We're Baaaaack!! and catching up....June

We're going to pretend this is June.  of 2012. 

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY PRINCESS MARY HADDOX!!!

We had a huge birthday party celebrating Mary Haddox's 3rd Birthday!  Lots of friends from church, school, and close family friends were there along with all of our family!  We had a blast as the pictures show!  I was 8 months pregnant and nearly had a heat stroke, but lots of fun was had by all!  This little girl will never know how much she is loved!!!

 

 

11 Step Program for those thinking of having kids...

I cannot take credit for this, but my oh my....I feel like someone was in my head and wrote down my every thought.  What is completely sad is a coworker found this and emailed it to me saying she thought of me.  Bless.

·         11 Step Program for those thinking of Having Kids

Lesson 1

1. Go to the grocery store.
...
2. Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their head office.

3. Go home.

4. Pick up the paper.

5. Read it for the last time.

Lesson 2

Before you finally go ahead and have children, find a couple who already are parents and berate them about their...

1. Methods of discipline.

2. Lack of patience.

3. Appallingly low tolerance levels.

4. Allowing their children to run wild.

5. Suggest ways in which they might improve their child's breastfeeding, sleep habits, toilet training, table manners, and overall behavior.

Enjoy it because it will be the last time in your life you will have all the answers.

Lesson 3

A really good way to discover how the nights might feel...

1. Get home from work and immediately begin walking around the living room from 5PM to 10PM carrying a wet bag weighing approximately 8-12 pounds, with a radio turned to static (or some other obnoxious sound) playing loudly. (Eat cold food with one hand for dinner)

2. At 10PM, put the bag gently down, set the alarm for midnight, and go to sleep.

3. Get up at 12 and walk around the living room again, with the bag, until 1AM.

4. Set the alarm for 3AM.

5. As you can't get back to sleep, get up at 2AM and make a drink and watch an infomercial.

6. Go to bed at 2:45AM.

7. Get up at 3AM when the alarm goes off.

8. Sing songs quietly in the dark until 4AM.

9. Get up. Make breakfast. Get ready for work and go to work (work hard and be productive)

Repeat steps 1-9 each night. Keep this up for 3-5 years. Look cheerful and together.

Lesson 4

Can you stand the mess children make? T o find out...

1. Smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains.

2. Hide a piece of raw chicken behind the stereo and leave it there all summer.

3. Stick your fingers in the flower bed.

4. Then rub them on the clean walls.

5. Take your favorite book, photo album, etc. Wreck it.

6. Spill milk on your new pillows. Cover the stains with crayons. How does that look?

Lesson 5

Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems.

1. Buy an octopus and a small bag made out of loose mesh.

2. Attempt to put the octopus into the bag so that none of the arms hang out.

Time allowed for this - all morning.

Lesson 6

Forget the BMW and buy a mini-van. And don't think that you can leave it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don't look like that.

1. Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment.

Leave it there.

2. Get a dime. Stick it in the CD player.

3. Take a family size package of chocolate cookies. Mash them into the back seat. Sprinkle cheerios all over the floor, then smash them with your foot.

4. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.

Lesson 7

Go to the local grocery store. Take with you the closest thing you can find to a pre-school child. (A full-grown goat is an excellent choice). If you intend to have more than one child, then definitely take more than one goat. Buy your week's groceries without letting the goats out of your sight. Pay for everything the goat eats or destroys. Until you can easily accomplish this, do not even contemplate having children.

Lesson 8

1. Hollow out a melon.

2. Make a small hole in the side.

3. Suspend it from the ceiling and swing it from side to side.

4. Now get a bowl of soggy Cheerios and attempt to spoon them into the swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane.

5. Continue until half the Cheerios are gone.

6. Tip half into your lap. The other half, just throw up in the air.

You are now ready to feed a nine- month-old baby.

Lesson 9

Learn the names of every character from Sesame Street , Barney, Disney, the Teletubbies, and Pokemon. Watch nothing else on TV but PBS, the Disney channel or Noggin for at least five years.

Lesson 10

Make a recording of Fran Drescher saying 'mommy' repeatedly. (Important: no more than a four second delay between each 'mommy'; occasional crescendo to the level of a supersonic jet is required). Play this tape in your car everywhere you go for the next four years. You are now ready to take a long trip with a toddler.

Lesson 11

Start talking to an adult of your choice. Have someone else continually tug on your skirt hem, shirt- sleeve, or elbow while playing the 'mommy' tape made from Lesson 10 above. You are now ready to have a conversation with an adult while there is a child in the room.

Dancing Diva's First Dance Recital---(we're catching up...this is really May 2012...don't judge)

Our little dancing queen had her first dance recital, and let me be the first to tell you.....She did AWESOME!  She was so super pumped and excited!  The only problem we ran in to was she did not want to get off the stage.  Period.  She thought everyone in the audience was there to see her and her only.  And, yes, I was the extreme obnoxious dance mom taking like 10000000 pictures and had the whole fam with a video camera, etc.  I'm cool with it. 

At the end of the recital, each little girl got a trophy for doing such a great job throughout the year.  You would know, Ms. Thang pranced her little tiny hiny across that stage and proceeded to wave the Miss America wave as she accepted her trophy.  I. DIED.  It's a shame she's so painfully shy................

Dr. Jessica Rutledge

When we flew in from Vegas, we were on a very short schedule because my sister was being hooded that night as a doctoral graduate in Occupational Therapy from Belmont University.  So, yeah, she's the DOCTOR!  All of the family came in to see Dr. Smarty Pants walk across that stage!  We are all so very proud of her.  It took a lot of hard work and many many tears, but she made it! 

During the hooding ceremony, they asked the graduates to go outside for a group picture.  As I was snapping pics of Jess walking down the aisle, I had taken my eyes off Mary Haddox for less than 5 seconds.  When I look up from the lens of my camera, I spot her....walking up the steps of the stage.  She gets on stage, and does a few ballerina spins, and I'm about to have a coronary.  She sees my face and immediately knows that may not have been the best decision she's ever made.  She gets down and tells me "But mommy...it was my turn to be on stage".....Needless to say, it was very cute, but oh wow...my blood pressure.

VIVA LAS VEGAS!!

At the end of April, Nick and I went on a much needed trip, just the two of us (well, 3 if you count Baby Tucker) to Las Vegas.  IT WAS PHENOMENAL!  I have been once before, but it was on a bachelorette trip for my BFF and we will definitely leave it at that.  Nick had never been.  I knew it was going to be an experience and I could not WAIT to see Nick's face when they handed him the "business cards" late in the afternoon on the strip! hehehe

My parents kept MH and she never even knew we were missing.  We tried to FaceTime with her, talk to her, etc and she could care less.  This was the longest we had been away from her and it was miserable, but good for everyone.  We left on a Saturday and came  back the following Friday. 

While in Las Vegas, we decided to do the whole "tourist" thing and see the Grand Canyon(which is only like 2.5 hours away) and also the Hoover Dam.  Both were breathtaking and unbelievable.  We rented a car to drive to the Grand Canyon and asked for directions from the rental agent.  They got us there, but forgot to include some very small details....like....there is absolutely NO LIFE FORM the entire way there--no convenient stores, no fast food, no neighborhoods, NOTHING.  And another small detail they left out was the last 9 miles were offroad.   Yes, offroad, meaning no pavement, no slag, just very loose gravel and dust.  Thank goodness we opted for the rental insurance because we each got a turn playing Dukes of Hazzard with the car in the mountains.  We had a ball!!!

And as our Tucker luck would have it, we ended up on an Indian reservation were we had to pay $44 a piece just to SEE the Grand Canyon.  Good one.  The rental agent didn't bother to tell us there was no way to get to the canyon without going through the reservation and using their charter buses.  Oh well, memories...thats what we pay for these days!  And, again as our Tucker luck would have it, by the time we got to the Hoover Dam they had sold out of dam tour( :) ) tickets so we had to do the small one.  And yes, there were many "dam" jokes during the tour!  And the last thing that is just hilarious is I have always wanted our picture in front of the Welcome to Las Vegas sign.  After a $10 monorail ride, a free tram ride, and a $30 cab ride, we make it to the sign to see there are lights out on the sign and you can hardly read it PLUS its nighttime and you can hardly see anything.  Well good.  Dumb picture, dumb sign. 

While in Vegas we saw lots of sites (some we wish to forget) but we saw three shows: O by Cirque du Soleil, Le Rev, and Dancing with the Stars.  All completely awesome.  In my next life, I'm going to be one of those acrobats.

Here are a few pics from the trip:

We had a phenomenal trip, but this was the best of all:

We had a SUPER awesome piece of luggage waiting at baggage claim in Nashville when we got there!!!!  Thanks Jess for bringing our cargo to the airport!

Whoa....Baby!

Well, the title sums it up!  We're having another baby!  A baby BOY!  We found out Friday that Baby Tucker is now Baby BOY Tucker (only ONE baby btw).  And, of course, Nick and I cannot agree on a name. Not even one.  He made a statement that whoever won the Masters we would name our child after (however, I did not agree to such nonsense) and wouldn't you know, the winner was named Bubba.  Yep, Bubba.  Bubba Tucker.  I think it fits our family appropriately. 

When we told MH she was getting a Baby Brother she replied "I want a cookie".  haha Well, I see how you feel on the matter.  When we told Lambeau he was getting a brother, I think he skipped twice as much as normal (bc only real men skip) thinking he will no longer have to play dress up and ridiculous games with MH.  He can chase a ball, chase the boy, do man stuff, etc etc.

We are excited about the new addition, but yet very nervous.  We had NO idea what we were doing with MH, and I'm a little nervous that we didn't learn anything either.  I do know that the first night at home, they will need more than 1 oz of formula at each feeding.  We starved MH the whole first night at home.  I literally called the nursery at like 6:30 am the next morning and told them this kid screamed ALL. NIGHT. LONG.  After we were on the same page of how much to feed her, things calmed a little.  Not much, just a little. :)

We are excited that it is a little boy.  MH will not have to share her "princess" title, nor her "prettiest little girl in the whole wide world" title.  Those are big.  And, I'm pretty sure she is not going to share the spotlight.  I'm just guessing....

On a serious note, I have no idea how I am going to be able to love another child as much as I love MH.  There are no words to describe the feeling I have when I look at her.  She is my everything.  All wrapped up in a 30 lb body.  So far, "everybody" has been right when they have said things like "God gives you the maternal instinct" and THANK YOU GOD for giving it to me because I had, like, zero.  And, they were right when they said "You will just know" "Your life has just begun" etc etc.  Let's hope they are right when they say "You will love them equally, but differently" "you will not show favoritism" etc etc because that is mine and Nick's biggest concern.  Don't fail us now!!!!

Below is our announcement pic. 

And, for the boring stuff, I am 18 weeks, due Sept. 11 but I have a C-section penciled in for August 31, haven't been THAT sick, not nearly as sick as I was with MH (I thought I was dieing with her), lost 11 lbs, HATE McDonalds, still like catfish, LOVE water, coke, and half/half tea, wasn't real fond of BBQ, but that's getting better, and
STILL.CANNOT.STAND.THE.SMELL.OF.SHRIMP.BOILING.IN.KROGER.

That should be against the law.  Period.  It sends me running to the front of the store, food left in basket unattended in the aisle. 

Like I said in the first post, our life is a wild roller coaster ride!  Hang on tight, the ride has just started again!!!!

Marry Me

Mary Haddox was a flower girl in a wedding for her preschool teacher "Ms. Katie" and Mr. Jason.  She and her BFF Maddie were both flower girls.  Maddie's mother and I were not sure if the world was ready for both of them.....At the same time......In the same place.....Doing the same thing.  But Ms. Katie had no opposition!

During the rehearsal Friday night, they did not disappoint.  From basically climbing the walls to chasing each other, to arguing about making a mess-they were the life of the party.  As they were practicing, Mary Haddox would throw some petals down, and Maddie would tell her "Stop Mary-you make a mess" and MH would reply "I NOT".  And this continued down the aisle during the whole rehearsal.  Chrissy (Maddie's mom) and I were hysterical.

 Sometimes she can be bossy...(I have no idea where that came from) I can only imagine what she is telling the wedding director in this picture...Or maybe I don't want to imagine......

 Here is where the little "tiff" came in on making a mess.  As you can see, MH looks proud, Maddie is in disbelief.

 But, they obviously got over it really quick and kept it classy, because once they made it down the aisle, they were giggling at each other.

Make yourself at home girls.  Don't mind us, its just a wedding...no big deal.


They ended up doing wonderfully with very little disruption. 

 Chrissy and I were making the "shhh" face..Betcha never would have guessed that...

This was during the Lords Prayer.  Maybe Nick and I are doing something right....

Of course, as parents of toddlers in a wedding, Nick, Chrissy, and I were more nervous than the bride and groom I do believe.

MH and Maddie made a new friend, Emily.  Emily was the bride's cousin who was also the maid of honor and who also I'm sure by the end of the night wished Katie never would have asked MH and Maddie to be in the wedding.  We even had to intervene during the rehearsal dinner because MH and Maddie would not leave her and her date alone.  They pretty much followed her around and did everything she did. 

Take a look at the video.

The wedding was beautiful and the reception was a lot of fun. We wish Mrs. Katie and Mr. Jason a lifetime of happiness!  Thank you for letting us be a part of your special day.