A Very Haak Christmas

We celebrated with the Haak's the weekend before Christmas.  

As we headed down, we've gotten in a bad habit:

Yes, Hudson gets a DVD player in the car:).  Now its just a portable one and I use it mainly so he doesn't fall asleep in the car, otherwise he doesn't nap when we get to Grandma & Grandpas.  He typically watches Cars in the car, haha.  This works well for him so if we don't get out the door on time, Lightening McQueen will keep him up!

Aunt Lissa, Uncle Jordan, and Baby Claire hosted Christmas again this year.  It was so fun to have cousins to play with!  Hudson was very into presents this year!  He was everyone's helper:).

His first gift was...

A very nice set of wood blocks.  Thank you Uncle Jordan and Aunt Lissa!  

We don't have thouse and Hudson loves them!

We gave Baby Claire a wood puzzle, she enjoys the knobs:).

Hudson helping Aunt Tiff open baby presents!  Yes cousin #2 we can't wait!

Aunt Tiff and Uncle Daryl got Hudson the cutest Black&Decker Workbench.  Oh he loves to work hard like his daddy hammering and sawing!

Hudson liked helping Aunt Lissa open Baby Claire's ball pit!

But Claire really like the box:).

Giving Grandma Ev her annual calendar, what fun!  Now I will have 3 cousins to fill it with!

Back to work!

Cousin photo shoot.

I love Claire's smile in the one above:).

Then it was back to Grandma & Grandpa's.  This picture is classic because Hudson is in the bathroom, reading Cow Digest, just like Grandpa:).

Then we played cars with Grandma!

And watched the ice skaters

Lastly, I taught Hudson how to play on Starfall.com.  Great website for learning letters, phonics, and reading words.  He LOVES it and Grandma helped him:).

Thank you for a wonderful, very Haak Christmas!

Christmas Preparations

This year I was more motivated to start the Christmas decorations right after Thanksgiving due to the snowfall.  Oh how I love snow!  I started decorating right away, but working full time, it took me a few weeks to get it all finalized.  I used to putz around during Hudson's naps and get so much accomplished but now its all left to the weekends.

Hudson was excited to see his nativity set again.  He loves playing with it and we talk about baby Jesus and how he was born in a manger.  The top of the stable plays music and he LOVES music!

Then I put our present presents and Hudson being all boy, hammered him with his flower legos.  Funny kid.  Yes, he makes towers out of everything, even flowers:).

As he was playing with his nativity upstairs, he started to sing a song I've never heard him sing:).  

This year we put a fiberoptic tree in Huddy's room.  He loved it.  It was on during naps and at night.  He would wake up most mornings and plug it in for a little room time.  Then he would ask for music so I'd turn on his Christmas cd.  He loves his room time!  Right now his favorite song is Frosty the Snowman as well as his favorite movie!  Rudolf has an abdominal snowman and now we've begun the talk about monsters.  I think he was really scared:(.

This year a friend of ours gave us this neat Lego Advent calendar.  Hudson would ask to "Open Doors."  He sure had fun putting together parts with Daddy:).

One of our season books is the Drummer Boy where it actually plays music.  Hudson carried this around all levels listening to its music.  Now he sings along:).

One of my favorite things to do with Hudson is organize.  

Did I mention that Hudson LOVES to play piano?  He really does!  Its so fun to hear him play almost every day.  Lessons might be in the works soon:).

Then I almost bought a fake tree due to time but we've never had a fake tree before so no way!  So we considered buying a real tree but when Jared saw the price, it was a tree from the Hopper/Arnhold farm! I have to say I'm glad we held out because this is the best tree we have EVER had!  

This isn't no Charlie Brown tree!  Hudson was my little helper decorating with me:).

The picture above is one of my favorites!

My mom watches Hudson every Thursday and teaches him new things:).  She thought she taught him how to spell his name but I guess Miss Lexie had been working on it quite hard at school.  She even make a song for his name.  I love her!

How adorable is a Santa hat with Reindeer ears?  Too cute!  

Then it was time for our last seasonal tradition, Santa pictures at the Harley Store.  The two local Harley Dealers combined, Lone Wolf in Coeur d' Alene and the Spokane Valley Dealer, are now off of Barker. So we had to check out the new place.  Hudson loves Santa.  We don't celebrate Santa but we just talk about him like a character in a book.  He enjoyed his picture this year a bit more than last year:).  But most of all he liked running around all the bikes.

"Cheese!"

I can't wait for what next year holds!  Hudson makes each holiday more special. 

Fall Pictures

A friend of ours is newer to photography and has started to take some really good photos so I asked her to take a couple family photos.  I tend to always be behind the scenes and I wanted to remember my Huddy Buddy at 2 1/2.