The Brown Family

Final trip of summer... Montana

2011-10-04T14:00:00.000-07:00

We made it!! The final trip of our summer 2011! We took 6 days to take a roadtrip to Flathead Lake & Glacier National Park, both in Montana.

The occassion? My dear childhood friend Erica was getting married!! She made a beautiful bride and her husband Todd, was a great looking groom!! The ceremony was at her dad's house, a remarkable setting on Flathead Lake!

Hudson and Camden were looking their best...

The kids sat on the rock steps and watched the wedding from there.

And we took the opportunity (since we were all dressed up) to take a family pic!

After the wedding the kids had the run of the property... which for Emerson meant not going too far from mom or Dad.

For the boys it meant all sorts of crazy stuff.... Like doing flips off the dock! Go Hudson!

We had such an amazing time at the wedding and were so thankful to be a part of it!

The other part of our trip was Glacier National Park.

We had a perfect campsite less than a 2 minute walk to Lake McDonald. Is that a gorgeous lake or what?

Our campsite, complete with Camper (so nicely lent to us by our friends Mark & Kim!)

I LOVE morning pictures of the kids camping. Big puffy eyes, wild hair... LOVE it!

Here is Camden at Lake McDonald.

The water was pretty cold, but it didn't stop the boys from playing it in a bit. Emerson had her bathing suit on ready to go, but wouldn't touch the water.

The boys played baseball with a piece of driftwood and a rock. Thankfully nobody got hit in the head with the 'ball'

The boys taking an evening dip and 'bathe' in the lake...I think this was sometime after 9:00pm.

At our campsite Camden and Hudson enjoyed making "Candy" out of the tree sap. I don't think they ever ate it, but they were entertained for hours!

We took the second day at Glacier to go on a beautiful hike!! Avalanche Lake. It was about 5-6 miles roundtrip. I think it was the maximum for our family, but I also think everyone had a good time.

When we started out the hike Camden found the cutest little inch worm!! For Camden there could be no better start to a hike than to find some creepy crawly insect!

The beautiful turquoise water rushing through the red rocks was breathtaking!! Could have stood there for hours watching it!

And here is Hudson playing on the rocks RIGHT next to a raging river!! Mommy was a little nervous!

Family picture time!! I think Emerson was having fun despite her face, but before we even got started on the hike her nap time had already passed.

The layers in the rocks were beautiful!! Look at that huge cave!! Too bad its not accessible!

Avalanche lake gets its name because in the spring you can sit by the lake and listen to, and watch...all the avalanches fall around you. By late summer when we were there, The snow is virtually gone but several gorgeous waterfalls remain.

And the color of the water is so beautiful! (as is this little girl!)

Camden and Hudson got to fish on the lake which was really fun for Camden because he caught one!! YEAH!!

Pretty flower I spotted along the hike.

About 2 minutes before we got back to our campsite, 6 hours after naptime...she fell asleep.

One last picture of the kids and Lake McDonald before we start our roadtrip! Goodbye Glacier! We'll hopefully see you again real soon!

On our roadtrip home we stopped in this adorable little mining town in the middle of Idaho called Wallace. We had spotted it on the way out and it was the perfect timing to make a stop, have lunch and stretch our legs on the way home.

We got huckleberry milkshakes and played in the cool old car at the Red Light Garage.

We saw a lot, A LOT, of this on our drive home. But it really was pretty with the contrasting blue sky behind it.

We stopped in Moses Lake, WA for the day and spent the night at a campground there. The kids had no idea why we had chosen to stop there, but they were happy to be done with the road trip for the day. There were soccer fields right next to our campground so the kids got to play soccer!

Hudson got a hold of my camera and took this cool picture of the soccer ball in flight.

When we pulled into Moses Lake at 6:00pm, it was 95 degrees. By 8:30 it was still super hot so we decided to forgo the bonfire this one night and have hot weather smores. Which were graham crackers slathered in Nutella and a nice glass of cold milk! I think I liked them even more than smores :)

The real reason we had decided to stop in Moses Lake was to take the boys to a water park! Moses Lake has a fantastic water park and the prices were super reasonable too!! Our entire family had an absolute blast here!! We spent about 2-1/2 hours and then finished our roadtrip home.

This was the first time the boys had been on "real" waterslides!! they also jumped off of the high dive for the first time!

Matt tried surfing...

Harder than it looked...

Hudson tried boogie boarding but was pretty upset when he only lasted about 15 seconds.

Camden lasted about the same amount of time.

Hudson in action jumping off the high dive.

And that's a wrap. Our summer vacations in a nutshell. sad to see this summer go, but ready to start planning for the next fun trip!

Washington Coast (summer vacations continued)

2011-09-26T14:19:00.000-07:00

Almost our last trip of the summer... I wondered why it seemed to go by so fast... now I see! It's almost October and I'm not done posting pictures of all of our wonderful trips!!
The beginning of August we took a trip to Ocean City, WA with Matt's Dad & Matt's sister Jenny.
We ate hot dogs over the fire... YUM! (with Mac & cheese on the side, of course!)

Aunt Jenny had a birthday party for all of the birthdays she missed this summer. What a treat!! Emerson blew out the birthday candles over and over before Jenny could get them all lit! Now that she knows that birthday candles are all about... she can't get enough!!

Aunt Jenny got Emerson the coolest silicone drawing sheet. You color it with dry erase markers and then wipe it off and do it over and over again. Super fun!

The biggest highlight for the trip for the boys was definitely skimboarding!! Despite the weather being fairly chilly, they were out there skimboarding as often as possible!

Emerson had some fun playing on the beach too...

I thought this was such a cool picture of Aunt Jenny coming out of the fog on the beach

Aunt Jenny and Hudson making sea monsters out of seaweed and shells..so clever!

Ice cream in Ocean Shores...YUM!

what's better than sitting by the campfire in your PJs???

I love this picture!!

Stu may have had the most fun of all of us while on the beach!! He loved running around and in and out of the waves!

Awesome skimboarding moves

and some more...

Yup, Matt joined the action too!

and Stu tried to keep up with them riding their boards!!

Kelp wars!

and that was our trip to the Washington Coast.

Next up... MONTANA!!

summer vacations, part 2 of 3.

2011-09-12T13:42:00.000-07:00

Hudson celebrated his 8th birthday!!

He received a GIANT teddy bear from his brother and loves snuggling with Ted.

Papa came up to celebrate too!! 8 great years!!

The morning of Hudson's birthday they started soccer camp. They had an awesome week of Sounders camp and on the last day we headed to Desert Aire to spend the weekend with our good friends. We left the Dad's at home but the kids had a blast swimming for hours, watching movies, playing in the river and even trying their hand at poker! (ha!)

The boys built an awesome raft at the river and had fun riding it and rebuilding it for hours!

we were home for 2 days and then we headed off with another of our favorite families to go camping at Icicle Creek in Leavenworth, WA. We try to make it an annual trip and I'm so glad we do!! We had so much fun! This was Emerson's first camping trip of the season and she did fantastic!!
both of the boys learned how to chop wood. Mom may have been a little nervous (especially since her dad split his foot open with an axe as a kid) but we all survived it, and they had fun and yet, they were super cautious.

Apparently camping is hard work when you're 2

Emerson, Hudson and Berkley loving the hammock!!

The kids even got to do a little scrambling. No rock climbing gear this year, last year the kids were a little scared of climbing the big wall so this year they just played around.

The weather was great (as usual) so the kids got lots of time to cool off in Icicle Creek.

Hudson and Mom in the hammock...

Hudson learned how to build a fire all by himself this year. I must say, he did an awesome job!!

More hammock fun... Berkley & Camden

Emerson LOVED the hammock! She asked to lay in there as often as she could.

Her other favorite pastime was snuggling up on mom & dad's bed. Sometimes she'd look at books, sometimes just lay with her blankie.

Matt took all the boys fishing and they had a blast!

Hey look! They even caught something!! YEAH!!!

That's a successful fishing trip!!

We had 2 more spectacular trips but I'll have to write them on another post. My blog time is up and this is probably getting long. Stay tuned for the Washington Coast camping trip and Montana roadtrip!!

our vacation to Bend, OR

2011-07-19T14:00:00.000-07:00

We just got back from a fabulous week spent near Bend, OR at Eagle Crest Resort.
We rented a great townhouse with our friends, the Breiwicks and the Filions. The weather wasn't quite as warm as we had hoped, but was still MUCH better than the weather at home!! We enjoyed weather in the 70's every day.
Our townhome was a block from the pool & splash park and also a great little pond that the kids had fun playing around.
Here are some pics from our vacation, in no particular order.

Emerson playing with the sage brush in the back yard.

a little photo shoot we did by the pond. just for fun...

I can't think of a park or trip we've been on where I don't have a picture of Hudson climbing something!

Emerson and Ben watching a movie together (or maybe just watching each other)

Emerson and Bergen playing around in the condo.

Family photo on our beautiful hike around Smith Rock. This was taken before a huge rain/hail storm hit!

never know what you might find at Smith Rock!

I just think this area is so beautiful!

Matt and Emerson climbing around

my climber again...

our family picture AFTER the rain and hail storm.

Emerson after the rain...

Camden relaxing in a cave...cooling off (obviously before the rain)

The Deschutes running through the park.

Smith Rock after the rain. amazing how quickly the weather can change!

The best smore ingredients ever! If you haven't tried it, you should!!

Hudson eating smores!

Almost all of the kids in front of the fly shop in Sisters, OR

Camden standing under the buckets at the splash park.

our favorite pastime in Bend... innertubing on the Deschutes!! SO much fun!! this trip we didn't get to go as much due to the weather being cooler, but it was just as fun!

Camden innertubing...

Camden freezing his bottom off after innertubing.

We got to meet up with some of our other friends who were vacationing down there at the same time. We had dinner together (all 26 of us) and walked around Bend. Here are the kids in front of the candy store.

Emerson & Ben in the kiddie pool. Emerson loved it and talked about it every morning when she woke up. she even made up her own hand motion to indicate 'swimming'.

Matt & Kevin took a night to go down to the Crooked River for an evening fishing trip and Camden decided to join him. He had a lot of fun and even caught a fish!!

Playing in the splash park...brrrrr!

pool time

the boys being thrown towards each other so they can 'high five' in the air!

Wow! that was a lot of pictures!! there's our trip in a nutshell...
onto the next adventures... happy summer!

2 weeks of summer vacation under our belts...

2011-07-08T13:19:00.000-07:00

our first outing of the summer was 2 days on Whidbey Island with Jen, Taylor & Kadyn. We had so much fun and the weather, although not super sunny, was perfect.
First, the ferry ride...

The the walks on the beach finding all sorts of sea creatures, shells, etc

We found starfish...

Emerson enjoyed filling her bucket...mostly with rocks. She wasn't too interested in touching a crab or any other moving thing for that matter.

She did enjoy playing the drums with the driftwood...

On one of our 2 beach walks we got incredibly close, within 30 feet of a beautiful bald eagle. It was so cool to see it so close!

if you look closely, you can see it sitting on the rock and you can see how close the kids were to him (it). so cool!

all of the kids (minus Emerson who was in the backpack)

The kids spent hours building forts in front of the house that we stayed at. what a blast!

The sunset was the most incredible sunset I've seen in a long time!! The colors were unreal!! and the reflection on the houses to the east was even pretty.

This was probably close to 9:15 or 9:30 at night. what a gorgeous night!

We have taken several walks to an ant hill that we discovered in our neighborhood! Its about a mile round trip and Camden in particular wants to go every day! It's pretty incredible to see the thousands of ants crawling around!

We had a fun and safe 4th of July! We went to the Bothell parade and then we went to our friends house for the evening and the kids had a blast with the fireworks and friends!!

I loved this picture! Looks like something out of a movie!! they love the smoke bombs!

Emerson wasn't sure what to think about the fireworks. She was pretty afraid at first but then seemed to get used to it. she was making the funniest "ooooh" faces!

That's it for now. Onto the next summer adventures...

School's out for the summer!!

2011-06-27T14:45:00.000-07:00

Summer's out and we at the Brown house couldn't be any happier about it!!
We have tons of fun summer plans and tons of pajama days planned as well... a good mix I think. I'll let you know in a few months how it all went.
Here is Emerson on her birthday (forgot to post this earlier) but she loves her new stroller! she has so much fun pushing her babies around in it!

Here is the day before school got out breakfast with Emie. She slept through breakfast almost the entire year but I think with it getting lighter in the morning, she's up and at em early!!

The day before school got out, Hudson's beloved beta fish, appropriately named "Beta", died. He was a slightly neglected fish, Matt might say extremely neglected fish, but Hudson bought him when he was in preschool. He had some money burning a hole in his pocket and one day said, "mom, will you take me to the pet store? I want to buy a fish" and so we did. and Beta came home with us. Matt suggested flushing him down the toilet, but Hudson preferred a proper burial. And so we did. A burial complete with tombstone.

Here are some first day of school pics followed by the last day of school pics. Fun to see how they've changed in the past 9 months.
Hudson first day

The 3 of them on the first day

Camden's First Day

Camden's last day

The 3 on the last day of school

Hudson's last day

These days Emerson is most of the time goofy and fun with a big smile on her face and happy as a clam. However, since turning 2, she definitely has some stronger opinions about getting the answer she doesn't want to hear. here are a few of Emerson's faces...
goofy

contemplative

the "someone just told me no" face

some summer fun... here is our start to summer...

Emerson and her buddy Ben with dueling lawn mowers

coloring on the deck under the tent Dad built for them.

painting outside on a sunny day!

maybe Emerson's idea of UGG boots? slippers and a summer dress? I guess she knows what's cool.

Camden and Hudson dueling...

Lastly, Emerson's new favorite pastime.... the trampoline! She can't get enough of it and now asks for it by pumping her fists up and down. she loves it!

HAPPY SUMMER VACATION!!

Emerson's 2nd Birthday, Etc...

2011-06-12T20:21:00.000-07:00

Emerson is 2!! It's so hard for me to believe! I decided a few weeks ago to make cake pops for Emerson's birthday despite the fact that I had no recipe and no plans for a party. So here goes...
I found a recipe for lemon cake online that sounded good so I started with that. Then I made the chocolate cake off the back of the hershey's cocoa box. I then made a lemon buttercream frosting and a vanilla buttercream frosting and after crumbling my perfectly nice looking cakes... I added their respective frostings to make it almost a dough consisitency. Emerson is such a great helper!! She helped clean the mixer paddles!

Then I started rolling...and rolling...and rolling... I had no idea how many it would make... I believe the final count was 80!

Emerson found this part a little boring... so she found ways to entertain herself...

Then came the dipping.

First you dip the stick, place it into the ball, then chill for 5 minutes. Then you you dip the entire ball... and voila... a cake pop!

We had a little party for Emerson the night before her actual birthday. We got out the giant bubble wands and blew lots of bubbles, the little kids played, the big kids played, we ate hot dogs cake pops!

Happy birthday to the sweetest little girl!! We love you Emerson DeLynn and had so much fun celebrating with you!

Memorial Day Weekend

2011-05-31T14:12:00.001-07:00

We had a great memorial day weekend!

We were lucky enough to spend 2 nights at our friend's cabin and then had a little BBQ.

Somehow I did not get a single picture of the BBQ, but lots of pictures of us hiking.

We went on a 1-1/2 hour, 3/4 mile hike to deception falls The kids had a blast! we went down every little side trail (which may have increased it to a mile or maybe even a mile and a half) t

Matt let the kids drink out of the water where he felt it was safe to do so...

of course, Emerson wanted to follow suit...

While I stayed at the cabin while Emerson napped, most of the others (including Matt and the dog and kids) walked to the river near the cabin where the road had washed out from the bad flooding earlier this spring. The dog (and the kids) had a blast playing near, and falling in, the river.

a great weekend was had by all.
thank you to the knibbes for having us at your lovely "knabbin"

Matt's birthday, sunny day and soccer

2011-05-24T20:26:00.001-07:00

Thursday was another gorgeous day!! It was so warm on the deck we got the kiddie pool out! We had our friends Holly, Brooke & baby Skylar came over and played in the kiddie pool.

Emerson was a bit cranky, not sure what her deal was, but I thought I better get a picture of it. She was super sensitive for some reason, but they still had fun and Holly and I enjoyed the heat!

On Friday before Matt's birthday we went out to birthday coffee (just Matt and I and our little tagalong). We got to try cake pops for the first time. Mine was tiramisu, Matt's was rocky road. They were pretty good, but I think I can do better. We'll see. I think I've been inspired enough to make them someday soon.

For Matt's birthday we went to dinner at Purple in Woodinville. One of our favorite restaurants. We usually don't take the kids, the last time they went was for my birthday dinner a couple of years ago. The kids think its pretty cool though because they have wine flights that you can order and for kids they have milk flights...with 4 wine glasses of different types of milk... caramel, plain, chocolate & strawberry. What a treat!! Papa joined us for the evening and Emerson helped open presents.

This morning Emerson was eating raspberries for breakfast and thought it was funny to stick them on the ends of her fingers. She also thought it was funny that she was eating a raspberry, but also has a raspberry on her tummy (her birthmark) so she decided to put her raspberry on her raspberry. She laughed and laughed about that one!

It doesn't seem like these videos are going to work, but I'm giving it a try. Here are some cute little videos of Emerson doing various things...

the past few days...

2011-05-18T20:31:00.000-07:00

the weekend started out with Matt needing stitches. Yes, another injury!! This time it was chainsaw vs knee. the chainsaw won and Matt ended up with 15 stitches. :(

The weather was awesome and despite the injury Matt was able to seed our soon to be front lawn! Looking so forward to that!

When the weather is nice the boys are outside constantly!!
Their current pastimes are swinging, 2 man baseball and lacrosse catch.

They started this new thing where they swing with their eyes shut and 'race' to the top. when one of them yells "open" they open their eyes to see who is swinging higher. They laugh and laugh and laugh! I tried it and found that I cannot swing with my eyes shut! It makes me horribly dizzy! Maybe that's why they're laughing so hard!

And my "swing therapy" took two days! and now the issue is that she never wants to get off the swing!! Yesterday she was swinging for 1/2 an hour!! every 5 minutes I said "are you ready to get down?" and she grunted and indicated that she was not done and wanted to be pushed yet again!

Emerson in her silly sunglasses.

Hudson giving it his all trying to catch the lacrosse ball.

Emerson has recently taken an interest in the phone. She wants to talk to whoever is on the other end and if in the right mood, she'll "talk" for 5 minutes or more. It's so funny to watch her hold the phone and have a conversation (with no words of course)

Uh-oh! Is Emerson thinking she's clever enough to get out of her crib?! I hope not!! Hudson was 18 months when he started crawling out of his, Camden was in his crib until two and a half and never dreamt of crawling out. I'm hoping she doesn't figure it out (or fall out) any time soon!

2011-05-13T12:46:00.000-07:00

Today we ran errands. We went to McLendons to buy paint for the boys bedroom and a few little annuals to plant in my one little pot. Then we went to the grocery store to buy strawberries for a strawberry cake I'm making for tonight. Lastly, to Target. Emerson is almost out of detangler so we had to buy more. It's hard to believe I'm buying hair products for a 1 year old, but without them we would not be able to get a brush through her hair!

I ate lunch by myself out on the deck and listened to the woodpecker peck, the hummingbird hum, the song birds song and the swallows swallow. I feel like I live in a bird sanctuary! It sounds so beautiful out there! I only wish I could recognize all of the bird songs. I want to know which song goes to which bird. I've got about 1/2 of them mastered, but still have a ways to go.

Here is a picture of the hummingbird I see daily. He always sits on the same branch.

After school Camden wanted to take Emerson out in the mud. I thought it was so sweet. He's such an awesome big brother!

After the mud excursion, we moved the furniture that has been on the front porch to the new deck. It looks great and its so nice to have some real furniture on the deck! Our friends came over just in time and we enjoyed it until it got too cold out there. Emerson may have enjoyed it more than anyone! We sat down and she immediately pointed her finger at me and said (with no real words) "you stay there, I'll be right back" and ran into the house. I wondered what she was getting and when she came running back, it was one of our throw blankets. So perfect!

the kids played on the deck for hours! what a nice evening!

and here is the strawberry cream cake I made for dessert. yum :)

the weekend, "swing therapy", and one man baseball

2011-05-09T20:00:00.000-07:00

This weekend we had 2 soccer games... the Sharks (Hudson's team) and the Cheeto Puffs (Camden's team) Saturday was their first games of the season. Both started off the season with a loss, but both boys did an awesome job!! I was not able to attend Hudson's game this weekend so no pics of him, but here is one of Camden giving it his all.

I was blessed on mothers day with breakfast in bed (homemade cinnamon rolls, a mocha and eggs benedict.) we played a few games, lounged around the house, planted a few things in the garden, enjoyed the sun (when it peeked out from behind the clouds) and finished off the day by watching "Tangled". So thankful for my family!
Emerson's love for swings has diminished over the winter. Now she is completely afraid of swinging and doesn't enjoy it at all. She points to the swingset and I always say "swing?" and she shakes her head "no". Occasionally I throw her on the swing set to see what she'll do. Well, Today...we officially started "swing therapy". Every day that it is not raining, we are heading out to the swing set to swing for a moment or two. I'm not saying I'm going to force her to like swinging... but rather try to convince her that it really is fun... and remind her that she used to love it. So... my goal is to see her face change from frowns and crying to happy smiles... like last summer. I figured that seeing others having fun on the swings may help too. I'll keep you updated on our progress.

Once today's "swing therapy session" was over... she headed to the T-ball stand. She played the most awesome game of one man baseball I've ever seen! She got that ball up on the stand...
gave it a good whack...
ran as fast as she could to go get it...
ran it back to home plate...
and placed the ball again!
It looked like so much fun that Hudson decided to give it a try!
and that's what we did today.

Tractors and Dirt

2011-05-06T14:14:00.001-07:00

This week we got several truckloads of dirt, trying to get our front yard level enough to bring in some topsoil and yes, plant some grass. after 5 years here we are working on our front yard! So Matt spent the majority of the day out on his tractor moving dirt around.

A couple of weekends ago Matt built me some new raised beds for our vegetable garden in a new location so today he not only moved the fill dirt but got a load of topsoil and moved that around too.

Emerson loved watching Daddy ride the tractor out the front window. But after a little while I thought, we can do better than that! So Matt took her on a little tractor ride. She wasn't sure at first but at the end she didn't want to get off. She loved her first tractor ride!

Our friends and neighbors Holly, Brooke & baby Skylar came over today to visit for a little while. Although Emerson still has very few words, she made it quite clear that she wanted Brooke to come sit in the chair and read a book with her. It was pretty sweet, the two of them sitting there together.

Yes, I'm going to try the blogging thing again...

2011-05-05T13:35:00.000-07:00

I think part of the problem was it always felt like there was so much to catch up on that I couldn't possibly write it all one day. But now I realize, that if I share just a little bit, here and there... that will be just fine. and maybe entertaining.

I figured I will try to do it at least 3-4 times a week with a simple entry of "what we did today"

So..today, a year and 3 months after my last post...

here is what we did today...

It's cinco de mayo! so Emerson and I decided to watch Handy Manny and learn a few spanish words. That lasted for approximately 30 seconds. Apparently, she is not so excited about learning spanish or watching Handy Manny. Oh well, we tried.

My friend Kathryn came over and we made my new favorite sausage... homemade turkey sausage. It was delicious! how do I know? well, we cooked up several patties...just to make sure it was all right :) YUM!!

Tonight we'll celebrate with some yummy Mexican food and friends!!

HAPPY CINCO DE MAYO!!

2010 so far... (and the tail end of 2009)

2010-02-09T08:54:00.000-08:00

Here are a few highlights from our past few months...

Camden finished off his 2nd year of fall soccer with his team the Goldstrikers!

They won a couple of games this season! Matt loved coaching the team and his assistant coach was another Matt. They had a good time!!

We took a trip to Arizona. We visited Grandma Vicky and Aunt Jenny. We swam every day, Emerson napped by the pool every day and....

we got to check out a new restaurant (new to us) called Joe's Farm Grill. It was featured on "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" one of our favorite Food network shows. The food is almost all grown on a farm right there, what they don't grow, they buy locally. It was delicious!! If you're ever near Chandler, AZ, you should check it out!! We liked it so much that we had dinner there one night, and went back for lunch the next day!! My favorite was the Fontina Burger! they also had amazing onion rings!

The boys have gained a few new chores... including... bringing the garbage cans up from the cul-de-sac. They impress me...that's a long way to carry garbage cans, even if they're empty!

Matt took a friend on his first fly-fishing excursion on the Snohomish River on a 12 degree morning in December. It was so beautiful, but so cold that the rocks were freezing to the flies!!...and the rod!

We decorated for our house with hand cut snowflakes...Emerson loved them!
Emerson and Stu are getting to know each other. So far, they seem to like each other :)

Hudson got a camera for Christmas and took some amazing pictures! He took this one on a walk around the neighborhood the day after Christmas. He loves taking pictures!
We visited Bellevue's Snowflake Lane. What a fun production!! This was our third year, we love this new tradition.

We rooted the Cougars on to Victo....oops, not a victory this year, but we still root for the Crimson and Gray!
Emerson is getting her first experience with Legos. We figured we'd start her early. She gets to chew on the big pieces and can't quite get to the smaller ones yet. I know, soon...she'll be crawling and life for all of us will change drastically!
Emerson is enthralled with people's faces. If you can't pick your brother's nose, whose nose can you pick??

We got a little bit farther in decorating the nursery. We hung her initials on the wall and put up a couple of pics of Emerson with her adoring brothers.
Hudson loves to entertain Emerson. I loved walking in on this scene!
Emerson started eating solid foods. I've been told that when trying to feed a baby I tend to open my mouth... apparently the rumors are true! Emerson is enjoying yams and butternut squash so far. I love making her food for her!
This is one of Emerson's new poses. We call it "Covergirl" She cracks us up with her new moves every day!
Emerson is now 8 months old and can sit up all by herself!! She is trying and trying to crawl but thus far...has found herself scooching backwards much more efficiently than forwards and is able to get up on all fours, but can't quite crawl. I bet it will only be a few more days or weeks and she'll be mobil! YIKES!
Well, I think that's about it for now. from my irregular blogger world...goodbye 2009! Hello 2010! :)

Catching up...

2009-10-10T14:47:00.000-07:00

Well, we've had a busy couple of months... I always think, "oh next time I'll update my blog weekly!" but...alas that may never happen.....

(written 3 weeks ago...)It is so hard to believe that Emerson is 4 months old! a third of her first year of life is over? I am enjoying her so much! I don't want her to grow up too fast! Here are a few pics of her in the past week. She is growing and changing so fast! She is smiling all of the time, she even has a little laugh (usually only if she's being tickled). She has so many rolls on her legs I've lost track... as you can see in the first picture, her cheeks aren't small either :)

She spends lots of time with a furrowed brow. If not smiling, this is the face I see most of the time. very contemplative. But as the days go by, she is smiling more and more.

Also, since my last post we "did the Puyallup" We had a great time riding rides, looking at animals, the adults thoroughly enjoyed people watching and eating fair food and lots of it!!

Here is Hudson coming down the "Giant Slide" all by himself!

Emerson tried out a few new seating options in the past month...

the johnny jump-up...which she seems to like a lot. She doesn't have a clue what she's doing, but she ends up spinning herself around so her environment keeps changing and she doesn't get bored :)
Matt gives her 'spa treatments' when he clips her fingernails or gives her a bath, he always says to her "are you enjoying your spa day?"
Hudson is enjoying school...a lot!! He wrote this up on the chalkboard one day, just because.

Here is Emerson in another new seat of hers... this is her 'bumbo' seat. She likes it, but it takes her some work to keep herself upright. Recently she is liking it better as her neck gets stronger and stronger.

We went to our favorite pumpkin patch, Craven Farms in Snohomish. The kids had a ball playing in the corn and we picked out a couple of pumpkins. It's always fun to run around and try to find the perfect pumpkin...and snap a few pumpkin photos along the way...

Then came the pumpkin carving... Emerson...well, Emerson...slept right through it.

But the boys had a fun time carving and pulling the guts out.

I meticulously separated all of the seeds and as I write this I realize they never got roasted. How sad!!

And for those of you who made it ALL the way to the end of this...

Here is a video of Emerson's first giggle. Not only was it caught on video, but she has only done it one other time!! We had so much fun listening to her!! Only caught a bit on video, but well worth it! and of all the things to make her laugh... it was a cough!

Emerson is 11 weeks old!

2009-08-24T19:52:00.000-07:00

Well, its been a busy month and a half!
We've had lots of fun and have been adjusting well to life with a little one.

She has always smiled for us in her sleep (as pictured below)...

but now we get awake smiles too! we can't get enough of them!! she was quite stingy with them at first, but is starting to give them out a bit more lately. She loves to be talked to and oogled at! She is such a good baby!! She has developed a little bit of a fussy time where she cries on and off for about an hour before bed some nights. But other than that we don't typically hear her cry. She is now sleeping 6-7 hours at night. Not too bad.
Did I mention that when she smiles she's ALL IN!! She gets her whole body into it and squinches up those little eyes... and even shows us her gums!
This is the other sweet little face we get. Docile, sweet, furrowed brow, sometimes she looks concerned, sometimes she has the look, "what on earth are you talking about??" she keeps us entertained with her faces for sure!
In July she survived the hottest day EVER recorded in Seattle! I heard 2 different temperatures here in Woodinville, 105 and 107. In my car it said 118!! Thank goodness it wasn't really that hot! Emerson is usually extrememly cold and even in the warmest of temperatures I keep her in long sleeves and pants. But for 2 days, she was happy wearing just a diaper. We finally found a way to warm her up!! 100 degrees!! And she even got to dip her teeny tiny toes in the neighbor's pool. Of course, even with a hat on it was too bright for her to open her eyes so she had no idea what was going on!
Here she was taking a nap on the ottoman in her diaper. The boys enjoyed cooling off too!! Great way to beat the heat, and spend time with their good buddies!
Hudson turned 6!! We had a 'movie' party for him. He was surrounded by all of his favorite little buddies. they played outside for a little while, then watched their movie and ate popcorn, then they went outside to open presents and eat cake just in time for it to rain!! it wasa probably 85 degrees and raining! strange weather! but the kids had fun running around and playing in the rain too!!
Here is Hudson on his birthday morning. For breakfast he wanted a Maltby Cafe cinnamon roll. As you can see, it is the size of a birthday cake!!
Here is Emerson, all dressed up in her party dress for Hudson's birthday party. Unfortunately, I don't think she'll remember any of it...she slept through the entire party!
Right after Hudson's 6th birthday, he got to visit the ER for the second time in one month! the first time he split his forehead open, just above his eyebrow. The second time, it was his chin. He says that he'll wait until he's 7 to go back, but when he's 7, the thinks he'd like to try a broken bone. then he laughs. I do not.
Emerson got a towel from her great aunt Pat that had her name embroidered on it! How cute is she wrapped up in her sweet towel? and I think that's even a smile... she likes her little towel!
the boys have continued their weekly hikes, they have only done one repeat, the rest have all been new locations and they've had a great time on each and every trip!! here are a few pics of their hikes...one of their hikes was even an overnighter! They backpacked in with their tents and everything and got to camp out in the real wildnerness!!!
here they are with packs on...with our friends the Knibbes! What a great trip they had!!
When they're not hiking, they find plenty of thing to entertain themselves with! they love to dress up with random things and make costumes out of all sorts of things!!
Another great summer activity... Camden has been cooking. He loves to cook and on one of our nice warm days, he made peanut butter ice cream sandwiches! they were absolutely delicious!!!
We took Emerson to her first Mariners game this month! She seemed to enjoy herself :) the boys and I certainly enjoyed eating kettlekorn and garlic fries(the gift that keeps on giving)!

The boys are enjoying 'playing' with their little sister. they think she's pretty cool!! Most of the time they're laughing at her funny faces and funny body movements...
Sometimes they're laughing because they've put her hood up on her hoodie and Matt makes up rap songs about stealing milk from the milk bank... and being a gangster. It makes the boys laugh so hard!!The boys each painted a tulip picture for Emerson's room. I thought it would be fun if they got to help decorate and they loved doing it! I'll post pictures of the paintings hanging in her bedroom next time.

Just playing on the floor... she loves to lay on her back and kick her legs and her arms look like she's boxing.
Here is Emerson (in the shade) but enjoying the outdoors. It was 80 so she wasn't too cold :)
Our most recent outing was a trip to the Locks in Seattle to listen to Grandpa Kenny's band, the Tempos. We had a few friends join us and had a good time. It was a beautiful day and great music!! Camden holding Emerson at the Locks.

Emerson is 1 month old!

2009-07-11T14:16:00.000-07:00

Emerson turned a month old on the 10th of July! Hard to believe a month has gone by already, but in other regards, it seemed as though we were in the hospital for a month...

Life at home has been great! The boys are thoroughly enjoying her... Hudson decided to eat his lunch as close to her as possible...

The boys ask to hold her about every other day...

Her first bath at home.. we decided to wash her in the bathroom sink. she's so tiny it worked quite well.

Matt takes her on field trips around the house... this was learning about chores, namely...taking the garbage out.

this is Emerson and I on her first 4th of July! We spent a fun evening at our friends, the Anderson's home. They had a block party and the kids had a ball. Emerson didn't seem to mind the fireworks, although there were no big ones.

The night before the 4th, just as we were getting ready for bed Hudson fell off of our bed, hit his head on the nightstand and had to go to the ER for stitches! Matt and he did not get home until 1am!! he got 1 stitch inside and 3 outside. He is such a brave and tough kid! He said that getting the numbing shots was really hard, but that getting the stitches was FUN!!

Matt and Camden enjoying Emerson, and discussing her little tiny parts.

here are just a few fun pictures I've taken of her since we've been home...

this picture was taken the day before she turned one month old and this was the widest we'd ever seen her eyes! we couldn't believe she had them open so big! it was nighttime and very dark, which apparently made her happy, but we were so impressed!! she rarely opens her eyes!!

her nursery is coming together. I had decided to do her room in tulips and had this idea to plant tulips in a planter. a couple of friends bought me the planter (the one that I had envisioned using) I ordered the tulips online, and my mom arranged them for me! she did a great job! I certainly couldn't have done it without her!

and lastly, here are a couple pictures of the boys on their Friday fishing/hiking outings! Matt has been taking them fishing and hiking every Friday! They are LOVING it! They leave in the morning and are usually not home until 6:00! Camden caught his first big fish, but didn't quite land it. but it was exciting for sure! what a great tradition Matt has started. I'm so thankful that my kids have such an amazing dad!!

until next time...

Emerson DeLynn Brown has arrived!!

2009-06-27T12:53:00.001-07:00

She's here!! 5 and a half weeks early, totally unexpected, quite the birth story, 5 lbs, 5 ounces, 17-3/4" long, 2 weeks in the NICU, and now... we've made it home!!!

I'll get you caught up to speed...
here is me, 34 weeks, last picture of me pregnant (minus laying in the hospital bed after my water broke)

at 2:10am on the morning of June 10th, I was awaken by a flood! My water had broken! I was a little scared for the baby, because 34 weeks is a little early for a healthy full term baby. But we called our friend Corrine to come over to watch the boys, then we headed off the the hospital. Since Hudson was born in 52 minutes from the time we arrived at the hospital, we were expressing to the staff that this baby was probably coming fast!! Well... apparently little "Lu" had different plans. at 7:00am I was only dilated to 4cm and she was still not ready to come. But I was given an epideral by 3:30am so I was pretty content...as you can see in the picture. This picture was taken before everything turned from calm to chaos!

by 9:50am I was dilated to a 7. Shortly after that the contractions got stronger and much closer. I also felt fluid gushing (sorry if that's t.m.i) and assumed it was more amniotic fluid. as it turned out I was hemorrhaging! as soon as this was discovered the panic began! baby's heart rate fell to 60 and the nurse hit the emergency button, rushed to the door and started yelling for anyone and everyone to help! I instantly had an oxygen mask on, and afraid for the baby, I breathed as deeply as I could, thinking that if I breathed deeply that I could help her. I tried to stay as calm as possible, just breathing and praying. within about 2 minutes they were moving me to a gurney and wheeling me to the OR. They said that if things had stabilized when we got down there that I may be able to try to deliver the baby myself, but otherwise we were going to have to do a c-section. Things didn't stabilize and within 4 minutes of being in the OR they had knocked me out (they didn't have time to do anything else so they had to give me general anesthesia) The last thing I heard before I was knocked out was the doctor saying "Let me know as soon as I can cut!" within the next 30 seconds, before I was even intubated, Emerson was born! She was okay! phew! She had swallowed some blood and was having a bit of a hard time breathing, but she was okay. She was still taken up to the NICU (neo-natal intensive care unit) and after the doctor assured Matt that I was okay, he followed them up there.

I woke up in recovery an hour or so later and the first words I heard were "your baby is okay" what a relief! It was such a scary time!!
This picture is me meeting her for the first time, 9 hours after her birth!! I was recovering from the general anesthesia and on morphine so it was nearly impossible to keep my eyes open. Everyone was quite entertained by my lack of ability to open them. So it is not for glamour, but for laughs that I put this photo in here!

Since the baby was supposed to be born after Julie had gone back to Belgium, it was a nice surprise that she got to meet her and even spend a few evenings with her!

the next morning I got to hold her for the first time, and attempt nursing her. They hadn't given her any food due to the blood in her system and having to pump her stomach. I was so excited! Since I'd missed the birth of her, I sort of felt like I was just in the hospital recovering from surgery, until I was able to hold her that morning! It just sort of put all the pieces together! I was thrilled!

I was upset, to the point of tears, when after 1 hour of holding her they told me it was time to put her back in the incubator! I thought "how can these people tell me when I can hold my baby and when I can't!" But, I grew to understand their reasoning behind everything.

at one day old she was stable enough to be moved to an incubator. Hudson loved sticking his hand in the little hole and touching her. He had his own little door to her world. It was so sweet!

this was the first piece of clothing they put on her, probably day 2 or 3.

This was the last picture we took before her feeding tube went in, on day 4.

Life in the box... here she spent the next week of her life...

The boys got to visit several times during our stay. They loved holding her and touching her and kissing her.

after I was discharged from the hospital on Saturday, I moved in with Emerson. I was so thankful to have a NICU that had private rooms! It was amazing to be able to stay with her 24/7! That was not always the plan, I originally thought I'd go home at night, but she was nursing so well that it didn't make sense to leave for half of her feedings. So... I stayed.

Life in the NICU...
We had 2 movie nights with the boys while we were there. Matt brought dinner and a movie. It was a fun family evening.

Her door... fully decked out... Hudson made a sign that you probably can't read but it said "I love Emerson She Rocks Love, Hudson (Her big brother)" It was so sweet! then each of the boys filled in a little sign the hospital gave them and a craft nurse made the girly one in the middle. They also took her picture and made a fathers day card to hang on the door too!! so decorated!

Here we are doing some skin-on-skin time. This was a great way to bond, but also great to get her temperature up. For the first 10 days or so, she struggled to keep her temperature high enough. Matt and I both got to do the skin on skin time and loved it :)

We had a couple of "blow outs" that shocked the nurses! apparently she can really poop! that's not very lady like! but, she impressed them all! the first one in the incubator, the second all over the wall!! I had to take pictures! I knew it would impress some of the boys in her world! :)

a picture of her room, well, half of her room... the other half was the bathroom, my bed and the cabinets, tv, etc...

if you look closely, you'll see that her feeding tube is now on the other side of her nose. Yes, she pulled it out, not once, but twice! it was awful watching them put it back in again and again! :(

Her first 'real' bath...feeding tube is GONE!! this was the day before we got to go home! 13 days old!

Blowing kisses to his little sister

her carseat test, given the night before we left, to make sure she could breathe okay for 1 hour in her seat. passed! phew!

Getting ready to walk out the door... I mean, RUN...before they changed their minds!

WELCOME TO THE WORLD LITTLE MISS EMERSON! This was moments before we walked out the door into the REAL WORLD!! :)

San Francisco

2009-05-20T14:23:00.000-07:00

Here are some photos from our trip to San Francisco! We had a great time with my Aunt Diane and Uncle Del! They are wonderful hosts and my kids are convinced that Uncle Del is the best cook on the planet! He does make some pretty darn good food! :)
We spent 2 days in the city of SF showing Julie the sights and enjoying them ourselves. We definitely took a more slow pace this time around since I had a fair amount of pain, but we still managed to see tons of sights!

this is one of my favorite pictures... this is a GORGEOUS, CLEAR picture of the golden gate bridge! Isn't it lovely? well, that's about the most we saw of it the whole time we were there! We've caught it on a good day before, but Julie didn't get to see it. We were bummed it never showed itself. (but seriously, if you look closely enough and use your imagination you can almost see it!)

Here is Lombard Street (the crookedest street in the world!) This was looking back up at it after we drove down it.

Here is another picture of the foggy conditions with Coit Tower in the background and the beautiful tree lined street!

Here are the boys in front of "Postcard Row" or the famous painted ladies. There is a great park across the street that we played at for a while.

If you've never heard of the Stinking Rose, it is a famous restaurant in little Italy that is a "garlic restaurant" It's a good thing we ALL ate there because then we didn't notice each others horrific garlic breath! It was delicious and garlicky!!! As you can see on their sign, it says they season their garlic with food :)

We spent some time at China Beach, which on a clear day, has a beautiful view of the Golden Gate bridge, but it was still a great beach for the boys to play on, got to watch a few surfers (through the fog) and enjoyed the ocean!

A trip to San Francisco isn't complete without a visit to Ghiradelli square! We enjoyed some amazing hot fudge sundaes! YUMMMMMM!!

The Hard Rock Cafe ...just a photo opp :)

We spent a little time walking around Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39.... looking in the shops, checking out the 100's of sea lions and looking at Alcatrez.

No trip, anywhere...in our family, is complete without a trip to Starbucks. I thought this was a cool picture... just Camden drinking his 'latte' at Starbucks in San Fran.

The highlight of Julie's trip, and I think the boys enjoyed it too... was the Cable Cars! We rode it for about 40 minutes. It was fun, Hudson held on for dear life, and Camden wanted to be hanging off the edge... there sure are some steep hills!!!

on our second day in the city we had lunch at the Boudin sourdough bread factory. Mmmm... clam chowder in a sour dough bread bowl. so San Francisco!

That's it in a nutshell. We spent lots of time at my aunt and uncles eating, playing the wii and enjoying company too, but didn't seem to get the camera out for any of that :)

28 weeks!!!

2009-04-23T10:22:00.001-07:00

Well, here is a few pics of me at 28 weeks prego! of course, taken by Hudson, photographer extraordinaire!

Check-up went well. Had my glucose test today to see if I have gestational diabetes. I should find out next week the results of that.
Last week I had another ultrasound at Philips. They got some cool 3D pictures. Here are a few, you may have to be creative to figure out what they are, but the first one is the baby looking over its shoulder.

Matt thinks these picture are a little 'creepy' and I might agree that it is sort of strange to see the baby in 3D, but I still enjoy seeing Lu regardless :)
here is one that I thought Matt would like, check out those biceps!!!

This week we also started soccer! This is Camden's 4th soccer team/season and Hudson's first. Hudson decided the day before it started that he would like to play. I'm so glad he decided to because he loves it! Tonight is practice #2 so we'll see how he does today, but last week he was a go-getter! He aims to please and tried his darndest to be the fastest kid on his team! He also loves the gear... gee, I wonder where he gets that? Maybe his Dad???

Hudson instituted a new tradition he wanted to start. He calls it "Daddy and Hudson Hiking Day"
So his plan was that every Friday while Camden was at school, He and his Daddy would go hiking. I thought this was precious!! Matt loves hiking so was excited for the opportunity to spend the day with his little buddy!
Here are a few pics from their first hike.
Wallace Falls, WA
(any pictures that do not have Hudson in them were taken by Hudson himself)

after the hike, Hudson said he had a great time. He hiked 1.5 miles, mostly running, then was carried about a mile and the rest of the way did a pretty good job. He did decide when he got home that he wanted to change it from EVERY Friday to every other Friday.

My dad and Marilyn came over for dinner last week and earlier in the day Matt had cut down a few trees. He had cut it up into small logs and Hudson discovered that they made cool sounds when hit by a smaller stick. Hudson decided it would be fun to make a little band, so Grandpa, Camden and Hudson had a little jam session.

ALOHA!

2009-04-14T19:32:00.000-07:00

Well, we've been back from Maui long enough to have had our tans peel off and fade, but here is our trip in a nutshell...maybe a giant nutshell, but a nutshell.

Our typical day looked something like this...
6:00-6:30am wake up (the boys couldn't quite make the switch to Hawaii time so we made up our own time zone somewhere between Seattle and Hawaii, which is a 3 hour difference)
7:00 Boys wrote in their journal about the previous day. Hudson enjoyed this part so much it was the first thing he asked to do when he woke up the morning... a whisper in my ear "mom, can I go get a pen and my journal?"

7:30-8:00 breakfast in our condo. which consisted of cereal, maybe some scrambled eggs and fresh pineapple! Yum!!
9:00am daily trip to Starbucks where Julie and I enjoyed coconut lattes or coconut mocha frappucinos every morning! Camden made sure he didn't miss a day of a coconut iced milk and Hudson went between his usual and the hawaiian theme. Matt was only hassled a little for getting a dry cappucino every morning. We only hassled him because it seemed so .... well, unHawaiian! but I know it was a treat nonetheless.

10:00am back at the condo for the sunscreen hour! Its amazing how much time it takes to get the whole family sunscreened up for the day! and of course those spots that got burned the day before, well.. we had to pay extra attention to those and double coat them!
10:30 BEACH TIME!!!
Our beach time consisted of...
sunbathing (or trying to sunbathe when Hudson wasn't shaking his towel on you or climbing on you)

playing in the ocean waves...(one day we went to Big Beach to play in the big waves where you get smashed around a bit)

Skimboarding (Camden's favorite pastime!)

Sandcastle Building (Definitely one of Hudson's favorite pastimes...although trying to lay his towel out just so on the beach, w/o a grain of sand on it, while the wind was blowing..was a close second)

Snorkeling (everyone snorkeled and everyone enjoyed it! we saw so many beautiful fish and it was such an easy spot to get to we went 4 or 5 days!) We even got to see a sea turtle on our last day! It was so much fun!

and lastly on the beach, Hudson enjoyed laying in the waves with goggles on, waiting for the next big wave to come and send him floating up the beach. He'd just lay there and watch the sand and water around him as he was submerged in the water. Not my idea of fun, but definitely his!

12:30pm Lunchtime. We'd head back to the condo and make sandwiches, maybe some more fresh pineapple and get sunscreened up again!
I didn't get a picture of us eating lunch, so I decided to throw this picture in from the one day we had breakfast out, at a place called "the gazebo" we had pineapple, macadamia nut & banana pancakes with coconut syrup! they were delicious! and enormous too!

1:30 POOL TIME!!!

We spent each day from about 1:30-3 or 3:30 at the pool. We had a great pool with little waterfalls, a kiddie pool, lots of shallow areas for the kids and hot tub too. It was fabulous!!
one of the kids favorite things to do was sit on the edge of the hot tub. according to the rules of the pool, they were both old enough to go in, but it was pretty hot so I think it was more fun for them to just have their feet in it. With my sunburned feet, I couldn't even put my feet in!

3:30 or 4:00 get ready to go out for the evening.
4:30ish... We would head out and go shopping or walking and have dinner out (we did cook a few meals at home, but we enjoyed eating out too)
5:00pm dinnertime! Our favorite restaurant of the trip was Leilani's. the setting was beautiful, right on the boardwalk which was steps from the ocean. and they had wonderful fish tacos! here we are at Leilani's drinking virgin Lava Flows, Matt drinking some Hawaiian beer, i think. it was a great night!

6:30 or 7:00 head back to the condo for a 7:00ish bedtime for the boys. again, our modified time zone!
9:00-9:30 bedtime for me! I was exhausted by then!

We also enjoyed a road trip on the northernmost part of the island, which was beautiful. about 20 miles of a one lane road... not one lane each direction, a true one lane road, with hairpin turns about every 500 feet! I was glad Matt was behind the wheel, but it was a little unnerving. The kids thought we were going to die. Here are a few pictures from our roadtrip...

A good time was had by all! I can't wait until we can go back there again!!!

Aloha!

24 weeks is here (well, in a couple more days!)

2009-03-24T20:43:00.000-07:00

24 weeks and I'd say I look mighty pregnant now! Some days more than others, but this day particularly pregnant!

I went into Philips for another voluntary ultrasound and got a few pictures again. It's so cool to get to see the baby more than usual :)

on March 1st we took the boys skiing for the first time this year! We went to Stevens Pass and Hudson skied for his first time ever and Camden for his second time ever. The boys looked great and the loved it! Hudson said it was his favorite sport EVER!
Julie got to ski all day with our friend's daughter and was exhausted by the end of the day as well. It was great weather and great skiing (although I didn't ski so I wouldn't know first hand!)

This is Hudson's first trip on the chair lift, which he said was one of his favorite parts of skiing! ...and I thought he'd be afraid of it! HA!!

Here is a video of Hudson's first day on the ski hill.

We're off to Hawaii in 2 days so hopefully I'll have some fun pictures to share when we return!
Until then, Aloha!!!

19 weeks and fondue

2009-02-18T13:05:00.000-08:00

So... I am now 2 days away from 19 weeks! (what I'd consider half-way, since I have no intentions of carrying this baby to 40 weeks!)
We named the baby, although it is merely the unofficial, in-utero, name. We've had "little Bean" "Kicky" in the past. This time we've named the baby "Lu" or "Lou" just a fun little non-gender name to call the baby while its hanging out inside.
So here is the lovely belly picture...growing...growing...

Today I got to go to Philips (the company that makes the ultrasound equipment) and be a 'model' for their equipment. This means I not only get to see pictures of the baby, but they send me home with a nice CD of pictures and $25 (minus taxes of course)! I even had my first ever 4-D ultrasound picture. They said these are much better later on, but she showed me the capabilities and got a picture you'll see below of Lu in a boxing position, both hands in fists protecting it's little face.

They said I did a good job (whatever that means) so they will most likely have me come back for more pictures later on. I'm more than happy to see little Lu whenever I can! :)

We also enjoyed fondue 2x this month! once at the Melting Pot with Grandma Vicky and Julie and once at home on Valentines day!
the boys had so much fun with it, and of course, the chocolate was the highlight of it all!!

This sequence of Hudson playing with his food, was taken over about a 1 minute period...of which time he was completely oblivious to what was going on around him. Completely consumed by the chocolate on his fingers!

here are the pictures of the kids enjoying fondue at home on Valentines day. We had chocolate with bananas, strawberries, marshmallows and graham crackers. It was DELICIOUS!!

Also last week we got to go see the Lion King with a small group of friend that we meet with weekly! It was so cool!! What an amazing show!!

I have another ultrasound for sure on the 6th of March so I'll post more pictures then.

16 weeks and growing...

2009-02-03T09:58:00.000-08:00

This will be short and sweet but I wanted to post a picture of me at 16 weeks pregnant.
I think the growing has started ! and what better journey than to follow the ever exciting process of gaining pound after pound after pound!
the baby is almost 5" long from head to rump. Pretty amazing! And two days ago I felt it kick for the first time! It seems amazing that this little person is making him/herself known already!

photographer: Hudson

Happy New Year!!!!

2009-01-07T14:01:00.000-08:00

Well, again, its been a little while since I posted (okay, a long while), but maybe in the new year I'll do better, no promises though :)
Maybe I'll work backwards today...
New Years Eve we spent at Erik & Corrine's house with a few other friends. we rang in the New York new year at 9pm with the kids! we had fireworks and sparklers and very special drinks with pop rocks that Corrine came up with! They proceeded to watch a movie and stay up until the Seattle new year anyway, but we hadn't been planning that!

Here is Camden ringing in the New York new year

Hudson ringing in the New York new year

Mommy and Hudson "Cheers!"

Camden making the special drink the Corrine had for the kids. Strawberry pop with Pop Rocks in it! What a festive and fun new years drink!!

The December snow storm!
I have never seen so much snow here my whole life! I can recall 3 huge snowstorms over the last 30 or so years and none of them were this big or lasted so long!! the dog fence (which was only 3 feet tall) was non-existent for over a week! 3 feet of snow? here!? We feel like we now own a cabin in the woods!

working backwards, this was day 19 of the snow...our stream unfrozen again and flowing

this is day 19 of my driveway, ugh. thankfully Matt shoveled for 2 hours on day 20 to get me the heck out of there :)

this is Christmas eve, before we got another 6" apparently I never took a picture of the full 3 feet. nuts!

this is Christmas eve too.

this is the snowfort the boys made sometime around the 20th of December.

sometime in the middle of the 20 days, I lost track of time...

This is day 5 or 6 of the snow, before the big storm. Hudson was asked to feed the dogs. At least his feet were warm!

this was day 2 or 3 of the snow, again, before the big storm.

Christmas... are you still with me? this is a LONG post! thankfully its mostly pictures, right?
Christmas was great. We had a houseful! We had a Christmas Eve celebration with my Dad and Marilyn, Matt's parents, Jenny, Julie and Uncle Mike who was visiting from Arizona. The boys received handmade gifts from my dad and Marilyn that night, stilts and a cool multilevel car garage. Christmas day my Dad and Marilyn were not with us but my good friend and her 2 girls were with us so that made 12 of us for Christmas day which ended up lasting until the 27th. We had such a good time!

This is what I walked in on just hours before our Christmas Eve gathering. Camden and Hudson had cut out snowflakes and were taping them to the ceiling fan. How they managed to reach the ceiling fan? a kitchen chair on top of a totally unsturdy ottoman, of course!! thankfully, no one was hurt! probably because of the safe way that Hudson was holding the chair (if you look closely you can see him) for his older brother. that's what I call teamwork!

Matt and I holding the white elephant spinner. A twister board any other night of the year, but Christmas eve, it is the white elephant spinner.

Julie trying out the stilts...

Hudson trying out the stilts...

Camden trying out the stilts... no, there is not a picture of me trying out the stilts as I did not make it more than a step. the kids make it look easy!! so does Matt and Lynn and Julie for that matter!!

our tree Christmas Eve, the calm before the storm. the icicles hanging outside the window were so beautiful! but, they didn't show up in the picture. so sad.

Peeking downstairs Christmas morning to see if Santa did dutifully come and bring the gifts requested.

despite the fact that the dogs escaped on Christmas eve and our neighbor had to call us after midnight, Santa still brought gifts for the dogs! What a nice guy!

Camden receieved an airsoft b.b. gun and I think both of the boys were pretty excited about it.

Christmas Morning...

making Christmas breakfast (I only helped a little, it was 90% Camden) He made caramel cinnamon rolls and an egg/hashbrown casserole. it was delicious!!

One of my favorite things about our Christmas day is that we don't rush through opening the gifts (in fact, we finished on the 26th!) but the boys actually stop in between and play with what they got, or make breakfast, etc. It makes the day so enjoyable! well, that and the fact that we rarely find ourselves out of our pajamas!

the night of the first snow, December 13th, We went to the Nutcracker.

Finding the perfect tree... at where other than Farmer Brown's Tree Farm! It works every time!

The night we decorate the tree the 'kids' (Julie included this year) get new Christmas pajamas. This was the first year the boys remembered the tradition and couldn't wait to see what their new jammies were!

I'm almost done but there was Thanksgiving and a trip to Arizona too... I've got to fit them in here or they'll never see the light of day...
Thanksgiving... a great day spent in Puyallup and as always...bowling with family and friends. We had a great time and a great feast!

the bowling 'clan'

love that form!!

Pro Bowlers, look out!

Julie and I and our SWEET shoes! as we were driving home Hudson looked down at his feet and noticed he was still wearing his bowling shoes! You'd cry too if you had to wear those hideous shoes for the rest of your life!

Last (or first) but not least... our trip to Arizona...
We went to Arizona for a week in November. We laid by the pool daily, we did a little sightseeing, a little shopping and a little dining. and of course spending time w/ grandma (aka my mom) was a lot of fun too!

Well, I hope you survived it. I know it was a long one. the next one will be shorter! I'm sure of it! :) Happy new year!

Pike Place & Bearcats & Pumpkins & Chainsaws... Oh MY!

2008-10-30T09:01:00.000-07:00

We started out the month of October taking Julie to Pike Place Market and ...

the original Starbucks!! In the short time Julie has been here (2 months) we've made a Starbucks fan out of her! She thought that it was just about cappucinos...she had no idea you could order a hazelnut mocha or an iced decaf white chocolate mocha! We've opened up a whole new world for her!

As a side note, do you see the lovely apples in this photo? do you have any idea how difficult it is to make something like that? Julie and I were invited to my neighbor's house to make 'fancy' caramel apples and let me tell you... they were fancy all right, for about 2 minutes before the caramel started sliding down the apples, carrying with it all of the perfectly placed decorations...M&M's, pralines, almonds, chocolate... it was so sad. Maybe better luck next year! (and no, I have no pictures of the delicious but oh-so-not-pretty apples)

This month we attended Julie's homecoming game at Monroe High School, the Bearcats! They lost, but it was fun to be back at a high school game with all those crazy students dressed in their tank tops, shorts and flip flops in October! BRRRR!!!!

This month we finished up Camden's first "big league" soccer season! Until now we've played through the YMCA, but this was serious... 2 practices a week and a game every Saturday for about 10 weeks. (8 games). It was a fun season and fun to watch all the kids improve every week. Matt was the assistant coach and loved it! I think he may have found a new passion!

Matt has been wanting to build the boys a tree house and I suggested he build it on the enormous stump that we have from the tree we cut down last year. Matt thought he'd start by cutting a door into it and see if it was indeed a good place for a tree house. Well, after cutting, he decided it is probably not a good idea to build a tree house on top of a rotting stump. I am sure his mind was made up before he began cutting, but I am now convinced. So now he has plans to make that a play area, hang a rope swing from the top, clean out the inside, etc. I'll update you on its progress if it happens. The tree house location has been redetermined, but not started yet.

Hudson got to go to the pumpkin patch with his preschool class! His class consists of 3 boys and 4 girls. His best buddy is a boy, but he wasn't there. So Hudson was hanging out with his "best girl friends" as he puts it. :) It was cold, but it was a great time, tractor ride and all!

3 days later our whole family went to the pumpkin patch along with some of our family friends. It has been a tradition for 8 years!! and the weather that day was GORGEOUS!
They planted some corn this year and they had a section that was about 10 rows deep...just deep enough to not be able to see through to the other side. The kids called this their own 'corn maze' and had a blast running through it! we called them the "Children of the Corn". We picked pumpkins, ate kettlekorn, ran around and had a great day!

Tomorrow is Halloween. I still have no idea what the kids are going to be. How's that for a prepared mom? HA!
Maybe the next blog posting will have pictures...if we ever figure it out! :)

You can do it at a trot...

2008-09-24T10:54:00.001-07:00

You can do it at a gallop... You can do it real slow so your heart won't palpitate... just don't be late...
DO THE PUYALLUP!

Well, if the fair didn't throw Julie into culture shock, I'm not sure what would!!
...and have you ever heard of Muttin bustin'???? I'm not sure where I stand on this particular activity. Somewhere between being totally amused by it and at the same time, wondering if it violates some child endangerment act! But these little kids (between 3-6 years old) get on a sheep, hold on for dear life and the sheep runs like mad! It is crazy! but highly entertaining!

That's Julie and I in the front seat of the mini-rollercoaster! neither of us lost our lunch, but Julie was a bit sick afterwards...probably a combination of the heat, the ride and the fact that she had her first introduction to a "Krusty Pup" (for those non-fair-goers...also known as a corndog!)

Camden loved the rides and this one, "The Scrambler" was his favorite this year! We both had a lot of fun on it, and he later got his Papa to go on it with him too!

The little rocket ships that go around and around and up and down were a bit more Hudson's speed. He did do the big giant slide by himself, but cried and screamed all the way down until he reached the bottom...then the smile came!

...if you could only see a close-up of his face...filled with fear, poor little guy...

...and there's the smile! phew!

face painting was in order... fun, fun, fun!

This is our favorite juggler (well, I suppose we don't know many others) but we've been watching him at the fair for 18 years!! he's amazing!!

We ended the fair (after 10 hours) with the jiggle-feet! That made the 1/2 mile walk to the car manageable!
It was a great day, beautiful weather and load of junk food and fun!! can't wait to "do the puyallup" next year!!

First Day of School...

2008-09-09T11:09:00.000-07:00

This year instead of one first day of school, we have 3 first days!!
Camden's First Day of 2nd grade...

Julie's First Day of American High School (her senior year)...

Hudson's First Day of Pre-Kindergarten!

It's been a busy start to the school year, but a fun one!
one week before school started we headed to the airport to meet Julie!

The first weekend we took Julie to several parties (going away party, birthday party) and even threw one ourselves...
Camden turned 8 and we celebrated on Labor Day. Camden thoroughly enjoyed his sports party. He got a big new bike for his birthday which he loves riding!

This weekend we had a bonfire with the Boyle girls and Julie got to try smores for the first time! She definitely liked them!

Camden had a soccer game on Saturday where he made 4 goals! they lost 5 - 11, but hey, he got some great shots in :)

We also took Julie to Snoqualmie Falls. It was a beautiful day and we had a GREAT time!!

and for those of you who are wondering who Julie is... She is our newest family member. She is an exchange student from Belgium and will be living with us until June! She is a wonderful person and our family enjoys her a lot!

Summer by the Numbers

2008-08-15T12:47:00.000-07:00

4
Number of millimeters my kidney stone was. (not actually my stone pictured, but that is the size, compared to a dime, a piece of rice and a rice krispie)

6
Number of hours I was supposed to spend in the hospital for kidney stone procedure.

6
Number of days spent in the hospital due to the kidney stone procedure.

1
Number of camping trips... but it was a GREAT one to Icicle Creek and Erik, Corrine, Berkley & Bennett joined us for a night!

2
Number of wheels holding up Hudson on his bike now! NO MORE TRAINING WHEELS!! Way to go Hudson!!

60
Number of pounds Unlce Stu weighed at his most recent vet appointment.

other interesting dog numbers...
1
Number of inches taller Stu is than Kemper...ALREADY!!
85
Number of dollars spent to find out that Stu's limp was simply... growing pains.

520
Number of feet in the air Aunt Jenny took the boys on her day on the town with them! and they spent some time running around in the Seattle Center fountain too! They had a GREAT day!!

7
Days spent having fun with Grandma Vicky

1
Number of successful kid birthday parties. also the number of kid birthday parties to go this summer.

Hudson wanted a 'candy' party. So we painted a big candyland board on the lawn and decorated cupcakes with all sorts of candy!

7 or 8
Number of cars washed by the boys and their friends. Their new favorite pastime :)

1
Number of days I had nothing to say about them getting TOTALLY muddy! I tried to make it clear that that was a one time gig.

7
Number of times Camden mowed the lawn! He did a GREAT job! That's a big job for a 7 year old, but he was up for it over and over again!

281
Number of poops scooped by the poop-scoopin' masters! They did a great job keeping up with their new chore and I'm sure it helped that Matt and I pitched in a bit too.

1
Number of Mariners games attended. Hopefully a few more before the season is over. Is that also the number of games they won? oh wait, no I think that was a slightly bigger number.

18
Number of days of summer left... but who's counting???

San Diego (Part 2)

2008-05-23T14:18:00.000-07:00

I had no idea it would take me so long to write about this trip. The trip seems like forever ago and so much has happened since, but I should finish it..just for good measure :) I mean, a part 1 without a part 2... I'd hate to leave all 3 of you hanging :)

Day 4.
Legoland!

The following picture is a picture of the boys in front of a part of Miniland, where there are all sorts of buildings made out of Legos. They are standing in front of part of the Vegas strip. It looks like they're standing up on a look out point with Vegas in the background, but indeed they're standing right next to it. It is truly AMAZING to see the Sydney Opera House, Mt. Rushmore, the Taj Mahal, the list goes on, its truly incredible!

There are also rooms where you can build with Legos that they have at little tables, they also have bins and bins and bins of spare Lego parts for you to purchase! Looks like a candy store doesn't it???

and here is my car (LIFESIZE) made out of Legos! WOW!

They even had a Volvo driving school. yes, both boys got their "VOLVO DRIVERS LICENSES"!

and some pretty cool Lego replicas built larger than life!

and of course there were lots of rides that we went on as well! There were hardly any lines so we cruised from ride to ride to ride, stopping breifly in between to see the cool Lego displays.

Day 5.
SeaWorld...but with new faces and improved shows!

Aunt Jenny (Matt's sister) drove over from AZ to visit for a couple of days! Since we'd already done SeaWorld, we got to be tourguides which was TONS of fun! We tried to show her EVERYTHING we'd done and more!

And you might be wondering who I'm with in this picture...
Well, I was chosen from the audience to be part of a prank (the joke was on me). They grabbed me out of the audience along with my camera. Then the mime (who was the entertainment before the show) stood me in front of the audience and then went and grabbed this man out of the audience, placed the man's arm around me, then started to take our picture. but then he decided we needed a child. So a child from another part of the audience came over and stood with us for a family picture. The boys thought it was so funny! they would say "mom, show us that picture of your other family!"

The first day we weren't overly impressed with the Shamu show. It was okay, but just not what I'd felt it was hyped up to be. However.. today, it was AMAZING! can you see that person flying in the air?! He had just come up on the nose of Shamu! The whole show was unbelievable!

We also went on this awesome rollercoaster! I'm not sure the boys knew what they were getting themselves into, but we told them as soon as we were done with this last ride of the day we'd go buy their souvenirs! After going down the drop in this picture, Hudson said "That was FUN!" but the rest of the rollercoaster was too much for both of the boys. But, it was worth it in the end. They both got new stuffed animals and they were happy, and hopefully not terribly traumatized :)

Day 6.
Beach Day

This day started out building a fort in the living room. What a lazy, fun way to start the day!

Then off to the beach for skimboarding, etc. But not before Aunt Jenny went on a Starbucks run :) Doesn't he just look like he belongs on the beach in CA? Skimboard in hand, latte in the other, flip flops on, ready to spend a day at the beach... LOVE IT!

In between skimboarding they found time to explore the beach and find sea creatures...like... dead lobsters.. lovely :)

and despite the fact the boys were in their swimming trunks, it couldn't have been over 59 degrees! Notice the sweatshirts zipped up to our chins?! It was a little chilly! But in CA isn't everyday beach worthy?

So at the end of beach day we had to warm up a bit so we took one last visit to the hot tub!

Day 7.
Final Day
Camden lost his front tooth! He and Hudson were wrestling on the floor, Hudson tried to tickle his neck and accidentally knocked his tooth out. Camden then proceeded to tell everyone that his brother knocked his tooth out.

and here we are on the warmest day. the most beautiful, warm day... yes, the day we had about 20 minutes to spend on the beach. oh well, sometimes that's just the way it goes. We had a WONDERFUL vacation and made LOTS of great memories!

and here is one last little video from SeaWorld. The noises are HYSTERICAL!

San Diego! (Part 1)

2008-04-13T17:23:00.000-07:00

a few weeks ago we left on our family vacation to San Diego to play on the beach, go to SeaWorld and Lego Land!
We left Kemper with Matt's parents and Stu with a co-worker of Matt's.

First,the airplane ride...
The boys experienced their first "first class" flight! They couldn't believe we got a meal and water bottles, etc. Camden kept saying "I feel so bad for the people in the back!" to which I replied "honey, that's us 99.8% of the time!"

Day 1
A beach day in San Diego. We spent it with Hudson playing in the sand, me laying in the sand and Camden & Matt skimboarding. Camden & Matt had a blast and I was impressed with their moves!

Day 2.
SeaWorld

this was so much fun! We got to pet dolphins and bat rays and see Shamu!! We also got DRENCHED on a rapid river ride!

we saw beluga whales! so cool!

and, its hard to see, but there is actually a dolphin about 16 feet in the air jumping over that rope! AMAZING!!

Day 3.
Beach Day

We spent time at the pool (which was a little too cold for me, but the boys were in for about 20 minutes before they were frozen.) then we'd head to the hot tub which was 104! so the boys only got in a little bit. sound a bit like goldilocks and the 3 bears!

We decided to take a walk to Rubys Diner at the end of the pier at Sunset to get milkshakes. The sunset was amazing!

and of course a day at the beach meant more skimboarding :)

more later...

The dogs

2008-03-28T19:51:00.001-07:00

Okay, Kemper and Stu must know they're related... They are truly like Uncle and Nephew!
They are a crack up.
Thankfully they have each other to entertain themselves or I'm not sure what we'd do!
I had to post this video of the two of them. They do this almost daily and we laugh hysterically every time it happens! It just doesn't get old!

Kemper is doing great and truly does enjoy playing with Stuey. We thought this would be payback for the way he played with Samson, but he enjoys playing just as much as Stu does!

The boys are enjoying the dogs too.
Hudson is bonding with Stu much better than he did with Kemper. He was totally afraid of Kemper when he was a puppy and spent most of his time just running away yelling "No!" but he and Stu seem to get along much better.

Stuey, or most often known as "Kemp-Stuey" (because I can't get the 2 dogs names straight!) is a sweet puppy but has is crazy moments. For the most part he is super mellow, but check out this photo! the kids call him SuperDog!

Kemper just trying to be "one of the boys"

and lastly,
it's March 28th! and look at the picture I took TODAY!?! Snow and it's almost April! insane!
Happy Spring :)

Introducing... "UNCLE STU"

2008-03-03T20:39:00.000-08:00

So... if you didn't already know this, We had committed to buying a new puppy since we lost Kemper. We decided it was time to go for it again.
Well, when Kemper returned home, it was only 2 weeks before the day we were to pick up the new puppy. Matt decided that regardless of Kemper being back home, we were still getting this new puppy that we had already grown somewhat attached to.
So... here he is!

Here are a couple pictures of the week before we brought him home when he was still with his 9 siblings.

If you're wondering about the name... Here is the story... I had thought of the name Stuart, I thought it sounded like a good dog name. Matt liked it and the boys liked it. I then ended up looking up the meaning online just to see what Stuart means and thought the meaning was great... it means "Guardian of the home" perfect! then we told a few people here and there and got the funniest reactions. So we thought maybe there was a better name out there, but when Kemper returned to the picture we decided we had to name him uncle something (he truly is Kemper's uncle) so Uncle Stu just seemed like the best name for him! and the kids started calling him Uncle Stu and that was the end of that. He is called Stuey for the most part.

Here is Uncle Stu the day we brought him home! He loved chasing the boys on their scooters! He was exhausted though and whined almost the entire time he chased them.

Camden was so excited to have another puppy to bond with!

on his first weekend with us we took him on a walk/hike for about 2 hours! Again, he whined almost the entire way! Silly Dog!

Biggest Problem of a Black lab...they're hard to photograph!
most of the time you can't even see his eyes!!!

and Kemper is adjusting well! I think he actually likes having the playmate around! He was a little rough at first, but he's learning quickly. He's such a joy to have around the house! and a GREAT doggie!

And... Beyond the life of Dogs, we have done a few other things!
We went to see the Harlem Globetrotters! They are hysterical!
Our friend is friends with one of the team members so we got great seats! the boys got a "globetrotter" basketball and even had it signed by one of the players!

Hudson has been taking ice skating lessons...and I can't seem to find a single picture to show for it! oops!
and Camden went skiing for his first time this weekend!!!
Here is a video! He did so good! I was totally impressed! I think he's faster than I am! okay, so I know he's faster than I am! :)

MIRACLE!!!!!

2008-02-08T11:11:00.000-08:00

Guess who this is?!?!!

It's KEMPER!!! He's BACK!!
It's such a miracle! We can't even believe it!!
He is ENORMOUS! At first it was hard to recognize him through his extra 30+ pounds and grown up face, but after spending just an evening with him, we totally can see Kemper in that big body!!

as you can see, his head reaches the couch cushions! and you can see how big he is compared to Hudson! It's wild!

He definitely has his same quirks! He still likes to try to hid his bone (rather than eat it) He still pulls his blanket out of his kennel! it's pretty funny!

His sister was taken at the same time he was and they were both returned yesterday. We're not sure what happened, somehow they ended up on some very nice family's doorstep 11pm on Wednesday night. Yesterday they took them to the vet to get scanned and found their owners!
We prayed all along that they would be in a loving home, well taken care of and that they (Kemper and Stella) would be together. All of those prayers were answered! and of course we prayed we'd get them back, but we figured by now, that just wasn't going to happen.
they are SUPER healthy! (maybe even a little on the chubby side!) and they are friendly and not skiddish, clean, happy and even obedient! He still sits and remembers our hand command for sit! it's amazing!
It has been 3 long months that he's been gone! he is now 7 months old! and is just about the same size as Samson was!
We look forward to sharing more stories as we reconnect and begin the bonding process where we left off!
YAHOO!!!!!!

Happy New Year!

2008-01-09T19:14:00.001-08:00

Happy 2008!

what's happened here since I last wrote?
Well, we went Christmas tree hunting... that was eventful!!

Why the picture of a Llama? well, the first tree farm we went to had more wild animals than Christmas trees! Llamas, Turkeys, Peacocks, and don't forget Kangaroos!!!

after 2 attempts at finding a new tree farm, we headed to our good old standby, Farmer Brown's Tree Farm in Arlington. We always find a great tree. WHY WERE WE LOOKING ELSEWHERE?!!? Who knows! This year was no different. We found a perfect tree...
decorated it...

and presto.
The Christmas season had arrived.

Then we got some snow! what a treat!! Made for some very happy boys!

Hudson had a very specific list of things to "get done" while we had snow!
#1 Have a snowball fight (no pictures) but it happened.

#2 Build a snowman (complete with a carrot nose from the garden) Yes, I still have carrots buried in the garden!

#3 Make snow angels (by this time the snow was quickly turning to slush) oh well!

#4 Go sledding. They weren't too successful, but they gave it their best shot and got a couple of "runs" in (if you could call it that) before they gave up on it.

Then came the rains!! and the flooding that was national news!
Our little 'stream' became quite a lake!

and our snowman, well... he became a mutant.

What else...
Camden did some Christmas baking (he made all of these chocolate covered pretzels by himself!

Hudson tried his feet at ice skating! His buddy invited him to 'buddy day at his ice skating class' and Hudson liked it so much he just started his own ice skating class! afterall, he does want to be a professional hockey player when he grows up so I figured we better take a few classes on how to skate!

And we had a Christmas party for Flip! and the caterer made FLIP cookies! isn't that cool!?!

Wow, I may have to do another installment to cover Christmas and new years! If I keep going nobody will ever get to the bottom!
I'll get caught up one of these days!

Hudson's Christmas Greeting

2007-12-09T19:59:00.000-08:00

I just had to post this! Hudson has recorded our latest answering machine message w/ his rendition of "Feliz Navidad" and I got him to sing it on camera and had to share it!
I hope you enjoy Hudson's version of "Feliz Navidad"

The trips & Thanksgiving

2007-12-03T08:37:00.000-08:00

I'll start by saying that our trips were great! Matt stayed healthy and we had a good time in Arizona!

Here are some photos/highlights from Matt's trip...

the kids love having their picture taken! Matt had many pictures of the kids smiling, showing off muscles, etc.

Matt spent a lot of his time fixing doors (sorry for the sideways picture, for some reason it just won't go the right way!) the place where they stayed had no doors that functioned properly, ie... they wouldn't close! so Matt spent many days getting them to open and close. This is important to keep the bugs out! there were lots and lots of bugs there!

Matt also got to meet the kids that we sponsor through 'Children of the Nations'! Our kids are Robinson, Osias & Ariendy. Matt was able to take them gifts and spend a few minutes with them. The 2 younger ones were super shy so Matt said between that and the language barrier it was challenging. But the older boy and Matt were able to have a good conversation (with an interpreters help).

I mentioned bugs! I should've said BUGS! There were huge bugs all over the place!! lots of mosquitoes and lizards and beetles and moths larger than matt's hand!

There are the beds that they were able to build while they were there. They made 15 beds (5 for each of the 3 hardest hit villages) and also donated mattresses. This was awesome because these families all share a bed and due to the hurricane they lost their beds.

These are 5 of the ladies who received the beds.

I'm sure this was a major highlight of the trip! This is them riding on the top of a big truck (look at picture below to see what I mean) They had to duck power lines (what an adventure) and hold on for dear life... just what the guys love to do!

All in all, I think they had a good time, blessed many people and all but one person stayed healthy!

and at the same time... in Arizona...
Hudson taught himself how to do a belly flop...

We swam... a lot... and played in the pool with Grandma Vicky! The goggles are important so you can have conversations under water! :)

Camden wowed us with his swimming ability and diving ability! (diving for toys underwater, that is) and both boys jumped in just about every way imaginable!

We all returned safely on Saturday night before Thanksgiving...
then we went to Puyallup to spend a couple days with Matt's parents (Gaga & Papa) and our thanksgiving tradition is to get up in the morning, head to TOP foods (where you'll find an open starbucks) and then we go...

That's right... BOWLING!! Have you ever heard of that one? we've been doing it for over 10 years now!!

as you can tell by the pics, we had a great time! nobody really takes bowling too seriously... and we always a blast!

Then there was turkey at our friend's house (the family friends we bowl with) and all of the 'traditional' Thanksgiving happenings.

On a sad note, while we were away on our trips our puppy (and our friend's puppy) escaped their yard and we think they were stolen. They searched the local shelters, put up signs, contacted tons of people on craigslist and no puppies to be found. Apparently two beautiful puppies like Kemper & Stella were too tempting for someone and they decided not to return them to us. We're still hoping that someone somewhere decides to give them back!
the last picture I took of him. :(