Six Glorious Months

Tucker is now six months old. 

We have never been happier.

Parenthood is the greatest adventure.

Our son is the most magical spirit. The most rewarding love and the handsomest thing ever.

At six months Tucker is so awesome.

He loves bananas, oranges, cantaloupe, apples, prunes and green beans and even some tomato soup that I had as part of my lunch.

I love making his food for him. I do have to say that my Baby Bullet steamer and mixer are the best things ever when it comes to making baby food. It is so easy and fun to do. It makes me feel good knowing he is eating the best things possible for him.

We love being his parents. Nothing brings us greater joy.

He still isn't sleeping through the night. We are trying some different things. One day it will happen. He has done it once. But it didn't last. 

He rolls over really well. He talks all the time. I love hearing him talk. I love snuggling with him in the mornings before I leave for work. 

I love everything. 

Tucker learned that morning that he didn't like the camera flash

Just swingin' with Dad

He looks like a giant toddler in this picture

At the doctors for his checkup 

The following videos are just from my phone. They are so darn cute. 

It Begins

Well it starts. We should be starting to hear back from schools this week. 

But guess what.... You all have to wait until we make our final decision. 

Ryan and I are going to wait and hear back from all of the schools and figure it out for ourselves before you all decide to ring in with your opinions. 

We are SO EXCITED to hear back from the schools and to make our decision on where we will be moving to.

I am definitely going to be sad to leave Provo as this is where I have lived for almost a decade, met Ryan and had my squishy son. 

But overall, it is going to be amazing and you all will just have to sit on pins and needles. Don't even try to get it out of us. You will fail. 

Anyway, until then, TTFN 

(ta ta for now for those of you who don't remember that classic sign-off)

And to make reading this post worth it, here is a picture of the goo face

Thanksgiving & Christmas

 Well Thanksgiving and Christmas are behind us and it was crazy to have all the family in town! But it was really nice to have everyone together for Thanksgiving. It wasn't too long afterwards that Christmas rolled around. We were in Park City with Ryan's family in an awesome cabin at the Canyons Ski Resort. There were ski days, sledding outings, snowmobiling adventures and snowball fights. We had a lot of fun with the little man and it was so fun to have Christmas with him. He is my angel and we are so completely OBSESSED with him!
He is starting to eat some solid foods now. So far he has had his rice cereal, some bananas, an orange (it was quite sour) and some carrots (not the biggest fan). I love that he is loving to eat. Even his carrots he didn't care for, every time I offered him the spoon, he still took some. He is such a good little man. It is so fun to see him grow and change. 

Here are the pictures that I have and I understand that this is all you really want to see :)

Christmas Morning! 

His snuggly bedtime buddy

The best thing to see before church :)

Tucker played Baby Jesus in a live nativity. He was soooo cute :) He kept sitting up when the Wise Men would come by.

Ryan hates this picture because he thinks it makes Tucker look like a girl. But it must be put up

Sledding with dad

Hes such a big boy

New Years Eve we went to Outback. Saw this sign and couldn't resist. But we wouldn't want anyone to take him away.

We are stellar parents who break the suggestions of the Bumbo. But the picture was perfect.

A letter to an old friend

Whaddup Senor Sandman,

I think you and I might have been missing one another lately. Are you coming by and I am leaving the door locked? Are you getting the wrong signals from us? Because Ryan and I really love your company but you haven't been around since, um, I don't even remember our last party.
Listen, Tucker would love to meet you. There is plenty of family here to welcome you into our home.
In all reality, Ryan and I miss you. A lot. If there is anything we can do to fix this broken friendship, please let us know. I will make cookies or something. Whatever you want. We are desperate.

Sleepiest regards from the most sleep deprived parents,
Ryan and Chloe

Body After Baby

Well since I have been binge-watching What Not to Wear, I have been watching far too many episodes about women who love being 'comfortable' and saying that because they have kids that they can't take 10 minutes for themselves during the day to get ready.

Now I am not saying there hasn't been a day since Tucker was born (or even before) that I looked like I belonged behind a Taco Bell living in a box eating the thrown out churros. BUT, I do NOT feel like that should be the norm. Nor does it have to be. 

I have really loved being a mom. Nothing has brought me greater joy in life. But I also am still a wife to a gorgeous man! Tucker might not care (at his age) what I look like. But I still want to be attractive to my husband too. There is nothing wrong with that either. It is essential to being happily married. And I don't care if that sounds offensive. It's the truth.

No, Ryan doesn't make me feel badly about wearing yoga pants and Ugg's sometimes. But he does always tell me how beautiful I am when I do take the time to get ready. And that always inspires me to make that effort.

I think that feeling attractive is different for everyone. I don't think it matters what your body type is, EVERY person can be gorgeous. Thank you Stacy and Clinton for showing me that. 

I can honestly say that I love my body now. I have always had body image issues. Growing up I definitely was self conscious about the way I looked. Never anything drastic. But it was always there in the back of my mind. And even throughout college, I still felt the same way. Being married has helped me so much have the confidence to be comfortable in my own skin. And I have to say that Ryan has been the main reason for this change. He has changed my mind completely about image and health and I couldn't be more grateful.

Then I got pregnant. And I had the HARDEST time seeing the number on the scale keep moving up. And then I had Tucker and, although I still dread the process of pregnancy and weight gain, I realized how having a healthy baby is so worth every ounce. A healthy pregnancy is so key to having a healthy baby and being a healthy mom.

Now almost five months down the road, I feel like I am an upgraded version of myself. Yes there are times that I still feel like I am bigger than I was before the pregnancy. And there are times that I still want to hide my stomach and thighs out in public. But when push comes to shove, like today, I feel stronger and more confident than I ever have before. And I can say that with all my heart.

I think everyone should feel like this, even after having children. And I feel like this is the perfect time for me to feel like this for the first time. 

I want my kids (both current and future) and my husband to see this confidence shine out of me. In a world where so much pressure has been put on image, I want my future daughters to have a mother who will help them be their best and look their best. 

Cuteness

Well Halloween is over. 

Thanksgiving and Christmas are right around the corner!

And Tucker is very likely teething. 

Of course I would have the three month old who teethes.
And I haven't been able to shower in quite some time. Yay

Well to recap. We had a blast with the little man at Halloween. Tucker was Robin.

We had WAY too much candy.

We also put up our Christmas tree. For all you party poopers who think it is bad to do that, you can just deal with it. We love Christmas in our home and Thanksgiving equally. 

Little goo face loves the Christmas tree. And we love the goo face.

Ryan and I are anxious to get his PhD apps done before Thanksgiving. I will be very happy to get those done so that we can enjoy the holidays and just have to worry about the anxiety that will then come once we get impatient about hearing back from the schools. Xanax anyone?

And speaking of Thanksgiving, ALL the grandparents are going to be here in a couple weeks! Let the insanity begin.

There is so much to do before then! And one of those things, is to try and get Tucker to sleep at night. But we all know that is just a laughing whim. Because that will never happen. Ever.

Our little man is so cute though that somehow we still love him even though we are up every night from around 1 am until we go to sleep the following night. Yay for parenthood

Anyway, onto the cuteness.

Ugh could these boys be any cuter?? 

He loves his Sophie

Loves the Christmas tree! :)


His first Banksy viewing :)




Baby Dumbledore




Little Superhero

He likes sleeping in the big boy bed :)