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. 😁

Ferguson Grandchildren

Ashley, Jill and I got together with all of our kids and got their pictures taken a couple weeks ago. This is a surprise to Donna which she won't see until Mother's Day in May. She really wanted to get a picture of all of the grandkids in their matching shirts for Christmas but it just never happened. She then mentioned a couple weeks ago that she would still like one but for Mother's Day. Soon after my conversation with her I came across an ad of a Valentine's special going on and I knew that I needed to take advantage of this deal with Jill and Ashley. The main reason we needed to get it done now rather than later is because Hudson is a chunky little guy and he doesn't have much longer before his shirt will no longer fit him. Plus it was too good of a deal to ignore. Even though we won't be gifting this gift until later I needed to post it here now because Addie is ADORABLE! Seriously I love her little face in this picture. I know I might be biased because I'm her mother but goodness I love her expression here. She adores her cousins and was loving the fact that she got to sit right next to Jayden. I'm sure Donna is going to love this picture of her grandkids and I can't wait for her to see it.

Addie, Jayden, Jacob, Brooklyn, Georgia and Hudson

A Love So BIG . . .

About four weeks ago I came across this picture online and thought 'hey I wonder if I can do something like that'.

When I was pregnant with Hudson I had joined a mommy group of other pregnant ladies and I thought I would start there with asking total strangers if they'd be willing to send me some notes from their location just like the picture but written to Danny. I immediately found success and from there I joined some other groups but this time on Facebook to see if I can get some more requests done. I also went to family, friends and even joined a few yard sale groups of different states. Before I knew it I was getting pictures from not only states but from countries around the world. My phone was constantly buzzing from people messaging me back and forth and sending me pictures. Since I was up in the middle of the night anyway nursing Hudson I would use that time to connect with people who were in countries such as Finland, India, and Malaysia because of our different time zones. Within a few days I had all fifty states (plus duplicates) as well as over thirty countries sent to me. I went through almost 300 index cards and three sharpies sending pictures from Utah to others who wanted the same thing done. By that weekend Danny knew I was up to something but didn't know what. I hated being sneaky with him but I was also really excited for when I would be able to finally tell show him what I was doing. Was it hard? Yes! Worth it? YES! My plan was to make a book with all of these pictures I had collected but since I knew I wouldn't have enough time to have the book finished by today (Valentine's Day) I decided to make a video. By the end I received 286 pictures of notes from around the world, I couldn't put all of them in this video because it's already long enough. I still plan on doing a book for him but for now this is what I have and I love it. Better yet, he loves it. 

Happy Valentine's Day Danny!

I love you so BIG!

RSV

This winter we're in has brought me one of my greatest blessings, Hudson. But with that said this winter has also not been easy. The poor kid cannot catch a break. What he can catch is every cold out there. Addie has also not been able to escape the sicknesses but she's definitely handling it a lot better than her little brother. Both kids have caught colds after colds but the worst was when Hudson got both RSV and Bronchiolitis. Last week was rough to say the least. It was the night of Superbowl Sunday when we noticed that Hudson was having a particularly hard time breathing. He sounded very congested and we thought that a shower would help clear his airways. Danny was with him in the shower when we saw that his chest was sinking deeply inward with each breath he was taking. I told Danny this looked serious and called the pediatrics office to speak with a nurse. They told me to take him straight to the ER because Hudson's breathing wasn't normal. Hudson still had soap in his hair from his shower but we didn't care and took him quickly out so that I could get him dressed and in the car seat. It was late so Danny stayed at home to put Addie to bed while I went with Hudson to the hospital. He's been in the hospital before because of breathing issues so I was hoping that this trip was going to be the same as last time where we would be going home after Hudson was suctioned out. Nope. Hudson was suctioned out but still was having issues with his oxygen levels so the doctor ordered that he receive breathing treatments. After that was done he still wasn't doing well so the doctor told me that we would be staying the night there for monitoring. I was not planning on that. The thought of him staying there hadn't even crossed my mind or I would have grabbed an extra set of clothes to change into. Hudson was taken into a circus themed room which was cute but I was too distracted with Hudson to really pay much attention to all the drawings on the walls. Hudson was hooked up to a lot of wires which was sad to witness but I understood the reasoning behind it all. He was suctioned out two more times and after that was done he started to do well again. The nurses told me that he would have to stay additional nights if his oxygen levels dropped below 90 at any time throughout the night. I rocked him for a couple hours while watching the numbers on the screen go up and down. I did try to put him in their crib but I couldn't get him to sleep in it for more than ten minutes at a time so finally at 3am I just brought him into the bed with me and we slept until the morning. Hudson did well during the night and didn't need additional help. The doctor told me that he felt good about sending Hudson home because we only live five to ten minutes away from the hospital and that I could have the final say. I decided to take him home so that we could also be with Addie since Danny had to go to school. For the next few days I had to take Hudson back to the hospital so that he could be suctioned out but we were able to come back home each time. By Wednesday his oxygen levels were almost perfect and we haven't had to take him back since. He still has a horrible sounding cough and is still a little congested but he's definitely doing a whole lot better than that Sunday. These situations make me extra grateful for priesthood blessings and for the location of our home. I felt at peace being at home with him knowing that if I needed hospital help we were close by. The worst is over but I still can't wait for Spring to hurry and get here.

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