Saturday, July 6, 2013

Need Another Hand

Happy birthday to my Jude Lincoln!
He's now 6 and that means that we need to add another hand when showing how old he is (you know 5 fingers plus 1 additional?).
We had a party for him on Thursday.
But first, my little man ran a lollipop race in Altoona and although there were no winners, I'll let you come to your own conclusions from the photo below!

A few more shots of Jude getting 'pumped up' for his race.



We had a picnic style lunch for him around 1pm. Family and friends arrived. We ate, walked around outside, and had some cake. Oh, yes, the cake!! The highlight of every Hudkins birthday party. Let me reveal:
Grammy Linda did not disappoint! Jude wanted a mustache cake. the coolest thing about this cake was the inside was like a tie-dye cake. I didn't get a photo of it, but trust me, it was awesome.
Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate and thanks for bringing Jude goodies!

Up next: Wrapping up birthday week with a day in Pittsburgh!


Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Birthday Week!

Hi Everyone!
I'm Amy. 
This is my blog I promised I'd maintain.
I really want to blog more often, life just gets in the way.

So here we are in July and guess who turns 6 in two days? My little buddy Jude Lincoln :0
Love that kiddo.
The good of having a birthday on the 4th of July is you'll always get fireworks. The bad is that it's a busy time of year for everyone and trying to put a party together is stinky. So we're turning his birthDAY into a birthWEEk celebration.
We kicked it off last evening with a trip to 5 Below, Barnes and Noble, The Meadows for ice cream, and a sleepover for the boys at Ga-Ga and Pop's.
Today might include a carnival visit.
Thursday Jude will run the Lollipop race in Altoona and then we'll have family picnic/party.
Friday we're heading to the Carnegie Science Center - hopefully I'll actually blog about that :)

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Expanding Family

Our family has grown by 1!
Meet Magnolia Mae.
 
This little cutie is 6 weeks old (born 2/1/13).
She's a lab/golden retriever mix.
We love her! 

The story of how Maggie Mae came to be:
Since the passing of our Gertie last year, we knew we'd get another pup sooner or later. Our neighbors dog had 10 lab/golden retriever pups. Jeremy went and scoped them out, then I did.
Once we decided we'd get a pup, we also decided that we wouldn't tell the boys, rather keep it a surprise. Jude's still at the age where we can't understand 'we'll get her in a few weeks.' That would seem like a century to him. And Jackson, well, we feared it would totally distract him from school.
Last weekend was 'pick your pup' weekend. I snuck to the neighbors, telling the boys I was 'going for a run.' One of the toughest decisions I had to make was which 9 not to take. I wanted them all. I did mention that we should probably take 2, but then I came to me senses.
I picked out this little gem and then the longest week of waiting came.

Jeremy went puppy supply shopping, keeping the goods in his trunk all week. We snuck to his car so I could see the toys and collar - I felt bad we weren't sharing any of the prep work with the boys.
Yesterday after work, I went straight to the neighbor's to pick up girly. I brought her home; I had asked the boys to be on the lookout for me b/c I'd have groceries in the car and need help carrying them in (that wasn't a lie;). So I pulled up to the house, they were at the door waiting. I ran around to the passenger's side, pulled out the box and carried it to the door. Jeremy opened it and the boys saw the box, the 'it's a girl' balloon, then her! In what seemed like 5 minutes, but was really a split second, the boys looked at me, then the pup, then Jeremy, then the pup, then me. That's when I told them she was ours! Jackson fell over and Jude started jumping up and down.
And so here we are.
 
Many more adventures to come!
 



 

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Italian French Toast

On Christmas Eve, we received a package from Parma, Italy from our friends Paolo and Stefania. It was full of delicious treats. This morning I made French toast with the panettone bread they sent us. The bread was sweet and full of raisins and oranges. It made the most delicious breakfast!
Guess we'll start our diets tomorrow :)
 
It's so pretty, I almost didn't want to open it (but so glad I did).

It's like a huge cupcake.

All ready for its custard bath!

If only the computer screen was a scratch and sniff.....

Yum!


Sunday, December 30, 2012

2012 Year in Review - Photo edition

We sure did have an amazing year. I was looking through our photos this morning and can't believe all the fun things we did this year. So many highlights and milestones!
Here are some (this post would be 15 pages long if I put in everything I want) of my faves:
 
Basketball

Learning (Kindergarten visitation day during Catholic Schools Week)

Love!

Celebrating birthdays and new friendships

Friendship!

Family :)

Surprises

Creativity!

Adventure

Inspiration
 




Graduation


Beach


 Historical

 Like the sign says, "1st day of K!"


 A great soccer season

Travel 

 Heaven (for 2 boys who love Legos)
 
 Cuteness
 
And finally, UPGRADES (new roof)


Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Merry Christmas!


Ah, what a nice day. This Christmas will go down in the books as the most relaxed Christmas I can remember. We're usually in 4 different places for the day but this year we started and ended at home (with a nice family dinner at the in-laws in the middle of the day).
 
Our Christmas actually started yesterday with breakfast at the Cracker Barrel with my family, followed by festivities, gift openings, the traditional Polish supper, and Christmas Eve mass. Some of the presents we got at my parents' house: guitars, Legos, DS games, Wii game. Dana and Nate got us a 1-year membership (not to the jelly of the month club) to the Altoona Railroaders Museum and Horseshoe Curve - can't wait to use it!
Me and Jude waiting for our breakfasts (peach pancakes are always my fave pick at Cracker B)

Aidan eating his Cheerios (and maybe, just maybe using them as boulders to fill up his dump truck)


Jude waiting to see Santa. He never really wanted to see Santa, but Jude decided he wanted to do it this year, so we did!

My boys were happy to take Aidan on a train ride at the mall. It's hard to believe we used to have to pull Jackson away from this train; now we had to twist his arm to ride it.

Aidan looking so intensely at Santa

The mall tree

Ready to head out to church

When we got home from church we found a box at our door step. It was from our friends, Paolo and Stefania from Italy. They sent a box of delicacies from Parma, their hometown!


PARMesan Cheese!

Today was a nice day full of lots and lots (and lots) of wrapping paper. Kinda looked like Hallmark threw up in our living room, Grammy Linda's living room, everywhere, but the kids were as happy as could be.

Santa arrived!


 The boys got a joint gift: A Nerf racing wheel for the Wii and the movie Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

 Jackson is a happy camper in his room with his new iPod dock/radio/alarm clock


 Trucks will always make this little man happy! He's playing with it as I write this blog post.


 Jude's squirrel - he found it hiding in the tree (he did a small reenactment of Christmas Vacation when the squirrel jumps out of the Christmas tree).


Jackson got a nice selection of books this year. Included in the bunch: Diary of a Wimpy Kid (the 3rd Wheel), Dragonbreath, and I Funny.


Once we opened our gifts from Santa, we went next door to Grammy Linda's house for lunch and more presents. Somehow I managed to not get 1 photo of our time at Grammy Linda's???? We had a delicious lunch after we opened presents. Some of the goods received: gift cards, games, Legos, books, workbooks, science kit, a marble run, Angry Bird stuff, so much stuff I can't even remember.

We've spent the evening enjoying, building, playing, building, relaxing, and eating cookies!

Although there are many post-holiday sales shouting my name, we're in for 2 days of crappy weather, so it looks like some more of the good stuff we had today!

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2012