The Big TWO!!!

Hudson turned TWO on August 29th and we celebrated at the ranch, John Deere style, the day before.

The "cold front" brought the high down to 92 degrees, so the weather was perfect!  We ate BBQ, had a hayride, ate delicious Lisa's Cakery cake, broke the pinata, opened presents, it was a super fun party!

Mommy and Daddy with their Birthday Boy (Yes, we were all sporting John Deere green!)

Big Sister Kenedy

Big Sister Hadyn and our good friend, Charlie

Little Brother, Garrison

The Hayride

Garrison getting some shade from Sandie.

The Pinata

Cake Time!  Thanks, Aunt Lisa, for the Greatest John Deere cake EVER!

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, my son blew out the candles and then licked the cake.  (I don't blame him.  Lisa's cakes are that good, and after all, it was his party!)

Not naming any names... someone else enjoyed a little too much cake!

Our Green Tractor (Not John Deere, but beggars can't be choosers.)

Hudson, Momo & Kenedy

The Favors (I found John Deere balloons, suckers, pencils, even John Deere microwave popcorn, "Johnny Pop!")

The Delicious BBQ

Friends and Family

PawPaw and Garrison

Cousin Maddie, Momo & Hudson (Maddie just celebrated her 1st!  Happy B Day, Maddie!)

This is Zailey and she was celebrating her 3rd birthday that day!  Happy B Day, Zailey Mae!

Momo and Hud

Blaire had the "Catch of the Day!"

Mom (in a whisper): "This is the best party I have ever been to."  Lisa (loudly with enthusiasm): "Kelli is the best party planner and mother in the whole world!"

Later that night, it was a Free for All in the hallway with the Potato Head Family!  (Thanks, Hambricks!)  I should've videoed!  They were so tired they were crackin' up at everything and being super silly!

We always do something as a family on their actual birthday, which happened to be the day after the party.  So, we loaded up and took the kids to Inflatable Wonderland in S.A.  It was lots of fun, but you can't tell by my pictures... since I left my camera in the car and was too tired and lazy to go back to get it.  While in the mall, we picked up a Great American Cookie cake.  Had to do it.  So, we sang one last time and let him blow out the candles again.... with ketchup on his face.

Here's the video where we surprised Hudson with his tractor a few days before his party.  He was mad that we were making him go outside.  (You get a glimpse of a small temper tantrum at the beginning.  Those also come in X-Large.)  This video is too long, I'm bad about that, so feel free to stop it at any time.

And here's a video taken shortly after the first one.  My kids are amazingly creative!  (To put it nicely!)

This last video pretty much sums up Hudson's personality at TWO years old!

If you'd like to see a live performance, come by at 7:30 pm, any night.  He'll be here all week!

Back to School

I was so not ready for summer to be over!  I'm not a big fan of early morning alarms, packing lunches, getting homework done, etc, etc, etc.  We have so much fun when we're all at home!  I would homeschool my kids if I could make them sit down and listen to me. But I can't, so off to school they go!

This was Meet the Teacher Night!  They were pretty excited!  And, OMG!  They're looking so grown up here!

Hadyn started Kindergarten this year.  Wow!  Another one in school!  She has the same amazing teacher that Kenedy had in Kinder.  She and her husband have become good friends of ours.  She has three little girls, and her oldest is one of Kenedy's best friends.  Hadyn has another good friend in her class, which is really nice!

And Kenedy is in 2nd Grade now.  She's an old pro at this First Day stuff!

I chose to walk Kenedy to her room, because I'm one of "those moms" that can't hold it together for the first day of Kinder.  I'm actually probably the worst!  I start sobbing at the beginning of school supplies shopping, and we did that the beginning of July!  So, I don't have any pictures from Hadyn's room.  :(  It didn't go too well, though.  She didn't want Daddy to leave.  But, my friend who works at the school, (LOVE THAT) sent me a picture of her later that day and she was doing fine.

Meanwhile, on the 2nd Grade Hall:  Sequoia, Cameron & Kenedy (I think Ken might be on top of the Cheerleader Pyramid!)

Look at her face!  She's saying, "Can you leave already???"

I was the first one in line to pick them up that day!  Which is saying a lot!  These crazy people start lining up like 45 minutes before school lets out... so I got there 1 minute before that.  ;)  I missed my girls!

Poor Hadyn had to wear that dorky headband all day, along with all the other Kindergarteners, so that everyone knew who they were.  She thought it was cool, though.  LOL!

Just for grins... here's Kenedy way back in 2008 on her first day of Kindergarten.  My baby girl has grown up on me!

And since this post is so late, I can say that the first two weeks of school went great.  Hadyn is struggling a bit in the mornings before school and at lunch.  She says she misses me at lunch.  It must be because I'm such a great cook!  (For those of you who know me well, comments about my cooking can and will be deleted.)  Hope all your little school kids are having a great year!

New Computer = Back on Track

Right.  I can't even find my track!  Anyway, my desktop computer was overloaded with photos and had reached it's memory's capacity, so it was running extremely slow.  It was time for a change.  Hudson absolutely flips out when I walk in my office, so I rarely sit at my desk anymore.  I decided to go with a laptop this time, that can follow me into the kitchen, living room, and most importantly, my bed!  I'm hoping I'll keep this blog updated better now.  I'm sure I'll come up with another excuse if that wasn't it.  FYI, John said I had 64,000 photos just from 2009 and 2010!  Wow!  That's crazy!  So, about that update...  Here are some pics from our last days of summer!

On our way to Lake Travis for my Family Reunion.  This looks like child abuse!

Cousin Ryne on the Kneeboard

Hayes and Kenedy

My Handsome Little Man

Killing Time in the Condo

Cousin Addi's 1st Birthday Party at the Reunion

The weekend after the reunion, John and I headed for Grand Cayman.  We had a much needed, relaxing vacation!

I love palm trees!

We rented a jeep and toured the entire island.

Driving on the wrong side of the road took some getting used to!

There were chickens everywhere!  This one was in the grocery store parking lot!

With my rag top down so my hair can blow!

Just to say we did, we went to Hell... a town on Grand Cayman.

The main reason for the trip, besides getting some rest, was to go scuba diving!  We dove for three days.  We saw nurse sharks, eels, rays, turtles, etc.  Nothing extravagant, but it was fun and the visibility was amazing!  I actually played with a huge sea turtle for quite a while.  They're so darn cute!

This was the prettiest water we've ever seen!

We heard about this blow hole, so we drove around until we found it.  We watched it for a while and it was pretty cool!  The water was splashing out about 3 feet high.

So, I told John to run up there and get a picture from inside the hole.  And, he did.

But, of course, the second he snaps the picture, it did this:

You really can't tell from the picture, but the water shot up to like 30 feet!  He dropped the camera, lost his shoes, and got soaked!  It was hilarious!  The camera survived, he recovered his shoes, so all was good.  It was one of those "you had to be there" moments, but we laughed for an hour about it!

Our "Toes in the Sunset" Shot

Gorgeous!

Along with some souvenirs, we brought back a few extra pounds!  Check out this burger!  It was John's... I had a much lighter dish.  ;)

As soon as we got back, we squeezed in one last trip to Sea World before school started.

Mesmerized by Shamu

We went to the Splash Park there, and Hudson was in HEAVEN!!!

Feeding the Dolphins

One last trip to the lake with friends, and that does it for summer!  Wow, that one went by at record speed!

My Daredevil, Kenedy

Somebody was Give Out!