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.