Easter Kiddos

I really had forgotten about getting the kids something to wear for Easter this year. I guess that explains how out of it my mind is lately. Luckily, I had gotten Hadley this dress awhile ago in Topeka that was perfect for Easter this year. I also happened to make Hudson this bow tie this past week. I couldn't believe the two actually matched. Couldn't have done better if I had planned it!
Hadley is so funny. She wanted to see the pictures in the camera. So she is pointing and telling me she wants to see them.
I just thought this face was cute. Just a funny little kid expression. And those pigtails, she has already ripped them out 3 times that morning. Then she left them in for all the pictures and all of church. As soon as we were driving away from church, I looked back and saw she had ripped them out again. At least she leaves them in when it really matters. Her hair was out of control after, I wish I had taken a picture of it.

Oh, and Hudson gave his first talk today at church. He went up there with no problem but then some of the older kids said they liked his bow tie. Hudson got a little shy and was having a hard time saying the words out loud, yep. He was whispering them. The older kids were giggling and that didn't help either. But he said a few lines at the beginning and then Mike filled in the middle and he finished up the very end. All in all, for a first time, I think he did pretty well. He told Mike that next time, he probably wouldn't even need him to go up at all with him. haha

So good, so good

The Easter bunny brought some fun things for the kiddos this year. Hudson and Hadley were so excited to check it all out. I made them wait til they ate breakfast before they could get dressed (since they were both wearing white). So that meant they had to wait extra long for their fun Easter goodies. I am sure that was torture for a little kid.Hudson's loot

Hadley's treasures

We had to get some pictures before we left for church...hmmm, is that part of why we were 20 minutes late? haha Oh well...
Hadley dug into her mini m&m's right away. That girl could find candy or food anywhere and open the package up by herself too!

Dyeing Eggs

Last week at preschool Hudson created this with a blown out egg. He thought it was so cool and we had to be extra careful with it so he could keep it for awhile.
Here is Hadley and her doll. She is obsessed with pushing them around in her stroller (that we finally got fixed for her!!).
Hudson helping me make egg dye. Good thing for food coloring. Our Easter stuff is still packed up and not accessible so we improvised.Hudson had just smelled the egg and asked why they stunk so bad! hahaHadley was ready to get in on that coloring action....probably a little too much!
Hudson was loving this. It was so fun to see how into it he was this year. This is such a fun Easter tradition. I love having traditions like this that are easy to do and everyone enjoys. Being creative doesn't hurt either!
Mike joining in the fun:The kids gobbled most of the eggs up for breakfast the next morning. But they sure looked pretty until then.

Easter Egg Hunt

A super sweet couple in our ward hosted an Easter egg hunt for all the kiddos in our ward. They put the whole thing together and hid all the eggs on their land....they own a TON of land and have animals there and everything. Hudson loves the "farm." We went there a few weeks ago for a bonfire/hotdog roast. It was so fun. He couldn't stop talking about the farm and all the animals.
Hadley started picking up eggs right away. She was excited to grab them and put them in her basket...although I couldn't really get her to smile for most of the pics. Stubborn thing.
Hudson was off and running as soon as they said go. He was SO excited for the egg hunt all morning.
He can't sit still if you can't tell!! haha It was actually kind of cool today compared to our really warm weather we have been having. We all ended up with wet bottoms of our pants but it was worth it!
Hudson loves all of his eggs and of course dug right into the candy.
Once Hads realized that there was candy in those eggs, she jumped in too!Hudson swinging with some of his friends.

Blowing out the Candles

I didn't have a chance to have Hudson blow out candles with his friends...but maybe it was better since there were a bunch of wild kiddos running around. I am thinking fire and running kids might not mix. But here are a few of the 4 year old birthday boy making a wish that he could play with his soccer ball again that he got taken away:
For some reason you can't really see the 4th candle in these pics. Kind of funny it is blocked by the other one just right.Hudson is at a really fun stage right now. He loves to learn. He loves reading and he talks about letters and numbers. He knows all of them and even loves to learn new words. He remembers the words he learns SO well. It amazes me how good his memory is...maybe that is because mine seems shot lately! haha He also loves to read those words in books. He always points them out to me wherever we are. He even pointed out "The" in the "The Home Depot" sign the other day. He was so excited to find it! He has picked up some local slang like yeah buddy, y'all, and you know that. Some things we have heard some local Georgians say around here.

Hudson loves to climb on things. He loves to run and play outside. He loves bubbles. He loves playing in water (nothing new there!). He loves to change into pajamas during quiet time. He loves certain songs on the radio and will constantly ask me to turn it up. He loves to play with Hadley. Sometimes he is a little too much in her face but he loves coming up with silly games with her like having both of them pretend to be dogs. He insists that Mike say I love you to him when we drop him off at school. If Hudson doesn't hear Mike, he gets very upset. He definitely misses his Daddy when he can't play with him. He loves his friends and he is always asking me what so and so is doing or where they are at.

The other day he was looking at my new phone and he says, mom is this your new I-phone? (which no it isn't an Iphone) but I was like where did he get that from? We are so not up on the Iphone scene around here. It cracked me up that he had heard it somewhere and used it in conversation.

He is still the happy, very excited personality he has been his whole life. It is fun to watch how excited he gets about everything. It is a good reminder to relish the small things. It is nice to know he has such a fun happy personality. If any of us are sad or in a bad mood, he will always say like, mom and then he just smiles a HUGE smile. And he will keep doing it until I smile back. It definitely helps me stay happy everyday too.

Hudson loves to pray and he wants to say just about every prayer. We have to make him allow someone else to say it every once and awhile. He loves primary and isn't so worried about how loud it gets with the bigger kids in there now. He is giving his first talk tomorrow in primary and he keeps saying how excited he is.

He still loves to play with trains. He loves airplanes, cars, fire trucks, and firemen/policemen (that look kind of like old school army men). He loves to growl and roar REALLY loud. He is starting to like some bugs but still hates to be dirty. He will sometimes ask for his hands to be washed halfway through a meal. He also does not like any of his food to touch the other food on this plate. He does not like to reuse a spoon/fork for different foods. He says they are "dirty."

He knows how to get on the internet and go to PBSkids.org, Disney and Starfall. He can use the mouse like its second nature. It is almost freaky how good he is. He loves to play a Toy Story game and even gets Mike hooked sometimes. He also uses our remote and the DVR too. He always fast forwards the intro song at the beginning of Little Einsteins, guess he just likes to get right to the show. He can pause, play, fast forward, rewind on the remote. Sometimes I think he knows how to use it better than we do!

Hudson is such a fun happy kid. It is hard not to smile when he is around. He definitely has a TON of energy. He makes life fun. Happy 4th birthday Hudson!

Preschool Projects

Well now maybe I can remember these ideas for later and a little show and tell for the grandparents!

I am trying to find a balance between keeping all those fun projects Hudson makes and getting rid of stuff. So I decided to just take pictures of most of his preschool projects and getting rid of most of the paper things he has made.They learned about how things grow and about seeds. Hudson drew some pictures of what each of the seeds were.Here is his Button monsterAll about rainbows.Hudson's grass man grew SO fast I could not believe it. I about jumped for joy as much as Hudson did when it first sprouted. I wasn't quite sure it would even grow for me.
Now his grass man is HUGE...this is only about 10 days after he started growing it. He loves checking it out everyday to see how big it has gotten.

A real Artiste!

This little artist just turned 4. I told him he has to stop growing older. He said he “just couldn’t do that mom.” He wants to “grow big and be a daddy.”

This is our first official birthday party with friends and no parents. It was so much fun!

I had fun decorating for the big day.

Hudson even surprised me and told me that they were “the best Christmas decorations ever!” Not quite sure where he got that from but either way he loved them!

The food table:

These were our “display” cupcakes. The artist decorated their own at the end of the party.

This was the art gallery wall they got to draw on when they first came to the party. Each artist was decked out in a smock I made them for the big day….mostly so the parents wouldn’t kill me if we got paint on them!! haha

Cute Carter insisting on a picture with his shades on.

Playing pin the paintbrush on the palette.

A bunch of blank canvases ready to be “artsied” up.

Hudson turning his canvas black from all the color. I think we will have to do another paint session on top of the black to add more color. But he loves it!

Everyone loved painting the canvases. They kept wanting more colors we could barely keep up! haha We were smart enough to roll up our rug though or we might have been in trouble!

The kiddos are out front playing games and drawing with sidewalk chalk while I paint each of their faces.

Everyone was SO excited to pick out what they would get on their faces. Some took longer than others to decide, not wanting to choose the wrong thing…hey, it is a big decision! :)

Hudson knew right what he wanted to be: a blue dog (apparently like Fuzz although I didn’t realize that til later!)

Then we went inside and everyone is swarming the food table…must be starving from all their creative fun!

Everyone eating their food.

Time to decorate cupcakes.

Opening up presents. It was SO cute to see how excited all of the kids got to open each gift. Sometimes they were swarming so close to Hudson that I couldn’t even get a picture of him or the gift.

Hudson had a blast, loved all of his gifts and said it was the best party ever! I guess it was a success!!