Baby Announcement

We wanted to be a little creative when we announced to our friends about our upcoming arrival.  I had seen this done somewhere and thought it was really cute and easy so we went with it.  There were so many great shots of Masie that we decided to make it into a progression kind of a thing.  

Happy

Seeing the "notice"

Looking a little concerned

 Then Bam, the realization of it all.  It was priceless, aren't we horrible parents.  Well, either way, this baby is coming weather she wants it or not, lol.  It will definitely be an interesting transition. 

Halloween 2013

We had a fun Halloween this year.  The weather was decent and the kids made a candy haul.  It started out with our ward's Trunk or Treat.  The kids played some games (Malia pinning the nose on the witch)

 And there was a parade  (sorry the shots are blurry) 

 Masie was having a hard time figuring this thing out.

 But we had some happy moments.  And once she figured out that if we walk around to different people while holding our buckets out, we will get candy.  She loved it.

 Masie was more than eager to put on another costume for Halloween so she could get more candy.  She was hysterical.  The kids tried to be more creative with their costumes this year instead of whining for something store bought.  Masie was a butterfly, McKenzie and Morgan were nerds, Malia was a pirate, and Micah was Link.  They had fun, and I braved the craziness even though I wanted to barf the whole time.  It was a fun night for all.

Teen Out!!! She's 13!!!

It's finally happened, we have a teenager in the house.  This girl has grown up so much in the last year, it's hard to believe that we've gotten to this point.  Her BFF, Emme wanted to make it extra special by throwing her a surprise bday party.  She invited a few friends over to our house where they hid in her room to kidnap her.  It took a bit to realize what was happening in her room.

 We went out to a near by crepe place that McKenzie has been dying to try.

 And then back to Emme's cake/icecream and presents.  Emme made the cake all by herself.  I thought it was pretty impressive.

 These girls were so sweet.

 Oh and I had to throw this one in there.  Emme's dad discovered a turtle in their yard and had just found a home to give it to, but McKenzie had to get her animal fix in before they got rid of it.  It was a cute turtle.

 Her birthday landed on Conference Sunday this year and so we went up to Gma/Gpa's to watch conference and celebrate.  She requested an icecream cake.

 She had fun, Grandma took her on a shopping spree, she got contacts, and she had fun hanging with her cousins.  Here are the 3 teenage Tucker cousins.  Can't believe how much these 3 have grown.

Fall Happenings

Since I'm soo far behind, I frankly exhausted (hence why I haven't blogged in a while) I am going to do a recap of the fall.  Micah started back up in soccer this year.  Their team did great.  It's fun to see these boys grow and get better every year.  He scored a few goals and had a blast.  He's playing on the bigger fields this year so there is a lot more running involved.  I find it humorous that he wears the same two colors every year, either black or lime green. 

 We went up the canyon this year instead of doing our annual hike with friends we had a weiner roast.  This kids had fun doing something different, and Masie loves Doritos apparently.

 Randy had a little too much fun tending the fire.

 When we were all done and cleaned up, we headed up Squaw Peak to show the kids what a spectacular view it is from there.  It was freezing but they loved singing all of the Utah Valley.

 We also went to the BYU Homecoming parade again.  This year the Nordfelt's went with us.  After eating our blue pancakes, we headed down to the duck pond  while we waited for the parade to start.

 The kids went back for 2nds on the pancakes.

 Trying not to freeze.

 Then it started and the kids were mezmorized.

 One of the ballroom dancers wanted to show Morgan his moves.  She loved it.

 Next up was McKenzie's 1st band concert.  She started playing the flute at the beginning of the summer at a band camp and she really likes it.  She struggled at first and got really frustrated that she didn't sound like a professional right from the get go, lol.  She's learning a lot and doing great.  She wouldn't smile for the camera for me, cuz apparently that's not cool anymore.

 So I made her take another picture later. . . smiling.

Then Malia did her first Rad Kids.  We are so excited for her to participate.  She did great even if the Lobster man wasn't able to come to this one. 

 She was so excited she forgot to give her teacher a high 5.   1 down 2 more to go this year.  I'm really grateful our school has this program.  It puts my mind a little more at ease knowing that if my kids were put in a scary situation like getting abducted, they have some tools to help fight back and not become a victim.

Ya, I'm getting older, so what!

I just don't really want to talk about it, I am not enjoying this thing called age. . . probably because I feel like I'm getting older.  Oh well, it has to happen sometime I guess, right.  I am a very practical person when it comes to gifts and this year Randy did not fail me.  I got something I really wanted for the kitchen.  This, as stupid as it may seem is a cookie scooper.  My last one broke and I really miss it ( I know dumb, hu) so Randy got me a new one and couple other practical things, cuz he luvs me, :)

 What birthday would be complete without some goofy kid pics.

 I received some really old silverware after my grandma passed away, a lot of it is mismatched, but it's something to remind me of her.  Randy spent the afternoon cleaning and polishing and them up for me.  What a sweetie!!!!

 I didn't care what kind of cake I got as long as it was chocolate and I didn't have to make it.  This is what Randy found at Costco.  It looks chocolaty enough for me, lol.

 Man look at those candles.

The best birthday present I received was this one.

I took a test on my birthday and it finally came back positive.  I had take 2 other tests that came back negative which didn't make sense since I was really late.  This little baby just wanted to make my birthday that much more special.  He/she will be arriving beginning of May, gender coming soon :)  We are all so excited to have another special little spirit join a family.  And for those of you who think 6 is a lot. . .I'm from a family of 9, 6 is nothing!  Happy Birthday to ME!!!!

Morgan's 10!

 Ya, Ya, Ya I know.  It's almost Christmas and I'm now posting her birthday from August.  You can say it, I'm a horrible mother.  -K- Now that we have that out of the way.  I can't believe how much this girl has grown.  We have another double digiter (it's a word right?) and there's no stopping us now.  This year Morg had a "friend" party but since her birthday landed on Labor Day weekend we opted to wait a week for the party since a lot of her friends were going to be out of town.  So we celebrated as best we could before that.

A typical Morgan Face.

 For my birthday my MIL got scheduled me for some cake decorating classes.  She knows I make the kids' cakes so this was great.  I got some good tips and learned to make some new flowers, like this cute white ones.  

 Oh and Randy got me a beautiful cake stand so now my cakes will pretty. . .right?

 Morgan wanted a Lego party which made me very happy.  I love easy parties.  We played some Lego games. . .

 Ate some cake. . .

 And while we were opening presents. . .the lights went out and huge storm came through that ended up flooding about 20 neighbors and hundreds of others in the area.  It was crazy.  Luckily this was not Morgan's actual birthday because the rest of the day and into the night was spent helping everyone around us out.  We were ok, had a little dripping in the basement . . .

 And had our back door leak quite a bit but nothing we couldn't handle.  

It was amazing to see how quickly we all got together to help each other out.  There were about 6-10 homes that were so bad that restoration companies had to come and pump out water (like the water in the window well breaking windows to basements and having a wall of water crash through basement doors).  The kids thought it was pretty exciting to see the chaos.  

Anyway, we are so grateful to have Morgan the "mini mom" in our family.  She's always there ready to help.