Happy Halloween!

Halloween 2008

Emma (a flower!)Grace (a ladybug!)

One of our neighbors organized a pre-trick or treat party. It was nice to hang out. Grace LOVED to trick or treat. She pretty much just followed the lead of the big kids and quickly figured things out!

Here is picture of part of the group! Grace didn't want to be in the picture (a rare for her!)

Emma and Riley (The flower and bee!)

Even Emma had fun.. she was good just cruising around in her stroller!

Halloween

Past Halloween's... come back tomorrow for this year's picture!!

Grace 2006

Grace 2007

wednesday weight in

Saturday is the 5K. Woo Hoo! Adam and I have both been running quite a bit. I ran a couple miles earlier today. It feels good. We have even *thought* of the idea of possibly training for a half marathon. I don't know... at the earliest for next Spring. Gotta do the 5K first.

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OH and Grace had her hearing test today and she passed. Perfect hearing. Speech therapy starts Tuesday!

more on speech

Grace was evaluated yesterday afternoon and she did fabulous. It was actually pretty fun to watch them work with her. She did almost everything they asked of her and in a very willing manner. I was so afraid that she wouldn't be herself. She passed nearly every part of the evaluation, but struggled with articulation and communication.

She actually surprised us a few times doing things we had no clue she could do... like cut with scissors. (Why on earth would I let my 2 1/2 year old use scissors... on the box they say 4+!)

They asked us every question under the sun from her nutrition to different abilities she exhibits.

All that said, they did recommend that she have a hearing test (just to make sure all those ear infections she had didn't leave fluid that is making things sound different) and therapy twice a month. They seemed very optimistic that the therapy will help her out a great deal.

To be honest, I'm pretty excited. After seeing her perform yesterday, I'm excited to see what else she can do that I don't know about.

Thanks again to everyone for the sweet words and encouragement. I know Grace is going to be speaking well in no time!

a tooth!

Breaking news... literally... Emma's first tooth broke through 2 days ago. YEAH!! No wonder she was a bear earlier this week. Thankfully she really has been a trooper, but I think she is working on #2! Maybe she will be ready for some big girl food soon.

The Arboretum

Aren't these orange mums beautiful...

This past Friday, the girls and I headed to the Arboretum with some of the girls and their kiddos from our Sunday School class. It was an best day for it. Cool (60's) and sunny. My kind of weather!

The girls posing

A pumpkin hut!

We tried to get pictures at various times of all the kids, but these were the only I was able to capture...

And little missy... I couldn't get her to look at the camera in either of these. I guess it just shows how BUSY she is getting. In this one she was trying to get one blade of grass that was taller than all the others.

and in this one she was looking at all the kids blowing bubbles! But still cute :O)

Yamboree

So I'm a weekend late... but I had to get this up here!!

The Yamboree is a festival that Adam's hometown does every year. I've been many times in the 8 years that Adam and I have been together, but this year was by far one of the best. I guess its just more fun to do the kid stuff and generally its easy when you have kids :)

We started the weekend off with Adam's 10 year reunion. They always hold the reunions that weekend b/c so many people go home. Although isn't it weird that he really graduated 10 1/2 years ago? Anyway, the reunion was a lot of fun. I actually knew quite a few people because Adam's graduating class was only around 150 people so over the years and visits to his hometown I've met people. I was most excited to see my good friend, Megan (the person who did the pictures of the girls). Honestly, it wasn't weird or awkward to go to his reunion. I think I would have felt more out of place at mine. For those that don't know I graduated with a little over 1500 people (yes... 1500... largest graduating class in Texas in 2008!!). And yeah I knew a lot of people b/c I had been in that school district since I was in 2nd grade, but it was different at my school. Anyway, I'm totally off on a tangent... the reunion was fun. Food not so good. OH well can't win them all.

Adam and I leaving for the reunion. Adam's parents were so sweet and watched the girls for us!

And Megan and I... 2 cute girls :)

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Saturday means parade time! And this is a cool parade. The best part is seeing the Yam Queen. Their gowns are BEAUTIFUL! Apparently they cost thousands of dollars!

Here is a view of the front

and the back
And here are 2 of my favorite parade watchers...

The rest of the day consisted of a nap, rides for Grace and the barn dance. Yes a dance in a barn... its actually a lot of fun. Here are a few of the pictures that Adam's parents took of Grace enjoying the rides.

Having fun. Funny that they every seat has steering wheels!

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Oh and I almost forgot. Adam's parents had a Barbie Jeep at their house for Grace to play with. And oh did she love it. In fact today she kept asking to ride her Barbie Jeep. She is a seriously BAD driver. Hopefully by the time she is 16 she will better than she was last weekend!

choo choo

Grace and I made a little train yesterday from a couple diaper boxes (something we ALWAYS have around our house). I covered the boxes and she decorated with markers and by glueing (she loves to glue!) shapes onto the boxes. Then once Emma got up from her nap we played! Emma was in HEAVEN!

new camera... coming soon

Woo Hoo!! I just ordered me a new camera thanks to some awesome in-laws who helped to fund the Lisa's too cheap to go buy her own camera and the wanting to see pictures of their grandchildren fund and an early birthday gift :)

Should be here in 7-10 days... yeah I had to go for the free shipping.

Here is the one I got: Canon Powershot SD880IS

my cute girls

Okay I know everyone thinks (knows!) that their own children are adorable. But these pictures of my girls prove it :)

Well really it proves that my sweet friend, Megan, is super talented!

Check the photos out here: www.jmhudson.com/dugan

If you are looking for a photographer and live in the East Texas area let me know and I can get you her info!! Here is the link to her photo blog... http://jmhudson.blogspot.com/ .

Enjoy! :)

wednesday weight in

So I've been meaning to post about this, but keep forgetting. So I've been running now for a few weeks. YEAH!

And I've got to tell you that I feel good. For the first time, since probably high school, I'm enjoying running again. Well maybe not the actual act of running, but I LOVE how I feel after I've run. Such a sense of accomplishment.

I'm up to 2.5 miles. Adam has run with me a few times, which is awesome. I love running with him b/c he really pushes me. He is 6 feet and I'm only 5'4" so I'm always trying to catch up with his long legs!

As far as the scale goes... well I'm trying not to weight myself. I've been at pre-pregnancy weight for a couple months, but it just isn't in the same place and I can't wear the clothes I once could. So I'm really shooting more for slimming and toning and maybe shedding 5lbs or so.

OH and the most important thing, Adam and I signed up for our first 5K. November 1st. So no staying up late on Halloween. We are also planning to do the Dallas Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day. One I've done many times since as far back as I can remember. Get excited!!!

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I also wanted thank everyone for your sweet comments and emails. I'll post more after she is evaluated. I'm sure she just needs a little extra help and she will be reciting Shakespeare! :)

speech

As most of you know I've been worrying about Grace's speech for a while now. Mainly her articulation. I talked to the pediatrician on her 2nd birthday and he didn't seem worried and told me that you are only suppose to understand a certain percentage of what kids say at this age. And that as that get older things come more clear. Okay...

So I tried to put it out of my mind. But whenever I'm around kids her age (or younger) and they are speaking VERY well its hard to get out of my mind. I just want her to sound as smart as I know she. Her comprehension is great! I started noticing this summer that she was leaving the ends off of most words. I only knew what she was trying to say because of the context of what we were doing, talking about. Basically any word that ends in a consonant she leaves it off. Even simple words like "dog", come out "daw" with no "g". Does that make sense?

I had basically decided we would just keep doing things at home... you know reading books, talking a lot about we are doing, going places to give her lots of different experienc... and wait until closer to her 3rd birthday, but it was still bothering me.

Then Grace started preschool about 6 weeks ago. They sent home a paper that if you wanted you could have your child tested by Early Childhood Intervention (ECI). So of course I signed the permission slip and wrote down my concerns. Sure enough she failed her evaluation.

Which I knew would probably happen, but at first I was really sad. I guess knowing that something (even this small) is wrong with your baby is hard to take. I quickly came to my senses and realized that its only speech and TOTALLY correctable, plus she is only 2!

So now we are having a full evaluation done in a little under 2 weeks. If she fails that then we will have some type of speech therapy probably a couple times a week. Which I'm sort of excited about... is that bad. I think it will be fun and I'm sure Grace will enjoy it.

So here is where you are suppose to jump in and tell me all these amazing stories how your child was a little difficult to understand and now they are making all A's and on their way to become a doctor. :)

bubbles

Emma got to enjoy her first bubble bath with her sister last night!! Grace LOVES bubbles baths but because her skin is so terrible we try to limit them. But she begged me last night so I gave in. I've been bathing the girls together for a month or so now... something I totally recommend to any mother of 2 kids. They love it too :)

sleepover

Well not really... but look at these cuties all ready for bed.

Reagan & Emma

It's pumpkin time...

My littlest pumpkin...

YEAH... October is finally here and the means pumpkin patch time. Grace was so excited and kept saying "punkin"... almost sounded like "punky"! Here is trying to decide which pumpkin is cuter?!

The pumpkin patch for the kids meant running around, picking up pumpkins, but to the mommy's this meant photo opportunities. And as you can see, I took a couple pictures :)

Little miss standing...

The girls being cute here and here...Me and my girls (I didn't mean for it to be in black/white, but I put my camera on the wrong setting... sort of an issue when you have a broken LCD screen!)

And they are done... both of their faces so sad...

The whole group... kids again done with pictures....

And a couple other fun ones...

Grace showing how tall she is... we will have to come back next year. Maybe then she will look at the camera.

Grace even managed to have time to go to Jail.

We had fun girls. Let's do it again next year...

subway

Just a thought...

Why does Subway not have a drive-thru?

I just want something healthy for lunch and it is hard to get out of the car with 2 kids... then wait in line. UGG!

You know where we use to live in Oklahoma the Subway there had drive-thru!! And now I live in a HUGE city with about 6 Subway's no further than 1 mile from my house and they don't have drive-thrus! How annoying!

Maybe they just want you do get out of the car and walk... and what burn 5 calories! :)

7 months

I'm in utter disbelief that my itty bitty baby is closer to being one than she is to being my newborn.

I've been told many times that the second child (and I'm assuming all children after your first) grows up very fast. Yeah sure she is only 7 months old, but before I know it I'm sure she will be 7, then 17 (Oh how I dread those years... teenager girls...). Okay so I'll get off my bandwagon about how my girls are growing up too fast.

Here is what Miss Emmy is up to these days....

*Crawling and getting fast! She has discovered life beyond our little 8x10 rug in our family room.

*Pulling up and standing on anything she can... including things she is not suppose to. Emma is going to learn the word "no" pretty soon. She is definitly our little dare devil!

*She is eating a little bit of baby food. She has "tried" all of the Stage 1 foods and likes most the veggies to eat a few bites and a handfull of times she has eaten half a jar. This is much improvement from last month and better than Grace ever did with solids. She is also eating rice cereal and oatmeal and we are working on the fruits. She isn't a fan of fruits though... I guess they are just too sour? They sure do taste good to me! Oh and I was able to drop a feeding, so she is usually nursing 4 times a day.

*Emma enjoys her days with just her and mommy, but is SO happy when we go pick up sister. I think she misses her when she is at school.

*She is also going through a mommy stage. Separation anxiety has officially begun. I've handed her off a couple times in the last couple weeks to do something quickly, only to return (after seconds) and she is in a full cry. Of course once she is back in my arms all is okay. Little stinker.

Well off to go hang out with my hubbie and girls. Until next month!! :)

The Rainforest

Gotta a little story for you ags....

Today Adam flew home (he's been gone all week) and the airport is near Rainforest Cafe. My friend took her little boy there a few weeks ago and he loved it. So naturally I thought Grace would love it too... afterall she loved the zoo.

Well she didn't like it. She was terrified! We were happy to get through lunch. She wouldn't leave Adam's lap... even eating her lunch there. When he had to go to the bathroom, she had to go and wouldn't even walk... Adam had to carry her! I wish I had my camera with me to record how scared she was. Maybe we will try again in another year.

Oh and to top things off, Emma spilled water all over me. (Remember when Grace spilled pink lemonade on me at Chili's when she was little)... well I wasn't looking and little miss grabby pulled the water cup in my lap. It was lovely.

Although we are happy to have our daddy home!! :)

And since every post is better with a picture, here is one Adam took last week when I was at a Pampered Chef party! So cute!!

And another of Emma so proud of herself! Such a big girl :)