9 Months

Hudson is now 9 months old. He is starting to take a couple of steps but then he realizes that he can get where he is going faster by crawling. He has two more teeth coming in on the top, his fang teeth. I remember Ella had only her fang teeth on the top and her smile was hilarious. So it looks like we will have another baby with a cute little fang smile. Hudson is still such a happy little baby we didn't even know he was teething until we checked and saw them starting to come in. He is getting around a lot faster and starting to climb. I am sure he is going to be an all adventurous boy.

Family Swim

We had a family get-together at Roger & Dee Dee's. Their were 18 kids and 12 adults. It was definitely a full pool and house.

The boys quit swimming to play dress-up and came out looking like this, Trevin is the little princess and Trey said that he was Grandma Hook.
After swimming everyone was so hungry that we devoured the pizza and brownies.

Camp Gramma the Last Day

Well on Thursday after breakfast Camp Gramma was officially over. Ella did not want to leave she said she wanted to stay at "camp all day." Her and Meredith had fun playing together. They have been hug buddies since they were babies and they still knock each other down. She had so much fun that she is already talking about coming back next year to Gramma's camp and playing with all of her friends.

Camp Gramma Day Three: The Bonfire

Well after the zoo we came home and the kids went swimming and then they went to the bridge. Then we spent our last night having a bonfire. The kids all sat around the fire and sang songs and gave their testimonies. It was a great night and it is wonderful to have the older cousins share their testimonies and set a good example for the younger ones. Then of course we roasted marshmallows. Which Ella called "mashellows".

Camp Gramma Day Three: The Zoo

Wichita Zoo

This sign says it all
The kids checking out the family of flamingo's
Our Sweet little stroller Babies

The girls were trying to get the monkey to jump around. So they started Jumping up and down and then the monkey started bobbing his head up and down as they jumped.
As we were standing watching the bears the two bears started to fight. All of us adults that were standing there jumped but none of the kids were scared.

Hudson was tired of being stuck in his stroller so Grampa carried him around the zoo for awhile.
"Look Mommy, those Giraffes are eating. That's silly."
They had this chart too see how big of a bird you would be. Ella had the wing span of a Scarlett Macaw. The picture below is of the Scarlet Macaw in which the bird looks pretty small.

We went into the Rain Forest and it was really hot and humid. There were a lot of birds and huge bats and many other animals. But I was terrified of the bats and was ready to run the second I saw them move. Thankfully they didn't bother any of us.
Ella trying to cool off by taking a drink from her water canteen
Brittany was a great help all weekend and especially at the zoo. She helped me by pushing Ella around in the stroller all day.


Ella & Meredith Milking a Cow

We drove the kids up to the Wichita Zoo. On the way to the zoo the kids in my car were thinking that people at the zoo might recognize them from being in the Hutch Newspaper. Unfortunately for them they weren't recognized. I think the temperature was only a lit bit above 100 degrees. We packed sandwiches and chips for lunch and pulled the coolers around on a wagon. But the kids enjoyed taking turns riding on the wagon. When I asked Ella what her favorite part of the zoo was she said when the bears fighting. The kids all did really well and on the way home 3 out of the 4 kids in my car fell asleep.

I forgot to post pictures of the rest of the day. So stay tuned for the next post.

Camp Gramma Day Two

Hudson and Brooklyn at the water park were more interested in eating snacks then playing in the water.

Hudson became Uncle Greg's little buddy.
All of us Cheering on Trevin.
Micah, Ella and Meryn getting a closer look.
Hudson all smiles at the game (Well at least for the first few innings)

We began the day with breakfast at 8:00 and the older kids went fishing and the younger kids went to the water park. Ella and Hudson didn't really like the water spraying on them so Ella went to the park and played.

In the afternoon someone from the Hutch Newspaper came and did a story on Camp Gramma and it actually made the front page. Check out this link to read the article. http://www.hutchnews.com/Todaystop/camp2008-07-22T20-42-14 Then we let all the kids swim and later that night we went and watched their cousin's last baseball game which they won. Way to go Trevin! After the game we came home had some snacks and a meeting about the next days activities. Oh Yeah and it was only 101 degrees out today.

Welcome to Camp Gramma 2008

Dinner Time
Dinner picnic style
Mommy, where's my food?

New 2008 Camp Gramma Crew
Singing songs which Ella loves to do as you can see she was the only one to stand up to sing and dance.
Hudson really enjoying the meeting by playing with the inner tube. Ella and Meredith jumping on the trampoline
Ella in her tent ready for bed.

This is Ella's first year to get spend time with all of her cousins at Camp Gramma. We left Monday afternoon and arrived in Hutch a little bit before dinner time and orientation. After dinner we had a orientation were we sang songs, handed out Camp Gramma shirts, and talked about this year's theme We Are Family.

There were 3 tents set up in the backyard along with a playhouse, swimming pool, trampoline, zip line and many other activities. Ella is sleeping in the tent with all the girls and Gramma. She was really excited to be a big girl and sleep with all the girls. Although I think she is one of the last one's to sleep and usually the first one to wake up.

So much fun already and this is only the first night of Camp Gramma.

VBS County Fair

Ella making a splatter painting

Dunking our Pastor but he fought back by shooting everyone with a water gun.

Cake Walk

It was the only game that was inside so we enjoyed spending quite awhile in the cool. Ella won 3 times and she chose cookies and cupcakes.

Soda Toss

Can we go yet?
Digging in the sand

Our Vacation Bible School theme was the County Fair. So on Sunday night they had a big fair with a Ferris Wheel, horse rides, petting zoo and a bunch of games. It was alot of fun but it was extremely hot and after 2 1/2 hours we were ready to leave, well at least John and I were ready to leave.

Going for a walk

We went on a walk and I had Ella walk with me instead of riding her bike. It gets too hard to push the stroller and control Ella on her bike. She was jammin' to the Ipod and held onto the stroller the entire walk. She was so funny listening to music and singing along. But she doesn't like the heat and was ready to be done walking because she told me she was sweating.

Ella Time

No More Toothless Grins