Christmas 2008

We are home and everything is back to normal. Dusty is back at work, Hudson is napping again, the dog is barking wildly at the squirrels/wind/leaves/nothing and I am still in my pajamas! Make sure and scroll down to see all our Christmas happenings! We are truly blessed with wonderful friends and family! Thanks to all for a wonderful time!

Christmas Take 3 & 4

Christmas in Gainesville! We spent Christmas eve at Granny's and the Saturday after Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa and all the Brewer's. Dusty is the youngest of five, so when we are all together, its about 25-30 people...it's crazy! At each get together, we have a gift exchange and you bring a man's gift and a woman's gift, but you don't know which is which. So at Granny's we ended up with a food chopper and candles/potpourri. Dusty was not pleased, so at the next gift exchange we got boy DVD's and a gift card (we are really good at gift exchange strategy!) We're just glad we have escaped Naughty Clause (a ridiculous piece of lingerie that comes back every year!) once again! Hudson was really into his fleece blanket and his cousin Eric who entertained him the whole time we opened presents! Anyway, we ate way too much and opened way too gifts. Thank you to Granny, Grandma and Grandpa for a fabulous time!

Christmas Take 2

We left Granny's house (see next post) late on Christmas eve and drove to Kaufman to spend Christmas day with my family. We went to my brother's house to see his kids open Santa gifts that morning. Hudson was really into Walker's gifts, which caused some cousin rivalry. But the tables turned when that night opening gifts at my parents, Walker was really into Hudson's gifts! Ahh...Christmas! It was crazy as usual, paper flying, children screaming, Kevin laughing, my mom forgetting presents because she can't find them and Adam thinking, "What the crap have I gotten into?!" I love it!

We look forward to next year as the family continues to grow and baby girl (whose name I will not spill the beans on) joins the chaos! Thanks for a great Christmas Mimi and Paw-Paw!

Christmas Take 1

Last Monday night we started our Christmas celebrations with our sweet friends the Testone's. We packed everyone into our car and headed to dinner and Christmas lights. The boys could have cared less, but Kate was really into it. She is recently obsessed with the movie Shark Boy and Lava Girl (don't run out and rent it), so every house that had red lights was Lava Girl's house and every house with blue lights was Shark Boy's house. It was pretty cute! Then we went back to their house to open our presents. This year Steven and Lyndsey took Kate to the Dollar Store for her to pick out gifts for everyone...genius idea! So here's the run down of gifts:

Ashley-necklace
Hudson-Elmo napkins (he IS messy)
Dusty-a container of nuts and bolts (When she picked this out she told Lyndsey "Dusty will love these!")

And she was right, we loved it all! It was absolutely precious to watch her give gifts. And Kate received Candyland from us, which she won on her first game ever!

It was a great way to start out our Christmas week! We heart the Testone's!

Santa Baby

Here's our little Santa Baby! Hudson is now 9 months old and a bundle of joy! Here you can see him being naughty and nice!

I'm sure most of you have heard the Christmas song "A Baby Changes Everything" by Faith Hill. It drives me crazy a little bit, but how true it is! Not only for us as parents of this adorable creature who has changed our lives for the better in more ways than we could have imagined, but more importantly, the birth of baby named Jesus. The baby who has truly changed everything.

Blessings to you and your family this year!

Merry Christmas,

Dusty, Ashley & Hudson

Anniversary Cruise

Dusty and I celebrated our 5th year of wedded bliss on a cruise to Mexico! This was our first cruise and we were excited for a fun new adventure. We have been blessed to take a trip together every year we have been married, but this was our first cruise experience. We really did have a great time, but lets just say that the boat and I did not get along! Most of you probably know that I am prone to motion sickness, and this just about topped it off! It was very windy and rocky the first two days and nights and Dusty thought he was going to have to ask housekeeping to sprinkle the "stuff" on the floor right in front of our dining room on the fancy night!! It got better as the week went on, but I still feel like I'm swaying back and forth!

We made our first stop in Cozumel, Mexico and it was glorious! Beautiful weather, good food and shopping! We chose not to go on an excursion and do our own thing and we are super glad we did. We payed very little to go to a park/private beach and chill for the day...it was great! Our next stop was in Progreso, Mexico. Dusty got vetoed on going to the Mayan ruins in Chichen Itza (bluck) because I graciously went to Mayan ruins on our honeymoon! We have different vacationing ideas! We instead went on a kayaking adventure. And by adventure I mean we kayaked in open waters and got to see pelicans. We were unable to go through the jungle like the tour usually does because of low tide. But it was fun nonetheless! Good arm workout!

We played lots of Bingo and never won, watched lots of movies, ate lots of ice cream, and caught up on some sleep that we realized we had been missing! We really are glad we did this and I am thankful for a husband that thinks in advance to make vacations happen for us. I love getting away with him! And even though we missed little man very much, he was WELL taken care of. So much so that when we went to get him out of bed the next morning, he started crying and threw his head down on his mattress! Nice. We are glad to be back home and looking forward to Christmas with our families!

I'm Back...

and I have news about the newest addition to our family! No,no, not me. My sister Angie and her husband found out last week that they are having a girl!! Baby girl Mirkes will be joining us at the end of April! We are all so excited! That will make an even 3 girls and 3 boys for Mimi and Paw-Paw! And Angie has finally decided to join the blogging world, so you can catch up with her at mirkesmom.blogspot.com. And Adam is now swearing to be a consistent blogger, but I'm not holding my breath! :)

Stay tuned for pictures from our cruise and some pretty darn cute pictures of our little Santa baby!!

Happy Birthday Dusty!

So I'm a little late, but things are somewhat busy around here. We're leaving in two days and not one thing on our to-do list is completed, but there is always time for blogging! Dusty's birthday was a great day. It even ended with snow, but I could NOT remove myself from under the covers to take a picture of that at midnight. But the pictures shown are Hudson giving Daddy his birthday card and homemade 2009 calendar on Tuesday morning. :) And I'm totally stealing the following blog from my friend Jennifer, but it was super cute!

30 of Dusty's Favorite Things (in no particular order)

1. Christmas
2. Christmas music
3. Chipotle
4. Dallas Cowboys
5. His mom's chicken fried steak
6. Making lists
7. Fantasy football
8. Having his back scratched
9. Hudson's laugh
10. Sweet tea
11. Sudoku
12. Monopoly
13. Cornbread and milk
14. Blowing on Hudson's belly
15. XBox 360
16. His nieces and nephews
17. Hardin-Simmons University
18. Making up songs
19. Macaroni Grill
20. Gravy
21. Vacations
22. Lord of the Rings Trilogy
23. The Rocky theme song
24. Making a beat with his hands
25. Winter
26. Canyon Creek Youth Group
27. Going to the movies
28. Ping-pong
29. Being a dad
30. Hanging out with me...I'm sure that's one them!

Happy 30th Birthday! I love you!

Dusty's 30th Birthday Partay!!

Tuesday is actually the big day, but we needed to celebrate early! Dusty is turning 30!!!! We had friends at the church for a game-a-thon!! It was a game rotation where you play for 10 minutes and then rotate to the next game and pick up where the previous player left off...tons of fun for big groups! And we had Dusty's favorite foods: chicken strips with gravy, macaroni and cheese, green beans and I threw in some fruit so that no one had a heart attack from the previous listed items. SIDE NOTE: These really are foods my husband eats on a regular basis and he had his cholesterol checked earlier this year-it was normal. Sickening. And our friends were given a baggie and asked to fill it with 30 small items. Well, let your minds roam on small items that might be given to a 30 year old man, and we'll leave it at that! It was a blast! More of Dusty's birthday coming soon!

I love my cousins!!

Hudson had a great first Thanksgiving...very eventful! Lots of hugs, kisses, squeezes, eye pokes, etc. from all the family. He had turkey and sweet potatoes in a jar on Thanksgiving night (yummy!) AND is officially crawling all over the place. I pretty much spend my day pulling him away from all the things he's not supposed to touch. Great fun!

Anyway, thanks to all our family for a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Love,

The Brewer's

Uh-Oh!

Looks like we'll be moving the mattress down!! He's just realized that he could do this, and look how much fun he was having when we found him!! Little stinker!

Puff Daddy

Hudson loves Puffs! Thank you Gerber for inventing the magically disappearing puffy star that allows for mommies and daddies to eat their dinner in peace! :)

Blog Roll

I've changed things up a bit and added some new friends, so I thought I would let all my readers know a little bit about all my fellow bloggers. I am openly admitting that I am a blog stalker and if you are reading this right now, you probably are too! So you know you want to know who these people are! Here we go:

1. Adam: My brother-in-law who needs serious blog help. I love him, but he's not a good blogger. Maybe having a baby will help!

2. Aimee: Aimee was my Bible study leader at Tech and we have kept up through emails, cards and now blogs! She was a super important person in my life in college and I love checking up on her precious family. And she gives coupon updates!!

3. Alicia: We met while working at Pine Cove in college and she has always been constant friend in my life! She's having a baby in the spring! Can't wait to meet Baby Kiser!

4. Ashley: This is one of my dearest friends! We also met at PC and worked all four summers together. We have been in each others weddings, met up for girls weekends and share of love of sweets! She's having baby #2 in the winter!

5. Audrey Caroline: Okay, this is a new blog for me. I came across this from my friend Jenn and then my mom told me she had been secretly stalking this blog as well. Get your kleenexes ready people! This is written by a mom named Angi, whose husband is part of the Christian group Selah. They lost their sweet baby girl Audrey this past year and Angi has blogged the entire story. She is now using her blog to minister to other moms and families who have lost children. I spent an entire evening reading/crying from the beginning of their journey. It is a very special blog. Mascara alert!!

6. Becca: Another Pine Cove buddy, who makes me laugh hysterically! She has recently moved to Austin and I love getting to see her!

7. Erin: This is a childhood/high school/youth group friend who I have recently caught up with all because of blogger! Yea! She is blogging all about living with her newborn son Parker!

8. Jana: Erin's sister and also a Kaufman friend. She has two adorable girls and her blog is written from the perspective of her youngest daughter...it's so funny!

9. Julie Cole: Julie is the little sister I never had! Poor thing always got drug along with her older sister and I growing up, but now she's a mommy of two!

10. Jessica: Jess is a recent graduate from our youth group and now a freshman at A&M. She was a huge part of our ministry here and now I get to read about what God is teaching her in college. But I sure miss her hanging out with me in my classroom!

11. Joy: Joy and I met when Dusty and I started dating and now she is one of my most special friends! Joy and her family ministered to us in a big way when we were first married and we love getting to visit them when we go home!

12. Julie Beth: JB and I are also childhood friends from Kaufman. I was the little sister who tagged along with her and my older sister. I'm sure I was a pest to her, but she remained my friend anyway! I get to read about her girls in Tennessee!

(Oops, I think I'm off.)
13. Jennifer: Jenn and I went to high school together and she married one of my friends that I had know since we were babies! She blogs about her two little ones...who are adorable!

14. Julie Hubik: Julie is a very special friend from college. She and I can go a year without seeing each other and pick up right where we left off! Julie was a prayer warrior for me during some hard times and I still turn to her for advice. She's expecting baby 2 in the spring!

15. Kim: Oh Kim! This is my very best friend from childhood! We share so many memories together, most are too embarrassing to talk about, but I wouldn't trade them for the world! She is a very funny blogger who often makes her titles into songs that get stuck in your head all day! And her son is her mini-me!

16. Lydia: Lydia is a dear friend who I've known in lots of capacities! Tech, Pine Cove, Dallas...she knows way too much about me, but loves me anyway! We've shared lots of laughs and tears together over the years and hope there are many more to come! She blogs about her life as a newlywed and gives great movie reviews!

17. Mandy: I met Mandy at Pine Cove and shared all four summers with her. We have many memories from camp, some good, some not so good! And many memories of scrapbooking and eating way too much! She shares her life with two kids and one on the way as they live full time at PC!

18. Marilea: Another Kaufman friend who I caught up with over the last year! Marilea and I were often mistaken for sisters in HS because we were together...a lot! She blogs about her princess and her peanut...too cute!

19. Molly: Molly is a new addition to my blog roll! Molly and Dusty went to college together at Hardin-Simmons and I have loved getting to know her over the last several years. She is a super-funny blogger who shares her life with two kiddos!

20. Steve: Last but not least, Steve. Even though he has known Dusty for a looong time, I count Steve one of my friends too! He's married to Joy and like I mentioned before, they were such good friends to us when we first got married and have kept up with us over the last three years that we've been away. Steve is a professor at heart, so his blogs are VERY intellectual and deep. Prepare yourself for some thinkin' when you read Steve's blog!!

Okay, I know this was way long, but it was fun, right?! Now you know who all my blog friends are! By the way, if you didn't catch a common thread among many of my bloggers, you might want to be careful of stalking too much. You might catch the baby bug that is spreading around! I'm being super-careful! Don't want to catch anything here just yet!

Happy Stalking!!

On your mark, get set...

Go! It's not a full-on crawl, but Hudson is on the move. And our lives are about to change in a major way! He's a quick one!

And while I love my son and all his accomplishments, how in the world am I going to keep him from destroying our Christmas tree??!! Good times ahead!

Little Jumperoo

Hudson loves this thing! And there have been a few times that he jumped a little too hard and banged his head on the front! But he doesn't care, he just keeps jumping!

Coming Soon...Hudson crawling!!! I'm really sad to say that our video camera isn't compatible with our computer, so there is no way for me to post video. And catching him in action with just a digital camera is kinda tricky, but I'll try!