Crafting...

I don't very often talk about the things that I make...but oh, how I love to make stuff! I like to see what other people make and then try to figure out a way to make it myself! Recently, I'm loving making appliques. The other day, I made Finley this owl and I think it's too cute to not share it! I got the pants at Target, and knew right away that I would make an owl for a shirt...

Review in Pictures

My posts have been few and far between the last few weeks. I'm not sure why...we've been super busy. Hudson had a birthday party that I never wrote about, Finley started eating, rode in our little car for the first time, tried drinking out of a cup, is sitting up, Tony had a 30th birthday...lots of fun things going on at the Dudish house. Here are some of my favorite pictures...Hudson in the pirate ship at his pirate birthday party.So proud with his new guitar and his flum picks.Okay...seriously, this boy might be an artist. He does not ever stop...always on the go. He sat and painted with watercolors for like an hour. Hudson finished and got up and Walker kept painting. And he'd say that what he was painting were different things, like pine cones, trees, footballs...love it!

Finley...riding in the little car, sitting up, eating the first time, then my favorite eating picture so far...the look on her face...Hudson said "Mommy, I don't think she likes it!"Sweet girl drinking out of a cup for the first time.

Tony's 30th birthday "cake"...our boys LOVE rice krispie treats!

New Fun

Today we did something new. It was also very fun. It entertained the boys for at least an hour. We made play dough. We've never gotten to play with the store bought kind before b/c it is made of wheat. So, today, we made our own. We had different recipes, one with flour (we used soy flour) and one with baking soda and cornstarch. We made the first with flour and when it didn't turn out like I wanted (it was really sticky and I could forsee the mess), we made the next recipe and it turned out great. It really felt just like store bought play dough. We colored it using Wilton's paste food coloring, which we had b/c that's what we used to color icing for our birthday cakes. The colors were very vibrant and even colored our hands. I think the more we play with them the less this will happen. The boys really had a blast. And, so did I...getting to watch them experience playdough for the first time. They were so excited!

New Stats

Today we went to the pediatrician for 2 well check ups. One for Hudson -4 year, and one for Finley-6 months. To say that taking 3 little ones to the doctor's office by myself is easy now, would be a lie! It's not easy, but do-able. Oh, and we were there from 10:20-12:10! That's ridiculous, but it didn't really seem like we'd been there that long. Hudson had a hearing and vision screening that all kids have to have to enter school, even though he can't go to school for 2 years b/c of when his birthday falls! He did so good during these, and I hadn't told him about it, b/c I didn't know that they did this at the 4 year well check. He had to look at pictures of things like a boat, star, circle, cross, hand, etc and tell the nurse what they were. He then had his hearing checked. They put a earphone on his ear and he had to say beep when he heard some birds chirping. He also had his blood pressure checked AND the biggie was his FOUR shots and finger prick. He was not happy about these! When he was crying after he and Finley had both had their shots and we were getting ready to go, I asked if he wanted to call Daddy and tell him what a big boy he'd been. Through his tears, he said, "I'm not a big boy. I was for the learning(that's what he called the hearing and vision screening :)), but not for the shots." I then cried. How totally sweet this boy is. He thought that crying for the shots meant that he wasn't a big boy. He was a trooper. That's a LOT of sticks! Now for their stats...

Hudson weighs 38 pounds 4 ounces and is 39 3/4 inches tall. He's in the 75th percentile for weight and 50th for height.

Finley weighs 21 pounds and 6 ounces and is 27 1/4 inches long. Finley is in the 95th percentile for both height and weight.

Hudson

My sweet Hudson is 4 years old today! I thought I'd tell about the things that Hudson likes at 4, and the things that we LOVE about Hudson at 4.

1. Hudson loves to pretend. He likes to dress up, he likes to put on anything he can find and pretend to be someone else.

2. Hudson really likes to work! He goes to work all the time, and he's always carrying around his "work-up stuff" (the treasures with which he works)

3. Hudson loves to take care of his brother and sister, and his mommy. He's always telling me that he takes care of us when Daddy is at work!

4. Hudson loves to watch Word World and it teaches a lot!

5. Hudson LOVES to sing. He can remember words to songs like nobody's business(that is if he knows the words...if not, or if the song goes too fast, he makes up his own words...too cute).

6. Hudson loves anything that has Spiderman on it!

7. Hudson likes to get ears...cold ones! It's like his sign of love! :)

8. Hudson adores his Daddy. He wants to be with him all the time when Daddy is home! I love that!

9. Hudson loves the colors yellow and red!

10. Hudson's favorite thing to eat at 4 is hamburgers and chips(he would literally eat this for every meal if I allowed it)!

1. We love that he is so thoughtful...always remembering to thank us and others when things are done for him!

2. We love that he is such a good big brother. He is always very helpful and gets Mommy lots of diapers and wipes and burp cloths!

3. We love that Hudson has a memory to rival any adult. The child will bring up things that we have long forgotten or never knew that he even knew!

4. We love that Hudson is super observant...he catches everything!

5. We love that Hudson says the absolute sweetest prayers! I love that I get to listen in to my sweet boy talk to our God!

6. We love that the boy gets up at the crack of dawn ready for the day...he's got his "stuff" and he wants his clothes immediately! I can usually convince him to go back to sleep though, and I love that too!

7. We love that he still loves to cuddle and snuggle and get our ears!

8. We love that he still likes to be held and hugged and kissed!

9. We love everything about that sweet boy, from his sweet curls down to his toes!

10. WE LOVE YOU UP, 4 year old Hudson!

It truly is a joy being Hudson's mommy and I am so blessed that God chose him to be my son 4 years ago!

Family Fun Night Game Day

In honor of College Football today, we had a last minute family fun night! I told Tony the thing I love about our family fun nights is that they don't have to be elaborate, just something a little out of the ordinary centered around a theme, and fun, fun, fun! So, to begin our family fun, we first had to get dressed.


It's funny when we put football jerseys on our boys, they go football crazy! While I started dinner, they pounded and tackled Daddy with their footballs! They got to run through the sign a few times as they were introduced to their fans.




We then tailgated with our "appetizers" (tortilla chips) b/c we thought it was too hot to actually tailgate for our meal! I had them yelling the (me) Go Dawgs! (them)Go Dawgs! (me)Go Dawgs! (them)Go Dawgs! cheer and then the Goooooooo Dawgs, sic 'em, woof, woof, woof! Daddy was a good sport, of course, dressed in his GA Tech gear!
Next, we came in and ate while we watched the GA Bulldogs! Of course, we had a yummy tailgating meal of mini burgers and potato chips (I threw in some carrots for nutrition) and a roarin water. For the inside tailgating, they got to sit in their lawn chairs and eat! Finally, we finished the night with a family favorite of popsicles in the bathtub...easy mess clean up! And, tomorrow, our sweet Hudson turns 4. I know I will be posting something for him!

Becoming like my mother...

So, they say that as you get older, you become more and more like your mother. If you know my mama and me, you'll know that I'm already A LOT like her. Here a few things that have happened in the last week that have made me think that I'm turning into my mama...love her!!! Last week, I was getting some M&M's out of a snack machine at school like this






Well, I was wearing a bracelet and as I stuck my hand in to pull out my M&M's a funny thing happened. I couldn't get my hand out. Did you catch that? I. COULD. NOT. GET. MY. HAND. OUT! Like, it wouldn't come out of the slot. Seriously, it was stuck. There was a fellow teacher in the room with me and I tried my hardest to get it out myself before I said something to her! I tried to push the slot open more and it wouldn't budge. So I told her. And then she tried to push the slot open more. Nothing was happening...nothing. So, after many many giggles and laughs and her pushing the slot and me trying to wedge the bracelet off, my hand was free. She decided that she'd get the M&M's for me! :) We then had a big laugh at how funny it would have been to buzz the front office and say that Mrs. Dudish was stuck in the snack machine.

How this incident reminded me of becoming my Mama: my Mama has this ugly pair of Mommy jeans that have for years been tagged as her paint pants. Here's why...she went to Home Depot 30 miles from where we lived. She picked up a gallon of white paint, dropped it and it spilled ALL OVER HER! Did you catch that? WHITE. PAINT. ALL. OVER! The men who work at Home Depot tried to help her as best they could. She made white footprints all through the store! They gave her trash bags, I think, to put down in the car at least. She came home, rang the doorbell and stood there for my Daddy to come see her standing there with white paint all over her jeans...thus...the paint pants! (At least my stuck hand wasn't permanent...thank goodness!)


Now to this week. I put a pork tenderloin in my crockpot this morning to cook all day while I was at work. This is what it looked like this morning when I put it in...


AND...this is what it looked like 9 hours later when I came home from work...


Notice anything similar about these two pictures. Yeah...they're the same! When I came home, I noticed that my house did not have the wonderful smell of that meat cooking. And then, I had a flash to this morning when I was in a hurry, put the tenderloin in, covered it with mustard, plugged the crock pot in and LEFT. I never pushed how long it should cook.

How this reminded me of becoming my Mama: her brothers and my daddy tell a story of her cooking for one of them sometime after she and my Daddy got married but before they had children. She was cooking stew, I think, and she cooked it all day and kept checking on it and wondering why it wasn't cooking....only later to learn that she had never plugged the thing in! (at least I remembered to plug my crockpot in!) :)

Now, as long as I don't start telling people that I'm 7 ' 5" and ordering graduation gowns where I convert those feet and inches to all inches...I won't officially be JUST like my mama (yes...she did that for her college graduation...ordered a gown for someone who was 7 feet 5 inches, converted it all to inches...the gown came and was too big for the tallest guy in her college graduating class...my Daddy called the company where the gowns were ordered from to see if they could rush another gown for her and the lady he spoke with said that people who worked there had talked about booking flights to Georgia to see the 7 '5 lady walk down the aisle to graduate!) So, if you see me doing silly things like falling out of nowhere in a parking lot or spilling paint everywhere...please know...I get it honest!

(I got the vending machine picture from http://www.vendingondemand.com/)