Anyone want a home?

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!

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!

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

Make a Smilebox greeting

Kids these days!

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

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

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

October Adventures

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

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