Susan Hudson Photography

5th Annual Girls Weekend

I love that we still do this.

Taylor, Emily, Susan, Carrie, Me, and usually Caroline, have gotten together after college for the past 5 years to reunite and just hang out. Its great. We all live in separate towns (except Carrie and I who both live in Tuscaloosa which is so odd to me)

Stupid Caroline went and got a job in San Diego, CA and had to miss this year. Boo on good jobs and following your dreams...whatever Caroline.

So, we kicked off the weekend with dinner at "5" which is a fun, artsyish atmosphere downtown. I attempted to capture a picture of the table. Oh well.

Here we found out some extra special news that is not mine to share, so I will leave it at that.

Susan arrived later and we stayed up talking and having wine until about 2:00 am. The late nights bring me back to the college days when my bedtime was never before 1:00 on any given night.
Saturday, I made breakfast (thanks to a recipe via Amy via Plain Chicken) and then we got pedictures and toured the tornado damage.

This is a mild picture of what so many curbs look like in town.For the afternoon, we laid out at our pool and swam. Then we got ready for a cook-out at Carrie's house. Good food, good drinks, good conversation.

Suzie here is an amazing photographer in Dallas. (this is my dumb camera picture, not hers) She so kindly took a few of Baker on Sunday morning and I can't wait to get them back. That will be a separate post.

Sunday we had a lovely little brunch at Chuck's Fish. I was brave and ordered "outside the box". This is Chicken & Waffles with a side of bacon ice-cream. Yes, you heard the correctly.

It was delicious.

After the girls left on Sunday, I took Susan to Birmingham with Baker Man in tow. We met Katie & Thomas at the zoo! I will save this for another post as well.

Honk Shoo

This boy is funny. I mean, really funny. While, you really have to be there, I have to try to explain the newest "Bakerism".
So, a little while back, Brent started to fake sleep for B's entertainment. It would go a little something like this:
Brent: Night Night
Honk Shooo, Honk Shoo ( he even made the 'shoo' a whistle)

Baker: Daddy, Daddy (as to wake him up)
Brent: (acting disoriented) What, what what?
*Repeat*

So, Sunday I noticed Bake laying on the hardwood floors out of the blue and he said "night night" then, his little back was clearly rising and falling on purpose. I had no idea what he was doing. Then, he lifted his head and said "what, what what?" WE DIED.

These 3 pictures are compliments of my new phone with an excellent camera. I'm pretty excited about it.

Stay tuned for the post about our "Girls Weekend", the zoo and Memorial Day! It was a wonderful weekend. I just have to get my ducks in a row for that post.

If you need any help with your animal sounds...

I am finally able to upload videos!! Why was this such a task you ask? I really don't know, but it makes me so happy that I finally can. You can expect a lot more where this came from.

Hiatus

I know my two readers have noticed my brief blog hiatus, but I just haven't been able to muster the energy or time to take pictures...I always say a blog without pictures is boring, so I try to always at least include one.

A short weekend recap for you: We broke the pool in for the first time this year which was refreshing. Baker "liked" it alot, which was his review last year as well. "Like", not "love", but we will get there. I was a little fish as a child and I'm just waiting for him to love it the same way.
I took him to Storytime at B&N on Saturday. Again, I'm greatful for this fun/free activity. It doesn't take much more than endless amounts of books and stuffed animals to please this toddler.

Baker is definitely in a "labeling" phase as I like to call it. Whatever he sees that he knows, he has to point it out and say it multiple times with enthusiasm. "Puppy, Colors, Ball, Zoe, Turtle, Tunnel, Toys, Diaper, TV" and so on. Whats even cuter is that he feels the need to tell all things "bye" when he leaves them. Bye toys, bye biscuit, bye teddy, bye door"...and so on. This is complete with a wave. So polite.

This coming weekend, is our 5th annual Girls Weekend here in Tuscaloosa. It has been at all other destinations (I think my Auburn friends were trying to avoid this town) but will finally be here and I'm excited! Brent has strict instructions to make an appearance but stay out of the way.

Wow. it sounds a lot meaner typed out.

Last and also least - Did anyone watch the Bachelorette last night? Am I the only one that still follows this nonsense? Its a total train wreck for me. However, after last night's premiere I just don't know if I have the energy for this season. Ashley is fine, but the "glimpse into the season" looks exhausting. I am angry at her choices already and the season just started.

Mother's Day

My sweet, sweet, sweet husband surprised me on Wednesday with a Mother's Day gift that just couldn't wait. I was indeed surprised and excited!

Brent had his friend, and amazing artist, Paul Looney, sketch a picture of me and Baker x 2. In real life, there is only 1 Baker.
I really love it. What a great surprise, B! I get to go pick out a frame of my choice!

On Friday, I got a second Mother's Day gift made by the hand of Baker Jones. I think I was delirious and exhausted because I cried. This is the 800th hand print I have of his, but this one really got me. The first line reads "I miss you when we're not together, I'm growing up so fast..." How is that for tearing at your heartstrings? Man.

My third Mother's Day suprise was a hand drawn picture delivered to wake me up Sunday morning by Baker. So sweet. He put a lot of hard work into it and I love it.

My fourth Mother's Day surprise was the gift of MONO for me and my little baby. How sad is that? Who knew babies even got mono? Well, they do.

We had a couples baby shower in Dothan this weekend for my friend, Courtney. The moment we got inside my parent's house, Baker threw up everywhere. We still got to the shower, but got a call from my parents that Baker was running high fever, asking for us, and generally pitiful. So, we came home. Long story short, I starting feeling equally bad Sunday night. We found out Monday that we both have mono.

Still, a few pics from the shower

A little distraction...

Professor Baker T. Jones

In the midst of what has been a crazy week, Baker and I did have a great distraction while in Birmingham. Brent was still in Montgomery after the storm and since we were staying with Nathan and Amy, we took the opportunity to entertain our babes.

First stop: Chuck E Cheeses (where a kid can be a kid)

I have a precious video of these 2 dancing at Chuck E Cheeses to "Party in the USA" but of course, I still can't figure out how to upload those to my blog.

This was Thursday morning...Thursday afternoon I took Baker to Ross Bridge where my parents were staying for the weekend for the family reunion, which is a whole event separate from this post, but I have zero pictures to show. Sorry family that might be reading this. I was preoccupied all weekend I guess. Anyway, my parents kept Bake at Ross Bridge while I drove back to Tuscaloosa to check on our house, feed the animals, clean up our mess from hunkering down in the storm etc...

Friday we got up pretty early to take the babes to the McWane Center. How cute are these little aprons they wear so they don't get wet?? Very. Guess how effective it was in keeping the water off of Baker? About 10%.

Giant Lite Brite! This was taken about 10 minutes before the meltdown of the century. To the point where I had to "take him out". People were staring. I was embarrassed.

Saturday I was called in to work on Tornado Relief, so I missed a big portion of the family reunion, but I got back to Birmingham Saturday night in time to join the family for those festivities. Again, no pics.