Sweet little friends

A tribute to these two precious monkeys... Livvy & Tucker.

After observing them (& Miller who is just a little bit further behind right now) we found ourselves very sentimental about them growing up together!

These are in no particular order. Just a ton of sweet times.

They have always had so much fun together!

We are so grateful.

August 08 (Tucker 3, Livvy 2)

The first time they met... Tucker just 1 & Olivia Jane 6 weeks?

Tuckerisms

At Southside Methodist Preschool there is an option to do "Extended Day" from 1-3. I have never really had a need to use it and never really have given it a thought. Until a month ago... when Tucker started begging to go to "Extended" (that's his slang for it. Picture him saying it like a 16 year old valley girl. It is hilarious.)

Leave it to my son to BEG to be away from me for more hours of the day. In the past few weeks, I pick him up and he proceeds to tell me "Cole is staying for Extended." "Ben is staying for Extended." (All in this same teenage/sarcastic/mom-you-are-so-uncool-for-not-letting-me-stay voice.) This is the same voice he uses when he tells me what people had for lunch that day. "Susie had OREOS." "Hayden got to have CHEETOS." How does he even know what an oreo is... or a cheeto??? Apparently they are good enough that he can observe their enjoyment enough to covet the junk food! Again, I'm so uncool because I pack healthy lunches.

Back to "Extended." So, today, Tucker got to have his dream fulfilled. I left him for Extended. He has been excited since Wednesday when I told him he got to go Friday. "When is it Friday?" "Am I still going to stay on Friday?" over and over...

When I came to get him this afternoon he was beaming. Other than telling his teacher that her bum was too big for a tricycle outside, all went swimmingly. Until we got in the car and he turned on me. "Why don't we get to go to Miss Jennifer's for a playdate now?" Hmm. What? I ask why we would do that. He goes on to say he is "really mad" about not going over there. Then he waits a few seconds because I don't respond to him and he says "I'm really miserable about that decision you are making, Mama." Then, "I'm cross!" He picked out all the negative words he knows ("Cross" is from Thomas, of course - they always say the engines are cross instead of mad and we had a 10 minute conversation the other day trying to explain what the word miserable means. Apparently he can now use it in context :))

This kid is a piece of work.

Hanging on.

If only we were still at the beach. I can't believe it is already almost the next weekend. UGH! Perhaps if I post a few more pictures we can hang on to the weekend a bit longer.

"the babies"

The hilarious part is that all of the children call each other "baby." But Bo & Mac are the real babies.

Mac & I spent about 7 minutes on the beach this day. It was windy and he acted as if he was drowning/choking every time there was a gust of wind. Needless to say, we just gave up & went inside.

I LOVE this picture. Tucker looks like an old man in his sweatpants, with his hands folded looking down at his feet. And Olivia is just checking him out.


The whole crew. It takes a lot more tries to get a good one these days. Thank you, Jess, for your hard work! :)

i heart kirkwood.

My mom sent me this picture this morning from the KHS basketball game last night. Most of you know how much I loved high school. This picture helps explain why.

Hilton Head '09

We were blessed yet again to spend a long weekend at the Teagues in Hilton Head. The highlight was the special friendship between Tuck, Livvy & Miller that is forming... they LOVED playing together literally every waking moment. It is almost all we took pictures of. I don't even have the group shot from Jess. Above is their pajama band! Usually Tucker led, Livvy followed & Miller watched :) Cooler rides -- Great redneck entertainment.

Required bath picture.

Grace & Bo. Sorry Bo! This is the only picture I even have of you... sad.

The park at South Beach.

And we have MANY pictures of playing on the bed. I asked Tucker what his favorite part of the weekend was and without hesitation he said "Jumping on the bed!"

And wrestling...

The boys convo.

Uncle Jeremy ...

and his blackberry.

Following each other EVERYWHERE. And every movement.

Saying goodbye...

And a terrible picture of Mac. Because this is all I have recently.

My friend Isabella

Tuck had his friends Issie and Jackson over last week. They have a blast together!

Riding on the "boat" (Kanga the Kangaroo)

2 months old

Mac is not as much of a sleeper as TER was, but he is not too bad himself! I love the picture below -- chillin' with his one sock and pink paci (who knows?!) and he has already outgrown this seat!

Went to his 2 month appointment today.

11 pounds, 12 ounces (75th %) and 25 inches (97th %)

He is already in Tucker's 6 month clothes!

Morning Loves

Tucker wanted to cuddle up with Mac this morning before school. He continues to randomly say "I really love Mac"... so sweet. As you can see by the smiles, Mac loves Tucker, too.

Wednesday

Mac's Baptism

On VERY short notice, Mac had his baptism yesterday. It was a sweet, no fuss day - we went to church and then had a special lunch with Mimi at the Ponte Vedra Inn & Club. Mac slept through lunch, but the rest of us celebrated for him!

Our church has a tradition of having the fathers write a blessing to their children. This is Kyle reading our blessing for Mac.

John McCormac, this morning as we respond for you to God’s call on your heart,

our prayer for you is simple:
· We pray that you will always seek and find rest in God’s never-ending love and faithfulness
· We pray that you will grow to be a Godly man who knows Jesus intimately

and loves people passionately
· We pray that one day you will have a personal and genuine response to God’s call
We Love You

I accidently changed him out of his gown before pictures afterwards! Kyle was relieved the "dress" was off his son!

My Aunt Debbie made this gown for me in 1977 and all of us wore it so it has my intials, Casey's and Brian's along the bottom with the year we were baptized. Unfortunately, Tucker was too old to wear this (he was 2 when he was baptized, but really this thing is TINY and would only fit any baby until about 2-3 months old.) Kyle gave me so much trouble about it, but THANKFULLY the other baby boy baptized was in a gown even more ornate and long and "girly." Her husband was more mad about it than Kyle :) No appreciation for tradition these days!

Tucker was, of course, very excited about this event. You can see him watching intently in the pictures above. In the days leading up to the baptism he told all of us how it was going to go:

"He is going to put water on their heads and then the babies are going to go 'wah wah wah' and then everyone is going to laugh and then they'll be baptized!"

Pretty observant for a 3 year old! Everybody does always laugh at the crying babies.

Obama

ps. My son LOVES Barack Obama. Beware: He will ask you directly if you voted for him. I have no idea how he even understands voting that well other than going with me ONCE in the primary. Despite how you feel about the man or his policies, I am really proud and excited that the first President my son can talk about and is aware of is an African American. He will never know any different. It actually makes me weepy.

A new excuse (or 3)

Just overheard minutes ago:

Me: "Tucker, go to bed."
Tucker: "First I have to call Kelly."
Me: "Fine. Then go to bed."
Tucker talking on his "Nextel" that goes with his workbench: "Hey Kelly. What are you doing? Oh. It's getting late so I'm headin' to bed. Yeah. Well, let's meet at McDonald's. Cool! Okay, see you in 10 minutes."

Then marches back in to my room. "Mama, I've got to go meet Kelly. She is meeting me at McDonald's."
Me: "Okay, bye."


Just came in again while I'm writing this with this news flash: (another stall)

Tucker: "Do you know where Miss Jennifer went?" (if you have listened to him ask his precious questions you know he is lacking no intonation in his question - extremely high pitched at the end.)
Me: "Where?"
Tucker: "To Chaganooga."
Tucker: "And there was a BIG AQUARIUM!"
Me (impatiently): Please get in your bed."

Miss Jennifer is his beloved teacher. And apparently she went to Chattanooga this weekend. Or it could have been last year. But it was important for me to know this very moment. Anything to avoid bed.

ATTEMPT #3
Before I could finish that story, he is back in my room with a level from his work bench.
Tucker: "I need to make sure your wall in here is straight."
Me: "Tucker. Go - to - bed NOW."

My sweet boys

A few more comparison pics.. Mac above.

Tucker below.
I hate that I can't figure out why some of these from 2005 are coming in small? but above is Tucker. Below Mac.

6 weeks.

Tucker has really settled in to his role as big brother and I see his personality returning (for a couple weeks there I thought I lost my sweet, funny boy to a crazed kid!) I think he just needed to get back to school after Christmas break and get used to this new normal. We had a fantastic day today... first, a playdate with his buddy Issie. Then we "napped" which most days is play time in bed for Tucker. But Mac and I napped! And then we made chicken pot pie and cupcakes together in the afternoon. He looked across at me at dinner and declared "Mama, you're the best." It's too much for me...

The only unfortunate news is that it is freezing here. Literally. The coldest night in 3 years tonight. UGH. I've actually worn a wool sweater for the last 3 days. I think I may need to move to Miami to ensure I will never be cold again. JUST KIDDING! Kind of.