Schmidt Christmas 2010

We attempted to take a family picture to send to Justin



Abi and her Mommy who Dared to Wear jeggings. You can't see it, but her butt looked great:)



Rowan trying to decide if the punch and cookie is safe to eat or not.



Sarah couldn't or WOULDN'T get off her phone



The other attempt. As you can see either way we're not perfect but I'm pretty sure Justin knows that already. We got to talk to him a little bit and he's still pretty silly. He told a story about when he was first out he was feeling a little sorry for himself and he sat down on the curb and he started grumbling about all his woes. He looked down and there was a hundred dollar bill on the ground. Thinking it was his lucky day, he picked it up and turned it over only to read: "Do the Work" written on the bill. Now I've never had an experienced a chastisement from currency but I would hope that that turned his attitude for the better. He says he loves his companions and all the people he gets to teach. Well of course he's a missionary:) We all miss him and his silly energy, but we're all really proud of him and his decision to serve a mission.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!!!

This concludes all the Christmas posts. If you would like more, then read them again or go to a different blog.:)

Tim and Melanie Tucker Family Christmas 2010

Since we've only been married two years, we don't have that many Christmas photos, but the addition of children definitely takes care of that problem so I have to think about what I want to post, otherwise this could be a very long post. I woke up at 6:30 to feed the baby and because I couldn't sleep cause I was excited for the girls and Tim to open their Christmas. My dad says I was always the one who woke up early and wanted to hang out on the stairs and was trying to peek on the presents, but that's not really how I remember it, but then again, I can't remember how yesterday went, so I guess that excuse holds no water. Anyways, i was excited and woke Tim up around 7ish mostly because Riley was awake and crying in her room. So we got the girls and came out into the living room and let the girls tear into their stockings. Maybe I should explain the stockings... I'll try anyways. My dad was on his mission and my mom made a huge blue stocking and packed it with stuff and sent it to him. So when they had kids my mom made us each one luckily enough my dad detests messiness and anything related unless he makes it so... the stockings helped keep things orderly and relatively mess free at least until we got to unwrapping the stuff inside the stockings. To us as kids they doubled as play things and especially Rapunzel hair. I don't have any pictures with my girls wearing theirs as pants or as hair YET, but I anticipate the day when it happens, and you better believe I'll have my camera.

I found these cute eye masks for a couple bucks and couldn't wait to have them wear them. I'm glad they obliged:)





Quite possibly the best picture I own of Riley









These are Tim's soccer shoes and shin guards that WOULD have been a great surprise if Tim could handle a surprise but since he can't that's why he doesn't look very excited.








MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!

Ben and Julie Tucker Family Christmas Party

For Christmas Eve we went to the in-laws house and had dinner and opened presents and we enjoyed each others company. Riley's been having some issues with being a super grouch lately so she wasn't too pleasant but I'm sure everyone else had a good time.Julie had set up a little story with props for the kids to hold and Ben bore his testimony of Our Savior's love for us and how we can share it not only at this time of the year but throughout the whole year. It was a lot fun and we all felt the spirit, even with the little kids crying and running all over.:)

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I'll be posting my Christmases in the order they happened so I'll have to catch up from the big Tucker Family Christmas Party a few weekends ago.

A few quick tips for a fun stress free Christmas:


First of all ALWAYS remember the reason for the season.



Play lots of fun games.







Sit with a friend. You'll have more fun that way.



Grandma Tucker usually plans the Christmas parties but since our family just HUGE now, she's decided to hand it over and let the different families take turns planning and everything. This year Scott's family was elected as he is the oldest and HIS oldest; Celeste, spear-headed the whole thing, and it was tons of fun. They used to do the Nativity while Grandpa Tucker was alive with the Grandkids but now there are enough great grand kids that are big enough Celeste thought it would be fun to do it again. I think other than one specific angel,(my goofy headed daughter), all the little kids had a great time getting dressed up and playing their parts. We had a super awesome easy dinner of Pizza Hut, which meant all the little kids were easily fed and there's little to clean up. Celeste also had set up a bunch of Minute to Win It games for us to play and I think personally, it was more fun for us WATCHING than the people playing because as you can see from the above, even the dads got in on it, and they ended up looking FANTASTIC. All in all it was a lot of fun to get together with the HUGE family, and hopefully we'll be able to continue getting together like this no matter how large our family gets.

Next up: Ben and Julie Tucker Family Christmas

STAY TUNED!!!

She Sleeps! Thank Heavens She Sleeps!

After the first few nights of adjustments, I'm happy to say that Bridget now sleeps for most of the night only waking up two times to eat. If we can think back to about a year ago, Riley was about 6 months old and still not sleeping through the night, so this is a very welcome change. I remember when the last batch of babies were born, and mommies were talking about how well their kids slept, and me feeling so left out because Riley REFUSED to sleep. She would get so tired she couldn't do anything else but cry, but she would still stay awake. Those were tired days for Daddy. I do pretty well with only a few hours of sleep, so it doesn't really matter if I get woken up, but Tim is useless the next day if he doesn't get a full night. Now with two kids it's a little different story. Last night for example Bridget didn't thinks she needed to go to sleep until about 3 in the morning, which isn't 7am like a few nights ago, so I'm counting my blessings, so once I finally got her to sleep. I laid down and not two minutes later Riley has a nightmare. Honestly? I ask myself, Not even a 20 minute power nap? But it didn't matter because by that time I was past my wall and I couldn't fall asleep anyways. So I go get Riley and bring her into our bed with us to get her to calm down. Her nightmares are so vivid that she either has to watch TV or read a book to get whatever scared her out of her head before she'll go back to sleep, and then she sleeps in between Tim and I on my pillow with her arm around my neck. So I quietly hummed a Itsy Bitsy Spider and she did the finger actions and passed out with her arm in its spot on my neck. As soon as I closed my eyes, Bridget poops, waking herself up. Sigh. So I crawl out of Riley's clutches and take Bridget down the hall to Riley's room so I don't wake up Tim or Riley. Bridget gets changed, fed and rocked back to sleep. I go to take Riley back in her room and HOLY CRAP, this child is a tank! Compared to the little newborn, Riley feels like she's filled with bricks. Thankfully she transfers from my bed to her bed well and sleeps in until 8 30 this morning when Tim was awake to deal with her. Sleeping adventures are so great aren't they? Some people just can't function without exorbant amounts of sleep, but thankfully I was blessed with insomnia since birth myself so I've adjusted my habits to run my batteries off what little sleep I do get. And when all else fails, I can take a nap when the kids are napping. I am Awesome. I'm a Champ. I'm a Mom.

Bridget Lanie 12-06-2010

So since it's been six days, I suppose I should write about what everyone already knows. Bridget is finally here and healthy and we couldn't be happier. Not only was this labor and delivery a VERY different experience from Riley's birth, but Bridget is the opposite in looks from Riley. Her dark hair, skin and eyes are a stark contrast when she's placed next to her sister, who BTW, is in LOVE with her. She likes to ask to hold her and give her kisses, and pat her head. She also likes to make sure she has everything she needs and she is such a good helper. It may be gross but this birth was so awesome in comparison with Riley's that I have to share it. we went into the hospital at 8 am on Monday and they started me on a drip of Pitocin. Once my contractions were in a steady rhythm they brought in a resident to break my water. He was to say the least... unsuccessful and kind of awkward. So about an hour later a different resident came in and was able to break it with the scalp lead they were going to use to monitor the baby's heartbeat in a study to see how diagnostic the scalp leads are in comparison to the surface monitors they use with the TOCO on the mom's belly. Anyways, they finally got the water broke and about an hour after that it was time to get the drugs. I prefer to wait on getting the epidurals until just before I know they are going to get pretty bad, because with Riley my pain tolerance level went up with amount of drugs but unfortunately the pain knew it could go higher so I felt pretty much EVERYTHING with Riley, not a pleasant experience but not one to make me never want to have more children, hence Bridget. I'm happy to say that I made it without an epidural for the majority of my labor, but when I did get it I was grateful. So I waited until I was on the border of uncomfortable-ness and pain then asked for the epidural. Tim did not get sick this time, probably because he was sitting down and wouldn't come near me, but he didn't get dizzy and we all need something to be proud of right? So I was all numbed up and ready to go by 3 but then my blood pressure dropped and the movement from one place to another made Bridget's heart rate drop. The nurse came in and laid me flat on my back and made me use the oxygen mask, so I was not only experiencing severe claustrophobia, but I also got heartburn from being on my back, so that part, not so great, but my regular nurse came in and put me back up in sitting position so I was grateful. Time ticked by and I was just letting my uterus do the work of pushing the baby down. 4:30 rolled around and my doctor came in to see how I was doing. It was TIME. My doctor told me to give one little push to see just how far she was and doc barely had time to get her smock on before baby was RIGHT THERE. One half push, there was the head "Do you want to touch it?" the nurse asked. Me: "Uhhh, no, I'm good." I was just relieved I wasn't going to have to push for two and a half hours. Another little half push and I had a vernix covered baby on my chest. Lovely. Don't get me wrong, it is an AWESOME experience to have a baby, but let's not lie to ourselves it's... to put it lightly, gooey. Here's a shout out to my awesome mom-in-law Julie who patiently ushered herself out of the room every time I was not decent, I know it's silly but I appreciate it! Tim and I are so blessed to have these two beautiful babies in our lives and it makes, for me anyways, this mortal life that much more live-able.

Thanksgiving 2010 The Blizzard Edition

Tim and I were on the way to the store last night when he all of a sudden got very giddy about something. "Tomorrow is WEDNESDAY!" He just kept saying over and over. I sat there racking my brain trying to figure out what importance this particular Wednesday had, but could not for the life of me think of it. Tim could see I was obviously struggling so he explained, " After Wednesday I only have two more days of work, then it's hospital time." Oh of course. Hospital/baby time. Well that IS exciting but I didn't think it's something he would get so excited over so soon. Then he said, "Then I have a whole week off." and sighed happily. Oh yes, he's only happy because he gets to miss work. Don't tell him, but it's NOT exactly a walk in the park staying at home with Riley. Don't get me wrong I love my kids and being able to spend time with them is the best blessing I've ever had, but the closer the due date has gotten for Bridget to come, the more needy Riley has become. I am pretty sure she knows something is about to happen and I think she is aware of the baby bulging from my midsection because she likes to shake it and watch it move. But she's gotten really whiny and she's always wanting to snuggle me, which in it's self isn't bad, Ill take snuggles from her any day, but the whining really grates on the nerves. As you've probably read from everyone else's blog, We had a few huge snow dumps the week of and weekend of Thanksgiving. Tuesday last week Tim calls me and tells me he might to get come home early because the national weather service issued a blizzard warning for the entire state of Utah from about 5 that until sometime the next day. He also said that his boss was making his whole team stay and work from home on Wednesday. I knew Tim was wanting to go down to his parents house for Thanksgiving and try to get some more paint on his scooter so it was out of his parents way, so I tried to think of a way that would get us out to West Valley without having to drive in the snow more than necessary. Because if Tim was in charge, we would be driving WAY more than necessary, cause that's just how things happen. So I called my mom and explained to her that we would be out there the rest of the week anyway and asked if we could come stay at their house. She of course said yes, and my Dad of course said no, because he knew the dog would have to come, but we went anyway. As soon as Tim got home the snow had started and we hurriedly got packed up and we were on the road. They weren't too bad except Tim took the long way and only about a mile and a half away from my parents house we were slowed way down at some train tracks where no one decided to remember the laws about driving and how you're supposed to stay in your own lane. I know crazy right? There were several slide offs and retarded people who thought if they gunned it, they would get their bald tires to grip and they would be able to drive through the snow just fine... NOT TRUE. I was grateful for my fantastic SUV that drove like a champ through all the snow and got us all safely to my parents house for the rest of the week and weekend. Sarah was all excited to have Penny back at the house and Penny was all excited to be back at my parents house, because she basically gets whatever she wants while she's there. We ended up staying until Monday night because of another BIGGER snow storm that had been brought in on the coat tails of the blizzard. I had a doctor's appointment on Monday and my mom was going to watch Riley for me anyways so she just took while Tim was at work. Alas, nothing had changed down there so we're still waiting for the 6th to roll around. We were glad to be home but I am very grateful for parents who let me come crash at their house when I need to, even if they gripe about it every time(DAD). I think it was good for Riley because she was not able to sleep ANYWHERE but her own bed for longer than a half hour because of her fear of getting left. But she slept and napped wonderfully at my parents at least for this weekend which is good prep for this next week when she'll be staying with my parents or Tim's parents while we are at the hospital, which hopefully won't be for a long time. It was also good for me to stay there because on Wednesday I was pretty sure I was going to go into labor so my dad patiently timed my contractions which were 3 mins long and about 2 minutes apart, so I could have gone to the hospital but I'm so paranoid I would get sent home I just stayed and toughed it out, and we didn't have a baby anyway.

Riley waking up from an afternoon nap at Grandmas


It's not Thanksgiving unless you get a pictures with olives on your fingers but Riley was eating them so fast, I think she went through an entire can before we got a decent picture. You taught her well Grandpa.



Tim got in touch with his creative side and learned how to crochet. Yes CROCHET and he ENJOYED it. He even said that it was kind of sad to him when he had a choice to play video games or crochet and he picked crocheting over the games. I'm so proud!

The Best Treatment for Dry Hair.

A while ago I dyed my hair and it started to get dry and the ends would frizz and tangle. But I was just going to either get it cut or just deal with it. Since Mindy is in Missouri and I'm not a billionaire that can fly to Missouri just to get a hair cut, I decided just to deal with it and trim up the ends just so they wouldn't tangle so much. So I did that and it was fine but it still felt really dry and wouldn't do ANYTHING. I'm pretty sure many of YOU have had this happen. So I was convinced it was because my hair was too long. That's usually my excuse to cut my hair and my husband HATES it. Probably because to me "too long" usually means the back is hitting my collar and the front is starting to flip out on it's own. (As you can imagine, this makes it very difficult for me to grow out my hair. That and it's almost an addiction for me to chop my hair off.) So anyways I figured I needed to either cut it myself or put another layer of color on it. Tim voted for the color rather than the cut so I colored it again, hoping it would smooth out the tips and make it a little smoother than the time before. After I did it, it untangled just fine. My hair LOVES to be colored and always feels better after a color, but the front was still a little dry. Oh well I figured. Lately my interest in doing nails has peaked to a point that I have stuff to do UV gel sets for fingers and they actually look good, so I ordered some stuff online from Sally's Beauty Supply and waited for it to arrive so I could expound on my new interest. when my stuff came a little sample bottle of Argan Tree Oil was in the bottom of the box. I figured it was a bonus thing cause I spent so much, cause I didn't order it. For those of you who don't know what an Argan tree is this is what Wikipedia says.. " ...The tree, a relict species from the Tertiary age, is extremely well adapted to drought and other environmentally difficult conditions of southwestern Morocco. The species Argania once covered North Africa and is now endangered and under protection of UNESCO. The Argan tree grows wild in semi-desert soil, its deep root system helping to protect against soil erosion and the northern advance of the Sahara." Okay it's a tree that grows in Morocco, great right? Right. Argan Oil is found in many hair treatments as a smoothing agent, and repair catalyst. Downside, it's mainly found in relaxers and deep moisturizing for African American hair, which we all know can be VERY dry and nappy, making it difficult to style sometimes. So I found this little bottle in bottom of my box of goodies. So I figure, hey, I could use this. So I tried it and it worked wonderfully, no to mention it smells delightful. So I started to use it regularly. My hair got so soft and moisturized I couldn't stop touching it. Now my hair is nice and shiny and I don't have all those little annoying fly aways like I used to get around my face. Here's my hair regimen if you want to try.
Day one: I use a dry shampoo and I don't wash my hair unless I had a lot of crap in it the day before. Dry shampoo is awesome too. If you do your hair the way you like for one day and don't want to wash it out. Just spray it on your roots and freshen up your style a little bit. Gives a new bounce to your style and has a nice texture for hold.

Day two: I shampoo and condition this day and I leave the conditioner on for a LONG time. like I do everything else and then rinse off and sometimes get out and dry off before rinsing the conditioner out. after shower, I comb through it and put in and mousse that I may need for that day's style, and I let my hair rest, meaning I don't do anything with it for at least five minutes. lets me gets dressed, put lotion on, do my make up, and brush my teeth. Then I let it air dry as much as possible before styling. If you let your hair rest before styling the style will hold better.

Day three: I shampoo and condition as normal and use the Argan Oil treatment. It doesn't take very much for thin white girl hair, so judge accordingly. You don't need a whole handful! the size of a pea is quite enough for even really long hair. Just rub it in your hands and work it into your hair from tip to roots. The tips is really what you should focus on cause that's where it gets really dry and if you go the other way you'll end up looking like this:



Yeah not very appealing. but if you follow my instructions use trial and error and figure out what works best for your hair, you'll end up looking like this:



Okay so it may not make your straight hair curl like a dream or give you a flawless face, but you will have beautiful hair. Just try it and tell me you don't like it.

Word World and the Toilet

So Riley has a favorite show. Since she's one, I don't really feel bad about that because it's a show that helps develop letter recognition and basic reading skills, so she's quickly adding to the repertoire of words she knows and can identify. She's also starting some potty training. Not hard core potty training, I'm aware she's only one and it's not going to happen overnight, we just sit her on her little toilet about once a day just to get her used to the idea. It's fun to watch her learn and grow and we are so excited for this next little baby to join the party! Riley likes to shake my belly and feel the baby roll around. She thinks it's pretty funny. So thankfully I only have about 3 or 4 weeks left depending on what the Doctor says. it's been so interesting how different this pregnancy was from Riley's. Every day seemed to drag with hers, with it being a new experience, but this one has flown by! Makes me sad actually. I really do enjoy being pregnant and when people look at me weird when I say that, all I have to say is that it's better than having a period... Really I'm not kidding. To me it's just a lot easier cause I don't have to deal with the hassle that a menstrual cycle can cause. And as for child labor and birth, I would rather have to go through that instead of cramping. Labor is just pressure and only a bit of pain, and not to mention the availability of pain medication where cramping you can only take so many drugs for it, it's an actual twisting of muscles in a very vulnerable spot in your body, and you get NO sympathy whatsoever for it. Since it happens every month, we're supposed to be able to breeze through it? No thanks!

Halloween Saturday 2010

Halloween Saturday was spent at my parents house. Everyone came over and after Dorthy and I finally decided what we were going to dress up as, we ate and took the kids around to a few houses. Dorthy and I painted our faces and did our hair as Gorgons (Stephanie dressed up as Workout Barbies' mom, ...lame) and I dressed Tim up as Apollo. He was such a good sport and it turned out pretty good! He had a good tan and everything! but I didn't get a picture... sigh running on only one hour of sleep makes you forget some things. But Riley dressed up as the pumpkin princess in the other costume I found for her. Yes not only did I buy her costumes, but I bought her TWO, but they were so cute I couldn't help myself!



Riley the pumpkin princess, Rowan as Woody, Abi as Workin' Out Barbie



This is as close as we could get getting them to sit by their pumpkins for a picture. So we just made do with what we had...

Halloween Friday 2010

So we have read multiple times that I LOVE Halloween. And fortunately for me, so does Riley. We get excited about it before the week of even rolls around and with it being on Sunday this year, we had THREE days to party instead of just one. Steph has some cute pictures on her blog of our Halloween party at my mom's but Friday night Tim's parent's ward had a trunk or treat where everyone shows up to the church parking lots and the kids trick or treat out of the back or the cars. Not a bad idea and with how fast it got so cold this year, a real life saver, especially for the little kids.




Riley and Dad trick or treating, I'm pretty sure Tim was just showing her off to the people in the ward, but she is pretty cute, so I'll let it slide. Friday she wore the sugar plum fairy costume I found for her and we made her cheeks rosy and everyone thought she was adorable. Although someone at Tim's work saw her and said, "Oh how cute! An Eggplant!" Really? An eggplant? I know the costume is purple but who in their right mind would dress their baby up as an eggplant with wings? I like my vegetables and I'm all for being creative on Halloween, but I'm not exactly what you would call a VeggieTales enthusiast.



Riley with Unlce "Indiana" Mike




Riley with Grandma Tucker

After the candy was all passed out, we all went inside and we ate from plethora of soups people in ward had made. Then when we went back to grandma and grandpa Tucker's house we had to listen about Ben's heartburn;)It was a lot of fun and unfortunately Chris and Katie weren't around so I didn't get any pictures of Conner or Kenzie but I did get some of Landon, He's such a cute little bug and this picture is by far my favorite of the night...



Good Evening...

Chelsie Hill 5k Run October 2010

Tim has been on a soccer kick lately as we are all aware off and he's decided he needs to get into shape for upcoming soccer league season in Spring of next year. Right like HE needs to get into shape(scoffs). So he's been running miles after Sarah's soccer games and just for fun (not lately cause he fell down the stairs at his parents house and twisted his ankle up pretty good) but he does enjoy running, so when he found out that they were holding a memorial run for Chelsie Hill (a girl his age who went to Hunter and tragically dies in a car accident a month or so ago) he was pretty excited to be able to run it. He asked people on his Facebook account if anyone wanted to run it with him and his brother Chris and an old mission companion Jacob Braghini said they would. I went for moral support cause really if I tried to run or even walk a 5k, we would have had an EARLY baby, and I didn't think that would be a very good idea. I'm sure there's some people who would do a 5 k when they're pregnant, but I don't like doing when I'm NOT pregnant, so really, yeah just not something I think I could do. So here's a picture of the athletes. Katie and her brother and sister were there too with Kenzie and Conner, but I was dumb and didn't get a picture of them. Sorry guys! It started to rain right before the runners started to come back into the stadium where they started, and then it started to pour and trying to wrestle a wet sick baby almost eight months pregnant is kind of difficult, so as soon as Jacob and Tim came back, I was ready to go, so I don't have any pictures of their triumphant returns, but Jacob came in third place and Tim was eighth or so, and Chris was a few people after Tim. Good job you guys!!

Dough! Nuts! Mmmmm... doughnuts

As I was standing over my sink devouring a piece of cold chicken like a ravenous beast, I thought to myself, I should really make some doughnuts today. Okay I know that if Tim reads this he'll get all sicked out cause I was eating cold chicken. Get over it honey, I've done it since I was a kid and I'll do it until I die, which incidentally, will probably be sooner than later if I keep eating cold fried chicken.:) Secondly, I only thought about the doughnuts because yesterday I really wanted to make some and I found a really quick really easy recipe for Old Fashioned cake doughnuts, which are my FLAVORITE!!! See? It's like flavor and favorite together??? Sigh anyways if you would like to try to make doughnuts, like I am going to TRY and make doughnuts, here is the recipe:

FAST AND EASY OLD FASHION DOUGHNUT
4 c. flour
1 c. sugar
1 c. milk
4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 eggs
2 tbsp. melted butter
1 tsp. vanilla
Mix all together, roll and cut with doughnut cutter. Deep fry until brown.
Delicious plain, or coat with sugar and cinnamon.

Chili Cookoff 2010

For third Sunday the Schmidt side of our family got together and brought their best chili recipes to share. There were 5 different kinds and they all tasted so good, it was hard to decide which you wanted to eat the most of. Tim and I took a little crockpot of white or "Ghost Chili" as Tim would call it, and Sarah and Dad ate most of that. I'm glad it all got eaten because as sad as it is, we just don't get around to eating our leftovers and then they just sit in the fridge and get gross. But anyways, all the chili was so good it was hard to decide which one to eat more of so I, being the pig that I am, ate at least four bowls of chili and ate my bread bowl. MMMMM bread bowls are delicious. Anyways, we all had a good time yesterday between frosting our Halloween cookies, eating chili, watching "How to Train Your Dragon" (super cute movie BTW) and playing fun games, I think we all enjoyed ourselves last night.

Our Halloween cookies!!! They look so good!


Playing outside while it was still warm, waiting for dinner to be done. I tried to get Rowan to pose in between the scarecrows, but the kid was too busy being a booger.


Some of the tasty Chili Entries:




My favorite picture from the evening is a: of course of my own kid cause she's cute, and b:is technically not evening in the picture but we'll count it anyways since it was after 12 in the afternoon: