the perfect day

Today was pretty close to it.  I first of all have to say, thank heaven for Miss Lezlie Z. for letting me borrow her car so I could actually function today.  Long story short after my car braking down and costing us a whopping $1400 during our last trip to Utah, Jay's truck started acting up.  Turns out that the same problem that my car had is wrong with Jay's truck.  And so it goes...it's still broken sitting in the driveway because of the lack of funds from the explorer episode....drum roll please, my tranny is now on its way out...yes, that's right....another whopping $ *@#^... who knows how much more!  With that said, Jace and I are praying for a miracle, until then my wonderful friend is letting me borrow her extra car for the week.  I don't know what I would do without great friends and family!  Life would just not be fun:)  So Tessa was wonderful today and Hudson was, as usual, my mellow jello boy during errands.  We spent the morning traipsing around Livermore gathered the best ingredients to stocking a kitchen full of much needed sustenance.  Then we headed to Kelli's for some mommy adult interaction while the kiddies played.  It was great and I loved catching up with my dear friend...When we got home, Jay was already home.  A while later Jay was off to a Eagle Court of Honor.  I got dinner ready and Tessa asked if she could play outside.  She played in the backyard for over an hour....It was simply wonderful.  I LOVE LOVE those moments when she plays contently by-her-self!  It was blissful as I made dinner knowing that miss Tessa was enjoying her play time and Hudson was of course sitting on the floor next to me chillin' in the Tupperware cupboard. 

Oh--and I almost forgot!  HUDSON TOOK HIS FIRST STEPS TODAY!!!  Hurray!  He practically walked across the kitchen...He walked 5 or 6 steps several times today all on his lonesome!  Jay and I have been having him try walking back and forth to each other the past few days...I think it actually helped!  He is just the cutest little boy ever and get this...He has three teeth, two on bottom and one on top...The second top one is about to cut through and it's the cutest thing ever because there is a huge gap between his two top teeth!!  I LOVE IT!!!  Such a perfect little boy...and I have to say that Tessa is mellowing out A LOT, which I am thankful for because I enjoy our time together so much more.  Lately we LOVE reading books together.  We go to the library every week to check books out and she loves reading them over and over again until she's practically memorized them!  She is such a great helper with Hudson and just loves being with him.

Hudson can also eat with a fork now, no joke.  I gave it to him one day sort of as a toy to keep him occupied while he was kind of eating and he totally used it right!  He loves to carry whatever utensil he can get his hands on all over the house and if we go on errands, he'll hold on to it the whole time.  Tessa has this little wooden spoon that he has attached himself to.  I love those little unique personalities peeking through:)

Here are some pics from Hudson's first birthday party.  It was so much fun and I think it's going to be tradition to have a big one year old party with each kid...Tessa's was like this too and I loved it:)  Side note:  I still don't want to give Hudson sugar, so I made him a banana bread "cake" with cream cheese frosting...And surprise, surprise, he never knew the difference;)

Okay, so your probably wondering what the heck happened to his poor little head.  About an hour, yes, an hour before the party, Jay and I were frantically getting ready and the kids were playing outside on the deck.  Well, you guessed it, Hudson fell off the deck.  It's just one step, but that one step happens to be bricks.  Poor little man had dirt and blook everywhere.  I felt so bad.  I guess this means he's offically one!

For the party favor, I made homemade raspberry jam for each of our guests!  It was so fun!

The party goers: Top left to right: Kelli, Chenoa, Galen, Kim, LaVor, Kimberly, Dieter, Travis, Galen..again
Middle: Brent, Katie, Owen, Brookie, Tessa, Kylee, Sydney, Amanda
Bottom: Gramie Gramie, Papa Hoxie, Great Grama Hoxie, Cindy, Peyton, Rylee, Marc, Lara, Krista, Lizze
As I was editing, I realized that I didn't get any pictures of Jay and me on this special day...oh-well...we were there:)

Of course sister had to be a part of the frosting action!