Funny Parker

This past Sunday was Mother's Day. I got dressed for church in a dress, with pearls and the whole nine yards, which I obviously don't do often anymore. I went to get Parker out of his bed to get him ready for church.

When I walked into his room he said very excitedly, "Oooh Mommy, why are you wearing that?", while pointing to my dress.

I told him it was Mother's Day, so I wanted to dress up.

He responded in an even more excited manner than before, "Oh! Can I dress up too?!"

"Sure!" I said.

"Ok," he said, "I want to wear my fireman's costume!"

My Little Chase

 I love seeing Chase get older and start to develop interests. Recently he has become interested in the guitar and I think it's great that playing the guitar is something he and Phil can do together.  He even made his own guitar (before we bought him a real one) out of a 3 foot long 2x4, a Tom's shoe box and some string.  Amazingly the structure held together but it didn't make a sound when he strummed it.

 But now he and Phil take "lessons" online and Chase just loves to sit around and strum it and make up songs.

 He also just lost his second tooth. It was hanging on by a thread for ever and totally grossing me out! I told him he had to wait until Daddy was home to pull it. Thankfully he did. Not only did he wait until Daddy was home, but he also waited until Pops was here. He was sitting in Pops' lap and out fell his tooth. Whew! So thankful to not deal with a lot of blood!

My sweet, sweet Chase.  Almost 7 years old. How is that possible?!

9 Days and 90 Years

We are back from Texas! Did you miss us? This was our longest trip visiting there- 9 days. I was flew there by myself with just the kids for about 4 days and then Phil joined us later when he was off work.

I didn't have room for the camera in my suitcase, so the pictures start once he's there, day 5.
We, along with one of Phil's sisters, Rachel, took all five of our kids to the beach on Friday. It was really crowded and very hard for me to keep an eye on my three little ones. No way I could have done that without a second pair of hands....and I could have used a third!

I call this the Bay Watch picture. Left to right- Chase (with Puddle Jumpers on), Bryson, JuJu and Phil. Chase grew up so much on this trip, first learning to swim underwater the length of the pool and then also just being so independent and playing with all of his cousins all day. I didn't see him until it was time for me to put him to bed! He LOVED playing with his cousins!

Daddy and JuJu. She knows that Daddy's job is to keep her safe, so she was stuck to him like glue in the water.

This one was a mess at the beach! He was so hard to keep an eye on, which gave me several heart attacks. He also ate SO much sand and there was no stopping him. Not very surprising, he had some GI issues about two days later and ran a low grade temp for three days. Hmm....

Anyway, he's just a mess, but I love him!

We also did lots of swimming in the pool! I mean lots!!

Chase swam for so long one day that I had to make him get out to eat after about 4 hours. He was so hot and tired that night, I thought he would be sick, but thankfully never was.

The little boy cousins, there were four of them, also played lots of ball when they weren't swimming.

And then we did some 90th birthday celebrating! Phil's grandmother, Mema, turned 90 while we were there. Lots of Phil's family was able to make it down to Houston to celebrate. Mema is the sweetest lady and she and PopPop, who is also 90, still live together and totally independently.

Aren't they sweet?! Happy Birthday Mema!

More of Texas to come.

A New Ride

I finally got an Ergo Carrier for Parker! I have wanted one since he was born but they run about $120 new. They still go for about $80 used on ebay, but I had a friend here selling hers for $30! I quickly took her up on the offer. (Thanks Brenda!)

Parker is still fussy at the witching hour before dinner- like while I'm trying to make dinner. He only wants me to hold him, which doesn't make for a successful dinner-making. Now, I just put him on my back and go about my business.

He really likes it when I get in the fridge. He always manages to grab the hot sauce out of the door.

It's so cute because when he comes to me asking, "Up", while I'm cooking, I ask him if he wants to get on my back and he says, "Uh-huh".

I plan on using it also during our next airport experience.

Thanks Brenda!

Gymnastics Camp

Chase has been in gymnastics camp all week, from 9-2 each day. He is loving it and it is wearing him out!

It's all we can do to get him to 7pm so we can put him in bed. The first night he was in bed before 7! Crazy! But he fell right to sleep and slept until 7 or so the next morning.

They do all kinds of things. They have a huge foam block pit, which is his favorite by far! Jumping on the trampoline is what they happened to be doing they day I came to pick him up and had the camera.

And this little girl can't wait until it's her turn. She gets to go to the preschool camp, which is the first week in August.

She loves watching the gymnasts. I told Phil that this may just be the beginning for us!

And look at that hair! I had to put that picture in.

The morning of the third day. He ate two plates full of food for breakfast- his and then his sister's. I think he's burning a lot of calories!

It's Gonna Bust!

I'm caught up on the blog!!! I can't believe that I can say that! I am, however, pursing new blogging options because this blog is almost full! Yes, that's right- it's 95% full. I'm thinking of moving over to WordPress. I like how much more efficient the picture uploading process is there and Phil already got me a URL there a few months ago, so now it's just gonna take me learning it and moving all of my avid readers over there. Do I have any avid readers? I don't even know if I do anymore.

Anyway, I'll put a post on here with the new address when it's all up and running, but a part of me will be sad to leave blogger and chasehudson.blogspot.com. :( It's been a good six years here.

So if things get quiet on this URL, don't think I'm getting behind again, I might just be figuring things out over there.

A Happy 4th!

We had a great Fourth of July this year and we hope you all did too! We got in a lot of family time since I didn't have to work this Saturday. We searched for a couple of yard sales, but there wasn't much this weekend. We buy a couple of little things.



Saturday afternoon we went swimming at our neighbor's new pool. And by new, I mean they don't even have the retaining wall up yet or the inspection done, but hey, it's hot, so we swam. The water was awesome and their pool is beautiful! I didn't have my camera though.



The older two kids great in the water and were both jumping off the diving board! Chase even was jumping in without any floaties and then swimming to the side. This is a huge improvement!

On Sunday we drove less than 2 hours to Pickwick Lake with a another co-worker of Phil's who just bought a very nice, new boat. The weather was great and the boat had a canopy which provided some much needed shade.

The kids loved swimming in the lake and were jumping off the end of the boat. When we first got in the water Chase asked if a dolphin was going come up and bite us. Then he asked if there were any submarines under us. :) So precious! I love him!

Phil was brave and tried water skiing. I had just stepped on a nail the night before so I had a good excuse to not attempt it, lol. He got up on the first try! I was impressed! It's been years since he's water skied.

We left Parker at home with a sitter, my cousin Molly, while we were at the lake. He would have been miserable, hot and tired. I know that he enjoyed some good one-on-one time with Molly anyway.

Then on Monday, the 4th, we grilled out with Mimi and Pops. Whew! That was a busy weekend.

Just like his big brother

Parker loves bananas and I was capturing these pictures, I was reminded of this post that I did about Chase and his love of bananas around the same age.

See what his shirt says, "More Bananas Please". If Phil is bringing a banana along in the car for himself as a snack, we have to hide it because Parker will go nuts for it if he sees it.

Here's Chase at 15 months eating his bananas. What do you think? Do they look alike?

Sailing, Sailing....

Yard Sale-ing that is. Our family has actually been home on Saturday mornings for the last two weekends. That is something that never happens. For one, Phil or I usually work every Saturday, but my boss didn't put me on the schedule this month, so I'm off until August! Yay! It has been so nice to know that I can do family things now on Saturdays. And Phil has also been off work.
Our first Saturday we loaded everyone up and drove around and looked for yard sales. We hit the jack pot just in our neighborhood! For $14 we got these Fisher-Price toys, a pair of Crocs for JuJu, an Eye Spy book, a Bob the Builder book and a Bob the Builder Sticker Book.
We couldn't find any girl toys or books or anything (other than the crocs), so Chase got the lighthouse and rescue boat above....
...and JuJu got the pirate ship. These are really great toys. The look kinda like the Fisher-Price version of Playmobile toys, which we also have. They are in great shape, have all the pieces and the instruction booklets. They were $5 each. Can't beat that.

We got all of that at the first yard sale we came to.

And at the next yard sale we got this table and chairs for $40! It seats six but only has four chairs, so for now we are using two of our old ones. This table is exactly what I was looking for! I really wanted a pedestal table so that the table legs would be out of the way. Check. I also wanted it to have leaves. It has two. Check. I wanted it to be oval. Check. Made of wood. Check. Affordable. Check. And not perfect. Check.

By not perfect I mean that it is used and already has some dings, etc. Just a few months ago Julianna painted on our old table and chairs with model airplane paint, so I really didn't want to spend a lot of money on a nice, new table to fret about every little that happened to it. So by not being perfect, it's totally perfect!

You can see our old table in the first picture on this post. Phil's parents made that table when they were first married and I think everyone in the family has used it. It was a great table for us for eight years now. Now we get to pass it on.....or at least get it back to Texas somehow!

JuJu

This sweet baby girl loves to be silly and dance! This was during Chase's recovery from his sinus surgery and we were having to lay low for a couple of weeks.
She also loves to nurture! I was gathering up some baby equipment to take to my friend who is about to have her first baby and JuJu just set it all up and started playing baby dolls with it all. Here she's sitting in the bumbo seat herself while bathing her baby.


She had already gotten her baby out of the bath and wrapped her up in a towel when I got the camera. So I had her put her back in the tub for a picture. For all those who are wondering why she already has a towel on. :)

I love watching JuJu play baby dolls and doll house. Playing kitchen is also one of her favorite things to do. I am making it a goal for myself to sit down and play with her more. I know that there are just a few short years where she'll be wanting me to play with her. I want to soak it all up as much as possible!