Bedichek Kids to the Rescue!

This is soooo overdue, but since I am living by the "better late than never" philosophy these days, here's a little recap of our Halloween activities this year. We wanted to kick things off by going to a Trunk or Treat at Heritage Church of Christ the weekend before Halloween, but our entire family got the stomach bug that weekend! We were all fully recovered by the following weekend, so we met my Mom at Hall Farms pumpkin patch in Grapevine to let the kids explore and to take some pictures. This was our second time to go there, but this year the girls got their faces painted and got to pet and feed some farm animals. Avery chose to be Wonder Woman and Kendall chose to be Super Girl for Halloween this year, so naturally Judson was Superman. Kendall was able to wear her costume to school on Halloween day and got to trick or treat around the church building and pick a pumpkin at the pumpkin patch that they set up every year outside. After dinner that night we got the kids all dressed in their costumes, handed out a little candy to the early bird trick-or-treaters, and then set out to do a little trick-or-treating ourselves. The girls definitely had the hang of the whole process this year and ended up with full bags within 30 minutes or less. Those superpowers must've been working well for them!

Judson- 5 Months

Judson- 5 months old

Last week Judson turned 5 months old. I know I say every month that it is flying by, but seriously, sometimes it feels like someone is holding down the fast forward button on my life! Multitasking is a way of life around here, and precious little Judson is so good and just smiles and goes with the flow of the three-ring circus we always have going. In the past month, he has gotten so much more active-- rolling across the floor, rocking and bouncing in my lap, playing with toys and really anything he can get his little hands on. A perfect example was yesterday in church he was sitting in Scott's lap and was trying his hardest to play with Avery's hair bow and pull it out. Sometimes he acts like he wants to hop down on the floor and take off crawling or running, so it will be interesting to see how long it takes him to figure out all of that. He just started playing in the exersaucer this past week and he absolutely loves it! Speaking of things he loves, Avery and Kendall are definitely at the top of his list. He really likes to just watch them play and always smiles and laughs when they play with him. Not too many things have changed drastically in the past month, but Judson is wearing mostly 6 month clothing now, although some of it is already beginning to be too short. The other thing is that he now goes to bed between 7:30 and 8:00 and sleeps until at least 6:00 AM. Sometimes he sleeps right through until 7:00 or 7:30, but other times we get what we call the "rooster wake-up" at 6:00 or 6:30. Thankfully, he sometimes goes back to sleep after eating at the rooster wake-up time. He is also starting to consolidate his naps from 4 or 5 a day to 3 or 4 a day with one of them usually being a little longer than the others. Here are some pics of our super-sweet, fun 5 month old!

playing in the exersaucer

hanging out with Momma in the kitchen

Superman!

Up, up and away!

Avery gets her ears pierced!

For several months now, Avery has been talking about getting her ears pierced, and she finally did it this past Saturday. Two of her best friends at school have pierced ears, so I guess the peer pressure put her over the edge and gave her enough motivation to go ahead with it. We were planning on meeting my parents in Southlake that evening for my Mom's birthday dinner, so we just went to Sweet and Sassy while we were over there so Avery could get it done. This pic is of the lady putting the dots on her ears and making sure they are even.
Then we have Avery with her newly pierced, red ears. She did awesome-- not one tear! I was really proud of her.Avery initially chose pink flower earrings, but they were out of those, so her second choice was a pink birthstone. She doesn't like her birthstone because it's blue, so she chose the pink one, which is for October. We told her that was pretty neat because not only was it the month she got her ears pierced, but it was also her Mimi's birthday, which we were going to celebrate right after she got her ears done!

All smiles and looking so big!

4 months

Another month has flown by and Judson is busy growing and learning to do new things all the time. At his 4 month check up he weighed 16 lbs 1 oz (74%) and was 26 in (85%). He laughs a lot now, which is so much fun. When he first started laughing the girls would ask me, "What are you doing?" when I would do silly things to make him laugh. But then the more he laughed, the more they started getting into the act of trying to make him laugh too. He absolutely adores the attention from them-- especially Avery. I can tell already that he's going to have a cute little sense of humor and be a little stinker. Speaking of being a stinker, he likes to smile and flirt with the ladies lately. He flashes a big squinty-eyed, open-mouth grin, and then bats his eyes and raises his little eyebrows. What a mess! He can roll over both ways easily now and has started sleeping on his tummy a lot. He still plays with his feet a lot and sometimes even sucks on his toes, which Avery thinks is so gross even though I tell her she did it too as a baby. In just the past week or so he has really gotten into grabbing things and playing with toys. It's fun, but it's going to get challenging once he's mobile considering all the small toys the girls have. I think we finally broke him of wanting us to come in and give him his paci back multiple times in the middle of the night (yay!), but he is still waking up between 4:30 and 6 am some mornings. For now I just go feed him and put him back to bed. The only good thing about it is that if I feed him at 5 or 6 then he will go back to sleep until 8 or 8:30, which gives me some time to myself after Scott and Avery leave for school and work since Kendall usually sleeps later too. Hopefully he will eventually drop that early morning feeding on his own even though the pediatrician thinks he's probably waking out of habit. Time will tell I guess! We are enjoying him as much as ever though and looking forward to celebrating all the upcoming holidays with our youngest family member.

Beaver's Bend

Labor Day 2011

For the second year in a row, we spent Labor Day weekend with my parents in Broken Bow, OK at Beaver's Bend State Park. We stayed in a beautiful cabin and enjoyed a relaxing weekend on the lake and in the forest. On Saturday morning we rented some jet skis and a boat and spent the morning playing on the lake. In the afternoon, we all enjoyed napping, reading, and throwing rocks in the creek out behind the cabin. Then Scott grilled us some delicious steaks for dinner. My Mom and the girls decorated the dining room and threw me a little birthday party after dinner. Avery made me a birthday banner, the girls put confetti on the table, and we had chocolate-peanut butter cake balls. Delicious! Sunday we took a pontoon boat out on the lake and enjoyed tubing, swimming, and exploring. After naps and relaxing at the cabin in the afternoon, we enjoyed a pretty drive through the state park and took the girls to a playground to burn off some energy. That night we made s'mores over the grill (couldn't use the fire pit because of the burn ban) and then Scott and I relaxed in the hot tub after we put the kids to bed. There were a lot of trees around our cabin, so we couldn't see too many stars, but we did see a raccoon and a possum come up onto the porch. Not something you see everyday when you live in the city. It was so nice to get away for a weekend to enjoy some family time and reconnect with nature!

Scott, Avery and Kendall at the marina

Sweet Judson

ready to head out on the lake

Avery and Judson

Avery looked like a little otter swimming on her back and playing with the rope to the tube

Avery and Scott giving a thumbs up to go faster

The girls thought the boat was like an amusement park ride and giggled a lot

Scott and Kendall tubing
Scott and Judson enjoying some guy time on the porch
our OU cutie
silly family pic
this was the biggest walking stick any of us had ever seen!
the girls thought this colorful moth was so cool
our cabin had a creek behind it and the girls had a lot of fun throwing rocks
Mommy, Kendall and "Juddy" (Kendall's name for him)
Mommy and Avery headed out on the jet ski
Scott and Kendall- speed demons!
Sassy sisters

taking a little spin on the ski boat

3 Months Old

Things have been so busy around here with Avery starting Kindergarten, our Labor Day trip (more on that later), and life in general that I am just now blogging about Judson turning 3 months when he's already 3 and 1/2. Part of me enjoys doing these posts and part of me dislikes it because it means that another month has already flown by and my sweet baby is getting bigger! He is such a good baby and absolutely loves to smile and talk to us. He is so content most of the time and only cries when he is really hungry or tired. He still dislikes tummy time, but he has gotten a lot stronger and can hold his head and body up really well now when you hold him or when he's in the Bumbo seat. And just today, he rolled from his back to his tummy for the first time! He has started laughing a little, playing with his feet, and sometimes tries to swat at or grab toys. He has also discovered that the TV is a pretty interesting thing and cranes his neck around to see it when the girls are watching cartoons. That's a male for you! Unfortunately, he has also figured out how to get his thumb in his mouth, but we are doing our best to "paci-train" him. Luckily he will actually take a paci when he's tired, so we just keep putting it in and he wears a cute little sock over his hand when he sleeps:) At 3 months, Judson is eating every 3 hours during the day (6 times) and once in the early morning- usually between 4 and 6. He has had some nights where he's slept straight through until 6:45 or 7:00, but the little stinker is just not consistent with it yet. He's so big that I'm afraid he might not consistently sleep through the night until he gets some solid food in that tummy! He is wearing 3-6 or 6 month clothes and size 2 diapers. We will find out his height and weight at his 4 month check at the end of September, but I'm pretty sure he's still on the upper end of the charts. Everyone says he looks really big or long and they can't believe he is only 3 months old. Overall, we just feel so blessed to have this special little guy as part of our family! God knew just what he was doing when he created Judson because he truly makes our family complete!

happy boy playing on his activity mat

in motion in his crib

Scott was trying to make the same face as Judson

He likes to hold on to the right side of his car seat like this. It's funny because I think Avery used to do that too.

Avery playing with Judson one day after school