Sunday, December 26, 2010

Baby's First Christmas




Merry Christmas from the Tucks



Best wishes for a great new year filled with health, happiness and love.

Christmas morning

Christmas morning, we set up the princess tunnels Gma Tuck got for Sydney and then had her tricycle Brian and I bought her in the living room. She loved it! She crawled through the tunnel, came out the house part and her eyes lit up to see the tricycle. It was fun. We took a video but it is really dark. Anyways, she had lots of fun and she had some presents from friends and family. She opened up Jonas' presents, too. Maybe in 2 years that will not be ok, but this year, Jonas didn't mind.Dad and Jonas chilling

Christmas with Grandma Tuck

Grandma Tuck was able to visit which was wonderful even though it was only a couple of days and we were worried about Gpa Tuck who is feeling a lot better now. She enjoyed holding her grandson!

Sydney made off with a ton of loot. Spoiled little girl!





Brian is super excited about his Kinect. If you asked him what he wanted this year, he would reply this. I GUESS he was a good boy this year... haha, no, Brian has been wonderful this year! He's been working hard and now he is studying for the GRE and working collections at a drug screening supplies company.

Tree decorating



This year, Sydney got to participate a lot more because she is growing and learning so much! One of her favorite things this year was decorating the Christmas tree. I would ask her, "Where do you want to put this one?" She would reply, "Right here!"

Alabama Pride


Sydney just loved this Santa hat but it looks like she is showing team spirit!

Hang Tight


I thought Jonas might be ready to be front-facing in the carrier. At least he was relaxed.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Cookies, siblings and new glasses

So I feel terrible that I didn't get any Thanksgiving day photos! And I didn't even have to cook! I did some baking but the big stuff other people took care of. I guess having a 1.5 month old to take care of is not an excuse...

But I did get some pictures of cookie decorating with Sydney. I spread the frosting on and I thought Sydney might pick up some sprinkles and drop them on but she quickly discovered a more efficient way...
Voila! Dump the whole cookie in!

Wait a few seconds...
And presto! Sprinkled cookie in no time flat!But we all know the best part is the frosting...



Yummy!


I wanted to show you some pictures of Jonas and Sydney. I love this one with Sydney's arm around Jonas.


Last, I wanted to show off my new glasses! What do you think?I've never had designer glasses and I love everything about them!

And bragspot moment: I read this comment by a student that I tutored on Tutor.com. I thought it was pretty funny: "This tutor was FABULOUS!!!! She really helped&encouraged me in my least favorite subject, (math)! KEEP HER!!!!!

Well, happy to say, I think my job is safe.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Sydney's Name Change

Oh, and by the way, now if you ask Sydney what her name is, she will tell you it is Aurora (as in the princess in Sleeping Beauty). We are trying to fix this clear case of identity theft ASAP.

Jonas, the model








A lady in our ward offered to take some pictures of Jonas. I absolutely love how they came out!

Sydney-isms

Sydney is learning to say more and more things everyday- some good and some bad. Not like she is saying bad words just that her words are some times oozing with attitude. She has been super helpful and sweet when it comes to Jonas but she has been a handful when it comes to her own behavior. The bed time routine has become quite chaotic. She has always struggled to take naps for me but I know she really needs one. She gets so cranky in the afternoon and if she doesn't take a nap in the afternoon she will pass out at dinner time (around 5:30-6) like she did last week. One day, she had not had a nap and she went into her room and collapsed on her bed on her own. We were frantically looking for her for about 10 minutes before we discovered her half on and half off her bed, asleep. So, we're really trying to get her to take a nap. This is what happens:

Mom: Sydney, please go get in your bed. You need a nap.
Sydney: I don't want a nap, MAMA!

And that "MAMA" is the part dripping with attitude. So sad, most of the time when she calls me "Mama", she's angry with me and says it with that attitude.

On the lighter side...
Brian and I have become a conglomerate "Mommy-daddy!" when ever she needs something. She wants juice, "Mommy-daddy!" literally no break between the two words. When looking for something, she calls to it, "Piece, piece? Where are you? Piece?" when she was looking for a missing puzzle piece. The same applies for her shoes when she's looking for them.

And overall just saying more words in her favorite song. She started out only saying the end part of the lines that rhyme, like "once there was a snowman TALL, TALL, TALL! ....he melted SMALL, SMALL, SMALL!"

With the baby around she knows "wrap up" and she can say "Jonas" pretty well.

And she's learning to say "You're welcome!" more often as well. And of course, she knows what "nap" means.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Family Portrait Session

Last Saturday, we went with my sister to a great location to get some family portraits for Christmas cards. My sister, brother-in-law and his mom got some great shots I thought. Which one do you like best?

Well, this one is not in the contending because as you can see, Sydney is not in the shot. This is when Sydney decided she was not part of our family. I guess I can't blame her- she fell asleep in the car on the way over and so we woke up her from her nap to try to take some pictures.





A mommy and baby shot- I know, he has his pacifier in, not ideal, but he was getting cranky.


#1- I don't really like Sydney's "get me out of here" look but the scenery was nice!
#2- I tweaked the colors on this one a bit, trying to get the bright glow from the background. Any photoshop pros know how to reduce that glare? (Wendy???)

#3- This one might actually be the same pose as before just at a different angle. we had two cameras going at once.

#4- Sydney has a huge grin but I like it!



And here are just some more fun shots from the shoot. This picture was actually taken by Sydney's cousin, Liam, which you'll see in the next pictures. I know! He's got talent for a not-even-four-year-old.
Sydney and Liam: