What a Coincidence

The other day Nicholas did this:


















and then told me that he had a baby in his tummy. Which is a really funny coincidence because I have a baby in my tummy too! Like, a real one, not just one wrapped in my shirt. Ta da! The baby will be coming in May. We feel very blessed and excited.

We told Jacob and Nicholas about the baby a week ago. I feel like a living science experiment. Every day Jacob has asked, "Mommy, how big is your baby today?". I'd better start eating a lot of twinkies, because he's so excited for me to have a big tummy. And frankly, because of his enthusiasm, so am I! (Except, I'd rather my big tummy be made of baby and not twinkie.) I think Nicholas barely grasps the baby in the tummy concept enough to think up the above gag...but he'll get there.

We are thrilled. Because really, who wouldn't want more?














I realize that we are totally counting on the most beautiful baby in the world. Oh I love my new babies. The boys set the cute baby bar ridiculously high. Just after looking at these old pictures Matt and I can't wipe the smiles off of our faces.

Here's to a family of five!

How to Roll Dice

Should I get him in a tap class?

Dice are fun for this analytical 4 year old.

Here are the specs of our exciting dice game:

Roll, look for matches (triples, etc.), pull out matches, repeat until all dice are pulled out as matches, then roll all dice again. Repeat the process until I put my foot down and make him stop. Because he'll never stop. Never!














I've been saying this a lot lately, but the mantle of "the more challenging child" has just about 80% passed from Jacob to Nicholas. I'm not trying to label them (although I just did) but I'm happy that Jacob's chilling and that Nico's, um, throwing a lot more tantrums. It's really Nicholas's turn to be more demanding and difficult. It's so fun to see Jacob reason through things and take things in stride more. It's also nice to be more capable of dealing with Nicholas's crying since this is my second time 'round the toddler bend. Especially when he cries because I can't put his granola bar (or banana, popcicle, etc.) back together again after he breaks it. When will he learn it's impossible? Oh. Man.

Holy Halloween, Matt Man!

We Hutches were superheroes this Halloween. You might wonder, "Why superheroes? Why now?"

Well, it was basically a chance for me to make the kids wear those darn capes! And it worked! Jacob said about a month ago that he wanted to be Superman for Halloween. I told him (through gritted teeth...still bitter about the capes) that Superman wears a cape, so he would have to wear one. He quickly said never mind.

But the superhero bug had bitten him and soon enough he started to get excited about donning his cape and being CAPTAIN JACOB! Nicholas became NICO MAN, Matt became MATT MAN and I became ROBYN. Get it? Matt Man and Robyn? Genius.













Here they are wearing their masks. Masks that Nicholas tore off quickly and that Jacob miraculously wore the whole time!














This Halloween involved 3 rounds of trick or treating, 3 Halloween parties, and lots of candy. Oh, too much candy! But we had a great time. We went trick or treating first at Matt's school on Friday night. The boys were in heaven. Jacob pretty much floated from office to office beaming and saying, "Happy Halloween!" to anyone who would listen. Here's the one picture I took that night and I think it captures the tone of the evening beautifully.


















Trick or treating round 2 happened in our building (after an awesome party in our building that morning) on Saturday. Everyone should be jealous of trick or treating in an apartment building. Soooo warm!

Follow me, follow me to candy!


















And yes, their Halloween bags were brown paper sacks. Handmade only goes so far in our household.














Round 3 was a trunk or treat at our church. I can stomach a trunk or treat in a big city (why does Provo, Utah have them!?!), but I didn't take pictures because there's just not much to a trunk or treat. The Halloween party afterward inside the church was wonderful. It was especially gratifying to win the "Best Family Costume" prize! What did we win, you ask? A piece of paper that said, "Best Family Costume"! Woot woo! But, considering that we had just received 5 pounds of candy in the parking lot I think the piece of paper was prize enough.

After the church party we went home and practiced our angry faces. Like, you know, superheroes have to get angry when they are chasing the bad guys.




























Apparently really angry.














Like, really angry. (Nice dental work Matt!)














Here's my favorite Halloween 2009 picture.

Brothers are sweet.