The Tuckers

We went to San Antonio this weekend for a long,overdue visit with our best friends, Steve and Courtney. Boy, our families have grown! At one point, there were 4 adults, 3 kids, and 3 dogs all in the house, but it wasn’t choas. Surprisingly, Jude was really good on the visit. He was so happy playing with Mackenzie and Allison and meeting Spike and Phoebe (the Tucker dogs). He went to bed easily, and other than waking up incredibly early, he just made himself at home.

It was fun just to catch up and hang out. Joe and Steve grilled and we even managed to play a new Trival Pursuit game. It was a great visit and now that we know Jude isn’t going to be a little wild thing, we will have to make it a point to visit more often. 

Kenzie and Allie are making play-doh sundaes for everyone.

DJ Jude

Nope, the party isn't out of control. He just wants those headphones off his head.

 

Jude’s Clubhouse

I recently turned a tv box into a little clubhouse for Jude. It was so funny how instantly he took to it. I cut a door and a few different window openings. It’s really narrow but just the perfect size for Jude. He gets so excited when he is in the house and he loves to shut the door and take a little snack inside with him.

 

Nothing Like the Holidays

Well, the Mitchell family had a great Thanksgiving break. We enjoyed the traditional Wednesday night dinner with Joe’s family and Thanksgiving lunch with my mom and then dad on Thanksgiving day. It was really nice to get a few days off from work and enjoy some quality family time. Joe even did a little Black Friday shopping, but not the 5:00 am shopping. We just went later in the day and got a few surprises for Jude.

Yesterday, we got the tree up and even a wreath on the door. Jude is hilarious…he keeps redecorating my tree. He seems to think that the ornaments are balls and has been tossing them down the hallway. So, the bottom half of the tree has no ornaments because I can’t trust the little one. He is totally fascinated by the lights and I can’t wait to see how he enjoys Christmas this year. I am really looking forward to enjoying the next few weeks and getting into the sprit of the holidays.

 

Date Night

It’s been a busy week. Well, a busy few weeks. Seems like everything is falling apart here, including our internet, hence the lack of posts lately. So, on Wednesday night Joe had class, and I didn’t feel like cooking after the crappy day I had, Jude and I went to Southpark Meadows to eat at Jason’s Deli. The lady who takes care of Jude had told me earlier in the day that he went down the slide for the first time on her playscape that day and loved it. I thought he would enjoy going to the park to play with the little bit of sunlight we had left. We had a fun time going down the slides together and playing on the playscape.

After it was too dark to play, we went to eat dinner. Jude seems like such a grown boy when I watch him drink juice from a juice box. Surprisingly, Jude was very hesistant to eat soft serve ice cream from my cone. You would have thought I was torturing him the way he screamed every time I brought the cone to his face.  But, he was more than happy to eat the ice cream from a spoon. Go figure! It was a great Mommy & Son date night.

 

Halloween 2009

Jude had no interest in carving the pumpkin. Liam, however, was mildly interested.

I made Jude an owl costume.

Spread your wings and fly little owl.

Jude with Jason and Joshua getting ready to go trick-or-treating.

Daddy takes Jude to the door.

Jason and Jude

Halloween sure was fun this year!

 

Pumpkin Patch 2009

This was Jude’s first trip to the pumpkin patch at Sweetberry Farms. We drove out there with our friends Aron and Sarah and met up with Joe’s aunts and his little cousins. Jude was hesitant at first and only wanted us to hold him. But, he soon warmed up and did his best to try to pick up pumpkins that were almost as heavy as he is. We enjoyed some tasty pumpkin ice cream (surprisingly good) and strawberry popsicles. Joshua and Jason wanted to do the corn maze, but since Jude is just a little guy, he was content to pick out a pumpkin and look around. It was a great trip and now we just need to carve our gourd.

Picking a pumpkin.

With Joshua and Jason.

I like his little expression.

Scarecrow Jude.

“No more pictures!”

Nah, but I can drive a tractor.

 

Our Wild Rumpus

My sweet husband knew how much I wanted to see this movie. So he planned a date night for us. He had one of his aunts to watch Jude for us so we could see Where the Wild Things Are at the Alamo Drafthouse.

We have not been back (as a couple) to the drafthouse since the “Baby Day Debacle” right before Christmas. We enjoyed some pizza and popcorn (and beverages for Joe) while we watched the movie.

I thought it was great. I loved the visuals, the music, and the emotionality of the story. I told Joe I thought it was the best movie I have seen thus year…granted I rarely go to the movies since Jude was born. I even cried a little. It also made me think about the little boy that Jude is growing into.

So I highly recommend it. I also enjoyed people watching at the drafthouse and getting to have a grown-ups night out with Joe.

 

Exploring LaPorte

Here are some pictures of Jude the last time we went to visit my mom. He had so much fun going up and down the stairs and didn’t want me to help him walk down the driveway, even though the incline made it hard to keep his balance. He started to run away from me down the sidewalk and his sandal fell off…but he just kept on going.

 

Oink! Oink!

So, in case you don’t know, I have H1N1. Yep…it sucks! Actually, I’m starting to feel better, but I am on doctor’s orders to stay home until Monday.

It started with a cough and a terrible headache. I rarely get headaches…honest…I usually don’t even have headache medicine in the house because they are so rare. Well, I got this terrible sharp headache that was so bad it actually made me wince every time it proceeded to stab my brain from the inside. But, I didn’t have a fever and I didn’t feel fatigued. I mean, I was hot and cold, but I didn’t find that too out of the ordinary considering the weather, humidity, and the crazy cold air conditioning at work.

But, Joe, in a moment of intense insight, reminded me that it was in our child’s best interest for me to at least go to the doctor to find out what was wrong. Well, they swabbed my nose and confirmed I have flu A, which the doctor told me multiple times “Yep, you have swine flu.” I asked if I should still get my flu shot next Tuesday, to which she replied, “Yeah, that’s the seasonal flu shot. Go ahead and get that. You have swine flu.”

So, to cheer myself up, I made candied salted bacon from this recipe. There’s gotta be a silver lining to having this stupid illness. I mean, I’ve been wearing a hospital mask during the hours that Jude is awake, which has led Joe to call me “Jacko” (which I guess, makes Jude “Blanket”).

I’m actually on the mend. The headache hasn’t gotten any better, but the achiness has gone away and I am not sweating as much. I’m looking forward to being over all of this.

 

Joe’s New Car

Just in case you were wondering, here’s the new car. Joe likes to point out that my hair looks crazy. But, in my defense, it was that Saturday that it rained like crazy, so I take no responsibility for what humidity does to my hair.