Out of the Mouth of Chase

I set Hudson down for a minute so I could take care of something in another room. He started to cry so my mom picked him up.
Chase: (pointing to Hudson) That's my mommy's!
My mom: It's okay, I'm just holding him.
Chase: No, my mommy holds him!
(He's been pretty bossy these days)

My mom gave Chase two cute truck books for his Valentine's Day present on her way out the door to work. He was so excited about them.
Me: Chase, what do you say to Nana?
Chase: (turns to Nana) Read them to me!
Me: Um- I meant thank-you.

Me: Chase- it's Valentine's day! Did you know that it is Valentine's day?
Chase: I no see heart cookies? No see heart cookies?!
(We made heart shaped cookies TWO weeks ago and I told him they were Valentine's cookies. I can't believe he remembered! My mom rectified the situation by making him heart pancakes for breakfast, which he ate four of!)

Me: Let's get you dressed Chase.
Chase: No, I wear football jammies.
Me: Here, let's put on your jeans. (As I put them on him)
Chase: No jeans mommy! They's pants!
Me: Jeans are a type of pants.
Chase: I wear BIG pants. Big pants. Like daddy!

My Aunt Karen gave Chase a little train when Hudson was born. The train is James from the show "Thomas". Chase hasn't really seen the show, but has a remote controlled Thomas from his birthday that he loves. Thus, now all trains are "thomas".
Karen: See Chase, it's James! (who is a red train)
Chase: No- it's red Thomas. It's red Thomas!
later that week Chase called him James:
My Mom: Oh Chase, is that James now?
Chase: James.....James Thomas.
(And he's been Red Thomas ever since. If you call him James he knows who you are talking about and immediately corrects you- it's Red Thomas)

He brought me a book while I was nursing Hudson. He really wanted to sit in my lap and have me hold the book- which obviously wasn't really feasible. I finally convinced him to sit next to me and we could read it together- it's one of his favorite trucks books. He wasn't too happy about it and made a point to pick a fight-
Chase- (pointing at the backhoe loader) It's not a backhoe loader! Not a backhoe loader!
Me: Really, I think it is a backhoe loader (Chase knows that's what it is for sure, especially since he started this whole thing before I said anything)
Chase: It's not a backhoe loader. It's a tractor. Not a backhoe loader. (He continued to try to convince me over and over again for the rest of the day. No worries, it's now back to being a backhoe loader:)

He has a puzzle with different shapes. My mom told us to teach him that the diamond shape is a rhombus, since that is what schools teach now and many of her school kids get really confused. However, we found this out after we'd already taught him it was a diamond. Now any time we do that puzzle he holds up the piece and immediately insists:
Chase: Not a rhombus! It's a diamond. Not a rhombus!!!! (Said with his eyes wide open, eyebrow furrowed and the most serious look on his face. This is serious business people! )

Choosing His Name

Picking a name for a new baby always seems like a lot of pressure. As luck would have it, with both babies Ben and I have been in easy agreement on which names we loved and wanted to use for little girls- and we've only had boys :) Most of my favorite names Ben really wasn't on board with, and he really has yet to come up with and suggest a boys name that he loves (well- this pregnancy he came up with one, but I really didn't like it). After we found out that baby #2 was a boy I tried to get Ben on board with my favorite names (First Easton, then Cooper, then Beckham) and one by one they each got vetoed and checked off the list for good.

The next name I tried to talk him into was Hudson- and finally something sounded good to Ben! I think it helped that we knew a little boy named Hudson in Dominica and he was absolutely adorable! Around the first of October we started calling the baby Hudson and it just seemed to fit. I think my exact quote to Ben at the time was "Should we kind of commit to naming him Hudson unless we change our minds?" How's that for noncommittal? The longer we called him that the more it seemed like the right name for the new baby.

For his middle name, we knew from the beginning that we wanted to use a Hugo family name since Chase has a Smith family name. We had a few that we liked, all after wonderful men. I told Ben he could make the decision and he wanted to wait until he actually met our baby. Once Hudson was born he decided on James- after Ben's grandfather. Ben's Papa Hugo made a big impact on his life and he admired him very much. He just passed away a year ago and we weren't able to attend the funeral since we were in Dominica. I loved Ben's grandfather from the first time I met him and was excited about naming our son after him. Hudson James Hugo seemed like the perfect name for this sweet angel.

It's funny for me to think back on the names I thought I'd use to name my kids- and I thought about it a lot from the time I was in high school. Neither Chase or Hudson was ever on the list, but turns out I love both names now and they seem to fit our boys perfectly. Now that these are the names for my babies they are some of my favorite names in the world. How could they not be, when I associate them with these sweet faces.

 Hudson is obviously thrilled here-

Chase hasn't quite got the hang of holding him yet.

Highlights of our Week

This week I feel like we really started in the full swing of things in our new, normal life with two kids! There were many sweet little moments this week, and many moments where I wanted to pull my hair out and cry. The combination of very little sleep and a crazy two year old has been challenging for me. However, I love my boys and I love being a mom, and I'm working on learning more patience!

We had a few [relatively] warm days this week, so we pulled out our new double stroller (that I love!) and went on some walks! It felt amazing to get out of the house and get some fresh air and exercise. Both boys seemed to enjoy it just as much as I did :)

 The boys are wearing their hats that my Aunt Dennette made for them (the same aunt that made Hudson's cute quilt). Chase absolutely loves his, complete with his beloved Lightening McQueen. He just couldn't quite adjust to going out without his regular blue hat on. Both hats seemed like the best solution to both of us, so every time we've gone out this week Chase has been rocking the double hats.

 Nate came to visit! Nate goes to school at SUU in Cedar City, which is quite the drive. He made a special trip up on Wednesday night so he could meet his newest nephew. Chase was super excited about Nate's trip! Chase loves his uncles and loves rough housing and wrestling. We've had quite a few talks about who it is okay to tackle and who it is not (mostly it's only okay to tackle his dad, Papa and uncles. Babies, other kids, mommy, Nana, etc. are off limits) Chase recited to me that morning:
"I tackle Nate! And Will! And Tatie!" I informed him that it was not okay to tackle Katie, so when he saw Will later that day one of the first things he said to him was, "I no tackle Tatie." Looks like we've got that one down. We are still trying to instill in him that it is not okay to tackle Hudson either. Nate is definitely okay to play rough with and Chase absolutely loved having him here! (As did the rest of us- we don't see him nearly enough!)

 Nate never got to meet Chase when he was tiny because he was on his mission at the time, so meeting Hudson and holding this tiny babe was a whole new experience for him. Then Hudson got fussy and my mom took over for quite awhile.

 And Chase wanted to make sure that I got his picture- if the camera comes out it should definitely be used to photograph Chase!

 Thursday morning Nate had to take off to go back to school- we sure loved having him here!

 Thursday Hudson had his two week doctors appointment. We've had to find a new pediatrician and found one we really like, which is a relief to me. Hudson is perfectly healthy and has already gained 7 oz and grown an inch! He weighed in at 9 pounds (58th percentile) and 21.75 inches (86th percentile). So far Hudson has been the sweetest little newborn- mostly sleeps well at night (but does still eat every 2-3 hours all night) and is pretty calm, sleepy and happy during the day. We feel so blessed to have this sweet little guy in our home!

 And sweet Chase is continuing to adjust to sharing the spotlight and having a baby brother. Here he is at lunch today- yes lunch- still in his pajamas. Every time I tried to change him he insisted "No- I wear football jammies" This boy is so sweet and funny and mischievous and frustrating all at the same time. He melts my heart when he kisses Hudson's little head, or insists on randomly holding his hand throughout the day (of course, we will all try to forget the time last weekend when his jealousy got the best of him and he threw a train at his head).

Hudson's Nursery

While we were living in Dominica I longed to be in our own space and be able to decorate! Our apartments there came furnished, and although our second place was furnished pretty nicely, it was still generic and it wasn't ours. When I got pregnant with Hudson I started looking for ideas to decorate his nursery. Although we are tight on funds, I really wanted the nursery to be a nice, relaxing, peaceful place. And I just longed to decorate. When I jumped on the pinterest bandwagon last January it only increased my desire to just be a little creative and make our surroundings just nicer overall. My plan was to use what I already had for Chase's nursery, but just add a little more to it. 

Then at Christmas time, my sweet aunt Dennette, who made this beautiful quilt for Chase, mentioned that she wanted to make a quilt for Hudson as well! I was planning on using the airplane quilt again, but since she was willing to do a new one for Hudson I let Chase take the airplane quilt to his big boy room! (It's a good thing too, because he decided shortly after that he is very attached to the "aweplane banky") I knew I wanted to reuse the same crib bumpers I had for Chase (which I love), which are just plain, light blue minky material. The walls in the room are already a beautiful color of gray, so I wanted to incorporate gray as well. I met my aunt a few weeks ago at the fabric store to pick out stuff for his quilt. I was happy to find the same blue minky material to tie in the bumpers and the gray chevron stripes that I just loved. Then I found a few other fabrics I liked that incorporated red, and I just loved the way they all went together! 

Dennette brought the finished quilt by last week and I absolutely LOVE it! It ties his whole nursery together!

 I bought extra fabric to make these fabric buntings- so I have now officially done one craft  I've pinned on pinterest! Hudson's nursery also doubles as the guest bedroom/Nate's room when he's home from college. This queen bed in here has been very useful for me though when Hudson is having a rough time sleeping (which happens at some point every night) and I end up just crashing in here! Chase loves the red clock on the wall (or tick tock as he calls it). I still want to add to the selection of stuff hanging here- and two of those frames just have filler paper in them until I get his newborn pictures back to fill them! The other picture is the CinnamonInk airplane print my friend Kate made for Chase as a baby.

 I love having his name on the wall-

Chase points at it every day and says "it's ABCs!"

I bought these letters at Hobby Lobby and painted them.

I was also so impressed that I got everything hung up with command strips

so we won't leave holes in the walls when we move from my parents basement.

 This rocking chair completes our nursery. Ben found it on KSL when I was pregnant with Chase for a really good deal and I couldn't love it more. I missed it so much while we were in Dominica! There is nothing like having a comfortable reclining glider to relax in for all those hours nursing/burping/rocking a sweet baby in the middle of the night. You can also kind of see our changing station on the left of the chair.

 Although not a permanent part of the nursery, I've loved having these beautiful flowers on my changing station for the last week! (Maybe just the firetruck part can stay?) These were a gift from my sweet in-laws.

I have to say that although I'm far from a professional decorator, I am so happy with the way Hudson's room turned out. I think overall I spent less than $80 to finish up his room, so I'm calling it a success. However, my very favorite part of this nursery is the little baby boy who sleeps there!

Superbowl 2013

The Superbowl is a big deal in the Smith household. My brothers like it better than Christmas!

We have a little tradition to have sandwiches and have a little party with a few close friends.

Although I really didn't care that much who won the game, 

I just think it's fun to all get together, have yummy food and to dress up my children accordingly!

My cute, but currently unphotogenic kids in their superbowl outfits:

 I snapped this picture just as the game was starting-
and then of course I mostly got caught up chatting with people and didn't take many more for the rest of the party. It was a blast though!

Here are Sam (Heidi's friend), Heidi with Hudson, Katie and Will

 Our good family friends, the Franks family, always join us.
The Franks daughter Jenna is Chase's favorite person

and our favorite (and only) babysitter. Between Jenna and her little 

brother Sam, Chase stayed very entertained!

 And at one point Chase hopped up between Will and Katie-

he was so excited to see his aunts and uncle! (We sure missed Nate though!)

Chase went to bed at the first of the 3rd quarter,

and Hudson had an outfit change,

 then we all sat and enjoyed the rest of the game!

My boys are learning young to love football!

We were a little disappointed that the niners didn't win,

but I think we all agreed that Beyonce is amazing! (Right Heidi?!)

After spending a whole week cooped up in the house (which I didn't mind until about Friday)

I was so happy to just see other people! And besides nursing Hudson,

I hardly saw my own children all night! There were so many loving people around to hold, cuddle and play with them! 

Day One on my Own

Yesterday officially marked Hudson's First week of life and my first day on my own with two kids! I was a little nervous, but Hudson has been such a little angel baby that it isn't nearly as hard as it could be. Sweet little one still mostly just sleeps all day and eats every few hours. Chase is the hard part, keeping him happy, safe, fed, entertained and out of trouble! There was one point where Chase took off for the upstairs and I didn't follow him quite quick enough. I found him running out of my parents bathroom with black around his mouth. He'd found Nana's mascara- and the kid is obsessed with chapstick lately. I was able to get 4 loads of laundry done (Hudson creates a LOT of dirty laundry these days), made Valentine's Day cookies with Chase, and took a nap while both boys napped (I'm really hoping this is a daily occurrence). I know not every day will go this smoothly, but I was grateful that this one did!

I took a ton of pictures of my sweet boys yesterday and this morning. Chase loves to lay down next to Hudson when I put him down on a blanket (which isn't often, I like having him snuggled up next to me too much). It's pretty evident that Chase loves his little brother!

Thursday

 Friday

At one point Chase decided he needed his own blanket and pillow.

This situation lasted about 2 minutes, 

Chase really isn't all about holding still and staying in one place.

 Chase and my dad have a thing they do together, watching tractors on youtube.

Yesterday my dad borrowed a tractor from a friend to move around the snowbanks. Chase was pretty excited about going for a ride. He was a little unsure at first and didn't last very long out there, but was still excited about the tractor! I was grateful that Chase got out of the house for a few minutes!

While they were gone I tried to get a few pictures of Hudson in this outfit. 

It was one of my very favorites on Chase and Hudson looked just as darling in it.

Unfortunately I am always disappointed in the pictures I take of my babies,

they never seem to do their cuteness justice. Hudson is one darling little snuggle bug.

Chase giving Hudson a kiss-

melt my heart!

I love these boys! I'm so lucky I get to stay home with them!

Happy Due Date!

Today was my due date with Hudson- I'm so glad he came early! I can hardly believe he's already been here a week! And that he's only been here a week! One thing I'm sure of, there is nothing in the world sweeter than cuddling with a newborn. To celebrate a week of Hudson, here's a little Hugo family update:

HUDSON

This baby is so so sweet! Chase was a fairly challenging newborn- he didn't want to eat for the first week and didn't want to be set down -ever- for the first month or two. The combo of the two was pretty stressful for me at first. Hudson seems just like his brother in that he LOVES to be held, but we love holding him, so it's not that problematic (until it's 3 am and I really really want to sleep myself!). However, this little man has taken to eating so well. He eats every 2-3 hours and has done really well with nursing since day 1, which is such a relief to me! Last night he finally did sleep in his crib for a couple of 1-2 hour stretches, which was heavenly for me. I think we've figured out the key to this- he likes to be warm. So we jacked up the heat quite a bit and he's done better with it since then. His absolute favorite place to be is snuggled up on someone's chest with blankets covering you both. This might also be my favorite thing in the world!

CHASE

Oh what to say about sweet Chase?! He loves his little brother and exclaims "HUDSON!!!!" every time he sees him. He likes to climb up on the edge of the crib to take peaks at him while he's napping. He's a little unsure of the world now since this little man has changed our lives. We've been trying to do lots of special little outings with him to help him transition. Ben took him to the Hill Airforce Base Airplane museum on Monday morning and Chase loved it (pictured above- he doesn't look that happy but Ben assures me he was in heaven)! He's still talking about it a few days later. Today he went grocery shopping with daddy and was thrilled that daddy let him have a donut :) Other than that, he's been a little (lot) more demanding, a little more naughty and had a few more meltdowns that normal. Oh, and he's now waking up between 4:30 and 5:00 am every day. That needs to end. Now since he sees us snuggling Hudson all the time he wants to snuggle too- which lasts about 15 seconds. He hasn't wanted to snuggle since he started crawling at 7 months, so we'll take what we can get!

COURTNEY

I tried to have Ben take a picture of me with both boys this morning- after a bunch of tries this is best we got! Oh well, I'm loving being a mom to these two, although it's been overwhelming to the point of tears many times already. I was so worried that I wouldn't love Hudson as much as I love Chase. I now understand what everyone says that your love for your children just multiplies. I love all the time I get to just snuggle Hudson close and realize what a sweet blessing he is in our family. We had a few scares early in the pregnancy when we were still in Dominica where we thought we'd lost the baby (due more to lack of good medical treatment and skilled doctors than to actual risk to the pregnancy). Now that he's here all safe and healthy I feel so grateful to have him as part of our family and I'm blown away by what a little miracle he is. My recovery from this delivery has been harder than it was with Chase, but I'm starting to feel much better now thankfully. Hopefully soon I can figure out how to balance the needs of both boys and get life put back together- pray for me!

BEN

I'm so grateful to have this man in my life as my partner on this crazy parenting journey! We found out the morning after Hudson was born that the test that Ben has been studying so much for, originally planned for the end of February, instead will not be available for him to take until May. We were of course disappointed and frustrated by this news, but the silver lining is that it is giving Ben time to help me around the house, adjust to a family with two kids, and is giving him time to bond with his new son. I think next week he'll go back to 10+ hour days of studying, but we are all enjoying him having a little more free time right now. Ben is a natural with his babies  (other than getting them dressed- darn those little snaps!) and loves to spend as much time as possible cuddling with Hudson.