back to our house. We gave Cooper the choice to do some more trick or treating or hand out candy at our house, and he opted for more trick or treating. So Cooper and I paraded up and down the street while Jill did candy duty on our porch. Cooper and I got back and he took over duty of giving out candy to all the spooks and goblins that come up in search of sweets. I was shocked that Cooper didn't seem to be phased by any of the scary masks and costumes at all. He was all business about handing out his candy.

Now some pics...



Waiting for kids to show up

From Cooper the Cow - Halloween

These two were anxious too

From Cooper the Cow - Halloween

What a glorious night for Halloween

From Cooper the Cow - Halloween

From Cooper the Cow - Halloween

From Cooper the Cow - Halloween

From Cooper the Cow - Halloween

From Cooper the Cow - Halloween

From Cooper the Cow - Halloween

From Cooper the Cow - Halloween

On the prowl for some candy

From Cooper the Cow - Halloween

Hitting up the known neighbors first

From Cooper the Cow - Halloween

Having a big time

From Cooper the Cow - Halloween

From Cooper the Cow - Halloween

From Cooper the Cow - Halloween

Jill has given Cooper a complex about his feet...He wore sandals most of the Summer, and at the end of the day Jill and her super sensitive pregnancy sense of smell would say "Stinky Feet!" to him. That evidently stuck with him, as now anytime he sees someone's feet he says "Stinky Feet!". Luckily, not that many people understand him. So here is Cooper doing some trick or treating at the neighbor's house and encountering a girl with no shoes....and stinky feet.

Halloween Fun

I've never been a fan of Halloween. I was either scared of all the spooks or not into the mischief that typically occurs in small town Oklahoma on Halloween. Since having Cooper, things have certainly changed. Cooper loved Halloween last year, and it is one of my most fond memories of him all dressed up in his puppy costume and standing eagerly on the porch waiting for trick or treaters to stop by.

We had a weekend of Halloween activities this year. The Punisher and Mrs. Punisher were headed to the Longmont Halloween parade and gave us the heads up of the huge turn out. After a terrible week, we had thought we'd just take it easy but when I asked Cooper if he wanted to put his costume on to go get some candy he emphatically said "Yes". We quickly got him dressed and headed off to Main St. Longmont for the parade.

The parade featured all sorts of kiddos in costumes, adults dressed up, dogs dressed up and lots of marching bands. Anyone who wanted to parade could do so, and we took our opportunity and paraded up and down the street a bit.

Some sights along the way:

Cooper walking along the way to the parade

From Cooper the Cow - Halloween

Jill and Super Cooper posing as we neared

From Cooper the Cow - Halloween

We found the parade, Cooper had the best view in the house

From Cooper the Cow - Halloween

Even the goats got dressed up

From Cooper the Cow - Halloween

Pooches dressed up too

From Cooper the Cow - Halloween

Kissing my cow

From Cooper the Cow - Halloween

Parading is hard work

From Cooper the Cow - Halloween

Cooper was interested in his haul

From Cooper the Cow - Halloween

Madeline looking super cute in her sheep costume

From Cooper the Cow - Halloween

From Cooper the Cow - Halloween

And even a Great Pyrenees all dressed up.

From Cooper the Cow - Halloween

We had a great night of trick or treating and handing out candy tonight too, but that is for another post. Happy Halloween to all.