At 1

The  youngest member of our household, Tucker, turns one today!

He has gone from this:



To this:

 

At 1

 

He sleeps in his kennel every night and is quite content there.

 

His puppy chewing phase is lessening but we still occasionally see him eyeing shoes. Especially flip flops that belong to Sadie. Each of her shoes have nibble marks on them.

 

 

He likes to chew on shoes, but he LOVES to chew on underwear. I have thrown away countless pairs.

 

He is still prone to a bit of excitement pee, especially when Eric arrives home.

 

 

He is fed twice a day, but often doesn't eat his breakfast.

 

He is obsessed with chocolate. We don't give him people food, but he has gotten into the candy stash on occasion, and picks the chocolate out each time.

 

 

He eats the chocolate, wrapper and all, and then throws the whole thing up later. Usually around 3 am.

 

He loses his mind when anyone rings the doorbell. You have never heard such barking.

 

 

He also loses his mind when anyone enters the house. If we have children over I keep him in his kennel, but now when adults come over Eric holds him tightly so he will learn to stop barking.

 

When we go outside he is pretty good to follow us around and stay quite close. Unless a neighbor is out and then he runs at them full force hysterically barking.

 

 

Eric, Sadie, Megan and I can pretty much do whatever we want to him, like pick him up, take a toy away, pet him, etc., but if Jackson tries to do the same Tucker growls. Loudly.

 

He is also fiercely protective of Eric, Sadie, Megan and I, so if the kids are roughhousing or even if I am just giving Jackson a hug, Tucker does not like it and will start barking and growling at Jackson.

 

 

We go through quite a few dog toys, because instead of playing with them, Tucker likes to chew on them.

 

He is about 21 pounds and has been that size for a few months.

 

 

He drags tons of water throughout the house, do to his ears flapping in it whenever he drinks.

 

He doesn't like the heat and spends almost all of his time inside.

 

 

He doesn't shed a lot, except for when his hair is long. As it is now.

 

He likes to have all of his toys spread out all over the living room. If we have his toy box closed he sits over by it and whines until we open it.

 

We love our Tucky Wucky, even if he is a pain in the butt.

 

 

 Tucker's Birthday Celebration

 

For his birthday Tucker received three new toys. A rope toy that seems to be his favorite gift, a new KONG, and a KONG Frisbee.

 

Tucker with his gifts:

 

 

Present opening:

 

 

Happy 1st Birthday Tucker!

Adventure Angels - Silk Acrobatics

For our Adventure Angels activity this month we attended an aerial silks class. Professionals use the silks to do all sorts of acrobatic tricks in the air, but we as amateurs pretty much just learned to wrap the silks around our legs and perform a few ground based tricks.  

A little bit of silk stretching:



Attempting to climb the silk and not getting far. You have to have a lot more arm and grip strength than I do:




Tricks! The fun part!



This is not the sport for someone with extremely limited flexibility (i.e. me).



I am refraining from posting pictures of other friends doing full splits to make myself feel better.

Upside down. My favorite trick:



Our fun group this time:



Jennie, Rachel, Rachael, Gina, Me, and another Rachel!

As I was registering on-line for this class Jackson was hanging out with me. As he left the office I heard Eric ask Jackson what I was doing and he responded with, "Mom is just signing up for a class that teaches you how to dance on a pole."

Ha, ha, ha.

They do teach pole dancing there, which could very well be our next activity!

Monday Miscellany

A bit of miscellany to catch up on.

1. Eric snapped this picture of me and Sade sleeping (without my knowledge) and then texted it to me. I rather like it because it makes me look so serene about her sleeping with me when in actuality I am not a fan.



2. We recently crab sat for a week and I can't tell you the paranoia I had each morning that he would bite the bullet while under our care.



Luckily he is a hardy little fellow and made it through.

3. Last week it was Cowboys and Indians night at pack meeting and it was requested that parents and children dress up. I was of course thrilled by this as I love a good theme, but then was less thrilled when I arrived to find out I was the only adult to dress up!



I actually really wasn't that upset, since as previously mentioned, I LOVE TO DRESS UP!

4. This summer has been a reminder to Jackson how much he enjoys track building. He set this particular one up in his room, but they have migrated into the living room many times.



5. A summertime Slurpee pic:



6. When Eric's parents were here we played a game of Quiddler. During each hand you are dealt a certain number of cards that have letters on them, your objective then is to make a word based on the letters you have received. We all quite enjoyed it when Eric's dad who is named Mike, was randomly dealt 4 cards that spelled his name! What are the chances?!



7. And lastly, something that is still thrilling me 2 weeks after it happened. Two weeks ago, TOMS shoes had a warehouse sale on the other side of town. I was excited to check it out, but was quickly dismayed to find that when we (the kids and I) arrived we were told that it was a 40 minute wait to just get a look at the shoes. Jackson was even more dismayed, as he HATES shopping, and actually broke down in tears. Since I had driven so far to get there, I decided to wait in the never ending line.



What was supposed to be a 40 minute wait, turned out to be a one and a half hour wait! Oy vey! But then this happened:



TOMS for the entire family! And guess how much money I saved? Go ahead, guess.

$202.00!!!!

I can't get over it.

Father's Day 2013

There seems to be a lot of cooking to do on Father's Day, and since I am not a big fan of cooking, I find it stressful. So as we were going to bed on Saturday night I broke the news to Eric that I didn't think I could cook breakfast AND dinner. He took it well.

I was running around a bit like a crazy person Sunday morning making sure everyone was dressed and ready early. And since Eric didn't have any meetings Sunday morning, he was here to witness it. Jackson was giving a Father's Day talk in Sacrament meeting which Eric did not know about. There were a few close calls (Sadie is a terrible secret keeper) but we managed to keep it a secret all week and have Jackson waiting up on the stand when Eric walked in. I thought my frantic behavior would have tipped Eric off, but luckily it did not!

Jackson looked so itty-bitty up there:



He did such a good job.



After church it was present opening time!



Eric received lots of homemade cards, books, audio books, new pens, and treats.

Not to mention lots of physical attention:



Eric wanted steak for dinner, which meant I didn't really even have to cook dinner either since I am not a steak cooking connoisseur.



Father's Day Pics:




As I wrote on Facebook and Instagram: "I know how lucky my kids are to have Eric, but they don't even realize the full scope of it yet."