Christmas

We had a great Christmas! On Christmas Eve, I spent the day making cookies. That evening we went to my dad's house for dinner. My step-mom always makes a smoked turkey dinner that is so yummy! Then we exchanged our gifts. They spoiled us as usual and got us the Cabela's Big Game Hunting game for the Wii (which was sitting under our Christmas tree to be opened the next morning!).
After their house, we went to my aunt's house for my mom's side of the family's party. She always hosts a Christmas Eve party and I love it. There is more food and treats, then it has become tradition for the little kids to break open a pinata and for the adults to play Bingo. If you get a Bingo you get to pick a prize. We all kind of contribute to the prizes. Bingo has become one of my favorite traditions! I wish I had better pictures from Christmas Eve.
But on to Christmas day. Here is our little family picture in front of the tree before we open presents. I look a little scary and it's blurry, but at least Jeff and Hudson look cute.

This must have been Christmas Eve because I'm dressed and look much better than above. :)

The cookies, milk, and Hudson's letter we left for Santa Claus.

Santa ate all of his cookies and milk! Santa has started the tradition of picking up a pineapple for us and left it on his empty cookie plate. He also left a letter for Hudson and left "magic dust" all over the kitchen table!

Santa brought Hudson a Woody doll, a top priority on his list!

A drum set? What was Santa thinking?!

Jeff was pretty excited about this one...

Relaxing on the couch after the morning craziness, holding a new favorite toy, watching "Up", one of his new favorite movies.

Listen for him to say "I didn't know I wanted this!". So cute.

Christmas night we went to Jeff's parents for a turkey dinner and we played Apples to Apples. Then we went home and Jeff's brother and his wife and 2 of their kids came to spend the night with us. We played Wii all night long and pretty much all day the next day, too. Between the Cabela's hunting game and the Wii Fit Plus (Jeff's present to me!), we had lots of new stuff to figure out and have fun with. We had more of Jeff's family come over the next night to play more Wii. Lot's of kids and craziness, but it was fun having everyone over and Hudson loved playing with all of his cousins. We had a great Christmas, and hope you all did, too!

Oh, wait! Can't let the holiday pass without posting a Christmas Jib Jab. Just make sure you check out the post below. Oh, and you can pause the music at the top so you can listen to the video. :)

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

What We've Been Up to in December

Warning: Picture overload!

We went to see the lights at Temple Square with Jeff's family. I haven't been since before Hudson was born, so I was glad to be able to go. It was freezing, but we had fun!

Above: Hudson with his cousins and Grandma.

These were taken at Jeff's family's kids Christmas party. The kids have a party in the morning and the adults have a party at night.

This year Grandpa W. filled a box full of sawdust and hid money and candy in it for the kids to find. The adults even got a turn. I got about $4 in coins, I think Jeff got about $5.

The kids were just happy with candy!

I was in charge of helping the kids make a Christmas craft. Some of you were wondering why I was collecting laundry scoops. This is it...

A closer view...on our tree.

Hudson actually sitting on Santa's lap (a miracle. He still hates Santa!) telling him he wants 2 robots for Christmas.

I made 2 different neighbor gifts this year. Some got these wooden blocks I made.

And some got these magnets I made....

Along with cookies. Delicious cookies, I might add. For the recipe, go HERE.

I decided to do a different style of decorating the tree this year. I splurged and bought new ornaments, mostly at Tai Pan.

I decided to try and make homemade bread and cinnamon rolls for what I think was my first time ever. It turned our alright, I guess, but I still have a lot of practicing to do before I get it to be how I want it.

Jeff and I cleaned out our office. What a task. It was ridiculous. We filled up 3 kitchen garbage bags full of papers we had been filing and saving. I had been shredding and shredding and shredding with no end in sight, and finally told Jeff "We should just have a fire and burn it all." So we did. This is when we had about a foot and a half of snow in our yard.

My new addiction. I used to not be a whipped cream fan, but now, as you can tell, I can't get enough of it in some hot chocolate. I also like putting an Andes Mint or two in there. YUM. Good thing I'm out of whipped cream.

Every year, Jeff's aunt and uncle have friends and family over to their house. In their front yard they have a huge army tent with a stove inside. Santa somehow got his sleigh in the tent and was waiting there so the kids could tell him their Christmas wishes. They served hot chocolate with marshmallows, and had bags of popcorn and dum-dums. Uncle Les used to give everyone a horse pulled carriage ride around the neighborhood. This year he did a tractor pulled hay ride. It was so much fun. We sang Christmas carols as we rode around and looked at the neighbors Christmas lights. I love this tradition!

Uncle Les & Aunt Nancy. They are the coolest!

Anyway, that has been some of the things we've been up to this month. We hope you are enjoying your December as much as we are! I probably won't be posting again until after Christmas, so we hope you all have a great Christmas! We love you!

Heart Breaker

I hope you don't all get annoyed with my snippets of what Hudson says. It seems he's been saying funny things a lot lately, and with my brain, I have to get them down now or I'm sure to forget 5 minutes later.

Last night when Hudson was in bed, he was crying because he didn't feel well (the Dr. is suspecting acid reflux and we started him on some medication today...). Jeff and I were both in other rooms, and heard him cry "I'm breakin' my heart!"

Today I wasn't letting him do something and he said to me with furled eyebrows, glaring eyes, and pouting lips, "You're breakin' my heart, Mommy."

He put some of my lotion on and after smelling it asked, "What does it smell like? I think it smells like unicorn."

Forgot One...

Hudson was riding around on a stick pony, with a pretend whistle around his neck (a lanyard with a thumb drive on it), giving me my own pretend stick pony and whistle (a piece of hot wheels track for the pony and a large rubber band for my whistle), asking whether I wanted to be a good guy or a bad guy. I chose to be the bad guy. He wanted to be the bad guy too.

"Good guys have whistles. Bad guys have whistles, too."

He's also been acting like a dog...A LOT. He barks, crawls around on all fours, fetches balled up pieces of paper, comes up to us with a rope in his mouth while barking, meaning he wants us to take him for a "walk", licking, scratching...the whole works. It's kind of cute, but it's also kind of starting to get on my nerves because he is doing it ALL THE TIME!!!

A Few Funnies

The latest funny things from Hudson...

Singing to the tune Jingle Bells while on the toilet: "Jingle Bells. Come and wipe my bum!"

"Mommy, I want married. Really bad."

While playing with cars: "He's, like, 30 degrees!"

Jeff: "Do you want some salt?"
Hudson: "No. I want some of his friend. Some of the salt's friend." (Pepper.)

“On this upward and sometimes hazardous journey, each of us meets our share of daily challenges. If we are not careful, as we peer through the narrow lens of self-interest, we may feel that life is bringing us more than our fair share of trials- that somehow others seem to be getting off more lightly.

But the tests of life are tailored for our own best interests, and all will face the burdens best suited to their own mortal experience. In the end we will realize that God is merciful as well as just and that all the rules are fair. We can be reassured that our challenges will be the ones we needed, and conquering them will bring blessings we could have received in no other way.

If we constantly focus only on the stones in our mortal path, we will almost surely miss the beautiful sunset provided by the loving Father who outlined our journey. Each day can bring more joy than sorrow when our mortal and spiritual eyes are open to God’s goodness. Joy in the gospel is not something that begins in the next life. It is our privilege now, this very day. We must never allow our burdens to obscure our blessings. There will always be more blessings than burdens- even if some days it doesn’t seem so. Enjoy those blessings right now. They are yours and always will be.”

- Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

My greatest blessing:

He is mine, and always will be.

Hudson's Birthday Q&A

Here is an interview I conducted with Hudson on his 4th birthday. I don't necessarily believe all his answers. For example, he hardly ever eats toast. And some answers were just out of the blue and I had no idea what he was talking about. But I wrote down exactly what he answered. How he says some things is so cute.
(After I posted this, Jeff asked Hudson the same questions. The ones in italics are his answers to Jeff tonight. If they were the same answers I just left them normal. Some pretty funny ones.)

First words he said on his birthday: "My bum scratches."

Favorites
Breakfast: Toast, Peanut & Jelly Sandwich
Lunch: Peanut & Jelly Sandwich
Dinner: Pizza, Cereal
Movie: Lightning A-Queen (Cars), the Christmas one
TV show: Clifford the Big Red Dog, Bob the Builder
Thing to do with Daddy: Play, Wrestle
Thing to do with Mommy: Play, Kiss
Candy: Suckers
Toy: Gun, Flashlights
Thing to do outside: Play baseball, Football
Animal: Dog
Color: Pink
Song: I Am a Child of God
Drink: Chocolate milk, Water
Book: I don't know, the star book
Store: Macey's (I believe this is due to getting ice cream cones, suckers and treats at the checkout line, and getting to ride in car carts.)

What are you scared of? Monsters downstairs, I'm not scared of anything
What makes you happy? Not monsters, Mommy
What makes you sad? Spanking, Daddy (Sad! He really does love his daddy! And we try not to spank.)
What do you like about you? Playing with my pinata, my camouflage pants
Who is your best friend? Macee and Kaige (our next door neighbors)
Do you like girls? No! I don't like any girls! I just like you! (Gives me a hug and kiss), yes
Who's your girlfriend? You are.
What do you want to do when you're as big as Daddy? Play Chik-O-Lay (Chik-Fil-A. He wants to work in the fast food industry? haha), play football
What do you wish you could do? Eat an apple and licorice, Eat popcorn and m&m's and watch a movie
What kind of birthday party do you want next year? I had a birthday, a dog one.

Birthdays

I've been meaning to do this post forever. Hudson's 4th birthday was November 17th, and Jeff's was the 18th. I threw together a last minute little birthday party with our neighbor friends.

The dog theme.

The cake didn't turn out quite as cute as I was planning, due to not finding the right kind of candy for the eyes, but oh well.

On the other hand, the pinata I made turned out quite well, I thought!

And sadly, this is the best picture I got of Jeff on his (now under- celebrated) birthday, opening up some shirts. I did get him cowboy boots for his real birthday gift, but I ordered them online and they came about a week late. He loves them, though, so that's good.

Happy Birthday to my 2 favorite guys! I love you both so much!