Moving blogs

I am moving to a new blog space, so that I can avoid having to pay monthly for more photo space.  This will be the new website:  thejudsonfive.blogspot.com

I have a bunch of blogs to catch up on, which will be happening SOON!

Thanksgiving

We've had sick kids the past two weeks, so I am starting to fall behind on keeping track of life around here.  It is time to get caught up!  We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with my Corman side of the family.  We have gotten too big for houses and have started renting my aunts and uncles church in our neighborhood to hold the feast and fun.  We had around 60 people celebrate with us with a big potluck lunch and dinner and it was a blast.  I have always been really close with all my cousins.  We're all still friends and love to get together.  Now a lot of us have little kids that get to play together and will hopefully be as close as we all are.  I love having it at the church.  The kids can play with all the toys in the nursery and the park is just at the end of the street.  I definitely got my Corman fix.  All the Cormans are smart, loud, wild, musical, funny, stubborn, spiritual, and more.  There are a lot of heads thrown back when laughing and fists pounding the table.  It feels like home to me, and I love it!  We had my family from Texas staying with us, and Cora loved playing with my cousin Grace.  They've decided they are sisters and played together nonstop.  It was fun to see what it would be like if Cora had a sister...they played kitchen, sang, worked on ballet, hugged, held hands, etc.  It was adorable!  They both just have brothers, so it was some great girl time for both of them!  P.S.-I just found out I've reached my free photo limit for this blog, so as soon as I figure out what to do I will come back and add photos!     

Cousin time

We are busy busy busy starting a new Vineyard church right now (our old church was sold to another church...long story), but are trying to make time for fun!  Our new church (which will eventually be called Great Plains Vineyard) is doing only one service, which means I can start leading worship with Brandon again!  Yesterday I was able to join him and Asher did great in the nursery during worship.  After naps, we had a pizza party with the cousins.  Asher just thought they were hilarious and Eli and Cora had a blast wrestling on the trampoline.  I love my family! 

Halloween

Holidays just get better and better as the kids get older.  This year they picked their costumes out, carved pumpkins, ate roasted pumpkin seeds, jumped in a lot of leaf piles, trick-or-treated, handed out candy (their favorite part), and ATE a lot of candy.  It was a blast trick-or-treating.  The kids had great manners and Eli talked everyone's heads off :-).  He had full conversations wherever we went and even did jumping jacks when one of our neighbors asked for a "trick".  I love seeing everyone out in our neighborhood and visiting.  It was beautiful weather and a great time! 

5 Months

My littlest man is 5 months old and still all of our joy and delight.  This kid gets smothered in so much love it's rediculous.  One of us is always kissing or snuggling him.  He is right at the beginnings of my absolute favorite baby age.  He's not a floppy newborn, I can carry him on my hip, and he is playing with the kids and toys!  At 5 months Asher is:
1.   Laughing a lot.  He is super ticklish, but also laughs his head off at Cora dancing or other funny things the kids do.
2.  Pulling hair like crazy.  Cora's hair is especially tempting and whenever the kids hug him or snuggle him he usually ends up having a death grip on their hair (much to the kids dismay).
3.  Sitting up for short periods on his own.  This week especially he can sit for quite a while playing with toys, but with our hard wood floors I'm always ready to catch him! 
4.  Standing all the time with help.  He actually will even take steps holding our fingers.  He loves to stand and hold onto Eli's shoulders while Eli is sitting on the ground.  I don't even have to hold onto him.  Asher definitely thinks he is a big boy.
5.  Starting to get into things.  Wherever he is he grabs for everything he sees and tries to put it in his mouth.  Even if I'm holding him I have to be careful because he's reaching out and grabbing stuff.  He loves grabbing the kids and their toys and loves playing with all of his toys and chewing on everything in sight. 
6.  Scooting a tiny bit.  He will scrunch his legs up and move a little.  On his back, he moves a lot and is rolling both from his stomach to back and back to stomach.
7.  Definitely ready to eat baby food.  He loves taking his probiotic in a spoon (to try to help him poop more often...he only goes like once a week).  He is also lunging for our food.  I can't wait to start baby food at the end of the month. 
8.  Playing with his feet a lot. 
9.  Reaching for us!
10.  Growing hair back after losing all the baby hair.  I can't quite tell what color it is going to be, but seems like maybe it is going to be lighter like Eli's. 

Oregon

We survived a week of Brandon being in Oregon for work.  He was visiting service stations all around Portland and got a little time to go exploring and visit the ocean.  He had an absolute blast!  My mother-in-law came up from Texas to help me out with the kids.  It was a great distraction for us all.  We did crafts, school, went to the zoo, out to eat, and played a lot.  Here is a little taste of his trip.

Tahoe

I had a wonderful whirlwind trip to Tahoe this last weekend for my cousin's wedding.  We hiked Spooner Lake, Cave Rock, Marlette Lake hike, relaxed in the cabin, visited with family, enjoyed the rehearsal dinner and wedding, kayaked, spent the night at my Grandpa's house, beached it, dodged falling pine cones, enjoyed the Aspen's beautiful changing colors etc.  I was able to relax and have a wonderful time because Eli and Cora were having a BLAST back here with Brandon.  Every time I talked to them they were happy and having fun, which allowed me to have a great time.  Asher was amazing!  He traveled wonderfully and charmed everyone everwhere we went.  He slept on almost all the flights and was happy to snuggle with me in the cabin at night.  He loved meeting all of my mom's side of the family and smiled constantly and won them all over.  It was a very refreshing weekend and felt great to be back at my second home.  I have spent time at Tahoe/Reno every year of my life and it always feels like home and is SO hard to leave.  I swear I could feel my Grandma with me wherever I went and felt very close to her.  I have never been to Tahoe in the Fall.  I've been there in all other seasons, so it was really fun!