Zoo Pals...

We decided to take the kids to the Binder Park Zoo for a last little hurrah before school starts. The kids did really good on the drive down and had a lot of fun walking through the zoo. Unfortunately, my camera battery died after we got there so no pics...

Their favorite part was probably the African Safari where we got to feed the giraffes, although Aubrey freaked out when the giraffe tried to take the lettuce out of her hand. The boys did it though.

We stopped for ice cream on the way home and then took Aubrey to cheer practice! What a great day :)

So far behind.....

I am so far behind in blogging. Each day I keep telling myself that I will get caught up, but it never seems to happen. This is my goal for the weekend though so stay tuned.....

Hudson is 8 months old

So hard to believe Hudson that you are 8 months old now....

As you can tell, you no longer sit still.....

You can sit yourself up now

You still don't crawl - you just drag yourself along

You are wearing size 3 diaper

You wear 6-9 and 9-12 month clothing

I think you weigh around 19 lbs or so

You are still a very happy baby

Your siblings are still in love with you

I love you so very much my sweet baby boy....

7 Months and Updates

So hard to believe that 7 months have flown by....

Hudson this month you weigh 18 pounds 9 oz and I'm not sure how long you are.

You wear size 3 diaper and 6-9 and some 9-12 months clothes (depending on whether they were from your brother or not!)

You sit up unsupported and have started doing the "soldier crawl" to get wherever you want to go. You do get up on your hands and knees and rock back and forth too.

You are still a very easy, happy go lucky little guy.

You are still nursing and take baby food 2-3 times a day. You love both fruits and veggies although I think carrots and bananas are your favorite.

You just got two teeth and like to chomp my finger and you have recently discovered that you can pull your sisters hair.

The older you get, the more people say that you look like Mason.

You are still on the apnea monitor, but we had your check up with the Hematologist the other day and all your labs look good there and you do not need to be seen again. Yeah!!!

You are not sleeping in your crib yet because of the monitor. It doesn't go off that often anymore but I'm too afraid you'll get caught in the wires.

You are very ticklish.

Your brothers and sister love to make you laugh.

We love you soooo much!

Here's what we've been up to lately:

I helped at Chase's Valentine's Day party....

Daddy bought Aubrey a flower and balloon for V Day - she loved it!

We've worked on crafts.....

and taken a lot of antibiotics - strep has been going through our house (which is why I haven't been blogging).
Read a lot of books......
and my new hobby that I'm trying to teach myself.

Happy Thursday.

Happy Valentine's Day and weekend recap

Happy Valentine's Day from Prince Charming!!!

We had a good day - Aubrey had her party at school and Chase has his tomorrow. The kids got cards in the mail (thanks Grammy, Aunt Marti and Grandma Carla) and Tom cooked a wonderful dinner - shrimp scampi, garlic mashed potatoes, steamed broccoli and asparagus, garlic bread and strawberry shortcake for dessert - Yummy!

Oh and guess who got his first tooth today?

We had a very busy weekend....

Practicing our sitting up skills,

celebrating our 100th day of school (Aubrey missed it, but I'll share that later),

making valentine crafts,

and just hanging around.

And oh yeah, did I mention the sickness?

Aubrey came home from school on Thursday with a temp of 101. I took her to the doctor that night and she had an upper respiratory infection. Has anyone ever dragged 4 tired children to Target at 8pm to fill a prescription ? I don't recommend it. Needless to say, she spent the next day home with me upset about missing her 100th day of school party. But she was able to attend a Valentine tea party with some of her girlfriends on Saturday.

Then Saturday night, Mason got up around 10pm telling me his "mouf is on fiwre" and he had a temp of 102 and was breathing kind of funny. Needless to say, we had a loooong night. I ended up calling the Doctor's Emergency Line Sunday morning and we were told to take him in. So I loaded up Hudson and Mason and we went downtown to the new Children's ER. Tom stayed home with Chase and Aubrey and did Sunday school.

We pulled up to the doors at the ER at 9:40. A security guard helped me carry in my bags and the car seat and a valet parked the van for us. Too cool! They met us at the desk, took his vitals and got us in a room right away. I changed him into his hospital gown (I have pictures on my phone, but can't figure out how to get them here) and a doctor came in right away. They did a strep culture and it came back positive. They gave him some antibiotics and a prescription. The nurse called for our car and it was ready when we walked out the door. We were back home at 11:30 - has to be a record for the ER. It is sooo nice inside (for a hospital - you know what I mean.) Bright colors, friendly staff - even the bathrooms have green toilet handles, which Mason loved - being newly potty trained and green is his favorite color.

So hopefully this is the end to our sickness and no one else will get anything. At least so far we have had a great winter compared to the swine flu of '09!

More Snow Fun

Aubrey went back to school yesterday so the boys and I played around the house and decided to go out and play in the snow while we waited for her to come home. It was very cold though so we didn't make it until the bus came.

Crazy as it sounds, this was Hudson's first time playing outside. It was either to cold or we were to worried about his oxygen - but that doesn't seem to be affecting him at all. Thankfully, he seemed to like the snow because we sure get a lot of it here.

Now that Hudson is on the move (rolling across the floor), he can get into the kids' toys. Time to keep the little pieces in the bedroom.

Here he is playing with the stair railing.........

Hope you are all having a fabulous Saturday!

Random

Well no school again today!

The kids played outside making igloos and then we played inside. We finally made it out of the house this afternoon to take Aubrey to gymnastics and the roads are clear. School tomorrow.

I made a new recipe for dinner tonight and everyone loved it. Sorry I didn't take any pictures.
I cubed chicken, stir-fried it and then added steamed broccoli and cashews and a bottle of General Tsao's sauce. Yummy! Definitely a keeper.

Hudson learned a new trick today. He rolled across the floor to the stair railing for downstairs and figured out that he can stick his feet between the rails. It kept him occupied for 20 minutes. I'm guessing that is where I am going to keep finding him. He also sat up for about 5 minutes today.

I really don't have anything else to say tonight - going to go watch some Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice.

Blizzard 2011 and 6 month Post

I'm a few weeks late posting this, but wanted to wait until Hudson had his check-up so I could post his weight and such. Doesn't he look so happy? That's because I told him he couldn't play outside in the snow today! ha!
Hudson, you are now 6 months old (oh where has the time gone?)

You weigh 18 lbs. 1 oz (50%)

You are 26 1/4 inches (25-50%)

You wear a size 3 diaper and 6-9 month clothes and some 9-12 month clothes
You are still nursing, but are also eating solids. You have cereal for breakfast, fruit for lunch and a vegetable for dinner. You are not picky about your food at all, but really seem to like bananas - which is so funny because Mommy doesn't like them.
You don't have any teeth yet, but are certainly drooling like you are going to get them soon.

You roll everywhere and scoot yourself backwards along the floor. You get up on your hands and knees and rock back and forth, but have not yet figured how to crawl.

You can sit up for a few minutes at a time unsupported.

You love to watch your siblings and laugh at them all the time, which makes them just try to make you laugh even harder.

You love to play peek-a-boo.

You are a very easy going, smiley baby. Everyone comments on how smiley you are.

You are learning how to flirt.

You are a Mama's boy and look all around the room to find me if someone else is holding you.

You have started crying if I walk out of your line of sight.

You are still on your monitor at night. Your pulse ox has stabilized, but you are still showing some episodes of periodic breathing, so they are still monitoring you.

You are one of the best things in my life. I thank God daily for you. I love you soooo much.
Today school was cancelled due to "Blizzard 2011" . I'm not sure of the total amount of snowfall but I would guess that snowfall was around 14 inches.

One of the older kids left the pantry door open and Mason helped himself to some Doritos - atleast he stayed in the kitchen! It drives me nuts how many times a day they are in the pantry and "helping" themselves to a snack. AHHHHH!!! Does anyone else have this problem?

These are taken in our front yard. I tried to take some of the back, but since everything was all white you couldn't see very well. Our retaining wall is completely buried though.
Chase helped Tom try to shovel us out. The drifts were taller than him! The van would have never made it out of our subdivision. As a matter of fact, we have another snow day tomorrow because the plows were working on main roads only today. I think we'll go build a snowman tomorrow.

Fun with Mason!

Mason is at such a fun age right now. He is starting to spell his name and we are teaching him some songs to sing. His favorite right now is Head, Shoulders, Knees and toes.

If you listen closely, you can hear that he says head, shoulders, knees, toes and bad, bad nose! I just love it!!!

The kids went back to school this week and I am attempting to organize and clean the house. My to do list is a mile and half long and Mason, Hudson and I are all sick. Hudson has his first cold and is sooo stuffy. I feel bad for him. We go on Thursday for his check-up and hopefully we will be done with the monitor!

Hope you enjoy the video.

A Year in Review

Hard to believe that 2010 is over and we are now in 2011. I haven't done so well blogging lately, but I promise that will change.

I thought I would highlight some of 2010 as a look back.

January - we mostly stayed at home and played as it was cold outside.



February - we found out we were expecting another baby boy!

March - the kids made me a cake for my birthday.

Aubrey turned 6 and we celebrated by going to Chuck E. Cheese with Uncle Josh and Aunt Angie.

April - Mason turned 2!

May - Chase played soccer

He graduated from Preschool

June - Aubrey completed Kindergarten. She also had her dance recital.

We went to the Detroit Zoo (8 months pregnant)

We met a new member of the family. My niece Lilliana.

In July we stayed around the house. I was miserable and uncomfortable - it was a hot summer to be preggo.

July 23 - our newest blessing was born! Welcome to the world Hudson.

Chase turned 5!

Hudson returned to the hospital. He originally went in for jaundice and ended up with more problems. He endured a lot of tests and we are still not exactly sure what was wrong.

August - Hudson had his blood transfusion and finally got to come home from the hosptial...

on oxygen and a monitor for apnea and his pulse oxygen.

September brought the start of school. Aubrey into 1st grade and Chase into Pre-K

Aubrey started Cheerleading - Go Rockets!

Hudson turned 2 months!

October we celebrated when.....

Hudson was taken off his oxygen!

Cheerleading ended

Hudson turned 3 months

We went Trick-or-Treating

November - Hudson turned 4 months old

We tried to take Thanksgiving pictures (not easy)

December - Hudson turned 5 months.

The holidays were filled with a lot of parties!


The kids had a blast Christmas! As usual they were spoiled rotten.

The Gingerbread house they decorated by themselves!

We made our own pizzas as we do every year - always a family favorite.

Happy New Year everyone! Here's hoping for another wonderful year.