the long way home

In order to spend as much time as possible with Jeremy and his family while they were here we tried something we haven’t ever done driving home from Iowa.  we left at 6:30 am Tuesday morning in order to be back in time for Jamie to be at work by 2:30.   It wasn’t too bad actually.  Would have been better if Hudson had gone right back to sleep after we got him out of bed and put him in the car, but of course, he didn’t.  By the time we got to KC he was really wanting out of his car seat so we stopped at a new place – Zona Rosa – and found  the perfect place for him to play for a few minutes and stretch his legs.   DICKS SPORTING GOODS.  He was in heaven even before he saw the practice putting range!

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Iowa

 

It’s taken us a week but we are finally caught up on our sleep from our rush trip to Iowa!   So I finally downloaded the pictures from our time up there.  Mostly we just hung out at the house. 

Bryce and Hudson playing with the flashlights in the “tent” and playing in the water on the back deck.

The one day we planned to take all the kids to the zoo there were huge thunderstorms coming through and the tornado sirens went off twice right before we were going to leave.  So that trip got cancelled.  But then Mia reminded us of how much fun it was to go to Incredible Pizza last summer so we packed up and took all the kids back for more fun.  Hudson loved it even more this year than he did last year.  

 

The first game we played was skeet ball and I thought we were going to end up playing just that one game the whole time we were there!  He loved it.  At first he couldn’t roll the balls hard enough to get them up in the circles but towards the end he finally got a few up there.  He didn’t care though.  He was having just as much fun rolling the balls, catching them and rolling them up again.

 

Then we moved on to the mini golf and he was in heaven!  This was his first experience playing mini golf and we definitely are going to have to take him again. He knew exactly what to do.  It was a glow in the dark room so my video is a little dark to watch…

Playing a few of the other arcade games.  After an hour or so he figured out that in order to play the game you had to swipe the card to get it started.  So he would run from game to game asking for my card.  It was out of money by that point but he didn’t care.  He’d just swipe it and go on to the next one.

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A Wichita Tradition

A few weeks ago we introduced Hudson to a Wichita tradition – NuWay!  He loved it!  Crumbly is good!

COUSINS!!

We got a call Tuesday morning letting us know that the Floridians (jeremy's family - Jamie's brother) would be in Iowa on Wednesday till next Tuesday! They were supposed to be coming in late July but some work conflicts came up and they just decided to hop in the car and drive up this week! So we changed all of our plans for the week - my sisters and gammy took over my garage sale and we headed up to Iowa to see them. We haven't seen them for almost a year. Hudson was just barely walking - as in a few steps across the living room - the last time they were here! So he has changed A LOT since they last saw him. Bryce, Kaedyn and Mia have all grown up in the last year too. We are having lots of fun hanging out at Papa and Binga's playing. Bryce still doesn't know my name, even though we have been here for 3 days now. Jamie got here last night and Bryce immediately knew who he was!

We took some pics last night of all the kids together because Jenni's family had to leave this morning for an already planned trip to Colorado to see Wally's family. Jamie took the day off Monday and Jeremy is flying in this evening so we'll spend a few more days together before heading home.

Nature Walk

Last weekend we took Hudson to Chisholm Trail for a Nature Walk.  There were lots of animals to look at and Uncle Nate was there with his red tail hawk, Cheyenne.

The 100 year old turtle

Baby Vulture – someone tore down a barn and it lost its home so they are rescuing it

Hudson really like this baby hawk.  He liked watching them turn their heads and necks all different directions and would try mimic it.

Hudson, Uncle Nate and Cheyenne.  Uncle Nate is on his way this weekend to Wyoming to get a baby eagle!

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DONUTS!

Hudson LOVES to help me cook in the kitchen.  Every time I say “It’s time to make dinner, breakfast, etc.” his immediate response is “I want to help you Mommy.”   His “help” consists of “mixing” the ingredients in the bowl (and all over the countertop).  He quickly tires of this and moves on to playing in the water in the sink (which I think was his real motivation for “helping” in the first place!).

Last week I decided to try to make donuts.  There’s a place here in town – The Donut Hole – that makes the BEST cake donuts.  They have all out crazy kinds like PB and J, peppermint, Girl Scouts Thin Mints, Fruity Pebbles, etc.  I stick with  their plain donuts with chocolate or buttermilk frosting or cinnamon and sugar.  can’t go wrong with those.  Anyway, I wanted to try and duplicate it so I googled  - I mean scroogled “cake donuts” and gave it a shot. 

I don’t own a donut pan so I just used my muffin pan instead.  But they weren’t too bad for our first try – at least that’s the impression I got from Hudson….

 

Of course, he only ate the tops off of his donuts so I don’t know if I should count his vote!

And another funny story about the kitchen sink.  He has figured out how to use the spray nozzle and occasionally misses the sink and sprays the kitchen floor or me if I am standing in the way.  Tonight he did this and I said, dripping wet – in an angry voice - “Hudson, what did you do?” 

His reply: “I got my baby brother all dirty.”                                     How do you punish someone SO cute?  

The AnNoUnceMent!!

 

Yep – you are reading it right!  Hudson is going to be a BIG brother in January!!   I am 8 weeks along and feeling pretty good so far.  Hudson is excited about his baby “brother” (He and Jamie are convinced it’s another boy!) Hudson likes to sit on my lap and “smash” his baby brother – cause that’s what big brothers do, right?  Although last night he sang Jesus Loves Me to him – so sweet! :)

It took us a while to get as much of the family together as we could to do our announcement.  There are a few out there who received this picture in a text a  few days ago (YOU know who you are!!) who I don’t think have figured it out yet since I haven’t heard from you.  So I thought I’d make it a little clearer!!!

Announcement #1 – before Jamie got home from work I wrote “We’re having a baby!” on the front door.

Announcement #2 – we bought Binga a charm for a necklace she has that has a charm with the birthstone for each grandchild.

Announcement #3 – I made Hudson’s t-shirt.  Some people caught on really quick – others (Uncle Nate!!) it took a little longer. 

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trip to Iowa

Sorry for not posting much lately!  We spent last week in Iowa with Hudson’s Papa and Binga and his cousins and then had a garage sale this week so we’ve been busy.  Garage sale is over (for now – we’re having another one in 2 weeks at my mom’s to try and get rid of more junk!) so I finally feel up to blogging.  Being out in the sun wears you out!  I have been going to bed with Hudson it seems like the last few nights!!

So here’s some video and pics of our week in Iowa.  As you will see the kids had LOTS of fun playing together, despite all the hitting and a little bit of fighting! 

I took the boys to the park one afternoon and we ended up spending most of the time playing in the tunnel.  They loved running through it and yelling.

 

even though it was a little muddy!!

 

One afternoon we played with water balloons.  That was Hudson’s first real experience playing with them.  I thought he’d love throwing them and making them pop, but he preferred to just carry around as many as he possibly could.  After they were all gone he looked around and said “Mom, the balloons are all extinct.”!  Guess we’ve been reading too many dinosaur books!

I saw this idea for homemade bird feeders on a blog and thought it would be fun to do.  Papa and Binga have lots of birds and squirrels – way more than we have at our house, so it was definitely better to do up there.   We hunted for the perfect sticks, then covered them in peanut butter and then rolled them in the bird seed.

 

The next morning all but one stick was totally eaten!

There’s also a fun park close by that has  some cool climbing stuff on it.  There was a rope bridge that Hudson really liked, as well as the spider web you could crawl on and a fun – fast – slide!

  

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WARNING: this story involves poop and is REALLY gross!

 

 

Hudson pooped in his potty chair for the first time yesterday!  He was SO proud of himself.  He gets an m&m when he poops so that was pretty exciting in itself!  But he wanted to show it to daddy (of course, what little boy wouldn’t?).  I knew Jamie was on his way home from work and would just be another minute or two so I told him we’d wait to flush it. 

We put the lid down on his potty chair and went into his room to put a new diaper on.  We hear this weird knocking sound – Hudson says “ it’s daddy!” and goes running to the bathroom.  I thought it was Jamie out on the porch so I went that way.  The next thing I hear is Hudson screaming – and crying - “ZEUS ATE MY POOPY!” 

I go in the bathroom- yep, it’s gone.  Hudson has tears streaming down his cheeks, still yelling at Zeus.  I  can’t stop laughing and have to grab the camera.  In the midst of it, Jamie walks in the door…

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Zeus will NEVER again give me  - or any of my family– kisses.  GROSS!

Wichita WILD!!

A few weeks ago we took Hudson to his first – and my first!- indoor arena football game.  Go Wichita WILD!  Hudson LOVED it.  He was enthralled with watching them play – his favorite part was when they kicked the field goals.  Probably cause that was the only part he could really see the ball.

   

The whole gang!!