I'm Getting Excited for Christmas!!!!!

This is Christmas 3 years ago! I can't believe my babies have grown up so much! It makes me sad. But anyway, I was in Wal-Mart yesterday and saw all the Christmas stuff out and I have to admit I get sucked right into all of it. I love this time of year when everyone is so selfless and giving. I am always in a good mood around the holidays. Is anyone else getting excited?

Our exciting weekend!

This is Jeremy prior to his Gall Bladder surgery. I can blog about it now because life is almost back to normal now. I took pictures after, but they are not very flattering, so I won't post them. Jeremy had his Gall Bladder out at LDS hospital on Thursday. The night before that, Logan was throwing up all night. Logan went with me to the hospital since he was recovering from the night before. Thursday night Jeremy kept me up with his pain and stuff and then Friday night Mallory started throwing up clear until 4 am. This was really hard because Jeremy was totally unable to help me and I was exhausted after three nights of no sleep. Saturday morning I walked around just crying. I am pretty sure my ability to cope with everything went bye-bye after the third night without sleep. 

I called my Relief Society and they arranged to bring in dinner for three nights. It was a big relief and allowed to me to get my sanity back and now we are doing just fine. Definitely not a weekend I want to repeat, but it did humble me to realize that I can't be tough all the time and take it all on. There is help there, I just need to be humble enough to ask for it.

Witches at Gardner Village

We go to Garder Village every year and walk around to see all of the witches with the kids. Although I never have gone on a Saturday before and do not recommend it to anyone. It was a zoo!
The kids had fun finding the witches all over and having their picture taken.
It was warm that day, so we ended up all taking our jackets off. It was a really nice day overall, I just will go on a weekday next year so we can walk around and maneuver more easily.

Star Wars and more Star Wars

Since going to Disneyland and seeing the "real" Darth Maul and Darth Vader, Logan has completely become obsessed with Star Wars. He has been watching episode 1 everyday for the last week and a half. We never let him watch it before thinking it would be too scary for him, but he loves it. I was worried about Darth Maul, but Logan has decided that he loves Darth Maul. The first time we watched it together and when Darth Maul gets killed, Logan actually started to cry with real tears and everything. I explained that he was the bad guy, but Logan said the "other guys" , Jedi, were the bad guys because they killed him. It was so cute. Who knew that Darth Maul would be his hero. He has some pretty good moves with a light saber now too. He watches the movie and copies whatever Darth Maul does. 

The Happiest Place on Earth! (4 days of Disneyland)

This is me and Mallory on the train. This was one of the kids favorite rides.
Lyndie refused to wear her ears we bought her as did her Dad. (Party Poopers!)
The Jungle Cruise. Another favorite of the kids.
This was the kids bunk beds. They are watching TV together in this picture. It was nice because they had their own TV and we had our own TV.
Getting ready for bed after a busy day at Disneyland.
Buzz Lightyear! The kids loved all the characters.
Captain Jack got a little fresh with me, but Logan was most excited to see him out of all the characters we saw.
Dad and Lyndie on the train.
Finding Nemo Submarine ride. The kids were glued to their windows until we got to a scary part, then they all leaned back at the same time.
Pluto!
Boo's door from Monsters Inc.
Minnie Mouse!

Mickey Mouse!
This is before the gates opened, so we took the chance to all get suncreen on here each day. It was in the 90's when we went.
Dad taking the kids for a walk while we waited for the shuttle to Disneyland.
They had a really cool story time in this room inside Innoventions. We went into this place anytime we were hot because it was about 60 degrees in here.
Jessie!
Woody!
This is Woody's Halloween round up. They had a little petting zoo for the kids. 
A lollipop to keep Lyndie happy!
What's Disneyland without a caramel apple?
Jasmine and Aladdin. The parents at this one were pretty aggressive. We had to fight to get this picture!
I talked Mallory and Logan into going on the Matterhorn with me. We couldn't sit all on one seat, so one of the employees offered to go with Logan in the same car as me and  Mallory. Logan thought that he was pretty cool to get to do that.
The token picture in front of the Mickey Mouse flowers! Lyndie slept a lot in her stroller. We also got one for Logan and that was the best choice we could have made. 

I have to say that this was the funnest thing we have ever done as a family and I actually teared up as we walked out the gates for the last time. I love disneyland and we will definitely go back one day soon.

Barbie "Bliss"

Logan and Mallory love to play Barbies together. I think it is so funny to see Logan play because he uses a high pitch voice to talk like the Barbies. I hope he will laugh at this when he is older.
And then he crashes the Barbies together over and over again to see where they land. (Ok, so he is definitely a boy.) 

p.s. Here is an update on the Binky issue with Lyndie.....She is officially off the Binky and doing well. I survived better than I thought I would.

Bye-Bye Binky (I hope)

So, Lyndie has had a binky for way too long and I need to get her off of it.  I read an idea online about how one mom bagged up all the binkies in the house and took her child to Build-A-Bear to "exchange" them for a bear. I am desparate, so I though we would try it.

After taking Logan to preschool, we went home and I told her what we were doing and that we needed to go find all of her binkies. When she found the first binky, I told her to put it in the bag and she turned and yelled "No! My Binky!" and ran into her room, slammed the door and sat on Mallory's bed. (Off to a great start)

After I bagged up all her binkies, we headed off for the mall. She picked out this bear all on her own and then we got it stuffed and while stuffing it the lady suggested Lyndie put her binkies inside the bear. I was shocked she did it, but she did and then we got her dressed and named her "Binky". I thought that was appropriate.

When we got home, she would not hold the bear to have a picture with it, so I am holding it next to her in the photo. On the way home I saw her turn the bear over and look for the hole that the binkies were in and I think she is mad at the bear for not giving them back to her.

I just laid her down for a nap and she has been asking for a binky now for an hour from her room. I gave her the bear to hold instead, but she still won't touch it now. Oh, well. Life as a mom was never supposed to be easy, only worth it one day....hopefully. If Lyndie ends up in therapy because I took her binky away, I will accept full responsibility.

Like Daddy, Like Daughters

I thought this was a cute picture. The girls especially love to color just like Dad. Mallory takes their coloring time very seriously. She is definitely going to be a little artist. I don't know if Lyndie is following Mallory or Dad, because she idols both of them. 

Lemonade out of Lemons

We decided to make the funeral a mini-vacation since we were there in California. The beach is always a great way to wear out the kids.

Lyndie had her 2nd birthday this weekend, so we celebrated at Grandma Hutchinson's house. I also had my 2nd birthday there and have pictures of me blowing out my candles.

She totally knows how to do it! I was so impressed.

The night of the funeral, all the adult grandkids went to San Francisco and enjoyed the sites. When we got there, we were shocked! It was freezing! We all bought jackets from the street vendors there and that still wasn't enough. It was crazy because we only drove about 40 min and the temperature dropped about 60 degress from we came from.

We went to see all the sea lions at pier 39.

Abe got called up on stage to help with a trick.

They all sat in chairs and then the performer guy took all the chairs away and they had to balance on each other. 

This is me and Lyndie at the beach. She would scream everytime she saw a wave coming for us. They were getting pretty high and did soak some people's stuff on the beach by us.

Grandma's Funeral

We traveled to California this weekend to say goodbye to Grandma Hutchinson for one last time. The funeral was excellent and it celebrated a life of service and of giving to others until the very end.  Almost all of the Grandkids made it to the funeral and were able to help. All the paul-bearers are the adult grandsons: Abe Carr, John Ishoy, Jon Kendall, Glen Ishoy, Steven Kendall, David Hutchinson, Joey Hutchinson, Mike Hutchinson, and Ben Carr.

All of these boys were sweating to death. There just happened to be a terrible heat wave in California this weekend and they all wore suits! Needless to say, this part of the service was rather quick and then we headed back to the church for a luncheon put on by the Relief Society.

Since we were all together and that never happens, we got everyone together for a big family picture. I won't type all the names, because that would take too long. But the picture has all the Hutchinson children and all the Hutchinson grandchildren and a few others who I will admit that I do not know.