Keep Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'...

Tucker is so close to rolling over! Right now he is only close to doing it back to front. The days of leaving him on our bed are almost over..

Winter Happenings

Sheldon and I had a very fun weekend, despite all the crazy snow! No actually, it was really fun to play in the snow. Last Friday we were able to go to my friend Miriam's wedding in Salt Lake. I almost died of heart attack driving there because the roads were so bad, but luckily we made it safely. The wedding was beautiful and it was lots of fun to see so many of my old roommates there. It made me glad I had a summer wedding though, I'm not very tough and I don't think I could handle pictures in the snow!

On Monday Sheldon and I had fun playing in the foot of snow we received. Tucker didn't quite know what to think of the cold. We set him up in our laundry basket so he could play outside with us and he just had fun watching the snow. Sheldon and I are still working on our snow sculptures so you will just have to check back later for pictures.

Christmas Memories

I have been thinking about Christmases past lately and thought I would show everyone some pictures of the days before blogging. This was our first Christmas together. I made us dress up for a romantic candlelit Christmas Eve Dinner.

Our first Christmas tree, we had so few ornaments we had to make paper snowflakes!

Our homemade gingerbread house, it was a lot of work to make it from scratch. I am now a big fan of those kits at the store, so easy!

This was our christmas tree from last year. We didn't have the money or space to buy a big christmas tree, so we just took a bunch of branches from a christmas tree lot and made our own christmas bush! I think it turned out quite well :)

CA Continued...

I realized there were some things I never posted about that we did on our trip to California. Sheldon and I spent a day in LA and one place we visited was the Getty Musuem. It is a huge art musuem that sits on top of a big hill (they don't really have mountains in California). This is Sheldon and Tucker riding the tram to the museum.They had some amazing gardens at the Getty and I especially liked these cactus tree thingys.

View of LA with some cool gardens in the background. Don't worry that's not all smog in the picture, it was a very cloudy day.

A pomegranate tree! I love pomegranates and I had never seen them growing anywhere before.

My Sister and I had lots of fun experimenting with fondant. It was my first time making anything with fondant so I am pretty proud of how my creations turned out. My favorite was the Miss Piggy I made. We also made a kermit, mistletoe and a christmas tree with a snowman next to it. It was very fun and I hope to take a cake decorating class sometime this year so that I can become better at working with fondant.

Laughing Video

I love this video, Tucker is so cute when he laughs. I apologize for the bad filming job, I was too busy paying attention to Tucker to focus on filming. And my camera was being weird so I don't know why it kept going out of focus. Even though it is hard to see Tucker I hope you enjoy hearing him laugh.

Christmas Stockings!

Growing up my Mom made stockings for us with our initials on them. I always thought they were so cute, much better than the storebought kind. So this year my Mom helped me make stockings for our family while we were in California. I am definitely no seamstress, but with my Mom's help I think they turned out pretty good. They are now hanging above our fireplace and I really am so proud of myself for making them. I can't remember the last time I sewed something!

Cutest Video!

I love this video. Tucker is trying copy the lip blowing thing my Dad is doing, I don't know what to call it, it's when you put your lips together and blow, does it have a name? Anyway, I think it's a really funny video and it's hard to tell but Tucker is really trying to copy my Dad.

California Trip

Yes, Sheldon and I are finally home from our trip to California. Sheldon came home on the 30th, but I got to stay an extra 4 days which was very fun. I just couldn't get enough of the warm weather. We were able to do a lot of fun things which I will post about in upcoming posts. Here are some cute pictures of Tucker and a few things we did while in California.

We had lots of fun playing with our new croquet set. This is my sister Rachel and my cousin Jewel.

Jewel with Tucker, don't you love that look on his face?

My siblings while we played an intense game of Axis and Allies. Although we didn't ever finish, I think the Axis (my brother Daniel and I) would have won. Luckily the game ended peaceably. The last time my family played a game like this (Risk) it ended in such a big feud that we haven't played it in years.
Tucker getting his bath in the sink, you can tell he was definitely having fun. I think he thought it was his own personal hot tub.

Tucker's favorite new face to make, smooshing his lips together.

Cutest smile!

Laughing!!

Yes, Tucker laughed a real, honest-to-goodness, laugh tonight! It was so cute and it totally made my night. It is times like that I love being a mom. The other times... I'm not so sure ;) I don't think I would mind it at all if Tucker would just sleep through the night and fall asleep when he's tired without any problems. Wouldn't that be the life?

Halloween...

We didn't do too much for Halloween, Tucker had been kind of fussy all day so we just stayed home and watched a scary movie. We watched Poltergeist and it really wasn't that scary at all, just kind of weird and humorous at parts. Tucker just dressed up as a cute little pumpkin man.
Tucker is getting really good at holding his head up when he is on his stomach. He even started to roll over this week and has done it about 4 or 5 times, but I don't think that it is on purpose. It is when a series of events happen at the same time through luck that he rolls over. If he leans his head over and pushes at the same time, his head is so heavy the momentum rolls his whole body over. It's pretty cool. I haven't been able to get a video of it because it is so sporadic.
It's funny though when he gets tired, he just face plants. For some reason he can't just turn his head to the side, he will sit there like this until you rescue him.
This picture is for my siblings, yes he is wearing his trogdor shirt. You've already corrupted him with Homestar runner at such a young age. :)

Dr. Appt.

Tucker had his 2 month doctor's appointment this week. It was fun to find out how much he weighed, but so sad to see him cry when he had to get his shots. Tucker is 12.24 lbs and 23 inches long, which means he has gained 4 lbs and grown 2.75 inches in about 2 months. That seems like a lot to me, but I feel like I feed him a lot so I am glad that it is doing something. Weight he is in the 49% and height is 37% and is head is in the 54%, so he is not such a big headed little boy anymore.


Yesterday Sheldon and I carved our pumpkin, it is not the most original idea, but I still think it turned out pretty cute (It is supposed to be Mickey Mouse if you can't tell. His ears turned out pretty small in proportion to his head). We are hopefully going to Disneyland around Thanksgiving and I can't wait!

Climbing!

Last Saturday it was such great weather that Sheldon and I went climbing. It was the first time that we have been this summer since I was pregnant the whole summer. We went with Sheldon's brother Kalon, his wife Mariah, and their cute little boy Andrew. Rock Canyon was beautiful with all the leaves changing and it felt good to be outside enjoying some warm weather. I am not looking forward to winter and being cooped up inside. This is a picture of Tucker and Andrew hanging out together in their strollers.
Sheldon is an excellent climber, he always makes it look so easy and goes up the climbs so fast. I think he definitely has an advantage by being so tall, if I was six inches taller I could probably climb as good as him too ;) I climbed this route too, but it took me longer and I could tell I was out of shape because I was tired after just one climb. I need Tucker to start getting heavier so I can count lifting him the same as lifting weights.



Sheldon and Tucker on the way home from climbing. Tucker was content when he was bouncing along the trail in his stroller.

Tucker was being really cute right before we went climbing. Sorry the video is sideways, I don't know how to flip it.

Tucker's Baby Blessing

Tucker's blessing was this last weekend and the whole weekend was so much fun. My family was able to come up from California, and it was the first time my Dad and my sister got to see Tucker. My Grandma Olsen was able to come up and she gave us a beautiful cross stitch for Tucker. It is so cute and I am so excited to hang it in his room!


Of course the day of the blessing we woke up to snow!! That is definitely Utah for you, snow in October (Thanks to Mitzi and Grandma for taking such great pictures!)

After the blessing at church we came back to our little basement apartment for some food. I'm so grateful to everyone who brought food, as you can see we had tons of great food! I thought for sure there were going to be leftovers, but due to having many college boys over, there weren't any leftovers. Which was fine, I was glad to be able to see and visit with so many people.
Grandma Olsen always had the magic touch with Tucker, he was also so calm and happy when she was holding him.
My Dad was also so cute with Tucker and I can't tell you how many hours he spent rocking Tucker to sleep. When Tucker is extra tired it takes him a long time to go to sleep and my Dad was so patient. I'm usually a little less patient and have to just put him in his swing and hope he falls asleep :)
My parents were so cute, they just couldn't get enough of Tucker, it definitely was ok with me, I got a great break this weekend.

Of course it would be a family reunion if some games weren't played. Here are my cousins and siblings playing one of our new games. Daniel ended up winning, which I was happy with because usually it is my cousin Brandon or Sheldon. So as long as one of them doesn't win, I'm satisfied ;)


Our little family, Tucker looked so cute in his blessing outfit. I didn't get many pictures taken of him in it because he spit up on it soon after, but at least he made it through church with it nice and clean.

Free Handbag!

Need a new Handbag? I know I do! Go here to enter to win one, don't worry it's free!

Quest for a Smile

Every morning after I feed Tucker and I am changing his diaper he always smiles so much. He will smile these huge smiles where you see all of his gums. I have tried so many times to take a good picture of him smiling but he will always move or stop smiling right as I take the picture. Here are a few of my attempts.

Conference Weekend

Sheldon and I had a very fun and relaxing conference weekend, except for the fact that it has been freezing cold up here! I am not looking forward to winter. We were able to go up to his parents house on Sunday to watch conference with them and celebrate his sister Dahlia's birthday. I always have an excellent time when we get together with his family, because there are so many people who want to hold Tucker that I get a nice break. Sheldon's parents have a huge garden and they were nice enough to let us pick a bunch of raspberries. They were so delicious on my breakfast this morning! Here are a few pictures of Tucker from this weekend:
Tucker loved bouncing with Sheldon on the exercise ball.

Tucker's almost smiling in this one...

This is Sheldon's sister Dahlia, she is expecting a baby boy at the beginning of January. We are so excited for her, Tucker can't wait for more boy cousins to play with. We hope she had a good birthday!

Another exciting/scary thing that happened this weekend was the black widow we found during conference. I had pulled out my cross stitch to work on during conference and had just taken a stitch or two when I noticed this huge spider right on my cross stitch. I quickly flung it across the room and woke Sheldon up from his nap he was taking during conference :) The black widow could have easily bitten me since my cross stitch has a black background I might not have noticed the black widow until it was too late and he had bitten me. Needless to say, I couldn't work on my cross stitch for the rest of conference because I was too grossed out. I hate spiders.

I've been tagged!

Yes, unfortunately the title is true. I had hoped to escape this tagging game, but my sister finally tagged me to say 6 interesting things about myself. I feel like I am back in high school or EFY where you have to say your name and then one interesting thing. I never knew what to say, I think I always said something lame like, "I like to travel." Everybody likes to travel, that's not interesting! Well I don't know if I will be able to make it all the way to 6 but I will give it my best shot.

1. I really do like to travel, but the interesting part about this is I can say I have been an interesting place. I went on a trip to Hong Kong with my Dad as a graduation present from High School. It was definitely one of the coolest experiences in my life. I still think it's funny that I had to have my Dad translate even when the people were speaking English to me. I am also amazed at how good at eating with chopsticks the people are, I was always so embarrassed when waitresses would ask me if I wanted a fork. Being stubborn I would always say no, but it would take me forever to eat some things. How do you eat lobster tail with chopsticks, I am still puzzled.

2. Growing up I always planned on working for the CIA and there is still a possibility it might happen :) You never know how life is going to turn out. I had my life planned out in High School and I was going to work go on a mission after college, then work for the CIA for a few years, and eventually get married around the age of 27. Definitely did not even come close to following my life plan, which I think is a good thing. Life often turns out better than you can plan.

3. I have been hit by a Ford Truck, filled with sand, going 50 mph on my bike when not wearing a helmet and survived with no broken bones, concussion, or stitches. Let's be honest, that's pretty sweet. How many people can say that? I would post a picture of my totally messed up bike, but at the moment I can't find where I saved it on the computer.

4. Sheldon and I LOVE to play board games or any type of game. We have a almost a whole closet filled with just games. Sheldon and I are both pretty competitive, but I think I am more competitive, which is probably not a good thing. I am usually not very nice to Sheldon when we play, but luckily he is pretty nice to me so our relationship survives. Some of our favorite games: Settlers of Cataan with Cities and Knights expansion, Scotland Yard, Shadows over Camelot (this is one of my favorites because you can be a traitor), Pirates Cove, Scum, and Chess (when I win).

This post is turning into a novel, so I think I am going to stop at 4.
I tag My Parents, Dahlia B., and Carrie C to say 6 interesting things about themselves.

Pictures!

I finally received access to view my pictures online that I had taken at Target. If you want to view all of the pictures go to this website https://www.thesmilestation.com/home.asp?AC=LTTT0890104779TAR and enter ELAINE MILLS as the customer name. These are some of my favorite pictures, I love the first one because it looks like he is planning a conspiracy. The second picture I also love, because even though I hate to see him sad, he really does look so cute.