It's a Family Tradition!

My Great Aunt Fern started the sweetest family tradition for us when my sister, brother, and I were little. Each year she bought us a dated Hallmark Christmas ornament that "fit" us or our stage in life. They were all saved in their boxes and given to us when we went out on our own and had our own Christmas trees. It is so fun each year when I pull out the ornaments and am reminded of my "stages" of life...from teddy bear ornaments (I had a small bear obsession as a child) to a teenager ornament with a hair dryer and curling iron (Ha!)to angel ornaments (Pi Phi days)...then to teaching and first years of marriage and first baby ornaments. They are all so special to me and I look forward to each Thanskgiving when she passes out our new ornaments to see what is inside that precious Hallmark box. The best part about this tradition is that she also started it with Hudson. This years ornament might be the cutest and most perfect ornament for Hudson's "stage of life" I have EVER seen:

Opening his precious little box...

Tongue out in full inspection.
Yes, it is a Curious George reading a Curious George book...could it be ANY MORE PERFECT for him?!?! :)
Giving his GREAT, GREAT Aunt Fern the sweetest hug. This picture absolutely melts my heart. This is truly one of my favorite family traditions and I am so thankful that she started it all those years ago.

I had to include this picture...after the opening of the ornaments and a bath, Hudson curled up with Paw-Paw to have some milk and cookies before bedtime. :)

Going, going, GONE!

Hudson is at that stage where he is in between sizes in his pants. A 2T is definitely too small, but 3T pants only fit right if they have an adjustable waist. He needs the length, but his little waist just doesn't quite fill out 3T's. That being said, all but two of his pants have the adjustable waist. He found out quickly what happened in the pants that don't when the runs down the hall. We were both CRACKING up and I can't even tell you how long he did this for...HILARIOUS!

GOING...

GOING...

GONE!!!

Pure joy!

Thankful.

When Brittney emailed us the pictures below she titled the email Thankful. I couldn't agree more!!! I never could have imagined how much these kiddos and their mommies would mean to me when we first started getting together for playgroup over 3 years ago. (Most of the kids weren't even born yet!) Thankful almost seems like too simple of a word, but thankful I am! Love you all!!!

So, this playgroup was the day after Halloween and as you can see, most kids had already taken off their costumes or never even put them on. We couldn't resist getting a group pic...HILARIOUS as usual. (Please don't ask why Hudson is covering up his ears...we were singing Jesus Loves Me like we always do and he said we were singing too loud. What?!?)
The lineup: Grant, Ellie, Tanner, Landon, Sutton, Hudson, Quinn holding Nash, Chapman, and Reid holding Jace. (We missed Amy & Porter!!)

Halloween Fun!

We told Hudson that there were going to be a lot of fun things to do when he woke up after his nap on Halloween and I'm pretty sure he loved all of it! The first order of business was carving a pumpkin. He wasn't too sure about sticking his hand in it, so Daddy got him a glove and he went to town!

Check out that face!!!
He was very intrigued by the fact that we were going to roast the seeds and eat them.

Getting them ready...

YUM! He LOVED the roasted pumpkin seeds. We actually had to take them away because he was eating them so fast we were afraid he wasn't going to eat dinner!

Our finished product!

Next up...a Jack-O-Lantern pizza from Papa Murphy's. How fun!

After dinner, he suited up to go trick-or-treating. He had so much fun this year! The funny part though is that he is a REALLY slow trick-or-treater. Kids were literally running past us on the sidewalk while he just slowly walked along. He was happy just looking around and shining his flashlight on things!

Off he went...

We ran into some friends...Ella, Stone, and Hudson. How sweet are they?!?

Once we got home Hudson asked if he could have a piece of candy. We said just one and then swooped him off to bed. Check out that sweaty head from his fireman hat though...yuck!

Such a fun day...now...what to do with all of that candy???