Happy Birthday Kingston

Happy Birthday Sweet One! 

We love you so much. You are such a light in our lives.

 You make us laugh....a lot. You are giving, sensitive, gentle, patient, silly, mischievous, a great dancer, a fast scooter rider, fearless, clumsy, brave, hungry (all the time), sly and quiet in your mess making, an escape artist, silently determined, always watching, and a utter joy to have. 

You came into this world at 5:45 am 2 years ago today and weighed 9 lbs. and 2 oz. and were 19 in. long. Today you are 2 and weigh 26 lbs. and are 33 in. tall. You are lanky and skinny as they come. You love matchbox cars, Lightning McQueen, fire trucks, tractors, trains, making train tracks, helping, your "blanky", pasta, good music, your older brother immensely, blueberries, blueberries in pancakes, riding fast, running fast, and climbing high. You love family. You are happy. 

It is a gift everyday that you are with us. 

Happy, Happy!  

(Please stop growing...it is making Mama sad. Oh, and please stop falling down and busting your head open. At this rate, we will not be able to pay the ER bills). 

Giddy Up

Well, it was a first for me. A rodeo. Does PETA know about rodeos??? I mean, I'm not an animal activist by any means, but the "festivities" at this rodeo were rather unfriendly to the bovine family. Those poor little baby cows. It was, however, a very fun outing with the boys and they loved every second of it. Alder calls it "horse racing" instead of a rodeo, which in a lot of ways makes sense. Those horses fly! We were sitting on the bottom row of the bleachers at first and then had to move up because the horses would come racing down, turn right where we were sitting, and fling dirt up into our faces. Cool, but not fun for little kids to get dirt in their eyes. Alder now says he wants to "horse race too when he gets to be 5, Mama. Ok. Does that sound like a plan?"

Sure Alder. 

And I cannot forget to mention about my little Kingsers. 

So at the rodeo they had these jumpy things. I am sure everyone has seen them, right? Well, Alder was wanting to jump. We paid $5 and when it was his turn, he chickened out. We asked Kingston if he wanted to do it and he smiled and hopped on. The man strapped him in (and he is totally fearless at this point and quite digging the cool harness, cords, and buckles) and he did it.  He loved it until the man raised him in the air too high and then he panicked, but it was fun to see Kingston climb on, fearless as usual, and enjoy the thrill of something new and different. Thats my Kingsers.

Living is Easy

 Living is easy when your boys send you beautiful flowers like these....just because. 

Aren't they beautiful? They smell wonderful and are a joy to look at too. Although fresh flowers are impractical in a sense, they sure do make my heart happy.

Thank you to all my boys and especially you babe. What a great happy.

Have you ever seen this magazine? This is just a copied image from the Internet of an old cover. I stumbled upon it the other day while at Wal-Mart and loved how practical it is and easy to read and how the recipes all just "make sense." Then later I remember having seen it on Darby's blog awhile back and her rave reviews of it. I must agree. I am thinking on subscribing. Apprerantly there is a t.v. show too???

Inside this month's edition was a recipe for pasta primavera. I gave it a shot and it turned out wonderfully. I feed it to my hungry, hungry hippos and they loved it. It was a real treat to cook this while sipping a nice glass of white wine ( btw Fish Eye's Pinot Grigio is pretty darn good and only 3 bucks. I buy only cheap, cheap wine) and chop such nice fresh veggies with no children in the kitchen or a screaming newborn (they were building a train track with Daddy). You get to the point in your life where I am, constant chaos, and really treasure these quiet moments of solitude. It may only last 10 minutes, but those 10 minutes are heavenly. 

These turned into this below. 

Yummy. 

And while I was putting the finishing touches on dinner, Alder once again was snapping pictures. He took this one of Kingsers and I then edited it. I think I should have Alder take all my pictures from now on. I love how he sees the world, his persepctive, and how it comes out in his "photography." 

Back in the Boat

Daddy has purchased another boat after selling the last one at the end of the season last year. I think if Jared could be convinced that he could make a living "brokering" boats, he would quit his job tomorrow and do so. He spends hours combing the Internet for deals on boats and is pretty darn good at it. Two weeks ago while I was in Chattanooga, he bought 2 boats and sold them that same week, making profits on both of them. Pretty talented, huh??? Anyways, we have one for the summer and the boys are loving it. We took it out the other night, I think it was Mother's Day night, for an evening cruise. Jared has taken the two older boys a handful times already, but this time the whole family went and Little One loved it as well. It is quite a handful to take all 3 on the boat, but we manage. Kind of. As you can tell from the pictures below, Alder is dying to "touch the water Mama, just a little bit. I won't fall in." Kingsers is panicked this summer by the boat unless someone is holding him (he loves the boat but we cannot figure out this new fear he has of the boat/motor/movement) and so that leaves Little One in the Moses basket tucked up underneath the bow. Safe, right? 

Just trying so hard to touch the water. So hard. 

Conrad Hudson. Braving the conditions. 

Gazing up at two airplanes crossing in the sky. 

I love my Kingston. He is clinging onto me tightly and I think rather enjoying his Mama snuggling with him. 

Hudson: 2 months old

Conrad Hudson is 2 months old today. Where is the time going? He is such a sweet baby and seems to have a very quiet and gentle personality. He is patient and cries only when he is hungry and tired (for the most part). He has slept through night a few times, but nothing consistent. I find myself not minding when he wakes to feed around 4:30 each morning since it is such quiet and precious time with him with no one else to bother our nursing time together. He has also survived some pretty brutal hits to the face from older brother KIngston who thinks, "I think that hitting is the best way to show love. I mean its how Alder and I show love to each other...by wrestling and being rough." I have to remind Kingston to have "soft touches." I must say this 1,246 times a day to Kingsers. Hudson is also "going with the flow" as most 3rd babies do. He must have gotten the "3rd baby memo"...be chilled, quiet, and easy. I would say that my first two did not fall into the category of being an "easy baby" (if there is such a thing b/c I mean really, what is easy about feeding every 3 hours, newborn screams, blow out poopy diapers, and sleepless nights?!?!?)  I love having a baby again and kissing and kissing on him with no objection. He cannot push me away or run from me and sadly that is how old his older brothers have gotten. I have to chase Alder and KIngston down for kisses. 

I can't quite figure out who he looks like and since my husband hates to play that "game," (Jared figures that all babies will look like a combination of their parents and sibilings because after all that is what they are. Thank you Jared for that, but it is so fun to guess and examine who babies look most like. Must me a girl thing) I just talk to myself about it.

I snapped these this morning (as bad as they may be), but I am determined to take pictures of him so that one day, even though he is the 3rd, there will be pictures for his rehearsal dinner video.

  

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all of you mothers that read our blog. 

I feel richly blessed at the close of this day. I love my little brood of chillens. I wish I could go on and on about mothers, and my mother, and Jared's mother, and how I find such joy in being a mother, but alas, I do not have the time tonight. I wonder how many grammar mistakes I just made in that sentence? Oops. 
It has been a busy and hectic day and we didn't really do anything of consequence. I mean, we didn't even make it to church. But that is where we live right now...the most uneventful day, is well, extremely eventful. It is chaos. Wonderful and noisy chaos.

I have a loving mother, a dedicated mother-n-law, and I love learning from both of them on how to be a better mother myself as well as learning from so many of my friends who are young mothers (and seasoned ones too) and especially my lovely sister-n-laws.     

Alder and my Mom laying together on family vacation a couple of years ago.

Yaya and Alder playing and laughing together

Jared and I the night we found out I was pregnant for the first time in the spring of "07 while living In England. We were so elated.

Me with my little one, Conrad Hudson. 

Loving on my little brood of three.

Dreamy. 

Pictures a 3 Year Old Can Take...

 So who needs a professional photographer when you have a 3 year old who can take such great pictures? Alder recently was insanely curious about my big Canon camera and wanted a brief tutorial on how to take pictures. I hesitated to show him and even let him take the pictures because, well, he is 3 and probably should not "play" with such things but he is Alder and has always had a love of things mechanical. I showed him the basics and then he experimented. He took about 10 pictures and these are 3 of those 10. I spiffed them up with my editing tools on iphoto and think they are pretty special. 

Thanks Alder!

    

Conrad Hudson: Day 52

He is a smiling boy. This is him smiling up at his KeeKee (my Mom). I am so grateful for him. He is unique and fun in his own little way. He loves to dig his toes into your stomach if you are holding him against your chest. He holds his head for such long periods of time looking curiously at the world around him. He loves to stretch backwards over my lap and reach his arms so far above his head. He is starting to coo and goo and laugh in his own way. He still loves to grunt like an old man and eats like a little piggy. He is 12lbs. 12 oz. and is 24 in. long. He is a big boy and falls into the 90th percentile for both height and weight. I love my little man. He seems to be very happy little one and we are so glad we get to love him.