Ian's On the Move

I had to get the camera for this before I saved him.

This happened not long after the picture above. Babies forget fast.
These trappings are both the result of Ian's way of travel:
backwards scooting (video coming soon to a PC near you).

Quick random pic... Ayden drew a pretty nice number two all by himself!
I helped him with the one on the left, but he was solo with the right one.
(Yes, I shouldn't have used the flash-CRITICS!)

For All Of the "Twilight" Fans...

About three things I am positive.
First, Ian is a vampire.
Second, there is a part of him-and I don't know how dominant that part might be-
that thirsts for milk.
And third, I am unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.

March Catch Up (get ready for a LOT of pictures)

A new fun pastime for Ian.

I cut Ayden's hair

Dakota & Ayden's first Primary party. Kota found the coveted golden egg.
Many kids were crying because they didn't find it.

A string pulling pinata (great idea to prevent broken noses)

Checking out the loot

Right after the party, we headed to an Easter fair.

Ian throws a fit when he is full. Look at the floor!

New discovery: plastic eggs

The Easter bunny came in through our back door and left footprints

Gifts from the messy rabbit

Ayden taking a picture of me taking a picture of him.
Look at the faceless rabbit

Ian: "I'll give you one more chance to tell me where the Easter Bunny lives."
Bunny: "What? I can't hear you."

Ian: "Prepare to die, chocolate bunny!"

Ayden and our neighbor friend hunting for eggs

More hunting. We did a scavenger hunt,
just like mom used to do for us.

Easter at Aunt Videt's. Lots of presents, including belated birthday gifts for Ian.

Matching Easter suits

Kristen with Ian

What a beautiful child!

Uncle Court riding Ayden around in Maw-maw's scooter!

Now a dangerous ride with Aunt Videt. I couldn't watch.

First you pick it up, put it in the bag, bump, bump.
Anyone who knows this song, has to let me know

Aunt Odie taking a turn.

Still enjoying the grass, weather, family, and plastic eggs

What a great spring we've been having! We've been consumed by the work on the bathroom,
but we did manage to take some time out for fun! Happy Easter everyone!

Our Progress

Look how purdy! You can't see the detail, but the ceiling has been successfully rid of popcorn and now has joint compound smeared all over with a slight texture to it. I ran out of joint compound, so as soon as Ayden wakes up from his nap, we're heading to the store. I'm 1/4 of the way through, and won't be able to continue until the boys are in bed tonight.

Underneath 4 layers of paint and 2 layers of wallpaper,
we have this lovely stenciling along the top of the walls. What an amazing discovery! I think we'll leave it. Purple, peach and hot pink are such and amazing trio of colors!

The hardie backer has been cut and drilled to the walls by my manly hubbie and our friend Jimbo (who is also quite manly). Every time I say "Hardie Backer" I can't resist singing "I ain't no Hardie Back-errr" to the tune of Gwen Staphanie's "Hollaback Girl". When the ceiling and walls are finished, we'll cover this in a concrete mix and stain it. That sounds pretty messy, doesn't it? We might need to do the shower before the walls. What do you think?

Stacy vs. Joshua

What is his name? Joshua Martin Hutchinson

How long did you date? We met in high school & dated for a year until he left on his mission. I wrote him for 1 1/2 years, then "Dear John"ed him for about 2 weeks, then we were on the outs for about 1 1/2 years, but I couldn't get him out of my head. We finally decided that we couldn't live without each other, dated seriously for 6 months and got married after knowing each other for a grand total of 3 years and 8 months.

How old is he? The big 3-0!

Who said I love you first? ME

Who is smarter? It depends on the subject. For example, he remembers names and dates like nobody's business

Whose temper is worse? His. Sorry babe, it's true.

Who does the laundry? Me, but he hangs his own clothes

Who does the dishes? Both of us.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Josh, and we can't trade. It doesn't feel right.

Who pays the bills? I'm supposed to, but Josh gets nervous that something won't get paid and sometimes pays them. Most of our bills are automatically drafted, so we only have a couple of bills to write out.

Who cooks dinner? ME

Who drives when you are together? Josh, unless we're driving long distance and he wants to read a book.

Who is more stubborn? ME! Maybe that's why his temper gets worse.

Whose parents do you see the most? Too complicated to answer.

Who proposed? Josh. He took me out on an inflatable raft in the LSU lakes and threw a bottle in the water with a love letter while I wasn't looking. I totally fell for it, thinking that we found a message in a bottle, maybe an SOS. He had the ring in a rose/ring box and said the sweetest things. It was very clever and thoughtful of him. I will never forget how fast my heart raced that day.

Who has more siblings? If you count halves, me. I have 4 full and one half. He has 2 full and 3 half. Wow, that sounds complicated.

Who wears the pants in the family? We take turns. I love ya, babe!

Destruction Indoors And Out

Our master bathroom

Down to the 2X4s

I really despise popcorn ceilings

Our neighbor's giant sycamore was killed all because of that little fire hydrant's water lines.

Ayden on his soapbox.

I finally started on the bathroom, as you can see. It really needs some work, so we're doing it. We are going to do stained concrete for the shower wall. It should be an adventure. We're going by what our friend Jimbo watched his friend do. Is that blind faith or what? We decided it would be easier than dealing with tiles. Right now we're waiting for the plumber to come change out the pipes, handle, etc... I'll keep updating the progress.
The other day I watched our neighbor's beautiful tree get chopped down. It was very sad, but at the same time, amazing to watch. I had Ayden and Ian with me across the street. There was a guy hanging in the tree and sawing down the big branches until they got it down to nothing but the trunk. The trunk alone stood higher than our house. When it fell to the ground, everything shook like an earthquake. Our neighbor had no choice in the matter. The roots were interfering with the pipes underground. We loved this tree. It was the biggest on our street. We used its branches to decorate our JEEP for our trunk or treat last Halloween. So long old friend. We will miss you. We didn't even mind your leaves all over our yard.

Thanks, Lexi!

There's another game of tag going on. Here's my contribution:

20 years ago: I played outside all day, mostly with my big brother and sister. We would explore the woods behind our house, making forts and traps for tress passers. We always had a litter of puppies to snuggle with. I had the worst snaggle teeth and fluffiest hair imaginable (my ugly stage of life). Our neighbor had a cool hill with a swing in his yard, that we spent a lot of time on. I played a lot of Atari (Pitfall and Frogger come to mind). I learned how to draw bubble letters!

10 years ago: I toured the Northwest and Midwestern states with the Young Americans. I was pigeonholed into the Motown, blues, jazz alto solos, which I didn't mind at all! I loved singing and teaching kids from age 3 to 18 about confidence in performing. I made a lot of good friends during this time. I have no idea what any of them are up to now. It's kind of like high school friends: they are so special at the time and your think you are BFF, but life goes on, people move, etc... I grew up a lot during my YA years. It was a great experience.

5 years ago: I was working as the Manager of Jefferson Arms Apartments while Josh was going to LSU. We had a lot of fun, always going to movies, hanging out with friends, just loving life together. There were only 98 apartments in the compex, and we had a lot of old people who'd lived there forever. We had free rent, electricity, water, sewer, AND digital cable. It was a pretty sweet job, only hectic during the first and last weeks of the month.

3 years ago: I was working as a weekend leasing agent at the Warwick so I could be a full time mommy to our little Ayden. We were a new family of 3, and loved every minute!

1 year ago: Little Ian joined our family. By now Josh was finished with school and loving his work, while I was finally able to focus 100% on being a mom/wife.

yesterday: In the morning, I hung out in the front yard with Ayden and Ian. We rode the bike/bike trailor, and hung out with our neighbors. When Josh got back from Frisbee golfing, we had Jimbo over to give us advice on what to do with our shower. We are rennovating our master bathroom right now. That night we hung out at Jimbo and Janel's and ate 16 pounds of crawfish, then played catch phrase. We had a lot of fun!!!!!

today: Josh made me breakfast in bed which started my day of excellently!!!! He made scrambled eggs, toast, sausage, and banana pancakes and a glass of milk! So sweet. Now I'm trying to get ready for church, NOT REALLY, since I'm sitting here!

tomorrow: I plan on working on the bathroom, playing with the boys, and whatever else comes my way. Life is good!

I pass this on to anyone who hasn't been tagged yet. I don't have time to research this.