Missing Shirts, Sleds, Sleep & Miss Indiana

After bringing in the mail, Noah noticed this picture on the back of a catalog. He asked, "Why is her shirt not all the way on?" Then he said, "Maybe she lost it."

Noah and Ian are enjoying our current ice storm in the following ways:

With a sled:

Without a sled:


Pulling the sled:



With the Abominable Snowman:




With hot chocolate:

Here are some friends and I at a Miss America party, where we did lots of jeering and jabbing at all of the ladies. Just imagine what we did when the Miss America pageant began:

And I do LOVE my Sunday School class more than a HUGE brownie with ice cream, caramel, chocolate, whipped cream AND a cherry. Here are the SS ladies last weekend at our church's Women's Retreat:

Please look closely at Perry's face on the left. Her name is really, Christi, but we need nicknames in our SS class, because all the ladies' moms in my SS class believed titling their daughter Christi, Kristy, Kristi (or Keri or Carrie or Kristen or Connie, etc), would really help set them apart:


Here we are in the hotel weaving humorous tales of our children's fascination with body parts, functions and sounds (we also ate lots of chocolate and stayed up WAY past sunset):

Jack's Younger Brother's Fantastical Reality

On Saturday afternoon, Noah and I saw the animated movie, "Bolt". It is about a television-star dog, who doesn't know that all his TV super powers are pretend (like his Super Bark which causes the bad guys to retreat). So, this movie, while an excellent one, didn't quite make sense for Noah--since Noah lives in his own make-believe world. For our eldest child, pretend and reality closely intertwine.

For example, Noah has his older brother Jack, who is nine-years-old, whose birthday is after Noah's, who used to be called Brody Braeden, but his name was changed to Jack Brody Braeden after Noah's babysitter's younger brother, Jack, came over. When asked why Jack doesn't have our last name, Noah (WAY too quickly) said, "He does, he has four names--Jack Brody Braeden Hutchins." On Saturday night, our friends asked Noah, "Where's Jack?" and he explained Jack was in the shower (and previously he had been on the school bus, where Jack spends a majority of his time). Last week, Noah and Colton were in the backyard calling for Jack over the fence to come home and help them kill a bee, because, "Jack's shoes are really a lot bigger than ours."

Then, there's Noah's dog, Sketcher, who lives in our backyard. "He's 10-years-old, so he's really tall" (because to Noah, the older you are, the taller you are). When we are in the backyard, Sketcher is playing in someone else's backyard (he's so shy, that Sketcher).

I completely enjoy Noah's belief of reality. In my world, I have a personal chef, maid, and a 44-year old massage therapist, who's REALLY, REALLY tall.

Ian likes to pretend Mommy's house shoes do NOT look like elf shoes.

And for posterity sake, here's a video that only a mommy (or daddy, grandparents or JerJer) could love. With all certainty, the rest of you will flee quickly, but, if you wish, take a gander while you wait for American Idol to begin:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NT_FGVi8tBk

Less words, more posing

It's officially 2009 and I'm still recovering from 2008. But here's a sample from both years:

All dolled up for Seth's work Christmas soiree

Gingerbread Goodness:

Christmas Eve with my mom and Jer Jer:

Opening gifts at our house:

Santa preparations:

Reaping Santa's reward for delicious treats:


Ian and cousin Jesstine sharing some knock-knock jokes:

My niece (I LOVE being able to say that), MY NIECE is enjoying her time here since arriving four months ago:

New Year's revelry at the bowling alley (posing was required to be a part of this evening):

Peace Out 2008...