6 months and counting...

Wow! Sydney is getting so big and she is so much fun! She is now army-crawling across the floor and has 2 teeth coming in at the bottom! She is so talkative, giggly and just energetic! I could definitely use her energy! Brian and I made homemade applesauce this last week (don't worry, it was just apples and water) and were so excited to get her to try it but she gave us some faces. You'll see them below.

Not liking the applesauce too much.

Rocking out with Dad....sort of.

6 months old!

She sits up really well, too.

That's all, folks!

What I do

Well, I know lots of you already know about the business Brian and I own and some of you don't, so I thought I would explain. On the right side of this blog, there's a list titled "Our Other Blogs/Websites". At the bottom of the list is "Our Board Game Store." Clicking on that will take you to a blog with game descriptions and prices. Also, you could go to our store front, Tuck's Media where Brian is working on building the website so you can order games from us using Google checkout. We started the business last August when we decided that all the games we love were very popular and growing with popularity especially with our friends and thought we could get good business in this area. We started with just word of mouth but we have had booths at the Rexburg Unplugged and Some Guy's Flea Market local events. We're learning all about owning private businesses as we go and it's been fun. We sell games like Settlers of Catan, Bohnanza, Carcassonne, Killer Bunnies, etc. Most of the games are international ones that have been translated and came to America. If you haven't played any of the ones I have listed, you are really missing out. Monopoly, Life, Guesstures... these classics are fading as new wacky and exciting genres of games are stepping into the limelight. You can always come over to our house and try some of these games out for yourself.
Now, on a side note about the other blogs. I don't update them as much as I should but I have two other blogs. "Star Mapping" is my blog for connecting movies that a certain actor has been in. If you're like me, you are always saying, "What else have I seen that actor in?" or maybe you didn't even realize that person was in that movie. Most of the time, it has been a while since you watched that movie and the actor is more famous now then when they were in that movie. Anyways, I just like making connections.
And my third blog is called "That's Special". This is a saying Brian and I use when we are saying nothing because there is nothing nice to say about these weird phenomenon. Every now and then, I come across something on the Internet that falls into this category. Hopefully this blog will induce a laugh sometimes.
So, there you have it. My blogs and our business.

Flea Market Success

So the flea market yesterday went great! We sold 3x as much as the one before! It was excellent for our business. Brian did our bookkeeping yesterday and said we are finally in the black. Yeah! We got a lot of our stock depleted yesterday so we will probably be ordering again soon and hope to be able to sell that stock. We wish we had better booths next to us, though. The man to our right was trying to get people to work for Melaleuca. At one point, he turned to me and said, "When you get tired of selling toys, you should start selling Melaleuca." Woah! Good thing I am a nice person. Some of you are laughing right now. I'll just ignore that.

Sydney has teeth coming in! I told myself that if she didn't get teeth for a while that would be just fine seeing as I am nursing her, but it would be nice if there was a reason for the crankiness. And lo and behold, last night I put my fingers in her mouth and there are hard bumps! No picture because you can't really see them, just feel them. But I was way excited!

6 months pictures coming later this week! - Love, Meagan, Brian & Sydney

Updates

Sydney is doing well but she is definitely CRANKY! We really think she might be teething but we have not seen anything yet.

Brian and I set-up a table at the "Some Guy's Flea Market" at the school. It went pretty well. We sold about as much as we did at the "Rexburg Unplugged" event last September. Bohnanza is still our #1 biggest seller. I wish the bigger games like "Settlers of Catan" were our bigger sellers but oh well. We are going to be at the flea market again this Saturday. We hope it goes as well if not better than last Saturday.

Sydney's beginning to push herself forward.



Dad playing peek-a-boo with Sydney.


Still no jobs on the horizon for Brian. We're just trying to stay positive and faithful. It can get stressful but overall we still feel at peace that something will work out and whatever does it is God's will.

Inappropriate use of the nebulizer

I thought Sydney hated her nebulizer. Turns out she does like the oxygen tubing.
This is just one of the many ways Sydney happifies our lives. (Happifies is my new word since Joseph Smith used it.)

Five Months Old

Sydney is now 5 months old! And despite being sick she really enjoyed the day- she seemed to be feeling a lot better because she was smiling and laughing like she hasn't the last few days. It was great to see her on the mends. Thank you everyone who showed care and concern for her.

Updates: Cakes and Nebulizers

Well, I haven't posted in a while because it is has been very exhausting around here. Sydney has had a lot of downs lately. Right as we started giving her foods, she seemed to be so cranky and it also appeared that she was teething. Her scalp became a lot drier as well. So, we stopped the new foods for a while and worked on her teething pain and dry scalp. Once that started to get better, she developed a cold and it has just gotten worse. She coughs and hacks all day and is so congested. It is very difficult for all of us to sleep at night. You feel so sorry for her because she can barely cry. We took her to the doctor on Saturday and they had us rent a nebulizer for 3 months with albuterol treatments to give to her every 6 hours. She absolutely hates it.We've had a couple of cakes lately. I had my birthday on Feb. 18th and Brian made me this lucious yellow cake with chocolate frosting. Then the following week was Mardi Gras. I really miss this holiday since moving from Louisiana, the king cakes, the parades- my family would get a spot along the parade's route to rent all day and we would play games until the parade came by. Mardi Gras in northern Louisiana is a family event and very good, clean fun. I thought I decorated this cake well.We appreciate all the love, care and support we have received from our family and friends and feel that now is especially the time to trust Jesus whole-heartedly.

And this is just a little performance by Brian and Sydney.

First Food

So, we decided it was time to try out giving Sydney solid food! Today's menu item of choice- Avocado!

Month in Review

So, Sydney turned 4 months old about a week ago!

This month she learned to roll over. She learned to grab her toes:

She met more of the family:

Aunt Janae and Uncle Denny

She also made some new friends- Axel a boy in our ward:

We put her blessing dress on her again. There's still plenty of room, we probably could have blessed her when she was 2! :

She is really strong and at her 4-month check-up she measured 26.5 inches which put her in the 99th percentile for her age!

Also, as you know, we moved and now Sydney has her own room! I will take some pictures once her stuff gets set up (we are still unpacking- ugh!).

We up and moved.

We MOVED! Not very far but we moved. We have been looking for a cheaper place to live. Last Monday 1/26 we went and looked at a house a little outside Rexburg and we liked it a lot. We thought the owners would not work with us if we decided to leave, if I got a Job(this is Brian BTW). Well Tuesday they called and said they would like it if we got the place but we need to take over in Feb. Unfortunately we had not given 30 days notice at our other place but we liked it so much we decided to go for it. Yesterday 2/2 we finally got everything out and finished up cleaning. It has been crazy and we appreciate everyone that helped us out. Meagan has done the majority of the Packing and Cleaning because of my work. SHE IS SIMPLY AMAZING!

Now we are waiting to see if we can rope someone into taking over at least part of February. Cross our fingers

Our new place looked like it was hooked up for cable but unfortunately it is not. No cable = no Internet = hard to make posts. We are working on that so do not expect many post in the near future.

She Rolled Over!

Brian and I thought that Sydney would first roll over from her stomach to her back because we thought that would be easiest. We have also been helping her roll over that way by putting her arms really close together so she looses her balance and "rolls" over. But for the last 2 weeks she has been rolling to her side when we place her on her back and then today, she did it! So in this video she is already on her side, but she gets herself there from the back-lying position.

Her little screams in this video remind me of how I feel when doing a difficult exercise or one more tummy crunch.

She did this several times today! It was so cute, the roll right after this one, she let out a big yell/scream right after she finished as if to say, "I did it!"

Miscellaneous: Games and the Freedom of Choice Act

Instead of doing 2 separate blogs, I decided to just do both together, so I hope you don't think I find these two topics in any way connected, because they aren't.

Games
Well, I just wanted to announce that we have some news games to sell. We have Guillotine- a French revolution card game, Lost Cities- another card game about expeditions- 2 player game, and we have the Yucatan Adventure Board which is to be used with Settlers of Catan and the expansions- it holds all of your pieces together on a board with insets. Please check them out or refer a friend! http://tucksmedia.blogspot.com/

Freedom of Choice Act
This is an act I feel very strongly should NOT be passed. President-elect Obama has already stated he would sign this as soon as he gets in office. This act would lessen the restrictions on abortions nationwide.
This website has more information and a petition to fight against this act. http://www.fightfoca.com/
I think it sad that in the video on this website, there is a reporter that states that legislation has taken the rights away from women when they make legislation against abortion. I just had a few things to say regarding that.
There are always those cases brought up about those women who are pregnant due to rape, incest or some other heinous act. But that is not the case with the majority of abortions. The majority of abortions are from teenage girls, or even grown women, who find the pregnancy "inconvenient". They don't want anyone to know about the pregnancy or it just "isn't the right time". There are also abortions when the baby is not going to develop properly; despite the several miracle stories we have heard about babies with such warnings who turn out perfectly fine. What these women are wanting with the Freedom of Choice Act is to escape responsibility. They were irresponsible and did not use protection or did not implement abstinence and now these poor babies are having to take the fall. Birth control is very accessible and yet these women would rather end another life instead of facing the consequences of their actions. There are many who would love to adopt these unwanted children. Abortion is a sad, twisted evil and despite what these women think, legislation should protect these innocent little ones. Jesus said:
Matthew 18:6
But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.
Jesus said it, not me.

Tender Mercies

After 4 long years, my sister Nicole has contacted my family again. Not a day has gone by that I have not thought about her, wondered about how she was doing or hoped that she knew how much we love her. Since New Year's Eve 2004, Nicole has missed 2 weddings (mine in August 2005 and Kymry's in May 2006), 3 nieces and nephews being born (Liam in Nov 2006, Kaylin in Nov 2007 and Sydney Oct 2008) and countless holidays, birthdays and memories. I am so happy to be able to have her back in the family as she has been like a piece of our heart missing all this time. It is truly a blessing from God and a tender mercy as I have been less than excited about this new year of uncertainty and anxiety. This is a true joy and brings a lot of hope and happiness for the coming months. I can only feel deep gratitude and joy at this latest development.

Marcy, Nate, Natalie and Lucas come to visit!

New Year's Day, Brian and I got a visit from his cousin Marcy and her adorable family who happened to be in Idaho visiting from California. Their son, Lucas, is about 3 weeks older than Sydney and so we had some fun taking some pictures of them together.

3 Months old!

So Sydney is now 3 months old! Hooray! And to celebrate this (not really, but we can say so, right?) we went bowling with our friends, the Wanstroms.

Hannah and Sadie bowling

Me "helping" Sydney bowl