Kita Baby Shower

June 5th: Hudson spent the night with Shawna, Jeff, & Jude and had fun swimming while Jason, London, & I went to Matt & Kierstin Kita's baby shower at Brooke & Shane's house.  Matt and Jason went to law school together.  Matt is the one who gave the speech at their graduation and did such an amazing job.  His wife, Kierstin, is also an attorney and fits perfectly into our group of friends.  They are all so much fun!  However, poor Kierstin was very pregnant during a hot Texas summer and she has lupus...double wammy!  Then, the day before the shower, her dad was flying his plane here in Houston when something happened to the engine and he crashed into a house!  By the grace of God, he was able to walk away with a broken nose and some other facial injuries while his plane was totaled.  (Luckily, no one was hurt in the house that was hit and the house was actually being used as an office by a roofing company of all things.)  So, to say the least, it was time for her to relax and enjoy some laughter!

We had a lot to celebrate in this circle of friends...the upcoming arrival of baby Kita, Shane & Brooke's engagement, and Matt & Mariska's (not sure if I spelled her name right!) engagement, Paul & his girlfriend's engagement (I haven't met her yet so I don't know her name), and it was the first time for all of them to meet London.  Everyone is growing up! : )

I think Jason was trying to encourage Chris and Alyson to have a baby b/c he kept asking Chris to hold/watch London.  Chris was very sweet with her though!
                                                                                                                                     Liz, Brooke, Kierstin:


Liz is very creative and made this awesome diaper cake.  You can always tell which gift is hers because it will always be wrapped and decorated above and beyond all the others!  She is very talented!


    Brandon and Marcos:

  
We had a good time with good friends and Hudson had a blast swimming and playing with the kids at Jeff's house.

London 6 Months

May 21st: Some pictures of London before she officially passed the 6 month mark:

Girls 'n pearls!



We also got Hudson his 1st set of Lincoln Logs this day.  He and Jason had fun building a cabin complete with a watch tower.

1st Soccer Game

Hudson had his first soccer game May 15th. Papa and Gigi were here to watch and help cheer him on. Hudson was very excited but, unfortunately, once we got there he got stage fright!  Very much unlike his first practice where he jumped in with other kids right away, he clung tightly to my leg and had to be coaxed into going out to play.  He did great during his first practice when there were only a few parents watching but the bigger crowd at his game kinda freaked him out.  He would just stand in one spot and not move while looking like he was in a daze. Every now and then he would re-focus and start participating again. Then he would randomly throw himself on the ground like he did in practice, only more frequently.  He would also go find places on the court to go stand by himself and fiddle with something while looking terrified. He is not shy and I had never seen him act like this before so I was a little shocked. At first we thought he may have just been tired from staying up too late playing with Papa. Then I took him out in the hall and asked him what was wrong. He told me no one was sharing and everyone was screaming at him. Basically, after more talks, I realized that playing soccer went against just about everything we have taught him and I just didn't realize it! We have taught him to share, which soccer is all about not sharing the ball. We kept telling him to get the ball but he didn't understand why he would just jump in and take the ball away from someone. Some other kid was being aggressive and pushed him but didn't say "sorry" so that upset him. We had to teach him that it is 'okay' to be aggressive when playing a sport. Also, he didn't know what cheering was. He thought when everyone was cheering, they were actually yelling at him. : (

It was still very entertaining to watch!  One time, Hudson and 3 others decided to congregate and compare shin gaurds right in the middle of the game!  It was so funny to watch them all run as fast as they could to chase after the run-away ball (the ball moved really fast on the basketbal court flooring). 
Go Sharks!!

Soccer!

Hudson had his first soccer practice May 12th at the YMCA!   He was super duper excited about wearing his new shin guards and his new soccer shirt.  As soon as we got there he jumped right over the padded barrier and joined the other kids.  His coach, Coach Jarvis, was fantastic!  He was also probably the most patient man on the planet and couldn't have been more perfect with the kids!  He had twin boys who were also on the team.  He was so good to teach the kids all of the important aspects of playing a sport.  They really covered a lot just in the first day!  They learned to stretch first.  They also learned things like teamwork, team spirit, and good sportsmanship.  They did lots of drills and learned new skills.  Then they were able to use everything they learned in their scrimmage that wrapped up their 1st very full practice.  After practice was over, they all got to vote on their team name.  It was decided they would be the Sharks!

Stretching:
                                                                      Reach up high to the sky!

Touch your toes!                                         Now jump, jump! (the little girl in the pink was always falling!)

Drills:
Their first drill was to hold hands with their partner and kick the ball so they could learn not to use their hands.  Who did Hudson get paired with???  Yes, the little girl in pink who always fell down.  He thought this was something cool and funny so it didn't take him long to start copying her.  This started something that never stopped with him and probably ruined his future chances of being a soccer star!  I think he liked how he would slide on this type of floor.
   
It is so funny how quickly the kids learn things from each other.  Do you see how Hudson is pulling up on his shorts in the picture below?  Before I knew it, all of the kids were pulling their shorts up like this!  Hudson also really like to 'get into position' like he was playing football or baseball.  Infact, one of the grandmother's watching told me she had a gut feeling Hudson was going to be a great football player.  (He does know football much better since he and Jason play fairly often.  He especially loves the tackling part...boys!)  However, the over-protective mom in me would prefer he excel at a sport that was less prone to serious injuries.
 

1st Scrimmage:
 

Memorial Day BBQ

Mindy and Jeremy invited us over to their house for a Memorial Day BBQ!  Jeremy just built a beautiful new deck and pergola in their backyard.  He did such a fantastic job!  We had a great time with great friends and enjoyed lots of yummy food.  They had a moonwalk and splash pool for the kids to play in.  Hudson enjoyed playing rough with Kristi's 3 boys.  He's always happy to find another boy that he can wrestle with!  London enjoyed hanging out with Caleb and tried really hard to steal his bright green paci.

Memorial Weekend

Wow!  This has been a busy month and a half for us!  I've gotten behind on my blogging again...WAY behind!  I wanted to get London's 6 month pictures taken but we've been so busy and now she is already 8 months old!  How does that happen!  Hopefully when we get back from vacation we can get those done.  Let's see what has happend during this time...Right around the time London turned 7 months old, she started saying "Da-da".  We are trying to teach her to relate it to her Daddy and I think she's starting to get it.  She definitely knows what "Daddy" and "Hudson" mean because you can ask her where they are and she will frantically start looking around for them.  She loves those 2 boys!  She is also very close to starting to crawl which will be on a following post!

For Memorial Weekend, we spent a day having fun swimming.  This was London's first time in a pool other than our little splash pool and she LOVED it! Hudson loved pulling her around in her little raft.

A visit from Papa and Gigi

Papa and Gigi came to visit a few weeks ago!  We were taking pictures with my Mom and Dad's new camera phones most of the time so I really don't have many myself. 

Our neighbor, Jude, turned 2 over the weekend so we went to his crawfish boil/pool party to help him celebrate.  We girls just watched as the boys went swimming.  Even though it was a toasty day, the pool water is still pretty chilly...not now but it was then!  London is going through the stage where she is very clingy to me and doesn't let too many people hold her if I'm around.  She is also a little shy but she finally started warming up to my mom and they hung out together by the pool side.  (can you tell this is one of my favorite dresses London has?!?!  I think it's made an appearance in several blog posts now!)

Papa and Gigi brought Hudson some Spiderman toys to play with in the pool.  He loves them and had to take them to school the following week for show and tell!

Mom and Jason enjoying the crawfish feast!  Count me out for that part! Eeewww!  However, I do like the potatoes, corn, and sausage if I have something to drink quickly when my mouth is on fire!  Hudson joined them shortly after I took this picture.  I'm pretty sure that boy can out eat anyone when it comes to crawfish.  It's like the spices don't even phase him.  I'm always worried he's going to get sick to his stomach but he never does.  He's definitely a tride and true Houstonian!

Watch out Fergie...

Our little Londie London is already working on her first single:

Listen up ya'll, Cuz this is it

The beat that I'm bangin' is de-li-cious

I'm Londie-licious! And I blow kisses! (mmmuuahhh!)  : )

One of London's teachers, Mrs. Anderson, was so sweet and emailed me this picture she took of London jammin' away on her piano at school.  She said this is one of her favorite toys.  Which is funny, because it was also one of Hudson's favorite toys when he was in this class.  They'll be a musical duo one day!