Here we go!

Tucker wants us to post on the blog since we have been neglecting it. We had a great weekend at the lake with all of our cousins! Tucker and Tanner did their best to support the firework stand at Lake Nocona. They had some much fun blowing up cans and watching the fireworks. I am so glad that they are starting their own memories at the lake just like I did over 35 years ago.

Goodbye 2009

Well, I am afraid that I didn't document 2009 blogging very well. So, instead of trying to catch up, I think that I will do a little recap of the year and just move forward. So glad I thought of that. :0) This will definitely ease the burden of me trying to catch up on some much needed blogging and just start over fresh with the new year. I guess that will be one of my New Year's resolutions...more blogging about Tucker. Let's just hope he gives us some things to blog about.

2009 started off easy enough and has been a great year for our family. Tucker made it through Kindergarten without too many incidents and his poor teacher even returned for another round. He started reading and found a love for math and science. But, his ultimate joy in school is to entertain the other students (not exactly the highlight of the year for his teacher.)

Tucker continued to play soccer for the Jedis and they had a great season. The spring season was extremely cold, but we persevered a made it. I vowed to only participate in indoor sports from January to April, but we will see how that goes!

Spring Break we went to Las Vegas. (I blogged about it here.) Tucker and I spent most of our time playing xbox 360 and swimming in the hotel pool. (I am so glad that we drove all the way from Texas to Vegas just to play video games and swim...this is something that we certainly never do at home!) HA! John set out to win millions in the casinos, but ended up leaving with a few $. We did walk around with Tucker and see lions, tigers, and dophins.

The highlight of the spring for Tucker was getting to go see Montreal play the Dallas Stars at the American Airline Arena. Tucker has become very passionate about hockey and more specifically Montreal Canadien Hockey. He logs onto the internet to NHL.com first thing in the morning and right before he goes to bed to check the most current hockey statistics. He basically eats, drinks, and breathes hockey!




Summer came upon us quickly and so did the hot weather. John and Tucker decided to escape by driving with Willy to Montreal for a couple of weeks. Did I say a couple of weeks....somehow a couple turned in to 6 weeks!! I was still working, so they enjoyed visiting with family, friends, and the Bernard Cantina for poutine. The weather was beautiful and they stayed outside playing hockey, roller blading and Tucker learned how to ride a bicylce!

I had a lot of quality time to myself and actually got to just float and read in our pool for the first time ever! I finally got a 2 week vacation and flew up to Canada to be with my boys and enjoyed every minute of the time I got to spend with them. While I was there, we picked strawberries and made strawberry jam. We also was able to attend the Montreal Canadiens summer rookie camp. Tucker loved this!! He also had the priveledge of meeting Jean Beliveaue. Jean Beliveaue played for the Montreal Canadiens and helped win the Stanley Cup 10 TIMES!!

Finally the boys had to return home and 1st grade was waiting on Tucker. He has a wonderful, patient 1st grade teacher and we are seeing a lot of growth. He is reading more fluently, but still doesn't have my love of reading. He is a numbers kind of guy!!

The starting of the new school year, also means that Tucker's birthday was fast approaching. After going through many ideas, we invited about 25 boys and girls to join us for some broomball at the local ice rink. They seemed to have a great time, with only a few injuries! Next year, I have sworn to a quiet movie/slumber party for 4-5 boys. I think it is time for a smaller affair.

Soccer season also started up and Tucker was the high scorer for his new team, the Blue Dragons. Although we had a hard season (almost losing every game), the boys have seem to get a little spunk about them and we are hoping for a great new spring season! I am NOT looking forward to the cold, outdoor games.

Halloween was spent as a Ninja. We didn't really know what a ninja was, but the costume has some really cool weapons! Peaches and Papaw visited us on Halloween and Tucker ended up with WAY more candy than he could eat. After trick or treating, we sat outside and gave away the rest of our candy. Tucker's favorite costumed visitor that night was a whoopee cushion. He could hardly give the whoopee cusion kid any candy for laughing so hard. It was very funny!

We made it throught the rest of the holidays and 2009 safely and happy. We have watched Tucker grow and become the little boy that we love more and more every day. I love to talk with him and hear is insights into his young life and see the innocence through his eyes. (I could do with a little less farting topics!) So here is to the memories that we have made and to the future memories that we will make for 2010!

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!