The Wolf's Den

Pre-Christmas Fun

2011-12-30T00:20:00.001-05:00

December is one of my very favorite months. It's full of good feelings, fun music, thinking of others, and together activities. This December was no exception for us!

We had a "Chinese night" at our house with some of our good friends! YUM :)

The boys decided to take up decorating... multiple times...some more successful than others.

You know that old notion that kids would be just as happy playing with the box that the gift comes in??

It's TRUE.

Thanks Nana for the AWESOME BOX! (oh, and the gifts inside of it ;)

Classic (and not so classic, slightly frightening) dress up fun. Yes, those are balloons!

One of the many adventures in the culinary 'arts'.

Kyla started sitting up and rolling all over this month. Her favorite place to roll was under the tree to grab presents to drool all over.

She actually unwrapped two gifts- both of them hers! Already shaking (or eating) the presents to find out what they are!

So many messes, so many laughs, so much fun!

Hallowriffic!

2011-10-31T22:54:00.001-04:00

A fun night with good friends! The boys enjoyed ghouls, fingers, mummies, teeth, and monster claws for dinner with some swamp slime to wash it all down.

We decided for the first time to not go with a 'family theme' in our costumes this year.
...although Rudy and I picked a theme to go to an oral surgery costume party...

We won the costume contest :)

We tried walking and/or riding bikes from house to house in our neighborhood (I've always had an aversion to those kids who were driven from house to house to maximize their candy load), however, we quickly (25 minutes later) came back to the house after making it to only two doorsteps and jumped in the back of the Malone's van. This was not to maximize any candy loads. This was survival. Multiple acre properties with 6 kids, ~~2 of them~~ ~~4 of them~~ all of them unable to make it on their own. I think house driving was definitely excusable...and for the boys, quite fun.

Visit to Arlington National Cemetery

2011-09-18T22:31:00.001-04:00

Took a temple trip to DC with our friends, the Malones. We decided to stop by Arlington. It was a humbling and inspiring experience.

Fun to share with good friends. We were even able to find their grandpa's grave site! Being there so close to September 11th made us really think about the selflessness and courage that has come from SO many people! We're so grateful to live in the USA!

Visiting molar man at Bedford Centerfest

2011-08-10T21:15:00.001-04:00

Rudy and his neverending thinking outside the box- dressed up like molar man at the biggest community festival in Bedford to get the word out about his office. We had fun hanging out and enjoying carnival food. Nice to know that Rudy will never stop singing Elvis in public...even if he is dressed like a tooth! :)

Oma and Opa and the Wolf Lodge Birthday

2011-07-20T17:12:00.000-04:00

For Rudy's 31st birthday (we're officially into the 30s now!) I made a killer ice cream cake! But what you can't see in this picture is that Rudy's parents, Oma and Opa, were here to celebrate with us! As their birthday present to Rudy, they took us all to the Great Wolf Lodge for a weekend getaway...

I love how much fun these boys have together!!

Rudy: The "I think I'm getting the hang of this" shot

Rudy: The "I'm getting really good at thi..." shot

We had so much fun together at the great wolf lodge! Thanks Oma and Opa!

Oma enjoying her first granddaughter!!

Playing some croquet Rudy got for his bday from Wenmom and Rondad :)

Having a good time trying out some local fare. Liberty Station is a great restaurant in Bedford created from the old train station that the infamous D-Day 'Bedford Boys' came home on. (you're not really expected to know that reference or the story behind it...I didn't until we moved here :) )

And I loved how the two Rudys wanted to help the little boys by "showing them how to play the game"...funny how I don't see any little boys in the picture...

Makin some meat-a-balls in da keetchen with Oma!

Happy Birthday Rudy! We all love you very much!
And thanks for the fun times Oma and Opa! We love you and miss you!

Happy Fourth

2011-07-04T15:49:00.001-04:00

One month and a lot of fun!

2011-07-03T23:18:00.001-04:00

Here are a few unedited home shots of our month old Kyla.

The boys have been SO cute with her. They really are such great big brothers...pretty sure she's never going to date though! :)

They're pretty great buds for each other as well!

And they always keep me laughing!

and what comes from lots of rain?? Naturally-- A handful of earthworms!

Kyla's first friend, Sydney, due a month after her, yet born 2 days EARLIER! :)
...i think they're talking about boys right now.

Super Duper Cooper!

2011-06-26T22:40:00.000-04:00

Cooper is THREE!!

After almost a year of acting like he was three, he finally officially had his birthday!

Although exceptionally small for his age and having the cutest little helium voice I think I've ever heard, Cooper has been talking extremely well and doing everything he can to try and keep up with his 5 year old brother this past year. Because of that, we feel like we have a pretty mature 'little man' on our hands who is a bundle of joy in our lives! Cooper already has such a handle on social cues. Whenever I try to wrestle or play with him and he's not in the mood, he always asks me to stop, then pauses and says, "But I yuv you!". As if to say, "I don't want to hurt your feelings. It's not you, it's me; and my lack of desire to play with you has nothing to do with my love for you." At least once a day, while I'm busy with various chores, he'll come up to me and get my attention to say, "I yuv you Mommy!" He will compliment people on what they're wearing- shoes, shirt, earrings, watch. Which I find hilarious that a little boy even looks at those kinds of things, let alone thinks to make a point of telling someone that he likes it or he thinks it looks good! (Then again, he is Rudy's son :)

Cooper loves to play pretend. He and Tucker can play for hours with their McQueen cars or any other toy they can make talk. He's so cute with Kyla and how he always wants to make her "yaf" and smile by tickling her feet or making silly faces.

Cooper, you're such a great kid! We love you and cherishing every minute we have of your 'portableness', cute little voice, and mature and wonderful personality!

Disclaimer: Cooper decided he wanted a monster truck cake for his birthday, when asked what color of truck he wanted, his resounding answer was, "PINK!" After repeated attempts at dissuading him, this was the outcome. No, I didn't just mess up a red truck cake, it's supposed to be pink! :)

The one thing Cooper wanted for his birthday was his "Hippo Game". We decided to go portable with it so he didn't lose the marbles.

The Scott's came over to help us celebrate Cooper's bday

Nana and Papa!

2011-05-23T10:37:00.000-04:00

My parents came into town on May 11th (a day after Tucker's Bday and 5 days after Kyla's due date), they stayed for two weeks. Originally we had planned that time for them to get to know their new granddaughter...since she didn't come until 3 days before they left, we had to improvise! :)

We got to see all the sights we never knew we needed to see! :)

Like the Listening Post 'Doughboy Statue' (story told on this website: http://www.retroweb.com/lynchburg/attractions/main.html) and many other random sights that we were able to see.

What a cute pair of sightseers! :)

All the while I was still VERY pregnant! This picture is super crazy of my belly at 11 days past my due date while having a contraction. Freakishly huge and humorously fake looking, eh?

We got to enjoy some really good dining...

and some 'fishing'. This was at Smith Mountain Lake. There's an area where there are hundreds of overgrown carp that get fed way too much by passersby with lots of bread. They were so tame, the boys stuck their fingers in and the fish tried to swallow them whole (the fingers, not the boys).

And what's a trip to Southwest Virginia without sampling the local fair of Deep Fried Snickers at the Mayberry Drive-in! (Rudy's favorite)

We took a random hike up the Blue Ridge Mountains to find a farmhouse that's been around for 100+ years.

Much to our relief and excitement, Kyla finally came 3 days before it was time for my parents to leave.

It was so nice to have them here for the whole experience and to share it all with them!

And, of course, we had to finish our sightseeing tour with a local Blue Grass Festival!

(We actually went to this festival the day I got home from the hospital.)

Cooper enjoying some fresh strawberry shortcake at the fair.

We really wanted my parents to be here for the blessing, so although she was only 2 days old, we were so grateful to be able to share that special experience with them before they left

Two cute little Robyns enjoying some bonding time :)

The boys LOVED having Nana and Papa here.

The dress up was inspired by "Papa The Fix-It Man" who, while he was here, fixed all kinds of little issues we had around the house. Thanks Papa! :)

Nana and Papa also brought some fun gifts for the boys to enjoy.

It was so nice to have my parents here for some relaxation time, sightseeing, playing with the boys, holding their new granddaughter and just being able to be together!

Thank you both for coming and for all the fun!

We miss you and love you so much!!

Kyla Robyn

2011-05-20T22:47:00.000-04:00

Good things come to those that wait...I can testify to that! Kyla Robyn made her entrance into the world at 12:46 AM on Friday morning May 20th (officially 14 days past her due date!) I had been holding off hoping and praying for a natural delivery but I was getting to the end of my options as the midwives were getting antsy and wanted me to set an induction date. My parents had come into town on the 11th (assuming that 5 days past my due date would be a safe time to be here for the birth...luckily they decided to stay for almost two weeks!!). We got to see all of Bedford, Lynchburg, and other surrounding areas as we waited for her arrival. I bounced on balls, ate spicy food, got membranes stripped, hiked the Blue Ridge Mountains-- to no avail. We set the induction date for Friday the 20th at 6 AM. One nice thing about giving birth is realizing how much of it is in the Lord's hands. He knew best when it came to the whole experience and when would be best for her to come. Teaching me patience and trust-- after on and off powerful contractions for the past 2+ months and starting to feel like I'd never go into labor on my own --Thursday night came. Contractions came and continued to build all day. Although they never got consistent, they definitely got more painful! At 10 pm I decided these ones actually might not fade away. We got to the hospital at about 11 pm and decided to wait until after midnight (so they wouldn't charge us for an additional day in the hospital! :) By midnight, we were filling out paperwork and the contractions got right on top of each other. It was almost identical to my experience with Cooper and I knew things would happen pretty fast from this point. I got upstairs as fast as I could between contractions. At 12:15 they were rushing to IV me, ask the 126 health history questions, and set up the equipment. I was quickly remembering how PAINFUL the end of labor is! 30 minutes and 3 pushes later- Kyla Robyn entered the world!

We were all able to sleep a little and had some wonderful visitors a few hours later Friday morning. The boys were so cute and so excited to see their sister they had been waiting soooo long for. Kyla and her Nana had an immediate bond (not just because of her middle name! ;) It was so nice to have my mom and dad there to help take care of the kids and the house. We miss you already! THANK YOU!!!

We didn't have a first name for her going into the hospital (not for lack of time to think of one!) We had a few options, but couldn't decide. Rudy went home Friday night and asked each of the boys at separate times what they wanted her name to be. Tucker told Rudy her name was Kyla and Cooper chose Kyla from the list Rudy gave him. So, Kyla it is!

I'm not a fan of hospitals (although the room service and chocolate shakes were AWESOME! :) My wonderful nurse was so cute at fighting my cause to get out early. I was able to leave Saturday morning and head back home...and then out to the local strawberry festival and out to dinner. :)

Part of having my parents come out was really wanting them to be there for the blessing. We had originally planned on her being a couple weeks old on the 22nd, not two days... oh well! We were able to bless Kyla two days after she was born (hey, we avoided the blessing rash this way! :) Rudy gave her a wonderful blessing. Ginny let us borrow her beautiful dress she used for her daughter who shares the same great middle name. Thanks Gin and Nicole! :)

I know babies aren't supposed to be able to knowingly smile for a few weeks after they're born...but she sure has fooled us a few times already with her smiles! Kyla is such a joy to have in our home! It's crazy to think she's not even 5 days old yet!! Her temperament is peaceful and happy and she's only waking up once in the night to feed! We're all so glad she's a part of our family and are excited to continue to get to know this wonderful little girl! We love you Kyla!

REWIND!

2011-05-10T00:30:00.000-04:00

Happy 5th Birthday Tucker!!

Before sweet Kyla came along, Tucker turned 5! (although he was expecting her to come before his birthday, not 10 days after! :)

He wanted an 'Buzz Lightyear' Party this year. We had an awesome Buzz cake, an alien invasion, and of course, a visit from Emperor Zurg!

So many fun friends and fun gifts!

Tucker had to be lifted up over all the kids to blow out the candles! :)

Thanks to my friend Cressida! (she helped me by making the cake for the party with my craziness of baby, parents coming, rudy's triathalon, etc)

And of course, thanks to Emperor Zurg for his 'cameo appearance'! :)

Throwing aliens back into the black hole they came from. :)

The day after his birthday my parent flew in and brought some fun presents!

Thanks Nana and Papa!

Tucker is such a joy to have in our lives! We can't believe how big he's getting. This past year, he really exploded into such a great little man. He's been such a great helper around the house and with his younger siblings. He and Cooper play SO well together and are truly best friends! He is constantly doting over Kyla and what a "cutie" and "sweetie pie" she is, continuously wanting to see her and give her hugs and kisses. He's always been so good at making us laugh and has such a gift to lift others spirits and bring them joy. I've never met a kid with so many facial expressions! Tucker, we love you so much and are SO glad you're in our lives!! Happy Birthday Bud!

The Triathlete!

2011-05-08T19:25:00.000-04:00

As if my hubby weren't studly enough, he decides to go and run a triathlon! With help and encouragement from our good friend Harvey, he was able to not only finish the race, but he did really well! Way to go, Babe! We're so proud of you!

Yes, that's me after my due date and still pregnant!...shocker.

Some big fans giving their hero a good luck high five!

Rudy finishing his open-water swim in his hot purple swim cap.

Looking like a pro on the bike.

Struttin his stuff on the run...

then breaking into a dead sprint on the final stretch!!

RUUUUDY, RUUUUDY! :)

Best Buds

2011-04-24T23:34:00.000-04:00

I love my boys! I love that they're such great friends! They play so well together and have so much fun, whatever they're doing. I'm so glad they have each other and we have them in our lives!

They LOVE playing on the playground and can entertain each other for hours (mommy LOVES it too!! :)

They're fun, crazy and funny.

and they're the best mess-makers I've ever met!

They're handsome and loving...

and always keep things entertaining!
I hope you two will always be the best of buds!
I LOVE YOU BOYS!!

Monster Truck Rally!

2011-04-24T22:36:00.002-04:00

So Monster Truck shows are something I never really had on my lifelong to-do list, but since being in Virginia and having two boys, I've now attended two!
We were able to go with some good friends and had a great time
And here's my two year old playing a monster truck game on my ipod while waiting for the next venue...Really?!
We were able to get up close and personal with some of the 'really cool' trucks!
Love quality family bonding time! ...and Grave Digger!

Dr. Evil!...?

2011-04-24T21:21:00.004-04:00

During the week, a dentist. On the weekends, a super villain! Who knew Rudy was so versatile?!
Our good friends, the Scotts, had a party for their son and needed a super villain. Rudy was more than willing and was able to progress his acting career with this show! He was a frighteningly good supervillain bringing bombs and kryptonite the kids had to destroy.
The kids all finally got their "web-blasters" out and took down the evil Dr.!

On the weekends he's choosing to not be a villain, he's the local outstanding citizen- Rudy the Ruritan Bear! Helping and loving kids everywhere and taking part in the Goode Ruritan Club to help bring funds to local charities! (talk about bi-polar! :)
He's the youngest member in the Ruritan club....by about 30 years. :)
Kids sure do love him any way he comes- super villain, cuddly bear, molar man, doctor, or daddy!!

A Great December!!

2011-01-10T17:20:00.000-05:00

It was a fun-filled busy-as-usual December this year but different in a few ways...

For starters, a fun early Christmas present was finding out that we are going to have a GIRL in May!! This pregnancy has definitely felt different than the other two, I'm carrying lower and was a lot more sick the first trimester, but didn't want to 'guess' that it might be a girl (although Rudy was convinced since we found out we were pregnant)! The boys are super excited and Tucker told us at the ultrasound that he thinks her name should be Rosie (the only female train on Thomas and Friends! :) At least he got the concept that it was a girl! We're all very excited!

The next big change was this was our first year doing our own thing, not going back to visit family. It was a mixed bag of emotions and lots of missing family, but also really fun to have our own little Christmas and create some little traditions.
Tucker had his preschool Christmas party and was the loudest shepherd to say, "LOOK AT THE BRIGHT STAR!!"

He's somewhere up there... :)
Another great part of the December scene was getting our first snow. We don't get a lot out here, but when we do we are really excited. A good part of our acre and a half of land is a steep hill in our backyard. Not much use most of the year, but when it snows...
so fun!
Tucker getting big and cute!
And making some pretty good snowmen!
Christmas was a blast this year! Besides missing our families, our little family had a great day with two boys who started to get the concept of Santa, and presents, and the excitement of it all. We actually had presents to open for them this year...yay for a job! :)

I have to say the sweetest experience was Christmas Eve after we had talked about what Christmas was really all about. Tucker said the bedtime prayer and he thanked Heavenly Father "for His son that he gave us and and who died for us...and that we can have Christmas because of Him...and please help Santa to give Him a present too!"
The boys got tracks, trains, blocks, and cars...what more do boys need? :)
ALL boys!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
This new year celebration was fun because we were able to bring the new year in with good friends. We had the Smiths and the Scotts come over (great friends we've made here in Goode) and the Martins, our good friends from back in Richmond, come stay the night. Tucker and Cooper were having a blast with their favorite buddies over and the Martins brought their 'newest addition' to play as well!

Her name is Molly, the cutest little capuchin monkey...she was the life of the party!SO nice to have great friends and good food to celebrate fun times!
Happy New Year!!

November!

2011-01-10T11:37:00.007-05:00

What a fun month November was! Thanks to Rudy's parents, we got to go with them on a Cruise over Thanksgiving as a graduation present! THANKS GUYS!!
We started our fun trip visiting San Diego for a couple of days. It was great to see some of the people we love that we hadn't seen for a while (or who we got to see for the first time- Luka, our cute little nephew).

From San Diego, we went down to Acapulco, Manzanillo, and Ixtapa on a warm, wonderful 8 day cruise. It was such a fun experience for all of us! There was a great Camp Carnival part of the ship where we could drop the boys off and go do our own thing while the kids played and made crafts. It was awesome!
ALL the boys loved ALL the food!
The beaches at the ports were beautiful and the weather was a perfect 85-90 degrees with clear, warm water.
Such fun time together!!

And Rudy got to go surfing.

We found random spots where we were able to avoid the crowds and feel like we owned the beach.

Rudy had a 'professional' Mexican masseuse come help him 'relax'.

Can't keep that SoCal boy away from his roots. Nice that the boys loved the beach almost as much as he did!

It was a BIG ship!
This is a shot from our balcony in our room! Sure nice the boys got along so well!
We had lots of fun playing games, eating, swimming, relaxing. It was a great trip!
It was fun to dress up on the Captain's night. Oma and Opa had suits made for the boys...I think they were better dressed than we were! ;)
They even had turkey for us on Thanksgiving day. Although we didn't get turkey leftovers for the next week, I think we all agree that it was a GREAT Thanksgiving holiday-- one to be remembered for a long time!! Thanks Oma and Opa!

October!...wait, it's not October anymore?

2011-01-10T10:03:00.008-05:00

Ok, so I've been horrible at keeping up with the blog. But to update my life, organize pictures, and feel justified in not writing in a journal, I'm going to attempt to Readers Digest the last few months in monthly pictoral blogs.

OCTOBER! :)

What's October without a little corn maze?
and gorgeous Blue Ridge Mountain views?
and 400 pounds of dried corn to play in?
and King Kong??

Tucker had a really cute Halloween parade. Cooper somehow found his way into the line, hiding behind Tuck.
ARR Matey! Probably our last Halloween that the family will all be dressed alike- I had to really coax Tucker into the idea of a pirate. Since Halloween fell on Sunday this year, we were able to celebrate it with a Bedford branch Trunk or Treat (maximum treats with minimum walking...ingenious!)
The boys love bathtime and love being wrapped like a bug after they get out. They'll stay like this for quite a while...Then they sneak out of their towels and find the laser guns!

And there goes October!

The day from H-E-double hockey sticks

2010-10-11T19:25:00.002-04:00

started off with tucker having a poop mess at 8:00 am..couldn't clean him up amidst all of the extreme 'stickiness' of the situation, so decided it was bath time.

sent the kids up to the bath so i could clean up poop

heard bad splashes, went up to see over an inch of water covering the bathroom floor.
put kids 'gently' in rooms while cleaned up, thought i got it all pretty fast...

got kids dressed after a good scolding and went to do a load of laundry

went downstairs to find the kids and hear cooper coming inside, see his freshly bathed body covered, inlcuding every strand of white blonde hair, in fine black dirt.

go to get mad at tucker, sitting outside in the dirt, having peed his pants so he's now covered in dirt/mud.

grabbed cooper to take him back outside to dust him off and look up at the kitchen ceiling to find it soaked with water and water dripping from the light fixture.

send both kids outside so i can deal with the immediate emergency and dry up the floor and keep the ceiling from bubbling.

go outside once the main stuff is taken care of to see both boys had turned on the outside faucet (which is right over a flower bed full of dirt) throwing mud pies at each other.

got them naked outside and made them stand there and dry off so i could flake off the dirt...wasn't about to give them another bath today...didn't dare.

got them dressed for the THIRD time and sent them upstairs into the toyroom.

went to switch the laundry over to find somehow tucker had gotten handfuls worth of woodchips in the load without me noticing. I spent time pulling the chips off each individual piece as i threw the clothes into the dryer.

went to go talk to tucker about not putting things in his pockets...they weren't in the playroom...

found them in my bedroom, in my nightstand drawer, had found my bank...emptied it all over the bedroom (cash and coins)...about to get upset over that when i look to see cooper poopy...and diaperless.

wiped and diapered cooper back up and locked the boys in the toyroom so i could clean up the poop/money mess in our room.

decided to get at least ONE actual check of my list today and changed all the boys clothes over to fall/winter stuff.

for some freakish reason thought about making dinner. decided to put the kids in front of a show where i could see them, while i prepped.

cutting up food, turned around to see cooper (still have no idea how i didn't see or hear him) on the opposite side of the kitchen had grabbed a chair and gotten the baking soda, poured it ALL over the stovetop and then decided he was going to clean it up and poured water on top of that.

put dinner in a crockpot (even though it was 4:00 and dinner was in 2 hours), cleaned up pasty mess, and sat down locking the boys in each arm to watch a show...the most peaceful half hour of the day.

laundry was done, took both boys up with me to my room (wasn't going to let them out of my sight again).

cooper 'helped' me do the laundry by throwing my folded piles on the floor when i went to put the boys stuff away in their room.

went down after i decided i wasn't going to fold them again to check on dinner.

it was overcooked and dry. seriously?!?

after three bites cooper poured out his entire cup of milk all over himself, the chair, and the floor.

cleaned up milk, cooper, and changed kids for the FOURTH time

brushed their teeth, prayers and scriptures and in bed ASLEEP by 6:45...

...apparently they wore themselves out ALMOST as much as they did me.

Rudy got home as the kids were getting in bed, I told him my sad story. He's giving me the day off on Wednesday- kid free to go do whatever I want. Smart man.
Thanks babe!

Life is good.

Cooper's 2! (and has been for two months)

2010-08-21T15:12:00.005-04:00

Cooper, our "BIG" boy turned 2 at the end of June! Barely squeaking by at 20 pounds at 2 years, this mini-man is such a joy in our life! He surprises many people, when they see how cute and little he is, that he's even walking.... then he busts out a complete, grammatically proper sentence or two in the cutest little helium voice you've ever heard. The only consistent phrase he says that's incorrect is when he wants to be lifted up. "Mom, can I carry you?" I won't ever try to correct that one. :)
It's really fun to have such a vocal little guy who seems ready to soak up any and all knowledge he can get. He loves to cuddle and gives great monkey hugs. Having him stay so small gives us a chance to still have a 'baby'...who can fully communicate. It's great! We love this kid!
His current 'petite frame' doesn't carry over to his BIIIG smile!

Cooper is all about "I do it all by myself, Mom." Which includes handling fire hazards,
not letting a girl show him up (he totally scaled this thing right after she did),
swinging on the big kid swings,
nope, this isn't a 'big kid' shot, just a really cute one of him getting caught playing in a strewn mess of diapers

running to keep up with Tucker (or at least a solid attempt on short little legs),

eating twice as much as his older brother (which he really does + poops every bit of it back out = the same sized kid and 5-6 massive poopy diapers a day!)

and inviting older, cooler kids to his bday party. :)

We celebrated his birthday while we were in the rental interim house between moving from Richmond and closing on our new home in Goode. This is us celebrating Cooper's bday with our new friends, the Scotts (more stories and info to come on them and their cute fam :)

So, little man, although at age two you may be small in stature, your smile, intellect, courage, and heart are HUGE! We love you, bud!

You know you live in a small rural town when...

2010-08-13T15:58:00.005-04:00

I've decided the longer time that spans between blog posts, the harder it is to just jump back into it and start blogging again. For that reason, I'm not going to give the 27 page blog post with 211 pictures that I should to 'catch back up' but I will attempt to do it in little, random, non-sequential bits. The first of this random bits will just merely be to say HI! We're alive, we're happy, life is good. We're in our new home and spending a lot of time trying to fill it (coming from 1000 square feet didn't leave us with much furniture to put in our new place). And I, being the 'artsy' person I am, am trying to think of creative ways to decorate, paint, and furnish instead of just putting things where they should be and calling it good (I'm sure go the more left-brained route soon for mere sanity purposes).

Rudy is loving his new job. He's become the 'Sedation Dentist' in the area and is getting good business from that. Seriously, who wouldn't want to be drugged to the point of utter relaxation, have all dental work taken care of, then not remember ANY of it the next day? The people he works with are great-- he even has patients that bring him cookies, apples, and thank you notes! Who ever thanks their DENTIST? :)

The people in Bedford (Rudy's office), Goode (where we live) and Forest (where most of the stores and social life is) are extremely kind and very friendly! I've decided, for the most part, I really enjoy living in a small town.
In fact, I've made a list!

"You Know You Live In A Small Rural Town When..."

...the well water you use for your home makes toilet water rusty and gets strange blue spots in the bowl-- but is surprisingly tasty.

...you drop off mail at the post office for the first time and the postal worker that you've never met says, "hey, aren't you the wife of the new dentist that just moved from Richmond? I think the neighborhood you guys moved into is beautiful!"

...you have to look for 'septic friendly' toilet paper at the closest grocery store that's 9 miles away.

...the talk of the town and new date night location is the brand new Kroger!

....you make the front page of the newspaper just after moving in...because you're a dentist...and you joined a dental practice....you pick what house you're going to buy by the fact that it actually get cell phone reception in it!

...you buy "half a cow" from the nice lady in the branch at church (and that's exactly what you get!)

...the 1.3 ACRES of land you own is one of the 'small properties' in the area.

...EVERY new person you meet asks 3 questions: 1. Where'd ya'll come from? 2. What broughcha here? 3. Have ya'll found a church yet?

...ticks, snakes, and deer are a constant worry.

...you are told (or find out for yourself) about the japanese beetle, stinkbug and ladybug INFESTATIONS that occur throughout the year.

...the closest Costco is over 2 hours away.

...no one has trash service-- everyone has a truck and they dump their trash at the local free dump site.

...you go to a DRIVE-IN THEATER to watch a movie.

...your neighbor stops by and tells you, "we're driving into town today, is there anything you need us to pick up for you?"

...you tell multiple people (including those that don't live in your neighborhood)
which house you just moved into and they tell you the history of all the other families that lived there before you.

...cows and roosters are the loudest neighbors you have.

This list will continue to grow, I'm sure, as I learn more about this fun area in which we now live. It's a great adventure and we're really enjoying it so far!

Pictures and more updates will come...hopefully soon! :)

The Overlooked Six

2010-06-10T01:12:00.002-04:00

So a few little things have happened since I last blogged...

We sold our home

Tucker turned 4

Rudy signed a contract to work in Bedford, VA

Mom and Dad Wolf came out

Rudy graduated

We moved (pretty much)

Melissa, Tucker, and Cooper went to Utah

Dr. Wolf started work

(just some of the main highlights)

Although these somewhat gargantuan events will all get their appropriate post with pictures (coming soon), I wanted to actually post something ON TIME to wish my incredible, amazing, caring, loving, thoughtful, hard-working, fun-loving, AWESOME husband-- whom I love more than I thought possible-- a HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

I do feel it unfair that the 5, 10, 15, and subsequent intervals of 5 years get so much of the hype! We worked hard for this 6th year and all of it's amazing changes that it's going to bring in our life! So happy 6 YEARS babe! I'm so proud of who you are, what you believe, and how you make it all happen! I know the Lord helped our paths cross and knew, even more than we did, how right we are for each other! I'm so grateful for all that you are as a husband, father, provider, protector, partner, and best friend.

You inspire me. You make me laugh. You follow your heart and your tinglies. You eat with a passion. You cook. You care. You let me beat you in tennis ;) You encourage me to do things I didn't think I could. You lead. You lift others up. You always look for ways to give. You tell a great story. You enjoy life. You are a hottie! :)

As I sit here in Utah and you in Virginia to bring in our 6th year, I just want you to know that I'm thinking about you and can't wait to be with you again!

I couldn't ask for a better eternal partner! You're awesome.

I LOVE YOU!

Love, Me

ayM...I mean...May.

2010-05-23T19:03:00.011-04:00

So unfortunately, with the craziness of this past month and the ensuing craziness to come in the next month and the fact that this is my only chance to get a quick update of the events of the last little while and the fact that I don't have my computer with my photos in Utah so I had to just dump them all in the post before I left...WELCOME TO MAY (in no particular order!)

The first unbelievably long run-on sentence should give you a feel for how organized this post, and our life, is right now!

We start off the journey at the end of May-- Rudy's graduation!!

The day before graduation was the senior gala. We had one last big party with some of our close friends. Us and the Davidsons all dressed up.

Me and Drea, my running buddy, playdate partner, and a good part of the reason I'm still sain after these four years! :) Love ya and miss ya already!Us with the Ruckers-- we sure are going to miss you guys and your amazing friendship these last 6 great years!! Congrats on Ortho! Meet up with ya in Tennessee! ;) We love you guys!

Mom and Dad Wolf came with such great love and support, thanks guys!
Dr. Daddy and his proud boys!
Rudy getting hooded! Wahoo!
Signing his life away to some dental thing ;)
President Rudy giving his great graduation speech. The dean got up after Rudy was finished and asked him to stand and told him, along with the entire congregation, that "I've done this for a lot of years and that was the best graduation speech I've heard, and I've heard a lot of graduation speeches!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WIK5qG4yAs

If you're interested in seeing the actual speech you can go to the above link.

Rudy presenting the class of 2010 check to the dean of the school.

The boys keeping themselves 'entertained' while I packed boxes.

Dr. Wolf with Dr. Bailey, the dentist he's working for. Dr. Bailey has been absolutely wonderful to work with and so kind. Rudy's actually staying at his house while he starts work and we're in Utah. We're really excited about our new adventure in Bedford, VA!

Now we move to Tucker's 4th Birthday on May 10th.

It's been so much fun to watch Tucker change from a little kid to a 'boy' this year. He's loving jumping and shooting and building and trucks and sports. He loves playing with his buddies and he's going to really miss his friends he's made in Richmond. He still loves Lightning McQueen and Thomas the Train. He continues to keep us laughing with his great sense of humor and amazing facial expressions. We're excited to move to a place with over an acre of land so he can RUN! He's the type of boys that runs when he's supposed to walk and jumps when he's supposed to stand. We love him and all of his energy. He's a great big brother and knows how to have FUN! We love you so much Tuck and we're SO glad you're a part of our family! Happy (belated) Birthday! :)

Thanks Nana and Papa for the fun build-your-own trains!!

Tuck and Coop showing their more artistic side painting the newly built trains
Tuck's 4th bday party (pictures starting at the end of the party when the energy needed to be squelched with a movie! ;)
Tuck getting fun presents from some of his favorite buddies
LOVE that smile! That's the 'I-just-got-another-Cars-toy' smile! Yeeeeeaay!
Say CHEEEEESE! (Thanks, Dad, for the bunny ears!)
Robot birthday party with a robot cake and, of course, a Robot pinata...both VERY homemade!

My boys showing off their good form

Cleaning up the 'robot parts' after the dismantling of the robot

Moving on to a great graduation dinner that the wonderful Tettertons gave us. A great all-you-can-eat seafood buffet!! (Rudy's dream come true! :) We sure are going to miss having the Tettertons close, but glad we'll still be close enough to visit!

Rudy enjoying this a little too much??
Rudy's second day of graduation (May 23rd...like I said, no semblance of order with the photos). This was all of the VCU graduates. Dental is front/center.
The 11/14 Proof of all of Rudy's hard work! Way to go Doc!

The boys playing with Oma and Opa while we got to enjoy a little time on our own with the senior gala and other graduation events. Tucker sporting his new Cars helmet for his first bike! Thanks Oma and Opa!

Cooper sporting...well...his 'monster' attire.
Boys being boys.

Finding all the spiders for mommy... YUUUCK!

Hiding in their fort...
and Playing ball with Oma. Nice amidst all the craziness, there's still time to play!
What a MONTH!

The pictures are scattered, as well as my brain. The month was so full, I know I'm missing events and not fully describing the ones that I did mention, but that's as good as it's gonna get right now! :) We're finalizing an offer on a home and will be closing on ours on the 23rd of June. We're starting a whole new phase of our life that we're a little apprehensive (but mostly really excited) about.
Look out Bedford, here we come!!

There's something magic about spring...

2010-04-07T15:13:00.008-04:00

...And easter with small kids...

...and time outside together as a family -- yay for General Conference weekend! (although, extended family was greatly missed, as they always are!)

...And there's something magic about a handsome man taking time out of his busy schedule to volunteer at the local elementary schools to share his 'performance talent' with young, eager listeners! :) Love you, Babe!

Life is really good...and there's something about warm sunshine, birds chirping, and flowers blooming that just makes it GREAT! I love Spring!!!

Anyone need a home?

2010-03-14T12:32:00.004-04:00

We're selling our house!
Rudy's getting down to the last two months of school, he's finishing up all of his tests (one he's taking today and tomorrow, the WREBS, which will be nice to have out of the way), and he's got job opportunities in the making, so it's time to start movin' on.
We've loved our little house these last four years. It's been so nice to have a place of our own and it's been really fun to improve the house from when we bought it and learn how to do all kinds of things. We're sad to see it go, but excited to find another home we can call our own somewhere else.
However, in order to do that, we need to SELL this one! :) And in this market, it's kindof a scary prospect...
So, (shameless plug) if you or anyone you know is looking for a home in the Richmond area, please send them our info! (we'll cut you a great deal! ;)

www.richmondhome.blogspot.com

Here's to being done with tests, selling, and stress! (DONE with stress? HA! NEVER!)

I Recycle!

2010-03-08T23:00:00.005-05:00

Last week was a crazy one. Rudy was gone in Lynchburg for an externship most of the week and I was left alone to ready the house for a showing or two (which is a LOT more work with two little entropies running around!) I had a call on Thursday morning that someone wanted to come take a look at 1 pm. The house wasn't even close to ready. I subsequently became a realtor and temporarily gave up my job as mother to get the house ready. (note: when mothers choose to forgo their employment, madness ensues). As soon as I had a room ready they sensed the over-cleanliness and just HAD to do something about it. At 12:30 I was going batty and still hadn't gotten some key areas cleaned at all. I chose to shew my monkeys out the door to the backyard warning them not to play on the newly-painted deck.
At 12:55 I sighed in success as all indoors felt worthy of showing (or close enough). I slowly felt growing guilt at my ignoring of my sweet, wonderful boys. I lovingly stepped on the deck to wrap my little angels in arms of love... and then I stopped. The entire deck was covered with splattered chunks of thrown mud globs. The guilty parties were almost as covered as the deck. Not only was I a bad realtor who couldn't keep their home clean, I was a bad mother who couldn't keep her kids clean! I decided right then and there...OH WELL! What else could I do? I rinsed off the deck and my kids as well as I could and consigned myself to the realization that if the buyer really wanted the house (hmm...or my kids ;) a little splattered mud wouldn't ruin it, right? :)

Onto the good part of the story! I had put the recycling and trash out Thursday night for Friday's pickup. When i awoke the next morning I made a phone call or two then headed out to go to the Children's museum to try to make up for not being a mother the day before. As I was leaving I realized the over-stuffed recycling had been blown over the yard. I picked up the items that had strewn and pushed, squished, and smashed it back in the container. I resumed my travel up to the museum. Halfway there, I realized I had forgotten my phone. (Unfortunately, my phone has become quite an appendage in my life with waaay too much of my brain on it). I was distraught, but decided it would give me more focused time with my boys. We went, we played, we returned. Upon my return, I was eager to replace my appendage, check my to do lists, email, texts, and any missed phone calls. In my overly-clean house, there was no place for it to hide.
And it was not there.
I replayed the day's events, the only possible explanation was...
the Recycling.
The pushing and smooshing-- it must have fallen in! I frantically tried to contact someone. The recycling company, my phone company, my husband, ANYONE... but, alas, I had no phone (and we have no landline). I jumped on the computer and quickly facebooked, emailed, and IMed anyone I could think of that might hear my pleas for help. At one point I saw the WM truck outside (the same company that does the recycling) and CHASED the trash truck down the street to ask if he had any idea how to stop or contact a recycling truck!
I finally got a hold of Ginny who was an angel and contacted the recycling company and my phone company and got laughed at on my behalf. She also called my phone religiously every 15 minutes -all day long- in case it was running on some conveyor belt or being sifted through, it might be heard and rescued! Rudy, who was holding off his patients, also called the recycling company and got a hold of supposedly the right manager who took down the information and told him 'they'd be on the lookout for it'. I emailed Drea and set up a meeting at Costco to gain some sanity and vocal interpersonal communication back.
Rudy, luckily, was heading home that night so at least I'd have a phone available. After hours of stewing and stress I consigned myself to the fact that my poor, lost, lonely phone was ringing to no avail and would be lost and gone forever. At midnight that night I tried calling one more time, then one last text, as I figured by the time I woke up the battery would be dead and all hopes of finding it would surely be futile. In the last desperate text, I offered a reward and a number to call if someone had my poor little phone.
The next morning I woke up and went on a long jog to relieve myself from the stress of the previous day. (It's funny how you can personify an electronic item to make you sick at the thought that it's all alone. I found myself really wanting closure to know what happened to it.) I came back feeling much better, remembering that IT'S ONLY A PHONE! I transferred my number to an old phone we still had and went outside to work on the yard.
Rudy came out shortly thereafter with a goofy grin on his face. "They found it."
WHAT? No way.
Someone had called his phone a left a message that he had the phone and would be happy to meet up to give it back. We set up a place and time and off I went. I stepped out of my car to see him standing there with my phone. (enter Chariots of Fire theme music-- I had to restrain myself from slow-motion running to my phone.) Although very nice, he definitely had seen my reward text and was more than happy to take the measly amount I had available to give. Even though the man who worked for the CVWMA should have returned it to his manager and I probably shouldn't have had to pay a 'reward' for it, I didn't really care-
I GOT MY PHONE BACK!

Talk about recycling!

Love and Monster Trucks

2010-02-17T14:21:00.001-05:00

Thursday consisted of our annual Playgroup Vday party. The kids loved the cookie decorating (eating frosting off the spoon), the valentine passing out (throwing a varied number of unnamed pieces of paper w/ a treat attached into brown paper bags that have been splattered with valentine paraphernalia and globs of glue), and, of course, the 'loot discovery' (dumping out the glue soaked paper bag to rummage through the paper items to find the treats- eating as many as possible before an adult catches them).

Saturday Rudy and Tucker got into the Valentine's spirit and went to "Thunder Nationals"! Nothing says love and warm-fuzzies like huge trucks crushing cars and revving their engines. How sweet.
I knew it was a successful trip when Tucker came bouncing in the house at 11:40 PM wide-eyed and hearing-impaired.

Sunday? Sunday was a great day at church. :)

(note: I did get to sleep in and got a wonderful breakfast courtesy of hubby. Our 'Valentine's date' this year is postponed until the end of February when VCU has their Senior Ball that we will be attending.)

...and a happy new year!

2010-01-04T14:59:00.003-05:00

Always good to start off a blog post with a cute bath pic! :) So here's a picture-dump-catch-up blog from the crazy end of the year adventures! Our journey begins at the end of November when I decided to run a Thanksgiving day 'Turkey Trot 10K' with my friend Drea.
It was super foggy, super hilly, and I was feeling super not-wonderful, but it was super FUN!
I finished in 50 min, which wasn't amazing, but I felt pretty good about it under the circumstances.
My cute hubby and kiddos, along w/ Drea's fam, came to support and cheer us on. Thanks guys!!
The fog made for some great scenery though! (you'll have to click on it to see the spider webs)
We then went to the Tettertons for Thanksgiving dinner. The Tettertons have been the family that's adopted us while we've been in Virginia, always having us over for wonderful feasts and letting us take home the leftovers. They've always given so much to us and we're so grateful to have a little 'family' out here! Thanks guys!
Jim with the amazing turkey fryer! YUUUM!
And what's Thanksgiving without a little football? Rudy gave up his elder's quorum football in the morning for my race, so it was nice to get a little play time in.
Has anyone ever seen the movie, "The Birds"? Well, I'm pretty sure it was filmed in Virginia...in my front yard.
I wish the pictures really captured the experience of hundreds, I dare say possibly thousands, of birds coming to attack your lawn, then all lifting off at the same time literally causing a rush of air as they do. The sound is unreal. Unfortunately, I only got pictures and not video. What crazy is this happens every year, always the last week in November. My street must be the on crows migration path! :)
Cooper got an ear infection right before we left to Utah. I also found out, with said ear infection, that he's allergic to Amoxicillin...
Didn't think he'd ever go back to normal after seeing all those spots! ...he did.
Then the night before we left for Utah, Tucker had a 'Joy School Christmas Party'. He and his 4 other 'classmates' put on the Christmas story for us and we had some yummy treats. Tucker was a shepherd and the innkeeper. His speaking part, "NO ROOM!" came waay too naturally. :)
Tucker, Emily, Jack, Laurie, and Emma. Yay for Joy School!
Then we boarded a plane, endured the flight, and arrived in Utah! Yay! Football, food, playing, and hanging. Good times!!
Nice to throw in a game of 'race the train and Cooper down the looong hall'. Coop won.
Christmas sweater bonding. Nice!
Tucker was able to put his thespian skills into action again for another Christmas story play. I played my natural role...as an angel. (insert devil face here)

It was so much fun to have time with cousins and have those friendships develop. Seriously, though, WISEMEN?? The boys were able to enjoy the snow in Utah, with make-shift snow attire. (although we missed a HUGE storm back east that pretty much closed the east coast down for a few days...can't say I was super sad about missing that one!)
Daddy makes a good 'sled-lift'.
Hi-yah! Giddiup!
Makin' an art mom proud (thanks for the art projects, Woods!)
And Christmas day! YAY! So fun to celebrate with family, both small and numerous!
Tucker got his 'Airplanecar' that he asked Santa for (McQueen car that turns into an airplane...don't ask me where he saw that one!) and other McQueen paraphernalia= a happy kid!

Clothes aren't bad either! Thanks Nana!
Wow! What an event! So glad we were able to be a part of it! Thanks to my fam for making our stay possible and so awesome! Love and miss you guys!
On the 30th (at 12:30 AM) we took the red-eye back to VA...which actually wasn't awful. The boys slept most of the way the long leg of the flight and then Rudy played with the boys the short leg on an empty plane and I got to stretch out on three seats for an hour nap! Thanks babe! :) We loved being with family, but it was nice to get back to our own space and have some catch-up time before Rudy went back to school. We brought in the new year with the Ruckers as we all got giddy that 2010 was actually HERE! Rudy's graduation year! So many adventures to come this year. We're open to job possibilities pretty much anywhere in the U.S. Our desire is to go where the Lord wants us to and where Rudy can get the best experience for a few years before he sets up his own practice. Who knows where that will be?? :)

Here's to 2010 and...ADVENTURES!

Yay for Ginny!

2009-11-10T13:50:00.009-05:00

I love my family! I love my friends! I love when they're one in the same! This past week my sister Ginny came to Virginia to visit. Besides being one of my very best friends and someone I really look up to, she's an amazing mom of 5 and takes on more in one week than most humans do in a year! Needless to say after basement finishing, soccer gameing, mothering, teaching, tutoring, Young Womaning, single-parenting, and supportive wifeing for the past few months, her cute hubby, Dave, gave her 'paid vacation' from being all that she does and flew her out to be with us. Although she ran away from 5 kids to be with 2, I hope it was a fun break for her. We sure enjoyed her coming! While she was here, we hired her as our photographer to get some family shots that were waay overdue. I hope we were good customers for you, Gin ;) Nice when you can pay your photographer in backrubs and ice cream! :) But she did such a great job, I need some serious help deciding!! Any votes?

And these are just a FEW of the MANY great other shots she took.

We had some great fun, great food, great laughs, and great company, and made some great memories. Thanks Gin! We love you and miss you already!

Halloweenie weekend

2009-11-01T20:01:00.004-05:00

A fun weekend of ghosts, goblins, and a midieval family! Friday was our ward Halloween party, with a pumpkin carving contest...I'm a sucker for such contests and had way too much fun creating this of a certain prominent church leader. I didn't win my free cruise like I was hoping for though. :)
Rudy wasn't able to make it as he was just returning from a week long externship. (hence the picture of the floating crown-- the wizard apparently accidentally turned him invisible and couldn't turn him back before the party.)
We were all able to go trick or treating as a family on Saturday and were even joined by a group of traveling cowboys! :) We got to enjoy a feast of pumpkin pizza, goblin goo and eyeballs in blood for dinner...YUM! Yay for Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-29T13:20:00.000-04:00

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An apple a day...

2009-10-12T14:17:00.006-04:00

...or in this case, 40,000 apples in one day!
This weekend we went to the Carter Mountain Apple Orchard in Charlottesville. The weather wasn't the greatest, but the apple picking, the apple cider, the apple doughnuts, and the time together was great!

We tried a variety of apple-picking methods...

The Baby-Picker-- cute, but not so efficient.

The Hit-and-Catch Method--fun to watch, a trial of masculinity, a test of hand eye coordination, but made for some bruised apples (missed catches and overexuberant hits ;)

Climb-and-Snag Method-- efficient, effective, attractive, but scary (hardly insured, almost-dentist climbing a 20 foot high tree...)
Uhhh...this wasn't one of our proven methods...

Although it was rainy and quite brisk (which has been unusual for us lately), we had a lot of fun.
And even got to enjoy a picnic lunch!...in our var. Yay for apple orchards!

Rudy's big boo-boo

2009-09-27T20:55:00.004-04:00

So Rudy called me last week about to pass out as he was looking down at his finger. All he was able to tell me on the phone was, "babe, I cut my finger really bad and right now I can't move it, definitely going to need stitches and I might have cut thru a nerve." He had to get off the phone to talk to faculty and work out what he was going to do about it--so he said, "I'll call you later," and hung up.
Sheesh! What am I supposed to do with that information?! Now I have 20 minutes to let my imagination go CRAZY. Ok, he's sliced thru his finger that he does all of his dentistry with and has cut a nerve. Which means thousands of dollars in medical repairs, and who knows if it will ever work the same? Four years of dental school and he's not even going to be able to be a dentist!?! Ok, so I tried not to go to crazy, but those thoughts definitely went thru my mind as I waited for the follow-up call.
He called me back after what seemed like forever to let me in on the ever so important details...
He was working on a cast for a bridge he was making for a patient using an x-acto knife. With a fair amount of force, he slipped off the cast and dug the blade deep into his left hand pinky, slicing a deep cut all the way across his poor little finger. As sad as I was to hear about his pinky I was so relieved that it was pretty much the best finger possible to have anything bad happen to. He was relieved and very grateful too, especially because he started gaining feeling back as he headed home.
Now here's the other miraculous part of the story: Yes, he was heading HOME and not to the emergency room because we have some pretty amazing friends that just so happen to be medically inclined. So Rudy was feeling well enough to drive himself home and one of our favorite doctors came over on a 'house call' to stitch up his finger! 10 stitches, some good pain medication, a little food, and a lot of laughs later, Rudy was all patched up and ready to go- no nerve damage and it's healing nicely, he's even able to work on patients without a problem! (In fact, he just took the stitches out tonight...himself...ewww.)
We're so grateful for the angels watching out for us in so many areas of our lives, both those we can see and those we can't!

Warning: Viewer Discretion Advised.
Those who are squeamish of stomach when it comes to blood and needles may not desire to view the following graphic photos (that's for you, mom :). Those sick few of you who really like it may click on the photos for a close up view (i.e. Ginny).

Pre-Op
OpIf you can't see his eyes on this one, you'll definitely have to enlarge it. It was really interesting to see what happened to the man who has no problem dealing with blood and gore. Not so tough when it is HE who is the patient! Made for some good empathy for his patients, though.
Post-Op

Mug Shots...

2009-09-16T14:21:00.002-04:00

I was going to be cute and clever and photoshop a mug shot plaque onto the photos, but since I barely can find time to throw some pictures up on the blog to let people know I'm still alive, you'll just have to imagine it.
Partners in crime...
I dare say this won't be the last time!

Yeah, I knew there would be hazards to having my "art studio" be in the same location as our "library" and "Cooper's room", but we don't have a lot of choice right now! :) I just have to say two things:
1. I'm SO glad it was acrylic and not oil
2. Our used steam carpet cleaner was the best purchase we've made thus far in Virginia

Love being mommy...

2009-08-27T12:38:00.002-04:00

Just wanted to share a couple of fun pics that my friend, Jen Martin, took while we were at Kings Dominion. Cute little Cooper.

The belated blog post from the big summer trip from which we're still trying to catch up

2009-08-04T13:53:00.016-04:00

You know you're in blogging trouble when it takes you three different days just to upload the pictures!
Ahem... onto Our Summer Trip!
What a whirlwind of fun! We started the trip out in San Diego with Rudy's family. We were able to fit it a lot of fun in the time we were there!

We were able to celebrate Rudy's 29th Birthday (Dr. Wolf, you're gettin OLD! :)
Rudy had some great help opening presents, blowing out candles and eating cake...the tough jobs!

Some good quality time was spent with Oma and Opa.
Some yummy food was eaten- with some great company!
And, of course, Oma and Opa's pool was a HIT! Tucker became quite the swimmer while we were there.
I'm sure he became such a good swimmer because of the great teachers he had! :) (Rudy showing his excellent dog-paddling skills)
We were able to go to Sea World. It's so fun to go back to places with your children and rediscover a magic only kids can see.

Tucker's become quite the comedian. His faces and jokes keep coming and keep us laughing.
A rare couple shot. So fun to share all this with you! Love you, babe!
We got to go with Oma and meet up with Rudy's ol' buddy Ryan Mcknight with his wife, Jen, and their little girl, Kayla.

As if that weren't enough fun, we went up to Big Bear to the cabin. We enjoyed a trip to the local 'zoo'.

We got to take the Miller's (Oma and Opa's Big Bear friends) boat out for a day to do some serious fishing.
The boys seemed to really enjoy being on a boat.
And I've got mad skills catching seaweed.Heading to the Big Bear ward for church with our handsome boys (Tucker sporting Rudy's or Adam's old suit)
One of the really nice parts about this trip was that Rudy was finally able to relax. He had no tests to study for, nothing looming over his head. It was fun to watch how much fun he was able to have. He was able to participate in some serious 'man-boy bonding'.

Then this is the part in the trip where the road, and pictures, split. I left with Cooper to go to Utah for a few days to do a mural and see my family. We all wanted to be able to go, but with cost of travel, we decided it'd work best if I went with the 'free flight child' and Rudy and Tuck stayed back. It was a fun adventure and so nice to see the family, but Rudy and Tucker were definitely missed in Utah.

Picture of the mural I did...blow it up...it looks better ;)

The rest of my and Coop's time was filled with fun, games, and family. Cooper LOVED being around all the cousins, aunts, uncles, and Nana and Papa. So much so that he got quite perturbed when he was left alone.

Nana showing Cooper (and Ginny's cute twinners) the 'Gardner ways' of game playing early on in life.We had a 24th of July family party, where Rudy and Tucker were really missed, but it was really nice to have almost the whole family together!

Although I have all boys and love it, I LOVE my 'girl group' of friends that I have in my family!

So, do we look like we're related?

Rudy and Tucker missed us terribly and were barely able to get out of bed while we were gone...wait, NO. :)
Rudy called me every day with a new adventure.
They went to the science museum together, swimming, shopping, parks, etc.

Tucker loved his bonding time with Oma and Opa, while Rudy enjoyed a lot of I'm-pretending-I'm-a-bachelor-again time with his some old friends and brother, going to 'fight-night', deep-sea fishing, surfing, etc.) It was a fun week for us, but nice to be back together again!
Coop and I came back to San Diego for the last couple of days before we all made the long flight back home to Richmond. We got in touch with the Bramwell's (Rudy's family he lived with for a while after he joined the Church), and we were able to go visit them and enjoy a little more swimming and then head over to a kid's play place and get some ice cream with Oma as the last party day came to a close.

The small picture just doesn't do the true ice cream mess justice.

After a looong flight and lack of sleep, we made it home again! We're still trying to play catch-up on all the things that should have gotten done while we were too busy playing. :) But that's what summer's for....right??
That, and Keepin' Kool. Nice shades*, boys.* the shades were actually 3D glasses from a movie that Rudy and I got to see in the Theater!...wow. that was fun. It had been SOO long since Rudy and I had been to a real theater. Like, SO long that when they told us, with a discount, the total for the two of us to see the movie would be $28, we laughed and told him, oh, sorry, you must have misheard us, we just wanted 2 tickets. Yeah.

Kids, Cars, and Angels-- The story of our week

2009-06-27T20:39:00.008-04:00

Chapter One:
The week started last Saturday with a fun trip to Virginia Beach with the Ruckers and the Martins. We decided to take Rudy's car, since the car seats were already in it and we were running late to meet up with some friends. We arrived and had a lot of fun. The boys went surfing and the girls and kids had fun building castles and laying out. The evening came and everyone headed out. We looked at our sand covered kids and decided, since there were no public showers, that we'd strip 'em down and dip 'em in the ocean to clean 'em off. Rudy had Tucker and I took Cooper. There was a decent shore break, but once you got past that it was nice and calm. We didn't go out very far and the kids were enjoying the water, until, apparently, we stayed out one too many waves. As I was dipping Cooper for the last time, I turned to see a VERY large wave forming. I realized it was going to break right where Rudy and I were with the kids, and we didn't have time to get to the shore. I frantically looked at Rudy since I had not been IN the ocean since early high school and definitely never with a baby. He told me to hold him up high so he wouldn't get submerged and to jump with the wave. As the wave came, I jumped just in time to have the break slam me in the chest. I flew backwards completely losing my footing. As I was being yanked below the water, I tried with all of my might to hold onto my dear little Cooper...but the wave was too strong. It tore him out of my grasp. It's amazing how fast your mind reels through things at a time like that. I first thought of the t-shirt Jon (our buddy) had thrown into shore as he was out swimming. I watched that t-shirt the entire time, but it clipped the end of a wave as it was sailing through the sky and disappeared within a second as the water was being pulled back in. As hard and quickly as we looked, the shirt was gone forever. I then, in my thoughts, replaced the t-shirt with my little boy. With what seemed like an eternity later (it was probably 2 seconds), I found the ocean bottom and burst up out of the water. I screamed with everything I had in me, "RUDY, I LOST HIM!!!" I looked at Rudy who had Tucker in his arms, then looked down at the water as it was churning rapidly back toward the ocean. All I saw as my eyes scanned was white foam and churning sand. I couldn't see him. I knew if I didn't find him before the water was sucked back up that I'd lose my little boy forever. Gallons of water were sailing past me as I looked up in time to see Rudy toss Tucker to one arm and drop down into the water. He explains that he was looking around and right as he glanced to his right he saw a foot twirl past, then the back of a head. He's not sure what happened next or how he did what he did, but as he came out of the water, he was holding TWO beautiful, screaming boys. I screamed with joy and overwhelming relief as I took Cooper from his grasp so we could all get out of the water before any more waves came. I didn't lose it and become a total blubbering basketcase until we were in the car and decided to say a prayer of thanks that we had had such divine help in saving little Cooper. There are angels among us!

Chapter 2:
After many tears of joy, relief, fear of 'what if', and gratitude, we started our drive back home. We got about 30 minutes into our 2 1/2 hour drive back and the car completely cut-off in the middle of an acceleration. Thankfully, we were near a parking lot and had enough momentum and open road to pull off to the side and get into the lot. We tried starting it back up...no luck. The car was dead. I think perhaps sometimes in life Heavenly Father gives us experiences of relativity to remind us what's TRULY important. All of a sudden the concept that we were 2 hours away from home, with two little kids who were getting tired fast, on a Saturday after all auto shops had closed, with a car that was inoperable, didn't seem like that big of a deal... because we had TWO little kids alive and well and we were together and safe. As we tried to figure out what in the world we were going to do, I decided to call the Ruckers (who had left about 45 minutes before we had). I figured they were long gone, but thought I'd give it a try. I told them we were stranded and gave them the address we were at just in case they were close. For a variety of reasons they just so happened to have been a little delayed and were 8 MINUTES away from us. They immediately, and selflessly, turned around to come save us. Little did I know that Lissa had AAA and that if she's present, they'll tow ANY car that she's with! At about 6:30, Jon, Lissa, Kylea, and Jon's brother Aaron came to our rescue and called AAA. We waited for over an hour for the tow truck to come...and they waited right along with us. When the tow truck arrived, we told him we were headed to Richmond. He laughed, let us know he doesn't go that far, made a call, and drove off. So we waited for tow truck #2, for over an hour...again. And the Ruckers waited with us...again. They were incredible and we even pulled out our beach stuff and had hang out sesh #2 for the day on the grass bank of a parking lot. By 9:30 truck #2 arrived, we put Cooper in Aaron's car in the one extra seat while I hung out in the hatchback and Rudy and Tucker rode with the scary looking (but very nice) tow truck driver. Tucker was so wired that he actually got to ride in a tow truck that he barely slept on the way home. At 11:30ish we all arrived at Firestone. The driver dropped off the car and Aaron took me, Rudy, Tucker, Cooper, Jon, Lissa, and Kylea back to our house (don't worry, all children were properly stowed in their car seats :) They dropped us off, made sure we had everything we needed, and left at midnight for the 35 minute drive back to their house! Thank you again, Aaron, Jon, Lissa and Kylea! There are angels among us!!

Chapter 3:
We awoke Sunday with twenty minutes to get to church since our kids had slept in from the loong day and night previous. We spent the whole day reeling and being so grateful. We got word from Firestone (who charged us $100 to do a diagnosis that other auto shops do for FREE), that it was a broken timing belt. He let us know it'd be $500 to fix it...and that the 'fix' would either make it better, or help us discover that the engine was totally busted. As we called around, we got word that it would be wise to call it quits on our lovely Contour with 160,000 miles. Luckily we still had one operating vehicle, but as Monday and Tuesday passed, we realized how our lives had become accustomed to having two cars and I had waay too many appointments coming up in the next week to miss--and I was feeling separated from the world, not being able to leave the house all day (besides the fact that we were over on our minutes so I had very limited use of a phone). So, we started looking for cars. By Wednesday we had done a huge amount of research and found, that if we got a really good deal, we could get a new car for about the same price as a used but with the added perks of warranty, mileage...and it not being 'pre-owned'. Rudy had the day off, so with our game faces on, we headed out at 9 AM to find ourselves a good deal. By 4:00 we came home tired and without a car. We had test driven many cars, haggled with prices, waited, and decided on a car we really liked...but not the price. We were determined that we could get something lower than what they were offering locally. We continued to call many dealerships and by 6:00 we had it down to two dealerships in MARYLAND that were offering a substantial amount less than any other local place. By 6:30 we had decided on a car and a dealership and headed out...for our second 2 1/2 hour drive of the week. We made it just in time for closing at 9:00, filled out the paperwork until 10:30, grabbed a bite to eat at McDonald's (I think the first time we've EVER eaten there as a family) and headed home with our TWO cars at 11:00 PM! I don't do GPS well, so Rudy was in the lead and I was following him home in the new car. He quickly made a left lane exit that I completely missed and with 4% battery life left on his phone, I was LOST...in a brand new car. Oye. Luckily with the very quick phone call we made, he was able to give me enough direction that I drove around and refound the exit and was back on track. We both drove a very lonely 2 1/2 hour drive home. We got home at a little before 2:00 AM on Thursday morning, exaughsted, but elated and excited.
I am the queen of cheapness! How can I have a new car?! I'm still geekin' out about it.
Here it is: Our Mazda 5. It's not a van, it's not a car, it's a VAR!...or a CAN!...or a crossover. :)

Chapter 4:
The rest of the week (Thursday and Friday) was filled with trying to figure out what to do with our Contour (btw, if anyone is in need of a 1999 Ford Contour that doesn't work, let me know! :), going to all of our scheduled appointments, catching up on everyday stuff, and mediorcrally (is that a word? :) celebrating the 26th of June--Cooper's 1st birthday, Rudy's dad's birthday, and the Rucker's anniversary. We apologize to all of you for our lack of preparedness and celebration! We were able to do a little watermelon cake party for our wonderful little Coop who's alive and well! Happy Birthday Cooper! WE LOVE YOU!!

We ended up having to bathe our kids in the sink to get all the cake off...just had to add this picture cause it cracks me up.
Chapter 5:
To bring this very loong post full circle and add to the irony of the week, I am currently writing this novel on Saturday night (almost midnight)...ONE WEEK after everything began. Rudy is in, of all places, Virginia Beach. He went surfing all day with the Ruckers and the Martins (insert crazy cuckoo face here). For some strange reason, I couldn't get myself excited to go to the beach today....so I decided to stay home. What a wonderful day of NOTHING it has been for me and the boys! :) As I sit dumbfounded that it's only been a week, I am full of gratitude and love. I am so grateful that the Lord is in charge of our lives, and that we have angels looking out for us, whatever their form may be. What a very long week it has been, full of kids, cars, and angels indeed!

The End.

Our Sunday Blessings

2009-06-17T22:16:00.004-04:00

We get into our car to drive to church 4 minutes later than we usually like to leave. If everything goes well, we hit the lights right, we'll make it in our seats just as the prelude music has ceased. We sail through our first light feeling good about the time, when ahead we see flashing lights and a huge car lineup. (As a side note: for those of you familiar to Virginia, if there's ever an accident, it seems as though they never attempt to move the cars to the side of the road. The cops come, they clean it up, make sure everyone's ok, and fill out the paper work-- all in the middle of the road while cars lineup for miles behind them.) We look at the blocked road, look at each other, and realize we need a quick escape route. About 50 yards before we hit the lineup, Rudy pulls into the turn lane and turns a 'not-quite' U turn-- an about-face to find an alternate route. Not before we could plan our new route we see flashing lights barreling toward us. We're racking our brains trying to figure out what we did illegally as we pull off into a parking lot. We figure we had pulled an illegal U-turn...but why would he care about that while they're trying to clean up an accident? The officer leans in. "Sir? Why were you evading a check point??" AHH! We look like incompitent bad guys! To make matters worse, Rudy, while transferring to his church pants, forgot to include his licence. The officer chuckles to himself then says, "Do you not have it because it's suspended??" As Rudy frantically tries to plead his case, he offers to have the officer follow us home so he can show him his license. When that doesn't work, Rudy offers up his phone as another form of I.D. ! After what seems like ages (and I'm sure a good internal laugh from the officer from Rudy's direness to assure him he was innocent), he comes back to the car with a ticket. He tells us that Rudy just needs to appear in court with his license on this certain date and it will be taken off. Well, that court date is the first day of fall clinic and Rudy's day was booked. He proceeds to plead with the officer if there was any way we could go back and get it now and hunt him down at the check point to show it to him. The officer laughs; then with a great kindness he says, "I can see you're on your way to church. Your address is where I patrol later today anyway. How about you call me when you get home and I'll come by your house and take a look at that license."
We made it in time for the Sacrament, and even had a uniformed visitor to our house later that day! What a blessing in disguise! Although we had quite the adrenaline trip, I'm sure if we had gone through the checkpoint, they would not have had such mercy on a man in slacks without his license.

Outer Banks 2009!

2009-06-02T10:34:00.007-04:00

Isn't it funny that whenever you have the most blogs you want to post, you don't post the blogs because that means your life is crazy and you don't have TIME to post?
Well, that's been our May. It's been full of fun adventures, but FULL nonetheless! So I'm finally posting our Outer Banks trip, which was the BIG adventure for May. We took advantage of our last opportunity to vacation with some of our good dental school buddies, since next year we'll all be GRADUATED by this time! Wahoo!
7 families shared a wonderful beach house with a 2-minute walk to the beach. We had some bad weather, a heated pool that was anything but heated, and some other minor setbacks, but the trip was extremely fun and full of memorable adventures (see below).

A few pictures to add to the repertoire...

A Promise Kept beach house in Corolla, NC (the uppermost city on the Outer Banks island)

Our movie night--
Watching Taken on Blu-Ray, rented from a movie store 45 minutes away: $8.
Cramming all 14 adults into the theater room, 2 per chair: numb limbs and sore bums.
Sharing 8 bags of popcorn (cleaned off in the first 10 minutes of previews): $3
Enjoying every minute of it: Priceless.

One year and all these boys will be dentists!
Don't worry...we didn't have THAT much fun...they're IBC's ;)

Hangin' out Outer Banks style.Not quite the Cape Hatteras light house, but a light house nonetheless!

Duck Donuts! mmmm... Krispy Kreme ain't got nothin' on these bad boys!

Tucker and Kylea: A Hallmark card in the making!

Cooper one of the VERY few times he was not consuming sand (but you can still see remnants of the prior consumed sand on his mouth...a common sight that week). Do you have any idea how hard it is to clean sandpoop off a bum...every poopy diaper....for an entire week??

I couldn't help but get in on the joy of the "big sand box" with all of the kids...especially when you feel like you own the entire beach!

Thanks to all who were there! It was a week of fun times, good memories, and great friends!
(Right to Left: Rudy and Melissa, Jon and Lis Rucker, Mike and Christen Milburn, Sam and Emily Waddups, Christian and Amanda Peck, Nate and Rebecca Sherman, Tyler and Megan Williams)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TUCKER!

2009-05-10T22:55:00.005-04:00

Tucker,
You're THREE! What a wonderful three years it has been with you, our beautiful little boy! I can't believe it's been three years since we were holding you in the hospital after a very long, difficult delivery! You just liked it too much in the womb and didn't want to come out. 10 days after you were due, we decided to induce labor. 23 hours, LOTS of pain, 2 non-working epidurals, two hemhorraged eyes, and a pair of forceps later, you were born! ...and named after the forceps to boot! :) But you were definitely worth it! It's so much fun to watch you grow and become a wonderful boy, full of energy and enthusiasm. You already love to be the entertainer (taking after the ham-i-ness of your dad! ;). It's so fun to watch how much joy you get out of making others laugh! You'll do pretty much anything-- including running face first into fences and playground toys and falling over to get a laugh out of your buddies. You've always loved to dance. From about 4 months old you'd get your groove on with anything that had a beat. You have a great sense of rhythm and have taught your dad and I some great moves! Your facial expressions are endless and very entertaining. I catch you when you think I'm not watching being a really good big brother and making Cooper laugh harder than I've ever been able to. You're a joy in our lives and bring so much fun and light into our home, we're so glad you're a part of our family and can't wait to see what each year brings with you!

Love,
Mom

We had lots of fun yesterday at his McQueen/Thomas party. I had lots of fun prepping for the party. While I was making a labor-intensive McQueen cake for Tucker, he came up to the table, sat down and rested his head in his hands, looked dreamily at the cake and then glanced up at me, "I looooove Queen. Tank you, Mommy, it looks sooooo good!" That made the fact that my 'work of art' was eaten in about 2.7 minutes more than worth it! :) We played 'pin the squished bug on the car windshield' and 'Thomas toss' and Tucker got all kinds of fun toys from very generous friends. Tucker had a blast.

Today was nice to share his bday with mother's day. Rudy was great letting me 'sleep in' before we went to 9 am church, making me breakfast, letting me nap after church, and making me a delicious dinner after the kids went down. We were able have a little family party in the evening for Tucker and enjoy some nice family time. And it gets even better! Rudy has the next two weeks off! This coming week will be nice and relaxing with catching up on things that need to get done. Next week we'll be off to Outer Banks, NC for a fun-filled week at a beach house with 6 other families. Rudy's third year is officially over! Onto the final year! WAHOO!

Kings Dominion...and other fairly crazy tales

2009-05-05T19:42:00.008-04:00

We pooled together some gift money and decided to get Kings Dominion season passes for the summer. We've heard so much about the great amusement parks out here in VA and boy were they right! We went this last Saturday with our friends, the Martins, and had such a great time. The park is HUGE. There are some GREAT big kid rides and the little ones have some pretty good ones as well! ;) We went from noon to 8:30 and didn't even get to half the rides...and the water park isn't even open yet! I do believe we've made a great investment--we can't wait to go back!

However, the day-o-fun didn't end at 8:30. We decided to keep the party hoppin' by going out to dinner at the local Cici's (Rudy's favorite--a pizza buffet). We hit solid traffic getting to the restaurant and didn't get there until 9:30. By then our kids were out, but none of us had eaten dinner so we decided to get a little crazy and wake them up to stuff our faces with pizza 1/2 hour before they closed. At 10:00 Tucker and Sam (the Martin's little boy) were running on brownie fuel all over the arcade they had. I went to the restroom and came out to find Tucker crying pretty solidly in Rudy's arms. Rudy announced, "I think he's going to need stitches". "Oh Rudy," I thought to myself, "you're spending too much time in medical situations, I'm sure he's fine"...(apparantly he HAS been spending too much time in medical situations and KNEW what he was talking about! ;) He pulled the paper towel away and I think I saw his skull. Without missing a beat our sweet friend (who just so happens to be a Maxillofacial Surgeon), invited us over to his house where he'd "take care of it". And that he did! They let us come over to their house until after midnight while on one of his FEW precious days OFF work, he...worked. They set up a little 'hospital' with some Mickey Mouse Club to help distract while Tucker was numbed, cleaned, and stitched up beautifully! THANKS GUYS! I can't imagine having to go to the hospital until the wee hours of the morning just to have the on-call Dr. patch him up. He did a great job, Tucker was a great patient, and I think we'll always remember our first day at Kings Dominion! :)

Potty Training Woes

2009-05-01T14:21:00.002-04:00

Tucker sitting on potty: "Mom, not working, needs batteries."
Mom (stifling laughter): "Batteries?"
Tucker: "Yeah, penis broken, doesn't work right"

Needless to say...we're still not ready for big boy underwear! :)

Cooper saying his first word...? :)

2009-04-26T22:47:00.003-04:00

So Rudy got his birthday early this year from his parents (thanks Mom and Dad Wolf!) We've been wanting to get a video camera for a while and as observed from exhibit A above... we got one! :) It's the 'Flip' video camera and it's awesome and super-duper portable! (If the quality isn't great, it's blogger, not the video camera ;) We're having way too much fun with it, and you will all have to pay as we'll be uploading lots more videos to our blog cause it makes it waaay too easy!!
Here's a bit of Tucker and Cooper randomness for you to enjoy! Do you think I can officially call that his 'first word'? ;)

Happy Easter!

2009-04-14T13:48:00.005-04:00

I love Easter...and not just because of the Starburst Jellybeans and Cadbury Mini Eggs...although that is a BIG part of it! :) I love everything the holiday denotes-- the Savior's resurrection and His incredible example--the life He lived and the death He overcame; spring and the rebirth of the world, family, bunnies and chicks and all sorts of cute fuzzy things, really yummy candy, egg hunts and egg rolling contests (which I have come to find most people don't know about those...so sad!)

It was a great Easter...after we finished singing a duet in Sacrament Meeting ;) Rudy was asked to sing and he roped me along with him. Rudy's a great solo singer, however, I'm just a chorus girl. There are not many things that make me feel uncomfortable, and THAT is one of them. But I think the Spirit of the song came across, and that's all we were praying for. Church was great, then we came home and had naps, a bit of an Easter egg hunt, then off to the Tetterton's for a great dinner and some games. Besides really missing family, it was a beautiful day!

Our playgroup had a big Easter egg hunt party on Thursday...look at 'em all waiting so patiently!
That's the face of someone who genetically inherited an intense love of candy! :)

And what's a better end to a day then wrestling with daddy? Ahhh, boys...

And a thank you to the wonderful kids (and their moms!) who kept us company while Rudy was away this past weekend at his first externship. We had a lot of fun and so did he! He's excited to do more externships to continue to get a feel of how 'real world' dentistry is...without all the red tape of dental school. A few more weeks and we're down to our last year! Woo hoo!

My 9 month old just won his first award!!

2009-03-30T14:35:00.003-04:00

There's nothing more disgusting than discovering your child eating their own poop.... unless you find them eating SOMEONE ELSE'S POOP! Congrats Cooper! You just got the MOST DISGUSTING award! You beat out last years winner... the "what are you chewing on? oh, just a used band-aid I found on the playground" award, won by Tucker.

I changed Tucker's poopy diaper, wrapped it up good, then chased after him to have him finish getting his clothes on. When I came back down the hall-about halfway-there was an extremely unpleasant aroma, followed by the horrendous site of my 9 month old with brown goopy hands, feet, and MOUTH.
UUUUUUGGGGHHHHHH.....
my gag reflex and bottle of sanitizer sure got their exercise today!

I apologize that there aren't any pictures...wait, no I don't.

Happenings

2009-03-24T13:43:00.004-04:00

No, not the coupon book. Just a quick, random update of the happenings of the past couple weeks.

Thanks to the Davidson's for a killer train track! Tucker has sooo much fun with it!

Movie party! (Jack and Laurie and Kylea, some of Tucker's favorite buds)

We got to hang out with Laurie and Jack while their mommy had a cute baby boy! Congrats Drea and family!
We got to go to a cultural arts with the Rucker's and Rudy got to be the 'assistant' to a juggler....I think he second-guessed his eagerness to be up on stage!
Tucker wanted his hair painted....pink.
Nice pink hair, eh? Tucker and Kylea playing with clay and paint...could it get any better?
Cooper empty handed but still havin fun! :)
Nice mask Tuck! It was a fun filled day at the cultural arts center!

Cooper makes a great canvas for Tucker's artwork!
Yay for bath time! Love my boys!

Tacky Anyone?

2009-03-09T22:12:00.003-04:00

So this is our first date in a while...apparently we need to get out more!

Our ward had a 'Tacky Party' this past Saturday...let's just say we won the prize for tackiest couple!! What's really frightening is how easy it was to pull together this look!!
Musical Chairs....
now that's a classic! :)
We all brought tacky food. Our's was PB&J for dinner and PB and chocolate chips for dessert. There was also Salisbury Steak in the microwave package, leftover fried chicken, jello in a year 2000 mold, cereal and milk, and ramen noodles. mmm mmm good!
The events of the evening included musical chairs, dodgeball, the electric slide, Pictionary, and pin the tail on the donkey... Good Times!

I LOVE SNOW DAYS!!

2009-03-02T22:38:00.005-05:00

YAY! For the first time since we've moved to Virginia (three years ago), we got SNOW! I mean, we've had a little here and a little there, but nothing that ever really stuck or gave us the infamous 'snow days' we had heard so much about-- how Virginia pretty much shuts down if it snows because they don't have plows, etc. Well, we got a snow day!! And we even got a REAL snow...about a foot! It started Sunday night when we were supposed to go to a marriage fireside from 7-9 and Tucker was going to go to a 'movie party' with his friends. Well, we made it out two blocks and found out why the state closes down when it snows! It was impossible and we were swirving all over. We decided to head back home. Tucker was pretty bummed so we decided to have our own movie party. We got popcorn, cocoa and had a blast!

The fun continued today as Rudy stayed home and we played in the snow, drank more cocoa and enjoyed time together 'stuck' inside. Sadly, Rudy's got to go back tomorrow, but it was great fun to make some memories today! I love my family!! :)

In mid-'angel fall'
Rudy says my snow men weird him out... guess he doesn't appreciate real art! ;)

Happy Valentines!

2009-02-14T19:27:00.004-05:00

We had some fun activities to celebrate the day...or weekend...of looove! Thursday was our Valentine's playgroup for the kiddos where they got to make Valentines bags, cupcakes...and a big mess! :)

Rudy and I got to go to the dental school's version of 'prom' last night. It was a fun excuse to dress up. We got to eat lots of good food, gamble at their fake casino with fake money (I'm surprisingly good at blackjack! ;), and dance the rest of the night away (while we made our poor babysitter stay up way too late! Sorry Jenni! :)

Then today (Valentines) I got to play a women's church bball game in the morning, which was soo fun because both teams were really good...I almost felt like I was back in high school playing. It was really fun to have hubby and kiddos cheering us on. And hey, we won! :) Look ma! I made a shot! :)

We've been lucky enough to have great weather so we were able to go outside and play with the kiddos after the game, have a nummy at-home dinner, and now we're off to cuddle up to a cheesy romance. Here's a little love out to you all! Thanks for being a part of our lives! and Happy Valentine's Day!

My Daddy's a Dentist!!

2009-02-04T14:14:00.004-05:00

Tucker recently got to go to the dentist for the first time...which, in this case, was going to see Daddy! He was a stellar patient (guess the fear factor is suppressed a little when it's your dad). And look Ma! No cavities! :)

He pretty much just kept his mouth open the entire time, whether Rudy was working on it or not.
Listening intently to daddy/doctor's instructions on how to take care of his teeth.

What a great dentist... AND daddy! :)Some random pics of cute boys... this is one of Tucker's favorite hang out spots. After a long day, it's nice to have some quiet time alone...in the dryer.
He's ready for his GQ.

Anyone need their carpets cleaned??

2009-02-02T14:51:00.004-05:00

Cleaning Services:
Novice carpet cleaner looking for jobs in the area. Recently fired from cleaning job when owner said I made it TOO clean! (can you believe that?) She didn't appreciate the hard work it was to pour ALL 20 oz of Johnson's Baby Bath into the carpet and rub it all in. She even fired me halfway through the job before I got to add in the lotion. She apparently didn't like my methods, and proceeded to pull buckets of foam from of the carpet for the next 3 hours! All I have to say is, BOY am I good!! You've never SEEN a CLEANER PATCH OF CARPET!! Will work for cookies, dum-dums, or Lightning McQueen cars. Please feel free to take a look at my work and my profile below.
Step 1 to my unique cleaning system: Empty 90% of the bottle onto relatively concentrated area then throw the rest around the room. (hitting furniture and walls is an added bonus.)

Just LOOK at my great rubbing method to make sure ALL of that gooey soap gets DEEP into the carpet fibers!After emptying bucket of foam #17. My, look how those suds just stay around!

Here's my profile photo...Need I say more?

Call today and ask for Tucker!

Anyone want a home?

2009-01-26T21:31:00.003-05:00

So we're selling our home! Ok...so we're putting it up on the market to see what happens. We're thinking about staying in VA a couple of years after Rudy graduates as he's got some possible job opportunities. We're looking at a possibility of selling this home and getting into a foreclosure or something under market value that would be a good investment opportunity (as well as more room for our family that will most likely be growing in the next few years). So we decided...eh...what the hay, why not? We're giving it the good ol' college try at selling it ourselves. If nothing else comes from this it's been a good learning opportunity and will make us that much more ready when we really HAVE to sell it! ;)
But hey! If you know of anyone who needs a good starter home in VA, let 'em know!
Here's a site we created about the home for interested buyers...
richmondhome.blogspot.com

And a Happy New Year!

2009-01-08T22:01:00.007-05:00

I pre-warn and pre-apologize for these last two posts as there are lots-o-pictures. Truth is, I cut out about 40 that I wanted to put in. I think I'll probably do a slideshow for those of you who really want to procrastinate whatever else you should be doing! :) There was just TOO MUCH FUN and too many fun things with too many cute people to not do so many pictures!

After a wonderful two weeks in San Diego we headed off to Bountiful to celebrate a little belated Christmas and to bring in the New Year. It was fun to watch Tucker jump right in with the rest of his cousins and wreak havoc on Nana and Papa's house! ;)
We enjoyed a family parties, games, food, and lots o football! (for those who don't know my mom... well... let's just say I learned all I know about football from my mom! (sorry dad ;)
Tucker enjoyed his 'first' time in the snow, as far as he could remember and I have to say, Rudy did a great job of dressing him for the occasion (see picture below).
I got to visit with a few of my friends from high school, which was really fun. It's so great to have friends that you can just pick up right where you left off!
It was so fun to see the whole family and hear Tucker call for his cousins and Nana and Papa and Oma and Opa and have the families finally meet Cooper. Tucker's still asking for his Opa to fix his truck and Papa to fix the doorknob...that's another story.
WE LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU ALL VERY VERY MUCH! Thanks for making our Christmas break so wonderful (and so hard to come back to real life! :)

p.s. Blogger and I are not friends right now...it's not letting me move my photos, so I apologize on Blogger's behalf if you cannot see some of them!

Such good friends already!

A work in progress :)

Yay for Tucker's great facial expressions!

Just hangin' out

Yay for good friends!

Lots of cute boys in stripes!!

The aforementioned 'snow suit' Rudy made for Tucker

Yay for games!

No Nana's were seriously hurt in the making of this photo

All the cousins sitting down for some good grub!

This was part of Tucker 'wreaking havoc' with packing peanuts...those were all completely stuck to Tucker's hair from all the static...it took some serious coaxing to get them off!

Merry Christmas!

2009-01-06T20:09:00.007-05:00

What a fun whirlwind the past three weeks have been! (ok, more like the past month and a half...but we're just going to talk about vacation here.) We started off going to San Diego on the 13th until the 27th to party with Rudy's parents and had lots of fun doing a lot of stuff! We had a wonderful, beautiful Christmas with Oma and Opa spoiling and giving us way more than our luggage could hold! (Thanks guys! ;) We ate wonderful food (which we're now trying to work off, went to the Children's Museum), the Wild Animal Park (thanks to Rudy's brother Adam), had fun at the traditional 'Bunko Party', played way too much 'Rockband' :) (or according to Rudy, not enough!) So much fun!

We were able to go to the San Diego Children's Museum with Oma and Opa. Tucker wasn't the only one who had a great time!

Christmas Eve, Rudy and I took Tucker (Oma and Opa watched Cooper...thanks!) and we went to the Wild Animal Park thanks to Tickets that Rudy's brother gave us. It was so much fun, there were beautiful animals and NO ONE was there! It was like we had the park all to ourselves!
We went to the bird show at the park. At the beginning of the show, the woman in charge said, "if you feel like you need to duck...just DUCK!" Well, in case you were wondering, when looking through a viewfinder of a camera 'items in view are LARGER and CLOSER than they appear.' This gargantuan crane was swooping from one side of the arena to the next, getting ever so close. I thought, 'wow, what a great photo this would make!' I pulled out my trusty camera and waited for the large bird to fly once again in my direction.
Exhibit A (above photo) "Wow that crane seems awfully close to the camera!" I think to myself, .02 seconds before...WHACK!! "I think I just got whacked by a very large bird!" I pull the camera away to find feather remnants stuck in the lens... I, indeed, got struck by a crane (and still have the remnants to prove it!)
Tucker had a blast at the petting corral.
Hello? Deery? Why aren't you playing?? (can anyone hear Darla's voice from finding Nemo right now?) Poor Deer!
Normal day hangin' out with the gorillas!
Ahh...the wonderment in a child's face...few things so sweet!

Christmas Day was wonderful! We had so much fun eating and playing and being together.

Fun surprises

Baby's 1st Christmas
Opa and Oma think they're funny and got a really fun LOUD NOISE-MAKER TOY....thanks guys! ;)
CARS!!Boys never grow up! ;)Rudy and Adam commandeering Tuckers race track for some good old fashioned brother duels

Some of the YUMMY food!

It was so fun to see Tucker really get into Christmas this year...amazing how kids bring such a pure joy into Christmas!

Thanks Opa!

More pics to come on this post....as soon as our computer decides it wants to let us open up our flash drives on it. oye.

Merry Christmas Card

2008-12-22T23:58:00.001-05:00

Make a Smilebox greeting

Kids these days!

2008-10-27T14:12:00.006-04:00

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

2008-10-20T13:18:00.005-04:00

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

2008-10-09T13:15:00.004-04:00

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

2008-10-05T11:10:00.003-04:00

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

2008-09-27T10:04:00.002-04:00

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

DOO DOO WEEEE!

2008-09-18T12:54:00.003-04:00

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!

2008-09-04T21:06:00.003-04:00

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

2008-08-19T08:54:00.005-04:00

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

2008-08-12T15:18:00.001-04:00

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities

Mini Cooper and Tucker Sedan

2008-08-06T14:24:00.009-04:00

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

2008-08-04T15:27:00.004-04:00

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

Crazy fun times with Mom and Dad Gardner

2008-07-25T15:02:00.007-04:00

Ok, so this is going to be more of a picture journal entry for my own benefit so I can remember all of the fun things we did while my parents were here. Feel free to take a peek into my journal if you're so interested :)
Ron and Wendy came on the 9th of July and stayed until the 22nd. There was no wasted time. We saw everything we hadn't seen in Virginia as well as revisiting some Virginia essentials with them. Besides having tons of fun 'doing' stuff, we had tons of fun having them get to know Cooper and see our Virginia life. We miss you already!!
One thing that was so great was to have them here for Cooper's blessing! It was the first grandchild in 4 years that my dad has been able to be in the circle for! (he missed 4 while he was gone!) Cooper's donning Rudy's old Christening outfit, thanks to Rudy's mom for keeping it and letting us use it.
Rudy and Dad 'man bonding' putting together a backyard toy for Tucker that Rudy's been wanting for a while.The essence of our sightseeing trip...all looking at maps, trying to decide what to hit next...yet all still a little lost. :)
This was our first excursion-to Jamestown.Here's the wild animal Tucker in his natural habitat...look at him as he sneaks up on his goose prey.
We are officially in the record books for our one-day tour of Jamestown, Williamsburg, Yorktown, Yankee Candle Co, AND Pierce's BBQ and made it home to put Tucker down before it got dark! WHEW!! THAT was a full day!Papa walking with Tucker around our beautiful Maymont Park. We got to see the Maymont Mansion and take a tour of all the beautiful stuff owned by the Dooley family.
Such a fun connection! Sandi Poulson, my mom's best friend in high school, lives 5 minutes away from us. Wendy and Sandi got to reunite and we got a tour from the woman who's lived here for many years and knew all the 'backroads'.
Sandi took us on a Canal Boat Tour showing us the extensive canal system George Washington set up. Tucker loved it because it ran next to an old railroad and he got to see a real CHOO CHOO! What a handsome daddy waiting for a canal ride! :)

Sandi also showed us where she worked- a non-profit organization for religious freedom. There was a wall of religions that were persecuted through the ages, the far end picture is Dallin H. Oaks, representing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

We went to Charlottesville on our last full day, starting with an old style colonial meal at Michie's Tavern...YUM.
Then moving onto James Monroe's house...which we didn't get to see because they charged lots o money just to even see the outside of the house. So then we hit an old shopping area then off to Monticello to see Jefferson's house. He had a great view!
Look! It's the back of a nickel! Fun to be where Jefferson lived.
Cute Nana doing her favorite thing while in Richmond...holding cute Cooper.
Good times hanging out and playing games filled in the rest of the vacation.

Random picture of CUTE BABY FEET! I have a thing for baby feet.
Random picture of CUTE COOPER! I have a thing for Cooper. :)
Random picture of CUTE WOLF BOYS! I have a thing for my wolf boys! :)

Cooper John Wolf

2008-07-01T09:56:00.004-04:00

He's finally here!! :) We welcomed this little bundle of joy to earth on June 26th, 2008 at 7:01 PM. It was an incredible birthing experience and he's as healthy and wonderful as can be!
If you don't want the journal entry birthing story, skip on down to the pics. :)
On Wednesday, the 25th, I went in to get an ultrasound to see how he was doing and how big he was getting. I figured he was big like Tucker and, seeing the results of the size of the baby the OB would definitely want to induce me. I wanted so bad to go into labor naturally- my prayer was to be able to do that if it was possible. I was told in the ultrasound that I was measuring about 38 weeks and he was 7-8 lbs!! I didn't expect that at all and it took so much pressure off knowing I could wait until 42 weeks to do anything because size wasn't a factor. The doctor still wanted to induce me the following Monday but then he informed me that he'd be gone all that week so it didn't really matter to him if I waited a few more days. So not only now did I not have the size pressure, but my worries I've had with this doctor weren't going to be an issue because he wasn't even going to be around! I went home feeling pure peace for the first time in a long time. Rudy says that's what did it. He thinks I have a lot of control over my body when I'm stressed (like when I got Lasik a week before our wedding and it didn't work...or so I thought, until the day after the wedding on our honeymoon when the stresses were over, I woke up and could see perfectly). And truly that could have been it. I was finally able to relax about the whole thing and feel like I had 'time' and could just wait it out. So I woke up the next morning at 5 with some decent contractions. I didn't think anything of it since I'd been having decent contractions on and off for the past MONTH, until I went to the restroom and saw some blood. The contractions continued, but didn't intensify too much so I told Rudy to go to school and I went about my day, going to playgroup, errands, and work. After work, at about 3, they started coming more and more consistent and strong. I called Rudy around 4 to see when he was coming home and he said he had just finished up his patient and was leaving right then. So I started packing some stuff and by the time he got home I was perty dern sure I was in labor. I told him we should probably get things together. We took our time and by 5:30 were ready to go...and I was feeling ready to go. We dropped Tucker off at the Davidsons (THANK YOU GUYS!!) and got to the hospital around 6. I was definitely feeling the contractions at this point and having to concentrate and breathe through them. We got in to register and started filling out paperwork as I leaned onto the back of the chair and tried to find my 'happy place' :) About 10 minutes into it the woman helping us looked at me and said, "I can tell your a trooper, but you need to go upstairs now, we'll finish this later". So we shuffled on upstairs and walked in to Labor and Delivery where a few doctors were at the front desk, saw me and said, "what do you think guys? she in labor? guess you can come right in!" joking around with me as I could barely walk directly into one of the rooms to get changed. Getting dressed into that gown was an experience! I didn't think I'd make it. After some serious struggling and deep breathing I made it into that beautiful gown and onto the bed. So whoever says to 'relax' through contractions obviously never made it to transition labor! How are you supposed to relax when your whole body is writhing in the most intense pain it's ever felt?? Well, more power to those who can. As soon as I layed down the contractions I thought couldn't get worse...got worse. The wonderful nurse was trying to get paperwork and questions out of the way. I looked at her and asked if she'd check me before going into my second great aunt's medical history. She did and her eyes got wide. I was at a nine and going fast. All of a sudden the room kicked into hyperdrive as they got everything ready for a baby and tried paging the doctor. Rudy was just shaking his head feeling sorry for the whole staff thinking they were making a big fuss about nothing because I was at a 10 for over 4 hours last time! The nurse told me to tell her if i felt like I had to push and "don't worry, this wouldn't be my first baby I've had to deliver!" Right as she said that my water broke. A few ridiculously painful contractions later I felt like I had to push. Just as I was about to start the doctor walked in. He checked me, said we're good to go anytime you want to start pushing! I pushed once just to try it out and see how it felt...SOO much better than pushing for hours when you don't feel the urge! I asked after that contraction where his head was. He said a -1 station (still a ways back in the pelvis). At that point everything came together and I just knew how I needed to push to get this baby out. It was an incredible experience and really brought to life a blessing Rudy had given me a couple of weeks earlier that talked about listening to my body and knowing what to do. The very next push I went from a -1 station to crowning. I asked if I needed to slow it down and he said, 'lets just see what happens'...I took that as, 'go ahead, get the baby out'. So one more contraction, one more push and...VOILA! A baby! :) From the time I got into the room to the time I had a baby in my arms was about 45 minutes. It was such an incredible, amazing, inspiring experience! I got to hold him and nurse him and Rudy got to cut the cord (unlike the hecticness of Tucker's birth). Besides the mind-numbing pain, I'm a HUGE fan of going natural! :) I did tear some, so while I held Cooper, Rudy and Doc had a nice bonding experience while he stitched me up. As Rudy puts it, "although the word 'vagina' and 'gingiva' may SOUND similar, as far as suturing, they're quite different!" (Insert smiley face rolling his eyes here). Ahh Rudy, I love you! He really was very supportive and I couldn't have done it without his words of encouragement. After it was all over, he said, "That was great! and SO easy! Let's do that again with the next one! I'm ok with have a lots more kids now!" :) Although I don't know if I want to talk about having another JUST yet, it was a wonderful, beautiful experience and I'm so grateful to Heavenly Father for answering our prayers in such a miraculous way and giving me a chance to be a part of something so amazing!!
We love our little boys so much and are so grateful for them! Welcome to the world Cooper!! We love you!

7 lbs 12 oz, 20 inches long. He has similarities to Tucker, but also definitely his own look.
Cooper and his parents about 30 minutes after delivery.

What a great dad!!!

Our celebratory dinner with steak, cheesecake, and sparkling cider.

What a good big brother you're going to be Tuck!

He's already found his thumb!