Spending time with family.

 We went to NH in October for my niece Ariel's wedding. It was nice to see family & catch up with old friends, but a pretty short trip. I hadn't been there in over a year, and Karl it was over 3 years for him.

Our kids before the wedding!

(Kinda sad just got Hudson a haircut and his hair is darker! :( )

Best friends! Maddi & Ava

Hudson & Maddox got along long enough to get a picture ;) haha Nah they weren't to bad.

Our lovely family photo

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Hope you all had a happy, healthy and blessed thanksgiving! =) We went out to Walmart at 9pm for a little black friday shopping. All I can say is "WOW!" I've been a few years in a row, but I think this year was by far the worst!!

Hudson playing ball he's pretty good too. He got this for his birthday and I packed it away till he knew how good thing he loves it!

Long over due!

Wow, I didn't realize how long its been since I updated! Crazy! I don't even remember how anymore!
Lets see where do I start?!

Madison has been loving Kindergarten. We had a conference and the first thing the teacher told us was. "You have the sweetest little girl, I just want to take her home with me." We wondered if she knew which one was ours. ;) haha! Just kidding! She is doing extremely well, learning to read already which blows me away. Everything seems to be coming very easy to her so far, I hope school is a breeze to her all 13+ years! :) She did Soccer this season and really enjoyed it says she'd like to sign up for next season. She is currently in gymnastics we just got her enrolled and has really been enjoying that. In January she starts ice skating. She would really like to be involved in anything and everything if we let her.

Hudson is a terror!! He sure keeps me busy and tired! He gets into anything and everything. And I'm scared to death to get into the terrible 2's never mind the 3's :S I'm a bit concerned he isn't where he should be with speech, I did talk to the doctor about it he said to told off till about 20-21 months and if it hasn't improved then get him evaluated. Hes probably saying about 11 words clearly although his favorite right now is NO so of course that's all we hear! He used to call Maddi "Maa-maa" but it wasn't till he got very angry that it came out 'Maaa- DAY" with that all said he loves to interact with kids. I don't remember Madison really noticing other kids at this age. He of course loves his big sister as long as she doesn't get to close to Mom or Grammy! Then the jealousy comes out! He would live outside he loves it, and runs away often! I find him inside the neighbors house many times! Thankfully we know them, but they just sold so now I have to worry!!

Karl has been extremely busy the past couple of weeks with work, never mind school (Which is almost over, not that I'm counting ;) ) Which can get very stressful, but we are very thankful for the work! His classes end the first week of December, then he will transfer to USC I'm happy that means progress, but at the same time ahh that's further away and more effort!! I'm looking forward to it all being over! :)

We had photos taken October 1st I was thinking I was ahead of the game. Hudson wasn't the best at the photo shoot, but all in all I thought we got a few good ones. A couple weeks go by and the photographer contacts me, her apartment burnt and all the copies she had of the photos went with it. The only thing she had was 4 photos, so we did a re-shoot and I hope she got one cuz mister man just ran and would not sit still for anything!! So i'm still waiting to view the photos so i'm kinda behind the game ;) Oh well! Life goes on!
Between the school run, chasing Hudson around and trying to clean & cook seems like I have no time for anything else! Madison keeps asking to ride the bus I told her back in august she can after Christmas thinking she wouldn't by then, oops I was wrong she keeps telling me Christmas is almost here!! She only wants to ride it home, which scares me that she might get on the wrong bus! So I don't know what I have to do or say to get her to change her mind! I can't believe thanksgiving is next week, boy it seems like each year goes by faster and faster!! :)

Having a blast!

This is saved in my drafts so maybe I wanted to post at some point? :) This is from May I think, he had a blast! :)

T-ball

T-ball with 3-5 year olds is pretty much the best! :) I'm shocked they got these kids attention for an hour and half!




Maddis biggest fan!
GO Maddi!!

Trike-A-Thon

Madison's trikeathon at Fairview. Thank you all who supported the cause St. Judes. They just roped off an area of the parking lot and the kids bike for like 10 min and then have a snack and then go again they did it by class. Madison was just proud that Brady came to watch! :) Her class was the Red team. It was Red, White, Blue & Green.

With the famous Ally. :)

Having fun.

Couple of weeks ago we went to Frankies! Can't really tell by the photo, but he loved it! Screamed to get off! Hes loving to get to do things, its fun watching what he enjoys and things he doesn't! :)


A month or so ago we went to Charlotte for the night and took the kids to discovery place. It was really neat! Kids loved it!






He did NOT like the seat at the water table.





But loved this, wanted to be a big boy I guess! :)




In the Omni theater.





Who's having more fun? :)





Teaching Mads how to swim!





Some pictures won't rotate, not sure why!







 

First visit to the zoo

Since we brought Maddi to the Zoo around her first bday I wanted to do the same with Hudson! It was such a nice day out! Of course Karl was much more interested than the kids ;) Hudson got right up close to a pig and was scared to death!! He isn't going to be an animal lover! =) We of course then went and had lunch at Mary's cottage :) YUM!

Hudson's ONE!

Wow, I can't believe our baby is one already! Feels like just yesterday!! 

He turned one on Saturday (26th) and went to the doctor on Monday (28th)

Doc says he is a healthy boy, but had an ear infection.. Go figure! He has been fussy which is unusual for him, and not wanting to drink a bottle, which we thought was him not liking milk. Hes been on the medication for 6 days now and MUCH MUCH better! He was 22 lbs 12 oz. & 30 inches In the 73-75 Percentile. Which is great! He also said his head is bigger than normal, but nothing they would be alarmed about, but they will monitor it at his appointments. He isn't walking yet, but has taken an interest and the past couple of days even can walk holding one hand. He doesn't know many words other than "Dada" & "Ma" he does day "Bah" for bye we joke that he doesn't say "Bye" cuz hes southern! He takes my phone all day puts it on he shoulder and says "Buh Dada, Buh Dada" He can also say "Go" we went for lunch with Grammy and he got an ice cream cone she thought she'd help him out by taking it.. he first growled at her and then said "GO" boy was she wrong! :) He has learned to give kisses, but most people try not ask for one!! He holds your face with both hands and tongue goes into mouth!! He can give hugs now too, so cute!He very much loves to cuddle, hes much different from what Madison was like in that area, but loves to dig and pull all my files out so too much like her there! :) They get along VERY well. She loves to take care of him (Well.... if I pay her! :) but she works cheap! ) and  now that hes starting to "Play" she is always asking if they can play together, maybe it cuz he just got new toys that she wants to try out! Works for me!

Mini update

Little monkey got into Maddis paints, and he was pretty proud of it! He first spilled it on the floor if that wasn't enough he sat in and and then put it all over her little table and the wall. In a matter of like 3 min. max!

Picture is messed up. Maddi has been such a big helpper! This is her changing his pamper. She did a great job! (Too bad thats the only one shes done!) She was so proud of herself!

Hudson Rayce. Our busy busy little boy! I don't notice it as much when we are at home, probably because I just let him dig.. BUT speech on the other hand is horrible! He can pull books off the bookshelve pretty fast!! Oh man you should see me running from one thing to the next!! Lets just say I don't get to hear Maddis speech sessions anymore! :) Last week we even had to call poison control-- He got into the tylenol. He has let us know he will not be eating baby food anymore, he even eats pizza now! He FINALLY got a second tooth! But boy can he eat most anything with just the two! He is a VERY pickey eater for a 10 month old! Madison didn't go through this stage till at least 18 months! He loves to dig and explore but hes still a VERY good baby! (Knock on wood!) And this little smile just melts you! Hes VERY friendly I don't go anywhere without someone coming to talk to him. He will stare you down and give you this grin and force you to say something! :)

Maddi making rice krispie balls for school. :)

We keep wondering when our little girl grew up!! She is just so grown up from the things she talks about to how she acts! Its crazy!! Since the whole situation with Sean she went through a anxiety stage.. but shes come out of it for the most part.. (Shes still a bit scared of cops.. not sure why!) She came home from school the other day and tells me they got a surprise one of the girls Dads came to visit and he is a police officer. So I asked her if she was scared, she says "Nope, but it did make my tummy hurt a little!" lol I asked if she told her teacher that her response "Nooooo!!" like that would be so embarrassing!! Who knew at 4! :) She got a progress resport last week. She can recognize her letters, knows her shapes and colors! The only thing she didn't know was her address and phone #! Oops! I just realized she would have to know such a thing! We registered her for K5.. thats going to be wild having her go all day everyday! We really really wanted to send her to Blue Ridge Christian Acadamy, but it just wasn't doable! So we just put her in the school distract that we live! I've been hearing great things about it since so... We hope to revisit the private school route by 5th grade!