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!