What We've Been Up To

Now that Sawyer is down to ONE nap a day, I find it a lot harder to find time to blog. But I'm almost getting caught up! I know all of you wait with bated breath for my every post so here goes!

We have found that when it rains, it POURS here in Alabama! So often times, you can find Sawyer and Quinton playing in the rain where there is NO lightning or thunder present. On this particular day, Matt arrived home and joined in the fun.

Here he is jumping over Sawyer. Q and Sawyer thought this was hilarious!

Sawyer all wet.
I love this picture of Sawyer splashing through the puddle at the end of the driveway. He must have walked up and down in the gutter a hundred times just stomping and splashing!

And what better time to wash daddy's car than when it's raining! Hahahaha!

At Quinton's school, a parent who owns a local karate studio is doing karate lessons after school one day a week. Quinton was really excited to try it out!

My favorite part of the karate lessons so far has been teaching the kids how to get away from strangers who try to grab them. I haven't put much thought into teaching Quinton about "stranger danger" up to this point so I am glad that these karate lessons include kid-level self-defense. Note to other parents - if nothing else, make sure and teach your kids how to yell GET AWAY and run!

Quinton in his karate stance. I also like how every command from the instructor is followed by , "YES SIR!" I like the respect and confidence that karate promotes.

Matt is coaching another season of pint-sized soccer! He really enjoys working with the kids and even though this league has some strange rules, he and the kids are doing very well.

I love that Matt and Quinton share a love for soccer!

And last but not least, this little boy makes me laugh, smile, giggle, playful, sometimes frustrated but mostly feel like I am the luckiest mom in the world to have two happy and healthy little boys!

I'm not sure if there's a name for it but Sawyer is OBSESSED with his belly button! The kid is ALWAYS playing with it! I don't know if it's a comfort thing but it's just a funny quirk he has...

I love his funny looks!

Sawyer's other obsession is with shoes. He will put on ANYONE'S shoes and try to walk around. If I ask him to get his shoes, he runs for any pair around and then goes straight for the door! Smart kid!

Another picture of Sawyer enjoying daddy's shoes! I also made those pajama pants for the boys!

I consider myself to be the lucky mom to teach and love these little spirits on earth!

Kindergarten: A Lesson in Letting Go...

August 15th, 2011

The day will go down in Harker family history for being Quinton's first day of Kindergarten!

Quinton was so excited to start school. Lucky for me, his school had a "Bridges" program, two weeks before school started. Bridges is a week of half-day kindergarten where the kids don't wear their uniforms and they get to know the school and what's expected of them. Bridges is optional but it was vital to me to have Quinton go since he hasn't been in a classroom setting since we moved here. What was really nice about the program is that Quinton's Bridges teacher was also his kindergarten teacher.

I say I was lucky for the Bridges program because that first day I dropped him off, I made it to the car and then the tears came! So by the time the first REAL day of the first FULL day of Kindergarten came along, I held it together remarkably well (I think)!

In getting ready for the big day, Matt shared a tradtition that he had when he was a kid and that was the back-to-school scarecrow. The "scarecrow" was made up of the clothes you wear on the first day of school. At first, when I heard that the entire Mobile, AL school system requires uniforms, I was totally bummed. I love shopping and dressing my boys and I felt like *my* creativity was going to be stifled. Four weeks into the school year, however, and I am ready to praise the geniuses who mandated school uniforms! Getting dressed everyday is SO easy! Quinton's hardest decision in the morning is what cereal to eat! Thank goodness!

Here is Quinton's first scarecrow!

I really wanted to celebrate the milestones in my boys' lives and and looking for ways to make traditions in our family. Here is the first day of kindergarten wakeup call...a family affair, as you can see. Matt insisted on staying home that morning so we could all accompany Quinton to school.
The most fun breakfast I could think of with Quinton's choice of pancakes & sausage...his favorite!

I also let Quinton pick out his own backpack and lunch bag and this is what he chose...

The ALWAYS classic picture in front of the door first day of school outfit!

Quinton, ready to learn!

I am so proud of him for being independent and curious! This should be an exciting year in his life and the rest of the family, too!

Go get 'em my little Hutchens Cardinal!

What We Did on Our Utah Summer Vacation 2011

*****Warning, long post with lots of pictures!!!!*****

Well, we survived our annual summer trip out west!

And when I say that "we" survived, I mean ME! I was in Utah with the boys for almost two weeks before Matt joined us for our third and final week on vacation. Our trip probably would have been longer but Quinton starts school EARLY (relatively speaking) in Alabama so we had to come back eventually!

We started out our journey well enough - the Mobile airport has a little play area for the kids and that proved to be a great distraction! Nice face, Quinton!
One of our first stops in Utah was to visit our friends, The Christensens. Sawyer was happy to find someone smaller than him to boss around - or push in a swing! This is Gwen, Evan & Mariah's newest addition. She was such a sweetie!

This is Gwen's older sister, Jane. Much like her mother, Jane is a lovely conversationalist and likes to play mommy to Gwen.

Wes, the oldest of the three Christensen kids was nice enough to let Quinton spritz his glasses for a good cleaning...you can tell Wes had younger siblings!

Lucky for us, we were able to meet up with friends, the Knowles, who were in town from Tulsa and then, we also ran into some Chicago friends, the Walkers, while hanging out with our Tulsa friends! What luck! We watched the draper Days parade with all of our friends!

The weather was awesome! Warm but not too hot!

The kids really thought this monster truck was cool!

What better way to cool off than an air-conditioned bubble that bounces over water! This 'ride' at the carnival was too cool to pass up! Quinton, Andrew and Sarah LOVED bouncing around in the balls!

A lovely train ride for the group!

In an effort to prove that I am the coolest mom ever, I actually held this freaking boa! The original plan was to have Quinton hold it but he chickened out. Seeing as how I have to uphold my street cred, I took over and don't I look sooooooooooo excited????

Lucky for us, Matt's brother has the hook-up with Maverik and we were able to score tickets to the Days of '47 Rodeo at the Maverik Center in the box! Wooohooo! It was fun to watch the rodeao but what was even better was that Sawyer could run around in a contained area while I got to watch the rodeo! Double bonus!

We also spent a couple of days at my Aunt Amy & Uncle Stan's place in Idaho. They live on a beautiful farm in the middle of nowhere and it is one of the most peaceful places I have ever been...except for the cropdusters at 6am!

I grew up spending my summers visiting my cousins at the farm and I am beyond thrilled that my boys are able to experience the same wonder of farm life. Plus, it's amazing not to have to worry about traffic while the kids play outside!

Quinton enjoyed the swing that I used to swing on at his age!

We also did some "sightseeing" in Twin Falls which included spending an afternoon at a cool lake.

You just hafta love summertime when the hardest part of your day is climbing up a slide!

My handsome nephew, Evan. I love this guy! He is so sweet and loving and is a great helper with Sawyer and Quinton!

Ahhhh, a frozen chocolate covered banana...I can still taste it....

Shoshone Falls with my dad and the kids. My dad said that the falls were amazing earlier in the spring with all of the winter runoff, the falls were at the highest in many years. In all my visits to Twin Falls, I have never seen these falls! It was magnificent!

This is my amazing sister, Jessi! It still boggles my mind that she is younger than me and her oldest will be starting Junior High this year and my oldest will be starting kindergarten!

I love my awesome sister so much! She is a single mom and works so hard to make sure her kids are happy. She also has the most generous heart! I love you, J!

Sawyer exploring the farm.

My grandfather, John Russell, lives about 30 minutes from my Aunt's place. He has a gorgeous property with so many trees, plants, flowers and garden that he faithfully tends. This is my dad's dad and they are so alike in so many ways, I am very lucky that my boys have the opportunity to get to know so many of their GREAT grandparents!

My dad and Sawyer enjoying some fresh cut rhubarb...

It was the perfect afternoon, sitting on my Grandpa's lawn in the cool shade enjoying some nice cold watermelon...the epitome of summer!

Silly Grandpa and the kids had a blast riding around the farm on four-wheelers! Back in Utah, we spent some time with Matt's side of the family. This is my beautiful niece, Bella...

The first year or so, Sawyer was a total Momma's boy but in the past few months, it has become almost painfully obvious that he has turned into a full-on daddy's boy. We were in Utah for so long without Matt that Sawyer took to cuddling Matt's brother, Ernie, to get that lovin' feeling he missed. Lucky for us, Ernie was more than happy to snuggle Sawyer! Thanks Ernie!

This is Ernie's youngest, Max. Max and Sawyer are 9 months apart and they are so fun to watch! The phrase, "monkey see, monkey do" is so totally appropriate when it come to Sawyer and Max hanging out!

Finally! Matt arrived!

We spent a day in downtown Salt Lake City. It's been a while since we've done that so it was fun to have Wendy and her kids and Matt's mom come, too.

Here, the boys are playing on one of the big pillars in the Joesph Smith Memorial Building.

Towards the end of our trip, we headed back to Idaho for Matt's Harker Family Reunion. This is a crazy event with 100+ people all claiming to be Harker descendants. We had a great time with lots of cousins to play with for Quinton and Sawyer and I even met people I hadn't met before (or at least that I can remember!).

Here is Matt's brother, Gary, working on the dutch ovens. One of the bonuses in marrying into the Harker family is that the Harker boys like to do most of the camp cooking! Sweet!

This is my super-cute neice, Noah. Her cuteness is what makes me want to try for a girl!

There's just something about this picture that I love...maybe two things...I love Sawyer's expression and I love how strong Matt looks - holding onto his little boy...

And there you have it...I tried not to put too many pictures in this post but it's hard to pick the best or most fun since we did so many things in Utah! I didn't even post our pictures to the water park, the children's museum and other fun stuff but you get the idea...we had a lot of fun and made many family memories!

A Belated Father's Day Post

Yeah...this picture says it all...

Matt is a pretty awesome dad to two really sweet little boys. He is a superstar when it comes to loving, wrestling, tickling, helping, soothing and oh yeah, diaper changing!

Happy Father's Day!
We may not be perfect parents but we love our boys so much for making us the parents we are today!

My mom, Silly Grandma, was able to be in town for Father's Day and helped us celebrate Matt which included a crepe breakfast and Father's Day fajitas!

Matt with his very special dad!

And me with my dad...one of the coolest guys on the planet!

I love you so much!

(P.S. this picture is from last year and makes me so glad I got the Lasik surgery!!!!)

A big hug and kiss to our dads, grandpas and greeat-grandpas! We are a very lucky family, indeed!

The Best $8 We've Spent In A Loooooooong Time!

The first time I went over to our friends, the Bryan's house, their kids were playing with plastic party cups. I thought it was so odd but after awhile, even I wanted to stack them and knock them down.

So last Saturday, I ran into Sam's club for a few things and whaddya know, I walked past the brightly colored plastic cups. They were a little under $8 for a pack of 140 cups and I almost didn't buy them but I remembered how much fun we had at the Bryans', so I made the $8 investment into what Quinton has called "the best toys EVER!"

Exhibit A:

And we ALL knew exactly who would have the most fun knocking our pyramids down!

We affectionately call him, "Sawyer the Destroyer!"
Tadaaaaaa!

First thing Sunday morning, Matt and Quinton got down to business before Sawyer woke up...
Amazing, isn't it?

And on Monday....

I love this action shot!

So save yourself some serious money and buys plastic cups for the kids! I guarantee it'll be hours of build 'em up and knock 'em down fun!!!