Happy Birthday Tee-Tah!

Happy Quarter of a Century Birthday Auntie Tara! If you haven't figured it out yet, Max calls Tara "Tee-tah." Growing up, I never though my sis and I would be civil, let alone best friends! She is an awesome aunt to my kiddos and once Max and Mya start to pick up on the fact that she brings them some sort of gift EVERY time she sees them, they will want to be best friends with her too!

Tara is one of a kind...anyone who knows her would agree. I wish I had a little more of her in me:) She is very free spirited, has millions of friends, goes to concerts all the time, travels the world, works out vigilantly, eats organic food, has awesome naturally curly hair, has her own style and is not afraid of what other people think, can text faster than anyone I know without looking at the phone once, somehow comes out smelling like roses in every situation, can trick anyone who doesn't have caller ID into thinking she is Suzanne from AT&T, can still school me in a 3 point shooting contest even though she doesn't have the tip of her middle finger on her shooting hand (Thanks Dieseth dorm room door), can find the cutest clothes for dirt cheap, sends the best home-made cards, takes great pictures, ahhhh the list could go on forever!

I realize through writing this post that we do not have enough pictures together. That will be our goal next time we can get together! Happy Birthday Sis:)

Reunion with friends

This weekend we went to Cedar Falls for our friend Adria's 2nd birthday party! *Fortunately it rained so we had the party inside and the kids did great. It was fun to catch up with them and the kids picked up right where they left off...not sharing toys, jumping on the trampoline, running around in circles chasing each other and the whole bit!



When we turned from Hwy 20 onto Hudson Rd. in Cedar Falls, Max said, "Home!" For those of you who don't know where we lived, it's about 2-3 miles from that point to our house, so he definitely knew where we were. We didn't drive by the old house because I didn't want to confuse him. It would have been nice to see some old neighbors, but I want to give Max a little more time away before bringing him back.

*Fortunately b/c we had sod laid on Thursday and we needed it to rain like no other so the timing was perfect.




Update on Mya--she did not weigh 18 lbs. so you will not be seeing a dance posted on this blog. She was a champ yet again...had to get her finger poked twice b/c of a low hemoglobin count and then a blood draw on top of that. She didn't even make a peep for any of those. I almost cry when I get blood drawn, so I was pretty impressed with her. The normal range for hemoglobin is 10.5-12 and Mya was 10.6. The doc said we needed to do some iron drops and then we'll check her again at 12 months. We also think she may be allergic to eggs, so we're going to get her tested right around 12 months before she gets the MMR and Chicken pox vaccines which both contain eggs.

Have a good week everybody!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Along with today being Earth Day, it is also our daddy's birthday! He turns 31 years old! Here are some favorite things about our dad.

By Max:

My favorite days are the ones when I wake up and you are home! You always make me pancakes on the weekends and I can eat 3 or 4 of them, because they are so good! You give me a bath, read books, and put me to bed every night. I really love this special time we have together! You always take me outside to play. We pick up poop together, shovel the driveway, rake, mow, pick up rocks, throw the ball to Chloe and lots more! I also like running errands with you to Menards and Lowes. Mommy has Max overload quite often once in awhile, so it's good for me to have some time away with you. I can't wait for you to teach me how to ski, play sports, and build sand castles at the lake! I'm very thankful that you are my dad.



By Mya:

Despite the fact that I love my days home with Mommy, my favorite part of the day is when you get home from work! My face lights up and I can crawl faster at that time of day than any other just to see you! I love to pull on your hair (chest hair too:) ears, mouth, and nose! I love to use you as a jungle gym because mom never lets me out of the baby bjorn when we're at the park. I know I'm getting better during the night, but I used to love when you would rock me back to sleep a million times each night and then still greet me with a huge smile in the morning! I never get sick of you telling me how cute I am every day at least 10 times! I'm definitely a daddy's girl:)

Mya Pat

Mya Patricia turned 9 months old yesterday! I thought you may want to know what she's been doing lately.

On the eating front: It has gotten significantly better, but still not great. She'll eat cheerios, puffs and kix like they're going out of style. Occasionally she'll eat peas, carrots, noodles, etc. Rarely, she'll eat a jar of baby food. Something about that damn spoon, she just doesn't want it! Unfortunately, we think that she is allergic to eggs. We'll most likely get her tested in the coming months.

On the sleeping front: I'm going to quote Chris on this one. "She is doing 1000 times better" Basically, we had to let her cry it out for a few nights in a row and then she figured it out that once she goes to bed at night, she needs to stay sleeping for more than 20 minutes! What a concept.

On the developmental front She is getting into EVERYTHING!! Loves to chase (on her hands and knees) Max around, pull up on anything and everything, shake her head no when I tell her no-no, loves to play the game "drop the food off my tray to see if Chloe will come and eat it", clap her hands, and do so-big!


(example of her "getting into things")

On the teeth front: She is quickly catching up to her big brother in this department. She has 4 top teeth and 2 bottom ones. The 4 top came all at the same time, but miraculously she didn't make much of a fuss. (A big THANK YOU to the makers of baby orajel)

On the stats front: I don't know her stats as her well baby check isn't until Thursday. I am guessing her weight is around 17 lbs. If she reaches 18, I will first jump through the ceiling in the doctors office and then I'll do a dance and post it on this blog. That's how happy I'll be. Since putting her on prevacid for acid reflux (which we're not sure she had, but that's another story) she has been drinking her bottles much better and eating some food too. I'm going to guess her height to be 27 inches and her head circumference...I have no idea.

On the everything else front: Mya is showing signs of being our crazy spirited child. She terrorizes Max constantly, throws her body around while we're holding her, loves to be upside down, thrown in the air, still hates to ride in the car, and still doesn't care to be left places without mom or dad (but that is slowly getting better..last week at MOPS they told me she entertained the other babies the whole time!!)


(just an example of her terrorizing Max...sucking on HIS blanket!)

On the 9 month photo front: Turns out posting those pictures of Olivia gave my husband a good idea...why don't we do Mya's pictures too?!?! Haven't gotten those done yet, but we will get them soon.

In the meantime, enjoy some photos of her clapping and doing so-big!

Soccer....really?

Sorry Uncle Jeff, but soccer is the last sport I was hoping Max would enjoy. I think it's because we didn't even have soccer offered in Decorah when I was growing up and I don't understand the game at all! I have probably watched 3 hours of soccer in my life and seen 2 or 3 goals scored the entire time! I can see how it can be exciting for some, but I think it's boring. I'm guessing many of you out there feel that way about tennis, so I'm willing to give soccer a shot if Max likes it. There is a bright spot...he'll look really cute in that little league soccer outfit:)

Photo shoot

I spent a couple days in Decorah after Easter and got a chance to try out my new camera I got for my birthday on Olivia! Little "Biva" turned 9 months old last week and my cheap thrifty brother said 9 month professional pictures were not in the budget! So...Amanda and I worked together and got a few semi-professional pics of our own. Here's a preview:






A friend of mine here in Dubuque, Marie, is helping me "touch-up" these pictures, so they'll really be professional looking when we get the final product!

Brian--This time I'll donate my services to you, but next time there will be a fee!:)

What's new with M & M

Max and Mya have been doing some new things around here lately. Here are a few of my favorites.

1. When Max needs my attention, he starts by saying Mama. If that doesn't work it turns into Mommy. Still can't get my attention it turns into MOM and then as a last resort, BEF!!!!!!! That always works when he calls me by my first name. Pretty funny. When he needs daddy's attention and doesn't get it the first time, he resorts to calling him sweetie or babe.

2. Just like her big brother, Mya is really enjoying getting into Chloe's dishes. She won't eat baby food, but she'll eat dog food! Yum. Can't figure out the sippy cup, but can figure out how to drink from the dog dish? Hmmmmm, is she playing me??

3. Max must have seen something on TV about monsters, because now when Mya is crying, he tells me that she's "sared (scared) of monsters"

4. Max has learned to use the phrase, "I woke up" It usually comes out "I waked up" but you know what I mean. However, lately he has been calling me into his room 3-4 minutes into his nap and letting me know that he has "waked up." I think not is my reply.

5. Mya has started clapping. Her coordination isn't the best because she sometimes misses, but it's pretty cute anyway! She is also doing So-Big! She finally figured it out in the car ride home from Easter. I got a great photo of her, but it's on my cell phone and I can't figure out how to download from that yet. I'll post a video when I get one!

baby gates

Something about baby gates and the Hoden kids. They love to shake them!! This was one of Max's favorite things to do and is quickly becoming one of Mya's. The bad part is that here in Dubuque as you can see from the pictures, the floor is hardwood by the gate where as in CF, it was carpet. It's a little harder for Mya to get a good grip and hurts a bit more when she slips! As much work as it is when Mya is crawling/pulling up, I really love this stage.

Toys Schmoys

Seriously, why do we have all of these toys? My kids don't play with them anyways! Here are a few pics of what Maxwell has been playing with/in lately.

His "fort" made out of wardrobe boxes from the move.



The kitchen sink. This requires a change of clothing when he's done, but it's so worth it. I can get the dishwasher unloaded and loaded while he's playing in the water.


Thanks to Grandma Linda for the idea...he has been playing with shaving cream. (Max has some texture issues, but we're working through them...)


The minivan. Yes, I let him play in the car. There are no keys, so the worst thing that can happen is that he honks the horn and scares the begeebers out of me. (oh, and the radio blares and the windshield wipers go on as I turn the car on)

A container of rice. (thanks again G'ma Linda) They both love this..so much I had to start dumping the rice into 2 containers so they could each have one)

If you want to give the rice a shot, you're gonna need one of these:)

10SNE1?

Tennis has been a pretty big part of my life starting at a fairly young age. We used to go to the tennis courts with my dad after he got off of work and run around hitting balls out of 5 gallon buckets. Starting in 1992, when my brother entered high school, up until 2006 when my sister graduated from Luther, my parents had at least one child playing tennis competetively. For 2 of those years, all three of us were playing. Tara in high school, me at Luther and Brian at Central. Basically every weekend from the first of April to the first of June they were busy with tennis matches. You'd think they would have been ready to have their weekends back when that was over. However, now they go watch their kids coach tennis! Yesterday I had the opportunity to coach the Decorah high school team at a tournament in Cedar Rapids. My mom and dad left Decorah at 7 a.m. only to sit through some blistering cold winds in order to watch some high school tennis. At the same time, my sister was coaching a high school team in the Twin Cities and my brother was in Dubuque coaching Luther against Loras and U of Dubuque. Crazy how much tennis we have been involved in through the years.

One of the best parts about getting to coach yesterday was that my cousin Kylie is a freshman on the team. It was so fun to see her out there on the court, decked out in Decorah Tennis gear...just like I was 15 years ago. She did great for her first time with real competition and I was so proud of her! The best part is that my parents now have 4 more years to watch tennis. Wait....Kylie's little sister is in 5th grade...they have 8 more years! Kelsey will finish just in time for Max, Mya and Olivia to join the USTA circuit:) The tradition continues....



While I was busy doing my thing in CR, Chris was home playing Mr. Mom...taking the kids out for lunch and to a Luther tennis match by himself! He even managed to get them dressed in Luther gear! I was pretty proud of him especially since at 8:15 a.m. he said to me on the phone, "Well, they're both up and fed...now what?"



p.s. the title of this post is a license plate I saw once. Can you translate it?