James goes to the MTC

It's done!  He's gone!  The baby, the last of 9 kids, (8 of which served or is serving a mission, ya the black sheep is me) has left to serve a full-time mission for 2 years in Portland Oregon.  He first starts for a few weeks in Provo at the Mission Training Center (MTC) which is where we dropped him off on Wednesday.  But first, for traditions.  We, meaning my parents, like to take outgoing missionaries to Tucano's, a really yummy Brazilian restaurant, where you sit and they bring yummy meat for as long as you want.  They do have a salad bar with other yummy foods, but I don't like to waste my stomach space on that so I just sit and enjoy the meat, mmmmm.  Micah really liked it, this was after we washed his face that was covered in meat juice.  

The girls did too, lol.

Ki Ki even enjoyed it.

Can you tell Wall-E did too.

What a ham.

Elder Schmidt and Momma-la.

My kid's "other" Aunt, Sarah.  Malia, loves her to death.

Grandpa Shrimp (that's what Ki Ki calls him) with the girls.

The gang

James and the 10th Schmidt.

Cousins makin` daddy jealous on a Harley, lol.

After we stuffed ourselves silly, we went up to the Provo Temple to take some pics before we dropped off James.  Billy's fam.

All of us.

My fam. notice the sleeping baby, again.

The parental figures.

James really likes Stewart from Mad TV and does an awesome impression of him.  Check out this clip if you've never seen it.

"Let me do it"

"NO!"

"Off I go to serve the Lord"

Head shot

One last shot with the kids. . .

and me.

After the temple, Randy took the kids home and my parents and I went to drop of Beebit.  After Jon went on his mission, they stopped letting families go in and drop of the missionaries because of the H1N1 craze going on. So now you have to drop them off curbside and another missionary "host" helps them take their bags up to the door.  It makes for a very quick goodbye and a lot less crying.  This was a very cute shot of these two.  Made me cry a little.  

Bye Dad.

Later peeps, see ya in 2 years.

Off he goes.  Good luck Beebit, Uncle James, Jame-S, Stewart, ELDER SCHMIDT!!!!!  We love you and will miss you tons.  The Tucker house will be very quiet without you here.

Masie's blessing

We went against the grain and blessed Masie on a Tuesday instead of a Sunday because James's farewell and MTC date didn't make it conducive for a Sunday blessing and I really wanted him to be there because he'd been with us pretty much through everything.  Anyway, Tuesday it was and luckily a lot of Randy's family were able to make it as well.  Here are the Grandpas.

 And the star of the show, Miss Masie!!!

 Our bishop/neighbor/friend.  Thanx so much for accommodating us.

 Aunt Deanna.

 The Youells.

 Julie and Michelle taking over in the kitchen.

Mom and Matney.  Funny story, so in the kitchen Matney's helping and my mom is behind her saying "KT, KT, KT" and Mat's not responding.  Then my mom realizes it wasn't me.  Matney's my twin I never had.  Our mom's are personality twins as well.  Every time her mom comes and visit it makes me miss my mom more and vice verse.  It's pretty uncanny.

 Mak and Wall-E

 The whole family, Schmidt's and Tuckers.

 Tucker clan.

 Schmidt brood (well a portion of us at least).

 We haven't had a family shot in a while.

 And this is probably why.

 Grandparents and Great Grandparents.

 Had to get one last shot with James and the Babe.

 And of course Zoolander.

 He was getting a little hungry.

 Our friends who could make it.  Youell's left too fast for us to get them in there.

 Thought this was cute shot of the 3 of us.

 We really like "baby smell," and apparently she's already had enough of us doing that.

 It was a long day for this little girl.  So glad she's part of our family.

Going to Grandma's

Since Randy didn't have to take time off after Masie was born because of the awesome help we got from his mom, and my brother, we decided to take a quick vacation up to my mom and dad's to see their new house before school started and take a much needed break from reality.  I didn't do a good job documenting everything we did with my camera because I wanted to be lazy but here are some of the things we had fun doing.  

My little sister, Bacon and her new husband came over from Spokane to go camping and ended up hanging out with us most of the time, cuz I'm cool like that, well sort of since I forgot to pull my camera out and show that we actually saw them.  The day they had to head back, we went down to the river near my parents house and played around for a few hours.  There were tons of little minnows in the water and Mak caught a few.

 It's hard to see but that little tadpole looking thing kinda in the center is her catch.

 Morg having fun

 And Eah

 Even Maser couldn't contain her enthusiasm.  This is pretty much what she always does in her car seat.

 Randy got in on the action, even though the water was freezing.

 Mak couldn't help herself, what a loving sister.

 We also went to the fair with my mom.  There was a free bus that took you from the mall to the fair so you didn't have to fight traffic or pay $6 to park.  The kids were really excited to ride the bus, we should've just done that all day and bagged the fair, lol.

 Malia riding the cars at the carnival.

 The kids getting ready for a fast spinny ride which unfortunately made Mak sick so she was out for the rest of the fun and Morgan saw a kid puke so she backed out before even going on.

 Mak and Mic before the ride.

 Morg opted for the swings.

 Later in our vaca. my oldest sister Shauna came with her kids since we haven't seen them in a couple of years.  Ella and Malia haven't really ever seen each other (well enough to remember and actually play)  We went to a splash pad right down the street from my mom's with them.  It was fun.

 These two are hysterical, they fight like sisters but want to play together.  It will be interesting to see them as they grow up.  Oh and Malia is 4 months YOUNGER than Ella, but that didn't stop her from growing taller than her, lol.

 The day we were leaving to go home was my baby brother's farewell at church.  That was the other reason for Shauna coming.  After church he was set apart as a missionary to serve in the Portland Oregon Mission.  He is soo excited.  Here's Shauna's fam with him.

 And my parents

 And us, notice Masie sleeping, again.

 And the nieces and nephews

 doing the Bolt.

 The morning we left we took some shots of the kids. . .

 jumping on the trampoline.

 Malia and Ella

 Micah and Preston

 Morg, Kyra and Mak.

It was really nice to get away for a bit and see some fam we haven't in a while since I was pregnant and sick every time we got together in the last 9 months.