My Baby is 2!

We have come so far! A year ago at his birthday he wouldn't eat his cake and we later found out he was allergic to it! He has grown up so much and outgrown so many of those darn allergies. The only ones left are peanuts and egg, and possibly bananas and corn. He is doing awesome though and so much fun now that he feels good.

Stats on Everett

Height: 33 in (10-25 %)

Weight: 27 1/2 (25 -50%)

Head Circumference: 52 1/4 (<95%)>

Although he is kind of a shrimp for our family he makes up for it with big personality. And with that head size he fits right in.

Everett loves to entertain us by...

-wearing everyone's shoes around the house, including Sadie's dress up heels.

-riding his big wheel fred flinstone style (as my friend calls it). He uses his feet to propel and is going so fast he looks as though he is peddling. I need to get video of it.

- Yelling "chuga chuga choo choo! All aboard" constantly throughout the day

- His excitement for his favorite shows, especially cars, "oh yeah, cars, oh yeah!"

-Doesn't let his short stature get in his way. He is often climbing onto a basket to reach things or he will move a chair across the room to get what he needs.

-He always has the most excitement when someone comes home, "Hudon!" "Say!" "Mama!" "Daee!"

We love you Everett!

California

I need to get a new post up so people stop feeling sorry for us. We are all healthy again (I thought the day would never come) and we did get to go on our trip to Southern Cal! Yea. I was beginning to think it might not ever happen. We took Sadie a little sick but she was feeling better by the time we got to Sea World (at least 80%). Hudson still had a pink eye, but was feeling fine. So everyone that came in touch with us at Sea World is probably sick, sorry people.

I had to put a picture of the seal show (below) because Hudson laughed during the entire thing. I was just laughing watching Hudson. He loved it.

Sesame Street 3D Movie, loved by all... After Sea World we stayed the night at the hotel, tried to sleep in (ha) and then traveled up to Fountain Valley and stayed with my Uncle Dave, Aunt Ann, and cousin Josh. It is always great to be with them and they are the best hosts. We love you guys! While there we spent a few days at Disneyland and California Adventure.

Highlights

-Met the real Disney characters including Buzz Lightyear, all the princesses, Pooh & Tigger and everyone else in the park, oh and got their autographs. (the princess line was a nightmare, but worth it for Sade.)




-We met up with Ben and his friend Tim for a day and made them ride the tea cups with Hudson so Steve and I could save ourselves from puking.

-Steve took Hudson on Space Mountain and Hudson yelled at him afterward. Steve is still trying to convince me that he liked it.

-I snuck tons of food in daily to Disneyland and on the last day I found out you can bring food in. The worker said "what's under the blanket", I said, "pretzels" and she said "okay go ahead". I was like, "what??" I was prepared to dump my pretzels, juice, water, bread, PB, honey, cookies, suckers, etc...and here she says, go ahead, like she was looking for something else. What are they looking for? Whatever it is, they are not really looking.

-Met up with Aunt Ann, Uncle Bruce, and cousins Mark & Amy & co for a few hours

- Hudson and Everett broke into random dance when getting their picture with Lightning McQueen, oh how I wish I would have had my video camera going. Steve did catch this picture...

-Sadie dressed as a different princess daily (and had no desire to take the dress off at the end of the day)

-We got the kids to nap in the stroller daily, which is miraculous for E. Seriously.San Diego ZooCute little KoalaDon't you want to snuggle with this Panda? We loved it.And of course a few hours at the beach finding sea shells. Such easy and cheap entertainment.

The Maxfield Infirmary

In Chronological Order...

Everett

Symptoms:

Fever

Grumpy

Attached to the hip

Sleepless Nights

Diagnosis:

Double ear infection

Treatment:

Antibiotics

Duration of Sickness:

6 Days (Antibiotics started on Day 3)

Steve

Symptoms:

fever off and on

enduring cough

felt fine for a week

cough gets worse

cough gets violent

Diagnosis:

Pneumonia

Treatment:

Antibiotics

Duration of Sickness:

So far 1 week (but just diagnosed today and starts Antibiotics today)

Me

Symptoms:

Fever

Fatigue

Diagnosis:

Cold

Treatment:

Tylenol

Duration of Sickness:

1 Day (I'm awesome :), or lucky)

Hudson

Symptoms:

Pink eye without the goup

fever

mild cough

Diagnosis:

Cat Scratch Disease (eh? A. Hudson hates cats. B. Cousin has cats, but he doesn't touch them. Doctor is convinced. We'll see what the blood test shows. My gut tells me it is a bad cold.)

Duration of Sickness:

4 Days and counting

Sadie

Symptoms:

Uncontrollable night cough

fever

Diagnosis:

Asthma vs Allergies (???)

Duration of Sickness:

3 Days and counting

Conclusion: Stay away.

Quite an array of diagnosis. I'm not sure about Sadie and Hudson's, but whatever. At least we have some antibiotics now and hopefully that will take care of everything (knock on wood). I would rather be posting about the amazing girls trip I took last week (thanks to Steve watching the kids for 4 days! AND taking care of sick E) but when I have a moment of free time I take a nap or just lay on the couch and watch TV. Great.

I Have a Problem

I'm not cut out for this job. I have no clue where the matches go. So annoying.

Okay. It's time. Time I post about the Energy Chart. I realize this is probably the most hideous looking thing and the last thing you would want hanging anywhere, but you have to try it (if you are a mom of small children). I came up with this chart about six months ago when I was having difficult times with the kids.
Have you ever read Love and Logic Magic for Early Childhood Years? It's good. Good ideas. I would try what they call the "energy drain" on my kids (example: child does something wrong and it drains your energy, so they have to do things to get your energy back up to do something they want). Well, my kids were having a hard time figuring out what my energy was or what it meant, so I took it to another level with this chart and it really works like magic (at least for my kids). I am only sharing this ridiculous thing because it works and it is realistic.
Let me quickly explain the terrible drawings. So the arrow works like a thermometer. When my energy is at the top we do fun things (ie park, read books, go places, mom's happy...). On your left of mom is how to get the energy to the top (listening, working, sharing, helping, being independent...). When my energy is at the bottom it's sad (we don't go places, mom's sad, time-outs...). Things we do to put moms energy down are shown on the bottom left (laziness, fighting, not listening, ...). It's simple, it's ugly, but it works.

What He'll Do For A Candybar

About 7 or 8 months ago Hudson was sitting in Primary (I am a Primary teacher so I was there) sharing time and one of the kids was called to the front to pick out a GIANT candybar, no kingsize here, for memorizing his Articles of Faith (these are 13 statements about our beliefs). After primary Hudson asked how he can get one of those candybars (it's not like he is deprived of sweets or anything). I told him he would have to memorize the A of F's. Thinking he would forget or give up after realizing how many there were and how long it would take I didn't think much of it. Well after he memorized number 4 I realized he was really taking this seriously. Here I have a hard time getting him to sit and color for 5 minutes and he wants to memorize his Articles of Faith??? So this last Sunday he passed off number 13!
We would practice them before going to bed and of course Sadie wanted to do it too, so I got a little recording of Sadie doing number 10. Hudson wouldn't perform for the camera.

A Wonderful Christmastime

Finally back to the world of blogging. It was a wonderful Christmastime, filled with many memories. I will highlight some of the events. . .

Breakfast with Santa

At church Santa came to visit and the elves (young women in the ward) made yummy pancakes. The kids loved it and couldn't believe Santa made this special trip to have breakfast with them. Hudson was thrilled and told him he wanted an airplane for Christmas.

Sadie could have stayed on his lap all day and told him she wanted bubbles for Christmas (same thing as last year).Everett wouldn't let go of meSadie and her bud Riley

Hudson's Birthday

I realize I already covered this, but this makes me laugh. His teacher made this hat for him to wear at school and she said he wore it the whole time. Well he also wore it all night, insisting he wear the hood (which doesn't quite fit, most hats/hoods don't) as well. The hat says, "Happy Birthday Hudson". Too cute. I love this kid. Oh, and he wanted his book he got from the library that day in the photo as well.

Sadie's Christmas Recital
This was priceless. Just to see her in the outfit was enough for me. She loves her dance class, this is her and her teacher Ms. Whitney. I attached a video so you could capture the cuteness as well.

Just ignore my talking in the video. Sorry.

Christmas in Colorado

I have more video than pics from Colorado, so there are only a few. We spent Christmas Eve at Steve's parents with Matt and Sara's family as well and had the traditional talent show, clam chowder dinner, and reading of Luke 2 by Grandpa.

I loved Christmas morning. Now that Hudson and Sadie are a bit older I am now learning how fun it is to watch your kids and the excitement on Christmas morning.

Everett loved his trains and they entertained him for the rest of the week.

Sadie with her new dollhouse...

Hudson with his new Hummer remote control car.

So to sum it all up we had a great time. We also went snowboarding/skiing with Madeline and Wilder. We had a great time with my family over New Years and the kids had nonstop Wii and playing with cousins. And last but not least Steve and I turned 30! We had a party over at my moms and had a great time catching up with friends. Sorry for the lack of detail. I am running out of steam.
This is a cake my mom made for one of my parties. Thanks Mom!

Oh, and a trip to the museum with Grandpa cannot be forgotton...

And on the final trip home Steve was looking at Sadie in the rear view mirror and said, "look at Sadie." That's a pancake on her head. The things you do after 13 hours in the car, well she actually would do that anyway.

Over and out.