My cute little fish...

I signed up Porter & Hudson for swim lessons as soon as Hudson turned three. He does so well by the end of Summer, but by the next summer, he is back to being scared to even get in the water. So I decided swim lessons this winter and then again in the spring will be just the trick! We ended up getting private lessons, too, because of a mix up, which I wasn't going to complain about! Their teacher was awesome!

Porter did well from the start! Swimming from platform to platform,

swimming from Teacher Sharon to the wall,

Jumping and diving in!

Hudson, no surprise started not even wanting to get into the water. (I honestly don't know why my kids have been so scared of water. I grew up in a pool & was swimming before I was two!) Most of the lessons, he clung to Sharon like this...

But she had so much patience and by the end he was doing so so so much better. I'm hoping this spring we will start from where we left off & not from the very beginning again!

*I have soooooo much to post, ya know with Christmas happening & all, but I lost one of my camera cords that I need to download pics to the computer (so annoying, grrrrrr!) so posting more will have to wait until I get another one. Stay tuned!

A day in the life...

Here's a few random pics that show a day in the life of the Hoopes'.

Porter does quiet time in the play room while my other boys nap. He keeps himself busy doing who knows what! The only rule is that he has to be quiet. This day, I had the tent out for preschool and he turned it into a fort. He must have gotten tired from all of the hard work he did, because he fell asleep like this with his feet sticking out of the tent!

Speaking of being tired, when I give the boys a bath, I get Brody out first, get his jammies on and then put him in the jumparoo so I can take care of the other boys. This is how I found him one night... It's tiring work being a baby!

My house has little messes all over it now. I can tell where Brody has been by the trail he leaves. All the magnets pulled off the fridge, all the numbers pulled off the preschool calendar, the preschool garbage dumped over, all the kleenex pulled out of the box, etc... I LOVE these little messes, though! It is so fun having a busy-body baby in our house! We love you, Brody!

Porter & Hudson found the perfect hiding spot for hide-n-seek. They LOVE playing hide-n-seek with Daddy after work!

Rub-a-dub-dub. 3 little boys in a tub! These three LOVE bath time!

In loving memory

Early Sunday morning, Brandon's dad passed away. I am sad that my kids, especially Brody, won't get to know their Grandpa, but I am so happy for the knowledge I have that he has been reunited with loved ones, including Steven, his grandson that passed away 10 years ago from a brain tumor. And all of us will once again be together because of the ultimate sacrifice Christ made for us. Reese will be missed by all.

 

This picture was taken on Father's Day 2011.

Go Beavs!

Thanksgiving weekend fun continued on Black Friday (and no, we weren't shopping! Brandon & I did ALL of our Black Friday shopping Thursday night and only went to one store! I LOVE that Walmart price matches! We left our house at 9pm and were back with everything we needed by 11pm! Love it!) Anyways... we decided to go to an Oregon State wrestling meet. It was a lot of fun for the boys... and me. It reminded me of the good ole days before kids when Brandon coached wrestling and I would go to all of his meets.

Brandon can't wait for next year because Porter will be old enough to join a wrestling club... and Porter's excited, too!

On Saturday we took Porter & Hudson to Arthur Christmas. It was a cute movie, but we will probably wait awhile longer to take Hudson back to the theaters. He had a hard time sitting still. I'm glad there were only a few other people there!

Thanksgiving weekend was so fun & we had a great time doing activities together as a family!

Thanksgiving

We had a lovely Thanksgiving this year. Porter and Hudson made these cute turkeys at preschool.

We spent the day at my in-law's house. Brandon's brother and family came up from Salem. Grandma had gingerbread cookies for the kids to decorate.

Then they watched some classic Christmas movies: you know, Rudolf, Frosty the Snowman, etc...

Don't ask.

For Thanksgiving dinner I made a turkey (I totally forgot to get a pic of it! I guess I was too excited to eat it!), homemade rolls, this apple pie ...

and Pumpkin Pie Layered Toffee Cheesecake. That's right, folks. Pumpkin pie on top, toffee cheesecake on bottom. one word-Yum!

Porter & Hudson's contribution to the dinner were these ADORABLE fingerprint turkey place cards. Can you say cute or what? Hudson did his own and then lost interest. Porter finger printed half and I did the other half and Porter wrote all of the names. Sooooooo cute!

Cheers!

Just before we dug in... minus Porter. I didn't get him in the pic. oops!

Cutest Punkin in the Patch!

Our little Punkin is 10 months old!

Brody

*is really wanting to walk. He practices by pushing the high chair around our kitchen! I've seen him stand alone also, so I'm pretty sure it's not going to be too long before he is walking.

*still only has two teeth.

*loves to play peek-a-boo with himself!

*gets so excited when I sign the word for "milk" (and I'm excited to say, he finally started to take a bottle!)

*loves water... a nice warm bath or cold pool, it doesn't matter! He starts splashing as soon as I put him in any water & he doesn't stop until I take him out!

*likes to play with whatever his brothers are playing with. Baby toys, forget about it!

*is still the BEST baby ever!!! and I feel so spoiled to have him!

Trick-or-Treat!

The Incredible Hulk

Spiderman

My Mischievous Monkey

Our friends came over for dinner and later, trick-or-treating. They were the cutest Max & Ruby ever!

I made dinner-in-a-pumpkin, which has been a tradition at our house. We also had green goblin bread (spinach, butter, & garlic spread on french bread & toasted) and dirt & worms for dessert. I bet you can guess what the dirt was!

Trick-or-treating was so fun this year! My kids are at a fun age. Porter was the first to a door and then would run to the next door before any of the other kids had gotten their candy! We had to tell him to slow down! Hudson was on the other end of the spectrum. He would mosey to the door & once someone answered the door, he would talk their ear off! Brandon & I would try to listen to what he was saying. He mostly talked about how he was spiderman. Every.single.door. he went to, he would do this! It was so funny to see how different Porter & Hudson were!

Proud of their loot!

And our little monkey just along for the ride:)

Spiderman turned 3!

Since Hudson's birthday is on Halloween, he had a ghost party... and I guess you guessed what he went as!

Spiderman and Hulk... no more cute costumes that I get to pick out, here!

The kiddos played mixed up pumpkins, witches brew, and went on a ghost treasure hunt.

I loved all of the cute and creative costumes!

And these were the main attraction for our Ghost party.

Boo!

Hudson LOVED his party! Seriously, when I put up my Halloween decorations the beginning of October, he thought I was decorating for his party and every morning he asked if it was his party... October was a looooooong month!

That night we went to our church Halloween Carnival & Trunk-or-Treat. There is a no-mask rule, so we colored their hair. Porter loved it, Hudson wasn't so sure!

On Sunday, we went over to Grandma & Grandpa Hoopes' house to have a Birthday dinner & open more presents!

Yep! He was spoiled!