"What are we doing today, Mommy?" (the December edition)

Each morning as I am trying to quickly clean up the breakfast mess, figure out what I need to pull out of the fridge or freezer for dinner, keep Hudson from eating all the crusty food he threw on the floor last night during supper, start a load of wash...you get the picture...Ethan ever so sweetly comes and asks me...

 "What are we going to do today, Mommy?" 

My mind is thinking laundry, dusting, diaper changing, cooking, and grocery shopping. But when I look at his smile I remember that to him, every day is like a new adventure. Sometimes he just needs a little guidance as to what that adventure will be. Hudson innately discovers those adventures every moment of every day. We are often rescuing him from obscure places (Like the other day when he was stuck in a small space between the wall and the toilet.) Or the time Ethan had Hudson handcuffed to the table...

I dedicate this post to remembering what I really do every day!

The policeman, Ethan, hard at work, catching all bad boys who steal toys.

"What, Mom? Is there something wrong with my hat?"

Gotta keep busy hands busy...my solution to distracting Hudson while I cook supper.

"Mom, this basket is for sitting in, not toy storage. I will thank you if you remember that."
He pulled all the toys out by himself and then plopped right in.

"I know I saw Mommy decorating this tree, but she forgot something.
I think I'll put this camel right in between those branches."

As I was cleaning the kitchen, I came over to the table to see Ethan sitting right in front of the
package of Oreo cookies. He looked at me and said, "Mommy, these cookies are really
good. SOMEONE is going to have to buy more of them."

Score on some "new to us" outdoor toys and so thankful to live in a state that has
somewhat mild winters.  Little boys NEED to be outside!

Ethan thought his rainbow colored pancakes were awesome! A little food coloring goes a long way.

Hudson is a food machine! My full time job is constantly
putting an array of food in front of him to keep his tummy full. 

Simple Pleasures

South Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Home...lots of miles on the road winding down to a holiday break at home. Sometimes I feel like the little train from the "Little Engine That Could" chugging up the big hill, saying, "I think I can." So thankful that God gives grace for every single situation that happens during the day. Not only does He give grace, but He gives us the simple pleasures of life that make me smile along the way. Here are a few smile-makers from November...

Hudson learning that the camera makes a bright flash. He was prepared! 

This is Hudson after a 8 hour car trip. I'm passed out on the floor next to him. (Just kidding)

We got to stay with Grandma & Papa in PA over Thanksgiving.  These are the vehicles the boys used to get there.

Visiting Papa at his store

One way to keep a 10 month old  contained...playtime in the pack n play.

Ethan's turkey

When Ethan found out we were going to celebrate Grandma's birthday, he couldn't wait to see her blow out the candles

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thankful for my cuddly little Hudson

And my inquisitive lighting bolt, Ethan.

Ethan learned how to play Uno. Here he is playing with my Grandpa and my mom.


It's kind of fun to look back on the month of November! But now that we are in February I better get caught up on a few months worth of posts! Hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving way back when :-)

Happy Birthday Hudson!

Then...

Now...

photo by www.photographybyoh.com

Who can find the similarities?

 Hudson, we thank the Lord for loaning you to us as a precious gift! Every time we share with you how much God loves you, we also pray that you will soon understand the extent of that love. You are God's creation, God's child. He has a specific plan for you. But right now, you are teaching mommy and daddy more of God's love for us and how much we need to depend on Him. We love you, buddy!

The Truck Keeps Rollin'

(Time to catch up where I left off! Yes, another blogging break...this time, I needed to recharge!)

October found our truck rolling along through Texas. This was a new state for us to stay in. We found out there is more to Texas than farms and oil wells. Driving through Houston around 5pm, we found all the people that live in Texas too! After setting up our trailer for the night and putting the boys to bed, my husband kindly informed me that there are other things that live in Texas too...like alligators, biting ants and scorpions. He told me to be on the look out for those types of things. Believe me, I was! Thankfully we didn't meet any of those critters, but we did find where the mosquitoes go for the fall/winter. 

Our neighbors this week were several horses. The boys could literally look out their window and see a horse about 20 feet away. Ethan enjoyed helping me feed the horses apples. Hudson loved watching the horses move toward us. He thought the noises they made were funny, I guess, because he giggled and giggled whenever he heard a whinny.

Hudson is completely fascinated by the front loading washing machine we have in our trailer. No matter what toys he is playing with at the time, if he hears me working on the laundry, he comes crawling over the watch it spin! Because our washer and dryer are located at the back of our trailer, our whole trailer shakes up and down (like turbulence on an airplane) while the washer is on the spin cycle. Maybe that is why Hudson likes it so much!

Hudson enjoying his first haircut

From Texas, we made a 2 day trek back to South Carolina. We enjoyed driving along the Gulf of Mexico through Louisiana and Mississippi. I wish I would have taken pictures of what we saw! I'm guessing it was some sort of bayou. God's creativity is magnificent!

Since I couldn't find a pumpkin patch in Texas, we hit up the one by our house while home for the week. Hudson kept looking at the pumpkins and saying "ball."

All I can say is "mobile mischief." That's my label for Hudson! Poor kid keeps touching the tv like he can take part in what he is watching. He has even brought his small basketball over to the tv while Jonathan was watching basketball. All the barricades that used to work when Ethan was little are like pushovers for Hudson. He WILL get where he wants to be...no stopping him. What a fun week we had at home!

My little man and his Yo-yo

Traveling with baby 101

Photo Credit Here

I must start by saying that I do not have all the answers! I just wanted to share a few tips/tricks that I have learned while traveling full-time.

1) Keep the bottle warm! When Hudson started taking bottles at about 6 months, my life in general became much easier. Except the tricky question of how do I provide a warm bottle for him when we are on the road for 8 hours. (Maybe your baby is not picky about warm bottles. Mine is!) I first tried having my husband stop at a gas station for me to warm the bottle up. I didn't think this should be too inconvenient, but I was wrong. We learned that especially when traveling out west gas stations with microwaves or hot boiling water were very few and far between. So I googled car bottle warmers. After getting many mixed reviews on their workability, we decided to try this...

The tried and true Stanley thermos. And it REALLY does keep liquids warm for more than 8 hours. The first time I used it, I boiled the water I was going to use throughout the day to make Hudson's bottles. Then I poured it straight into the thermos. 8 hours later the water was still to hot for Hudson to drink! Thank you Stanley thermos for making my life much easier!!

2) Leave your kids alone. What??? You probably think I'm crazy. Yes, I do get a little crazy after traveling so long in the car with a 3 year old and an 9 month old. But after much experimenting, both boys do better when I leave them alone in the back seat for a period of time by themselves to play, talk and eventually fall asleep. Mommy does better too. It gives me time to regain my sanity and feel like an adult again. (I realize I have 2 children and they keep each other company while I'm not sitting with them. If you just have one precious bundle in the back, you probably need to make your presence known a little more, but just remember, they may need a break from you so they can fall asleep every now and then.)

Photo Credit Here



3) Set apart toys, games, books, movies, and activities for car travel. Both my boys now have special "travel only" back packs. I try to keep them stocked with their favorite books and toys. Then I have the most special bag (or bags if you want to count the snack bag :-). Ethan has now caught on that Mommy has a bag of "special things" that he is not able to play with on his own. I usually pull them out when Hudson is napping or if the trip is getting long. Recently we had two 8 hour days of driving in a row and our dvd player was broken! I had to pull out all the stops with my special bag. My bag contains mostly school type stuff because that fascinates Ethan right now. I have been collecting several different dry erase workbooks full of dot-to-dot activities, letter tracing, ect. It is so nice to be able to just erase those and start over again on our next trip. (I have found these dry erase books mostly at teacher stores, but every now and then I see them at walmart too.) We have school flash cards (from walmart) and coloring books too. Another fun idea is felt. I feel like a just discovered the endless possibilites of things you can do with felt. We have some felt bible story characters (found at any Bible bookstore) and I just cut up some felt shapes and animals. I bring one of Hudson's receiving blankets and the felt sticks wonderfully to it. One more activity that we enjoy in the back seat takes a little time to prepare, but keeps us busy for a while. I found many school type games at http://www.filefolderfun.com/ and http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com/ (scroll down until you find "tot packs" or just click here). I printed out several activities, laminated them, and cut them out. Then I figured out the best way to make the activity "travelable." (meaning some activities I really like had several pieces I knew would be easy to lose while traveling so I put them in envelopes or glued down what could be glued so we wouldn't lose them.)

4) The snack bag...Many things could be put here, but the 2 lessons I have learned that stick out the most are very simple, but I'll still state them anyway.

• Gas station snacks are expensive...highway robbery :-) REALLY. Do you realize that you can buy a package of 8 cookies at a gas station for the same price you could by a package of 36 cookies for at a grocery store. And water bottles...$1.75 for a water bottle...REALLY! So stock your snack bag up with a few special treats that you know your kids and husband (and be realistic, yourself too) would long to buy at a gas station stop.

Photo Credit Here

• Don't forget fresh fruit and veggies!!!!!!! This may be harder to travel with, I know, but it is just as important as when you are at home. This hit me hard these past few months as I look at how often we are in the truck on long trips. I have to treat travel days like normal days where I would offer my kids fruit and veggies throughout the day. I even think they need more on 8 hour road trips. Fruit and veggies give them an extra chance to receive some hydration, not to mention the great vitamins and fiber we already know about. So think ahead and prepare some fresh snacks.

5) Pray! Above all else! Many of these ideas and solutions became apart to me after prayer. God desires to be the leader of every part of my day, whether I am in a truck traveling all day or at home. He wants to help during the stress of traveling, but I must give my burdens to Him, realizing that I can't handle them on my own.

From the Land of Enchantment

You may not have known it, but the state motto of New Mexico is "the Land of Enchantment." During our stay in New Mexico, I often looked at my surroundings and thought that whoever coined the state motto was using an advertising gimmick. Maybe they were trying to get people to come out and see what was enchanting about New Mexico and then hoping the people would stay and live there. Perhaps it is because I grew up in an area of grass, woods, and flowers...I had a hard time finding New Mexico completely enchanting. Yards consisted of sand and something that looked like tumbleweed. There were little pockets of "enchantment" like the mountains and the sunsets. But then there were days when you saw this blowing across the parking lot...

Yes, that's tumbleweed, folks!

Here are a few highlights from our stay in New Mexico...

 Snack time on the couch (looks cute, but shortly after this Hudson 

got "into" his bowl a little too much and puffs were everywhere)

Ethan has been dying to ride on a school bus with his backpack. Daddy had to move the buses in order to set up for the basketball tourney, and Ethan got to have his dream come true!

This may seem like a strange picture, but I had to try and capture what I could of the Balloon Fiesta. (The small dots toward the mountains are hot air balloons.) Every morning during our stay near Albuquerque, NM, we saw several hot air balloons in the sky as we woke up. On the actual festival days, there were at least 50 or more in the sky. My photo doesn't do justice to the beauty of the hot air balloons against the backdrop of a clear blue sky.

Ethan and his favorite snack, freshly popped popcorn (notice the 

beautiful New Mexico landscape behind him :-)

 Our second week in NM was a record breaker for the area where we were. It rained pretty much for 2 days straight. It hardly EVER rains in NM. And it was CHILLY! The boys had fun playing in this church nursery on rainy & cold days!

Near Farmington, NM, we visited B-square Ranch. "It is one of the largest private collections of it's type in the world today with over 2,500 specimens. The collection from five continents gives visitors a change to view animas in their natural setting and to appreciate the beauty in nature's animal kingdom." (www.bolackmuseum.com) This type of thing would not typically be something I would enjoy, but it was pretty awesome. 

This is what you see when you walk in the door...HUGE!

Yes...this is (was) a real giraffe! Wonder how hard it was to get it back to America?

 12 foot Polar Bear (and a 3 year old sticking his head through the railing...whoops)

I shared the story behind this "Nile Croc" in a previous post. here you can see necklaces hanging out of the croc's mouth. Those are the necklaces of the ladies he munched on.

So whether or not New Mexico is truly "the Land of Enchantment" is up for grabs. Personally, I am glad to be back in a state that has grass.