Recent Pictures

Here are some recent pictures!

On the 10th and 11th, Gary had a work trip to Vegas. So Tucker, Jemima, and I went on a little trip of our own to visit my parents in Delta. They are moving into a new house in February and there was a lot of cleaning/painting to do before they move in. We spent all day Monday helping get some stuff done. Tucker had his little toy hammer and wrench and was just following me around willing to help. My uncle helped cut some wood for a project in the kitchen and Tucker helped himself to make a saw dust angel. My sister, Jane, was a great help to keep Tucker entertained elsewhere while we pulled up tack strip.

Here is the house that I built. It's a Tucker house out of a TV box. I was maybe having too much fun making it for him, spray-painting it outside. It has a fun little mail slot, phone, and chalkboard! We put it up against the closet in our family room so that when he goes in, it goes clear back, and he has lots of room to play!

It was so nice out this last weekend that we decided to wash our cars--and Gary was in shorts!

Here are some things that Tucker loves to do:

He loves to mow the lawn...er...sidewalk,

as well as use his tools in his cupboard hideout,

use the doggy-door,

share a meal with Jemima,

and share a meal with Buzz Lightyear.

Our New Year's and A Snow Day

New Year's Eve (during the day) we decided to go to Jumpin' Jacks with the Callisters. We had a coupon free admissions. If I would have known how much Tucker loved it, I would have taken him sooner. He really LOVED it. I can honestly say that he wore Gary and Me right out. We couldn't keep up with him. He loved all of the blow-up houses and the car game.

Check out Tucker's perfect form!

Then later we went to Cafe Rio for some yummy food.

On January 2nd, we woke up to snow! It was totally unexpected since we don't get too much of that here. This is the view from out front porch.

We decided to have a snow play day. All during December Tucker couldn't get enough of his The Snowman movie. So we finally got the chance to let him make his own snowman. Luckily we were bundled up and stayed pretty warm. Except when Jemima pulled Tucker's gloves off a few times...

Our Family is Getting Bigger!

We wanted to announce that our family is getting bigger.

No, it's not another baby on the way. I must deny the validity of claim made on facebook under Gary's account last night. Haha. It was a little joke on us. Our friend Trish is due to have a baby 1/1/11 (Today!). Last night we had them over and she used our computer for a minute and was still logged into her facebook account. Gary thought it would be funny to change her status to "is going into labor right now" which she wasn't. Before the night was over, she had caught on to the trick, and when Gary was logged onto facebook but wasn't watching, she got us back.

But our family did get a new addition. Her name is Jemima Jane Schaugaard. She is a 4-month-old Labradoodle.

Gary's brother, Nate, came down with us when we headed back home from all the Christmas festivities. One day last week, Gary came home and wanted to go shooting with Nate since Gary got his new gun for Christmas. When they got back, Gary walked through the door and tossed this little fur-ball onto our floor!

It was a total surprise!

We have been looking at puppies for forever. Tucker loves dogs, and we thought it would be good to have one around. Gary has a lot of fun memories of his dog while he was growing up. Gary is allergic to a lot of dogs, so we had to look for one that is hypoallergenic.

We had looked at the dog he brought home before we went out of town for Thanksgiving. They wanted $500 for each of their pups, and we left without a dog, but thought we might come back after we had came back from being out of town for Thanksgiving. Well, Gary lost the phone number and we looked for the listing again but didn't find anything.

Well, when he went shooting, Nate and Gary went near where they had the dogs. They stopped by the house where they had the pups at and they had 2 left! They gave him the option to take her home for 24 hrs. to see if we wanted to keep her. Plus, she was only $125 this time :)

At first I didn't know if I could handle it. It's a big responsibility, and she needs to be house trained. The next day though, she went hiking with us up the red rocks in front of our house. We took Nate's new rock crawler up the rocks. She stayed right by the boys and just climbed the rocks with them. It was so cute! I then realized that I couldn't get rid of all these memories waiting to be made by our little boy and his dog. Then, that day, I thought we had lost her for a minute, and I was freaking out. Okay. I became attached. She wasn't even lost--she was just chilling in a chair.

Can you see Nate in this next picture? 

She is a really good dog. She has been catching on to the house training and is sooooo good with Tucker, even when he tries to wrestle her to the ground. 

 Here's Tucker and Jemima during bath-time.

She got the name Jemima Jane because once, when Gary and I were at the temple, we were doing sealings for a couple and one of the names was Jemima Jane. Gary said with a Southern drawl, "I think the next girl in the family should be named Jemima Jane." He even asked his sister, Sandy, if she would name her baby (due this month!) Jemima Jane. But when we got our little doggy, it just seamed perfect!

Christmas!

Christmas in our family makes for a busy time! There is always a lot of family to see!

We stopped by Delta to visit my family on the 23rd and stayed the night and partied with them for a while. We left the next day and headed up further North. We stopped by the Brockbanks (my aunt and uncle's) because we heard Santa was going to be there! We made green rice crispies wreaths and hung out with my sister and some relatives.

My little nephew was a little afraid of Santa.

After that, we went to Gary's dad's house and had some yummy soup for dinner. Then we read the Christmas story in the scriptures all settled in our beds so that Santa would come.

Sandy and Wade showed up early Christmas morning and we had a blast hanging out, opening presents and eating yummy biscuits and gravy. Tucker is still grasping the idea of Santa Claus. He knows who he is, but doesn't really get that he is the one that leaves the presents. 

Here's Tucker and Grandpa on Christmas morning.

Can you guess what Gary got? Its the one in the green wrapping paper. It reminds me of the commercial with the viking kid that sits on Santa's lap with the obviously wrapped ax and the kid says "I wonder what it could be?" Then Santa pulls the kid's beard. Haha!

We left the Schaugaard residence and headed to Gary's mom's. We got to video chat on the computer with Grandma & Grandpa Bolin who are on a mission in Canada, and Gary's brother called from the MTC in the Dominican Republic while we were there.

Then we went to Grandma and Grandpa Green's.

While we were at Grandpa and Grandma Green's, Tucker snuck into the bathroom and started grunting on the toilet. Good thing the seat was down.

Then we headed back to Gary's mom's and opened some presents. 

Then we went to Grandma & Grandpa Haroldsen's. We played the white elephant game and hang out with family.

Then we went to Grandma Birrell's. Tucker got a Wocket in my Pocket book and a stuffed Wocket. Here he is with his Wocket in his pocket. Cute!

And here is the painting that I made for Grandma and Grandpa Birrell. Sandy and Wade made the frame.

We had a wonderful Christmas!