Shake, Shake, Shake

Quite the booty shaker!

Very Photogenic

Today we had to lower Hudson's mattress. Noni went to get him out of bed this morning only to find him pulling himself up along the sides. While I only intended on showing pictures of Hudson peeking over the crib, I decided to choose several of the best :) Geez, Hudson, how can you take so many funny pictures in a minutes time?

Hopefully tomorrow is a better day...

Well, I've finally caught Hudson's bug and woke up feeling miserable. Thankfully he slept almost completely through the night last night, which is awesome considering he's been waking us by screaming. I was in no condition to pull an "all-nighter". Noni, too, has been unable to escape the sickness so we are all pretty much a mess right now. I did go in to work; however, ended up leaving at 11 am to take Hudson to the doctors. He has an ear infection and was prescribed an antibiotic. I'm glad I took him because I had no idea it was that serious but since it was not going away I thought we better check it out. I've been taking over the counter medicine myself which is not helping whatsoever. I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow to hear Mr.Bryce's heartbeat so I may ask for some real meds then. Oh, and on top of all of this, there was a "glitch" with the zoning department. Before we can start the addition we must have the property surveyed ($500) so that a building permit can be issued. They are expected to start next week, so I hope all is better then!
****Almost forgot to mention that Noni fell through our back screen door! Since she's okay, you know I would have loved to have seen that!****

Having a Ball

Happy Memorial Day! It was so great to have the day off from work and to spend the afternoon with family. As we usually do, we went to Dave and Colleen's for a picnic. The day was absolutely beautiful so everyone was pretty glad to be enjoying the great outdoors. We seem to accumulate more kids as each holiday arrives and today we met little Anni for the first time. She is now 9 weeks old and so lovely! Just think, Bryce will here for the Labor Day picnic (hopefully not for the 4th of July :)) The kids were all very happy to be playing and you can see Grace "having a ball" above!

My little Hudson is just not feeling well...he either has a bug, sinus issues, or is teething. Whatever the case may be he has an awful runny nose and his little eyes are so watery. This totally explains the last few sleepless nights that we've had. Hopefully he is on the mend. I'm keeping my fingers crossed as I write this, but he put himself to bed this evening without screaming and needing held, but the night is young so say a little prayer for us!

Hudson cannot wait to play with the other kids! I know he wanted to run along with them!

Grace was kind enough to let Hudson "play" ball with her!

So lately we've been having slight issues with Hudson going to sleep. He seems so tired, but is so resistant to going to bed. Last night he finally fell asleep in Brian's arms around 11:45. This is so crazy because this is coming from a boy who is always sleeping by 8-8:30. We can't even say that he is napping too much because he only napped from 11:20 am to noon today. We thought he'd sleep in the car after we went to lunch, but nothing. We thought he'd nap once we got home and played outside, but nothing. Then it was dinner time...

Good thing our highchair reclines! We just let him nap for about a half hour reclining right where he was. And just in case you were wondering, that nap set us back hours tonight! He did not go to bed until 10:45!

Joe "Cool"

This afternoon we went to lunch and Hudson seemed very relaxed. He wouldn't even sit up in his highchair because he was trying too hard to lounge back, which I'm sure wasn't very comfortable. Since the highchair situation wasn't working out for the little guy, I set him in the booth beside me. As you can see he was again pretty relaxed once he got the spoon he wanted so desperately!

Today

Looks like Noni brought spaghetti for lunch! Yay, big people food. Hudson is becoming independent and enjoys feeding himself. He's become particularly fascinated with squeezing his food. FYI: watermelon is very juicy!

And it looks like Hudson spent some time reading this afternoon...that is, of course, after Noni fixed him up with a stylin' do! Hudson does extremely well at thoroughly looking at a book. He turns each page and is very gentle and patient.

A Cat in the Hat kind of day

Daddy planned on working in the yard for most of the day, so Hudson and I went shopping for party supplies for his upcoming bash! Since I spent most of the day coordinating things in "The Cat in the Hat" colors, I found it very appropriate to read him the story before his bath this evening. It's actually a pretty long story and Brian and I are amazed that Hudson will sit for the entire thing. He's so adorable because sometimes he'll turn to watch my face as I read and he'll smile and turn back to the book. Other times he looks as if he's concentrating on the words I am saying and sometimes he'll scratch the pictures as if to see what things feel like! Hopefully he is very familiar with "The Cat in the Hat" and loves his birthday party because lots and lots of planning has gone into it already :)
*One side note: Where'd he get that beautiful skin tone? I am sooo jealous!

What a Joy- Another Boy!

Okay! I must really have pregnancy brain because I am usually more aware of what's going on! Today, I've been dooped. Totally caught by surprise. Weeks ago Aunt Deb called me at work and said that Little Gary has been asking about Hudson so she was trying to plan a weekend for us to come over and visit and Gary and family would come down at that same time. Well, I thought that Hudson was going on his first "playdate" today, but to my Surprise! Aunt Deb and Kelly planned a shower for Bryce! I was truly clueless and appreciate all of the thought and planning that has gone into this. We received lots of useful gifts as well as some very special personalized things just for Mr. Bryce!

Hudson even got his very own book that he began to read immediately :) My little boy is so smart :)

Aunt Deb is getting good...she thought of this phrase all by herself

and the cake is CHOCOLATE, of course!

The funny thing about chocolate cake is that it has always been my favorite and Aunt Deb would even go to the extent to get me a separate chocolate cake on KELLY'S birthdays because Kelly wanted vanilla. Who gets their own birthday cake on someone else's birthday? ME!

Bryce's basket full of goodies made out of diapers! Kelly did an awesome job arranging this basket. I'm even going to steal her idea for the next shower that I am invited to.

Yay! More diapers! You can never have enough!

My handsome men, right Grandma?

My Grandma thinks that Brian is a cutie :)

Hudson was loving on Little Gary, after all he's the reason we even went to visit!

Aunt Deb, Kelly, and Grandma- Thanks so much for thinking of us and for planning such a great party!

Gary, Stephanie, Little Gary, and Alexandra- Thanks so much for driving down to spend your day with us (and for being on time :))

Donna- Thanks for the fudge! Delicious!

Home sweet Home

Since we are quickly growing out of our 2 bedroom home, after lots of thought and consideration, we've decided to add on! We are very excited that each boy will have his own room. Thank goodness because there was no way in the world that Hudson's room would even fit another crib! They should be able to start building at the end of next week or the beginning of the following week and the entire project should be completed in 2 to 2 1/2 months...just in time for Bryce to arrive. The new addition, consisting of two bedrooms and a hallway, will be constructed behind our garage and Hudson's current room will be turned into a playroom/office/daddy's getaway :) More updates along the way!

Pregnancy Update

I got another sneak peek at Bryce today. The doctor wanted to do a sonogram to check his growth since Hudson was born so little. As of today, 28 weeks and 2 days, Bryce weighs 2 pounds 10 ounces. This is exactly where he should be, and provided I can make it to 40 weeks, he is estimated to be born around 7 pounds 4 ounces. We'll just see if he can wait that long :)
It was nice to see the little guy during a sonogram this far along. He was very active and you could even see him rubbing his eyes. It's amazing what these machines can do these days. Everything else looked perfect! I can't wait to meet him!

First Mommy's Day!!!

Happy Mother's Day! I have been looking forward to celebrating this day for a long time...now that it has finally come I never imagined that I'd be doubly blessed!! Hudson is the greatest thing in the world and next year I'll be writing that Hudson AND Bryce are the best. Motherhood has been so rewarding and each month is better and better. It is wonderful to see that your little one is learning because of you, that your little one is happy because of you, and that your little one loves because of you! My dream is that Hudson (and Bryce) will always know how much they are truly loved and that I am grateful for their being here!

Relay for Life

Since Brian had to work this morning Hudson and I met Jill and Chad at Warren's Relay for Life. SSCU always has a lovely tent so it was great to visit co-workers and walk around to visit the other tents as well.

As Jill is feeding Hudson, he doesn't want to miss a thing! He's watching the kids play the game at the SSCU tent while feeding himself (multi-tasking)

After Hudson started to warm up to the many new faces, he let Miss Charlene hold him for a bit

Hudson found his buddy Chad very entertaining

Laughing at Chad's silly dance moves

First cucumber

I was going to wait until this weekend to post (really because we've had nothing exciting to blog about); however, since I haven't written all week you can see Hudson eating his first slice of cucumber below. Sorry, folks, that's as good as it gets! YES, we really are this boring!!

Hudson will eat just about everything we put in front of him. He even tried a black olive tonight. We got a few interesting faces on that one, but he continued to eat it anyway.

Dana turns 19!

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday, Dear Dana

Happy Birthday to you!

Today I took a vacation day from work so that Hudson and I could spend the day with Aunt Dana and Noni. Dana wanted to visit a scrapbooking store in Fairlawn so that was today's big adventure. Once we arrived in Fairlawn, we enjoyed lunch and then the shopping began.

After shopping for a bit, we headed home just in time to get ready for dinner. G'Pa, Papa G, Cody, Brian, Hudson, Noni, Dana, and I all went to Applebee's for more food! Hope you had a wonderful birthday, Dana!

He looks like he'll be a pro at ordering from the menu

Finally, Aunt Dana's Birthday Advice from Hudson...

When life gives you lemons...

Make a sour face!

Hudson Van Gogh

I realized the other day when I dropped some of Hudson's baby food on his tray and he smeared it around with pure excitement that we should try fingerpainting. Surprisingly he did not try to eat it! He was more fascinated with the paint bottles and the blank canvas than the paint itself which was another surprise. Although he did not get the concept of painting a certain object, I'm pretty sure he had fun and we will try again another day.