January is OVER!

I started January with a long list of resolutions and I've been working hard at them! Some of them have proven easier than others. One goal I had was to cut down Chase's TV time. This kid loves watching shows, but he also has tons of energy and imagination and loves playing too. So I decided to put more effort into keeping the TV off and surprisingly (to me) Chase has done GREAT with it! For the most part he's still pretty happy and we've been able to come up with lots of good activities to fill our time. He still gets to watch a little bit when I need a serious break!

 Hudson learned this new trick- crawling around the house with a sippy cup stuck firmly in his little mouth. He's now completely done nursing and is seriously ecstatic about drinking cows milk from a sippy cup!

 This trick is less endearing, and much more destructive. Hudson can open our fridge. And he tries to get into it at least 20 times a day. When I stop him he throws his head back and cries really hard and makes me feel like the meanest mom in the world. Hudson has always been very passionate about food. I think he feels like he's finally found the gold mine of where we keep the food and mean mom just won't let him at it!

Tuesday night as Ben was tucking Chase into bed they had their normal conversation:

Ben: How was your day today Chase?

Chase: doog (how he says GOOD)

Ben: What did you do today?

Chase: Daddy! I didn't get to GO ANYWHERE today!

(Lest you feel bad for him, we did actually go on a walk that morning, and then later that afternoon his little friends came to play, finishing off the evening with Papa coming to visit, so we actually had a lot of excitement that day!)

So the next morning we quickly remedied that! The last Wednesday of the month the zoo has a free day, so my friend Marissa and I packed up our kids early that morning to get there just after they opened. It was awesome! (and a little cold) We saw some awesome animals (especially that polar bear who was doing tricks like crazy for us!) and Chase and Corbin literally ran as fast as their little legs could go all over the zoo, all the while Hudson napped in his stroller.

 Chase kept asking to see zebras and a crocodile. I'm not sure the Hogle Zoo has either. And we purposefully did not take him to the reptile house because snakes freak me out (and he didn't ask to see them either). As soon as we got home and Ben asked him how it was, Chase quickly replied with:

We didn't see a crocodile! Or a zebra!

Papa got the exact same response when he asked him how the zoo was! Chase actually had a great time and really loved all the cool animals we DID see that day. Then my dad asked if I took him to see the snakes. Before I could even answer, Chase pipes right up to say:

No, I have to go with my daddy if I want to see the snakes.

I go with daddy and we see snakes, crocodiles and zebras!

Later that night when Nana was talking to him on the phone he told her the same story:

We didn't see snakes, zebras or crocodiles! I have to go with my

daddy to see snakes, zebras and crocodiles. I have to go with my daddy and NOT HUDSON!

So apparently Chase has some intense feelings about how the next zoo visit will go down. This kid can be hard to please sometimes!

We had a few fun visits from Papa this week! Most of them went down like this:

We love Papa's visits!

And that's how we made it through January!

My One Year Old

One year ago today, during an ice storm, my sweet, darling Hudson came into the world. I was full of so much apprehension before he was born, so worried I wouldn't love him- or even like him- as much as I love Chase. I was so worried about how I'd handle two kids. I had no idea what a sweet, amazing little boy I was about to meet. Hudson stole my heart from the minute he was born and my love for him literally grows every single day. From his beautiful, clear blue eyes, his darling dimples, his wide mouthed smile and cute little toes- I love every inch of this little miracle.

At one year old Hudson

•  Generally sleeps 12 hours every night- unless he's teething and takes a short (30 min) morning nap and a longer (2-3 hour) afternoon nap
• Initiates peek-a-boo on his own and laughs at himself
• Laughs whenever people around him are laughing
• Is 22 lbs 1 oz (62nd percentile) and 30.5 inches (75th percentile)

• Says Hi! with a big smile
• Pulls himself up on everything and crawls everywhere- and has no intention of walking
• Gives cute hugs and "loves" (ie- biting my nose)

• Loves to play with Chase
• Signs More and All Done, and touchdown
• Eyes light up when he sees Mom
• loves to eat more than any baby I've ever seen- and eats just about everything we put in front of him

Oh sweet Hudson James- words can't even express our love for you! You have brought the sweetest little presence into our family and we are thankful every day that you are here! 

Hudson's Birthday Party

Although Hudson is not technically ONE YEAR OLD until tomorrow, we had his birthday party tonight. Even though a one year old has no clue what is going on, we just couldn't let this special day pass without celebrating our sweet one year old! One whole year baby!

I made this banner with some of my favorite pictures of him, one from every month. I've actually kept it up all week and I love looking at all the sweet pictures of my baby, remembering each precious stage of his beautiful little life!

 We kept the party pretty simple. It was just our little family, my parents and Will and Kate. We watched "the Hudson movie" as Chase calls it- a movie I made of his first year. And then we opened presents. Unlike Chase at his first birthday, Hudson had really no interest in unwrapping the presents, but seemed pretty interested in the toys once they were unwrapped. So Chase did all the honors of unwrapping, he was thrilled to help. Huds was most intrigued by this little bag-

 ...and then it was this little post-it note. 

 But thanks to everyone for the sweet gifts!

He is one loved little boy!

And then we had cupcakes!

Hudson was so delighted when everyone sang to him, 

he started singing along in his own little way!

Chase blew out his candle for him.

 And then he went to town on his little cupcake!

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves-

he sure loved it!

Oh we all love this sweet boy!

Happy Birthday Hudson James!

What we've been up to...

Man January is a looooong month.

Back when Ben and I were first married I told him that I wanted to have a baby in January,

because it is the longest, most boring month of the year. 

We should definitely have some birthday parties in there to make things exciting.

So we did. Twice.

And I'm glad we've got little birthdays to celebrate.

But still, it's a long month.

So here is a little of what we've been up to:

Playing in the snow-

Santa brought Chase snow pants and boots

and he loves the snow.

As pictured here- him pelting his dad with a snowball.

 Chase is also a big fan of snow angels.

Last week it snowed and snowed. One night I put Hudson down to

bed and Chase and I went out to shovel the driveway before Ben got home.

It is such a sweet little memory in my head now. I shoveled away in the quiet dark and Chase ran around our driveway like a little maniac

and had a blast. And then we made like 8 snow angels in the dark and went inside.

 Lots of naps-

since the day we brought Hudson home from the hospital I have always

tried to put both boys down for their naps at the same time.

It works like 95% of the time and it's heavenly.

So naps aren't really a January thing, but I had this cute picture of Hudson

so I thought I'd include it here.
Also, they are more important to me these days because my kids haven't been the best sleepers lately- they are taking turns having rough nights and I'm tired!

Lots of smiling-

smiling's his favorite!

And lots of trips to the Discovery Gateway!

We've been 4 times this month already!

We went last Thursday with Ben and he loved seeing the boys enjoy it.

And then we went with my mom on Saturday-

which was also a blast.

(Complete with a little shopping and lunch- both compliments of my mom-

so it was fun and exciting for me as well!)

Out of the Mouth of Chase- Winter 2014

As he picks up a piece of something off the floor:
Chase: Mom? Is this poop? Is this poop or a brownie crumb?
Mom: It's a brownie crumb.
Chase: Oh good (as he pops it in his mouth- I'm glad he double checked)

As we were watching the Incredibles:
Mom! I need him to be red. I need him to be red! (repeated every 3 minutes)
He's talking about the part when Mr. Incredible gets his new red uniform- which doesn't happen for awhile into the movie.

Whenever he sees Hudson he gets right up close to his face and says,
"HIIIIIIIIIIIIII there BUDDYYYYYYYYYYY!"

While saying the prayer on the food:
"Thank you that the sun could come up. And thank you that the sun could go down. And thank you that it turns into the moon."

After every prayer in church he turns to me and says,
"I be'd reverent!"

As we were leaving the grocery store and I explained that he couldn't have a treat because he wasn't well behaved and that was the consequence of his actions:
"I don't want consequences!"
Yeah buddy- you and the rest of the world. Figure that one out earlier rather than later and you will live a lot better life!

When asking Chase to do something for the second time (or third, or eighth), he quickly replies:
"I'm am" and finally scurries away to do it.

Papa- your white car is a little bit dirty!

New Camera

Ben surprised me with a fun gift for Christmas- a new camera! A Sony a58 to be exact, which is so much nicer and can do so much more than my trusty point and shoot I've been using for the last few years. My main frustration with the point and shoot was the delay- by the time it took the picture my kid had moved and at least half of all pictures turned out blurry. I am loving this new camera and the pictures it is allowing me to get of my babies. I met with my good friend Carly last week and she helped me figure out how to use the camera better and shoot in manual mode instead of automatic. I still have lot of work I need to do to get better at it, but here are a few of my favorite shots I've gotten of the kids in the last week. And I know, there are way more pictures of Hudson than Chase, but Hudson is a much more willing model for me.

3 Years Old

A little about Three Year Old Chase

• Has a major sweet tooth and really loves cookies and donuts. Other favorites are cold cereal, oatmeal (or opimeal as he calls it), cuties, hummus, sloppy joes, quesedillas and peanut butter.
• Favorite toys are all "big" machines- excavator, combine, tractors, bull dozer, train set, etc. 
• Favorite shows are Mickey Mouse Club House and Jake and the Neverland Pirates. 
• Favorite friends to play with are Will and Matt Newbold and Edyn and Emersyn Edgmon.

• Loves to run errands with me, go to friends houses and Nana and Papas house- pretty much never wants to come back home. Kid likes to be out and about!
• Loves his little brother and is growing into the role of Big Brother really well. He loves to make Hudson happy and we are working on sharing toys with him. Whenever he makes him smile he reports back to me, "Mom! I made my brother happy! He's happy!"
• Loves playing outside and story time.

• Is very creative and has a great imagination. A few weeks ago he needed to "plow" the snow of his new train tracks so the train could go through. He "plowed" the "snow" with his bulldozer, then scooped it up with his excavator and put it in the back of his dump truck to take it elsewhere to dump. 
• Loves to sing and knows the words to many primary and Christmas songs. His favorites are "I love to see the Temple" "I am a Child of God" "Deck the Halls" and "O Christmas Tree".
• Wants to do everything by himself. Unless it's looking for a lost toy- then he wants mom to do it.

• Still takes a 1-2 hour nap every afternoon. Bedtime is a struggle of us putting him back to bed 3-25 times every night before he finally falls asleep. We try to put him down between 8:00-8:30, but he doesn't fall asleep until after 9:00 most nights.
• When he gets out of bed we threaten that we will take a toy away every time he gets out of bed. When I tell him to go back to bed or I'll take a toy away he responds with a sly smile saying, "Which one?" He's asking to see if it's worth it to him to obey.
• Can count to 20, knows all his alphabet sounds, and is pretty sure he knows everything about the world. 

This little one really is incredible! We have so loved having this little wonder in our family! He has made every day so much richer, more exciting and more colorful. We love you little Chase! 

(and if he heard that he would immediately correct me that he isn't little- he's a big boy)

Chase's Birthday Day

Chase has had a three day long birthday celebration this year! Possibly we are making up for last year when we were so busy with wedding stuff that we had a tiny party with cake a few days before his birthday and then he spent his actual birthday with the flu... After his party on Thursday night, on Friday he got to go on another special date with Ben to the train museum (which he LOVED) and had leftover birthday cake with lunch and dinner. Then today, on his actual birthday, Nana and Papa had a whole Chase day planned!

The day started by riding Frontrunner to Salt Lake. Chase LOVES Frontrunner! We went on it once last summer and he still talks about it! My parents said he literally did not stop talking for 2 seconds the entire ride, pointing out every fun and exciting aspect of riding the train! Then he met up with Hudson and me (who drove, so Hudson could nap) at the Gateway to get his big present from Nana and Papa- a annual pass to the Discovery museum! Chase loves this place and this was the perfect idea! Then we all spent a few hours playing. Chase loved to explore every single exhibit- and Hudson even got in on the fun this time around!

 After the museum Nana and Papa took us all to lunch at Rumbis. Chase was pretty crazy due to all the excitement and being really tired, so I couldn't even get him to look at me for ONE nice picture with his doting grandparents! He had a really really great time (as did Hudson and I- and I think Nana and Papa did too). We are all smitten for this crazy little boy!

So this wraps up his three day long birthday celebration- he can have the last piece of his birthday cake tonight after dinner and we'll call him a well-celebrated and definitely official three year old!

Chase's Birthday Party

 Chase doesn't officially turn three until Saturday (which he reminded me about 4 times today the he is still two) but we had his birthday party a little early this year. He was so excited to have a birthday party- he talked about it all day! Ben took him to a movie, Frozen, in the afternoon and he absolutely loved it. He has reminded Ben daily about how much he loved their date to see Planes 6 weeks ago, so Ben thought it would be a fun birthday trip to enjoy a movie together.
While they were gone I set up his party. He has been telling me since October the he wanted a tractor party so that's what we did! Heidi helped me make the sign and we strung up green and yellow streamers everywhere and yellow and green balloons. Chase was super excited about the decorations (and tractor plates we had for cake) and was especially impressed by the balloons. I wanted him to feel well celebrated- but honestly- I could have done a lot less work and he would have been equally as happy.

 I stressed about this cake a lot, but all in all I think it turned out cute. It was a chocolate cake- of course- for my birthday boy who loves chocolate cake more than anything in the world. He was so excited when he saw his cake that he wanted to cut into it right then.

 Chase was SO wound up after the movie with dad and then seeing all the decorations and cake for his party- you can see it on his face in these next few shots- jumping off a chair and all around craziness! He really couldn't even sit still long enough to eat dinner- pizza, at his request.

 Our party guests were mainly just family- Will and Kate, my parents and Nate and Heidi. We were so grateful to have Chase's favorite people and biggest fans there!

 Chase was mostly really excited to open his presents! He got some darling toys- some new cars, Book of Mormon action figures, some cute racecar balls, socks (which he desperately needed- he's still wearing his 18-24 month size socks), a new sweater and a firetruck. Then his buddies Will and Matt Newbold came over with their mom and brought him a little combine that fits on the back of a semi. He was in heaven!

 He was really excited to blow out his candles- and got all three out in just two breaths (a big improvement for him from last year). Almost as soon as his candles were out he just wanted to go back to playing with his new toys!

 Chase loves these little buddies. They are darling together. When I asked him if he wanted Will and Matt to come to his party he said "Yes! And Jodi? Jodi come too mom?" Jodi is their mom, and apparently and suddenly, Chase is quite attached to her. She babysat him a few weeks ago for me and apparently made a great impression on him.

So there you have it- Chase's much anticipated tractor party! He was so excited and was bouncing off the walls all night, so I guess that is the sign of success for an almost three year old!