Cousins!

A long, long time ago (in April! :)) Casey & Betsy & Cia came to visit us! We had a fantastic time swimming and beaching a bunch...

and learning how to share...

Fishing...

Going to the park together...

Mac slept a lot (being his adaptable self below)

... and we played so hard we were VERY sleepy at night.

Cia now calls her cousin "Tucker Poppins" because of his love of his umbrella! Casey asked her yesterday what her cousins' names were and she said "Baby Mac and Tucker Poppins." Adorable.

What do you do when.....

After receiving some "integrity advice" from Libby about making good & bad choices when no one is watching (Tucker had just made a "bad choice" and was caught trying to hide the evidence), Tucker says, "Mama, God still loves us when we make a bad choice...He loves us no matter what we do...but Jesus loves us when we make good choices too." That is verbatim, I promise.

Always thinking

TER: "I know one song we can't sing anymore."
me: "What's that?"
TER: "Seek Ye First"
me: (not expecting that one) "Why is that?"
TER: "Because it says a bad word. Dumb. Seek ye first the kingDUMB of God"

Tucker bites Mac's shoulder as he is dressed in his twice used Halloween tiger costume.
I tell him it is totally inappropriate. We don't bite anything or anyone.
He responds: "Well we do bite food."

Another quirk

To know my sweet 3 1/2 year old is to know his "things." Much like his father, he has many "things" -- like obsession with car washes or Mary Poppins or the Jack Johnson Curious George CD, his total hatred of balloons, pinatas & ... tattoos. The temporary kind. His LOVING Mimi sent him these fun Easter tattoos in his Easter card this year. As soon as the child opened them he said in his most serious voice "I don't like tattoos."
So I tried to use this as a learning experience. Counseling him through these bizarre fears... So I gave one to Mac. The pictures below show him desperately trying to SAVE Mac from the tattoo. He literally threw his body on top of Mac's so that I wouldn't touch him with the tattoo. We're such good parents.

He never got a tattoo himself. Shocker. But we were amused in the process.

Easter...Finally

If there is one thing Kyle & I differ on it is how to handle fictional holiday characters. I'm a realist and have a hard time trying to CONVINCE my children that a large man in a red suit comes in to our house on Christmas Eve and delivers presents. If that isn't weird enough, how about a large walking bunny??? Kyle loves holidays and the magic of them and doesn't think it is damaging their sense of reality in the least :) We certainly see eye-to-eye on the FOCUS of both Christmas and Easter obviously being Christ and his redemptive work and thankfully Tucker is already able to at the very least vocalize the real meaning of both. He did one art project in school where they did a picture of the empty tomb and he came home and told us the FULL story of the resurrection. Pretty cool. So as long as he's got it on some level, why not throw in a few egg hunts??
We had a really special Easter this year. We went on Palm Sunday to our friends' church -- they are in the choir and did a special Resurrection music program. It was amazing. Then on Easter morning we had a little hunt OUTSIDE (didn't want to have the Easter Bunny in our house :))

We dressed in our favorite Easter clothes. I love the sweet outfit both Tucker and Mac have been able to wear (thank goodness Mac is significantly bigger than Tucker was to close the gap on the 6 month size difference!) We went to our church. Below is our dear friend Emily "Kjell-baby" (as Tuck calls her). She is a favorite of Tuck's and ours!

Then we headed to Ponte Vedra for their 5,000 egg hunt. That's right. 5,000 eggs. It was chaos.

...But always gorgeous.

... and Tucker was so overwhelmed by the 40 seconds of craziness that he ended up with THREE eggs. I literally don't know how Kyle even got this picture with eggs on the ground. It was that fast.

Random pics of Mac waiting for us to get finished with the Hunt. Forever in his car seat.

And almost always this happy.

Then we headed to Mimi's where Sandy and Joe (Sandy was Mimi's best high school friend in Dallas) were visiting. We ate and watched the Masters. It was just a fantastic day!

*Thank goodness Mimi no longer needs the cane after a successful back surgery!! YEAH!

Mimster and her baby JMR.

Tuckerisms

Tucker has started asking why I don't want him to go with me places.

I went to a meeting the other night and left him with Kyle. When I got back, he asked "Why did you not want me to come to your meeting?"

Or he asked why Sally & I didn't want he and Tucker Sharp at work with us. He was satisfied with my explanation that we knew they'd have more fun having a play date, but then I later heard him tell someone on the phone "Mama went to work. She didn't want me to come."

He's quick!!

__________
The other day at breakfast he says:

"Remember those pancake rolls we had in Hilton Head?"

Yes.

"They are $50 chocolatey. That means REALLY chocolately. Because $50 is a lot."

Makes sense to me.

baby blue eyes

JMR... bringing us SO much joy.

Easter Parade & Hunt at SUMP

Yet again, Jacksonville's finest "Easter Dog" made an appearance. This costume has been following us for years.
Tucker leads the parade. The boys wore ties. Ms. Jennifer made Tucker's extra special. It says "Hi Mom!" and has a sweet framed picture of him on the bottom.

Meaghan, Susie & Tucker waiting for the Hunt!

Tucker's class. They are pumped about this picture!

Each kid was supposed to end up with 8 eggs. Tucker had about 20.

Tucker, John M & Nicolas post-hunt.

sweet bedtime

We love this Bible "The Jesus Storybook." Tucker always asks Kyle to read the story of "Joliath."

the boy and his umbrella

His Mary Poppins "satchel" - it is not a purse!

Funny Tuckerism for 4/2/2009

Libby talked to some friends who let their 4 yr old name their new puppy. Let's be honest, that is a total roll-of-the-dice. You don't know what they will conjur up; you have already given them the idea which is the same as a promise to a 4 yr old; and you are stuck with what they come up with....or lots of tears will ensue. So, this 4 yr old comes up with "Tanner"...cute and sensible for a Beagle puppy.

So Libby asked Tucker what he thought a good name for a puppy would be. After explaining that we already have a "Jackson", he came up with this winner:

"Lisa".....yeah, Lisa.

Where did that come from? He knows no one named Lisa; no Lisa on the Handy Manny or Curious George; and has never spoke that name in his entire life. Cannot wait to see what tomorrow will hold for us!

4 months

cutest 4 month ever. oh. you have a 4 month old? sorry, ours might be cuter :)

Five days of freedom

Oh, Phoenician. How we miss you.

Kyle won an all-expense-paid trip to The Phoenician Resort/Spa in Scottsdale last year from Caterpillar.....though it was called the "Gold/Silver Travel Award" (no Caterpillar name association) when we were there for obvious reasons (think AIG).

It was the most gorgeous resort and we were treated to the most incredible food, spa treatments & golf all week. But I think my favorite part was the moment you set your eyes on a chair at the pool, your towel was laid down for you and they brought a pitcher of ice water and cups to your side table within seconds. I could get used to that kind of service.

Cactus Garden.

One of Kyle's three tatoos from the Harley Davidson party....Grim Reaper, Cobra and a Shamrock.....HE THOUGHT HE WAS AWESOME!

Me getting my tatoo.

The three RingPower guys - Mark, Kyle & Robert. With their very manly Manhattans.

The Florida (RingPower) crew on the last night.

View outside our room.

We did miss the boys... but it sure was nice to be away. Words cannot express our appreciation to our mothers for holding down the fort!!