Back to Halloween!

Our camera is back! With pictures intact! Just in time for the baby that is STILL NOT HERE. ugh. Waiting to go in to labor is bizarre... but for now, Halloween pictures. They are in reverse order -- so we begin with how the evening ended up. The tiger out cold from a full evening of festivities...

Halloween included trick-or-treating with friends Tucker Sharp & Vinnie Venus -- then going to the Bolles playoff game and cheering in costume in the press box.

For those of you keeping track, this was Tucker's second year as a tiger. He didn't want to be anything else because he already had this costume and it still fit.

Below: Mimi's Prudential Halloween party. He loved the attention, the food and being with his Mimi. He did not love the adult man real estate agent who came to the party as a pirate. "I like pirates, but not men pirates. Only boy pirates." There you go.

He was very proud of his pumpkin this year -

Bolles Game

Bolles played the first round of the playoffs last night. After going down by 6 points, they proceeded to score 70 straight on the poor team from Orlando. For us, it was freezing - thankfully we were in the press box warm most of the night. These are some of Kyle's Bible Study guys - "Tut" above and with Davis in the prom pose below. They'll love that picture. #18 in the last picture is Tyler. They are such great guys and they played an incredible game last night. We are borrowing Carolyn's camera, and I just realized I need to figure out how to get the date off all these. ugh!



We still need to post our Halloween pictures, but they are on the camera being fixed. Hopefully they will come back to us.

And... I'm still not in labor.

Day at the Farm

Kathryn had her 2nd Birthday Party at a farm outside Jacksonville. Tucker was in heaven! Hayride and petting zoo and pony rides... and most importantly, cake.
Kathryn & Tucker checking out the chickens.

Riding the tractor his only question was "Daddio, where is the cup holder?"

Riding "El Diablo"

Heard Walking

The Ryans' great, nice Nikon SLR (our only camera) went down just in time for a baby arrival. Not good. So it is off at the shop and we don't really have pictures to add to the blog, but I did just have the most hilarious series of conversations while walking with Tucker this morning.

First of all, he is fascinated with heaven. He has been asking MANY questions - mostly very hard if not impossible to answer. For example:

-"Mama, are there carwashes in heaven?"
-"Are there gas stations?"
-"But Mama, does Jesus drive a car?" (I say no. Jesus walks around.)
-"So there are sidewalks in heaven?"
-"How do we get all the way up there?"
-"Does Jesus come down to Jacksonville and get us?"
-"Does God eat food?"
-"When do we get to come back home?" (When I say we stay forever, he does NOT like that.)
-"Will there be trains in heaven?"

We have been talking about this a lot over the last few weeks and it keeps coming up because he is not satisfied he gets it. It doesn't help to tell him that heaven will be perfect and wonderful and fun, but it is a mystery exactly what it will be like... today, like usual, we get done with this long discussion and he says "But Mama, will there be carwashes there?" Back to the beginning.

So sweet.

He is also fascinated with the baby inside my belly. Our favorite quote was asked again this morning while walking -

"Is baby Mac going pee pee in your tummy?"

Oh to be three.

Pumpkin Patch Part 2

Reason #384 Tucker is like Kyle. I excitedly told Tucker he was going back to the Pumpkin Patch with his class for school today and all he could say is "I already have a pumpkin." Like his father, if he has one of something, that is all he needs. For example, "Kyle, we should get this shirt for you." Kyle's response: "I already have a shirt." Like his mother, he did pick out his second perfectly symmetrical pumpkin. We don't want any lopsided pumpkins ruining our display!

The beloved Ms Jennifer approving Tuck's choice in pumpkins.
Classic! The boys in the class terrorizing a poor lizard. They are all deciding whether or not to kill it or let it go as I captured this shot. They later decide to let it run and it ends up climbing up one of the other boys - they all started screaming like little girls!

He's worried about the lizard.

They also had story time and lunch time out there.

Kyle in Chi-town

Kyle took a trip up to see his Dad, Stepmom & brothers this past weekend. They had a blast hanging out. Above: Sean (in middle - 71) at his football game Saturday night.

Kyle & Patrick

Field & Science Museum

Fall

We have been really busy around here - preparing for baby and preparing for Halloween and chasing a 3-plus year old. Above: This is the outfit Tucker came out of "nap time" (i.e. supposed-to-be-napping-playing-in-bed time) in yesterday.
Me with 6 weeks still to go. Ugh.
Remember this cute dog? Kyle took a picture of him b/c it has been so long since he has had any recognition as part of our family. Poor Jackson!
We have actually had some Fall-like weather here in Jacksonville. It has been awesome! But I am glad it will be in the 80s again this weekend. I want to get another beach trip in while Kyle is up in Chicago for the weekend. On Sunday Tucker's school had a Fall Festival complete with train rides, 5 bounce houses, climbing walls, etc. Tucker would not try ONE thing because he was too scared... not out of the ordinary, but we did pick out some pumpkins and at the end he wanted to go back to the train. Unfortunately the line was way too long and we had another party we were supposed to be at. Kyle decided it was a good time to teach the life lesson "You snooze, you lose" to Tucker as there was no line for the train earlier in the afternoon when he was scared. I don't think he got it.
This is Kyle counseling Tucker. "You can do it buddy. It's not scary. It's just a little bounce house. All your friends are in there." Nothing worked. So, back to the pumpkin patch...

Playing school and cooking show in his giraffe tent.
Leading Jackson out of the park after a big dog party.

We're heading out to Wal-Mart because Tucker doesn't think we are ready enough for Halloween. He says pumpkins aren't enough and he wants spider webs with spiders on our door. That doesn't really jive with my fall wreath idea, but I guess this is the time to spook it up for his sake! I guarantee you that as soon as we put the spiders on he will be upset that it is too scary and want me to take it down! Oh well.

Shoes

Tucker LOVES my shoes...

And Daddio's boots, too, on occasion...

How he rolls...

Loves his boxer shorts -- with nothing else 90% of the time. When I try to get him dressed he asks where we are going b/c certainly if I'm making him get dressed, we must be leaving the house!


Tucker is already becoming somewhat of a gamer. His grandfather got him this laptop and there is a mouse game on there that he plays OFTEN. It is weird.
What would I do from 8-8:30 am without Curious George?
Waking up with his usualy bed head.

Builder Tucker

Building...
Very proud of the final product!
I don't have any "belly shots" to pass along, but there are never pictures on here of Kyle & I, so I thought this one would have to do to show me 7 months pregnant (the eternal pregnancy goes on with 3 months left...ugh)-- and Mr. Ball in the background! This was the Allen's anniversary party last Sunday.

First Day

Tucker LOVES school. He couldn't wait to get back to SUMP again. His new teacher is Ms. Jennifer -- she is in love with Tucker so hopefully he won't get away with murder. She is really sweet and there is a car wash toy in the classroom, so he is pretty much set for the year.

A big mole!

This mole grew a bunch in the past year so we went to a pediatric dermatologist who said it needed to be removed. Tucker was REALLY tough - literally didn't cry through the shot, removal, stitches - and now it is gone. We're really glad it was removed because Dr. Kwong called today and said it was in fact "changing" - we're glad to have it out of his hair!