Vacay

So life has been busy and I'm just now blogging about our vacation.  Every time I sit down, there are a million interruptions!  Beautiful, loud, energetic interruptions in the form of my children, that is.  :)
I will say this:  Our vacation was AWESOME.  We first drove to Salina, KS to visit Darrin's family for a few days and then somehow talked them into keeping Brody while we went to Breckenridge.  I had never been away from Brody for that long and I missed him terribly, but I knew he was in such good hands.  He had an army taking care of him: Darrin's mom, sister, nephew and twin nieces spoiled him rotten...although apparently one of the days Dane (Darrin's nephew) refused to change a poopy diaper and had his sister come home to change it!  (This, I'm sure, will change whenever he has children of his own!)  We were so thankful for the time with just Hudson and I think Hudson was equally grateful to have us all to himself for a few days.  THANK YOU to Nana, Jen, Abby, Tayler and Dane!

Our days spent in Breckenridge were amazing.  We stayed with Darrin's longtime friend, Bryan and his wife, Janna.  It sounds cliche, but it was so nice to breathe the clean mountain air.  People move at a different pace and are simply, in general, healthier.  Both physically and emotionally, I think.  Within 10 minutes of our drive home from Breckenridge, Darrin turned to me and said, "Okay, we have to make a plan to move here."
Would I love to live somewhere like Breckenridge?  Yes.
Would I prefer it to Dallas/Fort Worth?  Yes (except I don't know if I could leave my best buddies!)
Is there a huge demand for talented band directors there? No.
Soooooo....we haven't gotten very far on our plan yet.

We ate a lot of really good food, had some awesome times with friends and Hudson LOVED playing with Collin and Connor.  He didn't want to leave the cabin because of all the new (to him) toys!  When we did convince him to get out, we rode the gondola (which he loved, as did we) and then Darrin and Hudson had a good time in the bounce house, etc at the top of the mountain.  Nothing like having a mountain as your playground....

I LOVE summer.  LOVE.  LOVE. LOVE.

Darrin and I both work so hard during the school year, it is so nice to recharge and spend time with family and friends.  We are so thankful for the connections we've made in our life and are so appreciative of the places they have taken us.

And so....I shall leave you with this:

You're welcome.

Gigglin'

"How do you spell spoon?"

Yes. We're still here.

Sorry the blogging is continually slow!  Life is continually too fast!
:-)

Hudson had a great birthday and was so excited to say he's THREE!
We had a pretty low key birthday party at our place with cake and presents.

Here is another one of his "presents"

We also took him to Main Street Days Festival in Grapevine on Sunday.  It was so fun to have time with just Hudson, mommy and daddy. I think he appreciated the attention.  He LOVED the ferris wheel with daddy and the little helicopter ride with mommy.

Brody is doing well.  We took him to an Ear, Nose, Throat specialist the other week because our pediatrician referred us due to his noisy breathing.  She initially thought the noisy breathing was JUST due to his acid reflux, but wanted to be on the safe side and get everything checked out now that we had him comfortable and happy on reflux medications.  The ENT did a scope (a little camera the size of a spaghetti noodle) down his nose.  It was REALLY interesting to see and Brody was a little uncomfortable and not real happy about it, but not in pain or anything.  He fell asleep immediately after the scope.

Basically, Brody has "Laryngomalacia" which is a narrowing of the airway.  He will outgrow it, most likely by the time he is 2 years old.  The ENT said his is pretty moderate to severe.  He couldn't see his vocal chords because the airway was so narrow.  It is caused by the esophagus and trachea not being fully developed (muscles are not quite strong enough) and so the esophagus sort of flops around.  (Can you tell I'm sooooo not a doctor?).  He will be fine and it is a fairly common condition among infants.  It is directly related to his acid reflux.  The only thing we need to be very cautious of is if Brody get a respiratory infection, there is not a lot of room in there for swelling....basically mommy is going to probably FREAK OUT anytime this one gets a cold.  For now, anyway.

Almost done

Darrin and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! 4 more weeks of school! Hudson is doing well but I think he's figured out Brody's not going anywhere...we've needed mama a LOT lately and he's been asking me to carry him like a baby, etc....He is such a sweet boy. I can't wait until Brody can interact with him so that hopefully, Hudson thinks he's a little more fun.

Bathtime

Brody LOVES his bathtime! He gets so serious and just kicks and kicks! It's my favorite time of night.

I keep trying to get pictures of Hudson but he's not the most cooperative right now. He could care less about having his picture taken.
Hudson story, though: We've experienced our first few nightmares with Hud lately. The first time he came down to our bedroom around 2 am...I asked him what's wrong? Do your ears hurt? "No." Does your throat hurt? "No." Well, what's wrong? He said, "Cow." Apparently a cow was chasing him on the playground.
Last night he had another one: a drum, trumpet and horn were playing loudly in his room and woke him up....poor guy.

Yay for sleep!

Brody is doing great! He is now 3 months old! Time flies. Ever since he started daycare, he is sleeping through the night, generally from 10pm-6am. He still has fussy time every night for a couple of hours, but it's so much easier to handle when you are getting some sleep. :-)
Hudson is doing great, too! His 3rd birthday is coming up soon!