a weekend of "firsts"...

labor day weekend was a big one for hudson. mimi and papa have their camper set up in the driveway so they planned a campout for hudson...and andrew. they went over on sunday night and roasted marshmallows and hung out. we were talking all week about sleeping in the camper so hudson was ready with his "cars" pajamas and his "cars" pillow. greyson and i went over in the morning for breakfast and hudson was so excited to show me where he slept! we ate breakfast and then all headed up to headlands beach in mentor. it was hudson's first time at a beach and right away he was very interested in the sand. it was so cute to see him knealing down and examining it! he wanted in the water right away...it was hard to get him out after that. daddy, uncle nick and papa had him pretty far out in the water and he loved it! mimi, greyson and i watched from the shade!! it was a really fun day. we'll talk about it now with hudson and he keeps saying he wants more. :)

CLICK HERE to see pictures from the weekend.

summer's over...

well, the end of summer is here and it's back to work for andrew. it was so nice to have him home these last couple months...hudson especially loved having daddy here all the time. he would wake up every morning saying, "no daddy byes!" and they would go down and make their usual for breakfast...homemade biscuits. i have to say that hudson has been a little disappointed when i walk in his room in the morning and tell him daddy isn't home but he gets over it as soon as i tell him there are biscuits downstairs!

we did go on a little overnight trip a couple weeks ago to a cool park that andrew and i found when we were away. it's called preston's hope park and it's set up like a mini town. hudson loved going into all the different buildings and playing on anything else he could find. we spent over 3 hours just playing...greyson was content in the stroller the entire time just watching hudson play. we then went back to our hotel and went swimming. it was the first time hudson had been in a big pool and he loved it. greyson actually liked it too...i just pulled him around in a little ring and he was happy! our plan was to go to a beach near cleveland the next day but the weather didn't cooperate. it was still a fun trip and we learned a thing or two about staying at a hotel with little ones! :)

both boys seemed to grow so much over the summer. greyson is 5 months old now. he is such a happy baby...always smiling. he especially loves watching hudson play and giggles when hudson does anything silly. hudson does a really good job at entertaining him and greyson loves every second of it. hudson is really expanding his vocabulary, repeating almost everything we say now. we're constantly amazed at how great God is for entrusting us with these two awesome boys and we can't imagine life without them.

CLICK HERE to see pictures from the last few weeks.

movie...

just figured out how to do this, so we'll give it a whirl!

cleveland and picnic...

well, august is here and we can't believe that this summer is slipping away so quickly. we've been up to a lot lately so here are the updates.

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greyson is officially 4 months old and growing like a champ! he weighs 15 lbs. and 14 ounces (exactly 1 lb. more than hudson did at the same age) and is 25 inches long. his new favorite things are looking in mirrors and grabbing his toes. as always, he's been wonderful and had his first overnight stay at grammie and papa's - in which he did perfectly! we got away for a couple days and went up to the cleveland area. although we absolutely adore our kids, it was so nice to get away, be together and relax. we did everything that we could in the shortest amount of time..it's easy to do that when you're not hauling around 2 children! we went up to cleveland, walked the entire city (tower city, rock hall, etc.), and ate at the hard rock cafe. then we drove down and stayed in our hotel in independence, had a nice dinner, worked out in the fitness center and relaxed. the next morning, we drove over to headlands state park (in mentor, ohio) and walked up and down the beach together, hopped back in the car and drove to legacy village. it was great!

today, we packed up a picnic lunch and went down to monument park. while greyson relaxed in the stroller, hudson loved walking all around, over bridges, and watching ducks and the waterfalls. we went up to the monument and he loved it. he loved it so much, he walked all the way down the steps on his own - and that's a lot of steps. needless to say, he's sleeping good tonight! :) well, that's it from the homefront for now. check back soon for more updates! CLICK HERE to see some new pics!

camp out!

over the weekend, we had a campout with hudson! he absolutely loved it! first, we set up the tent together in our living room and got our pillows and blankets situated. then we played with our flashights and read books, watched his favorite movie (Cars!) and ate s'mores. hudson and daddy slept on the floor together all night long. he had a blast and is still talking about it! the older he gets, the more fun he is! he's becoming such a sweet little boy with such a lovable personality! it's absolutely amazing and we are captivated by him, and God's glory everyday! CLICK HERE to see some of pictures of our camp out and more.

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greyson still continues to be wonderful! he's getting so big and strong, it's hard to believe he'll be 4 months old this week. wow, time sure does fly! he is so smiley, expressive, vocal and loves to stand up all the time. he's especially loving the exersaucer right now! he is such an incredible blessing to our family. God is good! we are cherishing every moment because we know they only stay small for such a short amount of time...and in case you're wondering...YES, greyson will be our last baby (unless God has other plans we don't know about). hope you all are doing well. we'll catch up with you soon!

blueberry pickin'

Today, we created a new tradition for our family. We took Hudson to Wades Fruit Farm in Paris, OH to pick-our-own BLUEBERRIES. For awhile now, we’ve wanted to take him out and do something fun with him – something special just for him. Hudson absolutely loves blueberries and when we heard they were “in season” we knew it would be the perfect trip. “Mimi” Snavely watched Greyson for a few hours and we ventured up to the farm. He loved it (to say the least)! He was in heaven! – Not only were there fields and fields of blueberries, there were TRACTORS! He spotted those before we even got to the blueberry hedges. The whole time, he ran around with a bucket and pulled blueberries right off the bushes…and of course, he’d pop a few directly into his mouth at every bush, too (the nice farmer gave him permission)! He also thought it was hilarious to steal them out of our buckets when we were bent down picking! J The weather was gorgeous and we had a picnic in the back of our car at the end of it all! What fun we had!!! Overall, we picked almost 8 pounds of blueberries! This will certainly be something that we’ll do every year from now on with our boys! Next year, Greyson will be able to get in on the action, too!
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CLICK HERE to see photos from our blueberry picking adventure!

fourth of july fun and fireworks...

Hello all! Sorry it’s been so long since the last update! We’ve been having so much fun together in the summertime. What a blessing it has been to have the whole summer together…and we still have over a month to go!
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Greyson is now over 3 months old (hard to believe!) so we went to have some professional pictures taken. They turned out wonderful and we got some good ones of Hudson, too. Our plan was to have a few pics taken of the boys together and then the rest mostly of Greyson, but when we got there, wouldn’t you know, Hudson jumped right up onto the podium and started posing away! Needless to say, Hudson certainly doesn’t shy away from the camera. So…we got some great pictures of both our boys.

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You’ll definitely want to CLICK HERE to see lots of new photos including a lot of the professional ones we had taken. On the Fourth of July we had SO much fun together. We kept Hudson up to see fireworks. We had a blast! The best part was that we didn’t have to go anywhere – you can see the North Canton fireworks perfectly from our deck! We went to the park, ate ice cream, played, and watched the movie Cars. When the fireworks began we walked out to the back deck to enjoy the show! It was so much fun to see his reaction to them since he’s never seen them before. He was all smiles as you can tell from the pictures! Hope you all had a marvelous holiday, too! Check back soon for more updates. Blessings to you all!

fun, father's day, and dedication...

what beautiful weather we've had lately! we've been keeping quite busy since andrew is on summer break from work. we practically live outside. hudson loves to play outside, go swimming, go on walks, play at the park, and basically anything else that involves being outdoors. greyson is such a little trooper and relaxes in his bouncer or in the shade somewhere while hudson plays.

hudson and greyson are both doing so good. it is such a blessing to just sit back and watch them interact with eachother. it's so sweet! husdson talks to him, watches him and still wants to help in any way that he can. he also rubs greyson's head and loves to give him kisses. greyson watches hudson's every move and is full of smiles everytime he's spoken to (by anyone). he's such a lovable, happy baby and we've been extremely blessed to have had such a good baby boy! he's 12 1/2 pounds, sleeps perfectly and has been in his "big boy" bed in his own room for some time now. thank you, Lord! :)

we also attended rebekah's cousins wedding. it was a blast and hudson was certainly a hit on the dance floor (to say the least). he danced all night and didn't want to go home when it was over. he's got such a personality when he knows everybody's watching.

in addition to it being father's day, today was also the day that we dedicated greyson at church. it was so nice to have our friends and family there to share our special day with us and witness us making the commitment to raise our boys up in a christian home where Christ is always the center. we celebrated together with family and had a cookout at grammie and papa's.

CLICK HERE to see lots of pictures of our family enjoying our time together.

our butterfly experience...

hudson had a great time watching a caterpillar turn into a butterfly. he checked on it everyday and finally, a few days ago, the caterpiller emerged from the chrysalis a beautiful "painted lady" butterfly. here are some pictures of our butterfly experience!

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we made a post a few days ago...don't forget to scroll down to see some new pictures.

parade and picnics...

the past week was sure an eventful one! now that the weather is finally warmer, it's been so nice to get outside and do some new things. last weekend, we celebrated nick's graduation from college and leanne's 21st birthday so you'll notice some of those pics in the slideshow. we also made a visit to a smith family friend's farm where hudson got to see some neat farm animals. although i think his favorite part was sitting on the big tractor and playing in the canoe with his cousins. greyson was sound asleep during all the excitement. on memorial day, we walked down to the north canton parade in the morning which was fun. he especially loved seeing all the firetrucks! again, greyson was fast asleep during the parade!

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CLICK HERE to see some new pics from the week!