A Sweet Baby Memory

Monday this week we had a busy day. Mommy worked a little in the morning. We took a break to run some errands and went to eat lunch at Hyde Park Grill. Their fries and chicken fried chicken are amazing. And so is all of their food. I felt this way before pregnancy too LOL. If you are ever in Austin I highly recommend :).

Side note:  Just love this precious boy! We had 1 warm sunny day on Friday last week (12/26) and we played outside for at least 3-4 hours. It was soooo beautiful and so is my angel :)

Then back home for a late nap for Hudson and little more work for mommy. I so wanted a nap that day but it wasn't in the cards that day LOL. This 2nd trimester has me more tired than the first. Isn't it supposed to be the reverse? Who knows LOL. Anyhow, I knew it would be a late night because we didn't wake up Hudson until 6 PM (big parenting no no lol). We played with toys and then when 9 PM rolled around I gave bubba a bath and we laid in my bed to watch Planes Fire & Rescue. Such a cute movie! 

After a bit I kept feeling the baby kick. Just like on Christmas morning. It was a lot. I'm thinking it was the yummy lunch I had or something because it was non-stop. I called Karl down into our room to feel it and sure enough he did! It was such an awesome moment. Daddy was the first to feel baby #2 kick and it just feels so early for him to be able to feel it. It was exciting. Hudson watched daddy feel and then after daddy kissed the belly and talk to the baby Hudson joined in. It was so adorable and such a sweet moment to see Hudson joining in on the fun. My belly is getting bigger but it's not round yet so it's a little confusing I think to Hudson. I bet when "the ball" comes he will really start to understand it a little more. 

Just a sweet moment definitely worth writing about. We find out what the baby is on 1/13. I CAN'T WAIT!!

I'm 17 weeks tomorrow so I'm a day early but here's a baby belly picture :)

Christmas 2014

We did a few more Christmas fun things before the big day got here. We went to the Buda trail of lights on opening night. To our surprise it was not packed and so much fun to walk around with the boys Hudson and Noah. These two…inseparable…love to play and sometimes play hard with each other. I have no doubt when these boys get bigger they will be playing football in the yard tackling each other, wrestling and just all things boys do. 

We also found out about a snow day at the Hill Country Galleria. We hit that up one Saturday and when we first got there a boy started throwing snowballs at us. It made Hudson cry because it was definitely a shock. He hit us over and over until I finally told him it was enough..where were his parents?…who knows…don't get me start on parents who don't pay attention to their children…whew.

After making Hudson feel better we built a snow man and I let Hudson throw snowballs at me. He loved it but it was short lived as he is a true Austin boy…it was too cold haha. 

We also surprised Nana on her birthday with some yummy Herbert's on the 17th. Took a ride with Mawmaw to look at Christmas lights one night. Hudson insisted on taking a picture with this beautiful house (Bottom left picture below) and that night we saw the biggest blow up snowman ever. It was at least 2 stories tall.

We also did the Austin Trail of Lights with Shee and Thomas. They had a big ferris wheel this year. Hudson thought that was the coolest thing. It was too fast for him to want to get on but it was fun to look at. We made our way through the lights and twirled under the tree as we've done every year. Austin is very packed and sometimes hard to see the lights from Hudson's height. I'm thinking maybe the tree alone is perfect for him. 

We did our tradition Christmas Eve at aunt Brigette's house and let Hudson play the white elephant game this time. He loves to open presents so I knew he would want to play :). There was lots of gift stealing going on, advertisement for "please take this gift because you want it…" and twirling in the office chair to make Hudson dizzy. He's so much fun to watch. I love seeing his wonderful little character come out. Such a comedian…goofy boy. Full of fun times and laughter. He truly is the best. We then told Hudson we had to race home to beat Santa. He was in such a hurry to get home before Santa got there. It was so cute.

Karl and Hudson put cookies & milk out for Santa and it was so cute to see Hudson get excited about it. Christmas morning came and I woke Hudson up. I asked him, "Do you want to see if Santa came?" He tells me, "I really don't want to see Santa" in his little worrisome voice. I told him Santa wasn't here anymore but asked if he wanted to see if Santa came. We saw the cookies almost all eaten and a sip left in the glass of milk. The fireplace gate was wide open and presents were left. His little amazed face was awesome. 

Remember that list for Santa with the main request? Well Santa did in fact leave that one special request. Hudson was smiling so big when he opened it. He loved all of his toys from Santa and the goodies in his stocking. In fact the next day he told me, "Santa brought me everything I wanted." I told him, "Well you must have been a really good boy huh?" and he said, "Yeah." Sweet angel!

We then drove down to MawMaw's & PawPaw's house for our huge family get together. Living room full of presents and family members. Breakfast, coffee and warmth from the heater and all of our excitement. Hudson and Noah were so excited and so cute! I'm thankful for all of my gifts but the best present is watching them open gifts. They have the most genuinely excited little faces. 

Side note:  I had been feeling peanut in my belly from time to time before then but on Christmas morning I don't know if it was my newly tight on the belly maternity jeans, the yummy big breakfast or 1 cup of coffee but I felt the most kicks I had ever felt that morning. It was crazy how much the baby was kicking. So awesome. That morning I was 16 weeks :)

Afterwards we headed to Nana & Pops house to open presents and eat a yummy lunch with nana, pops, hapa, Liam, Shelly & Patrick. Hudson was SOOOOO adorable. Kissing his baby cousin over and over again. And every time Liam would turn with the biggest smile on his face. Hudson adores his baby cousin and I'm thinking the feelings are mutual. They chase each other around the house. Liam is so interested in what Hudson is doing all the time. They are so cute. 

After a much needed nap we headed back to maw maw & pawpaw's house for a yummy dinner and more play time. It was a wonderful day with all of our family. All the sweetness and love. My honey bunny Hudson being the sweetest Christmas angel in the world. He hung the moon for mommy and daddy. We are forever grateful for this precious boy of ours. In less than a month he will be 3. Can't believe it! 

December so far and a few funnies

I love sharing Hudson's funny quotes.

This morning he walks out of his room looking for me while I work on the couch. As we go back in his room to change him he walks over to his fan and says, "Mommy, I forgot to turn this off…I wasn't paying attention." He says this now "wasn't paying attention" because we went to Target and we almost ran into a lady with our cart and while we all were apologizing to each other I said, "Oh no it was me, I wasn't paying attention."

He's walking around with his Mikey mouse and hugs him. Then tells him, "I'll keep you forever."

He asks me to sing "Fly me to the moon" to him every night. It's the sweetest thing. When I sing hold my hand and baby kiss me he plays the part. He even sang it to his daddy the other night so he could kiss him. Such a sweetheart!!

My silly picky son loves to decorate but doesn't like sugar cookies. Just found that out this week. Silly picky boy!

He also loves to sweep. He always says, "I'm cleaning up all this mess." Yeah…our house stays pretty messy. Who has time to clean?

Every day Hudson takes two toys (could be 2 cars, 2 dinosaurs and even 2 hands) and starts pretending to talk to each other. First thing he always says is, "Hello friend." After talking and playing awhile he says, "I have to go friend. I have to go to my family." I don't know where he learned that from but love that he plays and goes home to his family.

From decorating our tree, maw maw & pawpaw's tree and decorating our house. We've been busy little elves.

Lately he's been walking around picking up everything and saying, "Look, I'm strooong." He is very strong. Almost stronger than his mom sometimes. He's going to be stronger than me in no time.

This boy LOVES to win. We're working on teaching him to be a gracious loser but we'll see. Boys are so competitive!

After Budafest last weekend we wrote our letter to Santa and this is why Hudson doesn't want to sit on Santa's lap.

Each year gets more and more fun. Hudson loved the Budafest parade and this year he got to ride some rides with cousin Noah and had a wonderful time. They were amazed at the sight of Santa even though Hudson didn't want to sit on his lap. Their sweet stunned faces when Santa drove by was priceless. He is a rock star to them. So fun! I love this time of year and making so many fun memories with my family and angel. He truly is the best.

Thanksgiving 2014

Once again..I'm behind. Oy :)

Thanksgiving was fun :). We had it our house again (which we plan to forever more I'm sure) and I LOVE it. We woke up to yummy smelling turkey (not burning grease like the previous year - mama and dada learned from that mistake). Went down to check on it and it was juicy and falling off the bone. PERFECT!

Uncle Robert stopped by for a quick visit and Hudson and I watched a tiny bit of the Thanksgiving Parade. Call me silly but I didn't realize there was so much Broadway stuff on it. The first song was cute because Hudson was trying to dance like the people on the tv. He's a dancer for sure. He quickly lost interest so I tried to fast forward to the bands (my favorite part) and he played in the living room while it was on in the background.

The whole family (minus a few) got together and ate until we were going to explode. We seriously always make too much food. But that's what leftovers are for :)

We ended the night with our traditional viewing of Elf while Karl was working the UT game.

Another one of our traditions is Christmas in Boerne. We got out there early and on the way Hudson kept saying how tired he was. He never fell asleep for a nap and I knew it was recipe for disaster. We got there and he had a great time with cousin Noah riding the ponies, petting the animals and playing in the fake snow. Soon after when the rest of the family showed up bubba started to get grouchy. He was exhausted. He passed out at 7! that's too early for this boy LOL. He slept on pawpaw for another hour until we got the kettle cooked popcorn and were ready to take off. Hudson woke up before we got back to the car to head home. He was awake the whole way home. Luckily he went right to bed with me. I'm glad we got there early to have bubba enjoy the kiddy festivities. That's the best part of the whole event :).

Bye October 2014

I meant to write before the end of October but time…just runs away from you huh? What's going?

Mommy and twin Shee turned 30. WOO! What did we do? We had an 80's party and did a Queen Sing-A-Long on a 9' x 12' movie screen with our huge 80's hair and 80's costumes. It was awesome! I even caught it moments before it hit the ground LOL but it was a wonderful night celebrating with our family. Bye 20's…we had some awesome times. The 30's should be even better.

On Mommy's birthday I wanted to take my angel to Sweet Berry Farm. It was so much fun. My sweet boy. Took classic pumpkin pictures with cousin Noah. Ran through the beautiful flowers (so cute!). Jumped on the balloon jumping trampoline thing (ha I don't know what it's called).

Hudson and I started decorating for Halloween back in August. We pulled out our little bucket of 3 decorations and I knew we had to get busy decorating. I'm proud to say that most of our decorations are hand crafted (and foot crafted) by Hudson. We had such a wonderful time. It was the best part of my year. Made my heart so unbelievably happy. We took them down this past weekend and it made me cry. Haha. So emotional I am. I love my baby's creations. We're going to have to start decorating for Thanksgiving now and Christmas :). Can't wait!

We also decorated because of our Halloween Party we had. Three sweet babes Hudson, Noah and Liam all went trick-or-treating together and it was so much fun. My baby was a pumpkin. He's been telling me for months now he wanted to be a pumpkin and of course he made an adorable one. Liam was a cute monkey :) and Noah was Darth Vader. We ate dinner, went trick-or-treating, carved pumpkins and made s'mores. I think we all had a blast.

The boys handed out candy at first but we had to cut them off as they were giving out a hand full of candy to each kid. We didn't really cut them off we had to go trick or treating but it was funny to see them handing out lots of candy. They loved it.

Before I end this blog I wanted to put some cute things Hudson is saying lately.

This week as I was putting my baby to bed and I started to sing to him. I thought he was almost out and he tells me, "another song mommy." These are the sweet things I will hold onto as long as I can.

Another sweet thing I love is when we're laying in his bed and I'm putting him to sleep he says, "mommy, get on my pillow" he wraps his precious arms around my neck or takes my hand and puts his little fingers through mine and it makes me feel like my heart are going to explode.

Our favorite quote that me and Hudson say over and over because we've seen Hotel Transylvania a billion times, "I'm Dracula blah blah blah…I've never said that in my life…I don't know where that comes from." Love to hear Hudson say it :). So cute.

"Mommy, you're the best ever." "I want you forever mommy." And of course I tell him, "I'm yours forever." My wild son…makes my heart go crazy (and sometimes my brain hehe). I love my life as this wonderful boy's mother. It's the best thing that ever happened to me.

What's Going On - In October 2014

Ok, I've given up on the monthly blogs because I'm not ashamed of saying my baby is 32 months (because he technically is) but I decided to change it up a bit and say…what's going on with us each month :). I missed last month :(. Will be better this month. :)

My latest favorite conversations with Hudson…

Hudson looks in mirror after he wakes up and mommy gets ready for work, "Oh no, my hair looks crazy." Mommy brushes it and he says, "hey…that kind of looks good."

"Dino…I'm proud of you….I'm just kidding."

With his play dough creations - "Mommy let's put it here so everybody will see it."

"Mommy, you are a genius."

I ask Hudson how his day was, he says, "It was good because I was with you." **Melt my heart**

About 5 or so weeks ago my awesome friend Avery told me to show Hudson Dino Dan. He was in love at first sight. We've been collecting dinosaurs, visiting dinosaur parks, watching Dinosaur Dan and Dinosaur Train. We've watched the movie Dinosaur at least once every single day. Yes..every single day. It's been fun to see it catch on like a wildfire and take his little imagination above and beyond. He's learned the names of several dinosaurs and will tell you. I started looking them up in disbelief (sorry) but surely enough he knows what they are. Amazing. 

Our evenings are spent drawing with chalk, playing with dinosaurs, decorating and having funny conversations. 

Oh yeah, play dough..we've been through 16 cans of play dough (is it a can or a tub? haha). Hudson loves to make fossil outlines in his play dough. We accidentally let them dry out from moving on from one task to the other. Think that will be the last set of play dough we get for awhile. He loves making play dough mustaches. We've also gotten into a lot of arts and crafts. Finger paints, painting rocks, anything creative we're trying it. Love to see my little artist at work. My little spiderman is so cute (thanks pawpaw). 

We did a 5K together! The Friedeck's (me, Karl, Hudson, Pops, Nana) and the Biehle's (Shelly, Patrick and cutie Liam) signed up for a 5K to support our sweet cousins in their IVF adventure (they won!) Hudson kept yelling at me to go faster but it was up hill for the first half. Oy. That was a surprise. Never underestimate a 5K people. Especially when pushing a child in a stroller lol. We all had great fun. So proud of my baby for participating and pushing his momma to go faster. Can't wait for him to run with me one day.

We've hit up the zoo a few times as well. It's so awesome that it's less than 10 minutes from my house. It's super to go to on a Sunday when we have no plans. I love the new things I hear from my baby every time we go. He's come a long way since his first time. First learning to make noises like a monkey (thanks nana), to naming animals, to running to his favorites animals, etc. And always loving the train ride. Love taking my little explorer. 

Can't believe how big my angel is getting! Love when he snuggles with his daddy. :) 

On 9/26 Hudson drew his very first intentional smiley face. It's the little things y'all but this seriously made my heart swell. I'm so unbelievably proud of him. His little face was so proud too. I could not believe he drew a smiley face. So very cute :). We also took him to his first trip to Dave & Busters for cousin Riley's birthday party. As soon as Hudson saw the games he wanted to play. I usually don't do this but mommy loaded up a game card and Hudson had so much fun. He loved this game (that isn't for toddlers) that he played with uncle Thomas. There was yelling going on and lots of whoas. :) Oh and he also put his butt on Thomas and said he was farting on him. OH BOY. The lovely lovely things he learns from daddy and pawpaw.

Last weekend for the first time since he was a baby Hudson ate carrots. I couldn't believe it. All I had to do was act like bugs bunny when I ate it and he wanted to do it too. If you don't know me that well…my son doesn't eat any vegetables. When he was 1 and younger he did all the time. He loved cucumbers, green beans, etc…not anymore. LOL. So…mommy will have to get creative on making this fun. If he sees green..he doesn't eat it.

We also played a tiny bit in underwear. We've had a lot going on with our family and bubba stopped going potty outside or in his baby potty. I'm not sure but I think it has to do with some unfortunate events going on in our family. If we even mention underwear he would cry. He's not ready. I'm not ready. But the other day I showed him all the underwear he has and how cool they were. Then I asked him if he just wanted to see what they looked like. He said, "ok." We put him on and he shook his cute little hiny. He likes playing in them. That's a good start for me. Plus he's so darn cute in them even if it is for a few minutes. Today pawpaw and daddy told him that if he put them on that they would make him jumper higher. He put them on and was jumping all over his room. He kept saying, "look at me!" So very cute. He truly believed those underwear made him jump higher. Such a sweet little soul.

Since last weekend Hudson and I have been decorating like crazy for Halloween. It's brought so much joy into our days. Joy into my heart. THIS is the best time of the year. When all family gatherings are kicked off with Halloween. We are going to make the best of this year because make the best of the year makes the best of our lives. I have so much fun watching my baby be creative with painting rocks, painting ghosts, cutting construction paper for mommy, glueing eyeballs, making hand bats and spiders. This has been my favorite part of this whole year.

Oh boy…my phone. My son asks for my phone at least every 30 minutes. "I play a game on your phone?" I give in and say go for it. He plays. He navigates on my phone like a pro. He knows which icon is the camera and he took 200 selfies today in 5 minutes. Take that selfie takers LOL!

Just love my angel and our goofy conversations. Love our daily adventures. Finding different ways to be creative. Playing outside. Finding joy in the little things in life. We are joyful and ready to start this joyful season.

Happy Fall Everyone!

Cousin Noah's New Beach House!

I've been slacking…catching up. A few weeks ago Hudson and I went on our first road trip. I was nervous. It was supposed to take us 3.5 hours and took us 4. Not too bad. We stopped at several gas stations to potty and get drinks and snacks of course (which resulted in another potty stop). 

4 hours later we finally got to cousin Noah's new house in Seadrift. They moved to the coast because James got an amazing new job. We are happy for them BUT MISS THEM LIKE CRAZY! We got some awesome play time in. Port Lavaca has an amazing beach :). A splash pad right off the water. Fluffy sand. Plenty of sand castle building material. Plenty of sweet cousin time. Hudson even crashed in Noah's bed as they were watching a movie the 2nd night. Those boys wore each other out. 

Can't wait to go back to see Nanny, James and Noah again.

A Few of my Favorites

In a posting mood. A few of my favorite pictures.

Wonderful Labor Day Weekend

This past weekend was definitely one for the books..or the blog. I've been slacking :(. Been one weird summer to say the least.

Thursday night Hudson and I built and painted a bird house. I loved watching Hudson's face as he focused so intensely. My little artist at work. Last week I pulled out the paints for the first time since last year and this year was different. Last year Hudson didn't want to touch the paint. This year he was so patient, doing 1 color at a time, creating his masterpiece. While working from home I'm having to get creative on keeping my bubba entertained. I'm so happy that he loves it. We also started watching Dino Dan and Dinosaur Train. Hudson LOVES dinosaurs. I'm sure that boys and girls are both fun to raise but this boy thing..it's pretty awesome.

Friday we got up and I decided that since we have this new love of Dinosaurs we should go dig some Dinosaur bones. Let's be like Dino Dan. I took Hudson to the Austin Nature & Science Center. We checked out all of the bones, fossils, bugs, animals and dug dinosaur bones. My bubba's curiosity was awesome. This has to be the best stage yet (I say that every month so maybe it just gets better and better :) ). Afterwards we hit up the Liz Carpenter Fountain to cool off. It was just us and one other family. Plenty of space to run around freely. It was perfect. Afterwards we split an ice cream from Sandy's. I love to share my ice cream with my honey…..love to share my life. I'm so lucky to be a part of his.

We spent the night with nana and pops so we could head down and see Hapa in San Antonio in the morning. Bubba showed hapa how he drives his toy car. Hudson pushed hapa's walker around and they shared strawberries. It's always fun to see hapa. He's pretty cool. We then stopped by to see Liam, Shelly & Patrick. Watched Liam crawl around like nobody's business. That boy is getting around. So reminds me of Hudson…when all the madness started haha. I knew it was on when Hudson started crawling. It's on for Mr. Liam too. He's walking around the coffee table as he holds on. He's ready to go! I love the way Liam looks at Hudson. It's like he's thinking…cousin..me and you…once I start running we are taking on this town! I love the way Hudson is so sweet to his baby cousin too. They have that adoring cousin look.

We ended the night with a  paint session with maw maw. Love my painter. My mom is an amazing artist too. She is amazing at everything she does. Hair, makeup, painting, designing, floral arrangements and so much more. My sister adopted more of those talents than I did (haha).

Sunday nana & pops took Hudson to a few stores and then to the Zilker Train while we were at a good friend's baby shower. They even did a little fishing.

Monday daddy went Hunting and mommy and Hudson took off for a fun filled day. We went to get some dinosaurs and play dough. Then spent a few hours at the Liz Carpenter fountain again. I love that place. Hudson let some water squirt him up his shirt and at his butt. The look on his face was priceless. That night we ended it with watching our new movie Walking with Dinosaurs, building with play dough and pretending to have our dinosaurs talk. I love my son's imagination. I love how he shares his toys with me and wants me to play with him. I love my time with my angel. He's truly my best friend. I owe all the happiness in my heart to him. I am forever his.

Love my sweet boy. Thanks for the blast as always!