Hudson's First Birthday!

What a lucky boy to be able to spend his first birthday surrounded by family at the beach!! After a morning swim at the indoor pool, we came home and settled Hudson down for a nap while we did some party decorating!

When he woke up from his nap, it was time for presents!

Hudson loved helping with the unwrapping of his gifts. He got a set of toy trucks from the Ladners and a cute outfit from the Torgesens.

Then it was cake time!!

He was quite excited with everyone singing Happy Birthday to him!

Then he got right to work downing that sugar-filled cupcake!!

As you can see, he was quite the fan of this deliciousness!

What a year this has been and we can't imagine our lives without our little Hudson!!

Cousin Fun

I just love how well our kids get along with their cousins. We are able to get together with them on a regular basis which has really helped to form strong friendships among them!

We spent some time at the park near our beach home...

And a little bit of time at the beach looking for shells, but definitely not getting in the water as it was much too cold for that!

We filled our days with lots of playing outside, board games, movies, and walks on the boardwalk. We had such a great time at the Outer Banks for Thanksgiving break that we may just have to make it a yearly tradition!

Thanksgiving 2019

We go to the Outer Banks together with my two sisters and their families every summer, but this year we decided to do something a little different and we spent the week of Thanksgiving there as well. We had so much fun seeing one of our favorite places in the off-season and having a completely different but totally enjoyable beach experience in November.

It was this little man's first Thanksgiving and he loved having all the extra attention from aunts, uncles, and cousins!

Lara and Ben were the official "hosts" for Thanksgiving and made a wonderful and tasty dinner for us all to enjoy.

Here are the four crazy older boys...

The two sweet little girls...

And everyone else who sat at the main table together!

I have so much to be grateful for this year, but family and being able to spend time together is always high on that list!!

Sand Dunes

We headed down to the Outer Banks on Monday right after school so we had all day Tuesday to spend with just our family before everyone else arrived later that night.

We had so much fun exploring Jockey's Ridge, the largest sand dune on the East Coast!

This little man did not want to be carried because he loved crawling around in the sand!

It was a gorgeous day to be out exploring such a fun area!

We tried to get a kid-jumping picture. I guess Maylie thought we said "leap towards the camera" in this one!

And a few better ones...

We took off his pants and let Hudson go to town in the sand. He was a huge fan!

On our way back to our beach house we stopped at a few souvenir shops including this fun candy shop.

It was fun to spend this day at the Outer Banks with just our family while visiting some new-to-us areas!

Tree Decorating

Since we were traveling for Thanksgiving the next week, we decided to decorate a little early for Christmas. We love putting up our big 12 foot tree and spent Sunday afternoon decorating it!

Lots of fun using the ladder to get to the higher branches...

And being sure to avoid the lower branches because of this little man!!

We sure do love how warm and cozy our home feels with it all decked out for the holidays!

Family Night at WHMS

Western Heights Middle School held their annual literacy night on Thursday, November 21st from 5-7 p.m. The theme this year was all about space. We started the night off with a turkey dinner and then visited different stations around the school that incorporated space, reading, and math.

The most exciting part for Landon was being able to meet a real live astronaut who spent time at the International Space Station! He told some really good stories about what it was like to live in space and encouraged all those middle school kids to be the first ones to set foot on Mars. That would be a dream come true for our space-loving boy!!