Mercedes Marathon and Pinewood Derby Weekend

Well hello blog! It's been a while! I thought we were busy with our little ones several years ago, but it's nothing compared to now. We literally have baseball 4 times during the week and for 4 hours on Saturdays! It's crazy. Add in cub scouts, guitar lessons, homework, and a husband out of town for what feels like forever, oh and busy season, blogging has taken a back seat. I have a lot to update on and I'm determined to keep this going.

 

At the beginning of February, Hudson ran in the Mercedes Kids Marathon for the third year in a row. I honestly tried to get him to not do it this year (it's total chaos), but he loves it. And there is something about watching them run the final stretch to the finish line that makes our parent hearts happy, so we face the madness with a smile. Ok, maybe a half smile...but when it's over and we are back in our cars, it's the greatest day ever! :)

 

Of course we had to run with friends. There is no better way! We are missing a couple in this picture, but man, this is one sweet group of boys. Their moms and dads are pretty sweet too!

 

 My child...never a dull moment. Let's not even talk about that headband! So hilarious!

 I did not get a good view of him coming down the home stretch this year, but he was flying!

He ran the mile in 8:40. I'd say that's pretty fast for a 7 year old! Heck, that's pretty fast for a 35 year old! :) He did not come through with any of his buddies this year and when I asked him about it, he said they were too slow for him! I think he may have a running calling...he loves it.

 Found Haines at the finish line!

We had 30 minutes from the end of the run to get to our church for Hudson's first cub scout Pinewood Derby. He was SO excited. His car was definitely the craziest...it was ALL Hudson's creation (well, the decorating part) and it was totally his personality. His car did not look like any of the others and I love that.

 Haines again with their cars!

Unfortunately, his car did not perform as well as, ahem, his daddy, would have liked. His daddy, the engineer, should have had the fastest car in the derby. Ha! I'm not sure who was more upset at the performance, Hudson or Joel.

However, all was redeemed when Hudson won first place for design! Out of all of the cars in the entire derby, his car, "Bad Hair Day," won! Hudson was holding out hope that maybe this might happen and it did! We were so proud of him! What a fun first Pinewood Derby. Next year, the Reed's will be working on our speed! :)

 

The Rest of January Pics

January and February so far have been relatively quiet for us. Busy season is in full swing at work and so I have very little free time at the moment. It will be over as quickly as it started, but the trenches sure are tough!

 

Anyway, the college football national championship game proved to be a good one this year. We are always Tigers, no matter which Tigers we are talking about! :)

 

We had a big football bowl game competition this year with just the four of us, and the boys got SO into it! Hudson is literally obsessed with football now because of this and talks about it all the time, watches random games on the Ipad, and of course, has all the referee moves down pat! Haha! Those that know Hudson will not be surprised by this! He even claims he is playing tackle football in the fall. We will see about that...he's such a string bean.

Anyway, the competition came down to the national championship game for Joel and Harrison and Joel picked Clemson over Alabama and took home the win (and the money--we all gave $1 so it was high stakes, ha!). As you can see, Harrison was not too happy with the outcome...

A couple of years ago, I took Hudson with me to see Carrie and Andres in California. I left Harrison behind because he was definitely not old enough to make that kind of trek, but he has not let me live that down yet! You would think he would have forgotten, but he couldn't wait for me to take him to California by himself! Well...they left California so that wasn't going to happen, but the opportunity arose for the two of us to go help my mom keep Rooney in Nashville a few weekends ago. He thought he was big stuff getting to go with just me. It was really cute and we had the best weekend! He's a different child when his big brother is not around!

We visited the Nashville zoo one day. It was ok, had an awesome park in it, but overall definitely did not live up to our Birmingham zoo!

 I got some sweet cuddles in with Roo and Harrison too! They were so good with each other.

 Loved this time with my sweet boy!

 Speaking of babies, we did visit the best toy store in Nashville and Rooney is clearly wanting some twin babies! Ha! She would not let this stroller go! We seriously almost bought it.

 We also visited the science museum. It was really just ok too, but it entertained the kids for a few hours, so we'll take it!

 I was so glad we went! We had a great time with Mom and Rooney while Carrie and Andres were out of town. Joel and Hudson went to the lake and since the house is currently under construction, they slept in a tent and had a great time too! Better them than me!!!

When we got back to Birmingham, we had 2nd grade Market Day to get ready for! Hudson built individual lego sets this time and sold out immediately. The only part I had in this market day was sending the pictures off to Walgreens to print. He did everything else! So proud of him.

 We went to the final Barnum and Bailey circus in Birmingham! It was a little sad not seeing the elephants anymore (it was not the same without them!), and just knowing that this was the end of so many years of the circus. I hope the boys will remember getting to go!

 The tigers and lions were my favorite...

 While the pig going down the slide was the kids favorite...go figure!!! They laughed about this for DAYS! It was pretty funny!

 

 Church time...

 Joel and I are teaching the 5 year olds this year in Sunday school and there are so many in the class! It can definitely get out of hand at times. I'm including this picture mainly because I'm proud of how well we had them behaving on this Sunday! They were all sitting quietly taking turns telling jokes while we waited for the parents to come pick them up! They had some good ones!!!

 I got shipped off to Chicago for work last week. It is so intimidating going to such a big city and working downtown...definitely a different lifestyle! I didn't do anything but work 13 hour days, but it did still feel a bit like vacation! :)

No words for this crazy dude...he was working on his Cub Scouts Pinewood Derby car in Pops' basement. We'll find out on Saturday how well his car runs! It will win a prize for being cute, that's for sure! Pictures to come!