lots of photo catch up!

 Still hasn't seen a single spider-man show or cartoon - loves him anyway!

 Hudson got this truck from Grandpa Rosdil during his last visit - this has to be one of the all time favorite toys he's had. It seems to have so many uses!! And it's fun to watch him do so many creative things with it - he's got this crane pickup up all sorts of things!

 Brunch with some girlfriends down in Santa Monica - great get away time for me!!

 These babies are growing up…and I'm thankful I can capture moments on my phone when I don't have my camera with me! Such sweet personalities, these two. 

 My dear friend Sandra has a Holiday party every year, and this year I finally got to go!! So fun to spend time with good friends here in Cali!

 This Christmas season we got to go see some of the fancy lights around the area, and the kids loved it (so did we!)! This picture was at Angela's house, after we went to see a neighborhood of light-filled houses. Such cute kids!! :)

 This house has been so great to us for the last nine months. The backyard, fruit trees, dirt to play in, and lots of room to run has been just what we needed! I can't imagine staying home full time with them without this set up - we have used it to it's fullest!!

 With Hudson in a public preschool now, we got to be part of the annual Holiday party! He did a great job singing up on stage with his buddies, and since i'm on the parent board I got to be part of the planning too which was fun for me! Both kids had a ball at the party - too bad they both got sick shortly thereafter!!

 Hudson went with me to do some Christmas shopping - did so well he got a treat, which he wore beautifully on his face. :)

 Trying to keep up with our date nights, we went to Andy's work Christmas party this year, in a beautiful house in San Marino. Andy got to meet some higher ups from work, and we got to enjoy a nice evening all dressed up and without kids! and as you see below, our children don't do "normal" on slides. 

 It was so great to have holidays with both sides of the family this year. Hudson got to play piano with Great Grandpa, visit with all his Aunties and Uncles, and it was great for Andy and I to see everyone too!!

 That would be Andy, shorts and flip flops while everyone else is in pants and sweaters. :)

 It was great having Pete, Anna and Kathie here for so long. Kathie went with us to check out Andy's job site one day - and it was so cold! But cool to see what he's doing and show Hudson the big tractors of course. 

 We are thinking about potty training Stella here in the next couple months, but you can see she is clearly already using her potty for other things! 

 This year we are having Hudson do some thank you cards (slowly but surely), and this was his first one. I didn't help him write any of it, and he did really well other than the Y being a bit rough. 

 Hudson's first stick figures…pretty amazing I think! He said this was mommy and daddy. 

little girl loves the dirt!

 In mid-Jan we took the kids to the Los Angeles Science Center, and got to see the Endeavor up close and personal. There was so much to see there, it was great - and FREE! We will need to go again to see the rest, but it was amazing to see the shuttle and how large it is in person!

 What happens when all you have is an older brother to emulate? You put socks on your fingers, a train hat and cape on and call yourself a super hero! Our Stel is so easy and willing to play, she is great at improvising and going along with Hudson's idea of the moment!And she looks pretty adorable in the hat too. :)

 Trying to keep artistic juices flowing…Stella at almost 2 years old, Hudson at almost 4 1/2, and my hands. 

Stella turns two this month...

We are sitting her talking about Stella turning two this month, and how we are now carrying on conversations with her. Her dialect is not as clear as Hudson's was at this age, but it's not hard to figure out what she's saying! She is more stubborn than Hudson was, more opinionated, and a bit of an instigator if i must say! There's a bit of competition between she and Hudson, and she works hard to keep up with him any time she can. She puts 4+ words together at a time regularly now, and though she cries easily (for attention I think), she is also a bit of a tough cookie (in order to keep up with brother).

We've been having trouble with her sleeping for months now, and aren't really sure what the cause is at this point. She wakes up on average once a night, and is very particular about how she wants to be treated and/or what she wants when she's up. We have gotten in the habit of having Andy go in to check on her when she wakes up, as I don't go back to sleep well, and now she will only accept andy! She's also very clear on when she doesn't want to go back to sleep, which has been the biggest challenge. She's been sick a few times since we've moved here as well, so it's safe to say we are often sleep deprived, confused about what her deal is waking up, and not sure how to make it stop.

Otherwise, Stel loves Lego and all her stuffed animals, and seems to connect differently with them than Hudson. She is very sweet, but spicy. We don't expect her to be a push over as she gets older! Honestly she has to be a bit of a fighter to put up with her big brother. His energy level is sometimes more than i can believe, or handle. We race in the backyard daily, go to parks, do as much physical activity as we can every day, and most days his energy still seems limitless. Sports will be coming to this boys life soon!

Stella is still going to be at 7:00pm, waking up by 6:30 (no matter how much she is up during the night - you can imagine how that is for the rest of us!). Bed time is typically very easy for her - maybe because she's worn out from keeping up with Hudson all day! :) And she naps an hour and 30 minutes every day, almost to the minute usually. She wears size 4 diaper, 24 month to size 2 clothes (though her 18 month stuff mostly fits, other than the pants are getting short). Size 6 shoes, and she's still a picky eater. She eats enough, but she's pretty finicky about what and when. Like her brother, fruit is usually not a problem still. Otherwise, it's anyones guess. She does love avocado though!

New years

This year we had everyone (almost) in town for the holidays! The entire Reeves clan was present, the Fluckigers, Travers, and Pete, Anna and Kathie (Rosdil) flew in on Christmas day! We've never had Christmas day like that at the Travers residence, and it was awesome. Even though a couple were missing, and a couple came on different days, we greatly enjoyed the almost two weeks of nonstop family!

 We took Kathie, Pete and Anna to the Griffith observatory - and as luck would have it the place was closed! But we walked around, they went for a little hike and out to lunch (i took the kids home for nap) and got to see the Hollywood sign and views of the city. 

 We had planned to go to the Rose Parade this year with Kathie, but I came down with a bad sinus infection, and we had really cold weather here this year over the holidays so we opted to go see the floats afterward! It was great to see them up close, and we ran into Connie and Kimberly along the way! 

 We have GREAT neighbors, who have been very generous in giving us some cool "toys' their kids have outgrown - including this awesome mini piano! They also let us use their spare room off the side of their house for guests, which made our holiday season with guests coming and going SO much better!