May Wrap-Up

We just returned from a four-day weekend in South Dakota at Grandpa and Grandma's. Before I roll out a post on that, here's a snapshot of our last few BUSY weeks!

On Mother's Day we participated in "Baby Dedication" at our church. Our children will be baptized when they make the decision in their life to follow our Savior. When they are babies in our church, we have the choice to participate in a dedication ceremony in which we choose to lead them in their faith. We enjoyed celebrating on stage with our friends Clay and Maria Livingston and their baby, Catherine.


I was spoiled with several homemade gifts from my sweet ones...

A card and roses from our in-home daycare!

The card and my favorite chocolate.

A recipe book from Corbin, made in Mrs. Martin's class.

And art from my oldest! I love these kids, I'm the most blessed Mom in the world :o)

Chase has been busy with finger/table food. He gets pretty frustrated now when we try to eat something without sharing it. I'm pretty selective on what I let him eat still, so that just adds to his frustration :o)

Loves his Cheerios!!

We celebrated my sweet niece's 2nd birthday. Isn't her tutu adorable? I can't believe how much she has grown!!

She was all over the cake!!

So much to celebrate...the next day my nephew graduated from Malcolm High School.

And that evening we recognized my sister and BIL's 10th wedding anniversary. What blessings!

We have had many fun evenings just hanging at home too. Sidewalk chalk in the driveway, hikes and walks, lots of bike riding and baseball in the backyard. We have a very active family, so this spring/summer weather couldn't get here fast enough!!

We also spent a Saturday morning helping with a Food Band food distribution downtown. I have been trying to find ways for our whole family to volunteer together and after several months of mulling it over we decided to just try it out. Casey and I were amazed at the arrangement and how much food was given out to hundreds of families. All of our kids dove right in and kept busy the whole 2+ hours of the distribution.....Chase slept most of the time in his stroller :o)

The girls and I will likely help again this weekend while the boys head to Corbin's 1st t-ball game.

Speaking of.....Kyndal wrapped up volleyball last Sunday and the next day softball season kicked off at her 1st practice. I was surprised at how much the girls developed over the year. It should be even more fun to watch them this summer. Her games will be on Wednesday nights and Corbin's will be on Saturdays.

We have a couple big trips coming up, along with two birthdays. June will be even busier than May! Have a great week!!

Little Explorer

Milestones....Chase recently gave up his army crawling days. Once he figured out how to get up on his hands I think he realized how much easier it is and he can get there much faster.

At 9 months he is weighing in at 21 lbs. 6 oz. He has tried some table foods and has no problem with coordinating it from tray to mouth. He must be a Hudson, he's a good eater!

Putting these two talents together (crawling and self-feeding) I have nicknamed him our little vacuum cleaner. I am constantly sweeping up the remains from the older siblings meals, but he is right on my heels trying to get to the crumbs before I steal them away!

Here's my little Chay-Chay in action:

After a busy evening of patrolling our floors, the little man crashed! He's only done this a couple times, but it's so sweet...

Balance Beams and Tripods

While Kennedy was down the hall practicing her dance moves this winter at the Y, big sister Kyndal jumped at the chance to take Gymnastics. The last time I had enrolled her she was 18 months old and I spent more time chasing her around the gym than watching her do somersaults! Since I really wanted to get Kennedy into an activity at the Y this winter and the activities were at the same time, I asked Kyndal if she wanted to "try again". She was so thrilled and loved every minute of it.

Here's some photos of her last lesson. She constantly practices at home, especially her cartwheels and tripods.


She took both sessions this winter and we're happy to announce she has passed Level 1 and is moving up. If it works into our schedule she'll jump back in this fall. We're sticking with just t-ball/softball this summer, we've got lots of traveling to do and birthdays to celebrate :o)

Dance Moves

A few weeks ago we were blessed with two tickets to the Lied Center to Choo Choo Soul, from Jodee at Follow the Leaders! Kennedy and I rarely have an outing all by ourselves, in fact, on the way she gasped and said, "Mommy, you forgot Chase!" This was definitely one of the most fun times we've ever had together, she was such a hoot that night! Thanks again, Jodee, we had an amazing time with you and Kamree!

"Got my ticket, let's go Mommy!"

Kennedy loves hanging out with "my friend Kamree"

She enjoyed all the pre-show activities, especially the parachute!

Running to find her seat for the show.

She was on her feet for most of the show. Her favorite part was when they threw popcorn on the audience.

Her picture souvenir!

This little firecracker has roller coaster emotions. As fired up as she was about dancing in the aisles at the Lied Center, she was not so excited about dancing up on stage at her dance recital which she had been practicing several weeks for. Bummer! I guess dance is just not her thing right now :o)

Aunt Erika was happy to do an up-do for her hair

And she made her this beautiful tutu for the occasion and a matching hair bow!

She showed off some of the dance positions she had learned before we left...

Getting ready to perform.....showing me a few more positions. At this point I was thinking maybe she was coming around a little.....not so much!

Kennedy and Kamree were in the same dance class

Getting stage fright?

Up on stage...she had to be ushered to the middle and didn't move from this position. She then had to be ushered off as well! Poor thing! No more dance for this little one for awhile :o)

Opening Weekend at the Zoo

It didn't take our clan long to scramble to the zoo once the gates were open! We were excited to see the new penguin exhibit, the camel dock and of course, their favorite, feeding the goats! We slipped over on the first Friday they were open as there was no school or daycare. It's the perfect morning activity for my crew and we are frequent visitors each year!

Chase loooooved the zoo!
If you look closely you can see his two little front teeth!

My monkeys....
What is your kids' favorite animal?