da Hairs

Some little updates:

Jason is applying to five residencies. He has to have his applications all finished by the end of this month. On the application we have to put them down in order of where we would prefer to go, and then they match the applicants with the sites. Last night he said they are in this order (but it still could change): 1) Tacoma, WA 2) Seattle, WA 3) Salem, VA 4&5) Memphis. He actually would prefer NOT to do the one year residency at all, but we're applying in case we can't find a job he likes. It's always good to keep your options open!

As for me, I've officially registered for a half-marathon on April 9th. 12 weeks to go! I currently can go 3 miles, and this Saturday we're supposed to do 4. It's kicking my butt, but I feel so good the mornings that I get up and do it. Jason and I are also back on our low-fat diet, trying to get back into shape. I feel so much better about myself as a person, wife and mother when I'm in good health and take time for myself. So...I hope I finish! My goal is just to complete the race, and then when I run with Hillary later in the summer, to finish it faster. That's all, I'm pretty sure I can do it.

Addie's thumb surgery is tentatively scheduled for the 27th. Did y'all read my blog about that? We're praying it goes well and that she isn't in too much pain in the following weeks. It will be bandaged for at least a week, but that isn't too bad.

Macie is learning words like crazy. She now can say mommy, daddy, Addie, brother, baby, shoes, juice, clock, and (of course!) more. She has such a funny little personality. Her and Addie have just started playing great together and it has been so helpful. They often will be back in their rooms for over an hour just laughing and playing. Yay for siblings!

Carson is getting pretty good at keeping his head up and he smiles a lot. He is also the gassiest baby and cries quite a bit because he's constantly tooting. (Is that the word you prefer, Mom?) Here is a recent conversation with Addie--

Me: Carson is crying because he's so gassy.

Addie: Baby Brother, stop being so sassy!

New calling

I got a new calling yesterday. I'm the relief society president again. The current president is moving this Thursday and so, in our ward, if there is a hole somewhere, a person is required to be moved from one calling to another to fill the hole which usually creates another hole and so on. We play "musical callings" in our ward quite a bit. I'm a little frustrated because I was only in primary for 7 months, but I will do what the Lord wants me to do. The last time I was president I was in the calling for about three years. I'm interested to see if I stay in the calling for that long again. It's the longest amount of time that I've ever been in a calling. Charlie is still the young men's president. We don't see that changing any time soon. So we have a pretty busy household still. Yeah for serving in the church.

Ma and Pa Hicks

Charlie and I have been invited to be a Ma and Pa on the Grand Blanc stake youth conference pioneer trek in June. We went to our first information meeting for it on Saturday. It will be a three day, two night gig. Charlie isn't excited because when he went as a youth he had a horrible experience. But I keep telling him not to complain because he was to one that was asked and he accepted. I'm excited to go, even though I don't really like to camp. It will be Lexi's first youth conference and I'm glad that I'll get to be a part of it. We are going to some boy scout camp ground in Alger, Mi. We won't be using tents, just tarps and rope. The stake has asked us to start to prepare physically and spiritually for the trip now. There is going to be a kick-off fireside at the end of the month so the youth can be warned to start physically preparing as well. I know that many of our youth will have a hard time with the physical strain of this trip, so I pray they will take heed of the advice to start exercising. I can be this as being a real edifying experience for several of our youth. I only hope they will allow it to be. I'm glad that I'm already training for a half marathon. Thanks, again, Jana for asking me to do that. It will help me on the trek so much, I'm sure.

Miss America 2011

Kristi had a Miss America party on Saturday while the Miss America Pageant was on. It was really fun. We had to choose a state to represent and then come in a costume that represents that state, in formal wear or in a swim suit. Then once at the party, you couldn't eat anything until your state was eliminated from the competition. I chose Wisconsin because I thought Michigan would be highly sought after. I wanted to make a cheese hat and put together a costume, but I ran out of time. I just happen to have a bunch of formal wear dresses that I've kept for the young women for when they want to have a fashion show. One of them fits me, so I wore that. I tried to do my hair. I didn't have as much time as I would've liked so I don't like the way it turned out. Hannah told me it looked like a mullet and Charlie agreed, but all the girls at the party voted me as having the best hair. I was pretty excited. Hannah went as Miss Louisiana and dressed up for Mardi Grauw (sp) and Kristi was Miss New York. My favorite costume was Miss Kentucky. She wore a formal dress, but stuffed her stomach to look pregnant and told everyone that she was pregnant by her brother. She drew tatoos on her arms and the one arm had the name of a boy crossed off with another name of a boy underneath crossed off, etc. with several names written. She made her sash out of toilet paper that she held together with electric tape. It was pretty funny. I had fun and was glad to be invited. The lady from the party who went the farthest was Miss Hawaii. She got third overall in the pageant. She received a tiara and rose and did the walk.

An idea for the summer

I had an idea this morning and I thought I will run it by all of you. How about we hold our own William Hutchinson reunion this summer and go camping somewhere in Michigan. It would only be for 2 or 3 days and I think it would be fun for the kids to run around and get dirty together. I know Heather will be very pregnant by then, but that can be worked around. Dad doesn't want to camp, but I can work on him. With Jana moving and Eric in school it might be hard to find the time to do it, but if it doesn't work out, then it doesn't. Anyway, what do you all think?

Some baby news

We went to the doctor today to see if there's anything Heather can do to help with the bad headaches she's been getting every day. At the end of the appointment, the doctor said, "Let's listen to the baby's heartbeat." We got to hear it at our last appointment on the 7th, so we were excited to hear it again. But the doctor couldn't find it, after moving the Doppler microphone around for a minute or so. I was getting a little anxious, so I knew Heather was feeling ten times worse.

The doctor told us not to worry and went and got an ultrasound machine. Not only did we get to see the heart beating, the baby was kicking around! It was such a blessing to see. Harvey was in the room with us, and we told him for the first time that "Mommy has a baby in her tummy." He said, "And I'm going to be the brother!" He was excited and so cute.

Just wanted to share a bit of our joy.

My challenge

When Jana asked me to run a half marathon with her I laughed at her, at first, but have since decided that I will do it. I hate running, so this will be a challenge for me. I've been looking for the motivation to get back on the weight loss band wagon and I think this might be what I need. I've been training for 2 weeks now, but I don't know if you can count what I did in the first week. It wasn't much different than what I had been doing before. But this week, I've gotten more serious about things and have rode the exercise bike twice going about 14.5 miles/hour both days. I'm pretty proud of that. I hope to keep adding mileage at I go and hope to start running at some point. Wish me luck. I'm going to need it. Thanks, Jana, for the invite. This is going to be quite an adventure.

Something funny, a girl from church told me I should run in the Crim (which is a marathon that Flint hosts). I told her I couldn't because we needed to run in a race in June and the Crim is in August. My sister-in-law, Hannah, replied that I could do the race in June and then do the Crim too. I replied no way was that going to happen because once I run the first race I am never doing it again! So you could say this is going to be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me.

hanging in there

Things here are going well...we are surviving.  Lucy doesn't sleep more than 3 hours or so at a time so we are pretty much wasted all the time-my goal is to have decent looking hair everyday and Eric's is to not fall asleep in class.  This quarter is going to be a bear for him and he is already starting to feel the strain, we are just praying these next 2 months go quickly.  I had my 6 week appt. yesterday and got a clean bill of health and found out I'm 2 lbs under my pre-pregnancy weight-that was nice.  We aren't doing any special diet, just trying to make a shift in our lifestyle to healthier foods, smaller portions and just more conscience of what we eat...I guess it's doing something.

 Lucy is still sick with a cold that seems to last forever, but we feel like slowly but surely it is starting to dwindle.  She eats like it's going out of style and weighs 11 lbs now.  She doesn't seem to be the mellow baby I was hoping for, she is quite a diva-making sure you know she's there and needing your full attention if she's awake.  My mistake though, her name is the same as the Charlie Brown character-like on her shirt-who is very bossy.  I'm kind of glad she's feisty, she's going to need to hold her own against her big brother. 

Noah is almost three and he has the attitude to match...the twos were fine, but it seems like the threes are going to be stressful.  He is still really amazing with his sister and doesn't seem bothered by her presence.  He likes to lie down by her when we do tummy time or tell her everything is fine when she is crying.  We started potty training him the week after Christmas and we are half way there.  He will only poo in a diaper, but if he doesn't start doing that in the toilet by his birthday in 2 weeks, the diaper won't be an option anymore...I'm hoping by the middle of February we'll be all set.  He just seems so much older in underwear-I just can't believe how quickly it all has gone.

So fat so good, I guess.  I feel like we are in a good rhythm, even if we are dead tired, and are looking forward to when we can play outside again.  We hope all of your new years started off to a good start, and wanted to say again how wonderful it was to see everyone at Christmas.

Doing Well

We went to the doctor this morning and got to hear the baby's heartbeat. I am 11 weeks 5 days. We'll probably go back in a week or two for a double check since I lost the last baby at 11 weeks. So, there is still some hesitancy on my part but we seem to be out of the woods. I'm sure that the only way my anxiety will truly go away is to have this little one in my arms. We haven't told Harvey yet and I'm not sure when we will. I'm sure he'll be excited, though.

New Picture?

idea!!

Let's do a family half-marathon!

Ok, ok, this may sound crazy, but hear me out! I've been wanting to do a half-marathon for a long time. I was training for it when I got pregnant with Macie and, because of what they thought was a blood clot, I was told to stop running. Well, NOW IS THE TIME. Jason graduates May 20th and Hillary said school for Charlie is out June 18th. I've been looking and there are a few races in the spring and summer. That leaves us plenty of time to train. I thought it would be awesome to do it as a family! Some of them offer marathons, half-marathons, 10Ks (approx 6 miles) and 5Ks (3.1 miles). Some of them also allow walking. You could do any of the races offered for the race we choose, but it would be so cool if we all did it together!

What do you think? Before I put more effort into this, let me know if any of you are interested. I think this would be such an amazing thing to do together!

And Hillary, what is your address? It's not listed on the sheet I have.

Hicks Children Christmas Programs 2010

We have been fortunate to attend two different Christmas programs, which involved three of Hillary's children -- Merrit, Makayla, and Chelsea. Merrit played the trumpet and Makayla played the viola in their school's Christmas concert. Chelsea had one of the speaking parts in her school's Christmas play and also sang, with actions, all of the songs. I have uploaded all of the pictures from those events into snapfish and here is the link.

ttp://www5.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2926623025/a=1521596025_1521596025/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

One thing you might wonder, why are some of the pictures somewhat bizarre? I let Chelsea, Makayla, and Jaxson take some of the pictures at the Christmas concert. Chelsea's and Makayla's pictures turned out pretty good but Jaxson was more into the abstract variety of pictures. I think they all enjoyed exploring that aspect of their talents.

Needless to say, both events were very enjoyable and it is nice to see Hillary's children sharing their musical talents with others.

Family Pictures -- Christmas 2010

I have finally had time to upload the family pictures onto snapfish and will post the link in this blog. We sure had a nice time with all of you here over the last few days. Since we seem to experience our share of illnesses at Christmas time (maybe because of the winter, etc.), maybe we ought to plan these types of gatherings in the late (or early summer) when school will not interfere (just a thought).

http://www5.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2915840025/a=1521596025_1521596025/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

We hope that you all will have a most enjoyable Christmas and a very pleasant New Year.

We love you all so much.

P.S. Kari -- Will you please send this link to the Petersons? Thanks.

Chelsea's play

Chelsea did really well tonight in her play. She said her part well and sung all the songs well. We are so proud of her. She a fun kid. Thanks Mom and Dad for coming to support her.

Dad, could you post the pictures you took of Makayla and Merrit at their band concert?

This is Makayla and Merrit in one of the parts of the program that we had for our ward Christmas dinner. This part was about the symbols of Christmas and Makayla was the candle and Merrit was the evergreen tree. Makayla also played a caroler in a small play and Alexis and I had parts in the 12 Days of Christmas song. Lexi was the three french hens and I was the eight maids a milking. The dinner turned out great and everyone did pretty well with their parts. I think it was a good mixture of fun and spiritual.

Another snow day!

Yeah! We have another snow day today too! The roads are covered in ice and it's too cold for the salt to work so the kids and Charlie have another day off. I had to go to class lastnight. It was my last one for the semester. I had a group presentation to do, otherwise I probably would've skipped because I hate driving on ice and snow. We did well, though, I think. One of our group didn't make it because he was stuck in a ditch. He was O.K., but it made things a bit interesting for me and the other guy in my group. I'm just glad to be finished now for a few weeks. Yeah!

Kendall's new address

I just posted a comment to Jana's post requesting pictures but realized it may not be read by everyone. Kendall's new email address is:

khutchinson@assistcornerstone.com

Any mail sent to his old address will not be received by him.

Thanks.

No School

So all schools in our area have closed (except Flint) and our kids are pretty excited (Charlie and I are too). We love snow days at our house. The storm is pretty bad and not over yet. I'm glad they canceled school. It wasn't fun to drive in to get to church or get home from church either. I prefer to stay nice and warm when it gets nasty outside, and now I get to. Yeah!

request

Mom mentioned that their digital picture frame is getting rather out of date. They'd like some new pictures from all of us, sent either to Dad or Kurt, so they can load them. Kurt, I hope that's ok, she said you were the one who did it before.

ALSO, Grandma and Grandpa would like new pictures for their frame. These can be sent to either Kendall (kendall_hutchinson@adp.com) or Trish (plhutch@juno.com). Dad, correct me if those are their old email addresses.

I love this picture. Haha.

I'm going to try and post pictures from past Christmases (is that how you'd spell it?) every day until we leave. Check back often to see who is featured!

Look at small baby Harvey! Adorable!

your wish is granted.

Someone needs to post something, so I will

I'm super busy this week finishing up my classes, and getting ready for the primary Christmas activity and the ward Christmas dinner. I can't wait for this week to be over. Talk about prioritizing. This week has given me some great practice. Makayla and Merrit have their first concert tonight playing their instruments. It will be fun to see how far they've come. I'll post pictures later.

Can't wait to see everyone in a couple of weeks, not even now. I love family-get-togethers. Thanks Mom and Dad for having so many kids. I know I didn't always appreciate it, but I sure do now! Our big family is so fun now.
One minor request, Jana, do you think you could change the background? Thanks!

she is beautiful

Lucy Mae was born at 10:17 this morning. 7lbs 9oz, 20 inches long.  Noah is loving her and so are we.  See you all in about 2 1/2 weeks!!

Four down and none to go!

I can't believe it, my final test results were posted tonight; I PASSED! I am now officially a CPA (well at least as far as the school and testing goes). I still need actual experience as an auditor, either with an accounting firm or the IRS, to be a licensed CPA but the hard part (school and tests) is complete.

Thanks again for all your patience and support.

Love you all!

Baby Carson

Thought ya'll would like to see a picture of the little guy...we'll get more pictures up shortly! More details on our other blog...

Three down and one to go

Just a quick post to let you know that I found out late last night that I passed the third test in the CPA series of tests. Three down and one to go! I should hear next week whether or not I passed the fourth test. I'll let you know as soon as I hear anything.

Thanks again for all you support.

Jana's baby

In case you haven't heard, Jana's baby is about to greet the world. She called me about an hour and a half ago to tell me she is on the way to the hospital. I'm sure we will all hear once the blessed event happens.

i forgot to say

I talked to Mom on Friday and while doing so realized that I hadn't told her when I was having this baby which means, besides maybe Jana, no one else knows either.  The day is set for Wednesday December 1.  So 2 1/2 more weeks to go unless she decides to come early which is highly unlikely.  We are super excited to see you all in like 5 weeks-Noah has been asking almost everyday if he can play marbles with Grandpa and he has been "calling" Harvey on his phone and having quite lengthy conversations with him.  So there you go.

Eric took this tonight...on Tuesday I will be 37 weeks.  Sheesh!

Our busy weekend

Yesterday we raked leaves. All seven of us raked for about 5 hours and we raked up most of the leaves in our yard, but not all. It was very tiring, but the kids got to enjoy the massive pile we built when we called it quits for the day. They had fun, and they deserved that. They worked hard (most of the time).

Today was our primary sacrament program. It went really well. I was so nervous about it, but the spirit really filled in and helped the kids. Thanks Mom and Dad for coming to watch. I know it meant a lot to the kids. I'm so glad that is over with. Now we just have to prepare one song for Christmas and it's going to be "Away in a Manger." I'm glad about that because they know the words already. We are going to teach them one of the old versions from the old orange primary song book. It should be fun.

presents!

Jason and I were trying to get a little Christmas shopping done this weekend and it was more difficult to come up with ideas for cousin presents than I thought it would be...esp with our limited budget. (Did we agree to cap the presents at $5 or $10?) Anyhow, I thought maybe whoever has our kids might like a few easy ideas. If you don't use them, great. If you do, great.


Addie- princess dress-up shoes, any kid-friendly craft thing, hair bows/headbands


Macie- toy cell phone, baby doll, slippers (she LOVES shoes)


Baby Hair- football?? haha, I don't have any idea


I hope that helps. And, just so you know, Addie has Harvey and she really likes to pick out presents. I will try to steer her a certain direction, but if Harvey ends up with something totally obscure, I hope that's ok. (She chose a squishy black lizard for one of her friend's birthday presents. It was pretty funny.)

I hope y'all are enjoying your weekend!

No more diapers for Harvey!

Most of you know that we started potty training Harvey last Friday. I'm delighted to report that he's doing very well! Heather did the "Toilet Training in Less Than a Day" method, which Jana said worked well for Addie. He was not completely trained that day, but he made good progress by being able to pee when he sat on the toilet, something he hadn't be able to figure out before then. He's had several accidents since, but after stressing too much about it, we realized that obviously that's just part of the process and not to worry about it.

When he was home with Heather on Tuesday, on two occasions he even realized he needed to go to the bathroom without being asked. Other than that, we are still prompting him to go at certain times, like when he wakes up in the morning or from a nap, and before dinner and bed. He's doing great, and can do it all himself, although with a little help during hand-washing. He's only pooped three times since Friday, and two of those were in the toilet, so that seems to be going well too.

He loves being a big boy and wearing underpants, and we love not changing diapers. Hurray for new found independence!

It's All Done!

Here are some pictures of the kitchen. They finished it today. The flooring guys have to come back and put a reducer between the kitchen and the hall, but that is the only thing left to do.


I know the appliances don't match, but that was extra money we didn't want to spend.
I'm just glad that it's done. Yea.

for Mom

Mom, here are my girls in their Sunday dresses today. Recognize them? They've worn them before but never on the same day. Several people made my laugh by asking if I had made them! :) And even though you made these dresses a long time ago, you received many *new* compliments on your handiwork! Sorry the pictures aren't better, they wouldn't hold still for us and we forgot to turn on the flash. They sure look cute, though!

Halloween pictures

So Alexis was "autumn", Merrit and Jaxson were ninjas, Makayla was a wind fairy and Chelsea was a midnight fairy. We had lots of fun, but I'm glad it's over now.

lies lies lies!

How do you teach a three year old the difference between telling the truth and telling a lie? It's been a frustrating problem.

House update

Here is how the niche looks with the granite in it (and me too).


Here are the two colors in the kitchen. You'll notice that we put granite on the half wall too. The upper cabinets are supposed to be here this Thursday and hopefully will be installed on Friday. Then the back splash will be done on Monday. They still have to install the new front door too, then the renovations will be finished. I'm so ready to move back upstairs.

great pictures

I stumbled across these today and laughed out loud, esp when I saw Hillary. Thought I should remind you how cool we all are! The second one is saved on my computer as "We Hate School."

Maybe we could do a repeat after the baby blessings? Right there on the floor of the gym? :)

discussion

I love the holiday season! I love Halloween (what are your kids all being?) and Thanksgiving (esp. this year because I don't have to make a thing!) and Christmas. Yay! I love having our house smell like cinnamon.

So...Kari and I spoke yesterday and I guess I should clarify what I was hoping to do on our "family day" over Christmas. Here it is...NOTHING. I just wanted to hang around, play a bunch of board games, maybe really do a craft this year?, eat some good food, and enjoy seeing you all. I know we'll be spending time Sunday after church together (is that when we want to do the gift exchange/white elephants?) but because Mom and Dad have late church, I figured we wouldn't all get to be together for long. I simply wanted one more day to all spend together. Kari and I discussed Wed. as being optimal as her in-laws will be gone by then, if that works for everyone. And because we'll just be at the house, if you can only take off the afternoon from work, that would probably work too. I was just hoping for one "whatever" type of day.

Jason and I won't be getting in until Saturday (we're not sure if it will be morning or night, depends on if we feel up to driving through the night) so I hope "family day" will work out. If not, I'm sure we'll still be able to see everyone. We will be leaving on Thursday.

And is everyone ok with wearing white/black/red to church on Sunday for pictures?

Summer 2010 Pictures

Here's the post you've all been waiting for! Our summer in pictures. I ended up just putting them all in one slideshow, because some of the "events" were only two or three pictures and I didn't feel needed their own. Remember you can make the slideshow full screen by clicking the little box with arrows that appears in the corner after you start the slideshow. Enjoy!



I'll put up another post with pictures from Harvey's birthday soon.

Christmas List

Hillary and I picked names for Christmas at Harvey's party last night (Kurt swears he'll post pictures soon). Here's the list. Person on the left is the giver, person on the right is receiver.

Alexis - Addie
Merrit - Macie
Makayla - Chelsea
Chelsea - Baby Peterson
Jaxson - Merrit
Harvey - Noah
Addie - Harvey
Macie - Jaxson
Baby Hair - Alexis
Noah - Baby Hair
Baby Peterson - Makayla

Does this work for everyone? Hillary insisted on her kids picking their siblings' names if they were drawn. We did draw the line at them picking their own names.

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?