A Grand Ol' Time

Well, it took 7 weeks and 2 days but Hudson has now officially met all 4 of his grandparents and his 2 living great grandmothers!  When Papa came to visit us in May, Gigi could not come because she was sick.  So, this week she is in Nashville with some teens from her church at Impact.  So, she just met Hudson for the first time yesterday.  I think she looks pretty happy in this picture!  She will get to hang out with him some more this week so that's good!  We are glad these 2 finally met!

 Monday morning we had some time in between when our junior high kids left Impact and our senior high kids arrived so we drove up to visit Grandma Dottie.  She is kind of rubbing it in to Gigi that she met Hudson before her!  We really enjoyed our visit with Grandma and only wish it could have been longer.

This past Saturday our family was all in South Pittsburg, TN to celebrate my Nana turning 90!  She was thrilled to meet Hudson and really enjoyed snuggling with him!  I love my Nana and am so happy we got to see her.  Pictures of all my kids with their great grandparents are so important. 

 When Jack was born he had 4 living great grandparents.  Tatum had 3 living great grandparents, and now Hudson has 2.  Life is so precious and I just cannot say enough about how special Grandma Dottie and Nana are to our family.  We only wish we lived closer.

Summer!!!

At our house when summer time comes around it means that we get outside on a much more consistent basis!  We do go out in the winter, but it can get really long and cold in the winter in Indy so we are always happy when spring and summer come around.  We end up eating dinner on our deck almost every night (until it gets TOO hot) and playing in our nice big backyard and giving our poor dog more attention!  Here are Jack and Tatum "helping" Chris and his dad put some mulch down in our yard.  They were entertained for hours with this mulch pile!

Our Murphy dog is still a big part of our family.  Don't tell anyone, but his favorite sibling so far is definitely Tatum.  It's probably because she gives him about a million treats per day! 

Chris went to Honduras the first week of June, so my parents came back to help me out while he was gone. I seriously could not have survived that week very well without them.  When they were visiting I decided to enlist their help in taking some pictures of all 3 kids.  It wasn't the best few minutes of our family life, but we did manage to get a few cute pictures!!!

 Tatum is opening up her sucker in this picture.  I may have bribed her just a little bit!

 Hudson loves to be outside too!  He is getting to chunky......look at those cheeks.  And, yes - they are very squeezable :-)

 My mom snapped this picture when we were finished taking pictures.....I think it is a good snapshot of what my life is like right now.

Dinner outside = Watermelon for dessert!!!

 Um....don't ask about this picture because I have no clue!  She is a cowgirl with watermelon all over her!  Jack and Tatum were probably on one of their "missions" in the backyard.  I wish you could hear Tatum say she is on a mission.  It is so cute when she says it!

With Gram and Grandaddy in town again we managed to make it to the zoo one day.  1 adult per kid.  It was still a little crazy but good to get out!

We love summer time!!!  This summer is already going by so fast!  Hudson and I are with Chris at Impact right now in Nashville with our teenagers while Jack and Tatum are spending more time with Gram and Grandaddy.  So, they are having more summer fun!  Next week our cousins are coming to visit and we are looking forward to that.  Then, Jack is going to church camp for the first time (sniff, sniff).  It's just a wild ride!

Moving on up....

Jack's first year of school is over!  He graduated from Kindergarten and is moving on to First Grade!!!  He had such an incredible year with a wonderful teacher and great friends!  I am so thankful that he had Mrs. Arashiro this year.  I think she made his first school experience a very very good one.  We also found out on the day of the Kindergarten end of year program that she was awarded "teacher of the year!"  Yes, she DEFINITELY deserved it!

Mrs. Marcum was also a blessing to Jack.  She was the kindergarten aide in his room and he loved her a whole lot too!

At the end of the year program, Jack's class performed the song Somewhere Over the Rainbow with sign language and also did a reading of a book.  Jack was one of just a few kids who had their own reading part and he did a great job.  We are so proud of him and all he has accomplished.  When it was his turn to go get his certificate he marched up there and shook the principal's hand with such enthusiasm.  I wish I had it on video.  His enthusiastic hand shake with Mrs. Dehart made everyone laugh!

 After the program Jack had fun celebrating with his friends!  I have really enjoyed getting to know these precious kids over the past year by volunteering in Jack's classroom.  I miss them all already.  It will be kind of sad when he has a whole new class in First Grade.

 This is Jack's good buddy, Rhyan.  She lives in our neighborhood and we adore her family.  Their family has been a blessing to us this past year and we are so thankful to call them our friends.  Rhyan and Jack say they are going to get married, but we are just encouraging them to be friends for now!  Ha!!  But, I do love how much these 2 enjoy being friends!

And, now we are already 3 weeks into our 8 week summer, but here is Jack's summer haircut!  

I think it changed his look so much and he looks like he is totally ready to move on up to First Grade!  I love this kid!!!!

The First Month

We survived!  But, it was a little crazy!  This month was spent getting to know Hudson and trying to adjust as a family to having a newborn around!  Hudson is such a joy.  He is a great eater.  Seriously, he is NOT missing any meals.  He even adds a few in there for good measure.  He's a pretty good sleeper too.  But, he is also pretty high maintenance.  You won't find many pictures of him just laying around.  He wants to be held.  He wants to be eating or sleeping or you better be holding him!  (this is getting better now, but I'm trying to remember what he was like at exactly 1 month).  We had a lot going on during Hudson's first month.  The week immediately after he was born Gram and Grandaddy were at our house.  I cannot say enough about how helpful they were to us with EVERYTHING.......from random house projects, to deep cleaning, to cooking, to taking Jack to school, to playing with Tatum, to shopping for us, to just keeping me company.....they were amazing!  Grandaddy left after the first week but Gram stayed a few more days.

Speaking of Gram, she has crocheted a blanket for all of her 6 grandkids.  Here are my kids with their blankets.  We envisioned a little bit better picture, but.......this is as good as it gets sometimes!

With my parents at our house we were able to do some special things with Jack and Tatum.  One evening after I fed Hudson, Chris and I took Jack and Tatum out for ice cream.  We were going to take them somewhere pretty good (like a real ice cream shop) but they chose McDonalds.  They are pretty into their cones right now.  This picture of Tatum was too cute not to share...

Jack and Tatum are both excited about Hudson.  They both love him a lot.  Jack likes to hold him and acts like a pro.  He takes holding him very seriously.  He will even rock him and pat him on the bottom because Hudson loves that!!

They were really excited the night I put Hudson's little bath tub down in the big bath tub with them.  

Tatum likes to kiss and hug Hudson.  She also likes to wait until he needs something to decide that she needs something too!  But, overall she is adjusting pretty well!  She is a good big sister and is definitely going to be the "mothering" type!

When Hudson was just 1 week old....he went on his first outing to Jack's tee-ball game.  It was a nice day and it was good for us to all get out of the house as a family!

Once my mom left, we were on our own for about a week before Chris's dad, Papa came to visit.  Gigi got sick and couldn't come with him.  That was very sad and very hard for Jack and Tatum to understand.  Papa helped Chris with lots of yard work and also helped us pull off a yard sale when Hudson was only 3 weeks old.  We are very grateful for all his help too!  We only wish Gigi had been able to visit also.  I am not sure why but I can't find one picture of Papa with Hudson.  I might not have taken one.  I would say that this was the week that Hudson really started nursing all.the.time.  It was also the week where sleep deprivation began to catch up with me!!  After Papa left we started to kind of hit our groove as parents to three.  On our 10th anniversary we went out to eat and took Hudson with us while we had a babysitter for Jack and Tatum.  Thankfully, Hudson gave us a good anniversary gift by sleeping in his car seat the whole time and smiling for us when we got home!!!

This little guy has some pretty cute faces and sweet looks if you ask me... 

 

 He can also be so peaceful when he is sleeping.  There is just nothing like snuggling with a newborn who is sleeping soundly.  I really enjoy when Hudson falls asleep in my arms and I can just sit and hold him.  Knowing that he is most likely my last baby makes this time even more special!

 I love it when Hudson is wearing these little striped pants.....Oh, and yes....he likes to sleep in the car!  Thank goodness!!!