An A is not really an A, you just think it is!

The kids are so smart. They brought home reportcards this past week. Jacob has straight A's and nothing but! Ethan has only one B, in reading of course, and the rest are all A's. Kaylee was really disappointed with her grades. She brought home 3 B's, 4 A's. She was upset with the B's, but I pointed out to her that the B's were all honors classes AND she had a 93.4% in one of them, 93.2% in both of the others. (A 94%-100% is an A here. What craziness is this!?!).

Sucking Ducks, Stopping Hearts, Sky High Toes, and Chunky Monkeys!

Yeah, I know. I had you at the title, right??!! ;D So much has happened since I last posted that I don't even know where to start! Soooo.... let's start at the ducks, and work our way to the monkeys. Just like at the zoo. Zoo, Hutcherson house, they are pretty interchangeable anyway! Bryan went to log warrior... again... for a week. (army speak: "Log Warrior" translation: "camping in the woods and playing at being a soldier/cook, soldier/water boy, soldier/fueler, etc.") After he returned home, he decided that the family needed a special night out to reward the kids for being fairly good, and me for keeping them all alive! So we headed out to Jiang's. It is our all time fav, yum-o Chinese restaurant. We get there and we order our food. Our spring rolls come first and they are served with Chinese mustard and duck sauce. Silence descends on our little group as they (they being the kids... mostly!) inhale the spring rolls. Then the peace is broken by a "SSSLLLLLUUURRRPPP! AHH! SSSLLLLLUUURRRPPP! AHH!" Bryan and I look down the table and there is Jaden. He is sucking the duck sauce off his plate with his straw. Jaden looks at me like, "what mom? Licking my plate is bad manners, but this is duck sauce! I can't just waste it!" Sigh. Miss Manners would have a heart attack around my family. Speaking of heart attacks... had one this week. Really. All four of the big kids were in the family room. Two were playing a board game, one was watching TV, and Jaden was dancing around and just playing. I'm in the kitchen cutting up veggies for dinner, when I hear all 3 of the biggest kids start screeching. All I can make out of the noise is, "you're gonna kill him! You're gonna die!!" I'm thinking, oh crap Kaylee left her hermit crab out and Jaden has killed it. If only! I run into the family room in time to see Jaden strung up like a criminal in a hangman's noose! He had gotten up on the back of the couch next to Ethan and wrapped the cord from the mini blinds around his neck several times. Ethan, with out looking at him or seeing what he was up to, told Jaden to get down or mom was gonna yell at him for standing on the back of the couch. SO HE DID!! I grabbed him and unwound the cords, thankfully they weren't tangled, and held him tight. He was crying, I was crying, the other kids were crying. Scared Jaden more than hurt him, and he recovered pretty quick. He had a small rope burn all the way around his neck though. Hours later I almost dropped dinner on the floor because I was still shaking so bad. For the record: these mini blinds were supposed to be "safe". The little round things that gather up the cords don't work, obviously, when confronted by the wiles of a 4 year old, who is hell bent on sending his mother to an early grave! The cords have now all received their military hair cut, as in I chopped those suckers off all the way up at the top! Just hope no one needs to open the blinds anytime soon.
Speaking of tops... Kaylee is TOPS! On Friday night, she marched in her first ever half time show! She was so funny. She has fantastic toes! All of your band geeks out there know what I am talking about. Her toes were sky high when she roll stepped. I was so proud! Not to mention, she is in a euph line (euphonium, people, get with the terminology!) with about 5 other players. She's the youngest, only in 6th grade. The rest are 7th and 8th graders. She marched out there and hit her spot and stood at attention. All the euphs did good... for the first 5 seconds, then it looked like a free form marching band move. Kaylee standing perfectly still, at attention, feet together, head held high, statue still... surrounded by kids moving like you wouldn't believe. It was comically! And no, I am not just being partial! I am going to post the video on the blog as soon as I can figure out how... PROOF that my little girl is geek through and through!
Speaking of Geeks... well, more like CHeeks! Our little chunky monkey had his 6 month well baby check up on Wednesday. He is officially a weeble wobble. He is 26.33 inches long, 17lbs 10oz, and has "ham hocks" instead of thighs. He cannot roll himself over, but he can push up on to his hands, or his knees alternately, and he is sitting up unassisted. Like a weeble wobble. A fat weeble wobble. Just more to love, right baby?!

Hole-y couch, Batman!!!

Hutcherson 1: 1 "And then shall your couch cover be "hole-y" and not of good use. Woe, woe, woe be unto the four year old with scissors."
Hutcherson 1:2 "And your pillows shall be like unto it. And also the brothers stuffed animal, those shalt he also destroy and render useless."

I'm afraid that this doesn't need any explanation. And yes, it is as bad as you are thinking!!

Survival. Nothing more, nothing less.

1 week down. 35 more to go! Yay! We all survived the first day of school. Its shaping up to be a really great year. Jacob has "a BOY teacher!!! How cool is THAT?". Mr. Kooiker seems to be an amazing teacher. The kids all call him Mr. K as his name is hard to remember (think fancy oriental goldfish + ick! + errrrr). Jacob only has 2 other kids in his class that were in his Kindergarten class so he is busy making lots of new friends. Ethan has Mrs. Whipple for 4th grade! DUN DUN, DUN! 4th grade? Really? He is trying to become one of the library helper students, something I NEVER thought would happen! Ethan wanting to be around books all the time! He truly has come a long way from the 2nd grader in remedial reading to the 4th grader whose goal this year, now that his sister is out of the running, is to be the top AR (accelerated Reader) points earner. Then we come to Kaylee, our scared-to-death-gave-herself-a-tummy-ache-the-night-before-school-started-because-she-was-so-nervous middle schooler. Who did GREAT on her first day. She loves all of her teachers especially Mrs. Crinkley, her honors math teacher and Ms. Higby, her band teacher. Her biggest concern right now? Which instrument to play! She would like to play, in order of preference: euphonium, french horn, or saxophone. We shall see after this coming week when she has the chance to try out instruments. I'll keep you posted!

Jaden started speech again last Friday with Mrs. Keeslo, incidentally referred to as MRS. K! He has exactly 1 year to finish catching up on his speech before Kindergarten starts because, yes, my little BABY will make the cut off next fall for school.

Grayson, my little chubs, turned 5 months old this past Thursday. He is doing well. He sleeps better and better at night. We will get to a full nights sleep soon, I just know it! He has started to play with toys and chews things excessively. Until recently he has been doing really well with regards to his tummy problems. This week, he has taken a step backwards. sigh. He tagged Daddy at church today... twice in 5 minutes. That's my little guy! He waited till it was daddy's turn to puke! (Daddy only gets him for a total of 20 minutes during church because of his calling playing the piano in primary.) This afternoon was not good. He couldn't sleep if I laid him down. It burned too much. He napped on my chest for a little while before waking up and resuming his screaming. :( I broke out the antacid that he hasn't needed in weeks and weeks! He's had 3 doses just today. After the last one 20 minutes ago, he has passed back out, again on my chest. It's so sad to see him in pain and so frustrating to know that there is nothing really that I can do to help him. It may be time to go back to the specialist!

T minus two, and counting!

Well, 2 more days till school!! Yay!! $200 dollars on school supplies from the official "list", new shoes for all, and a cramp in my hand from writing names on every freakin' crayon, pencil, marker, marker lid, and glue stick (can anyone explain why my 6th grader needs 22 glue sticks???) and we are all set for school. Finally. My little night owl (Kaylee) now has to be ready to leave the house by 6:50 a.m. I don't know how either of us are going to survive! The little boys still have to be at the bus stop at about 7:55, so at least I should be able to concentrate on getting Kaylee ready and out the door before I have to wake the boys up. I am hoping that the separation helps cut down on the morning war zone (aka the kitchen table battle).
Yesterday, Daddy took all the kids, minus Grayson, to "Lucky Lake". Lucky Lake is a gem and mineral "mine". The kids had an awesome time sifting out the rocks, minerals, and gems from the dirt. Of course, that means that now there are even more rocks in our house for me to not see before it's too late and my vacuum sucks them up... and dies, again!

Swimming Update!

We got the official results of the Championship meet back and we are so excited!! All three kids did very well. Kaylee got 16th place, BUT her goal was "to not come in last!" and she didn't! She also shaved 3.5 seconds off of her personal best time. Go Kaylee! Ethan took 14th and although he did not have a new personal best record time, he did win his heat. Go Ethan! Then there is Jake. In freestyle he took 12th. He would have taken 3rd if he had swam to match his best time, but alas! In backstroke though he did FANTASTIC! He took 6th place AND he was swimming in the next ability level for the first time ever (meaning those he was swimming against were faster then he was used to). He also dropped off another 5 seconds off his personal best time!! How cool is that? Go Jake! (Technical difficulties are keeping the boys swim team pictures of the blog... check back soon!)

Waterlogged!

Swim team is officially over and I have to admit I am glad! It is just too stinkin' hot to sit with Grayson and Jaden on the side of the pool for 2 hours a day and watch the big kids practice. They all did AMAZING this year! Jacob had 1st place in freestyle and backstroke in every regular season meet except the last one (He took 4th in freestyle in that one because he moved up an ability group!). Racing in the Championship Meet, he took 12th in freestyle. He also swam backstroke and he swam a 4x100 meter freestyle relay. We don't have the results back on those events yet, we are just waiting for them to be posted on the swim team website. Kaylee swam backstroke and did VERY well. She only competed in 2 regular season meets (placed 6th and 7th) and that was good enough to qualify for champs. She has really improved this year I am excited to see what next summer brings! Ethan also swam backstroke. He won his heat in every single meet that he competed in to include Champs! He placed 6th twice and a 5th in the overall standings. We are still waiting to hear back on both of their results from Champs. I am so proud of all of them. They all worked so hard and tried their VERY best!!

The Importance of Proper Hydration

Well, it's been as hot as the six shades of Hades around here lately, and as I am telling my kids all day, every day, you have to "DRINK MORE WATER! You have to stay hydrated or you'll make yourself sick." Well, I need to quit saying that to Jaden, evidently. On Monday we got a new refrigerator delivered. In order to be ready for the old one to go bye-bye, we unloaded everything into ice chests. The stuff from on top of the fridge I just put on the counter. Bad idea. Among the stuff from the top of the fridge was a box of Capri sun's, the kind that are flavored water. There were 9 pouches left in the box. By the time I caught Jaden hiding behind the couch with the box, there was nothing left but the empties. About 2 hours later it hit him. He wet his pants twice and had 3 more near accidents, all in the space of about an hour and a half. He wet the bed that night as well. I guess I should be more careful with what I ask for because I just might get it.

New Baby Brain

Oops! It was brought to my attention that I didn't actually use Raisin's name and so those that voted in our name poll don't know which one won! Blame it on lack of sleep please! OK, he is Grayson Dale. He was born April 9th. He was 8 lbs 10 oz and was 20.5 inches long. Labor was only 17 hours this time, WOOHOOO!

Cheeky Babes, Hot Sun, and Honors All Around!

It's been a while, hasn't it? Well, having a baby will do that to you and all, but having a #5 baby? Yeah, I'm just proud of the fact that he is only 2 months old instead of 2 years old when I finally have gotten around to blogging about him! The debut of the Cheeky Babe! He has a nickname, thanks to Jaden. He is called "Raisin" around these parts!! Upon meeting him for the first time, I looked at him and thought to myself, "I've seen you before!" I don't mean that he is a cookie cutter version of the rest of the kids, because he's not, but take another look at the pic I posted of him here, and then scroll down to the last post with the 3D ultrasound picture. Amazing isn't it!! He is a happy baby for the most part, very laid back (huge blessing, let me tell ya'!) Unfortunately for him AND me, he has reflux and the dairy protein sensitivity that Jaden had as an infant. No ice cream for me again, how sad!! We are fortunate that I recognized the signs and symptoms of the 2 problems right away. He and I didn't have to suffer through weeks of screaming, crying (both of us!), 2 dozen trips to several different doctors, 2 ER trips, several medications, a barium swallow test, and severe weight loss (Jaden's only, unfortunately). I am so grateful to be able to skip all of that, just because I recognized the same thing in Raisin. I guess you could say that at least there was ONE good thing to come out of Jaden's troubles. As far as looks go, I think Raisin is a hybrid child. He has Ethan's eyes and nose, but the other's chins (yes, I know, there are 3 or 4), mouth and jawline. For a Hutcherson boy, he has tiny feet!! I know, you all are thinking, "not possible!" and all, but really his feet actually fit on the little footprint card that they give you! First time that I don't have card with a bit of toe and/or heel missing from the print since Kaylee was born! I don't think Chubs will be a light weight though. Maybe his body spent all it's extra time growing those cheeks instead of growing his feet!

Well, school is out for the summer now too. As of last Friday, the kids are home full time. All of them. YIKES!! We started swim team a few weeks ago and now that school is out, the practice times have changed. We are fortunate that now the little boys and I are only outside for 30 minutes and that half hour is at 815 in the morning! So much better then the hour and a half at 530 in the afternoon that we had been spending at the pool for practice! Jake, Ethan and Kaylee have improved their swimming skills already, and I am hoping that they will be little fish before summer's through! I know, I know, how thick is the irony that it is MY kids that can't swim, right? I mean, I had chlorine running through my veins in high school!

Jacob did really well in school this year. He's a reader!! He LOVES it! He will do well in first grade I'm sure. He had a fantastic report card. He only needs to learn to tie his shoes. He has struggled with that and can't seem to get it down. Now that summer and flip flop season is here, we are going to have to make a point of having him practice. He and I will both miss going to Mrs. Pritchard's class. She is just the best! He's enjoyed having her as his teacher very much and I have loved being able to go in once a week to help out. Mrs P. is the best! Ethan also had a great report card again this nine weeks. 1 B and the rest A's. He has turned into quite the reader too. He read 174 AR points this year. He got a trophy from the librarians for reading more then 150 points. This from the kid who was in Title One (remedial) reading just last year! He is a number hound, math is his favorite subject and a strong point for him too. He loved Mrs Salot, his teacher and it showed in the effort he put into his work for her. Kaylee had a much better year. What a relief! Mrs Beazley, her teacher could not even believe that Kaylee had had such an awful year last year. She thinks Kaylee hung the moon. Kaylee made the All A average honor roll for the year. She also read a TON of AR books. She was also given a trophy for her efforts AND a $50 gift card to Books-a-Million!! She had the top AR score in the school at 387.4 points. I'm amazed. That doesn't include at least 2500 pages she read in books that are not AR books and therefore don't count! She'll be in middle school next year! AGH!! Help me now! Stay tuned for the drama of middle school age girls!

OK people, poll time!

Since it seems that Bryan and I are stalled out on names, I thought it would be fun to take a little poll of family and friends on names that you all like! I am going to list the names, first and middle. If the name has a ? after it, it means that no middle name has been thought of yet! Leave your vote (or even 2) in the comments section of the post!
Clayton Dale
Caleb Dale
Corey Dale
Carson Dale
Conner Dale
Dallin Curtis
Grayson Dale
Joesph Dale
Kyle ??
Lucas Dale
Marcus Dale
Spencer Dale
Tanner Dale
Zakary Curtis/Dale

Please note, my favorites (Quinn, Carter, and Riley) are absent from this list. As are some of Bryan's favorites that we have removed because the other one can't stand the name. Sigh. Oh, and one other thing, Curtis Dale is Bryan's dad and he is the only grandparent that doesn't have a grandchild with a middle name that was chosen for him. We would like to find something that works for both of us, plus goes with Curtis or Dale. No small task huh?

Artsy Kids, Anxious Babes!

Well, last night we went to the Colonial Heights Art Festival because Kaylee and Ethan both had artwork chosen to exhibit. Kaylee had 3 pieces up and Ethan had one. It's quite an honor for them to be chosen to have artwork displayed. They choose the top one or two from each art project completed with Mrs. Booty (yes, that IS her name!), the art teacher. All 3 elementary schools, and the middle school and high school submit their work and it gets judged. 1st through 3rd places are awarded for each age group (k-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12) and category (photography, ceramics, paint, etc.). Kaylee brought home a 1st and a 3rd place! Ethan brought home a third place ribbon too! We are so proud of them! When the artwork gets returned I will get it scanned in and posted in the blog... you all will just have to wait anxiously till then!

On the baby update note, little one (still no name...) is doing well. He's out of room. He's head down still (yay!). And he's a bit on the big side. Something we already suspected since he LOOKS like Ethan did at birth! I am scheduled to be induced April 9th. That means that either my mom-in-law will share her birthday or my brother Ryan will share his if it takes more than 18 hours. I am not excited at the prospect of an induction. Only had one previously and it was a nightmare. I am thinking that we won't make it till the 9th anyway, seeing as how I have contractions all the time. In fact Wednesday morning they started and I had 12 hours of 5 minute apart contractions!

YAY!

Only good news at the doctors' today! Baby Boy has turned on his own... finally!! I think it happened just in the last day or two, probably about the time he dropped. Such a Hutcherson, waiting till the last possible second to do something! He looks good, heart rate is good, his cheeks are so chubby as you can see in the picture. I think we have a little Mini Me for Ethan in this one!

Hmmmmm...

Well, supposedly I have 34 days left till we get to meet our new little one (STILL as yet to be named of course! grrrrr), but I'm not so sure it'll be 34 days! As of yesterday, he has dropped. It took me 2 hours to do 30 minutes of errand running this morning. I am really slowing down! Good thing that Bryan came home yesterday from log warrior (training for his soldiers). He had been gone a week and I was just about done in. It's not like he has the time or energy to contribute TONS at home, after all he works 12-15 hour days or longer, but something about knowing he's coming home at some point helps a ton! He did so well at log warrior, his first as a commander, and I am proud of him. He is an amazing man, a wonderful daddy, an awesome husband, a great provider that allows me to stay at home with my wonderful babies, and a righteous priesthood holder. I. Am. So. Blessed!!

Sad.

Today is a very sad day. I just learned that my good friend, Clay Penrod, passed away unexpectedly last night. He was an amazing person and was always an example to those around him. I will miss him, but my heart just aches for his wife and kids that he left behind. I am so grateful that they have the gospel in their lives and I just pray that it brings them comfort during this horrible time.
My fondest memory of Clay makes me smile. During the summer before we began our Junior year in high school, Clay and his best buddies Rhett and Josh, decided to see how many girls they could take on a date during a week. It was too funny. They managed 2 or 3 dates a day! I was fortunate that 3 days after I turned 16, Clay needed another "date". He called and asked me to go out with him that evening. It was the best time! We bought and sold eggs. For those who don't have any idea what that is, it's a simple idea really. We split into two teams and we went on a scavenger style hunt. We went to the 1st house and said, "We are on a scavenger hunt and we would like to know if you have an egg you can spare." Usually after getting us to promise not to egg their house, most people gladly handed over an egg. We'd take it next door and, using a similar approach, "sell" the egg to the neighbor. We collected money that way and at the end of the designated time, the team with the most change won. We took the pennies and nickles and went to the local grocery store and bought generic ice cream and root beer, and plastic cups. We didn't earn enough money to buy spoons so we went and asked the stores deli for 8 spoons. They laughed at us, but let us have them. We took it all to the neighborhood park and had root beer floats. That was all a good time, but the icing on the cake for the evening was actually on the way home. Clay had a really early curfew, like 9 or something, and since he had driven his mom's van, he was trying to get a bunch of high school kids off the swing set and into the van before he was late. Finally he yelled and told them that he was leaving on the count of five. They all ran to the van and pile in. Problem came when the police car rolled around the corner just as a group of kids ran away into a waiting van. Yep. A no brainer. We got pulled over and Clay was so scared that he was in trouble for something. To be late AND have to explain a ticket of some sort was not going to go over well with his parents. He was beside himself. The police checked him out and asked what we were doing. Clay told him the ENTIRE story. Then the cop asked him if we had been drinking and Clay, in his nervousness, said YES!!! Then he offered the cop a root beer float. The cop was trying hard not to laugh and sent us on our way. I am pretty sure Clay was past his curfew that night!

Too tired!

Well, it's been too long since I last posted, but I have been so tired!! The kids have all been sick and I think that they are all FINALLY better!! After two and a half weeks of solid sick, we had better be done or I quit! We've had walking pneumonia, colds, ear infections, coughs, and two DIFFERENT (yes, all 4 kids went through both...one at a time) intestinal viruses. I am so done. The littlest, yet to be named, Hutcherson is doing well. He is growing as expected and although he is sometimes head down and sometimes not, he still has time and room to fix it himself so we are just waiting for now. It's been said that the first two babies had "Motel 6" rooms at this point in the pregnancy, the next two had "Super 8" rooms. This one has a whole "Hilton suite"! Nice huh?! Is it any wonder that I am ready for a nap by 8 am?

Today both my littlest boys had some comic relief for me today! Thank goodness for that, as it has been a long week with all the kids taking turns being really sick! First Jaden. He was playing trains in his room being very good and we hear him singing. For a speech delayed little boy, he sure can sing! He was singing "I am a Child of God" for a while then he switched. He started in on what was supposed to be "Follow the Prophet", but it's a new one that he is learning. He was singing away at the top of his lungs, "Fa-all-all off it! FA-ALL-ALL OFF IT!" Made me LAUGH! Next was Jacob's contribution to my happy day. He's been sick since Friday night and although he hasn't thrown up since early Saturday, he has alternated between bouncing off the walls and looking pale and limp as he laid on the floor. This afternoon he came into my bedroom to complain that he didn't feel good again. I told him to go lay down on his bed and rest for a while and that maybe that would help him feel better. He tells me, "Mom, I'm not tired sick I'm... you know... the "f-word" sick" WHAT!?!?!?!!! I was thinking to myself, "oh man! What did he learn in Kindergarten this week?!" and I reluctantly asked him, "The "f-word" sick? What's the "f-word"?" I just cringed waiting for his answer wondering how I am going to explain that he can't use this word. He says, "you know, Mom... frow-up (throw up)sick". Bryan and I both about wet ourselves laughing... well, at least pregnant me about wet myself!

Well, in other non-snow related news this week, we found 3 things out at our ultrasound this week. One, it is undeniably a B-O-Y! The "turtle" shot was very clear. Two, the problem that we were most concerned with has resolved itself (YES!! No automatic c-section for this girl!!). And three, the baby is really, really flexible. He is currently frank breech, which means he is headed out bum first. His legs are straight and his feet are up by his head. It's still early enough that it isn't a big deal for him to be breech, so we are trying not to worry too much about that.
Jaden has done his share of keeping my mind off of it with his antics. Yesterday, he came running into the kitchen with his snow/ski hat pulled down to his chin. He says "momma, loo*click* me, loo*click* me!" I look and he is swinging his head back and forth and saying, "AHHHHH!!! Can't see! AHHHHHHH!!!!" Silly Jaden! I told him to be careful of the counter edge. He was too close and it would hit him right in the face if he swung his head too far to the right. He peeks with one eye out from under the hat and says, "Whoa, TOOO close!" So he scoots himself over into the middle of the kitchen and really goes to town swinging his whole body back and forth, "AHHHHH!!! Can't see! AHHHHHHH!!!!" I notice he is slowly scooting himself over to one side and I warn him, "be careful my blind Jaden!!" Just about then, he bumps into the recycles can that I keep in the kitchen. It was cartoonishly funny. He fell, bum first into the can, legs went straight up, knees to his still covered in a hat nose and his hands went out behind him trying to keep the can from falling backwards. He was so stuck. He scared himself so badly and was crying. He couldn't get the hat off without his hands and they were busy. Trying not to laugh at him, I helped him out of the can and I say "Maybe we shouldn't do that anymore" and he says, "Nooooooo! Neder (never), eder (ever) adin (again)!" I guess both of my little guys are very flexible!!

The Old Saying...

You all know the old saying "when H-E-double hockey sticks freezes over". Anyone who has ever said that, prepare to pay up. It has. Hell has frozen over. We have snow on the ground, and more on its way, with the exception of a half day on Thursday, the kids are on a streak of snow days compliments of the school district, and I am going bonkers!! Friday the 29th of January was the last day of the semester for the district. The kids had a half day. They hit the door off the bus at noon and by 3 I was looking at the clock thinking it was time for dinner and then bed. Sigh, not so. Saturday we got about 9 inches total. Sunday we were still buried and church was cancelled. Monday was a scheduled "teacher work day". Tuesday and Wednesday all we had was sunshine glaring off the snow in the yard. Streets were clear, temps not too bad at all and yet... no school!!! Thursday I though, "surely, there is school today!" Well, sort of! School had a "2 hour delay". The bus picked them up 5 minutes before 10:00 and then Jaden and I raced off to a very, very packed commissary. We got home just in time to unload and put away all the groceries before the kids got home again. Friday, on ONLY the threat of a few flakes in the early afternoon, school was cancelled again!! What in the world are they thinking?! We got a total of about an inch yesterday and then some rain. Nothing that would have hindered the teaching of our kiddos and the saving of the sanity of hundreds of mothers across Colonial Heights. Today it's at it again. Snow, snow everywhere... is this week to be a repeat of last week? Oh, I hope not!

a little late...

Well, it occurred to me looking at my blog, that I never posted this years "first day of school" picture! The only one on here is last years!! Better late then never I guess, so on this last week of the 1st semester, here it is.

AAAAAAAAA and Hair!

Well, this past week on Tuesday night, the whole family got to go to the High School auditorium and watch as Kaylee and Ethan walked across the stage to receive their "All A Average for the 2008-2009 School Year" medal. If the actual percentage earned over all four quarters averages out to an A for all subjects/classes (which in this school district is a 94% or higher I might add!) then they hold a special awards ceremony. Usually it is held just before or just after school starts, but they were late this year for some reason. It was Tuesday night. Kaylee and Ethan both received medals!! I am so proud! Of course, Ethan had to ruin it by bringing home two reading tests on Friday... both D's. Sigh.

On another note, Kaylee finally got her hair cut!! I am so excited! It looks so good on her. She wanted to keep the length and frankly because she can pull her own hair into a ponytail I was all for that too, but it needed something. It got a good trim and long layers added and, drum roll please.... BANGS! She has started to get my little fringe, I think some people call it angel hair, but I call it my "@!#$% freaky no I didn't let my 3 year old cut my hair" hair. It grows along the edges of my hair line. Its short enough to look ridiculous and it reaches only a certain length and then breaks off. It never grows out, it never looks even. It's obnoxious. Until recently here, Kaylee really didn't have any to speak of. As she's gotten a little older I started noticing spots here and there. In the last 3 months she's had a "freaky, etc" hair explosion. It got to the point that she noticed it and hated it. I asked her if she wanted to cut bangs as they hide the worst of it and she readily agreed. I think she looks fabulous!

Another Hairy adventure we had this week (Ha, Ha, Ha!) was "Crazy Hair Day" at school on Friday. Once a year the school does a day that the kids get to wear crazy hair (it coincides with H week for the kindergarten classes). The kids had a blast making their hair wild and crazy. We ran short on time to take pictures before school, but miraculously, their hair stayed put for the most part and I got pictures after school instead!

And yes, before you ask, Jacobs hair is in a purple mohawke with red and green spots!

Snicker, snicker, snort!

OK, so this afternoon I kinda cornered Bryan and made him talk a bit about names for this new boy. I want a name like yesterday, and he seems to think we have all the time in the world to decide. We both agree that there can't be anymore J names. Jake and Jaden are confusing enough in times of stress, or exasperation, or frustration... basically all the time! So we were looking in a baby name book and we came across "Blake" we both liked it a lot. Until I said, "ummm.... Blake and Jake? Are we really that dumb?" Bryan started to laugh and it set me off too. Bryan says "Yeah, Blake and Jake is as bad as using another J name!" All of a sudden he starts rolling in laughter again. He says, "It sounds like you are swearing at Jake" Huh? Then it dawns on me "Blankin' Jake". We lost it. Probably not our most dignified moment, but man, it WAS funny!

Love That Deco!!

My favorite Christmas Decoration of all time, isn't the fragile angel in the tree top, or the handmade blown glass balls that we got in Germany. It isn't even the homemade ornaments that adorn 99% of our tree. No, it is my nativity set. I never really appreciated it until this year. A few years ago, I found a Little People's Nativity play set on sale during an after Christmas sale. I bought it thinking that it was something that the kids couldn't break. This year, I got smart. ( Yeah, yeah, I already hear the shocked voices "YOU did??!!"). I cleared off the shelf that is Jaden's shoulder height on the bookshelf in the living room. I put that Nativity on that shelf and set it all up nicely. It took all of a day for Jaden to notice it and start looking at it. He looked at it all for a good 20 minutes until he finally asked me if he could touch it. When I said yes, his eyes got big and round and he was so excited. He and I played with that nativity for an hour at least. I told him the story over and over. The whole rest of the month that the nativity was out, Jaden would go and play with it, carting the baby Jesus ever so carefully all over the place, and he started telling me the story. He would show me a piece and tell me all about that person's role in the story. He told me "Mary. Jesus mommy." and "Baby Jesus... so cute!!" It was great. I love to see my little man learn more about his Savior. The excitement a small child shows is so refreshing! Not to mention... I love the donkey. He has a mohawk!

Christmas

Yeah, I know, I know!!! I've already been "informed" from several sources that it appears that I "forgot" to blog about Christmas. So not true!! I only had time for one post last time and I was too excited about Jaden being in Sunbeams that I couldn't help myself. For all you anal retentive types that reading about a January event before a December event, well... so sorry. My advice? Read 'em out of order! Christmas this year was really good. Really quiet too! We decided that we were really needing to stock up the family time since Bryan is never home and so we kept our holiday "commitments" to a bare minimum!! Bryan HAD to go to his works Christmas party. It was MANDATORY! Can you believe that? To add salt to the wound, it was $30 a person!! Needless to say, he went alone! We went to our wards Christmas party and the wonderful, stupendous Mallorys put together a "night in Bethlehem" for us. It was really nice. No Santa. Awesome!! Just what I needed! We got snow the night of the ward party too! Several inches before all was said and done. I'm good for the year, my snow quota has been met... just in case anyone with influence in the weather department is reading my blog! Christmas Eve morning we went to the Dubes' annual Christmas Eve Breakfast. YUM! They always cook a breakfast fit for kings and invite a lot of people to come and eat it! Christmas Eve we did the whole new Christmas pajamas thing. I hoped that it wasn't a mistake after I saw the way Jaden reacted. I thought, "Great. What did I just do??!! Now there is NO WAY I'm gonna get this kid to bed!!" To say he was excited over his Mickey Mouse Pj's WITH feet is an understatement. Which, by the way, is the picture that goes with this post. All the kids liked their PJ's and went to bed without too much fuss. It was a late night for all, but thankfully, Santa's elves were a little smarter than last year and had everything already wrapped. Christmas Day was nice too. It was quiet... well, Hutcherson standard quiet! It was just us. We did the whole "mom's turkey with Grandma's stuffing" thing that we missed out on at Thanksgiving. Our oven lost an element on Christmas day so we didn't eat turkey until like 6:00!! We had planned on a 3 or 4 pm meal, but the turkey took forever! It was sad too because it was dry and I NEVER make dry turkey! All was good though, 'cause we were together. I miss Bryan now that his company command makes him very, very scarce around here, but days like Christmas I am reminded off the years that we spent Christmas without him at all. It was a wonderful day.

Sunbeam!!

Today my BABY started Sunbeams!! Can you believe it???!!! I know I can't! He did great. He was a little confused that we didn't stop at the door to the nursery, but didn't make a fuss when I told him to keep going down the hall. This past week, we have talked up the fact that since he was 3, that he would get to go to the "big kids primary" now! He seemed excited about it and we were hoping for a smooth transition. Fortunately, we were surprised beyond just a smooth transition! He went to his class with no fuss, tears, or shyness! He sat still during class and then again during sharing and singing time. He wasn't fidgety or wiggly. He didn't talk out of turn or (more impressively for him) he did talk when called upon!! The only thing he did that wasn't perfect was during sharing time. He was humming "I am a Child of God" too loud! When I went to pick him up after it was all over, I asked if he had been good. He told me yes, and his teacher told me that it was the best behaved Sunbeam class that she had ever seen! I guess it helps that there are only two of them. Go Jaden and Kayla!