Hudson update

It's high time for another one of these. I can't believe this kid's almost two!

You wouldn't think it from looking at this adorable face, but Hudson is now a walking disaster! He has figured out doorknobs and zippers, so nothing is safe from him anymore.
It took a few times of walking into the dining room and seeing the complete contents of my purse and the backpack scattered all over to realize that I needed to put them in a closet. It also took quite a few times of hearing him banging the toilet closed or seeing him tip my water bottle all over my night stand to break down and get the door knob covers. Now, if everyone in the house can remember to close all the doors, we're set.

Hudson cannot stay away from plugs, either. We put plug covers on all of our unused outlets (which he can pick out now), but I can't find those box plug covers anymore - you know, the ones that snap over the entire outlet and the plugs. Anyone know where to find those these days?? Anyway, Hudson has shocked himself more times than I care to record, but he still can't stay away from them! He's just like his brothers - pain doesn't seem to teach him any sort of lesson.

Since he's figured zippers out, he loves to his footie pajamas because he can play with the zippers. He gets the zipper down, then leaves it there, which gives him a bit of a Neil Diamond look (which I do not approve of!)

Stuff he loves right now:

His blanket and stuffed animals, namely, brown monkey,

Crackers the bear (named by Noah the brother. Also can you see those rosy cheeks? He has those ALL the time!),

and Orange Monkey. This one is actually a Dr. Seuss character, but Hudson named it himself. As indicated from the previous two pictures, Hudson also LOVES books. Just a word of advice, if you ever want find a way to his heart, offer to read him a book. He'll be your best friend.

His other favorite things to do are puzzles, cars, playdough, and coloring. At Christmas, I thought it would be brilliant to get him Color Wonder so we wouldn't find marker streaks on everything. It worked for a little while, until Hudson figured out that he could take the actual marker part out of the plastic holder and bite pieces off of it. Color Wonder is banned now.

Hudson is a fairly clean kid (well, relatively, for a toddler). He gets upset when he sees that he's dirty, including times that he sees snow on his boots and pants. He has also just recently started picking the lint out of his toes. Whenever I take his feet out of his pajamas so I can change his diaper, his feet are immediately up in the air so he can reach them and start picking. He got this from me - my parents have three or four pictures of me at this age doing the same thing.

Hudson is a great fit-thrower these days. As with most kids his age, his tantrums occur when he wants to do something and can't, or if something is done in a way different from the way he likes it done. Chris and I try to accomodate his particular ways, because we know he's just trying to get a little bit of control over his world, but sometimes it's just ridiculous.
Hudson also has to do everything himself. His most common phrases are "No me!" and "I do it!" There are many times that I have to unsnap him from his high chair so he can snap himself in, turn the water off so he can turn it on, turn the lights back on so he can turn them off, and oh so many other things.

Still loves sugar.

Other things:

He loves music, and he gets attached to certain songs, which he wants to hear over and over and over. I've heard enough "Fruit Salad" (Wiggles), "Yeti Stomp" (Backyardigans), "Popcorn" (Bare Naked Ladies), and "Mama Mia" (Abba) to last a lifetime. On the flipside, we can usually get him to calm down when we ask him if he wants to listen to one of the above songs. I can also usually get him to lay still long enough to change his diaper or get him dressed if I sing songs. The most requested ones at these particular times are nursery songs: "Itsy Bitsy Spider" "Five Little Monkeys" "Wheels on the Bus" or "Popcorn Popping." He also requests "I Am a Child of God" on CD (NOT me singing it) when he goes to sleep.

There's been quite an evolution with Hudson's manners. Last spring, when we were trying to teach him to say Thank You, he had the intonation down ("thank" being said a little lower than "you"), but he would say "nkuh nkuh." He'd say it in his throat without even opening his lips. Oh, how I wish we had had our video camera at the time - it was so funny. Then it evolved to just one "nk." Three or so months ago, he finally started saying the actual "thank you" and he'd say it every time we did something for him. Now it's just a simple "thanks."

He's started to hit sometimes because he thinks it's funny. There have been a number of times that he has pulled his hand back to hit me, and I'll tell him, "No, we don't hit." He'll start to get upset and say, "Please!" Ah,well, at least he's polite about wanting to hit me.

He's started to fight naps the last couple of months. I still put him down everyday after lunch, and sometimes he'll fall asleep if he's really tired, but a majority of the time, he'll just talk and play. Poor kid - we haven't had room to put up the crib, so he's always been in a porta crib in Annie's room. He's figured out how to throw himself against the side of the crib to get it to move. I've learned to put all of Annie's things from her dresser and night stand onto the floor so he can't reach them when he scoots himself over. He is a great sleeper at night, though.

He doesn't like winter and snow much.

He LOVES nursery! We are all so lucky that he has the BEST nursery leaders. Just about every time we get in the car he asks if we are going to church so he can go to nursery and see Grandma Jeena.

He's talking like crazy - he says pretty much everything and he's stringing words into sentences. Overall, Hudson has a very laid back personality and he's so much fun!

Winter Walk

Since Annie and Noah had school off on MLK day, I decided to take a break from all the house projects and just spend the day with the kids. In the morning we went to the North Chagrin Reservation and took a wintery walk.

There was a bit of contention on our walk, which you can't see in the kids' smiling faces. We walked by a lake, which the kids were convinced was frozen, therefore, they should be able to walk on it. And how do you suppose those kids came to the conclusion that the lake was frozen enough to support them? They threw rocks on it, and the rocks didn't break through.

I didn't buy their theory.

After we got home, we made a picnic lunch, then ate it on a sheet in the basement while we watched "The Muppet Movie." I grew up LOVING the muppets, and I was thrilled to see how much the kids liked the movie. We made some good memories that day.

The newest production of Wicked

This is evidence of the love of Wicked in our midst. As a surprise for our two families, Annie and Hadley had been secretly practicing their own version of the musical. They worked on it for months!! We were finally privileged to see the results of their hard work!

Annie was Glinda and Hadley was Elphaba. Noah introduced the whole thing. Brigham and Hyrum even had small parts, but they were more of a distraction, so we finally sent them up to Brigham's room play with Play Mobils. And, I got to be the traveler with the green elixer! They had costume changes, props, and Grandma Jeena was their sound manager.

They worked so hard, and it was wonderful! Great job girls!

New Year's Eve dance party

I already wrote about our holiday picture woes, but I did get this one to represent our New Year's Eve family dance party. The Brimhalls hosted, and we were there with the Hanleys, the Andersons, and the Monsons. It was so fun! We had 5 straight hours of singing, dancing, and food.

Annie, Hadley, and Maisy sang tons of karaoke. I loved watching them up there singing their hearts out. We had a mosh pit, we did the twist, thriller (we tried to anyway) and we even did - do I dare admit it? - the electric slide and the macarena. I felt like I was back in the middle of a Stake Dance. But it was so fun to relive it with our kids. Although we put Hudson to sleep around 10, the rest of us were alive and kicking way past midnight. We ended the night with singing "Party in the USA." We were all delerious with lack of sleep the next day, but it was well worth it. That will go down in history as one of the best New Year's we've had. Thanks Brimhalls!!

December Holiday craziness . . .

. . . and not many pictures to prove it. Not that we didn't take any pictures, but as I'm looking at our pictures to upload, most of them are too dark to see anything! I'm so bummed. Maybe I'm not meant to be a blogger - inability to fix computer problems, no posts for months at a time, and now lame pictures! Oh well, I'll keep plugging along despite the obstacles. So instead of posting a bunch of black squares, we'll just have to have the pictures in our memories, and you, dear readers, will just have to imagine it all.

1 - One of our favorite Christmas traditions is to sleep under the Christmas tree every year, and we did it yet again. This year Chris brought down the mattress from our bed, so he and I slept better than usual.
2 - We also go to the zoo to see Santa every year, and this year we invited the Buckners, the Monsons, and the Brimhalls for breakfast at our house before we all went to the zoo. That was so fun! We may have to add it to our Santa tradition from now on. This year Mrs. Claus was with Santa, and we put Hudson on her lap for a picture. He was trying so hard not to cry, but his lower lip was sticking out and trembling. I wish we could have gotten a good picture of that - it was so cute! Also, Brigham has never been a big fan of sitting on Santa's lap. I thought for sure this year he would be okay, but not so. I had to drag him over just to sit by me for a picture. Afterwards, he panicked and wanted to go back and tell Santa what he wanted. There's no way we were going to wait in line again (and I was positive he would clam up once he was actually face to face with Santa), so we assured him that he could write a letter on Christmas Eve. He was eventually pacified.
3 - We acted out the nativity, made cookies and wrote letters for Santa on Christmas Eve day, then ate our traditional Shepherd's dinner that night. Jennifer Hansen came over since she wasn't flying out to see her family until Christmas day. After dinner the kids got ready for bed, then we read the story of the nativity, wrote down our gifts to give to Christ, opened and read our new Christmas book (How the Grinch Stole Christmas), then we opened and put on our new Christmas socks. Brigham was in charge of choosing them this year. We also had carolers! For 12 days before Christmas we received a piece to the Fisher Price nativity, along with a poem each day. It was so fun for the kids every night to try to catch our mysterious visitors. On Christmas Eve we discovered it was the Brimhalls doing it for us when they came to sing to us and give us our last piece. Afterwards the kids (except Hudson) all piled onto the floor of Annie's room to "sleep." Brigham fell asleep fairly quickly, but Annie and Noah were up late. Just as Chris and I were falling asleep at midnight, Annie's alarm went off and woke everybody but Hudson up. At 5 in the morning I woke up to Annie and Noah talking. Brigham's voice was soon added to the mix. Since Annie's room is right next to me and Chris, we couldn't go back to sleep either. When I went in to tell the kids it was too early to be up, Annie declared that she had slept about two hours that night. Marvelous. I always vowed to not be one of those families who had all their presents open by 6:30 a.m. Christmas morning, but we were this year. We really need to work on that.
4 - With Christmas presents, we've tried a few different things, and I finally settled on something that works for us. I read somewhere of a family who tried to not focus so much on presents, and they decided to follow the wisemen and their three gifts for Christ. I like that idea, so for us, our kids can ask Santa for one present, and they get two from Mom and Dad. But they also have their stockings, they buy presents for each other, and they get gifts from Grandmas and Grandpas so, at least in my opinion, they end up with plenty. Santa also gives the family 4 gifts every year that Mom and Dad get to open - a movie, a game, a book, and a CD. Later we ate crepes for breakfast, which is a Christmas morning tradition, then relaxed the rest of the day. That night we invited some families over for fondue, which is what we started doing every year for Christmas dinner (I'm way into traditions, if you haven't picked up on that yet). The Cutlers, Andersons, Mortensens, and Calls came over and we had a great time.
5 - The day after Christmas we went down to the temple. The Brimhalls were so nice and insisted on watching the kids, so Chris and I had kind of an all day date.
6 - The next night Chris wanted to host a dinner for all of the older single sisters in our ward. They were all so sweet and grateful. It was a wonderful night with those ladies.

Whew! By the end of the week we were exhausted, and we knew it had been to much to do in one week. I think it was because we knew it was our last Christmas here, so we tried to cram as much as we could with as many people as we could. It was worth it!

Thanksgiving on the beach

For Thanksgiving, my parents took us, along with my brother and sister and their families, to a beach house on Captiva Island in Florida. It was a little weird wearing capri's and swimming outside at the end of November, but we got over it!

Just about 10 minutes after we got to the house, the power went out, and it was out for the next 24 hours. Southern Florida + no AC = Not much sleep. Adventures!

My brother, Lynn has 4 girls, so Annie was in heaven the whole week! Here's Brigham, Noah, Alexis (12), Annie, Hannah (10), and Kayla (6)

There's a bird in that tree, although no one could figure out what kind it was. The islands are a refuge for all kinds of animals.

One of the days we drove up to Siesta Keys, which has the softest sand I've ever felt.

My neice, Kayla

My mom, sister Laurie, and nephew Rowdy

Annie and Alexis

This is at one of our favorite souvenier shops, Mango Bay

This is at the seashell museum not too far from our beach house

Brigham bought these squids with the souvenier money that he earned. He was so proud!

Noah with a gecko. I have no idea how that kid can get his hands on so many animals! This is by the pool at our house, where the kids spent a majority of their week.

My family, especially my parents, have really gotten into collecting seashells since we came to this area for the first time 2 years ago. These islands are supposed to be one of the best places in the world to find shells. This was on our last day, and my parents took us on what's called a shelling cruise. We got on a boat that took us to a private island that had tons of shells. Yes, we are all wearing jackets because it was actually pretty cold and windy that day!

Digging for shells

This was on the same island

This is in front of the resaurant we ate at on our last night on the island.

Laurie and Rowdy

My brother Lynn, sister-in-law Cheryl, and their girls

Thanks for taking us Mom and Dad! We made some great memories!

Wicked!!

Annie and Noah asked for Wicked tickets as an early Christmas present. Chris and I were happy to give them!! I sat next to Annie, and it was just as much fun to watch her watching the show. She was literally on the edge of her seat and clapping as hard as she could after every song. She was enthralled.

After the show we came to a consensus - we thought Glinda was better the first time we saw Wicked (in 2008), but we liked Elphaba better this time.

I must brag bit - when the kids had so much fun with the Wii during our Outerbanks trip, they initially decided to join forces and ask for one from Santa for Christmas. But once Annie and Noah found out that Wicked was coming again, they changed their minds and decided they wanted tickets more than a Wii. Being the non-gamers that Chris and I are, we were very proud!!

Halloween and other fall stuff

Picking pumpkins at Pattersons . . .

. . . and carving the pumpkins

Annie the greek goddess

At the ward party - the greek goddess, the zombie, the clown, and the vampire

At the kids' school parade, they can't wear makeup with their costumes. We thought that people might not know what Noah was without his makeup, so he decided to walk like this during the whole parade:

Annie with Madison and Robbie from her class.

Chris and the kids made a leaf man on Halloween afternoon

We went trick or treating with the Brimhalls and the Andersons.

Hudson and Hannah

With our wonderful neighbor, Jane