"Wow! You look like the Fourth of July!... Makes me want a hotdog real bad."

~Paulette, Legally Blonde II

I love celebrating July 4th, and all the fun traditions that come along with it. I love visiting with our families, grilling hotdogs with close friends, and dressing our entire families in red, white and blue attire, then holding our sweetly coordinated babies on hand-sewn quilts, while watching fireworks light up the night sky.

Having the freedom and safety to do all of these things is something I often take for granted.

Knowing there are brave men and women who were willing to die for my freedom and safety makes my heart swell with many emotions... Sadness, for their families; Joy, that because of them, me and my monkeys are free; and mostly PRIDE, because their bravery and our freedom is the one thing that makes our Nation simply the best.

The Storm and I left The Meteorologist home for the weekend to catch up on some work (and sleep) and traveled to Cookie & Grandy's house for a mini-reunion with four out of five of our siblings. We ate delicious foods, laughed until we cried, stayed up way past our bedtimes, enjoyed each other's company.. and them ate some more, laughed some more, and cried some more. (The adults from all the laughing... the children from staying up too late.)

Above photograph is missing three grands. Well, technically FIVE more, if you count the two that are in-utero (mine and my sister's, who is due just a little bit before me.) Her Highness is the oldest. By the time the last two arrive, there will have been 16 grandchildren born in 8 years. Can you imagine how much FUN we have all together?? Or the NOISE level??

"Those who would give up some of their liberty in order to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither, liberty nor safety." ~Dr. Benjamin Franklin

Thank-you to ALL our Service Men and Women who continue to fight for our safety and liberty.

As The Storm would say, "Happy For-fa-July!"

Love, The Hudson's

Oh, Bananarama-- you have no idea.

Hot summer streets and the pavements are burning, I sit around...

Trying to smile, but the air is so heavy and dry...

Strange voices are sayin'

-What did they say?

Things I can't understand...

It's too close for comfort, this heat has got right out of hand...

It's a cruel.. cruel... cruel summer,

Leaving me here on my own...


It's a cruel... it's a cruel... cruel summer

Now you've gone...

Dear Big Poppa,

I dedicate this song to you every day from the hours of 8am-6ish pm.

Love, Big Momma

A Haiku written just for you: MY Babies' Daddy

Little children, so sweet;

Adding beauty to this world.

Vasectomy, perhaps?

Happy Belated Father's Day, to the man I love like no other.

XOXOXO, Big Momma

When you're this HOT, you can't help but be cool.

This is a typical day at the Hudson House. I always pump up the volume when it's time to get our chores done. Usually, this is what happens... In order to avoid cleaning, they all start shaking their money makers....




I'm sure you're thinking, "Holly, I've got waaay more to do than watch all these silly videos." And I do too. But why fold laundry when I can play on the compooter??
In this one, Hail is pitching a fit on the couch. Someone is ALWAYS crying in this house. So it's like white noise to us.


Come on over and drop it like it's hot anytime with us!
Love, Big Momma

"New Kids on the Block had a bunch of hits; Chinese food makes me sick; And I think it's fly when girls stop by for the summer, for the summer..."

~LFO, Summer Girls

That song has absolutely nothing to do with this post. Except for the fact that it's been in my head for the past two straight weeks. Is it in yours now?? No?? Well, maybe this will help...

Every year at the beginning of summer, I think of that song. Good times I guess.

Our summer was officially kicked off May 24th, when Her Highness and Thunder wrapped up Second Grade and Kindergarten. Hard to believe they will be in Third and First grades next year. Here are the pics from the first and last days of school. Wow. My big kids are growing up.

Softball and t-ball seasons are officially over as well. Our city league doesn't keep score for t-ball games, but if you were to ask Lightning or Thunder, they would both tell you their team went undefeated. Her Highness loved softball, and is already looking forward to playing next year.

I have no real pictures to share of either team. Why? Well, many of the games were scheduled at the SAME time. I spent those games running back and forth from one field to the other, so I could wave and hopefully see all my ball players hit at least once. During the games that weren't scheduled at the same time, I was still busy chasing Flash Flood, who never could understand why he wasn't allowed on the field with his Daddy, who coached both teams. Flash Flood tried to make a break for it many times, but never succeeded. When he wasn't trying to escape onto the field, he was screaming at the top of his lungs, "DADDY! DADDY! I ONT DADDY!!! DADDY!!!!!" It was real fun, let me tell you. At one point I threatened to coach Her Highness' team next season so Bert could take a turn controlling our Storm. And during Her Highness' games The Storm was running around doing what they do best... wreaking havoc on the ballpark.

Her Highness finished ballet lessons with a fun recital, where her class performed to Snow White's Whistle While You Work. Again, no real pictures because Bert wasn't with me, due to Thunder had just started with Satan's horrible stomach virus, so I had to choose between videoing the main event and taking pics. Since Bert wasn't with me, I chose to video so he could watch when we got home.

The following pictures are just a montage of what we've been up to lately. (Really, it's just a bunch that I needed to delete from my phone before I lost them, like I've been known to do.)

Flash Flood was sent to timeout for the first (of I'm sure many) time(s). As you can see, he was real torn up over the situation.

These pictures sum up our lives perfectly. Out before 7am riding bikes in the cul-de-sac. Lightning still in pj's. Hail, who dresses himself the moment he wakes up each day, with not only mis-matched shoes, but on the wrong feet at that. Sigh.

Silly boys...

Lots of swimming, and swimming, and swimming...

The pregnancy cravings have been kicking for a while. One night, I was starving and had all five kids alone after attending a birthday party. We had planned on hitting the McDonald's drive thru. After I sat in line for at least ten minutes, ordered our food, and pulled around to the window, the lady asked, as I handed her my debit card, "Is this a debit or credit card? 'Cause our machine ain't taking no debit cards tonight."

"Okay, well, try running it as a credit card. I'm sure it will still go through."

Shaking her head, she replies, "No, our machine ain't taking no cards at all. Cash only tonight. Sorry." Let me pause here for just a moment to say: McDonald's-- You're now on my list with Wal-mart and Winn Dixie as places I HATE going, but am forced to do so. Get your act together already. With our McDonald's plans busted, we went up the street to a sit-down Mexican restaurant. Yes, I was THAT hungry.

Surprisingly, the Storm held it together for the most part, kept their hands to themselves and acted somewhat civilized. Well, until Thunder announced he had to go potty. As did Lightning, Hail and Her Highness. The bathroom door was less than ten feet away. I told them to go straight there, do their business, wash hands, and come straight back. Her Highness, of course, did just that. Twelve minutes later, as I was just about to head into the Men's room to run the Storm out, Lightning emerged. From the doorway he bellowed, "MOMMA, Thunder's done goin' poo-poo. Should he just wipe himself, or are you gonna come do it??"

They almost made it an entire meal without embarrassing the stew out of me.

(Lightning refused to be photographed for some reason. And Flash Flood kept grabbing at my phone when I tried to take a shot of him. I took these and sent them to Bert, because for some strange reason he didn't believe where we were when he called to check in.)

Another random photo from my phone:

I call this one, "O' the places you will go... and take a sucker with you."

My BFF, Lindy, gets tickled at me because of all the times I've unknowingly had old suckers/cracker crumbs/gum/etc stuck to my back/butt/hair when we've been out in public together. She, being the super wonderful sister-friend she is, always manages to quietly point it out. Then she laughs about it until she cries. A couple of days ago, I looked down and noticed this stuck to my shoe... Not sure if it's gum or an air head. Such is life in the peanut gallery.

This last one is Her Highness with her best bud, after swimming. I mainly took this picture to embarrass her. She's definitely hit that stage of total annoyance with her parents. Bert loves telling her friends crazy stories. One day he told them they didn't have to call him Mr. Bert. They could just call him Big Time, since he used to be a member of the band Big Time Rush, but he quit when he had kids so he could spend more time with them, instead of traveling all the time. I feel sorry for Her Highness, because it's ONLY going to get worse.

That's all for this edition of "Random Photo's from Holly's Phone." Be sure to join in next time!

Happy Summer to YOU!

Cheaper by the half dozen??

The Storm was served cookie cake for breakfast this morning. I wish I could say that was unusual and a treat in and of itself. Unfortunately, they often eat junk for breakfast.

While the cake itself wasn't a huge surprise, the message on top was...

After a check-up this morning, where we got to hear the heart beat, and were told everything is moving along just fine, we were ready to tell our BIG news.

I brought in a cookie cake that said, "Hudson Baby #6." Our kids love cookie cake like Cookie Monster loves... well, cookie cake. Her Highness read the cake aloud, then looked confused.

When it finally dawned on her what we were talking about she squealed,

"YOU'RE PREGNANT???!!! AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! YAY!!!!" The Storm quickly followed her lead.

They've all made super sweet comments through out the morning. We went to the pool, and on the way home Thunder asked if the baby enjoyed it's first swim. I love those monkeys.

We're all excited. Due date is January 1st, 2012. But according to my C.P.A. husband, this baby is required to make an appearance before then for tax credit purposes.

I'm hormonal. So feel free to re-read this post (click here) before making any comments.

HOW TO LOSE EIGHT POUNDS IN FOUR DAYS

Alternately Titled: The Worst Stomach Virus I've ever had-- I almost died.

Well, I'm back. I caught Thunder's three day virus. Only it didn't stop on day three. Day three was when I took a turn for the worse. So on day four, I ended up in the ER for IV fluids. Along the way, Her Highness and Flash Flood also picked up the bug. The meanest three are still left standing. (Bert, Lightning and Hail... as if I had to explain.) And hopefully they're now in the clear, but I'm not holding my breath.

Poor Bert. We learned several things during this round with Satan's stomach virus:
1. Bert is a much better nurse than I am when he's sick.
2. Bert is a much better mom/housewife when it comes to patience and doing chores.
3. Bert is a much better bedtime story teller.
4. Bert's limit for all of the above is four days. After four days he is done and simply cannot continue being the fill-in Momma one second longer. So it's either get well or call for reinforcements.

This was the conversation between my Mother (Cookie) and me when she called to check in Saturday morning:

Me: Pray for Bert. And for the rest of us.
Cookie: Why? Oh, no. Does he have it now too??
Me: No, no. He's still feeling fine. He's just reached his limit and is about to crack.
Cookie: Uh, oh.
Me: Hey, if anything ever happens to me, don't be offended when Bert remarries in only four days. 'Cause apparently that's his limit. He can't handle the kids alone more than that.
Cookie: Honey, we won't be offended. He'll be doing us all a favor.

After getting lots of rest over the weekend, drinking water by the gallon, and slowly adding solids back into my diet, I am finally able to rejoin the land of the living.
Feeling 100%, I'm ready to tackle the 87 loads of laundry, which are piled to the ceiling in various rooms through out the house. Bert is a man of many talents, but laundry is not one of them.

During my many, many hours spent in seclusion in the restroom, between prayers for relief, I spent some time self-reflecting. Mostly on the untidiness of our bathrooms. And bedrooms. And living room. And kitchen. Not that a sparkling clean tub would have made that 58th diarrhea trip any less painful, but it might have kept me from staring at the moldy grout, which gave me an extra reason to bang my head against the wall.

"God, I promise... blaaaaaaaahhhhh... if you'll just make this virus go aw.... blaaaaaaaaahhhh..... I'll clean this whole.... blaaaaaaahhhhhh..... house and act like a 30 year ol...... blaaaaaaahhhh...... d. Please God, take this virus away from my family and I promise to get my act.... blaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh.... together. I'll even start folding the.... blaaaaaaaaaah..... laundry. Andpleasedon'tletanyoneelsecatchit!!" During my final vomiting session, I pleaded with God, because, you know, cleanliness is Godliness. And since God held up his end of the bargain, it's time I do mine.

So, that's where YOU come in. What time can you be here.... Kidding. I do need some tips for organization. I want to know, what are the organizational items/tools you can't live without?? What helps your day run smoothly and keeps you on track with cleaning and other chores??

I need to career shadow someone with a clean house. "Hey, Bert.. I'll be back in a week, okay? I'm going to career shadow a successful housewife. Make that two weeks. I want to make sure I get her system down pat, so I can come home and implement it. Don't call me. I'll call you. BYE!" I'm sure he wouldn't mind. Since it's for business purposes and all.

One of my favorite quotes of all times comes from Erma Bombeck, "My second favorite household chore is ironing. My first being hitting my head on the top bunk until I faint."
That perfectly sums it up for me.

In other news, school ends TOMORROW. And I cannot believe Her Highness will soon be a 3rd grader and Thunder a 1st grader. It seems like yesterday I was doing the ugly cry, writing notes to stick in their lunch boxes. And today, I did the ugly cry again, watching the class slide show made by Thunder's teacher. Watching those precious kindergarten babies grow to tunes such as Toy Story's "You've Got a Friend in Me," and Green Day's "Good Riddance" was simply too much for me to handle. It's been a fun year. And both Her Highness and Thunder were blessed to have such dedicated and loving teachers.

Now it's time for the lazy pool days I've been dreaming of all year. BRING ON SUMMER!!!

And bring on your organizational/cleaning tips! I really do want to hear them.

HAPPY LAST DAY OF SCHOOL TO YOU!!!
Love, Big Momma