Grandparents Day & the Lake...

This has been a good week. Tuesday was Grandparent's Day at the kid's school. Granddad and Mimi were able to make it. They have more pictures that I don't have yet... but below are a couple shots the daycare gave me. They had a good time and Raegan was proud to show-off her Granddad & Mimi! (thanks to Granddad & Mimi for taking time from the middle of your day to make it to this event. I know Raegan & Hudson were very glad you came!)



On Friday, Hudson had a doctor appointment. He is healthy. He is cleared for starting Stage 2 baby food! Also, he is now 19.9 pounds! Still heavy for his age! He got shots & Hannah said he did really well.

Friday night we went to the Lake. Below is a slideshow. Nana as usual helped me gain about 10 pounds of good food. Nana makes irresistable food. Raegan did her usual playing Papa for his attention the whole time. We did something we haven't done in years. We went to one of the islands on the Lake and we tied-off the boat and played in the water. This particular spot is one where the sand goes out under the water a long way before it gets very deep. So it was perfect for Raegan to play in shallow water. She did really well with swimming (w/ water wings on). Hudson just chilled on the boat with Nana. The dogs really liked this little "beach" too.

Some of the shots I added to this slideshow are just because Raegan makes funny expressions sometimes. I can't help but post so many pictures.

Hudson is 6 months old!!

As promised in last night's post, below are Hudson's 6 month pictures. He's always been a big boy but we think he is starting to grow into his age.

He is still very pleasant. He has his moments of frustration but over-all... a pretty low-maintenance kid who smiles a lot. He loves his sister, Raegan. He lights-up anytime she shows him attention.

He is eating more and more solid foods (Stage 1 baby food) and so far, he has no allergies and is very healthy!

He is becoming more and more mobile. I think we better enjoy these last days of us not worrying about him getting into everything!

Rae dance class, Lewis family gathering & DC Trip...

We had a busy week. On Monday, Raegan had her first dance class at school with Ms. Gilda. Below are a couple shots from that - she loved it! Since starting school as an infant, in every transition, Raegan has had her friend Alana with her. And Alana is doing the dance class too. Also... on Thursday Raegan had her first Spanish class.




I don't have a shot of this but Hudson is pretty close to sitting-up. He can also do a little backward scooting. And rolling to get things. We think he will really be doing some new stuff in the next couple weeks.

I went to Washington DC for a planning trip for our annual Chick-fil-A seminar. In February, we'll be hosting all of the Operators to the Gaylord National Hotel & Convention Center in DC. This property is really nice. We had a few meetings but we also got to do some site seeing. (these pics are from my Blackberry so not great quality)



I'll share just one story from that trip. And I'll try to make it quick. Chris Waddell & I walked the National Mall area on Friday afternoon. Chris wore an Auburn T-shirt to see how many "War Eagles" he could get. I kind of gave him a hard time for wearing a T-shirt & trying to run into other Auburn people. Within an hour or so, we had already gotten 2 "War Eagles". We were walking on the back side of the White House when a Secret Service agent walked out of a booth and said "War Eagle!". We talked for a few minutes and he is a big Auburn fan. He also went to a rival high school of my high school (T.R. Miller). I guess we all hit it off... because then he asked if we had a tour of the White House scheduled. We said no... we're just wondering around on a little free time we had. He said that if we want to tour the White House the next morning, he could probably arrange that. The cool thing about this offer is that you usually have to write your Congressman at least 30 days in advance to try to get your name on the list for this. We weren't sure he would come through for us... but he did! So the next morning, we showed-up to the White House at 7am for the tour. He took us in ahead of the line of 100+ people waiting to get in. Chris & I were the first to get into the White House for a tour that day. Our Secret Service buddy gave us the tour along with about 20 other people. He told us that they come to Atlanta often and he would try to get us into the next event they come to Atlanta to do. We also told him we would host him and his secret service guys to Chick-fil-A for lunch. Below is a shot of us with our new buddy. I guess being a part of the Auburn family is a good thing!


While I was in DC, Hannah had her sisters over to spend the night. Heather has been in Boston for a while now and Hannah hadn't seen her in a long time. Heather also had her daughter, Skyla with her. So Raegan & Hudson were getting to meet their cousin really for the first time. Below are a few shots from that visit.

I got back from DC & on Saturday we just hung around the house, watched college football & got ourselves back in order.

Today, we went down to Mimi & Granddad's house for a Lewis family gathering. It was a fun time and most had not seen Heather, Mike & Sky in a long time. Below is a slideshow.

One really big thing that happened 2 days ago is that Hudson turned 6 months old! We failed to take the 6 month pictures in the chair like we normally do. So we plan to do that tomorrow night and I'll add a post for that.

Happy Birthday Granddad!!

Week at St. George Island

On the last post we shared a few shots from our first day at St. George Island. We spent the rest of the week there and had a good time. Granddad, Mimi, Uncle Jacob & Uncle Aaron were all there.

We had a nightly visit to the roof deck to watch the sunset - where Raegan loved being our entertainment. We made visits to the beach where we played in the sand and the waves. Made lots of sand castles and holes in the sand. We saw a ton of dolphins one day and they were just a few feet away from where everyone was in the water. We played games at night. I discovered that between me & the other guys on the trip, we all have a serious addiction to Coke Zero. We couldn't keep enough of it on hand. I should probably learn to cut back.

Hannah and I had a date night and went to the Gibson Inn restaurant. Then we went to the Blue Parrott beachside tiki bar for dessert and a walk on the beach. On our last night, we went with Aaron & Jacob to Harry A's courtyard style open air bar with live band. It was nice. We couldn't stay long because we had to pack. (that's right, the restaurant's name is Harry A's)

Raegan had the most fun & longest time in the pool ever. This was on our last day and she and Hannah played for a long time in the pool. At one point, Raegan even told Hannah that she was swimming over to the floats on the other side of the pool by herself. And she did (with water wings on). Other than all of that, Raegan watched a lot of Elmo when she could fit it in & she played with toys.

Hudson didn't really care for the beach or the pool. He slept both times we took him to the beach. He seemed to require someone holding him a lot more than usual. So he got good time with all of the family. Mostly, both kids slept through the night every night.

Enough of my rambling... below is the slideshow that will take longer to go through than reading my words! Most of the focus is on Raegan because she was usually doing something interesting (at least to her parents).



One last thing... as I mentioned, the dolphins were really close to shore. This is a quick video clip showing how the dolphins were right behind the guys in the water. It may not be that big of a deal to some people but I have a slight fear of ocean marine life. I wouldn't want to be that close to even a friendly dolphin.

Labor Day at St. George

It's Labor Day and we're at St. George Island with Granddad, Mimi & Uncle Jacob. We got here on Saturday. It was a long car ride but we made it & the kids were mostly good. You can see the ocean from the house we're renting and there is plenty of room for everyone. Uncle Aaron is coming tonight or tomorrow.

Below is a slideshow of some of the pictures we've taken so far. We'll be here all week... so I know I'll have plenty more pictures to share later. In this slideshow is the picnic Hannah made for us on the way down. And there is a picture of a giant cow from a gas station where we stopped. Pictures of Raegan playing with Granddad & Uncle Jacob on the beach. Hudson sleeping on the beach. Raegan & Mimi making pancakes. Hannah, Mimi & Raegan playing in the pool at the rental house... & more...

Raegan the dancer...

This week has been active. We have done our normal stuff like tennis, small group, school, work, P90X, chores, church, etc.

Raegan is still doing pretty well with the potty training. She has made it through another week at school without wearing diapers. She has had a couple of accidents and at times says "I don't like to pee pee on the potty..." and definitely "I don't like to poo poo on the potty". So we have seen a few poo poo accidents this week and some pee pee. But over all, she's doing pretty well.

Hudson has had a good week. He got an immunization shot but seemed fine with that. He is eating baby food really well and we introduced squash to him tonight. He seemed to really like it. Today he has actually been fussy. This is really unusual for him. And I've heard him moan a few times tonight as he has been asleep. I guess he is either teething or has growing pains. He doesn't have a fever. But the rest of this past week, he has been the usual mild mannered little guy we're used to.

This week, they had an activity at school where Hudson & I got to do our prints together. See below... (crazy to think that one day his foot will likely be bigger than my hand!)

Raegan finally got to wear the raincoat that Hannah got her. She's been waiting for that day... and it finally rained!

This is a goofy shot of Raegan in her panties and pigtails. I just thought the picture was funny... but this is how she runs around the house pretty often.

You've seen video on this blog of Raegan dancing. Well it's finally gonna be official. Next week she starts dance class at school! She and Hannah bought dance clothes this week. I never had a sister or anything so I never realized what happens to girls when they get dance clothes. I think Hannah & Raegan came alive when Raegan tried on her ballet outfit and her tap dance outfit. Raegan even did the run and jump into Hannah's arms thing. I'm not sure they got the proper ballet form... but it's a start!

You may wonder what Hudson was doing while all this silly girl stuff swas going on. He was just lying on the floor being happy. I don't have the video to prove it, but he is now able to roll-over on both sides. He first went from back to belly. But now he can go from belly to back also.


That's it for this week!

Raegan milestone, Hudson 5 month & the Lake...

This past week was a milestone week. It was Raegan's first week going to school wearing panties instead of a diaper. She went the whole week with out a pee-pee accident! She had one #2 accident but I would say she has mastered #1 in the potty!

On the 19th, Hudson turned 5 months old! Time is flying! He is still an awesome kid - very healthy, very even tempered & very cute!






Also... this past week was Mimi's Birthday. Happy Birthday Mimi!

Over the weekend we went out to the Lake to see Nana & Papa & it could possibly be the last time getting to play in the water for the season. We had a lot of fun. On Saturday night we took the boat to a restaurant on the water and it was really nice - thanks Papa! The weather was perfect the whole weekend. Also, the neighbors (Glen & Mary) got a new boat. It has a wake board tower and they took me and Hannah out for a couple hours. It was really nice wake boarding behind a boat with a bigger wake and a high rope - I have boat fever now but it will pass. Plus we got to use his new wake board that was really nice too.

This is a slideshow of some of the shots from our camera from the weekend.


This is a slideshow of some pictures from Nana's camera (much better quality!):


This is a slideshow of some action shots from the wake boarding (from Mary's camera):


So that was our weekend. Tonight Hannah had tennis practice. Our interest in tennis is finally influencing Raegan. Tonight she asked if she could play tennis tomorrow night. I'm not sure why she said tomorrow instead of tonight but we love that she is asking to play tennis!

Routine week...

We don't have a whole lot to report for this past week. It was a pretty low-key week. Standard routines.

Raegan is doing pretty well at going long periods of time wearing big girl undies and going to the potty when she needs to. Not fully potty trained but we're getting there.

Hudson is still doing well. He is eating rice cereal a little and is starting to go through that phase where he gets distracted easily while drinking a bottle. This weekend he seemed a little fussy which is unusual - so we're wondering if he might be starting to teethe.

Wednesday night I got to go down to PTC and do the mock triathlon on the race course. It was fun and really made me want to do a triathlon this season. But the season is almost over and I know I'll do more next year.

Hannah is starting back ALTA (tennis) and practice starts this week.

This weekend, we went to a party at the Martin's and I went on a Sweetwater tour with some of the guys before the party.

Otherwise, that's about as much as I have to report. Below are a few pictures we took today.

JCCC, 6-Flags & Hudson's first solid food...

Earlier this week, JCCC (childcare) hosted a Family Fun Day. They had activities and a petting zoo. It was really hot that day so I told Hannah it probably wouldn't be worth driving down because I didn't figure we would be out there long. We stayed longer than I thought... but Raegan had fun... until I wouldn't let her hold a bag of Cheetos in the petting zoo. She got pretty upset about that but all-in-all, it was a fun event. Hudson stayed inside until time to go. Below is a slideshow from that event.



Another thing that happened this week was that we introduced Hudson to solid food (rice cereal). He seemed to like it OK. Raegan even helped feed him some. Below are some pics.




We have a slightly scary story to tell from Friday night. We [Hannah, Raegan, Hudson & me] went out to eat. We didn't have Raegan strapped into her highchair. We already told her to not stand-up in it. We thought she understood. I was in the process of retrieving Hudson from Hannah so Hannah could eat her food and in that split second Raegan stood-up in her highchair and fell backward onto the concrete floor. It made the worst sound. Rae of course cried. A lady at the table next to us covered her ears, began rocking back and forth chanting "they need to call 911". As Hannah was tending to Raegan, the lady with the chanting woman told me that their brother was in a coma for 7 years after a similar fall. That kind of freaked us out. We gathered our kids and started driving to urgent care - meanwhile Raegan is seeming OK. She was saying the alphabet, etc. No vomiting & eyes were focused. Hannah called the nurses line and after going through a few questions and checking what they told us, we decided Raegan was OK. We checked on her again 4hrs after she went to sleep (as instructed by the nurse) and she was fine. And she is still fine. But that was scary for a minute and we decided that we are really lucky that she is OK and that we've never really had any really scary situations with our kids before now.

On Saturday we just hung around the house. We played at the pool a little, played inside and also got some things done around the house. Below is a slideshow of some cute pictures of Raegan & Hudson.



On Sunday, my team at work celebrated the completion of a project by going to Six Flags together. It was extremely hot and tiring. But it was fun and we got to ride most everything we wanted. I can tell I'm getting old - I used to be a roller coaster junkie and now I just don't hold-up like I used to. But we were all spent earlier than I would have thought. Below are a few pictures from that outing.


That's about it for this past week. I hope this coming week is good!