Merry Christmas from the Family

This year we stayed in Texas for Christmas. Our first family Christmas started on Saturday, Dec 21 at Carol's house. It was great to see all of dad's side of the family and Tucker loves hanging out with Marlowe and Erika. Somehow, I didn't get any pictures of us being at Carol's house, but it was nice to be there.

Our second Chrismas celebration was on Tuesday, Dec. 23. My aunt and uncle have a steak house that is closed on Tuesdays, so we had our celebration there. We have about 30 people on mom's side of the family and about half of that are the great-grandkids, so it is nice to be in a place that we can all stretch out...The open bar was nice too! John ended up being the bartender most of the night and he seemed to like that little gig! I don't know if Harold and Sandra will keep up the tradition of letting us have the run of the steakhouse, but it was certainly good while it lasted! We tried to get a picture on the stairs of Grandmama and all of her great-grandkids. I think that we have them all except for Eleanor, but photoshop can solve that problem. :0)

We had a traditional turkey and dressing meal along with our tamales that we made the night before. Yummy!

Our third Christmas celebration was smaller with only Dad, mom, Tucker, Grandmama, John and me on Christmas eve. Dad cooked a beef tenderloin. While dad was cooking Tucker designated him as the "Fry Cook". It was another fabulous meal and I am pretty sure that I am packing on the pounds at this point. Tucker finally got to open his presents from Peaches and Papaw (He had been begging to open presents since we arrived on Saturday!) He received lots of clothes, Spongebob legos, and Star Wars for the Wii with light sabers. We had to immediately set up the light sabers and playing the Dueling Light Saber game. Very fun!

Since it was Christmas Eve, it was time to say goodbye to Peaches and Papaw so that we could get home and get ready for Santa to arrive and give my parents a break.

Once we got home, we opened our own presents to each other and then we got ready for bed so that Santa would come and see us.

One Christmas day, Tucker came into my room upset that Santa hadn't come. (I think that his little heart must have skipped a beat.) He thought that Santa would leave his presents under the Christmas tree. However, I explained that Santa usually leaves his presents by the fireplace (which is in a different room in our house), so Tucker hurried down to check out the family room. His little eyes just lit up as he took it all in. I think that he was also a bit relieved that Santa actually did bring gifts this year! It was so much fun watching him flitter from one gift to the next and hearing him ooh and ahh over his new toys. I thought that it was funny to see him playing his Guitar Hero instruments in his underware like on the commercials, so I had to get a picture of that. :0)

I really don't think he knew where to start first! Merry Christmas Little man! Oh, and then he remembered that the Toothfairy was also suppose to visit, so he then had to check out his Toothfairy pillow. So much to do!

Our last family Christmas celebration ended at my brother's house with his family, my family, and mom & dad. We had a nice lunch and Tucker was able to play with Eleanor and Nick for the afternoon. Whew!

We then took mom with us so that she and I could get up the next day and the after Christmas sales. (Our family in Canada calls it "Boxing day.") Friends and family think that we are crazy, but we have a lot of fun seeing what bargains we can get. I think that we have been shopping the day after Christmas for about 15 years now! We were out the door by 5:00AM on Friday morning heading to the mall. We ended up not needing anything, but getting more Christmas decor and wrapping paper to use for next year. My stuff went directly from my trunk to the attic.

Well, our marathon celebrations are now over! Now it is time to get ready for the New Year.

So Merry Christmas to you and hope you are having a fabulous New Year!

Hot Tamales

Dad loves to make homemade authentic food. He has been known to make his own sausage, picante sauce and sauerkraut. For a few years now, we have been trying to figure out how to make tamales. We have made our own fair share of tamales, but we it is still a work in progress. Each year, we seem to learn something else that makes them even better. This year, we had some family over to the lake house to make more tamales. We had pork. Kyle and Amy brought over chicken. We then started the assembly line. Kyle and I put the masa on the cornhusk while Dad and Amy stuffed the tamale and rolled it up. Mom was in charge of the steaming. It is a long process to put everything together and I am begining to think that buying them would be the best, but it was fun to be with some of our family and work on this project together. I think that we finally finished with 12 dozen tamales completed. We did a few little taste tests, but we didn't get to really enjoy them until the next day when we got together for our Christmas party.

The North Pole Express Video

Here is the video of our train ride in Grapevine.

The North Pole Express

I am trying to catch up from all of our Christmas adventures. Here is a recap of our Dec. 20 train ride....

Every year, Peaches and Papaw take us to some kind of Christmas play, musical, usually at Casa Manana in Fort Worth. This year we decided to ride the North Pole Express train in Grapevine. Tucker's cousin, Eleanor, came along with us too. It is sort of a take on the book, "The Polar Express". We saw lots of kids and even some adults in their pajamas running around. They have a little "village" set up around the train depot where you can watch a blacksmith at work. He made a horseshoe with Tucker's name on it, which Tucker thought was really cool. We were able to talk with Santa and make an ornament inside his workshop/giftshop. Before we boarded the train, we sang Christmas carols with a few hundred of our closest friends. Once we finally boarded the train, the ticket guy came around and punched our tickets. We sang more Christmas carols on the train and then Santa showed up again! Eleanor and Tucker sat together on the train and loved every minute of it. Not sure what we are going to do next year, but we now have a year to figure it out. Check out the video above for pictures of our train ride!

Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy

What are the chances that Santa and the Tooth Fairy have to visit us on the same night? It is 100% at our house! Tucker pulled his second tooth this evening while watching TV. So, we will be getting 2 sneaky visitors tonight while we are sleeping. Yikes! Tucker says that it is ok because Santa is in charge of the Tooth Fairy anyway and that she may be tagging along to speed up Santa's big job of spreading toys to all of the families. We are now missing our two front BOTTOM teeth. I need to share the "All I want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth" song with Tucker now.
Hope you all are having a fabulous Christmas Eve!

Christmas Fun

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Baby, It's Cold Outside

From Dec 2008

We even thought Willy may need to bundle up for his walk since it was so cold last night. Little did we know that it was going to be COLD and drizzle a little bit overnight. I was surprised (and a little bit excited) to get a phone call from work at 5:30 am to let me know that school was going to be delayed for 2 hours. Woohoo! So I settled back into bed to watch TV and read for the next hour or so. At 6:30 am, I then get another phone call explaining that school was now CLOSED. What the heck happened? Now, I am concerned. I don't mind coming in late, but I didn't want to waste a bad-weather day this close to our Christmas break! What in the world I am going to do with Tucker all day long?
Well, we have been trying to stay busy and keep from driving each other crazy. I did some laundry and cleaned the house a little bit. I then got into a cooking mood and decided to make peanut brittle. I have already made 2 batches, but the third time was notta good. This is microwave peanut brittle and evidently a hot glass bowl full of peanut brittle batter and cold granite counter tops DO NOT work together. As soon as I took the glass bowl out of the microwave and set it on the countertop, I heard a "crack". The bowl cracked all the way around about half-way up the bowl. At this point, foaming brittle is leaking out. (I thought about getting a picture, but had my hands full at this time.) I grab the top of the bowl, but since it is broken, the bottom half with the brittle stays. I yell for Tucker to get the trash can and we slide it all into the trash. Oops, plastic trash can with plastic garbage bag inside! I guess you figure what is happening now. Yep, piping how brittle batter is now melting the trash bag and getting all over the trash can. What a mess!
About 3o minutes later, the mess is cleaned up and I am determined to "get back on the horse again." I start making batch #4 of peanut brittle. This time with a hand-towel covering the granite so I can put the bowl on a warm spot. Everthing turned out the 4th time and I am now enjoying a little bit of peanut brittle as I type.
Tucker has been busy helping me and creating new messes for me to clean. Finally this afternoon he settled down to watch a little bit of TV. This is the most quiet the house has been all day... Just don't let those closed eyes fool you; he isn't really asleep. It isn't often that I can get both boys in the picture at the same time. :0) Just a couple of more hours and John will be home. Whew, it has been a long day!

From Dec 2008

Christmas Cookies

My favorite part of the Christmas season is cooking all of the goodies. Making fudge, decorating cookies, eating it all! When I married John, I found out that his mother has a tradition of making and decorating German shortbread cookies and no-cook chocolate balls. They are so pretty and yummy! Heide's cookies are truly a tradition that I look forward to. Once she shared the recipes with me, I turned it into a tradition of my own to make with Tucker. So, this year we spent Sunday afternoon baking and decorating the shortbread cookies. Once I made the dough, Tucker helped me roll out the dough and use the cookie cutters. He quickly got tired of that and just decided that he would do the decorating once the cookies were removed from the oven and had cooled off. Once we were ready to decorate the cookies, I made a little spread at the table with red, white and green sugar sprinkles, chocolate chips, and different colored frostings. This is Tucker's favorite part. He used a paintbrush to "paint" the frosting on the cookies and then heaviled sprinkled the cookies. His cookies were as beautiful as ever and even yummier in our bellies. I love our cookie traditions!

That's Disgusting

Today is John's birthday. Tucker and I woke him up this morning with "Happy Birthday" hug from Tucker and a kiss from me. I guess Tucker didn't really like me kissing John because once we started walking downstairs, he gave me a little nudge and started whispering to me. "Mama, did you just kiss daddy?" I replied that I did. He gave another strange look then whispered, "on the lips?" Once again, I replied that I did. Tucker then said, "Just because it was his birthday, right?" Once again I nodded. Thinking that the conversation was over, Tucker then exclaims, "That's disgusting!"

First one

Tucker has had a wiggly bottom tooth since Thanksgiving. Evidently, today was the day for it to come out (or get pulled out). He said that he was playing during recess at school and the tooth/gum started bleeding. His teacher sent him to the school nurse where she assisted him in pulling out the tooth. They put it in a small container so that he could get the tooth home to get ready for the tooth fairy, but somehow the tooth is now missing. Are you surprised? So, he pulled his first tooth and lost it all in the same day. He was so excited to tell me about his day when I picked him up after school. I was excited with him...a little sad that he didn't pull his tooth at home with me, but a little thankful at the same time. I am not sure how I would handle the whole tooth pulling ordeal! Looks like he has another tooth starting to get wiggly, so we may have tooth number 2 coming out soon. Now we have to write a note to the tooth fairy to explain the missing tooth. What is the going rate for a tooth from the Tooth Fairy these days?

Gingerbread Man Pictures

Gingerbread Man

Tucker and I carried on our tradition of making a gingerbread house this afternoon. It is a full day project because you have to put it together in sections then let the icing dry. It is hard for Tucker to have the patience to work on the house, but he manages by eating the candy and frosting as we work. He picks out the house that we are going to make and then we do our best to copy the picture. Tucker is a pro at decorating the house with the tiny bits of candy and gumdrops. He likes to make patterns with the colors as he puts the candy on the house. I am not allowed to work with the candy, I am strictly the frosting person and the rest is up to the little man. Now that the house is complete, Tucker has informed me that it needs people. I guess we now have a plan to make gingerbreak men tomorrow night.

The slideshow above were taken while we were creating our masterpiece.

Getting in the Christmas Spirit

Now that the house is back in order, Tucker and I decided to "deck the halls". He and I put up our stockings and Christmas tree with all of our favorite ornaments. Tucker loves to look at each one and remember a story behind it. He actually has several ornaments that are his favorites and puts them front and center on tree. I love looking at the ornaments that he has made during his years of daycare and preschool. To me, they are the most beautiful of the bunch! I hope he never outgrows decorating the Christmas tree with me, at least not any time soon!

Happy Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving because it is a time when our family gets together and just eats. We don't have to worry about the stress of giving presents or anything like that. We get to just enjoy being together and catching up. We had a trio of Thanksgivings starting last Saturday. My dad's sister, Barbara, hosted the Tucker family Thanksgiving. Mom, Dad, Tucker, John, and I joined Dad's sisters and their families. Tucker loves visiting with them because he loves being with his two cousins, Marlowe and Erika.

Thanksgiving number 2 was in my hometown with my mom's side of the family. My aunt and uncle have opened a restaurant, so they had Thanksgiving at "Times Forgotten" restaurant. Tucker was there with mom and dad, but John and I had to stay behind because carpet installers were coming the next morning. I was very sad to miss the family get-together, but I will see them soon in December. Tucker enjoyed playing with all of his cousins and he loves seeing our extended families. I am so grateful that he values and enjoys being with all of his family as much as I do.

Thanksgiving #3 was with mom, dad, Tucker, and my grandmama. We had the traditional Turkey and cornbread dressing that I love more than anything. We also had mashed potatoes, hot rolls, and black-eyed peas. Then we polished the meal off with my favorite, apple pie. We had a great time visiting our family and filling our bellies! Now its time to shop and get ready for Christmas!

Thanks Willy

As most of you know, Willy the dog, and I have a love/hate relationship. I need to formally thank Willy, though, because he was the catalyst for me getting a new kitchen and replacing the flooring in every corner of my house. It was needed before Willy came along, but let's just say that he pushed us to move a little faster. Luckily, it wasn't because he wanted to use the floor as a potty, but because he dug holes in the carpet upstairs. I can't find the "before" pictures, but I promise that it wasn't too pretty. The kitchen backsplash was white tile with maroon (yes, Aggie maroon) tiles mixed in. We also had white laminate countertops and laminate Pergo flooring. So, I said goodbye to the 90's look and welcomed a more modern kitchen. Here is a picture of our new granite countertops and tumbled-tile backsplash. I also painted the cabinets dark brown. I love the new look and actually enjoying just being in the kitchen and cooking!

I'm Behind

A lot has happend since the last time I had an entry in this blog. I need to catch up and plan on doing just that once Thanksgiving is over. I can't seem to get my camera and computer together at the same time, so I just gave up for a while. I promise that I will get it together and start telling more stories on Tucker this weekend.

Not much to tell about the boy right now, he is with Peaches and Papa for the Thanksgiving break. I haven't been with him since Sunday, but we will reunite tomorrow. I am excited, but he would prefer more time alone with my parents. I love my parents to death, but I keep telling Tucker that they are not that fun when you live with them for a long time. Tucker thinks that I am a liar when I say these things.

Its Catchy

Whatever Tucker had on Halloween, he shared with the rest of us! Mom took Tucker home with her after Halloween night. He didn't want her to leave, so she just took him with her. That was fine with me because we are having new countertops put in on Monday, so I welcomed the offer of taking Tucker so that I could clean out the kitchen cabinets and clean off the countertops. I picked up Tucker from mom and dad on Sunday. It wasn't more than 2 hours later, they were both down for the count. It's pretty sad when you are both so sick that you can't take care of each other. Mom said that it was every man for himself. Multiple bathrooms were a necessity!

So I felt bad that they were both sick, but I was so glad that I missed it. Boy, did I get that wrong. One week later, I am puking my guts out! Whatever this bug is, it only lasts 24 hours, but boy it is a LONG 24 hours! I still didn't feel good for several days later, but I least I was able to keep my cookies down. We had a rough week or so in our family, but we have recoverd. I don't know how he did it, but somehow John missed out on the fun!

Happy Halloween

Today is Halloween and my poor little man is sick! He spent the night throwing up and finally stopped about 9:00 this morning. Needless to say, we are both a little bit tired. I know that he doesn't feel well because he spent the day on the couch. This, my friends, is only the second time that I can remember him just sitting and not wanting to do anything. That is one sick boy. However, he is also determinded to go Trick-or-Treating tonight and have my mother come with us.

Tucker started out just sitting outside and passing out candy, but then wanted to go to a couple of houses himself. We also have a neighbor that creates a 'haunted house' in their garage, so Tucker really wanted to test it out. He and John have been watching them build the haunted house on their nightly walks with Willy, so Tucker was excited to see what it was really like.

We ended up cutting our night a little short since Tucker still didn't feel well, but not before mom dressed up like a clown to join Tucker in the festivities. Peaches is always ready for a good time!

Weird things - I have been tagged

My friend Buffy tagged me to write 6 quirky things about me. I don't have my own blog so I am using Tucker's. So, here it goes....

1. I do not like my food to touch, in fact, I love cafeteria trays because of the dividers!
2. I obsess over keeping my desk clean at work. It must be neat and tidy before I go home and I wipe it down with Clorex wet wipeys everyday, too.
3. When I eat plain M&M's, they have to be grouped by color and lined up from smallest number of a color to largest number of a color, much like a graph....So pretty!
4. I check my favorite blogs and email every night before I go to bed.
5. When I eat, I have to finish one food item before I can move on to another on my plate.
6. I am awake almost every night from 2:30 am-4:30 am then fall back asleep until 6:00 am.

Wow, as I am re-reading this, it sounds like I may need some help. :0)

Go Cowboys

On Oct 26, we took Tucker to the Dallas Cowboy game. I guess that it will be our last time to visit Texas Stadium to see the Cowboys. That kind of makes me sad! I really didn't want to go, but decided to make it a family outing anyway. I am glad that we all went together. The Cowboys actually won and I got to see the "real" Roy Williams get his first touchdown as a Dallas Cowboys. There were lots of "Hook'em Horns" proudly displayed when #11 made his touchdown.
Tucker seemed to really enjoy going to the game. He ate his way through 4 quarters. We had nachos, hot dogs, and coke to drink. He took the camera from me at one point, and filled the memory card with the DC Cheerleaders.

"F" words

Tonight I was helping Tucker with his homework. We had to locate in magazines or draw words that began with "F"and words that began with "L". Here is the finished product, but it took a little bit of brainstorming to get these pictures.
Instead of sacrificing my Star magazines to Edward Scissorhands, I decided to find a bunch of clip art pictures and put them in a publisher document and then let Tucker drag/drop them to the proper spaces. I figure that computer skills are just as important this day and age.
I thought that I would have Tucker give me some ideas for "f and l" pictures, so I asked him to give me something that starts with "f". (I should have known that it would go down hill from here) Without hesitating, he yelled out "FART" in such an excited voice. We seem to be all about body noises these days. Um, yes, Tucker, that is a word that starts with "f'", but I need to be able to find a picture of that, and well, it needs to be appropriate for school (although I did have to snicker a little quietly to myself). He reluctantly threw out frog, football, and fish instead. Yes, those are perfect and we can get a good pictures of them! You know, finding "f" words can be a little bit tricky...but I guess he could have said a whole lot worse! Notice that there is a Longhorn in the L section. I guess my brainwashing is working after all. :)

Oh my

On Saturday, I made sure that I did all of my errands/shopping early and cleaned up the house (more or less) so that I would be ready to sit in front of the TV to watch my Longhorns play football against Missouri at 7pm. Tucker played on the computer and played with his toys for most of the game. John and I sat on the couch while I cheered my team on. I tend to get excited during the game and yell and cheer at the TV like I was really there, which I think annoys Tucker a little bit. I am not competitive at all by the way. :0)

After the game was over, John and I were discussing how good the Longhorns have been playing and how excited I am that they are "officially" number 1 since we beat OU at the Cotton Bowl. I really didn't think that Tucker was listening, but as I was tucking him into bed (another late night!), he had a worried look on his face. I knew that he was thinking about something and had something to say. He went on to tell me that "The Texas Longhorns aren't always number 1 or the best like you think they are." I am sure that I had a stunned look on my face as he continued, "You know someday, there will be a team that is better and you will have to get ready for that." What!!?? Who is this child and what happened to Tucker? I guess I am going to have to go full speed ahead with the UT brainwashing. I guess making the child wear burnt orange everyday, praying for a Longhorn winning season every night, sleeping on a pillow covered with a UT pillowcase, and singing the "Eyes of Texas" while he brushes his teeth (you know....to make sure that he brushes a long time) isn't enough anymore. :0)

State Fair of Texas

This is the last weekend for the state fair in Dallas, so we decided to leave once we got off of work. Driving there at 5:00 PM meant that our usual trip to the fair (with traffic) took us ONLY an hour and a half to get there! We had to go so that we could have our fried food fix for the year. This year they had chicken fried bacon as the "new fried" feature. We didn't eat the bacon, but we did enjoy a smoked turkey leg, ketchup with tater twisters, and a chicken sandwich. The corny dogs looked really yummy, but we decided to try other things instead.

After eating "dinner" we visited the petting zoo. They had lots of animals to see and feed. We bought a huge cup of food, but I think that the animals had eaten already because they really were not too excited to see us. We also found the huge 1200 lb pig. That is always amazing to see how something can get so big!

John's mission was to find the fried Snickers bar. We walked around for a while on our own trying to find the candy bar, but Tucker grew tired of us quickly and took matters into his own hands. As we passed a small lemonade stand, Tucker just stopped and asked her where the fried Snickers were. Thanks to the boy, we found out that they were in the back of the food pavillion. It is a good thing that he asked, we would have never gone in there! We finally found the Snickers vendor and ordered the "yummy goodness". Here is a picture of Tucker getting the fried Snickers. They officially called it "Snickers on a Stick". Once we had it, we had to wait about 5 minutes before we could bite into it because it was so hot. Tucker could hardly wait. I wasn't sure about it and John was just excited that he bought the treat.

Tucker was the first to try it and he though that it was pretty good. John took the next bite and really didn't like it (but I don't think that he wanted to admit that it wasn't so good). I took a bite and just almost spit it out. That was really gross! Some things should just be left alone...I love a Snickers bar, but a Snickers with a donut wrapped around it was a bit too much. I had to get a picture of it as we were eating it, so here it is for your viewing pleasure. Doesn't look so good, does it?

While we were eating, we walked close to the Chevy Main Stage to hear Jessica Simpson sing a couple of songs. We really couldn't even remember any songs that she sang, but John was hoping that Tony Romo was hanging around. I tried to get a picture of her, too, but we were really too far away. Tucker had been waiting long enough and was sick of "the girl singing". He was ready to go ride the rides that we promised him. We rode the huge Texas Star ferris wheel, then let him ride whatever else he wanted on his own. We finally ended up home about 10:45 at night. Glad we only go once a year!

Field Day 2008

Tucker had a great time at his school's field day on Thursday. It did seem a little early in the year to have field day, but the weather was nice and cool! Our class rotated through different stations, such as:

1. Football toss
2. Basketball throw
3. Bubble fun
4. Pumpkin Roll Relay
5. Tennis ball on a string toss
6. Laundry Clothesline Relay
7. Hula Hoop Contest
8. Potato Sack Race
9. Belly Bumpers

There is really nothing like watching 19 kindergarteners experience an organize field day for the first time. They seemed to have the most fun at the bubble station. Wow, they were laughing and running around and it was hilarious watching them. You would have really thought that they had never played with bubbles before! Every game was even better than the one before. It was fun for me to watch Tucker interact with his classmates and see who are his friends. I was really glad that I was able to be there to cheer him on in Field Day!

Is your bucket full?

Last week, as we were driving home from school, Tucker told me that the counselor came to visit his class. I guess this made some kind impact on him, because he usually doesn't just volunteer school information. I am usually asking him all kinds of questions to get him to talk about the school day.

Tucker proceeded to tell me that we all have "buckets". He said that when you do good things like help a friend or tell someone that you like their shirt (his words I promise!), or hold a door open for a classmate, then you put stuff in your bucket. But when you say bad words or hurt someone's feelings then stuff comes out of your bucket. Now, I could be wrong, but I am guessing that landing on the yellow or blue lily pad would take stuff out of your bucket, but Tucker didn't seem to like my adding to the conversation! Tucker continued to tell me that your goal is to try to fill your bucket with goodness and keep it full.

This lesson seemed to really hit home with T. He has been talking about how to "fill your bucket" quite a bit and coming up with all kinds of examples of what fills and takes away from one's bucket. He even brought it up again today. It is so rewarding to see him learning and hearing the things that he retains from school. It is also nice to know that he is learning more that how to burp his ABC's at the lunch table. :0)

Camp Tucker

This weekend Tucker and John went camping in Broken Bow, Ok with John's hockey team. I went last year, but figured out really quickly, that I am not a camping kind of girl. Willy and I stayed home while the boys roughed it. They went fishing, canoeing, and played games with the other kids. They also sang songs by the campfire and went on a scavenger hunt. They stayed busy and I finally had a "goodnight" call from Tucker at about 10:00!

John returned Sunday night after taking Tucker to my mom and dad. His school has Monday off for parent conferences, so Peaches and Pawpa are going to take care of him at their house. Tucker was really looking forward to seeing mom and dad since we had not visited with them since his birthday. When I called to talk to him this afternoon, he was busy playing Legos and really didn't have much time to talk for me. It has only been 2 days, buy I miss my little man!

Seeing Stars

Tonight I had a conference sub-committee meeting I had to attend for work. John received some tickets from a friend to go to a "Skate with the Dallas Stars" event. So, the boys packed their ice skates and headed to the American Airlines Center for the this special event. They got to skate with a couple of the Dallas Stars, and the Dallas Star girls. They also took a tour of the facility and Tucker had is face painted. They had a lot of fun and Tucker came back excited and tired at the same time. Tucker said that this was the "best day of his life"...Hard to imagine why, right?

Happy Birthday Little Man

Six years ago today, Tucker came in to our lives. It has only been six years and yet I really don't remember what my life was like without him. What a blessing he has been to my family and me. Tucker is one of those people that you just gravitate to. He just has that personality that makes him stand out...even if it means getting yellows and blues in Kindergarten!

He is smart, stubborn, happy, loving, funny, and just remarkable. I tell him often that I am the luckiest mom in the world to have such a super little man. There are days when we have our moments of fighting, pouting, and just not really wanting to be around each other, but that all passes quickly. As I think about the six short years that have passed, I am amazed at the little boy that he has become and curious about the little man that he will be. When I asked him today what kind of job he wanted when he grew up, he told me that he wanted to go to ice cream college and be in charge of an ice cream store. (I think the fighter pilot job went out the window during the Mt. Everest ride at Disneyworld this year.)

As I put Tucker to bed tonight and kissed him for the last time as a 5-year old, he asked me, "mama, what will I look like tomorrow when I am 6?" We have had this conversation not so long ago, and he has it in his head that he will all of a sudden be taller and older. Boy, he will be disappointed in the morning when he wakes up! He also thought that his days of being a kindergartener was up and that he would start first grade when he turned 6. It is hard to explain to him that it will be next year before he is a first grader and that time just doesn't fly by. Although, now that I think about it...wasn't he just born yesterday?

Lego Day and Presents

Tucker didn't feel well this morning when we woke up, so we stayed home from work and school today. Maybe it was the busy, fun-filled weekend, but he convinced me that he didn't feel well enough to make it through the school day. Most of the morning he watched TV in bed or on the couch, but by the end of the day he seemed to be feeling much better. We spend most of the afternoon building his Lego Starwars village and ship. You don't be jealous, but at one point, Tucker proclaimed me to be the "Lego Master of the World". I guess playing with Legos with my brother when we were younger has finally paid off.

When John came home from work and asked how Tucker how he felt, Tucker replied that he was feeling much better and just needed to take a Lego day. WHAT? Evidently, he just needed an extra day off from school to play with his new Legos!

After dinner we celebrated Tucker's birthday again with cake a presents. He wanted a chocolate cake with strawberries for his birthday, so I just made it for him instead of buying one. It was basically a German Chocolate cake, but I decorated the side with chocolate butter cream. toTucker thought it needed a few extra decorations, so he added the strawberry to the top of the cake. I guess he also needed to taste the frosting, so he put a big hole in the side. Nice touch, T! He finally had had enough of us and and was ready to open presents. I think this is the only time that Tucker will pass up sweet stuff. He really didn't care much for the cake...he just wanted to open the presents! Tornado Tucker opened all of the gifts in about 5 seconds! I barely had time for pictures, but here are a few. I think that he was happy with most of the gifts, especially his new iPod Nano. I had it loaded with lots of Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus, and High School Musical songs. I also loaded Spongebob, Scooby Doo, and Jimmy Neutron tv shows. Happy Birthday, T!

More Birthday Fun

After Tanner left on Sunday, Tucker's grandparents came to see him for his birthday and to watch him play soccer. Orginally, we were going to meet them in Denton, but decided to meet at our house instead. They, of course, came bearing gifts of the toy kind. Tucker has been playing a lot with Legos lately. Peaches and Papaw gave him a Lego Star Wars set. The perfect gift for the birthday boy since he loves Legos and Star Wars!

Busy weekend - First sleepover

Tucker's birthday is coming up, so I asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday. He first wanted to have an ice skating party, but then he just decided that he wanted to have Tanner over to spend the night. Tanner is Tucker's second cousin and Tucker loves to see Tanner. They are the same age, but they don't usually see other unless it is summer and we are at the lake.
Between working around Tucker's soccer game and Tanner's baseball game on Saturday, we found a time for us to meet up and get Tanner. Once we got him, we started our little stay over with lunch and a movie at Studio Movie Grill. Tucker and I love to go there so that we can eat yummy food like chicken tenders and pizza while we are watching a movie. Tanner thought that it was pretty cool, as well. It is just too bad that the movie, Igor, was not so good. The boys were fine until they ate all of their food and then they were ready to go. I must admit that I felt the same, so we went on home.
Once we returned home, the boys stayed busy swimming, playing with Matchbox cars, light saber fighting, etc. It was a little strange to not be the one constantly entertaining Tucker! Somehow they managed to stay busy until it was time to go to bed. They put up a tent in the living room at one point during the day, so they decided that they would sleep in the tent. Little did I know that I would be the bodyguard sleeping on the couch just behind the tent!
After a good night's sleep, the boys were at it again playing with cars and doing whatever else 5 year old boys do for entertainment. I cooked them blueberry pancakes, bacon, and scrambled eggs for breakfast. After breakfast, John took the boys to a huge playground in our town for about an hour. Before too long, it was time to send Tanner back to his parents. There were a few little arguments here and there, but overall I think that the boys had a great time. This was the first time that Tucker had a friend over to spend the night and he is ready for Tanner to come back. Hopefully Tanner will be willing!

Jury Duty

So I had jury duty Wednesday and today. When I got to the courthouse, the judge told us that we had a great chance of NOT getting jury duty because they only needed 100 people and there were about 250 in the room. Whew, I thought to myself, slim chance of getting called. The first case came up and needed 24 jurors to select from...of course my name was immediately called and I had to return to the courthouse at 1:30 pm. When we all meet back at 1:30, once again, this judge claims that our chances are pretty good for not getting to be a juror since there were 24 of us, and they only needed six jurors. Whew, I thought again, what are the chances! I should have known that when the song "You've had a bad day" is playing on the radio as you get ready to go into the courthouse, that things are not.looking.good. During the who voir dire process, I decided to keep my mouth shut. Most of the people talking really sounded stupid and so I just thought it would be better to keep quiet. This is probably the ONLY time I have stayed quiet and it came back to bite me! So, I was one of the six to be on the jury. That should be enough bad luck for the day right?
I go home with a knot in my stomach knowing now that I have to be a juror. Oh well, at least I don't know anyone involved with the trail and I will just do my civic duty and be done with it. Ya'll things went from bad to worse on Thursday. I am sitting in my little, uncomfortable juror chair when the prosecution witnesses march in to the courtroom to be sworn in. Oh.my.gosh. I knew one of the witnesses! In my head I am thinking that I am about to cause a mistrail. The whole time that this person is on the stand, I can hardly hear her talk because I am freaking out. My stomach is knotting up, my mind is racing, and I am thinking...should I be honest and tell the judge or just pretend that I don't know her? After about 3 witnesses we finally took a break and I wrote a note to the judge to tell him that I knew one of the witnesses. How crazy is that! Really! What are the odds that I would get picked to be a juror and know one of the witnesses? All I can say is that I am my father's daughter and that it seems that no matter where I go, I seem to know someone. So, after what seemed to be a very long break, the judge made me come back into the courtroom by myself so that they could ask me some questions regarding the relationship between the witness and myself. Yep, there I was...in a courtroom alone with the defense, prosecutor, judge, baliff, court reporter, witnesses and audience. The judge asked me how I knew the witness. I explained that we had graduate class together about 3 years ago and that we had exchanged email during the semester, but that we had not seen or talked to each other since that one class. He asked me if I could still be fair and I replied, "yes". He let me go back to the jury room and then we went on with the trial. I must admit that I had visions of being led to jail and a big ole "mistrial" label stamped across my forehead, but luckily we went on with the trial. Luckily, we were finished with the trail by 5:00 Thursday afternoon. I hope that it is a L-O-N-G time before I have to do that again!

We scored!

Tonight we had a make-up soccer game. As I keep saying, Tucker is really getting better every week and I am so proud of him for that. Now, will he be playing with the likes of David Beckham anytime soon? Um, no, but he is a trooper out there. He even was at the right place at the right time and scored a goal tonight! .

As most of you know, Tucker does not lack in the verbal skills. Tonight I watched him talk smack to the other team. Oh.my. I wanted to run out there and drag him off of the the field! We had to have a little talk about that! I finally had to just tell him to leave the other team alone and do not talk to the other team. When we are winning, he just wants to keep the other team up-to-date with the score.

Where does he get this stuff? He is SO competitive! I keep trying to fool myself into thinking that he didn't get it from me, but then there I am yelling like the little guys are winning the Olympic gold medal in soccer. I really don't even know anything about soccer and yet I find myself yelling loud enough to be heard 5 soccer fields over. Maybe that is why the other soccer moms steer clear of me?

Water Cycle...In Tucker's Words

When I picked up Tucker on Monday, he couldn't wait to talk about what he did in school. He loves science and likes to keep me updated on the science experiments and topics that they learn about each day. Tucker said that they learned about water. He goes on to talk about how the Earth has more water than land. Then he asked me if I knew that there was a water cycle. I told that I had heard something about that before, but to fill me in on this new idea! He continues on to tell me his version of the water cycle, so here it goes:

Tucker: Mama, first you have a puddle of water outside, or a big bowl of water, or even a lake or ocean. The sun heats up the water and it evaporates. Then the water is gassy and floats up to the sky. The clouds collect the gas that was water. The clouds fills up with the water and starts to turn gray. Then the cloud gets full and gets sick to its stomach and throws up rain back to the Earth. Then it starts all over again.

Me: Really, you have learned so much in Kindergarten so far!

When I was teaching I remember making my kids draw the water cycle or use Inspiration software to create the water cycle. As Tucker was talking, I couldn't help but wonder how he would draw his version of the water cycle and giggle a bit at the thought of what I was pictureing in my head. Now, I really don't know exactly how the water cycle was taught to the class, but somehow I really don't think that "throwing up rain" was involve. But, I could be wrong! I am sure his teacher would be so proud of her star student and the knowledge he is gathering.

Simple Saturday and playing with Wordle

It has been a boring weekend at Tucker's house. John cooked blueberry waffles for us for breakfast. I must say that he did not too bad of a job! The rest of the day, we just spend the day cleaning, eating, and watching TV. Tucker's soccer game was cancelled due to Hurricane Ike and the storm we were suppose to have. That was really about it for Saturday.

Sunday was a beautiful day and I took Willy for a walk as soon as I woke up. I had my Ipod ready and had planned on staying gone for a while. My iPod had other plans and quit working after about 45 minutes of walking. To Willy's disappointment, we went on back home. Music just really makes the walk better and I really wanted to get home to see if I could repair my iPod. Somehow, my search for repair ideas led me to the Apple Online Store. HMMMM...I see that Apple is coming out with a 4th generation Nano. The pretty orange one is REALLY nice if anyone was at a loss for what to buy me. :)

We finally put on normal clothes about 11:15 on Sunday to head to Tucker's indoor soccer game. He played well and almost scored 2 goals. He just gets better and better each time he plays.

Finally, I decided to play around with Wordle. This is a great website where you just put in a bunch of words. If you put in the same word multiple times, it gets bigger than the others. Once your list is made, you hit go and it creates a neat word cloud. I made one using words to describe Tucker (above). I can see lots of fun uses for this for home and for the classroom, so I had to share. Go play with wordle...you will love it.

Lunch with Tucker

One of the best things about Tucker being in the same school district as me is that I can eat lunch with him every once in a while. Now that the 1st 2 weeks of school are over, the kindergarten parents are now allowed to eat with their kids. They really didn't want us up there in the way, until a good routine was established in the lunchroom, so I followed directions and stayed away. No need for me to get a blue in conduct, either!
Looking at the lunch menu on Tuesday, we decided that I would bring him lunch. Today was the the day! We had a date and we were both looking forward to me bringing lunch and eating with my little man. Shouldn't be an issue right? Well, I failed to mention to you that we are really talking "brunch". Tucker eats "lunch" from 10:25-10:50ish. This means that if I go pick something up, I am driving through picking up food at 10:15 in the morning. If you want breakfast for lunch, this really isn't a problem. But when you have promised some kind of chicken nugget and french fries, your options are limited, especially when you leave the office at 10:15 and still need to get the lunch. First stop...McDonalds. Well, the one closest to my office stops serving breakfast at 10:30. Never.go.there.again! So next stop A&W/Long John Silver's. Not even open...who wants LJS anyway? Good ole Burger King came to the rescue and I was on my merry way to deliver the goods to Tucker. I was a couple of minutes late, but there were still classmates waiting in the cafeteria line so all was good. Tucker was allowed to choose a friend and we all sat at a "special" table to have our lunch/brunch together. Next time, we will either have breakfast for lunch or I will allow more time to make a Sonic or Burger King run. At least I know now what my choices are.

Quiet game?

After picking up Tucker from after school care, I usually talk to him about what he did in school as we drive home. I ask him what was his favorite thing, what was the most challenging, etc. He loves science and I am gathering that they are talking about the senses. He recited a little poem about the 5 senses. I started joking around with him by saying "So, you taste with your ears, right?" I guess he grow tired of my nonsense because he all of a sudden said, "We need to have quiet time for 30 minutes. So, we are going to play the quiet game." I thought that he was explaining how his teacher reads to the class, but he quickly told me, "no mama, you and I are going to play the quiet game right now. So, please turn up the radio and please quit talking." Usually it is me wanting the quiet time, but this time it came from the little man. I just never thought I would hear those words from him. Wow, they grow up so quickly!

Indoor Soccer Sunday

For the next six weeks we are all about soccer on the weekends! Today was our first indoor soccer game. Yes, we are crazy and have put Tucker on an indoor soccer team and an outdoor soccer team. Tucker was goalie for a lot of this game and I think that he likes being goalie just because there is not as much running involved! He didn't let the other team score on him at all and we did win the game. (Although, we aren't suppose to keep score!) When he played offense, he played better than yesterday, so each time I hope there is improvement. He tends to wait back from the group and want the perfect setup before he kicks the ball. I want him to be more aggressive and just kick the ball. We will work on that! I don't know if soccer will be his 'thing' or not, but it gives him a chance to play with other boys and exercise.

Indoor soccer has changed from when he played over a year and a half ago. Back then, it was more like herd ball, where there was just a big blob of kids following the ball around. This time we actually set up and have a little display of defense and offense. Tucker seems to like playing and enjoys being with a group of boys who can match his energy level. Although, none of the kids are at his school, they are all in kindergarten and they all seem to be a great group of kids and parents. I am looking forward to watching both of his soccer teams play each weekend and watching them get better individually and also grow as a team.

Outdoor Soccer Saturday

We had our first outdoor soccer game bright and early this morning. We had to be at the field by 7:45 AM! Tucker's team has a mixture of veteran soccer players, as well as, newbies like him. He looked so cute in his little soccer uniform. Not exactly the colors I would have chosen for a boys soccer team, but no one asked me! We did have the occasional not-paying-attention moments, but overall he gave a good effort and played well. We didn't win, but we did have our share of points that we scored. Tucker has learned to sort of do a cart-wheel and he looked for every chance that he got to turn a cartwheel. I will have to get video of that next week, because it is something that you really don't want to miss out on! I can't wait to see how he improves throughout the season...cartwheels and soccer playing!

Blue-Green-Blue

I can talk about this now, but I certainly couldn't last Friday...Our first week of kindergarten had some rough patches. Basically we made it through the first day with a green in conduct. I was so excited for my little angel! On Wednesday, it seems that we slipped a little and had some trouble follwing directions and talking. Really? Surely it was another child. Needless to say, we ended up with a yellow day on the 2nd day of school. Thursday was a new and fresh day and somehow we mangaged to stay green like the Incredible Hulk. After school on Friday, I went to pick up Tucker and he was so proud of himself and couldn't wait to show me his red conduct folder. He can't wait to show me and tell me that he had a blue and then the teacher out of the goodness of her heart decided to change him back to green. I guess he didn't figure on me going bonkers on getting the blue, even if the blue went to a green later in the day. Well, my teacher brain just didn't compute the story very well. Since we have about a 20 minute drive to get home, I found this to be a good time to get the story straight. As it turns out, my sweet little angel did receive blue on conduct and it should have stayed blue. My little angel just decided on his own to go ahead and change the blue to a green! Tucker found out quickly that this makes a mama RED! Tucker learned a lot from this experience and I did, too. I was very disappointed in my little boy, and he knew it. He found out that when you lie...you will get caught. While he would have been in trouble for just getting the blue, he now was in even more trouble for getting a blue and then coloring the blue to a green. I hope that he makes better decisions in the future and understands that mistakes are made and you learn from them. I am sure that one day we will remember this incident when he is much older and even find it a bit humorous (right?) Many of you have already heard this story, and even thought he was pretty clever. Thanks to my friends and family for helping me get through this!

Now, another week has passed since this incident. You will also see in the picture above that we have now completed our second week of kindergarten and that we have brought home "greens" in conduct all week long! I think that we may just be getting the hang of this kindergarten thing.

Yellow? Already?

Today, I had to drop off Tucker at the school in the car line. We were told on Monday that they needed to gain independence and that parents need to let go and allow our children to go into the school alone. WHAT? So, as hard as it was (and how excited he was!) I let him open the door and hop out between the orange cones and walk up the sidewalk and into the school. How badly I wanted to quickly go park and just soft of "follow" him to make sure that he made it to the classroom and remind him one more time to be a good listener, a good friend to everyone, and follow directions. Once I made it to work, I stayed busy enough to keep me from running over there to check things out! We did talk about lunch on the way to school, so I felt confident that we are on the right track.
I go to pick him up from school and today we have the "red" folder which contains the discipline chart. Remember "D-green" is good, "A-red" is bad, and "C-yellow" and "B-blue" follow somewhere in between. To my shock and dismay, we have a YELLOW today. Oh.my.gosh! What in the world could my angel of a child do to make his frog change to a yellow lily pad on the 2nd day of school? So, we had to have our "I know that you may slip up, but don't make this a habit" speech. Of course, Tucker was on the defense and had practiced a really good story as to what happened! Then he proceeds to tell me that he "gets to start fresh and green every day." (I am sure he heard that one from his teacher.) Hopefully this was a 'get the point across' move and while Tucker quickly tested the waters, found out that he isn't getting away with anything. Good for our teacher...she needs to get her bluff in early! Hopefully we will see green from now on! We even brought our teacher a gift today, just imagine what color we would be on without the present? I have a feeling that Kindergarten is going to be expensive. :0)

1st Full day of Kindergarten

Today is the first real day of Kindergarten. We were allowed to walk our children into the school and get them settled. Once Tucker saw his class walking down the hallway, he was pretty much done with me! I tried to give him little hug and smooch bye, but he quickly informed me that "this isn't how I roll, mama." What? Since when does a little lovin from the mama become "not how I roll." (Later, I was informed that I could hug and kiss him at home, just that I wasn't allowed any public displays of affection.)

So off he goes, as I see the vision of the Hulk backpack get smaller and smaller. I couldn't help but be just a little sad that my little man is taking one more step towards independence and growing up to be the little man that he is.

As I get to the car, I hold myself together. Then let out a big sigh, as I remember that we talked about the choices in the cafeteria, but I completely forgot to tell him that I had created an an account in the cafeteria to pay for his lunches! I knew that he was armed with goldfish crackers and bottle water, so he at least had something if the lunch buying fell through!
Tucker had a great day at Kindergarten and is already starting to make some new friends. There were a few times throughout the day that I just stopped working and just wonder what he was doing. I know that he will be fine and he is in great, loving hands at his school.

First Day of Kindergarten -sort of

Today is the "official" first day of school, except that kindergarteners only go from 9:00-10:00 am. Not sure why, but that is just the way our school district works.

We all met in the cafeteria to hear from our principal then our kindergarteners lined up by classes and were led by different staff member to go through specials rotation of PE, Music, Art, and Computer classes. The parents lined up by classes and went to the classroom to listen to an "orientation" by our teacher. As I sit down and our teacher starts talking she says, "Sorry I am at the back of the room, but I don't have a wireless mouse to move the powerpoint, so I am back here stuck to my computer." HMMM, what is the elementary tech coordinator to do? I had lots of things running through my mind, but I just kept reminding myself that I was there as a parent and NOT as a school district employee. It is hard wearing both hats (parent and school district employee), but I am trying my best!

During the powerpoint, we learned about snacks, and discipline charts, and that they eat brunch at 10:25-10:55ish and that she doesn't have a wireless mouse (oops, I tried not to mention that again!). I learned that I could bring cupcakes for Tucker's birthday in a few weeks and that our classroom is NOT a peanut free zone.

Tucker soon returned with his classmates ready to go. He and Peaches went back over to the discipline chart one more time before we left to make sure that we had it down as to what is good behavior and not so good. "D" is a good thing..."A" is notta good! Got to get that one straight.

Overall it was a great first day of school for my little man. He had one hour of kindergarten then it was off to be with Peaches for the rest of the day. We may just get use to this kindergarten stuff, yet.