Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Christmas 2009

As I sat down to view all of the pictures I have taken in the past week I thought about doing a separate post for each part of Christmas that we had, but I decided to just do one long post instead. So, get ready for a long post of our wonderful Christmas 2009!
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After a wonderful Christmas Eve service and wonderful dinner, we headed home in the beautiful snow so Hudson could unwrap his Christmas jammies. This is a tradition that I had growing up and we started it with Hudson his first Christmas. The kid KNEW what to do this year when he saw a present. I mean, he seriously went right to town unwrapping it!

After putting his new jammies on he snuggled in with Noni and I as we read Twas the Night Before Christmas.
Then, we set out milk and cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. Hudson kept saying "Cookie for Santa, cookie for Hudson, one for both of us" over and over. It was precious!
Christmas morning he awoke to find that Santa had come! The thing is, he didn't run to the presents first...no, he ran straight to the plate that had a cookie with a bite taken out of it and...
...said "Santa ate my cookie" and took a bite! HA!! How funny is that?!?
The first thing he spotted was his plasma car. Yes, we realize that his plasma car is pink. No, that was not intentional. You see, Santa goofed a little...the plasma car was marked red in the sack, but it was by no means red. We didn't want Hudson to miss out on his new car, so we left it under the tree and are going to exchange it at the North Pole for a red one this week! :)
After a few rides on his new car the child went to work. It took FOREVER to open all of his gifts this year and was possibly the cutest thing ever. After he opened each gift he was ready to play with it immediately. So, we would take it out of the box, assemble, add batteries...do whatever it took to begin playing. After playing with the new toy we would finally convince him that it was time to move on to another package. It was SO FUN to watch...I'm not sure who loved it more...him or us watching him.
(I must note how Hudson unwraps gifts...he would tear strips of paper off one at a time and make a pile behind him. TOO CUTE!!)

After a wonderful Christmas morning followed by lots of playing and eating we headed up to Oklahoma. What normally takes us 3 hours took 5 1/2 due to the weather. I was one nervous mommy the entire time, but we finally made it. The following morning Hudson was so surprised to find that Santa made a stop there too!

All of us "kids" with our giant stockings...a Long tradition.

We couldn't leave Oklahoma without kisses for Paw-Paw and Nana!
Sunday night we left Oklahoma for our last stop at Kelly's Dad's ranch. You won't believe it, but Santa even made a stop at Poppy's ranch! Hudson was thrilled that he left presents for him in a wagon no less!
While at the ranch we got to ride around, look at animals, and even wear camo!

Cute story: While riding around Kelly stopped right in front of Poppy's horses and Hudson said, "No, keep going!" It was hilarious!! He definitely loved riding more than the thought of being that close to the animals. Hmm...wonder if the gets that from his mommy?

His favorite part was driving with Daddy!
Hudson also got to build his first snowman with Daddy. Or, as I called it, their first snowblob!
There you have it...Christmas 2009!! I loved every minute of it!

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Merry Christmas!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Trains, A Party, & Santa...OH MY!

WOW...what a weekend! I think we crammed as many Christmas activities as possible into one weekend and we all had a BLAST doing it...especially the little man! Hudson and I started our weekend festivities out early by heading to Northpark to meet Aurora & Avery Friday morning to see the trains. Apparently half of Dallas decided to see the trains that morning too which made it crowded and HOT, so the little man wanted to be held the entire time, but he loved looking at the trains.
(Please excuse his pre-haircut hair...YIKES!)
Don't get me wrong, Hudson enjoyed seeing the trains, but his favorite part of the morning was walking hand in hand with Avery through the mall, riding the escalator, eating Chick-fil-A, and seeing the puppies from the SPCA. I think I loved watching them walk hand in hand. Is this cute or what?!?

Friday night we hopped in the car to go see Christmas lights. This is the only picture I got, but Hudson loved it. He kept asking to see more reindeer! :)
Saturday night we headed to the Stock's house for a family Christmas party. The best part? They had a VERY SPECIAL guest come...here is Hudson's face when he saw who walked in:
Yep, Santa came to the party! He even delivered a gift to each kid there and gave them a jingle bell. Hudson didn't hesitate when Santa called his name to get his gift!
Showing Daddy what Santa brought.

Our early bird reached delirium pretty early and was singing and dancing with his jingle bell the rest of the night. Thanks Stock family for such a good time and for having an "in" with the big guy!
We finished off the weekend by going to ride the Polar Express on Sunday. Hudson LOVED it!! We started off by singing and dancing in the tent.
Hudson was SO CUTE...he kept holding George up to see the singers. He was saying "George see too." How sweet!!
His favorite part might have been the "snow" as we were walking to board the train though! I mean, look at that face...pure delight!

Hudson was beyond thrilled to see Santa again on the train. WOW...the big guy had as busy of a weekend as we did I think. He was everywhere!

My two favorite guys!

Hudson was happy to see Santa one last time before we got off the train. It was a busy weekend, but SO MUCH FUN! I love weekends that are packed full of family time, don't you?

Thursday, December 17, 2009

8 Boys + 8 Mommies + 1 Great Photographer = Priceless Pictures!!!

A few months ago Cara had the great idea of having professional playgroup pictures taken. I am SO GLAD she had this idea because her photographer Terry outdid herself! I cherish these mommies and boys more than anything and I am so glad that I will always have these pictures to look back on!!!













Love you all!