September Recap & Phone Pictures

We started the month off right...by getting Tucker's cast off!!! 

After our disappointment of not being able to get it off two weeks earlier, we weren't holding our breath that he'd be able to get it off for sure. But we hoped and prayed & crossed our fingers...and after another x-ray, it showed his arm was healed enough to get it off!! He didn't even have to get a splint like we were expecting. Hallelujah!

He was quite nervous about the cast saw, and he told me that he NEVER wants to get a cast again, for the sole reason that he never wants to have to get a cast cut off again. ;) As nervous as he was, he was still very brave.

The cast/his arm stunk so bad, and his arm skin was peeling off like crazy! It took a couple of good washes to get back to normal.

Funny story. When he got his cast off, the dr told him that there was still a teeny tiny crack in the bone (not enough to warrant keeping the cast on, however), and that he needed to be VERY careful with his arm for the next two weeks while it finished healing the rest of the way--so no gripping or hanging or anything that put very much pressure on the bone. Bless his heart, Tucker did his best to be very, very careful. The cast came off on a Tuesday, and on that Friday I got a call from the school nurse--Tucker had fallen on his arm pretty bad while playing kickball. Of course that would happen, haha. The nurse said he was acting okay and didn't think I needed to come get him or anything. But when I picked him up that afternoon, he said it still hurt, and that when he fell it had hurt just like it had when he broke it. Awesome. So we called the dr office and they had us come in for an x-ray just to check it out. I fully expected him to have to get at least a splint or something...but miracle of miracles, it was okay! Definitely a tender mercy--we did NOT want another cast! ;)

Getting ready for the follow-up x-ray. We had been in that office way too many times that week! ;)


We'll just keep with the topic of Tucker for a little bit. His school does a big carnival for their main fundraiser, and part of that is a pop bottle contest. He decided he wanted to decorate a pop bottle to be a wildcat--the school's mascot. So he came up with the design and how he wanted it to look, and then Curt & I only helped a little bit in the execution. Curt drew the face with pencil, and then Tucker traced it with permanent marker, and Tucker cut everything out on his own. It turned out pretty good!

The best part was at the carnival, they had the pop bottles as prizes for a little cake walk--when people won, they got to pick out which pop bottle they wanted as their prize. Tucker's got chosen pretty early on, and when we saw that it was an older boy (probably a 5th or 6th grader) who chose Tucker's bottle, Tucker's eyes lit up. He was SO happy and proud that such an older boy thought HIS pop bottle was cool enough to choose as his prize. :)


The carnival was a pretty big to-do, and we went as a whole family and had a fun time...but this is the only picture we got. Tucker with his green hair. :)

Tucker's school had a "ride your bike to school" week, but because it's a choice school for us (not as close as our neighborhood school), we live too far away to ride our bikes there. Tucker still REALLY wanted to participate though, so he talked me into bringing his bike in the car & then dropping him off a block away so he could ride his bike the rest of the way. He is one determined little bugger, haha. And he has some serious school spirit. :)

I have a little bit of an owl theme going on for our fall decor this year...

Not to mention a funny little owl puppet that we/Curt was hiding around the house in various places to creep Collin out for a couple of weeks. (the best hiding place was in Collin's shower haha!)



Curt's parents came out at the last second for Labor Day weekend, and it was fun to have them out here! I somehow neglected to take any pictures, so here is one that Mike took:

This was after we all went swimming and had a BBQ. It's always fun to spend time with Mike & Chris and get all the cousins together!



Speaking of cousins, we started doing a babysitting swap with Chad & Lisa at the beginning of September. Each week we switch who watches all the kids so that the other couple can go on a date. We've done it for a couple weeks now, and it's so fun! The kids love seeing each other on a more regular basis, and we are loving having a regular, set-aside date night! Here are all the kids in our car one night as we took them to the park on our night watching them:

Fun, fun!


Curt wins husband-of-the-year award, once again (for about the thousandth time!), for all of his help and labor in getting materials ready for a craft I was in charge of for our ward's Relief Society Super Saturday. Even though I'm not in charge of the RS weekday meetings anymore, I offered to help out for Super Saturday this year, and they asked me to do a craft. (which, even with all the work I/Curt put into it, was still much easier than being in charge of the whole thing!). I created and made these Family Proclamation boards:

I thought we'd maybe have 15 sisters sign up at the most...but no. I had about 30 sisters sign up to make 48 boards total!! Hence, the need for Curt's help. He was such a trooper, and happily spent a couple late nights cutting and painting all the boards so that all we had to do was assemble them on the day of the activity. What a guy! Seriously--what would I do without him?!

Tucker's birthday was in the middle of September, and you can find the full blog post on that HERE.
I forgot to mention in that post about how kind it was of Chad & Lisa to offer to take Bronco during the party so we didn't have to worry about him. It was such a HUGE help! And he & Lexie apparently had a grand old time at Target with their slurpees, so it looks like it was a win-win. Thank you Chad & Lisa!

One of the gifts Tucker got for his birthday was a new church shirt and tie because he's growing like a weed these days. Look how handsome he was at church the next day?! What a stud!

 And Curt got this picture of us singing to him in Primary. I love being in Primary and being a part of all these things!

Random shopping trip to Macey's with Calvin & Bronco. I mean, how could I NOT take a picture of this? (and Bronco's smile is very misleading...just seconds later he was throwing an epic tantrum because he didn't want to get out...)

Same day, different store. I put Bronco in the back of the cart to try to keep him happy...and he promptly threw every. single. thing. out of the cart while I was trying to look at some shoes. (I guess that's what I get for trying to do some personal shopping with boys in tow!)

And then this classic picture of Calvin. (different day) Walmart had a whole Star Wars costume display at the checkout, so, naturally, Calvin kept busy trying everything on/playing with everything while we waited in line. It was actually quite hilarious! And we had quite the discussion about Darth Vader. Calvin was convinced his name was "Dark-a-vader" and that the stormtroopers were called "white-a-vaders" haha. Totally makes sense!

Another Calvin gem. "Look, mom! This is how big I can open my mouth!"

Aaaand...one more. Calvin really wanted to try this snowsuit on for whatever reason. Come to find out, it's size 6-12 MONTHS, haha! I'm just impressed he got as much of it on as he did. ;)

Oh, and I can't forget this. Sometimes Calvin & I like to bake treats while Tucker is at school & Bronco is napping. (this day we were making brownies) Pretty sure this is one of the only times there's a perk to being the middle child--he gets both beaters AND the spatula all to himself, haha! (and as you can see from his face, he thoroughly enjoys it) :)

This boy is getting more and more cute by the day. He got over his nonstop whining and tantrum-throwing phase, and he has been SO cute lately. (not to say he doesn't still whine and throw tantrums. he definitely still does) He is walking around like a pro, and it is SO fun to watch him! He's experimenting with what he can do with his new-found freedom, and sometimes he likes to do some rearranging of household items. Like dragging this fake plant over into the kitchen. So proud of himself. :)

I was trying to get a picture of him walking in his cute converse shoes this day, and he totally stopped and posed in front of the door and said "cheese!" He's learned well, haha!

Here's a better picture of his converse. And I just happened to be wearing converse on the same day, so we took a matchey-matchey picture. :)

Oh how I LOVE this little boy!!

He still loves reading books, and this is how I find him at least once a day:

Can't. Handle. The. Cuteness.

I both love & hate his lack of fear. Here he is playing with and holding a giant grasshopper like it's no big deal.

He almost grabbed a giant spider the other day before I stopped him at the last second...!



Tucker used his birthday money to buy a new fish (to replace the fish and crabs we've had previously...)--it's a beta fish named "Spikey." Bronco canNOT get enough of this fish. This is how I find him, multiple times a day. He loves to push a chair over, stand on top of it, and look at Spikey. The day after we got Spikey, I came out to find that Bronco had taken the fish tank top off, dropped in a plastic dinosaur, and had his hand in the water, trying to grab poor Spikey. We'll see how long this little arrangement lasts, haha...

Here's a better picture of Spikey, taken by Tucker (pre-dinosaur incident):

Tucker also took this picture one Saturday morning at 6:00. Yes, 6:00 AM. Curt & I had been up late the night before, and we had a busy Saturday ahead of us. I was excited to "sleep in" until 6:30 or 7:00 (usually I wake up at 5:30), but Tucker came bounding in our room, bright-eyed and bushy tailed at 5:15 that morning. He kept coming in and out all morning after that, and at one point he begged and begged me to come out and look at the beautiful sky and the planet Mars--as he's convinced it was. Since I wouldn't go out with him, he insisted on taking a picture with my phone to show me, haha. So now we have lasting proof:

As frustrating as it is sometimes to have Tucker up so early every day (he's up between 6-6:30 every morning), it does have it's perks. The boys share the responsibility of unloading the dishwasher every morning, and Tucker comes up and does it first thing when he wakes up--we never have to remind him or ask him to do it. He really is a good kid when it comes down to it! I laughed when Curt wrote this note one night before we went to bed. We decided not to start the dishwasher that night, and we had to let Tucker know, so that he wouldn't unload dirty dishes, which has happened before, haha. :)

A week-and-a-half ago, the bank in front of our house got robbed. No big deal, right? Just right in front of our house, in broad daylight. While I was home with the kids. Alone. Super awesome. So there were police all over the place, with dogs and rifles searching around our townhouse complex--trying to find the suspect. They ended up roping off this area right in front of our house, where they looked for fingerprints and such. So we basically live in a crime scene. Doesn't make me want to move in the least bit. ;)

Curt got some tickets to Airborne--a trampoline place up in Draper--from a friend. It was a client appreciation event put on by a home builder, so it was awesome that it was free, but it was SUPER crowded and crazy. We made the most of it, however, and still had fun. We went up with my mom & brothers (after going out to dinner to celebrate my mom getting a job out here!), and it was fun to be there with them. The boys loved it!

I had the amazing opportunity to go with Lisa and my mom up to the Conference Center for the General Women's session of Conference. Lisa ended up with some tickets at the last second (just hours before it started!), and she was so nice to invite me & my mom to join her. It was such an uplifting experience & just the thing my spirit needed--there is nothing that compares to being in the Conference Center, in the presence of the prophet & general leaders of the church. I felt the Spirit so strong, and it was such a testimony-builder. What a memorable night!

Tucker turns 6!

Last Friday was Tucker's 6th birthday. Crazy!! We are DEFINITELY out of little boy stage, and full-on in big boy mode with him. He is getting so old and mature. I can't believe it! (What's also crazy to me is that I have been regularly blogging since I was pregnant with him. Random thought I just had. I'm so glad to have everything documented!)

His birthday ended up being a nice, low-key, and yet fun-filled day. He woke up to balloons in his room & came out to find his gifts up on the soffit. (I love that this has become a tradition to put birthday gifts up there--it's awesome because the kids can see the gifts & get excited about them, but there's no way they can reach them...so it's not tempting to mess with them.) ;)

This was his first year going to school on his actual birthday--and he loved it. (The last two years of preschool, his birthday has always ended up being on a non-school day.) He got to bring a treat to share, and all of his classmates made him paper cupcakes. So fun!

After we picked him up from school we went to lunch at Chick-fil-a with Curt, Bill, and Collin. Perfect lunch outing!

These boys are getting too big. And I love that Tucker randomly decided to start giving the "thumbs up" in almost every picture now. I think he learned it from Uncle Cory...

We decided to do with Tucker what we did on Calvin's birthday this year, and let him open gifts one at a time throughout the day. That way he was able to take time to appreciate and enjoy each gift, and it kept the festivities going all day long. Pretty sure this is going to be a tradition now...at least while the kids are younger. So the afternoon was filled with opening a gift every few hours, and taking the time to play with it. (Curt would usually come upstairs for a few minutes to watch him open a gift, and then go back down to work.)

My mom sent a package with lots of little gifts that kept him entertained for hours--it was awesome! Here he is with some lego mixels she sent that he put together:

Now that he's in kindergarten, I spend a lot more time reading together with him during the day, instead of just at night, and I was getting tired of always reading dinosaur encyclopedias to him...so I got him the book "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" as a birthday gift. It's the first chapter book we've read with him, so I wasn't sure how it would go, but he's LOVING it! We spent a good 30-45 minutes reading it on his birthday, and every day since. He is totally able to follow the story, and he always begs me to read more. It's been a lot of fun! The only thing I'm sad about is that we're going to finish the book a lot quicker than I thought we would. But I guess that's when we'll just go to the library to get more. :)

Tucker has also decided lately that he is into baseball. He's never really shown much interest in sports before, but at the end of the summer when we started asking him if he wanted to do any sports, he decided that baseball sounded fun. (too bad we totally missed the season on that...) So one of his favorite things to do lately is to practice hitting with a bat & ball--and he's actually really good!

Here's a funny video Collin got the other day of Tucker hitting the ball...
and then Calvin promptly falling on his face, randomly dressed as batman, haha:

We've just been using a whiffle ball & bat to play with, so for Tucker's birthday we got him a kid's glove & ball, and a real baseball bat (that Curt randomly found in our basement from a previous owner). Tucker was ecstatic, and as soon as Curt finished work, we went out and "played" baseball as a family for awhile. Definitely my favorite part of the day.

I love this picture--but it also makes me sad. How has he gotten so big so fast?! What a handsome boy.

And this is now one of my new all-time favorite pictures:

Father & son--in matching clothes even. Does it get any cuter or better than that??!

After playing baseball, Tucker opened the gifts from GiGi. She is so nice to send money in advance & let me use it to buy gifts for him, so I have fun with it. Since we were having a Mario birthday party & since Tucker & Calvin decided they wanted to be Mario & Luigi for Halloween...we went ahead and got them costumes. And they were a HUGE hit!! From the moment of opening them up, they both dressed as Mario & Luigi, morning and night, for three days straight. It was hilarious. :)

(I told them to hold the costumes and look excited, haha)

They are seriously the cutest Mario & Luigi I have ever seen.

Tucker was so excited about being Mario that he sat on the corner for about 20 minutes,
just waving to anyone & everyone who passed. It was hilarious!

And to carry on the Mario theme, the last gift Tucker opened was from Curt's parents--Mario Connect 4 (the game). He was SO excited! He fell in love with/got addicted to playing Connect 4 while we were in Colorado at Curt's parent's house, and he actually got really, really good. As in, he beats both Curt & I a lot of the time! We are so excited to have it at our home now to play every day. We've already had some good tournaments, and Tucker is too smart for his own good!

After finishing with gifts, we had a delicious dinner of homemade pizzas--Tucker's new favorite meal. Cory was able to come over & eat with us, which was fun. I LOVE having Cory & Collin out here! (post on that to come) 

We finished the night with unfrosted cupcakes (Tucker's request), and going to bed early to get ready for the big party the next day...

Happy Birthday Tucker!!! We love you so much!