Not much going on

This past weekend was full of family fun. We went to Chuck E. Cheese on Saturday and to a local park to feed some ducks. Connor loves to feed the ducks.I save all of the crusts from his PB & J sandwiches so we always have "duck food". Sunday we went over to Brandon's parents to celebrate his Dad's birthday. His Mom made a great dinner & Connor got to sing Happy Birthday to Pops. Speaking of singing, the little guy loves to sing now. On the way to school yesterday he sang me the "great day" song I made up for him when he started school. It is to the tune of "Bad Day". But I made my own words. Then John Mayer's "Waiting on the World to Change" came on the radio & he sang the chorus & clapped & tried to snap his fingers. He kind of looked like Taylor Hicks jerking around. It was hilarious, but very cute.

We really don't have anything to do today. I would love to take them to the library for story time, but it is right in the middle of Hudson's nap. He is such a crank when he doesn't get his nap. So, maybe just a Costco trip for us.

I found out that some of our favorite kids from church who went away to college have been reading this blog & that makes me so happy. We had such a strong connection with some of you & we miss you dearly! We better all get together this summer.

Hudson went down the slide all by himself! He loved it.... until he got to the bottom. He is walking all the time now. No more crawling.

When I tell Connor to smile he screams "cheese". i think he looks like Chandler's fake smile from Friends.

The Woods leap into the 21st century!

Wednesday Pop came over to watch the boys so I could go have some "me time". As all Mom's know that is an essential part of life. I met my friend Courtney for lunch & some shopping. We headed over to the Cheesecake Factory. I love that place. I even got a piece of cake to take home. I went to my new favorite store, White House, Black Market. The store is crazy expensive unless you can catch something on clearance. Well, I totally did. I got 2 pair of jeans, a shirt, shorts & sweat pants all for $100. Yeah for clearance clothes. I don't care if I had all the money in the world I would still clearance shop. The mall I was at had an Apple store, so I stopped in to learn about IPods. Well...... 10 minutes later I was on the phone with Brandon giving him a lesson. Now we are the proud owners of an ipod. I was resistant to the new technology, but I love it. It took 3 days to put all of our Cd's on ITunes. But it was worth it. I did realize that we have only purchased about 10 CD's in the past 5 years. Wow... we are so cheap I love it! Now I just need to figure out how to use all of the features.

Other than that it was a quiet week. We are headed to Chucky Cheese today (help me). Tomorrow we are going to Brandon's parents for his Dad's birthday celebration.

Oh, we did take off Connor's training wheel for a little while on Friday. We put them back on, but I think they will be off for good by this summer.

Hudson too!

I just realized that all of yesterday's pictures were of Connor, so I figured I would post this cute one of Hudson. I took it just before we left for the fair. Today our friend Amelia came over. She is 11 and as soon as she is old enough she is going to babysit for us. Until then she comes over while I'm home & keeps the boys busy. She is the sweetest girl we know & comes from a fantastic family. After we took Amelia home I brought the boys to Brewster's for some ice cream. I usually don't go there. I find them WAY over priced. But, the boys both get free baby size cones and that is enough ice cream for them. Then the price of my small cone is kind of off set. But, I still think it is a rip off! It is less than 2 miles from our home & by the time we got there Connor had completely finished his. Hudson dumped the ice cream on his shirt & ate all of the cone.

Fun At The Fair

Last night was our town fair. We had a blast. Connor rode every single ride that they let him on. He rode a roller coaster, swings, flying bus, merry-go-round, ferris wheel and so much more. I thought he might be scared, but he was screaming "this is fun" on the roller coaster. He was fearless! It was so much fun to watch the fair through his eyes. Poor Hudson had to watch from the stroller. But he was happy to enjoy a hamburger & funnel cake! Our good friends Bret, Erin met us there with their kids, Ryan(4) and Olivia (almost 1). What a great night! Here are some fun pics from the rides.He took this ride so serious. He never smiled & had the wheel turned left the entire time!

He rode the swings 3 times!

Training for a marathon is hard work

Here is a picture of the play set from the Sam's website. OK, so my lazy but has not taken any pics of the play set complete. In my defense I have a cold that it knocking me out. I haven't slept the past 2 nights. Tonight I am going to drug myself with NyQuil. Or maybe red wine!

We still have to get sand for the sand box portion of the set (the right side of the downstairs). We are also going to put some kind of a safe surface on the ground. We just need to explore our options.

Tonight we are going to Macaroni Grill with our good friend Sean. Sean runs a marathon every year. He has run in Ireland, New York, Chicago, the Disney Marathon & others. This year it is Tampa. Every year a few days before he runs he needs to "carb load". So, he calls Brandon & I to go out for pasta. Keep in mind that we do not run. We are just his "trainers". Well, actually we just eat pasta with him. Hey, we are experts! This is one of my favorite traditions. Plus it also makes sure we go out to dinner with Sean at least once a year. He is such a great guy and so good to our kids. I just wish we could hang out with him more.

Saturday should be fun. Our town is having a fair. Hopefully I will have lots of pics from that.

Valentine's Day part 2

Even though I always tell him no flowers on Valentine's Day Brandon brought home flowers (and my favorite chocolate) last night. He brought Connor out to his car & had him bring them in to me. It was very sweet. I had a great dinner with my 3 Valentine's!

The play set is done except for the roof shingles. It is way too cold outside to go take pics right now. The boys love it.

Here is the view from their little porch. Connor goes up there & points at the farm next door and says "I see a horse, I see a cow". Yesterday he said "I see an elephant". Kids are funny.

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day! When Connor woke up this morning he told me that he had a dream that it was Valentine's day and we were going to have cake. It was very cute. So, I bought a cake. Who doesn't love to make their kids dreams come true! We really aren't into Valentine's day. I feel like it is a forced holiday with so much pressure. I like when Brandon buys me flowers for no reason, not because the calender says so. So, tonight we are having homemade pizza (my Valentine gift for all the boys), and cake! I rented a movie, The Departed. I'll let you know how it is. Speaking of movies, we saw two recently. The Boondock Saints & The Break Up. I loved the Boondock Saints. Very violent, but good. It was about 2 brothers who feel they are doing "God's work" by killing all the the bad people in the world. I like a movie that can make me laugh & make me think. The Break Up was predictable, but since I have a movie star crush on Vince Vaughn I enjoyed it.

The play set is just about done. All Brandon has left to do is shingle the roof & install the tunnel. Very exciting. Connor went down the slide 50 times last night, each time screaming "this is fun!". I'll post some pics when it is complete.

Most Eligible Bachelor

This is the shirt Connor is wearing for his Valentine's Day party at school today. Slightly obnoxious & I love it! He would not smile or open his eyes for a pic. But, it is 7:30am!

Progress

Here is what the play set looked like after 5 hours:

After 11 hours:

We guess that we have about 4-5 hours left. WOW! This is a big project. But it will be well worth it when complete. Brandon is still smiling, so that is a good sign! It is a good thing he does not have a temper.

Our new toy

We have been discovering our new camera and so far we love it. Though we are pretty sure we are going to invest in a good flash soon. (Ali, the lense will have to wait for Christmas!) Here are some pics I took outside last night. Hudson is on a blanket because the kid is terrified of grass. It is pretty funny. When I put him on a blanket I am sure he will not move. That's kind of nice.

Here are some more fun pics:

Our Little Walker

It's kind of like "Where's Waldo?"

He got a haricut 10 minutes later!

I hate the smell of cedar in the morning

OK, so we have begun the process of putting together the play set. So far we have invested 4.5 hours. And what have we completed? Well, we have unpacked the boxes and labeled all of the parts. THAT'S ALL! There are over 1200 screws! This is not going to be fun. And since Brandon and I have a "we don't work while the kids are awake" rule, this is not going to be easy. We decided to let Connor "help" while Hudson takes a nap. Brandon's parents will be coming over on Sunday to distract the kids while we begin putting it together. Then we will just keep going a little at a time all week. Maybe we can be done by the end of next weekend. Here is the scene in our garage.

Tornado in Florida

I can't believe I almost forgot to mention this. Ali & Avi were supposed to leave on Thursday night. It was raining bad and we insisted they stay until Friday morning. Her husband was in Jacksonville on business & she was driving up there to meet him. So, she agreed and stayed the night. About 5am I woke up to very strong wind & rain. I couldn't get back to sleep. I finally said to Brandon that I thought we should turn on the radio to check the weather situation. We checked & they said there were tornado's touching down VERY close to us. We ran upstairs, woke Ali & we all grabbed the kids & ran downstairs. I just kept praying to God that I didn't make my friend stay only to go through a tornado. We kept cool heads, but I was scared. Lucky for us our town was spared. But 1/2 hour to the West & 1/2 hour to the East they were not so lucky. Tornadoes touched down & tore apart parts of Florida. People lost loved ones & their homes. I am thankful it didn't touch us directly, but it was close. I ordered one of these weather alert radios this weekend: http://www.oregonscientificstore.com/searchresult.asp?phrase=wr108

If you don't have one it is a good idea to get one. I found other models as cheap as $25 on the Internet. I think Home Depot sells them as well. You just leave it plugged in at all times & when severe weather is in your area an alarm sounds. It would at least give your family a chance.

If you have a couple of extra bucks the Red Cross is taking donations for this specific tragedy. It would be a great way to help. Just a thought!

These pictures are from a local radio guys blog. His family was directly affected. The web site they came from is http://www.monsters.fm/ and they have a link to the Red Cross.

nice visit

This past week my BF Alison came to visit with her 3 month old son Avi. He is such a cutie and a good baby too. I was so glad to see them both. We were scheduled to go visit them in Atlanta over New Year's, but we were dealing with Connor's ears & I didn't want to bring a sick kid to a new born. So, she brought her new born to me. Pretty nice, huh?

We were all set to go to our friends Paul & Marci's annual super bowl party, but Connor woke up from a nap on Sunday with 104.9 fever. I have never seen a fever that high. Turns out he has a sinus infection. But, so far his ears are clear (she says with fingers crossed!). He stayed home from school yesterday & I just about lost my mind by the end of the day. Poor little guy was just miserable. He is doing much better today. I feel bad because he wants to go to the park and play but I really want him to rest. Maybe tomorrow we will go once he has been on antibiotics for a full 48 hours.
Hudson is doing great. On Thursday he took 16 steps. I am so not ready for this! It is exciting to see him reach these milestones. But, at the same time it means he is getting further away from being my "baby". He said his first official word. Other than Mama & Dada. He said "eat". Of course he did! He started a couple of days ago & this morning we heard him in his crib at 6am saying "eat eat eat". I told him that no one in this house eats before 7:30!
Saturday night Brandon and I went to this cool wine bar to celebrate our sister-in-laws birthday. They have wine dispensing fountains all over the place (kind of like sodas at McDonald's) You pick the wine & then how many ounces you want. You can get 1,3 or 5. You pay by the ounce. I liked that I could taste before I decided to purchase a whole glass. It wasn't Brandon's type of place as he does not drink wine, but he enjoyed seeing everyone.