Snow in Texas? HA!

I really can't remember if I have ever had a white Christmas in Texas. I think that we have a had some close calls and that it has been icy, but this time we got it good. We were in Nocona at my parents house when it started gently snowing about 8:20 Christmas Eve morning. It was so pretty and clean! But by 11:30, we were in full on blizzard conditions.

Luckily, John had just arrived and said that the roads were just starting to get slippery. Our original plan was to go back to our home after eating our Christmas Eve turkey dinner, but Mother Nature had her own plans. Since mom and dad live out at the lake, they really don't have anyone to come snowplow, so basically we were snowed in for a while. I had to send a few emails Santa's way so that he knew where Tucker was going to be. (John also called before he left, thinking that we would get snowed in and brought along Santa's loot.)

John arrived with snow clothes, gloves, hats, and goods so that he and Tucker could enjoy the snow outside. Willy played along with them, as well. I stood around and took as many pictures as I could. We had the best time playing in the cold and then coming back in to warm up. Here are a few of the pictures...

Long Time Coming

Ok, ok...I am going to try to do better this year of keeping you all up with Tucker. I haven't blogged in so long that I am a bit overwhelmed as to where to start. Do I try to catch up or do I just keep going like I have been blogging all along? I think that I will start with the present and then catch up as I go along.

Watch out for Redheads...and homework

I have to be out of town for the few days to go to a tech conference, so tonight I was doing my best to get Tucker organized.  Each night he has homework to do to help him learn good study behaviors.  (These are words from his teacher's newsletter.)  So, I was trying to get him to do as much of the homework as we could together, so that he didn't have to rely so much on his daddy.  They tend to get busy playing and forget about that kind of stuff when I am not around!  Part of Tucker's homework was just to properly write upper case and lowercase ABC's.  Sounds easy enough, right?  We are doing fine until we hit G.  For some reason, Tuckers starts losing concentration and does a lower case a, then q, pretty much every letter but lowercase g.  Let's just say I really don't have a lot of patience anyway, and this just about did me in.  So, I just got up from the table and told him to finish his homework on his own, and I start cleaning the dinner dishes.  Tucker huffs at me and says, "So, I guess it's true what they say about redheads...they ARE violent."  I couldn't help but giggle a little bit when he said this since I had my back to him anyway and all I did was get up and do the dishes.  I don't know where he heard that, but I would like to exchange "impatient" for "violent", please. :0)  I can't wait to hear how John and Tucker do with the rest of the homework this week. 

Last Weekend of Lake Fun

Labor Day for us means that it is the last weekend to spend at our lake cabin. There is sadness because the lazy days of summer are officially over and there is a little bit of excitement knowing that we are in the beginnings of a new school year and upcoming fall season. We spend our time at the lake with mom & dad doing the usual...riding the jet ski and boating. Tucker's cousin Eleanor came along on Saturday with my brother and Tucker played with her in the lake. They found our kayak and Tucker paddled Eleanor around. She looked like a little queen telling Tucker to go faster or turn around.

We enjoyed hot dogs by the lake, which for some reason makes them taste better than just having them at home. Dad and Jeff also grilled bacon wrapped jalapenos stuffed with cream cheese. Very yummy!! We all swam and ate while John and Willy fished. It was a nice, lazy weekend at the lake for us all.

Another one bites the dust

I guess Tucker became tired of only having 1 front tooth out. I had a feeling that he would figure out a way to get rid of the other front tooth. By the time I picked him up from school today, he had yanked the other tooth out. Once again, I had to do a little bit of my happy dance just because I didn't have to deal with it. So, for now we have a really wide non-toothy grin.

He was so excited that he is now missing his two front teeth! I thought he was happy because the tooth fairy would be visiting again. However, I overheard him tell his daddy, "I am like a real hockey player now, since I am missing my teeth." Should have know it had something to do with hockey!

Toothy Tuesday

As I picked up Tucker this afternoon from after school care, he met me with this big partially toothy grin. He pulled his front top tooth out this afternoon after school! We went to his dentist a couple of weeks ago, so I knew that his front teeth were getting loose, but I still didn't expect it to happen this soon. So far, Tucker has lost three teeth and they have all been remove during school. I am actually very happy about that because for some reason the thought of pulling teeth just really seems yucky and gross to me. So, I was just a little bit excited that this big event happened away from my eyes.

I was concerned about how Tucker would take not having a front tooth, but he is doing great. (He does seem to care about the way he looks these days.) He said that it is hard to say "s" sounds, but he also told me that he would manage. He goes around smiling just hoping that someone will notice that he is missing a tooth, almost like a trophy or something. That's my child, never one to shy away from attention or being able to tell a story! Now, we just have to wait for front tooth #2 to come out which I think is probably just a few days away. I have caught him trying to wiggle it, so Tucker is pretty determined to get it out too. Let's cross our fingers that his teacher gets lucky enough to deal with this one too.

First Day of First Grade

Today was the first day of first grade for Tucker. He seemed a little bit excited and a little bit nervous. We had our backpack ready and clothes laid out anticipating the first day.

This year seems to be a bit easier for us all since it is our second year to be at this school. Tucker is familiar with the layout of the campus and even seems to know most of the faculty. (Not sure if this is a good thing, though.) The principal and assistant principal knows him by name and both gave him a big hug on Meet the Teacher night. I guess they are ready for the munchkins to be back, too.

After meet the teacher night on Friday, he was able to see that he already knew a lot of kids from last year, so he was excited about having friends in his classroom. I was excited to see his new teacher and learn that she has about 10 years of teaching experience and a son entering kindergarten. I think that we can relate!

Tucker has had a fabulous summer, but I think that he was ready to return to school. Throughout the morning while getting dressed, he kept repeating, "I can't believe that I am a first grader!" I don't think that I could get him to school fast enough! He was ready to go and get on with the day.

His only disappointment was learning that I was going to walk him into the classroom on the first day of school. You would have thought that I was making him walk around in public without any clothes on! He tried every tactic he could think of to keep me from walking in the building, but I was just as determined to see him to his desk! I really don't know where he gets his stubbornness from. So, we made it to the classroom along with every other classmate AND THEIR PARENTS. Once Tucker was safely in his little desk. I gave a little wave goodbye (I promised not to kiss and hug him at school) and headed out the only to glance back and see him already talking to the other kids at his desk, laughing away.

Real or Fake?

Tucker seems to have time on his brain constantly. Everyday all day long he is asking, "how many minutes will that take?" I usually give him an estimate of time, but sometimes I will say that "whatever" will happen 'in just a minute'. I tell him that I am cooking supper and he wants to know how long it will take. If we watch a movie, he asks again, how many minutes long is the movie? I am not even sure that he understands the concept of a minute or not, but he loves to ask about it!

On Saturday, he wanted to play a game and I was in the middle of folding laundry. Not that it takes much for me to give up folding the laundry, but I did tell him that I would play "in a minute." I watched him walk away, but then he paused and turned to me and said "Are you talking about a REAL minute or a FAKE one"? I guess his concept of time is a little better than I thought.

We are Jammin'

After a morning of eating picking strawberries, we went back home with Oma and Peepaw to start making our favorite (and requested) fresh strawberry jam. Oma had all of the ingredients ready and waiting for us.

We started by washing the strawberries and then Oma and I cut off the tops of the strawberries while Tucker had the job of smashing the strawberries with the potatoe masher. I must say that Tucker's job looked like a lot of fun to me! I don't really know how many strawberries were smashed in the process of jam making, but Tucker grew kind of tired of smashing after a while. There is only so much fun that can be had right?

Moving on to the next phase, we then added A LOT of sugar to the smashed stuff. We were able to rest for 10 minutes while the sugar and strawberries did their thing, then we added the Certo gel and freshly squeezed lemon juice. Tucker then had to stir the mixture for 3 more minutes. Then it was time to put the jam in the jars. This was my job since it can get kind of messy, but Tucker continued to watch and make sure that he knew which jars "his jam" was put in. We continued this process the rest of the afternoon unitl we had about 25 jars ready and finished. Now, I just have to figure out how to get this stuff back to Texas to share with some of you. Heide keeps laughing as we buy more and talk about bringing all kinds of things with us. There really is a limit to what the Cherolla can hold you know. :0)

Poutine - Yumm-o

With all of the hard work strawberry picking, we had to stop by John and Tucker's favorite place to eat. It is called Bernard's Canteen (you say it with a French accent, right?) It is basically a burger and fry kind of place but they have some local favorite foods. I usually get a burger, but their fries are why we go there. They are freshly cut and of course fried. But, the goodness according to John and Tucker doesn't stop there. You have to trick up the fries to make them into a yummy, messy goodness called POUTINE.It is basically brown gravy and cheese curds on hot French fries. The brown gravy is similar to a roast beef gravy and the cheese tastes a lot like the pull cheese that you buy in the store. I think that it is an acquired taste. I sort of think of it as the French version of our Chili-Cheese fries. Tucker likes it because John likes it. I can usually eat poutine one time while we visited John's parents but I think that my guys could eat this for lunch everyday if it wouldn't clog their arteries (and if it was available in Texas). So, there is a little bit of Montreal cultural food info for you. Enjoy!

Strawberry Fields Forever

It has been raining a lot in Montreal, but we did get a break in the rain enough to go pick fresh strawberries! Tucker and I were very excited about that. We love to come to Montreal during strawberry season because there is nothing like picking and eating fresh strawberries. The only bad thing is that I can hardly eat a strawberry at home because they do not taste as yummy as they are here!

Tucker's motto was to pick one eat two. I think that he followed that very well. The poor farmer would have probably kicked us off the farm if he had seen how many strawberries Tucker ate. John and I eventually had to fill the rest of Tucker's basket while he filled his belly! Each of us had a basket to fill so we had 5 huge baskets of strawberries when we were finished. Heide and I started trying to figure out the different things that we could make with all of the strawberries. We knew that we would make several batches of jam (per Peaches request)! So mom, you do have several jars have jam coming your way. :0)

While we were picking, we also had a contest to see who could find the biggest strawberry. Tucker somehow won with a berry almost as big as his hand. Life is berry, berry good here in Montreal right now.

Peaches, you will be happy to know that we have made lots and lots of fresh strawberry jam, so you should have enough to last you a long time as long as we can get it all in the car.

Music to My Ears

With the Stanley Cup finals going on....all we do is watch hockey. This is just a little more than this Texas girl can handle! While watching the game, not only are we pausing and rewinding to watch special moves, plays, and fights (Thank God for Tivo!), but John and Tucker also have to play their own hockey game between periods. The area between the front door and back door is the "hockey rink". Once again, a little too much for this mama to handle.

When John or Tucker scores, they each have a theme song that they sing out. Tucker's song is Katy Perry's "Waking Up in Vegas" song chorus, and even more specifically..."shut up and put your $ where your mouth is, that's that what you get for waking up in Vegas". When John scores, he starts singing "Just a Friend" by Biz Markie.

I found myself in the kitchen playing around on the laptop and trying to ignore the two boys, when I hear Tucker just singing at the top of his lungs his "theme" song. Rather annoyed, I go into the entryway to see what provoked such a loud, eardrum busting outburst with his song rendition. He just looked at me and smiled and sort of shrugged his shoulders, "I was singing in surround sound." All I could do was laugh out loud. I am betting that he kinder teacher will really miss him over the summer. :0)

Do you feel sorry for me?

I guess that John felt that Tucker was having too much fun with all of the Photo Booth business. He had to figure out a way to get in the process. I really don't know where I was when they were busy making this precious gem.

Just wanted you all to see what I deal with every day?

Anyone what to join this craziness?

Sports News

As it turns out, Tucker and the macbook are getting to be really good friends. He is making little "shows" daily. I guess I am now the show "producer", so I took the liberty to do some cutting an editing for his new sports newscast. He is going to have to work on his isight camera shots. I was in the kitchen when he was working on this, but he didn't need any prompting to talk. This is a little long (even after my editing), but it is worth watching. He actually did this a couple of weekends ago. I was actually surprised at the different subjects that he talked about because they happend so long ago (like the Super Bowl). I guess when you are young, your mind just soaks it all in. I just finally sat down long enough to put it all together.

I swear this child talks just to hear himself. However, I think that he gets it naturally. My grandmama can tell you all kinds of stories about me and my mouth. I used to go with her when she would get her hair done at the beauty salon. She swears that she could never get me to stop talking either. Hopefully Tucker will turn his blabbering into something positive one day. Maybe Tucker is a sportscaster in training...Channel 8's Dale Hanson needs to watch out!

Early Mother's Day Shout out

So, I am sitting in my hotel room in Austin trying to clean out some of the videos that Tucker has recently created when I come across this little jewel. Now that he knows how to make videos, that is pretty much all he does when he gets on my computer. I wish I could share them all with you, but you would get tired of the faces and crazy things that he says and does. This one is sweet and I actually don't even know when he created it! Good thing we have a bunch of tech savvy grandparents so that they can hear/see Tucker's shout out.

Mac Attack

I showed Tucker how to use Photobooth on my Mac laptop. Here is a little nugget of his creation. I am afraid that there is no stopping him now since he found out how easy it was to record himself. I can see lots of silliness in the future so just get ready. :)

American Idol

Tucker and I like to talk to each other about out day as we drive home. I ask about his day and then he asks about my day. Most often, I share what a great day I have had, but it has been a hard week this week. One of those weeks, where you are only at your desk about an hour total and otherwise are in meetings in various buildings all over the district. I have also been interviewing for a new tech facilitator. We had some great applicants which also makes for very tough choices.
So today was the day that I made a final decision for the new hire and offered the applicant the job. I was explaining the process Tucker and that I had to call some of the other applicants and tell them that they were not the "chosen one." This always makes me feel bad and I really hate that part of my job! I was telling Tucker that one person gets the job and four others have to be told that they didn't get the job. Tucker listened intently and asked questions. After a few moments of silence, he says, "You know, that is like American Idol. You have a winner and everyone else gets voted off ." I told him yes, but I was ALOT nicer than Simon.

Last Las Vegas Post

Our last day in Las Vegas had Tucker and I looking for things to do. We decided to visit Ethel M chocolate boutique at the Flamingo Hotel. I actually wanted to visit the factory, but we never actually made it there. I had visions of Tucker and I trying to take chocolate off of the conveyor belt like Lucy and Ethel from "I Love Lucy" show. Tucker and I would be fine with shoving chocolates in our mouths! At the "chocolate boutique" we picked out a box of chocolates with lemon filling, coconut filling, caramel filling, peanut butter filling, and chocolate truffles. We loved them all, but the lemon and caramel ones were my favorite! With our belly's full of chocolate, we then moved on to Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville and relaxed on a couple of painted chairs. It was a great place to watch the people go by. I didn't blow out a flip flop, but I still wasted some time away. :0)

Later in the day, we went to the Hawaiin Tropic Cafe at Planet Hollywood.

While we were there, in walked a young girl who looked really familiar, but I couldn't place her. She went on to sit in a cabana at the restaurant. When John looked at her, he immediately proclaimed that she was "bikini girl" from this year's American Idol. He would know...he is absolutely in to American Idol, which actually surprises me a bit. While I am all over reality T.V., he doesn't get into TV much at all unless it football or golf. He will watch a movie, but he will not watch any series of shows except for American Idol. When it is on, basically the world is on hold. So with his American Idol knowledge, he KNEW that the girl was "bikini girl". He and Tucker were brave enough to go to her table to get a picture (all for Tucker, right?) Sometimes being a dad is really hard work. So that was our brush with fame while were in Las Vegas, if you can call it that. Tucker was excited about meeting "Makini girl" as he called her.

Magic Show Fun? At least for some...

This is Mac King. He has an afternoon magic show at Harrah's that we attended Thursday afternoon. We were trying to find a show for us to watch with Tucker and this was recommended by several people that we talked to. He has a lot of interaction with the audience and was actually very funny. Did I tell you that Tucker was with us at this show? Most of you know that the boy is not shy and can talk a bar stool's leg off. Well, at one point Mac needed a "couple" to come up and be part of the show. Little loud mouth popped off and volunteered his mama and daddy! (Yes, we were rather close to the stage.) I guess Mac coudn't say no, and talked us into coming up on the stage. So, there John and I were on the stage staring out into the bright, hot, white lights with Mac King being part of a card trick bit. We were on the stage about 10 minutes and then we were on our way back to our seats. One day I will get the boy back! Thanks Tucker!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day from my little leprechaun! Since his first name is actually Patrick, he seems to think that this day was invented for him. Don't know where he would get a crazy idea like that?

We managed to pull Tucker from the pool and game room at the hotel long enough to visit the lions at the MGM Grand. We just happened to get there in time to watch the trainers give the lions treats. Luckily none of the trainers became tasty morsels while we watched! The trainers would throw meat on the glass walls where we were watching so that we could get an up-close-and-personal view of the lions grabbing the meat off of the walls. Quite the show and I am very glad that I was on my side of the glass walls.

We also walked down the Vegas strip for a little bit and headed toward the M&M store. Even though it was daytime, it was still a great time to people watch. I didn't realize how much green clothing there really was out there, but I am pretty sure that I saw it all. We had a view of our own little St. Patrick's Day parade. We saw great big green hats, beads, and ittybitty green dresses.
After an afternoon on the 'strip'. We ate at the ESPN restaurant where Tucker was able to watch a hockey game at our booth. Right up his alley! Then we went back to the hotel to join the St Patrick's Day pool party at the hotel where Tucker was able to tye-dye a t-shirt and swim with new friends.

Vegas Baby

Today is our first full day in Las Vegas. We are trying to adjust to the time change, but I don't think that we will ever get use to it. We were up at 6:00 AM, which is 8:00 AM Texas time. We may have been the only ones up in the whole hotel. No problem! When Tucker is awake, everyone is awake! After a quick swim and soak in the hot tub, we grabbed breakfast and figured out a plan for the day. We took our hotel shuttle to Harrah's and proceeded to walk around. Our first stop was to visit Siegfried & Roy's Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat at the Mirage. We spent several hours there watching the dolphins swim and the "big cats" play. They had five 10 month old white tigers and the trainers were inside the habitat with them playing/training. We saw a couple of the tigers "play" fight when one of the trainers brought out a large ice chunk about the size of watermelon. Evidently this is a tasty treat and all of the tigers want it. We also saw a four month old leopard. What beautiful creatures all of these animals are!
After visiting the animals at the Mirage, we decided to see what other sights there were to see for the day. We went to Caesar's Palace Forum Shops to see the moving statues and then we ended up at PF Chang's in Planet Hollywood for a late lunch. Tucker had about as much as he could stand of walking and looking around. He was ready for the pool as he exclaimed about 100 times through out the afternnon! So, we started to make our way back to the hotel. As we were walking, we passed by Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville. I had to go in and get a t-shirt and Tucker wanted one, too. Somehow John and Tucker left with shirts and I ended up empty handed. How did that happen? With souvenirs in hand we returned to the hotel and changed into our swimming suits. After a pit stop to the rec. room for video gaming, we then hit the pool. We had a great, busy day. I am glad I came all the way to Vegas to spend some time playing video games and swimming in a pool. That is something we NEVER get to do in Texas.

Spring Break

We left Saturday, March 14 to drive (yes drive!) to Las Vegas. We really don't mind a rode trip since we usually drive 30 hours or so to visit John's family in Montreal, Canada. Driving to Vegas is actually nothing compared to that! We spent the night in New Mexico and today are driving through Arizona and will eventually get to Las Vegas later today. Before we hit Flagstone, Az, we kept seeing signs for the Grand Canyon. So, we changed our course just a little bit to stop by and visit it. It was just a little bit out of our way, and we decided that we may not ever get back there again! I must say that I was very excited to see the Grand Canyon because I have never been there before. I don't really know what I expected to see, but it was quite a sight. I would never say that I am afraid of heights, but this made a little uneasy and a bit anxious. Maybe because it is so far down to look, but I just couldn't get a grip on my depth perception. Needless to say, I did much better just looking out rather than looking down. Tucker just thought the whole thing was "cool". Well, guess we can check that off of our list of things to see and do!

Once we said our good-byes to the Grand Canyon, we still had another a few more hours before we hit Las Vegas. Traffic was fine until we were 10 miles from the Hoover Dam. It took us about an hour and a half to go those 10 miles and we had less than a quarter of a take of gas. Somehow we made it through, but it was close! We finally made it to our hotel, excited and exhausted. Now, we have to go to bed so we can start our day early tomorrow!

My Montreal Canadians

Sunday night was the BIG game for my boys. The Montreal Canadiens played against the Dallas Stars. John made sure that he and Tucker had tickets to the big game! Tucker has been counting down the days to the game. However, when it was about a week before the game, he began to panic because he didn't have a jersey. One night at dinner he told the two of us that he would NOT go to the game unless he had a jersey. I immediately thought of our best resource and figured that John and Tucker would call Oma to rescue us. I figured a trip to the local store would net Tucker a nice authentic jersey, but John didn't think that it would get here in time. So, I went online and ordered the jersey. (Not only does the grandparents spoil the child, but it seems that I can be blamed, too!) The jersey was delivered in time and the boys were off to the game in style. They had a great time at the game and ended up on the very front row! According to family watching the game on TV, they actually spotted Tucker and John in the third period banging on the class behind the Dallas Stars goalie, Marty Turco. Tucker said that it was the best night ever!

"Like a nut"

Tucker has developed a new phrase that is really pretty funny. Mom, Tucker and I were attempting to shop yesterday in Frisco. I say attempt because the boy wouldn't let us look or shop at anything unless it had some kind of Dallas Cowboy or Dallas Maverick logo on it. Try finding running shoes that fit that criteria! I was pretty much at my witts end with him once again during this shopping experience. I must say my patience thermometer is pretty low with him these days and I do need to work on that! So, as we are driving in the car, he says that he was bitten by a mosquito at some point during the morning. I do the sort of ignoring thing so I can concentrate on driving and looking at my email while driving. :0) I guess I didn't give him as much attention as required, so he says "I am itching like a nut." Mom and I just crack up. It was a well needed laugh!

Even though I thought the nut phrase was pretty funny, I just figured it was a one-liner that he is so good at saying. Evidently the phrase is going to stick around for a little while. This morning, he is determined that one of his front teeth is about to wiggle out of his mouth, so he runs into the kitchen to tell me that the tooth is "wiggling like a nut." That just makes me giggle a little bit. It seems to be a good phrase to add for a big emphasis. So anytime you are at a loss for words, just add "like a nut." It seems to do the trick or that is at least this is the way Tucker rolls...like a nut. :0)

Glad today is almost over

Today has been rough and I am glad that a new one starts in just a few hours. Our day started off ok, but just went downhill from there. At lunch, all I wanted to do was squirt a little lime into my tortilla soup. You would have thought that the little slippery sucker was a bowling ball the way it slipped out of my hand and landed in my soup. Let's just say I had soup all over the top half of my sweater. SH&#$ was all I could say. I wiped myself off and ate what was left of the soup in my bowl. I went back to work smelling like Mexican food in my soup spotted sweater. Good thing I was just going to be at my desk the rest of the afternoon!
So then at 5:30 pm, I get off work and go pick up Tucker. I just knew that our "talk" on the way to school today was going to hit home and we were going to have a green day today. Well, forget about that. It wasn't blue like yesterday, but we had another yellow day. Then to top it off, he decided to throw his sweatshirt on top of the school building. What the heck? Needless to say, we had another "talk" on the way home this afternoon and then when we got home, I sent him to his room. I put talk in quotes, because it is me doing the talking and Tucker doing the listening. Grandparents don't worry...I never touched the child, but we did have a night without any technology (no computer, no xbox or wii). The child was so bored, he went to sleep on the couch by 7:45. Hmmm, maybe this should be our nightly routine? At this point, this is when I am saying in my head that he is driving me crazy. This is also usually when the next day or so Tucker gets sick and I end up staying home from work a day or two. I hope that he feels fine and doesn't get sick. Hopefully this is just a phase that he (we) are going through and him coming down with a cold. I am hopeful for a new, better day tomorrow for us both!

One more celebration

Today is my one-year blog anniversary. It isn't a big deal, but that fact that I have actually stuck with writing Tucker's blog for this long is an accomplishment for me. (Although, with Tucker as my star, I don't think that I will ever run out of material.)
Originally, I started our blog as sort of research for my job. We were embarking on Web 2.0 applications, and I needed to be able to talk about what blogs were. I worked with different applications to spice up the blog, and I must say that my journey with the blogging world as been a fun, personal learning experience. The bonus is to have recorded time and have a log of events of Tucker. How many times have we heard from someone, "I wish I would have written down all of the funny things that my kids said!" While I missed some major moments when Tucker was younger, I now have the opportunity to write it down. I know I have a small audience, but it is nice to be able to share with our friends and family. Looking back, we have had a busy year. We have celebrated birthdays, graduated from preschool, gone on summer vacations, spent time at the lake with cousins, started kindergarten and celebrated holidays. Wonder what is in store for us during the next blog year?

Papaw's Turn

February is the month for birthdays in our family. Peaches just had her birthday and now it is already time to celebrate Papaw's birthday, too. Tucker started off the day by calling dad and wishing him a happy birthday. That's a good way to start off your day, don't you think? We will visit them soon so that we can have cupcakes or birthday cake. According to Tucker, it really isn't a birthday without some kind of party (or at least eating party food).

After Tucker got off the phone, he started talking about all of the fun things that he does with my dad. The list went on and on about boating, jetskiing, riding in the Ranger, going to Grapevine to ride the train. He finally just said, "you know, I am a lucky kid." That made my feel all warm inside to hear him say that. I will have to remind him of this statement the next time he gets mad at me! Actually, I think that I am the one that is lucky! :0)

Happy Birthday, Papaw!

Molten Chocolate Cakes - Recipe

Here is the recipe for the chocolate cakes that Chef Tucker made.

4 squares Baker's Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate
1/2 cup butter
1 cup powdered sugar
2 eggs
6 Tbsp. flour
Cool Whip Topping or Vanilla Ice Cream
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Butter four 3/4 cup custard cups or souffle dishes and place them on a baking sheet.

Microwave chocolate and butter in a large microwaveable bowl on HIGH 1 min. or until butter is melted. Stir with a wire whisk until chocolate is completely melted. Stir in sugar until well-blended. Blend in eggs. Stir in flour. Divide batter between prepared custard cups.

Bake 13 to 14 min. or until sides are firm but centers are soft. Let stand 1 minute. Carefully run small knife around cakes to loosen. Invert cakes onto dessert dishes. Serve immediately, topped with Cool Whip or vanilla ice cream.

Makes 8 servings, 1 half molten cake each.

Chef Tucker

I was so use to having some kind of yummy dessert while in Austin, that I was feeling a bit deprived now that I am back home. Tucker and I decided to make Molten Chocolate cakes to celebrate being home after the week away. The recipe is just right because it makes four custard cup size cakes with a warm gooey center.
Just out of the oven, we also like to add a little vanilla ice cream on top, as well. I will post the recipe later, but here are some pictures of Tucker working on the batter. He wanted to be in charge and do most of the work. Any time that I would try to help, he would say, "Chef Tucker is in charge, so back away, Mama." Fine with me; I was able to take pictures of the Chef at work.


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Happy Birthday Peaches

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While I was in Austin, my mom, had a birthday on Feb. 4. I did call her and Tucker was able to call her, as well, but we felt it was also worthy of a blog shout out.

Tucker refers to her as "Peaches". Her 'grandma' name, Peaches, started as sort of a joke, but it has definitely stuck. In fact, one day I was reading a book to Tucker about grandparents and it mentioned "granny" in the book. Tucker had a really hard laugh out loud moment and thought that is was absolutely crazy that someone would be called "Granny"! Little does he know that Peaches is really the name that isn't so common.

Peaches and Tucker are about as close as they come. I have yet to hear her really tell him "no", which is probably why he loves being with my parents so much. Funny that they didn't seem to have that same problem when I was growing up. :0)

When we are together visiting with my parents, you can always count on Tucker and mom huddling together and playing cars or building with Legos. We always just laugh and say that they deserve each other. If Tucker wants to do something crazy, Peaches (& Papaw) are usually right there with the him. Tucker is always ready to be with them and especially likes it when he can visit them without me there with him. We hate that we couldn't celebrate her birthday with her, but we will get together soon! HAPPY BIRTHDAY PEACHES!

Lunch Date

After looking at the lunch menu for Thursday at Tucker's school, he asked me to bring him lunch from Sonic instead. No problemo, little man! Here was my chance to meet the love note queen. :0)

I did meet Tucker for lunch. As part of the lunch ritual at his school, Tucker is allowed to invite one friend to also join us at the special "parent" table. As soon as Tucker saw me, he was ready to pick a friend and all of a sudden a girl grabs him and tells him that she is eating with us. Mmmm...little bit pushy, but the girl isn't afraid to get what she wants. As luck would have it, I am now sitting face-to-face with the love note queen. She is a cutie and a little spitfire, definitely one who can hold her own against the mighty T.

We had a fun time during lunch and they were excited/silly enough that I was ready to hand them back to their teacher. Let me just say that 25 minutes can be very long when you are sitting at a table with Kindergarteners. I think that they ate in about 8 minutes and had rest of the time to play around. This is a very uncomfortable feeling for the teacher in me. I felt like I needed to break out a book to read to them or something.

As Tucker was finally able to line up to get ready to go back to the classroom, I had a little reflection of his first day of school and how anxious I was to let him go to the classroom without me. I am glad that I get to spend lunchtime with Tucker every once in a while. I enjoy seeing him confident and content with where he is and who he is. I was concerned that it would be a challenge making friends just because he is not attending his neighborhood school, but that seemed to never bother him and he has made friends with everyone in his class. Friends, I can handle...I am just hoping that we don't receive any more letters from the girls.

I'm not ready for this!

So, evidently, we have a little budding relationship going on in the old kindergarten class. Tucker swears that he has nothing to do with it, but some priss pot is trying to sink her little claws into my son. :0)

What is this? You learn to write a few little letters in the past few months and then suddenly compose a "you are my boyfriend" note to my son. He probably had to get some help to even read the note! She didn't even give him a chance to check yes or no! Look at the note, she isn't even old enough to use capital letters properly.

I think that it may be time to play private investigator and eat lunch with my boy to see who this little girly is. We have been working on memorizing our phone number, but maybe I should rethink that...imagine if we started getting phone calls? I really thought that we had until at least 3rd grade to deal with this kind of stuff, but I guess I was wrong. I actually had to giggle just a little bit when I saw the note, but still think that its a bit crazy. Tucker told me not to worry...it wasn't like he was going to talk to her or anything. No, I guess not, you seem to be communicating just fine in writing. I guess this is one way to practice your newly acquired writing skills. Is this an example of "real world learning"?

Movie Marathon

Since we had the day off on Monday, Tucker and I decided to go see a movie at Studio Movie Grill after a doctor appointment. We time is just right to see Hotel for Dogs.

We love being able to eat our pizza and chicken tenders while watching a movie! It was a cute movie and we enjoyed just being together. Afterwards, we decided to run to the mall to look around. While at the mall, we shopped around for more Heelys for Tucker. Evidently it is a little more "cooler" if we have black ones now. As we passed (rolled) by the mall movie theater, we saw the poster for Bedtime Stories. So, Tucker and I decided to see movie #2 that day.

We really liked Bedtime Stories and I almost always like movies with Adam Sandler in it, anyway. Tucker gave it 2 thumbs up and said that we would definitely buy that one on DVD. So, out we go with the rest of the crowd.
As we are walking out, we see another poster for Paul Blart: Mall Cop. Tucker looks at me with a little twinkle and grin and asks to see movie #3.

We are having so much fun that I can hardly tell him no. We had about an hour to waste so, we decided to go enjoy a drink and cookie from the food court. I really didn't know how Mall Cop was going to turn out, but we actually enjoyed it as well. It was a great day with Tucker and I think that seeing three movies in the same day will be something that he remembers for a long time. John was busy that day so he didn't get to share in our marathon madness, but Tucker couldn't wait to tell him about it. I couldn't help but giggle when I heard Tucker talking to his daddy, telling him about our day...In Tucker's words, "Daddy, we saw three movies today, because I am wild like that!"

Too much info

Tucker, for some reason, has really started watching all of the infomercials on TV. In case you have been hiding under a rock, here is a list of the most common infomercials: Big City Slider Station, Snuggie, Blendy pens, Bendy hangers, etc.
For some reason a lot of commercials are played during cartoons on Nick. I really didn't think much of it until the other day he paused the TV with a big phone number across the front, ran to get the phone and started dialing away. He is absolutely convinced that we NEED the Big City Slider Station for the ultimate mini cheeseburger. Excuse me...he doesn't even like burgers!

I thought that I had talked him out of ordering anything on the TV by telling him that none of that stuff ever works, you have to been 18 and older, and that is just a scam. He replied back with a "you are probably right because the Snugglie looks very soft, but it probably feels like a towel, right?" Yeah buddy, not to mentioned that we would all look pretty silly sitting around watching TV in our Snugglies. Basically last Sunday, we would have bought about 5 different products if I would have let him. I really thought that this conversation was over, but I guess he was still trying to figure out why I still wasn't for the whole TV product thing. We were driving home from school the other day, just talking about school and such, when he suddenly says, "Mama, the bendy hanger is probably something that you need, but I bet it doesn't bend like they show you on TV, right?" Hmmm, we have got to get that boy away from the TV.

We are making it

Just wanted to say that we are making it just fine after our Christmas break. Tucker popped out of bed Monday morning ready to get to school. Got dressed and brushed his teeth without any nagging from me. I had to pinch myself to make sure that I wasn't dreaming. He was ready to "present" his star student poster to "his kids" as he refers to his classmates.

Tuesday, my how things change so quickly, he was grumbling out of bed and referring to how much school stinks. What a different 24 hours make! Come to find out, it was just going to be a normal day and not fun anymore because he didn't get to present anything. Really? He already likes to talk in front of a group of peers. Who in their right mind REALLY enjoys that? I do it because it is part of my job, but I can't see that I look forward to it.

This morning, I would rate it as being in between the two above mentioned scenarios. We made it through the morning without too much stress and even are making it to school on time. Tomorrow, I am just praying for a early start. We have our clothes ready to jump into because we have to leave the house even earlier than usual so that I can get to a meeting.

I had to laugh a little as Tucker called me out earlier. He and Willy were doing there usual thing of playing tag and being too loud, so I guess I was a bit snippy in trying to calm the boy and the dog down. I heard Tucker sort of reply to Willy, "someone's a bit grumpy, aren't we Willy!" I just had to laugh at his response. I pretty sure he has heard me make a similar comment to him. I guess he listens more than I realize.

Hello Cupcake

Today is the last day of our Christmas vacation. I am usually ready to go back to work after being home for two weeks. Tucker is actually looking forward to going back to school and seeing his friends again. Hopefully this semester will be better than last semester. He is very excited because he was chosen to be the "Star" student for this coming week. We worked on his "Star" student poster this morning, so he is ready to go! I, however, could use a few more days home with Tucker. We have had so much fun reading, playing with new toys, and playing games on the Wii. I have actually read 5 books, but now that will come to a halt. I tend to not be able to put a book down until it is finished, so I can't really fit in reading all night with the whole working thing.
I have also spent a lot of time cooking, and have actually enjoyed it. This morning, I started thinking about a fabulous cake that my Aunt Carol used to make at our family Christmas gatherings. It was a white cake with white frosting and coconut sprinkled all over it. I think that she called it a Martha Washington cake, but I just remember it being a yummy, pretty, coconut cake. I found the recipe in my cookbook, so I decided to try to make it. After making the batter (from scratch...not from a box!) I decided that we needed cupcakes instead of a 3 layer cake. I figured it would be easier for our family to eat. Once the cupcakes were baked and decorated, Tucker and John quickly grabbed a one. Tucker really didn't like it much; he is more of a chocolate cupcake lover, as he explained to me. John seemed to think that they were pretty good. I haven't tried one yet, but I did have plenty of nibbles of the frosting and cake batter, at least that tasted pretty good. Oh well, my cooking streak is over...back to work, which means the kitchen is now on vacation. :0)

Deer Golf

John had won a free trip to Horseshop Bay resort outside Marble Falls, Tx in a golf tournament a few months ago. It was about to expire so we decided to go as a family (as Tucker would say). It included one night at a hotel and 2 rounds of golf. We left early Sunday morning and as soon as we pulled in, we played our first round of golf at Apple Rock. As we were checking in for our starting time, Tucker and I looked out on the 18th green and saw about 10 deer eating grass in the fairway! It was an amazing site to us, but as we started talking to the locals, they said that they see this everyday. Throughout our 18 holes of golf we pretty much saw deer at least 16 different times. Sometimes they were in the fairway or appeared where we needed to tee off. They were always in at least groups of 2-3 and sometimes even more. I just never got tired of seeing the beautiful creatures!

John played all 18 holes, while Tucker and I would have a teeing off contest. We had a great time just being together and being outside in the cool, nice weather. Tucker drove the golf cart a little bit and only tried to wreck it a couple of times! Luckily not many other players were out that day, so it seemed that it was just us and the deer.





After golfing, we went back to the hotel and checked in. We knew that they had a heated pool and hot tub, so Tucker was ready to get in the water. After loading up on hot chocolate, we jumped into the pool and swam for a little while. Tucker found a couple of girls that were there as well and had a fun time swimming with them. Such a ladies man! After swimming, we cleaned up and went to dinner in the hotel restaurant. We had a nice dinner and then went to bed. We had to get ready for our second day of golf and the trip back home! The second day, we played RamRock. This time we had a playing partner, who was a big fan of Texas Tech. Tucker asked me if he was the man that was on the popcorn box...He thought that he looked like Orville Redenbacher. Even though I told him that his name was Glenn, Tucker still positive that this man made popcorn. We didn't see as many deer the second day, but the course was MUCH busier, too. We probably drove Glenn crazy, but we still had a very good time. I even outdrove John and Glenn on a couple of holes! (Although John was teeing off from the Pro box, while I was on the Ladies tee box.) I almost like golf now!