My sister emailed me pictures today of my niece Jett Lillian and they are so sweet. The pictures capture her big personality, and I can't wait to squeeze those scrumptious little thighs. It's never been easy being away from my sister, but now that we have Jett in our lives it's even harder. I couldn't help but smile when I was looking at the photos (while tears ran down my cheeks). I love you! 
0 Comments
After church on Sunday I took the kids to a nearby park to take some photos - Hudson loved every minute of it. Crawling all over the rocks, while Hadley kept tripping on the rough terrain.  Hudson went to his best friend Blake's birthday party today at the pumpkin patch and brought home a little pumpkin. As I mentioned in a previous blog, we got out the Halloween decorations this weekend - which ended up being a bunch of "stuff" rather than decorations. One of the items was a carving kit. Hud took it upon himself to carve the baby pumpkin while I was cooking dinner. He did a great job - Hadley and Johnny watched.      I promised Halloween decorations this weekend, and came up with nothing from the attic. So, we started off the season with our annual pumpkin painting. Hudson got a little more creative this year and added a face to his pumpkin. Hadley was most excited about the paint and paintbrushes, that is until she stuck the brush in her mouth. Luckily we used acrylic non-toxic paint! Of course, Andy painted a scary one, and mine is the cute one ;)       I love Autumn. Love crisp cool air in the morning, wasting away hours of the day outside - and not sweating to death, the smell of pumpkin ANYTHING, and of course decorating. I told the kiddos that we're going to decorate for Fall/Halloween this weekend. It's the little things in life that make me happy & Autumn and decorating are just a couple of them. I have to get up in the attic tomorrow and see what I have up there for decorations. I'm probably going to want to toss everything and start over, but hopefully my creative ideas will be flowing and I can make the best of it. I've already stumbled across several cute ideas that I'm looking forward to making. Last year Hud and I painted mini pumpkins. I painted an adorable owl on mine, while he spent hours painting his entire pumpkin green, then blue, then purple, and then finishing it in orange. Yes, he painted the entire pumpkin orange because, "pumpkins are orwange, mom." We'll see what he comes up with this year.     Home & Garden, Southern Living, and Good Housekeeping
 This past weekend Andy and I went to Chicago to meet up with our friends from Omaha. It was a nice vacation with four friends and my hubby. We stayed at the Affinia Hotel one block off of Michigan Ave. We were right in the middle of the hustle and bustle of Chi-town. We visited a couple of local bars, caught a late night movie, toured the Museum of Science & Industry, had a relaxing massage, great shopping, and ate wonderful food. I know I'm one of the first to complain to about the heat and humidity that we have down in the south, and I was really looking forward to cooler weather in Chicago, but 55 degrees and W-I-N-D-Y was a little too chilly for me. A couple of the days we had great weather, mid 70's and sunny, but that 55 was nippy. Nothing a new sweater can't take care of. I do have a short story I must tell...Sunday morning we were hanging out in our friends' room and they mentioned they saw a naked person across the street looking out another hotel room. Our rooms were on the 28th floor - the hotel across the street had at least 35 floors. Several people in the other hotel were oblivious to the proximity of our hotel and the fact that we could see them. What am I getting at, you ask? We saw at least a half dozen naked people enjoying their Sunday morning and the view from their windows! It was absolutely hilarious...fully naked, half naked - snuggling, talking on the phone, stretching, scratching, dressing, you name - it was happening . On Sunday after Andy and I left, our friends saw James Denton from Desperate Housewives at the Navy Pier. Yes, I missed out on a photo op with a famous person, but I wouldn't have recognized him anyways - don't get me wrong, he's a cutie but he would have slipped right past me. The lesson here - always be aware of your surroundings (for more than one reason) and shut the curtains! Thanks for the great weekend guys.          I received a message on facebook the other day from a dear old friend (my age, so not old - you know what I mean). I haven't talked to her forever, but I think about her often. You see, she lost her child at the precious age of 3 to leukemia and her profile pic is an image of him. We don't talk very often; you know how that goes - life takes you in different directions, time flies by, and before you know it, it's been years since you last talked. My friend and I go way back. We met the first day of kindergarten, and were inseparable for most of our childhood and through our teen years. We dressed alike, we played on the same sports teams, schooled all the neighbor boys in basketball, people thought we were sisters, and oddly enough we have the same name.
Anyways, like I was saying, we don’t talk very often but when we do it’s like we just spoke yesterday. I found out that she works in the Cancer Unit at the Med Center, which tells me one thing…she’s a very strong woman. It’s amazing to me that she was able to turn a tragic loss into a life long commitment and career. I'm telling you, I get choked up every time I see his little picture, I don't know how she does it. The motivation that drives her is obviously straight from her heart. I commend her because the medical field needs passionate people and knowing her my whole life, I know she is. Needless to say, we can all do our part in supporting the research of this horrendous disease. Thank you to my friend and all of the others to that help save lives. This past weekend started out with a "flip out" scenario that I didn't enjoy. I picked Hudson up from school at noon on Friday. As I sat there waiting in line for the pick-up, I rolled down the window and listened to the sounds of the playground. I felt so proud of Hudson because as all of the kids stood in two lines, I heard one thing, "Bye Hudson" repeated several times by several kids. There were nearly a dozen kids in the other classroom telling my child bye. I think every mother wants their child to be liked which, in my eyes, means that he has a great personality, he's likable, he's friendly, and outgoing. It brought a big smile to my face because he has a huge personality, is full of life and laughter, and that makes me proud. After witnessing the kids chanting my child's name, I decided to surprise Hud by taking him to McDonalds...this is when things went south. I was in the drive-thru line (we didn't have much time, so we couldn't stay and play), Hud started flipping out because he wanted to go inside and order. I tried to order over his screaming, and then decided I was not going to reward his actions so I drove off. I won't get into the details of the next 45 minutes, but let's just say it wasn't pretty and we both ended up in tears. All that really matters is I stood my ground, and obviously I don't do that enough. I think we both learned a lesson!  2nd "flip out" - while swimming at Fred & Melissa's, Hudson figured out how to flip in the water. Not only was he doing back flips off the stairs, but he shortly figured out how to do front flips too. This absolutely blew me away because at the beginning of the summer Hudson wouldn't leave the stairs. Again, proud mama! Hudson and Hadley had a great time swimming, and we all had a great time hanging out poolside. I didn't really get to hang out / lounge because Hadley is a maniac and has no fear. She kept jumping in, with or without me ready for the catch. I'm excited that she loves the water, but her fearless actions are exhausting.  I'm so impressed by the blogs that I read, they're creative, intriguing, and inspiring. The night I created this blog, it was a very spontaneous move on my part, the name came to me at midnight on Saturday night, didn't think about it all day on Sunday, and then BAM! Midnight on Sunday and I was rockin' and rollin'. Anyways, I want to share with you the blogs that I think are amazing.
Another blogger that inspired me is my friend Cam. She is the most kind-hearted mama I know and the second you click on her blog and the music starts you are captivated by the wonderful photos and memories she has captured. Oh, and not to mention she is an amazing graphic designer. Today is our 10 year wedding anniversary. It's hard to believe that 10 years have gone by so quickly. I remember during our first year of marriage the "growing" that happened between Andy and I. Not only as young adults, but as a couple as well. Andy and I got married when we were 21 years old, and a couple months after the big day we moved 500 miles away from our family and friends. Looking back, it was probably one of the best decisions we made. At the time I remember thinking, we're going to be married for the rest of our lives? Are you kidding me? I was ready to grow up, buy a house, have kids, build that white picket fence, yada yada yada. Of course, that wasn't what happened. We both worked full time, didn't love our jobs, worked too hard for too little, paid too much for an apartment, and bought a dog! Sure, we bought a house less than a year later and well, another dog. The kids didn't come until later...
It was almost 5 1/2 years of married life before our son Hudson was born. This was a major milestone in our marriage. The first time Andy changed Hudson's diaper, fed him, kissed him, swaddled him, made me fall in love with him all over again. To see such a hard-headed "manly-man" be so proud of a pathetic little 5 pound peanut made my heart melt. Almost 3 years later when our baby girl was born, I felt that the strings that tied our hearts together became stronger again. The birth of Hadley completed our family. So, now here we are 10 years into our life together, I truly feel like we are moving forward in love, with faith, and our family complete. I look forward to the years to come, and will hold on to the memories of our past. |  I ama wife, mother of two, CategoriesAll ArchivesJune 2012 Blogs I Love |
RSS Feed