Monday, December 29, 2008

The Dudley Family Christmas Vacation (part 1)

Hello all. Long time, no post. I do this when I feel overwhelmed with anything. I've had so much that I want to blog about, so I feel overwhelmed, and then I never blog anything. Awesome. December is always the busiest month in the world for everyone, and we are no exception. I love being busy and I love all things Christmas. We're in Philly right now with the entire Dudley family, and life couldn't be sweeter. Some highlights from our trip include:

* Having 4 boys ages 3 and under opening presents (and presents and presents) together on Christmas morning.
* A day trip to Washington DC on my birthday (yikes, I'm 27!)
* Lots of games of Settlers and Scum and Euchre
* Sleeping in almost every morning (because my husband is AWESOME!)
* Nightly devotionals
* Only having to cook every three days -- wahoo!
* Shoe shopping, just mom and me.
* A game of HORSE on Christmas day, in which I took second place, beating all of the boys except for Daniel (this really is amazing considering that I stink at basketball...and all sports).
*Becoming acquainted with the new wii that Daniel and Mara received for Christmas (and that is now on Brad's wish list for next year).

What's even greater is that we still have a week left! Some future highlights include:

* A day trip to New York City
* A date DAY (10 whole hours) with just me and my Brad (I love free babysitters) 
* An appetizer party on New Years Eve
* A day for Katie and I to get projects done that we've been putting off all year
* Many more games and devotionals and yummy food and laughter and joy.

Christmas is so much better with FAMILY around to share it with! Hope all of you had the Merriest of Christmases and that you have a very happy New Year!

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

HAPPINESS

I just got a call from this boy...
...telling me that he'll be at my house in 4 hours (I wasn't supposed to see him until Monday in Philly)!

Then on Thursday these lovely people...

and these crazy girls....

...are coming to my house until Sunday, at which point Brad, Nick, Chase and I leave to spend two glorious weeks with all of these people......

And, as if that were not enough to fill my heart with joy, I get to bring this boy home with me in January to stay for a few months...or forever (hopefully)!


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Thursday, December 4, 2008

I was rocking Chase at bedtime tonight (no, I am NOT nursing in this video) and singing him some lullabies, when Nick came in to join me. He has just recently started singing songs in their entirety, and Brad and I cannot get enough of it. Although it's not in tune (I'm still hoping that all the hours I've sung to him in his short life will eventually pay off), he's still cute!

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

boring fest

I'm in a blogging funk. I've been all excited to blog about Thanksgiving, but I forgot to take my camera to Ohio (of course), so I'm saving that post until I get some pictures from my sister-in-law, Mindy. So I've decided to finally complete the tags I received from Mallory (another sister-in-law). So if you hate tags, just scroll to the pictures at the end of the post! :)

8 things I am passionate about:
1- Brad
2- Nick
3- Chase
4- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
5- My family (Dudley's and Goldie's)
6- health and nutrition
7- Having a clean and organized house(I'm not always great at it, but I love it!)
8- MUSIC

8 words and phrases I say often:
1- I love you
2- Use your words
3- Oh my word (this one is thanks to Melissa! :)!
4- Art time!
5- Quiet time!
6- Bed time!
7- Play time!
8- Time to go!

8 things I want to do before I die:
1- See my children grow into happy, healthy, and productive adults that have strong testimonies and know who they are.
2- Travel with my family
3- Serve a mission with my hubby
4- I want to stay active in music, serving others, being involved in the community, and continue to work on self-progression.
5- Is it so pathetic that I can't think of anything else?! I have ideas (write a book, become a music therapist, go to nursing school to become and labor-and-delivery nurse, learn to be a home-making goddess), but I honestly won't be that disappointed if these never happen.

8 things I want or need
1- a nice new camera
2- an automatic car starter
3- 72 hour kits for the four of us
4- a new Sams Club membership
5- winter shoes
6- picture frames for the wall collage I want to do on my dining room wall and up my staircase (not in our student budget at the moment)
7- decorations for Nick's room (it's the only room in my house with blank walls. I just can't decide what I want to do in there, nor do I have the money)
8- a new pair of jeans

8 "interesting" things about me (I'm not sure about this one. I think I'm pretty boring)
1- I always, ALWAYS have to know what time it is. There are clocks all over my house. But I don't wear a watch.
2- If I could have my way, we would own NO TV! I hate it!
3- I really really really wish I were a morning person and a person who required little sleep.
4- I love to read and research about health, nutrition, and exercise, but I hate having to watch what I eat and I hate exercising (but I do it anyway).
5- If we can afford it, we're going to put our kids in private school. I have issues with the public school system.
6- I love to decorate my house. I don't know what I'm doing, but I love it.
7- I am a very picky eater. I eat the same things every day and have for years (V8, string cheese, apples with cheese, fruit smoothies with protein powder, cereal, spinach salads, shredded chicken with black beans and salsa, cereal, ect). I don't necessarily like this about myself. It's just the way it is.
8- I am a member of the State College Choral Society (community choir), and am probably one of 20 people under the age of 50 that belong to it (there are about 140 people in the choir). Anyway, I just joined in September, and I love it! We're singing really hard stuff right now -- Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann, ect., all in German -- but it's been the greatest thing for me.

I rarely post without pictures, so here you go.
I hate this picture of me, but love it of Brad. I just had to give him a shout-out today, as he has a huge presentation on a paper he's been working on for almost a year. Good luck, Babe! I know you'll do awesome!

Better late-than-never, here's a Halloween picture of my boys. Chase was Elmo, Nick was a firefighter (with a dumb hat. We couldn't get him to wear the real one). We had an excellent Halloween. We went trick-or-treating with our dearest friends, then went to a fun Halloween party. Nick was excited about his candy but was even more excited when he woke up the next morning to see that the switch-witch swapped it for a stick horse and a book! He never even asked about his candy after that. Here's hoping we have such luck in future years.

Brad put Nick to bed the other night and heard some noise in his room about 20 minutes later. When he walked in, this is what he found. This has been one of Nick's favorite activities lately. He props his books up like this, puts his little GI Joe men in them, and parks a car out front. He calls these creations tree houses for some reason, and makes little neighborhoods all over our house. Silly kid!

Now, I tag : BRADLEY ALLEN GOLDIE

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