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.

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.