Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! We've had a good year and we're looking forward to a great 2010!

The biggest change we're looking at for 2010 is that this Thursday is Hannah's last day at work. She turned in her notice a few weeks ago and will be staying home to focus on managing our house, finances and of course our children. We're excited about this change.

The latest on Hudson is that he is doing much better. On Christmas Eve we had to take him to the doc and they said he has ear infections in both ears. And then on New Year's Eve we had to take him to the doc because he broke out in hives. It turns out he is allergic to Amoxicilin. So they put him on another antibiotic. But the good news is that they said his lungs are good and he no longer has to do the nebulizer treatments. So both of our kids are mildly allergic to penicilins.

So Hudson is doing much better. But he is dealing with teeth coming in. He has a tooth or two coming in on his bottom teeth. In the slideshow below, I have a couple shots.

Raegan is doing really well. She is healthy and mostly goes to the potty when she is awake. She still has accidents if she naps without a pull-up and if she is really pre-occupied in what she is doing (playing).

The slideshow below shows what we have been doing over the past week. But just to summarize - we handled a sick Hudson, Hannah started battling something like an ear infection, we brought in the new year at home, had a New Year's brunch with our small group, left the kids with Granddad & Mimi over night, we watched a movie, slept late & shopped, we took down Christmas decorations and played around the house.

Here is the slideshow:

Christmas 2009

Merry Christmas!

This week has not gone exactly as planned. Hudson has been a little sick and as it turns out, he has an ear infection in both ears and also had Bronchiolitis. He is taking an antibiotic and also taking nebulizer treatments. We can clearly see 2 bottom teeth showing now. So Hudson has been through it, but is still a mostly happy kid. I think he is talking more.

At school this week, Raegan had a pajama party (maybe pictures will come later). She has been excited about Christmas. She has still been afraid of Santa but that's OK, because she understands that Christmas is Jesus' Birthday.

We have been mostly hanging around the house with Hudson being sick, but below are two slideshows. One showing some pictures from the week, from Christmas Eve & even a couple shots after Christmas. The other slideshow is Christmas Day.

But first... a fun video. Most of us would say the Christmas season is pretty hectic. Well the video below will help you experience this if you didn't get your own frantic Christmas experience. On Christmas Eve, we decided to drive to see a Christmas light show at a nearby neighborhood. It was raining and Hudson was sick, so maybe not the best idea to begin with. But you can hear in the video that Hudson got upset, Raegan was entertained at first but then wanted a toy... and the light show is crazy anyway. And I don't think Raegan & I usually sound as southern as we do here. Regardless, this video captures the emotions of the holidays...

This slideshow is just some shots from the week leading-up to Christmas, Christmas Eve & today.



This slideshow is from Christmas Day.

Hudson is 9 Months old!

Hudson turned 9 months old on the 19th. He crawls like crazy now and pulls-up on everything. When on hard surfaces, he sometimes crawls to where his knees don't touch the ground. Pretty clever. He has a great temperament. He has great smiles and warms-up to people quickly. He has a little bit of a tooth starting to show. He is starting to get upset when we leave him... so I guess he is getting more attached to us.

Today, we took him to the Pediatrician because he had a fever on Friday and he has had a bad cough since then. And he has been less cheerful than usual. They said he has Bronchialitis. So now he has to do breathing treatments every 4 hours. They said he may only have to do this for a month. We hope that's true! Right now, he really doesn't like the treatment!

Here are a couple shots of his 9 month in the chair in his room.

Below is a slideshow noting some of what we did this past week.

Crazy Christmas week...

This has been crazy Christmas week. On Sunday was the CFA Open House (where I took Santa pictures), Sunday evening was the neighborhood Christmas party, Tuesday evening was Hannah's girl friend Christmas party, Wednesday night was Hannah's neighborhood Bunko Christmas party, Thursday night was my department Christmas party, on Friday night was the CFA Children's Christmas party (where I took Santa pictures) & Saturday we hosted part of the Miley family Christmas.

It was all good and all fun. But also exhausting. Below is a slideshow that tells a lot of the story from the weekend. Raegan is in the same dress made by Nana throughout the whole weekend. There were actually two other dresses that Nana made that we planned on Raegan wearing at some point but the way things worked-out, she wore the same one the whole time. Pretty amazing that a 2yr old can wear the same dress for 2 days!

Christmas events have begun...

Things are already really busy! Christmas events have begun. Preparing for & doing these events as well as normal work and working Chick-fil-A events are really keeping us busy.

On Friday morning, I helped "stuff the dome" with Chick-fil-A to prepare for the SEC Championship game. That's actually always fun.

On Saturday evening, we watched some football & we met Jason & Mina (& kids) at Stone Mountain. We watched the Polar Express 4-D movie and walked around the Christmas setup. It was really nice but too cold for Hudson. We couldn't keep Hudson out there for the laser show & parade. So we had to leave.

On Sunday, I took Santa pictures at the CFA Open House for a couple hours. Then we went to our neighborhood Christmas party. Raegan was pretty happy until Santa came into the clubhouse. Then she wanted to get out of there. She still doesn't like people dressed like Santa. But she does like Santa decorations & songs.

This week will be a crazy week with multiple Christmas parties. I hope we survive!

By-the-way, Hudson is little crazy man now. He cannot be still. If you're holding him, he is twisting & turning to get down. If he is down, he is crawling really fast or pulling himself up on something. It's difficult to even change his clothes or diaper now because he can't be still. How long does this phase last? I don't remember Raegan being this determined to move.

Here are some shots from this past week...

Happy Thanksgiving!!

So much has been done in the past week! On Thursday, we celebrated Thanksgiving at Granddad & Mimi's house. It was fun. You can read commentary on the slideshow below...




Then on Friday, I went to work and Hannah stayed home with the kids. They went to the playground and I think this was the first time Raegan & Hudson rode in the wagon together. You'll see a picture in the slideshow below.

Also on Friday, I got to catch the last part of the Auburn/Alabama game when I got home. I thought we would have been destroyed. So at least I expected to lose. I thought it was odd, when I got home, how calm Raegan was. It turned out she had a fever of 102. She never just lays on the couch but that's what she wanted to do. After some medicine, she was back to herself and the next day was a little better and then today she seemed good.

On Saturday, I took Hudson with me to a mattress store and bought Raegan a full sized mattress. While I did that Hannah took Raegan to do other shopping. Both kids seemed to enjoy their outings apart.

We bought the mattress for Raegan because she was outgrowing her toddler bed. By Saturday night we had her toddler bed converted into a full sized bed. She liked it but she did wake-up a little upset around 5am. But I think she'll be OK tonight.

The rest of the weekend, we worked on Christmas decorations, playing & organzing. See the slideshow below for some pictures & captions...

Hudson 8 months, Raegan with Madison & a trip to the Lake...

This week Hudson turned 8 months old! I didn't get the best shots but here they are.



Hudson is doing great. He is crawling more. He is pulling himself up on things. Mostly to his knees... but occasionaly he pulls himself up to his feet. He still has no teeth but maybe soon. He is almost always happy. He eats really well and really loves his sister Raegan.

This past week we did some of our usual things - work, small group, tennis practice, walking, TV. On Friday, Hannah's sister brough Madison over (who she nannies) and Raegan & Madison got to play together. You can see some pictures in the slideshow below.

Also, this weekend we went to the Lake and saw Nana & Papa. We had a fun relaxing time. The slideshow has some pictures from both my camera as well as Nana's camera. The better shots are Nana's camera.

AU vs UGA & a B'day party

I'm a little late with this update. I don't even have a slideshow!

Hudson is really doing a lot more crawling. He goes back and forth between army crawling and classic crawling. On Monday we took him to the doctor because he had some rashes on his face and legs. The pediatrician said it looks like he may have had a mild ear infection a few days earlier and that the rash comes sometimes a little after being sick. That explains why he was a little fussy last Saturday. But he is good now! He still has no teeth, but it really seems like he is close to getting some.

Here are a couple shots of Hudson being cute...



Look out ladies...


Also... Hudson has started doing the P90X workout program. Here he is doing some push-ups.

...and here he is doing the Yoga part of the workout. This is called "Downward Dog".

...and this is a stretch that is part of the yogo sequence. I don't remember the name... but if you have ever done yoga, you'll recognize this position...

...of course he is not really doing P90X. But there is a striking similarity from what he naturally does and the P90X program!

We got back the kid's school pictures. The shot of Raegan & Hudson together turned out good. It seems that it is illegal for me to scan the picture and post it so I won't do that. Both kid's individual shots didn't turn-out. About half the kids at school had this happen. They gave us some gift cards for free service for the goof-up... but we hate that we didn't get to see those pictures!

On Saturday morning, we went to a 4yr B'day party for Zack Martin. At this party, Raegan finally overcame her fear of moon-walks or jumpy houses... or whatever you call them. Anyway, she has always been scared of them but once she was able to get in without other kids around, she loved it. Even once other kids got in. Below are a couple shots...

Below is a picture of some of the kids at the party before the cake... Zack is the one in the blue shirt directly behind Raegan.

After the party, Granddad & Mimi came over and spent time with the kids while we went with Carrie & Chad to the UGA/AU game. It was fun... and was an exciting game... until Auburn lost. Neither team looked all that great... but it was fun to get to go! We tailgated a little before hand and then enjoyed the game. Thanks to Carrie & Chad for letting us use the extra tickets! And thanks to Granddad & Mimi for taking care of the kids!

That's it for last week!

Hudson took first real crawling moves...

It's been a good week. Today we witnessed Hudson do his first crawling with his knees. He has been crawling by using his arms (to drag his legs basically)... but today he did a few moves of classic crawling. I got a video with my Blackberry but I still need to convert it to something I can post.

On Monday I started back tennis lessons. There are 6 of us doing lessons with the same guy Hannah was taking lessons with. He is really good... but I'm really rusty! Also swim training has started back with CFA. So I did that on Friday and it was really good. I plan to do at least one triathlon next year.

On Thursday, Hannah went to a Mom's club meeting in our area. They discussed school options... but we still don't know what we'll do... luckily, our kids are both a little ways off from that!

On Saturday, we went to a dog park with the Cohens. The dogs had fun and so did the rest of us. Hudson seemed kind of sick all weekend but I think he's OK. He is transitioning to a new room at church... since he is mobile now.

Raegan is noticing letters everywhere. I think she can recognize most of the alphabet now and points the letters out everwhere she sees them. And she usually says what else starts with that letter... like "A" for apple! She is also starting to be able to sound out a word and determine the letter it must start with.

OK... enough of my babble... below is our slideshow with captions. Enjoy!

Halloween Activities...

We had another exciting week! This week of course was filled with a lot of Halloween activities. Before I get into that, I have to share that Raegan was "Artist of the Week" at school! See below...



Also this week, both kids got their H1N1 vaccination. So far... no side-effects!

On Friday, we had a children's costume parade at my work. Hannah didn't get to go because she pulled an all nighter with work and was still working in the morning. She is a hard worker and I hate it made her miss out on the costume parade. She was also planning to take them to the Aquarium but that didn't workout either. Luckily, there were plenty of other festivities for her to take part in.

At the costume parade at my work, I didn't think about a stroller or baby biorne. So I carried Hudson the whole time and tried to keep Raegan straight and her costume in tact. It wa exhausting but the only thing I lost was Raegan's wand. I'm not sure what happened to it. Anyway, both kids liked walking around my office and seeing all my co-workers giving them candy.

On Saturday we spent the first part of the day around the house. You can see in the slideshow that Hannah started us off with a festive breakfast. We carved a pumpkin. Watched football. Went to the neighborhood Halloween party. And of course Trick-or-Treated. It was a full day. See the slideshow...



Then on Sunday, after church we went down to Hannah's parent's house. Raegan & Hudson both enjoyed seeing Mimi & Granddad, Uncle Jacob, Uncle Aaron, Aunt Jennifer & Great Granddad! See slideshow...