Beginning to Look a Lot like Christmas

...and by that, I don't mean snow. It's been nothing but rain here for the last few days.

Here is Tucker playing with Hawkeye at Ben & Elisha's.

Gary has had a tradition to paint a Christmas village house each year since he was little. Each year the village gets bigger. Here we are just carrying on the tradition with the Callister family.

Tucker was pretty upset when he ripped off the feet of the Elf that Grandma Haroldsen gave us. Pretty violent, I know. He just kept saying "uh oh!"

 He tried to put them back on, but they just wouldn't stick. I finally glued them back on for him.

Here we are at the Johnson's. They cut their own tree, and it was pretty tall. They needed a ladder to get all the lights on. That was the first thing that Tucker went after and climbed up to the top. He loves any kind of ladder. We have to keep our eyes on him at Lowes and Home Depot for sure.

Here is Tucker opening his present at the Bolin Christmas Party.

 It was a Buzz Lightyear!

 He loves pushing all of the buttons.

Well, Sophie didn't handle Tucker's present quite so well. She got one of these for her birthday a few weeks ago. Apparently she thought that Tucker's Buzz Lightyear was hers. I can't help but laugh at this one.

Don't worry, her dad went back to their house to get hers so she would settle down. Good thing they didn't live too far away. One Buzz Lightyear + two kids= one kid not so happy! Two Buzz Lightyears + two kids= yay---two kids happy!

Here Tucker is hanging out with some cousins.

Today I had to grab some things at the mall. Tucker knew exactly who this was as we walked up. He pointed and said "Ho-ho-ho!" I almost just didn't bother with letting him sit on his lap because I was tired of shopping and wanted to get home. But I'm glad I gave in. Look how happy Tucker is! And Santa didn't even have to give him any candy to get a smile out of him. All the other kids were crying, but not Tucker--no siree! He must somehow understand that this is one guy he needs to be good around :)

Recent Happenings

Here are some pictures of what we have been up to lately. We have been out of town A LOT. 

A couple weekends ago, Gary went to SLC for work for the weekend. I told Gary that when he got back, that our house would look like Christmas had thrown up all over it.  ...and it did. :)

I decided that since we are cheap and didn't want to go all out on lights etc. that I would paint the windows all festive-like, like they do at all the stores. Here is Tucker taking a turn at painting.

 At the Dicken's Christmas Festival, Tucker found a rocking horse that he just couldn't get enough of.

Tucker found a buddy at Gary's work party. There are hardly any boys his age around here, so it was fun for him to hang out with a boy for once.

 Tucker is wearing the gift that Gary got for the white elephant exchange.

There was a post about play-dough that smells good on This & That Creative. I made some for Tucker that smelled like gingerbread. He did try to eat it. And then tried to eat it again.

Tucker met Santa at the ward Christmas Party. He liked Santa because he gave him candy. It was way funny. The guy who played Santa, had a little daughter at the party and she sat on his lap about 4 times and had no idea whatsoever that it was her dad.

I roasted a turkey for the Christmas Party and afterward I took the leftovers to make a homemade turkey noodle soup. I had just put the broth in the fridge so I could separate the grease from the top. All of a sudden Tucker yelled, "HOT!" I turned around to see that Tucker had thrown his sippy-cup into the broth. 

He was seriously getting into everything! I made homemade noodles for the soup and got the flour from a big bucket that I dragged into the kitchen...and yup! Tucker got into that too. When I got after him, he took off down the hall screaming. Check out these little flour footprints

That night  I was finishing up a painting for Gary's Grandma & Grandpa Birrell. It was for Christmas, but we got the sad news that Grandpa Birrell had passed away. I had to speed up the painting to get it done so we could take it up north for the funeral. Tucker got into my palette too getting oil paint all over his blanky.

I totally didn't even get a picture of the painting when it was done. I think because it was crunch time to could get back up north. It was a sad time, but we all felt so comforted knowing that death is not the end, and that he is not struggling with Lou Gehrig's Disease anymore. He lived an amazing life and was a huge sports fan. He had some tickets to a BYU game that Saturday, and Sandy and Wade, and Gary and I got to go instead. We really enjoyed it even though Gary and I didn't have the chance to change out of our dressy clothes that we had worn to the funeral. 

Here is Tucker and his cousin Luke playing cars at the luncheon after the funeral.

After the basketball game, we went to the Grand America to check out the gingerbread house competition that Sandy and Wade entered. This is the house that Sandy and Wade made. The windmill worked and everything. Turns out they won the competition and now they get to stay in the Presidential Suite at the Grand America that  costs $5000.00 a night! Lucky them!

 They had people and a Christmas tree inside and everything. It was seriously amazing!

We stayed the night at Gary's mom's house and Tucker got into Uncle Nate's shoes. Putting on peoples' shoes is one of his favorite things to do.

And here is Grandma Haroldsen helping Tucker take a bubble bath in the jetted tub.

 Tucker loves Brutis. He was so ready for Brutis to take him for a ride.

Stay tuned--I still have more to update!

Thanksgiving (A Little Late)

Wow. As I am looking at pictures, I realize how much I need to update!

Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving. We ended up going up North to my Grandma & Grandpa Lee's for dinner. Leave it up to my sister, Abbey, to get headdresses and pilgrim outfits for everyone. She wanted it to be real authentic-like.

The pictures are all foggy because the camera was left in the car and got to a very chilly temperature.  It was freezing. Very very cold. Tucker kept repeating "Brrrrrrrrr!" throughout our whole trip. He knows what cold is now. He also took a dive into a snow bank while we were up there. I can just imagine him thinking, "Wow, that looks white and fluffy like a bed." only to realize it was very much not like anything he'd ever want to take a nap on.

My family all gathered around the table

Two little indians (One was trying to get away)

My little nephew Jajue helping my brother, Andrew, out with his headdress

The camera had finally warmed up :)

Tucker and Great-Grandma Lee

Tucker and Great-Grandpa Lee

Well, then came the infamous Black Friday. Gary seriously gets all giddy about Black Friday like he is a little kid waiting for Santa to come, and I am not even kidding. I'm talking about him being so restless that he can't even sleep anyway. We got most of all our Christmas presents taken care of in one day! And we got great deal on a new TV while we were at it. Tucker was mostly excited about the box as you can see :)

 Tucker and his little box house 

Peeking out the window 

Well, I have a lot more to post about...so stay tuned!

Sharing the Holidays

I love Christmas. Okay, so most of us do (minus the few scrooges here and there). But I especially love sending and getting Christmas cards! It's kind of just that time of year to get caught up on the most recent family pictures of friends and family with an included warm holiday greeting.

We just had our pictures taken by my friend, Adri (check out her blog HERE), who did an excellent job photographing us. She is especially good with babies and toddlers! Well, anyway, I've been itchin' ever since she took them, to get our new pictures on a Christmas card! 

That's exactly what Shutterfly does, so needless to say, I was excited when I stumbled upon them. Check out these cute Christmas cards HERE, that are perfect for such holiday greetings! There are also some good ones HERE. How do you decide with so many options?

HERE is one that I really like!

We are wearing brown in our pictures so I was thinking that these might go well with our pictures.

Find this next one HERE.

And this next one HERE.

They also have other picture goodies out there for you who want more than just Christmas cards! One option that I think is great that they do is custom photo calendars found HERE. I think that photo calendars are great ideas for Christmas gifts!

Also check out to see how you can get 50 free cards for yourself, HERE! Some friends recently got some cards back and they turned out great! I have totally taken up on this offer! How can you resist? 

A Couple of Hints to the Crossword

6 Down: Megs has been busy sewing

12 Down: We have a ping pong table in the basement that Gary practiced on