Good Times

Hudson is feeling much better and we've had a fun couple of days at our house.  Mimi came over to watch Hudson while I went to the dentist Thursday morning and she brought some paper bags for the boys.  Reed loves any sort of "gift",  so he was super excited to open it...

What were these bags full of, you ask?  Halloween candy. Reed's even included a giant gummy foot with "crunchy candy bones" (yes, the package says that.  Ewwww.)

Hudson was also a fan - you can see his "Oooooooo" face he's making at all the candy...

"Look Mom!"

Reed wanted to tell Mimi thank you... Yes, Mimi, thank you so very much.  A giant pile of candy is just what we needed.  :)

Moving on, next week is Red Ribbon Week at Reed's school and Friday is "School Spirit Day".  He doesn't have any pirate shirts, so I just knew I had to make one!  I think it turned out really cute (sorry the picture is turned).

And lastly, the boys were playing yesterday evening and I don't know how these next few pictures happened, but I wasn't surprised when I saw it. It was funny, though. :)  Yes, it's Brian, our coffee table and the boys hanging on for dear  life.

But these, well, these are my favorites...

Sick

Hudson has been sick for a little over 24 hours now.

This is him sleeping, yet I am not. We had one good four hour stretch last night, but other than that, sleep has been touch and go. But notice how close I am to him... Evidently, that is a must for his emotional well being. He knows when I get more than 18 inches away because those little eyelids flip open no matter how deep of a sleep he is in! He hasn't had any vomiting episodes today, just fever, so let's hope that we are nearing the end of the tunnel. I'd like to take a shower- one that wasn't directly precluded by being thrown up on by a toddler. :)

Circus

Cami had free tickets to the circus on Friday and invited us to go along.  We gladly took her up on it! Reed had been to the circus when he was three or so, but didn't seem so jazzed with it.  This time he really enjoyed it.  I only had my little camera and the flash wouldn't get any of the circus acts down on the floor, so you'll just have to live with pictures of cute kids. Here are some pictures from the night (sadly out of order and I can't move them... grrr)-

Reed and Em holding hands on the way to the car - SO sweet!

What is a circus without cotton candy?

The kids checking out all the animals before the show started...

Sweet friends...

Halloween Shirts

I made the boys and cousin Grace some shirts for Halloween. They turned out really cute - I hope we can get a few 'wears' in before Halloween in a couple of weeks.

My Little Casanova

On the ride home from school today-

Reed: "Guess what? I have a girlfriend."

Me:  "You do? What is her name?"

R: "Destiny.  But something weird happened.  She broke up with me."

M: "What?" 

R: "I asked if a marker was hers and she said 'Reed, I'm breaking up with you.' "

M: "Really..."

R: "But now she's my girlfriend again.  Actually I have 3 girlfriends.  Jenna and Maddie are my other ones."

M: "What?"

R: "Well actually there are four... Zoe, too."

M: "Wow, that's a LOT of girlfriends."

R: "Well, I guess I'll have to marry one and then I'll only have 3 girlfriends."  

Wow.  That conversation went downhill fast.

Reed's Reward

Brian and I made a deal with Reed that if he stayed on target at school every day for 6 weeks, he would get a reward.  I decided to take him to Six Flags - only because we had season passes.  (I asked for season passes from my parents for Christmas this year.  My mom went ahead and bought them because we got to go for the rest of 2009 also.)  So today after church, we headed to Arlington with a stop at Subway to eat (per his request).  The weather was awesome and I let him have total control over what we did.  Reed drove the vintage cars and did awesome!  He giggled the whole time.

Here he is waiting in line at the Mine Train.  We rode it twice - he loved it.  He kept saying "Don't go too fast!" over and over again.
Here we are together.  I'm not the best at taking pictures at arms length, but at least it's proof that we were there. :)
We had a really good time.  If he makes it through the next 6 weeks on target, it's off to Chuck E. Cheese with Dad.

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for:

• Brian feeling better.  He has had a head cold type thing that evidently was quite bad -so bad that he did something that has happened only twice in the 7 years we've been married.  He stayed home from work today.  Wow.  But by this evening he was feeling better and I think will be much better by morning.
• no one in my family has gotten the flu... yet.  Cross my fingers, knock on wood, etc...  
• the house being clean for a couple of hours today.  Usually it only lasts about 7 1/2 minutes - I guess Hudson was occupied with his Daddy being home instead of throwing toys with wild abandon.  :)
• Coconut creme coffee creamer - yum.
• fall. Break out those sweaters people!

How do you get a toy plane out of a tree?

Last night, we had an interesting time at the Blevins house.  Reed had a remote control airplane that he has been asking us to put together for a while.  We finally took it out of the box last night and DadDad took some time to put it together.  We took it outside to fly and after the third time of it ramming straight into the ground, Brian decided to throw it upwards to get it going...and it got stuck in a tree.  So DadDad tried to get it out with a broom... which ended up also stuck in the tree.  At this point, we are all laughing so hard, I had to run in and get the camera. (P.S. Small camera flash at dusk = poor pic quality - sorry!)  Next came the lasso - Yep... the lasso also got stuck.  Here's the picture - yellow plane on top, broom in the middle, lasso on the bottom-

Now, what?  I only have one broom left and I kinda liked it, so...  Brian's idea was to get the backhoe.  Yes, the backhoe.  How else do you get a toy plane out of a tree?  So DadDad got in the bucket and Brian lifted him up  to retrieve our items.

Looks safe, right?

I guess he decided to do a little cleaning while he was up there. :)

Just another Sunday night at our house.

Thankful Thursday

This week I am thankful:

• for our new home. 
• for my family.
• for slightly cooler weather.
• for cookies and cream shakes from Chick-Fil-A.
• that there isn't a Chick-Fil-A in Granbury.  It would be a little too easy to run through the drive-thru for a shake.  :)

My Husband Rocks

It's not Monday, but I'm going tell how my husband rocks anyway.  :)  Yesterday afternoon I ended up with quite the sinus headache.  When Brian came home from work, he took over the boys and shut me in the bedroom so I could have some quiet.  My headache was much better, but he gave me that time so I could watch some TV.  He got the boys ready and put them to bed. He is always so thoughtful doesn't complain we he has to "take over" for me.  What a sweet man I married!

Six Flags

Reed and I had the opportunity to go to Six Flags yesterday with some friends... for FREE!! Reed had never been before and he had an absolute blast.  We started off by riding the carousel which he loved.

(Yes, I dyed my hair.  The upkeep of the blond was getting VERY old and I needed a change.  This is close to my natural color and I'm lovin' it!) 

Next we headed to Looney Toon land to ride a few things.  (Reed and Grae are on the far left).

(Reed is the third on back in the red hat)

The we headed over to the Mini Mine Train (one of my childhood favorites).  I guess Reed gets the excitement from me....

After the kids rode the Batman ride, we saw the carnival game where you hit the pad with a sledgehammer and the metal thing shoots up the post to ring the bell at the top.  The prizes were Batman and Spiderman capes.  Reed really wanted one and he had already decided he wants to be Batman for Halloween, so why not?  If we paid $5, they would get a cape even if they didn't ring the bell. But my big strong boy rang the bell on the second try.  :)  

This is how Reed and Grae spend most of the walking around time...very sweet!

All of us on the boat ride (we rode it twice - it ended up being the kids favorite!)

About 20 minutes before the park closed, Cami and Sarah went to ride one of the "big" roller coasters, so I gladly watched the kids.  I got them a rock candy sucker and they happily spent the next 15 minutes getting quite sticky.

On our way out, Cami found a pink cape for Em... how cute is this little scene?

We had a great day!

Hudson's First Haircut

I took Reed to get a haircut today and decided that Hudson should probably go ahead and get his trimmed also. He is almost 19 months old and has never had a haircut! It turned out really cute, but he was not a fan of the trimmers.

September

I can't upload pictures because of our slow internet, so you'll just have to make do with some stories... hope you all like to read.  :)  So here are a few things that I wanted to share as of late:

• Hudson is really starting to talk more. At around 17 months, I was beginning to worry about him a little because a lot of other kids his age were saying a handful of words and all he was saying was "Hi" and "Wow".  Now he's almost 20 months and he's been saying "Tane- Yuuuu" (Thank you), "Wa-Wa Woo Woo (Wow Wow Wubbzy - one of his favorite shows), "I dah et! (I got it!), "Deh es" (There it is), and a few other little things.  It's all very cute, of course.
• Reed is loving school.  They have a "color system" for behavior - if the child has a great day, they stay on the smiley face.  If they at a warning, they go to green, the next warning to yellow and finally to red.  Reed has had a smiley face every day and I have been exceptionally proud!   This last week, I picked him up he told me that he got in trouble and had gone to green.  I asked him what happened and he said "I was wearing my shirt wrong."  I KNEW there had to be something more to the story - his teacher is awesome and I knew there had to be more of a reason she moved him to green.  After much prodding, he told me that he was putting his arms up through the neck hole of his shirt where it was down around his chest.  The kids were laughing at him, which he loved, so his teacher had to ask him THREE times to stop and finally moved him to green.  I was livid that he didn't stop the first time she asked - and frankly a little embarrassed.  That would never fly at our house and I don't want him to act like that anywhere!  Anyway, he evidently redeemed himself somehow, because he had been moved back to the smiley face by the end of the day.  
• Last weekend, a lot of the guys went on a dove hunt.  Us girls spent the night at Sarah's house with the kids and had a great time.  Sarah's niece, Tatum, was there and Reed hadn't been around her too much, and he's not great with names anyway.  All of the kids were playing in Grae's room and the moms would take turns going in to break up fights, etc.  On one of my turns, I headed in and asked what all the ruckus was about.  Reed turned to me, pointed at Emory and Tatum and and said "Well, Emory and Potato were...." and that's all I heard.  I corrected him and told him NOT to call her Potato. Then I began to laugh.  HARD.  At another point during the night, we were trying to get the kids to go to sleep and I headed back in to the bedroom to try to quiet them down.  Reed, once again, updated me on the situation.  "We're trying to go to sleep, but Potatum keeps bothering us!"  At least he got the end of her name correct this time!
• I have been going up to Reed's school on Wednesday mornings to help his teacher.  She has had some jobs that are quite time consuming, but I'm glad that I'm able to help.  When I start to think "Wow - this is going to take a while," I try to instantly change my attitude to "...and she would have to do it ON top of all the things that she already does!"  It takes a special person to be a teacher and I'm thankful for all of you who do it and do it well!  You are truly a blessing to our children.

The most important thing of late...FALL is coming!!  People, I love me some autumn.  Cute sweaters, jeans, boots, fall decor, pumpkins, falling leaves... I'm all about it.   Happy Fall Ya'll!!

Busy, busy..

I assumed that when summer ended, so would the busyness!  Maybe it's the combination of moving and our first kid starting school, but it has been crazy.  With all the normal day to day stuff on top of working on things for the Open House...whew!  Brian has been working on his to do list and has made quite a dent - he hung up my TV in the kitchen (which will be totally awesome when I do my marathon holiday cooking this year), fixed various things that were falling off or apart, hid all the wiring for the entertainment center and computer desk, etc.  There is still so much to do, but I am finally resigned to the fact that not everything that I want to be done will get done.  I won't have curtains hung, my flower beds haven't been touched, every light fixture/ceiling fan needs a makeover or replaced, I need to decorate the screened-in porch... the list goes on.  It's a work in progress.  :)

Brian's been busy outside - he bought the boys some rain boots so they could "help" him outside in crazy amount of rain we've been having lately.  (I ended up getting me a hot pink pair of rainboots - stinkin' cute).  We went out Sunday to trim the trees and pick up fallen tree branches and the boys played in the mud puddles.  They had so much fun and were absolutely filthy by the time we came in the house. It was pretty cute.  As far as country livin' goes, we are loving it. Brian taught me how to drive the tractor and I even mowed a big section of the pasture.   And yes, I do have boots and a straw cowgirl hat.  Yee-haw!

Life goes on...

There has been so much going on lately and I think we have settled into our routine fairly well.  The boys have been in bed by 8:30 (on school nights) and up by 6:45.  Reed and Brian leave at 7:20 for school.  Normally Hudson and I will head to the gym (for sure three days a week, but trying for 4), but he's been sick this week.  I took him to the doctor on Monday morning because of the fever he couldn't shake from Sunday afternoon.  I just knew it was another ear infection (grrrrr...) but turns out he had a virus that had been going around.  He was better by Wednesday and we were back in routine... or so I thought. This morning he just wasn't himself.  He took a way early nap and as I started to size up all of his other symptoms, I had decided that his allergies were bothering him (as are Brian's and Reed's also). On the way to pick up Reed at school this afternoon, Hudson coughed (which sounded like a smokers cough) and as I thought to myself "Oh, no!  He has a respiratory infection!", I heard the unmistakable sound of vomit hitting the seat.  Ewwwww.  I turned the car around, went to the shop, cleaned him and the car up and left him at the shop while I went to get Reed.  We got home and he slept an hour and a half, was awake for 15 minutes and is back in a fitful sleep now.  

So, I guess so much for a carefree holiday weekend, but I wouldn't trade my pukey kid for the world.