Better Late Than Never

I have had a stack of pictures laying on my computer desk for months, waiting to be scanned. Well, today was the day, finally. It is funny to be blogging these pictures now since one is of the kids with Santa and the others are Tucker's ultrasound pics and he is no longer in utero. Oh well, now is the time.

Emmett and Melynn seeing their first Santa with a Southern accent. I thought it was funny. "What do ya'll want this year? Have ya'll been good kids?"

This was taken 9 Dec 2011, the ultrasound the showed the blood clot had disappeared.

3 Nov 2011 ultrasound

7 Dec 2011, taken the day I was bleeding. Baby looked great but it was scary. I was 16 weeks along.

Ultrasound from 27 Sep 2011. I was 6 weeks along.

The last ultrasound taken, 30 Dec 2011, when it was confirmed that he indeed was a boy. I was 19 weeks.

So, now I have all of Tucker's life blogged so far. Woohoo! Now I need to go way back and find all of Emmett's first six months of life and blog about him. I didn't have the blog when he was this small. Poor guy missed out!

Tadpole Swim Camp

I got a picture from the swim camp coaches, Coach Terri and Coach Parker with all the kids that were there. It is really cute. Melynn is the tiniest one, Coach Terri pointed that out the first day. I didn't realize how little she was compared to the others until I saw this picture. She really is tiny. But despite her size she did great. She was able to blow bubbles in the water and put her face in and she kicks like a champ. Emmett was starting to swim freestyle and I'm very proud of him. His confidence grew a lot. They each had a buddy. Melynn's buddy was Leah and she is in the cute purple swimsuit with her eyes closed. Emmett's buddy was Danny and he is right by him. There were not as many boys as you can see. But those two had a lot of fun together.

I have missed going to the gym. All the employees loved seeing Tucker as I brought the big kids to swim last week. I officially put Tucker on our account and he is old enough to start going to the Day Care on Monday. I am excited!

Sleepy Children

My kids are participating in swim camp this week. They come home tired and won't take naps so we have had long days. But they are loving it and I am loving having some time at the house to clean without interruption (except nursing and putting Tucker to sleep and such). I got to go grocery shopping with one kid. It was nice. Anyway, I have some funny pictures of them sleeping. I also have some other random stuff too.

Dr. Tucker (ha ha). This shirt was a gift from my friend Kristy and it was a total hit at our ENT pool party.

Emmett sleeping with his t-ball trophy. Totally funny.

Melynn's picture of her swimming at the pool. She also drew an "m" and a "g" she said.

Melynn's coloring is still sporadic. I can't get her to enjoy it yet.

Emmett holding Tucker and reading at the same time

Melynn likes to play "baby and grandma". I'm the grandma and she's the baby. Like one baby isn't hard enough.

Does she look tired or what?

So swim camp has taken up our lives this week. They have to arrive in between 8 and 8:30 for sunscreen application and signing in. Then they have lessons until 10. Snack break at that point and sunscreen reapplication and then free swim until 11:15. At that point they get dressed in clothes and go upstairs for crafts and a movie. I pick them up at noon.

What have I done during that time? Monday I came home and took a shower, fed the baby, got ready and it was time to leave already. Tuesday I stayed up after the 5:30 feeding and showered so I could go straight from the gym to Wal-mart. I had to nurse Tucker in the car to pull that off but it was worth it. thoroughly enjoyed being at Wal-mart without anyone talking to me or asking for something. Just a quiet baby. So nice. Wednesday was grocery shopping and it was kind of hard because Tucker pooped partway through. Today I messed up by forgetting Melynn's clothes so my at home cleaning plan didn't happen. Instead I had to do an emergency wash of Tucker's carseat (blowouts ugh) and then had to take the clothes to the gym. That is almost thirty minutes of extra driving. Bad mistake. I was able to squeeze in a short trip to the library to switch Melynn's summer reading prize book for something better. More on that later. Tomorrow I have visiting teaching appointment. Again, taking only one kid will be heaven!

I just have say something and get on my soap box for just a second. Melynn's prize book that I chose yesterday was absolutely horrible. I had never read it but I thought it was about letters since it was entitled C D B by William Steig. He is the cartoonist that invented Shrek (which I would have learned if I had looked at the back before picking it out). That alone would make me not want the book. The whole thing was based on speech from single letters only. The title is supposed to read See the Bee? but this book does not have any words, just letters. It is like texting gone bad. Anyway, the reason why I took it back was because of two reasons.

1. Instead of focusing on teaching children to read words in books based on the SOUNDS the letters make, it was focused on saying the name of the letter. What a horrible thing to be teaching pre-readers!
2. It had some bad messages within those pages. One page had two cartoon girls and one said, "I 8 U!" and the other girl said, "I 8 U 2!" Hmmm, bullying anybody? Let learn how on page five.

I was appalled that this book was a PRIZE for the SUMMER READING PROGRAM! Ugh! I took it back and got book 5 in the Chronicles of Narnia series. Something worth reading.

Ok, I'm off my soapbox now.

The picture of Tucker in his scrub onesie was taken before our pool party last Friday. Each year the Otolaryngology residents all meet at Dr. Hodges house to swim in his pool and eat BBQ together. They had it catered this year and I managed to duplicate one of the dishes (we are supposed to bring a side dish). I went home with my entire dish. I was a little disappointed. Anyway, back to Tucker. He was asleep almost the whole party but I did get him out of the car seat to show him to a couple of the other wives. They LOVED his outfit. They wanted to buy one for their own future kids. He does look like a cute little doctor, I think.

The t-ball trophy picture is a little self-explanatory. Emmett got his trophy at a pizza party and that night Josh went in to see what it looked like and found Emmett sleeping with it. Why was he sleeping with it? I'm not sure, but he did. The pizza party was quite an experience for me. Picture me taking three kids to an all you can eat pizza buffet and trying to manage things. Emmett kept losing his slip on shoes, Melynn had to go to the bathroom (like she always does) and I did my best getting them food and trying to get them to eat. Oh, and get a bite in my own face too. I was a bit disappointed to be leaving there hungry after what I paid. I did get to eat a small salad and two breadsticks. Tucker cut the dinner short by needing to eat himself and I did not want to nurse at that table with a bunch of strangers and my kids running around wild without their shoes on. I was a mess by the time we got home. I have decided that taking the kids out to eat will involve drive thru options only for a while. I cannot handle all three yet by myself without giving myself an ulcer. Too stressful.

It has been quite a week.

This Little Piggy

I have two videos to share. I hope they work!

The next one is just of Tucker's noises.

Tonight we have a pool party for Josh's program. Needless to say, the kids are excited. Melynn put her swimsuit on and when I told her to put on play clothes she just put them over top, panties and all! Silly girl.

Family Update

I have some random pictures today. Everything from Tucker just being a cute baby to Melynn with panties on her head. So, here we go.

Melynn with panties on her head. Just being silly at bedtime.

Melynn trying on Tucker's baby gift. It fit in the shoulders but not in the length.

Melynn and Josh on a daddy daughter outing to the park

She found some goose feathers and had a great time playing with them

Emmett playing catcher at his last t-ball game

Giving a thumbs up

Josh had a Tuesday off so we went to the riverwalk as a family. Here is the M bridge.

Melynn sitting on an island in the riverwalk model.

Emmett modeling his t-ball championship shirt (they got him a large!) at the riverwalk

Tucker is getting bigger and cuter

Josh took Tucker for a ride in the car. He didn't actually drive though.

Tucker at 5 weeks old

So, after looking at the pictures, I remembered that we went as a family downtown to Mud Island and walked down the Riverwalk. It is a 1/2 mile model depicting the lower Mississippi river basin. I love it. You get science and history blended with fun. Each mile of the river is shrunken into a 30" cement panel. It even shows the depth gradations and the flood plain, sandbars, etc. It also has major cities, dams, bridges and such. It is just fascinating. So, we walked down to the "Gulf of Mexico" and then ate a picnic lunch and walked back. It was a fun outing. We like having Josh around.

Emmett finished t-ball, which I have already mentioned. He had a blast and it will definitely get budgeted into next year. Melynn might even be old enough to play next year but we might look into gymnastics instead of t-ball for her. She is a monkey and it might be a better fit.

Melynn's Eating Woes

My poor middle child is getting neglected in almost every facet of her life. Emmett has been busy with t-ball and Tucker takes all my time nursing and Melynn, well, she's left to fight for some attention somewhere. I think it is at the table.

Yesterday I got dinner ready and then sat down to nurse Tucker, hoping Melynn and Emmett would eat without an adult present. She came in two minutes later and said, "You made the most disgusting thing ever." (I think Emmett told her to say that, by the way). She refused to eat it. Oh, and it was chicken enchiladas, if you are curious. Emmett wouldn't eat any either actually. So I scarfed mine down after feeding the baby and we ran full speed to Emmett's t-ball tournament. Melynn begged the full two hours for a treat or snack from the concession stand. Sorry, sweetheart. No cash. And even if I had cash available I wouldn't buy her anything because she didn't eat her dinner! I am so mean. Well, after the games she was again whining about being hungry so I reheated her plate and she ate it all up. 

Today wasn't quite so bad but was still funny enough to mention. Dinner tonight was breakfast food. Scrambled Eggs, waffles and hash browns. Can't complain about that, right? Well, Little Miss Independent and Have Everything Her Way requested syrup on her eggs. Gross, I thought, but I have learned to just let her win some fights. So I put syrup on her eggs (and her waffle, while I was at it). Then she wouldn't eat the eggs because they were "yucky." Sorry, sweetheart. That is what you told me to do. She went to bed without eating much. I let her have an apple, which she wanted cut up, but Tucker was fussy so I said she would have to eat it without it being cut. She decided to take a butter knife and chisel pieces off. Fine by me.

She is a silly little thing sometimes. And yes, I am trying my hardest to not neglect her needs. 

Dodgers: T-Ball 2nd Place Winners!

Emmett's team played in the tournament championship game tonight and lost to the Cardinals. We got second place though! Each player got a special tournament t-shirt and they might even get trophies. Next week is a pizza party to celebrate. Woohoo! I know Emmett really loved playing ball this year and if we could get out and work with him more he will be a great player next year. They got pictures taken and they turned out amazing. I might have to scan them in and put them on here to show them off. Anyway, tonight was a double header and they won their first game against the Blaze and then lost in the second game. They were tired. It was the first time those little pipsqueaks had played a double header and they just didn't have the fuel to do it. Kids were laying down and not focusing at all. And the Cardinals are really good. So we pretty much didn't have a chance at winning. But they had fun and that is all that matters.

Maintenance Mode

After an event like having a new baby or moving or something else equally traumatic, I always end up in maintenance mode for a while. I am trying to break out of it and get back on track with life but it is hard. I find that things that normally get done are not getting done when they should be and it isn't for lack of trying! For example, I am very good at maintaining our laundry. I wash clothes on Mondays and Thursdays, and my goal is to sort, wash, dry, fold and put away all in a day. I used to be able to do that. And someday I will be able to do that again, but for now, I am doing good to get it all washed. It is Saturday and I still have two full baskets that need to be folded and one basket that is folded that needs to be put away. Not too bad but still irritating to me. I want it DONE because I have to start over on Monday!

When Josh and I have our five minutes to talk at the end of the day my end sounds like this: I fed the baby and fed the other two. Not much else got done. His end sounds like this: A couple of gunshot wounds but nothing too bad. The end. We are both so tired that the conversation usually ends at that. Pretty sad. But we are in maintenance mode so it's okay. Someday we will not be so tired like this.

I went to the beginning of the Family History Fair this morning and it reminded me that I need to be writing things down better. I took my blog books for a display and I was visiting with two ladies in the ward about them. They LOVED them. I realized that I am not writing about these first special days with Tucker enough! He is so awesome and we love him to death! I am also terribly behind on some things. I have a whole stack of his ultrasound pictures that I have been meaning to scan and put on here. Yep, that hasn't happened. I have a picture from visiting Santa's workshop last year that still hasn't been scanned. Embarrassing! I will get it done eventually, I will.

So, my goals for this next week are: Take some pictures of Tucker because he is 4 weeks old! Fold laundry and put it away. Make dinner at least five times (use freezer meals only if absolutely necessary). Read to the kids. Blog twice about what is happening, even if it is just nursing the baby. Call the babysitter to schedule for next Saturday's graduation banquet before I forget about it. Take a nap if possible.

Tucker's Blessing

I have more pictures!

Tucker's blessing day was perfect. We had so much fun with the family that came into town. Two of my brothers and their wives were coming to Nashville for a business conference and wanted to come visit us so we planned the blessing around their trip. Just happens it was fast Sunday! We begged Josh's supervisor to have the weekend off, which she granted, thank goodness. My sister and her family drove all the way from North Carolina for the weekend and both sets of grandparents flew in. It was a full house!

Tucker was a star. He was pleasant and wonderful through the meeting and tolerated all the extra hands that held him that day. He really is a good baby. Here is the star in his little white suit. This was Emmett's blessing outfit that he wore at six weeks old. Tucker will NOT fit in this at six weeks. I can guarantee that. It fit perfect at two weeks old.

Grandpa Kurt got some turns holding Tucker and I even got a picture! I love my dad. He is so handsome.

Aunt Tara got a turn, as did Aunt Suzette, but she sneaked away without a picture!

Thanks to the DeFords for sending the cute hooded towel

Notice Emmett's hands. This picture and Emmett's totally serious "blessing" pose gave us the next picture:

With Josh and Emmett giggling. Melynn is having a tantrum, by the way. Don't mind her.

Emmett and Tucker

The guys in the circle: Front row is Miriam (not a priesthood holder), Grandpa Kurt, Josh and Tucker, Uncle Kurt. Back row is Grandpa Wes, Uncle Owen and Uncle Jeremy

The Krupp side (a little blurry), four of the six kids

The Wood side

Tucker all dressed up

He's sleepy in this one but you can see the outfit better

Melynn ate some food and it improved her mood so she jumped in on some pictures

"Hi Tucker!"

She loves him too

Look for his little dimple. Not many shots show it yet and it's super cute. Looking chubby already bud!

Grandma Susan holding Tucker at the T-ball game. Grandpa Wes in the background.

We sure are glad to have this little guy in our family. He sure is special.

Whew! We're Still Here

I just got the 80 plus pictures off my camera. Don't worry, I won't put them all on one post. First I'm going to put on the pictures of the two big kids. Then we will have a separate post just with new pictures of Tucker.

Emmett and Melynn playing in the long grass under the tramp

I love this shot

Childhood happiness is so fun to catch on camera

Melynn "sleeping" in her new bed

Yep, it's a laundry basket. And the best part is, she actually went to bed in this thing, all full of toys under her!

Melynn's hair french-braided is gorgeous.

I love how the golden part goes down the middle

Melynn with the Peabody Ducks. We took Wes and Susan.

They were being very friendly ducks.

Look at that cute Emmett smile!

My t-ball guy in the dug out. Hopefully we will have many more ball photos

This one shows Melynn's "haircut" she gave herself. See those shorter chunks that came out of the braid?

This shows it too. She got both sides, about halfway in between her long hair and her bang length. Whack.

On Deck

Getting in position

Foul ball!

Look at the determination on that face!

Yes, we were busy with family visiting. It was so much fun having everybody come to see Tucker. I didn't take enough pictures. I always feel that way. But it always feels a bit awkward to rush around taking pictures all the time. Lately we have done the following: nurse the baby a whole bunch and read books, watch too many movies (mostly Sleeping Beauty and Tangled), go to Emmett's t-ball game, visit the library, view the Peabody Ducks march to the elevator, see the Pink Palace Museum, and more.

Melynn decided on Tuesday morning that she needed to trim some "bangs that were long". Well, she didn't cut her bangs, which are already short enough, but she did cut the front part of her long hair. Chop, chop. She has some good sized chunks that are about three inches shorter than the rest of her hair now.But she did both sides so it almost looks like we did it on purpose, or that she has a section of long bangs that are growing out. Josh didn't get to see it until yesterday because he is back working in the ICU and didn't see the kids Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. Sad, I know, but that is the truth of a resident's life.