Hiking, Triking and Dinos, Oh My!

Hudson got his first pet: a fish. Betta fish aren't the most entertaining of fishes... Hudson was still pretty excited about it though! He got to pick it out and he loves to feed "Chum". Hopefully he makes it home on the airplane with us...

Sorry for the skin, but baby bodies are sooo precious. We did a little shoot of Bri and here is a tame front shot so no one is offended... Brielle is starting to get a mind of her own. She turned 5 months on the 29th and has been really interested in food the past couple weeks, but still hates her rice cereal. I let her gnaw on a banana and she went to town! Nearly lost my fingers! She is also rolling around really well and sitting up for long periods of time. She absolutely adores Hudson. It is dear to watch how much she admires him and gets a kick out of the things he does. Hudson is so sweet to her so it's no wonder she loves him so much:) 

Papa Montague brought out the man tools and let Hudson be his wingman. Hudson is ecstatic---"Being a dude is so cool!" Papa was using his creativity to build up the pedals to help Hudson fit the trike they got for him to play on in this lovely St. George weather. Any excuse for a drill is a good one!

We're learning... Hudson has to grow into it a bit. If Hudson isn't on the trike, we are playing baseball and soccer out in the backyard. So much energy to expend in this little guy. 

Our Van Gogh, busy at work.

Here's our little sister sitter! Brielle is doing really well sitting up for several minutes now until she flings backward. Still working on controlling that so for the time we have a protective blanket to pad the fall.

To get some wiggles out and make naptime successful, we have been doing some hikes in the area. Hudson has really taken to hiking and it is really fun for me to watch him do so well climbing the mountain and figuring out how to maneuver around the rocks. It is such a treat to enjoy the sunshine in January and February!

In our area, there is a fantastic dinosaur museum that we checked out with Hudson. It was difficult to get Hudson excited about anything other than wanting to jump off all these ancient dinosaur tracks that were embedded in the large rocks:)

Nana Lisa has been so wonderful to help so much with the kids as Thomas is now at a hospital in Phoenix for this month. She has been the best of friends and the greatest support as I try to do this parenting thing alone while Thomas is away. Thank you Mom! 

Although the concept of not jumping off the ancient rocks was a difficult one to grasp, he really enjoyed the kid area with a sandbox that you could dig for dino tracks. There were some puzzles, and activities to play with as well that were fun.

Library time has been comical. We have made the library storytime our friend. Trying to practice sitting for an extended period of time has been tough for this little guy! It was such an exciting event for Hudson. He misses his friends out in Chicago so getting out and playing with other kids made him so happy. His favorite book series have been Franklin (the turtle) and the Magic School Bus. Yeah for great books!