After a 14-Month Absence...Utah!!

After 14 long months, we finally got to take another trip to Utah. We were blessed to go for 2 full weeks and stay for Christmas and New Year's. Our flight out had a layover in Minneapolis.  Coop had recently watched A Charlie Brown Christmas, and instantly recognized this statue, and wanted his picture taken.

The boys couldn't have been better travelling for 12 hours. They did amazing on the flights. Hudson only cried the last 20 minutes of our travel as we drove to my parents' house. What a great kid.

This kid was also great on the plane!

He took pictures of Mommy and Daddy too (Hudson was covered up under the polkadot cover, napping).

When we arrived in Utah that night, all my siblings were there with their families to greet us! We were exhausted, but excited to see everyone. Only my parents and brother from Baltimore had seen Hudson before, so there was a lot of fawning over the baby.  Here he is with Aunt Cassady.

Cousins, Calvin and Cooper, hadn't seen each other in person for 14 months. That's a lifetime to a 4-yr old. They were SO EXCITED to see each other!

Aunt Camyll and Huddy

Alex and Huddy

It was a long day for us, but we had been looking forward to seeing our family for so long that it made it worth the trip.

Hudson 7 and 8 Months

Since I missed posting about Hudson's 7 month milestone, I'll combine that with his 8 month milestone that comes in a few days.

It dawned on me the other day that Huddy is now closer to 1 year old than birth. Yikes! It's going by way too fast.

Those eyelashes kill me.

Huddy at the doctor.

Lookin' so cute!

Play time picture from Cooper.

Another picture from Cooper.

When putting up Christmas decorations, Cooper put the wreath around Hudder.  He couldn't figure out what had happened.

Huddy's favorite activity is to pull all the toys out of baskets. He actually fit in this one, and I wanted to remember him this small.

Loves to chew, but especially his lovey.  Seriously, sometimes I find it nearly dripping with slobber like a dog's chew toy. The boy has got plenty of drool!

More toys and baskets and at least 20 minutes of self entertainment.  He plays so well by himself. It's so nice!

He's such a happy baby, especially now that he'a rolling all over the place. Well, he was happy until this week when he figured out how to push himself backward. 

Mmmmmm...yummmm. All things must be tasted, even jingle bells.

Does it get any cuter than this Santa's little helper?

Our happy little guy.

In the last two weeks Hudson has stepped up his efforts to crawl and cruise, although he can't decide which he wants to do first. He is "this close" to crawling, pushing himself backward into corners, under chairs, and into all sorts of strange places. The more he wants something, the farther he gets from it. He cries and gets frustrated and shouts for me in his baby jabber to come rescue him. The other day he got himself stuck in a full downward dog position, yesterday he was doing a plank. The kid is strong as an ox, and apparently a natural at yoga.

Hudson loves to eat, but has decided he's nearly done nursing. He prefers solids, and always wants some of whatever I'm eating.  His absolute favorite are vanilla wafers. He fed one to himself the day he turned 7 months old, and now begs for them all the time.

The boy is growing up! He's added another 4 teeth in the last 2 months, bringing the tally to 8: 6 on top, 2 on bottom. He in size 12 month clothes all of a sudden. The length of the sleeves and pants are a bit too long, but his girth forced me to get him in a bigger size. I literally was having to shimmy his pants over his thighs, and the waistlines were giving him quite the muffin top. His shirts were much the same.

He's also growing up verbally. He says, "mmmmm" when he's hungry, and recently threw his first real fit (because I wouldn't give him the teething biscuit sitting on the table instead of making him eat vegetables first).  He also gives big open mouthed slobbery kisses, but currently reserves them only for me.

He and Cooper have started really playing together, and Hudson couldn't be happier about it. He already idolizes his older brother.

He loves to play peek-a-boo, sing wheels on the bus (ok, I'm the one singing), and try to do everything his brother does.  He never fails to break into a full smile when I sing "bathtime, bathtime, time to take a bath." He LOVES the water.

Hudson is a joy to us, being such a happy, mild-tempered little guy.

Annual Christmas Party

We held our annual Christmas party again this year with our friends--WITHOUT KIDS. Always so fun to get together with our adult friends without kids to distract. 

I was pleased with the result of this totally last-minute, like 5 minutes before the party, centerpiece I put together on a whim. Used a few cut sprigs from our Christmas tree, layered cranberries on top, filled with water and put in a few tea light candles, and voila!

Everyone brought a dish to share. We had more than enough. I was eating leftovers for days. Yum!

Tiffany was the hand-down winner of the ugly sweater contest. She snapped a picture for me the next day, since I missed getting one of her with the sweater at the party. It had so much decoration that it seriously weighed like 5 pounds! Picture does not do it justice.  As always, the winner of the ugly sweater won a prize: gift certificate to the movie theater.

The guests with their white elephant gifts:

Justin Gleaves (Alyssa was out of town)

Blaine and Heather Edwards (the glass antique duck Blaine ended up with was the most traded gift of the night).  Blaine and I worked together at Kohlers in Lehi, UT as grocery baggers in high school. He and his wife live here in Charlotte (in our stake, no less) now to be close to her family. Heather's dad, Ladd Hall, is our Stake President. Small world!!

Asenath and Lauren Lawton

Andrew and Natalie Gleaves

Allison Lucas (John was away in China on business)

Tiffany and Brandon Larsen

Nate ended up with a bag of rocks (forgot to take a picture of myself).

We had a great time catching up with some of our friends.

Sunday Self Entertainment

A few weeks ago we had a cold, rainy weekend, and we were too sick to go anywhere, so by the time Sunday afternoon rolled around we were going a little stir crazy.

Coop wanted me to play with him in his room. He built a "race truck" out of Hudson's carseat, swing, and some toys, and wanted me to take a picture of him in it.

Then Hudson had a turn with the bear hat.

Then it was Mommy's turn to wear the hat.

Selfies!

We were a little slap-happy, and stir-crazy, but it was a fun afternoon!

It's Beginning to Look a Little Like Christmas

The day we went to pick out our Christmas tree it was warm enough at 6:30 pm to be wearing short sleeves. Great weather for tree shopping! We went to the same lot we've been going to for 3 years now. They have good quality, healthy, beautiful and affordable Christmas trees. Each year it's taken us less than 15 minutes to pick out our tree. This year we were back home within 20. Perfect for little kids!

Cooper and Nathan helped me decorate this year, whoch was so much better than decorating the tree myself like hhe last two years. After being so sick for 4 weeks, it felt great to get some Christmas decor up.  I love decorating the house for Christmas.

This is when I realized: Oops, I forgot to buy Hudson a stocking! Good thing there was still plenty of time.

A few of the details...

Cooper had the opportunity to go Christmas shopping for a preschool field trip at a place where the kids get to pick out gifts on their own, all for $2 or less. The school asked for a list of who to buy for, etc. and then he got to purchase gifts himself. I wasn't sure what to expect, and thought the quality would be low. But on the contrary!

The field trip was on a Friday and by the following Sunday Coop couldn't wait any longer to give us our gifts. The anticipation was just too much for him. He gave me a nice pink wallet, which had  all the same pockets as my current wallet. I kind of needed a new one, and love the cute pink one he gave me. Really. He also gave me a cute bracelet.

 Hudson was asleep at the time, and opened his gifts later, but they were just as thoughtful: a toy cow, a baby book of Bible stories, and a yo-yo.

Cooper's gift to Daddy was AWESOME: a giant (like 12" tall), decorative pear! Yep. And he was SO excited to give it to him!! He said he picked it because it was the biggest thing they had, and Daddy likes big things, and it's wood. It's something we'll never forget, that's for sure. I think I may put it away with the Christmas things, and call it our "Christmas pear."  Good stuff, Coop!

I was glad Cooper was able to feel the excitement of giving someone else a gift. Later that week I'd written a list of gifts to buy for others. Coop saw the paper and wanted to cut it (he loves using scissors). I told him it was my Christmas list of who to buy presents for. He took the pen and wrote his own name on the list and said very matter of factly, "Mom, I put my own name on your list so you can buy a present for me too, OK?" So cute.

I love December and all of the Christmas-y things that go with it!