Over spring break the boys and I took a quick trip to Western Texas to visit my best friend before they make a cross country move! The boys were excited to be back in Texas even though pretty much everything is different from where we lived. We didn't really do much just hung out and enjoyed spending time together. Emalee and Trey..those two...are so much alike and they drive each other crazy..it's pretty funny. We enjoyed the warm weather and played outside at the park and out in the backyard on the slip and slide...we went bowling, but I didn't take any pictures...Ashlie has those so if she ever sends them to me I'll put them up too ;P

a day in the dirt...fishing edition

After we finished up 4-wheeling we decided to go fishing since one of the lakes was part way unfrozen. We didn't really catch much, but we had fun. I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked, but I ended up hurting my hand...It was a fun day though and we were all filthy by the end.

A day in the dirt...

(just a sorry in advance because things are all out of order because blogger changed up everything and I don't feel like fixing it.)
Back in March we spent the day in the mountains 4-wheeling and fishing! And as usual we had a blast! Tucker was the first to try the baby dirt bike...we forgot to set the throttle pin that regulates the speed and he took off and hit the only rock in the area when airborne a couple of feet, landed the jump and then crashed...luckily because of the training wheels the dirt bike didn't fall down on him and he didn't really even have a scratch only the shock of crashing. He decided to give up on the dirt bike for awhile. Ty was crazy about that dirt bike. After Tucker's crash we set the throttle pin and he loved trying to drive (well mostly being pushed around on it.)  We took turns riding on the big 4-wheelers too and while we waited we rode bikes, climbed trees, practice knife skills, and mostly played in the dirt.  Below is my nephew showing off!

Trey had his turn on the dirt bike and actually did pretty good!

Wrestling Camp 2012

During our Thanksgiving Trip up to Wisconsin Tucker learned most of his cousins wrestle and they are pretty good at it too..and Devin wrestled too...so Tucker has been itching to wrestle. Well, every year the school district puts on a camp and of course I signed him up! (What is extra cool is that this is the same camp my brother went to all his years growing up and then as a high schooler he helped coach..the head coaches are the same coaches I have known most of my life and coached my brother during high school...it was a little bit of dey ja vu, but it a good way!) Tucker weighed in at 49.0 pounds and wrestled in the 47-49 pound weight division. Monday - Thursday of the camp were for learning or working on the basics of wrestling and Friday night was the tournament! Tucker won both of his matches and took 1st Place!!!!!!

Waiting for the tournament to get started!My dad was down by the mat telling Tucker what to do and Tucker was actually able to listen to what my dad was telling him and then do exactly what he was told to do. You can see him in the above picture looking to my dad for advice.That's my boy..WINNER!! He is such a good little athlete and has some serious drive to win.Next match...had his opponent on his back for a good portion for the match (they didn't count pins, they kept track of the points and at the end it was the wrestler with the most points who won)Proud of himself for winning!!1st ever wrestling tournament...1st Place for my little Stud!
I have video of him wrestling, but it's on my phone and I have never tried to upload a video from my phone onto here before, but I might give that a try tomorrow..or I should say, whenever I get the chance. (I am up past my bedtime right now, but I just wanted to get this thing updated because I have been slacking yet again).

A Suessical Musical

Tucker recently had his 1st Grade musical proformance! It was a bunch of musical numbers based on Dr. Suess's books (Honoring Dr. Suess because they did it the day before his birthday. Tucker's class is wearing red..can you see him sitting there patiently waiting with his classic smile plastered on his face.All the 1st grade classes...this is the biggest class they have ever had at his school..and it is still smaller than his old class in Texas.)After the show with his egg creation.
The kids did great and the music teacher put on a great show!

This is Tucker's cool fish he got for his birthday! He named him Goldie.

ICE FISHING!!!

On President's Day we journeyed up to a remote lake up in the mountains to go ice fishing! Everyone was so excited to try this out! Tucker used some of his birthday money and got a 'real' ice fishing pole. Trey talked a big game about getting on the ice, but once we got there he wouldn't go on...can you see him sitting on his chair, right at the edge of the ice...The majority of our crew is by the green tent, mom and Kim tried to talk him into coming, but he said no, so they left him there (I was at the car because Ty was sleeping...and Ty is not a child you want to wake up from a nap unless absolutely necessary).
Mr. Gerald making the whole...it was awesome, the ice was almost 2 feet thick!Nana Joyce had a talk with Trey and he came out with her on the ice and once he was out there he was having a blast..His favorite thing to do was to make sure the wholes didn't freeze back over by scooping ice out.All of the kids, except for Tucker, got bored with the fishing pretty fast..we anticipated this and brought sleds along with us, but despite the weatherman predicting a snow storm the night before our fishing trip which caused us to delay leaving by a few hours, there was hardly any new snow on the ground!! Instead Gramma started giving the kids rides around the frozen lake.And when she got tired Ms. Kim took a turn.And when she got tired Bella gave rides (I did not give rides because I was stuck carrying Ty around because he would go from loving being on the ice to hating it and he wasn't too found of the sled rides either...so I was exhausted from carrying his heavy butt everywhere)My dedicated little fisherman! You make your daddy proud Tucker! Poor guy didn't catch a fish, but he never gave up.Well, maybe the reason Ty wanted me to carry him is because it's hard to walk with 2 layers plus a snow suit and snow jacket and snow boots!Devin really wanted to go sledding, so we found the hill that had the most snow on it and he gave it a try!This last one is just one of the ice and part of the lake...it looked way cooler in person..
We ended up only catching 2 little rainbow trout...I somehow managed to not get a picture of them...But it was a lot of fun..it was cold, but not unbearable. We were all so worried about Ty stepping into one of the wholes, which he didn't, but Tucker was trying to kick ice into one and managed to step into one all the way to mid-shin, but it was right before we were leaving and because he had on snow pants, and snow boats, he was only a little wet. The big boys are still asking when we can go again...I had fun, but I think next time I will let Grampa and his big boys have an adventure of their own!

Birthday Bowling Bash!

The Saturday after Tucker's birthday we planned his birthday party. He loves bowling and asked to take all his cousins to the bowling alley (we were bummed because Jake and Jenn and the kids couldn't make it because they got over a foot and a half of snow!) The day was supposed to happen like this, Tucker's soccer game, the cousins soccer game, and then bowling...but it didn't happen quite that way for Ty and I...he was up majority of the night crying..so I ended up taking him to urgent care in the morning and my parents did the soccer games. After a few hours at urgent care, Ty was daignoses with an ear infection and we met back up at the cousins game. Tucker scored 3 goals during his game and they ended up tying the team they played...I can't wait for next week, I am helping coach and I love watching Tucker play!!

We went bowling and had a blast! My mom had high game with a 177. After bowling everyone came back to the house for pizza and cake! Tucker had a great day!
Quentin took this picture of us...pretty good for a 4 year old!Action shot of Trey...he was mad at me for taking this! Tucker doing the 'strike' pose.Tucker's awesome birthday cake!
Happy 7th Birthday Tucker...you are so loved!

Tucker's birth'day' celebration

On Tucker's actual birthday he asked to eat at Texas Roadhouse for dinner, so we braved the snow storm and headed there. We all ate yummy steak and at the end of dinner our waitress brought him an ice cream sundae and was going to sing to him and he got totally embarrassed and dove into Gramma's side and didn't come back out until he was sure she was gone! Poor Guy!

After dinner we stopped at the grocery store and he picked out a cheesecake for his birthday cake (and a piece of carrot cake for Grampa since Grampa doesn't like cheesecake.) Gramma and Grampa got him his very first chapter book, he started it that night (the 2nd) and he finished it on the 7th! He loved it and immediately asked for the 2nd book of the series, which I got for him yesterday. He says that now he only wants to read chapter books, so I am on a mission to find a good used book store here because at the rate he is going I am going to go broke buying all these new books for him! I am beyond proud of him and his reading skills!!!
Ty was still the 'paper throwing away nazi', but this time with a twist...he is so silly!
Me and my 7 year old!!! How did my chubby little baby get to grown up so fast!?

7 years old!

My Tucker is 7 years old today!! Happy Birthday to my big man!!!