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Elliot Emily Life Topher Truman Tucker

Chasing Life, and Finding Joy daily.

A catch up post as I haven’t posted in along time, and life just keeps on moving! So I apologize for the length!

I can not even begin to tell you how happy I am to state that the pregnancy fog is finally starting to lift a little bit, and I really am starting to feel a little bit better every day. Thanks Goodness! It is nice to have glimpses of normalcy again, and feel like I am not totally and completely falling behind in every aspect of my life.
As far as blogging goes, I am still behind, and unfortunately I don’t see that changing anytime soon, so for now, I will try to remember the awesome moments, and record them when I get a day when I don’t feel like I am chasing life!
So for the latest catchups:
Lately Truman has had more of a twinkle in his eye, and is full of sugar and mischief.

He is so sweet when he wants to be, and yet can be mischievous–Not in a bad way, just figuring out how the world works
With a couple days a week at preschool, Truman takes one day at a time and is looking forward to our trip to the pumpkin patch later this week. Before he started school, we began practicing writing his name. He just writes ‘Tru’ for now, but is learning how to add the Man to his name 🙂

I can’t even begin to tell you how happy those upside down u’s make me feel! He does it whenever he spells his name, here he is with some of my scrapbook letters–cutie.

Tucker has gotten into the swing of life with Kindergarten. I do hear an occasional grumble about going every day, but for the most part, he is loving going to school. I am loving the fact that we are close enough to walk him there and pick him up. We get to really chat, and it is becoming one of my favorite parts of the day. He tells me what book bear chose out to read that day, what happened at recess, the other children he is getting to know (And if they are pants-puller-upers like him, an important categorization in his eyes) and funny other things that happen throughout the day. I am dreading the weather changing, and the thought of having to bundle up to go out (we’ve only had one day where we’ve had to bundle up).

But on that same note, am not picturing any sixth grader excited to walk to school with his mom. So I shouldn’t complain about the weather.

For me, I am enjoying life right now. I must admit, I do love the changing of the seasons. I do love fall, the cool weather, the colors, the smell, back to school, our birthdays, I love everything until the leaves start to fall, and our lives become consumed with raking.

Last week Tucker picked this sunflower from our garden and took it to his teacher, he didn’t really want me to take a picture, but I couldn’t resist, maybe he’s got a crush?

She is an amazing teacher, and is challenging Tucker and keeping him interested in school. I can’t wait to get into the classroom and volunteer, to see what life is really like there for him, and his peers, with this beloved teacher of theirs! Knowing tucker is in such good hands makes me happy, and him happy. Such a blessing to have good people in your life and the lives of your children.

Here is a shot of the baby bumpage. (hurray for being over half way done!)

Totally there, and he is not super active, he already is on kind of a schedule, and I love to lay in bed at night, and to feel him kicking. (Which inevitably happens right as I get into bed, and start to relax, and right as I am about to drift off to sleep.–which I hope he doesn’t get used to. When he is here, I am want him to be sleeping when I am sleeping!)

Another sign that I am feeling better, is I am able to laugh about some of the things that have made me sick during this pregnancy.
For some reason about 3:00-4:00 is a hard hour in the day for me. Therefore we save our TV time for that time. One of the shows we’ve come to love is Word Girl.

The boys love her, she’s a superhero, and I love her too! But I don’t love the meat attacks from one of the villians, the butcher. I don’t know what it is, but seeing that much raw meat all over a person, just makes me sick!
Lately the book the boys just LOVE is the original Curious George. This picture actually made me sick with the other two pregnancies too! But I got over it.. but it’s back!

This picture of George, makes me sick. Really sick. I have even hidden the book, but the boys keep finding it! I need to learn to hide things better!
And of course there are the usual things, chinese food, tuna fish and etc. 🙂

Another sign I am feeling better? We made it back up to the Children’s Museum. (it has been months, since I have had the energy to think about going, let alone actually go!) We all still love this place, and find new ways to play everytime we go there. I keep thinking the boys might be getting tired/bored of this place, as we have frequented it many times, but they just don’t! With their developmentally changing, they seem to find new things that intrege them. So pics from our latest adventure.


The boys still adore their father, and what’s not to love about him? He even helps them build a table out of the neighbors scraps from their deck.

They’ve eaten dinner/snacks on it, and Tuckers latest plan is to collect bugs and sell them from ontop of it. Silly, silly boy. He even draws pictures about it and brings them home from school.

It’s nice to see pictures that are not about robots. He brings home pictures daily, and a large portion are robots. Some things never die, like his passion for robots.But anyways, back to the pictures, again, Kindergarten has expanded his view, the other day he brought this picture home and said, Mom this is for you.

Variety is the spice of life! Love this rainbow.

Also, a few weeks ago, thanks to some good friends, Tuck and Toph were able to attend a BYU football game. It was a big day, which started off with a family trip to ‘a day out with Thomas the Tank Engine’ at the toy store.

Then Toph and Tuck went off to the game (I only have a picture of the tickets, as I took the camera!),

Tru and I had a date. We went to Fuddruckers for a delicoius hamburger, and to a fun, fun, park with friends. It is nice to have one on one time. I’m looking forward to some time with Tuck too!

We’ve also finally gotten the boys room fully put together! The bookshelf moved in, the bunkbeds straightened, and the room totally dejunked.

(notice that above Tuckers desk, he has removed the pictures of Jesus and the temple, and hung up Bionicle/robot pictures…hmm…) Having it clean is such a good feeling, I only wish they stayed like this all the time! 🙂

Hurray for harvest time,

although I was not feeling totally up to canning things, it did feel good to get some Peach Fruit Leather,

Peach Fruit Jam and Applesauce made (Apples and Peaches from our tree). Maybe next year I will be feeling up to being more ambitious!

Super Saturday is fast approaching, and we had our first display last weekend, look at this darling material I used for a project, don’t you love it?

Also, we had our Stakewide Humanitarian Event. I can’t even begin to tell you what an awesome day that was! We have been working hard all year round for this day. We put together over 400 school kits, 400 newborn kits, gathered over 300 quilts, and tied over 35 quilts that day. It was so neat to see all of our hard work come together. I hope to be involved in Humanitarian stuff all of my life. I have felt the blessings of it just flow into our house as we have been working on it. I love it.

Other random things:
Celebrating Birthdays with good friend Hinckley,

Made these darling baby carmel apples (From Family Fun Magazine)for FHE with the Ermolaevs, thanks again for coming guys! We’re so glad to see you again!

It’s amazing when you don’t blog for a month how many fun things you do! 🙂
Hopefully we’ll be back sooner next time. This post took me way too long!

Categories
Emily Life Topher Truman Tucker

10 Reasons why we love sister Emily….

(no this post is not about me, Emily. This is about my sis-in-law Emily…. Let’s just clarify that from the start! 🙂 ) And yes it is another list. See? I am a chronic list maker.

Anyways, drumroll please…

1–she brings her children to our house, and comes and stays with us.
2–her children are darling, and our kids have such a great time together.
3–I get to stay up late having great conversations, about things like child birth 🙂
4–she just might like the show, Gilmore Girls.
5–she lets us borrow her car, (as ours has been in the shop for a week) so we can do essential things like take Truman to preschool.
6–she gets excited when she gets to go pick up Tuck from school.
7–she can make Ninja Eggs. Yep. Just ask her about it.
8–when she found out we weren’t doing anything big for Toph’s birthday, she stayed an extra day so we could go on a date, and she watched our kids.
9–she gets excited about our DI book finds. (almost as excited as Toph and me)
10–she is a good teacher, and helped me with my bread making phobia, and made these,

they were yummy trust me…

Thanks again Emily for a great few days. Tell you husband to go out of town more often, so you can come hang out with us again. 🙂

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Emily Life Topher Truman Tucker

Happy Birthday Brother Eric.

So, our kids are spoiled. They have so many aunts and uncles who love them.

And after our trip to Disneyland, it was apparent Uncle Eric was loved. He was chosen nearly every ride by either Tucker and Truman, as a ‘riding buddy’.


Eric is my youngest brother, and is an awesome one. And I am not going to wax on, but want him to know that the world is a better place because he is part of it.

I love you Eric. Happy Birthday!!

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Emily Life Topher Truman Tucker

A weekend with the Cousins, and another weekend with other Cousins….

First off, thanks for all the warm birthday comments, emails, phone calls…it was a fantastic day. I appreciate you thinking of me!

I’m still playing the catch-up game! 🙂 So here’s what we’ve been up to.
The past few weekend, we have been with cousins. Have I mentioned how much I love family??

Last weekend began the cousin weekend spree—

With a great event, my Cousin Leslies wedding. It was a beautiful wedding in Park City, and I loved being able to spend the day with Leslie and Brandon celebrating their union.

Somehow all our pictures of Leslie, came out blurry, so it’s a good thing I wasn’t in charge of photography 🙂
Here is her arrival on the fire engine:

During the ceremony, the bridesmaids, and look at Leslie’s Beautiful Dress, with the red inlay, it was so stunning (again, I wish ALL of my other shots weren’t blurry!):

How we kept Truman quiet during the ceremony:

Leslie and Brandon, during the ceremony:

And here are a few shots, while everything was getting ready:
Greene Cousins-

Sisters-

After the ceremony, we got a shot of the boys in the fireengine:

The location was beautiful, with a beautiful tree. The boys played, and played, and played in it.


Then after the tree, the boys couldn’t resist sitting on the fire engine:

It was such a good day, and such good company. We’re so happy to have Brandon in our family!

Also, that weekend, we were able to have dinner with some more cousins, Amy and Jordan Phillips. I wish I would’ve broken out the camera, but didn’t. We had a great Sunday Dinner with them, and a great visit, which we’re especially grateful for, considering they might be moving soon! Thanks again for coming guys!

Then this last weekend, Toph and the boys headed to Logan for more cousin-ey goodness…Big O’s Super Hero Birthday Bash. Which I am so sad that I missed. I have the most amazing sister in laws. Case and point. Take a look at the capes Em sewed for the guests… So DARLING. It has re-ignited the Super Hero in Truman. I wish our Air Conditioning in our car hadn’t gone out, so I could’ve been there, but here are the highlights, and my understanding of what happened:
The capes and treasure hunt:




Which led to a Pinata:


And of course the birthday boy and cake:

The boys always leave these events so happy and tired, and what wondeyful events and people to be celebrating!

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Life Uncategorized

A very Happy Unbirthday to You!

Well, I am behind on many things in my life, including Birthday Wishes to so many of the people I love…. I do believe that Late is better than Never!!! So happy birthday, love you all!

My Brother-in-Law, Dallin Paul

My niece, Sophie

My Brother-in-law, Patrick

My nephew Michael

My nephew Owen

And my niece Nora,

All of these Birthday are with in Three Weeks of Each other!!! Better late than Never, Love you all!

Categories
Emily Life

Inspiring…

Love this song. And I am sure it’s probably been around for a long time!
But I do love when I find songs that I feel comfortable listening to with my children. And that they like too… Don’t get me wrong, we do love Raffi, Wee Sing, Veggie Tales, etc… But this is nice, take a listen…

Plus, this song makes me want to be a better momma. What more can you want?

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Emily Life Topher Truman Tucker

Vacation Day Ten–Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jog.

Again, my prego body was not handling this vacation thing too well, I woke up this day feeling not so good. Thankful again for so many helping hands, to help getting things packed, loaded, watching children, cleaning up things, and get ready for Condo checkout.

In the car, we were off– not sure if we were going to crash in Vegas or go all the way home. I was grateful again for the DVD Player, especially as I fell asleep, Toph was able to drive, and the boys were content to watch movies for a few hours. I didn’t even wake up when they stopped for gas, stopped to go to the restroom and get snacks, or anything. What good travelers my boys are!

And I was grateful that I was able to sleep (I NEVER can sleep in the car, except apparently when I am pregnant?!?! when I apparently can sleep through everything?!?!?). Toph Drove, Drove, and Drove.

Traveling was going so good, that we decided to keep on driving all the way home. We arrived shortly after 11 PM. And I was grateful to climb into my bed.

Home again, Home again, Jiggity Jog.

Now, if only I can convince Truman that we went to California when he says, “Phalifornia (California) here, wwwwwwwwweeeeeeeeeeee come!!!”

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Emily Life Topher Truman Tucker Uncategorized

Vacation Day Nine–California Adventure

We weren’t sure if we were going to spend three days of Disneyland and California Adventure, but after watching your children on the rides, and having fun together as a family, it was enough for me. The boys were having a great time, so we headed back for our last day.

I wasn’t feel stellar, but was excited to be there, and again, thanks to the help of the other 5 adults, I didn’t hardly push a stroller, or lift a child. Making it alot easier to be healthier!

Again, the highlights.
The carousel:

Watching the riders:


While walking around we met some characters:
Frozone:

Incredibles:

Walle: (They were super excited!!! Tucker even decided to be in this one!)

By the way, Toph didn’t shave the whole time we were on vacation, look at that scruff:

Hubbas:

Amy and Tuck:

Love this shot of us all walking:

While the big kids went on the Tower of Terror, mom and the boys and I went to the Playhouse Disney show, and the boys loved it,

we saw Little Einsteins,

Handy Manney,

and Mickey,

It was a fun interactive show, complete with ‘leaves’ falling from the ceiling, bubbles, and a good time!
What’s not to Love about the Bugs Life Section of California Adventure:
Before the movie:


The Heimlich ride:


The bumper bugs:

look at Amy and Erics Funny faces on this one, good laugh:




The twisty teacup lady bugs:

The flying high juicebox ride:

Another one of our favorite rides, was the Buzz Lightyear Shooting ride:
My potato head talks to you:


It was a 3D shooting ride, and lots of fun. Tru and I rocked the house 🙂 :

Another favorite was this soaring ride, so much fun:

There were alot more ‘big kid’ rides at California Adventure, here’s a pic on the Screamer:

With the help of Trumans lifts, he was able to get on all the rides he wanted to go on, besides the Jellyfish one. The man checking height was pretty particular. Tuck and Gramps were able to go though:

The boys, minus Truman, went on this wild ride, not getting as wet as we thought they were going to!

All our days at Disneyland, the boys searched for Wall-E toys, only to be disappointed that the good ones had been totally wiped out. They only had little small yellow plastic wall-e’s and weren’t planning on getting any more or new stuff in until Christmas. What?!?!?!
There was nothing to be found anywhere, so Tucker and Truman had to choose a different toy, Buzz Lightyear, Zurg, their cars, and some of those plastic Wall-E toys. Thanks Grams and Gramps!

The pixar parade was by far one of my favorite moments of our time at Disneyland. And honestly, the funnest parade I have ever seen! So much fun! We saw so many of the characters that the boys love, while they sprayed water at us!! Christopher was behind the camera, but I think I was just as excited as the boys were! I love seeing things they’ll love.

Here’s a video I found on YouTube with the fun Parade:

Yummy, yummy dinner at the Italian Restaurant…

Then all the kids left the park, and my mom and dad stayed to watch the fireworks, and enjoy Disneyland just the two of them.

Hurray for vacation!!

Categories
Emily Life Topher Truman Tucker

Vacation Day Eight–Recovering, Balboa and the Beach…

This day, being pregnant became a reality again. I wasn’t able to go out with the family this day, and spent the day recovering on the couch. And honestly, I was grateful, I was able to get to this point, with out being this sick, and having to rest up like this any sooner. This week was the best I had felt this whole pregnancy up to this point! So I didn’t feel to bad about recovering on the couch, although of course I felt back to miss out on the sights and being with the fam!

My understanding of the day was this: They went to Balboa Beach, got a frozen banana and then back to Corona Del Mar Beach, to see if they could dig and find more of those creatures.

They didn’t find any more creatures, but they did make their own pool…


And of course, they found the seaweed:

Obviously not too many pics, but from what I heard, it was a great day.

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Emily Life Topher Truman Tucker Uncategorized

Family Vacation Day Seven–Still the Happiest Place on Earth?

DISNEYLAND DAY TWO!
We weren’t able to see everything in one day, especially with the crowds, a pregnant me, and late starts in the mornings…so we decided to head back!!
So many fun things this day!
As always, these maps are so fun to look at:

Mom and I waited in the forever long Nemo line, while everyone else went to the Maderhorn: (Did I spell the right, I don’t think so)

And Tucker was nervous about seeing the Abominable Snowman:

After the ride, we were still waiting, and I wasn’t feeling super hot, so I was hanging out in the strollers,

But it was worth the wait, as it was one of Trus favorite rides:

Truman was worried about being able to breath in the submarines, but after the lady who drove the ride assured him that it was okay, there was air, he was great!

Fantasy Land:
By SnowWhite’s Castle (I’m holding the poisoned apple)

Pinocchio Ride:

The kids didn’t actually go on the teacups, but they did sit in the one on display:

On the storybook village boat:

Heading to the whale:

inside the whales mouth:

They had the cutest little houses on this ride:

Also on this ride, the lady was telling us about all the houses and whose belonged to whom, when explaing Cinderella’s Castle she said, Do you hear the Clock, and see the pumpkin, Cinderella better hurry, we all know what happens when the clock strikes 12. To which Truman replied on the edge of his seat, “What? What happens?” Cute boy.
We saw the Mad Hatter and Alice too:

And of course the crazy Merlin:

The big kids then left for Space Mountain, and mom I and took the boys on the classic Dumbo Ride. I love this ride!
Tucker and I rode behind Grams and Tru:

Truman didn’t want to get out at the end. And sat mopping while I tried to explain about it being another little kid’s turn. Apparently he loved it too!

I love how they give you the magic feather to hold—

Sweet Tucker and I had a great time flying together. I love this shot!

The carousel is the best carousel I have ever been on, can’t tell you why. Just the memories I think:
Sweet Tru:

And Tuck:

And the cute wave:

Tucker was quite particular about what horse he chose to ride, a fast one, he would say :

At first Truman was sure that he wanted Grams on, then he wanted her off. Good thing Grams is a good sport!

Trying to get the sword out, look at Tucks face:

Of course there was more waiting in line, love this shot of Tru:

Here’s a funny one of Amy trying to get Eric to eat some gum:

Sweet Tuck and Toph:

Tucker also spent time in a few of the lines listening to Wicked. He loves the soundtrack, and sings along with it. One of his new passions:

And a little kiss from my Tru-bee:

Eric and Tru:

At Lunch, Tuck took over Camera Duty, love these shots:



We also went on the Jungle Cruise:
Love Eric’s Face in this shot:

On the boat:

And the train:

After a few other rides, we decided we had hit most of the ones in Disneyland that we had wanted, and decided to head over to California Adventure. Toph took these pictures of us walking across, fun Candid Shot:

Where we started the Muppet 3D movie. The boys know who the muppets are, and I enjoyed the humor in this one too! A cute Show.
Group Shot:

The one constant, was the lines:
Toph and Tuck:

Tru and Eric:

This activity always helped pass the time, the good old scrunching face game:

Sisters:

The Monsters Inc. Ride was lots of fun too:
In line:


Our Monsters pretending to be Monsters:


Getting on:

Hurray for Boo:

Loving it:

At the end this lady talks to you. Here she is talking to Amy and I, we were laughing so hard because she said something to amy and I like, “Hey you two in the back, are you guys twins?” We were surprised and said, No, to which she replied, “Sorry, all you humans look alike.” We thought it was hilarious.


Our first Wall-E Sighting, a poster:

We ended the night, with the good old Classic Electric Parade, I remember it from when I was a kid. We found some good spots,

and I had my evening snack:

Truman fell asleep, like literally two minutes before the parade started,

and we couldn’t get him to wake up!

here’s a video I found on Utube:

A great and happy day.