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!