A Holly, Jolly Time

December has been magic. Preparing the house and feeling the excitement of Christmas can be some of the sweetest times of the year. We decked our front room in Christmas decor and gave Hudson the job of the lights. He thoroughly enjoyed plugging them in each day. Hudson was aglow with the Spirit of Christmas! We read about every Christmas book, saw every Christmas movie, and sang as many Christmas songs as we could throughout the day. You would think it would have gotten old as the days went on, but the joy just kept building!
Hudson also got the privilege of eating the amazing chocolate to our advent calendar. Not a day would pass that he wouldn't mention, "Mom, can I have my chocolate today?!" Bri did get one occasionally, but Hudson was always reluctant to pass the chocolate down to the baby sister.

Here they are, ready for the big day!!! Christmas Eve and eager to see what Santa would bring them in the morning! Hudson was sure he would get a whole lute of things and was pretty dead on. He was definitely spoiled.

This guy is happiness. He is full of so much love and is the sweetest of little boys. We love his personality and how much he is speaking his mind these days. Three-year-olds are so alive!

Caught Bri asleep on the couch and could have just kissed her little cheeks to no end. She NEVER does this. She and Hudson had been playing at the Children's Museum earlier that day and she got worked.

Turns out we found our hero Christmas morning. With a gun and sword, he was leaving nothing to chance. Prepared for anything. Bri is also prepared for the sale of the season with her shopping cart. She was putting everything in sight into her cart. Where could she have possibly learned that??? :)

We have a mini-helper in the kitchen now. I know she'll love it more as time goes on, but it was so fun to see how excited she was as she ran to it first thing that morning. 

This is where our morning started. Santa's leftover cookie crumbs. Santa didn't eat EVERYTHING and these kids don't waste sweets. Just helping out.

Christmas Eve, after putting on Christmas pajamas. The kids were too thrilled to sleep. We had so much fun experiencing Christmas through them this year. Being a parent is the best.

Sometimes I will catch the cutest pictures of the kids on camera. They are so much cuter in real life:). Brielle is the smallest little thing and full of words. She mimics everything we say and follows all her brother's actions (good and bad) ---a fast learning curve. We are amazed at her sponge-like capabilities.

This week, I found the kids on Hudson's bed reading books together. Hudson has so much fun looking through books and Bri is apparently a wannabe. I love capturing these moments where silence didn't mean a complete disaster was made in the other room. Hooray for clean productivity!

Candy Withdrawals

This big boy started preschool and hasn't looked back. LIVES for his preschool days. I started him in preschool because I know how he craves friends. It really is so cute how much he loves his friends. Nursery has always been a favorite part of his week. Now, life just got that much better buddy!
"What did you do during preschool today, Hudson???"
"Oh, just played with my friends. I love my friends."
Yes, it is totally worth the 25 minute drive each way. Plus, it has been some great Bri-Mommy bonding time:)

We took family pictures basically on the prettiest day of the season. It was balmy and colorful. No one had chattering teeth and blue lips. No major thawing ritual was required afterward. So refreshing! A much different story from last year's unbearable temperatures. Not even joking, two days later, this place froze over and all the colors vanished. We are glad we got some family photos in while we could still have some skin showing... without getting frostbite. Where do we live?

For Halloween, Brielle was the cutest elephant you will ever see in your lifetime. She has the whole snort with the trunk thing down too. AHHH! She is sooo much better than a doll! She wasn't loving the ear paraphernalia so Daddy had to pose her ears for her.  We ended up making a haul as we went trick-or-treating in a neighboring city's downtown shopping center earlier on in the day. Thankfully, there really wasn't much pressure for the performance of the children later that evening. 

Later that night, when we went out trick-or-treating in the crazy cold temperatures (and hit probably 5 houses before losing function of our limbs) we bundled the kids in layers upon layers to last as long as possible. Bri looked much more the part a little stuffed. She insisted upon holding Hudson's flag in her pictures though. Gosh, she knows how to get her way! I guess she is somewhat of a patriot.

This is our Halloween star! Hudson has been all about Halloween this year. The second we could put up decorations and get into the spirit of it all, he was hooked. He was our pumpkin scout. Everytime we would be out we would hear a common dialogue, "A pumpkin, Mom!!! It's Halloween, a little bit, right?! Oh, and another one, Mom!!!" Each time getting a little louder and a little more excited!!!! SO MUCH EXCITEMENT!
He could not wait to be an astronaut. Something so adorable is that when we were getting ready for the ward party, he said, "But Mom, wait, where's my flag???" We didn't have a flag or talk about a flag up to this point. Where he remember this detail from, I am still unsure, but HECK YES! We will make you a flag son! Gotta be the part! Look at that smile!:)
We read scary book after scary book and flooded him with Halloween spirit so that when we finally took down the decorations, he was completely distraught. He still asks about when Halloween will be back.
Didn't totally fall in love the same way with Thanksgiving, but did end up getting the gist of the pilgrims and turkey business.

These two made quite a haul with these buckets. Made their parents right proud:) Turns out that kids are very aware of the sound of candy wrappers. Hudson will come running in whenever he suspects the sound.
"MOM, I HAVE TO HAVE SOME TANDY!"
You don't understand. He isn't lying. He really does HAVE to. If half of your DNA was comprised of sugar molecules, you would have withdrawals too. Thanks Dad:)

Harvest Time

August and October Harvests

We got us some beautiful load of carrots this summer! It was such a thrilling hobby to tend and love a garden and in return, have it love us back by providing some of the tastiest veggies I've had in a while. Hudson didn't miss the opportunity to play the part. He would bust out his tools, gloves and wheelbarrow to do his part in weeding and harvesting. My hope was that his pallet would warm up to the idea of consuming veggies "happily" since we had cared for and been through the whole process from their seeding days. It didn't prove effective, but at least we learned some new skills!

Garden carrots are the most delicious, but quite tedious to clean, trim, cut and prepare (if you have ambitions to go through all the steps in one afternoon). I now will look at the already cut, washed and prepared carrots in the store with much greater appreciation. Of course those companies use machines...but nevertheless! It is a process indeed!

We have had our fair share of zucchini this year. Zucchini bread, stir fry, steamed, kabobs, salad shredded, beefed up and marinated... Woah. Talk about a heap-o-zucchini! We would catch most of them right at the perfect time, but then we'd find the Moby Dick's of the garden, lurking in the shadows of the massive zucchini leaves. BAM! They get to be heavy weights fast. This zucchini could have eaten Hudson in one bite. 

Those green beans never got tiresome. I ate them as fast as they could grow. So fun to pick them and then go into the house and cook them up all tasty like. No better way to enjoy green beans!

After our summer harvest in August, we came home in October and found our squash were finished and ready to be enjoyed. Here the kids are modeling their different variety. Bri started into her butternut squash just after this picture. She was curious to see how it would taste raw. It only took one bite to know. There was never a second bite. Just a look of disgust across her face.  

Now that there is a Fall crispness in the air, we are back in coats and boots, prepared for a long winter. First, we will enjoy this amazing Fall weather. It is beautiful out in the Midwest in the Fall. Leaves changing, foliage everywhere, pumpkin patches, apple orchards. It is an enchanting season.

Bri is now 13 months old and seriously the cutest little thing. Her personality is so spunky and tender all in one and she is taking off with what girls do best: TALKING. She wants to say everything we say and do whatever she sees us doing. What a little woman.

Birthday Girl and Boy

This big boy celebrated his 3rd birthday while we were out in Utah with Nana and Papa Montague! It was really a treat to see how much he enjoyed every minute of the day. We went to the pool, went for a hike and Mom made a treasure cake for his Golden Birthday (turned 3 on the 3rd of June)...

This kid is tongue-sensory specific or something. He is a licker. It becomes a problem when we are in public places i.e. the airport, Disneyland or the playground where you know every kid and their dog (literally) did who knows what there. INOCULATION!

I TURNED 1!!!!!! The big day came and we enjoyed every minute celebrating this bright, happy, little girl that joined our family last year. What a sweet addition she has been this year:)

Here is the purse cake and Tiffany's smash cake I wanted to make...It was a labor of love, but so fun to make it special for Bri. 

Hudson LOVED the cake. He withheld his licks while I was making the cake, but once we sang, blew out candles and called it a birthday, we let him get his lick on (on just one side, of course:))

Bri got her first baby doll and stroller. All she is thinking is, "Not so sure what to do with this, Mom".

Dad is convinced I was more excited about the baby doll than B was... Love mah babies!!!

Now she doesn't have to push lawn mowers, firetrucks and trains, but officially has a girl toy now.

Watch Out Boys, She'll Chew You Up!

What a year. I am ssssllllllllllllooooooowwwwwwwllllllllllyyyyyyyy getting around to fully updating all that has taken place. We have been here and gone, then here and there again. We spent June in Utah at Lake Powell for a week, went camping up Payson Canyon and enjoying Nana and Papa. After being apart from Thomas for 4 of the 7 months of this year, we have enjoyed this month of July, being together again! Thomas's schedule at the Navy Lovell VA has been the most relaxed of rotations thus far so we have been loving the extra time that we have missed being together. We have been running as a family, tending to our garden, going to Lake Forest Car Shows, and enjoying this unusual July weather outside and on the beach. As it turns out, the winter polar vortex makes a very comfortable July. We'll take the 60 degree weather when we normally expect to be sticky and sweaty from the hot humidity!

Little miss Brielle got all 6 of her teeth at once and a nice bruise from a face plant on the asphalt! Still cute as ever though. She started the month with one tooth barely beginning to push through and then the next week she got 5 teeth that followed. Not even joking. And then there were 6. Mom has become a chew toy...but Brielle's world of food has revamped into deliciousness.

And she is full of sass. Bri is learning how to fend for her own with a big brother that chooses to wrestle her a little too frequently. It has been fun to see her personality come through!

We got a new car...then we had to take it back because Hudson quit his 2nd job.

Should we take out another school loan to get this $300,000 RR? Ummm YES.

Out of all the fancy shmancy cars we saw, this was one of the favorites of mine. The boys like the guts and a speedy set of wheels, but I fell in love with the vintage charm of this beauty. I want it!

Our garden has been a sweet part of this summer. We have thoroughly enjoyed the fruits of planting the seeds back in the beginning of May. Our lettuce exploded and has been delicious, the green beans delectable and numerous, the carrots are sweet, but still too small and we just picked the Asian radishes (Hudson picked them for us at the store) and our first zucchini (it was massive!). We have tons of squash getting ready and ripe for us to enjoy pretty soon here.

It has been a blast to play in the garden with the kids. B just eats dirt and chews on sticks while Hudson drives his car around and pushes his dump truck full of weeds or our vegetables, depending on the day. He really is most excited about all the bugs we find crawling in the soil:) Hudson is good to alert me to anything that moves by the rapid change in pitch as he gets overly thrilled. Needless to say, our bug collection has increased tenfold as summer continues. 

The kids love playing outside, but consequently they both have face planted on the asphalt outside on our driveway, leaving big goose eggs on their foreheads. (Bri's bruise shows on the top picture and here is a lovely display of Hudson's...)

4th of July was a blast. We went to the Lake Bluff parade, went for a family run, went to our BG2 Ward cookout, then watched fireworks at Deerpath park. The kids were completely wasted after the day of go, go, go.

Bri enjoying a cupcake at the Ward 4th of July cookout

Hudson is Mr. Truck Man. Going to the beach with his trucks gets messy, to say the least. We have sand in EVERY crevice by the time we finish up.

Falling asleep in the highchair:) Don't you love her guitar bib? She no longer lets me put bows in her hair so, aside from the bracelet, she could pass for a really cute boy... At least she was a good sport to let me doll her up for 8 months of her life.

Just Being Kids

Check this out! We were fortunate enough to have a mother robin set up camp right outside our very own kitchen window. What a beautiful sight to behold!

They hatched yesterday! It's as if we have pets. This is the best kind though... The mother bird does all of the work and we just get the enjoyment aspect. NO SMELL. NO POOPS.
Hudson named them Quack, Duck and Chicken.

Little mover and shaker, Brielle, started wanting to walk this past month. She has been standing without holding onto anything since mid-April and has since tried to venture into moving those little legs like they're supposed to move. 

Since our sun-room tends to attract every bug from this humid land, we decided to start collecting. I'd say we have a pretty legit bug collection at this point. It didn't take long to get a beetle, ladybug, bumblebee, honey bee, mosquito, spider, moth, fly, gnat, an ant and some other bugs I don't know the names of...

Here's our lute. Hudson likes to go and just look at the bugs and seems to feel all sorts of manliness because he was part of the capture. 

AVOCADO BABY!!! This girl loves her avocados. It is by no means a clean endeavor though. She slathers herself in green deliciousness. She is definitely the best green goddess I've ever seen. 

Mother's Day picture: This is my favorite thing about Mother's Day...looking back and seeing how my little family is evolving as the years go on. I am a VERY proud mother of two of the cutest kids I know! This year Hudson pulled a Mr. Darcy and wished me a Happy Mama's Day and kissed my cheeks, nose, head, shoulders, elbows and knees (no encouragement from anywhere...just came up with it by himself:)) Melted my heart.