3 AND 1/2

I really don't know where the time has gone, but Hudson was officially 3 1/2 this past Sunday. He was so excited to be able to tell people the 1/2 part too...so cute! I told him I wanted to take his picture since he was now 3 1/2 and we decided to take some pictures of his "faces" he makes. It was hilarious! Excuse the after nap hair. :)

First up, happy face. Here are a few things that make him happy: blackberries, play-doh, painting, ice cream, pizza, playing board games, cutting with scissors, raspberries, Cheerios with a sliced banana, bacon, doing things BY HIMSELF, bath paints, stickers, being outside, snow, gymnastics, Miss Amanda (his gymnastics teacher), Jamie (his babysitter), his family that spoils him so, all of his friends, Amazing Jakes, bounce houses, Curious George, Mickey Mouse, hide and seek, and the list goes on...

Surprised face! This face really does come around when playing hide and seek. :)
Mad face. Yep, we do see this face...actually the version where he isn't trying to smile too.

We see this face when: things aren't done the way he thinks they should be, when he can't do something BY HIMSELF, when he is in time out. There are probably more times, but we won't focus on that one. HA! I'm thinking face. He actually does this a lot and it cracks me up every time. This face is normally followed by the statement, "I have an idea!" I also get this face when I ask him if he is going to eat the vegetables on his plate. He normally tells us he will eat them when he gets big, or he will take the smallest bite you have every seen in your life!

This is his little stinker face. Need I say more? He wears this face MOST of the day, EVERY day!

Sad face. :( His actual sad face is MUCH more pitiful than this one. Sad face normally visits if he has gotten hurt, if family is leaving, if Mommy is leaving, and sometimes he even tries to use sad face to get something he wants.

Those are some of Hudson's many faces at 3 1/2!

On the night of his 1/2 birthday, Noni came over with some of her famous homemade brownies. YUM! Hudson was so excited that we put a candle in it and sang Happy Half Birthday to him.

Happy 3 1/2 Hudson...I love you more than words could ever say...you are the absolute light of my life!

Snowed In!

Last week we were basically trapped inside from Tuesday - Friday because of the horrible ice/snow storm that hit our area. Tuesday was Hudson's first official "snow day" from school. His sweet teacher actually called in the morning to make sure we knew. So, we had fun staying inside and wearing our pj's most of the day. Then came Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. We were both DONE by the end of the week. I'm not going to lie, we were both a little cranky from being trapped in the house! He was upset about missing gymnastics on Thursday and each morning asked me what we were going to do that day and where we were going to go. I have never claimed to be a homebody and I think I have trained my little man to be a little like is mommy...oops! So, we tried to make the best of it and I did manage to plan a few fun things to keep my busy guy occupied while IN the house.

First up, building with marshmallows and toothpicks. I used to do this with my Kindergartners and had completely forgotten about it until I saw it on some of my friends blogs. So glad they posted it because he loved it! (He loved eating the marshmallows too!)

More marshmallow fun...painting with marshmallows. My original idea was to make snowmen, but he just liked stamping them. Hey...it kept him happy for over 30 minutes, so I took it!!!

We did go out to play in the snow a few times too...mostly when Daddy was home! :)

Making smores at night was a big hit.

He definitely doesn't like it when the marshmallows catch on fire though...little man backs WAY up!

YUMMY!

We also made snow ice cream. Gotta love it!

There is more snow/ice in the forecast for this week...guess I'm going to have to pull out a whole new bag of tricks!

Hudson & Woody

Uncle Todd gave Hudson a stuffed Woody for Christmas and Hudson has loved him ever since. Not sure if it is because it was from Uncle Todd or because he is loving everything Toy Story right now, but it is pretty cute. The other day he was giving Woody piggy back rides and I just had to snap a few pics! :)

Too cute!

Relaxing with the Fam!

This past weekend Paw-Paw and Nana came for a visit. We purposely didn't plan a single thing...they just wanted to relax and spend time with their favorite little man. It turned out to be a BEAUTIFUL weekend full of playing with Hudson.

While Daddy and Paw-Paw played golf Saturday morning, Hudson, Nana and I went to the Beach Club to play in the sand. Seriously, the weather COULD NOT have been prettier. We played, and played, and played some more. We even got lunch from Purple Cow to go and had a sand picnic!

After a nap, we headed to the Stockyards to see the animals. Hudson wasn't thrilled with the cows, but loved all of the smaller animals. When we got home, Paw-Paw handed Hudson a jar of coins for his piggy bank. He does this every time he visits and Hudson loves putting the coins in one by one. Let's just say that the piggy bank is almost full, so we'll be making a trip to the bank soon. Hopefully he won't freak when his piggy bank is empty!!

This afternoon before they left we were playing with Hudson's Tinker Toys. I built him a microphone (his favorite) and he put on a little show for everyone.

We rocked out to Wheels on the Bus and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Too cute!

What a great, relaxing weekend! Now to prepare for the FREEZING weather that is coming our way. YUCK!

Recipe Blog!

Here's the deal...I LOVE trying out new recipes. Lately I have been trying to make a new recipe each week. I get a lot of my recipes from some of my friend's recipe blogs. It occured to me a few weeks ago while I was giving my sister a recipe over the phone that I should start my own recipe blog. My goal is to add a new recipe each week. Now, some of these will be some recipes that I have had forever and some will be new. Hopefully, you will be able to try some and enjoy them as much as we do!

I did my first post today: Chicken Swiss Bundles...YUM!

Dinner with The Donnells

Sunday Snowday

Hudson was beyond thrilled when it started snowing on the way home from church on Sunday. He immediately wanted to build a snowman. I had to explain to him that we had to wait until there was enough snow on the ground to build one. I told him that Daddy would be home from his hunting trip when he woke up from his nap and that there would be plenty of snow by that time. He checked the window every 5 - 10 minutes all afternoon waiting to see if there was enough snow yet and then proceeded to take a very short nap. He was one happy boy to discover that Daddy was home and ready to play in the snow.

First order of business was eskimo kisses!

Next up, eating some snow of course. :)
After playing for a while, they called me outside to see their little snowman. How cute is that?!?

Love these boys!!!

Oops...just now posting these...

It occured to me today that I never did post these pictures...OOPS!!! Back in SEPTEMBER, Courtney from Anthologie Images did this photo shoot for us. For the second time, she amazed me with the wonderful shots she got of Hudson. She is fantastic!!!

Here area few of my faves:

Thanks again Courtney!!