Our Family Decathalon

Every time we are ALL together, we try to do a decathalon. We think up 10 events and divide into 2 teams. Now that Trent is married, the teams are finally even. We draw names to see who will be on whose team. This time it just happened that couples were together and the teams were: Trent, Paige, Dave, Meagan and my dad, my mom, Christian and Tasha. Our respective kids were on their parents teams. It just happened that way. This time, here were the events:

1. Dance Dance Revolution

2. Horseshoes

3. Ping Pong

4. Scrapbooking (everyone does 1 page and then we have an impartial judge)

5. Speed Scrabble

6. Guesstures (basically, speed charades)

7. Kid Event (Hudson/Emery crawling race, and William/Keira stick horse barrel racing)

8. Egg toss

9/10-- didn't happen b/c my team was winning to badly that even if the other team had won both events, we still would have won!

Here are a few pics to document the events:

Horseshoes (Dave won) and DDR (Paige won)

The babies racing (Emery won) and the toddlers on stick horses (William won)

It is always SUCH a fun time. I highly recommend it for those of you who have families that like to have a good time!

Christmas

It's been a busy week here. Dave's family came last Monday and left Friday afternoon. It was such a good visit, but because it was so action-packed the time flew by! Here are a few pics and a re-cap of our Christmas week.
Christmas morning with Grandma
the 4 of us at the Gaylord Texan
Hudson's first Christmas! He just liked the paper.
William REALLY got into opening presents

Trent and Paige here for their 1st Christmas!

Uncle Jeremy liked William's toys better than William did!!

Dave's 4th Marathon

Dave ran his 4th Marathon on Sunday-- the Dallas White Rock Marathon. He originally, when he started running marathons, was just planning on running 1 marathon. His goal was to do it in less than 4 hours. Long story short-- every single one he has missed his goal, mainly due to bad weather-- either too hot or too windy or both. Even this past October when he ran the Chicago Marathon it was incredibly hot. We had been having nice cool weather lately here, so things were looking good for the marathon on Sunday. But, of course, the ONE day he needed cold weather, it was near a record high. When he finished the marathon it was 77 degrees! (side note: of course, Monday it was high of 38!). Needless to say, I guess he's not finished running marathons!

Playdate mess

Last week William had his 2 friends, Keira and Emily over for a playdate. Well, we all have babies as well, so there were 6 kids here! It's always a little bit crazy when they are all here, but still fun. So, I gave all the kids spaghetti for lunch. The babies-- Hudson, Sophie and Emery-- obviously enjoyed it!

Everything you ever wanted to know about me...Christmas Style

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? At Christmas, wrapping paper. I like for all my presents to match. This year my theme is red/white. Red paper with white "jingle bells" all over it and white paper with red candy cane stripes.
2. Real tree or Artificial? REAL!!! And even if I wanted to do fake, Dave would veto it.
3. When do you put up the tree? The day after Thanksgiving.
4. When do you take the tree down? Early January.
5. Do you like eggnog? Nope.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Probably my corn silk cabbage patch kid.
7. Hardest person to buy for? My in-laws.
8. Easiest person to buy for? my kids.
9. Do you have a nativity scene? No, but I'd like to get one. Maybe an after Christmas sale this year.
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail. This is a tradition that should not ever be replaced by technology.
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Christmas 2003-- our 1st Christmas being married. I told Dave NOT to get me shoes b/c I wanted to pick them out myself. So he bought be 2 pair - a black and brown of the SAME shoe. They were HIDEOUS. But he thought I would like them b/c I had a pair of flip flops in the same brand. They got returned the day after Christmas.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Elf.
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? I always try to start in October, with the goal of finishing by Thanksgiving. But, usually I'm not done until mid December. I just finished mine last night.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I'm not gonna deny it, though I can't think of something off the top of my head.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Depends on the cuisine. This year we're doing Italian, so I"m looking forward to homemade pasta.
16. Lights on the tree? Yes, small white ones.
17. Favorite Christmas song? Little Drummer Boy. Or Jewel's "Rudolph"
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Normally we travel either to my parents in Oklahoma or to Dave's parents in Georgia. This year we get to spend it with both families at OUR house.
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? I think so
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? A silver Star.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Spending SO MUCH money.
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? I like a hodge podge of ornaments. Some from our childhood, some we're collected, and now some homemade ones from Willialm.
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? I'm looking forward to Italian this year.
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? a pasta attachment for my Kitenaid Mixer (noticing a theme?)


*****Three things you are wearing right now…not necessarily in any order
1. running shoes
2. sweatshirt
3. workout capris

*****Two things you want very badly at the moment.
1. silence
2. breakfast.

*****Two things you did last night:
1. went to my neice's 1st dance recital
2. went to bed early

*****Two things you ate today
1. coffee
2. and getting ready to eat oatmeal

*****Two things you are going to do tomorrow
1. going to a cookie exchange
2. eating those cookies

*****Three of your favorite beverages:
1. lemonade
2. diet dr pepper
3. margarita

Christmas jammies

These are jammies that William wore when he was a baby. The difference is, Hudson is BUSTING out of them already, and we have nearly a month to go until Christmas! But I still think he looks pretty darned cute in them. As you can see, he has major bedhead. Both boys get such bedhead...it's a sign that they need haircuts! So, I took them to get haircuts yesterday. I will post pics of their knew "dos" later...

Like Father, Like Son

William INSISTED on reading Golf Digest last night while he was going to the bathroom. He wanted to be like daddy... Of course, I would never take a picture of "daddy" doing this, let alont post it on my blog. YUCK. But, I think it's cute when a 2 year old is doing it!

Merry Christmas!

And now, Merry Christmas. I'm loving all these neat blog backgrounds!! We will be decorating our house for Christmas this weekend. We're going to a Christmas tree farm this afternoon, which I am really looking forward to. I can't wait to see what tree William will pick out! And next weekend we'll be hanging lights on our new house!

Happy Turkey Day!

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I thought I'd update my blog to reflect the holiday. (Thanks, Molly). Now I can't wait until Friday when I can make it Christmasy!

Cheap and Easy Entertainment

As you probably know about my family, we are very easily entertained by each other. It especially comes out when my brother is around. When I was in high school, it was NON stop. He was always up to something. So we have a plethera (correct spelling??) of stories of things that my brother did to make us laugh. Here is one of the stories: one afternoon when we were in high school, my brother decided, in his boredom, that it would be fun to see if he could stuff EVERY SINGLE cushion from the couch into his sweatpants and sweatshirt. Well, he accomplished it, and I took a picture of it to keep for all time. Of course, that was before digital, and I have been unable to put my hands on this picture!!!

My brother and his new wife, Paige, are here for the weekend. Well, Paige didn't get here until late last night, and Trent got here Thursday night. So we had all day yesterday with just him. After we got all the kiddos to bed, we were sitting around thinking of what to do to pass the time until Paige got there. I dared him to see if he could put all the cushions from my mom's couch into his shirt. Of course, he had to give it a whirl. At first, my mom was against it...not wanting to destroy her cushions or the shirt Trent was wearing that he had borrowed from my dad (which, is nearly 20 years old, so probably pretty fragile). But we all got to into it and got to laughing so hard that we couldn't stop. I think he ended up with about 6 throw pillows and a blanket in his shirt. Here are a few pics of our adventure:


I assure you that it provided us with at least 30 minutes of PAINFUL laughter. You know the kind of laughter that makes the back of your head hurt b/c you are laughing so hard? I love that kind of entertainment. We were all so pooped from the laughing that we decided to play a game of Speed Scrabble. Oh, and by the way, I smoked everyone.

Fall is Here!

Just in the last few days has it started getting a little chilly. For those of you who know me well, know that I love hot weather. But, I do welcome a short break from the heat. That's one of the reasons I love living in Texas-- only a couple of cold months out of the year. Cool weather, along with lots of leaves on the ground does make for some cute pictures of the kids. :-)

Hudson was not a big fan of the leaves, unless he was sitting in my lap. But William and Keira sure had fun! We don't have many leaves at our house, so we had to rake up the leaves at my parents house in order to get enough to jump and play in.

Park Adventures.

So, we went to the park after lunch today...as we normally do on nice days. Keira and Emery went with us. We pulled the babies in the wagon and let the big kids walk. Our first stop was at the pond-- we fed the ducks and fish with old bread. Then we headed to the park. William and Kiera on the "big" swings and Hudson and Emery in the baby swings. After that William and Keira went on their way playing on the playground equipment and playing in the little stream by the playground. Tasha and I took the babies on the little slides for a bit, and then we went up to the top where the big slides are. There is a multi-level platform at the top where the 2 big slides go off from. The levels are only about 6 inches high-- more like steps. So, Hudson decided to try to crawl down one of the steps. I guess I should have known he wasn't ready for that, but he's been getting around so well lately I thought he could handle it. He couldn't.

It's really not as bad as it looks. Of course, he did cry like someone had just, well, punched him in the nose, but only for about 20 seconds. Then he was ok. And he rode home in the wagon like a champ, drinking his juice. And he even let me clean him up without kicking up a fuss. I felt so bad for letting this happen to him. William hasn't even ever had a bloody nose, and he's a daredevil! I guess it could have been worse.

Chef William

William loves to help out in the kitchen: more specifically, he likes to help BAKE. It's probably because I let him lick the bowl when we're done. Well, the other day William got ahold of one of Hudson's jackets- a vest, as seen above. So, William insisted on stripping down and putting on just the vest, backwards. Then, he wanted to help me bake his cousin's birthday cookie cake. For some reason it was so funny to me, and I couldn't stop laughing.

Spongebob?

Don't you think he looks like Spongebob Squarepants? That's our new nickname for Hudson....those teeth are just so cute!

Bath Time!

William and Hudson have really started having fun together in the tub...until William snatches a toy from Hudson. Or until William dumps a bucket of water on Hudson's head. Or until William pushes Hudson under the water to get him out of his way. So maybe they don't have fun in the tub together? Well, anyhoo, here a few pictures of them having fun

Note to Self

Make sure to keep a stash of those weird 9 volt (or whatever they're called) batteries that go in the smoke detectors. Making a trip to Walmart at 4:30a.m. is not fun!!!

Music to my Ears

Since William has been going to BSF he has started singing hymns in the car. He daily listens to bible songs every day, but now he likes to sing hymns. So today, while we were out, he started singing "Holy Holy Holy." This is how it sounded to me:

Howee Howee Howee
Word God Almighty
Earth Wind and Fire (not really, but sort of)
my song shall rise to thee.
(and then he repeats this at least a dozen or so times)

Not perfect, but he sure loves it and is REALLY singing his little heart out. He really loves to sing, but he refuses to sing in groups. His SS teachers say he won't sing in SS, even though I KNOW he loves it.

We had a rough morning with William not being very compliant, so when he started singing this in the car, it nearly made me cry. It makes all the hard work worth it!

Curious as a Cat

So, I turned on my camera and saw these really weird/out of focus/ random pictures. I thought to myself-- there is NO WAY I would take pictures this bad. Then, I remembered that I had heard William getting up onto the counter in the kitchen...where the camera was. These are a few of his masterpieces:

Productivity!!

Wednesdays are my days without William. My mom takes him and Keira (my neice who is 12 weeks older than William) with her to BSF and then keeps them for the rest of the day. I had forgotten how easy it is to tote around just 1 little person!

I had Hudson forego his morning nap this morning so that I could get some errands done. We got home in time for lunch, playtime together and then naps. I put Hudson down at 2, and he didn't get up until 5:15!!!! I got some serious stuff done during those 3 glorious hours: laundry, toy overload, playroom organization, ironing, picking up the house. I managed to listen to all 3 hours of Sean Hannity!! It felt good to get so much done, and now I'm pooped.

New Way of Posing?

I've been told the best way of looking good in a photo. Apparently, you are supposed to tilt your head down and then stick out your neck. The weirder you feel, the better. Obviously, you're supposed to make your best smile and most natural looking face while you're doing this. It's very hard. And it hurts your neck. Here are a few pictures of some tries:

It's not perfect, but it's a start. And it was fun trying. It gave us something else to do while we were watching the election returns.

the little guys

Here are a few recent pics of my little peeps!

William riding his "horse" aka Hudson!

William is finally learning how to ride his scooter, from LAST Christmas.

William and Hudson are both growing like little weeds, especially Hudson! He's enormous-- well, compared to his brother. He, at 9 months, weighed what William weighed at 1 year! He is such a happy little guy, most of the time. As I type this post, he is screaming his cute little head off in his crib. Doesn't he realize that there is a 2 hour minimun nap requirement in the afternoons? It would sure make his life so much more enjoyable in situations like this if he'd just sleep the whole time! Of course, William is sleeping nicely right now. He's turned into quite a good little napper.

Going to try this whole blog thing...

So, I have had a blog set up for nearly a year now, but have "blogged" nothing! I've been inspired by some of my friends who blog religiously! I love reading their blogs, so I'm hoping that some will enjoy mine. I am not even going to attempt to go back in time and add stuff, so I'll start from here and see how it goes!

William and Hudson in our moving boxes!!!