May Family

Thanksgiving/Birthday

2012-01-18T09:06:00.000-07:00

The Holidays were full of events and family. During Thanksgiving Aaron's parents and sister Rachel came to visit us. This was my first year putting on Thanksgiving and I thought it was a success. Aaron's parents were impressed with how moist my turkey turned out. The only thing I didn't like was the skin and I have sinced figured that out.

We also continued the May Family tradition of making poffertjes on holidays/birthdays. Poffertjes are mini dutch pancakes, but they have yeast so they look like a pancake and taste like donut.

It was also Ethan's 2nd birthday on Thanksgiving. He is growing up too fast for me. We had Thanksgiving meal early in the day and then took the family to the park. We all had lots of fun and then went home to celebrate Ethan's birthday.

Thank you to everyone who helped make Ethan's birthday special.

Halloween

2011-11-09T13:23:00.000-07:00

The boys had so much fun trick or treating this year. The weather was perfect! We didn't have to worry about wearing coats or anything. This year was Ethan's first year getting candy. He was so cute! When we would come to the door of the various home he would say "treat" after Tucker said "trick or treat". They both got SO much candy. Each home would give them two or three pieces. By the time we started walking home, Tucker asked Aaron to carry his bucket because it was too heavy. They had so much fun. Tucker was waiting all month to go trick or treating. Ethan was a cow and Tucker went as buzz light year.

Tucker was trying to help me take a picture of them before we went out trick or treating, but as you can tell we weren't having much success.

Once Aaron came home, moments before we left, taking the picture was a lot easier. :)

Random Fun

2011-11-08T13:07:00.000-07:00

A thought I should post some randoms pictures of my boys having fun. They are such a hoot and are always surprising me with their creativity. Enjoy!

Wrestle Time!

Cuteness

Reading Time

First day of PreSchool

Nauvoo

City Musuem

Picnics

Outside Fun

Tucker's 4th Birthday

2011-09-02T08:11:00.000-06:00

Yes, my oldest just turned 4! If you ask how old he is though, he will tell you 8. I'm thinking its because we have been talking a lot about baptism and that when he turns 8 he can be baptized. Silly kid, at least I know he is paying attention. He loved celebrating his birthday. The only thing that would have made it better would have been more family, but the holidays are approaching and that will have to do. Thank you everyone who sent their love and thoughts to Tucker on his birthday. I really appreciate it.

The cake. The birthday cake itself was a pineapple cake. Tucker LOVES trains so I made him a train track cake and put a toy train on it. And yes, after the birthday song he then drove the train through the tracks. :)

A close up of the gravel.

He wanted to eat just the train tracks. I went to get ice cream out of the freezer and when I came back he had eaten just the letter T from his name on the cake. He loves his letter T.

Mr. Ethan, happy to do his part for the birthday boy: eating lots of cake and ice cream.

He loved his Elmo card that sings!

He loved his "bird ya ya ya" movie, as he calls it.

Grandma and Grandpa sent Tucker some clothes. He opens the bag and then says, "Oh, clothes. I love clothes." I have no idea where that came from because he doesn't like shopping with me for them, but it was a cute response.

My husband and I generally use our debt cards and rarely have cash on us. Tucker recognizes coins as money when we play pirates, but he has never really used paper money. At first he thought they were train tickets, but once I told him it was money this picture was his response.

The best reaction of all the gifts was this one. It is a DVD of "Sid the Science Kid" from PBSkids. He opens the gift and then gasped. This picture was taken in the middle of him gasping.

Thank you to Nana, Papa, Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Maria, Aunt Nicki, Aunt Rachel, and Aunt Megan for your love and support on Tucker's birthday.

Graduation

2011-08-03T21:52:00.000-06:00

So I realized that I have missed a lot of things that I should have put on the blog. The usual right? Aaron graduated with his BS in April!!! Hurray for Aaron!!!! We are very proud of him. On to the next degree. :)

Our Journey

2011-08-03T21:43:00.000-06:00

Well, we are no longer in Idaho. We survived the three day drive to Missouri. The trip here was not too bad. The children had their moments, but heck so did I. :) The real fun happened once we got to our apartment. (sarcasm) Upon move in we realized that there are two locations to our apartment complex and we are located in the far one that is not close to any of the amenities like the pool. There was a leak behind the frig that had been pouring water out for two days and several other maintenance issues were neglected. Needless to say, we have gotten to know the maintenance crew very well. We thought about shortening our contract to a month or three months, but Tucker was really having a hard time as is. So for Tucker's best interest we are sticking it out here for at least a year. My hope is to get onto a waiting list for another apartment and move in next July. Enough with the negatives right?!

The good thing about here is that there are a lot of stores within 15 minutes of our home. Heck, there are three super wal-marts within 15 minutes of our home. In Idaho the nearest one was 30 minutes and here we have three within 15! Tucker's school starts in two weeks and Aaron's in four. So we are just chilling until life gets busy with school. Heavenly Father gave us a tender mercy and blessed Aaron with a job...yes we moved here with no job. He is working at Bed Bath and Beyond and gets a sweet discount.

The boys are handling our new home as well as can be expected. They use to spend at least 3 hours a day outside and now it is maybe one. The heat wave makes it almost impossible to enjoy the outdoors, but we are making good use of the pool. :) It has also been nice to see my dad twice and mom once. My boys sure were excited to see papa and his motorcycle again. Its so nice to have family closer. Now all we have to do is visit Aaron's parents at their new home in South Carolina. I sure will miss them until the holidays.

Christmas

2011-03-06T00:39:00.000-07:00

Christmas was so much fun. We realized this year that Tucker is a Christmas kid. He loves Christmas movies, songs, and everything else. He likes to call the Christmas tree a "welcome tree" because in the movie "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" the whos sing their welcome song around the city tree. Any time we saw a Christmas tree in a store, school, or other public place, Tucker would hold my hand and sing the "welcome" song. Kids truly do make the holidays.

Tucker was very excited to see Santa too. He was so excited to talk to him, until we were there. Once we saw Santa, Tucker got all shy. He wanted to sit on Santa's lap, but he wouldn't look at him. It was so cute.

Tucker also had fun helping us decorate the Christmas tree. Ethan liked eating the decorations that we had on it (cookies, dried oranges, and cranberries).

The Demolition of the Cake

2011-03-05T00:44:00.000-07:00

Ethan's First Birthday (Nov. 24th)

2011-03-04T23:56:00.000-07:00

It has been a long time since I posted anything...obviously. Ethan's first birthday was a lot of fun. He definitely enjoyed his cake. He even tried to share it with me and his Aunt Megan when we came in for a kiss. Tucker was more than willing to teach Ethan how to open the gifts and share them. Ethan was a good sport and willingly shared his gifts. Thank you to everyone who helped make his first birthday special.

The "smash" cake.

The "every body" else cake.

I see this picture and think: "Kiss, Kiss."

October

2010-11-24T20:22:00.000-07:00

This month was all about Halloween. Tucker got to go to three Halloween events. He had a primary Halloween party, preschool party, and Trick-or-Treat night. He had so much fun...probably because of all the candy he got. He loved wearing his Buzz Light Year costume and wanted to wear it on days just because. We decided to go trick-or-treating with Aaron's family in their town. It was a lot of fun and I think they enjoyed it as well. Enjoy the pictures and video.

September

2010-11-24T19:20:00.000-07:00

The Eastern Idaho Fair is in September and we went. We have lived here for four years and this was our first year going. We went with Aaron's family and had lots of fun. The boys enjoyed seeing all of the animals. Tucker's favorite part was riding the rides.

Tucker had his first day of preschool. He had lots of fun. He loves preschool so much that he never wants to leave.

Ethan was 10 months in September. Here is a comparison of him and Tucker at 10 months.

Ethan

Tucker

My boys keep life really busy. They are both really sweet boys. Here are some pictures that I liked. Tucker was doing some posing for me and I couldn't resist taking some pictures. Oh, and the picture of them kissing was all by coincidence.

Catching Up....

2010-11-08T16:10:00.001-07:00

Here is my attempt at getting caught up on my blogging.

July

In July my parents and brothers came to visit us from Ohio. We all had lots of fun. My kids were really excited to see Nana and Papa. We were also sad when they left.

August

August was really busy. We went to the zoo often. Ethan loved being in the stroller. Tucker loved all of the animals.

We went camping as a family for the first time. We only went one night because we weren't sure how the kids would handle it. It was fun, but I think it will be more fun when they are older. Aaron's brother Brad came up to practice shooting. It was about to rain so I stayed in the tent with the kids. The gun had a lot of kick to it because it kicked Aaron in the face. It was so funny.

In August Ethan learned to crawl. He was so cute. We had to use Josh's, my brother, cell phone to motivate him, but it worked. I hope you enjoy the video of it. I'm experimenting with it. Tucker also discovered that he could climb onto the frig. I don't know how he gets from the counter to the frig, but he does it...unfortunately.

We also celebrated our 4th Wedding Anniversary and Tucker's 3rd Birthday. Such a happy month. I can't believe how old Tucker is getting.

Updating

2010-07-31T14:34:00.000-06:00

Life has been so busy that I have had no time to update our family blog! So this is going to be a real basic way of updating everyone.

APRIL

In April I started my current job of blogging/writing articles. It is a good job and I get to work from home, so that is very nice. Aaron finished the Winter semester and started the Spring semester. This month marked our one year from graduating! Tucker started all of his therapies. He loves going to them because he gets to play with new toys and get out of the house. Ethan started sitting up with a little support in April as well. We also took a mini vacation to West Yellowstone.

MAY

Tucker started Toddler Lab, which is like a preschool for children 18-35 months. He loved it. The first few days were a little hard on him, but after that he loved it. Ethan started sitting up on his own, but his balance was still shaky. He also turned 6 months. Aaron and I were doing the same things, school and work. He got a job on campus in the security department as a dispatcher. I started feeling like a soccer mom, but more like therapy mom because of the many appointments that Tucker had. The weather started getting nice enough to spend more time outside, so we would go to the duck park or the Porter Park.

JUNE

June is a very busy month for our family. Aaron and I celebrated our birthdays and became one year older. Ethan had his first taste of baby food which was peaches. Tucker was still doing three different therapies and Toddler Lab. My family (Mom, Dad, Josh, and John) came to visit us. We also celebrated Aaron's Dad's (Mark "Grandpa") birthday. At the BBQ party we had a surprise visit from Aaron's sister Megan. Lots of family time in June and it was fun.

March

2010-04-30T15:50:00.000-06:00

Well, I am obviously running a month behind in my postings. I went back to work in the month of March, so life has been pretty crazy. I was delivering papers at 3 in the morning 30 minutes away from home. Needless to say, that job only lasted a month.

I went back to work because Aaron had to quit his early morning cleaning job. He was falling asleep in class and his grades were reflecting it.

Tucker is growing like crazy! He is finally using more and more words. He is so smart too. Unfortunately for mom, Tucker has great problem solving skills. He discovered in March that he could open the bottom cabinets and climb up onto the counters to his snacks. By the way, we use to have child safety locks on all of the bottom cabinets, but he ripped them out! I got sick of him climbing up, so I put the gate up to the kitchen. By the way, the gate has to be really tight because he can pull it hard enough to move it. It also has to be high or he will reach over and pull the lever to collapse the gate! I'm telling you I have one smart boy. So I thought I had successfully kicked him out of the kitchen, but I was wrong. There is a little "window" whole from the kitchen to the dinning room. The whole is even with the counters. Tucker had pushed a dinning chair to the whole and climbed into the kitchen to his snacks! He is one motivated little turd.

Ethan had rolled over in March. I don't think he did it intentionally, but he did it with control. It was exciting none the less. He had his first taste of baby cereal too. He loved it for about two weeks. He still drools and wants to eat what we are having, so we will give him baby cereal. It only lasts about 5 minutes before he starts screaming because he wants to suck. Silly little boy!

4 Month Comparison

2010-04-30T15:18:00.001-06:00

Tucker

Ethan

3 Month Comparison

2010-02-26T16:42:00.008-07:00

Tucker at 3 months...

Ethan at 3 months...

Ethan's Infant pictures

2010-02-26T16:25:00.002-07:00

Loads of Pictures!

2010-02-26T15:42:00.000-07:00

Look at these cute cute boys! I'm so lucky! I have a beautiful blue eyed baby boy and a gorgeous brown eyed boy. I can see so much of their father in them. I sure am blessed. Being a mother is one of the most challenging and greatest callings in life. I love it!

Both of these pictures were taken on the same day. My boys just were really tired and slept in really funny positions. Ethan is half way on his side and arching his back at the same time. Tucker decided to move his pillow in the middle of his bed. Tucker's feet are at the head board and he decided to take two cars into bed. I don't know how children sleep in the positions they do.

During the winter, life can get really boring. Since I have young children we are usually stuck inside, but we always try to keep busy. Tucker likes to paint so we do that once in a while. This time I decided to take a picture of Tucker painting, but during mid-shot he told me "NO!" Apparently he didn't want his picture taken. Once in a while when I get Ethan down for a nap Tucker and I will go outside. Aaron has taught Tucker how to throw snowballs at me! I must say that Tucker has mastered it. Another thing that Tucker likes to do is to take the icicles off the car and throw them into piles of snow because they sink.

We also do a lot of wrestling in our house. Ethan is still too little to wrestle, so we just love on him. :) Tucker on the other hand, he is crazily strong!

We also like to cook. Tucker even likes to help. In this specific picture we made a New Orleans shrimp dish. It was YUMMY!

At the beginning of the picture Ethan liked being held by Tucker, but then Tucker let Ethan slip so Ethan fussed. Just a funny observation, both boys are wearing pjs that are the same color of their eyes.

We had a family outing this week and took Tucker bowling for the first time. Tucker really liked the ball hitting the pins, but he didn't like sharing turns. I think he also had a hard time focusing because of the loud music. I think we are going to wait till he is three before we take him again.

keep scrolling!

2010-01-26T21:43:00.000-07:00

Many people don't realize that there is a new post "under" my pregnancy post. Please keep scrolling down. It is titled "December." There are lots of pictures, so please enjoy!

The Boys

2010-01-25T16:15:00.000-07:00

I thought it would be cool to compare Tucker's and Ethan's looks as they grow up. Here is Tucker at 2 months of age...

and now Ethan...

Pregnancy

2010-01-25T15:58:00.000-07:00

I'm just relocating where I had all of my pregnancy pictures over here...

4 months

5 months

6 months

8 months...we forgot during the 7th month

9 months

December

2010-01-25T15:34:00.000-07:00

Well time sure has flown by since Ethan was born. I don't have as much time to do what I want so there wasn't a posting in december, sorry. Christmas was great and we were spoiled so much by our families. Tucker loves his new Mack toy from the movie Cars. He has to take it every where with him, including during meal times and to bed. Maria and Jason got him it. Aaron cut our tree down himself! He was very proud of it too. Our Christmas tree was decorated in a country theme. I hung cranberries, orange slices, and homemade gingerbread cookies. Tucker's favorite part of the tree was the cookies. He would always eat them. I tried teaching him not to, but he would always sneak and eat them. I guess he gets that from his Papa. So I gave up and would let him eat them. By Christmas morning our tree only had cookies on the top half of it. Tucker has loads of fun with Nana. She came to help us out for one week after Ethan was born. In the picture above they were watching the Polar Express (again) and Nana was sharing her birthday pie with Tucker. I can't wait till July when they come back out!

Both boys are growing big and strong. Tucker is now 29.5 lbs and 36.5 inches long! I can't believe my oldest is 2 1/2 years old. Ethan is 2 months now and weighs in at 12 lbs 4 oz and is 22 inches long. He sure is my chunky baby, which is the total opposite of what Tucker was. They sure do like eachother. Today I was changing Ethan's diaper on my bed and Tucker comes over and sits next to Ethan. Ethan looked at Tucker and totally grinned. I wish I could have gotten a picture of the two of them. It was a kodak moment. Tucker every so often will go over and hug Ethan while he is laying on the couch and say "oh, I love you." It is so sweet.

Ethan Parker May

2009-11-26T15:37:00.000-07:00

Ethan Parker May was born November 24 at 11:01 AM. He weighed 6 lbs and 9 oz. His length was 19". He was very stubborn coming out. I was in labor for 32 hours and I did it with out an epidural! I am very pleased with myself.

He has very blue eyes. They remind me of his Aunt Maria's eyes. His hair is blonde, but I secretly hope it goes darker.

Can't you see us glowing of excitement that he finally arrived? Oh wait, maybe that is just exhaustion.

Tucker is loving being a big brother! He is always asking to hold Ethan. Ethan has probably received 100 kisses just from Tucker and he is only two days old!

Here is a funny picture Aaron took. It's amazing how small babies are or maybe my husband just has a really big foot.

2nd Year Pictures

2009-10-26T06:51:00.000-06:00

I finally went and got Tucker's 2nd birthday pictures taken. Our friends, Michelle and James, own a photography business and they took the pictures. We are so thrilled with how they turned out! Aaron keeps saying that our son is a model. I have to agree, Tucker is really cute.

We took the pictures on campus in the Ricks Garden. Idaho isn't as pretty as Ohio in the Fall, but the Garden had a lot of pretty trees and colors. Tucker had so much fun being able to run around outside.

Tucker did a great job smiling in the beginning. If we asked him to say cheese, he would smile and scrunch up his face. It was so cute. He would do his charming smile when we asked him to smile. After a while, he just ignored us and had fun playing with sticks.

I told Tucker that he reminded me of Papa because he went around stabbing all of the bushes with a stick. As long as Tucker didn't lose to the bush like Papa had growing up, I was ok with it.

The Baby

2009-09-21T15:40:00.006-06:00

I realized the other day that I didn't include a picture of our ultrasound from 2 months ago. Here is the latest picture of our youngest child!

Tucker's 2nd Birthday

2009-09-04T23:11:00.002-06:00

Tucker is in this Nemo kick right now, so I did a Nemo cake for his birthday. It doesn't look exactly like Nemo, but I wasn't being a perfectionist on it either. Tucker's favorite part was the icing. He even tried scrapping the icing off of my piece of cake!

Elmo was talking, so Tucker was being polite and carried on a conversation with Elmo. He is so funny! He enjoyed opening his gifts, but he enjoyed playing with them even more.

He really enjoys his guitar that Great-Grandma Starr got him. Now he can play along with is Daddy. Tucker looks so grown up sitting in his bean-bag. He cracks me up about crossing his ankles when he sits. He has done that since he was born. Even when I nursed him as a tiny baby he crossed his legs.

Papa made the wooden horse for Tucker. At first Tucker just wanted to "feed" the horse. Once he realized that it rocked, he is on it all the time. He even just sits on it while watching his movies. What a cute kid!

2009-09-04T22:12:00.000-06:00

Aaron and I just celebrated our 3rd year Anniversary. We went to a Chukars baseball game and had a great time. We must have given them some luck because they actually won the game. I still can't believe that it has been 3 years. I guess it is a good thing because we have a 2 year old so I better have been married for at least 3 years. :)

Portland

2009-08-26T22:38:00.003-06:00

Our vacation to Portland was really fun. Our car did amazing, thanks to Aaron and Grandpa. We were really impressed with how well Tucker handled the drive. He was so content just eating and looking out the window.

We learned a lot about Aaron's future Chiropractic school and about Portland. We are so excited to move there. The whole thing will be quite an adventure!

We took Tucker to a park in Portland because he deserved it from being in a car for hours on end. Tucker is a great kid. He makes friends where ever he goes. He made a friend with a little girl named Bella.

We stopped on the west coast at Seaside mostly for Aaron. Aaron really loves the ocean. Come to find out, Tucker really loves the ocean too. Mom, me, was being a whip and did not want to go into the cold water. Aaron and Tucker on the other hand went right in. Aaron actually boogie boarded and Tucker could not get enough of the waves. Tucker laughed every time a wave came in and hit his legs. He thought it was hilarious.

On the way home we stopped off at a rest area and there was a small river right beside it. Of course, Tucker being like his father, could not resist getting in the water. We let him have his way because once again he deserved it from the long hours in the car. He had so much fun in that river. He was content just sitting in the water and throwing the rocks that were around him. Aaron got in the water too. He did not sit in the water, but he played in it too. I just stayed on the land and took pictures of the two of them. Tucker may look like me, but his interests are the same as his Dad's.

Anything with Wheels!

2009-07-12T22:42:00.002-06:00

Tucker was able to enjoy two of his favorite things, playing with Grandpa and a toy with wheels! He had lots of fun "steering" the lawn mower. He also loved turning the key a lot. Grandpa probably didn't like that as much though. :)

2009-05-09T22:18:00.005-06:00

Here is Baby 2 at 11 weeks!!! It has electric moves cause it was dancing something fierce.

Tucker becomes a big brother December 2.

Tucker's First Colored Egg

2009-04-17T11:43:00.002-06:00