Visits and crazy kids

Towards the end of January my parents decided to head out  again to visit their grand kids.  They first stopped at our house for a few days before going to visit with other kids.  It was having them for a few days.

Uncle Billy had 2 business trips to take to Minneapolis and visited with us the first time and crashed at our house the second.  It's always great when family has to come see us, lol.

Oh and we took him to Costco for a Usinger Brat.  They sell them in the food court and are the best Brat around.

Masie found a purple marker and apparently has watched her older sister putting on makeup a little too much.  She was upset when I first discovered her. so I tried to lighten up her mood with some selfies.

 

 Kaders is notorious for falling asleep on the way home from church.  It doesn't matter what we do to try and keep him awake. We yell at him, startle him, sing really loud.  His internal nap clock goes off right at 12:15 on Sunday's.  I mean, not even a lollipop will keep this lil dude awake. 

Christmas 2015

The last 3 Christmas's have been in 3 different states and each one has brought on a little something different.  Utah was with lots of extended family, Indy was small and intimate with just us and this year was a little bit of both.  G&G Tucker along with Kristi decided to make the journey out to celebrate Christmas with us.  They stayed for a week and it was great having them be in our home and to be with us during the Holiday!  We like to get fresh trees because of the smell, and well because that's all I ever had growing up.  We found out Costco sold them for an awesome price so we went over and grabbed one hoping that it wouldn't die on us.  I looked it over thoroughly and it looked decent enough and low and behold this is was it looked like after taking off the ropes.  Not too shabby!

 We decorated it and this is where we found Masie a lot of the time.  Isn't Christmas magical.  I love thes moments.

 Malia's gotta be part of these moments too, lol.

 Once G&G got here it was on big party.  We tried to take them to as many places as we could, even though it was freezing.  We wrapped lots of presents and just enjoyed our time together.  Can you guess what this present is? lol.

 Christmas eve we acted out the Christmas story with little puppets.

 And then opened our Christmas Jammies

 Then the kids nestled into their beds and Santa visited

 And bright and early Christmas morning the crew was up and antsy to open their gifts.

 Randy's love of Star Wars has rubbed off on Kaders.  We were able to go and watch the new Star Wars with G&G and Randy was constantly watching trailers of the movie leading up to the release.  That's probably when Kay Kay really started noticing it.  He got some pretty fun "Star Star" gear.

 We found Grandma a fun Minnesota ornament to remember us by.

 Our little bunch in the Christmas Jammies

The day after G&G, Krsti and Lilly had to pack up and start back home on their long journey.  

 We are so grateful they came. We really enjoyed having them here.  Moving is always hard and to have familiar faces during the Holiday's is always a memorable time.  

 We love you Tucker's!!! Thanks for being so awesome!!!

Merry Christmas

We were planning on going to my parents for Christmas this year, but the weather wasn't great and I was sick so we, at the last minute, decided to stay back and go up to Randy's parents.  Christmas morning we woke up to the fun sound of Masie puking.  We all woke up very early that morning because of it, so our festivities started pretty early.  Glad we weren't traveling with that.  It lasted a few days on and off, and just when we thought she was better, she'd start up again.  I had to get a shot of this little stinker.  She has the best faces.

 The Christmas tree all decorated and ready to tear into.

 McKenzie opening her "Santa" gift.  It was gift card to the BYU bookstore to help her get a new Ipod.  She was pretty excited.

 This is what these two looked like most of the morning.  

 Micah got a game set which he loved.  He really likes to play chess.  

While we waited for Masie to get better so we could head back home, Grandma and Grandpa and Kristi left to go to Oregon and visit uncle Denny.  So we hung out at their house another day till we knew the barfing was over and then went home.

Kristi's Home & Happy Thanksgiving!

The Friday before Thanksgiving, Sister Tucker arrive home from her mission to Des Moines, Iowa.  We have all missed her so much and are so grateful for her service these past 18 months.  The whole family (including Rob's from San Antonio) went to the airport to meet her off of her plane.

 There were so many other families there waiting to meet their missionaries.  I think we counted between 10-12 huge groups waiting just like us.  Here she is ready for the biggest hugs ever.

 Everyone was sooo happy to see her

 especially McKenzie.  We didn't realize she was going to have this kind of reaction, but it was soo sweet.  She really missed her aunt.

 We found out that one of the reasons there were so many people waiting for their missionaries, is Des Moines sent home these awesome servants at the same time.  

 Kristi's MTC companion who went to West Virginia (I think) also arrived at the same time, so they got to see each other again.  Her name was Sister Tucket.  How crazy is that?

After we were done wiping our eyes, we went out to lunch to a diner in Kaysville.  It was really yummy, way too much food, but soo good.

 These were the babies that were born while she was gone. (Well technically,  Felicity was born about 1 month before she left, but Kristi has not seen her grow).

 The cousins had so much fun playing together, sometimes a little too much fun.  Holy makeup batman.

 That weekend was really busy getting ready for Kristi's homecoming and Bacon's baby shower.  She came down for a wedding on Adam's side and her MIL wanted to throw her a baby shower while she was here around a lot of family so I hauled the Tucker girls to see her and help her celebrate her new, upcoming arrival.  One of the games was to make a baby out of playdough for Bac to judge.  Alina and I won 1st and 2nd (I kicked everyone's trash).  Alina's was very cute, but mine just had that "I'm her sister" factor to it.  I gave it an umbilical cord and it was anatomically correct. (for a girl).  She busted up and didn't have to look any further. :)

 We went home for the week so the kids could finish their last few days of school and Randy could work before we headed back for Thanksgiving.  I (because I'm me) didn't get anything from that  except a couple of Masie enjoying the baby swing she once loved so much.  Kendra and I stayed home one evening to watch the kids under 8 so the rest could go see Savior of the world.  Being pregnant and having seen it before, I opted to let those who hadn't yet seen it go while I lounged on the recliner and bribed the kids with movies and popcorn.  I'm a good babysitter I tell ya.

Masie was in heaven rocking about.  The funny thing is she is still light enough to be in there.

After it was all over and we had to get back to reality, it snowed for for 2 or 3 days straight dumping about 10 inches on us.  It was beautiful. . . 

 but I don't like long storms.  I like it to dump in a day or less and then melt off the streets so I can get back to my normal life.  This was in the middle of the storm, we had to shovel a few more times before it stayed off.