Happy Halloween

Jack-O-Lantern Oranges

I call this the Grrr face.

This is what is left of the poor orange.

I can't wait to see lots of cute Halloween costumes!

Elephant Garlic

Elephant garlic . . . what is that? Since I had never heard of it I was wowed by what I saw, I just had to share. Yes, that is a normal head of garlic next to the giant sized one. James is tired of peeling 6 or more cloves of garlic at a time and well, now it will only take one!

So sad

Sadly, we in Virginia, bid Dad goodbye as he left to fly to Utah for the blessing of that sweet Jaime Lynne. Marquie is feeling well enough to participate in her play practice and performances this weekend--one last night, two today, and one tomorrow. I do have the worry that she will overdo it and end up back in bed next week. But, we are off school Monday and Tuesday, so hopefully by then she will be back up and running full speed.

Marquie and I will certainly miss being there with you all. Give Jaime a special kiss for us!

Here's a happy homecoming picture for you to enjoy. You let me know what makes it a happy picture for you.

Last Saturday

We stole the balloons for Jodi since she had to stay home :)

Last Saturday BYU got hammered by TCU, but Michelle had the chance to come to the game with me. She was very excited by this, and enjoyed every minute of BYU's getting trumped.

Super photo phriday

I have been saving these all week.









Just a few pictures of our FHE and yard cleanup yesterday. Our 60 degree weather made it ideal for working outside. The girls stayed inside and made treats! Now I want to see everyone else!

Glorious Sleep

I had to share my excitement with someone. Jaime only woke us up once last night for a feeding! We went to bed around 10:30pm and were woken up at 4:30am and then not again until 8:30am! It was an incredible blessing. I've been sick for a little while now and I was dreading last night, knowing I needed the rest so badly yet imagining I'd be interrupted every two hours or so. I wasn't. I am very grateful this morning.

Software

I suppose that not many of you have seen my software thus here is a screen shot of it.

Happy Birthday Marquie

....and you fit in the palm of his hand. You were not any longer than a barbie doll....

Hope it is a great one.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARQUIE!!!

18 already? I remember when your head was the size of an orange . . .

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

"The Face"

I live for this face. It's the face of utter satisfaction after a good feeding and it makes me proud.

Baby Update????

Justin and Jodi...it's been 5 days!

Just for fun

This is a video of Collin singing "I'm So Glad When Daddy Comes Home". I'm pretty sure, even though he is really loud, he is adorable. Enjoy!

Reflections

As I looked at Bryce's most recent post, I was reminded of so many things...

I don't know what grade it all started in, but I'm sure most of you remember having the school nurse sit you down and have you look at a circle with hundreds of little colored dots in it, and ask you what you saw. I have affectionately come to call this the "I feel stupid test." Its technical name is the "Ishihara Colorblindness Test." It is named after a Japanese doctor who conjured up the terrible thing. I speak so fondly of this test because my examination would go something like this:

Nurse [showing first page]: What do you see?

Justin [gleeful and giddy as could be]: 6!

Nurse [showing the next page]: What do you see here?

Justin [looking intently at the page]: Ummm... 3?

Nurse [turning to the next page]: Good, what do you see here?

Justin [focused with all my might, going cross-eyed trying to see something]: Ummm... nothing.

This was all preceded, and followed, by all of my classmates and friends whipping through the whole book, getting each and every one of them right. Boy did I feel dumb. No matter how hard I tried, year after year I was left feeling inferior to all those around me. Seventh grade rolled around, and there was that test again (the last time that I have taken it). Oh, how I dreaded it! It came my turn. I sat down, correctly identified the first, guessed on the second, and felt utterly defeated on the third. As I lowered my head in utter shame, I heard the sweetest three words: "You------are------ colorblind." It rang so true! I was no longer ashamed for not being able to correctly identify blue, purple, red, brown, green, yellow, etc. (I don't want to make all my weaknesses known). Would it have been so hard for them to have told me this seven years earlier!

Since that day, I have had the great privilege to tell many people that I am colorblind. I don't mind a bit. It is my lot in life, and I am happy to live colors through the eyes of those around me. Now don't get me wrong, I can still see color. I just can't match anything, or correctly identify colors. Sometimes I think a browning tree looks red, or a yellow one looks green. Don't get me started on blue and purple. I will never understand those two colors, or when someone says, "it is kind of blue-ish purple-ish."

One day I sat listening to primary children sing, "My Heavenly Father Loves Me" (Clara W. McMaster, Primary Children's Song Book, 228). It is one of my favorite primary song, but this day it took on new meaning. One of the lines says, "He gave me my eyes that I might see the color of butterfly wings..." Though I love butterflies, I was not given eyes to see the color of their wings, nor the colors of flowers or leaves, or my wife's eyes. Well, He hasn't given me those eyes yet. Someday He will, and someday I will see the color of butterfly wings, and the color of my wife's beautiful eyes.

But in the meantime, I hate color-dot tests and Magic Eye.

Guess what this is?

Hint: Winner get's it all and so does everyone else!

A scripture to ponder

"2 Ne 28:30 Little by little of hearkening to God's Word we grow in wisdom but if we stop it is taken away even that which we had."
So, I opened up my blog account and this scripture was already here...so weird. It turns out bryce wrote this scripture down from his scripture study this morning and some how I copied it. Totally weird. Either way though it's a great scripture to ponder. I love you all and Jaime Lynne is really cute...too bad none of you have seen her...he he he.

Kids make me laugh

It is Sunday afternoon, which means I want a treat. I don't want to make it. So, I told my whole family I had worked really hard this week. What are they making for me? Ethan answered without hesitation "A mess". So true. Yes, I laughed.

My Take

Jaime pretty much consumes our energy nowadays. She's cute, hungry, healthy and happy (most of the time)! At our one week appointment she was declared 15th percentile for weight, 70th percentile for height, and 20th percentile for head circumference. So, she's a tall and skinny little girl. This morning Justin and I were marveling at how long and skinny her little legs are. The doctor said that the measurements don't really mean a whole lot at this point, so we'll see where she goes from here.

How is life? Life is tired :). Jaime is sleeping longer and longer at night, which is a big relief to us! Last night she slept for 6 hours straight. We were overjoyed. She's a super breast feeder and pooper (as you've heard). We've officially taken her to one party (but didn't let her out of her carseat), and one trip to campus (but didn't let others hold her). We're trying to be so careful about germs, but I'm getting antsy staying at home all the time.

How am I doing? I'm doing really well, really. I had a rough transition coming home though. My first couple of days home I tried to get too much done around the house, got exhausted, and dealt with some bad postpartum depression. But, I've learned that if I keep myself rested I'm just fine. It's hard for me to feel like I'm not getting much done (other than feeding, changing and napping), but depression is a much worse feeling. I'm super happy with how my body is changing. I'm pretty easy to please though, because I'm just stoked that I'm not the size of a blimp any more :)

Our Happenings

Today has been a blessed day of football. We found a nice empty room on campus and enjoyed watching BYU take on SDSU. We enjoyed the game, company of friends, Papa John's pizza and some nice IBC Root Beer. Jodi and Jaime are sleeping, and I am watching Missouri try to hang on to Oklahoma State...they're not doing a very good job.

What are we up to?

Well, we have had a calm but busy week. Some of my classes changed in structure, so I had much less grading this week than usual. It was wonderful! The boys and I had a pretty normal week with school and play. We recently started a new scripture study with the boys to get them more excited about reading the scriptures. It is called 'Discover the Scriptures' and we love it! We read out of the Book of Mormon stories and then do the workbook that goes with it. It has become a great part of our morning rituals!

Then, during lunch we started doing a history story every day using 'Story of the World.' We read a story from Ancient times and look at a map and pictures that relate to the story. They have really enjoyed it and particularly enjoyed the story of Odysseus and the Cyclops this week. They especially like saying that their name is Noman.

Joshua also was able to order a new math book as he finished his last. He is very excited! He is definitely my little math prodigy which makes this math mommy very happy. :)

On Thursday night James had a work party that the whole family was invited to. It was great fun to meet the people he works with. They even had a movie and macaroni and cheese for the kids. I love kid friendly parties! Then, right after the party we jumped in the car and drove to Front Royal, VA. We drove through the night and made it there by 10:15 AM--not bad! Too bad mom was gone shopping--her loss! We are just relaxing and enjoying one another's company. Jacob is sick and it is freezing cold, so we probably won't go far but the boys got to help grandpa build some boxes for Marquie's play and James had fun cooking for a group. Well, there you go, that was our week in a nutshell. :)

Hello?

So, I was just wondering, where all you crazies are. I know you are there and have lots going on. Take 2 minutes and share.
We had a crazy day of running around, cleaning, and all the normal craziness. I think during these crazy times of the calm when all the kids are gone. Then I come back to reality. Calm? What is this foreign word. Is this the place between asleep and awake where you have no recollection of anything? Or is it that thing right after all the kids are in bed, before they start getting out again? I think it has been so long I am not sure what it is.
Oh well, guess I better start prepping for the crazy tomorrow.

Calm?

Donation day

This is what we affectionately call "free days" at the museum. Here are a few pictures of our 3 hour adventure at the Discovery Museum in Rockford.




I think the girls wouldn't hold still long enough for us to take any pictures of them.

My new website is running.

www.primefocussuite.com

Special birthday surprise!

I will blog Joshua's birthday on our blog but something very special happened right before he went to bed on his 6th birthday. He lost his first tooth! He was very excited and has been looking forward to this moment for weeks!

Oh, and I just couldn't help myself but include a picture of a slice of his brownie cheesecake. SO GOOD! And worth every calorie. :)

Coat shopping

Grrrr. That just about sums it up. After going through every coat I have, it was determined they just wouldn't make the winter for April. Of course we shoot to Walmart first. An o.k. coat for $35. I thought surely we could better. Perhaps Kohls or Sears? So, off we went in search of the perfect coat. First stop, Kohls. The leat expensive coat was on sale for $70. ON SALE. I don't think so, being in the incredibly stable financial state we are. On to Sam's club. Only $28 for a London Fog. I am very excited at this point. They don't carry 14 for kids. The ggrrrr now begins. We then ran by Payless in search of boots. These were also very expensive at Kohls. Nothing fits her. Last attempt. Farm and Fleet. Yes, the ever ready country hick store. What do we find? Boots for April and Collin. Also that cursed coat. All for $90. Yes, I think I can be happy with that. I think we are finally ready for winter.

It is going to be 62 on Monday. Figures.

For Marquie

At Marquie's request we took a little video of Jaime Lynne, then I had fun putting it together. Enjoy!

Let it snow

Yep, it snowed today. Nothing major, but enough to excite the kids. When I hollered downstairs to them that it was snowing they came running. Ethan ran all the way yelling, "it's Christmas, it's Christmas". We had a good laugh from this. Then they all ran outside to play in the falling snow.

Picture

um, well. here's from homecoming. :)

heather did my hair. it was amazing. even though this isn't a great picture. someday, when dad gets the pictures downloaded....there will be a better one. (straight hair is from sunday). Someone in our ward did Diana's hair.mom is just freakin' aMAZING at altering dresses.... pretty eh?

Photo Friday

And....a proud daddy too.

Super shop

So, I had so much fun on my little shopping trip today. I love shopping sales. I just wish one of you had been here to share in the fun. I got 24 boxes of cereal, 20 boxes of granola bars, 10 boxes of Zatairans rice, 10 boxes of instant oatmeal (name brand), 14 packages of various McCormick seasonings, 14 boxes of whole wheat pasta, 2 packages other pasta, strawberries, carrots, and pears. What did this insane shop cost you ask? Only $100.00. I was so excited. I felt like a super shopper. It made me want to shop more. I didn't, I went home and took a nap. I know it isn't Friday yet, but I figured it was close enough. If I don't do it now, I'm sure I will forget tomorrow. This is a picnic in the living room we had about a month and a half ago. It was fun. The kids made a "house" out of the chairs and blanket. They were very excited to eat in it.

Jaime Lynne Hutchings

She is HERE!

Photo Op...

Those with adorably cute kids:

"Gap is holding a casting call as it searches for the next faces of BabyGap and GapKids." Check it out on their website. Put some pictures in!

Can't See the Computer Screen

Too many tears in my eyes, such love I feel for all of you. I am, above all men, most blessed. Thank you all for your blogs and comments. My day is better. Families are... (You fill it in!)

A Few Things and a Promise Fulfilled

1. I was talking to my dad today and he said "You know what I've been thinking about lately?" I said, "What?" He said, "How great your in-laws are." I said, "Yeah, they are." Then he went on to talk about all of you...how my parents-in-law are great, all of Justin's siblings and their spouses are great, how the extended family is great (he's met G & G Workman and the aunts and uncles in Provo). Just thought I should let you all know! He loves you guys. And then perhaps to make me not feel bad he added "Justin didn't do too bad marrying you either." "Thanks, Dad."

2. I spent some time today reading the very beginning blogs on here, the ones where I wasn't quite part of the family yet. My thoughts: people used to blog a whole lot more (okay, so maybe at least half of them were Justin because he was single and lonely). Photo Friday was cool, we should keep that up (remember that it doesn't have to be a picture you took that day, it could be an old picture). Also, as I read Justin's first few blogs about me I was thinking "wow, he was really happy back then..." Then, I realized he's just as happy now, only not in a twitter-pated way.

3. Justin promised you the story of how our lives flipped upside-down in what he called a "weekend" in this post. He never gave you said story. Let me enlighten you on how, in one week, I went from dating another guy to knowing I wanted to marry your brother/son. Yes, we dated before this, but the start up of our second round of dating went like this:

• Friday: I saw Justin on campus. He asked me to dinner. I said I couldn't. I was dating someone. He asked if I was happy. I said not really.
• Weekend: I tried to break up with the guy I was dating for about the 4th time, and once again, he convinced me to stay with him.
• Monday: I didn't see him, but Justin saw me on campus with the other guy and it made him jealous. Then, I saw him and he didn't see me and I longed to be with him, to date him again.
• Tuesday: I saw Justin again. This time I talked to him about how I had been wanting to get out of the relationship I was in. He talked through it with me, and with his help (he basically told me to say it's over and walk away and not look back), I broke it off a few hours later. Justin swears he didn't have any ulterior motives.
• Wednesday: We spent time together and held hands.
• Thursday: We studied in the library and he kissed me on the cheek when we said good night.
• Friday: Byron came to town and the three of us had dinner - this was the night Aunt Carol died. That night Justin kissed me for the first time and we were an item.
• Saturday: Justin told me he loved me and wanted to marry me. Woohoo!
• Sunday: I began the process of praying about it to see if it would be right. I got the answer much sooner than I expected. I knew that day that it was the right thing. Later, I received additional confirmation.

And, the rest is history! It was two years ago this month that I met Justin (again, ironically the same month that you all as a family started praying for him to meet someone).

No, not jealous

- My husband just bought me flowers...my favorite flowers.

-We finally got the crib set up and name plaque made (name obscured)!

- I spent a long time yesterday making a fabulous dinner: Island Broiled Chicken, Baked Beans, Rolls, Mashed Potatoes...mmmm. Our house smelled like Thanksgiving.
- I also made homemade almond chocolates that are so good!
- We went to a BYU soccer game for the first time (they lost, but it was still fun).

-We went to a BYU football game against the aggies and we totally won!

- We got ice cream afterward, and I don't think anything has ever hit the spot better.

Jealous?

- We just ate at Tucanos... I am still full and it has been 10 hours!
- Shell just paid me a compliment (She told our guest that I just didn't want to boast on how sweet I am when I asked my wife to do something without saying 'please')
- We pigged out on Cheetos and halloween candy watching Wipe Out on Hulu.com (A show where people go through rediculous obsticle courses and flop, fly, or fall against time - a real crack up at 1 in the morning)
- Took the kids to Jumping Jacks and learned that if you bend a certain wall down the kids can climb onto them only to be thrown through the air when you let go. Yeah, we did it till someone was crying (then we did it some more).
- found a couple of potential investors for the company I am still trying to start and am pumped about it again.
- Shell found the best swimsuits EVER! (Had a fashion show) and she's happy!

Life is to be enjoyed and not just endured and today was totally enjoyed!

Perspective

Family, one of my fellow umpires shared this with me and I want to share with you, my family, because of how wealthy I feel as your father.

One day, the father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the express purpose of showing him how poor people live. They spend a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.

On their return from their trip, the father asked his son:
"How was the trip?"
"It was great dad"
"Did you see how poor people live?"
"Oh yes"
"So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip"

The son answered --
I saw that we have one dog and they have four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have stars at night. Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon. We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight. We have servants who serve us, but they serve others. We buy our food but they grow theirs. We have walls around our property but to protect us but they have friends to protect them.

The boy's father was speechless. Then his son added, "Thanks dad for showing me how poor we are."

Perspective is priceless. It makes you wonder what would happen if we all gave thanks for everything we have instead of worrying about what we don't have. Appreciate every single thing you have, especially your family.