Our December so far...

December has been good to us, so far! :) We started a tradition a few years ago and we always go on Thanksgiving weekend to get our Christmas tree. We love picking out our perfect tree. Ben is really in to Christmas, as am I, so we have to get a real tree and it has to be perfect. (For our little house, anyway) :) Our favorite still is going to cut it down ourselves, but we haven't done that for a few years. Anyway, we decorate our house and our tree on December 1st and start the advent calendar. This year we started a new tradition and read the story of the birth of baby Jesus with Tucker after all the decorating was done. The rest of the world (and us) hype up Santa so much, I thought it would be good to start out with the true meaning of Christmas. I also added a new thing to our advent. I have a little house that has doors that open and I usually just put candy in each drawer and call it good. Well, this year I put the candy in, but have included a Christmas time activity for each day, too. Tucker loves it. Some days it's reading a Christmas book, some days it's watching a Christmas movie, or doing a Christmas craft, or baking a Christmas treat. I just kind of randomly chose different activities to do all month long. Tucker and I have been having so much fun doing different things each day!
I love spending time like this with just our little family. And creating holiday memories and traditions with just the three of us.
Decorating the tree...

We ran into a few bumps along our path of decorating our house. Our chair broke and we (meaning, Ben) spent many hours, long after Tucker was in bed trying to fix the thing. This is what it looked like when we went to bed! :)

I made this JOY sign last year and when I went to put it up this year, the J was falling out of the frame. So I just grabbed my hot glue gun, and with only one little stick left quickly fixed it. I didn't realize until I had it on the wall that I 'fixed' it backwards! :) oops! But I had run out of hot glue sticks and so the J had to stay. It has been like that ever since! :)

But by the next day we had a beautifully decorated living room. I love just sitting in the peace and quietness of it at night after Tucker is asleep and it is lit by our Christmas tree lights! There is nothing like a warm and cozy Christmas living room in the winter! :)

In other news....it snowed today!! We've had a few skiffs so far, but this was the first major snowfall. I was in a go get 'em mood this morning (rare these days) and decided I would shovel our driveway. Ben usually takes care of that kind of thing, and being 7 months pregnant, I normally wouldn't have. But I got the bug. And Tucker wanted to play in the snow. So we went out to work! :) Tucker was so determined to help me shovel and after I saw his technique, I had to get a picture of it.
First, he would get the snow into the shovel...

Lift the shovel high above his head....

and dump the snow back on himself.

I don't know if he saw it in a movie or something, but no matter how many times I told him, he just kept on dumping the snow on himself! :) But he was determined to help me and we had a great time shoveling snow together! :)
We did do a pretty good job too, if I do say so myself. When Ben came home tonight he thought that my dad had come over with his snow blower! :) I should charge for these services! :) Granted, I couldn't feel my legs or walk for the rest of the day, but by golly we had a snow-free driveway! :)
I've also done a few photo shoots this month, out in the freezing temperatures. It was so beautiful up at Finch Arboretum last week, I had to snap this. I think it is beautiful up there no matter what season we are in! :)

Well, that is about it so far. We have family coming in all next weekend and the Holiday festivities will really begin!
I love this time of year!

Thanksgiving week continued...

Let me quickly sum up the rest of our Thanksgiving week because I seem to be finding more and more pictures that I had totally forgotten about... :) My mom stayed with us for a few days for Tuckers birthday and I took advantage of having someone in the house to take a snapshot of all three of us. They are very few and far between. :) I take so many cute pictures of other people's families, but don't have any cute one of own! :( Anyway, I thought maybe, just MAYBE I would send out Christmas cards this year, and if I did, I wanted at least one decent picture of the three of us, so we gave it a try.
I have since decided to nix the Christmas card idea, so here it is to you blogosphere, our best family shot from that Sunday. :)
Enjoy...

After that I had my mom take a picture of me for my weekly pregnancy photo. And I think Ben was a little jealous, so we had a little photo shoot with him...
(He is really going to love me for posting these.)

America's Next Top Model, I'd say!

He's really natural in front of the camera...

And this is why I married him, right here, folks...

Not really sure what's going on here:

And finally, one REALLY good one!
He is so handsome!!! :)

Yeah, we know we're lucky!!! :)
Later in the week we went to lunch with my parents at PF Changs -a favorite!!!:) It was the day before Tuckers birthday, so he got a special birthday treat!
I don't know if I've mentioned Tuckers obsession with 'Managers'. But he has one. It started a few months ago when him and Ben were at a grocery store and he was being a pill, so Ben told him that he was going to have to talk to the manager if he didn't start acting good. I think it put a little bit of fear in him of managers. A few weeks later we were at lunch and I took him to go to the bathroom and while in the stall he saw the key hole to the toilet paper dispenser and he asked me where the key was. I casually replied, ' oh, I bet the manager has it.' He looked up at me with kind of a scared face and said...'...manager?' Like, please don't tell the manager I asked! :) He mentions managers all the time like they are kind of a scary thing. So anyway, while we were at lunch he asked our waiter if he was the manager and he told him no, he wasn't and I explained that he was the waiter, yada yada yada. The next thing we knew the manager was at our table to talk to Tucker. Our waiter had gone and told her that Tucker was asking about her, so she decided to come out and have a little chat with him. They became buddies, and when she found out it was his birthday the next day, she sent him out a special b-day treat! :)
This boy is fearless when it comes to making friends and people just fall in love with him all the time! Can't say that I blame them! :)

The next Sunday after Thanksgiving was Tyson Orndorff's mission farewell party and I had to post a picture of these four. Bens work buddies. :) I didn't have my camera, so I stole this from someones facebook! :) These three guys see WAY more of my husband than I do and I thought I should post a picture of the four of them! :) They are funny guys, that's for sure!! :)

Ok, now I can offically move on to December, my FAVORITE time of the year! :)

Best b-day present of all...

But the best thing Tucker got for his birthday (well, a few days after) was a brand new baby cousin, Cassidy Kay! :)

Cassiday Kay Campbell
born on November 28th, 2009
Congrats Allen, Kelli & big brother Keyton!
We are so excited to meet her and snuggle on her.

The little man's birthday...

Well, he's not so little anymore!!! And I can NOT believe that I have a THREE year old!!!
After last years' craziness, we decided to go low key this year! :) My mom came up from Walla Walla, my dad had just gotten home from Alaska, and so we decided to do a little family get together at Chuck-e-Cheese. I was going to invite friends, but Tuckers BFF, Carter was out of town anyway, so it was mainly just family. Carly came for a little while to play at Chuck-e-Cheese but that was about it! And Tucker didn't really even care. He was happy just being there! :)
Ben and I woke him up that morning singing to him and my parents were in the living room waiting with balloons and muffins and doughnuts for him to come out.

He was so happy when he came around the corner and we were all singing and had little noise makers! :)
(it's not like he likes to be the center of attention or anything!) :)

He got to blow out THREE candles, open up some cards that had come from him and open up one present. (I think we could have called it a day after that, because he was so happy!) :) But we had already planned the Chuck-e-Cheese part, and so he knew we were going there and we couldn't NOT go there! :)

Tucker & his G-ma!

Later that day we went up to my dad's house and Tucker got to hang out with his favorite Uncle Nathan! :)

And I got to hang out with this little guy! :)

Tucker told me he wanted a blue cake, so I tried to make the frosting blue, and this is how it turned out! :) I had these grandiose plans for a great cake with a theme, but just ended up using some things I found in our cupboard that we already had. (some Mater & McQueen toppers and some Diego toppers) He loves both of them, so it didn't really matter.
Are you jealous of my baking and decorating skills?! :)

I love that Tucker gets so excited! As he opened up his presents, his faces were priceless. :) By far the gift of the night was his chick hicks shake-n-go car! He has been on a chick hicks thing lately. Usually its McQueen or Mater, but he likes the green lately! :)

And he has also been obsessed with Connect 4! Isn't that random?? :) He saw it on a commercial a few months ago and hasn't stopped talking about it since. I thought it was just one of those things that he saw, so he thought he wanted. But really, whenever we would go to target or something, he would go straight to the connect 4 and demand that I get it for him. So when my mom asked what she should get him, I told her that. And even though he doesn't know how to REALLY play, we play connect 4 almost every day! He loves putting the little chips in the slots! Funny, huh! :) And it says, for 7 years and up on the front of the box! :) This boy, I tell ya!

G&G Pyper sent him up this really cool Imaginext toy that he absolutely loves!

And another face I absolutely love! :)

Tucker loves Chuck-E-Cheese...whenever he comes out, he bee-lines it straight for him and just smiles! :)

It was a great day for Tucker and he seemed to enjoy his third birthday. He loves telling people that he's three now! We are SO SO SO lucky to have him in our family! He is so sweet and loving! He is the best snuggler and has the cutest smile you have ever seen. I'm really hoping that those cheeks NEVER go away!!! He has his moments, but for the most part he is just a good little boy and we couldn't have asked for a better little guy for our family!
We knew it was a good day because by the time we got home from Chuck-e-Cheese, he looked like this...

In my opinion, that means success! :)
Happy Birthday Tucker, we love you SO much!

Things to be Thankful for...

Has it really been two weeks? Sheesh...where does the time go? Well, Thanksgiving was a week ago, and I have been meaning to write this post for about a week and a half now, so here it goes... finally! :) It seems like this has been my life, as of late, always a day late and a dollar short. In reality, I have so so so much to be Thankful for! The week before Thanksgiving, I was thinking about all that I have to be Thankful for, and for some reason, I think because I was in just a funk, it was really hard to for me to actually think of anything. Like I had the basics: a good husband, a great son, our home, faith, knowledge of the Plan of Salvation... you know, the regulars. But for some reason, I just wasn't feeling the emotion of it, it was just yeah....what's the big deal about these things. It was kind of hard for me to really FEEL Thankful for what I have been given. (note: I am 7 1/2 months pregnant, and my emotions are all over the place, that probably had something to do with it)

Anyway...where was I going with this? OH yeah--I have been SO blessed! Since Thanksgiving I have had some great experiences with family and friends that have really touched my (hard) heart and have let me actually FEEL those feelings of gratitude that usually come so naturally, especially at this time of year. I have so much to be grateful for and I'm embarrassed to say that I had absolutely no good reason at all NOT to feel grateful. (I have a feeling that I will be the only one to understand this.) :) Anyway, all is well! I have so much to be Thankful for, and I love this time of year to truly turn my heart to those things that are most important in my life. I'm grateful for a family who loves me and knows when I need a break. I'm grateful for a hard working husband who would do anything for our family and who loves me, because that in and of itself is not an easy task. I'm grateful that he takes care of me and makes me feel beautiful and loved. I'm grateful for friends who know the real me and still like me, even though they know how forgetful and anti-social I am sometimes. I'm grateful that this little hobby of mine, photography, has really taken off. It has been so much more rewarding than I had ever imagined. And I'm grateful that people actually like my photos and want me to take their pictures! :) I'm grateful for a 3 year old little boy who is so smart and funny and loving. He has put up with me over these past few months and still tells me he loves me and snuggles with me whenever I need it. And of course, I am especially grateful for my knowledge that no matter how bad of a mother or wife or sister or daughter I am sometimes, I always have a second chance to better myself. I'm grateful that I know that I can repent of my sins and my shortcomings and try and be better. And I'm grateful for my Savior who made that all possible!
Well... on to the most important part of Thanksgiving: the food! :) Our Thanksgiving this year, was actually very low key. Just Ben, Tucker, my dad and I. But it was perfect! I actually woke up on Thankgiving morning to a big delicious breakfast and my whole family (well, everyone who lives in Spokane) here in our living room. I must have missed the memo that we were doing a Thanksgiving day breakfast. Luckily Ben was on top of it and made us all delicious grits and bacon and eggs. After that Ben and Tucker went to the park to play some football, just the two of them. :) Ben missed out on a Turkey Bowl this year, so he had to make up for it somehow. :) That afternoon we went up to my dad's house for dinner and it was delicious. I was thinking that there would be WAY too much food. Anyone who knows my dad knows that he loves to cook and entertain, and I didn't even think he knew how to cook for anything less than 40 people. But shockingly he didn't go overboard, and everything was perfectly delicious! :) And that was that. It was so great having Ben home for the long weekend. We got a lot of little projects done around our house, watched a lot of football and just hung out.
And since I like to read blog posts that have pictures, here are some photos to tide you over.
Ben and Tucker playing on Thanksgiving day...

Proof that projects were done. :) One of them was putting new molding in our bedroom. I think it looks great and I think Ben did a fabulous job! :)

And here's me at 28 weeks:

The only other thing we did this week was celebrate Tuckers 3rd birthday, but there will be more pictures-with it's very own blog post- to come on that one! Believe you me, it will be a post! :)

Trip out west...

A few weeks ago I headed over to the great city of Monroe, WA (just outside of Seattle) to visit a WONDERFUL old friend, Darci. She and I were roomies our freshman year in College and I just can't get enough of the girl! :) We had been planning this trip for a few months and it just never worked out. We were using the alabi that it was a 'photography' weekend. She wanted me to take their family pictures, and I couldn't turn her down! :) It was really just an excuse to have a little weekend get away together. It was such a nice and relaxing weekend with her and her family. They totally made us feel like part of the family and we had such a great time there. We stayed up late chatting, and beading and watching movies. It was perfect!

Her little guy, Myles and Tucker became quite the buddies...

OK, so I almost just burned this picture and deleted it from existence, but it was the only one we got of the two of us, so I had to put it in...

We did get out for some photo shoots. The weather over there is so crazy that we had to literally wait for a break in the rain, then we would hurry and get ready, go out to a park, take pictures for a while and then would have to be done when it started raining again. So our photo shoot turned into a two day event. You can imagine how happy her husband was about that... :) SInce men tend to LOVE to get their pictures taken anyway! :) He was a trooper, though! :) Monroe is so beautiful and picturesque. It was great. You will have to stay tuned to my photography blog if you want to see their family pictures, they turned out great! :)

One day after taking their pictures Darci grabbed the camera and took one of Tuck & I. I don't know why I am posting this one of myself, either! But I love it of the two of us, even if I do look like death! :)

What do you think of my new BIGGER pictures? Are they too big??? I'm not sure that I like people looking at me THAT closely! :)
( I couldn't do the top two pictures because I stole them from Darci's blog!)

tuckers secret life as a photo journalist...

Tucker got a hold of my camera and this is what I found.
I like to call it 'a day in the life...'
Here is our home from his perspective.
His crazy daddy...

His equally crazy mother...

His living area...

Fire....oooohhh!!!

Candle (excitement!)...

Wall (It doesn't get much better than this!)...

Coffee table & rug (just beautiful!)...

Daddy putting in our new windows! Yea...
(I might need to work with him a little on this one, but I guess to a 3 year old, heads really aren't that important!)

& Halloween decor on the mantle...

So what do ya think, we got some talent here, or what??? I think he just might be following in his mama's footsteps...

Three cousins...

Allen, Kelli & Keyton came into town a few weeks ago to meet the newest little member of our family. I tried to get a decent shot of the three cousins together, but this was the best we could do. Carter doesn't look too happy, I think Keyton is looking at his mom and Tucker is just in his own little world back there. In just a few more short months there will be two more cousins added to the mix! It's hard to imagine life before these little ones were in the fam!

Keyton, Tucker & Carter~ Oct. 2009

Halloween extravaganza...

Oh Halloween, how we love you so! You bring us great friends, and delicious treats every year! This year our friends, Doug & Sadie came on Halloween weekend for our 7th annual Pyper/Agurkis Greenbluff/Halloween extravaganza! It was great! We got to go trick-or-treating THREE times! Jealous much? :) Here is our weekend in a nutshell. (sorry for the overload of pictures!)
Round #1:
U-High, our local high-school and my alma mater, has an annual trick-or-treating event in the morning where kids can walk through the hallways and the high schoolers pass out candy. It was a great start to our Halloween weekend. Tucker was a dinosaur this year. I bought that costume the week after Halloween last year at Target for $4 on clearance. I got it more for dress up, but Halloween came around this year and he actually wanted to wear it! I wasn't going to complain, it made my life easier not having to worry about a costume. You can bet I will be hitting up Target again this week for some more Halloween clearance items for next year! :)

He did hate the hood (head) though, and refused to put it on. I was also going to make a little flame for him to blow, and get some green pants and paint his face green. But since he was happy as is and my energy level is at an all time low, we didn't worry about the details much! :)

I'm not sure who was more excited about all of his candy, him or his mama! :)
Next up for the day was our annual trip to Greenbluff with Doug & Sadie. This years Greenbluff experience was a little different. Because it was so close to Halloween, most of the pumpkins had been picked over. What was left were the rejects, or the absolutely huge ones, that we didn't want. So we didn't even get pumpkins this year!!! Can you believe it!? I know, it's like Halloween blasphemy! :) We did go to about three grocery stores on the way home to get some, but all were sold out!! We usually go to the farm where you have to cut your own pumpkin off the vine. Yeah, that wasn't gonna happen this year, we went the lazy route and ended up leaving empty handed! Oh well, we still had fun up at Greenbluff.

Taking pictures in what was left of the pumpkin patch! :)

Tucker loves him some Sadie!

And of course, when Doug & Ben are together, a race is gonna happen! :) This time Tucker wanted in on the action!

We did get our pumpkin doughnuts (of course!) and our pickles!
(it's tradition, and they are both SOO good!)
Tucker eating his pickle...

That night the sunset was so beautiful! As we were getting ready for the evening, I just snapped this really quick, it's not that great of a shot. It made me wish I lived on a hill! :)

Round #2:
Trunk-or-Treat. Here we are handing candy out of our trunk. This was the first year that the trunk-or-treat wasn't on Halloween night, so I had gotten a ton of candy to pass out for both Friday and Saturday night and it was all gone within one hour of our Trunk-or-Treat! :) I think some kids were making 3rd and 4th rounds around the cars! :) I love the trunk-or-treat. It's safe, it's easy and it's quick! :)

The next morning Sadie had to go to a dog farm to check out some puppies. She is a volunteer for the 'make-a-wish' program and one of the families she has been working with is wishing for a dog. She went to go pick out a good one for them. Anyone who knows me knows that a dog farm is NOT my idea of a good time! However, I have a little boy who loves dogs with all of his heart. So Doug & Sadie, out of the kindness of their hearts took Tucker to this dog farm with them and it was all he could talk about all day! I know that one day I will have to give into this love affair. I am just putting it off as long as I can. (Is a fish a good substitute for a dog? I could do a fish!)

Tucker and Sadie, again...

Round #3:
Trick-or-Treating with the Enloe's. Next up for the evening was actually trick or treating. This was Tucker's first time actually going door to door.
But first we had to get ready... Here are tweedle dee & tweedle dum...

I was lame and just bought a bat shirt, put glitter on my face, painted my fingernails black and called it good! :)

We went up to the Enloe's and the first thing Tucker did was 'ROAR' his loudest dragon roar for Carter & Olivia...

Trick or treating is serious business...

After a little while the kids were ready to be done. Ben was planning on taking Tucker out for more, but you know it's a good time to be done when in between each house, you carry the bucket and your husband carries the child. Tucker was worn out!!!
But I wasn't complaining because then it was back to the Enloe's for some yummy hot chocolate!

Our next stop of the evening was over to see the cutest little pea pod you ever did see!!! :) Is this not the cutest thing ever???!!! :) Tucker had to go over and see his new little baby cousin! :) And I just couldn't get enough of this little guy!!!

Next up for the evening was making some delicious caramel apples. Because, ya know, we needed more sugar and all! :)

It does not get much better than this.

Tucker and Buddy are best friends. Tucker would like to think, anyway. I'm not sure Buddy enjoys it so much! :)

And the annual Halloween PJ pictures...



My favorite thing about Halloween: M&M's for breakfast and a carmeled apple for dinner on Sunday.
My least favorite thing about Halloween: Tuckers tantrums that have been happening all week when I WON'T let him have candy for every meal!
Other news from the weekend is that on Sunday, I officially passed the 24 week mark! I can't believe it's already been 6 months!!!

Is is too early for this baby to come out already, I am done with being pregnant! :) Although I'm not sure that I'm ready for two kids!! I'm not complaining though. We really are SO excited!! I just feel so blessed that we are going to be bringing another little one into our family! I have a lot of friends struggling right now to even just do that and my heart hurts for them! We don't realize the blessings we have until we or the people we are close to have to go through these types of struggles. All of you please know that you are in our prayers!