3rd Birthday!

I was trying to be thrify Mrs. Betty Homemaker this year and did the cake myself. Let's just say I will not be going into the cake decorating business! But I guess all that matters is that he loved it (had everything to do with the tractors and nothing to do with my skill:) It was blue on the inside as he requested.

Just making sure no drool landed on the cake!

I love this one because he was grunting to get the package open!

My wonderful consignment find, his bike! He's doing better at it, sometimes he has a hard time pushing the pedals all the way around. I wish we could work on it more, it's been so hot on this big mama, but now the weather is finally in the low 90's so hopefully we can work on riding it more!

This is Andy's full sister, Crazy Belle, but like Andy, she is good with Hudson. Even if he's cutting her up with his new sword.

Hudson enjoyed his birthday party and when he prays he often says "Thank you for my birthday party." And it was several weeks ago :) The big thing we asked the family to do was give money for a swing set. Jason was going to try and build it but I know how that goes. How are you going to build a swing set when you are running a business and starting school amongst many other things that he does. So the timing was good when I got online to look at them and lots of them were on sale so I got one for $100 off regular price. When I saw the total I realized he had $1 left over :) So that worked out well.

It should be here sometime next week and I'll be sure to take pics of Jason and my dad as they attempt to put it together, as long as they pull their own hair out and not each others we'll be okay!

On the pregnancey front, I'm down to 7 weeks left! Woohoo, getting closer! I had a rough go of it last week. I couldn't keep anything in my system (kept 1 meal in over the course of 7 days). I lost 7 lbs. in 6 days, but at least my feet and ankles weren't swollen! Hollynn is okay though, and we still aren't sure what was going on with me. But yesterday was much better and today has been too so far.

One cute little story...Hudson feels my stomach, usually multiple times a day. And I know he had never felt her kick, even though she packs some mean kicks that you can very easily see and can really feel. He's so squirmy and all over the place that he hadn't really felt her but likes to pretend he does. But almost every morning he crawls up in my lap and just lays on me (I love that time with him). The other morning he was laying there, really still and she nailed him twice and they were big. He raised up and those big brown eyes were huge and he said in his suprised voice, "That's my sister!" It was so cute!

Florida Beach Pics Part 2

I love these 2 pics.

Florida Beach Pics

This is what the water looked like once we got past the seaweed. We went to the ocean only a few times because of the seaweed. Hudson LOVES the ocean especially when the waves hit him.

You can definitely tell Hollynn was at the beach too!

This was the best spot we could find as far as the seaweed went. We didn't have to walk through much of it on this day to get to the good part.

I have more beach pics than I thought so I'll try to post the last of them tomorrow and then I'll start going through the birthday party pics. I'm behind!

Happy 3rd Birthday!

I don't know whether to cry or celebrate, he's getting so big! He's so excited about his birthday party this afternoon. We decided to do family only again this year. Maybe next year we'll have a party with some of his little friends. But our family provides about 30 people, which is plenty when you just got home from vacation! I'm attempting the birthday cakes this year. He wanted a blue cake so one cake is blue and then this morning I was making a 3 layer one as well and he decided on blue, green, and red. Of course there will be tractors on top of it as well as his requested M&M's!



All he can think about is his party, all I can think about is that there is no doubt a lady somewhere around the world who knows exactly what this day is as well. Will a birthday come for him that will not make me think of her all day? I don't know, but I know I'm so thankful for her and hope in some way she can celebrate the life that she gave to us, although I'm sure that would be a hard thing to do. If I could tell her about our little 3 year old man I would tell her that...He has endless amount of energy that cracks me up everyday (and sometimes makes me want to pull my hair out :) He is so smart and is doing great on his phonics and basic reading. He loves to build things. Even in a restraunt, when they give him crayons, he builds things instead of colors. He loves to sing and my favorite is when he makes up his own songs. He's rough and loves to wrestle, I wouldn't have it any other way :) He'd rather be outside on the tractor or 4 wheeler than anywhere else! He goes to the creek almost everyday with his Hoss which leaves us a muddy mess for the bathtub! He thinks his daddy hung the moon and they spend lots of nights looking at the moon and stars and talking about Jesus. He's a Mama's boy and melts my heart everyday when I get random kisses and "I love you's" and "Mom, please rub my back!" I'd tell her that by her choosing to give life, she gave us and so many of those around us, great great joy! Our cup definitely runneth over!



(If you haven't seen some of the Florida pics, be sure to scroll down to the next post.)

Florida 2010 (pool pics)

I'm going to post our Florida trip in two posts, hopefully I will be able to do the post with the beach pics in it and more info. on our trip by Monday. Hudson's birthday is tomorrow and I'm busy preparing for the party, especially since I'm baking the cake this year!

This one and the next one are out of order...

He was a jumping machine at the pool!

This was the pool at the place where we stayed. There is another small section of it behind me but I couldn't get it all in one photo.

Sweet Ellie!

Eating at JC's Off the Hook, which of course Jason loved the name of the place! We ate there twice because we went on Tues. night and then realized Wed. night was all you can eat crab legs so Jason really wanted to go back for that. Jon totally agreed, so the next night we sat and watched them pig out on some crab legs.

Hudson and Jordin, you know these two had a blast together.

Our little fish! Jason and I were talking about how much he loves the water. Jason said, "He's that happy even in the bath tub!" Which is so true.

Playing peek a boo!

My Little (& Big) Gardener

I took these pics very late one afternoon so they are very dark.

He loves trying to be like his daddy. Let's just hope he has this much fun when he's 12 and chopping out the garden!

We have had enough squash and zucchini to feed a small army. Meemaw taught me how to "put it up" so we should have plenty for the winter. I've also put up peppers, which I cook with a lot. Now we are waiting on the many tomatoes that are starting to come in and I'm excited to can salsa, tom. juice, and diced tomatoes. Now if only the okra would get here-I LOVE BAKED OKRA with a fresh tomato with it! Oh great, think I'm gonna have a craving now!

Went to the Dr. last Friday and they did get the image they needed. Hollynn is 53% for height/weight. I go next Friday for the glucose test. And from here on out I go every 2 weeks. Today starts week 28! My weight is fluctuating up to 7 lbs. some days. I've started swelling quite a bit. She said not to worry about it especially since I work in the heat. But some days I think my fingers and toes are going to pop off they get so swollen. I've had 2 days that my calf muscles (which are not exactly little) and my lower leg seem to blend together, eeewwww! Am I grossing you out? It grosses me out! But good news is that my Dr. said she would induce me the week before my due date (looking at Oct. 12). This is Jason's fall break and I was sooo excited when she said she could do that. That gives Jason almost a week to be with us and not worry about school, homework, tests, etc. Especially since he is taking Greek this semester and it's a M-W-F 8:00 class.

We spent the morning going through toys. You would not believe the amount of tractors Hudson has, it's crazy! But I was able to get out several things that he doesn't play with and some that he's just outgrown that I will put up for Hollynn, so it freed up a little bit of space in his tiny room. But I figure with his 3rd birthday right around the corner, it will be filled right back up. But we are hoping for everyone to chip in on a swingset instead of toys. He's so excited about getting a swingset.

He is no longer wearing a diaper to bed WOOHOO! NO MORE DIAPERS!!!! To get him motivated to stop peeing in his diaper (he would do it when he woke up in the a.m.), I made him a chart and for every morning that he has dry shorts he gets a sticker. When his chart gets full he gets to go to the movies. It's working great! I think he's only had one accident since we started almost week and a half ago. He only has 4 more spots left for stickers. Then we will be off to the free kids movies in Clarksville off of exit 1. They are showing Desperaux (some movie about a mouse) next week. It's Tues.-Thurs. at 9:30 if you are looking for something inexpensive to do. Amanda-the first week of Aug. is Kung Fu Panda, I know you said your kids love that one.

Everyone have a great weekend!

Jelous!

Usually it's Hudson being jelous of Andy or Foxxy when they get on the couch with me and I carry on with them. This night it was the other way around! Jason snapped this with his phone.

Better Late than Never

Since Jason carried a gun around during VBS we have seen this face, hand signal, and head "pow" I don't know how many times!

In his class they all had a line that said "God made..." His was "God made Eve". I told him if he did a good job then I would let him have some gum. The first thing he said to me when I picked him up was, could he have his gum!

Jason played the part of deputy all week. Here he is wearing one of my show shirts, chaps, even my pink spurs, and my dad's wranglers. After this night he moved on to wearing my dad's old shirts. Not sure exactly what I thought about that!

Thanks Lisa for these pics!

I'm a horrible blogger, I know. VBS has been over for about a month and I'm just now getting to posting the pics!

I cannot believe Hudson will be 3 in about a month! He can stand up in the 3 ft. end of the pool and walk by himself! He is also going down the slide head first. Doing okay on swimming without his vest. I haven't been able to get to the pool like I thought. The heat has made me an even bigger sissy and I'm just not a fan of being nauseous all day!

I think one of his favorite things is to go to the garden in the afternoons with Jason and Hoss. He loves it and I have to get some pics because he gets his little hoe out and chops away right beside his Dad, it's too cute! Especially when he gets to grunting and carrying on! Speaking of garden, I am loving ours. So far we've been able to do all organic which is right up my alley and Meemaw has taught me how to put some things up for winter. I'm waiting on the tomatoes so that we can can them and hopefully make some salsa, too. We have a ton of squash and zucchini and by the end of the summer I'm sure I'll have come up with 1,000 ways to cook it!

I am now 6 1/2 months and the belly is growing! I go back next Friday for a third attempt to get some of her measurements. Hopefully they can get everything. The last two times she has been laying in a position that they can't see everything. We had a little scare last week but everything is okay. Turned out I had some nasty virus (plus a sinus infection) instead of being in pre term labor. But I'm glad they had me come in to check it out, it made me feel a lot better just knowing everything was okay. Jason ended up with the virus about the time I was getting over it. What's up with getting sick while pregnant!? I do not get sick, I've been to the Dr. 2 times in 7 years of marriage for being sick. Since I've been pregnant I've been sick more than I've been well!

For the 4th we went to some friends house and everything was great until the fireworks started! Let's just say Hudson HATES fireworks. Even going inside didn't help. We ended up going home and him crying when he heard them on the way home. Thankfully we were only a few miles from home and I let him sit in my lap because I don't know what he would have done had I put him down. He was shaking and screaming, not a pretty sight. Then once we got home he sat on me for at least 30 minutes and talked NON STOP! Jason and I ended up just laughing because he wouldn't stop. He'd be talking about a tractor and then in mid sentence tell how he did not like fireworks. Once Aunt Casey and Uncle Will showed up he was ready to get in the floor and play and things went back to normal. Let's just say we won't be watching any fireworks anytime soon!

Kicks, kicks, and more kicks...

These two pics were taken by one of his VBS teachers. I have more VBS photos that I will eventually get around to posting, hopefully :)

I hope this post doesn't get too lengthy but I just want to share. A few weeks ago I told you I would tell you what I thought about all of this kicking going on in my stomach. Now you can see if from the outside when she kicks. She is sitting extremely low, so low that the only person who can put their hand where she is is Jason, otherwise I would feel totally violated!

It's pretty obvious that I'm not too crazy about being pregnant. And I'm not one to hide my feelings and I'm sure some people think I'm just horrible. Call it what you want, I'm real and honest maybe a little brutal at times, sorry about that. But I never had a desire to get pregnant, we never even considered any form of fertility treatments, it's just never been a big deal for me. The thought of adoption, however, thrills my soul. Seriously, when I found out I was pregnant I went through a grieving period because we had to stop the adoption we started., I'm talking major tears. I had a very hard time reading about people adopting and I cannot wait to start our next one. Some people think we are nuts for our future plan of only Miss Hollynn as our biological daughter and adopting one or two more children, so nuts we'll be. Don't give me your opinion until you have stared in the face of orphans who have no one to love them, no comfort, no clothes of their own, no one to hold them when they cry, or kiss them. You may be able to sit through the commercials on t.v., but I bet if you saw it in person, you wouldn't even have to close your eyes to remember those sweet, lonely faces.

For the most part of my pregnancy, I just felt like poo! I've never have anything be able to get me down like that. I went through so much physically, emotionally, and I feel like Satan came after me. I've never felt like that. The worse part was feeling so alone and like every day was eternity. I'm doing better now, despite being sick several times over the past few weeks. I've realized that I don't have much of a choice except to go through labor and most days I'm pretty conviced I can do it-I know, I've turned into a sissy! You've never heard me complain about anything after having the baby because I'm looking forward to another child, Jason and I want another child and then another. But something changed when two things happened. The first time I felt her move and knew it was her. And when we found out she was a girl (although I was pretty convinced the entire time). It made it more real, like there really is a little something inside of me, and it gave her more identity, a girl, Hollynn to be specific. That name was picked out long before she arrived in my belly.

After I got over the total weirdness of feeling her move, my first thought went to a lady who is somewhere in Russia. This pregnancy has made me love Hudson birthmom even more than I already did. I don't know her situation, but I know mine. And happy I was not about being pregnant. She may not have been as well. But once I felt her move, I don't know, I just can't even put it into words. I just know that his bm felt the same things and must have thought it amazing as well and yet she still walked out of that hospital without the most precious thing I've ever seen. The only person I know more selfless than that is my Jesus! I think about her all the time but even moreso this past month of feeling my baby girl move. I've said it several times but I'll say it again. I hope that she is in heaven because when I finally let go of Jesus' feet, I'm gonna wrap my arms around her. Please pray with me that she knows my Jesus or will come to know Him.

Don't doubt that I love my baby girl in my stomach. I look forward to seeing her sweet face and I love feeling her moving inside of me. No, I don't like being pregnant but I'm sure I'll love the end result. And she'll have the best big brother :) And one day she'll be a wonderful big sister :) to a little boy or girl, whom God willing, will arrive on an airplane :)

The kids...

This picture was taken two months ago for our church directory. I remember this day very clearly, I was soooo not feeling good and wanted some potato salad so we very quickly took the pic and headed to a nearby bar b que place!



It has been so hot! I've never been so affected by the heat, I'm blaming it on being preggo. I was sick 3 times last week when I got too hot. I've handled it a little better this week. It doesn't slow Hudson down a bit, though. We walk everyday, about a mile, and he runs most of it. We make the same loop and he LOVES it because we go to my Uncle Charles' and he gets to see tractors, all kinds of equipment, bobcats, etc. Sometimes I have to jog to catch up to him!




At church he was telling everyone that his sister's name is Olive! However, it is not! Her name is Hollynn. We have always like Holland as a name but we don't pronounce it with the d so I started playing with the spelling of it one day and we both like it spelled with the combination of Holly and Lynn.



Swimming lessons...well, we've worked on it one time and he did well. He kicks much better and blows bubbles. He has also went under all the way several times and he seems to like it. Next week is world show week and we are only showing there one day so the other 5 days I am going to take him to a friend of ours awesome pool and work really hard on it. I want him to be swimming on his own some before we take our vacation to Florida later this summer. I can't wait for next week. It's gonna be all Hudson and Mommy time! Yes, I spend everyday with him since he gets to go to the barn with me while I work but I just want to take next week and do lots of fun stuff. Swimming, Monkey Joe's, park, creek, and maybe even a spur of the moment trip to Chatt. town to visit my sista! I love spending time with my little man. He is so much fun, and when he's not, it's usually better after nap time :)