January and February Happenings

Beau and Hudson with their long-time buddies (1/11)

My beautiful friend Heidi moved to Idaho, so we had a potluck to say goodbye! (1/11)

We've had a lot of snow for Albuquerque this year! (1/13)

The boys enjoy making snowmen, stomping around, collecting icicles, and having snowball fights! (1/13)

I like the fact that the snow melts pretty quickly and we're back to sunny skies and warmish weather! (1/13)

These two sure have fun together! Hudson's a wonderful big brother and Beau always makes everything extra fun! (1/14)

We made salt-dough creations one day, and the boys painted them the next day! (1/16)

This little stinker's always making the funniest faces! (1/16)

Hudson made ninja turtles and their weapons. I think he's holding Donatello's staff. (1/16)

Nice mustache, little man! (1/16)

Uh oh - a naked shot! Having way too much fun doing finger paints in the bathtub! (1/17)

I don't know how this guy gets so messy with just a bowl of cold cereal. (2/8)

A pink bath for Valentine's Day! (2/14)

What a little ham! (2/14)

I surprised my three sweethearts with a Valentine's breakfast. We had pink pancakes, bacon, pink eggs, oranges, and OJ. The boy got little goody bags with sweets, new toothbrushes, and sippy cups. And Seb got a giant Reese's heart. I love my men! (2/14)

My VT companion got me those lovely paper white flowers. It was neat to see how fast they grew - over an inch a day! (2/14)

I thought Beau's birthday party invites turned out so cute! He is really into Mickey right now!

We celebrated Beau's second birthday with a Mickey Mouse party with all of his in-town cousins. (2/16)

We had hot-diggity-dogs, Chinese chicken salad, chocolate fondue, and filled chocolate cupcakes. Yum!

Beau has been an absolute joy to have in our family!

We love Beau's independent spirit, hilarious sense of humor, his silly faces, and his spunkiness!

We're so glad we have lots of family around - the boys sure love their cousins!

At the party, we played Pin the Ears on Mickey and the boys raced cars on a big "road rally"

Look at all those cute kids!

Enjoying dinner together (2/16)

I always have to wake Beau up from his nap to get Hudson from preschool. (2/21)

Most days, he wakes up in complete bliss with a silly, tired look on his face! (2/21)

This year had been pretty busy for all of us so far and is only getting busier!

Sebastian

These days, it feels pretty special when Seb's home before the boys are in bed. He's had lots of after-work commitments that have made it feel like he's our special visitor when he is here! So sad! But it's all for good causes!

Seb's committed himself to exercising more often and stays late after work a couple days a week to work out in the gym they have at his office. I admire him for taking the initiative to take care of himself, even after long days at the office. If only I felt motivated enough to work out!

Seb also works with the 16-year-old Young Men in our ward, so he goes to mutual one night a week and after that plays basketball with his friends until about 10:30pm. I'm glad he has a hobby that he loves and that he's been able to start up a new game since moving to this side of town.

Another thing that's kept Sebastian busy this year is his play practice. He auditioned for a musical that our stake is putting on (next weekend!) called "Savior of the World." Seb was cast as the disciple, Cleopas, and has been working hard to learn his lines and his songs. I haven't heard him yet, but others have told me that his is one of their favorite songs! I can't wait to see the play! Here's a flyer is you want to attend. Please come!! I think it's going to be a wonderful night:

Jessica

I've been busy just being a mama. Our weeks are always filled with fun activities for the boys. I spend my time driving Hudson to preschool, attending the boys' playgroup and chatting with the other mommies, visiting the library, running errands, and taking care of our home. I sometimes can't believe how much housework there is to do and how quickly it piles up! Laundry, sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, dusting, making beds, grocery shopping, picking up toys, putting clothes away, cleaning toilets, keeping the car clean, preparing meals ... motherhood really is a full-time job! And that's not even including taking care of and spending time with my little children, which really should be my main focus each day! (But sadly isn't most of the time!!!)

I've been sick for most of the year and can't seem to shake an annoying cough I've had since Valentine's Day. Ugh - the joys of being pregnant! Baby girl is growing nicely and we can't believe she'll be here in less than 3 months! Yikes! I've been nesting like crazy. In the past couple months, I moved all the boys things over to their new shared room, I put together some furniture to hold all of their toys in the new playroom, I assembled their bunkbeds, and I rearranged baby girl's furniture to get ready for her arrival. I also went on a little shopping spree and bought some DARLING baby girl clothes - oooooh man. Baby girl stuff is SOOOOOO cute!!!

I'm still running my Etsy shop during nap time and in the evenings (it's really slowed down since last year which is a huge blessing), and I just finished working with my client, Letisha Perry, putting together her DIY Interior Design blog, Blue Eye DIY. I'd been working with her since July of last year and now her site is finally launched! It feels so good to have that finished! I really enjoyed working on it, though, and learned so much in the process. I was able to come up with her slogan, design her logo and come up with other branding material, and actually put together her Wordpress blog. You can check it out here: blueeyediy.com. Please subscribe if it looks like something you might be interested in! Letisha is very talented and as part of my payment she and her sister made our dining room table. We LOVE it. It's solid wood and oh so classic and sturdy. I think we'll have it until we die! :)

For Family Home Evenings this year, we've been focusing on "Scripture Heroes." I found a great blog where another mom shared all of her lesson ideas and materials. It's been so fun to see the boys become familiar with some of the Book of Mormon prophets and to recognize the wonderful attributes or "super powers" that these people displayed. We also started seriously reading the Book of Mormon together as a family this year - I can really see Hudson getting interested and excited about some of the stories we've read so far.

Hudson

I can't believe Hudson will be starting Kindergarten this year, so I want to squeeze every ounce of fun out of each day before he's gone! Starting in August, he'll be at school from 9am-4pm. Doesn't that seem so sad and incredibly long?? Oh man, I am going to have a really hard time adjusting to him being gone! Currently, he's loving preschool. He has a group of friends that he looks forward to seeing, and he's been loving the current unit, Cities and Buildings. He spends his self-selection time at school playing in the firehouse or playing with the garbage truck toy. He has really blossomed in Mrs. Lindsey's class and I am so glad we had him attend, even though it was a financial sacrifice!

I'd like to teach Hudson how to read this summer before he starts school. Preschool's been great at reinforcing all of his letters and letter sounds. I think it won't take to long and he'll be there!

Hudson is sleeping on the top bunk bed now (he loves his little "bird's nest"), and he has a habit of hoarding all of the good toys up there where no one else can reach them! It's hard to have to share everything with a little brother! He loves watching cartoons (if it's up to him, he'd watch Lego Superheroes, Ninja Turtles, or anything involving ninjas), but I tend to make him stick to Doki, Magic School Bus, Curious George, and the like. Hudson loves being outside, digging in the dirt, looking for bugs, playing with superheroes and cars, and playing hide-and-seek in the dark! We just love our sweet, loving, smart young man!

We just had Hudson see a urologist this week and it looks like he'll be having surgery in July. Ugh! I am pretty nervous for him (especially to be put under), but I think it's the right move. Keep him in your prayers!

Beau

Beau is just living life and loving it! He turned two last month and loves to tell everyone by holding up his fingers in a peace sign. He talks so well for his age and can express just about anything going on in that funny little mind of his. Beau makes us laugh all day long. He's always making funny faces and just being a ham! He's turning into quite the trouble maker, though, and enjoys hiding Hudson's favorite toys (I sometimes find them in the diaper pail) and hitting when he's mad!

This week, we've been training Beau to stay in the bottom bunk at bedtime. He LOVES his big boy bed (the "bear cave"), but he also loves the freedom to get out of it whenever he wants! Oye! If he gets out too many times, we put him in his crib and it makes him SO upset. He'll then promise to stay in his bed, and he usually does for that night. We're crossing our fingers that it keeps getting better each night!

Beau has a few favorite toys that he likes to have near him. These include his tiny Mickey Mouse stuffed animal, his tiny Lightning McQueen car, and his tiny Woody figurine. Anything that's small is a baby to him, and he tends to love those babies! I'm hoping he'll love OUR baby, too, when she arrives! Beau, like Hudson, has recently developed a LOVE of hide-and-go-seek in the dark! It's really fun hiding with him because he is SO dang good at it! He knows that he needs to be quiet, and when you tell him it's time to run to "base", he runs with all his might! So cute.

Beau loves riding his tricycle (we don't do it enough), watching cartoons, playing with his cars, playing with Hudson, and giving Daddy hugs and kisses. I couldn't imagine life without him!

Woo! That was an epic post! Well, here are a few other things we've been up to so I don't forget:

• (2/1) We hosted a Superbowl party at our house and invited a couple of Seb's friends from work. Seb was pretty bummed the Seahawks lost, but it was a pretty exciting game!
• (2/8) Hudson gave his first talk in primary! It was SO cute and I am so proud of him! He's always been really shy in front of big groups, but he got up there and gave his whole talk! I drew little pictures for him to remind him of what to say, and he had the whole thing down! He got pretty nervous, but he finished the whole thing!
• (2/13-14) Valentine's Day is always a favorite holiday of ours. Hudson's class did an adorable carnival. They covered every wall in the preschool with red, purple, and pink butcher paper. They totally go all out. Both boys attended and had so much fun playing games and then feasting on their treats. Seb and I got a babysitter on Valentine's Day and went out for Italian food with some friends and then to a stake dance for adults. Oh so fun! We had everyone over afterwards for fondue and games. 

Well, I better run! I need to pick up Hudson from preschool!