Hudson's Here!!!

Well, our little Hudson is already 10 days old! The time is already flying by. As excited as we are for Christmas we know once it is over things (time!) will slow down and it won't feel like Hudson is 'growing up' quite so fast. So far he is a WONDERFUL and pretty mild mannered little guy. The kid's are absolutely in love with him and are so sweet to him. It's a little strange to have a brunette olive skinned baby, but also really fun for me...we never thought it would happen. So far we think he looks a lot like Aiden just darker. A & E love to hold him and are happy to do just that. They don't seem to be in any hurry for him to be up and playing yet. We are definitely happy to have a little guy to snuggle with again and can honestly say that even though it's only been 10 days it really is hard to remember life not as a family of 5! Here's how we've spent his first 10 days....

Well, actually I'm going to back up to the day I went up to the stork's nest because that was also Aiden's 7th birthday! We let he and Elaina stay home from school and went to Chili's (of course) for lunch, opened presents at home and then all went up to Seoul. Aiden is so sweet and he didn't make us feel too bad about the day not totally being about him. Minus the drive up to Seoul and all of the checking into things and appointments we think it was a pretty good day...but, we promise 8 will be LOTS more fun!

Ready to dive into the loot!
That is one VERY excited 7 year old...we got him a DSI...he has been asking for one for about a year now. He thought we were getting him a transformer, so we got him good!

The fam with our BIG 7 year old...where does the time go?

I ended up staying in Seoul for 4 nights and on day 5 it was time for baby Hudson to be here! I called Dad and he, MeMe and the kid's came rushing up. We all hung out in the hospital for a couple of hours and then a VERY sweet friend of ours, Christa, took Aiden and Elaina for the duration of the delivery. Poor Aiden was very nervous. He and Dad are my worriers! He called us about 3 times to check in. He didn't understand why it was taking so long and he didn't want to miss anything. It was very sweet. Christa took them to the movies and he did NOT want to go because he thought he would miss something while he was there, so Dad promised him that he would go and get him at the movies if he was there when Hudson was born and that made him a little happier.

When he was born nobody could get over all of the brown hair and his size. It was so much fun! The doc thought he was about 8 1/2 pounds and when they put him on the scale and told us he was 9 pounds 2 ounces even her jaw dropped!

Our BIG little boy!

PROUD Mommy and Daddy..we are SO in love!

Meeting his MeMe for the first time!

Here's your baby brother...he finally "popped out!"

Our first familiy pic as a 5 ship!

Proudest big brother you'll ever meet!

Sweetest big sister you'll ever meet!
MeMe with all of her grandbabies!
Daddy and his babies. Love!

He will always be taken care of and watched over!
Elaina helping give Hudson his first 'cat bath'...notice she even put a headband in like me...she's my little helper!
All warm and cozy for our first night at home in their matching jammers!

Elaina reads and reads to him. It is wonderful! Hopefully he will get her love of reading!
Aiden loves to just hold him while he's watching tv!

Our little loves on our way to the kid's Christmas party!

In a milk coma!

Dad reading the letter Santa Claus sent from the North Pole...it was VERY exciting!

Aiden and Hudson have matching shirts that say Dad's Rockstars...Aiden was very excited to show them off to Daddy!

Momma and her sweet boy's!!

What a way to start and end a week...birthdays on both ends!

Lot's of Catching Up To Do!

It's been a while since we've blogged and we've been pretty busy! No baby yet, but HOPEFULLY by the end of the week. I go to the stork's nest (a Korea thing) on Monday, so the next blog will be all about Hudson's birthday! Woo Hoo! We are ready to have him here!

MeMe made it here last Monday and the kid's were over joyed. We've been having lots of fun with her and keeping her busy with our schedules! Now...let's play catch up!

The girl's in the squadron threw all the prego draggin' wives a 'surprise' baby shower. I put surprise in quotes because I was tipped off by a little birdie, so I knew what to wear :)

Dana, Annie, me and Brenda...the guests of honor!

All the lovely Draggin' ladies!

Our super cute cake...

Super cute onesies...

and super cute diaper cakes!

We also decided we would try to go to the Seoul Lantern Festival. They went all out this year because the G20 summit was here that week. However, we did not make it downstairs to walk on the river and see the lanterns. There were more people there then we've ever seen in our entire lives. The line to get down was at least 2 hours long, so we just enjoyed them from the top of the bridge!

Aiden in front of a giant lantern.

Looking down the stream at all of the lanterns. It would have been lots of fun to go down and see them, but we just couldn't handle the lines.

The fam leaving the lantern festival.

MeMe got here and we put her right to work!! Here are she and E taking down the shelves in our laundry room, so that we could convert it to baby Hudson's room...you make the best of what you have when you live in an apartment!!

Working on the shelves!

Hudson's AWESOME bedding that MeMe made...I'm telling you there is nothing she can't do! We just LOVE it...now we just need baby H in it to enjoy it!!

Another view of his laundry room...nothing but the best for our little man!
This was the folding counter, but it has been converted to the changing table! MeMe even made the diaper bag...I'm telling you she's AMAZING!!

Aiden also made green belt. That was a big day in our house...he had been working on his routine for a while....here is the video!

He let MeMe hold the board and here he is VERY proud of himself for getting that green belt! For the record...I have NEVER gotten to hold the board!

Then we went on a girl's shopping trip to Seoul.

Here we are in Ms. Lee's house purse shopping. She does NOT allow pics, so that's why this one is not very good, but she has purses and wallets everywhere...it's nuts!

Now we're almost caught up. Thanksgiving came and went without too much fanfare. We participated in the Thunderbolt Feast again this year. Dad's squadron makes all the food and we serve it up at the high school cafeteria to all of the maintainers. It's a lot of fun and definitely a feel good experience!

E putting the turkey faces on the cupcakes in her cute apron from MeMe!

Our little turkey's!
This is probably our last family pic as a family of 4...so crazy!
MeMe with her little turkey's!

Here's one final shot from today....Elaina with a baby in her tummy!! She was talking to baby H today asking him to "Please kick, kick, kick and pop out!" and I told her that was up to God and she said "Lord, please let baby Hudson pop out now!" It was so funny! She is definitely a character!

Her 'baby' popped out about a second later...I wish it was that easy!

Lil' E's Birthday, Halloween Fun and The Party!

Last Tuesday our baby girl turned 4! Where has the time gone is what we want to know! I really do remember like it was yesterday asking Dad and MeMe "Who does she look like" about 2 seconds after she was born and them saying in unison "Like Aiden." And then after about an hour (slow nurses) holding her for the first time. What a wonderful and special girl we have got! She has changed our lives for absolutely nothing but the better! She is full of attitude, confident, loud, bossy, a total girly girl and we wouldn't change a thing! We had a 'family party' on her birthday. We went to Chili's for dinner, then went to Aiden's school for the fall festival, then came home and opened presents and had brownie cake!

The birthday girl with her loot for her family party!

Being sung to at Chili's...it's all Korean employees and they come out and just shout "Birthday" about 50 times! It's quite the experience! Sorry the pic is bad...I hit a button on my camera and changed the setting without realizing it.

E wanted our besties, Chloe and Kristana, to come to her birthday dinner!

Birthday brownie cake...notice her costume...Uncle Kyle and Sarah gave her that and she LOVES it! They definitely win the award for favorite gift!!

She and Nora, her American girl bitty baby from Mom and Dad in there matching jammies from Aiden! She loves Nora and being able to match! It's really cute!

On Friday we had Aiden's school character parade and Mrs. Crosby, Aiden's teacher, was nice enough to let Elaina march in it, too!

Luke Skywalker walking by!

Now the Peacock Princess...told you.. .she LOVES this costume!

On Friday night Dad had a roll call (fighter pilot thing) and he had to go in costume. Of course we didn't know that until 3 days before, so we had to come up with a costume quick and we decided since I'm preggers why not just go as white trash! I met up with him at the O'Club after his roll call!

Here we are in all our white trash glory!! Hot, huh?! I'm sure Hudson will love these pics one day!

Did you know Fat Elvis and Marilyn (aka Jeff and Noelle) hung out with white trash? Must have been a real low point in their lives!

On Saturday morning we got up early and got ready for the kid's combined birthday party! It was really fun and God blessed us with the most beautiful weather you could ask for! We had a few games for the kid's to play and some fun Halloween inspired food! A pretty great day for the Smiley kiddo's!

Happy Birthday, Aiden! He wanted a mummy cake, so I improvised and made mummy cupcakes!

Laina wanted a pumpkin cake, so again I improvised and just made cute orange and green cupcakes and arranged them into the shape of a pumpkin! Notice she is in a Cinderella costume. That was her actual Halloween costume, but after Uncle Kyle sent her her peacock she didn't want to be Cinderella anymore! Sorry this pic isn't great...Dad was on camera duty!

On Sunday it was Halloween! We live in towers here, so it makes it nice because you don't have to dress warm for the cold weather since you don't have to go outside! Our doorbell rang and I thought it was going to be our friends and this is what we opened the door to!

There were like 60 people outside our door and down our hall...it was crazy! They turn off the lights in the hall for atmosphere I'm assuming, so you can't tell how many people there were, but it was crazy!!

Our little Peacock Princess aka the Peacock candy nazi! When we got home we let her be in charge of handing out candy. Heaven forbid you try to take more than the 1 TINY piece she gave you or ask for something different...she was going to bite your head off! She was yelling at kid's "You got your 1 piece! Do NOT take anymore from our bucket!" It was hillarious! Luke Skywalker showing off his light sabre skills...pretty intimidating, huh?!
Our Trick or Treating Babies!
We went trick or treating with Chloe and Kristana!