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Jingle Bells In Hudson Language

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Happy 7th Birthday Caden!

We just got home from celebrating Caden's 7th birthday at Chuck E. Cheese. For some reason, it seems hard to celebrate their birthday on their actual birthday! So, we have been having a "family" party on the actual day and some time later, we try to celebrate with our "friend" party. I was supposed to be with kids alone for the weekend, as Ryan had big plans of attending a coaching clinic in Houston. Because of this, I told Caden we would travel to Chuck E. Cheese (which makes his 'family' party much larger than we normally have) but I needed to finish up Christmas shopping and we could 'kill 2 birds with one stone' as some say. However, at the last minute Ryan's plans changed but I had already committed to the whole C.E.C. plan...so off we went! I must admit, my competitiveness seems to come out at this pizza place; however, I do try to disguise it with a "I am trying to earn some extra tickets for Hudson!" We had a record ticket day for the Reagan family and enjoyed many of the 'high quality' gift choices we were able to purchase with our winnings.

Caden was very funny about turning 7. Several times during the day he randomly shouted, "I am 7 now" with great enthusiasm. Earlier in the week, he made a rule about some game he plays with this brothers. The rule was, you could only play if you were seven...maybe that is one reason why he was so excited today about being seven!

It was a fun day in many ways. We enjoyed time together with family. We enjoyed seeing Caden laugh and play. I enjoyed telling Caden special things that happened on the day he was born. I told him how some people thought having a baby this close to Christmas made the holidays difficult.

But how I loved him being born in December. It caused me to think about Jesus' birth in a different way. I told him he was a Christmas miracle and one of the best presents I had ever been given. We are so thankful for his smile and the great attitude he has 99% of the time about everything. We are thankful for the good health and abilities God has blessed Caden with.

We love you Caden. We pray God continues to bless you and that you grow into the Christian man God has designed you to be!

1/2 Marathon Pics

All I can say is...I finished it. Definitely not proud of my time but I wasn't going for time, finishing was my goal. Maybe, next run, time will be a priority! We had a great weekend with friends and enjoyed our time without kids. Rylan and Caden have been asking to 'train' for the next race! I am glad to see them get excited about running...maybe, Ryan will even get involved!

Halloween in Mrs. Lowry's Class

I play with a ball.

I have a hat.

I have a belt.

What am I?

This is a photo of Caden's journal at school. He had made a riddle about what he was going to be for Halloween. His teacher said everyone guessed his quickly because he talks about baseball so much!

After reading the book called, Them Bones, Caden's class made skeletons out of q-tips.

Next, they played a game called 'Who's The Ghost'. One student went out in the hall. The kids switched chairs with each other. Then the teacher covered one of the kids with a white sheet. The student in the hall comes back in the room and tries to guess who is the ghost. All the kids loved playing the game. At the end, Caden's teacher let Hudson be the ghost! Hudson couldn't keep from laughing!

Caden as the ghost

Hudson using his 'blue' to cover his face and pretend to be the ghost. When, the teacher asked the kids to switch chairs, Hudson stood up and switched chairs just like he was part of the class!

Halloween

Here are the boys on Halloween night. Rylan and Caden were not wanting to dress up but decided to be baseball players, a big surprise! Hudson had a fun day. At school, they had a fall festival with games and treats. He wore a soldier costume that he had picked out. (I forgot my camera for that event...bad mom moment.) After school, he changed into a spider-man costume. I guess that is one positive thing about having older brothers. Hudson had several choices of costumes in a box from previous years. He really thought it was fun to keep changing costumes all day. After the boys came home from school, we went to 'trunk or treat' at in our church's parking lot. There was a football game later that night, so we made our trick or treating quick! The boys wanted to get to the game and their dad was more than willing!














Patricia with Spider-Man Hudson and Spider-Man Brian




















Caden and Conner












Rylan, Wyatt and Tyler














Janet and Jerry with Hudson






























Kamille, Hudson and Caden chose to stay at home with me and trick or treat on our street. This ghost was in our neighbors yard. I was also excited to have trick or treaters come to our house. We didn't get that when we lived in the country!



























Earlier in the week, the boys had each carved a pumpkin. Here is Caden sitting by his and Rylan's down below. Hudson's somehow had been eaten by the dog!!

Pumpkin Patch Pics

I actually remembered this year to take the boys for pumpkin pics! That is an accomplishment for me these days, especially considering Ryan has been gone all week. Rylan and Caden are now old enough to realize this is a yearly event. They don't seem to show the same excitement about it as I do! This year was extra painful for them because I made them get haircuts on the way to the pumpkins! You can imagine the grief I received. Just having to change clothes and agree to smile was bad enough but adding a haircut on top of that was just asking to much! But, with a little bribery....all went well!

Yikes! Rylan is really growing up!

Sweet Caden!

Hudson was trying to be very agreeable with this situation but we just couldn't get him to hold a 'normal' smile! Notice the scratches and bruise on his head, one is from a golf club and the other from a football...boys!

A little better but still not quite right!


Did I mention I also took my niece and nephew? Yes, five kids for pictures! It was a bit challenging but after I gave up on getting the perfect pose, it became much more enjoyable! After all, God willing we will have years for 'perfect' poses but while they are this young...I just decided to love the crazy ones!

Cobe and Landry

Fall In New England

We recently went on a fall foliage cruise. We visited a few places in Canada and came back into the U.S. to visit Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New York. The first thing we noticed on this trip is we were among the youngest on the boat by, let's say, 25 years! We definitely understand...it is hard to get away this time of year with school schedules! We were blessed to have Ryan's parents help us in this area. They stayed with the boys and carried on thier normal daily schedules, which was extremely helpful. Other than the market going WAY down while we were gone, our trip was very pleasant and a welcome break from daily life. We were able to stay one night in New York before getting on the ship. We visited a few of NY highlights and saw South Pacific.

From New York, we sailed all through the next day and night until we reached Halifax, Canada.We went on a double decker bus tour through the city. This photo to the right is in their public garden. After this tour, we took a bus to a beautiful fishing village called, Peggy's Cove. This is a picturesque village that has been in many famous paintings and photos with a 'lonely' lighthouse standing on the rocky shoreline. The photo below is of the village, followed by a photo of the lighthouse. We didn't get many photos of this lighthouse because it was freezing cold and windy!

Here is a sign warning about the rocky shoreline, cold water and slippery rocks you had to walk on to get close to the lighthouse. My hair was always in my face here. The wind was crazy!!

We left here and sailed to St. John's, Canada.
Here we took an all day tour to a small fishing village called St. John's. We were looking at the Bay of Fundy, which has the highest tides in the world. We also got to see some fall foliage here as we traveled away from the coastline a bit. To the right, the locals say this is the only place in the world where you can get to covered bridges in the same photo...interesting, huh???

Some of the fall colors we saw along the road back to St. John's. We were able to get some fairly good photos while on the bus. Even though Ryan made fun of me, my tendency to become motion sick gave us a front row seat on most buses!

On the shore along the Bay of Fundy, caves are carved by the waves of the high tide. Obviously, we were there at low tides. We walked in the caves. It was amazing to see the power of the sea.

Next, we headed back to the U.S. This was our favorite spot, Bar Harbor, Maine.

We toured Acadia National Park. It was very nice. We saw lots of beautiful leaves and interesting rocky coastlines.

My parents traveled with us on this trip. Here is a photo of them with our ship faintly in the background At this spot, we had stopped for fresh blueberry pie and coffee. We all agreed it was the best blueberry pie we had ever had!

Mom and I among some beautiful trees in Acadia National Park.

We left Maine and set sail for Boston. We took a city tour and then took the subway toward Fenway Park. Our boys had begged for souvenirs from Boston, specifically Boston Red Sox merchandise. I guess I am to 'new' of a fan to the sport of baseball to truly appreciate the greatness (as Ryan says) of Fenway Park.

Our last stop was Newport, Rhode Island. At this point, we were tired of tours and decided to venture through this city on our own. We found a place to eat that had great clam chowder and seven flat screens for Ryan to watch the t.u game. We found these little motorcycle type vehicles to rent. We drove around the mansions on the cliffs along the shoreline.

We ended the day back on the ship with this gorgeous sunset. We feel blessed to have had a safe trip, a good time with my parents and very thankful to Ryan's family for keeping the boys back home!