Cord's Corner: January 2009

I've been so buried from the holidays and recovering from everything I've fallen behind. So much to bring you up to speed on.

Christmas was everything I could have asked for. I told you before that I grew up with big Christmases and always liked to see a living room full of goodies. With buying for 16 close relatives it doesn't take much to fill a room. We had a great Christmas Eve starting at Riverbend for a little Christmas Service and some holiday songs, followed by a great dinner at J. and Katy's house and trading some gifts there. I closed the night be reading Twas the Night Before Christmas to the girls. Granted they are both young to understand it, it still means so much to me to read it to them. Tatum sat in my lap and seemed to soak in the whole story but she still doesn't "get" Santa so maybe next year we'll get the full effect. Christmas morning we had a house full of family and really had a good time. Tatum kept saying "I want to see Santa" for several days afterwards. I explained to her that Santa went home to the North Pole and even showed her on the globe where he lives but I'm not sure she's going to understand waiting an entire year for him to come again.

I was so excited about finding this doll house for Tots. She hasn't really got in to it yet, maybe I was a little early on giving it to her.

Tinsley Taking a Snooze on PawPaw

Nettie bought Tatum some dress up clothes for Christmas

Anne's birthday was 2 days later and was another great day. Her family came over and made a great brunch and we spent the afternoon all playing together and laughing. That night we rounded up about 20 friends for dinner at Perry's, a new steakhouse in town. It was pretty good...and the atmosphere was awesome. if you haven't been there, give it a try.

New Years we had our annual party and was a great success. I was scared to death because I heard several hundred people were coming...and we bought enough alcohol to serve a small country. Luckily it was more tame than I was prepared for and we had close to 200 people...most good friends. The next day was the Polar Bear Pool Plunge where we jumped in the pool which was 55 degrees. It was a great way to sober up after a hard night. it sounds terrible but it's actually not all that bad. it's always something fun to do on New Years Day.

So we can look back in 20 years and see how we've aged...

If you missed it, hopefully you can tell it was a good time...

Some of the Polar Bear Pool Plunge Participants...

Anne wondering why she's just taken that step!

My idol. Ben Goodwin goes for the classic cannonball.

Bryan Roquemore belly flops it. Zing....

Peter Erdell also goes for the cannonball

Proof that Jordan Jaffe really is Jesus. The man walks on water. Wait...aren't you Jewish? I"m completely confused.

This expression captures just how cold it is.

Check out the Versace speedo! Last call $700 marked down to $30. What a buy. Save the comments...it was a joke for Christ's sake. And yes, I know I'm fat.

All the 2009 Polar Bear Plunge Club...warming up in the hot tub. Bubba, Jordan, Wiggins, Peter, Bryan, Ben, Ted and Anne. Cord taking the picture...as always.

That will at least bring you up to speed on the activities since my going to jail. The girls are doing great..and so is Annie. Tinsley gets sweeter by the day it seems. All that little angel knows to do is smile, giggle, gurgle and talk a little when it's time to eat. Our friends hate us because we have the coolest schedule with the girls. Tinsley is now hitting the sack between 7:30 and 8:00 and wakes up around 7 the next morning, feeds for 20 or 30 mins and goes back to sleep for an hour or two. Tatum goes to bed between 8:00 and 8:30 and we have to shake the crib to get her up at 9am the next next morning. We really are blessed and after the stories we hear, we are really really thankful!

Tatum seems to be learning new phrases and words every day. My favorite story of her is about "nuggets." I get yelled at by Anne because when Tatum toots I ask her if she's "making nuggets" and I check her pants to see if she pooped. She kind of giggles and laughs and says "yea, makin' nuggets." Well recently she's found her sweet tooth and always asks for "chalk-it" (chocolate) after dinner. I unwrapped some little chocolate treat and as I was handing it to her I said "oooh...it looks like a little nugget." Tatum stopped all thoughts and just looked at me with horribly confused eyes and said "dat's gross." Anne and I couldn't talk we were both laughing so hard. We've never heard her say the word "gross" but the expression on her face was like "what's what with you, asshole. Why in the would would you compare those 2 things and ruin my dessert?" It was great.

Another fun thing Tatum has started doing is "I run." I'm not sure what prompted it but one day she wasn't eating her beans and she was walking around the kitchen. I convinced her that it was cool to run a little "lap" from out kitchen to the dining room, to the entry and back by the breakfast table. Every time she'd pass me at the table I'd give her a green bean. I called it the "bean run." Well the next night it was potatoes and she did the Tater Trot. Then it was Berries and we did the Berry Blitz and tonight it was carrots and we did the carrot cruise. Every night as she's winding down towards her last bites she says "I run" and wants to do her little jig. It's so funny to watch...she laughs and screams as she slaps her heavy feet on the wood floors rounding the corners. We do our best to get her to swallow her food before she darts off....we don't want her to choke on her run. If she has eating disorders someday it'll probably relate back to the fact that we had her exercising as she was eating.

I love this picture. Tatum looks like a drummer from the 80's and Tinsley is like "wtf am I doing here?"

Kisses for TinTin

Tatum pushed me away and said "No Daddy! My TinTin."

Tinsley is really starting to get fun for me. She's the sweetest girl you could ask for. We thought nobody could be as good and sweet as Tatum but Tinsley is in a league of her own so far. Her expressions are really starting to come out and she's just bursting with enthusiasm. Over the last week she's really responding to me and my voice and makes these shy little smiles at me. We gurgle back and forth and share very deep thoughts with every bubble in our throat. Her head is so strong...it seems like she could hold it up all day. The past few days she and I have sat in our media room while family photos are on the screen. I've got some good sappy lullaby music set to the slide show and I sing to her while it's playing. One day I had my camera recording it and after I listened to it I immediately erased it for fear someone might hear what I sounded like. Yikes! Whenever Anne or I sing to Tatum she'll say "NO Daddy!" or "NO Mommy!" Apparently she knows how bad we are. Tinsley however thinks I have the voice of a symphony...either that or she's laughing at how bad I am. She just sits there smiling and talking. It warms my heart a little. Her favorite song is a Dixie Chick Lullaby...Godspeed. Tatum's Favorite Song is "Ella"....Rianna's Umbrella...she likes the part where she says "ella, ella, ella...." and her and Anne really belt it out in the car apparently. I haven't seen it but I'd love to.