all about me, according to Anderson

Anderson's preschool class presented each mom with several little 'gifts' - one of them being a "book". One of the pages in the book was "according to" the children about their mommies.... Here is what my page said:

Q) what does your Mom look like?
A) she has long, not super long, silver finger nails & brown eyes

Q) How old is your Mom?
A) 20

Q) What is her favorite color?
A) Pink

Q) What is her favorite food?
A) Hamburgers

Q) What is your favorite thing to do with Mom?
A) Go to the playground & play wit her & my little baby brother Carter

Q) What makes your Mom mad?
A) When I disobey her

Q) If you had all the money in the world, what would you buy for her?
A) A lot of coffee cups

Q) What makes your Mom happy?
A) When I don't disobey her

Q) What choes do you 'help' Mom with?
A) Help make cookies & dinner sometimes

Isn't that a riot? I guess "obedience" is a big thing in our household! He is right on the money with the coffee cups though - so long as they're filled with coffee!!!!

Work from home....

On Wednesday Anderson's school had their Mother's Day celebration - but since I'm short babysitters, I was worried I wasn't going to be able to attend (they said NO siblings!). But Mark's new job offers some flexibility for working from home, so we chose this as his 1st time to work from home so I could go to Anderson's event and Carter could stay home with Mark for an hour or so...


Needless to say, the working from home won't go very well until we have an office for Mark (can you see why!). Actually we tried to stay out of Mark's hair, and with Anderson being gone in the a.m. and naps in the p.m. - the boys didn't bother Mark much.... but still!

Judd home grown 'maters, part I

One of my very favorite things to eat is a fresh garden tomato. I have fond memories of just eating tomatoes just like an apple, but with a little bit of salt sprinkled on. When we were living in VA, the tomatoes just seemed too expensive to enjoy them that way and I've always wanted to try to grow my own, but I used to want to "do" a lot of things I never had time for. This year I was bound & determined to try my hand at growing my own tomatoes. Since we were hoping to be able to move out of my parents' home before the end of the season, I opted to grow a tomato plant in a container.... My mom also planted many tomato plants, but put hers in the ground (she's a seasoned gardener). She let Anderson have responsibility of one of the plants and we decided to name our plants:

meet "Mater" - this one is mine...

meet "Dirt" or "Superman" (depends on the day) - this is Anderson's to nurture

Hopefully in several weeks I can post "part II" showing some green tomatoes!!!! I can't wait!!!

oh, hail!

We had a hail storm last nite - the biggest hail I've ever seen in my lifetime! These were in Anderson's little hands, but we saw some that looked like melon balls and a few golf balls! Crazy!

Jumpin' Judds

The boys were invited to a friend's bday party at Jumpits - this was a 1st for Carter at one of these 'bounce house' places. I was nervous for some reason that Carter wouldn't be able to do much, but he totally surprised me - scaling the walls and taking the slides by storm! The boys had a grand time -even worthy of the skipped naps!

hey mommy!

here I go!

watch me climb!

hold on baby brother!

Going, going, GONE!

I can't believe this day has FINALLY come, but our house is SOLD!!!! It has been over a year, but as most of you know - when we 1st put it on the market we had no idea if we were coming or a going - we just knew that we had outgrown our precious home of 5 years - the home where we brought both of our newborn boys home to, the place where we had so many "firsts" with our precious sons. So many wonderful memories of Kempsville Greens Parkway - from early early mornings on our deck (along with the many golfers) or the late late nites watching fireworks from the same deck, the many birthday parties celebrated there, the evenings spent with friends and family around the dinner table, or on the sofa watching the Dawgs play. While we are soooooo grateful for this exciting news, I am sad for we will have to officially say 'goodbye' to this precious home where God blessed us abundantly!!!!

Barring any obstacles, we are scheduled to close on June 19th!!! Thanks to our enormous support network of friends & family who have offered so much love & support this past year!

Not exactly as planned....

So this is what Carter's Easter morning looked like - not quite the little man that we know & love - shortly after this picture he was asleep so we transferred him to the pack-n-play where he slept for 5+ hours (what a nap!). Poor little guy had a yucky stomach bug.

Since I was in 'throw-up clothes' all a.m., I had to take a picture of Mark, Katie-Beth & Anderson all dressed up for Easter - don't they look GREAT!

Here was Carter trying to enjoy his Easter basket

If you can't read this note this is what is says " Mr. Easter Bunny: Please do NOT come into Anderson's room. Thanks, Happy Easter, Anderson's mommy".

Big huge mistake - I told Anderson that the Easter bunny might open his door to make sure he was asleep - OK, big HUGE mistake - Anderson was PETRIFIED that the bunny was going to 'hop' into his bed. It was a huge ordeal -as you can tell from my 'dear bunny' letter. I had to sleep with Anderson that nite to make him feel better!!! LESSON LEARNED!!

Carter's basket

Anderson's basket

A new favorite past-time at Nana & Poppa's house is to have a fire at night in the fire bowl once Carter's in bed - Anderson LOVES this time with his Poppa

Easter Egg Hunt (day before Easter)!!! (thanks Anderson for the mouthful of candy!)

Virginia is for Friends (not Lovers)

The boys & I traveled to Va Beach during Spring Break to visit friends and our place formerly known as "home". We had a great time picking right up where we left off, but the week went by way too fast! We stayed with the Maggiores again - it works really well for us - we get more play time and avoid messing up my 'on the market' home, plus the grown-ups can hang at nap & bed times!

My pictures are out of order and I certainly didn't capture all of our fun, but here are some pics... somehow I didn't manage a grown-up photo at all, and I didn't get any good pics of my boys with Jen's girls (ARGH!).

Anderson & Ryan have been dying to ride bikes together - here they all, quite 'matchy'. They had a blast racing back & forth!

Carter is all-boy! After he got wet by this puddle accidentally, I didn't bother to restrain him further since he was already all wet & dirty. Here he is swimming in the puddle (yes, I'm that mom!)

my sweet niece Avery playing 'peek-a-boo' - she is growing sooo fast and I'm loving her shy emerging personality!

Here are the cousins hanging out on the slides.... (they actually kinda look alike here!)

Happy boy!

We got to play with the Schrodts for an afternoon and enjoyed a delicious dinner with them (thanks Katy!). I was only able to get pictures of Anderson & Josiah, for some reason couldn't get Anderson & both Schrodt boys in the same pic.... They had a blast playing Star Wars (can't you tell) and Carter had fun with Callie (although Carter doesn't enjoy sharing yet!!!)

I got to spend a morning with Jamie while Ryan was at school, but suprisingly Anderson & Emily played well together - they were cuddled up while Anderson enjoyed Ryan's Leapster - I couldn't get a picture of them without Emily being aware!

We left VA at 5:30 Friday a.m. to head to Macon for Easter. I literally put the boys in the car in their PJs - here is me dangerously driving & taking a picture of sleeping Anderson, but I couldn't resist (actually, I was at a light!!!!)

and the next thing you know,

And the next thing you know, they'll be shaving!!!!

Time to make the doughnuts!!

I found a recipe to make doughnuts at home - so I decided before the boys and I blasted off from GA to head to Va Beach, that we'd have a family breakfast of "semi-homemade" doughnuts. Anderson helped me and they were good - but the complete opposite of healthy! I enjoyed treating the boys and we'll save the recipe for a once or twice a year treat!! We got to take our leftovers to Charlotte with us to share with the cousins - I think they enjoyed them too!

Carter enjoying one of the 'munchkin doughnut holes'

What a compliment!!!!!

So I've already lamented to a few about this "compliment" I received, but this week during our visit to Va Beach, we took our kids to the playplace at the mall (formerly known as the 'big hot dog'!) - when this little girl (maybe 2 1/2 years old), comes up to me with arms reached out wanting me to pick her up. Well, I'm no dummy - I'm not gonna pick up a strange child unless they've fallen or need help, so I just kinda smiled at her. Just then her nanny (I think) came up to retrieve the little girl - so I said to the little girl, "oh, I must look like someone she loves" - - and the nanny responded "YES, you look like her Grandmother!!!!!!!!" - - Can you BELIEVE that???? Ok, so I've never had a complex about looking older, but maybe I should!!!!!

Hop to it!

Today was Anderson's Easter party at school -he was sooo excited for his party and especially about the Egg Hunt!! Each child in his class brought in 14 eggs filled with goodies and marked with each child's name in the class - so today at the hunt they were only able to find eggs with their name on it - I think to help them with name recognition and secondly to prevent some of the more aggressive kids from dominating the hunt. The kids got to eat some yummy snacks and make a bunny craft. It was a "hoppy" occasion!


showing off his new ears and basket

I found one Mommy

the finished product

Whatever happened to U for umbrella?

So this tickled me to death that I have to post about it - - so Anderson's class has a focus letter each week -and as you can see, last week it was U.... If you look closely at this picture you'll notice a pair of boys undies and a t-shirt - that's right, U is for Underwear!!! Anderson even started giggling when we were looking at it together - and I thought to myself, whatever happened to U for umbrella? Oh well, if they were looking for a way for it to 'stick', I guess they did it! I only wish I could have seen the little girl's ditto - I don't ever remember coloring a pair of panties when I was in pre-school!!