Sydney's 5th Birthday!

Since Brian goes to his class on Thursday nights, when Sydney's birthday was this year, we had her cake and gave her 1 of her birthday presents the day before her birthday. She got The Little Mermaid DVD (she hasn't watched that movie in over 2 years). She also helped me the night before make her birthday cake and cupcakes for her classmates. She wanted the cake to be pink and the frosting to be purple. She helped me dye the white frosting and cake mix to get that.We had lots of fun!

Here's the sweet birthday girl with her crown from school!

And the magnificent cake she helped create!

And singing "Happy Birthday" to her!

My sweet Sydney! You are so fun and caring! You're such a big help with your little brother, some days I don't think I'd get by without you! You love to tell us the sun is up and it's time to get up! You love school and life and I hope you always will! You are so smart and sensitive to the gospel as you learn the songs and try to listen in class. We're so blessed to have you in our family and we love you so much! Happy Birthday Sydney!

Sydney starts Pre-K! Fun with Nail Polish...

This past week was really fun and a bit busy planning and preparing for Sydney to start Pre-K!

Sunday, we got to have Brendon and Ross hang out with us after church, the kids loved that! I got a blackmail photo of Ross though because he put on Sydney's barbie gear and rode on her pink and purple bike!

That night, I painted Sydney's toe nails and finger nails. Jonas wanted his painted too! In the past, I've gotten away with using the clear nail polish on his nails. I tried to paint them with the clear polish and he blocked my hand and started crying, "No! Like Sydney!" so I got out the blue polish and only painted his toe nails. Then made sure I put socks and shoes on him all week!! One day this week when he had his shoes off he said, "Mom, look at my pretty toes!" lol He has no idea!

Sydney was so excited for her school to start!
She started counting down the days. Tuesday she had to go in and get tested by her teacher and we bought her some school uniforms. She seems to like the uniforms ok, especially the shirts and dresses! The day before Pre-K, we worked on her "All About Me Block". We taped pictures of our family and her cousins on the box, as well as cut out some pictures of princesses from her magazine. I printed off pictures of an elephant, giraffe, penguin and peanut butter sandwiches- her favorites! She was so excited to show it to her teacher. We all went into the school with her. She knew right where her classroom was. She came back out of her classroom, gave me a hug goodbye and went back in! Jonas wasn't as upset to leave Sydney there as I thought he would be. Here's my big girl on her first day of Pre-K!

While Sydney was at school, I took Jonas to the duck pond and packed a lunch. He had so much fun just walking along the shore, looking for the ducks. He also had fun throwing sticks into the water.

Then we came home, he napped and I exercised, and showered. And then it was time to get ready to get Sydney!

At the end of the day, I went to pick her up. I could tell she was tired! It took a while for her to talk to me about what happened during the day. I asked her if she missed us. She gave me this little smile and said nothing, which said, "I know you want me to say I did but...". Finally I got from her that a classmate had a birthday so they had cupcakes for snack time! Then, I almost NEVER let her have chocolate milk but the drink with her lunch was chocolate milk! So yeah, they won her over there! She also said they read a book about the gingerbread man and then did a search all over the school for him. I thought that was such a cute idea because what they did was take the kids on a tour of the school, visiting the library and the office, and other places. She did say there was 1 thing she didn't like about school and that was quiet time/nap time. This kid will snooze on the way to pick up Brian from work but not for quiet time! So she didn't like that. But, hopefully she'll get used to it! She is so excited to go back tomorrow and I am glad she did so well and had no problems!

Jonas Brushing Sydney's Hair and The Shed completed

So Sydney IS starting full-day Pre-K this Friday! If I don't let her go now, she'll lose her place. I told myself I just need to relax and she'll be fine. I mean she missed the cut-off for Kindergarten by 3 days so she'll be one of the oldest kids in this group. I think the teachers are nice and they have an assistant and are firm at only 20 kids in a class. It should be good for her. She's really excited. I explained to her she can't wear her cute little outfits to school (she'll have uniforms) but the uniforms include skorts and jumpers so she's excited for that.

One day Jonas was playing with Sydney's hair (aka messing it up) and so I asked him to go get a brush and brush her hair. Cute little video of that:

I've been telling Sydney we will miss her while she's at school and the other day she told she'd miss Jonas. Hopefully being apart will just make them appreciate each other more. They play pretty well together most of the time. At least Jonas likes what Sydney picks out to watch. Like this morning, he was happily watching My Little Pony :)

A couple of brethren from the church helped Brian put up our shed yesterday. It took them several hours but it looks nice! There's a few kinks to still work out but we are super excited to have such a sturdy place to store our mower and some other boxes.

Not much else new happening with us! We'll have first day of school pictures to take on Friday! so we'll have those next time! I am thinking I MIGHT start serious potty-training with Jonas with Sydney at school, we'll see...

What the Tucks did in July

Whew! We've been busy this past month and I'm glad I finally made the time to look at the pictures! The kids and I have gotten into a routine because we go out almost every day to a park, or the library or some other fun activity. And in this southern heat it can really drain you!

We started July out in Alabama! The kids always enjoy visiting their grandparents in Alabama! We also traveled over to Georgia and got to visit with Brian's grandma and his aunt and uncles. Here's some pictures of the times we had with them.

Grandma Tuck had gotten these cute Thing 1 and Thing 2 shirts for the kids. So fitting!

Right before we left for Alabama, Sydney had earned her bike! She's been wiping the table, helping with laundry, washing windows and helping me out around the house to earn a new bike. She was so excited to go to pick it out her bike and I was so glad she was also excited about the helmet and pads. She never rides her bike without the protective gear. I'm so proud of her! She LOVES riding her bike. She wanted to ride it that very night we got it and then the next morning, her first words were, "Can I ride my bike?!". She's getting used to making some slight turns and she can go really fast while on the sidewalk. Jonas tried out a bike in the store too. I hope we can get him something to follow Sydney around on soon.

One night we had my niece and nephew for dinner and we got the little Mini Murphs so they could make their own pizzas. The kids LOVED it. Liam was still talking about it a couple weeks later. It was really cute and fun to see them make and eat their own pizzas.

This is just a quick photo from the Sci-Port where the kids were playing with the new dentist exhibit. So cute!

This past week we went to Gator N Friends, an alligator farm with a petting zoo.

They had some llamas.

Cute little ponies..

But the kids' favorite I think was the goats!

and then the gator feeding.

Sydney was so excited to hold the gator.

Liam didn't want to hold it but just touch it.

Recently Brian and I decided to make the plunge and get rid of the shed that was in our backyard. It was here when we moved in and we quickly found out it was worthless. It leaks, had a rotted floor and so wasn't good for storing our stuff like we'd want. We have the mower in there but that's about it. So we decided to go ahead and tear down the old one and Brian started by setting up the concrete pad this past weekend. The missionaries and a neighbor helped Brian out with it and then a HUGE thank you to a member in our ward who lent Brian a cement mixer and great truck for hauling the bags of cement and the shed.  Here's how it happened:

Brian's next paycheck will be the first one with his raise. We're very excited! It's taken 2 years with Schlumberger for this raise to come! So that will be great. School keeps running along for him and he is definitely getting more confident in his classes.

I go to a parent orientation this Tuesday to see when they want Sydney to start Pre-K. I'm hoping it will be January since it will be all-day. I think it will be a lot for her to deal with.

Jonas continues to talk more and more, it's really cute. He's so helpful and a sweet boy. Lately, he's started giving me "kiss attacks" when I give him his goodnight hug. Some days he seems to do well with being willing to at least sit on the potty, like one day, he went several times on the potty. But then the next day, I ask him to sit and he doesn't want to. I need to get a reward chart set up. I am almost willing to try to get him to do it cold turkey with wearing his underwear all day. 

I should be starting to tutor again this month. Just been focusing on my digiscrap business lately and it's been going well.

Got lots of fun things planned for August, I can't wait! Brian and I celebrate 8 years later this month too. We love everyone and pray all is well with you!