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.  

Christmas 2012

What a fun-filled Christmas we had this year.  It started out with going up to Temple Square to see the lights with Gma and Gpa Tucker.  I love this temple.

Gpa with Rudolf, I mean Masie.

Gma helping Micah take some awesome pics.

Morgan loving the lights.

McKenzie and Malia trying to stay warm together.

I love that we have at least 1 set of grandparents close to do fun things like this with.

What an awesome evening.  It was pretty chilly, but we survived.

That night we crashed at their house and woke up early the next morning to leave for Montana to go spend the rest of Christmas with Gma and Gpa Schmidt's, and this is what we looked like for most of the vacation.

Just kidding, we can be serious. . . sometimes.

We got a special present this year. . .Masie, lol.

Gpa Schmidt even was able to join in our festivities.  He just had part of his back fused from a previous back injury and this is him 10 days post-op. As long as he wore his girdle he came out to be with us.

Yes Bacon, we DO love you!!!

Kilroy made an appearance.

We opened Christmas jammies

Masie found her tag, which she does for everything and then proceeds to eat it.

I had to get one more shot of the newlyweds before they were not the newlyweds anymore.  They hit their 1 year mark and we have a new set of newlyweds in the family now.

My little boog.

Masie really had fun her 1st Christmas.  She loves trying to rip the paper and then quickly putting it into her mouth.

Bacon had our family for Christmas and she made us our own pillowcases.  They are soo cute.

Shauna's family came down Christmas evening and the kids were so happy to see their cousins again.  I didn't get a ton of shots with them because they had so much fun together, I really didn't see them a whole lot but they did get to go sledding together which they loved.

I helped my mom put get pictures and put together this frame for my dad.  He's been wanting something like this for years to show off to he colleagues.  He looked really happy to get this.

We played lots of games, and thanx to Uncle Eggs (Bacon's hubby) it was documented.

We had a lot of fun up in Montana and were so grateful we had the opportunity to go up there.  On New Years Eve we headed back down to Utah to spend the end of the year with Gpa/Gma Tucker.  We had another "Christmas"  with them.  Here's proof of Masie's paper fetish.

And of course the camera got put down again during our New Years shindig.  Julie and her family came over for the festivities and all of kids lasted for the ball to drop.  It was a fun evening.  I'm so grateful that we were able to see so much family this Christmas.  Who knows if that will ever happen again, so I will take it when I can.  Oh and we were able to Skype with Kristi and chat with James on the phone on Christmas day which was awesome.  Here's to 2013, hopefully this year will bring a new job and a potential move.  

When Bacon comes to visit

We had the "privilege" of bringing Bacon home with us from California.  She wanted to visit some of her friends, pick up some of her stuff, and just hang out with the coolest sister ever.  So we decided to hike the "Y" one morning.  When we got there, there were 3 huge buses there and we got a little nervous  for what we might encounter.  Then we saw a ton of people/boys wearing BYU shirts and realized it was the football team getting workout in.  Luckily there were coming down as we were starting.  This was Bacon's 1st time doing it (I know what you are thinking that how has she not done it yet, she lived here for like 4 years, but it's cuz she only wanted to do it with me, lol), and she loved it.  It's a hard hike though, even without kids.

Part of the "Y"

The amazing view

Before Bacon left she had to make her signature sign to remind the kids who their favorite aunt was.

They really didn't want her to leave.

Neither did I.

But it was nice to have her here for a few days nonetheless.  Glad she still wants to be seen with me, even though I'm old.

August Happenings

It's the end of the month (which I am still having a hard timing fathoming) but regardless it's here. August always brings a lot of big events and by the time they come I don't have time blog. So bear with me, I may just ramble.


Here are the odds and ends of August. Morgan, after much persuasion, decided she wanted to learn to ride her two-wheeler. So we broke out the "small" bike and let her have at it. She's been kinda trying most of the summer (on and off) but a couple of weeks ago she got it. And when she said the small bike was too hard to ride (since her knees were in her face) she let me take off her training wheels. She was so proud of herself (and us as well) when she got up. She's growing too fast. Bacon decided to graduate early from the Y. She has one more class in the fall but doesn't want to stick around for graduation in the spring, so she opted to go early, smart girl. It was really nice for us cuz it was short and sweet and too the point. Just long enough before my kids started to go crazy. On graduation, I could not find my camera anywhere, so I don't have any pics, I'll have to steal some from her soon. We had a B-bque for her and I "built" her a cake. . .

Cuz Bacon really is the DUH coolest.

Now this really didn't happen in August, but I just realized I haven't posted anything on this (I think, I could be wrong, ya know I'm losing it), but anyway, my lil bro, who lives by us, had their 1st baby right before we left for Up Nort. They named her Kirsten and she is a cutie. She has hair and looks a lot like Billy, sorry Kirsten, hopefully you will grow out of the that, jk.

Welcome to our crazy family Kirsten, good luck in the future.

Here is the cake my lil bro (Will) made for my lil sis who's serving a mission. I made the flowers/leaves and he wrote the lettering, we shoulda made the hole a little bigger for the frosting to come out. We held the family calendar up and pretended that she was right there with us. Even one of pictures of her looks like she getting ready to blow out canldes, how perfect.

Here are the kids doing the best thing after blowing out the candles, licking the candles, what else. Wish you coulda been her Meg, cuz "aunt Bacon is the coolest." Love ya