Merry Christmas!

First, here are some pictures of Sydney "helping" me put ornaments on the Christmas tree. Normally I put the Christmas tree up on Thanksgiving Day or soon after but I debated for a while about whether to put the tree up. I decided that we would just deal with Sydney pulling all of the ornaments off. She only pulled the tree down one time and that seemed to cure her pretty well. She would play with some ornaments but I think she couldn't figure out how to get them off. Some of the softer clay-like ornaments she found very tasty. She has very much seemed to digress recently as she is chewing on everything and biting! She bites my arm all the time and I don't understand why!


Brian and I stayed here in Idaho for Christmas. We were able to spend Christmas Eve with some friends which was very nice. Sydney opened up her present from Mom & Dad- mega blocks! She seemed to really enjoy them. She was daintily handing us one block at a time. The next day, we got on the web-camera so Grandma and Grandpa Tuck could see Sydney open the rest of her presents. We called all the family and were happy to wish everyone well.

Later, we spent some time with another set of friends who weren't able to go home for Christmas either. We ate so many snacks at their house we were too stuffed to cook the ham we bought for Christmas dinner! So, we really had our Christmas dinner tonight. I think all of us are just enjoying relaxing at home together.

This year sure has been crazy for Brian and me but we still feel quite blessed. We realize in every unpleasant circumstance that things could have been a lot worse and we recognize the hand of the Lord blessing and guiding us. We are thankful for families, temples and an inspired plan for our lives that puts everything in perspective. We realize that our most precious treasure on this earth is each other and we feel rich. Thank you for all of your support and love. God bless your family and may you have a happy new year.

Why Me?

Brian and I had a horrible, no good day last Wednesday. We are still not at the point of laughing about it. So no laughing! I made myself smile with that comment so maybe I am getting there...

It starts about 2 weeks ago. Brian's truck died on his way to work a couple of Thursdays ago. So, we got a new battery and installed it that night at 15 degrees weather. Gotta love Idaho. Brian complained that the car was still making noises and so decided to schedule a diagnostics with the mechanic the following Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the following Monday, my boss calls me in suddenly. He asks her is she would be "willing" to trade with a 4th grade teacher in Ashton, Idaho, 35 minutes from her home. I kindly said I would think about it, because I'm just a nice person, I guess. It's true what they say about the nice guy finishing last. Brian and I talk it over and decide it is a terrible idea. I call my boss Tuesday morning to tell him I can't do it. His response was, "what if I tell you that you have to do it?" Lovely.

So, starting this week, I get to shadow the 4th grade teacher I will work closely with as I adjust to teaching a class of 4th graders. Am I certified to teach elementary. No. Am I excited to have to wake up earlier and drop Sydney off earlier at the babysitter's and get home later? No. Am I excited to have to train this 4th grade teacher who is taking my place how to do my job? No. Am I working for this school district next year? NO! and I want an amazing letter of recommendation when I leave.

Anyways, last Wednesday was the first day that this teacher shadowed me. So, it hit me very hard that this whole thing was really happening. That same day, on the way to his mechanic appointment, Brian's truck dies again. He calls the tow-truck but a sheriff decides to call Brian and tell him to get over to spot and get it off the road. I get home right as Brian had arranged for someone to take him to where his truck died )he had gotten a ride home from some really nice people). He's already frantic because the sheriff wants to tow our truck. I get home and tell Brian to take the car over there. Brian peels out of our driveway, only to get the gas main on his way. The car has the marking post lodged under it so he can't get that away from the gas main. I quickly dial 9-1-1 who tells us to get out of the house immediately. Scary!

We went to our neighbors while the firetruck turned off our gas and a man from the gas company made the repairs. So, between that repair, the truck (which needed an alternator but a man in our ward helped us save a couple hundreds of dollars by installing it for us, Thank you!), and now my extended daily driving, there's our Christmas! Yeah! blah, blah, blah. I need a vacation.

Our Little Comedian- Ton of Videos

Bad News: Our water pipes froze yesterday morning.
Good News: A few months ago, Meagan starting collecting water storage in juice bottles :) And our water is back on now. Thank goodness for sweet landlords!

Sydney has really had a crazy personality lately. She makes me laugh so much! She mimics a lot of the things you say and do so there are often fake laughs and crazy faces. One day she decided the laundry basket was fun to play with so we got some footage of her dragging that around the house. Unfortunately, she tried to put the basket on her head and that is what scratched up her nose (the plastic edges around the holes are a little sharp, I guess).No this is not a yawn.
Look at this sinister but stinking cute grin!


Take a close look at the computer screen. She was banging on the keyboard and somehow changed the monitor screen so that the image was sideways. It was so annoying! The mouse was still in the same orientation so I had to move the mouse to the right to go up on the screen. Brian found out that hitting control and then the direction keys fixed it. I don't know how she does these things...
But you still gotta love her.
Big beautiful smile!


Grandma Tuck requested some footage of Sydney climbing into the chair so here that is.


Sydney does a tippy-toe dance now when she gets excited. It's so cute! (no audio)

And this video is of Sydney pushing the laundry basket all over the house.

To those getting this as an email: If you could not see any of these videos, please go to my blog, http://tucklings.blogspot.com and view the videos there.

Snow!

Every day when I get home from work, Sydney is taking my hand and leading me to our door, essentially saying, "Let me out!". Well, Sunday, we had a really great snow and thought we would see what Sydney thought of the snow. I love these first pictures as she is at the front door of our home and she looks so unsure about what to think.

I let her walk around a little bit in the snow but she did not seem very happy.You can tell in our pictures she thinks it is too cold! She's so funny because she hated that I placed gloves on her hands. Then, for this video: Brian was in the kitchen cooking dinner and I could hear Sydney squealing. I went in to investigate...

Raise and Sydney's achievements

I got a raise at Tutor.com! I am so excited! I have been working there for over a year now (wow!) and so it was really nice to get the raise especially considering that I worked at English Calls for 2 years making less than I did starting at Tutor.com and never got a raise in those two years. So this is nice!

Sydney is learning so much each day (some good, some bad!).

• For example, I try not to tell Sydney "no" because I don't want her saying that back to me. Unfortunately, I tell her stop and it sounds like she says "top!" back to me!
  
• When Brian and I say unh-unh, and shake our heads, Sydney will shake her head back and forth,too.
  
• She waves (it's more like flailing her whole arm, but it works) when you say bye-bye and she now has 7 teeth!
  
• She also recently learned how to climb downstairs.
  
• Sydney can eat a whole apple by herself. She carries it all around the house, gnawing on it to the core.
• And, really exciting, she crawled into her banana chair, pulled up her blanket and fell asleep all on her own this past week. And it was 8:40. (She usually goes to be between 9 and 10!).

So our little girl is growing up!
I say that as I show this picture of her with a pacifier- she really doesn't use it anymore. Really.

Mischief

Last night I learned a very important lesson about how when kids are being too quiet they are up to something. Our friends were over with their 2-year old daughter. The moms were doing crafts and the hubbies were playing games. The little ones were in another room but we could hear their laughter so all seemed fine until my friend's hubby decided to check on the girls. Their little daughter, Sadie, had found our Vaseline and decided to rub it all over Sydney's face and hair.
The other day, Sydney took her shirt off. I didn't know she could do that!



And then I just love Sydney's proud look in this pictures as she rides atop her lion.

Greeting Card

I have been working on creating our Christmas greeting card. Sorry for those of you who like to keep it a surprise but I am going to show you the two layouts I am thinking about doing. I think I am just going to get them printed as 5x7 photos because I couldn't find any blank photo cards at Snapfish.com. Anyways, here are my layouts:

Layout #1
Layout #2 Option 1- Notice the lettering of "Merry Christmas"
Layout #2 Option 2


So which one should I send out, or maybe I should do half of layout 1 and half layout 2. What do you think? There's a poll on my blog on the right side. Please vote!

Halloween and other adventures

We had a very fun Halloween. I still don't think Sydney got all of the excitement of the holiday but Brian and I had fun! We took her trunk-or-treating at the ward and then went to a birthday party with a bunch of baby boys all around her age. What a flirt! Brian and I tried to coordinate our costumes with Sydney's by being tourists/ safari adventurers. Do you think it was effective?

And here is Sydney pushing around her new baby doll from Aunt Drea and Uncle Ian!






Sydney truly is a monkey! She is starting to climb up on everything! Brian got this footage of the little girl being quite adventurous. She pushed her musical toy table up to the coffee table to climb up.

My Niece is Cuter Than Your Niece...

I didn't mention my niece's birth! Scarlett, born 10-21-09. Isn't she precious?!

Feeling Left Out...

So, maybe I am just writing this post to write something. I have felt like everyone else is posting and I have nothing to post! I'll try to make this interesting.

- Sydney seems to be mimicking some of the things we say and it is quite fun. I promise she says "up", "yeah" and "ashes" - from "ring around the rosies"
- We're super-excited about our family Halloween costume this year. Pictures will be forth-coming
- We had more family visitors at the beginning of this month. Brian's newly married cousin Charles and his wife Mara came and visited it us for a week. It was wonderful to see them and we're excited for them to be moving out here to Idaho soon!
- I'm thrilled because I got on a Creative Team of a digital scrapbook designer which means in exchange for getting her kits free I create layouts to show off her work. It's really fun! All my recent layouts on the side here are from kits of hers I used.
- We did get a new car about a month ago now, sorry I didn't mention it earlier. We bought a 2000 Toyota Avalon and we feel spoiled with heated leather, power windows, and a remote. It rocks!
- Soon here I will work on our Christmas greeting cards. Maybe I will have a voting poll to see which design you guys like. Anyways, enjoy some pictures Charles took for us a while back.

Visits and Birthday!

In late September, Grandma Tuck was able to come visit us for a week! We had lots of fun shopping, going to the park and library and just hanging out!
Grandpa Tuck also came and visited for a couple of days! (Pictures will be forthcoming)

We got Sydney a monkey costume for Halloween! It suits her so well!

And ta-da! Sydney is 1 year old! And I CAN believe it! She has humor, can walk, can talk, and has such an enthusiastic personality!