Aquarium Adventures!

On Saturday, we headed to the aquarium to get out of the house and do something other than injure ourselves playing Wii!;)

My favorite thing is the owls...just because I have a minor fascination with them right now.

Luke and Evan love the huge tank with all the manatees, fish, turtles, etc.

There was a new additions of anteaters there...always a Hutcheson favorite because they are so adorably ugly!

I am not sure what the bizarre pose is in the first picture!

Jon discovered that Luke's favorite way to see the aquarium is while being held by someone....usually me but since Daddy was there he got the honors.;)

Happy 2010!

We had a quiet but very lovely New Year's Eve just the 4 of us! When you have several little people keeping you busy and no sitter, midnight is more laughable than doable...at least here for me!

We had a very nice dinner and toasted 2010 early with Champagne and Sparkling "beer"(grape juice). Jon did some crafts with the kids....his attempt to make up for my total deficiency in this category. Soon he will be knitting for the children since I don't do that either. The horror!

We also had a very productive day...all things Christmas were undone and put away neatly.

Jon has absolutely no resolutions because he never does but I am trying to drink more water and I am more resolved than ever to stay out of the loony bin this year!

After Christmas...

Well it is a holiday after all....so the Happy Hutcheson's always have a virus or 2! This time it was just a throat virus not strep but the boys were pretty sick for a couple days. Lots of Dora videos and naps on the couch.

If looking for a bright spot it definitely wasn't as bad as The Rotavirus Christmas were Jon, Evan and I were all sick and managed to infect like 8 other people.;)

Plus, we are happy to report the Stouts did not catch the yuck so they may return to our house at some point!

More Christmas

We had a lovely day with The Stouts for Christmas and even convinced them to spend the night so we could stay up super late....like 10:30 for the boring parents of little boys crowd!:)

We had a lovely dinner: Crab and Celery Remoulade,Beef Tenderloin Roast with Madeira Sauce, Roasted Potato, Carrot and Parsnip Coins and a Radicchio and Gruyere Salad with Walnuts. Holly made a decadent cake from Southern Living a chocolate citrus cake with candied oranges. The ganache was heavenly.

The boys were pretty well behaved and played lots of Wii. We relaxed as much as possible as you can with 4 active little maniacs. We did get to play a game after they all went to bed.

The one lowlight was that E started feeling sick before bed and woke up with a fever and throat infection! Can't be a holiday here without illness but luckily none of the Stouts got sick.

Holly and I were off the next morning to meet Carla for shopping and lunch....we had a blast!

We loved spending Christmas with the Stouts!

Christmas

We woke up to snow on Christmas morning, which was super fun for the boys!

Again, Jon shot mostly video on Christmas morning...he is working on editing it. The good news is that I got a new camera that does video so I can do that now instead of relying on Mr. ADD.

The boys got tons of stuff and enjoyed everything about getting gifts...and giving them. Some of Evan's highlights were: a new scooter from Uncle Matt and Aunt Cristen, Wii, the Marble Race Game and Mousetrap (the board game). Luke's highlights: The Little Pet Hospital, his new play microwave for the kitchen and his new Lego Fire Engine from Santa. Both boys loved the Thomas Train Table from Grandma and Papa! They got lots of new Thomas stuff including a mining station, crane and engine crossing that has lights and sounds.

Jon got his new black Converse (he thinks he is uber chic now;)), his bright orange Bengals shirt and some spices from The Nelsons that he loved.

I got a new camera!!!! I also got a beautiful new sweater from the Nelsons , a GPS for the car and an owl necklace i had been coveting from James Avery.

We were are very grateful and happy for our gifts!

We hung around in the morning, went for a snowy run and got ready for our fabulous friends the Stouts to come celebrate Christmas with us!

Christmas Eve

We had a busy Christmas Eve. Daddy was kind enough to keep the kids entertained so I could make lasagna, meatballs and gravy for dinner...the pics don't do it justice, it was SOOO good!

The boys went shopping with Daddy and to the dreaded mall play area, much to my chagrin. They also made a gingerbread house. It snowed most of the day but really picked up towards the evening. The pics I took out on the patio aren't great but I was sure no one would believe we actually had snow here. A White Christmas here is almost impossible so everyone here was very excited!

I slipped away for church and then we had a very nice dinner before we left out cookies,carrots and milk for Santa and his reindeer. Jon and I enjoyed some champagne while he put together the train table from Grandma and Papa.

Christmas is SO much fun with kids, but PHEW it can be pretty tiring!;)

Evan and Luke's Christmas Show

These are the boys in the Christmas Show finery...Luke's little reindeer vest was a hand-me-down from Ms. Holly and we loved it!

Jon is going to have to add his videos here from the show and our trip to the Trains at Northpark afterwards. We went to have lunch and then see the trains followed by a trip to yet another mall to see Santa because the NPark Santa is popular and the wait was several hours. Luke was less than enthused about Santa and cried and picked his nose at the same time if you can believe that.

We had a yummy cookie with Daddy and walked around the mall...it was a fun day! And.....no vomiting at our Santa visit this year, so we were THRILLED!

Check back for Jon to upload the videos...soon he promises!