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

Update on Gallery Website

Just wanted to let you know that I have updated the gallery website. Check it out:

http://tucklings.webs.com

Christmas!

Sydney with Dad

Sydney with Grandpa!

Sydney with Grandma!

Baby's 1 st Christmas! So I should have taken more pictures but I think these turned out great! Sydney had a wonderful time and it was great to see my parents again! A wonderful Christmas!

The Brain

Without fail, we will get at least one piece of mail each year around Christmas time addressed to "Brain". While it is quite flattering to Brian, it does make me wonder what that makes me. Should Brian be wearing a shirt that says, "I'm with Idiot--->"? In the worst case scenario, I think it might be an indirect hint that I must be Pinky from "Pinky and the Brain" as seen on the Animaniacs:

Either way, it always brings us a chuckle.

Graduation!

Yeah! Brian graduated on December 12th! It was an amazing commencement with President Uchtdorf as the speaker. We even had someone watch Sydney so I wouldn't have to cart the carrier everywhere! Thank you visiting teachers! Oh, and did I mention Brian shook hands with President Uchtdorf?

Brian is so thrilled to be graduated. He is still recuperating from the last semester but he is definitely enjoying being done. He says that now he can play games guilt-free! He will now have even more time to devote to job-hunting, so wish us luck!

President Uchtdorf and President Clark (yeah, I was sitting VER far away)

Where's Brian?

Do you think what I think?

So, before I get into this, I want you to know I love Christmas songs but every now and then I think the lyrics need some work.
So, I was listening to the radio and the song "Do You Hear What I Hear" came on. It got to the verse where it said, "A child, a child, shivers in the cold. Let us bring him silver and gold" and I thought...... what? Because that is exactly what a cold person needs. You can't cuddle up with cold metal! It made me think of Alanis Morrisette's song "Ironic" and how she says, "It's like 10,000 spoons when all you need is a knife".
Now, of course, I did not bring up the issue without a solution! So, I propose the following changes to this verse:

Option #1: Forget about the cold altogether. "This child's, this child's coming was foretold. Let us bring him silver and gold."
Option #2: This variation is inspired by my mother-in-law who loves using this saying. "A child, a child shivers in the cold. A blanket would be as good as gold."
Haha. I guess I have too much time on my hands for thinking about these things!

2 months

Sorry, this post is late but here are some pictures from Sydney at 2months old. She has changed a lot!

We like to read to Sydney and she seems to like it, too!

Unconvential Use of Nursing Pillow

Please vote! I found Brian using my nursing pillow to rest his hands while he was playing the XBox.

Am I right in assuming that my husband has breached some kind of line here or am I wrong and Microsoft should start manufacturing these puppies for gamers worldwide?

Sydney does not mind until it is time to eat. I don't mind either, I just found it quite amusing. As Brian explained to his XBox friends he was online with: "It's so comfy and it wraps around me just right." Interesting....

Unbe-wreath-able

Please pardon the expression but I was amazed at how my wreath came out. I bought materials from Porter's and hot-glued the pieces on. I took a basic berry wreath and added dark berry sprays, some glittery pine leaves and some silvery beaded strands and Viola! got this. I was very proud. It looks better in person.

Look Who's Talking

These videos were taken at 3am a few nights ago. She is usually even more talkative than this but the camera had her mesmerized.

Gallery Update

We took some pictures at the Sears Potrait Studio and I downloaded them to the Gallery website. Click here to see them!

Smiles and Miscellaneous Pics