Hudson's weekend

Hudson cashed in his Christmas present from Maddi and Zevlen last weekend and we spent two nights at the hotel. This is the greatest gift idea ever, especially for the boy that has everything and needs nothing! And its fun for the whole family, which Hudson finally caught onto while sitting in the hotel. He said, "You know, I'm really the only one that should be able to go to the hotel, Paxton and Harlow got other presents." Very true my boy, but I asked him if he thought he'd have as much fun without his brother and sister with and he agreed that would not.

Because THIS is fun.....

They spent most of their time swimming in the pool and hot tub. Like, really, a lot of hours!

Paxton put bubbles on his face and Harlow immediately put her arm around him and said, "Hi Santa." For the rest of the weekend then she was doing the same, putting bubbles on herself and saying, "Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas!" Even to complete strangers who all thought she was quite funny.

Jamie threw all of the kids as high as he could. Hudson figured out the timing enough to wave and smile for the camera......

Paxton nearly lost his trunks.....

And then held on to them for dear life!

Harlow just went high, really really high!

We spent Saturday afternoon at The Blast indoor play place. It looked intimidating to this mama who is deathly afraid of losing track of the kids, namely Paxton who can't keep track of himself, and Harlow who doesn't stop to think and just goes. But after a few minutes, I realized that they really couldn't get out without me seeing them, so if they were lost, they'd likely be hiding in a tube slide somewhere. Hudson was the BEST big brother and kept Harlow close to him the entire time. At one point he came to tell me he was going to find the highest rocket ship that he hadn't been able to find yet, I told him okay and reminded him to keep Harlow with him. He looked at me, shoulders slumped and said, "But Mom, I've had her with me the whole time and I have to help her up all the steps and sit her on my lap for all the slides and it's really hard." Point well taken Hudsy, and I told him to go on ahead by himself and I'd keep Harlow down by me. He darted toward the slides, but only made it about 3 steps until he turned around and said, "No, I'll just take her. Come on Harlow!" And my proud mama heart melted. Now that is a good, protective big brother.

See Hudsy way up top?

More swimming Saturday afternoon/evening, and Sunday.

This one never takes his goggles off! And his swimming skills and bravery doubled by the time we left on Sunday. He was jumping and diving (belly-flopping) into the deep, and going all the way under for diving sticks.

Sister got new goggles from Grandma and she looked soooo.....um cute?? Right. 

More bubbles all over this scrawny kid!

Even though Hudson was the one to watch out for her at the play place, these two really have a closer bond. They play together the best, and they fight together the best. On Sunday morning, Harlow woke up first, sleeping next to Paxton she rubbed his chest for awhile and then turned to tell me, "I love my brother." Just that, nothing else. I literally felt a tug inside at my heart.

A video of them swimming....(Be sure I had my eye on Harlow dipping her head into the deep the whole time.) 

We ate at Burgers and Bottles for lunch on Sunday. It was a new restaurant near the hotel and with over 30 different flavors of bottled soda we had to try it out. No need to mention that all three kids chose the SAME ROOT BEER! Typical.

And before we headed home, we stopped at Cherryberry (our second time of the weekend!). Hudson wasn't a fan of his the first day so he needed a a re-do, and that was good enough excuse for me to go again!

The kids had a GREAT weekend!!! SO many thank you's to Maddi and Zev! Especially Maddi for decorating the room again. He is too spoiled. He loves you! We all love you! 

visiting Hudsy

I had the privilege of going to Hudson's school and being the "guest reader" for February- Love to Read Month. Hudson picked two of his favorite books for me to read and then invited me to stay for awhile and watch him in his little kindergarten world. (And of course I brought lunch too!). It also happened to be the 100th day of school so they were doing all sorts of things to celebrate. (Including 100 jumping jacks in gym class!!) They had made crowns before I got there, and I asked Hudson why he wasn't wearing his, and he gave me a typical Hudson answer- he didn't want it to get dirty or ruined. He and his best bud Rowan sat and counted out their 100 pennies and 100 pop tabs. They counted by ones, fives, and tens. Pretty impressive.

Later on we went to the SMART room. I think that stands for something, but I'm not sure what. They combine physical activity with education and do different things at each station. Hudson was partners with his friend Landon.

This activity is math, adding the 2 numbers on the board and then bouncing the ball. 

This was my favorite! Called the love bug. It was hilarious to watch! (I like at the end of this video, you can hear another friend in the background start telling me something by saying, "Hudson's mom....") 

Here he had to walk across the beam, not touch the hearts hanging from the ceiling, and read the 3 words on each dome as he crossed over them. I was impressed.

I can't express how much I love spending time with him at school. It's a side of Hudson I don't normally get to see. The way he interacts with his friends and teachers. He's polite, and courteous, and smart, always eager to learn or volunteer to help. I am so proud of him, and I think I told him 100 times, you know, for the 100th day of school!

it's melting

The boys took advantage of the warmer temps last week and spent part of the afternoon outside, jumping in a very wet trampoline and playing in the melting snow. Hudson made his very own snowman. He sprayed it with red food coloring and Cousin Maddi made the comment that it looked like the snowman was a bit bloody and had been punched in the face. Ha!

I love this progression of pictures. Such a typical brother moment.
Paxton getting ready to give Hudson a snow wash.....

Making contact, but still sweet and innocent smile.....

Retaliation from big brother......

And they're over it and pose for a nice picture.

gymnastics

Harlow continues to LOVE gymnastics! She's excited every week to go and the second its over she's already asking when she goes again. We are in a Mommy and Me class (she can't be on her own until she's 4 years old), but she certainly doesn't need this Mommy to tag along. She prefers to do things by herself, and even sits by the teacher during stretches.

Here is a video of her "skipping". I use quotations because you can't really call what she's doing actual skipping, but she's giving it her all! 

She's working on her skipping a little more in this video, and she tells me that I can video her now. Then she gets a little sidetracked watching the big girls off to the side.

videos

I forgot to post a couple videos of Harlow swimming when we were in Iowa. 

Village West resort

We've missed our annual February weekend trip to Iowa the last couple years, but with the kids at the ages they are, we knew they'd have a blast this year. Their cousins play in a basketball tournament, but all of their free time is spent at the resort, swimming in the pool or winning tickets in the arcade. I wish I would've gotten a picture of Hudson in the arcade, because it was his form of heaven! He was money hungry, playing as many games as he could to win as many tickets as he could! The kid was obsessed to say the least. Harlow's heaven was the pool. Both her and I were thrilled to find an entire pool only 2 feet deep that she was more than happy with. She spent the entire weekend in that pool. She did lots of cannonballs, went diving for her rings (literally, she dove under the water!), and loved the attention from the older kids. And those older kids melted my heart when they played with her, and with the boys too. They were so good with all of them, always including them. I was very proud of those pre-teens and teens.

And a BIG thank you to Grandma Sharon for helping out with the kids and staying with us! We love you!

Harlow riding her horsey in the arcade.

The boys rough housing in the pool. Love those genuine, happy smiles!

Harlow in her element!

We had breakfast at Betsy's Diner at the resort. 

Paxton fell asleep on Saturday afternoon so I stayed back in the room with him while everyone else went down to swim. I enjoyed my extra cuddle time with him. 

Harlow....surrounded by boys! I could've taken a hundred pictures like this, all with her in the middle of about 7-10 boys, following her every move. 

Cavities- Take 1

The boys had dentist appointments a few weeks ago and we got some less than stellar news for Paxton. He has 4-5 cavities! FOUR to FIVE!!!! We've been told since his first visit that his teeth are super close together, perfect for food to get stuck and live in between. At this visit, I was also told that his enamel didn't develop properly, therefore, there isn't much there to protect them either. The dentist informed us that we're kind of up against a losing battle with his mouthful of pearly "not-so whites". (P.S. It should be noted that at the same appointment, Hudson came away with an A+ and ZERO cavities!). We scheduled not one, but two future appointments to have the cavities filled. Since there are so many, and some on each side, top and bottom, the dentist doesn't want to make him sit for that length of time. Plus, one cavity is so bad that he has to have a full cap over the tooth. So, our first appointment was this week at 9:00am. Since I took Hudson to school at 8:00am, we had an hour to kill and he's been talking about going on another "just Mommy and Paxton" date for awhile so I thought this would be the perfect time. You know, reward the kid who has 5 cavities! And I have to tell you about a quick story he told me that morning. And if you know my Paxton, you will know that this is a typical story from him and the way his mind works. It started out like this, "Mommy, one time when I was with just Dad because you were in heaven because they hadn't made you yet....." Excuse me, what? Where was I? I tried explaining to him that I didn't come from heaven, in fact no one does, and that heaven is only where you go when you die. He followed up with a bunch of questions which assured me that he still had no comprehension of what I was trying to tell him and it was time I just let it go and allow him to go on believing whatever it is that goes on in that la-la land mind of his. Man I love this kid!

He was super brave for the dentist. Before walking in, he asked me if it was going to hurt. I told him it might a little bit and explained that afterwards his cheek/tongue/lip will feel funny for awhile (numb) but that its just medicine and will soon go back to feeling normal. He told me that he didn't care and he'd let the dentist do whatever he needed to.

Paxton laid there for 40 minutes with his hands in his pockets and feet crossed. He never complained, and always shook his head "yes" when the dentist asked if he was okay. At one point, the dentist even stopped and said, "Look at him, he's amazing." I know! I got those proud, embarrassing mommy tears at that point. That's also when I remembered that I got the same tears when Hudson had his cavities filled over a year ago and that I brought him to Target afterwards with free reign of anything in the store. You know, again rewarding the cavities! Ha, not so much the cavities, but the bravery and cooperation!

And there's his silver tooth, which he thinks is pretty cool and might even have super powers. When we left that day he told me that he thought it was really fun getting a cavity filled and he's excited he gets to go back again. Oh boy...

TMNT Party

Paxton's dreams came true with his very own Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle birthday party over the weekend. He loves the turtles and I'm pretty sure he owns every single TMNT toy ever made now. And I've been told that he said this was his best birthday ever! 

Imagine running into these two guys in a dark alley!?!? I'd run....ha!!

We hung the pinata in the storage/laundry room in the basement so please look away from the mess and gun cabinet! Instead, check out that determined, powerful swing! 

Each kid got to hit the turtle twice before it busted open, spilling candy all over the place.

Some kids even got knocked out back a little bit. Perfectly caught on camera.

L to R: Lincoln, Sidney, Regan, Paxton, Harlow, Carson, and Hudson

Thanks for coming everyone! For the great gifts and fun night! Our kids live for these parties! 

Harlow rocks!

SHE IS POTTY TRAINED!!!!!!!! Great words to say! But even better than that is the fact that she did it herself! I have been asking her almost daily for months now if she wanted to wear undies or go potty on the toilet, and every time her answer would be a simple, "No!" So on Sunday, January 3rd when I asked again, I expected the same answer, but this time she said, "Ummmmm, yea!" Well okay! And seriously, she put undies on and has not regressed once. No accidents, nothing! She doesn't even need to be reminded to go, she tells us or just goes on her own, and she's dry through naps and nights. This girl is rocking it and I could not be more proud! It's a weird feeling, being brought to proud tears watching your daughter pee/poop in the toilet. I've been telling her she's awesome since the day she was born, and once again, she has proven me right! So now when you ask her, "What does mommy say you are?" She says with enthusiam, "I'm beautiful and AWESOME!"

After a few days of her awesomeness, I took her to Target and let her pick out anything she wanted. She walked the aisles, looking over many toys, listened to some suggestions from her big brother Paxton (which were usually Nerf guns or Transformers), and finally settled on these teeny babies with bunk beds. Side note: We barely got in the house and those poor teeny babies were stripped naked of their clothes. What is it with kids and wanting naked dolls? There is not a single doll or Barbie in our house that has clothes on!

And I'm sure none of you were questioning but.......I LOVE HER!

sledding video

Quick video of Hudsy going down the hill on the snowmobile sled.

sledding

We went sledding a couple weeks ago on our favorite sledding hill in town. Thankfully, with the construction of the new chancery building, we still have enough hill to sled down. We had been worried all summer that we'd have to find a new spot.

Harlow and I are kind of one in the same when it comes to the cold and sledding. We went along with because the boys wanted us to, we stuck it out for awhile, even went down the hill a few times, but we got cold and sledding is still a little scary to both of us (Harlow went down covering her face with her hands and I nearly pee my pants every time!), so after awhile we decided to plant ourselves at the bottom of the hill and watch the boys fly down.

Harlow had just thrown a snowball at Hudson's fave and she thought it was pretty hilarious.

By far Hudson's favorite sled is the "snowmobile sled" Jamie brought home this winter. I was a little concerned about it, so I decided I needed to try it out first to make sure it was safe. That was "almost peed in my pants" take one! It flies, even comes with brakes! But admittedly, it was fun.

So I can say I went sledding this year, check it off my list for the season, and next time they head out, I think Harlow and I will do something a little more girly, and warm!