tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48096017731987211692024-03-12T23:21:27.520-05:00The Adventures of the Siewert FamilyUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger303125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4809601773198721169.post-37876686885660813532018-10-15T21:17:00.000-05:002018-10-15T21:17:05.606-05:00This summer<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
There was a pine tree by our driveway that had died. I decided to chop it down before it fell over</div>
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Hudson brought along his chopping stick to help me out.<br />
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I ended up buying a gas chainsaw to cut it up, but I did bring the ax along to chop up some bits at the top of the tree.<br />
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Whenever it is time to get a hair cut, instead of going out and paying a professional, the kids eagerly volunteer to do it for free. If I wanted to push my luck, I might even be able to charge them for the privilege of cutting my hair.<br />
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Sara and I went up to Colorado in June to go hiking. We stayed at my parents new house now that they have moved back to that state.<br />
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The first day, we went up to explore the flatirons with my parents.<br />
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Sara was really good at climbing up to the top.<br />
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We had my mom take a picture from the bottom.<br />
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Then we convinced her to climb up with us.<br />
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As is tradition, any time we celebrate a birthday with my parents, there has to be at least a small risk of burning down the entire house, and this trip was no different.<br />
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Mom was not all that excited about using propane at the dinner table.<br />
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We went up to the continental divide in Rocky Mountain National Park. Sara had never seen snow piles that high before<br />
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I got several good shots with them in the parking lot.<br />
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In this picture, we are actually standing on some rather slippery ice. Sara is gripping onto my head with a death grip to help me not slip.<br />
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As we went hiking down the trail, Sara noticed that there was still snow in the shade. She decided to bring some to show my brother.<br />
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We hiked out to a rock pile. Dad and John rested while Jill, Sara, and I went of to the edge of the cliff.<br />
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Sara and Jill posed for a photo.<br />
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Sara liked all the marmots that were not afraid of her. I suspect they were hoping to get fed.<br />
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Sara collected some "unicorn rocks" which were extra sparkles in them. Jill and Sara washed and inspected them once we got back to my parents house.<br />
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John took apart one of my parent's wooden puzzles and then had some trouble putting it back together. I thought that was funny.<br />
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Our carrots are growing in the garden. The green tops are a nice size so now we just are waiting for the roots to catch up. Hudson was pretty excited with the current status.<br />
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We had several weekends filled with picking blueberries. Both kids picked for a bit then went off to play somewhere that the plants are not actively trying to draw blood. </div>
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Hudson is very proud of the fact that he can now cook is own breakfast on the stove. We make "One Eyed Egyptian" sandwiches. When they don't turn out well, he calls them "One Eyed E-floptions"<br />
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This summer we went down to Gulf Shores with my In-Laws. Of course, any trip to Gulf Shores is not complete without going to the gift shops so check out all their shells.<br />
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And, of course, we had to eat at the all the seafood restaurants.<br />
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Unfortunately, Heather does not appreciate her picture being taken.<br />
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Sara, however, will allow it as long as she can show off her broken fork collection she got while working on eating all her crab legs.<br />
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Finally, both kids are old enough to enjoy the ocean without being knocked over by the waves (unless they want to be knocked over).<br />
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Hudson asked to get a temporary tattoo. He got a paw print of his cat, Sugar Plum<br />
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Sara asked to get a phoenix on her leg. Heather even got a bird on her shoulder blade.<br />
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Hudson has been saving up and been very eager to buy his very own lawn mower. I was a little hesitant, because of the whole spinning blade thing. But Heather talked me into it so we let him by his "Sunjoe". He loves pushing it around the yard for about 15 minutes until he gets worn our and then takes it back to the barn.<br />
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The kids got invited to their cousin's birthday party at Chuck-E-Cheese. Jackson didn't like the animatronic mouse and refused to turn his back to it. The rest of the kids had a great time playing games there.<br />
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We had a great time working to burn down our huge pile of firewood. Sara decided to take some scrap cardboard and use a charcoaled stick as a writing utensil.<br />
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In the middle of July, we took a trip up to Wisconsin to visit family. We got to hang out with Aunt Sue and Aunt Teddy for a nice photo.<br />
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And a silly photo too.<br />
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We went down to the Kenosha Farmer's Market. Hudson enjoyed checking out the fish in the harbor.<br />
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When we then drove up to Algoma, both kids to got to take a much closer look at the fish.<br />
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Sara was proud of the fact that she caught a larger fish than my dad.<br />
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Sara also realized that if she brushed my Mom's hair, then she could stay up later and avoid bedtime for a while.<br />
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Hudson, of course, loves the tractor. He even brought his stuffed tiger Nicey for a ride.<br />
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While on the trip, Sara realized she had finally gotten taller than Heather. She was very excited and did the party dance for several minutes to celebrate.<br />
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Once back in Alabama, we went to Cathedral Caverns one weekend. While out there, Hudson, Sara and I went exploring on up to check out the river bed above the cave.<br />
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For Sara's birthday, she invited several friends and had a party over at Heather's parent's house. Everyone had a great time.<br />
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Heather had to start in-service a couple days before the kids had to go back to school. Since I was working, the kids got free range of the yard. They tried to lure me into traps with pretend accidents, but once I caught on that Hudson's bike accident wasn't actually an accident, they tried to catch me.<br />
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Hudson is now pretty much an expert at making himself either breakfast or lunch on the stove.<br />
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In addition to his Sunjoe, Hudson got a gas powered edger from my Dad. Hudson has found that he can use it to dig holes if he wiggles it latterally back and forth.<br />
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We decided it was cool enough to go camping. Well, by we, I mean the kids and I. Heather thought it was still a little too warm at night. So we stuffed the tent, firewood, camping bags, food and everything else into my car and took off for Bankhead National Forrest.<br />
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The kids were used to running around and yelling on our 7 acres, so having to be quiet on a small camping space was a little hard, but once I brought out the food and they began roasting things, it quieted down a bit.<br />
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Sara and Hudson found a giant 3 legged wolf spider and asked to borrow my phone to document it.<br />
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The next weekend, Heather and Sara went shopping so Hudson and I hung around the house. We went out to Burger King for lunch.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4809601773198721169.post-35028493367228706882018-09-02T23:53:00.002-05:002018-09-02T23:53:43.380-05:00A Year In Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Well, I know it has been over a year since I last updated. So I have a lot to cover. So lets get into it.</div>
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First day of school back in 2017. Hudson is experiencing his first day of kindergarden and Sara Beth is going into first grade.</div>
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Also, Heather is returning to PACT for a second year of teaching all the Morgan County 1st, 3rd, and 7th graders about Abuse prevention and internet safety.<br />
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Sara is definitely older than her cousin Madison, but they both love hanging out with their Aunt.<br />
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We decided to get some egg laying chickens. I ordered 12 online. Sara named one Falcon. Then it died. Heather named another one. It died too. I said no one else is allowed to name any chickens for another 2 weeks. Fortunately, once the chickens stopped being named, there were no more deaths.<br />
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Sara Beth mentioned that she was having trouble seeing what the teacher was writing on the board, so we took her to get her eyes examined. It turned out she did need glasses. She got a pair at Walmart, then I helped her order a couple back up pair from Zenni Optical. It turns out she has similar preferences to her mother as she selected the exact same frames<br />
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The chickens are growing quickly from fuzzy fluff balls into feathery poop balls. They quickly grew up and before Easter, they were laying eggs. At least, the ones that were female. The 2 males were proud of their flock of females and were very protective, chasing off any potential threats. Once the kids said that they were no longer going to gather eggs out of fear of the roosters, I intervened. Dumbledore and HC were "meatalized" and became dinner for us and my friend Jonathan who helped me with the processing process. The females were then free to lay eggs without interference by a interfering rooster.<br />
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October rolled around and it was time to carve pumpkins. Hudson remembered that I had used power tools to craft my Jack-o-lantern, and, of course, he wanted to do it the same. His pumpkin ended up looking more like Swiss cheese than a face, but he had a great time and was proud of the result.<br />
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Crestline Elementary PTO threw a fantastic Fall festival which included all sorts of events. Sara and Hudson both did bull riding.<br />
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Hudson also asked to climb the portable wall and did pretty well at it.<br />
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I also showed the kids the game "Treasure Mountain". Sara Beth was a little old for it, but it was the perfect age for Hudson, who was the perfect age to play and figure out the written math clues.<br />
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We were able to convince Heather's cousin Sadie and her husband Eric to move to Decatur. We all went trick-or-treating in their neighborhood and they all got a good haul of candy. Once we called it an evening, they spread it out and began the bargaining to trade for their favorites.<br />
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Depending on who you ask, Hudson is either totally ready to mow OR he needs some help to not just drive the mower in circles. Either way, Hudson has a great time sitting with me on the mower.<br />
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After Church every week, Hudson will ask to go to the Chinese restaurant. He loves to eat as much sushi as he can. I thought that it fortune cookie gave very appropriate message.<br />
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November rolled around, and Hudson was ready to turn 6. He was very excited to blow out his birthday cake.<br />
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Sara Beth had a school project to select a historical figure and research them. She chose Amelia Earhart. So she dressed up like her and did a presentation for the lower grades in the gyms. I was fortunate to see when she presented to Hudson's class.<br />
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Something, something reindeers. Probably a school play or something. I dont remember any details about this one.<br />
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Our family traveled back to Texas for my company's Christmas Party. John, Ali, and Jill timed their trip down to Texas to coincide with our trip. So while I was at work, others were busy building a ginger bread house.</div>
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In the evenings, in exchange for a back massage and hair brushing, Sara received a bed time story from my mom.<br />
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At my company Christmas party, there was a monkey. It was available for pictures. Heather was overjoyed at the opportunity for a picure with one.<br />
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Before we left Texas, we celebrated Christmas. Sara and Hudson enjoyed being able to watch their aunt and uncle open their gifts.</div>
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Once we got back to Alabama we gave the kids their gifts. Since Sara got a "Wencer cat" last year, we decided it was time for Hudson to receive his own gift cat. So we welcomed Sugar Plumb into the family. Hudson was overjoyed. Lilly Belle, Heather's cat, was not nearly as happy about a new potential rival.<br />
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We had a mini Sheats family reunion for new years at our place. It was fun.<br />
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On New Year's day, Sara Beth and Hudson watched the sequel to Tangled and when the bad guys came on screen. they were prepared with their Nerf guns to shoot them.<br />
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Winter in Alabama is a much colder thing than winter in Texas. Our waterfall froze.<br />
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During the winter, after Hudson went to bed, I began to show Sara Beth some games like Portal. She made it all the way to the end with only minimal help on the parts that required tight timing..<br />
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Hudson got a tent, which we set up in his room. He liked it.<br />
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I decided this was the year that I was going to grow a fantastic garden. The kids came with me to Lowes to gather the irrigation supplies. I don't remember why Sara Beth was acting faint, but I'm sure it was totally valid and that I was being completely unfair to them about something or other.<br />
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As a kindergartner, Hudson is really picking up on the book reading thing. He will "read" Harry Potter and The Hobbit on his own.<br />
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I had to buy a wheelbarrow in order to continue my work on developing the garden for vegetables. Fortunately, I was able to enlist the help of the kids, even in the rain.<br />
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We decided to pull down the vines that were invading one of the trees by the driveway. Heather is taking pictures while I cut down branches with the Saws-all.<br />
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While I'm busy adding fertilized soil to the gardens, Sara and Hudson decided to make some mud balls.<br />
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Sara took a trip to Montgomery with her class. The got to see an old school house.<br />
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And the senate<br />
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I'm not entirely sure what is going on here; Heather took the picture. I think it involves deactivated charcoal in some way, but, to me, it looks like Indian warpaint that got out of controll.<br />
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No idea what is going on here. Todo: ask Sara what she was thinking when she took this selfie.<br />
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Hudson is still small enough to fit in a laundry basket, and have adventures in it. I don't exactly know what is going on, but with Hudson's John Deere blanket and something fuzzy, I'm sure he is havign a grand time.<br />
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So the kids talked me into getting 4 additional chickens to add to our egg laying flock.<br />
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Easter rolled around, which means picture time. I forced the family to sit still for a picture.<br />
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Sara is getting dangerously close to growing taller than Heather.<br />
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The kids have quite a few years before I have to worry about them out growing me. At this point, I can still pick both of them up without an issue.<br />
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I went down with the kids to play a game with them. It involved hitting the stream running across our property with a stick to get rid of bad guys. Hudson is demonstrating how to accomplish this.<br />
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Hudson's grade took a trip to the Birmingham zoo and I was fortunate enough to go with him. We got to look at the giraffes.<br />
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And also feed the parrots.<br />
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In May, Heather and I were asked to be on a Dragon Boat. Our team was named the InsurOars since we were sponsored by State Farm.<br />
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Hudson's last school play of the year was about bugs. We dressed him up like an ant. I think he was happy with the costume.<br />
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Sara Beth decided that she wanted to try out the ant antenna too.<br />
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That's it for now. I'll work on supplying commentary on the summer and catching up to the present with the next post.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4809601773198721169.post-37057306296353098652017-08-09T21:49:00.001-05:002017-08-09T21:49:36.188-05:00Injuries and the rest of summer Well, this story involves several emergency room visits. Initially, it started as a broken arm. Hudson was scootering around the driveway. His scooter hit a rock and stopped but Hudson continued going forward. He ended up with a split on his arm. The next week, he was jumping around, tripped and fell. Unfortunately, with the cast limiting his mobility, he ended up smashing his face and needed stitches too. Then a week later, while up in Wisconsin, we decided that he needed to go back to the Emergency Room to get the stitches removed since they could not be removed at room. It was rather exciting.<br />
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You can see his initial split from the Emergency Room before he went back to get his cast in this picture. He and Sara Beth were creating RVs for their critters.<br />
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In addition to emergency room visits, Hudson's teeth started to fall out. He fell and noticed that one of his bottom teeth was new loose. He kept messing with it until it finally came out. He left the tooth in his bedside table drawer, but didn't notice that a $2 bill took its place for a couple days.<br />
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Don't get me wrong: the summer wasn't all about injuries. There were times when the kids got to play as well.</div>
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Or attack grandparents.<br />
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Or set things on fire.<br />
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One Satuday morning, the kids came running into our room saying "Something was dead in the driveway". Turns out there was a coyote that had died of unknown causes. Sara Beth post posthumously named it blossom. We planted a flower on its grave.<br />
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A giant windstorm blew through one evening. Our neighbors 80 year old tree fell down. We had some branches that fell over too. Hudson climbed on them while I chopped up the rest of it.<br />
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Hudson and his cousins got to hang out at the local part.<br />
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And I made some attempts and real photography. It would have worked a lot better if I didn't put my fingers in front of the camera lens.<br />
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We went up to Wisconsin to visit my Aunt and Parents. Aunt Sue's neighbor had several model cars which were Hudson's exact size.</div>
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Whenever there is a party, my Aunt brings out the party hats and animal masks. In this case, Sara Beth and I both had birthdays coming up.<br />
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Who wouldn't want to go to the dinosaur museum while in Kenosha?<br />
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Once we went up to my parents, both Sara Beth expressed interest in fishing. Once my dad heard that, he brought out the equipment.<br />
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After seeing what his sister was doing, Hudson asked for a fishing rod too.<br />
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Sara Beth and Hudson both went out in the boat with my dad. After some discussion about bait, it was decided that worms were ok to use as long as they were already dead.She went out in the boat and worked hard for a couple hours fishing.<br />
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All the practice paid off. Sara Beth caught her first three fish. She was not interested in eating them, so, after pictures, they went back in the river. But, the success of worms as bait was proven. Sara Beth decided it was ok to use them even if they were alive. The only requirement was that she didnt have to watch as they were placed on the hook.<br />
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There are a lot of flavors of custard. The kids enjoyed having the option of many different flavors for desert.<br />
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The boats was not just used for fishing. We also took trips out into Lake Michigan.<br />
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I have no idea what Sara Beth was doing when I took this picture. But I do know that she was not pleased with me taking the picture.<br />
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Everyone enjoyed the large waves.<br />
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Hudson held onto the painter so that he wouldn't fall off the front seat.<br />
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Hudson asked my mom to read stories to him several evenings while we were there.<br />
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The birthday cake from previous years has scarred our kids. As soon as my mom began to light the candles, both Hudson and Sara Beth ran for the garage to avoid the inevitable raging inferno.<br />
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We visited the county fair while in Wisconsin. All the rides were free with a ticket. I went on all many as I could without getting sick. Hudson enjoyed the rides he could go on.<br />
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Heather and Sara Beth were more adventurous but they also went on a couple of the more tame rides with me.<br />
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I think the kids favorite was when they got to drive the bumper car and crash into Heather and I.<br />
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Once we got back to Alabama, we celebrated Sara Beth's actual birthday. I think her favorite present was a cat-pillow named Pusheen.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4809601773198721169.post-91060675941912762632017-06-03T22:03:00.003-05:002017-06-03T22:16:27.668-05:00Parties<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Another picture dump here. Catta looks so happy here. </div>
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Rainey looks slightly more thrilled. But her dilated pupils reveal her true thoughts about the pose.</div>
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My parents came by on their way through to Atlanta. Sara Beth wanted my dad to read the American Girl Catalog to her for her bedtime story.<br />
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Hudson realized that he could fit into the cupboard, so for a few days he pretended to be a cupboard puppy.<br />
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I brought out my .22 to fire with Hudson and my dad. Hudson didn't want to try it since it was too noisy.<br />
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Hudson had an school concert. His class sang "The lion sleeps tonight"<br />
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Hudson got invited to a class mate's birthday party at CiCi's pizza. He got to try his luck driving in the video arcade.</div>
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I wanted to take some pictures of the rain and asked Sara Beth to be in a few.<br />
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A rare picture of all of us. We need to do these more often.<br />
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My cousin had us help out with a school project taking pictures with "Flat Nona".<br />
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Here is another one with Sara Beth holding "Flat Nona" under the waterfall.<br />
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Sara Beth and I ran 2 5k races this spring. In the first one, she completed in 43 minutes.<br />
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In the 2nd, she ran it in 35 minutes and got a medal for 1st place in her age group.<br />
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After the race, she wanted to take a picture of me with the flower in my hair.</div>
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Sara Beth charges only 5 kisses for a hair cut.<br />
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Hudson had an Easter Egg hunt at his pre-school that I got to attend.<br />
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Here he is with all his classroom fiends checking out their haul from the great hunt.<br />
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On Easter, we did an egg hunt around our front yard. </div>
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The kids sat down and got to examine their goodies.<br />
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They also got some "Hatchimals" from Memaw and Papaw, which is apparently this year's toy craze.<br />
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I came in one day to find the dinner list had been changed by Hudson to now consist of combinations of Macaroni and Hamburger<br />
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Heather's job had a "Touch a Truck" fundraiser where Hudson and I went around to sit in all sorts of equipment.<br />
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He had a blast.<br />
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But I think the Semi-truck was his favorite of them all. We went to that one several times during the day.<br />
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We got to watch Star Wars for popcorn cheese and fruit one night. It was a close call as to whether Luke Skywalker would be able to blow up the Death Star.<br />
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Sara Beth's Sunday School helped serve pizza to the church for a celebration one evening.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4809601773198721169.post-5483197728293122342017-03-23T22:47:00.001-05:002017-03-23T22:47:48.621-05:00Spring timeThe best way to kick of the new year is to jump into swimsuits and start building a dam in the stream. By the time we were done, I was overheating from lifting all sorts of heavy rocks, and the kids were getting cold. We went in and had some hot chocolate to celebrate a job well done.<br />
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I came in for work one day to find out that Sara Beth had created a crown for Hudson and wanted to have a inauguration ceremony. Hudson politely played along.<br />
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We have been playing a lot of Mario Kart together. Hudson will typically want to drive for the first 2 laps then quickly pass control for me in hopes that I can make up the distance in the final lap and get something other than last place. It typically doesn't work. He keeps choosing Bowser, who has the worst acceleration, despite my suggestions that he will do better with literally any other character.<br />
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Hudson loves building trash trucks and tractors with all his Legos. He doesn't like cleaning up the mess of Legos strewn across the floor when it is time for bed.<br />
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Hudson can bathe himself now, so I was surprised to hear him call me into the bathroom. I think I may have possibly put too much bubble bath mix in when I drew the bath water for hum.<br />
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So we were at Walmart the other day and Sara Beth saw a giant stuffed animal. She asked, "Can I have that?" My response, as always, was "Did you bring your own money?" The answer was no, but the next day, on the way home from school, she asked to drop by Walmart again, and this time, she did bring her money with her. She named it Iron.<br />
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When ever we got to Lowes, Hudson wants to check out the chain saws and back back leaf blowers. He keeps reminding me that he wants a full backpack leaf blower for his birthday.<br />
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My Mom made cookies for the kids for Valentine's Day. They were excited to hear that they could eat some of the cookies for breakfast.<br />
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Hudson got a bike from Heather's parents that did not have any training wheels on it. He put on his helmet and rain boots and asked me to teach him how to ride it. We practiced going up and down the driveway for a while after dinner.<br />
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Sara Beth and Heather were standing on the front porch talking to me the other day. They appeared to be nearly the same height from the angle I sat.<br />
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Sara Beth had a choir concert at her school. Hudson didn't enjoy the singing all that much.<br />
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Sara Beth needed to do a science fair project. I was all excited and ready to break out my idea, but then I found out that the project had to involve simple machines. So, after I readjusted my mindset and realized it was actually a engineering fair project, we got to work figuring out how many pulleys it would take for Sara Beth to be able to lift the lawn tractor. Turns out the answer is 15.<br />
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In addition to her Engineering project, Sara Beth also had a school presentation on a president, so she chose JFK. The day of the presentation, she dressed up as Jackie Kennedy.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4809601773198721169.post-32103899459595722652017-03-01T20:23:00.002-06:002017-03-01T20:23:47.637-06:00Christmas and Beanboozling<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Another backlog of pictures to post! </div>
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We had Heather's Aunt and Uncle for dinner on Christmas Eve and brought little party gifts. I didn't realize my beard had gotten that long, but with the eye patch, I look like a real pirate.</div>
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Christmas day was fulled with the joy of unwrapping gifts.<br />
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Hudson got a big Nerf gun as his big gift from us.<br />
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And Sara Beth got an American Girl Doll that she had picked out for us to get her.<br />
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So, over Christmas break, we decided to play a game of Beanbozled. Jelly Belly makes a pack of beans with identical beans some that taste like normal candy, and some that taste like moldy cheese and barf.<br />
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We had large quantities of water and spit cups for when the bean didn't taste like candy.<br />
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Everyone had a great time, and we will definitely do it again sometime.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4809601773198721169.post-63744881920162117842016-12-17T18:41:00.001-06:002016-12-17T18:41:06.842-06:00Is it already Christmas?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Wow. Where did the past 2 months go? I figured once we got settled in our house, things would calm down. Apparently, that is not the case. SO this post will attempt to catch us up from the middle of October to now, just a few days before Christmas.</div>
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Sara Beth is still into doing her own baking. Since it was getting close to Heather's birthday, we went to the store to get the ingredients for her birthday cake. She had a half day of school and I had a full day of work, so she mostly made the cake entirely by herself. The only thing I did was put it in the oven and take it out. I think she may have put in a bit too much oil in it, but other than that, it was great.</div>
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Hudson saw me cleaning the driveway and he decided he needed to do it. With visions of Tom Sawyer in my head, I told him to go right ahead. He cleaned up about 3 square feet of the driveway before he got bored.<br />
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Toland came to visit for a couple days. Sara Beth said she liked the way he read much better than me since he used more exciting voices for each of the characters.</div>
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As the days got shorter, dinner outside came to an end. </div>
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We took Hudson to the ear doctor to get his hearing checked. The Dr said his hearing was fine, but that he needed ear tubes.<br />
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For a short time, we had a puppy named<br />
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After dinner, the kids and I will scooter around the driveway. Sara Beth pretends to be a Pokemon character, and after hearing about Darth Vader, Hudson asks me to be the bad guy "Dark Beer" and he will be my sidekick "Darker Beer."<br />
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With Halloween coming around, we carved pumpkins. Everyone was excited about roasting the pumpkin seeds.</div>
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But then, Hudson saw the power tools I was using to carve my pumpkin and he asked if he could use them too. His pumpkin turned into swiss cheese but he had a great time.<br />
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Driving the kids home from school, Sara Beth grabbed my phone and then took a picture.<br />
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I had to take a business trip to Texas and my coworker Ray bought Sara Beth a rubix cube. She was a little excited.<br />
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One weekend in November, we decided to take a trip down to Florida to visit Heather's Aunt and Uncle. On the way down we stopped at a Burger King for dinner. Sara Beth ate more hamburgers than I did.<br />
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Hudson was very interested in helping Uncle Cary work on wood for a tree stand but only once he was able to get some hearing protection.<br />
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While down in Florida, we went to Home Depot to get some insulation. While there, Hudson wanted to check out his ideal Christmas gift, a leaf blower backpack. I asked him if it was too big, but he said "No, it is just right".<br />
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While we were in Florida, the leaves began to fall off the trees. Hudson helped me drive the leaf vacuum around the yard.<br />
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Hudson turned five at the end of November. Heather baked his cake instead of Sara Beth.<br />
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We setup the tree the weekend after Hudson's birthday. Sara Beth is now tall enough that she was able to put the top on the tree all by herself.<br />
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Hudson wanted to show me how he can write his numbers. He got all the way up to 6 before he got stuck.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4809601773198721169.post-19364460302143853842016-10-12T21:06:00.003-05:002016-10-12T21:06:35.261-05:00Breakfasts and other foodsOne Saturday I heard Hudson banging around the kitchen, but since it was Saturday, I didn't think too much about it and stayed in bed until the sun was good and up. I came out to find that Hudson decided to make breakfast for everyone. He had made toast with jelly and a peach on the side. It was surprisingly well done.<br />
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This is a picture from the final time we had to go back to Texas for Sara Beth's braces. Some things you can observe in the picture. 1. Sara Beth is showing her teeth with her smile. 2. Donuts always make a good breakfast. 3. Sara Beth was more hungry than Hudson. He has just barely taken a bite while Sara Beth is almost 1/2 way through her breakfast.<br />
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Hudson was more interested helping me take artistic pictures than in eating his breakfast.<br />
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One other morning, Hudson decided he wanted to try an experiment and put orange juice in his cereal instead of milk. He took one sip and decided that it was not a good idea and that he was done with breakfast.<br />
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Here is another picture from a Sunday popcorn cheese and fruit dinner.<br />
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Sara Beth also decided to have a picnic with her dolls.<br />
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Now that the braces are off, Sara Beth is much more likely to show her teeth when she smiles.</div>
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One Saturday, we went to Home Depot to do the kids craft. They provided skate boards that also worked as pencil boxes. Hudson painted his skate board green since his favorite color is green.</div>
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And Sara Beth choose pink as her main color.<br />
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Our neighbor is busy bringing civilization to his property. One day as we were pulling in from school, we saw an excavator busy digging on the other side of our driveway. Hudson asked to get out and watch.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4809601773198721169.post-40024470937829851772016-09-18T23:49:00.001-05:002016-09-18T23:49:58.360-05:00Summer excursions<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Well, time to sum up a full summer of fun.</div>
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Hudson still considers Catta to be his cat, and will try his hardest to ensure that she gets the proper amount of pets and snuggles.</div>
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He has also begun to appreciate legos and built up all sorts of lego tractors. He would help me build it according to the directions, but then, he will go off and build his own. Some of his lego tractors had two wheels; others had six. But he loved playing with all of them.<br />
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While clearing up our property, there was a lot of spare branches around that needed to be cleared out. And the best way to deal with branches is to build a bonfire. Hudson knew that pouring sand on a fire will put it out, so he stood watch with his shovel ready to put the fire out if it got out of control.<br />
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Another benefit of bonfires is roasting smores on them.<br />
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Sara Beth hosted a tea party for Hudson and I one weekend. She set out several candy dishes and wanted to know our favorite tea flavors. Hudson definitely liked the candy.<br />
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Make your own pizza night is always an adventure. In this case, I mistakenly placed Hudson's and Sara Beth's pizza on the same baking tray. That led to some heated discussion when Hudson accidentally put some cheese and toppings on his sister's pizza.<br />
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We went by the farmer's market. They were handing out free strawberry short cake.<br />
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While working out in the yard, I heard a commotion from the front where Heather and the kids were weeding the flower beds. Sara Beth comes towards me with some large squirming thing. I initially thought it was a giant worm. Fortunately, it wasn't. Instead it was a large salamander.<br />
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Sara Beth still has braces on her teeth, and her orthodontist is still in Texas. So we have been going back monthly to get them worked on. While there, we stayed with my parents and went out on the boat with them.<br />
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Hudson also wanted to help my dad use the tractor to pull out a dead tree. Unfortunately, it turned out the tractor did not have enough traction; the tree refused to be pulled out.<br />
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Back in Alabama, we went back to work cleaning up the property. I took a break from pressure washing the driveway to play a game of Tic Tac Toe with Sara Beth.<br />
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In preparation for the summer weather, Heather's mom went out and got Sara Beth some summer bathing suits and clothes.<br />
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Every Monday morning, the trash truck comes to pick up our trash at the street. The bad news is that it is a long distance from our house to the street, and it takes a while to move the trash can out there. The good news is that I have helpers.<br />
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Another pile of cleared branches means another bonfire and another evening of smores.<br />
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One Sunday after church, we waiting for our orders at an Italian restaurant when Sara Beth told us that she had been working on perfecting her "puppy dog eyes" to beg for things. When she demonstrated that she could cause fake tears to form, I was so impresses that I had to take a picture. So here she is with a grin on her face and tears in her eyes. I also told her that her "puppy dog eyes" were impressive, but not persuasive.<br />
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I have no memory of this picture. Feel free to make up your own story about what was happening in it.<br />
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Here we are back in Texas for another orthodontist appointment. While there, Heather stopped by a local Texas butcher to get a genuine Texas brisket for her step dad to smoke for the 4th of July. They had a bison on the wall.<br />
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Even in the evenings in Texas it gets hot. After dinner with some former neighbors, we stopped by TC's to pick up shaved ice for dessert to cool off.<br />
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Back in Alabama, I decided it was time to introduce Sara Beth to firearms, We focused primarily on safety this first time and got her used to firing the gun, and not so much on accuracy or proper form.<br />
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In addition to garbage cans, other items can be hauled up and down our driveways.<br />
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After seeing me mow, and sitting with me several times, Sara Beth asked to mow the front yard all by herself. Heather got the edges mowed, but then got off and allowed Sara Beth to mow the middle. One less chore for me to do.<br />
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For the Fourth of July, we had a small set of fireworks to set off. The kids really enjoyed the sparklers and roman candles.<br />
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Since it is summer, we have been letting Sara Beth stay up later. Here she was sitting with Heather on the front porch swing playing a<br />
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One summer afternoon, Heather decided to play a board game with the kids. They picked the Game of Life. Hudson got very sad when he learned about how taxes work.<br />
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We went to the Space and Rocket center in Huntsville for my birthday. While there Sara Beth saw the 3G ride and asked Heather to go on it with her. That left Hudson and I to wander around and find something to do. He found a ride that he was tall enough to go on and walked right up to it without any fear at all. He was a little apprehensive as it initially was going up, By the time the ride started bouncing him around, he had a huge grin on his face, and when it was over, he got right back in line to do it again.<br />
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Hudson brought his money with him went out to Uncle Darwin's auction house in order to buy something. He found a Christmas toy and began to negotiate a price. Darwin asked for the 5 pennies. Hudson made a counter offer of his 4 silver coins so he could keep his 5 copper coins for later.<br />
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Sara Beth and Hudson found a place under one of the bushes to build a fort. They got some of the underbrush cleared out, but then went on to play somewhere else as it was getting too hot out.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4809601773198721169.post-7744115170622278252016-06-21T21:48:00.001-05:002016-06-21T21:48:54.028-05:00Easter and Moving to Alabama<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
We will start this story back on Easter Sunday and back in Dallas. Our church had an event to celebrate. Hudson was finally old enough to really get what was going on and ran out to gather eggs.I told him he could only gather a dozen so there were some for others. Once he got his twelve, he began to pick up eggs and hand them to younger kids.</div>
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When it got to Sara Beth's turn to gather eggs, she positioned herself away from all the crowds so that she could have her pick of the eggs since all other kids were bunched up at the far end of the area.<br />
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Another evening of popcorn, cheese and fruit over at my parents house. I think this was the weekend we watched "The Best of I love Lucy".<br />
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Heather must have taken the kids out for ice cream one afternoon while I was off at work. Looks like they were having fun.<br />
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For my Mom's birthday, Sara Beth made her a card. The card had a picture of my mom on it, complete with her purple cast and yellow pins in her toes from foot surgery.<br />
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Here we are making the final packing preparations for the big move to Alabama. Heather, Sara Beth, Hudson and two cats went in the minivan and I took the other two cats with me in the Porsche. It was a long trip for both of us with the whiny cats, but we finally made it to our new home with only minimal amounts of cat vomit.<br />
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Hudson and Sara Beth realized that there is still a fish in our fish pond so they embarked on a plan to clean out all the dead leaves and freshen up the water.<br />
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The first weekend we were in town, there was a monster truck rally that took place up in Huntsville. Papaw, Hudson, and I drove up there to check it out. I wore a NASCAR hat so that I fit in with the crowds. Hudson loved it, once he put his headphones on.<br />
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There is a small stream that runs under our drive way. Sara Beth asked to go play in it.<br />
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And of course, once Hudson saw his big sister playing in the water, he wanted to join. They both ended up getting rather muddy.<br />
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While unpacking, Hudson found the cat treats. Our cats were overjoyed with his gifts.<br />
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Hudson and Sara Beth continue to work on cleaning the fish pond, which always ends up with them getting soaked. One evening, I asked Hudson to stop cleaning and come to dinner. He responded: "But I'm not all wet yet"<br />
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Here I am trying out my new yard equipment. I have purchased quite a bit. Hudson is always within arms reach giving me helpful pointers on things to try.<br />
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He is also enjoying using his yard equipment, following me around the yard.<br />
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One weekend, we went to the Priceville Sheriff's Rodeo. For one of the events, they had participants come down for a race. Sara Beth and I went down. My legs gave out about ten feet before the finish line, but we had a lot of fun.<br />
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Hudson, with two of his fuzzy critters, Catta and Tiny Tiggs, relax with his mom on the front patio.<br />
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I helped Husdon hook up the new wagon to his tractor. It made for a decent wagon ride, though it got a little tippy when he turned too sharply.<br />
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It turns out that the lawn tractor is good for more than just mowing. We hauled the china cabinet in from one of the barns with minimal effort.<br />
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This is a picture of Sara Beth and what appears to be a turtle status. I have no idea where it was taken, but she seems to be having fun.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4809601773198721169.post-2478876732452925542016-05-14T22:14:00.000-05:002016-05-14T22:14:52.155-05:00Valentine's day and Packing up I know what you're thinking: wasn't Valentine's Day like three months ago? And the answer is yes, but I am just now getting to the pictures. Quite a bit has happened, and I am writing this from our new house in a different state, but I am getting ahead of myself. At this time, our house was on the market, so in an effort to keep it nice and pristine, we were staying with my parents with the cats. boxes.<br />
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Heather got to go to both kids' school Valentine parties. And, fortunately for me, she took pictures so I could see what went on. Hudson got to frost his own cookies.<br />
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Heather helped out Sara Beth's class and they got to make fruit towers<br />
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Sara Beth had a school musical. Whenever I go to one, I feel torn; so many parents spend the entire performance behind their camera capturing the moment but I also want to just sit back and enjoy the moment. So, typically, I just compromise, and take a quick picture just to prove that I was there, then settle back and enjoy the event with my phone in my pocket.<br />
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It was time for the Fort Worth stock show, so, like every year, Hudson got to try out practically every tractor on display. He does have a preference for the John Deere brand though.<br />
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Sara Beth, on the other hand, decided that she wants a pickup truck. She found one that she could sit in and decided she wanted it. They had it offered at the special stock show price of only $60k. We told her to save her pennies.<br />
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While at the stock show, we had to make a stop by the Fort Worth Natural History Museum. They have the 3d movie of the formation of the Barnett Shale, which is always a favorite, and Hudson finally beat his sister at the horizontal drilling game.<br />
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Sara Beth has had braces for a while, and the orthodontist has said that her teeth are moving very quickly. My favorite part is that she will now show her teeth while smiling.<br />
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While at my parents house, Sara Beth wanted to play school with Hudson and I joined in. Fractions were the topic of the day, and Sara Beth had drawn some nice diagrams demonstrating the different amount of pieces that a pie could be sliced.</div>
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Some evenings, when he was not playing school with his sister, I would take Hudson out to the playground.<br />
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Just a fun Saturday morning lounging at my parents house, reading the latest tractor magazines.<br />
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So by this point, our house went under contract, so we moved back to make the packing process proceed more easy. On Sundays, Heather has to go early and setup and Sara Beth typically wants to go with her. Hudson will then ask to bike or scooter to church.<br />
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No idea where they are, but they look like there having fun. Or are scared. Not sure which.<br />
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Sara Beth's school had a daddy daughter dance one evening. They had a spaghetti dinner, picture booth and dancing. We had a great time. Sara Beth loves to dance, and while I am not great at it, we tore up the dance floor.<br />
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We went to the RV show to check out all the latest offerings. I think we saved over a million dollars with all the RVs that we didn't purchase.<br />
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Here is a picture from one of our last times eating popcorn cheese and fruit at the old house.<br />
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One night, Sara Beth asked to draw instead of read as I was putting her to bed. She the proceeded to draw anything I requested. I asked her for various sea creatures and she created an underwater zoo for me.<br />
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In preparation for moving, I mowed the lawn one last time. Hudson brought out his "mower" and followed me around the whole front and backyard helping.<br />
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Hudson got a bubble gun as a gift to play with. The bubble juice was used up within 10 minutes.<br />
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I think this was a picture from a birthday party that Heather took Hudson too; I'm not quite sure. The thing I am sure about is that Hudson seems to have the most expressive face in the group of kids.<br />
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One of the last pictures from our Baldcypress house. Hudson and Sara Beth were helping me pack boxes in preparation for the move. Well, I was packing while they were dancing to music.<br />
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Hudson loves to give his small tiger, named Tiny Tiggs, rides in his dump trucks and trailers.<br />
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Next time, I'll post some of the actual pictures of the move and of our new house in Alabama.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4809601773198721169.post-78958774933320521802016-03-19T16:03:00.002-05:002016-03-19T16:03:57.799-05:00Party like its three months after Christmas<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Well, we have been busy packing up and selling our house in preparation for the big move. As always, things are a little hectic, but it is always an adventure. </div>
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One Saturday morning, we decided to go out for breakfast at the Taste of Home in downtown Wylie. Everyone liked their breakfast, and after we sat and talked for a bit. Sara Beth pretended to be a kitten and wanted to curl up in my lap, but I began petting her fur the wrong way, and it made her a little grumpy.</div>
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In the middle of January, while our house was on the market, we went down to Athens Georgia for my Great Aunt Alma's funeral. About 3 hours from our destination, the check oil light came on in the van, so I stopped at the nearest gas station, put in two quarts of oil, and then found the nearest Honda dealership. The kids were glad to have a break from driving in the car, and I was glad to find out it was just a stick valve, so $200 and 2.5 hours later we were back on the road.<br />
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It was an amazing funeral. My Great Aunt lived the epitome of the Christian life. I just hope that my funeral will be like hers. People from all around the world came to share stories of how she followed Jesus and constantly served God.<br />
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Most often, Hudson asks Heather to read books to him at bedtime. Gone are the days where he requests me, though it isn't exclusively Heather that reads. Occasionally he will ask his big sister to read.<br />
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While our house is on the market, we have been staying at my parents. It is much easier than having to keep the house in pristine condition with 2 kids and 4 cats. It would also be a chore to get all of them crammed into a car every time there is a showing. My parent's offer to let us stay has made the whole house selling process much easier.<br />
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Here is a picture of Hudson asking my mom to read to him at bed time. Still no requests for me to read.<br />
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Sara Beth will continue her horse riding lessons all the way up until the time we move in April. Heather took this picture of her during one of her lessons at the barn. I'm not sure exactly whats going on. I always thought horse riding involved being on top of the horse.<br />
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One day, Heather took the van in to get the wheels aligned. The workers said that they could not align the back tire but the part was bent. So I brought out the impact wrench to take off the old part. Hudson wanted to help, but he wanted to get all the appropriate safety equipment before we got started.<br />
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While we are staying with my parents, my mom has begun to teach Sara Beth how to sew.<br />
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And here is the finished product: a new purse that she can put her iPhone in.<br />
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We brought Hudson's toy lawn mower over to my parents. One day, after I got off work, Hudson decided that the pile of dirt in the neighbor's yard needed to be mowed. He went over and mowed over all the clumps of dirt that were too high. He had fun all the way up to the point that he ran over a fire ant nest. Once that happened, he was done for the day.<br />
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Sara Beth has been growing her hair out in hopes to be able to donate it, and, fortunately, the day finally came. As her hair got longer and longer, it got tangled more and more easily, and was getting to the point that it was almost unmanageable. Here it is all brushed and ready to be chopped off.<br />
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While Sara Beth was getting her hair cut, Hudson was off entertaining the other 3 workers at the Sweet and Sassy shop.<br />
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Here is the final product. I really like her new hair cut and I think Sara Beth's favorite part is that brushing her hair is easy and complete in a matter of seconds as opposed to a 5 minute ordeal with hair pulling and tears.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4809601773198721169.post-31085165748821263362016-01-24T19:44:00.001-06:002016-01-24T19:44:23.747-06:00Party like its ChristmasThis is my attempt at a family "selfie". I'm not very good at it, but at least I got everyone in the picture while we were out at Taco Delight for dinner one evening.<br />
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On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Hudson goes to preschool, which means on Monday and Wednesday night, lunches need to be packed for both Sara Beth and Hudson. I'm not sure exactly how I did it, but on Monday, I was able to convince both children that they wanted to pack their own lunches. Everyone was happy.<br />
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We are still working on Hudson and his potty training. I think we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Hudson is now training his stuffed animal "Nice" how to use the potty too.<br />
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We have been cleaning our house in preparation to put it on the market. Here, Hudson is helping me wipe down the windows.<br />
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It has been unseasonably warm in December. One evening, while Heather was out, I cooked hot dogs for the kids and since it was so nice outside, we decided to eat dinner on the back patio.<br />
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For dinner on Christmas Eve, we had crab soup, fresh backed bread, and cheese. Hudson decided he would be a waiter and went around with the tray asking everyone what kinds of cheese they wanted.<br />
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Christmas morning, my parents and Jill came over to our house to open presents. My mom had surgery on her foot, but made the best of it by festively decorating her cast,<br />
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The day after Christmas, Cindy and Dennis drove out to visit for the week, and they brought another set of gifts to open.<br />
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Two Saturdays ago, I had planned to take Heather to see the Dallas Symphony. At the last minute, Hudson decided to get a 102 degree fever and a cough, so Heather stayed home with the sick kid while I took Sara Beth out instead. Sara Beth and I had a fantastic time. (Note to self: I need to make this up to Heather)<br />
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Our friend Buck has two kids that are the same age as our two, so last Thursday, he called me up and invited us to Chuck-e-Cheese to hang out. Hudson and Rhett decided to play on the motor cycle game for nearly the whole hour that we were there. I kept reminding Hudson to twist the throttle and to not hold the break lever to actually go. He didn't care. I also mentioned that he didn't need to make motorcycle noises with his mouth since the game made them. He didn't care to stop that either. <br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4809601773198721169.post-5313048329029810022015-12-14T21:10:00.002-06:002015-12-14T21:10:39.750-06:00The giant catch up post<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
So this is my big catch up post. It spans the time from the end of the summer to half way through December. Once this post is complete, then I will be up to date and will, hopefully be able to make shorter and more regular posts. But, if past performance is anything to go by, it wont actually work out that well. Who knows; past performance is not indicative of future returns.</div>
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Right at the tail end of the summer I went on a hiking trip up in Colorado with my brother. While I was gone, the kids decided to repair some things around the house. </div>
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One weekend, Heather took the kids out to the local frozen yogurt place to celebrate the end of summer. For whatever reason, Hudson decided to throw a fit, so I came by to take him home. Sara Beth remained with Heather and spent her time crawling through the chairs an all across the floor once she was done eating.<br />
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Hudson has decided that keeping a diaper dry for two whole days to earn some "gloopy cream" is too much work. Instead he is content to just sell make believe tea. He showed me his strawberry flavored tea, his grape flavored tea, and his doughnut flavored tea.<br />
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Make your own pizza night is always a hit with the kids. Note that they are placing their pizzas on separate trays. We have found that if they have to share a tray while making their dinner, the pizzas are not the only things that might get hit.<br />
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Hudson seriously loves yard work. He will regularly ask me how many lawn mowers and weed whackers I own. He will then proceed to let me know that he has more. Though, as the below picture demonstrates, I think he considers some of my lawn equipment to be his.<br />
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This fall, Sara Beth was big enough to climb the oak tree out front. All the neighborhood kids got together and collected all the acorns and placed them in the wagon. Later, Sara Beth placed the acorns into bags and went door to door trying to sell them for $5 a bag.<br />
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Even though Hudson couldn't reach up to the oak tree, he didn't want to be left out of the climbing action. I had to stop him and explain that he should only climb on branches that are bigger than his wrist.<br />
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For a while, during the weekly popcorn, cheese, and fruit dinners, I chose to watch American Ninja Warior. The kids were inspired and once dinner was over, they went out in the back yard and asked me to come up with challenges for them to accomplish. Here, Sara Beth is going from the play house to the fence without touching the ground.<br />
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Every weekend, we have a one hour quiet time where the kids have to stay in their rooms and relax. Sara Beth will regularly come out after that hour with fantastic creations. In this case, she created a laptop for her dolls. It even came with replaceable screens to simulate the appearance of running different programs.<br />
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For Halloween, Sara Beth decided she wanted to be a cat, so Heather got her some cat ears and a matching tail. Here she is giving her costume a trial run.<br />
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Have I mentioned that Hudson likes to play with lawn equipment. In this case, he has his makeshift leaf blower and is cleaning the driveway with it.<br />
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For Halloween at the stables, Sara Beth got to dress up her horse for the costume contest. She won the "Most Beautiful Costume" for her ballerina outfit.<br />
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And here we have Sara Beth's full costume including the makeup.<br />
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So, Hudson's costume need some explaining. The neighborhood kids like to play super heroes since some of them have seen the Avengers movies. So, you might think that Hudson is dressed up like the Hulk. Well, you would be wrong. You see, Sara Beth always pretends to be Black Widow. So, since Hudson's favorite color is green, he decided to be Green Widow. When we asked him what exactly Green Widow looked like, he said "green".<br />
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One Saturday afternoon, Sara Beth and I had a date. She picked out some activities that she wanted to accomplish on the date. It started with a tea party. I chose peach tea (doughnut flavor was not an option). Next on the list was building a blanket fort. That ended up being so much fun, we spent the rest of our time doing that. Shortly after Hudson and Heather came home, the tent came apart.<br />
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Sara Beth practices reading a lot, and fortunately, the cats are attentive listeners.<br />
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For Hudson's birthday, he got some pretend power tools like this circular saw. He ended up using it to help him open up some subsequent gifts.<br />
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He also got some safety equipment while he does all his projects.<br />
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Hudson chose carrot cake for his birthday. I certainly wasn't going to argue with that. And now that he is four years old, he decided he was old enough to scoop out his own ice cream.<br />
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For Thanksgiving, my siblings came in town.<br />
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It was great fun to watch Hudson and John play a video game together. Hudson's controller apparently handled which direction the driver was looking while John's controller handled driving the car. Needless to say, once Hudson realized how easily John would crash when the driver is looking backwards, he really got into the game.<br />
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Sara Beth decided that she was going to bake muffins. Once again, we suggested that maybe she use a recipe, and once again, she decided that was unnecessary. She gave some to my mom who praised them as "not all that bad". Later, Sara Beth tried one and decided they were actually disgusting. We'll see if she decides that a recipe might help her next time.<br />
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My Dad and I took the kids to Home Depot to do a children's craft on Saturday. Sara Beth carefully painted her blocks, ensuring that the colors coordinated. Hudson decided to paint his favorite shade of green. Then he decided that he was going to make it for me, so he repainted it all in blue. He then changed his mind again, settling on a combination of bluish green and greenish blue.<br />
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I really wish I could remember the song Sara Beth was singing about her cat in this picture. All I remember is that it was really clever and that I should write about it on the blog.<br />
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As a brief aside, here is a rare picture of all four of our cats. Some fresh tuna is the only thing that would bring them all together. </div>
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And now I am caught up!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4809601773198721169.post-11726598797714076722015-11-09T21:38:00.001-06:002015-11-09T21:38:09.125-06:00The rest of summer<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
When we got back from Wisconsin, it was time to celebrate Sara Beth's birthday at home. I had to keep Hudson back from the cake to prevent him from blowing out the candles.</div>
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A couple days later, even before we finished Sara Beth's birthday cake, we decided to make an ice cream cake to take over to a friends house as a dessert for dinner. Hudson and Sara Beth both helped remove the ice cream bar wrappers and organized them in the pan. You can see the birthday cake in the back ground.<br />
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Sara Beth is still as interested as ever in horse back riding. She will go to the barn every other Tuesday and stay several hours preparing the horse for riding, then riding, then preparing the horse to go back out into the pasture. She loves every minute of it and is definitely showing progress and gaining confidence ordering the horse around.<br />
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While Sara Beth does her lessons, Hudson finds a good place in the dirt to sit and then starts digging. With the dirt and the barn dogs, Hudson might have more fun than Sara Beth at the barn.<br />
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We are still working on convincing Hudson that having a clean diaper really is in his best interests. Heather and I have resorted to outright bribery. If he keeps his diaper dry for two days in a row, he will get a can of shaving cream or "gloppy cream" as he prefers to call it. He will then go through the entire can over the course of two or three baths smearing it all over the walls and himself.<br />
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One evening, Heather and Sara Beth were off doing something or other, so the boy and I got to go out for dinner on our own. Hudson got his rain boots on and asked to go to CiCi's. We had a great time and ate our fill of pizza.<br />
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One weekend, some friends invited us to go out to Burger's Lake in Fort Worth. We started of the day by burying Sara Beth in the sand.<br />
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Later I played a little game of toss with Sara Beth.<br />
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Hudson asked to join the game and I was more than willing to oblige.<br />
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At the local rec center, we have a rock climbing wall. Hudson and Sara Beth both enjoy going. Neither has gotten to the top yet. Both get somewhere between a third and half way up, realize how high they are, and decide that is far enough for them. But each time they go, they do get a little higher up the wall.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4809601773198721169.post-57748899501173986812015-10-07T20:17:00.003-05:002015-10-07T20:17:49.750-05:00The fabled long lost second trip of the summer<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Way back at the end of July, we made a trip up to the great north to escape the Texas summer. What follows is the tail that I have intended to tell for a while now. I even wrote about half of it out before it got lost (note to self: the iOS Blogger app likes to lose posts).</div>
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In any case, our trip kicked off with an exciting trip to the airport. I booked the tickets back in the spring and we had plenty of time till our 8:30 flight so we stopped and began to eat dinner at Chili's while I checked for the flight. Or at least, tried to check in. The flight didn't show up. After some digging, it turns out that the airline canceled our tickets and re-booked us on a flight leaving an hour and half earlier, and failed to notify us about it. Our leisurely dinner changed into a rushed dash to the airport. We skidded to a halt at our gate just in time, only to find out that the flight had been delayed two hours. To burn some time, I took the kids on the train around the airport a couple times. So we were both late and early for our flight out.</div>
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My parents picked us up in Chicago and we spent a day checking out the museums in the Chicago area. The museums up there are part of the same museum association as the Perot Museum in Dallas where we have a membership, so we were able to get into all of them for free. Well, all except the aquarium. Apparently, the aquarium felt that it was too special to be associated with other museums, so we didn't go there.<br />
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We saw the bronze statue of an alligator and asked the kids to get a picture with it. Sara Beth kneeled down next to it and gave it a sweet pet to the head.<br />
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Hudson, however, decided to wrestle it.<br />
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After spending the day in Chicago, we went on towards San Souci and meet up with my brother, sister and sister in law. While playing in the hotel pool, Hudson, Sara Beth, and Jill gave me traction I needed to chase my brother around.<br />
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The next morning we got up and started driving somewhere in the direction of the Dunes State park. We drove around all morning until we found it, but once we found it, we had a lot of fun hiking for miles up and down all of them.<br />
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Finally, we got on to the family reunion at San Souci. One morning, my Dad, Hudson, Sara Beth, and I took the boat out into the pond to go fishing. But once Sara Beth realized we were going to use live worms as bait, she put an end to it and demanded the we release the worms back on dry ground. We then proceeded to go around the pond drowning bare hooks in an attempt to catch some fish, but apparently the fish were not biting that morning.<br />
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As part of the reunion, Chris and Wally put on a contest for the kids with climbing and diving. Sara Beth joined.<br />
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Wally said of all the contestants, Sara Beth put in the most effort, overcoming her fears to do the diving.<br />
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One thing that both Heather and I noticed as the Siewert family reunion: our kids were normal sized. Most of the time when we hang out with other families, people comment on how much taller Sara Beth and Hudson are. But at the reunion, everyone was tall, and most had blond hair. You could tell they were all related.<br />
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After the reunion, we went back to my parent's house in Wisconsin. The lake is higher than it has been in years past, so my dad was able to take the boat further up the river across the road from their house. The downside to the water being higher: it makes the bridges lower.<br />
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We walked though downtown Algoma one morning and stopped at one of the coffee shops for something to drink. Hudson got some lemonade and Sara Beth got something blue,.<br />
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My parents found a spot on the Green Bay shoreline that they named shell beach. All the zebra muscle shells are pushed up every year by the ice creating 3 foot tall dunes of white shells.<br />
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While on our way back from shell beach, we had to stop at the cherry store to get some chocolate covered cherries.<br />
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My dad decided that launching and pulling the boat out of the river caused too much wear on the mini van so he bought a vintage tractor do help. Both my dad and I gave Hudson nearly the same warning about the dangers of getting close to the flywheel and then Hudson had a great time helping my Dad drive.<br />
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To celebrate Sara Beth's birthday, we decided to use sparklers. We started with letting the kids play with a few on the grass.<br />
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Next, instead of candles, we put some on Sara Beth's birthday cup cakes. Sara Beth's apprehension about about our alternative celebratory lighting ended up being well founded. Most of the decorative tissue paper ended going up in flames and several of the cup cakes got a little charred.<br />
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Fortunately the presents were a safe distance away and none of those were damaged.<br />
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After eating his cupcake, Hudson decided to taste the Styrofoam base for the cake decoration. He decided it didn't taste all that great.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4809601773198721169.post-35069611068639102562015-08-25T20:13:00.004-05:002015-08-25T20:13:59.508-05:00Between trips<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
This post chronicles the brief two weeks between when our first summer trip ended and our second began.</div>
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Whenever the cat's want to eat people food, they go whine to Heather and Sara Beth. Most often one or the other will provide the cats with a tasty morsel of something.</div>
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We went out to the Celebrate Freedom concert with our friends Jason and Dyan and their kids. The Texas summer behaved just as expected: hot. I purchased an unlimited bounce house pass for the kids. Sara Beth went on a tall inflatable slide several times, but Hudson definitely put the pass to good use and basically bounced around for hours.</div>
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Every now and again, I made Hudson take a break from bouncing in the inflatables, and we just sat listening to the concerts. Hudson was always ready to get back to the bouncing.<br />
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Our church had a family day at the petting zoo one morning. Heather took the kids. She said Sara Beth would have smuggled the pig home if she had brought a bag capable of smuggling farm animals.<br />
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Hudson had a blast as well.<br />
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For the 4th of July, we went and saw fireworks two nights in a row. The first one was down in Sachse and the next night we saw the Plano firework show. We decided to risk letting the kids stay up late two nights in a row, but they handled it without issue. Hudson didn't like the loud noises; fortunatly I came prepared with ear plugs.<br />
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Here you can see Sara Beth modeling some of the latest summer collection at the Gap.<br />
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Another day, Heather took Sara Beth out for a girl's afternoon to just hang out and play. They stopped for some shaved ice.<br />
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Hudson insists that Catta is his cat. He has explained to us that when she bolts away from him "it's because she's nervous." Whenever he sees her, he will try to pet her. If she is napping, he often is able to sneak up on her and get a few good pets in before she runs off.<br />
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This summer, Sara Beth has been able to hang out at the barn. Her instructor hopes to make Sara Beth one of her "barn girls" that will go around and help care for the horses. Sara Beth eagerly will clean the stalls and feed the horses and has spent all afternoon at the barn several days. Also, in case you are wondering about the below picture, she is riding a horse named "Tiny Pony". While she has grown this summer, it isn't THAT much.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4809601773198721169.post-79939616802597785082015-08-09T21:22:00.000-05:002015-08-11T21:03:31.325-05:00Florida and Alabama<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Well, I am noticing a pattern of being behind this summer. I think I am spending too much time playing and not enough time writing down an account of the things we are playing. </div>
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The first vacation we took was back in June. We went first to Florida to visit with Heather's Aunt and Uncle an Cousins and then on to Alabama to ralax on the beach with her Mom and step Dad. </div>
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One day, Uncle Cary, Hudson and I went to the Airforce base near Pensacola. Hudson enjoyed sitting in all the cockpits and AA guns pressing all the knobs and switches. He expressed interested in playing in the $20 flight simulator as well, but I told him maybe next time. </div>
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While we were there Uncle Cary made apple fritters, among other breakfast treats, for the kids, and allowed them to help make them. They also got to swing around on a vine in the front yard hanging from a tree.<br />
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After playing with them for the weekend, we drove back about an hour to Gulf Shores Alabama to rexlax on the beach for a couple days with Heather's mom and step dad. For nearly the entire time we were there the surf was high; Hudson did not enjoy being knocked over by the waves. Instead, he preferred digging big holes in the sand (with some help from others).<br />
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Sara Beth did get a few good rides in on the bogey board, but after a few flips and scrapes, she was done with the big waves as well.<br />
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Instead, the kids preferred to just play with the grandparents in the wave free chlorinated pool at the foot of our condo.<br />
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Heather did get some good photogenic shots of her and the kids. I think this one, or one like it got some amazingly high number of "likes" on Facebook.<br />
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Sara Beth is very quickly growing up. She can now wear Heather's flip flops and has begun to eye other cloths in Heather's closet.<br />
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Once we got home, we performed some music. Sara Beth wanted to be the director and Hudson was content to bang on the drums in a close approximation of the beat.<br />
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Once again, I have no idea what is going on here. Parents have too good of an imagination and can come up with all sorts of ways that something like this can go wrong. Fortunately, everything worked out better than imagined and Sara Beth, the scooter, and the trampoline avoided breaking one another.<br />
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Hudson is completely obsessed with mowing lawns. He will use his lawn mower and weed whacker inside and out. He also repeatedly tells me that I need to buy a leaf blower because that is something else that is used for mowing lawns.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4809601773198721169.post-9505475490572161322015-07-05T21:33:00.000-05:002015-07-05T21:33:32.096-05:00It has been a while<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Whoa boy. I figured with summer starting, I would have all sorts of extra time to do some blog posts. I guess not. So anyways, these are all the pictures up to our trip to Florida that was back in June. The pictures from the trip will come in the next week or so (hopefully).</div>
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Sara Beth wanted to do another tea party for us. She kept reminding us that it will be Saturday at noon. She had brown paper bags with goodies in them and she also made fortune cookies (without the cookie). She was an excellent hostess and we decided to leave a $2 tip for her.</div>
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With all the rain we have had this spring, there have been a lot of frogs around in the yard. Sara Beth found one and named it "Jumper". She built a habitat for it in the garage and tried to teach it tricks. I asked her if it was a boy or girl. She said it was a girl. I asked her how she knew. Sara Beth explained that the frog was a girl because Sara Beth was a girl. I had no way to refute that logic.<br />
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Hudson is definitely a boy. He has taken to climbing on me like a jungle gym and loves to wrestle with me on the floor. He will sometimes pretend to be a horse and asks me to put his stuffed tiger "Nice" on his back to ride him. I tuck Nice's arms around Hudson's neck as best I can, but apparently Hudson is not a real smooth horse ride as Nice quickly falls off.<br />
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Even though 1st grade is winding down, Sara Beth now decided that she knew enough to be a teacher. She will routinely ask Hudson to come play school with her and she will teach the letters of the alphabet to Hudson. Hudson brings his stuffed animal crew with him to get educated a well. I decided to sit in on a lesson. The letter of the day was H for Hudson. I asked what happened if the H got tired and laid down sideways. The teacher quickly drew up a second letter of the day: I. When I asked what happens when the I got tired and laid down, she ignored me and proceeded with her lesson.<br />
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Now that it is summer, we get to go play at the pool. Sara Beth can swim all around the pool without any sort of help. Hudson is now able to place his head underwater and move around in the shallows.<br />
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One morning, Heather saw a spider in our garage and put it under a bucket. I was working from home so she called me downstairs to check it out. It was dead, but definitely a big juicy one. I was able to get Hudson to put his hand near the spider for one picture but when I asked him to put his hand closer for another picture he decided he was done with the spider. I put it in Sara Beth's bug collection container.<br />
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I have started to work out at the gym doing some rock climbing and realized that the kids are old enough to climb as well. Both of them did rather well. Hudson does a good job climbing, but once he gets above 8 feet, he decides he has had enough and comes down.<br />
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Sara Beth gets a little higher, but hasn't quite gotten to the top yet, but she keeps working on it.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4809601773198721169.post-37573708571585645502015-05-19T20:38:00.000-05:002015-05-19T20:38:00.082-05:00May<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
First of all, I wanted to start off this blog post with a clarification. At the end of the last post, on a picture of Hudson in the middle of the street, I said I had no idea what he was doing there. Well, once Heather heard about the post she clarified. I don't really remember what the explanation was, but I'm pretty sure it was a good one. Below is a picture of Hudson climbing on top of his playhouse. </div>
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For Christmas last year, Sara Beth got a cook book. One evening, she decided that she wanted to make a fancy lunch for herself for the next day. That evening, after dinner, Sara Beth made a list of the items she needed and we went to the store. Then, after I put Hudson to bed, we started making her chicken salad. It was a lot of work, and in the end, she decided it was just ok, but she was definitely interested in doing it again.<br />
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We have two rules when it comes to eating meals at the table: 1. we don't force the kids to eat anything, but if they are not hungry enough to clean their plate, they are not hungry enough for desert and 2. once you decide to leave the table, you don't get to change your mind and try coming back ten minutes later. Hudson is still learning these rules, or, at least, trying to see if we will bend the rules if he very sad. One evening, he declared himself done and hoped away from the table after taking a few bites, disregarding my reminders of the consequences. He regretted that decision when Heather and I got to our desserts.<br />
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It is getting close to the end of school and so all the end of school programs are being held. Sara Beth had hers<br />
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And Hudson had his.<br />
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We continue to try convincing Hudson that being potty trained is a good thing. In what feels like an eternal struggle, we have resorted to flat out bribery. He got a tent in his room after one day with a clean diaper. A couple weeks later, after two consecutive dry days, he got a can of shaving cream, or "gloppy cream" as he prefers to call it, to use in the bath tub. I think we have nearly convinced him.<br />
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My dad bought a boat about three years ago. Around two and a half years ago, the DFW area started to have drought conditions, and the lake levels got so low that he couldn't put the boat in any of the local lakes, so it just sat as a garage ornament. Well, it has finally rained enough that the lake levels are up so we all took the boat out on the lake.</div>
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Sara Beth and Hudson both got an opportunity to drive the boat, though Hudson just put the boat into a tight circle and made donuts in the middle of the lake.<br />
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With all the rain, frogs are appearing in our yard again. Sara Beth found a large one that she named princess toadstool and decided to care for it and keep it safe. In this picture, she is covering it while keeping an eye on some nearby birds that might want to make a snack out of the princess.<br />
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This past weekend, we went to Bass Pro Shop. While there, my dad began introducing Sara Beth to the proper way to aim and fire a bb gun.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4809601773198721169.post-45023547311291414902015-04-20T20:31:00.003-05:002015-04-20T20:31:40.428-05:00As easy as riding a bike<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
This past weekend, Sara Beth was at a friends house, and decided that she wanted to try riding the bike that did not have any training wheels on it. To everyone's surprise, she got on and began riding without any help from an adult. That afternoon, she got home and asked me to take the training wheels off of her bike. I proceeded to do that and she rode her bike up and down the side walk for about an hour. When one of the neighbor 1st graders came out, Sara Beth thoughtfully got off her bike and tried to help her friend learn how to balance on her own too.</div>
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On Wednesday of this past week, I took the day off from work and volunteered at Sara Beth's school as the "Watch Dog". We had a great time. I got to sit next to Sara Beth in art class and make my own art project; we ate lunch together. I also helped out in some of the other class rooms and helped to clean up the cafeteria after all the grades were finished eating their lunches.</div>
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After school that day, I decided to celebrate my day off by getting some shaved ice. Sara Beth chose "Princess Flavor" which was pink with pink sprinkles in it.<br />
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Hudson asked for the "Blue one". I assumed that meant blue raspberry, and that is what he got. It turned out to be the correct flavor of blue and he proceeded to eat it with only minimal amounts getting all over everything.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4809601773198721169.post-82139070149854144002015-04-08T22:18:00.001-05:002015-04-08T22:18:11.360-05:00The trickey tooth fairy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Sara Beth has lost her sixth tooth. Along with her tooth, she also decide to leave a note for the tooth fairy. There was a response on her bedside table the next morning. Sara Beth wrote back again that evening. The correspondences went back and forth for about a week until about a week later when Sara Beth read that another letter would come when her next tooth fell out. </div>
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Hudson loves the tractor that he got for Christmas. He will regularly want to take it around the block. One day, I got the idea to hook the wagon up to it. I had to build a trailer hitch, but it did allow Hudson to pull his sister around. Unfortunately, by the time he was done driving, stress fractures had formed at the point that the trailer hooked up to the tractor, so I decided to put the hitch away until I could come up with a more robust solution.</div>
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One day, over spring break, Heather took the kids to the ice skating rink up in Allen. They both had a fantastic time and Hudson was able to nearly skate on his own.<br />
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I have no idea what it going on here. I tend to discourage Hudson from riding in the street, and I figured that Heather is typically more safety conscious than me, so I have no clue what this picture of Hudson tootling around the street is about.<br />
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Often on a Saturday, my Dad and I will take the kids off to Home Depot to do a wooden craft. This Saturday, once the kids came back home, they wanted to play with their scooters on the back patio. Below is a picture of Sara Beth taking a break and drinking her special weekend Caffeine Free Dr Pepper after a long morning of building and scootering.<br />
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For my mom's birthday, Heather painted a large flower pot. While we were at Home Depot buying one pot, we got two smaller ones for the kids to paint. Sara Beth painted hers with pink and purple. Hudson used pretty much any color he could get his hands on and a large amount of sprinkles too.<br />
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After painting the flower pots, we put them on the front porch with a single flower in each. The next day, while the kids were checking on their pots, Sara Beth found a toad in the front yard. She decided to name it Max and brought out a piece of Tupperware filled with water for her new froggy friend. I suggested that she also put something in the bowel for the toad to sit on in case it gets tired of swimming.<br />
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Hudson definitely loves to help. Now that spring has sprung, I have been clipping back the bushes in the front yard. Hudson wanted to see the clippings that I had thrown in the trash can and so he simply climbed up the side and looked in. I'm fairly confident he would not have been able to to that last year. Next year, I'm planning on giving him the hedge clippers and he can do all the yard work while I sit back and relax.<br />
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While it has been rather rainy this spring, the temperatures have been wonderfully pleasant. Heather let Hudson paint on the front porch one morning. Hudson decided that his favorite stuffed animal, Nice, was going to paint this picture, so he placed the paint brush in Nice's hand and then "helped" his friend complete the picture.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4809601773198721169.post-5279897351680645112015-03-12T21:17:00.001-05:002015-03-12T21:17:23.869-05:00RV show and snowAt the Dallas RV show, Hudson was pretty impressed that they had a tub that was just his size. We went through and explored all the different RVs, and saved tons of money by not buying any of them. The kids seemed to enjoy the RVs that had all the beds crammed together so tightly it was like a cave.<br />
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Sara Beth also enjoyed sitting in the combo shower, toilet, and sink room.<br />
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White stuff has fallen from the skies twice in the past couple weeks resulting in school being canceled three or four days. Unfortunately, I now have a job that allows me to work from home, so I don't really get to celebrate snow days.<br />
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The first time, it was more ice than actual snow, The kids played for only a little while before they got cold and were ready to come in for some hot chocolate and to watch a movie.<br />
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Hudson did go out later to try driving his tractor. The wheels do not provide much traction, and, with ice on the driveway, Hudson was having a great time spinning out and doing donuts.<br />
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The next week, some real snow fell from the sky. School closed for two more days and the kids again got to play outside for a while making snow angels and snow ice cream until they got cold and came in for more hot drinks.</div>
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It was an impressive snowfall, at least for Dallas. It was too dry to make an effective snowman, but Sara Beth and Hudson tried valiantly to throw snowballs at each other and at me with minimal success.<br />
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I was giving Sara Beth a horsey ride around the house when Hudson decided that he wanted to get a horsey ride from Sara Beth. Surprisingly, there were no injuries after all was said and done.<br />
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Hudson has always been eager to make messes in the dirt, but recently he is expressing interest in cleaning up the messes too. He will now routinely ask for the dust buster (which has a worn out battery and barely enough power to pull the dirt off the floor) or he will put on my ear protectors and turn on the heavy duty shop vac which has no trouble picking up the dirt (unless he plugs the hose into the air output connection)<br />
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One day, Sara Beth went up to her room, got her makeup kit, and then went to the bathroom and closed the door. What came out 15 minutes later was a tiger. I didn't even know that makeup could be used for face painting, but I can't really claim to have all that much experience using it.<br />
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I came home one day to see the kids playing with a new golfing game. They were keeping score any everything; at least for a little while. The plastic clubs were quickly put away when the kids realized they could hit more than the plastic golf balls with them. </div>
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Here are some bonus images from back in January. We went to the Ft Worth stock show, and I just uploaded the pictures now.<br />
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Hudson was a big fan of driving the $60,000 sports car. It was a little too small for me; I could see over the top of the windshield. Fortunately, it was a convertible.<br />
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Tickets to the stock show also allowed us to get into the Science museum across the street. We looked at dinosaur bones and watched a 3-D video about the formation of the Barnett Shale with effects added to boost the realism. The chairs were on a hydraulic system to tilt as we zoomed around the past and puffs of air and water sprayed when the T-Rex roared out of the screen. The kids enjoyed it.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4809601773198721169.post-85681006684764438042015-02-16T20:11:00.001-06:002015-02-16T20:11:09.068-06:00Tea parties and fluffy jacketsOne day, Sara Beth said the wanted to throw a tea party for the family, and was disappointed to hear that we had too much going on that day, but I promised her we would have it the next day after nap time. As soon as nap time was over, Sara Beth began to set the table. She brought down her wooden music box for some relaxing ambient music. She laid out a plate of muffins and paper napkins for everyone to eat off of. She worked with Heather to brew some lavender tea and put it in a small tea pot. She finally brought down all the decorative tea cups and saucers that she has adorning the shelves in her room. It was an excellent party, and Sara Beth was the perfect hostess hopping up to refill our tea cups whenever they ran low.<br />
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Hudson now has two "fluffy jackets" and he will wear them every opportunity he gets. He has also picked up a unique naming scheme. He will repeat the first syllable of a word at the end. So instead of "fluffy jackets", they are "fluffy-fluf jackets". And instead of eating "breakfast", he now wants to eat "breakfast-bre", I'll admit, it is rather fun and catchy; I will occasionally repeat an extra syllable when talking to him too.<br />
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The mud pit in the back yard is steadily growing larger. After watching a Curious George episode on PBS detailing how to make a compost pile, Sara Beth decided to use some of her stash of mud to make her own compost. She used a green plastic bin that we had outside for storing toys. She filled it with mud and water and then for the following week, asked us to throw our compostable items in her bin instead of the trash. It was a muddy mess. We are going to try again this week but with a smaller bin and a lot less water.<br />
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I have been doing a lot of caulking around the house, patching up small cracks. So, when Sara Beth looked up from playing in the mud and saw large gaps between the boards in the play fort, she decided they needed to be filled in with mud too. It it much less drafty from the west side, though the other three sides still need some walls.<br />
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My dad and I took the kids to the boat show one weekend. Hudson tried out every driver's seat. It didn't matter if it was a $10,000 pontoon boat or a $1.5 million luxury yacht. As long as it had a steering wheel and levers, Hudson was more than happy to spin the steering wheel. Sara Beth, on the other had, really did prefer the boats that had a cabin with beds and a kitchen below deck. I think Sara Beth and I both were partial to a $180k boat with two beds, a full kitchen and a bathroom. And it a great deal compared to some of the more expensive luxury yachts.<br />
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This past weekend, I wanted to build out some shelves in the closet under out stairs. So Hudson and I went to Lowes to pick up some wood. While we were there, Hudson heard some banging on the next aisle over. It turned out they were offering a free "Build a Wooden Thingey with a Hammer" class for the kids. Hudson talked me into signing up. I held down the wood while Hudson pounded in the nails with a hammer; he only hit my fingers a couple times. We ended up building a picture holder for Heather as a Valentine's Day present.<br />
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Hudson enjoys painting. I suspect it has to do with his desire to make messes as much as it has to do with his desire to express his artistic talents.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4809601773198721169.post-28839202734030960142015-01-21T23:37:00.001-06:002015-01-21T23:37:35.399-06:00A whole monthWell, I think this is a new record for time between postings. I do have an excuse: I have changed jobs, so all the free time I used to use at work composing these posts kinda vanished and I think it will be a little while before I will run out of things to do at my new company.<br />
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Anyways, my brother, sister, sister-in-law, and aunt all came in town to visit my parents and us for Christmas. They all came over to our house on Christmas morning and we spend all morning and part of the afternoon opening presents. Hudson got tired of opening around 11am and ran off to play with the items that he had already unwrapped. That afternoon, we then went over to Heather's aunt and uncles house to visit with them and Heather's cousins.<br />
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Sara Beth has had a couple loose teeth that she will wiggle back and forth. One of them finally fell out later that week, while Memaw and Papaw were visiting from Alabama. <br />
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Memaw and Papaw brought some presents with them including a battery powered riding tractor for Hudson. It was cold and rainy outside but as soon as Hudson saw his gift, he didn't care. He took that tractor and started driving it all around the back yard. Sara Beth stayed outside for a while to help play with it too, but she soon came in to warm up. Hudson stayed out until the battery had nearly worn out and by then his hands were freezing cold.<br />
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While they were in town, Papaw helped me do some sound proofing on the windows in our bedroom. While doing that, I moved the monster bean bag chair onto the bed. The kids asked me if they could climb on top of it.</div>
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At the local Kroger store, they have something that Hudson calls "small carts". Whenever he goes, he will always keep an eye out for one so that he can push it around and wants us to use it to hold the groceries. Initially, he would careen into displays and crush people's toes, but he has improved a bit.<br />
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While switching from one job to another, I had a couple days of down time where I didn't have to go to either. We decided to take full advantage of the opportunity and took Sara Beth out of school for the day and we all went down to the Perot museum. There was an interactive display there where you could pit a carnivore against a herbivore with defenses to see who would win. Hudson and Sara Beth played against each other.<br />
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I may or may not have helped Hudson a bit. He won against Sara Beth 2 out of 3 games.<br />
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Last weekend it was still pretty cold. Saturday morning we took the kids out to Lowes to pick up building materials for bathroom shelves. Along the way, I saw that some water mist from a fountain had blown onto the grass and frozen, so we pulled over to investigate. Sara Beth and Hudson had a great time throwing bits of ice back into the pool that had not yet frozen.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0