St Patrick's Day and Spring Fun

Hey all! So this week has been good. The kids have been enjoying going outside, I've been working on a RS Birthday Dinner coming up and more and we've had fun!

Tuesday
On Tuesday, Brian was grilled some steaks and the kids were outside watching him. It's so cute that when they are sitting by each other and we tell them we are taking a picture of them, they immediately snuggle. Awwwww.

Wednesday
Sydney took a challenge on Dr Seuss' Birthday to read a list of his books. So we checked them out from the library and read them together. It was fun to read books that I had never even heard of. She got to pick out a prize from the library and this is what she chose:

An umbrella hat. Or as I referred to them one time (12 years ago!) Rainbow hat!

I think it's hilarious.


Thursday
I have watched my cousin's kids a couple times (well one before this and then in payment for watching them this Saturday) and so as payment, I asked that she cut our hair :) She's a hair stylist so she knows what's she's doing! I just don't feel I can cut the kids' hair (and definitely not my own, lol) and have it look good.

They were pretty good

Sydney was probably most excited about being able to see and make Ariana laugh.

I asked Jonas to let me take a picture of his hair, so this is what I got.

And then again, arm around each other for a group picture, like pros :)

Friday- Park

I tried to take the kids to the library story time but neither one of them were having it that day- Sydney complained of being tired and Jonas was his usual run-all-over self. So we went to the park and surprisingly met up with some friends from church too! Jonas decided he could slide down the rope himself and got this nice rope burn. But I wasn't even there, he made it to the ground without falling on his face or crying after he landed. Scared me bad but he's ok. Crazy kid...

Saturday- St Patrick's Day Parade

I watched my cousin Trish's kids that day and Drea came and helped us take them all to the St. Patrick's Day Parade. It was short but fun and the kids had fun getting some cousin time. I love how Scarlett has her legs crossed in this picture!

Hunter got a wad of beads together

 

 

And here's Ian and I trying to detangle them. But it was nice! There was one for each of us!

Plans for this week...uh none right now! We just sort of cycle through playdates at the park, story time, playing in the house and in the backyard. That's kind of our weekly events!

Brian is doing well with his new class. He feels the workload is much more manageable and he's staying on top of his assignments well.

I had super sales the first half of this month and so I'm excited to commission someone to build a website for my designs. I still sell through another store but sites are a great way to promote your designs and freebies- each for people to find you! So I'm excited to get something nice looking and professional. I've lost 9 pounds now on my diet/exercise plan...not as much as I would like but I do see areas where I need to improve so I am working on changing some things! Hoping they will help.

Love to everyone!

Dr Seuss' Birthday

Not much to show for the last two weeks. I have been taking the kids to an indoor playground a lot because it has been windy around here! (reminds me of Idaho, in a bad way!) But it did warm up a few days last week and they have been having lots of fun playing outside. I've also been reading a lot of books lately, too! The Fault in our Stars by John Green (wah! tear-jerker!) and the Mortal Instruments trilogy- I liked it. Way better than Twilight and it was very interesting, a good read. Brian has started classes again and goes on Thursday nights.

We thought our car was going to need to go to the shop because it was dying on us although the battery seemed charged and fine. Brian found out one of the connectors to the battery wasn't properly attached/needed cleaning and it's all good now! yay!

We did our taxes and I was hoping for a nice little windfall and was sorely disappointed. But, the main reason is that the 3 different things I did for additional income for our family last year (tutoring, babysitting and my design business) were untaxed through the year and so we owed some taxes on that. But what would be better? A few thousand right now, or the $7,000+ my family was able to use throughout the year? We are very blessed and I am grateful I have found ways to help us out.

Anyways, here's a cute picture of Jonas on a day where he woke up with a fun little cowlick:

It's kinda hard to see in the picture but he had this one big curl in the front that stayed up all day! so funny! I think it's time for a trim....

March 2nd- Dr Seuss' Birthday!
The library was having a fun celebration on Dr Seuss' birthday and so we went and got to take pictures with a lady dressed as the Cat in the Hat after she had read the book and the kids made some hats as well as had some fun cupcakes! The adults got a slice of the awesome cake they had there! Jonas saw the cupcakes and all through "One Fish, Two Fish" was in my face with his hands clasped together saying, "Cake?? PEAZE!"  over and over. It was a lot of work to keep him occupied until it was time to have a cupcake!

He sat on the Cat's lap for a second and I just didn't get the picture in time. So here he is with the stuffed animal version. There's a little activity they are having too where you read certain Dr Seuss books and then turn in your reading chart for a prize. So I checked out a big book with lots of stories and have been reading them to Sydney. It's fun to find new stories of his I had never heard of and enjoy that with Sydney. She's super excited about the prize! We should be getting it this week.

Jonas loves saying "Hey Guys!" everywhere we go, it's too cute. I told our missionaries today I just need to give him some pass along cards to hand out because who could refuse that from a little guy like him?

I wish I had taken some pictures but Brian and the kids camped outside Friday night with an electric blanket and the kids always enjoy that. Me, I preferred to sleep inside in my comfy bed. lol and enjoy knowing I should have it to myself at least until Jonas wakes up at 6:30 and crawls into bed with me. Another cute thing he does at night: we'll put him to bed and about 10 minutes later, he comes into the living room, comes over to me, gives me a kiss on the cheek(without being asked) and goes back into his room. Melts my heart. We have our days where we both get pretty frustrated with each other but I know he knows that I love him and I know he's happy and loves me back. We feel lucky and happy to have healthy and beautiful kids.

Take Care!
Love,
The Tuck Family

February- Parades, Parties, Princesses and Princes!

Here are some of the things we have been up to in February!

February 6-
Sydney wanted me to make them some crowns so I cut out the crown shapes and drew the ovals and Sydney cut out and glued her gems on her crown. Fun the little things they enjoy.

February 10- Highland Mardi Gras Parade
The kids were super excited for Mardi Gras. The weather was just about perfect, it had poured down raining earlier that day but by the afternoon, in time for the parade, it stopped! We joined up with Ian, his mom Becky and Liam and Scarlett as well as our friends the Terrys.
Jonas was ok with the parade, he wanted to run around and just eat all the candy as they got it.

These cousins, lol. They're just so cute when they get together.

Here's Sydney holding out her bag to catch some stuff.

And the kids showing off their spoils.

February 17-
Dad just thought Sydney was so cute in this dress. We got it from someone but Sydney had never worn it before and it goes so well with her short hair cut.
And you know our little Sydney, she loves to pose.

February 15- 
No pictures for this bu we had a Sweethearts Dance at our ward and it was lots of fun. Just hanging out with no kids and dancing with my sweet hubby :) Brian was so wonderful on Valentine's Day- made me a HUGE breakfast in bed and had chocolate (yay!) for me. Really sweet! We do have some pictures taken at the dance which I hope to get soon and share!

February 18- My Birthday!
This year I turned the ripe old age of 27. lol just kidding. I don't feel old. Until the kids wear me down real good but I had a wonderful birthday. Loved all the birthday wishes and calls and songs. Had Liam and Scarlett over and also had my friends the Terry's over a little bit that day too and just felt super happy the whole day :) Wonderful-smelling lotions and body spray from Drea helps too :)
We went to the Boardwalk Mall that night with some take-out from Albasha's (gyros yum! I crave their food all the time!) and then had some Coldstone's ice cream (double-yum!) So it was a blast! Some pictures from the Boardwalk:

Brian and I went out to eat Tuesday night while a family from our ward watched the kids. That was really nice to get out of the house! I also stuck to my calorie-plan well with their lighter Italian fare at Olive Garden so that was cool! I have recently discovered that is asparagus is cooked right and still a bit crispy, I actually like it! So I've tried something new this year! go me!


February 23-
We had a small party at our house for my birthday with some friends and family :) I love having King's Cake for my birthday and we hadn't had one this year either (King's Cake, that is) so it worked perfectly.

Thank you everyone for making my birthday great! 


The past few weeks Brian hasn't been in school but he starts his next class on Thursday so we're prepared for things to get busy around here again. It's like being a single parent lots of days- especially the night he has his 4-hour class, I am with the kids all day, feed them dinner, bathe them and put them to bed myself. It will be like that other nights too as he has to go somewhere to work on his schoolwork but the goal is for him to have his Master's in a year so we can do this! With Brian not taking classes, I stepped up my tutoring hours and so I appreciate his help with that. This week I'll go back to 8 hours a week but I really want to try to maintain that as I know there are only a couple more months of good tutoring opportunities before the summer hits and it will be very slow. I'm excited about some sites I have been ( and will be ) featured on this year for my design business. One this month was MyscrapbookArt.com and that has brought in some good advertising for me and I have another big one scheduled for April that I am really excited about so I am hoping all of this is getting my name out there and helping my business grow!

We are working with Sydney on trying to read words. She can recognize some small ones like "dad", "mom", "dog", "cat" and sometimes "cow". She can be a little obstinate about working on it and so I have to find a better way to make it fun. She's doing great with cutting skills and she can count to 30 (sometimes more if we just help her with the names of the tens) so that's all exciting. She loves playing opposites with us (just "What's the opposite of hot?")  and it's hard to imagine her going to Pre-school this fall. I know Jonas will miss her!

Jonas is not progressing much with potty-training. lol but he is learning to talk and say more words every day! I think he said "Love you too" for the first time a couple of weeks ago. It was really sweet! He says "Thomas Train", "show" (for TV, and then gets SUPER MAD when I tell him he's not watching more TV),  and he can say all our names but is still struggling a bit to say his own. I love it when he says "Woah" or "OH!". It's so cute. And he also says "ma'am" when I tell him something he should be doing. Also, sometimes when I get mad at him but don't put him in time-out, he will put himself over in time-out. His slumped over pose with his frowny face is pretty pathetic but cute.

We're doing well and hope everyone else is too!

Warming Weather and New adventures

January 21st
On Martin Luther King Day I got to watch my nephew and niece! Sydney was so excited to have someone to play dress-up with! I would see a purple dress walk by and thought it was Syndey, but the brown hair gave it away as Scarlett. I did double-takes like that all day. lol.

I really wish this picture wasn't blurry, it's so dang cute their looks!

Blowing some bubbles outside. And yes, Jonas has the bubble wand in his mouth in the back.

Liam enjoyed taking the berries off of the tree that hangs over our back fence. I was careful to tell them not to eat them!

January 26

Jonas loves all kinds of fruit, including strawberries. I was just shocked at how big this strawberry was and the leaves were huge too!

February 2
 
 So the big adventure... I'm not 100% sure Jonas is ready to start hard core potty-training but I thought maybe if we get him some Cars underwear he would get excited about it and try it. So here is a video of him trying on his underwear for the first time.

I kept asking him to go sit on the potty, sit on the potty, etc. and he had an accident on the floor. I very gently told him, ok let's go get this off in the bathroom. And he happily took off his socks but when I started taking off his underwear, he was MAD. But I stayed calm because I knew that it was good for him to see that the underwear goes away if he has an accident. So, I was kind of happy he was upset. lol. Going to try to give him some time in the underwear when I can and am home and see if starts getting the idea... wish us luck!

Silly Kids and playing with Dolls

Hey all! Life's been going on as usual here! Just wanted to share some fun the kids have been having lately.

January 7th

Here's a fun pictures of Sydney with one of her Christmas presents, her glowing-hair Rapunzel doll. She was excited to put on her Rapunzel dress on and match with her doll :) She came up to me, "Look, Mom! We Match!"

January 10

The kids have been trained and therefore think anytime I pull out the camera, it means I'm taking pictures of THEM. I pulled out my camera on this day to get a before shot of me as I start a diet/exercise routine to lose weight this year and the kids jumped in and were ready for some candid shots!

And I won't torture you with my before shots, only if I lose some major weight and have a great after shot to show you as well! :)  My plan is to just limit my calorie intake to 1500 calories a day (1800 if I do a 45-minute workout, which for the past 2 weeks, I have been doing M-F, kickboxing or Zumba) and to make that work, I have a food diary on MyFitnessPal.com (free site!) that allows me to do searches for the foods I eat and logs my calories throughout the day. I found that by snacking every 2 hours and then having smaller portions at meal times, I can stick to these fewer calories without feeling like I am starving! I also am seriously drinking 64oz + each day. That also helps me feel full. I snack on fruits, peanut butter, cheese, wheat thins and other low-calorie snacks and then I am still eating with the rest of the family at dinner, just watching my portion sizes. I feel like this is something I can do. I've lost 2-3 pounds already in the two weeks I've been doing it, and that's fine. As long as I don't get tired of this, I think it will just be a gradual thing and that will help me stick to it! Wish me luck!

January 15- Arrrr Mateys!!

Brian was telling me one day how Jonas put on this pirate patch and said "Arr, I'm a pirate!" and so I was trying to recreate that here.  Cute little pirates!

Love Sydney's little fist.

And here's a little video of Jonas talking.

Then, Sydney has really loved playing with all of her dolls and putting them into family groups.

And a video of her playing with them:

Then, she pulled out this leotard and said, "I need to practice my rolling". And then proceeded to dance and roll around the rug for about 10 minutes. This video is about 1 minute long.

January 18th

We went up to the Walter B Jacobs Wildlife Reserve in North Shreveport with some friends. The kids had the most fun walking the trails (which shocked me!). Sydney walked over a mile of trails with her friends. Jonas was pushed on half the trails, walked half of the last one and was carried the rest of the way. But it was a really nice day to be outside and enjoying nature! Plus check out some of the displays:

Jonas trying to feed the deer.

And this bald eagle was pretty chatty when we came up! interesting to hear what an eagle sounds like :)

January 20

And then today, I was so excited that Sydney let me put her hair up in some bows. Matching bows that came with her new dress from her cousin Bryce for Christmas! She looked too darling for me not to do a photo shoot :)

Not sure where she got this pose from! lol

Love to all! More from the Tuck Family later!