Well Check and Birthday Celebrations

We have had a busy week of birthday celebrations at our house! Last Sunday we went to Arkansas to celebrate Katy’s 3rd birthday! Monday baby Max (a friend’s baby) arrived and Tuesday we celebrated Ryan’s 26th!

We celebrated with dinner at Buffalo (his favorite) then we went back to our house for presents and Oreo ice cream cake! Yum!

Wednesday we celebrated the big 2! We celebrated with lunch at Chick-Fil-A (ice cream included) and dinner at Compadres with these cute Mickey Mouse cupcakes. Ryan baked the cakes I did the icing and they were delicious!

Hudson LOVED opening presents! He is actually still asking to open presents!

Thursday we went to his 2 year check up!

He officially really dislikes the doctor’s office. He asks to go bye bye from the minute the nurse call us back. (the waiting room is all good because of the toys). But we made it through and the little guy looks great. Here are his stats:

Weight:27.8lb (48th percentile)

Height: 34.5 in (54th percentile)

I believe his head was about 19 1/2 (85th percentile) I almost laughed out loud when she said “big heads tend to run in families” ha!

He doing really great on all of your developmental skills! Right on track!

TWO!

Hudson William, I cannot believe I am writing about you turning TWO!

It's so crazy to think that it has been two years since your birthday, but it sure has flown!

I will update all of your stats after your two year check up. I can't wait to see how much you've grown.

You wear 18-24 month pants and some 2T shirts and jammies. You wear a size 6 shoe (YOU LOVE SHOES) and size 4 diaper. You really aren't into using your potty right now. You just like to play on it and that's ok.

You are still a great eater (I don't think this will change). You LOVE milk (especially chocolate), juice, water and ice! You really love salad with ranch, chicken, and chips. You aren't too picky though, there are very few things that you turn away from. You are really into "nandy" right now, so we have to hide it. Your favorite candy is "m m's."

I'm not lying when I say that you talk NONSTOP! You are like my little parrot who repeats everything. You  say more words than I could ever try to write out. And you are doing so good to put together simple sentences like "home see daddy" or "go Mae Mae's house." You especially love to say hi and bye to everyone that you see. Just yesterday you were stopping at each person you saw in the halls of the hospital saying “bye, bye  guys.” Your talking keeps us very entertained!

You are still in love with the car that you got for Christmas. You are obsessed with keys and are always trying to get a hold of someone's.

You are really into Mickey Mouse still and you cannot get enough of it. You carry around your Mickey stuffed animals, take him for rides in your car and beg to watch "hot dog" every time the tv gets turned on. You are somewhat interested in the Cars movie, but mostly only care to watch Mickey.

You are really into stuffed animals right now. You have Mickey and Donald stuffed animals that you have to sleep with every night. You also sleep with moose (remember him from your baby pictures?), Minnie (stolen from Abby) and your Scentsy buddy. OHMIWORD! It's ridiculous trying to get you to your bed while carrying twelve animals! But it's really quite adorable how you love on them.

I do think that the terrible twos have arrived a little early. You like to throw little fits to try to get your way and you think screaming helps you. I'm praying that this is quick and painless for us all (but I'm not sure it will happen that way). Regardless daddy and I LOVE and adore you. You are so precious to us and we cannot get enough of you. You are growing into an adorable little boy and we cannot wait to see more of what you will do. You have the best personality and it’s so fun to watch you. I pray every night over you that most of all you will serve and love the Lord. We love you Hudson! Happy 2nd Birthday! We can't wait to party!

Family Pictures

One thing that dad mentioned he wanted for Christmas was family pictures. So my sister found a good photographer and we had lots of fun! I Thought I would share a few favorites! We are really happy with how they turned out! And I think mom and dad liked them too :)

Twenty Eleven

I can hardly believe that another year has gone by, but it is true! We are now finishing our first day of 2012. I wanted to write a short review of what our year has entailed. I won’t go into great detail since most of the highlights are posted in the archives, but here are the things I remember most.

• Hudson turned ONE! We were not sure what all one would bring us, but this year it has meant walking, talking, and lots more talking! Ha, we have really enjoyed this year with Hudson. I might not be saying next year that next year depending on how terrible twos hit. (I’m kidding, we love and cherish him no matter what).
• We sold our house in Stillwater! What a relief! We were so glad to be moving onto finding our next home. Now I kind of want it back, but that’s another post for another time!
• We began house shopping, found a house that we really liked, and loved the price even better! We thought this house was the perfect fit for our financial and home needs. We were very excited to move into our own place again. But home buying wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. We had a tough time getting things settled and to add to it we had air conditioning problems during the summer of 100 degree heat! But we are over all of that now and still very much enjoying our new home. We are blessed with a great roof over our heads!
• Speaking of weather we experienced some crazy weather this year-we had a snow storm that landed us 2 weeks of snowcation. We experienced summer heat over one hundred degrees which meant no outside time for the little guy who longed to soak up the sun. And we experienced our first earthquakes! All I can say is that I am thankful that Hudson slept through those!
• My grandmother passed away which was somewhat nonexpectant. However, we experienced the joy of new life as we welcome new nieces to the world!
• I continued in the same teaching position as I was last year and am so thankful for that. I really enjoy what I do and where I work. I wouldn’t say that this school year has been easy, but I am thankful for my job and the support of my colleagues. Ryan continues to work the night shift and although that has been a struggle he really enjoys what he does. The schedule is tough, but he knows it is temporary so he is working through it.

Most of all this year I am thankful that through every hardship, trial, victory, and triumph we have had the peace and comfort of our Lord and support of family and friends. I am so thankful for the big things that happen and all of the little things to that really aren’t mentioned above. Every vacation, day off, family event, time with friends, etc. are all cherished and we don’t want to take those for granted.

I don’t have any lofty goals for the next year. I just want to continually live for my Lord. And with that brings lots of desires in my heart-giving more, loving more, being better stewards with my time and resources, etc. But most of all I want to live out the verse below. Because if we dwell on it our actions will reflect it. And I want these boys below how much I love, adore and cherish them!

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8 NIV)

Happy 2012! What are you hoping is in store for you?

From Our Family

2nd Birthdays & Sign Language

Over the last several months we have celebrated many 2nd birthdays. Hudson's friends all were born within three months of him so we a LOT of birthdays in the fall/winter. Last week we went to a birthday for Addie. She had a tutus and ties party at Chick-fil-a. The boys wore duck tape ties and the girls had tutus. It was super cute and Hud enjoyed playing with friends in the play area.

He is such a flirt. I took him to the restroom to change his diaper and on the way she stopped at every table to tell them bye. My little ham....On another note I wanted to talk about sign language. I haven't mentioned it in any of his recent birthday posts but I think it's important to note that he still uses it. Sometimes when he's frustrated and trying to tell us what he wants he will do a few different signs in a row because he can't figure out the right one. It's like he's hoping that if he can make up a sign we will be able to help him. I taught him sign language for many reasons, but one of them was that it lessens frustration when they can't communicate through words.(He obviously loves chocolate)I still try to teach him new signs periodically, but to be honest I haven't done a great job lately. We are working on water but it's a hard one!The signs he currently uses are:milkmorehungryfinishedagain (he mostly associates this one with Mickey Mouse because I always say "again?" when he wants to watch it but we are working on using it in other situations too)shoesbooks (he does this for Library too)he also has a sign for yes sir that we kind of made up and he also associates it for Uncle Trent who he calls "hat"(I'm probably forgetting some)I think he is a great talker and probably doesn't need signs anymore. But I just think that while babies are young and growing we should use their willingness to learn for their benefit. (And no I don't think we should teach our babies to read) I'm praying that one day he will be able to use signs to help others ;)

23 Months

Hudson, you are 23 months old today!

You still weigh between 27-28 pounds and I think you're still 35-36 inches tall. You wear 18-24 month clothes for the most part. We have bought you a few 2T shirts and I can't believe it. It makes you sound like such a big boy!You wear size 6 shoe, but I think you're about to move up to a 7. Your feet to seem to be growing a lot lately.You wear size 4 diaper.And speaking of diapers we bought you a potty this month. You have started staying dry through some of your naps and we wanted to get you used to the idea. You love to sit on it (clothed) and talk about it. But you aren't really interested in it other than a few minutes a day. That's ok, we will get there!You talk nonstop and I'm so impressed by the things you say. Today you got a present from under the tree and said "Hudsee's box" I have no idea how you know that it is a box. You took the bow off and put it on Rylee and said "Ry Ry's bow" I didn't know you had the word bow in your vocabulary either! You are putting words together to make simple sentences and they are so cute. One thing that you do that cracks me up is repeat yourself until someone acknowledges what you said. You will say the same thing over and over until someone responds to you as if you need their approval. You are such a social bug and talk to anyone! You especially love to tell everyone bye and blow them kisses. You still LOVE to eat and I don't think that will change. You are really in to "nandy" right now thanks to Grandma's candy dish. You go right to it and can even get to the lid!
You love all of the Christmas decorations and call trees "lights." You have a tree in your room and call it lights even though it has none on it. I knew that you would never sleep if you had lights in your room! You love to drive to look at lights around town and when we go to Papa's house you say "papa's lights." I'm curious to see all you will react to all of the fun of Christmas. You are obsessed with cars and driving and buckles. You love to sit in the front seat and pretend to drive. If you see someone in the car without their seatbelt on you say "Mommy buckle." You are keeping us all safe!You have and still love Mickey Mouse, chocolate milk, sausage rolls and gravy (without the sausage), music, socks and shoes and anything to do with technology. My favorite part of the day with you is bedtime. Not because I'm exhausted, because you are so sweet about the whole process. It goes a little something like this:bathteethjammiesbible storytucking you in bedpraying over you (and you do a little whisper prayer that isn't understandable but it's to die for) saying love you Jesus (while looking at the ceiling)kisses goodnightYou are SO sweet. Your love for your bible above any other book is so inspiring. Sometimes when I just want to get you to bed because we are both worn out you hold me accountable and it's always SO worth it.I seriously cannot believe we are going to be celebrating your 2nd birthday next month. This has been an amazing two years with you! I'm a little sad that I won't be doing anymore monthly updates, but so excited to watch you continue to grow! Daddy and I love you very much. You light up our lives and we are better because of you! We love and adore you sweet boy! Happy 23 months!