Happy B-day Tucker...

Yes, that is a backwards #1. I made him a #1 pancake and didn't think about the fact that once I flipped it over, it wouldn't be a #1 anymore. Good thing he doesn't know the difference yet, right?:)

Happy Birthday Tucker! This year, you're getting(drum roll please)...

A BLACK EYE!

Yes, on Saturday night (Tuckers birthday) Tucker fell in the bathtub and got a black eye! Can you say mother of the year? Can you say guilt? You see, Tucker has a big bucket of those foam letters for his bath, and I was sitting on the outside of the tub and he was on the inside, standing and holding on to the edge (problem #1) and he was being such a big boy and bending down and getting the letters out of the water and handing them to me so I could put them in the bucket because bath time was coming to an end; And I was so excited that he was being such a big boy and helping me out and he could tell that I was excited and so he kept on leaning down (problem #2) and standing back up and leaning down...and finally just one time, his little hand slipped, and before I could catch him, his face smacked the side of the tub. So mommy learned her lesson! No more babies standing in the tub. These pictures really don't do it justice. Its pretty black. It immediately swelled. The first pictures is from that night, the second one is from two days later. And the worst part was that on Monday he had his doctors appointment for his year check up. I was scared the doc was going to call CPS on me! :) The doc just laughed at the story (she HEARTS Tucker) and told me it for sure won't be the last! He was a tough little boy. As with most things with Tucker, he was easily distracted, thankfully. He cried a lot when it first happened, but quickly got over it and was just fine shortly after!

Anyway, here are the Tuck stats:
31 inches long = 75% percentile
23.13 Lbs = 50-75% percentile
(the first time Tuck has dipped even close to below the 75%)
The doc was very impressed with his speech! He was kind of showing off for her and saying all of his words and flirting with her a bit, but she was very impressed with how many words he knows and how well he mimics and catches on and understands things and just how he chats so much. (to himself mostly) :)
Anyway, the day was great up until the whole black-eye thing. We went to Barnes & Noble and read some books, and Tucker got a few new books. (Birthday Monsters by Sandra Boynton-cutest book ever) We went over to my Brother & Sis-in laws house, their dog just had puppies, and Tucker HEARTS dogs. (gogs) So he was happy to play with the gogs. And we went to our friends house and Tuck got to play with his girlfriend, Carly. (shes made a few appearances on the pyper family blog). That was about it. We were going to have a little party, but my dad is not home from Alaska yet. (he's usually always home by Thanksgiving, but isn't going to make it this year until Dec. 4th) Anyway, he asked us to wait to have his little 'party' until he got home. I didn't think that Tucker would mind. :) Since he hasn't tasted the sweet goodness that is birthday cake and doesn't yet know what he is missing out on, he won't know a thing. We'll have a little family party with a few close friends and dig into a delicious Costco cake! :) I want to share just a few of the things that Tucker has gotten so far for his b-day:

Some cozy flanel jammies from his auntie Em. (one of my bestest friends) Thanks Emily! Emily shares the same b-day as Tucker!

An Auburn Sweatshirt from his Uncle Doug! (Bens best friend) Yeah, GO AUBURN! -Thanks Doug!
And last but certainly not least, A tickle me Elmo from his g-ma. (my mom) And we were so excited about this because we thought that he would love it! He loves to laugh!
But this is the reaction that came once Elmo started laughing. We all loved it and thought it was the cutest thing, but Tuck was the one who disliked it very much. In fact, he wouldn't even look at it without sitting in my lap for the first few days, and is still pretty weary of the whole laughing Elmo doll.
We also got to go to Cyrus O'learys for some b-day dinners. It was actually for his Uncle Nathans (my brother) birthday, but Nathan has never had a family member to share his b-day dinner with, so it was really for Nathan & Tuck. He had just had a taste of his very first Cyrus O'Learys pie in these pics. Yummy!
Aunt Kayla had to get in on the action too!
OK, I could go on and on about Tucker, but I'll end by sharing just a FEW of the things that he's been up to JUST in the past few weeks:
Broke Mommys favorite ceramic bowl to get to the gords inside.-oops (my fault for leaving it on the coffee table within reaching distance with cool gords to play with inside)
Literally nose-dived into the shower-fully clothed, while I was in there showering, to get to his bath toys. And got drenched! And loved every minute of it!
Figured out how to free one arm from his car-seat. (if you look closely, you can see) I'm not sure how I'm going to fix this one. But I looked back while driving to see this little man so proud of himself for getting his arm out. Luckily, he hasn't done it since.
And this one is just because I think that he is so cute in this coat. He absolutley hates it and Ben says he looks like a little turtle, because when he crawls in it, it kind of goes up to his chin and the hood falls down a little and his little head just barely pokes out of it.

Anyway, this is Tuck. We are so greatful to have him as part of our family and greatful that all THREE of us have survived this past year. We are greatful that he is happy and healthy and we couldn't have asked for a better little guy to teach us patience and kindness and especially LOVE!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

We woke up this morning to a big white beautiful surprise! 3-4 inches of it to be exact! It finally snowed! I always love the first snow day of the year...I'm usually over it by the time I have to get in my car that day and drive somewhere, but what can ya do? :) As is the winter routine up here in Spokompton. The snow is nice when its a novelty and you're just thinking about it. After about 4 months of dirty wet mush everywhere, I'm ready to get the heck out of the Inland Northwest! I really do love a white christmas though, that is one thing snow is good for. :) There is absolutley nothing better than waking up on Christmas morning and having a fresh blanket of clean white crisp snow on the ground. (oh, and its good for snowmen)

Tucker was excited about this new thing called snow though. I should have gotten some pictures of him with it. But I just snapped these two as he was sleeping. The first one is out our front door, the second one is out our back door. Don't be jealous of our beautiful landscaping! :)

Happy Thanksgiving...

Well, I can hardly believe that Thanksgiving is over and December is almost here. Our Thanksgiving this year was small and quaint, but great just the same. My dad wasn't able to make it home for Thanksgiving, as he ususally does. He was stuck in Alaska. Kayla was with Jason in Utah and Kelli was with her family in Port Angeles. So that left: Me, Ben, Tucker, Mom, Nathan and Allen. But it was still an enjoyable day with lots of eating and relaxing and of course, football. What would we do on Thanksgiving day without a good football game?

This is Tucker in his post -turkey, tryptophan induced, comatose state. :) Washing everything down with a ba-ba.

This was Tuckers first Thanksgiving, as I was induced last year ON Thanksgiving day. Because my Dr. in his infinite wisdom thought, after being 8 days late that Thanksgiving day would be a good day for me to go to the hospital to be induced; and then I had him the next day. :) So Thanksgiving is definitley a great time of year for our family, as we celebrate Tuckers b-day we remember how greatful we are to have him as a part of our family. We also took advantage of the beauty outdoors, and decided to take some pictures. And it was freezing. But since it hasn't snowed yet this year, the leaves are still on the ground, and I really wanted to take some fall family pictures this year, and just haven't yet, so we ran outside and took a few before we froze! :)

(it was so cold outside, you can see my brothers breath as he was standing next to my mom as she took this)

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

The forgotten picture...

In my excitement to share the wonderful memories of my trip to NY, I somehow overlooked a true gem. While both of these pictures of Boston are beautiful, it is obvious which one was taken by a seasoned, more professional photographer. While the other photographer would have you believe that hers is superior, I ask you my fellow bloggers to help us determine once and for all, just whose picture is better:

Picture #1-Tarakas Picture:

Picture #2- Jessys Picture:

Please, please help us! :)

Our Trip to NY...

Tuck and I just got home from New York! Tucker was so sad to leave his new best friends, Josh and Jessy. We had so much fun, it was the perfect mix of hanging out and relaxing; and going out and visiting different places. Their house is beautiful and they are going to be such good parents to their little guy whose on his way, Tucker just loved them.

I had to start off with this picture, because it wouldn't be a trip with Jessy without one of these pictres of us. We used to have this pose down to an art, but you can tell its been awhile, since we are a little off center. Our favorite things about New York were:

staying in our PJs until 2pm

Baking Cookies

The Beautiful City of Albany

Oh, and I can't forget Schenctady :)

Veronica Mars

Throwing up in Carseats (that was Tuckers)

chili cook-offs

Running down the battery in Jessys car

Gogs (again, Tucker)

Taco Soup

The Freedom Trail

Listening to our '90s songs on the way to Palmayra

Thai food in Albany- Yum!!

Crawling all over Josh (ok, obviously NOT me)

Visiting John, Becky & Little Lucy

two words: Cheesecake factory

(have you noticed that most of these have had to do with food?)

And of course, the Sacred Grove was the best...

This is the Palmyra temple, it was so beautiful. Usually if you've seen one mini-temple you've seen them all...but the Palmyra temple was so beautiful because the windows are stained glass, with trees representing the sacred grove.

And this is us in the log house. This is the house that the Smith family lived in when Joseph had the first vision. It was so small. Its hard to believe that such a large family lived in it, and that such amazing things happened right in this tiny little room in this tiny little house.

This is the frame house, that the Smith family lived in after he had gotten the plates. This is where he had to work so hard to hide them from the people who were out to get him and the plates.

And the beautiful beautiful Sacred Grove. I loved just walking through it and thinking about what happened here. (and picking up leaves)

And here is the hill cumorah. Ben once told me that he ran up this hill. I am so impressed now, this is a steep hill to run up! (We drove up) I'm so proud-Thats MY husband! :)

And look at these buddies. Tucker loved his new friend Josh. This was a pretty familiar sight, Josh carrying around Tucker for me. Thanks Joshy...Hes just getting to be such a big boy! :)

And this is my cousin, John and his little one, Lucy. She is so gorgeous, and looks just like her daddy! (sorry, Becky) They just happen to live in Albany, so I got lucky and was able to spend some time with them as well. Poor Becky just had shoulder surgery (say that three times fast), and wasn't able to do too much, but we did eat like the best Thai food I have ever had at this little place just down the street from them. Lucy is only a month younger than Tucker and is just this tiny little thing. They got along very well, they are going to be the best of cousins.

And the last stop during our trip to New York was a visit to Boston. (Believe you me, I deserved this trip after all the teeth pulling I had to do to get Jessy to take us there :) ) ha ha-just joking Jess. This was Tuckers first train ride--into the big city.

At the park in downton Boston, they had this really cool playground that Jessy, and now I, loved. With this really cool bouncy floor. So we had to let Tucker get out some of his wiggles, after all morning in the car and train.

And then off to the Freedom trail-- Yes, this is the freedom trail a glorious red line through the heart of Boston showing some historic sites that took place in the area so that we could enjoy freedom in this country. Jessy and I worked very hard to ensure that Tucker or his stroller were always touching part of the Freedom Trail while we walked through downtown Boston. :) Oh, I had the best clam chowder in Boston. It was fun just spending the day walking the streets and enjoying the city. I'm a city girl, I love big cities and exploring, so it was great. And we even accidentally walked onto the set of a movie they are filming in Boston right now.


And I had to end with this picture. This pretty much sums up how Tuck and I felt about our trip. It was so great! We were so sad to leave Josh and Jessy. Hopefully we'll get to come back to visit soon and maybe Tucker and baby Willy will even be friends.... :)

PS...Things I'm greatful for after this weekend: Huggies Diapers. I bought a pack of Target brand to take with us just before we left and had never used Target brand before, and I was sorely disappointed. And I love Target, just as much as the next girl, but when Tucker went through atleast 2 outfits a day because he had leaked through, I really missed my Huggies.

Our wonderful Fall adventures...

We have had so much fun this fall! The Northwest is so beautiful this time of year. I love the changing colors of the leaves and snuggling up with a cup of hot chocolate by the fire and of course, going to the pumpkin patch and getting our pumpkins, and eating carmel apples and pumpkin doughnuts, I could go on and on. We went up to Greenbluff with our friends Doug and Sadie when they were in town visiting. It has become tradition with us that no matter what, every year we go to Greenbluff and celebrate the Fall and Halloween together. And Tucker loved it! He was crawling around everywhere and getting dirty and playing with the pumpkins and putting everything in his mouth. It was so much fun and of course, I went a little overboard with the pictures. But we had lots of great photo ops.

Another Greenbluff adventure in the books for the Pyper-Agurkis clan. Can't wait until next year! :)

This is like my all time favorite picture of Tuck. He could not get his mouth open wide enough. He loved the carmel apples.

And we love the pumpkin patch so much, we had to go back. We went back with my friend Megan and her kids. This is her youngest, Owen who is just a few weeks older than Tucker. And it is so cute, they are just little buddies. Whenever we get together they interact so good together. They found pumpkins just the perfect size for them.
So we also got some really great Rasperries at Greenbluff, and in my efforts to domesticate myself, thought that it would be a great idea to try and make some Rasperry Jam. With the help of my loyal friend Sadie that is. Everything was great, and although I didn't have quite the right size of pan the insrtuctions said I would need, we didn't think it would be a big deal. Well, after getting scorched by boiling rasperry jam and literally having to hold the pot in the air just above the burner while it boiled for 6 more minutes,we had 12 beautiful jars of Rasperry jam! :) I can not tell you how proud I am to be able to say that I made my very own jam. And its not half bad if I do say so myself!

Ok, so its been almost a week and I am still trying to clean this burner!


But I say CHEERS to us, Sadie! :)

And finally... This is Halloween night. We went to a trunk-or-treat at the church and it was so much fun! Our little pumpkin barely had to dress up since he already has the pumpkin cheeks going for him. This was the same pumpkin costume I wore when I was little. My mom made it! I have to say he was the cutest little pumpkin there! These pictures are from before the fun even began! I also have some really cute pictures from after the trunk-or-treat that I will post as soon as I get them from my sisters camera!

I can't wait for the rest of the holiday season, the fun has just begun and I'm excited to enjoy all of these wonderful adventures and times with our little family.