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Kids these days!

Since we won't be doing much trick-or-treating on Halloween night, the ward Trunk or Treat has become the big celebration here in VA. I mean, seriously...why didn't they think of that when I was a kid. None of this WALKING to get candy stuff! As if walking from house to house sticking a bag in someone's face and demanding candy wasn't easy enough, now you don't even have to go from house to house! Now it's just from car trunk to car trunk- an easy 8-12 feet away from each other! My little two year old can make a candy killing in one parking lot and 15 minutes! He was so excited about this strange experience of funny looking people throwing candy at him for dressing up like a penguin and saying some trite phrase. Once he made it back to our trunk (after about 12 minutes) and Rudy attempted to take his bucket FULL of candy and tell him he was done, he white-clenched the handle pulled his penguin hood back on and ran down the parking lot for round two. Luckily we're still faster than him...barely. He hurridly shoved two more pieces of candy into his mouth before we could snatch them away to add to the 2 cookies, 3 suckers and one cupcake he got inside during the chili cookoff and game section of the evening. After listening to him bounce of the walls in his room for an hour and a half after we put him down that night, I started to understand why it might be better to have your kids have to walk around the neighborhoods to get candy. I remember how tired I was coming home from my hard earned candy cash-out. I had already worked off the candy I hadn't even eaten yet and I'm sure I went straight to bed after such a strenuous evening...right mom? Someday I'll be able to say, "Ya know boys, when I was your age we had to walk uphill both ways...sometimes in the SNOW to HOUSES to get our hard-earned Halloween candy! You kids these days have it so easy!"

Yes, that's Tucker holding Cooper all by himself. So is that a 'big helper' or big no-no'? hmm...
Our costumes for the ward Halloween party...either a Safari couple who caught a lion and a...ahem...penguin, or zookeepers with our zoo. (I think that one works a little better! ;)
Cookie #1 for the evening...
The parking lot of goodies, there for the taking!

Stand off between Mickey mouse and Wheezy the Penguin...can you hear the western music now? (wooaawooaawoo waa waa waa)What I do when I'm not doing what needs to get done (exhibit A)
(exhibit B) I had to use the Wolf name tie-in somewhere this Halloween!

October Adventures

So if you don't get a family photo from us over the holidays...refer to the above photo--Happy Holidays! :) We're going to try to get in and get a family photo taken since the last time we were at an actual photography place to get photos was when Tucker was a year and it wasn't together as a family...but I can promise anything.

We had a lot of fun this weekend going to a pumpkin patch and letting Tucker pick out our pumpkin (we required that HE'D be able to pick it up in order to stay within our pumpkin purchasing budget ;)
We went with the Ruckers and had a great time! Don't you think this could be the beginning of a very cute wedding album? ;)
And we celebrated Kylea's 2nd birthday. Happy Birthday Kylea! Tucker was the only boy at her Tinkerbell party. However, Lissa made sure he had the blue flowers in his lei, the 'masculine socerer's power-wand' (instead of the fairy wand) to decorate, a coloring page with Peter Pan instead of Tink, and his very own goody bag with 'boy stuff' in it. Thanks Lis! ...although I think he was jealous of the bracelets the girls got... ;)
And of course, no lack of sweets and sugar for him to enjoy! ...must be my son if he enjoys sugar that much!
And proof that the art mom does actually do art with her child, even though he's not a big fan of it. Every once in a while he will actually paint a little. Crayons are still used for walls, breaking, and eating. I get about 2 minutes of painting out of him until it ends up on his hair. I guess I should embrace self-expression? My art professors would be so disappointed...I opt for home cleanliness over abstract art creation! I am ashamed.

Emotions

Boys. I'm so glad I have two boys. Coming from a family of all girls, you'd think I'd know how to deal with girls better. Nope. I've always been a girl relatively low on the emotional scale and always hung out better with the boys. I was really excited I was a girl so I could marry a boy and didn't have to deal with all of the emotions! :) HOWEVER, I'm coming to find that gender plays no differentiating role when it comes to being two years of age! And what I'm finding even MORE entertaining than the fact that everyday I'm trying to communicate with a pint-sized, irrational, bundle-of-energy 'teenager' who doesn't understand 70% of what I'm saying, is the ways he chooses to express those emotions through his facial expressions.
...at least I don't have to throw hormones in the mix yet! :)

Here's one of the happier emotions. I think this one was because there was another red tomato ready to be picked...wow...exciting, no??
This would be the teenager I was referring to...


Oh to wonder what Cooper will be like...
I LOVE parenting!!
And I love Bumbos! (Bumbo: a seating device (shown above) for 3-6 months. A miraculous dinner-assister.) Cooper does too...he's just sneezing right now so he couldn't show you how much he loves it.

OH! and here's a random picture to throw in the mix. This is what happens when I pour water down Cooper's head when rinsing it after a bath. Fascinating natural hair line, no? Can't wait to have TWO boys with completely unstyleable hair! Again...good reason to have two boys...and two good hats! :)

A shout out to Ginny

Happy Birthday to my older sis Ginny, who's turning 30 today! Thanks for all the good times and friendship over the years. Love ya and miss ya Gin!!

Da Boyz

I sure do love my boys! Yes...that's all of them on Tucker's toddler bed, just hangin' out!

DOO DOO WEEEE!

So I decided since Tucker is improving drastically with correct word pronunciation, that I need to try and record all of his wonderful attempts at linguistic communication for the past few months before I forget them. I think my all-time favorite is his word for the playground/slide. We got a little tykes playground for the backyard a couple of months ago and Tucker loves it. When he'd go out to play he'd make the sound of him climbing the stairs by saying "doo doo doo doo" (saying each 'doo' one note higher than the next), then down the slide would be "WEEEEE". The result? He now asks, "Mama? Doodoowee Peese?" When he's really excited or in a hurry it's just "Doowee". He still says "keecoo" for cookie, "mam" for milk, and "bmm bmm" (closed mouth in tone of 'Thank You') for thank you. Tucker calls his brother Cooper "bmm-pa"...close, buddy. :) Water is "wallow", not to be confused with his good buddy Laurie...who somehow also became "wallow"....but he's improved on that one...now it's "wally" for Laurie. Whenever he hurts himself he'll come up to me and point "oweee" with a big pout. I'll kiss it and he'll say, "bebber?...ya." give me a big grin and run off. Whenever he asks for something with a one word demand I ask him, 'how do you ask?' He responds by cocking his head to one side, getting a cheesy grin and mumbling "da da da ____ peese"...I'm pretty sure the mumbled 'da da da' is "mommy, can I have some..." Ok, so as I write this I realize how far he still has to go to be somewhat coherent to anyone besides me! :) He'll go on these long tangents of rambles in which he always finds a way to fit in "almose" (which is still his word for ice cream, ice cream truck, and awesome...almost he actually pronounces with a 't'.) and "eight" and "thirteen" and "bye", sometimes he'll pronounce random letters or talk about his "tee-ar" (car). He'll count from one to ten...that's always entertaining. If he counts with him instigating it this is roughly how it goes..."one, two, eight, firteen, eight, firteen, eight, eight!" if I start with one, he'll usually follow with "two, free, bive, kicks, seben, eight, nine, ten, Firteen, eight, FIRTEEN!" :) (don't ask me what the obsession is about 8 and 13..and what happened to four?)
Good times. Love you Tuck!

Apparantly everyone's playing TAG!

So I've gotten a couple of tags, and since I have a little more free time on my hands, I'm going to fulfill them! :)

6 words that describe my life (Thanks Lis!):

1. Fulfilling
2. Euphoric
3. Peaceful (during quiet time, for two hours of church, and at night :)
4. Entertaining
5. Active
6. Incredible

nother tag...this time the rules are as follows (listing them does not necessarily mean I will follow them):

1. Link the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write 6 random things about yourself.
4. Tag 6 people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let the person know you tagged them on their blog.

6. Let the tagger know when you've posted.

Ginny is the tagger on this one...thought I was done with her tagging me after I turned 12. Guess some things never change :)

6 random things about myself, in no particular order.

1. I had a bug collector as a child and would let daddy long legs crawl all over my hands and arms...for anyone who knows me now would think I'm lying through my teeth. Not sure what traumatic thing happened, but now I see the tiniest little spider and I freak...I mean FREAK.

2. I can pop my shoulder bones out of my back (my scapula...for Rudy) and flap them like a chicken.

3. I LOVE having time to myself doing mundane things like mowing lawns or weeding. I enjoy thinking about everything and nothing and seeing the progress I make in whatever chore I'm doing.

4. I truly believe that everything in life happens for a reason. Lots of people think some things just happen, but I don't believe that. I feel like God is over everything and even the little things that don't seem to matter or make sense I believe He's set in place for one reason or another.

5. I gave birth naturally, don't remember the last time I cried because of pain, and feel like I'm a pretty tough chicka...except when it comes to any pain from a dentist or OB checkup, I'm a total WIMP!....guess I don't like the idea of a doctor inside any bodily cavity (too much information? I think so! Sorry! :) (ironic about the dentist, no?)

6. I love dissonance. I could listen to music with dissonance forever. I love creating harmony with music, especially when it's complex and close together.

There...and with how random I am, I could DEFINITELY keep going...but I'll spare you.

Tag 6 other people?
uhh...anyone who wants to! :) You're it!

A new outlook on Barney

So all I really remember of Barney growing up is being waaay too cool for him and having all the boys in my class make fun of how 'gay' he is and mocking the 'I Love You' song. I remember rolling my eyes whenever I heard it and even as a parent secretly hoping my son never got into Barney. Well, I've turned a new leaf. We went with the Ruckers to go see Barney at the Children's Museum. Tucker didn't really know who he was , but I figured he'd love it and Kylea really likes Barney...and Tucker really likes Kylea, so it was a win-win. :) Thanks Ruckers for introducing Tucker to Barney! :) It was fun and Tucker really got into the songs and actions and everything. But the best experience was at the end when they sang the "I Love You" song. They started singing and as cheesy as this sounds, you could really feel the love in the room. It was fascinating to watch Tucker go from jumping around and being crazy to looking at Rudy and going and giving him a hug. The hug lasted all song and he kept kissing his cheek throughout it. That reaction wasn't instigated by us...he just did it. I looked around the room to see parents hugging their kids, kids hugging other kids...it was AWESOME! :) As cheesy and 'gay' as he may have seemed to have been when I was a tween, I really got to see the values and good things the big purple dinosaur could teach. Although that may be cheesy in it's own right, I'm now a fan of Barney! :) Random photoshop pic of Tucker and Cooper (since I couldn't get them together in a picture both happy...I cheated :)


Kylea and Tucker at the Children's Museum
Is that water sanitary? It looks questionable to me!

All glued to Barney's dancing

I love you, you love me...


Daddy and Tuck playing...they sure are good friends!Hangin outside, drinkin some high quality H2O

more good times with KyleaThanks for being such good buds Ruckers!

Celebrity Morph by MyHeritage

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities

Mini Cooper and Tucker Sedan

So apparently we named both of our children after cars! Two good looking cars, if you ask me! ;) Life is good as far as new babies go. Cooper has been such a blessing! I was worried after having a good baby the first time around that I'd have a Colicky baby or one that struggled with sleeping or something. Well...not so much. As of a week ago he officially started sleeping through the night. At a month old sleeping from 11-7:30??? Who does that?! And literally from the day we brought him home from the hospital I have not had to wake up more than once a night to feed him! Ok, so I know that this fortune could disappear at any moment, so that's why I'm writing about it now and relishing in every full night's sleep I can get! :) Cooper is smiling a ton too...which is sooo fun..and earlier than I remembered with Tucker or was expecting. For Rudy's sake, no, it's NOT gas! (he gets kindof bugged when people say that babies smile just cause of gas). They're definitely response smiles and SOO cute! I think he looks more like Rudy than Tucker did, but only time will tell I suppose.



Cooper ('08)
Tucker ('06)


Tucker is getting more and more fun every day. His vocabulary is bursting lately with him trying to say every new word we throw at him. Not to say that he still doesn't need an interpreter for 90% of what he says! :) What Tucker is famous for lately is his expressive face. Rudy's had a lot of fun getting him to make all kinds of faces. And Tucker has some crazy eyebrows that really create some good ones! He's being a good big brother and getting better every day. I think he's finally realized that "mmmPa" (Cooper) isn't going anywhere, so he's consigned himself to liking him and being really cute with him...most of the time. :)

Flowers in Virginia

Just some random shots with a fun camera of some beautiful foliage. :)