Kid Updates

Chase at 6.5 years old:

• He's such a reader. We will get 5 chapter books from the library and he's done with them in 5 days. The funny thing is, it's not like his nose is in a book all day long. He plays and plays all day, and then sits down for quiet time or bedtime and just devours books. I love it.
• I stressed a lot about what to do with him and school next year. He was tested, and then accepted into the PALS program in our school district. This is an accelerated program for the top students in each grade level. His scores came back very high (which we knew they would) and he was accepted into the program, but it would mean changing schools (only three schools in the district offer the program) and from the research we'd done we didn't LOVE the program. We knew Chase would be fine either way, but it was hard to let an opportunity pass by. Ultimately, we talked to his school teacher and my mom, who had similar advice- he's thriving where he is. He'd thrive in PALS too. But he's so smart, he gets along with the kids his age, and he's motivated to keep learning. Chase has loved Creekside this last year (and we have too) and so we decided to just keep him there- and we actually feel really good about it. I'm hoping he'll be blessed with another teacher who will help push him and keep him engaged, and we will continue to do enriching activities at home and I think he will be just fine.
• Has a serious mind for numbers. One day, out of the blue he asked me, "Mom, did the Titanic sink 99 years before I was born?" I had to have him remind me exactly when the Titanic sunk (1912) and then told him he was right. He responded with "Yeah, that makes sense because the Titanic sunk 105 years ago and I'm 6." He's good at math because the way numbers works makes sense to him. Also, we may be measuring all time from "how many years since the titanic sunk."
• Has learned the importance of being inclusive. He is naturally this way, always wants to have anyone join in the fun. But a few experiences with other kids leaving him or others out has cemented in his mind that it's important to be inclusive. I love this about him.
• Finally lost his first tooth! He chipped his front teeth as a toddler, and one of them started turning grey in June. Then it started hurting him. So the dentist pulled it! He said that the permanent tooth isn't anywhere close to coming in, so he'll likely have a hole there for a year (or longer). But Chase didn't care. He was so excited to finally lose a tooth and have the tooth fairy come!

Hudson at 4.5 years old:

• Has the most creative imagination. He has these little stuffed animals that he plays with all the time. We have birthday parties for them frequently and they all have assigned genders, ages, and personalities and he stays very consistent with it. (Bear is a boy, is 2 and sleeps in a hammock Hudson makes on their bunkbed. Raccoon is 4 and he cheats, fox is also 4, a girl and she lies. Monkey is a girl, she's 29 and she's the one who makes all the birthday cakes for the parties. Seamore is a little seal, she's a girl and if you ask him when she was born he says "I switched out her birthday so now it's March 1.)
• Still naps 5-6 days a week, for a good 2-3 hours in the afternoon. But he'll tell you "I do okay without a nap now" because we have 1:00 church so he skips his nap on Sundays. Sometimes that means we have a really, really ornery Hudson on Sunday evenings though. When we are out and about and don't have time for a nap he does just fine though.
• Hudson has blown me away with his love, attitude and helpfulness for Davis. He will do anything I ask if it's for Davis. He loves to hold him and is so sweet to him. Becoming a big brother has really brought out the best in Hudson in the best way.
• He got some little airline wings when we flew home from Washington DC in May and he wears them every single day! It's just part of getting dressed for him to add his airline pin.

Davis at 4 months:

• Smiling is his favorite. And ours.
• He gets distracted while nursing and just has to smile at me. It's really the best.  He also does really well with bottles and I've been able to pump pretty well this time around- so I can actually leave for short amounts of time and he does just fine! We try to do a few bottles a week just to keep him used to them. 
• Loves sitting up in the bumbo. We put him in the middle of the table during meals and I think he loves to be part of things. He's a very social baby.
• Mostly down to three solid naps a day, a morning nap, early afternoon and evening. He can stay awake for about 2 hours in between naps. He's doing much better with this nap schedule.
• At his 4 month doctor appointment (which we did a week late) he weighed 11 pounds 12 oz and was 23 inches. This puts him in the 1 percentile for height, and not even on the growth chart for weight. He's super tiny. The doctor was concerned about it and I've been drinking this gross "mothers milk tea" to help boost my milk supply. He's generally a happy, thriving baby, except that his growth is so slow. Chase was the exact same way at this age, we makes me not worry too much about it. 
• At 4.5 months we started him on solids. He just seemed hungry and ready. I agonized over starting him that early, but it ended up being the best decision for him. We started with peaches (which he loved!) then added rice cereal, then avocado, then butternut squash. Peaches are clearly his favorite.
• We went back after two weeks to check his weight, hoping he'd have gained 8 oz, and he'd gained 12 oz!

Davis's Blessing Day

Ben gave Davis a name and a blessing on July 9th, 2017 at our home. It was a sweet day to celebrate this darling baby. He was so happy all day (and happy during his blessing). I think he knew it was a special day. 

My mom bought him this darling outfit to wear before he was even born. I love it. I think he looks like a little prince in it. 

We were happy to have some of our family there (and missed those who live far away and weren't able to come). In the circle we had both Papas, Uncle Will and Bishop Lowder. 

My grandma and aunt Dennette came, along with my parents, Will, Katie, Nora and Anna, and Brandon, Angel, Jeremiah, Jaylah and Jordyn. We were happy Ray flew out for his blessing- something he's done for all our boys. We facetimed Diane and Heidi in so they got to be part of it too.

Four Generations

Davis is one loved baby. He's been such a light in our home and has brought so much love with him. We are so thankful for this healthy, sweet, darling little boy!

And Ben did just name him "Davis Jack Hugo" and not Hudson's preferred name of "Davis Jack went to Monkeys Hugo" which he still insists is Davis's true name. 

The 4th of July

Oh how we love this holiday! We love America and are so happy to celebrate our awesome country! The night before the 4th we had a little family home evening all about America and how we are so thankful for our wonderful country. We started the 4th off with our traditional red, white and blue breakfast. This is seriously my favorite breakfast ever and we actually have it a lot, not just specifically on the 4th. But it still seems extra special on the holiday! (It's waffles with fresh whipped cream, blueberries, strawberries and raspberries).

I asked my neighbor Lindsay to come snap a picture of us outside the house. Ben may have grumbled about it, but I think the photos on this blog are good evidence that it's hard to get a really good family photo, so we just have to try at all holidays and special occasions and hopefully we'll get a good one by the end of the year. On a semi-related noted, the Boy Scouts sell these flags as their fundraiser for scout camp. It's like $40 and they come around on all the national holidays and put one in your yard. Our neighborhood looks so great all decked out in American flags! So when the scouts came by last spring, we didn't have any cash and I had just used our last check and forgot to order more. So we told them we'd get them the money later (which Ben ended up venmo'ing to another adult in charge, apparently we live in a completely digital age at the Hugo home). A few days later Hudson came running up to my room to inform me "Mom! I found Chex! (the cereal, which he found in the cupboard) We can buy a flag now!!!!" 

My mom found these darling outfits for the boys- and having all three of them match brings my heart more joy than it probably should. They love matching too- and they looked so dang cute. We had to do versions of this picture because they both wanted to hold Davis. 

Also of note, the 4th of July marks Chase's half birthday, so he was 6 1/2 that day. And also it marked 4 months old for Davis. Chase loved this fact and told everyone we saw all day.

After a fairly chill day at home, we headed up to my parents house for the main event. This is a big reason why this is my favorite holiday. It's such an easy celebration with our kids and the return of happiness and enjoyment far outweighs the work involved. We swam and swam and then had a delicious BBQ. The Newbolds and Pam joined us as well. At one point the boys and I relaxed in the hammock and just enjoyed the perfectly warm night. 

Chase insisted we needed homemade ice cream for the 4th, so of course Nana obliged him, even if it did mean she had to buy a new ice cream maker. All the adults ended up around one table for this- except Papa who joined his favorite little people. He loves these kiddos.

As it turned into dusk we did our own fireworks. Ben and the boys bought sparklers (so dangerous, but so beautiful and fun we always do them) and they bought some "parachute guys" fireworks- along with the ones my mom dug out of storage from New Years in Y2K. The boys thought it was great fun to light off some of their own fireworks!

We ended the evening with my favorite part- watching the fireworks all over the valley from my parents deck. It's the best view ever and we love it every year. My mom bought glow sticks for the kiddos which made them so happy and they created all kinds of things with them while we watched fireworks. I love doing this every year- it's really the best. I'm so glad we live in this beautiful country and so glad we could celebrate the holiday! 

The End of School and the Start of Summer

 We got in home in time for Chase to attend his last two days of school. He missed field day while we were gone, but it worked out because Nana let him come to field day with her class once we got home. He loved it! The third graders were really sweet to include him and by the end of field day he was running around like he was just one of the class! On his last day of school he woke up throwing up! I felt so bad for him and he was so sad to miss school. He was feeling better by school time so I went ahead and sent him, but once I picked him up he said he felt sick again and threw up again shortly after. Oops. I was glad he got to go to his last day though. Kindergarten was such a great experience for Chase. He loved every single day of school and really thrived there.

Then our summer vacation officially started! We started off strong with spending lots of time at various parks and at the pool! Both kids are total fish this year! I've done some swimming lessons with them and they are both progressing really well! Chase looks like a pro in the pool now, and has very purposeful, clean, coordinated strokes. He's mastered freestyle, backstroke, and elementary backstroke. Hudson is starting to be able to swim on his own, float on his back on his own and is learning the strokes. It's so fun to see them progress! Every time we swim they ask me for a swim lesson- they are so motivated to learn!

 This little moment melted my heart. I asked Chase to hold Davis while I got ready one morning. I came back to find this- Chase had swiveled the rocking chair around so he could use the wall to push his foot off to make the chair rock, had gotten a book, and was reading to Davis. He is such a good big brother! Chase and Hudson both are - they love their little Davis so much and are seriously always willing to help me with him.

Davis turned three months old on June 4! At three months he rolls from front to back, is starting to suck/chew on his hands, and smiles at everyone. He has been fussy and not napping well so mid-June I started him on a stricter nap schedule and he's actually done really well on it. But that also means that we hurry out to do something fun (like swim) in between naps, and then I'm hurrying home and rushing the boys earlier than they'd want to quit so we can get home for the next nap. It's mostly working, but it's exhausting. I'm hoping as he gets older, and can stay awake for longer periods, that it'll just get easier. He still gets up to eat twice a night, and unfortunately thinks after that second feeding that it's "morning" even though it's usually between 4-5 am. Like I said, I'm exhausted. But Davis is the cutest little thing I've ever met and he just melts my heart. So I'd still say he's a complete delight in our family and we all just love him to death- but I would also love for him to sleep better. 

 Fathers Day- Ben was home for only one day during Fathers Day weekend between a trip to Boston and one to Austin. We spent that Saturday going out to breakfast, hanging out as a family, swimming and BBQing at my parents, and just enjoying being together. Ben had to leave again on Sunday morning, but I snapped this picture of him with his boys before he left. He is a great daddy to these silly kids- they are so lucky to have him!

Davis started sitting in the bumbo! This has made life a lot easier. He'll only be happy in it for a few minutes, but it gives me a chance to cook a little or do dishes or something else that usually I tried to do while holding him.

 One Monday night we found ourselves at the Fruit Heights City food trucks night. It was so fun! We all picked different food trucks to order from (we got pizza, it was delish) and had a nice picnic in the shade. The kiddos played and played at the park and in the grass with their cousin, the babies were doted on, there was fun music playing, all in all just a wonderful, pleasant evening.

 While Ben is out of town, I take a lot of pictures of the kids to send him throughout the day. These was just turned out really cute. Matching outfits are from Nana and I thought they looked just way too adorable.

 Our Saturday night tradition of swimming, BBQing and s'mores at my parents house is in full swing! It's really the best. Their yard is so lovely and relaxing and the kids have so much fun. These continue to be my very favorite summer memories!

Virginia and Washington DC

After my Grandpa's funeral we thought we'd have a minute to breathe and relax and maybe catch up on a little sleep- but this was not the case! Two days after his funeral we got the call that Ben's grandma Hugo had passed away. Both our grandparents passed away just six days apart. We definitely spent too much of May doing funerals. Grandma Hugo has been sick for a long time, and honestly her death was a relief. She was a great lady, and she suffered for far too long. That night we immediately booked tickets to fly back for her funeral.

One small glitch was that Ben was supposed to be in Austin for work that week. Since he'd already stayed home from Toronto the week before, he didn't feel like he could skip another business trip. So we made a plan and hoped that everything would go smoothly. Ben was supposed to leave Austin on Thursday afternoon arriving in the SLC airport at 4:00 to meet me for our 5:15 flight to Washington DC. And all was going according to plan until Ben's plane in Austin broke down and they had to deplane. I was a little stressed at the prospect of flying by myself with all three kids- but I stressed needlessly. My dad was able to help me get into the airport, check our bag and get to the security line. Then it was just me and the boys! Every step of the way, I had kind strangers offering and stepping up to help me with bags and kids. I honestly didn't even once have to ask for help- people were just there and noticed me by myself with my gaggle of children and grabbed a carseat or bag to lend a hand. It was amazing. There are so many wonderful people in the world! 

The flight was long (4 hours) but the boys did great! They were so excited with the prospect of flying on an airplane again and I was prepped with snacks and tablets and all that. Davis was a little fussy, covered me in spit up, blew out of his outfit before we even took off, and then slept for most of the flight. We all made it though! And luckily Ben was right there at baggage claim to pick us up! (He took another flight from Austin straight to Dulles). 

We spent a big part of Friday driving from DC to Powhatan. Normally a 2.5 hour drive took us well over five hours! Traffic was heavy, and we were traveling with a newborn who doesn't like his carseat. But we made it!

The funeral was Saturday. This is the only picture I have during the funeral- of Davis is his back-up outfit, because he blew out of his original outfit. Unfortunately, I didn't have a back-up outfit for myself so I went through the rest of the funeral, luncheon and graveside service with baby poop on my skirt. It's a good thing Davis is so cute!

The funeral was nice. Ray spoke and gave a beautiful talk about his mom and how great she was. I'm so glad we got to be there for it.

The rest of the weekend was mostly spent playing with cousins. The boys haven't seen much of their cousins, until recently when Brandon's family moved to Utah. Chase hadn't seen Elli since they were babies! But they all got along really well. They spent hours playing in the back yard with bubble wands and bubble guns. It was fun to see them together having such a fun time!

Monday morning we said good-bye to Ray and Diane and packed up to head back to Washington DC. We wanted to take advantage of being there to show the kids some of our nations capitol. Chase has been checking books out of the library about the various memorials in DC and about some of our Presidents, so he was well prepared to experience it all!

We took the metro into the city (which the kids LOVED even though it took forever) and started our day at the Air and Space Museum. The kids loved this! We saw a bunch of early space exploration stuff from the apollo missions- which completely fascinated Chase. We all touched the moon rock. We saw the Spirit of St. Louis and the Wright Brother's first airplane. And the boys experienced the hands-on kids play room doing experiments about flight. We could have stayed there much longer, but there is so much to see and we only had the one day, so we kept moving!

We headed out of the National Mall and started seeing the monuments and memorials. It was such a fun, educational day. As we walked we talked about the things we were seeing and why we have these memorials- their impact on our history and lives today. As we walked past the Washington Monument Hudson suddenly exclaimed "I wanted to touch it!" So we trekked up the little hill so he could actually touch it. It was the highlight of his day! It was fortuitous too, because from up on that little hill we could see the White House in the distance- so we didn't have to walk the extra mile to get there! 

I kind of forgot how much walking it takes to see them all! Our boys were troopers! Hudson was so tired climbing the steps of the Lincoln Memorial (which is my personal favorite) and we told him once we got to the top he could rest. Well once he got to the top step he immediately plopped down and refused to get up- with out even going inside! Ben convinced him to come inside and at least see it, and then they returned to rest on the steps. Chase and I spent a few more minutes inside the memorial and talked all about Abraham Lincoln, read the Gettysburg Address together and talked about what he did for our country. I think this memorial is so powerful and I love it. 

I love the view from here! As we sat on the steps, I had Chase on my lap and I told him about the last time I was here. I had just found out I was pregnant with him. I came to DC with the nursing program at BYU and I stood right in that spot on the Lincoln Memorial steps. Watching the world turn pink at sunset, I had this overwhelming impression that this little baby would be a boy and I wanted to name him Lincoln.  Well, Ben vetoed that idea and we named him Chase instead, which fits him perfectly. I loved having a moment there to share this amazing place with my little boy almost exactly 7 years later. He totally got why I love this place so much, he loved it too. 

Once we finished with the memorials we needed to get back on the metro- the problem being that there isn't a metro stop anywhere close to where we were at that point. So we walked over to Arlington Cemetery. The boys were so tired but they were troopers. Hudson had to be carried for some of that last mile, and overall I'd guess we walked 5-6 miles that day, which is a lot for a little kid. By the time we got to Arlington they were completely beat. I would have loved to show them more of Arlington, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, JFK's grave and all that, but those sites are a long walk from the entrance and we knew we were already pushing the boys to their limit. Instead we showed them the graves, explained the uniqueness of that cemetery and what it is there for, and hopped back on the metro. Almost as soon as the train started moving Chase fell right asleep!

I wished we had more time to spend in Washington DC. We wanted to make it back to Utah so Chase could go to his last few days of school, so we only had that one day. There is so much more to see and do and I hope to take the boys back someday. But for just one day there, we saw a lot and made the most of the time we had. Our flight home was very smooth and easy. Ben got upgraded to first class (thanks to his medallion status from flying so much) so he gave the first class seat to me and Davis and he sat with the boys in our normal seats. It kind of made up for me having to fly by myself with all three kids on the way out.

It was a whirlwind trip, but one I'm so glad we were able to take. I'm glad we were able to celebrate Grandma Hugo's life. I think our boys made lasting memories of such meaningful people and places. And we got in some good family together just the five of us.