Hudson and Emma's first Easter egg hunt

Our church has an Easter egg hunt every year and this year they started doing it after church on Palm Sunday. Hudson had no idea what an Easter egg was before this but he seemed to get the concept pretty quickly. 

I adore this seersucker suit! It is a hand-me-down from a friend and it is so stinkin' adorable! Hudson was way too busy making sure everything was in his backpack for church to stop and smile for a picture.

But Emma will never turn down an opportunity to cheese it up for the camera. That's my girl.

Hudson and John walking hand in hand. Well, more like the wrist hold since Hudson did not want any part of hand holding. There were too many "balls" to throw.

Hudson quickly got the idea that you are supposed to pick up as many of these plastic eggs as possible and keep them in your basket. 

This mama made the mistake of ordering the large Easter basket from Pottery Barn Kids. Do not make the same mistake. This thing is huge. But Hudson rocked the Easter basket crossbody. 

At some point during the hunt, he realized that these eggs had candy in them. So he had to open every egg upon picking it up to inspect it.

And Miss Emma James got her very first Easter egg. Her first Easter egg hunt was successful.

Despite the as-big-as-he-is basket, Hudson scored at the Easter egg hunt. 

I love my family! Even though my children want nothing to do with this picture.

PJ, silly faces, and steak

My dad (Papa Jim aka PJ) came for a visit this weekend. Hudson (and Emma, she just doesn't show the same enthusiasm as Hudson yet) loves it when PJ comes to visit. He got here Friday night after the kids were in bed but Hudson got the best surprise when he went into his room Saturday morning. 

PJ brought prizes for the kids. John and I were excited about these toys because neither of them make a very big mess. Score! 

Emma decided to take the opportunity of having PJ in town to show off. She started sitting up on her own on Saturday morning! (At 5 months and 3 days old.) She can last for up to 30 seconds. 

Saturday we left Emma and John at home and went and got some groceries. Hudson gave us "sweet eyes" as we were waiting to check out.

He was all about the silly faces this weekend. He kept making this surprised face. He was very surprised that the Kardashians got so much magazine press.

A PJ weekend would not be complete without firing up the grill. We had delicious ribeye steaks, grilled asparagus, mashed potatoes, and roasted spaghetti squash. Yum!

My sweet boys. And Hudson again with the silly faces. This is what he did when I said to smile. 

On Sunday we went to church and then had an Easter egg hunt after church. I'll save those pictures for another post but Hudson had so much fun and looked absolutely adorable in his seersucker suit!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

Emma :: 5 months old

Emma James!

You are 5 months old now! I feel like you have changed so much this month. You have been such a delight. You are SO SO happy and rarely cry or fuss. You are so laid back, happy, and such a smiley baby! Hudson was a happy and easy baby but never smiled as much as you do. You are such a joy to us and we are completely in love with you!

This was a pretty big month for you. You rolled over onto your tummy in the middle of the night while you were swaddled so we dropped it cold turkey (in the middle of the night). It was a long night that first night and it took you a few days to adjust but you've been sleeping great on your tummy since! 

Like I said, you are the smiley-est (not really a word but you get what I'm saying) baby ever! You are so stingy with your laughs but you will constantly smile and it's a huge smile! I call it your cheerleader smile. You are such a happy, content, and easy baby! But trying to get you to laugh is next to impossible. I've done it once, your daddy has done it once, and your babysitter got you to laugh. That's it. You started to play in the jumperoo this month and love it. When we first put you in it a few weeks ago your feet barely touched the ground and now you are flat footed. I can't believe how much you've grown in such a short amount of time!

You've become a paci baby this month! You've always taken one if you were tired but you have really started to love it this month. You don't get it when you are asleep though. You sleep great without it and I'd like to not have to break that habit one day. 

Your schedule this month has been changing a lot. I tried for so long to get you and Hudson to nap at the same time in the afternoon when he naps. I wanted so badly for you to take a 2+ hour nap like he does in the afternoon. I would put y'all down at the same time and you wouldn't end up napping for very long and you were fussy for the rest of the day. It was a big mess and just not working for us. You are now taking 3 shorter naps and if I'm lucky I get about an hour (tops) overlap in naps. I know this is only a season and as you start dropping naps they will match up. As long as both of you are happy, this mama is happy!

You are drooling so much and constantly chewing on something, either your hands, OUR hands, Sophie...whatever you can get in your mouth! I really have no idea if teeth are close but you are definitely teething. 

You are sleeping about 12 hours at night. I will start nursing you between 6:45/7:00 and you are usually asleep in your crib around 7:30/8:00. You will wake up in the mornings between 7:00/7:30. You nurse at 7:00, 10:00, 1:00, 4:00, and 7:00. You nap at 8:30, 12:00, and 2:30. 

You have started to kick your legs so much when you are on your tummy! I loved it when your brother started doing this. It looks like you are trying to swim! You are loving being on your tummy so much more now that you are stronger. 

We haven't started on solids yet and will wait until you are at least 6 months old. I'm not in a hurry at all! It just adds something else that I have to think about during the day. And it changes "things." You are growing and developing perfectly right now EBF so I'm good with that! 

We love you so much Emma James! This has been such a fun month with you. You are starting to notice Hudson and Oliver and get so excited when Hudson pays attention to you. He is so sweet and still smothers you with kisses. We are completely overwhelmed with love for both of you. 

Love,

Mommy

::5 month stats::

weight: 16 pounds

height: 24 1/2 inches

eating: nursing every 3 hours

clothes: 3-6 months or 6 months

diaper: size 2

Look how you've changed!

Hudson at 5 months and Emma at 5 months...

adios google reader!

Since Google Reader is going away, I'm making the switch to Bloglovin'.

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down by the bay

Today we went down to the bay with some friends who have a house there. It was way too cold to get in the water but that didn't stop us from having a wonderful time. I love living this close to the water!

We left right after lunch hoping that Hudson would nap on the way. It was only about a 45 minute drive and he slept the whole way. It was SUPER short nap for him but he did great and had so much fun!

We walked out onto the pier. It was so windy but such a beautiful day. Hudson was so mad because John wouldn't let him run around on the pier. We are mean parents. ;)

(I really wish Emma had been facing out in this picture. It's so rare for us to get a family picture!)

Sweet Bella loving on her new baby brother, Parker.

Hudson loved all the "new" toys to play with. 

The stairs up to their bay house had a slide attached. It was such a smart idea!! Hudson loves slides.

Gorgeous sunset! 

Hudson stayed awake the whole way home and fell asleep literally as we pulled into our neighborhood. We tried so hard to wake him up and keep him awake as we drove a few blocks to our house but he was COMPLETELY out! 

A Random Tuesday via Instagram

John has been out of town since Friday morning. 5 days. He gets home tomorrow and we could not be more ready. Last night was rough. I never sleep well when he's gone and both kids woke up several times during the night. I got a total of about 3 hours of sleep. 

I decided in order to have a somewhat good day I needed a good breakfast. All I really did was fry 2 eggs. The other parts were super easy. It was a yummy healthy breakfast that got me through the morning.

While I was eating breakfast I turned on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse for the kids. I looked over and saw Emma looking at Hudson and he had his sweet little hand on her bouncy seat.

I had some laundry to put away in Hudson's room and so he played in there for a while and Emma hung out in his crib. She was kicking and so happy in there. Hudson seemed to be a little jealous that he wasn't in there playing with her. 

While I was unloading the dishwasher this afternoon I looked behind me and Hudson had lined up all of these pans and plastic containers. He kept adjusting them to make sure they were perfectly straight. He gets that OCD-ness from his daddy for sure!

Hudson had leftover spaghetti for dinner tonight which always means a bath right after. He loves the bath and had fun playing. Emma and I were in there with him and he almost threw a fit over wanting my Sonic ice. With only 3 hours of sleep and solo parenting for 5 days I let him have it. And he was happy.

After both babies were bathed and jammied up, I took a picture of them together on the couch. Hudson has been a finger sucker since he was about 3 months old. Emma will sort of take a paci sometimes but since she's been sleeping unswaddled I had noticed she was sucking on something on the video monitor...just not sure exactly what it was. It wasn't until I was looking through my photos that I noticed they were doing the exact same thing. Needless to say, this is the new picture on my lock screen on my phone.

Today ended up being a great day. We played outside, watched more tv than we should have, and read a ton of books and played with lots of cars and blocks. I'm exhausted but I would not have traded today for anything else. 

lately...or a huge photo dump

 Same song different verse. Horrible blogger...blah blah blah. Here's a massive photo dump from the last couple of weeks.

My sweet girl and I after church one Sunday. She is quite the entertainer.

Making silly faces with my boy. I hate how the front camera on the iPhone is such poor quality compared to the back side. 

Hudson hears me say "shhhh" a lot and he has picked up very quickly what it means. We were looking at this book one day and he pointed to the baby in the crib and immediately put his finger {in} his mouth and said, "shhh." Such a sweet boy. Let's also take a minute and look at the randomness of his outfit. Jams, hoodie, and Thomas rain boots. :)

In this house we wear jams and other holiday attire until they are too small. We wear the holiday clothes at home only and not out in public but they make adorable play clothes at home once a holiday has come and gone. Here is Emma James sporting Christmas jams in February.

Emma is such a wiggle worm lately. She tries to "stand up" or sit forward in her bouncy seat. I think she is pretty close to sitting on her own. Also...love those baby legs!

On bad nap days we go and visit John at work. We always come with a Dr Pepper and Hudson loves the time in his office mostly because the cabinets aren't child locked and there is a guitar and piano to play with.

Last week I decided to start weaning Emma from her swaddle. She is 4 1/2 months old and rolling over so I figured it was time. At that point she hadn't rolled over in her swaddle yet so we were going slowly. It didn't go well so I fully swaddled her that night and she rolled over in her sleep at 3:00AM. We dropped the swaddle cold turkey in the middle of the night and it has taken a few days to adjust but she's sleeping great now.

We had a pretty busy day one day last week running lots of errands. In our small town I rarely go to more than 3 places at a time with both kids. And if I go to 3 places it is usually the grocery store, bank drive thru, and dry cleaners drive thru. Easy errands. But this day I had several in and out places to go to...Target, the mall, the grocery store, plus a drive thru at the bank and of course, Starbucks. The kids did so great but from the bank to the mall they both fell asleep in their car seats. I wasn't surprised by Emma since it was her nap time but it was 10:00AM, almost 3 hours before Hudson's nap time.

And poor Emma's bow always ends up over her eyes if I forgot to take it off in her car seat. She has figured out how to wiggle her head to make it come off. She was actually asleep under the bow.

Having 2 kids under 2 isn't the easiest. There are definitely days when I feel like they are both so needy all day long and I can't be everything they need to both of them when they need me. But then I look down and see this and my heart completely melts. 

Hudson decided that Emma's blanket made a perfect cape. You should have seen the way he was walking around and looking behind him to see if it was waving.

Here is a perfect picture of showing Emma trying to sit up. She will lean forward as far as she can. This time she fell asleep doing it.

We had a few days last week where Hudson and I were both under the weather. I hate it when he is sick but I got a few extra snuggles. Thankfully for both of us it was just allergies and we are feeling much better now.

We got the jumperoo down from the attic for Emma and she LOVES it. Her poor feet can't reach the floor yet. And after I took this picture I realized it wasn't on the lowest setting so I lowered it. She still can't reach. :)

Anytime we bring out a "new" toy for Emma that Hudson played with as a baby he becomes so interested in it. I'm not sure if he remembers it (I doubt it) or if it's just something new to play with. 

Some days it's just not worth the battle to finish putting clothes on before he goes and plays in the backyard. 

Phew! As usual...we are staying busy but not doing a whole lot. I love our life right now though and wouldn't want to be anywhere else.