Pray for Peyton

Please pray for little Peyton. She's the daughter of a friend, and she has pneumonia. She's being treated with a round of shots, then an oral antibiotic. All of you moms know how hard it is when your baby is sick. Pray that her medications work and that she is healthy again soon.

Doesn't she look like a little baby doll?.....PRECIOUS!

*photo by LesleyDel photography

8 months!

Today is Hudson's 8th month birthday. For the past three months I have continued to say that "this is the month that he's grown the most", but I really do think that he grew more this past month than any other. He's gotten bigger and is doing so much more. He's over his baby toys and into big boy things. He's crawling, pulling up, eating more foods with different textures, has two bottom teeth with another coming in, says ma-ma, and hey, and lots of other things that I have not been able to interpret yet, waves, pets the cats, pulls his toys out of his toy box, and other things that I'm sure I'm forgetting. He's ALL OVER THE PLACE, and is very fast. He gets anywhere he needs to go. He still sleeps from 8pm until 7am. He's always been such a great sleeper and I thank him for that daily! His hair is growing a lot, and it's blonde. I love it! It was growing mostly on top, but now it's getting thicker around the back too. He LOVES his daddy. He really LOVES his Claire, and Mrs. Jennifer (Claire's mom). He's so cute with Claire, and he really misses her when they are apart for a few days. They're precious when they see each other in the mornings and are really playing together and not just playing beside each other. They interact so well and are very close. He's still very happy all the time and is good with strangers. We went to a Japanese Steak House today to celebrate my birthday. That's right...It's the big one for me. The big 3-0. We were a little worried about how Hudson would react to the loudness of the cook, and the fire. He loved it! Well, he loved everything except for the fire. He primped up and let out a little whimper when they lit the grill and the big blaze happened. He was fine when the fire was gone, and enjoyed the rest of lunch.

Dave and I ask ourselves daily how we got so lucky and had such a wonderful baby. It makes us nervous to have another baby because he's spoiled us so much. I'm so thankful to be his mom. I'm not too excited about turning 30 but it is kind of cool to be born on the same day of the month as Hudson. (April 25th and August 25th)

Here are a few pictures that were taken today of my big boy.

Heavy Heart

Funerals are never easy. Death is sad. Today was just heart wrenching. A wonderful, amazing, loving, faithful family buried their precious daughter today. She has returned to her maker. She is happy, whole, healthy, and joyful. It just doesn't seem right for such a young, beautiful life to be taken. Something inside me changed today, and there are no words to explain it. Now that I am a mom, I can't even fathom having to go through what the Wilkins are going through right now. They are so strong and have so much faith. Wow, What a testimony! If you haven't checked out their story, go visit here: https://www.carepages.com/carepages/HannahWilkins You will see their unwavering faith from the beginning.

I thank God everyday for my baby boy and for my family. I am so blessed to have been given such a wonderful gift. I'm so humbled and thankful to be chosen to be Hudson's mom. My heart is so heavy for Hannah's mom, Krissy right now. It was time for Hannah to go home, but she sure did touch many lives in her four short years here on earth.

Here's my sweet boy this week. He's getting so big!

Pray for the Wilkins Family

Please pray for the Wilkins family. They are a dear family and their little girl has just gone to be with the Lord.

https://www.carepages.com/carepages/HannahWilkins

No More Zantac

Obviously I'm not an MD, but I decided a few weeks ago that I wanted to try to decrease Hudson's daily Zantac dosage. He's been on Zantac 3X a day since he was 4 weeks old. Of course he's been on an antibiotic daily since the day he's been born to prevent UTI's that could complicate his kidney issue. He also takes probiotics 2X daily to help prevent yeast infections that he's prone to because of the antibiotic (because it's strong). He's been on the Zantac because of his esophageal reflux. It was really bad when he was smaller. From the beginning, Dr. Nesbit said that Hudson should outgrow the reflux. He has good and bad days. I decreased his dosage to 1X daily, and didn't really notice any difference so I decided to completely take him off of it. I hate that he has to take so much medicine, and 3 less doses a day would be nice for us and for him. Since taking him off, I can't really tell too much of a difference. I guess if I had to lean one way or the other I would say that his spitting up is a little better. I don't think that it's necessarily due to the fact of him being taken off of the medicine, but just that he's starting to grow out of it. I sure hope he is. He's changing and growing SO FAST.
Since I've been on Spring Break my mom has not kept him this past week. We went over to see her today, and she couldn't believe how much he'd grown and changed.
Tomorrow I go back to work. This spring break has been so nice. Dave took off and spent the week with Hudosn and me. We didn't do much, but it was so wonderful to just be together as a family all week. Tomorrow night, Dave and I are going to a special dinner for him. He's being honored through Columbia County for being such a great employee.


We think he's a great daddy too!

Raising Him Right!

Today I was reminded of another reason that I love being in Athens, GA. We stopped there for dinner on our way home from shopping in Commerce. We also stopped by the mall, and as we were leaving I put Hudson next to the bulldog statue to snap a quick picture. An older couple walked by and the gentleman said "That's right, Put that baby beside that bulldog. You're raising 'em right.". I snapped my pictures, and as were walking away another man walked by and made a similar statement. I love the fact that everyone in Athens is a Dawg fan.

Hudson was quite the Dawg fan today too. When I put his stroller beside the statue, he smiled the whole time. It was really cute. He already loves red and black, and he even got some cool GA shoes out of the shopping trip. I can't wait to take him back for his first game.

We got "THE LOOK"!

I've always thought that Moe's was a family friendly restaurant. You know, bright colors and lights, loud T.V.'s, close seating, and the servers even yell at you when you walk in the door. Well...I must be mistaken because tonight we got "the look" as we were dining at this fine establishment. Hudson was sitting in a high chair, "talking", and being a 7 month old. He wasn't crying, whining, or being annoying. I was talking to him and he was having a good ole time. He loves watching the fans on the ceiling. I noticed a woman standing in line kept looking at us. OK, she was down right staring. When she got right beside us while she was in line, Hudson let out a happy squeal. That's when it happened. First she looked at me, then Hudson, then me again...making eye contact and everything. Obviously it bothered her that I had my happy, sweet baby with me while my husband and I dined at MOES. I looked at Dave and he read my face. "Don't say anything, and don't worry about it", he told me. I really wanted to tell her that she might want to go somewhere else if she didn't want to be around kids but I was good. I bit my tongue and turned and ignored her. Then I got to thinking....what's going to happen when he does decide to really cut lose in public? Oh well....He's a picture of my BIG boy sporting his new Masters gear because every post is better with a picture. Isn't he growing? I can hardly stand it.

Easter and Fresh Faces Contest

We had a great first Easter as a family of 3. We traveled around all day, visiting our families. Hudson was such a trooper as always and was so good. Being off schedule is not easy, but he handles it so well. We were very proud of him. Here are a few pictures. The first two are at church. Hudson and Claire are really spoiled because my mom works in their nursery room at church. They got to ride around church in the double stroller and play in the FLC. There's also one of him getting into his Easter basket.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for all of the votes for the Fresh Faces competition. Hudson came in second place out of 18 babies. He only lost by 16 votes and first and second place went back and forth for the last 3 days. I had no idea that this thing would be this big. Amber Herlocker is a friend of mine, so I entered Hudson in her contest to support her and her website. The first few days, we didn't really vote or solicit votes much, but when we saw how many votes Hudson was getting we decided to really put forth an effort to win. I know everyone got sick of seeing my post on facebook, and getting my texts, but it paid off, and Hudson won 2nd place. He gets a pretty sweet prize too. Hampton Duke won the contest and we wouldn't want to come in 2nd to anyone else. He's precious and his parents are friends of ours. We are happy he won.

This week has been so nice. I love Spring Break. I've been able to spend lots of time with Hudson and Dave since he's off too. It's been really low key and we are loving it. Hope you all are doing well. Thanks again for all of your support.

Here's one last picture of the three amigos on Easter. My mom with her babies!