Thanksgiving 2013

I love that we have a whole holiday to remember what we are thankful for.

The top of my list this year:

a beautiful, healthy baby Hudson

crazy, fun, energetic Chase,

my sweet, hardworking husband,

amazing and supportive family and friends,

and after everything that happened this year,

and things that didn't go as planned,

that here we are at the end of the year living in a wonderful place,

with a good job and knowing that things have a way of working out

and that Heavenly Father is looking out for us.

We kicked off our Thanksgiving with our traditional pumpkin waffles made by Ben

and then headed up to my parents for some Thanksgiving football

(both playing and watching).

Chase was very hesitant to play at first, feeling frustrated that he didn't know how to play,

but he learned quickly and kept us all smiling the whole time.

Chase's version of football is a little different,

he gets to play any and all positions he wants.

So he can be the center and receiver and quarterback (in the same down).

And at once he scored his first "touchdown" 

he knelt right down in the "endzone" (driveway)

-basically he was "Tebowing". And we all had a good laugh.

 Everyone was excited to have the little boys around-

and they really really love all the attention!

 Later that night we had the most delicious Thanksgiving dinner-

I made rolls and corn pudding (for my Southern boy husband),

my mom did the rest and it was all fantastic!

Also of note, our turkey was raised by my dad this year. 

 I am oh so grateful for this little family I've got,

and that we get to be part of such a wonderful bigger extended family.

I really love those photogenic and cooperative boys!

Dinosaurs and 10 months

Monday morning I took the boys to the Natural History Museum in Salt Lake-

we've had a gift card since last Christmas and every time we planned

to go something would come up at the last minute.

This time everything worked out perfect and I was so glad it did!

It was such a fun morning there with my wild, inquisitive two year old.

 Chase was WILD about the dinosaurs!

Chase recently got a new book from my mom called Dinosaurumpus-

which we read quite frequently.

Everytime he'd ask me which dinosaur it was

and I would tell him, he would exclaim,

"Just like Dinosaurumpus!"

There was this kind old gentlemen who let Chase hold a real

dinosaur claw, tooth and fossilized skin.

Chase thought it was great!

Here he is with the claw-

 And about 25 times during the visit Chase asked me,

"But what happened to the dinosaurs?"

Well kiddo, that's the million dollar question right?

We will definitely have to go back!

And somehow this little guy is now 10 months old!

I looked at the calendar yesterday and realized that the 24th had come and gone

and I could no longer tell people that my baby is 9 months old

(which I'm pretty sure I'd done the day before).

Has anyone figured out how to keep them little for longer?
If you have I'd love to know,

I would love to freeze this one just how he is for a long, long time.

 At ten months Hudson is pulling himself up on everything and is super proud about it-

he'll flash you his big smile if you catch him doing it and compliment him.

Just in the last few days he's started cruising around everything as well.

 He still has no real desire to crawl on his hands and knees

and we call him our little sea turtle because that's what his little belly crawl looks like.

He will now give high fives and is starting to clap his hands and sign "all done".

Teething and a head cold have seriously upset his sleep over the past few weeks,

but I'm hoping that my awesome sleeper/napper will be back soon!

Even after a bad nights sleep or short nap, he's still as happy as can be.

(Unlike his tired mama)

He continues to be an absolute joy and we are all so thankful every single day

that he's here!

We love our Hudson James!

(Or as Chase says, he's Hudson baby, not Hudson James.)

Christmas Cards

I'm working on my Christmas cards right now and realize that so many of our friends have relocated since we last sent them out! If you want a card from us (and I'd love to send you one) leave me your address! (If I've already talked to you and gotten your updated address then don't worry about it- I've got it!) You can email it to me too if you don't want it in the comments section at court.hugo@gmail.com.

And I love getting Christmas cards- so if you are sending one out we'd love to have it! Our new address is:
1151 N Daniel Dr
Kaysville, UT 84037

Smith Family Pics

Back in October we were talking at family dinner one Sunday night about how we don't have an official family photo that has any of our most recent additions to the family (namely, Katie, Chase, and Hudson). We never got a good one at Will and Kate's wedding last January, which would have been almost immediately outdated when Hudson arrived 3 weeks later anyway. Then we realized that the stars would be aligning and Nate and Heidi would both be in town the next Saturday. So I hurried and called from good friend Carly, whom I've known and loved forever, and luckily she was free to take our pics! Carly was amazing at keeping Chase's attention and making him laugh- which in turn made everyone else laugh- and we magically got some good family pictures!

 The real magic here is in my dad's happily smiling face- which though it occurs often in real life, very rarely happens in photos. This is mostly a testament to how much he loves these two grandbabies!

So even though this one will be outdated in 6 1/2 months when Will and Kate's BABY comes (insert an insane amount of excitement here!) at least we've got some good pictures of the family we are right now! I love love love my family- we are not perfect, but nonetheless wonderful. 

A Fun Night

Last night I got to go out with this guy...

 ..and these two..

 For a night on the town in Salt Lake City!

 We had such an incredible night!

We started with dinner at La Jolla Groves at the Gateway
(which was seriously delicious and I totally recommend it-

those mini lemon bundt cakes on the table were absolutely divine!)

and then headed over to Energy Solutions Arena

for a Christmas concert from Transiberian Orchestra!

They completely blew me away- it was amazing!

We all agreed it was the perfect way to kick off the Christmas season.

And while we were gone this sweet little guy (and his hilarious and crazy big brother)

were in the caring hands of THREE different babysitters!

Due to crazy scheduling the boys were handed off to my dad,

then my sweet visiting teacher, and then finally my mom.

Apparently Chase took full advantage of us being gone to tell sweet

Sister Morgan exactly how things are done around here.

(And by exactly I mean how he thinks things should run)

It was a wonderful night! I absolutely love this time of year!

Our Week

4 Best Moments of the Week:

#1: On Saturday when my dad and Chase came back from their Saturday morning playdate (aka- blowing leaves in the yard, and then an outing to go get more gas for the leaf blower) Chase walked in just like this- face covered in chocolate and donut in hand. And this expression that said, "What, this is just what we do okay?" I love these two and their Saturday morning projects/donuts.

 #2: We went to Springville on Monday to play with my friend Ashley and her three darling girls! Chase absolutely loves playing with Brooklynn and Kynlee (and hasn't stopped talking about them since!) The kids enjoyed playing at the park and practicing sharing toys :) and I had a blast chatting with Ashley and swapping parenting stories- heaven help us with these crazy two year olds we've got! Ashley just had a new baby, sweet little Ella. I couldn't believe how teeny tiny she is- especially next to Hudson! Hudson couldn't quite figure her out- but he sure liked her:

 Then he went hands on...

 The big kids hopped in the pic, except Kynlee who I'm pretty sure was melting down at this point.

 It was a wonderful day! I wish Springville wasn't quite so far and we'd do it every week!

#3- Parks

We've been to three different parks this week and are so enjoying the semi-warm weather! Kaysville got a new fun park, so we checked it out on Tuesday with Ben before he left for work. What am I going to do with his energy when it snows?

 #4- Hudson. Just in general. I have never wanted to freeze time more than I do these days. This stage with him is just magical- he's so sweet, so happy, starting to figure out new things like standing on furniture/toys and is so so proud of himself. He'll still cuddle when he's tired and loves story time. I have a hard time laying him down at night!

Out of the Mouth of Chase

Me: Chase, what do you want to do today?
Chase: Um...something else.
and then a few days later while I was making dinner:
Chase: What you making mom? (And then before I even had a chance to tell him Lasagna) I want something else!

Uh-oh- something happened. (Whenever he breaks something)

As soon as he falls down he yells out "I'm OKAY!"

Will: Chase- Aunt Katie and I are having a baby!
Chase: A BABY! Like Hudson? Oh, we already have a baby. We have Hudson.
(He has since informed us that it will be a girl "dill" baby and her name will be Sofia.)

Chase came with us to Hudson's doctor appointment where we were discussing his slow weight gain, the fact that he's still spitting up, and how he spits up milk more often, but still spits up solids at least once a day. Our doctor talked about how it's more rare to spit up solid food. Hudson spit up his oatmeal a few days later and Chase, quick as a cricket, said,
"Hudson! That's a solid! You just spit up milk Hudson! Not solids!"
I didn't even know he was paying attention to the doctor!

Ben was saying the prayer on the food while holding Hudson and right in the middle Chase pipes up:
BEN! Fold your arms! Mommy, I want daddy to fold his arms.

While sitting in the cart at the grocery store with my mom (and insisting on the holding the list), she put in a bottle of Brianna's salad dressing. Chase handed the bottle right back to her saying,
"No, this is too different. Get another salad dressing."
and then later when she put tortilla chips in the cart he threw them right back out saying, "We don't need these."
To be clear- Chase is the boss. In all situations.

November: We're off to a good start

After all the Halloween hoopla was over I feel like we haven't

done anything really "documentation worthy".

Except that Chase and I made this art project on Sunday morning

and it makes me laugh every time I look at it.

I did the cutting, and writing (obviously)

and he came up with all the things he was thankful for 

and did the gluing. 

He was super excited about the gluesticks I bought,

as seen in dedicating a whole feature of thanks for glue.

 Daddy and Hudson were the first things he came up with,

followed by Mack, Yogurt, Toys, Nana and Papa, and Friends.

I may have prompted him a little to get a feather for mommy.

And then he drew on the "eyes" and legs.

Gotta love 2 year old art masterpieces.

And then we went to church,

and I just couldn't get enough of these cute boys of mine

in their matching church outfits.

These two remind me every single day how much I have to be thankful for!