Today is a sucky day

I have been having a hard time working through the events that rocked Sandy Hook and the world last Friday.  I am thinking as a parent, as a teacher, and as a human and I have so many thoughts.  They all came to a head in the most emotional day that I have had in a long time.

Today is a sucky day.  December 21st has been a sucky day since 1999.  On December 21, 1999 my cousin Mikey, just 16 years old, had his life taken from him all too soon.  He was turning left onto a main road when a man driving a car, without its headlights on, crashed into the driver's side of his Mustang.  The driver had just robbed a convenience store and fled the scene.  He also was on a variety of drugs, etc. and was driving under the influence.  Christmas has gotten fun again, but it took some time.  Not a year goes by that I don't think of him and miss him and cry for him being gone.  December 21st is a sucky day.

Today was even suckier than normal.  I woke up to an extreme downpour and hurricane like winds, but that isn't what made it sucky.  Tucker has been very needy and whiney lately and started this morning at 8:30 with a full fledged melt-down.  But again, that isn't what made this day sucky.

What made this day sucky was going to the funeral of the most adorable, smilely little 6 year old girl who's life was taken FAR too soon by a senseless act of violence at Sandy Hook School one week ago.  Everyone remembers where they were when they found out about 9/11 and I believe that everyone will remember where they were when they heard about the Sandy Hook School shootings.  Me, I was sitting on my couch wrapping presents.  Tucker was across the street with the babysitter and Brayden was sleeping.  It popped up on the screen.  I couldn't believe it.  Only 15 minutes away from us!  And I knew people who lived in that section of town.  As incomprehensible news of the attack continued on, I learned that a colleague's granddaughter was unaccounted for.  Sweet Olivia Rose did not survive the shootings.  Today was a sucky day.  No one should have to go to a funeral for a 6 year old girl.  No one should have to bury their 6 year old girl.  No other 6 year old girls, like the one sitting behind me, should have to attend the funeral of their friend.  I am emotionally drained, and I am not even a part of the family or a close friend.  I cannot imagine the grief that they must be feeling, and will continue to feel for years to come.
Today was a sucky day.  But today was a day where I was able to smile.  During the mass, the priest shared about a Newtown policeman who found Olivia when he reached the school and she was still alive.  He immediately scooped her up in his arms and told her that he loved her, that her parents loved her, that Jesus loved her and that God would protect her.  He was not mentioned by name, but I soon learned that he was the one person who we know who is a Newtown police officer.  This man is one who wouldn't want any recognition and was only acting out of the love in his heart.  This man is an amazing man of God who understands that Jesus died for him, for all of us, and that this life that we live is not ours, but rather one where we exist to share the love that God poured down on us through his son Jesus, with others.  And this man did just that to this little girl.  What a gift for her parents to know that in the midst of this unspeakable tragedy, their daughter was being loved and put at ease by his love and words.  God was speaking through him to calm a scared 6 year old.

Today was a sucky day, but I am reminded that in this Christmas season, as we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, it is important to remember that he came so that we could have life, and life to the fullest.  This Newtown police officer exemplified that last week, even in the midst of the hell that he had just walked through.  There is so much good in this world amidst the evil.  There is so much love to give.  We must not forget that.

December 21st will always be a sucky day for me.  December 14th will always be a sucky day for so many in this world as we remember the lives lost MUCH too early.  But on this sucky day to come, I will now also remember the love that one selfless man showed to a little girl, and I will always be reminded of the love that our God gave to us through the birth of his son.

Merry Christmas

Random pictures

Just a bunch of random photos from my phone, etc that I finally uploaded!

this is how tucker likes to have a snack every once in awhile-he will go get what he wants to eat out of the cabinet and bring the food and the truck to us:)

we got this free slide and put it in the basement-attempt at some indoor activity this winter:)

tucker is incredibly clumsy-we tried to put a helmet on him-he got really mad!  but he's getting a kid's helmet for christmas:)

fire seats at Grandma and Papa's house:)

fun in the HOOSE

we took a family outing to the zoo a few weekends ago.  Tucker loved the monkeys!

he's always a fan of the carousel

playing at his new table and chair set:) We are totally a kid house now!

he loves to build his blocks.  He did this beauty all by himself!

for all of his falling and clumsiness, he finally got his first really bad bump/bruise on his head

tucker was in HEAVEN when the trucks came to pick up from hurricane sandy...at least 30 min of fun!

celebrating my 30th birthday at my parents house

christmas tree shopping (see previous post for more pics of this)

totally caught in the act of doing something he shouldn't be...he's getting much feistier lately!

playing:)

these two are so cute and really love each other already!

this face is just TOO adorable!

tucker misses seeing Addie every day-he was SOOOO excited when she and Miss Lynne came to play last week:)

Max's sexy pants he got from our Community Group Grab Bag

Tucker rocking the sexy pants:)

it was so cute-he went into Max's closet and put on his shoes...on the wrong feet:)

Danielle is back in the U S of A!!!! Tucker was a bit confused at first that she wasn't in the computer, but he was SOOO excited when he finally figure it out.  They had a dance party already!

he's been newly obsessed with lining up his cups and pretending to pour milk into them all...

fun with wrapping paper rolls:)

6 weeks:)

Well Brayden Thomas is 6 weeks already!! Woo Hoo! He is growing by leaps and bounds!! He had his 6 week check up yesterday and weighed in at 10 pounds, 11.5 ounces and was 22.25 inches long.  That means that he gained almost 3 pounds and grew 2.25 inches in 4 weeks.  He is so cute and good so far, so I'm just hoping he continues on this path.

On a different note, our dear friend Kristen Scott, came to take some pics of Brayden and out family.  She is so incredibly talented and we love putting her gifts to use whenever we can.  

Here's some more pics on her blog that she took:

http://www.the2654project.com/photography-blog/2012/12/3/family-the-zietzes.html

sample of the cuteness that Kristen captured

Moby love:)

meeting Jay!!

Activity Advent

Everyone says that Christmas is more fun with kids, and I would have to agree!  The all-important meaning of Christmas and the excitement that we feel surrounding Christ's birth doesn't change, but it is so fun to experience all of the traditions of the Christmas season with Tucker (Brayden, unfortunately, has no clue what is going on!)  

I really wanted to be sure that we didn't let the craziness that is the Christmas season drown out the real meaning of the day and I didn't want to let the craziness make it fly by too fast to experience all that the season has to offer.  Cue Pinterest!  I found a few ideas for advent calendars and finally decided to make an activity advent calendar.  I took some of the activities from blogs I found online, and others I just added.  I also found an advent calendar that has different Bible verses that share the story of Jesus's birth over the course of the month.  And thus our activity/Bible verse advent calendar was born.  

I bought some cardstock, Christmas stickers, a clip board, scarpbooking paper and some Modge Podge and created our calendar:)

We've been really good about doing all of the activities so far (we are only 1 week in) and I'm hopefully that we can keep up our streak:) Here's what we've done so far and some pictures (which I think are in previous posts too)-I have to find some pictures from other days too somewhere.

Day 1: Cut Down our Tree

 Day 2: Decorate the Tree

 Day 3: Decorate Tucker's Felt Tree

Day 4: Read a Christmas Book (we got a Peekaboo Christmas book)

Day 5: Have a playdate (with Blake and Chad) and open a new ornament (fire truck)

Day 6: Watch a Christmas movie with mom (Charlie Brown Christmas Movie)

Day 7: Go play with Addie

Day 8: Visit with cousins and GG

Day 9: Shop for a gift for a child in need (can't say he totally got this one-in fact, he started to point to all of the cars as we were buying a matchbox car set!)

This week will bring more exciting things to do!

O Christmas Tree

This year was the fourth annual Christmas tree cutting tailgate with our friends at Maple Row Tree Farm. It's been fun to see how this tradition has grown each year with more couples and more kids. This was the coldest of all the years so we left Brayden with my parents.  We all managed to find a tree within 30 minutes this year-by far a HUGE record. We actually ended up getting the first tree we found:)

the original crew:)

the whole crew this year

matching hats, coats, and saws!

our tree!!

We had a minor issue with the stand and getting the tree up, but we eventually got it up with lights on before bed.

We decorated it on Sunday. I wasn't too sure how Tucker would do decorating, but he got really in to unwrapping the ornaments and trying to put them on the tree.  It was very cute!

...like son!

like father...

 Even though I know Tucker doesn't understand everything about Christmas yet, I wanted to start some traditions that he could enjoy. Sooooo thanks to Pinterest, and a little bit of my brain too, I made an advent with daily activities and Bible verses.  The first day was to cut down the tree, the second to decorate it, and the third was to decorate this felt tree that I made (again thanks to Pinterest).  Tucker seemed to like it and now we have a tree that he can decorate and undecorate and redecorate as much as he wants!