Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!!!

This year none of our family was able to join us for Christmas which was sad, but we invited some friends over for Christmas Eve who are just like family, and we all had a great time.  We enjoyed clam chowder, good conversation, the Christmas story and the opening of Christmas pajamas.  We may have had a little too much fun getting matching pajamas for all.  

On Christmas morning Michael and Joshua had a difficult time waiting for Jacob to wake up.  James finally had to wake him up when the older boys seemed to be running out of patience.  

Hyrum opened his first present ever which was an adorable winter hat from Joshua.  He will definitely get to use it quite a bit as it has been below freezing for days now.  We let the boys give their presents this year and it was a lot of fun to see them get excited to give and watch their presents be opened.  We loved it!

Michael found this cute little ball for him which he loves because it is easy to grab.  Hyrum got great presents but he also gave great presents.  I love having a child that I have 100% control over their gifts.  He bought the boys 'Brave' and got James and myself a movie gift certificate which we happily used that evening to watch Les Miserable which was amazing!  So, we all enjoyed a night of movies on Hyrum.  :)

 The other boys got cars, games and many other wonderful things.  We even got them an IPad for school and filled it with books, learning tools and more!  I think they were shocked that we would get them such a device.  They spent the day playing their new games and enjoying the IPad.  It was fun to try new games and enjoy the day together.

And in final news we printed off passport applications for the boys which we will finalize in the next week or so.  We have decided to take a trip to Costa Rica this summer with the boys.  James received an offer to go down and be an administrator at a school down there for five weeks which he gladly accepted, so we thought it would be fun if we all came down to visit him.  We are excited to see the volcanos, rain forests, beaches and much more!  We (I) will also be starting a Spanish class in 1 1/2 weeks in preparation for the trip which will be a fun family project as I plan to teach the boys as I learn.  It was a great Christmas of fun, surprises and hopes of many wonderful things to come.  Merry Christmas to all!

Snow Day!!!!!

The boys have been counting down the days until the snow storm would hit.  Michael was then counting down the hours and would check the weather on my phone regularly.  Apparently they really wanted some snow!  But since the snow came in the form of a blizzard we stayed inside and had some fun indoor time.  In the morning the boys began our fun day by creating a fort in the Family Room.  

After lunch we made 'gingerbread' houses.  In the end it became a war zone with reenactments, but that is what you get with boys, and it is pretty awesome!

In the afternoon we enjoyed reading with mommy time.  I love that I can read books to the boys that I find interesting as well.  A friend recommended 'The Ranger's Apprentice,' and we are loving it!

After dinner we finally put up our Christmas tree.  The boys put up the tree and decorated it with very little help.  It is really fun to see them grow up and be able to do more and more.  Hyrum did have the honor of putting on the star.  What an angel.   (And isn't that light in just the perfect spot?)

Having a floor mover again has us on our toes again.  There is nothing breakable on this tree this year, and we have to keep Hyrum from pulling down the tree.  Wish us luck!

It was a great snow down, and the best part is that the boys get to go sledding tomorrow!

Post Musical Adventures

I know that I promised more details about the musical but have been busy, but a promise is a promise.
This musical was unique in that three of us were involved.  James was directing, as usual.  He had a great team which made producing this musical a much more manageable experience.  There were ups and downs as usual, but in the end it was great.  Michael, played the narrator/child of the baker and his wife, did an amazing job.  My quiet, reserved child came to life on stage.  He didn't just learn his lines to repeat but learned to read the other characters and interact with them while on stage.  Anyone from church who saw him couldn't believe he was the same child they see every Sunday at church.  Michael loved the experience and learned to memorize better.  That is a skill that will help him throughout his life.  For me being in the pit was challenging but fun.  I really had to practice as it has been 10+ years since I have played anything other than church music.  But in the end I did pretty well and had fun being a part of the show.  My only regret was not getting to watch Michael on stage (though I may have watched a little during rehearsal).  In the end it was a great show, and I am sad that everyone couldn't come watch.

After the musical we all wanted to just sleep and relax which we did!  The very next weekend, though, James and I took off for a "weekend away" and had a great time!  It would have been more fun without a baby, but we embraced the challenge and did some fun things.  Hyrum didn't like flying, but you do what you have to do.



He did like the comfy fluffy bed to play on, though.



We enjoyed some Argentinian BBQ for dinner one night and southern BBQ at one of those little hidden gems of a restaurant.  The food was amazing at both places!  We also did a little sight seeing and made a stop at the Houston Temple.  The last time we were there was when my brother got married.  It was fun to reminisce.



We also had some fun visiting family and friends.  My same brother still lives there and we got to spend some time with him and his family.  We were also able to stop in and see an old college friend.  It was fun to see people we haven't seen in such a long time.

 Once we returned home we enjoyed a little normalcy in our lives with family dinners, school time, and date nights.  Hyrum still joins us sometimes but he has become much more fun.

 We also had fun at a homeschool roller skating party.  Hyrum even made it out on the rink!

And since we can't just sit around and relax, we moved onto our next adventure by having my brother's wife and their kids come visit for a week.  My brother was on a business trip for three weeks, so they thought it would be fun to take a road trip.

They have five children Joshua's age and younger, so it was crazy, but it was great to see the cousins get together, play and enjoy getting to know each other better.   They homeschool as well, so we shared some of our homeschool curriculum with each other.  It was fun and interesting doing school with 9 children running around!

With the cold we had to be creative, so they spent a day in Nauvoo, and we spent some time at the library and the local children's museum.  The children had a great time together!  After they left I could tell that my kids missed having others around to play with.
 

In the short time since our cousins left, Hyrum has decided to become an efficient crawler and has entered the world of climbing. He has tried climbing up the stairs, my dresser, and my legs, of course.  We finally took the plunge and had our railing replaced which was a little crazy because we had it done while all of the cousins were here.  But now I only have to worry about Hyrum falling down the top of the stairs and not from the side.  It isn't perfect, but it is better.  But now we need to figure out how to deal with a Christmas tree.  Hmmm. . .   But he is super cute, so we will make it work.  

All of our children love to bake.  I mean really, with James as their father how could they not?  Joshua got in some extra practice this week.  He and his cousin baked a cake for family home evening treat all by themselves.  Then, tonight he baked cupcakes and frosted them.  They were from a kit, but he still did it all by himself and had a blast!  It is fun to watch my kids grow up, branch out and try new things.

 Life is good here at the Hutchings home.  We are enjoying life, working hard and playing hard!

Into the Woods

We have not posted on our blog because we have been in the throws of musical theater.  Our first performance was tonight and Michael did a great job, especially for his first time on stage.  I played most of my notes correctly and James got to watch and enjoy the show.  James' parents finally made it to Illinois today after delays, cancelations and well, a hurricane.  It was fun to have them come and see the performance.

It is late, so I'll have to post more later but here are a couple of pictures of Michael on stage.

Rolling, Rolling Everywhere

Hyrum gets a lot of attention from his brothers and hasn't had a ton of floor time, so we decided to give him some this week.  Yesterday he showed very quickly that if he is going to be on the floor he will be on his tummy.  He then enjoyed scooting around which, of course, thrilled his brothers.  Today he decided that rolling was the order of the day.  He rolled from tummy to back and vice versa, but he didn't want to stay put and was rolling all over.  I kept having to move the table, so he didn't roll into it. He doesn't stay on the floor playing for long, but well, he doesn't do much of anything for an extended period of time.



It was fun to play with him on the floor and watch him explore his new abilities to move.  I don't know that I am ready for crawling yet, but rolling is good.  :)

Oh yea, and he loves to drool and chew on his hands and clothes all day long.  Its a good thing that spit doesn't stain anything.  Though, it does make it difficult to keep him warm in the cold weather when he is drenched.  But for now the weather is warming back up and that hopefully won't be a problem again for awhile.  :)

Fall Update

Life in our house has been fun and exciting as usual, so I thought I should post an update.

Hyrum is growing like a weed but remaining thin and slender.  It is amazing how many people tell me how small he is even though he is plenty long.  For some reason he has decided that he likes to eat once in the night.  He always goes right back to sleep, but we are sure missing getting a good nights sleep.  He is now smiling and giggling which is just precious.  

Jacob is growing into a bigger boy which makes me happy but a little sad.  He started swimming lessons again and is having a blast.  This session the older boys are not doing swimming lessons, but still go to the YMCA to play during Jacob's lessons.  I have also allowed them to ride bikes to and from swimming with him.  It is really fun to give them a little more freedom and independence.  Jacob is having fun with school and participating more and more.  It is fun to see him develop and grow and want to learn more.

Joshua has been on a math binge.  That is a thing, right?  I think he just wants to get to tessellations which are later in his book which if he stays on track will be accomplished on Monday.  He and Michael are playing soccer again.  Fortunately, Jacob took the session off and they are on the same team, so we only have one practice and one game each week!  It is fabulous!  We let the boys ride their bikes to practice, as well, and since practice is on Friday night that makes it so they can go and we can still go on a date.  This newfound freedom is great for them and great for us!  All of the boys have really gotten into Legos over the past month since several of the other homeschool boys their age love Legos and started a legomania club.  They wanted to go and play, so they started making lego creations to share which sparked the new love.  We even hosted the last meeting which was an adventure to do with Hyrum.  It has been fun to watch them explore and try new things.

 Michael is growing up faster and faster everyday.  Schooling with him has transformed quite a bit in ways I couldn't have imagined.  He is taking on more projects, taking greater initiative and producing better and better work.  For example, we were working on Illinois History this week and I wanted them to prepare presentations for Friday including a handout and a poster.  Michael jumped right on it and started by making a timeline.  He found a long timeline online, copied it to a word document, and then went through it choosing the events he wanted to include.  It is really neat to watch him branch out and explore on his own.

He is also writing a book and having me edit it just like he sees Daddy doing for Aunt Michelle.  Kids really do watch everything we do and imitate it!  The other thing he observed was how much fun Joshua had being in the musical last spring.  So, when he heard that the local community theater group was doing a kids play he really wanted to audition.  But with James' musical it didn't seem like a good idea, so we decided not to audition this time.  He was sad but dealt with it pretty well.  Then, one of James' actors had to withdraw from the musical and Michael quickly volunteered to take his place.  James was hesitant to put another one of his children into his musical, but after working with him and seeing that he really was a good fit he cast him.  (He had wanted a child for the role but didn't realize it until it was too late to get children to come.)  Michael is ecstatic!  He works on his part almost every day and is just thrilled to be a part of the show and get lots of daddy time.







"Into the Woods" is the musical James is doing this fall and it has become a family project yet again.  Fortunately, James has more helpers this time.  He has a choreographer, set design person, costume person and even a director for the orchestra!  And he has a real budget!  Auditions went well and he has a great cast.  I'm pretty sure that doing the musical has become his favorite part of his job.  The show will be Nov 2, 3 if you are interested in coming!

I am doing well and having fun balancing baby, work, school and house work as usual.  We did decide after 6 1/2 years that I would no longer be teaching for AIU (one of my schools).  That means no more chats or office hours!!!  Woot woot!  I actually had my last chat Thursday night and no one came.  What a way to end?  But to fill my time I agreed to play the flute for James in "Into the Woods" since he couldn't find anyone else.  I am learning very quickly that I haven't played real flue music in a really LONG time!  Church music and orchestra music are just not the same.  It will be hard work but it should also be pretty fun.  So, we spend a lot of time on the musical, but it is always fun to be working on a project together as a family.  And even though Joshua and Jacob are not directly involved they love learning the music and practicing with both myself and Michael.

So, we are having fun, working hard and loving life!  

Garden Update

I'm learning more and more about gardens this year. We planted some unusual things, like kohlrabi and tomatillos and beets and parsnips, and it's been fun to discover and learn and enjoy new things. We've learned some stuff.

We love kohlrabi. It's fresh and crisp, much like a jicama. It makes a great slaw and salad ingredient. We'll be doing that again.

Carrots don't do really well here. I don't know what we're doing wrong, but I think we might need a looser soil and a little less rain around planting time.

Parsnips are like carrots, above, but they grow such large leaves that the few parsnips we do have make it look like we have a ton. That's awesome, but they're still not ready yet, so we're anxiously awaiting the cooler weather that will help them sweeten up. Also, you shouldn't plant them until the ground is warm. One website told me to sit on freshly turned soil with a bare bum to feel the warmth. If it doesn't give you an uncomfortable chill, then it's ready. I just waited until June and left the actual temperature to guesswork much to the relief of my wife and neighbours.

Onions don't shade the ground, and as a result, they will be the first ones to die from a drought. True.

We get grumpy when the greenhouse doesn't do fall crop broccoli. Apparently the weather this year was just too hot at the wrong times. Fail.

Mint should always be planted in a container, not a large bed. ALWAYS. Even my mint in a pot on the porch is sending out runners to expand the colony. They will not find fertile ground, but open air. Mint: 0, James: 1. It's nice to win at least once in a while.

Tomatillos are fun, but they're only good for salsa before they ripen. After they ripen, they're much more appropriate for jam and salad, because man are they sweet! Also, drought and heat will effect production. We didn't get many of these. Certainly not enough for salsa.

Beets. Out whole family likes beets. We won the beet game this year by planting a ringed variety that looks like a target when you slice it. The look is cool, of course, but the real win is that there are almost no dark beet juices to stain your hands, counter, and tools. Really, they look almost too cool sitting sliced on your dinner plate. Little beet bulls eyes.

We don't really like beans. We grew six varieties this year ranging from an also ran green string bean to lima to purple to a marbled one with a fuzzy shell to our asparagus beans that are, at maturity, over 18" long. We don't want to eat them, we just want to have their vines grow beautifully up our sunflowers and over our trellises. The asparagus bean vines grew all the way up our 6' trellises, then all the way back to the ground again. They are awesome to behold. The super long beans, along with our kohlrabi, are what I affectionately call our "alien vegetables."

Sunflowers are awesome. We're getting ready to harvest our seeds, but I'm not sure we're going to get to them before the birds do. Only three of our sunflowers actually grew, but they 12 feet high and just spectacular. Michael is hoping that the heads will spill their seed on ground (Old Testament reference, anyone?) and grow a forest of them for next year. Um, yeah.

Funky weather finks with your expectations for harvest. We harvested our first crop of butternut squash (over a dozen large fruits) at the end of August. They're just finishing their warm ripening off, and they'll soon move to cold storage. We have another round ripening on the vines now. We're so excited for these, because we LOVE butternut squash in the winter. Thick creamy soups, here we come!

Hydrangeas are the order for fall planting. We're tearing out some yew bushes and replacing them with some giant maroon hydrangeas. I'm so excited. We also got some beautiful grasses and they'll have a lovely home in our side garden.

Two weeks of constant rain can undo an entire summer of drought, at least when it comes to your lawn. We are enjoying overgrown, lush, green, delicious grass in our own yard and in the whole city. It's like spring again with all the new, fresh, healthy grass. Even the dead spot where we kept our pool for a month of 100˚ weather is starting to sprout again. Hallelujah.

We almost tore out the giant forsythia next to our garage, but I did some googling on how to manage it, and I think I can make it beautiful for next year. I also learned that if I prune in the winter after the leaves have fallen, I can bring the branches indoors and force them to bloom. I fully intend to try this. Also, I learned from experience this year that forsythia only bloom on old wood—the branches bloom before anything new grows. I'm going to master that giant bush if it kills me, although I would have been happy with the small Japanese maple I picked out to replace it with. The maple would not have showered our yard with a blaze of yellow spring flowers, however, and so I'm happy with my choice.

So here we are, facing down the end of another season of planting and sowing, and wondering what our yard and garden will bring us next year. It's exciting to know that it will never be complete, but always changing and moving and evolving as we change and learn and evolve.

Creativity

I have learned over the years that kids are creative.  They know how to take things they have and turn them into things they want.  Their imaginations are incredible and can be used to entertain themselves and others for hours on end.  

The boys love playing games, but sometime they lose the pieces to their games.  So, what do they do?  They either create new ways to play the game or create new pieces.  This time they went with the latter.

So, here you go . . . lego men chess pieces.  I played against Michael, and because they had done such a good job I knew which pieces were which.  I was impressed by both their creativity and their accuracy.  I hope you get to play lego men chess someday, too!

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Two Months

I know that time flies and before you know it your infant is a baby and soon he will be a toddler.  Well, we are now into baby stage and I must admit that I love it!  Hyrum is now full of life!  He looks at you, smiles at you and if you are lucky he will laugh when you tickle him!  The boys are thrilled that Hyrum will now interact with them.  Jacob even played little pigs with Hyrum's toes.  It was super cute!

We did go in for our 2 month checkup this week.  Hyrum is now just under 10 lbs, so he is still pretty light, but he is 24 inches long.  Yea!  He is now 2 feet tall/long.  This explains why he needs to wear 3-6 month clothes, but that they are still a little baggy on him.

We are into a pretty regular schedule.  He still sleeps between every feeding which is great for getting things done.  He also normally takes one longer nap (about 3 hours) in the afternoon which is perfect for me!  In general he just sleeps a lot which explains how he fits in all of that growing.  He normally sleeps anywhere from 8 - 10 hours in the night.  Last night he went to bed around 7:30 or 8 and didn't get up until 4:30 in the morning.  Now we just need to push that time back an hour and it would be perfect!  But I really can't complain because he went back to bed and didn't get up again until 8 AM.  As I said before . . . he sleeps a lot!

Each of the boys has their favorite activity with Hyrum.  Michael likes to hold, calm and soothe him.  He also likes it when Hyrum will 'hug' him.  He is my go to guy for help when I need to make dinner or other fun mommy activities that need to be done.  Michael has also learned to change his wet diapers.  Having an older helper is fabulous!

Joshua's favorite activity is getting Hyrum to smile and/or laugh at him when possible.  Joshua loves energy and happiness and loves it even more when it comes from Hyrum.

Jacob has taken to reading to Hyrum every chance he gets.  Jacob is really into nursery rhymes right now, so it is quite cute to listen to him read nursery rhymes to Hyrum.  Jacob likes them so much that he has started memorizing his favorites.

Life with Hyrum is different but we all love him and cannot imagine life without him.

Garden

Even though we have been enjoying a lovely drought, with lots of watering, our garden is doing quite well.  We tried a few new things this year including tomatillos, kohlrabi, beets and much more.  The tomatillos and beets are just now ripening, so we will have to wait and see if we like them or not.  The kohlrabi was great in salads and will definitely be back next year.  Our tomatoes are on fire, so we have  enjoyed tomato sandwiches almost every day.  We have also had fun making and canning salsas.  I tried to make tomato jam but I don't think I did it correctly.  In the end it just tastes like ketchup, so at least I know the boys will like it.

We also have a praying mantis living with our tomatoes that a friend brought over.  Now we have fun trying to find him-its like Where's Waldo but better!

But our pride and joy is the sunflower.  There are three of them but this one is the best and is by far the biggest thing in our garden.  We love it!



Gardening is great and we love doing it every year.  Happy gardening to all!

Happy Anniversary!

We celebrated our 12th Anniversary on Friday!  Wow, I can't believe we have being married for twelve whole years.  After twelve years we are happier than we have ever been.  We felt like our anniversary was a celebration of our marriage but a celebration of the family we have created as well, so we spent Friday night celebrating together and Saturday night celebrating as a family.

Friday night we went to our favorite restaurant in town, Landmark, and enjoyed savory crepes for dinner and a sweet crepe for desert.  We split an amazing Banana Foster crepe and let me just say that it was amazing!!  Mmmmm. . .   Afterward James took me to Target to pick out a bike!  We have always talked about how fun it would be to go on family bike rides, but I have never had a bike.  No more!  What a great present!  On Saturday we had fun figuring out how to take Hyrum on our bike rides.  I think the pictures show our best solution.  I must admit that I felt like an Asian woman riding a bike with my baby.  





My gift is one that he will have to wait for, but I am making arrangements with the owner of Landmark (the restaurant mentioned above) for James to go in and work for a night in the kitchen.  He will get to be apart of the prep and evening work in the kitchen with the chef and others.  As you know, James loves to cook and has wondered if he would like owning a restaurant.  So, this is an opportunity to see what it would really be like.  Hopefully we will find a time soon and I am sure he will gladly blog the experience.

On Saturday we took the boys out for dinner and shopping.   It was amazing to see just how much food they could really eat.  Fortunately, we went out to Mexican, so we could feed them plenty and not pay a fortune.  It was a fun evening together as a family celebrating our anniversary.  The weekend was a great celebration of twelve amazing years with many more to come.

Babies are much smarter than mothers

I have learned that you forget a lot about babies after a 5 year break, but I am learning quickly and remembering that babies are pretty smart.  So, what makes babies smarter than mothers?

1.  Babies sleep when they are tired.  

Mommies try to get way too much done even when they are tired.  

2.  Babies eat when they are hungry.  

Mommies eat too much because they are tired (refer to #1)

3.  Babies don't eat when they are not hungry.  

I have seen many mothers latch their babies on every time their baby cries whether they are hungry, have a little gas pain or are just tired.  Now that I am able to nurse long term I can see why.  Just the other day we went to a play because several of the boys' friends were in it.  Well, Hyrum was tired and just wanted to sleep but would not fall asleep in my arms and cried to show his displeasure.  But I wanted to see the play, so hey, why not 'feed' him because then he will be quiet and I can enjoy the play, right?  I have recently learned that babies will nurse but not eat, so yes, I can latch him on anytime I want him to be quiet but he knows not to eat when he is not hungry and just enjoys the comfort that comes from suckling.  If you put food in my mouth I would eat it!  This makes babies much smarter than most of us.    

4.  Babies are not fooled by our attempts to control them.  

Hyrum usually sleeps at night for about 8 hours.  Not bad for his age, but if he wants to start that long sleep at 5 or 6 then I am not too thrilled.  So, I woke him up the other night around 9 and tried to feed him (refer to #3) and put him back to bed.  It was as if I had never woken him up.  He got up to eat 8 hours after the initial meal that he had initiated.  Darn!  

Hopefully I can learn lessons from my baby and if nothing else I can learn to trust him and quit trying to get him to do things the way I want them done.  :)

Hard Work

James tried an experiment with the boys on Monday of this week.  Here is how it was to work:  mom and dad were to try not to ask the boys to do anything (within reason) and that the boys were supposed to try to watch for things that needed to be done and just do it without being asked.  It started out nicely with the boys trying to watch for things to do and just do them.  By lunch things deteriorated a little but were still ok.  Then, dinner hit and dinner cleanup was a nightmare.  It took an entire hour for dinner to get cleaned up.  So, for family home evening we discussed the experiment.  James asked if they preferred being asked to do this and that all day or if they liked just trying to do it on their own.  They, of course, preferred not being asked over and over to do things.  Fortunately, we liked it better, too.  I mean really, what parent likes to ask their kids to clean up this and clean up that all day long.

But then we had to discuss how things didn't really get done well all day long without mom and dad asking them to do things.  But we talked about how this would take practice and hard work.  In particular we discussed how they had wasted so much time during dinner cleanup because they didn't just work hard and get it done.  In the end because they had taken so long we ran out of time before bedtime to get a family home evening treat.  So, they went to bed without one.  Now this is not such a big deal to you or me, but this was devastating to them.  Family home evening treat is something they look forward to all day long.

So, Tuesday was a new day and we started over.  It is really hard for me not to ask them to do things that I see need to be done, but I did pretty good.  During breakfast cleanup someone actually took the garbage out.  I even heard that person ask someone else to put a new bag in.  Impressive!  Lunch and school cleanup went well, but they were motivated by a trip to the pool with their friends.  I did have to tell them what needed to be done before they could go, so it wasn't a true test.  But after dinner it only took them 15 minutes to clean up (and it was a bigger cleanup than on Monday).  This was obviously a marked improvement over the 60 minute cleanup the night before.  They then asked me if they could watch something on Netflix and because they had time (because they worked hard) I said yes.

So, have they mastered hard work, not yet, but they are seeing the effects of hard work, watching for things that need to be done, and enjoying not being asked to do the basic things they are expected to do every day.  It is a win-win for all and will hopefully continue to improve with time.

Back to School

By the end of summer we are always ready to start school again and that time has come.  When I told the boys last week that we would be starting school soon they were super excited.  This is always a good sign.  I was a little concerned about doing school with a baby, so I spent all of last week prepping, and it paid off.  We are two days in and everything is going great!  Having all of my materials prepped ahead of time is a must now and it sure relieves stress when trying to take care of a baby and run school.

In June we decided to 'redo' our school room.  When we say redo we mean that we moved it out of the small room downstairs and into the family room (the big room).  It is perfect!  We have tons of storage, great bookshelves, a round table to work at and plenty of comfortable seating.  The boys like checklists, so I created new checklists for every day.  These were even more exciting this year because they could see what new things we were going to study, like Latin cognates.  It is amazing how easily wowed these guys are.  Another fun thing we are doing is memorizing scriptures-this may involve candy, and who can complain about that!

We learned which activities are best to do while Hyrum is eating (like Mommy reading time), so we always save them for that time-that was definitely an answer to prayer.  Lucky for us Hyrum usually sleeps through most of school.  I know this won't always be the case, but I will take it for now.

It is nice to be back into a routine and feel more normal-normal being defined as not pregnant.  I had my follow-up appointment today and everything looks good, so not only do I feel great but my doctor says I am good to go.  This is good because that is how I have been acting.  :)  So, we are back to normal (well a new normal) and enjoying life and school!

(I will add some pics tomorrow of our new school room and the boys hard at work.)

Hot Summer Days with our "New" Family

After enjoying a nice mild winter we are continuing to enjoy abnormally warm weather, though, now it is not as pleasurable.  Fortunately, the older boys have been able to enjoy camps to get them through.  They started with Cub Scout Day Camp (fortunately it wasn't quite as warm this week), basketball camp and next week they have Lego Robotics camp.  The last one is new to us and I am curious to see how it goes.  If it is amazing I promise to share.  While the older boys have been away Jacob has been at home trying to entertain himself.  Last week we had a couple of play dates to get him through.  Thank goodness for play dates!  

I must admit that I have missed the older boys just as much as Jacob . . . maybe more.  I found that on some days breakfast didn't get completely cleaned up until lunch time.  On Saturday after being gone all week, Michael just cleaned up breakfast without being asked.  It was great having him back!   And  I like seeing him, too.  :)  

Having a newborn definitely throws off your schedule.  I am glad, though, that he likes the swing and that the one we found is portable enough that I can take it anywhere in the house.  Hyrum is doing well and has been consistently sleeping through the night-that is defined as sleeping from about 10 or 11 PM until 6 AM.  Awesome!  And I just have to say that getting a good night sleep is fabulous!  During the day I am still learning how to figure out his schedule . . . when he is hungry, tired or just wants to cry for some undetermined reason.  

The boys LOVE having Hyrum around and are ready to have another baby.  That is not an announcement of any kind.  Michael and Joshua are getting really good at holding and taking care of the baby.  Jacob loves being involved and wishes that we would let him do more.  He is still just a little too young to do everything he wants and gets frustrated by it.  Soon, though, Hyrum will be big enough to play with and I think Jacob will become his favorite form of entertainment.

Michael loves getting Hyrum to do things, like hug him

and getting him to sit up.  He was so excited that he could get him to sit that he had to take pictures to share.

And EVERYONE, including James and myself, love trying to get him to smile.  

 And as you can see it is worth every ounce of effort we put in!  He is especially smiley in the morning after a good nights sleep!  I mean really, who isn't?  So, for these hot summer days we are enjoying fun camps, doing a little work, lots of gardening and canning, and playing with our newest family member!