Happy 2nd Birthday Hudson!

(sorry for all the space between the pictures)

On August 25, 2009 I met the most beautiful baby boy on the planet. He was perfect.

You have brought so much joy to your family, and we could not be more proud of you. Last year your first birthday was overshadowed by the looming thoughts of your surgery that was only days away. We were so nervous and scared.

Not this year. We are so excited and thankful to be celebrating your 2nd birthday. You are such an amazing gift to us.

You still love your cars and trucks. You are quite animated too as you make all of the sounds. You can name any vehicle from a fire truck or ambulance to a dump truck or race car.

Thankfully, you still love reading books and have recently gotten into putting puzzles together. You love coloring and painting too.

You tell us any and everything. Having a conversation with you is like having a conversation with a 4 year old. You are very sociable and never meet a stranger.

You are officially into the "why?", "what is that?", and "what are you doing?" stage. You are so inquisitive and amaze us all the time with the things that you tell us.

Your favorite thing to eat is fruit snacks, and that's all you would consume if we'd let you. It's hard to get veggies in you, but I've become pretty creative at mixing them into other things. You also love to eat rice, and PF Changs is your fave. It's still easy to get you to eat fruit and your favorite drink is still water. You will ask for good ole H2O before anything else.

You are wearing mostly size 2t clothes, but can wear some 3t things too. You wear a size 8w shoe.

You are almost totally potty trained.

You went to the doctor last week because you picked up a tick in the country and had to have it removed. You weighed 31 lbs. I'm not sure exactly how tall you are, but I think you have hit a growth spurt. Your legs have gotten so long.

Your 2yr. well visit with Dr. Nesbit is in a few weeks. I will post stats after that visit. You still have a hard time when we go to the doctor. It never phased you before your surgery, but now you are really a nervous wreck when we go and scream most of the time that we are there. I don't blame you though. You have been through so much in your short little life with Dr. visits, tests, and your surgery.

We have your professional pictures coming up soon with Haley. I'm so excited.

You are such a blessing to us.

We love you more than any words could ever express

I'm excited to continue to watch you grow. As much as it hurts my heart for you to be growing so fast, I'm going to remain content in the age/stage that you are in at any given time and just enjoy you.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY PRECIOUS BABY BOY!

Love, Mom

This party was brought to you by the letter H and the number 2.

Here are a few pictures from Hudson's 2nd birthday party yesterday. The kids had a BLAST! It was so much fun.

Elmo loves his goldfish, his crayons too... (goody bags) There's not really a way to make the party room at the Y very cute, but it didn't matter. The big play room more than made up for it.

cookies with H's and 2's

Dorothy the goldfish was an excellent party guest.

Hudson has some lovely ladies. Ila, Catherine, Ella, and Ava are so pretty!

Hey Elmo!

SO much fun was had on this equipment. Tons of room to run around, an inflatable, and the play scape...there is another play area off to the side that you can't see in this picture. Perfect place for an August birthday party in the cool AC.

Ella, Ila, and Hudson playing with the train with Mrs. Ann

Ella, Claire, Owen, Barrett, and Harrison

Climb that wall, Carter!My sweet baby was so cute when we sang to him. He was SO excited about blowing his candles out.

Enjoying the yummy cake

Hudson and Claire in their cute party shirts

Claire and Bops with Daddy

Peyton, Ella and Ella

Our lives have changed drastically since the good ole college days. It's awesome that we are all three moms now.

Look at those future VSU Blazers! They really wanted to stop playing and have their picture taken. Can't you tell?He got pet frogs.

Dorothy made it through the party.

opening presents at homeHe loves all of his wonderful gifts, and had to put his new watch on right away. We are so thankful for all of our friends and family.Off he goes on his new Plasma Car.

It's so humbling to have so many awesome people in our lives that love our little boy so much. We are beyond blessed that so many people came out and helped Hudson celebrate his 2nd birthday. Thank you for coming to play and for all of the sweet gifts.

Sneak Peek

Birthday Party pictures coming soon.

A Day In The Country

We always love going out to Uncle Pete and Aunt Ruth's house. It's gorgeous out there, and always nice to visit. Yesterday we enjoyed being able to visit with lots of aunts and uncles and cousins. Hudson is in heaven with all the farm tools and being able to just run and run with no boundaries. Even though it was hot, the weather did not stop us from having a good time and being able to enjoy a day together since school is back in full swing. Time to cherish those weekends again, and milk them for all they are worth. They are certainly not long enough.

Blogger Slacker

It's amazing how fast things can change in the short time of just 2 weeks. The days of sleeping in until 8:30-9:00 am, getting up and hanging out around the house, going out to lunch or eating a late lunch at home, spending the afternoon at the pool or a play date, and staying up until well after mid night are OVER!
WHEW! I can barely hold my eyes open until 9:00, and I won't even lie about my (almost) 2 year old out lasting me the other night while I passed out on the couch before dark. I love teaching. Don't get me wrong, it's just hard getting back into the swing of things.
I have A LOT of little kindergarten darlings in my class this year. So many, that we (all of the K teachers at my school) are over our legal state mandated capacity limit, and should be getting another kindergarten teacher at our school soon. It will be nice to have a more manageable class size, but I have already gotten attached to all of my babies and it will also be hard to let any of them go.
Hudson has enjoyed getting back into his routine and spending time with Claire and Nana. He comes home everyday talking about new things. I can't believe that he will be turning 2 in a few weeks. His party is next weekend, and he's excited about it.
I'm going to cheat with the pictures for this post. I'll admit that I have not really taken any in the past few weeks with everything going on, so I will leave you with a few of our last days of summer vacation. Hudson and Ila had fun playing in the sprinkler, and washing their car.
I've been a Blogger Slacker. I plan to get back into blogging regularly as soon as things slow down for a few minutes. Thanks for hanging in there with me. Hope you are all doing well and that "back to school" is going great for you!

good news

Just when I was about to get really down about going back to work, I read this update about Tripp. You might remember him from one of my previous posts. Be sure to check out the video of Tripp smiling. What an awesome sight!
Tomorrow is the day. I will officially be back to work. I spent most of the day there today finishing up my room, but tomorrow it will be back into the swing of things for Hudson and me. I sure will miss this gorgeous smile all during the day.