family monsters

Noah has started drawing things that really resemble other things-it is really fun to watch his imagination.  He started drawing monsters on Sunday, but now he says they are people he knows although they are pretty much the same drawings as the monsters.  He draws almost everyone in the family, but the ones he draws the most are Kurt, Heather, Grandma, Grandpa, Jim, Eric and me, and himself.  Today he drew these three treasures.  He told me the names before he drew them, so this is his interpretation of what you look like.  And don't feel bad, we pretty much all look the same in his eyes.

yummy fall recipe

We had this delicious soup for dinner last night. The hardest part is cutting up the butternut squash (does anyone have a trick that I don't know of?). Very creamy and very fallish and very very very good.

YUMMY BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP

6 tbsp chopped onion
4 tbsp margarine
6 cups peeled and cubed butternut squash
3 cups water
4 cubes chicken bouillon (or 4 tsp)
1/2 tsp dried marjoram
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/8 tsp ground cayenne pepper
1 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese (we used low-fat)

1. In a large saucepan, saute onions in margarine until tender.

2. Add squash, water, bouillon, marjoram, black pepper and cayenne pepper. Bring to boil; cook 20 minutes or until squash is tender.

3. Puree squash, broth, and cream cheese in a blender or food processor in batches until smooth. Return to saucepan and heat through. Do not allow to boil.

Baby goats pictures

Here are the baby goats.

Halloween party pictures

Here are pictures from the Halloween party.

Family pictures

I'm trying a new slide show. I hope it works.
Follow this LINK.

Fillin' Ya'll in

So I have some news to catch up on...
All the girls got hair cuts a couple of weeks ago. We all went shorter, some more short than others as you will see in the photos. The photos are our most recent family pictures. We had Charlie's sister, Hannah, come take them for us at a local park on yesterday morning. It was an absolutely beautiful day. I'm so glad we decided to take the pictures on that day. I just wish the kids had been glad too. Our sons gave us the most grief. I was hoping that because the kids were older that it wouldn't have been so bad, but I was wrong. They acted like we were torturing them. I can't say that I was too excited when we were finished. But I'm glad we did it. I think we have a few good pictures out of the ordeal.

Charlie received a new calling last Sunday. He is the young men's president again. Our good friend, Dan Bachmeier, took his place in the bishopric. They other counselor was replaced also. It was about time for him since he'd been in for over eight years. Although Charlie will still be pretty busy, I'm glad he has a change and now I get to sit by him in church again.

We have new baby goats. Two of them came on Thursday night and the last one came on yesterday morning. They are all girls. We were hoping for all boys. Oh well. You get what you get. The first two are doing really well. The last one isn't doing so good. She doesn't want to seem to eat. We've spent the day today trying to force feed her. It's been so fun, not. I really hope she catches on soon otherwise we may lose her. We decided to name them girl names, beginning with the letter of the alphabet their birth order dictates. So the first one in Annie, and the last one is Candy. I haven't decided on a "B" name for the second one yet. I kind of like Barbie or Bambi or Beauty. Any suggestions? I don't have pictures of the kids yet. Every time I think about it they are sleeping. I'd like to get pictures of them standing so you can see them better so I'm waiting.

We had our annual Halloween party on Friday night. We had the most people their than we have had any other year. It was lots of fun. Jim actually came with Cameron. We were sad that Kurt and Heather couldn't make it, but totally understand not wanting to come with a migraine, Heather.

Makayla has begun playing the viola and Merrit is playing the trumpet. They are pretty excited about it and I'm glad they are wanting to try new things. I just hope they stick with it since the instruments aren't that cheap.

Charlie interviewed for an assistant principalship at Beecher last week. He hasn't heard if they have offered the job to anyone yet, but we are pretty sure he isn't going to get it. Out of all those interviewed, he was the only one without his masters yet. Plus, his current principal was running the interviews and the next day the principal told Charlie he was dissappointed in the way Charlie has answered questions and that he didn't correlate all of his leadership positions in the church with being a principal. He told Charlie he wanted to help him fix it so he would do better in his future interviews. Although Charlie wasn't happy that his principal was disappointed in him, we both feel that this was a great learning experience for him and hope that it will help him get a job more easily in the future.

And, so, it's late and I really don't want to take the time to download all the pictures right now, so I'll try to do that tomorrow. So, stay tuned...

gardens and flu

So...this weekend I came down with the stomach flu. Ick. Good thing it was on Saturday so Jason was home to take care of the kids. I couldn't keep anything down, even water, and was feeling very very weak. Today I feel better, but am still pretty weak. Making dinner tonight completely wore me out! Hopefully I'll feel normal by tomorrow. Sick moms are the worst, but I'm happy I was the only one sick!

On Friday I took the girls with my neighbor to the Botanic Gardens. The pictures are from that fun, little excursion. Unfortunately you're not allowed to buy fish food once the water gets down to a certain temperature, something about the food and the cold water making a bad chemical reaction (maybe Heather understands?) because that was really the reason for the trip. Oh well, the kiddos had fun and the adults got to talk!

Teaser Pictures

The kitchen is all torn out and partly tiled.
This is the new color of what used to be the yellow room (you are looking into the closet).
This is the living room looking into the hall. These are just a little glimpse of what is going on in the house. I thought you might be interested. Thanks to Kurt, Charlie and Hillary for their help in tearing out the kitchen. We couldn't have done it without you. By-the-way Kurt, where is the blog about your summer activities?

new family pictures

Yesterday we took family pictures...I look pretty awful in almost all of them because I'm enormous, but I thought you'd like to look at them.  My friend just gave me the raw pictures and last night I spent a few hours photoshopping them and I must say it was a blast.  Here's the link for the Snapfish album, but here's a few to just look at.

Cholinergic Urticaria

Kurt has plans to do a big picture post soon but I thought I'd put up a post in the mean time. I'm not sure if you've all seen them, but Harvey has had chronic hives this summer. They are big and scary and raised red welts on his skin though they don't seem to really bother him at all. We finally took him to the doctor yesterday and she told us he has Cholinergic Urticaria which is heat hives. She also thinks he might have pressure hives. Today, for the first time, Harvey told me his hives hurt and itched. I'm not 100% convinced he didn't just pick up from the doctor's visit that he should be telling us they itched but I gave him some Benedryl anyways and he didn't complain after that. It's crazy how many things there are out there that can affect your kids and how helpless you feel when they do. I feel physically ill when I touch Harvey when he has a fever. Motherhood is amazing and terrifying. Anyway, the doctor doesn't think it will be too much of an issue as long as he isn't uncomfortable. Now we just need to convince our day care lady not to send him home every time he has a break out.

So, that's my brief update. I'll leave the summer re-cap to Kurt. Also, for those in Michigan, Harvey's B-day Party is going to be October 23 at our house. It might be snug but I'm sure we'll have fun.

Sorry for the long absence in blogging. I can't get the pictures to load, so once it's working again, I'll put up some pictures. Here are some snippets from our life:


We love this house. LOVE. I wish we were going to be here longer to enjoy it. It's amazing how much a little more space can help a family's happiness.


I crimped Addie's hair for church this last Sunday. It's amazing my pink Vidal Sasoon crimper from 5th grade still works! Jason wasn't as sold on it as I was, but after her nap the poof was considerably less and he came around. Several people told me how much they liked it, and she loved it and kept looking in the mirror, so overall it was a success.


Jason scraped rust off of someone's cornea today. I'm so proud!


My belly seems much more heavy this pregnancy, and by the end of the day I have to be sitting down to function. I'm carrying this little guy lower than my girls. I've gained less weight overall and am excited about that, but between a sore stomach and ridiculously painful sciatic nerves, this has been my most uncomfortable pregnancy. I have it so easy, though, compared to many so I shouldn't complain. I'm finally looking forward to him coming. I want to see what a Jason/Jana boy looks like. Probably blond, blue-eyed, and skinny--like his big sisters.


Macie is walking fairly well, and communicating with several signs. She signs more, please and all done. She doesn't really say anything out loud, though. She used to say uh oh and I'm pretty sure she was attempting Addie the other day, but usually she just babbles--a lot.


Addie can't get enough of the swing in our backyard. Too bad the mosquitos can't get enough of her.

On Labor Day we went to the Delta Fair with some friends. While it was not worth the admission fee, we did have a good time and Jason and I came out with some pretty sweet looking sunburns. His forehead has started peeling. I guess we learned our lessons. At least we were responsible enough to lube up our children. We watched a demolition derby at the fair, and one of the cars kicked up HUGE clods of dirt...directly on my face! I had a huge clump of dirt stuck in my teeth! Some went down my shirt, stuck to my cheek and arm. Macie had some on her face, too, lucky for Jason he was holding her and blocked him! I couldn't stand the dirt in my teeth long enough to take a picture. One of the friends we were with was laughing so hard at me that he had to go behind the bleachers to calm down. It took three very full baby wipes to clean my face off, and I tasted dirt in my teeth for the rest of the day. It was pretty funny.

School back on for me

I have started classes again too. I have a class (BUS 211 Statistics) on Tues. and Thur. mornings from 9:30 am to 10:45 am and another class (ENG 338 Business Communication) on Mon. and Wed. from 5:30 pm to 6:45 pm. The last week of classes is the week of Dec. 13th. I'm glad to be back in classes and back to a routine again. I like having the summer off, but I prefer to have a routine to follow from day to day.

This morning I had to get up super early to take our whethers into the butcher. They only take animals on Tuesday mornings. They wanted me to bring them around 9 am, but I had a class I needed to get to, so I asked if I could bring them earlier. They thought it wouldn't be a problem. Usually they have so many big animals in their stock area that they want to wait to have smaller animals brought in later in the morning. They felt that there was enough room for our goats earlier today so agreed to allow me to bring them. Thank goodness, because I don't know of another time during the rest of this school semester that I would've been able to take them because of my class. Heavenly Father surely does bless us in little, but significant ways. We took them to a butcher in Caro. Also, when I called to set everything up, the woman I spoke to told me that she had had a man call asking for goat meat and that that hadn't had any. She gave me his number to see if he wanted to buy one of my goats to eat. I did call and he came to look at them yesterday. He agreed to buy one. So we were able to recoup some money. Again, another little but significant blessing. I know Heavenly Father loves me and watches over my family. So by Thursday we should have a lot more meat in our freezer.

First Day of School

Yeah, it's finally here. The first day of school. Even though the summer flew by and the kids really didn't have much time to be bored, I'm still glad to have them back in school so we can all get back into a routine. I function much better in a routine. Here are the kids on this, the first day back.

Lexi is in 8th grade and the top dog at her school.

Merrit is in 6th grade and the top dog of his school. He also has new glasses, which is what he is holding in the picture. He only needs to wear them to see the board with. I'll have to take a picture of him wearing them so everyone can see what they look like.

Chelsea in in 2nd grade. She's sad that her really good friend from last year is in the other 2nd grade class, but I'm sure she'll make more friends.

Makayla is in 4th grade and she also is sad that her friends from last year are in the other 4th grade classes. She said that she only has one friend from last year in her class this year. But she, too, will be able to make more new friends this year too.

Jaxson's first day isn't until tomorrow, so I'll post his picture tomorrow.

Travel log

O.K. so for the first of our long list of vacations this year we went to Palmyra and Niagara Falls. We left July 15th and came back the 18th. We got to go with our really good friends, the Bachmeiers. We had a blast. We went to Niagara first and stayed the night there. Charlie had stayed behind with hopes of interviewing with Swartz Creek on Friday. He never got a call so he drove to meet us on Thursday night. We left Friday morning and headed for Palmyra. We got there in the afternoon and went to the pageant that night. The hecklers were terrible and the kids became very offended. Thank goodness the pageant was spectacular. Saturday morning Charlie, Marie, Dan and I were able to do a session at the Palmyra temple. It is a beautiful temple and I'm glad I finally got to see the inside. While we were there, the kids swam at the hotel. They loved that. Afterwards, we did the Palmyra sites. We got up Sunday, went to church and drove home. Here are some pictures.


Here we are at the monument on the top of Hill Cumorah. Man, is that a climb, especially when it's hot!

Here we are at

the Homestead. It looks so different now from when I saw it as a little child.

After we got back from Palmyra, we had two days to ready ourselves for Nauvoo. We left Wednesday morning and drove down. We arrived that night at dinner time. That night we just hung out. Thursday we were able to do a session at the Nauvoo temple. What a beautiful temple! Lexi even was able to do some confirmations too. That night we hung out again and played some getting to know you games because many of us don't see each other on a regular basis. Friday was the day we had available to see the sites. It was pretty hot (heat index of 107 degrees) so we didn't do too much. We went to see the pageant that night. Thank goodness it cooled off when the sun went down. The pageant was good, but I like Palmyra better. Saturday morning we cleaned up the camp ground and most of us went home. Charlie and Merrit went home with Kurt and Heather (thanks again guys) because Merrit had scout camp on Monday. I took the rest of the kids and Harvey to my Kari's house. Then I drove home with Mom and Dad.

The kids wanted to see Carthage. We went there first thing in the morning so it wasn't too hot yet. We tried to see historic Nauvoo afterwards but it was pretty hot. We tried to stay in areas that were air conditioned.

This lady showed us how the people in Nauvoo made bread in the bussel oven. We even got to try some. It was pretty good. They make it fresh every day.

This man helped our kids make a rope. We even were able to keep a bit of it. Both of these pictures were taken inside the Family Living Center. It is air conditioned.

This is a picture of us listening to the Hutchinson children tell about childhood memories. I really enjoyed it. Most of what they talked about I didn't even know. It was fun to hear about the things they did when they were little.

Friday, we tried to do this oxen ride but it had been closed down early because it was so hot (I mean my sandals were melting to the road). So we had to go Saturday morning before it got too hot and before we left for the day.

So the week we got back, Merrit and Charlie were at scout camp. Merrit had a blast and was very busy. He completed 11 merit badges, the most of our troop. He earned the nickname Merrit Badge Hicks. After they got home Saturday, we had to prepare for Lexi and I to go to girls' camp. I didn't really have a good time and so I only have three pictures from the whole week (plus the stake took a bunch of pictures so I didn't bother carrying my camera around with me). I don't know that I want to go back to girls' camp again, unless the trouble makers don't go that is. I think it would've been really fun had they not been there. We got home from camp late on Aug. 06. We decided to go down to Charlie's parents' house to help them with their bathroom. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of this trip. We had a good time on this trip, but were super busy. Unfortunately, we didn't finish the work. We had to leave though because we were scheduled for our kids to show goats at the Genesee Co. Fair the next week and their inside exhibits had to be submitted by that Saturday, the 14th. We all know what happened with the fair. Although we were upset that our goats weren't allowed in, we weren't upset that we didn't have to be at the fair grounds. It actually allowed us some much needed free time. After that week, we decided to go back to Chuck and Fay's to try to finish the bathroom. We left right after church on the 22nd. We were able to finish some more, but not all of it. This trip was a little more fun though. Les and Kristi were there too. We were glad we chose to go again.
Here are the kids at Chuck and Fay's house the second time we went down.

They were creative with a cardboard box and used it to sled down the hill. They played with it for quite a while, until it feel/ was pulled apart.

This is all the kids waiting for the water balloon fight to begin. Grandma had a great idea to have the fight. It was fun lots of fun for all.



This is everyone being sprayed off. They were covered in cut grass. Les had fun spraying.

We left Chuck and Fay's on Wednesday morning and stopped at the COSI museum in Columbus, Oh on the way home. Here are some pictures of us having fun there. It's one of our favorite museums.



Here we are showing our nicely polished pennies. We were able to do several science experiments that day. It was so fun.

The museum has its own Gravitron carnival ride to show the power of centrifical force and inertia. It's one of our favorite exhibits.

I will post soon

I really do have some things to post about, I just haven't had the time to lately. I will have more time this up coming week, so stay tuned...

Two down and two to go

It's been a long time since I posted anything and I thought I should let you know I passed the financial reporting section of the CPA exam. I know I was very skeptical, and I am still in shock, but I actually passed. Now onto the next two -- two down and two to go.

Thanks so much for all your support; I really appreciate it.

Love you all!!

New Floor

We're in the process of preparing the house for the next remodeling project and one of the things we're planning to do is putting hardwood floors in the living room and the hall. There are already hardwood floors in the three bedrooms. Jim and I pulled the carpet out of the green room. Here is a picture of the floor under the carpet. We are excited about how good looking it is.

Hutchinson Reunion

Here are some pictures from the reunion. Thank you to all of you for helping me with the activities. Hillary and Kari for getting Karen's present, Kurt and Heather for all of the picture taking, Jana for making balloon animals and trying to get a game going, Jim for playing Graces with your cousins. I appreciate your help very much.

The color is..

PINK

Hicks' family reunion

Here are a few of the pictures I took at the Hicks' family reunion. It was lots of fun.

Little Joe, Charlie's cousin, got his dad and Chuck with a bucket of water. It was quite funny to watch.

Here are all the kids after their water balloon fight.

Here is the kids funny picture.

PJs, haircut, and the 4th

Mom sent Addie these PJs for her birthday and has been nagging me to post a picture of them. She loves them and calls them her Princess Pajamas. Here she is modeling them mid-twirl.

The next few are of her first ever haircut, done on her 3rd birthday this last Saturday. We all like it, although it is a bit crooked, but I can't blame the stylist because it was difficult to keep her sitting still!

She is looking so grown up!

Lastly, here is my cute family enjoying a suprisingly cool evening on the 4th of July. The fireworks were pretty impressive this year, and even though she's crying in this picture, Macie LOVED them!

I feel so blessed to live in this country. I am grateful to be able to worship as I choose. I am fortunate to feel safe and free to have opinions. I love my family and have such a happy life! I know these blessing are because of a loving and kind Heavenly Father, and I realize how fortunate I am to live in America. Happy *late* Independence Day! :)

Surprise dinner addition

Mom wanted to have pork chops today for the 4th of July (I don' think there is any significance related to it, however). I tried to think of a good side dish and I have wanted to make potatoes au gratin for awhile (they are like scalloped potatoes but with cheese added to the sauce) so I went forward with it. I began grating/slicing the potatoes, using the side of the grater like a mandolin; when I put the first layer of potatoes in the pan I heard a clinking sound. I looked through the potatoes and found the magnetic number 8 from our fridge. I mentioned it to Mom and she said that is one of Harvey's favorite things to do, drop the numbers and letters down through the grater, and he was here the other day. I thought nothing about it and went on with the preparations. As we were sitting eating the potatoes, Jim pulled something out of his mouth and said something like, "What is this doing in the potatoes?" It was the magnetic letter C. I never thought to stop and look for another interloper. The potatoes turned out decent but there are some things I will do differently if I make them again. Here's the recipe if anyone would care to try it.

Potatoes Au Gratin

3 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1 1/2 tsp salt (we thought they were too salty, maybe because I used salted butter, but I would cut it back to 1 tsp
1/8 tsp pepper (Mom bought white pepper awhile back and I used it)
3 cups milk
1 to 1 1/2 cups sharp Cheddar cheese
6-8 medium potatoes (pared or not) sliced thin (I did not pare mine, I never pare my potatoes but always leave the skin on for all my recipes)
2 tbsp chopped onion (I think it could have used more onions)

Make white sauce out of first 5 ingredients. Add Cheddar cheese to white sauce when it thickens and heat until thoroughly combined and melted.

Place half the potatoes in a greased 2 quart casserole dish (I used a 2 1/2 casserole dish and the 2 quart dish might be too small). Cover with the onions and half the sauce. Repeat layers. Place 2-3 pieces of bacon on top (I did not have any bacon and it turned out just fine.) Cover and bake at 350 degrees about 1 hour. Uncover and bake 30 minutes longer. Serves 4-6.

Grandma used to make au gratin potatoes and I loved them growing up. Enjoy!

Where Have All The Flowers Gone?

I spent the last three days digging out all of these kinds of flowers out of my flower beds. I filled four tall compost bags with them. Except for the daises, they all just showed up on their own and spread. I did buy a pot of the daises, but they also spread like crazy. Next year we'll see how many come back (the ones I didn't get all of their roots).