The New and Improved Emily

So...I've decided that I need to actually achieve a goal I set months ago-to do crafts with my kids. I am tired of being a slacker mom and sitting around all day. I need to get a life!! Argh! I keep looking on these amazing blogs and thinking, I can be that kind of mom. Instead of thinking about it I'm going to do it!! Yeah! I have organized my life into crafts and education of my kids (literally I have a huge calendar laid out through the end of April). Okay, actually only Cooper will participate since the other two are still too young. But I am SO excited! We started today with making Valentine mailboxes. Simple and basically free. You should have seen the lights and brain processing that I could see going on with Cooper. I'm g0ing to be posting about everything we do so that I stay motivated and maybe I'll motivate some of ya'll to do a few of the things we do. I already feel better about myself! I have taken ALL of my ideas from other blogs and websites so I don't want to take any undue credit. Enjoy!
We started with a fruit snack box and then covered it with paper:
Then we covered it in stickers and cut out hearts and put sayings on them with glitter glue:

Then we put it all together and wrote love notes to each other that we'll continue to do each night until Valentines:

This is How We Ride

Check us out. This is the only way all 5 of us can get around. Anyone heard of a stretch limo stroller we can buy??:) I love it!

Ice Cream With All Kinds of Cherries on Top

Isn't this what life is all about? These are our sweet moments captured on camera. I love it! I love watching my two older boys be so tender with Ethan. Cooper's voice goes up about 3 octaves every time he talks to the baby. He loves to just stroke his face and give him kisses all over. For some reason he's obsessed with his little hands. He is constantly handing him toys to play with. Luke has moved on from trying to hit the baby to giving him sweet loves whenever he sees him. It's a rather drastic improvement! I love it and my heart melts every time they're all together.

Dislocations and Sibling Love

A quick Hutchings update: Luke had his first "dislocation". Jake threw him on the couch (in a playing way, not an abusive way) and ever since he wouldn't use his left arm. Turns out he had dislocated his elbow which ended up being a quick pop-back-in-place fix, but a lesson for all of the mommy's and daddy's out there who like to throw their kids around! Here's some cute pics of the boys in all of their glory! Ignore the TERRIBLE hairline that Ethan has right now, every baby's got to go through an ugly stage, right??

Love, Sweet Love! This wasn't even staged!

Okay, a non-promotion right here: the Crayola finger paints are insanely expensive and not worth junk! They are like this nasty gel-like substance that I wouldn't even categorize as paint. I wouldn't waste your money! Plus, they dye your kids fingers--I might as well use normal inexpensive paint that actually comes off their fingers.

They love to crawl under the table and Lukey loves to eat all of the stale food scraps he finds under there. Who needs a dog when Lukey's around to scrounge the floors??:)
Check out that tongue! Cooper's tongue helps him do most things throughout the day. It is ALWAYS hanging out.
Camping...in the kitchen.Look at Lukey's trap...it's like Sputnik!

Photography Promotion

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Okay, I have been TOTALLY dreading taking the boys to get their pics taken...but I finally had to face the dreaded day of sure-to-be tears, screaming, and horrible photos. Well, I was wrong! We went to Portrait Innovations in Newnan and had such a good experience and got tons of fabulous photos for super cheap! I would totally recommend them to anyone! Sorry, but I can't rotate the photos so you just have to turn your head to look at them. Also, they photo-shopped all of the extra hands, arms, and fingers you see in there!

Being Mormon in Georgia

So...I had my three week post-baby check-up today. I was asked several times what my method of birth control was going to be. I kept saying, nothing. It was as if I was speaking to hard core "Zero Populationist". Yes, I know I can use condoms, yes I know about spermicide, yes, I know I'm insane if I want another child. For crying out loud---you work at an OB-GYN office--me having a baby keeps you in a job! Let me freakin' populate the world if I want too!!

Sealing and Blessings

What an amazing few weeks we've had! Not only did we get to bring home our beautiful new Ethan, but we got to seal Luke to us and bless both Luke and Ethan in church! As we sat in the celestial room waiting to be sealed I/we felt overwhelmed with all of the blessings we have received in our lives this past year. We feel so lucky to have had Luke join our family in such a miraculous way, Jake has a good job (which seems like a miracle these days), we've really worked to pay off our debt, my parents have been gracious enough to let us overtake their home, and we added a beautiful and sweet little boy to our ever-growing bunch!

The sealing was short and sweet--actually my Mom didn't even know it happened until we all stood up and started filing out! Luke was giving us some tough love as he put up a fit throughout the ceremony which meant we really didn't hear much of what was being said. It was such a wonderful feeling to finally have him adopted and eternally sealed to us. Thank you to all who came and participated in the event--especially Jamie, Grammy, Grampa, Austin, and Grandma Jewkes--all the way from Utah!The next day we had the AWESOME opportunity to bless both of the kids on the same day--so cool! Jake did a fabulous job and it all went off without a problem except that Jake called Ethan by "Luke" once. Oh well!Now Grampa and Jamie/Austin are back in Utah, Mom, Julie, and Claire are in Texas and we get the privilege of having some one on one time with Grammy at home! Yeah, lucky us!Ethan update: cute as beans, a very good baby, already working on his Baby Wise schedule, growing rapidly with all he is eating, keeping mommy partly insane but not too bad! We just love him so much and he is so stinkin' cute! Due to my "cabin fever" he's already begun making outings to a petting zoo, the grocery store, Wilson's Warehouse, and story time. Cooper is very in love and sweet with him and Luke is trying not to slap him so hard every time he sees him and trying not to be so jealous of his bottles. The insanity is fun!! When we looked through Cooper's scrapbooks we noticed and uncanny resemblance between him and Ethan. I think they are going to look exactly alike as they get older. Weird!