Hannah Kate's Birthday Party

Hannah had a Mickey Mouse themed birthday this year. It was a lot of work for just a two hour party, but I loved how everything looked. Here are some pics from her big day.

 

Hudson 3 Months Old

Well we made it through what I like to call the 4th trimester. It was crazy at times and we still aren't sleeping through the night, but overall it's been way easier than our colicky start to life. Hudson is a very smiley baby. He always wants to be held which can be difficult for us to manage at times. His favorite thing in the world is for you to stare at him and talk to him. He'll smile at you and talk right back. It's so sweet. Hannah is really loving her baby brother. She's so sweet to him. I can't wait for him to get a little bigger so they can start "playing" together. Here are his stats for month #3.

3 Month Update:

Weight: ? guessing around 13+lbs

Height: ? We go to the doctor on April 26 for 4 month well check. 

Clothes: You are wearing mostly 3 month clothes and moving out of 0-3 month and into 3-6 months. 6 month tops will start to fit you soon, but 6 month pants are still too big. You now wear a size 2 diaper.  

 

Sleep: You still aren't sleeping through the night. It's really challenging and frustrating at times, but we learn to cope with it. I'm not sure when you will start sleeping more, but we'll keep doing what we are doing until then. We do have an established nighttime routine of bath, bottle bed. Daddy usually takes first shift while mommy sleeps. Then I get up and feed you in the middle of the night.  

Eating: You eat 5 oz every 3 hours during the day. At night sometimes you need a little more. You are a growing boy and you love your bottles.

 
Likes: You still love being held, rocked, soothed, your bath, eating, and your mommy. You love your little play mat and you kick and swat at the elephant. You love your sister and think she's funny. You also love your swing. 
 
Dislikes: Loud sudden noises, being hot, not being held all the time, and when your paci falls out at night and tummy time.   
  
Milestones: As far as looks go you've changed a lot. You have the cutest round face. You are getting better head control, but still not fully lifting your head on your tummy. I think this will happen soon though. You also haven't rolled over yet, but I think that could happen anytime as well. You went to church for the first time Sunday and did so well. You make the sweetest sounds and respond back to me when I talk to you. You found your hands and like to suck on them. You are now able to grab a rattle and hold on. I feel like your about to start laughing. I think I heard a slight chuckle the other day. 

Hudson we love you so much. Life is moving fast. You are a blessing to our family. Can't wait to see what you are up to in the next month. I feel like it's going to be a big one for you.  

Hannah 3 Months & Hudson 3 Months

Hannah Kate is Three!!!

I can't believe my girl is three years old. It has been the most rewarding, challenging, joyful and at times overwhelming three years of my life.

Hannah is such a fireball. She is so fun and says the funniest things all the time. Her little brain is a sponge right now and she's learning new things and changing daily.

We celebrated her birthday on Sunday (her actual birthday) with a Mickey Mouse party. It was a lot of work, but it turned out so cute. I'll post pictures soon. For now here are her stats.

Here is what HK's up to at 3 years old:

• Weight & Height? 30lbs & 37.5" tall. 50 percentile for height and weight.
• You have curly blonde hair and beautiful hazel eyes. I still haven't cut her hair. It's pretty wild at times. Her eye color has also changed in the last few months to a gorgeous hazel color.
• You wear 3T clothes mostly.
  
•  You wear a size 5 diaper. I'm still frustrated that you are not potty trained yet. It's been one of the most stressful things about parenting. HK just doesn't get it yet. Hopefully it will happen soon though and we can throw away the diapers for good :)
  
• You are really outgoing around most people, but can be very shy around some. 
• You wear a size 7-8 shoe. You have a very narrow and flat feet.
  
• You go to bed around 8pm and sleep til about 6:30-7:30am. You still love your big girl bed, but getting you to go to bed some nights is nearly impossible. You make up every excuse to get out of bed. You also sleep with about 20 stuffed animals every night. Ha!
  
  
• You eat pretty well and completely feed yourself with a fork. Some nights you can be pretty picky, but that's okay.
• You don't drink milk at all. You prefer water over anything.
  
• You love your daddy so much. You do everything together. He's your best friend
• You love your momma too. You need me to hold you and console you when you are sad or sick. 
• You have gorgeous teeth, but hate having them brushed. 
• You talk all the time and say the funniest things. Your are very dramatic expressive.
  
  
• One day your foot was hurting and I asked you how it was feeling? You said, "it's special." 
• The other day daddy had you in the bathtub and you we arguing whether the painting in the bathroom what a snake or a tree. Daddy said it was a tree and he was right because he's 33 and you're just 3. You said, "No, daddy, I'm perfect." 
• You like to think you know everything. You argued with me today about being a "big boy" I said, "no baby you're a big girl." You said "no, Hudson's a girl, I'm a big boy!" Silly girl ;)
  
• You pray with us at night before bed. Some nights prayers are pretty straightforward. "Thank you Jesus for family, friends, Mommy, Daddy, & Hudson." Some nights you stray and thank Jesus for your clock, tea parties, cup, and other miscellaneous items :)
  
• You count to 15, know all your colors, most animals and their sounds, and can sing your ABCs. I'm going to start working with you on your letters and writing and spelling your name.
  
• You probably watch way too much tv & movies. Your favorite shows are Veggie Tales, Caillou, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Dora the Explorer & Thomas and Friends. Your favorite movies are Tangled, Lion King, Finding Nemo and Peter Pan.
• You like to sing, play in the bathtub, play with baby dolls & stuffed animals, read books, watch movies, and play outside.

• Your life changed a lot with Hudson coming into the family, but you love him and are such a good big sister. It's so sweet to see you interact with him. 
  
  

Hannah we love you so much. Life is so much more fun with you in it. You make me so happy. I can't wait to see what this next year will bring. 

Hudson 2 Months

We made it through another month with our sweet boy. The second month was really challenging. Hudson had pretty bad colic at night. He was also very gassy which lead to many hours of crying. But by the time he turned 8 weeks old it subsided a lot. Thank you Jesus! He is doing really well and we are finally getting into a routine. Hallelujah! I went back to work on Feb 12. It is really weird to have two kids in daycare, but it gets a little easier every day. Hudson has had a runny nose for about a week now so that it no fun and I worry about him getting sick. I wish we would get some rain to wash all this dust out of the air. For now, we will continue the humidifier at night, saline drops in the nose and a lot of kisses and hugs. 

2 Month Update:

Weight: 11lbs 14oz (as of 2.11.14)

Height: 23"

 
Clothes: You are wearing mostly 0-3 and 3 month clothes now, but the 0-3 are getting a little snug. You are a big healthy boy. You are wearing Size 1 diapers but will be moving into a Size 2 soon.

Sleep: Sleep has been getting easier as of 2 weeks ago. Your nighttime routine consists of a bath every other night, then a bottle and you're in bed by 8pm. Some times you fight sleep a bit and other nights you go right to sleep after I rock you for a little bit. We then get sister to bed by 8:30pm and eat dinner. Then I go to bed around 9:30 or 10pm and sleep til you wake up around 12-1am. You wake up and I feed you and then you go back to sleep til 6-7am. You usually stir a little around 3 or 4am but after I re-swaddle you and put your pacifier back in you go back to sleep. I'm so happy we are getting some consistent sleep now even if you aren't fully sleeping through the night yet.  

 
Eating: You are now an exclusively formula fed baby. You eat 4-5 oz every 3 hours during the day. After a few weeks of not being sure what formula we should feed you, we went back to the Similac Advanced with Iron that Hannah ate and you are doing fine with it. Hopefully all those tummy issues we were having with you are a thing of the past. I think you just had a harder time switching from breast milk to formula.

 
Likes: Being held, rocked, soothed, you bath, eating, and your paci. You love your mommy and I love the smiles you give me.

Dislikes: Loud sudden noises, being hot, not being held all the time, and when your paci falls out at night. 
 

Milestones: You are really starting to change and are growing into your features. You no longer have that real newborn look. You are starting to get more control of your head and neck. You are tracking us with your eyes and responding to us when we talk to you. You make the cutest cooing noises. You also smile a lot and are just so sweet. You are sleeping better and hopefully by the end of this month you will be sleeping through the night. You started daycare and are doing really well. You are eating well and are growing so fast. 

Hudson we are so blessed to have you as ours. You are the cutest sweetest little boy. I'm so grateful that God brought you to me to be your mommy. I love you so much! 

Hannah 2 Months Old & Hudson 2 Months Old

What's in a Name?

In July 2010 we found out we were going to be parents for the first time. Immediately after I was on the hunt for the perfect baby name. I'm not sure when we decided to go with the double H thing, but before we even found out we were having a girl, the names were set. Girl: Hannah and Boy: Hudson.

Meanwhile, a similar decision had been reached by my brother and his wife. When we told them we were pregnant with Hannah it came up that one day when they have a son (my brother was determined to have a boy) his name was going to be Harlan. A double H name too.

A year after Harlan was born Brittany was pregnant again with the twins. She debated back and forth but ultimately chose the names Henley and Hollis. Double H names again. A theme was established.

Then when I got pregnant last year there was no question that this kid needed a double H name. The poor baby would feel out of place otherwise.  We still loved the name Hudson so that's what we went with.

My parents now have 5 grand-kids with double H names. I love their names, but there are other similarities in their names I uncovered while pregnant with Hudson. It's so crazy to think these similarities exist and we did not plan them out. We just picked names we loved. I thought I would share them.

Hannah Kate Hughes
Harlan Frazier Holmes
Henley Nell Holmes
Hollis Mae Holmes
Hudson Jacob Hughes

• First of all each first and last name starts with and H
• Each first and last name has six letters in it
• Each first name is a two-syllable name
• Each last name is a one-syllable name
• All the girls have one-syllable middle names
• Both boys have two-syllable middle names
• My brother's name is Jonathan it ends with an "an" and so does Harlan
• My husband's name is Brandon it ends with an "on" and so does Hudson
• And finally the coolest similarity I found, the kid's first names are in alphabetical order by birth order. So weird I know. 

Some other related facts about our kids. Our boy's birthdays are at the end of the calendar year and the girl's are at the beginning. Also Hannah and Harlan were born in 2011 and Henley, Hollis and Hudson were born in 2013.

I had so much fun uncovering all the fun facts. 

Hudson's Nursery

Hudson is 8 weeks old now! Time is really flying bye. I will try to post his 2 month stats soon. For now though, here is a look at the final nursery. More details can be found here.