Party! Party! Party!

We celebrated Hudson's first birthday last weekend! I know Hudson won't remember his birthday, but he'll be able to see the pictures. He loves animals and always tries to make different sounds (he can say "moo" and "meow" so far and he also barks- he thinks he's a dog, but that's another story:) ), so we decided to do an Old MacDonald theme. We had our family and some friends over for pizza, chips, cupcakes, and ice cream. We had a great time and we were so glad that people made it out to help us celebrate! I couldn't put all of the pictures of everyone who came, but here are a few. Thanks everyone!

Me and Hudson, Kellie and Zoe, Steph and Coop, Brooke and Lilly

It's so fun that we all have babies now!!

Lauren and Lawson

Alyse and Me (thanks sooo much for taking pictures and video!!!!)

Grandma Faas, my aunt Susan, and my mom Patti

Mary and my dad

Shawndel and Jeaniece

Natalie and Nichole

Kylie and Brecken

Cake and Presents

Hudson got so many great gifts and toys- thank you to everyone!

He will be set for a long time.

He didn't really get how to open the presents, so I mostly opened them and then he played with them.

Yummy cupcakes.

I put little farm animals on top of them for decorations. You wouldn't think it would be that hard to find cheap little farm figures....but it was. We went to EVERY store we could think of- Target, Walmart, 2 or 3 dollar stores, walgreens, etc etc.... no one had them! (or they were too nice and wanted like $2 for each animal (no thanks). Finally on my way to go scrapbooking Friday night Abe suggested one last store- Toys R Us. Woohoo!!!! I found a whole bunch of them for just a couple bucks. I was excited :)

Hudson wasn't quite sure what to think of his cake........

But he dug right in!

And loved it!

Mess? What mess???

**Thanks again to everyone who came! We know it is a nice drive and we really appreciate everyone who came all the way out here! We had a great time and we hope you did, too.**

Happy (late) Anniversary!

Abe and I celebrated our 4th anniversary last week. Its crazy how time flies! I love you babe!

Happy Birthday Hudson! (yesterday)

We can't believe our baby is already 1 year old! Time goes by so fast, but it is so much fun. Since we're not having Hudson's party until next Saturday, we decided to go out to dinner with just our little family to celebrate his birthday.

He's such a big boy!

Deciding what to order..... :)

Eating a lemon from Daddy

They brought out a scoop of ice cream for his birthday!

He loved it.........

...but who needs a spoon??

So much fun!

Just some cute pics of our 1 year old!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

As I'm sure everyone else feels, it has been a crazy couple of weeks. I haven't blogged as much as I have wanted, so I decided to do a little catching up. Sorry if it is blog overload :)

Here is Hudson helping me unpack after our trip to Utah!

Happy New Year!

Some friends in our ward threw a super fun New Years party. We actually got the invitation in the mail a few weeks earlier from "New Years Nancy". It didn't say who was throwing it, but that if we accepted the invitation we would be part of the grand new years challenge. We figured it had to be someone in our ward and thought it sounded like fun- and it was! We did a scavenger hunt and ended up at Sara Jones's house. We played guitar hero, bunco, and just had fun!

not alcohol, of course :) just yummy sparkling cider

A trip to Utah

We got up super early (3:45am) the day after Christmas to leave for Utah. My dad's side of the family all live up there so we usually go and visit them this time of year. The car ride was long, but thank goodness for portable DVD players! I think Hudson and I would have nearly died if it weren't for Baby Einstein! :) Considering how long the drive was (about 11-12 hours) Hudson did pretty well. There were times when I wondered what the heck I was doing, but all in all it was worth it. We had a great time with all of our family and cousins, and we even got to play in the snow!

Hudson and Mommy tubing down the hill!!

Thanks for the push, Grandpa Kurt

Hudson's true feelings about the snow.

Nothing like a game of guitar hero!

and don't forget dance dance revolution!

Exhausted after a long day.

My grandma had this pillow that vibrated- Hudson found it and just chilled for a few minutes by himself, it was so funny!

Hudson likes to climb in and out of things all the time. Here he is enjoying the box that grandpa got out for the wrapping paper trash.

Christmas Day

We started out Christmas morning with just our little family at our house. After that we went to my Dad's and then finished out the day at my Mom's. Some people say they don't like to go a lot of places on Christmas day, but I think it is fun to be able to see everyone and hang out. Otherwise, what else would we do?

Looks like Santa came!

Santa brought Hudson a bounce and spin Zebra. When we brought him out to see it we put him on the floor and let him crawl over to it. It was so funny- he crawled over and kind of stopped in front of it and started barking at it. I don't know if he thought it was a dog or what, but he would crawl a little closer and then bark again. We thought it was hilarious.

Here are all of the grandkids on my side of the family.

Merry Christmas!

Santa

Hudson's first encounter with Santa

Not the worst reaction, but he definitely did not want to sit on Santa's lap!

Reunion time

My friend Alyse and I love to throw parties, so we thought it would be fun to have a little shin dig with our high school friends. Not everyone was able to make it with all of the holiday busyness, but we had a blast!
It's always hilarious to watch people play the wii.

Tiffany wasn't able to make it to the party, but she came out to my house on Monday so we could see each other before she left to go back to Idaho.

Its so funny to think back to when we met in 7th grade..... now we have our own little families!

Yummy food!

My dad and Mary just closed on their new house in Maricopa, so we decided to break it in by baking cookies and yummy Christmas treats! They have a beautiful, huge kitchen with two evens, so it made the baking go a lot faster.... which meant we got to enjoy our cookies sooner!

Grandma Mary frosting cookies with Kylie and Brecken.

Their beautifully decorated cookies- they are so proud!

My beautiful creation.... not to mention delicious..... pumpkin cookies!

The Graves Family Christmas

We had a party earlier in the month with Abe's side of the family. We had a yummy dinner and did a gift game exchange. Grandma and Grandpa sent us presents to open, too.

These are all of the grandkids.... it's always hard to get a picture with everyone looking!

There was candy at the bottom of the box that grandma and grandpa sent.... Hudson was trying so hard to get it out! We thought he was going to fall in.