6 years old

6 years ago, on a Labor Day, Tony and I sat around taking it easy, knowing that soon, our lives would change forever. 6 years ago, we were to get to the hospital at 7 p.m. to be induced with our first little! Things I remember about that day...I was feeling HUGE, as I was overdue, we watched The Last Samurai and I laid on my side on the sofa, I ate ramen noodles and drank lots of lemon lime gatorade, we had no idea what we were getting into! 6 years later, our biggest is now in Kindergarten and acts like he's going on 50 with some of the things he says. Sometimes it's hard to remember that he is only 6. He got glasses a few months ago, and so I want to remember that about this year before he turned 6. And, in the last year, he can now eat wheat and eggs baked in things which has been totally life changing.

6 things I love about my Hudson...

6. He is my biggest helper!

5. He is the BEST big brother!

4. He is super thoughtful-always thinking of his brothers and sister!

3. He has an impeccable memory...I LOVE all that he can remember!

2. He has really started to branch out in the things that he's eating.

1. He is the first baby I ever fell in love with and he continues to captivate me( and drive me a little crazy at times :)!

6 things Tony loves about Hudson...

6. He is so helpful around the house.

5. He is always thinking about his siblings.

4. He remembers everything.

3. He listens and tries to figure out what we're saying...almost at. all. times.

2. He loves school.

1. He still likes to get Daddy's ears (cold, please).

Happy Birthday Big Boy (and my sweet baby)! We love you up!

Happy Birthday to Walker

Walker Elijah Dudish was born April 4, 2007. He turned 4 years old on Monday. Time is flying by...he should be the size that Sawyer is! We celebrated his birthday with friends and family this past Saturday. He wanted a Toy Story party so I did my best to come up with some fun Toy Story party ideas! I stayed up way too late making his cake, but I am very pleased with how it turned out.

When our guests arrived, they each got a cowboy hat, a bandanna and a sheriff's badge in honor of Woody. Next we played a version of hot potato...I had the "You've got a friend in Me" song from the movie on our ipod and the kids sat in a circle and passed a Mr. Potato Head. I changed the rules a little for our game and when the music stopped and they were holding the potato head, instead of being out, they got to add one of his pieces(I had all the pieces in the middle). They built a pretty silly Mr. Potato Head with a big yellow mustache and long purple eyelashed eyes! We had lime green balloons with one toy story balloon that Tony tied to the mailbox...or at least he thought he tied it to the mailbox. Sometime during the party, the balloons set sail and ended up in a tree at the edge of our neighborhood. The kids walked over the next day and visited them! (We should've taken a picture of that!)

Next, they got to be Buzz Lightyear. Walker got this for Christmas and it worked out perfectly for our party purposes! One kid got to wear the Buzz Lightyear wings, while another got to sit in the spaceship wearing the Buzz Lightyear gloves. The one in the wings tried to shoot the balls into the spaceship, while the one with the gloves tried to block the balls (with their sweet heads down, of course)

Finally, my friend Christa had made this big Mr. Potato Head for our Christmas Show at school and I knew it would be great for the party. We played it kinda like pin the tail on the donkey. The kids were blindfolded and they got to choose a piece to try and velcro onto the potato head!

We had hotdogs for lunch and then had the birthday cake, our second birthday with real cake made with eggs and from a regular cake mix.

After most of the guests had left, Walker opened his gifts from our family members. He was so excited to play with his Toy Story things and wasn't going to share with Hudson. Of course that wore off, or Hudson wore him down and he did share the toys!

Things we love about Walker at 4:

1. He is stinkin' hilarious. He has us laughing all the time. That boy is just plain funny!

2. He just had his hair cut in the last 6 months and it fits his little spunky personality!

3. He has the cutest dimples around and is so precious when he smiles.

4. He will stop everything he's doing to come say an "I Love You!" that will melt your heart!

5. He loves Hudson and wants to keep up with him and he and Finley are becoming great buddies when Hudson is at school.

(I should've done four things we love about Walker at four, but I got carried away, so there's one to grow on!)

The night after his party, this is how he wanted to sleep! with the big Woody, Buzz Lightyear gloves and the cowboy hat...how stinkin' cute is that?

On his actual birthday, Monday, he had his birthday streamers on his door when he woke up that morning, and he got a bike from us. To surprise him, I had the bike hidden in the garage and Tony took the kids to the backyard to play hide and seek. I got the bike ready by tying on a new toy story balloon. When I went to get them, they were all standing at the top of the cross ties looking hesitantly at something. Hudson then points and screams, and I see it, a snake. Tony was kinda freaking out as he said, "Hudson ran right by it, twice!" Apparently, Hudson had run down to get a soccer ball, Tony saw the snake and said come back come back...thus, Hudson ran by it and then back by it, all the while, Tony was freaking out! I threw a few things at it and he didn't budge, so I had to get up closer to see if that thing was alive...all the while, Tony stayed at the top of the cross ties with the kids. I took a few pictures and saw that our little friend was indeed quite alive and sticking that tongue out and in, out and in! After all that excitement, we ran back up the hill and of course, Hudson noticed the bike first. Walker was super excited and wanted to get right on! He drove around for a while and then came in to have the lunch of Walker's request...sandwiches! We sang happy birthday and had the bottom of his cake with the "4" candle on top! I think it was a happy birthday for that sweet boy!

Seriously, I CANNOT believe this boy is FOUR! Time sure needs to slow down! Walker Dudish...we love you up!

Happy Birthday to Finley...

Our sweet baby girl is 2! Her birthday was Thursday, March 10, 2011. Oh how we love this sweet girl. She has been saying happy new year all day as we would say happy birthday to her...it was too cute! She loved running through her birthday streamers today and sang along as we sang happy birthday tonight with our rice krispie treats. She has started kissing and hugging us when she thinks that she's in trouble or has done something wrong...it's hard not to be charmed by her...seriously! She LOVES to give hugs and kisses and gives them out freely all day! We had her birthday party last Saturday! I love birthday parties...especially having a theme and planning fun things around that theme. I could not think of one thing for this sweet girl that would be fun for her brother's too. The only thing she's really into right now is baby dolls and I did not think a baby doll party would be fun for the brothers. I waited too late to make an invitation, so I went on to evite to send one last minute and hoping for some kind of inspiration there. I found it! There was a "card" that had paint splattered on it, so I went with that! The party was so fun! I set up different "stations" in the garage...finger paint and a big roll of craft paper, watercolor paint and paper at a table, our easel with paper attached a poster paint and a table with coloring books and crayons. I had some face paint and I painted little things on their hands. I also had an activity that the boys found in their highlights magazine and have been asking me daily when we could do it. You sort froot loops by color and then crush them, then you layer them in baby food jars...it's like sand art but with froot loops. Tony was a champ and sorted most of our off brand froot loops so that each kid already had all the colors they needed to make the rainbow. If I was doing this with just my kids, I would have had them sort the froot loops themselves! The directions said to roll the loops with a rolling pin, but when the kids started doing it, one bag was dropped and I got the idea that they could crush them with their feet, so that's what they did and it ended up being more fun than the rolling pins! Miss Finley LOVED the painting! She stayed at the easel the entire time! Before the kids came out to paint, they had to put on their "smocks" (old t-shirts that we didn't mind getting messed up). The birthday cake was my favorite. It was a rainbow inside! Super easy...two cake mixes split into thirds and then colored with each color in the rainbow! This was also the first cake we ever got to use a cake regular Duncan Hines cake mix...I just had to search for one that didn't have milk in it! We even got to have our cake made with real eggs! Needless to say, this was the most cake ever eaten at a Dudish birthday party! It was super yummy! The knife and serving piece were gifts I received from my teacher friends after she was born. The serving piece is engraved with her name and her birthdate. They are to be used at each birthday to cut her cake...then when she gets married, they are to be used at her reception to cut her wedding cake...talk about sentimental! Tony said he couldn't dare think about that! Me either! I didn't use them at her first birthday because I cupcakes! But, I want to use those each year and save a picture from each birthday in the case in which they came!

The night before the party, I decided I needed to make Finley something to wear, so I started that little pillowcase dress she wore at about 11:00 p.m. She looked way too big with her hair in pigtails and I seriously cannot believe that my baby girl is already 2! Time seriously flies...super fast!

The party was super fun and our Uncle Justin took these pictures!

Happy birthday baby girl! We love you up!

Hudson's FIVE!!!

I can't believe I've waited this long to post this about Hudson's birthday party! I put some of these pictures in a post at least a month ago, and I am just now getting back to it! This was one of the most fun birthday party's we have had. Parties are always fun when you use a little creativity and things you already have! There are lots and lots of pictures, so I am going to tell about the party up here and then you can scroll down and see all the fun! The boys usually come up with a birthday theme quite a while before their birthday, and Hudson wanted to have a super hero party. Originally, he just wanted boys and their daddy's, but I convinced him that there needed to be girl superheroes there too! We decided to have it at Grayson Park, where you can reserve a pavillion for free! I made the superhero capes out of an old sheet, ribbon I already had, scrap material and sticky felt I bought. I made their letters out of the die cut machine at school and traced them on the felt. The wrist bands were a last minute entry and I just cut them out of felt that I had on hand and used velcro I already had for the closures. The masks and crowns were made from a pack of foam I bought at the dollar store!

To start the party, I sat all the kids down at one of the picnic tables and asked them if they were ready for some super hero training in order to become super heroes. Their eyes lit up and they were ready to go. My sweet Tony had agreed to be our "super villain" for the day, and he ran up and said he was going to try to ruin the birthday fun. He dropped some balloons that I told the kids were bombs and they needed to diffuse by jumping on them and popping them! After they completed this task, they received their wrist bands. Next, I told them we needed to do some training like super heroes and climb the rock wall at the park...like Spiderman, and then go across the bridge and fly down the slides...like Superman. When they completed this task, they were rewarded with their very own cape. Next, the supervillain was back with what he thought would zap all of their superpowers...kryptonite (rocks I had spray painted green). But, we were ready! The kids had to use kitchen tongs to pick up the kryptonite and put it in our hazardous waste container. I told them if they touched it with their hands, they would lose their superpowers, and they needed those to help stop the super villain. After the kryptonite was disposed of, they were rewarded with their best defense against the super villain, their masks or crowns. I told them that this hides their identity. Finally, the super villain came back one more time and said he knew how to take all of the birthday fun...he was going to destroy the CAKE. I quickly gave them each a water gun and they took off running after the super villain. they caught him by surrounding him and squirting him with their water guns. Then, the police (my brother dressed in some police gear from my friend Christa) came and took the super villain to jail. The super heroes had won! They were all so excited! We put the water guns away and played on the playground for a while before the cake. After the cake, we had our homemade pinata to break. I didn't do favor bags, we just made bags for them to put their treats from the pinata in, and of course, they got to keep all of their super hero gear! Most importantly, my boy enjoyed his 5th birthday party, and hopefully it will be one he will remember for many years to come! I have to say a special thanks to two of my girls in my youth small group from church...Kelci and Brittany. They spent the night with me the night before and helped me finish last minute preps for the party. Kelci made all the masks and crowns and Brit made all the treat bags! They also were great sounding boards for how to get that cake looking pretty cool!

Finley is 1

Our sweet baby girl turned one on March 10. I cannot believe that it has been an entire year since our baby girl was born. She is absolutely the sweetest little thing. Her brothers adore her, she smiles, hugs and offers us lots of love. When she hugs, she makes this sweet little sound like she just loves soooo much! She is also a tough one! Those brothers of her get a little too rough sometimes and she usually just rolls with it. She is crawling and getting into everything, especially the kitchen cabinets. She is pulling up on everything and she will walk with us holding her hands, or behind her little stroller. I don't have her stats yet, I'll post those later...she is a big girl, though! She really is such a joy and we have loved every minute of this first year with her! Here are some pictures from her first birthday party and some that Justin took for some 1 year shots!