Scccaaaarrrry Santa!!!

Well, I never thought anyone in our family would EVER dislike the 'big guy'.......aka Santa Clause. Sawyer has absolutely no interest in the man. As you can see from the pictures, it was pretty much a visit of torture. It's so funny because she was perfectly fine with him in pictures, ornaments on the tree, toys, etc. -- that was until she got to meet him in person. WOW! Now she can't even look at our Christmas tree without going into a complete meltdown....poor thing...maybe next year.

Tucker, on the other hand, can't get enough of the man in red. It's been a great way to bribe him into good behavior......."Santa's watching you throw yourself on the floor, Tucker". I don't know what I'm going to do come December 26th.

Halloween 2007

Here are a few pics of the kids on Halloween night. They had such a great time. For those of you that don't quite understand Tucker's costume......His most favorite place in the WHOLE world is Home Depot. Yes, yes, I know, this is crazy. This tells you how much time he spends in there with his dad. They actually know the kid by name! You ask him where he wants to go, "the park, the zoo, icecream"?.........His response, "Home Depot". Whenever we travel and we pass a Home Depot store, he recognizes it right away......crazy! Darrin took him in there Halloween night (totally dressed in costume) and they couldn't get enough. They actually took his picture! -- so don't be suprised if you see him on their billboards:-)!!!!

And how about my little Anne Geddes Baby Sawyer. Could she get any cuter?!? Unfortunately this might be one of the few pics I ever get of a little girly girl. She's turning into such a little Tom Boy. She loves all of Tucker's trucks, balls, tools, etc. Who cares, though. She's so stinkin' cute in his little hard hat:-)

Playing Catch-up!

It's been so long since I've posted........time goes by too fast.

The following are a few of Tucker's 3rd Birthday pics. His birthday was September 28th so you can see how late I am at getting this post up.

Every year Darrin makes Happy Face pancakes. You can tell Tucker is getting older. We actually had to wake him up so that we could celebrate before Darrin left for school. The 'happy face' is a little distorted......so is the one on the plate:-)

We went out to Cheney to celebrate with Papa and Button. My sister, Donjia's birthday is just a few days after Tucker's so we usually celebrate them together. The kids got to eat 'Octopus and Seaweed' (aka hot dogs and ramen noodles) for Tucker's birthday dinner.....it was a BIG hit!

Later he opened presents and of course the best part -- THE CAKE!!!!

This is Tucker with his birthday tree that we planted when he was 1. You can really see the growth.........soooooo fast..

......

You say 'Petal', I say 'Pedal'

Tucker has a favorite book about bikes. It's a pretty neat little book. It has cool pictures and goes through all the parts of the bicycle and teaches why each part is important.
Today, Tucker and I are in the front entryway and he sees a basket that I have hanging up that has tulips in it (fake, of course). He touches the colored part of the flower and asks, "What's this, Mom?" I tell him those are 'petals'. He looks perplexed. "You put your feet on those?"....aye,aye,aye........At least he understands the parts of the bike!

No Goodbyes

Doug (Darrin's brother) and his wife Marla stopped in this afternoon. Their daughter goes to Kansas Wesleyan in Salina and runs on the Cross Country team. They had a meet in Wichita today so Doug and Marla drove down from St. Francis to watch. Darrin and Tucker went with them to the meet and I stayed home with Sawyer. They came back when it was over and sat and visited with us for a while before they had to get back in the car and head towards Manhattan for the K-State game (lucky dogs). We were saying our goodbyes and were walking them to the back door. It's the normal, "Have a safe drive, tell the kids hi for us", etc. Tucker tells them goodbye and notices Daddy is walking them further and further to their car. Immediately we hear, "You not say goodbye, Daddy!". I guess he thought Darrin was taking off. He just hates it when he can't go too!

WORDS!!!!

I know that I talk about Tucker in pretty much every entry but he's just at such a funny stage and I want him to have a written journal of what he puts me through. HAHA! Someday he's going to have kids of his own and will wonder where the behavior came from:-)
Anyway, Darrin and I try relentlessly to teach him the difference between 'appropriate' words and 'inappropriate' words. This has forced us as parents to really watch what we say. The word, 'stupid' tends to be said a little too often and Tucker knows that this is a bad word. It seems that we all slip......me, Darrin, my mom, my dad........it's really hard to not say it. Everytime Tucker hears it......"Don't say dat! Dat's a bad wood!" He's corrected us all more than a few times.
I have also started using the common parenting technique of 'spelling' words out in order to avoid the nonstop questions. Last night, we were all over at my parents house. The kids had spent the day over there. I asked my mom if they had gotten in the "P-O-O-L". I did this because of course had I said the word outright, Tucker wouldn't give it up and would want to get in instead of getting ready to go home. As soon I spelled it out, he says and shakes his finger at me, "Don't say dat, Mom". I guess he's getting tired of being left out of the loop.

MY LIFE..............

Those of you that wonder what the luxurious life of Dina consists of........ this would be it -- putting out one fire after another;-) -- Like I've said before, I'd have it no other way:-) I can't even tell you what they are fighting over. LIFE IS GOOD.

OK, let me explain.......Tucker's most favorite'accessory' is his "work boots".........yes, those are my snow boots but.........play along........I walk into the room and, of course, I find him 'workin' on a project. Should a (almost) 3 year old be standing on a chair?.........no.........but come on, it is pretty funny:-)

Job well done!

The Power of Words........

OK, so I screwed up today....... Sawyer goes in later this morning for her 14 month well check-up. This is of course the 'yucky' appointment because it's the one where she will get a series of 4 different shots. Dumb me -- I began to tell Tucker that Mommy was taking Sawyer to the Dr. this morning and that 'Button' was coming over to play with him while we were gone. In the same conversation, I, not knowingly, divulge that Sawyer would be getting shots. Sometime during the last couple of weeks, Tucker has figured out guns and shooting and getting shot......none of which I'm very happy about. Well, he hears that Sawyer is getting shots and he breaks down in a total meltdown. I guess he thinks I'm letting her get 'shot'. Why did I even use that word?!? At least I know he genuinely cares about her;-)

Funny, Funny Tucker!...and Oh, so smart....

OK, so we're driving home from my parent's house tonight when Tucker claims that he wants to go to Best Buy to go shopping. Where this came from, we don't know.......Home Depot has always been his favorite hang-out. I asked him, "Where is your favorite place to go shopping, Tucker?" He waits a few seconds -- I'm thinking Home Depot will soon be the answer -- instead, being Little Mr. Random, he says, "Mommy not go shopping anymore. Mommy stays home." The stinker is a GENIUS!

Time.......

I spent this last week in Grand Island, NE helping with my grandmother's sale. She now lives in an independent retirement community and does not have room for all of her 'pretties'. It's very hard to go through her home and mark memories with a price tag. As my dad and I were driving home, I was thinking how amazing it was that that house was such an important part of my childhood. I think I remember more about my summers spent there than my life spent in my own home..........crazy.

Tucker and Sawyer spent the week with my mom. -- God Bless Her!!!! The kids love it there. I was only gone for 5 days but it seems like they each grew a couple of inches.

Tucker's birthday is coming up and they must have had a few conversations about it. I asked him what he wanted and his top items were, "a chainsaw, not 1, 2", and an "antweeder" -- translation: weed eater.

He also has a great memory. Mom had some pictures of my grandmother's 90th birthday party. He pointed out great 'button' (great grandma...all grandma's are 'button'...we don't know why) and Steve, my cousin who he hasn't seen in a couple of months. He also had quite a few funny things to say about my uncle:-)

A few pics of Summer '07 adventures

The kids at swim lessons with Ms. Linda



Sawyer and Papa driving the pontoon on Table Rock Lake.


Tucker taking over.

This is a picture of our completed kitchen. To see where we came from, scroll down a few entries and take a look at the 'demolition' phase. This is such an improvement!

I need to get better at posting more often!

As I'm looking at the blog, I realized the last post was on June 10th! So much has happened since then. Sawyer celebrated her 1st birthday on June 15th. She now has 2 TEETH! She's walking all over the place. I hate to say it, but she's starting to realize how easy it is for her to get away with things because she's the baby of the family. Whenever I leave the room I hear her give out a series of screams, I go running - thinking of course Tucker has hit, slapped, pinched, shoved, pulled her hair, etc. I go running in the room to find she is doing it just to get my attencion in hopes that Tucker will get in trouble for something. .......the baby of the family. The above pictures are her one year pics. The one on the right is Sawyer with her "Birthday" Tree and the one on the left was taken at her birthday party at Big Cedar in Branson.

Tucker is changing so much. He now talks NONSTOP. He literally does not stop from the time he wakes up to the time he falls asleep. Whatever happened to the days of a nice relaxing evening watching a show with no distractions........KIDS! But we'd have it no other way. We do find that we don't want to miss one word --- He's sooo funny. He was riding in Papa Willey's truck with Papa and Darrin one day. My dad and Darrin were having a conversation when Tucker kept trying to get their attencion. Pretty soon, "Hey, hey, listen up. I'm talking to you". How do you not laugh at that? What came next?......"Papa, you need to get a new pool." My dad's response, "You've been talking to your mom".

Another day Tucker kept persisting that it was his turn to fix supper. Of course, if he wasn't a 2 year old I would TOTALLY consider it. Darrin finally asked him what he was going to make. "I'm thinkin' chicken". .....too cute to hear it come out of a little curly blonde headed boy!

I will try to get more pics on. I need to talk to my good friend Jimmy and figure out how to position them differently.

She's growing so fast!!!!

Ok, so she (Sawyer) takes her first steps..........which by the way, we have not done that again since:-} and now she has a little tooth peeking through on her bottom front! It's so crazy how fast everthing has suddenly happening. Tomorrow she'll be graduating from college:-(
She will be one year old in four days..........time goes way too fast.

Walking!!!!

Great news!!! Sawyer took 3 steps last night! We're very close to her first birthday so it's exciting that she may be toddling around when we leave for our Big Cedar Lodge vacation. Sawyer will be making her television debut! Her picture will be on KSN news around 6:40am on the 15th.

Tucker is doing great too. Totally potty trained! That happened about 2 months ago. We're so proud of him.

Both the kids are involved in swim lessons this summer. They love it! What little fish!

The Kitchen is a Mess!

Well, we're at it again. We've finally gotten to the last room in the house that needs updating.......THE KITCHEN! This is the most major adventure yet. New cabinets, adding cabinets, new floor, additional outlets/wiring for lighting. We have been told that the cabinets will be in on Thursday......cross the fingers!! Darrin spent the last part of Spring Break tearing out what was left of the kitchen.....the sink and cupboards. It looks and smells like an abandoned home. The attached pic is where the sink and cabinets used to be.
We have been staying in Cheney with 'Button' and 'Papa' Willey. It's so nice of them to let us stay but I know that having a 2 year old who's into EVERYTHING and a baby who has just started crawling can be a bit overwhelming.
Wade, Brenda, Paige, and Gage Porter came into town this weekend. We had a nice time going out to dinner and then the zoo with the kids. Paige is in the first grade and Gage is just a week younger than Tucker......So fun seeing them grow.

We're Crawling!

Yay! On Sunday evening (March 18) we came home from a weekend in Belleville, KS and Sawyer finally crawled! She turned 9 months on the 15th. We couldn't believe it. It was as if she'd been doing it for weeks. Scoot, scoot, scoot right across the carpet.
We went to Belleville this weekend to support Lauren (Darrin's niece) at the state Junior Miss pageant. Sawyer was not feeling well on Saturday while in the hotel. She and I stayed in the room and missed the pageant because she was just so miserable. We came home on Sunday and she was acting fine.........evidently -- she figured out mobility!
Yesterday was the worst day...diareah every 5 minutes! ARRRGGG! We went to the doctor and were informed that this was going around, sometimes lasting 7 to 10 days! WE HOPE NOT! Time will tell. Needless to say, Sawyer hasn't had a lot of crawl time since Sunday. When she gets to feeling better I'm sure I'll be chasing her all over.

Tucker'isms' to Remember

There are so many things that a parent wants to remember forever.......the first step, tooth, words......well, Tucker has been talking for quite a while now (he's 2 1/2) and like I said he is our constant source of entertainment, mostly through some of the crazy things he says. This entry is all the many Tucker'isms' we've been blessed to hear the last 2 1/2 years. I'm sure I have forgotton a few and will continually need to update.
Grandpa = "Papa"
Grandma = "Button"
Saxophone = "Sakonone"
What does Willie say? = "Meow"
What does Simon say? = "Ruff Ruff"
What does Mommy say? = "No Tucker!"
What does Papa/Daddy say? = "(snoring sound)"
An answer to a yes/no question = "Yep", "Nope"
Daddy working with big kids? = "Daddy wookin' wif big digs?"

We're up and blogging!

Hello All,
This is our first experience blogging so I hope this works. I'm not exactly computer literate but my good friend Jimmy started blogging with the pending arrival of his triplets. What a great tool to share with family and friends who live far away.....or even those right across the
street:-)
The Ross's are all doing great! Sawyer is almost ready to crawl and Tucker is our non-stop source of entertainment. We got rid of cable when he was born in order to save some cash and we've never missed it. He makes us laugh everyday......of course, when we're not yelling at him to stop climbing the furniture, sitting on the dog, or bringing out every possible toy only to not want any of them.
Sawyer is the most laid back, peaceful, happy child I have ever met. We are so happy to have been blessed with such beautiful children.
I will write more later. I just wanted to see if this would work or not:-)