Ethan's birthday at Peter Piper

For Ethan's birthday in September we all met up for a little party at Peter Piper Pizza.

We all enjoyed our share of arcade games. Hudson and Cody even tried their hand at ski ball... kind of dangerous...lol

The kids also rode on the mini merry-go-round. I think it was Cody's first time-- he was NOT happy about it. Sad, but funny :)

Hudson and Abe both love arcade games. They would stay there all day I am sure.

We sure had a fun time with all our cousins!

Tempe Splash Park

At the end of August we met up with some friends at the Tempe Splash Park. It is so much fun, and I love it even more because it is free!

Some of the friends we met up with included Jameson, Alex, Lilly, Porter, and Wes

Had to take a break for some watermelon! Hudson loves it-- look at it dripping down his face :)

My crazy boy... he loves to jump off of everything.

Abe and Klint got to join in on the fun, too. I think Abe got a little more wet than he originally planned to, but I think Hudson had a fun time trying to soak his daddy!

Baby goat and a new camera

At the end of August Natalie and Tom found that one of their goats had a baby. I thought Hudson would love to see it, so we went over there one day. Unfortunately, Uncle Tom wasn't there to help us hold the baby, so we just got to look at it. She was still cute :)

Abe also found me a 'new' camera on craigslist- a canon rebel xt. I am soooo excited! I have been wanting a dslr for a little while, especially since our old camera was pooping out on us. Can I just say I LOVE my new camera. I still haven't learned many of its functions, even though I've had it for a few months now. It takes awesome pictures and I am excited to learn how to use it better. This is a shot of Cully I took the first day I got it.

So HANDSOME!!

Summer Fun

Our summer was FULL of little outings with friends to various pools and splashpads around Maricopa. Hudson loves the water and has become quite the little swimmer. He was pretty daring, and would even swim to me without floaties. He also loves to wear his goggles. I think he will be my fish next summer.

Hudson would probably stay at the splash pad all day if I let him.

Tenille taught Hudson and Tate how to dive... they kind of got the idea at least :)

One Sunday afternoon

These pictures are actually from back in June, but I just thought they were funny and wanted to include them on the blog.

One Sunday afternoon Abe was taking a nap, so Elmo and Hudson decided to take a nap, too. Then Hudson decided we should take some family pictures- including Zorro, of course.

Random cuteness, part 2

(this was actually at the bottom of the previous post, but the formatting was driving me nuts, so I copied and pasted it into another post)

Here are some other cute things Hudson has said/done:

-held little pieces of spaghetti up to his hears and said, "Dees is my earrings."

-When I talk to someone on the phone he asks, "who you talk?" and when I tell him who it is, regardless of my answer he says, "go to her house?"

-We were getting ready to go to the library and we were talking about going potty... I said, "When will you be a big boy and go potty and no more diapers? Will it be soon or in a while?" Hudson replies, "It will be a while- I need to go to the library first."

-favorite phrases:
"Okay...I do that"
"just for a little bit"
"movie eater"
"narnie, narnie, narnie"
(I think he means neener neener neener)
"eleventeen"

-not so favorite phrases: "Mommy, you go in time out, you listen to me"

-one of the missionaries in our ward had to wear an eye patch for a few days... of course we happened to sit almost right by him and Hudson exclaims "We have a pirate!"

-Row row row your boat, gently down the stream
merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
like a spider dream

-Hudson was sitting on the potty and pulled the toilet lid down so it rested on his back. He tells me, "I like a turtle."

-He was helping Abe trim the tree and move the branches. He says to Abe, "Can you please move? I have lots of things to do."

-Hudson also has this obsession/fascination lately of taking stickers off of everything... not sure why, but if the corner is peeling he just can't resist it. Sometimes it is funny, but sometimes I don't want certain stickers peeled off... oh well.

-one day Hudson decided after he had been in his room for about 15 minutes for naptime that it was time to get up. I told him it wasn't time to get up and he tells me "I lay down....I close my eyes..." So after a long attempt to get him to nap and being very frustrated I decided it wasn't worth it and let him get up. A little later, still frustrated, I decided a little prayer might do me some good to help me have more patience. Of course Hudson follows and asks what I am doing. I told him that I was going to say a prayer in my head, and he told me that he wanted to say a prayer too. So he proceeds, "Heavenly Father, thank you no nap....thank you I wake up..."
lol!! It cracked me up, how could I be upset at that?

We sure love our Hudson! He is so stinkin' cute and cracks me up everyday with the things he says and how smart he is. It makes it so that when he does some not so nice things I can remember how sweet and cute he can be :)

Random cuteness, part 1

I have a lot of random pictures that I just thought were cute from the past few months... so here they are!

-The one in the helmet is actually from last March I think, but somehow it never made it onto the blog. I just thought it was too cute not to have.

-The pic of Brecken, Karsten, and Hudson is from Brynne's open house... there's another really cute one except Hudson is picking his nose so I thought I would spare you!

- food.... I have a hard time getting this boy to eat much, so at times I have to get creative. My friend Gina had a fun little idea of letting him use toothpicks to eat- it worked! (at least for a little while)

-and I dont' know if you can see the dark ring around his mouth in the bathtub... but it is oreo! I just don't get it-- he eats an oreo, I wash his face, and then 10 minutes later there is a ring around his mouth again! This just happens with oreos... how does he have a ring around his mouth even in the bathtub??

- Papa Benny and Grandma Karen stayed with us for a little bit over the summer while they were trying to buy a house here in AZ. That also meant that their dog Bonnie got to stay over- Hudson was thrilled! He even wanted me to take his picture with her.

-Also while Grandma was here she let Hudson use her soap in the bath and even showed him how to pumice his feet... well one day a few weeks later we were outside and he had a rock up to his foot. I asked him what he was doing and he said it was like Grandma Karen-- too funny!

Hudson thinks it is funny to put on my pajama pants.

One day Hudson got out all of his "friends" (stuffed animals) and decided that they needed to have blankies too. He used his blankies and then also got the dish towels out of the kitchen. They were spread from his room all the way down the hall.


We went out to dinner with Abe's parents to PF Changs. Hudson loved trying to use the chopsticks and actually got a few pieces of food in his mouth with them!


Hudson pulled his little McQueen chair up to the table. I asked him if that was the chair he was going to use. He said yes. So then I asked him how he was going to eat. I thought these pics were funny because it shows the cute little smirk he got on his face as he showed me and realized he was pretty funny.

- Hudson is so goofy. We were taking some other pictures and Hudson wanted us to take one of him too and this is what we got- I love that silly smirk!

-Hudson also thinks it is funny when his shirt gets stuck like this.

-I just had to take a pic of Hudson in the basket because I realized as he was sitting there that he wouldn't be able to fit in it much longer! (sad)

I had these left over party hats from Hudson's birthday last year. We had been coloring with markers and were cleaning up when Hudson saw one and decided he wanted to wear it. He started singing happy birthday to himself. I kept cleaning up and was going to put the tablecloth away when Hudson says, "You're taking my party!" So I left it there and he continued to sing to himself, blow out his candles, and clap... so funny! We have been to lots of birthday parties and I think Hudson will be totally thrilled in a couple months when it is actually HIS birthday :)

Bartlett Lake

So I am sooo far behind on my posts, it's pretty pathetic. I had high hopes of catching up before Halloween, but it didn't quite happen. I am hoping to catch up soon. :)

These pictures are from August when we went with some great friends to Bartlett Lake. We were lucky enough that Devon's dad let us take out his boat for the day. We had so much fun together and the weather was perfect- HOT! :) Just the way it should be for a nice day on the lake. And no kids :) It was nice and relaxing.

Jessica and Devon

Cori and Eli


Julie and John

Tenille and Stephan

Us

We have both wakeboarded before, but it had been a long time for both of us. It was really fun to do it again, not to mention to be able to do it behind an awesome wakeboarding boat! They call it the Green Monster.

We were also able to try wake surfing, which neither of us had done before. It was super fun! It was kind of scary, too, because you aren't strapped onto the board and you got really close to the boat, so my fear of getting injured was a little higher. But we had a great time and would love to do it again!

Abe got the hang of wake surfing pretty quick and showed off his goofy side :)

Abe and Stephan also had fun trying to throw grapes to eachother to catch.

A couple of group shots (not all of us, obviously)

And, of course, what goes up, must come down.....

I think we all had our fair share of wipeouts, but we sure had a fun time!!!

Thanks for the great day!