Monster Trucks are cool

Last night Brandon and Connor went to see the Monster truck show at the local football arena. This show is a huge deal in our town. It is the "super bowl" of motor sports. Luckily I was allowed to miss it. However Connor, Brandon & 14 other dads & sons went together. First they all met at pizza hut. (poor pizza hut) Connor thought that was great. Then they got to take a shuttle bus from the parking lot to the arena. Connor thought that was great. You see, every time Connor sees a school bus he asks me if he can take a ride and I tell him it will be a long time before he will be able to ride a bus. Brandon said the entire ride Connor just kept repeating "I'm on a bus, I'm on a bus". Too cute! Then they got to see the monster trucks run for about an hour and a half. Connor thought this was great. They left early as it was already after 9pm. Since there weren't any shuttle buses back to the parking lot they got a rickshaw to take them there. Our city has them for free. All you have to do is tip. Connor thought this was great. So all in all Connor thought this was the best night ever. I have never seen him so excited. And for all of those concerned, yes he did wear protective ear wear.

I have always thought of the truck show as kind of a red neck type of thing, but not any more. I guess now I see it as a little boy type of thing. So, if you have kids, this is one event that can't be missed. Next year we are going to try to get pit passes for all the kids so they can see the trucks up close.

What did you say?

This morning Hudson got up at 6am....that's right 6! He is getting 4 teeth at once & it is really messing with him. So, we cuddled until 7am & then got our day started. I didn't get a chance to take a shower, so once he was down for a nap I went to take a shower. Connor asked if he could get into the shower with me so I said sure. While I washed him he started to name his body part.... hair, arm, belly, legs, butt, nuts.... Wait a minute.. what did you say? That's right people... He said Nuts. I almost fell over. I went to see Brandon for lunch today & asked where he thinks Connor may have learned this & of course it was Brandon. I asked him to please come up with a better word. I can just see Connor in preschool telling the teacher about his nuts.

We went for Connor's post op visit today. He had a hearing test & they also checked the tubes. He passed with flying colors. The Dr. said he looks great. When the Dr. walked in Connor said "Hi Dr. K, I did a great job with my earplugs". It was so cool for him to talk in complete sentences & be understood. Yeah Connor!

Tomorrow Connor & Brandon & a huge group of dads & sons are going to see the monster truck show. I am sure there will be some great stories from that!

We got new cell phones today. Same numbers, but now we have Verizon. So, if you have Verizon please let me know since we can now chat phone to phone for free. I finally got rid of my huge, old Nextel phone. People were starting to laugh!

brandons diet

Haven't updated this week due to Hudson's teething. Poor kid is not happy. He is not napping very well and that makes me not happy too! I will tell you one person who is happy... Brandon! He got on the scale this morning and weighs less than he has in over 10 years. This is good timing as we have our health insurance physicals on Tuesday. Me, on the other hand.. I ate 3 pudding pops today. Thank you Mr. Cosby for bringing those back!

Brandon is on some new funky diet where he only eats one type of meat (poultry, beef, pork, etc.) and then does not eat it for 5 days. Kind of weird to cook this way, but I am getting the hang of it. But, it also means that I have to make his lunch now & send him with the meat of the day. He is eating wraps due to his yeast allergy. So, our new diet goes as follows... Sun/pasta, Mon/Turkey, Tue/ fish, Wed/Pork, Thur/chicken, Fri/beef, Sat/on your own! Apparently this is working as he has finally lost those last few lbs. I really don't want him to lose any more. I like him 100 lbs bigger than me!

Hudson is saying Mama. I am so excited. you may think.. what's the big deal.. all babies say Mama. Well, due to Connor's hearing problems he called me "ba" until he was almost 2. So, hearing Hudson say Mama at 10 months is pretty exciting to me.

Fun Weekend

Friday was spent at the mall with my friend Erin and her 2 adorable kids, Ryan (4) & Olivia who is 11 days older than Hudson. Ryan just got those wheelie shoes & wanted to go skate at the mall. We had a great time. Our mall has an indoor play area. The kids had a blast & I even managed to only spend money on lunch.

Brandon had Saturday off (yeah!) so first thing in the morning he took Connor to church to help take down the live nativity. I love that Brandon takes Connor to do this kind of stuff. All of the adults give Connor little projects so he can help. This time he got to put away all of the nuts, bolts & screws. He was so excited. When they put up the nativity in December Connor got to help. Every time I dropped him of at school ( he goes to the school at our church) he said "I made that", when he passed the nativity.

After the work was done it was time to play. We met up with Erin, her husband & kids & our old next door neighbor Katina & her kids at a local indoor play center. We all had a blast. Brandon & Brett kept the big kids busy on the bounce houses while us ladies stayed in the baby section with Hudson & Olivia. We had so much fun. Next stop was the stride rite outlet to pick up shoes for Connor's super fast growing feet. The outlet sells the same shoes as the store for 1/2 the price. Connor has been wearing the same style since he learned how to walk. He just keeps getting new ones. He never gives us any grief when it is time for new shoes. We do not believe in buying shoes with characters on them. I was so glad to find the ones I did. The are going to discontinue them next year, so I bought the next size up as well.

Sunday was pretty typical for us. Church, Sunday School, lunch, naps & a visit from Brandon's parents. The only thing different is we went & got Connor a new big boy bed. He was in a toddler bed & then a twin mattress on the floor. Now he is in a twin bed & he thinks it is pretty cool! I actually got him to stay still for 2 seconds to take a picture of us together. The new camera should be here Wednesday!

Quiet week

Since all the schools were closed on Monday my friend Shelley (who works at a school) came over to visit with the kids. We had a great lunch & she soaked up some baby time. I wish I had taken some pics. She is so great with my kids & they love her too. Connor went down for a nap & she left while he was sleeping. When he woke up he looked for her all over the house. It was cute.
The rest of the week was pretty laid back. I am still cautious with Connor & don't want him to over do it. He is doing great. Connor went back to school yesterday & had a great day. He can say his teachers name now. He can say more words than I can count. Everyone is starting to understand him. I am so glad we did the surgery. He has even started singing! It is the most beautiful sound I have ever heard! (though, I am his mother)




Brandon has had 2 sets of allergy tests. The man is allergic to everything! I am going to need to change the way I cook. GREAT! I guess when you eat too much of one thing you can actually throw yourself into an allergic reaction. He is at risk for peanuts & soy & yeast & a ton of other things. The doctors actually suggest you only eat a food once every 5 days. Like that is possible. But, if it is going to give him some relief I will try. So, now our dinners will be on a schedule. My friends already tease me about my schedules for cleaning & laundry, so what's one more.

Hudson has been standing for 30 seconds to 1 minute at a time. I am so not ready for him to walk. I guess once that starts he wont be a "baby" any more. That's when I will want to think about having another.

I had my hair hi-lighted on Wednesday & told my hairdresser to go "very" blonde. WOW! She listened. I told her that I think she puts crack in the dye bottle, cause I'm addicted! Brandon likes it. I will probably go back to brown when we get ready for the next pregnancy. I never thought I would get hi-lights. Now I think I've gone to the extreme!

We ordered a new camera yesterday. I can't wait for it to get here. It is one of those SLR's. I find it impossible to get a picture of Connor these days. He rarely stays still & even when he does, my digital takes too long to reset. Now I just need to learn how to use the thing. My BF Alison is coming to visit at the end of the month & she has the same camera so hopefully she can give me a crash course. If you know me, you know I do not read directions!

Great Weekend

The rest of Friday was great. Connor was back to his old self by the end of the day. It might be crazy to say , but his speech is already showing improvement. We took it easy Friday night. Connor has to wear ear plugs whenever he comes into contact with water now. He was such a trooper the first time we put them in. He obviously did not like it, but he only tried to take them out once. Tonight when we put them in he just left them in.

Yesterday Brandon decided to start digging up our backyard (like he has nothing else to do). He is going to pour a slab to make the patio bigger. This will be the first phase of the backyard makeover. Hopefully, by the end there will be a pool, fence, play structure & some landscaping. That man never rests!! Then we went out to dinner & to look for a new camera. Now that the boys are getting faster it is time to upgrade!

Today, after church we spent some time with our friends Paul & Marci & their 2 kids. It was nice as we hadn't spent any time with them in a while. Their son goes to school with Connor, but with every body's schedules it is hard to get together.

I just realized that I haven't posted any pics of the dining room table Brandon built. So, here it is:

It is so beautiful! He did an amazing job. The finish is professional quality. Please note that the light fixture is the one that came with the house & will be changed as soon as I can figure out what i want in there. I haven't finished making the curtains yet, but I just had to show you the table.

Surgery

Connor had his ear tubes put in this morning. Last night Brandon's Dad (Pops) stayed over with us so he could be here for Hudson today. We had to be at the surgery center at 6:30 this morning & it's a half hour ride so we thought it would be easier for him to stay her rather than get up before 5am to be here in time. When we arrived at the surgery center Connor was in a great mood. I changed him into his special "Lightning McQueen" PJ's and he played in the waiting room. They let us go in & prepare him for surgery. He took some meds that made him sleepy. He was still very cute telling all of the nurses "Hi" and "Thanks for coming". They loved him. He went with the nurses with no problem & didn't even cry. Brandon did, but not Connor! We sat in the waiting room for exactly 10 minutes. Then Dr. K came out & said it went well & we could see Connor in about 5 minutes. We went into recovery & he had big tears in his eyes. The nurse told us that all kids wake up crying. We were able to calm him down in about a minute. It was pretty cute how he kept falling over from the anesthesia. Then he told all of the nurses they did a great job, thanks for coming & good bye. We were home by 9am. Brandon made Connor's favorite pancakes & then even went back to work. Connor is doing great. I just put he & Hudson down for a nap. Thanks for all of the concern, advice & well wishes!

Pre-Op

Today Connor had his pre-op visit & it went well. Dr. K said he is good to go for surgery. Even though Christmas was only a couple of weeks ago we got him a surgery gift. We got the entire set of "matchbox car" CARS. From the movie Cars. He LOVES them. Yes, this is probably spoling him and i don't care. His face was awesome when he saw them all in a row.

Time to Play

We have just about completed the play room. I am so happy with the result. Brandon built a huge shelf system for the toys. Now I only need pictures for the opposite wall to make it complete. Since the room has a sports theme I was going to put up pics of sports hero's, but then i thought who better for the boys to look up to than Brandon. I'm sure many of you know that Brandon played soccer for many years and even played for the US national team. Brandon's Mom has some great poster size pics of him playing. She is going to give me those pics for our sports room. I think they will be the perfect finishing touch. Until then, here is the playroom:

I made the curtains out of sheets. and we just purchased that rug you see. It is so cool. It has a town & roads & railroad tracks. The boys love it!

Here is another project I completed recently. We have a huge wall in our staircase & I wanted something "big" to put in it. So, what better than pics of our kids. I took my 2 favorite pics of the boys and had them blown up to 16x20. I think they look great!

This week is filled with Dr.'s appointments for the whole family. We found out today that Brandon will not be having surgery for his sinuses. The Dr. is going to try a drug therapy first. I really hope this works. When he gets a sinus headache he is in so much pain. Connor has pre-op on Wednesday, final check on Thursday with the pediatrician & surgery on Friday. Brandon is already starting to crack about the surgery. He was up half the night worrying about it. Looks like I will need to be the strong one for this. I never thought he would be the mush. I know he will be just fine & hopefully this will put an end to those miserable ear infections. I let everyone know how it went Friday afternoon.

My Favorite Rooms

Here are some more pics of the house. First, the ever popular laundry room. The washer & dryer were my Christmas gift last year. I know some of you are probably thinking bad gift, but it was exactly what I wanted. I pretty much buy myself anything I need throughout the year, but I would never buy a new washer & dryer (ours worked fine & the washer was only 2 years old) But Brandon knew that I really coveted these. So here they are. This is my first real laundry room. Not a closet & not in the garage. We put up some shelves & I think it looks great.

Here is another exciting room. Our master closet. Well, it may not be exciting to you, but if you know me then you know why i like it. It is so organized! Brandon's parents gave us the system as a house warming gift & it took Brandon and his Dad 8 hours to put it together, but it was well worth it. We were able to fit all of our clothing in it so we don't have any dressers in our bedroom, which makes our room look BIG. Notice how all the shoes are neatly put away in clear bins on top of the closet. I know my friend Amy is laughing right now! What can I say... I love organization! Next is all wooden hangers. But I am waiting for Ikea to open here in the fall to buy those.

And now for my real favorite room in the house... the Kitchen. I really love this kitchen. There is so much cabinet space. If you have ever been to our old home you know that this kitchen had a lot to live up to. Our old kitchen had 2 big pantries, a huge island & 2 sinks. So, I wasn't sure how I would ever love a kitchen as much. Well, the beautiful counter tops & extra large cabinets have made me fall in love. There is only 1 sink, but I am OK with that & the 1 pantry is working our just fine. I love all of the counter space & the bar is something we didn't have in the old house. I also love that the kitchen opes up to the dining room. We didn't make a separate dining area we just have 1 huge room for our kitchen/ dining / living & I really like it. We decided to make the separate room a family room. The only thing I would ever change about this kitchen is the color of the appliances. I would love Stainless Steel. But, the builder did not offer that as an option. So, we will enjoy these for a few years until I can convince Brandon that a change is necessary. (Good Luck!)

The family is well. We just found out that we had another record breaking year at the shop. Connor started back at school today. He was so excited to go & Pop picked him up & now has him at Wendy's for a frosty. It is their special treat together once a week. Hudson is teething pretty bad, but he is still in a good mood. After all, he is Hudson! I took him to run errands today and as usually he charmed everyone we met. We spent New Years eve at home with the kids and our friend Julie. We actually made it to 11pm. Happy new year to you all!

New house pics

I thought I would start posting some pics of the house. So, here is the guest room:

Downstairs half bath is still waiting on a new mirror (one with a frame):

And here is the boys bath with a sports theme:

That's all for now. I will update with more pics as more rooms become complete.