It's water weather!!

The last week the weather was finally warm enough to go to the spray park in our neighborhood. It's just a few blocks away, so we can walk there without sweating to death. (but come July, we WILL NOT be able to even walk to the mailbox without dying of heat exhaustion!) Hudson wasn't too sure of it. I think the water was still a little too cold for him. William, on the other hand, thought it was the best thing ever. He jumped around and ran through the water NON-stop for at least 45 minutes.

My students

For those of you who don't know, I teach piano lessons to a very small group of girls. It's enough to keep me busy, but not so many that I feel overwhelmed. I really love it! A few weeks ago, I held my very first piano recital!! It was so much fun, and the girls did so well.

New York City!!!

After our Pittsburgh trip, we felt that we had to take advantage of being in the Northeast, so we headed to the big city to visit Trent and Paige. And what a trip that was...

We didn't waste any time getting started. After we got to Trent and Paige's apt (which is super nice, and in the PERFECT location), the boys took naps. Then, we headed out to Build a Bear. SO FUN! William designed a NYC fireman with Aunt Paige.
Day 2 we felt that we had to do SOME touristy stuff, so we took the ferry to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. William and I had done quite a bit of reading about the Statue before we went, so he was very excited to finally see her. Although, he was bit irritated that she couldn't walk around... :-)

That evening, we had to make a stop at FAO Schwartz! It is by far the best toy store ever. It was like the kids were in heaven. We walked around and played until closing. Hudson loved dancing on the piano, but William just wanted to watch. I was a bit surprised, since he's a bit of a showboat!

Hudson has a newfound love-- these ENORMOUS teddy bears. I wanted to buy him one because he just couldn't stop cuddling with them, but there was NO way I could get one in my suitcase!
William loved it when we went on the subway. The subways were probably the most frustrating thing about NYC b/c very few had elevators or escalators. So, we had to do the ole "3 man carry the stroller down lots and lots of stairs". It was a major pain in the butt, but thankfully there were 3 of us there most of the time to share the load.

As most of you probably know, William is OBSESSED with Mary Poppins. So, Aunt Paige watched Hudson one afternoon and we took William to see it on Broadway. It was a great show, and William LOVED it. He got a little stressed with Mary Poppins, Jane or Michael left the stage, but he was so good and loved every minute of it.

Hudson fell in love with Aunt Paige....and her boots!
What's a trip to the Big Apple without a hot dog from a hotdog stand, right? Even William and Hudson enjoyed one.

On our last night there, a friend of Trent and Paige's volunteered to watch the boys for us so that we could all 4 go out for dinner and dessert. We went to a very yummy African restaurant and then to Serendipity for dessert. It was SO YUMMY!! It was the perfect way to wrap up the week.

Pittsburgh

We went to Pittsburgh nearly 2 weeks ago to attend the wedding of Dave's cousin, Steve. Actually, Dave was one of the groomsman. Dave and Steve were roommates in college for several years, so they are pretty close. It was an added bonus that the wedding was in Pittsburgh because that is where Dave's sister Atria lives as well as my MIL's family.

One of the highlights of the weekend was getting to meet some of my MIL's birth family. She is adopted and an only child. A few years back, she connected with some of her birth family. She had lots of brothers and sisters, all of whom have passed away. But these 2 ladies below are her neices. So, Dave got to meet cousins!! We got to meet a few of Pat's cousins, as well as these ladies' kids. It was so fun to get to know them.

Thanks to my brother-in-law, Jeff, Hudson didn't have to go unentertained during the reception. Every time Hudson got fussy, Uncle Jeff stepped in and saved the day!

Steve and Gabby having their first dance. It was such a beautiful wedding, and so much fun!

All the little cousins had so much fun dancing. I had a hard time getting William to dance with me. I think in this picture below he is looking for his cousins Isabella and Elle!!

We had a really great time seeing Dave's family. Of course, William will probably mostly miss his crazy Grandpa. Somehow William always ends up with really bad habbits after spending time with him. I can't figure out why that is.....

Easter

Well, since everyone else is posting pics from Easter, I guess I better jump on the bandwagon! Here are my boys on Easter:

We did something a little less traditional this year: we decided against a big lunch so that the kids could get good naps, and then we could have a nice egg hunt and dinner. Hudson is always so fussy after church because of missing his morning nap. It just wasn't worth it to have him cranky all during lunch and then not enjoy an egg hunt. It's was a good choice because both boys had so much fun hunting for eggs with their cousins, Keira and Emery:

Here is our family picture:

My baby has what?

Several weeks ago when Dave went to get Hudson up from his nap, he encountered: a ton of throw up all over Hudson's bed, he had a serious case of diarhea, and he had a rash all over his body. That was Tuesday. Thankfully, there was no more throw up, but the diarhea continued. I called the dr. on Wed. The nurse said that it sounded like strep throat, but since he was acting TOTALLY fine, I could hold off a day or 2 to see if things improved. By Friday the diarhea and rash were still pretty prominent, so I decided to take him in. They did a strep test, which came back negative. So of course, they said he probably just suffered from a small stomach bug. Well, they sent his swab off to the labs to "grow" over the weekend. They called Monday and the lab came back positive for strep. Great. Amoxicillan here were come. After a week of antibiotics the rash was about as bad as it could get. The strep was gone...but the itching was seeminly unbearable. Hudson wasn't sleeping well, and ever time I changed his diaper or his clothes, he immediately started scratching. He was covered in a terrible rash from HEAD TO TOE! He even had scratched so hard in places that he caused bleeding. I finally took him in to get it checked out. You'll never guess what he had...caused by the strep throat. SCARLET FEVER!!!!!!!! Who knew that was even still around! The dr. thought that he also had a serious case of eczema on top of the Scarlet Fever, which is why it was so terrible. He immediately started him on some oral steroids, which started making a difference within hours. Tomorrow is our last day on the 'roids, for which I am very thankful. His skin is finally back to the land of the living. He is back to sleeping and being a happy little guy.

Playing Catchup

So the last few weeks have been a bit hectic.

We had great weather there for a while-- so we were spending pretty much every waking minute outside enjoying it. We got the kids a new swingset, so they have LOVED playing on it. In between good weather, it's been rainy, windy, cold or all 3. That's the thing I really don't like much about March/April-- every day is completely unpredictable. It's like-- make up your mind, already!

I decided to go back to work...well, sort of. I have taken a part time accounting job, working from home. When I worked at the Container Store before William was born, I became pretty good friends with a guy from the company we used for our Financial Software. I know, that sounds weird. But, long story short-- we implemented the software while I was there, and I was on the implementation team-- so we saw a lot of each other, and had to work together quite a bit. Needless to say, we recently (about a month ago) became "facebook friends." Well, he emailed me to see if I would be interested in working for them from home, on a part time basis! Uh-- get to start using my brain again AND make some extra money??? Sure. Sign me up. So, this week has been my first week. It's amazing how much I'm having to relearn after having been out of it the past 3 years. These kids can sure suck info out of our brains, huh?

Last weekend a travelling carnival came to town. I wouldn't normally go to one just b/c they seem kind of yucky to me, plus I just assumed they were expensive. But, William saw it, and just HAD to go on the merry-go-round (you know, like the one on Mary Poppins). He even asked if Mary Poppins would be there. It was SO COLD that day-- like in the 40s. I wasn't going to mention it to him after his nap-- hoping that he would forget about it. He didn't. So, we bundled up the kids and headed over there. Expensive? That's putting it nicely. It cost $3 per person to ride the stupid thing. But, we forked it over, and William and Hudson loved every minute of it, even with all the shivvering. We had enough tickets leftever for William to ride the little train too. So that's what we got for $10-- 2 rides on the merry-go-round and 1 ride on the little train.

Dave is in Canada this week on business. Thankfully, I have my mom/dad here to help with the kids. I have been spending the night over there-- which is a nice change of scenery, and I have help with the whole nightime routine. Plus, after the kids go to bed, I get to watch American Idol and chat with my mom until late at night. We don't get that just me and her time too often, so I'll take it when I can get it.

So, I guess it's not super hectic. But for sure keeping me busy, not to mention the day to day responsibilities of taking care of the kids, house and hubby. Oh, one of the biggest perks of getting this new job? Well, now that I'll be making extra money-- I'm going to hire someone to clean my house!!!! WOOHOO! Reason enough to take a part time job.

I will close for now. I will add a few pictures because what's a post without some pics of my boys?