The Hughes Family: March 2011

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Goodbye our sweet boy Colby.

Today our sweet baby boy, Colby went to doggie heaven. He has been sick for a while and was just getting worse. We were faced with an expensive operation that would only possibly help him or just put him to sleep so that he wouldn't suffer any longer. After some serious deliberation (and a lot of tears!) we decided it was Colby's best interest to go to doggie heaven. SO hard to decide that and even harder to be around him this morning. The girls and I got up and fixed Colby a breakfast of hot dogs! He LOVES hot dogs. He was so excited he was jumping around and wagging his tail like a mad man (something he hasn't done much of lately). The girls and I played with him all morning and then finally gave him a big hug and kiss and left him at home. My parents were so sweet and offered to take Colby to the vet for us. I don't think Chris or I could have done that. My mom sat with him and prayed over him as he went peacefully to sleep. Katherine has been joking all day that Colby is going to go jump in his boat and drive off to heaven. She would then crack up laughing at herself. I know God provided her humor just for me this morning since I was so sad to say goodbye. I am really loving that mental picture of Colby as well. I can just see him wearing some shades with his paws up on the wheel of a boat riding off into the sunset. :) We love you Colby and we will miss you dearly.

Colby eyeing his hot dog breakfast.

I love you Mommy!

Caroline trying to give him a hug.

Are you talking to me?

Just hanging out under the table...maybe I'll catch some crumbs!

Katherine giving Colby a big hug.

Caroline trying to hug Colby again...he was too fast!

Friday, March 25, 2011

Sweet Girls

We the Hughes clan has been super busy the past few weeks with two birthdays (Katherine's 4th and my 30th!), lots of visitors, school functions, dance, swimming lessons, etc, etc. I'm worn out! Luckily next week is Spring Break! Yippee! So Katherine, Caroline and I will have some quiet time at home to do some spring cleaning and relax! I can't wait. :) I figured I hadn't really updated lately about the girls, so here goes!

Katherine is still my sweet, strong-willed, smart, and beautiful 4 year old. I'm only slightly biased. ;) She is doing great with writing and even wrote her whole name by herself the other day! That's no easy feat with a long name! She knows all of her letters by sight and sound. She also knows what sound each letter makes and has started recognizing words in the books we read. She L-O-V-E-S to read and her favorites tend to be books about princesses. Imagine that?! She also is addicted to being outside. :) You can regularly find her digging in the dirt, climbing up the post in our back hard and trying to climb the palm trees. She loves her little sister and is constantly cheering Caroline on when she tries something new. She does have her moments of not wanting to share and not enjoying things that Caroline does from time, to time, but the good definitely surpass the bad. :) We have had a few little bumps in the road this week as Katherine had a pretty tough week at school. She refused to listen to her teachers on Monday and Tuesday, so we have had some pretty intense discussions at home about how we treat our teachers and respecting parents and adults in general. She had a MUCH better day on Wednesday and her teacher was so excited that the girls and I went out for a special celebration lunch at Pizza Hut. Katherine was so proud of herself. :) Today was her "Spring Fling" at school, which is basically a field day for preschoolers. They assigned me to the face painting booth...uh...hello? I'm an accountant here! I do not draw! Ha! I survived and luckily most of the kids I had wanted something easy, like a rainbow or heart. Simply shapes I can do! :) I unfortunately didn't think about wearing sunscreen, so I have a feeling I will resemble a lobster by morning. :( Katherine had a GREAT day and even won a medal in the obstacle course! Way to go Katherine! :)

Caroline is still my super, super sweet, calm, studious and beautiful little 20 month old. :) She L-O-V-E-S anything that big sister Katherine is doing...and insists on trying it too! She has quite a few words and has great enunciation. Quite a different experience since Katherine didn't speak until she was two and then started with complete sentences. :) We were out with friends the other day and they were surprised that they could also understand what Caroline was saying. She loves to color and it looks like she's going to be a LEFTY!!! This excites me to no end...FINALLY SOMETHING that came from ME! Yes, I know that I gave birth to them, but they both look EXACTLY like daddy, so I'll take a lefty. :) She also loves anything that has to do with baby dolls and can usually be found walking her dolls around in the stroller or rocking them in the rocking chair and feeding them a bottle. She is SO sweet. She is currently taking swimming lessons everyday for 4-6 weeks. She has the floating down pat, but the swimming part isn't coming quite as easily. She'll get it though! She also loves to be outside, but she prefers to stroll her babies around outside rather than playing in the dirt or climbing things. She also loves to dance a little jig when she gets excited about something. It is so cute. She sleeps through the night and takes a pretty good nap every afternoon. She will usually protest going down for a minute or two, but after that she's out cold for the night or for a few hours during nap time. I definitely appreciate that! She is pretty chill and really only gets upset if you take something from her, or if she's really tired.

Both girls are growing like weeds and love each other so much. We are so blessed to have them in our lives! I cannot believe that we have a 4 year old and almost 2 year old! Where did the time go?! :)