Letter Walk

The weather here has been absolutely PERFECT!!!!! We are trying to get as much time outside as possible.

Yesterday we went on a letter walk to see what we could find in "nature". Here is what we found

our "v"
"o"

Hudson's lower case "L"
lower case "I"



and then we stopped at the park

1 year

Elijah is now a 1 year old!!!! I can't believe this. We love this little so very much. He is a sweet boy that loves to laugh and cuddle. He is growing up quickly, he has grown a TON in the last 2 weeks. Honestly, this post is intimidating for me. I feel like I should have some amazing eloquent words to write about my little one. All that I can come up with right now is how much we love him and how thankful we are for him. We are praying that the Lord will do mighty things in and through him. We love you little man.

Here are some of Elijah's tricks:
~walking
~waving
~signing "more" and "all done"
~says "ba" for ball and "dada"
~clapping
~kisses
~throwing and rolling balls
~climbing on anything and everything he can find

When did my baby get so big?

Elijah is now 1 year old (I will do a post on that later)!!!! I don't know where my baby has gone.

Hudson's big race

Just before he got started
Rounding the final corner
A few steps away from the finish line
Excited about the treats at the end of the race

The Saturday before Thanksgiving Hudson had his big race, the Richardson Gobble Hobble. We did the 5k last year and Hudson saw the 1 mile kid run and has been waiting for this race for an entire year! We signed him up this year and Hudson was THRILLED. The couple weeks leading up to the race we talked about it and I reminded him that more than likely he would not win - I know his competitive side and I needed to do all the potential damage control that I could. Well, he proved me wrong!!!! One adult finished before him and he was the 1st kid. Hudson loved every minute of it and is already asking when he can run another race. I love that this has opened up more conversations about exercise and the different organizations that benefit from races.

Birthday Party

We celebrated Hudson and Parker's Birthday with friends on Saturday. Since the kids birthdays are pretty close and their friends are pretty much the same we had their party together. It was low key and we had a great time. The kids played, painted and ate cake - a great time for everyone. When we first started talking about a birthday party, Parker wanted ladybug cupcakes. Hudson changed his mind a few times and then settled on a cars cake - I think he just wanted the cars. So that is what we did for them and I thought they turned out pretty good. I'm not sure what is going to happen when they want something outside my "skill" set. Oh well, at least I got away with it for this year.

This year we decided not to do gifts, so instead we asked that people would bring either a can of formula to donate to Into The Streets of Ethiopia or books to be donated to the Children's Hospital. Hudson and Parker were really excited about this and honestly, they did not seem to miss the gifts at all. This is something we are planning on continuing and when they get older they will be able to choose what organizations they would like to help. Thank you to all that came and celebrated with us and for your generous donations.

It's Christmas time!!!

We are super excited that the Christmas season has arrived. We have put up our tree, started our Advent book, drank hot chocolate and have really enjoyed talking about the birth of Jesus and why He is so important. It is an honor to get to walk through this season with our kiddos and to witness and share in their joy for this season. Here our a few pictures of the tree set-up.