Over the river and thru the woods...

...to Papa & Gigi's house we go! Luckily, London decided she was going to be okay with riding in the car just a few days before we left for our trip.  Both Hudson and London did very well on the trip.  Hudson watched his movies and London just looked around or napped.  Tom & Micaela now live in Longview which is exactly half way between our house and my parents house.  We stopped at their place and had a great time visiting!  Hudson had a blast playing with Evan and Chayse.  London & Leighton will be playing together before we know it.  We gave the kids their Christmas presents, visited, and had a yummy dinner.  While we were there a huge rain storm rolled in and the tornado sirens were going off.  We were traveling in our truck and all of our stuff was in the bed of the truck.  It all got drenched.  Luckily, all of the presents were covered in trash bags and didn't get wet but everything else was soaked!!!  I had to start drying all of our clothes as soon as we made it to my parents house so they wouldn't mold and so we would have something to wear the next day!  Hudson was thrilled to be at Papa and Gigi's house (as were we!) and quickly got a second wind when we went inside.  It felt so cozy and Christmas-y to be home and hanging out with my parents!  The trip went by too fast though.

Presents from Evan, Chayse, & Leighton

Spiderman is HEEERRRREEEEEEE!  That's what I here every time the UPS man rings our doorbell to deliver a package now.  Spiderman is now Santa's sidekick according to Hudson...who needs elves when you have Spidey?!?!?  This time, Spidey delivered a package from Evan, Chayse, & Leighton Black.  We opened the box and noticed there was a small hole in paper on Hudson's gift.  He tried to peek but I told him he had to wait until Christmas to open them.  Later, he told me he wanted to put the presents under the little tree upstairs.  I thought this would be a good idea: out of sight, out of mind....but no.  He woke up from his nap and came down the stairs carrying his present and the hole had grown and spawned a new hole.  There was no more guessing what was in the package so I let him go ahead and open it the rest of the way.  We saved London's present for Christmas though!  Thank you Evan, Chayse, & Leighton (and Tom & Micaela!)!!!  Hudson LOVES his awesome dinosaurs!!  I have lost many fingers in their hungry mouths already!

It was hard to keep him still long enough to get a good picture!  (thus the closed eyes)

Wrapping presents

Today was a busy day.  We started off by visting my work so everyone could meet both Hudson and London.  Unfortunately, Hudson woke up with a runny nose and cough so I had given him some medicine and he was not really himself.  He was pouty and quiet.  BUT...this worked to his advantage and I don't think it took him long to realize that!  It was like trick-or-treating for him there!  Every cubicle pod he would visit would find something they could give him.  They even found him a bag to carry all of the loot he was collecting.  He walked away with a NY Yankee's matchbox car, a toy mail truck, a stuffed horse, a toy shark, a glittery rocket that lights up, lots of candy,  and lots of new friends!  I always tell him that work is no fun so he'll go to school instead of ask me if he can go to work with me.  I don't think I'll ever be able to convince him of that now!  The next day we were driving in the car and he told me he loves all of my friends!  After we came home from my work, Hudson crashed and took a long and much needed nap.  He woke up in a much better mood and we wrapped some presents together.  He quickly went into pretend land!  Before I knew it, he was a doctor and the name tags turned into band-aids.  He had a great time using London as his patient and covered her in "band-aids"!  The picture below was just the beginning...eventually, her legs and arms were covered!  She just laid there wiggling away completely oblivious that she was covered in stickers!

Here is Hudson switching gears and pretending he is Santa Claus checking his "Naughty List"!

My pretty girl:

Taking care of business (talking to Gigi) and eating his first candy cane!  A cute Hudson story:  I gave him a box of candy canes to put on the Christmas tree.  He was so excited and put them all on as fast as he could.  He stood back, looked at them, and told me he didn't put them all on the right way.  He went back and fixed them so they were all facing the same direction.  He stood back and looked again and then asked for my help to reach some higher spots so they could be more equally spaced.  He IS his father's son!!

Christmas cookies

Like I mentioned before, I'm still working on being Super Mom.  Hudson and I had fun making dough for our Christmas cookies but I never found the time to actually bake the Christmas cookies.  I kept telling Hudson we need to make our cookies and he kept telling me we already did so I guess it's ok!

London just watched next to us...I think she liked the sound of the mixer.

And of course, you must lick the beaters when you're done!

Santa 2009

London had her first photo shoot this past Wed.  I promised Hudson if he was good we would go see Santa when we were done.  He was extremely good so off to Santa's we went!  We went at a great time because there was no line.  Santa had one little girl on his lap but noticed Hudson right away and waved to him.  Hudson was thrilled by this!  The little girl's parents were a little adamant about getting the perfect picture so they had to re-take her picture several times. Hudson waited pretty patiently and, finally, it was his turn!  He ran to Santa as fast as he could and gave him the hugest hug!  He sat on Santa's lap and told him he wanted BIG presents!  Then we put London in Santa's lap and they took a picture:

What a difference a year can make...remember last year??

An Afternoon At Starbucks

I met Mike, Jill, & Lindsay at Starbucks so they could see London for the first time.  We had a great time visiting and Hudson kept everyone entertained.  AND I got a much needed caffeine fix!  While we were there some more of my friends from Lexicon also popped in to see us...it was a very nice afternoon!  Mike took some really great pictures:

Thank You Grandma!

My Grandma and her sisters sent London these super cute sweater, hat, & bootie sets and blankets!  She sent them when London was about a week old but I just now took pictures and got them uploaded ...still working on the Super-Mom thing!

She is 6 weeks old in these pics and I caught a milestone on camera: she has just started SMILING!!

New Tile

Well, Christmas is over and now it's time to get caught up on the blog...When we built our house we just had them put the cheap builder-grade carpet in it because we had plans to put wood floors in when Hudson was through the crawling stage.  However, I kept putting it off as long as possible because Hudson likes to play rough and roll around on the floor and I could forsee many bumps and bruises on a harder floor.  Jason decided he'd rather have tile in the living room so it would "flow" better from our entry to the living room.  Our carpet was starting to get pretty grungy so it was time to rip it out.  Poor London will have to crawl around on a hard floor.  Before I knew it Jason had the tile ordered and the day after it arrived the crew was here to install it.  It was a pretty hectic couple of days with a new born and a 3 year old stuck upstairs all day while our house was in shambles downstairs.  Hudson is a very social little guy and talk and talked to the guys the whole time the worked the first day.  I kept trying to distract him so he wouldn't drive them crazy.  The 2nd day they were here, Hudson went to school.  The first the the guys said to me when they arrived was, "Where's Hudson?".  They were actually sad he wasn't there!  Hudson was very excited about our new tile and could wait to run and slide on it!  Here is a picture before all the grout was put in so the tile is still dirty:

Gifts from Emily & Bernd

Hudson was very excited when we went out to check the mail and found this package on our mailbox!  He knew it contained presents!!  Emily & Bernd sent gifts for London and Hudson.  Hudson has really enjoyed the fact that he gets to open London's gifts too and is looking forward to opening her Christmas gifts!  They got London 2 super cute outfits and a beautiful bracelet with her name engraved on it!  Hudson got an awesome toy from Germany.  It was a dozer that he and Daddy had to build together.  He really wanted to take it to school and show it off to his friends!  Thank you so much you guys!

Also, CONGRATULATIONS to Emily & Bernd!!  They are expecting TWINS June 16th!! 

The awesome blanket London is laying on was made by Shawna!  Isn't it cool??  I love it!  Thanks Shawna!!!

Flashback 1

Since I didn't start blogging until Hudson was over a year old, I thought I'd start posting some earlier pictures of him.  A little rewind if you will...

One day, Jason and I were shopping at the mall and a lady stopped us and asked if she could take maternity photos of me to use in her portfolio for her photography business.  Jason responded with, "Oh, she's not pregnant.".  A brief look of horror came across the lady's face!  I then told her I would love to!  She also took Hudson's newborn photos.  She used the photos to hang in some of the area Dr's offices as advertisement and we also made her website.  However, she only does weddings now so that was our short lived moment of small-time celebrity!  Here are a couple of the photos she took that I just came across (I have a lot more but I don't think I scanned them):

Hudson Kade Holladay: born 11/7/06  6 lbs. 11 oz. 21 in.

I went into labor at mid-night of his due date.  I woke Jason up to tell him I thought I just had a contraction.  He drowsily and unimpressed said, "Okay, wake me up when they're close together.".  Anxiety set in but I laid back down and a few minutes later I had another one.  After 4 contractions, my water broke!  Jason sprung out of bed and into action!  He and my mom were exhilirated and I was terrified.  I just knew my water wasn't going to break because the statistics say only 10% of women actually experience their water breaking naturally.  My mom said her water never broke with either of her pregnancies so I just knew I wouldn't be part of the 10%...but I was!  I was just thankful iy happened at home! Since it was the middle of the night, there was no traffic and all of the stop lights were flashing so we never had to wait.  It was a fairly quick trip to the hospital and I was in my room with a pain-free epidural before I knew it. 

The picture below is my delivery dream team!  Dr. Hampton was pregnant with her 1st baby in this picture and had a baby boy about a month after Hudson was born.  She also delivered London!  She is FANTASTIC!! When Jason first saw this picture he noticed that he and Dr. Hampton kinda look alike---and they do!  If he had a sister she'd probably look like Dr. Hampton!

Hudson was born face up so he took a while to come out and had a major cone head!  Luckily, I had an epidural and didn't feel anything...until later!  It was a much longer and more painful healing process with his birth versus London's birth.  But VERY much worth it!!

Hudson and his Daddy on his first day home:

Hudson's first bath!  I was sooooo nervous!  I had never bathed a baby before...or much else to care for a baby.  I took just about every class the hospital offered to try and learn as much as I could.  I also read lots of books!  (Baby Wise was one of my favorites for any new moms that might be reading this)

1st Snow!

It actually snowed in Houston today!!  This was Hudson's 1st time to get to play in real snow!  One year his daycare filled one of the playgrounds with snow so he got to play in man-made snow.  It's not the same when you don't get to run through it as it falls from the sky though!  Talk about one excited little boy!!  I told him to look out the window at the snow and he lit up!  The first words out of his mouth were, "Santa's coming!".  About 5 seconds later the UPS guys rang the door bell and left a box by our door.  He looked at me and said, "Mama, Santa brought me a present!!".  What timing!  The snow didn't stick but it was still fun!

London wasn't as much of a fan of the snow/cold but she sure looked cute all bundled up!  She is 5 weeks old now and is becoming more aware of her surroundings.  I think her vision is starting to come into focus because I've noticed her really looking at me and everything around her more intently.  Her head and neck are getting stronger so she can look around longer.  This has also made it easier for Hudson to hold her so he is very excited about that!  Also, her baby acne is almost gone so her pretty complexion is almost back to normal.

Hudson found her hairbrush while I was putting my shoes on and decided to style her hair!

Trying to eat the snow!

Thank you to The Black Family

Our very good, long-time friends, Tom & Micaela stopped by to visit with their family back on Nov.4th.  It has been a couple of years since we have seen them because they moved to Indiana so Tom could complete his Residency to become an ER physician.  He just finished back in June (CONGRATULATIONS TOM!) and they moved back to TX.  Both of our families have grown since we all last met up so it was an exciting time---so exciting that I forgot to take pictures!!  This was the perfect time to break out the camera but we were so busy visiting and being entertained by the kiddos that I never picked up the camera a single time.  Boo!  Hudson had so, so, so much fun playing with Evan & Chayse!  London & Leighton will be joining in on the fun before we know it!  Their visit was right before Hudson's birthday so they brought presents!!  Hudson got a new RC car, hot wheels, and a Handy Manny fold-up town to drive his cars around on!  I'm pretty sure he has played with all of them every day since he got them!  Thanks so much you guys!!  Their visit was also right after London was born so she also got presents!  She got has sparkly pacifier, a beautiful birthstone bracelet, & a super cute cuddle blanky with an "L" on it!  In the picture below, she is also sporting the AWESOME outfit they got her!  I know she is my child but have to say she looks incredibly cute in this outfit!!

She was a little sleepy when I took the pictures so I had a hard time keeping her eyes open---why isn't she sleepy like that when I want her to be!?!?