Farm Life anyone?

We spent the morning at Thanksgiving Point with aunts and cousins.

Grace love, love, loved the pony ride!

Joseph love, love, loved every farm animal there and is completely fearless.
Isabelle and Grace hanging out at "Miss Kitty's Dance Hall". I suppose they were resting after all that beautiful dancing.
Today's outing was monumental for two reasons.

First, I did the entire outing with no stroller. It went rather well!

Second, I tried out Joe's new monkey backpack/harness friend. Joe got really mad at first when I wouldn't take it off but he got used to it. Later this week I am flying by myself with my three kids and I'm terrified I will loose him in an airport. Joseph is a quick little thing that likes to run amok! I have avoided the complete shutdown of an international airport by putting my child on a leash. No thanks necessary FAA and air travellers everywhere!

Fire Mountain

Mountain just east of Draper this afternoon

On our way into the DMV this afternoon we saw a little fire up on the mountain and commented to each other that we hope they get that under control before it gets too big. They didn't. When we came out of the DMV 45 minutes later this is what it looked it. Holy Shnikes!

First-Aid at its finest!

Yet another of Ella's birthday presents that Grace loves.Ella really wanted, and got, a first aid kit for her birthday. I know, kind of a strange request for a six year old, but who am I to squash her little imagation. Ella has been fixing booboos non-stop. This is Grace's largest booboo that she got at the pool. There was no blood on this booboo but it was red so Ella doctored it for her. First, apply the "cream" then carefully place FOUR Barbie bandages. Grace was in little girl heaven and kept these bandages on for four whole days. Not shown in the picture are the three other bandages scattered on Grace's legs. She was quite a site! And what an excellent big sister Ella is to take such good care of her little sister.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

Ella got "Mary Poppins" for her birthday earlier this month and my girls are LOVING IT! They watch it about once a week and rewatch the songs over and over and over.

Grace, in typical Grace fashion, learns what a four year old can and fills in the rest with her imagination and Grace-ness. Don't forget to notice Grace's moves while singing.

Priceless!

We love Memphis!

We are so excited to be going to Memphis next week. My sister is getting married over the Labor Day weekend and we get to go. Yeah!

While we are in town, so are the Tigers. They will be playing Rice at Liberty Bowl Stadium and we get to go. My girls LOVE going to U of M football games with pappaw. Really I think they like the Pronto Pups and cotton candy but its all part of the experience.
My girls love, love,love Tom the Tiger and all things Memphis Tigers. The day this pic was taken was the first time it had occurred to Ella to put on all their Tiger paraphernalia at once. Ella says she wants to wear this outfit to the game in a couple of weeks. Go for it, babe!

And the Winner for the Best Pouty Face Is...

Joseph Adam Hutchinson!

I don't remember why he was pouting but he was working it.

-Head to one side

-Eyes closed

-Bottom lip stuck out

You've gotta love it!

I am so beyond being worked by my one year old,

I had to laugh!

Afternoon at the Park

We love afternoons at the park. I wasn't too hot and a little breezy. Perfect!

I am wanting some really cute kid pics to enlarge, frame and hang in the living room. We thought this was a perfect time to try out the new camera. Love it!

Not sure if we got anything suitable for enlarging but it was a good afternoon.

Ella has been practicing and practicing on the monkey bars. I think she's got it.

You'll also hear Grace talking then Joseph.

We had a beautiful afternoon at the park. It was even better since Adam was with us. We love it when Adam's not working and can hang out with us.

Oh, our baby Ella!

This is Ella at four to six weeks old. She was born with crazy big eyes. Ella was a very alert and STRONG baby. I'm not kidding, she rolled over in the hospital. We have it on video. I'll bug Adam to put it on the computer so I can share it. Ella slept through the night at two weeks and was a good napper. She was the ideal first child. Heck, she was the ideal baby, period! Ella has always been a happy girl. She is nine months old in this picture. Ella sported this hairdo for quite some time. The hair on the crown of her head grew much faster than the rest. Go figure. Ella crawled shortly after this, at 10 months. Then stubbornly didn't walk until 15 months. But she was so cute, who cared!
Jump to Ella at two years old(I can't get the pictures in between to scan right now). Ella loved this pink tutu from Aunt Audra and love, love, LOVED this knit hat from great grandma Brents (Ella calls her GG). The hat didn't belong to Ella but she loved it. Stylish!

At this age, Ella was a new big sister that never got jealous of baby Grace. How could we not be totally in love with that sweet face and happy personality.
Ella at 3 1/2 years old. This was taken at Emily and Sean's wedding. Ella's hair got so long, so fast. Notice the little bit of DIY bangs we were trying to grow out. At this age, Ella was surprisingly independent. She was wanting to sleep over at friends' houses and do everything herself.
I love my big ole six year old, but I miss my baby and little girl Ella. She was with us on so many of our adventures and handled them like a pro. Those stories are a whole other series of posts that I have pictures to go with but I want to figure out the scanner first.

Ella turns SIX

Ella Christine turned six this week. She has been trying so hard to be patient while waiting for her birthday. She had big birthday expectations and I think we did pretty well in meeting them. Ella, literally, got every gift on her wish list (which, admittedly, wasn't too long).

Ella requested a chocolate, pink flower. I baked, cut and iced the cake. Adam assembled and decorated this masterpiece. This is our first joint effort cake and I think it turned out well.
Ella has been BEGGING for Barbies but I've been hesitant b/c of all the little pieces. I hate little pieces! But when Ella had such a short wish list I gave in. Those dolls hadn't been out of the package 20 minutes when this picture was taken. Nice!
Ella's biggest wish for her birthday was a digital camera. Kid digital cameras are kind of dumb and big and pricey. We decided to kill two birds with one stone and give Ella our digital camera then put the $60 we would have spent on a kiddie camera and put it toward a new grown up camera. Ella LOVES it. She already knew how to use it and started clicking away.
Thank you Ella for the loverly picture of mom.

Happy Birthday my sweet girl!

Brenda and Brenda Jr

My mom came to visit for five days the first week of August. She came for the Boston Family Reunion which is always the first Saturday in August.

Since Ella was in school and Joseph was napping, Mom, Grace and I got to spend two afternoons just the three of us. I think Grace was in heaven having so much alone time with us.

This is a picture taken before lunch on one of our days out. Can you see why Adam calls Grace "BJ"? Grace looks more like my mom's daughter than I do. I guess it skips a generation. Will I get a granddaughter clone?

Both my girls love their mammaw and I'm pretty sure mammaw likes them a little bit too. Thank you for the fun visit mom and for being so helpful and patient. We love you!

Exhausted and dirty!

We love, love, love Millcreek Canyon. Its super green, not as busy as the other canyons and just for picnicing and hiking/biking. We've be dying to get out of the valley and decided dinner in the canyon was just the get away we needed.

It rained a bit in the beginning but thankfully didn't get eveything all muddy. Adam drove far enough up the canyon (despite my requests to "just pick a place") that we were the only ones at our picnic site. Ella and Grace played "hide and seek" (the kind where mom can always see you) and Joseph played in the dirt and threw rocks into the stream. Shocker!
Adam got lots of "help" building our fire. Adam is the king of the "one match fire". How has no ward ever called him into scouting?
Time absolutely flew while we were there. Before we knew it three hours had passed, we started getting cold and dark was sneeking quickly up on us.

The kids were exhausted and DIRTY on the way home. Isnt that how real fun always ends, exhausted and dirty?

Tag is new for me!

I was tagged by my sis-in-law, Angie. This is a first TAG for me. I'm curious who will learn something new about me.

Three JOYS
1. My kidlets
2. A clean house
3. paying off debt

Three FEARS
1. That we will never get out of debt
2. Living far from my family forever
3. That my kids won't be happy teens/adults and it will somehow be my fault.

Current Obsessions
1. Having a Clean house (past, present and future obsession)
2. Looking beyond great for my sisters wedding (I can be so vain sometimes)
3. Staying on our budget/paying off debt

Three FACTS
1. We have lived in 11 apartments/homes in our 9 1/2 year marriage (ranging from 3 months to 2 1/2 years in two countries, three states and five cities, assuming the Wasatch Front is all SLC)
2. I have a degree in Journalism.
3. I was a cheerleader in middle school (Go Jackets!)

TAG five people
1. Audra (sister)
2. Megg (sis-in-law)
3. Chrissy (college roommate)
4. Amy (college roommate)
5. Courtney (friend from high school)

One more Grace moment

This video is Grace to a tee! This is a three year old

Grace thoroghly enjoying herself. I love it when she does this.

Grace grows up

Grace was the roundest of my babies. She was constantly drooling therefore her face was always broken out/rashy. It was part of her charm.

Grace's First Birthday
Summer of 2006, just before 2nd birthday.

Notice she still has her baby rolls

Fall of 2007 at a Farmers Market in St. Louis.

What a beauty!

Miss Grace is 4

My little monkey turned four. When Grace was a baby she clung to me ALL THE TIME just like a baby monkey. Grace is my mama's girl.

I can hardly believe how big and grown up Grace is now. Just this summer she seems to have gotten so tall and slender. I'll post some old pics of Grace so y'all can see my butterball child.

Above: I think she likes it. Grace is very into doing workbook pages or something "big" while Ella does her own homework. This workbook will be perfect.
Grace has been asking for a cash register since she got some play money with another toy for Christmas. She actually got two for her birthday. She decided to keep them both which turned out well since you can see that Ella and Joe really like the cash registers too.
For the first time I tried my hand at "creating" a birthday cake. It turned out seriously ugly but Grace thought it was great. I love pictures like this. You can just see Grace's thoughts, "This whole cake is for me. And its purple and pink. And a butterfly with lots of candles. I am so cool."

The cake was pink on the inside, per Grace's request. She asked for a pink cake with purple frosting and sprinkles. Done. She loved it and that's what counts.