My Puppy Dogs

We are not finding out the gender of this baby ahead of time. We didn't with the boys and feel excited to find out the gender at the birth again. I can definitely see the pros of finding out ahead of time and I realize it's a surprise to find out at the ultrasound, but we're just suckers for the high drama surprise. That being said, with two boys in our family we can't help feeling a bit more longing for a girl this time around and a bit more uncertain that we'll get one.

It's weird to think that we might never have a girl. We would be very happy with all boys. I would love, love, love another little boy. Ooh, just love it. That being said, Jacob and Nicholas have just been pretty manly lately, engaging in the types of general tom-foolery my angel sister and I would never have dreamed of. EVER. And sometimes, sometimes the thought of more men in the house isn't a comforting one.

I mentioned these thoughts to a friend and she told me that her husband only has brothers and that they're just like a bunch of puppy dogs when they're together, even as adults. The imagery was endearing and captivating.

A few days later the boys were going to watch a show and they both jumped into this chair. I braced myself for fighting, but it didn't come. Jacob kept saying it was "built for two". They giggled, rocked, commented on the show, and shared the chair happily for 10 minutes. They even parted amicably. Amicably!































I guess soon enough it will be football, not "Lighting McQueen" that they're watching. Just maybe in separate chairs...














OK, after rereading this I realize that was a pretty girly moment for them. More like kittens than puppies. Oh well, more wrestling posts to come.

Baby, It's Cold Outside

So, so, so, so, so, so cold.

So we bundle,


















and we blow dry.

Gingerbread's for Suckers

My mom and dad came to visit a few weeks ago (as did Matt's parents and sister...but we're getting there one post at a time). One of the highlights of their trip was making Christmas trains. We discussed making homemade gingerbread for about a minute and then struck upon graham crackers! Voila! Seriously, until your kids are old enough to care about having an authentic gingerbread experience, go graham! And even then are there lots of kids who do care about an authentic gingerbread experience? Hmmm.

Another debate we had that lasted about 1 second was whether the boys should build and decorate the train or just decorate it. Answer? Just decorate it. Always just decorate it at these ages. Sure creativity and building skills are nice things to develop, but again, not that day in our household. Dad was commissioned with the train building while the rest of us adults pondered if the kids were even going to want to decorate them. I mean, the eternal question of decorating a train with candy is: put the candy on the train or in your mouth? We assumed that the answer was in your mouth. Always in your mouth.

Much to our delight (and surprise) they dove right in! We pointed out some strategically piped frosting as good sticky points for their candy and they got busy.




























The boys had a great time choosing what to put where and, well, eating candy. Apparently the two are not mutually exclusive!




























Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for this fun and tasty activity. Veeery tasty.

Fifty Percent

When I posted on my blog last night Matt pointed out that that this year I posted about 50% less than I did in 2008. At first I sort of shrugged at his comment and mumbled something that had the words "pregnancy", "busy", and "dishes" in it.

I don't know why, but we started looking at old posts from when we lived in Atlanta. Then the guilt came. Those archives were magical. There were so many little things about our old life that I had loved and since forgotten. My sunshine-filled kitchen, the view out of our back windows, the driveway/play area, the lovely road we lived on, so many things. To say nothing of the joys of when Jacob was our one and only, to when he became a big brother, to sweet mop topped Nicholas, to learning how to be parents of two. I loved looking back at the pictures AND the stories.

In all of the living we've been doing I had forgotten that Jacob wasn't always a questioning 4 year old. Completely forgotten. And Nicholas' perfectly round baby face and eyes had been replaced by his more grown up current shape. We spent a while clicking through and while we did we found ourselves laughing and reminiscing a lot. I actually cried a little bit I laughed so hard at this post.

Now, I really have been busy and pregnant and doing a lot of dishes in '09, but we've also been having a lot of fun. Fun vacations, fun visitors, fun trips to the park, fun times at home, and other fun stuff (fun). And really, that "fun" is indicative of our blessings. Blessings fit to record. Even the not so fun is something to be remembered, learned from and laughed at later. I've always believed this about this blog, but the "fruits of the blog" really hit home last night.

With this season of our life with only 2 kids winding down and the promise of a darling new baby on the horizon I am, ahem, resolved to post more. I realize again how much we benefit from it. So, expect more blogs, more "fun" and some major catch up from '09 in the coming months. Oh, and more pictures of these fellows.

Brothers Gotta Hug

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.

Oh Blogger, Where Art Thou?

I'm straightening my couch cushions. It just keeps me too busy to blog.














I wonder who's messing them up!?! Hmmmm.

My Artist

After years of art time consisting of 5 minutes of erratic scribbling I am so happy to say that things have changed. Overnight.

Jacob spent twenty focused, chatty minutes at the table with his art supplies.














And the result is intelligible!

Allow me to explain his picture. Trust me, he explained it to me at length -- I'm an expert.

Note the armless person at the top of the picture. That's Jacob. He's in an airplane. Apparently an invisible airplane. Doesn't his neck look more like a thorax? Anyway...he's flying above his city. To the left there's an orange building. Not as big as the "serious tower" (Sears), but big. Next to that are assorted cars. The cutest cars in the world. And then to the right there's a green tunnel.














Isn't this amazing?!? Bravo J.J.! He's now producing ridiculous amounts of art. Which is producing ridiculous amounts of guilt in mom as she hangs each piece in the balance. To keep or not to keep. Sigh.