diagnosis of a 4 year old

Yesterday Addie was the doctor, Macie the nurse, and I was the patient. After looking long and hard at my leg, Addie declared, "I know why you're sick. You have bugs in you. Bugs and sheep." The next minute was spent being poked by Macie and Addie, attempting to remove the bugs and sheep. Addie then thought she should look in my ear. "Oh!" she said, "there is something else. You have a tiny lady inside...and she's screaming!"

I love my life.

the "homemade" tree

We have two trees this year, our normal big tree, and our little 4 footer. We don't have many ornaments, and I couldn't justify spending more money just so we could have two trees. Instead, we have been decorating the little one with things we have found around the house and recycled. It's been so much fun being creative, that we just might make this a tradition every year!

What we've put on the tree:

1. Popsicle stick and yarn ornaments, colored with markers

2. Bottle cap ornaments, painted by the kids, with yarn (I had been saving bottle caps for months, knowing the perfect craft would come along, and I'm so glad it was this!)

3. Orange tulle, left over from Addie's Halloween costume

4. Yellow pipe-cleaner star on top

Oh yeah, let the creative juices flow!

the first birthday of a third child

It was so sad. He didn't even like his own cake.

Poor Carson. His birthday was Nov 18th. We were in Michigan that day for my brother's wedding without Jason, so we waited to celebrate. THEN we waited until Thanksgiving so my whole family would be there. THEN we waited until after Thanksgiving dinner, naps, games, and pie to celebrate. By then he was a year and a week, abysmally tired, and so was everyone else...so it wasn't much of a celebration. The sad reality of the third child.

And now he's 13 months old, and I never even took his 12 month picture! Probably the most important one after doing it all his life, and it's not done. I'm sorry, Carson. I love you just as much, I swear it!

Here are the things I want to remember about you when you first turned one:

-You love wheels! You will push anything around our house as long as it has wheels (doll strollers and trucks being your top two favorites), and it never ceases to amaze me how quickly you find the wheels on laundry baskets, rolling carts, chairs, etc. Wheels, wheels, wheels!

-You are quick to smile, and a have an eight-tooth toothy grin.

-You love cereal, milk and peanut butter & jam sandwiches, and hate broccoli, rice and pasta in any other form than spaghetti.

-Though you just learned to crawl about three weeks ago, you now LOVE it and crawl everywhere and get into everything (though, thankfully, you have no interest in the Christmas tree!)

-Your favorite place is our lazy-susan cereal cupboard. Although our cereal boxes are often strewn across the kitchen, it never bothers me. I know how much you love to get them out, put them away, hide trucks in the boxes and push them around the floor.

-You light up in the morning when you first get to see your sisters.

-You still love Mom better than anyone, which she secretly loves and cherishes.

-Your forehead-to-forehead hugs are just as cuddly and sweet as any arm-around-the-neck-hug.

We love you, Carson, and can't believe you are ONE!

bundles at the park

After a week of sickness, the kids were ready to go OUT!

Macie's hair always looks like this

happily ever afters

Adelyn is so sweet and sensitive. She is always right on the edge of giggling hysterically or crying big crocodile tears. She just wears her heart on her sleeve. I love that she always looks for the good in everything and shares every positive experience with anyone that will listen to her.

Over Thanksgiving we visited my parents in MI for my little brother's wedding. While there, Addie was taking an especially long time getting out of the car. Here is the conversation Jason shared with me afterward--

JASON: "Addie, what are you doing? Why are you taking so long to get out of the car?"

ADDIE: "Well, I'm thinking about nice things..."

JASON: "You are? What types of things?"

ADDIE: "Oh, just animals and Happily Ever Afters."

**My heart just melted!**

a little late, but always welcome

I know Thanksgiving was several weeks ago, but today I am feeling so much gratitude!

I am grateful for my awesome, silly, cuddly family! We love being together, playing Candyland or cribbage or tag or playdough, and we laugh and tickle and sing and dance.

I'm grateful for my car (and for the deer that squashed our other car last Christmas so we could get the one we have now). It is so nice to spread out, stretch our legs, and have a DVD player in there on days when one is absolutely necessary.

I'm grateful for my mom and sisters. I love being able to call them and chat anytime, and be weird or whiney or crazy, and know they'll still want to talk to me tomorrow.

I am grateful to have a house to live in, food in our fridge (and even a little extra on occassion to eat out), and the Christmas tree in our living room (regardless of how sparsely it is decorated).

But most of all, I am grateful for Jason. He really keeps me sane and in touch with what is worth my emotional energy, and what is not. He also likes to spoil me when possible, and forgive me when I am unbelievably grouchy. And because of his dedication and hard work, I am able to stay at home and read books to my adorable little children whenever I want. It's easy to forget how blessed I am to be able to do that, but I truly love it, and am so thankful to be a mother who is able to just be at home and on-call.

My life is so good!

What do a cow, a duck and a butterfly have in common?

They're all very HAIRY!

I've used the duck costume for each of our kids, and it was pretty small for Carson (I think it's a 3-6 mos costume, and he's nearly a year!) so we taped the footies on him. I made Addie's tutu, wings (they were time-consuming), and her pipe-cleaner antennaes. She loved it, and I think she looks pretty. As for Macie, a few days before Halloween she delcared she wanted to be a cow. She was going to be a butterfly like Addie, but out of nowhere, decided she just HAD to be a cow. So, a cow she was. Our favorite cow! I have to say, even though her costume was so easy, she definitely stole the show. Isn't she adorable? And while I love making the costumes and find a lot of satisfaction in doing it, I find that I'm relieved every year when Halloween is over. Until next year...

from pumpkins to jack-o-lanterns

Our pumpkin adventure...

Carson hates sitting in grass, and the pumpkin patch wasn't any different.

This was our attempt at a family picture at the end of a long, fun day. Addie absolutely refused to take the picture, that's why she is off by herself, having a tantrum over a little sliver in her finger. Poor Addie. Isn't the farm beautiful?

Finished product! We checked out a book from the libary with face ideas, so the girls picked out their designs that way. From left to right we have Macie's pumpkin (the girl), Addie's pumpkin (the happy face), and Carson's (which I did myself).

Happy Halloween!

11, 13, 25, 31, and 0

eleven. The number of months Carson has been with us! He is 11 months old. I can't believe our boy is almost a one year old! He is so small, it's hard to believe we'll soon be celebrating his birthday.

thirteen. This is as high as Macie can count on her own. She is already a trickster and loves doing or saying anything contrary to what I do or say, enjoys helping me do my chores, and loves being the biggest sister while Addie is away at preschool.

twenty-five. This is how many days until Grandma and Grandpa Hutchinson come to see us on the train, and Addie CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THEM! It is also approximately how many times per day Addie talks about getting/owning/buying a pet. "When can I get a pet?" "Can we go to the pet store and see the pets?" "Can I have a turtle/kitty/elephant/dog?" "I'm a kitty, and you're my mommy." "Why can't I have a pet?" "Mom, I can work hard and take care of it!" (I'm pushing for a dog for Christmas.)

thirty-one. The amount of ghost pretzels I made for the Edgar Allan Poe book club this week! Aren't they cute?

ZERO! The amount of insurance companies Jason has left to be approved on! YAY! It sometimes felt like this day would never come. Now he can see EVERYONE and his schedule is picking up quickly. We're hoping in a month that he'll be able to finally finally finally add another day of work. Whew. It's been a long 5 months, but we know it will totally be worth it in the long run.

He visited Addie's preschool class on Wednesday (it was their medical professionals day) and spoke to the kids about their eyes, and then gave everyone a free eye screening. He and I had a good time, and Addie was proud to show him off.

It's been a good month, and we're all looking forward to Halloween!

rain, rain, stay all day, come and play any day!

I love the fall and I love rain, which means I have been LOVING the weather we've had the last few weeks. We've had plenty of overcast and rainy days, the air is getting brisk and the leaves are starting to change...and fortunately for us, we have PLENTY of gorgeous leaves!

I was fortunate to catch these sweet sister memories recently. Watching my girls play together, hearing their little secret giggles, fills me with so much joy. Addie loves showing Macie bugs, new dances, how to sing, the proper way to be a kitty, and Macie just eats it all up. For her, Addie sparkles. I hope to capture on film their reunion hug after Addie has been at preschool. The first time I nearly squealed out loud! It is adorable! (On film? Ha!)

Typical of them- Addie in front, and Macie as happy as can be to be following.

I love her smile peeking out from underneath the umbrella, she is just so happy!

I believe she was singing to herself here.

Bug inspection in the rain! And yes, I realize we reallyreallyreally need to get these girls some wellies! I'm waiting to find some on an incredibly awesome sale...

look at this! how exciting!

http://visionsource-fredericksburg.eyehub.com/index.cfm?content.display&pageID=107

9 months & more

Carson has made it! He has now been out as long as he was in!

Fun with makeup. Yes, they're even wearing mascara!

When we can get Addie to smile normally, she is just sooo pretty. Don't you think so? Or am I just a biased mother? Good thing I don't have to worry about boys quite yet.

In case you were curious, here's what we look like opening our mouths as wide as we can-

And here is Macie refusing to do anything she doesn't want to do. This hilarious pouty face is new.

And here is cute cousin Hannah! Well, daughter of Jason's cousin Katie. (First cousin once removed, right? I have no idea.) Her and her parents came for a short visit. It was great having them- we thoroughly enjoyed beating them in every game we played. Ha!