Half Birthday!

Our little Hudson man officially turned 6 months old on Thursday, May 30th! We can't believe how fast this time has flown by. Here he is looking pretty excited about his half-birthday!!

He started on solid foods over the last two weeks and LOVES to eat. So far he likes everything that we have mixed in with his baby oatmeal including bananas, apples, pears, peaches, green beans, squash, and sweet potatoes. He is a really good eater and hopefully will put on a little more weight with the start of solid foods in his diet. At his 6-month check-up we found out he is still long and lean (85th percentile for height, 15th percentile for weight!) He gives us the best grins, loves jumping in his jumperoo, can sit for short periods of time and is napping a little better in his crib in the afernoon. He is sleeping pretty well at night, giving us a 6-7 hour stretch before waking up just to eat and going back to bed until around 8-9 a.m. He is still in the pack n' play in our bedroom and probably will be for a while since we have several trips coming up so kind of pointless to transition him out right now. He loves to be held, enjoys being the center of attention, and is generally a really good and easy baby. He goes with the flow on most things which I guess he kind of has to being the youngest of 5 kids. We sure do love this little Hudson boy!

Bridging to Boy Scouts

On Wednesday, May 29th, Landon attended his last Cub Scout Pack meeting and bridged over into Boy Scouts that night. Our ward has a pretty fun bridge made out of logs that Landon wanted to try crossing without using the hand rails. He did a pretty good job!

Four boys crossed over into Boy Scouts and will be attending there starting next Wednesday. Not sure how much he will get done in the 6 months that we have left with the church being involved in scouting but I'm sure he'll have some fun doing it with these friends!

Abby's Magnet Chorus Concert

Abby had her Magnet Chorus concert on Tuesday, May 28th. We had to split up kids activities that night, I was at Landon's baseball game while Jason was able to go to Abby's concert. She had another great performance and even played the piano for one of the student selected songs! She will sure miss her chorus instructor, Mr. Pompa next year when he leaves to teach at another school.

Second Grade Happenings!

A few updates from 2nd grade...Nolan has been working hard on learning some geometry along with building some geometric shapes in math!

And enjoying some partner reading with some friends!

Memorial Day

We spent part of our Memorial Day at Antietam National Cemetery for their Memorial Day program. It's always a good reminder for us all of what this day is all about. It makes it even better that we get to share this tradition with Tasha and her family too!

After the program, we headed over to the Ladners for a barbecue lunch. It was a perfect way to spend our Memorial Day!

Errand Buddies

Maylie and Hudson run lots of errands with me during the day. We were waiting in the carpool lane at Abby's school one afternoon and everything was very quiet. I turned around to spot this cute scene. I love how they fell both asleep holding hands!

A few days later they both did so well while we waited for an oil change on the car. Such happy little friends!

Walk-A-Thon

Paramount held their annual Walk-A-Thon on Thursday, May 23rd. It was a hot afternoon of walking but everyone did a great job!

Landon finished in 4th place and Nolan came in 10th place overall among the hundreds of walkers! Even though it wasn't a race, they were pretty proud of being one of the first students to finish!

Immediately after the walk-a-thon, Landon headed over to baseball practice while we ate dinner and ice cream at the school. It was fun evening!

Misty Meadows Field Trip

Maylie had her last preschool field trip on Tuesday, May 21st. We headed over to Misty Meadows where we got to take a tractor ride tour of the farm, meet some of their animals in the petting zoo area and finished off with some yummy ice cream. Such a fun day with her preschool friends!

Piano Duo

Abby has become quite the piano player as she teaches herself how to play new songs each week and even writes some of her own. Sometimes she even has a little fellow to help her out with her piano playing!!

Safety Fair

We attended the Safety Fair at Children's Village on Saturday, May 18th. We got to see a demonstration on how they rescue people with the "jaws of life" in an auto accident, run an obstacle course, see some police dogs, tour a burned out house, and explore some fire trucks! 

It was a hot day so afterwards we took everyone out for slushies at Sonic. That was probably their favorite part of the day!

Preschool Recognition

Maylie had her preschool recognition ceremony on Thursday, May 16th. They did some fun little songs to show off  what they had learned this year. Maylie did a great job singing and dancing on the stage!

Then we headed over for a nice little brunch in the gym area. Maylie has had such a great year at Growing Tree Preschool with her friend Ayda and her wonderful teachers.

Here they are with Mrs. Thompson...

And here is Mrs. Mussman!

She will continue at Growing Tree Preschool next year but will have different teachers in the 4-5 year old class on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. We sure will miss her great teachers and fun friends!

Band Concert

Landon had his last band concert on Tuesday, May 14th. They combined with Potomac Heights Elementary and they actually sounded really good. Landon hasn't been terribly thrilled about playing the trumpet this year but he finished the year strong with a nice concert with his fellow 5th grade friends!

That's one handsome trumpet player!

Handsome Boys!

We spend a lot of our evenings at the ballpark watching Landon play Little League. Good thing we have this little cutie to entertain us between innings!

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was a little hard for me this year. It was a rainy, dreary day outside which kind of matched my mood. I really miss my own mom on this day, plus I feel so inadequate in my own abilities as a mother. Then the boys were super rowdy during Sacrament meeting and for much of the day afterwards. Being the Bishop's wife is really HARD sometimes!! It is quite lonely and I had a bit of pity party for myself.

I finally remembered at the end of the day to get a picture of me with all the kids but unfortunately it was a little too dark to get a good one. Maybe we can try again on a sunnier day!

First Food

Hudson tried his very first taste of solid foods on Saturday, May 11th. Everyone wanted to be there for the occasion and he was surrounded by quite the audience for his first taste testing!

He was quite a fan of the cereal he tried and kept trying to grab the spoon in order to get the food into his mouth even faster!

Alice in Paramount

We had another big theater event to attend on May 9th and 10th..."Alice in Paramount!" Landon has participated in the Performing Arts Leaders (PALS) group after school this year and has developed into quite the singer/actor. On Thursday we got to watch him in his various ensemble roles and then on Friday we got to watch him as the White Rabbit!

Their music teacher, Mrs. Lewis, took on this huge undertaking including sets, costumes, singing and acting and it all turned out really well. It was a bit long for an elementary school production (2 hours!) but the kids did a really good job with it!

They borrowed the costumes from a local theater group and they were fantastic!

I especially loved Landon's "White Rabbit" costume!

Landon had a solo singing part and totally nailed it. He was awesome!

Such a fun group of talented kids!

Mrs. Lewis, Landon and Maddie who played Alice on Friday night and will also be going to Western Heights (the Magnet Arts Middle School) with Landon next Fall.

I think someone else in our family has been bit by the theater bug!