Build-A-Bear

When Abe's parents were in town, Grandma Karen took all of the grandkids to Build-A-Bear.

When we got there I showed Hudson all of the animals he could choose. He wasn't quite sure what to do, so I decided I would pick out three that I thought he would like and then let him choose. I grabbed a monkey, a panda, and a dinosaur. In the meantime, Hudson came over to me with a hot pink monkey! I laughed and told him I didn't think Daddy would like it if he came home with that! So we put it back. At first he picked the dinosaur, but then he traded it and kept the monkey- this one was brown:).

Hudson picked out a heart, gave it a kiss, then put it in his monkey.

We got to push the pedal to help stuff the monkey! Even little Cody helped with his.

Breghten and Hudson gave their animals a little fluff and brush in the bath.



Then we got to pick out an outfit. Hudson went for an Iron Man shirt and a construction hat, no surprises there :) He is such a boy. The hat was a little big for the Monkey, but he looked cute. And then, of course, when he was done he gave him a little kiss!

We all had such a fun time. Hudson played with his monkey almost the whole way home- talking to him and holding him. I think I even heard him saying "baby, baby, boo" which is something I say to him when I'm pretending he's a baby.... too cute! Thank you Grandma Karen!

A day in the snow

Abe's parents took us with them to Pinetop for a couple of days. We really only got to play one day, the other two were basically spent driving, but we had a great time and Hudson enjoyed playing in the snow (which was a good change from last year).

From our window we could see squirrels running up and down the trees. Hudson was really close to the window and Abe told him to 'look at it!' So what did he do? He licked the window :) I guess look and lick sound a lot alike!

Down by the office they had a couple of squirrel feeders. Hudson loved watching the squirrels run up and down and all over. They actually let us get pretty close to them.

This picture cracks me up because Hudson's eyes are totally closed! I'm not quite sure how he expected to catch the snowball with his eyes closed.

Then I realized his eyes are closed in every picture that he was trying to catch a snowball!

Hudson did decide to retaliate, and got some good throws in himself.

Then we got all bundled up to actually play in the snow. We tried to have Hudson make a snow angel, but he wasn't so sure about it. I showed him how to eat the snow- he really liked it. Then Grandpa and Abe built a little snowman which Hudson then kicked over (his daddy taught him how to kick the snow).

We had a great time playing in the snow, thank you Papa Benny and Grandma Karen for the fun!

It's still Christmas!

Abe's parents live in Oregon and have been visiting all the kids here for a few weeks. Last weekend we had 'Christmas' with the Graves family.

We put on our very first annual Christmas play. Complete with homemade costumes of robes, towels, and ties. Hudson did not want to have anything to do with his costume. Abe was the narrator, and Hudson and I were the inn keepers. Lawson didn't want a costume on either, and I think Cody, who played the part of baby Jesus, was too young to protest. I am sure our performances will improve over the years :)

We also got to open some presents, and Aunt Melissa and Robb even joined us via webcam so they could see the kids open the presents they sent. We all got some great stuff, and had fun playing white elephant games. Of course there was yummy food and dessert, so I think everyone left very satisified and happy :)

It's party time!

We celebrated Hudson's 2nd birthday last weekend with a lot of family, a few friends, and a ton of fun! Hudson is totally into Cars, so that's what we decided to do for decorations.

Of course there was cake (and cupcakes, too). Hudson LOVED his Car cake. He was very excited about it (fyi- I didn't make the cake or cupcakes, Mary had a friend at work do it for us.... turned out totally cute! thank you!) We actually had to light the candles twice because Hudson blew them out before we even started singing. I'm not sure if he even took a bite of the actual cake because he just kept licking off the frosting. He would take off the car, lick the frosting off, then dip it back in! At least he enjoyed it.

Uncle Ryan thought it would be funny to put stickers all over his face. Hudson wasn't sure what to think, and then wasn't too happy when it hurt to take them off! :) But now he thinks that all stickers belong on his face. Every sticker he can get his hands on goes straight to his face.

Then finally.... the presents! He liked to open all of the presents, but had to make sure all of the paper came off. Hudson got so many cool new toys- THANK YOU to everyone. He loves them all.

We had a great party- thank you everyone, and Happy Birthday Hudson!

PS- Hudson loves for me to sing the Happy Birthday song, and asks for me to sing it with his cousins names in it, too. He is still asking me to sing it a week later! :)

5 years ago...

It's crazy to think that this was 5 years ago. Time really does fly. We have had a lot of fun together, and I know a lot more is to come. Happy Anniversary, Abe, I Love you!

My baby is 2!!

2007

2008

2009

I can't believe Hudson is 2 already! Time just seems to fly by. He is learning so much, and surprises me and Abe every day with the things that he does and says. We had a fun day together. Here's a little of what we did.....

Hudson got his birthday present first thing this morning. It is a Black and Decker tool bench that his daddy found a few months ago for a steal at a garage sale!! He is really enjoying it- the power drill is his favorite. We'll see how long those batteries last.

Daddy blew up some balloons for Hudson, and even made a little hat. He enjoyed running around in his diaper pretending like the balloon was his sword and trying to get us with it.

We went to the park to feed the ducks, which is another new favorite thing. Then we played on the playground. He went down the slide, climbed like a monkey, and had fun with Daddy.

Another favorite thing- JUMPING!! Off of anything and everything his mommy will let him.


Then we went out to dinner with Abe's parents who came in town from Oregon. The waitress sang a birthday song for Hudson and they gave him a little sundae with Oreos and chocolate on top.

It wasn't long before this face turned into this.......

mmm....mmm....good

Hudson sure enjoyed his birthday treat!



Some cute and funny things our 2 year old does/says:

--"I nee hi"... I need hi-- he says this whenever he wants to say hi to someone or something. This includes every dog he ever sees and the lobsters in the tank at the grocery store.

--"Watch dis"... usually followed by a karate kick and a 'hi-yah', or a speedy run across the room

--"Oh cap" (oh crap.... thanks to Daddy playing Nintendo :))

--"Pease sir" Abe taught him to say 'please, sir'. It is the funniest thing ever. He now says it when he really wants something like candy or fruit snacks. It's really hard to say no to, and I think he knows that!

--Hudson accidentally hit his head on something and then said "bonk a head, narn it" (darn it)

--Abe and I said the prayers in church a few Sundays ago. I said the closing prayer, and as soon as I said "amen," I hear Hudson from a few rows back shout "Amen, Mama!"

We sure love our little guy!

2009

We celebrated the new year with some friends in our ward. We all have kids, so we just got together and decided we'd hang out as long as the kids lasted!

There was lots of food and friends! The kids even colored a little "Happy New Year" paper.

And what's a party without a little Guitar Hero World Tour??

Hudson tried on his friend's purple crocs (I thought it was really funny because Abe doesn't like crocs at all)

Getting ready to celebrate the new year! (it was really about 9:30.... that's when most of the kids we ready to go, so we celebrated a little early :))

Hudson and Abe popped one of the confetti things!

We tried to get all the kids together for a picture, but this is all I ended up with. They looked really cute with their hats and blow horns, but none of them wanted to sit still for a picture, oh well!

We ended up staying until about 11:30 when Hudson just couldn't take anymore (we were the last ones to leave, though). He went to bed about 11:45- just couldn't hang on any longer! :) Abe and I watched the ball drop on tv and had our own little sparkling cider to celebrate.

We hope everyone had a happy new year! I taught Hudson how to say "Happy New Year" and it sounds so cute. I have it on video, but am having trouble uploading it. If I can get it to work I will post it later.

Hope this year is great!

PS- thanks for hosting Jessica!