'Did Sarah watch you when you were little, Dad?'

Five hours a week, Gus deploys to Miss Sarah's, an amazing woman and mother with an art education background. There, he plays with her redheaded two and four-year-olds, makes bread, paints, carves potato stamps, and has dance parties. He loves Sarah and her kids so much he once sleepily asked Matt, on the way home from her house, if Sarah had watched him when he was little. Sarah does seem magical that way. Here are some pictures Sarah took on a typical day with her kids and with another one of Gus' little buddies who was over to play. I want to acknowledge how incredibly grateful and, well, blessed parents feel when they have found loving childcare to trust. Excellent childcare providers are so difficult to find and when your kid comes back happy *every* time after being with one, it's hard to describe that feeling of gratitude and humilty. Here's to the good ones who make our kids' lives bigger and better!

Travels to see family and say good-bye to Dad

We did a lot of traveling at the beginning of January the long days around Mary Ann's Dad's services. Gus was glad to see his Grammy Lu, his Grandma Kathy, and his Grandpa Dennis and his wife Bonnie, and his uncle Jason along with all of his great aunts and uncles (his Grandpa Phil's sisters and their husbands) and all of his cousins of various degrees. More, he also got to meet Grandpa Phil's closest friends, including his honorary great uncle John, who lives in Tennessee and knew Mary Ann's dad for 60 years and is who he retired with. Not in all of these pictures are Mary Ann's dear friends from college, who all came down for services, honorary aunties and uncles for sure--along with their children. There was a lot of reunion, and it made a hard time really lovely, and Gus is still talking about all the good folks that he met and played with. Most of these pictures come from an event the evening before Grandpa Phil's services where close family got together to remember and share pictures and stories and pizza and (Dad's favorite) cocoa-cola. It was the kind of thing that Dad loved, and we so wish he could see all the pictures.

Gus had such a good traveling spirit the whole time. Here he is showing off what is now a spectacular mullet. Perfect for Eldorado, KS.


The above two are of John exercising his horses in Tennessee, and Gus trying out his seat. Bristol is where Dad retired to have fun on John's farm.

Best accommodations on the road ever--grandma's house! Enjoying the morning with Grandma Kathy on the way down.


Lunch with Grammy Lu and Uncle Jason--obviously lots of fun.

Conducting a chair train with Mary Ann's cousin Genevieve's children Ava and Ella and their Grandpa (Mary Ann's uncle) Rick. Gus and Ava really grew to be best buddies over the trip.

Mary Ann's Aunt Cindy (Phil's sister) and Matt.

Telling stories about Dad--John and his wife Liz, Dad's good friend Chris, and Aunt Pam (also Phil's sister).

Mary Ann's cousin Tammy (Pam and Larry's daughter) and her daughter Chloe.

Aunt Cindy, Mary Ann's cousin Danny (Pam and Larry's son), and in the background--Uncle Bob (Cindy's husband).

Ava and Ella with Mary Ann's cousin Genevieve. Genevieve is Rick and Debbie's (also Dad's sister) daughter and is the same age as Mary Ann. Her girls are just lovely.

Mary Ann's Aunt Susan (Dad's sister) with Mary Ann's best friend of many, many years, also named Susan. They have a special bond.

Mary Ann's aunt Debbie (Dad's sister).

Gus with Tammy's son Christian. Cousins are fun!

Dad's dear friends Steve and Joyce and Genevieve's husband Charles.

Dad's buddies Chris and John.

Mary Ann's cousin Vanessa (Susan's daughter--another one of Dad's sisters) with Tammy's son Christian and Danny's daughter Ashley.

Mary Ann's cousin David (Pam and Larry's son) who had just welcomed his fourth child with his wife Chris. Seated next to him is his sister-in-law, Angie (Danny's wife).

Gus and his new BFF Ava.

Gus and his Great Uncle Rick (Debbie's husband).
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Mary Ann's cousin Vanessa and her fiancee Matt--July Elvis wedding!

Gus and Ava <3

Our Valentine, plus some art that lifts our spirits Muppet style

It's been such a difficult and bittersweet winter. We've been especially grateful for parenthood to keep us focused on joy while we deal with sadness. We've also had lots of winter storms here, and so had to engage in lots of indoor activities. For the old people, this has been mainly homework, and for Gus this has been a lot of art and building and books. Gus started drawing representationally occasionally some time ago, but around the end of fall became very focused on drawing and drawing stories. For Christmas thank you notes, he wanted to draw "all the Muppets" and the results were so funny, we scanned them to share (though a few of you will recognize these drawings). Also, a blurry but hilarious picture of our kid in one of his famous nutty outfits.

Grandpa Philip Dean Hudson 8/9/45-1/8/10

Our little family is deeply grieving the loss of Gus' Grandpa and Mary Ann's father, who died unexpectedly on Friday. We have a lot of travel and planning and visiting over the next week. We wanted to put this on the blog to let good friends and visitors who may not have had a call know, and please do not hesitate to contact Mary Ann at this time--call or email. Below his his obituary for those interested in services.

Philip Dean Hudson, 64, of Bristol, Tennessee passed away Friday, January 8, 2010 at his home.
He was born August 9, 1945 in Pratt, Kansas, the son of Dean and Dorothy Jenkins Hudson. Mr. Hudson grew up and attended schools in El Dorado, Kansas graduating from EHS in 1963. Philip served in the U.S. Air Force from 1965 to 1971. After his years in the service, Mr. Hudson attended and graduated from Pittsburg State College in 1973 and received his Master’s from Baker University in 1990. He was a member of the American Legion and of the Buffalo Ruritan Civic Fraternity in Bristol, TN and a congregant of Piney Flats First Baptist Church in Bristol, TN.

Philip was a hard working, quiet, sensitive man who dearly loved his family and friends. Upon his recent retirement, he moved to Tennessee to be near his lifelong friend, John Dickerson, and closer to his grandchild, Gus.

Mr. Hudson is survived by his son, Jason Hudson, of Wichita, Kansas; daughter, Mary Ann Hudson, son-in-law, Matthew Vadnais, and grandson, August Henry Hudson-Vadnais, of Columbus, OH; four sisters and three brothers-in-law: Larry and Pamela Duntz of Wichita, Susan Carroll of Wichita, Richard and Debra Johnson of Denton, TX, and Robert and Cindy McGraw of Towanda, Kansas, along with two nephews and four nieces. Philip was preceded in death by his parents.
Services are scheduled for 11:00 a.m. Saturday, January 16, at Kirby Morris Funeral Home in El Dorado, Kansas. Interment will follow in Sunset Lawns Cemetery in El Dorado, KS; Philip will be honored by the military for his service at internment. Kirby Morris Funeral Home is in charge of services.

Twenty Ten!

Happy New Year! At the end of this decade, Gus will be a teenager!
Gus and his dad made hats, we ate sushi, we played the board game "How Tall Am I?", and rang in Western Europe's New Year so we could go to bed at a reasonable hour.

SO MANY Winter-y posts, you need to start on the second page of this blog. Get yourself a cup of tea and get cozy!

Stay tuned for an upcoming gallery post of recent Gus art featuring muppets. Salut!

Grandma Kathy came for Christmas

Gus' Grandma Kathy came to visit this season; another person to play trains with! Also, Kathy shares Gus' love of putting together jigsaw puzzles. Gus has been handily putting together 12, then 24 piece puzzles himself, so we got Grandma and Gus a 60 piece-r thinking it would keep them busy. It did, for about 3 minutes. Though, they happily put it together several times over her visit, and now Gus does it himself. Gus has been pining after a 750 piece puzzle at a local bookstore and we've been putting him off--well, his Great Aunt Pam sent him a gift card for the store SO he got that puzzle (and a bedtime book). He has worked on this puzzle in 1-2 hour sessions at a time with Matt--first sorting the pieces, now putting together the different piles. Anyway, here is Gus and Grandma with the puzzle, Grandma making lefse, and Grandma watching a Thomas the Train Christmas special with Gus, which she cheerfully subjected herself to anytime Gus would ask.