It was a big week for everyone at the Meek household. On Tuesday Hudson decided he was tired of waiting for everyone to move him around so he is now a full fledged crawler! There is a video below of his first time really moving.
Saturday Gwennie had her birthday party with all of her favorite friends including Crawford, Lexi, Lia, Stella, Matty, Charlie, Ben and Noah! As you will see from the pictures, all of the kids had a blast and were pooped once it was over. Corbin took a few funny videos of the madness.
Sunday was such a beautiful day that we pulled the bicycles out and took the kids to the park. Mommy and Daddy are in such bad shape that it was a struggle to get there and luckily Gwennie was more interested in having snack so we all rested before some well deserved play time. We headed back for a cook out with just the family and Hudson got to play with a few "new to you" old toys that Gwennie used when she was his age. Overall it was a great weekend! Here are our pics, a few videos and a link to some pictures Allison took of all the fun!Click here to view photos
It has been a great weekend in Charlotte. Our cousins Russ, Gini, Alex, Blyth and Tally (the dog) came up for a concert and stayed through the weekend. We all love when they are here because it gives the kids a ton of stuff to do and it give their parents a nightlife! Friday we had lasagna for dinner and as you will see by the pictures Gwennie and Blyth got more on their faces than their mouths! Saturday the boys took the girls to the park while Gini and I did some shopping and headed to dinner and a movie. It was so nice to get out for a "Girl's Night" so a big thank you to the hubbies for taking on kid duty!
Sunday was pretty laid back, the kids and I headed up to Melissa's to check out her beautiful new home and I wish I would have brought the camera. Gwennie had so much fun with Bella (the dog) that she was exhausted by the time we got home.
Today Hudson went in for Myringotomy surgery (tubes in the ears) which Gwennie also had around the same age. They both went through about 3 months of ear infections and since Gwennie had her surgery she has had 1 other ear infection in 2 years. Hudson is sleeping now but as you can see from the pictures he was a wonderful patient!
Here are some pictures from the weekend.
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fter what seemed like never ending cold weather, we finally were able to enjoy a nice weekend outside and at the park. Saturday we hitched the dogs up to the stroller and headed to the park. Hudson had his first of many times in the swings and loved it. Gwennie spent most of her time crawling in the jungle gym, singing and explaining to everyone that the sticks on the ground were "magical". I snapped a couple of videos of them as well that you can watch below.
This weekend was filled with lots of snow! Friday evening the snow started and by Saturday morning there was about 5 inches on the ground. Around 8 AM we dug out the snow clothes, bundled the kids up and let the dogs make a first pass at the front yard. I think out of everyone, Ruby seemed to enjoy herself the most. She ran all over the yard and couldn't seem to get enough of the weather. Gwennie loved making tracks in the snow and kicking the bushes to see what would happen. Hudson wasn't really sure what to think but was a good sport. After the snow we headed inside for pink chocolate chip pancakes. Apparently the snow wore everyone out because the kids passed out after! Saturday night we made some pot roast and gave some pureed pot roast to Hudson and as you can see from the pictures he seemed to enjoy it.
Sunday I tried my hand at beignets from New Orleans which really just were flattnets but still tasted pretty good. The house smelled like a fryer for the rest of the day so I think we will leave it to the experts and just stick to pancakes. Sunday night we spent Valentine's day with some friends for a kid friendly pizza dinner. Today it was just me and the kiddies so we did an IKEA run and then daddy came home early so Gwennie put on her dress, shoes and jacket to help with the recycling. Next time we will remind her that her shoes should probably match and in the winter it's a good idea to throw some pants on!
This is literally the only picture where both Blyth and Gwennie are clothed and clean!
For those of you not watching the news, there was a HUGE storm that hit Virginia/Maryland/DC this weekend. We were planning on heading up there to visit friends and celebrate birthdays, unfortunately 3 ft of snow got in the way! Thursday afternoon Corbin and I were wavering between leaving at 4 PM to beat the snow or just heading to the Low Country to hang out with our cousins at the annual Oyster Roast. Finally around 3 PM we decided not to chance it and called Russ/Gini and asked if they wanted company this weekend. Gwennie and Hudson love to spend time with Blyth and Alex and we always have a blast hanging out with E, Gini and Russ so we left the car packed and headed down to Columbia Friday night. Blyth and Gwennie kept everyone in hysterics Friday night as they made an interesting mess of "Spaghetti Night". Gini made the sauce while Russ cooked the meatballs and it was a huge hit. Gwennie and Blyth probably stepped on more than they ate but they had lots of fun doing so. After hosing them off and putting their jammies on we read a few stories. They spent more time "talking" on their cell phones with each other than actually listening to the story but by about 9 PM they were wiped out and ready to crash.
Saturday morning we all loaded up and headed down to Huger (pronounced YouJee...don't ask my why it's said that way, couldn't tell you) to see the rest of the fam and as usual, I didn't plan well so the camera battery didn't make it very long :-( Here are a few pictures from Saturday with Page showering her ace Auntie/Mothering skills, Aunt Louise pushing Gwennie on the swing and Molly (who is a big sister to baby Jack!) giving a "Yay, we did it!" picture smile on the swing. When the girls got there Molly/Blyth/Gwennie/Alex all couldn't wait to play together (just like Xmas!) and had lots of fun making a mess.
I wish the camera was working all day because the pictures of Gwennie COVERED in mud from playing on the slide were pretty funny. I think she might have been the dirtiest kid there but she sure did have fun!
A big thank you to Nana, all of the Aunts and Uncles (especially Bill who held Hudson and kept him smiling and happy) Page, Emily Vick, and Jeremy for helping out with kid duty!!! It took an army to keep track of all of the little ones!
It's Clark! This weekend we celebrated Gwennie's Godfather's birthday in New Orleans. Nancy, Clark, Corbin, Stephanie, Matt and I all headed down to New Orleans (sans kiddies) for a weekend of eating, eating and more eating! We also happened to be down right at the start of Mardi Gras season. We were fortunate enough to see the first parade called Krewe du Vieux which is VERY racey and not something you take the kids too. WARNING....some of the pictures are a bit graphic but they are straight from the parade and luckily the night vision on our camera blurred things a bit. I also removed some of the more interesting ones for the faint of heart! . Sunday we also got to see the Buddy D's Bet Parade which was a tribute to the recently deceased New Orleans sports broadcast legend Buddy Diliberto. He said he would wear a dress down Porter Street if the Saints ever went to a Super Bowl...well he passed away just a few months before the Saints won that bet so thousands of men and women came out to parade in his honor. And I can officially say we are all huge Saints fans now. Signs read "Who Dat" and "Bless You Boys!" all over the town. I am not sure what the NFL thinks about that logo but I can tell you New Orleans deserves a Super Bowl victory!
Here are the pictures from the week with a couple of the kids from this morning. AGAIN...THESE ARE A LITTLE RACEY!!!
This is how I found "baby brother" on Tuesday morning. Gwennie decided he needed all of the toys in his room in his crib. Luckily he happened to be on the other side of the crib so he wasn't buried under the pile but he seems very content with his new crib buddies and Gwennie was reading to him with one of his books that she had pulled off of his shelf. She's been doing this just about every morning and she now gets that he only needs the "little" toys in his crib rather than everything! Here are a few pictures from the weekend.
Not too many pictures this week. After about a week of being illness free Gwennie looks to be coming down with a cold and it has been raining all weekend so we decided to hang out near the house. Saturday we had a girls day and saw the Princess and the Frog which Gwennie loved! We then headed over to Chick-a-let (I think you can guess where we went) for lunch while Daddy and Hudson chilled at home. Last night I gave Hudson a cracker while Gwennie was eating some pudding for dessert and these pictures pretty much sum up what happened a few seconds later. I also put up a picture of Gwennie's morning outfit today. Apparently she's decided black patent leather and PJs on her head is a new fashion statement!
Hudson is 7 months old as of Friday! He's starting to sit up without help and is such a happy kid. I try not to talk too much about how great my kids are but he's such a happy baby and really lights up when anyone is in the room. Gwennie is great with him as well and in the morning the first thing she wants to do is go see if "baby brother" is awake. She now thinks his real name is "Buddy" and corrects Corbin and I by telling us..."his name's not Hudson....it's Buddy!". Nice to know she picks up on EVERYTHING we say!
We had a few friends over last night for pizza and playtime. Ben and Noah are both a little younger than Gwennie but they all love hanging together and really had fun playing run-around-the-house as fast as their little legs would go. Ben makes sure to give everyone a high five at each pass...we decided he's going to be a marathoner. Noah loves to play with our coasters and spent lots of time throwing then stacking them in neat piles.
Well, 2009 has come and gone and over here we are COLD but enjoying our time with Gee Gee. She finally is leaving today and everyone is VERY sad (I think Corbin might be in the worst shape because as of now the laundry train is gone and he knows how long it will be before he sees clean clothes again!). To take up some time GeeGee, Gwennie, Hudson and I headed to our annual Lazy 5 Ranch excursion. As always the animals there were more than happy to take pictures and entertain Gwennie and GeeGee who don't particularly like the emus but love the llamas.
Hudson is still trying to clear up an ear infection so we let him chill out in the back where he snoozed or checked out the animals from the window.
This is about the view we all had Xmas Eve while we were attempting to put together the dollhouse I randomly bought months ago for Gwennie. Not knowing there was something like 4000 pieces, we decided to crack open the box around 9 PM thinking we would be done within an hour.....or so.....
Well, the dollhouse is done and is a HUGE hit (as was the Dora Scooter which was literally a last minute toy). Hudson loves his incredi-block and sock monkey which I am pretty sure is going to be attached to him in later years. As you can see from the pictures Nana Sus, GeeGee and Pop pop were here for the fun and were a big help with all of the cleaning/assembling of toys and food. The day after Christmas Corbin, Gwennie and I said our good bye's to Nana and headed to Monkey Joe's to burn off some of the food we had been eating all weekend. Gwennie wasn't to into going on the slides but loves the bounce house and you will notice her father does as well!
Pop pop and I celebrated our birthdays and you can see from the video below that Gwennie liked to serenade us every night before birthday cake (which we ate just about every day for almost four days now! Safe to say we are birthday caked out!
Here are the pictures from the fun and 2 videos of Gwennie. Every time she jumped on the Dora Scooter "Skip to My Lou" was heard throughout the house and lately she's adding this nutty ballet routine as well that I caught a quick show of with my dad's camera phone.
Once again the Webb family met up for the annual holiday sleepover. I think everyone can agree this might have been the best party yet. From the Spice for lunch (wonderful burger joint in Sparkle City) to decorating of the gingerbread dolls/houses and the finale of the "Tiger Woods Starter Kit" Chinese Auction, everyone had a blast! The kids literally passed out both nights from exhaustion and I loved hearing "where's Gwennie" from Molly or "Hi Molly" from Blyth. Gwennie was also Miss Chatty and woke up every morning with the same question...."Mommy/Daddy....where's Molly, Blyth, Faryn, Kamryn & Alex?" She could not wait to see her cousins and Hudson was pretty much occupied by every family member. I think he's going to expect to be held from here on out!
Here are lots of pictures from the weekend.
What a great vacation! Saturday Corbin, Gwennie and I headed out to California to visit with our friends Michael, Michelle and Madeline. As you can see from the pictures we spent LOTS of time outside and at Disneyland. Gwennie and Madeline had a blast and quickly became BFFs! Michael and Michelle were amazing hosts and we loved waking up to warm, sunny weather. Corbin and I both agreed this is one of the best vacations we have ever taken and we can't wait to come back and visit again!
As you can see here...it was a chilly 29 degrees on Sunday. Unfortunately it was a brisk 24 degrees in the house because our gas pump on the heater wasn't working so we all were in sweatshirts and under blankets until Daddy could fix the heater. Hopefully today it will be resolved and it is finally warmer in the house as we are running on electric now which is not as efficient but at this point we all just wanted the house to be warmer.
Other than the cold temperatures, we attempted some Xmas pics in cheesy matching outfits (I know the kids will be mad that I made them dress alike when they were younger). Until they can pick out their own clothes, they are stuck with matching smocked clothing for now. I figured you all would like to see some of the "outtakes" from our Xmas picture fiasco...
It was a busy busy holiday at the Meek household. For Thanksgiving we celebrated with Granny Gary and Uncle Robert, Nina, Caroline and Megan at their house and the kids all had a wonderful time visiting with everyone. Gwennie spent most of the day running after Chloe their toy poodle (who I am pretty sure was happy to see her go)! Hudson loved being the center of attention and was passed around all day so he was also spoiled rotten.
Friday we picked out our tree which was pretty difficult given 2 of our top 3 trees were swiped the minute I turned around to look for Gwennie (who loves to play hide and seek between all of the trees). We finally nabbed a tree and headed home to decorate the house. As you can see from the pictures we decided the dogs also needed a treat and love to play the "peanut butter on the nose" trick with them so I snapped a few shots of them trying to get all of the peanut butter off of their noses.
Saturday Corbin had a class so I headed down to Columbia to visit with the Webb/Workman clan for the Clemson/USC football game. Gwennie loves to hang out with Blyth and Alex and I am always jumping at the chance to see Russ, Gini, E, Rachel and Parks. We all had a great time and ate ourselves silly with all the food...fried turkey, cookies, chip, dip and LOTS of snacks kept the kids very well fed and every time I turned around Gwennie had a piece of turkey, chip or cookie in her mouth.
Sunday Gwennie/Hudson and I had a park play date with Crawford and Janet since the weather was beautiful and then Corbin took over daddy daycare for the night so I could head to a birthday dinner for Miss Jen (who took care of Gwennie when she was a baby).
Overall a great weekend and we are all trying to recover from all the food/fun!
Not much going on this week. We all are battling a cold so most of the weekend was spent around the house or in the backyard. Gwennie got a haircut on Saturday and as you will see from the pictures...her bangs were cut a little short! The good news is that her hair grows so fast that in about a week she will look a little more normal.
Since it was so cold out on Sunday we spent LOTS of time trying to entertain the kids. As a last resort we tried High School Musical on NetFlix. Check out the video below of Gwennie jamming out to one of the songs.
Gwennie goes through a bunch of sayings every week that constantly make us laugh and wonder where she gets them from. The one we know comes from us is "Come on Dude....you can't drive!" which both mommy and daddy have said in the midst of traffic! Now whenever we are at a light Gwennie "talks" to the driver for us. When we were taking a video of Hudson having his first taste of oatmeal...about 1 step up for cardboard rice cereal, Gwennie had one of those moments and asked her brother "don't cha know?" Check the video and the pictures below from this weekend. We also tried to add some bananas to the oatmeal but his face pretty much shows exactly what he thought about banana oatmeal!
Hudson celebrated his 5 month birthday on Sunday and although he's been sick with an ear infection and cough, he's been a real trooper. I really thought he would be at his wit's end when we had to use the nebulizer on him but he loved it and thought it was a game! Luckily, Gwennie likes doing things her baby brother does so she was also a good sport when it was her turn to be "nebulized". As you can see from the pictures GeeGee is still here which has been wonderful. With her here Hudson has been able to stay home and get better (and receive LOTS of attention). I am pretty sure when he goes back to daycare he's going to be a handful since he's constantly held by GeeGee during the day. Overall we are going to miss "the Geege" as we like to sometimes call her. Corbin loves having someone to do all the laundry and tell him what a great cook he is! I love having my mom here and Gwennie/Hudson think she hung the moon!
As you can also see, GeeGee had the ATV sent from her house which in the videos you will notice that Gwennie finally learned how to steer. I posted one from last year when Gwennie first tried out the ATV at GeeGee and PopPop's last April. There's also a cute video of Gwennie teaching Hudson how to "fly like a butterfly". Check out the first picture in the set so you can see what I looked like as a kid....slight resemblance!
This weekend was busy, busy, busy! Friday afternoon Gwennie and Hudson's school had a Halloween Parade around the neighborhood which all the kids had so much fun showing off their costumes and playing with all the other kids in the classes! Nana also came into town for Hudson's big day.
Saturday we headed over to the old neighborhood for a Halloween party with a bounce house that kept ALL of the kids busy for most of the afternoon. As you can see from the pictures Gwennie really enjoyed herself! Saturday night we picked up GeeGee and PopPop and they (along with Nana) stayed with Hudson while we attempted to trick or treat in the rain. After about 3 houses we decided it would be more fun to head back to the house so Stella, Oliver (who was Elvis with an O - Ovis!), Hudson and Gwennie played in the house while we tried to get them to stay up as late as we could for daylight savings time.
Sunday was Hudson's Baptism of which he was the apple of everyone's eye. He was all smiles during the entire ceremony and flashed a HUGE smile after he was baptized which made the entire congregation melt. His Godparents Andrew, Janet and Crawford were such a help and Hudson loves to make eyes and Crawford. Everyone headed over to the house after for brunch where Megan & Caroline entertained Gwennie and Crawford while the rest of us (Nina, Linny, Corbin, Janet, Andrew, GeeGee, PopPop, Nana and I) enjoyed a nice meal at the table. Gwennie and Crawford really enjoyed all the attention Nina, Megan and Caroline gave them all afternoon. Now we are all resting after a busy weekend!
This weekend was the annual Halloween parade in the neighborhood. As always there were hundreds of kids, parents and a few pets ready to strut around the street. Usually the firetruck accompanies us but they got a call right before we were ready to march so we were led by an old Ford F100 instead. Regardless all of the kids were having a great time checking out everyone else in full costume. Gwennie decided she wanted to wear her mini mouse costume and Hudson was sporting his Moose (not mouse) ensemble. After we had a bunch of friends over for a barbecue and I wish I would have taken pictures because the kids were all running around having a blast! Today we are all pretty pooped as you can see from the final pictures of Hudson camped out in our bed.
It was a big week for everyone at the Meek household. On Tuesday Hudson decided he was tired of waiting for everyone to move him around so he is now a full fledged crawler! There is a video below of his first time really moving.
