Future playroom!

With the arrival of many larger toy items after Christmas and thinking ahead to the very near future when baby items will invade our living room again, Jared and I decided we needed to attempt to alleviate the space issue.  We've been wanting to finish our basement for a long time but knew that it would be a pricey endeavor.  So we made a game plan and are going to do a minimal, scaled-back version.  We're just going to put in a ceiling, add new lighting (Jared had already ripped out all the very old electrical), and put carpet on the floor.  Nothing fancy- just a place to house a train table, tool bench, etc. and space to run!  The goal is to hopefully have it finished by Tucker's birthday (happy birthday, Tucker- a new playroom for you!) and maybe even before.  :)  I'm very thankful to have a handy husband who is a hard worker and willing to make sacrifices for our family!

Here's the progress so far:

Christmas 2012

We've had a fantastic Christmas!  We are very blessed to have lots of family nearby to celebrate with every year.  Our Christmas began on Friday, the 21st, with the whole Stanley family.  It was very fun and a little nutty too! What can you expect with 5 kids under 3? The kids all loved their presents and the adults all loved laughing and watching them open and play together.  Here are a few pictures from that night:

Lucas and Tucker hugging- a common occurrence.  This melts my heart!

Kids who are distracted by gifts and on the run are very difficult to get photos of! :)

New blocks!

Kitchens for everyone!

We then headed north to Minocqua to celebrate with my parents.  Tucker was very spoiled not only with presents but lots of two-on-one attention from Gramma and Papa.  This is probably a good thing since this undivided attention will be changing big time in about 9 weeks! We played in the snow, played with Willis, ate delicious food, and Tucker enjoyed baths in the jacuzzi hosted by Papa! 

 

It's fun to look back on last year's Christmas to compare how we've all grown (mostly Tucker and the other kiddos ;). 

Tucker-isms

Jared and I lay in bed at night laughing about the silly things Tucker does and says.  So, in an effort to not forget these moments, I thought I'd document them here.

Sayings:
"Daddy-are you??"  Decoded: Daddy, where are you? He does this with anything, blankie, wa-wa, whatever, but he never says the where, just "are you???" I wish I had it on video because it's really cute.

"TOUCHDOWN, PACKERS!!!"  He's a boy after his daddy's heart.  Anytime he sees a football game (doesn't matter who is playing- it's always the Packers to Tucker) on the tv or even if we drive past the high school football field, he instantly yells, "TOUCHDOWN, PACKERS!" with arms up. After meeting Bucky the badger, his newest thing to yell is, "TOUCHDOWN, BUCKY!"

"That's naughty."  On occasion, Tucker will chuck his spoon while at his high chair.  A long time ago, I told him this was a naughty thing to do.  So now when he throws it (or anything at anytime), he very nicely looks at me and says, "That's naughty."  I'm not sure he's got the understanding of this word, what do you think?

"Oh, wook at that!" Translated: "Oh, look at that!"  With all the Christmas decor up and lights everywhere, I think I've been over using this phrase.  It sure seems to brush off on him.  The funny thing is that he usually says it in the correct context.

"How about.....word world?" Again, he likes to mimic.  If he's asking to watch a show, a lot of times I scan through our dvd recordings to see what shows we have recorded over the week for him.  The other day I started scanning and I heard him saying, "How about....word world (a fave show of his)?"

"It's coming....patient."  Another mimic of us.  Whenever something takes a bit longer than he's expecting, I usually say something along the lines of, "It's coming, Tucker, we have to be patient."  He started reassuring himself now when he's waiting.  My favorite was one morning when I was toasting bread for him, he sat nicely in his high chair telling me, "Toast..it's coming...be patient."

"Popcorn? Big kids?"  Lately, Jared has been taking him to basketball games in the evening at his school.  As soon as you mention the g word (game), his response is instantly, "popcorn? big kids?"  We made the mistake one night during dinner of bringing up the game they were going to go to after dinner.  He was done. He wanted to leave that moment.  He literally dropped his fork and said, "buh-bye momma, shoes, coat"

First Snow!!

 

 We were so excited about the first snow fall of the year!  I was able to squeeze Tucker in to last year's snow suit and get him out there! He loved walking around the yard and cruising up and down the sidewalk in his little sled.  We built a snowman as well...unfortunately, shortly after, he tipped right over!  Now Tucker likes looking out the window and saying, "Snowman, boom!"

 

Bucky!

We were in Wausau last weekend to celebrate my uncle Steve's 70th birthday. It was a really fun time together with almost my mom's whole side of the family (a rare occasion).  One of the highlights of the night was when Bucky, the Badger entered the room! My uncle is a huge Badger fan and UW alumni.  So my cousin's surprised him with a visit from Bucky.  The kids (and adults) loved dancing and taking pictures with him.  Tucker absolutely loved Bucky and has been non-stop talking about him since then!  Here's a few pictures from the weekend:

Papa even agreed to a photo with Bucky- don't tell his Fighting Illini friends!

Best family photo we could get that night.

Bucky left and this is where Tucker stood for a good 5 minutes in hopes he would come back. :)