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!