Crazy Weeks!

Life is crazy right now. We have so much going on it's not even funny. It's all good stuff though!

 

So this week is off to a crazy start with bad weather. School closed early yesterday and we were watching a tornado come down I-459 at almost midnight last night deciding if we needed to run and get the kids up and get down to the basement. The storm basically disintegrated as it got to Birmingham, so we were all ok here (there were some places hit nearby though), but it was a little scary! Way too close for comfort for sure. The kids slept through it all though, so that was the good news because it was loud! We have another round coming this afternoon/night. My office even closed at 2 today AND Al Roker was in Birmingham last night and today--this is serious business!

 

Last week was crazy too. Hudson had his school program on Thursday night. This is his sweet friend Avery. Hudson is sporting a 'fro, which has since been cut off! :)

 

I love hearing those little voices sing. It always brings tears to my eyes, and it really made me sad to think that this was his last preschool program. He sung his little heart out and did great!

Hudson got his crayon last week! He was so excited! The very next day, our house went under contract, so all this talk about the big school down the street, he's not even going to be going there! Whoops! So now we've been talking about his other big school...and the house search has begun.

 I'm the treasurer of PALS, which is a group that supports the children's department of the library. We have several events during the year, but one main event, a casino night and silent auction, and it was Saturday night. I worked all last week preparing for this event, helped set up Friday and Saturday, and spent all day Sunday tallying everything up. It was a ton of work, but we raised over $18,000 for the children's department, which is huge! It was definitely worth all the work! I took not one picture during the event, but here's a collage that was taken...

 Joel is out of town until Thursday night, then this happens...

The kids are gonna die...they do not even know yet. Stay tuned.

 

And then as soon as we get back, I head right to Vegas for work (and some play!) for a week. Oh yeah, and did I mention we will be homeless in a month??? We have to find a house and pack this one up too. I'm taking all volunteers to help! Ha! No rest for the weary!!!

Quick Beach Trip

Last Tuesday (April 15th!) signified the end of busy season at work. Woo hoo! While I do audits and not taxes and my busy season is really January-March, it is still a sigh of relief to see April get here. April usually means warmer weather and everyone is ready to be outside, so we planned our second annual crawfish boil on the top of the parking deck. It was miserable. The weather did not cooperate one bit. While it was sunny, there was hurricane force winds and freezing temps. The boys did not stay long! They did stay long enough for Hudson to eat about 15 crawfish. He LOVED them. Kept going back for more. Harrison, on the other hand, was terrified of them. Me too, buddy. I can't eat something that is looking at me! :)

 

 

We had this great idea that since we both had a few days off work, me for the end of busy season and Joel had holidays for Easter, that it would be a perfect time for a little pre-summer quick trip to the beach before coming back for Easter. We had not planned on packing bathing suits AND fleeces in the same bag (it was in the 80's the day before we got there!), but that's what we did. And we wore them together! Ha! And that little piece of blue sky you see in the corner of the picture below...well that's the only piece of blue sky we saw while we were down there!

It was cold and windy and rainy the entire time, but that didn't stop these boys from going down to the beach and even getting IN the (non-heated) swimming pool! Joel and I warned them not to go off the stairs because no one was going to get them! Ha! They, well really Harrison as Hudson can swim pretty good, complied. Their teeth were chattering, but they had the best time!

 Crazy!!! They swam for a long time. We could not believe it.

Thursday night we headed to our fave...the Red Bar. It never disappoints and the kids love the music. Hudson told us he was going home with the drummer. He really loved the drummer. :)

 Friday was torrential downpours all day long. We tried to go shopping at the outlets, and while that's never really that fun with two kids anyway, it really wasn't fun this time. But, we got what we needed and then we had promised the boys we would eat lunch and watch the boats in Destin. We picked Dewey's because we were able to sit outside on the porch (the walls were enclosed with plastic) and had a great view of the boats that were docked. Obviously no one was out in them that day!

The rain finally stopped for a brief period and we did see the sun one time...for about 5 minutes, before the rain came back. We ran outside to take a few pics.

We all had been in pj's since we got back from lunch because we got drenched, so we were styling. One thing about this trip was that we got a lot of sleep, and honestly, above all else, that is what we needed. We played a lot of musical beds (thanks to Harrison who couldn't make up his mind where he wanted to sleep), but everyone napped and everyone slept in every day, which was great.

 We did puzzles and games, watched movies, and were generally just lazy. It really was a good time even though we couldn't do much outside. We did hit up the donut truck in Alys Beach the last day, which was great.

It wasn't raining Saturday morning so we headed down to the beach. The boys really wanted to dig a hole before we had to leave. We stayed out for a long time and Harrison finally came around to liking the sand. Small victories!

 I just wanted to prove I was at the beach too!

I could not believe Harrison allowed this, but he loved it. We all went home with sand in our shorts, but it was a good morning!

Of course when we started home, the clouds were starting to part and the sun was going to come out that afternoon. Oh well. We still had fun, and Hudson is already asking me when we can go back again. It's good to know that we can go down to the beach in the "off-season" and be just fine.

Happy Easter!

We have had such a great Easter!

The Easter bunny made a stop by our house last night! Hudson asked that they place their baskets in the middle of the den floor so the Easter bunny wouldn't miss them. :) He also asked how the Easter bunny was going to know what to bring him since he never got to tell him. Easter bunny fail over here. I just don't like making a big deal about the Easter bunny. We've seen him before, and the boys had their picture made with him last weekend, but we didn't make a special trip or anything and that is fine with me. I knew when I asked Hudson why we celebrated Easter and he said because the Easter bunny came that we needed to refocus! Ha! He will now tell you the entire resurrection story, so we have definitely come a long way this year. Anyway, the Easter bunny did come and the boys were thrilled with their little treats.

 This picture makes me laugh...out of 1,000 pictures that I take at a time, there's probably only one or two good ones. This was an outtake obviously, but they are happy and that is all that matters!

 They were being so sweet this morning, and looked precious in their little outfits.

Then we got our annual picture in front of the cross at church. The wind was terrible this morning, so this was the best we could do. Not very good!

 

After church with the Reed's, we headed to my parents' house for Easter lunch. My brother and sister in law and Morgan were there, and my grandmothers, and one of Mama Jean's friends came too. Oh and my aunt and uncle! We had a great time, and it was such a pretty day today! We spent a lot of time outside. The kids had several egg hunts, got some goodies from the Easter bunny who visited Mom and Dad, and we ate a delicious lunch!

 

We've got the Easter egg hunting thing down pat now.

 

 Nothing like sticking out a tongue to ruin a decent family picture...ha!

 I think my parents hid 100 eggs. The boys loved it!

We ended our time at Mom and Dad's with a ride in Big Daddy's new car. Hudson has been asking to ride in it for weeks now and his wish finally came true! You could hear the boys' giggles all the way down the street. They loved this (don't worry, they only drove around the neighborhood--no major streets!)!

After naps at our house, we headed to the Reed's house. Surprisingly, the Easter bunny made his way there too! :) After playing with their goodies for a bit, we then headed to Joel's aunt and uncle's house and had dinner over there. The boys had a blast entertaining baby Nolan. They love that baby. It was another really good meal...we are officially stuffed.

What a fun day and a great way to celebrate Easter!

(Missed) Egg Hunts

Our Sunday School class had our annual Easter Egg hunt on Sunday afternoon at Byrd Park in Vestavia. What beautiful weather we had this weekend! We kind of had a crazy day with church, then we tried to eat out for lunch after church and Harrison threw the biggest 2 year old fit that required me to miss lunch and take him to the car where he literally screamed for 25 minutes before passing out. Hudson had t-ball practice at 1, so Joel took him to that while I stayed home with Harrison while he napped because we sure weren't going to get him up, and then when Joel got home, I left to go help hide eggs for the class hunt. Joel was responsible for getting the kids to the park by 3. Well, he was late. And so the kids missed most of the hunt. They were able to get a few eggs each though and didn't really know the difference, even though I was mad as a hornet at Joel for making them miss it! And he forgot their baskets so he had to get his mom to meet him at the park with new ones.

 

We didn't even have Easter shirts this year to wear, but they were still cute.

 

 They had a blast playing on the playground with their buddies after the hunt.

This is out of order, but Saturday afternoon after Hudson's t-ball game, we headed to Somerby for Mama Jean's Easter celebration. It is actually always really fun. The Easter bunny was there and I am just cracking up at Harrison in this picture! At least he is not screaming! Hudson chased the Easter bunny around the whole time...hilarious!

 There was a bouncy, so the kids loved that of course, and there was a balloon man, where Hudson asked him to do a skull. What??? No idea where that came from...it totally stumped the balloon man, but he didn't tell Hudson no and proceeded to come up with something that resembled a skull, sort of...not that Hudson really even knows what a skull is anyway? It was a good try though. Harrison asked for a tiger, and got a brown tiger? I thought they were orange? It was strange.

The hit was the face painters. I never thought Harrison would get his face painted, but he was the most still I have ever seen him! He got a shark just like big brother and they were thrilled with it!

There was also an egg hunt, one for the older kids, and one for the younger ones. I sent Joel with Harrison to the younger kids one, and they missed it. Joel said he couldn't find where they were? Joel is seriously not going to be in charge of egg hunts next year! He has officially been fired! Hudson did great at the big kid hunt, and was so sweet and gave Harrison half his eggs when it was over and he realized that Harrison didn't have any. Melt my heart!

How sweet is this face?!?!? We had church pictures the weekend before last and it was a real test of patience. You would think that when you sign up for a time slot, that you would get your picture made in that slot. Not at our church...you apparently have to wait an hour. We ventured all over our church in that hour. They have a tunnel! I got locked in the garden. It was fun! :) The kids were great for the picture though. We can't complain!

 Silly boy after church! Hudson had t-ball pictures, then our church picture, then t-ball game. There was a lot of outfit switcheroos that day. And Harrison of course had to wear his t-ball uniform too. He was so proud that he put his hat on all by himself!

 Coach Tim even gave him some eye black, just like big brother!

I can't wait to spend ALL day at the ballpark in a few years! It's going to be fun! So somehow I started this post with egg hunts and ended with random t-ball pictures. Oh well!

Big School!

Last week was a big week for us. Hudson is now registered for Kindergarten, and we are awaiting our crayon on our mailbox any day now! Exciting!

 

Hudson begged to come with me to register him because he wanted to see big school. He talked about it all morning at home before we went. He couldn't wait to see the playground! I, on the other hand, was not feeling so excited. I had the biggest lump in my throat! Kindergarten is an exciting time and I know for a fact that he'll love it, but the thought of having to drop him off and watch him go into a new school in a few months all by himself just makes me so sad! How is he ready for this!?!?! How is he going to remember his lunch room number? Will he know where to go??? I won't ever get to actually talk to the teacher! So many new things coming our way, it is scary! Also, I feel like we are about to lose our flexibility and freedom to go and do as we please, and this makes me a little sad too. We've had a great 5 years and this time has been so precious. I know he's ready though and this is just part of life and part of our new normal that I'm sure we will all have to get adjusted to!

 

Registration did not exactly go as planned (or as the picture above might suggest). The minute we pulled into the parking lot, Hudson flipped out. He refused to get out of the car, saying he was scared and nervous and didn't want to go, etc., which of course made things 100 times worse for me. He hid behind me in the office and wouldn't talk to anyone, which is SO not his personality. He usually talks everyone's ear off to the point where Joel and I often question where he came from! :) The police man in the office told him he would take him to see the playground while I did the paperwork, and he just didn't even acknowledge him. It was kind of embarrassing! I think he was just overwhelmed. I got Hudson to school and then I just lost it. I can't imagine how I'm going to act on August 11th! Geez! Say a prayer for us. Luckily, he'll have a couple more opportunities to see the school before the first day, so hopefully he will come around.

I still felt bad that afternoon for overwhelming him, so we went to the park after school and played until late. I'm loving these beautiful spring days and being able to stay out a little later before having to get dinner on the table. It is so nice to take our time!

 It was a beautiful day!

I know he'll be fine come August, but I'm still having trouble coming to terms with it all! Life is just going by so fast, I can't imagine how you could ever send your kid off to college! Ha!