Have you met my husband....

....the Heat Miser (Ames has always had the most talented hair)



And with all the little misers...

A little Christmas fun...

...was had by all today, even tho we were in shorts and 70 degree temperatures.


The kids weren't sure at first if this was the real Santa or just one of his helpers. But, he knew all their names....curious
...so they told him what they wanted for Christmas, just in case. Better safe than sorry, especially 5 days before the big day!!





What a fantastic idea!!!! Super-sized ornaments and presents just ripe for the climbing! It is always such fun as a parent when you can say "yes, you can climb on that" and the kids had a ball (no pun intended), even if Jack wouldn't smile for his mama!


The day drew towards an end with a little gingerbread decorating...




The elves were hard at work.....



....Voila!! A masterpiece!!






And now, the sun has set, the temperature is dropping (no really, like to the 20s) and tomorrow will feel like the first day of winter! We are snuggled in together watching the Polar Express, having grilled cheese for dinner, and life is good.

Headphones...

..are a fantastic invention. They allow you to have a little privacy in your musical enjoyment and allow others to have a little peace while you listen. We don't all like the same kinds of music, and headphones are a great solution to many an artistic disagreement. Whoever invented the headphones for the car..... a genius! How great that I can listen to my music and the kids can listen to theirs, and never the two shall meet. Except, like all other electronic devices, my kids are more fascinated with the gadget than they are concerned with its functionality. Hence today, while running errands, even tho we were all listening to the same Christmas carols on a CD, the boys insisted on taking turns wearing the headphones. Now, this doesn't bother me. They worked out the sharing system all on their own and it was going quite nicely. My only complaint, that we had to listen to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer over and over and over. The humorous part of the story lies in the volume analysis. We were "that car"...that car that you pull up next to at the stoplight and can't help but look at because it is vibrating!! "That car" where the bass is so high and the volume so loud that you can actually feel the beat of the other car inside your car....you know, you've been there, too. Except herein lies the difference, we didn't have the bass up and we didn't blast it out in volume...no need. I have Will. Will, wearing the headphones, sang Rudolph loudly and proudly. In fact, you could even say he screamed. LOUDLY and proudly. So much so that I worried for the hearing loss of my youngest, Sam. Will sang with such gusto that he literally shook the car. He sang so that he could hear the music in his headphones and still hear himself above it all. Now those of you who know Will, know that volume control is not his forte, but this surpassed anything you have ever witnessed. As we drove down the street vibrating and pulsating to the beat, people could feel our Christmas spirit. And when we stopped at every stoplight, people turned and stared. I'm sure they thought --Bad mother listening to her music so loud with those babies in the car!! No, no....just a little Willie Christmas cheer. So, if you see me later today and I ask you to repeat yourself, or I shout my answer back at you, don't worry. I just have a little leftover Rudolph damage to the eardrums. Merry Christmas!!

Thank you...

Madagascar 2!!! Thank you for introducing my son Will (age 5) to the wonder of breasts! My family loves Madagascar 1, it was silly, yes, but sweet and very funny. The sequel left much to be desired. Wildly inappropriate and just plain stupid (yes, in case my kids are reading this, I know that isn't a nice word, but it just fit). In one scene of the movie there is a male hippo (Moto Moto) who is flexing his very hairy, large pecs. Which brings the question into Will's mind, isn't that a boy hippo? Answer: yes. Then why does he have boobies? My oh my, how the mind reels with possible answers. We deal with the situation in what seems to us an age-appropriate way. Yet, the seed has been planted. Everywhere we go for the next several days, weeks, everything is about "boobies." Hers are big, she doesn't have any, why are boys' so small, do they grow when you are a grown up or is that just for hippos? If boy boobies are big does that mean they have milk inside...and the questions go on and on. First, I must say that I told Will not to call them boobies. That for men, it is just a chest....that somehow translated in Will-speak to "chesties." So, for those of you who need an anatomy refresher...women have boobies and men have chesties. It just won't stop!! Even now as we sit and watch Shrek the Halls, Will doesn't see the funny decorations Shrek has put on their house (including such 5 year old classics as a toilet seat on the door)...no, he asks what are those two circles on Fiona's chest? You know...her boobies? Nice. Thanks to Dream Works for this early education in the differences in our anatomy. I guess we have learned one thing thru it all....Will is definitely a boob man (sorry, chesty man)!

A moment in time....

This may seem silly to most, but to me captured a precious moment in time. We decided to eat dinner in the den, in front of the Muppet Christmas movie (not the same as when we were kids, but the closest my 4 have been to the Muppets..how sad, what happened to the Muppets?). We had the oh so delicious and nutritious dinner of taquitos and nachos which my kiddos love. Seconds were called for and Ames put in another pan of nachos. When they came out of the oven, he called all 4 kids into the kitchen to wait for their helpings and they stood, just like this..


...my little stair steps

....(not for long, poor Annie is doomed to be dwarfed by 3 big boys) all in a row waiting for daddy's delicious nachos. These are the pictures I need to remember when they are driving me CRAZY, running thru the house like wildfire with volume turned up high after way too much Christmas sugar! These are the moments I will miss all too soon. I know someday I'll miss the hot wheels cars under my feet every where I step, the stinky socks and muddy shoes in every room of the house, the wet towels and dirty clothes left in the floor of my room, and much much more. But most of all, I know I'll miss the precious stair steps, waiting patiently for seconds of nachos, eating dinner in the den and watching (and completely enthralled by) the Muppet Christmas movie.

An afternoon with Wags....

Ah, Hut Hut's house....the land of opportunity!!




So many choking hazards, so little time!



Look Dad, forget ducks! I got my first deer!!!!




Wow! Look at all these cords...what does this one do?






Um, I'm a little scared now. Can I call my mom???? HELP!

Birthday blessings

At chapel yesterday, Sammy got to go up front for his birthday blessing. I wasn't going to post this picture since it isn't the cutest of Sam, or my friend Ann the music teacher, until I got Ames' comment when I sent it to him...


"He's a muffin...but in that pic with that face and that sweater, he looks a little like Freddy Kreuger!!"

Nice!
(maybe if Freddy had been this cute and had birthday blessings, there would have been no nightmares on elm street...just a thought)

Interpretation is everything...

The nativity as seen by Sam...three baby Jesus' all in a row, sleeping peacefully on the hutch.




And the nativity as seen by Will...no baby Jesus in sight (he's one of the triplets on the hutch, the one that looks like a bean), but there are the cameo appearances of a hippo, gorilla, lion, elephant and giraffe. It's all about interpretation.

Happy Birthday Sam!!

What more can a boy want on his 4th birthday than to wake up to......SNOW!!!!

Happy Birthday Sam! We love you!






Birthday fun continues...



...with presents, always a good thing


...and cake!





Way to go, Sammy!!

The Christmas Program

It is a little known fact about that first Christmas that all the very dapper shepherds wore bow ties...




...and so did one very handsome wise man.

Holidaze....

Why is it that we wait and wait for Christmas all year and then when it finally comes, we make ourselves so busy, so crazy that we miss it! The house is finally decorated, inside and out (or at least as much as it is going to be), the presents are mostly bought, and school is almost over. This is the beginning of my favorite time of year...when the kids are out of school and the craziness is finished and all we have left to do is rejoice, relax and renew our tired spirits. The most amazing gifts of Christmas for me are the pure and innocent belief of my children, the love and laughter of our family together, and the time to enjoy it all. And although we are missing our daddy right now while he works tirelessly on a big case, we look forward to what we know lies ahead....celebrating Sam's birthday, end of school Christmas parties, Daddy finishing his work, and the true beginning of our Christmas time together. I am the one who is always weeping when the church choir sings Oh Come All Ye Faithful, when my children read the story of the birth of Jesus on Christmas Eve and light the advent candles, and when my sweet husband and I get to finally sit on the couch and snuggle with all 4 little ones sleeping, knowing that Santa has come and that there is peace in our home and in our hearts. It seems appropriate that my first posting on this amazing blog that Ames so sweetly put together for me is about Christmas. Love to him and to all my precious babies, and thanks to God for the incredible gift of his Son, without which, I wouldn't get to experience this magic.

Hutton Dialogues, Part Two

highs and lows.....

sammy: my high is that i got to sing in my christmas program and my low is that i wanted the toy that preston had at school.

jack: i have no lows, only 3 highs. first, my high is right now. my 2nd high is that i have no homework all week. and my last high is....i don't remember anymore.

will: mine are just the same as jack's

jack: yours can't be the same. you don't have any homework.

will: i know. i'm happy that you don't and i can't remember the other one either.

the end

(Ed. note: We do "highs and lows" at dinner every night so that the family can share the favorite and least favorite parts of our days. Cathy was particularly tickled by this one.)

Hutton Dialogues, Part One

jack: mom i have a joke for you

mom: ok

jack: why do fish not like to play tennis?

mom: why?

jack: because they get caught in the net. doyagetit. ido. (said all together..very quickly)

mom (laughing): yea, i get it. good one.

sammy: mom, i have a joke for you

mom: you do? what is it?

sammy: why do fish not like ennis?

mom: why?

sammy: cause they are caught in the nets. do ya get it?

mom: yea, i get it. do you get it?

sammy: no.......(long pause) not really. what's a ennis?

the end

Lucky 21

Twenty-one years ago tonight, I had my first ever date with the love of my life--my wife, Cathy. We were sophmores in high school, we went to see Cinderella (I was so romantic then) and then went to a Christmas party. I was lucky then and remain lucky now to have such a wonderful, loving, blind-to-my-many-faults, patient, beautiful woman be a part of my life and the mother of our children. While it may say something about her judge of character that she accepted my plea to go on that first date, I am glad that she said yes then...and again 7 years later to marry me...and that she's still with me tonight.

Cat--I love you now and always will.

Trees, Plants and Money

Jack brought home one of his school assignments yesterday. It was a very creative booklet he'd prepared called "Thanks for Thanksgiving! By Jack" The front was decorated with an expertly colored turkey, fall leaves, and various appropriate comments such as "not very cold" and "best turkey."

Inside, Jack had three lists--presumably of things he's thankful for--that were so great that I had to post them just as he wrote them:

PEOPLE
-- Mom/Dad
-- Teacher (Mrs. Ratliff)
-- GOD
-- SS Teacher
-- Jack W. (firend)
-- Matt (firend)
-- Me
-- Graham (firend)

PLACES
-- School
-- Home
-- Stores
-- Abretum
-- North Carlina
-- forest
-- Aston
-- W.C. Stateyom

THINGS
-- Trees
-- Plants
-- Money
-- Backpacks
-- Food
-- Animal
-- Water
-- Leaves