A few of his favorite things

I just wanted to catch up on some of the pictures I took in July and August and then I mention a few of his favorite things down at the bottom of this post. That is mostly for me to just keep record of so I won't ever forget these things in his life.

This was a 4th of July Ward Party.

Happy 4th of July! Tucker loved helping me make these patriotic strawberries and pancakes.

We Love our Country and the Marine Corps. Tucker is really good at the Pledge of Allegiance.

JC had the day off, so we went to a little park in Sacramento. It was fun but way too hot for this pregnant laday.

Tucker's cousins- Blake, Gavin and Gracie came to visit with my brother (Uncle Mikey).

Party in Tucker's room! The kids were watching a movie on the ipad.

Tucker loves to draw pictures for "Mag."

Where did he learn how to do this?? I'm so shocked!

One of Tucker's favorite activities with his daddy....Legos!

I'm so antsy for our little girl to arrive, I'm going crazy! I'm trying to fix everything, clean everything, and I'm buying way too much girlie stuff. When you get a 15% discount from Target, it's hard not too pick up a few girl things every time you go. Not good! Tucker knows she's coming soon too. Whenever we go to the store, and he sees something pink or purple, he holds it up to my tummy and tells Maggie to look at it. He'll say "Mom! This is for Maggie!!" Then he'll show her (or my stomach) and throw it in the cart. He wants to buy her everything!! He doesn't usually want to pick anything out for himself, just her. It's really cute.He loves to tickle my tummy, read to my tummy, sing to my tummy and kiss my tummy because he knows she's watching and listening to him. He adores her so much already. I'm afraid he thinks he'll have an automatic playmate when she gets here, but I'm trying to let him know she's going to be too tiny to play right now. I know he understands though because he knows for the first little while, she's just going to be watching him play. Besides Maggie, Tucker has many favorite things in his life...

1. Blankets. He has a million blankets. (His blue blanky that has been attached at his hip since he was born is now his "Baby Andrew." As soon as we found out we were having a baby, we were going to name our boy Andrew and our girl Maggie- so he turned his blue blanky into his baby brother "Andrew.")

2. Still loves Chocolate Milk and probably always will. His favorite thing to eat has always been toast, but this year it has been Blueberry Eggos. He could eat this all day. It's definitely his favorite thing to eat right now. He also loves Green Peppers. Not sure why but they are his favorite thing to snack on.

3. Robots. I used to make up silly stories about a Robot every night who would go on a new adventure each night and Tucker loved it. The first time I made this story up, I randomly named the Robot- "Robotdabotbot" and he laughed so hard! That was for a few months but I think he's over those stories now. I think those stories sparked his obsession with Space and Mars though and I will mention that later.

4. Books. We just read two or three books every night now and this is something he loves doing with me. It's our quiet time together (the only quiet time I get with him.) We also love to snuggle up on "Papa's" bed which is actually the guest bed and read books during the day sometimes. He loves The steam shovel book and all of the Dr. Seuss books but his favorite book is called "I STINK!" He knows this book by heart and it's hilarious. He loves to say the part "puppy poo" and then yell gross, yuck! He thinks it's so funny. We just got two new books that he loves as well. One is a Spiderman book and the other is the Dr. Seuss book about the planets.

5. Tom and Jerry. I had to stop letting him watch this for a while because he thought it was ok to act naughty like the cat and mouse. So for about a week we stopped letting him watch it while I explained that we don't act naughty like the cat and mouse. So now he can watch it and he's fine, but I also make sure it's not the only cartoon he's watching. There are definitely better ones out there that at least make it a little educational. I still can't get to a point where I'm ok with batman or any superhero shows. We have some of the books but I'm not ok with the cartoons yet. He's not even 4 yet! His favorite movie though is Peter Pan. He laughs so hard during most of the movie, and then when he's done, he likes to pull out his light saber and Mickey mouse light sword to play pirates with someone.

6. He is obsessed with Space and in particular, Mars, and I have a feeling that is because of the stories about the Robot. Our friend, Robotdabotbot, is from Mars- so now Tucker is obsessed with Mars. I've introduced him to more planets though with his new favorite puzzle. Along with outer space, he loves volcanos, tornados and things like that he can watch on youtube.

7. Puzzles and games. He is still obsessed with puzzles and has been since he was a baby. His new favorite is the space puzzle. He also enjoys playing our Book of Mormon bingo game for FHE on Mondays.

8. The ipad. This was supposed to be mine and it still is but he seems to spend more time on it than I do. I have to put a timer on so he isn't on it all of the time or else he would be.

9. Prayer. He loves to say his prayers and they are so cute. They are usually different but he always says "us, family, friends, bowling (not sure why but he has a bowling game on the ipad he likes), Jesus, Mars, McAlpins, Davis', beds, food, school, angels and the prophet." There is usually more he will mention but those are the ones he usually says and he doesn't like it when you try to tell him to include someone or something while he is praying. He'll get upset, but he doesn't mind doing it to me and JC while we are praying;-)

10. He really likes his primary teacher, Amanda. She is so cute with him and the other kids. She works at the Disney store and got him a "big brother" gift for when Maggie arrives. She is so sweet.

11. He has an activity book that he enjoys working on during the day. Sometimes we forget but he usually remembers and loves doing the worksheets they have in there. He loves learning so much- it's fun to watch him soak things up like a sponge. He can retain a lot more information than I can- that's for sure. Along with his workbook, I put tons of paper in a 3-ring binder for him and he can color in that book forever. He prefers markers though- so I usually have his arms to wipe down when he's done, and sometimes his face too.

12. Sports- in particular basketball and baseball. I'm not just saying this because he's a boy- he really really loves these sports and I'm sure as soon as Football season starts up, he's going to love football too. JC and Tucker love playing basketball together and my favorite sport to play with him is baseball. I can't do very much being so close to my due date with Maggie, so I just sit and pitch it to him while he bats, or I will sit and throw the ball to him while he dives after it just to throw it back to me. We have a lot of fun with baseball. I have him signed up for Soccer starting in October so we'll see if he enjoys that as much as he has in the past.

These are most of the things I can think of right now, but I'm sure there is more- like wrestling with his dad, playing legos with Dad, cooking with mom, etc. but those are the main ones in his life right now. I want to write all of this down so I include it in his 3-year book for Christmas. It's amazing to watch this guy grow and I don't want to forget anything.