Happy 1st Birthday Hudson!

This is Hudson & Hayden's Mom reporting for Hudson's first birthday.  Our little baby is now considered a toddler!  How did this happen so quickly?  Hudson, we feel so incredibly lucky to be your parents and have you part of our family.  God truly blessed us when he gave us you! 

 

Today on your actual first birthday we celebrated with church and then a birthday lunch at home.  You got to try rice for the first time, you loved it, and we followed up with yellow & chocolate marble cupcakes with chocolate frosting.  Your brother Hayden picked out the liners & decoations of Toy Story's Buzz Lightyear & Woody the Sherriff (*Woody is his favorite right now).  You weren't too sure of the candle so we blew it out for you however you knew just what to do with the cake!

Here you almost done & ready for clean-up!  You destroyed the cupcake but we're pretty sure you got most of the frosting.  So fun to watch you dig in.  Your bib is by Carter's and says, "So fun to be 1".

After nap and dinner we did your presents.  As you already had your birthday party we wanted to give you something small to open on the actual day.  Daddy, Hayden & I gave you the books, "On the Night You Were Born" and "Time for Bed".  Not sure if you were excited for your new board books or more so for the wrapping paper!  We pretty much just had family time at home for your big day and enjoyed being with you.  Nice to be low key and relaxed after your big part!

You have grown so swiftly this past year and here's just a few things you've accomplished this past month:

• This past month you've really grown from pulling self up to holding on to furniture or hands to "cruise" around. We've even had you using the walker and taking a few steps! Watch out world Hudson is on his way!
• You're really starting to pick-up tiny objects, especially finger food with the aid of your glasses. We notice you no longer swipe & miss when you reach for items and you no longer run into things! You look so proud when you're feeding yourself!
• This past month you pulled yourself up to stand for the first time on Oct. 30th; had your first trick-or-treating on Oct. 31st; first pulled yourself up in your crib to greet us on Nov. 1st; hade your 1st birthday party on Nov. 4th; got another tooth (*number 8) on Nov. 6th; got your first pair of glasses on Nov. 9th; had your first horse drawn trolley ride (*by Buttercup & Buttercrisp) also on Nov. 9th; first met Santa on Nov. 18th and first Thanksgiving on Nov. 22nd.
• Continued to try new foods like different types of muffins (*favorite were Mom's homemade cinnamon streusel on Nov. 11th); tried garlic bread, chicken & turkey toddler sticks, more veggies like baked beans & sweet potato fries, and finally drank from a cup by self on Nov. 9th. We've noticed you prefer softer foods as not too fond of harder food texture.
• Here's some of our favorite 12 month shots:

Look who's standing?!

Happy 1st Birthday Hudson - we love you!  Mommy, Daddy & Hayden

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!  This morning we woke to make turkey pops.  They are double stuff Oreo cookies dipped in chocolate with a Whopper head, candy eyes, Candy Corn beak & feathers and Twizzler rope gobbler.  Mom had more patience than I but I LOVED eating the candy.  I may have to admit more may have gone into my mouth than on the turkeys.  Pretty cute though, right?  Our turkey cupcakes we shared with our neighbors as well as our daycare bake sale so these we just took over to Grandma & Grandpa's house to share with family.

While we made the turkey pops we enjoyed watching the parade and I really loved the big balloons and seeing Elmo & Cookie Monster.  It was also really fun to see Santa at the end.

 

It is hard to believe it is Hudson's last, first holiday - his first Thanksgiving.  Strange to think one year ago on the day after Thanksgiving he arrived.  Just for fun Mom got him a little "My First Thanksgiving" hat & bib however we think they were made for a smaller baby!  Got to love the turkey feathers in his hat.

Grandpa Allen really enjoyed the hat too!

We had a wonderful lunch provided by Grandma Judy and enjoyed great company.  We also enjoyed cousin fun...here's Hannah, Hudson and I.  Note Hudson's shirt reads "Am I really related to these people!"  Very funny Daddy (*who got him dressed!).

God has blessed us in so many ways we are truly grateful.  We hope you & yours has a wonderful Thanksgiving as we did surrounded by family & loved ones. 

Happy Thanksgiving from the Prestegard's:

The day after Thanksgiving on Fri., Nov. 23rd I enjoyed a play date with Cousin Hannah while Hudson & Mom set-up Christmas decorations.  I'm getting better at playing board games like Memory and/or Candyland below (*Hannah was so good to be patient with me too!): 

More board game fun!

On Sat., Nov. 24th we are proud to report Dad's Alma mater, Blue Earth Area High School football team won state!  They played extremely well and it was so fun to watch the game together as a family at home.  Congrats Blue Earth and our community.  What an amazing feat and how fitting to happen Thanksgiving weekend!

Hudson Meets Santa...

After church & naps on Sun., Nov. 18th Hudson & I went shopping with Mom in Mankato.  We got our new Christmas tree, can't wait to put up, and even got to meet Santa at Drummer Garden's Center annual pictures.  Here's Hudson's first glimpse:

Like David Lettermen, here are the top 5 things Hudson could be thinking:

1. You are so not my Daddy!
2. No, I will not take that sucker from you; my Mommy told me not to accept presents from strangers!
3. I don't understand why Hayden is crying right now and not coming near you; you don't seem so tough.  I think I could totally take you...
4. Do you know you have something in your beard?
5. You have glasses too?  I think I like mine better...

Although I was a little scared again this year I did warm up a little (*with Mom near by) and we got some very nice pictures.  Here are some of our outtakes:

All three smiling!

Hudson smiling; Hayden not so sure!

We just about finished our Christmas shopping and had fun checking out all the holiday stuff. 

 

On Monday, Nov. 19th it was Hudson's first day back at daycare since he got glasses on Nov. 9th...he was out a full week due to strep throat!  Poor guy it seemed all his friends just had to check out (*pull off) his glasses all day.  All the teachers think he's adorable and do their best to protect him.  I'm sure the newness will wear off soon.  The rest of our week at daycare included talking about Thanksgiving, trying some Thanksgiving foods and enjoying the nice weather outside.  My favorite part of the week was making a Pilgrim hat, complete with a buckle, and making my own hand print turkey.  Here's my masterpiece:

Can't wait to see our family tomorrow and most excited for the parade!  All week I've been talking about seeing the parade and making our turkey pop treats....we'll post pictures soon!  Happy Thanksgiving everyone - we are so grateful to have each of you in our lives.  God bless!

Hayden goes to the dentist...

On Thurs., Nov. 15th we hosted our first fundraiser of the year, our Holiday Bazaar.  So on Wednesday night I got to help Mom make our bake sale goods.  We made pumpkin bread and I picked out making turkey cupcakes.  I love candy corn and after about the 5th or 6th cupcake I decided I didn't want to decorate anymore and just eat the candy and vanilla wafers!  Here's a picture of our turkey cupcakes - aren't they cute?

Our fundraiser was a success and the best part was I got to meet Lana the Iguana who is our healthy food representative.  I even got to try sugar snap peas which were raw so not too much of a fan...rather have them cooked!

 

On Friday, Nov. 16th I had my first dentist appointment ever!  I have all 20 teeth and overall I got a really good report.  I was a little scared of their tooth brush to clean my teeth but was very excited to get a new Cars toothbrush that I let them use on me instead.  Here's me picking out my new toothbrush.  I picked the one with Mater on it!

After my teeth were clean Dr. Grandgenett came over to check them out and all looked good.  Just said to keep up my brushing!  Of course to make Dad crazy he got his University of Iowa mascot, Herke, for us to take a picture with....can't say I was overly impressed either!  I asked him where Cy was which Mom thought was hilarious.

Today, Nov. 17th we had a dudes night while Mom, Ava's Mom (Anna) and Addison's Mom (Mandy) went to have pedicures, dinner and watch some Twilight movie!  Steven & Addison came over for another play date and dinner.  We had so much fun it was a little hard to go to bed.  Kind of fun being completely wild with Daddy while Mom's away!  Can't wait for our next dude's night!

Happy 3rd Birthday Hayden!

Hayden & Hudson's Mom here to write about Hayden's 3rd birthday!  Can't believe our baby boy is already 3 years old - where has the time gone?!  On Tues., Nov. 13th, actual birthday, we woke Hayden by singing, "Happy Birthday" and then had a special "I am 3" truck shirt for him to wear.  He was super excited for it!  Here's our birthday boy:

Hayden has changed so much in the past year it's hard to capture everything however here are some major areas in which he's grown:

• It's hard to believe the "terrible two's" are over as we think Hayden's missed them!  Sure, we've had growing pains here and there however overall Hayden listens well, is very independent and is naturally curious.  He loves to use his imagination to play trucks, tractors, farm or even "cook/bake".  Supposedly the next few years are the "magic years" -- partly because it seems like magic that our child is finally listening to us and partly because for our child, it is a time for his imagination to run wild.  We so look forward to all you learn and what you teach us.
• Hayden's vocabulary has grown so much this past year.  He understands so many words and it seems like he can speak 400 to 500 words.  He answers questions, his name, where do you live (*wish you could hear how he says Bricelyn, Minnesooota!), how old he is/how old he will be/how old Hudson is, etc., what type a tractor is a blue tractor (*answer: Ford) to who is Jesus' Mommy, "Mary".  He can speak in more complex sentences including 5 to 6 words and loves to tell us stories.  Sometimes true and sometimes crazy stories out of no where.
• He loves to read books, sing songs/dance and be creative with Play-Doh, crayons, paint, etc.  As we've been preparing for birthdays and the approaching holiday season the other day he picked up a holiday book with a picture of baby Jesus and started to sing Him Happy Birthday too!  I asked him when Jesus' birthday is and he replied, Christmas.  Always amazes us what he picks up on, remembers, etc.  For example he knows who drives tractor vs. truck vs. combine for Daddy's business; we drive a certain way & he can point out people's houses, places of business, etc.   
• He knows how to count to 20, his ABC's, most colors & shapes and of course, animals with their sounds.  Not surprising he knows all tractor & farm equipment including applicators, rippers and others that I didn't even know!
• Physically he's really strong, can hop on one foot, do somersaults, getting good at gymnastics like the trampoline, etc.  We swear he never walks and always runs.  So cute to see his legs go as fast as they can carry him and his arms pumping away to catch up!
• Our favorite is he shows genuine affection by saying, "I love you" without prompting, giving us hugs/kisses and even to Hudson!  He's such a big brother - likes to correct Hudson and help with Hudson's needs, worries about him, works at making him laugh and plays pretty good with him.

On Nov. 13th Hayden spent the day at daycare where he got to wear a special yellow birthday crown, he was pretty proud of it, and he got to take treats to daycare, he picked out Go-gurt sticks.  After daycare had weekly gymnastics class in which handed out healthy juice boxes for a treat/snack.  After dinner of course we sang again and got another cake!  Here's our birthday boy blowing out his candle:



Note he picked out a "zebra" cake which you alternate white & chocolate cake to get a "zebra" effect on the frosting.  Hayden was so proud of his zebra cake he got upset when we tried to give him a bite as he shook his hand at us, picked the bite off the fork & tried to "replace" it where it came from!  He wasn't to keep it intact.  He didn't mind licking off all the frosting though!

Of course a birthday isn't complete without a little something to open.  Since we already had the party there were just a couple of cards to open and we gave him Otis the tractor book and a personalized Cars book complete with his name, where he lives & even names of his friends.  He loved both!  Note the yellow crown in this picture is the one from daycare; he tried to wear it into the shower...

Happy 3rd Birthday Hayden; we are so proud of you & love you so much...

Love, Daddy, Mommy & Hudson

Hudson gets glasses...

On Mon., Nov. 5th Mommy & Hudson went to their last ECFE baby class and had a great time.  Some of the parent learning topics included baby photography at home & professional ideas, healthy eating & sleeping habits, choosing gifts for baby, how to interact & play with baby, and brain development.  Here they are during song time singing, "Hudson's here today!": 

On Tues., Nov. 6th Hudson welcomed his 8th tooth!  It was the 2nd from the middle on the bottom left hand side.  Didn't really complain too much so almost missed it!

 

As we begin the month of November here's a quick update on all our activities at daycare.  This month the Sweet Peas or baby room is doing a unit on "Thankful for Families".  They will be talking about "myself and my family" and Hudson is even going to make a family montage!  They plan to hang up in the classroom so the babies will have recognizing themselves & their families on the wall.

 

In our Little Sprouts room we welcomed a new teacher this month, Ms. Mandie, and this month we will be learning about popcorn (*I helped pop some on Nov. 6th), turkeys, family and transportation.  As I'm part-time in the Explorer's Room this month we will also learn about squirrels/nuts, hibernation & day/night, Thanksgiving & the color brown and transportation.  I love that both classrooms will focus on my first love, transportation!  Hopefully they'll include some tractors too!

 

On Thurs., Nov. 8th we got to stay a little longer at DC as Mom had a Parent's Board meeting as we're planning our first school year fundraiser to continue our efforts to build our toddler and pre-school playgrounds.  Welcome to join our Holiday Bazaar on Thurs., Nov. 15th at Little Giants from 4:30 to 7 p.m.  Lots of fun stuff to buy and even Santa pictures!

 

On Fri., Nov. 9th we celebrated another milestone...Hudson got glasses!  It took a few weeks however his glasses finally came in; they are round, Miramax children's eye glasses in dark blue pearl.  Note we only had 32 color choices to choose from!  They are very flexible and from the start Hudson loved them, seriously!  The eye doctor examined him after his glasses fitting and said usually children leave them on if they help.  Hudson is far sighted and right eye tends to stay stationary so we hope glasses will correct this so may out grow them.  We go back in December to see if working and if not may monitor for corrective surgery.  Daddy had the surgery at age 2!

 

Here's our handsome little guy just seconds after getting his glasses; loved them from the start, only took them off once and just smiled as his head continually looked around to check everything out! 

After glasses we celebrated by having a dinner date with Mom and then went to Blue Earth for their Holiday trolley rides!  We even got to see Ms. Megan and sit with her!  She thought Hudson was soo cute in his glasses and all the ladies were checking him out! 

Saturday, Nov. 10th and Sunday, Nov. 11th we enjoyed the nice weather and put out our Christmas lights.  We even put up a candy can walk way which of course I thought that meant I had to "lick" each one!  You should have seen the look of shock on Mom's face!  Apparently you can't eat these candy canes.  On the 10th we enjoyed a quiet night at home with the Hansen's for dinner & a movie.  We always love having play dates with Addison!  Unfortunately today, Nov. 12th Hudson woke up with a high fever of 103 and just not feeling well.  After a trip to the doctor's it was confirmed poor guy has strep throat - good news no ear infection!  Got on medicine right away and so far everyone else feels great.  Hopefully little man will feel better soon!  In the mean time we'll continue to admire how handsome he looks in his new glasses - congrats, Hudson!

Birthday Boys Party!

On Nov. 1st we both got good reports at DC as we weren't overtired & crabby as what seemed most of the other kids were from all the Halloween fun!  Teachers told Mom they were proud of us!  Also on Nov. 1st Hudson pulled himself up in his crib for the first time!  We woke up to Hudson greeting us standing tall!  He even crawled and pulled himself up at the tub during bath time to say hi to me while I was washing up.  Very fun watching baby brother get around although not so fun having him in what was my territory!  Now learning to share boundaries in addition to toys!

 

This weekend we celebrated a little early my 3rd and Hudson's 1st birthdays!  Here's our official invitation Mom made and you're invited to share in our festivities: 

On Friday, Nov. 2nd Uncle Jared spent the night in route to Ames for some ISU football and on Sat., the 3rd we were spoiled with our first birthday presents.  Hudson got a cool drum filled with noisy, musical instruments and I got a semi-truck with car hauler (*complete with cars to carrier)! 

On Sun., Nov. 4th we had our party!  We celebrated at the Frost Benco building and were blessed with about 25 of our immediate family members including grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts/uncles and our favorite (*& only) cousin, Hannah!  Here's the gang and although hard to see we had a huge John Deere tractor balloon hanging in the middle.  I was so excited when Dad got it down and I got to play with it and take it home!

Our party was a John Deere inspired, green/yellow theme, complete with a two-tier tractor cake!  Hudson's smash cake was even a tractor tire!  Mom was inspired & borrowed lots of ideas from Esty & Pinterest.  Here's our dessert table complete with a homemade Happy Birthday tractor banner:

As party favors we showered our guests with sweets.  On the left we offered an assortment of candy including green & yellow gumballs, Sixlets, M&M's, Apple-o's and Mom made almond bark pretzel sticks with green & yellow sprinkles!  We asked our guests to be a "deere" and take a bag of goodies home with them.  In the background you can also see Hudson's 1st Year video.  Like my first birthday we had a DVD of pictures put to a baby theme & music by Walgreen's to capture Hudson's wonderful first year.  We also re-showed my first year video; how I've grown! 

On the right we also offered "hay bales" or Rice Krispie treats and in a bale of hay placed lemon, chocolate & vanilla farm themed cake pops!  We put a cake pop at each place setting too and choices included tractor tires that matched the smash cake with either a "1" or a "3" for Hudson & I, a cow, pig, chick and/or horse.  I especially liked getting to eat them!

Here's a close-up of a few of the cake pops:

My favorite was the pig! 

As part of our party favors & decorations we also set out some of our scrapbooks and an assortment of recent pictures of us alone & together of different sizes for people to take with them.  We even set out envelopes.  On the wall are picture timelines of my first 3 years and Hudson's first year.  For mine we did Newborn, 3 months, 6 months, so forth and for Hudson we did Newborn & each month.  Mom got the idea from Esty to make tractor clothespins stating each month as you can see from the close-up below:

We had our own gift tables with John Deere themed fabric & buckets decorated with green & yellow bandannas, sunflowers that matched the fabric, and signs with our names on the wagon pulled by a green tractor of course!  We should note almost all the John Deere decorations were borrowed from our toy chest which helped cut down the party cost!



For the days Round-up we had Daddy's prized pig, Mamma's homemade Mac'n Cheese, Hudson's Vegetable Garden Corn & Assorted Veggie tracy, my Fruit Animals (*yep, used small farm cookie cutters to cut out animal shaped watermelon, melon & pineapple to go with the other fruit!), Grandpa's rolls/bread, Granny's Blue Ribbon Coleslaw and Kato's Chicken Feed (*or Chex Mix).  We also had Lemonade garnished with (yellow) lemon and (green) lime slices, bottles of water with our own personalized water bottle labels, soda, milk & coffee.  It was all very delicious!

Here's a close-up of our water bottles on ice in our John Deere dump truck (*note they say our names on them and the cloud of smoke from the tractor either has a "3" or a "1" in the middle!) 

Here's us birthday boys in our personalized shirts with Mom & Dad; aren't we the cutest! 

Time for cake!  Hudson's smash cake, a tractor tire, was vanilla and both cakes were made by Sugar Chic out of Albert Lea.  We had them spray the white frosting black rather than using black frosting which worked better as didn't turn his hands permanently black. 

Happy 1st Birthday Hudson! 

Here's Hudson digging in; Mom helped him at first but he soon caught on that frosting is good!  Wasn't too interested in the actual cake part but was covered with frosting by the end!  He even didn't mind being in the center with everyone watching him as he was too busy to notice.

 Here's "our" vanilla cake with the first layer being cow inspired with my number "3", the second layer a farm theme with a barn, pigs, cows and corn, and all topped by a John Deere inspired tractor completely made of frosting!  You bet I got to eat the tractor!

Here's me - birthday boy number two - blowing out my candle!  It was nice everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to Hudson and I individually. 

Happy 3rd Birthday Hayden!

Even the inside of the cake was decorated green & yellow (*my Mom thinks of everything!)

 After cake it was finally time for presents and we were spoiled with many beautiful cards and gifts.  Dad, Mom & Hudson got me a John Deere wooden barn complete with a fence for animals!  It's even red like Daddy's "shop" or work.  It has doors at both ends and one set even on the side.  My favorite part is that the roof lifts up on both sides so I can drive my tractors in and out.  It is so cool!

Hudson got an Iowa State metal, pedal tractor from Dad, Mom and me and like the little farmer he is he got right on & started to drive!  We should note that although Hudson had many fine gifts his favorite thing of the day was envelopes or wrapping paper!  He loved to crinkle it up & taste it.  Funny boy!  Hudson & I both got an old-fashioned John Deere metal, pedal tractor with a wagon and umbrella from Grandma & Grandpa Sergeant and Grandam & Grandpa Vogel!  Here we both are on our tractors!  Hannah and I had fun riding them all over and Hudson had fun crawling after us.  Once we got home we put the wagon together and I drove Hudson around in the wagon!

After presents we got pictures with all the guests and gave many thank you hugs & kisses.  We are so blessed to have the best family in the world.  Thank you all for making our birthday so special.  Here's Hudson all tuckered out after the party.  We weren't too far out of town and we were both asleep!  What a fun day; too bad we can't have a party every weekend.

Happy Birthday Hayden & Hudson...we love you!

Happy Halloween!

On Sun., Oct. 28th we enjoyed a quit day of church & carving pumpkins!  Our neighbor Bill had a huge pumpkin patch and we got 4 pumpkins, one for each of us!  Here's Dad & I cleaning them out and Hudson having fun making noise with the bowls and carving utensils!

Here's Mom & I doing the other two: 

I decided to carve a happy face, as not too fond of "scary", and of course I told Dad we needed to add ears!  Yep, I carved "ears" on all our pumpkins!

Here's Hudson playing with all the insides; he wasn't sure if he liked it or not but he kept going back for more!  He didn't try to eat it like I did my first year.

Here we are all done & ready for supper.  We made two faces, an I State of course and a Yoda one to match our costumes this year!

All light up!

On Oct. 29th Hudson pulled himself up at DC for the first time and as you'll read Hudson pulled himself up at home on Oct. 30th!  On Halloween, Oct. 31st, our Little Sprouts class joined the Tiny Tots class for a Halloween party and trick-or-treating!  We got to bring our costumes to daycare and around 10:00 a.m. we went around the Ag Building to all the businesses.  We got so many fun treats and for my special treat we made bags with Halloween themed apple cider, Halloween Micky Mouse stickers/tattoos and fun Halloween pencils.  After DC Mom picked us up and we met Dad at home to go trick-or-treating!  What a fantastic fall to have Dad done early and get to with us.

2012 Family Theme: Star Wars!  I was Luke Skywalker, Hudson was Wicket the Ewok and Kato was Yoda!  We had trouble getting Kato in his costume in time for pics before we headed out so here's us boys before we left on Halloween...

and here's all 3 of us Star Wars characters a little later (*as you can tell as Hudson now has glasses!)... 

Looking good don't you think?

   

We enjoyed seeing Grandma Betty, Grandma & Grandpa Prestegard, Aunt Patty & Uncle Butch and even getting our pictures professionally taken with Bennett's Mom, Kim, who Hudson & Mom met at their ECFE class.  Hudson had a fun first Halloween and did great trick-or-treating.  Didn't get scared and enjoyed crawling around no matter where we went.  I enjoyed having my light saber as it glowed!  Here's our family: 

Hope you had a very Happy Halloween too!