April:For Easter, the kids woke up to find that the Easter bunny had left them a lot of eggs in our backyard and Easter baskets full of goodies.
On April 8th, Jack turned 7! Jack is very inquisitive about everything and is always asking questions. At school, he loves spelling and math. He is also the biggest help when it comes to cleaning and oftentimes, will clean not only his room but also Hudson's and Callie's. We had a family party with the cousins and grandparents. For his celebration, he chose to go to Chuck E. Cheese-where he spent most of his time playing Skeeball-and to order in pizza. He got the Nintendo DSI he had been begging and earning money for and lots of pokemon cards for his collection.
Cousin Megan also has an April birthday and to help her celebrate we took all the older kids to Magic Kingdom for the day and Callie and Megan got their hair and makeup done at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Bootique inside Cinderella's castle. They loved being pampered and it was a very fun experience. Callie left her hair up for the next two days until we finally convinced her it was time to wash it out but she did like being able to show it off at church and school.
Before
After
Jack had a insect project at school where he had to make a model of an assigned insect and write a report. We helped him construct the goliath beetle and create a habitat for it.
Jack also started soccer. This was his first time trying soccer and he really enjoyed it.
May:
For Mother's Day, we spent the night at my sister's house and went with them to their ward on Sunday because my younger sister was giving a talk and to celebrate the day with them. The men cooked lunch afterwards and the cousins enjoyed playing together.
My sister also took pictures of me to capture my growing tummy. These were also the first pictures of me during this pregnancy.
Jack finally lost his first tooth. He had been hoping for awhile to lose a tooth because he has had so many friends loose teeth and really wanted some tooth fairy money. He was so excited when one finally came out as we were driving to his annual check-up. He could hardly sleep that night awaiting his first visit from the tooth fairy and woke up several times checking to see if she had come yet. Rob and I failed our first tooth fairy assignment because we planned to slip in early in the morning but Jack beat us awake. Luckily, Grandma was there to save the day and had slipped money under his pillow in the middle of the night. We did get a chance to redeem ourselves because Jack lost a second tooth 2 weeks later on the way home from a friend's birthday party and this time we did not leave it till morning and gave him a little extra to help ease our guilt.
Cousin Christopher celebrated his 8th birthday at the beach. This was our first trip to the beach this summer. We went in the late afternoon so the weather was cooling down and everyone had a lot of fun building sandcastles and playing in the ocean.
This summer, instead of planning a beach trip or other vacation, we decided to try out some of our local Orlando resorts for small getaways. Since the kids think staying in a hotel is a huge treat and we usually spend a lot of time playing in the hotel pools anyways when we do go out of town, we decided we did not have to go far to have a family vacation. Memorial Day weekend was the first weekend we decided to try out our mini getaway and picked two hotels that we had heard good things about and were running great specials. The first hotel was the Gaylord Palms which was about 20 minutes from our house. We spent Friday afternoon and Saturday at the pool there and, when we were interrupted by a few short rainstorms, we enjoyed exploring this hotel's massive indoor gardens, walkways, wildlife, and forts.
The kids liked playing in the wedding pavillion
The second hotel was the Omni and we spent all of Memorial Day at its pool complex which had a big twisty slide(Jack's favorite that he went down over and over again), splash fountains, a big lazy river, and a large beach entry pool. Both hotels were different but both were great and when we came home after each visit, we felt like we had been gone much longer and were a lot further away from home.
The kids also got these great balloon animals during our second hotel stay.
June:
School is officially out for the summer. A week after school got out, Jack went to a week-long karate camp and Callie did a dance camp. They both loved their camps and were excited to go back each day. I have enjoyed not having to hurry the kids to get dressed and rush out the door every morning. The kids also enjoy being able to eat breakfast in their pjs and watch cartoons in the mornings. 
On June 19th, Hudson turned 2!
He is such a sweet, happy little boy. He loves cars, trains, animals, and especially Dora. Most of his vocabulary sadly started with Dora phrases and Dora was one of his first words-so were map,backpack, Boots and Tico. He still will only say "Abrir" the spanish word for "open" when he wants something open. He is still having breathing issues and they want to now take out his tonsils but Rob and I are trying to wait till he is a little older since it is a bigger surgery. Hudson's big birthday present this year was a train table which he loves and plays with every day. 
Hudson had a family party with the cousins and grandparents. We played with water in our backyard...
opened presents....
and had birthday cookies. Hudson is not a big chocolate fan and is a picky eater so a cake would not have been appreciated but he does like cookies so this seemed like the best choice.
At the end of June, we decided to try out another nearby resort. This time, we stayed at the JW Marriott. This hotel also has a large lazy river, two splash areas, and a large regular pool. We swam for Friday afternoon and most of Saturday alternating between pool areas. Jack and Callie liked the big pool the best because the pool had mats that you could use and they loved using these to float around the pool.
Jack also liked the giant chess board that was on the lawn next to the pool.
Hudson enjoyed the lazy river and found a way to gain a little independence with his water wing, ring combo.
Jack and Callie also started swim lessons this summer. The last two summers have been so busy, first with Hudson being born and then last summer with the move mess, we were not getting to pools regularly either summer. Because of this, Jack and Callie never got the chance to really improve their swimming skills and are still not strong swimmers. Swim lessons so far have been great. They are each in private lessons and are picking everything up really fast so hopefully we can make up for lost time since they both love the water so much.
