Christmas Hair

I'll never get tired of making fun of my last name.

(Jason's brother, Aaron, bought her this Steeler's onesie. She's already a true football fan!)

Well, I did it! I was able to fly to Utah, drive to Idaho, and fly back to Tennessee all by myself with Addie. Throw in having the airline lose our carseat, a diaper rash, and sitting by unsavory characters, it was quite the adventure. All I have to say is that I am VERY GLAD I am not a single parent. It was quite exhausting.

We had a great Christmas, though. I enjoyed seeing Kari and Eric. Kari (I'm sure she'll agree) is ready to burst! Noah is going to be a large little'un, and I'm sure they can't wait until he's here. They showed me all his adorable clothes and their great finds at D.I.--they seem to be ready for his arrival, as long as they get moved out of their apartment in time. I'm glad Kari is willing to get an epidural, I just can't figure out why you wouldn't!

It was also fun spending time with Grandma and Grandpa. While they seem to be slowing down a bit more (Grandma IS 81, afterall), their sense of humors are still intact. Paul is nearly engaged, Gabrielle is SO MUCH OLDER, and Apples to Apples is still their favorite game.

Christmas in Idaho was also a lot of fun. Addie was held non-stop, which has made her a little more cranky since we've been back, and she learned to sit up! She's still a bit wobbly, but is getting there! Jason played football on Christmas Eve (thanks to the Turkey Bowl with Charlie and Hillary, he wants to play football all the time) and his mom made me customized low-fat dinners the entire time. I got away with eating (mostly) great food without any attacks! Yippee! Addie LOVED their birds and her favorite Christmas present was her dog spoon. I'm looking forward to next year when she'll understand what's going on. And think! It will be the first time that there will be cousins to play with!

Well, we're home safe and sound. Jason goes back to school on Monday, so we've just been enjoying hanging out together this week. We've played a lot of Monopoly and Rummy, and I've introduced him to the wonderful world of Drew Carey on The Price is Right (I LOVE IT!). It's been great to hear the updates!

Oh yeah, as a side note, I've lost over 10 pounds since Thanksgiving. There is something good to be said about gall stones afterall! I'm finally at my pre-pregnancy weight! Hurrah!

You Tube link

Here is the link to the 2007 Hutchinson Christmas Puppet Show. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUKkgGx9ibQ

We really enjoyed it! Harvey's guest appearance was a great touch!

2007 Hutchinson Family Christmas pageant

I was finally able to upload the Hutchinson Family Christmas pageant video to YouTube. The name of the video is something like 2007 Hutchinson Family Christmas pageant; I don't remember the exact name I used and I don't know how to add a link to it in the blog. If anyone can add the link to the blog, please feel free to do so. I don't suspect many outside our family will enjoy it as much as we do so I won't be disappointed to see any negative reviews from people who might inadvertently watch it. It is fun to know that we have now made the national stage, however.

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and will enjoy a very Happy New Year.

Christmas 2007

Well, Christmas 2007 has now come and it is almost over. Hillary, Charlie and their family and Kurt, Heather and Harvey joined us for the Christmas celebration. So that the two who are not with us, I video taped the Christmas pageant on my camera so that I could add it to the blog and Jana, Jason, Kari and Eric could feel like they were here with us. We enjoyed opening our presents and although we knew what some were, everyone surprised us with a gift or two. Jim wore his gift, a nice topcoat, to Church on Sunday so it wasn't a surprise to him (he helped pick it out so it truly wasn't a surprise). He is had to wear it down to Lauren's house to show it off. He looks very snappy in it. We hope that all of you have had a wonderful Christmas and will have a very Happy New Year. We look forward to having everyone here with us next year.

Love you all.

2 Sundays and 2 cars in a row

We had bad weather for the 2nd Sunday in a row. Today it was wind instead of snow. It didn't affect church, but our power was out for nine hours. Luckily we could go to church were they had heat and working bathrooms.

Jim was in a second accident on Tuesday morning. A man in a truck pulled out in front of him and Jim swerved into a snow bank to miss him. He messed up the driver's side of Dad's car. It is drivable, but will need some body work done on it.

They say things come in threes, but I'm not letting Jim drive my car! I hope you all have a Merry Christmas.

The Last 2 Weeks

Golly, things have been happening like crazy mad! Last week was my birthday, and Eric and I and another couple went to the Christmas concert with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Their special guest this year was the King Singer's. IT WAS AMAZING!

We had a really good time. Then, Jana and Addie came on Monday night and I got to hang out with them all day Tuesday. It was fun and Addie is super cute. We went to the Salt Lake temple, then headed down to Provo to see Jana's friends down there and also the payroll office. Then we headed up to Kaysville to drop her off at Grandma's. It was a pretty full day-and I was awfully tired, but we had a great time! Then, yesterday, Eric and I went to the Hogle Zoo with his nieces and nephew. We had an excellent time and here are some pictures from the zoo lights. It was pretty spectacular!

These next two pictures were taken through these special glasses that Eric's neices got. They made all the lights look like snowmen. We wanted to see if you could tell if we took a picture-and we think they turned out pretty darn cool.

And here is the illusive white alligator. I know that Jana, Mom, Dad and Jimmy have already seen one because we saw it at the Louisville Zoo-but it was under black light then. So, now it's in Utah and there was hardly anyone visiting him. How sad. But, now, for those of you who haven't seen a white alligator, here he is!

Lexi WON!

I forgot to post that Alexis won her bid for treasurer. She found out on Monday. I know I'm a bit late in notifying you. She's very excited. I hope this helps her self esteem and social life. Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers.

I've created a MONSTER of a tradition!

So when Alexis was in 2nd grade and Merrit was in kindergarten I started making their classes treats at Christmas and cupcakes for their birthdays. Ever since then they expect to have these things at these times. Well the treats I made were white chocolate covered pretzel rods that look like snowmen. It was fine when I only had to make them for 2 classes, but this year I had the great pleasure of doing them for 4 classes! I took about 5 1/2 hours yesterday and made 100 snowmen. I feel it's quite an accomplishment and am glad that Lexi will be going into middle school so I won't have to make for her any more. Here is what they look like:

I couldn't find any pretzel rods so I had to use pretzel logs instead. They aren't as cute when they are this short, but what are you going to do? I only had a couple with their scarfs on when I took the pictures. But eventually all had scarfs too. The kids got to pass them out today. They were so excited.

Snow day at Church

It began to snow last night about 9:00 PM and didn't stop until about 3:00 PM this afternoon. Because there was so much snow and the roads were pretty bad our Church meetings were canceled and we spent the day doing some things together, in addition to watching one full telecast of the Music and the Spoken Word and one partial telecast. We also played Monopoly (I won't say who won -- Mom says like I'm humble or something). We took a few pictures out the back window to show how much snow we received.




Mom also completed crocheting another creche that we are now placing under the Christmas tree. It is pretty cool -- I'll add a picture of it; I'm sure you will be impressed.



Love to all!!

More ELF Action

We thought we would get in on the action. The black picture is an ultrasound picture of Noah. He is actually looking at the camera. Who knew our baby could dance so well? Click Here

O.K., I felt left out too

We didn't have an eighth person so I just added a happy face to look at.
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1439028703

Alexis felt left out of the last clip

http://www.scroogeyourself.com/?id=1438905786

Sorry, Jason, I just had to do one of my own

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1438646604

Our Christmas Day

We celebrated Christmas today as a family. It was fun because we didn't tell the kids we were going to do that. Charlie and I got all the presents wrapped lastnight and put them out so when the kids got up they could see them. They were so surprised and excited. We only got a few presents per child this year because we decided to invest in a Wii. The kids were pretty excited about that. For the most part, they loved their gifts. Only a few of the gifts we got them had low reviews from them. It was fun to be able to have our own little Christmas as a family before we head back to Michigan to have Christmas with the rest of our family. Can't wait to see everyone.

Christmas Jig

Here is our family dance for your enjoyment. Cross-eyed Joe is our adopted son.

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1406741031

Student council debate

Alexis will be debating tomorrow, at her school, to be elected as treasurer of the school's student council. She is up against two other kids, all fifth graders. She's really excited about it and we all hope she wins. I plan on going to the debate tomorrow to give her some family support. She won't find out if she wins until Monday. We hope you can keep your thoughts with her.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KARI !!!!!!

One less vehicle

Jim spun out on some black ice yesterday morning on his way to seminary. He hit a mailbox that was on a tree stump and bent the frame of the truck. We're down to two cars for a while. The truck can't be fixed, once the frame is bent, it's over. That's the way life goes.

The Annie Hair

My Mom was always giving me a home perm. You'll notice most of the pictures of me look like this. Now you know why I never gave any of you a home perm!

We put an offer on the house this afternoon. Now we just wait to see how the sellers respond. I'll let you know. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

Snow Day!

We had an ice storm come through last night. It was bad enough to cancel school for the day. They didn't call it until late though so Charlie had already gone in to work. He didn't mind though. It allowed him to get some grades put into the computer. He has a doctor's appointment tomorrow and will have a sub for the day. Going in this morning helped him prepare for that too. It looks like he has a broken finger. It happened at wrestling practice. He went to a family doctor who has sent him to an orthopedic doctor. That is the appointment tomorrow. He is suppose to be able to confirm if it's actually broken. He's had the injury for about 3 weeks now. He thought it was just dislocated, but it hasn't gotten any better, in fact it's still pretty swollen and painful. We have decided to make an offer on that house today. I haven't called out realtor to make the appointment yet though. We had tentatively set it up for 6 pm but now that we don't have school, we might be able to do it earlier. I'll let you know how it goes. I've also posted some pictures from our second significant snow storm. It happened last week. If you can tell from the pictures, the snow was up to Jaxson's mid-thigh. It was pretty deep, but they didn't call off school. I have a feeling it takes a huge storm for them to school around here.

Check out the speeded up version of Jana's link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghs0nNF1YZ4

gall bladder update

Ok, I'm updating to say that there really isn't anything to update about. I had an appointment with a surgeon scheduled for last Thursday, but I cancelled it. I haven't had any attacks since Thanksgiving (thankfully!) and am doing well at sticking to my diet. I've found that I can eat tomatoes and be fine, so that has broadened my choices considerably. I'm still staying away from all fatty foods (including cheese, which has been the most difficult) and red meat. Besides that, there isn't much I won't eat as long as it is in small quantities. (We really splurged this weekend and I had guacamole, one of my all-time favorites.) And hey, I've been noticing that my pants aren't as tight--it's been great! So, yeah, we're kind of waiting until we get our tax returns back to see where we are financially. I'm thinking that the perfect time to have surgery would be during Jason's spring break at the end of February, so I'll do more about it in January.

Oh yeah, and the countdown has begun. I'll be flying out to Utah in just eight days...this season has flown by so far!

Something to check off the list

Today Eric proved his trust of me by letting me cut his hair for the first time. He says that I did a good job. I must say that it looks blended, but I did make a few mistakes. What a milestone! I am pretty proud. Also, yesterday we went to a concert at the conference center. The great things about concerts there is that they are free-you just need to request tickets. The concert was the Bell Choir on Temple Square. It was handbells like below, they even had huge ones like the second picture-they have 7 octaves of bells. It was really awesome and, yes Kurt, they played Carol of the Bells...it was amazing!

This next week we get to go to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert. Their special guest is the King Singer's-they are a Britsh acapella group that is really famous. AND it's on my birthday! It's going to be AWESOME! I love Christmas time! I'm going to miss Christmas in Salt Lake because there are so many things to do and most of them are free or really cheap. Enjoy the season! Only 16 days until Christmas!

The newest house on our list

http://public.mlswis.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi?20071207043635923222000000&id=2
Check out the house we saw today. Follow this link and it's the very first house in the list. We really like it and are seriously thinking about making an offer. Let me know what you think.

The Mysterious Ticking Noise

You have GOT to watch this hilarious Harry Potter video on You Tube. Turn up the sound!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx1XIm6q4r4

New creche

Don't have much time to write but just thought I'd add the new creche Mom bought at Bronner's over Thanksgiving while Jana and Jason were here and Jason needed a little time to study. This one makes forty-one that she has made, bought or acquired. She is just completing her forty-second, which is crocheted. We'll add a picture of it as soon as it is complete. Love you all.

Even more snow!

Well we got about 3 more inches last night. I swear I have never lived in this much snow before. I asked a guy from our ward lastnight if this is typical for this area. He said no, not really. I was so relieved because I'm not sure I could survive several years of living through winters like this one. I only hope that the whole winter isn't like this past week has been.

I dumped our realtor a couple days ago. A lady from church hooked us up with an old family friend who is a realtor. He is showing us a house tomorrow. I'm not overly impressed with his service yet, so we'll see how tomorrow goes. I'm kind of excited to see this house. It is literally just up the road from Charlie's school. You can see it from the front porch and it has a quarter of an ache of land with 3, potentially 4, bedrooms. I just hope it's in good condition.

I also sent a letter to the realty agency who I am fighting with to get that money back from. In the letter, I informed them that I have three other witnesses besides myself who saw that the water had not been turned on by the plumber. I told them if they didn't refund my money that I would go to the Better Business Bureau, file a formal complaint with the realtor's association they belong to and take legal action. I gave them until Tuesday next week to respond. I hope they just refund the money without my having to do anything else. This is really just annoying to me. I can't believe that $175 is such a big deal to them, it is to me, but why would it be for a business who deals with thousands of dollars a day?

Lexi has been facing some bullying issues at school. It's been going on for about a month now. She's trying to be a real trooper about it, but I can tell it's starting to wear on her. I'm going to have Charlie give her a father's blessing, but if you guys could send some prayers her way I think it would help. At first there were only a couple kids making fun of her having a big foreheard. However, this week, someone wrote some bad things about her on the stalls in a bathroom. They called her a B.... and a Mother F..... She doesn't understand why and feels bad. The principal is involved, but they don't know who did it so really don't have anyone they can punish. They spoke with Lexi's class as a whole, hoping that whoever it is is in the class, and told them how inappropriate it was. But that's about all they can do. I will probably try to meet with the principal if any more happens. I don't want Lexi to start dreading going to school, and I don't want her to start to withdraw into herself. I'm going to try to get her, and all the kids, in a different, better school district next year. They are a neighboring district and have open enrollment. I'd have to transport the kids there, but that's not new to me. They only have limited space though so I'm hoping they have room for my kids, at least Lexi at the very least.

Walmart is Evil!

I've been telling you for years, and none of you would listen to me. Wal-mart puts the little store owners out of business, and now it's happened in South Lyon. The Lyon's Marketplace is closing it's doors this weekend. There was an article in the local paper about it, and this is what it says,
"Byron and Cami spent a lot of time trying to figure out a way to stay open, but in the end, the financial issues proved too much. Bryon cited Pfizer moving out of Ann Arbor, the opening of Buch's and a Super Wal-Mart as all contributers to the problem." And yet you continue to shop there. I just shake my head.

The Puppet Show

I love the traditional nativity puppet show that we do every year. It, along with the hanging advent calendar, is probably my favorite and most memorable Christmas tradition. Somewhere I got it in my head that we were supposed to be given our own puppets when we got married, but I still don't have any! Did I make this up, Mom, or did you say that at some point? Well, regardless, I would like to have my own set. Are they easy to make? Minimal sewing? I'd like to take on that project.

Oh, and for fun, here are some new cute pictures of Addie. Oh, and the one of me? I just didn't want you to forget what a large mouth I have.

Jimmy's Old!

I was talking to the lady I work with the other day and telling her when my younger brother was going to graduate from high school-in June 2008. And then it hit me, that's this coming June. Jimmy's a senior in high school! He's almost 18! He could vote in the presidential election! Does this shock anyone, or did that already sink in to everyone else? It was definitely a WOW moment for me, that's for sure. I guess that when you don't live close things like this creep up on you. I think that we should all send him something cool for his birthday-like we were there. Or in Kurt and Heather's case they really would be there. Or maybe we could all go in together to get him something nice-I don't really have any ideas, maybe someone else does. They grow up so fast :)

Our First Family Christmas Photo

We got our decorations out, or at least some of them, this past weekend. Harvey slept through most of the process, though Kurt toted him around in the baby-carrier so that he could be part of the action. We're gearing up into the holiday season. We have a couple of parties this weekend, then my aunt and uncle and their family will be in town with us next weekend for my cousins graduation. After that Harvey and I are heading North for festivities with my family. Kurt will come up for the weekend before Christmas and we'll be heading back down state Christmas morning for Hutchinson Christmas. It will be a whirlwind! I'm just glad Harvey is doing a little better job of sleeping. That should make life a lot easier.

More Snow!

We are in the middle of our second significant snow fall right now. It started at about 4 pm and now it's about 7 pm. Alexis was suppose to have an Activity Day activity tonight but on my way to take her there I slid a couple of times, one slide was pretty scary so I turned around and went home, much to her chagrin. The first snow fall was a slippery one too. The snow just seems to be pretty wet and heavy. Not what I was used to in Michigan. I just hope that not all snow falls here are like this. The streets are pretty slippery even with just about an inch or so of snow on them. I won't want to go anywhere whenever it snows. That won't be a good thing for me. I can't deny though, that it would be fun for school to be canceled tomorrow. It'd be nice to have Charlie home.

I dropped our realtor today. After much discussion, Charlie and I decided that we should try to use a realtor who is from Racine instead of the guy we were using who is based from the city just south of Racine. I don't like telling people bad news so it wasn't fun for me to tell him we were letting him go, especially because he is a really nice guy. Thank goodness he didn't try to talk me out of it or try to make me feel bad. He was pretty nice about it. Which kind of made it a little more sad for me. I'm glad I did it though and I look forward to working with our new realtor. He is a long time family friend of a family in our ward. The wife told me that she threatened him that he needs to get us a really good deal. I hope that pans out.

So I'm actually reading a book right now. I know, I know, it sounds weird, but it's true. It's a book that a good friend of mine recommended several years ago and I just now was able to put my hands on a copy of it. It's called The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman. I'm not quite finished with it yet, but I highly recommend it to one and all, especially those who are married. But you AND your spouse really should read it. Even if you don't think you need help in your marriage, it's still fun to read and try to figure out which love languages you and your spouse speak. I'm really enjoying it. I've discovered that I speak several different love languages, but Charlie primarily speaks the love language of physical touch with some types of quality time thrown in too. It would be cool if all my family could read it and then we could talk about it. I just checked it out of the library. You should too.

Festival of Trees

Here are some pictures from the Festival of Trees. This is a festival where people and companies decorate Christmas trees and people buy them at an auction and anything else that is thrown in with the tree. And all the proceeds go to Primary Children's Hospital for research and helping families pay for treatment. It's really awesome and you just wouldn't believe how many trees there are. People also make gingerbread houses, smaller trees, door decoration, etc. There is a lot to choose from and to see. We hope you enjoy the few pictures that we've put up.

New picture comment

Gotta love that new picture Jana chose. I wish my hair was still that light, although I'm glad I don't wear bangs anymore. Jana, that look on your face is kind of funny. You look disgusted with something. I wonder what it was?

Ten and a half years later

Dad's time in the stake presidency is over! He was released yesterday and he's given back all of the books and keys and everything. We had stake conference at Laural Manor in Livonia. I think most of you had a prom there at one time or another. It was all decorated for Christmas and when it was over we didn't have to put away the chairs or anything. We did have to pick up the paper though. It went really well. I think Kari might know the new stake president, but I don't think the rest of you will. He is Doctor Medley in the Plymouth Ward. He was just made the Bishop in the Plymouth Ward about 5 months ago, so he's pretty new to the church administration thing. He picked both of his counselors from Plymouth as well. Kris Christensen moved from 2nd counselor to 1st counselor and Bro. Brebberman is the 2nd counselor. It will be a change in our home life, although I think Dad will just spend the extra time at home studying instead of not having anything to do. Cindy Dunnigan and I had to bear our testimonies at the meeting. I was playing for the choir, so I felt like I was always jumping up and down, but I shouldn't have to be in that position again. We're going to go into obscurity in the ward and never be heard from again.