Penelope Snow

Meet Penelope, Penelope Snow. Miss Snow arrived yesterday morning. We woke up to more new snow and the kids talked me, yes me, into going out to play in it.

The kids got to try out their new snow gear for the first time this year. We played outside for an hour and no one got cold or wet. Yeah!
Joseph ate more snow than he played with. We had about 15 talks about only eating new, fluffy snow.
Pappaw, this ones for you. The girls remembered the story pappaw told them about snow angels and the promise they made to make snow angels and think of pappaw. They even remembered to have their snow angels holding hands.

And . . . the mess.

The mess only took about five minutes to clean up. Thankfully I have lots of room for hanging damp clothes. An hour of fun, five minutes of clean up - not a bad trade, I'd say.

When we came inside the kids had a choice of hot chocolate or rootbeer floats for a treat. They all chose rootbeer floats. I'm glad they stayed warm.

Born on Christmas Day

Our new favorite Christmas song is on this album. If you are looking for one to get this year, get this one.

Our kids love, love, love Born on Christmas Day. Love it like, ask us to put it on repeat at bedtime and listen to it over and over and over until they fall asleep. Yep, its that good! Click on the album cover to give it a listen. Suffer through the talking at the beginning by imaging my girls quoting it word for word every time they listen to the song. Oh, they do!

Minus the Gory Details

I just typed (and then deleted) a posting about how this picture tells the story of our night at the ward Christmas party. I deleted it because I'm trying to be more positive and that night was a less than positive experience over all. I will spare y'all the gory details.

I love that my kids (okay just the girls, like Joe would talk to the scary guy) agonized over what to ask Santa for. Grace ended up asking for a wand and Ella for an Easy Bake Oven or a keyboard. I love it when they make Santa's job easy.

Beauty Operators

Last night the girls said, "Mom, can we pleeease paint you nails and brush your hair?" They didn't have to twist my arm. So, while we watched the Charlie Brown Christmas special Ella painted the left hand and foot then Grace painted the right hand and foot. My hair got brushed and my legs/feet and arms/hands got lotioned about ten times.

After watching Charlie Brown one and a half times I declared that I was as beautiful as I was going to get and thanked them for being to sweet to me. I got big hugs from both girls who then declared that I was the best mom in the whole wide world.

So all I have to do to be the "best mom in the whole wide world" is let them brush my hair, paint my nails and lotion me to within an inch of my life?

I can only hope they will love doing this for YEARS to come and that I remain "the best mom in the whole wide world".

Here's to hoping!

p.s. My grandma Agnes calls women who work in salons "beauty operators". I've always loved to hear her say "beauty operator". I still makes me smile. Beauty Operator.

Deck the Halls

A week or so ago we hauled the Christmas decorations out of storage. That means one very sad thing for our girls.

The girls stand there looking like this and I am saying, "Scarecrow HAS to go back into storage. No, scarecrow can not stand next to the Christmas tree. Give him one last hug so we can put him in the box." They love that scarecrow. I'm not sure Ella should ever be allowed to help pick out a holiday decoration ever again. She gets a little attached.

Once all the Thanksgiving and fall decorations where tucked safely away we could finally get into the Christmas stuff. I have lots of very uncute pics from this evening that I'm choosing not the share. For now, we'll have to live with a pic of all our stockings. My mom made all the stockings(except for mine) for my family. Grandma Agnes made mine for my first Christmas and I love it. Thank you to Grandma Agnes and my mom for our lovely stockings. They are beautiful and just the right size.
Our perfectly sized Christmas tree, lit with white and colored lights, decorated with an interesting assortment of ornaments that I wouldn't trade for the world and topped with a bow I despise. This makes the ninth Christmas now that I've looked for a tree topper that I like and have had no luck. We'll keep using the dumb bow until I give in and buy something that's "good enough" but not great. I'm a little picky sometimes. Doesn't show, does it?
And the best decorations of all: bathed, brushed, pottied, happy and sleepy children. Can you tell that Joseph really likes the tree? Thankfully, he's very careful. Very! Joe is the lights police at our house. When he gets up in the morning, he plugs in the lights. When we leave the house, he makes sure they are unplugged. Its very serious business to him and hilarious for us to watch.

Happy Birthday Isabelle

Our niece, Isabelle, turned five this week. To celebrate Isabelle's birthday we went fishing. That's right, fishing! If you know Isabelle that doesn't surprise you one little bit. Fishing
Friday, the Hutchinson clan, took refuge from the cold in Randy's family's cabin to celebrate.

At the pond very near the cabin, the bravest of fishermen and fisherwomen bundled up to go fishing. What's a fishing birthday party without actually fishing?

Both my girls love to fish. I love that Ella is using the regular pole and Randy is using the princess fishing pole.

When the cold finally sank into their bones, our little fisherwomen came inside for even more fishing. They actually caught some fish this time. Goldfish and swedish fish!

I didn't get any pics of most of the people up there with us but I did get the weather rolling in. Though brown, black and dead, this place is beautiful, even in the winter. I love being away. Just away.

I could have a thousand of these framed on my walls. How I love these two boys.

We always have a fabulous time at the cabin with family. The kids fell asleep watching Christmas movies while the adults had a wonderful evening of playing games (without arguing, I might add) and chatting. We even talked politics, without arguing.

It was one of those moments in time you wish you could freeze and make last just a little bit longer.

Thank you Homers for having us up and

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ISABELLE

Reading already?

NO, certainly not, but I made you look! Joseph, though not reading, has found a new interest in books lately. Why exactly he found the dicitonary interesting this day I do not know but he was fascinated.

And when he "finished" the dictionary he moved on to the thesaurus. He wanted Adam to read it to him. So Adam did and Joe sat and listen for a remarkably long time.
These are Joseph's favorite books, the "Junior" series written by Dave Ramsey. I highly recommend them.
Joseph, though still loving to threw temper tantrums, is starting to play much better independently. Just Joe and I were home alone for several hours today and he entertained himself nearly the whole time. I was surprised. Surprised for two reasons: one, that Joe played so well by himself and two, surprised that I was just a little disappointed he didn't want me to play too. My baby is getting so big and grown!

Boston Red Birds

If you are a Boston, are married to a Boston or are the child of a Boston, you have one of these hanging on your Christmas tree.
Starting a zillion years ago my mammaw (Boston) started making these for her family.
Since she died in 2003, the Bob Boston branch of the family has gotten behind on red birds. I, Emily Christine, was named after my mammaw, Martha Christine, so I thought it only fitting that I should take up making red birds.
I made six redbirds this year to bring our family current, including new addition Nathan and newest edition, Luke!
Saturday night I carefully unwrapped my 30 year old redbird made with my sweet mammaw's smooth suntanned hands. I hung it next to Joseph's new litte redbird and thought lovingly of my mammaw and her Christmas tree she stored in the stand up shower year round and the cans of cheese balls we looked forward to getting every year as children. I thought of how mammaw would carefully unwrap her christmas gifts only to wrap them back up and place them back under the tree. She hated to see the tree looking "neckid".
I am proud to be a granddaughter and name-sake of Martha Christine Boston. I am thrilled to make little felt redbirds for every new addition to our family and I promise always to stuff them with holey nylons, just like mammaw did.

4th picture from 4th file . . . TAG

Marcie passed on a fun tag thus the random pic of Ella at Bryce Canyon from March 2005.

The Hutchinson clan was tripping down to St. George for Stephanie to dance at Dixie in some big dance show thing. We all stayed in a "Homer" house in Toquerville. We made stops at Bryce Canyon (this pic) and later Zion.

Let's see: Ella was two, Grace was 7 months, Angie announced she was preggo with Abby, it was cold but gorgeous, my first trip to Bryce and I've been dying to return ever since.

Love this tag and I just know you will too. So lets see the 4th picture from the 4th file in your "pictures". Don't make me have to call names!

My Blue eyed Beauty

That is what my mom and dad call Ella sometimes.

Yes, she certainly is.

p.s. Yes, my mom and dad call Grace their brown eyed beauty.

Welcome to my Week

Yep! This pretty says it all about my week, our week. Its been a doozy!

Joseph has been doing LOTS of this. All toddlers do it but that doesn't mean I have to like it. For heaven sake, there is no need to run screaming whenever I say your name. And yes, you still have to take a nap!
Welcome to every meal at our house this week. If only I would feed him marshmallows and chocolate milk six times a day we could avoid all this drama. Sorry bubba, please EAT!
"Joseph, you may not have another sippy of chocolate milk until you eat some dinner." Mean, cruel and wicked mother that I am.

And then Grace joined the fun, just for laughs I suppose! She decided she really did want bangs after all. Nice, Grace, nice!

And yes, Grace is listening to my ipod. Anything to get three minutes of silence. Grace has a fabulously cute little voice and has lots of interesting things to say but holy moly, she doesn't breathe. Breathe, Grace, breathe!

Fun with school supplies continued when Grace LOST HER MIND and decided to write on the couch with a red Sharpie. I was speechless and clueless on what to do with Grace.

Grace is now banned from scissors and markers of all kinds. She's not even allowed to touch that draw in the kitchen. "Don't even touch it, Grace Anne!"

btw, the red ink came out with just a touch of dish soap on a wet rag and some scrubbing.

ABJ - Another Brenda Junior

I've been working on some holiday sewing lately. Both my girls think it is terribly exciting and want to sew too. So Sunday afternoon they brought me some fabric scraps from a play set and wanted to sew them. I got each of them needle and thread and showed them a simple whip stitch. Grace sewed a ball (ie. wad of fabric all bunched up). Ella was sewing a pocket.

Notice her look of concentration. She's wasn't pleased with how it was looking. She said it "doesn't look right" so we had a chat (for the gazillionth time in her life) about how things take practice to get extra good at.
Next thing I know she had fished the seam ripper out of the sewing box and has pulled everything out. That is so my mom. My dear mother is a sewing perfectionist. She'll rip a seam at the drop of a hat. Ella must get this seam ripping perfectionist stuff from my mom 'cause she sure doesn't get it from me.
You know how people say, "What goes around, comes around." and "You end up raising yourself." when you have kids. None of my kids are like me as a kid. I'm not raising myself, I'm raising my mom (and possibly my husband).

Never Assume

Think back to where/when you learned how to eat a whole apple? Think hard.
Remember? Me neither, I haven't a clue.
Somehow, somewhere I've failed my son. This is the apple remnant I found yesterday. It takes Joseph about an hour to complete this takes. How do I explain to Joe that we don't eat apple cores? Who said we don't? Why don't we? Because its hard and prickly? That obviously doesn't bother him so maybe I should just leave well enough alone.
I shake my head and chuckle to myself each time I find one of these. Yes, I think I'll leave this one well enough alone.

Staying Close

I wonder who's been playing with my phone? Hum? Let me see, who could it be?
I keep my phone out on the countertop, easily accessible. My girls know they can call anyone in my favfive. Consequently, my mom, dad, sister, sis-in-law and brothers get called quite a bit. I'm pretty sure they don't mind. It isn't at all unusal to walk into a room in the middle of the day and find Grace on the phone. I ask, "Who are you talking to?" Grace replies, "Pappall" and continues her chatting.

Thank you dad, mom, Audra, Ben and Megg and Sam for talking to my children when they randomly call. I want them to feel close to y'all even though we are so far away. I think its working! All my love to you, my sweet family.

I think its Love!

I love, love, love me a good pediatric dentist office. The girls have been BEGGING to go the dentist so I finally got my tail in motion and found a new dentist, made an appointment, picked Ella up from school early and made it to the office with all three kids just in time to wait for 45 minutes. I was NOT happy!

Anyway, apparently Grace has deep teeth that this dentist suggested we fill up so to avoid inevitable cavities. So a week later we (all three kids and I) venture back and I swear to myself that if we wait more than five minutes I'm going to loose it! The receptionist must have seen the green ticked off aura around me because we waited less than a minute.

This is why I love a good pediatric dentist office. The office was barn themed with tractors and animals that Joe was in love with. There was also a little electric train that traveled around the office near the ceiling. That thing kept Joseph occuppied for a seriously long time. There was a tv in the ceiling on which Grace chose to watch "Enchanted" (note the ear phones). She got a pink nose piece thing through which to smell bubble gum scented "funny gas". And after all was said and done they all three got sugar-free suckers and balloon animals to take home. Grace also got to take home her pink nose thing which, by the way, a week later still smells like bubble gum.

All and all, I would recommend this office if anyone is interested. I'm choosing to believe that our first visit experience was just a fluke. I'm thinking that next time I'll just wear my green aura from the get go.

Here's to no cavities, healthy pink gums and pearly white teeth. Happy flossing to all and to all a good night.

Happy Birthday Princess Abigail

Miss Abby turned three this week. She had a cousins princess party to celebrate. We received two hand delivered princess crowns with the party info written on the inside. Very cute! They were to wear their finest princess dress to the royal party.

When Angie does a princess party, she does it right!

Any event that involves dressing like a princess get an A+ at our house.

First, all the princesses got their nails painted. Pink, of course.

Joseph (our lone little prince) loves to get his nails painted. I wouldn't want to be left out either. Poor Joe, being the only little boy cousin in the sea of girl cousins. Somebody needs to hurry up and have a little boy and don't look at me!

Then we did princess dancing (video was too large to upload, sorry) and let the girls play, play, play.
Abby opened presents then it was cake time. The pink princess cake was beautiful and a big hit with everyone.
I think Abby's party wore her out. It has been so fun getting to know Abby better in the last few months. Abby and Olivia come over once a week and play during Isabelle and Grace's preschool. She is a hilarious little girl who loves gum, milk and lipgloss. We love you Abby!

Bob the Builder Boy

Joseph is kind of into Bob the Builder these days. He got a Bob book for his birthday (thank you GG and Pop), these pj's recently got unpacked with the winter clothes (thank you Moses) and I recently found these house shoes for $1.50 (thank you Kid to Kid). This all adds up to one cute Bob the Builder boy.

I asked Joe yesterday, "Joe, are you a Bob the Builder boy?" Joseph emphatically nodded his head yes and said, "Yah, Bob boy." in his deep little man voice.

I love seeing him in his miniature man clothes and these house shoes playing cars on the couch. Our couch is, apparently, the best place to play cars. Joe will line up all his matchbox cars on one end of the sectional then one by one "drive" them to the other end and line them up there. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, endlessly! He loves it and what makes him happy, makes me happy.

Love those Locks!

The girls have been begging for haircuts. Today was finally the day! A friend of mine does hair in her home and does an awesome job. If you live in the area and are looking for a hair person, let me know. She's great! Thanks Jenny.

And there they are!
Ella has been admiring herself most of the evening. I think she likes the new do. The pic looks uneven but its not.
Miss Grace and I talked about it and she thinks its a good idea to give her hair to little girls who don't have any hair. Locks for Love will be receiving this 12 inch pony of my baby girl's hair.
Grace looks beyond adorable in her new bob. I'm excited to get my hands on both the new haircuts and fix them all cutsy. Check back for more pics in days to come.


Side note for my mom - My mom loves to fix the girls' hair when we visit and she always asks them to share their hair with her. Of course they think that is terribly silly and giggle hysterically. So, last week Grace and I were chatting and I asked her what she wanted to do with her hair. She said she wanted to give it to mammaw for Christmas. There you go mom! I'm sorry to report mom that I then suggested that maybe since mammaw already had hair that Grace could give her hair to someone that didn't have any hair at all. Grace agreed that was probably best. What a sweet girl that Grace is. I sure love her beautiful little smile and her big, funny personality.

p.s. I must admit that I will miss my girls' long hair, especially Grace's. But I will not miss the washing, conditioning, combing, brushing, fixing, refixing, combing brushing, fixing, refixing, combing, brushing, fixing, refixing . . . you get the idea.

Halloween . . . finally

We spent Halloween with family this year. Thanks to Randy and Angie for having all of us over.

Ella was a green faced witch, again. She insisted on doing her own makeup this year. More power to you, little woman!
Grace decided, very last minute, to be Snow White.
And Joseph was a stinkin' cute elephant. He love, love, loved the costume.
I imagine this same picture could be taken in millions of home across America. Oh, to be a kid again!
My kids are down to their last few pieces of candy, which I suspect will be gone tomorrow. Once the candy is gone, we can officially put Halloween to bed and moldy "Jack" in the garbage.

I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving and all the fun in the upcoming weeks.

I Voted

I had a professor in college with a sign on her office door that read,

"Where am I going and why am I in this handbasket?"

These were my thoughts exactly when I got up this morning and read the election results.

An American Creed

I Do Not Choose to Be a Common Man.

It is my right to be uncommon—if I can.
I seek opportunity—not security.
I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me.
I want to take the calculated risk; to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed.
I refuse to barter incentive for a dole. I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence; the thrill of fulfillment to the stale calm of utopia.
I will not trade freedom for beneficence nor my dignity for a handout. I will never cower before any master nor bend to any threat.
It is my heritage to stand erect, proud and unafraid; to think and act for myself, enjoy the benefit of my creations and to face the world boldly and say, “This I have done.”
By Dean Alfange (statesman in the early 1900's)

Don't forget to vote!

A Tiny Look Back

Holidays are a gazillion times more fun with excited little ones all around.

Halloween 2005 in Utah

We love sharing holidays with family and friends.

Ella is wearing a dress that Aunt Stephie wore when she was little, very cool!

Grace was a cheetah this year. All my kids wear this cheetah costume the Halloween they are one. Funny note, Maddie wore this cheetah first when she was 7 months old.

Halloween 2006 in St. Louis

No, I was not dressed up for Halloween as a "tired mom". I was, in fact, exhausted. Joseph was one month old and being a mother of three was kicking my trash.
Grace loved the hood of this costume and kept it on ALL THE TIME.
Ella loved her green face and was convinced that no one knew who she was. Our sweet friends played along.

Halloween 2007 - St. Louis
This is us at Boo at the Zoo (just another fun and free thing to do in St. Louis).
Joseph was a new walker at this point and wanted to walk EVERYWHERE.
The girls were very opinionated about their costumes this year. I chose not to fight that battle, gave them free reign and tah-dah!