Birthday Week!

I feel pretty lucky that this year my birthday week fell on Danny's spring break. I got to enjoy having him home for a whole week which was nice since we don't usually get to spend a lot of time together. He's back at school today and only has about another month before he's done at UVU. This will also be his last spring break for a little while so I tried to take advantage of it. During the week Danny had arranged with his family to watch to both Addie and Hudson so that we can go on an official date just the two of us. It was our first time since Hudson was born and it was very needed. We knew Addie would love spending time with her aunts and grandma but we did worry a little bit about Hudson. He's back to being sick again and hasn't been the happiest baby lately. Luckily he gave them plenty of smiles that day and apparently was quite the chatter bug, at least that's what we were told so I'm glad it turned out fine. Danny set up an appointment for us to get a couples massage. It was my first time and now I'm wondering why I've never done this before. Apparently constantly holding two little kids can put a lot of tension on your shoulders haha. We felt so relaxed and didn't want to leave right away. Well, part of us didn't want to leave. The other part wanted to hurry and head to our next place because we were hungry for some Brazilian cuisine. Every year for our birthdays we eat at either Tucanos or Rodizio Grill (both are Brazilian steakhouses). We usually do both for Danny's birthday in June. This year I chose Tucanos and eating there with no kids with us was awesome. We were able to enjoy our food like a regular couple. :) We sure do love our kids but sometimes it's nice to eat while the food is still hot.

Danny and I have always been bad about giving gifts on our actual birthday because we're not patient enough and this year was no different. On one of the days I was in the living room working out with Addie when Danny walked in and saw us exercising. He told me to hold on and then ran out to his car where he had my presents hidden and then came back with new weights for me to use. The next day I got new workout clothes and the day after that he gave me a movie I wanted to watch. On my actual birthday we all went to the Puppy Barn in American Fork. I knew they had some St. Bernard puppies and that's all I really wanted to see. Addie loved seeing all of the puppies they had. I'm thinking she's going to be a dog person.

The LDS Women's Conference was on the night of my birthday so Danny played with Addie and made me a birthday dinner while I watched that and Hudson napped. The only thing that would've made my birthday absolutely perfect would've been if we finished the night with ice cream and cake. Unfortunately I'm now on a chocolate and dairy free diet. Both seem to upset Hudson's tummy so out of love for him I'm changing the way I eat. Which is not easy because I love chocolate and all things cheese! Instead of ice cream and cake though Danny did drive me to a place that sells Acai Bowls (a Brazilian treat) and just writing about it makes me want to go back and get more because it was so good! Hmm maybe I'll go when Danny is at Priesthood meeting this weekend for General Conference. :) 

Cheers to being 28!

St. Patrick's Day

As a child I always looked forward to holidays and that hasn't stopped into my adult years. My family always did something no matter which holiday it was. I haven't told my step mom this yet but I'm really glad that she went out of her way to do little things for us on the holidays. For example one Valentine's Day she made us all little love note pillows and every day she'd sneak a little note into our pillows for us to read. Another is that on President's Day she'd made a flag cake with strawberries and blueberries for the stars and stripes. Every Easter morning we would have our baskets hidden somewhere for us to find them. We always had barbecues on Labor Day and every Memorial Day we'd visit graves and then have chocolate milk and doughnuts. It didn't matter if the holiday was a small one we still did something for it and that's probably the best thing about my childhood. So you can imagine how I felt on the night before St. Patrick's day when I realized that I had completely forgotten that day was coming up. If I had planned it better I would've gotten Addie her own little shirt and made sure that she had a green breakfast to enjoy. Good thing my kids are still little and didn't even know about it. Danny grew up only celebrating the big holidays such as Easter, Independence Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas so he did his best to help me feel better about letting this holiday fall through the cracks. I will not be making this mistake again with the next holiday which is Easter in just a few weeks. :)

Luckily Hudson had a little Saint Patrick's onesie that Donna had given me when I was pregnant with him and it was the perfect fit for him. I got some pictures with him in it and to be honest his sad little pouts are probably my favorite pictures of him. Sorry bud but you're just too cute. As soon as I picked him up he fell asleep. :)

Addie of course laid down on a blanket and said she wanted a picture too. She even grabbed a teddy bear and said he needed to be in it. :) 

Proof I didn't completely torture him with picture taking.

This next picture was taken the next day. Hudson is about to outgrow this onesie so I made Danny take a picture for me before it's too late to get one of them matching. Both of my boys are good sports. :)

Daddy Daughter Date

One of my very good friends has a tradition with her dad that I've always thought to be really cool. On Valentine's Day she gets flowers from her father. She's now married with a little girl of her own and her dad has still continued to do this for her every year. Her husband has carried that tradition and gets their two year old daughter flowers on Valentine's as well. I told Danny that I think starting a tradition similar to this between him and Addie would be pretty special for both of them. Next year we'll probably start with the flowers but this year Addie went on her first daddy daughter date. It's been several weeks since they did this but it still makes my heart smile. For their evening together Danny took her to the aquarium. She was so excited for it. She didn't really know what it was when I would talk to her about it but she knew fish were involved and she was happy with that. I took her to the store and I let her pick out a new outfit just for this date. She felt so special and it was fun for me to as I got her ready for it. Addie even picked out what shoes she wanted to wear with her outfit.

I told Danny he better take lots of pictures since I wasn't going to be there haha. He did an okay job. :) Our little girl loved their date and at the end Danny bought her some new toys. She got a sea turtle, a scuba diver and three sharks to play in the bathtub. 

I was at a baby shower during their date and I took Hudson with me but we were both able to join them after their time at the aquarium for a quick bite to eat. Addie sat next to Danny so I also got a couple of pictures as they ate.

About a week after their date I was on on a video call with my sister when Addie joined us and started telling Pollyanna all about the aquarium. She told her about the fish, penguins and showed her the toy sharks she got from the date. The conversation only lasted a couple minutes but it showed me that the memories of that evening was still on Addie's mind. 

A Little Bit of Sunshine

I have been going crazy being cooped up indoors lately. It's finally starting to warm up a little which I'm so looking forward to. Last week we took advantage of the fact that for the first time in months both of our kids were feeling well at the same time. Danny had a short break at school so I met him there with both kids and we got to enjoy the sun. It's a little sad that Hudson is now three months old and last week was his first time being outside (not sitting in his carseat all covered up). We didn't plan on it being this way and didn't even realize that he hadn't been outside before until that day as we were pulling him out of the carseat. Poor kid. His first three months of life have mostly consisted of him or his sister being sick. I'm not sure what he thought of the sun at first but soon liked it and Addie of course loved it. She's been such a trooper this winter and I can't wait to start taking her back to the park. We spent most of our days there together last year and I think we both miss it. 

Since most of our days are spent indoors I often find myself taking pictures of my little kids. I love them and I love pictures so it makes sense that pictures of my kids make me happy. It's also been fun recording these two. Whenever I have Hudson on the ground and I'm about to take a picture of him Addie will quickly join in. I had worries about whether or not she would like her little brother but so far there has been nothing to be worried about. She adores him. She loves giving him kisses and holding his hands. In most of the pictures that I have of them together she is either holding his hand or giving him a kiss. This is done with no instructions by me so I'll gladly snap away any pictures I can while this phase lasts because I'm sure these siblings will have moments where they won't be the best of buds in the future. That probably won't happen until Hudson can reach for Addie's toys though so maybe I have a few more months of all this sibling love. :) 

Other than us mostly being kept indoors we don't really have any other updates. Well, I guess there's one. We are now in a new ward and a new building. This is now the third ward that we've been a part of since moving here, which means that in just sixteen months we've been in three wards and in three different buildings. This change happened about a month ago and we're still adjusting. It's a sure sign of how much and fast the church is growing here which is a very good thing.

*Edit - There actually is an exciting update in the Ferguson family. Jaina received her mission call and will be serving in the Baltimore Maryland mission. She will be speaking English and reports to the MTC on May 31st. We're all very happy for her. 😁