It didn't take him long to realize that this was some good stuff, though! He looks like he's pretty much in heaven right now!
It got to the point where digging in with his hands wasn't enough! He tried to pick up the whole cake!
Enjoying the gooey, sugary, stickiness. Hudson, I hope you enjoyed it, because I am not letting you get so messy every night!
Hudson opening Grandma and Grandpa Perry's gift sent from afar. Hudson was so sad he couldn't have them come to his party.
The very last gift was from Mommy and Daddy. By then, he knew what he had to do...
I love his stone face he had the whole time! It was a long busy day, and there was a lot for a one year old to take in!
That night, we also played ring-the-pumpkin, and we had a game for the adults. I filled a Halloween jar with m&m's and the person with the closest guess won the jar. We had some good guesses and Mike Winz was the closest. He was only off by a few! Good Job!
This is a good picture of Hudson's teeth. He's got 6. If only his eyes would have been open...
Havin' fun at his party:)
Getting ready to eat some cake!
This is Hudson's personal cake:
This is the yummiest chocolate cake I have ever had! The adults enjoyed this.
These are the spider cupcakes I made for all the kids. They LOVED them!
Since this was a family party, we had taco soup for dinner. I made Halloween-shaped sandwiches for the kids. And I made "Swamp Juice". I meant to get a picture of it, but it was a concoction of kool-aid, oj, ginger-ale, and orange sherbet that looked disgusting, but was surprisingly good!
I had a ton of fun decorating for Hudson's Halloween party. I love decorating in general, but it was so fun to deck everything out for a Halloween party!
One of the games we played was called The Spider Web. I set it all up the night before. The kids had to follow their string through the "spider web" and at the end was a prize. It was fun to set up, but by the end it was really hard because I had to maneuver through all of these strings!
I can't believe my baby is one! He had his well child check up today and he is a big boy! He weighs 21 1/2 lbs., which is in the 50th percentile. He is 31 in. tall, which is in the 95th percentile! I think we are going to have a basketball player on our hands! I'm waiting for the day when Hudson passes up Porter! I know it's going to happen, unless Porter has a huge growth spurt.
Porter got the hang of trick-or-treating really quick! He did not hesitate to go right up to the door and knock!
Porter was HILARIOUS, because the whole time we were trick-or-treating, he would go up to random trick-or-treaters and ROAR like a lion does! It was so so so funny and everyone thought he was so stinkin' cute!
He was on a mission and no one was going to stop him!
The Lion and BYU Cheerleader. Maisey and Porter were just adorable in their costumes!
Porter doin' some fishin'. He would try to hook the bags for a long time and then would finally hook the bag with his hands. Then he would get all excited and yell "Yay!!!"
Trying his skills at put-put. I think he's got his momma's skills... or lack of!
We hooked a cute one! Actually, there were gummy bears on the end, and Hudson LOVED that they were right at his height:) Sooooooo adorable!
Throughout the trail, there are different little houses decorated with different Halloween themes. They are so cute! This was still at the beginning and Porter was still worried about scary things. He kept on saying "I too scared!" when I would ask him to get close to something to take a picture.
A ghost just Porter's size!
*As a side note, I have to tell a funny story about Porter and ghosts. During FHE, we have been working on teaching Porter the 1st Article of Faith. Porter really noticed the part about the Holy Ghost and started talking a lot about the Holy Ghost. The only problem is that he thinks the Holy Ghost is like a Halloween ghost! He's told me that he wants to see the Holy Ghost, that the Holy Ghost is scary, and when he see's a ghost, he says "Look mom, it's the Holy Ghost!" This kid will even hear when someone at church talks about the Holy Ghost and get all excited! Brandon and I are trying to help him distinguish the difference between a regular ghost and the Holy Ghost, but how do you help a two year old understand this? I think he's beginning to understand that the Holy Ghost is part of our church, because I was showing him an LDS church that wasn't our church, and I explained that we belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He then started talking about the Holy Ghost. I think he'll get it in a few years!
Near the end of the trail are some slides that the boys liked playing on.
During the Christmas season, they have the Fantasy Trail decorated for Christmas. I wanted to go last year, but between taking care of a newborn, packing, and moving into a new house, we just didn't have the time to go. We'll definitely try for this year! This is a fun family-friendly activity to do:)
I haven't been to a Haunted House in a long time, so I definitely was scared! This one was three different Haunted Houses! I am a chicken when it comes to scary stuff, but it is always fun at the same time!
Okay Brandon and Dana. You guys have a sick sense of humor! haha!
Ummmm... I think we're in trouble now, because we haven't had our swine flu shots yet! Stay away from the Hoopes'!
We all survived! No one got eaten, or tortured, or ripped to shreds! To top the night off, we all went and got dessert:) Thanks Jason and Dana for putting this all together. We can't wait for next year!
Porter requested a "scary pumpkin", so this is what Brandon came up with!
I made the monkey suit for Porter's first Halloween and now Hudson gets to wear it! And lucky me, I only had to make one costume this year! I can handle one, but we'll see when I have to make more than one!
Porter practicing his lion ROAR! (btw- he posed himself for this picture! Maybe he's getting past his phase of not wanting his picture taken. I hope so!)
Love the mullet and chaps!
I didn't know that Shaun and Emily were BYU refs! Can't wait to see their whole family. Maisey will be the cutest BYU cheerleader and Gage will be the studliest BYU football player!
Here's the whole group minus Tish who took the picture. Brandon wasn't the only person who missed out because of sickness. We had a small group show up. There are a lot of yucky germs going around and a lot of people who couldn't come:(
He was really concentrating hard on his task!
They also decorated pumpkin cookies.
Played games like pin the nose on the pumpkin and a pumpkin walk.
The whole gang- minus quite a few kiddos that were sick:(
Thanks Emily for planning a fun pumpkin party! Porter had so much fun!
The playroom was well used, to say the least! We had 9 moms and dads (including Brandon because he was working from home that day) and 15 kids! I also had play dough in the kitchen to play with. I think all the kids had fun!
We made lunch and then had Halloween cookies for a treat.
My house is open for playgroup any day during the crummy weather:)
Where the Wild Things Are! He loves this book and is excited to see the movie. Hopefully he can do it before this movie leaves the theaters!
I love Hudson; he loves me.
I thought I'd post the yummiest and easiest cookie recipe. I get so excited to make these cookies every year. They are one of my fav! Brandon doesn't even like pumpkin and he LOVES these cookies! That's how good they are! Porter doesn't usually eat cookies, either, but he will eat these up! Needless to say, between the three of us, they don't last very long! Here's the recipe: (hope you can handle it. it's a pretty challenging one! haha!)
Hudson even had a great time! They all loved this bounce house! Look at those two cuties!
Look at my two teeth!
1,2,3, Jump! (Porter in his element)
Porter and Maisey even got to ride a pony! He loved that and didn't want to get off!
Already can't wait for Oktoberfest next year!
Porter wanted me to take a picture of this big carrot. He was so proud of it!
Meanwhile...
He got one of the big tomatoes that I had picked and placed on the side of the garden. Evidently he likes tomatoes because...
he ate the whole thing!!!!! What a nut! (and don't ask me how he did it with only two full teeth)
It was fun to hang out as a family working (and eating) in our garden!
My friend Stephanie was soooooo nice to tell me where to get good, cheap pears and then show me how to can them. I went over to her house and with her help I canned 27 Quarts! She didn't get anything else done, except help me. Friends are awesome! Now I know how to can pears, and she said that peaches are the same process, so hopefully next year I will do both. My family has LOVED the pears and we have only had them a few days! That's all Porter and Hudson wanted to eat for lunch yesterday, and last night, Brandon said he wanted pears for dessert! Glad I canned so many! I doubt they'll last a year...
Now that is one BIG horse! We spend most of our time looking at all of the animals. We even watched some cows being milked, which was interesting for Porter. I'm trying to teach him that the milk we drink comes from cows, and I was glad I could show him instead of tell him. I don't know if he quite understands yet, but he will!
Porter and Hudson lookin' at the bunnies. Why are kids so fascinated with animals? I guess that's why we got them a puppy. They LOVE animals!
Our friend, Hannah, mutton bustin'! Yeeeee Haaaaaaw!
They have a fun children's section with a lot of hands-on activities. Porter loved these little tractors. Aren't they cute? I had to push the tractor, though, because Porter couldn't reach the pedals well enough to pedal the tractor himself! Sorry you're such a little squirt, Porter!
The bear crawl- if you couldn't tell what they were doing.
It was soooo funny because for this jumping exercise and the balance beam, Porter's teacher would hold the kids' hands to help them, but as soon as she would hold out her hand to help Porter, he would wave his hand frantically, like "don't you dare help me. I want to do it by my self!"
I just can't believe how dang cute he is!
And he is fast, fast, fast!
I was surprised with some of the rides he wanted to go on. This one Grandma was even scared to go on!
Grandma and Hudson hangin' out in the pool.
Happy to be playing outside!
More cousins!
Hudson LOVES swinging. This time he could share the swing with his big brother!
What a day! And it was only noon! Hudson found a comfortable spot on Grandpa to take a short nap. SO CUTE!
As if we didn't do enough in one day, they had a family dance that night. I'd never heard of a family dance before, but Porter wanted to go, so we went. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN! Porter was beyond exhausted, but he had so much fun dancing with everyone that he didn't show it. There were babies up through great grandma's and grandpa's there and everyone in between!
He would point at all of the orange bacteria growing around the hot pots and say "Ewe!" It was pretty funny!
We saw hundreds of buffalo on our drive. Porter was enamored and if we let him, he would have hopped right out of the car and tried to pet the big beasts!
The whole clan. We sure missed both Brandon's and Daniel, though.
