October

I took the kids out for donuts on Ella's birthday, and then we went and brought a donut to Taylor at work. The kids were very excited about their donuts

Looking at this first picture to the next and apparently Ella had a bow change during the day haha.

We knew we wanted to do something for Ella for her birthday, but couldn't figure out exactly what to do. We ended up at iJump, and it was perfect!

She got to run and jump until her little heart was content.

It wore her out and made her happy, which is the best combination.

Hudson's favorite activity is a tie between jumping into the foam pits and running up the trampolines so he can slide down them.

On our way home we stopped and got pizza for the birthday girl which is still one of her favorite things to eat.

And another picture from a trip to the zoo because I don't share enough of them on here haha.

Hudson loved to push Ella around the zoo. At least for about 2 minutes until he got distracted and moved on to something else. 

It's a good thing we're never in a hurry when we go to the zoo.

I think this zoo trip was after Ella's one year check up and both kids got shots. 

Hudson was a HUGE baby about his flu shot (limping around and whining for forever after he got it), so this was my attempt to help him walk off the shot.

A random from the month :)

The Wild Adventure Corn Maze in Blackfoot is one of our favorite fall traditions!

It was so much fun this year with Hudson being old enough to walk and tell us where to go.

We let Hudson pick which way we went every time a decision needed to be made, and he loved being in charge. We were lost for pretty much the perfect amount of time.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous when we were in the maze, but naturally it was a super windy day. Which is nothing new for Idaho.

Ella did really well in the stroller which was an added bonus. We weren't sure how well she was going to do just sitting there for a while looking at corn stalks haha.

Hudson was big enough this year to go on the zip line.

He loved it and kept wanting to go again and again.

After the corn maze we came home, did some yard work, and then attended a birthday party for one of Hudson's little friends.

The whole day must have worn Hudson out because we came home from the party, got him in his jammies, and then not even 5 minutes into watching sports with dad he was passed out.

Elephant helped make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies with us.

Trying to take a picture of a toddler like....

I have no idea why this picture was even taken, but one day I'll miss this chaotic time in our lives when we miss more of the sacrament talks than we hear them, so I might as well post it.

We had a freak snowstorm one day that dumped like 4 or 5 inches overnight which is why there is snow in the background of this picture.

While Taylor was cleaning one or both of the cars out the next day the kids decided to take the tractor out on one of it's last drives for the year.

Thankfully, the snow melted in a couple of days because we were so not ready for it!

We don't normally attend any of the events that Chik-fil-A puts on because it's always suuuuper crazy and busy, but for whatever reason we made an exception when they did a pumpkin painting night.

I'm not sure if Hudson loved painting the pumpkin or eating french fries more.

I took the kids on a little lunch date to Sam's Club. 

I'm sure we also needed to pick something up, but we love a good excuse to treat ourselves to the food court haha.

Mr. Bones Jones joined our family this past October. He spent most of the month sitting at the dining room table, but towards the end of the month we started 

Trying to get a picture of Ella's outfit the Sunday before Halloween hahaha.

While scrolling through facebook one afternoon Taylor came across someone selling a practically brand new trampoline for a super good price. 

Taylor went to the people's house, took it apart, and then came home and set it back up.

It was a bit cold on the day we bought it, so we bundled the kids up so they could play while we put it back together. Ella might have been a little over dressed for the temperatures, but she sure was cute.

The kids had a blast playing on the trampoline for the few warm days that were left of fall.

This spring it was like a brand new toy again because they forgot we ever bought it which was kind of nice haha.

Boo at the Zoo!

I'm pretty sure this was the first sucker Ella ever had.

She was turning into a mega grump, so the sucker couldn't have come at a better time.

Hudson obviously picked out the Halloween costumes this year.

Hudson went as Lightning McQueen, and Ella went as his pit crew.

I added the black tutu to her costume to make it at least a little bit girly.

I took the kids trick or treating to a couple of houses, and we went to our ward's trunk or treat for a little while. He was pretty thrilled to be getting all of this candy. Instead of saying trick or treat he said "trick and treat" every time.

Our neighbor, Will, came over and scared the heck out of Rebekah and Emily while I was trick or treating with Hudson. They called the cops and everything, so that was fun hahahaha.

Unfortunately, Taylor missed out on Halloween this year because he was away at a 4 day long training for work in Logan, Utah.

He was still able to make it to Boo at the Zoo and a few other Halloween events so it wasn't too big of a deal to have him gone on the actual holiday.

Of course, this training was just days before we left for our big trip to Disneyland. So that was fun to prepare for the trip without any extra help..

Ella turns 1! Party and Pictures

We celebrated Ella's first birthday on the last weekend of September with a "Our Little Pumpkin" theme.

I like to think that we kept things fairly simple, but then I look at these pictures and don't necessarily feel that way haha. They only turn one once though!

Her party went well except for the baked potatoes taking FOREVER to cook and us not being able to eat until way later than I thought we would.

We used the gold "1" balloon for her first birthday pictures a couple of days before the party, and it fit perfectly with the colors of her party.

Aunt Bekah made her cake.

It only took two batches of frosting to get the orange color right..

She was a big fan of the cake, but that really wasn't a surprise.

She LOVED getting all of the pink and girly toys that were just for her.

She really didn't have any girly toys until she was given them for her birthday.

While we had family pictures done we also had some pictures of Ella taken. 

By the time we finished our family pictures it was getting close to Ella's bedtime.

She started to get grumpy, but Jenny worked her magic and still managed to capture perfect pictures of Ella.

I was afraid that she didn't get any good ones, but I'm obsessed with allllll of them.

While getting Ella all wiped off from the cake and changed, Hudson decided that it was his turn to get to dig into the cake.

It was the best.

September

We kicked September off with the Eastern Idaho State Fair.

We don't go every year, but Taylor decided it was a year for us to go.

While looking at some of the small animals, someone was kind enough to give us their partially used cup of feed. Hudson had so much fun trying to feed the goats.

He thought it was so funny to have the goats lick his hands as they were getting the food.

Ella preferred to admire them from afar.

They had the cutest little play area for little kids filled with different farm themed toys.

Hudson was a big fan of the corn and tractors.

Ella more just stood there and looked around haha.

We decided to let Hudson go on some rides so we could get an idea of what he would be like at Disneyland.

I think Ella only got to ride one or two rides because she didn't meet the height requirement for most.

She was getting pretty bored and tired of being in the stroller by the time Hudson had used up all of the tickets we had bought.

After the rides we walked around a bit more, and wandered over to the animals.

We were amazed when we looked in the stroller to find Ella asleep.

She never ever slept anywhere other than her crib.

It was a miracle even for her to fall asleep in the car.

After walking around a little more so she would get a decent nap in, we called it quits and headed home to get out of the hot sun.

Both of the kids decided to help Taylor while he was checking the van for something to do with the hitch we would be putting on it before our trip to Disneyland. 

And by we I of course mean Taylor would be putting on..

Apparently, Ella's way of helping was a quick snuggle.

We needed to run to the store one night, and when I went to unload Ella from her car seat she had spit up a little bit.

Not a ton, but it stunk so bad like throw up which was super random considering she was well passed her spit up days, and normal spit up doesn't stink like throw up.

We cleaned her up the best we could, left her shirt on top of the van while we went in the store (we didn't want it to stink up the van while we were inside), and went in to buy our shirtless baby a new shirt so we could get our errands done.

I'm convinced it was all a part of a gross plan of hers to get us to buy her a new shirt.

All summer long we had been meaning to take the kids to Rigby lake.

Just about all of summer had passed us by when we finally made it happen.

Hudson LOVED the sand and could have spent hours and hours playing in it.

Ella was unsure of the sand at first, but she did like hanging out in the sport umbrella with me on a blanket.

She eventually ventured out and played a bit too.

Hudson could have spent hours and hours there playing in the sand.

After a while though Taylor and I were hungry so we started to clean up and head home. 

Hudson was so sad to have to leave.

It made me contemplate getting a sandbox in the backyard.

I only contemplated it for 5 seconds because the answer is still no.

Rigby lake is definitely on our list of must do more often for next summer.

I have no idea why the picture of Ella was taken, but we went out for breakfast at Abracadabras one morning.

If you live anywhere near Idaho Falls you and haven't eaten there yet, you need to!

Afterwards, we went to the zoo.

Taylor didn't get to go with us too often, but the kids definitely loved it when he did.

If only this tractor kept a log of the amount of hours it's been ran..

Every day alllll summer long you could find Hudson cruising around the yard on it.

Taylor put Ella on it one day with Hudson, and she loved it just as much as Hudson did.

I took the kids to ijump one day, and shortly after we got their I checked find friends and noticed that Aunt Bekah was on her way to Idaho Falls and was only a couple of minutes away.

We talked her into jumping with us, and Hudson was obviously thrilled :) 

We squeezed in some refinishing projects before the weather started to get cold.

The pallet flag ends up needing to be redone every year because the sprinklers hit it.

We finished our kitchen table last year, but we were never in love with how the finish of the top turned out because of the gel stain.

We figured we might as well make it right, so we sanded/stripped the top of the table and the chairs off and did it again with normal wood stain.

Taylor's parents also gave us a bench that they were done using, so we refinished that to match out table. You can kind of see the before of the bench in the picture with Taylor above.

It turned out SO much better than before!

We thought we loved it before, but now we really loved it.

Summer bike rides have my heart.

They were our favorite thing to do on Sunday evenings during the summer.

We celebrated Ella's first birthday the last weekend in September.

It deserves a whole post of its own, but I wanted to include a couple so we remember when the party was.

Baby #3: The First Trimester and Then Some

If I could come up with one word to describe this first trimester it would be TERRIBLE. At least weeks 5-11 that's the word I would use. ALLLLL day long nausea that left me lying on the couch all day every day. I was put on zofran after my appointment at nearly 9 weeks, but it didn't seem to do much for the nausea. However, it did stop the throwing up (which was basically dry heaving because I could never eat anything), and I was very grateful for that to end.

By some HUGE miracle morning sickness seemed to get better a day or two before I was 11 weeks. I felt like I could actually get off the couch and eat a little bit. I was amazed at how much better my body felt eating more or less 3 full meals a day after eating maybe 500 calories a day if I was lucky for weeks and weeks.

My energy slowly started to come back closer to 12 weeks, but I still nap most days for as long as I can get away with (which is never all that long). Bless Hudson's heart for being so nice to hang out and watch a show while I nap during Ella's nap. Every time after I wake up Hudson looks at me and excitedly says, "Are you awake mom??" The little man was such a trooper during the long weeks of morning sickness. He was so used to watching hardly any TV and getting out of the house most days. We had to do a TV detox again with him once I felt better which is sooo not my favorite thing to have to do. If you've been around Hudson lately you know he is OBSESSED with the showing Super Wings (it's on netflix). That all started because of this pregnancy.. oops.

At 16 weeks:
-I'm super close to being to the point of not being able to sleep on my stomach,
 and it's breaking my heart.
-My hips have started to hurt a little when I lay certain ways. Isn't it way too early for that to be happening?!
-I've started to wear maternity jeans occasionally. Not that I need them yet, but they're so much comfier than regular jeans.
-I don't look pregnant. I just look fatter than I did before.
-Food cravings: Sweets, Chik-Fil-As spicy buffalo sauce, Herr's potato chips


A few questions we've been asked so far that I'm sure others are also wondering about:

Are you going to find out the gender?
Probably. We would be completely fine with not knowing except that coming up with two names would be too hard considering we can barely come up with one name. I do like the idea of not finding out the gender though, so we'll see..

Do you want a boy or a girl?
If we had to say a preference we would probably prefer a boy, but mostly we just don't want another baby that behaves like baby Ella did. I could really go either way though because I would love to see Ella playing with a little sister that is so close in age. At the same time, I would love to see another boy in Hudson's baby clothes, and it feels like it has been forever since we had a newborn boy.

Was it an accident/Are you crazy?
Yes to being crazy. No to it being an accident. We love the age gap between Hudson and Ella, and this baby and Ella will only be one month farther apart in age than Hudson and Ella. We want a big family, and I don't want to be 35 and still having kids. At this point my sanity is already gone, so what is one more anyway? If we have another child, I don't know that we'll continue with this age gap because it definitely isn't the easiest.

Will you be selling your house to get a bigger one?
Short answer: No.
Long answer: We live in a 3 bed 1 bath house, so it's going to get a little more cramped, but we won't be going anywhere for a few more years. We love our low mortgage payments, and we won't buy a new house at least until both of our vehicles are paid off. Ella is already in a twin size bed that will convert into a bunk bed with the twin bed Hudson sleeps on. At some point just before or shortly after this baby comes we'll be moving Ella into Hudson's room. I'm sure it will be rough getting them both to sleep at night at first and probably forever, but it will be just fine. The people we bought this house from actually had 4 kids, so I'm not going to complain.

Are you sure it's not twins? (You'd be surprised at how many times we've gotten this one)
Pretty dang sure considering we had an ultrasound at almost 9 weeks, and there was only one baby to be seen. And there was only one heartbeat found during my appointment at 12 weeks. Taylor being a twin has nothing to do with our chances of having twins, and twins don't run in my family. I know that twins can be completely random so I'm crossing my fingers that I'm not jinxing us for any future pregnancies by what I just said.

Will this be your last child?
We don't know. I'm not a huge fan of being pregnant, so I like the idea of this being my last pregnancy. We don't intend to have a dozen kids, but we also don't have an exact number that we are 100% set on having. I guess we'll just have to see if we can even handle three kids before we even think about having more..


This pregnancy feels so different from the other two because I don't feel stressed out about getting everything we need for a baby or getting an entire wardrobe for a girl. I'm not constantly thinking of all the things we need to get and do to prepare for the baby like I was with Hudson and Ella. We chose to buy a new swing and we need a new baby monitor and should probably get a new set of bottles, but otherwise I think we have everything we need. Actually now that I think of it, we should probably get some new velcro swaddlers too.. I feel like I can just relax and get excited to have another little one joining out family rather than worry about preparing and buying things for a baby.

Hudson Says Huh? Volume 2

After eating dinner at Chik fil A Hudson lifted up his shirt, pointed to his belly, and said, "french fries in there."

I asked Hudson to do something, and he replied, "Ok. Fine. Fine. Fine. Fine. Fine."

Refers to bagels as "doughnuts."

Calls the piston cup (from cars) "piss in a cup." We're working to correct that pronunciation really hard.

After telling him our plan for the morning (get doughnuts and visit Taylor at work/see daddy's tractors), Hudson was repeating the plan back to me. "See daddy's tractors and get doughnuts and pizza!" Sorry buddy, we're not getting pizza at 9 in the morning.

After repeatedly being told to leave Ella alone Hudson said, "But I caaaan't!"

I backed out of the car port to pull back in because I had parked a little too close to the wall. As I was backing out Hudson said, "try again, mom."

After going to the bathroom I was helping him wipe when Ella walked into the doorway. Hudson quickly exclaimed, "Go away, Ella! I yucky!"

While fixing Hudson's motorcycle Taylor said to himself, "I need a screwdriver."
Hudson replied, "Ok! Mommy, dad needs a screwdriver!"

While saying the prayer over dinner one night Ella gagged on the food she had already started eating.
Hudson immediately stopped his prayer, turned to her, said "Excuse you!?", and then continued on with his prayer like nothing happened.

Calls soap and hand sanitizer "rub rub" because when he uses them he's always told to rub rub rub rub rub.

While helping unload groceries from the van he exclaimed, "Pumpkin pie!? My dinner!"

I asked Hudson to clean up his toys. He replied, "Whaaaat?! Are you kidding me mom?"

A casual conversation one day went like this:
"Do you want a puppy, Hudson?"
"No. I want a dinosaur."

One morning he was hanging out in his batman footie jammies riding one of the little ride on toys we have. Ella came up and gave him a push just like he does to her, and Hudson looked at her and said with the most serious tone "Don't push Batman."

Helping Hudson say the prayer over dinner one night..
Me: "Say in the name of Jesus Christ"
Hudson: "In the name of Mater"
Taylor and I lost it at that one.