Catching up: March (and some February, and some April) :)

Ok, so I honestly think about posting on here every single day! The days just go by faster and faster and so today I decided to skip doing the dishes, preparing for dinner, making the bed, or putting on any makeup to update! :) Hope it's worth it.

Since last post, we've had so much fun! Hudson spent a weekend with Grandad Fred and Grandma Kris in Kansas while Cory and I watched the kick off weekend of the NCAA basketball tournament with friends. He came back a spoiled boy! Got used to being held all day long and the attention was always on him! (just how it should be at gma and gpa's) It took a little bit to get him out of that :)  (ok.. let's face it, I still spoil him!)


Hudson is all ready to watch the Kansas Jayhawks play in the championship game of the NCAA tourny!!

We've had a beautiful spring! It has allowed many walks to a park near our home. Cory even took a day off (a day of mourning after Kansas lost the championship basketball game) so we all went to the park together! Cory brought a nerf football, just in case Hud felt like playing "catch".  :) :) We did roll it back and forth on the blanket for a bit! Hudson really enjoyed exploring in the grass! As you can see in the pictures, he had a hard time looking up in to the bright sunlight!

All in all, Hudson is just growing so quickly! He's an adorable little boy who lives to eat, drool, eat, squeal in delight, eat, be held, eat, and did I mention.. eat? (ha!) He's a good sleeper for the most part and has loads of energy all day long! One of his favorite things to do is "stand".

What a big boy!! :)                                                

For Easter we went to Sioux Center to visit my family. Another fun filled weekend with family and friends!

Gma Janet helped take some 4 month photos!

Great Grandma Donna made Hud laugh and laugh!

Cousin time

The whole Boone family on Easter Sunday

Our family on Easter :)

credit for all photos of SC goes to Grandma Janet! :)  (thanks Mom!)

Last but not least, we started trying to feed Hudson some rice cereal! :) 

Good work, Dad!

Thanks for catching up with us! Hope it's not another month before I decide to do this again! It's really fun to go back and re-live what we've been up to! 

Thanks for naps and technology!

Seriously - I am so thankful today for nap time and technology! (Everything in moderation, of course - but when nap time comes around, I'm ready! And when I'm ready for a few mindless minutes, checking my e-mail or scrolling through Facebook updates does the trick!)

What I love about nap time:

 - 2 hours to do whatever I please at home

 - 2 free hands!

 - Kitchen time (you're thinking, please explain!) I don't like a messy kitchen. So kitchen time allows me to wash the dishes, wipe the counter tops, etc. I don't necessarily like those activities, but I love the result! I also love cooking/baking - so most of my kitchen time is spent doing that, and I finish up with the "chore" of cleaning it.

 - If I haven't had the opportunity to shower yet, I'll do that. Or just brush my teeth and pull my hair back :)

 - When so inspired, the opportunity to use the treadmill in the basement 

 - Devotion time. I recently started a Beth Moore Bible study - love them! There's a lot of "homework" though. I enjoy it, but I need quiet time to focus and really take it all in. My goal for this study is to start every nap time with 20-30 minutes of quiet time. 

sneaking in on nap time :)

What I love about technology:

 - It entertains me when I am sitting at home and can't leave because I have a baby :)

 - DVR: I can record any show on TV that I want to and watch it whenever I want to (like every 45 minutes when I have to sit down to nurse Hudson, again.)

 - iPad: We got one for Christmas :) I spend hours on that while sitting/standing with Hudson - browsing the web, checking e-mail and Facebook, and playing solitaire :)

 - Android cell phone: texting anyone and everyone I can think of, calling my mom, and finding random apps I can download and mess with (including a baby app that allows me to track Hudson's eating, sleeping, diapers, activities, and moods all in one place!)

 - Computer: It's pretty rare that I actually make time to sit at the computer with two free hands to do as I please (like type = blog) but when it happens I cherish every (oops, got to go! crying baby) So, I'm back.. 2 weeks later! :) Forgot I was even writing this post .. guess that happens too!

As I read over what I typed 2 weeks ago, I see how much it has changed again! These are all still good things, but I'm realizing nothing will ever stay the same for a "long" period of time again! Which is ok.

Lately I am enjoying things like MOPS, having mom visit a few days, and celebrating Hudson being around for 2 months already! Time flies!!

He's always so serious!

Enjoying tummy time with a little help from his boppy pillow

Play time

He loooves his binky!

Until next time! Hopefully it's not another month before I get another post completed!! :)

Christmas!! (a picture is worth a thousand words .. )

With Hudson being born the beginning of December, we jumped right in to one of the busiest times of the year: The Holidays  Christmas time! At 5 days old, Hudson went with Mom and Dad on his first outing to the grocery store. We had plans to host our friends Christmas party Dec. 10, so we had some work to do! Hudson loved his car seat and slept the entire time we were out and about! Thankfully we have a great group of friends that brought most of the food for the party and cleaned everything up at the end of the night! (Hudson and I went to bed hours before everyone left the house) So, party #1 - Hudson 6 days old - success!

Friend Christmas party 2011

My family arrived 5 days later to spend the weekend at our house to celebrate our family Christmas! They were also great about doing pretty much everything (laundry, cooking, dishes, cleaning, etc) while they were here. It was honestly more work for me once they left!

Our family Christmas - complete with a visit from Santa! :)

While staying with us, my mom did a great job of capturing some of our Christmas decor in the house.

Christmas Decor 2011

Just a few days after celebrating with my family, it was time for Cory's family to arrive in town and spend Christmas weekend with us! Again, a blast - and very easy for us!

This was the first time most of the family met Hudson - That means lots of family pictures!  Hud is the first grandchild/great grandchild on this side of the family. Makes for a very special, spoiled little boy! :)

Gidley Christmas

Gourley Christmas

Christmas Day we started off the morning with our little family of 3 :) We slept in, had some coffee, and opened our gifts from Santa that were in our stockings! Let the traditions begin!!

Santa Christmas stockings

Later that afternoon we also had our Christmas party with Grandma Kris and Grand dad Fred! They sure enjoyed their first Christmas with their only grandson!!

1st Christmas with the Gourley's

So, this has been our first 3 weeks home with a newborn baby! Wild and crazy to say the least :) Now it's time to try and figure out what our new normal will be with a baby at home without all the friends, family, and parties filling our days! I'm looking forward to quiet days at home, mommy time, and hopefully finding some good activities in the area with other new mommies and their babies!

Hope you all had a very merry and blessed Christmas and happy New Year!

Hudson Frederick Gourley :)

Ahh.. the joys of motherhood! I've been planning on writing this post for the last 25 days - just sitting down to the computer this afternoon :)

    > Joy #1 of motherhood: no time to sit at the computer with two free hands to type with because I'm too busy holding/entertaining my precious son.

So, at this time I'd like to introduce you to our son, Hudson Frederick. Born December 4, weighing in at 7lbs 6oz and 20 1/2 inches long!

Our first family photo :)

     > Joy #2 of motherhood: Hudson's eyes focus on me when I'm holding him, or when he's with someone else and I talk, etc. :) He knows I'm his mommy and I'm the only one that can be that for him

Don't you just love those big blue eyes?   :) :)

Hudson has been a great baby so far! He is sleeping well (only waking up once a night on average, giving me 3-4 hour stretches of sleep at night!) He's fairly content during the day, and when he's not it's usually because he needs something. I'm working on figuring out what those things are! We're starting to learn what his adorable cries mean and how they're different. He also has the cutest pouty face ever! I'll try get a good picture of it sometime so you can all enjoy it with me :) (that face goes along with the dirty diaper cry) He loves his "daddy time" at night when Cory gets home from work. They spend it doing "tummy time" on the floor and "crawling". (Cory puts his hands on the bottom of Hud's feet so when he pushes against them he scoots across the floor on his tummy) :)

     > Joy #3 of motherhood: My husband enjoys being fatherhood as much as I am enjoying motherhood :)

     > Joy #4 of motherhood: The best thing I can think of to put in this blog to describe the experience so far of having a child is:   :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)  etc

Hudson even enjoys his nursery! (even though he doesn't like sleeping in his crib, he enjoys his "baby chair" that sits on the floor right next to his crib!) My brother painted the jungle leaf canvases above the changing table. He's so talented!

Jungle Nursery

Getting ready ..

So, I don't remember if I mentioned this at all before, but a few weeks ago at one of our Dr. checkups for the baby, our doctor mentioned our due date. She said "December 2". We've been going by the due date November 27 the entire pregnancy, so I asked if there was some confusion in the paperwork or something. She looked it up in the computer - and "nope, sorry. We must not have told you we changed your due date!"  Can you believe that?! I think it should be illegal to change a pregnant lady's due date in the last month of her pregnancy! It's like a bad joke..

Ok, I know  - I may be overreacting just a bit. It is only 5 days difference. But it's a completely different month! Another bad joke for a pregnant lady - to have a mom who had 4 children and all of them were born 3-5 weeks early and then it's not passed on to her one and only daughter! :)  (love you anyway, mom!)

Well now that I'm done "venting" about all of my last few weeks of being pregnant frustrations I will say that I'm thankful that it's gone this way. Really.. I have to remind myself quite a bit, but I've had about the most normal, uneventful pregnancy possible - which is quite a blessing! So, on Thanksgiving Eve I'll be thankful that I'm still carrying this super heavy, rib kicking, pelvis pushing, back pressing child in my warm, protective womb.


A few weeks ago Cory and I went on one more fun outing before CJ is born. We went to opening night performance of "Wicked" here in Des Moines! We ate at Splash restaurant before hand, and being no cameras are allowed in the theater, we took a memorable picture at dinner instead.

I've been extremely swollen from head to toe 5 days during my pregnancy. 

This was one of those days. 

wooowza!  :)

Let it snow!

This is what we woke up to in West Des Moines today! 3 inches of snow :) It was beautiful! 

(mainly because I know it's melting as I type and it will be gone again before I can be sick of it!)

So, for today - Let it Snow! And tomorrow, Let it be 50 degrees again! :)

Happy Halloween!

We had a busy weekend at the Gourley home! Cory's parents came to town for the weekend. We were celebrating his dad, Fred's, birthday! They have this joke - for about 6 months surrounding Fred's actual birthday, they use it as an excuse to celebrate :) But this was the actual event. We had a lot of fun enjoying each others company and, of course, delicious food every chance we got!

In addition to it being his birthday, it was also Halloween weekend. We were invited to a party on Friday night. Wait, let me back up and explain this first: Ever since Cory was in college (or maybe before) he has dressed up as a bowler for Halloween. Last year was our first year dressing up together. I didn't allow his bowler outfit to make an appearance at all!

We went as pilot and flight attendant instead :)

So, this year we had to get reeeal creative!

With my big belly and all this year..

My idea  :)

Aren't you proud?? He was so excited when I suggested he be a bowler this year, and I be his bowling ball!

So, the party was a lot of fun - and I took a lot of grief for allowing him to be a bowler again, but got a lot of credit for making it new with my bowling ball :)

We also had our childbirth class on Saturday - 6 .. yes, S - I - X hours of listening to a lady talk about all the crazy weird things people might want to try during labor. I think we decided about 30 minutes was applicable to us and any normal pregnancy. Good entertainment though! And I think we're both happy we went. :)