November is a blur...

We had a phenomenal weekend in Big Canoe, GA last weekend with some of the Rhodes clan! This is the incredible view from one of the many decks off Girbs' parent's house. It was such a blessing to be at an amazing house in the mountains. We did lots of eating, talking and watching all the toddlers and babies! We have been quite busy buying a car and hanging out with our high school small groups and having family in town and getting Tucker back to wellness (he had a fever for days and a rash) and working and... This week just flew by. Casey & Betsy get here Sunday for Thanksgiving! Yeah! But is it possible that Thanksgiving is here??

It is nearly impossible to express how PRECIOUS this moment was. He was giving his future wife a sweet love --




Tucker and Olivia.



The Boys... William Gituku, Robert Scheer & Tuck.



They loved adventuring together!

ps. For those of you who know our dear friends Brad & Heather, they had a baby girl this afternoon -- Catherine or Katherine (not sure how they are spelling it :))

Another classic.

Adventures with Pop and Nan

At the fire station. Tucker is really starting to grasp the bigger world around him. He is very aware of passing trucks, airplanes, fire engines, etc and always gives them a wave! He is particularly in to fire trucks and makes the sound something like "we-ah-we-ah-we-ah" - I'm not sure how that works out phonetically, but it is really cute when he does it.

We had a great visit with Pop and Nan... he really enjoys having people to entertain and is particularly fond of extra folks staying in our house. He wakes up from every nap ready to get busy bringing everyone joy.

Tucker loves his new Caterpillar train set! He got it for his birthday, but is now ready for it -- he sat for a LONG time staring at it going around and around.

Bad Hair Day

Yes, this is natural. 5 minutes after a nap.

Halloween Part II

After 3pm(when I last posted), Halloween began shaping up. First, we went to the pumpkin patch - or Winn Dixie -(no more pumpkins) then Publix (success) to pick from their six pumpkins... 4 of which had odd painted faces on them. So, we had our 2 pumpkins. No time to carve them, but at least we had pumpkins! I don't think Tucker even noticed we weren't in a fun, cute pumpkin patch and everyone at Publix thought it was normal that I was taking pictures of my son picking out his pumpkin on Halloween day at the front of Publix. It worked.
Then we headed to Firehouse Subs where I got word that they hand out free fire hats to kids. Mission accomplished - we have a costume! Then we headed to Scotty and Ted's for some Trick-or-Treating. Tucker and Teddy (the smiley puppy dog) got to ride in the wagon. They were loving it!
By the end of the night, Mary Scott (the kitty cat w/ Tuck's fire hat) was in the wagon, the boys were walking and everyone was tired and ready for bed!
This is just a picture of Kyle and his partner, Ted. Aren't they cute?

World Champions

Tucker, Kyle and I are still in some sort of disbelief that the Cardinals won it all... too good to be true. We feel so removed from the celebration being away from St.Louis where everyone is still going crazy. No one here cares about baseball. We were so in to the World Series that Halloween snuck up on us -- we are LITERALLY the biggest slacker parents that ever lived. No pumpkins. Half of two costumes - we haven't decided which way we are going yet. No decorations. No Halloween plans. Tucker, we promise we will get it together for you next year! Yesterday we were determined to head to the precious pumpkin patch one mile from our house - photo ops galore - but driving by I noticed, hmm.. no pumpkins. The fence is not up anymore. Sure enough! They had closed down the pumpkin patch before we got there!!! Poor Tucker. Maybe next year. We'll blame it on our Cardinals. We were totally distracted!

Game 4

Tucker got to stay up for the 1st inning on Tuesday night and he was ALL over the game. This kid loves sports. He stands in front of the TV and swings his imaginary bat -- then cracks up at himself. He claps and cheers when the crowd erupts (this was usually for the wrong team since the game was in Detroit). Anyway, he had to go to bed, but wore his Pujols jersey to bed for good luck. It worked! The Cards ruled!

Memphis

What a cute family pic! We're so excited for Rob & Grace -- they are expecting their first in May. Tucker wanted to be adopted, but he had to come home with us.
Rob, Grace, Kyle and Tucker at the MUS Football Game. Tucker saw lots of sporting events - the MUS game to watch Kyle's old Rhodes coach who now coaches there, the Rhodes field hockey game AND the Rhodes football game. It was, as always, phenomenal being back in Memphis. So many memories, but mostly just great time with Rob & Grace.

Independence

He got better with each bite.

Little Man

What is it about a pair of corduroy pants that makes a 15 month old look 4??
He loves his Daddy's sunglasses.

Teasing Jackson... Jackson will wait an hour just for the chance at one goldfish. Tucker's smirk shows you how fun this little game has become for him.

Helping Dad

Helping "paint"
Soaking wet from running through the sprinkler.


Not afraid to run through the sprinkler to get to Dad in the garage.

Always busy...

Tucker's "game" this morning: Pushing the table through the house with Mom's shoe on his foot.

Kyle, junior

Our friend Scotty has called Tucker K.J. since he was 20 weeks old in the womb and this is proof that we made the wrong name choice. He is K.J.


His sippy cup is often held like a football, tucked tight to avoid being stripped.

The toothbrush

Yesterday Tucker was obsessed with his toothbrush. I took these pictures over a period of 2 hours. He walked the house brushing things, back in the mouth, singing, making funny noises using the toothbrush, brushing Jackson's teeth.... yum. The toothbrush will have to be retired. I think you can see why I couldn't just pick one of these. Jackson is pretty cute, too, we think.

All the little sweet things

... we hope we NEVER forget.

He loves to tease you with something he knows you want him to hand you. My cell phone. He picks it up, starts to hand it to me and then does his "back up move" where he shuffles backwards giggling. Lunges forward like he is going to hand it to me again, No! He pulls it back.

If I ask "Where is Daddy?" he always runs toward the back door (where Kyle comes in from work). Saturday morning, Sunday afternoon, it doesn't matter.

He goes to his room and gets a book of his shelf to sit and read on his own. We'll peek in to find him slowly turning the pages, sometimes talking out loud telling his own version of the story.

He often now sleeps hugging his stuffed dog in his bed. So sweet.

This morning in the nursery after Bible Study I came in to the room after some of the other moms had already gotten there and I see Tucker spanning the room with a panicked look on his face. "Where is she?!!?" It was so sad, but he ran toward me when he saw me and that made me happy.

He walks around the house with most anything pressed up against his ear "talking on the phone." We're just waiting for the day that he breaks out in a full sentence because these conversations of his go on and on.

After a nap we open the door and Jackson squeezes his way in (of course). The second that Tucker sees Jackson he just squeels with delight as if he has never seen a dog before!

I was singing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" the other day and he put his fingers together like he was making a spider climb up the water spout!

Any music from the T.V. makes him stop in his tracks and do his dance. This entails bouncing up and down with one hand up (picture a rapper in the middle of a verse). He is so hip.

Swimmin' with my pup!

Pop bought me this swimming pool when he was in town for my birthday and I LOVE to swim in it. Jackson loves it when I swim, too.

Uncle Brian was here

Although it looks like we were at Tucker's first Cardinals game, we were actually at the Jacksonville Suns game. Tucker loved it. He just sat in our laps - staring very seriously at the game and all the bizarre double A baseball activities between innings. Amazingly, there were many people sitting around us, down here in Jacksonville, FL at a Suns game, sporting all their Cardinals gear. True fans everywhere! Tucker loved every minute with Uncle Brian... he has been in withdrawl since he left on Sunday.

Olivia and Tucker meet!

A few more pics from Atlanta last weekend.

For Uncle Rob, again.

We never leave our college friends without feeling overwhelmed with gratitude. Tucker already feels the depth with which he is loved by them and the ease of being with them. We all got to meet this precious 6 week old, Olivia Jane Teague. She is perfect. We got to spend time with the Thompsons, Teagues, Jeremy, Gitukus, Beth, and even Uncle Casey (in ATL for work). We missed the opportunity to get a picture with Uncle Casey :( The men have embarked on a "Weight Loss Challenge" that is currently being fully documented on a blog of its own. It is truly vintage Fatnatics. (For those of you who did not know Kyle in his Fatnatics days: You can check out the ridiculous pictures from back in the day of the clown wigs and tight 70s Rhodes basketball uniforms that were the Fatnatics on the blog - http://fatnatics.blogspot.com ).

Uncle Rob, As you can see, my mom and dad did not get any good pictures of the weekend. Could you send them yours? Thanks. Love, Tucker