Growin' Owens

Super Hero 3 year olds!

2012-01-25T11:11:00.004-06:00

In an effort to make more of a mess Hudson emptied out his entire train box all over the Living Room just so he could climb in the box. I think he thought he was hiding, but then realized I could see through it.

This boy is all boy. Last week the weather was nice enough to play outside for along time so he headed out in his star wars shirt, boots, underwear and took a play wrench and pulled weeds out of my pots.

This weekend we headed up to Oklahoma for Emmy's 3rd birthday party. We had alot of Lewis family show up. Great came and she and Tessa read a story to the kids.

Uncle David gave Hudson a tattoo.

Showing off his Mom tattoo.

Emmy really enjoyed everyone singing to her.

Then the kids sat together at the kids table with their cupcakes. As always Hudson only ate the icing.

I made Em her own superhero cape this year. She was so excited to have her own, she's been eyeing Hudson's for awhile now. We got them to do their superhero pose.

Here they are doing their superhero moves:

Emmy got a mobigo like Hudson's and the spent quite a bit of time playing these together, which is good since it was too cold to play outside.

Sunday afternoon before we came home we had snack time and they sat together so nicely and ate their goldfish and watched the Flinstones.

Then Colt started rearranging his apartment, and they kept asking why the TV was on the carpet.

Overall Hudson is a really good road tripper. He likes it when Justin rolls the window down and it blows his hair. He was cracking up at this on the way home.

Now it's been raining here for 2 days and we are supposed to get another day of rain. This morning when I let the dogs out he went to the door stuck his hand out, let it fill up with rain water and then drank it.

If you're not happy and you know it...

2012-01-18T21:42:00.003-06:00

Hudson's 2 favorite things to occupy his days are:
1- Play with his Cars at the kitchen table and make the color changers change back and forth.

2 - Watch youtube videos of diecast Cars being described and displayed.

These are the tiger headphones we got Hudson for Christmas. He hooks them up to listen to his Disney music.

After dinner the other night, he got an Oreo and then had it all in his teeth. He was really showing off his Oreo teeth.

We got a package this week from Nana with a new pair of boots for Hudson. He took them straight out of the box, put them on the wrong feet, then wore them around the house for awhile.

Hudson has been practicing "If you're happy and you know it" at school. He was singing at the table the other night while he was playing. I got out the camera and tried to get him to sing it for me...instead I got this response.

When I finally got him to sing it for me he was making up his own version "If you're not happy clap your hands." Here is his version that is continually changing.

Hudson's self portrait

2012-01-11T17:57:00.005-06:00

Here is my silly little dinosaur!

This Saturday we met our friends at the zoo and Hudson got to hang with Madi and Connor, which he always enjoys. Especially Connor, they seem to like making each other laugh.

It was pretty cold out there that morning, so we went to the indoor stuff first, which was the reptile area (not my favorite part.)

Hudson got up the guts to touch this snake with Daddy's help. I was far away just using the zoom to get the pictures.

Then he sat down to hang out with this thing. It was really involved with Hudson and chasing the kids around the outside of the glass.

Then we had a picnic and the kids hung out under the tables just talking and laughing.

Hudson really enjoyed playing in all the leaves.

He rode this horse again and here he is leaning from side to side showing me how when you are on a real horse it's bumpy.

The kids got to play on the safari jeep and at one point the cheetah on the other side of the glass climbed up in the back of the jeep.

Hudson got to do his favorite part of the zoo again, but this time he only rode it once. He chose to ride the ostrich this time.

On Sunday night Hudson did some drawing. He's been really into drawing "himself" lately.

Here is his self portrait.

Then, we have Owens Christmas

2012-01-05T16:06:00.006-06:00

Pops and Nana left this week, but before they did they gave Hudson his birthday/Christmas surprise...a new Mater bicycle. Here he is checking it out...

He brought down his dolphin from his bathtub and wanted to cover him up for bed and give him things to snuggle with.

On Monday we had our second family Christmas with the Owens. Ian had this car as his new Christmas present and Hudson loved driving around in it the whole day. Good thing Ian didn't mind sharing.

We had to get family pictures while we were there. Surprisingly, the kids did pretty good.

Hudson, a soccer ball and Aunt Britney

Pretty girls!

Happy Ian!

We tried too, but instead we got these 2 goofy pics. Still fun!

Then it was present time, this year Ian got to dig in too.

The aftermath of Ashtyn and Aubrey and their crazy present unwrapping.

Hudson got distracted by a candy cane during present opening.

He was pretty mesmerized by this snow globe from Grandma.

Aunt Britney got him this gigantic cardboard rocketship. Which she offered to put together there until they realized how huge it is and that there was no room for it.

Aubrey showing Hudson the scooter Barbie that Hudson got her for Christmas.

Here is the rocket all put together from Aunt Britney. You can't tell from this picture, but it is 5' long and over 3' tall. I spent like 3 hours on Tuesday hunched over sitting inside this thing while we flew all kinds of places.

Here is Hudson last night at bedtime. He's started growing a collection of stuffed animals he has to sleep with at night. We are up to 5. You can see he wanted to be surrounded by them while Justin read to him.

First, we have Varner Christmas

2012-01-04T21:15:00.005-06:00

This year for Christmas Pops and Nana drove south, picked up Emmy and drove to our house to spend Christmas here. Then Coco joined us Friday night through Sunday. The first night Nana gave the kids a bath and they came downstairs in their silly towels and Hudson put on a show for us.

The next morning Christmas Eve morning I made red velvet Santa Claus pancakes for the kids. Here they are enjoying them. They pretty much only wanted to eat the chocolate chips off the top.

They were so excited to see each other they held hands while walking around and talking.

That afternoon before presents they were being so sweet to each other, so excited to open their Christmas Eve presents.

As I handed out presents to my elves Emmy fixed my hair.

And Hudson tried to sneak into a few presents for the Owens family.

Hudson said this was his favorite present from Pops and Nana, a ranch set for his geotrax train set.

He also got another cool plane from Daddy.

The parents enjoying watching the kids and their excitement.

Hudson showing off his Lightning McQueen shoes.

Emmy took a break from gifts to visit the dogs and make sure they were included.

Christmas morning Hudson came downstairs to Santa's surprises. He got a big Buzz and Woody. These were by far the hits of Christmas, I'm pretty sure.

Mems showing off her new tutu. She got pink and purple ones too, but she kept wanting to wear the black one.

Hudson preparing for another light saber/gun battle with Pops.

For Christmas lunch we headed over to Great's house and I had some assistants helping me set up the Hungry Hungry Hippos game from Santa.

We played some Hungry Hungry Hippos with Coco.

Then the kids did some laps around Great's house.

We tried to get a family picture in while there.

Then when we ate Justin and I sat on the floor and had a picnic with the kids. They ate up the Christmas food really good and were so cute sitting on the floor with us and Tessa.

The kids looked at all the things outside in Great's yard.

Pops and Grumpy went on a walk in the woods and Hudson tagged along. He is that little speck of red in the picture.

That night they came home and did some Play-Doh with Nana.

On Monday, Dad and I made our annual holiday treats and the kids snuck treat after treat after treat. Especially a certain little boy.

That night we went back to Great's for dinner again. These little cuties were sitting on the stairs just talking and having their own little conversation.

A quick pic of Hudson in his time out corner. I think this time out was potty related since we have been doing potty training the last 2 weeks.

Jingle Bells

2011-12-28T12:26:00.004-06:00

Sorry, I know this is like 2 weeks behind so I am playing catch up.
One morning a few weeks ago when Justin went upstairs to get Hudson he wanted to build a tower in his room, so they got busy. He called me up to show off his skills.

Another shot of my kitchen helper on the new counters.

Last Thursday was Hudson's school Christmas program. You never know where to sit at these things to have a good view of your kid. Well, we chose the opposite side that he was on, so our video isn't that great, and you might have to skip through the set up and ending, but you can see him a little bit during the performance. They were singing B-I-B-L-E and Jingle Bells in case you can't tell.

After the program was over he had a class Christmas party. We got to go help with an activity they were making. He painted a jar with glue then stuck on red & green tissue paper to make a candle holder.

They also had a pizza party. The teachers wanted to have a chick fil a party but remembered it wasn't safe for a peanut allergy so they changed their plans. I was thankful for that. He was so cute sitting there talking to his friends.

That next Monday we went to Great's house to celebrate Brittany's birthday and she let Hudson help her blow out the candles on her cake.

He made these little crafts in his Sunday school class then came home and wanted to paint them too. Santa and Rudolph did not look the same after that.

Flying into 3

2011-12-17T15:47:00.006-06:00

Hudson is really into helping and being apart of everything we do these days...even with making the coffee with Daddy.

Last Friday for an after birthday surprise we took Hudson to the Airplane Museum. He fell asleep on the way there and woke up to see airplanes behind the car. That definitely made him wake up in a good mood.

We went to the first hanger and he was really into looking at the planes.

Then he quickly realized he was in a large, open warehouse that had good running space. For the rest of the day we were just trying to keep him from constantly running around the entire place. He's not usually that energetic in public, but he was WIRED that day.

Justin was excited because he got to see his favorite plane there.

Hudson blended in with the camo helicopter.

When we visited the airplanes outside, he ran from one to another checking them out. He managed to get the gas cap opened on one of the planes. Our little mechanic.

They had several antique cars there, and he really wanted to sit in them. He asked about every single one. I think this museum was a little less of a hit than the history and science museum because it didn't involve as many hands on activities.

We took a bus out to another area and got to watch them back this really old plane into the hanger, which took too long to keep the attention of a 3 year old.

Then Hudson tried to become to official photographer of the day.

He went back to see this boat several times. He seemed to like it because it had lots of little planes and people and it was more his size.

When we were getting ready to leave they came and told us they were going to start this airplane and we could watch. So, we went and sat in a hanger and waited for it to start. When it finally started Hudson said he wanted it quiet again. But since then he watches the video of it on my phone pretty often.

Saturday afternoon we got our Christmas decorations out. You wouldn't guess because Hudson was wearing his Halloween jammers.

He didn't participate in the decorating, just in going through all the boxes of stuff.

On Sunday at church several people gave Hudson birthday presents. Here are some of the silly gifts he got. They must know him well!

That evening he wanted to snuggle with me on the couch, so we did while he played games on my phone.

Just a cute picture of him playing with his snowman deck of cards he got from our trip with our church to the nursing home on Sunday night.

Celebrating 3 with Airplanes

2011-12-07T18:00:00.007-06:00

Last week I set Hudson up with his paints while I was doing party stuff. He painted his pages and then painted himself.

He got a package on Friday with a birthday present and he named him "Chicky."

We had his 3rd birthday party on Saturday. Ashtyn, Aubrey and Juju came early to help set up. Hudson got in a little snuggle time with Ashtyn before his party.

Showing off his #3 shirt I made him and carrying his suitcase with a balloon attached.

Some of the friends at the party hanging out.

Hudson loves his Aunt Juju. She was holding him up to skype with Pops & Nana during the party.

Opening his first present with Daddy.

Jorjon was on trash duty while Hudson opened presents. He was sort of attached to this laptop and didn't want to put it down to open anymore presents.

So, we told him to set the laptop on Jorjon's lap so it would still be close to him while he opened more presents. Instead he climbed on Jorjon's lap to play with the laptop. We all cracked up!

Then he stayed on Jorjon's lap while he opened more presents.

Justin went shopping on his lunch break one day to buy an airplane especially for Hudson at his airplane party. He bought him this metal airplane that Hudson has to carry with both hands because it's so heavy, but he thinks its so cool.

I never get good shots of the candle blowing at his parties. This was as good as I got this year. We brought him a little airplane cake that he decorated after he blew out the candle.

We made small airplane cakes for everyone to decorate like the trains last year.

Aunt Britney sent this tractor and repair set for his birthday, all the kids were crowded around watching this one work.

Here's a funny video of Hudson and his pal Cooper saying goodbye at his party. As you can tell Hudson is not a fan of kisses unless he initiates it.

You can see Hudson dug into the candy that evening after the party! He had blue stains from icing on his face and clothes.

In honor of Hudson's 3rd Birthday here are the 3 things I love most about my boy:
1 - How smart he is - He constantly amazes me with the things he says and does that show how much he pays attention to the world around him. He really loves to learn new things and especially discover things. He listens so well when we are telling him about new things he's never learned about before. He talks about the museum trip alot and all the things he learned while there.
2 - How happy he is - I think this boy could put a smile on anyone's face. Just his silly faces alone can crack you up. He works to keep people around him happy, laughing and smiling, but you never really know what he'll do or say to get you smiling!
3 - That he is ALL boy - He loves planes, trains and automobiles, making all types of sound effects, running, being active and causing all kinds of ruckus.

Pops and Nana sent Hudson a new blanket for his birthday. He loves choosing a blanket to sleep with or snuggle while we read books so this new one was a treat. On Sunday I was cold and sat down with his new tractor blanket on me and he came up, took the blanket and told me that was his new blanket.

It got really cold here on Monday and we got icicles. I took Hudson outside earlier in the day to see them and that evening he wanted to check on them again.

They had gotten longer throughout the day so he was showing us how long they had gotten as he stared at them through the window. We had to make him come in because he wanted to stay out and stare at them.

Here is Hudson on our kitchen counter yesterday morning. He had just woken up so he is a little groggy.

This morning when Justin dropped Hudson off at school the teacher told us that during naptime on Tuesday when he was supposed to be on his nap mat (he never sleeps) he snuck into the teachers stash of candy canes, passed them out to all the kids and then sat down and ate his. I guess this is a glimpse into our future of his school years.

Chop Chop!

2011-11-30T14:12:00.004-06:00

Last Wednesday we headed to the park to meet my best friend Allison and her family who were driving through on their way to their family Thanksgiving. Justin was off work that day too!

Hudson enjoyed Paxton's company as they ran through the fields together.

Justin and Allison acted like kids and played on the playground.

Hudson climbed all the way up by himself. He's never been up this far!

Here are the 3 kids together. We haven't seen them since our trip in March, so it was good to catch up. They all got along great!

I bought Hudson some of his own chopsticks and he requested them at dinner on Wednesday night. He picked up food, put it on the chopstick himself, then...

took a bite. He actually ate really well that night using those. A dinner without a HUGE meltdown at our house is always nice, but very rare.

For Thanksgiving this year we went to Jorjon's house. Since Great & Grumpy just moved here they were there too. Hudson wore his grumpy hat to match Grumpy.

On Friday we did more kitchen work. Hudson sat down in front of Justin while he was working, stole his screwdriver and started working on things.

Hudson has been anxiously awaiting our new sink to be working. He was so excited when we told him it was finished and he could try it. He really likes the pull down sprayer.

He looks like he's ready to do some serious work, doesn't he?

On Sunday night we got our family pictures taken outdoors and it was cold out there, so we got Hudson his own hot chocolate afterwards. He LOVES hot chocolate and always requests marshmallows. He had hot chocolate all over his shirt when he was done, but he drank the whole thing.

Thanksgiving Feast

2011-11-23T11:35:00.003-06:00

Last week we stayed home most days to fully recover from our yuckiness. So Hudson found ways to entertain himself like laying on his nap mat in the kitchen.

Nana sent one of those growing monkeys for Hudson. We left it in water for 10 days and he finally was able to get him out this week. This is as good a picture as I could get of the monkey at full size.

We also started demolishing our kitchen to put the new counter tops and sink in. Hudson brought Buzz and Woody to help Daddy out.

Sunday after church Hudson got the screwdriver and went to work.

On Monday morning Hudson got dressed and found his phone. He wanted it in his jeans pocket. He left it there the entire day even going to stores to run errands and to eat dinner, it stayed in his pocket.

Last Thursday was Hudson's Thanksgiving Feast at school. Great got to come surprise Hudson at his feast. Here he is getting ready for his prayer from his teacher.

Great took this picture of us during the prayer.

Look at this cute hat he wore. He left it on the whole meal and wore it that night at home.

After the feast Hudson had to go get a flu shot, so as a treat for being so brave we went to Great's new house and had ice cream at the bar.

This picture is kind of hard to see but Hudson drew his first "Face" the other day. I just wanted to share. His artists Nana and Daddy were so proud of him.

Playing a little Catchup

2011-11-17T09:32:00.005-06:00

Sorry I'm behind on blogging. I wasn't feeling well the last few weeks, so I have been a little lazy blogger. So, here's a catchup:
Hudson and I had to run to the store and I asked him to go turn his playroom light off and instead he loaded his pockets with cars to take with him in the car.

Later that afternoon he built his own army. He is so precise about lining things up and not knocking things over. He has really good hand eye coordination.

2 Sundays ago we threw a cousin reunion party in Burleson for Justin's family. It was so good to have all the great grand kids there together. You can see Hudson sitting on Ashtyn's lap doing the seesaw with the other cousins.

Hudson played with the soccer ball for awhile - see the concentration with the tongue?

Playing ball with Ashtyn and Carley.

Juju brought her new dog to the party, so the kids got to play with him too.

Carley was so good taking Hudson around on the playground and making sure he was safe.

A cute picture of Hudson and Aubrey...They were just sitting there talking and eating their chips like 2 peas in a pod.

The next day Hudson came down croup and double ear infections, and I had a Dr's appointment so Justin stayed home with him while I went. While I was gone, he took this silly picture of Hudson to surprise me when I uploaded pictures. haha

This weekend we went to Ian's first birthday party. They had bounce houses there. Hudson got in the big one and after about 2 seconds decided he was done with that.

So, he went and got in the little one all by himself. He seemed to like that a lot more.

Ian and Jeremy at the Peanuts party with Ian as Charlie Brown.

At the party they had these funny mustaches. They were a big hit with the Owens kids.

Mario and Luigi...

Hudson wanted to do this face in every mustache picture.

All the Owens grand kids with Justin. I couldn't get a picture where they were all looking at the same time.

Yesterday morning Hudson woke up and asked for his "Grumpy hat." He calls all these type hats "Grumpy Hats" because his Grumpy wears one.

Owens Super Heroes to the Rescue!

2011-11-02T22:15:00.002-05:00

Last week I came down with strep and then bronchitis, so there are no pictures until Saturday. Justin had a 4 day weekend, so we did some major house cleaning to get rid of germs. Justin took the rugs out to beat them ( just like the olden days) and when Hudson saw he was hitting things with a broom, he went inside, got his little broom and joined in on the cleaning.

Justin ended up breaking our broom so Hudson finished the job for us.

That afternoon we took a cleaning break and made Hudson's Mr Potato pumpkin. We had to use a screwdriver to make the holes and Hudson used his muscles for that part.

The finished pumpkin. It is supposed to be a cowboy, but I'm not convinced of it.

Hudson wanted to "play tools" so I got him a piece of scrap wood to work on. He ended up taking the wrench to the backyard and ripping up an ivy.

Sunday night he sat on the coffee table to watch one of his favorite movies - Iron Giant. This movie keeps his attention more than any other movie.

After he went to bed Justin and I had a "pumpkin carving date." I just used a pattern and Justin drew his own from a video game he likes.

Monday - Halloween. We continued with our themed costumes again. This year it was Super Heroes. The idea came from the capes I made the kids this summer. While we were getting ready the kids were working.

Ashtyn and Hudson in their costumes.

Our Caped Crusader

Ashtyn showing off.

Watch out for Aubrey.

The kids practicing their super hero flying.

All 3 together.

Hudson's first candy of the night - a pixy stick.

Practicing their Super Hero poses.

Our next stop was Grandma & Grandpa's. We caught up with Ian over there dressed as Charlie Brown. I'm guessing he wanted to steal Uncle Justin's sucker.

Toward the end of the night - this was between a sugar high and a sugar crash.

I just thought this was a cute picture of Aubrey spinning.

The 4 cousins together.

Grandma wanted a few more pictures on the porch, but I don't think she got much more than this. Hudson had hit another sugar high at this point.

Tuesday night Justin made us his famous "bibimbop" dish for dinner. We were eating with chopsticks and Hudson wanted in on it, so here he is using them for the fist time. He just picked the food up, pushed it onto the chopstick, then took a bite.

To flashback to our past themed Halloweens with cousins click here or here.

Pumpkin Patch Tradition

2011-10-26T10:49:00.007-05:00

Thursday was Rangers day at school. He wouldn't wear his hat until he got home, but he was pretty excited about his Rangers class picture.

The celebration of finishing a chocolate cupcake.

Hudson has really been working on the bike riding lately. He has it all down except for the turning part, that's still a little rough. You can tell toward the end of the video that Dudley is not sure what to think about the bike in the house.

This weekend we headed back to the pumpkin patch to meet the same friends we met there last year. If you want to revisit that experience click here. We were looking forward to a much better day this year.
He fed the goats and sheep again.

Hudson feeding the goats:

While we waited for Lucca and Levi to get there Hudson entertained himself with sticks and putting rocks in his pockets.

They had this cool old red truck for pictures. The battery was dying on the camera, so they didn't turn out that well.

Then something blew in his eye, and these pictures were done.

Hudson and I explored the pumpkin patch this year. I think they just put pumpkins out there because there were hardly any actually attached to the vines.

We found a few tiny green ones to look at.

Pictures by Pooh and Piglet again this year.

The boys took the train ride again this year. Justin only stayed inside the train for a few seconds then rode on top like last year.

When Lucca and Levi got there they were dressed in their viking costumes but didn't want to wear the hats, Hudson was glad to wear the hat. This day also started all the talk that he wants to be a "tiger costume" for Halloween this year. I am almost finished with this super hero outfit too!!! We'll see if he'll wear it.

Hudson kept putting the little pumpkins on his head and saying "pumpkin head."

While the boys got their Halloween pictures taken Hudson found a huge stick to play with.

I just thought this picture was funny, it looks like a 2 headed goat.

We went on the hayride again this year. Justin told Hudson to say "hey, it's hay." Hudson was saying that this morning as he was playing. Hudson eventually stood up next to the boys and looked out at the scenery.

Then they went and ran off some energy playing in these pumpkins with the witch.

Justin and Hudson talking to the witch.

Hudson found a big, comfy pumpkin to sit on and just stared at the witch. Something about this thing really held his attention.

Sunday afternoon, he gave his sock monkey a ride around the house.

Sunday night, I came down with strep. After last week with the kids having it then I got it. So, Hudson got to dig in the toy bin and found his coins and tickets from Chuck E Cheese. He is a little obsessed with these now. He asks to 'buy train tickets" or "please play money and tickets with me."

Yesterday afternoon I got a birthday catalog in the mail. He really wanted to go through it and picked out several parties for his friends, but was disappointed that there were no "Airplane birthays' in there.

We kept these kids busy!

2011-10-20T09:12:00.010-05:00

These 2 stole phones off the kitchen counter and laid side by side in the floor and played their games.

Nana sent lots of craft projects for the kids to work on last week. We made little owls and colored turkeys. Emmy made her owl and then moved straight on to coloring her turkey and trying so hard to stay in the lines.

Hudson made his owl, immediately took it apart and wanted no part in coloring anything. The differences in these two!

On Friday I took the kids to the little train park so they could have freedom to run around after they were both well. I thought this was so sweet, their little heads through the slits of the train. They were just in there sitting together talking to each other.

There were alot of kids there that day so Hudson stood back a little bit while the other kids ran around. He's not a fan of wild kids. One girl that showed up ran straight for him and he said "Whoa" and avoided her the entire time there.

When we were getting ready to leave I was cleaning hands and Emmy took the wipe and started cleaning the fence at the park.

When we came home they put on their boots and headed to the backyard.

They came in smiling and brought me these flowers they picked for me (from my plant).

On Saturday we decided to take the kids to the zoo. One of the first things we saw were the turtles. They were so cute saying bye bye to the turtles.

Hudson took on the role of zoo navigator.

When he was looking at the map he saw the playground and said "Let's go to the Children's zoo." I guess he heard us talking about the children's zoo earlier.

Little fearless Emmy climbed right up the slide and had no fear of anything at the playground.

In the children's zoo they both got to go pet the goats.

And ride the fake horses.

Then we headed to the reptile area. As you can see they were ready to go and I was staying behind with the wagon.

I asked them to sit in the butterfly chair, Justin raised his arms to get their attention, and they wouldn't take a butterfly picture without their hands in the air.

Next stop - the carousel. You can see the kids pointing to exactly what they wanted to ride.

Hudson got on the rhino and Emmy got on the pony.

Then Emmy discovered there was a mirror next to her.

After zoo day we came home and carved our pumpkins. We gave them Sharpies to draw their faces so we could carve them.

Justin cut the lids off so we could dig the guts out. Emmy was watching Hudson and I dig the guts out and she wasn't sure she wanted any part of that.

Hudson's reaction to what I pulled out of the pumpkin. Guess what - He didn't want any part of cleaning the guts either.

A picture of the dinosaur Hudson drew on his pumpkin.

Their finished jack-o-lanterns.

Sunday morning at church we had a children's blessing day. They were so great to include Emmy in the blessing too.

As part of the blessing they each got bibles with their names engraved on the cover.

Sunday night we headed to Burleson for a birthday party. Hudson chowed down on the cupcakes.

Then they went to play...they look like they are in a competition.

Grandma pushed Hudson and Ian on the swings, and both these boys were cracking up the whole time.

Meanwhile Uncle Justin see sawed with Emmy.

And gave her some swing time - she looks so happy!

We were at the park that Justin grew up playing in growing up so he really wanted to take the kids to the creek. Emmy loved it, Hudson didn't want to walk across the rocks, I eventually convinced him to.

Then on Monday we headed to OK to take Emmy home. I had to separate their car seats to avoid arguing. The entire 8 days their car seats were side by side and by the end of the week they were just picking at each other.

The thing that Hudson is most into these days is painting. We seem to have a daily painting project in our house.

I have my hands full...

2011-10-12T17:12:00.006-05:00

Last week was PoliceMan Day at Hudson's school and they made these hats to celebrate. He told me the PoliceWoman said "Hurry Hurry in the car sirens coming." I have no idea what she actually said, but that's what he told us.

Justin was showing us a new workout move and Hudson hopped on his back for a ride.

Then Justin joined Hudson for a puzzle at the little table.

We picked Emmy up on Saturday to come stay at our house for 8 days. When we got home he started setting up the Army Men and she came and crashed them, so Hudson took them to the table and set up his army there.

Then Justin got all creative with his picture of the army Hudson made.

That night Justin read the nightly story but had 2 little heads to read to this time.

Here are the 2 kiddos on Sunday afternoon doing their coloring. They were both sick so we stayed home from church and hung out in our jammers all day.

We also built a train track so big they could sit inside one of the sections and play.

These little toddler toots keep stealing my towels from the kitchen and running around the house doing this with them.

I needed to do some bank work so I sat them down at the table with play-Doh. This occupied Hudson for quite awhile. Emmy was not so into the Play-Doh.

Both kids ended up at the Dr this week for what we found out was strep. So, for a reward from the Dr for being so good she gave them these matching glasses.

As you can see they stayed with them all day long.

Emmy is really getting into Hudson's trend of silly faces.

This has been one of the main things done all week... One gets on the Kawasaki and the other gets on the push car. The push car chases the Kawasaki all the way to the door, then they turn around and the Kawasaki pushes the car back to the other door. This has probably worn holes in the floor they've done it so much.

Today the kids got to open their packages from Nana.

Emmy's favorite thing were the Tinkerbell snacks.

Hudson's favorite thing was the car.

Nana also sent them matching Halloween pajamas. We had some fun making scary pumpkin faces before bed.

Aren't these just the cutest little ones?

More Random Faces

2011-10-05T17:29:00.003-05:00

Today I had to do some shopping so I rewarded Hudson with a trip to the park for being a good shopper. There were little girls there he was playing with for quite awhile, then when they left he kept asking "Where'd the little girls go?"

They have this little train there and he told me he wanted his picture taken in it. When I took this picture he made this face and said he was crying. No idea where that came from.

My 2 guys running around the park this weekend, we were there for my running workout and Hudson slept in the stroller the whole time so when he was done he wanted to run.

The new craze in our house is PLAY-DOH. He plays with it almost every day. He was making "polka dots" and lining them up, so when I took a picture he made zombie face. Not sure what is up with all these even more random than ever picture faces lately.

I pulled out all the Fall decorations this week and Hudson decorated his own window in the house while wearing his Halloween shirt that he spotted and wanted to wear.

Last Sunday at church his teacher was out of town and he was the only kid there so he and I went in his class and did our own lesson. I just had to take a picture because he looked so cute eating his donuts in the little chair.

Last week we made a 2nd trip to Oklahoma to finish Emmy's room and Nana taught Hudson how to clean windshields.

I was trying to take pictures of Emmy's room that we finished decorating and Hudson came in and brought boy toys into the pictures.

While in OK my Mom took Hudson to the park to play and she sent me this picture and I thought it was hilarious because of his dinosaur spike hair.

Last Thursday at Hudson's school was "Donuts with Daddy." He had been sick and missed 3 days of school before this so we were glad for him to go back. These guys are ready to go eat their donuts. Justin said Hudson hardly ate his donut and mainly watched all the kids eating.

Whenever we get out of the car Hudson likes to sneak into the front seat and pretend drive. So the next time I turn on the car my wipers, lights, settings and radio are all messed up and going crazy. Getting him out of the car to go in the house is quite a battle.

Justin took this picture of Hudson inside my dresser. He climbs over the clothes, messes them all up, then sits behind them. Occasionally he will ask me to close the door with him in there. You can see he stole my phone and snuck it in there this time.

Cutest Cousins...

2011-09-28T23:37:00.007-05:00

We got to spend some time this week looking around at places with my cousin Jordon who Hudson calls "Jorjon." There was this cool "clubhouse" that they said was boys only. Hudson didn't want to leave this place.

Hanging out the window with his Jorjon.

There was this swing built in the trees that Hudson took a ride on.

This hoodie is from last year and is too small, but he wanted to wear it to the store one day and ended up wearing it for like 6 hours that day while he did everything.

He is really into Play-Doh now, it can entertain him some days for over an hour.

Last weekend we went to OK to help Colt decorate Emmy's new room. Hudson and Emmy had their breakfast together on a palette the first morning while watching cartoons.

They played in a tent in the pack n play with Buzz & Woody.

We were organizing her room and they sat down and made funny faces in this mirror together. They were laughing at each other and then Emmy started rubbing his back...it was the sweetest thing. Yes, Emmy is wearing a tutu and Hudson is wearing Nothing!

Pops and Nana made the trip down to help too. Hudson got to watch some cartoons with Pops.

We went out for dinner that night and Nana had some visitors on her side.

Here is a funny video of them being so silly at dinner.

Afterwards Colt "Coco" took us to this cool outdoor train that the kids could play on. As you can see Nemo came too.

Pops lifted the kids up so they could pull the train bell.

Hudson listening to the train sounds that were coming from speakers inside the train somewhere, it had really cool sounds that were on the recording.

They were both saying "turn the water on" when they were playing with the dials.

Hudson with the cool train.

He couldn't take his eyes off the train long enough to take a quick picture.

Nana came home with us and Hudson showed her his Play-Doh skills, then she made him a snake and he added some scales with his tools.

Just a few Pics

2011-09-21T21:23:00.003-05:00

So, Hudson has been sick most of the week so I really don't have many pictures of things we did. Last weekend we went to the park down the street one evening. Here are Justin and Hudson running and playing in the big field at the park.

Justin did some pull ups at the park...

so Hudson had to do them too!

We had to buy Justin new sunglasses so Hudson tried on some too, these were his favorite.

Here is Hudson this morning. He looks all ready for an adventure.

I got Hudson these bathtub markers for an incentive to get into the tub (because sometimes it's a fight) and he really likes them.

Here's a funny conversation between Hudson and I this morning in the car:
H: "Mommy when I get big like Mommy/Daddy I going to ride big motorcycle"
Me: "No, you can't because that will make Mommy sad and scared"
H: "It's ok Mommy, I wear glasses and helmet"

This amazed me that he was smart enough to comfort me with his safety measures! haha

Museum Maniac

2011-09-14T18:13:00.006-05:00

Last Tuesday was meet the teacher at Hudson's new school. I didn't get any pictures of that because it was a little hectic and quick. Justin took the day off from work for his last day of vacation so afterwards we took him out to IHOP for pancakes and then we decided it was a perfect day to visit the Dallas museum. Here he is waiting on us to get ready to go.

Hudson insisted this was an elephant, even when we told him what the sign read.

In the first hallway they had audio recordings playing about the animals. He was intently listening to the guy.

He was a little leery of this alligator we walked by.

The giant dinosaur mouth.

This was my 2 guys favorite thing there. You could control the speed and they were hooked. Must be a guy thing, because I didn't get it.

Outside there was this cool satellite that he wanted to do on the way in and out. Anything with audio entertains this one.

He was very concerned about what this wolf had in his mouth.

A reoccurring problem we have at our house is pants not staying up because there is no bootie to hold them up. This happened at the museum by the dinosaurs.

Putting his money in to watch it spin.

Pretending to be a fireman. This lasted about 10 seconds.

This might have been the place he spent the most time, which didn't surprise us.

He named this "Bacho" the dinosaur.

I was surprised he was brave enough to climb this high.

They had these little computers set up. After we walked to the next exhibit he said "I need to go check on the compeeter."

We were 1 day late to see the Chinasaurs exhibit, we thought we were going to catch it, but we just go to see this one.

Justin let him pick out a toy from the gift shop and he picked out a space shuttle. Here we are leaving while they took the space shuttle for a fly.

He was a HUGE fan of the museum. We really couldn't believe how much he liked it. He never threw a fit, complained or whined. He just happily went from exhibit to exhibit exploring and learning. We really love that he loved it so much.

The next day he covered his face with stickers. Nice!

Next post - vacation...

First Day of MDO

2011-09-14T16:49:00.004-05:00

This is hopefully the first of a few posts of catching up from our vacation. I'll start with this last week...

Last Thursday Hudson had his first day of Mother's Day Out. It's 2 days a week for 5 hours a day at a little church just down the road. I am excited about these few hours a day to catch up on scrapbooking his last few years. The first morning he woke up grumpy, so we didn't get any good first day pics. As you can see...

He took off up the stairs to try to escape going to school.

I made him sausage muffins for his first day breakfast.

Waiting at the door to leave.

In the car he cheered up more as the morning went on.

He wanted to carry his "mat mat" nap mat in on his own.

Patiently waiting to get into school.

They had play-doh for them on the table, which was a good distraction for us to sneak out.

Report from his first day - He had to eat lunch in another room because there were 5 PB&J's in lunchboxes, during nap time he stood on the table instead of staying on his nap mat, but otherwise behaved well.
Report from his second day - He stayed on his nap mat the whole time, he didn't sleep, but he whispered to himself . He behaved very well and was excited to see me when I picked him up. When I asked him about his friends at school he named his 2 teachers.

On Saturday he made me a Play-doh sculpture. We later found this play-doh in the water table outside. Lesson learned=Play-doh and water do not mix.

That afternoon we had watermelon for lunch.

On Sunday at church we started new Sunday school classes, he was the only one in his class this week. From what I hear he put enough stickers on his attendance chart that we are already scheduled to be there for a few months now.

Showing off his new Buzz cup from the clearance rack - this made this little guy happy for hours.

My suitcase is still not unpacked from our trip and Hudson found some entertainment in it.

Silly Owens

2011-08-24T16:21:00.005-05:00

I feel like every blog post lately could be filled with pictures of Hudson making silly faces at the camera. There are like 25 a week.

Hudson checking out the airplanes.

I have about 10 more of these that Justin took of him goofing off in the sandbox. Justin takes a picture, says 'Make another face" and then takes another picture of him. Surprisingly - he loves to look at HIMSELF in the pictures! haha

He looks just like Justin, doesn't he?
P.S. - That is who is teaching him all these crazy faces

That evening he asked for pink ice cream, so we went to Wendy's and got him a strawberry frosty. We had quite a day Saturday with a peanut rash scare and had to leave a birthday party before he even got to go in. So we decided after all he had been through he could have some.

On Sunday Grandma and Grandpa came over to visit. Hudson showed them his creepy glasses.

He gave Grandpa some dance lessons. Sorry you're headless Gary!

Showed off his "mat mat." That is what he calls his nap mat we got him for MDO. We've been practicing with him opening and closing it on his own.

Grandma read him some books while I cooked dinner.

He then taught Grandma the proper way to wear a fireman hat while playing with fire trucks. He wants you to wear it backwards and then tells you it's forward "fordoor".

He got the drain plugs out of my drawer and used them as cymbals - that was a quiet activity!!

Can you spot Hudson? I have blocked his playroom door where he can't close it, but he thinks he can. Can you see him in there? He was trying to hide from me.

I zoomed in and he was trying to put a top in his mouth like a pacifier. I have no idea why he does that since he hasn't had one of those in over 2 years.

Tuesday was a horrible day. I got a flat tire, the fence broke and the dogs got out. I couldn't get in the car to go look for them so Hudson and I took off in the 105 heat to search. After 45 minutes of that we came back home with no dogs. A guy called who found Obi in the next neighborhood over and when Justin got home we drove around and found Dudley. Then we came home and sat on the steps and watched Justin change my flat. We practiced our abc's, numbers and songs while we watched.

FYI - No blog post next Wednesday we will be on VACATION!

The many faces of Hudson

2011-08-17T19:44:00.008-05:00

Last week Hudson got to spend some time with Grandma and Ian while I got a quick haircut. It's rare that we get pics of these 2 together. I think Hudson really enjoyed his time playing with Ian.

Ian showed Hudson how to put the balls into his toys.

Hudson texts while he drives and he crashed into the wall - Let this be a lesson people!!

It's rare that he spends time in his playroom, so I tried to snap a picture, but he caught me and I distracted him from the room. Oops!

Last Friday we made a trip to see Aunt Cindy. And guess what - she showered him with gifts. There were like 9 things for him. He got new cars, which was great for him.

His favorite was this monster truck. Aunt Cindy made her arm the mountain and he took advantage of that.

We had a family day at home on Saturday and since we had some rain that morning we got a little time outside afterwards when it was cool.
Here are some of the many, many faces Hudson makes. I think you can guess which parent he gets these silly faces from.

His hands were out feeling the sprinkles.

All dressed up for church on Sunday - and he was so cool he could walk down the stairs with 1 hand in his pocket.

But you can't be cool for too long before you have to turn on the silly.

This morning he went outside and saw dirt on the back porch. I was cooking breakfast in the kitchen and he came in and told me it's very very dirty out there and he needs a broom. So, he got my swiffer with no cleaning pad on it and took care of the dirt on the porch.

Then later we went to play at Cooper's. The first and only thing Hudson wanted to do was play in this Jeep. I am thinking one of these will have to be a birthday present this year. He was obsessed! (not surprising since it had wheels)

Then Cooper gave him a little push since the battery died.

Circus Elephants and Motorcycles

2011-08-10T18:45:00.005-05:00

This boy has quite a collection of "Cars" cars going. Here he is proudly showing it off.

Thanks to Cooper's family we were able to get FREE tickets to the circus this year. We were so excited and thankful for them. Hudson insisted on wearing his tractor hat to the circus. I'm not sure of the connection between the tractor hat and the circus, but he wore it.

We didn't get to sit by them, but we got to visit them during intermission and the boys got to hang for a few minutes.

This boy wasn't excited about all the pictures taken that evening.

But he was pretty excited about the candy at the circus!

One of his favorite parts was the elephants. Each time they came out he stayed glued to them. He really liked the little baby elephants, but they didn't get to come out much.

Adoring his new snow cone elephant before he dives in.

His other favorite part was the motorcycles in the cage. He talked about this as much as the elephants. Those made me super nervous!

This weekend was Quakecon again, so Hudson hit it up for the 3rd time. This time he fell asleep during one of the presentations. He slept on my lap during all the clapping and excitement. I couldn't believe it. This is the only picture I got of him at Quakecon, asleep with Daddy.

Afterwards we went out for lunch and Justin said we looked cute sitting together and he wanted to get our picture. Here is what Hudson did for all the pictures. To get this kid to make a serious face in any picture is impossible these days.

That evening Justin plugged in the old Super Nintendo so we could play when Hudson went to bed. Well, someone decided it was his new favorite thing. He stole the controller and just watched him walk and thought he was really playing.

He would just say "MARIO" over and over. Every once in awhile Mario might do a little jump.

When I was fixing breakfast on Saturday morning Hudson took all the chairs away from the kitchen table and put pillows down from the couch. I guess he was creating an Asian feel to our breakfast. Bailey joined right in the comfy meal time. Thanks for the mess Hudson.

Here is our sweet boy all crashed out on Daddy's lap on Sunday night. It's not very often we get pictures of him all cuddled up asleep with the elephant he snuggles every night.

On Sunday afternoon I ran a few errands and Justin and Hudson stayed home. He got out his mat and told Justin to lay down. I'm pretty sure he didn't, so he just posed for him with his "Famous face" as Grandma called it.

Just a cute pic of my favorite boy laughing at his Daddy.

One of his potty prizes was these silly glasses. He usually just stretches the eyeballs really far out instead of wearing them.

It's hard work being a fireman in this heat.

Catching up with Cousins

2011-08-03T17:00:00.004-05:00

This weekend we went to our niece Aubrey's 4th Birthday Party. Hudson got some time to catch up with all his Owens cousins. It's always fun to have them all together.

Hudson picked these sunglasses out by himself for Aubrey and she showed them off for a REALLY long time.

We got to spend some time with Ian. We don't get to see him much, so that was fun to see how big he is these days.

I made the girls capes too. I always get/make the sister whose birthday it's not a present too. Ashtyn has picked up on this trend and when I was getting her gift wrapped Julie came in and told me that Ashtyn informed her that Aunt Lexie always gets presents for both of them so she was excited to see what she was going to get. So, I guess I've set a standard I have to keep up with.

I took Justin and Hudson's capes with us so they could all play together. As always Hudson wouldn't wear his.

And when someone tried to get him to wear it in the picture it caused an overtired meltdown. He had a late night the night before with no nap, so he was on a limit.

Sometimes Super Heroes cry too.

This picture sums Aubrey up to us - looking up to something...

On Monday morning Hudson brought his "light sabre" to the table and he and Daddy had a light saber battle over breakfast.

Last Saturday Justin made the 2 of them a tent in the Living Room. Dudley invaded the tent and Hudson let him snuggle under the blanket with him.

We are making a little progress toward the potty training, I would say we are 25% there. I was hoping to be much further along at this point. I have even bought suckers and "good toys" to motivate him. Here he is playing with his Toy Story aliens that were one of his potty prizes.

Bustin' some new Moves

2011-07-27T16:46:00.004-05:00

Hudson has really been working on his moves lately...

This summer we discovered golden melons. I was cutting one up and he helped himself to a whole slice. You can tell he really likes it.

On Friday we went swimming with Cooper and their gang and Cooper's Mimi made Hudson these Buzz pajamas. He saw them when we got home and insisted on wearing them immediately.

On Saturday we had a playdate with the Chism's. Hudson and Connor really got along well. They hadn't seen each other since December, but they were really goofy together and had alot of fun making each other laugh. And the Dads were glad for a reunion too.

All 3 kids got to take a train ride at the Mall. Here they are handing over their tickets. They did this all on their own.

The 3 of them riding the train.

On the train ride, Hudson provided sound effects, we couldn't hear them, but we could see he wanted everyone in his car to get the full effect.

Then they spotted this. Hudson hasn't played on one of these before, and they had alot of fun dancing around on this.

Since it has been SO hot lately, he has been asking for ice. I got out my snow cone ice maker and was going to make him a home made snow cone, but he just wanted the ice. So almost every day I make him a cup of plain snow cone ice.

He stole some water from a glass on the kitchen table and poured it into this little bowls and told me he was giving Mater and Lightning McQueen a bath.

I got my boys another one of these Disney storybooks. Justin reads to him from one of them every night, and I know some of the stories were being worn out, so I added another book to their collection. He has been spending time looking at it during the day too. I love it when he chooses to read a book on his own.

Boring Week

2011-07-20T16:18:00.004-05:00

We had a boring yet busy week this last week, so there isn't much to post. On Sunday I made treats for our Family Night at church and Hudson stole the icer after I was done with it. Luckily it was almost empty, as he squirted it straight into this mouth.

He got some new blocks from Grandma's house, so now he can make a tall tower.

This morning the mowers came to mow the park across the street. He was knocking on the window saying "hey, hey" trying to get them to wave at him. Bailey was right next to him as usual if someone is anywhere near our property.

He also took a little ride on his dump truck this morning. This was after he requested an hours worth of youtube videos on dump trucks and cranes.

Last Friday night my 2 boys were playing a game on their phones. I think they were actually playing the same game, Justin downloaded it on Hudson's phone too. Yes, my old iphone is now his iphone. It is not activated, so you can't call him - NANA! haha

We celebrated our 9 year wedding anniversary last Wednesday, so on Saturday Aunt Britney came to visit and Justin planned a surprise dinner date. It was AMAZING! We went to Bolla in Uptown Dallas and had a 7 course Chef's Tasting Dinner. I was a total dork and took a picture of us with every single course! Here is Justin with the 2nd course.

Me with the 4th course. I will spare you all 7 pictures!

We stepped out into the heat for about 30 seconds to take a picture in the 100 degree heat.

Happy 9 Years Justin!

Pro Bowler

2011-07-13T15:21:00.006-05:00

Last Wednesday night our a/c went out in 100 degree weather in TX, so we left Thursday morning and headed out to find ways to stay cool indoors. First we went to the donut shop. He didn't want the donuts just his own carton of chocolate milk.

Then we went bowling with Cooper and family. We used the kids bowl free program coupons and only had to pay for shoes.

This was his first time bowling. Every once in a while he had a hard time getting the ball all the way to the lane without dropping it, then he had to lift it up onto the stand for it to roll down. Thankfully they had these for them to roll the ball on.

Then he stood back and watched what happened.

He even rolled his first strike very early in the game!

It became clear that they didn't want to wait to let other one take 2 turns bowling, so we forgot about scoring and just let them bowl every other turn.

Hudson loved hanging out at this to watch the balls come back. I had to tell him to move his head a few times because he was putting his head right at the hole where they came out. After bowling for about 45 minutes he walked over to me said "finished" and was done. So we went and ate lunch with them to stay cool inside.

Here's a video of what Hudson wanted to do when he said he was finished bowling and Cooper joined in too.

We headed home to wait on the a/c guy. We had to put the dog crate in the Living Room so they wouldn't over heat upstairs and Hudson had fun playing in their crate.

The next day we went to Aunt Cindy's house for some swimming. As always she had tons of surprises for him.

He got a new Lightning McQueen and a Mater. He loves to have his 2 Maters now, he will name off all his cars and he names Mater twice.

She got him 2 sets of tools and a giant bubble wand, but the bubble wand didn't make it through the day.

He was a tired guy on the way home, but he wanted his case with his new cars in it before he fell asleep.

On Saturday we took Huds to his first movie. We went to see Cars 2 with Lucca, Levi and their parents.

For some reason he wanted to make this grumpy face in all the pictures, and I don't know why because he was having alot of fun the whole time.

Toward the very end of the movie he got a tad antsy and was ready to go but for the first hour and a half he was pretty good. We will probably wait a little while to go to another movie though.

Then I took him to get a haircut and this time was the first time he got to sit in the chair by himself. He did awesome! Plus the girl cuts it really fast.

On Friday night we went to some peoples house from church for a visit and they let him borrow a Veggie Tales movie. We don't have any of those, so he sat and watched it Saturday evening.

On Sunday he fell asleep at the dinner table at 8:15. He was pretty worn out from the weekend so we put him to bed and he woke up 4 times before midnight crying for various reasons. The first 2 were because it was dark and he was scared.

Then on Monday we headed to Burleson to work on some things with Julie and my MIL and he got to hang out with the girls, which is always a HIT! They got snow cones so he was so happy!

He got a piggy back ride to the car from Grandpa after a quick visit.

They go to do some playing at Grandma and Grandpa's house for a few minutes while I had my coffee to prepare for the drive home.

This morning we went grocery shopping and now Hudson sits in the big part of the cart, and he uses his cart seat cover to sit on because he says the basket hurts. But this was the first time we did a big shopping trip and he got trapped. He wasn't crazy about that, he wanted OUT!

Here's another video. I was hearing him playing the piano and singing and came around the corner and caught a little bit of it. You can tell when he is banging to show off after he realizes I'm there.

2 Little Firecrackers

2011-07-06T16:22:00.008-05:00

One of his potty prizes last week was this coloring page with markers. I tried to hide the markers before he saw, but I was too late - he spotted them. He did pretty good keeping the lids on though.

On a no-nap day he laid down on the couch and asked for his duck and bear to snuggle with, a blanket on top and some cartoons on. He laid there all snuggled up for 30 minutes and didn't go to sleep, but did get some rest time in.

He put these on when I told him to go put his boots on so he could go play outside.

Then he proceeded to give me these instructions...

I'm pretty sure he was giving me picture taking tips because I had taken several pictures of him in his mis-matched boots.

Colt and Emmy got here on Friday night, but Hudson was tired from not having a nap, so we put him to bed and let Emmy surprise him the next morning.

Then we headed downstairs for chocolate chip pancakes - which these kiddos LOVE - and they ate in their train conductor hats.

Then Hudson gave Emmy some rides around the house.

They did some coloring. I was trying to get Emmy's clothes on and she insisted on wearing this pink Daddy's princess shirt. I tried to put a pink ruffly shirt on her, but when she spotted that shirt it was over - the fashionista made up her own mind.

We picked up Pops from the airport Saturday afternoon and went out Saturday night for Colt's birthday. When we were leaving Colt put Emmy on his shoulders, so Hudson wanted that too.

That night after we went out for dinner we came home and they ran off all the calories they ate.

Then shared some after running hugs.

Sunday morning we went to church. They held Pops hand walking into and out of church that day.

Then Colt chose a lunch place and the kids got cool hats.

Sunday night we went to a Rough Riders game. It was a little hot that evening. Coco bought the kids some cotton candy.

Hudson showing off his hat he did not want pulled down all the way.

Emmy showing off her hat. She pulled out her rubber band from her ponytail and lost it and did NOT want me to put her hair up, she wanted it down the rest of the evening.

Then we got them a Lemon Chill to share, which turned out to be more of something to play with than to eat and cool off with.

Huds watching the game with Pops!

They had a fireworks show after they won in the bottom of the 10th inning so to prepare Hudson was telling us about fireworks.

Emmy listening to Hudson...

Hudson showing her where the fireworks are going to be.

He LOVED the show. He watched so well and wasn't scared or anything, just mesmerized.

Emmy was not a fan so they had to make a quick exit, which made her much happier.

Pops did some reading to the kids on Monday morning.

CoCo & Emmy left on Monday afternoon, so they said their goodbyes. They hugged each other so many times, it was cute!

We decided instead of going and getting eaten alive by mosquitoes in the field to watch fireworks we would just stay home since we saw a show the night before. So we watched some on TV that night.

Hudson will bring us the Magna Doodle and make requests for us to draw certain things and it's usually characters. Monday night it was a treasure with pirates. We all cracked up at that request and I was very relieved he asked Justin and not me. As you can tell his face is a little skeptical of his drawing. Hudson doesn't understand his Dad is a professional artist yet!

A close up of the pirate. I didn't get a final picture because Hudson erased it quickly. That is the exact reason I don't put too much effort into my Magna Doodle works of art.

Then yesterday Pops went to get some work done and came home and surprised Hudson with a Mater remote control car. He was anxious to get it out.

Then he started it up. After this Pops took Hudson out for some yogurt and he even took Mater with him (without the remote of course).

I went to the Dr today and dropped Hudson off at Justin's work so they could go have lunch together. I showed up and saw this. Hudson had so much fun he talked about it all afternoon, he got his toy at the table and ice cream. I never let him do either of those when I take him to McDonalds.

On a sidenote, potty training is not going as well as I would like it to. Pops was witness to this. Emmy was here and is so wonderful at potty training I was going it would rub off on him, but it didn't seem to help.

Big Boy Underwear

2011-06-29T15:35:00.005-05:00

We have been practicing preschool workbook pages to prepare for MDO. He learned three new words: astronaut, actor and acrobat on this page.

And he was painting in his big boy underwear.

Watching Daddy mow with Bailey in his big boy underwear.

We went for a play date with Cooper to the mall play area. If we go to a play area and there are cars he goes straight for them and LOVES to sit and make car noises and pretend to drive them. We ended up leaving pretty quickly because he got pushed out of the car by a big kid and I was MAD at the wild uncontrolled kids there.

Sitting on the turtle, I had just taken him off the bridge behind because he was sitting on it and these kids who were way too big to be in there were running and jumping and he almost got knocked off the side.

Here is a video of him fixing the car and then driving. You'll have to listen carefully over the wild children to hear his sound effects.

Then we went to lunch, they were so cute sitting at their own table together. We had to get up two times during lunch to go peepee in the potty. I think he liked the bathrooms there because their family bathrooms had little potties.

This weekend we went to a birthday party that had this cool pinata that instead of hitting you just take turns pulling the strings until it breaks open. He hit the floor to get as much as he could. They were so considerate and knew Hudson was coming and didn't put any peanut or chocolate candy in there.

Hudson and I watch 19 Kids and Counting together and the kids on that show play violins, so the other day he got his golf clubs and made a violin and even did sound effects for it. They were whiny sounding just like a violin.

Reading his Toy Story books on the coffee table during his quiet time.

He has been really obsessed with dogs lately. We've been teaching him how to say their nicknames and he cracks up all the time. He says my new dog and my new puppy to them all the time. So these last few days he has been walking around the house holding Bailey by the collar saying "come here my new dog."

Please excuse the lack of big boy underwear in this picture.

My Super Guys!

2011-06-22T16:10:00.007-05:00

Someone has become a tad obsessed with band-aids lately. He crashed in the parking lot the other day and got 2 and now it seems like he finds a way to get an injury just to get a band-aid. He even showed them off at church on Sunday.

We are working on potty training, so here he is showing off his big boy boxer briefs. They are so cute on him.

Last week we went to the mall for a play date with Cooper, Nicole and Emma. They had train rides there and Hudson just hopped right on and took a long ride around. He was saying "All aboard" the whole time the train was going around. I was surprised he did that because he doesn't usually jump right into new things like that.

The boys also got to throw coins in the fountain at the mall. Although, I only had a few so it was over quickly and they were looking at me waiting for more.

On Thursday morning Hudson told me he packed Daddy's lunch. I opened it up and it was full of coffee discs. Justin would have been hyped up all day long with that lunch.

On Saturday we did yard work and played in the backyard and Hudson was our look-out for trouble.

Our silly boy in the pool

That night Justin asked Hudson what movie he wanted to watch and he said Star Wars. I did hear it and it wasn't influenced by Justin, so that's what they watched. I think that made his Father's Day weekend.

On Sunday afternoon we gave Daddy his presents. Hudson picked him out a Cars card. He was so proud of it while Justin was opening it.

Then he helped Justin open his gifts, or he really opened them for him.

I made my guys Super hero capes for Father's Day. Here they are looking out the window for someone to help.

I could only get a few pics before Hudson wanted his off and he hasn't put it on since.

Chasing Daddy in his cape. He had to go into the playroom to get his sword first.

Justin wore his quite a while that day.

Super heroes taking off.

On Sunday night Hudson drug his chairs into the dining room so he could kick the ball with Justin while sitting. Yes, we somehow sit in those chairs without breaking them.

Then, I opened the front closet and he found his winter gear and he felt the need to wear it around. It was only 100 degrees in Texas.

Last night I got a little music show from my guys while Hudson was supposed to be getting ready for bed.

Cooper's Mimi made Hudson some Buzz jammers. He got to wear them for the first time last night and was so excited he was showing them off and talking about them for awhile. This morning he was stuffing as many things as he could in the little front pocket.

Then we went to the Splash Park with Cooper, Nicole and Emma this morning. It took him quite awhile to get out into the area where all the people were. He and Cooper pretty much stayed on the outskirts all morning.

They had fun playing with this sprayer together.

Hudson was holding baby Emma's hand telling her bye. All afternoon after we left her he said "Awww poor baby Emma, she sad" because she cried at one point today.

When we got home today after a trip to Wal Mart he made a pallet and asked me to take his picture.

One of his potty prizes was this Cars puzzle. Last night I helped him put it together, but today he worked on it all by himself.

How to make Popcorn

2011-06-15T18:03:00.007-05:00

I just think this Woody towel is the funniest bath towel ever. He got out of the tub and wanted to show me his towel before he put on his jammers.

On Thursday night I was watering the yard and Hudson wanted to run through the sprinkler so I told him to go in and put his boots on, which meant his froggie boots, and he came back out and very proudly showed me his cowboy boots. Lesson learned: Must be specific with a 2 year old.

As I was taking a picture of the backyard he asked me to take a picture of him, and then he posed. You can see the leg muscles in this kid...the reason I think he's going to be a gymnast, etc.

On Friday nights in June our town hosts "Family Fun Fridays" and they have games, music, playgrounds and a giant movie screen with a kids movie at the end of the night. We took our blanket and hung out.

Then Justin showed up to watch the movie with us. It was a really enjoyable Friday night together.

My boys watching Despicable Me.

On Saturday we got him a little pool and Hudson filled it up for us.

Then he went swimming - he swam naked almost the whole day. His swim diaper filled up and he didn't want it on anymore.

Then Grandma & Grandpa came over for a visit. He played trucks with Grandma

and Grandpa. For some reason he wanted them on the kitchen table.

On Sunday we went to Jordon and Brittany's for a family get together.

Great fixed him juice in a tiny coffee cup - which he loved! I think he thought he was a grown-up drinking coffee.

Then Jordon took him up to the Man Room for some popcorn lessons.

He let him pour the kernels in...

Push the button...

And patiently wait for the popcorn to POP!

Then he got to enjoy his hard work.

Pretty sure it was worth all that work.

Then I found him in their room with Jordon stealing money out of their piggy bank - SERIOUSLY! Well, I think Jordon had something to do with it though.

So Jordon filled his pockets up with money to put in Huds piggy bank. I think he left there with more than $5. I guess we'll need to make more trips over there for his college fund.

Yesterday he wore many, many hats.
An inside out snow hat.

Snow hat with a fire hat on top.

Monkey hat with his sunglasses.

For some strange reason my non-napper has been napping lately. I'm not sure if it's because he is staying up later to see Justin or if it's because he's going through a growth spurt (he is, I am buying longer shirts every time I turn around). Whatever the reason, I'll take it!

Snow Cones

2011-06-08T16:04:00.004-05:00

Last Wednesday we went out to Jordon and Brittany's house to celebrate "Wiener Wednesday" with the McGee's. We had sausages and brats and hung out. Hudson got to play with some new games while there. He really liked putting these little discs into the wooden slots.

Jordon decided to brew his own beer while we were there...Hudson called it "juice" because of the color.

The next day we busted out the paints, per his request. Here he is patiently waiting for his craft time.

The concentration on his face while painting his car.

I guess this is his "painting face." HILARIOUS!

On Saturday afternoon we took Hudson to the snow cone stand. We took off his white t-shirt to avoid a mess. He was a little unsure about it at first.

But seemed to catch on.

Brain Freeze Face

Then we went home and did work in the backyard and he played in the sprinkler.

Then he did random poses with his fireman hat. This hat was a potty training reward. We have just started the beginning of practicing pee pee on the little potty. He has caught on pretty quickly when we are at home, but we haven't attempted it publicly.

Showing off his ice cream sandwich he was splitting with Daddy.

As part of potty training he runs around with no pants in the house...yesterday he figured this out. I cracked up!

Today we went to the new Dr. for a shot, but ended up not able to get the shot, so we went home, but I took this pic of him up on the table because he looks so grown up here.

Wildlife Park with Wild Ones

2011-06-01T18:43:00.004-05:00

EMMY & COCO CAME TO VISIT!
They got here on Thursday night. The very first words that Hudson said to her were "Dino Dan's Mom says Stega what now" That is a line from one of his favorite cartoons "Dino Dan." We have no idea why he chose that as his first thing to say to her. Emmy thought his giraffe umCrella was cool!

Hudson wanted to show Emmy his dinosaur and then started roaring at her. The differences between boys and girls, she didn't like the dinosaur.

The next morning one of the first things they did was use their coloring/marker books from Nana.

They played outside and worked on their tans too.

We made a quick trip to Target and they got to sit in the basket together. 2 cousins down on this accomplishment.

Hudson wanted to play with the tunnel, Emmy did NOT like the tunnel at all. She didn't even like it when her Daddy was in there either. He was trying to show her it was ok, but she wasn't having it.

Here's a picture of how much the toddler toots can destroy my house in a few hours.

On Saturday we headed to Fossil Rim Wildlife Drive Thru.
This is one of my favorite parts of my new car, I was sitting in the 3rd row. I got to read and enjoy the quiet because the kids were either sleeping or quiet on the way there.

Emmy peeking out at the deer. She spilled on her shirt so we were letting it dry out for a bit. Her little pony tail was so cute. I had to bribe her with apple juice to let me put it in, but she left it once it was in.

Hudson loved talking about this one...a bongo. We had a guide book, so we knew what we were looking at and he kept saying "take a picture of the bongo."

Feeding the deer

This one was at Justin's window.

At the halfway point, we stopped for a picnic, which was so fun. Hudson showing off his "picnic face"

Justin showing off his "picnic face"

Colt & Emmy showing off their "picnic faces"

The 3 of us in the June TX heat after our picnic.

Emmy got a cute giraffe in the gift shop. She was looking at me like this asking me to "fix her dop dop (flip flop)"

Then we saw this guy with the crazy crooked horn.

Justin played Reindeer Games

Hudson fed the zebras, but we very quickly rolled the windows up, because they weren't very nice.

We called these the "disco goats" because it looked like they had fringe disco pants on.

Hudson thought riding in the car up here was pretty cool. That was the nice thing about this place, was everyone gets to roll the windows down, drive 2 mph and look at the animals.

In the gift shop Hudson got a motorcycle, which broke within 5 minutes. I had to glue it when we got home. It was probably a dollar store quality toy.

Justin took this picture of Hudson's face when I had to do a diaper change in the front seat.

One of the last stops was the giraffes, they had a long line to get to and only 1 was coming to cars to eat. He came to Justin's window, but since we didn't think he would come to our car we didn't have food ready. So he walked right in front of our car.

Coco & Emmy left on Sunday afternoon and he cried big crocodile tears when Emmy left him. He also doesn't call her Memmy anymore, just Emmy.

Hudson ran in the sprinkler in the back yard on Sunday night, and then he wanted to water my plants, so I tied the towel around him and he cracked up. Justin said he looked like an old Kung Fu Master wearing this.

His "Camera face"

Then he lost it, but didn't want to let go of the hose.

Justin had to work on Monday, so during the day we went and swam with Lucca and Levi. We don't usually get to hang out with them because they go to day care during the week, so this was a nice treat.

Even though he had to work he came home early for us to hang out. Hudson showing off his cars while waiting on his food.

After he ate Justin leaned back and said "So full" so Hudson did the same thing.

On Tuesday we went to the park and lunch with Cooper.

The boys pushing the swings, you can see baby Emma asleep in front of them.

I left the room after dinner the other night and got this picture texted to me from Justin. He just set it out in front of him. Thankfully, Blue Bell is peanut free ice cream.

Then, I walked in and saw him doing this. Looks like he won't be getting any ice cream cartons again.

Wash the Spider Out

2011-05-26T12:03:00.007-05:00

Here is Hudson's version of Itsy Bitsy Spider:

According to him everything washes the spider out.

I have NO IDEA how he got inside his tunnel this way, but he did, and he drank his juice in there while watching "Bubble Guppies", which is his new favorite cartoon.

I was doing my dusting the other day and he asked to help. So I got him a baby wipe...you can see the picture that's down in the background, that's the first thing he dusted, then he got the pots out of his kitchen and cleaned them too.

On Friday, we went back to see Cynthia "Aunt Cindy", so she could watch him while I went to the Dr. I think he's learning that he gets toys & trips to the park every time he goes to see her.

She wanted to go to the park again, so we went to do some more swinging.

And he had someone to go down the slide with.

He also got brave and climbed this ladder with Cynthia spotting him.

One of the other toys she gave him was one of those velcro ball and mit sets.

He couldn't wait to show it to Justin that night. He did pretty good with the catching, but he wanted to take off the mit every time so he could catch and throw with his right hand.

On Sunday we did some more work in the backyard (you can see where we put garden liners out to extend my flowerbeds),so we plugged in the new kids sprinkler for him to run in.

He just picked up the sprayers and sprayed them around the yard and at us.

Playing in the backyard with his banana scented bubbles from Grandma and Grandpa in the back yard. They made the backyard smell good that day.

Then later that day he worked on his painting from his Easter basket from them too.

On Tuesday my non-napper took a nap like this on the couch for an hour and a half.

After his nap he got out his cars and made letters and shapes out of them. I've never done this with him before, so I guess he came up with this idea on his own. I was pretty impressed because one of the shapes he made was a cross.

Yesterday we went to meet Uncle Ninny to get some help with my new car and due to a few things that happened we ended up staying with them all day and running around. Hudson was pretty excited to see the kitties again. He had to say bye to each and every one of them before we could leave last night. My little nieces were putting them in my car trying to send 1 home with him.

He got to ride in the big part of the basket with Aubrey. I really hope he forgets he got to do this because he never has done it before. Everyone who sees these 2 together says they look so much like siblings.

Then since we were stuck there for awhile more, we tagged along to Ashtyn's awards ceremony for graduating 1st grade. I was pretty excited to go to this and he enjoyed sitting on her lap for a few minutes.

Then since we'd been busy all day and a lot had gone on, he snuggled right up on Ashtyn and started to fall asleep.

Ashtyn got the very first award given of the night. GO ASHTYN!

This is how he spent the entire awards ceremony. It was 7:00 p.m. so he was awake REALLY late last night.

Happy Birthday Daddy

2011-05-18T15:57:00.008-05:00

Hudson found a new use for his baby cardboard books. He puts them under his feet and scoots around the house on them.

In case you were feeling sorry for this poor little guy that he doesn't have enough Toy Story toys, here you go...

I took this the other day when he was running from the house to the fence saying "fast, fast fast"

Just a random picture of our dogs sleeping face to face.

On Saturday we turned in the Lexterra and got the...are you ready for this?...Lexplorer. I somehow found a way to get another SUV that I can name after myself. You think I planned this one?

Hudson loves exploring around in there and asks several times a day to go play in Mommy's new car. You can see Justin trying to show up in my picture.

Sunday was Justin's 31st birthday, so I found these pancake molds and after what seemed like several hours, got 9 pancakes made and many, many mess up pancakes too.

The good thing about the Yoda pancakes is they have handles for easy eating.

Darth Vader pancake, which Hudson called "Zurg," a Toy Story 2 reference.

That evening we went to Aunt Leah's house for a b-day/Mothers Day get together. They had some balloons out to entertain Aubrey and Hudson...it worked.

Rubbing Baby Ian's feet while he was asleep. Hudson was pretty good with him, he rolled around in the floor with him and tried to show him his toys too.

Leah busted out some Zhu Zhu Pets (if that's what they're called?) and Hudson showed Grandpa how they work.

How did I get roped into lighting our own birthday candles?

It's been awhile since we ate cake like this. An added obstacle, we had to avoid setting each other on fire while blowing out our candles.

My cupcakes from Julie. I hope you can't read the numbers on the cupcakes.

Hudson digging into a cupcake.

Then we got to open some presents and Hudson took an active role in this and in showing us what we got.

Ashtyn and Aubrey wanted to give Uncle Justin his birthday spankings. They were laughing that they got to give 31, but by around 15 Justin hurried their counting along since it was more of a back beating.

Hudson playing with Ian's fireman hat.

Ian wearing the fireman hat.

Then Hudson tried to steal the fireman hat back. Back and forth, back and forth.

Ian was really trying to sit up on his own, he had it started a few times too.

Not sure who did this to him, but it was hilarious!

Some quality shoe tying time with Aunt Juju.

Getting picked on by 2 of his aunts.

Hudson found a way to get into Ian's pack n play. He climbed up the stairs, over a half wall and into the top to find some new toys.

On the way home I heard rustling in the back seat and looked back to see he had pulled the leftover chips from the floor and was snacking. As if the cupcakes that evening weren't enough.

Last night Justin got off in time to see Hudson before bed. I let Hudson run out to greet him and he crawled up in his car to play. They were out there for quite awhile too.

Sneaking in some Army Men play time, and yes they were singing the song that was on the blog video last week.

Ohio...part 2

2011-05-13T18:11:00.009-05:00

Our 2nd Thursday in Ohio was Pops birthday, so Hudson took Pops to the zoo. Or maybe it was the other way around.

I was just a tad too big for these penguins.

Hudson watched the penguins diving with Nana. They had a really nice exhibit and the penguins were our putting on a show.

He wasn't sure about this bridge at first, because it was a little unsteady, but after a few steps he thought it was pretty cool.

This zoo had a carousel too. His first ride was with Pops and he chose the tiger. This is him waving as they circled by.

Watching the fish in this little peep hole he found.

They had a jellyfish exhibit at this zoo. I'm not sure if he's seen jellyfish before, but these were pretty cool to watch.

His second carousel ride was with Nana. This time he wanted to ride the big dog. He went back and forth between the dolphin and dog, but chose the big dog.

After our Dallas zoo trip when I got dizzy on the carousel, I decided this was as close as I would get to a ride this trip.

Then we headed to this outdoor mall and they had this awesome train there giving rides. Pops and Hudson got to ride 2 times in a row. They were on here for 45 minutes.

You can't tell from this picture, but Hudson really was excited about this ride.

When it was time to get out, he stayed inside and said "More choo choo train." He would step out with 1 foot and then try to get back in.

The "conductor" let Hudson go up to the front for some pictures. He didn't want to turn around and stop looking at the train to take pictures.

Then he got to sit up in the drivers seat. Luckily, it was turned off because he reached right for the shifter and pulled.

One of his favorite things to do while there was pet Willie, the cat. He would be inside and say "Find Willie" and want to go pet him. I think he liked him so much because he just laid there and Hudson could rub his belly. Or because he knew he stayed in the barn alot and it was an excuse to go to the barn.

That night Nana set up the laptop so he could watch Fox & the Hound. He had never seen it before, only read the book at home, and he loved this movie. He sat still and was so interested in it. It really surprised me.

Our last day there, Hudson got to MOW on the little tractor. He held onto the ball on the steering wheel and thought he was really driving it. I think he stayed on there over an hour and finally came in because it was so cold out there.

There were trees they had to drive under to mow and Mom told him to duck the first time, so every time they went close to getting under the tree he ducked his head.

Then Nana hid a few Easter eggs out front. Not too many because it was cold out there. She put them in the dirt in the flower beds and he pointed to them and said "Right there" but he didn't want to go in the dirt to get them. Not sure why because he doesn't mind getting into the dirt in the flower beds at home.

Running over to the other side of the yard to find a few more. Isn't it so pretty there?

On Saturday we had an early flight home, so we had lots of time to hang out with Justin the rest of the day. Here he is being goofy for the camera with Justin.

This hair is from being outside and getting wet running through the sprinkler.

Someone stole my sunglasses.

He had to wear a t-shirt after being out there for awhile, because after 10 days in Ohio with the cloudy skies we both started losing our tans.

The water in the pool was a little chilly.

At the zoo, Pops wanted to buy Hudson a souvenir, so Nana and I were looking around and we saw these umbrellas. Hudson has had an umbrella obsession for awhile, so they let him pick out which one he wanted, and he chose a giraffe. He also got this little tiger toy, but I didn't get a picture of it yet.

He calls it his "Giraffe UmCrella"

On Sunday we continued our Mothers Day tradition with our annual picnic. Hudson found new freedom this year running up and down the hills and jumping while running.

I caught him mid-air in a jump.

Sometimes he takes the packets out of his DVD cases and takes them places. This time it was from his Cars DVD. He calls it his "Cars mail."

We attempted to get a Mothers Day picture this year - here are some of the best...

not so much.

That evening we went to have some frozen yogurt. I am paranoid at these places because there are nut products there, but I don't want him to not be able to go places, and we need to know how to teach him to be careful, so we got him strawberry with no toppings, but he doesn't know the difference yet. He wanted to wear his backpack inside the whole time. Looks like he's ready for school.

It's a good thing he had his backpack ready for school because they had an abacus there to play with.

On Monday night Justin brought home a present...A bucket of Toy Story army men. He is slowly working up a collection of all the Toy Story characters. So far he has several Buzz, several Woody, Mr. & Mrs. Potato, Rex, and the Army Men. I guess we'll get there ;).

Playing Army Men with Daddy.

When Justin got them out and was playing with him, he was humming the A-team song, so Hudson hums while he plays with them too.

On Tuesday we got a package from Great with some new havianas from her last trip to Brazil. He calls them his sheep shoes because they have little sheep on the toes.

Amish Animals

2011-05-12T12:09:00.003-05:00

When I was getting things packed and ready to go for our 10 day trip to Ohio, I busted out the Play-Doh to occupy him. It still led to a few meltdowns, but not quite as bad as January went. The problem is when he makes something he expects it to stay and not break EVER. At least he doesn't eat it. He just made lots of snakes and had me make balls.

I bought a new app for our plane ride...Baa Baa Black Sheep, since that was his favorite song to sing that week. He found it before we left and sat on the dog pillows to play it. He still likes it though.

We flew out on Wednesday morning and I was a tad worried since this was our first flight alone. We sat in the back row of a small plane, which was good. The first thing he wanted to do was read the in-flight magazine. That lasted about 3 seconds. He did pretty good on the flight, he got fussy about an hour and a half in and the flight attendant came back and gave him his wings to perk him up. We were the last ones to get on this plane so the pilots invited him into the cockpit to check things out. Their words about Hudson were "Wow, he doesn't miss anything, does he?"

Yep, that's Hudson on the big tractor our 2nd day there. He LOVED this. They drove it out to the airplane hanger to get a slide.

Inside the barn on the tractor.

Testing out the little tractor too. More on this tractor in the next post.

This is inside Nana's indoor arena. He LOVED kicking the sand around, except when it got in his eye.

I packed white tennis shoes for him and they were BROWN by the first few days. His favorite place there was the barn and has asked every day since being home to go to Nana's barn.

After realizing he needed different shoes for the barn and arena we headed to Target and Mom and I got Starbucks, and decided to get him his own little hot chocolate. He was so excited to hold it.

We headed out to Amish Country on Saturday. This was a surprise site for me. I really enjoyed seeing this part of the country, it was beautiful up there.

While in Amish Country, we went to the Amish Wildlife place. We rode in a covered wagon pulled by 2 horses and made stops to feed some animals. The first stop was the camel. Hudson wasn't sure about this yet.

Hudson and Nana checking out the scenery. It was getting pretty cold as the ride went on.

Then we saw the "zedonks." You'll have to enlarge the picture to see that they are half zebra and half donkey, and you really can tell.

After we fed the donkeys, those stubborn things followed us forever trying to get food from anyone.

There was a brand new baby llama there, so cute and little.

Then we got to the O-S-T-R-I-C-H! He sort of freaked me out being right next to my head.

Hudson didn't mind feeding him and found it quite entertaining.

Here's a cute video of Hudson feeding the aggresive ostrich...HILARIOUS!

Then we got to this horn...That's right, this was right behind our backs getting food.

Here he is...I forgot what he's called. He was a little mad when we left with the food and was poking at the wagon a little bit.

After the bumpy wagon ride we went to the Children's petting zoo.
They had ducklings...

and bunnies (which started to bite)

and a chicken/rooster (I forgot which)

and this peacock (which we got fairly close to)

and these spunky little jumping goats (they were cute and hilarious)

Then we tried to get his picture on this rhino, but he wanted no part of being up there.

That night we went out for ice cream with Dwayne and Julie, my parents neighbors/friends, and Pops let Hudson take the fun walk to the car.

The next day Hudson woke up with a cold, so Mom got out Coco's (Uncle Colt's) old cars for Hudson to play with. Just like at home he lined them up.

1 more week to go...

Easter Eggs!!!!!!!!!!!!

2011-05-11T16:02:00.000-05:00

So...I'm FINALLY catching up on blogs...lots of traveling has put me behind so here we go...

A few weeks ago we headed back to Little Elm for lunch with old friends, Stella and Cynthia. Stella is moving, so we wanted to see her before she headed off.

Then Aunt Cindy wanted to go to the park to play, and Hudson didn't argue with that one.

On our way home we stopped at Daddy's new office and he got a party favor bag of dinosaur stuff from a party we didn't make it to. Showing off some of the goodies.

We got him some of the colored bath tabs. He thinks they're pretty cool!

On Saturday we decided to decorate some eggs since we had a Star Wars egg decorating kit, so Justin turned on Star Wars in the background. Star Wars - Easter eggs - goes together naturally, right?

Picking out the stickers for his eggs.

Pretty proud of his artistry

The next morning he woke up to find his Easter basket and the first thing he wanted to do was eat the bunny marshmallows. "Please open these!"

Then he spotted his new police officer Potato Head accessories kit. He does love his Mr. Potato Head.

Of course this had to be opened immediately.

We headed out to Burleson to spend Easter with the cousins again. We really like this tradition we started last year. Cute cousins together.

I think they were excited to see us...What do you think?

Then we attempted to get him to sit still while we took a family picture.

A little flashback for ya...

Family picture that Libby wanted to be in too. Hudson's tongue was out in all these pictures we tried to take.

Cute little guy...Kind of looks like he should be on the corner selling newspapers back in the old days!

The Easter egg hunt has begun.

And Daddy started stealing candy

Helping him find the ones up high.

Remind you of last year?

Always yelling at the girls for something...

Sooooooooooooooo excited about the candy.

He had to stop and eat whatever was in the first few eggs until we convinced him that all the eggs would be gone if he didn't stop eating all the contents.

Hanging out with Uncle Ninny (Landon). Yes, Hudson calls him Ninny and we are sticking with that name.

Justin and Landon attempting a frisbee game which ended in crying from 2 of the 3 kids who wanted the frisbee for themselves.

You can see them trying to chase it down.

Proud of his find.

Then trying to hide it in the tree so the other kids couldn't get it. So nice.

Oh wait - they have sticks here...Nobody told me they had sticks! These are so much better than frisbees.

Then we went to see JuJu's new baby kitties. He really liked them, but didn't quite understand how to be so gentle with them. Then he started sneezing. I'm not sure if it was the cats or just coincidental.

Ashtyn had to show off her new skills of no-training wheels.

Hudson couldn't quite reach the pedals on Aubrey's old bike, so Justin gave him rides around.

Headed out for another Easter Egg Hunt with Grandma and Grandpa this time. He loved Easter egg hunting so much, as of yesterday he was still asking for Easter eggs. Maybe it was the candy.

Time for a cousin picture. Hudson wanted nothing to do with this, as you can see.

Opening his Easter basket from his Grandma and Grandpa. It had lots of Toy Story goodies in there, so it was a HIT! His favorite was the Woody PEZ dispenser.

My MIL is going to LOVE that I posted these on here. She put "Candy sticks" in their Easter baskets. I saw them and recognized them as "Candy cigarettes." She was like "NOOOOOOO!" And Justin jumped on the opportunity for some fun with these.

Justin and Landon acting out The Jets and The Sharks.

Hudson playing with his new bug toys from his Easter basket the day after Easter.

Well, that catches up 1 week, 2 more to go...

Easter Bunny Visit

2011-04-21T10:06:00.004-05:00

The rest of the trip...
Thursday morning Emmy woke up and wanted to play with her baby. She was so sweet sleeping and snuggling with this baby doll. She wanted it to have a blanket, so we used her dress.

Hudson wanting to get in on the pictures.

Back to Emmy being sweet to her baby.

Then back to Hudson trying to get attention from the camera showing off Buzz.

Then we headed to a local park that turned out to be really nice. The kids had a BLAST together.

Hudson laughing at Emmy about to go down the slide.

We learned that it's hard for a little girl to go down the slide in a dress.

Hudson's favorite part of the park is always the "Wing" He likes to "Big Wing." He likes us to pull him as far back as we can, we say "Ready - Set" and he says "Go" and cracks up the whole time. Emmy wasn't a fan of doing big swing, she was so happy with little swing. They had fun laughing at each other as they passed by.

By this afternoon they were acting more like brother and sister than loving cousins. Hudson was trying to tickle Emmy and she didn't want it, so he continued, then he wanted to touch her and she didn't want him to, so he continued. And on it went. It was funny for a little bit since they were so happy to be with each other at first and then by the last day, they were getting tired of each other. But that night, they did snuggle a little bit while playing games on my phone.

The next morning before we left Nana gave them their Easter baskets a little early.

His first gun set

His favorite part I think was the Toy Story snack ziploc bags. He likes to eat all his snacks in them now. So, I have to re-use them so I can make them last.

On Monday we went to Bass Pro with Cooper, Nicole and baby Emma because they had free Easter Bunny pictures. This was his first time with any character picture so I wasn't sure how it would go. I sat him down and he didn't cry or scream he just reached out for me.

So, I went and took the picture with him. He handled that fine.

Cooper wasn't a huge fan either, but as soon as they were out of the Easter Bunny's immediate area they were laughing and waving and fascinated with it. Silly kids!

A happy boy with his cousin

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Since Justin has been working so much lately, when he leaves in the morning Hudson clings to him with a death grip, so I am always trying to find things to distract him from Justin's leaving. Last week it was painting the Toy Story papers Nicole gave the boys at TS3 on Ice. I just let him do his thing to see how he would paint. He dipped his paint brush in each color and then painted, so all the sheets were covered in brown.

Carrying his crayons around like a briefcase...

We had ladybugs in the backyard the last few weeks. They are the only bug I'll touch, so I was trying to teach him how to be soft and hold them and let them crawl on your fingers.

(Hope you didn't get dizzy watching that - it shows my wonderful filming skills!)

He drove his Kawasaki up behind his truck and told me he was making a Choo-Choo.

Eating his "Candy" after a day spent in the sun - red cheeks!

Last Sunday we headed up to OK for a 6 day visit (that's why there was no post last Wed). My Mom came down to watch Emmy for a week, so we joined them. These 2 were so excited when they saw each other as you can tell.

We stayed at my Aunt & Uncles house and they have this cool apartment downtown with a porch where the kids can watch the cars and listen to the trains. They loved this pig. Here they are checking it out the first time, then they took rides on it together.

They did some coloring on Monday night with "Coco". That's what Hudson calls Uncle Colt. We shopped most of the day Monday.

On Tuesday we headed to the OKC zoo. We rented a double stroller for the day, they did really well in it until we were headed out the door they were ready for their own space.

Sharing snacks together.

We had a lunch break and Emmy ate a popsicle for lunch.

Then we got home and they CRASHED on the couch. Most of the animals were hiding, but they had a really cool brown bear exhibit. They swam around, crawled right up to the glass where we were and scratched their backs. That was pretty funny. Then the chimpanzees had a new little baby and we put their stroller right up to the window and the baby crawled up to the glass with his blanket and stared Hudson down (he was eating fruit snacks). I think he was just curious what he was eating. He stared at Hudson forever, so we let the kids get out and stare back.

On Wednesday we went to the ranch that Colt lives at with his friends. They have TONS of animals, so we let Hudson check them all out. He visited the grumpy geese...

Held a bunny - sideways pic, don't know why!

Tried to touch a turtles mouth...

Then he saw a TRACTOR! He was sooooo happy. He hopped right up and started pushing buttons.

Then he took his boots off and got all comfy up there.

He got to sit in a really big truck with CoCo. He immediately wanted to push all the buttons and mess with things like the tractor.

Another thing to drive...the MULE. This one had a flat tire, so they sat and played on it for awhile.

One happy boy

To be continued...

Buzz, Woody and the Whole Gang

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Hudson has finally developed a little bit of patience to work on puzzles. We sit them at the table after lunch and he can entertain himself for a few minutes. I was waiting for his patience to get to puzzle level.

But, as you can see it doesn't take long for him to get mechanical about it and see how the pieces are held together.

On Sunday we were invited to go to Toy Story on Ice with Nicole and Cooper and Cooper's Mimi. She was able to get us tickets in one of the suites. I was so grateful that we got to go and especially since my little dude is Buzz-Woody obsessed. Here we are at the show. He was GLUED. I really, really enjoyed it too.

The 4 of us...These 2 have become blessings in our life.

Nicole brought these glow sticks for the boys to wear during the show. Hudson wore his the whole time and played with them for 2 more days until they died.

I think this was his favorite part...BUZZ!!!

Playing with a Buzz toy during the intermission. It was so cold in there so we wore jackets and I was under a blanket.

2 silly faced boys waiting for the show to start again. Notice they each are wearing a TS shirt and have a TS toy. OBSESSED?

I thought this was cute of them watching the show. The suite was so nice because they could stand up and see the whole stage and didn't have to worry about sitting still in little seats. Plus, they could roam a little too.

Then, another smart move by Nicole, she brought them Toy Story gifts for after the show so we could avoid paying the outrageous prices for the toys there. Although, after the show I took him to Target and got him a little Buzz toy because he had been so good at the show and didn't ask for anything, and he loves playing with Cooper's Buzz. After he got it, he said "Cooper give Hudson Buzz."

He took his breakfast to the coffee table the other day...BED HEAD. I don't think he actually ate any of it though.

I've been doing some more work in the playroom (under stairs storage room) for Hudson. He snuck in there and thought the storage shelf was a new seat.

I made this alphabet wall in there this week...

I put up these pictures of his little friends (they aren't hung crooked) they are $ store frames and are made crooked. The wall includes Emmy, Cooper, Ashtyn and Aubrey so far. I put funny pictures on there that I think sum up each of their relationships.

When you walk in this is up on the top wall...PLAYTIME

Checking out his new setup. We put down the mat from Grandma & Grandpa. He only takes all the pieces out and doesn't put them back in.

Wearing his garden gloves in the backyard. I was planting flowers and he said he needed his gloves, so he put them on and then went to his water table and got them all wet. I have no idea why.

Today we went over to meet baby Emma and see Cooper. They played a little golf in the backyard.

They played on Cooper's swingset.

And I got to hold the new girl. She's so tiny and cute. Hudson didn't pay much attention to her except once he tried to tickle her from about 8 inches away.