Another month, another update (late, as always…). Here’s our April 2018 family update! And now I’ll be including a new category each month…a Baby #3 update! So fun!
General family stuff
We kicked off the month with Easter (which fell on April Fools day…blech…I hate being tricked so April Fools day is not my fave).
The Friday and Saturday before Easter we were in Nashville for Lads to Leaders. I had not bought any Easter candy because I planned to go to Trader Joes while we were down there and get some of their candy that Hudson really likes (and is relatively healthy because yes, I am THAT MOM who gives semi-healthy snacks for holidays). However, there was a wreck that had the interstate blocked on Friday on our way there then Saturday we decided to stay later at Lads to Leaders than we’d planned and weren’t going to be able to make it to Trader Joes. Sooooooo I found myself scouring one of the Opryland Hotel markets for some last minute Easter basket treats.
Surprisingly they actually had some pretty good (albeit very expensive!) options so my last minute mom fail was saved. We’d also gotten them each a new bath towel, Hudson a Color Wonder coloring set (that has been a HUGE hit at church!), and Parker a bike helmet.
These Easter outfits, y’all. They’re so cute I can hardly stand it! I had a HARD time finding them though! We have SO many hand me down clothes from friends that I very rarely buy the kids new stuff but I do love to get them matching/coordinating outfits at Easter and for fall/Christmas pictures. I had an idea in my head of what I wanted them to wear for Easter but was striking out at every store I went to – everything was either dressier than I wanted (full suits) or way too casual.
My mom went to her Belk and took some pictures of some options that they had. I checked our Belk hoping they’d have them here but nope, they didn’t. So I ended up heading home to buy their Easter outfits (it’s not all that far away, about an hour, so not that ridiculous to make the drive, it’s just crazy to me that we live in a town with tons of stores yet I could find nothing and had to go back to my small hometown with almost no stores in order to find what I needed). I’d also been looking for shoes for the boys and couldn’t find anything remotely reasonable. While I was in Springfield getting their outfits we decided to run into a little shoe store there and lo and behold they had the perfect shoes in the perfect sizes at a very good price. What are the odds??
Anyway, all that to say…how adorable are they!? Their little outfits turned out so totally perfect! It was freezing that day (which is why Hudson is not cooperating in the first few pictures; in the ones where they’re in front of the brick wall, no joke, we could see our breath as I was hurriedly snapping them – so cold!)
We spent Easter as we usually do – church with my family, then lunch with Michael’s family.
Parker rarely just falls asleep randomly but he fell asleep in my lap in the middle of Easter lunch so we moved to the recliner and got some good cuddles in while he snoozed. He always naps in his crib now so it was fun to get some snuggles!
It was so very cold that we moved our Easter egg hunt inside to my in law’s basement. The kids didn’t seem to care and had a blast getting all their eggs!
Here are the boys all wrapped up in the towels they got for Easter. So cute! Hudson’s is a robot and Parker’s is a shark.
Though we had known since around Valentine’s Day that we were expecting, we didn’t tell the boys or announce it until this month. You can see more details about that here.
We took a short trip to Kentuckiana (where Kentucky meets Indiana, right outside of Louisville) for an oily event one weekend. We went up Friday night, spent some time with our oily friends that evening, attended the event on Saturday, and then Saturday afternoon went to the science museum in Louisville before coming home.
As much as possible I try to travel during nap time so that the boys (or at least Parker, but sometimes Hudson too) will sleep for part of the trip.
Here we are at the Live Your Passion rally on Saturday. Even though it was April it actually SNOWED (a small amount) while we there! At the last minute as we were walking out the door Friday afternoon I asked Michael “do you think I should grab our coats?” and he said maybe just in case so I did – and I’m so glad! It was so cold Saturday!
Anyway, we had a good time with a bunch of our oily friends getting to hear from some great speakers, getting updates from Young Living, etc.
Before the rally we ate breakfast at Wild Eggs. There were some firemen there who went out to their firetruck and got hats for the boys, which they thoroughly enjoyed.
After the rally we headed to the science museum. It was a great museum! We’d taken Hudson to the one in Nashville before and been disappointed because it was all much too old for him. The one in Louisville had a bunch of fantastic exhibits that even our littles enjoyed.
Sorting fruits and veggies
putting food out on the table
building bridges
We watched a little show they did about electricity. Hudson wasn’t having it at all and refused to watch. Parker sat very attentively though! (a rarity for him!)
The boys putting on a puppet show for me
We went to the zoo twice this month. They’ve added some new features since last year, including this big rope bridge. I am not too keen on bridges, heights, etc. so I let Michael take the boys over it while I took pictures.
Precious brothers!
“helping” Daddy put the new doorbell together
They love dressing up – Parker’s got his hard hat, backpack, tool box, and Hudson’s shoes on. He’s ready for…something!
Morning Ningxia Red for everyone!
We’ve had some new sleep developments and improvements this month! The boys have been sleeping in their own room for quite some time now but until recently I had to sit in there with them until they both fell asleep. This last month I started leaving the room while they were both still awake and that has actually gone surprisingly well! We do all their nighttime routine – teeth and Bible story downstairs, then I take them upstairs and do oils and prayers but then instead of sitting in the room until they go to sleep I go on and leave. Sometimes they’ll call us over the monitor a couple of times but for the most part they just talk to each other a bit and the fall asleep. It’s been wonderful!
Also, although Parker had been sleeping through the night for a while he unfortunately switched back to waking up in the night and getting in our bed, but in the last month he’s gone back to sleeping in his crib all night long! Yay!
So now we put them to bed between 7:30 and 8:00 and they get up usually a little before 7 (they have a clock that turns from red to green at 7am and they know they can get up then, if they wake up before 7 then they just chatter or play in their beds). It’s amazing!! I actually feel like I can get some things done now!
Hudson
Hudson has recently reached a “don’t throw that away, I can MAKE something out of it!” phase. Oh dear…he reminds me so much of my brother who used to be the same way! Ha! I unboxed one of my Young Living orders and before I could even put the box out in the garage to go in our recycling he’d confiscated it all and used it to make a castle. I love his little creative mind!
I mentioned when we announced about Baby #3 that Hudson was pretty uninterested, at least at first, and didn’t have a whole lot to say about it. But it wasn’t long before he started talking about it more. That next Sunday he came out of Sunday School with this little prayer book he’d made and one of the pages had a picture he’d drawn of the baby. SO sweet!
This is a BIG DEAL. Hudson walking on his own in the turtle exhibit at the zoo (not being held off the ground) AND actually touching a turtle on his own!
I think it helps that Parker has no fear at all – he’s totally willing to do things like touch turtles (I know, I know, these are actually tortoises) and I suspect that seeing his younger brother do stuff like that makes Hudson want to do it too so that he’s not left out.
In the second half of the month when the weather finally warmed up (and we had spring for like 3 days then sailed straight into hot, hot summer) we started spending a lot more time outside. These boys LOVE being outside!
Parker
Parker loves shoes! His own shoes, my shoes, Hudson’s shoes, Michael’s shoes…if they are out where he can access them he is going to put them on. Case in point: Michaels’ tennis shoes and dress shoes that got left out.
Just chilling with his new bike helmet. He is so incredibly independent – he insists on putting it on himself even if it’s totally backwards.
He’s rarely still for long but he will occasionally look at a book for a few minutes.
In addition to wanting to put on shoes he loves to take off his shoes (like every time we get in the car even if we’re just in there 30 seconds between errands. Drives me bananas!). On the way home from the zoo he took his shoes off and then (and I didn’t know this until we got home) took his socks off and put them on his hands, then promptly fell asleep with them on there the whole way home. 
Watching the neighbors out the window. If anyone is mowing or working outside the boys want to watch. If one of the neighbors’ dogs is wandering around we have to check it out. 
I love pictures of sleeping kids. They’re just so relaxed and precious!
Sigh. We got knob covers because Parker kept turning the stove on. They worked for a little while until he figured out that he can open those too so now they’re pretty pointless. This kid keeps me on my toes for sure!
He loves wearing “goggles” (Michael’s headphones) when we go outside to play.
Parker, who barely even talks still, started praying this month and it’s the sweetest thing ever. He wants me to pray and then he repeats the last word of each phrase. It’s so funny because he WILL NOT say his name or Hudson’s name. Ever. But when we pray, he’ll say them. And that’s the only time. So strange.
His/our prayers go kind of like this:
Me: Dear God
P: GOD!
Me: Thank you for this day.
P: DAY!
Me: Thank you for Daddy,
P: DADDY!
Me: Mommy,
P: MOMMY!
Me: Hudson,
P: HUDSON!
Me: Parker
P: PARKER!
Me: and then new baby.
P: BABY!
and then it goes on like that. I try to end each phrase with key words for him to say (church, sleep, play, friends, food, family, etc.). And he’ll attempt to say each one. But only when we pray, if I ask him to say anything any other time he refuses. Silly boy.
Baby #3 update
I am, at the time of writing this (mid-May) 17 weeks along. At our last appointment everything was good – baby’s heart rate was in the 150s I think and I was measuring right as I should. My doctor was pleased with my weight gain, or lack thereof. So far I’ve only gained about 2 pounds (though my belly has gotten quite large in the last couple of weeks!).
I’m feeling fantastic! Once I got past the 5ish weeks of all day nausea that I’ve experienced with all 3 pregnancies, I felt 100% back to normal. I’ve been eating healthy, exercising, even currently doing the Couch to 5K program to prepare for a 5K in June. We don’t know yet if this one is a boy or a girl (I suspect boy) but will find out in June.
I haven’t taken a single belly picture yet but here’s a picture of me showing off some of Young Living’s new spring makeup so it’ll have to do for this month.
We really don’t need much of anything for the new baby since we have everything from the boys, but I did want to get some more newborn cloth diapers so when my favorite retailer had their Earth Day sale I snagged several more of those.
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