Is it really Monday already?

Words cannot describe how much I love it when Katie blogs pictures from time we spent together because it means I can steal them from her blog and not have to download my own! THANK YOU, KATE!

Tim, Katie, Jack, and Cal came to see us this weekend, and life couldn't have been sweeter. Granted that it rained the whole time, the Penn State home football game made going anywhere rather difficult, and my couch that was supposed to be delivered on Thursday never came (it's coming today!), but we Dudley's know how to make the best of things! We ate yummy, healthy food (minus the Halloween candy...which was completely yummy but not so healthy!), talked and talked, played with our 4 boys, and Katie and I even managed to get a shopping trip in -- with no kids! Here are my favorite pictures from the weekend:

Really, could this picture be any cuter?! Calahan is the sweetest 14 month old known to man!


Chase gets so mesmerized by Katie's camera, I can never get him to smile. I can't believe this boy just turned 8 months old. How did that happen? His newest trick is clapping his hands whenever he hears the words "patty-cake." I love this baby!

I love how Jack and Nick always have been and continue to be best buds. They had such a blast playing trains, dress up, cars, bikes, and in the sand box together!

Love this picture, love this boy, hate the hair cut! My latest venture has been learning to cut Nick and Brad's hair...I'll eventually do Chase's when he grows enough to cut. Anyway, this is saving us a lot of money each month, but their good looks are suffering as I'm learning! The sides and back actually turned out great on this one, but I cut it way too short on top! It's even too short to do the fo-hawk, my favorite Nicky-boy hairstyle! :(

So these funny girls are my neighbors and are originally from Russia. I wish you could have seen their faces when Tim started speaking Russian to them on Saturday morning! They lingered the entire day, even staring at us through the window as we ate dinner! Thanks for being so nice to them, Timothy! And thanks for a fantasic weekend, all of you!

The name of D U D L E Y

Katie worked her magic again, this time with my whole family on our trip to Utah in August. As I was looking at this picture today, it struck me how much I love being a Dudley. This probably sounds weird, but I didn't go many places in life without someone knowing my Grandpa and Grandma Dudley, my parents, or one of my uncles, aunts, or cousins. I always felt proud to belong to this family, and still do, especially as the Clark Dudley family continues to grow. After 5 years of marriage, it's still hard for me to introduce myself as Bekah Goldie instead of Bekah Dudley. I would have hyphenated my name if Bekah Dudley-Goldie didn't sound so weird. :) {Not that I don't love the Goldie's and love being one of them, but you know what I mean.} Anyway, this is rather a random post, especially since I was just going to do a one-liner with the pictures, but there you have it!

I know, I know

Blogs these days are full of kids "first day of school pictures." But I couldn't resist adding mine to the lot, especially because his first day was SOOOO FANTASTIC! My little Nicky is one intense kid, and I don't know that I've ever left him anywhere without him crying. He still cries when we take him to nursery and it's been a year and a half. So when I decided to do a pre-school with some great women in my ward, even though he's only two and shouldn't "technically" start preschool until next year, I wasn't expecting things to go smoothly. When I would talk to Nick about it and explain things he would say "I not go to school (pronounced skoo). I be too scared!" So after explaining 50 times that he would go and play and learn and have fun, and I would miss him, and think about him, and come and get him, he went today and HAD NO PROBLEMS! He didn't cry when I left, and when I picked him up he was waiting for me on the porch and I was greeted with a big hug and a "Mommmmy! I didn't cry!" Marcia (my friend who taught this week) said he did great and that he kept saying "My mommy's coming back to get me," like he was reassuring himself. I can't believe my little man is this big!





He was so excited about his back pack (thanks, Mom!) and insisted that we get a picture of it.

My friend A M Y

Once upon a time I was 19 years old. I started going to the singles ward my dad was the bishop of, and I knew no one. An inspired RS president assigned me to be VT partners with Amy, and life has never been the same! Never before have I known such a thoughtful, intelligent, selfless, brilliant, beautiful woman. She sends me packages for every holiday, my birthday, Mothers Day, and just because she's thinking of me. Yesterday I got one that contained a cute shirt (she has the best taste!), candy, a card, and the best mixed CD that I can't stop listening to. THANK YOU, AMY! I so appreciate everything that you are and everything that you do for me!

On a side note...look how young and rested I look in this picture! It's from when Amy came to visit me in Denver, before kids! :)

Lovin' this...

One of my best friends, Amy, sent me this book ("Someday" by McGhee and Reynolds) when Chase was born and I can't read it to my boys without getting teary. Check it out at the library, or better yet, buy it!

Couldn't resist

Hope I don't offend anyone, but I couldn't help myself with this one! Here's to the great Olympian, Michael Phelps!

Seriously. SO. Funny.

So my friend had a link to this blog on her blog, and I just wasted way too much time looking at it and laughing my head off.

http://www.seriouslysoblessed.blogspot.com/

It seems that it is taking some people a while to figure this out, but whoever the author is of this blog is a made up person (I would bet my life that it's a guy) and is totally making fun of the "new-mormon-mommy-blog-culture." Read the profile on the side if you need more clarity! :) While I totally recognized myself in some of the things they are mocking (like all the exclamation points!!!!!), it provided me with a much needed laugh -- enjoy!

All Better

Here I am, 5 days later, and feeling much better than the last time I posted. And let me assure you, I really am okay. I didn't realize that what I said would warrant 16 responses and 4 phone calls, but it really made me realize how blessed I am to have such great friends and family who care about my well-being. It also made me realize that there are a lot of you who are in the same boat that I am, and that life isn't always as "blog-perfect" as we make it seem. The silly thing, and the thing I can't figure out, is that I'm doing EXACTLY what I want to be doing with my life right now. If someone had asked me at any point in my life what I would want to be doing when I was 26 years old, I would have said, "I want to be a stay-at-home mom." Granted that in my head I had girls instead of boys (which I wouldn't trade for anything now), a house of my own instead of a rented town house with scary neighbors, and was surrounded by my friends and family, but still -- I'm living the dream. I guess I didn't expect the dream to also be the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. Wow, that sounded pathetic...and dramatic...and depressing...I'm just going to have to trust that those of you who know me, know me well enough to know that I'm happy and I love my kids! :) And that the great moments, the FANTASTIC moments, the moments I wouldn't trade for anything in the world, happen far more often than the bad ones and make everything worth it. The point of this post -- now that I've rambled on forever -- was to say thanks for all of you who offered me support on a day that I needed it, and to tell you that I'm here when you have days like that. Blog about them! It makes everyone feel better. :)