Quote of the Day

Hudson:
"Mommy look!  I'm wearing my dancing shoes!"

Star Student

Hudson is Star Student this week!  He was very excited to sit in the star student chair during circle time today.  His teachers sent home a yellow star with instructions to decorate it with a picture.  This star was to hang on the Star Student bulletin board with his classmates.  He had a lot of fun coloring with the glitter pens and gluing the poms poms on the corners. Hudson was very proud of his star and had a fun day as Star Student!

Our Super Star!

With Ms. Maureen and Ms. Shelly on his special day!

 Mommy's Super Star!

 So proud of his work!

 His teachers gave him a Star Student sticker 

 Here's his star displayed proudly with his classmates 

 I snapped a picture of him before leaving this morning.  Two of his friends, Christian and Alexa, had arrived and they started their morning craft with Hudson.

Today was also an extra special day because he had some surprise guests join us to pick him up this afternoon - Kelsey and Trevor!  They came to see the school because Kelsey is going to be in Hudson's class next year.  Since Hudson and Luke will both be in preschool next year, Jill is going to drop them off and pick them up on Thursdays, along with Kelsey.  She will also watch them for a couple hours after school before I get off work.  This will be a perfect set up since Kelsey will also be going to school next year.  So the boys will not be going to Farrah's after this summer.

It was so cute this afternoon because Hudson was introducing his best friend, Kelsey, to all of his school friends just as a polite little gentleman.  He's the BEST!  I'm so proud of him!

After we picked Hudson up from school, Jill and I took the kids to the park.  It was a perfect day to enjoy the outdoors!

Quote of the Day

Me:  "Come on boys.  Let's go grab something for lunch."
Hudson:  "Let's eat here, Mommy."
Me:  "I wish we could, but unfortunately we don't have much to eat.  Our fridge is pretty empty, so I am going to have to do some [serious] shopping tonight.  We will pick something up and bring it back here to eat."
Hudson:  "You can go, Mommy.  And I will take care of Luke while you're gone."
Me:  "That's very sweet bud, but I want you guys to come with me.  I'll be lonely without you"

Say a Little Prayer

Luke has just started bowing his head when we pray at dinner.  Before this, he would just look at us while we prayed.  We had to have a second prayer before dinner tonight, so I could catch a photo of this.

My precious boy praying to Jesus!

On a side note, I usually like to cook a nice (healthier) meal, especially on the days I'm off work.  But we were gone all day and didn't get home until just before dinner.  So it was mac 'n cheese with fried fish tonight.

If the Shoe Fits (or even if it doesn't)... Wear it!

Hudson changed his shoe style 7 times today!  That was only while we've been home, which hasn't been for very long.  Before we left this morning for a playdate, Hudson wore 4 different pairs of shoes.  After coming home (only about an hour ago), Hudson has tried to wear 3 other pairs.  Some of these shoes are Luke's, so Hudson will only wear them for a short period before realizing they hurt (even though Mommy warned him they were too small).  He has raided his and Luke's closet for nothing else but SHOES today!

**One hour later after this was posted, Hudson put on two other different pairs!

Things that make me SMILE!

• Hudson and Luke are best friends!  As I had hoped, these two are attached at the hip.  They play like brothers.  They stick up for each other like brothers.  And they fight like brothers.  I'm so glad these two are the very best of friends!

• Luke continues to be an excellent sleeper.  He has always been like this.  Even back when he was a week old, you could lay him down and he would go right to sleep with no fuss.

• Luke is talking in short sentences now.  He has phased out of his one word phrases into shorts sentences such as "Be right back", "Here you go" and "More juice please" among others.

• Hudson loves baseball, and boy can he hit that ball!  Just the other day, Matthew's friend, Doug, was at our house, and Hudson wanted to show him how he can hit the baseball.  So Matthew started throwing him pitches (no tee I might add), and he hit three line drives straight toward Doug's face.  Doug was impressed.  So I got my camcorder out to catch this, and of course, the next couple pitches he missed the ball.  I put my camcorder away, and sure enough, he hit the ball beautifully.  I think baseball is going to be his sport, along with golf.  It fits his personality.  It's less of a contact sport than soccer, basketball and football.  With soccer, that's the part he doesn't seem to like it- getting the soccer ball from others.  We're excited for him to start baseball this year!  He has already started playing golf with his new clubs, and he is great at hitting the golf ball as well!

• Hudson is very attentive to his looks, much like a girl.  Especially shoes!  He will often dig through his and Luke's shoes in their closets looking for the perfect pair to wear that day.  Weather or seasons don't matter when it comes to shoes.  He will wear flip-flops (inside of course) when it's 20 degrees outside.  But his favorite shoes are his dress shoes.  He has a black pair and a brown pair that he most often chooses.  And most nights he wears his shoes to bed, and I will take them off after he falls asleep.

• Whenever Luke is asked how old he is, he responds "4" while still showing 1 with his fingers.  I think this is because he wants to one up his brother!

• Luke loves this gold fuzzy blanket. He has started carrying it around the house with him, and he can sometimes be found cuddled up underneath it on the couch watching cartoons.

Hudson snuggling with his little brother

Quote of the Day

As Hudson and Luke are eating a red heart lollipop after school today, Hudson says, "Mommy come here so I can give you a big kiss with my sticky lips!"  Of course, I had to give him a sticky kiss, and then he wanted me to kiss Luke's sticky lips too.  What great boys I have!

Berry Fun Valentine's Day

To celebrate Valentine's Day, Hudson's class had a Valentine Breakfast this morning.  They ate pancakes and berries with chocolate milk.  I forgot my camera this morning, but let's just say it was "Berry Cute!".  The table was decorated perfectly as always with pink and red and included some Valentine's balloons.  This breakfast was a fantastic start to their day!  I brought Valentine cookies for an afternoon snack, and when I arrived to pick Hudson up the kids were still enjoying their snack of popcorn, cookies and conversation hearts with water.  (I remembered my camera this afternoon!)

Hudson sitting with Landri and Georgia.  Smart boy to pick the table with the girls on Valentine's Day!

 Hudson (his red mouth from the cookie) with Ms. Shelly and Ms. Maureen

For all of his friends in class and his teachers, Hudson brought this Valentine treat.  It's a shovel with M&Ms, and the tag reads "I dig you!"  He also gave them each a Mickey Valentine card.

Playing Catch-Up

Hello again! I'm back from the dead! Well, not exactly... we've been plenty busy!  I had made a New Year's resolution not to be so crazy with my blog posts and pictures.  Of course, I am still taking plenty of pictures and video of the boys during special moments, but I kinda felt like it was getting out of hand, and I was not able to "make as many memories" when I was always trying to "capture all of them on film".  So I decided to take a step back and just enjoy the boys, which brings me to my blog break.  Although having two boys is incredibly fun, it's also extremely busy.  So I found that I was using any down time I had (in the evenings) to post my blogs.  So I decided to become more practical and less excessive with my blog posts.  Since this is ultimately a way for me to journal our memories, I thought about what I will want to read in years to come:  Will I want to read about the first time I take one of my boys to the movies- of course!  Will I want to flip through and read about each and every time we go to a movie or go to the park?  Not necessarily.  So now I am scaling back my posts.  I mean, our parents didn't keep nearly the records that we are able to nowadays, and I feel that it can sometimes get in the way of having fun!

With that said... I am back on Blogger (I actually had to login this time instead of already being logged in on my computer since it had been so long), and here's a little catch-up of our past month.  We've had lots of events that we didn't take any pictures such as a some birthday parties, I took Hudson on a date to Beauty and the Beast, a few playdates at our new favorite bounce house, celebrating my birthday, and putting an offer on a new house.  One of the birthday parties we went to, Kelsey's, was at the roller skating rink.  I don't bring my camera to other kid's parties, and I didn't think about the fact that it would be Hudson's first time roller skating.  Fortunately, I didn't miss anything because he didn't "skate" for long (all of two minutes or so).  It took some convincing to get him out on the rink by showing him that Kelsey and Trevor were doing it.  And once he got out there, he cried most of the time.  I was leading him around the rink, and he had a "stabilizer" to hold onto, but skating is just a weird experience that he needs some getting used to.  I think after he does it a few more times he'll enjoy it, but he didn't like it at this party.

On January 21st, the Baxters invited us to join them at the Fort Worth Stock Show.  We decided to wait on the rodeo for a couple more years when the kids can enjoy it more.  When we got there, the kids spent some time in the petting zoo.  This was definitely the boys favorite part of the day:

 Feeding the goat food from a cone.  I had to catch Luke becuase once he realized that the goat was about to eat the whole thing, he tried to take a bite before it was all gone.  As quickly as I could I stopped him (in mid bite)... Yuck!

 Another goat decided to join in.

 Hudson, who is normally fairly timid with situations such as these, was more bold with feeding the animals becuase he watched his brother join in... who has no fear! 

 Luke tried to feed the goats hay.

 Having fun!

 Hudson fed the goat out of his hands (a brave step for him!)

 Luke has no fear!  He stuck his hand right in there, and this cow was immensly larger than him!

 Luke is very gentle with petting the goats.

The boys spoiled me for my birthday earlier this month.  Hudson and Luke made me a beautiful card, and Daddy took me on a date!  My parents watched the boys on Friday and Saturday.  Matthew and I went shopping, to dinner, and to a movie on Saturday night.  We shopped around, and of course I ended up buying mostly for the boys.  I did find their Easter outfits, so I was excited about that!  We ate dinner at Patrizio and saw The Descendants, which was a very good movie!  The next morning, I got a massage.  Then Matthew and I drove to the Coach outlet where I got a wristlet I'd been wanting before picking up the boys for Kelsey's party.  After Kelsey's party, Matthew's parents treated us to my birthday dinner at Babe's.  It was a fun and perfect birthday that I am STILL celebrating!  This weekend I have plans with Jill to go to brunch, shopping at H&M, and to a movie.  We are celebrating both of our birthdays, which are a week apart.  And next weekend I am celebrating with shopping and dinner with all of my cousins and friends on my side of the family.  The weekend before my birthday, I celebrated with my friends, Courtney and Jennifer.  We went to brunch and a movie- We Bought a Zoo (which was also very good!).  I have enjoyed a whole birthday MONTH this year!  No complaining from me though!

Last week, we put an offer on a new house.  We are very excited about it but are trying not to get too excited until we know if we got it.  It's a foreclosure that's absolutely beautiful.  We love it!  But what goes hand in hand with a good deal on a gorgeous home?... multiple offers!  Everyone is to put in their "highest and best" offer, and these offers are supposed to go to the bank this week.  From there, the bank will select one.  As of right now, I think there are 7 offers (which includes ours), but the listing agent has indicated that a couple of those offers may have left because they placed theirs over a month ago, and the bank has dragged its feet during this process.  We're in no hurry, so we will wait it out to hear from the bank.